New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft said this week that spending money will “never” be an issue for the team.
Those comments came after Patriots head coach Bill Belichick seemed to criticize the team’s lack of spending in recent years during his end-of-the-season press conference.
Belichick noted at the time that over the previous three offseason the Patriots ranked 27th in the NFL in terms of spending, while they currently have one of the lowest payrolls in the league heading into the 2023 season.
Greg Bedard of the Boston Sports Journal summarized Kraft’s remarks on the subject, via Boston.com’s Khari Thompson:
“He says, ‘He has never come to me and not gotten everything he wanted from a cash-spending perspective. We have never set limits.’ And [Kraft] 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.”
The Patriots have made a couple of mid-level free-agent signings this offseason, including Juju Smith-Schuster and Mike Gesicki, while also re-signing DeVante Parker and Ja’Whaun Bentley to long-term deals.
They are also rumored to be in the market for free-agent wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins.
The reality, though, is that even with all of that, the Patriots still figure to be one of the lowest-spending teams in the NFL this season and might have what is the worst roster in the AFC East on paper.
Ever since Tom Brady’s departure three years ago, the team has struggled to get back to its prior level and has now missed the playoffs in two of the past three seasons. The only playoff appearance during that run ended with an embarrassing blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills.
The team has a huge question mark at quarterback with Mac Jones, an uninspiring roster around him and a head coach who doesn’t seem happy with the resources at his disposal. It could be a very long year — and perhaps a very long few years — for Patriots fans without some sort of dramatic change in the near future.
