I disagree. For Bill to say he went all in and sold out to win SB’s you got to look into it. Why did he have to go pick up A. Brown? Why did he trade a 2nd for Sanu? Why did we trade a 2nd for Kony Ealy in 2017 and then waive him. Picking up an ancient Michael Bennett and getting rid of him. We did a lot of these because we haven’t drafted well in years. Instead of having good players on their first contracts we made costly plays for vets
Bill also doesn’t mention he had the best QB of all time on very friendly deals. Imagine if Brady had demanded top dollar. In 20 seasons with the Pats Brady earned less than Rodgers has earned in 15 seasons with the Packers. Bill also doesn’t mention that part of this years cap trouble was J. Thuney. He could have resigned him or traded him before letting him get the costly franchise tag.
In terms of saying we have a lot of young talent I ask who? We have an empty cub board at WR right now. TE isn’t looking much better as both young guys can’t even get on the field. We are good on the o-line but will likely lose our best lineman Thuney next year. Harris looks good but RBs are a dime a dozen in the NFL. On D we got JC Jackson who looks good. Who else can we say is an impact young defender? And to top it all off we don’t have a QB. I’d say from here we have one of the least talented rosters of young players and it’s due in large to horrible drafting the last 7 years.
I’m just being realistic. I think Bill is one of the best roster builders ever. From 00-13 he was great. A few of those drafts are epic. Not so good since. We need the next few to be epic to get back to being a quality team. I hope he does it.
You say
"look into it" but really haven't have you? They got Antonio Brown and Sanu because Tommy was lobbying for veteran receiving weapons. AB, fine I can understand, he is one of the more talented WR's in the NFL but a head case, Sanu? Jakobi Meyers caught 11 passes when he was asked to play midseason against the Jets and Giants, at one point he caught 9 straight targets. When they got Sanu Tom ripped Meyers on field against the Browns and Jakobi didn't play for the next two games. They gave Gunner the Foxboro flu to wedge Sanu on the roster and they needed him to return punts where he inevitably got hurt. Bruce Arians didn't want AB, he ended up with him anyway because coaches bend to the wishes of their star QB, the smarter thing would have been if Tom just trained and practiced with the young guys and taught them how he wanted it done from the start. Jakobi is a young Sanu, they could be brothers. Gunner has similar athleticism to Amendola. Neither is amazing, either could have been serviceable.
And let me put this here so some other crackpot doesn't repeat it as truth.
The Patriots didn't trade a 2nd for Kony Ealy! The Patriots sent their second-round pick (No. 64 overall) to Carolina for Ealy and got the Panthers’ third-round pick (No. 72 overall) in return. That means the Patriots barely moved down in the draft and got him for what amounts to a 6th round pick in compensation. Just like the larger cap spending understanding over the last five years here, the moaners here simply don't understand it.
The last five years the Pats have had the best defense, special teams, offensive line and some good weapons... these guys didn't play for free. Gilmore reworked his deal twice in in the two years prior to 2020 to give the Pats more cap space, it pushed more cap money down the road so they could sign players. Brady and Gronk were signed to deals which had them paid through incentives because the team was mortgaged to the hilt.
The Patriots have one of the best offensive lines and defensive backfields in the league, and will again next year. They have young talent everywhere on this roster who the Negative Nancy's are writing off as
"busts." Considering most of these same posters were crying
"no talent" and
"bad drafts" in the midst of unprecedented winning, I didn't expect it to get better now in what is a reloading year. We never have talent, that's what this crowd has said in 2014, 2016 and 2018... why would we have talent now?
Take your antidepressants or go out and get some sunshine, add a great QB prospect to this roster and immediately they're competitive again... they'd be that now if Cam paid off as a long shot, oh well. We have to wait a season. Many Patriots fans are entitled, a few of us have still kept our heads. In BB We Trust... or you should.