Ron Borges: Defender of Vince Wilfork?

[OhExaulted1]

Just the thought of that song sends shivers down my spine. Perhaps it's just a crazy flashback from my early 20s? I had forgotten all about some of those depressing tear jerkers from Pink Floyd, as I was never really a big fan.

I did see them once at Three Rivers Stadium though, although I don't recall much of the show. I would imagine that's par for the course for most Floyd fans in concert.

Foxboro '94. I don't recall much either except being comfortably numb.

 

[Triumph]

I think the rigidity of the Pat's decision makers lead to Johnson's failures.
We know that he was incapable of learning the offense.
We also know that he had some really good seasons in Cincy by running simple routes without any adjustments to the defense.

Why couldn't they have put him in the best position to succeed? Give him a set route, and have the rest of the offense run normal.

Johnson could have also rode the Patriots short bus back and forth to Logan.

 

[MassPats38]

Good, because no matter how many excuses you can dream up the moves were failures.

Like drafting Maroney when Jones Drew was on the board. But, as you later rationilize, MJD would have wanted more money down the road so the Pats were actually better off drafting the loser.

BS. Not every football player shoots someone in College. Try again.

That move may have cost Brady another Super Bowl.

With Gronk hobbled, Johnson could not be trusted on the field in SB42 because he did not know where to line up.

Too funny.

So a good player who might demand a higher contract is someone to avoid. Sound decision making my axx.

Was I saying those decisions worked out in the end? No.

What I was saying, Nostradamus, is it is easy to criticize decisions after the fact when you have the outcome in hand. Let's try this exercise. You have been posting your wisdom here since 2004. If these outcomes were so apparent at the time to your infinite genius, then let's hear those fearless predictions from your posts contemporaneous with the decisions. Otherwise, absent that contemporaneous evidence, you were clueless and are now critiquing using a history book, with facts in hand that were not known or perhaps knowable to the team at the time the decisions were made. You may not have a grasp on reality, but risks viewed as unacceptable may not come to pass, and teams assuming those risks with likely failures become successes because they get lucky. And the converse, a team assumes a reasonable, low risk with a decision, the risk is realized, and the outcome is a failure. Not really a difficult concept to grasp.

And while you are at it. Criticize the decisions in signing Moss and Dillon. How about wasting a pick on Brady, who captured no team's attention in the draft. Or trading for Talib. Or adding JE (a QB). Or trading for Welker. Lost in your criticism is the things that went right. And try to point to any other team lacking similar misses in the NFL. Most people, unlike you apparently, live in what we call the real world, where businesses conduct due diligence, assess risks, and make reasonable decisions based on all available information. Not every business decision is a winner, but when you have a business that has enjoyed the success of an organization like the Pats, you can assume it has done fairly well in conducting its operations. If you cannot grasp this simple concept, then I suggest you use your time productively and read how real businesses work as that is precisely how NFL teams operate.

 

[Mack Herron]

The Dark Side of NFL Free Agency | Bleacher Report

More interesting, objective, and better informed read than Borges (but what isn't).

 

[Brady6]

The question is how much Wilfork is going to receive if he goes onto the UFA market, and I do not think he would get much right now. So maybe they can offer him a deal that looks like this –

- 2014 – $955,000 Base Salary, $3,600,000 Signing Bonus, $300,000 Roster Bonus, $200,000 Workout Bonus, $5,055,000 Cap Hit
- 2015 – $955,000 Base Salary, $0 Signing Bonus, $3,600,000 Roster Bonus, $200,000 Workout Bonus, $5,055,000 Cap Hit
- 2015 – $955,000 Base Salary, $0 Signing Bonus, $3,600,000 Roster Bonus, $200,000 Workout Bonus, $5,055,000 Cap Hit

 

[Triumph]

Was I saying those decisions worked out in the end? No.

And, thats why there have no Super Bowl Championships in NE since 2004.

What I was saying, Nostradamus, is it is easy to criticize decisions after the fact when you have the outcome in hand. Let's try this exercise. You have been posting your wisdom here since 2004. If these outcomes were so apparent at the time to your infinite genius, then let's hear those fearless predictions from your posts contemporaneous with the decisions.

First off, I am not paid 6 figures to know which player to draft. Belichick and his staff are supposed to know.Its not my job to advise the Patriots who to take on the draft board. Ill leave that up to the Pros like you and Belichick who have all the answers.

Secondly, some teams knew what they were drafting. The Giants found an undrafted FA right under the Patriots nose with Victor Cruz at UMASS. Seattle has drafted better than any team. Baltimore has identified talent.

The bottom line is that BB the GM has failed BB the HC. I know thats tough for you to accept. Most Homers have a problem with that statement. There is no denying how poorly the Pats have drafted after the Championship years.

Otherwise, absent that contemporaneous evidence, you were clueless and are now critiquing using a history book, with facts in hand that were not known or perhaps knowable to the team at the time the decisions were made.

Nothing but more excuses and fail.

There were better players still on the board after NE picked. Youre reasoning about trading down to low risk is truly a joke when NE picks a bust in Terrence Wheatley when Richard Sherman was sitting there rounds later.

Look Homer, even you can understand this. Choose wisely in FA and the Draft and you win Super Bowls. Select poorly like NE has been doing and you dont.

You may not have a grasp on reality, but risks viewed as unacceptable may not come to pass, and teams assuming those risks with likely failures become successes because they get lucky. And the converse, a team assumes a reasonable, low risk with a decision, the risk is realized, and the outcome is a failure. Not really a difficult concept to grasp.

In other words its OK to lose.

Hey, we aimed low and missed. No big deal because we didnt expect to succeed anyway! You cant draft that poorly and expect to win Super Bowls.

And while you are at it. Criticize the decisions in signing Moss and Dillon. How about wasting a pick on Brady, who captured no team's attention in the draft. Or trading for Talib. Or adding JE (a QB). Or trading for Welker. Lost in your criticism is the things that went right.

What do they have to do with the mistakes the Pats have made?

Makes no sense whatsoever. Its like a Surgeon making a mistake in surgery where the patient dies and he says "Well, these 10 other surgeries were successful" Goofy.

And try to point to any other team lacking similar misses in the NFL.

Its not about others teams draft blunders making the Pats look better. People like you foolishly think that has some positive bearing on the Pats failures.

Im concerned about the Patriots and whats left of Tom Bradys career.

Most people, unlike you apparently, live in what we call the real world, where businesses conduct due diligence, assess risks, and make reasonable decisions based on all available information. Not every business decision is a winner,

All I have to add is that 10 years is approaching since Brady won his last Championship. If you had told that Brady would not win another SB back then I would taken that bet 100 times over.

Today, its becoming more and more a reality.

But, hey, even though a team has a HOF QB, not every business decision 10 years is a winner.

but when you have a business that has enjoyed the success of an organization like the Pats, you can assume it has done fairly well in conducting its operations. If you cannot grasp this simple concept, then I suggest you use your time productively and read how real businesses work as that is precisely how NFL teams operate.

If you cannot grasp how many warts Tom Brady has hidden on these Patriots teams then there really is no getting through that thick skull of yours.

Obviously you have not a clue that Brady has kept the Pats in the hunt season after season with minimal talent around him more often that not. The success is due to Brady, but keep on blathering your "living in the was" mantra.

 

[vyrago]

Ron Borges is playing what we used to call "the long con" on Patriots fans. He's setting us up. He doesnt care about big Vince. He sees the writing on the wall(unintentional Pink Floyd reference). Right now he's on record as defending Vince,so when we inevitably dump him no one can say anything when Borges writes his 5000th piece bashing Belichick.

I'm tempted to say ditto; this is typical Borges. He can see what's coming with Wilfork. It does seem the only intelligent and viable move. His defending Wilfork puts him in position to be BB basher-in-chief when the Pats do the intelligent thing. Borges is no more than a middle school hater with his hands in his pants pockets.

 

[MassPats38]

And, thats why there have no Super Bowl Championships in NE since 2004.

First off, I am not paid 6 figures to know which player to draft. Belichick and his staff are supposed to know.Its not my job to advise the Patriots who to take on the draft board. Ill leave that up to the Pros like you and Belichick who have all the answers.

Secondly, some teams knew what they were drafting. The Giants found an undrafted FA right under the Patriots nose with Victor Cruz at UMASS. Seattle has drafted better than any team. Baltimore has identified talent.

The bottom line is that BB the GM has failed BB the HC. I know thats tough for you to accept. Most Homers have a problem with that statement. There is no denying how poorly the Pats have drafted after the Championship years.

Nothing but more excuses and fail.

There were better players still on the board after NE picked. Youre reasoning about trading down to low risk is truly a joke when NE picks a bust in Terrence Wheatley when Richard Sherman was sitting there rounds later.

Look Homer, even you can understand this. Choose wisely in FA and the Draft and you win Super Bowls. Select poorly like NE has been doing and you dont.

In other words its OK to lose.

Hey, we aimed low and missed. No big deal because we didnt expect to succeed anyway! You cant draft that poorly and expect to win Super Bowls.

What do they have to do with the mistakes the Pats have made?

Makes no sense whatsoever. Its like a Surgeon making a mistake in surgery where the patient dies and he says "Well, these 10 other surgeries were successful" Goofy.

Its not about others teams draft blunders making the Pats look better. People like you foolishly think that has some positive bearing on the Pats failures.

Im concerned about the Patriots and whats left of Tom Bradys career.

All I have to add is that 10 years is approaching since Brady won his last Championship. If you had told that Brady would not win another SB back then I would taken that bet 100 times over.

Today, its becoming more and more a reality.

But, hey, even though a team has a HOF QB, not every business decision 10 years is a winner.

If you cannot grasp how many warts Tom Brady has hidden on these Patriots teams then there really is no getting through that thick skull of yours.

Obviously you have not a clue that Brady has kept the Pats in the hunt season after season with minimal talent around him more often that not. The success is due to Brady, but keep on blathering your "living in the was" mantra.

"Thick skull"? Yes, you are a mensa candidate based on your insight. And thank you for proving my point. No references to contemporaneous posts in your 6000 or so pearls of wisdom that you had any clue of the bad decisions you identify 5 or 10 years later. They are paid to draft correctly? Find an article that says Hernandez AT THE TIME was a bad idea, or even his extension was a bad idea. And then when you don't accept that your grousing is clueless. You joined in 2004. Let me guess - the Pats should win every year because of 2001 to 2004. Waaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh! They went to two more in 2007 and 2011 and lost close games (10 year drought on titles? Who says getting there guarantees a win? It doesn't. Deal with it.). Any one of the wins could have gone the same way, in the event you didn't watch those games. But hey, you are no homer so you understand that reality.

A word to the not so wise - Brady is a great QB and plays within a system built by BB the GM. Just as Montana played with Walsh (read his book - very educational in case you fail to appreciate what the Pats do year in and year out) within that system. Montana did not win every year. In 15 years, Montana went to 4 Super Bowls. In Brady's 14 years, he has been to 5. How many more championship games? You do the math. Every one of those games turned on a final drive, win or lose. By your ridiculous conclusions, I guess Walsh, the Niners and Montana were failures too. And they didn't even have a salary cap to manage.

Brady, as great as he is, will not get to the playoffs alone. That requires 10 supporting players on offense and a defense and special teams. Is every deal optimum or even successful? No. But as the wise, non-homer you are realize there are 31 other teams working within a salary cap that overpay free agents, draft and manage salaries to build teams. That is quite a dynamic, with gambling on risks at every step. If you want to bleat incessantly about "the ones that got away" after the fact, try to gain some perspective on the hits as well as the misses and realize the best a team can gain from a personnel plan is the opportunity to compete for a title at the end of the year. If your sublime intellect has lighted a path to a Lombardi every year, then bottle and sell that action because by my cursory review of NFL history no team in the NFL has figured that out yet. But hey, with Brady they should get there and win every year if BB did his job. You sound like an educated and objective student of the NFL, so I will leave it at that.

 

[Spiral]

An article of this sort appears from time to time in the Boston media. Writers have sources on the various teams, and part of the unwritten deal is that when that one of those players is about to get traded, released, or put on waivers, the writer does a sort of pre-eulogy for the player. "Still can play, a leader of the team, no loyalty from the team/coach/GM," blah, blah, blah. Standard operating procedure.