Belichick Takes Shot at GM Ryan Poles, Hints at Bleak Future

I know I'm in the minority here but I don't have much problem with Poles draft choices.  Velus was a miss--all GMs have those--and I question taking Kiran in rd 3 this yr when there were other, more "ready" OLs there for the taking (such as Puni who's a starting G for SF as a rookie).  Beyond that, I'm ok with what he did. 

Gordon, Brisker, Wright, Stevenson, and now even Dexter are all looking like good to even great choices from 2022-2023.  In 2024, I would have done exactly what he did in rd 1 (we didn't have a 2nd) with Williams and Rome.  Contrast that with his predecessor, Ryan Pace, who constantly whiffed and busted his high picks particularly in his early drafts.  I have little tolerance for busting 1st & 2nd rounders and Pace drove me absolutely freakin' batty with his terrible choices.  I know not every one will work out but as a GM you better be batting > 500 on 1st and 2nd rounders, especially if you are picking high in the round like we frequently were.  Pace didn't figure this out till the end when he hit on Kmet and JJ but by then he had wrecked the team with a slew of busts from his first 3-4 drafts.

Where I am getting frustrated with Poles is his non-draft acquisitions on the OL.  Both the ones he made that have sucked (Patrick, Davis) and the ones he did NOT do.  He had plenty of $$ to spend this past March.  It was well known by then that C was a major hole and Davis was a malingering miss of a signing at RG from the prior year.  I question his decision to spend a 4th on Kennan Allen, as great a player as he is.  He's likely just a one-yr rental and he has a long history of missing 4+ games every season.  Was Ryan Bates really worth a 4th?  We don't know yet cuz he's been hurt and is out at least 3 more games.  

Point is, he had other choices to shore up the iOL and the issues there at C and RG were not mysteries at the time.  They were well known even to casual fans.  Imagine if he had signed a solid C and drafted Puni right now?  Or signed TWO iOLs that were better than what we have now.  

How badly did we need Allen, Everett, AND Swift?  Could we have gotten by with a little less there at WR, TE, and RB and instead had beefed up the iOL?

I think so and it looks like a major error thus far.

He built the O.  He did not build the OL nearly as much.

Rome, Allen, Everett, & Swift were all major additions on the O (in addition to obviously to replacing Fields with CW) just this year.  DJ Moore was a huge one last year.   

My question was:  did we really need ALL OF THAT or could we have gotten by with a little less in terms of weapons with the freed up capital going to OL?  I haven't been very impressed with Swift and Everett thus far and Allen already missed one game and dropped an easy TD pass in the other.

I think he could have devoted just as much to the D (which he has been spectacularly successful at) AND still handled the O better.  Like I said, he had the money this past March for FAs and he has 3 more top picks coming in 2025.  

Everything Poles has touched on the DL has turned to gold (Sweat, Taylor, Dex, Billings, heck even Walker has been solid and Booker shows promise).  Opposite on OL.

Poles has a Midas Touch on DL and an Anti-Midas on OL.  Virtually nothing he's done there has worked out.

Now Bates has an arthritic arm/elbow issue? Poles is really floundering in the 1 area that is supposed to be his strength.
WTF?

x.com/AaronLemingNFL/status/1836437242589364491?t=MqFBzg9EmWYxnG1e5viA7g&s=19

Yeah, how on earth are you gonna play at an NFL level with one good arm?  Well.  I guess that would still be better than what we're getting out of a two-armed Nate Davis.  I guess there's that...