The Benefits of the Patriot's Roster Building Philosophy

Mike Reiss has a good piece today discussing the benefits we're seeing from the Patriot's philosophy of roster building. Something I hope to cover in further detail at some point in a future post. Next time the Michael Felgers of the world proclaim that the Patriots roster building philosophy is flawed, the salary cap means nothing and they should behave like say, the New York Jets, remember that its this philosophy which has them in the AFC Championship game this week and has helped them in past years when they have been just as injured.

http://espn.go.com/boston/nfl/story/_/id/10298080/new-england-patriots-roster-philosophy-full-bloom

Introduction

The purpose of this blog is simple. To provide an argument against the common narrative about the New England Patriots which exists among the local media in New England and nationally, and the common narrative spouted about the New England Patriots by fans of other teams.

If you listen to the media in New England, what would you think about the New England Patriots? This is the types of messages that are reported about the Patriots on a common basis by the media:

• The Patriots have been a big disappointment since 2005.
• The Patriots have performed poorly in the playoffs since 2005.
• The Patriots have only had success because their division or conference is poor. They fatten themselves up on "tomato cans",
• Belichick is a poor GM. Belichick "the GM" is letting down Belichick "the coach"
• Belichick is a poor drafter; in particular that he has "traded down" in the draft has been a horrible decision and has hurt the team
• Belichick has made horrible decisions in letting players like Wes Welker and Deion Branch go.
• The salary cap is meaningless, and the manner in which the Patriots treat building their team is a poor one.
• The Patriots are cheaters, they owe all their success to "Spygate" and haven't won a championship since then, which proves that they cheated.

The purpose of this blog is to show just how ridiculous declarations like this are. The Patriots are a model franchise, the best franchise in the league over the period of 2001 - 2013. Especially when you consider what this team was in the past. Around here? The team is treated by far too many, the media in particular as if they were the Detroit Lions.This drives me absolutely crazy, and hopefully through this blog, I can prove just how ridiculous these declarations are.