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New England Patriots tight end Martellus Bennett runs past the Denver Broncos during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 18, 2016, in Denver. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

(Jack Dempsey)

There are few guarantees during a Martellus Bennett interview, a biweekly event at Gillette Stadium that truly can head in any direction at any time.

"I've been watching Luke Cage, he's the bulletproof brother from Marvel, and I'm like 'What would Luke Cage do right now?' He'd get up and keep bouncing around," Bennett said on Oct. 9.

"No one likes Canadian bacon," Bennett opined on Dec. 29. "It's like a different form of ham. I prefer crispy bacon. American bacon. Good, good American bacon. The grease. The kind that crunches when you chew it. You don't even chew it, you just bite it. Crunchy bacon. Bacon's delicious."

Stick around long enough at a Bennett group interview, though, and you will learn that there are two certainties.

Bennett will swear, probably in the form of sh--, and he will make a dating/relationship analogy.

He took to Twitter Monday morning for his latest.

"OK back to the gym," Bennett wrote. "Free agency is like being that girl that's newly single and fresh on that market."

Bennett's contract expires March 9. He has given every indication that he will explore all options, meaning a "hometown discount" is likely not in the cards (which could be said for about 95 percent of NFL free agents, by the way).

Bennett turns 30 on the second day of free agency. He just completed a four-year, $20.4 million deal, and this probably represents his final opportunity to land a somewhat lucrative multiyear contract.

This will be a compelling, complex negotiation for several reasons.

1). What, realistically, is Bennett's market?

There are 18 NFL tight ends with at least $7 million guaranteed in their current contracts, according to numbers from Spotrac.com. Only one of those tight ends -- Tennessee's Delanie Walker -- was in his 30s when the contract was signed. The median age of those players at the time of the signing was 26 years old.

Bennett conjures up fantasy worlds when he is not in football mode. Even in his wildest world, it's hard to imagine a deal with $20 million guaranteed -- a la Charles Clay, Travis Kelce, Zach Ertz, or Julius Thomas (three of those contracts are terrible deals).

Below are the 18 tight ends with more than $7 million guaranteed in their contracts.

Note: The age at which each player signed his contract is in parentheses. All figures via Spotrac.com.

Charles Clay (26): $24.5 million guaranteed

Julius Thomas (26): $24 million

Jordan Reed (25): $22 million

Zach Ertz (25): $21 million

Jimmy Graham (27): $20.9 million

Travis Kelce (26): $20 million

Jason Witten (29): $19 million

Kyle Rudolph (24): $18.5 million

Coby Fleener (27): $18 million

Dennis Pitta (28): $16 million

Dwayne Allen (25): $16 million

Rob Gronkowski (23): $12.9 million

Eric Ebron (21): $12.3 million (rookie deal)

Greg Olsen (29): $12 million

Delanie Walker (31): $10.9 million

Lance Kendricks (27): $10 million

Vance McDonald (25): $9.1 million

Tyler Eifert (22): $7.5 million (rookie deal)

Where does a 30-year-old Bennett fall? Probably somewhere in the Delanie Walker range.

Entering the final year of his deal this past May, Walker received a two-year extension from the Titans through 2018 with a $2.5 million signing bonus and guaranteed base salaries in 2016 and 2017. The Titans can reasonably get out of the contract in 2018, when Walker's base salary balloons to $5.4 million and he turns 33 years old.

Walker and Bennett are different players, of course. Walker is a much better receiver, but Bennett, at 6-foot-6, 275 pounds, can be a punishing blocker. His versatility is incredibly important to the Patriots offense.

2). All it takes is one team

It's difficult to envision the Patriots going much higher than that Walker deal. It's easier to see another team shelling out significant money because, well, other teams are reckless.

How else do you explain the contracts given to Charles Clay, Julius Thomas, Zach Ertz, Coby Fleener, Dennis Pitta, and Dwayne Allen?

If there is one team out there willing to show a 30-year-old Bennett that type of money, the Patriots may pass on the chance to match.

3). Three factors that bode well for Bennett's market

Pardon the subchapters here.

**This free agent tight end class is fairly pedestrian.

Aside from Bennett, you're looking at former first-round pick Jermaine Gresham, who enjoyed a fine season in Arizona this past year. Green Bay's Jared Cook, who had bright moments while playing on a one-year, $2.75 million deal a year ago, and the often-injured Jordan Cameron also are scheduled to hit the open market.

Bennett has a strong case as the top overall tight end in the class.

**Bennett has been relatively healthy throughout his nine-year NFL career.

He has played in 135 of 144 possible regular season games. He has displayed irrefutable toughness, playing through broken ribs in 2015 before landing on IR and battling through a bothersome ankle injury to finish out the Patriots' Super Bowl run this past season.

While he may not have been himself athletically, Bennett was still effective. He set a career-high with 12.7 yards per catch, and he drew the pass interference flag that set up James White's Super Bowl-clinching touchdown in Houston.

**Rob Gronkowski has not been relatively healthy throughout his seven-year NFL career.

The Patriots' willingness to pay Bennett directly ties to their current medical evaluation of Gronkowski, who is rehabbing from season-ending back surgery, the third such procedure since his college days. Gronkowski has undergone eight surgeries -- or eight have made the news -- since entering the NFL in 2010. He will soon reach the expensive end of his contract. Gronk carries cap hits of $6.7 million in 2017, $11 million in 2018, and $12 million in 2019.

It is not beyond the realm of possibility that the Pats will move on from Gronkowski in the near future. They might not believe he is worth $11 million in 2018, and the Gronkowski camp might not be receptive to a restructure.

If the Patriots believe they will make a concerted effort to move Gronkowski within the next few years, a short-term contract for Bennett -- think two years with the ability to get out after the third, a la Walker's contract -- would make sense. In this scenario, the Pats would likely draft a tight end. The 2017 rookie class is considered to be deep.

Also of importance: The Patriots' medical evaluation of Bennett. Does the team see Bennett's ankle injury, which clearly hindered him throughout 2016, as something that will give him trouble over the next few years?

4). The possibility of a franchise tag

This could be the move if the Patriots are hell-bent on retaining Bennett AND they sense that Bennett's market will reach Dwayne Allen/Coby Fleener territory (~$16 million guaranteed).

The franchise tag would pay Bennett just south of $10 million for the 2017 season.

The Pats have an absurd amount of cap space in 2017, so they would be able to afford such a move.

5). Location matters

It's fair to assume the off-the-field stuff matters more to Bennett than it does to the average free agent.

Bennett has dual careers -- he works as a tight end, a damn good one, and also as the owner of The Imagination Agency, a multimedia production company founded by Bennett in 2014.

While it's true that Bennett's writing and digital animation can be done from anywhere, I'd be curious if the prospect of living in Los Angeles or near Silicon Valley would be particularly enticing.

Bennett is very much into the energy of a city. As he has said many times, "In Texas you can be a horse, but in New York you can be a unicorn."

By all indication, he was a "unicorn" in his 2016 season with the Patriots. It was obviously a mutually beneficial relationship on the field, and it seems Bennett enjoyed his time in Boston.

As he gets closer to the end of his NFL career, you wonder if he'd prefer to be in a place that would maximize the potential of his off-the-field endeavors (if the Rams, Chargers, 49ers, or Raiders express interest).

Before the season began, Bennett told me that he once strongly considered retirement. His wife, Siggi Bennett, validated her husband's claim.

"If I'm being completely honest, he almost retired every year," Siggi Bennett said this past July. "I mean, seriously, we have this conversation a lot. Not in like an ominous sort of way, but he just really has so many things he wants to pursue and sometimes he feels like he devotes so much of his time to football that he can't pursue things wholeheartedly, but he does. He somehow manages to find the time. It's amazing."

She continued: "Early on, I think he was having trouble with people wanting to change him and not wanting him to talk so openly about the things he does off the field. He's always had this bad rep of him not being focused, and he's found a path where he can do both. I haven't heard him this excited about a football season in a really long time. I think he finally found his balance in both. I think that was what his struggle was before."

With many athletes, there is no desire to retire because they do not know what comes next. Bennett does not have that problem.

He wants a smooth transition from NFL player to full-time digital animation guru. Living near Silicon Valley or Hollywood could benefit Bennett. But so could staying in New England, where his visibility will remain as high as possible on a team that annually is a legitimate threat to make the Super Bowl.