Successful teams win in the draft not in free agency..

Draft is a key to the success, but Brady unfortunatelly is getting older. The saddest thing is we do not have enough time to wait 2 or 3 years to improve our secondary. I know Revis is replaceable, but I thought we were able to add at least one valuable veteran corner. Arrington is a proven slot corner, Dennard showed some sparks, maybe Ryan too. I believe we will get a CB in I round of the draft and BB will show one of his tricks to make our team a contender.

If only we had hit on any of our defensive back picks over the last 4 years. RI Dowling should be entering his prime right now and this would be a non-issue.

This is nothin, just wait until the board's draft melt-down.

As long as we can find some contributers on defense through the draft we will be fine IMO. just because we haven't done well drafting CB in the past doesn't mean we shouldn't try.

Successful teams tend to win in both.

BobDigital said:

Successful teams tend to win in both.

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Yep, it's more of the bargain type of deals though but Revis and Browner were huge and 07 nearly won the SB had they not hit untimely injuries. Ninkovich and Vrabel are great examples of guys we didn't draft who were huge in winning titles.

BobDigital said:

Successful teams tend to win in both.

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Actually, there is a number of successful teams that rely on the draft and primarily use FA to add depth. Baltimore and Pittsburg are good current examples. Indy used to. I suspect there are others. Throwing huge money around in FA is a huge gamble and more often than not it doesn't pay off.

Froob said:

Yep, it's more of the bargain type of deals though but Revis and Browner were huge and 07 nearly won the SB had they not hit untimely injuries. Ninkovich and Vrabel are great examples of guys we didn't draft who were huge in winning titles.

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Galeb said:

Actually, there is a number of successful teams that rely on the draft and primarily use FA to add depth. Baltimore and Pittsburg are good current examples. Indy used to. I suspect there are others. Throwing huge money around in FA is a huge gamble and more often than not it doesn't pay off.

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Well winning in FA is hard to define. I would say ideally you get good bargains but also add key impact players when needed cause you usually can't depend on draft picks to do that.

It is not about spending the most but more about spending smart but also knowing when you have a need that needs to be addressed and getting it done with a big signing now and then.

BobDigital said:

Well winning in FA is hard to define. I would Ideally you get good bargains but also add key impact players when needed cause you usually can't depend on draft picks to do that.

It is not about spending the most but more about spending smart but also knowing when you have a need that needs to be addressed and getting it down with a big signing now and then.

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To me, the biggest thing is to not overspend. Had the Pats sold the Farm for Revis, IMO they would have had a bad FA off-season. The Pats can't stop other teams from over-spending on FAs and I'm glad that they have the discipline to stick to their guns.

Ras-I and Darius were probably supposed to be those two homegrown CBs we've needed. And DMC was drafted to be a CB too.

Galeb said:

Actually, there is a number of successful teams that rely on the draft and primarily use FA to add depth. Baltimore and Pittsburg are good current examples. Indy used to. I suspect there are others. Throwing huge money around in FA is a huge gamble and more often than not it doesn't pay off.

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Damn Snyder of the Washington Redskins says hi.

Players need to be found any means necessary. NE has been excellent in both the draft and FA. As much as people around here bash BB the GM, they can't imagine how often other teams' GMs miss...

VectorPrime said:

If only we had hit on any of our defensive back picks over the last 4 years. RI Dowling should be entering his prime right now and this would be a non-issue.

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Actually, if he had hit, he'd be a potential FA we'd need to pay, just like Sheard.

Galeb said:

To me, the biggest thing is to not overspend. Had the Pats sold the Farm for Revis, IMO they would have had a bad FA off-season. The Pats can't stop other teams from over-spending on FAs and I'm glad that they have the discipline to stick to their guns.

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Like most things in life, those who are sufficiently disciplined to delay gratification usually end up better off.

BB can delay gratification in his sleep.

Brady6 said:

If you look around the NFL the best teams were created via the draft. Look at the stars on our team, Gronkowski, Collins, Hightower, Jones, McCourty, Edelman, Vollmer, they all were draft picks, we didn't sign them to high priced contracts during free agency.

In fact take a look at the recent big name free signings we have made - Amendola, Lloyd, Fanene, Wilson, Kelly, Springs, Thomas, Ellis, to name some. Whether you like the player or not you have to admit none of them were worth their investment.

Darrelle Revis was a great signing, as was Talib a great trade acquisition but they were never actually the Patriots, they were borrowed for 1-2 seasons to fill a purpose. The only way we will ever have a secondary that is great and sustainable is to do it through the draft and retain are own talent. We started that with McCourty, now we have 6 draft picks in the first 4 rounds of the draft this year to continue building the secondary.

When you are freaking out over free agency remember the best secondary in the NFL (Seattle) was built via the draft, the best defensive player in the NFL (Watt) was acquired in the draft. Also remember Darrelle Revis was never ours, Belichick said it best after the Super Bowl "this is why you are here", well he served his purpose, and now he is gone. This is my outlook on the offseason.

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There's no superior method of acquiring talent, teams can draft stupidly and one can also be an idiot in free agency. The gripes come into play when fans feel the team made a bad move/non-move relative to the alternatives.

I'm not upset about Revis because the Jets were going to spend whatever they had to in order to take him from us, they also don't have a franchise QB to pay which makes it easier on them, but I am upset about Pot Roast because I think the Skins got him for cheap and I've seen that guy absolutely dominate the line.

2014 New England Patriots Offense - NFL Draft

Starters
QB - Brady 2000 6th Rnd
LT - Solder 2011 1st Rnd
OC - Stork 2014 4th Rnd
RT - Vollmer 2009 2nd Rnd
TE - Gronkowski 2010 2nd Rnd
WR - Edelman 2009 7th Rnd
RB - Ridley 2011 3rd Rnd (placed on IR)
RB - Vereen 2011 2nd Rnd

Key Backups
QB - Garoppolo 2014 2nd Rnd
RT - Cannon 2011 5th Rnd
RT - Fleming 2014 4th Rnd

http://www.pro-football-reference.c...llege_id=all&conference=any&show=all&order_by=

oceansizer said:

Draft is a key to the success, but Brady unfortunatelly is getting older. The saddest thing is we do not have enough time to wait 2 or 3 years to improve our secondary. I know Revis is replaceable, but I thought we were able to add at least one valuable veteran corner. Arrington is a proven slot corner, Dennard showed some sparks, maybe Ryan too. I believe we will get a CB in I round of the draft and BB will show one of his tricks to make our team a contender.

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You overlooked Malcolm X. He shined under some pretty bright lights. As a Cb, thats 1/2 the battle.

Patriots won in free agency last year and won the Super Bowl. So there's that.

Draft builds for the future, I'm looking for back to back lombardi trophies right now since Brady is still here.

There are no impact corners in this years draft. There are many impact DLs. It would be a crime to reach for some mediocre corner when we could really use some solid help on the D Line.