The Patriots’ first real chance to remake their roster starts Monday, with the negotiating period ahead of NFL free agency opening Monday afternoon.
Starting at noon, teams can begin negotiating with free agents, which means a number of players will have deals in place by the time the new league year begins (and contracts can officially be signed) on Wednesday at 4 p.m.
With new coach Mike Vrabel at the helm and plenty of gaps to fill after a 4-13 finish in 2024, New England has plenty of resources at its disposal. The Patriots boast a league-high $125 million in cap space, close to $35 million more than any other team, per Over The Cap.
The action got started early on Sunday with a number of key deals:
⋅ Myles Garrett became the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history with his four-year contract extension signed with the Browns. The deal reportedly includes $122.8 million guaranteed, an average annual salary of $40 million with a total value of $204.8 million.
⋅ Receiver Davante Adams agreed to a two-year, $46 million contract with the Rams.
⋅ Receiver DK Metcalf is reportedly being traded from Seattle to Pittsburgh.
⋅ MVP Josh Allen was rewarded with a contract extension with the Bills worth $330 million, with $250 million of it guaranteed, which makes him among the league’s highest-paid players.
New England was also one of multiple teams to get ahead on the league’s legal negotiating period, agreeing to a deal with a player with Vrabel connections: former Titans LB Harold Landry, who is set to join the Patriots on a three-year, $43.5 million contract after he was released by Tennessee last week.
With one signing out of the way, New England’s priorities in free agency will likely focus on rebuilding the offense around Drake Maye, with particular attention on rebuilding a porous offensive line and bolstering an underwhelming receiving corps.
Some of the Patriots’ top targets are already off the board — the Ravens re-signed star tackle Ronnie Stanley and the Bengals placed the franchise tag on receiver Tee Higgins to name a couple — but New England could still make a run at some much-needed impact pieces.
We’ll have updates on deals around the league as they’re reported throughout the week. Follow along.
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By Amin Touri
Another potential Patriots target at receiver is off the board as Chris Godwin is re-signing with the Buccaneers on a three-year, $66 million deal.
The former Pro Bowler chose to stay put as he returns from a serious lower-leg injury, having dislocated his ankle in a Week 7 game against the Ravens this past season. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that Godwin left about $20 million on the table to stay with Tampa Bay.
Godwin has racked up at least 1,000 yards receiving in four of the past five seasons.
By Christopher Price
Mike Vrabel has talked about improving the culture in Foxborough. If you could make the money work, the addition of someone like well-respected defensive tackle Grady Jarrett would be a nice find for New England. A Pro Bowler, team captain and Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee, he was a surprise cut Monday by the Falcons. The 31-year-old has played 10 seasons in the NFL, all with Atlanta, and his more attacking style (36.5 career sacks) is more in line with a Mike Vrabel-Terrell Williams defensive approach.
By Conor Ryan
The Patriots are beefing up their pass rush this offseason.
New England is signing outside linebacker Harold Landry to a three-year, $43.5 million contract — with $26 million fully guaranteed. The deal has a maximum value of $48 million.
Landry’s arrival should provide a significant boost to a Patriots defense that regressed heavily in 2024, and stands as New England’s first top signing in what should be a busy offseason.
Here are four things to know about Landry.
By Ben Volin
Breaking down contracts for the Patriots’ Austin Hooper and other notable players around the NFL:
Rams WR Davante Adams: While the total contract is two years and $44 million plus $2 million in incentives, it’s really a “one year and we’ll see” type of deal for the 32-year-old Adams.
The first year is for $20 million, fully guaranteed, plus $1 million in incentives. The second year is for $24 million plus $1 million in incentives, but with only $6 million fully guaranteed. The Rams can easily move on next year if Adams isn’t productive.
The Patriots, desperate for playmakers and flush with the most salary cap space in the NFL, certainly could have matched or surpassed this contract. But Adams clearly wants to play for a contender, and being on the west coast closer to home (he is from the Bay Area) is an added bonus. The Patriots offer neither of those things, highlighting the difficulty they face in adding top-level talent this offseason.
Steelers WR DK Metcalf: The Seahawks are blowing it all up and starting over, having released WR Tyler Lockett and traded QB Geno Smith and Metcalf in recent days. Per reports, the Steelers agreed to trade the Seahawks their second-round pick, and gave Metcalf a five-year, $150 million contract, though details are unavailable as of Monday morning.
The fact that Metcalf was willing to join a bad-weather team without a quarterback is a rough look for the Patriots, who actually do have a promising young quarterback. But I don’t blame the Patriots for not making this trade, as the contract plus the second-round pick made for a significant price tag. Metcalf wouldn’t make that much of a difference for the Patriots, whose roster is so barren they need a volume of new players, not one or two expensive ones.
The Steelers may look to trade George Pickens now that they have invested in Metcalf. But their strategy seems backwards – they go all-out for receivers, but have done nothing at quarterback, content for the last several years to pick up the scraps in free agency and the draft. The Steelers will be stuck in a 9-8 loophole until they get aggressive in finding a quarterback.
Patriots TE Austin Hooper: He was a dependable role player for the Patriots in 2024, catching 45 passes for 476 yards and three touchdowns. And fans can now lock him into a roster spot for 2025 based on his new contract.
That’s because in Hooper’s one-year, $5 million deal, $4 million of it is fully guaranteed (his signing bonus and base salary). Hooper can also make $150,000 with an offseason workout bonus, $850,000 in per-game roster bonuses ($50,000 per game active), plus up to $2 million in incentives based on playing time and receptions. Hooper, 30, played 53 percent of snaps last year as the No. 2 tight end to Hunter Henry, and should expect a similar role in 2025.
Interestingly, his deal isn’t much lower than the one signed by the Commanders’ Zach Ertz, who had 66 catches for 654 yards and seven touchdowns last year. Ertz signed a one-year deal worth $5.59 million guaranteed, with upside to make as much as $9 million with incentives. Perhaps it’s because Ertz is 34, but I’m surprised Ertz didn’t get significantly more than Hooper.
Bengals TE Mike Gesicki: The Bengals do not seem to be of the belief that defense builds championships. While they have placed Trey Hendrickson, one of the NFL’s best edge rushers, on the trade block, they placed the franchise tag on Tee Higgins ($26 million), plan to sign Ja’Marr Chase to a deal averaging $40-plus million, and now re-signed Gesicki to a surprisingly big contract.
The total numbers aren’t crazy – $25.5 million over three years – but Gesicki, 29, will make almost half of it in the first year ($12 million). That’s a solid up-front cash payment for a tight end who is, at best, the Bengals’ third receiving option and had 665 yards and two touchdowns last year.
All this money going to the offense over defense points to an overarching strategy: The Bengals must be trying hard to keep Joe Burrow happy.
By Christopher Price
A source close to veteran cornerback Jonathan Jones says he’s prepared to test free agency, but hasn’t ruled out a possible return to New England. The 31-year-old Jones, one of the last remaining links to the Patriots’ Super Bowl teams of the past, has played nine seasons with New England, and has 11 career interceptions.
By Nicole Yang
Before the Patriots even had the opportunity to make an offer, the Ravens re-signed left tackle Ronnie Stanley to a three-year extension Saturday.
Stanley, who turns 31 this month, was set to become the top unrestricted free agent at his position. Instead, he’ll remain with the team that drafted him sixth overall nine years ago.
The Patriots intended to pursue Stanley when the NFL’s negotiation period opens at noon on Monday, given the wretched state of their offensive line. They’ll now have to pivot to inferior options, led by 29-year-old Cam Robinson.
Robinson, according to Pro Football Focus, allowed 52 pressures last season the second most in the league. But he would be an upgrade for the Patriots. Robinson has plenty of starting experience, playing 7½ years for Jacksonville before getting traded to Minnesota in October. He’s also stayed relatively healthy, only missing extended time in 2018 for a torn ACL and 2023 for a meniscus injury.
Patriots offensive line coach Doug Marrone was Jacksonville’s head coach when the Jaguars traded up to select Robinson 34th overall out of Alabama in 2017.
The Patriots are trading defensive tackle Davon Godchaux to the Saints for a seventh-round pick in 2026. The 6-foot-3-inch, 330-pounder, who played four seasons with New England, was given permission earlier this offseason to seek a trade with the thinking that he might not be a good fit in Mike Vrabel’s defensive scheme.
The 30-year-old Godchaux has spent the last four seasons with the Patriots and has started 67 of 68 games since he was signed as an unrestricted free agent in 2021. Known primarily as a two-down run defender, he’s had 250 tackles and 2.5 sacks, as well as a forced fumble and fumble recovery in his time in New England.
In 2024, with Christian Barmore on the shelf for the bulk of the season with blood clot issues, the 6-foot-3-inch, 330-pound Godchaux was on the field for 60.7 percent of all defensive snaps, third-most among defensive linemen on the roster. It set a mark for the highest percentage of defensive snaps he had played in his Patriots tenure.
A former fifth-round pick of the Dolphins in 2017 out of Louisiana State, Godchaux has two years left on an extension he signed last July. That deal has a base salary of $4 million and a cap hit of $8.333 million for the coming season. — Christopher Price
By Ben Volin
The NFL isn’t just the most dominant force in American sports. It’s the only league that requires an economics degree to follow the offseason.
The NBA and NHL salary caps are fairly straight forward — contracts are fully guaranteed, and every dollar earned counts that year against the cap. But guaranteed contracts are the exception in the NFL, which has a unique accounting system that allows teams to push cap dollars into future years. In the NFL, teams can make 1+1 = 2, 3, 5 or negative-12.
Following free agency can be tricky for fans. The salary cap can be complicated, and media reports on NFL contracts can be confusing or vague as agents sometimes obfuscate the real numbers.
With free agency set to begin in the upcoming week — verbal agreements can start Monday at noon, and signings and trades can become official Wednesday at 4 p.m. — let’s review how the NFL salary cap works and the key terms to know.
Amin Touri can be reached at [email protected]. Katie McInerney can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @k8tmac. Christopher Price can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @cpriceglobe. Nicole Yang can be reached at [email protected] her @nicolecyang. Ben Volin can be reached at [email protected].
