The Rich Getting Richer: Patriots Make an Offer to the Bills' Mike Gillislee
The #Patriots structured the Mike Gillislee deal to make it tough for the #Bills to match. Similar to Chris Hogan from last year. 5 days.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 18, 2017
Here we go: #Patriots extended an RFA offer sheet to #Bills RB Mike Gillislee. It’s for 2 years, $6.4M, source said. $4M in the 1st year. — Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 18, 2017
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Assuming the Bills don’t match the Patriots offer, and all indications are they will not, this is just getting embarrassing now. It’s the Patriots just pantsing the rest the AFC East yet again. Last year they stole Chris Hogan from the Bills, and now it’s Mike Gillislee on a completely reasonable, cap friendly deal with only a fifth round pick changing hands. And all the Bills would’ve had to do to keep him was give him a second round tender and the Pats wouldn’t have been able to make him an offer. But they played it cheap and basically begged New England to swoop in and grab him. It’s almost as if Belichick makes these teams do stupid shit. Like he calls them up with Winter Soldier trigger words … Longing. Rusted. Seventeen. Daybreak. … which make them lose lose their minds and sign terrible contracts.
Before anyone accuses me of overrating Mike Gillislee, look at his numbers. First of all, he had 101 carries, which is more than anyone on the Super Bowl XLIX championship team had. And he had 577 yards. I’m too cute to do math, but that to me that sounds like 5.7 YPA, which happens to be exactly what he averaged in 2015.
If you’re into the advanced stats, among rushers with 70+ carries he had the fifth highest yards after contact per attempt. And according to Football Outsiders, he was No. 1 in the DVOA ratings. Just behind him? His new Patriots backfield mate, Rex Burkhead.
So it would appear that LeGarrette Blount totally overplayed his hand. He had a nice comeback year with a lot of tough yardage carries and put the ball in the end zone a lot and thought the team needed him more than they did. Unfortunately, because the guy balled out while he was here. But the draft is a week away and he’s still unsigned for a reason. So they replaced him with a guy who’s four years younger and outgained him by almost 2 yards per attempt last year.
Yet even with this move, assuming a $4 million cap hit this year, they’re still $18 million under the cap and not done making moves. Not by a longshot. It’s getting unfair. Like fishing with dynamite. But if the Bills are going to be so stupid, what choice do the Patriots have except to do Patriots things?
