ESPN.com Pats preview - Watson possibly most overrated in NFL

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/preview06/news/story?page=Patriots/06

"Ben Watson is possibly the most overrated player in the NFL"

"That secondary really does get worse every year"

"The Pats ignored their porous secondary this offseason. Bad idea. Rodney Harrison's return from a torn ACL helps, but how long can the 33-year-old kamikaze hold up? And the starting CBs, 5-foot-9, 190-pound Ellis Hobbs and returnee Asante Samuel, don't keep offensive coordinators up at night. If one of them fails, the next best option is ex-Chief Eric Warfield. "

All that being said they do say the Pats will finish 1st in the East except for Moll who has them #2.

That line about Watson got me though.

ESPN = IDIOTS. Secondary dissing would likely get on Rodney Harrison if attention was brought to him. Ben Watson is most certainly not overrated. He has the same AVG Yard per catch as Steve Smith, that should tell you something.

I already knew Joyner said something about Watson previously...I think he is good at a lot of what he writes but ofcourse I'll disagree with him on Watson.

PatsRI said:

All that being said they do say the Pats will finish 1st in the East except for Moll who has them #2.

Click to expand...

Hey does anyone know what the inside story is with Scout Inc and Scott Pioli? Last year someone who was fired by Pioli said something nasty about him in a Scouts Inc article. Anyone remember?

We all can hope rodney read that article

They won't be saying that in a couple months. Either way I find it hard to take any opinions serious from a network that hires Michael Irvin so he can swing from T.O.'s nuts every week on Monday Night Countdown.

They must have gotten that Watson comment from the Football Scientist dude who writes for them. Whatever, he was basically a rookie last year. Let everyone fawn over Winslow, I'll take the guy who's a great athlete and a great IQ.

I think the Watson thing is the part I have the least problem with. The guy has lots of abilty but has yet to show he can be a big time TE. I'm not saying he can't, in fact I think he can, but until he does he is just hype.

The part about the secondary is crazy. I can't speak for anyone else but I feel really comfortable going into this season with Harrison, Wilson, Hawkins, Sanders, Hobbs, Samuel, Gay, Scott, and co. back there. People keep complaining how we don't have an elite, shutdown corner. I'm beginning to think there isn't such a thing as I see guys like Ty Law and Champ Bailey burned pretty often. Furthermore, I don't really think we need one. We won in '04 without one and in the second half of the season and playoffs last year our secondary was fine without one. We lost in the playoffs because of our offense and special teams, not our defense.

K.C. Joyner's stupid little Bill James, sabermetric system is about as bad as it gets.

Him saying Ben Watson is overrated - only because of what his spreadsheet crapped out - is nothing new.

Someone should stick the "Watson most overated player in the NFL" on the Redskins board.

Is Ben Watson really rated that high? I think of him as a very promising guy who could be ready to break out but hasn't done much yet. I think that's pretty much the conventional wisdom on him ... have I just missed the "he's a great player" hype, or is this guy talking out of his *ss just to be provocative?

PlattsFan said:

Is Ben Watson really rated that high?

Click to expand...

That's the ironic thing, he isn't "rated" that high at all compared to some lesser TE.

PatsRI said:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/preview06/news/story?page=Patriots/06

"Ben Watson is possibly the most overrated player in the NFL"

"That secondary really does get worse every year"

"The Pats ignored their porous secondary this offseason. Bad idea. Rodney Harrison's return from a torn ACL helps, but how long can the 33-year-old kamikaze hold up? And the starting CBs, 5-foot-9, 190-pound Ellis Hobbs and returnee Asante Samuel, don't keep offensive coordinators up at night. If one of them fails, the next best option is ex-Chief Eric Warfield. "

All that being said they do say the Pats will finish 1st in the East except for Moll who has them #2.

That line about Watson got me though.

Click to expand...

Call me crazy, but maybe we should archive this one.
It might be fun reading in a few months.

ESPN.com is the most overrated sports web site there is. Cripes why do you guys even visit it anymore? Like 95% of their articles are pay to read, and even then not worth the price of admission. I dropped them from my usual surfing rotation because time after time, there just wasn't much there to read, and what little there was, was freely available on a much faster loading web site.

Watson has the Potential to be a very good TE KInda reminds me of Old Ben Coates lol.

I love that the pundits are making the Pats the underdogs.

They forget that we had injury after injury after injury in the secondary last year, to the point where we were signing guys off the street on Tuesday and starting them on Sunday.

They forget that we had injury after injury after injury at running back, to the point were we were signing guys off the street on Tuesday and starting them on Sunday.

They forget that we lost three of the five starters and, at one point a backup too, on the O-line.

IMO, the fact that the Pats had a legitimate shot at the SuperBowl with those injuries may have been the most impressive season of the Belichick era. Any other team in the NFL would have finished the season 5-11.

So, go ahead, pundits. Dismiss the Pats. I love rootin' for an underdog. Hopefully, the Pats' opponents will read the punditry.

PlattsFan said:

Is Ben Watson really rated that high? I think of him as a very promising guy who could be ready to break out but hasn't done much yet. I think that's pretty much the conventional wisdom on him ... have I just missed the "he's a great player" hype, or is this guy talking out of his *ss just to be provocative?

Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly, Platts. The big names are like Antonio Gates and TOny Gonzalez, Todd Heap and the list goes on. Watson's name wouldn't come up until
like between 15 - 20 for tight ends.
So I guess this guy must think Watson really sucks.
Ben will show them, though.
He'll show them ALL!

if he stays healthy

Joyner is a total joke. He's some geek that thinks you can boil football down to statistics which can be crunched and interpreted to say who's better than who.

He probably has Pinkston rated a top receiver because he neglected to input a statistic about how many times he soiled his shorts and ran crying like a baby when he saw the safety coming at him.

Statistics have a limited applicability to football, (unlike baseball) and Joyner is a clown because he spews out whatever the formula tells him even if it's plainly ridiculous.

How many people here realize Watson was just unwinding last year and will be miles ahead in 2006?

Ceresco said:

They won't be saying that in a couple months. Either way I find it hard to take any opinions serious from a network that hires Michael Irvin so he can swing from T.O.'s nuts every week on Monday Night Countdown.

Click to expand...

Short and to the point...Nice post Ceresco!!

It's about time ESPN gets off the Pats c***s and realize the Fins are the better team. I really don't understand the Ben Watson line however. He is going to emerge as a big time TE this year I think. I love the Rodney Harrison comment because I hate that cheap shotting SOB. I hope he can't come back from the injury and is no longer the player he once was. Culpepper should have a field day pitchin' the ball all over the lot to Chambers and McMichael on your depleted secondary. Season should be great and I can't wait to see my Fins as the Eastern champs.