Last March, just weeks after a Super Bowl 52 loss to Philadelphia, the 2018 roster construction process began in New England. With limited cap resources (around $15 million in space) and a host of key contributors set to hit the free agent market, Bill Belichick started making transactions.
On March 6th, he declined Alan Branch’s 2018 option. The next day, the team announced it had released veteran tight end Martellus Bennett — who would retire two weeks later — and return specialist Bernard Reedy. The moves increased the Patriots’ available cap space to around $23.