Robert Kraft: "I have heard that it's been reported Tom made demands about who he wanted us to sign. Absolutely not. It never happened."

In a recent interview discussing Tom Brady's new contract I thought that Bob Kraft dropped an interesting tidbit that apparently there was no agreement from the team that they would use the salary cap space saved by his new deal to sign a particular player.

I have heard that it's been reported Tom made demands about who he wanted us to sign. Absolutely not. It never happened.

In the immediate aftermath of the deal it was widely speculated that there was an implied agreement that the Patriots would use the additional cap space provided to sign Wes Welker, one of Brady's favorite targets since his arrival in 2007, to the elusive contract they have been working on since last offseason. It seemed to make sense given that the salary cap savings seemed to coincide closely with Wes Welker's asking price. It's possible that this is just a negotiation tactic from the Patriots organization. If Kraft had said "Yes, we promised Tom that if we took this deal we'd re-sign Wes for him" it would certainly give Welker the leverage in the negotiations going forward. With the franchise tag deadline approaching and free agency looming it will be interesting to see how this situation unfolds. I have to imagine that they work out some sort of deal with Welker. Welker likes it here and I have to imagine the Patriots value him more highly than any other club would.

The rest of the interview doesn't say too much. Kraft insisted that there was no implied renegotiation planned for later in Brady's contract and shared his desire for Tom Brady to retire a Patriot rather than have an iconic player finish his career with another team like Brett Favre, Joe Montana, Peyton Manning, etc. It does suggest that perhaps Tom Brady will retire after this new 5-year deal expires.