How Have We Improved

The price of a Super Bowl is that marketable FA's have a greater value due to being part of a Super Bowl champion ... that is the reality of the NFL ... Belichick has the draft and possible trades and possible veteran training camp cuts to round out the roster ... plenty of time to reload and change the team ... Belichick is the best at many ways to skin a cat - go seek Xanax and smoke a bone if you cannot be patient.

How have we improved...

1.) Consistency on offense. Our entire offense is coming back, think about the last time brady had all of his weapons 2 years in a row. Edleman, LaFell, Gronk are the big three, but you toss in Amendola who came up big in the playoffs and you have a group of guys capable of scoring on any defense in the league. On top of that you add in scott chandler giving us TRUE depth behind gronk, two power backs in Blount and Gray. The offensive line isn't a question mark going into the season. Offensively we didn't need to get better, and by not losing any major pieces (vereen is a minor piece imo) just the trust brady has with these guys after a full season is improvement enough.

2.)Defensively. We lost some major pieces here, but lets take a look at those pieces.

Revis: this one hurts, but if we keep revis we lose everywhere else. Football is the ultimate team sport, and $40 in guarantees to a cornerback in his 30's is just too much money. Revis can't carry a defense by himself, Bill knows this, if we had resigned revis tot he numbers he wanted we would have lost multiple guys. We made it to the AFCCG without him, and superbowls without him, we can do it again.

Browner: Big strong bad mother lover. but a penalty machine. Browner doesn't fit into the zone scheme we are going to have to move to, so he moved on.

Vince: Big vince, the heart of the Dline, he'll be missed, but he was on the wrong side of his 30's and was not worth 8 million.

Every year the team that wins the superbowl gets ravaged by vultures looking to take pieces. and from where I'm sitting lose vereen, browner, revis, and wilfork. we are still very much is a good place this year, AND for years to come.

Look at the other teams in our division and see how much cap space they dedicated to teh defensive side of things. The jets just put 60-70 million in guaranteed money into 3 corner backs.

The dolphins just put the entire franchise into the hands of a player with impulse control issues who is one bad play away from a 6 game suspension.

The bills are throwing money at everything they possibly can to try and keep pace with the patriots.

If anything they weight the division rivals put on themselves makes the patriots better.

BobDigital said:

Well lets look.

DE - Added Shread - improved

DT - Lost Wilfork but Easley should be back and healthy... assuming we add a decent 5th player - improved

LB - Getting Mayo back - improved

S - Same guys as last year - same

CB - Goes without saying - Massive Decline

QB - No Changes - Same

TE - Added Chandler - improved

WR - No big changes yet but Gibson/Dobson could be better back end depth. We will see - Same

OL - Need to replace/upgrade Connolly. I am sure they will - Same or improved (pending)

RB - N/A - Going to be a lot of movement here. We will see.

STs - White/Ebner will be healthy - Improved

So overall some spots look better right now than at the end of last year. They still have things to do though but are probably again going to be the best AFC team next year IMO.

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ill comment on the items i feel need commenting

(1) DE - agreed. improved. but he is our 3rd option
(2) LB- does getting Mayo back make us better? who is he replacing? I can make a pretty good argument we are better without him
(3) S - same players, different scheme next year. Chung going back to position he played prior to what we did last year.
(4) CB - this is the big one. im not asking for a great player like revis. but where can we even get a good one?

all the other positions I dont think are issues.

I think we draft Guard and D Line exceptionally well and can find solid replacements in draft.

Did I miss Sheard getting unsigned or something? Easley not healthy? Mayo not coming back? An incredibly young D doesn't improve with experience?

It's +&%$#@! insane around here. The logic is that, because Revis left, it's over.

Is the secondary worse without Revis? Yup. Is the D still good enough to win a title? Most likely.

Guess what? A HOF CB ISN'T NECESSARY TO WIN A RING.

I like how turning 38 six months from now is "almost 40."

Good God. Just won the SB and the pearlclutching is as bad as ever.

And here I thought I'd have to wait until next season for game thread hilarity...

I mean, i figured WINNING THE F***ING SuperBowl would buy a little bit of off-season trust this year.

Silly me.

I like this "we have zero corners!!!" stuff, too. Let's see. We have a guy who shuts T.Y. Hilton down routinely and the SB hero who made more great plays than just the one.

They don't have to be great. They have to be good enough. That secondary is already better than four of last year's AFC playoff teams, even if we assume no individual improvement whatsoever.

billdog3484 said:

ill comment on the items i feel need commenting

(1) DE - agreed. improved. but he is our 3rd option
(2) LB- does getting Mayo back make us better? who is he replacing? I can make a pretty good argument we are better without him
(3) S - same players, different scheme next year. Chung going back to position he played prior to what we did last year.
(4) CB - this is the big one. im not asking for a great player like revis. but where can we even get a good one?

all the other positions I dont think are issues.

I think we draft Guard and D Line exceptionally well and can find solid replacements in draft.

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That is all pretty fair.

1) He will see the field more than Ayers IMO. I can see a true 3 man rotation with Jones being moved inside on passing downs more often.
2) Disagree. If you want to talk about dumping his contract and using the money maybe. He is way better than Casillas or Ayers. The argument you could make is that can this really be considered truly an upgrade as we was on the team last year. Injuries happen and we need to assume some of our players will get injured again at some point.
3) We will see. Same players with less help will be a little more exposed but that is not cause their play got worse.
4) Yes very big. It out weighs all the gains I think we are getting. It needs to be addressed before the season starts.

billdog3484 said:

From 2005-2013 we had the worst 3rd down defense i have ever seen. The most frustrating football I have had to watch.

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I'm going to just respond to this piece because it pretty much identifies the value of the 'rant'.

From 2005-2013 the Patriots ranked 3rd in NFL in points allowed.
They were 1st in wins. 110-34. That is 12.2-3.8 on average. The next best team won 99. Only 1 other team averaged 10 wins.
The Patriots were 2nd in takeaways.

billdog3484 said:

I can make a pretty good argument we are better without him

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You can?

billdog3484 said:

Chung going back to position he played prior to what we did last year.

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How do you know?

And now, we're somehow better without Mayo. Amazing.

They're doing the best they can with the cap that is in place. That's all they can do. They still have cap room, maybe Evan Mathis, maybe a trade.

Plus lots of good draft picks.

billdog3484 said:

you guys dont get it. i never said the sky is falling, in fact i said i didnt think that was the case.

this is a passing league now. We have 0 corners.

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Everybody gets it. No one thinks the team right now is better than the team that beat Seattle 7 weeks ago. It's a work in progress.

We just won the elfin' Super Bowl, and everyone is gunning for us. If we don't win it this year the sky won't fall, though I suspect that come January we'll be in the mix again.

Oswlek said:

You can?



How do you know?

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Of course because we clearly would be better signing a bunch of slugs in March so that we could be excited in March. Who cares what a guy does on the football field. Its FREEAGENCYDAMNIT and people are saying we are doing bad at it. Why can't we have shiney new pieces to gloat about. I don't understand why Belichick has to sacrifice our happiness in competing with the Dolphins, Jets, Redskins,etc to be Champs in March also.
Now he's going to go to the draft and pick some guys we can't brag about as genius picks just because they will make the team better on the field. I want this team to be better on the message boards too.

FCB02062 said:

The OP makes a statement based on facts, asks a simple question, yet people on here accuse the guy of "whining." Truth is Miami, Buffalo, and the NYJ have signed some quality players (and haven't lost much that i can see) whilst the Pats have lost a ton and haven't signed anyone that is not currently a JAG based on their prior year's production. Sure, maybe this Jamaal Shared fella will amount to something, but something about him screams SHAWN CRABLE to me.
right now this team is going into the season with Arrington, Butler, Logan Ryan, Chimidi Okomngtononbalanhgni at corner....is terrence newman going to make a difference? All signs point back to that horrific defense of the last 5, 6 years prior to this season. Many fans say the Pats will switch to a more pressure-oriented front - is Jabari Shield the answer to the pass rush? Look, Ninkovich is a year older, and Chandler Jones is a shoe in to miss 5-7 games next year....just not too confident right now. I'd say, ok, win with offense and OUTSCORE the other team, but Johnson left with no contract as did Bush League...why no signings? Krafty gotta make more cardboard boxes or something?

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What facts ? He gives his opinion and others are disagreeing with it and based on the circular nature of the offseason criticism point out to relax and wait until he sees the final product.

Let's see how the team looks after final cuts..

hornetfb85 said:

I'm gonna start watching bowling and mowing the grass on Sundays.

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Not me. I going to sit around and worry about the Pats not getting any better for the next 6 months

Fixit said:

It's +&%$#@! insane around here. The logic is that, because Revis left, it's over.

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UMMMMM NOOOOO. i just want to know how we are going to come close to replacing him

We should stop downplaying the loss of Revis he was the difference maker in the defense last season. We played against elite quarterbacks throughout the year and he made it possible to gameplan effectively against them. Good thing this year we do not face as many elite QBs. Luckily we still have Brady and Gronk those two alone can change the course of any game so the Pats should be fine as long as the CB position is addressed as well as other areas that need some depth. I saw the offense carry the worst secondary to start a Superbowl in 2011 this one even with its losses is better not saying we should be happy with what we have so far, but just a thought.

AndyJohnson said:

I'm going to just respond to this piece because it pretty much identifies the value of the 'rant'.

From 2005-2013 the Patriots ranked 3rd in NFL in points allowed.
They were 1st in wins. 110-34. That is 12.2-3.8 on average. The next best team won 99. Only 1 other team averaged 10 wins.
The Patriots were 2nd in takeaways.

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ok...read what i wrote in full and comment on it in full context.

did i say anything about Points Allowed by the Defense? I know I commented that we won also. so if you are going to try and take a dig, present all the facts of what i wrote