Joshua Uche on passing up bigger offer: No place I'd rather be than New England
After Patriots edge rusher Joshua Uche agreed to re-sign with the Patriots last month, there was a report that he passed up a two-year, $15 million offer from another team.
Uche — he has gone by Josh in the past, but now wants to be known as Joshua — signed a one-year deal in New England that is worth up to $8 million and the decision to accept the shorter deal was a topic at his press conference on Tuesday. Uche said that "despite what was offered, I felt like this was my calling to be a Patriot" and that he feels it is best to "follow your heart" in such situations.
“It was interesting. I had a lot of people calling me crazy. A lot of people focusing on the financial parts of the decision. But I feel like the team that gave me an opportunity, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be,” Uche said, via Doug Kyed of the Boston Herald. “I can’t envision myself playing for another team. However that shakes out, I know at the end of the day, the ball was in my court, and this is the dream that I wanted to fulfill, to be a Patriot.”
Uche had 3.5 sacks last season after posting 11.5 in 2022 and attributed that drop to "different roles that the team asked me to do" over the course of the year. If his role leads to a spike in sacks, Uche might find even better offers in New England and elsewhere come next year.
