Vrabel is old and feeble. What's he signed through? Next year?
His salary is probably so low, it won't make sense to cut him.
Definitely need some new blood. Maybe BB's seeing Mayo and Guyton playing well has gotten him over his reluctance to draft a LB. That and the ABYSMAL record of drafting RBs and WRs. Those positions should be off the board; Belichick and Pioli are INCAPABLE of drafting there...they draft losers.
Draft where you have proven you have SOME ability, ie LB/OL/CB. I'll give them a pass on drafting Sanders b/c he was like a 5th round pick. So although he sucks, it doesn't indicate that they can't draft safeties.
The Pats have Woods and drafted Crable. Just because Crable hasn't been active doesn't mean he doesn't have ability. He was a DE in college and is learning the Pats OLB scheme. Give him time.
Sanders hardly sucks. Is he as good at reading plays as Harrison? Nope. But he's not abyssmal either.
I think you need to check your facts about what BB and Pioli have drafted for RBs and WRs. You sound ignorant otherwise. RB - Antwoin Womack (7th round pick), Cedric Cobbs (4th round pick), Laurence Maroney (1st round pick) WR - Deion Branch (2nd round pick), David Givens (7th round pick), Bethel Johnson (2nd round pick), P.K. Sam (5th round pick), Chad Jackson (2nd round pick).
Womack was coming off an injury and, as a 7th rounder and was destined for the IR. The Pats hoped he would be able to come back and be decent, but it was an easy gamble to make.'
Sam was the youngest kid drafted that year. He was very immature and shouldn't have entered the draft when he did. He could have used another year of seasoning in college, but there were rumors floating around that said that staying in college wasn't an option. He was another long shot pick.
Bethel Johnson was just a bad pick. The Pats reached for him and shouldn't have. They could have had Anquan Boldin, but for whatever reason, the Patriots didn't. Johnson had numerous injuries after he got here.
Jackson had the leg (hamstring?) injury that he rushed back from and got injured again in the process. When he came back, he went about earning his stripes on special teams coverage. It was then that he tore his ACL in the AFCCG against the Colts. People forget that its a 9-12 month recovery and 18 months before a person is fully healthy. That pretty much ruled out any return during his sophmore season that would have been productive. So, in his 2nd training camp, this year, he got beat out for the 3rd WR spot by Gaffney (who was going into his 3rd year in the system), the 4th spot by Washington (who turned into a special teams ace), and Aiken (who was brought in because he was a special teams ace). Jackson was behind the 8ball and the Pats were pretty much out of options. They couldn't afford to carry 6 WRs like they did last year and Jackson, though he was starting to show signs of improvement, wasn't able to show enough to beat out Gaffney.
Cobbs was drafted when the Pats already had 4 RBs on the team in Pass, Faulk, Rabih Abdullah and Dillon. Cobbs was the 32nd pick of the 4th round and was placed on the PUP/Reserve list in TC. Was activated and saw time in some games. Couldn't make the squad in 2005 when the Pats decided to go with just Faulk, Pass and Dillon out of TC. Of course, that bit them in the butt and resulted in them playing Mike Cloud, Amos Zereoue, and acquiring Heath Evans.
The Pats have hit on 3 of 7 picks. That's not bad at all. Next you are going to say they should draft TEs because they've only hit on 3 of 9. (Graham, Watson, Thomas, Stalcheski, Love, Holloway, Nead, Stokes, Mills)
