Patriots hope to reach long-term deal with Kyle Dugger after using transition tag

The veteran safety remains under contract for the upcoming 2024 season.

The New England Patriots placed the transition tag on pending free agent Kyle Dugger ahead of Tuesday’s deadline, signaling a clear desire to keep the veteran safety in the fold for the upcoming 2024 season.

The nature of the tag does allow Dugger to be courted by other teams, and only gives the Patriots the right of first refusal without any compensation should he leave. That being said, the organization does not plan on waving the 28-year-old goodbye — quite the opposite, if head coach Jerod Mayo is to be believed.

“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 said in a statement released by the Patriots.

“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.

The natural follow-up question becomes why the Patriots would use the transition as opposed to the franchise tag if their plan is to sign Dugger to an extension anyway?

The latter would have made him far less attractive an option to be pursued by teams both in terms of tag value and attached compensation in case of a departure, so what gives? As with all things free agency, it likely comes down to money.

Dugger’s tag is a fully-guaranteed one-year contract at a value of $13.82 million. For comparison, the franchise tag number for his position would have been $17.12 million. The difference between those two is significant even for a team like the Patriots, who still project to be $87.7 million under the salary cap, according to Miguel Benzan.

New England’s valuation of the safety, however, appears to be closer to the transition than the franchise tag number. The team reportedly has a contract offer on the table that is believed to average around $13 million annually.

Whether the two sides can work from there will be seen. Placing the tag on Dugger does give them some security, though, while simultaneously still allowing the safety to gauge his market.