Patriots do not tag Moss, but hope to re-sign him

[packers11]

Patriots do not tag Moss, but hope to re-sign him

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By John Clayton
ESPN.com

The New England Patriots did not place their franchise tag on wide receiver Randy Moss on Thursday, technically leaving Moss open to free agency on Feb. 29.

The Patriots are apparently gambling that they could come to terms with Moss on a new contract so he can remain with the team.

Moss restructured his contract, dropping his base salary from $10 million to $3 million, to accommodate last April's trade from the Oakland Raiders to the Patriots. Moss earned an additional $2 million on incentives after breaking Jerry Rice's single-season record with 23 touchdown receptions.

Quarterback Tom Brady has indicated he wants Moss to return, and Moss has talked all season long about how much he liked playing for the Patriots.

Also at the deadline Thursday for NFL teams to franchise players, the Dallas Cowboys placed their tag on safety Ken Hamlin instead of left tackle Flozell Adams.

Hamlin received a one-year tender of $4.396 million. If a team tries to sign him, the Cowboys would have seven days to match an offer. The signing team then would have to surrender two-first-round picks to get Hamlin.

Senior writer John Clayton covers the NFL for ESPN.com.



HERE WE GO AGAIN... :roll: :lol:

[RashanGary]

The only thing I can think of is that they are going to try to resign him witih a big signing bonus so much of it gets pushed forward and then go out in UFA and try to do more damage before the hinges fall off their aging defense.

They havn't been influxing new young talent the last couple years. That will catch up.

[cpk1994]

"Technically open to the Free Agent market"? Umm, John there is no technicals here. Moss was not tagged. He is now a FA.

[Kiwon]

Is there any word regarding how much Moss thinks he's worth?

If the old "I play when I want to play" Randy Moss comes back it might get interesting.

[Freak Out]

As close as he was to the trophy you have to think he comes back to the Pats.

[RIPackerFan]

Problem is that the Pats don't have that much cap room - and there are other teams that were contenders that have a lot - specifically San Diego - I think they are $35M under the cap - they could easily pay him top $s and he could go to an instant contender.

[woodbuck27]

As close as he was to the trophy you have to think he comes back to the Pats.

He absolutely loved playing with Tom Brady but I certainly noticed he was miffed at not getting the ball thrown to him for the big play as often as he felt he could make that play.

I believe that Moss and Brady were on the same page (just from my observations) not so much so, Randy Moss and Bill Belichick. Brady could have gotten the ball to Randy Moss but he wasn't called to do that as I saw it.

Randy Moss disaggreed :D and why not?