The whole purpose of Patriots football isn't to make Tom Brady happy. It's to win. The Patriots spent a decade trying to keep Drew happy, and look what happened. Long-term deals to Drew's underperforming buddies on the line and a fan base that shrieked when Richard Seymour was drafted over David Terrell.
Free-agency being what it is, these things are going to happen. If Deion Branch had been an 80-catch, 1200-yard receiver, a Torry Holt, they would have spent money for him. But he wasn't, so they didn't. They spent the last two years rebuilding the running game (Mankins, Kaczur, Maroney) and have a few future investments in the passing game pending (Jackson, Thomas, Gabriel). The timing leaves us short-handed through the air and run-heavy right now. It'll all equal out eventually. Remember a few years back, when we were loaded at wideout and Mike Cloud was the new answer on the ground? Well, we got through that period (remember going to Indy with a running game so bad that our starting tailback, Antowain Smith, was a healthy scratch?) and now we're in some thin days at wideout. Remember the Carolina Super Bowl, when our o-line was in shambles? We got through that okay and now look at the depth on the line.
You deal with these times. The good teams get by and the bad teams let it translate into losses. That's the difference between winning and losing in the salary cap era. Every team has depleted units somewhere. And any team that's loaded everywhere won't be for long. Can we please stop panicking about this?
