The Patriots have been notorious for striking gold in the mine of undrafted rookie free agents every year. But in order to do that, they sometimes need to outbid other teams for players they think will amount to something. They've done just that this offseason.
According to Brian McIntyre of Yahoo! Sports, Bill Belichick and co. spent roughly $140,000 in guaranteed money for this year's UDFA crop. That is the most guaranteed money given out to UDFAs this season, in the entire NFL. The Cowboys ($104,500), Rams ($103,100), Buccaneers ($94,670), and Saints ($88,500) round out the top five.
McIntyre pointed out that NFL teams are allowed to spend roughly $78,000 total in signing bonuses for undrafted rookies, but there is no limit of total guaranteed money teams can dish out to these players. Henceforth, the Patriots are in the right in spending around $40,000 more in guaranteed money than the second-place Cowboys did.
The undrafted rookie that was given out the most guaranteed money by New England was, to no surprise, T.J. Moe, who received around an $8,000 signing bonus with additional $22,000 in guaranteed money. Moe was considered by many as a priority undrafted rookie, which meant that the Patriots had to outbid other teams for his services. Moe has one of the better shots to crack the 53-man roster than any of the other undrafted rookie on the roster.
The other "top-dollar" undrafted rookies that signed with New England and were listed by McIntyre was Zach Sudfeld ($17,000 total guaranteed), Elvis Fisher ($15,000), Josh Kline ($14,000), Ben Bartholomew ($10,000) and Kanorris Davis ($10,000).