What are they doing?!

[LoganMankinsPancakeBlocks]

Mort just on Sportscenter and no mention of Moss. Maybe he talked about him earlier, but I haven't seen anything to confirm that.

 

[LoganMankinsPancakeBlocks]

Schefter: Favre may be leaning towards retirement, Moss willing to listen to other teams offers, GB is an interesting fit as he liked them last year and it would probably convince Favre to comeback but Moss to GB is a "longshot". Hardly sounds like they are "deep in discussions" with Moss.

They just replayed a Moss clip from January 30th and he sounded pretty pissed at Green Bay. He said they told him if he came to GB that he couldn't come in, be the #1 receiver and step on Donald Driver's toes. He said they talked to him about the way he's behaved, etc. and he felt like Favre wanted him but just didn't feel like the Packers organization wanted him.

 

[upstater1]

Mortensen was on ESPN a few minutes ago and said Moss and GB are deep into discussions and the Pats did in fact low-ball Moss offering him only 13MM in guaranteed money. Just a heads up.

13 million is a lot. For 3 years?

I wouldn't have offered more.

Whoever said we were looking at Randy for 3 years, 30 million, 13 million signing bonus, knew what he was talking about, it seems.

The Patriots offered Randy 10 million a year, with almost 50% of the total package up front. That's not low-balling. Not at all.

 

[upstater1]

I'm concerned about the effect of the loss of Moss on Brady. It will be two of the past three years that the Pats will have let Brady's top receiver skip town over compensation issues. I thought that the FO was correct on Branch; he was a good, but not great player who was under contract to them. Not having him may have cost New England a SuperBowl, but he has done little in Seattle to justify what they paid for him. Moss is a different matter entirely. He is an elite receiver who is a free agent. Stallworth's apparent departure makes it much more important that Moss be signed. Belichick and Pioli are among the best at evaluating talent and plugging that talent into the right positions without mortgaging the future. But they do make mistakes and all longtime Patriot fans can remember a couple. Risking the unhappiness of Tom Brady by not signing Randy Moss is path best not taken.

How do you know that the Patriots didn't make him a fair offer?

 

[upstater1]

You don't have to trust me, I don't blame you. Check out a packer board or something I dunno. Surely I'm not the only one in the world who was watching ESPN at the exact time Mortensen came on. Oh, and in response the the person speaking of incentives that's all Mortensen said was the 13MM guaranteed. He didn't talk about incentives or anything else like that.

Answer this: how could Mortensen say with a straight face that $13 million guaranteed for Moss is low-balling?

That's almost half the entire contract over 3 years!!!

 

[upstater1]

Their biggest weakness is not locking up their young players two years before free agency like thay did with Ty Warren. They are under the cap by 22 mil so what is holding them back, I think the owner has short arms and deep pockets when it comes to paying players "bonus money". Guys this is the 2nd richest franchise in the NFL and after the complex is complete they will be rivaling the #1 position, but this issue comes up to much just to be a subject Michael Felger brings up every off season. All ready paying the highest ticket prices even before the 40% increase, paying $40-50 to park on game day. I think the fans and Brady deserve more.

Huh?

Do yo realize they spend to the cap each and every year??

Last year we had a big wad to spend and we brought in Moss, Adalius, Stallworth, Washington, Welker, Sammy Morris, Kyle Brady.

I hope you realize that thaty couldn't have happened if the Patriots had blown their cap in previous years.

 

[IcyPatriot]

Every year I think the critical fans are the ones who also are always bragging to their buddies about the team. So now, facing a minor rebuilding they are afraid of eating crow...and they can't handle that ... thus the anger.

 

[Brarrell]

Huh?

Do yo realize they spend to the cap each and every year??

Last year we had a big wad to spend and we brought in Moss, Adalius, Stallworth, Washington, Welker, Sammy Morris, Kyle Brady.

I hope you realize that thaty couldn't have happened if the Patriots had blown their cap in previous years.

Spending to the cap every year is all accounting. If you look at what they did which I will give credit was smart spending all of their deals other than Welker, Thomas"below market" and Morris were essentially one year deals and I have no problem with that. I just don't want a repeat of 2005 and 2006 which we essentially did nothing and ended up in a AFC championship game with Reche Caldwell as our primary reciever. Brady if he stays healthy probably has 4-5 very good years left we have already wasted two of those years 2005 and 2006.

 

[hwc]

If we do not get this Moss thing worked out, can anybody honestly say we won't be taking a huge step backwards next year.

How do you take a step back from the biggest SuperBowl choke job in the history of the NFL.

Need I remind you? Fourteen points. Teams score 14 points running the ball three yards at a time in a cloud of dust...and you don't need Randy Moss to do that.

 

[Sean Pa Patriot]

13 million is a lot. For 3 years?

I wouldn't have offered more.

Whoever said we were looking at Randy for 3 years, 30 million, 13 million signing bonus, knew what he was talking about, it seems.

The Patriots offered Randy 10 million a year, with almost 50% of the total package up front. That's not low-balling. Not at all.

We really dont know what was offered, but I think that was a fair offer, if no incentives were involved.. They guy helped us go 16-0, he deserved a raise..

 

[upstater1]

Spending to the cap every year is all accounting. If you look at what they did which I will give credit was smart spending all of their deals other than Welker, Thomas"below market" and Morris were essentially one year deals and I have no problem with that. I just don't want a repeat of 2005 and 2006 which we essentially did nothing and ended up in a AFC championship game with Reche Caldwell as our primary reciever. Brady if he stays healthy probably has 4-5 very good years left we have already wasted two of those years 2005 and 2006.

It's not all accounting. Not at all. Any accounting you carry over to the next year. At most you carry over a couple million. That's it.

When you have a salary cap of $116 million, there's no shame in paying out $113 million, and carrying 3 over to the next year. I call that spending to the cap.