With the 2023 NFL regular season in the books, the New England Patriots are officially into offseason mode. One of the first major tasks for the personnel department (whoever that ends up being) in the offseason is addressing the team’s list of internal free agents.
This year the Patriots have 24 players on expiring contracts per Patriots salary cap expert Miguel Benzan. The group of Patriots pending free agents is made up of 16 unrestricted free agents, one restricted free agent, five exclusive rights free agents, and two players on contracts that are set to void. Before we get to the players, here’s quick look at what each free agent classification means.
READ MORE:
—Patriots 2024 draft positioning set
—An early look at the 2024 schedule
—Patriots players reflect on time spent with Matthew Slater
Unrestricted free agents are the most common around the league. These are players with four-plus NFL seasons accrued. The Patriots can negotiate extensions with these players exclusively up until March 11, when the NFL’s legal tampering window begins. After that the players are free to speak with and sign with any team. Players on void contracts mostly become UFAs, assuming their deal isn’t extended before the void date.
Restricted free agents are players with three years of NFL experience. This category is usually used for UDFAs, whose rookie contracts are three years rather than the standard four for draft picks. Like UFAs, the team retains exclusive negotiating rights to these players through the legal tampering window, after which they can speak with any team. The difference is teams can choose to tender RFAs a contract beforehand. A tendered contract is a preset one-year deal that comes in different tiers. If a player is tendered and accepts an offer elsewhere, the original team can either match the offer and get the player back, or choose not to and get draft compensation relative to whatever tier the player was tendered at.
Exclusive rights free agents are players with less than three years of experience. To re-sign an ERFA a team simply has to tender the player, and that player is retained on a minimum contract. ERFAs that go untendered by the start of the new league year become unrestricted free agents.
O.K., now lets get into the 24 pending Patriots free agents (players are sorted by free agency classification)…