Shaunodon said:
This is what's frustrating about the Patriots management right now: the didn't want to spend money on Trent Brown because Wynn was returning (even though they already knew Wynn was injury prone); they spend that money to aquire AB who they knew was problematic; they release AB after 11 days, not because of anything he did with the team (all his teammates and coaches loved him), but because they were being bombarded with media attention the owner didn't want; and now they trade a second round pick to aquire a really good but not life-changing receiver, when the glaring hole in their offense is left tackle. Meanwhile the life-changing reciever they still have to pay is sitting at home doing a college course on his laptop. |
This has...a lot of different problems with it and lacks a lot of the context that informed those decisions.
First, there's a substantial difference between just "spending money" on players. They opted to move on from Trent Brown because he was offered a (quite frankly absurd) $66 million contract from the Raiders (highest ever for an offensive lineman), with a whopping $36.75 million of that guaranteed. That comes out to a $15 million cap hit and an insane $36.5 million in dead cap year. Not only is Brown probably not worth that money, that kind of a hit is just blatantly unfeasible for a team that has $2 million in cap space atm. Brown is also scheduled to have a $21.5 million cap hit next season, which would knock out half of NE's cap space next year. Not only is this expensive, but it's a major risk, because if Brown gets injured, you've still got to pay $36.75 million to him (or whatever his hypothetical contract would be with NE), which destroys your ability to find a replacement. And let's not forget that Trent Brown has his own history with missing extended time due to injury.
(Also Trent Brown is being accused of domestic violence himself now)
Antonio Brown, conversely, is a much lower risk option. Not only is it a $10 million hit assuming he plays the entire season, but the entire thing contains no guaranteed money outside of a signing bonus which can be voided at the first sign of detrimental conduct. And, no, there has been nothing to suggest they still have to pay Brown. The grievance Brown filed is still underway, and Brown has been too busy getting kicked out of courthouses in Miami for unruly conduct to have any serious hope of winning that.
Finally, I'm not sure if you've been living under a rock or something, but AB's situation hasn't changed substantially since he was cut. No "charges" against him were dropped (technically there were no charges against him at all, since there aren't any criminal cases involving him), but every civil case that I'm aware of is still being pursued. The only one I'm aware of that's changed notably is the Britney Taylor case, which was dropped in order to be refiled at the state level. Brown is also still being sued by a condominium for "trashing" it, and throwing items off the rooftop of a building, one of which almost hit a toddler on the street below. And we haven't even mentioned him sending texts actively threatening one of his alleged victims.
If you think this is just some hit job by the media to sabotage the Patriots then idk what to tell you. You're either paranoid or you've spent too much time browsing Barstool Sports.
