Monday New England Patriots Links 2/14
It's Valentine's day, so make sure you spend some time today doing something special for your loved one. She may say, "it's no big deal," but that's a trap...so don't fall for it. This is one of those holidays with little margin for error, so be sure to execute it better than the Patriots did against the Jets in that disappointing playoff game last month. They weren't prepared and now get to spend the offseason wondering what could have been...so don't let that happen to you.
Now, on to this morning's headlines....
Our own Derek Havens takes a look at New England's free agents and gives a brief breakdown on each player, including whether or not the Patriots will bring Matt Light back next season.
Jeff Howe of NESN.com writes that the return of Ty Warren along with a number of solid guys coming out in the draft should be enough to bolster what ended up being a depleted defenensive line for the Patriots last season.
Staying with that same theme, WEEI.com offers up a draft profle on Temple DT Muhammad Wilkerson.
ESPNBoston's Mike Rodak takes a look at potential free agent defensive linemen, and wonders how they could each potentially fit in with the Patriots.
Howe writes that what happens with Logan Mankins and Light will likely be the key factors in how the Patriots approach the draft.
Erik Scalavino of Patriots.com (turn your speakers down or Bob will get you) takes a look at the quarterback position in this edition of his "Position Snapshot".
Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com points out that the Patriots Special Teams were ranked #1 by Rich Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News. Reiss also points out a mention by Football Outsiders, who gave a similar opinion.
OTHER NFL NEWS:
Andrew Brandt of the NationalFootballPost.com has an in-depth look at one of the first issues that the NFL owners and the NFLPA are battling about, and that's the rookie wages. If you're looking to understand more of what's going on Brandt has a good write-up on the subject, so be sure and check it out.
The Sporting News reports that last week's abrupt cancellation of their meeting happened because the league had thought the players had made a formal proposal, which apparently wasn't the case.
Chris Mortenson and Adam Schefter report that the two sides may meet again this week. (Careful, there's a video at the top of this article that starts automatically, so turn your speakers down.)
ConsumerAffairs.com has an article this morning on the fact that the fans who were affected in the Super Bowl seating fiasco that lead to them either being moved or even left without a seat are moving forward with their lawsuit. They point out that this happened because Jerry Jones was looking to break attendence records, and he should be dealt with accordingly.
The Dallas Morning news writes that John Clayton said in an interview on KESN-FM on Friday that Jones should be pretty embarrassed about the whole thing.
That's it for this morning. As I said, best of luck in trying to get Valentine's Day right with your loved one, and we'll see you tomorrow.
