Kraft: Spending spree response to 7-9 record, not Brady win

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft denied on Wednesday that the team’s unprecedented free agent spending spree this offseason was in response to watching Tom Brady win the Super Bowl in Tampa Bay.

Speaking with reporters, Kraft also blamed Cam Newton’s poor results last season on COVID-19. The 2015 NFL MVP, who threw for only eight touchdowns in his first year with New England, tested positive for the disease and missed one game, then presided over three straight losses when he returned.

“I’m not sure he had the proper weapons around him, then he got COVID,” Kraft said. “When he got going, he was playing pretty well. But he’s more familiar with what goes on here, just like younger players from last year. And we’ll see what happens this year.”

Winners of nine AFC titles and six Super Bowls in 19 seasons with Brady as quarterback, the Patriots stumbled to a 7-9 record last year after the threetime NFL MVP signed with the Buccaneers. Kraft said the Patriots could have maneuvered to keep Brady, but it was “not the right thing” to do.

“Look, I would have loved for him to have retired as a Patriot. Everybody knew that. But in life, things just happen in a way that you have to balance a lot of things,” Kraft said. “After 20 years, I thought that he was entitled to make a decision that was best for him and where he was at.

We gave him the ability to do that.

“It’s like marriages sometimes,” Kraft added. “Everybody on the outside doesn’t always know what’s going on.”

Kraft said watching Brady win the Super Bowl with the Buccaneers was not as painful as watching the Patriots flop. After winning 11 straight AFC East titles — and 16 of the previous 17 — New England finished in third place in the division and below .500 for the first time since 2000, coach Bill Belichick’s first season with the team.