Who's Worth Their 2015 Compensation?

These are the 2015 compensation amounts that will be paid if the players are on the team next year under their current contracts. Of course, this is to be considered against the backdrop of the need to re-sign many players, notably McCourty, Vereen, Chung, Connolly and the players acquired since the season began.

Revis $20M
Mayo $7.8M
Wilfork $7.5M
Solder $7.4M
Browner $4.5M
Amendola $4.4M
Arrington $3.0M

The focus will be on the best defensive backfield in our history, with decisions and/or contract negotiations with Revis, Browner, Arrington, McCourty, and Chung. It would be a major coup if we able to keep all five our present starting backfield. IMHO, we should remove from our minds any consideration of cutting Browner or Arrington.

Thinly veiled Amendola hate thread?

"One of these things is not like the other..."

Revis is underpaid

But seriously I haven't been anxiously awaiting a contract extension like this since Brady was looking for his big deal.

I will say I think Browner is good value at that price based on his intrinsic value to this team alone.

mgteich said:

Revis $20M
Mayo $7.8M
Browner $4.5M
Amendola $4.4M
Arrington $3.0M

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Revis at $20 would hurt, but hes been so good, we either extend him, or bight the bullet. we cant let revis walk.

Mayo.. I love mayo, but two years in a row with season ending injuries, and almost 8 million due to him. the fact that our defense has been solid since he left hurts him a bit imo, I think he needs a rework, or he could be cut.

Browner has been solid, and 4.5 mil seems fair

Amendola is overpaid 4.4mil for a #3 WR, and #4 overall(gronk, edleman, lafell, then amendola) either he reworks or hes out

Arrington has been earning his money this year, so he might stick around next year.

Jlaff said:

Thinly veiled Amendola hate thread?

"One of these things is not like the other..."

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I just listed the top earners other than Brady and Gronk. Brady will likely move $6M of his salary to a bonus, saving $4M of 2015 cap.

Also, any new contracts for the players listed will likely reduce the cap, other than the contracts for the UFA's.

But, yes, one is not like the others.

Maybe Brady can give Revis and extra pair of Uggs.

mgteich said:

I just listed the top earners other than Brady and Gronk.

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Ahhh.

What's JE making?

Let me put Mayo's $7M cost in perspective. For his cost, we could probably re-sign Branch, Ayers, Casillas, Chung and pay for a 2nd round draftee.

tasmlab said:

What's JE making?

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Edelman will make $3M. I suppose I should also have included him or noted that I left him out with Gronk and Brady. The rest are below $3M in new money.

Mayo, Wilfork and Solder's are far more interesting to me than Amendola's, so please lets not make this another Amendola bashing thread.

Solder's number is a bit high but he is an LT and you're probably better off with a known slightly above average player at LT than rolling the dice on another LT in the draft.

mgteich said:

Let me put Mayo's $7M cost in perspective. For his cost, we could probably re-sign Branch, Ayers, Casillas, Chung and pay for a 2nd round draftee.

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I think Mayo's going to have to knock about 3m off of his base. If he wants to be on the Pats next year. It's 6.2m and getting to to 3.2m with incentives makes it easier to digest. Still really valuable to have. Would allow us to reduce the snaps on guys like Hightower and Collins. Don't have to play the whole game. Plus, Hightower/Collins can play some of Ninko's snaps at LDE in our nickel. We are really asking a lot out of; Hightower, Ninko and Jamie Collins right now. They play nearly every snap.

mgteich said:

Let me put Mayo's $7M cost in perspective. For his cost, we could probably re-sign Branch, Ayers, Casillas, Chung and pay for a 2nd round draftee.

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There's 2 problems with that thinking:

1. The Pats don't save $7M in cap space by cutting/trading Mayo, only about $4M in cap space.

2. The Pats would have to use a fairly high draft pick on a LB. I'm not sure that's in their best interest.

If the Pats can cut Darrelle Revis' 2015 cap hit down from $25M to around $15M with a long term deal (essentially a $10M 1st year cap hit, with $5M carried over from 2014), then the $10M cap savings would probably cover the 2015 cap hits of extending McCourty plus re-signing Branch, Ayers, Casillas and Chung, or very close to it. Kyle Arrington could also be extended by a year or 2 (he's only 28), which would lower his 2015 cap hit a bit.

Original

Revis $20M
Mayo $7.8M
Wilfork $7.5M
Solder $7.4M
Browner $4.5M
Amendola $4.4M
Arrington $3.0M

When All is said and done I think you keep only Arrington/Browner the same but try to retain all the players. Ideally cap hits become (will also being realistic) as follows.

Revis 16M (11+5)
Mayo 6M (extend but rework while holding the ability to cut him and being injured as leverage).
Wilfork 5M (extend for 2016)
Solder 6M (extend through 2020)
Browner 4.5M - Same
Amendola 1.5M (rework contract while leveraging him)
Arrington 3M - Same

All of these are doable.

Also you probably need to up Brady's deal a bit. Also I am not sure about some of your numbers. I think a lot of them are higher than you posted. Did you go by salary and not total cap figure?

Please note that some players' 2015 compensation will increase from today's number as the players reach NTLBE incentives

They might let McCourty walk if they think the other two guys from Rutgers can do his job.
Maybe revis won't insist on breaking the bank?

Miguel said:

Please note that some players' 2015 compensation will increase from today's number as the players reach NTLBE incentives

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Miguel wouldn't it be posibel for Patriots to take Mayo's deathcap over 2 years if a trade happens?

VrabelJr said:

Solder's number is a bit high but he is an LT and you're probably better off with a known slightly above average player at LT than rolling the dice on another LT in the draft.

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$7.4M is a lot of money, but it's a lot easier to handle when you see that the Cowboys just signed Tyron Smith (whose first three years weren't terribly dissimilar to Solder's) to a 8 year, $98M extension. If Solder can continue to play well and help erase GMs' memories of those week 1 and 3 games, then he'll be getting more than that $7.4M per year on a long term contract at some point.

Sciz said:

$7.4M is a lot of money, but it's a lot easier to handle when you see that the Cowboys just signed Tyron Smith (whose first three years weren't terribly dissimilar to Solder's) to a 8 year, $98M extension. If Solder can continue to play well and help erase GMs' memories of those week 1 and 3 games, then he'll be getting more than that $7.4M per year on a long term contract at some point.

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Yup, I completely agree. That's why while I want to complain about it (relative to his play in the beginning of the year), he's still sort of a bargain.