Patriots: Julian Edelman praises Bill Belichick’s negotiation tactics
I don’t think it’s any surprise that Bill Belichick is a tough negotiator. On the podcast, Edelman elaborated on his comments:
"“Everything he said made you want to go. When asked to elaborate, he minced no words: “‘Look,’ like, ‘You’re not the best f***in’ receiver in the league!’ I went into this thing like, ‘Man, f*** dude, I’m terrible. What does this achieve?'” Nevertheless, he still made sure to give Belichick credit: “He got me for a good price. I mean, you gotta tip your hat to the guy. … Belichick’s clearly got game.”"
So it seems that Bill Belichick is a tough cookie to deal with in contract negotiations. I’m not surprised, personally. For years, players have left New England at the end of their rookie deals and many didn’t have good things to say about the organization.
It obviously took a special type of player to come to and succeed with the New England Patriots, as the Patriot Way helped the team win six Super Bowls over a two decade span. Being the head coach and general manager, Belichick surely has to run a tight ship.
The obvious red flag with his supposed tough negotiation tactics is the chance that he ends up driving a player out of New England. I do wonder if that was the case with Jakobi Meyers to an extent.
Belichick won’t overpay for a player and frankly, isn’t usually that active in free agency either. He also does seem to retain some of the in-house players for much less than what we’d expect them to get.
He might be a great salesman, too. Being able to sign and retain certain players for the prices he did is indicative of his strong tactics in negotiating, even if it isn’t for everyone.