Those comparing this team to the 2003 team really need to stop. And stop now. That team could afford to trade away a guy like Milloy because the defense was already top notch. They had the best front seven in football, they had Ty Law as a CB, and they already had Rodney Harrison. On top of that, they could *REPLACE* Milloy's production. They had a team at that time that was just entering their primes and could handle it.
This team? Not so much. This is an extremely young team. Who do we have that can replace what Randy Moss does? Assuming we move Tate to flanker, is he really going to demand double teams? What has he done so far to make anybody think that he can? Who are we going to move in across from him? Taylor Price? What makes anybody think that he can enter a game and play at anything approaching a competent level after the preseason he had? Welker will now demand the other team's best CB and will see safety help tacked on. On top of that, he's now a much bigger target for huge hits. He's now a bigger risk for a Ryan Clark-type kill shot. Edelman is good and will help, but his health hasn't exactly been primo. Hernandez is also good in the slot, but this trade will make things harder on him as well. As for Gronk? I like him, but we're already using him more as a blocker. Does anybody see that changing with Moss gone? I don't. I see it happening more. We're going to need all of the good blocking we can get.
Another reason to not like the Moss trade? Our running game hasn't exactly proven that it can be top notch against a good defense. Fred Taylor hasn't been able to stay healthy since he got here. Sammy Morris has had the same problem. Both, when healthy, are solid options, but haven't shown that they can be lean on like we might need to now that our premier deep threat is walking out the door for a third rounder. BJGE has ran well, but hasn't proven that he can be THE GUY against good defenses (1.9 YPC vs. the Jets comes to mind). Woodhead has been a solid option on third downs and has been a surprise of a runner, but he isn't a workhorse type of back. In trading Moss, we're going to need to pound the ball more than we have. We don't appear to have the runners to be able to do that. Do I even have to mention the problems that our O-Line has had run blocking in recent years?
In all, can we do it? It's certainly possible that we can make it work and go deep into the postseason. However, there are too many negatives to consider here. Our young defense is going to have their struggles this year. We've already seen that. Our young receivers are now going to have to step up more than ever, none more than Brandon Tate. He hasn't shown that he's ready for that monstrous challenge yet. Our 6'7" TE has already been relegated to blocking duty, and should expect to be blocking even more. We're going to need to rely HEAVILY on a running game for the first time, really, since 2004. This running game hasn't shown that they can be heavily relied on like we did back then. This O-Line hasn't shown that it can run block consistently against the better defenses in the league. And, another reason? Brady is now good friends with Moss. Unless something changed behind the scenes, I can't imagine Brady being happy with us.
But Adam Schefter is talking about this as if it's already a done deal. So I would like to say thank you, Randy, for all you've done for this organization since you've been here.
