New England Patriots Rumors: An offseason plan not so obvious

Why New England isn’t rebuilding

Let’s explore. Let’s say they are trying to keep the old gang together. After all, they won 12 games last season before being unceremoniously dumped out of the playoffs by Tennessee at home in the first round of the playoffs. Still, all-in-all, that would be a wonderful season for lots of NFL franchises and fans, but not for Patriots fans.

There are plenty of moves that prove New England is giving the veterans one last chance. First, they gave a raise to soon to be 33-year-old free safety Devin McCourty and picked up the option on Jason McCourty, his similarly aged cornerback twin brother. That’s a commitment of some $15M or so on two 33-year-olds to be.

They also re-signed 34-year-old special teams ace Matthew Slater who will be 35 this season. In addition, they franchised left guard Joe Thuney their best offensive lineman. Thuney is not older. Yet, that’s almost $30M on those three players.

Thuney is part of the good old guys and will cost them $14M or so on the cap, a whopping number for a guard. Along with Shaq Mason’s salary, this is huge a huge commitment to two guards.

In addition, they have about $9.6M wrapped up in Marcus Cannon for a cap hit this year and he is 32 years old. Again, that’s a lot of cap space tied up in just a few players, 4 of whom are into their 30’s.

So those moves must indicate that the New England Patriots are staying the course. A bit of retooling and tinkering maybe, but not much more. Right?