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The basic premise that we're currently in the waning years of "Dynasty 2.0", for one. The whole premise of this article is that there was a v1 of the Dynasty that ran from 2001-2008, and then a second version with a lifespan of, apparently, 2009-2018. There are a bunch of core problems with this assertion, and the easiest way to sum them up is to point you to the 2014 Patriots roster. Of the 22 players who started Super Bowl 49, only 7 of them were still on the team by the start of the 2016 season. How on ****ing earth is that not a roster retooling, or a Dynasty v3, or whatever dumb pet term Curran wants to call it? Of the guys that Curran describes as being the core talent infusions of "v2.0", most of them weren't even on the team when they won the Super Bowl in 2016.
This idea that the bill has 'come due' for 2010-2014 is ludicrous, because that bill came due years ago and we already paid it. That's exactly what the last 4 offseasons have been about: paying the bill and ensuring it doesn't get ahead of us. The Pats have paying down this bill since the day they let Revis walk, then traded Chandler Jones. Every veteran they've traded or let walk since 2014--Revis, Jones, Collins, Butler, Cooks, Wilfork, Vereen, Lewis, Solder, Amendola, Ryan, Hicks, Browner--has been about paying that bill early rather than paying it late, so that in 2018 and beyond they'll still be in a position to contend and restock assets.
Anyone who's been watching the NFL for more than a couple years has seen a lot of teams go through exactly the kind of "the bill came due" period that Curran is describing. It's the inevitable end result of paying to keep a core together past its late 20s and into its 30s. And Belichick has very clearly not elected to do that. Whatever else you may choose to criticize about the guy, no one's ever accused him of holding onto guys for too long and waiting for the bill to come due. The entire premise of the article betrays a basic ignorance of how Belichick manages his roster, or alternately a disingenuous attempt to invent a narrative out of thin air. If you can even reasonably say that Patriots Dynasty v2.0 ever existed, it began and ended somewhere between 2005 and 2008. We're now on Patriots Dynasty v5 or v6 or whatever.
And again, this isn't coming from a homer perspective at all. I think there's a very critical article waiting to be written that draws a straight line from the last 3 draft classes to the depth issues they're currently having that are likely to only get worse going forward unless they knock a couple draft classes out of the park. But that's a separate, if somewhat related, issue, and one that Curran didn't mention at all.
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