Looks like we're homing in on Seau...certainly not a done deal yet but it looks like fast-track.
So, we lose McGinest, a 35-year-old guy, probably running out of gas. A leader. Winning team for three super bowls. We pick up a 37-year-old guy. A leader. Probably running out of gas. Perenniel pro-bowler.
McGinest was going to cost 7 mil, as I remember. What do you think Seau costs us?
I know they're not the same guy. I know they don't even do exactly the same thing. But I know the writing was on the wall from Willie's contract: The Pats could hold the line or attempt to make it with a mix of young guys and whatever veteran depth they could add.
They're looking at other guys as well. The thing is, they weren't refusing to overpay Willie and Adam just to make a point. As has been pointed out here, the cap money will be spent. They are attempting to keep cost in line with value, as the Pats estimate it. To do so they have to look at the player market as responding to market forces... they may at times even have to put off the big-money choices for a whole year, choosing to spend when the spending will yield more bang for the buck.
Once when I was rhapsodizing about how great the Pats' model was, and comparing to Indy without looking up the facts, one of our capologists brought me up short by showing me the top 10 on the Pats versus on the Colts as percentage of total cap hit... the numbers varied by about 5%. There's a convergence, as some contracts mature, and players realize they can sell their Super Bowl Halo elsewhere. In some cases, the Pats have had to seriously cough up the cash (Seymour, Brady.) That means in other cases they have had to make the hard choices. The departures were pretty tough this year. Colvin's hit is climbing too, by the way -- don't sleep on that one.
The 15 mil (then 13 mil, next week....?) figure is transitory. The Pats guessed, and it looked like they were right, that as camp went on there'd be some pickins left. We, on the other hand (myself included) were looking for 6/1 cuts... and as a vast wasteland stretched between those two dates, we all started wondering where this money goes.
Now "the sky is falling" because we didn't spend a month or two ago? I think we're going to be looking good... I've also said and still believe, that the Pats may say in a year or two, "in retrospect we should have accounted for the cap inflation from the new CBA more." Maybe we woulda gotten Javon Walker or this guy or that guy... or maybe not. We don't know those details.
I do know that I see a lot of action right now in terms of evaluating linebacker help, and that if the Pats believe another veteran presence at LB is an improvement on our young guys, they will move on that front.
BB/SP have a long, long way to go before some puke on a bulletin board can dub them "dumb" businessmen.
Need my kool-aid night cap now,
PFnV