Tom Brady and the 4 Year Plan

[PittPatriot]

...And people, 4 years is a lifetime in sports...

You ain't kiddin' boss.
I waited like 2 lifetimes in between Super Bowls #3 and #4.

 

[Oswlek]

Here's my counter-question: are the New England Patriots going to exist beyond the next 3 years?

Because to hear some of you go on you'd think they weren't. And if they are shouldn't we consider doing some planning for the lomg-term needs of the franchise? Such as figuring out who steps into the biggest shoes in the history of American football?

Trading Jimmy is not mutually exclusive with having a long term transition plan.

 

[Soliel]

I wouldnt agree with trading brady for any price

 

[bruce_w]

It's The week after the KC game in 2014 all over again.

This coming from a guy that thinks its worth giving Ryan Fitzpatrick a shot to succeed Brady! LOL, obviously the cheese slid off your cracker a long time ago.

 

[Simpelton]

Trading Jimmy is not mutually exclusive with having a long term transition plan.

Which is why my opinion isn't that much connected to Garoppolo, except inasmuch as he is the most viable replacement during the years in question. At least until Brissett proves otherwise.

I don't care about Garoppolo per se. I care about making sure that we're still a good football team in 10 years, and if that means throwing Brady overboard 2 years early (meaning in 2019 rather than 2021, not this year, just to be clear) and that's the price you pay for longterm stability at the quarterback position, so be it

 

[Simpelton]

you guys can dislike that opinion all you want BTW, until we have another viable replacement who will definitely be here until Brady's done, there's a valid argument for securing the succession.

 

[Ivan]

you guys can dislike that opinion all you want BTW, until we have another viable replacement who will definitely be here until Brady's done, there's a valid argument for securing the succession.

Garrapolo isn't going to be here when Brady retires. You can keep pretending he will be all you want but Brady isn't going anywhere for at least 3-4 years and Garrapolo will be long gone by then. Their smartest move is to take a trade if someone makes them a good offer, if not let him play it out and take the compensation pick for him.

 

[Simpelton]

I don't give a damn about Garoppolo. I give a damn about life after Brady. The very next time it's obvious that we have a definite plan to make sure we have another serviceable starting quarterback after Brady is gone is the time I stop harping about whether we should trade Garoppolo or not. I want the team to be good after Brady is gone, and my sense of things is thats only going to happen if the departure is managed under controlled circumstances withy a hand-picked successor on staff and trained, and the date is set by management (Belichick, specifically) -- not just blindly sticking with Brady until whenever the hell Brady feels like he's done and only then worrying about who replaces him

Yeah that successor isn't going to be as good as Brady. Brady is the literal greatest of all time, trying to find the next Brady would be ridiculous and stupid. But if we have at least an above average replacement starter, you have to start thinking about why you're letting that guy go with your starter between 2 and 5 years from getting done -- and whether the better course of action mightn't be to move to the guy behind the great quarterback in order to play it safe and try to guarantee watchable football for far longer than the incumbent could possibly still be playing.

Call me crazy but I do think as an owner, Kraft should be more interested in 2 more years of the GOAT followed by a decade of watchable football, rather than 3-4 years of the GOAT and who the hell knows what happens after that.

The Houston situation should educate people about why I'm worried. That team is always a solid quarterback away from being very very dangerous. If we let Brady himself determine when he's done, it's going to be harder than it needs to be to avoid a similar fate. Sooner or later, you've got to make the call. Not this year obviously, not when Brady has looked like vintage Brady for most of the season, but that time is coming, and if you don't prepare for it, you're trusting to chaos, and that's not a good place to be.

 

[Soliel]

Id rather keep him as insurance this year, work on jb, take a comp pick when he leaves. Sounds crazy but obviously the draft isent to bbs liking this year.. Well thats whats being said anyways, i dont know that and he may love this years draft for all i know.

 

[Simpelton]

BB might love this year's draft. It plays to his interests. BB seems to me to prefer coachability over raw talent, and he's positioned himself in the late round to score those coachable guys that other teams pass up on.

I think this draft is a really good opportunity to score some additional quarterbacking depth in the late rounds, this isn't a good year to draft a starting quarterback and teams know that, so it stands to reason that some quarterbacks may escape attention until the later rounds while teams fill other needs -- just because a guy doesn't cut the mustard as a starter right now doesn't mean there aren't some quarterbacks worth drafting and working with for our needs, as a 3-4 year project. We drafted Jacoby Brissett because he was talented and coachable, picking up another QB in this draft on the same terms appeals to me, especially if we trade Garoppolo.

 

[Ivan]

I don't give a damn about Garoppolo. I give a damn about life after Brady. The very next time it's obvious that we have a definite plan to make sure we have another serviceable starting quarterback after Brady is gone is the time I stop harping about whether we should trade Garoppolo or not. I want the team to be good after Brady is gone, and my sense of things is thats only going to happen if the departure is managed under controlled circumstances withy a hand-picked successor on staff and trained, and the date is set by management (Belichick, specifically) -- not just blindly sticking with Brady until whenever the hell Brady feels like he's done and only then worrying about who replaces him

Yeah that successor isn't going to be as good as Brady. Brady is the literal greatest of all time, trying to find the next Brady would be ridiculous and stupid. But if we have at least an above average replacement starter, you have to start thinking about why you're letting that guy go with your starter between 2 and 5 years from getting done -- and whether the better course of action mightn't be to move to the guy behind the great quarterback in order to play it safe and try to guarantee watchable football for far longer than the incumbent could possibly still be playing.

Call me crazy but I do think as an owner, Kraft should be more interested in 2 more years of the GOAT followed by a decade of watchable football, rather than 3-4 years of the GOAT and who the hell knows what happens after that.

The Houston situation should educate people about why I'm worried. That team is always a solid quarterback away from being very very dangerous. If we let Brady himself determine when he's done, it's going to be harder than it needs to be to avoid a similar fate. Sooner or later, you've got to make the call. Not this year obviously, not when Brady has looked like vintage Brady for most of the season, but that time is coming, and if you don't prepare for it, you're trusting to chaos, and that's not a good place to be.

You apparently don't realize that Belichick is on record that the best you can do in the NFL is to plan for the next two years, as it is far too unpredictable to try and go beyond that time frame. So you can make all the plans you want but I'll stick with Belichick and Brady. I trust Belichick to be ready for whatever happens and I don't think he needs your help getting them ready. Garrapolo is gone by 2018 at the latest so he won't be the successor.

 

[Oswlek]

you guys can dislike that opinion all you want BTW, until we have another viable replacement who will definitely be here until Brady's done, there's a valid argument for securing the succession.

There is a valid argument for wanting to secure the succession. The argument runs into serious problems when trying to actualize it.

 

[Simpelton]

As a fan my job is to want things and not to actualize them. So there we go

 

[Ivan]

As a fan my job is to want things and not to actualize them. So there we go

We know, you want to get rid of the best player in football just because you want to get rid of the best player in football. You remind us every day. Screw the fact of the matter, which is that he has been getting better and was the best player in the league this season, you just want him gone.

 

[Soliel]

One thing i could do without seeing ever is facing brady in the superbowl in another teams uniform. Thats too hideous to consider. He must remain a patriot.

 

[Simpelton]

One thing i could do without seeing ever is facing brady in the superbowl in another teams uniform. Thats too hideous to consider. He must remain a patriot.

I'd like that but not if it might mean becoming the Texans with a quarterback carousel and facing Garoppolo once or twice a year because we got lackadaisical aboutbwho cones after Brady and wound up on a bad spot

 

[2000army]

Some people care so much about the future that they forget to live in the present. The future is not guaranteed for any of us. Who cares what the future brings ...all of us are at our peak of being a Patriots fan... someday the Patriots will not be great ... it is sad but true... you waste so much energy worrying about 5 years from now that you cant let it go to enjoy the next season or 2 or 5 with Brady at QB. I for one will sit back and enjoy watching a Legend play for the team that I love. Do I hope the future Patriots are great... of course. But I am not going to mortgage the present for something or someone that is a question mark.

Brady has earned the right to be a Patriot as long as he wants and the same with Belichick. Anything less would be a black eye on this organization and I firmly believe the Kraft family know that.

 

[Ivan]

Some people care so much about the future that they forget to live in the present. The future is not guaranteed for any of us. Who cares what the future brings ...all of us are at our peak of being a Patriots fan... someday the Patriots will not be great ... it is sad but true... you waste so much energy worrying about 5 years from now that you cant let it go to enjoy the next season or 2 or 5 with Brady at QB. I for one will sit back and enjoy watching a Legend play for the team that I love. Do I hope the future Patriots are great... of course. But I am not going to mortgage the present for something or someone that is a question mark.

Brady has earned the right to be a Patriot as long as he wants and the same with Belichick. Anything less would be a black eye on this organization and I firmly believe the Kraft family know that.

Agree. Someday Brady will hang them up but in the meantime he can achieve things no one even dreamed of. I really don't get why anyone other than opposing fans would want to pass up the chance to see how many more Lombardi's he can bring home? As absurd as it seems they have a legit chance to win two more the next two seasons, which could mean 3 out of 4 and 4 out of 5. That's crazy sh.t that is hard to imagine any team doing but the possibility is there.

Bottom line for me is that I want to enjoy the greatness while it's here instead of worrying about life after it.

 

[Soliel]

I truely believe they will actually win another one in the next year or two... Maybe even two. Its hard to repeat but could you imagine a three peat? As long as brady is here its possible, once he is gone i wont hold my breath waiting for jg or jb to alwaus challenge for the afc title every year.... Ill wish they could and root for them but.. Ya know

 

[Oswlek]

As a fan my job is to want things and not to actualize them. So there we go

LOL!

The question remains, if even you have difficulty explaining how to make it happen, why do you take such offense when others point that difficulty out to you?

Do you think no one else realizes Brady doesn't have that much time left? Or that it takes more prep for a 40year old to get ready than a 25year old? Do you think that even the most ardent trade supporter wouldn't favor keeping Jimmy if NE could force him to stick around at $5mm a year?

The entire basis for trade supporters has been the problems with actualizing the JG succession plan; dismissing it so casually means you haven't understood the argument.