New England Patriots News: Stephen Gostkowski Signs Franchise Tag Tender, Legal Tampering Period Is Underway
By Cyrus Geller
As free agency approaches, the news surrounding the New England Patriots has begun to pick up. Vince Wilfork was effectively released, rumors began to swirl around Brian Harltine, Darrelle Revis, and Devin McCourty, and now kicker Stephen Gostkowski has signed his franchise tag tender, which will keep him in New England for 2015.
Patriots news: K Stephen Gostkowski has signed his franchise tag tender worth $4.59M for the 2015 season, per source.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) March 6, 2015
Gostkowski’s $4.59 million next year will easily make him the highest paid kicker, and in my opinion, it is worth it, so long as the two sides can eventually come to terms on a multi-year agreement. In the NFL you don’t want to skimp on a kicker, and the Patriots have been lucky enough to stumble upon the best kicker in the league. I think we will be hearing that they agreed on a contract to keep him here for years to come in the next few days.
The other big news? We are now in the period where it is legal for NFL teams to tamper with upcoming free agents. This is a wonderful time of smokescreens, rumors, and so much bullcrap you’ll want to take a hiatus from social media. But the good news is we are only 3 days away from free agency beginning, where we will finally get answers to our Revis and McCourty questions.
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I fully expect the Pats to open dialogue with Revis and McCourty, but at the same time, other teams will as well. Taking Ndamukong Suh out of the equation, I believe Revis and D-Mac will be the two most hotly pursued players on the open market. Both of these two guys deserve to make their money, so I won’t fault them if they leave, but they will have to take a small hometown discount if they wish to stay in New England. There are teams out there hungry for help in the secondary, and they will be throwing a ton of money at Revis and McCourty.
I understand this time of not knowing what will happen to New England’s free agents is stressful, but take a second to step back and remember that we are the world champions. Life could be a whole lot worse.