$20 Million Under The Cap Now

[IcyPatriot]

The excitement builds...for sure.

 

[Brownfan80]

The excitement builds...for sure.

All that money.. I wonder who is left to spend it on.. I am itching to know what our plan is.. particularly because the plan seems to include letting fan favorite TEAM FIRST players walk. Givens is debateable as far as his team first-ness, but Willie is one of the few consumate Patriots. So with the huge losses we've had I am anxious to see some sort of movement in the other direction. Losing guys like Willie Adam or David certainly are NOT the types that you'd say 'addition by subtraction' to. So now I'm ready to see what the additions will be to replace them.

 

[dryheat44]

The excitement builds...for sure.

Maybe Belichick sees Julian Peterson as an upgrade for Willie? Certainly he'll command some coin.

Either that, or it's going to be for Seymour, Branch, Koppen, and Neal.

 

[PATSNUTme]

LET GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!!!!


Sorry, I lost my head for a moment. Patience! Patience!

 

[Terence]

Maybe Belichick sees Julian Peterson as an upgrade for Willie? Certainly he'll command some coin.

Either that, or it's going to be for Seymour, Branch, Koppen, and Neal.

We should be doing both. Extending our FAs now should only free up more money for the next couple of years.

 

[Welker83]

Peterson has almost outpriced himself out of the league....

But he would be a good addition. He played for saban in college and is familiar with the system...

 

[tombonneau]

Peterson will not be a Pat unless he drops his agent (at least he only has to fire 1 now and now 2

My hope is that the bulk of the cap space is used to extend Seymour and Branch.

I doubt the people whining about us not doing anything and losing Givens & McG will not be too upset when Seymour and Branch are on the team for the next 5-6 yrs.

Fact is if the Pats gave Givens & McG the $$ they got elsewhere, they would not be able to sign Seymour & Branch. I'd rather have the latter.

 

[dryheat44]

There's also talk that the Panthers may release Kris Jenkins.

 

[Brownfan80]

There's also talk that the Panthers may release Kris Jenkins.

Do we really need another DL? If we're going 4-3 I would love Jenkins, in the 3-4 I'm not sure we need that type of player.. Am I off base in that thinking?

 

[Brownfan80]

Do we really need another DL? If we're going 4-3 I would love Jenkins, in the 3-4 I'm not sure we need that type of player.. Am I off base in that thinking?

To clarify, the only player we really need a backup to is the 3-4 NT, which I don't think Jenkins is. If we go to the 4-3 he'd be a great DT and I'd love to have him at a reasonable injury-risk type of price. If we stay in the 3-4 and he's not a backup to Wilfork then I'm not sure how important he'd be to the team.

 

[IcyPatriot]

Would it be safer to say we are only @5 million under the cap. Assuming we re-sign and redo Seymour, Branch and ???

 

[BelichickFan]

Would it be safer to say we are only @5 million under the cap. Assuming we re-sign and redo Seymour, Branch and ???

No, those extensions wouldn't cost that much when prorating the big signing bonuses over 5 years and having the typically growing salaries year by year.

 

[PatsChamps363839]

Would it be safer to say we are only @5 million under the cap. Assuming we re-sign and redo Seymour, Branch and ???

AND Adam Vinatieri! Seymour, Branch and Vinatieri must be signed!

 

[Terence]

Would it be safer to say we are only @5 million under the cap. Assuming we re-sign and redo Seymour, Branch and ???

Resigning them now should actually give us more cap room.

 

[PATSNUTme]

Going by Miguels pages, we would be $17mil or less after the Poole cut. We have to bring someone up who was out of the top 51, so we might be less than $17mil .

Not trying to throw cold water on this.

 

[NE_PATS_FAN_54]

Peterson will not be a Pat unless he drops his agent (at least he only has to fire 1 now and now 2

My hope is that the bulk of the cap space is used to extend Seymour and Branch.

I doubt the people whining about us not doing anything and losing Givens & McG will not be too upset when Seymour and Branch are on the team for the next 5-6 yrs.

Fact is if the Pats gave Givens & McG the $$ they got elsewhere, they would not be able to sign Seymour & Branch. I'd rather have the latter.

his agent is out of the picture, posten has been banned by the nflpa.

 

[NE_PATS_FAN_54]

Going by Miguels pages, we would be $17mil or less after the Poole cut. We have to bring someone up who was out of the top 51, so we might be less than $17mil .

Not trying to throw cold water on this.

well not to discount miguel or nothing, but before poole and brown were but, espn reported that the patriots had about 17 mil avaible and they save about 3-4 mil with cuts of poole and brown so....who knows really. they just have a lot of money.

 

[tombonneau]

his agent is out of the picture, posten has been banned by the nflpa.

Well his agents are the Poston Brothers. One has been suspended. I'm assuming the other is still repping their clients.

 

[Miguel]

well not to discount miguel or nothing

No offense taken. I can make my numbers match ESPN's by simply removing Seymour's 3 million roster bonus out of the equation which would then decrease his salary cap number. While I feel like an Enron accountant, that is the best that I can do under the circumstances

$20 million under the cap sounds great but one should take into account
1.) a Seymour extension is likely to take up cap room if his current cap number is just $4.4 million
2.) a Branch extension will take up cap room.
3.) the Pats do not have a kicker on their roster
4.) Branch is currently the only wide receiver on the Patriots roster who caught more than 5 balls last year
5.) The Pats who use a two TE set a good number of times only have two tight ends on the roster.
6.) It is possible that Harrison will start the season on PUP.

IMO, it is great to hear that the Pats are under the cap by $20 million but if they got there by Seymour's cap number decreasing by $3 million one should then realize that those cap savings will either quickly disappear with an extension or Seymour is going to hold out because there is no way that he is going to play for less money this year than Jarvis Green.

 

[hwc]

The other thing that people have to remember is that signing free agents this year has implications for next year and the year after.

This year is an unusual situation with a windfall increase in the cap that won't be repeated in the near future. Hypothetically speaking, if a team spent all of that increase signing free agents, they would get killed in 2007/08. First year free agent cap numbers are artificially low and begin escalating rapidly in years two, three, and four. Combine that with the escalating salaries of players already under contract and a team could find itself in cap hell if they don't project their future cap numbers accurately.

For example, suppose the Pats spent their existing cap room on free agent signings like drunken sailors waving money at whores. They would have no cap room next year to sign Seymour or Branch.