Kraft acknowledges drafting woes, says approach is changing

luuked said:

You forget that in the mind of some of those bozos BB has been a fraud all along so its just their confirmation bias going into overdrive and them assuming that all the dummies he fooled through 20 years are now slowly catching up with their might brains and see the "truth".

Unlike 99.9% of people Kraft has access to the draft room and has the full understanding for why they have been going after specific players even if they don't work out. A reckoning for each draft class happens anyway and has not much to do with the outcome but is focused on the process. As things that you want to continuously improve should be.

The idea that there was some kind of shots across bows is just the wish fulfillment of all the dummies that still think they know more about any single aspect of football than BB.

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Many of those Bozo's are entrenched here at patsfans.com

Current events today would make much more sense had these bozo's understood where we will be in 2021 back in 2017. The free agent comment is a case in point.

Since we spent to the cap....exactly how many of these extra "hits" would be on the roster vs the going rate on the market in past years.

Chandler Jones, Jamie Collins, Thuney, and Trey Flowers is asking that.

203Pat said:

Team Bill won't like this. Doesn't Bob know that every bust was just a victim of unfortunate circumstances and in no way reflects on Bill?!? Doesn't he know that other teams don't draft better over the same span!?! DOESN'T HE KNOW THESE THINGS!!!??

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I’m gathering that very few people on tgis thread read an article with the FULL Kraft interview. He very specifically mentions his trust in Bill and also essentially points to the “scoreboard” of BB’s 2 decade tenure as proof that he is “the best to ever do it”. This stuff happens in organizations of all types...approaches and priorities change from year to year. I believe the Patriots will be right back in the playoff chatter come November. I also believe that QB play will be surprisingly good by then...I just have no idea of it will be because A.) Cam Newton turned back the clock B.) a rookie surprised C.) Stid surprised D.) unexpected vet addition

UGAPatsfan said:

I’m gathering that very few people on tgis thread read an article with the FULL Kraft interview. He very specifically mentions his trust in Bill and also essentially points to the “scoreboard” of BB’s 2 decade tenure as proof that he is “the best to ever do it”. This stuff happens in organizations of all types...approaches and priorities change from year to year. I believe the Patriots will be right back in the playoff chatter come November of next year. I also believe that QB play will be surprisingly good by then...I just have no idea of it will be because A.) Cam Newton turned back the clock B.) a rookie surprised C.) Stid surprised D.) unexpected vet addition

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I was basically just being a jerk (surprise!) but if Kraft is going to criticize (as mild as the criticism was) Bill's recent drafting he will of course have to add the fact that as a whole Bill has obviously done a very good job putting the team together over the years. My jerky post was more towards the people who seem to refuse to acknowledge our recent drafts have been bad. Kind of hard to argue when even the owner acknowledges it to some extent.

Calhoun44 said:

I agree with this post 100%. Sorry to break it to you, but if you were a Patriots fan during that era and didn't appreciate Mayo as a leader in the locker room, on the field and in the community you seriously missed out. The MF could ball out.

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Any fan that says, "Well, Mayo didn't have as many turnover plays at Patrick Willis", do not- and will never understand what he did here.

203Pat said:

I was basically just being a jerk (surprise!) but if Kraft is going to criticize (as mild as the criticism was) Bill's recent drafting he will of course have to add the fact that as a whole Bill has obviously done a very good job putting the team together over the years. My jerky post was more towards the people who seem to refuse to acknowledge our recent drafts have been bad. Kind of hard to argue when even the owner acknowledges it to some extent.

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I wasn’t singling you out...and I agree with you. Even BB privately would agree the drafts have been **** IMO.

But the folks suggesting BB is on some sort of hot seat, or that there is discord between Bill and Kraft are out of their minds.

BB will be HC of NEP as long as he wants to be.

Now, I do suspect that personnel has been shifted around...but that would have happened anyway after Caserio left. Heck...I’m not certain that Patricia won’t end up taking a lot of that side off Bill’s plate. I hadn’t expected that when they brought him back, but it could work.

Another point...

I think Bedard was on to something in the recent podcast when he said that for Mayo and Stevie B it’s “no excuses time”.
If this defense isn’t top 10, changes need to be made.

One of those changes may be BB essentially taking control of the Defense

UGAPatsfan said:

BB will be HC of NEP as long as he wants to be.

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That is never true in pro sports. Never ever. It is production business. When you fail to produce you are gone.

UGAPatsfan said:

I think Bedard was on to something in the recent podcast when he said that for Mayo and Stevie B it’s “no excuses time”.
If this defense isn’t top 10, changes need to be made.

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Cripes. Who cares about the defense at this point? Fix the offense. Fix the QB. It is an offense driven league.

UGAPatsfan said:

Another point...

I think Bedard was on to something in the recent podcast when he said that for Mayo and Stevie B it’s “no excuses time”.
If this defense isn’t top 10, changes need to be made.

One of those changes may be BB essentially taking control of the Defense

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They absolutely have the talent on D to be successful. Could use a MLB and other edge rusher and if Gilly/JC move on a CB but I expect the D to be somewhere between 2019 and 2020 performance.

UGAPatsfan said:

I wasn’t singling you out...and I agree with you. Even BB privately would agree the drafts have been **** IMO.

But the folks suggesting BB is on some sort of hot seat, or that there is discord between Bill and Kraft are out of their minds.

BB will be HC of NEP as long as he wants to be.

Now, I do suspect that personnel has been shifted around...but that would have happened anyway after Caserio left. Heck...I’m not certain that Patricia won’t end up taking a lot of that side off Bill’s plate. I hadn’t expected that when they brought him back, but it could work.

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The narrative that Kraft is pressuring BB to change, or in some way is pushing BB to see the truth while BB has to accept it and adjust, lacks an understanding of how professional organizations work. That is not to say I disagree with @UGAPatsfan comments - I agree with him. Patricia is a smart guy, but probably not the most charismatic, so he might very well take over the management in strategic areas, as opposed to player recruiting and motivational areas. A lot more than an Ernie Adam's role.

BB went to Kraft and said the drafts have been lacking, and therefore there is a void in talent on the team. BB presented which players he believes in, and where he needs to plug holes. He then presented that COVID has provided a unique situation whereby the Pats can retool the 2021 roster with younger talented players at reasonable prices due to cap management. This was all planned - these situations do not magically arise - they are managed. And BB presented how they needed to retool the draft approach to avoid this "talent gap" going forward.

Kraft is echoing what BB presented to him, it is doubtful Kraft figured out how to change the drafting approach. It was all part of re-tooling the team to go forward. That is what good businessmen do, assess where they are, how they got there, and where they want to go. Then retool based on expertise and add resources based on assessed needs. Kraft's part in the organization is to arrange the cash flow, and the high level owner and league issues, not day-to-day personnel shuffles or roster management.

Will it work? I do not know. The FA signings look great. Can the organization draft better with a reshuffle? It is doubtful but maybe. I think we can imply a few things from the moves and Kraft's comments. 1. BB is not highly enamored with the TE prospects, or the TE prospects are still a few years away, 2. BB thought the defensive front 7 need upgrading - not a great sign for Winovich - and that might continue in the draft, 3. the book has not been closed on Stidham even though he did not play the last two games in 2020, 4. WR needed to be upgraded and that might continue in the draft, 5. The defensive secondary was not a big need, 6. The Oline was not was not a big need, 7. the signing of Cam shows they do not have a definitive plan at QB - they are still waiting for a FA to appear (JG), or are going to make a move in the draft.

The organization continues to take everything about "the Patriot Way" and turn into a farce.



Yesh - so much for no excuses. Covid, the receivers, everything was so great for those 3 games before the cruel hand of fate came in.



Look - there is absolutely no way that this offseason will result in an overall positive gain for the Patriots. You don't build a team through free agency; the guys they signed, like with everyone in free agency, are mid/mid-upper class players, and they're paying them elite salaries. That's what free agency is, with occassional exceptions. You use it to fill our your roster and plug holes. Sure, there's a slight silver lining in 2021 because of the lower cap and less bidders, but this wasn't some brilliant coup and market inefficiency. It was a team with a ton of cash to burn because of so many personnel failures, mainly through the draft, but also failures to lock up their own players long-term. It would have been the perfect "reckoning year" had they backloaded contracts and kept the late 2010s largely in tact and added some free agents to a championhip contender. Insteaed of using the backloading cap flexibility when they had the chance, they found themselves wth way more extra cap space than they should have had.

If this were the Jets or Dolphins, we'd be laughing at them for proclaiming they're looking at some market inefficiencies and capitalizing on them. They outbid teams for a bunch of overpriced free agents and made "a splash." There's no reason to overanalyze it. It's a bad look to act like some chess grandmaster for these signings.

I was disappointed that they moved on from Brady but thought they'd have a great rebuilding plan. I expcect this team will be competitive (for a Wild Card) in 2021 and then will have some really big prolems if they don't hit a home run in this draft.

I've been largely staying away from these threads because I know how negative I'm coming across, but hey, at least I'm being consistent about what I've praised them for over the last 20 yeard and laughed at other desperate teams for doing.

BB struck out over a long period of time. Not going to hate on him too much because he did a good enough job for a long time where TB could patch over the flaws and work with what they had. 19 years of constant dominance was the result of fairly good roster management combined with a QB who could adapt and overcome deficiencies in the rosters to make his team competitive at all levels.

It looks like BB hit a fairly long dry spell and made too many mistakes. TB saw he was not going to try and shore it up and was not willing to play the long game since he was already 42 years old. Sitting around for 2 years while BB maaaaybe gets it right again was not exactly how TB envisioned his final years in the NFL going. Not only that BB was expecting TB to croak any time so he was not too heavily invested in TB.

These things tend to happen when you have a QB who simply refuses to get old or decline. And TB really got pissed off that his final year in New England was being billed as a "Brady decline" when it was obvious that it was the team that was becoming void of talent, so much so that TB was having issues dragging them to the playoffs. Instead of getting credit for getting them back in the playoffs people were point at TB giddily and saying he is getting old.

Hence why Brady left. To make them all eat crow.

sb1 said:

Dunno. But Bill for sure isn't getting forever to rebuild the Pats.

Said it lots of times - right now we're the Rex Ryan Buffalo Bills. They too were a .500ish caliber team, pretty good in a few spots here and there, they could run the ball fairly well, good secondary, not much at QB. In 3 seasons they turned it all around and now they're an AFC power. There's no reason or excuse why BB shouldn't be able to do the same in the same time period with the Patriots.

And if he can't do it then I expect the team will move on to someone who can. Even the greats have their expiry date.

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Rex Ryan’s Bill’s weren’t coming off drafting almost last in every round for 20 years as well as being up against the cap because they had to pay so many super Bowl players. And Rex Ryan’s Bill’s never won 3 Super Bowls in the previous six years. But you can do your Borges imitation and keep calling for Belichick’s demise year after year until he eventually retired, at which point you will claim you were right all along.

I am curious to understand what Orchids of Bob implied when he said he was encouraged with the changes in their approach to the draft.

UGAPatsfan said:

Another point...

I think Bedard was on to something in the recent podcast when he said that for Mayo and Stevie B it’s “no excuses time”.
If this defense isn’t top 10, changes need to be made.

One of those changes may be BB essentially taking control of the Defense

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it was top 15 with 2 major defensive players opting out. bedard kind of overreaching there. Ya the run defense was bad but still a top 15 overall defense in yards and top 7 in points allowed

I'm curious, who knows (shouldn't the Pats know) who was responsible for finding undrafted Malcolm Butler and JC Jackson ? We should elevate that person and never draft corners again without that person's evaluation. Something is broken where the Patriot high draft CB picks use a broken system but our UDFAs can end up pro bowlers. Does anyone know who found Malcolm and JC Jackson ???

UGAPatsfan said:

Another point...

I think Bedard was on to something in the recent podcast when he said that for Mayo and Stevie B it’s “no excuses time”.
If this defense isn’t top 10, changes need to be made.

One of those changes may be BB essentially taking control of the Defense

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I feel like BB already has had a lot of control over the defense the last few years. Flores left, they had a top five unit in 2015, then took a step back last year (mostly due to run defense) as a result of losing their NT, top 4 LBs, and SS. Even so they were bottom in run defense but middle of the pack overall. I don't think anyone on defense is really on the hot seat (more so than any typical year, anyway). What needs to improve is the offense.

DropKickFlutie said:

I'm curious, who knows (shouldn't the Pats know) who was responsible for finding undrafted Malcolm Butler and JC Jackson ? We should elevate that person and never draft corners again without that person's evaluation. Something is broken where the Patriot high draft CB picks use a broken system but our UDFAs can end up pro bowlers. Does anyone know who found Malcolm and JC Jackson ???

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I'm not sure anyone is necessarily responsible for identifying them in the first place. With UDFA you tend to look at guys you think have potential, bring as many in as you can to round out a 90 man camp roster, and then keep who stands out. It's a buckshot approach. I give Belichick 90% of the credit for them, not because he picked them up knowing who they'd become, but because he chose to keep them on the roster and developed them as a coach.

EDIT: I should add, I give BB 90% of the credit as far as team personnel involved in player selection/development. Obviously Malcolm and JC deserve a TON of credit for the work they've put in to come as far as they have. I was more speaking just in relation to your point about elevating someone in the front office.

Ice_Ice_Brady said:

The organization continues to take everything about "the Patriot Way" and turn into a farce.

View attachment 31861

Yesh - so much for no excuses. Covid, the receivers, everything was so great for those 3 games before the cruel hand of fate came in.

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Look - there is absolutely no way that this offseason will result in an overall positive gain for the Patriots. You don't build a team through free agency; the guys they signed, like with everyone in free agency, are mid/mid-upper class players, and they're paying them elite salaries. That's what free agency is, with occassional exceptions. You use it to fill our your roster and plug holes. Sure, there's a slgiht silver lining in 2021 because of the lower cap and less bidders, but this wasn't some brilliant coup and market inefficiency. It was a team with a ton of cash to burn because of so many personnel failures, mainly through the draft, but also failures to lock up their own players long-term. It would have been the perfect "reckoning year" had they backloaded contracts and kept the late 2010s largely in tact and added some free agents to a championhip contender. Insteaed of using the backloading cap flexibility when they had the chance, they found themselves wth way more extra cap space than they should have had.

If this were the Jets or Dolphins, we'd be laughing at them for proclaiming they're looking at some market inefficiencies and capitalizing on them. They outbid teams for a bunch of overpriced free agents and made "a splash." There's no reason to overanalyze it. It's a bad look to act like some chess grandmaster for these signings.

I was disappointed that they moved on from Brady but thought they'd have a great rebuilding plan. I expcect this team will be competitive (for a Wild Card) in 2021 and then will have some really big prolems if they don't hit a home run in this draft.

I've been largely staying away from these threads because I know how negative I'm coming across, but hey, at least I'm being consistent about what I've praised them for over the last 20 yeard and laughed at other desperate teams for doing.

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To be honest, if we are going to say Bill has done a poor job drafting and complain that "brady didnt have enough weapons" (which he didnt and was proven right in tampa) its only Fair to acknowledge that Cam newton didnt have enough around him last year. that's just common sense.

we cant say "the talent on this team was bad" but then say "kraft cant use the excuse of poor talent around cam" they both are the same argument.

As for free agency, I guess I see it differently. Bill saw guys that fit what the patriots want to do and had to "finally" pay up to get them here. They had $60million in cap space to spend. most teams dont have this because they "pay" the guys on their team that they drafted so its not as flashy in free agency. The patriots had to pay guys on other teams because they sadly have no one talented they would pay this amount of money. They are paying for the mistakes of the draft. Generally I would be skeptical, but Bill has a very good track record when it comes to bringing in free agents and them performing here. he has more hits than misses in this department. I think its easier for him to identify guys who he knows already can play in the NFL and what they do well and where they would fit. whereas the draft you cant really guage these guys vs. nfl talent and how they will do in the NFL game.

DropKickFlutie said:

3 first round picks on Harry, Michel, Wynn. So no, they are spending high on offense and busting.

.

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I've shown, what seems like a thousand times, the disparity between offense and defense in top round picks. You should just do a tiny bit of research before posting. It would help you to avoid a lot of the clown posts you make.