unlike previous off-seasons, this time it ended with everyone happy. Hopefully this sets the tone for the 2010 season.Wilfork and the Pats agreed to a five-year, $40 million deal. The heart and soul of the D is locked up. If he can stay healthy for the length of the contract the team will more than get its money's worth. The Pats had little or no chance of competing with the Jets, Colts, or Chargers in 2010 with a Vince Wilfork-size hole in the middle of their D line. That's one big headache the team -- and the fans -- won't have to worry about.
The signing of Wilfork certainly flies in the face of the prevailing sentiment that the Patriots don't take care of their players. The thing about that prevailing sentiment? It's been wrong in most cases.
The team has lost some key players over the past decade. All teams do. Some of them were big contributors to the championship run. Some of them left because the Pats weren't interested in keeping them at the asking price. Some of them because another team wanted so badly to steal away some of the "winning chemistry" that they were willing to overpay.
David Givens and Deion Branch fall into the latter category. Givens was clutch for the Pats, especially in big games. The Pats made him a solid offer but Tennessee made an over-the-top one that even if he had stayed healthy he would have had a hard time justifying. Same goes with Branch. Super Bowl MVP and the best weapon Brady had to that point in his career. He (along with Givens) was key to the offense taking the next step. But, like Givens, the Seahawks were willing to overpay him AND give the Pats a first-round pick in a trade when Branch held out. He also battled injuries and has come nowhere near the elite WR status that he was being paid at. Both Givens and Branch landed huge paydays thanks to their play with the Pats but also largely due to the fact that they were part of a championship organization. That raised their profile and their value. Yes, the Patriots didn't reward their contribution to the team with big contracts. And that was seen as the team mistreating or not -- in the players' parlance -- respecting them. But it was neither of those. In both cases it was a business decision. It turns out they were the right decisions.
Of course the player that the Pats "mistreated" the most was Asante Samuel. The Pats drafted him in the fourth round (we need to start making some picks like that again and soon) and he proved to be a steal. Samuel was a playmaker -- plain and simple. Those are few and far between at the cornerback position. The Pats knew it and tried to sign him but ended up franchising him and "insulting" him with an $8 million, one-year deal. Samuel held out. The team agreed to let him go to free agency after that. Samuel had a great year in the 16-0 season. Oh, all except that little matter of the perfect season bouncing off his hands at the worst possible time. The Eagles threw a stadium-load of cash at him and he was gone. Belichick and the Pats misplayed that one for sure. They should have ponied up the money for Samuel before the relationship soured. It wasn't a matter of not wanting to pay him his due, it was a matter of not wanting to overpay him. Which the Eagles did. Which team has won more games since then? Eagles or Pats? That would be the Pats.
The Pats also let Super Bowl heroes Adam Vinatieri and Willie McGinnest go. Decisions I still don't agree with. But they have to make the decisions. And you can't keep everyone. The key is to keep the right guys at the right price at the right time. For the most part they have done that. Tom Brady. Ty Law. Tedy Bruschi. Matt Light. Ted Johnson, Mike Vrabel. And on and on. Even Richard Seymour was paid when he was due. The Pats traded him last year because, rightfully so, they knew his next contract would be a big one and the reality are his best days are behind him now. The sentiment that a team should pay a player for what he has done for the team just doesn't work in the NFL reality. That's how you end up with old, overpaid players. In other words, that's how you end up like the Redskins.
That's the difference with big Vince. He has a lot of great football left in him. And it will be in a Patriots uniform. A very good start to 2010.
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