Patriots appear poised for another title run

By Os Davis  |   Monday, April 30, 2007  |  Comments( 9 )

New England Patriots
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How did they get away with this? How did the New England Patriots, posted at 6-1 odds to win the next Super Bowl (and seemingly the popular prohibitive favorite going into the draft), manage to improve themselves this much? How is it that they got exactly what they wanted and needed? All right, they didn't get Jon Beason, but, hey, nobody's perfect.

The Patriots wanted a safety this past Saturday, while the viewers wanted machinations and trading to spice things up. Both got what they wanted, and Brandon "The Hit Stick" Meriweather of the University of Miami has to be one happy guy right now.

No mystery was the inevitability of the Patriots taking a member of the secondary in the first round, but New England's brain trust had to be mentally reeling after a flurry of candidates evaporated from the board just after the midway point.

With the upper tier at safety and cornerback -- consisting of LaRon Landry and Darrelle Revis -- gone by halftime, the Cincinnati Bengals snagged the ultra-talented Leon Hall at No. 18. Next went Michael Griffin to the Tennessee Titans in a move apparently designed to cheese off division rivals the Jacksonville Jaguars, who coveted Griffin and went for Reggie Nelson instead. Finally, Aaron Ross went at No. 20 to the New York Giants.

Soon it was clearer than the Narragansett that Meriweather was the choice. While a couple of linebackers (Beason, David Harris) New England had considered remained available, the safety position was of greater concern.

Meriweather was appealing to the Pats from at least the combine despite his 5-foot-11, 192-pound stature, but Bill Belichick and Co. loved his football smarts. Potentially problematic, however, are Meriweather's "off-the-field issues," namely a shooting incident involving teammates.

Speaking of incidents involving teammates, Meriweather acted the particular bad boy in the Miami-Florida International brawl, kicking away at FIU players in an out-of-control rage. The Patriots have not seen such a powder keg in the A.B. (After Belichick/Brady) Era since Terry Glenn was excommunicated back in 2001. A possible soap opera, then, for the prohibitive favorites.

Meanwhile, at pick No. 28, the Patriots entered "They Know Something We Don't" territory. With Beason cleverly snatched up by the Carolina Panthers at 25, the Pats eschewed Harris and Fresno State CB Marcus McCauley, both of whom they'd reportedly seriously discussed.

Early speculation had Harris going in the first round, but scouts were apparently unimpressed to the point of his drafting by the New York Jets at just No. 47 overall. McCauley was only taken in the third round by the Minnesota Vikings at No. 72.

Correctly figuring they'd have to settle for far less than they wished at No. 28, the Pats stood pat with their current linebacker depth chart and traded the pick to the San Francisco 49ers. This would appear to be an excellent call for both teams, though this reporter has already hedged on the Gold Diggers reaching the Super Bowl in 2008, and so would only represent a No. 31 pick. On the other hand, Belichick and friends got to mine for another diamond in the rough in Round 4: a vocation these guys just love.

The team's newfound reticence to sign a linebacker would appear to indicate confidence that the aging corps with all the familiar names -- Rosevelt Colvin, Tedy Bruschi, Mike Vrabel -- is in better condition than is generally known. Well done, too, was the avoidance of redundancy after the Adalius Thomas signing.

That's what this writer noted after Saturday was in the books, but I'd forgotten that Belichick and Scott Pioli knew something I didn't.

To wit, they knew the Patriots were actually going to bamboozle their newfound Mario Henderson-owning friends, the Oakland Raiders, into the mythical Randy Moss trade. Shameful admission: The post-Saturday draft of this column claimed that the Moss deal was "hype. It won't happen. Forget it."

But it did, unbelievably, happen.

How?

Does anyone realize that Tom Brady has gone from having targets named Reche Caldwell, Troy Brown and Jabar Gaffney to Moss, Donte' Stallworth, Kelley Washington and Wes Welker?

How does this happen?

Have 31 GMs forgotten that the dude is .762 lifetime? That his career QB rating is 88.4, his TD/interception ratio is nearly 2:1, and in 2006, with basically no one to throw to, still had a "typical" Brady season with 87.6 QB rating and 24 TDs to 12 interceptions? That he's still undefeated in overtime games? That one Jackie Smith moment fewer and the Patriots would have been playing (and probably winning) as AFC champions in Super Bowl XLI?

And for the cherry on the sundae, Belichick and Co. appear to have made an astute pick in bagging Meriweather's fellow Hurricane (bring the number of recent University of Miami alma mater mates to five, including Santonio Thomas, Vince Wilfork and Quadtrine Hill), DT Kareem Brown. Brown's resume begins with "[University of Miami's] Defensive Player of the Year in 2006..."

Good enough, then, eh?

Well done, Patriots.

Original New England Patriots insight, courtesy of 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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