Brady6
Pro Bowl Player
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2013
- Messages
- 15,641
- Reaction score
- 5,580
Agree with both RayClay and Brady6 on the points each are making.
Brady6, you named a number of good to solid players who could all help the Pats, no doubt. You are more likely to develop an edge rusher, however, as your list suggests (Wake, Allen, etc).
For those big War Daddies in the middle, however, you almost always need to spend Cadillac money to get yourself one. There simply aren't a lot of Cadillac frames lying around cheap that you can build in to a reasonable facsimile. Many nice Buicks have been acquired this way, but the Red Bryant types are very rare. The best DL of the Belichick era by far was the Seymour-Wilfork-Warren days, all taken in the first round. They spent Cadillac money and thus had a garage full of them.
My hope is that Armstead gets a clean bill of health---lots of bad luck for that kid, and he appears to work hard---and he becomes the exception to the rule. Obviously he was a big time talent who the Patriots acquired via a fortunate set of circumstances (for the team, obviously not Armstead). Even if he were to be healthy and become a force, I'd still like to see them add another body early. I think the more good players we can put on the DL the better, and it would certainly benefit Chandler Jones to play alongside another dominant player, which I think he is on the way to consistently being.
I think you make excellent points; it’s going to be tough to ever replace a player like Wilfork. Looking across the NFL you only see a few players that combine the size and athletic ability, that’s a rare breed so I think the best case is that we can restructure Wilfork and get 2 more solid years out him and in the meantime see if we can find a true heir apparent in the draft.
Chris Jones is a very good player and I think he would really excel if he was in a 3Tech role next to a player like Wilfork who could 2-gap and leave Jones 1on1 with the guard. Vellano I am not as sure about but he works hard and he is always on the football.
If I can just say I know you don’t post a ton in here but when you do I always appreciate what you have to say and think you’re an excellent poster that I look forward to hearing from.