Ramble On

Robert Kraft's penis has apologized.

Can we move on?

Can we go back to talking about the lack of playmakers at wide receiver (and how that means Bill Belichick really hates Tom Brady)? The "Who's going to replace Trey Flowers?" question? Whether Isaiah Wynn is ready to play left tackle in the NFL? Why Belichick can't draft wide receivers? Tom Brady's downhill skiing skills? Jordy Nelson? Josh Rosen? Gronk's will he/won't he offseason? How many times Belichick will trade down or out of the 2019 NFL draft?

Let me just say this to Robert Kraft's penis.

Apology accepted.

If you aren't checking out the various Patriots-related sites and blogs on a daily basis hoping for a barely-moves-the-needle move like a Jordy Nelson signing or a trade for a no-longer-under warranty A.J. Green, I don't think you realize just how desperate things are. Don't you realize Julian Edelman may be Brady's first three options on every pass play next year?

Edelman's covered, check down to Edelman; Edelman's covered, check down to Edelman… Fucki it, I'm going to Jules.

So, maybe Chris Hogan comes back and maybe, just maybe, Belichick trades for a wide receiver who doesn't immediately make me think "Reche Caldwell 2.0" and perhaps, crazy as it sounds, Belichick drafts a wide receiver before Day 3 and he makes the Final 53. Yeah, that is crazy talk. An undrafted free agent wide receiver that makes the Final 53? Okay. That makes Foxborough sense.

Hey, look, I know this is a valid concern, as are the questions about the offensive and defensive lines, what Gronk will decide about retirement, whether Josh Rosen is worth even a 3rd round draft pick, or whether the red shirt draft class of 2018 plus the 12 picks New England has in the 2019 draft are enough to sustain the aging Patriots Dynasty.

It's just… we're talking about a coach, quarterback, and team that has been to 4 of the last 5 Super Bowls and won 3.

And they weren't supposed to win Super Bowl LIII, were they?

Pigskin pundits and bobbleheads created a marketplace for reasons why the Patriots were done during the 2018 season. The dynasty was over when they lost SB52. The Edelman suspension was going to hurt and who knows how he'd play coming off an ACL injury. Brady wasn't Brady. Gronk wasn't Gronk. The Josh Gordon trade smacked of desperation and ended like most acts of desperation do. They couldn't win on the road. They lost back-to-back games in December. The millennial NFL had passed Bill Belichick by. Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, Sean McVay and the Rams were the now and future kings of the NFL. The Patriots failed to win 12 games for the first time since 2009. You remember 2009. It was somewhere in the middle of those "wandering in the wilderness" years between the first three Super Bowl wins of the Brady-Belichick era and their more recent wins. They backed into the #2 seed and a first round bye meaning they'd need to win the AFC Championship on the road.

Forty-nine reasons all in a line

All of them good ones all of them lies

Sometimes my mind just can't help but wander. I know I'm off topic here but that lyric from "49 Bye-Byes" just hit me. That made me want to check out the "Crosby, Stills & Nash" album's track listing. Then I had to check out "Deja Vu" (which seems more appropriate to the Patriots' back-to-back-to-back Super Bowl appearances). Stunning harmonies and incredible musicianship. Both albums are definitely worth your time.

But I digress…

I guess…

Maybe the Patriots are "Classic Rock." You can make fun of it, you can dismiss it, you can argue it has lost any relevance and then along comes Greta Van Fleet, sounding just like Led Zeppelin. Isn't that what Bill Belichick did to Sean McVay and the Rams in SB53? Hit them up with a filthy Jimmy Page riff ("Heart Breaker" seems appropriate) that McVay and his pretenders to the crown probably should've been ready for but somehow forgot or never bothered to learn?

Maybe it's why they still play "Crazy Train" at Gillette Stadium even while Tom Brady is using Jay-Z's "Public Service Announcement" as his entrance music.

You know what they say about history?

History wins championships.

That and defense.

Well, it does.