Regardless of being within the deepest elements of the offseason, the New England Patriots are staying busy. On Tuesday, the workforce of head coach Jerod Mayo and head govt Eliot Wolf reached a contract extension with a defensive starter: linebacker Jahlani Tavai has signed a three-year deal at a base worth of $15 million.
What does the transfer imply for the Patriots, although? Let’s assess it from a big-picture perspective.
The linebacker core stays intact past 2024
Taking part in 838 defensive snaps throughout the 2023 season — a taking part in time share of 73.6 % — Tavai shaped a potent off-the-ball linebacker duo along with teammate Ja’Whaun Bentley. Whereas neither is falling into the “family title” class, each had an lively hand within the Patriots protection being among the many higher in soccer regardless of struggling some severe accidents.
Bentley was already underneath contract for the following two seasons, with the 27-year-old Tavai now locked up by means of 2027. As well as, projected No. 3 linebacker Sione Takitaki can be signed for the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
From a contractual perspective, New England doesn’t have to fret about its linebacker group for a while now.
Investing in Tavai means investing in particular groups
Whereas Tavai’s defensive contributions are an enormous a part of his worth to the Patriots, his kicking sport function can not go unmentioned both. Final yr, he was on the sector for 358 snaps (78.2%) within the sport’s third section and a member of 5 particular groups models.
How New England will use him underneath new coordinator Jeremy Springer stays to be seen, however his expertise and flexibility — each on protection and particular groups — are an asset.
One other in-house expertise is taken care of
The Patriots’ offseason theme continues. Past spending huge quantities of cash on re-signing a good portion of their very own free company class, in addition they reached extensions with a number of core members of their workforce now.
Defensive deal with Christian Barmore, middle David Andrews, and operating again Rhamondre Stevenson all beforehand put their signatures underneath new offers. Like Tavai and people free brokers talked about above, they’ve been recognized by Mayo, Wolf and firm as foundational gamers price constructing round long-term.
The Patriots roster has its shortcomings, however there isn’t any denying that some promising items are in place nonetheless.
The cap is not going to be impacted an excessive amount of
The Patriots entered the month of July with a league-leading $43.6 million in wage cap house, that means that they’ll afford to make investments. That mentioned, Tavai’s new deal will seemingly not eat into that quantity all an excessive amount of.
Whereas solely the uncooked numbers have been made obtainable at this level, they illustrate that extending the veteran defender comes at a relatively minor price. His common annual worth of $5 million over three years ranks thirtieth amongst NFL linebackers. Even including $6 million in incentives is not going to damage New England’s books an excessive amount of within the brief and long run.
New England’s 2025 free company class retains getting smaller
Tavai, who had signed a two-year extension with New England in 2022, was scheduled to enter unrestricted free company subsequent March. He was in good firm: a complete of 25 Patriots had been set to enter the open market, together with key defenders like Jabrill Peppers, Jonathan Jones, Deatrich Clever Jr, Davon Godchaux, and Tavai himself.
Whereas these others have but to be taken care off, Tavai will stay within the fold. On the very least this implies one fewer starter to fret about subsequent offseason.