Here we are, just a few hours away from one of the craziest days of the year. The Patriots have locked down McCourty but have some other questions they have to lock up. First off, they have $10,000,000 in dead money. I realize I could have shortened that, but come on. TEN MILLION DOLLARS! Granted half of that is from Revis, but if they didn't plan on re-signing him for 20 Million, why would they guarantee that? Moving onto the running back situation. Before we start going into free agency with no money we need to free up some cap space: RestructuresBrandon Browner: The Patriots are letting Browner explore his value. This will do one of two things, allow us to cut him for $0 in dead money if he finds a better deal. That or teams will offer him less than what we're paying him and he'll restructure his contract to stay with us cheaper. We'll say he can't find a better deal and reduces his 5.5 Mil to a mellow 3 Mil. Total cap space freed 2.5 Million Danny Amendola: Set to make 5.7 Mil this season, he's the Patriots highest paid wide out who's stats compare to a fourth or fifth string. Brian Hartline said he would've taken less than the 3 Mil he's going to make in Cleveland to play with the Pats so expect Amendola's restructure to be around that ball bark. I imagine he's going to get cut to the 2.5 Mil area. Total cap space freed: 2.2 Million Jerod Mayo: His cap hit is 10.3 Mil this year. That would be absolutely fine if he was producing numbers like he was three years ago. However, he's not and hasn't been able to stay healthy for the last two seasons. He's going to have to restructure his deal. Just because of his injuries we're going to cut his salary right in half to 5 Mil. Total cap space freed: 5.3 Million Nate Solder: Solder is entering the last year on his contract and is set to make 7.44 Million. This year usually indicates a contract restructure of some sort anyway. His cap number could be reduced to 4.5 million with a good restructure. Total cap space freed: 2.9 Million Kyle Arrington: If we somehow manage to retain Browner and Revis then Arrington's role will remain in the nickel. He's going to make 4.6 million this season so as a nickel corner. That's a little high so let's have him make 2.5 this year. Total cap space freed: 2.4 Million Keeping this hypothetical train rolling let's start spending this new found money. 15.3 Million to be exact. That would be them almost 20 million under the cap which would give them money to work on their free agents: Free AgencyDarrelle Revis: Let's get this one out of the way. Revis was probably every fans second major concern. With McCourty staying put, he's not an upgraded priority. Now the Jets want him back too? Come on guys, cut it out. The bottom line here; with some help from McCourty, they use some of that money to keep him put in Foxborough. Not before he spends a couple of days putting us fans on the verge of a panic attack. Look for him to get paid $42 Million over the course of next three years and getting $10 million this year. Bringing us to 9.5 Million for cap space. Vince Wilfork: Don't count the big guy out just yet. I won't be surprised if he returns for one last run with the Pats. I'm not quite sure what our budget will be for an aging DT, so I'll keep him off the team. Shane Vareen, Stevan Ridley, Roy Helu: Only one of these guys will be in New England this year. The Giants have interest in Helu and Vareen, so it's one or the other with us. Ridley might be a last minute choice if we can't get the other two for cheap. Helu has more yards than Vareen in fewer games but Vareen knows our system. I'd like to see him back for the $3.5 that he wants. Free space is $6 Million. There are a few rumors of other players like Andre Johnson or Zach Morris. Who wouldn't want to see Johnson in a different Red White and Blue Jersey? However he will come at a high cost and if we couldn't spend the money on Hartline, I don't see them spending it on Johnson. Morris could be a good fit, but with Wright entering his second year and first off season don't expect another TE to make the roster. We're leaving $6 million for draft choices.
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Imagine having an ability to wash all your troubles away by going to a different world. Imagine you could kill a dragon or life someone else's life. These things sound great, right? But what kind of science fiction madness would allow this to happen? Well video games of course. Oh, you thought you didn't like them though. However you're wrong. Have you ever played Angry Birds? What about Candy Crush? Those are a form of video games. What? You didn't know that! Why not give things a chance. Who knows, you might just find yourself lost in a virtual world. So maybe you haven't played video games yet. You've heard of them and have only looked into the bad of them. I compel you to try just one game. If you can spend one hour playing a game and not get the slightest bit happier than you sir/ma'am are a very unique individual. Genres of games have evolved wildly over the past decade. With mobile phones adapting their own style and consoles becoming more powerful, developers are coming out of the wood works with games. Think of something you would like to play. Give it a quick Google search and I can almost guarantee it exist. If it doesn't, then I strongly suggest you submit it to a company or learn some coding and make it yourself. So here's my argument to you. Why not give them a try?
My book Virtual Reality released today. It's a story set in the year 2299 where the American government has failed. New America was founded with dreams of restoring what was once a great country. In hopes of taking a step towards that dream they pass a wave of new laws. Including fully legalizing cocaine and marijuana and heavily taxing them. In light of these new laws the country still post the highest unemployment and crime rates ever recorded. The only thing keeping the citizens sane through this time is a virtual reality machine by Oryiss Corporation. This is the first machine of it's type. There's no controller, no graphics. You'll fell the gust as a dragon flies overhead. You'll feel the recoil of the gun. However the machine is highly scrutinized by many for being linked to schizophrenia and other psychological problems. The young protagonist quickly falls victim to these side effects. He begins to lose touch with what's real. He quickly finds himself struggling to differentiate between reality and virtual reality.
The Super Bowl is over and the Patriots have returned the Lombardi trophy back to Foxborough for the fourth time in the past fourteen years.With one their best looking defense since way back in 04' they were able to pull of the improbable victory. But we know the past, it's the future that you want to know. On the verge of the 2015 season starting next week people have some questions. Like what's going to happen to Darrelle Revis? There's a lot of talk that now the Buffalo Bills are going to try to make a run at him. Before that story the New York Jet's were going to try to get him back in green. Calm down though. The Patriots didn't add a second year option to his contract to let him walk away that easily. He's going to being staying in the red, white, blue and silver next season. If it comes down to having to pay the man the $25 million dollars necessary to do so then so be it. They've been in talks with him basically since they signed him last march. They're going to get a deal done with him before they let him test Free Agency. Now what about Devin McCourty you ask? Is he going to be tagged? First off he's vocally come out and said that he's willing to take that tag and has agreed that it's player friendly money now. But don't be surprised if the Pats don't use the franchise tag on him. The tag for safeties this year is a whopping 9.6 Million. If they could get him to agree to a long term deal they could probably get him around $6-7 Million. The man is one of the top safeties in the league and worth that money. It's safe to say though that he's not going anywhere this off season. The next big question is Shane Vareen. The guy had a pretty stellar season with us and rumors are that he's demanding $5 Million a year. He's also come out to bat these rumors down stating that he's never once said that. Continuing on his situation. We currently have Vareen and Ridley hitting free agency. Ridley is kind of the forgotten guy after his early injury in the season. I'll get to him in a moment though. To me Vareen is our Kevin Faulk of the early to mid 2000's. The guy is a great pass catching back. He runs his wheel routes perfectly setting up 20-30 yard plays almost two times a game. He makes players miss on tackles and almost rarely drops the ball. However he's not your traditional work horse back. He'll stay in New England as our 3rd down back for just a little over what he was previously making. Back on to Stevan Ridley. Do we keep him? I myself am unsure about this one. We have Gray, White, Bolden and Blount already in our backfield. If we do end up signing Ridley it's for a place holding spot in case they don't get someone better in the off season. The draft has a few good RB's looking to go into the second round. With the Pats holding the number 32 overall, they could grab one before. More than likely they'll trade out to provide a few more late round picks. So yes, I think they take Ridley for dirt cheap and Vareen for a little more. Maybe give White his walking papers. Next is Stephen Gostkowski. This is pretty open and shut here. Just look at the Adam Vinatieri situation back in '05. If Gostkowski thinks he's worth more than that Patriots think he's worth then they'll let him walk. That simple. Akeem Ayers, he was a pretty solid back last year filling in for Mayo. They won't pay him a lot of money when they still have Mayo on the roster. He get's the boot. Mayo has been put into a bad situation. He count's as $10 Million towards the cap. That's a lot of money. He hasn't played a full season in over two years now. I think if he doesn't renegotiate his contract he'll get the boot after June-1 (Welcome back Ayers) Moving on to another huge cap number, Vince Wilfork. His contract basically tells us he'll be cut. After June 1st only $433,000 would be dead money the savings you ask? $8.5 Million! If they were to cut both Vince and Mayo they'd be saving over $15 million. Vince didn't really prove that he was his old self this year, and Jerod hasn't played 16 games in over two seasons. If both of them don't negotiate then expect them to be playing somewhere else. Last big money player we have is Nate Solder. Now I don't think they cut him. He is however entering his last year on his contract and is expected to make $7.5 million. Now if any contract said "You're not safe" It's his. He would generate a whole $0 in dead money no matter when they cut him. That wasn't a mistake, that was a zero. He get's a contract extension here and cut's his cap number down dramatically. I'm going to post some numbers for a player now. He played 16 games during the regular season. That's all of them, great start. He posted 27 receptions. That took a dark turn, 200 receiving yards and recorded 1 Touchdown. Now you're asking who is this player. Surely he can't be that big of a deal. Wrong, this was Danny Amendola. He's set to make $5.7 Million this year. Some people are saying the his post season workload saved his job. I don't think so. They're plane silly if they pay this man almost $6 million dollars next year. Cut him or restructure. There's a lot of talent out there this free agency, they'll find someone worth that money. Notable Dates: Teams must designate franchise tags for players tomorrow March 2nd, before 4 PM. On March 7th teams are allowed to start talking to players agents to negotiate contracts but can not execute a contract until 4 PM on March 10th at which point free agency starts. Teams must be under salary cap by that time. I'd like to thank over the cap for all the salary cap information. This weeks free game of the week is Pogo's Word Whomp. It's objective is to spell as many words in the allotted time using the six letters they've given you. The game is extremely addicting might just be good for your brain. Don't quote me on that, just go enjoy it. Virtual reality is no longer just a futuristic idea. With things like Oculus Rift blowing up like it has other companies are taking notice. The idea behind virtual reality is to make someone believe that they're in the game. In the way that technology has improved in the last few years it's not hard to say that in the foreseeable future graphics will be so detailed that it will be hard to distinguish the difference between a game and real life. That being said we are still a few years away from that point. The book to your left is written by me. I know that self promotion is frowned upon and all that noise. But it's my first short book and really the only way I can promote it. I'm not going to give the plot of it rather just pull some points from it. In my book this version of Virtual Reality consist of a console and a chair. You load the simulation of your choice on the console and go to the bed. On the bed you put on bands that read your muscles movements and brain activity. You're pulled from consciousness and placed into the simulation you chose. You are the game at that point. Everything you see looks like real life, same with feeling. There is nothing different than real life and the game beside the fact that you cannot die. This is my ideal version of Virtual Reality. A world in which you can disappear into where you can do whatever it is that you want. No controller to hold you back. Tell me what your ideal version of Virtual Reality is in the comments. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook to stay up to date with our ramblings. My book Virtual Reality released today. It's a story set in the year 2299 where the American government has failed. New America was founded with dreams of restoring what was once a great country. In hopes of taking a step towards that dream they pass a wave of new laws. Including fully legalizing cocaine and marijuana and heavily taxing them. In light of these new laws the country still post the highest unemployment and crime rates ever recorded. The only thing keeping the citizens sane through this time is a virtual reality machine by Oryiss Corporation. This is the first machine of it's type. There's no controller, no graphics. You'll fell the gust as a dragon flies overhead. You'll feel the recoil of the gun. However the machine is highly scrutinized by many for being linked to schizophrenia and other psychological problems. The young protagonist quickly falls victim to these side effects. He begins to lose touch with what's real. He quickly finds himself struggling to differentiate between reality and virtual reality.
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June 2015
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