A couple of late takes since I've been away for a few hours.
1. The 2nd sentence from the BSPN flacks after they announced the deal was to bring up the "conspiracy" angle. No sh!t, the 2nd sentence...and they repeated the allegation several times in the 3 minutes the story ran.
2. I'm really surprised how many are thinking that simply by adding AB, who is a WR by the way, we are suddenly invincible and preordained to be in the Superbowl. He's a WR who is going to get 6-10 targets a game out of 65--70 offensive plays.
Yes he makes the WR group better, and YES, he makes everyone else's job on the offense a BIT easier. But ANY WR only moves the needle fractionally. Just check the best WR's in currently in the league and add up their playoff win total and compare it Troy Brown, David Givens, Dion Branch's totals. Hell compare them with Chris Hogan's. Having great WR's has NEVER been the ticket to a team's consistent winning.
3. Only elite QB's can change a team's destiny by any degree by simply joining the team, and that's only relative to any other position. I would have been more buoyed at our chance to repeat more by the addition of an elite LT or interior DLman more than a WR. I know there are people who disagree, but FACTS speak for themselves. Give me Trent Williams and Akeem Hicks on this team and I'd drop AB and DT and feel better about a repeat.
But alas, I'm watching football in the fantasy football, the individual means more than the team era. An era where the glorification of all things WR related are elevated to beyond their real value to winning football games.
4. We also should remember that this dream team WR is led by 2 guys who will LITERALLY be here on a week to week basis. Whatever happens on any given Sunday, would anyone be surprised if Gordon and/or AB isn't on the team that following Monday. And it will be that way for the entire season. Volatile is understating the situation.
5. I LOVED our team last season. They were the little engine that could. Stomped down several times last season and left for dead, only to keep grinding and limp their way into the playoffs and THEN beat 3 thirteen win teams.
THIS team might be a little harder to like. I like the underdog, no one believes in us, where still here, teams we've had in recent years. And just because we added a freakin' overrated (the position not the player) WR, that will be harder to justify.
6. Next to the game itself, I can't wait for Miguel to make sense of the cap situation and how we managed to get BOTH AB and Jones' contracts into $6MM in cap space. Sometimes you can figure the basics out on your own and leave the details to Miguel, but this one is going to require Euclidean Math skills.
7. Now that all that is said and done and we have to deal with the reality that on Monday, AB will be a Patriot, I would sit him for the Miami game and have him make his first start at the Jets. That will give him 2 full weeks to get into some kind of flow with Brady and Josh, and to figure out his role, as well as everyone else's. And since the NY press is doing it's thing to inflame this as much as they can, it would only be fitting that AB starts his Pats career against the Jets.
