An overlooked AdamJT13 post

[spacecrime]

I'm guessing that the $350k to Troy Brown may well be real money in his pocket. As a full-time starter this year, Brown has clearly out-played his contract. He may have hit an incentive and they want the money to count this year.

Me, too. I have to think the bonus is set up so he will actually recieve it. If not, the Pats would have just put the money into Spann's phony-baloney bonus.

 

[patchick]

It gives off the image that Spann isn't doing anything so he has no chance at getting the bonus. Your right that in the end it doesn't matter though.

My (shaky) understanding of the new CBA is that the player has to get something out of such an accounting maneuver. In the case of a rookie minimum player, even an extra $50k or so for helping out could be pretty significant. That could well be why they chose a back-end roster guy....

 

[njpatsfan]

The Krafts are still cheap. They could have printed those contracts off on high quality glossy photo paper, instead they elected to go with low grade brown paper towels.

Just a classless, classless move.

Un, you are rapidly becoming my favorite poster here.

R

 

[Pats726]

The Krafts are still cheap. They could have printed those contracts off on high quality glossy photo paper, instead they elected to go with low grade brown paper towels.

Just a classless, classless move.

Just another troll...

 

[hwc]

It's also possible that they did a real contract with Spann at the same time as the phoney LBTE incentive. If they like him enough to move him to the roster from the practice squad, they probably like him enough to bring to camp (and beyond?) next year.

The only way we would know would be when his salary numbers hit the NFLPA website and/or when an enterprising reporter gets the story.

 

[PatsSteve1]

I'm not suprised they didn't just totally waste or lose it. Whichever way you might look at it. I'd still rather have heard they'd gotten Graham or Samuel(or both) redone but of cousre it takes both sides to agree to that and that obviously didn't happen. There's going to be a lot of money around this FA season and I can't really blame players who's deal is up this year for wanting a piece.

 

[AzPatsFan]

Why would the Patriots give Spann all of that money?

They rolled it over to 2007, as well as paying a bit for the priveledge. Now they have some credit to use against the "luxury tax" for signing Brady and Seymour.

Somewhere else it was posted that the Pats ended the cap year Dec 30th with $0.78 cents cap surplus, small but a surplus as required. Else they would have had to cut somebody.

 

[patsox23]

accounting trick. LTG.

 

[AdamJT13]

For those who are mad about the Pats "not spending to the cap," it has indeed been done:

http://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patriots/messageboard/showpost.php?p=301814&postcount=21



That is the last post in the thread titled "Money Under the Cap Gone?"

If anyone knows his stuff and gets the inside info, it's AdamJT13. And it's now clear the Pats have in one form or another used all of their cap space for 2006.

That's correct, right down to the last dollar.

And for those wondering, the LTBE loophole still exists in the amended CBA -- "Any new or altered incentive bonuses renegotiated in a preexisting contract after the start of the regular season in which they may be earned automatically will be deemed 'likely to be earned' during that season."

There were 23 teams that used the loophole in December to push their remaining cap room forward into 2007.

Also, Spann did not get anything out of the loophole. He signed only through 2006 and did not get any signing bonus.

 

[Isaac]

So, totaling here, we will have:

$30.8 million underage (from Miguel's page)
$1.9 million Koppen LTBE
$2.9 million Spann LTBE
$0.3 million Brown LTBE

Putting us roughly $36 million under the cap. Wow. That has to be one of the highest figures in the league (though it'd be hard to track down the LTBE deals of other teams). It's really not fair, I do hope Polian is going to do something about this!

I guess we do need to subtract achieved 2006 incentives also--could be significant dollars.

 

[fgssand]

That's correct, right down to the last dollar.

And for those wondering, the LTBE loophole still exists in the amended CBA -- "Any new or altered incentive bonuses renegotiated in a preexisting contract after the start of the regular season in which they may be earned automatically will be deemed 'likely to be earned' during that season."

There were 23 teams that used the loophole in December to push their remaining cap room forward into 2007.

Also, Spann did not get anything out of the loophole. He signed only through 2006 and did not get any signing bonus.

Thanks for the info Adam - any and all cap information much appreciated.

It amazes me that people feel our cap people would even think of not using every last solitary dollar - I am surprised they kept $.78 on the books.

 

[GoWesleyan]

There has to be some limitation on this LTBE technique, no? Could a team move tens of millions into future years? Why wouldn't teams that have been well under the cap so this? (I seem to remember that the Vikes had a few years well under the cap)

 

[mgteich]

I think that when a player cooperates in this way, there should be compensation. $50K is fine. $50K is a small price for the convenience of moving millions into 2007.

Otherwise, we risk union action. There is no union issue as long as there is compensation. This was decided when we did this with Gorin a couple of years ago.

Also, I see no reason to separate out Brown unless he some chance of getting the money. I think a 2006 incentive of $350K is well deserved.

 

[mgteich]

Some of this money will be applied to NLTBE bonuses. For example, there should be playoff-related incentives. They would be "Not Likely To Be Earned" since we were out of the playoffs last year. What if all contract had a $100K bonus for getting to playoffs, with actual playoff money coming from the league. The total would be $5.3M plus any allocations to IR players.

So, totaling here, we will have:

$30.8 million underage (from Miguel's page)
$1.9 million Koppen LTBE
$2.9 million Spann LTBE
$0.3 million Brown LTBE

Putting us roughly $36 million under the cap. Wow. That has to be one of the highest figures in the league (though it'd be hard to track down the LTBE deals of other teams). It's really not fair, I do hope Polian is going to do something about this!

I guess we do need to subtract achieved 2006 incentives also--could be significant dollars.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Some of this money will be applied to NLTBE bonuses. For example, there should be playoff-related incentives. They would be "Not Likely To Be Earned" since we were out of the playoffs last year.

Jeebus...was that just a nightmare I had last January...

 

[patchick]

Some of this money will be applied to NLTBE bonuses. For example, there should be playoff-related incentives. They would be "Not Likely To Be Earned" since we were out of the playoffs last year.

I'm a little confused by this...the Pats played 2 playoff games last year, are you supposing Superbowl-specific incentives?

 

[ctpatsfan77]

The Patriots gave Antwain Spann a $2,913,410 LTBE incentive, gave Troy Brown a $350,000 LTBE incentive and gave Brown a $50,000 signing bonus, as well.

Such is the power of Bill Belichick. He knew in advance that Brown would need to make a critical play to save the season, and rewarded him in advance for it.