Re: Curran:Why Peppers To Pats May Be Tough
The Patriots will be better on defense just by virtue of tightening things up across the board. Having Springs/Bodden/Hobbs out there instead of Hobbs/O'Neal/L. Sanders out there will make a big difference. If the coverage holds up a little longer, they'll have a little more time to get to to the quarterback.
In a perfect world, sure you'd rather have Peppers. But when you figure in everything else -- including the fact that a Peppers deal probably means no Mankins and Seymour extensions -- it's probably a wash. I'd rather they picked up a couple of young linebackers and just increased the team speed across the board. And if they traded up and got Maualuga, giving you another impact linebacker, you have to figure that they can make do with whomever at that other OLB spot. Maybe you have Woods in there on running downs and Crable on passing downs.
The Pats roster is so jacked up now that they can basically devote the rest of their resources to fixing the linebacker problem. They'll figure it out, with or without Peppers.
The Patriots will be better on defense just by virtue of tightening things up across the board. Having Springs/Bodden/Hobbs out there instead of Hobbs/O'Neal/L. Sanders out there will make a big difference. If the coverage holds up a little longer, they'll have a little more time to get to to the quarterback.
In a perfect world, sure you'd rather have Peppers. But when you figure in everything else -- including the fact that a Peppers deal probably means no Mankins and Seymour extensions -- it's probably a wash. I'd rather they picked up a couple of young linebackers and just increased the team speed across the board. And if they traded up and got Maualuga, giving you another impact linebacker, you have to figure that they can make do with whomever at that other OLB spot. Maybe you have Woods in there on running downs and Crable on passing downs.
The Pats roster is so jacked up now that they can basically devote the rest of their resources to fixing the linebacker problem. They'll figure it out, with or without Peppers.