crowell33

Today's Q&A with Mike Reiss - Reiss' Pieces - Boston.com

In yesterdays Q&A with Mike Reiss on Boston.com, Reiss stated more than once that he thought Koppen was not a lock for the 2009 roster. While Koppen's release would only save about 500K this season, it would free up over $4 million on the 2010 cap, which could be used for Mankins/Wilfork extensions. Al Johnson (950k cap figure) and Koppen both turn 30 this year.

I think Koppen is an iron clad roster lock for 2009, but I also think that Mike Reiss ( who I have a lot of respect for ) has his finger on the Foxboro pulse much more than I do. What say you?

ivanfears

riess is a good reporter but has no inside info, its pure speculation just like everyone here, koppen makes the roster hands down, johnson was brought in for cheap injury insurance, if he was to be cut why wait until the training camp they can use the cap space now, if that was their plan

crowell33

As I said in my post, Koppen's release would only provide 500k to use now if released. The move would most likely be made with an eye on extending Wilfork or Mankins for 2010.

ivanfears

i dont buy it , the center in the pats scheme is extremely important he makes all the reads for the other o lineman, why would they risk having al johson come in who has been injury prone, and have him replace koppen who belichick has heaped great praise on for never missing assignments, all this with brady coming of major knee surgery, makes no sense, trust me belichick wouldnt sharethis info with any press guy, and riess is included in that

tanked_as_usual

they can extend wilfork and mankins without getting rid of koppen.......right now, the pats can be over the 2010 cap as much as they want

ctpatsfan77

That's assuming, of course, that there will even be a cap in 2010. Their actions so far suggest they don't think there will.

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Jimke

The offensive linemen that I expect to make the team are the

following: Kaczur, Koppen, LeVoir, Light, Mankins, Neal, Ohrnberger,

Vollmer, and Hochstein or Johnson.

Gon_Trevil

Which is why the person you're quoting says they pats can be as far over the 2010 cap as they want

BradyManny

Koppen's a lock, IMO, but Johnson is a pretty good bet to make the squad, too. Koppen struggled quite a bit in SB 42 and had issues at times last year, struggled w the big guys. But overall, like the line as a whole, he is an above average player, and 2 milli ain't much.

JoeSixPat

Even if there is going to be a cap next year, they don't have to be under the cap next season until.... well, next season.

Reiss' point may be that when Offensive Linemen's skills go, they can go very quickly.

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