Has Lombardi ever correctly predicted something that will happen with the Patriots using his supposed “inside information”? He just tells hindsight stories that can never be verified. He and Charlie Weiss have unearned reputations for being insiders. I am skeptical either has much access, and I think most of their scoops are mostly them believing they’re experts in how Bill thinks/operates and applying what they think he would do.
I doubt either Lombardi or Curran has much if any access, and if they did they would lose it the minute they asserted that they had it.
Curran mentioned that back in his print media days when he was on Bill's good side all it got him was Bill taking one five minute call from him every six months or so, and his recent TV-era Felgerizing has lost him such access these days.
Getting intel from anyone other than Bill is pretty useless, he keeps his key thoughts to himself.
I do think a lot of what they are saying is based on what they think Bill would do based on years of study.
It does seem more informed to me and a little less click-baity than what we get from most media members following the Pats.
Do you have anyone you'd suggest has inside access and/or is more in tune to how Bill does business?
I don't know of any.
Here's some things Lombardi said about the recent draft:
Coming from a former Patriots executive, this logic makes sense.
patriotswire.usatoday.com
“Just knowing how they operate, I couldn’t imagine they could get either one of Lance or Fields to a high enough point to justify trading up to get them. This is what fans don’t understand. If you have a grading system that you have to really adhere to, you’ve got to be able to say; well Lombardi says, ‘They don’t like Fields and they don’t like Lance.’ That doesn’t mean they don’t like them. What I’m saying is they don’t have them graded high enough to be able to justify them at that point in the draft.”
Michael Lombardi does not see New England land the Ohio State quarterback.
www.patspulpit.com
“I don’t think New England’s trading up to get Justin Fields,” Lombardi said. “I don’t see that. If you watch his throwing motion and you watch Tom Brady throw, they’re two different throwing motions. I don’t think they’re ever merging together.”
“Do they like Justin Fields? I don’t think so. Do they like Trey Lance? I’m not sure, I don’t know,” he said back then. “Just knowing how they operate, I couldn’t imagine they could get either one of Lance and Fields to a high enough point to justify trading up to get them.”
So, as above, at that point in time he thought SF was going to take MJ with #3 and thought NE would not trade up to get Lance or Fields.
In reality, SF took Lance, but
NE did not trade up to get Fields like many here were thinking/hoping they would.
NE could have made the CHI deal, but instead they sat and waited for Jones to fall to them, presumably because the grades they had on all of the above didn't merit committing next year's #1 like CHI did.
So, half right, half wrong, pick your favorite way to look at things.
To me, what makes Lombardi interesting is he explains not just what he is thinking, but why he is thinking it.
Far more interesting/useful than Felger telling his audience the night of the Jones draft that "BB got horny for a QB".
