Real fan 02
Experienced Starter w/First Big Contract
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2022
- Messages
- 7,475
- Reaction score
- 4,817
Great post! I'd urge people to go and take a look at Andrew Brandt former Packers GM he has some excellent material about the cap. He was saying it's not real it's made up by the owners. The are the master tactician with the cap room.It was only uncharacteristically because they were in a position they hadn’t been in before where they had that much money to spend.
Every time they have that much money to spend they will spend it.
This is the piece that fans who just want to whine don’t get.
For many, many years the patriots had a roster that in total overperformed its payroll. Whichever players became free agents they couldn’t afford because they commanded more than they were playing for. They managed around that and of course they weren’t spending big on outside free agents because they struggled to retain their own.
By 2019/2020 they lost a lot of the base of the team. They had made an incredible run keeping the core together and then it largely left. Over 50% of the snaps player in the SB in 2018 were players not on the team in 2020. And in 2020 they had no cap space to use.
In 21 because of the above, and more players no longer here, they had a ton of free agent $$ to spend. The 21 team had 50% of the snaps played by players who were there in 2020. No team has ever overhauled a roster like that, not to mention start a rookie QB and win 10 games. 2021 was an incredible 1 year rebuild. They would have been better if they had more retention and less free agency but that was the price of success.
Last year they took a step back on offense. The defense was excellent and losing the OC clearly upset the growth of the rebuild.
Why would they do anything different than they always have? When he they were loaded they didn’t spend on FA because they couldn’t. When they had a ton of cap they spent it because they could.
When you look at the roster and cap situation on the first day of the league year 2020 being a 1 over .500 team the next 3 years, with a playoff berth (and frankly what would have been 2 if McDaniels didn’t leave) is better than reasonably would have been expected with an honest assessment
But your absolutely right the roster has overperformed and the organization had done a great job with managing the roster, FAs ect. I'm definitely looking forward to this season I believe the offense will be much improved