Salary cap recap 08.08.18: Reaching an injury settlement with Jordan Matthews increases Patriots cap space number slightly

Measuring some of the moves the Patriots made in the last day or so and their impact on the salary cap:



1. From ESPN's Field Yates, we have learned the details of the Patriots injury settlement with Jordan Matthews. It's safe to presume the injury settlement covers zero regular-season weeks, since it carries no cap amount associated with it. What would have been an injury settlement that had an associated cap number? A settlement that covered six weeks. In that case, the settlement's cap hit would have been $278,823.53 ($790,000 divided by seventeen weeks times six).

Matthews is now eligible to sign with any other team immediately. (For the record, after this injury settlement, Matthews can re-sign with the Patriots after Week 3 -- players have to wait the length of the injury settlement and another three weeks before they can re-sign with the team they reached an injury settlement with.)

Matthews now counts as $300,000 in dead money against the Patriots salary cap.

-- $90,000 fully guaranteed salary
-- $80,000 signing bonus
-- $130,000 offseason workout bonus

Please note -- if Matthews receives money from another team anytime in 2018, the Patriots will receive a credit on their 2019 cap up to a maximum of $90,000.

Brandon Bolden replaces Matthews on the Top 51 list, which lowers the Patriots salary cap space by $630,000 (the amount his $790,000 salary is counting against the Patriots salary cap). Since Bolden signed a Minimum Salary Benefit (MSB) deal, the amount of his salary is the minimum salary for a player with two credited seasons, or $630,000.

To sum up, lowering Matthews's cap number by $700,000 ($1,000,000 minus $300,000) while adding Bolden's $630,000 salary to the Top 51 list created $70,000 in cap space for the Patriots.

2. Malcolm Mitchell cleared waivers. My educated guess is any team interested in signing him wants to sign him to a deal that contains a split-salary provision that would lower his salary to $378,000 if he is placed on IR after he is signed.

If a team had claimed Mitchell on waivers, his rookie deal with the Patriots did not have a split salary provision for the 2018 season. Therefore, if he had gone on IR playing under his Patriots deal, his 2018 salary would have remained the same - $630,000. Since he spent the entire 2017 season on Injured Reserve, 2017 did not count as a credited season for Mitchell. The number of credited seasons a player has will determine his minimum salary. Mitchell's 2018 salary with the Patriots was scheduled to be $630,000. The minimum salary for a player with the one credited season that Mitchell has is $555,000. A team can now sign Mitchell to a deal making his 2018 salary $555,000, a $75,000 savings from his Patriots salary. By signing Mitchell now to a new deal with the lower salary and the split salary provision, a team would save $252,000 by claiming him on waivers and taking over his deal with Patriots.

3. We learned the complete details of the Eric Decker deal, thanks to a report by the Boston Globe's Ben Volin. Earlier this week I had projected Decker's deal included $475,000 in 46-man active roster bonuses and $600,000 in NLTBE (Not Likely To Be Earned) incentives. Was spot-on on the incentives amount, but was off on the 46-man active roster bonus amount. Decker will receive $325,000 while earning a $150,000 roster bonus if he is on the Patriots 53-man roster on Saturday, Sept. 8.

Decker's 2018 cap number is $1,500.000. The $1.5 million cap number consists of:

-- $950,000 salary
-- $75,000 signing bonus
-- $150,000 Week 1 53-man roster bonus
-- $325,000 46-man active roster bonuses ($20,312.50 per game)

4. We are still waiting to learn the details of last week's injury settlement with David Jones.

Answering some logical follow-up questions:

Question: How much dead money do the Patriots now have?
Answer: $4,713,084 in 2018 and $144,498 in 2019.

Question: Is the split-salary provision common for fourth-round draft picks?
Answer: Yes. Every fourth-round pick selected in the last several drafts has the provision for the first year of their rookie deal. and for some part of the second year. Most teams -- including the Patriots -- have the split-salary provision cover the first two years of the deal. Some teams have the split-salary provision cover just the preseason during the second year.

Question: How many players are now on the Patriots active roster?

Answer: By my count, 89. The offseason limit is 90.

Question: What is the positional breakdown of the Patriots roster?

Answer:

I consider Matthew Slater, Brandon Bolden, Nate Ebner, Nicholas Grigsby, and Brandon King special teamers.

Question: What is your current Patriots 2018 salary cap space number?
Answer -- League cap: $177,200,000
Prior year carryover: $3,012,602
Adjustment: $17,187
Patriots adjusted cap: $180,229,789
Offseason Workout Bonus charge: $619,200
2018 cap commitment: $171,696,749 with 92 signed players. The Patriots have placed Darren Andrews and Cody Hollister on the Non-Football Injury (NFI) list. The Patriots have placed Shane Wimann on injured reserve.

2018 CAP SPACE: $7,913,840

Question: How many Patriots players are signed for the 2019 season?

Answer: Fifty-three, with a total cap commitment of $164,185,794.

Question: How many Patriots players are signed for the 2020 season?

Answer: Thirty-one, with a total cap commitment of $83,011,249.

Question: How many Patriots players are signed for the 2021 season?

Answer: Twelve, with a total cap commitment of $35,901,217

Question: How many Patriots players are signed for the 2022 season?

Answer: One (Joe Cardona), with a total cap commitment of $1,210,000

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