Let's just play along here and say for the sake or argument that Antonio Brown should not play for the team.
Do these staunch people who permanently reside up Kraft's rectum (I'm looking at you
@shmessy ) even understand the salary cap implications and why releasing him like this was a big error in judgment? Take AB's antics/accusations out of the equation and let's just say it's anyone who the team decides they don't want.
The Patriots gave him roughly $9M guaranteed over two years and spread the cap hit over two years. By doing this, they took a 4.5M charge this year, leaving them with about $5M remaining in cap space in case they needed to add a player, account for a trade, etc. By releasing him, his signing bonus accelerated, so they are now on the hook for the full $9M this year...or in other words, it decimated their flexibility for this season. Even if they ultimately do win the grievance and get a cap credit, their 2019 flexibility is gone.
There's a lot of talk about how Kraft never would have done this deal if he'd known about the lawsuit. Belichick never would have done this deal if it were one-year, not two, and ate up all the remaining space. And the
only way that scenario could play out is by the Patriots releasing him. So you can talk all you want about Kraft's decision about Brown on the team. but releasing him in this way has huge consequences beyond just not having Brown.
The Patriots had an option to keep Brown even if they didn't want him to play another down for them. Exempt List literally means he can be suspended by the league and the Patriots can use the exempt roster spot for someone else. A suspension largely achieves the same ends as it also provides a roster exemption. They very well may have had the option to leave him on the exempt/suspended roster without having to wreck their cap space for this year. Now is there 100% certainty this would have happened? No, we don't know because Kraft threw away a chance at reviewing his options, but it's absolutely not far fetched to believe this scenario could have happened where they can avoid losing that cap space and still freezing out Brown.
Let's see if the people who don't like Brown (fine, that's your opinion) can acknowledge that this wasn't a smart cap decision, or if they'll dig in their heels, make irrelevant arguments about Brown's bad behavior, etc. (my money is that they definitely will resort to this.)