6+M Cap Unspent .. nowhere to use it?

[JR4]

Is this true? Read someplace else that the cutoff date for
renegotiating a current contract has passed. If this is true
then it sounds like PATs have 6+M CAP space and will not use it.

I thought J.Kraft seemed to indicate they had until end of current
season, February, to use the CAP space.

 

[JoeSixPat]

Is this true? Read someplace else that the cutoff date for
renegotiating a current contract has passed. If this is true
then it sounds like PATs have 6+M CAP space and will not use it.

I thought J.Kraft seemed to indicate they had until end of current
season, February, to use the CAP space.

That's the way it always has been in the past. Doesn't seem to me that the CBA extension changed or would change the nature of that.

Seems like it would penalize the players to not allow teams the maximum flexibility to sign additional players to replace those injured - and allow veterans to see non-guaranteed portions of salary be frontloaded and guaranteed following the end of the regular season.

So since having a deadline during the season hurts players and hurts owners and hurts teams, I just can't imagine it was changed to have the deadline now.

 

[satz]

you think this is bad .Next year the cap is at 109 million .Their are going to be 20 teams with 20 miilion to spend and out of which 8 teams are going to have 30 million.

Their are no FA to spend all this money on !! i think from now the cap will not be fully used going to forward .

 

[MoLewisrocks]

The cutoff for salary increases to count has, but they can still pro rate signing bonus into 2006 or do a deal with a current roster bonus that counts. They can do that up until the last week of the season. Falcons did it when they extended Vick a few years back, and the Eagles and Cardinals did it when they extended their kickers late last season. I'm sure that if they aren't able to get a deal done with Graham or Samuel in the next 3 weeks they will pre pay some portions of other players deals or perhaps extend a vet like Tedy or Hawkins or Caldwell who seems to be working out well enough that they would prefer he remaim past 2007.

 

[JoeSixPat]

The cutoff for salary increases to count has, but they can still pro rate signing bonus into 2006 or do a deal with a current roster bonus that counts. They can do that up until the last week of the season. Falcons did it when they extended Vick a few years back, and the Eagles and Cardinals did it when they extended their kickers late last season. I'm sure that if they aren't able to get a deal done with Graham or Samuel in the next 3 weeks they will pre pay some portions of other players deals or perhaps extend a vet like Tedy or Hawkins or Caldwell who seems to be working out well enough that they would prefer he remaim past 2007.

So as far as the Patriots are concerned this deadline changes very little.

Since there's no one currently unsigned who is worth $6 mil a year - or probably even half of that - we all knew that our unspent cap space wasn't going to be used on a major new player - the time for that type of free agent spending was long ago.

What they can still to do is frontload signing or roster bonuses that would have counted in subsequent years to count against this year's cap - thereby using some of this year's cap space to give themselves even more flexibility in the future.

I still don't think that neither Kraft nor BB will advocate spending money for the sake of spending money. The market is currently in flux, and when it comes to difference making players there's no question the team will do what it has to spend enough to sign them.

The only thing I am certain of is that BB and Kraft will spend enough to put a team on the field capable of winning a SB each year - and if that price tag is $6 million less than the cap so be it.

They did not intend to put a team on the field that didn't have Deion Branch this year, but that's what wound up happening. With Branch on the field we would not be talking about $6 million unspent on the cap...

...and yet the Patriots are STILL capable and contending to win the Super Bowl. What's not to like!?

 

[alamo]

What they can also do is renegotiate a player to add a fake "likely to be earned" bonus which counts against this year but is not actually earned and thus gets refunded next year, adding to next year's cap. They would have to do this before the last game of the regular season. They could for example give Larry Izzo a 5M bonus for leading the team in interceptions, and all such bonuses negotiated during the season count as "likely", no matter how ridiculous. They have done this before, and there have been no reports that the new CBA changes what they can do in this regard.

Also, Miguel has stated he believes there are up to 2M of "Not Likely To Be Earned" bonues which will actually be earned. If they are, and there is unused cap room at the end of this year they count against it, otherwise they come off our cap next year. So that 6M may well be closer to 4M.

 

[MrBigglesWorth]

you think this is bad .Next year the cap is at 109 million .Their are going to be 20 teams with 20 miilion to spend and out of which 8 teams are going to have 30 million.

Their are no FA to spend all this money on !! i think from now the cap will not be fully used going to forward .

I guess this will cause teams to try to lock up their drafted core guys before the enter the final year of their contract.

Makes the draft all that more important. Makes the likelihood of dillon returning, but will they bring him back?

 

[DaBruinz]

The Patriots can also change NLTBE bonuses into LTBE bonuses and use up cap money that way, if they so choose.

However, I believe that they are attempting to sign Graham and Samuel to extensions. And then they could easily use up that 6 million just by giving them a roster bonus in lieu of money in a signing bonus.