Young gun first-year head coach Jerod Mayo got all our collective offseason juices flowing in New England when he declared in January that his Patriots were ready to “burn some cash.”
Then, last month, Eliot Wolf reined in the anticipation that Mayo and the Patriots’ $100 million budget was creating, adding the word “save” to the conversation regarding New England’s offseason financial plan.
Now, with the closing of the window for NFL teams to utilize the franchise and transition tags coming this week a sobering reality has set into Patriot Nation regarding the opportunities that the free agent market may just represent to a team in need of a lot of talent in a lot of areas with a lot of cash to burn.
If you were hoping that free agency would be a key jumpstart part of the Patriots plan to rebuild, retool and rebound from the worst season in New England since the early 1990s, well you’re hope has already taken a massive hit with free agency still a week away. And it might be time to turn our attention eve more intently to the draft or even trade possibilities.
Reality has set in and the reality is that there just isn’t a ton of truly high-end talent on the open market in the areas New England clearly needs to target, most notably the wide receiver position.
Mike Evans already chose to re-sign with the Bucs.
Tee Higgins and Michael Pittman were slapped with the franchise tag to almost certainly remain in Cincy and Indy, respectively.
That leaves a cash-rich, talent-needy team like New England in a tough spot this soon-to-be spring.
Spending money just to spend money, just to say you did is a fool’s gold football folly worthy of classic NFL Films VHS.
Sadly, it feels more and more like there are two less-than-palatable outcomes for fans in regards to Mayo’s “burn some cash” high hopes.
First, is that New England indeed spends like drunken sailors on the open market, quality of target be damned. Go get the likes of good-not-great pass catcher Calvin Ridley and aging tackle Tyron Smith while retaining guys like solid tight end Hunter Henry and Big (price) Mike Onwenu, regardless of the inflated cost created by deflated supply. Burn that cash and blow torch through Robert Kraft’s money for the sake of a splash, even if the return on that investment will be potentially less fruitful than is ideal. It could be a short-term boost with longer-term regrets.
Or, accept that the market doesn’t warrant the kind of uncharacteristically aggressive shopping spree that’s having to become more characteristic in New England by the dismal post-dynasty season. Let that cash sit and burn a hole in the organization’s collective pocket. Live to pay another day, if you will.
As Wolf said, save some of it in some way for future more productive purposes.
As unfun (Not a word. Cranky. Don’t care.) as that may be, it may be the right thing to do. Fiscal responsibility is boring. But sometimes it actually is the, well, responsible approach.
Free agency hasn’t even started yet, or even the legalized tampering period. But a real damper has been thrown on the “burn some cash” expectations, the quick turnaround and talent hopes that we all have been professing may be eluding a team with even the most aggressive and hopeful intentions.
You can’t get blood from a stone. And you can’t buy a No.
1 free agent wide receiver where none exists.
It’s a sobering reality this dismal, dreary March day, but reality it just may be.