What's up everybody? Welcome into the next fats podcast. I'm Phil Perry. Two great guests for you this week. We've got Emery Hunt of football game playing and CBS sports. We also have Cincinnati receiver, Alec Pierce, one of Greg Cosell's favorites. We just talked about him on last week's episode. We said, if we can get him on the podcast, let's do it. Let's find out more about this guy's game. Let's find out how much the Patriots have been in contact with him this offseason as he preps for the draft. If they're looking for size and speed at receiver,

why not Alec Pierce? But first, we're just getting back from the league's annual meetings in Palm

Beach, Florida down at the Breakers Resort. Wanted to hit you with a few quick hit notes from what

we were able to gather down there in terms of information.

I think number one, it's just to take a big picture look at how the Patriots have built this offseason.

We're all looking at all the money they spent last year.

We're looking at the players they have resigned this year, some of the new players that they have acquired this year. And obviously,

the approach to spending has been very different. I think we've looked at this and said, well,

there must be some kind of decree from on high, from ownership, telling Bill Belichick,

listen, we have to be conservative this offseason based on what we did last off season.

And maybe that has handcuffed the Patriots approach.

But my belief is that that hasn't been the case, that this is just Bill Belichick's view of what smart team building is.

If you spend a lot, one off season, and you're looking to the

future, and those guys are all still under contract, they're all still relatively young,

and you're projecting out and you're projecting improvement from those players, if you can get

what you're expecting from them in 2022, you shouldn't have to spend exorbitant sums of money to make sure

your team is in a position to contend, which is what Robert Kraft told us he's expecting

them to do. I think had Bill Belichick wanted to spend more, if he wants to go pay $10 million

for DJ Chark or Marquez Valdez

Scantling or he wants to sign Alan Robinson on a deal that pays about 15 a year, he would have been

within his rights and had the opportunity to do that is my belief. But again, this is the slow

build. This is a conservative approach.

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