The salary cap has been a topic of discussion the last few days with the Patriots as over the weekend Bill Belichick said it's contributed to playing young players more and an overall lack of roster depth.
Monday, Belichick said on Ordway, Merloni & Fauria the team "sold out" the last few years.
“Look, we paid Cam Newton $1 million,” he said. “I mean it’s obvious we didn’t have any money. It’s nobody’s fault. That’s what we did the last five years. We sold out and won three Super Bowls, played in a fourth and played in a AFC championship game. This year we had less to work with. It’s not an excuse, it’s just a fact.”
On a video conference Tuesday, Belichick was asked if the team would consider its 2021 salary cap situation when making any potential trade deadline moves? New England will have close to the most cap space next season and he was asked if the team would consider preserving that?
“When you’re looking at salary cap and player salaries, you just can’t look at it in a short-term window," he said. "At some point you have to take a long-term look at things, so we would take those things into consideration and as we look at our team currently, as well look at potential acquisitions or any transactions with our players we would have to keep an eye on all those things. I think you really articulated it pretty well. Those are all considerations that you have to be aware of if you got into any discussions like that.
“You still try and do what is best for your team and balance all those out. I don’t think anything would preclude a transaction from happening or not happening, but you’d have to be aware of all those things and again, try and make the best decision both long and short-term for your team. There may be one thing that overrides another, but in the end that’s what the decision would be — how much does it help us now? Is there a cost in the future and what is that cost? And so forth.
“Or what would that gain be? If you’re trading a player away, it depends on if you’re bringing one in or one is going out. There are some implications that we would work through on the financial side with the people who handle that information, not just currently, but over the coming years. It would really be a conversation that would look at all those aspects of it.”
As of now, the Patriots are projected to have just over $70 million in cap space next year, the fourth-most in the NFL.