Defense - Our NEEDS are few

[signbabybrady]

Ok I call BS on this post. The best DL in the game was under contract for 1 year, not 2, letting him go to Oakland brought us a high 1st rounder this year. If we had not traded him we wouldn't have had him last year and we wouldn't have a first rounder this year.

Branch, really, are you upset because you couldn't wear your Branch jersey for 4 years? Seattle vastly overpaid him, and he was hurt a lot for them. He never came close to earning what Seattle paid to steal him from us.

Givens??? I mean do you understand he plaid for like one season, was hurt and never heard from again, after signing a huge contract the Patriots didn't think he was worth. He is now running a frozen yogurt store outside of Boston. I guess if the team wanted frozen yogurt in the huddle he would have been good to keep, but otherwise I have no idea what you are talking about.

Of the three examples you used, Branch and Givens are examples of the Patriots being right, not offering their players huge contracts to stay, contracts which, by every possible measure, the players didn't live up to. With Seymore you can argue that the Pats lost him for 2009 and didn't get anything for him until 2011, that is true, but he wasn't going to be here in 2010 so last season would have looked the same as it did, without that draft pick dangling out there.

It is ok to love your teams players, the problem is the NFL plays with a salary cap. If you over pay certain players, you can't afford to pay others. Say what you like but in the 5 years since Branch and Givens left the Pats have made the playoffs 4 times, the super bowl once and had the best regular season record in the nfl twice. The other year they were 11-5 without Brady. What stupid player moves.

AMEN. And I would particularly like to point out that despite missing the ultimate prize the last 5 years have been very successful and something to enjoy excpet the few miserable moments at the end of a few of these seasons.

This 5 year stretch ("the Pats have made the playoffs 4 times, the super bowl once and had the best regular season record in the nfl twice. The other year they were 11-5 without Brady.") would be enough to put other coaches in the short list of great active NFL coaches (see Fisher or Fox or others who did less and earned more praise).

Really the only issue with the last 5 years as far as success is concerned is that it fell on the heels of 3 out of 4 and could never even be considered close to as good. So BB and the Pats follow up one of the most impressive 4 year runs with a fairly impressive 5 year run and people act like it is the four year run in the late 80's early 90's. Basically any coach who had 5 years like that would be considered at the top of the active coaches and would be praised for his successes yet BB does it and people ask what is missing that wad there in the 4 years prior.

 

[Triumph]

Actually, he did. Maroney was the team's RB1 from 2007-2009, with 2009 being at least partially because Taylor was injured. That's how Belichick saw it. That's how I saw it. Neither myself nor the others who defended Maroney ever claimed he was Barry Sanders redux, to my recollection.

Maroney was kept around because he was a high round pick and he had a good rushing season in 2007, when Brady threw for 50 tds and defenses were playing the pass. Thats all.

Maroney never lived up to his billing and was finally sent packing. Those of us who criticized Maroney were dead on. He is a Bust. Just ask any Bronco fan how they like him.

 

[Deus Irae]

Maroney was kept around because he was a high round pick and he had a good rushing season in 2007, when Brady threw for 50 tds and defenses were playing the pass. Thats all.

Maroney never lived up to his billing and was finally sent packing. Those of us who criticized Maroney were dead on. He is a Bust. Just ask any Bronco fan how they like him.

Keep moving those goalposts. It's amusing, if nothing else. To repeat:

"Maroney was the team's RB1 from 2007-2009, with 2009 being at least partially because Taylor was injured. That's how Belichick saw it. That's how I saw it. Neither myself nor the others who defended Maroney ever claimed he was Barry Sanders redux, to my recollection."

 

[JFK]

Why would defending Maroney be any kind of a negative? Until this year, Maroney was the team's best running back. When people belittle a player's skill long enough, they'll eventually be right, no matter who the player is. People belittling Brady will be right once he declines, too.

There is a diff between RB1 best RB.

 

[Deus Irae]

There is a diff between RB1 best RB.

The Morris claim you made eliminated you from being worth listening to on the subject of running backs, and this is a thread about the defense, so instead of going further down the rabbit hole, I'll just keep repeating:

"Maroney was the team's RB1 from 2007-2009, with 2009 being at least partially because Taylor was injured. That's how Belichick saw it. That's how I saw it. Neither myself nor the others who defended Maroney ever claimed he was Barry Sanders redux, to my recollection. "