End of 2013 league year cuts, signings, trades, voids, etc...

[gobesmug]

Wilson - Bust
Armstead - Bust
Kelly - started well until injured
Jenkins - bust
Jones - Bust
Svitek - aside from Kelly, the 'cream' of the Patriots FA crop

Blount - Trade, not FA


Easy as pie to 'blame' the front office. Last year's Walmart shopping spree was a near-complete failure.

How convenient to leave Talib, Edelman, Vollmer, Amendola and to a lesser extent Hooman off your list.

 

[Rob0729]

Wilson, Armstead, Washington, Kelly and Amendola all injured or IR'd. Blount was a beast for us down the stretch with the highest yards in a game as a pat and the highest RPC of his career.

Overall these players getting injured helps your argument rather than were they good talent acquisitions. Before injury Tommy Kelly was on pace for the best year of his career statistically. Which would lend you to believe he was a good acquisition rather than a bad one.

I think we are just blinded somewhat by the fact Amendola was as advertised and the rest of our acquisitions were injured in training camp or never took the field.

Hard to blame the FO for that (other than Amendola).

A couple below radar free agent signing worked out really well. Sealver Siliga and Chris Jones were key components down the stretch. Yeah, Jones was a rookie, but he was already on two other teams when they picked him up. Granted both were added in the regular season.

 

[50-yard-line]

Strong rumors floating around that Jared Allen will join the Donkeys.

NFL Free Agency: Jared Allen to the Broncos rumors are heating up - Mile High Report

 

[Rob0729]

Wilson - Bust
Armstead - Bust if you count him (I don't count UDFAs or FAs from other leagues)
Kelly - started well until injured
Jenkins - bust
Jones - Bust
Svitek - aside from Kelly, the 'cream' of the Patriots FA crop

Blount - Trade, not FA


Easy as pie to 'blame' the front office. Last year's Walmart shopping spree was a near-complete failure.

You look at a lot of the top free agents from last year and many of them were a waste of money. Look at Greg Jennings, Jake Long, John Abraham, Osi Umenyoria, Dashon Goldson, Mike Wallace, Andy Levitre, LaRon Landry, and others got decent to great contracts (based on the free agent market last season) and none of them lived up to their contracts in year one. Some barely lived up to the veteran's minimum contract.

There were few winners in free agency last year. And most of the players who lived up to or exceeded their contracts were players the Pats were not going to sign anyway even if they were buyers.

The Patriots bargain basement shopping did work out with Siliga and Chris Jones. It has worked out in the past (see Rob Ninkovich as one home run where he far exceeded his original contract). Free agency isn't an exact science. There are plenty of big name free agent busts as the blue light special busts. You just don't regret the bargains busts as long as the premium priced busts.

I don't agree with a lot of the Patriots' moves, but I don't know if their way of doing things is any more right or wrong than anyone else. I can't remember the last team that went shopping at the Rodeo Drive section of free agency and won a Super Bowl. The Seahawks are close, but they took advantage of the weak market for players because most of their core stars are still on their rookie contracts and they could afford to make a short term splash without risk of losing their core.

 

[Rob0729]

Strong rumors floating around that Jared Allen will join the Donkeys.

NFL Free Agency: Jared Allen to the Broncos rumors are heating up - Mile High Report

It will be a good signing for them if they can limit his reps and make him a passing down specialist. They are barren at DE though and he may have to play far more than what it would be to make him most efficient for the team at his age.

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

Strong rumors floating around that Jared Allen will join the Donkeys.



NFL Free Agency: Jared Allen to the Broncos rumors are heating up - Mile High Report

Denver needs a DE and CBs/secondary help

 

[BradyFTW!]

It will be a good signing for them if they can limit his reps and make him a passing down specialist. They are barren at DE though and he may have to play far more than what it would be to make him most efficient for the team at his age.

If Allen can still contribute anywhere, it's definitely there. They'll be up two touchdowns most of the time, so his ineffectiveness against the run won't matter as much as it would somewhere else. Personally, I think he's pretty much done, but it is a great situation for him if he has anything left in the tank.

 

[Deus Irae]

How convenient to leave Talib, Edelman, Vollmer, Amendola and to a lesser extent Hooman off your list.

Amendola was a bad signing for last year
The others were Patriots players


How convenient of you not to bother thinking before posting, though. Well done.

 

[Rob0729]

If Allen can still contribute anywhere, it's definitely there. They'll be up two touchdowns most of the time, so his ineffectiveness against the run won't matter as much as it would somewhere else. Personally, I think he's pretty much done, but it is a great situation for him if he has anything left in the tank.

Not 100% sure their offense is going to be remotely as good as it was last year.
- Their interior line is a shambles right now with their starters at guard either leaving in free agency or retiring.
- If they get the Welker they had down the stretch this year, he is not nearly the guy who started the season. And at his age, he could be worse than that by the start of 2014 especially if he has lingering effects of the concussions.
- Manning will be another year older and although he can still make great decisions, his arm strength is getting worse and worse each year and at some point even his ability to make quick decisions and get rid of the ball quickly won't overcome his physical limitations. His deep ball range wasn't much more than 20 yards last year (at least on a consistent basis).
- Decker may be overrated, but he is still a top #2 in the league and he won't be easy to replace. It will allow more double teams on the two Thomases if he isn't replaced with at least an above average #2 WR.
- Not sure if Monte Ball can replace Moreno.

I am not sure the Broncos are going to have these massive leads again this year. I could be wrong, but they are losing a lot on offense and both Manning and Welker are at ages where they can hit the age wall really hard at any time.

 

[Rob0729]

Denver needs a DE and CBs/secondary help

Denver needs a lot of things. They need a #2 WR, two guards, a starting RB, and an ILB.

 

[Rob0729]

FWIW:

@Buccaneers stepping up efforts to trade CB Darrelle Revis, source tells @FOXSports1

https://twitter.com/alexmarvez/status/443182260167401472

Still a bit torn on this. I know his money is crazy, but they still can rework his contract to make it management for a couple of years and the cap will be much bigger in 2016 to let him go.

Still most likely a pipe dream, but after seeing some the contracts in the last couple of days I don't think it is as ridiculous to imagine as it looked a couple of days ago.

 

[Rob0729]

Florio is floating around the idea if the Bucs don't get a trade partner by 4PM tomorrow, they may be forced to cut Revis.

Bucs are shopping Darrelle Revis | ProFootballTalk

 

[JMC00]

Wasn't there a way the Patriots could get his cap number to $8m for '14?

 

[patsinthesnow]

Florio is floating around the idea if the Bucs don't get a trade partner by 4PM tomorrow, they may be forced to cut Revis.

Bucs are shopping Darrelle Revis | ProFootballTalk

If Revis is released, we offer him a 12 million a year backloaded deal ASAP.

Arguably the best man to man CB since Deion in his prime. I'm hopelessly believing it could happen.

 

[Rob0729]

Wasn't there a way the Patriots could get his cap number to $8m for '14?

Almost all Revis' cap hit this year is base salary. They could convert a portion or most of it into bonus money to get it to $8 million or less. It will just make it tougher to keep him and cut him in subsequent years.

 

[Rob0729]

I wonder if Revis hits the open market that he would pick the Pats over anyone else if the offers were comprehible just because the Jets traded him to keep him away from the Pats in 2014 and he could face his old team twice a year.

 

[BradyFTW!]

Not 100% sure their offense is going to be remotely as good as it was last year.
- Their interior line is a shambles right now with their starters at guard either leaving in free agency or retiring.
- If they get the Welker they had down the stretch this year, he is not nearly the guy who started the season. And at his age, he could be worse than that by the start of 2014 especially if he has lingering effects of the concussions.
- Manning will be another year older and although he can still make great decisions, his arm strength is getting worse and worse each year and at some point even his ability to make quick decisions and get rid of the ball quickly won't overcome his physical limitations. His deep ball range wasn't much more than 20 yards last year (at least on a consistent basis).
- Decker may be overrated, but he is still a top #2 in the league and he won't be easy to replace. It will allow more double teams on the two Thomases if he isn't replaced with at least an above average #2 WR.
- Not sure if Monte Ball can replace Moreno.

I am not sure the Broncos are going to have these massive leads again this year. I could be wrong, but they are losing a lot on offense and both Manning and Welker are at ages where they can hit the age wall really hard at any time.

I agree that a dropoff is coming, but I don't see it hitting in full force until 2015. On the offensive line, they're getting Clady back, and while the interior is in flux, that was true before this season (especially after Koppen went down) as well.

I agree that Welker is on a relatively steep downward trend, and that the loss of Decker will hurt, but if they do lose Decker they'll replace him with someone. Even if that someone is only 80% as good, and even if Welker/Caldwell is only 80% as good as what Welker was at the beginning of last year, that's still an extremely dangerous offense. The Thomases are still there. Even accounting for a non-trivial decline, there's a lot of room to fall from "highest scoring offense of all time" where you still remain a very, very potent unit.

I would have agreed re: Ball replacing Moreno up until the very end of this past season. Ball really stepped it up over the last month of the regular season, and the coaches clearly had more faith in him. And while I like Moreno as a player, he's not a standout running back. He's a combination of tough, fundamentally sound, and the beneficiary of being the running threat in a historic passing offense (think Maroney in 2007). The biggest asset that kept him atop the depth chart was probably his pass blocking, and if Ball continues to improve there, I could see him actually being an upgrade over Moreno by the midpoint of next season.

 

[patsinthesnow]

I wonder if Revis hits the open market that he would pick the Pats over anyone else if the offers were comprehible just because the Jets traded him to keep him away from the Pats in 2014 and he could face his old team twice a year.

Also we will almost exclusively play man to man with Revis/Dennard. BB will let him follow around the opposing teams #1 option all game along, another perk for him.

How many teams have the cap space and run man to man?

Patriots
Broncos
Raiders
Colts
???

 

[patsinthesnow]

Adam Schefter ?@AdamSchefter 3m
Short of a trade in the next two days, the Buccaneers are expected to release CB Darrelle Revis by 4 p.m. Wednesday, per league sources.

James Christensen @NEPatriotsDraft
Will be interesting to see what Revis gets on the open market. Not sure he'll get over $12m per year.

I think I may start twitching.

BILL THIS MAKES TOO MUCH SENSE

 

[manxman2601]

One good thing about this Revis news is that it makes Talib re-signing that little bit more likely.