Patriots domination is over, their fans have no clue about what’s coming.

[Scott7975]

11 minutes ago, Ghost_002! said:

First off you have no idea what their approach is going to be. They have the cap space to spend if they choose to.

 

 

This team won 6 games so far. w a sh*tty  roster could of one more.

 

So they couldn't compete for the division next year with for the sake of the argument a Ryan Fitzpatrick type QB? 

 

There's more in free agency than just QBs...and they have solid players returning

 

 

 

This is the same line of thinking that kept the Bills mediocre for decades. Not good enough to win anything. Too good to get higher draft picks. Your players are old and tired. Your coach is at the end of his career. You aren't getting star players for peanuts any more and Fitz type QBs will just keep your team from good draft picks and take your team nowhere. 

[Ghost_002!]

13 minutes ago, John from Riverside said:

Grabbing a bunch of free agents doesnt solve your problems either.....good teams dont let good QB's get away from them......It takes drafting and honestly 50 million dollars is not THAT much money

 

Never said it did. but don' act like Beasley didn't help the Bills offense. how exactly was that accomplished? How exactly did you guys get Diggs? What part of the season did acquiring them take place.

 

And BB decided to let Brady walk he didn't want to pay a 40 year old the money he wanted. You can debate that was dumb with no back up plan for sure.

 

But at some point you have to decide and move on. 

6 minutes ago, Scott7975 said:

This is the same line of thinking that kept the Bills mediocre for decades. Not good enough to win anything. Too good to get higher draft picks. Your players are old and tired. Your coach is at the end of his career. You aren't getting star players for peanuts any more and Fitz type QBs will just keep your team from good draft picks and take your team nowhere. 

 

I never said you have to build by penny pinching...I am sure a man who knows nothing but football sees what this season was and understand he has to change some of his philosophy in order to be competitive again.

 

But you don't just start going crazy and spending a bunch of money just to do it..that is also what dumb franchises do...

Edited December 29, 2020 by Ghost_002!

[Comebackkid]

3 hours ago, SoCal Deek said:

Look at it this way:

Brady goes to a new team...result is another playoff season.

Bellicheck coaches without Tommy...result is going home early.

 

Come on Man! It’s pretty darn easy to see what happened. You have to be intentionality looking for reasons that it wasn’t the QB

 

Well..... Brady did go to a team that was far more loaded than what the Pats have.... 

While Brady would have helped I don't think he would have saved the Pats season. 

[John from Riverside]

17 minutes ago, Ghost_002! said:

Ha ha 

 

Never said he was...you telling me the Buffalo bills can't be beat if you have Ryan Fitzpatrick as your QB?

 

The fins won about 10 games with him(obviousl Tua played some games), but BB couldn't win with him assuming he has a better built roster 

 

Understand..I am not talking for them to be dominant again, go to the SB I am talking being competitive

 

Again they found a way to win 6 games with their JV squad...

 

One of those games they didnt win this year was against the bills with Fitz at QB......and by the way the patriots dont have anywhere close to the offensive talent that the fins have....

 

Apples and Oranges

[TheCockSportif]

6 minutes ago, billsfan89 said:

 

I don't think they pooched the season so much as Billy B took a step back to take several steps forward. Eat the Brady dead cap and other dead cap space, take on the covid opt outs and see what you can make from a depleted roster. Then regroup in 2021 when you can have several starting players return from a season of rest and you have a good amount of cap space and draft picks to work with. Either way, good luck finding a QB that will get you past that 10 win good but not great level, it can take decades to find a competent one let along a franchise QB.

And that's just it.  Their swan song was last year, and now Bill B is old (he was young when he took the job) and now they have what?  Maybe some players on D coming back, an organization that isn't penciled in to win the AFCE anymore, and ... ?  Bill B is out of time in my estimation, I remember the 2000 season vividly when I lived outside of Boston and there was talk of starting Michael Bishop as QB, and that team was a wreck.  2001 didn't start out that great either.

 

Your analysis of finding a QB is spot on, as we've been there as Bills' fans for so long, but why did they bother with this strategy at all going into 2020?  Sure, maybe there's a next year for Bill B.  Maybe.  But personally I think that it's over for them.

[Ghost_002!]

5 minutes ago, John from Riverside said:

One of those games they didnt win this year was against the bills with Fitz at QB......and by the way the patriots dont have anywhere close to the offensive talent that the fins have....

 

Apples and Oranges

 

Clearly the patriots aren't going to have the same offense next year or even the same team (what they are going to be you and I do not know and can only guess)

 

And Ryan Fitzpatrick is compable of beating the bills he is a proven NFL QB is my point. 

 

 

[billsfan89]

18 minutes ago, Groin said:

And that's just it.  Their swan song was last year, and now Bill B is old (he was young when he took the job) and now they have what?  Maybe some players on D coming back, an organization that isn't penciled in to win the AFCE anymore, and ... ?  Bill B is out of time in my estimation, I remember the 2000 season vividly when I lived outside of Boston and there was talk of starting Michael Bishop as QB, and that team was a wreck.  2001 didn't start out that great either.

 

Your analysis of finding a QB is spot on, as we've been there as Bills' fans for so long, but why did they bother with this strategy at all going into 2020?  Sure, maybe there's a next year for Bill B.  Maybe.  But personally I think that it's over for them.

 

I think Billy B wants to at least be a competitive 9+ win team without Brady and make the playoffs a few times and win the division without Brady just to show that even with a so/so QB he can still get to 9+ wins because he is such a great coach. I don't think he can realistically expect to compete for a Super Bowl if he can't find a QB. But I think he would settle for in the last 5 years of his career to make the playoffs 4 times and win 2 playoff games. That wouldn't set the world on fire but it would prove that while Brady was an important piece he was still able to field a good team without him. 

 

But the dynasty, 12 wins year in and year out, dominance of the division and 72% winning percentage in the post season? That's over unless they unearth a miracle at QB.

[Doc]

1 hour ago, Ghost_002! said:

Ha ha 

 

Never said he was...you telling me the Buffalo bills can't be beat if you have Ryan Fitzpatrick as your QB?

 

The fins won about 10 games with him(obviousl Tua played some games), but BB couldn't win with him assuming he has a better built roster 

 

Understand..I am not talking for them to be dominant again, go to the SB I am talking being competitive

 

Again they found a way to win 6 games with their JV squad...

 

Nope.  And if you think they'll be able to attract FA WRs (not that there will be more than one or two good ones) with the lure of Fitzmagic, much less for a discount...

 

Edited December 29, 2020 by Doc

[mjd1001]

Of course the fans are going to have a hard time accepting it, and they think it is just a matter of time until they are back on top.  The same thing happened with the Bills in the 1980s and 1990s.

 

When your team has winning season after winning season...it does 2 things. First of all, it brings in more casual fans that normally would not have followed the team.  Secondly, it conditions ALL fans, but ESPECIALLY those new fans who have never seen losing....to think this is just 'the way it is'. 

 

When you have winning season after winning season, you won't/don't want to chalk it up to a one time event....a once-in-a-lifetime player coming to your team that will never happen again.  Instead, you like to say that it is a bunch of reasons....it is that your players are just better than everyone else across the entire roster, your teams 3rd round pick Offensive tackler is better than any other teams 2nd or 3rd round Offensive tackle (heck, you saw the guy in college and clearly he is great), YOUR GM  more skillfully picked draft picks and free agents than anyone else could...your coach who is the greatest ever...the city you live in must be a destination that free agents want to come to....etc.  It is a lot more fun to think it is all of those things than to think your team just 'got lucky'.  So, when you start to lose, of course you think it is only temporary.  "We can't lose for long....we aren't Detroit..or the Bengals" is what you think. 

 

You can't even comprehend what a team wearing your uniforms would look like being the one being beat up on. You can't picture walking through the gates of your stadium in December and not having the game mean something.

 

What will it take for the Pats fans to feel differently about their 'entitlement' of winning?  This season probably changed the mind of only about 5% of them.  Another season without playoffs next year would maybe get 10-15% more.....another year after that and you get another 10-15%.  Give them 4-5 years of no playoffs (or maybe ONE playoff appearance but being eliminated early) and that is when the fanbase in general will come back to earth with their expecations and entitlement.

Edited December 29, 2020 by mjd1001

[TheCockSportif]

11 minutes ago, billsfan89 said:

 

I think Billy B wants to at least be a competitive 9+ win team without Brady and make the playoffs a few times and win the division without Brady just to show that even with a so/so QB he can still get to 9+ wins because he is such a great coach.

So Billy B has no QB and wants/needs to have a competitive 9+ win team.  For that purpose he could get Tyrod, perhaps, and maybe some wishy washy WRs (along with an augmented D [due to COVID holdouts] and some draft picks).

 

He's too old for trying to restock, dude.  I swear to you that at some point the guy will look at the numbers and just walk away.  My hope is at the end of this season, but we'll see.  Belichick is at the "I'm going to throw a phone on a national broadcast" phase of his career, and I would be absolutely astounded if he has a couple more sub-par seasons where his biography plays out -- with the conclusion that he retired with clubs that went 6-10, 7-9, and 9-7.  Because we all know that the dialog will be how he parted with Brady and Gronk and that he couldn't win after that.

 

It's entirely possible that the entire NE FO will perk up and that 2 years from now they'll be contenders again, but I keep going back to the MCM in 1999 and its fallout on the Bills.

[ColoradoBills]

1 hour ago, Ghost_002! said:

 

Side note: (not directed at you at all)

 

For the fans calming NE won't be able to grab a free agent going forward. Free agents/players don't think like emotional fans....

 

 

Of course they will get a number of FAs.  The thing that will be different is they got the pick of the litter in the past.

So many available FAs clamored to get a ring in NE.  If you're honest you will agree with that fact.

BB will have to "compete" for all future FAs like any other team.

 

When it comes to the Covid opt-out players Hightower will make a big impact when he returns but it is his last year of his contract.

Will he stay?  NE kept its UFA (or at least the ones they wanted to) for decades.  I think a higher % will move on compared to the past.

 

Chung will be 34 and Cannon turns 33 both will help but they are getting long in the tooth.

Dan Vitale will be on his last year too and while he helps the run game and Special Teams he is not a playmaker.

Bolden, LaCosse, Lee and Toran are JAGs.

 

I'm not saying the Covid didn't hurt the Pats* but the return of the players next season is not as impactful as some are claiming.

NE has a good amount of cash but like we talked about before Ghost a good chunk will be needed to re-sign their own FAs.

FAs (both their own and other teams) will be very telling as to what the players (not us fans) feel about NEs future.

 

But all that aside, BB has to find a QB that works or all of this other stuff is just academic!

[Livinginthepast]

3 hours ago, Groin said:

My only real surprise is that Bill Belichick thought that rolling with Cam Newton this season would be good enough.

There was a reason Carolina let him walk. The massive punishment he took with the Panthers mediocre oline and several dirty hits he took combined with his inability to sense the blitz just eroded his skills overall.  I am surprised that Belichick brought him in. Belichick has usually been a good evaluator of free agent help and has no problem evaluating talent more highly than character. In Newtons case he now rates poorly in each. Much better to go with a young QB and waste your time with Newton, he is done!

[TheCockSportif]

Just now, Livinginthepast said:

There was a reason Carolina let him walk. The massive punishment he took with the Panthers mediocre oline and several dirty hits he took combined with his inability to sense the blitz just eroded his skills overall.  I am surprised that Belichick brought him in. Belichick has usually been a good evaluator of free agent help and has no problem evaluating talent more highly than character. In Newtons case he now rates poorly in each. Much better to go with a young QB and waste your time with Newton, he is done!

And that's what I've been saying in thread.  The Bills dickered around, starting in 2000 (and more specifically in 2001) with Rob Johnson and ended up with Bledsoe (holy crap!) and a flaming trash heap leading to, well, basically now, where it's more-than-solid, at the position.  Belichick basically phoned it in this year.  I don't care if Stidham is bad.  Newton is taking steps backwards, and how can you evaluate talent that way?  We have experience in that regard, sadly.

 

[Captain Hindsight]

2 hours ago, stevewin said:

 

 

One thing a lot of people are missing is the salad days of the Cheaters signing FAs for nothing who want a ring are OVER.  What FAs are going to want to sign to play for that joyless franchise with no QB and questionable future at best and miserable grumbling SOB as coach.  Bellicheat's incompetence drafting has been covered up for years by discount FA signings - those days are over.

YUP

 

Who wants to play in the cold with Jarrett Stidham and a miserable coach? I think 8 guys opted out because they knew they were going to suck and NE is not a fun place to play. Think that magically changes with a mid first round pick of a DB to replace Gilmore?

[BillsVet]

3 hours ago, Meatloaf63 said:

It’s fun and costs us nothing and is part of the enjoyment of what these Bills have become. Enjoy every aspect of being on top, you never know how long it will last or when it will come back again...

 

Some people have too much time on their hands.

[Captain Hindsight]

1 hour ago, Doc said:

 

 

Stidham sucks.  I fully believe they were blindsided by Tommy's departure and then desperately signed Cam.  Because starting Stidham and winning 2, maybe 3 games, would have tainted Belicheat's legacy (people are now starting to talk about how he's got a losing record without Brady and his poor drafting).  

 

Me too, Kraft and Bill took Brady for granted. They had no other options. Look at the list of FA QBs last year. Its horrendous, they signed Hoyer and Cam in desperation, hoping they could cobble together a decent offense to sneak into the playoffs.

 

In the draft they could have taken Love or maybe Hurts, but they would still stink. Their skill positions are an absolute joke

[jimmy10]

5 hours ago, BillnutinHouston said:

Expecting reflection and analysis from Pats* fans is overestimating their sophistication. 

 

Ask them who Steve Grogan or Trevor Matich is, and you'll get blank stares.

That’s my favorite question to ask Pats fans. Name a player prior to 2000 not named Bledsoe. I usually just get called a “hater.”

 

Screw those dinks. 

[Meatloaf63]

10 minutes ago, BillsVet said:

 

Some people have too much time on their hands.

Meh, work is slow because of this Covid BS. After 25 years taking a little time to enjoy this is a treat...

[TheCockSportif]

5 minutes ago, Meatloaf63 said:

Meh, work is slow because of this Covid BS. After 25 years taking a little time to enjoy this is a treat...

Well, it's also vacation week (that's my excuse, because I took a week off for the first time in forever).

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

Their game day thread was hilarious...patriots fans complaining about the commentators only talking up the bills lol thats what we've been dealing with playing against them for the last 20 years