The New England Patriots established themselves as one of the league’s most cost-conscious teams after the Tom Brady era. Nobody is aware of the team’s motivation, nevertheless, both the head coach and owner of the Patriots were split on the team’s expenditure.
The owner of the Patriots Robert Kraft opened up to their head coach Bill Belichick after the head coach had revealed some intriguing information about the team’s roster spending that appeared to be a subtle jab at Kraft.
Robert Kraft shuts down Bill Belichick’s spending criticism
The Patriots faced numerous issues over the years due to their prudent spending practices and among these circumstances, Belichick responded that the Patriots were “one of the lowest spending teams” for the previous three seasons, ranking 27th in cash outlays, in his season-ending press conference.
“Our spending in 2020, our spending in 2021, and our spending in 2022 — the aggregate of that — was we were 27th in the league in cash spending,” Belichick said at the time, via Boston.com. “Couple years we’re low, one year was high, but over a three-year period, we are one of the lowest spending teams in the league.”
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Although the head coach didn’t explicitly call out anyone by name, many NFL fans took it as an indirect swipe at Kraft. The Patriots haven’t made many big purchases thus far in the offseason, which made the Belichicks’ remark more fascinating to everyone. Anyway, Greg Bedard of the Boston Sports Journals questioned Robert about their thrifty spending during the owners’ meeting.
“So I asked Robert about Bill Belichick’s comments, about how they’re one of the lowest cash-spending teams in the league,” he said.
The team owner, however, had a different opinion about the team’s spending and claimed that he had no talk with Belichick regarding the matter. Additionally, he insisted there was no set budget for the team and they do not need to worry about money to sign their ideal player as the owner believes his team has made up its mind.
“And a lot of fans took that as a little bit of a shot at ownership, that the Krafts aren’t willing to spend for this team. And I asked Robert about that, and I just want to quote him accurately. He says, ‘He [Belichick] has never come to me and not gotten everything he wanted from a cash-spending perspective. We have never set limits.’ And he further went on to say, ‘Money spending will never be the issue, I promise you, or I’ll sell the team.’ So that’s pretty definitive.”
How much cap space do the Patriots have in this season?
The Patriots made several noteworthy moves during the offseason, including the signings of running back James Robinson on a two-year, $8 million contract and wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster on a three-year, $ 33 million contract to replace Jakobi Meyers. Additionally, they have added tight end Mike Gesicki with a one-year contract worth $ 9 million.
In the off-season, the Patriots also stretched the contracts of linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley and receiver DeVante Parker and following these extension deals, they have just under $14.2 million in cap space, according to Over the Cap. However, the Patriots can easily make a costly choice with DeAndre Hopkins because they have enough cap space and appear interested in signing him to a free-agent contract after a trade visit.
Already, Krafts’ team has come under fire for the amount of money they spent on rosters. Let’s see if they support that assertion by signing DeAndre to a lucrative deal.
