Who are you and what have you done with our beloved patriots?

[Username]

We need to nail the upcoming draft and free agency

 

[RobertWeathers]

Bill and the ole proverbial, let his toe nails go too long before a trim and everyone noticed, situation.

Hopefully he can make it to the medicine cabinet and get 10 clean clips before the guests arrive.

We will see if he has what it takes.

Ewwww

 

[RobertWeathers]

Another thread that descends into the predictable Patriots suckfest... some of us consider themselves lucky to have watched this great run.

Then there are the complaints about the drafting... comparing the Pats draft to how other teams have fared is folly, I know some teams have had some really great picks after the Pats.. but some of their draft woes are because the pick so late, because they are that good.. then there are the ones who Goodell stole from us. The lowest draft pick in the past 10 years is #17 once, 4 picks on the 20's.. the rest are at the end of the first round or higher (much higher)...

2009.. Draft picks 34 & 40
2010.. 27 & 42 (McCourty and Gronk really great year)
2011.. 17 & 33
2012.. 21 & 25
2013.. 52 & 59
2014.. 29 & 62
2015.. 32 & 64
2016.. 60 & 78
2017.. 83 & 85
2018.. 23 & 31

The stolen #1s and their short/long term impact cannot be ignored. Potential probowlers, trades to get probowlers, cap space used to fill the void on a high priced FA and not an economically friendly draft pick....gone.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Ok. I have a question for the "oh my God the Pats suck" crew. Name 4 teams you would put money on to beat the Pats.

Name four teams that you would put 10 grand on because you are so sure they would beat the Pats.

You can't. Because there isn't four teams in the league that could beat the Pats convincingly or at least are so much better than the Pats that you would put money down on it.

So what do we have here? A bunch of "oh my God the Pats suck" crowd ignoring the state of the rest of the league and focusing on the two last losses as though it was some kind of barometer of the rest of the season.

Who thinks they could have won both the games in Miami and in Pittsburgh? Most do. So WTF are we talking about?

I'll tell you what we are talking about. A bunch of "Brady cliff" sympathizers feeling like today is the day.

Watch the film. Watch Brady. Watch the receivers. Watch the Secondary. You'll see that this is still a damn good team. It really can make it to the AFCCG and it can make it to the Super Bowl.

The Chargers are the team to beat right now in the AFC. Saints, Cowboys are the teams to beat in the NFC.

The Pats have their health and could beat anyone if they put up a complete game.

So after a couple of bad games the shytheads have come out of the woodwork.

People call me delusional and never look at the tape. GFY. The tape shows otherwise.

Agree. The talent certainly is there. So is the big game experience.

The problem is the consistency has not

 

[RobertWeathers]

Fans of the 70s Steelers, 80s Niners, 90s Cowboys all thought it would last forever too.

The Patriots problem is the drafting has been brutal, you have zero pro bowl level players under 30, there's no gamebreakers on this roster anymore.

There's no one special.

Gilmore, Mason, Gordon, Michel disagree.

 

[ScottishPatriots]

Gilmore, Mason, Gordon, Michel disagree.

Michel is special?

Not even a top 15 running back, Gordon is a shell of himself who's been a big downgrade from Cooks.

Gilmore and Mason are good players, Mason could of easily been a Pro Bowler i'll give you these 2 but i'm not giving you Michel and Gordon.

 

[Triumph]

We need to nail the upcoming draft and free agency

Put some talent around Brady yesterday.

 

[Triumph]

It's not really. Relative to the rest of the league it's pretty good.

30 out of 32 aint bad.

Please go on.
Ranking NFL teams by age after 53-man cutdowns: 2018 edition

 

[Uptown]

Saints and Chargers?

Yeah, every team is flawed but the Saints & Chargers have the least amount of holes. Saints biggest weakness is their secondary & the fact that they can’t really stretch the field. The Chargers have subpar Guard play. Both teams have pretty good depth. They’re not top-heavy, like the Rams.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Michel is special?

Not even a top 15 running back, Gordon is a shell of himself who's been a big downgrade from Cooks.

Gilmore and Mason are good players, Mason could of easily been a Pro Bowler i'll give you these 2 but i'm not giving you Michel and Gordon.

Michel is a 1200 yd runner if not for injury. It's his rookie year. To say he's average lacks vision.

Considering he was not in TC and acquired midseason over a 16 game season he's a 1000yd receiver in THIS offense. That's special. An off-season an TC will make the difference

Bash all you want but you'll be wrong to do it.

 

[italian pat patriot]

I am a fan since Grogan and Eason...a passionate and true fan...i spent a lot of money for this passion...i still believe too...

 

[203Pat]

It's not really. Relative to the rest of the league it's pretty good.

So relative to the Chargers, Chiefs, Saints, Rams, and Texans? I would say those teams have infinitely more talent. They have young superstars and speed.

 

[ivanvamp]

Fans of the 70s Steelers, 80s Niners, 90s Cowboys all thought it would last forever too.

The Patriots problem is the drafting has been brutal, you have zero pro bowl level players under 30, there's no gamebreakers on this roster anymore.

There's no one special.

The 2018 Patriots are a very good football team. They're 9-5, and very likely will finish 11-5 and will be one of the top 5 teams in the NFL. We are just used to them being 12-4, 13-3, 14-2, etc.

They've been uncharacteristically bad on the road but honestly, they should have won the last two road games. The Miami game, obviously. That was an absolute frigging joke of a loss. And then against Pittsburgh, they played terribly, but the officiating was so one-sided it made it difficult. The pre-snap penalties are all NE's fault, obviously. And I'm not saying that Cannon or Brown weren't holding. But I've re-watched the game looking specifically for similar type plays on Pittsburgh, and my god, they held like CRAZY all game long and were penalized just once for it. When Roethlisberger chucked the ball into the corner of the end zone as he was being tackled, it took the refs TEN SECONDS to throw the flag for grounding. It was so clear they didn't WANT to throw the flag, but they conferred and realized they just HAD to. It was that bad.

Anyway, rant over on that. The point is, they really should be 11-3 right now, with a real chance to be 13-3. The losses count, obviously, and you are who your record says you are, but they're not a mediocre team, they're not a middle-of-the-pack team. They're a very good team with an excellent chance to play in the AFCCG.

As for young players, they don't have a ton of great young talent. That's true. But of guys 28 and under, here's a list of really good or up-and-coming players.

OT Wynn (22)
LB Bentley (22)
CB Jackson (23)
RB Michel (23)
DE Wise (24)
DE Rivers (24)
DT Butler (24)
CB Jones (25)
DE Flowers (25)
RG Mason (25)
LT Brown (25)
WR Dorsett (25)
RB White (26)
C Andrews (26)
LG Thuney (26)
LB Van Noy (27)
WR Gordon (27)
WR Patterson (27)
S Harmon (27)
CB Gilmore (28)
LB Hightower (28)
DT Guy (28)
RB Burkhead (28)

That's a very solid group. But it's not enough. They have more guys 28 and under on the roster, of course, but I'm not nearly as high on the rest of the guys as I am on this list here. They need a really good 2019 draft for sure.

 

[Triumph]

We need to nail the upcoming draft and free agency

Spot on.

I stated in another thread that Brady is at a point in his career where he might not want to make jags great players. Brady needs great players when they arrive in Foxboro.

SiriusXM NFL analyst Solomon Wilcots pointed to the overall cast being an issue for the quarterback. At this stage of his career, Brady needs more dynamic players to work with, not fewer. In other words, the 41-year-old quarterback has a much harder time working miracles and comebacks with less talent.

“You look at every great quarterback that’s ever been, the older they get, the more help they need to win games,” said Wilcots. “Not that they can’t win anymore, but you better have something around him.”

 

[Tunescribe]

This team is completely healthy. Normally when we start losing, it’s because someone is injured but nope we have everyone healthy who’s gotten us to a super bowl in the past. They have so much potential but have not fired on all cylinders at all this year. Maybe Houston wins out and we have to host a wild card game and get bounced like 09 and never get to firing on all cylinders. Maybe Houston loses at Philly and we beat buf and NYJ and the demise is exaggerated just like 2014. Who knows. Normally we have these issues worked out. Now it’s all about wait and see.

This. The roster is pretty bad. Old and slow.

Spoiled much?

 

[Kontradiction]

Ok. I have a question for the "oh my God the Pats suck" crew. Name 4 teams you would put money on to beat the Pats.

Name four teams that you would put 10 grand on because you are so sure they would beat the Pats.

You can't. Because there isn't four teams in the league that could beat the Pats convincingly or at least are so much better than the Pats that you would put money down on it.

So what do we have here? A bunch of "oh my God the Pats suck" crowd ignoring the state of the rest of the league and focusing on the two last losses as though it was some kind of barometer of the rest of the season.

Who thinks they could have won both the games in Miami and in Pittsburgh? Most do. So WTF are we talking about?

I'll tell you what we are talking about. A bunch of "Brady cliff" sympathizers feeling like today is the day.

Watch the film. Watch Brady. Watch the receivers. Watch the Secondary. You'll see that this is still a damn good team. It really can make it to the AFCCG and it can make it to the Super Bowl.

The Chargers are the team to beat right now in the AFC. Saints, Cowboys are the teams to beat in the NFC.

The Pats have their health and could beat anyone if they put up a complete game.

So after a couple of bad games the shytheads have come out of the woodwork.

People call me delusional and never look at the tape. GFY. The tape shows otherwise.

AFC - Chargers, Houston in Houston, Steelers.
NFC - Saints, Rams, Seahawks if they can make it.

All teams the Patriots do not match up well with as of 2018. All teams that would hammer them on the ground. The Texans and Seahawks would get the traditional supremely vanilla defense - terrified of the QB scrambling for a few yards here and there and would give up chunk plays through the air as well.

 

[mcmurtry86]

Gilmore, Mason, Gordon, Michel disagree.

Gordon hasn’t been anything special this year. He’s been good but hardly a game breaker

Michel? Laughable. He hasn’t potential but probably isn’t even a top 15 back in the league currently

Mason everyone seems to love due to his impressive run blocking, yet the team can’t consistently run and resorts to screen passes on pivotable 3rd and shorts so how impactful is he really? He will go down in Pats history as an overpaid but good player who lost a Super Bowl by whiffing on a critical block (kind of like Mankins who perpetually failed in big games)

Gilmore is obviously great and the lone youngish elite player on the roster.

 

[neckroll#14]

The system is rigged for parity. good teams drafting late, waiver wire priority, salary cap, etc. The Patriots had high picks unfairly forfeited. There is certainly some Patriots fatigue being good to great year in and year out and you won't convince me the refs aren't biased in their calls... Yet for 2 DECADES we have always been in the mix and had unprecedented success...

How about we give them some recognition for their accomplishments in bringing the fanbase meaninglful football for nearly 20 freakin' years?!

They are not the Jete. give them a break...

 

[203Pat]

The offense has speed, quickness, size and talent. Anyone who doesn't think so hasn't been watching.

Defense has one of the better secondaries in the league.

The front six has been poor. No doubt but this team can and has beaten some of the top teams in the league. They will have to keep scheming their way through. Amoeba defense, stunts, blitzes or whatever.

There are only possibly two complete teams in the league. The rest have flaws. The Patriots have health and are no more flawed than the rest.

I don’t know where you’re seeing this speed on offense. Gronk lumbers, White and Edelman are more quick than fast, Sony is a plodder, Hogan isn’t a burner, Gordon hasn’t regained that extra gear he had 5 years ago. The only fast guys on offense are Dorsett, who hardly plays, and Patterson who sees a target a game.
The secondary is the only position group on this team that has played well. I’m excited about the possibility of Jackson and Gilmore starting next year but I also think Devin and Chung’s best days are behind them.

 

[mosslost]

This team is completely healthy. Normally when we start losing, it’s because someone is injured but nope we have everyone healthy who’s gotten us to a super bowl in the past. They have so much potential but have not fired on all cylinders at all this year. Maybe Houston wins out and we have to host a wild card game and get bounced like 09 and never get to firing on all cylinders. Maybe Houston loses at Philly and we beat buf and NYJ and the demise is exaggerated just like 2014. Who knows. Normally we have these issues worked out. Now it’s all about wait and see.

I think we get the 2