The Patriots have been on a serious slump lately. A force that used to be one of the dominant teams in the league, with six super bowl victories, in nine appearances across two decades missed the playoffs in two of the past three seasons, and holds a middling 25-25 record. And Patriots general manager and head coach Bill Belichick chalked up it to lack of spending on the roster during his end-of-year conference.

“Our spending in 2020, our spending in 2021, and our spending in 2022- the aggregate of that- was we were 27th in the league in cash spending,” Belichick said at the time “Couple years we’re low, one year was high, but over a three-year period, we are one of the lowest spending teams in the league.” 

Belichick’s claims were also widely perceived as a thinly veiled jab at the Billionaire team owner Robert Kraft. However, the team owner Robert Kraft vehemently disagrees with the coach and maintains that the fiscal restraints were never the root of issues.

Money has never been the problem, says Kraft

In an interview with Greg Bedard of the Boston Sports Journal, Robert Kraft disagreed with the statements of Belichick.

“He has never come to me and not gotten everything he wanted from a cash-spending perspective. We have never set limits … Money spending will never be the issue, I promise you, or I’ll sell the team.” Kraft said.

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The contradicting comments reveal that both the manager and head coach are not seeing eye to eye when it comes to the team’s current position. However, Belichick’s point holds weight as the Patriots have a mere payroll of $203,597,868, which ranks them as the second lowest in the entire league.

What’s for this season?

Even though the Patriots kept their purse strings a bit tight this offseason, they managed to snag a few notable additions to the rosters. They signed the wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster with a three-year, $33 million deal as a replacement for Jakobi Meyers. They also acquired tight end Mike Gesicki for a one-year contract worth $9 million and running back James Robinson inking for a two-year deal worth $8 million. The rest of the contracts they’ve handed out have been for returning players, strengthening special teams, or adding offensive line pieces. They also seem to be eyeing free-agent pass catcher DeAndre Hopkins.

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