Many fans have wondered why the New England Patriots have not spent more money in free agency or to re-sign homegrown talent. Well, the team’s owner suggested there is one person to blame for that, and it’s not him.
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The Patriots are currently going through a major culture shift. In January, the franchise decided to end its historic relationship with legendary head coach Bill Belichick and made Jerod Mayo his successor. While he won them six Super Bowls, several underwhelming seasons and a 4-13 result in 2023 led to the end of a highly successful relationship.
However, aside from the mediocre play, many fans have been frustrated with the organization not making more use of their wealth to improve the roster or stop homegrown players from leaving in free agency. Owner Robert Kraft was asked about plans to be big spenders this offseason and tossed a whole bunch of subtle shade at his former head coach for it not happening in previous years.
New England Patriots owner throws Bill Belichick under the bus for lack of big spending in previous years
“I know there’s a perception that we have held back on spending,” Kraft told reporters on Thursday. “Let me just say, for our fans, that’s just not true. Look, we were blessed to have a coach in our system who was great and also understood value. He ran a tight ship. . . . [Our] coaches have always had the ability to spend at whatever level they wanted. I think Bill was always thinking about the future and really understood value. But we never held back with any of the coaches we’ve had over the last 30 years.”
“I can assure our fans that spending will never be held back or the reason that we don’t sign players,”” Kraft ” he added. “I’ve actually tried to get us to sign players who maybe would’ve cost more but wouldn’t have been the right players or value. So, we always leave that to the people we assign the responsibility to. They’ve been able to get whatever they want.”
While it is admirable that he lets his coaches and executives do their jobs without hovering over their decisions, he still is the owner and has to take some accountability for that not working. Furthermore, after years of success, he is the one who chose to let Belichick make the final decision on personnel moves, which also ended up being disastrous for the team once Tom Brady left in 2020.
The New England Patriots are expected to have close to $70 million in salary cap space this spring.