The New England Patriots enter the NFL offseason with a lot of work to do to improve upon their 4–13 record from 2023. New coach Jerod Mayo implied in January that the team was therefore prepared to make splashes in free agency.
“We’re bringing in talent, 1,000%,” Mayo said on WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show. “We have a lot of cap space and cash. We’re ready to burn some cash!”
However, at the NFL scouting combine, Mayo walked back his comments. The first-year head coach admitted that he shouldn’t have used the phrase “burn some cash” a month ago.
“You know, I kind of misspoke when I said ‘burn some cash’ but I was excited when you see those numbers,” Mayo said, via MassLive’s Karen Guregian. “But when you reflect on those numbers ... you don’t have to spend all of it in one year.”
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Mayo then explained that, while the team doesn’t expect a long and extensive rebuild, they understand that trying to build a championship-caliber roster in free agency is not the best strategy..
“This is going to be a process,” Mayo said. “So I don’t want people to think, ‘You got 60 million dollars, 70 million, whatever, so let’s get this guy, that guy, that guy.’ … It may work for a couple games, or maybe a season, but it won’t work long term.”
New England is one of the teams with ample open cap space for the 2024 season, which was helped by the NFL’s unexpected raise of the cap for the upcoming year. Still, Mayo is tempering expectations for how aggressive the Patriots will be in a few weeks.