Told that Randall Cobb turned down possibly as much as $1.5 million a season to return to #Packers. That's some love.
— Charles Robinson (@CharlesRobinson) March 8, 2015
The Packers brought back wide receiver Randall Cobb at a $10 million per season rate, while he had offers of $11.5 million on the table (and some report that he left $12 million per year from three teams). The Raiders were extremely interested in the slot receiver, but Cobb was willing to take a hometown discount to remain with Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay.
It has also been noted that Darrelle Revis turned down an extra $2 million last season to join the Patriots over the Raiders and the Browns. Revis still received $12 million this past season with New England, and his contract value was technically for $16 million per season over two years.
If we do some horrible and completely inconclusive math, we can see that these two players took a rough 15% per season discount to be a part of a winning team instead of playing for a bottom feeder.
This means that if the Patriots want to retain Devin McCourty, they'll have a baseline as an offer, depending on the competing teams.
If a competitive team like the Eagles offer McCourty a $10 million per season deal, then New England would likely have to pony up a fair amount to keep him around. But if a team like the Jets, Raiders, Jaguars, or Colts (hah) offer him $10 million per season, then the Patriots would likely have to offer around $8.5-$9 million per year.
Or if one of the bottom teams offers $9 million per season, then New England would have to offer between $7.5-$8 million to retain his services.
Of course, this is just hypothetical. McCourty deserves to take the money offered to him and hopefully the Patriots won't expect him to overextend his value to take a home discount.