I only read the first 2 pages and last 2 pages of this thread, so if this was mentioned earlier, sorry for the redundancy.
Had to drive back and forth to Stockbridge this morning. (and yes I brought my James Taylor CD with me
) So I was forced to listen to EEI mid day show. Benz was rabid about the Pats should have done what it took to resign Revis. He was mini-Felger like in his disregard for the realities of the Cap system, but I digress. I was just about to turn to music when the had a writer from Philly who covers the Eagles come on to discuss Bradley Fletcher....and what he said was very interesting.....and hopeful
The first thing he mentioned was that he hasn't seen a DB look that bad since Pat Chung was with the Eagles.
Then he went on to say that the Pat Chung who played for the Pats last year was infinitely better than the one that played and failed in Philly. He attributed to better coaching and being surrounded by better players.
He stated that Fletcher has had some good years with the Eagles before the disaster of last year. He attributed a lot of his problems to the following 3 reasons
a. The guys playing around him were not good, especially the safeties.
b. Bad coaching. That coach was fired, and it was an open secret the players hated him
c. He was OK at the start of the season, but ran into a bad stretch and he started getting picked on. Then he completely lost his confidence, and it went down hill from there, to the point he was benched. He lost confidence in himself, and the coaching staff lost confidence in him as well.
He then went on to say a couple of more things that I liked. He stated that Fletcher is a physical corner who will do better with big bodied WR's than small quick guys. At 6' and over 200lbs, he's not the ideal size I'd like (6'2 or above), but he has a skill set we don't currently have on roster. The fact the 5'9 Dennard is the most physical CB we have right now. So its a skill set that's badly needed
In another remark I found interesting was that he alluded to the fact Fletcher played better than Cary William last year. I found that interesting because William is even bigger than Fletcher and was a guy I hoped the Pats would grab, but he went to the Seahawks before Revis went to NYC. This was almost a throw in remark and he didn't elaborate.
So given the situation, there seems to be a LOT more upside to this signing that originally meets the eye. And since there doesn't seem to be any downside, it COULD be another BB steal. At worst this guy could be a situational press man guy against bigger WR's. At best, he might be a shorter 2015 version of Brand0n Browner.
After here this writer's observations, you can't help but like this signing.