Patriots sign Antonio Brown!

Sere wrote:

Yes. I see nothing immoral about AB’s behavior. He may be immature (like that guy trolling this thread), but that’s not immoral.

Brown is not immoral. He is immature in a 'needs attention' sort of way. He went for years with only minor issues with Pittsburgh. Last year his teammates voted another receiver as team MVP and this set him off the deep end making minor disruptions into major problems. I have no way of knowing but wonder if teammates voted Smith-Schuster MVP partly as being worthy and partly a dig to AB and his disruptions. For the record he was one of the hardest workers in-season and out the Steelers have ever had. He has a great work ethic with/without attention getting behavior.

He will be great with NE "if" he gets enough attention and balls thrown his way. NE, with their dink & dump routine to keep Brady safe favors the ball going to #2, #3, and #4 receivers so it could be an issue. However, I suspect he knows he is under a microscope and if he blows up he will cost himself millions going into next year.

On an unrelated note, how can the Steelers get so outcoached by NE time and time again? How many times can you let Edelman beat you with 5 yard patterns. Why not try something new? It can't get much worse than 33-3 or whatever it was. The NE coaches must just laugh to themselves when they see Pittsburgh come out with linebackers on receivers and trying the same 'ole that gets them beat every time.

The Pats work the formation and the matchups via their versatile personnel. 2 RB formations drew LBs on the field (vs DBs) and then they threw at the LBs. but had there been DBs on the field they would have run. Recall the 1 TD drive in the SB against the Rams. managed to get Edelman and Gronk against LBs several times.

The guy tweated his way out of $19 million. This will probably be one of the worst financial moves of his life as the $20 million option for next season is not guaranteed unless they execute it (and lets be real if he gets injured this year, doesn't perform well or Brady decides to retire, then they are not executing it). He is at the age where he is going to be getting injured more often, so giving up on all that guaranteed money is a poor business decision. He need look no further than his similarly aged teammate, Demaryius Thomas, who is playing for $2.9 million this year on a non-guaranteed contract and was a game day inactive last night.

WHSHawk wrote:

The Pats work the formation and the matchups via their versatile personnel. 2 RB formations drew LBs on the field (vs DBs) and then they threw at the LBs. but had there been DBs on the field they would have run. Recall the 1 TD drive in the SB against the Rams. managed to get Edelman and Gronk against LBs several times.

Oh, I get the logistics. NE's personnel is no better than most teams and worse than some. So why aren't others copying in a copy-cat league and more so, take some chances against the run or out-work/out-scheme them. Try something different than allowing Edelman to put up numbers like Randy Moss. It is almost like they concede and roll over from a coaching standpoint.

Let's not act like the Steelers haven't done it before. They beat the Patriots late in last season. Their problem is too often they come with one plan and if it fails or they don't have the obvious physical advantage, then they're screwed. Meanwhile the Patriots come with multiple ways to beat you.

AB better human wrote:

AB acts like a child. Tyreek Hill abuses children. Women too. Big difference. Kraft has never and will never take on any player involved in domestic violence.

Kraft is definitely an upstanding person. He only routinely rapes sex slaves at massage parlors. And if your defense is that it's consensual, you don't know anything about the sex trafficking that occurs in this country.

THOUGHTSLEADER wrote:

Let's not act like the Steelers haven't done it before. They beat the Patriots late in last season. Their problem is too often they come with one plan and if it fails or they don't have the obvious physical advantage, then they're screwed. Meanwhile the Patriots come with multiple ways to beat you.

Let's face it, Belicheck is playing chess, Tomlin can't even play checkers.

between the ears wrote:

THOUGHTSLEADER wrote:

Let's not act like the Steelers haven't done it before. They beat the Patriots late in last season. Their problem is too often they come with one plan and if it fails or they don't have the obvious physical advantage, then they're screwed. Meanwhile the Patriots come with multiple ways to beat you.

Let's face it, Belicheck is playing chess, Tomlin can't even play checkers.

These are both correct. This is the point I was trying to make. Not that Tomlin is bad although he is not the best game manager. Belicheck makes most anyone look like this. Tomlin and staff have long been known for poor in-game adjustments and yesterday was just another case of that. Adjustments on one side and no reaction on the other.

It will likely take a Brady injury for NE to be outside the Super Bowl. Brown can only help the situation, good behavior or not.

Antonio Brown has early CTE, only way to explain his crazy behavior. Poor guy’s brain hasnt been the same since taking that dirty hit from Vontaze.

Steelers Fan wrote:

between the ears wrote:

Let's face it, Belicheck is playing chess, Tomlin can't even play checkers.

These are both correct. This is the point I was trying to make. Not that Tomlin is bad although he is not the best game manager. Belicheck makes most anyone look like this. Tomlin and staff have long been known for poor in-game adjustments and yesterday was just another case of that. Adjustments on one side and no reaction on the other.

It will likely take a Brady injury for NE to be outside the Super Bowl. Brown can only help the situation, good behavior or not.

Injuries to the offensive line could be almost as bad. Center has already been lost, right Tackle now has a shoulder and will be out for some amount of time. That is week 1. Recall the year they lost AFC Championship to Broncos in Manning's last year. Ended up down to #3 and #4 Tackles, one of whom played with a bad foot.

WHSHawk wrote:

Injuries to the offensive line could be almost as bad.

You are right in theory, but if Brady gets rid of the ball within a second like he did last night I could play on the line. The Steelers pass rush is above average and did not get anywhere near Brady even though they had a patched up line.

It will look different when they play on the road against a quality opponent, which doesn't happen for a while. Their schedule is a joke until November. The segment from November 3rd to December 8th looks interesting though. That segment will tell you more about how dangerous the surviving members of the team, with the oldest roster in football, will be in the playoffs (I expect a number of their old players may not make it through that stretch). Eventually father time will catch up. And it's not just on offense. Their defense (especially their nickel and dime packages, which get used more than their base package) is older than their offense. They stacked their team with old players in an attempt to get one more title. Once TB12 is done, they're getting blown up.

UsedToBeKnowItAll wrote:

AB better human wrote:

AB acts like a child. Tyreek Hill abuses children. Women too. Big difference. Kraft has never and will never take on any player involved in domestic violence.

Kraft is definitely an upstanding person. He only routinely rapes sex slaves at massage parlors. And if your defense is that it's consensual, you don't know anything about the sex trafficking that occurs in this country.

You must have just awakened from a long sleep. The police used the sex trafficking story as a ruse to get permission to put a camera in there. Since there is no evidence that any sex trafficking was actually taking place, the video has been legally tossed and Kraft is indeed innocent as he has claimed all along.

Fortunately for the Patriots, the places where they are old have the best depth (DB/LB). I do not share your same concerns about the secondary. JoeJuan Williams, Duron Harmon and JC Jackson would start for most teams. Jon Jones is a no. 2 CB relegated to slot corner. The have a ton of LBs that can jump in if Hightower gets hurt. The biggest concern to this team besides a Brady injury is really the O-Line falling apart or a ridiculous chain of injuries like in that Broncos season.

joedirt wrote:

It will look different when they play on the road against a quality opponent, which doesn't happen for a while. Their schedule is a joke until November. The segment from November 3rd to December 8th looks interesting though. That segment will tell you more about how dangerous the surviving members of the team, with the oldest roster in football, will be in the playoffs (I expect a number of their old players may not make it through that stretch). Eventually father time will catch up. And it's not just on offense. Their defense (especially their nickel and dime packages, which get used more than their base package) is older than their offense. They stacked their team with old players in an attempt to get one more title. Once TB12 is done, they're getting blown up.

joedirt wrote:

It will look different when they play on the road against a quality opponent, which doesn't happen for a while. Their schedule is a joke until November. The segment from November 3rd to December 8th looks interesting though. That segment will tell you more about how dangerous the surviving members of the team, with the oldest roster in football, will be in the playoffs (I expect a number of their old players may not make it through that stretch). Eventually father time will catch up. And it's not just on offense. Their defense (especially their nickel and dime packages, which get used more than their base package) is older than their offense. They stacked their team with old players in an attempt to get one more title. Once TB12 is done, they're getting blown up.

What exactly do you mean they "stacked the team with old players"? They brought in Michael Bennett, who else? The Safeties are getting old, but they are long time Patriots. Most of the corners are not old. Hightower is starting to get up there, but again he has been there a while. On Offense, Edelman is the next oldest to Brady I think.

I guess you are also saying that the Steelers are not a "Quality Opponent". That remains to be seen.

Judge Brady wrote:

You must have just awakened from a long sleep. The police used the sex trafficking story as a ruse to get permission to put a camera in there. Since there is no evidence that any sex trafficking was actually taking place, the video has been legally tossed and Kraft is indeed innocent as he has claimed all along.

He might have gotten off (if you have enough money in the US you can buy your way out of legal trouble), but he is far from "innocent". He is still a dirty John that pays for sex.

The Patriots have the oldest roster in the league in 2019, FWIW. Also, they didn't play the Steelers on the road.

Playing at Foxborough is tough for anyone, especially with how the Patriots like to cheat. Pittsburgh likely is not that good after getting rid of AB and Le'Veon and with Pouncey out at center. Week one is not everything, but Pittsburgh should be concerned. In between good years they have had some fairly mediocre years. They didn't go to the playoffs last year, Big Ben isn't getting any younger and they might go sub 500 for the first time since 2003.