Monthly Archives: April 2012

April 30, 2012 · 6:26 AM

Patriots Draft Recap

I won’t mail it in like I did on Friday. I’ll try and breakdown each of the Pats selections and my thoughts. I know a lot of people don’t “grade” the team’s draft since we won’t know for a couple years how good they did when the players start to pan or not pan out. I think the Pats had a solid draft and would give them a B+.

Again, what do I know.

Here we go.

Thursday night I went to sleep with a smile on my face. Instead of the typical trade down and out the Pats actually moved up, twice, to get guys that they targeted.

Round 1 – Pick 21 – DE Chandler Jones
Their first trade up they went after the edge rusher that they’ve been missing for years. I understand that Anderson was decent off the edge this past year but I really think that since they traded Seymour they’ve been missing it. I don’t project that this guy will start day one which will have tons of people saying the Pats missed with the pick, but around week seven or eight you should start seeing him more in the mix.

Round 1 – Pick 25 – LB Dont’a Hightower
Unlike Jones, this guy will start day one. Lining up next to Mayo in the middle this guy makes the Pats run defense awesome. He can also come off the edge in sub packages and is fast. Hightower and Mayo should be the heart of the Pats linebacking corps for the next decade.

Round 2 – Pick 48 – DB Tavon Wilson
This was the one pick that had everyone scratching their heads including Mel Kiper. When the Pats made the selection Kiper was sitting there just stammering. Clearly Belichick saw something in him that not many others saw. We knew heading into the draft that safety was a concern, hopefully this guy will line up with Chung and make safety a solid position.

Then the Pats traded down, and kept trading down. A two for a three and five? Then they flipped the five for a six and two sevens? Ugh. Well, it’s more like the Belichick we know. The Kool Aid drinkers are loving it.

Round 3 – Pick 90 – DE Jake Bequette
This was a guy that Felger had pegged jokingly early in the week. The Arkansas Asshole is what he was calling him in relation to the other Boston sports Beckett who’s the Texas Tough Guy. Bequette was a first team all SEC. When you consider you have Alabama, LSU, etc. in that same conference clearly this guy has been playing against the best in the country. I think he’s another solid pick adding more athleticism to the front seven more likely in sub packages.

Round 6 – Pick 197 – DB Nate Ebner
This guy used to me a rugby player. They picked him up, I think, likely as a special teams type guy. I wouldn’t be shocked if he did make the team specifically for special teams.

Round 7 – Pick 224 – CB Alfonzo Dennard
Following an arrest last week, the Nebraska CB saw his stock plummet. He clearly has a motor. He was ejected in his final game for fighting. He was projected as a second or third rounder until the arrest. The Pats say they know all about it and still wanted to bring him in. If the guy has the BS behind him, he could be a nickle or dime back right out of the chute.

Round 7 – Pick 235 – WR Jeremy Ebert
With their final selection they chose the Northwestern product. Call him Edleman 2.0. But you know when you make a copy of a copy it’s not as good as the original, well, let’s save the suspense and say this guy isn’t making the roster. When you have so many wide outs already on the roster, this guy (who was also a high school QB) will likely not make it out of camp. Too many slot guys ahead of him.

So overall it was a good draft in my opinion. It quickly got me off the Bruins loss. In fact it distracted me all weekend which was great. Can’t wait for the mini camps to start and see some of these guys in uniform.

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April 27, 2012 · 8:28 AM

Taking Jeff’s Advise

Day off from work = Day off from the blog

Back Monday with a full Pats draft recap. Loving it so far!

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April 25, 2012 · 9:51 PM

Breathe…

This pic got texted to me yesterday afternoon, do I had to share to start us out today.

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Maybe I’m not as big a fan as I once was. Maybe I’m just in a state of sports bliss having seen every one of my home teams win a championship.

Yesterday the Bruins were eliminated from the playoffs. Dumped in the first round a year after winning the whole thing.

And I’m not losing sleep over it. I’m complacent.

I feel the same way I do after the Pats list those two Super Bowls. I feel like I did after the Celtics lost in the Finals to the Lakers.

The better team won. The team that played better won.

No conspiracy theories, no bullshit officiating, just the better team won. So happens I root for the other team.

So I’ll take this loss in stride, still watch playoff hockey (best playoffs in the world), and hope the Bruins do better next season. They’re still young and still have so many guys under contract.

Bottom line, they’re still better than the Red Sox. So wear your black and gold proud. They’ll be good for many years to come. We’ll call this year a hiccup in their overall return to dominance in the league.

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· 6:10 AM

All Done?

We started hearing whispers of a possible Matt Light retirement shortly after the Super Bowl. I’ve made no bones about my opinion that he had no business being at left tackle after the 2007 season. The way he was owned in that Super Bowl made me realize he was all done at left tackle.

Of course he kept his position for four more years. Then last year when the team drafted Nate Solder, the writing was on the wall. Solder would become Light’s replacement at left tackle. But with the lockout and no mini-camps or a playbook, Solder came in at a huge disadvantage. Light in turn kept his job.

Yesterday the Patriots placed Light on the reserve/retired list. Now he hasn’t come out and said he’s retired but the team clearly thinks he’s leaning that way in making this move.

So it’s the end of an era. Mercifully. I mean, Matt Light is a good guy. He does a ton of charity work through the Matt Light Foundation.

I would have been OK with him extending his career a few years by moving to right guard but I don’t think that was his plan. It always seemed he was a left tackle, or nothing. A starter, or nothing. Not saying he’s not a team player, just he wants to be a starting left tackle or not play.

So try and remember when he didn’t give you fits. I know it’s hard, I’m one of his biggest critics. Try to forget the olé, turnstile technique that led to so many Brady sacks. Try and forget how he was burned by the Giants not in one but two Super Bowls.

Instead let’s take solace in the fact that he’s gone. Solder will likely fill the void and be that bookend for the next decade. Thanks for 13 years Matt. I still say it should have been ten.

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April 24, 2012 · 6:09 AM

Backing Off (A Little)

I remember watching tons of Sportscenter from middle school, to high school, and in college I’d sit there and watch the show repeated from 8am till noon. I bring it up because of all the catch phrases that came out of those shows.

“Sit on it Potsy” for a strikeout. Larry Beil’s lame “And aloha means goodbye.” On and on we could go.

I bring it up because anytime a hockey player would shatter his stick on purpose, a tennis played would demolish a racket or a baseball player would smash his bat in half they’d typically have the comment that “A good carpenter never blames his tools.”

It’s that last one that I’m running with in the post. A good carpenter doesn’t blame his tools for a bad job. But if the carpenter is given a Fisher Price tool set, some rusty nails, and particle board, he’s not going to be able to build a house.

Well, those are basically the pieces that Bobby Valentine has been given. And he’s been asked to fix the Red Sox.

Instead of Fisher Price tools, rusty nails and particle board, he has a clubhouse full of self entitled assholes. Sure there are a few exceptions but overall the team is majority assholes. He has a patchwork bullpen that was put together when they intentionally let their closer leave in free agency. The highlight of just how bad the bullpen is of course coming Saturday afternoon at Fenway as they coughed up a 9-0 lead to lose 15-9.

The regular rotation isn’t much better. For all that they were supposed to come in with a different attitude, they didn’t. We saw glimpses of an apologetic Lester but Beckett and Buchholz were far from apologetic.

So Bobby bans booze in the clubhouse? Oooooooh. You think these guys aren’t doing like we’d do in college and just putting it in a Gatorade bottle. Don’t be so naive. It’s not the drinking that was the downfall, or the video games, or the chicken. It was the attitude. And the attitude is as prevalent as ever.

So I’ll back off Bobby V a little bit since this isn’t his mess. He’s just been tasked with driving it. But really if he could just shut the fuck up a little bit, I might not dislike him so much.

Mazz made very good points last night on the baseball reporters, to the point that I tried to call in (unsuccessfully). If the team continues to suck, 5-10 isn’t awesome, let’s hope they blow it up by the end of May. See ya Beckett, see ya Youk, hell let’s gauge the market on Ellsbury when he comes back. Let’s blow this whole thing up. I’d rather root for a team (even under Bobby Valentine) that’s out there trying then for this group of entitled assholefaces.

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