There's no way we can afford the FA approach being similar to what we saw last season, correct?

[Joey007]

Regardless of who the guy is calling the shots, I can't see anyway it would be justifiable to run with the same "sitting on your hands" approach to things we saw last offseason. You could understand it to extents last year, as it felt like they were focused on retaining guys on the market and having sort of a reset season. I didn't completely agree, but it made sense in that perspective.

I really feel like you can't pull that crap again this year. Losing the number 1 pick made you lose that privilege entirely. I think I could have understood the build primarily through the draft approach had we been in a position to stockpile picks, but now you will very likely not be in that position at pick 4. The teams that can afford doing this are teams like Detroit that pretty much fell into a gold mine of picks from the Stafford trade, or Houston with the Watson trade. I love that approach IF you have the draft capital and talent on the roster that you can sell off for that capital. But that's not our situation.

You are going to have to be more aggressive with your money if you want this team to show any signs of growth next year. Your best signing can't be a backup running back. The draft simply won't be enough. You have more money than anyone else with next to no one to resign. Use it.

 

[Hammer of Thor]

The Pats do this again, their fans go the way of the Red Sox fans, regardless of who the new HC is.

No excuse to leave all that cap space on the table this year, let alone twice in a row.

 

[Joey007]

For the record, I am aware there were some situations where we reportedly "tried" like the pursuit of Calvin Ridley. But we definitely found ourselves standing down when the numbers became a little too uncomfortable. Ridley isn't great, but he's sure better than anything we had here this season.

 

[TheRainMaker]

Imagine the money they would've had if they hadn't blown it on Dugger, Owenu, Barmore and Rham. Dugger and Owenu should've been let to walk in FA and Barmore and Rham would be on prove it deals. Just awful GM'ing.

 

[Give Kraft A Hand]

The Pats do this again, their fans go the way of the Red Sox fans, regardless of who the new HC is.

No excuse to leave all that cap space on the table this year, let alone twice in a row.

Yeah they could very easily fall to 3rd most popular team in the city by a wide margin as I can’t see the Red Sox passing anyone in popularity while penny pinching John Henry owns them. Kraft needs to make a splash, no more excuses.

 

[Joey007]

Imagine the money they would've had if they hadn't blown it on Dugger, Owenu, Barmore and Rham. Dugger and Owenu should've been let to walk in FA and Barmore and Rham would be on prove it deals. Just awful GM'ing.

Disagree on Onwenu. He was the only competent guy we had on the line this year. Don’t get rid of competency on the line.

 

[Headcase]

There were couple issues as I see them last FA period:
1) It was a reset year, clear the books, learn the team, get ready for a big year two.
2) They did have a couple of big offers out there, and probably more than we heard of, but no one would take our money.
3) Wolf coming from the Packers' world of building internally.

The #1 excuse is gone. Books are clear, have to spend money just to get to the floor.

#3 We don't know who will actually be in charge of FA yet.....if it is Wolf you hope that he learned he won't be able to do it strictly through the draft. We don't know about anyone else that maybe in charge.

#2 is a big one, the team wasn't a desirable destination last year, some of the issues where publicly stated, some were inferred .... doesn't change the fact that the team looked really bad and money alone wasn't going to be enough to get people in the door. Hopefully bringing the coach with some sort of pedigree will get people excited...either their former players, or just people that want to play in their systems

Lots of things to get done before FA opens, hoping for a better plan in FA this year

 

[TheRainMaker]

For the record, I am aware there were some situations where we reportedly "tried" like the pursuit of Calvin Ridley. But we definitely found ourselves standing down when the numbers became a little too uncomfortable. Ridley isn't great, but he's sure better than anything we had here this season.

They couldn't bump their number up $1M more, but had no problem prematurely signing Bourne coming off an ACL injury to $6.5M dollars for 2024. That money could've been applied to Ridley.

Dumb GM'ing 101.

 

[TommyD4207]

Disagree on Onwenu. He was the only competent guy we had on the line this year. Don’t get rid of competency on the line.

He was the highest paid player on the team, and he was no better than anyone else on that line this year.

 

[signbabybrady]

They can't leave money on the table like last year.

I'm not sure there are enough quality free agents to spend all the cap we have.

How many pending free agents should we lock up. That's where we spent more last year.

We are probably going to have to make a big splash or 2 on the trade market in order to find enough players to use our money on.

Can't kick the can like last year so things could get interesting around here this off-season.

 

[TheRainMaker]

Disagree on Onwenu. He was the only competent guy we had on the line this year. Don’t get rid of competency on the line.

Him and Robert Hunt were massively overpaid for absolutely no reason.

 

[Headcase]

Imagine the money they would've had if they hadn't blown it on Dugger, Owenu, Barmore and Rham. Dugger and Owenu should've been let to walk in FA and Barmore and Rham would be on prove it deals. Just awful GM'ing.

Dugger and Barmore both had injuries; Owenu was bounced all over the right side of the line....Rham well he regressed. I can't blame all of those issues on Wolf.

 

[Mack Herron]

Kraft and Wolf return. Kraft doesn’t like change and is reluctant to cede authority. Should be interesting with Vrabel.

 

[TheRainMaker]

Dugger and Barmore both had injuries; Owenu was bounced all over the right side of the line....Rham well he regressed. I can't blame all of those issues on Wolf.

All of these guys were a part of a 4 win team with Bill Belichick as the HC. None of them were among the league's best and not good enough to carry a team. If Bill can't make it work with them, what makes you think as a GM it would work with Mayo?

Also, these were classic Bill draft picks he would've let walk as well (Owenu and Dugger). He'd wouldn't have paid Barmore prematurely after one good season. Case in point, he let Seymour's contract drag out and he was a way better player than Barmore was. Why Rham was extended was also a mystery when he was declining and the OL was in shambles. Bill would've let it play out.

With that said, I do think Wolf will be asked to be let go if the new HC asks for it. Kraft doesn't have a choice.

 

[ScottishPatriots]

They did offer Aiyuk 30m a year and he said no, what if they offer Higgins 5m a year more than anyone else and he doesn't want to come?

It's why you often have to draft your way to the middle before you can attract the big money free agents who have options, it's easy to say spend but the players worth spending on have to take your offer and want to play for you.

 

[Drunken Cicerone]

Fact we all seem to have an issue with as Pats fans

Every roster has overpaid players you reduce the damage of overpaying for the guys you want by drafting smart and getting people on rookie deals

 

[Ring 6]

For the record, I am aware there were some situations where we reportedly "tried" like the pursuit of Calvin Ridley. But we definitely found ourselves standing down when the numbers became a little too uncomfortable. Ridley isn't great, but he's sure better than anything we had here this season.

Actually it looked to me like Wolf signed everyone he went after except Ridley. He signed roughly 9 free agents, they just mostly sucked.
It was not signing free agents, it was signing the wrong ones.
It was also about not signing another 10 or so professional football players for the bottom if the roster instead of relying on practice squad and waiver wire guys.

 

[Ring 6]

Dugger and Barmore both had injuries; Owenu was bounced all over the right side of the line....Rham well he regressed. I can't blame all of those issues on Wolf.

Who are you going to blame them on?
Dugger was out a couple of games. He was misused. Why? Because we didn’t sign anyone for the position he was misused in. Wolf’s fault.
Barmore was signed when he still had years left. Why do it so early? Wolf’s fault.
Stevenson was also still under contract with no leverage and we opened the vault. Wolf’s fault.
Onwenu moved around because wolf did not find one single capable OL in an entire off season when OL was supposed to be a priority.

 

[Toofy]

They can't leave money on the table like last year.

I'm not sure there are enough quality free agents to spend all the cap we have.

How many pending free agents should we lock up. That's where we spent more last year.

We are probably going to have to make a big splash or 2 on the trade market in order to find enough players to use our money on.

Can't kick the can like last year so things could get interesting around here this off-season.

Overspend on elite talent like Higgins and few of defensive stars. Don't overspend on mid range talent. Get some tough linebackers in the 5-8 million $ range and some stout DTs with high performance bonus.

Barmore, wise, godchaux, J Jones and dugger are probably not going to be here beyond this year. So build depth and trade our in house vets if possible.

Onwenu is going to be in a prove it year this time. I am thinking Bourne is traded or cut this season. As for Andrews might be the backup center.

 

[Boston Boxer]

Yeah they could very easily fall to 3rd most popular team in the city by a wide margin as I can’t see the Red Sox passing anyone in popularity while penny pinching John Henry owns them. Kraft needs to make a splash, no more excuses.

everyone but the Celtics are poorly run...and its only a matter of time before the Celtics owners get sick of paying the tax