Where will the cap space go???

[MoLewisrocks]

So, now that Law is out of the question, and the Pats seem unwilling to overpay for Branch, where does the money go?

I will be furious if this team just eats the cap space!
I can't see how they are going to get close to the cap.

This team has a lot of wholes on Defense, and did zilch to address them.

At this point, if the choices are either
A. Pony up for Branch
B. Lose the cap space.

I say pony up! It isn't as if they will get to use the money saved eslewhere!

This has been explained about a hundred times before in a dozen other threads including this one but they can bank as much money as they will have left after the rookies are signed and Seymour gets his option bonus by writing LTBE incentives into some of the players contracts. They can also hang on to it until December and use it to sign some of their players like Branch, Graham, Koppen or Samuel after evaluating them for part or most of another whle season. Overpaying anyone is not a rational way to spend cap. It can adversely impact a team for years to come.

 

[Flying Fungi]

So, now that Law is out of the question, and the Pats seem unwilling to overpay for Branch, where does the money go?

I will be furious if this team just eats the cap space!
I can't see how they are going to get close to the cap.

This team has a lot of wholes on Defense, and did zilch to address them.

At this point, if the choices are either
A. Pony up for Branch
B. Lose the cap space.

I say pony up! It isn't as if they will get to use the money saved eslewhere!

This team does not have a lot of holes on defense, but did address depth in the draft and FA. If you disagree, please point out said holes.

I personally have ZERO issue with Kraft/BB sitting on cap space--spending for the sake of spending is fiscally irresponsible.

I just don't understand the weeping and wailing.

 

[sarge]

This team does not have a lot of holes on defense, but did address depth in the draft and FA. If you disagree, please point out said holes.

We have 0 depth at linebacker. The moment one starter goes down, we are screwed. And Beisel wasn't exactly a world beater last season either.

And what was our Pass defense? 30th, 31nd? They brought in Duane starks the second from KC.

[QOUTE]
I personally have ZERO issue with Kraft/BB sitting on cap space--spending for the sake of spending is fiscally irresponsible.
[/QUOTE]

It isn't spending for the sake of spending. You get Branch. You may have spent more then you would have liked, but you have far more then enough cap space anyway.

 

[Flying Fungi]

We have 0 depth at linebacker. The moment one starter goes down, we are screwed. And Beisel wasn't exactly a world beater last season either.

And what was our Pass defense? 30th, 31nd? They brought in Duane starks the second from KC.

[QOUTE]
I personally have ZERO issue with Kraft/BB sitting on cap space--spending for the sake of spending is fiscally irresponsible.

It isn't spending for the sake of spending. You get Branch. You may have spent more then you would have liked, but you have far more then enough cap space anyway.[/quote]

okay--I suspected that it was a matter of perspective

LB and DB depth? We may have lost Willie and Chatham, but we also lost Poole and Starks (addition by subtraction for the latter two). To pilfer from another thread for expedience:
OLB - Vrabel
OLB - Colvin
OLB - Banta-Cain
OLB - Mincey
OLB - Klecko
OLB - Woods

ILB - Bruschi
ILB - Beisel
ILB - Claridge
ILB - Izzo
ILB - Davis
ILB - Gardner
ILB - Alexander
ILB - Roach
ILB - Mays

CB - Samuel
CB - Hobbs
CB - Gay
CB - Warfield
CB - C. Scott
CB - Poteat
CB - Spann (NFLE)
CB - V. Brown
CB - G. Williams

S - Harrison
S - Wilson
S - T. Jones
S - Hawkins
S - Sanders
S - Mitchell
S - G. Scott
S - W. Andrews
S - Ventrone (NFLE)
S - Herring

There may be a lack of depth in terms of All-Pros, but the Patriots arguably are greater than the sum of their parts under the current management regime. The only glaring hole in these departments are not currently evident--it will be the result of failure to perform, injury or a combination of those two factors.

In terms of the cap space--we are already witnessing the result of Seymour's holdout on Branch. How long do you think it would take for agents to follow Branch's lead to try to hardball the Patriots into overpaying?

We'll be fine, whether we spend the cap space or not. The roster is looking good--a lot of opportunities for players to step up and win spots, but no glaring weaknesses that I can see.

 

[shakadave]

And what was our Pass defense? 30th, 31nd?

I think this misses the point. By December, the Pats were the top defense in the NFL with the possible exception of Chicago.

BB long ago fixed the problems of last September.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

I'm not entirely sure, but I believe the NFL might dictate what's NLTBE/LTBE.

One twist is that after the season starts, any incentive added is automatically LTBE, so it can be for 1,000,000 rushing yards, which won't be reached, giving the team a cap credit for the next season.

IIRC, the rule is relatively simple: if an incentive was reached the previous season, it's considered LTBE. If it wasn't, it's considered NLTBE.

So, for example, if Dillon had a clause that would give him a $1M bonus for earning 1,250 yards in 2006, it'd be considered NLTBE, because he didn't do it in 2005. If he had such a clause in 2005, though, it'd be LTBE, since he did it in 2004.

 

[Bostonian1962]

I'm pretty sure they can front load Big Sey's contract onto this year. That way in the out years, they have that much more cap space. I would anticipate them doing that, after inking a couple of the free agents.

 

[pats1]

IIRC, the rule is relatively simple: if an incentive was reached the previous season, it's considered LTBE. If it wasn't, it's considered NLTBE.

So, for example, if Dillon had a clause that would give him a $1M bonus for earning 1,250 yards in 2006, it'd be considered NLTBE, because he didn't do it in 2005. If he had such a clause in 2005, though, it'd be LTBE, since he did it in 2004.

That is correct, I believe. The NFL must only decide LTBE/NLTBE for rookies.

 

[Welker83]

The only way to carry over cap space is to re-do some guys contracts and include a bunch of Likely to be earned incentives that are not likely to happen.

For example: Say in 2005 a ST's guy picks up a Fumble on a punt and returns it for a TD. The next year the pats re-do his contract that includes a 1 million dollar incentive if the player returns a fumble for a TD. Now becasue the player has done it before the incentive is seen as likely to be earned so it is charged to the 2006 season...Now most likely the player will not reach it.Thus when the season ends the league figures out all the incentives it will give the pats a million dollar debit for the 2007 season becasue it was charged in 2006, but it was never reached.

The eagles are the pioneers of this and have been doing it for years to basically shift leftover cap space from one year to another...

Now the complicated part is whether it's still legal to do, I thought i heard that the new CBS restricted this, but it's not worded yet and i don't trust the term sheet....