The veteran offensive tackle is entering the final season of his two-year contract.
Despite signing several players to lucrative contracts this offseason — almost all of them internal options — the New England Patriots have remained financially potent even with free agency starting to wind down. On Thursday, they increased their league-leading salary cap space even further.
According to a report by Field Yates of ESPN, the Patriots and Calvin Anderson agreed to restructure the offensive tackle’s contract. While the exact nature of the negotiation is not yet known, it will save the team $990,000 against its cap.
Anderson re-joined New England — he briefly was with the team as a rookie free agent in 2019 — last offseason as part of the team’s efforts to improve its right tackle position. Signing a two-year, $7 million contract, the belief was that he would compete with fellow veteran free agency signings Riley Reiff for the starting position.
After showing some encouraging signs during spring workouts, Anderson was forced to miss virtually all of training camp due to a mystery illness. He did manage to return before the start of the regular season and actually started the Patriots’ first two games of the season, but looked outmatched. He was eventually relegated to backup duty from Week 3 on, and was moved to injured reserve in early November.
With the Patriots’ offensive tackle position still a question mark heading into the 2024 season, Anderson is a candidate to compete for a roster spot as an experienced depth option. His contract adjustment suggests that the team is careful about his outlook, though.
Under his original contract, Anderson carried a $3.595 million salary cap number into the upcoming season. That number consisted of a $2.3 million salary, including $1.23 million fully guaranteed, as well as a $845,000 signing bonus proration, a $200,000 workout bonus, and up to $850,000 in per-game roster bonuses — $250,000 of them considered likely to be earned.
How exactly the restructure will impact those figures will be seen. Based on past precedent, it is possible that New England simply adjusted Anderson’s salary while turning the $990,000 in question into incentives.
Regardless, the bottom line remains the same: according to salary cap expert Miguel Benzan, the Patriots are now $54.1 million under the cap.
Teams are allowed to roll over the entirety of their unused cap space into the next season.
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