Dude you are waaayyy to emotionally invested in a GAME. Yes we are all welcome to our opinions. You in my opinion go way overboard. Settle down. I for one would not mind going 10-6  and fighting it out in the post season to win two superbowls like the giants have done the last two times they beat the patriots in the big game.

What were the patriots records those years and what good did it do them? Exactally my point.  


patbobby wrote: Hey I noticed Asante took one to the house yesterday. How`s that deal worked out since his departure-you cheap penny pinching fools? I know a lot of you will say they didn`t need him, or they would have never signed him for that type of dollar. All I remember was that Asante was guaranteed at least 1, if not 2 pick 6`s a season and was a perfect fit in this so called scheme BB has. They never had to worry about his end. Instead they`ve brought in goon after goon and have only regressed since his departure! BTW whatever happened to Will Allen? This is a perfect example of the type of crap FA`s this clown brings in every season!

stealthdog666 wrote: Ok - add Samuel's $10M cap hit to the Patriots salary and then take away $10M worth of players from the roster.  Remember though, for every contract you take off, add another $450K because that is the vet minimum and the player you remove has to be replaced.

Go ahead and post what the Patriots roster would look like if they weren't "penny pinching" and gave Samuel what he wanted.  The Patriots have 7 players that have a cap value of $3M or more (Brady, Welker, Mayo, Wilfork, Mankins, Hernandez, and Gostkoski).  I imagine you don't want to touch any of them, so they would have to slice about 5-8 guys off the roster (and replaced by 5-8 minimal salary guys) to make it work.

Morpheus11 wrote: Patbobby I'm glad you're not running the Patriots. This is the same Asante that on the very next series got torched for a big play that ALLOWED the Raiders to get that touchdown back and tie the game. Yeah that Asante. (somehow you forgot to mention that.) Then was SUDDENLY injured after getting torched. The QB made a bad throw.

Now if Asante was that good why did the Eagles load up on DB's and let him go elsewhere? After all they were the ones who signed Asante away from New England. Did you forget that as well?

This is the same Asante who could not catch an INT that would have given the Patriots a victory over the Giants in the first Superbowl. Yes that Asante. This is the same Asante who can't tackle, plays 10 yards off of the receiver and makes interceptions on bad throws or jumping a route. The same Samuels who could not then and cannot now defend the fade route. No thanks. And while your mentioning interceptions isn't there a member who played for the Patriots last year and this year who lead the NFL in INT's? 

Guess that shows just because you lead the league in a category it still does not make you the answer.

Hunter07 wrote: My Gawd, how many years has he been gone??? ... There is NO rewind button, - get over it & move on.

DerekLarsson2 wrote:

I always liked Asante Samuel.  He had a rare and brilliant talent for jumping routes at just the right time, and picking-off the QB.  He filled the role that Ty Law had performed, and kept one-side of the field pretty well buttoned-down.  He had a few years where he led the NFL in Interceptions, or was right near the top of the list. He was an Impact player.  

They haven't had a CB anywhere near that level ever since. 

I'm always surprised when people here are rooting for the top-talented players to be denied contract renewals/extensions (and to be replaced by what exactly?).  In Football (unlike Baseball), the money isn't even guaranteed to begin with.  The NFL Owners have all the power over contracts, and the players (the actual Stars of the game) get all the injuries, and all the insecurity.

Top performers should be paid top money. And in regards to the Salary-Cap, you have a 53-man roster here and only about 8-10-12 players that are really Elite or High-Impact players.  So it makes sense to be frugal on the lower-tier players, and pay the Impact-players that carry the team what they deserve.

Too often Bill Belichick and Robert/Jonathan Kraft want to nickle-n-dime the Impact players as well, or in the case of Logan Mankins (who they eventually gave-in to and resigned anyway) flip them the finger during the time in which it would very easy to extend their contracts.   They create far, far more problems and risks then they solve.

Right now, we are seeing the whole Wes Welker thing play out.   If they are dumb enough to stiff him too, then we're all done here -- and they will have just squandered away Tom Brady's final few years and the chance at another possible NFL Championship.

As it is, yes...they are very much still feeling the effects of failing to resign Asante Samuel, and have so for the past 6 years now (with the most lousy Secondary in the NFL year-after-year as the result).  This is their main Team deficiency.

You get what you pay for.

People should instead be far more worried about all the money they have wasted away year-after-year-after-year on poor Draft talent and poor free-agent signings in a futile effort to replace Asante Samuel.   That money adds up too, and it is all just wasted money.  And even if they had somewhat overpaid Samuel to keep him here, who cares? it would not have been wasted money as they would've solved a critical, core Team need (which has gone completely unsolved without him).

But the results in the Secondary have been a disaster (which is the proof of the Patriots failed handling of the situation).

 

dokgonzo wrote: Go back to some of the interviews that were done around the time Asante was leaving. He and BB had a very contentious relationship, but even AS admitted that BB's coaching helped him learn to become a Pro Bowler. If he'd started out someplace else, he'd just as likely be out of the league years ago.

One thing I'm 99% sure of is that when BB spends time with a player reviewing film, you see the difference on Sunday. Brady has talked about this, so have a few other players over the years. I really hope BB spends as much time as possible working with the DB's this week because the position coaches ain't getting it done.

Hunter07 wrote: AS was one of the VERY few that did anything after leaving the Pats for a bigger check, ... His longevity was most likely due to the fact he never tackeled anyone, might get hurt after all. - WE are talking football - right???

stealthdog666 wrote: What do GM skills have to do with coaching DBs or having a defensive scheme that doesn't work?  There is zero correlation between them.

dokgonzo wrote: I agree that Pats fans are wicked spoiled. That said, the pass defense has sucked cold chowdah for about 3 years.

dokgonzo wrote: I'm more and more convinced that the players aren't the whole problem with the secondary. The guys they have simply aren't THIS bad.

dokgonzo wrote: I'm more and more convinced that the players aren't the whole problem with the secondary. The guys they have simply aren't THIS bad.

dokgonzo wrote: I agree that Pats fans are wicked spoiled. That said, the pass defense has sucked cold chowdah for about 3 years.

dokgonzo wrote: The only way this team seems to be able to prevent completions is by getting to the QB. So I think it's time BB rolled out the 4-5-2 defense and blitz 9 guys on every passing down, and let the 2 DB's run around in circles waving their arms.