Salary cap recap 08.10.18: Offseason workout bonuses lower Patriots cap space number by close to $500,000

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

1. On Friday, we figured the Patriots lost $498,585 in cap space because of the offseason workout bonuses earned by their players. What happened?



Every day, I check the NFLPA public salary cap page to see if there are any changes in the Patriots salary cap number. When I checked Friday, I immediately noticed every team's cap number had changed. So I compared the differences, and noticed that for a great majority of the teams, the change was exactly divisible by $215, the amount an NFL player gets paid for a daily offseason workout session. (The Saints, Jaguars, and the 49ers recently made personnel transactions that impacted their cap numbers -- as you can see below, the Patriots are among the leaders in offseason workout attendance.)

[table id=99 /]

Sixty-one Patriots attended all thirty-three sessions. Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski attended one. Gronkowski did not attend enough sessions to earn his $250,000 offseason workout bonus, but I expect an upcoming restructure will offset that.

[table id=101 /]

2. We are still waiting to learn the details of the injury settlement with David Jones, Shane Wimann and Nate Theaker.

Answering some logical follow-up questions:

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: $ 498,585
2018 cap commitment: $172,195,334 with 91 signed players. The Patriots have placed Darren Andrews and Cody Hollister on the Non-Football Injury (NFI) list.
2018 CAP SPACE: $7,415,255

Question: why does your cap space number of $7,415,255 differ from the NFLPA's by $100,000?

Answer: For some reason they are not including Troy Niklas' $100,000 in fully guaranteed salary in his dead money amount.

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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