How many times does the front office (aka: Bill Belichick) have to mess up signings to learn from their mistakes? The Patriots have forked out an expensive 3-year, $33M contract to former Chiefs slot WR Juju Smith-Schuster, even though the Pats have so many other pressing issues.
It’s honestly getting painful watching Bill Belichick screw up time and again every single offseason since his unofficial naming as the Patriots GM back in the early 2000’s.
Sure, sometimes he does a good job and gets some quality players through the free agent market/draft (ex: 2007 offseason, 2010 offseason, 2014 offseason), but there are far more instances of the Pats either making boneheaded personnel decisions or just flat out refusing to address the pressing issues at hand.
Decisions drafting RB Laurence Maroney as the franchise’s star RB in the 1st round in 2006, trading for Albert Haynesworth (yes, that Albert Haynesworth) back in 2011, replacing Hall of Fame CB Ty Law for Duane Starks back in 2005, trading away star defensive end Chandler Jones in 2015, failing to replace Julian Edelman, Rob Gronkowski, and Danny Amendola in the later years of Tom Brady’s time in New England, letting Tom Brady leave New England, the entire 2020 offseason, and failing to support the development of Mac Jones with horrible free agent signings and poor coaching hires.
During the last twenty years, these kinds of moves would have been covered over by the greatness of Tom Brady, but since his departure in 2020 the Patriots have flounder from a dynasty to a middling team. And that’s solely down to Bill Belichick.
He wanted to get rid of Tom Brady three years too early as he stubbornly subscribed to the “Patriots Way” of getting rid of older players before they fell off, even though Brady was also the architect of the “Patriots Way” and sole exception to the rule.
Moreover, he has destroyed Mac Jones’ confidence and development by bringing in injury-prone/#2 weapons like Jonnu Smith (who got traded away a few days ago), DeVante Parker, Kendrick Bourne, Hunter Henry, and now JuJu Smith-Schuster.
These kinds of players can be useful in an offense that already has an established system and quarterback (such as the Patriots teams under Tom Brady), but they’re next to useless in a dysfunctional system and/or with a developing QB.
There’s a reason why team like the Dolphins (Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle), Chargers (Keenan Allen), Chiefs (Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce), Bengals (Jamaar Chase), and Bills (Stefon Diggs) all went out of their way to draft/acquire #1 weapons for their franchise quarterbacks as these players are essential in developing the confidence, precision, and game intelligence of said young quarterbacks.
I was really excited a few days ago when reports were coming out that the Pats were interested in acquiring DeAndre Hopkins, Jerry Judy, and/or Odell Beckham Jr. as these are the types of receivers who could have helped Mac Jones’ stunted development get back on track. Yet, that doesn’t seem likely to happen now with Smith-Schuster coming in on an expensive 30M+ contract.
Signing JuJu Smith-Schuster to an $11M/year contract will not only clog up valuable cap space needed for other issues (ex: defensive backfield, offensive line, interior defensive line), but it might also mean the Pats are done getting help for Mac Jones.
I mean, if you include Smith-Schuster to the current roster, the Pats now have DeVante Parker, Smith-Schuster, Tyquan Thorton, Kendrick Bourne, and Hunter Henry at the skill positions, which doesn’t really leave a lot of room for another body.
Obviously, we’d all replace each and every one of these players for a guy like DeAndre Hopkins, but I doubt that’s how Bill Belichick is looking at this situation. He’s probably just getting enough talent to win enough games to surpass Don Shula’s 328 career head coaching wins record and then will sail off into the sunset, leaving the Patriots stranded adrift at sea behind him.
Yeah, that might be a little harsh, but it’s not nearly as cruel as Belichick’s personnel decisions have been to the Patriots roster since Brady’s departure.
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