 The Patriots new regime with its first big signing in New England. The team has agreed to re-sign tight end hunter Hunter Henry to a three-year 27 million dollar deal with reportedly 16 million of that guaranteed Henry. A team captain in 2023 was scheduled for unrestricted free agency after playing the past three seasons in Foxboro. He got 42 passes for 419 yards and a team-high six touchdowns last year. I mentioned it off the top of the show. Welcome to our Bella early edition. I am training Casey at Longside our Patriots insider Phil Perry and from the Boston Harold Andrew Callahan Phil. This seems like a good move for the Patriots. Maybe a little more money than they you know would have had to spend or they were a good team but you know a good deal nonetheless. I think it's a good deal for Hunter Henry and it's a smart move by the Patriots to make sure they keep him around. This position is one of their many glaring needs but to make sure that you bring back a guy who was a captain last year as a leader in that locker room for a locker room that could use as much of that as they could get honestly moving forward. Somebody who's going to be dependable in the past game for whatever quarterback they bring in next. Yeah if it's an extra couple of million dollars versus what he might have made on the open market with another team Andrew I'm totally okay with that. You've got more than enough money to spend and it's worth baking in that extra value that Hunter Henry brings to your team understanding how your team is structured right now that is totally worth it. I think it's a smart move by Elliott Wolfe and Andrew I'm here. Here's how simple this is. The Patriots have one tight end under contract. His name is the Michael Petway. You might not have known that. The other part is Hunter Henry was the best tight end in the market and when you have no players available in-house to start or even be a backup go get the best guy at that position and for Hunter Henry who's familiar who comes back in a deal that okay he might have been two or three million dollars overpaid. Hey that's going to be part of the tax and I know Phil and Trent and you've talked about before as well for the Patriots. It's also better than overpaying for a receiver which instead of two to three million might actually be five or six per year. I think this is a great deal. Any concerns any drawbacks to making this deal Andrew. Sure I mean you look at that two to three million maybe that's a difference between some signing some other players but I think you got to start somewhere right and this is the most glaring need in terms of just raw numbers. How many players do we have a tight end? It's one. Okay at least the receivers you've got bodies there so for them I think you look at the opportunity cost it's small but it's offset by something we didn't even mention already. He gets to recruit other players. He's got respect around the league his toughness his production it's just going to be a matter of okay they get to Thursday maybe next week and go while we ran out of our budget maybe we should have given Hunter eight or nine million. I just want to explain for people because we have talked about this type of thing in the last few weeks but when Andrew talks about attacks or two to three extra million I spoke to a cap specialist Brad Spielberger from Pro Football Focus does a great job pegging values. Great guy. On a recent podcast and he said he might make Hunter Henry might make a deal that ends up paying him six and a half million dollars per year not nine million dollars per year which is what the Patriots are giving him so that quote unquote tax might be hey we know on paper this ain't a championship situation right we got questions at quarterback we've got questions all over the roster you know do you want to be in Massachusetts where you're paying taxes that are a little bit different than if you'd be in Texas or Florida or Tennessee or somewhere else like that's the kind of tax they might have to pay trendy for a variety of free agents to make sure they get guys coming to New England it's something that ellie wolf acknowledged I asked him about the specific I guess a possibility at the combine and he said yeah we might have to pay a little bit more but that's usually how free agency works guys go where they get the most money so should they maybe have waited for and let him hit free agency and then he knows when he gets out there which is only five and a half six and a half and then you bring him back at that number without him the smarter poll no I think because Andrew's point is a good one he's also he just so happens to be the best tight end available and so if you can keep him off the market and make sure you keep him in the house without risking losing him to somebody else you go ahead and you make that move what does this indicate to you and you're going forward about how they're going to approach free agency I think they're prioritizing their in-house guys everyone knows they have the money but you at least want to start with the players that you're familiar with right like the big risk when they spend all that money in 2021 is you're bringing in Jalen Mills and you know Nelson Agle and all these guys you've never met with before you just threw a bag at him said your tape looks good come in but you don't know how they fit exactly you know how hunter Henry fits if they get a deal done you know how Kendrick born fits you don't have to bring back everyone Trent Brown probably gone but I think there's an advantage here bring some guys in who can recruit that you want that you can keep the foundation that we've heard so much about with Gerard Mail