Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Foxboro. Finance and the Fins: New England Patriots Talk w/PatsCap

Episode Date: September 9, 2022

With the 2022 season set to kick-off on Sunday, Sept. 11, the New England Patriots face questions of a fiscal nature, as well as on the field. Joining host Mike D’Abate is Miguel ‘PatsCap’ Benzan, to discuss the Patriots current salary cap situation, the restructuring of Jonnu Smith’s contract and Miguel provides his game prediction for Sunday’s matchup with the Miami Dolphins.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!BriteCoThe guys at BriteCo Jewelry Insurance made buying insurance for your engagement ring, your watch, or whatever so easy you can get covered in 2 minutes on your cell phone. You won't find a better deal on coverage that's so affordable. Go to https://brite.co/lockedonPrizePicksFirst time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That’s PrizePicks.com – promo code; LOCKEDONTuroDitch boring rental cars and find your drive at Turo.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Patriots fans, it is Friday. We are two days away from the Pats opening their season against the Miami Dolphins in South Beach, but not before we talk a little finance. It is still Financial Friday here on Locked On Patriots, joined by the great and powerful Wizard of Benz on himself. Stay tuned. Miguel and I are coming at you in just a moment

here on 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 as well as your first listen every day. Remember, folks, Locked on Patriots is free and available on all platforms, including YouTube, so don't forget to smash that subscribe button

and download, subscribe to, and follow wherever you get your audio podcasts. Today's episode, folks, is brought to you by BetOnline. BetOnline has you covered this season with more props, more odds, and more lines than ever before. BetOnline, you covered this season with more props, more odds, and more lines than ever before. BetOnline, where the game starts. Patriots fans, the countdown has officially begun. As the late great Gorilla Monsoon would say, the time for the talk has just about ended. And joining me here today on the pod to talk a little Foxborough finance heading into week one

is the great and powerful wizard of ben zahn himself he is miguel pat's cat ben's on miguel i'm always honored always humbled by your presence thank you so much for joining me today on lockdown patriots it's always a great time for me you've been killing it lately with the shows i always said we offline love the um locked on what um cross lockdown thing you have with the dolphins guy claire killed it with the 53 man rasta thing was i love um i now try to listen to what listen to you on the on youtube um during the day at work so as is again now I'm not as far behind as I used to be.

Well, thank you. I do appreciate that. I always appreciate that. I went away for the weekend, so I caught up greatly just today. I think you've been killing it. Let's just do it.

I think I'm excited for this show. I know I want to get some things off. Um say some things and let's just go. Let's get to it. Absolutely, my friend. We always look forward to having you here on Foxborough Finance Friday and it is a game week. So, we are going to get into Miguel's game prediction before we close the show today but it's been an eventful couple of weeks for you, my friend. Roster cutdowns. Um roster restructurings, always interesting times in Foxborough without any

question. And as I've said many times here on Locked On Patriots, you do not want to be taking your financial calculations from me, folks. I get there and I get there accurately, but it takes a lot of counting on your fingers, a lot of calculator work, not really the best source because it takes me a long time. Miguel is on it and he's on it like no other in the business. That's why we call him the Pat's cap, the top gun of salary cap when it comes to the New England Patriots. Miguel, before we get into some of the nuts and bolts of what the Patriots have been doing lately to get under the cap and things that they've been doing to allow themselves operating maneuvering room to operate in the 2022 calendar year.

You announced recently that you made a slight change, or maybe it's not a slight change, to your calculations and how you arrive at your Patriots salary cap number. Regarding the top 51 list, it gets a little technical, technical folks I'm going to let the guru himself give you all the information that you need so Miguel help us I don't want to say set the record straight because we're going to save that for a little bit down the line uh but what changes have you made to your calculations and what differences can we expect to see this year from your final salary cap number okay so journey off season which starts um in march in the league year all right from that time till today which is the first game of the regular season this morning

so at 12 01 a.m full accounting took place all right between start of league gear in mid-march till now to today we use top 51 accounting we switched today this morning to full accounting i switched earlier because i work i i switched earlier it was just easy to do on the weekend blah blah blah but what is you know so what does that mean the difference between top 51 and full in june the pages had 90 players signed on their roster all right but in my excel workbook i would have 90 roads for each player but for the guys who didn't have the 51 highest cap numbers i will not inc i would not include the salary in their cap number. All right?

So there would be – that's how teams could afford to have 90 players on the roster because you're not including all 90 salaries in the salary cap. All right? And the question – a great question I always get is why 51 and not 53? Don't know. I've asked around no one knows the cba has been around since the mid-1990s no one knows who created the cba then no has said why they have the 51. i think is these are one of those rules they have that just should change because what the pro media does does not do a good enough job of telling people that there's a switch happening all right so we saw last week in the last week we saw several

teams extend players convert salary into signing bonus. Reach injury settlements with players. Why? To make sure they were underneath the cap or had enough cap to operate the rest of the season. The Patriots did that with John O. Smith, a topic we'll talk about later. And what does full accounting mean? Like I said before, during June, July, blah, blah, blah, all these other months, I was just counting 51 salaries. Now I'm including all on counting 51 salaries now i'm including off on my my workbook including the size for all 53 players on the active roster the salaries of the 16 players on the practice squad the salaries of the players who are not the four players on the

ir the two players who are on the size of the two players on the NFI. All right? I'm including that. Now I'm including all those salaries. All right? And then every team is doing that. All right? And once, and I've said this before several, if you listened to me before on Mike's show and you follow me on Twitter at Padscap,

you heard me say this many times. Once the season starts, thefl cap excuse me is a soft cap but once the season starts it becomes a hotter cap because the termination pay benefits which guarantees veterans this sally makes it harder to create cap space right all right because you can't now during the season you can't go to a veteran and say we want you to take a pay cut he'll just he'll just say no and take his termination pay and go someplace else he's not that i'll say that's why it's so much harder to create cap space during the season this is why we saw several teams including including the Patriots, make these moves.

It is – I'm a cap guy, so I'm a nerd, all right? But I really wish when someone in the national media would say, hey, these moves are happening because of this and talk about the switch because like when like today earlier this morning field gates posted a list of the salary cap number of each team and people saying that's wrong what happened at a cap space right and that was the most what happened to the cap space you know i thought this team x, had more cap space than they did, than in your listing. And that's because they're unaware or don't know or never been told about the switch. And it's a pet peeve of mine, but it's something I try to hammer down.

And I appreciate the question, Mike. And hopefully it answers the question Mike and hopefully it answers the question absolutely no I mean you have you've laid it out in terms of the top 51 and it's interesting to know that that's still a mystery among a lot of people that do the type of work that you do the type of work that we do here covering the beat or you know being you know an aggregate cover of the New England Patriots or any NFL team, really. It's always interesting to see that dichotomy, that back and forth. So always interesting stuff. But I always appreciate your insight when it comes to that.

And folks, definitely pay attention. There will be some changes this year to what Miguel is reporting. But ultimately, right now, the Patriots sitting at $3,149,885 in available cap space. And how will the Patriots put that to use? Well, part of that, folks, is going to be determined, or it was determined, by the Patriots' move to extend or restructure, I should say, the contract of one John O. Smith. My good friend definitely nailed on the head that the Patriots would restructure a free agent tight ends contract from 2021. But he had the wrong tight end as did

a lot of us. Sorry, Claire. Absolutely. And you know what? It really it was very interesting and very eye opening. And we're going to get into just how eye-opening that was and what the Patriots might do with their newfound cap windfall in just a minute when this episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast with Miguel Benzon continues. But first, folks, as you gear up for fall, you need the right people on your team to help your small business fire on all cylinders. LinkedIn Jobs is here to make it

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Did you know that every week nearly 40 million job seekers visit LinkedIn? Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash locked on NFL. That's linkedin.com slash locked on NFL to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Patriots fans, my good friend Miguel, the Pats cap Benzon, the salary cap wizard of Benzon, is here with us to help close out the week in style. It's Foxborough Finance Friday.

And Miguel, you've already broken the wisdom and counsel meter off the charts by explaining the change in your calculations this year from using the top 51, how that's going to be used and how that will reflect your final Patriots cap number. Miguel, throughout the off season, you had prognosticated that the Patriots would make some sort of contract restructuring to open up significant cap space. It was almost a foregone conclusion that it was going to be one of their 2021 signees you mentioned the name matt judon you'd mention the name hunter henry who do the patriots extend or i should say who do the patriots restructure tight end john

smith freeing up approximately 5.3 million dollars in salary cap space at the time it was a little bit eye-opening considering that Jonu was now entering the first year of a four-year contract that he signed with the New England, second year, excuse me, the first year being done last year, second year of a four-year deal. You had conjectured that Henry might be a target of that, but the Patriots ended up going with Jonu Smith. Walk us through your thought process from the moment you found out about the extension to what this may mean for the Patriots salary cap moving forward first thing I did was laugh I I I I don't know you got that wrong you got it wrong

I was like my goodness gracious did not see it coming I did get a couple you know i've been saying for several weeks now that on on twitter that the pages had to make a move because they wouldn't they weren't going to have enough cap space just when the switch happened so i knew a move was happening it was going to happen i don't know what move was going to happen if mike if you had asked me the the more minutes before we learned of it was who's going to happen who's going to get struck deals going to try to john smith would have been at the bottom of the list honestly um i was i remember being i think i said this on your show in march i wasn't i did not expect him to do to read redo deal. I talked about then how much money Capspace created, but I just downplayed the thing they were doing.

I think I wrote down, I think I have three good reasons why they did it. One is what Phil Perry said. They think that Jono Smith can play to the level that they signed him at. They signed him at the time of the deal. They signed last year. They signed him. He and Hunter Henry, the top deals for a tight end. Now, I think they're tied for sixth or seventh now, which, as an aside,

which tells you, A, how the market just changes right away. All right. I think they think whatever they've done scheming wise offensively and they think obviously they think he's gonna be healthier this year they think they could play to a level of a top tight end of a league tight end all right they also knew know about his age he's one of the young one of the guys who's on the younger side is he younger than john o'smith i mean excuse me matthew judon he's also younger than hunter henry hunter henry has only one year left on his deal he has to love this deal

for his counterpart and what's happening in the tight end market all right because he knows he's not going to get a franchise tag in 2024 because that's like 18 million dollar hat cap here for them all right oh yeah okay so because of this deal you're not going to have two tight ends at and eight both having $18 million. All right? So, 100-100, if he plays well, he's looking at either getting extended in 2023 or playing out the year in 2023. All right? So, this is both.

He bowls well. This, and kind of a cap nerdy kind of thing. If you had extended Matthew Judon, not extended, redo, redone Matthew Judon's deal, all right, and then you needed more cap space, then you would have to do John O. Smith. Now, by leaving Matthew Judew juden down's deal on the deal you can actually create the same cap amount of cap savings four weeks into the season

because matthew juden has a higher salary right so it leads the players patriots flexibility with matthew judon hunter henry by taking the guy with a relatively Those guys I've read to the lowest salary out of those. I mean So I just I think it's the stage you want to leave yourself flexibility and They believe in John O Smith. I mean, I got a lot of folks. I got to be honest I don't be i gotta be transparent total disc i gotta be transparent i was on mike's show i was on the show with steve and derek uh patrick's pages fourth and two i said that one of my feature targets and free agents

was john o'smith i had i listened as one of my three guys. I wanted. So I want them to do well with this contract because I predict I want it. I said it would be great for them. So I want him to succeed because if you listen to me on those podcasts, I like to be right. So I was like, it cracks me. It cracks me. What? It cracks me. It doesn't crack me up.

It saddens me right away at the end of the news. Oh, this is a terrible contract. After one year, you're going to judge a four-year contract. Let's give the man a chance. But you don't tell people how to be a fan. But to me, it was like, all right, if you got, it cracks me up because the other way I think about it, people say, oh, how come the Patriots don't do this?

The Saints do that. Create cap space. The Rams create cap space. Why don't the Rams Patriots do it? Once they do it, people unhappy. They did what you want. You should not say, and then why you can't be happy? You did what you want, and then you say. And then why you can't be happy? They did what they want.

And then you still can't be happy. Exactly. Yeah. They, they, they had to make the move. Mike. Cause like,

like I know, like we, we say like my number is 3.1. Yep. They created 5.3, 1 million dollars in cash space. There's a difference. They needed to create that.

They, they needed to do that move um claire should be if you're like claire and you're big a fan of the tight ends claire cooper at classy claire folks you gotta like is this telling me they they committed to the two two tight end approach yeah without question i'm glad that you brought that up that this also is a good move for hunter henry as well because people are going to look at this and say oh well the patriots are buying into janu they're not going to buy into hunter that's it i mean it could happen that way but actually i think this only solidifies the fact that the patriots are going to be committed because

if hunter performs at a high level alongside janu this is a sign that they may want to extend Hunter in 2023, like you said, or have him enter the year playing out the string and essentially kind of letting him walk at that at the end of that juncture because Hunter signed the three-year deal. John has signed the four years, so he's here for an extra year. It makes sense for them to rework him first. So at this point, the Patriots right now, 18.6% of the time on the field

last year is all that hunter henry and johnny smith saw the same type of uh you know um time on the field together you can definitely bet that's going to increase in 2022 i think you may even start to see that a little bit on sunday patriots want to get that 12-man personnel updated they want to get that incorporated and i personnel updated. They want to get that incorporated, and I think Jonu being a little bit better at taking the ball out of the backfield, utilizing the jet sweep, but also seeing how they're utilizing him as a target in the red zone throughout training camp. Miguel, huge, huge strides for Jonu Smith, and it definitely makes sense when you look at what they've done financially, as opposed to how they're incorporating him on the field.

I think those two are really, really coming together at the right time. So great stuff when it comes to Jonu. And thank you so much for helping us understand a little bit better exactly what happened financially with Jonu Smith. But folks, Miguel is not done setting the record straight just yet. In a segment unique to Locked On Patriots, and we are so, so blessed that he chooses us to give him the venue to be able to do it. He is about to set the record straight on all those various salary cat myths

floating around out there. Miguel brings it home and gives us his thoughts on Patriots Dolphins when this episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast concludes. But first, folks, today's episode once again is brought to you by our good friends at BetOnline.net, your number one source for all of your pro and college football betting needs and sports information this season. Find all of the latest football league developments, game matchups,

news, podcasts, everything all this year, including this week's opening games. BetOnline is your continued source for all of your sports wagering information, including live betting, esports, and scores. The fastest and easiest way to check in on all of your favorite sports and events, including Major League Baseball, MMA, boxing, and golf, is our good friends at BetOnline. So head to the website today or use your mobile device to learn more about the trends and the action.

BetOnline, where the game starts. Patriots fans, the great and powerful wizard of Ben Zahn himself, the salary cap top gun, Miguel Benzahn joins me here on the pod today closing the week in style Foxborough Finance Friday little Patriots Dolphins preview but but I can't thank you enough for joining us today but we're not about to let you go just yet because we haven't closed out the week in style until we have given Miguel the opportunity to quell any of those cat myths that are floating around out there and i know miguel you've got some stuff you want to get off your chest without further ado my friend the floor is yours set the record straight when it comes to the future we'll get an easy one out of the way

claire your memory was wrong kevin harris was drafted in the sixth round uh the fourth round i know i'll say and i guess that's why you were surprised that he was cut because every healthy fourth round pick made during the bill belichick area has made the week one roster not so much the six round right right number fixes but 50 50. um cla, that was on me. I should have corrected you on that one. So I take mea culpa on that one before we come at Claire here. Okay. No, I'm not coming.

We're just setting the record straight. Let's get it right. Two, we talked about the top 51 accounting, all right? And people are wondering how the Patriots have so little cap space if they don't have what they consider top 10 talent. I have to say, the question then becomes, this is what the Patriots do. They believe in building a roster top to bottom. The Rams, who we're going to watch later tonight, are a top-heavy team.

They'll have five or six big names on their team and the rest of the players on the team are making very little money. They're making the minimum salaries while the Patriots will have

40 to 45 players who are making at least a million dollars all right it's just what they do that's what they believe in all right it's a whole different philosophy roster construction philosophy between the rams and the patriots i if before the rams moved to st lou, from St. Louis to Los Angeles Rams, if I was going to pick a team to work for besides the Patriots, it would have been the Rams because they have fun contracts. By fun contracts, I mean they give their incentive clauses. When they have incentive clauses, they give them fun names.

For example, they'll include the names names of the players children or ice cream names and stuff like that they used to use palindromes in the salary salary cap numbers um so they would have they but they moved to la i don't like driving there's no way i would go to a place a lot of traffic all right all right um the third thing i want to go off is just is like to explain to people that that that three point million dollar gas phase the pages do they have enough right now it really depends on how they how healthy they are because there are two things that they three things they can control can do to control how much cash space to use the rest of the season and we're already seeing one of those things all right this is the year um in 2020 20 i'm gonna go backwards excuse me for a second mike 2020 2021

anybody on the practice squad they all made the same salary all right this year now if you're a veteran, there's a little bit of wiggle room. The minimum is $15,400 a week. The maximum is $19,900 a week. I had presumed that when the Patriots signed a veteran to their practice squad, they would give them the maximum. I was wrong three out of the four guys three out of four three out of five oh four out of five right friends langley treadwell i should look hold on i'm doing this with my fingers like i just look up um because i had this list i had this and i just remember forgot the names okay humphrey it was the guy i forgot okay

they could have paid those guys the maximums and they and they didn't only for rents got the maximum and then he got promoted all right oh and then excuse me javi langy and friends got the maximum then friends got promoted so they had already making moves to use to you not to use as much cap space as they possibly can that so the so that's one way they're doing it is when you practice squad players is when you sign a veteran and they just signed reportedly signed marcus today. All right? Okay. Last week, you told me before I learned about this change, what their preference was on how to treat veterans. You told me two weeks ago that they're going to sign Marcus Cannon

to a practice squad's player. I would have naturally assumed that he would get $19,900 a week. Now I'm going to start off thinking easily get the fifteen thousand four hundred because i can just gotta go based on precedent all right so the other thing they could do is practice squad elevations all right they had you could elevate two practice squads each week and last year they had 13 players deactivated because of COVID. That 34 plus 13 is 47. Patriots did not come close to elevating 47 players.

Mike, during the second half of the season, when they were tied to the cap, they were elevating two players a week. Right. Right. So, last year, they used about $1.1 million in practice squad elevations. I got to presume they're going to try to elevate the two players a week. Which two players a week?

I don't know. You beat writers should have a contest in guessing that. All right? At the end of the week column or your Saturday, if you have a Saturday column, you try to guess who they're elevating in a V week. It was on the practice squad. And, folks, if you've been following me last year, you know I will do a poll on Fridays asking you guys to make your own predictions on who gets elevated.

Let's just see who does the best. All right. And the other thing is players who can possibly earn, not likely to be earned incentives, active roster bonus incentives, they have a liability right now about $2.3 million. All right? Raquan McMillan, we expect him to be active for the game against the Dolphins.

All right? Once he's active, since he wasn't active at all last year, that money he gets is going to hit against the cap. So every weekend, folks, if you have two practice squad elevations and you get somebody earning not likely to be earned active roster bones the pages are going to lose cap space and it quickly goes good point all right so remember after stefan gilmore and just i hate to repeat myself or something i said on twitter but last year stefan after stefan gilmore today the pages had 6.1 million dollars in cap space they used all but all but

100 000 of it and during the last half okay granted one made more than one million went to adrian phillips as part of extension in the last all right but that's still unless if you discount let's say let's exclude agent phillips that's still $5 million in cap space used by just regular transactions. And the Patriots weren't doing that many practice squad elevations. And during the season, cap space goes quickly. It does. And I don't want to jinx myself, so I'm going to knock on wood. If they have a bad season health-wise, they're going to have to extend.

They're going to make another move for sure. I don't want to say it out loud. I hate saying it out loud, folks. I don't want to jinx the Patriots because they're my favorite team. All right? But they need to have, like, a 2014 season where they put very few players on IR. All right. But they need to have like a 2014 season where they put very few players on IR. Right. As of now, that's what they kind of season they need. They can't have a 2015 season where they were playing and putting an eye player on IR each and every week.

They just because that definitely you got a great cap space. And that's what and that's. I think that's all I got to say. This is Friday. Let's have some fun. Let's have the weekend. And we wanted to talk about – I wanted to get my prediction in. Absolutely. And we are going to get to that prediction in a split second, folks. But, of course, Miguel definitely mentioned the $1 million-plus that was spent on Adrian Phillips.

As you all know, I endorse that move wholeheartedly. Best money the Patriots spent in the offseason. Anybody that knows exactly where I am, he's my guy. I do enjoy covering Adrian. I've always enjoyed covering him. Back to the days when I covered the Chargers, he was one of those guys that I thought would make a prototypical perfect Patriot, and he makes me look better each and every time he takes the field.

So thank you for indulging me that moment, my friend. Just to mention a little Adrian Phillips on here always brings a smile to my face. But now we're going to bring a smile to the masses of New England because if you listen to yesterday's pod, folks, and you hear the crossover between myself and Kyle Krabs, you'll know that I am taking a little bit of a beating right now or picking against the New England Patriots. My final score prediction is 24-17,

that the New England Patriots will come out on the opposite side of the spectrum. But Miguel is going to take us home by making his game prediction. And folks, I think you're going to like his a lot more than you like mine. Floor is yours, my friend. Cats-Dolphins, this sunday 1 p.m hard

rock stadium miami gardens florida how does it all shake out i see jonah smith with a touchdown i see hunter henry with a touchdown i oh and then i see the patriots defeating the dolphins but with the same but the same score you predicted, 24-17. And I'm going to go on record, folks. Patriots are going to make the playoffs with a 12-5 record. You hear it here. It's going to make it happen. I am – I guess we have one more thing off my chest.

By all means. Okay, beat writers, fans of sports, usually fans take their minds off of something. Your tendency, your propensity to be negative isn't helpful in that regard. Personally, this has been a bad year for me personally. All right? I don't need to hear how you think that Bill Belichick might get fired in the future. Talk to me about

reality that might happen, something about happen in 2022 rather than something that happens in 2023. All right? That's all I got to say, Mike. Because I've been... I get it. I do. It's, you know, it's a tough road to follow because I know a lot of, Mike, speak for myself. I can't speak for any of my other colleagues and any other, you know, outlet or anything like that. I always try to

keep it as real as I possibly can. I'm not going to give a Valentine to the Patriots, but I'm also not going to be negative for the sake of being negative. I've been accused of being both, which surprises me because I always try to call it down the middle. But in my prediction this weekend, I just, I look at the way the Dolphins are playing right now and what I've seen from them in the footage that you've seen in the preseason and talking to people that cover the team regularly in training camp to what I've seen for the New England Patriots. Because I'm not being as optimistic as I usually am about game one does not mean that I'm buying into a 4-12 or 4-13 or whatever it is season for the New England Patriots.

And I'm hearing some of that, believe me, not just from the fan base, but also national media and maybe even some local media as well. I'm a lot higher on this team than people believe. And I think they will hit their stride. Bill Belichick's teams usually hit their stride as the season goes on. So if the Patriots do not walk away with a victory on Sunday and folks, you heard Murph say this earlier this week, it is not catastrophic.

It's not a cause to call for the firing of Bill Belichick or for Robert Kraft to sell the team or for Mac Jones to be jettisoned. There is a lot to like about this group, and I think you're going to see that. And, Miguel, thank you for setting the best record possible straight and giving us something to look for, something to shoot for, and something to be proud of, my friend. You are the best at what you do. You are the salary cap top gun. Folks, there is no plaque for the alternates. It doesn't exist because this man is alone at the top of what he does. And truly one of the great

guys, not just in terms of the business end of this, but personally, my greatest honor is calling you a good friend. And I mean that, and I say that every time that I bring you on here, but you are truly a great friend. And I always love these moments that we get a chance to share the microphone, talk football. And, folks, Miguel will be back, I'm sure, sooner rather than later to break down everything that happens with the Patriots cap. And into 2023, too. Don't forget, we're going to bring you back to talk about that prognostication. All right. Okay.

Well, I guarantee you, you mike we might have to do an emergency pod because i they gotta make if they don't change if they keep on elevating practice squad players and do two a game all right and players keep on earning they're not likely being active rafters bonus and they want to make acquire someone at the trade deadline or extend the current player who with a lower salary all right they're gonna have to make a move yeah it's um so we could definitely do a show after that one absolutely i could also for example michael, just to hop on what I've been saying, how many times during this offseason do we hear how

great of a deal the Patriots got with Adrian Phillips? I heard more about Bill Belichick's future than how great of a deal that Adrian Phillips was. I mean, I know I'm a cap nerd, but literally, that was a tremendous deal.

Same thing with the Patriots make some tremendous deal, but people just focus on what they consider a bad one. It's like Kenneth Bourne. His deal is tremendous. I know he had a weird, quirky, weird offseason. But before that, his deal in terms of what he brought to the table, and he signed for just two more years, 2023, 2022, and 2023. Had a tremendous value. But you don't hear that.

Right. You don't hear that as much. Yep. It's true. It's – Yeah. The nature of – right you don't hear that as much yeah it's speak yeah you know I hate to hop on the on on the media but I just did some people just did 53 man roster projections right and they took the easy way out say they take on third and made the team is gonna make the team I thought you know he's injured, so predict the guy who's going to replace him.

Under 53. But that's true. This has been, for me personally, one of the worst, if not probably the worst offseason to be a fan of my favorite team. Just because of the way how negative people are.

This team went to the playoffs here, 10-7. You know what I'm saying? I just pray for the people who've had bad years this year like myself. I just pray for them.

That's all I got to say. And like, really you guys in the media, you don't have, I'm not asking you to be homers, but let's just remember, this is a distraction. And I'm like, I spent less and less time listening to you guys. I just like, Oh my gosh, mute this, mute this person. Mute this radio station. God bless you. And there are definitely. Thank you. No, any time, my friend.

That's why we bring you on. We always, always love the opportunity to give you to set the record straight. You've set me straight. You've set a lot of us straight today. And ultimately, folks, you know what? Maybe the New England Patriots will set everyone straight on Sunday with a victory that'll go a long way towards silencing a lot of the critics and putting a lot of the negativity you hear to rest. Bottom line, my friend, we'll see what the Patriots

have in their tank on Sunday. But win, lose, or draw, don't read too much into it, folks. This is the beginning of the season. It's still a long way to go, and we're going to continue to have you covered here on Locked On Patriots, and Miguel hinted at it. You know we're going to bring him back if there is a salary cap move that warrants an emergency pod. Miguel is ready on Alert 5, and

we will definitely activate him, and we'll be ready to go. Just like Maverick and Iceman, he is ready. He is on that carrier, ready to bring us to victory, folks. And you always, always bring us the latest and greatest when it comes to the Pat Salary Cap. And you set the record straight like no one else can. That is why you are familiar here on Locked On Patriots, my friend.

And I thank you from the bottom of my heart for joining me here today. Folks, we thank you for joining us here today to close the week in style, but a special surprise for you. We're not quite done with the week just yet because a special Saturday pod is coming at you. Claire will be joining me here to preview Patriots Dolphins, so be sure

to keep a sharp eye out for that. In the meantime, folks, once again, continue to stay safe, stay well, be the change that you wish to see in the world. On behalf of my good friend, Miguel, the Patscap Benzón, who I thank once again for joining me here today. I'm Mike DeBate. Have a great day, everyone.