Remember in 2009 when people were arguing that Bodden was better than Samuel? Haha.
When Samuel was here, it worked well. No -- he was not a shutdown corner like Revis or Champ Bailey in his prime. But he made plays. He had a nose for the ball. He had elite ball skills.
No one is saying that Samuel is a shutdown corner that can play a guy one on one in press man coverage on an island. He's not that type of guy. Those guys are rare.
Belichick has always run more of a passive zone scheme in the secondary. Aside from when he had Ty Law, he's never relied too heavily on strictly man coverage like a guy like Rex Ryan does or in the manner Jim Johnson did many years ago.
People are angry because you let a guy, in his prime and who had flourished tremendously in Belichick's scheme, walk away for nothing. You have since tried to replace him to no avail with Hobbs, Webster, O'Neal, Bryant, Springs, Bodden, Wheatley, Wilhite, Butler, McCourty, etc.
Had you just kept him in the first place, you could have spent all those other assets/draft capital/free agency money on improving/rebuilding the deteriorating defensive front.
You can say whatever you want about Samuel's play on the Eagles. Who cares? It worked here. His playmaking has been sorely missed on this defense. He was a key cog in the championship defenses. He had a knack for making gamechanging plays in this defense. He is not the reason that Philly hasn't been "put over the top."
How many times have we heard "that guy wouldn't be as good in our defense/offense because of XYZ."??? Plenty of times -- especially on defense. Well maybe Asante isn't a great fit in Philly's defense. Maybe they thought they were getting a Revis-like CB. But in Belichick's defense, Asante was a perfect fit and you let him walk away for nothing more than a compensatory pick. And you had the funds to sign him, so don't bring up cap jail.
