aluminum seats

I'm not sure if the fact that Wilfork wasn't 100% against the Ravens has been noted enough. The story of that game, even apart from the freak occurrences in the first quarter, was the Pats’ inability to get the Ravens off the field. However many yards they needed on third down, they would get it, over and over again. The Pats’ run defense was almost unrecognizable from earlier in the season, when Wilfork was healthy.

I was thinking about this regarding the Jets playing on, despite having no QB play to speak of. When the Pats played the Jets in November (seems like years ago), the Pats stifled the Jets’ running game, and that was that—jumped out to a 24-0 lead, held the ball for 40 minutes, and away we go. Now, a couple of months later, if the game was replayed, I think the result would have been quite different. Why? Because Wilfork being hurt would have fundamentally altered the Pats’ defense. (Additionally, the Jets have improved throughout the year and are peaking now, the way the Pats used to do and hopefully will again.)

We’ve also seen that the tremendous turnover the Pats have undergone, particularly on the defensive side, has taken a toll on the overall makeup of the team. Wilfork is a guy who’s been here and who gets it. The last thing the Pats need is to lose somebody like that.

This is one area I don’t want to have some value chart decide we’re better if he leaves town. On a team with a lot of question marks, the guy’s one of the few exclamation points. Pay the man whatever it takes, and spend time dealing with the problem areas.

(By the way, speaking of that Jets’ game, I loved this quote from Revis. “We play those guys straight up but their one-two punch got the best of us….Welker did a triple move that was crazy, man. He's great.” So yeah, Welker was pretty important too.)

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mayoclinic

How important is Brady?

Wilfork is one of the 3-5 most important players on the Pats, and probably the most important player on defense. You can't under-estimate his value.

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"OVER Loading at ANY position can create a Fatal Advantage. THAT is what interests ME. Attacking With Concentrated Force. THAT is what WINS. In the words ~ more or less ~ of General Patton: 'I'm fighting a WAR, here. Let the B*****ES worry about their FLANKS.' " - Off the Grid

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JSn

He's VERY important. That said, the Jets lost their monster in the middle mid-season and are in AFC game.

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emoney_33

I've already shown this wasn't trully the case. The run defense was actually better in the Ravens game than it was the rest of the season as a whole. We had poor run defense in 2009, with or without Wilfork.

They have Mark Sanchez, the gameplan will never be to take him out of the game. It had more to do with focus on the run than with Wilfork taking over. Although yes we are NOT nearly as good without Wilfork.

Wilfork is absolutely the most important part of the defense. I don't feel you used the best examples to show this, but I completely agree with the premise. As long as Wilfork doesn't demand outrageous money, I think the Patriots understand his high value. He's a player that the Patriots will try hard to re-sign IMO. Not to say that there is no price that is too high, but judging by everything we know from the parties involved, I'm pretty confident that a deal will get done.

aluminum seats

I don't understand this.

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"So I'm going to throw myself against the wall...
'Cause I'd rather feel bad than not feel anything at all."

JSn

Me either. One of the more mysterious lines ever typed here...

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WhiZa

Also for what everyone says about Seymour's strength against the run, the team only gave up 3 more yards per game on run defense. While the Pats had to play #1 and #4 best rushing teams in the NFL twice this season.

So how important is he? He definitly makes people better around him, but there is no reason to give him a record breaking contract since the team will still survive without him.

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mayoclinic

Good point. Despite the debacle against Baltimore (when Wilfork wasn't 100%), we did ok against the run this year. We played the #1 (twice), 2, 3, 4 (twice), 5, 6 and 10th rated running teams in the NFL this year, so 9 of our 16 games came against top 10 rushing teams. Weighting the fact that we played the Jets and Dolphins twice, those 9 teams averaged 148.6 YPG. We gave up an average of 110.5 YPG, and in those 9 games we averaged 120.9 YPG, well below their average.

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To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
"OVER Loading at ANY position can create a Fatal Advantage. THAT is what interests ME. Attacking With Concentrated Force. THAT is what WINS. In the words ~ more or less ~ of General Patton: 'I'm fighting a WAR, here. Let the B*****ES worry about their FLANKS.' " - Off the Grid

"The key to any successful organization is to anticipate things, not react to them." - Michael Lombardi

xmarkd400x

Can you substantiate your claim? I just don't see how a game where the opposing QB was 4/10 for like 30 yards and an INT, and we still get shredded, counts as a "better than average" run game for the Pats D.

BelichickFan

I agree on the 3-5 but he's an order of magnitude, maybe two, lower than Brady. If you assumed he were gone, we would have an offseason to replace him and shame on Belichick if he can't. Teams lose NT and do fine. SD lost Williams. Cleveland played a lot better after Rogers went out. The Jest lost theirs and are doing fine. I think Wilfork will be with us in 2010 but if we were to Franchise and Trade him then have FA and the draft to replace him, we should be able to - because other teams are doing it just fine. He's a great run stopped but 2 down run stoppers can be found.