We have a lot of time and money left

[mgteich]

We've just started free agency.

We have as much money left as we could possibly need. We have $10M if you include the spreading of Dillon's cap. Another $8M can be had by signing a long-term deal with Samuel and converted much of Brady's and Colvin's salaries to bonuses.

That leaves $12M for additional free agents, even after signing rooks, Player 52, Player 53, the Practice Squad and the injury fund.

Recall that seasoned veterans cost next to nothing to sign for one year.

We should see more moves before the draft, as well as some after the draft.

The FO still has many option with regard to how to upgrade at various positions.

 

[Fencer]

I think being too aggressive from here on out to free up room would get into mortgaging the future.

The Pats have been signing a lot of deals with conventional amounts of back-end loading. And Warren will need a new deal next year. So a certain degree of annual expenditure increase is already built into the budget.

 

[Jimke]

The future is now friend. Our offense should be all set except

for adding another running back in the draft. We still need some veteran

help at middle linebacker to be a complete team on defense.

 

[c_nice_37]

sign Ken Hamlin

 

[Born_a_Patriot]

sign Ken Hamlin

Sign Me. I do pretty well on Madden.

 

[denverpatsfan]

I agree the team will sign additional vets before the offseason is over. I still think they need to bring another WR to camp as well as some linebacker help too.

 

[DarrylS]

We've just started free agency.

We have as much money left as we could possibly need. We have $10M if you include the spreading of Dillon's cap. Another $8M can be had by signing a long-term deal with Samuel and converted much of Brady's and Colvin's salaries to bonuses.

That leaves $12M for additional free agents, even after signing rooks, Player 52, Player 53, the Practice Squad and the injury fund.

Recall that seasoned veterans cost next to nothing to sign for one year.

We should see more moves before the draft, as well as some after the draft.

The FO still has many option with regard to how to upgrade at various positions.

Compare this to the years when we were over the cap, and had to fill positions with guys off of the street... this is a reminder of how good this braintrust really is and how it gives us this much flexibility. If they want they can extend Warren and Wilfork and still have money left over.

 

[ChoWZa]

I agree the team will sign additional vets before the offseason is over. I still think they need to bring another WR to camp as well as some linebacker help too.

Another WR? I never thought I'd say this but for the love of god no more WR's.

 

[PromisedLand]

I think being too aggressive from here on out to free up room would get into mortgaging the future.

The Pats have been signing a lot of deals with conventional amounts of back-end loading. And Warren will need a new deal next year. So a certain degree of annual expenditure increase is already built into the budget.

It wouldn't bother me to see us use some cap space to lock up guys like Warren and Wilfork for a few more years.

 

[biffman]

Another WR? I never thought I'd say this but for the love of god no more WR's.

I agree. We have plenty of WRs with Stallworth, Caldwell, Welker, Gaffney, Washington, Brown (hopefully). We also signed the WR from buffalo to a future contract shortly after the season and we have Bam and Kelvin Kight. How many WRs do we need?

I would also like to see Warren extended and Samuel signed to a long term deal. If we sign any other FAs, it should be a back up ILB. I think it’s too early to extend Wilfork, who has 3 more years on his deal.

 

[Krugman]

Trade a first round pick ,make a play for Briggs,that will shore up the defence a tad...probably cant afford him,I know..

 

[mgteich]

The point is that we can AFFORD anyone we want. The issues in value. I would suggest that you all look at the future cap hits before talking about mortgaging the future. Our cap position is fine in 2008.

 

[JoeSixPat]

Officially I don't think we have $10 million left - more like $4 million and there's the rookie signings to consider.

But it's almost pointless to debate - if there's someone we want we retain all the flexibility we need to restructure contracts and gain the cap space to add a player to the roster.

The only question is WHO - not how - and with the free agent feeding frenzy dying down, future trades and camp cuts coming up, as the thread title indicates, there's a good amount of time left for a lot more moves.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Officially I don't think we have $10 million left - more like $4 million and there's the rookie signings to consider.

But it's almost pointless to debate - if there's someone we want we retain all the flexibility we need to restructure contracts and gain the cap space to add a player to the roster.

The only question is WHO - not how - and with the free agent feeding frenzy dying down, future trades and camp cuts coming up, as the thread title indicates, there's a good amount of time left for a lot more moves.

Miguel has us at around $8M left pending Washington's deal, but due to pick up $2.5M more once June 1 rolls around and Dillon's dead cap is split. So that is the $10M most folks are referencing. There is of course plenty of room to restructure although I'd like to think we won't need to. And if Asante gets signed to a long term deal we will likely pick up at least a couple of million if not more in additional cap space in 2007 vs. the tag.

 

[zarakotas5]

I think our "big moves" are over. This was unchartered territory regarding off-season moves. The roster is in serious transition and money is available to all. I think the Pats were, surprise, more in-tuned with this aspect than most.

They knew their targets and hit fast. I believe most teams were tentative in order to guage what the market was, and were content with a wait-n-see attitude to see what would shake out. The Pats, while lambasted for not being "in character", were resolutely in character by having pre-determined player values and an attractive cachet to attach the offer to.

Yeah, they spent big, but they had cash. While most people debate the merits of these signings more than they consider the health of the only planet in the universe presently known to be capable of supporting human life, their guesses are pretty damn good. AD has been an underrated monster, as has Welker. Anyone who has actually watched these two should be nothing other than giddy knowing they are now Patriots. Stallworth, I have always liked and is an exciting player, but I freely admit is a bit of an unknown as far as what to expect. Morris will be fine, Brady has a track record but is a Seau-like signing. I like it and will not be surprised by a performance like Seau gave. Washington, honestly I know little other than remembering the stock he had coming out of Tenn.

 

[PlattsFan]

I think our "big moves" are over. This was unchartered territory regarding off-season moves. The roster is in serious transition and money is available to all. I think the Pats were, surprise, more in-tuned with this aspect than most.

That's right. The "Patriots Way" was seen as waiting for the market to shake out, avoiding the initial rush, and then grabbing the bargains. But that's just because that was the best way to play the market then. Now that everyone else knows that method, and the market changed so much, the Patriots went the other way and grabbed what they want.

It's like in baseball ... folks think "Moneyball" means to value high-OBP players and not defense. But all it is is trying to figure out the inefficiencies in the market and exploiting them. That's what the Patriots do as well. Pretty soon everyone will catch up to what they do now, and they'll have to adjust again.