New England Patriots News: Brian Hartline A Target, Devin McCourty And Darrelle Revis May Leave
By Cyrus Geller
Aside from Vince Wilfork’s option not getting picked up, there was quite a bit of New England Patriots news yesterday on the free agency front. There was rumors ranging from interest in wide receiver Brian Hartline, to potentially losing Devin McCourty and Darrelle Revis.
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Let’s dive right into it.
Brian Hartline
This situation is fairly simple: there appear to be four teams interested in the 28-year-old, and the Patriots are one of them. Now, will they actually pursue him, and make an offer? That remains to be seen. But this does show that New England is preparing for a potential replacement for Danny Amendola, although I hope and believe Amendola won’t be leaving anytime soon. However the only way I see the Pats bringing in Hartline would be if they cut Amendola, simply because there wouldn’t be any room for both of them at the same time.
We’ll see what happens, but count me as one in favor of keeping Amendola and letting Hartline go to someone else. Amendola is a tough matchup for any number three corner, and despite getting a lot of money, number 80 stepped up big-time in the postseason when it mattered.
McCourty And Revis
Yesterday Adam Schefter went on Mag Dog Radio and delivered some interesting news regarding McCourty and Revis. Here are the quotes: (via Ryan Hannable of WEEI)
On Revis:
"“I believe that it will come down to the Patriots and the Jets. I think the Jets are going to pay him short of whatever he wants to bring him back there because not only could they use him, it would be a huge moral, emotional victory for that franchise to bring him back there, get him to finish his career there.”"
On McCourty:
"“It was a little surprising to me that McCourty wasn’t tagged and they went with Gostkowski. I think once McCourty gets to market he’s going to get a lot of interest from a lot of different teams — Philadelphia, both New York teams. Look, what team in the league doesn’t need a safety? If you’re in that position, I think he is going to command big dollars.“I think it is going to be a big enough offer that compels him to leave New England, a place he’d like to stay. He wants to be there. He’d like to stay there. This is going to be a business decision and I think there are going to be some teams out there that make it a hard enough business decision for him to leave.”"
Honestly, his thoughts on McCourty scared me more than his thoughts on Revis. If the decision for Revis does in fact come down to the Jets and the Pats, and New York is willing to pay $3 or $4 million a year more, I am confident Revis will side with New England. At this point in his career, I think Revis wants to continue to chase championships, rather than go back to a team that always loses just to make a bit more money.
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McCourty on the other hand, is a different story. This kid is one of the youngest, most intelligent stars in the game, and he already has a Super Bowl ring under his belt. If a team like the Eagles comes in with a massive offer, I could see McCourty bolting from Foxboro. I wouldn’t blame him one bit, as he has 100% earned the right to chase the money, I would just be sad to see him go. He is one of, if not the best safety in the game, and he was key to making this Pats’ defense elite in 2014.
With all of that said, I’m stilling holding out hope both will return next year. McCourty seems like he genuinely likes New England, he is one of the key leaders of this team, and the coaching staff loves him. I don’t think he’ll take a huge discount, but I could see him letting a million or two go to stay on a championship team for the next couple of seasons.
Only four more days of speculation, then the real stuff begins.