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Online Commerce Often Leads to Multiple Purchases

 In a break with past practice, Bill Belichick went on a free agent shopping spree yesterday. The Patriots signed contracts with tight end Jonnu Smith, defensive linemen Davon Godchaux and Henry Anderson, edge rusher Matt Judon, defensive back Jalen Mills and wide receivers Nelson Agholor and Kendrick Bourne. That's over 10 percent of an entirely new roster created in a single workday. 

Was it productive work? Is more likely than not a chickenshit answer to that rhetorical question? It sure is, but that's the answer here anyway.

The four best-known of the new Pats, Anderson, Smith. Agholor, and Judon are competent veterans who in a tribute for capitalism enjoyed solid to excellent 2020 seasons. All seven but especially those four, were acquired for high prices, not top-dollar for their position markets, but close.

Well, what of it? It's only money, and a lot of it imaginary NFL salary cap money at that. The Patriots had the cap money to use. More to the point, Belichick had urgent need to spend it.

Every one of the signings was at a position where New England had few to no positive results in 2020. Their wideouts were woeful and their tight ends a nullity. The Pats' front seven combined an ineffective pass rush (27th in sacks) with an inability to stop the run (remember the Rams and second Dolphins games). The newcomers were not plucked from either the offense of the '80s 49ers nor Pittsburgh's Steel Curtain, but they almost certainly will be an upgrade from last season's crews, if only because it'd be hard not to be.

The awful actuarial table of NFL careers mandate that free agents are short-term solutions to franchise personnel problems. It's inaccurate to say Belichick has never before signed free agents for big money, but the results have been checkered. For every Darrelle Revis and Stephon Gilmore, there's been a Roosevelt Colvin and Adalius Thomas. It IS accurate to say the Pats have never before gone on such a binge of acquiring veterans to address glaring needs. 

To be fair, it's been about 20 years since New England has had so many glaring needs. But there are two kinds of NFL personnel capital, salary cap space and draft capital. It's unusual for any franchise, let alone the Patriots, to use so much of the former while conserving all of the latter in a single offseason. Teams that splurge in free agency almost always do so in the almost always mistaken belief that a few big-name vets are all they need to reach the next Super Bowl. Belichick can't be under that illusion about his team.

The Pats did not address the position in most need of an upgrade -- quarterback. They could get by with Cam Newton, but signing him to another one-year deal is hardly a vote of confidence. 

Free agency is not built to provide long-range personnel solutions, least of all at quarterback. Teams with long-term successful starting QBs just don't let them go unless they think they've reached the end of the line. That judgment is why Tom Brady became a Buccaneer. It wasn't correct, but one can see why Belichick came to his mistaken conclusion.

Free agents are how teams plug holes. Spending draft capital, either in a trade or by trading up in the draft to take a rookie QB of choice, is how teams get their hands on their QBs of the Future. 

The Pats came into yesterday with a great many holes and left it with all their draft capital intact. I wouldn't put anything past Belichick, but I find it impossible to believe that is for the purpose of drafting a bunch of offensive linemen this April.

posted by Michael Gee @ 8:21 AM