Bedard: Thoughts on the Patriots as camp starts - Diggs, Davis, Belichick-Kraft and cash spending

On Tuesday, we'll hear from Mike Vrabel and three players, starting at 11:30 a.m.

Practice schedule for the first week (Gates open at 9:15 a.m.):

Wednesday, 10:15 a.m.
Thursday, 10:15 a.m. 
Friday, 10:00 a.m
Saturday, 10:15 a.m. 
Sunday, OFF
Monday, 10:30 a.m. (First possible padded practice)
Tuesday, 10:15 a.m.

A few thoughts on the Patriots ahead of Wednesday's first practice:

 • The Patriots placed three players on the non-football injury list: CB Carlton Davis, DB Josh Minkins, WR Jeremiah Webb.

Four players were placed on the physically unable to perform list: WR Mack Hollins, TE Austin Hooper, OT Vederian Lowe, LB Jahlani Tavai.

There were two surprises with these lists: that Davis was on NFI, and that Stefon Diggs was not on them.

 • Let's deal with Diggs first. I wasn't sure if this was some sort of procedural thing, like the Patriots were waiting to decide on his status until he arrived and took his physical.

But that is not the case.

Diggs has been cleared, has passed his physical, and will not be put on the PUP list. I would not expect him to have a heavy practice workload for a while as he'll be on a ramp-up plan with Week 1 the hope.

The physical is no small thing when it comes to his contract. Remember all the chatter about possibly cutting Diggs and not owing him anything? That's over now. He's getting his $12 million signing bonus now, it three installments.

As far as his health, it's a minor miracle that he's ready to go just nine months after tearing his ACL. Like I said during mini-camp, he looked terrific - way better than Kendrick Bourne did a year ago with a similar situation.

That's great news for the Patriots, and Drake Maye.

 • On the other side of the coin is Davis. The last time we saw him during minicamp, he was on the field and participating. So that means he was healthy.

Now, a month later, he isn't?

Players land on that list if some sort of ailment — could be an injury or an illness — happens outside the team facility. Most are injuries sustained during personal workouts. 

I don't know specifically what Davis' situation is, but I'm told that he will be fine. Players can come off those lists at any time.

Still, it's not great. I'm not worried about Davis not being on the practice field - he's a veteran and a cornerback, he can get his work in. But Davis' durability is one of my biggest worries this season, and this is not a great start.

 • I've mostly tried to stay out of the Robert Kraft-Bill Belichick old man pissing match, but there are a few things I do want to say.

First of all, Kraft was absolutely correct to say that he took a "big risk" hiring Belichick. I mean, that's just a fact. He traded a first-round pick for a man who was under .500 and fired by the Browns. Belichick should have stayed quiet. I didn't need him to rebut a fact. It was not an opinion.

Belichick obviously reached out to ESPN's Don Van Natta, who has been mostly a thorn in his side teaming up with Seth Wickersham on some of the most in-depth reporting on the Patriots' dynasty, to get his two cents in. That's a tacit endorsement of their previous reporting and there's a respect there, mostly likely because Van Natta-Wickersham allowed Belichick to have a voice in those stories.

Belichick's answer to Kraft was just a continuation of his disengenuous and factually incorrect act going back to his final Patriots years.

Belichick said he took a big risk against a lot of people's advice in taking the Patriots' job ... wrong. He was the one who cozied up to the Krafts and curried favor with them when he was an assistant, getting himself in position to one day be Patriots head coach. Belichick and the Krafts had a mutual admiration relationship. People forget but this all started when the Krafts sent a fax to the Jets asking for permission to speak with Belichick, which was laid out in The Two Bills 30 for 30 (relayed from Nicole Yang):

“We sent a fax to the Jets, saying we wanted to interview Bill Belichick as the head coach,” Kraft remembers.

But the process never really picked up any steam.

“To be frank, I think Coach Parcells saw it and didn’t want to lose Bill,” Kraft said. “We never got a reply. They sort of played it that they never got it.”

“I saw the fax come in, was kind of taken aback by it,” Jets director of pro personnel Scott Pioli told ESPN.

Pioli said he took the fax down to Parcells’s office, which prompted an impromptu staff meeting where Parcells announced his resignation. Belichick immediately ascended to the position of Jets head coach, but according to sources at the time, what he wanted was “a chance to talk to the Patriots.”

Basically, the story is this:

The Krafts faxed permission to Parcells, who hated the Krafts and didn't want to hand-deliver Belichick to the AFC East rivals;
Parcells "resigned" to kick in the provision in Belichick's contract that he would ascend to Jets HC when Parcells stepped aside;
Belichick preferred to work for the Krafts and Patriots with Jets ownership up in the air, plus he knew the lay of the land (didn't need to be told) in New England since he previously worked there;
Belichick filed an anti-trust lawsuit against the NFL to get himself away from the Jets and to New England.

This was just a flat-out lie by Belichick:

"The Jets were a solid team after three years of rebuilding under Bill Parcells, which included an AFC Championship Game appearance in [January] 1999," Belichick told ESPN. "Meanwhile, the Patriots Organization had dismantled their 1996 AFC Championship team and became one of the worst in the AFC. It didn't help that they were $10 million over the cap heading into my first season as Head Coach in 2000."

The Patriots went 10-6, 9-7 and 8-8 under Pete Carroll, including two playoff berths. The Jets were also 8-8 in Parcells' final season.

Oh, and we all know the core of the '96 team was still around and became the backbone of a dynasty.

As for the obvious Belichick-fed line about spending: "Belichick also did not detail the "many internal obstacles" he faced when first working for Kraft. One was a 2000 Patriots team that was $10 million over the salary cap. For the Patriots, exceeding the cap was an anomaly; New England ranks 31st out of 32 teams in spending since the NFL instituted the salary cap in 1994, a challenge Belichick overcame as coach through ruthless management of the roster."

How did the Patriots get $10 million over the cap? The Patriots spent wildly in the early days of Krafts' ownership. From 1994-99, the Patriots ranked sixth in total cash spending.

I'll also point out, the Patriots have spent $323 million in cash this offseason, which is 10th in the league. The Patriots spent $284.6 million in 2024, which was 15th in the first season after Belichick.

While Belichick was here, from 2000-23, the Patriots did indeed rank 31st, only ahead of the Texans, who didn't start playing until 2002. Belichick, the same guy who balked at paying Browns tackle (and Cohasset native/BU grad) Paul Farren more than himself in 1992, after posting a 6-10 record after his first season as a head coach.

See any commonalities there in regards to the Patriots' cash flow?

Belichick just continues to do damage to his legacy. There was simply no need for him to say anything after an innocuous quote from Kraft, in which he was explaining why hiring Belichick was the best move he ever made.

Maybe he should start taking the advice he doled out to his players over the years, like limiting distractions, control what you can control, and just do your job. But, as usual, Belichick plays by his own set of rules.