In his first season with the Buccaneers, Tom Brady landed his seventh Lombardi Trophy while New England dredged to a 7-9 record.
In the March that followed, Bill Belichick spent like he never has before in free agency, landing marquee players all over the market and doling out over $200 million in total contracts. Though parallels have been drawn between the two, Robert Kraft insists they are unrelated.
The Patriots owner said the spending spree was about taking advantage of an abundance of cap space that few other teams had following the COVID-19 pandemic; in a depressed market, there weren’t as many bidders to fend off. He says the splurge was simply good business.
“Look, I love Tom Brady and he’s great, but he’s moved on. What happened here last year was not something to our liking and we had to make the correction,” Kraft said on a conference call Wednesday. “In all businesses we’re involved in, we try to take advantage of inefficiencies in the market. In the paper business and anything. We were in a unique cap situation this coming year going forward and it allowed us to try things. We’d missed to a certain extent in the draft, so this was our best opportunity. I don’t ever think the market over the next decade will be like this... we just happened to be in a unique situation.
“So to be frank, no,” Kraft said when asked if Brady fueled it. “This was about doing what was right for our team.”
With the salary cap dropping for the first time in a decade due to COVID-19, a lot of teams were strapped for cash. Not only were they not spending in free agency, but some were forced to release quality veteran players just to get under the new $182.5 million mark.
The Patriots weren’t in this boat.
Because of their 2020 opt outs, they actually had money to roll over from last year’s salary cap to increase their spending. Belichick was armed with over $60 million — only the Jaguars and Jets boasted more cash — and he hit a wide open marketplace early, signing eight out-of-town free agents on the first day.
“I think if there were ever a year to do it, this would be the year because we moved quickly. Instead of having 10 or 12 teams compete against us for free agents, there were only two or three,” Kraft said. “I think our personnel department did an outstanding job in setting up priorities. We moved quickly and we also had the advantage of being in a unique position of having — I think we were No. 3, possibly 2 in cap space. We moved quickly and I really hope it makes a difference. I’m excited about this upcoming season.”
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Robert Kraft: Tom Brady’s Buccaneers Super Bowl had nothing to do with Patriots free agent spending spree - MassLive.com
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