crunchy

Just a good solid draft according to pre-draft rankings. We addressed needed positions and didn't reach. We also gave Baker lots of help and plugged holes in the defense. Can't ask for much more!

Lol, B for Wills

Thank you, come again

This is the best ever, I did not think he'd ever leave NE. Now I have 3 things to cheer for: 1. Browns SB win 2. NE to do better than they did last year with Brady 3. For Brady to fail miserably and do worse than Winston Brady has a ton more receiving talent in TB, but not his system he's been in his whole career, no Belichick and his cameras to tell him what to do, no holding o-line that never gets called, and no NE ref advantage. He's going to be terrible. I bet he gets "injured" halfway thru the season and retires. NE will roll to an 11 or 12 win season with Rutgers' backup QB and win a playoff game or two before being crushed by the Browns.

More like a 20 year marathon...

Not if I'm right. They would need any old QB, even, say, a 6th rounder with barely any experience and a terrible combine 😜

So anything less than an exact replica of the past 20 years won't convince you. It looks like you've got your mind made up!

Well, we'll have to wait and see

I don't think we're going to convince each other, I guess we'll have to see what happens when Brady finally leaves. If I'm right, as long as BB is still the coach they'll be a SB contender.

You're right, Cassel and Jimmy weren't actually rookies, I was wrong about that. Cassel was still starting his first game at QB since high school and went 11-5. Brady was hurt in the 1st quarter, he clearly didn't win them that game. Even though they weren't rookies, they were all 1st time NFL starters, and Cassel never even started in college at QB. And the team only won 7% less. Brady's not that important to the team's success. To say the Colts were tanking only helps my argument. That means that Manning was so important to the team they knew they had no chance without him and scuttled their whole season. The Pats knew Brady wasn't that important to them and kept trying to win, and they had a great record. As for BB having a sub-500 record without Brady, that's because he never won anything before he started filming in 2001. Don't get me wrong, I don't think Brady OR BB are any good. BB started winning when he started cheating, that's already been proven. Brady is just along for the ride. All the players on the Pats are successful because they all benefit from BB's cheating. Brady just gets the most credit because he's the QB and been there the whole time. So yes, someone else was responsible for the dynasty. That would be the cheating. And no, I'm not trolling, I really believe this. Imagine that BB was caught cheating and proved to be a fraud, by filming and stealing playsheets. Wait, that already happened in 2007. And they let him stay in the league because to invalidate his wins would erode public trust in the league, which would cost them money. It would mean the owners had overseen a fraudlent organization. I don't hate Brady, he's just the beneficiary of BB's cheating. I do hate BB for cheating.

They wouldn't be the odds on SB favorite because a lot of people think Brady was really important,. But I bet Belichick would win another without Brady and it wouldn't take too long. He's been waiting forever for Brady to go so he can prove he's the reason they win so much. The only reason Brady has been there the last few seasons is Kraft taking a break from handos to force Belichick to trade Jimmy and keep Brady. Brady didn't put Belichick over the top, Belichick carried Brady to a career his talent doesn't deserve in the least. No arm strength, no improvisational skill, no downfield accuracy. He's good at one thing: doing whatever Bill says, exactly how he says it.

20 games is a significant sample size considering a season is only 16 games. People always say 'they didn't make the playoffs' but that was a statistical fluke. They're the only 11-5 team to miss since the playoffs went to 6 teams in 1990. When Brady came back the next year they won 1 LESS game and MADE the playoffs. According to the math the Patriots have won 7% more with Brady than a random replacement. And these were all ROOKIE replacements. Brady is only worth 7% more than a random rookie replacement? And this is with him having the benefit of years and years of experience playing with the team and the same coach and system the whole time while the rookies came in cold. That makes it way more favorable for Brady and he still does only 7% better. You made my case for me! For contrast, the Colts with Manning won 68% and the year without him won 14%. You may think Brady is a good qb but to credit him for team success over Belichick simply isn't born out by the facts.

3 things: A: All NFL o-linemen know how to block properly and every NFL o-line coach knows how to teach that most basic o-line skill. To suggest that only Scarnecchia does is silly. B: 2016 was the only season from 2009 when the Pats were anywhere close to the top of the league in offensive holding. Picking one season out of 12 doesn't disprove they don't get away with holding a lot. Also, 2016 was the year Scarnecchia returned, so there goes that theory that he's some sort of master blocking teacher. 😄C-The stat doesn't tell us if it's o-linemen holding or someone further down the field. The Pats run a ton of screens, quick outs, and dump offs and their skill players get called for holding too. Also, the number of holding calls don't tell us how many more were MISSED or just not called. I stand by my previous statement, the Pats o-line gets away with a ton of holding.

Because they're not actually good, they just never get called for holding because they play for the Pats. How many times have you seen Brady standing there forever and no one can get near him? And how many holding calls does his o-line get? Zero. Yet when they leave NE they turn into regular linemen. Must be a coincidence...

Except that when Brady has been out they've gone 14-6, and that was with 3 rookie qbs completely new to the system. When Cassel played for them and they went 11-5 he hadn't started a game at QB since high school. Belichode went 11-5 with a high school qb. And when Brady came back the next year they went 10-6. It's always been Belichick. Conversely, when the Colts lost Manning they went from 10-6 to 2-14. There's the difference between a qb who matters and a qb who doesn't.