If you were Bill, the first 3 things you would do this offseason are...?

[sb1]

I don't think you understand what the word "proof" means.

Well I’m not Bill so I don’t have the first hand hard proof of this, but I think it’s for sure very suggesting that he has this tendency,

 

[scott99]

Free agency, WR, TE, WR, DT, QB

Draft QB in the 1st round, WRs/TE in rounds 2-5.

I know you said what would the 1st 3 things I’d do if Belichick, so to keep in that vain:

1) Bring in some draft guru help for Belichick
2) Sign Explosive offensive weapons in FA
3) Draft a QB 1st round.

 

[DaBruinz]

Actually there is proof.

Spygate.

Bill trying to be smarter than everyone else is exactly how that happened.

BS. Spygate didn't happen because Bill was trying to be smarter than everyone else. Love your ignorance there. Spygate "happened" because Jet's Goon "Goodell wanted revenge on Belichick. Goodell IGNORED the fact that GB had complained about the Jets doing the exact same thing the previous season when it was supposedly against the rules. Goodell has had one set of rules for the Patriots and another for the rest of the league. It's why he punished them so harshly for Spygate, Deflategate, and the Covid crap.

I’m not denying that. But when you whiff on your top picks in the last few years then it’s best to change your approach. I don’t want guys who only Bill thinks he can coach up that nobody else would pick. I want good football players who will make an impact.

What "top picks" have the Patriots "whiffed" on outside of Easley? Maybe you need a better understanding on what it means to "whiff" on someone. They clearly didn't whiff on Michel. They didn't whiff on Wynn. They didn't whiff on Harry (contrary to the ignorant beliefs).

BTW. What you want doesn't mean a damn thing.

Amazing how many people are whatabouting elite QBs in this league when talking about Stidham. No idea what they’re looking at that makes them think he has any chance at all of deserving to be mentioned in the same sentence as those guys.

Stidham is also going to be 25 when the next season starts. Brady was a 2 time SB champion at age 25. Rodgers was 21 when drafted and became starter at age 24. Nothing about Stidham is starter worthy. I mean Bill and Josh signed Cam who is broken down and hadn’t played in a year. Why would they do that if Stid was going to be great. Why won’t they start him over a guy who can’t pass. That says it all. He’s a 4th round JAG. Replacing him with a guy just like him will be extremely easy. Replacing a guy like Brady or Rodgers... not so much. Wishful thinking isn’t reality.

Amazing how you can't be bothered to accept facts. You dismiss them out of hand despite how they negate your argument.

If you're going to point out ages, maybe you should be truthful about when Rodger B-day is. It's December 2003. He was 24 and 10 months when he got his 1st ACTUAL start. You pretending like that 2 months makes all the difference in the world is laughable. Stidham will turn 25 during training camp. If Stidham were to get the starter job next season, he'd be a whopping 4 months older than Rodgers was.. SO DAMNING.. SMH..

Also, you're incorrect about Newton. He DID play in 2019. He had ALL of TC and the 1st 2 games before the injury shut him down. Your attempt to pass it off that he missed all of the 2019 season is pretty lame.

Why did the Patriots sign a veteran QB to a cheap contract? He passed their physical. He was a former MVP. The team only had 1 QB who had taken more than half a dozen snaps in a pro game up until that point. OH. And there was a PANDEMIC going on. Not to mention that they had limited Cap space until the end of may when they got 9+M from the grievances that were resolved. And it wasn't until the Opt-outs were announced at the start of TC that they got an additional $16M because of the opt-outs.

OH. And Cam's shoulder has clearly gotten worse as the season has gone along.

Why don't they play Stidham? I don't know. It could be that BB doesn't want to damage Stidham's psyche. Maybe he wants Stidham to have more seasoning by watching what not to do. Who know. YOU sure don't and neither do I. But you sure seem to love pretending your speculations are fact more than anyone else other than Deus, Ring 6 or Capt. Stone.

 

[long distance]

1. read this thread
2. smile
3. drink

 

[sb1]

BS. Spygate didn't happen because Bill was trying to be smarter than everyone else. Love your ignorance there. Spygate "happened" because Jet's Goon "Goodell wanted revenge on Belichick. Goodell IGNORED the fact that GB had complained about the Jets doing the exact same thing the previous season when it was supposedly against the rules. Goodell has had one set of rules for the Patriots and another for the rest of the league. It's why he punished them so harshly for Spygate, Deflategate, and the Covid crap.

No, this was completely on Bill. Rather than just doing his job and coaching his team by the rules, he tried to outsmart everyone and tried to get cute with the memo warning against taping and play lawyer with the wording. That’s what I mean. He admitted that’s what he did. And it bit him and by proxy the Patriots and all us fans right in the ass. Spygate is completely on BB and now he is known as a coach that was caught cheating. That was his fault, nobody else’s.

What "top picks" have the Patriots "whiffed" on outside of Easley? Maybe you need a better understanding on what it means to "whiff" on someone. They clearly didn't whiff on Michel. They didn't whiff on Wynn. They didn't whiff on Harry (contrary to the ignorant beliefs).

BTW. What you want doesn't mean a damn thing.

Well that’s what the question asked - if you were Bill what would you do. So what I want is kinda relevant.

Amazing how you can't be bothered to accept facts. You dismiss them out of hand despite how they negate your argument.

If you're going to point out ages, maybe you should be truthful about when Rodger B-day is. It's December 2003. He was 24 and 10 months when he got his 1st ACTUAL start. You pretending like that 2 months makes all the difference in the world is laughable. Stidham will turn 25 during training camp. If Stidham were to get the starter job next season, he'd be a whopping 4 months older than Rodgers was.. SO DAMNING.. SMH..

The fact is you’re comparing Stidham with an all time great like Rodgers as if that’s what we should expect should happen. LOL. No. Rodgers was a real NFL prospect. Stidham is a lottery ticket. Rodgers was ready to start. Stidham at age 25 won’t be starting anywhere.

Also, you're incorrect about Newton. He DID play in 2019. He had ALL of TC and the 1st 2 games before the injury shut him down. Your attempt to pass it off that he missed all of the 2019 season is pretty lame.

I said he hadn’t played in a year. Close enough. If Stidham was a viable prospect, there would be no reason at all to sign Cam. You’d get a full season with the kid and you’d really learn a lot about your so called prospect. They did something differently, and I don’t blame them. I mean Stid couldn’t even beat Hoyer out for the QB2 job. Nuff said.

Stidham has shown absolutely nothing, not in his stats, not in his play, not in the his decision making, not in his intangibles to think he has a future in this league as a starting QB. Nothing. Nada. Zip. For a raw rookie, that’s not a big deal. For a second year player, it is.

OH. And Cam's shoulder has clearly gotten worse as the season has gone along.

Why don't they play Stidham? I don't know. It could be that BB doesn't want to damage Stidham's psyche. Maybe he wants Stidham to have more seasoning by watching what not to do. Who know. YOU sure don't and neither do I. But you sure seem to love pretending your speculations are fact more than anyone else other than Deus, Ring 6 or Capt. Stone.

Sounds like you’re overthinking the idea that a QB can’t take the job from a guy who can’t throw has to be for any other reason beside the obvious one.

 

[DaBruinz]

This year has not shown any of that. If your lesson from this season is that QB was the biggest issue then I am not sure you have watched the correct games.

We have had serious issues at every level and on every unit except maybe the secondary and ST. The QB is just one of the many puzzle pieces that didn't execute. But his performance is connected to extremely inconsistent pass protection and skill position players that drop passes or are not where they are supposed to be.

Similarly, the performance on defense is highly affected by the fact that most teams could just run at us whenever they wanted. What is the point of having players like Winovich or Butler if they only get a handful snaps each game because we are way too rarely in 3rd & longs ? This also automatically devalues the worth of our pretty talented secondary.

Getting a DT that could stabilize the run game the same way someone like Wilfork did would be a much bigger relative improvement than any QB you will be able to get at #15. Most of those QBs who will be available at that spot will still be available in the second round and maybe even in the third (that is if we had a third round pick and it wasn't forfeited thanks to Kraft Media).

QB and a 3 Down DT are of equal need. Whether via the draft, free agency or both. At DT, I'd been looking at Jaleel Johnson, Larry Ogunjobi, Maliek Collins, and Johnathan Hankins. QB, I'd be looking at Brissette, Winston, or Sudfeld. There will probably be others, but they are just speculation at this point (Garappolo, Carr, Mariota, Mullens) What they want to do is match up their Bridge QB with similar skills to whomever they add if they don't feel Stidham is the guy. Fitzpatrick would be a guy who I think could be a good #2/#3. Certainly better than Hoyer proved.

I disagree that there are serious issues at every unit. The RB unit is extremely deep. Harris, Michel, and Taylor are excellent young players. The WR play this year has been better than they've been given credit for. It was their play that made Cam's completion % look respectable at 65.4%.

The pass protection was excellent for most of the year. The exception was when Wynn was out and the Pats put Eleumenor at LT instead of Herron. Eleumenor is a liability on the left side just as Newhouse was last season. Eleumenor is average to good at RT. Honestly, as I said in the post game thread, I felt that Thuney moving to center would be a huge upgrade over Andrews.. Andrews was abused last night.

I don't know who made the decision to put Eleumenor at LT, but he played poorly there each game. It's why I don't see the Pats bringing him back. I can see a team needing a RT shelling out decent money to add him.

I also see another team adding Andrews. As much as I love him, Thuney is just the better player. And yes, I'd pay Thuney 15-16M a year to be THE GUY of the Pats' O-Line. I believe that the run blocking and pass blocking would be significantly upgraded. I think I've seen Thuney fail to pick up a late guy once. And that was because of how Andrews called the blocking assignments.

 

[DaBruinz]

The fact is you’re comparing Stidham with an all time great like Rodgers as if that’s what we should expect should happen. LOL. No. Rodgers was a real NFL prospect. Stidham is a lottery ticket. Rodgers was ready to start. Stidham at age 25 won’t be starting anywhere.

I'm not comparing Stidham to Rodgers. I'm comparing the situations. That's what YOU are failing to grasp. Rodgers wasn't ready to start his 1st or 2nd season.

Unless you're Miss Cleo, you don't have a clue as to whether or not Stidham will be starting.

I said he hadn’t played in a year. Close enough. If Stidham was a viable prospect, there would be no reason at all to sign Cam. You’d get a full season with the kid and you’d really learn a lot about your so called prospect. They did something differently, and I don’t blame them. I mean Stid couldn’t even beat Hoyer out for the QB2 job. Nuff said.

More BS from You. It's completely asinine to say that there was no reason to sign Cam if Stid was a viable prospect because it ignores the reality of the team's situation. EVERY TEAM in the NFL carried 3 QB and in some cases 4. All of them had veteran back-up. WHY? The Pandemic. The fact you're ignoring that is laughable.

If Stid couldn't beat out Hoyer for the #2, how come Hoyer hasn't dressed since KC?

Stidham has shown absolutely nothing, not in his stats, not in his play, not in the his decision making, not in his intangibles to think he has a future in this league as a starting QB. Nothing. Nada. Zip. For a raw rookie, that’s not a big deal. For a second year player, it is.

No. It's not a "big deal" for a 2nd year rookie because it's completely false that he's not shown anything. On the contrary. He's showed the ability to make passes with touch on them. He's shown he can fit it into tight windows. Again, you ignore that other QBs have not taken snaps their 1st or 2nd years and still gone on to be decent to excellent QBs..

Sounds like you’re overthinking the idea that a QB can’t take the job from a guy who can’t throw has to be for any other reason beside the obvious one.

You are someone who just flat out ignores reality and can't be bothered acknowledging facts that destroy your argument. You just make up other crap that is nonsensical when people show your flawed thinking.

 

[Wozzy]

Have great draft...

Take a QB in the first, sign a value vet free agent QB to be a bridge guy and sign the best of your own free agents.

 

[captain stone]

Teams get beat by inferior teams when they get overconfident. It's what happened in '07. Of course McDaniels and the coaches were also to blame.

My criticism of BOB in '11 is more specific though. We had the game won. It was only coaching arrogance that lost it. It was lost in that one drive. Even the refs knew it. The Giants knew it. It was a clear contrast with what happened in the Rams Super Bowl, when Josh trusted his players to win it. And they did.

Do you remember what part of the game that drive occurred?

Edit: Never mind, I saw the other posts a little bit after I saw your first one, thanks!

 

[TomPatriot]

I think the Wikipedia page is misleading a lot of people on what's going on there. The Director of Pro Personnel is listed as vacant, when really the same guy has a new title of Assistant Director of Player Personnel to reflect that he assumed some of the prior Director of College Scouting duties in addition to his prior pro personnel role. I mean, Wikipedia didn't list the Assistant Director of Player Personnel job as vacant every year between 2002 (Jason Licht) and 2020. Just take it off the page when the job has clearly been filled by a different title.

Wolf and Ossenfort overlapped by a few months, but they're right back where they were in February (prior to Wolf being hired) in terms of both quantity and overall experience. As we know, Belichick likes to stick those generic labels on guys like Lombardi and Bielema without telling us what they're actually doing. I imagine we'll see some title reshuffling if Wolf (and everybody else) stick around long enough to make it into next year's media guide.

Also, somebody really needs to update that page to reflect that Brian Smith is in his ninth season as college scouting coordinator. It still lists his prior title.

I don’t know what Wikipedia has to do with it.

I know there wasn’t an announcement for those two positions. I also know the Pats are running lean in the FO, even pre-Covid.

So who is doing the Pro/college combined role?

 

[captain stone]

The talent downgrade (specifically with the draft) seems to have begun around the time of this:
Bill Belichick is only going to bother coaching players that he likes

If there was a shift in draft philosophy due to this, Belichick needs to reassess. Because the drafts had been pretty darn successful prior to that...

...and have been a colossal feckup since that article was posted (just before 2017 draft)...

 

[captain stone]

Re-Sign Newton
Re-Sign Byrd
Re-Sign Eluemanor
Let the other 18 free agents test the market.

I wouldn't oppose #s 2 & 3...But are you sure about #1?

 

[sb1]

I'm not comparing Stidham to Rodgers. I'm comparing the situations. That's what YOU are failing to grasp. Rodgers wasn't ready to start his 1st or 2nd season.

Well it seems like you’re equating the two. Because Rodgers turned out great means we should expect Stidham to as well? I don’t think so. Reality says Stidham is a lot closer to Nathan Peterman than he will ever be to Rodgers.

More BS from You. It's completely asinine to say that there was no reason to sign Cam if Stid was a viable prospect because it ignores the reality of the team's situation. EVERY TEAM in the NFL carried 3 QB and in some cases 4. All of them had veteran back-up. WHY? The Pandemic. The fact you're ignoring that is laughable.

If that was the case that should have had no impact on Stidham’s role as QB1. As we learned, it did.

If Stid couldn't beat out Hoyer for the #2, how come Hoyer hasn't dressed since KC?

Went from presumed QB1 to QB3 entering the season. Not good. You always want your rookie prospect to show progression. Stid did the opposite.

No. It's not a "big deal" for a 2nd year rookie because it's completely false that he's not shown anything. On the contrary. He's showed the ability to make passes with touch on them.

So could Peterman.

He's shown he can fit it into tight windows.

Bad decision making, panics under pressure, can’t see the field well, can’t read pressure presnap, mobility not as advertised at all, can’t throw well on the run... in other words a typical QB drafted in the 4th round who doesn’t stick around in the league for that long.

Again, you ignore that other QBs have not taken snaps their 1st or 2nd years and still gone on to be decent to excellent QBs..

Stidham right now approaching 25 years old is several notches south of “decent” and no reason to believe that will ever change other than the wishes hopes and dreams from those who think that a 4th round QB lottery ticket is a guarantee to a franchise QB.

 

[skinnydog]

1. Join one of the NFL scouting consortiums. The pats are one of the few teams (see Ravens) that are not part of National or Blesto. Their current go it alone appreach because we know the type of players we want has basically failed for the past 5 years. Fitting into the Pats culture is nice, but so is real talent. Join one of those if for no other reason than to improve in drafting WRs, TEs cover LBs etc.. They're great signing post draft free agents or whatever they are called after the draft, but their skill player selection has been poor and that includes CBs and likely TEs (depending on how the 2 in 2020 develop).
2. Search for a franchise QB.
3. Repeat #2.

 

[ralmat55]

1. Have a nice sit down with Robert and Jonathan Kraft. Share a few laughs and reminisce about a great 21 years.
2. Schedule a press conference
3. Announce my retirement.

 

[mgteich]

Per usual, MG, the point goes right over your head.

It was already shown that it was nearly a 50/50 split in terms of QBs drafted in the top half of the 1st round and QBs drafted everywhere else in terms of SB wins.

It's been proven that taking a 1st round QB outside the top 16 is just as likely to get you a franchise QB as taking one in the top 16.

It's not "make believe" when it's actual fact..

If you'd like, I can list off all the failed top 16 QBs in the last 10 years for you if you really need me to drive the point home....

We've seen the analysis dozens of times. Obviously, we all have our own interpretations. No matter how many times you say it, we are NOT as likely to find a franchise QB in 2nd round as in the first half of the first. I need no more "evidence". We simply disagree.

 

[fnordcircle]

1. Click on If you were Bill, the first 3 things you would do this offseason are...? | Page 8 | New England Patriots Forums - PatsFans.com Patriots Fan Messageboard

2. Do everything they say to do.

3. Buy a new bookcase for all the Lombardis I'll be getting.

 

[Wordsmyth]

Fire McDaniels.

Fire Cam.

Then get busy

 

[Keyser Söze]

Need to start having better drafts. That’s how this team can be built into a contender again.

 

[masterbouncer]

sign Cris Godwin (front load contract) try and add Samuel from Panthers too
sign Hunter Henry (has to be a Patriot in 2021, BB has to do whathever it takes to convince him to join the Pats)
sign or trade for a solid QB (does not need to be a future HoF but should be able to throw a ****ing pass) that can bridge 2-3 years until you have drafted/developed the next young guy
sign Romeo Okwara, Trey Hendrickson or Carl Lawson for rush help, try and get also help in IDL, if possible get a NT (perhaps via draft)
draft best player available and listen to your scouts

btw if its the case that all 1round worthy QBs are off the board when you pick, I wouldn't mind to draft Pitts though don't think BB does that, if there is a possibility to move down in 1st with a trade and get a 2nd and a 3rd this year go for it, there are quite some holes to be filled and additional 2 (earlier) picks will help (unless you draft Safety or CB in round 2 )