Facts are in about the 05-06 offseason

[PatsFanInVa]

Yes, and...

We got Seymour done. Right there you have a successful offseason. The fact that with all said and done, we're between 3 mil under cap, and slightly over cap and being penalized (the range of guesses I've read lately,) should suggest there simply wasn't the cash this year to do everything we could have wished for. Brilliant rearview mirror analysis, I guess. But there it is... the in-season pickups have come through great, though they might or might not end up as "team building" pieces. Caldwell and Gaffney have far outplayed their pre-Pats potential, however, and we can only look at their blossoming here as a success (whether one-year wonders, or permanent additions.)

I'm still waiting on pins and needles for tomorrow night of course.. but this is the real story this season, from a Pats fan point of view: We're 60 minutes away from a Super Bowl berth, in a year when we weren't "supposed" to win the division.

When are pundits going to learn to stop counting out the dominant team of the 2000s?

PFnV

 

[BradfordPatsFan]

Can we sticky the original post in this thread for next spring/summer?

You cannot judge an offseason until the subsequent season is over. You need to see how the players play.

 

[spacecrime]

No, some people are just truly objective about the situation.

Or fantasizing. Why stop with AV. Wouldn't you feel even more comfortable if we had Branch, WMG, Givens, Milloy, Ted Washington, Woody, Mike Haynes, John Hannah, Andre Tippet and Gino Cappilletti?

 

[patsfan13]

Great post AZ, sometimes we don't appreciate how good we have it RIGHT NOW!

Consider all the guys currently on IR in addition to the guys on the roster ( R Gay and Wilson) then add in the draft picks for this coming draft (figuring some of the comp picks will be pretty good, camp next summer will be crazy with talent.

Somehow the roster has the potential to get even better next year. It will be interesting to see hwo we can do with our FA's.

 

[patpatriot]

Or fantasizing. Why stop with AV. Wouldn't you feel even more comfortable if we had Branch, WMG, Givens, Milloy, Ted Washington, Woody, Mike Haynes, John Hannah, Andre Tippet and Gino Cappilletti?

Cause AV is the only one of those players who could truly break my heart tomorrow night.

 

[captain stone]

And fortunately for us as a group some of the biggest culprits of those threads don't feel the need to stop by anymore.

Thank you for making me feel the need.

Without further ado, then, here are the FO's FUps over the past year:

1) The Vinitraitor should have been franchised.

2) Meion should not have been traded until after the season.

3) Tim Dwight should have been re-signed, if for nothing other than continuity's sake.

4) Doug Gabriel was, in the words of Dennis Green, who I thought he was: a waste of an '07 5th-round pick.

5) A vet LT, capable of starting, should have been signed in case Light and Kaczur weren't 100% (they still aren't) out of TC.

6) A vet NT, capable of backing up Wilfork, should have been signed. Or, keep Jonathan Sullivan, in the hope that he matures, and relegate LeKevin Smith to the PS.

7) The LB "depth" is atrocious. Having Seau and Gardner go on IR obviously hurt, but no vets were brought in to replace them.

8) Gostkowski and Garrett Mills were taken 2 rounds too soon. Those 2 4th-rounders could have been better used on Mark Anderson and a DB, e.g. Will Blackmon, Alan Zemaitis, Patrick Watkins or Dawan Landry.

9) Dan Stevenson = the next Joe Andruzzi...I think that's a no.

10) S Antoine Bethea was available at the end of the 6th round; Smith and Stevenson were chosen instead. And Jeremy Mincey, too, earlier in the round.

I hate to sound like Marc Antony, but remember folks, nobody's perfect.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming...

 

[PatsFanInVa]

Closest things to a blemish I see, in retrospect, is Doug Gabriel. I don't know what went down there, whether it was just poor play in the Pats' eyes, or that one turnover, or some other weirdness. Be he came and went faster than a ten dollar streetwalker.

Nope, nobody is perfect. The question is, "how'd they do"?

It should be pointed out that, when selecting talent in the draft, players do not come with a "first year success in your system" videotape, so the point on Bethea is a bit lame.

Who was still available at which time is a pretty poor way to analyze, especially when you have no idea of whether Bethea holds up. You can look at the Pats' draft last year and say, however, that the Jackson verdict is still out, but that a number of other positions immediately benefitted from the selections.

I also hold to my "wait three years" argument regarding any draft breakdown.

Yeah, I will agree, "nobody's perfect..." But going backwards from last year's work is what you'd assume by a lot of the chicken littles here. We've moved forward, and for that matter, may win it all.

And the chorus of "cheap cheap cheap" is once again meaningless, with the Pats at or near "spent to the cap" level. You just can't afford the world's greatest talent at every position (sorry Javon... I know it's got to be hard watching from home.)

Do I feel dumb throwing away a fifth rounder on Gabriel that did not work out...? Yah. Do I feel better getting a first rounder for Deion? OH yeah.

PFnV

 

[BelizePats]

No, nobody is perfect. But the bottom line here is that the front office had a very good off season, which was directly responsible for where were are as of this morning, which is one game from playing in another superbowl. While not every move turned out to be a home run, the collective quality of the 2006 off season is hard to argue. It has also set us un nicely for future years in terms of draft picks, both Seatles first and the comp picks we'll get for players who were allowed to leave.
The Branch apologist crowd has mercifully been silenced. We have Seatle's 1st round pick (24th over all) Does anyone here really think that we will not have a quality starter from this pick within 2 years, given BB and SP's track record? And best of all, Branch pretty much did for them what he did for us. 4 touchdowns and about 750 yards. Is this kind of production worth a 30+ million. I do not think so. If you asked Seattle if they would do the trade over again, what do you think they'd say? Exactly!!!
Fiscal responsibility is every bit as important in todays NFL as is player evaluations and scouting. This is the new NFL and there are still franchises out there that have not figured this out.
As to AV, he did not want to be here anymore and has admitted that he did not give the Pats much of an opportunity to get something done. Our front office has decided that once a player does not want to be here, he's gone. Do you think that Andy Reid wishes he had this kind of determination? The TO fiasco would have been negated had he been as sure of what he was doing as our front office is.
Mistakes are made but our front office is better than anyone else's in the league. The 2006 off season was excellent and anyone who says that this is not true is doing so because they have some type of axe to grind.
Respects,

Rich

 

[FreeTedWilliams]

Do not discount that BOTH Bruschi and Hobbs have played the entire season with broken wrists!

Once again, if the Pats didn't have to IR
Randal Gay
Tebucky
Garret Mills (still think he is going to be the new prototypically FB)
Jr Seau
Eugene Wilson

Plus a losing Rodney for half a season.

I would have loved to seen the record.

 

[patsfaninpa]

Don't forget Dan Koppen. We extended him this year too. There was a lot of speculation he was going to leave. I feel he is the key to the ol. Maybe, not it's best player. But, the most intergral piece.

 

[FreeTedWilliams]

Thank you for making me feel the need.

Without further ado, then, here are the FO's FUps over the past year:

1) The Vinitraitor should have been franchised.


I hate to sound like Marc Antony, but remember folks, nobody's perfect.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming...

At the time the decision not to tag "he who should not be named" as made, Seymour was still looking at being a Free Agent after this year. Having the Franchise tag available for him, and now subsequently for Asante, is much bigger than the kicker.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

And we still have yet to cash in on our nifty extra first round draft pick.

...plus the compensatory pick that the Jets will inevitably have to give us for tampering with Deion.

 

[FreeTedWilliams]

...plus the compensatory pick that the Jets will inevitably have to give us for tampering with Deion.

That is still being debated in the league offices (which I guess is a good sign, because if they thought it was bogus they would have dismissed it by now). Imagine the collective howl from Jetnation, if they have to fork over a pick to us? I find it funny that we will be picking ahead of them in the first round. Dollars to doughnuts that BB trades that pick away so that some other team can leap ahead of the JEts and grab the last good RB in the first round.

 

[MrBigglesWorth]

That is still being debated in the league offices (which I guess is a good sign, because if they thought it was bogus they would have dismissed it by now). Imagine the collective howl from Jetnation, if they have to fork over a pick to us? I find it funny that we will be picking ahead of them in the first round. Dollars to doughnuts that BB trades that pick away so that some other team can leap ahead of the JEts and grab the last good RB in the first round.

or BB could just draft the best available defensive player that the Jets would want too.

 

[mgcolby]

Thank you for making me feel the need.

Without further ado, then, here are the FO's FUps over the past year:

1) The Vinitraitor should have been franchised.

2) Meion should not have been traded until after the season.

3) Tim Dwight should have been re-signed, if for nothing other than continuity's sake.

4) Doug Gabriel was, in the words of Dennis Green, who I thought he was: a waste of an '07 5th-round pick.

5) A vet LT, capable of starting, should have been signed in case Light and Kaczur weren't 100% (they still aren't) out of TC.

6) A vet NT, capable of backing up Wilfork, should have been signed. Or, keep Jonathan Sullivan, in the hope that he matures, and relegate LeKevin Smith to the PS.

7) The LB "depth" is atrocious. Having Seau and Gardner go on IR obviously hurt, but no vets were brought in to replace them.

8) Gostkowski and Garrett Mills were taken 2 rounds too soon. Those 2 4th-rounders could have been better used on Mark Anderson and a DB, e.g. Will Blackmon, Alan Zemaitis, Patrick Watkins or Dawan Landry.

9) Dan Stevenson = the next Joe Andruzzi...I think that's a no.

10) S Antoine Bethea was available at the end of the 6th round; Smith and Stevenson were chosen instead. And Jeremy Mincey, too, earlier in the round.

I hate to sound like Marc Antony, but remember folks, nobody's perfect.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming...

1. Why, so he could leave this year?
2. We got a first round pick - how can you complain about that?
3. What a season he had this year. Wow!
4. Can't argue with that, but he did have potential just not a work ethic.
5. Didn't they have Gorin? Who they traded for a 5th round pick after they saw what they had in the rookies? The same one that allowed them to gamble on Gabriel.
6. Yeah, I guess the FO should just sign folks to make us happy, even if they have a guy on the roster they think can do the job, but the average fan hasn't heard of him - so it doesn't count (Mike Wright).
7. They didn't sign anyone to replace Seau because they felt that TBC could do the job outside and they could move Vrabel back inside - they must feel comfortable with Alexander. But WTF do they know.
8. Hell why stop with those names we could have had Colston.
9. That was fan speculation and god forbid the Pats miss on a draft pick or two.
10. Bethea can't tackle to save his life. And is only starting because they don't have anyone else. That is like a team saying "we could have had Earthwind Moreland, the Pats picked him up off the street".

Being objective is one thing, being overly negative is just numb.

How many teams have won the SB and had two first round picks in the following draft? We have a chance to do it twice in three years.