- Joined
- Sep 16, 2004
- Messages
- 12,458
- Reaction score
- 13,185
In 2005, the Patriots achilles' heal was ILB. Bruschi went down in the offseason, and BB replaced him with scrap heap material....Beisel and Brown...with disasterous results.
In 2006, the issue was WR. Givens, Branch, and Johnson moved on and BB once again goes "value" shopping adding Caldwell, Gafney, Gabriel, and drafting Chad Jackson. Brady squeezed out about all he could with this crew, but this group was terrible as a whole and Caldwell's drops are still burned in my mind.
Fast forward to the present and the OLB situation. With the departure of Vrabel, Thomas is the only legitimate starter. Bunta -Cain is a jag third and long situational retread, Woods has only been a sub, and Redd/Crable have yet to make contact.
So here the Patriots stand again with a glaring hole in an otherwise amazing roster of talent. Many may argue that BB addressed the problem by eliminating Hobbs, and adding 4 new faces in the secondary through FA and the draft. Watching games last year, after AD wend down, my eyes told me that even with a few extra seconds of pass rush, no Pats OLB was getting to the QB. They were physically overmatched. Some wil blame the conservative scheme due to newbies at ILB. Didn't change the fact that the OLBs were physically overmatched...no speed, no moves, no power. My eyes were not lying to me.
So, will BB repeat history and allow the team's achilles' heal to derail the ultimate goal, or will he learn from his own recent history and address this hole with ....a legit PROFESSIONAL OLB.
In 2006, the issue was WR. Givens, Branch, and Johnson moved on and BB once again goes "value" shopping adding Caldwell, Gafney, Gabriel, and drafting Chad Jackson. Brady squeezed out about all he could with this crew, but this group was terrible as a whole and Caldwell's drops are still burned in my mind.
Fast forward to the present and the OLB situation. With the departure of Vrabel, Thomas is the only legitimate starter. Bunta -Cain is a jag third and long situational retread, Woods has only been a sub, and Redd/Crable have yet to make contact.
So here the Patriots stand again with a glaring hole in an otherwise amazing roster of talent. Many may argue that BB addressed the problem by eliminating Hobbs, and adding 4 new faces in the secondary through FA and the draft. Watching games last year, after AD wend down, my eyes told me that even with a few extra seconds of pass rush, no Pats OLB was getting to the QB. They were physically overmatched. Some wil blame the conservative scheme due to newbies at ILB. Didn't change the fact that the OLBs were physically overmatched...no speed, no moves, no power. My eyes were not lying to me.
So, will BB repeat history and allow the team's achilles' heal to derail the ultimate goal, or will he learn from his own recent history and address this hole with ....a legit PROFESSIONAL OLB.