For a third round pick!!  This trade doesn’t make a lot of sense.  The Patriots would have a gotten a compensatory pick next year for losing him (although no higher than a late 5th rounder).  A 3rd rounder doesn’t really seem worth it.  Perhaps he was complaining and not being a team player behind closed doors.  Or the Patriots think they’re actually better without him.  They are certainly better when Brady spreads the ball around to the open guy rather than trying to force it to Moss like in the 2nd half of the Jets game. But I’m sure more receivers get open with Moss in there.

One thing you can say is that the Patriots are not afraid to trade star players or popular players.  They put a value on a guy, and if they’ll receive enough in compensation, they’ll trade him away.

After a dominating win by the Ravens, the Patriots season is over. They really did not seem to have it this year. Brady never seemed quite right, whether it was from his injury last year, his injuries this year, or just wanting to be back on vacation with his supermodel wife. And the defense was lacking in leaders. No one had that us against them mentality, that bravado that Rodney Harrison would bring.  Thus, Dan Shaughnessy says the dynasty is over. I wouldn’t go quite that far. Although if they get back to their winning ways perhaps it will be a new dynasty.  Makes you wish they had just made a few more plays in the 2006 AFC Championship collapse against the Colts or the 2007 Super Bowl against the Giants. Make 2-3 more plays and we would have had 5 super bowls and a 19-0 season…

So, what do they need to do for next year?  Hopefully Belichick and the staff do a solid internal review to figure out where they went wrong this year. In 2006 they had poor receivers and they went out and got Moss, Welker, and Stallworth.  I’d expect to see some big names this year as well. Offensively, they need way better play calling. They need a new offensive coordinator. They also need to get a 3rd WR as Sam Aiken really doesn’t cut it.  I’d expect to see them both sign a few guys and draft some for this role.  On defense, the biggest thing they need is some leadership. Then they also need some pass rush and some run stoppers. If there aren’t any new labor talks, next year is going to be an uncapped year, with some different free agency rules, so it could be really interesting.

Could the Patriots be active before the trading deadline today?  I think so… they’ve been making some odd moves.  Cutting Banta-Cain and Alexander but supposedly about to re-sign them.  New deals to make more cap space for someone?  They also cut Joey Galloway and Michael Matthews, leaving two roster spots… possibly for the two players they could activate off PUP (WR Brandon Tate and OT LeVoir) but maybe a trade. Hmm

Just a quick look at the biggest questions the Patriots have this offseason.  Their biggest problem last year was defense, especially on third down and in the red zone. In addition to the two defensive backs they drafted last year, Wilhite and Wheatley, they’ve signed Leigh Bodden and Shawn Springs, and drafted Darius Butler and Pat Chung.  Between these 6 guys, they should have an improved defensive backfield, but exactly how it will stack up and how they’ll perform is still a question. The next question on defense is at linebacker.  At inside linebacker, Tedy Bruschi has lost a step, and they may need Gary Guyton or someone else to step into that role more alongside Jerod Mayo.  At ouside linebacker, they need more pass rush, which can be hard with Mike Vrabel gone.  Right now the top prospects opposite Adalius Thomas appear to be Pierre Woods or Tully Banta-Cain.  I still have hopes for Shawn Crable if he ever comes of PUP.  But they may need to trade for someone.

On offense, the Patriots should be improved with the return of Tom Brady.  The other area that’s been greatly upgraded is tight end, with the addition of Chris Baker and Alex Smith.  The Patriots lost Jabar Gaffney in free agency and look to fill in his WR spot with either Joey Galloway or Greg Lewis, which should be interesting.  Finally, I still worry about the Patriots offensive line. It’s largely the same as it was in the Super Bowl when they allowed a lot of pressure on Brady, and last year when they gave up a lot of sacks on Cassel. One spot to watch is rookie Sebastian Vollmer, who can step in at either tackle spot.

It’s time to take a look at what the Patriots might be doing in the offseason this year.  Last year, they were near the bottom of the league in both third down defense and red zone defense.  So I would expect to see them try to shore up the defense, which is getting old and slow. The Patriots need to worry about players like Bruschi and Harrison retiring (or being too slow if they don’t retire). They also need a DB who can create some turnovers like Asante Samuel did.  They were severely lacking in that this year.  I would expect them to bring in another pass rusher as well, as the third down defense needs to get more pressure on the QB.

On offense, obviously everyone expects the Patriots to trade Matt Cassel for a 1st or 2nd round pick. Hopefully this means that they know Brady will be healthy.  But perhaps it just means that they have confidence that 2nd year man Kevin O’Connell is ready to step into the job if Brady can’t go.  Otherwise, on offense, the wide receiver position is very well stocked.  A team can always use some new offensive linemen.  I think the particular needs on offense are TE, with Watson in his last year, and running back, where Maroney is looking like a bust.

So I would rate the Patriots needs in this order: S, LB, DB, TE, DL, DB.  Mainly, I would expect them to go after a lot of defensive players this offseason, in both free agency and the draft.

This was a much closer game than I expected.  The Patriots did not come ready to play, while the Eagles played hard and pulled out all the stops and plays (flea flicker, onside kick, etc) and gave the Patriots a good game.  There has been a lot of talk this week that the Eagles have laid down a blueprint on how to beat the Patriots.  I’m not sure that this is so.  While the Patriots offense struggled relative to their recent games, they still scored 31 points (and if not for a bogus pass interference call on Moss, it would have been 38 points).  They had 4 drives in the first half and scored 3 TD’s and 1 FG on those four drives.  Where the Eagles did have an impressive performance was on offense.  They were able to find some wide open holes in the Patriots defense.  This may have been because of the injuries the Patriots had (Gay and Hobbs were hurt so Eddie Jackson was playing corner, Rashad Baker was playing in nickel situations, and Rosie Colvin got hurt).  Either way it didnt look good.

This game did leave the Patriots with some injuries.  Rosie Colvin is on IR.  This puts a big strain on the Patriots linebacking corps, one of the weaker spots on the roster.  I see the Patriots having a few options here.  The first one would be to move Adalius Thomas to the outside and have Bruschi and Seau play together inside (they had been splitting snaps).  The second option would be to play more 4-3 with Jarvis Green as the fourth lineman, and have Thomas and Vrabel at outside linebacker with Bruschi and Seau splitting time in the middle.  The fourth option would be if one of the young linebackers, Pierre Woods or Eric Alexander, are ready to start.  Personally, I would switch to more of a 4-3 alignment since the defensive line is more of the Pats strength anyway.  But still be ready to go multiple and switch to a 3-4 occasionally with both Seau and Bruschi out there.

The Patriots traded a fourth round pick to Oakland for Randy Moss on Sunday.  Moss even re-structured his contract to take $7 million less to come here.  My friend actually asked me on Saturday what I thought about all the talk that the Patriots were trying to trade for Moss.  I told him that it had to be all rumors, there was no way the Patriots would want Randy Moss.  I did tell him however, that I’d much rather have Randy Moss than Terrell Owens.  Moss may quit on some plays, but at least you can get rid of him without him tearing about your team like TO did to the Eagles.  I have to say I’m pretty shocked by the Patriots making this move.  The media keeps comparing this to the Corey Dillon trade but it seems a lot different to me.  Dillon didn’t have the rap sheet that Moss has and he was never a guy who would quit on a play or on a team.

That being said, I’m excited about the prospect of Brady being able to throw to Randy Moss, Dante Stallworth and Wes Welker (don’t forget Ben Watson too, who may be the fastest of the group).  If Moss decides to put in the effort and play (and he better or I’m sure he’ll be out of here) then this offense will be quite a sight.  Brady has never had a serious deep threat to throw to and now he has two.  With those weapons and Laurence Maroney, this should be quite an offense.  I really would like to be at Gillette for the home opener this year just to feel the excitement in the air around this team.  After being 30 seconds from the Super Bowl last year, they’ve gone out and turned one of the worst WR corps in the game into one of the few best and signed the best linebacker available as well.  The expectations are incredibly high now, I can’t wait to see what will happen.

The Patriots have been pretty agressive in free agency this year. Within the first 48 hours they had signed one of the top two free agents available, LB Adalius Thomas from the Ravens. I didn’t see many Ravens games last year but Thomas is a guy who has played every defensive position and is very versatile. From his interviews, he really sounds like a Patriots guy too, all about the team and trying to win. Linebacker was one of the Patriots glaring needs this year as well so this is a big signing.

The other area the Patriots have made some good signings is at wide receiver. After losing Deion Branch and David Givens last year, the Patriots brought in Reche Caldwell and eventually Jabar Gaffney to try to fill their shoes. This offseason the Patriots have signed Wes Welker from the Dolphins (remember when he was receiving, returning punts and kicks, and kicking field goals and extra points for the Dolphins in a game at Gillette Stadium 2 years ago?). The Patriots have also signed WR Donte Stallworth, who had a very good year with the Eagles last year.

The Patriots only major loss in free agency this year has been TE Daniel Graham, who signed with the Broncos. The Pats did sign TE Kyle Brady though, who has a reputation as a very good blocker. The Patriots also signed RB Sammy Morris. The Pats retained CB Asante Samuel by using the franchise tag on him.

The Patriots are in very good shape for the 2007 season. The Patriots were only a few plays away from winning the AFC Championship this year. Now they have made some good signings to help shore up their weaknesses at linebacker and wide receiver and improve the team. Not only that, but the Pats still have TWO first round picks in the draft! I would say that the other positions that the Patriots still need to improve are defensive back (especially safety) and middle linebacker (with Bruschi close to retirement). Perhaps those needs could be addressed in the first round of the upcoming draft?

Today the Patriots traded Deion Branch to the Seattle Seahawks for a 2007 first round pick.  This was pretty much inevitable after the fiasco the Pats turned this negotiation into and we were lucky to end up with a first round pick.  The Patriots totally messed this up.  Between the negotiations (or lack thereof) with Vinatieri, Givens, and Branch, the Patriots have gone 0 for 3 and looked like they made a mistake all three times.  Here’s my synopsis of the Branch situation:

Back before the 2005 season, the Patriots tried to extend WR David Givens contract but would not offer him the amount of money he was looking for.  This offseason, when Givens’ contract was up, the Pats eventually offered him what he had wanted a year earlier.  However, now that he was a free agent he was able to get more money from Tennessee.  I think a lot of people thought that one of the reasons the Pats let Givens go was because they could not afford to keep both Givens and Branch at WR and they had decided to focus on extending Branch’s contract.  Branch had one more year left on his contract and the Pats and Branch couldn’t even come close on numbers for a contract extension.  So the Patriots gave Branch permission to seek a trade, possibly hoping that Branch would not find anyone willing to pay the price he was asking.  Instead the Jets and Seahawks both made great offers to Branch.  The Pats, although unwilling to pay Branch the money of a top WR, wanted to get at least a first round pick for him.  Branch was about to go to arbitration when Seattle did finally offer the Pats a first round pick.

I’m not sure what is going on with the Pats organization right now.  Perhaps their valuations of players’ values are too low or at least lower than the rest of the teams in the league.  Maybe they haven’t adjusted to the new CBA with the much larger salary cap.  But it seems like the Pats are unwilling to offer their players contracts even close to what they can get from other teams.

The Patriots have really done some disastorous contract negotiations over the past few months.  First they let Adam Vinatieri go for no particular reason.  Then they let David Givens go and get signed by the Tennessee Titans.  The final contract offer they gave to Givens probably would have been good enough to re-sign him if they had offered it a year before his contract expired instead of once he became a free agent.  I thought to myself, “OK, they’re being stingy with the money so they’ll have enough to extend Branch’s contract.”  But they’ve completely failed in the negotiations with Deion Branch as well.  They were unwilling to offer him what he wanted, decided to let him look for a trade (apparently assuming that would validate their opinion that he was asking too much) and of course he got huge offers from the Jets and Seahawks.  The Patriots wouldn’t accept a trade from either team and now faces the prospect of Branch holding out for most of the season before becoming a free agent next season.

It seems that the Patriots valuations of how much players are worth are warped from the reality of the league.  The Patriots thought that Vinatieri, Givens, and Branch would not be able to find the offers they were looking for from other teams, but they were wrong in all three cases.  I don’t know if it is because the Patriots have not adjusted to the much bigger salary cap this year or if they are just extremely cheap.  Not only are they losing good players, but the situation with Branch is certainly creating some bad blood between them and probably making other players wary of signing here.  It’s not a good situation for anyone involved right now.