Ty Law was how much cap space??? I thought THAT was the reason he was cut..a LARGE bloated salary...That sounds good in theory until you realize it would have cost a LOT of money...who do you wish they NOT have had???? If you are going to add Ty Law..who do you subtract?? THAT really is the key to what you are saying...I don't know what the deal was with Traylor..why they dropped him..But I do not think his being with the squad would have made a big difference..SOME yes..but not really earth shattering...enough for a Superbowl. Law would have been a good addition..but NOT at the 10 mil plus number.

The point I was really driving at was the qualifying wanting Law back with 'at the right price'.

Wouldnt the right price be what we can afford on the cap?
And given our cap situation we should be able to outbid other teams.
That would end up being more than the 'right price' if we didn't have excess cap room.

Put another way, if in a vacuum Laws value to the Pats is 5mill a year, and the market dictates it will take 8 mill to sign him, if we could afford 8mill under the cap, wouldn't 8mill be the right price?

I may not be saying this very clearly.

I guess I am trying to distinguish between wanting Law only if we can afford, or wanting Law only if we "Win the negotations".
If Ty Law has us by the b@lls in negotations, and forces BB to pay more than he deems Law's value to be, but what he can afford, do you do it?
Better to overspend by a mill or to get the guy who will help you or refuse to overpay and get no one?

I dont get the Traylor thing. He was CUT, it had nothing to do with $$.
BB decided that he did not want Traylor on his team.

Why would we have been better with him?
Personally, I thought he was horrible in 2004 anyway. He was not a good fit for our system. He would show up making some plays in the backfield, but the truth is that was because free lanced and didnt keep his gap discipline.
For every play in the backfield he made, there were 2 more where he freelanced his way out of position and hurt us.

Interesting question. This is how I feel about Branch.

If you mean the cost of Branch, whatever it is, outwieghs the potential damage of losing him I agree.

Heres another way to look at it.

Brady is the best QB in the NFL. Hypothetically, and if he wasnt who he is, being the best means he costs $2mill more than the 2nd best. But he wants 3 mill more.
Do you want Brady plus what you can use the 3mill on or the 2nd best QB.

IMO, there are players that you need to overpay. Not necessarily because they are a Brady, but also because of the gap to the replacement.

The discussion on trading Branch fits this. Lets say we could trade Branch for a #1 next year, or let him play out his contract and become a FA next year.

There is certainly value in getting the #1 pick, but what does that do to this year?
Is sacrificing this year worth it to gain things in the future? To me it is not.

I personally don't really care how much Law would have cost to keep last year if it was at all able to be done, because I feel that if we beat the Broncos and one or two other teams during the regular season, we really would have had home field advantage and a bi-week. We would have been a game closer to the superbowl, and maybe not playing in Denver. I didn't say we would win it, but I bet we might have gotten there with Ty. To me, not being a cap expert or anything, I wish they kept him. Maybe Miguel knows all the numbers, and knows better!

As far as Traylor, he played good enough in the 2004 playoffs, and we only needed him for the games that Seymour went down. He would have helped in some of those games, and his cost was veteran minimum.

As far as signing Law this year, I just can't believe that the Pats wouldn't have tried already after having him for an exam, unless they just don't want him. Most likely, he already got an offer or at the very least, a 'ball park' offer over the phone to give him an idea of what the Pats consider reasonable, and is awaiting a larger counter-offer. If the Pats want him, they will match or beat Kansas's offer. Ty will make sure to let them beat it, because he won't leave a penny on the table.

Even if the Pats never hinted at any numbers, they are then waiting to find out what Kansas or other teams offer.

I feel that if we are willing to overpay him this year, then we should have been willing to last year. I don't know if we really would have had to replace other people on his behalf, but it may have been worth it, IMHO. I am willing to overpay him a little this year, if his physical was okay.

When discussing using money to sign Branch, I feel Koppen, Samuels, Graham and other potential FA's fo rnext year should also be mentioned.

We have enough money to sign them all and Ty Law as well, if we want too.

We outbid the Ravens for Mason last year, so it is not a willingness to spend issue in my mind either.

Were it my decision to make, I would have Koppen and Branch resigned as well as Ty Law in camp from day one.

I am quite confident they already know exactly what they plan to do and are in process of putting it all together, there is no doubt that off the field - the Patriot brain trust is second to none. Is great to sit back and watch it al play out.

I'm sick and tired fo Ty Law! I'm sick of him playing one team against the other as if all the NFL front offices are a bunch of 12 years olds. And what's this crap about him holding out until after training camp just so he doesn't have to work hard and go through two a days!

Screw' em! Didn't we win a sb without him? He's become too much of a prima donna! How can we ask other vets on the team to take vet min or less money, and then turn around and pay this jerk big money?

And I don't buy this crap about us winning another sb if we had him last year. He didn't help the jets very much! And I think it's pretty safe to say that if we had Seymour, Bruschi and Harrison we would have had a better chance to get there too.

Sign the players who've been working hard with the team these past couple of years! Branch, Koppen and them, They deserve it more than Mr Money Bags!

Andy...I agree with you now about Law...was trying to distinguish between last season keeping him for LARGE dollars and this year...I think this year we get Ty back...

Ty Law with Jets: 10 interceptions

Patriots defense combined: 10 interceptions