ESPN: Tom Brady restructures to give team 24 million

To spend in the upcoming off season.

Copy carts! Trying to be like the Seahawks and motivate players late in the season!

peypey will do the same...ok maybe not...

One side effect of this is now they can release Brady in the offseason and it won't negatively affect their cap at all.

This move is a little overrated to me. It has zero impact on New England's cap either way. So, this "extra $24 million" figure that keeps getting tossed around is a bit deceiving.

It is only extra money for cash-flow/accounting purposes. If he plays out the contract, he'll get all the money anyway. This will not enable them to devote more cap to different players. Also, I've read that Brady actually got a $1 million bump in his annual salary for agreeing to restructure his guarantee, so let's not pretend this is pure charity here.

DavidSeven":2u7o0w1d said:

This move is a little overrated to me. It has zero impact on New England's cap either way. So, this "extra $24 million" figure that keeps getting tossed around is a bit deceiving.

Click to expand...

Not exactly true. While the actual cap isn't affected, the $24 million goes from being 100% guaranteed to being guaranteed for injury only, so the Patriots no longer have to keep $24 million in escrow for Brady and can instead spend that money on other players. Or they can release Brady and save $27 million in cap space over the next three years (not that I think that's very likely, but it's now an option on the table where it wasn't before). Here's a link to an article that explains what it means.

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/new-engl ... estructure

So Belichick will have more money to not spend on retaining Brady's weapons. Anyone remember how pissed he was when he restructured specifically so the Patriots could retain Welker, then let him walk?

SeatownJay":1cinw282 said:

DavidSeven":1cinw282 said:

This move is a little overrated to me. It has zero impact on New England's cap either way. So, this "extra $24 million" figure that keeps getting tossed around is a bit deceiving.

Click to expand...

Not exactly true. While the actual cap isn't affected, the $24 million goes from being 100% guaranteed to being guaranteed for injury only, so the Patriots no longer have to keep $24 million in escrow for Brady and can instead spend that money on other players. Or they can release Brady and save $27 million in cap space over the next three years (not that I think that's very likely, but it's now an option on the table where it wasn't before). Here's a link to an article that explains what it means.

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/new-engl ... estructure

Click to expand...

Still has zero impact on the cap. Like I said, it's pure cash flow / accounting. They get to defer ponying up the $24 million to over the next three years rather than hold it in escrow now. The money will still be paid to Brady at some point or another (unless they cut or trade him). This type of move probably makes little difference to someone like Paul Allen. He'd have the money for bonuses no matter what.

IMO, Brady isn't hurt by this or making a sacrifice. There is less than a 10% chance that they release him for "skill" reasons in the next three years. If they did, he could sign a short-term deal with another team for even more money. If he gets hurt, the guarantee is still in play. If he decides to retire, he'd make the same money either way.