Mayo wasn't even the team's second best defensive player last season. That honor goes to Wilfork.
Springs is getting paid a fair sum of money to not play. How is that not being pointed out by even those defending Belichick to the death? (disclaimer: I've never been a huge Springs fan, but I had no real problem with the move. I considered it an upgrade over the #2s of last year. I think it's a bad signing in conjunction with the Hobbs trade, but I was fine with it on its own. It's been a mistake in hindsight, but I understood it at the time.)
I'd take Vrabel over Burgess 24/7/365. What's more, if they'd kept Vrabel and Seymour, they could still be running more 3-4 defense, which is more suited for the players on the defensive line. Instead, in a season with major changeover in the front office and at offensive coordinator, the coach decided to add "defensive scheme change and massive personnel overhaul" to his already overloaded plate, to forego bringing in someone to help with the offense, to sit Brady in preseason when he could have been playing him, and to cut bait with a receiver rather than finding a way to make it work by using some of his trademark adaptation.
The result is a team that could have been a Super Bowl favorite, but is, instead, a back of the line playoff team right now.
That pretty much sums it up. Belichick bit off more than he could chew this year, plain and simple. The crazy thing is that the Pats are still a pretty good team- capable of beating anyone in the AFC, so that's something. The problem is that that, relative to what we could have been (SB favorites, playing on a level similar to that of the Saints) is a pretty steep decline.
We have a recovering QB who we're counting on to win games, an injured WR who we're counting on to make huge plays while he's obviously struggling, a slot WR who is so overused that he may set the record for catches despite missing 2 games, and who is now getting hammered every time he catches the ball because defenses know what we're doing with him. We have an OL that can only function if Neal is healthy, a talented young RB who can dominate when we let him get into a rhythm, but we never do, an injured ILB who it certainly appears that we brought back too early, likely because Junior Seau is his top backup, a weak pass-rush in which TBC is our most credible threat, and we traded our #1 CB for a second-day draft pick, only to still not have a #2 this year (anyone still think we couldn't use Hobbs after last night?).
I honestly never questioned a single move that Belichick made before this year, even when I probably should have. But this year is a complete mystery to me- in many respects, I just don't get what Belichick is after. In the past, whatever else you were to say about the moves he was making, they all mad sense as part of a clear plan. Whether or not you agreed with a move, it was clearly part of a larger philosophy or team movement. Maybe I'm just totally missing the boat here, but I don't see what he's trying to accomplish right now in the 'big picture' sense.This team could be so much better than it is, but we insist on trading away key assets for second-day picks and picks 2 years down the road, while doing nothing for units that obviously need help. I'm sure that Belichick has an endgame in mind, but I just can't see it from here, given everything that he's doing.
And if he really is rebuilding for 2012, then that scares me too. Guys like Tom Brady come along once or twice per generation. When you have them, you do everything that you can to win during their prime, because that's a competitive advantage that you're probably not getting back once it's gone. This year and next year's draft are the last crops that will be likely to 'mature' during Brady's prime: that's why I loved the Vollmer, Chung, and Ohrenberger picks this year, and wonder why we're still seemingly relying on Crable and Crable alone to turn into something as a pass-rusher (pro-tip: it's not going to happen).
When the Seymour trade happened, I was extremely vocal about how I hated it for this exact reason: sure, it'll be swell if our 2011 draft pick is an all-pro by 2013, but Brady will be 36 then. If I had to choose between the two, I'd rather be a top-tier SB contender for the next 3 years than a perennial second-tier contender for the next 6 or 7.
