Clarifications on the Patriots Contract with WR Brandon Lloyd

I know one of the recent stories swirling around New England besides the Brady extension has been the contract of WR Brandon Lloyd. A few people have noted to me that there are some discrepancies in the salary cap savings presented here and in other articles so I just wanted to explain.

Lloyd has an option bonus of $3 million dollars due to him this year, which will add cap charges of $1.5 million a year to the remaining two years on his contract. Since these bonuses are considered likely they are almost always included in a players salary cap figures which is why Lloyd has a $4.5 million dollar cap number this season. However most of the time I also include in dead money those bonuses as if they were picked up since in my experience most options are paid out in some manner. Due to this is really helps to simplify the process of maintaining such a large database which I think most of the readers would understand.

So if Lloyd was cut before the option bonus is due the Patriots would only absorb a dead money hit of $2 million which would represent a cap savings of $2.5 million dollars not the loss of cap dollars I have listed on his page. Cutting him also saves them of $5 million in cash obligations which makes him a prime candidate to be released especially with such other appealing options on the open market. The Patriots have been active in free agency or trades when addressing the wide receiver position in the past going back to trading for Wes Welker and Randy Moss to the recent signing of Lloyd. Given the fact that Mike Wallace, Greg Jennings, Dwayne Bowe, and Victor Cruz will all hit the open market in a few weeks and that the Patriots have ample cap room to work with cutting Lloyd makes alot of sense for the team.

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