The New England Patriots entered free employer amongst the league leaders in on hand resources, but ended up not making any splash backyard acquisitions. Part of it had to do with a approach focusing principally on re-signings, however it is no longer tough to also question the elegance of the Patriots as a marquee landing spot in Year 1 of a essential rebuild.
With Tom Brady long long gone and Bill Belichick also out of the picture now, the team’s new head instruct is aware of that discovering those pull elements once more will be crucial moving forward.
“When you go via the draft, you desire to get guys that are magnets,” Jerod Mayo instructed newshounds at the NFL annual meeting in Orlando, FL, closing week.
“I played with the last magnet in Tom Brady where guys wanted to play for Tom, with Tom, and with the team. It sort of gets skewed, and now it’s the other end of the spectrum where, what portions do we have to entice those outside guys? If we draft a guy, you’re coming here. So, that has to be our philosophy as we continue to put this aspect together.”The Patriots had been worried with some large names on the free organization market in mid-March, most fantastically former Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Calvin Ridley. They had been unable to land him, however, and he ended up signing a four-year, $92 million contract with the Tennessee Titans.
Why was once New England unable to bring him aboard despite its sources and apparent willingness to spend them?
Despite crew owner Robert Kraft’s as a substitute curious claim about Ridley’s “girlfriend” (who is actually his wife) trying to stay in the South rather than come to the Northeast, one has to accept as true with that cash used to be the actual using aspect in this decision. The Patriots had been in the end unwilling to meet his demands, which can also in phase have been inflated by way of the agency now not having these high-profile humans within its ranks right now.
The Patriots, frankly, are no longer in the role to gather players primarily based on their repute as annual Super Bowl — some thing that used to be the case during the Brady/Belichick dynasty. The entice of a ring is currently not phase of the equation at One Patriot Place at the moment.
“There were more than a few reasons why guys didn’t sign with us,” stated Mayo. “Once again, the unknown is scary for a lot of humans and I would say, even in our constructing right now, it’s still unknown. Like, will I be a exact head coach? I don’t know. Hopefully. I think I can be. Will Eliot be a desirable GM, or anything he is in his role? I don’t know, we’ll see what happens with that.
“It’s going to be a process.”
