Help Which Line? Choice Suddenly Tougher for Belichick

Guess Bill Belichick was right all along.

While all of us so-called football “experts” out there somewhere in Patriot Nation think the Patriots should take an offensive lineman, a tight end, a running back, or even a wide receiver with the sixth pick in the draft, Belichick has been calling for a pass rusher all along. Here’s the most revered defensive mind in all of football, and we think he’s crazy for wanting a pass rusher. The team has more holes than a Michigan freeway, but by prioritizing, the big blocker just seems to be the best thing to get.

But Belichick may emerge as the wisest of us all, and he rightfully should. I mean, it’s only his job, fuhcryinoutloud.

What was supposed to be a sure thing became a sure thing today, as Patriot defensive lineman and UFA Chad Eaton signed on with the Seattle Seahawks today. Eaton took less money than expected to head home to Washington, and the Patriots now have a gaping hole in the center of their defensive line. Belichick perhaps saw this as a given all along, something that you really didn’t need a soothsayer to ascertain.

Eaton is now reunited with Steve Sidwell, his former defensive boss here in Foxborough. But if you think this is why Eaton bolted to Seattle, you probably believe in the old parable “you can’t go home again”.

Eaton, who inked a four-year, $11 million deal with a $3.5 million signing bonus today, did exactly what he was expected to do as soon as the regular season ended. He cleaned out his Foxborough Stadium locker, sold his house, and told Seattle he’d give them a hometown discount. In this case, “hometown” means a little different than what you’re all used to.

Eaton’s original contract demand (and the word “demand” is to be taken extremely lightly here) was for $4 million a year, according to sources. The deal he signed for calls for less than $3 million a year. That, my friends, is clearly a hometown discount.

Enemies of Belichick are going to scream out that the coach blew this one. How could he “lowball” Eaton, then watch Eaton sign for far less than he was demanding? Simple. All along, Eaton wanted to move back home to Washington. He never intended to return to the Patriots. The Seahawks made Eaton accept their terms, and they had all the leverage in the world. It would have taken a cap-busting deal for the Patriots to retain Eaton, and even that would have never been a sure thing.

Eaton is where he wants to be. Period. End of story. Nothing Belichick could do. Time to move on.

And to the real troubles that lie ahead.

Belichick knew all along he was going to lose Eaton. That’s why he suggested that the Pats go defensive line with the six. He has said on the record that high draft picks should not be used on offensive linemen. That perhaps means that all of us who hunger to see Leonard Davis in a Patriot uniform (if he’s still there at six) may have to get a new set of dreams soon.

To go along with this, another bug bit Belichick today. Jason Ferguson, this year’s Anthony Pleasant, re-upped today with the Jets. Like Pleasant last year, Ferguson was a Jet who wanted to be reunited with his former defensive boss. And like Pleasant, he never made it to Foxborough.

Losing Ferguson was bad enough. But it further underscores the extreme imprudence for the Patriots or their fans to rely on free agency as a quick fix for the team. The team has had lousy luck at free agents. Up until Manny Ramirez, the Red Sox were pretty much in the same boat. The Patriots have still yet to get their Ramirez.

And if the top men are to be believed, that won’t happen this year. The Patriots want to pursue second-tier free agents, like they did in 1996 (Shawn Jefferson, Pio Sagapolutele, Mark Wheeler, and some guy named Eaton). That’s fine, but pursuing them is not nearly the same as “signing” them.

Which is why Belichick may be training his eyes on Richard Seymour or Andre Carter, and not Davis or Kenyatta Walker. It all comes down to prioritizing, and the only person who can really establish that is Belichick himself. Who he takes with that six pick could very well make or break his coaching legacy in Foxborough. That may be an extreme thing to say, but that’s what he gets for wearing both the coach and GM hats.

At this point, this writer’s view that they should take Davis/Walker really matters little. You could take the best OL available, and sit back later and wish you had gone for that pass rusher. Or vice versa. Even Todd Heap, the top-rated tight end by Joel Buchsbaum, has been mentioned as a possible choice by the Patriots with their top pick.

Ferguson’s re-signing with the Jets is actually more troubling than losing Eaton. Eaton’s departure was expected. But so was signing Ferguson. The Patriots can still go for Rick Lyle, another Jet. But given their track record, planning on such a thing is not smart thinking.

It pretty much comes down to what Belichick thinks is of greater need. You just signed Drew Bledsoe up for life for a king’s ransom. You need to protect him. But on the other hand, you need to hassle the other guy’s quarterback to take some of the pressure off the beleaguered secondary. And so on.

Right now, this writer still would decide in favor of protecting Drew. Disagree? I hereby declare whatever point you make as “good” in advance. In other words, there is no real easy solution, and it’s nice that it’s Belichick that has to make the final decision and not Yours Truly.

Further speculation on who the Pats will take at six at this time is really pointless unless you’re a pathological draftnik. Both sides of the line of scrimmage need help. If you take all the positions of need into consideration, you might say that it would come down to the line itself. The only question is which side you address first.

And that is something that will keep Belichick up most every night from now until the April draft, and well beyond.

If Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan want to do a nice sequel, they can snag Eaton and do “Sleep Well In Seattle”. Or, they can settle on the east coast and grab Belichick for “Sleepless In Foxborough”.

Either way, pleasant Patriot dreams are a long, long way off.