The New England Patriots cleared up a significant amount of salary-cap space on Saturday, according to ESPN’s Mike Reiss and Field Yates.
The team settled compensation grievances with Aaron Hernandez ($2.55 million) and Antonio Brown ($4 million). They originally owed Brown $9 million, but will give him $5 million as a part of the grievance. The Patriots went from less than $500 thousand in cap space earlier this week to $7.79 million.
New England struggled all offseason with limited financial freedom and it’s made it difficult to sign players, including the rookie class. They began earlier this week by restructuring Rex Burkhead’s contract — which left them with nearly $1 million in cap space.
The Patriots signed Cam Newton on a team-friendly deal and they now have solid depth at all positions. Bill Belichick can use this financial freedom to make moves throughout the season and better manage the roster.
This is significant boost for the team who sat dead-last in cap space all offseason.
