Yup. There's definitely some very good "B-tier" guys still available. Dudes like Akiem Hicks are still out there. Guessing Bill will grab a couple guys, wait on the draft, then scoop up a few more at that point (there's usually a mini flurry of FA activity right after the draft).
My thought is that 2022 is more about trying to refine what they had in 2021 (which was a team that held the 1 seed for a time before losing steam), get a bit younger on defense, see how competitive they are at that point and then use the cap space available in '23 and then '24 to be a "true" contender in the conference.
I do think it is interesting that many AFC teams this year went into "win now" mode, but only one team can actually come out of the AFC. Those teams will feel the pain of that approach to an extent in a couple years and most won't have anything to show for it. Bill might see this and realize now's not the right time to push his chips to the middle of the table, and may instead opt to wait 2 years until the AFC is hurting a bit and then make moves once his team's foundation is hopefully very solid.
I don’t think for a second that Belichick believes he can’t build a team to compete this season with all the hyped super teams in the AFC.
The “wait for next season before this season even begins” mentality is for the birds. It’s a rationalization for our disappointment in how we think things are going.
There’s a lot of off-season left to go. There are still some good players available in free agency, and I suspect the Pats will sign a few.
Then, there’s the draft. You can make an argument that the best offensive (Mac Jones) and defensive player (Christian Barmore)on the Pats right now were not even on the team until April 30th of last year. I was listening to Gil Brandt, the HOF personnel guy for the Landry Cowboys, the other day on SiriusXM. After listening to him, I’m as psyched for this draft as I have been for one in years.
It lacks elite players at the top of the draft. But, because of Covid canceling or curtailing seasons in 2020, a lot of players who would have been in the 21 draft stayed in school and are now in the 22 draft making this one of the deepest drafts in recent memory. Remember, the Pats only signed QUinn Nordin as an UDFA after the 21 draft because the talent was so thin.
What positions are the deepest? The consensus of what I’ve read or heard is the deepest positions in this draft are: Wide receivers, offensive tackles and cornerbacks. Do those positions sound familiar?
Patriots fans have lived in a win now state for so long which is a darn good thing that we expect this veteran or that veteran to sign on for a championship run. But, for now, at least, we live in a different reality. This team, with this coach, once operated with the draft at the core of its team building. We had not seen that for awhile until last season, but it was once the norm. Take a walk down memory lane, most of the consequential players of the dynasty era came via the draft. I hope they get back to that and I look forward to the draftees making an impact on the 22 team like Jones, Barmore and Stephenson had on the 21 team.
A couple thoughts on the super teams in whose presence we must quake. The media only hypes the acquisitions not the departures. Look at all the transactions for those teams. Secondly, some of you were too young to notice or were not Pats fans at the time. But, in the early years of the dynasty, we were constantly enduring media idiots breathlessly declaring that the no-name, no-talent Patriots had no chance of beating the Uber talented Steelers, Rams or Colts. We know who won those games. A lot of players have a bigger name than game and commentators and fans are often slow to realize it.
