The 2020 NFL season is unlike any other, particularly for the revamped New England Patriots of Bill Belichick. After being a veteran-laden team in previous years, a youth movement suddenly came into fruition this season. The changing of the guards was prompted after the departure of longtime quarterback Tom Brady and their limited flexibility in terms of the salary cap was one to blame.
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick shared that the team's current situation paved the way for his young guys to get more opportunities on the field this season:
“We’re playing more young players than we’ve played in the past,” he said, via Mike Reiss of ESPN. “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 play 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, and some of that opportunity has gone to younger players. Again, because of our cap situation in this particular year, 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.”
Belichick shared that the team generously spent on their franchise cornerstones in recent years which held them to a stalement in the team's cap space, led by Stephon Gilmore, Shaq Mason, and Dont'a Hightower all receiving lucrative contracts. Their limited flexibility early in the offseason eventually restricted them from being productive in free agency.
They also previously signed then-free agent Cam Newton to a bargain deal of one-year, $1,750,000 contract which was indicative of their flexibility to spend back then. Now in the middle of the season, the Patriots have progressed and already find themselves abundant in cap space.
With the cap expected to decline by about $20 million next season, the Patriots are still expected to be in a good position to reload their weapons and bounce back from a dismal campaign in 2020.
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