Did Belichick do what is best for Patriots in 2006?

[stcjones]

Hello All,

I have been a big Patriots fan for a very long time and have been reading this forum for six years now. I am a very big Belichick Fan. Even last year when they were struggling, I liked the way He prepared the Team and how hard the team fought( the game at Pittsburgh was one of my all time favorite) . Bill Belichick always says that they are doing the best for the team to win. We all know he doesn't talk about past or future. It is all one game at a time and one year at a time.

Having said that, I don't think He did the best he could given the resources the team has for 2006 season and this may bite us big time this year. I am not complaining about David Givens and Adam Vinatieri who I think made up their minds to get out of here. But Branch was a different case and the most important thing is that Brady had a lot of trust in him. I also beleive that when the Salary Cap has increased due to CBA, Pats front office did not reflect the increase in cap value while negotiating with Branch. They were almost arrogant to ask Branch to shop himself for Trade.

I sense a lot of players are unhappy with this development and they are feeling that they have been short changed. From a players perspective, they don't care How many 1st round draft picks they have for next year. They want to win this year. Who knows how many of them are going to be back here next year? They want to win this year and so far it doesn't seem like it is going to happen. How bad was it to see Denver treat Tom Brady like some 3rd stringer by loading up on the run and daring him to beat them through the air? It did not happen ever.

But I guess the Front Office must have had some plan when they decided to get rid of the top 2 receivers of Brady. Because they just never did anything like this without a backup plan like backing up Lawyer Milloy with Rodney Harrison. I just don't see it yet. I would be pleasantly surprised if this Team makes it to Super Bowl. I don't think the Front Office and Belichick put the team in the best position to win this year.

1st post???? wow........i'm not even thinking troll here....I'm sure this is legit.....interesting points

 

[Kdo5]

Think of it this way.

The Patriots dont resign McGinnest and then we hear that he was a big loss. They sign Seau, old has been and guess what, until the Bengals game Seau was leading the team in tackles, just above Ty Warren.

So far: Seau > McGinnest. GOOD decision.

WR problems? Brady seems to be getting more comfortable now. Both Gabriel and Caldwell have out performed David Givens. Gabriel especially. Givens has played all four games with pretty equal or lower stats then Caldwell(not entirely sure). Gabriel has played 1 game in which he got signifigent playing time. I saw Gabriel thrown to once in his first game against the Jets. Gabriel finally comes in for a late hopeless drive against Denver records 5 or 6 catches and a touchdown in one drive. No sweat! Then Sunday he finally got a full game of playing time and was the starter and again he did well. I believe 4 catches and the touchdown.

Gabriel > Givens, Caldwell = Givens. I think Givens should get a little bit over Reche simply for the fact that he has a crappy crappy QB. Reche has done well, however he doesnt exactly have the mind blowing stats, 2 or 3 reception average a game. But watching him I cant say much bad about him. When he is involved he has done pretty good. And Jackson has looked good when he has played which hasnt been much. He'll get there but first he needs to stay healthy. Chad isnt going to be a starter quite yet. Unless of an injury to Gabriel or Caldwell then it seems Brown would step in. He'll be a good player and I am excited about him.

Gabriel and Caldwell doing a decent to pretty good job right now as totally new recievers to Brady. They will only get better.

GOOD pickups by getting Gabriel and Caldwell cheap and productive and they will get more productive. DECENT move by letting Givens go.

Letting go Vinatieri. Not GOOD not BAD. The plusses of having Gostkowski is his kickoffs, jeez they are frigging great. Take a look at the Bengals game. He was booting them WAY back into the endzone. Field goal kicking definitley needs improvement. Adam struggled in his rookie year, especially his first few games, he did terrible then he turned into the greatest clutch kicker ever. It will take a while to find out about Gostkowski.

Letting go of Branch. Now this is the worst loss and lets not pretend here. It was really tough to get rid of him despite his actions...or shall I say lack of action. I'm totally cool with letting Givens go. Branch decision I'd have to mark a POOR one however it was also OK because we got a first rounder for him which was great.

Belichick has built a very deep team at most of the positions.

 

[DaBruinz]

The question is: Did Belichick do what is best in 2006?

When he traded Branch for a 2007 first round pick, is Belichick doing what is best for the team in 2006 or 2007?

You have to be more specific in your response.

Did Belichick do what is best for the Patriots in 2006 or for the future?


.

That is the problem with you Mikey. To the Patriots, its the same thing. Their short-term plan has to fit into their long term plan. To them, doing something short-term that contradicts the long term plan ruins the long term plan.

I am not sure how I could be more specific since I directly addressed the situation that occured.

 

[gomezcat]

. But, in the end, I know that they have infinitely more Football wisdom than I do. Heck, you could add all of the football "smarts" that is proclaimed on this board and we probably don't know half of what BB and Pioli knows.

I'm not so sure about that. I've run up some big scores on Madden against top notch teams. Just joking; your points are well made. Far too many of us forget how little we know about Football. Anyone who thinks that we can have a team that wins the SB every year, sign everyone on fat contracts AND build for the future is living in la-la land. This is still a good Pats team. It also looks great going into the future. That building would never have been done by paying over the odds for every skill position.