I would not say Tampa went all in 2020 or even 2021. Licht has been killing the draft for the past 6 seasons now. So much of their talent they won with last year was guys on their rookie contracts and smart FA vet signings to have the perfect combo of young and vet talent.
He literally built that team from the bottom up and the cherry on top was of course signing Brady. His only real big miss was Winston but finding the franchise QB is insanely difficult. In terms of this season, he just resigned his talent and he did so on very good contracts to boot.
That is the part that always irked me about Bill. We had some very good drafts the early part of the 2010s and he did not extend that talent especially on defense (Jones, Flowers, Collins, Butler). He really didn't even try with the skill positions as no replacement for Edelman, he let Amendola walk, no replacements for Hernandez or Gronk, traded Cooks and didn't replace him. What he did to the skill positions was criminal really to Brady and to the team. He tried to draft two TEs last year and both were busts forcing him to over pay for Smith and Henry. It is what it is but Tampa did not mortgage its future at all to win last year or compete this year. It did help that the GOAT gave them a deal with his extension but then again Bill had that for 20 years.
Usually, when we think of all in, we think of situations when a team is giving away the farm for a chance at a championship.
In 2020, It doesn't look like Tampa went all in because they didn't really sacrifice much of their future because of smart drafting and vet talent as you indicated. But they did make big bets and took large risks especially at the QB position.
Tampa gave-up on a #1 draft pick QB in Winston with Elite passing and TD numbers but terrible interception issues. Instead of fixing those interception issues on a still young QB they went for a 43 year old QB in Brady coming off his worst year who might have only had one year left in the tank.
They went for Gronk, who was coming off a bad year too and retired, when they didn't need him as they had Brate and Howard.
They went for AB, a ticking time bomb, and added him to an already loaded WR room.
And a pouty Fournette, who got cut from him old team.
In 2021, they brought everyone back which the pundits said would be impossible to do. Again it didn't look like going all in cause they did it without sacrificing much. I think mostly pushing some salary down the road. The players helped as it seemed none was trying to break the bank and all took fair or slight discount deals.
NE lost faith in Brady and Tampa had it. NE didn't want to sacrifice their future or go all in. I think that is also partly why NE let talent (like wouldn't it have been wise to keep Amendola especially since Edelman has a history of injuries. Actually he was pushed out the door being constantly told he had to take a pay cut to stay) leave instead of trying to find ways to keep them.
