According to this article, the patriots have tons of money to spend

There is cap and there is cash.

In a year that a team pays out huge signing bonuses, they might spend more than the cap in terms of cash outlay (because those bonuses paid this year hit the cap spread out over several years). In a year where teams don't pay big bonuses, they might spend less cash than the cap.

The new CBA requires cash outlays of 89% of the cap over a four year period. The Pats were way over the cap in cash spending in 2012, but have been under on cash spending for the last two years. Not too many big bonus, Hernandez dead money limiting them in cap spending with no cash outlay, etc.

Doesn't mean they are cheap. I'm sure they will be laying out plenty of cash by the time Revis and McCourtey are signed to new contracts.

The teams keep spreadsheet analysis of this stuff out for years into the future at a level of sophisticati0n that would swamp anything a sportwriter could come up with.

I have felt for some time that this is related to the deal they made with Brady that changed the 24 million guarantee into cash they will spend on Revis and McCourty.

It's technical b.s. Brady signed his extension days before the 2013 league year so the $30m he got didn't count towards the '13-'16 seasons.

This also supports the idea that Brady's contract was restructured purely because the Krafts knew they'd be laying out a bunch of cash.

Edit: Ivan beat me to it.