NFL News Official 2025 NFL Free Agency Thread

[BUSTAMOVE]

To those who think if we over payed he would come here
He used a bunch of teams to get a bigger payday
I don’t blame him for getting the most he could out of Seattle
He grew up in Seattle and his family lives close by
His last few years to line his pockets while being close to his family
He was not coming here
The dude has never had a snowball fight in his life.

 

[hornetfb85]

My point though is there is no reason to have to choose

Yep I hear ya. Need to improve in all ways.

 

[Huckleberry1]

Kupp is going to Seattle.

 

[raduray]

Money would serve us better in Kupp's pocket instead of Krafts.

I don't know how you guys think we are going to spend this money? You're all just happy with Kraft ripping us off again. Ring 6 was dead on about this last year and nothing has changed.

Kraft's not ripping us off. From Bedard's recent cap/cash article:

 

[UGAPatsfan]

I know Kupp isn’t in his prime anymore but I hope the Pats offered more than it took for Seattle to sign him.

A trade seems like the only way the receiver room will improve this year short of a young player making the leap.

I was in on Cupp but will be fair and fully admit NO WAY I was giving bro 3/45MM. He’s not going to produce in a way to justify that.

F it….just draft 3 WR’s, 2 tackles and whatever else you like and see what sticks.

The market on those positions plus QB are disproportionately out of control. Get em as rookies, you control them for 5-6 years.

 

[NE_Zealot]

Money would serve us better in Kupp's pocket instead of Krafts.

I don't know how you guys think we are going to spend this money? You're all just happy with Kraft ripping us off again. Ring 6 was dead on about this last year and nothing has changed.

There’s an invisible barrier around Gillette that doesn’t let us sign decent WRs

 

[Huckleberry1]

Has Chris Olave been spotted in the area?

Chris Olave has had 4-5 serious concussions already, they shouldn’t go anywhere near him.

 

[TommyD4207]

We are way over the floor. The floor is cash not cap number

3-year rolling average. Have to make up for last year too.

 

[Ross12]

Kraft's not ripping us off. From Bedard's recent cap/cash article:

This is helpful, so essentially Kraft spent 105% of the cap even though the “requirement” is only 90%

To me this seems like smart business - you can go a little over the cap without hurting yourself but if you go way over, you end up the Saints

 

[Joey007]

Starting to have frustration set in in regard to the offense.

All nice that we’ll have a stout defense. But this feels like the exact same thing we’ve seen for 4-5 years now. No investment into receivers, none into the offensive line.

How the **** do you expect anything to change? You’re setting Drake up to fail.

 

[BUSTAMOVE]

Vrabes developing Culture

 

[Grogan14]

Starting to have frustration set in in regard to the offense.

All nice that we’ll have a stout defense. But this feels like the exact same thing we’ve seen for 4-5 years now. No investment into receivers, none into the offensive line.

How the **** do you expect anything to change? You’re setting Drake up to fail.

Did we try to sign Bekton? We should have. Maybe he did not want to play here. Vrabel said they only want to sign players who want to play here. Maybe no good offensive players want to be here? The culture thing is great but without talent it will only take you so far.
As of 3-13 grade for UFA on offense is F-

 

[Patsgofor4]

He was not coming here

The dude has never had a snowball fight in his life.

You may want to bone up on your WA/Seattle weather knowledge.

Average Annual Snowfall Totals in Washington - Current Results

Annual average snowfall at cities, towns and parks in Washington, including how many days it snows a year and the total amount of snowfall.

www.currentresults.com

 

[Delicate Genius]

Vrabes developing Culture

"Once that baby's feet touch the locker room carpet, there's nothing I can do for her." - Jerod Mayo

 

[Ring 6]

3-year rolling average. Have to make up for last year too.

We were well over last year too

 

[Ring 6]

Kraft's not ripping us off. From Bedard's recent cap/cash article:

Why are you posting things you don’t understand? A few days ago you argued there was a cap floor

 

[Lagaffe_07]

Starting to have frustration set in in regard to the offense.

All nice that we’ll have a stout defense. But this feels like the exact same thing we’ve seen for 4-5 years now. No investment into receivers, none into the offensive line.

How the **** do you expect anything to change? You’re setting Drake up to fail.

This front office really hate Drake Maye

 

[ralmat55]

3-year rolling average. Have to make up for last year too.

Patriots' Marcus Jones returns eyeing new kickoff rules

The Patriots open training camp this week. Jones will be back after a suffering a season-ending injury in September.

www.espn.com

Item 4 of the attached article. The Pats cash expenditures for 2024 of $259 million was 9th most in the NFL. That number likely climbed during the 2024 season with injuries etc. The salary cap last season was $255.4 million. They spent more in cash than the cap in 2024.

This last week they added a reported $280 million to their books over mostly the next 3 seasons as only Williams got a 4 year contract. Milton Williams will be paid $32 million in 2025 yet his cap figure is $14 million. His 2026 cap figure will be $29 million and $30 million in 2027. Carlton Davis will be paid $23.5 million this season but his cap figure is $11.7 million. His 26 cap figure will be $20 million and $22 million in 2027. It will be similar when the other multi-year deals.

The Patriots are spending money and will easily meet the 90% floor for the 2024-2026 3 year window. Most likely, they’ll spend in excess of the cap over this 3 season window. Eventually, every dollar spent has to be expensed against the cap. It may look like they have “cash to burn” seeing how much under the cap they are, but that’s misleading as a good chunk of that cap room has already been spent just not expensed against the cap.

It would all be easier to understand if it was not for the accounting trick where signing bonuses are expensed over the length of the contract against the cap. But, that trick allows teams to exceed the cap in the short-term to strike when the competitive metal is hot to strike. And, it allows the players to get a good chunk of the contract’s worth upfront.

 

[Ross12]

Patriots' Marcus Jones returns eyeing new kickoff rules

The Patriots open training camp this week. Jones will be back after a suffering a season-ending injury in September.

www.espn.com

Item 4 of the attached article. The Pats cash expenditures for 2024 of $259 million was 9th most in the NFL. That number likely climbed during the 2024 season with injuries etc. The salary cap last season was $255.4 million. They spent more in cash than the cap in 2024.

This last week they added a reported $280 million to their books over mostly the next 3 seasons as only Williams got a 4 year contract. Milton Williams will be paid $32 million in 2025 yet his cap figure is $14 million. His 2026 cap figure will be $29 million and $30 million in 2027. Carlton Davis will be paid $23.5 million this season but his cap figure is $11.7 million. His 26 cap figure will be $20 million and $22 million in 2027. It will be similar when the other multi-year deals.

The Patriots are spending money and will easily meet the 90% floor for the 2024-2026 3 year window. Most likely, they’ll spend in excess of the cap over this 3 season window. Eventually, every dollar spent has to be expensed against the cap. It may look like they have “cash to burn” seeing how much under the cap they are, but that’s misleading as a good chunk of that cap room has already been spent just not expensed against the cap.

It would all be easier to understand if it was not for the accounting trick where signing bonuses are expensed over the length of the contract against the cap. But, that trick allows teams to exceed the cap in the short-term to strike when the competitive metal is hot to strike. And, it allows the players to get a good chunk of the contract’s worth upfront.

But that $259M last year and $280M this year includes every part of the deal, including future salaries that will likely never get paid. Should really only count signing bonuses and other guarantees, then go year-to-year with what salary and other expenses actually get paid. You can’t have mega cap space for years in a row if you’re actually spending close to or over the cap.

The table shared earlier is more valuable because it actually totals real cash spent.

 

[signbabybrady]

Patriots' Marcus Jones returns eyeing new kickoff rules

The Patriots open training camp this week. Jones will be back after a suffering a season-ending injury in September.

www.espn.com

Item 4 of the attached article. The Pats cash expenditures for 2024 of $259 million was 9th most in the NFL. That number likely climbed during the 2024 season with injuries etc. The salary cap last season was $255.4 million. They spent more in cash than the cap in 2024.

This last week they added a reported $280 million to their books over mostly the next 3 seasons as only Williams got a 4 year contract. Milton Williams will be paid $32 million in 2025 yet his cap figure is $14 million. His 2026 cap figure will be $29 million and $30 million in 2027. Carlton Davis will be paid $23.5 million this season but his cap figure is $11.7 million. His 26 cap figure will be $20 million and $22 million in 2027. It will be similar when the other multi-year deals.

The Patriots are spending money and will easily meet the 90% floor for the 2024-2026 3 year window. Most likely, they’ll spend in excess of the cap over this 3 season window. Eventually, every dollar spent has to be expensed against the cap. It may look like they have “cash to burn” seeing how much under the cap they are, but that’s misleading as a good chunk of that cap room has already been spent just not expensed against the cap.

It would all be easier to understand if it was not for the accounting trick where signing bonuses are expensed over the length of the contract against the cap. But, that trick allows teams to exceed the cap in the short-term to strike when the competitive metal is hot to strike. And, it allows the players to get a good chunk of the contract’s worth upfront.

You're falling for the 3 card monte trick.

Poor Vrabel going to get churned out by the cheap Kraft's too.