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PatsBoy12

Thank you for this post. It was such a telling and insightful read.

DarrylS

TC is and has been one of my favorite writers, who really understands the subtlety of the Patriots... except when he reported on Brady's knee..

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"Being the best doesn't mean you always win. It just means you win more than anyone else".. tweet from Kurt Warner to Tom Brady.

lostjumper

That's a really good article by Curran. Hopefully this will quiet some of the TEH PATS DON"T PAY!!! crowd for a while...

xmarkd400x

I'd love to see a breakdown in the form of a box-and-whisker plot of player salaries.

I bet the Patriots' 2nd and 3rd quartiles would be large, with few outliers.

I'd also love to see it compared to other teams in the NFL.

Mr. Pollard

Problem is, they spend it on the wrong people.

You pay a CB like Asante Samuel whose entering his prime.

emoney_33

No, no you don't. Samuel has not, and never will, earn the money he is making.

You don't pay big money for the top of the roster unless those players have a significant enough impact.

Your argument is that a high paid top of the roster is better than a high paid middle roster, so would you say that the Redskins (and Patriots pre-2000) are better than the Patriots of this decade?

The Dynasty

I think a lot of people look into AD's contract as their basis on making statements like that. For the majority they pay the big money for the right players, AD really the only example of the Pats spending a lot of money on the wrong guy.

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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

Ochmed Jones

I agree, you only pay top dollar for "Franchise" players. (Brady and Seymour for example)

Then you build a strong middle tier support player system.

The problem I think BB ran into was that he stuck with these middle tier core players way too long and didn't replenish a couple of them with draft picks. 9A few players per year)

When the group got old, BB had mass turnover, especailly on defense and got torched.

I think BB's old philosophy was to to draft for replacements a year before the existing player hits FA. But because he hung onto the veterans and didn't rotate in fresh blood, it all blew up on him.

And if he didn't rotate in the fresh blood due to a talent drop off, then BB has a serious scouting and evaluation issue to re-examine. It probably wouldn't hurt if BB hired a few capable front office bodies to help lessen his workload.

Metaphors

100% agree and that impact is going to be different depending on the team/scheme. Asante's value is his ability to freelance and create turnovers...not as a straight-up cover guy. That makes his value much higher for Philly than it is for the Pats. Even with Philly, Asante's limitations are frequently on display when their blitzing, pressing, aggressive schemes are not controlling the game.

As for AD, the Pats paid for his ability to create a significant impact but they didn't consider his mentality and buy-in to the scheme he would be playing in. That is a mistake, but it happens. Put AD with Philly or the Jets and you would get a much better return for your money.

I also hear Colvin and AD lumped together. They were both big money FAs but that is where the similarity ends. Colvin bought in completely to the Pats scheme but injury hampered his progress early. By the time injuries effectively ended his career, he was extremely effective in the Pats scheme. So while AD was a clear mistake due to his head/heart, Colvin was just a case of bad circumstances.