Kenny Britt files injury grievance against Patriots

[Clonamery]

A little less than twice what Burkhead makes per year, but in absolute terms, only like 2.5m different. I believe one deal was 3/9m and the other was 4/22m. For an actual offensive weapon that's not much money. I think Lewis at 6m is a better deal than Amendola at 6m.

Not that any of that matters now.

Then the Dolphins should have signed Lewis instead of Amendola?

 

[maineman209]

I don't think Lewis even made much more than Burkhead as I recall.

Lewis' 2018 cap hit is $4.312M. Burkhead's is $2.312M

Lewis would have taken up $2.0M more in cap space than Burkhead.

The Pats currently have less than $1.25M in cap space.

 

[SammyBlueCat]

I miss Dion.

 

[luuked]

I don't understand why people panic over cap space. The advantage of being such a well run organization in terms of salary cap is that you have all the flexibility in the world to deal with midseason signings, injuries or unexpected charges like that by restructuring.

That's the entire point of running the business like this. Flexibility.

 

[primetime]

Lewis' 2018 cap hit is $4.312M. Burkhead's is $2.312M

Lewis would have taken up $2.0M more in cap space than Burkhead.

The Pats currently have less than $1.25M in cap space.

Then they wouldn't have been able to afford Adrian Clayborn. Tragedy averted.

 

[primetime]

Patriots did pull some legally and morally questionable moves by cutting Mitchell and Britt like that, evidently. It's not uncommon in the NFL, of course, and no one should believe a billion dollar business cares about anything other than the bottom line, but that's what the union's for.

 

[maineman209]

I don't understand why people panic over cap space. The advantage of being such a well run organization in terms of salary cap is that you have all the flexibility in the world to deal with midseason signings, injuries or unexpected charges like that by restructuring.

That's the entire point of running the business like this. Flexibility.

Looking at the current contract list on OTC, it doesn't appear to me that there are any restructurings that would make a significant difference in cap space without involving extensions.

https://overthecap.com/salary-cap/new-england-patriots

In any case, the current $1.25M doesn't look like much in terms of acquiring injury replacements when looking at the schedule of minimum salaries.

NFL Minimum Salaries for 2018

 

[DaBruinz]

I wish we could have brought Matthews back too, but let's look at two things in this statement:

1) Matthews didn't get healthy "in a hurry". It took him 4 weeks to get back onto the field, which would have been the bulk of the time we were without Edelman anyway. We needed players who could play early, regardless of skill, because we needed bodies.

2) He isn't catching "passes" yet... he caught ONE pass. Granted, it was a deep ball touchdown of 56 yards, but we just had something similar from Patterson too. I don't think Matthews (though I would have wanted him) would automatically be a boost to this offense. He'd be another option with potential is all.

Matthews was released on 8/1. He wasn't signed by Philly until 9/19. That's 6 weeks, not 4. Which feeds into your point about the Pats needing bodies even more.

Matthews has caught 3 passes for 77 yards. He's their 3rd/4th option at WR behind Agholor, Jeffrey, Aiken. And he's behind Ertz and Goedert as well, imho.

 

[luuked]

Looking at the current contract list on OTC, it doesn't appear to me that there are any restructurings that would make a significant difference in cap space without involving extensions.

https://overthecap.com/salary-cap/new-england-patriots

In any case, the current $1.25M doesn't look like much in terms of acquiring injury replacements when looking at the schedule of minimum salaries.

NFL Minimum Salaries for 2018

Move 3m of Gilmores base salary into 1m cap hits for the next 3 years. Worst case you add a little actual dead money in 2021 because given the other hits they won't move on before that anyway.

Convert most of KVNs base into a signing bonus that gets spread over the final two years.

Convert half of Cannons base salary (4m) into a bonus that gets spread over the rest of his contract.

Extend Ghost. Trade Rowe.

There are enough ways if you ask me. And I purposefully avoided any of the WRs.

 

[Sicilian]

Matthews was released on 8/1. He wasn't signed by Philly until 9/19. That's 6 weeks, not 4. Which feeds into your point about the Pats needing bodies even more.

Matthews has caught 3 passes for 77 yards. He's their 3rd/4th option at WR behind Agholor, Jeffrey, Aiken. And he's behind Ertz and Goedert as well, imho.

Thank you for the clarifications. For some reason, I thought the last game was Matthews first active with Philly, my mistake.

 

[DaBruinz]

Thank you for the clarifications. For some reason, I thought the last game was Matthews first active with Philly, my mistake.

No worries..

 

[Oswlek]

Filing injury grievances seems to be the new fad these days. How can I get involved?

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

I don't understand why people panic over cap space. The advantage of being such a well run organization in terms of salary cap is that you have all the flexibility in the world to deal with midseason signings, injuries or unexpected charges like that by restructuring.

That's the entire point of running the business like this. Flexibility.

100% certain of being an all-time great dynasty with the salary cap. Less than 100% certain without it.

 

[maineman209]

Move 3m of Gilmores base salary into 1m cap hits for the next 3 years. Worst case you add a little actual dead money in 2021 because given the other hits they won't move on before that anyway.

Convert most of KVNs base into a signing bonus that gets spread over the final two years.

Convert half of Cannons base salary (4m) into a bonus that gets spread over the rest of his contract.

Extend Ghost. Trade Rowe.

There are enough ways if you ask me. And I purposefully avoided any of the WRs.

AFAIK, salary converted to signing bonus is spread out over the remaining years of the contract, including the current year. So ...

Moving $3M of Gilmore's 2018 salary nets $2.33M in 2018 savings
KVN nets ~$600k
Moving $2M of Cannon's salary nets $1.5M
Extending Ghost nets $1.1M
Trading Rowe and replacing him with a rookie nets $450k.

All excellent suggestions.

The cause for my concern (NOT panic), is that, if there's another significant injury (IR-worthy), at least one of those moves (or something similar) becomes an immediate necessity, or nearly so.

For example, if Hollister is sent to IR, he's still hitting the cap for his remaining 2018 salary (~$420k) if he's replaced with a rookie, the rookie's salary hits the cap for an additional ~$370k, thus reducing current cap space to $880k.

Regardless which move is made, the player in question must agree to it, and the Pats will have pretty close to zero leverage in that situation.

No matter how one slices it, cap space is tight - really tight for this early in the season (with $9.4M already tied up on IR and NFI). The situation seems concern-worthy to me. And it's certainly not one in which trades for high-salary "solutions" is realistic.

 

[goheels22002]

This is okay. Britt and Mitchell are just trying to recover lost money. The Pats were not going to IR these guys. Both enter arbitration with a chronic injury history. They'll get some money, but it won'r be the 40% liability that the team is forced to set aside.

 

[primetime]

This is okay. Britt and Mitchell are just trying to recover lost money. The Pats were not going to IR these guys. Both enter arbitration with a chronic injury history. They'll get some money, but it won'r be the 40% liability that the team is forced to set aside.

They can't actually legally cut guys that sustained an injury when they were under contract to the Patriots. They have to IR them. That's what this grievance is about. Usually they end up accepting a little less than what they'd get for the full season and they get to be free agents, or else they'd demand to revert to IR. (See Amara Darboh)

 

[Biffins]

A little less than twice what Burkhead makes per year, but in absolute terms, only like 2.5m different. I believe one deal was 3/9m and the other was 4/22m. For an actual offensive weapon that's not much money. I think Lewis at 6m is a better deal than Amendola at 6m.

Not that any of that matters now.

Neither Lewis nor Dola is worth $6m. Even Edelman isn't making $6m and Dola isn't better than Edelman.

 

[long distance]

Move 3m of Gilmores base salary into 1m cap hits for the next 3 years. Worst case you add a little actual dead money in 2021 because given the other hits they won't move on before that anyway.

Convert most of KVNs base into a signing bonus that gets spread over the final two years.

Convert half of Cannons base salary (4m) into a bonus that gets spread over the rest of his contract.

You can add Hightower, also DMC (and Gronk w slightly bigger risk) if need be.

No matter how one slices it, cap space is tight - really tight for this early in the season (with $9.4M already tied up on IR and NFI). The situation seems concern-worthy to me. And it's certainly not one in which trades for high-salary "solutions" is realistic.

Sorry to barge in on your cap concern thing again but if there is one thing Pats fans don't need to worry about its BBs cap space. The cap space just LOOKS tight at the moment but as @luuked hinted there's plenty reserve left.

10M on IR/NFI + grievances etc is not ideal but not too much compared to others (SF has 37M on JG alone). The uncanny bad luck with young players health is the biggest hit to Pats cap and certainly a challenge but managed..

As long as PHI, KC.. are able to pursue top dogs like Earl and LVB after already cutting plenty of fat, Pats can do plenty as well..

 

[luuked]

You can add Hightower, also DMC (and Gronk w slightly bigger risk) if need be.



Sorry to barge in on your cap concern thing again but if there is one thing Pats fans don't need to worry about its BBs cap space. The cap space just LOOKS tight at the moment but as @luuked hinted there's plenty reserve left.

10M on IR/NFI + grievances etc is not ideal but not too much compared to others (SF has 37M on JG alone). The uncanny bad luck with young players health was the biggest hit to Pats cap and certainly a challenge but managed..

As long as PHI, KC.. are able to pursue top dogs like Earl and LVB after already cutting plenty of fat, Pats can do plenty as well..

Situations like this (or when the entire Hernandez debacle happened) are exactly why you wanna have the flexibility with your cap that BB/Caserio are usually able to achieve. So while I get that people see @Miguel 's numbers and are concerned about it looking tight I really don't think it is a real problem.

 

[long distance]

Situations like this (or when the entire Hernandez debacle happened) are exactly why you wanna have the flexibility with your cap that BB/Caserio are usually able to achieve. So while I get that people see @Miguel 's numbers and are concerned about it looking tight I really don't think it is a real problem.

They were pretty generous with Cyrus just recently f.e. . of course nothing is guaranteed (as with all latest signings..)