Patriots/NFL 2024 Off Season: Free Agency, Draft Part II

[Troublesome 85]

Jags had AEW
Pats had WWE

Not sure if double posted

 

[KrejciMVP]

The issue is that Bill the GM made things ten times harder for Bill the Coach and his coaching staff. He lowered the floor of the team significantly every single year in the final five years of his tenure. I don't want to hear about age or any of that. All of that could've been avoided if Bill didn't make the team in a way that was comfortable for him to coach rather than win football games. I understand it's not going to get fixed overnight, but to expect that they don't do something better than a roster of a 4-13 team next season is asinine. This team has to move things in a more positive direction so they don't f*** up with Drake Maye the way Bill f***ed up with Mac Jones. Despite what people may argue here, this kid is drawing comparisons to Trubisky as a prospect for a worse case scenario. If that ends up happening all because the Patriots don't build around him, then they will have wasted a high value pick when they could've gotten Marvin Harrison Jr and signed a free agent QB.

Furthermore, as much as I agree that Brissett should eat some snaps early on before Maye goes out there, taking a QB at number three overall makes that harder to justify. Especially if the roster isn't up to scratch. If the roster is the same around Brissett as it will be Maye, what's the point of letting a lesser QB eat bad shots and throw away games? This team needs to



Bingo.

If the 49ers had Alex Smith sit behind somebody after taking him first overall, everyone in San Francisco would've been calling for the head of the GM, coach, and owner all at once. Penix was drafted at the top half of the draft and is in his mid 20s. He needs to start now.

what other QB's did Bill ruin besides the one who has the worst arm in the NFL

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

what other QB's did Bill ruin besides the one who has the worst arm in the NFL

I was gonna say, didnt he make competent starters out of (and get them good money from other teams) Cassel, Jimmy G and Brissett? Hell, even Hoyer got himself some good contracts as a backup

 

[EvilDead]

Was it time to make a change? Yes

Was Bill the GM the problem? No

This offseason makes it pretty clear what the issue is with the organization and its in the owner's box. $100m in cap space and a haul of impact FA available and their "spend money, no business as usual" plan is to re-sign their own average FAs from a 4-13 team? Wooo...

The Krafts are clearly meddling and running things on an internal budget.

As compared to letting all your best players walk and just completely letting the team sputter further like Belichick would've done? Because, you know, god forbid a player on the Patriots gets a second f***ing contract with the team. Can't have that shit despite the other 31 teams in the NFL doing it. If retaining Kyle Dugger, Josh Uche, Kenny Bourne, Michael Onwenu, and Hunter Henry while picking up some decent pieces like KJ Osborn, Austin Hooper, and Antonio Gibson to help raise the floor of this team is a loss then I would like to know what the f*** you consider to be a win. It's a small win, granted, but a win nonetheless.

I am not happy that the Krafts put a padlock on the wallet again. Don't get me wrong. This team needs to spend to win. But part of that is spending to keep players you already have that are impact players to provide leadership and consistency within the locker room. Something the Patriots were absolutely lacking outside of a select few guys in Belichick's last five seasons.

 

[KrejciMVP]

I was gonna say, didnt he make competent starters out of (and get them good money from other teams) Cassel, Jimmy G and Brissett? Hell, even Hoyer got himself some good contracts as a backup

after all those years the league targeted Bill and the Pats, it was Mac's noodle arm that was Bill's undoing

 

[EvilDead]

what other QB's did Bill ruin besides the one who has the worst arm in the NFL

Name for me one QB Belichick actually had a hand in scouting, drafting, and developing into being a good QB. If you say Brady, I'm going to laugh my ass off. Brady was a Dick Rehbein and Bobby Grier pick and Charlie Weis constructed that offense.

 

[KrejciMVP]

Name for me one QB Belichick actually had a hand in scouting, drafting, and developing into being a good QB. If you say Brady, I'm going to laugh my ass off. Brady was a Dick Rehbein and Bobby Grier pick and Charlie Weis constructed that offense.

I asked you first who Bill ruined. Jimmy G went to a superbowl, did Bill ruin him?

 

[EvilDead]

I was gonna say, didnt he make competent starters out of (and get them good money from other teams) Cassel, Jimmy G and Brissett? Hell, even Hoyer got himself some good contracts as a backup

Cassell was okay until his arm went. More of a QB tease more than anything.

Jimmy G only played three games under center for Bill and has more of Kyle Shanahan's influence on him now than Belichick and his coaching staff.

Brissett was a tackling dummy in Indianapolis.

Hoyer is a JAG to end all JAGs.

 

[EverettMike]

We don’t think that but they clearly do

Yes, and they're morons, because even if they think he's a can't-miss prospect they can't play both him and their high-priced, unmovable quarterback at the same time.

 

[EvilDead]

I asked you first who Bill ruined. Jimmy G went to a superbowl, did Bill ruin him?

Kyle Shanahan has had more of an influence on shaping Jimmy Garoppolo than Bill ever did. So no, he doesn't count either for Bill.

Furthermore, Bill really didn't develope any of the guys he had behind Brady. Now that could be due to a bunch of factors, granted. Still...Jarrett Stidham, Brian Hoyer, Ryan Mallett, Jacoby Brissett, Rohan Davey, Kliff Kingsbury, and so on. I can list a bunch of guys people thought had some potential to be serviceable players once they got away from Brady's shadow. The fact remains though that, outside of Matt Cassell, you can't really name any of the forgettable rookie QB backups behind Tom that Bill really had a hand in shaping that did any decent. Even in Cleveland, which I know is like going back to the 18th century for some people because of how different the game was then to today. Still, Tom Philcox and Eric Zeier were Belichick guys and they both did jack squat. He also royally screwed Bernie Kosar and worsened his decline before Kosar bolted for Dallas to back up Troy Aikman.

 

[RoccoF14]

I will say- that game against Texas remains one of the most impressive passing performances I’ve ever seen in college football

Yep. One of the best QB performances I saw all of last year.

I also watched him a bit when he was at Indiana (We got a lot of Big 10 football here). When he was healthy, he was the best QB in the conference. He gave #2 Ohio St fits during the 2020 pandemic season. He outplayed Fields in that game, by a wide margin. That was an Ohio St team that lost to Alabama in the Natty.

 

[EvilDead]

We don’t think that but they clearly do

I will say- that game against Texas remains one of the most impressive passing performances I’ve ever seen in college football

I thought I was watching Drew Bledsoe out there when watching Michael Penix slinging the ball down field. He has a cannon for an arm.

 

[TCB]

 

[JRull86]

Green Bay drafted Aaron Rodgers only to sit behind Brett Favre for three years. Happened before.

Rodgers way younger, also GB was already good with an aging QB.

Rodgers took over GB at the same age Penix will be going into the season. Having an over are guy sit for years like that is flat out stupidity.

They aren't comparable situations whatsoever.

Good for ATL for being happy about it, but it was still a huge blunder by them and their roster.

 

[EverettMike]

Rodgers way younger, also GB was already good with an aging QB.

Rodgers took over GB at the same age Penix will be going into the season. Having an over are guy sit for years like that is flat out stupidity.

They aren't comparable situations whatsoever.

Good for ATL for being happy about it, but it was still a huge blunder by them and their roster.

Every Falcons fan I read last night was apoplectic about the pick. The subreddit was in a complete meltdown.

 

[RoccoF14]

Green Bay drafted Aaron Rodgers only to sit behind Brett Favre for three years. Happened before.

If you want to use a better comparable move, I'd use GB's decision to draft Jordan Love #26 back in 2020, when they had Rodgers and had just come off a 3pt loss to the Niners in the NFC Championship game.

Awful decision at the time, that seems to have worked out for GB in the long run.....

 

[JRull86]

Every Falcons fan I read last night was apoplectic about the pick. The subreddit was in a complete meltdown.

It just makes zero sense to sign a guy like Cousins, just to make that pick. You knew your draft position before FA, and if they were that high on him, or any other non Williams/Maye/Daniels QB....sign a second tier guy and draft that player instead.

If the Patriots did this exact scenario, this forum would be absolutely unreadable.

 

[TCB]

 

[JRull86]

If you want to use a better comparable move, I'd use GB's decision to draft Jordan Love #26 back in 2020, when they had Rodgers and had just come off a 3pt loss to the Niners in the NFC Championship game.

Awful decision at the time, that seems to have worked out for GB in the long run.....

And at 26, it made way more sense, despite Rodgers being pissy about it, than at #8. It's also the age thing that's the biggest issue here w Penix outside of draft slot.

Love was 21.

He's going into his 5th season, and is 18 months older than Penix.

 

[RoccoF14]

And at 26, it made way more sense, despite Rodgers being pissy about it, than at #8. It's also the age thing that's the biggest issue here w Penix outside of draft slot.

Love was 21.

He's going into his 5th season, and is 18 months older than Penix.

I'm not hung up on Penix's age so much as I am his injury history and taking him at #8.

If Penix pans out and they can keep him protected, you're still going to get 10+ good years out of him.

As for Rodgers.....He's a dick but he was right to be pissy about it at the time. They were 3pts away from going to the Super Bowl the previous season and they used #26 to take a QB from Utah State that nobody ever heard of and was coming off of a down season.

That was a BALLSY move and Brian Gutekunst is very lucky it panned out. That's a career-ender if it doesn't.

 

[GatorMike]

More Deebo smoke?

 

[Mione134]

More Deebo smoke?

Deebo WANTED to be drafted by us. He was a big Patriots fan, still is. Was absolutely devastated when we didn't.

If we can grab him from the Niners, I say do it.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

More Deebo smoke?

This even more than free agency will indicate whether it truly is business as usual or not in Foxboro.

Cap space to burn and an elite guy at a position of critical need. Get it done

 

[RoccoF14]

Deebo WANTED to be drafted by us. He was a big Patriots fan, still is. Was absolutely devastated when we didn't.

If we can grab him from the Niners, I say do it.

All depends on the price tag. #34 alone ain't gonna do it.

 

[DNE3]

up or down depending.

All 49ers. How 49ers WR Deebo Samuel has Regressed