upstater1
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I lagrely agree with all of this, but I wonder what this means: " I feel like most people here don't have an issue with Belichick's coaching, it's more about the team he's constructed, especially on offense. Obviously, those feelings are justified. So, having already started making some compromises, it makes sense for Bill to make one on the offensive side and trust whoever is making those decisions."As I wrote, no one is going to want to come here if Belichick is fired and the quarterback is dealt, not without grossly overpaying them. That will last at least a couple of years until it reaches a point where players are comfortable with this team being a destination where they can be confident with both the team and their potential success. With Belichick still as coach, you can deal the QB and still have free agents who he can sit across from him and feel good about coming here, provided they have a reasonable plan moving forward.
The best path forward might be a compromise where Belichick stays, and someone is put in charge of selecting offensive players, with Belichick still having the final say among defensive selections.
I feel like most people here don't have an issue with Belichick's coaching, it's more about the team he's constructed, especially on offense. Obviously, those feelings are justified. So, having already started making some compromises, it makes sense for Bill to make one on the offensive side and trust whoever is making those decisions.
But firing him is going to be a major setback because we're going to be even further down the list than we already are, and despite the terrific amount of cap space, it won't matter if the people they try and spend it on decline to come here unless the Patriots outbid everybody. Then, that just creates a different problem that will make it tough to be competitive.
So if Bill will at least be flexible, if they can figure it out, there's continuity without the chaos and it's a smoother transition.
I've been asking repeatedly for 3 weeks now for people to lay it out. What are we talking about? So far there have been 3 answers: the N'Keal Harry bust, the Tyquan pick, and not drafting Dawand Jones. That's all I've seen from people. Because otherwise I've seen Belichick invest a heap of picks in the offensive line (5 of the them in the interior) over the last 2 years. I've seen us take multiple top WRs and TEs available in the FA market (Algholor, Bourne, JuJu, Henry, Jonnu, Gesicki). They've expended a lot of resources. The conclusion can only be that FA was not the place to address pass catchers the last couple of years. The next FA market might change that, who knows. But also, FA was not the place to address our tackle problems, since the top tackles signed for $90m guaranteed, and they are now considered busts.
This is what brings me back to the draft. Taking Tyquan is fair criticism (though I think he may actually be very good if only he could stay healthy). Not taking Dawand is also fair criticism.
But people who are criticizing Belichick for his defensive focus at the top of the last draft are essentially telling us we shouldn't have taken Gonzalez and Keion White. I can't go along with that at all.
When you're putting together a team, you can be criticized for draft errors (Tyquan and Dawand) and for not expending enough money to bring in FAs (an odd thing to criticize Belichick for when the reporters around here have been yelling for years he shouldn't go on spending sprees). But you shouldn't b criticized for making strategic decisions like taking a top defender over a 1st round WR. It's not the way to buil;d a team.
All I'm asking is that we're absolutely specific when we make a generalized comment about blowing it when it comes to the offense.