Patriots Sign RB Antonio Gibson to 3-Year Contract | 2024 NFL Free Agency

so the New England Patriots are finally getting in the mix here in free agency on day one of the legal tampering period as they are going to be signing former Washington commanders running back Antonio Gibson to a three-year contract we are going to break all that down in today's video but on the way in make sure you guys do leave a big like on the video and subscribe to the channel while hitting the Bell notifications so that you get notified every single time we post a video it's free agency baby you guys are not going to want to miss anytime that we post a video [Music] so before we hop into the statistics we break down who Antonio Gibson really is I think what a lot of you guys are going to be asking is what do I think of this does this move the needle for for the Patriots and day one here with the legal tampering period a lot of free agents are being signed a lot of big name free agents you have Gabe Davis signed you look at the running back group specifically you have Tony Pard signed you have Josh Jacobs signed you have saquin Barkley signed there have been a lot of guys off the board Antonio Gibson isn't that day one at least so far while I'm making this video the Patriots haven't really made any big gamechanging Splash moves I would say Antonio Gibson is more of a mid-tier signing by the Patriots he's not a guy that's going to come in and be a camp body but he's also not an elite player that is going to move the chains and keep defensive coordinators up at night like I mentioned he is signing a three-year deal which in itself did surprise me I feel like under a new regime really everywhere it's not just offensively but a new running back's coach a new offensive coordinator a new head coach a new quarterback everything's going to be different why do we not see how he fits in the system first especially at running back where it's very easy to get a guy if it doesn't work out it's easy to get a guy on the open market it's easy to trade for a guy not have to give up a whole lot of compensation it's easy to draft a guy if you want to they seem to be very confident in the ability straight off the bat of Antonio Gibson being able to fit in the system like a glove and don't get me wrong I do think that Antonio Gibson should fit the Patriot system very very well under Alex vanel but again if he doesn't you're signing him to this big three-year contract now again they could have void years in this they could have a void year after two years they could have a void year after one year at this current time we don't have those contract details what we do know though is that the three-year deal is going to be worth $1.2 million the deal can be worth up to $17.2 million through incentives so Bill bich might not be here but it's very clear that with the guys they're bringing in they are still going to make it heavily incentive based but while still respecting the overall contract if you think about it again we don't know the year-to-year breakdown but that's still averaging less than $4 million per year again you have to understand is that he's not this big household name in the NFL he's not saquan he's not Tony Pard he's not Derk Henry but he's not also your no names that are going to come in and be a camp body this three year contract along with kind of the household name that Antonio Gibson is should pretty much solidify that as long as he doesn't get injured or just totally crap the bag in training camp he's going to be a part of this team in 2024 and likely Beyond I think the idea of the Patriots signing another bcow running back another Elite running back to put behind raand Dre to me never made sense that's why I never talked about signing saquan Barkley while it would be cool I don't think it made sense after the comments that Rand Dre Stevenson recently came out and said basically saying that he wants to be a bcal running back to a team he even said that Ezekiel Elliott feels the same way that he doesn't want to have to split the reps with a guy and knowing that he had to do that last year knowing that he probably wasn't too happy with doing so even though he became friends with Ezekiel Elliott I think if the Patriots want to think long term with Rand Dre Stevenson then they needed to find a guy that wasn't going to have to compete with him that was n ultimately going to take his spot and Antonio Gibson isn't going to do that I think that there is a very specific role for Gibson that isn't taking Snaps away from Rand Dre Stevenson now look at the end of the day Gibson is still going to get time on the ground but what's not going to happen is that one drive it's gonna be Gibson one drive it's gonna be mandre one time it's Gibson one time it's mandre I really think that Gibson is going to come in and be more of a change of pace running back guy who's also going to give you some depth but not just that he's going to come in and he's going to be your third down back raand Dre Stevenson is very underrated in terms of his receiving ability but that's not his bread and butter that that's not what you want him doing you know 10 times a game Antonio Gibson on the other hand that's a guy that you know what if he has to receive the ball 10 times a game then ideally that's not the game plan and something probably went wrong but he can still do it he comes in and he's going to serve the question that we have been asking for years and that is who is going to replace the third down receiving back James White rle something the Patriots have tried to find but over the last several years have not been able to do so I think Gibson will come in and be a security blanket while also helping out the Patriots overall rece with this move I don't say wow we just significantly got better I mean defensive coordinator should be up at night being scared to play the Patriots now but what I am saying is you know what we now have good depth but not just that we also have a role filled that we've been asking ourselves and wondering who is going to be feeling this and that is that receiving back fill now in terms of his durability he has been able to stay fairly healthy throughout his entire career he was originally a third round pick by the commanders just back in the 2020 draft he's also only 25 years old so he is still very young he's very much in his prime and I also think that he is a little bit bigger than a lot of people expected if you go up here you can see he's 6'2 220 lounds which is bigger than ra Andre I think a lot of people see him and they're like ah this guy looks smaller and then you look at his height and you're like oh okay never mind he's actually a lot bigger than I originally thought but he has been able to stay healthy throughout the majority of his career right he played in 16 games this past year played in 15 games the year prior 16 games in 2021 and 14 games in his rookie season so has he played a full season no he's always missed a game or two but he's only always missed a game or two this past season in terms of his grading wasn't the best but it also wasn't terrible it was a disappointment coming off of his 2022 season which we will talk about here in just a minute but in 2023 he put up an overall grade of 66.6 a rushing grade of 68.4 and a receiving grade of 64.5 in terms of rushing he had 65 carries 265 yards one rushing touchdown was averaging 4.1 yards per attempt he had four fumbles he had uh 16 missed tackles and then was averaging 3.5 yards after contact per attempt with five explosive runs and explosive runs are considered um 10 plus yards or more keep in mind when talking about him when talking about these statistics he was also running behind a Washington committers offensive line which you think the Patriots is bad you should check out the Washington commanders but in terms of receiving in this past season he was targeted 57 times 48 receptions 389 yards receiving two touchdowns and having four total drops he's he's gonna be a guy that comes in and he's going to be explosive which the Patriots offense does need guys who are going to be explosive the concerns for me are his consistency he's not consistent but also the issues holding on to the ball like I said this past year four fumbles alone also had four drops in the receiving game a guy that like I said all comes back to having to be a little bit more consistent and a little bit more reliable which we do know the Patriots are going to plug into it now like I mentioned in 2022 was one of his better seasons and there was a lot of hype going around him after that 2022 year just hoping that he could take on a bigger role and help the commanders kind of progress throughout the the funk that they've been in throughout well kind of forever if you really think about it but this past year or not this past year but in 2022 put up an overall grade of 6 76.3 a rushing grade of 70.9 and a receiving grade and Elite receiving grade of 80.5 he had 149 carries for 546 yards three touchdowns was averaging 3.7 yards per attempt which is actually the worst in his career he never averaged worse than four yards per carry other than this 2022 season but had one fumble 13 Miss tackles 2.5 yards after contact per attempt and 11 explosive runs which again is 10 or Yards More per run in the receiving g game he put up 57 targets 46 receptions 353 yards two receiving touchdowns and three drops little interesting fact too is that throughout his NFL career so far he has never been targeted or excuse me has never put up less than 35 receptions per season just to kind of go back in and dictate just how big he is in the receiving game look the Patriots they needed body is at running back it can't just be ra Andre who's also coming off of a really plagued injury-prone season this past year in 20123 if you were telling me that Antonio Gibson was going to come in and be the lone main Patriots running back for the season you know okay then I would be worried but that's not what this situation is I'm not saying that this is an A or an A+ but I also don't think that this is an F signing this isn't a c signing I would say it's a middle of the pack signing to where you go probably around a b that's where I would overall this signing but as always I'm going to kick it to you guys what do you think about this are you a fan of it are you not a fan of it let me know in the comment section below remember to leave a big like on this video and of course subscribe to the channel for all of your New England Patriots news as always though appreciate you guys for watching and never forget go PS