Bruins29
Veteran Starter w/Big Long Term Deal
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CLICK HERE to Register for a free account and login for a smoother ad-free experience. It's easy, and only takes a few moments.Don't have the article but I believe BB said Dmac is one of the few players who knows everyone's assignment on every snap.
The weird thing about having some of the regulars who just really hate everything is that I see a post like the one off the grid made above and it makes absolutely no sense to me.
How do people not have the boat rocking chicken little's on ignore yet?
Were you paying attention to the Safetys we had before DMC took over one of the spots?
Appreciate you taking the time to break it down - but what is McCourty doing there: as BB would say he's doing his job. Look, before McCourty, we couldn't even afford to play 1 deep safety. His range is the reason we can play the way we do. Our pass defense since he took over the safety position has improved from day 1.
SPO, IApatsfan, Fredfromdartmouth etc etcNo need to, they all went missing in October.
Don't have the article but I believe BB said Dmac is one of the few players who knows everyone's assignment on every snap.
Are you implying that a junior analyst can't watch 725 different snaps in a span of 16 hours, and give each of them a carefully nuanced analysis? You sir are a hater
One of the reasons the Pats have always been willing to shell out for their own young vets is the huge reduction in risk and uncertainty. You know what you're getting, mentally and physically. You know that the player can succeed HERE, with these coaches, in this defense. That means McCourty's expected value to the Patriots is higher than a comparable FA's would be.
There are certainly worse ways to spend your money than on someone like McCourty, but I also think with who we have on the roster presently and how we play that cover 1 safety, there are better ways as well
One of the reasons the Pats have always been willing to shell out for their own young vets is the huge reduction in risk and uncertainty. You know what you're getting, mentally and physically. You know that the player can succeed HERE, with these coaches, in this defense. That means McCourty's expected value to the Patriots is higher than a comparable FA's would be.
The 2014 franchise tag number for safeties was 8.433 million. McCourty's agent, and the Patriots, will likely use that as the basis for discussion. Whether McCourty's a $9 million player, an $8.5 million or less is going to be a function of that number applied to the specifics of McCourty.
We can sit here and talk about WAR, or DVOA, or PFF but, in the end, McCourty plays FS the way BB wants McCourty to play FS, and produces the results that BB wants. Discussion about "Well, in these pictures here, he's just playing a deep cover 1" ignores the elephant in that room, which is that BB wants him doing exactly that, because BB's biggest issue is giving up the huge play.
And that's why I expect that he'll be back, either with a shiny new long-term contract or on a one year Franchise deal.
I've reviewed the tape and have come to the conclusion that McCourty in his role does not warrant $9 million APY
I honestly expect the exact same thing. BB and I don't always see eye to eye. I've been right a handful of times, expectedly he's been right more. That's what makes this all fun. If your range of opinions is limited to, "this is what I expect BB to do, so its not worth discussing otherwise" what is the point of a site like this? Any discussion is incredibly dull.
I see McCourty as more of a Reshad Jones than a ETIII. If he signed a 5 year $33 million contract I'd jump for joy, but I don't have this inelastic valuation of McCourty because of how I interpret his impact vs. his replacement game to game.
I'm not one on the "BB says, so...." posters. I'm one of the posters who gets bashed for not being one of those guys.
McCourty is playing the position at a high level. You acknowledge that he's a top 3-10 safety, which sets him up to be paid at least in franchise tag territory. The position paid $8.433 for its franchise tag value last year, and the cap is going up, not down. Your real issue about the money seems to be that, in an NFL where deep and 'cover' safeties are becoming more important, and making more money, you're still devaluing the position by comparison.
I'm not one on the "BB says, so...." posters. I'm one of the posters who gets bashed for not being one of those guys.
McCourty is playing the position at a high level. You acknowledge that he's a top 3-10 safety, which sets him up to be paid at least in franchise tag territory. The position paid $8.433 for its franchise tag value last year, and the cap is going up, not down. Your real issue about the money seems to be that, in an NFL where deep and 'cover' safeties are becoming more important, and making more money, you're still devaluing the position by comparison.
The NFL isn't exactly littered with high end safeties at the moment, I mean ETIII, Harrison Smith, and Devin McCourty aren't exactly Brian Dawkins, John Lynch, Rodney Harrison, and Ed Reed. Being a top 10 player could mean vastly different things if you were lets say a receiver vs. a safety.
Players valuations could mean drastically different things in the NFL by team. If I were a Jets fan and since the Jets are a rebuilding team, the prospect of an experienced 27 year old cover safety to mentor my young high round DB's, would probably make me argue for McCourty as a $9 million APY guy. Especially since that $9 million would just be a drop in the bucket for a team with $50 million in cap space.
We're in a bit of a different spot. We have a veteran secondary, and with Revis's contract likely renegotiated we're set to spend $25 million in cap space on our top 3 corners. Is it worth quite as much to us to have McCourty covering deep for those guys in case they make a mistake? I'd argue no.
In our system we prioritize man coverage. To me making sure we lock down enough guys who can handle being tested 1x1 is important. To me finding guys who can limit the catch from happening is more important than keeping the guy who holds 25 yard gains from becoming 35 yard gains. Just my opinion.
Belichick's philosophy is to avoid the big plays first, and he did that this year by having McCourty, his second best player in the secondary, often staying deep to allow for different scheming underneath. So we're now at a point where you're arguing against Belichick's schematic focus. So you've now essentially argued that:
Safeties aren't worth the money
Belichick's defensive priority is not worth the money it would take to pay for it
The defense, which was #7 in scoring overall, #5 in scoring after Browner's return, #2 in scoring after the bye and #1 in the playoffs, was disappointing in the aggregate.
I don't really know where we're supposed to go from there.