Nothing Brady can do to top Montana's 127 QB rating in Super Bowls...Brady can play in 10 more SBs and it's not going to reach that level. And you must not have watched football prior to 2000. If you did, you'd know that Brady is playing into his 40s due to the rule changes that favor the offense. Brady wouldn't have survived the 80s in the NFL. Not only that, Brady trying to play under center his entire career without ever going into the shotgun (like Montana) is laughable.
Seriously?? So according to you there must be several other quarterbacks in the NFL currently that are over 40 and playing at an elite level. Oh wait, there's only one... Brady. Never mind elite, there's not even another starting quarterback in the entire NFL that's over 40. So your statement is really stupid. What Brady is doing is unprecedented and will never be duplicated.
The 160 mill spent last year gave them a team that made the playoffs with a rookie QB, the 5th one picked in his draft.
It gave them an offense that was second best in the league at the % of drives they scored on, and 6th best in points scored and a defense that was also 2nd best in % of drives they allowed a score and 2nd in points allowed.
The “holes up and down the roster” are a product of your lack of knowledge, not the 4-13 result you seem to be describing.
From that team they have lost 2 Gs and a corner.
My lack of knowledge? Just stick with presenting your opinion and we can stay away from the ad hominem.
These are all of the position groups that don't have obvious holes: QB & RB
They didn't "lose" two guards either, they lost one, and traded away the other in a rather bewildering move.
The corner just happened to be their best DB by far and their best defensive player overall (with the possible exception of Judon).
If the $160 mil made them the team that gave up 482 yards and 7 consecutive TD drives in a playoff blowout then I'm not sure it was entirely money well-spent. I agree the team improved from 2020 but that 2020 team was rather weak, so improvement was expected, especially with all of the roster chances and money spent. I think it's also fair to say that record-wise they didn't improve significantly and other teams around the 9-11 wins mark are currently getting better (on paper at least) while they are not (to this point).
Whatever numbers you want to put out there, offensively or defensively (or ST), they weren't playing well by the end of the season when they were 1-4 and getting blown out in the playoffs... Belichick's worse margin of defeat in the postseason.
Do you think they're close to Buffalo? Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Denver and LAC have all improved. I've got to believe Baltimore will improve on their collapse from last year too. These are all teams the Patriots will be battling for a playoff spot... and add to that list Tennessee, Indy and wherever Watson ends up (if it's in the AFC).
The Patriots as presently constituted will get better with experience/time but it's doubtful that improvement alone be enough to keep pace with other good teams in the conference that are improving their rosters. For me, circling back to the thread topic, accelerating the growth with FA talent acquisitions is needed. They found their probable-franchise quarterback and Belichick isn't getting any younger so this isn't the time to sit back and pick from the leftovers.
