Bringing Back Everyone Means A Super Bowl Quality Team

[mgteich]

My simple proposition is that we have a Super Bowl team that beat quality teams down the stretch. We have a team that should be favorites to go to the Super Bowl again. We are the youngest team to ever win a Super Bowl.

If everyone comes back, the 2015 will be even stronger than the 2014 team. After all, we get back Mayo, Easley, Ridley, Dannard` and others who might not even make the team. And, overall, the youngsters are likely to improve. Finally, we are likely to add some linemen through the draft (OL and DL) that might help. A couple did in 2014.

Sure, there are always positions that might be upgraded, but there are no real needs, other than replacing those who we don't re-sign.

CONCLUSION
If we re-sign everyone, we will be significantly stronger than in 2014, and will be favorites to be in Super Bowl yet again.
=======================
OFFENSE
Cannon has already been extended.
The open questions are Solder, Connolly, Ridley and Vereen.

DEFENSE
Obviously, the key is again is the secondary. As noted, Chung has already been extended. Browner and Arrington should be paid their contracted amounts, or even extended. We need to re-sign Revis and McCourty. Note that there were uncertainties about all 5 secondary positions. The work has just begun.

Other free agents include Ayers, Casillas and Branch. All three are needed.

SPECIAL TEAMS
Slater has already been extended.
We have free agents Gostkowski, Aiken and White.
========================
BOTTOM LINE
IMHO, re-signing everyone is possible. However, my guess is that Ridley and Ayers will go elsewhere. The big question marks are Revis and Vereen.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Vereen will be harder to sign because a couple GMs will bid him up as a "name" player. Gone.
Coaches know about White. We don't.

Ridley is coming off an injury. Maybe a 1 year re-prove yourself contract for the Riddler?

Extend Browner.

Not so sure about Arrington with Dennard, Butler in the mix. Arrington may be a regrettable cap casualty so we keep McCourty.

A big unknown is veteran FAs. Given Browner's attitude about wanting to come here so he could earn a ring, I'd imagine that there are a couple vets out there willing to do reasonable deals to have a very good shot to being able to say, "Yeah, I played with the GOAT! Look here's my ring!" Looking at FAs for OL as well as a 2nd or 3rd round pick maybe both at OL.

I see DL as our 1st round pick or wherever we trade down to in round 2.

 

[Mike the Brit]

If it were me, that's what I'd be going for. This team has good to outstanding players in every area. Keep them together and they'll only get better, you'd think.

Still, I've watched BB long enough to know that he actually welcomes disruption and adversity. He's like a college coach. Each year is different. Each team is new. I'm sure he wasn't happy with the beatdown at Kansas, but it's no accident that he felt the second half brought the team together. And losing Mankins was a part of it.

So I'm preparing myself for some head-scratching and cussing before the season starts. No Vince? No Revis? No Mayo? All possible.

 

[50-yard-line]

Not so sure about Arrington with Dennard, Butler in the mix. Arrington may be a regrettable cap casualty so we keep McCourty.

I believe Arrington getting cut saves us less and $1 million. He'll be back, restructured or not.

 

[FourierSeries]

It's easy to say that bringing everyone back should result in another SB. But I don't see it that way. Other teams will improve in the offseason and may close the gap. And contrary to popular belief, no team is "perfect" - even teams that win SBs. They just happen to be less flawed than their competition.

I think there are definitely areas of improvement. D-line being the obvious one.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Anything except trading or cutting Brady, can happen to this roster between now and Training Camp...and beyond. We're kidding ourselves if we think that the completely unexpected might not happen.

IMHO, Belichick has only outsmarted himself a very few times over the years, so it's a case of "In BB I trust." I mean, when an UDFA from a Community College that he personally coached up and that he personally insisted on keeping on the Roster wins the SB for the team? Who the **** am I to question anything he does?

So, I won't be surprised at whatever happens.

Like most folks, I hope we figure out how to keep Revis and Gostkowski, but who knows, maybe Belichick is now committed to "Butler Island" and has discovered a Croatian soccer player who doesn't speak a word of English but has the leg strength to kick 70 yard FG's...once someone explains to him what the Goal Posts are?

 

[tasmlab]

Get us a new long snapper!

Then were all set.

 

[50-yard-line]

Yeah, watching the NFL rewinds of the 01, 03, and 04 Pats now. Turnover is a given.

Wilfork says he wants another ring and has no intention of retiring. Might be with another team. Might not.

Mayo? Revis? McCourty?

Bunches and bunches of changes, no doubt.

Here's my OMG prediction for the off-season: if Peyton retires, maybe even if not, Demarius Thomas comes to play for New England. (Last year in January, I said Browner, by the way.) Thomas loves Josh and likes playing with a stud QB.

Mwahaha...that's my BOLD FA prediction and I'm sticking with it.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Get us a new long snapper!

Then were all set.

Aiken was way too inconsistent this year.

 

[Fencer]

If everyone comes back, the 2015 will be even stronger than the 2014 team.

Unfortunately, there's one way in which that's not assured -- injuries. For the first time in a long time, the Pats had a season with good injury luck. 3 presumed starters were IRed, and only 1 was a top player (Mayo). In-season signings to compensate for injury issues were consistently successful. Our Super Bowl opponent, after winning the NFC Championship with whatever mix of healthy and injured players they had, had a major injury in practice (Chancellor) and two starters knocked out of the Super Bowl.

Outside of that, I agree. In particular, there are relatively few players from whom anybody would expect an age decline, and IMO they aren't in line to decline much. (I mean Wilfork, Ninkovich, Brady and Connolly.) And we have plenty of young guys still improving.

 

[convertedpatsfan]

Yeah, watching the NFL rewinds of the 01, 03, and 04 Pats now. Turnover is a given.

Wilfork says he wants another ring and has no intention of retiring. Might be with another team. Might not.

Mayo? Revis? McCourty?

Bunches and bunches of changes, no doubt.

Here's my OMG prediction for the off-season: if Peyton retires, maybe even if not, Demarius Thomas comes to play for New England. (Last year in January, I said Browner, by the way.) Thomas loves Josh and likes playing with a stud QB.

Mwahaha...that's my BOLD FA prediction and I'm sticking with it.

That'd be amazing. It'd also be expensive.

I always expected him to re-sign with Denver. But after he called out some of his teammates for lacking fight, I think you're right, he could leave and I'm sure he'd love to be reunited with Josh.

Would be amazing to make this happen somehow.

 

[smg93]

"Bringing Back Everyone Means A Super Bowl Quality Team"

LOL. Well, considering the Pats just won the SB...

 

[supafly]

My simple proposition is that we have a Super Bowl team that beat quality teams down the stretch. We have a team that should be favorites to go to the Super Bowl again. We are the youngest team to ever win a Super Bowl.

If everyone comes back, the 2015 will be even stronger than the 2014 team. After all, we get back Mayo, Easley, Ridley, Dannard` and others who might not even make the team. And, overall, the youngsters are likely to improve. Finally, we are likely to add some linemen through the draft (OL and DL) that might help. A couple did in 2014.

Sure, there are always positions that might be upgraded, but there are no real needs, other than replacing those who we don't re-sign.

CONCLUSION
If we re-sign everyone, we will be significantly stronger than in 2014, and will be favorites to be in Super Bowl yet again.
=======================
OFFENSE
Cannon has already been extended.
The open questions are Solder, Connolly, Ridley and Vereen.

DEFENSE
Obviously, the key is again is the secondary. As noted, Chung has already been extended. Browner and Arrington should be paid their contracted amounts, or even extended. We need to re-sign Revis and McCourty. Note that there were uncertainties about all 5 secondary positions. The work has just begun.

Other free agents include Ayers, Casillas and Branch. All three are needed.

SPECIAL TEAMS
Slater has already been extended.
We have free agents Gostkowski, Aiken and White.
========================
BOTTOM LINE
IMHO, re-signing everyone is possible. However, my guess is that Ridley and Ayers will go elsewhere. The big question marks are Revis and Vereen.

No offense or personal attack meant, but I think the entire premise of "signing everyone" is pretty silly.

Obviously, that isn't going to come close to happening. Our free agent retention rate can't be better than 50-55 percent at best--and that would go for ANY team. As a matter of fact, it probably isn't even half.

The key will be to retain as many key players as possible, with also attempting to replace (via draft) certain areas as well to get as many contributors on cheap rookie contracts as we can.

 

[meatface]

If we were to sign everyone that would essentially guarantee that Hightower, Jones and Solder would all walk after next season. Personally I prioritize Revis, Gost and McCourty; and even that will be tight. Maybe the pats will get lucky and be able to get Vereen for cheap but I'd bet our go to receiving Rb next year will be James white.

 

[supafly]

Maybe the pats will get lucky and be able to get Vereen for cheap but I'd bet our go to receiving Rb next year will be James white.

If Vereen leaves and it's going to be White, I'd argue that we may as well draft another 3rd down RB to compete with him. Just something to ponder.

 

[meatface]

If Vereen leaves and it's going to be White, I'd argue that we may as well draft another 3rd down RB to compete with him. Just something to ponder.

I doubt they would draft a guy in the 3rd just to compete with White, if they are just looking for competition then they will probably go with Dion Lewis

 

[mgteich]

No offense or personal attack meant, but I think the entire premise of "signing everyone" is pretty silly.

Obviously, that isn't going to come close to happening. Our free agent retention rate can't be better than 50-55 percent at best--and that would go for ANY team. As a matter of fact, it probably isn't even half.

The key will be to retain as many key players as possible, with also attempting to replace (via draft) certain areas as well to get as many contributors on cheap rookie contracts as we can.

Since we are already at 47%, I disagree that our total will be 50-55%

The starting point is retention of all our players. Most teams have many needs and cannot have that goal. they need to sign lots of free agents for other teams. We are not in that situation.

In any case, we started with about 15 players as free agents. We've already extended Slater, Cannon, Bolden and Chung. We've signed the Practice Squad players (not counted in the calculations). We will re-sign all the ERFA's (I only counted those that matter; counting them all would increase our percentage).

The four extensions count (Slater, Siliga, Cannon and Chung), they really do! Also, ERFA's like Siliga, Develin and Tyms.

If we are counting free agent signings, we might exclude players that don't matter. I would certainly INCLUDE the 7 we have already signed or extended that are mentioned above.

THE REMAINING EIGHT FREE AGENTS
McCourty
Branch
Ayers
Connolly
Ridley
Vereeen
Gostkowski
White

Who have I missed? I do think that it reasonable to use the extreme of signing everyone as a comparison point. For me, it is sign these eight, or sign/draft a replacement player. And just BTW, we have discussed scenarios under which we can afford to sign everyone, presuming that hey want to come back. These scenarios include extensions of Revis, Solder and either Mayo or Mayo.

There are decisions about players under contract, but they are not free agents.

 

[supafly]

I doubt they would draft a guy in the 3rd just to compete with White, if they are just looking for competition then they will probably go with Dion Lewis

My comment was that we may draft another "3rd down back," not so much a RB in the 3rd round.

That said, I can actually envision some scenarios where they may take another RB in the draft, and that could certainly be in the middle rounds or higher depending on whether or not Ridley, Vereen, and/or Gray are going to stay or not.

Only time will tell, but overall I don't think it's cause for concern either way. One good thing is that we are certainly in a position of luxury again as it pertains to the draft.

 

[supafly]

Since we are already at 47%, I disagree that our total will be 50-55%

The starting point is retention of all our players. Most teams have many needs and cannot have that goal. they need to sign lots of free agents for other teams. We are not in that situation.

In any case, we started with about 15 players as free agents. We've already extended Slater, Cannon, Bolden and Chung. We've signed the Practice Squad players (not counted in the calculations). We will re-sign all the ERFA's (I only counted those that matter; counting them all would increase our percentage).

The four extensions count (Slater, Siliga, Cannon and Chung), they really do! Also, ERFA's like Siliga, Develin and Tyms.

If we are counting free agent signings, we might exclude players that don't matter. I would certainly INCLUDE the 7 we have already signed or extended that are mentioned above.

THE REMAINING EIGHT FREE AGENTS
McCourty
Branch
Ayers
Connolly
Ridley
Vereeen
Gostkowski
White

Who have I missed? I do think that it reasonable to use the extreme of signing everyone as a comparison point. For me, it is sign these eight, or sign/draft a replacement player. And just BTW, we have discussed scenarios under which we can afford to sign everyone, presuming that hey want to come back. These scenarios include extensions of Revis, Solder and either Mayo or Mayo.

There are decisions about players under contract, but they are not free agents.

When do we ever retain ALL of our free agents, which is specifically what you suggested in your OP?

As mentioned, there are years when a handful are re-signed, and there are years when more than a handful are re-signed, but who on this forum honestly expects to retain ALL fifteeen+ free agents?

That's ridiculous, not to mention impossible.

As mentioned, I don't know what the retention rate for average free agents is for all 32 NFL teams, but I couldn't possibly imagine it to be much higher than 50-55-60 percent at best (note: Seattle had approx. a 66 percent retention rate last year, according to ESPN--although I'm sure not what they take all into account). This is the era of free agency and the salary cap. Every single NFL team has turnover every single year.

I believe that it's been stated that we normally have about 35-40 percent roster change in every single year.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

I believe Arrington getting cut saves us less and $1 million. He'll be back, restructured or not.

Arrington saves $1,625,000 but after 1 June