emoney_33

lucky that Gaffney worked out and stupid for gambling on Branch playing out his contract... nice.

Of course you just sit there and assume that a Moss or Welker was available in 2006. So what should they have done EXACTLY in 2006? Would your plan have hindered them from getting/paying Moss/Welker in 2007. Would your smarter-than-BB plan have made the 2006 team better while making the 07, 08, 09, etc.. teams worse?

sg14

The word on the street in Seattle is none of these WRs can get open, maybe Burleson, so Branch is definitely a goner.

Haselback has had alot of interceptions, but folks like Millen don't lay too much blame at his feet.

klinefan

Interesting that they were talking to Hugh Millen. He's a former Pats QB back in the early 90s. I thought he was pretty good, but he didn't play long.

His wife was the head cheerleader or something.

Age has apparently caught up with Branch-aroo. So much for getting him here for that old chemistry as someone wanted to do. Age and injuries are merciless.

robertweathers

Huh? Gaffney was out of football after being cut by Houston. It's wasn't like he was a blue-chip, 12:01AM signing.

Never said BB was stupid. He miscalculated Branch's resolve and wasn't proactive enough in replacing the talent at WR.

And you can sit there and safely assume that quality, veteran WRs wern't available for reasonable dollars via trade or FA from February to the start of TC in 06? C'mon.

Would have dumped Branch around the draft and been more proactive in getting a quality WR to augment the loss of Branch and Givens. That way you have a full off-season of passing camp, MTAs and a full training camp to get the new WR integrated into the offense.

__________________
“I'm not really concerned about the other 31 teams,” - Bill Belichick

"If a player has talent and doesn't succeed, that means that they either don't want to be successful or I have failed as a coach." - Bill Belichick

emoney_33

I can safely sit here and say that the exact circumstances led us to getting Moss and Welker. I don't know who or what was available exactly, and I don't know how much they tried. I'm not the one assuming they didn't do or try enough. Who knows if they tried to get a ton of other guys but there just simply was nothing worth it at the time. You just assume that because 06 ended up as it was that in hindsight they screwed something up.

So you know for a fact that

A) They didn't shop Branch around draft time
B) YOU could have gotten better than a 1st rounder for him around draft time
C) They sat back and weren't proactive in attempting to look at WR talent in multiple places
D) YOU would have been able to find something, but you can't say what

batbl18

I thought Houston never re-signed Jabar after his contract ran out following the 05 season. The Eagles signed him in March 06, the day after they got rid of TO, and then cut him in September. The Patriots then signed him in October.

sg14

Millen is a University of Washington guy,, pretty sure he is from the local area, local to Seattle. In the Seattle area we have Millen and Huards for the football talk shows,,

Have been wondering if Millen was still married to that cheerleader,,

satz

what would people supporting branch think if vince ,mankins ,brady to name a few playing the last year of their contract decide to hold out.

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robertweathers

I have never integrated the outcome of 06 or have said, "if they had Branch they would have won" - You said that. My contention is that they did not do enough to replace Branch. End of story.

I can also safely say that at the start of the season BB did not intend his top 3 WRs to be Reche Caldwell, Doug Gabriel, a declining Troy Brown. If you don't believe that you are a fool.


I'm certain that after they rejected the 6yr/$18m/8m bonus over two years, they thought about it and even perhaps even listened to teams. If you recall, at the start of the bidding for Branch, they wanted 2 #1s. Entirely possible that the Pats overplayed their hand during the draft thus not consummating a deal/trade.

Who knows. Could you have done better? My point is that they were substandard at the WR position to start the season b/c the Pats miscalculated the Branch situation and left themselves very little room to improve the roster before TC.

The did not do enough or go far enough to replace the talent at the position from the previous year.

Like I said, the team got stuck with Caldwell and Gabriel as their starting WRs. I'd be willing to bet you a beer that BB would do that one over if he knew Branch was going to play hardball.

99% of the time, BB is proactive. He wasn't in this case, but was fortunate that he could pick up Gaffney, get him to know the offense just enough so that he could help the team in the playoffs-which he did.

__________________
“I'm not really concerned about the other 31 teams,” - Bill Belichick

"If a player has talent and doesn't succeed, that means that they either don't want to be successful or I have failed as a coach." - Bill Belichick

emoney_33

Forget it, it's hopeless. You can sit there and say they miscalculated it all you want, but that's just pure armchair hindsight. If you believe they should expect a player who is under contract to refuse to play then that is your problem. I think they would have been perfectly happy going with Branch for 2006. You accuse them of gambling and miscalculating because BRANCH acted like a whiny baby and refused to play.

You give 0 examples of what they should have done, and sit there with your 20-20 hindsight claiming they did SOMETHING wrong. I never said BB wanted to go with Caldwell/Gabriel, but it is YOU who is claiming it is BB's fault they did. You still can't see that your point is all predicated around your 20-20 hindsight of Branch holding out.

We would all do things differently if we had a crystal ball and knew the future.