2019 Patriots Regular season thread

STFU idiot.  It was a joke.  Go throw a tantrum because the Patriots don't win a Super Bowl every f'ing year.  Biggest baby sports fan I've ever come across.

I think BB realizes that Brady is done, sad as it is to see. But, Brady wants to play some more. So, he will accept a deal from another team for one year, sort of like Johnny Unitas did when he went to the Chargers for a year. No one remembers he retired from San Diego. It didn't go well. I read that Johnny was shocked that at half time, some of the players were smoking joints. They didn't do that in Baltimore. The West Coast is different.

Anyway, it's not up to BB to decide. It's on Kraft. And Kraft probably sees the same thing. Brady is essentially done and a new QB has to take the reins. All the money saved on Brady's contract ($26 mil) can be used to built another strong team.

Anybody here see it differently?

I can't really get into the NBA until playoff time. It's 82 games of seeding pretty much.

When the Celtics get into the playoffs I'll pay attention. Hate to admit it, but I'm more of a bandwagon fan. I started following the UCONN Huskies when that was a big thing in the 1990s so I was more into college basketball than pro basketball, especially with the fun of March Madness, but I have kind of soured on college basketball since then.

As far as hockey goes I used to go to the Civic Center occasionally. I was a Hartford Whalers fan, not a Bruins fan. I actually missed Roger Clemens' 1st 20K on April 29, 1986 because I didn't have cable TV then and I could only follow the Red Sox on WTIC AM radio and they were broadcasting Game 7 of whatever the hell they call the second playoff round in hockey, and the Canadiens crushed the Whalers' dreams in overtime on a Claude Lemieux breakaway goal, but when the Whalers stupidly traded Ron Francis away, the team started to suck again and before long their jerk of an owner, Peter Karmanos moved them to North Carolina to become the Hurricanes and when they won the Stanley Cup (was in 2006?) I remember catching the last few minutes and it felt kind of weird and empty. It was the Whalers franchise but not the Whalers. Probably what Expos fans felt when they saw the Nationals win the World Series this year.

I watched the Bruins win the Cup in 2011. I watched them blow a 3-0 series lead the year before I think. Saw them lose the Stanley Cup to Chicago I believe (Joel Quenneville the ex-Whaler was the coach) and I did watch the Stanley cup last year when they failed to beat St. Louis in their own building during Game 7. Honestly, even when the Bruins won in 2011, it didn't do much for me. I definitely enjoyed the Celtics' title in 2008 with Allen (former Husky! One of my faves), Garnett, Pierce, Rondo, and Perkins and was disappointed when the Lakers got revenge two years later (Allen was so bad in Game 7 that year!).

I enjoy it but it's just not the same for me as it is with the Patriots (I go back to 1983 with the Pats - the Steve Grogan (to Stanley Morgan) years), so I feel their losses more heavily and enjoy the victories all the more, but even so that totally pales in comparison to my Red Sox. I live and die with them.

If Brady needs multiple elite pass catchers, an elite OL, and a good running game to go along with a top 3 defense that's a problem. Nick Foles types can win a title with a great balanced roster. Brady really struggled down the stretch last season even with an elite offensive line and Gronk and Edelman healthy, but the 2nd half of the AFCCG and a SB win made people forget. They need to get better at TE and WR, but there's a vibe from a lot of Pats fans that he only should play with Pro Bowl caliber WR's, yet the Patriots have never won titles with top WR's (with respect to Jules, Branch, and Brown).

This roster was absolutely flawed with real holes (so were former SB winning rosters), but Brady should've been more productive and is/was part of the problem. He's been more productive in the past with similar or lesser options. Brady limits the type of receiver they can acquire, each receiver needs to fit Brady's system and preferences…not the other way around. Look at how much the defensive system changes on a weekly basis and consider how predictable the Patriots offense has become, it's not like Brady can adjust his game to fit his current receivers. A guy like Metcalf would struggle here.

At this point my ideal scenario would be a three year extension on team friendly terms. The real compromise would be giving Brady a contract to play until his stated goal, and in return he takes less money. If Tom wants to get paid market value and/or Belichick doesn't believe he can be an above average QB the next two seasons they should part ways now. It doesn't make sense to bring him back for 1yr at $25-30m+.

From Jeff Howe on The Athletic (which has a lot more about how the Patriots and Brady might reunite as well): theathletic.com/1510849/2020/01/05/tom-brady-future-patriots/


I think the Dolphins make some sense with Flores but they fired Chad O'Shea so might be starting over on offense, and Brady might not want to face the Pats twice. The Colts are weird because he'd be displacing Brisett and dealing with Manning's legacy. The Chargers are so snakebitten and don't even have a home crowd. Maybe the Bucs?

Here's my sleeper: Las Vegas Raiders. No baggage, close to the West Coast, add a Franchise Savior buzz to a new team. Not sure if the coaching/ownership situation is too much of a minus, but for 2 more years who cares.
If they were smart the Bears would ditch Mitch and make a push, but the money isn't easy to find.

I still say Kraft drops the hammer and Brady comes back.

Two guys whose opinions I respect both just said this morning that they don't put much of the blame on Tom for the Pats offensive woes this year, Rex Ryan and Dan Orlovsky. The problem is with weapons and the line.

Given what BB said in his press conference this could be an interesting offseason.

Lots of players on D with expiring contracts so their will be some losses their. Seems like for Tom to stick around they will need to spend money on the offensive side of the ball. Kraft wants Tom to stay so does that turn into an internal debate between the 3 most important Patriot leaders? I don't think BB is going to like being dictated to as to how he is going to build next years team.

Whether Tom is here next year or not I think the team is going to be very different.

There's the injury that he was dealing with Umass. Not sure what Tennis elbow is, but you could see it in his throws consistently.

They tried hard at TE bringing in many guys and going after others but failed. In retrospect I bet they wish they had drafted more over the last few years.

The elbow injury would explain the inaccuracy.

I think that's an issue no? We've been talking about needing TEs for years and they take a late round Ryan Izzo. I don't mind that pick, but wow if you don't like anyone maybe you need to change what you are looking for no? Kinda crazy that a team that has had some of the best TEs in the NFL for years just won't draft guys when they have no one. Heck I thought you'd take two guys last draft. Now next year's draft looks just so so at best. One of the top guys production wise is Cole Kmet from Notre Dame and he only has one year of production.

I love Brady, but he does make it crazy hard to add weapons. He expects so much and only clicks when he fully trusts the guys. Watching Stidham get Chemistry with Meyers in no time was kinda eye opening, because Brady never had that with him.

I think Brady is going somewhere else. I think Belichick is ready to move on..I don't think he is going to give into Brady's likely demands. Really Brady was ready to move on and go with Grappolo and was overruled. Which we might pay for now. But we did win another Super Bowl with Brady, which no one would want to give up.

I think the only way he stays is if Kraft steps in and personally brings Brady back. Which can be ruled out. Or perhaps Brady is really playing hard to get to prove a point and has no intention of going elsewhere. I still think its more likely he goes elsewhere.

The thing I don't get is that they have a very long history of bringing in troubled veterans and gambling on them. Yet they don't do that at all in the draft and they have tons of picks every year, but they have such a limited number of players they would even consider drafting.

Our biggest need was TE in one of the deepest TE drafts in a long-time and they took no one. They didn't need to go big, heck they didn't even need to try and replace Gronk. Just a quality blocking TE would have been huge and they draft no one. So yes they need to move need up the board when it's that huge of one. Even a late round pick like Tommy Sweeney would have likely helped. Also blows my mind they didn't trade for one.

We needed a short yardage RB. Kinda guys you can find late in the draft. They took Harris in the third and he basically doesn't play, Bolden got more carries. Yet our season is over because we didn't have a RB that can power the ball in.

They trade up for Williams when we are loaded at CB. Yet with the season on the line, bring in Brooks to cover a TE and give up a TD.

We value special teams so highly, but have Bolden returning kicks when he has zero ability to make huge plays. Traded up for our young punter but he sucked big time at pinning guys deep and his punts weren't even close last game.

I don't really mind the picks, but they seem like head scratchers right now. Williams and Harris took up roster spots all year and they seem to have had no plans on using them. Rather using crappy talent like Bolden and Brooks over them.

Bill is very good overall, but man he really built an incomplete team this year. The killer being that blocking TEs and short yardage RBs are two of the easiest things to find. You can likely find some sitting on teams practice squads. Given this D, if we were a good power running team, we might have won it all even with crap for weapons. It's a head scratcher just like not playing Butler against the Eagles. Bill is very good, but he's far from perfect.

If I'm Brady I sign a well below market deal. Yet I'm using my power as a free agent to get Bill to bring in talent on offense.