One thing that you have to be aware of with Miguel is that he's very literal with the cap. When he gives a number, it is the number at that moment based on the rules that are in effect at the time. He generally avoids any questions about "what does it mean." He used to be absolutely militant about not wanting to engage in speculation, even for crazy NLTBE incentives, or things like that. Now, he'll do a bit more of it, speculating about what certain moves would do for the cap.
But the way he does his analysis does not really answer the questions that most fans want to know the answer to on a minute to minute basis -- what can we afford? How much doe we have to spend? If we modify (cut, trade) X player, what does it free up? He'll do some of the latter when enough people ask but sometimes it feels like pulling teeth.
His Rule of 51 stuff is kind of indicative. The Rule of 51 is absolutely irrelevant to the Patriots right now. It is a device that can be used by teams in the offseason to avoid going over the cap by artificially reducing the pool of players that count toward the cap, even though the entire roster
will count toward the cap as soon as the league year starts. And that's what you really want to know. How much do we have to spend this year? The bookeeping in the Rule of 51 period gives you a snapshot, but if you don't know what to do with that snapshot, it's not great info, and Miguel is not going to speculate on it mostly. He wants you to know what the number is right now. The Patriots don't need to worry about relying on the Rule during this offseason because they will be under the cap whether you count the entire roster or not.