What's botherin' me ...

[ilduce06410]

Kudos!.........This is an absolute GEM of analysis by Oswlek.
Lovie Smith and 'da bears,did exactly this against
Carolina and the Pats.
I've also noticed this about the teams that: " do what we do" Also,most of them seem to be in the NFC.
The common denominator,IMO,is EGO,as in BIG.
Mike Martz in the 2001 SB
Joe Gibbs and Coughlin-all the time
Lovie Smith in the Carolina playoff game last year
Bill Cowher-off and on in Home playoff games
('sometimes the best team doesn't win".)
Brian Billick-in previous years-offense?....who needs an offense?....I'm a defensive genius.
Dennis Green,wherever he coaches
Can you think of any more?

i have said for a few years now years that the nfl had truly become diverse. why and how?
when mediocre black coaches get hired as NFL head coaches. ya don't have to be lovie smith or the kid cincinnati.
dennis green, baybee.
herm edwards, homefolks. case in point: the chiefs game where he showed the worst game management skills i could ever imagine. i've got 46, 47 years of watching profootball.
and dennis green. he's gonna get hired somewhere, again.
"theres a new sheriff in town". green's reputation is as an offensive specialislt, right?
BTW i am african american., from the GREAT state of texas, living as a refugee in CT.

 

[jimmyjames]

They have this thing called the draft? No way. "And the patriots are awesome at it!!". Go Homer, Go!! No, they're not. Dexter Reid, Guss Scott, Fred Mincey, 2nd round pick (traded up for ) Bethel Johnson (while future all pro Anquan Boldin still on board)....yes those are a few bad picks, so what, they have others that are good. So do most teams.

It's simply not true that they are "awesome!". IF they were they'd have a young ILB or two and some young CBs for next year after Samuel leaves. Instead they have...Chad Scott! (he's AWESOME!!) Maybe a OT that could block a pass rusher. Maybe a power back instead of 32 year old Dillon. Maybe a WR other than castoffs and 35 year old Troy Brown.

Even if they were AWESOME at the draft, it still doesn't explain being 6mm under the cap.

they traded for Moulds? NO WAY! I guess he was absolutely ineligible to be a Pat then. It's not like they could have come to terms with him and traded. They traded a 5th for Gabriel, so it's not like they're averse to doing it.

You understand that for a trade to happen two teams have to agree to terms? Somehow I just don't think that the Bills were going to trade Moulds to a division opponent.

The Pats, in terms of evealuating talent and drafting the best player available are in fact awesome relative to the other 31 teams in the league. This is not merley my opinion but that of most professional footabll analysts. Go find another team with all of their first round draft picks from teh last 6 years currently starting. Go find anopther team with more 6th and 7th round picks playing meaningful minutes.

And that 6 MM under tha cap you keep crowing about is really not much. As i said they do not even have the biggest surplus in the division. Some of that money should have gone to Branch, but he did not want to stay here. Why do you think that every failure to sign these All Pro players you think are just dying to play in NE is the fault of the Pats and not maybe based on people wanting to go elsewhere?

You don't have a clue what you are talking about.

 

[Pats726]

I'm not quite sure who we or the team "took away" mikey - Branch took himself away - he was under contract as many seem to forget.

Not giving into his demands for a new contract is a "pick your poison" situation for the front office and is difficult to criticize - as giving into that tactic has a major downside as well. And regardless of what one thinks about Givens talent, no one here is going to suggest that we should have matched the Titans salary offer, no matter how depleted our WR corps is.

It's also worth noting that Montana and Rice are both from a very different era of free agency. That's no secret but it's not worth bemoaning that fact.

If this were the offseason I might be inclined to agree with you about the need to give Brady better weapons, but what good does it do to bemoan decisions made months ago right now?

The front office gave Derrick Mason the highest salary offer 2 years ago and he declined to accept it - I can't blame them for that - they definately recognize the value of giving Brady good weapons but aren't going to waste money either.

So, while I understand your frustration, now really isn't the time for it. No whining on our part is going to bring a #1 caliber WR to this team between now and the Super Bowl - the best we can do is get behind the guys we have and urge them to play beyond their capabilities like so many players in past Super Bowl seasons have as well.

The team we have is the team we have.

GREAT answer...says it all..and I agree NO whining...

 

[HEY BRO! WHAT UP?]

I can see the bandwagon turned around and ran you back over after you fell off it.

I'm sorry, I have a hard time understanding your comments. There is more to life than football, that is all I'm saying. I have been a Pats fan for over ten years, so I don't know what bandwagon you are talking about.

 

[RayClay]

The Niners are also only just now crawling back to mediocrity as a result of overpaying to keep guys around longer than they maybe should have.

They play in the worst stadium in the league. They led the NFL in dead money hits against the cap for years. As a result of so many consecutive losing seasons thay have a totally disproportionate ammount of their annual cap going to only a few guys becuse they keep having to pay low first round picks.

I love the Lombardi trpohies, but what I love most is knowing we have a chance to win one every year for the foreseeable future. I'll take that over one more guaranteed anyday.

Well, I'll take a guaranteed Super Bowl!

Where do I sign up for that? I think the 2001 Rams are trying to sue for that guaranteed Title they didn't get!

 

[RayClay]

Guys like Thomas of the Ravens, ERic Moulds - remember him? Gee, he might have fit in well here. Not like we needed a WR though.

Why be 6M under the cap? Who are they saving it for? It's bad for morale anyway. Guys can say "yes, I could have gotten more, but I didn't because I want my teammates to be rewarded". Now they find out the money is just staying in Kraft's bank account.

World Champion Redskins?

 

[Rob0729]

I thought this season represents our best opportunity to pick up the 4th Lombardi.

At 29, Brady is at the peak of his career.

We have the easiest schedule ever to pick the home-field advantage.

The competition is "ripe for the pickin'". Rivers and Cutler are still in their formative stage. Palmer is returning from a severe injury. Steelers are a downward spiral. And Colts are adjusting without James.

Instead of taking advantage of the situation, however, I thought we squandered away this opportunity.

We have our generation's "Joe Montana" and we took away his "John Taylor" and "Jerry Rice". We then promptly surrounded him with rejects from other teams.

What's bothering me is that we just wasted another year of Brady, and the competition is not getting easier.

In the future, I'm afraid we will look back to this season and regret the loss of an incredible opportunity to win our 4th Super Bowl.


.

Last time I checked, the season isn't even over and we have been eliminated from nothing. We even have a very remote chance of getting HFA throughout the playoffs. Anything can happen over the next two months.

Also, if you look at the 49ers. Montana went two years between his first and second Super Bowl and three years between his second and third Super Bowl. Montana was in his third season when he got his first Super Bowl. Montana didn't get his fourth Super Bowl win until his 11th season in the league. He won one of his Super Bowls before Rice got in the league and even with Rice and Montana there was a three year lag in them getting Rice's second Super Bowl. Based on Montana's history, Brady has plenty of opportunity to get his fourth ring.

I don't get why people talk about this season like we already are out of playoff contention. We just need to get in and see what happens. If I told you this time last year that the Steelers were going to win the Super Bowl, you would have laughed. In 2003, Carolina were 8-5 at this point and on a three game losing streak. They got into the Super Bowl including beating an Eagles team that might have been better than any team in the league this year. The 1994 Chargers went 11-5 and were 3-3 in their last six games and still went to the Super Bowl.

Our road is not going to be easy, but past teams have shown that our chances are definitely not over. We need to fix the fumbling problems and mental mistakes and get our players healthy and we still have a shot. Once you get into the playoffs, anything can happen.

 

[Rob0729]

they traded for Moulds? NO WAY! I guess he was absolutely ineligible to be a Pat then. It's not like they could have come to terms with him and traded. They traded a 5th for Gabriel, so it's not like they're averse to doing it.

The Pats did want to trade for Moulds. The Bills didn't want to trade Moulds to the Pats. So yes, he was ineligible to the Patriots as long as other teams outside the division were willing to trade Buffalo for him. I don't know why that is hard to believe.

Believe me, if the Pats could have gotten Moulds for a fifth round pick, he probably would have been in a Pats uniform whether Branch was here or not.

 

[jimmyjames]

Well, I'll take a guaranteed Super Bowl!

Where do I sign up for that? I think the 2001 Rams are trying to sue for that guaranteed Title they didn't get!

I think that under Mr Kraft's ownership and what you could basically call the football equivilent of a Moneyball philosophy we have the opportunity to win a lot more Lombardi trophies and when it's all said and done the Pats should be the first team to win 10 Super Bowls.

 

[Clonamery]

He said we should have taken advantage of the fact that Philip Rivers won't do well this year.

Ah, thanks, I was afraid my contempt for him was showing.