Asante Samuel Franchised

[GreenBay4Life]

The Patriots designated CB Asante Samuel as their franchise player Friday, guaranteeing him $7.79 million for 2007.

Samuel is still free to sign an offer sheet with another team, but New England can match the offer or decide to take two first-round picks in return for letting him go. The Patriots apparently felt it was more important to keep Samuel than TE Daniel Graham, who they may lose to free agency.

[beanoX3]

Samuel would have been able to cash in big time if he was able to test free agency, after racking up all them interceptions this year.

Wonder how he feels about being franchised....

[GreenBay4Life]

the guy has a tattoo that says "get paid" i think that says it all on how he feels.

[madaslives911]

good for the Pats if he decides to stay with them unless he or his agent (like Branch) wants more money.

[dgan]

Wait a second...the Pats just decided to keep a quality player (other than their QB) from entering free agency by paying him tons of cash?

Hell has indeed frozen over...

[A Fleshner Fantasy]

Good decision.

[killiansjmd]

Dam...I was hoping the Jets would be able to sign him.

[TheRawDAWG]

Wait a second...the Pats just decided to keep a quality player (other than their QB) from entering free agency by paying him tons of cash?

Hell has indeed frozen over...

Still under what he would be worth.

[Kilroy]

Smart move by the Pats. They couldn't afford to lose Samuel, and while 7.79 million is certainly a lot of money it's not egregious for a top CB.

[maddog60]

Shrewd or not, the Pats organization is not stupid, and losing Samuel would've been tremendously harmful to their team. This is a move that should've been a forgone conclusion. Expect them to use this to buy time to work out a long term deal pretty much sealing up Samuel for the best years of his career.