Nothing Huge, But Anonymous Pats Player Talks About Samuel

[PatsSteve1]

And pretty much the feelings of half the fans. He had one good year and now its all about money.

* If there's really anonymous player and it's a D player he gets to watch game tapes after every game and would know just how well, or not so well, Assante plays. As fans, most watching on TV, we really don't see much of Db's except at the end of plays and when he gets a pick. Maybe that's what the "player" here means. Although I'm always suspicous about anonymous sources.

 

[JoeSixPat]

any guesses as to who the mystery player is?

One would think its one of the longer term veterans... furthermore I'd think its someone on the defensive side of the ball, and doubtful someone who's had contractual issues with the front office in the past.

Rodney and Tedy have both issued on the record comments about Asante... I'm thinking its one of them though they asked for the candid assessment to be off the record.

What comes across most of all is that they like Asante, and want him on the team - so even though its anonymous its a very even handed take of what the situation is, and frankly serves as good advice to both sides... telling management not to let Samuel sit or leave over a matter of a "paltry" million dollars or so and telling Samuel not to back management into a corner or he can forget about remaining on the team... or worse yet might have them make an example of him and hold onto him.

 

[hobbsownscoles]

Ellis Hobbs. He doesn't really seem to like Samuel at all.

Where did you hear that?

 

[PatsSteve1]

Originally Posted by mavfan2390
Ellis Hobbs. He doesn't really seem to like Samuel at all.

Where did you hear that?

* He heard it from an anonymous player -

 

[5 Rings for Brady!!]

Asante has been a good player for this team, maybe a very good player. However, he has also benefited by playing in back of an excellent front seven. An excelent front 7 can help a good corner be very good.

I think this is key, and it is why a lot of us aren't sold on Samuels as an elite CB, and why the mystery player knows that people feel this way.

Branch was the best guy we had at a position of need, from the first day he played. Sure, he was injury prone and looked lost in a couple Charger games, but other than that, he was always the guy and it was his innate talent that made him useful. He was money in the playoffs.

Asante took a lot more coaching up, and looked bad a few times when he was working on padding his stats rather than playing the way Belichick likes it.

Plus, I really gotta think the players learned their lesson last year with Branch, and probably are just not going to get so emotionally involved when they realize Asante is not under contract with the team at all right now, and not acting like part of the team. Branch was still a teammate.