Jake Bailey's Cap Hit

[Family]

all but three of the draft picks have signed already... Strange, Thornton and Zappe are the only ones who haven't signed their contracts...

Yes, those with the highest cap hits haven't signed. Not a coincidence.

Jack Jones, for example, had a cap hit of less than 900K.

 

[stinkypete]

I apologize for repeating. I seem to post this at least once a week.
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The patriots can sign Flowers or whoever they want. They can sign their rookies. They can have a season cushion for injuries.

THE CAP IS NOT, IS NOT, IS NOT STOPPING ANY TRANSACTION.
I think that we should all repeat this until the point is clear to us.
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There are many restructures ($25M+) that can happen on the same day as any transaction. Any money that is freed up and not used would automatically go into next season's cap. Judon, Henry and Smith are the most obvious; about $16M is freed up by these three restructures.

There are many POSSIBLE extensions. Obviously, these take negotiations. Bailey and Smith are the most obvious.

There are several possible trades that would produce significant cap money, Any of these should wait until late in camp, when we know that these players are not needed as injury replacements before the season starts.

If there were lots of players that Belichick wanted, he probably could free up $50M. Clearly, that is NOT his intention.

This is all true, but just rolls the cap hit down the road. Eventually you find yourself in a position like this offseason's Saints where you can't do it any more and you need a significant cap reset.

The window to win with a cost controlled QB depends on how rapidly Jones develops and what point in time Belichick decides to strike with an extension. At minimum, we have a two year window before Jones can ask for an extension, and a three year window before the 5th year option kicks in. After that, we're either paying market value or starting over.

Our cap situation is set up to allow a couple us to bring in a couple of high impact pieces in 2023 and 2024. Restructuring contracts today limits our spending capacity in the future, not by a ton necessarily, but it chips away. To me it is a question of when this cap money is best used. Right now this team's ceiling is a wild card game win. Theoretically add Duane Brown, Odell Beckham, Donta Hightower, Trey Flowers and Chris Harris to this roster. What is that team's ceiling? Probably a wild card win.

If Jones develops into a top 12 QB in year two, a couple of unproven defensive players emerge as quality starters, and the draft class is successful, this team will enter the 2023 offseason on the precipice of actual contention with the money to add multiple impact players. It would be a shame to compromise that ability. Likewise, if Jones fails to develop, the defense plays like JAGs, and the draft class busts, it won't matter anyway.

Patience is the right move.



I'm not suggesting that we restructure nobody, just that we need to be judicious in determining which players are part of championship core.

 

[Pape]

Yes, those with the highest cap hits haven't signed. Not a coincidence.

Jack Jones, for example, had a cap hit of less than 900K.

it will happen... strange was supposed to be signing today... hasnt hit the Pats transaction page though

 

[Family]

it will happen... strange was supposed to be signing today... hasnt hit the Pats transaction page though

I'm sure agreements have been made. Now there's accounting to clean out.

Maybe they think a trade is in the works, so there's no reason to announce.

Miguel has $142,280 cap space. That doesn't sign Strange.

 

[captain stone]

are we really nickel and dime’ing a punter

Bill himself did, with a future HOF Place-Kicker over 16 years ago...

 

[ctpatsfan77]

I'm sure agreements have been made. Now there's accounting to clean out.

Maybe they think a trade is in the works, so there's no reason to announce.

Miguel has $142,280 cap space. That doesn't sign Strange.

FWIW, per overthecap.com, his contract should be 4 years, $13.7M, with a 2022 cap number of $2.50M. It should require roughly $1.7M of new room, since it will knock Rhamondre Stevenson's salary off the cap.

 

[Pape]

I'm sure agreements have been made. Now there's accounting to clean out.

Maybe they think a trade is in the works, so there's no reason to announce.

Miguel has $142,280 cap space. That doesn't sign Strange.

his cap hit will be approximately 2.98m this year... based on the #29 contract slot... that will knock another guy below the 51 line... so im not sure how much they need to clear to sign him

 

[ctpatsfan77]

his cap hit will be approximately 2.98m this year... based on the #29 contract slot... that will knock another guy below the 51 line... so im not sure how much they need to clear to sign him

Look up.

 

[TheRainMaker]

Are we really discussing a punter who is the least paid in the NFL and made All Pro in 2020?

His performance bumped his pay up, yet the discussion is to cut him?

And yet, there's many overpaid players that haven't played well, but their release is rarely discussed.

 

[venecol]

Are we really discussing a punter who is the least paid in the NFL and made All Pro in 2020?

His cap hit is $4M. That's not the lowest but I agree, there's plenty of dead weight I'd rather cut.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

His cap hit is $4M. That's not the lowest but I agree, there's plenty of dead weight I'd rather cut.

Again per OTC, he went from the 20th highest cap hit among punters last year to the 2nd highest this year (after Michael ****son).

 

[Froob]

But a classic Patsfans idea!

Well more so meant it that Araiza is supposedly a generational great punter. If he's really as good as people claim he is and is available for 500k, hard to pass on that. Otherwise guess it makes sense to keep him because aside last year he is a great punter.

 

[Pape]

Look up.

I've been 'ed

 

[bresna]

Bill did, with his future HOF Place-Kicker over 16 years ago...

Those of us that were around then know full well that AV shot his way out of town. He wanted out and there was nothing Bill or the Pats could do - that's what "unrestricted" free agent means. Heck, they even applied the Franchise Tag his last year to try and convince him to stay. They certainly weren't going to tag him again - that would've been insane money for a kicker back then.

He left the Patriots for what averaged out to be less than what the Patriots were offering. He wanted out of NE. He wanted to kick in a dome - he got his wish.

 

[BTTA]

He wanted out of NE. He wanted to kick in a dome - he got his wish.

And that contributed to his performance stats and longevity in the League. Smart move by him.

 

[jah]

This is all true, but just rolls the cap hit down the road. Eventually you find yourself in a position like this offseason's Saints where you can't do it any more and you need a significant cap reset.

I've been saying this for years and years, but I'm starting to have doubts in my position. The Saints continue to keep spending every single year despite all that. I wouldn't say it's necessarily working for them, but the evidence is beginning to stack up in favor of the people who don't believe in the cap.

 

[Pape]

I've been saying this for years and years, but I'm starting to have doubts in my position. The Saints continue to keep spending every single year despite all that. I wouldn't say it's necessarily working for them, but the evidence is beginning to stack up in favor of the people who don't believe in the cap.

Really? Cuz I just saw the cheefs trade away their wr1 because of the cap... Finagle it as you will, but eventually the piper gets paid...

The cap is real... Its the contracts which are fake... Bloated numbers hidden in plain sight which 99% of the players know they will never see

 

[Sicilian]

I've been saying this for years and years, but I'm starting to have doubts in my position. The Saints continue to keep spending every single year despite all that. I wouldn't say it's necessarily working for them, but the evidence is beginning to stack up in favor of the people who don't believe in the cap.

Do they spend that much though? This year they signed Mathieu to a decent sized contract, and Jarvis Landry to a deal "up to" 6 million. Other than that, they have only really signed their own or low end guys. And I don't remember much in the way of big signings last offseason either (when their cap troubles really started). There's enough moves you can make where you don't have to completely gut your team, but given they weren't able to get by the Bucs in 2020, then lost Drew Brees and weren't able to improve their roster much (by spending money at least, their draft this year seemed pretty good), you have to think it was limiting to some degree.

 

[goheels22002]

are we really nickel and dime’ing a punter

Winner. Winner. Chicken dinner!

I am not sure what the problem with the Patriots cap that's implied all over this thread really is. First, they are a playoff team after a major re-build in the wake of the Brady defection/Covid-19 opt-out mess. They have all their rookies signed and their QB room stocked at a cap hit that allows them to have a fine mix of veterans and young players at every position group. They are not the Packers or Browns or so many other teams shedding depth and proven starters.

With a $227M active roster salary cap for 2022, the Patriots have only six veterans making $10+ million who are all starters. Yeah we can quibble about those guys, but none of their contracts are outrageous. If Agholor, Jonnu Smith and Godchaux up their games just a little, their salaries are just fine. Just about every other team has more glaring over-reaches (see: Deshaun Watson at $46M annual salary or Matt Ryan $30M or any of the players with a $20M average annual salary).

The Patriots have $9.1M in dead cap money and the big number there is a paltry $3.1M for Shaq Mason's signing bonus. Anything under 10% in Dead Cap money is acceptable and to be expected. It ain't cap hell.

As @mgteich and others have pointed out, the Patriots have flexibility if they need it. They added (or get back from injury) loads of professional football players at positions they needed to address - DB, WR, LB, DL. The biggest issue, as I see it, is coaching and play calling. We'll see.

The all-pro punter/kicker is not the issue.

 

[goheels22002]

I've been saying this for years and years, but I'm starting to have doubts in my position. The Saints continue to keep spending every single year despite all that. I wouldn't say it's necessarily working for them, but the evidence is beginning to stack up in favor of the people who don't believe in the cap.

The Saints? Not exactly the model we're after, they missed the playoffs last year and have $33M in Dead Cap money. They'll be lucky to go 7-10 in 2022.