Hell hath frozen over. http://http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/columns/story?page=simmons/patriots/090925 ats_suck::gpc:
eh, its bill simmons... but ESPN is a weak front running pussy organization. and since they have a HQ in bristol CT i can see why they lean towards boston sports. but if NY starts having dynasties again then they'll change their tune.
We certainly seem to be closing the gap between ourselves & the PATS. Tanny's drafting has been a significant factor. He hit it in 2006 w/D'Brick, Mangold & Washington while getting contributions from Eric Smith, Brad Smith, Drew Coleman. 2007 -- Revis + Harris are absolute studs while Chansi Stuckey is showing major contribution. 2008 may have been the year of the Ghost, but you also need to consider Kris Jenkins to be a part since we used a 3rd + 5th from that draft to get him. Couple that with Keller & Lowery and it cushions the blow of Gholston a little bit. After 2 games, 2009 Sanchez looks like a real deal, but its too early on Shonn Greene to judge that pick (I would have preferred Jarron Gilbert). 2010 has to be the year of quantity ---- we've been trading up & trading away picks and now we have a great opportunity to influx some youth to keep it going. We might need to trade down a little & get some extra picks to fill DL, WR, OL
For the very reasons you listed don't expect Tannenbaum to change. He will still trade up and package picks to get the player(s) he wants.
Nice Article, good read. I usually can't read articles more than 2 sentences about the pats but when author is being fair I guess I can.
A blog by a guy who supports the Patriots saying " Meh. I'm torn on this team and leaning towards worried." isn't exactly tearing them apart.
I think this was written more to convince the sheep-like Pats fans that their fun run might be ending. If so, that's one hell of a task to undertake. He does bring up some good points though. I think you can argue that all 3 NY teams (including Buffalo!!!1!) have had better drafts than the Patriots from '07 to now. The Patriots, in their best drafts, always took the best player available and found some way to work him into the scheme. Lately they have gone off need and it hasn't been treating them too well. Indeed, even when they've done that it's sucked for them (Maroney over Williams is nothing short of hilarious to me).
He bails on his teams as soon as they hit any adversity, and even admitted once that it's his way of seeking out reverse karma. He's a worthless piece of shit who likes to hedge his bets. Fuck this article. It's not truth, it's one more sign of his cowardice.
If they go 2-1 suddenly everyone will be sucking them off again and probably proclaim Brady the MVP and Comeback player of the year.
I've got two main problems with the article: 1) This could have been written week in October of last year and it would have been a hell of a lot more convincing. Brady was out, the offense wasn't clicking, and at one point they got their asses kicked up and down the field by the Dolphins on their way to allowing 38 points. I would go as far to say that they've been a team with major question marks pretty much every year since 2001 with the exceptions of '04 and '07 and the worst they have done is miss the playoffs on a tie-breaker. 2) As usual he puts way to much emphasis into stupid shit like "swagger". If and when they start performing, you will once again Tom Brady head-butting people. This will signify to all blogger-psychologists that they have their confidence back and have made the correct decision to be competitive, first pumping winners rather than a bunch of sorry, timid losers.
