I know you have gone negative on the team, but you are revising history a bit:
- Branch was under contract in 2006. No one in the world believed Branch would follow through with his threat of holding out. The Pats blew it by letting him shop himself, but to think Branch would have held out and shot his way out of town was not what anyone believed. Everyone believed at worst, Branch would stay for 2006 and move on in 2007. An bizarre, unique, freak situation. The Pats made a stupid mistake by letting him shop himself, but no way could anyone see that the league would force them to trade him to avoid setting a precedence.
Deion had been squawking about his contract since 2004. There had been an issue since his rookie season because he was signed to a 5 year deal. Givens earned twice as much in year 4 as a RFA. Patriots misjudged the players resolve. And his market. Should have been handled after 2004. He was worth more here than anywhere, they were just determined not to pay that premium. Seem to have learned a lesson with two youngsters 8 years later.
- The Pats made a competitive offer to Mason who probably would have replaced Givens very well. Mason's wife wanted to live in Baltimore over New England.
Miscalculated on that offer too. Thought they had him (verbally). Baltimore didn't have to trump offer. Wife might have preferred another couple of million. But point was they were willing to persue FA as leverage rather than just secure their own.
- The Titans offered stupid money for Givens. Even if he didn't have an injury that destroyed his career a month into his career in Tennessee, he probably would have gone down as a huge bust acquistion.
You never know. And the stupid money offer came in week 2 of FA. Could have retained him prior to RFA'ing him. Didn't want to because of fear it would drive up price for Deion. Could have had him even prior to FA with Houston offer, didn't make any or match it until it was too late. At that point he was either going to Houston or any better offer. They never anticipated anyone would offer more. That's the rub when you opt to let the market set the price.
- If the Pats kept both Branch and Givens, there is a good chance the Pats would never gotten Welker and/or Moss.
And what would that have cost a team that almost went to the SB the season before? A shot at perfection for one season...I'll pass. And they still could have signed Welker at $3.5M. Branch, Welker, Givens... absent the high functioning two TE set that was still 5 years away - I'd take that 3 wide option over the alternative. And at less cost than Moss, Welker and Stallworth in 2007 and just Moss and Welker thereafter.
- Unless Branch or Givens could cover Dallas Clark, I don't know if the Pats win another ring. Maybe they do, but the Pats' inability to cover Clark or stop Addai was far more of a bigger reason why the Pats lost the AFC Championship Game than the WRs.
The fact that the offense stalled in the second half probably made it harder to stop Indy's stunning comeback. An aging, Rodneyless D would have been challenged, but it would have had a fighting chance had the Offense not stalled out completely. Teams often came back on or challenged us in championship games. We always had just enough playmakers on offense to counter those comebacks. Branch and Caldwell even in place of Givens might have done the trick considering Caldwell as the #1 almost did.
All these arguments are arguments YOU argued in the past. I loved Givens while he was here, but let's not go overboard. The Titans paid the guy a ridiculous amount of money at the time and there was no way the Pats were going to or should have matched that money.
