New England Patriots: Bill Belichick admits dynasty is over
By Sam Minton
Bill Belichick’s comments on the New England Patriots spending shows that the dynasty is officially over.
Even when Tom Brady left there was hope among New England Patriots fans, but now it seems that even Bill Belichick realizes what this team is.
The Patriots are 2-4 heading into their matchup against the Bills. If New England heads up to Buffalo and loses, their season is pretty much over.
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It’s clear that the Patriots are no longer the scary monsters that they once were. They aren’t even close to the best team in the AFC. New England would even be lucky to just make the playoffs.
The Patriots are rebuilding there is no other way to put it. They need to start acquiring young talent and getting rid of their older stars.
New England didn’t do a lot of planning when it came to life without Brady. Their roster this year shows just that.
The offense is without any true players that can change the outcome of the game. Newton has barely any weapons to throw thus it has been a struggle to score points.
On defense they have some quality players but have just been unable to perform up to the standards set before the start of the season. Key players have just been coming up short.
Even Belichick himself admits that they are in a transition phase which has left them with a lack of depth.
"“We’re playing more young players than we’ve played in the past [for 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. Then we had some opt-outs, so we lost some players there that would normally have been giving us significant amount of playing time. 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; some of that opportunity has gone to younger players. 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. That’s provided more opportunity for younger players. So it’s a combination of all the reasons.”"
That is a pretty sobering admission from Belichick who usually keeps things close to his chest. It’s almost as Belichick is warning fans to not get their expectations too high.
Don’t expect the Patriots to go out and land a big free agent. It sounds like New England will be trying to save as much money as possible. This means that Joe Thuney and Stephon Gilmore are as good as gone. The best thing New England could do is trade these assets while they still can.
These next few years the Patriots will invest heavily in the draft. Rookie contracts will be cheap and allow New England to start gaining some cap space.
With Belichick being so open it’s clear that the Patriots are no longer contenders. Even though Belichick wouldn’t say it to the media, this team will be selling off players.
Next. Dalton Keene needs to become a factor. dark
So it’s time to wake up from the dream that was the last 20 years. Modern Patriots fans will finally realize what it’s like to be a fan of a struggling team.