I don’t know the exact figure, but I’ve seen a 200 million number thrown out there in available cap space this upcoming offseason.
To me, this makes the Belichick decision all the more complicated for the Krafts. I can’t see Bill being a guy who would move into a front office-only position, TBH, so he’ll either be back in his current dual role or not at all, in my opinion.
So the question is: do we / they trust Bill enough at this point to reset again, and dictate where so many dollars in salary will be spent for the next 3 years or so?
And of course…regardless of who’s calling the shots, it’s tough to be in a full rebuild situation with that much money to spend; on whom is all this money best spent to make this team a contender again? And if not Belichick, who’s best suited to make those decisions?
I’ve been a staunch “we shouldn’t fire Bill” supporter all year UNTIL today.
Now I’m intrigued what a new coaching staff could do with all that cap and draft capital.
I’m still on the fence. There’s no question he really knows how to coach up a defense, and find tremendous value in drafting defensive players. It’s clearer to me than ever that offense (both coaching and drafting) is his real issue - one that was masked for years with Brady / Weis / McDaniels. If they were somehow able to rope in a real offensive genius - not just to coach, but also to help in draft prep - I’d be more than ok keeping Bill around.
We should (hopefully) be easily able to find another GM. We’ve got barely any talent on the roster, but we’re also not a mess. We’re effectively a clean slate with a ton of cap space and a high draft pick next off-season.