As a football junkie, one of my daily rituals is reading through the Rumor Mill over at ProFootball Talk. It’s a sickness in many ways and has probably caused me as much pain and it has been educational. Of course, breaking even with anything these days is rare, so I suppose there’s not much to gripe about there. However, there has been a rather disturbing trend that I’ve noticed developing with the Patriots over the last few months. Inaction.
It seems like things are happening left and right for other teams, including the other members of the AFC East, and yet the only news items involving the Patriots seem to involve some member of the Kraft family attending a charity event or which college player is heading to New England based on some worthless mock draft. Now, if the team was humming along and seemed to finish the season in fine working order, I wouldn’t be too concerned. But this was a team that limped into the playoffs and then were beaten so badly by the Ravens that it was unwatchable.
Not that I think any of the moves made by the Bills, Dolphins, or Jets are all that momentous, but they represent some kind of forward progress. Meanwhile, the Patriots are like some uber-cautious guy who refuses to hit on a 15 despite everyone else around the table showing 5′s or 6′s. Maybe it works out, maybe it doesn’t – but you damn sure have to do something eventually, right?
The Bills are a mess and have hired yet another failed NFL head coach to turn their program around – good luck with that. The Jets have made some splashy moves by signing LaDanian Tomlinson and trading for Santonio Holmes and Antonio Cromartie – with a chance Cromartie winds up having the biggest impact. They’re already on the record saying Tomlinson will get 15 carries per game – great idea for a runningback who is already cooked and who will turn around and pout should anyone suggest otherwise; I wonder how Holmes will keep out of trouble in NYC. Meanwhile, Cromartie plays across from the best cornerback in the NFL and will have plenty of chances to make plays. Miami landed Brandon Marshall and could rebound with a tweak here and there.
The Patriots… re-signed their own players and have apparently not been interested enough in free agents to do squat. In some ways, I’m okay with that considering their recent track record, but still… Let’s just say I’m trying to talk myself into this whole “silent running” approach to the offseason and hoping that they surface for some decent moves during the draft this week. If not… maybe I won’t have to turn the cable on in the fall after all…
