PATRIOTSFANINPA

While the loss of Brady was the biggest loss in the BB era if not in NE sports history, I think Asante Samuel departing for more money could have been a big mistake on the team letting him go especially since there was enough cap space for it to happen - I do not know if it would have caused problems with the cap in future years but looking at this for this particular year I wish we could have figured a way to do it without much damage to the cap.

We have seen that you can no longer replace good players with JAGs and off the street players like the team used to,those days are over IMO

You can't replace Brady with a high school quarterback and obviously you can't replace Samuel with a Bengals reject - We survived the Duane Starks project but I don't think its as easy this time.

The minute Rivers immediately passed in the direction of O'Neal for the huge gain on the first play I realized and remembered that San Diego did not usually go to Samuel's side of the field when they played them the last 2 years and picked on Hobbs instead but Hobbs played well anyway,but they knew O'Neal was not very good so with the loss of Samuel the Chargers unloaded all game towards O'Neal's way - They must have knew O'Neal would be overmatched.

I think after Brady the second biggest loss this team has endured for the past 6 years has been the loss of Samuel

Samuel had been injured earlier for the Eagles but that does not mean it would have been the same if he had still been here

Would Asante's presence have been a difference in the Miami and San Diego games?,maybe not but you would have to think the opposing offense would have planned differently down field.

maryjane

don't think so. He's a part of the machine, but not THE part that justifies 10M per year. Or whatever he wanted. When you can't get any pressure at all on a QB, then that's just pathetic. Pats are too old and slow on defense, that's all there is to it.

captadamnj

Losing Samuel was a loss of a good corner, no doubt. What Samuel wanted didn't fit the Patriots way, however, simple as that. No matter what the team loses short term, the ownership and coaching staff have made it clear that they will not exercise a live for today attitude. This is a tough pill for some to swallow, but it is ok by me.

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PATRIOTSFANINPA

The Patriots have only 4 players on defense 30+ years old so I don't think they are so old on defense but indeed they are very slow off theball and that is the problem - reaction time,not age

maryjane

I agree but comments like that will get you shot around here. Or banned. OR called a troll.

j00fek

lookin like its very big for this D

italian pat patriot

i thought we would have been fine also without him but probably i was wrong

Va_Pats_Fan

But you have to measure what paying AS 10M would do to the current team. Pioli will noy play close to the cap, and the pats usually have a 2 - 4 million reserve. So, to keep Asante, we need to shave 7 or 8 Mil from the cap.


When you do that, is the team better?

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dhamz

The question wasn't really whether to let him go or not when the price is 10m a year.

The question is how much were they hurt by really not doing much to replace him. The signed some JAG free agents and drafted a couple players who I don't think anyone expected to start year 1.

Sicilian

Short term, a huge loss. I don't think he was worth $10m a year, but he was still our best playmaker on defense. With the offense struggling, we could really use a playmaker.

Long term, very minimal loss. Being competitive year in and year out means not overpaying for players, even if that means you won't be as good as you could be for one particular year.