Are we going to spend to the Cap?? J. Kraft gives us a clue

http://patriots.bostonherald.com/patriots/view.bg?articleid=164399&format=&page=1

Perhaps this story gives us a clue once and for all. Please, no more talk about the Kraft's being cheap... ever. They've invested correctly and that's why the product that's put out on the football field every week has been excellent during their time as owners of the Pats. We are blessed to have great owners, an excellent management team, and great front line personnel over the last decade or so.

beautiful article imho

what Kraft Family does for the team is amazing...

italianpatthepatriot said:

beautiful article imho

what Kraft Family does for the team is amazing...

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Indeed, the article is very well written.

With the Krafts, what you see is what you get. As far as I'm concerned, they have consistently lived up to their promises - and there have been a lot of promises - from putting a good product on the field to making it a fan friendly stadium to risking their own money on a new stadium. The only real broken promise was the agreement to play in Hartford - a plan they never wanted and were happy to void when events conspired to delay the building of the stadium at the same time some sense was knocked into the Mass legislature.

It was never a doubt in my mind that the intention of the Krafts was to spend to the salary cap. I believe that those who do doubt this just don't really understand who the Krafts are or what they're trying to do. Winning football games matters to them. Big time. Trying to do things right and being a class act matters to them. Also big time. Making money will happen if you do the first two - which they have and it has.

Saving money by not spending to the cap would be a classic example of penny-wise and pound foolish. The franchise they bought in 1994 for, what, $200 million or so (I'm usually very good at remembering numbers and now can't remember this one) is now worth about 1 billion more than that and people think the 5 or 10 million in cap savings might be a driving force in their decision making? I think not. They are committed to excellance on the field and have proven so adept at it in so many areas (to hiring the best coach in the NFL when many questioned if he could even succeed as a head coach to adroit handling of the salary cap to keep this team competitive year in and year out despite injuries as the article mentions) that they truly are the model franchise in sports - and now commonly recognized as such from a national perspective.

New England football fans are blessed to have such a franchise and such an owner, particularly when you consider all the high-profile jerks in the world of sports ownership. I have confidence that the Krafts will continue to do the right things from creating and maintaining a management team (think Scott Pioli) to showcasing their team in China (doesn't everyone say the pre-season is too long? So what's the big deal if a few days are wasted travel days?) They will continue to innovate and outperform. How fortunate we are to be fans of this team.

What I have always appreciated about the Krafts is they were long standing NE fans before they became owners... so their frame of reference is different than a lot of owners. Their midas touch, and the continuing involvement of this family will keep this franchise fresh and keep this team on the up and ups for years to come.

Another tidbit for the "Krafts' are cheap" crowd. One example of many:
http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/articles/2006/10/27/seymour_says_injury_was_gruesome/?page=2

Members of the Hockomock Area YMCA are scheduled to visit Gillette Stadium today to thank Patriots owner Robert Kraft for pledging a $1 million gift to the YMCA in Foxborough.

I don't think that anyone has questioned that the Krafts are the best owners, and the best businessmen in the history of the NFL. In addition, what they have done for the community, through charities, and through paying for the stadium themself is truly extraordinary. Finally, they have provided business and ethical leadership for the league's owners.

No one questions that the Krafts have always INTENDED to spend the 2006 cap without rolling over much into 2007. Most do not question that the Kraft's will spend almost all the 2006 cap. However, much will be rolled into 2007 or into 2008 and 2009 through restructuring, extensions, and gimmicks.

As Jonathan indicated publicly, the Kraft's had hoped to spend the bulk of the available cap money on Law and Branch.

What was, and is, an issue for some here is the choice not to use more money in securing talent for 2006. We ALL should understand that the choice is Kraft's to make, and we should be fine with any decision they make.

The fact is that there is a total of $9M that is either still to be spent or that will be rolled over into 2007. Let us assume that Samuel and a couple of others get extended using $3M of that cap in 2006 (not counting gimmicks) and $1M is left for the injury fund for the rest of the year That still would leave $5M that could have been used for a player or two in 2006 AFTER extending Seymour, Koppen, Samuel and a couple of others.

The choice was not, and is not, about securing players for the future instead of going after players this year. No team has ever secured their future as well as the Kraft's.

However, the fact remains that $5M of current cap money could have been spent on 2006 rather than rolling the money forward into years where there will likely be even less need than now.

For example, WAS THERE ANY PLAYER AVAILABLE WHO COULD CONTRIBUTE that we could have signed to a 2-year contract: say $5M in 2006 and $1M in 2007. This kind of transaction would have had almost no effect on the future, and would not have the permanent effect on the patriot salary structure than everyone seems to fear. Everyone would have understood bringing in a player for two years, spending the 2006 excess cap money, since that money will not affect anyone else's salary and would have increased the likelihood of winning the Super Bowl in the 2006-2007 season.

For me, I have no question that we would have picked up such a player, in 100% hindsight, if we knew that we wouldn't end up signing Branch or Law.

mgteich said:

I don't think that anyone has questioned that the Krafts are the best owners, and the best businessmen in the history of the NFL..... No one questions that the Krafts have always INTENDED to spend the 2006 cap without rolling over much into 2007......

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Evidently you have Mikey on your Ignore list.

shmessy said:

Evidently you have Mikey on your Ignore list.

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and 30 or so other posters. MG, have you not read how many threads were on here that said the Kraft's were cheap? you must have missed those but I didn't. It sickened me to think that some here have thought that the Kraft's were all about money especially after how much passion they have shown towards not just their team but more importantly their fans.

We are all immeasurably grateful to the Krafts. Still, the Rooney model is best: Be tactful and dignified while others sing your praises.

Whether Jonathan Kraft, who is President of the Pat's, has the business savy of his father has yet to be seen. Scheduling the Stones concert such that it ruined the field, and then a movie which involved extensive re-painting of the field - causing further damage - has angered the fans. Now Bob Kraft has reportedly had to become involved to straighten the mess out.

lobster said:

Whether Jonathan Kraft, who is President of the Pat's, has the business savy of his father has yet to be seen. Scheduling the Stones concert such that it ruined the field, and then a movie which involved extensive re-painting of the field - causing further damage - has angered the fans. Now Bob Kraft has reportedly had to become involved to straighten the mess out.

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The movie filming at Gillette was originally scheduled for May 2006 (perfect - offseason), but The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) broke his leg, or something, and Disney had no choice but to reschedule the filming. Can't pin that one on Jonathan.

shmessy said:

The movie filming at Gillette was originally scheduled for May 2006 (perfect - offseason), but The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) broke his leg, or something, and Disney had no choice but to reschedule the filming. Can't pin that one on Jonathan.

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It takes 6-7 weeks to heal a broken leg which would have taken them into July - a much better time to mess up the field than October. Also movie producers are almost certainly used to making accomodations for very tight deadlines when filming "on location".

Jonathan has been a savvy corporate executive for many years. He is the CEO of the holding company and is responsible for a bit more than rock concerts at the stadium. Google him to see his extensive resume.

lobster said:

Whether Jonathan Kraft, who is President of the Pat's, has the business savy of his father has yet to be seen. Scheduling the Stones concert such that it ruined the field, and then a movie which involved extensive re-painting of the field - causing further damage - has angered the fans. Now Bob Kraft has reportedly had to become involved to straighten the mess out.

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As an aside, does this positively glowing profile put to rest the grumbles that John Tomase is a "Ron Borges Jr." who just wants to stir the pot? IMO Tomase has gotten up to speed remarkably quickly and is a terrific addition to the Patriots beat.

mgteich said:

No one questions that the Krafts have always INTENDED to spend the 2006 cap without rolling over much into 2007. Most do not question that the Kraft's will spend almost all the 2006 cap. However, much will be rolled into 2007 or into 2008 and 2009 through restructuring, extensions, and gimmicks.

As Jonathan indicated publicly, the Kraft's had hoped to spend the bulk of the available cap money on Law and Branch.

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As I see it, this is an entirely different question. You raise 2 points as I see it:

1) They should have brought in or resigned a player that could help the team in 2006
2) Pushing 2006 cap money into 2007 or beyond doesn't really count in your mind as spending to the 2006 cap limit

As far as the first point goes, then has been a lot of talk about how the Patriots should have handled their free agents (and their disgruntled wide receiver), I won't rehash that here. Personally, I think they made reasonable decisions although not necessarily always the best decision.

On the second point, I just disagree. Pushing the money into a future year is, both technically and realistically (from my perspective), spending to the 2006 cap. The cap is not real cash, it is only an accounting spending limit. If the Patriots restructure contracts or resign players in such a way that they are within 1% of the cap limit, then, IMO, they have spent to the cap regardless of how much money they actually pay out.

I remember reading an article a while back (by Borges, I think) that criticized the Patriots for being near the bottom of the NFL in total cash paid out over a number of years. Since the Patriots spend to the cap limit every year and since cap money ultimately does equal real cash (with minor exceptions for some minimum veteran contracts), this only means 1 thing - most other teams had significant cap problems. It didn't mean what the auther was trying to prove (that the Patriots were cheap). So, if the Patriots have to play more cap games because their plans (for Ty Law and Deion Branch) didn't work out, that's fine by me. That's exactly what I'd want them to do. That's a sign of a well-run franchise, IMO, not a reason to criticize.

I agree with the Last Poster that we tried to spend to the '06 cap on talent this year.
Pushing those unspent dollars into '07 is the best solution now.
We should be grateful that we have the best player management/selection/coaching/development of this decade.

But as a spoiled fan it is dissappointing that we did not sign more talent to the roster...... especially when Mcginest has more sacks than any of our LBs.

For the cap...take your choice. Pay Twig and Vini millions and eat up the remainder of the cap or extend Koppen and sign many solid players in the process. And we still are in excellent cap position.

As I argued from the getgo, this year in which the cap "spiked" was always going to be one where it made sense to roll money over. Whether the rollover was just by cleaning up dead money or by not back-loading new contracts as much as normal or by the actual LTBE incentive dodge or whatever was never important, of course. There were two related reasons for this.

1. The cap increase means that salaries will eventually go up. But that should be a several year transition, since lots of guys are still under contract at the old numbers.

2. The sudden cap increase made it very likely that there would be a short-term supply/demand pricing bubble in player salaries. I actually thought it would be worse than it was. But there obviously weren't going to be a lot of attractively priced FAs this years.

psychoPat said:

I've never called (or thought) the Krafts cheap. On the contrary,
i've often sounded off that they were superb ... premier ... owners.

However, i did raise the possibility ... rather my ancestor here in true blue raised the possibility
... that, despite their key role in brokering it,
the new CBA may have tasted sour to the family,
and that this MIGHT BE a year when they decide to bank some extra income
instead of once again rolling it all over into capital gains.

This interview shuts the lid on any such possibility. Hurrah!

The front office underestimated the depth of Law's dislike for the organization, and
they expected a key player to honor his contract. Not their faults.

When details of Koppen's extension finally were emitted, it was well chronicled in these pages
that an LTBE incentives trick
has been set ticking to roll almost 2 mil forward into next season.

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Whatever happened to that ancestor, anyway?

Inquiring minds want to know.