Great Point by Peter King

[yopats]

From today's MMQB

To get these players, New England made three trades. Logan Mankins was sent to Tampa in August for Wright and a 2015 fourth-round pick. New England sent its sixth-round pick to Tennessee for Ayers plus Tennessee’s seventh. New England sent its fifth-round pick to Tampa Bay for Casillas and Tampa’s sixth.

If the season ended today, Tampa would hold the fourth pick in the draft, Tennessee fifth and New England 31st. Obviously, those will change, but for the sake of this discussion, assume that’s where each will choose, and assume the overall picks I will use in this example correspond with the overall picks from 2014 draft, which include compensatory picks.

So what New England gave was this: Mankins, pick 171 and pick 207.

What New England gets: A No. 2 tight end (Wright), a starting-caliber linebacker in Ayers, and a backup linebacker/special-teamer in Casillas, and picks 104, 180 and 220.

 

[Oswlek]

Pardon me for asking, is the focus of this thread the point made by King or the fact that he actually said something intelligent? I'd just like some clarification before diving headlong into my comment.

 

[RobertWeathers]

We should all take notice and ring the church bells when PK says something intelligent and informative as it's rare.

 

[Gronkandez]

We'll see how good Ayers is in the long term. I'm kind of excited about his play but feel like it will level off. Wright had zero targets yesterday. Casillas made some nice plays on ST but be a high impact guy. It's not like the guys are going to be studs.
The 4th round pick is looking like a valuable chip, but the others? Meh.

 

[chasa]

PK just saying the same thing all the non chicken littles have been saying here since the trades happened.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

From today's MMQB

...

What New England gets: A No. 2 tight end (Wright), a starting-caliber linebacker in Ayers, and a backup linebacker/special-teamer in Casillas, and picks 104, 180 and 220.

OK. Great info.
Here's what I think the Pats should do in April: Package 180 & 220, trade them to whoever's got #199, take the best QB left on the Board and pick Brady's replacement. That one turned out pretty good in 2000.

 

[Oswlek]

We'll see how good Ayers is in the long term. I'm kind of excited about his play but feel like it will level off. Wright had zero targets yesterday. Casillas made some nice plays on ST but be a high impact guy. It's not like the guys are going to be studs.
The 4th round pick is looking like a valuable chip, but the others? Meh.

I have to admit to finding this rationale a little odd.

Wright had zero targets yesterday, so that overrules his impressive rookie season and the obvious talents he's displayed the last month? Or the fact that he is a far more viable offensive alternative to an injured Gronk than anything on the roster before his arrival?

Then, you reverse field and instead of judging Ayers by what we saw yesterday, you base your assessment on a possible drop off in the future?

And what more did you expect from Casillas in his first week?

Interestingly, Wright has already done more in 1.5 seasons than the majority of 4th rounders do in their career, yet that is what you consider most valuable.

I don't think King (or anyone else) is saying any of the acquisitions are foundational building blocks, just more excellence in asset management by Bill.

 

[TomPatriot]

We'll see how good Ayers is in the long term. I'm kind of excited about his play but feel like it will level off. Wright had zero targets yesterday. Casillas made some nice plays on ST but be a high impact guy. It's not like the guys are going to be studs.
The 4th round pick is looking like a valuable chip, but the others? Meh.

There must be something wrong with me. I think the picks are the least valuable and the players all have more value. I think the Big Guy said it best in yesterday's new conference:

"Look, everybody plays a role in the offense. It doesn't really – it's not really that important who gets it or how it comes as long as we get it. We use different people and so one guy gets it or multiple guys get it, as long as we're producing, we're moving the ball and scoring points, we're doing the right things. That's the idea. It's not about a bunch of stats and stats this and stats that. We're not playing fantasy football here. We're trying to win."

 

[Bruins29]

Guys you are discussing football with a poster who is still paying tribute to a mass murdering scumbag.

 

[JackBauer]

I had/have some reservations about BB's offseason moves (i.e. I think we went into the season a bit too thin at some key spots), and while it's still too soon to say definitively, his in-season personnel moves have been excellent to this point.

 

[KA-]

We'll see how good Ayers is in the long term. I'm kind of excited about his play but feel like it will level off. Wright had zero targets yesterday. Casillas made some nice plays on ST but be a high impact guy. It's not like the guys are going to be studs.
The 4th round pick is looking like a valuable chip, but the others? Meh.

Who cares if Tim Wright didn't have any targets yesterday, the offense was near perfect, they didn't have to call his number. Did you forget Tim Wright is 17 for 17 this season?

Get rid of the "forcing balls for no good reason" mentality.

 

[SVN]

Thats the problem with king. he has to go deep into all these calculations to say something with stats. I am sure BB thought of these things but not all the order and value of picks like it fell . sometimes each trade/decision is an individual one.

 

[Oswlek]

Thats the problem with king. he has to go deep into all these calculations to say something with stats. I am sure BB thought of these things but not all the order and value of picks like it fell . sometimes each trade/decision is an individual one.

I don't think King is saying otherwise, he's just giving the complete tally.

 

[SVN]

I don't think King is saying otherwise, he's just giving the complete tally.

Maybe. Iam kind of lost with him most of the times. He just writes this type of stuff all the time. And its easy to say after the fact .

 

[Gumby]

Guys you are discussing football with a poster who is still paying tribute to a mass murdering scumbag.

Technically, I think that would be serial murdering scumbag.

(And I thought he had discussions w Ian about how to chg and was frustrated by the system constraints.)

 

[Bruins29]

Technically, I think that would be serial murdering scumbag.

(And I thought he had discussions w Ian about how to chg and was frustrated by the system constraints.)

I think you are correct. I think a serial murderer is a guy who plans it out( Lloyd). While a mass murderer is more like a spur of the moment (guys in Boston)

Still, could be a good discussion. We could go with sociopath murdering scumbag which fits well.

My question is why would a poster here still reference this person when it is simple to change your screen name? Birds of a feather I guess...

 

[Rob0729]

Great Point by Peter King? Ok, I'll play

What is things no one has ever said ever, Alex.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Who cares if Tim Wright didn't have any targets yesterday, the offense was near perfect, they didn't have to call his number. Did you forget Tim Wright is 17 for 17 this season?

Get rid of the "forcing balls for no good reason" mentality.

I think that they genuinely have confidence in Wright. They just don't need him a lot right now.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

Peter king will jump on someone else's bandwagon next week.

 

[supafly]

Always thought that the Mankins trade was a good move and would work out in the bigger picture, but I'd be lying if I said that I expected things to happen this quickly.

Great work, once again from Belichick, and let's hope for continued progress from both the OL and Tim Wright.

I always felt that Wright was kind of like the LaFell acquisition in the sense that a good portion of people had no idea who the hell they were, and that's why they questioned and "pooh-poohed" these selections.

Those of us who follow the goings on across the league as much as possible saw upside in BOTH of these players, along with some fairly successful seasons just last year.