The Pats currently have 9 million in cap space, They can clear another $4.3 million by making McCourty a post June 1st cut. But other than that, they really have no contracts they can restructure to clear additional cap space. AssUmeing, they franchise JCJ, they are already $1.8 million over the cap.
None of which accounts for UFAs Trent Brown, White, Karras, Bentley etc.
I also assume they will at least give Meyers and original round tender as a RFA, which will add another $2.4 million over the cap.
New England Patriots Salary Cap | Over the Cap
Feel free to go to OTC and use the calculator for both the Pats and the Saints. With the Saints, you can restructure their top ten contracts, you don't have to cut anyone and they end up with $20,000,000 in cap space. Once the pats franchise JCJ, they are over the cap. The only players you can cut that would create more cap space than dead money are Mason and Jonathan Jones. I don't think anyone here thinks that those guys should be cut.