2019 NE CAP SPACE

Kenneth Sims said:

An update to my understanding as to whether Brady’s contract can be extended or not before August. Below is the section of the CBA which is in question:

Section 8. Renegotiations and Extensions:
(a) Provided that all Salary Cap requirements are met, Player Contracts for
current and future years may be renegotiated and/or extended except as follows:
(i) The contract of a Veteran Player may not be renegotiated to increase the Salary to be paid to the player during the original terms of the contract for a period of twelve months after the player’s most recent contract renegotiation.

There are two gray areas that make it iffy and are why, I believe, as reported by Greg Bedard, “most involved” in the discussions don’t believe the extension can be finalized until August.

Last August Brady had $4 million of LTBE incentives added which eventually were not earned. These are the two gray areas: 1. Can “salary” in Section 8 a 1 be argued to mean all increases in compensation including incentives? 2. Since the incentives were not earned do they still count as an increase in “salary”?

This is what I believe this boils down to: because this is the Patriots we’re talking about, the league office would not approve the contract applying the broader meaning of “salary” and saying the attempt to increase compensation with the unearned incentives is the same as actually increasing compensation.

Why open up that can of worms? Make cap space by other means as needed and extend Brady in August.

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long distance said:

And this is how the contracts really look at the end.

The reported 2y/4.8M becomes 1.2M cap hit and 500K guaranteed..

Subtract the lowest top 51 contract that it replaces and this signing takes away just a little over 500K from 2019 cap space

Still, nice for LaCosse, seen obviously as one who can make the team although Pats have walked away from more..

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DW Toys said:

Eric Berry has had some injury issue (shin) and recovered from Hodgkin but is as good of a player. A much younger Tre Boston comes to mind.

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DW Toys said:

DM needs to be about the same price as Weddle. Right now he is 2.5 times more $. Never said DM was a bad player for us. Just think us as fans over rate some of our own. Fill in the names of players you could use the money to go get. Mine were a suggestion.

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Family said:

A contract the Pats can easily walk away from, if they wish.

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SBLIII said:

Ebner release in store?

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reamer said:

Just a word of caution for those asking for multiple extensions (though I do expect at least one). The Patriots are very calculating with how they push money forward, expressly to avoid bad contracts or dead money situations. Neat number here:

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mgteich said:

we have
#1 TE
#2 blocking TE
#3 backup receiving TE

So, yes LeCosse is competing with Hollister and Anderson for the #3 TE spot.

We should be asking how good a special teamer he is. That's was Hollister's value.

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Kenneth Sims said:

An update to my understanding as to whether Brady’s contract can be extended or not before August. Below is the section of the CBA which is in question:

Section 8. Renegotiations and Extensions:
(a) Provided that all Salary Cap requirements are met, Player Contracts for
current and future years may be renegotiated and/or extended except as follows:
(i) The contract of a Veteran Player may not be renegotiated to increase the Salary to be paid to the player during the original terms of the contract for a period of twelve months after the player’s most recent contract renegotiation.

There are two gray areas that make it iffy and are why, I believe, as reported by Greg Bedard, “most involved” in the discussions don’t believe the extension can be finalized until August.

Last August Brady had $4 million of LTBE incentives added which eventually were not earned. These are the two gray areas: 1. Can “salary” in Section 8 a 1 be argued to mean all increases in compensation including incentives? 2. Since the incentives were not earned do they still count as an increase in “salary”?

This is what I believe this boils down to: because this is the Patriots we’re talking about, the league office would not approve the contract applying the broader meaning of “salary” and saying the attempt to increase compensation with the unearned incentives is the same as actually increasing compensation.

Why open up that can of worms? Make cap space by other means as needed and extend Brady in August.

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Kenneth Sims said:

They will have enough cap space to add a kicker and punter, sign their draft class, pay players 52 & 53, have a full 10 player practice squad, and have a reserve for injured players so relax. They’ll just borrow space from future caps as needed, but there is no need to do it all now considering cash flow demands it creates. Such, as in Gilmore’s case, cutting him a check for $9 million now before the 2019 revenues start flowing in.

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Kenneth Sims said:

There’s so much handwringing over the Patriots cap situation especially on the “Free Agent Watch” thread. The Patriots situation , however, is not dire and is the result of success not failure.

We’re talking about a team here that has been to 4 Super Bowls in the last 5 seasons and won 3 of them. You don’t do that without having quite a few really good football players who deservedly earn healthy salaries. That’s the main culprit of their cap tightness: success.

Earlier this week I outlined in another thread how the Patriots could open up $15 million of cap space with simple restructures (turning salary above the minimum into a bonus so it can be expensed cap wise equally over the remaining years of the contract) plus one cut. Since Clayborn has now been granted his release, we’re down to $11 million additional that can be obtained by simple restructures. Also, now that have a proper understanding of the CBA, we know the Patriots do not have to wait until October to do a simple restructure of Gilmore’s contract which could add $ 6 million more to the total available. $17 million is available to them before any cap savings they will realize from the Brady extension when it occurs.

Overthecap.com currently shows the Patriots bring $ 10,033,591 under the cap. This figure is after the Clayborn release and includes updates for all of the signings except for Simon, Pennel, Brooks and Harris. I’m guesstimating their combined cap hit to be $8 million(Simon and Pennel $2.5m each and Harris and Brooks $1.5 m per) add back $ 2 million from contracts falling out of the top 51 and the Patriots are roughly $ 4 million under at this point.

They will have enough cap space to add a kicker and punter, sign their draft class, pay players 52 & 53, have a full 10 player practice squad, and have a reserve for injured players so relax. They’ll just borrow space from future caps as needed, but there is no need to do it all now considering cash flow demands it creates. Such, as in Gilmore’s case, cutting him a check for $9 million now before the 2019 revenues start flowing in.

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supafly said:

I don’t think anyone should be worried about taking care of these basic team needs. It’s those who are throwing out ideas like trading for AJ Green, signing Justin Houston, etc that don’t seem to be coming around to the obvious, which is that the team is cap strapped more than people want to admit.

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supafly said:

I don’t think anyone should be worried about taking care of these basic team needs. It’s those who are throwing out ideas like trading for AJ Green, signing Justin Houston, etc that don’t seem to be coming around to the obvious, which is that the team is cap strapped more than people want to admit.

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PP2 said:

I'm guessing that since Hightower wasn't moved or cut as of yesterday, his $10m cap hit is on the books for the year? Looks like he's coming back.

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