There are 52 other players on the team. Megamind and Brady didn't win alone.

We've been told that the only way that you can win or have sustained success is by drafting well. The experts have said that trying to build your team in free agency or trades is a recipe for disaster. Well, the Patriots haven't drafted well. They've built a sustained winner through free agency and trading for malcontents. They've even managed to win a bunch of games when Tom Terrific wasn't on the field.

We live in a sports world where everyone copies whatever is successful. Yet, no one has tried to copy Belichick’s bargain shopping approach to free agency and trades. The most successful organization in the 21st century sustained success by essentially going against conventional wisdom. Is it really that ridiculous to wonder if conventional wisdom is correct?

Maybe you're just a Peter Plateau kinda guy. That's okay. I'm not exactly a cookie cutter kinda guy, but I still respect you even though that's your thing.

The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.

The Bears have failed at 2 of the 3 options or all 3 options for most of my life. Remove the Bears from the equation, I'm simply asking if conventional wisdom is wrong. Do you really have to build a team through the draft in order to have sustained success? Is it possible that way of thinking is ancient? Are experts clinging to it because it was the best way to have success before the free agency era?

The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.

You seem to assume that the Patriots have eschewed the idea of drafting successfully in favor of pursuing free agents. This isn't the case. They use all mechanisms at their disposal to assemble their rosters. So do most other teams. Some are just better at it than others.

I'm not saying that the Patriots don't want to hit home runs in the draft every year. They've simply created a system where they can still sustain success (not necessarily win the SB) by targeting bargain free agents and malcontents via trade IF they bomb in the draft. Even if they guess wrong in free agency, they cut their losses and repeat the process the following year because they aren't overpaying for anyone.

Conventional wisdom says that you MUST have success in the draft every year. That you must pay a premium to keep your successful draft picks in house. That you should target high priced free agents whenever you have cap space. That you shouldn't waste draft capital on another team's headache.

I'll put you down for conventional wisdom being correct and that the Patriots are a "unicorn".

The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.

The Rams are very clearly the test case on if draft pick value is overrated or not. Not the Patriots

I have MANY years of experience in trying to appreciate steaming piles of dogshit.