Training camps around the NFL are set to open up in the coming week, and only two non-quarterback rookies in the entire league have yet to sign their contracts.
One of those players is Gabe Jacas, whom the Patriots moved up to draft in the second round in April. New England clearly identified edge rusher as a position of need and targeted Jacas with the 55th pick in the draft, trading three picks to the Chargers to do so.
Yet with Gillette Stadium opening its doors to rookies on Tuesday, Jacas still does not have a contract.
Albert Breer joined Early Edition and said the Jacas situation is trending in an uncomfortable direction for the Patriots.
“Rookies generally do show up when they’re not signed in the spring. That’s normal — and he didn’t do that. When you aren’t signed and it’s the start of training camp, you don’t show up,” Breer said. “This moves to another stage, and I think you’re inching closer now to the idea that maybe this winds up being a redshirt year for him.”
Breer said that Jacas — who recorded 19 sacks over the past two seasons at Illinois — was expected to have the potential of “having the highest instant impact” of any Patriots rookie. But with the unresolved contract situation and an uncertain injury status that “only complicates it further,” the clock is already ticking on Jacas’ ability to get up to speed.
“For him to miss not just the on-field time but the classroom time in the spring, and now this is still unsettled going into training camp, it would indicate that it’s only going to get harder and harder for him to contribute as a rookie,” Breer said.
A “redshirt year” or anything close to it would certainly not be close to what the Patriots’ front office had in mind when drafting Landry.
“I think they envisioned a very real role for him, the program he’s coming out of, having played for Bret Bielema at the University of Illinois. I think there was a real feeling that he was going to be able to come in and make an instant impact, and obviously things have gone in a different direction since then,” Breer said.
Complicating the concern for the Patriots is that at an already weak EDGE position, veteran Harold Landry is starting camp on the physically unable to perform list.
“I think it’s just a reminder that he’s going to have to be managed, as he was last year. He’s not a full-time player at this stage of his career,” Breer said of Landry. “He’s a part-time player, which highlights what I think has been the biggest need for the team since we got out of the draft, free agency, all of that. And I think it’s still on the edge, and that’s still a place, an area where they could definitely add another player.”
Outside of the EDGE position, the story that’s certain to draw the most attention this week is Christian Gonzalez’s desire for a top-of-the-market contract extension. Breer suggested it would be wisest for Gonzalez to hold in (and not out) amid any and all contract discussions, and that a Gonzalez deal is unlikely to get done before Devon Witherspoon gets his extension in Seattle.
“This is a lot of money that’s on the line. I think the opportunity to get that sort of payday is fleeting in football, and if there’s a way that you can put pressure on your team to get it, I think you do it,” Breer said. “I think the tricky thing about this one is, again, because of the dynamic with his agent also representing Devon Witherspoon. There’s a good chance they’re gonna wait to see what Witherspoon does in Seattle. … That’s what could, I think, break the dam with getting a Gonzalez deal done.”