BB Admits 2020 Is Bridge Year

[luuked]

Draft picks are the lifeline of every NFL team. Sure, you can still win when drafting poorly but your window is much shorter when you win with just free agents. And it is rare for a team to go 7 years without being able to draft a single pro bowl level player or go over 10 years without being able to draft a good receiver. We have an issue with our draft, and BB needs to fix it. They can talk about their process all they want, but a management that drafts this poorly for this long would've lost their jobs anywhere else.

Draft picks are not the lifeline of a NFL team. I don't know who is feeding you this crap. They are just another tool for roster building as are trades, UDFAs and free agency.

There is nothing inherently substantially more valuable in draft picks. Yes, they are cheaper in terms of money but they cost you a lot more in other resources like time as you need to develop young players physically and mentally as well as a lot more uncertainty when it comes to projecting them. With veteran player you know to a much higher degree what you are getting and how a player will fit because that player has already done it on NFL level.

And if there is one thing we have learned this year -- with its special circumstances -- it's that it is not the salary cap which is the most limiting factor in professional football but time. Time on the field, time in meetings, time in 1v1 coaching, time formulating gameplans, time to give players reps against certain looks... all of it.


The reality is that we have been hanging on to established players not solely due to drafting sub optimally but also to extend a SB window while having an older elite QB. That's the part that gets conveniently ignored by many when all this draft pipeline stuff gets brought up. If we let DMac walk to the Eagles after 2014 or move on from Edelman/Chung or Cannon like you mentioned there is a good chance we don't have those additional SB banners hanging in Foxboro.

The idea that the management who kept rebuilding a roster on the fly for over a decade and went to almost all AFCCG, 5 SBs and won 3 of those in that time should "lose their jobs" over their draft record is absolutely batshit crazy. Their job is to build a successful team not to win drafts.

What is happening this year is that the bill is coming due for constructing a successful football team over the last 2-3 years. If you want to argue that we could have saved some money here and there by having more successful draft picks then sure. But that doesn't automatically translate to being as successful on the field.

I'd rather be in the position we are in after a decade of excellence and 3 titles, than being a Colts, Browns or Jaguars fan who have all the cap space in the world and continuously drafted exciting talent but have nothing to show for it.

 

[DarrylS]

As mellow as I am about this years chances for some sort of glory, nothing compares to the depth of the abyss that many of us fans descended into for the most of the 80's & 90's... there were a few bright spots, but there were so many sucky years.. and usually there was not hope that things would get better.

This year is a bridge year for so many reasons, but it will get better...

 

[1960Pats]

I don't why everyone is acting like the Patriots should have tanked?

If Newton gains one more yard vs Seattle and doesn't catch the 'rona and then go full Hoyer the Pats are easily 5-1 having beaten two of the top teams in the league.

I think most Pats fans are not in favor of tanking. Only losers (like Indy) think that way.

If ifs and buts were candy and nuts then every day would be Christmas.

 

[1960Pats]

As mellow as I am about this years chances for some sort of glory, nothing compares to the depth of the abyss that many of us fans descended into for the most of the 80's & 90's... there were a few bright spots, but there were so many sucky years.. and usually there was not hope that things would get better.

This year is a bridge year for so many reasons, but it will get better...

The worst part of some of those down years was how the Pats would be within striking distance of the playoffs but needed some team to beat another, only to see those games always go against us.

That all changed in 2001, when the Jests beat the Raiduhs in the last game of the year to give us the Snow Bowl game in Foxboro, the last in the old stadium. BTW, my youngest son who wasn't/isn't a sports fan was in college at that time and agreed to go to the Pats last game with me in Carolina on the way back to school. There we were, with about 10,000 Pats fans in an almost empty stadium on a drizzly day, chanting J-E-T-S JETS! JETS! JETS! as we watched the scoreboard and saw the Jests win.

The Pats can go without reaching .500 for the rest of my life and I'll still feel blessed.

 

[RobertWeathers]

I think most Pats fans are not in favor of tanking. Only losers (like Indy) think that way.

If ifs and buts were candy and nuts then every day would be Christmas.

This is 2000 all over again.

 

[1960Pats]

Somehow the argument appears to be that since the team had no cap money this year the solution to that would have been to pay players they clearly couldn’t gave afforded.
I’m gonna tell my broke friend this, he should have spent more in the past and he wouldnt be broke now.

Don't they have cap space now?

 

[RobertWeathers]

As mellow as I am about this years chances for some sort of glory, nothing compares to the depth of the abyss that many of us fans descended into for the most of the 80's & 90's... there were a few bright spots, but there were so many sucky years.. and usually there was not hope that things would get better.

This year is a bridge year for so many reasons, but it will get better...

This is my 4th rebuild.

Rebuild #1- Too young to know the late 70s teams but started following early 80s when they bottomed out at 2-14 in 1981

Rebuild #2- 1985 was the zenith and bottomed out in 1989-1993.

Rebuild #3- 1996 being the peak and bottoming out in 2000.

Rebuild #4- Now.

 

[Simpelton]

Should have went all out from the start and just went for Lawrence or Fields at that point

This team will never tank. I trust Belichick to figure out other ways to bring in a good QB. Remember, neither Rodgers nor Mahomes were tank QBs. Frankly the track record of tank QBs isn't fantastic to begin with. For every Manning there seems to be about 10 mediocre QBs and the odd Ryan Leaf disaster story.

 

[BTTA]

Two things about "tanking" -
-the odds that Trevor Lawrence will be a SB winning QB are far less than 50/50.
-it requires losing to the Bills, Dolphins, and....wait for it...Jets.

Count me out.

BB's openness in that interview is interesting. He's never been unintentional in his musings. I wonder what he's saying to the players this week. How many of the players that'll start for the Pats today would start for the Bills? Far less than half. Might he use this to challenge the remaining healthy players to show him something, to show the attitude of an underdog, and somehow turn the Pats into David against Goliath every week.

 

[sb1]

Two things about "tanking" -
-the odds that Trevor Lawrence will be a SB winning QB are far less than 50/50.
-it requires losing to the Bills, Dolphins, and....wait for it...Jets.

Count me out.

BB's openness in that interview is interesting. He's never been unintentional in his musings. I wonder what he's saying to the players this week. How many of the players that'll start for the Pats today would start for the Bills? Far less than half. Might he use this to challenge the remaining healthy players to show him something, to show the attitude of an underdog, and somehow turn the Pats into David against Goliath every week.

I think the latter is exactly what he’s doing.

If 2-14 happens Bill will be gone. As he should be. Then we won’t need to worry about tanking for this one we’ll have plenty of opportunities in the coming years to pick right at the top of the draft. If pink hats think we suck now they haven’t seen anything yet. Remove Bill and watch what happens. Welcome back Patsies!

 

[Triumph]

Draft picks are not the lifeline of a NFL team. I don't know who is feeding you this crap. They are just another tool for roster building as are trades, UDFAs and free agency.

There is nothing inherently substantially more valuable in draft picks. Yes, they are cheaper in terms of money but they cost you a lot more in other resources like time as you need to develop young players physically and mentally as well as a lot more uncertainty when it comes to projecting them. With veteran player you know to a much higher degree what you are getting and how a player will fit because that player has already done it on NFL level.

And if there is one thing we have learned this year -- with its special circumstances -- it's that it is not the salary cap which is the most limiting factor in professional football but time. Time on the field, time in meetings, time in 1v1 coaching, time formulating gameplans, time to give players reps against certain looks... all of it.


The reality is that we have been hanging on to established players not solely due to drafting sub optimally but also to extend a SB window while having an older elite QB. That's the part that gets conveniently ignored by many when all this draft pipeline stuff gets brought up. If we let DMac walk to the Eagles after 2014 or move on from Edelman/Chung or Cannon like you mentioned there is a good chance we don't have those additional SB banners hanging in Foxboro.

The idea that the management who kept rebuilding a roster on the fly for over a decade and went to almost all AFCCG, 5 SBs and won 3 of those in that time should "lose their jobs" over their draft record is absolutely batshit crazy. Their job is to build a successful team not to win drafts.

What is happening this year is that the bill is coming due for constructing a successful football team over the last 2-3 years. If you want to argue that we could have saved some money here and there by having more successful draft picks then sure. But that doesn't automatically translate to being as successful on the field.

I'd rather be in the position we are in after a decade of excellence and 3 titles, than being a Colts, Browns or Jaguars fan who have all the cap space in the world and continuously drafted exciting talent but have nothing to show for it.

So, the draft is not responsible for the Chiefs recent success? What about the Ravens? The Steelers pretty much build through the draft and when a player gets disruptive in regards to money like AB and Bell, they go out and draft less expensive options for a few years. In terms of waiting around to develop players, I dont believe that anybody is talking about that. The Patriots need WRs now. NE needs TE help today.

Its easy to say that the draft isnt the life life blood of success when you had Tom Brady for the last 20 years. Now it gets real.

 

[holyredeemer]

Linda's got some taters, good draft there.

Not too sure I would consider ‘em draft picks. More like shelling out a lot of money for FA pick ups.

 

[203Pat]

I’ve never seen so many excuses from a Patriots team.

 

[DropKickFlutie]

I don’t think honestly that you can blame Tom....guy took pay cuts his entire career here!!

I love Tom. More that we should lay off the BB bashing

.

 

[farn]

Not too sure I would consider ‘em draft picks. More like shelling out a lot of money for FA pick ups.

Huge Kay Adams crush. That is all. Continue...

 

[sb1]

I love Tom. More that we should lay off the BB bashing

.

If BB walks or is fired... get ready to suck for a good chunk of the decade. Whee!

 

[BTTA]

If 2-14 happens Bill will be gone. As he should be.

Interesting take. You think "gone" because he's fired for performance, or because he's just had enough.

 

[sb1]

Interesting take. You think "gone" because he's fired for performance, or because he's just had enough.

Both. If Kraft orders him to tank the season I believe he will walk. Or if he legit gets to 2-14 with a roster that has no business losing that many games he will be on the hot seat. And rightfully so. The media will have the pitchforks out. And of course there will be the Brady questions.

 

[scott99]

There are at least 5 other teams ahead of us in the tank for trevor sweepstakes (among those that need a QB). I count Jete, Jax, MInnesota, Atlanta, and Washington...

Lawrence and Fields are exciting QBs, but there are other good QBs in the draft. Really good ones. Not winding up with Lawrence or Fields wouldn’t be the end of the world. Trey Lance & Zach Wilson are excellent QB prospects as well.

Don’t forget, Watson and Trubisky, and maybe more QBs were rated ahead of Mahomes in the 2017 draft. I saw several mocks where Mahomes was selected in the 2nd round. And several pundits were surprised that when KC traded up for the 10th pick, that it wasn’t Watson who they traded up for. Several people were ripping the Chiefs for taking Mahomes 10th overall, saying it was a reach and Mahomes had bad footwork.

So it’s not always the QB that’s rated the highest that winds up being the best QB in any particular draft. If we wind up with a top 10 pick, we could still wind up with a really good QB, IF they are smart enough to select a QB.

 

[Ring 6]

Don't they have cap space now?

Because of opt outs. Before that they had nothing. The argument was they should have paid big money to keep those guys. They didn’t have the cap space to, plus they won 2 SBs without them pricing it was the right way to manage the cap.