The question is, and it was on talk radio all day yesterday, was it Bill being Frugal or Kraft not letting him spend? Most came down to blaming BB but like the other poster said, we'll know who it was in the next couple of years.
It's not a matter of anyone being frugal.
It's a matter of having a team philosophy.
There are 2 philosophies we might be getting rid of here as the Patriots prepare to spend:
1. Do you want to build a strong middle class on the team and to have depth? There are 22 starters in a sport heavy with injuries. Philosophically, do you want only a handful of players getting the big money? Players like Bruschi, Vrabel, Ninkovich, Harrison, Neal, Vollmer, Light, Edelman, flourished in New England. I'd argue that ALL of these players would have been cut in much of the NFL for earning 75% of the contracts given to top players at their positions, because none of them were upper echelon players. When the team had a chance to maximize contracts with a Gilmore or a Hightower or a Revis, they did it.
2. Do you want to retain 10% of your cap each and every year so that you can dole out hard to earn incentives? Essentially, Belichick adopted a corporate approach to the roster. The players who played hard and kept to the team framework were given end of year bonuses. Is this a smart approach? Incentivizing and therefore motivating players beyond their base salaries? You can't even do this IF you're at or over the cap each year.
It's really easy to spend a lot of money in free agency when you have a ton of cap space and when you have a losing team.
The real test for Kraft is what happens when the team has a mature roster, when many are being paid decently, when the QB is into his 2nd contract: at that point, the top spending teams guarantee $$$ for great players and they push out the bonuses into future years.
That's where the rubber hits the road. Not now.