New England Patriots Free Agency: If It Ain’t Broke…
It’s official. The Patriots “lost” free agency 2015. The defense is gutted. The secondary is decimated. Robert Kraft didn’t open the checkbook. Brady’s last seasons will be wasted.
Darrelle Revis signed an ungodly contract in New York with the new-old-look Jets. Brandon Browner signed with the New Orleans Saints, who are knee-deep in the process of dismantling a formerly great, but entirely too expensive lineup. Vince Wilfork rode into the sunset for what’s presumably his last payday with the Houston Texans. Akeem Ayers went with the St. Louis Rams, where coach Jeff Fisher seems to think that the answer to every question on Celebrity Jeopardy is “A great front 7”. We’ve got no jobs, we’ve got no food….our pets’ heads are falling off!
And you know what? It all just might work out fine. It usually does.
It’s not as though the Patriots haven’t been active in free agency, they just haven’t backed up a dumptruck full of money in someone like Ndamukong Suh’s driveway. Here’s a list of everyone New England has signed this offseason (not counting re-signing their own guys like Brian Tyms and Chris White, and that Devin McCourty guy):
Wide Receivers: Kevin Dorsey, Brandon Gibson
Running Backs: Travaris Cadet
Tight End: Scott Chandler
Cornerback: Chimdi Chekwa, and the signings of Robert McClain and Bradley Fletcher are all but official.
Linebacker: Jonathan Freeny
Defensive Line: Jabaal Sheard
Belichick 101: Find undervalued players (at least in terms of what the market dictates), and put them in a position to do what they do best to help the team.
The one consensus everyone, media and fans alike, seems to agree on lately is that New England is, on paper, a worse team now than they were before free agency started.
To which the only logical response is “We don’t even know who the 2015 Patriots are yet!”
Well, we do, in terms of whose name is on the jerseys. Mostly.
But “on paper” means about as much as a girl at the bar telling you “Text me!”. On paper, the 2014 Patriots were a heavy AFC favorite before the season even started. A few weeks into the regular season, they looked like someone that drank 15 whiskey cokes, then turned Madden on “All-Madden” difficulty. The rest of the season went pretty well.
No, Darrelle Revis isn’t on the roster anymore. Guess who else won the Super Bowl without Darrelle Revis? Everyone else that’s won a Super Bowl since 2007. Technically, everyone else who’s ever won a Super Bowl besides the 2014 Patriots, but 2007 was Revis’s first season. You get the idea.
This buy-low strategy is how Belichick has reloaded for the past 15 years, and the Patriots have missed the playoffs twice since 2001. One of those years was 2002, Belichick’s second year as the head coach. The other? 2008, where Tom Brady tore his ACL in the first quarter of the first game…and the team still finished 11-5.
Blind faith is one thing. Ignoring the track record of a coach/owner/QB combo that dates back to Billboard charts being dominated by N*Sync and KoRn? Well, like Chris Rock tells Jay & Silent Bob in “Dogma”, “That’s just plain gullibility!”
Roster building isn’t fantasy football, it’s Top Chef. Belichick’s going to get ingredients that can help the team, and then, let’s see what the final dish looks like.