Detailing Adrian Phillips' Contract With Patriots
The biggest signing the New England Patriots made during Week 1 of free agency is bringing in safety Adrian Phillips. The former All-Pro safety is seemingly the replacement for Duron Harmon, who was traded to the Detroit Lions this past week in an attempt by New England to free up cap space.
While the Patriots have gotten younger at the position by adding Phillips - who is one year younger than Harmon (29) - did they also spend less money on the position by trading away Harmon and then signing Phillips? Let's take a look at Phillips' contract details, which were provided by ESPN's Field Yates and Mike Reiss, and the Houston Chronicle's Aaron Wilson:
Adrian Phillips Contract
- 2 years
- $7.5 million (max)
- 2020 base salary: $1.25 million ($1 million guaranteed)
- 2021 base salary: $2.25 million ($500,000 guaranteed)
- $3 million guaranteed
- $1.5 million signing bonus
- $500,000 in per game roster bonuses (each year)
- $750,000 in playing time incentives (each year)
Phillips' cap hit for 2020 will be $2.5 million, per OTC. Since trading away Harmon saved the Patriots $4.5 million, shipping him away and signing Phillips helped them get younger at the safety position while also saving $2 million in cap space. Another genius move by Bill Belichick.
The former undrafted safety spent nearly his entire career up until 2020 with the Chargers, and has had quite a roller coaster ride since 2014. Phillips was waived, cut, added, removed or signed by the Chargers (whether it be to the active roster or practice squad) 17 times in 2014 and 15 times in 2015, per Pro Football Reference's transaction wire. Two of those transactions in '15 were from the Packers. In 2015 Phillips finally found some stability by staying on Los Angeles' roster and remaining there until this offseason.
Now, after an All-Pro season in 2018 due to his special teams contributions and a broken arm that forced him to miss most of the 2019 season, Phillips finds a new home with the Patriots, who can hopefully provide him more stability than he has had up until this point in his career.
