My take - Sanders signing means Pats won't bring in vet S

[stinkypete]

KFFL reports that Sanders signed to a 3 year, $9 million contract. Seems high for backup money, especially given all the guys they need to re-sign. Reading into this, I do not expect the Pats to make a run at a Dawan Landry or a Sean Jones.

 

[AllabouttheVinces]

Wow. We needed to clear out Vrabel to throw money at Sanders? Ouch.

 

[VJCPatriot]

KFFL reports that Sanders signed to a 3 year, $9 million contract. Seems high for backup money, especially given all the guys they need to re-sign. Reading into this, I do not expect the Pats to make a run at a Dawan Landry or a Sean Jones.

If those numbers are right then your assumption is correct. The Pats won't put 8M into the Safety position. Going after a better safety would cost about 5M per year. They've already given Sanders 3M per year. If the Pats add another safety, it's going to be a draft pick or a minimum salary jag.

 

[JSn]

That money is savings to be spent elsewhere. And a proven LB is a big need, imo. But who's out there?

Right now, we're talking about a lot of fresh meet playing LB, a little too much, imo.

 

[Bertil]

In the Patriots Defensive philosophy, the Front Seven are the most important, and consequently the most highly coveted and paid. They'll go after pass rushers with the cap dollars as this was the undoing of their Defense last year, along with a mountain of injuries. The DBs were actually beginning to jell as a group as the year went on, but they can't cover all day with Pierre Woods and Vince Redd as your edge rushers.

 

[mayoclinic]

I'm actually very happy with this, for a couple of reasons.

First, we now have our two starting safeties for most of 2008 together again for the next 3 years. Meriweather will only get better. Sanders is an adequate starter, and an excellent backup.

Second, we haven't put a lot of money into the safety position and have a decent pair to build around, and we will be in position to draft a stud S to round out the rotation. Add Sean Smith, Louis Delmas, Patrick Chung or William Moore to the mix and we have a really strong 3-safety core rotation. Resign Lewis Sanders or use Spann as the 4th safety, and we are basically set at the position, without putting a huge amount of money into it.

Third, not having to invest a ton of money in the safety position leaves us free to put it elsewhere. Sure, Sean Jones would have been an upgrade over Sanders, but if the long-term plan is to draft a future starting safety and have Sanders as the prime backup at both FS and SS, then Jones would probably have not added very much and would have cost much more. Now we are free to use the money saved on a quality CB (Bodden/Greer) instead of a JAG, to resign Mankins, or to go after a FA acquisition (dare I say Peppers again?).

The bottom line is this move gives us continuity and quality at the DB position for a reasonable cost while allowing us to spend elsewhere. Not a bad deal. I'd rather have Meriweather/Sanders/rookie at S and Hobbs/Bodden/Wheatley at CB than Meriweather/Jones/Rookie and Hobbs/JAG CB/Wheatley.

 

[Mack Herron]

Right. So our stellar third down pass defense lost its OLB Captain and, possibly our best safety (if Sanders is a starter, is Rodney done?), but we will retain our 2nd and 3rd safeties. No additions to date.

 

[Warren94]

Wow. We needed to clear out Vrabel to throw money at Sanders? Ouch.

Ouch is correct Sir.

 

[DaBruinz]

KFFL reports that Sanders signed to a 3 year, $9 million contract. Seems high for backup money, especially given all the guys they need to re-sign. Reading into this, I do not expect the Pats to make a run at a Dawan Landry or a Sean Jones.

Dawan Landry is an RFA. So he'd have required a draft pick as well.

They Pats could also look at Abran Elam as a back-up. He played very well as a CB/S for the Jets last year.

 

[mayoclinic]

Right. So our stellar third down pass defense lost its OLB Captain and, possibly our best safety (if Sanders is a starter, is Rodney done?), but we will retain our 2nd and 3rd safeties. No additions to date.

I don't buy it. Meriweather is our best safety. Harrison is way too slow to be effective, and hasn't been able to play a full season in several years. He was one of our greatest signings ever, but his reign is done. Bruschi, Vrabel, Seau and Colvin are done too. Move on.

I'll take Meriweather/Sanders/rookie over Meriweather/Harrison/Sanders at this point as long as the rookie is one of Sean Smith, Delmas, Chung or William Moore. Harrison can be under consideration with Spann and Lewis Sanders as a 4th safety in a rotation, but we just can't count on him to stay on the field, or to produce much when he's on it at this point.

 

[muslimman]

Ugh.... I really hope this isnt the case. I have to disagree with most of you guys here, Sanders is an adequette back up but a pretty poor starter. Especially since our entire secondary is iffy other than Merriweather.

 

[mgteich]

My preference is Lew Sanders, who can stay on the field and can start if needed.

I don't buy it. Meriweather is our best safety. Harrison is way too slow to be effective, and hasn't been able to play a full season in several years. He was one of our greatest signings ever, but his reign is done. Bruschi, Vrabel, Seau and Colvin are done too. Move on.

I'll take Meriweather/Sanders/rookie over Meriweather/Harrison/Sanders at this point as long as the rookie is one of Sean Smith, Delmas, Chung or William Moore. Harrison can be under consideration with Spann and Lewis Sanders as a 4th safety in a rotation, but we just can't count on him to stay on the field, or to produce much when he's on it at this point.

 

[condon84]

A lot of money to commit for a JAG. What has he done to merit this type of contract? He hasn't displayed any ability to be a playmaker. He doesn't have the range, athletic ability, speed, or size to be a playmaker in space or closer to the line of scrimmage. He is a great special teams player and is credited for being a hard worker by Bill, but damn, we are paying him this much money but had to get rid of Vrabel? WTF? Seems like we've been getting Ls so far this offseason.

 

[mayoclinic]

My preference is Lew Sanders, who can stay on the field and can start if needed.

Lew Sanders would by far be my preference as a 4th safety as well. I'm very content with Meriweather/JSanders/rookie/LSanders as a 4 man safety rotation, and Hobbs/Bodden/Wheatley/Wilhite/Richardson (or Spann) as a 5 man CB rotation.

 

[mayoclinic]

A lot of money to commit for a JAG. What has he done to merit this type of contract? He hasn't displayed any ability to be a playmaker. He doesn't have the range, athletic ability, speed, or size to be a playmaker in space or closer to the line of scrimmage. He is a great special teams player and is credited for being a hard worker by Bill, but damn, we are paying him this much money but had to get rid of Vrabel? WTF? Seems like we've been getting Ls so far this offseason.

We're not exchanging Vrabel for James Sanders. Don't think of it that way.

First, we had too many LBs on our roster (Vrabel, Thomas, Mayo, Bruschi, Woods, Crable, Guyton, Banta-Cain, Redd, Alexander, Robertson, Craig and Ruud) and too few safeties (Meriweather and Spann). We need to plug holes at safety, and we have room to spare at LB.

Second, you need to look at the who roster picture. Many people were suggesting that Vrabel could be a cap cut, or at least needed to restructure in order to not be a drain on the roster. We essentially cut him, but allowed him to save face by being a veteran leader under Pioli in KC. We need his cap savings to build our roster, and Sanders is just a cost-effective piece of that total picture, nothing more. $3M/3 years is a very reasonable contract for Sanders. I'd much rather do that then spend $5-6M on Sean Jones. Miami gave Gibril Wilson $27.5M over 5 years. I'd much rather have Wilson than Sanders, but not if the added money cuts in to quality signings at CB or LB, or major resignings.

If anything, you can look at it like we picked up Tully Banta-Cain for a vet minimum instead of Vrabel for $4.3M. While I'd take Vrabel any day, the cost savings is significant, and if you believe that Vrabel was only going to be a role player and that the young LBs needed to step up and take over then it just wasn't worth it. As a 4th OLB who can rush the passer, Banta-Cain will probably provide similar value to what we would have gotten out of Vrabel, aside form his leadership intangibles. Those are important, but at some point we have to move on and hand over the leadership to Wilfork, Thomas, Mayo and Meriweather. Those are our core defensive leaders right now, not Vrabel, Bruschi or Harrison.

 

[mgteich]

I believe you underestimate the time it takes to learn our system. I would expect our rookie to be the 4th. But in the end, we are on the same page. We both want to add Lew Sanders and a rookie.

Lew Sanders would by far be my preference as a 4th safety as well. I'm very content with Meriweather/JSanders/rookie/LSanders as a 4 man safety rotation, and Hobbs/Bodden/Wheatley/Wilhite/Richardson (or Spann) as a 5 man CB rotation.

 

[mayoclinic]

I believe you underestimate the time it takes to learn our system. I would expect our rookie to be the 4th. But in the end, we are on the same page. We both want to add Lew Sanders and a rookie.

If you are just addressing this year then you are undoubtedly correct. I was looking more long-term. Ultimately, I think Meriweather and whomever we draft will be the starting pair. I would be very happy with the two Sanders as the rest of the rotation.

 

[farn]

Yikes... nothing against L. Sanders, but if we're here HOPING for Lew...

I do not mind Merri - J. Sanders - high pick rookie - Lew #4... but if we're going to count on Lew too much, I think it's not the kind of "upgrade we need".

I understand that most of the Lew guys are saying they want him in the mix, not as a main guy... but I'm saying I'd still be hoping for a quality safety (or two, one being chosen in the later rounds or as a #3 comp) in the draft.

 

[BelichickFan]

Wow. We needed to clear out Vrabel to throw money at Sanders? Ouch.

We didn't. We were trading Cassel, that cleared more than enough money. Clearly they decided Vrabel wasn't worth the cap hit regardless of how they would spend it. So they traded him instead of cutting him, either as a favor to Vrabel, Pioli or both. But Vrabel wasn't traded so sign Sanders, that money was there from Cassel. Vrabel was traded because they thought he wasn't worth the money he would be paid.

Regarding Sanders, I'm not his biggest fan but he's alright and he didn't break the bank. Now we need a good CB signed.

 

[mgteich]

As I said, we are on the same page.

If you are just addressing this year then you are undoubtedly correct. I was looking more long-term. Ultimately, I think Meriweather and whomever we draft will be the starting pair. I would be very happy with the two Sanders as the rest of the rotation.