In a league where the margin between victory and defeat is marginal at best. In a league where EVERYONE is a great athlete who are being trained by the finest trainers, and coached by the best coaches. And victory can be decided by a bad call, non-call, a good bounce or a bad bounce, a great individual play, or a an equally bad one, there is only ONE reason for the Pats extraordinary consistent success.
And that my friends is the unique system of coaching and training that the players who represent us go through to prepare for the season and the regular season schedule. BB has been up front for a long time, in saying that this system is not for everyone. Not making it here does NOT make you a bad person, or a bad football player. It simply means this system is NOT for you.
From what I can gather, it requires players to make more individual sacrifices that most programs. It requires players to spend more time, and demands more focus and discipline than a lot of players. I would contend that a great player like Dez Bryant would have failed here, maybe not now, but definitely when he first came out. Still doesn't mean he's a bad guy, or a bad player. Just not a fit HERE.
Jaime Collins, somewhere along the line, made a concious decision to go down a different path. I personally think that wasn't a sudden switch in priorities for him, but rather something that had been building up over a long period of time. At some point this season it must have started to effect the locker room and THAT's why the made the trade. I think BB could have dealt with the inconsistent play for another 10 games if that was all there was to it. But once BB felt that Collins was a threat to the single minded direction of the team, Collins had to go, and go now.
It is my speculation that Collins had decided that he wasn't coming back to NE, mostly due to not liking living in NE for more than half the year. I think that once he had made that decision he gradually lost focus and his play declined a bit. When that happened the coaches responded, and I don't think Collins responded well to the hard coaching. I think he tended to take it personally. This further accelerated his performance decline as he started to tune out the coaches.
But like I said, he was in his last season. He was a well liked and respected player. So they certainly could have weathered that situation for the rest of the season and just parted ways. However BB must have felt that Collins' unhappiness had reached a point where it could have affected the locker room and moved immediately to excorcise him from the team.
While it's true that they came away with more draft assets, sooner, that would have gotten if just walked, I doubt that was why they made this trade. They were just trying to make the best of a bad situation.
Collins is a physical freak, so I don't doubt he'll get his big pay day, nor will I be surprised if he has a few "all pro" seasons playing for someone else where he is happier. But I honestly feel BB did the right thing getting him out of town, IF he was a threat to split the locker room with his unhappiness in being here.
He saw in 2009 what the results of that can be when that happens
As far as the OP - What he sent out could certainly be interpreted as a slap in the face to the Pats, but it could just as easily not be. Why would I care one way or the other? Jaime Collins isn't on this team anymore.