The Off-Season
Moves and Draft Picks of the New England Patriots
© 2007 ClickitTicket
The New
England Patriots made some great draft picks
and other off-season moves recently. While some
of the early New England Patriots changes confused
some sports fans, they now look to be putting
together a very solid team full of talent. Even
though the Patriots lost some good players they
made up for it by signing some great new players
to the team as well as re-signing some of the
strong players from last season.
Of the players leaving the team, the two that
stand out the most are Dillon and Sauerbrun. Todd
Sauerbrun leaves on bad terms after filing a grievance
against the Patriots claiming he should be an
unrestricted free agent. He takes his punting
skills to the Denver
Broncos in a one-year deal. The Patriots can
either draft a new punter or have Josh Miller
take over the punting duties.
The Pats obtained some new youth and energy in
their defense with the pick of Brandon Meriweather
from the Miami Hurricanes. Mariweather is a fairly
small safety, but is full of energy, is very quick,
and always plays hard. He runs the 40 meter dash
in less than five seconds and has made over two
hundred and fifty tackles in his last thirty-one
starts with the Hurricanes. However, Meriweather
is not known as such a wonderful person off the
field, so hopefully his attitude will not get
in the way.
The Patriots also made headlines by signing Randy
Moss. Last season the Patriots went all the way
to the AFC Championship without a good selection
of wide receivers, and QB Tom Brady lamented.
Randy Moss is a great fix to that problem along
with new receivers Stallworth, Welker, and Washington.
Randy Moss has not been performing as well as
he could with Oakland because he did not have
a good quarterback to work with.
Now with Brady as quarterback there is little
doubt that Moss will perform up to expectations.
Randy Moss has played in a hundred and thirty
eight NFL games and has caught over six hundred
passes for over ten thousand yards. And all the
Patriots had to trade away to get Moss was a fourth
round pick! What a deal.
The Patriots also made some solid moves this
off-season that did not make headlines. They resigned
the fantastic Junior Seau, as well as Randall
Gay and Eric Alexander. New England also picked
up some solid players that do not yet have a name
for themselves such as Kareem Brock, Clint Oldenburg,
Justin Rogers, Mike Richardson, and more.
Last season the Patriots
were a great team but lacked the wide receivers
to make the best use of Tom Brady. This year they
will still have Tom Brady, a great team of wide
receivers led by Randy Moss, and an even superior
defense with Junior Seau returning and the new
Brandon Mariweather. There is little doubt that
the Patriots will be a contender for Super
Bowl 42.
© 2007 ClickitTicket
By Jason OConnor
TERMS OF REPRINT
You have permission to publish this article electronically
or in print, free
of charge, as long as the bylines are included
and you follow these rules:
*Email distribution of this article MUST be opt-in
email only.
*If you post this article on a website, you must
set any URL's
in the body of the article and most especially
in the Author's
Resource Box as hyperlinks.