PALM BEACH, Fla. — Robert Kraft, at his core, is a Patriots fan. And like many of his brethren, the owner of the team has some concerns about the state of the team.
For starters, Kraft does not like the recent results for his team.
"I'm not happy that we haven't won a playoff game in three years," he said. "I think about that a lot."
Kraft also is a bit perplexed at how Bill Belichick intends to stock his offensive staff — with direct hands on quarterback Mac Jones — with coaches like Matt Patricia and Joe Judge, who have minimal offensive training.
"It doesn't sometimes look a straight line to our fans, or to myself, but I'm results-oriented," Kraft said when asked about his confidence in the staff.
The owner also expects to win now.
"I expect (the team being a contender) to happen as soon as this year," Kraft said.
There are other areas where Kraft has some concerns, including recent drafts and some personnel decisions, but he also left no doubt that for the time being, Belichick, with his six Super Bowl titles and two decades of unprecedented success, has earned a wide berth to manage the staff and roster how he sees fit.
"I think Bill has a unique way of doing things," Kraft said. "It's worked out pretty well up to now so ... I know what I don't know. And I try to stay out of the way with things I don't know ... I think he's pretty good. I don't know, is it over 40 years of experience doing it?"
Basically, 2022 — with their inactivity this offseason and Belichick's decisions with the coaching and personnel staff — is setting up to be a referendum on all things Belichick. After talking with Kraft and gleaning some other information at the league meetings the past two days, if Belichick's plans don't work out and the Patriots fail to make waves in the postseason — or worse — then some hard questions might start to be asked inside the walls of One Patriot Place.
After doing a little homework, let's get a few things out of the way.
As far as budgets, both with the players and the coaching staff, Belichick has complete autonomy. Yes, the Patriots spent heavily last offseason, but that was also offset by spending less in 2020. If Belichick wanted to sign more high-profile players this season, he could have done it. Belichick chose not to do it, perhaps because it would have further cast a spotlight on the team's young talent deficiencies that was caused by Belichick's poor drafting in recent years.
Even Kraft, a year after being critical of his team's recent poor drafting record, doubled down on those remarks and the absolute necessity for this team to draft better.
"I'm happy that I think we had a great draft last year, and it made up for what happened the previous four years or so," Kraft said. "I look forward to hopefully having a great draft this year. That's the only way you can build your team for the long term and consistently that have the chance of winning is having a good draft."
Whoa. Shots fired. Again.
There's also no truth to the rumors, team sources maintain, that Belichick is given a budget for the coaches, including his own salary, and he pockets anything leftover — incentive to go cheap and withhold titles on his staff.
Still, several close observers of the Patriots have viewed what Belichick has done in that regard and wonder how this will work out. They expect Belichick to be questioned harder after the season if the team doesn't continue to improve.
Kraft himself said he's optimistic.
"I think we've made the commitments as an organization and I think we have a lot of talent and some wonderful young men from last year and a couple in the weeds from before," he said. "It's a chance for them to grow and come together and hopefully the team comes together. I think on these young quarterbacks, the good ones, in the second year they've usually grown a great deal. I'm a big fan of Mac Jones. I see how hard he works and he wants everything to go right, puts the time and energy and his personality as a team guy so we have a chance. Without a good coach and quarterback, no matter how good the other players are, I don't think you can win consistently. Hopefully, I believe we have both, an outstanding coach and a good young prospect at quarterback.
"I think we have a lot of young players that are coming into their own. I don't think free agency is over, I know the big spending (is). Remember, we have a salary cap. So there's only so much we can do in that area. I do think that we have an opportunity to pick people up along the way right down to the final cuts. That's once free agency is over and I've seen that in other years and people get all excited with the headlines now. But in the end, it's what happens throughout the entire year.
Some observers would say, just in the AFC East, the Bills got better by adding Von Miller, and the Dolphins improved by adding LT Terron Armstead and WR Tyreek Hill. Meanwhile, the biggest moves by the Patriots' have been out the door with top corner JC Jackson signing with the Chargers, and RG Shaq Mason being traded to the Bucs.
"I don't look at it as subtracting," Kraft said. "Those are good for the headlines but the headlines aren't the substance of what's happening. In the end, I go back to '01. We definitely didn't have the best headlines, the best talent, but we had the best team and they came together and that taught me a lot, that the chemistry of what goes on and the intellect of your people that come in and who have to understand your system. Just because a guy has a record over here and then goes to another place, doesn't ensure success. But we'll see."
We'll see...
Kraft used a version of that a few times in his chat with reporters.
It seems, similar to many Patriots fans, that what Belichick has chosen to do this year — or not do, more accurately — doesn't make a ton of sense to his owner either, not when you compare the Patriots to the rest of the AFC (if not the division), and the fact that none of the tactics Belichick intends to employ (switching coaches around to different sides of the ball, going cheap in player acquisition) are not a proven path to success without Tom Brady under center.
But Kraft made it's clear he's on board ... for now.
"I'm really excited and look forward to this coming year," he said.