New England Patriots salary cap, contracts, bonus money, dead money, and cap savings for every player
overthecap.com
Checkout the New England Patriots 2021 Snap Counts and more on Pro-Football-Reference.com
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Linebackers
Judon has $11 million guaranteed and would result in $15.5 mil of dead money. Most snaps among the LBs (81%). He's a lock.
Van Noy will turn 31 in March; he was 6th overall on defense with 75% of the snaps. KVN will have a cap # of $7,450,000, so a restructure is in order. A cut results in $2.45 mil of dead money but $5 mil in cap savings, regardless on when that happens.
Bentley is only 25 years old (will turn 26 just before the start of the 2022 season). He will become a free agent next spring. I doubt the Pats re-sign him, unless the terms are very team-friendly in terms of guaranteed money. It is concerning however that other LBs couldn't get on the field more than he did; in other words, the other options were perceived to be worse? Bentley appeared in 64% of the snaps, which was 3rd most among LBs and 8th most among all defensive players.
Hightower was on the field for 59% of the snaps, 10th most on defense; he will turn 32 in two months. HT had the highest cap number on the 2021 Patriots, including a base salary of $8 million. As a free agent my guess is that the Patriots will let him test the market, then decide whether or not to match the offer.
Josh Uche was on the field for 236 snaps (22%). Most telling was the regression in playing time: 175 snaps in the first eight games he played, 67 snaps in his final six games. He is young (turns 24 in September) and inexpensive (2022 cap figure of $1.46 mil), so keeping him or letting him go is not that big of a deal. Not being a factor on special teams (only 22 snaps in 2021) doesn't help his case though.
I'm not sure what to make of
Jamie Collins. The only time he got on the field was late in the season, mostly when either Bentley of Hightower was hurt. Obviously much of that was due to his ankle injury - but there was a stretch of six games where he was active, but on the field for 17 or fewer snaps. He did play a lot down the stretch though. Collins just turned 32 and will be a free agent in March.
Other than Judon there are five other LBs in the rotation. I don't think it is realistic to think that a team can mass overhaul at linebacker in a single offseason. Most likely it would be a change of either two or three. Free agency will be interesting, once again.