Moves are needed to gain space Pats face tough cap calls
The simplest way to explain the Patriots’ current salary cap situation is this: They are paying for their prorations.
Large portions of guaranteed money paid or owed to certain players that had been scheduled to be spread over multiple years is now heaped mostly on the team’s 2020 cap sheet. Most of the players are no longer Patriots: Tom Brady, Antonio Brown and Stephen Gostkowski. Others, namely Stephon Gilmore and Shaq Mason, previously agreed to restructured contracts that provided the team relief from this type of money last season at the expense of bloated cap hits this year.
The combination of the two has left the Patriots with $1.75 million in cap room, per NFLPA records as of late Sunday. The team has begun trimming salary off the fringes of its roster. But more work must be done to sign draft picks, fill out a 90-man roster and afford midseason signings.
There are three options for clearing cap space in the NFL: restructuring contracts, releasing players or trading them. Typically, there is a long-term cost paid for restructures, the most common of which converts some amount of a player’s base salary into signing bonus. Bonus money, while paid up front, lowers a player’s immediate cap hit because it can be prorated over future years in a team’s books.
But cap-friendly deals laden with bonus money today often turn nastier tomorrow. And tomorrow is always coming. It’s partly why the Pats found themselves in this position.
So, tabling that common cap maneuver, the front office is left with releasing players, trading them or executing other types of contract restructures; primarily extensions.
A few sensible options for the Patriots can be found below. All contract figures come courtesy of Over The Cap.
Releases
Of all the Patriots making north of $3 million, Rex Burkhead would be the cleanest cut. He plays a position with decent enough depth. The emergence of 2019 third-round pick Damien Harris — or an incoming rookie — would quickly make him expendable and create $2.9 in cap savings this season.
The problem is that after James White, the oft-injured Burkhead may be the Patriots’ most valuable back on a per-snap basis. And the Pats are likely to lean on their running game in 2020.
None of their other players with large cap hits make much sense for a release due to at least one of three reasons: suspect depth behind them, resulting dead money or they were recently retained.
Right tackle Marcus Cannon is a curious case, though. If he was let go with a post-June 1 designation (a tool that allows teams to spread resulting dead money over two seasons), Cannon would clear more than $7 million in space for 2020. He would also leave a massive hole along the offensive line, where no obvious backup is present.
The Patriots could send special teams ace Justin Bethel packing at no cost. He’s due to make $2 million this season.
Down the road, backup OL Jermaine Eluemunor, tendered as a restricted free agent after playing only 29 snaps last year, could become a training camp cut. Releasing Eluemunor would shave $2.13 million off the cap, as would relinquishing the rights to DL Deatrich Wise. Fullbacks James Develin and Dan Vitale aren’t likely to survive final cuts together, playing the same position and making around $1.2 million apiece.
Of note: Releasing any player who makes $750,000 or less this season for cap reasons would be self-defeating because only the team’s top 51 earners count against the salary cap in the offseason, per the league’s Top 51 rule. Safety Obi Melifonwu, the team’s 52nd-highest paid player, makes $750,000.
Trades
The Patriots’ highest-paid player in 2020 is their most obvious trade asset: left guard Joe Thuney.
Thuney’s contract situation has already been explored at length in this space. His $14.78 million franchise tag ultimately retained one of their best players, but is hamstringing the cap sheet, though it could help the Pats field one of the NFL’s best lines in 2020. If the Pats intended to trade Thuney, that deal likely would have been executed already.
At this point, if a trade is made, it’s likely Thuney and the Patriots remain impossibly apart in longterm contract negotiations.
Aside from Stephon Gilmore — whose trade would be stunning — none of the Pats’ other top earners should be considered serious trade candidates for the same reasons they’re unlikely to be released and/ or the fact they wouldn’t yield much of a return (Burkhead and Cannon). The only possible consideration, however improbable, is right guard Shaq Mason, who would create almost $6 million in cap savings if dealt after June 1.
Mason would come with a more reasonable 2020 cap hit than Thuney, plus a long-term contract; reasons opposing teams might seek him out instead, but also reasons why the Patriots would want to retain their homegrown guard.
Not to mention, as is the case across the offensive line, Mason’s backup is a major question mark. Any future trade of Mason shouldn’t be viewed as a cap-saving move, so much as the Pats accepting an offer they couldn’t refuse.
But perhaps franchises run by former Pats assistants or executives — the Bucs, Dolphins, Lions, Giants or Titans — make a few such offers come draft day to pull away players like Mason, Thuney or Patrick Chung ($3.525 million in cap savings after June 1).
Extensions
Sinking long-term money into aging players is poor roster management 101, and most of the Pats’ highest-paid players are on the back nine of their careers.
Dont’a Hightower is 30. Chung took a physical pounding last season at 32. So did Julian Edelman, who will be 34 in a month.
Therefore, don’t expect an avalanche of extensions. The prime candidates are Thuney (potential cap savings of $11 million) and Gilmore, who will be 30 soon. The reigning Defensive Player of the Year has two years left on his deal and could help the Pats save upward of $7.5 million this season with an extension.
He was already game for one restructure. Would he OK another?
If not, James White, center David Andrews and defensive tackle Adam Butler are names to consider, both for the long-term health of the franchise and short-term benefit of the cap.