Josh Uche reportedly turns down bigger offers to return to Patriots on 1-year deal

FOXBORO -- Josh Uche made it clear heading into the offseason that he wanted to continue playing for the Patriots. The linebacker wasn't kidding.

Uche gave New England a big hometown discount on Tuesday, reportedly re-signing with the Patriots on a one-year deal. He had bigger offers from other teams, but reportedly turned those down to remain in Foxboro.

Those offers that he turned down included a two-year, $15 million offer that included $11 million in guaranteed money, according to NFL Network's Tom Pelissero.

The contract that he accepted from New England is only for $3 million, according to Albert Breer of The MMQB, but Uche can bump that up to $8 million if he hits incentives. Still, that is a big discount price for a pass-rush specialist. 

Uche said that he wanted to play under new Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo and was one of the players at his introductory press conference at Gillette Stadium. Mayo has worked with Uche the last fours years as New England's inside linebackers coach.

Uche has spent his entire four-year career in New England after the Patriots drafted him in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft out of Michigan. He racked up just four sacks over his first two seasons, and had just one through the first eight weeks of the 2022 season before he really caught fire. Uche broke out in the second half of the season and finished the year with 11.5 sacks and a pair of forced fumbles over 15 games. Only Matthew Judon had more sacks for the Patriots' defense at the end of the season with 15.5.

Uche appeared primed for a bigger season in 2023 and had a pair of sacks through the first four weeks of the season. But he had no sacks and just one QB hit over the next 10 weeks -- with a pair of inactive Sundays mixed in -- and finished the season with just three sacks and six quarterback hits.

Judon's season-ending injury was a massive reason for Uche's dip in production in 2023. Once Judon went down, opposing teams were able to put their attention on keeping Uche away from their quarterback, and his play suffered.

But Judon will be back next season, and now Uche will try to feed off all that attention again on an extremely team-friendly deal for the Patriots.