Devin McCourty Told Bill Belichick He Was Leaving Before Signing Extension With The Patriots

After the Devin McCourty signing was announced last night, ESPN Boston’s Mike Reiss dropped a little bomb on us that shed some light into the situation as it stood before McCourty signed back on with the Patriots.

Here is an excerpt from that story:

"This is how close it came to safety Devin McCourty not returning to the New England Patriots: As the negotiating process was winding down Sunday, McCourty and head coach Bill Belichick had a phone conversation in which McCourty thanked him for a great five years with the franchise.Unfortunately, McCourty told him, it looked like he was ready to move on. The Eagles, Giants and Jaguars were three teams making the strongest push, with the Titans also in the mix, and there was a deal with another team that McCourty was ready to accept."

How’s that for coming down to the wire? Essentially, McCourty was all ready to leave for a different team, and likely at a higher price, but the Patriots came back with one last offer, which ultimately kept D-Mac a Patriot. It almost sounds like McCourty called Belichick to thank him to kind of beg for a final deal, because it has been obvious this whole time that he wanted to come back to Foxboro. Luckily Belichick and the Pats did offer him a nice deal, and we will get to enjoy the play of arguably the best safety in the league for years to come.

Another interesting angle of this signing is how much friggin money McCourty is getting. It really goes along with this whole free agency, as teams have been throwing stupid amounts of money at players, but to see the Patriots go as high as $9.5 million a year for a safety is pretty insane. I don’t think they would have even come close to that if another team hadn’t been pushing up the price, although I still believe they would have given D-Mac an appropriate sum.

With teams such as the Jaguars and Eagles in pursuit of McCourty, there is no doubt in my mind he could have become the highest paid safety in the NFL starting in 2015. But showing true character, he elected to take a pay-cut to stay loyal to the Patriots, and come back to try and win another title.