Some early 2007 cap numbers

[Miguel]

http://www.nfl.com/nflnetwork/story/9790677

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Miguel (not surprised)

 

[MrBigglesWorth]

I guess this will make the draft all the more important because there will be so many teams on an equal playing field to spend money. Makes sense the Pats are stocking up on draft picks, where they hit on alot of good #1's.

 

[Miguel]

On April 18th I posted:

"I agree with 14thdragon. I think that teams are going to extend players in their rookie deals more than they have done so in the draft making the draft more important in finding young, talented players."

http://www.patsfans.com/new-england...ead.php?p=81665&highlight=important#post81665

Look at the potential 2007 FA class. It will not be as good as the 2006 FA class and the 2006 FA class did not get rave reviews for its talent.

 

[cstjohn17]

It is interesting, more and more players will get extended early. Philly and San Diego have been doing this a lot. It could mean less player movement than in the past, although when players do make it to free agency they are able to strike it big. The Pats draft very well but there is still a need for veteran FAs. Rookies usually don't become impact players until the 3rd, 4th and 5th years, with the peak usually in years 5 - 8.

I think it takes more than good drafting and street free agents to complete a roster. An impact free agent can take an entire group from bad to average, average to good or good to excellent. This is pretty much true across the board, for example a true number 1 WR elevates the entire group, an all pro DE such as Seymour takes a D line from good to excellent, and so on and so on. The downside is that if a high priced player under performs or gets hurt it impacts the depth at other positions.

The draft and management of internal player contracts is the cornerstone of long term success, however. with all the cap dollars available smart investments in one or two key free agents can make the difference between a play-off berth and a championship.

On April 18th I posted:

"I agree with 14thdragon. I think that teams are going to extend players in their rookie deals more than they have done so in the draft making the draft more important in finding young, talented players."

http://www.patsfans.com/new-england...ead.php?p=81665&highlight=important#post81665

Look at the potential 2007 FA class. It will not be as good as the 2006 FA class and the 2006 FA class did not get rave reviews for its talent.

 

[RayClay]

I thought we were the only team way under the cap?

 

[Miguel]

I thought we were the only team way under the cap?

You were not listening to me, then I have been posting that there would be a good number of teams way under the 2007 cap for awhile.

 

[RayClay]

It must have been someone else Miguel, sorry.

Seriously, I'd love to see a free agent addition, especially at LB or DB.

Only if the value's there, though. I can't see making decisions based on the free agent's salary matching the number of dollars in our pocket.

With 2 #1's and a bunch of extra picks, we should out draft most teams again.

It can't be too long until we have to do long term contracts with a bunch of top draft picks.

As long as we continue making good business decisions I think we will have a very talented team while maintaining the flexibility that makes desperate moves unnecessary.

 

[MrBigglesWorth]

On April 18th I posted:

"I agree with 14thdragon. I think that teams are going to extend players in their rookie deals more than they have done so in the draft making the draft more important in finding young, talented players."

http://www.patsfans.com/new-england...ead.php?p=81665&highlight=important#post81665

Look at the potential 2007 FA class. It will not be as good as the 2006 FA class and the 2006 FA class did not get rave reviews for its talent.

Thanks for the footnote. Nothing wrong to have another discussion about it. Any links for the draft classes?

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

http://www.nfl.com/nflnetwork/story/9790677

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Miguel (not surprised)

My question is, does this tell the whole story? For instance, if a team is ten million under the cap but does not have a particular, and highly productive, player under contract next year, isn't the 10 million under the cap misleading? I guess I'd like to see who is way under the cap but also has all their pieces, or close to it, under contract.

 

[Miguel]

Thanks for the footnote. Nothing wrong to have another discussion about it. Any links for the draft classes?

http://www.nfl.com/freeagency for the 2006 FA class
http://www.footballsfuture.com/2007/nfl/freeagents.html
for the potential top FAs in 2007

 

[Miguel]

My question is, does this tell the whole story?

No but it does provide a good part of the story.

For instance, if a team is ten million under the cap but does not have a particular, and highly productive, player under contract next year, isn't the 10 million under the cap misleading?

Somewhat. But the story was not mentioning the number of teams under the cap by just $10 million but by at least $20 million.

I guess I'd like to see who is way under the cap but also has all their pieces, or close to it, under contract.

Good luck with the former as cap information for the entire NFL has become sparse. One could do some sleuthing for the latter.

 

[Pats726]

http://www.nfl.com/nflnetwork/story/9790677

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Miguel (not surprised)

Miguel...I wonder if this time last year this was the case for 06?? How it has been the last few years and if this ballooning of money under is a rather new thing or not. I think it would be interesting if it was a new as opposed to similar to the past..It does tell part of the story..but not all.. Would make a larger difference if a team was under that much and that included all 22 starters as opposed to a team with that amount under and only a handful of starters included.
Does this mean teams are getting smarter financially??

 

[MrBigglesWorth]

http://www.nfl.com/freeagency for the 2006 FA class
http://www.footballsfuture.com/2007/nfl/freeagents.html
for the potential top FAs in 2007

No links for 2008? Even though it would be hard to predict so far down the road. Free agents are slim pickings. It's nice to see the Colts will potentially lose 2-3 more defenders.....most likely cato june, jason david, and another d-back. I'm suprised they ranked Asante so high.

 

[Va_Pats_Fan]

This is not good for the Pats, IMO. As the cap rises, more and more teams will be able to bid on FA's. As with any commodity, the more bidders, the higher the price will go. This will make the pats formula of what to pay a FA outdated and restrictive. I can also see less FA's on the market, as more teams are able to extend their players under contract.

 

[MrBigglesWorth]

This is not good for the Pats, IMO. As the cap rises, more and more teams will be able to bid on FA's. As with any commodity, the more bidders, the higher the price will go. This will make the pats formula of what to pay a FA outdated and restrictive. I can also see less FA's on the market, as more teams are able to extend their players under contract.

That is one way to think about it. But on the other hand I can see less player movement as teams try to hold onto their own players they have drafted. We're seeing the eagles do this now. Obviously you don't want to ink a player to a long term deal that turns out to unproductive.

I think one great thing about this is hopefully players will stay with their original teams longer such as the case pre-free agency. As stated earlier this makes the draft all the more important because to be a good team yoou need to hit on this top tier picks and you need to hit on at least half of the lower picks which like baseball get inked for low salaries the first several years of their career.

I see this as leveling the playing field and giving more emphasis to the draft. The good teams will have become good through productive drafts and the poor teams will have drafted poorly and ebcuase of their mistakes will pay heavily in free agency to cover up for their deficiencies and get themselves in cap trouble.

 

[mgteich]

16 teams (including the pats) will have over $20M available (8 are over $30M under), even before cuts and restructures, and the patriots have decided to move more money into 2007. The numbers are no surprise. Miguel has bgeen writing this since the CBA was signed, even though many were talking about the one-year 2006 overpriced bubble for free agent player prices. The situation won't be any better next year. In the end, we can again next year decided whether to spend the cap money, or push it further into the future/