Patriots Remaining Cap Space

The Patriots entered the 2013 offseason with just about 25 million dollars in cap room. Maintaining a talented slot receiver and suring up their secondary became the main priorities for the team and now Jeff Howe of the Boston Globe reports that they only have about 9 million dollars in cap space left.


What’s been done:

The Patriots signed safety Adrian Wilson, Kyle Arrington and Aqib Talib to sure up the secondary; they liked the direction the secondary was moving in last season and they are going to keep those players together for another year.

They have signed Danny Amendola to step in for Wes Welker at the slot position. Patriots recently added offensive tack Will Svitek previously of the Falcons to add depth at that position. They have released Brandon Lloyd, which ultimately saves them 1.9 million on the cap. They have also tried to address the kick return game by signing Leon Washington who has been known to be explosive in the return game.




What’s Left:

With 9 million dollars left in the bank, the Patriots still have some holes to fill. We can all agree that the Patriots front seven stops the run dead in its tracks, but what about pass defending linebackers? The Patriots line backing core are all talented, gap filling run stoppers, but lackluster in pass coverage.

Another area Patriots fans should be curious about is offensive tackle. Sebastian Vollmer still isn’t signed. Will Svitek was an addition to the offensive line, but is nowhere as good as Vollmer who will wait to see what his market looks like. Svitek looks to be just a depth add, but may have to be more if the Patriots lose out on Vollmer.

Releasing Brandon Lloyd gave the Patriots cap relief, but there are talks about him restructuring to come back. If Lloyd doesn’t return, then none of the receivers on the roster will have caught a ball in a Patriots uniform last year. Some reports have them interested in Emmanuel Sanders or Kevin Walter or resigning Julian Edelman.

5 million of the remaining 9 million will be saved for the 2013 NFL Draft, so that leaves only 4 million left, plus 3 million from Lloyd’s departure. It’s all confusing, but until all the contracts are filed with the NFLPA the exact numbers are a mystery, but in doing the math the Patriots should be left with about 7 million if they don’t resign Lloyd. So the question becomes who’s more valuable; a receiver or Vollmer?

The Patriots haven’t done much as far as addition, which makes me think they believe they can win with the guys they already had on the team. They took a small step back with letting Welker go, but believe they took a big step forward signing Adrian Wilson on defense. Balance is what wins championships and we’ll see if the Patriots address any of the aforementioned needs in the draft.

Josh Brown

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