How are some of these teams (example: Rams, Lions, Eagles, etc.) able to just throw money and make splashes through signings/trades almost yearly yet the Pats seem to be cap-stricken
Like some of these guys we know aren't worth the massive contracts they get but you see some of the usual teams make those deals (as if cap mode is off like Madden lol)
Anyways, Humphries was a potential WR target but he signed with TEN for 4/36M. Guessing we'll do a lot of our retooling through the Draft and cheaper signings going forward, which is fine given our limited cap space and also other holes to fill and some other players to re-sign (Gostkowski, JMac, Patterson, etc.)
A lot of it is because many these teams defer a lot of the cap hits and then pay the price later during a rebuild; the pats haven't had a dead money rebuild since like 2001. Constant contention.
Second piece is that, while Brady is clearly the greatest, there is a lot of luxury in paying a rookie QB (eagles, Seattle, Rams, dallas, etc); they all had the luxury of signing free agents while paying qbs low money for 4+ years. Don't get me wrong, I'd pay Brady every penny he's earned, but ~ 20 million a year every year for a while does take up space, and puts some limits on cash elsewhere. And other teams are not unlimited; I don't think the Rams are keeping Suh; Oakland traded Mak last year which is why they have space this year, etc.
Another big piece is that the patriots really try not to have a top heavy roster. They tend to spread out the money, such that they generally have a deep team of all middle class players with some key highly paid guys, rather than a small elite portion and a lot of major flaws. It's not as sexy, but probably makes sense in a game that has, what, 46 players on game day, with 11 players on the field at a time and a high rate of injuries. I mean, they lost patrick chung during the superbowl last year. What if they had lost Earl Thomas (or similar type) and had to fill in some scrub?