Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - New England Patriots: Jahlani Tavai, Matthew Judon, Contract Extensions and Salary Cap Check-Up

Episode Date: July 12, 2024

The New England Patriots have been unusually busy this offseason with providing contract extensions to several of their core players. While linebacker Jahlani Tavai was the latest to receive a contractual upgrade, many are wondering whether Matthew Judon, Jabrill Peppers or Davon Godchaux may be next on the Pats agenda. Joining host Mike D’Abate is Miguel “Pats Cap” Benzan, who provides the latest on the Patriots contract extensions and a salary cap check-up. #nfl #patriots Find and follow Locked On Patriots on your favorite podcast platforms: 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 news about the New England Patriots and talking with fans — @mdabateNFL Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotors.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms Apply. FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. As playoffs wind down, the sports stop sporting like we want them to. But this summer, FanDuel is hooking up ALL CUSTOMERS with a boost or a bonus, DAILY! That’s right, there’s something for everyone, every day, all summer long! Visit FANDUEL.COM and add a big win to your summer bucket list! 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)

How much do the New England Patriots have left in the vault after extending Jelani Tavai? Stick around, you're about to be locked in to 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. Thank you once again for making Locked On Patriots a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage. Don't forget, Locked On Patriots is not only a proud part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day, but we are also free and available on all platforms, including YouTube.

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yeah, you know, we always are going to seek the wisdom and counsel of my guest today. The most knowledgeable source when it comes to anything and everything related to the Patriots salary cap situation. And he's also among the best followers on Twitter that you can find anywhere. Truly one of the great guys in this business or any walk of life. You know him as the Pats cap. He is my good friend, Miguel Benzon. And it's my honor to welcome his wisdom and counsel back to Lockdown Patriots today. Welcome back to the pod, Miguel.

Thanks so much for joining me today, buddy. You are so welcome. You do such an ego. I just, I cannot believe how busy the Patriots have been keeping during the summit. Don't they know it's hot and humid? I got to mow my lawn. How dare they? They got to coordinate the schedules over at one Patriots

place a little better than this. Mike, I am pleasantly surprised that they keep on working. They truly have taken the phrase nosey off to hot. I am like, what?

Another extension? And we got two people, maybe three, Judon, Godshaw, Peppers, who mentioned their contract recently. So there might be a chance that we got a couple more extensions before the start of the regular season. Oh, yeah. Never a dull moment. No days off, like you said, buddy.

Yeah, it's been busier than I thought, Mike. I really did not think I'd be that busy during the summer. Usually, I usually don't have anything to do in early, late June or late, early July. Like, literally, the only transactions

I've been on in NFLPA has been Patriot stuff, really. Not the only one, but most of them have been Patriot stuff. It's crazy. It's funny. It really is. We are blessed here on Locked On Patriots to always welcome your wisdom and counsel anytime there are financial situations,

anytime there's any questions related to the Pats finances. You're the pharaoh of Foxborough finance, my friend. I've given you that moniker several times. The great and powerful Wizard of Benzon the salary cap Top Gun there are too many to name my but he lives up to every single one of them and you know I've often used the term best in the business to describe you uh that's not an exaggeration folks that's not a colloquial name I truly mean that from the bottom of my heart. Whenever I have a salary cap question, Miguel, you're always my first source. You're, quite frankly, the only one that I need.

And 99.9% of the time, you're right on the money. So, you know, let's get down to it, my friend. According to your calculations, your Patriots salary cap number after the Patriots extended linebacker Jelani Tavai last week is $43,345,676. Now, according to your addition to that, that's a $293,750 decrease from your last update. And that also accounts folks for the Ramondre Stevenson extension as well. And I know Miguel's going to get into all of that. But let's start with to buy first because it is the fresh contract and the news of the day and the details were just freshly released. At the time that the deal was reported, Miguel, we learned it was a three-year extension. The maximum value of the deal was a reported $21 million with a base value of $15 million. Now, as usual, you have come bearing gifts, bearing wisdom, counsel, but you've also come with visual aid, spreadsheets.

You're always prepared and you always help us see things us mere mortals don't see. So when it comes to this contract extension for Jelani Tavai, kind of walk us through what it means for the Patriots and what it means for Jelani Tavai. Walk us through what it means for the Patriots and what it means for Jelani as a whole. He gets more money this year than he would have. They basically decrease his salary a little bit.

From $1.265 million to $1.125 million, which is the minimum for a guy with his number of seasons in the NFL. They gave him a five-point-something signing bonus. That gets paraded over four years. They took out his $1 million in playing time incentives, took that away from the deal.

And then going forward in 25, 26, and 27, he has $2 million of playing time incentives in each of those seasons. $500,000 is tied to 80% playing time and the Patriots making the playoffs. Okay. All right? The first two tiers should be really easy for him to make 50 percent and 60 percent playing time. And then it goes up to 70 and then 80 and then 80 and the playoffs. All right. So out of the two million, if he plays 70 percent or 75 percent of the snaps this year on defense, he's going to get 1.5.

His cap number in 2025 will go up by $1.5 million. All right? Because those incentives, I would now consider them to be likely to be earned because he earned them. And he not earned them, but he earned the stats in 2024. All right? It's, once again, the Patriots got another team-friendly deal. And what do I mean by that?

All right? They can trade him in the fall, after June 1st, 2025, and still create cap space. They can cut him in 2026, just two seasons from now, and create cap space, all right? He is right now around, depending on how you devalue the new money, OTC has his new money at $5.33 million. I personally would use a different number, all right?

I would have it as $4.8 million. I will reach out to them. I hadn't had a chance because I was mowing my lawn right after work to figure out why we differ on the new money API. But let's just go with their numbers, so $5.33 million. All right, That puts them 30th in the league

for a linebacker. All right. But the top of the market is $19, $20 million. There's a bunch of guys who are around the $3 to $5 million range. All right. And then you got the rookies. All right.

Who are getting nothing. All then you got the rookies who are getting nothing at the very minimum. I think it's a fair deal. It's unfortunate for DeVay that people have to make a hard take right away. So they would say,

oh, they extended another guy from the team who went from 4 and 13 well you're not paying players for passive performance you're paying for what they could do for in the future right all right so this and then i heard people say he got overpaid but they never said like well you know you heard the numbers five million dollars but you didn't say how much did you expect him to get paid i'm like literally did you, do you think he was going to get just $3 million on the market? A guy who played 70% of the snaps on defense and 77% of the snaps on special teams? Just get three.

I don't know what number they thought he was going to get. But I do know that I do. Like Murph had said this on your show, the day the announce came out, like, if he plays this year like he played last year, the $5 million, he wouldn't have gotten $5 million. He probably would have gotten $7.5 or $8 million a year. Right. All right, because the cap's going to go up probably another 10%.

So let's go from 255 to 280. The cap's going to go up. He got $5 million this year. We can expect that he should get at least a 10% increase of that of $5.5 million. Next year in the offseason,

he's not dealing with just one team. He's dealing with possibly 31 other teams, 32 teams. And the laws of supply and demand means it increases value. All right? The

Patriots have on hold, Mike, have gotten their players to take, a lot of them have taken team- friendly deals. If you have a guy on a rookie deal, a quarterback on a rookie deal, you want to be able to the flexibility to move off a guy players and then pivot to somebody else. It's just in case some elite talent becomes available.

All right. So they're not tied. I mean, they have, the Patriots have so much flexibility this year And we'll go into 2025 For a little bit If we have time Next year, the next couple of years When they have Drake May under a rookie contract

And right now folks People were hearing about Judon and were hearing about Godshaw. But let's let's let's put our critical thinking hats on. Let's not say the Patriots are cheap because they haven't addressed those guys yet. The Patriots after this, after deciding to lie into vie on the top 10 in the cash spending categories. Top 10. Active cash spending, total cash spending,

which is active cash spending and guaranteed salaries for players who are no longer on the team. For example, like Devante Parker's $3 million and Chris Boyd's one of them. That money counts as total cash spending. And then you get in the six, the page of the six and cash

to cap ratio. All right? So in the three main cash-spending categories, the Patriots are in the top 10. So the argument that the Patriots are being cheap with Judon or cheap with Garja doesn't hold up, in my opinion. I think you're absolutely right. And look, you look at the value that each of these guys has to the new england patriots we've gone through that several times here the logistical value on field about what devon godchild brings you especially that presence in the middle that

ability to be solid against the run but also be able to facilitate pass defense matthew judon acts as the ultimate facilitator, whether it be helping Christian Barmore, you know, get after the quarterback or helping teams to identify him as the one that's going to take on the double team. So Matthew can get free and get after the quarterback or being able to play Batman to a guy like a Joshua Uche's Robin to get after the quarterback in that regard. Matthew is so important to this

team and so is Devon. But the question is, how much are the Patriots willing to go? How high are the Patriots willing to go to sign these guys? We're going to get into that in just a moment because Miguel is going to give us his breakdown on Matthew Judon's potential contract as well as what one may look like. Yeah, he's got all the information, folks. You're not going to want to miss this. Before we pivot off of Tavai, though, Miguel, one question that I continue to get an awful lot from our listeners is, did the Jelani Tavai extension prevent them from being able to do anything imminently? In other words, in order to be able to work out something with Judon or with Peppers,

does the Tavai contract change anything in terms of what their ability is to operate right now? No. That's why I said Mike was unfortunate because he's the last guy. All right? He's the last guy who signed. So they get about, off the top of my head, Mike, they got on track for spending about $280 million. All right? So he's got, what, $7.5 million. He's got a small

percentage of that. People are thinking that because he's the last one that he's the one who's going to prevent other guys from getting their money. He's just the last one. I don't know how much the Patriots are willing to spend this year. I don't know. I don't know how much the Patriots are willing to spend this year. All right? I don't know. I don't know if the craft says, hey, we're not spending more than $300 million. I don't know that number they have.

They internal cash limit. I can say about the cap. They have plenty of cap space. If they want to spend $325, $325 million, they can certainly do it. I don't know what their cash is. It's a great question, Mike, but I will say this. His deal does not prevent his from doing a thing. A thing.

It is just their internal cash budget, which I'm not going to ever find out what it is. All right? I do know that right now in the top 10. And that's before, folks, I'm not going to ever find out what it is. All right? I do know that right now in the top 10. And that's before, folks, I'm saying that, and that's before close to $50 million in incentives. Because in incentives, right now, in the way that NFLPA accounts for incentives, they don't account against their cash spending total

until they're earned. All right? Now, for example, I'll just talk about Judon. Judon was only active for four games last year. But he has active roster bonuses, which if he played, it was active for every

17 games this year, he can get $1 million. That $1 million counts as cash right now. Even though he only played four games last year. All right. So when I'm saying the Patriots have about $2,085 million in cash, I'm just talking about I'm going by the accounting by the NFPA,

and I'm not including incentives. And I'm 100% sure that a player or multiple players will earn some kind of incentive this year. So it is likely they will be top eight depending on incentives

and injuries. We know that Colt Strange is probably not going to start the season on the 53-man roster. That means you're going to pay someone a salary, 54 players a salary.

But we also know the other teams are doing the same thing too. Very good point. Tavai's contract doesn't prevent the Patriots from doing the thing. Like I said before, I think it's just unfortunate for him because he's the last guy. He's not even close to making the most money in terms of cash this year.

Like, you know, we got Barmore, Awanu, Drake May, who are making at least $20 million apiece this year, but people are going to pick on the last guy. Absolutely. It's more like, you know what I'm saying? Like, yeah, I should, let me, yeah, I should look it up. I mean, off the top of my head, he's not close to the top. We don't have time to list them all, so let's just move on. No, but I think it's a good thing to learn and to know

that even though Tavai is the latest among a long line of Patriots that have gotten contract extensions and new contracts this year, that it's still not handcuffing them. They're still in a good position. I mean, look, Miguel, as Sollozzo would say, if you consider 43 million plus in cash, just finance. De salute, Don Benzano. You know, I mean, they're doing pretty well in this area. It's late into the offseason.

So the New England Patriots definitely setting themselves up well. And of course, our good friend Miguel Ben Benzon has all of the information you need for the New England Patriots finances and what it means going forward. But, Miguel, we've heard you mention the name Matthew Judon several times. And it's a name right now that is causing a little uneasiness throughout Patriots nation. Many are wondering whether or not he may even be on the trading block as a result of some social media comments he just made I'm not going to ask you to prognosticate on that but I will put you on the hot seat in just a minute my friend okay ask about what a potential

deal to keep number nine in New England may look like that and of course Miguel will set the record straight in a segment that is unique to only this podcast. Folks, Miguel is only scratching the surface. You are not going to want to miss what he has to say next right here on the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Locked On listeners, passion, drive, and patience is what brings home that winning trophy. You know what? It's also what keeps your ride or die alive. Our good friends over at eBay Motors have everything you need to maintain your vehicle

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Keep your ride or die alive at ebaymotors.com. Eligible items only, exclusions apply. eBay guaranteed fit, only available to U.S. customers. Patriots fans, thank you once again for joining us here today on Locked on Patriots. And thank you for making us your first listen each and every day. Don't forget, after you listen to this great episode starring my good friend Miguel Benzon, the Pats cap himself, make your second listen of the day, Locked on NFL. You can find Lock locked on NFL.

You can find locked on NFL available wherever you get your podcasts, including YouTube. So smash that subscribe button and download and follow locked on Patriots and locked on NFL, wherever you get your podcasts. And of course I am joined here today on this Foxborough finance edition of locked on Patriots by the very Pharaoh of Foxborough Finance edition of Locked On Patriots by the very pharaoh of Foxborough Finance. He is the best in the business. He is my good friend, Miguel Benzon.

And Miguel, we've already talked about Jelani Tavai's extension, what it means for the Patriots. You've given a phenomenal breakdown. Folks, if you want the visual breakdown on Jelani Tavai's new contract, make sure to check out Miguel's Twitter, at Patscap. He's got all the information right there for you. But some of the news of the day, Miguel, especially surrounding Tavai's extension centered around Matthew Judon. A lot of Patriots fans were surprised that it was Tavai, not Judon that was extended within the last couple of weeks heading

into training camp. And a lot of Patriots fans starting to feel uneasy about when that contract extension may take place. Well, it was compounded by Matthew Judon actually responding to a fan inquiry over social media last week, saying, I don't think it's going to happen, meaning that it's not looking likely that there's a contract imminently in Matthew's future. Now, we have received reports that a contract offer has been made. Fox Sports' Henry McKenna was the first to report that the Patriots have offered Matthew a contract, but that the two sides are not close on a deal. Miguel, I would ask you to look into your Wolfian-Mayoian crystal ball and determine whether or not the patriots are going to sign matthew to a long-term extension i think there are still a lot of factors that need

to be worked out on the field as well as in the finance room but from a pure financial standpoint what is it going to take for the patriots to wrap up matthew judon for the foreseeable future. So the fan said, pay Matthew Judon what he wants. All right? Judon replied, I don't think that's going to happen. I will say to him, and I follow him. He's the only player I follow on Twitter. All right? I don't think he got the money he wanted when he first signed with the Patriots.

Okay? He only signed for a deal that was like 13.6 API. I said at the time when he signed, and I think it was on the show, it was a bargain deal. All right? said at the time when they signed it, and I think it was on the show, it was a bargain deal. Because at that time, the top edge players were getting around $25 million. Now it's up to like $35, $35, $35, $35 million.

He was a bargain then. If you, Mike, I don't think one, not one Patriot player I could think got maxed out the money this year. Maybe Duggar. Maybe Cal Duggar.

Out of the 30-plus veterans they've signed this year, all right, maybe one. Maybe one, two. I can't think of it. Just maybe Duggar. It was definitely not Bob Moore, all right? Definitely not Hunter Henry. Definitely not Awano. Maybe Awano.

But if you thought of him as a guy, maybe. Who got max money. Who could have gotten more money. All right. So I can understand why Matthew Judin would say that. Based on the recent deals the Patriots have signed It seems like they've had I would argue that most of the deals the Patriots have signed

Players have been team friendly If Matthew Juden does not want to follow that They might just say, hey, you can play for the Patriots this year And maybe make seven and a half million dollars which is not close to what you should be – if you play well, not close to what he's worth, all right? Or they would have to come to, say, teams better off without him to trade him. And I just don't see that happening, Mike. Because if you were to trade him, you should have traded him before the draft.

If you trade him now, you're saying you can't come up to a deal and that he might be a distraction. He said this before, earlier in this offseason, he's not going to be a distraction. Right. So if he's not going to be a distraction and you can't reach an agreement to reach an extension, you might as well have him play out for seven and a half million dollars.

I think it's possible. And that they do extend them, but the two sides can come to an agreement. I remember when Ramond Ray had said on to the media that we're close to a deal and then then people, you know, saying, oh, you know, he's not really close to a deal. And it happened like a week later. It doesn't really in this day and age. It doesn't take that long to come to an agreement if you want to make it happen. No. Like if and I like all the exchange offers and another and then agree.

OK, of course they did. If you go to like a yard sale, are you really expecting the person to take your first offer? You're not sometimes. I was like, over your fantasy football, you're making a proposed trade. Do you think that person could actually take the first offer? All right. It happens. We'll see.

I think it's possible that they can sign a deal. I know it's going to increase his cap number this year, which doesn't really matter because I got over $43 million in cap space. All right. So what? Okay. All right. I don't know what he wants, Mike. I mean, like Lily, I wish he had said I don't know if he's going to he's probably not going to say anything else. I think he followed up by saying I'm out of here with a meme thing. I think I'm out of social media.

But it's possible, Mike. It's I was on record before. And I think I said this on your show in March. I thought they were going to extend them. I still think that's going to extend them. I've had five people, five players, three of them. I got three of them. I didn't get the order right. I don't think the order mattered.

I don't really, you know, I just thought it was going to happen. I got Pepper. I got, excuse me. I'm missing Judon, and I'm missing Peppers. I got Stevenson. I got, excuse me. I'm missing Judon and I'm missing Peppers. I got Stevenson. I got Andrews and I got Devy. All right. So I like being right, Mike.

You're right most of the time. Okay. That's pretty good. I don't know, but it's, the order didn't matter to me, Mike. I don't, big picture wise, the order shouldn't matter to people, Mike. I don't... Big picture-wise, the order shouldn't matter to people when it happens. All right? Because literally,

I signed the exact deal because he agreed on the deal. And I was looking at my signing bonus right now. I was like, why wait? If they're talking and you come to the deal, why wait? Because now when Judon is risking that he gets hurt during training camp. Right.

And if he gets hurt in training camp and suffers a major injury, then he's not getting any kind of extension. Absolutely. So that's why we will see throughout the NFL, right before training game starts, in the first couple of days, training games are more extensive from players. Very good point. I'm glad that you mentioned that.

And that actually leads me quite nicely into my next question on this subject, which I know it's more speculation than anything else, but you deal in these figures. You know exactly what it takes for certain deals to get done. A lot of fans right now are wondering whether it's the amount of money that Matthew's looking for or the years that he's looking for on the contract. Do you think it's a little bit of both? Do you think one weighs a little more than the other? I think it's the guaranteed money, Mike.

He has no guaranteed money in his deal right now. If he's on the week mean of course he's on with the week one roster he is salve he's guaranteed even a year to six and a half million dollars all right he has no guaranteed money on this thing does he want to then the question then becomes do you want to make this negotiating thing a annual thing all right because've they redid a deal last year all right you're doing it in the youtube videos then you gotta do it again in 2025 all right if he says i don't want to go through this in 2025 because it's just too much stress on me right i don't blame him all right um that he's probably wants a deal that says you guarantee me my salary in 2024 guarantee me

money in 2025 and we'll just talk about the future in 2026 all right that's what he's probably looking for all right because most nfl deals are really two years in c right all right if you don't it's unusual unless you're a quarter especially if you're not a quarterback to get three years fully guaranteed salary, alright? So he should probably be looking for the two years and then we'll see, alright? If he's looking for more than that then

he's expectations are out of line, alright? That's what I think he's looking for. The problem for them is that he's playing a position where the Patriots have

some young talent and with Josh Uche changing agents again, who's on a one-year deal, which he definitely has been reported he took less money from the Patriots

than he could have gotten elsewhere. If, let's just say, Josh Uche shows up this year and you can't reach an extension with Judon, you're going to pay next year in Oxygen, you're going to pay Uche first before you're going to pay Judon. You know what I'm saying?

Man, Mike. I'm not looking like I'm not feeling like I'm going to get all five right now. I'll be honest. I'll be on it. All right. I'll be pleasantly surprised, and I would love to see them do it. And I think if it's going to happen, Mike,

I think it's going to happen in July. I don't think before they start the hitting, that he's going to be – I think that's going to be – maybe it happens the first couple of days of training camp where there's no hitting. I think on the pitch it's going to be another extension with a player, any player. It's going to happen before they start hitting up with the pads on.

That's a very good point, and we've seen that before. We've seen guys like Devon Godchild get an extension, get a little bit of a bump before the pads come on and before they really start to engage in some physical contact during training camp. For all the reasons you just said, I mean, they're taking a huge gamble of not getting hurt in training camp. It's going to be interesting. And we haven't even mentioned the name Jabril Peppers yet, who was in that mix that you talked about, about getting all five, a potential for his contract extension could be soon. Folks, keep a sharp eye because the next couple of weeks are going to be very exciting. The Patriots have already proven, as my good friend has said earlier today, there are no days off. The Patriots are continuing to work on contract extensions each and every day throughout the off season, right up until the start of training camp on July 24th. And again, we are blessed to have the wisdom and counsel of my good friend, Miguel Benzon to break it all down.

But Miguel, we're not quite done yet because there is a segment unique to Locked On Patriots where Miguel is going to set the record straight on all those erroneous cap myths floating around out there and help you to make better sense of the Patriots salary cap. That and all other information he wants to provide on contract extensions and Patriots finance when we wrap things up right here on the Lockdown Patriots podcast. Proud part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Patriots fans, thanks once again for joining us here today on Locked On Patriots. And we have been regaled by the wisdom, counsel, and genius.

That's right, I said it. Genius of my good friend, Miguel Benzon, the Pats cap himself, who has provided wisdom and counsel beyond the meter when it comes to Jelani Tavai's extension taking a look into that Wolfian crystal ball and prognosticating on what it might take to keep Matthew Jude on here in New England but Miguel we're not quite done yet because there are a handful of other Patriots that are looking for potential new deals uh there is the 2025 cap to think about there is operating costs for the 2024 season, as well as what the Patriots' finances look like

heading into training camp. A lot of other things on the plate right now. And of course, in a segment that is unique to Locked On Patriots, and it's always my favorite segment of any podcast that I do any day of the week, Miguel sets the record straight. He helps people like me see the

salary cap better. So when we report to you, we're reporting accurately and completely, and we're not missing any details. I always pay attention. I can't speak for other people, but I always pay attention. And this is my good friend, and I always want to make sure I'm doing him justice. So Miguel, before we set the record straight, is there any other cap-related information with regard to the Patriots' finances that you believe our listeners should know as the Patriots get set to open training camp in just a couple of weeks? Besides the obvious, they're in great cap shape.

They have a ton of flexibility. They can, without knowing their cash budget, Mike, all right, they can do anything they want on the gap. They could extend a couple of players. They could trade for a player, all right? They're one of the few teams in the league right now who could trade. Not that I think it's going to happen, all right? They could have the cap space to trade for T. Higgins,

who's got a 21-dollar cap head, straight up, straight up. Some teams would have to create cap space to do that some teams would have to create cap space if they wanted to trade for brandon iuk was got a 14 million dollars cap it i'm not saying it i don't think i'll say this on record i don't think the bengals or the foreign is going to trade into those two players right but the pages have the cap space to make those kind of moves. They're going to have the cap space at the trade deadline to make those kind of moves. They're going to have the cap space at roster cutdowns to make any kind of moves they want. That's what the situation is.

They're in a great cap space. We have a chance. We've talked 35, 40 minutes right now. We haven't had a chance to talk to 2025 we talked so well 35 30 40 minutes right now we haven't had a chance to talk to 2025 they're gonna be in great cap space for 2025 i usually don't like talking about future years mike because it's so hard to see the crystal ball because so things so many things happen like like we saw if you're watching the hard knocks of what the offseason with the giants they nfl was surprised about the number of the cap. It was good.

They all expected to 42 or something like that. And it's up being two 55. Right. So no one knows right now. I can, that what the cap is going to lead cap number is I'm just using $280 million just because it's a round number. All right.

So, but I can't. The Patriots would have to extend a whole bunch of players to make to be in a tight cap space for next year. And I don't see that happening. All right. Not the way they structure the deals, Mike. So they're in a great cap space. The only cap-related thing that's going to happen for sure in the next couple of months is if Joey Sly makes the roster, he gets a bonus.

If Watquan McMillan makes a $50 million roster, he gets a small bonus. And when the cap is $255 million, $100,000 isn't going to really make a difference. You know what? I believe that is an ideal way for us to begin my favorite segment of any podcast that I do here on Locked On Patriots, and that is when I give the baton to my

good friend and allow him to set the record straight with all those erroneous cat myths floating around out there. Folks, the salary cap can be complicated. Not to my guest today. He's an expert. He knows what he's doing. But for people like me who still count on their fingers, it can be very difficult. Bottom line, Miguel is the only call that I make whenever I am stumped on a cap question.

And he always knows the answer because he's always the one that does his homework takes all the numbers into account and always factors in all possibilities so with that being said my friend when you look at a lot of the stuff that's being shared right now with regard to the patriot salary cap or even the nfl cap as a whole take us home and let us know what particularly out there right now that's being purported as true that you need to set the record straight on and dispel as a cat myth. One is the reporting of Matthew Julian's number of how much cash he's getting. I know his salary is $6.5 million, but somehow his $1 million that he can earn active roster bonuses is not part of the equation. All right. So that's seven. So it's one point. It's actually he can earn $ roster bonuses is not part of the equation. All right? So it's $1.

You can earn $7.5 million in cash. And it makes it look worse when you say $6.5 million. But the truth of the matter is $7.5 million. All right? And I did this once in a tweet.

All right? So I'm guilty of it a tweet. All right. So I'm guilty of it, too. But we should really say that reason he's only going to get seven and a half million dollars this year because they got some of the money from 2024 last year. It's part of his structure. They move money from 2020 cash for 2024 into 2023. All right? This is why people ask me all the time, why don't Patriots front-load their deals? They

actually front-loaded Matthew Jude on the deal by giving him a lot more cash last year and then back-loading the cash this year, causing a problem this year. This is why they don't do that. I know they got a lot of cap space, folks, and that's the most common question right. I know they got a lot of cap space, folks. And that's the most common question I get right after a deal.

They should have front loaded the deal. And I'm like, they don't. That's not what they do. They want the flexibility. And I'm saying, have you not noticed, folks, that there's been hundreds of veteran deals this year? Several dozen with teams who have a lot of cap space. How many of them have been

front-loaded? I can't think of any. I can't think of any. If it's been some, it's been less than a handful. I've seen more deals with these deals with voided contracts voided years in the end then i've seen

front load of deals that's for sure okay all right excuse me uh it's just it was very hot today um um so that's the one thing is that thing the other thing i gotta say mike is people keep on mixing up cash and cash space. Those are two different things. Like, yes, the Patriots have a lot of cap space right now, right? And they also spent a lot of cash this year. People think if you have a lot of cap space, you didn't spend a lot of cash. It's not true.

Patriots have the most cap space and top 10 in cash spending. All right? Those two things are not related. All right? And then the other thing, we've talked about it before. When you have a lot of cap space, the last guy who signed doesn't impact anything else going forward. It's just a matter of time. The timing of a deal doesn't impact anything else going forward it's just a matter of the timing of a deal

doesn't matter why would it matter to to in cap wise or cash wise when july to buy signs his deal right if you're going to sign matthew judan to an extension, it doesn't, what you signed, July 25 has no impact on that. It's its own identity, its own transaction. If a player gets upset that another player got his money first, he's just taking the money, he's taking it personal. It's a business. The NFL is a business. Treat it like it's such. I mean, so

what else is it going to say? And the other thing that happens, people don't consider the operating expenses. Like literally, teams lose a lot of cap space because of the switch over from top 51 accounting to full accounting.

And what do I mean by that, folks? Right now, only the salaries of the players with the 51 highest cap numbers are counting against the cap. The other 39 players on the roster, the salaries don't count against the cap. So let's pick a guy. Fenwick, his $795,000, he's not counting against the cap right now. All right? But if he was to make the roster, it would have counted against the cap.

So part of the whole thing, some people still believe that practice squad players don't get paid. They do. Some people believe that if you go on injury reserve squad players don't get paid. They do. Some people believe that if you go on injury reserve, you don't get paid. They do. All right? So that's why teams lose tons of cap space, Mike, during roster cutdowns

because they're putting players on IR. They're paying for a practice squad. So that $43 million, Mike, will get used um like when 2017 they use from the beginning to like to the end of the season like 7 16 million dollars in cap space and we'll just talk about that right yeah see like folks i keep track of this. All right. And all right. So you can see at the start of training camp and for example, and then with the ending, you could see, for example, late in 2023, they ended with just twenty two thousand dollars in cap space. All right. They use. So therefore they use over four close to fourteen point four million dollars, $13 million because Judon restructured his deal.

All right? So they used $16 million in cash. You can see that, Mike, here. It's a huge – that's the thing that doesn't get reported as much. I wish they did. But it is what it is. It's Mike I stopped fighting that battle

The numbers of people who played Were gone Who played on special teams And Mike How many players Who actually played a snap on special teams There's over 50 Some of them were

just one snap like you know they were over 50 players i'm like holy cow so like it cracks me up when people say they're returning everyone from a 4 and 13 team like literally they have close to half the snaps who played are gone are gone half the um what in terms of gone 30 percent of the play close to 30 percent of the games are gone close to over 20 percent of the stops are gone um over 31 percent of snaps on offense is gone close to 23 percent of the defense is gone and for close to 49 percent of the team's snaps is gone. But they brought back everybody from a 4-13 team. All right.

That's my rant. When my friends say they brought back everyone from a 4-13, I just say you're not paying attention. And that's all I got to say. Yeah, absolutely. And for the benefit of those of you listening to this podcast as opposed to viewing it on YouTube, when you look at the number of players, just from a special team standpoint, that played more than 200 special team snaps last year. Farrow Brown, 209. Adrian Phillips, 321. Moment of silence there. I still don't like the fact that he's not a New England Patriot anymore. you know what digress patriots are moving forward obviously matthew slater that's one we're all going to miss 378 chris board 407

special team snaps last year cody davis 202 none of those players will be suiting up for your new england patriots this year oh and mac wilson at 312 as well So you're looking at a tremendous amount of snaps just on special teams that are not going to be there. Yeah, I agree with you, Miguel. This is definitely an eye opener. And I thank you so much for putting this stuff together because it really does help our listeners and our viewers see exactly what the Patriots are missing when people say they just brought back the same roster. A lot of guys on this roster that have not been brought back. You can make the argument whether you believe that any one of these guys that have departed will be detrimental long-term to the Patriots' success, but a lot of guys that played a lot

of minutes last year are not going to be in New England this year. So someone's got to pick up the mantra, take up the cause, and who's it going to be? That's really what it comes down to. And whoever it's going to be is going to get paid. And when they get paid, our good friend here, Miguel is going to bring you all the information you need on why they got paid and what that means for their future.

But I can't thank you enough for all of this. Thank you. That was awesome time. Awesome time. Folks. I highly recommend subscribing to lockdown page i listen to it all the time um murph is an awesome guest even though i wish he had explained more why i didn't think poke could be a number one right receiver could just give me stats as a number guy don't

give me stats i'm a numbers guy don't give me stats tell me what traits he has a number one receiver white has and what he and polk doesn't have that's what i'm here he'll be here tomorrow okay um yeah that's all i gotta say because I'm it's been I should tell people a little background like literally when every time I go on this show I send Mike a workbook and it has tabs on it and this tab this this workbook had way too many tabs we didn't even go through half

the stuff all the tabs because we're so much we're 50 minutes in and we haven't gone through all the tabs. But I love coming on this show and I appreciate it, Mike. Well, we appreciate having you on, Miguel. You've been an everydayer here with us, listener from Locked On Patriots

from the moment I took the microphone. And I know you listened when Mark had the show as well. And you have also been a phenomenal guest here on Locked On Patriots, a regular part of the Locked On familia, as I like to call it. And you never cease to amaze me. Each and every time you come on the show, you teach me something new. You help me learn something about myself as a reporter in terms of the accuracy and level of detail that I like to try to show.

And you always raise the bar. So I thank you for that, for giving me that inspiration each and every day to be a better reporter, a more accurate reporter. And bottom line, I could not ask for a better friend. You are truly a family member to me, as are the regulars here on Locked On Patriots, guys like Murph and Steve Balistrieri,

who have been with me since day one in this business. I'm very blessed to have a small but very dedicated and very genuine circle of friends that I've had in this business. And I want to thank all of you. And I think mostly I thank you, my friend, for always being there for the handoff whenever I need you. Folks, I can't say enough good things about Miguel, but I'm going to say one more before we take our leave today. If you can't afford to do so, I strongly encourage you to donate to Miguel's chosen charity at Habitat for Humanity of North Central Connecticut. You can find the website at fundraise.gibsmart.com slash V as in Victor, F as in Frank, slash, that's cat, all one word. His dream of trying to help lift the family up and help them to find their forever home

is something that is an endless pursuit for this gentleman. And it really speaks to his character. And again, I'm always honored and always wowed by the dedication that he shows to this. So folks, if you can, please do so and donate to Miguel's chosen charity for all of the information he provides to all of us here on lockdown Patriots, all of us throughout Patriots nation, whether it be on this podcast or the several others that he's guest on as well.

We're all part of the same team. We're all part of the same family. We may be competitors in some certain ways, but I consider each and every one of them a part of Patriots nation. And we all work together to strive to give you the best coverage we possibly can. And guys like this make it easy. So thank you, Miguel, for everything that you do. And before I let you go, I'm going to give you the floor for one last moment.

Any more parting words of wisdom for our adoring public on lockdown? No, I'm just hoping to see some of you guys. I know which one. I'm going to try to go to training camp. So I hope to see you guys there. I don't know which one I'm going to yet. I got which one. I'm going to try to go to training camp. I hope to see you guys there. I don't know which one I'm going to yet. I got to ask. I got to figure out when the hitting starts.

I'm trying to go with the first day of hitting. I think in a lot of respects we'll probably end up going at least three or four practices deep before the pads come on. We will keep you posted on all of the comings and goings, the ins and outs when it comes to training camp. Hard to believe that the Patriots will be back on the field sooner rather than

later. When the season begins, it's every single day and your team every day will continue to be locked on Patriots because we're going to continue to give you all the coverage from Foxborough boots on the ground coverage each and every day. And we look forward to seeing Miguel in Foxborough for training camp. We look forward to seeing all of you coming up on training camp. And don't forget, we're not done yet for the week here

because our main man Murph is coming for a special weekend mailbag edition. And I'm going to ask him Miguel's question about why he feels Polk is not a number one wide receiver. We'll recycle that a little bit. And we want specific traits. So we're going to cover that here next time Murph joins us. But in the meantime, I want to thank my good friend again, Miguel Benzon, the best of the best, the salary cap top gun.

No plaque for the alternates, folks. Doesn't exist because the man doesn't have an equal. And I say that without hesitation and from the bottom of my heart. And also from the bottom of my heart, thank you, all of you, for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us here on Locked On Patriots and make us a part of your daily Patriots coverage. On behalf of the great Miguel Benzon, I'm Mike DeBate. Have a great day, everyone.

Stay safe. Stay well. Be the change you wish to see in the world. And we'll see you back here again tomorrow on Locked On Patriots.