Bill Belichick admits Patriots depth issues are due to salary cap, injuries
"We just haven’t been able to have the kind of depth on our roster that we’ve had in some other years."
The 2020 Patriots season has certainly been far from ideal, especially when factoring in the success the team’s had over the last two decades.
Entering Week 8, New England sits in third place in its division with a 2-4 record. Amid a three-game losing streak, the Patriots enter November with a losing record for the first time since 2002.
In an interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio Saturday, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was asked by former Patriots defensive coordinator Charlie Weis why the team’s been relying on younger players this season. Belichick was unusually candid in his response.
“You’re right, Charlie. We’re playing more young players than we’ve played in the past,” Belichick said. “A combination of reasons. We were pretty heavily invested in our team in the past few years. From a salary cap standpoint, we didn’t have much flexibility at all. I think that was obvious on the Cam Newton contract.”
Belichick is correct that the Patriots didn’t have much cap space to work with this past offseason. At one point in March, the Patriots had under $1 million in cap space, forcing them to not just say goodbye to longtime quarterback Tom Brady but also to defensive starters Jamie Collins, Kyle Van Noy, and Danny Shelton as well as several others.
That gave the team no option but to sign Newton to just the veteran minimum deal, which is just slightly more than $1 million, in July. Had Newton wanted to sign for more money, the Patriots likely wouldn’t have been able to sign him, which Belichick alluded to.
The loss of veteran players in free agency isn’t the only reason why the Patriots have to play younger players this season.
“Then we had some opt-outs, so we lost some players there that would normally have given us significant amount of playtime,” Belichick said. “And then like every year, a couple guys are banged up and we’ve missed some guys here and there in certain games. I think when you combine it all together, there is opportunity there, and some of that opportunity has gone to younger players.”
The Patriots had a league-high eight players opt out of the season due to COVID-19 concerns. Of the eight that dropped out, four (linebacker Dont’a Hightower, safety Patrick Chung, offensive tackle Marcus Cannon, and tight end Matt LaCosse) were regular starters for the Patriots in 2019. Fullback Danny Vitale, who the team signed in the offseason, was expected to compete for the starting spot at his position as well.
Younger players had to step up not just due to injuries, but also because of a COVID-19 outbreak that hit the team in October. Newton, defensive tackle Byron Cowart, guard Shaq Mason, defensive end Derek Rivers, and offensive lineman James Ferentz have all missed game time due to COVID.
Luckily for the Patriots, the salary cap issues aren’t forever. They have roughly $28 million in dead money (including a whopping $13.5 million because of Brady’s departure) coming off the books at the end of the season. They may have anywhere between $40-60 million in cap space this upcoming offseason depending on the league’s salary cap, according to NBC Sports Boston, which would be one of the best salary cap situations.
Bill Belichick to @SiriusXMNFL: “This is kind of the year that we’ve taken to, I would say, adjust our cap from the spending that we’ve had in accumulation of prior years. We just haven’t been able to have the kind of depth on our roster that we’ve had in some other years.” pic.twitter.com/S5tHSu9qoU
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) October 31, 2020
While Belichick admitted that the cap caught up to the Patriots this season, he sees this as a one-year period to reset their salary cap for the future.
“Again, because of our cap situation — in this particular year, this is kind of the year that we’ve taken to, I would say, adjust our cap from the spending that we’ve had in accumulation of previous years,” Belichick said. “We just haven’t been able to have the kind of depth on our roster that we’ve had in some other years. That’s provided some more opportunity for younger players. So it’s a combination of all the reasons.”
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