Bedard: Bill ready for an aggressive offseason

[Give Kraft A Hand]

It's going to be tough for Bill to sell big time FA's to come to NE without a QB. Not to mention his former GOAT QB being rumored to having enough of BB doesn't help.

Pats are still a crown jewel franchise with the GOAT HC. Its not going to be as tough as one might think.

 

[reflexblue]

In Bill we Trust....

Except in the 2nd round

 

[ChrisR2223]

Except for the 2nd round

Yes my favorite second round picks have not panned out.
I was a big Geno Wilson fan.
Darius Butler
Chad Jackson
God then you can go Ras I dowling
Joe Juan Williams
It’s not pretty at all

good second round picks Matt Light
Geno Wilson Deion Branch I’m drawing blanks but there had to be more.

 

[ChrisR2223]

Yes my favorite second round picks have not panned out.
I was a big Geno Wilson fan.
Darius Butler
Chad Jackson
God then you can go Ras I dowling
Joe Juan Williams
It’s not pretty at al
good second round picks Matt Light
Geno Wilson Deion Branch, Gronk Jimmy G

 

[Ross12]

Sounds like someone wants to pay for some WRs to me... Robinson, Golladay and Hilton on line 1! Oh and Henry on line 2...

 

[reflexblue]

Yes my favorite second round picks have not panned out.
I was a big Geno Wilson fan.
Darius Butler
Chad Jackson
God then you can go Ras I dowling
Joe Juan Williams
It’s not pretty at all

good second round picks Matt Light
Geno Wilson Deion Branch I’m drawing blanks but there had to be more.

Around ten years ago i posted BBs first 10 years of 2nd and 3rd rnd picks. from what i remember only branch and wilson panned out.

 

[KontradictioN]

He has the cap room and the picks to completely retool the roster. Considering he allowed Creepy Caserio to **** right off to Houston, it signals a belief that this season was essentially a divestment and that there will be new blood in the war room on draft day, new ideas, and hopefully some hits to go along with FA signings and trades. However, exactly none of that is going to mean jack **** if we’re trotting Cam Newton or Jarrett Stidham out there at QB.

 

[carmelo15]

It's going to be tough for Bill to sell big time FA's to come to NE without a QB. Not to mention his former GOAT QB being rumored to having enough of BB doesn't help.

Players will come here cause we paid them the days of friendly deals are over that was cause of brady

 

[carmelo15]

Pats are still a crown jewel franchise with the GOAT HC. Its not going to be as tough as one might think.

Lol ok believe that if you want

 

[PF_SU]

good second round picks Matt Light
Geno Wilson Deion Branch I’m drawing blanks but there had to be more.

Vollmer, Gronk, Chung (during his 2nd stint), Vereen (considering his role in Super Bowl XLIX), Collins, Garoppolo

 

[Ring 6]

Agreed.

But then you could argue that no team ever has any cap space or everyone always has cap space, and you end up with Felger saying, "The cap is crap".

[/QUOTE]
No that’s the point. My facetious comment shows the opposite of what you are saying. If you have to release or not resign players to get cap space then you don’t have cap space. The patriots really had negative cap space because they had to let players they would have wanted to keep walk.

The point is that Thuney signed in the middle of March of 2020. As you note, there is always the discussion of how much the replacement players would cost and what the best value is. BB decided to use his cap space to sign Thuney which might have been the best decision. But to say, "Well there was no cap room so what else was BB to do?" as is implied in posts on PatsFans is not being transparent in my opinion.

But that is the point. He lost a bunch of players could only keep thuney and McCourty and had no money to sign anyone.
I’m not sure what context you are referring to in implying there was cap space. Cap space to do what? There wasn’t even close to enough to keep the team together much less add players.

We have a ton of cap space right now because we have a lot of expiring contracts and we have no bad dead cap dollars. Basically we have space in 2021 because as you note, "he could cut everyone on the roster and get space that way" OR stated differently "he could let everyone on the roster have their deal expire and get space that way." The Cap can always be "managed" so that absolutes when talking about the cap are not totally true. Saying "What could BB do - there was no cap space" is one such absolute statement that does not tell the whole picture.

If your standard is that every conversation must include the whole picture every conversation would have to be hours long. It’s pretty simple and easy to understand that the Patriots had cap issues in 2020. It’s pretty obvious that they lost players that were important, kept a small chuck of their own free agents and had no money left to sign additions. That’s a fact. The die was cast going into the off season. This year there is a lot of money available to keep whoever they wish and add and upgrade spots. I’m not sure why this is so difficult to understand.

If grey space is difficult for you, I understand, but the cap has a LOT of grey space, because, as you note, there is always a way to manage more cap space if the GM wants to .

there are ways to free cap space but always with consequences. There certainly not is always a way to gain cap space in a sensible way and often the only way to do it is to cut players. Cutting one, taking a dead money hit, then adding another cheaper is not the same as having cap space.

 

[Ring 6]

I know a lot of the media got hot and bothered by the "All In" comments as they are open for interpretation. BB certainly had some choices to make on the cap and he could have delayed cap hits by moving things around and fielded a more competitive team in 2020. The cost would have been losing cap space in future years. My read on it is that he wanted to field a competitive team yet did not want to significantly hurt 2021 and 2022 cap space. He let Brady, Van Noy and Collins go as they were deemed too expensive for the current talent on the team He re-ups Thuney and McC on short deals then takes a flyer on Cam. If all the stars align maybe they can sneak into the playoffs. If not he has cleared Dead Cap money and put the team in a spot to fill a number of holes in coming years. It still bothers me to see Brady in a TB uniform but I can understand why he did it.

My question to the media is are the Saints and Steelers all in right now? Not sure either made a big acquisition. You can certainly make that argument based on their 2021 cap situation. Going all in is not necessarily adding top players but keeping some of your own players and pushing the cap hits forward like they did. We'll see what happens this off season when both of them need to seriously purge their rosters.

He didn’t let Brady van noy and Collins leave. Brady chose to leave and he could not afford van noy and Collins as well as many others. He kept McCourty and thuney and was down to about 50 cents of cap room after trading Harmon too.

 

[dreighver]

Lol ok believe that if you want

What a thoughtful comment. Really contributing to a meaningful dialogue with these doozies.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

I’m not sure why this is so difficult to understand.

Because you are really smart and others are not like you.

 

[DropKickFlutie]

Vollmer, Gronk, Chung (during his 2nd stint), Vereen (considering his role in Super Bowl XLIX), Collins, Garoppolo

These players are Good picks from 01-04 and 2009-2012. Periods that did not have Josh McDaniels involved or the crappy CB/WR system he developed. I wish it wasn't such a direct coincidence. But it is.



.

 

[Lagaffe_07]

He could have let thuney and McCourty go and sign 3-5 decent player to fill the roster.

Honestly DMac was bad this year. Wanted to go year to year with a still elite 40 yo QB but has zero problem giving a 2 year deal to an aging declining safety who was contemplating retirement.

And I would have prefer to let thuney go, find a guard in the draft to replace him and for example sign Robby Anderson to a 10M/y contract!


with 20M in cap space you have some flexibility. HE chose to invest all of it in two players he could have gone in a different direction. We want to use the cap space as an excuse for Bill but it’s his miss in the draft and the bad moves in made the last 2-3 years that out him in this position.

with 20M in cap space you have some flexibility. HE and he alone chose to invest all of it in two players. he could have gone in a different direction. We want to use the cap space as an excuse for Bill but it’s his miss in the draft and the bad moves in made the last 2-3 years that put the team in this position.

 

[Doctor DDS]

He didn’t let Brady van noy and Collins leave. Brady chose to leave and he could not afford van noy and Collins as well as many others. He kept McCourty and thuney and was down to about 50 cents of cap room after trading Harmon too.

BB could have attempted to sign Collins, Van Noy and Thuney to longer term deals to lower their 2020 cap hits if he wanted to. Would not have been easy and am not saying he should have done it but he could have made a series of moves to free up cap space if he was willing to move significant money into the future.

 

[borg]

there will be new blood in the war room on draft day

Anyone who doesn't believe Bill's war room brain trust is now a family affair is kidding themselves.
Junior and Little Junior are more entrenched than ever in Bill's ever decreasing circle of trust....along with Nike and Double D

none of that is going to mean jack **** if we’re trotting Cam Newton or Jarrett Stidham out there at QB.

The sales pitch to attract established WRs: Come catch passes from Marcus Mariota and a midround rookie, but don't worry about targets, there is no one else to throw to on the roster

 

[Keyser Söze]

Belichick cares about his legacy. I’m sure going 7-9 left a bad taste in his mouth. I would be stunned if he wasn’t aggressive this offseason.

 

[Ras-IR Dowling]

BB could have attempted to sign Collins, Van Noy and Thuney to longer term deals to lower their 2020 cap hits if he wanted to. Would not have been easy and am not saying he should have done it but he could have made a series of moves to free up cap space if he was willing to move significant money into the future.

The only 1 of those 3 he should’ve been attempting to negotiate an extension with was Thuney. It was wise to save money and get the comp picks on KVN/Collins then and it looks even better now.