What could the New England Patriots do with recently opened up cap space?
The New England Patriots received a fortuitous gift over the weekend when they were able to reach two important compensation settlement agreements with Antonio Brown and presumably the estate of former tight end Aaron Hernandez.
Although the team still has to pay out money to both, the money is less than the original numbers which resulted in a reduced hit on the team’s salary cap. The team has been up against the salary cap since the league’s new year began as they paid for mistakes of the past such as the Brown signing and for the way they had restructured Tom Brady’s previous contract.
The Patriots had just restructured Rex Burkhead’s contract just for enough wiggle room to sign Cam Newton to his bargain-basement contract.
Now the Patriots have roughly $7.79 million in cap space. This is a healthy amount for this time of the offseason. With their new cap space and a roster which is solid but unspectacular at different positions, what will the team now do?
They could sit on the extra cap room and negotiate extensions with their own players or even save it for the NFL trade deadline. They could also look to make a blockbuster signing or trade or just continue to add depth to key areas of the roster.
Due to the nature of this year’s offseason which has been hit by COVID-19, there is still a good amount of talent left on the open market. My guess is Bill Belichick has something planned for at least a portion of the money. Here are some potential moves the team could make.