I was looking at the 2011 CBA trying to answer a question I have when I discovered the reason why the Patriots aren’t just setting these grievances (Britt and Malcolm Mitchell).
It appears as if only 40% of what the player is demanding counts against the salary cap until the grievance is ruled upon or settled. Thus, a cap-strapped team such as the 2018 Patriots can delay the full cap impact. I’m not sure what the time frame on these grievances are, but, perhaps, it might not happen until after the season allowing them to push 60% of the settlement onto the 2019 cap.
They don’t normally do business this way, but this is by far the most precarious cap position the Patriots have found themselves in a long time. I’m sure they weren’t expecting to have so much salary sitting on the IR this early in the season.
Worse, I don’t really see where they can easily restructure a contract to gain a chunk of cap space either. Brady and Gronk’s contracts have already been tweaked to add bonus money. Whether they can be restructured again is the question I was reading the CBA for in the first place, but it’s not clear. Gilmore’s and Hightower’s 2018 salaries are fully guaranteed. It leaves only D. McCourty but his 2019 cap figure is already too high.
Actually, as I type this, it came to me that extending Gostkowski’s contract could probably get you $2 million in cap savings easily. But, then, how much of a commitment do you want to make to a kicker whose reliability is questionable?
It will be interesting to watch how they manage this, but it appears the cap is not crap and in this case it might stop them from making in-season moves to get better.