Gronk trade completed

NormZauchin said:

Without Belichick, Brady may never even had had an NFL career. Belichick drafted him in the sixth round. Belichick kept him as the fourth quarterback on the roster, something he has never done before or since. Belichick promoted Brady to Bledsoe's backup in Brady's second year. When Bledsoe recovered from his injury, Belichick stayed with Brady, despite Bledsoe's huge contract and Kraft's partiality to Drew. Belichick resolved the quarterback controversy at the conclusion of the season by trading Bledsoe. If Belichick had not drafted Brady, he would have been a free agent and training camp fodder for some other team, whose head coach almost certainly would allocate playing time by draft position and contract size.
But forget all that. Just trash Belichick.

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Why does it have to be either / or?

Brady6 said:

The best QB of all time manipulated his contract to ensure he could leave and the best TE of all time sat out a season and forced a trade to play elsewhere. Shelton I pointed out because of money being the reason players have left, and that’s really not true, they leave because they want to play someplace else. McCourty staying put to play with his brother doesn’t shock me.

We are going to see how good Belichick is as a coach when he doesn’t have a top 5 QB in the NFL, and if anyone thinks Belichick is the same coach as he was early in Brady’s career they’re not seeing the world through the right lens, because BB is closer to the life expectancy for a male in the US than he is to coaching Matt Cassel to an 11-5 record.

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Okay, again, you said stars are leaving in packs because BB is an ******* and how it was karma since it was the other way around before. I hate to harp on that, but that was your main point. It’s just simply not true.

Give Kraft A Hand said:

Lol couldn't even get 117. Jesus. Bucs had the Pats over the barrel here.

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Well Gronk wasn’t playing anywhere else. Lucky we got what we got

Boston's favorite Son no more.

The Pat's bashing will be epic.

This is hilarious. Dumpster fire gonna be good down there. Gronk slowed down his last season, has been out and this comeback will be awkward at best.

Brady6 said:

Basically every free agent we’ve had has left over the past 3 off seasons. You can blame it on money but it’s not all about that, look at the Allen and Shelton deals, basically the same cost and Shelton is a much better player. It is obvious that players are no longer fond of playing on a BB coached team, not like they used. We can’t even come to terms with Joe Thuney.

I think Belichick gets a pass on a lot of things because of what he has done in the past, which I find to be ironically hilarious because there isn’t anyone I can think of who has more a what have you done for me lately approach than Belichick.

As far as I’m concerned if we have losing season in 2020 Belichick should be fired, i am just being a fan the same way he coaches. You’re only as good as your current performance.

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You'll have to go back and edit your post. You only needlessly changed the font in half of it.

ViperGTS said:

This is hilarious. Dumpster fire gonna be good down there. Gronk slowed down his last season, has been out and this comeback will be awkward at best.

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I mean.... you realize hea gonna have single coverage and only purpose he serves is as a red zone target that brady trust?

Worst case scenario they just added an all pro offensive lineman.

This is a ****ing goldmine no brainer steal for the bucs.

amfootball said:

I am rooting for Brady to do well so that does not bother me in the least if he has a record season.

I have already accepted that the Pats are in rebuild mode. 8-8 would be fine as long as we see progression from the young guys, especially the QB if it is Stidham.

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you know maybe an 8-8 or worse season is not so bad because then we will see what true Patriots fans are like and what bandwagon fans move on to the next dynasty - we have had a decent sized share of fake fans for nearly 2 decades hiding behind the greatness of Brady/Belichick combo,this will thin out the herd and show who is really behind their team should a rebuilding phase last for years.

Bradyking12 said:

We aren't rebuilding.

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Sorry to break it to you, but this team has a lot of holes, particularly at the most important position in football. QB.

italian pat patriot said:

What year this 2020 is...brutal in every possible way...

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They say hindsight is 2020 - if it really was and we had it I would have buried myself in a cave for the 366 days

MoreBellhorn said:

Okay, again, you said stars are leaving in packs because BB is an ******* and how it was karma since it was the other way around before. I hate to harp on that, but that was your main point. It’s just simply not true.

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This is the past 3 off seasons.

Brady*
Gronkowski*
Amendola
Flowers
Patterson*
Butler*
Solder
T Brown*
Van Noy
Collins*
M Brown
Lewis
Shelton
Dorsett

*pro bowler/all pro

They're not all stars but there are a lot of good players who have left in recent years and not all that many added in that same time period.

NormZauchin said:

Without Belichick, Brady may never even had had an NFL career. Belichick drafted him in the sixth round. Belichick kept him as the fourth quarterback on the roster, something he has never done before or since. Belichick promoted Brady to Bledsoe's backup in Brady's second year. When Bledsoe recovered from his injury, Belichick stayed with Brady, despite Bledsoe's huge contract and Kraft's partiality to Drew. Belichick resolved the quarterback controversy at the conclusion of the season by trading Bledsoe. If Belichick had not drafted Brady, he would have been a free agent and training camp fodder for some other team, whose head coach almost certainly would allocate playing time by draft position and contract size.
But forget all that. Just trash Belichick.

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Brady would’ve succeeded somewhere. Many teams in the league had trash at QB which went on for many years.

Brady6 said:

This is the past 3 off seasons.

Brady*
Gronkowski*
Amendola
Flowers
Patterson*
Butler*
Solder
T Brown*
Van Noy
Collins*
M Brown
Lewis
Shelton
Dorsett

*pro bowler/all pro

They're not all stars but there are a lot of good players who have left in recent years and not all that many added in that same time period.

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Tbf we basically told most of these players to take a joke. Gronk and Brady are the only ones the team would have preferred staying

lancerman said:

Tbf we basically told most of these players to take a joke. Gronk and Brady are the only ones the team would have preferred staying

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Whatever you want to believe. Like I said we will see this season.

primetime said:

What does that have to do with the Patriots? Brady's gone. Gronk wasn't coming back in blue and silver. The team's roster isn't great and they're in cap jail through next year. They need to reload and more picks gives them more opportunity to do so. Think most people are pretty sober about the Patriots chances this year. What were they going to do, hold Gronk hostage out of spite? I don't even think they could do that, he had leverage over them because he could unretire and tank the cap balancing they're doing.

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Vegas line has the Patriots win line set at 8.5 which is the lowest line they've dealt with since 2003 and looking at the offense and the defensive line right now that 8.5 looks more like under than over - the draft will really have to be Belichick's best ever and those picks have to be quality starters to even have a chance to win this division

PATRIOTSFANINPA said:

you know maybe an 8-8 or worse season is not so bad because then we will see what true Patriots fans are like and what bandwagon fans move on to the next dynasty - we have had a decent sized share of fake fans for nearly 2 decades hiding behind the greatness of Brady/Belichick combo,this will thin out the herd and show who is really behind their team should a rebuilding phase last for years.

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Amen brother! Well said.

ViperGTS said:

This is hilarious. Dumpster fire gonna be good down there. Gronk slowed down his last season, has been out and this comeback will be awkward at best.

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Gronk doesn't have to be the 10 TD, 1000+ yard TE, his value will be in making necessary plays and (if he puts weight back on), creating running lanes with his dominant blocking. That said, I don't like how he's conducted himself these past few seasons (and I'm generally in favor of players leaving for more playing opportunities, cashing in where they can etc.).

STUB STUB said:

Yeah, he was desperate. He knew he probably only had one more year of the greatest QB in NFL history and had just lost his plan A, B, C, D and E (Gronk, J Gordon, A Brown, N Harry, D Thomas) at 2nd receiver option. Plus Sanu wasn't a one-year rental. It was a bad trade, but it's defensible.

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Plan A was derailed by Andrews, Devlin Cannon Mason el al. Bill wanted to run first a la the playoffs the year before.

I have no problem with both Tom and Gronky leaving, and I understand both had issues playing for BB again, but for different reasons.

For Gronk I think the problem is more about the rigors, the mental stress, I think he feels he's always been underpaid even though he got that big money (at the time) upfront and he knows that, but considering the way all his injuries have been mismanaged at times and the fact he always put his body in the line of fire and gave 100%, I think he feels underappreciated.

For Tom, I think he was tired about saving BB's the GM azz every year and not getting some return or some help, recognition, money or anything in between. Seriously, BB has been fielding putrid offenses since the draft of Gronk and Hernandez and last year it was a shame.

Now not only his drafts are terrible but there's a cap aspect to it as well. The Pats found themselves in this offseason in cap hell with no QB signed. And now we are in this situation because they didn't have money to pay Brady (I still think money was not his main goal) and to sign receivers for him to throw the ball and that's the main reason he left.

Teams around the league are paying more money to their QB's and still able to sign good players.

There are many ways to build winning teams, spending in starters and throwing the depth on the toilet, the opposite of that, and a middle ground. BB has always choosen to spread the money all over the roster and you can't deny it worked out but you can't really have depth if you don't draft well. There's not enough money to pay for good 53 players if you don't have a bunch of them in rookie contracts. You have to have some organic depth created through draft. And that's where I think the Pats lost some track in the past couple of years resulting in last year roster and this years (pre-draft of course) roster that is now considered a bottom 5 in terms of talent.

I don't have any confidence in BB doing a great rebuild, he has many picks so he will hit a few of them of course but it is my opinion for a long time he should only coach and someone else should be the GM, it could be Caserio but with 100% autonomy, right now he's just a intern senior level.

Sanu just followed the Bucs