Patriots Can Pay Both Drake Maye, Christian Gonzalez, But Do They Want To? originally appeared on NESN.
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The conversation surrounding the New England Patriots‘ offseason has (finally) shifted into discussions over the team’s two biggest looming contracts. The Patriots are lucky enough to have two top-three players at their position playing on rookie contracts: Christian Gonzalez and Drake Maye.
Gonzalez is due for a massive raise any day now, as a member of the 2023 NFL Draft class.
Maye still has a year before he will be given what could very well be a half-a-billion-dollar deal.
The question looming in the back of all Patriots fans’ minds is whether or not the team can succeed with these two massive contracts on the books.
The answer is, in short, it will be no problem. The NFL cap is very navigable. Just look at the Kansas City Chiefs. They were able to win back-to-back Super Bowls while paying Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes and Chris Jones.
Phil Perry addressed the concern on NBC Boston’s Thursday mailbag.
“Teams like the Rams and the Eagles have figured out ways to have multiple players paid at or near the top of the market for years,” Perry wrote.
However, Perry did offer a warning. The insider questioned the Patriots’ willingness to subject such a large portion of their payroll to a small percentage of the roster.
“Before hiring Mike Vrabel, Robert Kraft explained that the Patriots are essentially a cash-to-cap operation. They try to keep their spending in line with the cap over a three-year period,” Perry wrote. “Their spending has been sizable over the last two offseasons, and executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf told Yahoo! recently that that approach probably isn’t ‘sustainable.'”
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