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Heading into Week 8, the New England Patriots are a disappointing 2-4. They have been horrific on offense since quarterback Cam Newton contracted COVID-19, and the defense has taken a big step back from where it was last season, when it was one of the best units in recent memory.
A former Patriots assistant coach has a theory regarding the team’s setback: it’s a increase in the number of young players on the pitch. Charlie Weis, Bill Belichick’s former offensive coordinator, pitched this theory on his Sirius XM NFL radio show, and Belichick seemed to confirm it – at least in part.
“I noticed while watching the Patriots that you play a whole bunch of young guys,” Weis said. “Do most of them play because you like them, or do some of them play because of the world we live in?”
Belichick has confirmed that more young players are on the pitch (New England have used their youngest team since 2016, according to Spotrac), but the reason was actually different from what Weis offered. Belichick says it’s more about the salary cap than anything else.
“We have been pretty heavily invested in our team over the past few years,” Belichick said. “From a salary cap perspective, we didn’t have a lot of flexibility at all. I think that was evident on Cam Newton’s contract. Then we had opt-outs, so we lost players. over there that would normally give us a lot of playing time. And then like every year a few guys get fucked up and we missed guys here and there in some games. I think when you combine all of that there is has an opportunity there, and part of that opportunity went to younger players. Again, because of our capping situation – that year is the kind of year we took, I would say, to adjust our spending cap that we’ve had in the build-up of previous years. We just haven’t been able to have the kind of depth on our alignment that we had in other years. offered more opportunities to young players, so it is a combina ison of all the reasons. “
It’s quite fascinating! And if you look at New England’s spending over the past few years, it’s true. The Patriots have committed wages equal to just 87.4% of the salary cap this season, per Spotrac, down from at least 97% in each of the past three years and at least 93% each year since 2013.
| Year | Salary | Adj cap | Bedroom | Cap % |
| 2013 | $ 124,037,085 | $ 130,256,344 | $ 6,219,259 | 95.2% |
| 2014 | $ 134,321,836 | $ 139,109,051 | $ 4,787,215 | 96.6% |
| 2015 | $ 141,316,422 | $ 144,578,084 | $ 3,261,662 | 97.7% |
| 2016 | $ 148,847,888 | $ 159,642,451 | $ 10,794,563 | 93.2% |
| 2017 | $ 163,713,427 | $ 167,560,488 | $ 3,847,061 | 97.7% |
| 2018 | $ 175,954,265 | $ 180,212,602 | $ 4,258,337 | 97.6% |
| 2019 | $ 194,984,949 | $ 200,373,423 | $ 5,388,474 | 97.3% |
| 2020 | $ 184,092,085 | $ 210,657,571 | $ 26,565,486 | 87.4% |
One of the main reasons the Patriots could have done this is because the cap is expected to drop next season due to a revenue shortfall caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the current projected cap of $ 175 million for 2021, the Patriots are expected to have around $ 44 million in cap space for next year. By staying over $ 26 million under this year’s cap, however, the Patriots are able to ride enough room to give them over $ 70 million indoors the next offseason – the fourth highest total. of the league at the moment. As they attempt to build their roster for the future, this could be a major advantage they have over other teams.
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