New England Patriots Summer Six-Pack

Of course, the big story of camp will be quarterback Tom Brady and tight end Rob Gronkowski after their contentious offseasons. Unless a new contract is in place for both players, the focus of camp will be on the two grossly underpaid stars.

While most of the Brady talk has dealt with his desire to have his personal trainer with him in the locker room and with the team. However, there are limits to how often ownership can interfere with and neuter head coach Bill Belichick. However, ownership can fix a lot of the problems just by opening their vault and paying their top players the contracts they deserve.

With $12 million in cap space still heading into the season (all contract information from OvertheCap.com), it makes sense to give both players the extensions and/or raises their play has warranted over the past few seasons.

Brady has a $22 million cap number but $7 million of that is prorated and his base salary is just $15 million, or one-half of what the top quarterbacks are being paid in 2018. Seeing his former apprentice Jimmy Garoppolo sign a five year $137.5 million contract with over $74 million in guarantees and an average annual salary of $27.5 million.

If Brady is serious about playing until he is 45-years-old, the Patriots would be foolish not to tear up his current contract and replace it with a four-year deal worth at least $120 million with most of it guaranteed. No matter how much money he has passed up in the past, a sign of respect showing their appreciation for his sacrifice can smooth over a lot of bad feelings.

The Patriots front office and ownership group has one month left before training camp to take care of the looming contract issue for their best player.