He tied for the league lead in INTS in 2006, but he wasn't worth a bag of balls by anyone's metric in 2005, believe me. Rodney went down, he was playing opposite Starks and Eugene disappeared, Bruschi was out until the bye, TJ had retired, Vrabel had to move inside, and our secondary was the butt of jokes. Then Hawkins was picked up and rookie Ellis Hobbs was inserted to replace Starks and the entire unit performed better down the stretch.
In training camp in 2006 Hobbs was the starting LCB. Asante was not happy and said he was uncomfortable playing on the right. But Hobbs held the position through the start of the regular season until he broke his scaphoid (wrist), same injury Bruschi suffered, and they moved Hobbs back to RCB and he played through the injury with his wrist in a cast all season. 'Sante started out slow in 2006, then hit the daily double when he picked 6 off of the dynamic duo of Grossman and Culpepper. That was when the league suddenly noticed Asante and his pro bowl caliber...INTS.
This season he had 6 picks in the regular season, none down the stretch after week 12. He had 1 in the playoffs. Hobbs had 1 pick down the stretch (against the Giants...) and 2 in the playoffs playing with a sports hernia. He also had more tackles and passes defensed in the playoffs. And gave up fewer TD's... And while Asante had 5 more picks in the regular season, he didn't have a forced fumble or sack, and Hobbs did.