chevss454
Data-driven decision-making is science and art.
Neither would Brady. His OL would be blitzed to shreds worse that the first Giants SB.
I am missing your point totally. Can you please explain. Sorry if it is obvious. It is Monday and I am having one of those days. LOL
Thank you. I understand now the point you are making.I'd be glad to, but I made several points and I'm not sure which particular one you're missing.
If I had to guess it'd be this part:
All I was trying to get across is that you can put together an entire starting team of guys that we couldn't keep, wouldn't keep or couldn't make it here and they could likely kick our ass. If I was Boston media person I'd have said "Belichick is too cheap to pay them", but that is the cheapest of cheap shots and I don't buy it anyhow.
All I did was make up a team of guys presently playing in the league that used to be on the Patriots roster and it's pretty clear that those guys could probably beat the 2020 team.
I then tried to note that it isn't like we didn't WANT all of those guys and just threw them on waivers. It is true of some of the players I listed, but most of them earned a free agent payday by performing very well, such as Chandler Jones and Tom Brady, etc., However, If people listen to Mike Felger (et al) for more than 5 minutes you'll likely hear him accuse the Patriots of "cheaping out" on contracts for players who are key members of the team and justly deserve to get paid. He says those exact words or something similar all the time, conveniently forgetting that the Pats have spent virtually all of their cap money every single season excepting for a little emergency reserve. The 2020 50-60M cap surplus is an outlier number, not the norm, so I take issue with those that accuse the Pats of being cheap.
Still, there are a lot of quality guys on that list, so if the Pats aren't cheap then they have been a lot better at acquiring NFL talent than is commonly believed. The last time I saw a list of former Pats still active in the NFL there were about 60 of them.
I'd bet that the number two team in terms of ex players still in the league wouldn't even be close to that number.
This is exactly my take on the topic and it's an underrated aspect of Belichick's (I know he isn't your favorite guy) ability as a GM. Most teams eventually have a shitty year, try to hit on a superstar or two in the draft and if they do that over the course of a couple of years then suddenly they have a shot at the Super Bowl. Then, those stars hit FA and if they resign, then the team is often exactly as you describe; "top end and a dropoff" and something has to give.The Patriots over the years have the highest number of mid-range players which is a departure from most teams who have a good portion of high priced, top end players and then a drop off behind them. This is why the Pats have had so many quality players leave and do well vs a lot of elite players floating around. Bill just does not build the team that way. He values depth, he values all three units being strong, he wants consistency across the board with very little weakness.