Excellent Piece (as always) by Miguel on Pats' Cap Situation

[goheels22002]

http://www.patsfans.com/salary-cap/?p=578

There are so many details to the salary cap it makes my head swim. We are fortunate to have Miguel Benzan on this messageboard.

That said, it's nice to see the Patrriots enter 2014-2015 training camp with enough money to cover their obligations, and have options to free up some space if a value free agent appears.

With the future cap expected to expand substantially as the new TV deal kicks in, I doubt they could extend McCourty and Gostkowski so inexpensively, and I would not cut Amendola this season and take on so much dead money over the next two years.

Otherwise, I like the ideas a lot and again learned so much. I did not know about the ominous "Rule of 51." It sounds like something Roger Goodell and his alien buddies dreamed up on their road trip from Area 51 to New York City.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

That one post you cite is a gold mine of information.

As to cap discussions, here's Miguel's take on AJ & Pats cap. Bottom line is that any feasible AJ signing will cost us the future services of one or MORE talented Pats starters.

The Patriots have 52 players signed thru 16.
14 (Brady, Mayo, Mankins, Gronkowski, Amendola, Wilfork, Arrington, Ninkovich, Edelman, Browner,Vollmer, Lafell, Easley, Collins) have average cap value of over 1M for the 2014/2015/2016 seasons
12 (Brady, Mayo, Mankins, Gronkowski, Amendola, Wilfork, Arrington, Ninkovich, Edelman, Browner,Vollmer, Lafell) have an average cap value of over 3 million
9 (Brady, Mayo, Mankins, Gronkowski, Amendola, Wilfork, Arrington, Vollmer, Browner) have an average cap value of over 4 Million
6 (Brady, Mayo, Mankins, Gronkowski, Amendola, Wilfork) have an average cap value of over 5 million
5 (Brady, Mayo, Mankins, Gronkowski, Wilfork) have an average cap value of over 6 million
3 (Brady, Mayo, Mankins) have an average cap value of over 9M
Brady has an average cap value of $13.933,333

Andre Johnson is due in new money an average of $11.5 million in 2014/2015/2016.

Pats have 19 players who will become free agents after this year, 22 after 2015. Some of the upcoming free agents (Ridley, Vereen, McCourty, Revis, Gostkowski, Solder) are key contributors.Plus, the Patriots have to decide by May 3, 2015 if they want to pick up the 2016 options (7 to 9 million) for Chandler Jones and Dont'a Hightower.

Summary, only if you believe in Felger's simplistic "cap is crap" nonsense should anyone believe that acquiring Andre Johnson as long as he expects to receive $34.5 million in new money over a 3-year period will not affect the Patriots' ability to retain all of their young talent.

 

[Deus Irae]

That one post you cite is a gold mine of information.

As to cap discussions, here's Miguel's take on AJ & Pats cap. Bottom line is that any feasible AJ signing will cost us the future services of one or MORE talented Pats starters.

The cap is expected to start taking big jumps again ($5M+ yearly), which would minimize the impact of this move. Additionally, while I love Miguel's work, he demonstrates why Felger says what he does. As Miguel notes, millions of dollars of cap space can be created without cutting a single player.

PFT has written about the possibility of huge cap jumps:

One source with knowledge of the process (but not the same source who was on the money — pun lame but intended — when providing info about the 2014 cap) tells PFT that the cap could spike to $145 million in 2015 and a whopping $160 million in 2016.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/03/07/cap-could-hit-160-million-in-2016/

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Yes, cap likely to grow at greater rate but NFLPA knows this and the typical player deal also inflates around this % such that there is not a pure newly found $5M for superstar S.
Also note that finding cap money without cutting a player or however and using it in 2014 has future year implications, plus it reduces potential roll forward cap money available for 2015 player contracts.