To think that despite all the adversity (i.e. injuries) this year that (a) they have a good chance at going 11-5 and (b) they have a good chance at being the first 11-5 team in 23 years to miss the playoffs. Grrr.
Eugene Wilson and Ellis Hobbs are listed as questionable for Sunday.
Looks like the DB carousel has started up this year, too…
Randall Gay has been placed on IR, and Hank Poteat has been signed to replace him.
Looks like Tedy has broken a wrist and will miss all of preseason 
.
On the brighter side, it’s not like Tedy needs to learn the Pats’ D. If he can keep his conditioning up, he should be able to get back in the starting lineup soon after the injury is healed enough.
The Globe reported a couple of days ago that with Gary Glitter convicted (yet again) of having sex with children, the NFL has asked teams to drop “Rock and Roll #2″ from playlists and the Patriots plan to comply.
So what should the replacement music be? Comment away!
From a BB press conference today:
Q: Would you feel comfortable with Matt Cassell as a backup?
A: I don’t know. I don’t know. I think Brady has established himself.
Ya think, Bill? 
An interesting insight on the Pats from second round draft choice Chad Jackson:
In an interview, Jackson said that on one of his visits the Pats gave him some offensive game film and told him to have it broken down by the time of his next visit. Jackson said no other team he visited did anything like that. Add another player to the list of those who have in interviews pointed to something the Patriots do that no other team does. The weird thing to me is that for a lot of those examples I hear (like this one with Jackson and like when Rodney Harrison talked about the situational practices the Pats do that he’d never seen before) are things I would have assumed that all teams do as a matter of course. And yet the Pats seem to be the only ones doing them. Hail Bill!
Football Outsiders has the news.
When the details of the extension came out, I was surprised there wasn’t more front-loading, given the cap space the Pats have this year. I figured they’d want to use some of that up now when the had the room, preserving future flexibility. But I had forgotten about the “can’t have two raises in a year” rule.
Not surprisingly, the Patriots didn’t forget about that rule and ESPN has reported that the $18.66mil option bonus is broken into two pieces — a $6.66mil piece that can be paid anytime between 5 August 2006 and next March and a $12mil piece due next March. I think it’s fair to say that the $6.66mil will be paid on 5 August , thereby moving a decent chunk of the contract onto this year’s cap.
Well, it’s already tolled for Givens and McGinest (I expected the first, but not the second), and it may be tolling for AV and Troy Brown. Losing Adam would be tough, but I can’t get too worked up about losing Brown at this stage in his career. Sure, it would be sad for his last memorable play with the Pats to be fumbling away the Denver game, but he’s clearly lost many steps.
It’s been clear in interviews since the Givens signing that a large part of Givens leaving was that he wanted to be (and of course be paid for being ) a #1 receiver.
Since he wasn’t going to be a #1 in the Pats scheme, there was (a) no way the Pats would pay him #1 money, and (b) predispose him to go to a team where he’d be a #1 even if the offers were equal.
As for McGinest, while I’m sad to see him go, I don’t think it would have been wise for the Pats to cough up that sum.
Vinatieri is more interesting. I think there has definitely been some behind the scenes friction there for a few years. The Pats had to tag AV last year, and I think before that he was on a relatively short-term contract. So the parties haven’t been able to come to a long-term agreement for some time now. AV also brings up the question of do you (percentage-wise) hugely overpay AV to keep him on the grounds that even a big percentage overpay to a kicker is lost in the noise? Or will a big percentage overpay still cause pay-scale problems because then everyone will start saying “if he is so high percentage-wise, why not me?”
Finally, what has bothered me isn’t as much losing these guys (and potentially Troy Brown, too, though at this stage of his career that’s not a big loss) is that these guys’ agents have said the Pats haven’t even talked to them. Of course, I also wouldn’t put it past agents to make stuff to make the team look bad, either.