manxman2601

Maybe they didn't think Salas is very good. After all, no-one else does. The Rams traded him to us for a pick two years away. No-one picked him up the first time he was on waivers, we didn't give him a shot and the Phillies only picked him up for the PS.

It's not like teams are lining up to give Salas a shot.

captain stone

Philly claimed him, so he's on their 53, not their PS.

Maybe Salas isn't very good, based on Bill's observations & film study. Fair enough.
The point still remains, unfortunately, that we had literally nobody else ready to take his place,
and have no youth whatsoever in the pipeline, and haven't had any in the last 3 drafts.

Speaking of drafts, how good would Golden Tate look in the Flying Elvis?

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mayoclinic

Tate's a good player, but his numbers haven't been earth shattering so far. 23,35 and 35 catches. Julian Edelman's rookie season was as good as Tate's first 2 years. I think Tate would be a solid player, but I'm not sure he's been all world by any means.

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"OVER Loading at ANY position can create a Fatal Advantage. THAT is what interests ME. Attacking With Concentrated Force. THAT is what WINS. In the words ~ more or less ~ of General Patton: 'I'm fighting a WAR, here. Let the B*****ES worry about their FLANKS.' " - Off the Grid

"The key to any successful organization is to anticipate things, not react to them." - Michael Lombardi

Marqui

Forget Golden Tate, how good would Josh Gordon look in the Flying Elvis?

Sciz

Yeah, put me in the "WTF is captain stone talking about" category. Tate has done nothing to show that he would have been worthy of the 53rd pick, which he still says would have been the right thing to do. I've grown emotionally attached to certain draft prospects over the years (we'll see two of them Monday night), but this is taking things way too far.

Would have cost the Pats' 2013 first to get him, so I think we can file him in the "out of reach" category.

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manxman2601

I'm afraid I disagree with you on the lack of receiving options. Even if the cupboard is a little bare at WR, hope fully we'll head in to the playoffs with Welker, Lloyd, Hernandez and Gronk ready to catch passes from Brady. A.N. Other receiver wouldn't get that much opportunity anyway. And if things become really desperate re-signing Deoin Branch is an option. Yes he's not tremendously productive, but his stats last year are almost as good as Golden Tate has the last two years.

I actually think they messed up last year in those silly and worthless FA signings. Drafting Marvin Jones would have been much more productive than signing three FA WR's and then releasing them before the season started. But what's done is done. Hopefully BB will finally realise that drafting a WR is a necessity. You are right that we need to replenish the pot with some youth.

mayoclinic

Time for a bump again. As the Pats head into the home stretch 10-3 and looking to wrap up a bye and possibly the #1 seed for the 3rd straight year and make another SB run, this team is starting to look dominant. Last night's win over the Texans was obviously the high point of the season. I'm not going to address the draft, but just the priorites and short term plan from the OP:

The secondary, and the pass defense, are well on their way to being fixed. The acquisition of Aqib Talib, the emergence of Alfonzo Dennard, and the move of Devin McCourty to FS have transformed the secondary, and allowed the defense to play a different brand of football than we have seen since the old days. It seems clear that at least some of the frustrations of BBDB and the zone defense stemmed from a lack of confidence in the defensive personnel. These changes should be made permanent: keep McCourty at FS, and extend Talib. I missed the boat on Kyle Arrington: he has been rejuvenated since moving to the slot, and should be extended at reasonable cost. Hopefuly Ras-I Dowling will be able to develop as a 3rd outside CB. I wouldn't mind picking up a FA FS such as Kenny Phillips, but Steve Gregory is playing quite well as a second cover safety now that the assignments are becoming clear. I don't see the need to spend a day 1 or 2 draft pick on a DB at this point.


The DL played an outstanding game last night. The run defense re-emerged wit the return of Chandler Jones. Vince Wilfork has a dominant beast. The level of aggressiveness of the front 7 has improved significantly since the secondary has improved. But I still see these priorities as unchanged. I should have included a coverage LB, though that seems to be improving as well, and Dont'a Hightower is coming along quite nicely. DT is somewhat thin, and Ron Brace was a healthy scratch last night. I don't see him back. Myron Pryor will be under contract next year, but whether he can play is another matter. This is definitely an area to address, IMHO.

Still a priority IMHO. The OL has been stout this season despite injuries, and held its own last night against an elite Texans' DL. Sebastian Vollmer did OK against the unbelievable JJ Watt, and certainly better than he did against Miami. His health needs to be monitored, but he should be a priority re-signing. Donald Thomas and Ryan Wendell have been nice surprises, but there is definitely a need for a swing tackle and youth at guard.

For everyone worried that we had nothing at WR, we had plenty of options last night to overwhelm the Texans. Re-signing WW should be a priority - the man has plenty left for 2-3 more years. He's like Brady - he's too much of a competitor to not be in peak shape for several more years. I was wrong on that one. I was also wrong about Julian Edelman - despite being injury prone, he's a valuable weapon, and needs to be re-signed. Woodhead is valuable, and should be kept. More depth and playmakers is always good.


Not for a while, I hope. Brady hasn't lost anything. He's having an MVP season again. The FO needs to look at "beyond 2014". I don't think the guy we saw last night is walking away after 2 more years. An extension would be nice.

One thought that I mentioned elsewhere, just a wild idea: Matt Cassel will probably be cut by KC and could be available at reasonable cost in KC. IDK if Ryan Mallett will have any trade value, but many teams are QB desperate, and the draft is very weak. If Brady is likely to stay beyond 2014, trade Mallett sooner rather than later and bring back Cassel to back up TB. Then draft someone like AJ McCarron down the road. Just a thought.

Those are my brief thoughts on the priorities/short term plans from the OP, as we head towards the playoffs. We'll see how these change over the next 2 months.

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"OVER Loading at ANY position can create a Fatal Advantage. THAT is what interests ME. Attacking With Concentrated Force. THAT is what WINS. In the words ~ more or less ~ of General Patton: 'I'm fighting a WAR, here. Let the B*****ES worry about their FLANKS.' " - Off the Grid

"The key to any successful organization is to anticipate things, not react to them." - Michael Lombardi

Merril Hoge's Tie Knot

I agree with you on a lot of that, but not Kyle Arrington, and not the WR situation. I can't get back on the Arrington train after a couple good games. He was too awful the first 10-12 weeks. He might be back anyway because of special teams and a lack of offers elsewhere, but he's not a player I would rely on.

This may be semantics, but IMO Welker is not a WR, he's a slot receiver. Just like I insist Hernandez is not a tight end, I insist Welker is not a WR. So out wide I surely think there is a need there.

mayoclinic

Regarding Arrington, I haven't gone so far as to jump on that bandwagon, but I would probably re-sign him if it's at reasonable cost, as opposed to letting him walk, which was my plan before. He's played well enough in the slot, he's good supporting the run, he's a good STer, and there's value to continuity. If he doesn't want to re-sign for low money let him go, but I don't see anyone paying him a lot.



I identified a WR to stretch the field as one of my needs (#4 under priorities). That was separate from re-signing Welker. That hasn't changed.

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"OVER Loading at ANY position can create a Fatal Advantage. THAT is what interests ME. Attacking With Concentrated Force. THAT is what WINS. In the words ~ more or less ~ of General Patton: 'I'm fighting a WAR, here. Let the B*****ES worry about their FLANKS.' " - Off the Grid

"The key to any successful organization is to anticipate things, not react to them." - Michael Lombardi

Merril Hoge's Tie Knot

That's fine. I would do that. I would give him the opportunity to be a pleasant surprise, but I wouldn't rely on him too much. I'd still want to aquire other options if the value makes sense. I really like Devin Smith of Wisconsin.

I guess I focused too much on the commentary from today. I thought this

meant WR wasn't a big concern.