NFL Insider Suggests Free Agents May Not Be Eager To Sign With Patriots
BOSTON (CBS) -- For a very long time, playing football in Foxboro was the gold standard. Though they rarely offered the most money, players often jumped at the opportunity to play for the game's best coach and share a locker room with the game's best quarterback.
After a 7-9 season and no clear direction for the franchise, though, it seems as though that feeling may have changed.
That's at least the sense that locally based NFL insider Albert Breer is getting as the league rumbles toward the start of free agency next week.
When news broke that the Lions would not be placing the franchise tag on wide receiver Kenny Golladay, Breer sent out a somewhat cryptic tweet that noted Golladay would be looking for a "fresh start" in a program that is not "like the one he was in last year."
Last year, of course, involved a fairly disastrous end to the Matt Patricia era in Detroit. Considering Patricia spent more than a decade working under Bill Belichick, and considering he tried to emulate much of the "Patriot Way" style of business in Detroit, and considering Belichick has already re-hired Patricia to join the Patriots' coaching staff, it wasn't particularly difficult to interpret the meaning of that tweet.
And later in the day, during a TV appearance, Breer expounded upon the notion that free agents might not be overly eager to sign with the Patriots.
"I'd be shocked if Kenny Golladay signed with the Patriots. Now, money talks and everything else walks, so if they're willing to outbid everybody, maybe that changes things," Breer said on NBC Sports Boston. "But based on the way things went in Detroit, I'd be pretty surprised if Kenny Golladay wanted to latch back on to a Patriots-connected program."
Breer noted that players who worked for Joe Judge in New York or Brian Flores in Miami likely don't harbor negative feelings toward New England's program, but anyone who played for Patricia in Detroit or Bill O'Brien in Houston might be especially wary of signing up to play in Foxboro.
"With somebody like Will Fuller, does it hurt you? Because of what he just went through in Houston," Breer said. "And it's not that he has anything against Bill Belichick. But if you've had that experience, do you want to go to the place that created the culture that you just lived through?"
Breer added: "That may not be totally fair to the Patriots. ... But I certainly think it's something you've got to get around, especially with the perception out there that Tom Brady was an awfully big part of what was going on here the last 20 years and it wasn't the culture that carried them to championships."
Ultimately, the results of the Patriots' efforts in free agency will determine how accurate this assessment proves to be. Thus far, Trent Brown was eager to get a second crack at playing for the Patriots, but truer tests will come from free agents who haven't experienced success in New England choosing to join or spurn any potential offers from Belichick.
