They don't need much for the draft. They need money to start the season though. September 1 is when the rule of 51 goes away and all your practice players start to count.
With the signings yesterday, they don't have much room. They'd have to give Tate a big signing bonus and postpone most of the money to future years. Still, just looking at some of the deals, it's going to be at least $6 million or so next year unless they get really creative. Also, they lose a comp pick. My guess is that this isn't going to happen, but if it does, there must be something going on behind the scenes on a restructure or something that we don't know about.
Do you think there's any chance that Brady is getting ready to do something crazy? I mean, if the guy came out and said, "I'll play for $10 million a year in 2020 and 2021 if you give me a no trade clause" or something like that, all of the sudden, the Patriots can do anything. But I can't believe he would actually do that. He's a $28 million player. But, who knows? If he decides this team is his best chance for whatever he has left then maybe he just says "fuck it, I have enough money." His agent would never go for it and the league would lose its mind but it's kind of a very special circumstance and maybe, just maybe?