Cutdown Day: PATS DISCUSSION thread

[doesntmatter1]

Just looking at the roster kind of annoys me to see 6 de. That is just way too many. You only have two on the field, 3 if you use cunningham as a dt.

And after letting it soak in, the lack of receivers doesn't even really bother me. Honestly, who is going to sign branch. I like branch's game alot, but only in our system. It takes effort to get the most out of a midget possion receiver. Just ask the seahawks.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

And I can't tell you how comforting that thought is to almost everyone on this board.

I can't tell you how funny these "Oh, I'm so worried about what will happen if Brady goes down" comments over and over again. Well why don't you ask what will happen to the Packers if Rogers goes down, or Bears if Cutler goes down, or the Broncos if Manning goes down, etc, etc etc.

We thought we were smarter than them...

Tell me DI back in 2009 when BB not only went with only 2 QBs on the roster the one he picked was an UDFA. I'm gonna bet you were worried about that all season. Or how about back in 2008 when the unthinkable DID happen, especially after Cassell had a preseason worse than anything Hoyer or Mallet put up. Remember the calls for Gutts. Or lets go back to 2001 How many here were all in a sweat when we found out that BB was going to have some 6th round nobody back up Drew Bledsoe. Why can't it be some guy with some upside at least like Micael Bishop.

Probably not as much as he is now because they kept a kid who could run the offense out of the gate. And they cut two guys who couldn't. I can tell you that in 2008 DI was fine as was I and a handful of idiots who had stated all along Cassel was fine and his pre season performance had more to do with a struggling team. And in 2001 the nobody who had already passed Bledsoe on the depth chart was backed up by the quite expensive and highly sought after former Dolphin Damon Huard.

I'll tell you a little secret, but you have to promise not to tell a soul, because this is really super secret inside stuff. The kind of info it takes years to accumulate. This is the kind of knowledge that you have to go far and wide to find out. OK? So here it is.

If you have a franchise level QB and he gets hurt..... YOU ARE F##CKED!

Yeah, like in 2008...

Now don't tell anyone, because if this got out to the masses, people would be in shock.

All there is left is to do the best you can, and whether it was Brian Hoyer or Ryan Mallet its not likely to get you to the superbowl (though if you are the Patriots, you still will win a lot of games.)

BOTTOM LINE - If left with the prospect of playing with a back up QB, I'm pretty sure I'm ready to go with the guy BB felt was best suited for the job. you know I hear he has a pretty good track record for replacing injured QB's.

The issue isn't really even a season ending injury for Brady. It's missing 4-6 games and bringing in the player most likely to get you through them no worse than .500 so you're still in the running. That guy is the game manager most prepared to run the offense as closely as possible to the way Brady would have, not the anthisis of the starter. They don't remotely have the talent to utilize Mallett's primary tool.

Once upon a time Bill selected Rohan Davey as his primary backup. Just because you get away with something doesn't make it right. More than once I've questioned whether Bill actually truly grasps what it takes to be successful on the offensive side of his scheme. Or he's just been lucky from the get go. This is another of those times. Losing Branch the first time on the heels of losing Givens (whom he tried to match the offer on too late). Letting Gaffney walk over peanuts. Signing a series of veteran WR's with no affinity for this demanding and cerebral a system. Drafting speedsters with gaping holes in their game. Drafting a thoroughbred and then trying to hitch him to a plow. Then plugging in a grade horse. Forcing Brady to adapt and adjust year after year and continually stressing him from carrying the offense to carrying the team to consistently winning seasons by doing more with less.

I've been piloried for being a homer herabouts because I'm not critical enough. Truth is I'm just not a blind homer. I've trusted Bill to do what is best for this team, but I also acknowledge he hasn't always managed to. I was concerned about how difficult it would be for him to retain some of the solid talent he had finally re-assembled on the other side of the ball. I simply think in an effort to retain it all he has gone too far and left his offense percariously thin. I hope that didn't happen in part as a result of some of the glaring mistakes he's made in the last couple of seasons costing Kraft and the team a boatload of cash and dead cap. $18M and rising. Or in part because of ego. Costing everything from a thin roster on offense to a restructured QB deal that now looms over the backend of Brady's time here.

I hope it all works out. I'm just not sure why it had to.

 

[Ring 6]

For example???? His numbers suggest otherwise.

He can't cover. What numbers tell you he can?

 

[Ring 6]

There was no reason to cut Branch today if they were just going to resign him tomorrow. He's either not coming back, is coming back after week 1 (contract no longer guaranteed), or wouldn't have been cut in the first place.

Gaffney, on the other had, I think will be back once he's healthy.

There could be a reason. If you know Branch is not going to sign elsewhere you can cut him for a few days to give the roster flexibility for trades or picking up other teams cuts, and then add Branch back once that is done.

 

[shmessy]

...Once upon a time Bill selected Rohan Davey as his primary backup. Just because you get away with something doesn't make it right. More than once I've questioned whether Bill actually truly grasps what it takes to be successful on the offensive side of his scheme. Or he's just been lucky from the get go......

Did McDaniels have any voice in the offensive roster this year?

 

[Ring 6]

What I have an issue with is HC's asking (as opposed to fans preferring) players to hang around and return if needed for game day checks given the risks we are increasingly aware they all to often face these days. What I have an issue with is lack of accountability when we're carrying close to $20M in dead cap against a $128M cap and close to half of it was the result of gross miscalculation. What I have an issue with is the thought of Brady going down in a heap and being out for 3-4 weeks with a high ankle sprain or MCL injury or seperated shoulder and having to rely on The Hammer. I also have an issue that is partly with a so called union that allows a team to artificially restrict a player for 5 months without paying him a nickel beyond camp per diem and then waive him at final cutdowns with no financial penalty. Hoyer hasn't had a paycheck since last January, and he has a wife and child to support. Apparently the team had no faith in The Hammer coming off last season, but when they learned in May he had dropped his body fat to 10% during the off season everything changed (except of course for his performance, it was their perception of his potential that changed). I'm now convinced that had Welker not signed his tender they might well in fact have cut him too...

I haven't decided yet whether Belichick has lost his mind under a freakin' blue moon or whether he's letting the genius who drafted Tebow and got canned in Denver make too many roster decisions.

I now also have an idea what Brady was probably unloading on Wilfork the other night...

Watch your back from here on out, Tommy Boy. Not to mention while keeping your head on a swivel this season.

Are you honestly telling me you are going to rant and rave about a system where 1000 players trying to fight to earn a spot making at least 5 times as much money as they would make doing anything else is all wrong because one guy who got cut has a family?
Are you related to Hoyer?

 

[1960Pats]

Holy crap. So they are going with 2 QBs.

Not that it really matters, but who will be QB III? Edelman?

 

[1960Pats]

Shocked Hoyer has gone!

As for Ihedigbo, never going to be world class, but he played injured and showed desire!

Sorry, but I'm positively thrilled that Ihedigbo is gone and I hope I don't see him in a Pats uniform ever again. He was an accident waiting to happen.

As for Hoyer, I look at that as a positive because it means that they must have some hope for Mallet.