The New England Patriots are definitely not taking off the first Saturday of the free agent signing period as just hours after it was announced they had signed former Seattle Seahawks defensive back Brandon Browner, it’s not being reported they have re-signed unrestricted free agent wide receiver Julian Edelman.
While it appears as though the Patriots still have a lot of cap space to work with, one would think by them re-signing Edelman that they don’t have any interest in signing Pittsburgh Steelers unrestricted free agent wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders, who they signed to a one-year, $2.5 million restricted offer sheet last offseason. Just because it looks that way, however, means nothing when it comes to the Patriots.
With Edelman no longer on the free agent market, Sanders now moves up another rung on the available free agent wide receiver ladder. Not that it means anything, but NFL.com now ranks Sanders and Green Bay Packers unrestricted free agent James Jones as the top two available free agent wide receivers still on the market.
Sanders is visiting with the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday, but being as they already have Anquan Boldin, Michael Crabtree, Quinton Patton and Jonathan Baldwin under contract, you would think Sanders wouldn’t receive much of an offer from them to be a third or fourth option.
Prior to visiting with the 49ers, Sanders visited with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs. Should he leave San Francisco unsigned, you have to wonder how many teams will still have interest in him outside of the New York Jets.
It’s still too early to tell, but if teams are indeed really worried about the past problems he’s had with his feet, he might just have to settle for a modest one-year deal from a team this year and try again next offseason. Who knows, maybe that team will be the Patriots.
