Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Financing A New England Patriots-DeAndre Hopkins Deal; Breaking Down The Pats Cap with PatsCap

Episode Date: January 13, 2023

Do the New England Patriots have the financial flexibility to complete a trade for Arizona Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins? Host Mike D’Abate is joined by Miguel ‘PatsCap’ Benzan who breaks down the details of a potential deal for Hopkins. Also, in a segment exclusive to Locked On Patriots, Miguel sets the record straight on the Patriots true salary cap avaibility — including correcting a prominent member of the Patriots.Find and follow Locked On Patriots on your favorite podcast platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-patriots-daily-podcast-on-the-new-england/id1140512627 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1c5ZxFmwg3WbfxAU3tR5Ve?si=k196wH-yRqifUcQQz8SjIQStitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-patriots And follow host Mike D’Abate on Twitter, where he’ll be sharing the latest news about the New England Patriots and talking with fans.On Twitter: @mdabateNFLSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFLBuilt BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!PrizePicksFirst time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That’s PrizePicks.com – promo code; LOCKEDONUltimate Football GMTo download the game just visit Ultimate-GM.com or look it up on the app stores. Our listeners get a 100% free boost to their franchise when using the promo LOCKEDON (ALL CAPS) in the game store.TurboTaxCome to TurboTax and don’t do your taxes. Visit TurboTax.com to learn more.Tommy JohnWinter mornings are brutal. So here’s my tip for tackling the day in comfort: Grab new Tommy John Loungewear and take cozywherever you go. Get TWENTY PERCENT OFF YOUR FIRST ORDER at TommyJohn.com/LOCKEDON. BetterHelpThis episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at Betterhelp.com/LockedOn and get on your way to being your best self.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Can the Patriots make it happen financially with DeAndre Hopkins? Stick around. You'll find out if you stay locked in to today's episode of the Locked On Patriots Podcast. You are Locked On Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello to all of you, Foxborough faithful, and thank you once again for making Locked On Patriots a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage and also your first listen every day.

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Patriots fans, thank you once again for joining us here on this Thursday episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast. I'm your host, Mike DeBate. I cover your New England Patriots for Patriots Country of Sports Illustrated. Download, subscribe, follow Locked On Patriots wherever you get your podcasts. Follow them on Twitter as well at LO underscore Patriots. And if you want to let me know what's on your mind, do so on the Bird app at MDABATENFL. And Patriots fans, if you want to talk coaching, talk quarterbacks, it can be fun. But today we're going to talk finance and acquisitions.

And to do that, we welcome in the very best in the business, the finest Foxborough Finance has to offer. The amazing Miguel Patskat Benzon joins me today. Miguel, welcome back to the pod. It's been far too long, my friend, but happy to have you here today. It's always a pleasure. It's always a pleasure to be on the show, Mike. Like starting a new year this way. Absolutely absolutely no better way to start the new year than some foxborough finance and you know we would hope that the new england patriots are playing a game this weekend but

alas the season is in the books but that doesn't mean that the folks over at one patriots place are not working hard they are getting down to it. And one of the things that a lot of people are wondering is Patriot's salary cap situation heading into 2023. According to your calculations, my friend, again, folks, and I say this without hesitation, the most trusted in the business, he's the only source that I go to whenever I need financial information. The only one I need, quite honestly.

You have the Patriots projected at approximately $35.7 million in available cap space for 2023. And folks, Miguel is going to explain today very carefully exactly how he arrived at that figure in just a bit. But Miguel, I wouldn't be doing my job if we didn't address what Patriots fans are all abuzz about right now, and that is the potential acquisition of alpha wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins from the Arizona Cardinals. Arizona putting out there that they're exploring opportunities to trade him.

Now, yesterday here on the pod, Claire Klause, Claire Cooper, and I talked a little bit about the on-field reasons why Hopkins would be a good fit in foxborough but enlighten us all here in the new england area and all members of patriots nation on why this actually may not be a bad financial fit for the new england patriots patients like i said we said those guys the patrons have 34 35.7 million dollars in cap space as of now right? Right. We can presume that they're going to do, let's say they do something with Devin McCourty's deal. That will increase the cap space. All right?

When a team trades a player, so if the Arizona Coyotes were to trade DeAndre Hopkins, only his salary and any roster bonuses, off-season workout bonuses, any likely to be earned incentives would come over. All right? His signing bonus paration would not come over. All right?

So his salary for 2020 is around $20 million. For 2024, it's around $15 million. All right? So you go to the $35 million minus the $20 million. All right? We're just go to 35 minus the 20. all right we're going to keep it simple all right he could then after you after he gets traded to the patriots same day he can reach extension which could lower his number in half we just saw raccoon smith sign a five-year, $100 million deal with the Ravens, $20 million per year. His 2023 cap number is less than $10 million. So the idea that you can't afford to sign DeAndre Hopkins

because he's going to want a lot of money is not founded on facts. It's not founded on recent history of the Patriots deals. I've been doing this since the aughts. I've seen the Patriots give out deals to Ty Law, Tom Brady, Rob Gakowski, Matthew Judah, where they all have a low cap number in the first year, and then it builds up. That's what they do.

That's why you give them a large signing bonus, and it gets prorated over the years. All right? it builds up that's what i do that's why you sign you give them a large bonus and signing bonus and it gets prorated over the years all right it's certainly possible financially all right it would not preclude the patriots from doing anything else and fight in free agency all right when you start off when you're going to have right now i would say they're going to be in a top six cap space and they have several ways to create more cap space all right it is definitely not a qua excuse me let me go backwards acquiring deandre opkins would not be the only move the pitchers could make in free agency all right they have the cash space to do other moves the thing is he has a no trade clause all right so he can he can control he will control where he goes right right and he's going to go to

the so let's say he says yeah i want to go with the patriots i am sure that the patriots are going to work with him to say to him hey we can't have your number be $19 million or $20 million. Can't have that. We need to work something to lower that out. He controls that. I don't know the man personally. So I don't know what he wants in terms. I know he wants an extension.

I don't know how much he wants. All right. And I'll just. But if he wants to come here, then I'm sure he's going to lower his number. I don't know if he wants to come here. All right. I don't know. None of us know. We don't know them unless, you know, the man personally. You could say that he doesn't want to come here, but you don't know. Absolutely. You're absolutely right on that. Look, I mean, we've speculated, you know, with the pregame interactions that we see with Bill Belichick, Bill Belichick being overly effusive in the praise that he has for DeAndre Hopkins, recognizing his ball skills, voice and his inflections that really let you know that this is a guy that he has the utmost respect for and really just loves the way he plays the game. Obviously, there's mutual respect because DeAndre Hopkins has said that he respects Bill Belichick at the highest level, absolutely loves what he's done, and respects everything about the way he coaches the game. So there's mutual respect there.

But does that translate into him wanting to come to New England and play for Bill Belichick alongside the current roster that the Patriots have? That's something that I think a lot of people are really wondering about right now. But when you have the financial wherewithal, my friend, sometimes those decisions are made a little bit easier. And the insight that you're providing right now is tremendous so i appreciate it and i know all patriots nation does i just gotta say this when the betting markets include the patriots in it it as a possible destination for for hopkins you got to go you got to listen because the betting money knows.

The betting money does know, my friend. There is no question about that. And you've given us here in Patriots Nation an awful lot to maybe bet on, but an awful lot to be optimistic about when it comes to DeAndre Hopkins. So I thank you for that piece of information. And you probably helped to make the weekend of New England Patriots fans a little bit brighter, dancing with the thought of DeAndre Hopkins wearing a Patriots uniform, which he won't be able to wear 10 here in New England.

Well, maybe he will. I don't know. That's a conversation for next week. A lot of quarterback talk coming up on Lockdown Patriots in the next coming days. But we're sticking to Foxborough Finance here today. And as long as we are talking about betting before my good friend, Miguel, sets the record straight, keep in mind today's episode is brought to you by our good friends at betonline.net, your number one source for sports betting information, stats, news, and analysis.

Get the latest odds and trends for every professional and amateur league out there from pro football to college to basketball. Got it all on BetOnline.net. And if you love sports podcasts, you can even find those on BetOnline as well. Head to the website today. Use your mobile device to learn more. BetOnline, where the game starts. starts and while you're out there showing some love to any type of gaming situation that you're going at miguel i gotta be honest with you bud before we continue i just continue to be more

geeked out by the day by our new partner and sponsor of today's episode the mobile game ultimate football gm folks this is a blast i am having a lot of fun with this if you've downloaded it and you're playing it i know you're having fun as well. Folks, if you haven't done so, please do so. It is a lot of fun, especially at this time of year, because if you ever dreamed of becoming an NFL GM and managing your football franchise, your dream can come true. And this game is definitely for you. Imagine managing every strategic aspect of your team, being able to play through the season and

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That's all caps. That's LOCKEDON in all caps, so make sure to check it out today and the game store. To download the game just visit ultimate-gm.com or look it up on the app stores that's ultimate-gm.com ultimate football gm start your dynasty today patriots fans the one the only incomparable miguel pats cap benzon joins me today the salary cap top, my good friend. I always love when you stop by the pod, buddy, and I appreciate this.

And, you know, we're going to start setting the record straight a little early. This is a unique, unique opportunity for Patriots fans, locked on Patriots listeners, definitely, to be able to hear the master at work. And, folks, this is why I call on the Patriots salary cap top gun, the best of the best, no equal. And it's a segment that's unique to this pod. So I take a lot of pride in being able to give you the platform to do this. A lot of the cat myths that are floating around, Miguel will set the record straight on those, but perhaps the biggest right now, and the one on everybody's mind, my friend,

is the disparity between a lot of the numbers that are being reported about the Patriots cap space. We heard months ago that this was going to be a $100 million offseason for the Patriots, and then we start to hear rumors that it's dropped to about $50, $55, and your projections right now have the Patriots at north of $35 million, and I'm not going to get into specifics. I'll leave that to you. But before we set the record straight on any of those myths out there, help us understand how you arrived at your number, which, again, folks, I hold in higher regard than any other number you'll find out there. How do we get there, bud? So, Mike, bring up the header overlay.

Okay. Miguel's brought visual aids for us today folks see look at that look at that pop right up the other one the other one the other one oh you want the header okay this is great okay so here we go here we go okay okay so folks you're gonna see this overlay right the top one is my numbers the second one is the numbers from I'm going to use overthecap.com. All right? Right now, we don't know what the 2023 league official number is. I'm projecting it to be $227.2 million.

Over the Cap is using $225 million. All right? We're both using the same projected rollover. Because we both got the number from Phil Gates today. All right? If we had done this show last week, Mike, I would have said that there was about a million and a half difference between my number and Rodolphe and OTC's.

All right? Because I keep track of earned, not likely to be earned, actor roster bonuses. The two websites, Over the cap and the site that starts with a little s does not all right i right now i have keeping track because i keep track of the details of incentives off guaranteed offsets i have them right now we're around to have a negative effect of the adjustments because we had players like trent brown juan bentley teachers wise lauren sky jelani tavai all earned centers all right so i have a negative point

375 million dollars for that so that gives us you add those three numbers together and you have an adjusted cap number of 224.57 million dollars all right and i'll say this folks every team has a different account just a cap number the media does a poor job of saying that the media does a poor job of saying of telling people that i'll give credit to field yates for doing his first tweet today. They're telling that today. And the media does not, whatever, they don't do a good job, in my opinion, telling about these numbers, that adjusted cap number is different for every team, all right? So once I have this adjusted cap number, I'm subtracting out the off-season workout bonus charge. All right, folks, the players get, this year will get paid $295 per off-season workout session. It's going to be, they do it by $90. They say 90 players are going to get it,

and they have 32 sessions. $295 times 32 times 90 happens to be $849,600. Both over the cap and I have the Patriots dead money as the same amount, $1.4 million. All right? Where we biggest difference between me and them and over the cap is we have our top 51 commitments different. And the reason that is, Mike, is I'm accounting for incentives.

All right? There are seven players, and let me just bring up the list. All right. Sixth player, excuse me, Matthew Judon, Trent Brown, Deaches Wise, DeJuan Bentley, Jelani Devine, and Lawrence Guy, earned incentives in 2022, making them likely to be earned in 2023 right it our boy adrian phillips his deal contains incentives but they didn't kick into this year right right for those the total incentives for these seven players is 9.15 million dollars all right michael loano Duggar, both earned the proven performance escalator, Mike.

What that is is that in the new CBA, all right, players drafted in the second to seventh round have a chance to increase their salary in the fourth year of the deal by playing a lot of snaps or by getting selected to the pro pro bowl team on the first initial time team all right right michael loano has played over 60 of the snaps in each of his three years all right so his salary is going up big time. It's going up from $1.01 million to $2.917 million. That's a $1.9 million difference, Mike.

Kyle Duggar is going to... He goes up from $1.4 million to $2.6 million because as a second round pick, his salary is a little bit higher than Michael O awano was all right right okay so and then that's why i have a big difference and i'll say this like i said i keep track of the offseason um active roster bonuses the other

two sites having having i decreased the numbers for the players who didn't were active for all 17 games all right right and they're like players like there's the players who weren't active for all 17 games. All right? Right. And they're like players like there was eight Patriots who weren't active for every game in 2022. There's John O'Smith, David Andrews, Brian Hoyer, Lawrence Guy, Kenneth Bourne, Jalen Mills, Jake Bailey, and Ty Montgomery.

All right? So those other sites are actually overstating the cap number for Hoyer and Montgomery because they're saying they were active for all 17 games in 2022. They'll eventually fix that, and that's when their number will come closer to my number. All right? All right. guys will come closer to my number all right so um so and then once i total up the that does all those commitments i should track out and i get the 35.7 million dollars that's how i do it all right um we start you started saying how you we heard you could um talk about the 100 million dollars all right that 100 million dollar fight figure mike was from last

february january february march when the patriots had about two dozen players signed for the 2023 season all right i think i might have said back then you know back then oh no there's no way it's gonna be it's both they'll probably have $50 million because I knew the Patriots were going to sign players, draft players. All right? So they would have 51 players on the roster. All right? You go from 20 players to 51 players, of course you're going to lose a lot of cap space. All right?

So, like, you're going to hear to repeat this mistake for 2024. All right. So like you're going to hear to repeat this mistake for 2024. All right. As if the Patriots not going to sign teams, not going to sign players that have a new hit for 2024. I'm not going to draft players for 2000 in this year or not going to restructure deals. You know, it's going to affect increase the players cap number in 2024. it just happens each year all right um right before what a couple of weeks ago we're hearing 54 million dollars all right but if you go to the two websites today over the cap.com and the s site none of them have 50 million dollars right now right why because now they have counted for the all the future signings which i've been saying if you if you follow me on twitter every week i sent out a screenshot saying my number includes i anticipate the future future deal

signings all right now that they've done it the number is lower okay I think they both have around 45 40 45 44 44 million dollars all right I'm at 35 when the difference really is now the incentives and the PPE for the PPEs for awano and um Duggar right all right and once they those two sites adjust for that there will be the will be all around the same amount of number it is what it is i'm used to it i'm used to getting uh people asking me why the differences and people doubting me it is what it is mike it cracks me up i've been doing this for 20 plus years i got 50 000 followers it was like okay um i don't think i would have 50 000 and people didn't trust me or credit i've been having credibility um i'll just say this it cracks me up when some beat letters

choose who know follow me choose not to use my numbers and then and then um and now they'll be going to the same sites and they'll say today they'll say oh now last week you reported the patrons gonna have 54 million dollars and now they have 44 explain the difference you know saying folks you should we should challenge you should those beat writers we used to difference you know saying folks you should we should challenge you should those beat writers we used to chat you know saying if i'm getting questions about my numbers you should all you go folks you should challenge those beat writers and say how do you why do you report 54 million dollars now in 44 what happened to the 10 million dollars no it's true anyone anyone can read a table, a salary cap table.

But if you just read the table and say it's $54 million with 44 players signed, that's not helpful. When you know in March they're going to have over 50 players signed. Without question. And, you know, I mean, you look at the differences between the numbers, and I think you've articulated that perfectly. And I thank you for the visual aids. And we're not done with those visual aids yet. Miguel's got more, folks.

We are ready to roll here on Locked On Patriots. And my good buddy has definitely come armed with a lot of information, and hopefully it will help make things a little bit easier for all of us, myself included. When it comes to the numbers that we've used, anyone that's familiar with my writing knows that any time there is a financial to be quoted, there is never another source that I will use. I completely stand by you. I stand by that. I know a lot of my colleagues among Patriots writers within this realm, within this region, feel the same way. And we feel very confident and we're very.

I show my friends the DMs and they can't believe who's DMing me. It is true. It absolutely is. I'm among that, but I guarantee you I'm not probably shocking anyone on that or probably surprising or raising an eyebrow. But bottom line, I am very honored to be on the short list of people that Miguel will share information with, and I

always appreciate that, and it always makes me happy. But folks, we are not done yet setting the record straight. Miguel is going to be back in just a second here on Locked On Patriots to help wrap things up and give us more information regarding the Patriots potential salary cap number and anything else the man wants to set the record straight on. He's got the calm today and I for one could not be happier to give it to him. But first, folks, if you're looking for a delicious treat but don't want all of the fat and calories, then you've got to try a Built Bar.

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You can get it at Sam's Club or Walmart. So if you're close to one and you want to run in and grab a 13-bar box with our hit flavors, definitely do so. You can thank me later, built.com. Patriots fans, we are setting the record straight with the one and only Miguel Patscap Benzon joining me here today on Locked On Patriots, talking all things Patriots salary.

We've talked DeAndre Hopkins. We've talked Patriots estimated cap numbers. And we are not done yet, Miguel. You are in the midst of setting the record straight, a segment unique here to Lockdown Patriots. And I always love it. I always, always appreciate it. So, my friend, when we last left you,

we were talking a little bit about the difference in dichotomy between the $100 million cap number, the $50 million cap number, and now arriving at your estimated cap number north of $35 million. I thought you did an amazing job of articulating this, but you're not quite done explaining this yet and setting the record straight. So, my friend, the floor is yours. Have at it. What else do we need to know about the Pat Sauer cap? So, bring up the minus overlay. Okay.

From the. Okay. All right. So over the cap right now. And I got to say this, folks. We're doing this on Thursday night. I started this overlay last night. And I had some different roles in there

because I wasn't anticipating Jason would change the numbers. So I had to send Mike two versions of this workbook. So I'm using say it's $48 million. This is as of this morning. So if Jason has changed his numbers since then, I apologize to Jason. All right. So OTC is short for over the cap. Okay.

They have $47.99 million. Like I said before, he's using $225 million as the lead cap number. I'm using $227.2 million. So you're going to add that. All right. Because if I'm right, his i'm right his cap number his cap space number goes up all right right so that then brings us to 50.19 million dollars but he's not including michael juan who's proven performance escalator okay i'll subtract that out he does not

including cal duggars performs performance escalator all right he's not including Cal Duggars performance escalator. All right? He's not talking about, he's not including the incentive. And the big thing, folks, all right? I got to say this. Trent Brown, when he got his deal, it was widely reported he had 4.5 million dollars in playing time incentives. All right? He earned them all all right

so his cap number is 4.5 million dollars higher than the other sites my number is higher than the other sites all right once they adjust it all right they'll they'll they'll match mine all right he's just one example he's the biggest example because he's the biggest guy um but i i swear i like you know i read an article today and they had trent brown's number in the cap number as if he didn't earn an incentive i'm like you're a beat writer how do you i'm like you should know that he had incentives right and you should know he probably since you know he played in every game he played effectively all the snaps should know he probably pretty pretty much earned them all all right but that's just me just ranting all right all. Okay, so then I talked about the adjustments, all right?

And it rounds off the $3.75 million, all right? He has, over at cap.com, and I believe the other site, has Andrew Stuber's salary as $870,000. This season does not count as a credited season for him because he spent the entire season on a non-football list, a non-football injury list, excuse me. said it's gonna be 750 000 that's 120 000 difference all right i asked jason in the dm is he accounting for the off-season workout bonus in his number and he said no all right so that's in there all right and then you add like i said before he's overstating the cap numbers for some of the guys who weren't active for every game all right and that's comes

up to the filling out is about 1.94 million dollars that comes out that the difference equals 35.75 million dollars which is what right around my35.7 million. I mean, because I'm doing a lot of rounding here, that $50,000 difference doesn't really, it's insignificant. That hopefully, and then folks, if we had done this last week, a couple of things would have been different. One would have been the roll over now. And then Jason was including his numbers, the rookie pool. He took that out today.

Oh, wow. Yeah, he took it out today. This is why I sent you the second spreadsheet, Mike. I was like, oh, my gosh. All right. So, yeah, so that's the nitty and the gritty of it i um i'm not gonna go we're i'm not gonna go list all the incentives by me i'll just i mean by the amounts but i've i did tweet it out um before and if people want me to tweet it out again listen to the show

and i'll tweet out i'll tweet out a thread about it again. Yeah, for the benefit of those that are listening to us, my audio. I mean, Miguel has done a great job with some visual aids here on YouTube. I know our viewers are definitely enjoying this. But if you are listening to us either on whatever podcast platform, check all of this information out on Miguel's Twitter, at Patscap. Again, best in the business, and this will all be out there. So, Miguel, thank you for that. All right.

Yeah, so that's setting the record straight. We talked about why I expect their numbers to eventually match mine we've seen it already we've seen it go from 55 to 48 we'll see it we'll see in the next couple of weeks or maybe in the next couple of months for sure that number go up um the difference between us go down um it happens it is what it is i'm like i say the reason it happens is I'm focused on the Patriots I'm a boutique those two other sites are a general shopping store all right they don't keep track of the active roster bonuses they don't keep track of the offset gal offset salaries they don't keep track of the incentives like I do um so that's why there's a difference um and i there was something one other thing i wanted

is that the wrecking state and i think it was the trent brown thing i was it just because he's the biggest guy biggest number out there that's the biggest difference affected by the incentives yeah he's the biggest guy out there too trust me it's not an easy experience uh he is he is a massive man but uh but a great guy as well so but no you you've helped cut that financial situation down to size so i do appreciate that my friend yeah thank you um that's all i got for setting the record straight because it's this part is the basis for everything else. Knowing how they, I'm trying to hopefully explain to people in this podcast how the numbers created and then explain the difference. All right.

I guess, oh, you know what? I guess I could just have to reconstruct someone on Bill Belichick. Oh, please do. Okay. All right. So he talked about the cash spending. All right. to set the record straight somewhat on bill belichick oh please do okay all right so he talked about the cash spending all right and he brought up 2020 and i'm thinking bob bill bill how do you not mention you had eight eight opt-outs with the opt-out in august we had dante hightower, Marcus Cannon, Patrick Chung, Matt Lacoste, Brandon Bolden.

Opted out in August. That's a lot of cash because they weren't getting paid the salary. There's no chance. You had no chance to spend the money that you had allocated to those guys. Right. In 2020. And then he spends a lot of money in 2021 all right and then he says talks about 2022 i'm like he's saying we're like the 20 pages are 27 the cash pen for all those few years yes i'm like how does he know that already when they haven't finished the accounting yet for incentives and the active roster bonuses

bill III didn't get what his point was but I know I'm like if he's gonna bring up some context about cash spending he should have mentioned the opt-outs in my opinion that's an interesting point no because he had been once those guys opted out and the pages led the league in opt-outs right yes they did okay once those guys opted out in august who are you spending the money on who are you spending the money on yeah all right um yeah i mean 2020 was definitely an outlier in so many ways. There's no question about that. But the Patriots were the highest on the list by far with opt-outs. And I don't even think it was a close second at that point, if memory serves me correctly.

So, yeah, this is an interesting point. And Bill took a little bit of flack in that for his statement that he made about that as well. Yeah. The other thing is it's kind of correlating cash spending with winning. Right. I have not seen that strong of a relationship. You know what I'm saying? It's like, I'm like, it's not, for me, it's not the quantity of cash spending you do.

It's the quality. Right. All right. I do. It's the quality. Right. All right? I loved the John Luke Smith signing. Yeah. All right? I loved it. It turns out not to work out.

All right? So that's a bad signing in terms of quality. Well, up until this point. Up until this point. As of now, it's a bad signing in terms of quantity, and it may turn out to be a bad signing in terms of quality. I'll say right now, as a guy who loved, who actually went on and said that he's one of my three free agent targets,

I'll say that, all right? That he's been a bad signing free free agent targets i'll say that all right yeah there's bad there's been a bad signing quality and quantity all right yeah but for me it's it's not how much you spend it's how well you spend it all right um so like i didn't get i'm a salary cap guy so i'm like okay i heard i heard it i'm like whoa okay i wouldn't have said that and i'm like i don't know who prepped bill but i would have said i would have put up in 2020 i would have probably talked about the opt-outs and then just say in his own yeah we, we're not perfect. We signed 25 players and free agents. We didn't expect to be perfect. All right.

We made some mistakes. We hit some on some. And that's all I would have said. But I cannot believe I'm sitting this record straight on Bill Belichick. Oh, my God. That is a first, folks. That is definitely a first. But you know what?

I think Miguel brings up an interesting point. And what better way than to end a herb brooks quote i'm not necessarily looking for well paraphrase folks not exact but i'm not necessarily looking for the most expensive players i'm looking for the right ones and i think that's the articulation right now that miguel is trying to put forth that that doesn't necessarily mean that cash spending always equates to victory on the field it's about the quality of the players that you're bringing in. So even Bill needs a little set in the record straight every now and then. And when he does, he's definitely going to this man. I assure you, when it comes

to all things related to finance, once again, my friend, the salary cap top gun, the plaque for the alternates doesn't exist because the man has no equal. Before I let you go today, my friend, please let everyone know where they can find you, where they can follow your great work and some of the amazing charity work that you do in addition to bringing all of us here a little more information and helping us all sound a little

and look a little smarter when it comes to Patriots Finance. You'll find me on the Bird app at Patscap, P-A-T-S-c-a-p um let me put this right way I I'm practically the only reason right now that I'm still on the app is to raise money for the charity that I support which is half an habitat of humanity i literally had said i started this the campaign in the middle of a pandemic thinking i could raise 120 000 in a couple of years i'm not even close so so i was gonna just leave twitter in the last year and and on january 1st but 2022 personally was a bad year for me i didn't want to add another

another failure to list the things in 2022. Folks, if you can afford to do so, I'm spending some of my time. I can't tell you how many hours I spent just doing these two spreadsheets for Mike and these overlays. If you can afford to do so, I'm not looking for money

for myself. I'm just trying to help someone get into a new home. I believe the American dream to see my pinned tweet on how to donate to Habitat for Humanity. I'm wearing purple because Alzheimer's. So I'll let you know

if you know someone who's suffering from Alzheimer's, I'm praying for you and your family. I can tell you from personal experience, folks, Miguel is the real deal when it comes to all of this, as so many people are throughout the Twitterverse that you'll encounter. But if you have any opportunity to be able to help out some of the great charities this man supports and does, definitely check out at Pat's Cap on Twitter, and you'll find all of the information that you need

there, as well as all of the financial information Miguel shared today. And he continues to share each and every day, again, to help us all be more informed Patriots fans when it comes to Pat's finances. So my friend, a tip of the cap to you. I thank you for taking the time out to join me here today on Locked On Patriots. Pat's fans, once again, we will continue to cover each and every aspect of the Patriots offseason, and we'll continue to do so each and every day here on the Locked On Patriots podcast. And now that you've made us your first listen, make your second listen,

our good friends over at Locked On Sports Today. All the sports you need, all the information you need, all in one convenient package, and they even give you the take of the day. You can't ask for more. So download, subscribe to, follow the Locked On Sports Today podcast

on the Odyssey app, on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. And while you're out there doing so, please smash that subscribe button to Locked On Patriots and download, subscribe to, and follow us wherever you get your audio podcasts. On behalf of my good friend, the salary, Pat's cap

top gun himself, Miguel Benzon, I'm Mike DeBate. Continue to stay safe and stay well, everyone. Be the change you wish to see in the world. Have a great day, everyone.