RB is an area the Pats have historically addressed on the cheap, at least counting back to Dillon's time. Even then, they paid him $5m/year roughly, against an $85M cap. That's nowhere near the reported ask for LeVeon Bell.
I think the Pats have figured out that you always keep a stable of RBs around, and unless you've got crap at the position, you don't try to hit a free agency home run (although they got all of that fat pitch over the plate with Dillon.)
Hell, maybe I'm wrong. You can't buy everything though, and in a pass-heavier offense, the star RB has been a lower priority.
Now that said, (1) I'm always wrong and (2) the category of how to build around your single most obvious strength is a category bound to be in flux during the next few years. At any given moment, the slide toward complementing Brady-the-extremely-savvy-older-vet might surprise us. For that matter, an opportunist leap in the direction of the run game would be consistent with recent efforts in the defensive/run games.
But continuing to coddle somebody else's bell cow at a high cap hit?
There is absolutely no way we do this. Unless we do.
