Some Dreams Come True

Working for an insurance company, I rarely hear, “This was always my dream, to be a middle manager for a major insurance company.” On the other hand, that’s the kind of dream you can shrug off when you wind up a line cook at Olive Garden. When your childhood dream was to play football in the NFL, it can’t be easy seeing your name on the waiver wire.

Can you cook?

When Bill Belichick is criticized for draft picks like Ras-I Dowling or Jermaine Cunningham, both 2^nd round picks that rate solid 4s on your 5-point Bust-O-Meter; I imagine it is much like a tree falling in a forest while Belichick is out on his boat. He isn’t sitting in his basement, scrolling through the comments section of ESPN Boston’s Patriots blog, salving hurt feelings with a nice Malbec. Having watched Belichick over the years, you come to understand the basic principles. The draft is one part of the team building process. When mistakes are made, and they will be made, they must be corrected. It’s an inexact science. For every Chad Jackson there’s a Deion Branch (I don’t really have to mention Tom Brady, do I?). But let’s get to the big news…

The Patriots have released Tim Tebow.

Count me among those who saw Tebow as a long-term investment; we’d be unlikely to realize the ROI until 2015, so I’m a little surprised by the move. A little. On the other hand, considering Mallett’s preseason (he looked better than Matt Cassel ever did), the relative value of a third QB (on the final 53 vs. the practice squad) and Tebow’s performance on the field, it isn’t terribly surprising.

It was also a small surprise to see TEs Jake Ballard and Daniel Fells names among the first ten cuts, perhaps because New England is known more for collecting TEs than releasing them. Like most citizens of Patriots Nation, I read this as a positive sign regarding Rob Gronkowski’s return. Gronk may not be ready for Week 1 but it is all but certain he will avoid the PUP list and a six game sabbatical.

Marcus Benard’s flashed early in camp so his cut was something of a surprise but perhaps it shouldn’t have been. I think he had as many off-sides penalties as sacks in the preseason. A bigger surprise was seeing Cunningham released after Benard was let go; it seemed they were competing for that same “NASCAR” role and that one of them would survive the final cut. Perhaps the show that Michael Buchanan and Jake Bequette put on last Thursday night made the maddeningly inconsistent Cunningham and the overeager Benard expendable. The release of DE Justin Francis is more good news for redshirt rookie Bequette. I no longer hold out any hope that Bequette could develop into a Jared Allen but he could still become a Paul Kruger. As for Buchanan, I’m going to forego comparables for now (except parenthetically – he does look a little bit like Julius Peppers, doesn’t he?).

The Patriots saved a million bucks in keeping rookie P Ryan Allen and releasing Zoltan Mesko; the New England management team clearly has solid math skills.

DT Marcus Forston, WR Quentin Sims and RB George Winn all have practice squad eligibility.

Winn may have shown too much in preseason game four; there are a few running back-needy teams that might offer him a spot. Sims was Tebow’s binky; his two TD catches against the Giants second and third stringers will likely be overvalued by another team looking for depth at WR. Who would’ve thought at the beginning of camp the Patriots would be deep enough at WR to let even a guy like Sims go?

By a little after 1:00pm on Saturday, the Patriots were down to 54 per Pats Pulpit. Fullback James Develin and RB Brandon Bolden, LeGarrette Blount and Leon Washington were all still on the roster at that point, along with LB/ST options Jeff Tarpinian and Steve Beauharnais and safety Adrian Wilson, widely believed to be on the bubble.

A little more than 30 minutes later, they were all still on the roster. [Edit: Some hours later, Adrian Wilson was placed on season-ending Injured Reserve; Tarpinian was also released, leaving the Patriots roster at 51.]

That doesn’t mean the Patriots are done; given the quality depth on New England’s roster and their position on the waiver wire, it seems unlikely there will be further changes to the final 53 but given some of the surprises we saw in the final cuts (I’d count Tebow, Fells/Ballard, Dowling, Mesko, Cunningham, Benard and Forston to a greater or lesser extent), more moves could be coming.