The “Patriots don’t pay big money in free agency” myth exists only for low-comprehension observers. The reality is they usually don’t pay big money for your free agents. Free agency is an exercise in speculation. There’s good speculation, and bad speculation. The Patriots pay big when the unknowns are at a minimum – they don’t when the projection into their own system is too much of a guess. That’s all. These are the luxuries you have when you aren’t trying to catch someone else.

History has shown that this team is willing to go after speculative players in free agency, just not the ones that cost top dollar. Wide receiver Brandon LaFell and cornerback Brandon Browner are two recent examples of this philosophy making good. Established players coming from vastly different systems have come in and done big things for the Patriots organization. But if they hadn’t, there was no cap-killing financial marriage. Those kinds of nuptials where you absolutely can’t be wrong are reserved for the people they know best.