Bedard: If JC Jackson signs for big money, this is another Belichick blunder with franchise tag

INDIANAPOLIS — The possible market for pending Patriots free agent cornerback JC Jackson has been a popular topic during the NFL scouting combine.

The opinions have been mixed. Some think Jackson won't get to the franchise tag ($17.3 million) on a long-term contract. Others think Jackson's market will be robust and he will sail past Jalen Ramsey as the top-paid cornerback ($20 million AAV).

With that dropback, the Patriots have decided not to tag Jackson, according to NFL Network.

I would not say it's completely over with Jackson, although his time with the Patriots certainly appears to be finished. The Patriots have been trying to find a tag-and-trade partner in Indianapolis. That they decided to leak this four days before the 4 p.m. Tuesday tag deadline appears to be an effort to create a market for a Jackson trade. If you're a team that is likely to pursue Jackson, why not eliminate the competition and give the Patriots more than a 2023 third-round compensatory pick to make sure you have Jackson's rights?

But if the Patriots fail to find a trade partner for Jackson, this will be another ugly end with one of their top corners, and the second tag blunder in three years.

Look, I get it. I thought this is the decision Belichick would make eventually given how he operates. The Patriots simply don't think Jackson is worth $17.3 million for one season and they'd be delaying the inevitable — Jackson being free to leave in 2023. And they don't want to jump through all the contractual hoops they would need to, just in order to fit Jackson's tag under the cap, unless there is a tag-and-trade scenario. 

But at some point, you have to acknowledge the market. If multiple teams are prepared to pay Jackson as a top five cornerback in unrestricted free agency (upwards of $19-20 million), then how is he not worth $17.3 million for one season? How are the Patriots a better defense in 2022 without Jackson at cornerback? How are the Patriots in a better position to stop Josh Allen and the Bills without Jackson on the field?

Belichick should have bit the bullet, moved some cap space around, and tagged Jackson. It would have bought him time in the draft to get someone who was a potential No. 1 cornerback in '23. 

That's if Jackson gets the contract most envision. If Jackson's market is not good, then Belichick made the right choice.

But this smells like another tag debacle, in line with tagging Joe Thuney in 2020 at the last minute when Tom Brady left the Patriots. The Patriots paid Thuney, a guard, nearly $15 million that season. When he signed with the Chiefs in '21, the Patriots got no compensation because they signed a ton of top free agents. 

So it's worth giving a guard $15 million two years ago — a position that should be easy to fill (Ted Karras did it well last season at a bargain-basement price) — but it's not worth giving a top man corner $17 million, when those guys don't grow on trees and you have little in the pipeline?

Let's also not forget that by letting Jackson go, and wanting to avoid another Thuney situation, the Patriots have basically declared they will not be in on any of the top free agents and might not create much additional cap space, unless a unique opportunity presents itself. If the Patriots sign a top-tier free agent at another position, they will not receive a compensatory pick for losing Jackson in '23.

So those dreams that you have had about Davante Adams, Chris Godwin, Von Miller, Chandler Jones, Mike Williams, Allen Robinson, Randy Gregory, Stephon Gilmore, Carlton Davis, Tyrann Mathieu ... you can much kiss them goodbye unless their market drops out and they are more in the $10-12 million range.

This is also another situation where the Patriots can't extend their top corner.

Ty Law
Asante Samuel
Aqib Talib
Malcolm Butler
Stephon Gilmore
JC Jackson

The Patriots ended up saying goodbye to all of them. You could maybe understand the decisions on Law and Samuel because the NFL wasn't all about the passing game back then. But in recent years, and with how the Patriots showed they had to win Super Bowl titles in the new NFL — by going to more man coverage with a top corner as an anchor — the decisions in recent years with Gilmore and Jackson are puzzling.

And they have to leave you wondering what is going on and what the plan is for the Patriots at what has become one of the more important positions in the NFL.