A week into the free-agent signing period, safety Tre Boston is still looking for his 2018 home.
Boston had the best year of his career in 2017, his first with the Los Angeles Chargers. But it appears he’s trying to turn his five-interception season into some sort of mega deal that teams around the league apparently don’t feel he’s worth.
There weren’t a ton of big-name safeties entering the market this offseason and it seemed Boston had a chance to get that big contract he was looking for. But maybe teams see his 2017 season as a bit of a fluke. Maybe teams want a player who has been more consistent.
The Houston Texans won the bidding war for the services of Tyrann Mathieu. The “Honey Badger” signed a 1-year, $7 million deal to play not too far from his birthplace of New Orleans, Louisiana. Mathieu is far more talented than Boston so if the latter wants to sign another one-year deal somewhere, it would have to be closer to the $900,000 deal he got last year than the one Mathieu just signed.
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The Pittsburgh Steelers, a team that figured to be in the mix for Boston, instead chose to sign former Green Bay Packers safety Morgan Burnett.
Shortly after the signing period started, the Chargers brought back Adrian Phillips on a new one-year deal. If there’s one thing Boston has likely noticed, it’s that the Chargers are not interested in spending big money on players and they’re not afraid to move on from players who have been solid contributors, such as Matt Slauson, who recently signed with the Indianapolis Colts.
Perhaps teams see through Boston. Maybe they recognize that he’s not a great tackler or that he needs to be willing to prove he can play at the level he did last year for at least one more season.
Coveted free agents don’t take over a week to find a new team or re-sign with their old one. It appears that Boston has placed a pricetag on himself that other teams, including the one he played for most recently, just aren’t willing to pay.