Unaddressed Needs

[Brady6]

We may be stuck if there is no one left out there to add.

Honestly I think this hits the nail on the head unfortunately, if there was a player that I actually thought we could add that would be an upgrade I wouldn’t care what his age is or his draft status, the problem is I just don’t see it, the areas that we could potentially use an upgrade have limited available players, in my opinion the biggest concern is DL depth behind Wilfork and Kelly, and unfortunately I think Armstead’s injury put us in a predicament that is not ideal, the release of Brandon Deaderick is one that I’m not sure would of occurred had the infection to Armstead been foreseen, in my opinion the issues that led to Deaderick being released were that he was not happy about being at best 4th on the depth chart behind Kelly and Armstead during OTA’s after starting last season, so rather than try and deal with it Belichick chose to part ways, had he known this would be how he’d enter the regular season I believe he would of handled it differently. I could be wrong but that is just my opinion.

Kyle Love’s illness was another unfortunate and unforeseen occurrence; there likely was no better backup to Vince Wilfork than Kyle Love, but the Patriots feel that Kyle Love continuing to play at as a 320 Lb. player is detrimental to his long term health and did not want to be a contributing factor to that, given all the lawsuits, and other claims by ex-players going on this day and age, added to the moral issues, that decision makes sense.

Other positions that are concerns like CB were also to some degree bad luck, we had are 2011 second round draft pick who had by all reports a strong showing in OTA’s, the expectation for him was only to be the 4th string CB, a fairly reasonable expectation for the 33rd overall pick in the draft 2 years ago, unfortunately he once again proved unable to remain on the field, leaving us with limited depth. Cunningham was another former 2nd round draft pick who we were likely looking to for some level of depth this season and his durability issues once again reared their ugly head.

So could things have gone differently yes, but the team has experienced some unfortunate luck with the players, and adversity we’ve faced.

 

[mgteich]

fair enough, the top 100 is reasonable

I tend to look at picks in the first 3 rounds mgteich. There's a helluva lot of talent available in the first 100 or so picks. Everything past that (for me) is simply, a bonus.

Reaches etc don't bother me. I tend to give players their rookie contracts to show their worth. From there, it's open season on appraisals.

 

[mgteich]

Are you his agent?

Beauharnais is a STer and also will be the starting MLB next year when Spikes departs.

 

[mgteich]

I agree with your analysis of the defense with one exception. Our unfortunate luck with regard to injuries is no worse than that of other teams. After all, that used to be Belichick's strength. Because of the great depth, we used to bring in the next player without having a huge dropoff. Obviously, there was always a huge drop off from our stars (now Wilfork, Kelly, Mayo, Jones and McCourty; but there seemed to be more quality depth than now. Our depth at DL and DB is truly scary.

Even on offense, we have only lost one significant player, our #2 TE.

BTW, to state the obvious, Belichick takes chances with lots of players who hav injury histories. It should not be considered a huge shocker when they are injured (e.g. Dowling).

Honestly I think this hits the nail on the head unfortunately, if there was a player that I actually thought we could add that would be an upgrade I wouldn’t care what his age is or his draft status, the problem is I just don’t see it, the areas that we could potentially use an upgrade have limited available players, in my opinion the biggest concern is DL depth behind Wilfork and Kelly, and unfortunately I think Armstead’s injury put us in a predicament that is not ideal, the release of Brandon Deaderick is one that I’m not sure would of occurred had the infection to Armstead been foreseen, in my opinion the issues that led to Deaderick being released were that he was not happy about being at best 4th on the depth chart behind Kelly and Armstead during OTA’s after starting last season, so rather than try and deal with it Belichick chose to part ways, had he known this would be how he’d enter the regular season I believe he would of handled it differently. I could be wrong but that is just my opinion.

Kyle Love’s illness was another unfortunate and unforeseen occurrence; there likely was no better backup to Vince Wilfork than Kyle Love, but the Patriots feel that Kyle Love continuing to play at as a 320 Lb. player is detrimental to his long term health and did not want to be a contributing factor to that, given all the lawsuits, and other claims by ex-players going on this day and age, added to the moral issues, that decision makes sense.

Other positions that are concerns like CB were also to some degree bad luck, we had are 2011 second round draft pick who had by all reports a strong showing in OTA’s, the expectation for him was only to be the 4th string CB, a fairly reasonable expectation for the 33rd overall pick in the draft 2 years ago, unfortunately he once again proved unable to remain on the field, leaving us with limited depth. Cunningham was another former 2nd round draft pick who we were likely looking to for some level of depth this season and his durability issues once again reared their ugly head.

So could things have gone differently yes, but the team has experienced some unfortunate luck with the players, and adversity we’ve faced.

 

[Ring 6]

I agree with your analysis of the defense with one exception. Our unfortunate luck with regard to injuries is no worse than that of other teams. After all, that used to be Belichick's strength. Because of the great depth, we used to bring in the next player without having a huge dropoff. Obviously, there was always a huge drop off from our stars (now Wilfork, Kelly, Mayo, Jones and McCourty; but there seemed to be more quality depth than now. Our depth at DL and DB is truly scary.

Even on offense, we have only lost one significant player, our #2 TE.

BTW, to state the obvious, Belichick takes chances with lots of players who hav injury histories. It should not be considered a huge shocker when they are injured (e.g. Dowling).

Ive said this before, but I think your memory of past depth is greater than it really was.
Also, if a young player beats out a veteran it doesn't mean the team has no depth, it means its depth is a young guy who took the veterans job away.

 

[AzPatsFan]

Belichick seems to struggle particularly when drafting WR’s and DB’s and in my opinion it’s because he likes to draft quantity over quality to some degree, and that is not to diminish what he does because in basically every other position that approach works great, an example would be in 2011 most would of stayed put and drafted Mark Ingram, but Belichick dropped back and decided he could then double up and take Vereen and Ridley for basically the same amount of spent value, that worked great and it is an example that his approach works great with every other position except for WR and DB.

The reason I think that is the case is I think DB and WR are based so much on the players size, and athletic metrics, so the Julio Jones or Patrick Peterson type players who come out with those metrics go high, and the player who go in the 2nd or 3rd rounds where Belichick likes to select them, those are players who may offer similar metrics and size but they have something that is sticking out like a sore thumb, an injury riddled college career, or a lack of productivity, something prevented them from going in the top 25 and in all likelihood that will end up being the same something that prevents them from being successful in the NFL.

I disagree.

I have pointed pointed out elsewhere that BB doesn't have problems drafting at any position. His DB "misses" are as much to do with "career ending" injuries than lack of talent in his selections.

BB has done a fine job selecting receivers, Deon Branch, Givens, Welker, Gaffney and Moss along with GRonkowski, AHern, and Graham attest to that. :snob:

I'm not clairvoyent, neither is BB, and neither are you. Only Darious Butler can legitimately be ranked as a BB mistake. It wasn't a draft mistake, either. BB just gave up on him too soon, since he starts as a CB for the 11-5 Colts.