Bradley Fletcher signing with Pats

Marqui said:

From Superbowl champions to laughing stock of the NFL within months.

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Nice hyperbole there.

Eagles fan losing it over Bradley Fletcher's play and possible resigning which he doesnt want happen.

WARNING EXPLETIVE language describing his play:



I feel so much better about this signing.

All I know is we could have 10 Bradley Fletcher's for the cap hit of 1 Darrelle Revis... Can't find deals like that at Walmart.

Marqui said:

From Superbowl champions to laughing stock of the NFL within months. Hopefully Phily's coverage schemes just suck.

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One, they have terrible coverage schemes. Two, laughing stock of the NFL? Holy sheeeit this is a...

Wait I cannot continue replying because the sky is falling! Ahh run we're worse than the Jest now everyone it's anarchy fend for yourselves! Take cover because the sky is falling upon us as we speak the Patriots signed a guy I've heard is bad and the Earth's crust has opened up and evil Orc creatures are stabbing the children and oh the humanity is there no God help why would He let this happen I'll keep writing until this molten lava reaches my hands so I can no longer use the compu

slash83 said:

Funny how things play out from season to season. Last year the jets had one of the worst set of corners in the NFL and the pats had one of the best tandems. At this point jets now have one of the best while the patriots have what looks to be one of the worst.

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The Pats almost never play a passing down with a "tandem" of corners. It's a minimum of three CBs on the field for passing downs and on 73%+ off all defensive snaps. Thinking in term of "cornerback tandems" is an obsolete concept and not really relevant to today's NFL.

The real issue is the group of five or six DBs you put on the field and how they stack up against the five or six DBs other teams can put on the field. Depth in the secondary is key. It doesn't matter if you have a $16 million CB if your slot guy is a stiff.

Right now, the Pats are five deep with NFL caliber cornerbacks: Butler, Arrington, Dennard, Ryan, and Fletcher to go with two veteran safeties, including one who was considered to be the best free agent safety in the NFL this year. I expect them to add one more veteran CB between now and opening day, along with several rookie prospects.

Marqui said:

From Superbowl champions to laughing stock of the NFL within months. Hopefully Phily's coverage schemes just suck.

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Laughing stock? Thats a bit overboard...

Marqui said:

From Superbowl champions to laughing stock of the NFL within months. Hopefully Phily's coverage schemes just suck.

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Most major media outlets grade the Patriots offseason in B to B+ range so I'm not sure I agree with this outlook. Actually I'm sure that I don't agree. We had 2 premier UFAs, we lost Revis and we retained McCourty. McCourty is 3 years younger and a little more than half the price. Wilfork had his farewell tour last season, everyone saw that writing on the wall last offseason.

Anteros said:

Sigh. I just got redirected to an adult website when I first clicked on this thread on my phone. This is why I use an ad blocker on my PC. gonna have to find one for my phone.

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Was it a naked black woman for Adult Friend Finder? It happened to me as well except I'm on a computer (Mac). I use AdBlock as well and it still showed up.

I think it happened a few times before when trying to visit other websites.

Sicilian said:

Stepping outside the thread topic for a brief moment:

I was thinking about this today and I find it interesting that the last four #1 CB's that we've considered really good - Revis, Talib, McCourty (at least for his rookie year), and Samuel - all came to the team in different ways:

Revis = Free Agent signing

Talib = Trade

McCourty = High draft pick

Samuel = Mid round draft pick who worked his way up over the years

So this signing is a camp body, hopefully someone who plays better than we expect and finds a role for himself. But just because we don't sign a Revis replacement (and by that I mean a competent #1 corner, not the best corner in the league) in free agency doesn't mean we won't find one in one of the other three ways that we've done so in the past.

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Exactly. The bottom line, at least imo, is that many are still angry Revis signed with the Jets so any move Belichick makes is going to be treated derisively by them, what they haven't come to terms with is that there was absolutely no way Revis was signing in NE NE Woody Johnson made it clear he had changed his mind, wanted Revis back, and would pay whatever it took to get him back in a jets uniform. The Patriots didn't have the luxury of unlimited cap space and weren't going to get into a bidding war they could not possible win so they made the decision to move on, realized that meant going back to zone and released Browner, which further antagonized those who expected Revis back. That left them with glaring holes at CB which are going to be impossible to fill the way everyone wants so anyone they sign won't be good enough. They could have soothed the anxiety by spending 32 million a piece for Culliver and Cromartie but that would have been idiotic so they passed and are trying to backfill the roster with some decent depth and address their other needs where possible. It doesn't make people happy but it still has to be done and they will just have to continue working to get their secondary in the shape they want it in. There's no quick fix for that so people are going to have to be patient while they figure out how to do it the right way.


Or they can cry, gnash their teeth, and wring their hands and talk sh.t, whatever works.

Sicilian said:

You could possibly add Chung to that theory as well, assuming his improvement last year wasn't 100% due to everyone around him. If Williams and Fletcher do happen to succeed in their new spots, I might start to consider Chip Kelly as The Anti-Rex Ryan: So worried about his ground breaking offensive scheme that he doesn't pay attention to his defense.

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Chung sucked in NE before he joined Philly or have you forgotten it, and let's see how he does when more is required from him this season. All the people talking up Fletcher must have never seen him play because he is that bad.

randomk1 said:

God i'd rather give some undrafted rookie a shot.

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Yeah, lets ignore starting over +50 games in the NFL and the experience this gives and sign an undrafted rookie. If he doesn't work out he will be gone before the regular season and you will forget that he was on the team.

SyN65 said:

Lmao, pats getting desperate.

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Nothing desperate about it. It is business as usual, pick up players low and see if we can get something out of them.

Anteros said:

Sigh. I just got redirected to an adult website when I first clicked on this thread on my phone. This is why I use an ad blocker on my PC. gonna have to find one for my phone.

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Happened to me as well on my desktop computer using Chrome. Was rather surprising..

Marqui said:

From Superbowl champions to laughing stock of the NFL within months.

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Who gives a **** what everyone else thinks ? Let all of them bath in the glory of supposedly winning in march while we keep building.

TBR said:

Was it a naked black woman for Adult Friend Finder? It happened to me as well except I'm on a computer (Mac). I use AdBlock as well and it still showed up.

I think it happened a few times before when trying to visit other websites.

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I got the same thing!

is it bad for Dennard that BB didnt want to do him and Browner or am I reading into nothing? 2012-13 dennard and browner is a nice pairing. Oh well may as well try to move on.

So he will be our highest paid CB and one of the top five salaries on the team next year? Or were those bad mushrooms and I am hallucinating all this?

robertweathers said:

Laughing stock? Thats a bit overboard...

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Fans of other team's are definitely laughing at us. It's probably not warranted, but they are pointing and snickering.

****ty player


This is what you get stuck with when you get rid of your elite CB pairing in a terrible FA year at CB.

kudzif said:

Chung sucked in NE before he joined Philly or have you forgotten it, and let's see how he does when more is required from him this season. All the people talking up Fletcher must have never seen him play because he is that bad.

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Nope, haven't forgotten, thanks. Fact remains Chung is a good example of a player being asked to do more than he's capable of doing (both here and in Philly) and excelling when he's given a role that suits him.

And no one is building Fletcher into a number one corner for us, just trying to say that his role in Philly may have been miscast, and his potential is higher than it would appear at a quick glance. Whether that's good enough to make the team we'll see.

And for the record, some of the people "talking up" Fletcher in this thread are posters who's football knowledge I respect more than 99% of the board (including my own opinion). Doesn't mean he's going to be awesome, just means there are intelligent posters on here willing to see a potential upside.

8:43 mark, Stephen A destroys Fletcher.

Sicilian said:

Nope, haven't forgotten, thanks. Fact remains Chung is a good example of a player being asked to do more than he's capable of doing (both here and in Philly) and excelling when he's given a role that suits him.

And no one is building Fletcher into a number one corner for us, just trying to say that his role in Philly may have been miscast, and his potential is higher than it would appear at a quick glance. Whether that's good enough to make the team we'll see.

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Chung was able to stop the run last year. That's it. That's the same thing Chung has always been able to do, when healthy. There was no magical rebirth of Pat Chung. He still sucked in coverage.

Unless you think that Bradley Fletcher is going to be Revis redux, and allow McCourty to ignore half the field the way he often could last season, Chung is not going to be able to just serve as an extra, non-cover, LB this year, and he's either going to get replaced for playing time or targeted a boatload in coverage.

Marqui said:

Fans of other team's are definitely laughing at us. It's probably not warranted, but they are pointing and snickering.

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It's not warranted seeing that there is a high likelihood that the 2015 Pats are a 12-4 team.

Everyone is different but I could care less what other fans of losing teams say.