the greg hill show: bill belichick joins on a patriots monday
There’s a narrative in the NFL world that the salary cap is irrelevant. A fake parameter, perhaps, that can be manipulated with no consequence. Fans, analysts, and pundits often use it as a way to blame the coaches and executives of their teams for not being competitive in a given year.
On Monday morning, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick joined WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show and poured cold water on the narrative, while giving some insight into how his team looks at it:
“Cash spending isn’t really that relevant. It’s cap spending,” Belichick said. “And so teams that spend a lot of cash in one year probably don’t spend a lot of cash in the next year because you can’t just sustain that. We’ve had high years, we’ve had low years, but our cap spending has always been high and that’s the most competitive position you can be in.”
He continued: “There’s no cash cap. There’s a salary cap. And we spend to the salary cap. That’s what’s important.”
There’s certainly a way to circumvent the salary cap and add space with spending money up front, at least temporarily. Belichick explained why the Patriots have tended to steer clear of that during his tenure as general manager and head coach:
Temporarily you can, but you can’t sustain it, no.” Belichick explained. “You can’t sustain the 20 years of success that we sustained by overspending every year without having to eventually pay those bills and play with a lesser team. So, I think if you look at the teams that have done that, that’s kind of where some of them have ended up.” He gave examples:
“Jacksonville back in ‘14, the Rams are going through it. Tampa’s going through it now. I’m not saying there’s anything right or wrong with it just a different way of doing things and there’s the results for doing it.”
Belichick was then asked if the NFL salary cap is, in fact, irrelevant:
“Well it’s relevant. The caps more relevant than cash is for sure. You want to use all of you cap space and put the best team you can on the field so whether that’s paying more cash this year and less next year or less this year and more next year is, really it’s – to me, it doesn’t really have to do with the cash spending. If you’re not spending to your cap then you could have players that you're choosing not to have where if you spend to your cap then you’ve fully exhausted all of your spending. But that comes over time. You can’t look at it in a polaroid snapshot it’s a multi-year process. You can overspend one year and at some point you’re not going to be able to do that.”
Belichick also spoke about the trade of Pierre Strong Jr., the team’s offensive line issues, Taylor Swift, and more on Monday’s edition of The Greg Hill Show on WEEI. Listen to the full interview here.
Make sure to follow Mike on Twitter @mikekadlick, and follow @WEEI for the latest up-to-date Patriots and Boston sports news!
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