1.) Siliga's injury means more playing-time for Wilfork which should help him reach his highest PT incentive of 70%. Currently at 72%.
2.) Still waiting on the NFLPA's numbers at
http://www.nflplayers.com/cap to reflect the expiration of the Top 51 rule.
3.) Ryan Wendell has missed out on two $12,500 46-man roster bonuses by being deactivated for two games this season.
4.) Starting this week the Patriots will lose $87,500 in cap space for each and every game that Vince Wilfork is on the 46-man active roster.
5.) As each week goes by, any cap savings from any extensions lessens as players get paid for each week.
6.) Today I listened to Jonathan Kraft's interview with Gary Tangauy and Andy Gresh. Jonathan reported that the Patriots have about $11.4 million in cap space. He claimed that the Patriots roll over 8 million of cap space from last year to this year. I have been using the carryover number of $4,106,801 as found at
http://www.nflplayers.com/cap since the spring. My cap space numbers have been spot on for most of the spring and summer.
7.) Jonathan mentioned the need to account for incentives was one major reason for the Patriots having so much cap space. I talked about incentives in great detail in this blog post
http://www.patsfans.com/salary-cap/?p=766
8.) Last year the cap was $123 million. Patriots spent in cash about $129,656,000 or about 105%.
http://espn.go.com/boston/nfl/story/_/id/10586646/new-england-patriots-spent-free-agents-not-wisely
This year the cap is $133 million. According to my numbers the Patriots have spent about 95 million in 2014. They may spend another 6 to 8 million depending on how many NTLBE incentives are reached. 95 million is 71% of $133 million. The total cap amount for the 2013 and 2014 years is $256,000,000. The Patriots have spent in cash so far in 2013 and in 2014 $224,656,000 or about 87%.
9.) Provided 7 possible reasons for the Patriots to have 9 million or so in cap space currently at
http://www.patsfans.com/salary-cap/?p=814.
10.) FYI - Brady's 2015 cap hit is $13 million. If traded between now and 6/2/2015 his 2015 cap hit increases to $18 million. If he is on the Patriots Week 17 roster, his future salaries ($24 million worth) become fully guaranteed and without any offsets. So if cut during the 2015 season his cap hit would be $42 million (18 +24).
11.) There is this notion that the Patriots' high amount of dead money prevented them spending cash this year. Do not see a strong correlation between the two at
http://overthecap.com/cash-spending and
http://overthecap.com/salary-cap-space
Example - Seahawks have about 7 million less in dead money and have spent about $45 million more than the Patriots.