Patriots Offseason Has Potential to Wow

[PatsFans.com Article]

Patriots Offseason Has Potential to Wow
By: Christine Roy

After yet another heartbreaking loss in the Super Bowl, Bill Belichick has a fresh offseason in front of him. According to the USA Today, an unbelievable 600 free agents could hit the market when their contracts expire on March 31. Compared to the hurried offseason of last year, this one has potential.

Instead of hurrying up to make moves, owners and coaches are able to take a more detailed look at the available players. Preseason planning can get underway sooner and the all important, quarterback/receiver relationships can being to develop. It’s a chemistry thing and this offseason should be full of it.....

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[Ron Sellers]

Where the Patriots really need help is on the defensive line. It seems like we’ve been saying it for years but it became glaringly obvious this season how little pass rush the Patriots have.

I am going to respectfully disagree with this assessment. The Patriots pass rush in 2011 was light years ahead of where it had been the previous three years; you can't lump the '11 pass rush in with the pass rush of those other teams. If you had to pick only one area on this team that lagged behind and needed to be upgraded then that would without a doubt be pass coverage, not the pass rush. In fact it was the pass rush that helped hide the glaring deficiencies of the secondary, helped along with schemes by the coaching staff.

Granted the pass rush cannot be ignored this off-season since Anderson and Carter are free agents. Plus, there are other free agents that would be huge upgrades - whether they big money, big name players like Mario Williams or less costly options - but in my opinion the Pats defensive line did a much better job than the secondary did this year.

 

[patsfaninpa]

I am going to respectfully disagree with this assessment. The Patriots pass rush in 2011 was light years ahead of where it had been the previous three years; you can't lump the '11 pass rush in with the pass rush of those other teams. If you had to pick only one area on this team that lagged behind and needed to be upgraded then that would without a doubt be pass coverage, not the pass rush. In fact it was the pass rush that helped hide the glaring deficiencies of the secondary, helped along with schemes by the coaching staff.

Granted the pass rush cannot be ignored this off-season since Anderson and Carter are free agents. Plus, there are other free agents that would be huge upgrades - whether they big money, big name players like Mario Williams or less costly options - but in my opinion the Pats defensive line did a much better job than the secondary did this year.

Can't argue that. Based on 2011 performance. But, the secondary is getting players back. Patrick Chung shouldn't miss half the season. Ras-I Dowling will be back. I feel Devin McCourty will be better than he showed in 2011. All we need is a FS imo and some depth.

The DL is losing their two best pass rushers. Warren and Ellis aren't long term answers. We need two 2-gap de's. And, one or two olb's. One if we keep Anderson.

 

[Deus Irae]

I think the cap number is going to be important, because players haven't yet adapted to the slowing of the growth.

At $101 million, with a cap of $125 million, and the $6 million carryover, the Patriots would effectively have a cap of $131 million, giving them $30 million to spend. At that point, the team should be able to re-sign anyone it wants (financially speaking), plus sign the draftees, plus sign a WR and S in free agency.

Heck, they'd even have another $2 million they could borrow from next year's cap if they chose to use it.

 

[Joker]

I read that the Pats have 6 million of cap space and the Jets have 8.8 million...once again proving how far greater the Jets are than the Patriots...of course, the post comes from Sewerhole Insider and its "cap expert" guy...so,I mean, they are so screwy over there it's probably utter garbage...BUT...does anyone have THE definitive numbers from an impeccable source???

 

[borg]

Doesn't the cap pop up to approx. $160 mill in a couple years....once the new TV money kicks in. If this true, it would be in the Pats best interests to get the Gronk done early before the spicket opens. Of course his agent will recommend patience...Boras style

 

[ATippett56]

BUT...does anyone have THE definitive numbers from an impeccable source???

NFL's Future » Blog Archive NFL Offseason Primer: Team by Team Salary Cap Projections

 

[Lamanai]

NFL's Future » Blog Archive NFL Offseason Primer: Team by Team Salary Cap Projections

Those figures do not include unused 2011 cap space. The amount of Pats and Jets unused cap space are the $6 million and 8 million referenced earlier. So the Pats actually have a bit more, say about $30 million. That sounds like a lot, but about half of it gets taken up by Welker (franchised?) and the draftees.

I'd characterize the Pats as being in comfortable cap shape, but not exactly rolling in it.

I heard something interesting the other day. Are there really going to be about 600 free agents looking for work? Adding in the 250 or so draftees and a plethora of UDFA players is gonna be close to 1,000 players in a mad scramble for not really that much cap money. Some teams will not use it all. If so, there may be a lot of decent players that have not yet realized that they have played their last NFL game.

 

[Wilfork#75]

I think the cap number is going to be important, because players haven't yet adapted to the slowing of the growth.

At $101 million, with a cap of $125 million, and the $6 million carryover, the Patriots would effectively have a cap of $131 million, giving them $30 million to spend. At that point, the team should be able to re-sign anyone it wants (financially speaking), plus sign the draftees, plus sign a WR and S in free agency.

Heck, they'd even have another $2 million they could borrow from next year's cap if they chose to use it.

Then you add in cuts to Chad Johnson-OchoCinco, Mike Wright, Josh Barrett and the bottom of the roster guys that won't make the final 53, its closer to $40mil in cap space. Minus $5-6 for draft picks and you still have plenty of room to re-sign Welker, Sign Lloyd, make a spash with Mario Williams and maybe even take a look at guys like Kendall Langford and Adrian Wilson (if he gets cut). And with the cap expected to increase in 2014 with the new TV deal, none of these contracts, even a big one to Super Mario would handcuff the team long term.

 

[102 Pat]

I expect there to be a moment or two when I read about a Pats signing this off-season and have a "OMG" moment.

 

[ATippett56]

Then you add in cuts to Chad Johnson-OchoCinco, Mike Wright, Josh Barrett and the bottom of the roster guys that won't make the final 53, its closer to $40mil in cap space.

Cutting Johnson, Wright, Barrett only saves about $4 million in cap space.

Miguel's UNOFFICIAL 2011 Patriots Salary Cap Information Page

 

[patsinthesnow]

NFL's Future » Blog Archive NFL Offseason Primer: Team by Team Salary Cap Projections

Holy smokes the Steelers are in cap hell!

 

[jsull87]

101 with a cap of 125 and a carryover of 6 mil.

Leaves us with 30 mill. 10 for franchise of Welker (7.5-8 if we sign a deal) add another 5 for rookies.

We should have about 15 mill to sign our and other FA. (ihaven't included cuts e.g ocho gets cut we save 1.5 mil)

Is 15M enough to get Lloyd and Mario Williams? Does this seam unrealistic as it would leave us without much cap room to sign Vet FA?

Tell you what is awesome tho the below teams are going to have to get very creative and fast and hopefully a team with some room like the pats can take advantage of some cap casualties.

Pittsburgh Steelers – $149.9

Oakland Raiders – $140.9

Carolina Panthers – $130

Dallas Cowboys – $128.9

New York Jets – $128.1

New York Giants – $124.7

 

[IllegalContact]

The pats pass rush still needs help.

Simple too many stretches where opposing QBs have all day

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

NFL's Future » Blog Archive NFL Offseason Primer: Team by Team Salary Cap Projections

Useless without comparative data on how many of the starting 22 are already covered vs un-signed.

 

[DonBlackmon55]

101 with a cap of 125 and a carryover of 6 mil.

Leaves us with 30 mill. 10 for franchise of Welker (7.5-8 if we sign a deal) add another 5 for rookies.

We should have about 15 mill to sign our and other FA. (ihaven't included cuts e.g ocho gets cut we save 1.5 mil)

Is 15M enough to get Lloyd and Mario Williams? Does this seam unrealistic as it would leave us without much cap room to sign Vet FA?

Tell you what is awesome tho the below teams are going to have to get very creative and fast and hopefully a team with some room like the pats can take advantage of some cap casualties.

Pittsburgh Steelers – $149.9

Oakland Raiders – $140.9

Carolina Panthers – $130

Dallas Cowboys – $128.9

New York Jets – $128.1

New York Giants – $124.7

Steelers have already lopped off 15mill via restructuring without having made any significant cuts.

 

[Wilfork#75]

Cutting Johnson, Wright, Barrett only saves about $4 million in cap space.

Miguel's UNOFFICIAL 2011 Patriots Salary Cap Information Page

With the numbers I have, those three would save just under $5mil ($4.987). Then you account for the bottom of the roster guys that likely won't make the final 53 (Polite $700k, Underwood $615k, Thomas $750k, Ohrnberger $573k, Hartline, Rivera, Hix, Cox etc.) would all save about $5mil more. While those probably aren't real cap savings because those players need to be replaced, what it does do is cancel out most of the draft budget, where most of these players would be replaced.

New England Patriots Salary Cap 2012

101 with a cap of 125 and a carryover of 6 mil.

Leaves us with 30 mill. 10 for franchise of Welker (7.5-8 if we sign a deal) add another 5 for rookies.

We should have about 15 mill to sign our and other FA. (ihaven't included cuts e.g ocho gets cut we save 1.5 mil)

Is 15M enough to get Lloyd and Mario Williams? Does this seam unrealistic as it would leave us without much cap room to sign Vet FA?

I think thats enough to sign those two, especially if we can sign Welker to a long term deal instead of franchising him. I posted a hypothetical contract for Super Mario in another thread (7 years, $80mil, $35mil guaranteed, $21mil signing bonus) based on the DeMarcus Ware deal, accounting for inflation. Where his cap hit for year 1 was only $6mil and his cap hit for year 2 was only $6.9 mil. With a jump in salary in 2014 when the salary cap is expected to increase due to the new TV deal. So I definitely think we have the cap space for Williams, Lloyd and possibly more.

 

[NEP4Life]

Patriots Offseason Has Potential to Wow

"Wow, I can't believe they didn't sign <this guy>."
"Wow, I can't believe they didn't sign <that guy>."
"Wow, I can't believe training camp is about to start and they only signed a bunch of JAGs."

 

[Smokeeye123]

Why get Mario and Lloyd when you could probably get Lloyd, Mathis, and sign a few vet min players.

 

[jsull87]

Steelers have already lopped off 15mill via restructuring without having made any significant cuts.

... so that puts them at 134 million still 9 million over before factoring in rookies... add another 5-6 mil. So they need to some how drop $14-$15 million just so they can sign some rookies.