Ty Law on ESPN: Pats made big mistake gutting team of SB veterans

[captain stone]

We've seen young legs on defense pretty much every year of the Belichick era post-2002. The problem hasn't been finding decent/good young talent, because BB's been able to do quite a bit of that. The problem's been finding top talent replacements for aging/traded top talent.

Bill's had problems finding just decent/good young talent, too.

The "elite" talent from the best defensive team(s):

Harrison
Vrabel
Seymour
Washington
Bruschi
Law
Willie Mac
TJ

Not one of them has been replaced with an equal talent player or upgrade. (Wilfork is an excellent player, and has been a more than adequate replacement. He's just not Ted Washington). When you look at the other players, you have some good players replacing good players, but there are no elite players stepping in to help equal out the lost talent.

I added Willie & TJ because Bill still hasn't replaced them & what they brought to the party, either.

The problem seems less about losing the vets on defense from the Good Old Days (01-04):

Law, Samuel & Mt Washington couldn't come to terms, though not for lack of trying on Bill & BK's parts. Law & Samuel were missed, but were also well over-paid, and Big Vince replaced Big Ted just fine.

Seymour would not have re-signed here unless he was offered at least one penny more than anyone else would have offered him. The question remains, though: would we have been better-served in 2009 with Seymour & a 2011 end-of-3rd-round draft pick, or no Seymour & a 2011 1st-round draft pick?

Willie could've helped for one - maybe two - more years, but Romeo needed him more to help establish his defense in Cleveland, and thus over-paid a bit for him, though I wouldn't be surprised to discover that Bill did RAC a solid by not persuing Willie as strongly as he might have otherwise done, had some other team made the same offer that Cleveland did.

Rodney, Tedy & Vrabel simply lost their battles vs. Father Time.

No, the problem to me was more Bill's inability to even adequately replace those vets through either the draft or free agency:

The drafts of 2004 & '06-'08 have produced a grand total of 3 players who could be considered starting-caliber NFL players:
Wilfork
Gostkowski
Mayo

and another 2 who could be considered decent - though very flawed - backup contributors:
Watson
Maroney

and 1 who was misused & mis-treated:
David Thomas

and 1 who is immature & over-rated, a very dangerous combination:
Meriweather

Looking for reasons why there was a leadership void in the locker room in 2009, and a Lombardi void in the trophy case for the last 5 years? You've just found one of those reasons.