Patriots Release Dominique Easley

Ivan said:

Yep. It's a good thing Belichick keeps proving those of us who believe in him right, otherwise we would look as stupid as those who cry at his every move.

I really wish Ian would unlock the threads from early October in 2014 when all the b.tches quit on this team.

Ian, please unlock those threads, there are those who really need to be reminded of just how bad they are as fans go.

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Youre a great fan.

Comedy gold Jerry!

IllegalContact said:

why does it matter? will your next move depend on how your questions are answered?

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It matters in the sense that I'm a follower and fan of the team and am interested in how this situation unfolded. The Volin piece apparently lays out some of what happened, I'm pointing out what aspects of this issue I'm still curious about.

Why does it matter to you if I have questions? Why are you in a thread or even on a message board, since obviously none of us are decision makers on the Patriots?

sb1 said:

Not really. It's all about the result. The dude was picked in the first round in 2014 and he didn't make it to his third year.

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Yet it was well understood that this outcome could happen. It's a certainty that the health issues were known. It's a strong probability that the attitude issues were known, unless of course you go with the narrative that the Pats front office are incompetent. They chose the player knowing the risks, and also knowing the potential upside, and knowing that their draft position didn't give them a lot of access to his kind of on the field talent. To simply say he's a bust given all of this to me is far too simplistic. If he never showed anything on the field I'd have a different opinion but the opposite is true, he was one of the best players at his position when he was able to be on the field.

Hammer of Thor said:

Smith wasn't a Pats 1st round pick. Terrell Buckley was one that I included (other being Damian Woody). If we include Smith in that analysis on the earlier teams, it would be fair to include Jonathan Cooper in the 2013-2016 group.

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Tbucky Jones? 1998

Point is though that Smith was a 1st and the Pats went and got him.

Marqui said:

Then just use him until he's cheap rookie contract runs out. Obviously nothing he does is that big of a deal or else they wouldn't have went 10-1 with him on the field every game last year. So the notion that the team would have imploded if he was on it one more day is complete BS. All releasing him does is hurt the team because Belichick didn't want to deal with a few issues even though he gets paid millions a year.

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For better or worse, the Patriots have a strict philosophy. Being a complete and repeated jagoff violates said philosophy. Placating malcontents is something losing teams do.

Triumph said:

You are the pivot man in the ***********.

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To bad you quit on them in 2014, you missed out on another championship. On the other hand you also saved some wear and tear on your pink hat. Good to see you quitting on 2016, that's always a harbinger of success.

Ian please unlock the threads from September and October 2014, some people need refresher classes on what their quiting brings.

I wonder how many of the people here castigating the Pats for taking a risk on Easley were, or are, advocating that they go get Josh Gordon.

SMH

lmao PFT comments are great.

hehateme2 says:Apr 14, 2016 11:23 AM


Maybe this was due to the sleazy cheating that he could no longer tolerate….

Froob said:

lmao PFT comments are great.

hehateme2 says:Apr 14, 2016 11:23 AM


Maybe this was due to the sleazy cheating that he could no longer tolerate….

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It's truly sad how perpetually petty and angry these people are

Triumph said:

You are the pivot man in the ***********.

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I guarantee that I will keep this thread to remind you and the rest of the quitter b.tches that you have no place enjoying their success this season. That's the price of quitting on them.

April 14, 2016. Triumph and his legion of quitters gave up on the Patriots once again.

The move sucks because we all hoped he could turn into a difference maker but it's not like he actually contributed the last two years and the D was pretty good. His release won't really make the team much worse this year. Plenty of picks to find a 3rd down penetrator.

JackBauer said:

For better or worse, the Patriots have a strict philosophy. Being a complete and repeated jagoff violates said philosophy. Placating malcontents is something losing teams do.

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Really? That's interesting considering there's a 14 page thread on this forum advocating to acquire Josh Gordon.

TBR said:

It's truly sad how perpetually petty and angry these people are

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One of my favorite ones was someone claiming McNabb puked in the SB because he was disgusted by the Patriots' cheating.

Bill Lee said:

Yet it was well understood that this outcome could happen. It's a certainty that the health issues were known. It's a strong probability that the attitude issues were known, unless of course you go with the narrative that the Pats front office are incompetent. They chose the player knowing the risks, and also knowing the potential upside, and knowing that their draft position didn't give them a lot of access to his kind of on the field talent. To simply say he's a bust given all of this to me is far too simplistic. If he never showed anything on the field I'd have a different opinion but the opposite is true, he was one of the best players at his position when he was able to be on the field.

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Agreed but picking on low risk-high reward and "upside" is best served for later rounds. Nobody would be calling this guy a bust if the Pats picked him in round 3 or later. This guy was a first round pick and being such, his inability to stay with the team more than 2 years makes him a textbook bust.

Froob said:

One of my favorite ones was someone claiming McNabb puked in the SB because he was disgusted by the Patriots' cheating.

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PFT posts like that are just trying to get a rise out of Patriot fans and nothing more. They don't even believe what they post.

I like how some pro Pats posters are trolling them right back though LOL.

Bill Lee said:

That's way too much of a black and white view of things, IMHO (and no, I'm not referring to race). To label the choice as a 'bust' would suggest all the things that are leading to this separation were unknown, AND that he never performed at all on the field. Clearly the injury issues were known. I think it's safe to presume that the attitude issues were known. The great talent was known and the difficulty with getting such great talent at the end of the first round were also known. Calling this a bust is way too simplistic, IMHO.

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You are courting an ultimately fruitless discussion without an agreed upon definition of "bust"

Triumph said:

Tbucky Jones? 1998

Point is though that Smith was a 1st and the Pats went and got him.

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You're right, Tebucky Jones is who I was thinking of. But Terrell Buckley was a 1992 first rounder, outside the time period I was looking at.

The point I was trying to make was that poor performance by recent Patriot 1st round picks isn't insurmountable -- that Pats picks from 1996 - 2000 produced only 2 1st rounder still on the playoff roster in 2001 (Jones and Woody; Glenn was suspended by then). Obviously it makes a big hole for them to climb out of though. One of the ways they were able to overcome it is by getting quality performance by other teams' former 1st rounders - Smith and Buckley as you illustrate. Well, the current Patriot team has Cooper (2013), Long (2008), McClellin (2012), and Donald Brown (2009) who were first rounders from other teams. Obviously it needs to be overcome via quality players; you're more likely to have quality players with former 1st rounders, but we can't look at draft status 5 years ago to determine if someone is a quality player today.

Marqui said:

Really? That's interesting considering there's a 14 page thread on this forum advocating to acquire Josh Gordon.

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For the same reason that the Pats drafted Easley where they did, because it would have represented a relative steal in terms of talent for a low 1st-rd pick or, in Gordon's case, proposals for a late-round conditional pick - IF you believed any personal/lockerroom problems were fixable.

There are examples of such "risks" working out for better and for worse in NE. People seem to remember the "for worse" more clearly, plus we might not always know about the "for better"s. I do think that the Pats care about having players that love football or are of a certain mindset, but there has likely never been a season ever where that was true of every player. BB knows great football players are not all saints dedicated the film room. He coached LT for christs sake. I guess I think Easley's a little unique in that he seemed to have injury, character, and work ethic questions coming out of school - one of those problems is one thing, all of them is another - but the degree to which those questions have been answered is now forever shrouded in revisionist history. Outside of the NE locker room this was just a injury-bitten talented guy who was going to be a big part of a pretty damn good looking DL....until BB cut him. Now he's a cancer, a mistake everyone saw coming, and BB has ****ed the team.

#seasonover
#onto2017

Or, you know, 12+ wins and a first-round bye. Like every other year.

People who had continually crowed about how Easley couldn't be counted on now saying he's a big loss and the pass rush is doomed. If he couldn't be counted on in your opinion how is he a big loss? Typical chicken little/doom and gloom **** as usual on here. This must be very pleasing to the "i'm a better GM than Bill" posters on here.

At least we no longer have to worry about whether his knee problems are going to prevent him from becoming a useful player for the Pats. Just as I took solace after Ron Brace was cut, that I no longer had to be concerned at him being the slowest player in the entire draft that year.

So we have THAT going for us....

Which is nice.