Patriots have 17 pending free agents as 2025 offseason begins.
Before getting into making additions in the offseason, NFL teams first have to handle internal free agency. There are 17 Patriots set to become free agents as this offseason begins.
With the 2024 season officially in the books, the New England Patriots are now onto the offseason. Upgrading the roster with external additions – both in free agency and the draft – will be the biggest talking point around the team for the next four months. However, they first have decisions to make when it comes to the first step of the roster building process in the offseason – internal free agency.
The Patriots’ pending free agents are broken into three categories – unrestricted free agents (UFAs), restricted free agents (RFAs), and exclusive rights free agents (ERFAs). Special thank you to Miguel Benzan (AKA PatsCap) for confirming the status of each player.
UFAs are the most common and biggest group. These are players with four or more years of NFL experience whose contracts ran through the 2024 season.
Teams have until noon on Monday, March 10 to negotiate exclusively with their own internal free agents. Players At that point the legal tampering window opens, and those players can speak with all 32 NFL teams. Prior to the March 10 deadline, players can re-sign with their own teams at any point.
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RFAs are players with three years of NFL experience, and are usually undrafted rookies coming off of their standard three-year deals. Teams can tender these players in the form of a one-year contract. The value of the contract is set by the level of the tender. OverTheCap.com projects the first-round tender for 2025 to be worth $7,279,000, the second-round tender as $5,217,000, and the right of first refusal tender as $3,185,000.
Once a player is tendered, he can still negotiate with his own team at any time and with other teams starting at the March 10 deadline. If he agrees to a new contract with his team, it replaces the tender. If he agrees to a contract with a new team, his original team has an opportunity to match the offer. If they don’t they receive the pick at the level the player was tendered at (or no return for a right of first refusal tender).
ERFAs are players with one or two years of experience. Teams can tender them on a one-year, league-minimum contract. If they do, then the player returns on that deal with no further negotiation. If they don’t tender those players, they become unrestricted free agents.
Let’s take a look at the Patriots’ pending free agents, starting with the UFAs.
Unrestricted free agents (10)
–QB Jacoby Brissett
–RB JaMycal Hasty
–TE Austin Hooper
–OT Chuks Okorafor
–DT Daniel Ekuale
–DL Deatrich Wise
–LB Oshane Ximines
–CB Jonathan Jones
–S Jaylinn Hawkins
–K Joey Slye
The two names that jump out initially from this list are longtime defensive cornerstones Deatrich Wise and Jonathan Jones. They are two of only six players on the roster who won a Super Bowl in New England.
While that experience and their veteran leadership might be valuable as the Patriots look to rebuild their program, the question is whether or not there’s a place for them on the roster. Jones took a step back as a coverage cornerback, and might need to move to safety. Meanwhile Wise was phased out this season, with his usage rate (42 percent) being his lowest since 2019.
Jacoby Brissett is another one of the few Super Bowl-winning players still with the Patriots. While he certainly would make an ideal backup for Drake Maye moving forward, he may want to look for another team where he’ll have a chance to compete for a starting job – even if it’s just early on as was the case in New England last year.
One of the toughest pending free agents to judge is tight end Austin Hooper. The 30-year-old was one of the few hits of the Patriots’ past offseason. He clearly has chemistry with Maye and retaining him alongside Hunter Henry would keep what has arguably been the Patriots’ strongest position group together. At the same time Hooper should have a decent market, and may want to use this year as a springboard to land a relatively bigger contract later in his career.
The final notable player from this group is kicker Joey Slye. Slye started the season strong but fell off in the second half. Re-signing Slye wouldn’t prevent the team from bringing in another kicker to compete for the job (they already have John Parker Romo on the practice squad), but do they want him to be a part of that competition to begin with, or start from scratch?
Restricted free agents (2)
–G Lester Cotton
–LB Christian Elliss
Christian Elliss was quietly one of the Patriots’ most consistent defensive players this season. Early season injuries thrust him into a starting role, and he ended up finishing third on the team with 80 tackles as well as five pass breakups and 1.5 sacks.
When Ja’Whaun Bentley returns next year, Elliss shouldn’t be featured in an every-down role as much as he was in 2024. However, he proved there is a spot for him on this team as a situational coverage linebacker and special teams player. A tender could be an option, but it would also make sense for the Patriots to work on a longer-term deal with him.
Cotton was signed by the Patriots off waivers late in the year. They could bring him back as a depth offensive lineman, but shouldn’t need to tender him to do so.
Exclusive rights free agents (5)
–WR JaQuae Jackson
–C Ben Brown
–OT Demontrey Jacobs
–CB Alex Austin
–DL Jeremiah Pharms
Expect all five of these players to be back. Given teams only need to give a league-minimum contract to retain ERFAs, it’s rare they end up hitting free agency. Jeremiah Pharms highlights this list as a player who has been a contributor the last two years. Players like Ben Brown, Demontrey Jacobs, and Alex Austin should be back as well to compete for depth spots on the team next year.
Practice squad free agents (12):
–RB Kevin Harris
–WR Alex Erickson
–WR John Jiles
–WR Braylon Sanders
–TE Mitchell Wilcox
–OT Caleb Jones
–DL Marcus Harris
–DL Jotham Russell
–LB Andrew Parker
–CB D.J. James
–S Mark Perry
–K John Parker Romo
In addition to the pending free agents on the Patriots’ roster, there are also 12 players on the practice squad who will become free agents at the end of the week. Practice squad players become unrestricted free agents immediately, and do not need to wait until the start of the new league year to sign.
If the team wants to retain any of these players they can sign them to a ‘futures contract.’ Those are usually league minimum deals that are an agreement between the team and player that he will be on the roster, but the actual deal doesn’t become official until the new league year begins. That gives teams flexibility, with the roster limit not increasing to 90 players until that time.
Futures contracts are usually done quickly after the season ends. The Patriots have already begun the process, according to Justin Melo of The Draft Network.
