The Patriots free agent spending spree has been the talk of the NFL for the last week.
New England retooled its lackluster roster with an aggressive approach that landed big-money targets Jonnu Smith, Matthew Judon and Hunter Henry.
From afar it seems unprecedented. And inside Gillette Stadium it apparently feels the same way to Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
Taking advantage of the team’s bounty of salary cap space and a market depressed by the fact that the salary cap dropped dramatically as a result of the COVID pandemic, New England was positioned perfectly to pounce.
“We had the second or third-most cap room at the start of free agency,” Kraft told Peter King via his Football Morning in America column. “This year, instead of having 10 or 12 teams competing for most of the top players, there were only two or three. And in my 27 years as owner, I’ve never had to come up with so much capital before.”
Belichick and Co. were aggressive with Kraft’s money out of a combination of need and opportunity, with a clear objective to get back to winning football in Foxborough.
“It’s like investing in the stock market,” Kraft said. “You take advantage of corrections and inefficiencies in the market when you can, and that’s what we did here. We’ll see. Nothing is guaranteed, and I’m very cognizant of that. But we’re not in the business to be in business. We’re in this business to win.”
With refreshing honesty and objectivity, Kraft is well aware that winning free agency hasn’t always led to winning on the field in the fall in the NFL, in fact it’s an approach that had previously been looked down upon by many in New England.
“We’ll see,” Kraft said with caution of New England’s aggressive approach in free agency. “I do remember we always made fun of the teams that spent a lot in the offseason. So we know nothing is guaranteed, and I’m very cognizant of that.”