We have Philly's 5th rounder from the Sheppard trade. http://forums.theganggreen.com/showthread.php?t=53890
Exactly. Brady will be 33 when the season starts so he'll have maybe 2-3 good years before his age starts to show. Randy Moss is already 33. He will show signs of slowing down this yr. Kevin Faulk - 33 Sammy Morrise - 32 Fred Taylor - 34 Laurence Maroney - injury prone Jarvis Green - 31 Shawn Springs 34 Sure they have several draft picks, but they also have some glaring needs. QB and #1 WR have 2-4 good yrs. RBs are old or injury prone. Not the youngest OL. LB corps isn't outstanding either. Their starting CB won't be starting probably from this yr. And Belishit isn't such a genius at drafting while the Jets have put together 4-5 solid drafts, the main reason why we are a team reckon. If we don't make it to the final 4 next yr, we'll see a big signing. If we don't make it to the final 8, we'll see another splash like in 2008. We have the ammo (finances) and being in the big apple certainly doesn't hurt.
We were pretty good last yr. Won't be losing any starter either.If we nab a couple of starting caliber players with immediate impact, this team will be in great shape.
I don't think the Pats draft well so much as they deploy the players they have well. Their draft selections might not "wow" you, but they'll find a way to get more out of them than they should.
The thing about the Pats and their millions of DPs is that every draft they simply don't use them. They trade them for picks next year... If the pats actually use their plethora of picks that could be trouble, but they keep dealing them for more ammo the next year, which makes them look deadly but because they keep trading all of their picks for the next year, they don't seem to add too many good young talents via the draft anymore.
Anything can happen between now and September. In fact, with these CBA rules I wouldn't be surprised if "experts" start talking us down after FA.
The Pats are nothing without Brady. If's he's healthy and right they will be tough. Bellicheck smellicheck. Draft picks mean little without a top flight QB. Bellichicken was terrible on the browns and won nothing with the Pats until Lewis KOed Bledsoe and Brady took over. Bottom line--if Brady is healthy he will get the Pats to the playoffs--once there anything can happen--the jets need to get an outside rusher or else they will watch the super bowl again next year. Bryan Thomas never gets to the QB off the edge.
I wouldn't be surprised if they did just that with half of their current pile of picks. Belichick traded Seymour to Oakland for a 2011 pick, because they are banking on a rookie pay scale (or some new-fangled league-determined employee policy decreed by the NFL in the interim) at that time. There may be a surplus of talent in this year's early rounds, but I'm not sure Beliturd would be willing for his team to pay top dollar for it.
Drafting well is not a given. The majority of the Pats good/great drafts were in the early 2000's. I can not recall the last great draft that team had. Every year the anal-lysts trip over themselves blowing BB and what a great job he did during the draft. Lately the Pats have been just a hair north of suck with their draft results.
I think BB knows his limitations in the draft. He has had hit-or-miss results with unproven rookies. You can't argue the effectiveness of Brady, Seymour, Wilfork and Warren, but for each of those guys you either have a few flashes in the pan that he lets go or a few flat-out busts. And of course this happens with most coaches, but with a numbers-infatuated egotist like Belichick, that is probably not enough. If there was a rookie cap, this would give him the flexibility to do what he does best - pick fruit from the trees of other teams. Aside from Brady, a large amount of the true impact talent he has had has been developed by other teams, or other HCs.
But the Pats are going to get Peppers as per the NFL network. http://www.csnne.com/pages/landing/?blockID=181740&feedID=3352 "With rumors swirling back and forth about the potential of All-Pro defensive end Julius Peppers joining the Patriots next season, NFL.com's Vic Carucci is reporting that the Pats are still very interested in finding a way to bring Peppers on board. Citing multiple sources, Carucci reports that New England is "encouraged that they could gain some leverage if the field for bidders is reduced by possible restrictions on the final eight playoff teams to sign free agents." However, Carucci notes the obvious challenge the Pats face in scraping together enough money to sign Peppers, while also satisfying the needs of Vince Wilfork and soon-to-be free agent Tom Brady."
That's a lot of the same kind of stuff they were saying last offseason. I will believe it when I see it. It'll suck if it happens, though. I would bet that Belly got stung by paying $35mil for a disappointing player in Adalius Thomas. Plus, he just loves spreading misinformation. Most of the biggest acquisitions they've had have come out of left field and then been finalized in a minute.
Well I guess it doesn't help BB that he lost Pioli and Dimitroff. He has hit home runs with defensive line players.
I was watching the NFL Network the other day and the little ticker on the bottom was going through teams and the picks that they had. It listed the Jets with 3 and said they have the fewest in the draft this year. I hope they were wrong. Hopefully Tanny can work his magic and get the Jets a few more picks via trades on draft day.
We have our 1,2,6,7 + Eagles 5... maaaybe the 7th will go to the Lions for O'connell but no one really knows.
I'm not necessarily expecting us to repeat our playoff success next year. I can see us taking a small step back next year to take two steps forward in the subsequent couple of seasons. While we are showing our age on both lines, I do trust Tanny to reload over the next two drafts and offseasons. I just can't look at this as next year being "our year" just yet. Pats still king of the hill until proven otherwise but we will be breathing down their necks and are primed to make some noise for the next several years...
This is true. They haven't had a really impressive draft since 2003. Still, they do a better job than nearly every other team in the league at deploying their talent in a way to get the most out of it. It's not coincidence that players leaving NE generally don't enjoy the same level of success elsewhere. Having said all that, I think the top 4 picks they brought in last year will pan out to be good. Vollmer played pretty well filling in for light and scouts harped on the athletic ability/ability to deliver a hit that Butler & Chung bring to the field, respectively. Brace is an interesting pick (I actually wanted the Giants to draft him) but I think he'll start to pan out for them, especially if Wilfork leaves. I digress, I think the key is how good they deploy the players they draft. It's quite possible the Pats decline and toil in mediocrity, but it's far more likely that they reload their roster (especially on defense) and are competitive again in a year or 2.
The biggest thing you mentioned there is Brady's age; when he retires/can't play at a high level anymore their window is officially slammed SHUT. The young defense needs to step up for them to compete and while I certainly think the talent is there they haven't delivered yet. The offense is odd because integral parts of that defense (like Moss) are old. Don't be shocked if they package some of their draft picks out to bring in a guy like Boldin or their old OC's nemesis Marshall (which would kind of suck). I very much want to believe the days of the NFL world collectively fellating the Pats are over (and would love very much to state that their decline began with the glorious upset that was Super Bowl 42) but it's really tough for me to have any confidence in that happening with the Pats having the track record they do.
For the record, I am not talking about this years draft (2009). Even if all the picks they brought in simply sat the bench it would be too early to judge the Pats draft. However 2004-2008.... yuck.
