I preface my comments by admitting I don't know what the cap impact of cutting Moss amounts to.
I know I've said this before, but I think it's (Moving on without Moss) necessary for the Pats to get back to contending for a championship. It seems that in the last couple of years the Pats philosophy toward the WR position has changed a great deal. During the Pats great years of 2001-2004, the philosophy seemed to be that our 3rd, 4th and 5th WR's are better than the opponent's 3rd, 4th and 5th DB's. This allowed us to spread a defense out and have 4 or 5 VIABLE options to throw to. As the Pats are currently made up, even assuming a healthy Welker, our spread consists of Moss, Welker, Aiken, Edelman and Faulk or Watson. If a team doubles Moss and Welker, who else can beat one on one coverage on a regular basis? On a 1-10 scale, I would rather have a WR core consisting of four or five 7's than two 10's and a bunch of JAGs. Moss is getting older (he looked 90 against Balt), and he has a 2010 cap # of over $10mil. His cap figure makes it extremely difficult to have any depth at the position, and the lack of depth is what killed our passing game this year. Remember the days of Brady not having a favorite WR. I would like to get back to that combined with an improved running game. All of that is made very difficult with Moss having such a massive cap figure.
I know I've said this before, but I think it's (Moving on without Moss) necessary for the Pats to get back to contending for a championship. It seems that in the last couple of years the Pats philosophy toward the WR position has changed a great deal. During the Pats great years of 2001-2004, the philosophy seemed to be that our 3rd, 4th and 5th WR's are better than the opponent's 3rd, 4th and 5th DB's. This allowed us to spread a defense out and have 4 or 5 VIABLE options to throw to. As the Pats are currently made up, even assuming a healthy Welker, our spread consists of Moss, Welker, Aiken, Edelman and Faulk or Watson. If a team doubles Moss and Welker, who else can beat one on one coverage on a regular basis? On a 1-10 scale, I would rather have a WR core consisting of four or five 7's than two 10's and a bunch of JAGs. Moss is getting older (he looked 90 against Balt), and he has a 2010 cap # of over $10mil. His cap figure makes it extremely difficult to have any depth at the position, and the lack of depth is what killed our passing game this year. Remember the days of Brady not having a favorite WR. I would like to get back to that combined with an improved running game. All of that is made very difficult with Moss having such a massive cap figure.