Quote:
Originally Posted by kccrow
Much in agreement this.
Bill Belichick the GM is the guy I really love in the NFL.
I think you hit one thing I love about Belichik is his ability to separate personal from business, to roll players into picks year after year by trade and by letting players walk and picking up comp picks. The other is buying low. Let's trade a guy for a 4th and then trade away a 6th for another guy.
He also didn't particularly put a premium on 1st round picks, especially picking low in the round. He traded out of the 1st alot and picked up extra 2nd or 3rd round picks. I'm not advocating that be an all-the-time strategy because you need to find some aces, especially at the pillar positions. That said, you can see this year the value of a couple of 2nd round picks to fill non-pillar positions.
Do you need LT, CB, DE? Take one in the 1st and even move up some to get the right guy. You need OG, LB, RB, S? Trade down into the 2nd and pick up another high-value pick. These types of moves are what kept NE dominant for so long.
They kept the roster churning with alot of 2nd and 3rd round players and bought low in pick for player trades on some what-ifs with 6th's and 7ths and snagged a few diamonds in the process.
As for paying guys, yeah I agree 110% you can't go out and trade premium picks AND sign a guy to a market contract. One thing for sure that many good teams have had is they pay the right guys. Bill has paid for pillar positions, but especially DBs. I think some balance there helps. Pay your LT, pay a stud CB, pay one DE. Let the rest fall where it may and churn.
Committing astronomical money to a LG (for as great as Thuney is) and to a DT (for as good as Jones decides he wants to be) were really fools errands in my mind in terms of how to assemble a roster. Just about any draft could net you quality starters at both positions fairly easily. Maybe not "all world," but quality. It's far harder to net a high-quality LT, CB, or DE and that's why they make the big money and they get taken in the top 2/3 of the 1st. Likening to my example, is it better money to buy Trey Hendrickson and draft a LG or buy a LG and then not be in position to get a DE in the draft?
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Veach sold out to get them over the hump. It sucks now, but it sure was fun for those 2 seasons.
Now doing stuff to get a good team over the hump is one thing; constructing a team to now contend every year is another.
In the case of Thuney I don't mind; we drafted a stud C and RG. Having a very good veteran in that mix is good. Brown appears to have been a bad decision and I don't have much hope that he's suddenly going to develop any lateral quickness. I expect that he will not be tagged or re-signed. I wouldn't. Maybe someone like Tennessee would like him Tag and trade could work. He'd fit there, and they have OT issues.
Sure wish we'd have got JJ Watt. I think the D-line attitude would've been different.