Patriots Gain $6.55M Of Cap Room From Antonio Brown & Aaron Hernandez Grievance Settlements

Mike Reiss and Field Yates are reporting that the Patriots have gained $6.55 million of cap space now that settlements in compensation grievances with Antonio Brown and Aaron Hernandez have been settled. 

The Patriots specifically receive $4 million for Brown and $2.55 million for Hernandez. 

Reiss mentions that the Patriots had owed receiver Brown $9 million, but he will instead receive $5 million as part of this settlement. 

Before this, the Patriots had less than $500,000 of available cap space. However, they should now have as much as $7,794,739 to work with for the 2020 season. 

The Patriots recently restructured RB Rex Burkhead’s contract, which resulted in close to $1 million of cap room. 

New England has already signed their entire 2020 draft class, which means this money can be used for in-season transactions and extensions. Otherwise, they can rollover any remaining cap space to 2021 after the season.