I never said anything about the Pats being cheap. And I am fully aware that we are not the Yankees of the NFL. However, what grinds my gears is that the Pats constantly want free agents to come in on THEIR terms. So basically what ends up happening is we are only able to sign guys in love with the Pats philosophy or players which are perceived as washed up. Sometimes it's okay to overpay for a star althlete, look at the money we wasted on Adalius Thomas or the money Mankins is refusing to take. What gets me really hot is the arrogance with which this team approaches free agents who have not played for them.
When your team is seriously lacking talent at OLB/DE, the staple of the defense, and a superstar becomes available you have to jump all over it, and not bicker about a few more million being left on the table.
You know what I may be wrong, but team has nothing at OLB even TBC is a situation pass rusher at best. This lack of talent at OLB will bit us in the @ss all season long, and it did not have to be this way. Sometimes we just need a great superstar instead of 5 average players.
You know, you kind of contradict your own point by bringing up the money "wasted" on Adalius Thomas. He was the Julius Peppers of that free agency crop, and the Pats broke the bank for him, the way you wanted them to do for Peppers.
Let's also remember that 3 or 4 years before the Thomas signing, the Pats also went after, and landed, the premiere pass-rusher in that free agency class -- Rosevelt Colvin. In other words, twice in his tenure, Belichick has gone after a star pass rusher, and outbid the competition to land him.
Your theory of "arrogance" and bickering over a few million dollars runs counter to the actual facts.
The problem isn't that the front office has refused to do what you want them to, it's that they've done it twice, and both times, rolled snake eyes. Nobody could have known that Rosey was going to shatter his hip and never be the same player again. The case of Adalius Thomas' disappointment is more complicated. Maybe, in retrospect, it was a mistake to put his versatility to the test and move him to ILB his first year with the Pats. Of course, maybe if he hadn't gotten hurt halfway through '08, and had the double-digit sack season he was on pace for, and thus hadn't been branded a disappointment by the local sports media, perhaps he wouldn't have gone off the reservation the way he did.
We'll never know. Every draft pick, every free agent acquisition, is a roll of the dice, a chance a team takes whose outcome depends on an incalculable number of different factors. So, neither of the Pats' two big splurges at the DE/OLB position panned out. That sucks, and if you want to blame Belichick for some of it, we can talk about his handling of the Thomas' situation. But it's just ridiculous to act like the team hasn't shown a willingness to go out and sign a premiere pass rusher.
but no, I totally agree with the OP that the Pats need a major disruptor on defense--the kind of player that's been missing since perhaps Willie McGinest. The bend don't break 2 gap defense is getting us nowhere. We needed players on D this year, but chose yet again to bring in a bunch of bodies instead. I am just so tired of not seeing a guy that scares opposing teams have to always account for.
