the taildragger

Dear posters who called me names last week,

I hope you now understand why I became pessimistic last week...

By allowing Deion to shop around, the Pats threw all of their leverage out the window. How? By making Branch genuinely disgruntled. YOU CAN'T KEEP A DISGRUNTLED PLAYER...regardless of his contract status.

Last week, this obviously became WAY too contentious to be reconciled -- and it's now heading rapidly towards its inevitable conclusion -- a release (as per terms determined by league arbitrator).

You can BLAME Chayut/Branch all you want for believing they were worth more than the FO's intial offered (ALL INITIAL OFFERS ARE LOWBALLED). Branch played hardball and "walked out of the dealership." The Pats played hardball by not countering their initial offer. But by simply deciding not to return with his tail between his legs (a risk the Pats never seemed to consider), Branch has forced the FO's hand.

I do not believe he will ever play in navy and silver again.

That probably makes most of you happy. But, if we'd been willing to budge at all, this was potentially avoidable. Nobody seems to be able to look at Branch's value in terms of FUTURE cap levels -- that's how Chayut was looking at it -- the Pats obviously didn't want to go there.

That's business...welcome to the NFL.

We'll make due without him -- Childress might be a decent fill-in -- but we would've been flat out awesome with him.

Let's keep our fingers crossed on Jackson...the quicker he becomes an impact player the better.

PATRIOTS-80

Deion was disgruntled before. Now we made him GENUINELY disgruntled. I clearly see the difference.

And as far as not keeping a disgruntled player, we will because we are going to franchise him. We probably will own his rights until next years draft.

40yrpatsfan

I don't agree. There were no talks happening, which was not a good thing from the team's standpoint. This was a way to get some action, and it worked.

This is a negotiation. Some posters are a little too close to it right now and don't have the stomach for it. And Felger and Borges are way off base.

But there's at least a 50-50 chance that the sides get together in the next week, and after that it will like nothing ever happened.

If not, then Branch will be the loser.

RayClay

Chayut wouldn't negotiate. What would you have done?

Let me guess. Give them whatever they want even though he's under contract.

I do think this strategy made Branch disgruntled. With his agent.

__________________

jct

1) Branch made Branch Disgruntled.
2) A release will never be awarded.
3) Why is it ok to Blame the Pats when a lowlife refuses to keep his word?
4) He will pay dearly for holding out.
5) Branch is overated, 668yd ave from BRADY throwing to him, and OFTEN injured.
6) How could you possibly balme the Pats when Branch never counterofferred?
7) Truly no one knows what will happen, whether he grows a brain fires his agent and returns, or reports for week ten and the SB run, only to be franchised for next year and then traded.
8) I believe that we can be Flat out awesome without him O-line, RBs, TEs

PATSNUTme

Dear the taildrager,

Could you list the names that you were called last wek. I missed it and would enjoy knowing what they were.
Thank you

RI Pats Fan

I disagree. At the end of the week, nothing happened and the advantage didn't sway one way or another. It's a complete standstill which is why you see so many posters going luney. The worst news has been no news for them. Who knows when this will get resolved. Week 10 might not even be the end of it.

BelichickFan

I'm not sure Branch got a legit big offer. According to the one link that was posted, the jesters were the only ones to actually make an offer and it had a "funky structure".

5 Rings for Brady!!

I have a theory which I don't believe is very far-fetched.

I think that Chayut is trying to pull a power play by going to a Player's Association which is openly ANTI-PATRIOT, and trying to pull a dirty trick on the Pats thru league politics.

We all know that Gene Upshaw badmouthed the living crap out of Belichick about three weeks ago in the Boston media. We all hopefully realize by now that Tom Condon used influence on Upshaw to impose a bunch of so-called 'Patriot Clauses' into the new CBA agreement, all of which essentially took away certain powers of a team to retain rookie employees. We also know that Chayut and his ball-clown Borges have taken up the 'Patriots Suck' mantra, and repeatedly talked about the new 'Patriot Clauses' in the CBA.

So why wouldn't these self-righteous clowns all get together in an effort to screw the Pats out of their rights to Deion?

Am I the only one that thinks the NFLPA is jumping for joy at the chance to take a pound of flesh out of the Patriots Front Office?

Am I the only one that thinks this could actually end badly for the Pats?

I am inclined to agree with Taildragger that the Pats opened up a potential can of worms, although that was NOT their intent. It's all rather unseamly, IMO.

upstater1

If there was a 50/50 chance, then why did Chayut file a grievance?

You can't ignore that.