A Defense of the New England Patriots
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by user Drpatriot
(This was originally going to be a comment on Are the Patriots the Yankees of the NFL?, but it grew into much, much more than that.)
The Patriots offseason has been quite hectic. Since we lost that fateful game to the Indianapolis Colts, we have made quite a few offseason moves. The one to attract the most attention is the Randy Moss trade, which has been deeply criticized by many people, including our own user base here at ArmchairGM.
"Looking forward to Randy Moss' first sulk at not getting the football on 1 & 10. I'm guessing the third quarter in Game #1." - Tyrone Briggs
"You assume that Moss actually plays for the Patriots. I mean Ricky Williams II." - The Beast
"The real question will be... Wasn't giving up a fourth rounder too MUCH for Moss?" - Manny Stiles
Other free agency moves have been trading a second-rounder for slot receiver Wes Welker, signing free agent linebacker Adalius Thomas (debately the best free agent available), signing wide receivers Donte Stallworth and Kelley Washington, signing blocking tight end Kyle Brady, signing backup RB Sammy Morris, and signing nickelback Tory James.
The Patriots are making a lot of moves in free agency. For some reason, this elicits a negative reaction.
"Pats had a system that brought them 3 Super Bowl victories in four years. They blew that system up this year by going mad in free agency." - Christof
It's not like we haven't made big moves in free agency before. The big move this year was Adalius Thomas, and I can't see how this one doesn't work out for the Pats. The rest of the additions are either "key cogs" type players (Wes Welker, Kelley Washington, Kyle Brady, Sammy Morris, Tory James), or players with "prove it" deals (Randy Moss, Donte Stallworth).
Moss is only signed to a one-year deal. If he works out, he either stays or signs a fat contract with someone else. If he doesn't work out, who the hell is gonna hire him if the PATRIOTS couldn't get anything out of him? As for Stallworth, his deal is essentially a one-year deal with a multi-year option at the end; if he performs poorly, we simply cut him.
None of these deals are huge risks for the Patriots. None of them are necessarily BAD moves for the Patriots. In fact, none of these moves really shows anything but huge upside and limited downside. How moves like this don't support building a team is beyond me.
Yes, we signed two WR free agents and traded for two more. The chances that at least one of these relatively low-risk moves doesn't work out are low, and the total cap spent on this is a measly 13%. That's four relatively good wide receivers, folks, and it's a lot more likely to produce results than aiming for draft picks that for whatever reason don't seem to work out. We have had two draft picks at WR be a success and neither is with the team any longer. Tell me how that was a successful strategy.
Making a lot of moves in free agency doesn't equate to making a lot of bad moves in free agency. Some of the moves that we have made in free agency have done pretty well as far as I can tell. And luckily, other than Adalius Thomas, we have a backup plan if any of the contracts we sign do happen to fail: we let them go at the end of the year, or they simply end up performing at the level their contract asks instead of vastly outperforming them like most Patriots do.
Don't be so quick to criticize the Patriots' offseason moves. When you look deep, they make a lot of sense.
