Cap space

[TommyD4207]

Sheesh, looking over the average age of Patriots players shows they really need to start hitting in the draft. Without knowing for a fact the Pats must have one of the oldest rosters in the NFL this upcoming season.

They have exactly 3 players 30 or older on the team, one of which is Joe Cardona.
Maybe you should check your notes.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

The cap number doesn't actually equal the money available to spend on FAs. Among other things, they need:
* ~$2M to cover salaries #52 and #53, which don't count right now
* ~$4M to cover salaries for the practice squad
* ~$8M in new cap money for the drafted rookies (they will displace some of the bottom players, so part of the rookie allocation already is on the cap).

Just those three are ~$15M, and that doesn't count injury replacements, etc.

 

[BobDigital]

My best guess we have a bit under 60m we can actually spend.

much of it will be on the line. And while you don't want bad contracts, they have put themselves in a situation where they need starting level players and just don't have them.

 

[MrTibbs]

They have exactly 3 players 30 or older on the team, one of which is Joe Cardona.
Maybe you should check your notes.

Meaning "in comparison to other teams" average age overall. I didn't state "players over 30" as your saying. Maybe you should understand the word average.

 

[Hugepatsfan]

I feel like the really good teams have 10-12 guys who draw serious consideration for pro bowl/all pro type of honors. We have 1 guy in Gonzalez. I know Maye made the pro bowl last year but it was as like a 10th alternate or whatever. He does that kind of potential though of course, as does Barmore if he figures out his blood clots. That's what they started the offseason with and, of the guys they signed, only Milton Williams seems to have that kind of upside really. And it took the biggest FA contract on the market to land him.

My guess is they plan to roll over an amount of cap space that will annoy people again to try and keep positioning themselves to sign a "Milton Williams" in each of the next few offseasons. I think they'd like to feel that they're a upper end competitor by the end of the Maye's rookie deal and to do so, if you go with that 10-12 pro bowl/all pro player numbers, they have to take 2-3 of those guys in each of the next 3 drafts so it'd be a big help to try and use the top of the FA market (or trade and extend market) to help there.

Obviously have to weigh it case by case and player by player, but in general if they want to be somewhat frugal with filling out the roster and maybe go for the lesser stop gap options in favor of rolling a bit extra over to spend on the top of next year's market instead, I'm ok with that. I'd like to see them still fill out the roster though with guys that aren't mega-liabilities at all positions. They should be able to still do that and pocket an extra $20-30M to roll over into next year.

 

[TommyD4207]

Meaning "in comparison to other teams" average age overall. I didn't state "players over 30" as your saying. Maybe you should understand the word average.

"Knowing for a fact" are words you're clearly not familiar with.

It's not one of the oldest rosters in the league.