Re-sign Wes Welker

This past offseason the Patriots had a chance to lock up Wes Welker to a long-term agreement. Instead, they offered him what was in essence a 1 year contract. Proving that his past 5 years in New England were no accident, Welker has put up huge numbers again this year and is showing his deservance of a multi-year deal.

The Patriots traded for Welker before the 2007 season. If you recall, that team is the only one in NFL history to have a 16-0 regular season. Since that time, Welker has been named to 4 Pro Bowls, has 4 All Pro selections, led the league in receptions 3 times, led the league in receiving yards once, holds the record for longest reception in NFL history and was the fastest receiver to record 500 catches for one team.

Just check out these stats from his Patriots tenure:

2007- 112 receptions, 1175 yards, 8 TDs
2008- 111 receptions, 1165 yards, 3 TDs
2009- 123 receptions, 1348 yards, 4 TDs
2010 (came back early from MCL/ACL injury) - 86 receptions, 848 yards, 7 TDs
2011- 122 receptions, 1569 yards, 9 TDs
2012 (through 12 games)- 92 receptions, 1064 yards, 4 TDs

He also holds Patriots team records for most receptions, most receptions in a season, most receiving yards in a season, most seasons with 100+ receptions, best receiving yards per game average and he has even more in his sights. He is only 31 years old and as a slot receiver he is more likely to age gracefully then to fall off the map.

I know Belichick thinks no one is untouchable (see: Richard Seymour, Asante Samuel, Deion Branch) but there is no replacing Wes Welker. Give him 3 years, $36 million -- whatever it takes. Get. A. Deal. Done.

2012 NFL Draft - Patriots Edition (Wrap Up)

Leave it to Bill Belichick to shock everyone in Round 1 and then keep the surprises coming through the rest of the draft… but not necessarily in a good way. In the 2nd round, Belichick selected safety Tavon Wilson out of Illinois. Who? This one had even Mel Kiper, Jr. flipping through his draft book. This kid was expected to go in the 6th round at the absolute earliest and possibly not even get drafted. Is that what concerned people about this pick? Not so much. The issue was when the Pats selected him. Spending a 2nd round pick on a player with 6th round (or worse) talent is a terrible value. Belichick could have selected another (better) player, or traded the pick, and still grabbed Wilson 4 rounds later. Hence the backlash.

Belichick’s next surprise was taking a former Rugby player *slash* Ohio State special teams standout, Nate Ebner. Ebner didn’t even play football until he got to college. He was a rugby player on the US national team (apparently they have one). He was even named MVP twice. He was a walk on at Ohio State and stuck, making his mark on special teams. So, to sum up, Belichick selected an ex-rugby player with practically no football experience who plays nothing but special teams, which is at most 10% of a game. Awesome.

Here’s the thing, these aren’t bad picks necessarily. Belichick is the king of finding players off the scrap heap and training them up into a specialized role. I’m sure he will do it again with these two. It’s just how he went about doing it. He likely could have picked up both of these guys after the draft, judging by how other teams rated them. Instead, he stuck to his guns, believed in his own rankings, and drafted them when he thought they were the correct selections, regardless of differing valuations and points of view. He’s getting blasted now but let’s see what people are saying next Super Bowl Sunday.

2012 NFL Draft - Patriots Edition

I am first and foremost a Patriots fan. Yes, I’m a big Sox & Celtics guy but I’ve been watching the Patriots since I was born. I watched Super Bowl XX when the Pats got crushed by the Shufflin' Chicago Bears. I was 6 months old at the time and my mom put band-aids on my teddy bears because we were going to Bury the Bears*. I had a Super Bowl party every year from elementary school through high school including the Greatest Moment of My Life – Super Bowl XXXVI (aka the Silence of the Rams). I still get choked up when I watch the championship DVD of that season.

Anyway, you could say I know this team pretty well. Especially the Belichick/Brady version because it began during my formative (read: teenage) years**. But for the life of me, I couldn’t remember a single time that Bill Belichick had done anything but trade down in the first round of the draft. Obviously, I’m sure he stayed put sometimes and just picked in our slot but I have way too many memories of him "disappointing" fans by trading down and missing a chance at selecting an "impact" player***. (I did a little research and it turns out he has actually traded up twice: in 2002 for Daniel Graham and in 2003 for Ty Warren).

So you would understand my surprise last night when I heard, "The New England Patriots have traded up to the #21 pick to select Syracuse DE, Chandler Jones." What!? Awesome! Finally, the pass rusher we’ve been looking for ever since Richard Seymour left!

And then, not 10 minutes later, "The New England Patriots have traded up to #25 to select Alabama LB, Dont'a Hightower." I literally thought ESPN was lying to me. Why would you do that ESPN? Then one of my friends tweeted me that it was real and I think I passed out.

Hell, I don’t know many college players but if Belichick likes them, and more importantly likes them enough to trade UP for the first time in 9 YEARS, and trades up TWICE for BOTH of them, then that deserves caps lock and a run-on sentence.

I’ll end with a post-draft quote from Belichick during a Q&A session with the media:

On how important versatility was in drafting Jones & Hightower: "Every player has his own individual package, whatever it is. Some guys do one thing very well, other guys have some versatility, other guys can do a lot of different things. Whatever their deal is, it is and that’s what they come with."

No matter if he shocked the world by trading up, it’s good to know some things about him will never change… like his ability to not answer questions.

*In the AFC Championship Game that year we Squished the Fish and then later on in Super Bowl XXXI we tried to Squeeze the Cheese (some say Sack the Pack but that wasn’t as big). Marketing at its best.

**My favorite number is 11 because of Drew Bledsoe. I have no doubt if I was born 10 years later my favorite number would be 12.

***Everything in that sentence deserves quotation marks because the Pats have the best record in the NFL since 2000 so fans certainly haven’t been disappointed AND there are no sure-things in the draft. Wes Welker went completely undrafted, for example.

Patriots 2012 Schedule

Week 1 - at Tennessee
Week 2 - vs. Arizona
Week 3 - at Baltimore
Week 4 - at Buffalo
Week 5 - vs. Denver
Week 6 - at Seattle
Week 7 - vs. New York Jets
Week 8 - at St. Louis (in London)
Week 9 - Bye
Week 10 - vs. Buffalo
Week 11 - vs. Indianapolis
Week 12 - at New York Jets
Week 13 - at Miami
Week 14 - vs. Houston
Week 15 - vs. San Francisco
Week 16 - at Jacksonville
Week 17 - vs. Miami

This is a pretty great schedule for the 2012 Patriots. Maybe it’s not as good as last year’s "didn’t win a single game against a team over .500 until the AFC Championship Game" but it’s awesome nonetheless. This looks like a 13-3 season and another #1 seed in the AFC.

We play the entire AFC South (no world beaters) and the NFC West (who could make things interesting). It’s easy to sit here and say "Yes, the Pats are a better team than SF/SEA/ARI/STL" but the truth is you never know how inter-divisional games will turn out because of how rarely the teams play each other. I wouldn’t be shocked if one of those teams surprised the Pats and stole a win.

The rest of the schedule includes our familiar AFC East foes (twice), the Ravens and the Broncos. As long as everyone stays healthy – not a small feat in the NFL – the Pats should roll through the 2012 regular season. It’s crazy getting this far ahead of ourselves in mid-April but I haven’t had any football since the Super Bowl. At least the draft is next week.

Super Bowl XLVI

I have done everything in my power to ignore the Super Bowl these past 2 weeks. I haven’t written about it, I haven’t read about it, and I haven’t talked much about it. Now I’m all in.

I was rooting for the 49ers. Hard. The Giants have scarred me for life because of Super Bowl XLII and now they have the most talented, well-balanced team in the league. Kill me.

I have not gotten over 2008. 18-1 just doesn’t have the same panache, you know? I don’t care if David Tyree is out of the league and Plaxico Burress went to jail for shooting himself. Fuck the Giants.

What happened to the Josh McDaniels uproar? Did Bill O’Brien already leave for Penn State? No one’s talking about them anymore. When the Pats signed McDaniels to their coaching staff before the Denver game it was a huge story. He used to coach the Broncos! The Pats are getting inside information! I haven’t heard his name mentioned once since that game. And Bill O’Brien? Now that the decision has been made no one’s making a big deal out of it. It just is.

I’ve been growing a playoff beard since the Denver game. My girlfriend’s not a big fan but I can’t shave it off until after the game. Not that I’m superstitious or anything but if I shave it and they lose then that’s on me.

Tomorrow we are going to the Museum of Science. I would be too anxious if we were just hanging around the house or something. I need to take my mind off the game. Sunday is going to be awful. Pregame shows start at like 9 in the morning. I don’t know how I’m going to make it to 6:30.

I’ll leave you with this. My mom called me last week and asked if I wanted an AFC Champs shirt. I said no. She said “Oh, you must be waiting for the Super Bowl Champs shirt.” Yes, I am. The DVD too. What a season.

Bill O’Brien, the newest Nittany Lion

Of all the jobs in the country which is probably the worst available opening right now? Head Coach of Penn State football. The #1 reason for that is the Jerry Sandusky scandal which has made Happy Valley, PA the last place you want to be associated with. The #2 reason is having to follow the illustrious legacy of Joe Paterno. Regardless of how JoePa’s tenure ended people love him. He is one of the great college coaches and I don’t believe the Sandusky scandal will tarnish him in historical context.

Today we found out that Bill O’Brien, Offensive Coordinator (OC) of the Patriots will become the new head coach at Penn State after this season. Wow. I’d just like to know why? It will certainly be a challenging situation he’s stepping into – and maybe that carried some weight with him – but there were other “challenges” available to him. The Jaguars, Dolphins, Rams, Chiefs, Buccaneers and more NFL teams are looking for head coaches. None of those are great situations like where he is now with the Pats, so they should have been of interest to him too. But no, O’Brien has decided to go the Charlie Weis route and leave the Pats’ OC job for a head coaching gig in college.

Weis, if you don’t remember, went to coach Notre Dame and created a lot of fanfare upon his arrival. However, he fizzled and has since returned to the pros as an OC again. But what buzz is O’Brien bringing with him? He’s not the character Weis was. Yes, he’s going to a famous program but this scandal will significantly impair his ability to recruit top high school players. Plus, everything he does will be compared to JoePa. I guess you could say this is a can’t lose situation for him because of all the negativity surrounding it. But what about his former team?

Tom Brady had a great rapport with O’Brien. Yes, they had one sideline spat but that was just 2 competitors going at it. Now Brady has to worry about getting on the same page with some new guy next year. And Bill Belichick first has to find this new hire. Someone who can both assert his will and take a step back when his future Hall of Fame QB has a different idea. Plus, this person needs to be able to continue the emergence of the best young Tight End tandem in the league. All of that is going to be tough to find in one person.

All I’m asking for now is that O’Brien keep his head firmly entrenched in the Pats game plans for the playoffs and put off any Penn State duties until after the Super Bowl. Nothing’s better than a championship send-off.

The dynasty is crumbling

In 2001, if the Patriots had started the season 5-3 everyone would have been ecstatic. In 2011, it's a harbinger of doom. A decade of dominance will do that to a fan base. Raised expectations are tough to control (see: 2011 Red Sox) and anything besides perfection is a letdown.

Of course, since that perfection was stolen in Super Bowl XLII they've been on a downward slope. The Matt Cassel-led 2008 version went 11-5 and somehow missed the playoffs; the 2009 team got blown out at home in the wild card round; and the 2010 Pats lost in the divisional round to the Jets after beating them 45-3 in their previous meeting. And that's not saying anything about the lack of a pass rush, the signings that haven't panned out, the coaching carousel behind Bill Belichick... it goes on and on.

This year began with such high hopes: The switch to a 4-3 defensive front, four new veteran pass rushers, rookie Pro Bowler Devin McCourty's continued emergence in his second year, new offensive weapon Chad Ochocinco and a beast of a defensive tackle known as Albert Haynesworth. We are exactly halfway through the season and they can all be counted as a loss.

Haynesworth was cut yesterday. He had all of 3 tackles this season. Ochocinco has only 9 receptions. McCourty is in the midst of a sophomore slump. With the exception of Andre Carter, the new defensive ends have done almost nothing. As for the 4-3 alignment? The defense is giving up the most passing yards of any team in the league.

What is finally dawning on Patriots' fans is that there is no quick fix. This is a serious problem and a plan needs to be laid out to rectify it. Start with hiring some coaches with actual experience and stop promoting from within. Bring in a new talent evaluator to assist Belichick with free agent signings and draft picks. Get Tom Brady a legitimate running back to shoulder the load.

It won't be easy but it needs to be done. Brady is already 34 and once he finally goes we are back to square one.

Belichick + Brady = Best Ever

Bill Belichick and Tom Brady are certain Hall of Famers. This weekend they added another accolade to their already storied partnership: Belichick & Brady have tied Don Shula & Dan Marino for the most career wins for a Coach/QB combo. Shula & Marino ended with 116 wins, 68 losses and zero championships. Belichick & Brady are still plying their trade and have 116 wins, 33 losses and 3 championships. Impressively, they have accomplished this feat in 35 less games, which also gives them the best Coach/QB winning percentage of all time. Also keep in mind that Brady missed the entire 2008 season. Who knows where they would have been by now. Hell, where will they be when they decide to call it quits?

Take a look at this bar graph from a couple weeks ago. I was surprised not to see Lombardi/Starr, Landry/Staubach, Walsh/Montana, Seifert/Young, Holmgren/Favre, Shanahan/Elway or Dungy/Manning on this list. (And the fifth pair is a complete shocker.)

What’s most fascinating is that the whole is not greater than the sum of its parts; it’s equal to the sum of its parts. They have both succeeded with each other, of course, but interestingly they have also done it alone. Belichick is a defensive coach. That’s where he’s made his mark since his Giants days with LT. He doesn’t mess with the offense. People forget now but this team used to be defensive minded. The early part of this decade the Patriots were predicated on defense. 2001 doesn’t happen without the defense shutting down the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI. Plus, let’s not forget that Brady-less season in 2008 when Belichick still managed to get the team to 11 wins.

Brady has been likewise. Belichick doesn’t tweak his performance because he works on the other side of the ball. Brady threw 50 touchdowns in a season (NFL record) and is currently on pace for well over 5,000 passing yards this year (would be another record). These aren’t marks that are matched by any QB in any offensive system. Only all time greats can touch these records and Brady is in that class.

Regardless of which one you argue is deserving of more credit, remember that it is a joint accolade. Football more than any other is a team sport and Belichick & Brady have turned the Patriots into one of the top teams in the league year after year. It is that consistency and the continued practice, studying and hardwork that has cemented their legacy as the best Coach/QB duo ever.

City of Champions

Now that the Bruins have officially raised the championship banner it seems like a good time to take a look back at the past decade in Boston sports. How fortunate are we to have witnessed 7 world championships across the 4 major sports? Especially considering those teams hadn’t won any titles since 1986 (Celtics), 1972 (Bruins), 1918 (Red Sox), EVER (Patriots).

2001 – Patriots
2002
2003 – Patriots
2004 – Red Sox, Patriots
2005
2006
2007 – Red Sox
2008 – Celtics
2009
2010
2011 – Bruins

Most cities would be happy just seeing their teams make a deep run in the playoffs. Let’s not forget that the 2003 Red Sox lost in Game 7 of the ALCS, the 2007 Patriots lost in Super Bowl XVII, the 2008 Red Sox lost in Game 7 of the ALCS, the 2010 Celtics lost in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, and the 2002/2005/2006/2007 New England Revolution lost in the MLS Cup final. See, it isn’t all champagne wishes and caviar dreams. The Revolution became the Buffalo Bills of Major League Soccer.

Remember when our teams were underdogs? The Patriots defeating the Greatest Show on Turf; the Sox coming back from a 3-0 deficit to mount the greatest comeback in history; the Celtics assembling the new Big 3 to bring their first title since the old Big 3; and the Bruins rebounding from their own 3-0 collapse the year before. Nowadays you can’t even discuss championship hopefuls without mentioning a Boston-based team.

TANGENT: The Pittsburgh Pirates are terrible. I’m sorry but it’s true.* However, this year they actually led their division at the All Star Break and it was extremely riveting. I was excited and I have no rooting interest in them. MLB was excited and voted 3 Pirates to play in the All Star Game. Of course, they faded in the second half and finished way out of contention but it was enthralling to see that the possibility for greatness was there, however short that time was. That’s what I miss in Boston: being the surprise team, the buzz team, the fun team.

Winning is great but suspense and surprise are what make sports truly fun.


*The Pirates set a record with 19 consecutive (and counting) losing seasons.

Patriots’ Defense – New Look, Same Results

The Patriots are 2-1 in this young season and that’s nothing to turn your nose up at. But the defensive side of the ball – the one that was getting all the press during the lockout-shortened offseason and preseason – has been stinking up the joint. Bill Belichick, for the first time in his football life, switched to a 4-3 defensive front. He brought in proven veterans who profiled as solid pass rushers. All of this with the hope of changing the “bend but don’t break” defense of the past few seasons. Mission accomplished. Now they bend AND break.

Let’s take a look at the stats from the first 3 games of the season.

Miami – 24 pts, 488 yds allowed

San Diego – 21 pts, 470 yds allowed

Buffalo – 34 pts, 448 yds allowed

These aren’t even top flight teams! Can you imagine what the Packers or Saints would do?

(And let’s not place too much blame on Tom Brady for the loss to the Bills. Yes, he had 4 interceptions – matching his total from all of last year – but he also had 4 touchdown passes. It would have been a Buffalo blowout if not for Brady. Once again, the defense proved to be the deciding factor.)

But where exactly is the weakness? The defensive line: where Albert Haynesworth only has 2 tackles? The linebacking corps: with Brandon Spikes missing some time? Or the secondary: without veterans James Sanders and Brandon Meriweather flying around?

It’s still early in the season and the hope in New England is that everyone is still growing into the new 4-3 alignment.
*Belichick is a Hall of Fame coach but the 4-3 isn’t his specialty. He must draw up new schemes and see what works and what should be scrapped.
*Many new players that were brought in must learn the playbook, terminology and The Patriot Way. And that includes on offense too (see: Ochocinco, Chad).

In short, a franchise that has proven to be one of the best of the past decade has earned some level of respect. Leeway should be given while they go through the growing pains of the early season schedule. Remember, without the normal amount of offseason workouts and training camps everyone is learning on the fly, including the rest of the NFL. If there is any team who will be able to figure it out and succeed, it will be the Patriots.