Does drafting Doug Martin 'complete' the offense?

[supafly]

Well with recent reports that we are 10+ million under the cap we could certainly afford Forte this year. And while we have Ridley and Vereen at RB that is hardly what I'd call a proven commodity. Forte has proven to be a top back in the league.

Next off season there is a very good argument that Forte would be a better player to extend than Welker:
-Forte will be 27 to start 2013 vs. 32 for Welker
-if you want to reduce the Pat's reliance on the pass (and preserve Brady) and make us a more balanced team, Forte over Welker is a no brainer
-the argument that a receiver who works outside the boundaries is a better fit next to Gronk and Hernandez
-Forte has averaged 56 receptions and 500 recieving yards per year for a team that throws the ball significantly less than we do. He's a very big threat out of the backfield.
-Forte has fumbled a low % of the touches in his career

Lastly, if Forte doesn't work out Pats can resign Welker quickly then tag and trade Forte. So it's not like we have to commit long term until we get a year to evaluate him in our system.

Just for starters, I didn't claim that the RB situation was a proven commodity, which it obviously isn't and you are right to point that out; I called the RB position "pretty much set." Meaning that once a vet presence is signed, there are no positions left, especially when you consider the situations of Faulk + the FB's.

While you are right in pointing out the 10+ million plus cap that the NEP currently hold, my guess is that they are looking to roll that over into next yr again. If a trade is not completed by this weekend, I would strongly assume that they are preparing themselves as they did last yr. They are smart in doing that for 2 reasons:

1. They prevent themselves from being forced into the 'flat cap' that other teams will deal with, thus basically giving themselves a raise of 10 million for 2013.

2. They likely will start to extend one of the players that is coming up such as Chung or Vollmer etc. Of course we all know the large amount of big named players that will be FA's after next year too in Feb 2014.

I believe that Forte would be a great addition, and you state some good reasoning. The problem is that we used 2 high draft picks already, which reeks of a value move at the position. If Belichick wanted to keep a reliable RB for relatively 'cheaper' money, he'd have kept BJGE. However, he didn't, and the likelihood of us getting our money out of Forte is pretty low. He just wouldn't get enough touches to justify his high salary, as we pass too much and will always use TFB as the high point of the offense here.

I'm not saying that you don't have some good thoughts, but it's just my personal opinion that there's no way that a highly paid RB would come here.

 

[WhiZa]

I do think we need a goal line back, but there's no reason to take one in the early. There are other guys that will be around later like Robert Turbin, Vick Ballard, or Terrance Ganaway that will accomplish the same thing.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

1. They prevent themselves from being forced into the 'flat cap' that other teams will deal with, thus basically giving themselves a raise of 10 million for 2013.

One interesting point is that next year a team-by-team salary floor begins: teams will have to spend (in cash outlays) at least 89% of their 2013 salary cap numbers.