Patriots punter Jake Bailey ended the 2022 season filing a grievance over a suspension the team handed him, and now he’s starting the 2023 league year out of work.
The Patriots released Bailey today.
That’s going to make the result of the grievance process particularly interesting: Bailey’s contract guaranteed him $2.115 million in 2023, but the Patriots will likely claim that the guarantee is voided because they suspended him at the end of the 2022 season.
Bailey’s suspension apparently stemmed from a disagreement between the player and the team about whether Bailey was ready to return from injured return and start playing again. Bailey had his worst season in 2022, and he may contend in the grievance process that the suspension was a pretext for the Patriots to get out of paying him his guaranteed money.
Regardless, Bailey will now hit free agency and try to sign on with another team, while likely continuing the grievance process with his old team.