Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - New Era for the New England Patriots: Jerod Mayo and the Impact on Foxboro Finance

Episode Date: January 18, 2024

The New England Patriots have officially introduced Jerod Mayo as their 15th head coach in franchise history. Will it have an impact on how they conduct their finances? Host Mike D’Abate welcomes Miguel “PatsCap” Benzan to discuss the Patriots current financial portfolio, whether Mayo’s financial dealings might differ from Bill Belichick and what the Pats are fiscally equipped to handle heading into free agency and the 2024 NFL Draft. Find and follow Locked On Patriots on your favorite podcast platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-patriots-daily-podcast-on-new-england-patriots/id1140512627?i=1000632782469 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1c5ZxFmwg3WbfxAU3tR5Ve?si=k196wH-yRqifUcQQz8SjIQStitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-patriotsAnd follow host Mike D’Abate on Twitter, where he’ll be sharing the latest news about the New England Patriots and talking with fans.Twitter: @mdabateNFLSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Jase MedicalEmpower yourself when you purchase a Jase Case, providing you with a personal supply of 5 antibiotics that treat 50+ infections. Get yours today at jasemedical.com and use code LOCKEDON to get $20 off your order.eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotos.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. BetterHelpThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Make your brain your friend, with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/LOCKEDON today to get 10% off your first month.PrizePicksGo to PrizePicks.com/lockedonnfl and use code lockedonnfl for a first deposit match up to $100!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelRight now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY in BONUS BETS – GUARANTEED when you place a FIVE DOLLAR BET. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.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) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gerard Mayo has officially been introduced as the 15th head coach in New England Patriots franchise history. But will he bring with him a new method of finance? 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, and thank you once again for making Lockdown Patriots a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage and hopefully your first listen every day. Remember, Lockdown Patriots is not only a proud part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day, but it is also free and available on all platforms, including YouTube. So smash that subscribe button, download and follow wherever you get your podcasts to ensure

that you get the latest episode as soon as it's available. I'm your host, Mike DeBate. I cover your New England Patriots for Patriots Country of Sports Illustrated. So reach out to me and let me know what's on your mind on X at MDABATENFL. And while you're out there showing some love to Locked On Patriots social media style, please be sure to follow the Locked On Patriots account as well at LO underscore Patriots. And Pats fans, today's episode is brought to you by Jace Medical. Empower yourself when you purchase a Jace case,

providing you with a personal supply of five antibiotics that treat 50 plus infections. Get yours today at JaceMedical.com and use the code locked on to get 20 off your order that's jacemedical j-a-s-e medical.com and patriots fans the gerard mayo era in foxborough has officially begun less than one week removed from their decision to part ways with legendary head coach Bill Belichick, Mayo was introduced as the 15th head coach in franchise history at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon at the GP Atrium at Gillette Stadium. And the new HC of the NEP took the stage alongside team owner Robert Kraft and both team owner and head coach vowed to usher in a new era of collaboration and diversity.

Now, folks, there are a lot of ways to break down all the action that took place on Wednesday, and we're going to do that throughout the week here on Locked On Patriots. We're going to break this down from a football standpoint. We're going to break it down from a social standpoint. But today, we have a very special treat, because after all, when it's time to start over, where else should you start but by taking a look at the books, that's right. We're going to talk a little Foxborough finance

with our good friend, the gentleman I like to call the Pharaoh of Foxborough finance, my good friend, the Pat's cat, Miguel Benzón. And Miguel's going to talk about the type of financial health in which Gerard Mayo is about to inherit the Patriots. Will his methods be any different than Bill Belichick? And what does it mean for the Patriots' pursuit of free agents, both internally and externally? And last, Miguel's going to even dabble into what it means for the Patriots' NFL draft.

Folks, there is a ton to break down, and Miguel's the man to do it. So without further ado, I welcome in the pharaoh of Foxborough finance, the salary cap top gun, my good friend, the Pat's cap himself, Miguel Benzon. Thank you, Mike. Let's get right to it. I have to say this at the beginning of the mic. If you could just bring up the header tab and folks, I use Excel workbooks and most of my tabs have names. And this particular one is called Hedo.

Alright. So let's talk about what I have for now. I project right now, I'm projecting the Patriots are going to make five exclusive rights for each and ten of the players. So that's why they're going to have 59 contracts on March 13th,

the start of the 2024 league year. As of now, we do not know what the 24 official league cap number is. I've heard it's going to be somewhere between $240 million and $245 million, so I just split the difference. I'm using $242.5 million, right? five million dollars all right i have i ended um the 2023 season with the pages ending cap space is 22 318 i might be off like a dollar or two we have yet to even hear the official carryover number all right last um in fact last year we had already heard the number on heard the number on

the 12th five days later this year and we still haven't heard it. I mean, let's talk about the projected LTB and guaranteed salary off adjustment. You see that I have $10.7 million for that. All right? Since the 2011 CBA, that would be the largest positive adjustment for a team. All right? adjustment for a team all right and now we make any see all in that yeah the carryover the adjustment and lead cap number and that gives them would have projected a cat cap number of two hundred fifty three point three million

dollars all right folks no no team actually has a cap number of the official lead cap number the medium does a poor job of explaining it has a cap number of the official league cap number. The medium does a poor job of explaining an adjusted cap number. I'm hoping this picture will help people understand that the adjusted cap number is a sum of three different numbers. All right? And then what's going to happen is at the beginning of the league year, there's going to be every team is going to have taken out from Nick, just the cap number, an off-season workout bonus. And that's $315 times 32 off-season workout sessions times 90 players. All right?

I have – I'm – and my dead money total, I'm considering, I'm assuming, projecting, whatever you want to use, that the deals for Trent Brown and Jalen Mills will void before the league year. And I currently have, for the Patriots, they have about total active roster cap commitments about $172.3 million. All right? And that gives them about $69.4 million in cap space. The, my number for cap commitments is going to be higher than some people on the other sites because I'm already included. I'm projecting. I already know for a fact that Romani Stevenson and Michael Wilson

have earned the proven performance escalator, which will bump up their salaries. I might be off by a couple of thousand dollars, but I figure I'd rather have their salaries be in the $3 million range rather than the million-dollar range, which is why I'm going to be a little bit off. The other sites have yet to completely make their adjustments for incentives. So for example, I have seven players with LTP incentives for 2024,

and that's a total of $5.8 million. Five players might have $1 million in likely to be playing time centers. David Andrews, Jabril Peppers, Bentley, Guy, and Davai. Teachers Wise has a half million dollars, and Devante Parker has $300,000. All right? So that comes from $5.8 million. I don't think the other sites have seen Over the Caps start doing the incentives, but I don't think they've gotten all seven yet. All right?

So, folks, I'm looking at my – I do want to say some of the stuff I'm saying today on this podcast is going to be, I'm only going to say this on the podcast. All right. So I'm just going to have, I wanted to say you have six things down. I wanted to say that's going to be unique to this podcast. So if I mentioned four, okay. All right. We're off to a great start folks.

And Miguel is already setting the table for Gerard Mayo and his new spot folks. He's not even on the job hours yet, officially in Foxborough, and Miguel's already set the financial table. But my question to you, my friend, is I know a lot of our listeners out there heard Gerard address preparing relationships

and moving the organization forward. And you know as well as I that part of that is to work out deals with players to come here. Mayo has to incorporate an environment where players want to come and play for the Patriots, but specifically play for him. We know that finance is probably the most important element of that, along with the personal aspect. So from a financial standpoint, when you look at some of the free agents and you look at what the Patriots may need to do and the amount of space that you've projected in your work what does that mean now for the Patriots moving forward what type of leverage

now does Gerard Mayo have when he sits down with a potential free agent either internal or external and wants to try to sell them on playing for the Patriots because we're coming into a new era with Gerard Mayo and while we have some people remaining in the front office, we don't know the dynamic of how much, where Gerard says, I want this. And he says, no matter what, is the front office going to do something different than they have done in the past?

The front half has had, in most of the Bill Belichick era from 2011 on. I always say 2011 because that's the ground breaking CBA. There was very few deals that they made or made, created cap space by restructuring a deal. Lately, they have been doing that more and more often. But some teams will restructure a deal and have an ad for four

years. The Patriots have been adding like a year or two years at most. If you use four years, you can create a great deal of cap space. The problem is you've got to pay for it at the end.

You've got to have a lot of dead money. For example, Jason Kelsey. The Eagles have used a lot of Ford years in this deal. He's going to leave their team with $22 million in caps and dead money. It's going to be split over in two years, probably 8 and 14, 8 this year and 14 next year. That's still $22 million of cap space not being used on

an active player. I would love to answer the question, but if I'm going to just go, let's presume they do what managed business like they've always been managing business lately, and there's maybe one deal they do this year with a board year. All right? One or two, a couple.

I have them right now on the $70 million. Patriots fans, I know that you are enjoying the wisdom and the counsel and financial insight of our good friend, Miguel the Pats Cat Benzón, including nuggets of wisdom you'll only hear here on Locked On Patriots. The good news is, folks, is that Miguel is just getting warmed up, and in just a moment

he's going to continue to drop all kinds of knowledge when it comes to the Patriots' financial situation regarding free agency, the draft, and even a couple of surprises. Stick around, folks. You are not going to want to miss it when this episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast continues. This next segment of Locked On Patriots is brought to us by our sponsor, BetterHelp.

And Locked On listeners, sometimes we all need the opportunity to get something off our chest. Whether it be big or small, certain things can really start to get to you. And it's important to let that out, especially to someone who's unbiased on your life. Today, I want to say how I really feel about something. And you all out there might even be thinking about the same thing this week. And that is the emotional roller coaster of anxiety, excitement, and bittersweet feelings when it comes to the New England Patriots and Bill Belichick parting ways after 24 amazing years. And even though it's just been hours since he's officially been on the job, Gerard Mayo is already bringing a lot of excitement and anticipation to the Patriots.

And I don't want to speak for all of you out there, but for me personally, it is definitely bittersweet. I'm going to miss Bill Belichick, but like all of you out there, I'm anxious and I'm excited to see what Gerard Mayo can bring to the table. And what's important to remember here, folks, is that sometimes life can imitate art, or in this case, sports. Sometimes we have so many feelings on a particular subject that from one moment to the next, we're not quite sure how to act or feel. Therapy can be different for everyone. And let's face it, most of us have bigger problems than our favorite sports team. It's important to get things off your chest every once in a while.

If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be flexible, and suited to your schedule. Visit BetterHelp.com slash locked on to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash Locked On. If we go to the savings page, and folks, I just picked, this is all the guys where you can get close to $1.5 million in savings by trading the player, all right? Where you see a negative number, and especially in the cut column,

it's mostly because the player has guaranteed salary for that year. So the Patriots could, for example, I'll be shocked, surprised, if J.C. Jackson's on this roster in March, at the start of the league year, all right, especially out of his current cap number. If they cut him, they will create $13.46 million in cap space, okay? Let's go with Adrian Phillips, all right? You can create over $2 million in cap space by letting him go. All right?

You could probably work a deal with Marco Wilson to reduce his cap number of $3 million to a more reasonable number, maybe somewhere in the range of $2 million or $1.5 million. All right? Mm-hmm. You can decide if you like the work that Devon Gosher has been doing, you can extend him out again and maybe add a void year. All right? And that would lower his cap number by several million dollars. Jabril Peppers is in the last year of his deal. All right?

You could lower his cap number with an extension, all right? If somehow you were able to convince a team to take on the salaries of the fully guaranteed salaries of Juju Smith or Devante Parker, you could create cap space by trading them. You wouldn't be able to create cap space by cutting them, but you could create cap space by trading them. And for example, let's,

we were both big Mac Jones fans. I think you might've been bigger. The only person I would say was bigger Mac Jones fans than myself. And if they were to trade them, they would create $1.87 million in cap savings that way all right um so they could get to over but they did some of these moves they can get to over 100 million dollars in cap space all right and that's without and that should be more than enough mike especially if they have better health in 2024 than they did in 2023.

Because they had a ridiculous amount of players on, at the end of the season, but a ridiculous amount of players on IR. And they lost, and that's not including times people weren't placed on IR but missed the game because they were inactive because of injuries.

All right? They could definitely get to $100 million, which would give them enough cap space to do what they need to do and to pursue some of the free agents I listed in the FA targets tab. I just listed some names, okay? These are the guys if Gerard Mayer was going to ask, saw me on the street, hey, who do you think they should go after? I'm saying go after these guys. Obviously, they can't sign them all, all right? So you can't sign all four wide receivers.

You can't sign. You pick one or the other. You know what I'm saying? And I don't know. At this time, we don't know who's going to be franchise tag or not. So I wouldn't be surprised if some of these people I listed here got franchise tag. But these are the people I thought most likely wouldn't get franchise tag, and they had a chance of signing them. I would hope, I would say, Mike,

they could get two out of the three signed and still sign a good number of their own free agents and still have the cap space to become a playoff contender. And that's what I'll think in 2024. I'm not asking them to make a deep run at the Super Bowl. I'm just making them at the

end of the season be in the discussion of making the playoffs. I think they could do that. And I'll say this. Here's one of those things I think is going to be unique to this podcast. Talking about right now they have the number three pick. The number three pick is going to get between his cash

and his signing bonus. He's going to get somewhere in the neighborhood, depending on what the cap is, somewhere between $25 million and $30 million. Okay, so when people talk about that's a lot of cash, that's the number three pick might take home the most cash next year. And if it's going to be – I was talking to one of my brothers about this. I'm thinking they have to pick a quarterback, right? But he thinks he should pick – he, my brother,

thinks he should pick an offensive tackle because I think he listens to Murph too much. But we'll see what's going to happen. And, folks, I should say this. It doesn't matter what position you play. It just matters where you slot and you get paid the same. Like a quarterback drafted at number three is not going to get more money than an offensive tackle or a wide receiver.

It's just better value if you do it at a quarterback rather than a wide receiver or offensive tackle because the top-of-the-line quarterback is now getting $55 million, all right, where there's no position that's come close to a quarterback getting paid like that. So it's better value to get – if you hit on a first-round – if you hit on that number three pick and he's a quarterback, you're creating so much excess value, and that's going to be so great for the team.

Geron and the front office have an opportunity to make a splash in free agency. I prefer that they resign some of their own guys, like a Duggar or a Wano, or even like a Miles brian type you know saying absolutely some somebody who's been on the team yeah yeah i think i thought he had to get people don't like him for whatever reason um you know saying he's played what's he played 70 percent of the snaps so i could i should look it up i should have looked it up. No, I did 77% of the snaps. He played a lot of snaps.

They have the capability. I'm interested as a cap guy to see if they change how they structure deals. And one of the ways we could see the change would be the number of board years they do. They do. Right. Will they continue to be a team that focuses a lot on player incentives and using actor roster bonuses? All right. We'll see. I don't know that.

I don't know what Gerard Mayer. I actually met Gerard Mayer once several years ago. I did not think at that time that he was going to be a head coach, so I did not ask him any cap correlated questions. So I don't know how he feels about it. I should have asked him, because I don't – I should have asked him about the actor Ross Sabonis. I don't know how he's going to – as a former player, how he felt about it. Because I know he missed out on money because he didn't get all his incentives.

You know what I'm saying? But we'll see. I'm looking forward to it as a cap guy to see what happens that way. It's going to be interesting, Mike. And we're also looking forward to see what happens with the draft. All right? It is... I should say this.

I should say, I have to talk about as a cap guy, let me just talk about Bill and the GM and what he's done and what he did. I always thought

at the beginning that we would, if you were a fan of the Patriots in the early 2000s, you would read articles about how the Patriots would create value by all the trades they made up and down. And

he would get a ton of credit for that. I thought he made a couple, he did a couple of things that the NFL eventually eliminated cap-wise. For example, in 2014, they signed Joe Revers to a deal. They had an option. All right? They don't pick up the option. They had a comp pick for him in 2016.

Can't do that now. All right? Back in the day, you could pay practice squad players any amount of money you want. So what would the Patriots do? Because the guys, they would pay some guys as much as the rookie would do. Now, there's a strict salary for practice squad players. You can't.

There's one salary, and especially for the rookies, there's one salary, and that's it. Right. All right? What Bill Belichick did salary cap-wise I thought stood out, especially at the beginning, was he built a middle class. So if you were following me on social media in the early 2000s, you would see me say the Patriots have the largest amount of players

who were making one million, had a cap number of $1 million. Because back in the day, now the cap was $60, $70 million in the early 2000s. Now it's like they still have a great number of players who make 1% of the cap now. I don't think it's a coincidence that the Bills now also have a large amount of players who are making 1% of the cap. I think they just copied their lead. I was surprised, and I think I've said this before to you, Mike, that how many teams didn't copy what the Patriots did,

like in terms of building a middle class. Part of it is under the new CBA, teams weren't forced to spend money so they whatever money they spent they spent on quarterbacks and the rookies and now is that they just the middle class has been decimated and the nfl middle class has been decimated since the 2011 cba um so that's what i wanted to say about Bill and the GM. I'm looking forward to what happens with Mayo. Absolutely, man. Miguel, great stuff as always. In typical fashion, Miguel always has nuggets here that he's going to drop

that are unique to Lockdown Patriots. He's already dropped some pearls of wisdom that you'll only find here on this podcast. Miguel is going to intricately give some details on what the Patriots might do at the offensive line. That's right. Miguel's got some of the answers for those big round men that Murph wants to round up on this team. And we're going to talk about that in just a moment when this episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast continues. A proud part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Locked On listeners, I know we come to sports to escape from some of the crazy realities of real life, but can we just talk for a minute about preparing for real life?

According to the FDA, pharmacies are running out of antibiotics like amoxicillin right in the middle of the worst flu season in over a decade. This is scary. I can't imagine a more helpless feeling than if a family member of mine got sick while a supply chain issue kept them from getting the type of medication they need. Thankfully, we will be okay because of Jace Medical. The Jace case is a pack of five different antibiotics to treat a long list of bacterial illnesses, including UTIs, respiratory infections, sinusitis, skin infections, and many others. This stuff could happen to any one of us. So visit JaceMedical.com and complete your physician encounter. It will be reviewed by a board-certified physician,

and your medications will be dispensed by a licensed pharmacy at a fraction of the regular cost. It's never been more important to be prepared than today. Go to JaceMedical.com and use the offer code LOCKEDON to get $20 off your order. Lockdown listeners, thank you so much for joining us here today on Lockdown Patriots, making us a part of your daily Patriots coverage. And as you can see, we have been regaled with the wisdom and counsel of the pharaoh of Foxborough Finance himself, my good friend Miguel Benzon. The Pat's Cap has joined us and given us so many pearls of wisdom

today. Pearls of wisdom you can only find here on Locked On Patriots, folks. And Miguel, we've talked a lot about the new era in Foxborough and Gerard Mayo coming in and what type of leverage he may have now as head coach to sit down and negotiate with some of these free agents to be, not just from a personal standpoint, but most importantly, from a financial standpoint. You need to have the backing of the ownership in order to be able to sign those checks. And you've given us a good indication as to how they might do that. There's still a lot of question as to exactly what methods they're going to employ. And you've been very,

very forthcoming about that. And I think that's extremely interesting and even given us a little background on the difference between what gerard mayo might do and the belichick show here for approximately a quarter century at the helm of the new england patriots but miguel you're about to make one of our favorites here very happy you know our good friend the account of murphy fist himself thomas murphy has been a big advocate for the Patriots to build from the offensive line. It's the foundation. It's the way he believes this team should be built. So naturally Gerard Mayo is going to sit down and he's going to say, okay, we need to make improvements along the offensive line. You've laid out a financial blueprint on how this might go

and certain things that should be considered here when it comes to the O-line. I'm not going to step on your toes, bud. Take us home. Set the record straight, if you will, when it comes to what the Patriots can do financially to fix this O-line. Okay. Oh, let's see. I don't know.

It is one of the things you want to know, Gerard Mayo. How's your relationship with Trent Brown? All right. We talked about repairing relationships. Maybe that's what he was referring to. We don't know that, folks, but maybe that's one of them he tried to repair. So let's bring up that slide. So, OK, folks, I actually been tracking the online combinations.

All right. When I say combinations, they have five different starters. If you switch out a sender one week, that's a different combination. 2023 was remarkable in the sense that they had the

most distinct starters, 11, and the second most combinations, right 2015 all right and you can see on the right hand side i bolded the first four weeks all right and the last four weeks of the season Mike, during the Bill Belichick era, 24 years, 24 seasons, there were nine times that the Patriots used a different combination for at least four straight weeks. Two of the nine occurred in 2023, at the beginning of the season,

at the end of the season. All right? That's just nuts. Right? That is just nuts. And you'll notice in 2023, the Patriots only started the same combination at the maximum three straight weeks. That only happened two other years during the Bill Belichick era.

They have to fix it. I don't know. And if you follow me on Twitter, you know I was rather dismissive of them, of the possibility of the Patriots trading Shaq Mason away. Because I heard this in 2020, 2021, and then that finally happened in 2022. And you trade away Shaq Mason. You don't resign Joe Tooney. And yet you can't have any consistency on your offensive line.

For example, like, Mike, if you look at the 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2020, we've had how many offensive line combinations we had in those four years? And compare that from in the early 2000s. For example, 2007, 2004, 2008, 2003, 2009, 2004,

2010, 2004. Brady was having the same offensive line in front of him most of the time. Where Mac Jones, Cam Newton, and Billy Zappi were having any consistency there. And what I would do, I will hear from Murph, like I was talking about the draft-wise,

but I think it's never offensive tackles hardly ever hit free agency. So if you're going to hardly ever hit free agency, all right? So if you're going to want to hit free agency, if you think you're going to sign someone for free agency, you're going to have to pay a pretty penny, all right? So, like, Mayo's going to have to talk to Trent Brown, talk to Michael Awano, and get them signed, all right? He has to get at least one of them signed. Hopefully, if there's only one, it'd be the younger guy, Awano, all right? He has to at least get at least one of them signed.

Hopefully, if there's only one, it'd be the younger guy, Owano, all right? Then he has to find some, get some stability in the offensive line. I don't know, like, I don't know, like, I didn't really – I don't know how I got to hear more about Murph talk about Sidney Sauer, right guy. Is he the right guy for the future, or is he just going to move over to tackle one day? You know, I know this draft supposedly has some good offensive tackle depth. And the Patriots had had some luck with drafting an offensive tackle in the second round.

Hello, Matt Light and Sebastian Fulmer. Will lightning strike again for them? We will see. It would be cap-wise, it would be great if they were to get a quarterback in the first round and a starting offensive tackle in the second round and then try to get a number one wide receiver in free agency. I mean, we'll see what happens. Right now, Mike, that's what I would try to do.

I would try to sign someone in free agency, a wide out in free agency, draft a double dip at the tackle spot in the draft and draft my QB in the first round. That's what I would do as of now. I look forward to you and Murph talking about the draft, especially about your targets and where you would go and what round you would go. I said this to my brother. I should have said this earlier. If you're drafting a quarterback and you want to build around them, the time to spend in free agency is this year.

Because the way most NFL contracts contracts are structured usually you have two years and then you have an out you can get out of it after the third year the third year is the most important year for for a rookie quarterback because you buy because he can pick up the option for his fifth year after it so you need to know by the end of the third year if he's good or not. So even if you made mistakes this year in free agency in 2024, right, you can then

revisit those mistakes and move on in 2026 so it's getting a new crew and having built talent and still continue to balance out in 2026. If the plan is to get a quarterback, a rookie quarterback, this is the year to

also spend the money because you have the chance to build around him twice, 2024 and 2026. Very good point. I should have said that at the beginning, but I forgot. I'm sorry.

Miguel, you end on a high note, and that's exactly what we love to do here on Locked On Patriots. We love ending on a high note and on positivity. And, folks, the pharaoh of Foxborough finance has done both for us today. Like I said before, we are definitely going to be breaking down Gerard Mayo's official introduction. So stay locked in, folks. You're not going to want to miss it. But for today, we have given you, I think, the best financial breakdown in the business. Miguel, what can I say?

I appreciate you always being willing to lend your wisdom, your counsel, and information you can only find here on Locked On Patriots, folks. We are eternally grateful that you choose our platform and inform Patriots fans exactly what to expect from a financial basis especially for a rookie head coach it's going to be so important this year for those decisions to be made properly and Gerard I know earlier today you talked about bringing in the right people picking the right minds let me tell you it doesn't get any better than my good friend here on the opposite side of the screen. Give him a call. Give him a follow.

You're definitely going to want to follow what he does financially, folks, because he is always right down to the penny. My friend, thank you so much for joining me here today. Before I let you go, please let everyone know where they can interact with you on social media and a little bit about some of the philanthropic work that you do, which to me, not only makes you the best in the business when it comes to Boxborough Finance, but truly one of the great people you'll meet in any walks of life, folks. I say that without hesitation. Thank you. You'll find me on Twitter at Patscap, real unoriginal. You'll also find me on Instagram. I might be posting more pictures there. I'm proud to say we've got over $50,000 raised for Habitat for Humanity. I'd like to get to $60,000 by the end of March. So if you can't afford to do so, any amount of donation will be useful. And I believe in the American dream.

My parents are first-generation immigrants. I know them buying a home was a big moment for them. So I'd like to share, pay it forward by helping someone else buy a home. Absolutely, folks. And I can tell you from personal experience, I have my fun with Miguel when he comes on. I call him Pharaoh ofaraoh of Foxborough finance which I truly believe but when I say to you that you will not find a finer

man in any walk of life I truly mean it he wears a heart on his sleeve and the philanthropic work that he does truly comes from the heart and Miguel that's why you're beloved throughout Patriots Nation it's not just for the financial pearls of wisdom that you drop exclusively sometimes here on Locked On Patriots

folks, but no matter where you drop those, whether it be on Twitter or whether it be on X or whatever social media platform, we appreciate that in Patriots nation, but we love you for the man that you are. So, Miguel, thank you so much. We know we're going to be calling upon your wisdom and

counsel again in the near future here on Locked On Patriots to guide us through free agency, through the draft. And as we get a little more headway on what the Gerard Mayo era is going to look like here in Foxborough, Miguel's the man that's going to take us there from a financial standpoint. And don't forget to tune in tomorrow here, folks, on Locked On Patriots, because our main man, Thomas Murphy, joins us here to go through your questions. It's a pseudo midweek mailbag to kind of bring together everything that we learned about Gerard Mayo and his introductory press conference. And don't forget, we also have a special guest lined up on Friday,

so be sure to stay locked into Locked On Patriots. In the meantime, I give a tip of the cap and a nod to the gods to my good friend, Miguel La Paz, and folks, thank you all for making Locked On Patriots In the meantime, I give a tip of the cap and a nod of the gods to my good friend, Miguel, the Patscap Benz on. And folks, thank you all for making Locked On Patriots a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage. On behalf of the Patscap himself, Miguel Benz on, I'm Mike DeBate, reminding you all to stay safe and to stay well and to be the change you wish to see in the world. Have a great day, everyone, and we'll see you back here again tomorrow on Locked On Patriots.