Good questions this week -- topics include the financial impact if the Patriots make a move for Duke Johnson, as well as queries on Rob Gronkowski, A.J. Green, and compensatory picks.
Question from Twitter follower Daniel Fisher: What about trading for Duke Johnson during the draft?
Answer: With the Patriots currently having over $18 million in cap space, them trading for Duke Johnson is a real possibility. If acquired, his cap numbers if acquired would be:
2019 - $2.3 million
2020 - $4.1 million
2021 - $5.15 million
Answer: I do think a big move is coming, but not necessarily during the draft.
Answer: Penn - no. Collins - no. Bailey - no. Shelton - doubtful. Will be surprised if the Patriots sign another CFA (Compensatory Free Agent) before May 7, the deadline for players to qualify for the compensatory pick calculations.
Answer: I'm very confident the Patriots will select a defensive back this draft for three reasons.
- The ages of the McCourty twins, Patrick Chung, and Duron Harmon.
- The NFL is a passing league.
- Jonathan Jones and Devin McCourty are currently playing in the last year of their respective contracts.
Answer: Tight end (twice), defensive end, wide receiver, defensive tackle, and defensive back.
Answer: Hakeem Butler, just because I would love to see Bill Belichick do something he has never done before with the Patriots -- take a wide receiver in the first round.
Answer: It has no effect. Incentives are not included in the APY calculations.
Answer: The Deion Sanders rule. Basically, it means that in a contract that extends into an uncapped year, the player’s combined salary, roster bonuses and reporting bonuses in all capped years must be equal to or greater than the combined prorated signing bonus allocations in the capped years. If the latter is greater, a cap debit is applied to the players salary cap number pertaining to the difference prorated over the capped years, then credited back to the players cap number in the uncapped year(s). The first time I calculated the Deion Sanders reallocation for Vince Wilfork, I got it wrong.
Answer: Yes. I am including the two RFA tenders in my cap space number.
Answer: If the Patriots were to trade for Green before the draft, they would then become responsible for his $200,000 offseason workout bonus and his $11,976,000 salary, so his Patriots cap number would be $12,176,000. It's doubtful anyone would ever replace Larry Fitzgerald -- I've been receiving questions about him for over a decade.
Answer: To keep this exercise simple, I'll pretend the Patriots' bye week is Week 4. If Gronk decides to unretire during the regular season, his cap number would be $9 million divided by 17 times the number of weeks remaining in the season plus $46,875 times the remaining number of games. On Sunday ESPN's Mike Reiss reported the deadline for him to unretire is Week 13.
Question: What is your current Patriots 2019 salary cap space number?