That's a relatively small piece of the puzzle. You also need; 1. A good ownership that leaves the football decisions to the football people 1A. Football people who make good football decisions 2. An ownership and coaching staff that get along for long term stability. 3. Superior talent evaluation. One things the Patriots do is have multiple scouts on the same players, and evaluate the scouts themselves every year...so a bad or average scout gets weeded out of the system. 4. Good money management skills to operate under the cap. Sure, the Pats get veterans taking discounts for the rings...but it didn't begin that way. In 2000 and 2001, they were building a relatively no-name team with a few rising talent young players. The veterans taking discounts didn;t come until AFTER the Pats showed tons of success. 5. The willingness to plan a budget for each position, including the backups, and stick to it. You need to let high priced players go and build depth with capable but unspectacular players, both starters and backups...sometimes the backups are just as good as the starters. 6. Emphasize the importance of players' intelligence, coachability, and how dedicated they are to football. A team full of players who play for love of the game plays above the talent level of the individuals, and intelligence allows them to be versatile and adaptable to different game plans and schemes more easily, allowing the coach maximum options. This is not the ONLY way, I'm sure...but it's how the Patriots built their success. It is not built around lots of draft picks, or the talent of a few individuals specifically. It is built as a system, and the team you see on the field today has nothing to do with their success in the future...their success in the future depends on the points 1, 2, and 3 above remaining intact.
I wish. An Bradway, I hope you are right. To me, NE is too much like Candy Land right now. Or Walt Disney - I mean it is sickening how everything just keeps going their way. God, I wish it would happen to us for about a 5 year stretch.
well, this is very true, too - no doubt. You can;t just do it with the draft - you also have to know what you're doing and I would give NE an edge there.
Great plan. Suddenly the jets will be Super Bowl contenders then, right? .....or....are you going to keep trying to cripple your way to the top?
Im beginning to believe their reign and all of Boston is never gonna end. It seems like every move they make goes their way, every bounce in games go their way and every call in games go their way. It started in 2001 and it has gone that way ever since. They've virtually ruined the entire sport of football for me...and oon they will ruin it for others. The football gods have a summerhome in Boston..
You left out the most important factor: Luck. The Patriots dynasty could end this coming weekend if Tom Brady sustained a serious injury. It could end if Vince Wilfork was killed in a drive-by shooting. It could even end if Bill Belichik was arrested for conspiracy to evade taxes and the government decided to make an example of him. There are a million things that can go wrong on the way to being a great team for a decade that are unavoidable even by good planning. So far the Patriots have been amazingly lucky in having none of them occur. Oh yeah, and you forgot the Mo Lewis hit. The Patriots maybe never win a Super Bowl under Belichik if Lewis does not allow a 6th round pick onto the field instead of the $90 million dollar QB.
And joe Montana could have died in a car wreck, and Peyton Manning could slip on a banana peel and suffer a head injury, and Vince Lombardi could have been abducted by aliens, and Tom Landry could have had his hat too tight and suffered a stroke, and Mean Joe Green could have turned Buddhist and lost his killer instinct.
I don't see it. Randy is auditioning for his last big contract. So he can retire and smoke weed for the rest of his life. With the way he is playing, the likelyhood of the pats resigning him, a year after signing two starting receivers is minimal. Just remember he's making 3M this year, which will probably escalate to 5M. That's pennies for a receiver of his talent level. He's going to command 10M a year next year with a gianormous signing bonus.
I don't discount the possibility....but don't forget, he took a MONSTROUS cut in pay to be here in the first place. I think after being in Purgatory....I mean Chokeland with the Faders, he may never want to leave NE. I think he is in it for the glory now.
I dunno, judging by his demeanor he hasn't enjoyed football the way he is now in a long time. I don't really see him leaving for money when he probably already has a shit ton of it. It's going to come down to what's more important money or happiness and if he already has money ... I'm also sure a good agent could get him some nice advertising deals after this season.
You can't pay three receivers starting money when 3 of your starting lineman will likely ask to have their contracts extended in the offseason. I think NE will try to protect Brady before trying to keep the shiny receiver. as much fun they are having right now, the nfl is still a business.
Randy Moss isn't the most marketable personality. Philly Blunts doesn't have the marketing budget to pay him the big bucks.
He's been a model NFL citizen this season. Granted he had a fairly questionable image coming into this season but now he's being mentioned among NFL MVP candidates, being a leader to the receiving corps on one of the best offensive football teams in league history and will probably end up with a Lombardi trophy. It's tough to change the publics perception of your image, but he's done nearly everything possible this season to do that. I'd be willing to be he could get some advertising dollars.
Yup, here come the Fedex Commercials.... Can't you see a "Fathead" commercial with Randy in full afro mode?:rofl: :rofl:
Joe Montana got hurt in 1991 and the 49ers won their last super bowl the following season. Peyton Manning obviously has already suffered the serious head injury and yet alas that is not enough to slow down the one and out Indy dynasty. Vince Lombardi retired from coaching in 1968 and the Packers went 28 years before they won their next championship. Even if he had not retired the Packers would have been finished at the latest by 1970 when he died of intestinal cancer at the early age of 57. Tom Landry lost his touch for the big game after 1978. The Cowboys did not see another Super Bowl until Jimmy Johnson got them there in 1992. Mean Joe Greene retired at the age of 35 in 1981 and the Steelers did not see a Super Bowl again for 14 years. All of the above, with the exception of our hyper-egotastic favorite, were important parts of dynasties and all of them fell to the vagaries that any extremely competitive environment produces, some catastrophically like the post-Lombardi Packers and some naturally like the aging Pittsburgh Steelers.