We all knew this season was going to be a challenge for the Patriots because of a variety of reasons, with the top being Tom Brady's departure at quarterback after 20 years.
The opt-outs certainly didn't help things, especially with Donta Hightower — the best (only?) playmaker — in the front seven sitting out the season. Same with Covid-19 wiping out a lot of practices that the team, especially the new QBs, could use.
Not on the list? The team's salary-cap situation. That they had no money to spend this offseason until the opt-outs kicked in was of their own doing. That's why it was stunning to see Bill Belichick use it as perhaps the biggest excuse for the team's slow start this season in an interview with old buddy Charlie Weis on Sirius NFL Radio (thanks to Mike Reiss for highlighting the interview).
Weis said he noticed the Patriots were playing "a whole bunch of young guys" and asked if that's because they like them, or because of circumstances (i.e. the pandemic)? Belichick's answer:
"You're right, Charlie," Belichick said. "We're playing more young players than we've played in the past (for a) combination of reasons. We were pretty heavily invested in our team in the past few years. From a salary-cap standpoint, we didn't have much flexibility at all. I think that was obvious on the Cam Newton contract.
"Then we had some opt-outs, so we lost some players there that would normally have been giving us significant amount of playing time. And then like every year, a couple guys are banged up and we've missed some guys here and there in certain games. I think when you combine it all together, there is opportunity there; some of that opportunity has gone to younger players.
"This is kind of the year that we've taken to, I would say, adjust our cap from the spending that we've had in accumulation of prior years. We just haven't been able to have the kind of depth on our roster that we've had in some other years. That's provided more opportunity for younger players. So it's a combination of all the reasons."
There are so many things wrong with all of this — starting with the premise of the question and Belichick agreeing with it — that I don't even know where to start.
We'll go with this: This reeks of Belichick — Mr. Do Your Job — starting to create his own narrative about where this team is, the same guy who said this on Oct. 6:
"We never make excuses. We don't make excuses about anything. Period. That's not what we do. We don't make excuses."
This whole exercise with Weis was an episode of excuse-making, the old "The dog ate my salary cap" excuse.
Let's start with the playing time for young players thing. Where? Who? Outside of Michael Onwenu and Justin Herron — and the Patriots could have played Hjalte Frodholdt (another failed draft choice?) or Korey Cunningham, and there are always injuries on every offensive line — I don't know who they're talking about.
No offensive rookie has played more than Devin Asiasi's 81 snaps. On defense, the youngest player to lay has been Kyle Dugger at 113 snaps.
None of those numbers are out of the ordinary.
And then there's the biggest whopper Belichick told during the course of the interview, and it left those in and around the team stunned for words:
"This is kind of the year that we've taken to, I would say, adjust our cap from the spending that we've had in accumulation of prior years. We just haven't been able to have the kind of depth on our roster that we've had in some other years."
So let me get this straight. That Patriots don't have a QB on the roster. They have zero WRs that would start anywhere else with Julian Edelman's injury issue. They have zero TEs that would be better than a No. 3 anywhere else. (Just to be clear: the Patriots will take the field with four undrafted WRs and a TE taken the seventh round today against the Bills.)
They also have zero front seven players who would start anywhere else besides Lawrence Guy and Hightower ...
... and it's because of the cap situation they find themselves in this season?
Puh-lease. Maybe someone needs to re-up Belichick's BSJ subscription because we've been screaming about this situation for years:
2018: Patriots are up against the cap earlier than ever – what that means and how they got here
2018: Cap Crunch Solved: Patriots created $3,712,500 in cap space by restructuring Gilmore’s deal
2019: Bill Belichick lets it ride with his ‘Over The Hill Gang’
Just to remind you, just two years ago the Patriots had to restructure Stephon Gilmore's deal (and add more cap in the future) just to meet the team's cap obligations in 2018.
This was not a sudden problem for this team.
The big part that Belichick left out of all this is, "How did the team's cap situation get here?" It comes down to this:
When you get fewer players from the draft, you have fewer cheap contracts to offset your big-ticket items and you have to paper that over with older players who are more expensive and get injured at a higher rate.
Belichick's in charge of the draft. Belichick's in charge of free agency. Belichick's in charge of the cap.
In 2018, the Patriots were the oldest team to ever win a Super Bowl. In 2019, they were the oldest team in the league. This year, well, like I said after the roster cutdown...
Let me get this straight ... I (rightfully) rip Belichick last season for picking too many older players leading to the oldest team in the league, which faded down the stretch. They lose Tom Brady, Ben Watson, Stephen Gostkowski, Michael Bennett, Jamie Collins, Marcus Cannon and Dont'a Hightower ... and the Patriots are still the 27th-oldest team in the league?
How is that even possible?
If that isn't Example A for how bad the recent drafts have been around here, I don't know what to tell you. And this isn't some sort of fake news or fallacy. The drought Belichick has been on torpedoed last season, and it's threatening to do it again as the Patriots are now razor-thin or hoping rookies hit at several places.
Look for yourself:
Of the 42 players drafted since 2016 — that should be the lifeblood of this team and the future at this point — just 10 (23.7 percent) became starters. Really, it's four (9.5 percent) because six of them have never even been a regular starter yet: Izzo, Bentley, Winovich, Harry, Uche and Jennings. Just because you're a starter on your team doesn't mean you're an NFL starter.
Forty percent aren't even on the team anymore.
Jackson set career highs for sacks (5) and interceptions (3) in the game, as the Steelers held him to 161 passing yards in the overtime game. He did rush for 70 yards on 14 carries, but much of that came early in the game. The Steelers adjusted as the game wore on and held the Ravens, led the NFL in points per game a year ago at 33.2, to 23 points in regulation.
Can they take anything from that game?
"No, we lost," Cam Heyward said flatly to that question this past week.
But the Steelers might have given teams a blueprint on how to handle the multi-talented Jackson. They blitzed him -- as usual -- in that game and Jackson struggled.
Since, teams that have blitzed Jackson and pressed the receivers on the outside have caused him the most trouble. Jackson is completing just 57.4 percent of his passes with a 5.4 yards per attempt average against this blitz this season compared to 65.7 percent and 7.8 yards per attempt when he's not blitzed.
The Steelers blitz 44.3 percent of the time, second-most in the NFL behind the Ravens.