Danger Posted February 5, 2018 Share Posted February 5, 2018 What does your cap situation look like? Nigel Bradham is a great Linebacker and likely headed for Free Agency. He's athletic and makes plays all over the field (his hands catching the ball are non existent though). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deadpulse Posted February 5, 2018 Share Posted February 5, 2018 6 hours ago, Danger said: What does your cap situation look like? Right now it stands at 14m, but if they make the cuts I'd expect them to make (Branch, Gilisee, McClellin, Harris) they can jump that to 25m. If they move on from Allen or Bennett at TE they can save 5 to 6 more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission27 Posted February 5, 2018 Share Posted February 5, 2018 7 hours ago, everlong said: Honestly though, my biggest wish is that Belichick just changes his approach on defense. His defenses got shredded in every Super Bowl besides 36 (which they allowed the Rams to come back), 39 and 42 (until the last drive). In fact, here are the aggregated stats of opposing quarterbacks against us in the Super Bowl: 180/289, 2500 (8.7 YPA!), 17, 8, 98.1 passer rating and he's gone against mostly mediocre quarterbacks (McNabb, Eli, Foles, Delhomme). Over a full season, that's 5,000 yards, 34 TD, 16 INT. This is a huge reason why all of these Super Bowls have come down to the wire. We are talking about a defensive guru who has been to 11 Super Bowls as a head coach / defensive coach and won 7. I think the odds of him changing “his approach on defense” are pretty low. Our defenses played fine in last years super bowl. Gave up 21 yes but to one of the best offenses in recent memory. Was lights out down the stretch. This year they just didn’t have the talent on that side of the ball. 6 hours ago, everlong said: And the way he handled the Butler situation could potentially scare away free agents. No reason to play for us if Belichick is going to backstab you despite you were a key reason why he has a Lombardi. No reason? How about to win a Lombardi in the first place. People absolutely want to play here because Bill will do what he thinks is best to win. Who knows what the deal was with Butler. I’m sure he had a good reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission27 Posted February 5, 2018 Share Posted February 5, 2018 We need a big guy in the middle and another corner who can actually cover. Get that, get Hightower and Rivers healthy, work out the kinks transitioning to Flores, and this defense can be good again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deadpulse Posted February 5, 2018 Share Posted February 5, 2018 12 minutes ago, mission27 said: We are talking about a defensive guru who has been to 11 Super Bowls as a head coach / defensive coach and won 7. I think the odds of him changing “his approach on defense” are pretty low. Define changing his approach. Throughout his career BB has changed the style of defense run based on current NFL trends offensively. If you were watching this team last decade you'd never think the Patriots would switch to a 4 man front, but they did that. Nowadays, they run a more 4-2-5 set. BB's defenses are always adapting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
everlong Posted February 5, 2018 Author Share Posted February 5, 2018 50 minutes ago, mission27 said: We are talking about a defensive guru who has been to 11 Super Bowls as a head coach / defensive coach and won 7. I think the odds of him changing “his approach on defense” are pretty low. Our defenses played fine in last years super bowl. Gave up 21 yes but to one of the best offenses in recent memory. Was lights out down the stretch. This year they just didn’t have the talent on that side of the ball. No reason? How about to win a Lombardi in the first place. People absolutely want to play here because Bill will do what he thinks is best to win. Who knows what the deal was with Butler. I’m sure he had a good reason. But here's the thing: I don't think Bill is as big of a reason for this success as we want to think. It's all Brady. Belichick is a big reason why we lost in 42 and 52. Thoroughly outcoached in both games bcause of his own stubbornness. Giving Butler ZERO snaps when he's healthy comes off as he did this out of spite, not because he felt it gave us a better chance to win. Not even Hue Jackson would have done it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluemushrooms Posted February 5, 2018 Share Posted February 5, 2018 11 hours ago, everlong said: I think we can all agree that poor defensive play cost us our 6th Super Bowl. We simply can't expect to win if we allow 41 points and Nick Foles to look like Joe Montana. For reference, here are our defensive free agents: Malcolm Butler - There's simply no way he's coming back after coming off mediocre season and playing a grand total of zero snaps on defense. Belichick should have traded him to NOLA when he had the chance. Johnson Bademosi - He had a poor Super Bowl performance, but he showed some promise during the regular season. A cheap two-year deal and playing in nickel might suffice. Nate Ebner - Plays primarily on special teams and does a good job there. James Harrison - Merely a rental after Pittsburgh cut him. Played very well and earned his money, but we need youth. Ricky Jean-Francois - Emergency signing due to poor defensive line depth. Geneo Grissom - Was on and off the team throughout the year and hasn't worth the 3rd pick we invested him. Marquis Flowers - Traded for him due to injuries to Hightower and Van Noy. I guess we can bring him back for depth purposes. I'm not sure on the cap totals, but according to Sportsrac we have about $19 million in cap space: http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cap/ Defensive line This is where most of the complaints are and deservedly so: Malcolm Brown and Alan Branch has regressed big time. The good news is that we'll be getting Derek Rivers back, giving us an edge rotation of him, Trey Flowers and Deatrich Wise Jr. The DT free agent market has a lot of juice to it: Dontari Poe, Clinton McDonald, Star Lotulelei, Sheldon Richardson, etc. Linebacker This is the area we need to stock up on talent; it's completely garbage after Hightower and Van Noy. Secondary We're set at safety, but we'll need to find a way to replace Butler; rather not see Rowe start across Gilmore and stay in the nickel. The only attractive FA CB is Trumaine Johnson, but he's going to be too expensive. Harrison is cheap and was honestly pretty solid so, I'd expect him to return on a close to minimum deal. Ricky JF was fine and we can sign him on a vet min also. Marquis Flowers was good. Reminds me a lot of a quicker Van Noy and we've used Van Noy's versatility really well so, I'd like to see Flowers stay and get more snaps. Grissom is going to stay on and off. No one else wants him but, he's good on special teams and has gotten some serious props for his Practice Squad work. He might not be on the 53 man through the year, but he's going to be stick around I think. Bademosi will probably stick too. We have a lot of great depth options but, need better starters. IMO, our safeties + Dline got shredded the hardest. Yes, CB's got toasted a few times but, the safeties really missed some important tackles and didn't read the pass options quick enough. Once Chung got beat up, we were in trouble because we didn't have anyone who could take on the TE's as effectively as Chung does. Dline got literally 0 push and we need at least one other threat besides Trey Flowers. Our LB corp is alright. Honestly, I think Van Noy, Tower, Roberts, + Flowers is a pretty good LB group. They have obvious pass defense weaknesses but, that's what we had Chung for. ASSUMING there aren't internal organizational problems going on, I would expect to see Harrison + Ricky JF to stick on a vet min; they want to win Super Bowls at this point, not sell out for $$. Not sure if we need Ricky JF though....Harrison is great depth and I don't know why we wouldn't keep him. He was good on the run and has pass rushing threat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission27 Posted February 5, 2018 Share Posted February 5, 2018 26 minutes ago, Deadpulse said: Define changing his approach. Throughout his career BB has changed the style of defense run based on current NFL trends offensively. If you were watching this team last decade you'd never think the Patriots would switch to a 4 man front, but they did that. Nowadays, they run a more 4-2-5 set. BB's defenses are always adapting. True but if we are saying he needs to change his approach because of super bowl 35 and 46 then this feels like a deeper point than scheme. And scheme wasn’t the issue last night. If I had to define Belichicks approach to defense, regardless of scheme, coaches, or personnel he has worked with: - Bend but don’t break - Take away the other teams best players - The above two points come down to maximize the chances the opposing offense will make a mistake - Team defense ... never become reliant on one player... next man up - Insane preparation and conditioning - Play the special teams / field position game to stack the deck in your defenses favor I’m sure there’s more. But ultimately this is his approach, it has worked time and again as schemes, coaches, and personnel have changed. Last night the talent differential was too great and Nick freaking Foles refused to make a mistake. Not much Belichick could’ve done with the players he had to win that game with Foles playing like Joe Montana. Tip your hat to them and go get better players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
everlong Posted February 5, 2018 Author Share Posted February 5, 2018 Our defense has been allowing mediocre quarterbacks look like Joe Montana for years now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission27 Posted February 5, 2018 Share Posted February 5, 2018 5 minutes ago, everlong said: But here's the thing: I don't think Bill is as big of a reason for this success as we want to think. It's all Brady. Belichick is a big reason why we lost in 42 and 52. Thoroughly outcoached in both games bcause of his own stubbornness. Giving Butler ZERO snaps when he's healthy comes off as he did this out of spite, not because he felt it gave us a better chance to win. Not even Hue Jackson would have done it. How is Belichick / defense the reason we lost 42? They gave up 17 points. The greatest offense in NFL history failed to score 18 points. The reason we lost Super Bowl 42 is the offensive line completely fell apart. Are we going to tell Dante to change his approach to offensive line coaching too? If you want to criticize Bill as a GM for this team lacking talent on one side of the ball I think that’s fair game. But he’s consistently produced top-10 defense and 12-14 win seasons for two decades, after being the best DC in football for 20 years before that. Let’s not scapegoat the GOAT because he couldn’t magically turn Kyle Van Noy into Lawrence Taylor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission27 Posted February 5, 2018 Share Posted February 5, 2018 2 minutes ago, everlong said: Our defense has been allowing mediocre quarterbacks look like Joe Montana for years now. We’ve always given up a ton of yards and played exceptional red zone / takeaway defense. That is a feature not a bug. It’s a strategy. The reason it didn’t work this year is we had no good players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
everlong Posted February 5, 2018 Author Share Posted February 5, 2018 7 minutes ago, mission27 said: How is Belichick / defense the reason we lost 42? They gave up 17 points. The greatest offense in NFL history failed to score 18 points. The reason we lost Super Bowl 42 is the offensive line completely fell apart. Are we going to tell Dante to change his approach to offensive line coaching too? If you want to criticize Bill as a GM for this team lacking talent on one side of the ball I think that’s fair game. But he’s consistently produced top-10 defense and 12-14 win seasons for two decades, after being the best DC in football for 20 years before that. Let’s not scapegoat the GOAT because he couldn’t magically turn Kyle Van Noy into Lawrence Taylor. Besidew the defense blowing it on the final drive (marked the beginning of this crap): He made literally zero half time adjustments. His decision to go for it on 4th and 13 when he was within Ghost's range still makes no sense 10 years later. With Browner blasting him on Instagram, Belichick's game of being the big hardass is catching up to him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission27 Posted February 5, 2018 Share Posted February 5, 2018 4 minutes ago, everlong said: Besidew the defense blowing it on the final drive (marked the beginning of this crap): He made literally zero half time adjustments. His decision to go for it on 4th and 13 when he was within Ghost's range still makes no sense 10 years later. With Browner blasting him on Instagram, Belichick's game of being the big hardass is catching up to him. Yes I’m sure a guy with 7 super bowl rings cares what Brandon Browner has to say Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
everlong Posted February 5, 2018 Author Share Posted February 5, 2018 35 minutes ago, mission27 said: Yes I’m sure a guy with 7 super bowl rings cares what Brandon Browner has to say A lot of the current defensive players liked his posts, including Hightower and def ended Butler. Belichick is gonna care if/when this divided locker room quits on him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lancerman Posted February 5, 2018 Share Posted February 5, 2018 1 hour ago, mission27 said: How is Belichick / defense the reason we lost 42? They gave up 17 points. The greatest offense in NFL history failed to score 18 points. The reason we lost Super Bowl 42 is the offensive line completely fell apart. Are we going to tell Dante to change his approach to offensive line coaching too? If you want to criticize Bill as a GM for this team lacking talent on one side of the ball I think that’s fair game. But he’s consistently produced top-10 defense and 12-14 win seasons for two decades, after being the best DC in football for 20 years before that. Let’s not scapegoat the GOAT because he couldn’t magically turn Kyle Van Noy into Lawrence Taylor. I mean even so, you needed one stop at the end of the game. You could go through our history but... -vs the Rams they scored 14 points in the 4th to erase a lead. -vs the Panthers they gave up two 4th quarter leads and let Delhomme look like a god. -vs the Colts in 06 they let a huge lead get erase -vs the Giants the first time they needed one stop at the end and didn't get it -vs the Jets the defense and special teams let them take a 14 point lead with less than 2 minutes left after not covering an onside kick well and essentially let them walk in the endzone. -vs the Giants in 2011 again you needed one stop at the end that you didn't get. -vs the Broncos they just got torched in 2013. -vs Seattle, Brady tied the largest comeback of all time and the defense let them down to the one yard line with less than a minute left -vs Denver in 2015 I wouldn't blame anyone. The missed extra point cost us. There was a lot of questionable going for it. -vs Atlanta the team found itself down 28-3 and needed a Brady miracle -vs Philadelphia the defense gave up 41 points while Brady was playing out of his mind. I could blame Brady for the to Baltimore losses. But goddamn if this defense just doesn't show up to ball sometimes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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