Dotson to eagles. Wake up Wolfe

[Ring 6]

This is how I rank the needs on this team:

LT
WR1
RT
OLB
DT
Backup C
K
RB3

All of the first 5 are severe.
Wr1 should say the entire WR room.

What about S3 which is essentially a starter?
What about cb2/cb3 depending upon where you slot J Jones?

FYI that’s a lot of needs. When your 5th highest need doesn’t have a legitimate starter and the backups might not even be good backups, that’s not good.

 

[Ring 6]

You give them a D-/F?

My issues are:

- Didn’t address OT
- AVP hire
- Could’ve tried to make more splashes in FA.

I still have to reserve judgement on AVP until I see an absolute disaster with no path to get better.

They tried to spend money on big name WRs but those guys had pretty much no interest in playing for this organization which has gone into the toilet due to horrible management the past few years.

They take a big time hit for the OL. But at the same time they resigned a number of good pieces and drafted the rookie QB that they should have drafted.

I just don’t think it’s an F grade right now.

What did they do that was good?

If we go 2-15 and I say “we tried to win, but the other team wouldn’t let us” is that good?

 

[TheRainMaker]

You give them a D-/F?

My issues are:

- Didn’t address OT
- AVP hire
- Could’ve tried to make more splashes in FA.

I still have to reserve judgement on AVP until I see an absolute disaster with no path to get better.

They tried to spend money on big name WRs but those guys had pretty much no interest in playing for this organization which has gone into the toilet due to horrible management the past few years.

They take a big time hit for the OL. But at the same time they resigned a number of good pieces and drafted the rookie QB that they should have drafted.

I just don’t think it’s an F grade right now.

I don’t fault them for Aiyuk, but I do for Ridley balking over $1M.

I also don’t fault them for AVP. They aren’t going to get a headlining OC to work under Mayo and there wasn’t anyone available anyways.

Most of my criticism is how they threw out cash to their own players on a 4-13 team like Oprah handing out prizes on her show.

Re-signing Bourne for no reason.

Re-signing Owenu so quickly for the amount he received was desperation.

Signing Barmore prematurely has backfired.

Transition tagging Dugger backfired. Nobody wanted him and then they ended up paying more for no reason.

I don’t like the re-signing of Rham. He hasn’t earned it.

Not addressing the rest of the OL.

Caving and giving Godsnack another extension.

The handling of Judon.

 

[Fuzz]

All of the first 5 are severe.
Wr1 should say the entire WR room.

What about S3 which is essentially a starter?
What about cb2/cb3 depending upon where you slot J Jones?

FYI that’s a lot of needs. When your 5th highest need doesn’t have a legitimate starter and the backups might not even be good backups, that’s not good.

I disagree on the WR room. Although they are lacking top-end talent (WR1), they have pretty good depth at the position. DT is only severe because our best player is (likely) out for the season. That would happen to any team. OLB is looking weak, but between Jennings, Tavai, Uche, and Ximenes, they should have enough talent there to get by in the short term. Between Hawkins, Mapu, M Jones, Austin, Wilson, Wade I don't see secondary depth being an issue.

 

[Ring 6]

What did they do that was good?

If we go 2-15 and I say “we tried to win, but the other team wouldn’t let us” is that good?

 

[archstanton543]

Signing Barmore prematurely has backfired.

How were they supposed to know he was going to have a blood clot issue. C'mon.

 

[TheRainMaker]

How were they supposed to know he was going to have a blood clot issue. C'mon.

It doesn’t matter. Stuff like that happens.

There was absolutely no reason to sign him that early.

 

[Hyped]

I think your assessment is fair. Brown and Smith are better than our top 2. Other than that, sure. My question is how important are WRs when you get into the 4's and 5's. There's a reason those guys are 4's and 5's on every team. The only reason half these guys get any love in the league is because a 4 or 5 guy plays well on a winning team, get's to FA and gets paid. So now fans think of him as a 2 or maybe even a 1, but he's still a 3 at best. The Pats, under Bill anyway, tried to get it done with 3's 4's and 5's more than once, and more than once, Brady *****ed and they upgraded to get him top flight slots and occasionally brought in a 1. (Moss, Cooks). The difference being that, at least in the second half of the run, they had the best TE in the league, which helps raise the level of pass catchers by a lot, even without a true 1.

Do they need a 1? No, if they have a 1 at TE or slot. If they have JAG TEs and serviceable slots (Pop), then yeah, they need a 1. Somewhere, there has to be The Guy on the roster that you get the ball to when it's crunch time. I don't care where he lines up. There needs to be a difference maker.

We were so spoiled with Gronk AND Edelman.....

Those two could get open when it mattered the most....

 

[Steve102]

We were so spoiled with Gronk AND Edelman.....

Those two could get open when it mattered the most....

...and that's really the key. If you have a Gronk/Kelse/Kittle type weapon at TE with a go to slot, then you don't need a WR1. JAG TE with a good slot and JAG WRs, you ain't got ****. Somewhere there's gotta be a dude.

 

[lancerman]

We are now at the point of getting upset that we didn't go after a 500 yard receiver.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

No matter what stage you are at you nee md good football players. We are where we are because we dint have enough good football players. We really havent tried much to fix that, including saying no thanks to spending as much as the cap allows on football players.

By all accounts they have been willing to make large offers for premium talent this offseason.

And, in any case, as I have pointed out numerous times before, Kraft is not pocketing any of the money allocated to the salary cap.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

It doesn’t matter. Stuff like that happens.

There was absolutely no reason to sign him that early.

So they were supposed to wait and see if the 2024 season came up snake eyes for him so they could re-sign him at a discount? Hope that he didn't have an even stronger 2024 season which would cost them even more/risk losing him to an even more aggressive team in FA?

The way I see it, if the team can make an offer to a good player that both sides find reasonable, they should do it.

 

[Kdo5]

I don’t fault them for Aiyuk, but I do for Ridley balking over $1M.

I also don’t fault them for AVP. They aren’t going to get a headlining OC to work under Mayo and there wasn’t anyone available anyways.

Most of my criticism is how they threw out cash to their own players on a 4-13 team like Oprah handing out prizes on her show.

Re-signing Bourne for no reason.

Re-signing Owenu so quickly for the amount he received was desperation.

Signing Barmore prematurely has backfired.

Transition tagging Dugger backfired. Nobody wanted him and then they ended up paying more for no reason.

I don’t like the re-signing of Rham. He hasn’t earned it.

Not addressing the rest of the OL.

Caving and giving Godsnack another extension.

The handling of Judon.

Onwenu and Stevenson are our two best offensive players. Absent Judon, Barmore was on his way to bring our best player period.

I have zero issue extending any of those guys. They threw a lot of money at Ridley, more than I’d have cared to give for a sort of #1 guy.

Bourne has been our best receiver for several seasons now, except when our clown coaches put him in the dog house. Again no problem with him returning.

We have plenty of cap space, resigning those guys was not a problem.

 

[TheRainMaker]

So they were supposed to wait and see if the 2024 season came up snake eyes for him so they could re-sign him at a discount? Hope that he didn't have an even stronger 2024 season which would cost them even more/risk losing him to an even more aggressive team in FA?

The way I see it, if the team can make an offer to a good player that both sides find reasonable, they should do it.

There's a reason why Bill would drag out signing players during his 20+ years of being the HC/GM of the Pats. If he threw around cash prizes like Oprah does to many of the players, they aren't sniffing 6 rings.

Barmore had one good year. Why would you pay him before seeing him duplicate it again? I'd rather pay more for a sure thing, than a significant amount for an unknown. And I was very critical when he was extended.

 

[TheRainMaker]

Onwenu and Stevenson are our two best offensive players.

That's pretty bad.

Absent Judon, Barmore was on his way to bring our best player period.

He's was their best player on D absent Judon.

Bourne has been our best receiver for several seasons now, except when our clown coaches put him in the dog house. Again no problem with him returning.

Interesting you say that because I recall posters here kept saying Meyers was their best WR regardless of the "doghouse".

 

[Kdo5]

That's pretty bad.

He's was their best player on D absent Judon.

Interesting you say that because I recall posters here kept saying Meyers was their best WR regardless of the "doghouse".

Does the final part matter? Bourne has been productive and positive player for us on the field.

And yeah it doesn’t matter if it’s “pretty bad”. We all know that, it’s better to actually sign your good players than let them all walk.

Do you want the team to try to win or tank?

 

[50-yard-line]

The entire roster. It’s a 4 win team. Unless rookies surprise we have not upgraded a single spot on the roster.

Are you telling me if we got a stud LT we are winning the SB?

All last season you were arguing that they were really an 8-9 win, playoff contention team other than the QB. I agreed with you.

I didn't see much, particularly besides OUR OWN FA's and extension guys, who we locked up for years.

 

[Ring 6]

By all accounts they have been willing to make large offers for premium talent this offseason.

And, in any case, as I have pointed out numerous times before, Kraft is not pocketing any of the money allocated to the salary cap.

They “went after” 2 players at the same position. Had they gotten one the my would have left 40,000,000 of cap space on the table.

Of course he is pocketing it. Humor me and explain again how he is not, because I’ve seen no good argument. If it’s the “must spend 89%” argument the math says he can be 50 mill under for each of the next 3 years and satisfy that requirement.

 

[IcyPatriot]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[TheRainMaker]

Does the final part matter? Bourne has been productive and positive player for us on the field.

And yeah it doesn’t matter if it’s “pretty bad”. We all know that, it’s better to actually sign your good players than let them all walk.

Do you want the team to try to win or tank?

Signing the same players that contributed to a 4 win team is not trying to win.