Roster Shaping Up - Reax

-So I moved this past weekend, and one of my roommates allegedly set up the cable, but we got there to no internet. So between moving, and the lack of internet, I am still playing catch-up from a busy weekend of Pats moves. My thoughts on the moves are as follows:

-Most Surprising: Pats claim Matt Tennant from the Saints. He is a Center, and I am not sure what type of position versatility he has (likely can play some guard). I thought the team was ready to move on with Wendell, but this puts a wrench in this. He's a BC guy, and was Matty Ryan's center back when he was there. This is one player the Boston media has been surprisingly quiet on, and I am going to look into further. I have a feeling he caught the eye of the coaching staff during the joint practices, and he could be your starting Center week 1. We will see how this one plays out as there are a lot of interior lineman on the team (Wendell, Mankins, Connelly, MacDonald, Thomas and now Tennant).

-More Mild Surprises: Deion Branch cut and Pats trade for Greg Salas of St. Louis. This one was surprising, but I think something that most fans should be happy about. There has been some clamoring since the cut of Taylor Price that the Pats need to do a better job of developing young WRs, and this was a little muted when the Pats went out and signed all those veterans this past offseason. Obviously, this didn't work and none of them them (Gaffney, Branch, Gonzales, Stallworth) made the cut. The trade for Greg Salas was quite surprising, but without knowing too much about him, I like it. He was the leading receiver in NCAA in 2010 and a lot of talk coming out was how much of it was a product of Hawaii's system, and how much was because of him. He has good size at 6'1" and can play both inside and outside. He fell out of favor with the new coaching staff in St Louis, and the Pats traded a conditional 2015 late round pick (basically just to make sure no one claimed him on waivers). Obviously, the McDaniels connection had something to do with this, along with the fact that I think they did want to have a young WR on the team. I, along with most everyone covering this team, had thought Branch showed enough to make this team. Obviously Bill didn't think so, and cut him to make way for a younger guy.

Surprising, But Not Shocking: Brian Hoyer sliced. This one was surprising at first, but then when you think about it a little more, it starts to make some sense. Hoyer was on the books for $1.9 million. That is a lot for a backup QB. Additionally, while most all agree Hoyer was probably the better of the two backups, the distance between them had shortened to a point where he was marginally better than Mallet. And do you really want to pay $1.9 million for a backup that is marginally better than your third stringer? They are a little light with only two QBs, but about 42% of teams in the NFL are going with only 2 QBs this year. One point that was brought up by one of the Boston media members (I think Bedard, but not 100%) is this: It seems like the "Mallet being Brady's heir" timing is going to be a bit off. Brady wants to go for 5 more years, and if that is the case, they probably will not be able to hang on to Mallet for that long. So, what is the best way to increase his trade value? Put him as the backup so that he gets reps in the event of any injury to Brady.

Four Undrafted Rookies Make it: Brandon Bolden (RB), Marcus Forston (DT), Mike Rivera (LB), and Justin Francis (DE) all were undrafted rookies that made their way onto the roster. The Pats are notorious for having undrafted rookies make the team, but four in one year? That is completely unheard of. Bolden and Francis were not really surprising, as many had predicted throughout camp that they were in line for a roster spot. Rivera was on the bubble and some roster projections had him on the team, so you could kind of see that one coming. However, I was taken aback by Marcus Forston. Seemingly, no one saw this coming, I didn't see a single projection with him on there. This quote by Belichick when asked what Forston did to make the roster really struck me, "It's no one thing or one play or one day, but guys that can earn a spot on the roster do it with consistent performance relative to the competition. He did enough to do that." I think this shows how important consistency is, and how you can make this team without being flashy, as long as you are consistent.

Official Most Hated Player on the Pats: Tracy "I-Single-Handedly-Tried-To-Throw-The-Super-Bowl" White. Why the hell is he on this team? He cannot play a lick of linebacker. I know he is mostly special teams and is one of the core-four guys, but I do not care. He is the stinkiest of anyone (except maybe Tom Brady for that SHIT pass to Welker) for that loss last year. He got burn-citied at every turn. Ugh. GTFO my team. Him and Sergio Brown were the two players I most wanted off the team from last year, and I only half got my wish. Lets hope that there are no injuries to any of the linebackers, because he should not play a single down of defense this year.