...but I sent you away, oh Randy....

Let's get one thing straight. I don't like Randy Moss. I think he's a selfish, immature football player, and while he has some dazzling skills, I always thought that his route running was pretty average for a so-called "elite" wide receiver. He's not tough enough to make plays over the middle and you can tell that he REALLY doesn't like contact when 5'10" Asante Samuel can push him around like he did in the Pats-Raiders game in 2005.

Well....things change when your team goes out and trades for him.

Randy Moss is a total stud. He's going to make the Patriots offense UNSTOPPABLE. I'm going to be conservative and predict a 16-0 championship season, with Tom Brady throwing 78 TD passes (compared to Peyton Manning's 9).

All kidding aside, I can't believe this trade happened. Though the sports pundits have cited Moss' character issues as the reason this trade was so unlikely, I never thought that was the biggest issue. No, I assumed that some other desperate team (like Green Bay) would be willing to give up far more than the Patriots in terms of draft compensation and doling out a big money contract. But on top of the Patriots only giving up a 4th round pick, Moss has apparently agreed to take a pay cut this year from $9.75 million to only $3 million. This is an incredible bargain for someone who possesses Hall of Fame ability, even if he is a total head case. As my Jets fan buddy Blogman laments, this just seems unfair.

For that price, the Patriots can afford to dump Moss at the first sign of trouble. Whether he runs over another traffic cop, leaves a game early, gives the fans a fake mooning, runs his mouth when he shouldn't, or even if gazes too long at Tom Brady's new girlfriend, he can be cut without any fretting over the salary cap impact.

I still don't like Randy Moss. I don't even expect him to be the dominant player he was a few years ago. But if he's even just 60% of the home run hitter he was in 2004, I'll be rooting for him to provide the Patriots offense with enough juice to make them REALLY hard to defend. Stallworth and Moss running deep, Welker and Watson controlling the middle, Maroney carrying the ball...that's a hell of a lot of speed right there. And at a bargain basement price too. What's not to like?

As an aside: Bonus points to Moss today for giving some love to Troy Brown by referring to himself as "the second best wide receiver to come out of Marshall."

On to some 2007 Patriots draft thoughts....

1) Man, the Patriots must have really thought the players in this draft SUCKED. Coming into the day with 3 first day picks, the Patriots traded 2 of them into next years' draft, leaving free safety Brandon Meriweather as the lone addition to the Patriots on Saturday night. I don't want to sound like a homer, but I'm pretty impressed with those moves because it tells me that the Patriots are more afraid of drafting the wrong players than they are with drafting NO players. Hopefully, their assessment of the talent pool was correct.

2) Sports pundits are knocking the Meriweather pick, because there are 2 character flags with him: a) cameras caught him stomping on a defenseless FIU player in last years' brawl (earning him a 1-game suspension), and b) he was involved in a gun incident where he fired 3 shots at an assailant outside his home (though nothing he did was illegal). The gun incident is definitely alarming, but I'm less concerned with the stomping incident since it was something done in the heat of the moment. Besides, all those coaches like to say that it's easier to teach discipline to a nasty kid than it is to teach nastiness to a disciplined kid. And if I remember correctly, Rodney Harrison may have crossed the line once or twice in the heat of the moment...

3) The Patriots second pick of the 2007 draft? A defensive tackle! Am I missing something? Do we not have 3 first round picks on the defensive line? Do we not have 5 young guys backing up those positions? I know Belichick values defensive lineman because those guys are physically more rare than other positions, but come on! Enough is enough already!

4) OK, no linebackers drafted until the 6th round. That's....not good. Unless one of the younger guys steps up, this critical position is dangerously thin. I can only take this to mean that Junior Seau is just about ready to re-sign with the Pats in the next couple of months.

5) 3 more offensive lineman in this draft! I was under the impression that this was also an area of strength, as 4 of the starters are locked up through 2009 and 4 of the bench guys have all started in various games. But maybe Belichick is onto something...when I played Franchise mode in Madden, drafting linemen was always the quickest way to turn a lousy team into a championship team.

6) I found this out 3 years ago, but it bears repeating: the NFL draft is one of the most BORING, overhyped events that ESPN broadcasts. I had the draft on as I was doing some work on my laptop, and how they manage to fill 6 hours with draft "analysis"....sigh....it would be amazing if they weren't so completely full of crap.