NFL cap projection is out, per Breer

[JoeSixPat]

Isn't something like 20% of the team's salary cap on IR (or in the case of Hernandez, incarcerated)?

I know other teams have been hit badly by the injury bug too - of course they all have losing records too

I wonder how our injuries/percentage of salary cap compares to other teams this season?

That would likely illustrate just what a great job Belichick/Brady and Co. are doing this season.

 

[DaBruinz]

Mankins has not been much better than Wendell and Connolly; he certainly is not worth $10.5m a year which is what he is on the books for in 2014.

Mankins has been significantly better than either Wendell or Connolly. The problem is that he's been trying to cover for Wendell. You'd know that if you actually watched the interior of the line. And you'll forgive me if I take what you say with a grain of salt since you've proven to be unable to discern how individuals perform with any grain of accuracy.

 

[1960Pats]

Or the average contract for a mid level baseball player.

I remember when Yaz got a contract worth 100K, and the first time he hit a grounder and didn't run real hard the fans booed him.

Now, players get 100 times that or more and they don't run hard on most grounders they hit. And the fans slobber all over them.

 

[supafly]

Re: Hightower's current option amount

The Patriots have from the end of the 2014 season to the spring of 2015 to pick up the options for Chandler Jones and Hightower.

Oh, right--because the decision on the option year has to be ahead of time, rather than before the actual 5th year; hence the decision that will need to be made between the end of Dec and beginning of May on Solder's 5th yr, even though he'll only actually be through his 3rd year. Thanks for the reminder.

That certainly clouds things even more in regards to the issue that we'll have attempting to keep so many of these core players between now and Feb 2015. The next 14-15 months are going to be extremely important, and we're going to need to make some tough decisions in my opinion. Of course there's always the chance that the 2015 cap will climb a bit more than expected due to the 2014 TV contracts kicking in, even though it's not believed to be nearly as much of an increase as was initially expected a year or two ago. Maybe we get lucky and the increase is slightly more than was expected in BOTH years of '14 and '15.

 

[supafly]

I remember when Yaz got a contract worth 100K, and the first time he hit a grounder and didn't run real hard the fans booed him.

Now, players get 100 times that or more and they don't run hard on most grounders they hit. And the fans slobber all over them.

It's a whole new world out there in the sports game, especially with players like Robinson Cano signing 240 million dollar pacts.

It makes players like Tom Brady who go out there every single minute of the off-season, regular season, and post-season and give their 100% all that much more exceptional to witness.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

I remember when Yaz got a contract worth 100K, and the first time he hit a grounder and didn't run real hard the fans booed him.

Now, players get 100 times that or more and they don't run hard on most grounders they hit. And the fans slobber all over them.

It is normal to place some idealism on pro players, it's part of what causes fan-dom. This idealism definitely must be tempered (a point some miss) but a certain level is just part of the process. But when you push the idealism for these players aside, you are left with simple human beings. And when a human being is guaranteed to be paid X amount of money no matter, virtually, what they do (most specific to MLB), some of them will take the money for granted especially if they view what they are being paid for as a job instead of a passion. That's just part of the human condition to sometimes take "guaranteed" things for granted (people will do that for money, to other people, to things etc).

In the past I think 99.9% of players played the game because of their passion for it and the on field product benefited from it. In today's game, while there still are a lot of players playing it for the passion (the money being the cherry on top), there are more than a few players who see it as performing a job. Hey, I don't know that I can fault a player for seeing it as a job........provided they put forth a worthwhile effort. Unfortunately I then see examples like Manny Ramirez and I lose that understanding view. He was definitely a product of the new era, something not likely seen in the past era.

For MLB, and any sport, there is a good argument for guaranteed contracts. I certainly do not blame players for negotiating guaranteed contracts, guaranteed pay. Yet even with a fair argument for it, the guaranteed contract's integral part of MLB is hurting its on field product. In some instances the product a fan sees is quite a bit less. And, IMHO, MLB baseball better find a way to connect performance to a guarantee else the sport will overall decline or at least be stagnant. I just don't see a way the sport can thrive when it devotes finite resources toward lackluster effort that noticeably effects the on field product. I just don't see how it will not turn away a growing number of fans in an era that provides so man different entertainment options to spend one's money on.

 

[supafly]

Mankins has been significantly better than either Wendell or Connolly. The problem is that he's been trying to cover for Wendell.

Oh, absolutely. Mankins is getting a bit of a bad rap around here this year, and that's likely due to the some of the reasoning that you provided.

Now...whether or not that can come to an agreeable solution in terms of a possible extension to try and get that cap number down a bit next year remains to be seen, but it certainly would be nice.

One thing we know is certain-- The business end of the Patriots organization is top notch as it pertains to the salary cap, not only for the upcoming season, but also for the future. If they do need to get into a situation of robbing Peter to pay Paul a bit (which obviously hasn't been the case too often), they'll do so with the idea that the increase in future years may help to offset some of that negativity, which hasn't been the case in awhile with the cap crawling slightly each year lately. I am assuming that we'll see a better increase in the 2016 season and possibly beyond a bit more than we've seen lately, so they may be able to get away with a bit more than they normally do in that sense. Obviously, no matter what they aren't going to differ from their usual approach too much.

 

[Miguel]

I have the 2014 Patriots' current cap number as $122,300,000. The following factors will change that:

Street Free Agents — I expect the Patriots to sign 8 street free agents (Braxston Cave, Jordan Devey, Justin Green, Ja'Gared Davis, Kanorris Davis, Cierre Wood, Marcus Forston, R.J. Dill) at the rookie minimum of $420,000.

Correction - The above did not account for Forston having 2 credited seasons.

I expect the Patriots to sign 7 street free agents (Braxston Cave, Jordan Devey, Justin Green, Ja'Gared Davis, Kanorris Davis, Cierre Wood, R.J. Dill) at the rookie minimum of $420,000 but these salaries will not count against the cap. I also expect the Patriots to sign Marcus Forston to a contract with a salary of $570,000 which take up $75,000 in cap space as he will displace a player with a salary of $495,000 from the Top 51 list.