The New England Patriots have had a modest, but successful, run through free agency. Key young contributors like Mike Onwenu, Kyle Dugger and Josh Uche all stayed in town. Other one-time fits like Trent Brown, Mike Gesicki and DeVante Parker left.
Ultimately, the biggest headline the team made may have involved a player the Patriots couldn’t get. New England was reportedly in lock-step in a bidding war with the Jacksonville Jaguars when it came to former All-Pro wide receiver Calvin Ridley. In the end, neither team wound up with the 29-year-old target.
The Tennessee Titans swooped in to offer $50 million in guaranteed money and add him to Will Levis’ receiving tree in Nashville. This left questions as to whether the Patriots were outmanuevered at the bargaining table even after deposing the notoriously spendthrift Bill Belichick.
New England owner Robert Kraft wants the world to know that’s not what happened.
Robert Kraft said the Patriots didn't lose out on Calvin Ridley because of finances. "It was made clear his girlfriend wanted to be in the south."
— Mike Giardi (@MikeGiardi) March 26, 2024
To Kraft’s benefit, reports that swirled around Ridley’s longer-than-expected courtship painted the Patriots as willing to spend whatever it took to land a clear-cut top wideout. And to Ridley’s benefit, he’d never played football full-time any place north of Atlanta and New England’s winters are famously uncomfortable.
That left Tennessee as the perfect combination of lucrative and warm. Nashville isn’t as ice-resistant as Jacksonville, but it’s got significantly fewer snow plows working the streets come January. If Ridley and his girlfriend wanted to stick around in the south, the Titans were a solid choice.
