2015 Patriots Offseason Thread

It took a long time for our defense to recover from losing Law. Thats really what concerns me, especially with the way the league has been trending.

What really kills me is he is costing us 5 mil on the cap to play for the Jets. That was a sunk cost.

That's not what the trade was.

EAGLES GET: QB Sam Bradford, 2015 5th round pick, conditional 2016 pick

RAMS GET: QB Nick Foles, 2015 4th round pick, 2016 2nd round pick

"Eagles will surrender 2016 2nd-round pick to Rams in QB trade no matter what. But will get back a conditional 2016 pick from Rams. It will be a 3rd if Bradford does not play at all; and a 4th if he starts less than 50 percent of plays."

Roy Helu signed with the Raiders, Walter Thurmond signed with the Eagles, Jets interested in Cromartie, Clint Boling likely to sign with Bengals, Reggie Bush visiting with 49ers, Orakpo visiting the Titans and Cardinals.

Ryan Matthews to Eagles. This is the most insane free agency I've seen.

It's incredible how arrogant you can be.... Revis is looked at as an exception and for damn good reason. He was the difference in having completely suspect defenses the previous 8 years or so and having a very good one last year. He plays the most important position on the field other than QB. Having him or a player like him (healthy Talib was similar) completely transforms the defense and makes it top notch.

On top of it they have 5m in dead money this year from his contract so the assertion that 5m in dead money 4 and 5 years from now is a big deal is disingenuous at best. The cap at that time will be way higher than it is now.

Plus, extending yourself for a guy like Revis is not what gets you in cap hell. Extending yourself for good to great players is. Revis is an all-time great in his prime playing some of his best football. He's not even some great player, he's one of the 10 best players in football at an extremely important position.

I don't know how the negotiations went so I can't get too mad at the team. Unfortunately, a lot of times these things don't get done because there is no trust and transparency so you can't be sure what you really need to pay to get a guy back, but make no mistake this is an epic loss and possibly even crippling to their chances at a repeat. If retaining him meant losing one of Hightower or Collins down the road then so be it. Those guys are replaceable. Revis, Brady and Gronk are not.

Apparently declined options still qualify a player for the compensatory draft pick formula, so Revis will net the Patriots a 3rd round pick in the 2016 draft. Vereen/Casillas will net them 6th round picks, and Browner/Wilfork will also return picks if they sign with another team (pending the Patriots signing other teams' free agents, of course).

Yea, they need to sign fewer than they lose.

Last year's contract with Revis was widely recognized as one of the few times in recently history that the Patriots played cap shenanigans with made-up years and future dead money. It's not something they like to do, and while they'll do it once for an elite player in his prime on a one-year deal, they weren't willing to do so again for a long-term deal into that player's mid-30s.

That last bit is what you're ignoring-- while Revis may have a year or two of his prime left, he does turn 30 this year, and the aging curve for cornerbacks is pretty damn steep. dcsoxfan1989 brought up Ty Law earlier in this thread-- the Patriots let him go entering his age 31 season, he had one good year with the Jets, signed a big deal with the Chiefs, and promptly sucked and was released. Asante Samuel, Nnamdi Asomugha, etc.-- even the formerly elite guys are prone to falling off a cliff. That position relies on elite athleticism, and once that begins to slip, no amount of technique or veteran wiles can help you run step for step with some young guy with 4.4 speed. You pay for future performance, not past performance, and there is no guarantee that Revis is going to be the same guy going forward. This is just like the Lester situation all over again-- no player is irreplaceable, and there are no prerequisites to winning. 

Those so-called suspect defenses, by the way, were two plays away from winning two additional Lombardi trophies, with two other AFC Championship Game appearances and seven total division titles. With single-game eliminations and a hard salary cap, the way to sustain success in the NFL is even more so to trust the process and build a strong team every year. That's how the Patriots have always operated, and they have a pretty damn good track record to show for it.

Noone was giving up more than a third round pick for Revis at one year, $20m. He might also have not been happy with the destination and held out.

The holding out is a good point but if we could have sent him to oakland for a late round draft pick that would've been preferable to the third rounder and seeing him at least twice a year (and maybe more if we see the Jets in the post season). The Jets always play us tough and for the first time in a while, we could have a very hard time winning the division. Revis won't just make it hard to beat the jets but he helps them get over the hump.

Add: Also, what about browner? He seemed like a bargain? Did he just not fit our team anymore with Revis gone?

Why would Oakland trade anything for him? They're not a contender, so having him for one year doesn't matter, and if they wanted him long-term, they'd just try to sign him in free agency. The same analysis applies to pretty much every other team out there. Maybe more importantly, the Patriots aren't so afraid of the Jets and aren't going to lose out on a high comp pick just to avoid facing him for one year.

Anyone else remember losing 1 SuperBowl bc a guy caught his only career ball with his head and another bc we didn't have the best TE in the world (a key to our offense)?

Also, an inability to protect Brady didn't help.

Listen, losing Revis stinks and absolutely makes the Pats weaker. But Super Bowls have been one without Revis in the past and they will be again. The Pats will adjust and be a part of the equation next year.