Could Brandon Lloyd Be A Cap Casualty?

[PatsFans.com Article]

Could Brandon Lloyd Be A Cap Casualty?
By: Derek Havens

When the New England Patriots signed wide receiver Brandon Lloyd last May, there was a lot of buzz surrounding the team. His inconsistent hands, dropped balls and average production has his career with the Patriots put into question. Now, the question rem...

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[patriotsdynasty12189]

They holding open tryouts for wide receiver this summer?

 

[IllegalContact]

they've imaginitively put together WR cores pretty quickly before (2007)

if you get the right guys, then you can replace all of them.

when it comes to lloyd, I'm not sure all of his inconsistency is with him......it a match with the QB, and there are guys who match up well with brady and there are guys who don't.......moss proved that there is a place on the roster for a guy that brady can just throw it up to.......can brady still throw it the same way in order to make a WR like that as useful next year?

don't be suprised to see welker here and lloyd gone, replaced by a different deep threat.

 

[Jimke]

Lloyd never seems to get good separation on a consistant basis.
I don't know if he will be a cap casualty because there is no one to
replace him. The Patriots will not pay the going rate for a good wide
receiver and haven't developed a draft choice since Deon Branch.

 

[Spiral]

This article basically summarizes one or two threads on this board. The pros and cons of Lloyd, his contract, and the possibility of him being cut have been discussed extensively.

 

[Nehalem]

They holding open tryouts for wide receiver this summer?

Don't worry. Its Kamar Aiken's time to shine! :rocker:

 

[PatsFan2]

I sure hope so in the case of Misses Lloyd.

 

[voluntarysaftey]

they've imaginitively put together WR cores pretty quickly before (2007)

if you get the right guys, then you can replace all of them.

when it comes to lloyd, I'm not sure all of his inconsistency is with him......it a match with the QB, and there are guys who match up well with brady and there are guys who don't.......moss proved that there is a place on the roster for a guy that brady can just throw it up to.......can brady still throw it the same way in order to make a WR like that as useful next year?

don't be suprised to see welker here and lloyd gone, replaced by a different deep threat.

And if you could put together the 2007 core every year, we'd have 5 probowl wideouts at below avg market rates.

Moss = very disgruntled in oakland. no one else wanted him. So we got him for cheap. And he was willing to restructure to drop his salary to a fraction
Welker = diamond in the rough.
Stallworth = went on essentially a 1 year team friendly deal to try to prove himself for a bigger contract (or to kick in the remaining years of that contract).

What wide receivers have we gotten since to come to us on team friendly deals? Branch -- meh, was good but nothing great. Ocho -- failure. Lloyd -- lower production then hoped for but still good.

It would be frightening if they don't keep lloyd. In the 5 offseasons since then, the 3 best receivers we've signed are no where close to those 3 in 2007.

Lloyd's production is basically fair to what he got paid. I don't see them dropping him unless they can get 2 wideouts as good as lloyd for cheaper. If they only get 1, we still need that lloyd to play on the other side of the field.

 

[Kontradiction]

Why in the world would the team want to ax a 900+ yard receiver who is here dirt cheap?

 

[Spergon Wynn]

It would be a huge mistake unless they have an immediate replacement who is a surefire bet. I'm not sure there's any of those guys in FA and if there are I'm not sure they'll come cheaper than Lloyd. The draft is always a crapshoot with the Patriots at WR as we know.

Lloyd may not be Moss or a deep threat that some thought he would be (I'm still not quite sure why some thought that being that he's never been that) but he is a solid contributor to a team that has no certain answer at WR.

Lloyd is good for a few great first downs a game and some awesome sideline catches.

 

[Jimke]

Why in the world would the team want to ax a 900+ yard receiver who is here dirt cheap?

Exactly, they would have to pay a comparable receiver at least
twice as much.

 

[Palm Beach Pats Fan]

I would guess that the list of WRs available for less money who produced as much last year (74 receptions for 911 yards) is as follows:






(static)

 

[MoLewisrocks]

With Lloyd it could come down to cash as much as cap. He is due $5M in salary and bonus money in 2013. Do they see him as a $5M player? The cap savings ($3M after dead cap of $1.5M) is also probably more than enough to cover hits for extending Edelman and Woodhead and tendering Ballard.

Ocho got $6M up front and was due $3M in 2012. They opted not to throw bad money after worse. Cost them $4M in dead cap but that was preferable to the alternative.

Statistically they got a lot more out of Lloyd than they did Ocho. And for a $2M 2012 cap hit it wasn't a bad deal. That is about the range they were willing to pay Branch in 2011 coming off a more productive 2010. And all they were willing to go to retain Gaffney whose YPC and TD's exceeded Lloyd in 2007 competing with Welker and Moss. But at the end of the day a lot of Lloyd's was forced and didn't really accomplish what they obviously had hoped it would. Do they have reason to believe it will be any different in 2013? That's the $3M option bonus question. I believe that will have to be decided before the end of March as most option bonuses kick in between the start of FA and the end of March.

They could also find a middle ground and squeeze him to convert that option bonus into playing time or production incentives. Not sure how his psyche would handle that. Nor that of his agent Tom Condon... But I don't see he'd have a lot of practical alternatives to going along. There was little market for him apart from Josh last season. Doubt there would be any more this season. He was essentially on a prove it deal last year and this would just make it an extended version.

Just hard to see them swallowing a $4.5M cap hit against a flat cap and $5M more in cash outlay to have $9M invested over 2 seasons in an outside the numbers receiver to produce more yards but more significantly less YPC and fewer TD's than an aging Branch at $2M or street FA Gaffney at around a million did. They let him walk over $500K per to a 4 year $10M deal with $3M guaranteed from Denver.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Why in the world would the team want to ax a 900+ yard receiver who is here dirt cheap?

Dirt cheap is a relative term when he's due $5M in cash and would count $4.5M against the cap and he only scored 4 times all season. The yards are nice but for an outside the numbers guy the YPC and TD's are thin. Thinner even than what Bill is used to squeezing out of the $2M ballpark that generally inhabits outside the numbers land here. Perhaps if he's going to have to invest twice as much in the position going forward he will expect a good deal more. And even go a tad higher in hopes of insuring it.

 

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

Lloyd makes a fine #4 receiver....but that is what he will be as he ages another year...a #4 receiver...if he is higher than that on the depth chart,this team is in trouble.

 

[Sicilian]

If you keep Lloyd, you need at least one more WR to play the opposite sideline. If you cut Lloyd, you now need at least TWO more WRs. Given how hit or miss receivers have been with Brady, I'd rather hedge my bets on only needing one more.

 

[JackBauer]

Lloyd makes a fine #4 receiver....but that is what he will be as he ages another year...a #4 receiver...if he is higher than that on the depth chart,this team is in trouble.

If Lloyd is a #4 receiver, he should be cut immediately. But I would say that his production belies your assessment.

 

[Kontradiction]

Dirt cheap is a relative term when he's due $5M in cash and would count $4.5M against the cap and he only scored 4 times all season. The yards are nice but for an outside the numbers guy the YPC and TD's are thin. Thinner even than what Bill is used to squeezing out of the $2M ballpark that generally inhabits outside the numbers land here. Perhaps if he's going to have to invest twice as much in the position going forward he will expect a good deal more. And even go a tad higher in hopes of insuring it.

I'm fine with investing more into the position, but knocking on Lloyd for not scoring when the offense is primarily going to go through the TE's and RB's near the red zone doesn't make much sense to me.

 

[ralmat55]

With Lloyd it could come down to cash as much as cap. He is due $5M in salary and bonus money in 2013. Do they see him as a $5M player?

If the $5 million saved helps the the Pats resign Wes Welker, I'd be very much in favor of releasing Lloyd. I'd trade Lloyd for Welker any day. What's needed is an outside speed receiver with some size which Lloyd isn't.

 

[Deus Irae]

Why in the world would the team want to ax a 900+ yard receiver who is here dirt cheap?

As smart as this organization usually is, it's still had plenty of "WTH?" moments. This would be another one of them, particularly how reasonably priced a signing he was.