Reiss is the steadiest local reporter, but a lousy analyst, and he's really in the team's pocket, which limits his usefulness.
King is a great columnist who throws in some reporting when he goes live on television or radio.
Clayton is a great reporter, a less impressive analyst, and is someone who certainly doesn't shine BB's shoes.
Young is much like Reiss, although more willing to risk the wrath of the Patriots and the less rational portion of the fan base by (gasp) pointing out problems on occasion.
Felger is a crap-stirrer. It's an often effective way to build ratings and visibility, but it tends to grate on people fairly quickly.
Borges allows his personal feelings to destroy his credibility and undermine his talent.
Tomase is a poor reporter, even aside from the way he screwed the pooch on Super Bowl weekend.
Breer was a solid reporter who seems to have lost his fastball when he left the area.
Mortensen isn't really one who's focused on the Patriots at all, but he's a solid guy who's willing to go out on a limb. Unfortunately, for him, he's been off quite a bit lately, and it's damaged his credibility for the moment.
Silver just likes to play the cynic, for any or no reason.
Prisco is a hack. He may be the worst in the business. Bayless isn't much better.
CHFF used to be the best at breaking things down. Now, they have an agenda that ruins their effectiveness. Success may well ruin that site.
Curran usually does a great job, but his accuracy rate seems to have fallen off.
Price posts a lot of great stuff here, but he's generally slower than most of the other 'beat' reporters. Someone's got to finish the race last, and Chris seems to do it quite a bit. I don't know why it is, and I don't intend this as a knock, since there are plenty of valid reasons not to rush stories.
Dr. Z. hasn't been worth reading since, probably, before many of the fans here were born.
Jaws is a tremendous analyst, especially when it comes to covering the QB position.
Carucci has been playing with a loaded deck and still doesn't impress me.
Witlock is another crap-stirrer. He's better at it than Felger, because he ranges wider and can get away with more.
Schlereth, Jackson, Hoge, and most former players, are effective in little niches and all but useless outside of that area. They can't maintain an effective degree of objectivity, and they flail when asked about things outside their comfort zone. Most of them are very solid when they are relaxed and talking about familiar things, though.
Schefter was fine when playing with a loaded deck. How he'll be when he's not being spoon fed the info is something that bears watching.
I'm sure I missed several people, but I figure this is a good look into how I view these people. In my opinion, the key is to take what they say and weigh it against past performance, and to try to always be willing to adjust your opinion based upon how they've been recently more so than in the more distant past.
