The Patriots are in a great place when it comes to their bookkeeping. They have what could safely be described as a very healthy outlook financially.
That means that the extensions they've reached with DeVante Parker and Ja'Whaun Bentley this week should not impact their pursuit of veteran receiver DeAndre Hopkins.
Parker inked a three-year deal worth up to $33 million, but that dollar figure will include incentives that need to be achieved in order for the wideout to approach the max value of the contract.
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While Parker's skill set is somewhat redundant to what Hopkins would bring the Patriots -- a big-bodied receiver with a knack for contested catches -- my understanding is that Parker's new pact in New England does not rule out the possibility of Hopkins landing on Bill Belichick's roster.
This new agreement gives Parker an opportunity to earn more money than the $5.7 million in base salary he was originally scheduled to earn. The deal should also, I'm told, provide Parker some peace of mind. With Hopkins potentially landing in Foxboro -- he made a free-agent visit to Gillette Stadium earlier this month -- Parker may have been uncertain about his role with the Patriots moving forward.
Bentley's new contract, meanwhile, allows the Patriots to lock in a player they believe to be a core member of their defense moving forward. A two-time captain, he'll be critical to the operation on that side of the ball as the team moves forward without one of its strongest voices now that Devin McCourty has retired.
"With the loss of Devin," linebackers coach Jerod Mayo said in the spring, "it's going to take multiple people, but what I will say is that Bentley will be a huge cornerstone to that rebuild."
New England Patriots
Additionally, with the style of defense that the Patriots employ, Bentley's skill set is key. An old-school bruising linebacker, he doesn't fit the new-age mold of the linebacker who excels in coverage. But he has the power to bowl over running backs in pass-protection as a blitzer. And in the running game, Bentley is able to forcefully fill gaps that smaller linebackers can't.
The extensions for both Parker and Bentley should reduce the Patriots' salary-cap figures for 2023. Parker and Bentley were initially scheduled to count just over $6 million and just over $5 million against the cap, respectively.
The Patriots have just over $14 million in cap space available to them. And from a cash-spending point of view, they have all the flexibility they would need to add a big-name veteran like Hopkins. The Patriots are currently scheduled to come in at 31st in the NFL in cash commitments for this coming season, per Over the Cap. The Patriots are 32nd in scheduled cash spending for both 2024 and 2025, according to OTC.
That said, the Patriots do typically like to go year to year when possible without prorating deals that extend deep into the future. That's something the Ravens did to sign Odell Beckham Jr. this offseason, giving him four void years for cap-spreading purposes on a five-year contract.
Therefore any cap savings for 2023 generated by extensions for players already on the roster could make the accounting on a short-term Hopkins contract with the Patriots a little simpler. Former Vikings general manager Rick Spielman, who understands as well as anyone that cap space can be created in a variety of ways, told SiriusXM Radio that his reaction to the Parker deal was that it created more room for Hopkins.
The upshot? Money spent on extensions for Parker and Bentley should not prevent them from signing Hopkins. They still have plenty of cash left for Hopkins if they want to give it to him.