Patriot Day

Well, its been a pretty crazy offseason for the Pats. Signing Adalius Thomas, signing Stallworth, trading for Wes Welker and now Moss?? Its clear they are in Go For It Now Mode. After proudly declaring they had two draft choices in the first round for this draft, they essentially gave this draft the middle finger by trading out of their 28th pick, the third round and the fourth round too (didn't have a 2nd round). They did get a couple extra picks in next years draft though, so thats OK.

So Randy is now on my team. Its a puzzling move because of all of his baggage. This is an organization who on the first page of its scouting and player philosophy manual (think Mission Statement for a football organization) has things like:

1. How important is the game of football to the individual?
2. Is the player interested in detailed film study?
3. What values are placed on practicing?

etc, etc, you get the idea. It essentially outlines all of the values they have so carefully crafted during the BB era. One of the last lines in that cover page of the manual says simply - "No assholes". Well, Randy Moss certainly seems to miss on all of these points. However, despite all of that I still think this is a good move. The reality is that they are in pretty decent cap shape, so an extension to him won't be debilitating. Also, if it doesn't work out they'll cut him, eat some cap money and lose a fourth round pick. I think that is a pretty good risk reward.

So, lets look... last year in the AFCC they started Caldwell, Brown and Gaffney as their WRs. Now they could line up Moss, Stallworth and Welker (who I really like). With Caldwell on the bench and Gaffney probably cut. I'd say that's an upgrade.

One thing that is still a little worrisome is that they haven't really done anything to address the LB core. Thomas is a nice addition, but they could really use an infusion of youth and speed especially at the middle spots. What's weird is that LB is the position BB values the most, yet the highest round they have taken a LB is in the 5th since joining the Pats. I would have never guessed that, but the paper mentioned that this morning. I am still having nightmares seeing TE after TE torching the Pats LBs. But its clear that the Pats really wanted to get more explosive on offense this season and Stallworth, Welker and Moss should help that. Although I do think they will miss Dillon's power running inside the 10. Even though he wasn't great last season, he still found the EZ a few times.

Well, maybe they can actually beat the Broncos this season.....Nah. Not unless Danny Kanell takes a break from coaching HS football and lines up under center. :)