The secondary has been one of the most secure position groups for the New England Patriots over the past few years.
Devin McCourty and Patrick Chung held down the safety roles while Stephon Gilmore, Jason McCourty and JC Jackson primarily held down the cornerback position. When other groups were depleted or short of talent, the secondary was able to balance the defense out.
Gilmore and Jackson are two major pieces of that group and the status of both players for the 2021 season has been far from solidified. Gilmore’s on contract, but likely won’t play for the $7 million he’s set to make. Jackson signed his second-round tender on Friday, but that still doesn’t lock his spot on the roster for next season.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport further explained the reasoning for this.
“This is not the end of the story because while this means he’s not going to sign the an offer sheet, or a restricted free agent offer sheet with anyone, it doesn’t necessarily mean he is going to be on the team next year,” Rapoport said, transcribed by WEEI. “What the team could do, and we saw this with Malcolm Butler with the Patriots several years back, is they could offer a lower draft pick than a second-rounder to potentially trade for JC Jackson. A trade that would also come with a contract extension. I would expect that at some point to come up in conversations from other teams.”
From NFL Now: #Patriots CB JC Jackson has signed his RFA tender, but that doesn't mean he'll definitely be on the roster for the 2021 season. Plenty of questions still in the secondary… pic.twitter.com/FdlhxFiOf6
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 16, 2021
He also gave a quick update on Gilmore.
“[Stephon Gilmore] is recovering from a torn quad, and recovering very well. It sounds like that’s going good,” he said. “But, it does make doing something with him right now … difficult. Because it would be a little bit of a speculation-type move based on how he is recovering and all that. We thought this might be someone who a team could potentially trade for, now maybe someone New England locks in on a contract extension down the road. Still one of the best players in football regardless of position.”
Jason McCourty is drawing interest from multiple teams and it’s unlikely that he’ll return to Foxborough. The Patriots have some work to do and bringing back at least one of the top-tier corners should be priority.
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