Breer: How the wheels came off the Pats dynasty

[sb1]

Morning sports update: NFL insider's assessment of what went wrong with Patriots' draft strategy, roster building

On Wednesday, it was revealed that Bruins captain Zdeno Chara was leaving Boston to sign with the Washington Capitals in free agency. The 43-year-old defenseman, who signed with Boston in […]

www.boston.com

 

[lancerman]

It went nearly 20 years and a dynasty can’t last forever.

 

[sb1]

According to Breer, Patriots scouts have not been fully listened to in the draft process. Breer used wide receiver N’Keal Harry as an example.

Drafted in the first round in 2019, Harry was selected by Belichick over a staggering array of other receivers who have already experienced far more NFL success.

“Harry perfectly illustrates Belichick’s scouting blind spot,” Breer explained. “Belichick’s close with Harry’s college coach, ex-Arizona State coach Todd Graham, and Harry crushed his in-house visit with the team in the spring of 2019, doing a better job with his turn in Foxboro than Deebo Samuel or A.J. Brown did with theirs. So despite warning signs from the scouts on Harry, the team wound up taking Harry in the first round.”

WTF. Even I know that aceing the job interview doesn’t mean you’ll do a great job.

Stop listening to your buddies and fix this thing.

 

[sb1]

“They’re just devoid of talent,” said an NFC personnel director who’s studied the Patriots. “It’s a bunch of specialty guys that fit certain scenarios, and those guys are fine, but they don’t have line-up-and-kick-your-ass football players. [Stephon] Gilmore’s a real guy. [Joe] Thuney’s a real guy. I like J.C. Jackson. But other than that, I don’t know who we’re really talking about.

“I know this: Vince Wilfork, Ty Warren, Richard Seymour, Mike Vrabel, Willie McGinest, Asante Samuel—they weren’t taking those guys off the field situationally. Those guys lined up and kicked the other guy’s ass.”

SMH.

And it’s true for QB too. You have a wildcat specialist at best type QB (and he’s not very good at that either) at this point trying to run an NFL passing offense.

I don’t know how Bill is going to fix this overnight but I hope he can somehow.

 

[203Pat]

WTF. Even I know that aceing the interview doesn’t mean you’ll do a great job.

Stop listening to your buddies and fix this thing.

I feel like a lot of people have suspected this is the case. I don't know why you pay scouts to ignore them.

 

[203Pat]

SMH.

And it’s true for QB too. You have a wildcat specialist at best type QB (and he’s not very good at that either) at this point trying to run an NFL passing offense.

I don’t know how Bill is going to fix this overnight but I hope he can somehow.

This is what I feel we have gotten too far down the rabbit hole on. Too many packages and personnel groups and not enough three down players.

 

[203Pat]

“They took Jordan Richards—we had him on our back board, as a free agent, and they took him in the second round,” said our AFC executive. “Without the quarterback, it’s caught up with them.”

 

[Pape]

The wheels came off the dynasty when Brady decided to leave. Everything else is just noise.

 

[sb1]

This article basically says -and I’ve heard others say it too - that the rebuild doesn’t begin this season...it begins NEXT season.

Gonna be a rough ride ahead.

 

[sb1]

The wheels came off the dynasty when Brady decided to leave. Everything else is just noise.

If Brady had stayed I wonder how a rebuild of this kind would have looked. Would have made it tolerable for us fans I’m sure but probably not for him if he’s looking for a 7th ring.

 

[jmt57]

The full article goes into greater detail:

How the Wheels Came Off the Patriots' Dynasty

The Patriots are left playing meaningless games with a bad roster. Here's how things went downhill so quickly.

www.si.com

For example:

The Patriots have bled promising young scouts over the last few years in part because those guys wanted to have a real voice in the process—something very few felt like they had in Foxboro. And drafting N’Keal Harry in the first round is a strong example of it.

Harry perfectly illustrates Belichick’s scouting blind spot. Belichick’s close with Harry’s college coach, ex-Arizona State coach Todd Graham, and Harry crushed his in-house visit with the team in the spring of 2019, doing a better job with his turn in Foxboro than Deebo Samuel or A.J. Brown did with theirs. So despite warning signs from the scouts on Harry, the team wound up taking Harry in the first round.


Many on this forum have been bashing the scouting department, but if the article is correct then that is not the issue. The problem is that the decision maker(s) are not listening to the scouts. That in turn has caused another problem: good scouts departing.

 

[PF_SU]

The full article is here by the way.

How the Wheels Came Off the Patriots' Dynasty

The Patriots are left playing meaningless games with a bad roster. Here's how things went downhill so quickly.

www.si.com

This article basically says -and I’ve heard others say it too - that the rebuild doesn’t begin this season...it begins NEXT season.

Gonna be a rough ride ahead.

That's not the message that the rebuild doesn't begin next season, but rather that the rebuild won't be a one year process but rather take at least until 2022. Considering the state of the roster, that should be clear. There are just too many holes to plug to fill in one offseason.

The key message of this article is, that apparently Belichick overvalues i) impressions of coaches he knows over the observations made by the scouts and ii) specialized skillsets of otherwise limited players. When looking back at some of the players they drafted in the last 5 years, it certainly makes sense and is something that needs to be fixed asap. If Belichick wants to compete in his remaining time as a coach, the 2021 and 2022 drafts need to result in several playmakers on both sides of the field.

 

[FCB02062]

terrible drafts have destined this Patriots club to many years as an AFC East also ran UNLESS Bill the GM NAILS the next two drafts (and Duggar, Harris, onwenu develop into FULL TIME RELIABLE STARTERS WHO STAY OFF THE INJURY LIST)

 

[203Pat]

This article basically says -and I’ve heard others say it too - that the rebuild doesn’t begin this season...it begins NEXT season.

Gonna be a rough ride ahead.

I agree. I don't know what the plan was this season and that was what I thought as soon as they let Brady walk. It was why I wasn't really on board with signing Cam. It just seemed the roster was so bad that this wouldn't be a playoff team with or without Cam so why sign him and maybe win 2-3 more games. Bill jumped out of the plane without bothering to pack a parachute.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

This article basically says -and I’ve heard others say it too - that the rebuild doesn’t begin this season...it begins NEXT season.

Gonna be a rough ride ahead.

This year they did accomplish 1 thing at least - cleared cap space for next year and hopefully years after . And though it’s not really an ‘accomplishment ‘ they may solidify picking at or around 10 which also will help. So this year was a start in some ways.

We’ll also see what comes about our younger contributors like dugger, wino, Harris, Meyers, Byrd, onweno, uche, Jennings , hall , Herron, cowart, who all got quality time in this year.

 

[ralmat55]

Those of us who’ve been paying attention and are Belichick admirers not worshippers have known all of this for years. If we knew it, you’d think Bill would have as well and changed things.

Old men who exhibit more than a touch of arrogance and stubbornness rarely change their ways i.e Newton still playing.

 

[Steve102]

I don't know why this is a surprise. This Harry fiasco is part of Belichick's legacy, IMO. He cannot draft the position of a true WR for chit. Slots? Fine, they are tough, hard noses little pains in the arse that he likes to coach. Wideouts? Divas. BB is lost when it comes to evaluating and drafting talented guys that play outside the numbers. How many HoF, great, good and even mediocre receivers have the Pats passed on to draft guys that are freakin' horrible? He values his buddies opinions more than his own staff? Shocking. How many of these scouts stand up and fight for the guy they know can help this team? Do they simply genuflect to Belichick's greatness? We are lucky that it lasted as long as it did, IMO. Part of that is Brady, and part of that is Bill's ability to re-tool every other aspect of the team except wideouts. In the end, it's going to say Bill won ____ rings, re-tooled the Pats to get back to the Super Bowl in a second run, and sucked at evaluating, drafting and developing wide outs.

It's the one thing he sucks at. Meh, ok. Everything else pretty much has worked out.

 

[Kdo5]

Morning sports update: NFL insider's assessment of what went wrong with Patriots' draft strategy, roster building

On Wednesday, it was revealed that Bruins captain Zdeno Chara was leaving Boston to sign with the Washington Capitals in free agency. The 43-year-old defenseman, who signed with Boston in […]

www.boston.com

Didn’t know about the connection between Belichick and Harry’s coach. Another unfortunate example of drafting due to relationship with a college coach over ya know guys who are paid to figure out if players will translate into the NFL.

 

[ivanvamp]

It went nearly 20 years and a dynasty can’t last forever.

Bingo. They put together the greatest dynasty the league has ever seen, lasting really 19 seasons. The question shouldn't be "How could this have come to an end?", but rather, "How in the hell did they manage to dominate the NFL - with everything designed to stop this very thing from happening - for 19 straight seasons without a single bad season thrown in?"

 

[203Pat]

Bingo. They put together the greatest dynasty the league has ever seen, lasting really 19 seasons. The question shouldn't be "How could this have come to an end?", but rather, "How in the hell did they manage to dominate the NFL - with everything designed to stop this very thing from happening - for 19 straight seasons without a single bad season thrown in?"