$16.6 mill dead money + $9 mill free space...

[BradyManny]

Is a lot of cap space not allocated to players contributing to the 2014 Patriots. Almost 20% of their cap isn't getting spent on the 53.

We're still feeling the effects of the Hernandez situation. We're taking a beating by paying [cap-wise] an incarcerated murderer $7.5 mill to rot in prison. Mankins, Sopogoa, Kelly, etc. are also not helping the cause.

I can't explain the free space other than Bill wanted to roll money over, and we couldn't find the guys we wanted in FA for the price we wanted.

We just don't have the bodies. It is going to take Gronk returning to pre-injury form, Brady playing out of his mind with his worst supporting cast yet, and Revis being Revis (and the coaching staff letting Revis be Revis) to cover the flaws and right this ship.

 

[Henroc]

The pats are becoming the walmart of the nfl. Employees paid sht but they're still making their moolah

 

[ctpatsfan77]

Is a lot of cap space not allocated to players contributing to the 2014 Patriots. Almost 20% of their cap isn't getting spent on the 53.

We're still feeling the effects of the Hernandez situation. We're taking a beating by paying an incarcerated murderer $7.5 mill to rot in prison. Mankins, Sopogoa, Kelly, etc. are also not helping the cause.

I can't explain the free space other than Bill wanted to roll money over, and we couldn't find the guys we wanted in FA for the price we wanted.

First off: don't confuse salary cap space with cash paid. The Patriots aren't "paying a murderer." That's an accounting tool to deal with money that was already paid.

Second: the Pats are going to use at least some of that unspent money to re-sign their own FAs (e.g., McCourty, Vereen, Gostkowski, etc.).

 

[SHOWTIME15]

You have to blame the kraft family for all the budgeting that goes on here.

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

31st in spending this year....with a 37 yr old QB with only a few more good years left with all this $$ available. Not right at all

 

[JMC00]

I know people want to go on about the unused cap space. But a decent amount of it came via Mankins being traded and I dont believe for one second if Mankins stayed the offense would be rolling. Might be slightly better but it still would be stuggling.

Who the hell were you bringing in here that would have the offense playing great?

 

[ctpatsfan77]

31st in spending this year....with a 37 yr old QB with only a few more good years left with all this $$ available. Not right at all

It's not a particularly meaningful number. For example, the Pats gave Brady $30M+ in cash last year; as a result, they're only paying him $2M this year.

 

[SeanBruschi54]

31st in spending this year....with a 37 yr old QB with only a few more good years left with all this $$ available. Not right at all

Listen Im in a grumpy mood too but your know that number is skewed

 

[juny]

Until they extend some of the players listed above, the Mankins trade is an absolute disaster.

 

[Gronkandez]

First off: don't confuse salary cap space with cash paid. The Patriots aren't "paying a murderer." That's an accounting tool to deal with money that was already paid.

Second: the Pats are going to use at least some of that unspent money to re-sign their own FAs (e.g., McCourty, Vereen, Gostkowski, etc.).

A kicker and a RB that is wildly inconsistent at best?? That's who we've saving cap space for? Two weeks ago one could make the argument that the space could be used oin Revis and (ahem) Solder.

 

[The Boston Patriot]

Let's cut everybody and take a one time cap hit. All we have to do is bring in PS players and, according to most of the posters here, they would be just as good as the 'crap' we have on the roster. Amirite?

 

[BradyManny]

First off: don't confuse salary cap space with cash paid. The Patriots aren't "paying a murderer." That's an accounting tool to deal with money that was already paid.

Second: the Pats are going to use at least some of that unspent money to re-sign their own FAs (e.g., McCourty, Vereen, Gostkowski, etc.).

1) True - I was actually going to edit my post as soon as it was up but the board has been so sluggish today (I wonder why!) that I couldn't. Nonetheless, my point is purely related to cap space.
2) Sure. Though not why we'd want to re-up Vereen at this stage.

 

[BradyManny]

I know people want to go on about the unused cap space. But a decent amount of it came via Mankins being traded and I dont believe for one second if Mankins stayed the offense would be rolling. Might be slightly better but it still would be stuggling.

Who the hell were you bringing in here that would have the offense playing great?

Don't get me wrong - I thought the Mankins trade was savvy at the time. But if our plan was to rotate in a bunch of rookies and scrubs who can't play the position, it was an asinine trade.

I don't see how at this point you can argue that the Mankins trade has not affected the offense. He was our best lineman, and the line has been our biggest issue.

Nate Solder was good with Mankins next to him and now he sucks. Without another explanation, I have to assume having a Pro Bowl guard lined up next to him boosted Solder's play.

 

[The Boston Patriot]

Don't get me wrong - I thought the Mankins trade was savvy at the time. But if our plan was to rotate in a bunch of rookies and scrubs who can't play the position, it was an asinine trade.

I don't see how at this point you can argue that the Mankins trade has not affected the offense. He was our best lineman, and the line has been our biggest issue.

Nate Solder was good with Mankins next to him and now he sucks. Without another explanation, I have to assume having a Pro Bowl guard lined up next to him boosted Solder's play.

That's the problem. He was our best lineman and he certainly had/has lost his fastball. Ask yourself: Would he have made a noticeable difference last night? I think so, but not much beyond that. Would his presence made any difference in the outcome? Not much in my opinion.

 

[Marinlik]

Is a lot of cap space not allocated to players contributing to the 2014 Patriots. Almost 20% of their cap isn't getting spent on the 53.

We're still feeling the effects of the Hernandez situation. We're taking a beating by paying [cap-wise] an incarcerated murderer $7.5 mill to rot in prison. Mankins, Sopogoa, Kelly, etc. are also not helping the cause.

I can't explain the free space other than Bill wanted to roll money over, and we couldn't find the guys we wanted in FA for the price we wanted.

We just don't have the bodies. It is going to take Gronk returning to pre-injury form, Brady playing out of his mind with his worst supporting cast yet, and Revis being Revis (and the coaching staff letting Revis be Revis) to cover the flaws and right this ship.

You are talking about this like we had that extra free space in free agency. We didn't. We have 9mil now because we traded Mankins. You can definitely say that we should have moved Mankins earlier so we could spend that extra cash in FA. But to say that we had 9m that de didn't use in FA is a lie.

We can use this extra money we have to sign our own guys.

 

[Deus Irae]

Pretty much everyone who's spoken to those involved has said that Mankins is a big loss, but Patsfans.com homers know better?

Odd.... when that sort of thing goes the other way, all we hear about his "according to...".

 

[BradyManny]

You are talking about this like we had that extra free space in free agency. We didn't. We have 9mil now because we traded Mankins.

We can use this extra money we have to sign our own guys.

I'm stating facts. The Mankins trade caused us dead money and saved us free space for this year. It made the team worse.

 

[Marinlik]

I'm stating facts. The Mankins trade caused us dead money and saved us free space for this year. It made the team worse.

You said this "I can't explain the free space other than Bill wanted to roll money over, and we couldn't find the guys we wanted in FA for the price we wanted." which makes it sound like we had this cap space then. Which we didn't. We spent a lot in FA and didn't have that much cap left. You can explain that free space by telling the truth. Which is that we didn't have it.

 

[SeymourTrophies]

Don't get me wrong - I thought the Mankins trade was savvy at the time. But if our plan was to rotate in a bunch of rookies and scrubs who can't play the position, it was an asinine trade.

I don't see how at this point you can argue that the Mankins trade has not affected the offense. He was our best lineman, and the line has been our biggest issue.

Nate Solder was good with Mankins next to him and now he sucks. Without another explanation, I have to assume having a Pro Bowl guard lined up next to him boosted Solder's play.

I think Seymour was in a higher percentile for his position than Mankins was, but the same result took place; they took a struggling unit and set fire to it. Mankins would undoubtedly be better than what we have now, but these o-line issues predate the Mankins trade.

Solder was never what you'd hope that a first round LT would be, but he's toeing the line of bust right now. Maybe my thoughts on Solder are a little unfair because he took Matt Light's place, but there's just no reason a guy as big and athletic as Solder should be getting abused so consistently. He must just not have it mentally. It may not help that Mankins isn't by his side, but his issue is that he can't be relied upon to take care of his man.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

A kicker and a RB that is wildly inconsistent at best?? That's who we've saving cap space for? Two weeks ago one could make the argument that the space could be used oin Revis and (ahem) Solder.

I was focusing specifically on FAs. Revis and Solder are already under contract (admittedly an implausible one for Revis) for 2015.