cstjohn17

Good point, Welker is a full out stud but... if he takes 1/2 the cap space then I would look at Edelman or other slot WRs for 1/4 or less of the price. Baked into my assumptions is the thought the Patriots will be changing their offense and using TEs in the middle with more traditional outside WRs.

MP-Logick

PFT, of course, is basically reporting this as news based off of Bedard's speculation.

AndyJohnson

Well when you are making up definitions you must be more clear.
So, when you said they NEVER gave up 41 like Houston did, you meant never means in their 4 postseason games? And the difference between a great defense and a poor one was they gave up 35 that day while Houston gave up 41?
OK, so we ALWAYS lose to teams with great defenses, you know the ones that allow 35 points in the divisional round and beat the really crap ones, the ones that are better all year long, but give up 41 on the same day. Gotcha. Whats the plan to attack that problem?

Sometimes, yes it does.


We were inside the 25 6 times. We converted 47% of 3rd downs.
This game was unlike any other playoff game, and you continue to act like they are all the same.

Then how are the Patriots historically very good in the red zone?
Again, you are making things up to try to fit your argument.
A team that is always good oin the red zone, but has a game where it is bad in the red zone is not a team with a sucky red zone scheme.

So now your argument is you can see the future?
What exactly is the 'same type of team' when the last 5 playoff losses have not been to the same types of teams?


Key sign of a weak argument, grasping at straws and calling what you guess someone is thinking a fact.
Why did they pay him 9.5 million this year?

supafly

Not to nitpick your comments, but there are a couple of things that could use some clearing up. The Ravens allowed 7/15 3rd down conversions in the AFCCG, which would have put N.England at #1 in the NFL this year.

I also wouldn't limit their effectiveness to just the Bills/Dolphins either, as they defeated 7 or 8 of the top 10 defenses in 2010, and also had their way with many other good top 10 defenses this year. Here are examples of their effectiveness against SIX of the top 10 defenses in the league this year:

SF-31 pts
SEA-23 pts (should have been at least 26 had it not been for the 10 sec runoff of the first half which occurred within the 10 yd line)
BAL 1-30 pts
HOU 1-42 pts
HOU 2-45 pts
DEN-35 pts
MIA-28 pts




I don't think it's fair to claim that the NEP are ineffective in the red zone, as that is not the case. They had the ball 8x inside the BAL 35, but the wind forced them to punt in 3 of those situations. That normally doesn't happen, neither does the Brady timing gaffe at the end of the half. Either way they had an excellent chance at making it a 20-7 or 16-7 game halfway through the 3rd quarter and failed due to the Welker drop, then again due to the inability to convert on the Pollard personal foul situation.

Back to back weird turnovers didn't help either in the ensuing drives.

Sometimes you just have a bad day, and/or the other team plays better than you. I would argue that the game was determined much more by the fact that Cole was forced to try and cover Boldin, which ended up being a huge downfall for the pass defense which allowed 3 late game TD's.

I agree with you that we could see the same in the playoffs next year after a game or two. After all, the odds greatly increase when you are playing 2-3 quality defenses in a row that they are not going to be able to score 30+ pts. To me, that is a given.

I personally don't think that addition by subtraction with Welker is the way to do this, but you obviously feel differently, so it's really anyone's guess as to what can happen.

One thing I'd keep in mind is that the loss of Welker will probably greatly reduce those gutty first down chain sniffers that you are speaking of earlier in your post though.


EDIT: Sorry, I see that AndyJohnson has addressed some of these topics in his post. This happened while I was typing mine. I don't mean to be redundant.

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supafly

Of course they are...

PFT has lost some credibility in my eyes this year, due to some of their ridiculous speculation and baseless reporting. That said, I'll still likely use their site, but I have learned to take a lot of their stories with a huge grain of salt.

Just the other day we saw a story on how "NE had 35% of their cap tied up in just 3 players." That pointed to us being in some kind of weird cap hell, which isn't the case at all.

They failed to tell the reader that we have 22 players signed before you even get to the 2/3 mark, something that many others teams cannot claim.

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Sciz

Bedard said that he was not going to mention specific free agents, and I think that may have led him to not realize how few options there are for good outside receivers. Assuming we exclude Wallace and Jennings (for being smaller than ideal and very expensive), that leaves:
Dwayne Bowe - 6'2" with 4.40 speed, but has some on-field character question marks, and will also be very expensive
Brian Hartline - 6'2" with 4.50 speed, not really a clear upgrade over Lloyd
Darrius Heyward-Bey - 6'2" with 4.25 speed, but very questionable hands and production

Other than that, I'm not seeing a whole lot at the X position unless we start looking at a trade for a guy like Kenny Britt (which opens another can of worms).

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Patriot Missile

If Britts head was screwed on right he would be a great addition here.

Got a feeling Bowe or Harvin will end up in Seattle.

supafly

I'm wondering if we aren't going to look towards this route on some level (not necessarily Britt) to try and improve through a lower risk/cost system?

Something tells me that when all is said and done, we're going to have to hope that someone either loses their character concerns or steps up talent wise.

We saw Belichick really go hard with bringing in some competition last year, even arguably the year on a lesser level. I'm guessing that continues this year with some guys that many here may write off too early, but could have the ability to work out.

On another note--Harvin or Bowe to SEA could be a scary thought. They look to be on the uprise. I absolutely loved R.Wilson at Wisconsin, despite his concerns about being too short. I'm glad that's one more team outside of the conference, although I would have loved a second crack at them in the SB.

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TomPatriot

Yes, but I am assuming he wants a large raise or gets a much bigger offer elsewhere. He can be a productive role player so it would not be surprising.

patriotsdynasty12189

Cut Tom Brady, fire Bill Belichick, re-sign brian hoyer and start from scratch were no where close to another championship.

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