Bill i know you're not reading this, but....

[thecore762]

Time to pursuit Calvin Johnson next year.

 

[Tony2046]

Bill i know you're not reading this, but....

CAN YOU PLEASE, PLEASE just go out there and get a big, fast receiver that can stretch the field and knows how to catch the ball? I mean how many more years do we have to watch scrubs like Martin, Harper etc. pretend to be deep play guys? I don't care whether you have to draft them or bring them in through FA but next season i don't want to see Dolphins practice squad players being our main threat deep down field.

Oh and also if you are going to waste high draft picks on the o-line every single year, do you think it would be possible that they actually do their main job and PROTECT Brady? I'm not sure he ever completes a pass without getting absolutely destroyed. I know the perception is that he's a superhero but go out there and take those hits yourself if you think he can take it over and over.

Let me revise this for you.

Bill. I know we won a super bowl with Edelman, Amendola, Lafell and Gronkowski. I know that we came back from two 14 point deficits in the AFC Divisional playoff game and I know we came back from a 10 point 4th quarter deficit to win the Super Bowl. But I seem to have a pair of chicken nuts and a jelly spine and cannot handle a 10-2 record. Yes you seemed to have the best team in football with the receiving corp you had at the beginning of the season but now that we have lost two (despite the numerous injuries) I think we should go get a 7'2" receiver with a 4.2 second 40 time with hands made of glue.

PS: Could you please wave at me in the stands during the next game? I'll be the one wearing the pink hat.

This team is a Super Bowl Caliber team when healthy. So hold on to your soft nuts and get ready for the ride.

 

[Bruins29]

Let me revise this for you.

Bill. I know we won a super bowl with Edelman, Amendola, Lafell and Gronkowski. I know that we came back from two 14 point deficits in the AFC Divisional playoff game and I know we came back from a 10 point 4th quarter deficit to win the Super Bowl. But I seem to have a pair of chicken nuts and a jelly spine and cannot handle a 10-2 record. Yes you seemed to have the best team in football with the receiving corp you had at the beginning of the season but now that we have lost two (despite the numerous injuries) I think we should go get a 7'2" receiver with a 4.2 second 40 time with hands made of glue.
PS: Could you please wave at me in the stands during the next game? I'll be the one wearing the pink hat.
.

Exactly. Just some typical usual stupidity here. Tom Brady was terrible and of course its the receivers fault. Of course we are missing our best wr, and best all around receiving threat. And Lafell and DA are obviously not 100%

 

[MassPats38]

Bill i know you're not reading this, but....

CAN YOU PLEASE, PLEASE just go out there and get a big, fast receiver that can stretch the field and knows how to catch the ball? I mean how many more years do we have to watch scrubs like Martin, Harper etc. pretend to be deep play guys? I don't care whether you have to draft them or bring them in through FA but next season i don't want to see Dolphins practice squad players being our main threat deep down field.

Oh and also if you are going to waste high draft picks on the o-line every single year, do you think it would be possible that they actually do their main job and PROTECT Brady? I'm not sure he ever completes a pass without getting absolutely destroyed. I know the perception is that he's a superhero but go out there and take those hits yourself if you think he can take it over and over.

Chad Jackson;
Aaron Dobson

to name 2. Both second round picks. Both didn't do/haven't done much (the Pats have not been great, in my opinion, with receiver drafts, but Brady-like receivers who fall in the draft are hard to come by). Odell Beckham was picked #12. Calvin Johnson was picked #2. Short of a horrid season (4-12 or worse), precisely how does one add one of those guys to the roster? Trade all of the draft picks for one guy?

The Pats have added guys like Moss and Chad Johnson. Some times it works, some times no. But if you want the marquee receivers, it's $14 million to $16 million per year, and they are available in 2020 or so. Teams with marquee players are typically loathe to dump them for less than the world.

As for O-line, Stork is good. Vollmer is good. Solder is good. The Pats have done fairly well with the O-line picks, but IR is not something you can anticipate. No team has a stable of All Pros as backup as far as I am aware.

The reality is the salary cap prevents excessive depth everywhere, but the Pats have done as well as anybody in building a roster with some depth. Tough times right now with injuries, but the lousy picks on the roster are still 10-2, and I will take that over the 4-8 Lions with Calvin Johnson, Golden Tate and Lance Moore on the roster.

 

[Gronkowski123]

hire the steelers WR scout. they have 3 solid wr's...all drafted.

bill, also ditch the quick wr screen to laFAIL.
it never works and drives me nuts. nobody ever blocks so lafell never has any space. we see this crap at least once per game.

the extra lineman to run block rarely works anymore. seems like the dumb colts ( just got smocked lol ) are the only team who falls for that garbage

 

[Gronkowski123]

Time to pursuit Calvin Johnson next year.

maybe the browns will ditch that nutcase josh gordon
bring him in on a cheap deal. if he smokes pot, cut him.

 

[Fencer]

I don't care really, but every year there are guys in the draft and in FA available yet Bill passes on them and thinks a 13th linebacker is more important than someone who can run more than 25 yards to help the offense.

Shame on BB for not finding great contributors such as Chad Jackson or Bethel Johnson.

Other teams even trade up in the 2nd round when guys like that become available.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

This post is such bs. Patriots have the best offense in the NFL with Gronkowski and Edelman. Like any team wouldn't suffer when losing the best offensive weapon in the league and one of the most slippery, uncoverable players in the league as well. They have lost an all-pro team worth of talent to injuries. There is more than one way to build a great offense.

 

[Bruins29]

This is English Patriots MO. No matter how terrible TB plays its always everyone else's fault. And TB never has any weapons, or an O line, or an OC.

Blah blah blah...

 

[Fencer]

All i will say to everyone is just take a moment and imagine how brutal and dynamic this offense would be if you add just 1 guy with legit downfield speed? I mean you already have Gronk and Edelman just think about how unstoppable this team would be when you consider this great Defense we have too.

Right now we are asking for too much from Jules and Gronk and it will inevitably end with them getting badly hurt because being targeted enough times means sooner or later you get injured by the opposition.

If you add that guy to Gronk, Edelman, Amendola and Lewis you're investing a lot in one aspect of the team.
If you replace one of those guys, you aren't necessarily improving the team.

Why? Because as people have pointed out, Brady is better at short passes. The OL is better at blocking for short passes. So investing in a guy who catches long passes may not be an optimal use of resources.

 

[Satchboogie3]

My problem isn't so much that we don't have a deep threat, but we have no depth nor speed nor catching ability to speak of at the WR position. It IS foolish to think that there wouldn't be a pretty good drop off in production when your #1 receiving back, #1 receiver, depth 'deep threat', and GOAT TE are all out, plus your #2/3 receiver can't catch a ball or run his route ALL the way. It's what it is.

 

[FourierSeries]

Terrible thread.

 

[convertedpatsfan]

marshall would have been nice...he's ripping it up with fitz throwing the ball

I thought the Jets made a savvy deal for Marshall. Trading a 5th and getting a 7th plus Marshall back is good value.

But $8-$9M a year, I don't know if he'd be worth that to us. He's absolutely worth it to the Jets, who had a serious lack of weapons and a QB problem. But between Gronk and Jules, Marshall would have been a very expensive #2/#3 guy. $9M for 6.9 catches, 96.5 yards per game, 12.8 YPC vs. Edelman's $4M for 6.7 catches, 76.9 yards per game, 11.3 YPC, I don't see the value in that upgrade for us. He's totally worth it there, but probably has a different worth here.

And who do we cut to make that happen? Is that $9M better spent on that big receiver, or on an LT to protect Brady, or Sheard + Dola + Branch, whom we all signed/re-signed/re-negotiated this past offseason?

I forgot to include the Colts in my review of top teams over the past decade. They have spent several 1sts on WRs, hitting huge on Reggie Wayne in 2001, not so much with Anthony Gonzalez in 2007, and unsure about Dorsett last year. Wayne's salary of $6M+ seems like a steal, but back in the day, that was a significant chunk of a much smaller cap. It'd be the equivalent of an $8-$9M hit these days. They won a championship, but even their drunken, drugged-up owner admits he's amazed they didn't win more. Lack of depth got them several times. Not blaming Wayne, but he certainly wasn't a difference maker for them when it came to championships, and didn't get more than 70 yards in any of the play-off games in 2006. Great player though.

The Falcons mortgaged their future for Julio Jones, and yes, he is a beast. But even paired with a QB, that's a sub-.500 team.

AJ Green/Demaryus Thomas are probably the best current examples of a top WR on a winning team, but this is their first year getting paid so we'll see what that does to depth long-term.

Just to be clear, I'm not opposed to having a big, tall, strong HOF WR. I just don't want to pay $10M+ for one, and I don't want to spend 1st round picks on them chasing one either.

 

[Marinlik]

....... and because Martin and Lafell can't catch the ball or get open downfield.

I think getting open quickly is more of the problem. Getting open quickly is more important with the revolving door OL. This team has shown that they can win super bowls with the quick passing game. But that doesn't work when your WRs can't get open quickly.

Having a short/intermediate passing game is not asking Brady to do too much. It's asking him to do what he does best, which is to quickly read the defense, finding the open guy, and rifling the ball in there.

 

[MassPats38]

hire the steelers WR scout. they have 3 solid wr's...all drafted.

Except those 'diamond' receivers tend to turn to coal when they leave the Steelers.

Mike Wallace and Santonio Holmes say 'hi'. Big price, little production.