Am I the only one worried about...

[patfanken]

..... The following things.

1. The Patriots are about to give Gonzo a roughly $35MM/yr contract, and NEXT year give Drake a roughly (we hope) $65MM/year deal. So, say next year's cap jumps to $330MM per team, am I the only one worried we are giving one third of our cap money to just TWO players? As salaries explode for star individuals, I wonder at what point the bottom 2/3rds of the roster revolt as their earning potential shrinks, while their a few of their teammates get ever higher percentages of the cap. It will be harder and harder to justify the ever-increasing number of players to risk their future health for less and less of the pie. Kind of mirrors our current economy, right.

2. Is anyone else worried about the fact that ALL of our starters and the key backups, when they line up against the Seahawks, will not have play a SINGLE live down this entire preseason. When Seattle runs the ball, it will be the first time Spillane will have tackle a guy to the ground since back in February. That's a pretty scary thought, imho. The joint practices are great, but all the contact there is "controlled", good work, of course, but NOT the same as game speed.

Now I know, I'm an old school guy. I played in an era where you scrimmaged at full go during parts of practice, 2 times a day, 3 or 4 days in a row. You developed those so called callouses and got ready for that 12-game season. Now granted, I personally never made to the actual game part schedule, but I would have been ready for it. .

I understand the thinking behind not playing those guys, but we all have to agree that it seriously affects the quality of play. Fans should get 20% discounts on their tickets for having to watch subpar execution. And none of us should be pissed when we see missed tackles from guys who are doing it live for the first time since last season.

Now those are the things I am worried about this August, what are yours?

 

[Uptown]

Concerning to a degree, but all in all, water will find its level.

 

[Palm Beach Pats Fan]

The good thing for point #2 is that basically all teams are in the same boat, so September games are like preseason games of old, except that they count;

and for point #1, all teams with a decent QB not on a rookie contract are also in the same boat, if they have even one other elite position player.

More and more guys near the bottom of the roster are going to have to be dirt cheap, or Maye and/or Gonzo's deals will need to be long and heavily backloaded so future cap increases make things easier

 

[Thunderhead]

Not concerned whatsoever with paying two deserving players a combined $100M/year from a cap perspective, but am terrified from a willingness of ownership perspective.

 

[n1997y]

Now those are the things I am worried about this August, what are yours?

CTE.

That report projecting 25% of the players in the NFL will develop CTE is very scary.

It is an existential threat not only to the NFL but more to the entire game of American rules football. If kids stop playing, and they will, the game will suffer. It will become little more than team MMA in the eyes of the general public.

 

[Palm Beach Pats Fan]

My grandkids will someday tell their kids a story about how their grandpa used to watch football before everyone wore flags to pull.

 

[Mike the Brit]

Re 1. The team has an option. It's not like the way that padded practises are limited by the Bargaining Agreement. If Vrabel and his staff think not playing starters at all is the way to go I back their choice. It's not as though Vrabel hasn't played the game or doesn't value toughness in his players.

Re 2. The numbers going (we hope) to Maye and Gonzalez look pretty dramatic and will change things, for sure. But these will (I hope) be long-term contracts structured in a way that delays the cap hits.

Even so, you're pointing to something I'm concerned about

3. Most recently, the team has definitely bought high and sold low.

It's not just that they didn't get a great return for Boutte. I don't have a problem with that, given that they couldn't keep a disaffected player after signing Doubs, and Boutte handled it all the right way.

But look at their dead cap and players like Diggs, Dugger, White and Peppers.

That was fine when they were trying to re-build the team in a hurry and had a quarterback on a rookie contract. Going to the Super Bowl in Vrabel's first year makes all of that a good bargain. But once that changes, they won't have that luxury and will have to be a lot more financially smart.

In Vrabel (and Cowden) I trust for that. In Eliot Wolf? Not as far as I could throw him.

 

[Wozzy]

Whenever you sign anyone to an exorbitant sized contract you always worry about injury. The worst thing could happen, remember Ty Warren. He could sign on the dotted line and incur a career ending injury the very next day. There’s nothing to be done about this except pray.

Beyond that I’m not concerned about preseason playing time. The guys who needed the snaps got playing time and the rest got good work in during joint practices.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

Whenever you sign anyone to an exorbitant sized contract you always worry about injury. The worst thing could happen, remember Ty Warren. He could sign on the dotted line and incur a career ending injury the very next day. There’s nothing to be done about this except pray.

Beyond that I’m not concerned about preseason playing time. The guys who needed the snaps got playing time and the rest got good work in during joint practices.

True, but his tricep did him a solid, keeping him from playing for the Donkeys.

 

[Hammer of Thor]

..... The following things.

1. The Patriots are about to give Gonzo a roughly $35MM/yr contract, and NEXT year give Drake a roughly (we hope) $65MM/year deal. So, say next year's cap jumps to $330MM per team, am I the only one worried we are giving one third of our cap money to just TWO players? As salaries explode for star individuals, I wonder at what point the bottom 2/3rds of the roster revolt as their earning potential shrinks, while their a few of their teammates get ever higher percentages of the cap. It will be harder and harder to justify the ever-increasing number of players to risk their future health for less and less of the pie. Kind of mirrors our current economy, right.

2. Is anyone else worried about the fact that ALL of our starters and the key backups, when they line up against the Seahawks, will not have play a SINGLE live down this entire preseason. When Seattle runs the ball, it will be the first time Spillane will have tackle a guy to the ground since back in February. That's a pretty scary thought, imho. The joint practices are great, but all the contact there is "controlled", good work, of course, but NOT the same as game speed.

Now I know, I'm an old school guy. I played in an era where you scrimmaged at full go during parts of practice, 2 times a day, 3 or 4 days in a row. You developed those so called callouses and got ready for that 12-game season. Now granted, I personally never made to the actual game part schedule, but I would have been ready for it. .

I understand the thinking behind not playing those guys, but we all have to agree that it seriously affects the quality of play. Fans should get 20% discounts on their tickets for having to watch subpar execution. And none of us should be pissed when we see missed tackles from guys who are doing it live for the first time since last season.

Now those are the things I am worried about this August, what are yours?

Yeah, I’m not a fan of item 1. I thought Belichick managed this quite well, but it obviously helped that Brady generally took lower amounts than he could have gotten on the open market (Brady got a lot of guarantees in his 2010s contracts, which helped offset the risk on his end). Gonzo clearly isn’t doing that and we have no reason to expect Maye to. Belichick was able to build a strong middle class with this approach, while the top-heavy approach will only produce a strong middle class if they draft very well each year. We’ll see what happens.

As for #2, unfortunately that’s the way of the NFL nowadays, and the Patriots aren’t alone in this. The “September is just extended preseason” moniker is accurate…. Except those games count in the standings just as much as the December games do.

 

[rochrist]

The good thing for point #2 is that basically all teams are in the same boat, so September games are like preseason games of old, except that they count;

and for point #1, all teams with a decent QB not on a rookie contract are also in the same boat, if they have even one other elite position player.

More and more guys near the bottom of the roster are going to have to be dirt cheap, or Maye and/or Gonzo's deals will need to be long and heavily backloaded so future cap increases make things easier

Well, not all teams are holding out their starters.

 

[Vindicate]

..... The following things.

1. The Patriots are about to give Gonzo a roughly $35MM/yr contract, and NEXT year give Drake a roughly (we hope) $65MM/year deal. So, say next year's cap jumps to $330MM per team, am I the only one worried we are giving one third of our cap money to just TWO players? As salaries explode for star individuals, I wonder at what point the bottom 2/3rds of the roster revolt as their earning potential shrinks, while their a few of their teammates get ever higher percentages of the cap. It will be harder and harder to justify the ever-increasing number of players to risk their future health for less and less of the pie. Kind of mirrors our current economy, right.

2. Is anyone else worried about the fact that ALL of our starters and the key backups, when they line up against the Seahawks, will not have play a SINGLE live down this entire preseason. When Seattle runs the ball, it will be the first time Spillane will have tackle a guy to the ground since back in February. That's a pretty scary thought, imho. The joint practices are great, but all the contact there is "controlled", good work, of course, but NOT the same as game speed.

Now I know, I'm an old school guy. I played in an era where you scrimmaged at full go during parts of practice, 2 times a day, 3 or 4 days in a row. You developed those so called callouses and got ready for that 12-game season. Now granted, I personally never made to the actual game part schedule, but I would have been ready for it. .

I understand the thinking behind not playing those guys, but we all have to agree that it seriously affects the quality of play. Fans should get 20% discounts on their tickets for having to watch subpar execution. And none of us should be pissed when we see missed tackles from guys who are doing it live for the first time since last season.

Now those are the things I am worried about this August, what are yours?

As far as the preseason snaps go, that seems to be what everyone else is doing, too. Seahawks starters haven't had any AFAIK, correct me if I'm wrong.

Might be in response to the elongated season. The irony of trying to make the NFL more profitable whole also trying to be more safe: they've elongated the demand on a player's body, and it is normalizing slower starts.

American football will always be a weird spectacle the more it tries to modernize itself.

 

[p8ryts]

..... The following things.

1. The Patriots are about to give Gonzo a roughly $35MM/yr contract, and NEXT year give Drake a roughly (we hope) $65MM/year deal. So, say next year's cap jumps to $330MM per team, am I the only one worried we are giving one third of our cap money to just TWO players? As salaries explode for star individuals, I wonder at what point the bottom 2/3rds of the roster revolt as their earning potential shrinks, while their a few of their teammates get ever higher percentages of the cap. It will be harder and harder to justify the ever-increasing number of players to risk their future health for less and less of the pie. Kind of mirrors our current economy, right.

2. Is anyone else worried about the fact that ALL of our starters and the key backups, when they line up against the Seahawks, will not have play a SINGLE live down this entire preseason. When Seattle runs the ball, it will be the first time Spillane will have tackle a guy to the ground since back in February. That's a pretty scary thought, imho. The joint practices are great, but all the contact there is "controlled", good work, of course, but NOT the same as game speed.

Now I know, I'm an old school guy. I played in an era where you scrimmaged at full go during parts of practice, 2 times a day, 3 or 4 days in a row. You developed those so called callouses and got ready for that 12-game season. Now granted, I personally never made to the actual game part schedule, but I would have been ready for it. .

I understand the thinking behind not playing those guys, but we all have to agree that it seriously affects the quality of play. Fans should get 20% discounts on their tickets for having to watch subpar execution. And none of us should be pissed when we see missed tackles from guys who are doing it live for the first time since last season.

Now those are the things I am worried about this August, what are yours?

I only worry about getting dominated at both lines of scrimmage.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Nah, all other teams that have franchise qbs are paying the price too and probably have someone else making similar money to gonzo. The lions just hand out like 8 monster contracts the last few years. If anything we’ll be at an advantage if Drake goes on to be a top 5 qb for several years because in our case the contract will be well worth it which imo is only the case for a handful of teams (i would not be happy paying Trevor Lawrence or even dak prescott this kind of money). We won’t have the elite qb on a rookie contract ‘cheat code’ anymore but we won’t be at a disadvantage either. Gonzo is worth the price too when hes healthy. Until the sb we had lost just 1 game with him active. Another guy you pay up and don’t think twice, while the Steelers will pay about $3m per (if that) less for jpj who’s nowhere near his level. Jury’s still out on the Vrabel/cowden regime ability to draft well consistently but they are off to a great start, that is a huge key in this.

If both continue on their paths, we will be at least somewhat in the title mix every year as long as they are not lost for the year.

 

[reflexblue]

..... The following things.

1. The Patriots are about to give Gonzo a roughly $35MM/yr contract, and NEXT year give Drake a roughly (we hope) $65MM/year deal. So, say next year's cap jumps to $330MM per team, am I the only one worried we are giving one third of our cap money to just TWO players? As salaries explode for star individuals, I wonder at what point the bottom 2/3rds of the roster revolt as their earning potential shrinks, while their a few of their teammates get ever higher percentages of the cap. It will be harder and harder to justify the ever-increasing number of players to risk their future health for less and less of the pie. Kind of mirrors our current economy, right.

2. Is anyone else worried about the fact that ALL of our starters and the key backups, when they line up against the Seahawks, will not have play a SINGLE live down this entire preseason. When Seattle runs the ball, it will be the first time Spillane will have tackle a guy to the ground since back in February. That's a pretty scary thought, imho. The joint practices are great, but all the contact there is "controlled", good work, of course, but NOT the same as game speed.

Now I know, I'm an old school guy. I played in an era where you scrimmaged at full go during parts of practice, 2 times a day, 3 or 4 days in a row. You developed those so called callouses and got ready for that 12-game season. Now granted, I personally never made to the actual game part schedule, but I would have been ready for it. .

I understand the thinking behind not playing those guys, but we all have to agree that it seriously affects the quality of play. Fans should get 20% discounts on their tickets for having to watch subpar execution. And none of us should be pissed when we see missed tackles from guys who are doing it live for the first time since last season.

Now those are the things I am worried about this August, what are yours?

yes

 

[mgteich]

1. The Patriots are about to give Gonzo a roughly $35MM/yr contract, and NEXT year give Drake a roughly (we hope) $65MM/year deal. So, say next year's cap jumps to $330MM per team, am I the only one worried we are giving one third of our cap money to just TWO players? As salaries explode for star individuals, I wonder at what point the bottom 2/3rds of the roster revolt as their earning potential shrinks, while their a few of their teammates get ever higher percentages of the cap. It will be harder and harder to justify the ever-increasing number of players to risk their future health for less and less of the pie. Kind of mirrors our current economy, right.

The team has prepared for paying $100M for Maye and Gonzo. They have pushed less money forward than almost any team in the league and even keep not spending the cap so that money can be rolled over.

Gonzo's contract will add little to the 2026 or 2027 caps (just the amortization of the bonus). The same will be true for Maye's 2027 and 2028 contract years, after Maye had money locked in for his 5th year.

As has been seed in LA and SEA (and even KC), the key will be to draft well and to get a lot out of inexpensive acquisitions (like Darden and Reed).

 

[Thelonious]

I think both are reasonable concerns. The second might be somewhat mitigated by that fact that MOST teams these days start the season with their first-line players' having had very little "real game" experience, leveling the playign in this respect to a significant degree. (which I suppose raises another point: is preseason game experience really "game experience"?) Vrabel has implied that part of the reason for withholding the starters is that the team lacks depth, justifying a greater caution in the extent to which you expose starters to the risk of injury. I suppose so.

As for Gonzo, to me the point you raise supports my view that we should not rule out as unthinkable trading Gonzo. The return, particularly in high draft picks, will 1) help with the depth issue and 2) reduce the overall financial burden re salaries because players drafted are significantly less expensive than experienced ones. Simultaneously overpaying Gonzo and paying Drake, shockingly enough, what a top qb gets these days will put us in a bind for quite an extended period of time and will diminish the flexibility we would otherwise have in dealing with various exigencies in the future.

I am not necessarily advocating at this point that we trade him, but if Gonzo's demands are excessive and meeting them would harm the team's overall long-term prospects, out he goes, without any regrets on my part. Gonzo is an excellent CB. but he is not the Miracle Child from Planet Nine who will transform our lives, nor is he indispensable.

 

[upstater1]

..... The following things.

1. The Patriots are about to give Gonzo a roughly $35MM/yr contract, and NEXT year give Drake a roughly (we hope) $65MM/year deal. So, say next year's cap jumps to $330MM per team, am I the only one worried we are giving one third of our cap money to just TWO players? As salaries explode for star individuals, I wonder at what point the bottom 2/3rds of the roster revolt as their earning potential shrinks, while their a few of their teammates get ever higher percentages of the cap. It will be harder and harder to justify the ever-increasing number of players to risk their future health for less and less of the pie. Kind of mirrors our current economy, right.

2. Is anyone else worried about the fact that ALL of our starters and the key backups, when they line up against the Seahawks, will not have play a SINGLE live down this entire preseason. When Seattle runs the ball, it will be the first time Spillane will have tackle a guy to the ground since back in February. That's a pretty scary thought, imho. The joint practices are great, but all the contact there is "controlled", good work, of course, but NOT the same as game speed.

Now I know, I'm an old school guy. I played in an era where you scrimmaged at full go during parts of practice, 2 times a day, 3 or 4 days in a row. You developed those so called callouses and got ready for that 12-game season. Now granted, I personally never made to the actual game part schedule, but I would have been ready for it. .

I understand the thinking behind not playing those guys, but we all have to agree that it seriously affects the quality of play. Fans should get 20% discounts on their tickets for having to watch subpar execution. And none of us should be pissed when we see missed tackles from guys who are doing it live for the first time since last season.

Now those are the things I am worried about this August, what are yours?

If you look at the % of the cap, the numbers are in line with what they've always been. Top CBs have been getting 8-10% of the cap. We did it with Gilmore, he averaged 8%, but in his last year with us, he got 11.4%.