feelthepain said:
Who in your WR's is better then Branch??? Do you guy's think this will hurt at all??? There has to come a point were your loses can't be overcome.
What you fail to understand is the NFL is very fluid. Always has been, and always will be. Since the 2001 champ team, there are only a handfull of players left, only 5 short years later. What makes the pats special, and why we (pats fans) have come to realize is that our front office has recognized this, and has adapted thier strategy to account for it. They have built a core of skilled, smart players, and bring iquality players in to raise the level of play to the place where it has to be, to compete on a year over year basis.
Ocassionally, you lose a core vet to the market, as the team puts a value on a position, and a player skill at that position, and sticks to its guns. Does it hurt the pats, in the short term, sure. We will struggle a bit with our passinng game till Jackson and Gabriel get the hang of things, then we'll be back on track. If someone had said 2 years ago that we would lose Branch and Givens, alot of ppl would of said...so what? They didn't have stats to think that they can't be replaced. IMO, they will be replaced. With the rise of Watson, and with the other two recievers coming back online, and a revitalized running game, the slack will be picked up.
Also, we will not be in "salary cap ***" in a few years because of emotional moves vs business rules.
I'd also like to point out that of all the trades this season, I think the pats were the only team to pick up a #1.(and I don't think Branch was the best player traded..) Be it the 31st, 30th, 20th or whatever, it makes us stronger in the long run. Since its probable that we will play deep into the playoffs we were looking at only picking up 1 of the top 50 or so players available, now we will get 2.
Hope this helps.