There's no way we can afford the FA approach being similar to what we saw last season, correct?

[Joey007]

Actually it looked to me like Wolf signed everyone he went after except Ridley. He signed roughly 9 free agents, they just mostly sucked.
It was not signing free agents, it was signing the wrong ones.
It was also about not signing another 10 or so professional football players for the bottom if the roster instead of relying on practice squad and waiver wire guys.

I mean let's be honest, the majority of guys pursued were bargain bin guys.

 

[Huckleberry1]

For the record, I am aware there were some situations where we reportedly "tried" like the pursuit of Calvin Ridley. But we definitely found ourselves standing down when the numbers became a little too uncomfortable. Ridley isn't great, but he's sure better than anything we had here this season.

And signing him for that money would not have been worth it.

 

[Huckleberry1]

I mean let's be honest, the majority of guys pursued were bargain bin guys.

That’s because it was a terrible free agent market. This is why they chose to re-sign their own young free agents, and got deals done with others as well. I think it was a very deliberate part of a bigger overall strategy for rebuilding the team. Now they have no significant free agents of their own to sign, and 135 million to spend, more than any other franchise in football. I think this year we will see a much more aggressive approach to free agency. And they will spend almost all of their cap money. I also think they will be a more desirable destination than they were going into last year’s free agency, and it will be easier to sign top players.

 

[Ross12]

I think a pretty significant issue was that this location inherently has two big drawbacks - the MA millionaire tax, and the fact that it's in Foxboro and not a more urban spot. So to make up for these things, the Patriots need to both A) overpay and B) have an alluring football situation that guys want to be a part of. They were willing to do A, but unfortunately B was Jerod Mayo, and nobody had any desire to come play for him. Their only successful acquisitions were dudes who were already here or bargain bin guys who really just needed any opportunity.

This season with a much more attractive coaching staff they will be able to hit on point "B" much better, but will still need to overpay to some degree.

 

[Ring 6]

I mean let's be honest, the majority of guys pursued were bargain bin guys.

Yeah, that’s a stupid plan.

 

[mike_usagisan]

Regardless of who the guy is calling the shots, I can't see anyway it would be justifiable to run with the same "sitting on your hands" approach to things we saw last offseason. You could understand it to extents last year, as it felt like they were focused on retaining guys on the market and having sort of a reset season. I didn't completely agree, but it made sense in that perspective.

I really feel like you can't pull that crap again this year. Losing the number 1 pick made you lose that privilege entirely. I think I could have understood the build primarily through the draft approach had we been in a position to stockpile picks, but now you will very likely not be in that position at pick 4. The teams that can afford doing this are teams like Detroit that pretty much fell into a gold mine of picks from the Stafford trade, or Houston with the Watson trade. I love that approach IF you have the draft capital and talent on the roster that you can sell off for that capital. But that's not our situation.

You are going to have to be more aggressive with your money if you want this team to show any signs of growth next year. Your best signing can't be a backup running back. The draft simply won't be enough. You have more money than anyone else with next to no one to resign. Use it.

I think Mayo didn’t have the gravitas to force Wolf and Kraft to spend. The good free agents were on defense and Wolf decided we were fine on defense. Vrabel would laugh Wolf out of the room and say if we can get better, we’re spending the money. And unlike Mayo, Vrabel wouldn’t have to walk it back later.

 

[JohnJH]

Before Mayo (and probably the rest of the coaching staff) was fired, I knew that even if they were willing to overpay for a Tee Higgins and Alaric Jackson, those players and others would not come here just because of Mayo and the coaching staff despite having the money and Maye. However, now that Mayo and the coaching staff is gone, and if a new HC and staff come in that FA's can have confidence in, combined with Maye and the money to spend (and picking high in the draft), they'll still have to overpay (and will until they become a winning team again), acquiring young and quality FA's is now back on the table.

 

[cmasspatsfan]

I thought I read they have to spend 101 million at minimum to get within league rules on cap spending, anyone know about this?

 

[TheRainMaker]

I think a pretty significant issue was that this location inherently has two big drawbacks - the MA millionaire tax, and the fact that it's in Foxboro and not a more urban spot. So to make up for these things, the Patriots need to both A) overpay and B) have an alluring football situation that guys want to be a part of. They were willing to do A, but unfortunately B was Jerod Mayo, and nobody had any desire to come play for him. Their only successful acquisitions were dudes who were already here or bargain bin guys who really just needed any opportunity.

This season with a much more attractive coaching staff they will be able to hit on point "B" much better, but will still need to overpay to some degree.

It all comes down to drafting really well like they did in 1993-1996, the early 2000's and the early 2010's. When the team was winning, the tax was never an issue. We saw our outliers of idiots such as Derrick Mason and Steve Smith, but it didn't stop big ticket players such as Darrelle Revis and Adalius Thomas from coming to NE.

The question remains, can they get back to drafting well again? It's been more than 10 years now.

 

[Ross12]

It all comes down to drafting really well like they did in 1993-1996, the early 2000's and the early 2010's. When the team was winning, the tax was never an issue. We saw our outliers of idiots such as Derrick Mason and Steve Smith, but it didn't stop big ticket players such as Darrelle Revis and Adalius Thomas from coming to NE.

The question remains, can they get back to drafting well again? It's been more than 10 years now.

The tax situation isn't the same now as it was then, but in general you are right and your point folds well into mine - a winning environment and culture makes these factors fade.

It was probably pretty hard to sell free agents on the idea that Jerod Mayo would establish a winning environment. But Vrabel or Ben Johnson can probably do it. Still, that only gets their foot in the door - they won't really reap the rewards fully until they go and do it.

 

[maust]

"There's no way we can afford the FA approach being similar to what we saw last season, correct?"​

 

[ctpatsfan77]

Barmore was signed when he still had years left. Why do it so early? Wolf’s fault.

What was one of the big complaints about Belichick in his later years? That he let talented players go over relatively small amounts of money (e.g., Thuney and Karras). Barmore was literally drawing double teams at about the same rate as Aaron Donald. It was bad luck, not a bad deal.

 

[Ring 6]

What was one of the big complaints about Belichick in his later years? That he let talented players go over relatively small amounts of money (e.g., Thuney and Karras). Barmore was literally drawing double teams at about the same rate as Aaron Donald. It was bad luck, not a bad deal.

There was no need to do it before this season. Bad luck happens when you take unnecessary risks.
Do you think they’d like the rhamobdre contract back now too? That was equally unnecessary risk.

 

[Ring 6]

I think Mayo didn’t have the gravitas to force Wolf and Kraft to spend. The good free agents were on defense and Wolf decided we were fine on defense. Vrabel would laugh Wolf out of the room and say if we can get better, we’re spending the money. And unlike Mayo, Vrabel wouldn’t have to walk it back later.

And then proof in this is that issue is out in the open, so Vrabel will not take the job without addressing it.
By the way when Kraft was talking in the PC about spend “up to and over” the cap and said he never limited spending im pretty sure he was talking about an internal cash cap. Because he also said “all we ask is if you go over you level it off over3 years”

Either that or he really didn’t understand the salary cap

 

[mike_usagisan]

And then proof in this is that issue is out in the open, so Vrabel will not take the job without addressing it.
By the way when Kraft was talking in the PC about spend “up to and over” the cap and said he never limited spending im pretty sure he was talking about an internal cash cap. Because he also said “all we ask is if you go over you level it off over3 years”

Either that or he really didn’t understand the salary cap

I can believe either.

 

[mgteich]

Yes, we need to spend our money well in 2025 free agency. However, the issue is NOT amount. The issues are talent and value. Many here reasonably didn't like some of the 2024 contracts. Again, the issues in 2024 were talent and value.
====
Sure, we spent nothing last year. ROFL! TEN spent the most in free agency. We chose to spend the money on our own players, guaranteeing $140M almost what TEN spent. How well did TEN's spending spree work out in the truly terrible 2024 free agency period?
======
We spent plenty of cap money. The difference is that the patriots spent a lot more of 2025 and 2026 cap money by extending players. So, we will have over $100M of 2025 cap money to spend in free agency, which will secure payers with AAV's of say $130+M with the normal deferrals (no void years or any tricks, just NFL normal contracts where Year 1 cap hit is almost always more than future years).

 

[upstater1]

I heard a national reporter on ESPN blast Belichick for his poor free agent spending on players who never panned out. I think his comment is an overhang from what has now become a common sentiment about the 2021 free agent class.

Losing always makes it look like you don't know how to assess players, even though they did go to the playoffs that year.

If you look at that free agent class in retrospect, it was not as bad as people make it out to be. I only see Nelson Algholor as a bad signing, but $10m was not out of bounds for a guy that caught 60 balls.


Matthew Judon, LB $32M
Jonnu Smith, TE $31.25M
Hunter Henry, TE$25M
Nelson Agholor, WR$16M
Jalen Mills, S$9M
Davon Godchaux, DT$9M
Kendrick Bourne, WR$5.25M

 

[TommyD4207]

I heard a national reporter on ESPN blast Belichick for his poor free agent spending on players who never panned out. I think his comment is an overhang from what has now become a common sentiment about the 2021 free agent class.

Losing always makes it look like you don't know how to assess players, even though they did go to the playoffs that year.

If you look at that free agent class in retrospect, it was not as bad as people make it out to be. I only see Nelson Algholor as a bad signing, but $10m was not out of bounds for a guy that caught 60 balls.


Matthew Judon, LB $32M
Jonnu Smith, TE $31.25M
Hunter Henry, TE$25M
Nelson Agholor, WR$16M
Jalen Mills, S$9M
Davon Godchaux, DT$9M
Kendrick Bourne, WR$5.25M

The fact that Smith and Agholor have gone on to be really productive elsewhere, I'd say some of it was the Patriots limitations at QB.

 

[Pape]

Imagine the money they would've had if they hadn't blown it on Dugger, Owenu, Barmore and Rham. Dugger and Owenu should've been let to walk in FA and Barmore and Rham would be on prove it deals. Just awful GM'ing.

Agreed on all except Barmore. Coming out of 2023, I think he was worth the extension.

 

[TommyD4207]

Agreed on all except Barmore. Coming out of 2023, I think he was worth the extension.

Agreed, and while others might have different opinions on this, I think Onwenu was the most egregiously bad signing out of all of them. They made him the highest paid player on the team, and he wasn't much better than anyone else on that line.