Big Vince

We saw it coming. The math was simple. We've seen this movie before. Still, it's a sad day in Patriots Nation. Godspeed, Big Vince.

 

Yes, it's still possible Vince Wilfork could re-sign with New England. This situation reads more like Willie McGinest than Troy Brown to me. Vince is worth more to other teams than he is to the Patriots. Like McGinest, Wilfork still has a little bit of gas in the tank – he can still play on 1st and 2nd down – and he could be a force for good in the locker room and a mentor to young men learning to play the game. And that ring on his finger gives him instant credibility.

But the Patriots have plenty of rings on the roster and a new generation of leaders in Dont'a Hightower, Chandler Jones and Rob Ninkovich and (maybe) Jerod Mayo and (fingers crossed oh please) Devin McCourty and (god help me please oh please) Darrelle Revis. Perhaps Dominique Easley becomes a playmaker now that he's 100% healthy (oops, fingers already crossed), Logan Ryan bounces back and Sealver Siliga has his Elvis year. When you have the youngest team to ever win a Super Bowl, cutting a 34-year old defensive tackle is really just a matter of time.

Having said that.

Big Vince is a big man in more ways than can be measured by a tape measure or set of scales. A great football player for a long time. Super Bowl rings 10 years apart. Surprisingly athletic for a man of his prodigious girth. His return from torn Achilles to stalwart starter was truly impressive. A smart, funny, classy guy.

Whatever happens next, he'll always be a Patriot.

Team building is a process and Wilfork's departure is the bittersweet part of that process. It happens a hundred times over every year as teams shed older veterans and their "we knew they'd never finish" contracts. Still, these are old friends we're talking about. We mourn over the first cup of coffee. We read the posts on possible replacements in free agency or the draft over our second. We have to move on; we've no choice in the matter.

We'll hope the cap space freed up by Wilfork's release will help the Patriots keep Darrelle Revis and/or Devin McCourty.

Like many citizens of Patriots Nation, I've been caught up in a dream, a nightmare really, and in that dream I'm inching my way down a dark, impossibly long hallway to a door, a door I know I must open. And behind that door, I'll either find Darrelle Revis or a cold, dark empty room. Or a clown on a rocking horse singing "Welcome to the Jungle" that makes you ask yourself, is that Axl Rose?

I've been trying to make sense of it all. And by "all" I mean the possibility New England might lose both Revis and Devin McCourty.

Pigskin pundits and bobbleheads have Revis signing with the Patriots unless he goes back home to the Jets or re-unites with Rex Ryan in Buffalo. McCourty has potential suitors in the Giants and Eagles. No doubt this is a fluid situation. Until we've heard the rumors of interest from Oakland, Jacksonville and Cleveland, the preamble will seem somehow incomplete.

So, we wait.