Day 1 of Free Agency: Patriots Do Nothing (merged X2 or 3)

svn said:

troll mt @tonymassarotti boston sports very frustrating right now. Can't convince the celtics to lose and can't convince the patriots to win

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jmt57 said:

I wrote something similar yesterday, and want to say up front that this is in no way meant to imply that the Patriots are better off right now than Denver, and is not meant to imply that the Patriots do not have holes to be filled and upgraded.

But for some perspective, let's consider the current state of the Denver Bronco's roster:


WR: Decker is leaving and Welker is one high hit from involuntary retirement; as of this moment they would have Andre Caldwell out wide opposite D Thomas.

RB: Knowshon Moreno is an unrestricted free agent; that leaves Montee Ball (who has had pass protection issues), and Ronnie Hillman (who played his way on to the bench after being handed the starting role).

LG: With Zane Beadles departing to Jacksonville, who starts? Ben Garland? Ramon Harewood? Perhaps Chris Clark can make the transition from tackle to guard.

OL: Zero depth at both guard and center; none on the entire OL if Clark becomes the starting LG.

DE: Robert Ayers and Shaun Phillips are both free agents, and Derek Wolfe mysteriously collapsed last November.

OLB: Von Miller is not expected to be ready to start the season, who starts until then?

MLB: Who takes Wesley Woodyard's spot? As of this moment former Patriot Paris Lenon is the starter.

CB: Aqib Talib was signed, but he misses on average about 20-25% of the games every year. Chris Harris is coming back from a torn ACL suffered in January. Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie is a free agent and won't be back. That leaves Tony Carter to fill in outside if/when Talib and/or Harris is out.

PR/KR: Trindon Holiday was not tendered, so that's another position that needs to be replaced.


Granted, some of those positions (RB, PR, KR) are relatively minor issues, but I just wanted to add some perspective here. The Broncos had $27 million in cap space, but after signing Talib and Ward I'm guessing that is down to about $16 million. Figuring a minimum $7 million for rookies and emergency for use during the season, that leaves Denver with only $9 million in cap space for everything else.

There's not much on their roster that can free up cap space other than converting some salary to signing bonus for Ryan Clady, which could add about $4 million in space. Even with that, there's still not a lot of cap space to sign a starting ILB, G, DE, and additional needed depth. Season ending injuries are an unfortunate reality, not an exception. Denver was able to persevere last year because they had quality depth; I'm not seeing how they will be able to handle those inevitable injuries in 2014, especially if they do indeed sign DeMarcus Ware. That's a lot of holes to be counted on to fill from the number 31 spot in the draft.

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Snake Eyes said:

I might be misinterpreting your argument, or you’re contradicting yourself.

There are TONS of draftees who have failed with the Pats, which shouldn’t be a shock, just the way it is. There are also free agents that have come here and had a lot of success, others have failed. This proves that neither one is a silver bullet. If David Tyree hadn’t made a miracle catch would people talk about how free agents/trades are the way to go as opposed to the draft?

Neither one is THE way to go, they each have their strengths and weaknesses, and would optimally be used based on the teams unique situation.

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drpatriot said:

To sum up my argument, I think that the relative success that many unknown or mediocre players from other teams had with the Pats, and the relative lack of success that players who left the Pats had on other teams, is evidence that something specific about what the Patriots are scouting, managing, and coaching their personnel is better than how other teams are scouting, managing, and coaching their personnel. No other team has had the same track record of making the middle of their roster as consistently good as the Patriots have, and they're doing it with the same players the rest of the NFL is. We're not perfect, but we're simply better at it than anyone else, and our record proves it.

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Brady6 said:

Aside from Talib signing with Denver, I have heard very little on twitter or online in general about the other Patriots UFAs.

These players are all unsigned and I have not even heard anything from a notable source about visits –

- Edelman
- Blount
- Spikes
- Wendell
- Fletcher
- Svitek
- Carter
- Collie
- Mulligan

Are any of you hearing anything?

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drpatriot said:

To sum up my argument, I think that the relative success that many unknown or mediocre players from other teams had with the Pats, and the relative lack of success that players who left the Pats had on other teams, is evidence that something specific about what the Patriots are scouting, managing, and coaching their personnel is better than how other teams are scouting, managing, and coaching their personnel. No other team has had the same track record of making the middle of their roster as consistently good as the Patriots have, and they're doing it with the same players the rest of the NFL is. We're not perfect, but we're simply better at it than anyone else, and our record proves it.

I would speculate that this difference is related to refusing to overpay good players. But whatever the reason for our continued success, we should have faith that the Patriot way will guide us in the years to come to the same success that it has for the past 13 years.

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mgteich said:

I see ZERO reason why your thread was merged. I for one would like to know the latest on the patriots' 9 UFA's without having to sift through what every other team in the league is doing and through dozens of posts on what the patriots are doing on other players, or what we might do.

IMHO, there are at least SIX different items of interest and they are all very different.

1) The latest transactions from around the league.

2) The latest news on patriot UFA's

3) The latest news players the patriots are definitely interested in (rumors, reports and visits)

4) Speculations on players who are out there who we might pursue

5) Analysis of where we are with regard to various units or positions

6) Major signings (e'g Ware today)

I see no reason why we can't have at least ONE thread on the latest news on each of these without having everything all mixed up. Does someone really ahve a need to have hundreds of posts to a very few threads as opposed to more threads with fewer posts (and MUCH BETTER ACCESS to information)?

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Brady6 said:

Yeah I am not sure either; I have no idea who merged it so I cannot ask them. I certainly would not have merged it with this thread because the subject of mine is the lack of activity around the 2013 Patriots who are UFAs and the subject of this thread is about what the Patriots as an organization are doing in UFA. I would have merged it into the UFA signings around the league thread if it had to merge at all.

If I had to guess the person who merged it only read the title, I probably could have been clearer in the subject in the title it did suggest the lack of Patriots activity in UFA. If the MOD who merged it would like to clarify what the issue was so I could make sure not to duplicate it I would appreciate it, PM is fine.

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Gronkandez said:

You can always grab a few jags when you have superstars at other positions.

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PATSNUTme said:

In answer to the question "why were threads merged".

To me the 2 threads in question were like looking at a cloudy sky and asking if it's going to rain some day.

There will be plenty of activity and threads posted once there is a whisper on any Patriots player. With todays web sites and tweets the slightest hint will go viral.

They were merged on the Patriots do nothing thread becasue nothing was doing.

Now, I may be wrong on this and feel free to disagree. It's easier for a mod to just let a thread go than to go through the trouble of merging. Or in this case, going through the trouble of explaining why I went through the troubel in the first place.

Pelase continue with the discussion.:rocker:

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Dan Duggan ‏@DDuggan21 12m
I will say this for concerned Patriots fans: Caserio spent a lot of time on the phone today. Pats had another scout in attendance as well.

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Brady6 said:

Aside from Talib signing with Denver, I have heard very little on twitter or online in general about the other Patriots UFAs.

These players are all unsigned and I have not even heard anything from a notable source about visits –

- Edelman
- Blount
- Spikes
- Wendell
- Fletcher
- Svitek
- Carter
- Collie
- Mulligan

Are any of you hearing anything?

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jmt57 said:

Note: I wasn't the one that moved the thread, but between the lack of news on the players in question, and the very close similarity of the topic to this thread, I can understand why it was merged.

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captain stone said:

In keeping with the spirit of the thread title, I feel that TJ Ward was eminently signable,
as were Arthur Jones, Linval Joseph & Alterraun Verner.
I'm not saying that Bill could've signed all of these guys, even if he had cut all of Wilfork,
Soap & Kelly (all of which should've happened already).
What I am saying is that At Least One of these players should've signed here, no excuse.

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captain stone said:

In keeping with the spirit of the thread title, I feel that TJ Ward was eminently signable,
as were Arthur Jones, Linval Joseph & Alterraun Verner.
I'm not saying that Bill could've signed all of these guys, even if he had cut all of Wilfork,
Soap & Kelly (all of which should've happened already).
What I am saying is that At Least One of these players should've signed here, no excuse.

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Brady6 said:

I cannot believe the Patriots have not made any transactions. I have to believe they are all in on Revis and that shoe has to drop before anything else, otherwise this makes little sense, they are slower out of the gate but not this slow.

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