Slater, Wheatley, Spach, Seau: Dark horses and shoo-ins

By Os Davis  |   Thursday, June 26, 2008  |  Comments( 7 )

New England Patriots
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With the New England roster ready to return, by this writer’s informal count, at least 42 from last year’s 53 plus a pair of rookies who are shoo-ins to make the final squad (Jerod Mayo, Kevin O’Connell), competition is guaranteed to be fierce for those last nine spots.

So who’s got the inside track for the Foxborough Downs this early in the year? RealFootball365.com briefly profiles four of varying likelihood to be suiting up in a Patriots uniform come kickoff 2008.

Matthew Slater. In minicamps this year, the word for the Patriots was “flexibility.” (Heck, they had Tank Williams dividing his time between safety and ILB.) With so many of those stalwarts spearheading recent Patriot successes still around, New England is hungering now for special teamers and multifaceted Troy Brown types.

Enter the NFL-pedigreed Slater, who in fact officially entered earliest of all Patriot draft picks. The son of Hall of Fame offensive lineman Jackie Slater, Matthew essentially played everything else as a UCLA Bruin, divvying time among WR, cornerback and safety. Oh yeah, and he returned kicks. The inside word had Slater spending more time playing on the defensive side of the ball at minicamps.

Good for Slater; while competition at all three of his “primary” positions is heavy, Slater has the most diverse arsenal of any current Patriot. You’ll see this guy in 2008. Chances of making the team: 98 percent.

Terrence Wheatley. The New England organization has been high on Wheatley for a while, snapping him up at No. 62 overall of April's draft and shredding what little was left of anyone’s mock draft.

And with every passing day, it seems that “Speed Kills” Wheatley has gone beyond a longshot to play with the Patriots this season and could even threaten for time in nickel packages and beyond. If nothing else, Wheatley will do time on special teams, with a University of Colorado resume that includes 919 yards on 37 kickoff returns for the Buffaloes in his senior year. Chances of making the team: 99.9 percent.

Stephen Spach. If you like dark horses, call this guy Da’Tara. At tight end, you've gotta figure it’s Benjamin Watson and David Thomas, whose results in his promising rookie year of 2006 were completely subverted last season by an unfortunate injury early on, in the top two spots. For Spach to have a chance, the low-risk Marcus Pollard signing would have to be second-guessed by Bill Belichick & Co.

On the other hand, barring another token signing at the position, Spach will go into 2008 as the Pats’ No. 4 tight end; the only question right now regards whether he’ll be actually be suiting up with the big boys or playing on the practice squad until Week 14. Sentimentalists and Walt Disney movie producers are surely right in Spach’s corner, because if this guy got any attention at all in the NFL this season, it could easily be the stuff of a new "Invincible."

Spach broke onto the Fresno State Bulldogs roster as a walk-on in 2000. By the end of his senior year, Spach had become known as perhaps the top blocking TE in the Western Athletic Conference. He was twice named Academic All-WAC. But in the NFL, Spach has never lived up to his potential and/or was never in the right place at the right time. He kicked around with the Philadelphia Eagles and Minnesota Vikings for three seasons and was out of football. Spach somehow landed with the Pats’ practice squad in 2007 and ultimately saw action mostly on special teams in three December games and the playoffs.

Hey, I’d go see that movie ... will they include the David Tyree helmet catch? Chances of making the team: 40 percent, but in 2009 that could be back up to 70 percent. Just to enhance the screenplay, you understand.

Junior Seau. You can almost hear from here the chant from New England fans: "We want Junior! We want Junior!" In just two years and a week after his “retirement,” Seau has gone from questionable aged veteran to sentimental favorite among the faithful, and why not? He played at an intensity of a man 15 years younger in 2006 before an ugly broken arm took him out late in the season; last year, Seau actually turned in better performances as the season wore on thanks to blowout victories in the first half that allowed him plenty of bench time.

Today, Seau isn’t even on the roster, and Belichick hasn’t gone beyond his typically fact-heavy statement about his decision: “I’d say it would probably be closer to training camp than minicamp.” Currently receiving a large dose of the Troy Brown treatment, though, Seau is fighting the age of his own body and the youth (Mayo, Bo Ruud, Shawn Crable) expected at training camp.

Sorry to say, Seau’s shot seems long indeed, even if Belichick gives him one. It might be graduation time. Chances of making the team: 15 percent.

Giving them all a chance throughout the year at RealFootball365.com
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's...
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