I feel like I do because I KNOW the strengths of Buffalo, Miami and even the Jets....Buffalo destroyed this team's defense like I have NEVER seen. One MAJOR flaw was sideline to sideline defensive LB speed. BB ignored that. Wynn and Brown are always injured yet we haven't done a dyam thing to address THAT issue...with our 2nd year QB in the sights of the Buffalo defense again? I wanted one of those SEC WR's, we went Baylor for a "maybe" hit...we'll see but I'm disappointed and I'm a huge homer, always have been. Just don't agree with this year's decisions by this staff.
Allow me to intervene. Understandable pats fans have trouble with rebuild process and patience, but that is no reason to not try to understand the process. Bill is always in the compete mode but he is also patient. That is a rare blend that is key to his success (not only here).
From the start of this offseason it was clear that the focus will be on steady rebuild - first turning to existing resources, keeping what makes sense and adding enough to be competitive without touching vast future capital. They lost/let go a lot of key coaching/FO personnel, also some trademark players - they have a bunch to figure out going forward - no time or reason to rush or force things.
It was about looking at themselves more & not so much worrying about competition atm.
Some self-evaluation findings are already visible - adding speed, adding outside&vertical threat (or trying to) to lighten the heavy boxes they had to run against, adding potential “star“ (position) power (Peppers, Wilson, Jones) to better police lateral/outside running threats (HBs & QBs). Just bc they did not go for top of the crop it doesn't mean that they did not address the issues.
I actually like what feels like a tryout/selection year. Lets see what we have here before 2-3 big off-seasons coming and keep as much resources as possible for that. Pats have so much space over next 2-3 years they can buy a new team if necessary. But every home resource they can give a chance and grow into production will prolong the rich cap period.
I expected/predicted to more or less stay put on DL, LB for some of these reasons. Its very easy to load up on these two positions next yr if/as much as necessary.
They addressed the only glaring roster hole on Day 1 - OL (specifically/presumably LG) clearly targeting ultimate versatility.
They added to two of the most expensive FA positions in Day 2 (WR, CB) - clearly targeting speed.
So from this point it was actually a clinical Draft in the most important rounds.
The fact that we are not excited by concrete players taken or where they went after them is not really important bc in reality - all of us combined know nothing (and even their knowledge of the future of college players in NFL is limited).
I actually like this rebuild approach. It might not make for an exciting 2022 but should make for a wild 2023 and onward as long as Mac is the guy..
