 Bill Belichick was no stranger to using the franchise tag. You tag players 10 times, including Adam Vinitieri twice. But the Patriots only using the tag once since 2016. That was on Joe Tooney, a somewhat surprising decision. So for more on this, let's bring in our Patriots insider Phil Perry along with Boston Sports Journals. Greg Badard-Phil, should, simple question for you. The Patriots, the rumor is that maybe they want to tag safety Kyle Duggar, obviously. You know, defense is important. You don't want to strip it too much. They lost Lauren Skye today. They let go of Adrian Phillips. But is that the right place to spend a franchise tag amount of money? I would not want to spend $16 million for 2024 on Kyle Duggar. However, I think he's a good player. I think he is in some ways a culture guy. He's not a big rah-rah guy. He doesn't have the biggest voice in the locker room necessarily. But he plays hard. He plays through injury. He's very physical. Gerard Mayo loves him. I think the Patriots feel as though. He's one of the best safeties in football. Still, $16 million for one year. I wouldn't want to do that. The only reason, Greg, that I would say it might be an OK idea to tag him is if you use the tag as a way to open up a larger window for the two sides to come to more of a long-term agreement where you're not paying the full freight, $16 million for this season. That's often what they do with the franchise tag. It's sort of a starting point. And that scares me a bit about this. Now, do I think the Patriots will probably do it with Duggar? Yeah, for a lot of the reasons that Phil mentioned, especially, you know, this is Gerard Mayo's defense. It's his team. The defense is going to have to carry them. You know, he is a good player for them. But I have a hard time doing it from this perspective. First of all, he's going to be 28 years old, OK? $16.2 million is the tag. That's the starting point for Kyle Duggar on a new deal. That's number four among safeties. And to me, that is too rich for Kyle Duggar. I would rather go with Gabriel Peppers, you know, go with other people on the roster, draft, develop, use that money elsewhere, especially on offense. I was just saying, on offense. Like, to me, listen, I understand you have to have a good defense because your defense is going to have to carry your offense, most likely, again, next year. But there are so many holes, in particular, on the offensive line. Mike on Wenu. I know it might cost close to $20 million, Greg, but like, isn't that $20 million well spent to at least have, oh, I don't know, one guy on the offensive line that you know that can play and you're familiar with? Exactly. That's the boat that I'm in. That if I was going to tag a player, it would be Michael Wenu. Because, you know, look, it's pricey. You know, the $20 million is number two for right guards. It's number three for right tackles. Lane Johnson is probably the only guy in that list that you could say, okay, he's definitely better than Michael Wenu, but at least it gives you options. And if I'm signing Michael Wenu, who's 26 to a long-term contract extension, he's entering his prime right now. Kyle Dugger's probably not going to get any better than he is right now at 28 years old. To me, I want to invest in that. I want to start with a building block on offense and one that can play guard or tackle depending on how things go in the draft. I think you've fallen so far offensively that you might have to be willing to make a hard decision like this one that's upcoming with Kyle Dugger. And just say to yourselves, well, we do have Drabil Peppers. We did just draft Marte Mapu in the third round. He is a similar type of player skill set wise. The wild thing about Peppers and Dugger, believe it or not, Peppers was drafted three years prior to Dugger. They're only five months apart in age. Kyle Dugger was a relatively old prospect when he came out of Lenore Rine. So whether it's a Wenu, whether it's a Wenu and another free agent at tackle, like Jonah Williams from Cincinnati, those are the kinds of decisions that you're gonna have to make right now because you are sober, refative talent on the offensive side. And if you don't take care of some of these glaring needs in free agency, then you've backed yourselves into a corner on draft weekend to force it at tackle because you could only pay one guy and not another. All right, well, time now for the Ford big board built for America, built for proud. Pedro is making two moves on defense today. I mentioned these very quickly. They released veterans, Lawrence Guy and Adrian Phillips. The 33 year old guy can now get a head start on free agency while Phillips gets a fresh start after playing just 12% of the snaps last season. Cuts create about $6 million in cap space. What do you make of these cuts, Phil? Yeah, my first reaction is not incredibly surprised. Both of these guys closer to the end than the beginning but secondarily to then, there's a little bit of cap space they save. It's not a massive amount for a team that's already near the top of the league in that regard. I think they are gonna miss a presence there. They would like to have, I'm sure, some adults in the room. And these guys were adults in the room and Adrian Phillips hardly played last year and so his leadership role even was diminished a bit but Lawrence Guy has always been a sounding board for the younger defensive lineman in Foxboro and I think he could have continued to be that. Greg, you're all over the film in the trenches but it didn't seem like he was necessarily a liability. So it wouldn't surprise me if they had brought him back and now they're gonna be looking for leadership and veteran leadership on that defense. Yeah, I mean, certainly both guys have lost the step. I still think Guy is a good football player. To me, this came down to economics with these guys. Adrian Phillips was not happy with his role last year and didn't really wanna be here anymore if that was gonna continue in the same for Lawrence Guy. Remember, he didn't really wanna play for his $4 million last year. He was set to make $3.5 million this year. That was not gonna be tenable to him. The team wasn't gonna give him a raise. So they did the prudent thing with two veterans, respected veterans, released them early so they can get a head start on free agency. Well, you mentioned money. I mean, the Patriots are gonna have about close to $75 million to spend in the off season. So give me your big ticket items, Greg. Like, what are you, you're going in, you get to go to Neiman Marcus and you get to go shopping. I don't even know if that reference means anything to you but you get to go in and you get to spend. Neiman Marcus Guy, no, I'm not Chris Gaspar. Well, Barney, you get to spend. You get to spend. What are you spending it on? People are gonna be shocked by this that I am going to start up front. I am going to start with Michael Wenu to give me something for sure on the offensive line that could either be tackle or guard depending on what happens in the draft. They could draft a tackle that starts at right tackle and you kick Mike in at right guard. All of a sudden, City Soak is slip over to left guard in case Cold Strange isn't ready and then I'm going to get a tackle. I'm going to get Jonah Williams from the Bengals. He's a guy who's played both left and right tackle, pretty good pass blocker, not the greatest of run blockers, but where the Patriots are right now, at least he gives them time maybe on a short deal to sort of get reset at the tackle position. And, you know, with Jonah Williams and Michael Wenu up front, you're talking about two pretty good players and it's a good basis because you're gonna need to really start up front on this team. Oh, and Calvin Ridley, the receiver from the Jaguars. I want somebody who get a speed element who's dangerous that can stretch defenses a little bit. It's not all about the big uglies for Greg, apparently. At least he's willing to entertain us with one receiver option, but we are right on the same page with all of these because again, to me, you have to try to address the line first in free agency and you have to be willing to pay. What I love for the Patriots to make a play for Tyron Smith, the veteran left tackle down in Dallas, I would, but I just can't see him wanting to leave Dallas at this point. He is much closer to the end than the beginning, even though he had a really effective year last year. Jonah Williams, Michael Wenu, you have to get someone that's gonna give you a professional effort. You're not gonna get all pro level play from either of these guys in all likelihood, but you're gonna be able to have a base level of protection and run blocking ability there. And then with Ridley, I like him because he's probably not gonna have to make as much as somebody like even Michael Pittman, who's sort of a possession receiver from Indy, gives you some explosiveness, can play inside and out. I think Ridley, Pop Douglas, and maybe a rookie in the first couple rounds in the draft, that has the makings of a pretty nice receiving more.