Mayo's Patriots Plan: 'Burn Some Cash!'
New England Patriots team owner Robert Kraft has never been one to shy from investing in his franchise. In fact, the 82-year-old was quoted last July as saying “Money spending [for the Patriots] will never be the issue, I promise you, or I’ll sell the team."
Accordingly, the Pats and newly-installed head coach Jerod Mayo are apparently about to give Kraft’s wallet quite a workout.
During his first appearance on WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show as Patriots head coach, Mayo addressed the financial windfall which awaits his team at the start of the NFL year in March. With the Pats’ need to upgrade several key positions on a team which finished the season with a dismal 4-13 record, they are seemingly eager to seek a significant return on a sizable investment.
"We're bringing in talent, 1,000 percent,” Mayo said. “We have a lot of cap space and cash. We're ready to burn some cash!"
With approximately $69 million in projected salary cap space, the Pats have decisions to make on filling several positions with free agents — both internally and externally. Safety Kyle Dugger, tight end Hunter Henry and right tackle Mike Onwenu are just a few of the players the team would like to retain for Mayo’s first year at the helm. While the Pats have been saddled with the reputation of being excessively careful with their money under the direction of Bill Belichick, Mayo’s Monday morning declaration promises to reverse that trend.
In the interest of fairness, it should be noted that the notion of New England’s staunch (and potentially harmful) commitment to frugality under Belichick is somewhat of a short-sighted, nationally-driven narrative. Just three years prior, the team committed north of $160 million to seven free agents, such as Henry, linebacker Matthew Judon, defensive tackle Davon Godchaux and defensive back Jalen Mills —most of which came within hours of the start of the NFL’s legal tampering window.
In fact, Belichick often sought to set the record straight on the Patriots willingness to invest in the team — adding that amount of cap space used is more important than the raw cash value of free agent spending. While the Patriots are typically near the bottom of the league in cash spending —and thus, prime talk-show fodder — the Pats are usually middle-of-the-pack or higher in cap spending. It is a strategy which helped New England maintain an unprecedented two-plus decade run at the top of the NFL.
Still, it is a new era in Foxboro. Mayo’s fresh, lucid approach to the public relations side of the job is expected to yield exciting results for his team both on the field and in the meeting rooms. At present, the Pats have yet to hire a general manager to help guide the rookie head coach through the offseason process. Surprisingly, New England’s search may not only extend beyond April’s 2024 NFL Draft, it may also result in the distribution of duties among two top in-house candidates: director of player personnel Matt Groh and director of scouting Eliot Wolf.
Nonetheless, the path to New England’s redemption has only just begun. Despite the long road ahead, Pats Nation may take solace in knowing that the abundant “cap space and cash” of which Mayo spoke on Monday morning should not be burning a hole in Kraft’s pocket for very long.
