A Couple Of Modest Proposals: move McCourty back to CB, or franchise Talib

[mgteich]

We are short 3 corners and a safety.

Perhaps we need to consider moving McCourty back to corner and be short 2 corners and 2 safeties.

This plan requires less resources than others. For example, we could re-sign Arrington and Cole (and/or their upgrades) and also add a couple of safeties (ideally one from free agency and one from the draft.

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Or we can simply decide to franchise Talib.

 

[Ring 6]

We are short 3 corners and a safety.

Perhaps we need to consider moving McCourty back to corner and be short 2 corners and 2 safeties.

This plan requires less resources than others. For example, we could re-sign Arrington and Cole (and/or their upgrades) and also add a couple of safeties (ideally one from free agency and one from the draft.

=====

Or we can simply decide to franchise Talib.

Why franchise Talib rather than signing him at half the first year cap cost?

 

[Jimke]

We are short 3 corners and a safety.

Perhaps we need to consider moving McCourty back to corner and be short 2 corners and 2 safeties.

This plan requires less resources than others. For example, we could re-sign Arrington and Cole (and/or their upgrades) and also add a couple of safeties (ideally one from free agency and one from the draft.

=====

Or we can simply decide to franchise Talib.

McCourty will probably be moved back if Dennard is found guilty and gets a jail or prison sentence.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Adding two safeties is probably a bad idea seeing as one of them needs to be the QB in the secondary and that means a system veteran. Not sure Gregory is up for taking care of his own business let alone everyone else's.

I think they have to be in limbo until they know the situation with Dennard. And I think Talib can be replaced easier than locating another safety to essentially direct the unit on the field. You don't weaken two positions in a desperate attempt to shore up one unless you're given no alternative. I think Talib would be fine aside from the fact that he's not a guy you have enough confidence in to commit $10M in guaranteed money, be that signing bonus or franchise tag. Not sure he's talented or durable enough to pay that price for one year, and he doesn't have the track record you'd want to see from a guy your committing to on a 5 year deal even at below market money. You'd still want some protections woven in to any contract you signed him to, although someone with a lot more cap may be willing to get around that via frontloading a deal and rolling the dice. Otherwise you look for a viable alternative.

I have a feeling this team is presently willing to sit back and let the market speak and deal with the fallout even if it means they lose 3-4 UFA. Hopefully they are guessing right, although that hasn't been their strong suit for some time now. If not the FA market for corners might still yield just enough and the draft is looking good for safeties. And both provide options at OL. WR will be the toughest hole to fill if they let Welker walk.

 

[Helmet2Helmet]

So the general consensus is Tavon Wilson is hopeless?

 

[Avenger]

So the general consensus is Tavon Wilson is hopeless?

I think he had a good year for a rookie safety in a Belichick defense.

 

[Deus Irae]

We are short 3 corners and a safety.

Perhaps we need to consider moving McCourty back to corner and be short 2 corners and 2 safeties.

This plan requires less resources than others. For example, we could re-sign Arrington and Cole (and/or their upgrades) and also add a couple of safeties (ideally one from free agency and one from the draft.

=====

Or we can simply decide to franchise Talib.

Or....

Keep McCourty at safety
Sign a CB1 (Talib or other)
Re-sign Arrington
Draft Safety in round 1

Just doing that gives you plenty of safeties (rookie replaces Chung) and sets up the team at CB1, CB2 and CB3/CB4. At that point, they can bring in the annual parade of CB3/CB4 wannabes and find one that sticks, while hoping that Dowling isn't already a broken china doll and also has some game left in him.

There's no need to franchise Talib. In fact, I'll look at any decision to franchise Talib over Welker as evidence that the Jets have gotten to the Patriots brain trust with some sort of mind altering (and dumbing down) substance.

 

[supafly]

So the general consensus is Tavon Wilson is hopeless?

How Belichick feels about Wilson's year and progression here during that time will likely be one of the bigger variables in how he may approach the situation.

Personally, I think it's way too early to be able to tell much one way or another regarding Wilson and his future. One good thing is that he received some valuable reps, more than Meriweather did when taken in the first round that year. Of course there were other issues that forced that to happen, mainly the competition in front of him, but regardless he did receive some decent looks for a first year player.

I think he did some things well, and also obviously had some growing pains too, but I can't see how anyone could give up on him or say that he's hopeless after one rookie year.

 

[supafly]

Perhaps we need to consider moving McCourty back to corner and be short 2 corners and 2 safeties.

Keep in mind that there were reports during training camp from both Greg Bedard and SMY that stated their sources claimed that Belichick wanted to keep McCourty at FS all along from the start of the mini-camps, but could not due to his concern about adequate depth at CB last season.

We don't know if those reports are true or not but they exist, so it's something to keep in mind.

I would have to assume that Belichick will plan on some continuity from keeping him at safety for now and to start the season, and only change that plan if significant injury forces him to do so. That's just my guess though, but it's hard to ignore the better play of the secondary which has now happened two years in a row by moving McCourty to safety---with and without Talib.

 

[Avenger]

Keep in mind that there were reports during training camp from both Greg Bedard and SMY that stated their sources claimed that Belichick wanted to keep McCourty at FS all along from the start of the mini-camps, but could not due to his concern about adequate depth at CB last season.

We don't know if those reports are true or not but they exist, so it's something to keep in mind.

I would have to assume that Belichick will plan on some continuity from keeping him at safety for now and to start the season, and only change that plan if significant injury forces him to do so. That's just my guess though, but it's hard to ignore the better play of the secondary which has now happened two years in a row by moving McCourty to safety---with and without Talib.

more safeties were signed/drafted than corners, that scenario does not go with the actions they took.

 

[supafly]

more safeties were signed/drafted than corners, that scenario does not go with the actions they took.

After what date though? They weren't speaking about anything pre-summer.

My general understanding from reading the articles were that they wanted to have him lined up at safety in June for minis and definitely by training camp at the end of July.

 

[Ring 6]

Keep in mind that there were reports during training camp from both Greg Bedard and SMY that stated their sources claimed that Belichick wanted to keep McCourty at FS all along from the start of the mini-camps, but could not due to his concern about adequate depth at CB last season.

HOLD ON, those were not REPORTS of what BB wanted, they were articles speculating what the writers thought BB wanted. There is a tremendous difference.

We don't know if those reports are true or not but they exist, so it's something to keep in mind.

I would have to assume that Belichick will plan on some continuity from keeping him at safety for now and to start the season, and only change that plan if significant injury forces him to do so. That's just my guess though, but it's hard to ignore the better play of the secondary which has now happened two years in a row by moving McCourty to safety---with and without Talib.

He played more corner than safety this year, so Im mot sure putitng him at safety is a case of continuity.

 

[Ring 6]

After what date though? They weren't speaking about anything pre-summer.

My general understanding from reading the articles were that they wanted to have him lined up at safety in June for minis and definitely by training camp at the end of July.

Again, there were no reports of knowledge of what BB wanted to do. There were articles saying what they think BB wanted to do.
There was never any information from the organizatoin, just writers speculation.

 

[supafly]

I found reference to it again in October after McCourty moved to FS during the Jets game, but this wasn't the initial report that I had read earlier in the season at the end of the summer:

"which the Boston Globe's Greg Bedard and Shalize Manza Young reported was the team's intention prior to the season and before the Patriots saw a lack of depth at cornerback."

Devin McCourty’s Switch to Safety Could Finally Tie Patriots’ Struggling Secondary Together | New England Patriots | NESN.com

 

[supafly]

Again, there were no reports of knowledge of what BB wanted to do. There were articles saying what they think BB wanted to do.
There was never any information from the organizatoin, just writers speculation.

All I'm saying is that there were reports from Bedard and SMY who's sources claimed that's what Belichick wanted to do, and I've been clear in stating that from my first post on the last page.

About 9/10 of all reports throughout the season is a writer claiming to have a source.

I'm certainly not claiming that is what Belichick said, just that there were reports from Bedard and SMY that claimed the organization wanted to do that. It wasn't really an opinionated piece, it was more of a claim that they had sources which confirmed this.

Like any report we read, we don't know if it's true or not because we can't ask Belichick.

 

[Ring 6]

I found reference to it again in October after McCourty moved to FS during the Jets game, but this wasn't the initial report that I had read earlier in the season at the end of the summer:

"which the Boston Globe's Greg Bedard and Shalize Manza Young reported was the team's intention prior to the season and before the Patriots saw a lack of depth at cornerback."

Devin McCourty’s Switch to Safety Could Finally Tie Patriots’ Struggling Secondary Together | New England Patriots | NESN.com

Why are you using an article saying what they think another article said?
Go to the actual article. They did not report that those were the teams intentions, they speculated that they thought it was.

 

[Ring 6]

All I'm saying is that there were reports from Bedard and SMY who's sources claimed that's what Belichick wanted to do, and I've been clear in stating that from my first post on the last page.

Again, I think if you go to the article you will see it is their opinion, not inside infornation. Like many opinions and speculation it has been regurgiatated as information over time.

 

[supafly]

I found reference to it again in October after McCourty moved to FS during the Jets game, but this wasn't the initial report that I had read earlier in the season at the end of the summer:

"which the Boston Globe's Greg Bedard and Shalize Manza Young reported was the team's intention prior to the season and before the Patriots saw a lack of depth at cornerback."

Devin McCourty’s Switch to Safety Could Finally Tie Patriots’ Struggling Secondary Together | New England Patriots | NESN.com

Why are you using an article saying what they think another article said?
Go to the actual article. They did not report that those were the teams intentions, they speculated that they thought it was.

..................................

 

[supafly]

Again, I think if you go to the article you will see it is their opinion, not inside infornation. Like many opinions and speculation it has been regurgiatated as information over time.

I claimed in my initial post on the last page to "keep in mind that Bedard and SMY reported that Belichick's intentions were to keep McCourty at safety from TC on."

Obviously I highly doubt that Belichick himself would tell us what their actual plans were or would be in the future, so I think you are shooting the messenger.

I never claimed that Belichick said this. Not even close.

We get it that you are saying that the report was speculative, as the majority are. There wasn't any concrete evidence that Belichick wanted to keep him there, only a report from 2 beat writers who claimed that is what the organization wanted to do.

 

[mgteich]

We currently have
Dennard (waiting for prIson sentence)
Dowling (waiting for this year's injuries)
and no one else except Practice Squad quality players.
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I don't understand why most of you seem to be fine with keeping McCourty at FS, and simply hoping that we will be able to field an adequate set of corners.