This has been in the works for over 6 weeks and it's a smart move imo. He wanted to be here and, as Tommy said, Parker's contract, when it finally comes out, won't be the same numbers his agent put out there. $19M of that contract will be incentives, roster bonuses, production bonuses and bonuses for NFL honors received - iow, he'll have to earn that money on the field.
This is nothing new to Parker. His last contract with the Dolphins included a $500K bonus for every game he played.
This new contract will add multiple incentives, both LTBE and NLTBE, to that same recipe to enable the Pats to keep his salary cap numbers as low as possible. His base salary will be less than 1/2 of $11M/year. Plus, when players bet on themselves with contracts like these the player normally performs better. This is a great contract for the Patriots no matter how you look at it.
Why would BB want him back? Under trying circumstances last year Parker averaged 17.4 yds/catch and had a catch rate of 66%.
Both are career highs for a guy who has a 1200 yd year under his belt. To me it's simple...increase his targets.
He was grossly underutilized last year with only 47 targets (and many of those early targets were wasted on GO routes).
Stay with me here.
In only 47 targets, Parker had 537 yds (and only 1 blown route!).
Now extrapolate those numbers to Justin Jefferson's 184 targets, or Tyreek Hill's 170 targets or Stephon Diggs' 154 targets.
I've done the math... he'd have been the #1 ranked WR last year with over 2000 yds.
That's why BB wants him back.
