The NFL’s franchise tag window came to a close yesterday, and the New England Patriots did not use it to keep one of their players from hitting the open market. Consequently, 17 members of the team’s 2018 championship squad are now scheduled to become unrestricted free agents once the new league year starts next week — a group that includes Trey Flowers and Trent Brown, New England’s top-two free agents.
Let’s take a look ahead at what this means for the two standouts and the Patriots, and what some of the next steps are.