Should Patriots Use Franchise Tag On Devin McCourty Or Stephen Gostkowski?
BOSTON (CBS) -- The glow of winning the Super Bowl may not yet be fully faded, but in NFL front offices around the league, the 2015 season has begun.
Monday marks a major milestone in that area, as it opens the two-week window when teams can place the franchise tag on one player on their rosters.
The franchise tag, of course, can be placed on an unrestricted free agent to be. It keeps that player on his current team, and he gets paid the salary cap percentage taken up by that given position over the past five years. That is to say -- these guys get paid big bucks, even if it's only for one year.
The Patriots have used their franchise tag eight times since 2002. Of those eight times, only twice was the tag used to retain the rights of a player who was then traded away -- Tebucky Jones in 2003, and Matt Cassel in 2009. It stands to reason, then, that when Bill Belichick applies the tag, he does so with the intention of keeping valuable players around: Adam Vinatieri in 2002 and '05, Asante Samuel in '07, Vince Wilfork in '10, Logan Mankins in '11 and Wes Welker in '12.
Of that crew, only Vinatieri (in 2002), Wilfork and Mankins ended up signing longer-term deals, while Samuel and Welker departed via free agency the year after their tag.
This year, the Patriots have two candidates who fit the billing for the franchise tag: kicker Stephen Gostkowski and safety Devin McCourty.
Stephen Gostkowski
Considering he replaced a legend, Gostkowski still seems like "the new guy" in New England. Yet the kicker is now 31 years old, with nine years of NFL experience under his belt. During that period, he's missed time just once -- suffering a knee injury in 2010 that cost him the second half of the season.
He is the Patriots' all-time leading scorer, with 1,179 points. He has successfully kicked 243 field goals, just 20 shy of Vinatieri's franchise record, and Gostkowski's career field-goal percentage of 86.8 is better than Vinatieri's 83.7 percentage.
This past season, Gostkowski successfully kicked 35 of his 37 field-goal attempts, good for a career-high 94.6 percent success rate. He was not called upon much in the postseason, going 1-for-1, bringing his career playoff total to 20-for-22.
In addition to his prowess kicking field goals, Gostkowski also boasts one of the strongest kickoff legs in the NFL. The Patriots ranked fifth in the NFL in touchbacks this season, thereby eliminating the threat of a long kickoff return more than 50 percent of the time.
There's something to be said about having a reliable kicker, and based on the fact that Belichick has employed just two kickers in 15 years (Gostkowski's injury season exlcluded), it's clear the head coach values the position greatly.
Devin McCourty
The career path of McCourty is a rather unique journey. He was not on many fans' radars when the Patriots selected him 27th overall out of Rutgers in the 2010 draft, and the expectations placed on him for his rookie season were modest.
But McCourty shined in his rookie season, making seven interceptions and making 82 total tackles in 16 games. He finished the season with just one fewer INT than league leader Ed Reed, and he looked to be a cornerback force in the making. Yet he intercepted just two passes in 2011, and late in the season, the team moved him to safety.
Once there, he immediately stabilized a position of need for the Patriots, and he never left. Now, McCourty can claim to be one of the most reliable safeties in all of the NFL.
His individual statistics at safety don't jump off the page, but he played a major role in the Patriots' ability to not allow big plays that can flip games in an instant. The Patriots ranked eight in the NFL with 19.6 points allowed this season, and that has a lot to do with No. 32 making plays.
McCourty will never play with the flash of Troy Polamalu or Ed Reed in their primes, and he's realistically never going to be the absolute force that Earl Thomas is. But McCourty, a defensive captain four years running, is among the most dependable safeties in the league, and his value to the Patriots is hard to detail with numbers.
The Others
Realistically, the Patriots won't entertain the idea of applying the franchise tag to any of their other free agents-to-be. Stevan Ridley is coming off a major injury and therefore won't be demanding too much money on the open market. Shane Vereen has been valuable to the team, but not to the point where they're going to break the bank for him. Dan Connolly's value at guard this year was immense, but like Vereen, he doesn't necessarily command top dollar at that position.
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