The New England Patriots are back to doing what they do best in NFL free agency. They’re sitting back and waiting. The Patriots entered free agency with somewhere below $15 million in cap space after a huge spending spree in 2021. They quickly spent the majority of that money over the last 24 hours on in-house candidates.
New England retained safety Devin McCourty, quarterback Brian Hoyer, special teams ace Matt Slater and center James Ferentz. They also placed a second-round tender on receiver Jakobi Meyers, which should be enough to retain him for 2022. New England lost guard Ted Karras to the Cincinnati Bengals, who offered him a three-year, $18-million deal.
New England seems content to wait and sift through the leftovers of free agency — which may include some of their pending free agents like cornerback J.C. Jackson, kicker Nick Folk, linebackers Dont’a Hightower, Jamie Collins and Ja’Whaun Bentley and running backs James White and Brandon Bolden, among others.
So let’s dive into what we learned over day one of the tampering period.