Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots are going to have to do some salary cap reshuffling over the next few week. They’re out of money.
The Patriots have $640,545 in cap space and need to free up roughly $300,000 to sign 2020 second-round draft pick Kyle Dugger, according to Boston Sports Journal’s cap guru, Miguel Benzan, With the rookie wage scale essentially dictating his earnings, Dugger, who was the team’s top draft pick out of Lenoir-Rhyne, is set to have a $1.5 million cap hit in 2020.
The Patriots have a number of options, which include cutting or trading players. They could restructure a star’s deal or sign someone to an extension to alleviate cap space in 2020. If New England, for example, could sign guard Joe Thuney to an extension, they’d probably lift a major cap burden in 2020. He is set to play on the franchise tag, which is worth $14.78 million for an offensive lineman in 2020. Signing him to a long-term deal — or trading him — would make adding Dugger an easy process.
If Thuney’s deal isn’t in the works, the Patriots could restructure the deals of Stephon Gilmore, Dont’a Hightower, Julian Edelman, Marcus Cannon or other players who carry significant cap space this season.
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