It is said that Bill Belichick would rather get rid of a guy a year too early than a year too late. I was going to write a post about this, but that really can't be done. Instead, it's going to be several posts. Here's the first.
Wondering if Belichick has let a guy go too soon and not wanting to completely forget any potential players, I posed the question on both Facebook and Twitter. While some people gave really ridiculous responses, others required some digging to form my opinion.
NOMINEE NUMBER 1 TY LAW- One of the popular nominees for being let go too early received a gold jacket in 2019 to go with the red jacket he received in 2014. Ty Law spent 10 years in New England before being released on February 25, 2005 due in part to his impending $12.5 million salary.
The following season Law played some of his best football for the Jets. Coming off his nagging foot injury which limited him to only 7 regular season games in his final season in a Patriots uniform, Ty recorded a career high 10 interceptions. Ty would spend the final 4 years of his NFL career playing 2 seasons for the Chiefs, another season for the Jets and finally one season for the Broncos.
The following season Law played some of his best football for the Jets. Coming off his nagging foot injury which limited him to only 7 regular season games in his final season in a Patriots uniform, Ty recorded a career high 10 interceptions. Ty would spend the final 4 years of his NFL career playing 2 seasons for the Chiefs, another season for the Jets and finally one season for the Broncos.
VERDICT- Keeping in mind that Law may have had his best statistical season in his first season away from Foxboro and the fact that the Patriots went from a 14-2 team in 2004 to a 10-6 team in 2005, it would be easy to say Belichick made the wrong move. The easy answer frequently isn't the correct answer.
The player who ended up replacing Law on the Patriots' roster was Asante Samuel. Asante was a member of the Patriots from 2003-2007. Since Asante counted more than $12 million less on the cap than Law and is also a popular name being suggested as someone Belichick let go too early, it's not possible for me to put Hall of Famer Ty Law on the list.
​Part 2 coming soon.
The player who ended up replacing Law on the Patriots' roster was Asante Samuel. Asante was a member of the Patriots from 2003-2007. Since Asante counted more than $12 million less on the cap than Law and is also a popular name being suggested as someone Belichick let go too early, it's not possible for me to put Hall of Famer Ty Law on the list.
​Part 2 coming soon.
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