Thin Patriot secondary adds recovering veteran Warfield

By Darrell Laurant  |   Tuesday, April 04, 2006  |  Comments( 0 )

New England Patriots
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Last year, as he was serving a four-month NFL suspension under the league's substance abuse policy, Eric Warfield wrote in his personal blog: "I have embraced my rehabilitation like never before and made changes in my lifestyle."

Monday, his lifestyle changed even more. Warfield, cut loose earlier this year by the cap-challenged Kansas City Chiefs, was signed by the cornerback-challenged New England Patriots.

The Patriots were looking dangerously thin in the secondary after jettisoning veterans Duane Starks and Tyrone Poole in a purge of their own. Rookie Ellis Hobbs started last season at right cornerback, the position Warfield is expected to play.

In 12 games last season in Kansas City, Warfield registered 63 tackles. He had only one interception, but he returned it 57 yards for a touchdown. He has started 73 of his last 74 games and is known as an intelligent and imaginative defender in zone schemes, a little less effective covering man-to-man. At 6-0, 200, he is a definite size upgrade over the 5-10, 188-pound Hobbs.

New England's other cornerbacks are Asante Samuel, Randall Gay, Chad Scott, Hank Poteat and Antwain Spann. Samuel was the starter at left corner in 2005.

Warfield ran afoul of the NFL (and the law) when he received his third DUI in Overland Park, KS in September of '04. It cost him 10 days in jail, 80 days under house arrest and a bunch of money.

He went through rehab during the '04-'05 offseason, is now a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, and says: "I found out that I can no longer drink."

But the former Nebraska Cornhuskers product can still play, having just turned 30 on March 3. And the Patriots are undoubtedly glad to have him. Warfield averaged four interceptions a year from 2000-2004, and has a reputation as a big play producer.

"If this is just another chapter in my life," Warfield said of his offseason problems in '04, "I hope the whole book gets burned."
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