OT: Amendola “Bill hasn’t been known to pay his players”

The "Patriots don't pay their players" is such a dumb narrative. There's a salary cap. They are usually right up against it. It's not like the Pats are cheap. They are just limited by the rules of the league as to how much they can pay. They have a flatter distribution of salaries than some teams who are only big $ contracts or minimum / rookie deals with no middle ground. But usually that's the correct decision due to optimal roster construction.

This was a pretty good article about Brandin Cooks that is somewhat related:

How Brandin Cooks Explains the Modern NFL

1960Pats said:

They played for much less than they could have received elsewhere.

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Who is "they?" You just wrote that every player who ever played for the Pats under BB/RK played for "much less" than they could have received elsewhere....

This is completely false. In fact you dont even have to go very far to prove its false. DA came in in 2013 and got 5/31 with 10 guaranteed and he had a meh 2012 season and only played one game the year prior..

Who was paying DA more than that?

Pats don't pay their players, but the Dolphins do...Amendola's implied logic, I guess. Funny, I didn't know the Dolphins have a different salary cap than the Pats. Lucky Dolphins, having more cap space to pay more for their players. Nobody tell Tom and Gronk.

Regards,
Chris

TheRainMaker said:

Bill doesn’t pay his players? So they played for free?

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I was wondering the same thing...

Pretty sure they used to say similar things about Tom Landry and Paul Brown, who, aside from his own father, happen to be Belichick’s biggest coaching influences.

There’s nothing wrong with having a disclipined team and many of those players (Landry and Brown) changed their tune after they retired.

Edit: sorry, thought we were discussing Amendola’s other remarks about Belichick being like a principal, etc.

Bruins29 said:

Who is "they?" You just wrote that every player who ever played for the Pats under BB/RK played for "much less" than they could have received elsewhere....

This is completely false. In fact you dont even have to go very far to prove its false. DA came in in 2013 and got 5/31 with 10 guaranteed and he had a meh 2012 season and only played one game the year prior..

Who was paying DA more than that?

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I don’t think Gilmore was getting much more than the 5 for 65 we dished out.

NFL contracts are not guaranteed and Danny is an aging player.

He has been around long enough to know how it works. A younger players can do his job for a fraction of the cost.

Triumph said:

NFL contracts are not guaranteed and Danny is an aging player.

He has been around long enough to know how it works. A younger players can do his job for a fraction of the cost.

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We hope that’s the case. When the stage was at its highest Danny was $$$.

Ras-IR Dowling said:

We hope that’s the case. When the stage was at its highest Danny was $$$.

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For sure, although he’s probably not worth the kind of money that Miami paid him. In this case, we’ll have to hope that someone else can step up. I would’ve loved for him to stay at around 2m dollars or so, but those days have passed.

Ras-IR Dowling said:

I don’t think Gilmore was getting much more than the 5 for 65 we dished out.

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Precisely!

This whole "the pats dont pay" and "the players could have made more elsewhere" for the most part is pink hat garbage.

Loved Dola here and am happy that he's happy in Miami. He made the necessary decision. He'll always be a clutch Patriot to me.

Has anyone here been responsible for a large group of people with diverse skills? In industry you also have a finite amount of $ to reward employees. First priority is to ensure that the top contributors get as close to their market value as practical. Without them you're toast. Especially in software performance can be non-linear. People who can fill a myriad roles are especially valuable. Those who fill a narrower set of skills and who can more readily be replaced if they leave end up getting less. You don't want to lose any good performers but you do need to prioritize your allocation of salary. Fortunately, in a good job market dissatisfied employees can find a better situation for themselves elsewhere.

PittPatriot said:

Crazy how between the two of them, DA has more negative comments about the Pats/BB than Malcolm Butler does. You'd think Butler would be the more bitter one, but he has been generally quiet.

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It is a little strange isn't it?

The fact that Butler took a very high road when discussing Big Bad Bill makes me think that Butler may have done something to warrant his benching in the SB.

As for Amendola's negativity, it seems to be limited to his feelings about restructuring and not getting the payday (from the Pats) that he feels he deserved.

BB pays for expected future performance and is not particularly sentimental to his veterans. DA was a very valuable 4th WR and obviously came up huge in the post season multiple times. I will certainly miss having him on the team. Have no doubt that BB would have liked him back but no way was he going to pay anywhere close to $6M knowing that Edelman was coming back. DA is not the first player that left due to BB perceiving his value being less than his price and he certainly will not be the last. What Miami has done the past several years with flashy signings is one of the reasons they are mired in mediocrity. Rams seem to be doing the same thing.

1960Pats said:

The fact that Butler took a very high road when discussing Big Bad Bill makes me think that Butler may have done something to warrant his benching in the SB.

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Yeah. If you did something you don’t want the public to know about, attacking your previous organization is one of the best ways to make sure the previously buttoned-up info gets out there, especially in the Machiavellian world of pro sports.

Doctor DDS said:

DA was a very valuable 4th WR

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He was actually a very solid #3 last year for us and he would have been a #2 on many teams in the NFL last year with his numbers.

More of the same.... whining that Belichick is a hard ass, doesn't pay his players that are on the back 9. It's refreshing to play for a player's coach, blah blah blah.

Enjoy your 7-9 season, DA. I'm sure hanging around in Miami with the hotties and wad of cash in your pocket will ease the sting.

Actually, that sounds pretty good to me.

Elijah said:

He said that in April, I think there was a big thread.

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The article uses quotes from April, which were about the pay issues, but the podcast which was just released Thursday morning is where Dola talks about how:

- "Coach Gase is one of the guys. He’s our leader, he’s our head coach, but he’s also our boy. So it’s cool. It’s refreshing to have that kind of relationship with a coach, something I haven’t had in a long time. I facetimed coach Gase yesterday just to bulls–t with him..."
- “Coach Gase is one of the guys, one of the boys, and you want to fight hard for your boys. Back in New England, it’s almost like you’ve got a principal, the principal’s office and s–t like that,”

That is news, and newsworthy I think, because it's yet another player/ex-player comparing BB's style with another coach who's more "fun" and "cool", and how he's more motivated to be playing for the latter. It's becoming the prevailing story of this awful off-season, so far, and it...sucks!

JG109 said:

It's becoming the prevailing story of this awful off-season, so far, and it...sucks!

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Meh. Most rational NFL fans get it. They see a guy who loved playing for a winning organization - when winning. Then once he won and cashed in he now likes that he can relax and play for a coach that will make it fun regardless if they win or not.

Even die-hard pats haters see this for what it is.

Carroll is a "fun" guy, one of the guys blah blah blah.. They had a nice little run but now they're a dumpster fire.

That crap only flies so long, and as others have mentioned, when the fins miss the playoffs, again, they can always hang out with their buddy.

JG109 said:

The article uses quotes from April, which were about the pay issues, but the podcast which was just released Thursday morning is where Dola talks about how:

- "Coach Gase is one of the guys. He’s our leader, he’s our head coach, but he’s also our boy. So it’s cool. It’s refreshing to have that kind of relationship with a coach, something I haven’t had in a long time. I facetimed coach Gase yesterday just to bulls–t with him..."
- “Coach Gase is one of the guys, one of the boys, and you want to fight hard for your boys. Back in New England, it’s almost like you’ve got a principal, the principal’s office and s–t like that,”

That is news, and newsworthy I think, because it's yet another player/ex-player comparing BB's style with another coach who's more "fun" and "cool", and how he's more motivated to be playing for the latter. It's becoming the prevailing story of this awful off-season, so far, and it...sucks!

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Every story about the Pats is prevailing until the next story but this one doesn't really suck to me.

The irony is that DA is probably relieved just to be able to give his thoughts about another coach. That's something that he could never do when he played for Bill.