Cap Casualties

Over the last few days we’ve seen a handful of cap casualties around the NFL, some big names too. It started with JJ Watt last week and just over the last 24 hours we’ve seen the likes of Golden Tate, Kyle Rudolph, Kyle Van Noy and Jared Cook all get cut.

With the salary cap expected to go down roughly $15 million this upcoming season, teams are starting to make and will continue to make significant cuts.

Reports are coming out that the next couple weeks leading up to the start of the new league year will be a “massacre” and that it “will be a bloodbath around the league”. There are going to be some big names coming available over the next two weeks.

Despite the Patriots having around $60 million in cap space and being one of the few teams in great position to be serious buyers this offseason you’d have to think they will still look to make a few cuts to open up even more available space.

Here’s five current Patriots I could see getting cut over the next couple weeks to put the Patriots in an even better position to make a splash at the start of free agency:

1. Marcus Cannon, OT - 33 years old and didn’t play in 2020. Patriots seemingly replaced him with rookies Michael Onwenu and Justin Herron. His cap hit is almost $10 million in 2021. Seems like an easy cut to me.

2. Patrick Chung, S - Another 2020 opt out who is also 33 years old. His cap hit is just over $5 million. The Patriots signed Adrian Phillips and drafted Kyle Dugger to accentually replace Chung and I’d say they succeeded.

3. Beau Allen, DT - He could help this team if he was healthy but he missed all of 2020 with an injury and who knows if he’ll ever be fully healthy. If the Patriots have any doubts about his ability to stay healthy they should cut him and save $3 million.

4. Brandon Bolden, RB - How is this guy still on the team? Why was he brought back after he left for Miami? He’s making almost $2 million and for what? Can we just cut this guy and be done with him once and for all?

5. Matt LaCosse, TE - As disappointing as Devin Asiasi and Dalton Keene were in 2020 they still matched LaCosse’s production from 2019. The Patriots are expected to be in the TE market this offseason and the two kids are serviceable backups, no need for LaCosse and his $1.5 million cap hit.