Lloyd_Christmas

I don't see that as a realistic scenario either!

I highly doubt Gaffney and Gay leave for more money, but neither is irreplacable.

Moss might leave for more money, but it would be really dumb IMO. We could franchise him or just pay him the money he is looking for. If he does leave, we can keep Stallworth. Samuel is probably gone... I'll give you that.

Bruschi and Seau retire? Could happen, but I don't think it is likely that the BOTH do.

Stallworth is icing on the cake so long as we have Moss. If Moss leaves, we keep Stallworth. Washington is easily replaced by C.Jackson IMO.

The only danger I see is the need to get another solid CB and maybe another starting LB or two.

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A Truly Vindictive Fanboy-type Poster

"My name is William Stephen Belichick, Coach of the New England Patriots, Three Time Super Bowl Champion, Defensive Guru, Pride of Karlovac, The Greatest Coach in the History of the NFL Since Vince Lombardi. Target of the spygate lynching, Defender of our Dynasty's legacy. And I will have my vengeance, in this game and the rest."

DaBruinz

Its called REALITY. The Pats regularly redo contracts. The likelyhood that the Pats pick up BOTH Stallworth's and Washington's options without redoing the contracts is NONE.

Most of what I mentioned are things that will happen. They are things that have happened in the past and will happen again. Its how the Pats work the system. You can sit there and say that its a lot of IFs, but its not. Especially when you look at the cap room they had this past year. Much of it was from contracts being redone.

BelichickFan

Wow, that's some good stuff. Sure I would do some things different now - I would have done some things different at the time; and I'm sure Belichick/Pioli would do some things differently now themselves. But considering they're currently running an undefeated team with a good core of young players that should be good for an extended time and for you to be "disgusted" is . . . interesting.

stevepratt

I don't think its fair to strictly look at how many people we drafted and how many made the team as perfect measure for whether or not it was a good draft. We only had a certain amount of "open" spots going into the season. If you look at o-line we had our top 9 returning (starters, hochstein, yates, britt, mcruchoswsi (however the hell you spell it!) So with that being said you are not going to get any free agent o-lineman to come in to simply be insuarance policies. So we needed to draft some in case we had injuries in camp. Once you get down to the 5th, 6th and 7th rounds by no means are you drafting sure things, you are taking chances and some dont pan out. Lua and/or Richardson both could have made the team if it wasnt for injuries.

Real World

All of those players leaving would assume that the Patriots wouldn't franchise Moss or Samuel, and would not pick up any options of which they control. Gay and Gaffney aren't significant losses. Clearly we do have a hole at MILB, and have had one for quite some time. The Patriots don't draft for need though, they draft the best player available. If they drafted for need we'd have taken David Terrell instead of Richard Seymour. I think their record speaks for itself.

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"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
Leo Tolstoy, 1897

ctpatsfan77

No, they draft the player that provides the most value. Often they're the same player, but sometimes not.

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cstjohn17

Not to throw water on your campfire but your ability to predict the Patriot front office moves is on par with every other poster (including me), which is to say average at best. No one has figured these guys out yet. As an example I recall you roundly dismissing the chances of Caldwell or Mills getting cut, as well as fighting with great valor to state that Stallworth's contract was manageable and their was no need to re-work.

I agree with most of what you said but even with $20M carved out there will still be 10-14 positions that must be filled, $20M doesn't go as far as it used to. I stand by my statement that next year is a rebuilding year for the defense, they will still be contenders but not the dominant force they are this year, so might as well enjoy the ride.

Brady-To-Branch

At this point, I'd call Maroney a dissapointment. In general, I'm against drafting RBs in the 1st round. We got a great year from Dillon for a #2 and picked up Antwain Smith and Sammy Morris as low-level FAs. Both were producers. Maroney might never justify his #1 seclection, but he's no "DUD" and he has shown he can play at the NFL level.

CJ was hurt and it's too early to call him a bust. Besides, he's a #2.

Thomas could still turn out to be a great pick. He showed he could play at the NFL level in last year's Jags game. Moreover, he played his rookie season behind establish players, Watson and Graham and is currently on IR with a foot injury. Calling him a "STIFF" tells me you are clueless.

Killing a team for not having #6 picks pan out is silly. At least Willie Andrews has been a force on Teams. Hardly a guy I'd call a "JAG".

Smith is still with the Pats, despite the depth at the position and Mincy is playing with Jacksonville in a 4-3 defense, which suits him.




Meriweather could turn out to be a bust as he hasn't shown the ability to play on the regular D and looked awful in preseason. Seattle pulled victory out of the jaws of defeat a few times last year, which pushed the Pats pick down to #24. The run on DBs in the first round didn't help either.

The 2007 NFL draft class was weak and the Pats recognized it as such and parlayed some of the picks into the following:

A likely top 10 pick in 2008.
Randy Moss
Wes Welker

Not bad, if you ask me.

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