Patriots Player Departure Polk traded to Saints

[farn]

It’s more sadness than anything. The team I root for spent so so many years making the right move much more often than not. Acquiring key players via the draft or trade. The occasional splash in FA. It was fun. And - truly - it’s amazing how many seasons NE was a true contender.

Now, the missteps remind me of the ones I mocked back then. We’d laugh at the NYJ, Cleveland (guess we still do)…

Giving up on Strange and Polk wasn’t the wrong move. But it’s too bad the percentage of success is so low. It’d be much more bearable if they were looking like they were moving in the right direction even if the winning hadn’t started. But - while the season is young - there are many aspects of this squad that lead to doubt and despair.

 

[TommyD4207]

Vrabel can't be in charge of it all. Is it Groh?

Cowden/Highsmith/Vrabel

 

[TommyD4207]

Their continued employment is Vrabels decision. And imo they had a good draft this past April.

That's hilariously incorrect.

 

[Since1960]

2nd + a 7th to get a 6th round pick.

Good job Elliot

And to think its more than what we got for Thornton, Strange, Harry, J. Williams, and soon to be Dugger, White,& Mapu…. Any chance we can bring back Upton Bell??!!

 

[TheRainMaker]

If Maye doesn’t become a Franchise QB and Nix Penix and McCarthy have better careers my god.

It happens all the time and we need to accept this is as a possibility as high pick QB's flame out more often than not. People want to ignore Maye's trend of disappearing acts throughout large stretches of games where it looks like he forgets how to play QB. Scoring 10 points on that Raiders defense until late in the 4th Q is really bad. Then when the game is out of reach he unlocks the Carson Palmer mode padding 25% passing yards on the final drive like he did last Sunday. He still has yet to throw for over 300 yards in a game, has thrown for 3 TD's once, has had a turnover in all but 3 games and the offense hasn't scored more than 22 point in a game.

 

[Ross12]

This player woefully underperformed last year and did nothing in this camp to show he was going to improve. He ended last year hurt and then hurt himself again this year. He had a big attitude problem and clashed with his coaches. He had a fairly large salary as a 2nd round pick with 2 more years of guaranteed money. He is currently on season-ending IR.

The fact that the Pats managed to trade him at all, and not only that but managed to get a positive return, is incredible.

 

[Ras-IR Dowling]

That's hilariously incorrect.

IMO if Mike wants these two gone Kraft will side with Vrabel. But we can agree to disagree.

 

[VJCPatriot]

So long.

We only get a pick swap for a 6th round pick while giving up a 7th. What a disastrous waste of a 2nd. And think about it if we just stay put we could have had Mcconkey.

Our WR scouting department feels SUS. I’m surprised the Patriots didn’t overhaul it entirely when Vrabel took over.

This player woefully underperformed last year and did nothing in this camp to show he was going to improve. He ended last year hurt and then hurt himself again this year. He had a big attitude problem and clashed with his coaches. He had a fairly large salary as a 2nd round pick with 2 more years of guaranteed money. He is currently on season-ending IR.

The fact that the Pats managed to trade him at all, and not only that but managed to get a positive return, is incredible.

I'm still shocked at how bad of a pick this was. If we simply sat tight and made the no brainer pick of McConkey we would have improved depth at the WR position.

Let's review the original trade:

The Patriots gave up No. 34 and No. 137, getting No. 37 and No. 110 back in return.

Patriots outcome

#37 WR Ja'Lynn Polk - Traded for a 6th round pick
#110 WR Javon Baker - Released but signed by Eagles

Chargers outcome

#34 WR Ladd McConkey - 1149 yards 7 TDs rookie season
#137 CB Tarheeb Still - 12 games started 4 INTs rookie season

Not only did we make the wrong pick with Polk, the Chargers got a better player with the trade down, a CB who actually contributed to their defense.

We traded away Polk for a 6th and he was on season ending IR. We cut Baker who got signed away for free by the Eagles. Chargers essentially drafted two starters.

So we LOST both parts of the trade. Simply terrible drafting.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

Strong, Peppers, Polk...just horrible. But who would have guessed that Polk had more value in the league than the other two?

Not that Strong has accomplished much, but Belichick traded him after one year for OL "depth" (Tyrone Wheatley, who played 5 ST snaps).

 

[borg]

2nd + a 7th to get a 6th round pick.

Good job Elliot

 

[UGAPatsfan]

This may seem far fetched, but is it possible that both Scott Pioli and Floyd Reese (RIP) were woefully underrated?

Seems **** went sideways after both men were gone.

Caserio wasn’t amazing, Lombardi was awful, Groh/Wolf worse.

This year’s draft we’ll need to see in two years.

Meanwhile Howie Roseman and the Baltimore guy are killing everyone.

 

[PatsFan2]

So long.

Wow they got something for him: that Sixth Rounder in return might turn into another Tom Brady.

 

[Force Zero Boomer]

I do appreciate Polk for being so terrible that it helped get Mayo fired.

Other than that he might have been the worst WR I’ve ever seen.

I'll never forget the first time I saw Polk: a short clip of a WR drill during OTAs. He looked so unathletic. Juju coming off an injury made him look like a slug. Wolf should be gone for that pick alone, it was so egregiously bad.

 

[PatsFan2]

Nice Vrabel: way to Exorcise the Ghost of Ladd McConkey. What a horrible decision by Wolf: I think Vrabel himself can't make sense of the decision.

 

[UGAPatsfan]

Wow they got something for him: that Sixth Rounder in return might turn into another Tom Brady.

I’d like to see Pavia or Haynes King.

No promises obviously but both kids are dawgs mentally.

That seems to be Drake’s issue.

Mac was both a ****y and physically limited.

Drake is physically gifted, but maybe not mentally a killer.

Gotta see how that plays out but do feel it wise to draft a guy next year.

 

[KCSVEN]

Vrabel is getting rid of Mayo and Wolfs guys,

But Vrabel is systematically moving on from players he didn’t sign off on.

I don’t think that’s relevant. I think it’s just moving on from players that are not any good or didn’t it fit the system. I doubt he cares less where they came from. Just cares about whether they can play for him or not.

 

[PatsFan2]

Clean out Eliot’s office now,

Eliot should come to work and it’s like office space he’s moved to the boiler room.

My God.

IF Maye flops Wolf is going in that Boiler. What's that smell?? Smells like Chicken.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

I called his moves out last season a mile away and was met with resistance. You don't hand out contracts like that to players that haven't proven much or have been exposed. Pats could've had a **** ton of cap room to play with had they let Dugger walk and Owenu walk. Barmore would've been playing on his 5th year option.

I will defend Wolf here to a point. In particular, he was dealt a really crappy hand on the FA front.

1. He had a coaching staff that didn't really seem to have any clue what kinds of players they wanted.
2. Worse still, it was a coaching staff that basically no free agents wanted to come play for. . . .
3. . . . despite Mayo's (not incorrect) statement that they had "money to burn."
4. He had inherited from BB a team with a reputation of letting their own draft picks walk over relatively small amounts of money.

And, in particular, I will defend the Barmore re-signing. He earned it (he gets double-teamed or chipped more than almost any IDL in the NFL); it was just incredible bad luck that he got blood clots three months later.

 

[Force Zero Boomer]

IF Maye flops Wolf is going in that Boiler. What's that smell?? Smells like Chicken.

If Maye flops, is 2024 the worst draft ever by any modern-era NFL team?

 

[captain stone]

I think this one was just about clearing him off the books so whatever.

But seemingly we haven't been very good at trades recently. Either we've failed to trade guys or take pennies on the dollar and we haven't managed to bring anything significant in (via trade). Obviously we aren't exactly working from a position of strength so it is what it is.

And we haven't been as active in the waiver claims market as I had hoped, though also had not expected them to be anyway