Back Off, Tom!

Tom Jackson, How Wrong You Are.

While watching NFL PrimeTime last night before going to bed, I thought to myself Tom Jackson must have heard about how immensely popular my blog is. I say this because Tom Jackson seems to be trying to get into the niche of bold predictions. Unfortunately for him, I think he is way off. He predicted that this loss will have long term implications for the Patriots. Basically, he is suggesting that the Patriot’s dynasty is over.

How wrong you are, Tom.

Trust me, I know what you are thinking. Teams that lose the Super Bowl always struggle the next year. I mean the Bears did lose twice to the Lions this year. But, the Patriots had a perfect season and they, unlike the Bears, have a guy who can play Quarterback pretty well.

Really, what this argument comes down to is free agency and the draft.

On offense, the Patriots don’t look too much different. The biggest story of the offseason for them will be Randy Moss’s unrestricted free agency. But, I am guessing that New England probably wants him back next year. Also, this is the first year ever the Randy hasn’t thrown some sort of shenanigan. My guess is he likes it playing there too. The Patriots will have to fork out a lot of money to do this; something they are not known for doing. Regardless, Randy will probably be reasonable and resign fairly easily. The Patriots will still have Stallworth, Welker, Watson, and Maroney as their other skill players, and they wont miss Troy Brown or Jabbar Gaffney. They should still be scary on offense.

Defense is another story. Their best secondary player is a free agent and also not one of Bill’s favorite players. He is not coming back. Tedy Bruschi is also a free agent and so is Junior Seau. Other important role players in the secondary are also free agents like Randall Gay, Eugene Wilson and Chad Scott. I think we all know Bruschi isn’t going anywhere if the Pats think he still has enough left. Seau is probably going to be jobless and some of those other players will certainly test the free agent waters hoping for more money.

Another big problem for the Pats defense is age. Vrabel, Bruschi and Seau were 3 of the 4 Linebackers playing in that 3-4 defense Belichick who are 32, 34, and 39 respectively. Also, Rodney Harrison is 35 and no longer on the Juice. While those ages are pretty high in football years, its not really that old (other than Seau). They might be more susceptible to injury in the near future, but they can still be effective in the next few years.

But most importantly, the Patriots still have the draft. They may have lost their #32 pick (pack of cheaters!), but they still have the 49ers’ #7 pick. They could easily draft a shut down CB in Jenkins, Talib or McKelvin to replace Samuel. Or they could draft Keith Rivers to replace Seau (move Vrabel to MLB). Or they could take the best available defender (probably Gholston) and hope to fill holes in the subsequent rounds. I dont know if you know this but the Pats have pretty good success in later rounds. They got this kid named Tom Brady in the 6th round. I heard that is working out pretty well for them.

Look Tom Jackson, I know that for the first time you saw that Tom Brady is fallible and Bill Belichick isn’t a genius, and can be completely retarded (go for it on 4th and 13, instead of a 47 yard field goal?) but seriously, they are not going to have the season the Bears, or the Eagles had from a few years back.

Lets look at a similar situation, the Detroit Pistons.

While no one would ever say that the Pistons were heavily favored to beat the Spurs in ’05, they were the defending champs. They went into San Antonio, game 7 of the NBA Finals, beat the Spurs for 3 quarters, but ended up losing a heart breaker. I remember similar predictions about how the Pistons were getting too old, and their run as a team was up. However, the Pistons came back the next season angry. They drafted Jason Maxiel and won more than 60 games in the regular season. The problem was they had a new coach and no reserves. They wore themselves out and ended up losing to the Heat after struggling against the Cavs for 7 games. But, even after that year they made another run to the Conference finals, and again this year are proving to be one of the best teams in the NBA.

Like the Pistons, the Patriots lost a heart breaker in a championship game. They won 90% of the game and just couldn’t get it done.

Obviously, the NBA and the NFL are very different, but the “nobody respects us” attitude is what teams like the Pistons and the Patriots thrive on. The Pats got all the love this year, and I’d bet they come back angry next year and cause some havoc in the playoffs.

Heck, I dont just bet they will, I’ll put it in stone that they will.

As much as I’d love to see the Patriots not in the playoffs next year (GO CHARGERS!) we are going to have to put up with them for a few more years. They are just too good and they have really good people in the front office (take note William Clay). Like the Pistons, they are gonna stick around and annoy everyone who isn’t a fan of that team.