DropKickFlutie
Veteran Starter w/Big Long Term Deal
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2010
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- 9,574
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Just saying it's too early to be dissing Belichick, and the philosophy has generally worked out for 20 years that it's better to let a great player go a year early than a year later. Clearly Tom Brady still has gas in the tank; he put up one of his best 4 regular seasons ever in Tampa, and just brought them to his 10th Superbowl appearance. Absolutely incredible. Brady has double-cemented his legacy. Absolutely zero mentions ever again of him being a system QB.
As a reminder we have had Patriot HOF-caliber players leave before and it sucked and was painful, including ones who made Pro Bowls after leaving or even more rings. But the Patriots moved on and continued to be a strong team (next man up), and those players still have fond relationships with the Patriots:
- Ty Law
- Adam Vinatieri
- Richard Seymour
- Mike Vrabel
- Chandler Jones
I guess a case can be made that Brady is a special case and we should have kept him. I don't strongly disagree. But I think if Brady stayed he likely only throws for 24TDs in this offense and we still don't go far, we needed a major rebuild anyways. I'm just saying the system has worked for 20 years, and it will really need likely 4 more years to actually judge Belichick fairly or not. So many here were predicting a 5-11 record 10 months ago, so this past season wasn't a surprise with $30M in dead cap money and 8 covid opt-outs. The biggest issue was Stidham doesn't seem to be the heir apparent so that's the biggest problem. In the past we usually would have a young guy in the waiting before jettisoning the older veteran guy.
As a reminder we have had Patriot HOF-caliber players leave before and it sucked and was painful, including ones who made Pro Bowls after leaving or even more rings. But the Patriots moved on and continued to be a strong team (next man up), and those players still have fond relationships with the Patriots:
- Ty Law
- Adam Vinatieri
- Richard Seymour
- Mike Vrabel
- Chandler Jones
I guess a case can be made that Brady is a special case and we should have kept him. I don't strongly disagree. But I think if Brady stayed he likely only throws for 24TDs in this offense and we still don't go far, we needed a major rebuild anyways. I'm just saying the system has worked for 20 years, and it will really need likely 4 more years to actually judge Belichick fairly or not. So many here were predicting a 5-11 record 10 months ago, so this past season wasn't a surprise with $30M in dead cap money and 8 covid opt-outs. The biggest issue was Stidham doesn't seem to be the heir apparent so that's the biggest problem. In the past we usually would have a young guy in the waiting before jettisoning the older veteran guy.
Bill Belichick: 'Better off being early than late' at QB
Bill Belichick said the Patriots were better off taking a quarterback early. Ian Rapoport reports the team was so serious about adding a QB they would have drafted Blake Bortles if he fell in the first round.
www.nfl.com
WHEN HAS BELICHICK LET A GUY GO TOO SOON? PART 1
New England Sports Talk Kap Lifestyle
www.bostonsportschick.com
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