The Patriots made a couple of trades last week and many eyes will be on New England to see if they’ll be making any more move in the hours leading up to Tuesday afternoon’s deadline.Beyond the way a player fits onto the roster Yodny Cajuste Jersey Boys , the Patriots have to think about how they’d fit under the salary cap. The team has over $2 million in cap room at their disposal and head coach Bill Belichick was asked during a Tuesday conference call if that would impact the team’s ability to make more deals.Belichick said that it would “definitely affect us” and noted that teams “really don’t gain much cap space” by releasing players at this point in the year. There are other ways to restructure contracts and Belichick didn’t rule anything out, but added the team has to think about potential salary cap charges over the second half of the season when making decisions on Tuesday.“It would depend on the player and the salary and what your other options were on the team and how big of a gap you’re talking about in order to be able to make all of that work,” Belichick said. “Certainly we have to account for the rest of the season. It’s unrealistic to think we’re not going to have any additional salary cap charges in the next eight weeks. We have to have some type of a cushion or budget to handle those, some of those anticipated expenses. We don’t know exactly what that number is going to be, but there are a number of things that could come into play there. Yeah, it’s definitely part of the conversation. No question.”The Patriots have proven to be nimble when it comes to finding ways to bring in players they believe can help them, but the cap gymnastics this time may not lead to a deal in the next few hours. Brady spoke about Gronkowski’s retirement after Thursday’s minicamp practice." />Skip to main contentclockmenumore-arrownoyesHorizontal - WhitePats Pulpita New England Patriots communityLog In or Sign UpLog InSign UpPatriots NewsOpinion and AnalysisContribute!About the SiteTopicsPatriotsOddsShopStubHubMoreAll 322 blogs on Horizontal - WhitePatriots News Opinion and Analysis Contribute! FanPostsFanShotsAbout the Site List of Patriots Twitter AccountsWrite For Pats Pulpit!New User Welcome and Commenting GuideCommunity GuidelinesMastheadTopics Patriots Off-Season CoveragePatriots Opinion/AnalysisPatriots NewsPatriots Draft CoverageSportfolio ManagementFiled under:Patriots AnalysisPatriots Offseason CoverageTom Brady thinks that teams will attack the Patriots offense differently without Rob GronkowskiRelated: Patriots’ new-look tight end group recognizes its opportunityEDTShareTweetShareShareTom Brady thinks that teams will attack the Patriots offense differently without Rob GronkowskiPhoto by Patrick Smith/Getty ImagesFor the last nine seasons, Rob Gronkowski was a fixture in the New England Patriots offense. Despite having to deal with numerous injuries over the course of his career, the defining tight end of his era still appeared in a combined 131 regular season and playoff games for the team and was one of the toughest matchups in all of football year-in and year-out: a powerful yet nimble receiver that was also able to block like an offensive lineman.Simply put Youth Tom Brady Jerseys , Gronkowski was the complete package at the tight end position. Given his retirement announcement earlier this offseason, the Patriots will now have to find a way to operate without contributions from the future Hall of Famer. For New England and its offensive unit, this means plenty of adjustments given that Gronkowski was an every-down player no matter if the situation called for a run or a pass. “He’s had an incredible career,” said quarterback Tom Brady when asked about the 30-year-old after Thursday’s final minicamp practice. The veteran passer also pointed out that his absence will certainly have an impact on the team. “It’s the first time in a long time and he was such a great player for our team. Like any season, things are different and we’re going to have to adjust differently and teams are going to play us differently without him.”“We’ve seen it even when he’s been on the team,” continued Brady when talking about how Gronkowski’s presence alone put pressure on opposing defenses in the past: he regularly drew double coverage or other forms of special attention, which in turn opened things up elsewhere — be it for other pass catchers or in the running game. Now, teams will no longer have to fear Gronkowski’s big play abilities and can therefore start focusing on other areas.As a result, the Patriots will need to adjust and find ways to still put pressure on opposing defenses even without their most talented weapon of the last decade. “No one’s going to make any excuses for our offense. We’re going to do everything we can to be the best we can be Tom Brady Jerseys Stitched , score every time we touch the ball,” said Brady. “The tight end position’s a big part of our offense and those guys are going to have to do a great job for us.”‘Those guys’ are all relatively inexperienced in the Patriots’ (current) offensive system: Matt LaCosse, Benjamin Watson and Andrew Beck were all added over the course of the offseason, while Stephen Anderson and Ryan Izzo are entering their second year in the system. Unless the Patriots add another player to the equation at a later point, this is what the post-Gronkowski tight end group looks like.Brady, however, does not seem worried about the comparative lack of pedigree. “The other guys are getting up to speed, Matt’s done a good job, Ben’s done a good job Youth James White Jerseys , Stephen Anderson’s done a good job,” the 41-year-old said. “That’s got to be a position of strength even if it’s not one player but multiple players doing different roles. There were times in my career before that where we had similar approaches.”Seeing New England use a tight-end-by-committee approach — something the team does at the running back position as well — would not be a surprise. With no clear-cut top option available right now (to be fair, though, LaCosse has stood out during minicamp and might be seen as TE1 at the moment) trying to get the most out of each individual’s skill sets seems like a sound plan; one that could help the Patriots counter what defenses will attempt against them moving forward.For Brady, however, the focus is on the task currently at hand — and his message is a clear one: “This team has to establish something differently,” he said on Thursday. “All the players have to come in and earn a role. That’s what this week is all about.”