My bottom line is that the FO decided that the best use of $5M of cap money was to carry it over to 2007. There have been several reasons given:
1) there wasn't sufficient value available.
2) there were 2006 bonuses that would cost us against the 2007 cap, so this was a good use of the money, paying for 2006 obligations
3) there were potential cash over cap penalties that would count against the 2007 cap, so this was a good use of the money, paying for 2006 obligations
4) the team wanted to bring money into future years
5) they needed the money for Branch or Law, and there was no one else they wanted
6) Kraft wanted to pocket the cash
The FO clearly believes 1-3. No one know about 4, although since we have even more cap room in 2007, this seems unlikely. Reason 6 is nonsense.
As I have said many, many times, $2.5M of cap room a year is plently to sign anyone in the league for their first year, except for the very top quarterbacks, so #4 makes little sense to me. I certainly could structure a contract for either Law or Branch that would have cost $2.5M in 2006 cap money. Also, there were other restructures available that could have free up cap money, if they wanted someone else, while waiting for Law and Branch to decide.