'Prominent' NFL Agent Says Patriots Are Still Operating In Free Agency 'As If They're The Tom Brady Patriots'
BOSTON (CBS) -- For the better part of two decades, the Patriots were Super Bowl contenders every single year. With the best quarterback in the world and the best coach in the game, the Patriots were an attractive draw for free agents around the league, even if New England didn't offer the most money.
These days, things are different. The Patriots haven't won a playoff game in three years. They didn't win the division the past two seasons. They missed the playoffs in 2020. They got blown out in their lone playoff game in 2021.
But according to one NFL agent, the team isn't operating as if anything has changed.
That's according to Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer, who shared a rather interesting tidbit from his time in Indianapolis at the NFL Combine.
"I had a prominent agent tell me this story, which blew me away," Breer said on Toucher & Rich on Monday. "He said the Patriots are still operating as if it's five or six years ago, where they can go in with premium free agents and say to them, 'We're not going to meet your price, but if your market craters, come back with to us, and maybe we can do a one-year deal.' And this agent said to me, he was like, 'I don't know what they're talking about. It's like, yeah, maybe I'd send my guy there when Tom Brady was there to restore his stock, but why would I send him there now?' So there's still sort of this feeling that they're operating as if they're the Tom Brady Patriots when there's -- again, a lot of the infrastructure from those years I mean, forget even just the quarterback, all of that is gone."
Breer later said that the Patriots' plan in free agency this year will likely be to wait around until the third or fourth day to try to sign players who didn't land the huge money deals on day one.
"It made sense to be that team when you had Tom Brady, because if a guy's looking to restore his stock, like if you're a veteran player who doesn't have the market that he wants, and it's 2016, then that 100 percent makes sense to go to the Patriots. Because you maybe can go compete for a championship, you're going to be in an organization where you're well-coached with good players around you, and then maybe you can make a run in free agency a year later. Doing it now, what do the Patriots have to offer a 26, 27-year-old guy whose market isn't there?" Breer said. "If you're if you're a receiver in 2016, and your market falls apart, and you you're looking for a place to go to revive your stock so you can come back a year later and get rich, New England was a great place to be. Is it anymore? If you're that guy now, aren't you going to go to Buffalo and play with Josh Allen or Kansas City and play with Patrick Mahomes?"
