Roster Construction - 2022 and Beyond

Kenny F'ing Powers

posts way less than 18% useful shit
SoSH Member
Nov 17, 2010
14,425
Edit: Ran out of time on this. Will finish the tight ends & defensive overview later.

Once the offseason starts, it can get to be a little bit of crazy town around here. I thought it would be helpful if we had a catchall thread that provided useful information for people PRIOR to them throwing out potential ideas (free agent acquisitions, potential cap cuts, etc). This way we all have a centralized data source to refer to prior to just throwing out ideas that make no real world sense.

I've added some positional quick hit summaries at the end. These are mostly opinion based, and are there to provide some high level context and give people a springboard to add their own opinions to get the thread rolling.

2022 Overview

2022 Cap Space: $28,176,877
2022 Active Players: 47
2022 Free Agents: 19 players
Key Free Agents (30%+ of snaps):
Devin McCourty (96%)
JC Jackson (89%)
Jakobi Meyers (84%; RFA)
Ted Karras (75%)
Dont’a Hightower (64%)
Ja’whuan Bentley (64%)
Trent Brown (37%)
Jamie Collins (35%)
Jakob Johnson (30%)
Brandon Bolden (30%)
Matthew Slater (NA)
James White (NA)
Nick Folk (NA)
Other Notable Free Agents: Gunner Olszewski (NA; RFA)

2022 Roster Construction




Four Year Cap Allocation









2022 Positional Breakdown

Quarterback: Mac Jones, Jarret Stidham, Brian Hoyer (FA)
Summary: Not much to summarize. Stidham costs a little more than he should, but his dead cap ($100K+) hit makes any cost savings negligible. Maybe they bring in some backup competition, maybe they leave the roster with 2 QBs.

Running Back: Damien Harris, Rhamondre Stevenson, JJ Taylor, James White (FA), Brandon Boldin (FA)
Summary: Having White all of 2021 would have helped, but his loss was heavily mitigated by Boldin filling in admirably. Now they're both free agents. Barring James White signing for the minimum, due to lack of salary cap - and positional needs elsewhere - I wouldn't be surprised if both are on different teams next year. White remains intriguing as a return to me, only because I could see the Patriots wanting a fourth RB on the roster, and combining his injury with his age (30) might make him a great prove it contract. If not, maybe they draft a guy late or sign someone off the scrap heap. The team has been getting Stevenson some pass catching work, and Taylor - if he can progress his pass protection - could make a serviceable 3rd down back.

Fullback: Jakob Johnson (FA)
Summary: He'll be back at, what I would expect, to be about +50% his current salary ($800k). Hes 3rd in snap count at FB and has proven to be a good one. The top FB's (Kyle J/Ricard/Ham) make around $3M per season, but the market will be weak for the FB position. Only 5 teams use them more than 15% of snaps (SF/Balt/Minn/NE/Atl), and those 4 other teams have FBs under contract for 2022. I expect a minor bump in pay ($1-1.3m), with the addition of a multi-year contract for security at a fungible position.

Wide Receiver: Nelson Agholor, Kendrick Bourne, N'Keal Harry, Jakobi Meyers (FA), Gunner Olszewski (FA)
Summary: The good? Agholor and Bourne will return. The bad? Meyers is going to cost about $6-10M depending on the market. i'm unsure if he's worth it, and he probably provides more value here than to other teams. The ugly? N'Keal Harry ties up $3.2M and cutting him creates over $2M in dead cap. I'm not sure how all that shakes out. I'd love to say cut Harry, let Meyers move on, and use that combined salary to bring in a good WR off of free agency for about $10-12M. But with the team only having $28M in cap space and not much flexibility in terms of cap casualties to save cap, I'm not sure how you sign the priorities (JC Jackson, Trent Brown?, Devin McCourty, etc) and still have enough money to splash $10M around on a WR. Also, the WR free agent market is pretty thin. Allen Robinson and Chris Godwin will get paid. Davante Adams will be tagged. That means there will be a fight for the next wave of 2B wide receivers (Meyers, Kirk, Mike Williams, etc). We may end up losing Meyers and missing out on most of these guys as well. I wouldn't be shocked if, against all odds, we go into 2022 with a worse WR room than we have today.

Offensive Line: Mason, Wynn, Andrews, Onwenu, Cajuste, Herron, Durant, Trent Brown (FA), Ted Karras (FA)
Summary: Wynn isn't going anywhere ($10M dead cap if cut). Andrews is here to stay. Ownenu provides too good of value for his price tag ($800K-$1M). Mason costs $6M, but with a $3M+ dead cap hit, I can't envision the $3M in savings bringing in a better player and frankly, he's been a lot better as of late. That leaves one starter spot. Maybe the team trusts Herron enough to go from spot starter to full time, but I kind of doubt it. if I had to take a guess, Trent Brown's injury history combined with his obvious affinity towards playing with the Patriots and cheaper cost at RT over LT will hopefully get him resigned here for roughly the same ($6-9M depending on incentives).
 
Last edited:

Super Nomario

Member
SoSH Member
Nov 5, 2000
14,012
Mansfield MA
Meyers and Gunner are restricted free agents. I'm guessing Meyers gets the second-round tender, which is projected at about $4 MM - great value. Gunner could get an original round tender ($2.4 MM), though maybe that's still too much.
 

tims4wins

PN23's replacement
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
37,055
Hingham, MA
White signed for peanuts this year, so coming off an injury, I don't see why he wouldn't do that again.

When you get to the D, if DMC doesn't retire, then I think he is back on a modest ~2 year deal. You can also franchise JCJ and see how that plays out - long term deal, trade, etc.