A few talking heads have suggested this is Bellicheck orchestrating a bad season to get a top QB in the next draft. If that orchestration revolves around starting players opting out for the season, I have a hard time accepting that because the players are leaving large amounts of money on the table to opt out. I can't imagine the Pats have that kind of loyalty for any player to "take one for the team" and lose hundreds of thousands or millions just so the team might acquire a rookie QB in 2021.
But..... the problem is that the Pats cross the line so much, and seem to have no ethics about cheating if they think they can benefit from it, and are so protected from really serious consequences (losing a couple of draft picks is nothing compared to winning the Superbowl), that who knows what might be going on behind the scenes. Nobody trusts the Pats organization. But with the number of players we're talking about, conspiracy is not too strong of a term if one actually believes this is what the Pats are doing. I'm not one who believes it because these players are just guys with Twitter accounts..... they're not the CIA.
