Bill Belichick Recent Comments On Patriots Set High Expectations For 2021

The New England Patriots will enter 2021 with a different roster. Head coach Bill Belichick has high expectations from the upcoming season. He has already put the struggles behind, providing encouraging thoughts on 2021.

The Patriots head coach cited “residual” effects for the disappointing season in which the team went 7-9. New England missed the playoffs for the first time since 2008. Belichick uses his losses as a motivation to get the right assets for the next season.

“I think we always try to do what’s best for the football team, and that’s a combination of long-term and short-term,” he said one day after Sunday’s 28-14 win over the New York Jets. “Honestly, I don’t know how we could be any more aggressive than we were for the last five years — I’m talking about the ’14 to ’18 period, well, I’ll throw last year in there, too — and last year, so for the last six years, really, and so there’s a residual to that.”

Earlier in 2020, Belichick said New England “sold out” for Super Bowls in previous years. The team didn’t have much cap space to spend this offseason until some veterans decided to opt out and free extra space. Of course, the best free agents had already signed a deal with their new teams. So, Belichick kept the money for the upcoming season.

Belichick doesn’t need an excuse.

Patriots have enough cap space to handle 2021

New England has the fourth-most salary cap space in the league. If the salary cap drops, the team has about $62.5 million to spend. If it stays around $200 million, New England will have $86.5 million.

In other words, Belichick can afford players and top names. NFL rookies had to play without a preseason and now they get a chance to learn in the offseason. The Patriots’ offseason started a little earlier than usual. The opt-outs will soon return. Yes, there are no excuses.

New England took risks to win games from 2014 to 2019. Prior to 2019, the team gave TB12 a pay raise. This gave the team $13.5 million in dead cap in the offseason. The signing of Antonio Brown made the cap issues even worse.

The team has a lot of holes on the roster. James White, Davis Andrews, Joe Thuney, Lawrence Guy, Adam Butler, and JC Jackson are set to become free agents. Stephon Gilmore wants his pay rise.