Lloyd isn't the answer

Not good enough, Patriots.

Sure, you’ve made some moves in free agency, but when the big names came along, you let them go.

Mario Williams is going to Buffalo to help form one of the best defensive lines in the league with Kyle Williams, Marcell Dareus and Chris Kelsay. Yes, that’s the same Bills team that split with the Pats last season.

Vincent Jackson could have been catching passes from Tom Brady. He’s now heading to Tampa Bay.

Mike Wallace is still sitting in Pittsburgh, without a franchise tag. He could be had with a daring contract and one of the Pats’ first-round picks.

No, New England is going to roll the dice with Brandon Lloyd, a guy who’s playing on his sixth team in nine seasons. For a team that was dying for an outside receiver who could stretch the field, $4 million a year for a guy who’s only topped 1,000 yards in a season once isn’t going to cut it.

You’ve got to do better than that, Pats.

Yes, you spent some money to add depth to a team that needed it last season. You made sure you had special teams guys like Matthew Slater and Tracy White signed, and you added Robert Gallery to an offensive line that has a recovering Logan Mankins and Matt Light, who may retire.

By sheer volume, you've made the most moves of any team in the league so far. But the real value of those moves remains to be seen.

I can already hear the mantra now. "Trust us. We've been to five Super Bowls in 11 years and have won three of them. We have Brady and Belichick. We'll make it work." I get it.

The trouble is the Patriots haven't actually won a Super Bowl since 2004, when Donovan McNabb was (allegedly) vomiting in the fourth quarter in Jacksonville. I realize that's a potentially crazy distinction to make, that just getting to Super Bowls isn't enough, but New England set the bar that high. This is the point where fans of teams like the Browns and Jaguars proceed to cause themselves bodily harm.

This problem is one that successful teams have. Getting to the playoffs isn't enough anymore. Getting to the Super Bowl is cool, but if you don't have the Lombardi when it's all said and done, you've failed.

Every team in the NFL has the goal to win the Super Bowl every season, and the Patriots have been one of the very few franchises that have actually had the capacity to do that over the past decade. They've done it by being shrewd, but it wouldn't hurt to go out on a limb, especially for a proven commodity like Wallace, who's more explosive and younger than Lloyd.

Shrewdness is a good strategy to win regular season games, but the Patriots can't just get to the Super Bowl and hope the Giants aren't on the other sideline. They need to get players who will help them win championships.

The Jets traded for Tim Tebow today. Whatever you think about him as a player, New England's main division rival just added a potential weapon by giving up a fourth- and sixth-round pick. That's a move.

The Patriots are hitching their wagons to young players who may return to form (cornerback Ras-I Dowling and linebacker Jermaine Cunningham for instance) and some good draft picks, but who knows what Bill Belichick will do with his picks?

There are plenty of defensive playmakers in April's draft. Will the Pats get a few of them or will they just continue to build depth?

The 2012 Patriots are a long way from being a fully formed entity, but if they don't make some big moves soon, they'll be exactly where they were at the end of last season: not good enough.