Looking at the Curious Case of Dominique Easley, you might think you were talking about a General Manager who had just gotten fired with Easley just one of the many bags of trash the new GM was taking to the curb, another example of the kind of mistake that reshapes resumes in the NFL.
Did I say mistake? I meant megalomaniacal misjudgment of apocalyptic proportions.
Or maybe it was just a mistake. A calculated risk. A kid with boom or bust potential. And now an error corrected.
It’s easy to forget the Seattle Seahawks - a pretty good team - were ready to draft Easley if the Pats had passed just two picks later. And Easley played well when he played. He just didn’t play a whole lot.
That was probably the biggest reason for Easley’s release but it’s probably not the only one…
#1 - Availability. Bill Belichick’s favorite “ility.” Hard to make plans based on players who can’t play. Even on a relatively cheap rookie contract, Easley’s return on expense was zero for too many games. Roster spots are precious. If you can’t even suit up for the scout team, you might as well be dead money.
#2 - Culture. There are mixed reports on Easley ranging from the cliche “locker room cancer” to the equally cliche “good guy/good teammate.” The consensus amongst the pigskin cognoscenti was that Easley didn’t really fit in Foxborough. Jerod Mayo did his rehab under the watchful eye of team doctors and trainers; Easley did his rehab on Instagram. And we all know how Belichick feels about Snapface or whatever.
#3 - The Defense is Changing. Rich Hill of Pats Pulpit connected a few dots related to all three defensive tackles the Patriots recently cut. We’ll have to wait and see how it literally plays out but I’m intrigued by Hill’s observation. Pressure up the middle is a key element in shutting down NFL passing games, of course, but as much as the rushing game appears to have been devalued over recent years, it’s running plays that haunt my nightmares of the 2015 season.
#4 - Malcom Brown is Just That Good. I suspect Brown is also everything Easley isn’t from a workplace culture perspective. Paired with Terrance “Pot Roast” Knighton, Brown could have a breakout, Pro Bowl-level season in 2016 and that would be very good news for everyone else on the defensive side of the ball; for Rob Ninkovich, Jabaal Sheard and Shea McClellin rushing off the edge and for Dont’a Hightower and Jamie Collins blitzing up the A gap.
#5 - Caponomics. Most fans are fixated on the near-term; cutting Easley accelerated his 2017 charges onto the 2016 cap. Looking at that another way, it clears all of Easley’s money off the 2017 cap when the Patriots are going to need it if they’re going to keep Hightower and Collins.
I think I was with most of the good citizens of Patriots Nation in hoping the Patriots would extend Hightower, Collins and the recently departed Chandler Jones before they could get to free agency. Now, it seems to me, that was never going to happen. Perhaps the extension for Nate Solder - who got hurt and was lost for the season immediately after signing his extension - is seen as something of a cautionary tale for Belichick, though I doubt it. I think Belichick has been was well aware that injury is a fact of life in the NFL from his earliest days in the league.
We also don’t know if Hightower and Collins are actually interested in an extension. Maybe their reps have been contacted and said, no thanks. Maybe they want to hit free agency. Even if they’d prefer to stay with the Patriots they will still want to maximize their next contract. All they need to do is look across the locker room at Devin McCourty to see how that works.
I’ve got a feeling all of the above reasons figured into Belichick’s thinking because I have this feeling it’s how Belichick’s mind works. Sometimes I think there are bigger, more important problems Belichick’s brain should be working on and then I throw an icy cold glass of water in my face and snap out of it. Belichick’s brain should be transferred into the body of a much younger man and he should continue coaching the Patriots forever (sorry Josh McDaniels). Anyway, the Belichickian calculus did not work out in favor of Dominique Easley.
Belichick has been celebrated for starting the better player, regardless of their draft status or salary because it’s best for the team. Perhaps he should be celebrated for cutting a player for the same reason.
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