Robert Kraft Denies Claim Made In Patriots’ Brutal NFLPA Report Card

The Patriots have enjoyed a mostly positive offseason thanks to a series of promising free agency moves, but not all of the attention New England received was positive.

Robert Kraft’s team was once again shredded in the latest NFLPA Report Card. The Patriots ranked 31st in the entire league, and they received particularly poor marks for their weight room and travel. In fact, one player claimed there were ashtrays in the armrests of some of the seats on the team plane.

Speaking with the media Tuesday in West Palm Beach, Kraft strongly denied the ashtray claim, but he did acknowledge there was room for improvement as it relates to travel.

“Think, we bought those planes to make it easier for our team to travel,” Kraft told reporters, per the Boston Herald. “It was very hard pre-Covid to get planes. And we’re in the process of trying to update and improve that. We want everything we do to be top-of-the-heap and first-class. Rather than having to go out and charter and everything, we wanted control. We let the planes be used by different charities. They’ve done a lot of good. But we do need an upgrade.”

Of course, putting players in better travel situations hardly is the only way New England needs to take steps forward this season and beyond. The rebuilding Patriots have a lot of things to work on, but Kraft believes his team isn’t as far away from restoring its contender status as some might think.