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Patriots cap Info


RichardSeymour

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I did a write-up on this for the KFFL board and thought it would be of interest to Jet Fans on the "Know Your Enemy" principle.

Basically after looking at the numbers the Pats have plenty of cap room to extend whoever they want and make a splash in FA with a few major signs if they so desire.

So the Pats are now $4.323 mil below the cap. if they so desire by cutting Brown and Phifer they could drop to $10.210 mil below the cap AFTER the rule of 51 takes effect.

The Pats are in solid cap shape. All these numbers INCLUDE Vinatieri at the franchise number ($2.509 mil, if he signs a long term deal his cap # will go down). Other than a handful of significant RFAs (including WR David Givens, OT Brandon Gorin, OT Tom Ashworth, OG Stephen Neal), the Pats have the headroom to be mobile in FA or in working with existing contracts if they so desire.

I said these things yesterday. It turns out Miguel had Phifer double-listed so the true cap #s are as follows.

Pats should be $6.324 mil under the cap.

Cutting Brown and Phifer (and as I've argued before retaining them should be considered as a seperate expense because both would likely be back at or near the vet minimum)brings the Pats to $11.906 mil after the rule of 51.

That's a LOT of cap space to work with.

Consider:

Watson (#32) and Hill (#63) last year had a combined cap # of $1.41 million

Boost that 10% for salary inflation and you get $1.551 million. Then you apply the rule of 51, and remove the two lowest paid players on the roster, so the net cap hit is $.941 million. The 3rd rounder will only be paid SLIGHTLY more than our lowest paid players, and 4th rounders and below will bring our cap # DOWN or have no effect as they will not be on our 51 man roster or will replace higher priced players.

So the net cap cost to sign this rookie class, where our picks currently stand will be ~1.000 million and may well be UNDER THAT.

So....

$11.906 million in cap room

-$0.941 million for rookies

=$10.965 million

Tom Brady's cap # is $10.029 million, of which $5.500 mil is new money.

Any extension for Brady will make his cap # go down (likely) or stay flat (probably advisable so as not to backload). It will NOT be going up.

Seymour has a $2.670 mil cap #, of which $1.120 mil is new money.

His cap # will probably go up with a new deal, but not by more than $2.000 mil unless we really want to frontload it.

Resigning Seymour and Brady would probably be at least cap neutral (Brady's contract would likely decline as much as Seymours went up).

So the $10.965 million figure stands even considering those extentions, and an extension for Vinatieri (who currently has a $2.509 mil cap #) or Dillon ($6.651 mil) would give us MORE room, as would cutting Tyrone Poole ($1.196 mil in cap savings after the rule of 51) which is very practical if we are making an FA CB sign.

We have Andruzzi, Patten, Pass as UFAs and Ashworth, Gorin, Givens, Green, and Neal as RFAs

Giving the middle tender ($1.430 mil, 1st rd compensation) to Ashworth, Gorin, Green, AND Neal while giving the high tender ($1.900 mil, 1st and 3rd compensation) to Givens would cost us, after the rule of 51, $6.095 mil on the salary cap.

SO....

Releasing Phifer and Brown (or considering costs to retain them as seperate from their current contract)

We have cap room of $4.87 million giving medium and high tenders to ALL our RFAs (the total cost WILL be lower than that if we get some long term contracts done or let one of the OL go), with a complete 51 man roster.

That number INCLUDES draft picks.

That number rises if we sign Vinatieri to a longterm deal.

That number rises if we extend Brady.

That number falls but only by 1 to 2 mil if we extend Seymour.

That number rises if we extend Dillon.

That number rises if we restructure ANYONE.

That number rises if we cut Poole.

Matt Light has a cap number of $2.722 mil this year, Colvin had a first year cap # under $2.000 mil IIRC.

FAs in the first year are fairly cheap. Realistically we will likely have 7 to 10 mil in free cap room after extensions, setting aside draft money, restructures, and RFA tenders.

It becomes a question of how well we can sell ourselves to FAs (well, IMO) and whether they're willing to come here for reasonable money--- but we DO NOT have to underpay them.

But if we want to make a splash in the FA market, we sure as heck can WHILE extending our guys, unless we want to strongly frontload Brady's and Seymour's extensions.

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