After the Patriots won the Super Bowl, tight end Martellus Bennett noted that free agents from championship teams often receive a premium on the open market.
It appears Bennett will get the chance to see if he gets that treatment next month. Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that Bennett will not sign a new deal with the Patriots ahead of the start of the new league year. That doesn’t preclude a return to the Patriots and Bennett fit well with the team, but the chances that someone on the open market will bowl him over are great enough that Rapoport believes it will be hard to keep him in New England.
Bennett isn’t giving any sign of what path he may be taking on social media. He took a break from recounting meetings with celebrities ranging from Sinbad to Magic Johnson to say that he’ll “figure it out when it’s time to figure it out.”
That time will be here fairly soon and Bennett’s market should come into clearer sight pretty quickly in the free agency process.