OldTimer1960

It was to clear the books to allow prudent spending on FA this year and to clear space to pay future contracts for young key players already on the roster and who will be drafted this year. Free Agency is by definition a very limited employee pool - those players whose contracts expire this year and who are not resigned or tagged by their current team. Obviously, that is not the deepest pool of potential acquisitions to be fishing in. Overpaying for "OK" starters and role players is not a recipe for long-term success. If player A is available in FA and is an upgrade over current players, is he worth what you will have to pay to sign him if it is 2-3x what a comparable player available in the draft can be had for? Further, I assume that of the available FAs, only maybe 2 of every 3, if that are "fits" for the culture/process/profile that they want here - and I'm completely on-board with that. That is the Patriot's model, with the exception that here the culture is not fully entrenched such that it will allow them to take a chance on misfits in the hope that the "locker room" will mold the misfit into a fit.

I'm not saying that there are no decent FAs available nor am I saying they should not sign any FAs. However, I don't think that they should go out and spend 80% of their available cap space - mostly because there aren't that many good FAs available. I hope that they can find one or two players to help the OL and maybe a few decent backup/rotational players - all of whom have to fit the McDermott/Beane culture.

Respectfully disagree. Overpaying for a year or two stop-gap sets up a bad scenario for the truly good young players on your roster at contract time.

True, but at what price? If you pay mildly competent players big money, you will end up right back in the hole they just dug themselves out of (IMHO).

Here is a summary of this year’s FAs. I don’t see much there to overspend on and get excited about. I trust this F.O. to spend judiciously and find a few contributors, but I don’t see it is as a good plan to spend $60mill in cap space for any group of these guys. These are gap fillers, not game changers. I see no attainable long-term starters that are real significant starters. I’d rather find a way to get more premium draft picks (top 64) than to spend heavily on any of these guys. Can they trade down in round one and nab another 2nd? Can they trade up from the 3rd for another 2nd? Can they trade 2 4ths for a late 3rd? Can they get a 2nd or 3rd in trade for a player currently on the roster? Money aside, what 2 or 3 FAs can you see in this class that are really top 1/3 of the league starters at their position? http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000001018706/article/top-101-nfl-free-agents-of-2019-demarcus-lawrence-at-no-1

Never in a million years would I trade a 1st or 2nd round pick for an extremely highly paid diva WR who is getting close to 30 y.o.

I really like what I’ve seen of Brown. If they can get him in the 2nd I think it would be a very good selection

He may be a good prospect, but success in the PAC-12 on offense needs to be scrutinized because they don’t play a lot of good defense in that conference. Again, he might be a tremendous prospect- just check the competition.

I haven’t read this whole thread, but would you not describe the Pats dynasty as “blue collar “?

Burns might be more experienced at 4-3 end, bu unless he can get to 250 lbs without losing much speed, flexibility, explosiveness he will have trouble in the NFL, in my opinion. 250 is even pretty light for an every down 4-3 end and I won’t be surprised if he is considerably lighter than that.

I think his draft position will be strongly affected by his combine measures and performance. I have seen his weight listed as light as 220 at 6’4” or 6’5”. If he comes in heavier, shows well in the strength and speed events, he could go pretty high. Questions include could he play 4-3 OLB or hold up as a 4-3 DE? If he shows up at under 240, he probably can’t play 4-3 DE, but might be a good candidate as a 3-4 OLB.

Spot on and I think that Edmunds is quite mature for his young age and appears to be very smart and takes his job seriously. He was right in Beane’s wheelhouse.

I think that those “solutions”, as you call them, were always stop-gaps not players that they were counting on as long-term solutions. I could give you that the trade for Benjamin was a shot at finding a player that they hoped would be a building block, but they also made that move with short-term intent to help them when they found themselves unexpectedly in playoff contention. That move didn’t work out, but the rest of the players you listed were never brought in with the thought that they were setting the stage for long-term success with those acquisitions.

I think they weigh intelligence, work ethic and football desire heavily. I like that.

Injuries in the NFL are huge. You are looking for on of the 32 best C in the world and you trash him because he couldn’t shotgun snap accurately against 325lb freak athletes with an injured snapping hand? Now, I don’t know if he’ll be any good as a starter, but writing him off because he struggled with an injury last year is too much, in my opinion.

I’m not a Noah Fant fan based on what I’ve watched and read - my unqualified opinion is no block, good receiver, great athlete. Beyond that, OL,DL,OL works for me. I like the OL emphasis very much, but at this point my unqualified opinion is that 1-9 is way too rich fir Risner.

Shooting high. Realistic expectations for the 9th pick are finding a good long-term starter. Of course, it would be great to get a perennial all-pro, but even in the top 10, those are hard to find.

Chris Kelsay had a good career. It is a shame that he is so maligned by some here.

Most guy’s highlight video is really good. I do like Hockenson, but of course his highlight video makes him look good - wouldn’t be highlights otherwise.

Bandit, what are you seeing in Garland? I've not seen him play, but looking him up, it looks like he has only started 7 games in his NFL career. Are you seeing him as a potential starting OG?

I think we are pretty aligned on that.

I’m not anti-Foster nor even predicting that he will fade to obscurity. I’m only saying that if the opportunity appears in FA or the draft to get a good WR, I would not turn it down just because Foster showed something at the end of the season.

I was encouraged by Foster’s late season performance, but it is premature to think that you can count on him to be a productive front line WR. I *hope* he continues to play well and get better, but there have been a lot of flash-in-the-pans who fade away.

I think it was an egregious decision to hit the woman, no question. We don’t know the context of the situation and we don’t know if the woman was an innocent victim, a clear offender or somewhere in between. His behavior is certainly something to consider, but if we were all banned from making a life for something we did at 18, many of us would be in terrible trouble. How many here could say that they have never done anything illegal ? How many have never driven when they had too much to drink or were high? How many have never said or done something they were not proud of?

I think you've nailed it. They are trying to build the Patriot's culture. In NE they do take chances on some under-achievers in FA, but they feel like they can do it because the established culture is so strong that the new guys will "get with the program" or be gone quickly. This approach requires that they (Pats) have the discipline to cut bait on guys who won't work early and decively enough so that it doesn't give others on the team the idea that slacking will be tolerated. I think that Beane and McDermott have done a good job of weeding out talented under-achievers like Dareus and Benjamin, but still too early in establishing the culture to spend high picks on guys who won't give their best.