Curran: Patriots will be "extremely and uncharacteristically" aggressive in Free Agency

[amfootball]

Lol @ anyone who thinks what Brady is doing has no affect on Bill. I don't know how Bill became this egoless infallible figure. I mean how many soured relationships and feuds has he had through the years? Parcells, Mangini, the Jets, Alex Guerrero, Welker to name a few. I am not saying there was or wasn't a good reason for these feuds but to say that there is no ego involved on Bill's end is just foolish.

He has never faced this amount of criticism since Cleveland. You know it is eating him up. He has the money and the picks so he can make some hay this off-season if he wants to. It all starts with the QB. Let's hope its not Brissett with Stidham backing him up. Oy Vey!

 

[Lagaffe_07]

so tanking without saying you're tanking.....gotcha

My point wasn’t that he should have done that. My point was that if he did, absolutely nobody on this forum would say that he tanked. Everybody would say that we had no cap to get a decent QB and he gave a shot to Stidham, it didn’t work and that’s it.

 

[RobertWeathers]

It had nothing to do with Brady!

He responded to your assertion that Bill used 2020 to prepare 2021 and he said that if it was the case he should have let thuney walk which would probably give us a 3rd comp pick this year !

And we could have use those 15M on positions that were a bigger need like WR or TE

...and leave the line in a dogshit state? Why sign a 43 year old QB and a WR or TE and give him a crap OL?

 

[203Pat]

He has never faced this amount of criticism since Cleveland. You know it is eating him up. He has the money and the picks so he can make some hay this off-season if he wants to. It all starts with the QB. Let's hope its not Brissett with Stidham backing him up. Oy Vey!

Theres too much smoke to be no fire in regards to the fact that Brady is affecting Bill. Linda's comments/likes on social media, Bill's excuse making throughout the year, Brady Sr's comments about how Kraft is happy for Tom and has reached out (implying Bill hasn't). Taken on the surface by themselves it is easy not to make much out of it but all these little things adding up make it hard to ignore that Bill isn't exactly "blocking out the noise".

 

[IllegalContact]

My point wasn’t that he should have done that. My point was that if he did, absolutely nobody on this forum would say that he tanked. Everybody would say that we had no cap to get a decent QB and he gave a shot to Stidham, it didn’t work and that’s it.

I disagree........going with Stidham would have amounted to tanking whether you said it or not.....and you would have likely trashed the entire offensive roster in the process

 

[denverpatsfan]

BB will be aggressive signing players for ST depth I'm sure. Still looking for Ebner's replacement.

 

[jmt57]

He has never faced this amount of criticism since Cleveland. You know it is eating him up.

The five-month daily onslaught of media lies in 2007 aka 'spygate' says hello.

 

[scott99]

I’m late to this, and I agree with a lot of you, Curran knows as much about what the Pats are gonna do as I do (hint, zero). He’s guessing due to all the negative articles about Belichick vs Brady. Like Belichick reads them, and will stray from what he’s done his whole incredibly accomplished career.

That being said, I’d be thrilled to eat crow and hope Curran is right.

 

[Lagaffe_07]

I disagree........going with Stidham would have amounted to tanking whether you said it or not.....and you would have likely trashed the entire offensive roster in the process

No it wouldn’t. Until Cam was sign in June, it was clear that it was probably Stidham that would have the starting job and most people we’re exited to see what he got. Nobody was saying that Bill was tanking.

 

[203Pat]

I’m late to this, and I agree with a lot of you, Curran knows as much about what the Pats are gonna do as I do (hint, zero). He’s guessing due to all the negative articles about Belichick vs Brady. Like Belichick reads them, and will stray from what he’s done his whole incredibly accomplished career.

That being said, I’d be thrilled to eat crow and hope Curran is right.

Bill is going to have to. He doesn't have the luxury of having Brady anymore to lift those mid level signings into solid starters.

 

[Lagaffe_07]

Bill is going to have to. He doesn't have the luxury of having Brady anymore to lift those mid level signings into solid starters.

And his window is small (3-5 year max). So if he wants to win he can’t really afford to wait 2-3 years for guys to develop into starters

 

[Redman443]

Stidham is actually worse than Mallett was. The skill players we have are some of the worst in the league. Nkeal harry hasnt panned out. Why would we get a big name trade or signing? They wouldnt be successful

 

[IllegalContact]

No it wouldn’t. Until Cam was sign in June, it was clear that it was probably Stidham that would have the starting job and most people we’re exited to see what he got. Nobody was saying that Bill was tanking.

Stidham sucks, and he and Hoyer were our only options, it would clearly be tanking if they didn't do anything about it. Plenty of people were very uncomfortable with Stidham being the QB

 

[RIpats88]

Bill is going to have to. He doesn't have the luxury of having Brady anymore to lift those mid level signings into solid starters.

We act like Bill was smarter than everyone because he could sign Revis for a 1 year cheap year. Or got amendola to keep restructuring.

But the only reason these guys did this is because brady was on the team and they had a chance at a superbowl.

Bill is going to have to pay market prices now

 

[50-yard-line]

I'm not buying this narrative I keep seeing repeated here that free agents don't want to sign with a team coming off a season with a losing record.

A look back at the history of NFL free agency does not show such a correlation. It wasn't true in the first year of free agency when Reggie White left the Eagles (who were coming off five straight 10-plus win seasons), to sign a huge contract with Green Bay (who had made it to the playoffs once in the previous 20 years - with a 5-3-1 record in the strike season).

Fast forward to 2020 free agency and most of the biggest contracts went to players signing with a non-playoff team:

• WR Amari Cooper (Dallas; 5 years, $100 mil)
• CB Byron Jones (Miami; 5 years, $82 mil)
• NT D.J. Reader (Bengals; 4 years, $53 mil)
• LB Joe Schobert (Jaguars; 5 years, $54 mil)
• OT Anthony Castonzo (Colts; 2 years, $33 mil)
• CB James Bradberry (NYG; 3 years, $45 mil)
• OT Jack Conklin (Browns; 3 years, $42 mil)
• LB Kyle Van Noy (Miami; 4 years, $51 mil)
• TE Austin Hooper (Browns; 4 years, $44 mil)
• CB Desmond Trufant (Lions; 2 years, $21 mil)
• LB Blake Martinez (Giants; 3 years, $30 mil)
• OT Bryan Bulaga (Chargers; 3 years, $30 mil)
• OL Connor McGovern (Jets; 3 years, $27 mil)
• RB Melvin Gordon (Broncos; 2 years, $16 mil)

Yes, occasionally a veteran near the end of his career will sign a contract based on an attempt to win a ring, like Junior Seau did with the Pats. But that is the exception and not the norm.

Teams with winning records typically don't have a lot of holes to fill, so they tend to be less active in free agency. Teams with losing records are usually in the opposite boat, resulting in their being more active in their pursuit.

Disregard the standard cliché "I came here to win" post-signing speech players give in their initial press conference. Players sign for the best contract, period.

I agree. I think KC and maybe Tampa have a bit of an edge in attracting vets, since they're the top dogs right now, but other than the occasional player wanting to go play for a particular coach, or wanting to play near his home, or wanting the biggest market, it's really all about the money, which is the way it should be.

This isn't the NBA where three superstars can go to a place and guarantee a great shot at a title.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Eh, I wouldn’t get aggressive until we have our qb

 

[yukon cornelius]

it's almost always all about the money......otherwise why would over half the teams in the league get any free agents?

the attraction to come to NE is still a lot stronger than the boston media would like to admit

 

[crawhammer]

Lol @ anyone who thinks what Brady is doing has no affect on Bill. I don't know how Bill became this egoless infallible figure. I mean how many soured relationships and feuds has he had through the years? Parcells, Mangini, the Jets, Alex Guerrero, Welker to name a few. I am not saying there was or wasn't a good reason for these feuds but to say that there is no ego involved on Bill's end is just foolish.

Soured relationships and leaving on bad terms… you left out Malcolm Butler, Lawyer Milloy, Ty Law, Richard Seymour, Mike Vrabel, Jamie Collins, Chandler Jones, Logan Mankins, Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Rob Gronkowski, Danny Amendola… beLichick has gotten away with being dink because of the teams sustained success with Brady at quarterback. Let's see how his reputation effects the team's ability to recruit veteran free agents coming to a New England team facing a major rebuild with a jackass for a head coach.

 

[BradytoMosstoGronk]

The five-month daily onslaught of media lies in 2007 aka 'spygate' says hello.

5 months? Felt like it lingered longer

 

[slifersd]

Hopefully this is true, and it means we get Hunter Henry and a top flight WR as part of this aggression. If we just end up signing a few reclamation projects, it wouldn't matter who is the QB.