Hightower out for season.

Huge bummer.

Welp NOW I'm worried.

Of course I don't want BB gone, I just laugh when we start discussing roster talent and coaching issues and ignore BB in the talk. He buys every single grocery and watches over Josh and Matt's kitchens. We praise him when Malcolm Butler is trained to make a superhero SB play but turn our heads when Gilmore, he of $65M, has no clue what he's doing out there in the secondary. BB never met him personally before he signed that contract.

The secondary has improved without him. BB has already said "we're open for business." It's going to be pretty interesting to see what he does here.

PS Whatever happened to Goodie?

6-2 my dudes. Let's go. Gifs as soon as I can. Great win

1 Great stop by Roberts

1b Guy gets a hand on Novak's FG

2 Lewis picks up a 1st

3 James White nabs a 1st and more

4 Gronk TD

5 Great ST stop on KR

6 Rex Burkhead 1st down

7 Safety

8 Gilislee converts on 4th down

9 James White grabs a 1st

10 Lewis 69yd return

11 Philip Rivers evacuates a football

12 Hogan grabs a 1st

13 Hogan grabs a 1st again

14 Nice rush by Dion

15 Brady and Gronk connect on 2nd and 20

15b Flowers jumps the center

16 Jones intercepts Rivers

2017 Pats started the season as the 2011 Pats (all offense, no defense) and have somehow morphed into the 2001 Pats (winning games however you can / ugly).

Pats trade Jimmy G to SF for a 2nd round pick???

I guess all those 1st's were never on the table.

I am so happy about that. BRADY 4 LIFE.

I'm sure like 18 was on the table. I'm sure they have less leverage than they did in the off-season. I'm sure this is probably ~fine & a good indication that Brady wants to keep playing a few more years for real.

Still has me a bit nervous, trading two promising backups when the next pollard hit could be right around the corner

Yeah...I'm guessing they've come to the determination they aren't winning the SB this year without Brady.

& I don't think they believed in Brissett. I'm nervous, but I don't hate it.

Solid move. Early 2nd rounder is a great haul for someone who is relatively unproven and an impending FA.

What strikes me most about this trade is that it's about getting longterm value rather than going all-in to win this year. Some of their previous roster moves seem to be more about winning this year and sacrificing a little longterm value.

A high second round draft pick is valuable for the 2018-2021 seasons and obviously does nothing for the team this year. Hopefully, Brady will still a top QB through all those years.

Well, the rumor is they're shopping that pick for a DE...

Nothing specific to say really about JG, but it definitely makes me nervous to not have a guy being developed Favre-Rodgers style with Brady being old in like the most fragile sport of all time. And imagine how much Brady could teach a new guy rather than just developing him the conventional way.

if you assume the 18 was available, you could make the case that getting the 34th, now (having seen 8 more games of Brady + another half season of Jimmy G) makes sense. bc you've had the chance to collect more information on both those guys. you dropped 16 picks, but that was the price paid for getting better information

feels...like a stretch but maybe?

what I don't love is if Brady goes down, or suddenly declines - we are now the Ravens. or Dolphins. etc etc. that's it, Pats go back to being any other team in the blink of an eye.

a good QB is the single most valuable asset there is and turned two of them into...not much. feels like a blunder. yes it was a great problem to have but...yikes.

then again, maybe BB just thought Jimmy was Matt Cassel.

Well, has any Brady backup ever actually turned out to be good? Mallett, Hoyer, Cassell, Brissett, O'Connell have all turned out to be JAGs when they leave. There might be others I'm missing, but those are the names that popped in mind.

Jimmy will be an interesting test case, & they can always draft a new guy to develop over the next couple years.

I don't think it's too far-fetched of a theory, with some random attempts to sign him to some succession plan type deals that were rebuffed due to him wanting to actually play football mixed in.

I don't think we necessarily are ever that. I don't think Hoyer would be significantly worse in this offense for the rest of 2017 than Jimmy G if something happens this year, & if Brady wants to play a couple more years, what else can you really do but let him?

I feel like maybe I'm just trying to rationalize & this is actually bad, but meh.

I'm not concerned about it from a 2018 and beyond point of view, but rather I'm concerned about this year. Brady has been getting hit a lot, and they're currently in the 3 seed I believe. Having a bye and and potentially home field advantage is so valuable. Even if Brady only misses a game or two this year, it would really affect their Super Bowl chances, downgrading from Garoppolo to Hoyer.

Of course, maybe Belichick doesn't see it that way, and doesn't see a large gap between those two. It's possible that if Hoyer had been willing to sign as a backup this offseason (rather than get a chance to start in San Francisco) that Belichick would have traded Garoppolo already.

Maybe missing the point a bit. I'm not saying JG is good or that we should have kept him. I'm also not saying that by merely being a TB backup you are good. I'm just saying the ideal situation would be to already be developing the next QB under TB. There isn't much time left. If there are another couple of years left, this process now doesn't start until next year.

well, they just had that. they could have kept Brissett I suppose.

but if it now looks like Brady (save for random injury) is going to be the starter next year (and it does) then they will have at least next year for a QB to be an understudy

and maybe more than that

they've decided that Brady is their guy for the near term, and that it's too expensive to keep Jimmy and Brady

Bear Island knows no qb but the qb in the north, whose name is brady.

Who care about developing a QB under Brady. As mentioned, it hasn't happened during the first 17 seasons. They all sucked when given the chance. You can't teach greatness.

Also, QB's will be lining up to play for BB when/if Brady ever retires.

With Marty resigned, we just need Chris Long back.

Band back together etc.