What I thought was interesting was his contention That New England was not even the favorite to represent the AFC at this point. He tabbed Indy and San Diego as more likely to be the Super Bowl team from the AFC. I can't say I agree that San Diego is more likely at this point but I think he has a point with Indy. Indy put New England down the ladder a notch with that comeback win in the AFC Championship and I have to agree with him that New England doesn't get that back by bringing two talented attitude problems into it's locker-room. The other big what-if at this point is who exactly is going to set the pace for New England at halfback? No Dillon, Maroney somewhat banged up, no runningback until the 6th round of the draft. Sammy Morris isn't going to do it. San Diego is NOT going to let Michael Turner go to the Pats. I just don't see them as having an answer there right now that they can rely on.
Maroney should be fine. You might not know this because it was a blip in a Boston paper, but the Pats are switching to zone blocking to fit Maroney's style, and I doubt we'll see 8 in the box on every down with Moss and Stallworth running the sidelines. I agree though the RB situation is not ideal. We're certainly going to miss Dillon in those short yardage situations. I don't by any means think the Pats are a lock, but Indy got weaker on defense and the Pats got stronger on both sides. And it was their defense that got Indy to that AFCC game in the first place. SD may be the biggest threat, but what he failed to mention was they have a new head coach, new DC, and an unproven OC. How often does that work out I wander? And Cinci-Balt-Pitt not far behind the Pats? Are you freaking kidding me? Baltimore definitely, but Cinci and Pitt suck. If he said Baltimore and the Jets, then I'd agree. So like I said, I've seen more intelligent writing in here.
While Moss' deal is "cap-friendly" getting him there doesn't seem to be... _______________ http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/colum...li_len&id=2859992&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab3pos2 No one need pass the collection basket for New England quarterback Tom Brady, who in the wee hours of Sunday morning agreed to restructure his contract to help Patriots management carve out the salary-cap room necessary to absorb the initial $9.75 million charge for wide receiver Randy Moss. It was, of course, a selfless gesture by one of the NFL's classiest performers. But while Brady was universally lauded, and justifiably so, people should know this: The reworking of the contract didn't cost Brady anything at the pay window. He still will earn the $6 million that is due him in 2007. Not a penny less. The money will just be distributed differently, that's all. Instead of having a base salary of $6 million for this year, Brady received a signing bonus of $5.28 million and had his base salary reduced to $720,000. Do the math, and unless your calculator is defective, that still adds up to $6 million. Fact is, the maneuver actually netted Brady an additional $2.7 million over the course of his current contract, because as a part of the restructuring, the Patriots raised his scheduled base salary for the 2009 season from $2.3 million to $5.0 million. New England officials didn't alter his base salaries for 2008 ($5 million) or 2010 ($3.5 million). And Brady is still set to receive roster bonuses of $3 million each for 2008 through 2010. That extra $2.7 million in base salary for 2009, however, is going to seem like little more than chump change in the big picture. And for Brady -- who bailed out the Pats on the Moss deal but also aided his own cause on and off the field -- it'll probably be sooner rather than later. How so? Because while the restructuring for this year reduced Brady's 2007 salary-cap charge to $7.346 million, roughly $4 million less than before the deal was redone Sunday morning, it inflated the cap hit for each of the subsequent seasons through 2010. All of the maneuvering with the new six-year, $60 million contract that Brady signed in May of 2005 -- the initial $14.5 million signing bonus, a $12 million option bonus in March 2006 that was converted into a second signing bonus, and Sunday's machinations -- means the quarterback is carrying prohibitive cap charges over the final three seasons of the contract. Just how prohibitive? Try a cap charge of $14.626 million for 2008. Stan Liu/US PRESSWIRE Without a new deal, Tom Brady's cap number will become a big problem for the Patriots. Even if the league's spending limit increases to $116 million in 2008, as anticipated, Brady's cap charge, if untouched, would represent a whopping 12.6 percent of the New England budget. By comparison, his cap charge for 2007 is 6.7 percent of a $109 million cap. For owner Bob Kraft, such an excessive amount tied up in one player in 2008 would leave him little recourse. He would almost certainly have to negotiate a new contract, which could be one of the most lucrative in NFL history, or extend the current deal. Reducing such a monumental cap charge by consummating what is known as a "simple" restructuring -- taking a player down to the minimum salary and making up the difference in a signing bonus, which is, essentially, what the Pats did Sunday -- merely increases the future cap liability. It just delays the inevitable, and even with all of the various cap juggling and bookkeeping maneuvers available to every team (particularly to high-revenue franchises like New England), sooner or later the credit card balance has to be paid. It's not as if Brady has ever needed leverage. But if he did, well, he's going to have $14.626 million worth of it next spring, when his 2008 salary cap charge kicks in. About the only viable way to eventually squeeze out from under such a ponderous cap charge, short of releasing a player -- which isn't going to happen in Brady's case -- is to go overboard with a huge contract. Even extending a contract, which allows a franchise to string out the prorated items, has some built-in pitfalls. Given their cap acuity, the Pats could probably knock down Brady's 2008 cap charges to something more acceptable, as they did Sunday, but that just temporarily silences the piper. At some point, the piper has to be paid, or his song grows increasingly shrill. That's one of the similarities between NFL fiscal policies and real-world economics. Teams with cash on hand, and New England certainly qualifies as one, can always shrink salary-cap charges. What they can't do is wipe them out altogether. There's a lot of bookkeeping hocus-pocus in the league, but not even the shrewdest salary-cap manager has yet divined a way to make all the charges disappear. So with Brady's cap charges mounting, there aren't a lot of alternatives for the Patriots, outside of negotiating a new, monster deal. Even though Brady this season will hit just the halfway point in his current six-year contract. A new contract would still include some carryover charges, in terms of prorated bonuses, from the current one. But it might be the best and most manageable way for New England officials to address Brady's soaring future cap charges. And consider what a deal it could be, given the exquisite timing for Brady, with the possibility that he and the Patriots could be coming off a fourth Super Bowl victory next spring. By aggressively adding to their roster this offseason, particularly at wide receiver, the Patriots figure to be among the Super Bowl favorites in 2007. A fourth Super Bowl ring would lift Brady into elite company, joining Pittsburgh's Terry Bradshaw and San Francisco's Joe Montana as a four-time Super Bowl winner. It might also catapult Brady into an incredibly astronomical tax bracket. Back in 2005, when agent Don Yee negotiated Brady's current contract, the quarterback was coming off his third Super Bowl victory. At that time, Brady took a deal that allowed the Patriots to hold their team together, to do business without being hamstrung by the kind of $100 million contracts some other quarterbacks have signed. The next time around, his sense of team aside, Brady could absolutely break the bank. Indeed, it's just a matter of time until the restructuring completed Sunday precipitates -- perhaps mandates, in fact -- a new contract. The two-time Super Bowl MVP, under such a deal, certainly could become the NFL's richest player. Kraft and coach Bill Belichick have fostered an estimable culture in which players have put the team first, and accepted deals for less money than they might have banked elsewhere. That was not necessarily the case with Brady's contract in 2005, which, by most measures used in assessing value, was still a tremendous deal in terms of average, if not raw numbers. But the Patriots might not be as fortunate the next time they sit down with Brady and Yee at the bargaining table. As for the one-year contract that Moss signed with the Patriots this week -- which replaces the two seasons he had remaining on his deal with the Oakland Raiders -- it includes a roster bonus of $500,000 and a base salary of $2.5 million. There is an escalator that could raise the value by $1.5 million if Moss reaches certain predetermined performance levels, and $250,000 in incentives that he's not likely to earn. The 2007 cap charge for Moss, who was to have earned base salaries of $9.75 million this season and $11.25 million for '08 under his Raiders' contract, is an affordable $3.06 million.
Good read on Moss. Gives some insight into what happened to him after getting a scholarship to Notre Dame and why he is what he is today. BTW, Lou Holtz called him the greatest athlete coming into college that he ever saw. http://patriots.bostonherald.com/patriots/view.bg?articleid=198503
Me? Correct on Wes Welker being a very important player. Correct on Chad Jackson being fairly useless. Horribly incorrect on Randy Moss.
Welker put up excellent #s but NE would be 16-0 w/ or w/o him. Moss was the key to their offseason. Welker and Adalius Thomas were both horribly overpaid. Anyone could do what Wes has done w/ the other weapons NE has in that offense, nobody pays attention to Welker and he gets all the dumpoffs.
re: 447 Welker is a big reason the Patriots are undefeated. Also, he's better than Wayne Chrebet. Sooner or later you're going to have to admit it.
I don't believe that for a second.... Any viable #2 or #3 WR in the NFL could and would put up numbers like Welker did in that offense.... Welker is rarely, if ever, matched up with a #1 or even #2 CB. If a pro WR cannot get open and make catches, when he has Tom Brady throwing to him, and 4+ seconds to get open every play, while guarded by a Nickel back, a LB or a S, he does not deserve to be on the roster.... This thread makes Br4dw4y5ux look pretty damn smart, too.... Pretty much everything he said in the first 5 pages of this thread was spot on (except he picked them to go 14-2, not 16-0).... And for the record, I was right that Barrett wasn't going anywhere....
Okay, Welker sucks ass then. (I don't have time to argue it anymore today. Let a Patriots fan do it.)
Welker has very little to do w/ why NE is unbeaten. A good portion of his production was from when NE was running up the score in blowouts. ANYBODY could put up his #s playing his position in that offense. Nobody pays attention to him, he's always in a mismatch. He averages just 10 yards per rec. I think Chrebet was a bit overrated by Jet fans BUT he's still much better than Welker. he amde the big, tough catches something welker doesn't do, at his peak he averaged 15 yards per rec while Welker is a 10 yards per guy so far. Welker is more like a Wayne around '95 and '96. Welker is very overrated and NE overpaid giving him $10 mil guaranteed and giving up 2 picks for him.
I have a little more time right now, so what the heck... I think you are nuts with this. I do know that you watch fewer Patriots games than I do for the simple fact you attended 7 more Jets games than I did this season. You probably saw at least 4 fewer Patriots games than I did. Therefore, you've seen Welker less this season than have I. I'm not new to football. I understand Moss was being covered by the opponent's best CB (or CBs). I know what Welker's role is and he does not need to average 20 yards per catch to be highly effective. Welker was a major headache for the Patriots opponents this season. Also, for what it's worth Welker was much more a factor last week than was Moss. Moss turned in a Don-Maynard-in-Super-Bowl-3 decoy performance. I already know I'm not changing your mind. You can get into fights over at Football Outsiders if you like. Their stats tell a similar story as mine. Welker is important, very important. 4th best WR performance in 2007. http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/wr.php Code: RECEIVING: Minimum 50 passes, 87 players ranked Player Team DPAR DPAR Rank PAR PAR Rank DVOA DVOA Rank VOA Passes Yards TD Catch % 81-R.Moss NE 51.5 1 51.4 1 32.1% 4 32.0% 159 1482 23 62% 81-T.Owens DAL 44.1 2 43.9 3 32.3% 3 32.2% 141 1355 15 57% 87-R.Wayne IND 43.5 3 44.0 2 26.9% 7 27.4% 156 1515 10 67% 83-W.Welker NE 37.1 4 35.7 4 23.9% 10 22.2% 145 1175 9 77%
Watching today's game? Kevin Faulk is playing the Wes Welker role.... 5 catches, 50 yards in the 1st half so far..... Faulk is a 3rd down back for the Pats... Is he a great receiver? No, he benefits from great matchups and tons of time to get open.... Put Kevin Faulk in the slot for 16 games, or even as a RB out of the backfield who Brady looks too often enough, and he'd have 100 catches and a 10 yard average too...
Faulk is playing the Faulk role today for fucks I mean, Faulk's sake. Welker is still playing the Welker role. 112 receptions speaks volumes. To say anybody could do what Welker did this year is asinine. It's going to be a tough job by you and junc to prove to me that Welker is just another piece of shit.
There's no way to 'prove' it one way or another, but trying to disprove our arguments using Welker's statistics is not going to get you anywhere, as the whole argument is that it doesn't take a very good player to accumulate those numbers in that role... Take Welker away from this offense, Jabar Gaffney steps into his role and they don't miss a beat.. Take Randy Moss away, and they're a different team, and Welker wouldn't put up numbers even close to what he did this year... To put it another way... Richie Anderson was a very good receiving FB... But just because he caught 88 passes one season does not mean he was great and essential to the success of the team.... Any decent role player could have accumulated those numbers in that offense with that many opporunities....
I wholeheartedly disagree. What else can I say? Gaffney is not quick enough to make the types of play Welker makes. The Patriots acquired Welker for a specific reason and he did not disappoint.
Oh, I'm not going to argue that Welker does not play his role well, because he does.... But it is my opinion that 75% of the #2 and #3 WRs currently playing in the NFL would produce similar numbers if they had Welker's role in the Pats' offense....
I don't think there are more than 3 players who would have produced the same numbers as Welker if they were in his spot on this NE team. Derrick Mason, Bobby Engram and Kevin Curtis are the guys I'm thinking could have come close to equaling Welker's performance. Welker has succeeded because he is quick and shifty and is pound-for-pound one of the tougher WRs in the league. I almost always hate these types of arguments because I can already see nobody is going to budge. We'll have to agree to disagree and be done with it.
I think it is very tough to compare Chrebet to Welker. Welker has the benefit of playing on arguably one of the best teams of all times. Chrebet never had that luxury, yet remained a tough gutsy WR who made many tough catches. A healthy, in his prime Chrebet could possibly have had similar numbers with the Pats this year as Welker did.
