Though that may be true, we were 10-6 and won a playoff game, then 12-4 and came within a minute or two of returning to the Super Bowl.
I think we may all be a bit spoiled if we think that every season, with every team trying to get better, and every team looking to sign free agents, that we're going to be able fill every hole with the best possible scenario.
The Patriots don't knee-jerk. If they feel someone is worth the money they pay it, if they don't they dont. If that means spending a year playing with a hole, so be it. They have faith that better deals will come, and they'll be able to maintain competitiveness throughout.
They've done that, haven't they?
I think it is also overlooked that there were needs we DID fill in 05-06, and needs we didnt fill in 03, 04, 07.
This is the kind of argument that says, we must only win when we fill the important needs, and do not when we dont fill the important ones. So our what we acquired in the years we won must have filled the important ones, and what we didnt in the other years must have been important.
In 2003, we did not address the critical need at RB. We did not address the critical need at safety (after cutting Milloy we started Antwain Harris, then shifted a rookie corner to safety) we did not address the OL, getting a starting C in the 5th round, and using a castoff at RT.
In 2004, we did not address corner, ending up with Earthwind Moreland and Troy Brown playing there. We did not address the need at safety, making the SB very close when our backups got torched after the starters were injured, and so on.
We have 'holes' every year. We address all of them, some well, some not so well, and in the end I don't think our seasons have been very much decided by the quality of our off-seasons, because I think they are consistently similar. It would be great if every move we made worked out, but that is a fantasy world. In the end, when you have won more games, more playoff games, as many conference championships, and one less than the most SBs that any team ever has in any 7 years, you are making mostly right decisions, and you hope that the additions that work out overcome the ones that dont quite work out.