To sum up my opinion, I find it difficult to see how we could have 80 million in available space, that's all.
We had about 40 players under contract this year and 65m dollars available (with no 20m franchise tag). Next year, we have many more free agents coming up, with only 33/63 players under contract and 53m dollars available, and you want to automatically take 20m away via the franchise tag, which would leave about 33m left, and another 29 players to sign. That's my reasoning. Yes, they'll carry money over. We agree there. I don't think we can assume any more than 15m or so. That takes it back up to around the same as this year, with more players up for FA, less players under contract, and the need to blow 20+ all at once via the tag.
In other words, I don't dispute that they can manage to tag Garoppolo like you suggest, but they almost certainly won't have 80m dollars at their disposal to do it with. Even if we manage to look past the financial issues, we'd have to assume that one or the other will be leaving. Brady just came off what was probably his best season ever, and JG isn't going to want to hold the clipboard. More importantly, Belichick isn't going to want to tie up 42m dollars at the QB position.
As far as the platooning idea, I respectfully disagree with taking the league's best QB off the field, particularly when he'll have over a 20m dollar cap hit. You're trying to keep both, and while that's a great idea, unfortunately, I come back to the thought that it just isn't feasible. As you can see, there have been lots of discussions on the matter and no one can seem to come up with a reasonable solution to keeping both. In the end, I hope that you're correct and they keep both, and I certainly don't mean to discredit your opinion in any way. I just find it a bit far-fetched.
