Positions that we need to address this offseason.

[JackBauer]

I think he can operate fine within our system. My huge gripe last night was the domino effect without Butler. Rowe played solid last night or was it worse than I thought?

Elite CB1 take away a side of the field
System CB2 with competitive coverage & safety help


Talib
Dennard

Revis
Browner

Butler
Ryan

Gilmore
Rowe

I won’t mind an upgrade but you’re not getting one on the FA market due to $ & I wouldn’t invest a top 63 pick on one either.

This is persuasive. Certainly if they make significant investments in the front seven it could work.

 

[DaBruinz]

Looking quickly the Pats need to resign Solder and DA if they don't follow JM to Indy. They have roughly only 17M in cap space. They can cut or rework the below.

Bennet 6.1M
Allen 5M
Branch will cost them 1M in cap to cut.
McClellin 2.3M
Harris 2.1M
Gillislee 2.1M
Britt 1.4M
Richards 1.1M

Brady at 22M could get reworked and ditto for McCourty at 11.9M cap hits respectively.

Yes, let's cut Gillislee so we have only 1 RB under contract..

Cutting Branch saves them 3.5M on the Cap if done before the start of the league year.
McClellin may be retiring so it may be moot.

 

[HailHydra]

The offense will contend with one of the best in NFL history if Edelman returns to 80-90% of what it was:

With a Solder re-signing:

• Our best OL since 2011
• Gronk
• Edelman
• Cooks
• Hogan
• Mitchell

That unit won’t be coverable. 32-34 PPG if Brady continues to beat father time.

What we need for a 6th ring: A mediocre defense.

The problem is that someone on that team WILL be injured. Maybe its Cooks, or Gronk, or Edelman again. I don't want to sound like a naysayer, but we should prepare for our offense at the end of the season to be our "perfect" lineup minus a key player or two. Furthermore, even perfect offenses get shut down by teams. We saw that with Denver vs Seattle. Its hard for offenses to score 32 - 34 points a game since there could easily be a Miami game throughout the course of the season.

 

[Trycked]

what we need?
Serenity Now

 

[JackBauer]

McCourty's role changed significantly this season. He played a combination of free safety, strong safety and cornerback (often in man coverage). He played 97% of all defensive snaps and 24 % of ST snaps.

Thru the AFCCG, he'd allowed a 46% completion rate into his coverage for 9.5 yards per catch, had one INT and 6 PBUs. He also led the Pats in solo tackles and in total tackles.

I, for one, am shocked that when McCourty's role changes due to lack of overall defensive talent and/or injuries, he doesn't play as well. It's almost like everything we've seen his entire career as he's held together some of the more egregiously bad Patriots defenses.

Also note that this poster has been crapping on McCourty for years.

 

[HailHydra]

In no specific order.

off the line LB, CB, RB and TE maybe DT

I’m not sold on DT fully because we have Vincent Valentine coming back.

TE gronk is talking possible retirement, Dwayne Allen needs to upgraded, and who knows with Bennett.

RB Lewis and Burkhead are FA. I think Lewis is good as gone.

CB to replace Butler. He’s as good as gone.

LB might be our biggest need. Hightower awesome but he can’t stay healthy. Van Noy is good, but the less I see of Roberts the better. Marquise Flowers intrigues me though. He came on at the end.

I think we’re OK at edge. Flowers is good, I think Wise is gonna develop even more. Don’t forget we have Derek Rivers coming back. And I’d love to keep James Harrison on a cheap one year deal.

RB is an intriguing position. This has been one of the best years from a RB that we've had a long, long time (last year's Blount made me wanna cry). Do we mess with that?

 

[maineman209]

well, if you don't think you can afford good players, then don't expect a good defense....imagine.....defenders who are too good to play here

fact is, the pats don't spend enough on defense

At the end of this season, the Pats had less than $3M in cap space. Jones made $10M this season.

For 2018, the Pats have less than $14M in cap space. Jones' 2018 cap hit is $15.5M.

The team can't spend what it doesn't have, no matter how "good" a guy may or may not be.

 

[chasa]

hmm,

CB 2

the entire offense line

holder for field goals

The entire defensive line.

TE 2

possibly TE 1 if gronk actually retires

Backup QB

LB depth

basically everything except wide reciever and running back, and FB

 

[HailHydra]

The entire O-LINE needs to be upgraded. I don't want to see the dude who gave up that strip sack ever again!!
Defense needs a thourough upgrade at ALL positions...new defensive coordinator would be a good thing.

His name was Shaq Mason - one of the best guards in the NFL.

 

[Patriot Missile]

The team instantly upgrades as soon as the season begins.

Hightower had succesful surgery and should be fine.

Rivers is back and if he can stay healthy that is two lbs that can upgrade immediately.

Edelman, Mitchell back.

Think as long as they keep Solder the oline is fine. Thought they played great in the post season and not sure what others were watching. One strip sack on a great play wasnt the end of the world and if it was the difference then so be it. 33 and 618 yards should of been enough. That group was solid against very good defenses.

Pretty much front 7 and secondary need to be upgraded as everyone has mentioned. Also need to retain some free agents.

 

[AzorianPats]

RB is an intriguing position. This has been one of the best years from a RB that we've had a long, long time (last year's Blount made me wanna cry). Do we mess with that?

Dion Lewis was awesome this year, but let’s remember this is his first year ever playing a full season. How much is he going to ask for?

James White is an absolute savage in the playoffs. I wouldn’t mind resigning Burkhead cheap, and drafting a RB. The draft is loaded with talent

 

[IllegalContact]

At the end of this season, the Pats had less than $3M in cap space. Jones made $10M this season.

For 2018, the Pats have less than $14M in cap space. Jones' 2018 cap hit is $15.5M.

The team can't spend what it doesn't have, no matter how "good" a guy may or may not be.

easy.......they have 10M/yr sitting with bennett/allen, they had like 10M in salary sitting on the inactive list last night

much of that money would be better off paid to a guy who can get 17 sacks

if they spent more money on defense and less chasing down options b,c,d for offensive depth, we'd have another trophy today

 

[everlong]

Yes, let's cut Gillislee so we have only 1 RB under contract..

Cutting Branch saves them 3.5M on the Cap if done before the start of the league year.
McClellin may be retiring so it may be moot.

Obviously you would sign one of the other two first. I don't know why you can't just bring up the fact that Lewis and Burk are FAs and leave it at that. I had forgotten Burk was an FA.

The site I saw listed Branch as a 1M cap hit but if they can save 3.5 he's gone either way so we'll take the savings.

 

[maineman209]

Our CBs are fine IMO with high upside. A trio of Gilmore, Rowe & J. Jones can be a top unit.

When you remove Chung/Richards reps vs. the Eagles WRs; our CBs battled their wideouts pretty well IMO.

One of the reasons that the PHL offense was successful was their use of personnel, formations and motion to isolate Chung/Richards on WRs instead of on TEs and RBs.

 

[HailHydra]

hmm,

CB 2

the entire offense line

holder for field goals

The entire defensive line.

TE 2

possibly TE 1 if gronk actually retires

Backup QB

LB depth

basically everything except wide reciever and running back, and FB

Our offensive line held up its end of the bargain last night. People are going to remember the unit for the sack fumble, but remember there was only 1 sack the entire game against the best defensive front in the NFL. That's excellent.

We don't need a new holder. It hasn't been a problem all year long, and one game, no matter how important, shouldn't erase 18 games of tape. We don't need a TE2 either. We have Bennett and Allen for now, and Hollister shows promise. I have no idea what Gronk is gonna do, but I'll safely assume that he won't retire this year. DLine needs to be revamped with a star or two, I'm not worrying like crazy about backup QB just yet since we do have a backup QB who has quite a bit of starting experience. In Hoyer I trust.

 

[DaBruinz]

Our CBs are fine IMO with high upside. A trio of Gilmore, Rowe & J. Jones can be a top unit.

When you remove Chung/Richards reps vs. the Eagles WRs; our CBs battled their wideouts pretty well IMO.

Going to disagree with you here. Rowe was pretty horrible the entire night and most of the season when he wasn't injured. Yes, he had a big play now and then, but more often than not, he was burned. The long run after the catch in Jacksonville where he got burned and gave up on the play thinking that McCourty was going to make the stop on the sidelines only to have McCourty NOT make it comes to mind.

Rowe doesn't impress me in the least.. He's a reserve guy at best.. not a starter.

 

[libra957]

Rebuilt the whole defense, must start with finding a defensive coordinator not shy and docile like Patricia. The starters obviously can stay, Rowe and Butler are probably gone.

 

[maineman209]

easy.......they have 10M/yr sitting with bennett/allen, they had like 10M in salary sitting on the inactive list last night

much of that money would be better off paid to a guy who can get 17 sacks

if they spent more money on defense and less chasing down options b,c,d for offensive depth, we'd have another trophy today

It's more like $25M that ended up on IR. Had that happened with Jones and his contract on the roster, the Pats would have been totally screwed.

Aside from Brady and Gronk, the Pats didn't spend squat on weapons for Brady in 2017. Cooks cost $1.5M. Bennett cost $763K.

You really should look at overthecap.com once in awhile if you want to argue about how the Pats have (or should have) spent their cap space.

 

[maineman209]

The entire O-LINE needs to be upgraded. I don't want to see the dude who gave up that strip sack ever again!!
Defense needs a thourough upgrade at ALL positions...new defensive coordinator would be a good thing.

That was RG Shaq Mason. He was arguably the Pats best OL in pass-pro this season, and is recognized as being among the best run-blocking OG in the league.

 

[patsinthesnow]

Going to disagree with you here. Rowe was pretty horrible the entire night and most of the season when he wasn't injured. Yes, he had a big play now and then, but more often than not, he was burned. The long run after the catch in Jacksonville where he got burned and gave up on the play thinking that McCourty was going to make the stop on the sidelines only to have McCourty NOT make it comes to mind.

Rowe doesn't impress me in the least.. He's a reserve guy at best.. not a starter.

Reasonable take. Fair enough.