New England places the franchise tag on star placekicker Adam Viniateri, assuring he'll be around next season and hopefully beyond.

08:58 AM EST on Wednesday, February 23, 2005

BY TOM E. CURRAN
Journal Sports Writer

The Patriots made their first offseason roster move of consequence yesterday, applying the franchise tag to iconic kicker Adam Vinatieri.

Journal file photo / Bob Breidenbach

The Patriots weren't about to let a clutch performer like Adam Vinatieri just walk away as a free agent after so many solid seasons in New England.

The Vinatieri move was easily anticipated. Moves that follow in the next few days and months will be harder to predict.

Franchising Vinatieri, whose three-year, $5.6-million contract expires next Tuesday, means the Pats have locked up their Pro Bowl kicker for about $2.5 million for the 2005 season.

Players don't like the franchise tag. They would prefer the security of long-term deals and the bonus money that accompanies them. But the Pats have the opportunity to keep negotiating a long-term deal with Vinatieri until 4 p.m. on March 16. In 2002, the Patriots also franchised Vinatieri but locked him up long-term before the window closed and there's a strong chance they'll attempt to do the same thing this time.

Calls to Vinatieri and his agent, Neil Cornrich, were not returned yesterday.

Meanwhile, the next hurdle for the Patriots to clear is getting the 2005 payroll under the league's $85.5-million salary cap by next Tuesday. Before franchising Vinatieri, the Pats were projected

to be about $820,000 over the cap. Now they're at about $3.3 million over and they have a handful of tenders to extend to restricted free agents that will carry them even further over the cap.

For instance, if the team extends medium-tender offers ($1.43 million) to wide receiver David Givens and defensive end Jarvis Green to tie them up for another season, that's another $2.86 million against the 2005 cap. Offensive linemen Brandon Gorin, Tom Ashworth and Stephen Neal are all restricted free agents who figure to get low tender offers ($656,000), so that's another $2 million.

So the Patriots front office has significant contract work to do in the next week to get under the cap. Some money will be saved with the restructuring of some of the team's larger veteran contracts. Those can come through extending a player's deal and spreading out his signing bonus over a longer term, persuading the player to take a pay cut or renegotiating a new, long-term deal that will knock down the 2005 cap hit.

Two of the key players in this process could be cornerback Ty Law and quarterback Tom Brady.

Law's much-discussed contract expires at the end of the 2005 season and he's on the books to make nearly $9 million in salary this year. The last portion of his signing bonus also hits the cap this year ($2.7 million) so his cap hit is in the neighborhood of $12 million.

If New England cuts him, they'll save the $9 million in projected salary and be under the cap immediately and only be on the hook for the remaining signing bonus. The Patriots have spoken in terms that indicate they'll keep Law around. Meanwhile, Law's agent, Carl Poston, has stated they'd be open to discussing a long-term deal with New England. But after the Law camp muddied the waters last offseason, it's difficult to predict what will happen because there isn't a great deal of good feeling between the Pats and Poston.

Even after breaking his foot last Halloween and ultimately needing to have it surgically repaired, the Patriots see the upside to keeping Law around. Last year, he showed little sign of slipping even as he passed his 30th birthday. But the question the team has to answer is whether the risk of retaining Law at either his current price or a renegotiated new one is worth the money he's going to cost against the cap, especially coming off an injury. And the last time Law signed a big deal before the 1999 season, he didn't play up to his deal until 2001.

The emergence of Randall Gay and, to a lesser degree, Asante Samuel shows the Patriots have cornerback options. Tyrone Poole, who wound up on injured reserve last season but is an underappreciated player, also is expected back, giving the team at least three decent and somewhat proven corners. So the Patriots have that to fall back on in considering Law's fate.

As for Brady, his deal is up after the 2006 season but he carries a sizable cap hit of $10 million this season. If the team renegotiates a long-term deal with Brady over the next few days, it can drop his cap hit. But Brady figures to get such a big signing bonus that even when it is spread out evenly over the length of the deal it will still be a pretty big hit.

There has been nothing cooking so far on negotiations between Brady's agent, Don Yee, and the Pats.

Another cap-saving option would be to work out a longer deal for Corey Dillon. Because he hit every incentive last year, he's going to make around $3.5 million this season plus bonuses that could put him around $6 million. His deal is also up at the end of 2005. Presumably, he has three decent seasons left in that battering ram of a body, and he proclaimed in the afterglow of last season that he wants to retire a Patriot at all costs.

One painful but somewhat inevitable decision must be made with Troy Brown. His value as a football player on offense, defense and special teams remains high, but he is not one of the most critical contributors in any of those disciplines and his $2.5-million salary and massive roster bonus payable in the near future make him a likely candidate to be asked to take a severe pay reduction or be released.