How has he adjusted HIS philosophy??? I think it is all the same..looking for players of value..whether on day one (like this year) or in day 25-30 (more like last year)...whether they have little money to spend (some past years) or a boatload of money..(this year) whether there are many free agents they like (this year) or very few (last year)...same philosophy...
In the past, players of "value" were usually found after the free agent feeding frenzy. With a few exceptions (Colvin for one) the Patriots were content to let the initial big name big money contracts be done with, then would come in and sign decent or misused veterans for relative bargain money.
With so much new CBA money, last year showed that such a high volume of players were signed in the initial few days that there were limited quality bargains to be found by waiting.
The lesson from last year was that if you have the money, be agressive early - and the Patriots were definately that.
Now no one can say whether this is or is not a trend - but until the salaries catch up with the new cap money I think more teams than usual are going to continue to have a lot of cap space than they would under the old CBA system.
So yes - in part to the available money, in part to the knowledge that the there are fewer value players available after the initial feeding frenzy, BB adjusted his philosophy this year.
If you doubt that, answer this question. Let's assume the Patriots - like some teams as of now - had not made ANY free agency moves as of yet.
Who, among the remaining available free agents now, would you be very excited to see the Patriots sign, proclaiming them great value veterans to help the team? Look at who is available now - and who would you sign under the hypothetical situation that BB had made none of the moves he had as of now, biding his time to get the remaining "bargains" still out there.
Who do you sign - and do they really offer as much "value" even with the lower price tags as the guys we actually got?
My point is, unlike pre-new-CBA money years, the remaining free agents aren't anything to get too excited about anymore. That didn't used to be the case, and BB found lots of quality bargain veterans - but things are different now and so too is BB's approach.