couple quick ?'s re: 2008 roster, etc

[eom]

I know the draft is another forum, and the moss thing probably has 10k posts, but I was just checking out miguel's most excellent cap page, reading some threads, and wondering how possible it would be to sign both moss and a 3rd or 4th pick, if they went that route.
forget samuel, for the sake of discussion --- 11 million under in '08 + cheat up a few million from this year?
pencil in moss at, say, 8, + several small potatoes would about eat it up, I'd think.

would we need around 5 million, and would we be basically scrounging and restructuring to get it, or could we comfortably sign the fodder + moss + pick #3?


yeah, I know they maybe trade down and all that, but I was just wondering about the cap room end of it.

also, I notice washington has pretty much buried themselves on the cap space --- how does the nfl enforce that?
what are the consequences?

 

[solman]

I know the draft is another forum, and the moss thing probably has 10k posts, but I was just checking out miguel's most excellent cap page, reading some threads, and wondering how possible it would be to sign both moss and a 3rd or 4th pick, if they went that route.
forget samuel, for the sake of discussion --- 11 million under in '08 + cheat up a few million from this year?
pencil in moss at, say, 8, + several small potatoes would about eat it up, I'd think.

would we need around 5 million, and would we be basically scrounging and restructuring to get it, or could we comfortably sign the fodder + moss + pick #3?


yeah, I know they maybe trade down and all that, but I was just wondering about the cap room end of it.

also, I notice washington has pretty much buried themselves on the cap space --- how does the nfl enforce that?
what are the consequences?

We've got more than enough cap flexibility to do these things.

A long term deal for Moss isn't likely to cost more than $6M against the 2008 cap (and potentially much less) even if the average is greater.

This year no draft pick cost more than $3M against the cap. The CBA forces players to earn the obscene amounts that are often quoted through backend incentives which don't hit the cap in the year that the player was drafted.

In addition to the amounts already available, we can create plenty of additional cap space.

$7.25M can be made available by cutting Stallworth and Washington. Brady can create $4.5M by restructuring his contract without making any material changes to the deal.

Faulk's salary can probably be decreased.

Extending Colvin could also decrease his cap hit.

Heading into 2008 we aren't cap rich. But if we let Asante, Stallworth and Washington go, and don't bring in any high priced free agents, we'll have PLENTY of space (which I would hope we use to extend players already on our roster and MAYBE get a top MLB in FA to replace Bruschi/Seau).

 

[Miguel]

If the Pats want to sign a player(s) at a price that the Patriots find acceptable, they can/will find the cap space needed to make the deals happen.

If they value Moss as a $X million per year player and Moss agrees to play for $Xmillion per year, then the deal will happen.

None of us know what the X is or whether or not Moss will agree to play for X but it is fun speculating