Clearly, QB is the most important position. My point was that it takes resources and a long time to find and develop the right one. Drafting a QB in the first round year after year doesn't give enough time to allow a player to grow into the position and squanders resources needed to make the QB successful.
Sure it does. You don’t have to wait 3-4 years to see if they pan out, you do what college programs do and bring in the best competition each year and let the best player play. At a minimum you end up with great depth and great trade bait. Philly got a #1 out of Indy after Wentz flamed out there. You aren’t going to win anything without great QB play, so make sure you have the best QB room in football . It doesn’t have to be the 1st round pick every year, there will be years where the top 1st rd. QB’s are gone before you pick, but you can still use a 2nd or 3rd etc that you really like, but you should try to get better at the position every year, because you have no idea what will happen at the position. No matter how good your starting 8 in baseball are you won’t win without really good pitching. No matter how good your first 3 lines are you won’t win if your goalie sucks. And no matter how good your team is in football you won’t win if your QB sucks. This years Patriots defense was very good, but they were much better than their numbers reflected because once again the offense was so putrid that they were in a deep hole and run ragged because the offense just kept giving the ball back to the opposing team. This not only wears a defense down, but also screws them situationally because the opposing offense is always playing with a lead , and they can literally do whatever they want because there is no urgency to try and catch up, ever.
If the last month has shown anything it’s that this team is not as far away from seriously contending as we thought they were in October/November, but they have to fix the QB room. They have other needs, no one would argue they don’t, but QB is first and foremost. The GM should sign a veteran, like Garrapolo or Tannehill, get a top #3 pick, either through position or trade up, and draft a QB, and keep Zappe to hopefully grow and serve as a backup. Jones needs to go.
Once they have fixed the QB room then go hard at fixing the Tackle positions, and WR. Re-Sign Elliot, and try to extend Stevenson, which should be doable, as he’s coming off an injury plagued season, and RB contracts are easy to meet the demands. There are other things they can do, but imo these are the most important areas to address, and they have both the $$$, and draft capital to remedy their most glaring needs. If they don’t do it this offseason then we are likely looking at an extended period of sucking, as this is clearly their best opportunity.