Patriots’ Jason and Devin McCourty enter offseason with open outlook

An eventful spring looms for both Jason McCourty and Devin McCourty.

The former has a $500,000 roster bonus due when the league year begins on March 18. The latter is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent then at 4 p.m. ET.

And in Miami on Thursday, the twins in the New England Patriots’ secondary stopped by Westwood One’s RapSheet and Friends to discuss a similar plan.

Playing.

“Yeah, I’m not retiring,” Jason McCourty told Ian Rapoport. “For me, I’m still playing football. I hate that I got injured at the end of this year and I wasn’t able to play with the guys in the playoffs and down the stretch of that season. It killed me. But I’m on the mend now, had offseason surgery. So, doing a lot better now and I definitely plan on playing next year. I have a team option, so it’ll be up to the team whether I am back there next year. We’ll see what happens around March.”

Jason made 10 starts to record 40 tackles and one interception in 2019. The ex-Tennessee Titans and Cleveland Browns cornerback would be inactive for five of New England’s final seven games, including the AFC wild card, due to a groin injury. He’d remained with the Patriots last offseason on a two-year, $10 million deal after originally reuniting with his brother in a trade of sixth- and seventh-round draft picks. A cap number of $5.75 million is ahead in 2020.

As for the New England safety, this past campaign marked the end of a five-year, $47.5 million deal. Pick No. 27 overall in the 2010 draft started every game in the process while intercepting five passes, forcing a pair of fumbles and logging 58 tackles. It marked his ninth season as a team captain. It also marked his fourth consecutive season without a game missed.

“It’s been fun, man,” said Devin McCourty. “You play your first five years in the NFL; you become a free agent. You play another five years; you get to stay with the same team and now you’re a free agent again. … It probably won’t be another five years, but just having an opportunity to see what the future holds, I’m pretty wide open. We’ll see what goes, see what happens. The easy thing to say is I want to be back in New England, but when you play 10 years somewhere, like, you don’t know. That’s not always a definite. So, I’m staying open and just really been enjoying this time until all of that takes off and we’ll have to figure that out as a family.”

The Rutgers products will turn 33 in August.