Quote:
Originally Posted by DMB0715
Itll be fine if he goes, its the Pats for christ sakes, theyll work it out.
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I wouldn't be so sure, while the system the Pats run is a great one, Willie McGinnest was right the other day when he said that it was the players playing in the system that caused the success just as much as it was the system. Just as Duane Starks could not replace Ty Law, Reche Caldwell cannot replace Deion Branch.
If you look at the Patriots roster right now, with the exception of Troy Brown, every other receiver on the Pats roster has LESS CAREER RECEPTIONS than Deion Branch had last year alone. Reche Caldwell has 76 career receptions in five years, while Branch had 78 last year. Additionally, every other receiver on the roster is in his first two years in the NFL and all of them combined have less than 76 career receptions. The Patriots need Deion Branch. He is vastly underpaid. He knows it, and they know it. If you look at the past, the players that Belichick has released or failed to resign and deemed "expendable" have all been on the defensive side of the ball where, as most people have pointed out, the system is the key for the most part (though I would even argue about that because the Pats defense last year was nowhere near what it was when players like Law, Milloy, McGinnest, Bruschi, Seymour and Harrison were all healthy), but on the offensive side of the ball, the system isn't as much the key as the individual parts are. You can't just replace Cory Dillon (though Maroney looks very good), and you can't just replace Tom Brady, and I guarantee that the Patriots, if they don't re-sign Branch to an extension, will find that they can't just replace Deion Branch with three rookies and Reche Caldwell. This is a deal that needs to get done, he knows it (why do you think he's holding out now? This is when his bargaining power is at its highest, if one of those rookies has a breakout year, his power after his contract is up diminishes greatly) and the team knows it, and I think that for the first time in a while, the Patriots are going to break their usual form and sign him to a big money extension.
As an additional note, I hope they're right about the new kicker from Memphis (I know I can't spell his last name correctly so I'm not even going to try) Adam Vinatieri got a lot of press about his clutch performances, so there's no way I can stand here and claim that he was underappreciated, but I would not at all be surprised to see the rookie struggle in November and December in Foxboro and I think the Pats may find that Vinatieri is worth the money the Colts paid him. I'm not saying that it wasn't a bad move to let him go because he is getting older, and the salary cap in the NFL is very hard to manage, especially when you're paying a kicker as much as the Colts paid Vinatieri, but I think that people may find that kicking in Foxboro in the winter is much harder than Adam made it look and Gostkowski or whatever his name is may have some struggles as he gets used to it, I just hope that he'll be a quick learner.