Belichick on the pats cap situation: ”We sold out and won three Super Bowls.“

j-man

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brady will be gone by 2022 bill is hopeing to build a team that can win by 2022 u most likely have 5-7 years left will bill counting this year

i couild see him trade a 2nd in the offseason to SF for jimmy G in the falcons let matt ryan go shanny loves matt ryan
 

Pedro's Complaint

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I'm guessing he said it because it's true and he's a proud guy who doesn't like losing.

Has any other team lost both its most important offensive and defensive players this year? Even with all the opt outs, FA losses, etc., I don't think this team is 2-5 if Cam/Gilmore don't get COVID/injured.
 

54thMA

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brady will be gone by 2022 bill is hopeing to build a team that can win by 2022 u most likely have 5-7 years left will bill counting this year

i couild see him trade a 2nd in the offseason to SF for jimmy G in the falcons let matt ryan go shanny loves matt ryan
At the level he's still playing at and with the talent he has around him, knowing him he'll play until he's 50.

He's found a way to avoid the one thing the rest of us cannot; father time.
 

mauf

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The Pats have been good for so long that people forget that BB isn’t an all-season asshole like Parcells. BB is absolutely a hard ass when he is coaching a good team and is guarding against complacency, but he’ll try to build up his team when times are tough. That’s what you’re seeing here — whatever heat BB catches for his comments is heat that would otherwise be directed at his players, who he’s obviously satisfied are being sufficiently hard on themselves.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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He's ALWAYS been a players' coach. What does he say every time they win an AFCCG or a SB? "It's all due to the players, we have great players, we ask a lot of them and they played great."

It's amazing to me how so many media members and fans don't know this.
 

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
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He's ALWAYS been a players' coach. What does he say every time they win an AFCCG or a SB? "It's all due to the players, we have great players, we ask a lot of them and they played great."

It's amazing to me how so many media members and fans don't know this.
But they hate their coach!
 

luckiestman

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He's ALWAYS been a players' coach. What does he say every time they win an AFCCG or a SB? "It's all due to the players, we have great players, we ask a lot of them and they played great."

It's amazing to me how so many media members and fans don't know this.
I don’t agree that this is what makes a coach a players coach. Bill does exactly what you say and I view that as a good leadership trait. I view a guy like Rex, or any coach that is trying to be besties with the players, as a players coach.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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I don’t agree that this is what makes a coach a players coach. Bill does exactly what you say and I view that as a good leadership trait. I view a guy like Rex, or any coach that is trying to be besties with the players, as a players coach.
Rex was not a players' coach because he did all that shit for his own self-aggrandizement.

BB does it because he actually cares for his players' welfare, appreciates their talents and hard work, and credits them for winning. Big difference.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/j-j-watt-trade-from-texans-to-a-contender-is-a-virtual-certainty-after-2020-season/
JJ Watt most likely to be traded this offseason. He's got one year left on his contract, which will pay him $17.5 million in 2021. The Pats have a ton of cap space, but also a ton of holes to fill. He's injury-prone, but obviously a great player at a position of huge need for the Pats.

Worth exploring?
IMHO no, it's a short term idea that a team doesn't need when they should focus on the future.

Edit: sorry poorly structured. Haven't had any caffeine yet.
 

Steve Dillard

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I know, but it's really hard to move beyond that decision b/c it makes no sense. I suppose he was trying to send an overarching "culture" message that if you break the rules - and/or, say, punch/shove? the son of the coach in n altercation - you are benched, PERIOD, and hoping they would then cement that level of discipline by winning without him. But then they wound up LOSING in a game where an understaffed - and just under-talented enough - secondary got TORCHED throughout the game. The most frustrating part for me is that I can't imagine Butler being told at the start of the 3rd quarter, "NEVER FORGET THIS, now get out there and win us another super bowl," and NOT going out and playing like his hair is on fire. It's so ridiculous, it's so CLEARLY the move to make.

Oh well. We'll have to settle for six.
 

OurF'ingCity

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Second time now he's been expansive and defensive about the current situation. I'd venture the Tom/Bill credit issue is driving him outside of his past 20-year run of "no comments."

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/30310134/bill-belichick-gets-defensive-recent-new-england-patriots-draft-results
It's like years of Kareem swatting away questions, and finally breaking character to grab the kid to tell his old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court.
Not sure I'd characterize those comments as either "expansive" or "defensive." Boiled down, he basically said the same thing he always says - he tries to do whatever he thinks is in the best interests of the team.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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I know, but it's really hard to move beyond that decision b/c it makes no sense. I suppose he was trying to send an overarching "culture" message that if you break the rules - and/or, say, punch/shove? the son of the coach in n altercation - you are benched, PERIOD, and hoping they would then cement that level of discipline by winning without him. But then they wound up LOSING in a game where an understaffed - and just under-talented enough - secondary got TORCHED throughout the game. The most frustrating part for me is that I can't imagine Butler being told at the start of the 3rd quarter, "NEVER FORGET THIS, now get out there and win us another super bowl," and NOT going out and playing like his hair is on fire. It's so ridiculous, it's so CLEARLY the move to make.

Oh well. We'll have to settle for six.
Butler was benched for Rowe who played pretty well. Richards, who everyone blames for the loss, was the nickel or slot corner and that's not a position Butler played at all over the course of the season. While Butler is a solid tackler and would have helped in that regard it's not as simple as saying "Oh they would have won with him in there."

Butler was also terrible against JAX two weeks earlier and apparently didn't have his shit together enough to warrant getting playing time in the SB.

I mean, we won another the next year. It's time to get over it. Philly played like shit on D too.
 

BaseballJones

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Butler was benched for Rowe who played pretty well. Richards, who everyone blames for the loss, was the nickel or slot corner and that's not a position Butler played at all over the course of the season. While Butler is a solid tackler and would have helped in that regard it's not as simple as saying "Oh they would have won with him in there."

Butler was also terrible against JAX two weeks earlier and apparently didn't have his shit together enough to warrant getting playing time in the SB.

I mean, we won another the next year. It's time to get over it. Philly played like shit on D too.
Brady: 28-48, 505 yds, 3 td, 0 int
Foles: 28-43, 373 yds, 3 td, 1 int

TOT: 56-91 (61.5%), 878 yds, 6 td, 1 int

One of the main reasons for this was because they called zero offensive holding penalties on passing plays. Not one. And holy crap there were a ton they could have called. That meant that both QBs threw with tons of time. Only one sack all night long - by Graham at the end that caused the Brady fumble. That's it.

And yes it makes a huge difference. Compare this year to last year:

2019: 63.5%, 7.2 y/a, 90.4 rating - 582 off holding penalties in 256 games played (2.27 per game)
2020: 65.7%, 7.3 y/a, 94.6 rating - 215 off holding penalties in 146 games played (1.47 per game)

The defenses weren't as bad as they looked in that Super Bowl. They weren't very good, and both QBs were phenomenal, but the lack of holding penalties impacted the game big-time.
 

NortheasternPJ

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Butler was benched for Rowe who played pretty well. Richards, who everyone blames for the loss, was the nickel or slot corner and that's not a position Butler played at all over the course of the season. While Butler is a solid tackler and would have helped in that regard it's not as simple as saying "Oh they would have won with him in there."

Butler was also terrible against JAX two weeks earlier and apparently didn't have his shit together enough to warrant getting playing time in the SB.

I mean, we won another the next year. It's time to get over it. Philly played like shit on D too.
Can we do 4th and 2 next which is perceived as one of the worst blunders in NFL history yet was during week 10 and really had no impact on anything going forward?
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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Can we do 4th and 2 next which is perceived as one of the worst blunders in NFL history yet was during week 10 and really had no impact on anything going forward?
Sure.

It was the right decision. Faulk made it. It was a bad spot. Next!

(Honestly the one thing I've always said about 4th and 2 is that they probably should have run it the play before to either force IND to burn a TO or to get to the 2 min warning.)

The real issue with SB 52 isn't Butler getting benched or the Philly Special (which gave the Eagles a lead that the Pats would eventually pass on the way to making it 33-28), it's Eagles Hall of Famer and NFL VP of Player Engagement Troy Vincent declaring from the executive suite that the Clement TD, which for all the world looked like a bobble and therefore no catch should be ruled a TD. "We want that to be a TD" is the actual quote. This should have been the center of an enormous amount of discussion but because the evil Patriots had been banished no one cared. Please of course reverse the situation and imagine what would have happened had, say, Andre Tippett been in a position to say the same thing about a NE TD.
 

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
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Oh man this is PTSD about the Eagles Super Bowl. If anyone wants to torture themselves more, here are a couple of articles for you:

https://boston.cbslocal.com/2018/03/28/nfl-controversy-new-catch-rule-eagles-tds-super-bowl-patriots/
Basically the NFL made it up as they went along. Nice.

https://www.inquirer.com/philly/sports/eagles/eagles-super-bowl-52-philly-special-mike-pereira-20180212.html
The Philly Special play shouldn't have counted, according to the NFL rules guy, and reported by none other than the Philadelphia Inquirer (not the Globe).

Grrrrrrr.....
 

lexrageorge

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I know, but it's really hard to move beyond that decision b/c it makes no sense. I suppose he was trying to send an overarching "culture" message that if you break the rules - and/or, say, punch/shove? the son of the coach in n altercation - you are benched, PERIOD, and hoping they would then cement that level of discipline by winning without him. But then they wound up LOSING in a game where an understaffed - and just under-talented enough - secondary got TORCHED throughout the game. The most frustrating part for me is that I can't imagine Butler being told at the start of the 3rd quarter, "NEVER FORGET THIS, now get out there and win us another super bowl," and NOT going out and playing like his hair is on fire. It's so ridiculous, it's so CLEARLY the move to make.

Oh well. We'll have to settle for six.
It wasn't a discipline issue; it was a football issue. The decision was made earlier in the week during practice as Butler was slow to recover from the flu, which only compounded other issues with his play.

It may still have been a mistake. But it wasn't a case of Belichick prioritizing "culture" over winning the Super Bowl; that's a Felger & Mazz level of narrative.
 
Apr 24, 2019
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He may well have been practicing poorly and played badly two weeks before, but guys like McCourty were pissed and despondent after the game that he didn’t play, which suggests to me that it wasn’t some foregone conclusion, or a football decision that made sense to guys who were in the foxhole at the time. And my understanding - based on someone extremely close to the situation - is that there was a confrontation that got physical before the game between Butler and one of the coaches that led to the benching.
 

Mystic Merlin

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He may well have been practicing poorly and played badly two weeks before, but guys like McCourty were pissed and despondent after the game that he didn’t play, which suggests to me that it wasn’t some foregone conclusion, or a football decision that made sense to guys who were in the foxhole at the time. And my understanding - based on someone extremely close to the situation - is that there was a confrontation that got physical before the game between Butler and one of the coaches that led to the benching.
If that’s true, then what is the debate? And how come nobody got that story?

I’m not doubting you received this info, but it seems improbable it wouldn’t get out given the stage and the number of ravenous media types with sources on the team, not to mention that a confrontation before the game likely would be in front of other players/coaches at the least.
 

Willie Clay's Big Play

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This thread used to be fun. Can we talk about ‘18 or something?

I met a guy from Scituate at the AFCG whilst getting G&Ts (bad idea) before the start of the 4th quarter. Those are the games I like to think about when reading this thread title.
 

BigSoxFan

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Heard that too.

Truth be told it doesn't matter now. Except to wonder, after watching last night's game, how the hell Nick Foles ever won anything. He's fucking awful.
I can’t help but think about that every time I watch him. Helps that our DL was trash and refs let both teams basically hold on everything. Any kind of pressure and this dude folds like a tent.
 

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
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I can’t help but think about that every time I watch him. Helps that our DL was trash and refs let both teams basically hold on everything.
That and they counted for Philly two touchdowns that shouldn’t have counted, according to the rules of NFL football.

Ugh
 

CantKeepmedown

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I think we’ve heard about the physical confrontation before actually. Wasn’t it Steve Belichick?
Yeah, and it was allegedly during the week when he was either caught ou after curfew or with a female in his room after curfew. This being during/after a poor week at practice.

Hopefully it'll all be in the book that Belichick will get a billion dollars for.
 

BigJimEd

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seriously? We are rehashing this again. Single one-liner and another thread goes off the rails. Can't we just pin a thread for this crap so we can stop polluting other threads.
 

54thMA

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Heard that too.

Truth be told it doesn't matter now. Except to wonder, after watching last night's game, how the hell Nick Foles ever won anything. He's fucking awful.
See; he gets it.

How that stiff won a super bowl is beyond my comprehension.

He's beyond awful, he's made a career out of two games.

That's just wonderful.