It's beyond annoying to bother fact checking this guy, although at a cursory glance I found at least 5 misses (including one last second one that cost them a W in regulation in the last game of the season resulting in a WC road playoff game they lost) and games that start at 58 degrees don't constitute cold weather in NE. For us that's balmy. And while a few games were played in wind chills in the teens, I saw no mention of the white stuff.
Most all starting PK in the NFL can kick in cold weather to some extent. Gramatica as an example averaged something less than 3 attempts a year in actual cold weather. That doesn't not qualify them as reputable or reliable cold weather kickers.
Just like his offhand comment that Tebucky signed a veteran minimum deal, which he did not. This guy is just looking to make a case where his opinion is already formed - as most of us routinely do. Notice he's not buying in on Reche, which I guess is fine in his mind because that is his opinion.
They are taking a lot of inexpensive flyers this season. No harm in the deals themselves, and some potential upside if they work out, but there remains a genuine and legitimite concern that if they don't work out there remain some troubling holes on the 2006 NE Patriots midway through the off season. Coming off a season in which we were decimated by impact injuries we really struggled to account for, in which we gutted it out into the playoffs though perhaps in part only because of the almost mindboggling collapses of the rest of the AFCE, we've lost 3 more impact players to permanently to FA, and thus far only replaced them with players teetering on the verge of scrap heap. May work out in the end as it sometimes has, or it may not. But refusing to acknowledge it's a tossup is just playing the ostrich.
In Warfield's case, just as an example of the remaining risk aside from cost, should be make the roster he bumps someone else off. And should he win a starters job he bumps someone out of that role. Then should he, in a moment of weakness we might be all too willing to overlook because he's playing well, fall off the wagon and get caught - he's gone for the year by league mandate. So right now he's as risky as a CB coming off of back to back to back injuries over the last couple of seasons even though in his case he may look fine in TC. And we just cut a couple of corners basically because we could not count on them once the bell rings.
I think at times the folks who complain the most about the way this team is portrayed in the media or even by other fans from time to time, are in some respects the most fearful of all. They can't even acknowledge the obvious. For the moment this team is operating on the thinnest of margins. The draft may help. Ditto an as yet undiscovered trade or FA signing, although with few teams in cap trouble and the clock ticking that could be a stretch. Hopefully all the injured players will return and regain their form. Hopefully some players will continue to develop or in some cases actually rebound from regressions. Hopefully we'll find a clutch kicker who can hit 80% of his FG and routinely KO +60 eliments be dammed. Hopefully Seymour's deal does get done, or if not he decides to show up anyway. But just assuming all that happens is assuming a lot.
