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Robert Kraft has enjoyed his team’s spending spree, but the six-time Super Bowl champion, owner of the New England Patriots, knows that the heart of his club’s future will not lie in free will.
“At the end of the day, if you want to have a good, winning, consistent football team, you can’t do it in free agency,” Kraft said Wednesday, via the team’s official report. “You have to do it through the draft because that’s when you are able to recruit some really talented people, whether it’s Willie McGinest or Tom Brady. You get them at a price that allows you to build the team and be competitive. Once they go to their [second] contract, if they are superstars, you can only balance a limited number of them. “
Free agency is a good extra option for adding depth or splurging here and there, but teams that rely on this player acquisition mode for the bulk of their roster are usually eternal wrestlers.
Kraft wants their team to be built on the draft. The Pats owner knows this is where Bill Belichick and his team have stumbled in recent seasons.
“Really, the teams that write well are the ones that will always be good,” Kraft said. “I don’t feel like we’ve done the best job in recent years and I really hope and believe I’ve seen a different approach this year. Ultimately it all depends on what’s going on on the pitch and how people are performing and you really don’t know how good a draft is for at least two years. Especially in the environment we are in now, I’m not sure what our training and learning capabilities will be like out of season.
Belichick was one of the greatest copywriters in NFL history for most of the Patriots dynasty. But the last four drafts have left New England shallow and without dynamic playmakers. The top picks in 2017 (Derek Rivers, Antonio Garcia) are no longer with the club. Two first rounds in 2018 (Isaiah Wynn and Sony Michel) had their ups and downs and struggled to stay healthy. The 2019 N’Keal Harry first round is the subject of commercial rumors. And last year’s draft class was without a dynamic playmaker, although some solid potential players dot that group.
These early round failures were not complemented by Belichick digging up as many thefts later as in previous seasons. As such, the Pats roster was a wobbly mess, Brady or not Brady.
Some of the project’s hiccups have been the source of the free agency moves this season. Tight third round ends Devin Asiasi and struggling Dalton Keene led directly to the signing of Jonnu Smith and Hunter Henry.
Kraft knows that hiccups are what drove Foxborough’s free agency frenzy this season.
“We missed the draft to a certain extent so it was our best opportunity,” Kraft said of the club’s free agent moves.
Hitting the recent drafts is about as strong a rebuke you’ll hear from Kraft talking about Belichick and the rest of the staff performance.
The 2021 NFL Draft is of the utmost importance to the future of the Patriots. Kraft is fully aware of this.
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