I've been away, so I missed out on all these discussions, but I'll briefly just say I'm not sure how any Pat fan can be excited about this trade. I doubt Belichick is excited about this trade. The Raiders gave them an offer they couldn't refuse. But we are losing the best player on the defense, and a guy who is going to be tough to replace. I'm not exactly thrilled about it. I'd personally rather win now. You only have Brady & Moss for so long, once they're gone, it'll take a lot more than the Raiders 2011 1st rounder to keep this a SB contender.
The other thing is the over-valuing of first round picks. Every April, we scoff at getting one of these top 10 picks. They're overpaid, overhyped, we say. The Raiders & plenty of other teams have a top 10 pick every year, and look how far that's gotten them. Now we just shipped our best defender for one, so we love top 10 picks again...