So you must think other teams are perfect?
Yes, that is exactly what I was expressing in my post, that other teams are perfect.
Our of 32 teams where would you place the current Patriots staff at, identifying, understanding and correcting weaknesses year to year in order to build a winner.
Anything less than #1 unquestionably would be a disingenuous answer.
Yea I'd say #1, but being able to identify and understand weaknesses is one thing, you still need cap room to correct them in any meaningful way given the number of holes they currently have and key free agents they will likely lose to teams with $100m+ to spend (including the Bills, who I'm sure would love to improve their roster while at the same time hurting the Pats. As would the colts.)
We don’t have that many free agents. All won’t be back, just as happens every year.
Yea but they have 3 team captains hitting FA this year who are tops at their position. Slater will be affordable, but DMac and Brady will be extremely expensive.
this is the list of their FAs;
Tom Brady (C)
Devin McCourty (C)
Kyle Van Noy
Matthew Slater (C)
Phillip Dorsett
Nate Ebner
Jamie Collins
Danny Shelton
Nick Folk
Marshall Newhouse
Justin Bethel
Joe Thuney
Benjamin Watson
Shilique Calhoun
James Ferentz
Jermaine Eluemunor
Ted Karras
Elandon Roberts
Adam Butler
Keionta Davis
these are the ones that really matter
Tom Brady - Huge % of cap consumed if resigned. Offense will be embarassment without him.
Devin McCourty - Secondary would take HUGE hit if he was gone. Will make $10m+
Kyle Van Noy - Likely gone, will get $10m+, but im more confident they can replace LBs
Matthew Slater - Will be back at around $3m+
Jamie Collins - will be gone, someone will overpay him again. If LBs lose Van Noy and Collins, ouch.
Danny Shelton - May be expensive to keep, Dline would suffer a lot losing him
Joe Thuney - Will cost a fortune to keep. I think they try to replace him in draft due to cap restrictions
Ted Karras - solid season after getting a chance.. hes a backup on our team, but someone might pay him
Adam Butler - young and talented, will cost some coin to keep.
I would argue if they lost DMac, Van Noy, Collins, Shelton and Butler this would be a completely different defense and not for the better. They'll probably keep 1 of either Shelton or Butler, maybe DMac if he wants to play with his brother and not break the bank, but the rest are probably gone.
I’m sure you were beside yourself last year that we couldn’t keep flowers and the defense improved.
I wasn't thrilled about losing Flowers, but they made a bunch of other moves that mitigated it a bit... but yes, i thought losing Flowers would have hurt them a lot more than it did.. but a guy like Flowers could have potentially made that 1 or 2 big plays you needed in Titans game
Flowers was really the only significant loss, that is a lot easier to overcome when the rest of the defense is solid. This year they already have a bunch of holes and could potentially have 3-4 "Trey Flower" type players leave.. maybe not quite at his level, but impactful players
What team could he go to and have a better chance to win? How many teams have gone to 4 sbs won 3 of them in the last 5 years and just went 12-5 with 4 of he losses being within 1 possession?
Not sure, depends on what happens with the FA shuffle about to take place. Also, their history at this point is irrelevant. The Patriots are amazing at sustaining a success, but they do experience dips after recovering from multiple SB runs and losing lots of players. I also don't believe the Pats were as good as their record this year, and they were better than their record in 2018. Some teams that have decent situations, at least in terms of roster talent, are:
1. Cowboys - (pending what happens with Dak)
2. Colts - (have a solid D, great running game, one of the best offensive lines, OK WR core but also $100m+ in cap room to improve roster.
3. Chargers - Solid offensive line i believe, amazing RBs (altho M Gordon is likely gone), a great young TE, amazing wide receivers and a defense that could really get after the QB if they played with a lead. (Bosa and Ingram)
I'm not considering coaching or anything like that, just roster talent.
We're really lucky the Bills drafted a solid young QB, cause otherwise they would have to be fighting off all of the FA QBs trying to bust down the front doors of their stadium. They were in the playoffs this year and a really solid team that now has like $100m in cap space to improve
If you want to think leaving the Patriots is the best way to win, I will just laugh at you and move on
and here i thought we were having a civil discussion. If they don't seriously retool the offensive side of the ball then the Pats are definitely not his best chance to win next year. He would be wise to just retire if they decided to trot out that cast of scrubs again around the greatest QB to ever lace them up