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Belichick honest about Patriots' depth: 'We sold out and won 3 Super Bowls'

Maddie Meyer / Getty Images Sport / Getty

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was transparent when pressed with concerning questions surrounding the team's talent level.

The Patriots currently sit at 2-5 and have been forced to use young, inexperienced players this season - a price to pay for an extended streak of postseason success.

"I mean, look, we paid Cam Newton a million dollars. It’s obvious that we didn’t have any money. It’s nobody’s fault. That’s what we did the last five years. We sold out and won three Super Bowls, played in a fourth and played in an AFC Championship Game. This year we had less to work with. It's not an excuse. It's just a fact," the head coach said Monday on WEEI 93.7.

Belichick's answer was a follow-up to an interview that took place over the previous weekend, in which he pointed to the Patriots' salary cap limitations as a major factor for the team's lack of depth.

"This is kind of the year that we've taken to, I would say, adjust our cap from the spending that we’ve had in accumulation of prior years. We just haven’t been able to have the kind of depth on our roster that we've had in some other years," Belichick said, per ESPN's Mike Reiss.

The Patriots currently have $26.4 million in dead cap for this season. Tom Brady accounts for $13.5 million of their dead money while Antonio Brown is on the books for another $4.5 million, per Spotrac.

New England's roster was also dealt a significant blow over the offseason due to player opt-outs. The team had a league-leading eight players choose to bypass the 2020 season.

The Patriots have finished with at least 10 wins in every season dating back to 2003 but that streak could be in serious jeopardy this year. New England has lost four games in a row and have struggled on offense, averaging just 19.4 points per game.

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