Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - New England Patriots 2025 Salary Cap Space: Key to Offseason Success? SPECIAL EDITION Free Agency

Episode Date: March 8, 2025

Can the New England Patriots reshape their future with bold free agency moves? With $134.5 million in salary cap space for 2025, the Patriots are poised to make significant changes. Host Mike D'Abate and salary cap expert Miguel “PatsCap” Benzan explore the team's aggressive strategy, focusing on potential signings like Ronnie Stanley and Milton Williams. They discuss how the Patriots might need to overpay to attract top talent, given their recent struggles. The conversation also touches on trade possibilities, including speculation about DK Metcalf, and how these moves could redefine the Patriots' standing in the NFL.Join the discussion to uncover how the Patriots plan to navigate free agency and what it means for their future success. #nfl #newenglandpatriots Find Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1c5ZxFm... Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-... And follow host Mike D’Abate on X, where he’ll be sharing the latest ne ws about the New England Patriots and talking with fans — @mdabateNFL  Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! ChewyChewy has everything you need to keep your pet happy and healthy. And right now you can save $20 on your first order and get free shipping by Clicking this link: https://prf.hn/click/camref:1011l3Huc8/creativeref:1011l164602 FanDuelRight now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins!Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

The start of the 2025 NFL season is nearly upon us, folks. What will the New England Patriots do to spend all that money they got burning in their pocket? Stick around. You're about to be locked into 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 Foxboro faithful and thank you once again for making Locked On Patriots a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage.

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PatsFans' free agency is just hours away at this point. The 2025 league year beginning on Wednesday, March 12th at noon Eastern. Of course, the legal tampering period starting on Monday, March 10th. And that means folks, if we're ready to start the season, it's time to talk finance. How much are the Patriots going to spend? What might the deals for some of the NFL's most highly coveted targets look like? And will the Pats invest in a trade or two? Well, we're going to discuss all of that today. And fortunately for us here on Lockdown Patriots, we got the man with the plan. He is the best of the best.

The Goat of Goats, the Pharaoh of Foxborough Finance, the monetary maestro of Patriots Nation, the great and powerful Wizard of Benzion. Not enough names as far as I'm concerned, folks. I could keep going all day long. Most importantly, though, he is my great friend, one of the best people you'll ever meet on this planet. The Pats Cap himself is joining us today to get us ready for free agency, Miguel Benzan. But welcome back to the pod. Oh, I love being on your show. Gotta say it. Gotta shout out. Gotta say hi to the people on the squad. I love that new addition. Gotta give them Gotta say it. Gotta shout out. Gotta say hi to the people

on the squad. I love that new edition. Gotta give them out. Um the last one was pretty good. It was just talking about reporting with you on the show. Um I think it's a crack up that when you guys clap when the guys come on. I was like, alright,

I was dying. Well, we appreciate that. We put a lot of work into the other squad shows. We also put a lot of fun into the squad shows as well. So it's great to know that you're one of our every dayers in that regard, or every weekers, I should say, when it comes to, I don't know if that's a term, but I'm going to coin it right now, when it comes to the squad show. But you are a valued member of the Lockdown Patriots family, and it's always our honor when you join us on the microphone, bud. Thank you so much.

family and it's always our honor when you join us on the microphone bud. Thank you so much. Anytime. Miguel, it is a new era in Foxboro for the second straight year. The Patriots going into free agency in the league year with a brand new head coach, a little bit of a different approach in the front office and a whole lot of cash to burn in their pocket. So let's get right down to it my friend because everyone in Pat's Nation wants to know how much are the Patriots going to spend? What are some of these deals going to look like? Can they swing some trades as well as sign marquee free agents? So according to your calculations our New England Patriots are set to enter the 2025 league year with approximately $134.5 million in salary cap space. Now, according to your reports, your number is higher than others because you're projecting a $10.3 million positive adjustment

number while those others are not making projections or they're using zero. You also were very cautious to report that you have an effective salary cap space number and that number is 109.6 million. That's lower than some of the other projections because you're projecting 24.85 million in future expenses while other sources are using 7.8. So once again you see things us mere mortals don't see and whenever I have a salary cap question you're the only source I need, you're the only one I go to. Before we get into the exciting stuff and trying to break down deals, if you would indulge for me and my listeners

for just a moment, what's the difference between the salary cap space number, the effective number, and how do you arrive at those calculations? Okay, Mike, so this is what I did. So this, and basically the difference is the other sites just was talking about the impact of signing the 2025 draft class, all right?

But that's not the only future salary cap expense teams will have, all right? They will have to, every team will have a practice squad. All right, and right now I have on the screen I had 5.25 man when I was here in february I was just using five million dollars, but I went back since then And I just said let's pretend the Patriots do exactly everything they did With the practice squad last year All right

But because the practice squad salaries went up from 2024 to 2025 and the base salaries when you elevated a player Also went up that cost went up and the pages Did not have on the last 2024 a lot of veterans on it. They had a lot of rookies or players on it I expect I'm I was guessing that maybe that will change so I bumped my expert my estimate from five men to 5.25 million dollars. All right. And we know, and I should say, I shouldn't say we know,

I should tell people that once a player who has active roster bonuses earned are not likely to be active roster bonus, that not likely active roster bonus hits the cap immediately. For example, if a player was active for 16 games in 2024 in week and he's played all 16 games in 2025, when he's active for the 17th game, that active roster will hit the cap.

So the team will lose cap space and then let's pretend everyone who has active roster bonuses, active for every game next year for this season, which we would want, we want to be healthy. The Patriots lose around $3.6 million in cap space. All right. When the 2025 regular season begins, the top 51 rule ends. And what that means is right now,

on my salary cap worksheet, I'm only counting the salaries of the 51 players on the roster, even though there's only 61 contracts. Why 51 and not 53? Do not know. Never known. I've asked around. asked around I asked people been in the league for years why they why There's a difference between 51 and 53 you would think they would change it like Lily

But they haven't all right And then I'm just using a rough estimate of seven point five million dollars to replace injury players and when they reach injury show elements I have no idea who's gonna get injured and when I get a engine so I just use a round number of seven point five million dollars all right and that's explains why I have a lower effective cap space number than other people do because they're just in killing the draft draft class I'm including the practice squad, active roster bonuses, players 52 and 53, and then replacing injury salary players. That's the difference.

And I should say to Mike, when I'm talking about the adjustments, we are, today's the eighth, the league year starts on the 12th. We've still not gotten the official numbers yet. I'm just using projection from what I've done. All right, and that's a big difference Using from zero to ten point three point six That's why my number is so much high I know like over the cap has right now the pages with a hundred twenty four twenty five point one million dollars

and I you can see I got a hundred thirty four point five. That's a big difference. That's like a You could sign that difference is signing a player to who'd maybe get a ten million dollar average for your deal You know that that ten million dollars is like we look at I'm trying to think in the spreadsheet. That's close to what I would give We look at I'm trying to think in this spreadsheet that's close to what I would give

Drew Dahlman in the deal and uh and a one in as a part of a multi-bio That would be his closest 20 25 cap number, right? All right. Hopefully that explains it. It's So looking at this spreadsheet Folks that number where it says that row that says projected that mean it is really rejected. I'm I'm surprised We haven't heard it I had made a joke on blue sky that was gonna happen on Wednesday cuz I was tied up in meetings I and still hasn't happened We'll see it will it has to go French Lee come out I just don't know when I'm hopefully not when I'm in a meeting But so like if the next question I just don't know when I'm hopefully not when I'm in a meeting.

But so like if the next question, inevitable question would be like, Hey Miguel, how does this affect the patient shadow gap number? If I've come close, I don't think I'll be exactly right. But let's say that they say it's $10 million adjustment. Then my number was $346 to $315 to high. All right, that's how you adjust it. It's like I've already accounted for most of it, but I don't think I'll be exactly 100% right.

I've never been right, and there's some stuff that happens behind the scenes I will never know. Okay, all right. Hopefully that answers the question, Mike. No, I think it absolutely does. And again, I think you've outlined it very well for all of us here on Lockdown Patriots. As you said several times, Miguel, there are factors that go into the Patriot salary cap situation that go into their financial restraints that national analysts simply just do not

have a line of sight to. That's why you're always the accurate source. You're always the one that I go to because you're always on the money and you have that line of sight into what the Patriots are doing locally and what they've done in the past and applying that to what they are not only doing in the present, but what they have to do in the future. So folks, it's always a masterclass when Miguel joins me here on the microphone. And I thank him for setting the record straight in that regard.

But what are some of these potential deals for blockbuster free agents going to look like? And if the Patriots are to sign some marquee free agents, what might their deals look like as well? We'll even dip into the question of whether or not the Patriots can swing a trade or two while signing a couple of marquee free agents over the course of the next few days. It's going to be an exciting time in Foxboro. And like I said to open the show today, we've got the man of the next few days. It's gonna be an exciting time in Foxboro. And like I said, to open the show today, we've got the man with the plan. He'll be back in just a moment when this episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast

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more with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. That's fans. Thank you for joining us here today on Locked On Patriots as we continue to count down the hours, the minutes, and even the seconds until the start of the 2025 NFL League year, most importantly, getting you ready for Monday and the legal tampering period, which will open the floodgates. And as you can hear, my guest is chuckling at that. Yeah, it is a laugh worthy term, no question about it. But we'll play the game that the league wants us to play. Joining me here today to lend all of the wisdom and counsel you need when it comes to Foxboro Finance, free agency, and potentially the trade market is the man with the plan. The money man himself, my good friend Miguel, that Pat's cat Benzon, who's already broken off the wisdom and counsel meter, bringing you up to speed on the

difference between his initial salary cat number and the effective salary cat number and how certain investments throughout the year can affect the Patriots bottom line. But Miguel, we're about to delve into the exciting part of what free agency means for the New England Patriots because obviously there are players out there that are on the wish list of several members of Patriots Nation. A lot of our everydayers flood our inboxes and our comments section on YouTube, opining for the opportunity to sign players like a Milton Williams or Ronnie Stanley. They want to bring in players that they believe can really help to move this franchise forward.

So I know you've been hard at work. I know you've been toiling away and taking a look at the bottom line and finding out how to crunch the numbers when it comes to going into free agency and it comes to the Patriots approach to free agency Kind of walk us through what that process would be and kind of drop some of that wisdom and counsel on us as well My friend I think they're gonna hit the the lines hard. So Murphs is gonna be happy I Had like a and I I think they're gonna have to pay stuff for still being overpay you want to say

For being a bad team Um, I know people want to talk about The million is tax in Massachusetts. I don't think it matters. I literally People still sign big deals with Designing the basketball players NBA. Mm-hmm. You know saying the Celt NBA, you know, saying the Celtics, they still signed with the Celtics, still signed with the Red Sox. So why is it going to get single out the Patriots? Right? When you're making that much money, is having a 9% I think it's a 9% tax, does that really get affected when you play half the games outside of the state

Okay. All right I mean look at the Alaric Jackson just signed with the with the re-sign with the Rams and his in California has a higher tax rate than Massachusetts so I think this idea that That players won't come in because of taxes. I mean Maybe some won't but I don't think it's gonna hate there's gonna be over five plus the four to five hundred ages I don't think the pH is coming up. I don't think it's gonna affect all of them especially when you want and

so I think they're gonna go big and Big they're gonna get the big guys. Um, I think That we're gonna be surprised by some of these deals. They signed I I um, there's gonna be someone they signed and no one's Is mentioning now. I don't know who it is and I think that's why i'm looking forward to it I do think that they're gonna have to Stop trying to win every deal? Last year, most of the deals were I considered team friendly. I think they're gonna have to become a more stop trying to win every deal and become maybe player friendly deals or at least more neutral. They have to do that in order to sign someone the

the the the the the the the the

the the the luxury of trying to win every free agency deal this year. Yeah. You don't have Bill Belichick, you don't have Tom Grady, you don't have Rob Gronkowski, you don't have those things. Absolutely. You need to make your best deal, unless not, I know what happened with Adam Humphreys

where they went back to him and then tried to beat the offer from some other teams, the Tennessee, you're gonna come a strong from the get-go. Right. So I don't wanna, I'll be disappointed. I won't get mad, but I'll be disappointed by here. Hey, the Patriots came up with a better offer after the player accepted another deal.

But I don't think it's gonna, I think they're gonna, I think they know what they need. gonna I think they know what they need hopefully I think they know what they need to do and they think they need to load up the player away on on with a Good offer like in the end we'll talk about these deals. I'll say this folks. This is for signing with the Patriots I I I expect if some of the players sign with another team I wouldn't be surprised that they sign with less money. I I'm bumping up the tax if you will for signing with the Patriots Yeah, I agree with you and again, I think it comes down to that point that you made Miguel This is such a different experience for Patriots fans for the last 20 years now

It has been I think maybe a little bit more of a norm the last couple of years But this team now has to go out and aggressively sell itself. They have to sell their future, and that's something that this team never really had to do before. Their future was kind of marketed. It was marketed for them. The team sold itself, you might as well say. You can come to the New England Patriots.

You can play alongside Tom Brady and catch passes if you're a receiver or block for the greatest quarterback that ever put on shoulder pads. You can play defense under Bill Belichick and learn all of the mastery that he has accumulated throughout his entire career in the NFL. Patriots don't have that anymore. I think they have significantly more punch this year than they did last year. And I say that with no disrespect at all to Gerard Mayo. But Mike Raible's been a head coach in this league. He's been to an AFC Championship game. He does have a little bit more capital built up, a strong marketing push in that regard. But I completely agree with you. The Patriots have to come out and they have to come out aggressive right out of the box. If they

start playing games with players, yeah, they're going to find themselves on the outside looking in on almost every single one of these deals. You don't have that type of clout in New England anymore. You have to understand what you've become and then try to sell where you want to go. And that to me is going to be how they're going to win some of these deals. Yep. I thought you drew a reference to the Godfather there. I think there was something you had a chance there. the godfather there. I think there was something you had a chance there. All right. I'm gonna I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say maybe an offer they can't refuse. Yeah. Something like that. It's not personal

Miguel. It's straight business. It's a strictly business and that is it took me a while. I've been doing this for a while like doing the salary cap stuff. It took me a while to realize that when I was doing this, I was like, the players often take it as personal. The owners usually take it as business. And they really, when the players take it as a business, they're better off.

We've heard a number of different free agents out there that could be out on the market, some of which are expecting big deals. And we know from personal experience that linemen tend to make out very well in free agency, both on the offensive line and defensive line. Patriots right now are reportedly eyeing two players that could really be difference makers on both sides of the ball. We talked about them earlier in the week here on Lockdown Patriots, and that is Milton Williams at the defensive tackle and

also offensive lineman Ronnie Stanley. If the Patriots were to enter the fray for either one of these players, what might a deal look like? Is it realistic to think that the Patriots could snag them both? I think it's realistic. I think they're gonna get to get them. I, I project they're gonna get both. They could sign them to the both the same deal, $25 million a year. I think that's what's gonna need to take. And I felt really good when Mike Reese from ESPN has used projected the

patrons would sign Ronnie's Daily to four year, $100, $100 million deal. So that's 25 million dollars a year. I just went with three years. I, in all my deals Mike, I went with three years because I think that the players this year are going to go with shorter deals. I'll be surprised, pleasantly surprised if the Patriots sign a big deal. And I'm talking something that that averages over $10 million to $25 million, even $30 million a year. That's gonna be longer than four years. I'll be pleasantly surprised.

I know that last year, Christian Balmore and Stevenson signed long deals, but I also consider them team friendly. So I think that we can show with, I use the same deal. I swear we Mike, they have so much cap space, Mike, they could sign those two players and still have plenty of space to fill out the rest of the roster. Which fans love that. It is crazy how much cap space they have um I said on the last show and that I expected drake may

to become the highest paid patriot of all time with his next deal and I am getting growing grown more and more confident at because the cap went up and we should I should have said mentioned this last last from at the beginning I should have said mention this last last from at the beginning in February we were using 275 million dollars as a cap number for the lead cap number and then ended up being 279 point two million dollars that's four point two million dollars increase. All right, and I'll say this I usually I I'm gonna say I might guess for the 2026 number. It's gonna be three hundred million dollars on the dot. All right, um It's going they pages have the cap space they have the needs and

Makes and like I know that Murph wants Dan Moore. All right I don't that I want to when I sign we're not signing Dan more to a 25 million dollar He's gonna sign a much more if they were gonna pick one, if they lose out on Ronnie Stanley, because I know the Ravens say they're hopeful to sign him. All right. If let's say they do sign him and they, if I was a Patriots, I would pivot to Dan Moore, but I wouldn't be paying him $25 million.

I would overpay him like at maybe 21. All right. Cause I would pay him, the funny thing is I would pay him even more than what 11 Jackson got just to make sure I got them, right, all right, um Let's show it so the numbers I just want to tell people like like as we've seen we just heard about the franchise tag numbers You could see the defensive lines and the defensive tackles are getting big money and this is I think This is a phone and I put I didn't correct the years the age the age is Ronnie Stanley's wrong. Oh my gosh I'm so sorry folks. All right

Okay, I got the age because I copy and paste it from someone else. All right, the age is wrong I know that I made a mistake. I'll take a lap. All right after this show All right, technically my friend it was another person's mistake. You just happened to copy it So you carry the wrong information, but you didn't manufacture the wrong information Light is Miguel's attorney in my spare time. So I'm getting aside my front, please Okay, so He's gonna in this deal. All right. I Okay, so he's gonna, in this deal, all right,

I give him a $30 million signing bonus, and I guarantee his salary in 2026 and 2027, all right? I don't guarantee any amount of a salary in 2027, because that way I can just walk away and eat some dead money, and then. And why I'm doing that is like, all right, just I wanna guarantee I have something, I have Drake Mays back next two years, all right? And then I leave myself the option to extend him in 2027.

All right? I would not fully guarantee the three year deal. That's not good business I but I would guarantee the first two years of his deal. I am Patriots started this practice last year of giving everyone every veteran. Excuse me an offseason workout bonus, all right So I would I'm following that standard and they all Patriots deals also have for standard an actor frost a bonus All right. So he's gonna get paid a lot of money just for being active for every game. That's not guaranteed money

All right, that's gonna not to be in the guarantee guaranteed total. All right, but literally if he shows up he makes $250,000 it's's not going to be listed in the guaranteed money when the deal gets reported. But I would consider it basically guaranteed money because he's on the control. He controls it. Right. Right. And he wouldn't sign the deal saying for, for 250, whatever the amount is, I'm just guessing what the amount is right, but I know it's gonna be more than zero And if it's substantially more than let's say a hundred thousand dollars. All right, I Subject he agreed to that and he's gonna earn it. All right And I'm just basically Mike and I'm just doing the same thing what they did with the and the incentives

I'm doing the same thing they did with Cal Duggar I offered he is these one mean these bonuses and centers if he plays it well, all right, right and I'll say this Don't like to speak too soon about the 2020 sux cast-fabric up. Let's just say Let's remember if he lets becomes Ronnie standard becomes a pro bowl his 26 26 number goes up by a million dollars All right, but then the page is adjusted cap number to go down by a million dollars So that if he hits that you earns a pro bowl the pages Capped 20 26. I'm gonna go down not by one but by two million dollars. Mm-hmm All right. So folks that's one thing to keep aware of like yeah, it's people you'll see out there

the page is gonna have all this cap space in 2026, but Are they include taking effect to any incentives and what how many players they have signed because folks right now the pages have over 61 players on the roster, right? You'll see these numbers if you look at right now, but how many players they have in a roster like 20 25 All right They basically have 26 players at least 51 players in March of 20 26 by the time free agency starts again Then that's the number you should be using And off my softbox I go

I will say this a hell of a soapbox, but no, you absolutely make some great points. I've gone on record to say that my free agency crush everybody has draft crushes right now. My free agency crush right now is one Milton Williams of the Philadelphia Eagles. Yep. Love the way this guy played in the Super Bowl obviously, but

this has been a progression for Milton the last couple of years. We've seen him double his totals, his productivity totals, when it comes to the season he had in 2024 and 2022 and 2023 combined. That was a big time move up for him. You can see that he's the type of guy that could be the aggressive type of defender up front that Terrell Williams is gonna want, that I think Mike Vrabel is going to love here in New England.

Again, it's going to come down to money and whether or not the Patriots can present a convincing enough case to pry him away from the defending champions and offer him the salary he's going to want. So if the Patriots were to follow my advice, my friend, and they go and they dip their toe into the Milton Williams sweepstakes. What might a deal to sign Milton look like at this? I'll give him the same deal. I give him a sign twenty seventy five seventy five million dollars over three years and let's Michael and I'll say I'm Offset in the cost of that because I'm assuming the train in Duff on gacha. All right So while I'm showing that his cap number is 19 million over 19 million dollars I'm showing that his cap number is 19 million over 19 million dollars. Let's just remember that we trade Java and gotcha with the,

we're going to create cap space that way. Right. All right. And we're going to get off and we'll save some cash that way. So this kind of, um, it does by no mean trading Josh Garchard pays for Milton Williams, but it offsets partially the cost of obtaining a younger player. Because he's not cheaper, he's gonna be just younger. And I think we would be in 2025,

my guess that Milton Williams would play better in the Patriot scheme than Devon Garchard. You're not signing Milton Williamson and thinking, hey, I'm getting Devon Garcher play. You're thinking you're getting better play. And this way you have a a talented young And hopefully you double by you can double dip on an edge there or maybe or Pick something up else. They have I I'll be surprised if

Milton Williams Isn't so signed to a deal that's 20 at least 23 million dollars a year from anyone I've been hearing that 25 is this is the is the number? um, we'll see that's why I used it. All right, and I thought it would be Close I would like to have some um They page page like to duplicate themselves in deals All right They, Patriots like to duplicate themselves in deals.

All right. I wouldn't be surprised if they have a couple of signs, couple of players to the same number. It just, maybe the structure will be a little different. All right. Remember they signed John L Smith and Hunter Henry, both the same deal, API, the structured deals are one head. Hunter Henry had a three year deal, John L Smith had a four year deal. So I'm thinking that the Patri deals are one had how to Henry had a three-year deal John's without a four-year deal

So I wouldn't I'm thinking that the Patriots gonna have the two biggest hits in free agency It's gonna be on one on the offense one on defense. It wouldn't be surprised me if they had the same API, but the structure may be different Mmm, very good point very very good point and I appreciate you indulging my free agency crush here on and on because you know, by all means folks, I mean, everyone looks at these types of deals and wants to know what the Patriots can do, what they can't do. And once these deals do start falling into place, what then can they do to help round out the roster? Because you and I both know Miguel, that initial wave of free agency is exciting and your head's on a swivel and no one knows what's coming from one point to the next. Teams are making signings. Then there's a lull and then there's a second wave where some of those maybe second tier free agents start falling into place and the dominoes start falling accordingly. So it's going to be a very, very interesting couple of weeks here for the New England Patriots and all 32 NFL teams when it comes to filling out a roster. We get the guy that shows us exactly what these teams need to do, especially your New England Patriots.

But I know we've talked about a couple of deals specifically because they are popular targets from a lot of our listeners here on Lockdown Patriots. But when you look at the free agent perspective, I know you approach this with a level head, with a financial eye, and we always appreciate that. But you're a fan, just like all of us are. When you look at what the Patriots are doing, any moves that you hope they're going to make,

and have you made any calculations in terms of what they might do? You know in the next few days coming up. I hope they sign a top-level corner back right That like say a Byron Murphy. All right, or um, my gosh favorite word or DJ V Okay. Oh my gosh. He's a Jets All right, and then cuz I literally would love to take make the Jets worse and us better. All right

But I tried I tried to go with a younger guy when I when I was looking at doing these coming over the countries Let me go with 20 the guy who was the younger guy. I can get Drake May All right. Let's go build a young core around them. All right. Because we need the Patriots need more blue chip players, more young blue chip players, players. The team, my net, one of my nephews asked me last weekend, why would a picture so bad? I said the talent, lack of talent on that roster. You're right. New, um, new, more blue chip is on the scene. Or I go with younger than old. So I'd rather go with a Byron Murphy though, over to TJ just because Byron Murphy is younger.

But I also want to structure the deal. So then next year, Christian Gonzalez can easily beat it and have him remain the number one um cornerback and have the highest paid on the play because he's still no matter if you were to sign um

any of these cornerbacks, the free agent free agent cornerbacks. I think so. Christian Gonzalez could still be the number one cornerback on this team. All right. So then I then would want to leave myself the flexibility of giving Christian Gonzalez a top deal. And I want to, if let's just say, sauce gone and some for some reason the jets do not extend them.

All right. I am signing Christian Gonzalez to a big deal right away after the season ends. That's when you can do it. All right. So then the screw the jets to make it more cost. Have them cost, have them, the cost of silent thoughts gonna go up. I, I that that's my dream. Cause I, you know, as you know, I don't like to jet. So that's my dream. Cause I, you know, as you know, I don't like to jet.

So that's my dream scenario. We'll see. My philosophy in this, in which is, was to go get young and try to get elite talent. I, and still leave myself the ability to sign a whole bunch of improvement roster. I'm still a elite talent. And still leave myself the ability to sign a whole bunch of improvement roster.

Because the roster is so bad, Mike, right now. You can sign a player and he'll still be better than what the Patriots had in 2024. You know what I'm saying? It's not going to take much. And I'm saying, and I'm doing, and we have this tab where it says my FAA plans.

In all, and in that, I don't make a cut of a current player or know where do I trade, but I have the capability of doing it. So if I were to sign a Ronny Staley, all right, I can offset some of that cost by cutting a Vidarian low. All right? You know what I'm saying?

And that, you can think of it that way, all right? If I signed a Drew Dorman, I'll probably cut David Andrews. If I signed a Milton Williams, I'm gonna probably trade the Von Godshaw. Byron Murphy, I'm not doing anything with him. Dale, I'm not doing anything on a Ross with anything.. All right. So this is my plan folks, right? I start off at 135 point million dollars and these numbers you see for the,

to the rights of the players is their 2025 cap number. It's not their API. And folks, you see, you're going to hear deals. The players signed the four year, 120 million dollar deal. All right, so I study million dollars per year doesn't mean is 20 25 cap numbers gonna be 30 million dollars All right, you probably more likely much lower than that. All right, so I'm able to sign these five players all right, and I will still have close to 62 million dollars in cap space Left over And I will still have close to $62 million in cab space left over without cutting anyone on the roster.

And what do I mean by salaries displaced? We're in the top 51 time of the year. So if you sign Ronnie Staley, he goes on the top 51 list, he kicks off a player. And that player is going to have a salary of $960,000. So that's five players. 960 times five is $4.8 million. They're in a position, I just did these guys, so that's my thing.

I'm going back and forth with adding adding maybe I should have added six, another person that have six people on the list for six rings. And if it would have been, I would have had a hard time picking between a guard or a wide receiver like Chris Godwin, all right? And if I was, either one of them,

I don't think they would get a deal. I think Chris Godwin probably tops, taps tops out at maybe $23 million a year. All right. I don't think there's not going to be a God. We're not paying a guy besides Trey Smith who just, you know, there's not, there's not going to be a free agent guy that's going to be worth $23 million. So let's say we signed you like a Will Frees or Patrick Mahare. They'll probably end up going around

the 13 to $15 million range. All right, so it means that year one, the 2020 cap number is gonna be somewhere like eight to $10 million, right? I got, let's just do that. I still got enough cap space to do everything else. But literally, they have enough cap space to do that. I still got enough cap space to do everything else. But literally, they have enough cap space to do it, to do what, to make this team better.

Right. And I'll say this, let's just say they do sign these guys. Milton Williams, Alanis Daly, or whoever. And it's not the guy you want. Doesn't mean it's a bad move. It's just somebody you didn't want. I know that Murph doesn't want Ronnie's Daily. He wants Dan Moran's Doug. Doesn't mean it's a bad move they signed wrong. I think Murph will say it's a bad move they signed Ronnie's Daily. But it's everybody, somebody will give an A, Murph might give an F. Doesn't mean he's wrong or right because that's one right is a fact. Just a parent. Exactly. And

everyone entitled to their own opinion. It is a matter of preference. And it's good to know that because these guys can shoot for the stars right now. Yeah. New England Patriots, they can go max deals on a couple of these guys or max deals in, you know, in a reasonable standpoint and still have the money left over to be able to improve this roster. And of course, we're hearing about a lot of players that we're told could seek a trade, the team that allowed them to seek the trade, not really getting fair value or the deal they were looking for in return. So these guys are going to now go out and test pre-agency, one of which I talked about a couple of weeks ago here on Lockdown Patriots, and that's Harold Landry, who has a tremendous amount of

experience working with Mike Vrabel, the type of player that can come in, not necessarily transform a defense, but someone who can come in and provide experience, and also who I think can help to acclimate this locker room that's going to be playing under Mike and Terrell Williams for the first time. It's going to be a much different defensive scheme. It's good to have someone in the room that knows it. To me, I think this is a move that the Patriots could make. Well, we didn't have a chance to talk about the trades. I just want to point this out. All right, we had like Ayuk, Trey Henderson, TJ Macca, all mentioned his trades. All right, and they all have one year,

at least one year left on the deal. And they all probably want big, and in case of a youth, he's already got it signed for several years, multiple years. But Trey Henderson and TJ Macca already have one year left on the deal. Henrik is 31 years old and he's got $16 million left. All right, and he probably wants $30 million

because Max Crosby just got like $35 million a year. Right? But let's just say if you were any team, I don't think the pages would do it, but let's say any team were to sign, look, let's put the TJ Maddox, even though he said he doesn't wanna come here. Right?

And he's got $18 million worth of cash this year. And you, and he wants $30 million a year. All right. If you were to sign him through the 2027 season, you would end up any, and to meet his goal will be paying him $78 million because he's already got the 18. Right. All right. And then you get $60 more dollars, $60 million over two years. he's already got the 18 right all right, and then you get 60 more dollars

60 million dollars over two years, that's the 30 million dollars 60 plus to 18 is 78 70 divided by 3. Yeah, all right That's 26 million dollars now. He's not in new and what the Patriots campaign over the year But his agent is gonna say you got 30 million dollars a year Yeah, exactly And he's going to be paying over the year, but his agent is going to say, you got 30 million dollars a year. Yeah, exactly. Okay. And it's funny how they look at those numbers and they're able to put a positive spin on

them and it's legal. I mean, there's nothing illegal about what they're saying, but it's just about how you present it and how you market it is so important in this business. It really and truly is. And you point to that. The team's going to let him say it. They're going to say 30 minutes. I'll say the agent won't say 30 million dollars and that's what when they sit in the agent sends his text to his friendly

Mouthpieces. All right, that's what they'll say. All right, and but the team's gonna think about it I'm paying this guy 26 million dollars over the next three years. We're not 30 million dollars Absolutely. All right, um, And I'm so glad that you mentioned Metcalfe because he is a popular topic right now among the Patriots nation. A lot of people wondering especially now with the Seahawks dealing away Geno Smith, could the Patriots maybe put Joe Milton in a package and maybe sweeten the deal a little bit? Some people are thinking this could be possible for the New England Patriots now. All right. Folks, I think there's a lot of logistics

and we talked a lot about Matt Caffier yesterday, Murph and I did, about whether or not this was feasible, whether or not it was something that the Patriots should pursue. Both he and I thought that the asking price that Seattle was gonna end up getting is probably gonna be a little bit too rich for the Patriots blood, picks wise,

not necessarily money wise, because they can't afford to sign into a max deal but it's the amount of capital they're going to have to to give up and if a team like the Green Bay Packers is willing to give up that number 23 and again what you said I think fits so well into this if DK's agent wants to come back and say yeah I got you a deal and I got the team in return a first rounder. Yeah, all of a sudden it looks pretty good. You can put, yeah, DK Metcalf dealt for a first round pick. In the meantime, you're talking about the Patriots who would have had to included the number four, which they're not going to do as opposed to the number 23. There's a big difference

there. The marketing makes all the difference. Exactly, you nailed it. It's the marketing. Cause like by him, the Seahawks saying they won a first and a third, right? They limited themselves to the teams who made the playoffs last year. Yes. They're not getting, you know, you're not going to give up a top 10 pick, right?

If the Seahawks were draft had maybe the number nine or 12th pick in the draft, maybe I could see them, the Patriots trading, the Stump trading back to that spot and while getting Metcalf, like saying it was like the tall spot in Metcalf of number four, but not where I think the're drafting 17 or 18. All right.

No, I think they're driving 18. I don't see that happening. But it's gonna be fun to be, what's gonna happen, take a look at it. I'll say this folks, I'm not gonna know right away what the player's cap number is. I need a lot of information to calculate the number correctly, especially if the player missed some games last year. Okay.

Because the act of raw, I bet that cause that determines his act of roster bonuses. I'm only going to account for LTB purposes. The ones he was active for right? So I if they sign a play was not active every 17 games in bit. I'm not even gonna try to guess I'm not gonna even try to guess I don't There's so much going on in my life. I'm not this waste my time trying to get it an estimate Absolutely right and I think you're right on the money when it comes to

that. But regardless, the New England Patriots clearly have a number of decisions to be made within the next few days and a lot of salary cap space and a lot of draft capital to work with over the course of the next few days. How will the Patriots put it to work? Well, I think our good friend here has delivered a master class in how the Patriots are about to go and do their business Miguel we'd love to have you back here post free agency and kind of go over what the Patriots did what the impact will be On their future and we always love having you here anyway And I think you deserve an opportunity to set the record straight once again my friend We missed that segment here on lockdown Patriots will you come on and you absolutely?

Obliterate all of the cat myths that are floating around out there. Oh the cat myth was Perpetrated by Murph kept on saying gosh jaws in his last year in his deal. He's not he signed through 2026 Folks this is why we love having a mind What come on Murph like no why we love having a mind like what come on Murph like no no Miguel today not only put Murph in his place he also schooled me on the godfather I think Miguel right now if you're looking at a batting average he's up at a thousand he is like the anti John Blutarski right now he's not 0.0 he is 4.0 head of the class as far as I'm concerned all kidding aside but we always appreciate you coming by thank you for taking time out of your weekend the Are going to be involved with when it comes to the next few days which are going to be exciting and very busy times

For you my friend. I love you on blue sky. I'm waiting waiting for the Justin I'm gonna come in Going to hopefully find out on the 12th what they if the pages traded Davon Garza, um, I Think if they're gonna trade someone they're gonna do it on the first day about a new trade during a draft excuse me But we'll see I'm looking forward Mike to how many Blue chip talent There are the free agents they sign I'm hoping I sign at least one and hoping they have I know they have the cap space The sign a couple. Um, I'm looking forward to see what they do

I know offensive line. I struck I was like How many guys are gonna sign? All right, and and you can literally make us a case from just Totally turning that offensive line over Mm-hmm, and we'll see we'll see we'll see I'm just We'll see Mike. Um, I hope I don't have to have a conversation with my nephew again Well, we're talking about a 4 and 13 season Not only are we hoping that but also I guarantee you Mike Vrabel is hoping he doesn't

have to have those conversations. Robert Kraft and the Kraft family are really hoping that they don't have to go back to Patriots Nation and talk about another 4-in-13 season. And most of all, most importantly, the Patriots fans do not want to endure another one of those. Onward and upward, and you've laid an impeccable blueprint for how the Patriots can do that from a financial standpoint. Folks, once again, I highly encourage you to follow my good friend Miguel at bluesky, patscap.besky.social. You'll not only be well informed when it comes to

the Patriots salary cap, and he is the best in the business. I've said several times, the plaque for the alternates doesn't exist because he has no equal but he's also one of the best men. I had the privilege of getting a chance to get to know in this business or any walk of life. The charity work that he does not only for Alzheimer's charities but also for Habitat for Humanity is really awe-inspiring and it's something that each and every time I see the great work he does I'm prouder and prouder each and every day to be a valued friend of yours and thank you for being a valued friend of mine my friend. And bottom line all of you every dayers out there all of you occasional listeners all of you joining us for the first time here on Locked On Patriots thank you

for making us a daily part and here a weekend part of your Patriots coverage do not go anywhere folks because wall-to-wall coverage will be available Thank you for making us a daily part and here a weekend part of your Patriots coverage. Do not go anywhere folks because wall-to-wall coverage will be available starting Monday as the New England Patriots begin their quest to upgrade their 2025 roster. In the meantime, on behalf of my good friend Miguel Benzón, the Pats Cap himself, I'm Mike Debate reminding all of you to stay safe, to stay well, to be the change you wish to see in the world. Have a great day everyone and we'll see you back here again Monday on LUT on Patriots.