Last Wednesday, the NFL officially left 2020 behind to turn its calendar to the 2021 league year. This meant not just that free agency and the trading period officially began, but also that the 32 clubs had to abide the top-51 salary cap rules: a team’s 51 most expensive contracts combined would have to fit under the $182.5 million spending cap.
As opposed to other teams that were hurt by the cap being set significantly lower than last season’s, the New England Patriots had no issues in this area. Even after being the most aggressive team in football during the 52-hour legal tampering period leading up to the new league year, they still had around $30.