All right, everyone. Let's dive into this week's questions:
Question from Twitter follower Hayden Washam: If one of our 2018 draft class players never played a down this year, does this season count on their contract?
Answer: Yes, it does. So there are three seasons left on the rookie deals of Isaiah Wynn, Ryan Izzo, Christian Sam and Braxton Berrios.
Question from Twitter follower Matthew Bilz: Players are required to wait an entire calendar year between each contract edit/negotiation, correct? I.E., Brady and Gronk can't change anything until 365 days after their previous alterations?
Answer: They are not. From Article 12, Section 8 of the CBA: “The contract of a Veteran Player may not be renegotiated to increase the Salary to be paid to the player during the original terms of the contract for a period of twelve months after the player’s most recent contract renegotiation. The first renegotiation of a Veteran Player Contract, however, may take place at any time.” The Patriots have renegotiated a contract at least three times within a 12-month span. I go into more detail in this May 2018 piece.
Question from Twitter follower James Cissel: First off, I want to say thank you for sharing your knowledge and passion for the Patriots. Could you name a few obvious re-structures or easier ways to create some extra cap space in 2019? Any guys you are pretty sure won’t be at the same 2019 number they’re at now?
Answer: In descending order by cap number, these are the Patriots I am very confident will not be on the Patriots Week 1 roster at their current cap number.
- Tom Brady ($27,000,000) - Expect an extension that will lower his cap number.
- Devin McCourty ($13,435,000) - If Devin does not retire, expect a restructure that lowers his cap number. A restructure would facilitate re-signing Jason.
- Rob Gronkowski ($11,859,375) - If Gronk does not retire, expect a restructure that lowers his cap number that also offers Gronk the opportunity to earn back the money via incentives.
- Dwayne Allen ($7,306,250) - Bet everything you own that Dwayne will either be cut, traded or agreed to a pay cut before the regular season begins. It is most likely that an Allen transaction will happen before his $500,000 roster bonus is paid on March 15th.
- Kyle Van Noy ($6,291,668) - Expect an extension that will lower his cap number.
- Marcus Cannon ($7,456,250) - Can see Cannon being cut any time before the regular season starts. Could be a roster cutdown release done to create the cap space needed to operate during the regular season. If Trent Brown re-signs with the Patriots -- and I do not think that he will -- then Cannon's hold on a roster spot is tenuous at best.
- Adrian Clayborn ($5,937,500) - Can see him being cut any time before the regular season starts. Could be a roster cutdown release done to create the cap space needed to operate during the regular season.
- Duron Harmon ($4,750,000) - Ditto. Harmon is my pick for surprise cut.
- Matthew Slater ($2,900,000) - Can see Slater retiring.