QuiGon

Here's a nickel's worth of free advice.

Don't get upset until all the chip have fallen and all the cards have been played

MoLewisrocks

The only way they could have easily re-signed Willie involved overpaying him by about double. Willie kept saying it wasn't about the money when he likely had this deal in his back pocket for some time and was basically FOS. He simply wasn't going to finish out his career here at half price, even though that was his real market value, when he had a pal like RAC willing to overpay him for his presence and cache on a young team rebuilding.

It's the same deal with Givens and Branch. Just because you have the money now doesn't mean you overpay to keep guys. Those overpayments will dog you down the road when there are no more cap windfalls to account for your largesse.

If they cannot find value to spend it on this season, the better strategy is to roll some of it over into 2007 via creatve cap bookeeping.

And I will say it again, they can extend players through the last week of the regular season. Perhaps they prefer to see how they rebound from injury or maddening bouts of inconsistency or suckitude before they commit to some of these guys for the next 4+ years.

PATSNUTme

There is always a big difference in "cap money" and actual money paid out.

Just because a team shows tha they have "spent up to the cap" doesn't mean that they actually paid that money to the players. It could be several milllion less or several million more.

So, your statement that Kraft wil put the $ in his pocket, would be no more true or false this year than any other.

JR4

I do not understand what you are saying.
Money under CAP is money not committed right?
The closer they are to the CAP the more money committed. So it is
certainly true Mr. Kraft will have more non-committed money in his "pocket"
if PATs don't spend to the CAP than if they did.

PATSNUTme

I know that Miguel could explain this better.

Let say that they give a player $16mil in up front bonus on a four year contract. The player gets the $16mil but the CAP # is $4mil. That is actual money spent but a CAP amount of $4mil.

Sometimes it works the other way. That is the best that I can explain. Maybe someone else can do a better job.

pats1

Here, I'll try:

When a player signs a contract/extension, and receives a signing bonus, he recives ALL of that money UP FRONT. However, for accounting purposes, that money's cap hit is pro-rated over the life of the contract.

For example:

A player receives a 4 year contract in 2006 with a $16 mil. signing bonus, and, say, $1 base salaries every year

The signing bonus is guaranteed money because it is paid up front. The player will actually receive all $16 million of that bonus in 2006 - which means the team is paying $16 million. He'll also receive his base salary payments as he goes along.

But in 2006, there's not a $16 million cap hit. Since it's a 4-year contract, that $16 million is pro-rated. So for the first year, the team is paying the player $17 million but there is only a $5 cap hit.

In year 2, the player has already received all of his signing bonus money. The team is actually paying him just the $1 million base salary, but the next pro-ration of the signing bonus is added, making it a $5 million cap hit.

Such continues on in years 3 and 4. If a player is cut, say, between years 3 and 4, he would have already received $3 million in base salary, but since he won't be with the team for a 4th year, he won't receive the last $1 million of the base salary. He also would have already received all $16 million of his signing bonus 3 years prior.

All in all, it works out like this for this sample contract (4 years @ $1 million/year, plus a $16 million signing bonus):

Year 1: Team pays $17 million : Cap hit is $5 million.

Year 2: Team pays $1 million : Cap hit is $5 million.

Year 3: Team pays $1 million : Cap hit is $5 million.

Year 4: Team pays $1 million : Cap hit is $5 million.


What needs to be understood here is that what a team actually spends and what a team has for a cap number are two different things.

PatsFanInVa

#1. Ronde Barber. Just sayin'.

pats1

Whoever has a KFFL subscription can see the lists of potential future free agents:

http://www.kffl.com/noauth.php?camef...3D2007&cid=360

Here's a few I got from checking NFLPA, ranked by 2006 base salary:

OT Leonard Davis (ARZ)
CB Nate Clements (BUF - 2006 Fran.)
OT Jeff Backus (DET - 2006 Fran.)
DE Dwight Freeney (IND - final two years of contract voided with reached playing time trigger)
OT Willie Anderson (CIN)
CB Ronde Barber (TB)
LB London Fletcher (BUF)
DE Leonard Little (STL)
OT Todd Weiner (ATL)
S Brian Dawkins (PHI)
CB Tory James (CIN)

PatsFanInVa

It looks like there are some ongoing talks -- especially Deion -- which point to the idea that nobody is in any hurry to spend now just because it's a slow offseason.

The Pats will either do the Deion deal or not, but I think yes -- and they could spend as much or as little right now within his contract as they'd like. Someone threw out the number 6 mil they could pull from the 06 cap for Sey's deal. That takes you to 7-9 mil left. Miguel says about 3.2 mil goes to practice squad, in-season replacements, etc. That leaves from 3.8 to 5.8 million for Deion's non-prorated bonus, plus any amount of the Seymour deal they would like to forego absorbing now. In other words, if the Pats want to, they can use this money entirely on Sey and Branch, putting off future hits. But again, they won't get stupid in the process of negotiating with Deion just because they have the money.

It would seem that even if they do not get the Branch deal done now, there's 9.2 million dollars that we can consider "spoken for" in a way that moves forward costs they would pay down the road. That leaves the 3.8 to 5.8 to "get rid of," and a little restructuring on the parts of other players, whose total deals aren't in question, might be the mechanism. It may even be the case that BB/SP see a better crop to choose from in 07 than 06 at this point, and see the greater value in moving this money forward to make the play then.

So what this looks like is wiggle room for the Pats, with mechanisms in place to carry the balance forward if they can't get deals done on the terms they want. Law's still twisting in the wind, Branch's deal is yet to be completed... it seems like the idea is not to be hurting for money while these balls are in the air. Once they (and whatever else is out there) are done deals, one way or another, they'll clean up the shop before turning out the lights (i.e., get the accounting straight to best position themselves for both the remainder of 06 and 07.)

PFnV

mesoslo

All this cap room just gives them up front cash money to go after players that they/BB drools over, now and in the future.

As long as they keep winning I dont really care about the cap room.

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