Not so fast, PWP. The guy who you want to say good bye to with this signing is Odrick. The Pats had a need for 3-4 DE type would can be used inside pass rush downs, but big enough to play a 3-4 DE when that alignment is advantageous to Patricia. We didn't have 2 guys like that on the roster (MBrown is the other) before today.
Don't know anyting about him, except BB liked him better than Odrick, and I liked the Miami Odrick. Seems like a lot of money, but lets see what the ACTUAL contract is. I bet its loaded with incentives.
BTW- I was just over at Miguel's page and found it interesting that Gilmore will only cost $8+MM against the cap this year, and we have $39MM left after all the activity we've had.
I wish there was a way you could trade cap space for draft picks.
If we want to keep around $10mm for in-season flexibility, that would mean we have close to $30MM left so spend (and 6MM more if DA gets cut) When we sign Hightower, if its anything like Gilmore's contract, we'll STILL have around $3oMM to spend.
THEN the question becomes.....what do we spend it on. I'd be on the phone to Mangold right now. Christ if we carry it over to next year, we'll almost have enough to francise Butler AND Garapolo.