Jason Fitzgerald of Over the Cap on Patriots' cap management

[Jackson 2]

That's really the only sports radio I listen to. I will occasionally forget to turn off MFB but remember as soon as that whiney little piece of sh.t Benz starts talking.

It would be literally impossible to over-emphasize what an insufferable douche Benz is. He is the ultimate troll when it comes to the Patriots. Even his voice tone screams, "Please smash my face in." I would have never thought it possible that I would miss two dinks like Mutnansky and Salk.

 

[Oswlek]

It would be literally impossible to over-emphasize what an insufferable douche Benz is. He is the ultimate troll when it comes to the Patriots. Even his voice tone screams, "Please smash my face in." I would have never thought it possible that I would miss two dinks like Mutnansky and Salk.

He's also the king of hyperbole and false dichotomies. Can't overlook that he usually straw man's a caller's point to build that false dichotomy either.

Caller last Sept: "Hey, maybe there's more going on just Brady struggling."

Benz tease afterward: "So, do you agree that Brady is on the decline or are you a rump sniffing fanboy who thinks he can do no wrong?"

Seriously, you could teach a lesson on logical fallacies from just one midday show.

 

[NormZauchin]

The best piece of information from the Fitzgerald interview:

"When you look throughout NFL history, the highest percentage of cap spent on one individual player by a Super Bowl winner is just 13.1 percent, which occurred in 1994, the first year of the salary cap. The average is under 10 percent."

This should be required reading for every Patriot fan at the opening of free agency.

 

[Jackson 2]

A

Sadly, the "Kraft is cheap" implied meme resonates with a certain percentage of people in this market "for some reason." On the other side, the VAST majority of fans recognize it for the trolling it is, and if I had a guess about this, the Kraft's couldn't care less about it, they know it comes with the territory of being out there in the public eye like they are.

And we all know what the "for some reason" is. Given Felger's ethnicity, he should be quadruply ashamed.

 

[Rob0729]

The thing that Felger and Mazz and all the Kraft is cheap crowd don't get is that cap dollars and real dollars are tied together. There is no way to cheat the cap by creating fake cap dollars. That means that if the Pats spend to the cap every year, they are spending the same amount of money over time as every other team that spends to the cap. There may be given years where their real dollar spending is lower than most teams, but it evens out in the wash.

In fact, teams like the Jets are being praised by some for their aggressive spending this offseason, but the only reason they can is because they have let their team lose all their talent by being extremely cheap and not fulfilling needs which gave them a ridiculous amount of cap room.

And the whole "the Pats don't want to put money in escrow" is BS. When everything is said and done, they are likely to have to put a similar amount into escrow for all the free agents they sign this offseason as they would have for Revis. The difference will be that it will go to a half dozen players rather than one. If the Pats signed Revis, they probably don't re-sign McCourty, sign Chandler and Sheard, etc.

 

[skinnydog]

The best piece of information from the Fitzgerald interview:

"When you look throughout NFL history, the highest percentage of cap spent on one individual player by a Super Bowl winner is just 13.1 percent, which occurred in 1994, the first year of the salary cap. The average is under 10 percent."

This should be required reading for every Patriot fan at the opening of free agency.

So it the Pats had picked up the option year on Revis and took the 25 million cap hit would that have been about 17-18% of the overall cap?

 

[hwc]

The metric that Kirwin uses is that you have to keep your top three cap guys below 30% of the cap if you want to be able to field a viable team (quality depth, etc.). His point is that, if can't afford quality players at #22 or #23 on your roster because you are too top heavy on the cap, then good NFL opponents will find those weaknesses and carve you up. Especially later in the season when injuries force you to go to the bench.

Ever wonder why Belichick teams are always competitive in December?

 

[mayoclinic]

The metric that Kirwin uses is that you have to keep your top three cap guys below 30% of the cap if you want to be able to field a viable team (quality depth, etc.). His point is that, if can't afford quality players at #22 or #23 on your roster because you are too top heavy on the cap, then good NFL opponents will find those weaknesses and carve you up. Especially later in the season when injuries force you to go to the bench.

Ever wonder why Belichick teams are always competitive in December?

Pats' current top 3 cap hits for 2015:

1. Brady - $14,000,000
2. Mayo - $10,287,500 (will likely get lowered)
3. Gronk - $8,650,000

Total = $32,937,500

2015 adjusted cap = $144,578,084

% of 2015 adjusted cap = 22.78%

If Revis were re-signed with a $21M cap hit, replacing Gronk, then the total would have been $45,287,500, which would have been 31.32% of the adjusted cap. With Revis' $20M option and $5M carryover it would have been $49,287,500, which would have been 34% of the adjusted cap.

 

[hwc]

I wouldn't be surprised if Kirwin's "rule of thumb" came from Belichick. He's been hired to do cap analysis stuff for Belichick and that would be just the kind of metric that would be looked at from a historical performance standpoint.

He said that nobody is on top of the current market pricing for players better than Belichick. He gets a daily market price report reflecting the prior day's transactions.