Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Part I - Free Agency Finances: PatsCap Talks New England Patriots Salary Cap — 4/2/2021

Episode Date: April 2, 2021

The New England Patriots spent big during the initial wave of free agency for the 2021 NFL season. For a look at the current state of the team’s finances, host Mike D’Abate is joined by Miguel ‘PatsCap’ Benzan. The duo discuss New England’s free agency spending, their current salary cap situation, and the likelihood of future free agent signings or trades, including Miguel’s thoughts on a potential deal for 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. You are now locked into the Lockdown Patriots podcast. Today is Friday, April 2nd, 2021, and it is a Foxborough Free Agency financial review here on your daily home for news notes and analysis infused with the occasional opinion on your six-time Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots. Patriots Nation, thank football and Foxborough.

It is Friday here on the pod. And thank you for joining me to help close out the week in style on Locked On Patriots. My name is Mike DeBate, your host of the Locked On Patriots podcast, which of course is a proud part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. And folks, because it's your team every day, that means your questions, comments, and feedback are always welcomed and strongly encouraged. So as always, share that feedback, send it to the internet by reaching out to me and following me on Twitter at MDABATEFPC.

And while you're out there giving the weekend nod and saying, how you doing to the Twitterverse, please be sure to follow the Lockdown Patriots account as well at LO underscore Patriots. Folks, we all know as Patriots fans, also as NFL fans in general, that there really is no offseason in the NFL. Free agency, trades, draft analysis. It's really a 12 month per year commitment to be an NFL fan. And here in Foxborough, it's been quite the offseason to say the least. The Patriots spending big in free agency, the team constantly being mentioned in

trade rumors specifically about quarterbacks, and of course, two sharp eyes on the 2021 NFL draft set to begin Thursday, April 29th, ending on Saturday, May 1st, coming at you from the city of Cleveland, Ohio. And the names of the players, such as the free agents that the Patriots have brought in, trade targets at the quarterback position, prognosticating who might be the next great Patriot coming up in the 2021 NFL Draft, all underlying these moves are the finances that it takes to make them happen. And that can be a difficult thing to understand, even for the most seasoned of beat reporters when it comes to both the national NFL coverage and local coverage of your New England Patriots.

I do my best to understand it, always be accurate in the information that I provide, but even I have the occasional slip-up. But luckily for all of us here on Locked On Patriots, both myself and all of you listening out there, when we have questions on the Patriots' bottom line, we turn to the man I like to call the great and powerful Wizard of Benzahn. That's right, folks. To help us close the week here on Locked on Patriots, my good friend the Pats Cat, Miguel Benzahn, joins me here in the hot seat.

And today on the pod, Miguel will provide his insight on the Patriots' spending habits over the course of the last couple of weeks. Did the Patriots approach free agency and invest their salary cap windfall the way Miguel had expected? We'll also talk about some moves that might have surprised him and how the Patriots might be able to invest the remaining $12,559,039 that they still have in available cap space. What does it mean for the Patriots signing additional free agents? Or what does it mean for the Patriots possibly dipping their toe into the trade market, specifically for a quarterback? Yeah, folks, you all know where I'm going with this. Miguel has some very interesting information to share on whether or not a trade for the former Patriots quarterback would even make any financial sense.

Folks, I've said it before and I'll say it again. On matters of Foxborough Finance, Miguel was always the first source that I consult, and quite frankly, he's the only one I need. And you will definitely want to hear what he has to say today about the Patriots' current financial cap situation. But as usual when Miguel joins the pod, our conversation was so nice that we decided to do it twice. And that's exactly what we're going to have.

A special bonus episode of Locked On Patriots coming at you on Saturday, in which Miguel will discuss the salary cap implications of signing the 2021 draft class. There are some misconceptions out there about exactly how much the Patriots should set aside in cap space to be able to sign not only their draft class, but also undrafted rookie free agents. Well, Miguel's going to help put your mind at ease on that, because the Patriots are in great shape heading into the draft. And of course, on Saturday, in a segment that is unique to Locked On Patriots, Miguel is going to set the record straight on a lot of those salary cap myths floating around

out there. And folks, trust me, you will not want to miss this. Miguel has some very strong opinions to share, and I, and all of us here at Locked On Patriots, are all too happy to provide him with the platform to miss this. Miguel has some very strong opinions to share, and I and all of us here at Locked On Patriots are all too happy to provide him with the platform to share it. So folks, an action packed agenda just on part one of my conversation with Miguel, and in just a moment, the Pats cap will join

me here on the hot seat to talk about the Patriots free agent spending, what might be in store for the Patriots in the coming days and weeks, and he'll even dip into a little Jimmy G financial trade talk. All this and more when this Friday episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast continues. But first, Locked On listeners, football games on the field may be over, but the NBA, college basketball, the NHL, and Major League Baseball opening day are in full swing.

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And when we need the definitive word on anything and everything related to the Patriots salary cap, who else would we go to? We seek the wisdom, the counsel of the great and powerful Wizard of Benzahn. You know him as the Pats cap. Of course, he is my dear friend. Miguel Benzahn is back here, and it is my honor to bring his wisdom and counsel to the Locked On Patriots podcast today.

Welcome back, my friend. Thank you so much for joining me. It's always a pleasure joining you, Mike. I just love coming on the show. I love the introductions. I love them all caught up. I actually got to hear you preview this. So I was like, oh my gosh, let's get ready. I'm like, because I actually started, Mike, you asked me to come on. And I already started my De my set the record straight stuff.

The second – I can't wait for that second. But let's go to the second episode, folks. You definitely want to hear, okay, because I literally started, when Mike told me we would do this episode, I started looking up about this, and I have a speech, a rant ready for this, folks. It might be epic. I know I might get blocked. I might get blocked on Twitter by some people after this one.

Well, I don't know about you folks, but my curiosity is piqued and I am intrigued. So you know what, bud? Let's get into it so we can get right into that type of a rant. We definitely encourage it. And we love it here on Locked On Patriots because it's your floor today. And Finance Friday is a big, big moment for Locked On Patriots fans. And we definitely want to absorb your wisdom and counsel.

So let's get down to it. As we speak, Bud, your calculations show the Patriots is having $12,559,039 in available cap space. At the time we're recording, that's your cap number, as you can see in Miguel's Twitter bio at Pat's Cap. Now, the last time you joined me here on the pod, Buddy, we wondered how the Patriots might invest that cap wealth. You even built a pretty good roster if i may say so myself you did a good job with some of the uh the roster building that needed to go on plugging some of the holes uh but the patriots did a pretty good job of that as well over the last two weeks uh simply put buddy and very bluntly they spent they spent in a way we haven't seen them spend in quite a while. You were on top of every dollar from the moment these signings happened.

The minute you had confirmed concrete information, you shared it with the public. I don't know how you do it. It's an amazing feat. I'm in awe of it, and that's why we have you on here to help educate our listeners on the Foxborough financial situation. So just before we get into some of the x's and o's on that what has been your reaction to the Patriots spending habits since the beginning of the league year and were there any deals that surprised you I thought Mike like you we said we said I said this a couple

times on the show I thought those were coming I just didn't think of the sheer number of signings surprised me. You know what I'm saying? I did not think by this time they would have signed or attended 25 free agents by now. I thought maybe by the end of right before, they would have had this number, they would have reached this number sometime in April right before the draft. All right? I didn't think they would have this number sometime in April right before the draft. All right? I didn't think they would have done this in the first two weeks.

The deal structure, like I said before on Twitter, I said most of the deals would have active roster bonuses. All right? They did. I thought the Patriots wouldn't do anything, like, goofy with the cap-wise, like using voidable years. They have not. They use guaranteed money, which they always do.

They use signing bonuses, which they always do. They use guaranteed – they guarantee the first-year salary, which most teams do just because it allows the agents to puff up the guarantee number. I was – Mike, I was busy, but I was so happy. Because I, I,

all I got to do, really, all right now, folks, all I got to do is fix, get the quarterback, and this team is set up to win in the next several years. I said this, for those who've been following me for a while, all right, and I'm talking about in 2000, 2001,

you heard me on the Patriots-Bosco mailing list. I had looked at those moves then, then, then. I thought the Patriots were setting themselves up to win the Super Bowl in 2003 and 2004, all right? I said that in 2001, all right? I didn't think that, you know, when I said that, I wasn't thinking they were going to win the Super Bowl in 2001. I'll be honest about that. I'm thinking

these moves now, making this team, I'm going to sound like a homer, this makes this team a Super Bowl contender. As long as they get a quarterback. That's why I love these moves, Mike,

as a general thing. I don't want to talk too much about the general moves because that's what I really want to say for tomorrow's rant. The next day's rant, but that's really how I feel about it. I'll talk about, that's my take on it, and now I want to address how other

people have, their take on that. that on that I love the moves Mike whether it whether the weird there was some weird things about the deal like I said the only the only thing they did different that they haven't done in the past besides the volume was guaranteed fully guaranteed some money and John O'Smith in the third year the deal now they've done that in the past with, for example, Stephon Gilmore has an injury guarantee

in his third year of the deal, but didn't become fully guaranteed until much later in the deal. This time, John O. Smith got fully guaranteed salary for the third year. That's the only difference. Something that's brand new the Patriots have never done. Everything else they've done in the past.

You know what I'm saying? A little bit. Everything in the past. Some stuff, what they did with James White, is brand new to the CBA, all right, for this year. So that's why we were able to get a relatively cheap cap, relatively low cap number. But everything else was the same. All right. Absolutely. Okay. No, you're absolutely right.

And look, bottom line, that's something that a lot of people did have questions coming into this free agency period. How would the Patriots use voidable years? How would they use guaranteed money? How would they be able to manipulate the type of space they had to make it work for them? I love your insight on that, especially about guaranteed money and, of course, especially about voidable years, which is something they did not do this year in free agency and signing some of the players that they have.

So again, the insight that you can provide, Buddy, is always interesting. And I was wondering your opinion on what the Patriots did, because you always have the facts and the figures covered, but your opinions are something that are always spot on, and I think you deserve an awful lot of credit for those as well. Patriots fans, I know you are all enjoying the great wisdom and counsel of my good friend, the Pats cap, Miguel Benzon. But my colleagues at the Locked On Podcast Network and I have been telling you about Built Bar,

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as they give you their latest positional rankings and analysis on 2021 draft prospects with team-centric guest mocks right around the corner. Follow the Locked On NFL Draft podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Patriots fans, once again, thank you for joining me today to help absorb some of the wisdom and counsel of the Pats cap himself, Miguel Benzon. Without further ado, please enjoy more of part one of my discussion with the great and

powerful Wizard of Benzon right here on this Friday episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast. Staying on that subject for just a moment, the Patriots still have approximately 12.6 million in cap space. We gave you the exact figure according to your calculations just a little bit ago. But a lot of people are wondering how the Patriots can still invest some of that. And before we get into the draft implications, because that's a whole other animal. And I know a lot of people get into how much cap space do they need for the draft and things like that we'll get into that in just a moment because I know you have some great insight to share with our listeners when it comes to that but again a lot of fans want to know

with that type of cap space can the Patriots make some trades can they sign a few low level free agents what can they possibly do with their remaining cap wealth miguel what could still lie ahead for the pats when it comes to either free agency or trades with the cap space they have available okay so like so they can still create cap space all right i the so for example if they extend stefan gilmore they can create cap space. They extend Dante Hartire by like one. Stefan Gilmore, you could extend him and create a little bit of cap space if you go like two or three years. Maybe extend Dante Hartire by one year,

and you create about $3 or $4 million in cap space. All right? You trade a player, all right, who's in the top 51, it's most likely to create cap space. All right? For example, to me, they already announced, and Patrick Johnson announced his retirement. Okay?

The pages have praised him, Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft have praised him. But it looks like, to me, they're waiting until June 2nd to officially put on his books. That would create cap space for him because his salary would come off. His $1.1 million salary would come off. His active roster bonus would come off the cap. And his workout bonus would come off the cap. That's $2 million that would come off the cap.

All right? And so it appears to me the Patriots are waiting to do that. All right? So there's a couple of ways for them to create cap space. We don't know if they're going to trade some of the players to move up in the draft. All right? But if they did, for example, if they traded Isaiah Wynn, okay, to move up in the draft, or Sonny Michel, who was in the last year of the deal,

it would create cap space, all right? Or, for example, you know, there's been talk that Julian Elliman would think about retiring, all right? If he does, that creates cap space. There is ways for them to do it. They're at the point, like, that 12.6 is more money than they usually go into the preseason with, training camp with. But this year, as far as we know, as we're doing this, recording this, around 11 o'clock Friday morning, April 2nd, all right, as far as we know, as far as I know, they're going to still use the same rules they did last year, which means increased practice squad, which means you can spend just three weeks on IR. Okay, if they repeat those rules, that's a lot of money that you're going to pick teams, especially the Patriots, going to use in cap space, all right? Because they used active roster bonuses this year, all right,

more than they, all right, they have to account for more cap space, for more players earning not likely to be on active roster bonuses than probably any other team in the league, all right? For example, if they have about 23 players on their roster right now who weren't active for all 16 games in 2020, so if they all are active for all 17 games this year, the Patriots could lose about $5.4 million in cap space. Remember Bo Allen? He got released earlier this year. He's because there's a benefit called injury protection.

If he doesn't play this year and he claims injury protection benefit, in September the Patriots will lose about a million dollars in cap space. I don't know right now if he claimed it. I won't know until September. The Patriots probably already know this. So they already have this in budget. All right? I don't know this.

I won't learn this until September. All right? But the Patriots probably won't know this. So they have to, that 12.6, they have enough to operate the rest of the year. But if they want to sign a big name free agent, they have to create more cap space by trading or extending players. If they want to sign a player like to a low level deal, like what, let's say Raquan McMillan, and hopefully I pronounced the name right.

If they sign a deal to him, like him or like Leroy Reynolds, they could easily sign players like that. So these deals are just to meet the veterans salary benefit deal because the cap, they have more enough ways to sign low-level cap free agents

because the cap, they have so much, they someone signed into a deal right now, excuse me, let me circle back back right now so somebody like now like Leroy Reynolds has the 51st highest cap number right now and it's 987,500 all right so if you sign a player to the same deal he the only part that will take up cap space is 137,500 that salary he would have wouldn't count against the cap. Because right now we're in the offseason,

and only 51 salaries count against the cap. That's why teams are allowed to have 90 players on the roster right now. All right? So that's why they can sign a good number, still a good number of low-level free agents. But in order to sign a big free agent or maybe people – I know people who listen to this don't know. I don't like Jimmy G.

All right. But like for them to acquire Jimmy G, they would have to create cap space to get them. All right. Because he's got to, you know, if he's to come over, the Patriots will have to be responsible for his, take on his $24.1 million salary. His $600,000 in off-season

workout bonus and his active roster bonuses, all right? And just say, well, maybe he'll just restructure his deal, okay? Well, what do you mean by restructure his deal? He's going to take a pay cut for the 49ers, okay? If he's going to take a pay cut to get traded, all right, and then he does it for the 49ers. That helps the 49ers. But if he gets a signing bonus as part of this pay cut,

that increases the 49ers' dead money, all right? So if you were to trade maybe a fifth-round pick for them before they have any dead money, and now you're asking them to take on more dead money, they might ask for a fourth round pick instead. So, like, if they take dead as part of a restructure before they do a restructure of Jimmy G's deal before he gets traded, and they have increased his dead money,

they're not doing it out of the goodness of their heart. They expect the Patriots to give them something in return. But they have enough more in cap space right now to operate more than the rest of the year to get a couple of, I would say, not a big, we can't go $25 million, okay? $25 million cap number, trying to acquire that, you would mean that you would have to get rid of trade Gilmore and trade Hightower to acquire like Jimmy G to do straight up.

All right. I don't think that's going to happen because you literally made the team worse. And I don't think anyone who wants Jimmy G on his roster can say that he can carry a team to the Super Bowl without Stephon Gilmore and without Dante Hightower doing. Those are probably two of the best playoff players on the team. I don't see that happening.

That absolutely does, and especially the information on Jimmy Garoppolo, because it continues to be a polarizing theme throughout Patriots Nation. Whether they can bring him back, whether they want to bring him back, and putting the X's and O's on the field aside for a moment, because everybody's got their opinions on whether Jimmy would be an upgrade or a even wash or worse than what they have now with Stidham.

Financially, you've definitely set a very clear picture about exactly what the Patriots would have to do to acquire Jimmy, what it would take on his behalf, what it would take for the 49ers to restructure that deal, and what it would mean for the Patriots in terms of giving up assets, not just cash, but also being able to make trades, whether it be with assets they have on the roster or increasing finances or draft picks or whatever it's good to know the logistics behind a deal or a potential deal and you've done that so well and again you've also explained very well what the patriots would need to do or what they can do with trades or subsequent free agent

deals down the line before we get into the draft and folks we're just scratching the surface i just want to say just one more thing about Jimmy G. The 49ers have $19 million in cap space with Jimmy G on their roster. They can afford to keep him on a roster until

someone loses a starting quarterback. So either they draft someone, Mac Jones or whoever they pick at number three, they don't even necessarily need to trade them the day after the draft. They can wait to see someone else, a starting quarterback gets hurt during the preseason. That increases GBG's value. Because they can afford to go into the season with him on their roster.

That's a great point. So I think it behooves the 49ers Who gave up so much To get to number three To get as much as possible For Jimmy G And I think it benefits them To wait

Because waiting Only increases Jimmy G's value To other teams Because there's a better chance that another quarterback gets hurt before you make a trade for Jimmy G then. Yeah, absolutely. Solid insight. And again, I think that's one of the big reasons why San Francisco is stating that right now. We're not looking to trade Jimmy Garoppolo because it's not the right time for them to do it.

Will there be a time between now and the start of the season? Yeah, I think the chances are pretty good. But even if they did decide that they wanted to go into this season with Jimmy, you've laid out the cards on the table saying that they do have the financial ability to carry his salary this year and not be absolutely financially handcuffed by it. It's going to be interesting to see what San Francisco does. But folks, we're talking locked on Patriots, and Miguel gives insight like no other.

And like I said before, we're only scratching the surface here with Miguel today. This is why he's on that short list of being the best of the best on all things salary cap. I call him the Pat's cap top gun. He deserves that title. And next here on Locked On Patriots, Miguel and I are going to turn our attention to the draft, and Miguel's going to lend his insight on how signing the draft class

will impact the Patriots' salary cap. And of course, folks, you knew it was coming, you're waiting for it, and so am I. A segment that is unique to this podcast. Miguel will address some of those salary cap myths floating around, and he's going to set the record straight. Do not miss this when the Locked On Patriots podcast continues. And so, Patriots Nation, your work week might be in the books,

but there's still one more dose of news notes and analysis to share with you here on Locked On Patriots. The Pats cap himself, Miguel Benzon, returns for part two of our discussion on a special bonus Saturday episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast. And we will discuss the salary cap implications of the upcoming 2021 NFL draft. And in a segment we all know and love, Miguel will set the record straight on all of those erroneous cap reports floating around the Twitterverse. So to ensure that you do not miss a single second of the action,

follow the Locked On Patriots podcast on platforms such as the Odyssey app, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. Just make sure that you are staying locked in to Locked On Patriots. Until tomorrow, Patriots Nation, stay safe, stay well, always be the change you wish to see in the world. Have a great day, everyone.