It’s not fair to consider a year of Cam Newton with a base salary of $ 1.75M a bargain.
For the Patriots, it’s closer to an untethered test drive.
But what if Newton is outstanding? What if you have a personal rebirth, play like a “lion” and end any hint that you have washed up?
The Patriots may find that making Newton stay for more than a short visit is simply not financially feasible due to the impending drop in the salary cap.
We delved into the possible lid drop a month ago, just a few days before Newton was signed. Local revenues will be affected by the pandemic.
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On Friday, the NFL and NFLPA announced an agreement that the minimum limit number for 2021 will be $ 175 million. That’s a possible reduction of almost $ 25 million and a drop of approximately $ 40 million from the 2021 estimate of $ 215 million.
Now the Patriots are in great cap shape in 2021, even if the cap drops. According to Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.com, the Patriots will still have more than $ 59M of space with a limit of $ 175M. That is fifth in the league.
Conversely, there are about a dozen teams that are close to or above $ 175 million. Among that group are the Steelers, Chiefs and Texans. Those teams will have to restructure with some players and others, veterans on their second or third contract, will be released.
New England won’t have to deal with it. They have several good and important players who will be free agents at the end of this season: Joe Thuney, Dont’a Hightower, Mohamed Sanu, Jason McCourty, James White, Lawrence Guy, Adam Butler, Rex Burkhead and David Andrews.
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But the Patriots have the oldest roster in the NFL. Thuney, White, Butler and Andrews are the only players on this roster who are under 30 at the moment, so the team may say goodbye to some of the others and be in a position to take advantage of the roster’s bloodshed. in other places.
Which brings us back to Newton.
He has earned $ 121 million playing soccer since joining the league as the No. 1 overall pick in 2011. In June 2015, he signed a five-year, $ 103.8 million contract that paid him $ 67.6 million in the first three years.
As lucrative as it was, consider what quarterbacks who had decent seasons are now getting paid. Ryan Tannehill, who is two months younger than Newton, had his best season in 2019. The Titans kept him out of the free agent market with a four-year, $ 119 million contract with $ 62 million fully guaranteed. Their cap numbers in 2021 and 2022 are $ 22.5M and $ 29.5M.
If you are Newton and you have a competent 2020 to very good despite not having a low season to prepare, you have every right to say that Tannehill is your starting point.
But Tannehill’s $ 215 million cap numbers were going to be a little onerous. With a limit of $ 175 million (and with the possibility of a modest recovery of the limit in the following years), those numbers will be stifling.
Newton, after playing for relative peanut in 2020, is going to be hitting a depressed market where even a Tannehill-type deal is unlikely.
The Patriots turned away from Tom Brady’s table because they didn’t want him to consume too much of his cap. Especially at 42.
If Newton is hell-bent on returning to the financial neighborhood in which he resides, the fall of the league-wide boundary and the Patriots’ financial philosophy can make this a brief union. It doesn’t matter how well Newton performs.
