Garbanza said:
You people are brutal. I recall a lot of you turning on Seymour last year too. Some people stating he wasn't all that. The Patriots need Branch. Really, they do.
Funny - the players accept that it is a business. The fans do not.
They found a way to win a championship without him on the team in 2001. Are you trying to say that BB has forgotten how to coach? He found a way to coach this team to it's first Championship without either Branch or Givens on this team in 2001. Are you trying to say that he is now incapable of doing that?
IMHO, there are 4 players that are important for the success of this team.
Richard Seymour
Tom Brady
Teddy Bruschi
Rodney Harrison.
We have yet to see what it's like to try to win without Brady on the field. Thank God. But last year we got a taste of what it was like to try to win without Seymour, Bruschi and Harrison on the field. In a word, it was ugly.
We couldn't stop the run and our secondary was a mess. Thank God Seymour and Bruschi came back. We all saw the difference in our run D when they came back.
IT took practically the entire season to find someone who was capable of stabilizing our Secondary after Rodney went down.
Thank God we found Artrell Hawkins, he stabilized the secondary enough to make it serviceable. Before he got here, Back up Quarterbacks were picking our secondary apart.
In 2004, Law and Poole went down and Samuel, and Gay became our starting corners. Harrison held that secondary together. We all saw how bad that secondary was without him.
As for Branch, we made it to the playoffs in 2003 while he was in and out of the line up with an injury, in 2004 he missed almost the entire season and we still got to the playoffs. So how much do we really need him to win?
Look, Branch is a very good player. No doubt. But he's no Richard Seymour, Tom Brady, Teddy Bruschi or Rodney Harrison. WE NEED THOSE GUYS TO WIN. How about giving Brady some credit? Without him we wouldn't have made it to the playoffs last year. Brady put this team on his back/arm and carried us to the playoffs with hardly any running game to speak of.
Don't get me wrong I would love to see him back in the lineup. He will most definately make our team better. However, I have faith in BB and his ability to coach, and I have faith in Brady and his ability to lead this offense. The 2006 Patriots will win their fair share. With or without Branch, IMHO.