Parker, Bentley extensions only about Patriots playing catch up on Belichick's roster management

Don’t take the cheese again.

It’s nice that Bill Belichick and the Patriots got around to doling out extensions this week to DeVante Parker and Ja’Whaun Bentley. Both deals were reasonable and give the team much-needed bodies for the next couple of seasons. As we’ve written previously, the Patriots have a ton of players set to be free agents after this season:

Two key young defenders (Kyle Dugger, Josh Uche) 3/5ths of starting offensive line (Mike Onwenu, Trent Brown, Riley Reiff), both tight ends (Hunter Henry, Mike Gesicki), two key receivers (DeVante Parker, Kendrick Bourne) most linebackers (Ja'Whaun Bentley, Raekwon McMillan, Mack Wilson). 

But don’t make this about more than that. These deals were not about gaining cap space to sign anyone, like DeAndre Hopkins — they didn’t need to do that, and you could just as easily say this was just done to gain the amount of cap space (about $16 million) needed to operate until the conclusion of the 2023 season.

These deals weren’t really about rewarding Parker or Bentley, although that’s a nice side benefit for the veteran middle linebacker who is a leader and knows the system as well as anyone.

No, these deals were done primarily for two reasons only: to bail Belichick out of his poor roster management, and because they were easy to do.

Wake me up when the Patriots get one of the hard deals done, the kind the Patriots have skirted doing in recent years. Hopefully, those are coming, and they could be.

What are the hard deals? Dugger, Uche, Henry, Onwenu and possibly an early extension for the one blue chip player on the roster, Matthew Judon.

Those are more difficult because those players are less than a year from being on the open market and could be looking at major dollars. The Patriots would have to offer them close to top of the market to retain them, or they’ll be gone. Very tough deals to do.

Remember when the Patriots used to lock up some of their young talent early (Rob Gronkowski, Shaq Mason; Devin McCourty and Dont’a Hightower were only signed after hitting free agency and threatening to leave)? Those days are very much in the past. Talent that has gone out the door in recent years that was either homegrown or developed here:

Jakobi Meyers
JC Jackson
Ted Karras
Joe Thuney
Adam Butler
Kyle Van Noy
Cordarrelle Patterson
Danny Amendola
Malcolm Butler
Dion Lewis
Nate Solder

Some of it has been Belichick’s fault for not wanting to pony up. Some of it is part of the changing landscape where the cap goes up every year and the players are holding out for that big payday more and more. Have the Patriots changed their approach with the times? Of course not. Belichick just keeps doing what he did 20 years ago.

What’s the primary reason Belichick did these deals? Because he left himself with no other options because he passed on filling blatant roster holes in the draft.

The Patriots went into the 2022 draft with a glaring need for a young nose tackle. Belichick passed on it, and had to give Davon Godchaux an extension since the cupboard was left bare.

How many years have the Patriots needed a young linebacker? Again passed on it this year, so Bentley got his extension. Good, solid player. But the Patriots obviously aren’t interested in upgrading there. And expect another deal for Jahlani Tavai to keep New England decidedly average at the second level of the defense.

Patriots needed another receiver this year, but passed so Parker gives them two veteran receivers for next season (Juju Smith-Schuster).

Considering the Patriots have no tight ends on the roster for next season, expect Henry to be next — if he’ll take the Patriots’ deal like Parker and Bentley did. But that would be an upset.

Look, it’s nice the Patriots have started to fill out their 2024 roster. And they got two at least solid players at good deals.

But it was long overdue and just continued a pattern of Belichick no longer being proactive about his roster — a decade ago we wouldn’t need to write this. The present Patriots are annually a step behind. That's what this was really about.