NFL Coach: Patriots' Belichick 'Blowing Smoke' and 'Crying Poor' Ahead of 2021

The New England Patriots are 2-5 after Sunday's loss to the Buffalo Bills and have little hope of winning their 12th straight AFC East.

Don't expect much sympathy from opposing coaches around the league. 

"Bill is saving up for next year and blowing smoke and hoping people believe him, crying poor, whatever," a veteran coach told Mike Sando of The Athletic. "There is nothing to it. He knows it. They got stuck when Brady called their bluff and left. They didn't improve the team and Brady said he's out, going to go get some sunshine, bring his boy Gronk out (to Tampa Bay), have some drinks with the head coach and have some fun and call it a career."

The coach is correct in just about every aspect. Hamstrung by a shaky cap situation, the Patriots had little maneuverability during the free-agency period to add pieces around the margins. The team also saw an NFL-high eight players opt out of the 2020 season over COVID-19 concerns, highlighted by tackle Marcus Cannon, linebacker Dont'a Hightower and safety Patrick Chung. 

"We're playing more young players than we've played in the past," Belichick said Saturday on SiriusXM NFL Radio. "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."

The Patriots signed Newton to a low-cost deal but have surrounded him with perhaps the worst complement of skill-position players in the NFL. Newton's struggled mightily as a passer for most of the 2020 season, with his star-quality opening two games looking more and more like a blip with each passing week.

New England hasn't performed poorly enough to get into the Trevor Lawrence sweepstakes, but a continued downward spiral could get the Pats in the top-five conversation and potentially make them a suitor for Justin Fields.

Regardless of where the Patriots wind up in the draft, quarterback is far from the only hole they have to fill in the post-Tom Brady era.