Emmanuel Sanders Visiting The Patriots Today

Absolutely! Just ask Limas Sweed, Willie Reid, Dallas Baker, Toney Clemons, Fred Gibson, Lee Mays...

Receivers are so easy to find in the draft...

 

They found Wallace, Brown, Sanders ,Holmes, and if Rainey (wasn't a woman beater i bet he could've been a descent one too) pretty quick,,,i think the scouts have learned on what to look for.

 

I get your point here. But if you watch carefully, Ben's first year he developed that chemistry with... Plaxico! and since day 1, Wallace and Ben were some kind connected. With some others -Brown, Sanders- it took a couple of seasons.
But getting back to the topic, and understanding what you say, RB & WR are arguably the easiest positions to fill with draft picks. I will miss Sanders, but won't be worried about our WR situation.

 

DAMN HURT
you couldn't give me a ringydingy for lunch today?
wut da el?

 

I gotcha and I agree. But just dont forget that the Plaxico Ben had chemistry with was the 25 year old Plax. Not the 35 year old vet today. Not saying they won't be great together again, but definitely a big difference between the two. And hopefully we can find a WR in the draft that can start and fill our needs. We have a decent track record of drafting WR's. But we have some big misses too *cough* Limas Sweed *cough*

 

are any of those wrs special? they are all decent, but none of them are real game changers. Holmes had his moments as did Wallace, but they were still just above average wrs to me.

alot of people around here are acting like finding a wrs in the draft is easy. take a look at the Steelers drafts over the last 5 years. nothing has been easy for the FO when it comes to drafting.

 

If he's gone, I'm going to choose to embrace this mindset.

I'd hate to enter the season with A Brown, Plax, Cotch, and gawdonlyknows as our receivers but, if we're indeed moving back to our running game roots (as Haley was brought in here to do -- and failed miserably at in '12), then I guess putting together a solid o-line and having a nice stable of running backs is the way to go.

If mediocre journeymen like Thigpen, Mills, Hastings, and Charles Johnson can complement a strong running game and have us in the conference championship game every other year, perhaps using our money on defense and creating a strong o-line is better than overspending on the receiving corps.

Or, at least that's MY Silver Linings Playbook.

 

As I have already given my opinion on matching etc, I will comment on the other implications of this:

This will give us NE's 3rd round pick in this coming draft. Having another 3rd is never a bad thing, especially as we have so many holes.

If I am not mistaken, this will also free another 1.3 million for us under the cap. We have given him a qualifying offer which counted against the cap I believe, this would free that up making a signing of Breaston or another UFA at another position possible.

 

Yeah, it's not the end of the world (but, all things considered, I'd rather keep him -- you'd like to have SOME continuity at the position).

And, unfortunately, wouldn't New England's third-round pick be a VERY LATE third-round pick?

 

Huh? If you throw Rainey off that list (he wasn't even a WR) all of those guys were good/great/outstanding picks. Wallace at #84 overall is one of the most dangerous game changers in the league who just signed a $60 million contract. Put him on a team with a good deep passer and he'd be way better than he ever was here. Brown at #195 overall is a special player who earned a fair $42 million contract. Sanders is better than his draft pick too, and Holmes was a great receiver without whom we don't win a Super Bowl.

I agree that it's not as easy to do as everyone says, and we've had our share of misses too, but that's remarkable success.

 

you can honestly with a straight face look at any of those wrs and say they are great. sure they were GOOD for where they were picked, but i would take about 20 guys before i got to any of them right now.

i also wouldnt go as far as saying without Holmes they dont win that super bowl. remember he missed the pass in the endzone right before that one. i would lean more towards saying that without Ben they dont win that super bowl. Ben made 2 perfect passes and Holmes was able to catch 1 of them.

 

rough night I had just woken up and had a xanax hang over. Lmao

 

The problem is that, for all I agree with you on the calibre of those players, we only have one of them left.

My objection is to people claiming that Sanders is immediately replaceable by any guy in the draft. There is a hell of a difference between Willie Reid and Mike Wallace, yet both were 3rd round picks (I believe - Reid may have been a 4th, can't remember). Hell of a difference between Dallas Baker and Antonio Brown. These guys don't just come along every draft.

 

I'm trying to figure out what the FO would want to do if the signing took place. What if they think Sanders was part of the problem last year? What if they don't really see losing him as a huge loss? Personally, I think he is an average receiver at best.

 

I'm wondering if the reason why the Patriots are doing this, has to do with posturing with Brandon Lloyd, whose contract they want to rework. If they sign Sanders-and the Steelers don't match- they will cut Lloyd.

 

Harrison should have been the MVP of the game. Ben should have been second in voting, and Holmes third. His performance may have been slightly overrated just because of the award, but nevertheless, I don't believe we win that game without his game-long performance, which was great. And how about the games before? Do we make it to the Super Bowl without Santonio? Holmes is my MVP for the playoffs that year.

Alright, then I just don't get your point. I mean, I wouldn't want Jerry Rice on my team right now either. I'm sorry we don't have the 4 best WRs in the league on our team right now? Is that it? My point was that we've have a ton of success drafting WRs in recent drafts. If you want Andre Johnson, Larry FitzGerald, or Calvin Johnson, maybe you should cross your fingers that we get the #2 overall pick next year.

 

I think it's a good move for them. Sanders is a proven #3, and he has potential to be much better than how he's been in Pittsburgh. He simply doesn't get the balls thrown his way with Brown, Wallace, and the Pittsburgh offense. With NE's offense he could thrive better. They get a proven, young, speedy, quick, reliable guy for a late 3rd round pick.

 

Who would you see at the "X" now, Elvis? Any particular draft picks or FAs you have in mind?

 

I tihnk you're right that Sanders doesn't get the service that would allow him to fully show his potential. I've also noticed that, given he's so far been one of the more fragile of our receivers, they did seem to send him across the middle short to middle an awful lot.

 

Plax is not bullying anyone. He's played soft ever since he's been part of this organization. Do you not remember him showing a complete lack of effort on one of the batch interceptions VS the Browns loss? At this point in his career he's just a fade target

 

All these free agents leaving or potentially leaving aren't fun but it'll take a couple of good drafts to get the Steelers above mediocrity. Hopefully, I am being over-pessimistic.

 

Sanders runs great routes and has decent hands....there is definitely a reason the PATs want him.

 

If It wasn't for Holmes on that last drive, we lose. I believe he caught 3 or 4 passes for good chunks of yards on that drive. I also believe Antonio Brown is a game changer too