New England Patriots safety Kyle Dugger was ticketed for unrestricted free agency this offseason, but he never got the chance to test the market.
The Patriots prevented that from happening by placing the seldom-used transition tag on Dugger. That basically made Dugger a restricted free agent and gave the Patriots the opportunity to match any offer the 2020 second-round pick potentially would receive from another team. But due to the transition tag, no reported offers have come Dugger’s way.
And despite having an average of the top 10 salaries at the position, which will give Dugger a big pay increase for next season, the whole situation doesn’t appear to be sitting well with him.
“Dugger remains dissatisfied with the transition tag, a one-year, $13.2 million placeholder that will keep him here in New England,” The Boston Herald’s Andrew Callahan wrote Sunday. “As of late this week, he had not signed the tag.”
This was the first time Dugger had the chance to test free agency in his career, but the Patriots obviously didn’t want to let the 28-year-old walk out the door.
Dugger has been a key piece in New England’s defense and was third on the team with 109 tackles in 2023. He has also recorded nine interceptions over the past three seasons.
The Patriots don’t have much depth at the safety position, which is probably why they wanted to hang on to Dugger. They cut Adrian Phillips in February and saw Jalen Mills sign a one-year deal with the New York Giants in free agency. New England did make up for those losses by signing Jaylinn Hawkins, who played in 58 games over the last four seasons with the Atlanta Falcons and Los Angeles Chargers.
Callahan left open the possibility of the Patriots trading Dugger if he remains disgruntled. But Callahan believes New England wouldn’t fetch anything more than a fourth-round pick in exchange for Dugger.
Trading Dugger doesn’t seem to be what the Patriots want, though. First-year head coach Jerod Mayo said earlier this month that the objective with Dugger is to come to a long-term agreement, which would erase the transition tag.
“Kyle is a talented player with a strong work ethic who has improved every year and been extremely productive since joining our team in 2020,” Mayo told reporters, per ESPN. “We value players with high character and chose to use the transition designation to give both sides more time to try to reach a long-term agreement, which is our goal with Kyle.”
