Gisele did not become the richest model in the industry from being an idiot. She understands money and if her husband is being paid less than market value and his reasoning is to allow his team to field the most competitive team possible I have to believe that the failure to surround him with talent is discussion at the Brady dinner table from time to time.
The 2013 receiving problem was due to Gronkowski's and Amendola's injuries, along with Hernandez's arrest--so the Patriots actually
did spend lots of money still. Just because they decided to address the need for youth and speed at the position doesn't necessarily mean that they decided to screw Tom and Gisele. I think the high contracts to all of Gronk, Amendola, and Hernandez prove that. Those are 3 highly paid pacts at the receiving options, so it's not like they didn't choose to use any of the 4-5 million dollars in cap room that Brady freed up to surround him with options.
Brady's cap hit is still 15 million for this year, and he guaranteed himself a higher guaranteed amount of money in the mid to high 50's as any other current "100+ million" dollar contract that we're seeing. Even Drew Brees' supposedly record setting pact is directly in line with Brady's guaranteed money, as it's only a handful of million higher.
Let's not act like Brady and Gisele are sitting around talking about what enormous sacrifices that they made for the benefit of the team, because I highly doubt that is the case. He made a fair deal to guarantee him no worries about whether or not he'd be cut due to getting old, injury, etc. He is receiving top dollar in terms of guaranteed money by lessening his cap hit by several million dollars per year. Of course that happened in a time frame when the salary cap was flat and teams were tighter, so it did provide a benefit. I really don't believe it's nearly what you make it out to be in terms of animosity coming from the Brady household though.
Do I stand up at the gate and yell to the boarding passengers that the co-pilot is a moron, no way, never but that does not mean I do not think it. Same rules apply for Brady, just because he does not stand up at the podium and say Bill has done a **** job putting WRs around me in recent years does not mean he is not thinking it and/or saying it to others in his circle.
I get the impression that when Brady speaks highly of Belichick and appears to trust him, that's it's real and not made up. I just don't agree that Brady is pissed off at Belichick for anything.
They win 4/5 of all of their games in the Brady/BB era, and in 12 of Brady's starting seasons they've gone to the AFCCG or SB in 8/12 chances. How in the world could anyone think that Brady wouldn't appreciate that kind of obvious successful decision making from his head coach? One would assume that he appreciates Belichick's successful decision making, and that he realizes that it puts the team in the best chance to win ballgames.
Their decision to go out and offer Amendola a 5/29 contract last offseason alone shows that they were looking at things for the bigger picture and more long term outlook. That's after the 2 big deals for the TEs. I don't see a lack of money being spent on the receiving options. I see the injuries to Gronkowski, Amendola, and the arrest to Hernandez as the 3 biggest factors last year. That happened to coincide with a re-building year at WR as they chose to get younger and faster at the position with draft picks, so that's really what pushed them over the edge. If Llyod or Branch had been here again, it's possible that we would've been more productive, although in the end it probably wouldn't have mattered much due to the overall injuries on the entire team.