Funding The 2015 Offense And Special Teams

[mgteich]

The defense cap will basically take care of itself and hopefully have enough to take care of end of the off-season needs.
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FREE AGENTS - OFFENSE AND SPECIAL TEAMS
Connolly
Ridley
Vereen
Bolden
Gostkowski
Aiken

SOURCES OF FUNDS
Cutting Amendola could save almost $4M (and yes, he could than come back for less, or not)
Solder is scheduled to receive $7.4M. Cutting/Replacing him or extending him would save perhaps $4M.
Brady's could have $6M turned into a bonus at a cap savings of $4M.
Gronkowski could have most his salary turned into bonus at a cap savings of $3M.

THE KEY EARLY DECISION
Before this season ends, the team has to decide whether to guarantee Solder his salary.

ONE WAY OF THINKING
Consider Solder and Amendola cut, and the restructures made. The savings is about $18.5M. Now, we should decide how much to fund the various needs (including LT, WR, OG, RB, K and LS).

BTW, Gray, Blount and White (and Develin) are a pretty good start for the 2015 running game.

Finally, I will be disappointed if wee don't draft an OT and OG in the first three rounds (and a flyer later in the draft). Of course, this doesn't mean that my analysis is correct. After all, we got a starting center and perhaps a future OG in the 4th in 2014.

 

[patsfaninpa]

Miguel's Cap Page says we only save 1,571,250 by cutting Amendola before June 2nd. He's probably back because that's not much of a savings and we have to sign someone to replace him. Solder has had 3-4 poor games this years. He's had 2-3 pretty good seasons and another 8-10 pretty good games. I'd be shocked if he's not extended. Or, at minimum. Just plays 15 on the option. I think we'll let Hoo-Man go. Doubt we keep Ridley or Vereen. I'm guessing you meant Ridley when you have White in your post.

Looks like any upgrades on offense will have to be thru the draft or just player development. Hope Dobson gets healthy and Wright has a full off-season in our system. I'm not crazy about drafting guards in the first round. Can find good ones in Rounds 2-4. Same with RB. We can draft one of those too. As for WR, I've given up trying to figure out what we are going to do.

 

[hwc]

An NFL team would have to be insane to cut a young starting left tackle over a $7.4 million salary. That's a position that you do NOT want to fill in free agency. Brandon Albert signed in Miami last year on a 5 year $46 million deal.

If you cut Solder, who plays left tackle?

I'm guessing that the Pats work very hard to extend Solder.

 

[mgteich]

An NFL team would have to be insane to cut a young starting left tackle over a $7.4 million salary. That's a position that you do NOT want to fill in free agency. Brandon Albert signed in Miami last year on a 5 year $46 million deal.

If you cut Solder, who plays left tackle?

I'm guessing that the Pats work very hard to extend Solder.

Of course, the patriots will work hard to extend Solder, negotiating with Welker's agent. And yes, they might be willing to pay Solder $7.4M for one year. Cutting a "young" starter is somewhat irrelevant if Solder won't sign a reasonable deal. If that is the case, the patriots have the choice of free agency this year or next.

 

[luuked]

Doubt we keep Ridley or Vereen

Given how a flexback is a staple of our offense I'd be surprised if we put all our eggs into the White basket and let Vereen go. Depends on his FA price of course, but I think we learned from last year that we need depth at that position in case our main guy gets injured.

 

[mgteich]

Given how a flexback is a staple of our offense I'd be surprised if we put all our eggs into the White basket and let Vereen go. Depends on his FA price of course, but I think we learned from last year that we need depth at that position in case our main guy gets injured.

We said that when Woodhead was a free agent.

 

[luuked]

We said that when Woodhead was a free agent.

And we had no flexback for the first half of the season last year. I have to assume that something was learned from this.