Patriots reportedly using transition tag on safety Kyle Dugger
The New England Patriots have officially made their decision on what to do about safety Kyle Dugger. And they plan to keep him around for a while. According to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, the Patriots have placed the transition tag on Dugger. This means that if another team makes the safety a contract offer, New England can match […]
The New England Patriots have officially made their decision on what to do about safety Kyle Dugger.
And they plan to keep him around for a while.
According to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, the Patriots have placed the transition tag on Dugger. This means that if another team makes the safety a contract offer, New England can match it and keep him.
And ESPN's Dan Graziano added that it is a $13.815 million tag, rather than the $17.123 million franchise tag for safeties. And it is essentially a one-year deal.
During the NFL Scouting Combine, director of scouting Eliot Wolf and head coach Jerod Mayo both emphasized that bringing Dugger and offensive lineman Mike Onwenu back was a priority
And they did just that with Dugger.
"“I love those guys,” Mayo told the local media at the NFL Combine “I love big Mike. I think he has the versatility to play guard or tackle. Look, one of those guys when he’s going, he’s dominant. With Dugger, I would say last year going into the season, there were some questions about can he communicate and all those things. He squashed all of that last year. He did a fantastic job in his new role without having Devin there.
“You definitely want those pieces to stay. Going back to what I talked about earlier, you develop through the draft, so if those guys say, obviously, they’ve been raised here and they can help push the culture forward.”
This is a fairly rare move, but it makes sense why New England would want to make sure they have the final decision. He becomes just the sixth player over the last 15 years to receive a transition tag.
A to Z Sports spoke exclusively with Dugger in January about this upcoming decision, but he didn't give much away. And that included when he was asked if he would consider coming back to New England.
“Well, I’ve kind of told my agent to just let me focus on football," he said at the end of the season. "So any talks that there will be, it’s between them mainly. And I’m just kind of able to focus on the game.”
However, if there was interest from the Patriots, he did let A to Z Sports in on how he is feeling.
“For sure," Dugger said. "Yeah, I definitely would (consider it).”
And that interest is not only there, but it is clear that they aren't planning on letting him go.
So now that one piece of the puzzle has fallen back into place, let's see if they can also keep Onwenu around.
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