Skip to main content

Apparently doing what’s best for the team means ensuring you make more money than Tom Brady ever did until his final season playing in the AFC East. Because based on the latest report about Bill Belichick and his annual salary, he clearly believes he’s worth more than the quarterback who helped him win six Super Bowl titles with the New England Patriots.

Unfortunately for Robert Kraft, he’s letting the team’s longtime head coach steal more than $20 million a year from him.

Bill Belichick made sure Tom Brady remained underpaid

Despite all of his prolific passing numbers and clutch playoff performances, Tom Brady never got paid like the best quarterback in the league, let alone of all time. Obviously, Bill Belichick had a heavy hand in keeping his top player’s salary lower than it should have been.

During his incredible run in New England, Brady routinely got paid well under market value. Even as he continued to win games at an unprecedented rate, he settled for team-friendly contract extensions that gave the Patriots financial flexibility.

In 2011, Brady earned a career-high $19.75 million. However, he didn’t top that number until his final season with the Patriots. The four-time Super Bowl MVP made $23 million in 2019 before he signed a two-year, $50 million contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Overall, Brady got criminally underpaid because Belichick refused to budge and pay him at a level requisite to his accomplishments and value to the team.

The Patriots head coach reportedly makes a ridiculous salary

For years, Patriots fans have mostly been left in the dark about just how much Bill Belichick makes. A 2018 report from Pro Football Talk declared his salary to be $12.5 million.

That figure has apparently gone up…significantly.

It turns out that Belichick not only makes way more than his peers. He actually gets paid more than Tom Brady ever did in New England until his final year with the franchise. And he may still have fallen short of out-earning his head coach.

According to PFT, Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll makes north of $15 million per year. However, the man who replaced him in New England blows him out of the water with an annual salary believed to be “north of $20 million.”

PFT also noted that NFL teams “funnel extra compensation” to coaches through related companies.

Ironically, the coach who preaches about “doing what’s best for the team” makes more money per year than any current player on the roster. Based on the Patriots’ current contract commitments, Devin McCourty will collect the most cash in 2021 at just $9 million.

Belichick is stealing more than $20 million a year from Robert Kraft

There’s no doubt that Bill Belichick deserves a spot in Canton. But because he controls everything related to football operations, it’s clear that the NFL’s longest-tenured head coach is stealing more than $20 million from Robert Kraft on an annual basis.

After largely building a dynasty through a strong draft-and-development model, the Patriots have failed to restock the roster through the draft. As a result, they’ve overpaid for veterans to fill major holes. All along, Tom Brady masked many of the team’s deficiencies that got badly exposed in 2020.

But somehow Belichick has convinced Kraft to pay him quarterback-level money despite a string of brutal personnel blunders. Those include the failed Antonio Brown experiment, the horrific trade for Mohamed Sanu, and drafting N’Keal Harry ahead of several future stars. And let’s not forget that Belichick essentially ran Brady and Rob Gronkowski out of town.

Plus, he no longer seems to have the distinct coaching edge on the rest of the league. The Patriots’ erratic 7-9 campaign included a stunning lack of adjustments and several critical coaching and disciplinary mistakes.

If Kraft is as good of a businessman as he seems, he better wake up and realize that an employee is stealing from him. Because without Brady to cover up for his glaring personnel mistakes, Bill Belichick looks like a mere mortal rather than a football deity.

And if he continues to falter without the greatest quarterback of all time to lean on, he won’t be collecting paychecks from the Patriots much longer.

All contract data courtesy of Spotrac. All statistics courtesy of Pro Football Reference.

Related

Tom Brady Just Made Bill Belichick’s Worst Nightmare Come True

Best in NFL
Sportscasting NFL Writer

Stephen Sheehan

Stephen Sheehan began his sportswriting career as a high school student covering sports for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel through a student outreach program. He wrote for Bleacher Report and Fan Rag Sports and worked full-time for Sportscasting in 2020 and 2021. Stephen specializes in covering the NFL, particularly the New England Patriots.

Stephen is inspired by the stories sports can tell, from money to tragedies to breaking news; there are so many different ways to cover the industry. He monitors Twitter and various websites every day to find stories to tell in unique ways.

Stephen was a 2008 Culpepper Journalism Foundation Fellowship winner, received a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 2013 and a master’s in sports management in 2015 from the University of Florida, and is an active rugby player and former rugby and football coach.