For years, the Patriots took a pretty significant beating in the media for dragging out negotiations with young stars and creating acrimonious situations that potentially could have been avoided had they been more proactive in negotiations in previous years. Some of it was fair from this viewpoint (e.g. Logan Mankins) while some of it was the standard over-the-top “have-to-come-out-with-a-WWE-type-take” talk-radio fodder. So it was predictable in 2012 when the club signed Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez to extensions after their second seasons that the club was almost universally praised at the time of those deals. They don’t look so smart now, and because of that, I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the changes the Patriots make in reviewing their procedures is that there will be almost no more contract extensions with players after just two seasons.