New England Re-Signs Bruschi

ESPN.com is reporting that the New England Patriots have reached an agreement on a new contract with Teddy Bruschi.  The veteran linebacker will not only be back with the Pats next year, but the report states that his new deal is multi-year.  Bruschi suffered a stroke more than three years ago, but somehow managed to recover in time to play a portion of the 2006 season with the Patriots.  He has been with them ever since, missing one game last year with a wrist injury, but logging big minutes after the Patriots lost linebacker Colvin for the season in the latter part of last year.

Bruschi is one of the players on the team that simply embodies all the qualities of the New England Patriots organization.  While New England has been quick to cut many of their aging players loose, they took the time to keep Bruschi.  While financial details were not disclosed, one could safely assume the Pats did not overpay for the linebacker.  While he may not be in his prime physically, Bruschi has the mental fortitude Bill Belichick requires of his linebackers.  He should remain an integral part of the Patriots defense for the next few years.

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Asante Samuel Ready for Free Agency

Well, free agency is almost upon us, football fans.  That means that more than one New England Patriot will hit the open market.  U.S.A. Today is reporting that Asante Samuel is hoping to become the world’s first $100 million cornerback.  Of course, they wrote it “The $100 million dollar cornerback” which we all know would actually read aloud “The one hundred million dollar dollar cornerback,” but I’ll attempt to refrain from turning this entire blog post into U.S.A. Today blast.  Rather, I’ll go ahead and predict that Asante Samuel doesn’t actually end up making that kind of money.

While someone will undoubtedly take Samuel - and pay him a ton of money in the process - I don’t see him making the kind of jack he’s talking about.  Maybe, if he had catch the game-clinching interception in the Super Bowl, he could have commanded that kind of cash.  And maybe Patriots fans might have even been somewhat sad to see him go.  But as it stands now, that missed INT still leaves a bad taste in the collective mouth of the Patriots’ fan base, and it seems as though everyone is ready to bid Samuel a fond farewell.  Wherever he lands, at least it will be on a big pile of money.
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Patriots Release Colvin, Lua

According to ESPN.com, the Patriots have made more cuts.  This time, the Pats cut veteran linebacker Roosevelt Colvin and young linebacker Oscar Lua.  Colvin was a force in the league for years before a hip injury slowed him down significantly.  However, Colvin was still able to remain a vital part of the defense for the Patriots, registering many sacks for New England on his way to more than 50 sacks on his career.  However, after missing the latter part of last year with a foot injury, Colvin simply lost his spot on the roster, it would appear.  The Patriots are moving on.

The Lua cut is certainly strange.  Lua was an undrafted linebacker out of USC.  Lua was a prominent player at Southern Cal, but a knee injury kept him from ever being able to prove himself to Bill Belichick.  While it would seem as though the Patriots could have easily kept Lua around for another year for very little money to see if he could develop within their system, apparently Belichick saw things differently.  The Patriots continue to be extremely thin at linebacker, and it remains to be seen how they will address this issue in the offseason.

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Why Not Franchise Moss?

As you may have heard, the New England Patriots did not franchise Randy Moss.  Of course this begs the question, “Why didn’t the New England Patriots franchise Randy Moss?”  The Boston Herald has tackled this question, and they have come to this conclusion: The New England Patriots did not put the franchise tag on Randy Moss because they didn’t want to tick him off.  That’s quite a leap, considering the Patriots have absolutely never bent their will for a player in the past.  However, Randy Moss is certainly a different case, and it would appear that the Patriots are sensitive to that fact.

This is an interesting development in the evolution of the Patriots.  Bill Belichick seems to be softening his stance a bit on the team-first mentality and making allowances for Randy Moss’s feeling in these contract talks.  The Pats are gambling that by not insulting the veteran Moss with a franchise tag, they have a better chance to re-sign him.  And, true to Belichick’s gameplan, keeping Moss around would be the best thing for the team.  So I suppose that perhaps Belichick isn’t changing, but rather just adapting his game plan to the modern NFL.

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Patriots Making Contract Progress

The New England Patriots are moving forward in the offseason, signing some players and letting others test the waters.  The Patriots were unable to land veteran linebacker Zach Thomas - recently released from Miami - and they are also not expected to bring back wide receiver Donte Stallworth.  However, Larry Izzo will be back in a Patriots uniform next season, and talks are still ongoing with Jabar Gaffney as well.  No word yet on any progress in the talks with star receiver Randy Moss.  If Moss doesn’t come back, many of these other signings will seem inconsequential.

Donte Stallworth isn’t much of a surprise, to be honest.  He never really seemed to click with Tom Brady.  When you factor in the fact that Jabar Gaffney can do many of the same things for your offense as Stallworth - at a discount, no less - it becomes an easy pick.  Losing out on Thomas was a bit more surprising, but not a death blow by any means.  The Patriots still need to bolster their defense and get a bit younger, but they are fine for the most part.  The issue is Randy Moss.  The longer the Patriots wait to re-sign Moss, the more nervous everyone will get.

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Patriots Do Not Franchise Moss

In a rather surprising story out of ESPN.com, the New England Patriots have chosen to not to put the Franchise tag on Randy Moss.  The record-breaking wide receiver has yet to re-sign with the Patriots, and there has been no word from either camp on how close they might be to finalizing a long-term deal.  This may put many Patriots and Patriot fans on edge, as Randy Moss added a new layer to the Patriots’ offense.  Without Moss, the Patriots would be a completely different team.  It remains to be seen whether or not Moss will be a Patriot next season.

This is an interesting news story, to be sure.  On one hand, not franchising Moss could be a gesture of good faith.  Moss is an older player, and maybe looking for the last long-term paycheck of his career.  It also bears noting that Moss has always been about the money, despite anything he might have said about being over his paychecks last season.  The fact remains that Randy Moss made the Patriots one of the greatest teams in NFL history, and without him they will not be the same offensive threat.  Here’s hoping the two sides can reach an agreement.

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Goodell Hopes to Speak to Walsh

In the continuing saga of the story that refuses to go away, ESPN.com is reporting that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is hopeful that a meeting with form Patriots employee Matt Walsh will come to fruition soon.  Walsh is of course the former employee who not only claims to have taped the St. Louis Rams’ final walkthrough before the Pats faced them in the Super Bowl, but also claims to still have the tapes.  The Patriots, for their part, have denied ever taping the St. Louis Rams’ practices or any other teams’ practices for that matter.

The Patriots have gone on the offensive in this story, revealing that Walsh was let go by the Patriots for his practice of secretly taping conversations with coworkers and other people within the organization.  It will be very interesting to see how this all shakes out, but I’d predict that even if Walsh does have the tapes he says he has, the Patriots will deny ever actually authorizing such a taping.  Of course, it will be up to commissioner Goodell to make the judgment as to whether or not Walsh’s testimony and evidence are damning enough to warrant even more punishment for the Patriots.

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Patriots Get High Marks from Clayton

Over at ESPN.com, John Clayton has put together a list of the top five draft talent evaluators in the NFL, and the Patriots are at the top of that list.  That should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to the National Football League for the past seven or so years, but apparently Clayton felt the need to let everyone know that the Patriots are better than everyone else at this facet of the NFL as well.  The rest of the list read Indianapolis Colts, San Diego Chargers, Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens.

For anyone who believes a team can fix all its woes in the offseason via trades and free agency, I’d like to direct you to that list of teams.  Besides the Baltimore Ravens, those five teams are all perennial title contenders.  The Ravens were a great team in 2006, but something just didn’t click in 2007.  Of course now, with a regime change in Baltimore, who knows if the Ravens will stay on this list.  One this is for sure, though.  As long as the New England Patriots can stay in the top five in talent evaluation, they will remain near the top of the NFL.

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Patriots Make Thomas an Offer

In a move that really shouldn’t surprise anyone, it is now being reported that the New England Patriots have made an offer to acquire the services of newly-unemployed linebacker Zach Thomas.  Thomas was released by the Miami Dolphins as the Tuna continues to clean house and rebuild that awful mess of a team.  At the age of 34, the veteran just didn’t fit in with what the Dolphins are trying to do.  However, if Thomas has fully recovered from the head injuries that kept him sidelined for most of last year, he would seem to fit in perfectly with what the Patriots love to do.

After what happened in the Super Bowl, you might think Bill Belichick would rethink his approach.  You might think he’d get younger at linebacker, since his team just seemed to run out of gas toward the end of the last season.  However, it appears now that Belichick has no intentions of changing a thing.  He will continue to try to pick up top-tier linebackers that other teams give up on and reinvigorate their careers.  While Thomas has yet to sign on the dotted line, I can’t think of any team that will give him a better home than New England.

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Defending the Patriots amid Super Bowl Backlash

If you check out a free ESPN Insider preview, you can see a list of some of the players that KC Joyner believes are the most overrated in the NFL. The first thing you’ll notice is that there are two Patriots players’ pictures at the top of the story. When you scan the list of named names, you’ll see that a QB on another team made the top of the actual list, but that there was a distinct effort made to list Pats players in a completely unbalanced over representation.

It seems to this blogger that the backlash against the Patriots is at a fever pitch. I remember reading an article in The Onion, a fake/funny online newspaper which illustrated the current trend perfectly. The title was “Patriots Season Perfect for Rest of Nation.”  Now, it’s fine for there to be teams that are generally disliked outside of their fan base (the Yankees and Manchester United come to mind) but I also think that some of the Patriots players are getting an unfair deal by writers simply because the moment happens to be ripe for some revenge. Do you think sports writers are being unfair in this article? I can see that there are a lot of comments in the article’s comments section already.

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