Pats Sign Baker, Re-Sign Hochstein

The Matt Cassel/Mike Vrabel trade to Kansas City was the big news of the week, but the New England Patriots have continued making roster changes in the meantime, scooping up tight end Chris Baker and offensive lineman Russ Hochstein in two separate deals announced yesterday.

Free agent TE Chris Baker now joins the Patriots after spending all of his previous seven years in the league with the New York Jets, coming to New York in the third round of the 2002 NFL Draft out of Michigan State. The tight end has 51 starts, 145 receptions for 1,505 yards and 12 touchdowns so far in his career, and he will likely play a crucial part of New England’s passing game. The Pats have been low on tight ends for the last year, and though current names on the team’s TE roster include Tyson DeVree, David Thomas and Benjamin Watson, both Thomas and Watson are on their way toward free agency.

OL Russ Hochstein, on the other hand, is no new face to the Patriots, and he solidified his future in New England by re-signing with the team. Hochstein has been with the Patriots since 2002, and the 6-foot-4-inch, 305-pound offensive lineman first came to the team after being traded from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he was drafted into the NFL from the University of Nebraska in the fifth round of the 2001 NFL Draft.

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Permalink - Posted in Uncategorized on March 3, 2009 - Post a comment

Cassel Waiting Game Finally Over

The New England Patriots are confident in the recovery of Tom Brady, and they’ve proved it by trading Matt Cassel over the weekend. Cassel, the Pats’ reserve quarterback who led the team to an 11-5 record in the absence of Brady last season, was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs in part of a huge NFL package that will give the Patriots the Chiefs’ second-round draft pick in April’s draft. Also part of the package, Pro Bowl linebacker Mike Vrabel was also traded to the Chiefs alongside Cassel.

While the Cassel trade was imminent, news of the very quick trade of Mike Vrabel was shocking to some Pats fans. The biggest surprise concerning this package deal, however, is the fact that the Cassel/Vrabel trade scored only a No. 34 draft pick for the Patriots in return. These two powerful players were expected to draw a big incentive for New England to trade them, but some Patriots fans are puzzled as to why the team didn’t get a higher draft pick for the two players. Regardless of details concerning the trade, both Matt Cassel and Mike Vrabel will now be under the leadership of Chiefs GM Scott Pioli, who left the Patriots just months ago after serving as New England’s VP of player personnel for six years.

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Permalink - Posted in Uncategorized on March 2, 2009 - Post a comment


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