The 2016-2017 NFL season is officially over, and the New England Patriots are once again Super Bowl champions. Free agency officially starts on March 9th, so I figured it would be a good time to look at Patriots whose contracts have expired. Also, take a look at those who are good candidates for a contract restructure. Enter Danny Amendola.

Amendola had a big game on Sunday after being a relatively quiet performer for most of the year. According to NFL.com, he hauled in eight passes for 78 yards and a touchdown. Amendola is one of my favorite Patriots, but it is clear that he has not lived up to the 5 year/$28.5 million contract that he signed back in 2013. He has restructured his contract each of the past two years, and each time lowered his base salary to $1.25 million.

That being said, it appears that Amendola is in line for yet another restructure. According to Spotrac.com, his cap hit for next year is just over $7.75 million, which would give him the 4th highest cap hit of the Patriots under contract for next year. Considering that his cap hits for the past two years were around $3 million each, it is unlikely that he gets a $4.75 million raise next season.

Details

Now for the details. $1,416,668 of his signing bonus will count towards next year’s cap. In addition, $375,000 worth of per-game active roster bonuses will also count. In total, that equals $1,791,668. He also is in line to make a $6 million base salary next season. If he was to once again restructure his base salary to $1.25 million while leaving the rest untouched, his cap hit would be $3,041,668. That is $156,252 higher than his 2016 cap hit. This is what will most likely happen if Danny does indeed restructure.

However, I personally would propose the following contract extension. I would add a year to his contract while giving him a $1 million signing bonus and a base salary of $250,000. He would still get the $1.25 million dollars he would make under the previous option, but $500,000 ($1,000,000 signing bonus/2 years) would count towards the 2017 cap while the other $500,000 would only count towards 2018 cap.

(Just a note, signing bonuses are evenly divided among the length of the contract, so a $5 million signing bonus for a player that signed for 5 years would count for $1 million to the cap over each year of the contract. However, the player receives the full amount of the signing bonus up front.) Under this contract, Danny’s 2017 cap hit would be $2,541,668, about $500,000 less than it would be for the first option.

However, as this would be an extension, I would also give him a $1.25 million base salary in 2018 with $250,000 in incentives. His cap hit for 2018 would thus be $1.75 million. (I’m assuming that the incentives would be ‘not likely to be earned’ and thus wouldn’t count toward the cap.

Those of incentives are based off previous years’ performance. For example, if Danny had an incentive that paid him $250,000 if he caught 50 passes and he only caught 25 passes the year before, it would fall under ‘not likely to be earned’ since he wouldn’t have earned it the past year. Read this FAQ from RussellStreetReport.com if you are still confused or want to learn more about the salary cap.)

Here is a little chart that breaks down what his contract would be under my proposal.

Year Base Salary Signing Bonus Per-Game Roster Bonus Incentives Cap Hit 2017 $250,000 $1,916,668 $375,000 $0 $2,541,668 2018 $1,250,000 $500,000 $0 250,000 $1,750,000

These cap hits would be extremely manageable and a good deal for a player who may be injury prone, but is also a clutch producer when it counts the most.

He said in an interview earlier this year that he has found reasons to play other than money, and made it clear that loves his playing here. So while I don’t expect him to play for the Patriots with a roughly $8 million cap hit during the 2017-2018 season, I fully expect him to still be with the organization barring retirement.