The Super Bowl-winning Bucs remain the Super Bowl-winning Bucs: I prefaced this piece with a rash of cynical jabs at the hot-and-cold nature of free agency. None of that applies to Tampa’s maneuverings.
Tagging the team’s top wideout in Chris Godwin was wise. Bringing back beloved linebacker Lavonte David and pass-rushing wonder Shaquil Barrett (with 27.5 sacks over the past two years) illustrates to every human inside the building how deadly serious general manager Jason Licht is about going back-to-back. The kicker’s staying around, too, as Ryan Succop agreed to a three-year, $12 million deal. The cherry on top is Rob Gronkowski returning for another campaign after he surged down the stretch and sizzled against the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. It’s not over, either, with the club engaged in chats to bring back wideout Antonio Brown, behemoth Ndamukong Suh and good ol’ Leonard Fournette.
Extending Tom Brady through 2022 opened up a prairie land of cap space and helped pull plenty of these levers. The decision to run it back with this clique of Lombardi-winning stars was about as difficult as NBC executives wondering if it made sense to green light a second season of Friends.
Belichick goes bonkers: I’m completely convinced the Patriots will either a) organize an aggressive trade up for a quarterback in the top 10 of the coming draft or b) acquire Deshaun Watson. Their actions are nothing short of a table-setting operation. I simply don’t buy Cam Newton as the lead chef.
Even if Cam plays, though, the offense is reborn on paper after adding the market’s top two tight ends in Jonnu Smith and Hunter Henry. Fantasy Heads might hate seeing two breakout candidates eating off each other’s plates, but the real-world implications are juicy. Instead of hoping Devin Asiasi, Dalton Keene and/or Ryan Izzo become operable, the Patriots now roll with the most intriguing tight end grouping in the NFL. A combined $56 million in guarantees puts Smith and Henry under the radar, but they’ll have help from the wideout position.
Nelson Agholor’s two-year, $22 million deal looks fine if New England is paying for the productive deep threat who thrived with Derek Carr in Vegas — and not the drop-prone character who fizzled out in Philly. Kendrick Bourne is a player who improved over four seasons with the Niners and offers much-needed depth.
On defense, the team grew bulkier up front, with Davon Godchaux and Henry Anderson beside a proven quarterback-annoyer in Matt Judon. Is it lazy of me to simply assume Bill Belichick will milk the most out of any piece he adds on that side of the ball?
Belichick deserves credit for winning seven games last season with a hollow, impotent offense. He sees an AFC East around him that grows mightier by the month, no longer housing a trio of trash bags for the Pats to pummel. He turns 69 next month. No matter what he feels about Brady in Tampa, no way does the greatest coach on Earth accept the concept of another tough-on-the-eyes 7-9 breakdown.
New England’s biggest move, I do believe, is yet to come.
Jets complete Phase 1 of a monstrous offseason: Slinging arrows at Gang Green has doubled as a cottage industry for plenty of hobby-horse chucklers on Twitter. The jokes cease with Robert Saleh taking over as coach. Players adore him. He demands accountability. His results last season with a hyper-banged-up Niners defense served as an acid test. Saleh passed with flying colors. I trust him to maximize newly added pass rusher Carl Lawson, who arrives via a three-year, $45 million pact with $30 million in guarantees.
Corey Davis rounds out a wideout room featuring Denzel Mims and Jamison Crowder. The Jets might lack a genuine No. 1, but the hope is that Mims can become that brand of gem. Davis hasn’t equaled his draft pedigree (fifth overall in 2017), but he’s a big-bodied, 6-foot-3 target coming off his best season (65/984/5) in Tennessee.
Here’s the thing: New York’s offense will operate as a spinoff of the Kyle Shanahan playbook used to pound enemies on the ground and scheme wideouts open. It’s unclear who’ll be under center for coordinator Mike LaFleur, but the Jets have the draft picks and position (No. 2 overall) to lure away Deshaun Watson from Houston while giving the Texans a pathway to a fresh start under center. Or you stay home, grab Zach Wilson and fly into new horizons.