The Patriots’ free agency can be explained by 3 things
Go ahead. Ask the question.
What the hell are the Patriots doing?
Since NFL free agency kicked off last week, frustration with the Pats’ inactivity has grown daily, inflamed by the memory of last year’s record spending spree and the arms race unfolding across the AFC. As competitors stockpile weapons, it feels like the Pats are loading up on hand-me-down Nerf guns.
Here’s what’s actually transpiring in Foxboro, according to sources: Bill Belichick is negotiating directly with the team’s top targets. Senior consultant Eliot Wolf, an NFL front-office veteran of 20-plus years, is manning the phones for other external free agents. New director of player personnel Matt Groh has shouldered some of the load while conducting a Pro Day tour, having already sealed a few re-signings.
As inside linebackers coach Jerod Mayo said last month, the Pats are trying to “get faster, more explosive and put more playmakers on the field.” That is, on their terms.
According to one agent, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the Patriots raised their offer significantly for an elite offensive client who signed a similar contract elsewhere, but was not drawn there by the money. This account reveals a willingness to expend cash and cap space, even while it runs contrary to several other negotiations where the Pats have refused to pony up for mid-level free agents.
“They have a cheap problem,” another player’s agent said.
Without a big free-agent splash to define the Patriots’ offseason, misguided explanations for their approach have filled a void in the public discourse. Let’s address two big ones.
The Pats have not been boxed in by their limited cap space, but the NFL salary cap is also not “crap.” Phrases like “the cap is crap” might make for fun talk radio, but are completely useless when trying to understand the innerworkings of league business.
The truth is every NFL team employs salary cap experts and abides by the cap every single year. If the cap didn’t matter, the Packers would not have alienated Davante Adams during 12 months of contract negotiations and then traded him to Las Vegas. If Robert Kraft was free from a salary limit all these years, Tom Brady, his “fifth son,” would likely still be a Patriot, paid unholy gobs of money and surrounded by weapons he deserved.
It’s also true teams can create space at virtually any time, often by kicking current cap charges on their books over future years via contract restructures. But the bill always, always comes. The Saints recently cleared more than $30 million in space through restructures, anticipating they might land Deshaun Watson. Instead, they are Watson-less and already $14 million over the cap for next year.
So far, the Patriots have been reluctant to restructure contracts with two or more years remaining, per sources.
None of this is to excuse or praise their inactivity. It’s to set a proper framework for how free agency works. These are the rules.
And this, for better or worse, is what the Patriots are doing.
All salary cap…
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