BlitzFritz

I thought he did a great job of building depth thru the draft on the defensive side of the ball, especially secondary. And he brought in some high potential free agents on both sides of the ball eg shawn springs, fred taylor.

For me, he struck out in two critical moves.

1. Burgess. He was supposed to be a beast pass rusher, added late in the game to fill the one missing piece. A 3rd and a 5th. The perfect complement to TBC and AD. Unfortunately, Burgess made very few plays, and our pass rush was a real liability all year long. I give BB an A for effort (I was thrilled when he made the move) and a C- for impact.

2. Galloway. He was supposed to be this years Stallworth (or Gaffney). Raw speed to complement Moss and Welker. Again, he didnt pan out, wasnt able to adjust or run routes consistently.

If those two had been as billed, we would have been an elite team.

agree?

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"If you counted out the Patriots, you just don't get it." Adam Schein, September 2008

“We are building a big, strong, fast, smart, tough and disciplined football team that. consistently competes for championships.” Guess who.

Jangles

Does anyone agree with me that when the Pats approaced Galloway he had visions of being this years Randy Moss from 2007?

Then when it didn't happen he just said to hell with it

Mogamedogz

Not taking Clay Matthews was a pretty solid WIFF imo.

The_Riddler

We all saw Clay's impact already and we'll have to watch it for the next 8-10 years and we'll always say "What If?" After dealing Vrabel, it seemed like such a lock, Clay Matthews to replace Vrabel and all is well. Nope, we get a Patrick Chung who hardly saw the field as Clay was making plays game after game for the Packers. Hard to believe and it will haunt us for years. C'mon BB, we need better than that.

R_T26

The problem with the "high potential" free agents last year, is that they were mostly coming off unproductive years. We also talked ourselves into being positive.

Springs- not bad, not sure why he was ever benched for Whilhite but...
Taylor- Guy has always been injury prone, BB showed too much patience in wasting a roster spot waiting for Taylor to get healthy, just to sit him in the Playoffs.

Galloway- 37 years old who was coming off an injury and unproductive year.

Burgess-this was wishful thinking considering his numbers have declined steadily and people were saying he already lost a step.

These things make me a little nervous along with the
draft.

The Dynasty

To Burgess' defense ever since he got sent home from practice I thought his play stepped up and he played much better. He was essentially replacing Vrabel. Burgess had 5 sacks Vrabel had 2. I am not saying that we couldnt have got a better replacement for Vrabel than Burgess because we could have, but Burgess didnt really have that bad of a season. He strugged early on but got his act together.

Galloway just didnt work out. You cannot expect every FA signing to work out. Even with the WR's that we had I feel like we could have been a contender. We had the best 1-2 WR combo in the game in Moss and Welker. The main issue for me this season was the lack of an OC. This played a much bigger factor than people think. It effected the entire offensive and the way it flowed.

I dont think you can say that Galloway and Burgess not working out to their full potential made the Pats not be an elite team

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"It is what it is" -Bill Belichick

"...as the head coach I can kind of do whatever I want. If I want to coach the punters, I can go coach the punters. If I want to watch the offensive guards, I can watch the offensive guards." - Bill Belichick

StraightCashHomey81

I agree with this post.

Having any live body 3rd WR who could play on the outside and this team would have had two more wins in the regular season. Aiken and Stanback both proved this they are just not NFL caliber WRs. Gaffney or even Reche Caldwell (yup, I said it) would have been infintely better.

Burgess not working out was a killer, but it was the only move that could have been made at that point, save for the extreme meausure of trading for Peppers. Looking back in August, and even the onset of Free Agency, I don't see any better move BB could have made to remedy the pass rush. Did anyone of the rookie binky OLBs play that well this year, save for Orakpo?

I also felt the secondary this year was quite solid considering the anemic pass rush, and Burgess' dissapoint left them hanging out to dry far too often this year.

I also don't get all the hype about Clay Matthews this year. Did he "flash" at times as a pass rusher? Sure. But I started watching some of NFLN replays of Packers games, and they guy couldn't set the edge in the run game at all. He lacks the lower body strength and length to do so. So pump the brakes on comparing "Chung over Matthews" to "Bowie over Jordan". I know people are still bristling at BB's "6'4 w/ 4.6 speed" requirement after the 09 Draft, but I think it has some merit, especially when it comes to setting the edge in the run game.

onegr8om

I couldn't agree with you MORE!! Well written.

upstater1

Matthews = Darius Butler, Brandon Tate, Edelman and this year's #2 from the Titans or Jags (I forget which one)

If Edelman becomes our slot guy, Tate our #4 WR, Darius Butler a lockdown corner, and we land say OLB Eric Norwood with this year's pick, you'll be very hard pressed to say they should have taken Matthews. It's still too early to make those suggestions.

supafly

Great point, and a good way of looking at it, especially in terms of the future.