Gregg Easterbrook is to Patriots Football as Fox News is to Democrats.
Excerpt from TMQ’s NFL preview: Part 1, the AFC:
“New England Patriots: By trading away veterans (Richard Seymour, Deion Branch) and endlessly trading down, New England attained a phenomenal 15 choices in the first three rounds of the past three drafts — yet which of those guys can you name? The guys Bill Belichick chose with his extra selections so far have been injured or duds: Terrence Wheatley, Shawn Crable, Kevin O’Connell, Brandon Tate, Ron Brace, Tyrone McKenzie, Darius Butler, Pat Chung. Last season, the Flying Elvii had a severe lack of impact players, and no one from all those extra second- and third-round choices is threatening to become an impact player.”
A demonstratively false and perhaps slanted statement, coming from the guy who hypothosized the NFL’s demise as a result of spygate:
His argument is based on hypothetical scenarios of what ‘could have been’:
- Would the Pats 3-peat if they had Branch in 2006?
- Would they suffer a 1st round loss to the Ravens last year w/ Seymour helping to anchor the D-Line?
This is supported by the notion that this list of players (many of which are second year guys) are already busts:
- Terrence Wheatley – Oft injured – still on the roster
- Shawn Crable – Practice squad
- Kevin O’Connell – Gone baby gone
- Brandon Tate – Returned a kickoff in week 1 (he had another one in the preseason) and caught 4 balls
- Ron Brace – Started week 1
- Tyrone McKenzie – Practice squad
- Darius Butler – Week 1 starter
- Pat Chung – Recorded 17 tackles in week 1 (12 solo)
So out of 8 players listed, there is 1 absolute bust (O’Connell), 3 potential busts, 2 potential pro-bowl caliber players and 2 more that are playing significant time as second year players
Basically they are batting .500 w/ Easterbrook’s list
Of course he leaves out Sebastian Vollmer, Julian Edelman, Jonathan Wilhite and Myron Pryor – all recent draft picks who are on the roster and are playing active roles on this team (Vollmer has been a starter since last year).
Compared to other teams: .500 is a decent average – adding in Easterbrook’s omissions clearly tip the scales in New England’s favor for draft success.
This also not considering the encouraging 2010 draft class. Time will tell if Gregg would dare write about New England draft busts and their tendencies to trade down for more picks a year from now when we are discussing players like Devin McCourty, Rob Gronkowski, Brandon Spikes, Aaron Hernandez and Zoltan Mesko – all of which are already playing active roles on this team as rookies.
Easterbrook is among the Patriots haters that always fall back to the spygate argument that they are now playing on a ‘fair’ level and their super bowls are tainted. These people always seem to ignore the fact that the 2007 Patriots, without the aid of cameras were one David Tyree catch away from going 19 and 0.
I understand that the Patriots have achieved Yankee like hater status around the NFL. A golden boy quarterback with a supermodel wife coupled with enough rings in the past decade to leave every other franchise and its fan base envious.
It’s easy to hate, I understand it – but hacks like Easterbrook who are given a forum to support their false notions are no better than Fox News, MSNBC and the like. They report slanted information directed to alter your perception of reality to support their own objectives. This false reality isn’t base on fact or actuality – but in the perverse idiocentric world that these people have created for themselves.
Welcome to the club Gregg.
Maybe the Broncos would trade Tebow for Brady.