Poll: Why does this feel like the worst Patriots off-season ever?

[Nikolai]

Haha. Relieved might not be a strong enough word but yeah. Wasn't my choice but damn glad it's over. Peace and quiet is a valuable commodity these days. Same to you man.

That's a tough one, but it's good to see you've got the right mindset.

 

[HailHydra]

I felt it was one of the most important offseasons that we'll have when considering the present and the future. First, we didn't pay the truck for Malcolm Butler, whom I consider to be overrated for his price tag. We also missed out on Nate Solder, and got a pair of offensive linemen who could potentially be an upgrade (specifically Trent Brown). Dion Lewis is a guy I'll miss, but Sony Michel could be excellent at a lower cost. I'll miss Brandin Cooks, but adding a guy like Matthews and getting back a few vets is key. Defense wise, I feel like Danny Shelton will be excellent as a run stopping DT. Defensive end is still something I worry about, but we haven't had a lot of pressure against the QB in a while. CB is roughly the same, if not slightly better with a higher quality slot CB (hopefully). Financially, we also set ourselves up well for a big next year, when we probably avoided a big cap hit for Solder, along with another contract for Cooks.



Of course, I'm an optimist and a 19-0 dreamer.

 

[ralmat55]

The 2015 off-season was the worse. The whole Deflategate thing was such an injustice that I thought at times it would make my head explode. I had to turn away from it and not watch or listen. Those were also the worse days of my life in another way. I will always resent Deflategate because it took away the hope and joy being a Football fan has always brought me at a time when I needed it the most.

The times when there was a real fear the Patriots would be relocated were also bad. In these days people may not fully grasp it but the world was a lot bigger before the internet. I followed the Patriots for decades by having a drug store near my home save me a copy of the day’s Globe and Herald which I stopped and bought on my way home. I didn’t know any stores on my way home that carried the St.Louis PostDispatch. Now, other than attending games, you can follow your team as closely if it was based in Timbuktu as Foxboro.

This off-season has been bad because we can see the end of this glorious run in sight and worse that it may not end well although that is my hope and prayer as we head into this upcoming season.

I love Patsfans.com following Miguel here in 2001. I’ve had more screen names than the Jets have had Head Coaches since then because I can’t keep passwords straight. But, I’ve never left this board and it has always been my favorite online community. My only online community. I owe my life to this board, to Ian, and the wonderful people who post here then and now.

This has been to me however the worst off season to be a Patsfans member. The tone of too many posters has been too nasty and too personal. The moderators have tried their best to cap it, but all too often their efforts seemed as unfair as teachers on the playground who would intercede just as the kid who was sucker punched regained his bearings.

We’re all to blame. I’ve written some posts in the couple of weeks where my frustration has led me to use mockery and sarcasm to try and make my point which I should never do because it’s a hostile way to express yourself which is not how I wish to express myself and also because I’m not very good at it. Let’s be kinder to one another. You really don’t know what is going on in the life of the poster who has made us mad. Perhaps, we can just scroll to the next post rather than hit the “dislike “ button. We all have and need the privilege of being wrong sometimes.

Before posting this tonight, I gave out some dislikes for the first time ever. If I can’t undo them of if I miss one, forgive me. You have the right to your opinion as do I.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

Worst. whoa, pump the brakes.
1. Where's the Ray Lewis option?
2. The 1990 off-season that got us Rod Rust. Just remember that one for a moment.
3. Parcells jettisoning (pun intended) us for the Jetes.
4. 1991, and the great Hugh Millen signing.

5. Whichever year it was that Tippett, Lippett, and Veris had season-ending injuries in the final preseason game.

 

[Bruins29]

5. Whichever year it was that Tippett, Lippett, and Veris had season-ending injuries in the final preseason game.

89

 

[DarrylS]

And Glitch Richards is rancid, fetid Garbage who does not deserve to wear the uniform, at any salary. Why anyone would bring up such a terrible example is mystifying.

No defense of Richards, just pointing out the reality of the Pats economic system.. he takes up 0.7% of the salary cap, and every year is at the risk of losing his job, until someone better comes along or he is not progressing he will be a Patriot.... there have always been guys like Richards on this team, and they usually hang around for a few years and then get replaced. Have to wonder if his graduation from Stanford makes him an asset??

This team has always been about depth, and it will continue as long as BB is at the helm..

 

[aluminum seats]

the cap is, indeed, "crap"

If it is, seems like the Pats have let a lot of good players go over the years that they could have kept...

 

[Deus Irae]

If it is, seems like the Pats have let a lot of good players go over the years that they could have kept...

It's obvious that "the cap is crap". If it wasn't, the NFLPA wouldn't have had to get the real dollar minimum put into the last CBA.

That doesn't mean that no money gets paid, and it doesn't mean that there's nothing about the cap that is limiting. It just means that the cap can be manipulated fairly easily. We see teams, including the Patriots, doing it all the time.

There's nothing remotely revolutionary or insightful about Felger's position. It's just a broad statement that gets the homers' hackles up.

 

[XLIX]

Speaking purely from a standpoint of X's and O's, the season prior to 2013 was the worst. If memory serves, we lost 4 of Brady's top-5 targets during the offseason (to make matters worth, the 5th of those 5 got injured). To this day, it still blows my mind they got as far as they did.

 

[aluminum seats]

It's obvious that "the cap is crap". If it wasn't, the NFLPA wouldn't have had to get the real dollar minimum put into the last CBA.

That doesn't mean that no money gets paid, and it doesn't mean that there's nothing about the cap that is limiting. It just means that the cap can be manipulated fairly easily. We see teams, including the Patriots, doing it all the time.

There's nothing remotely revolutionary or insightful about Felger's position. It's just a broad statement that gets the homers' hackles up.

I’m not sure how that squares with the number of players the Patriots have let walk over the years that presumably they would’ve liked to have stayed.

 

[Hyped]

Off-seasons are bad in their own regards.

I agree that while Deflategate was a miscarriage of justice...it at least galvanized the fan base and kept us all busy all the way to Judge Berman's reversal....then again up to when Brady finally accepted his 4 game suspension.

This off-season was all media manufactured B.S. …...even Curran went over the edge a bit with the Butler thing....and Florio kept harping on the Brady/Gronk absences...… the Edelman thing was only a bump in the road....

I keep thinking back to the last two seasons following a SB loss:

2008 - Brady blew out his knee....but we finished 11-5 and missed the post-season by the 3rd tie breaker (Goddamn Favre to Keller on 3rd and 19...…)

2012 - We still made it all the way to the AFC title game...only to let Anquan Boldin make play after play after play in the 2nd half of a game we led at half time......

 

[maust]

I’m not sure how that squares with the number of players the Patriots have let walk over the years that presumably they would’ve liked to have stayed.

That's because it doesn't square. For teams that spend to it the cap is 'manipulated' by large scale kicking the can down the road and sooner or later that piper gets paid, often in horrific dead money hits (look at what happened to the Saints for a few years) or the shedding of players (Seattle). New England's proactive cap management, along with Brady's own kick the can down the road team friendly deals, has kept that from happening here. At the heart of Brady's deals has been the upfront bonus money that was cushioned by years he never played since a new deal was always in the offing. It worked well all this time but Brady no longer having many years left has made it problematic in terms of getting him paid more without taking a big hit now. That cap/player impact was always coming and it most decidedly is not 'crap' but very real as his hit is $22M but he is 'only' getting paid $14m.

 

[Deus Irae]

I’m not sure how that squares with the number of players the Patriots have let walk over the years that presumably they would’ve liked to have stayed.

Belichick himself has said that it's easy to maneuver around the cap. Take it up with him.