PatsBlog: A Patriots Blog

We have officially entered the quietiest time of the NFL schedule.  Nothing is happen, and nothing big will happen until training camp begins late next month.  However, in case you are absolutely dying for anything Patriots related, here are a few things you can expect:

Signing the Rooks

Over the next month, the Patriots will attempt to sign all of their rookies (the only one signed is Matt Slater, who signed a four year contract earlier this month).  It will interesting (actually, not really), to see if the Patriots can get all of the rookies under contract before camp, or if there will be a holdout.  If there is a holdout, it will more than likely be Jerod Mayo, who is certainly expecting (or hoping) for top 10 money.

Tweaking the Roster

When the Patriots sign their rookies, they will need to release other players to make room for the rookies who currently do not count against the roster limit.  That means the Patriots will work to tweak the roster.  Maybe a couple of trades for conditional draft picks, obviously some cuts, etc.

And even though the Patriots will be looking to trim the roster, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Patriots made some additions as well.  There is always Ty Law, who seems to be waiting it out until training camp.  The Patriots will hopefully still resign Junior Seau, as many expect.   Also, the Patriots may be interested in an additional offensive lineman, tight end (Fauria?), or running back (Kevin Jones?).

Hearing More About Spygate

Yes, of course, not that I’m really looking forward to it.  Specter claims he is finished with it, then he says he’s not.  And the NFL states they will enforce more punishment if anything new were to come up.  Same story.  I’m sick of it.  We can face the facts.  Unless there is a dramatic turn of events, Spygate is over.  Fans will always look at the Patriots as cheaters, nothing can change that.  There will always be a blemish on the Patriots history, the justification of that blemish is irrelevant.  I just hope that the NFL can look into the “videotaping procedures” of other teams as well.

Pre-Camp Previews and Speculation

These are always fun.  I’ll be doing a position by position training camp preview starting July 5th, so you can look forward to that (I guess).  Other than that, it’s all speculation.  Speculation for the season, speculation for the players… I just can’t wait till September.

I’d like to take this opportunity in my return to the blog, to congratulate the Celtics on their championship, they make all of Boston proud.  Welcome to the brotherhood of Boston teams with recent championship rings! 

The Patriots are in good shape to maintain the championship-winning ways that Bostonians now expect.  So far there haven’t been any team-crippling departures short of asante samuel and Rosie Colvin.  It’s hard to doubt Coach Belichick going into any year these days.  He hasn’t truly disappointed since, conceivably, the 2002 season of the post-superbowl hangover season.  Maybe we will have a 2002-type season because of the bitter end to the 2007 season, a la New York Mets’ 2007 collapse leading into this week’s firing of Mets manager Willie Randolph.  But I don’t think this is a likely scenario.

The other question raised by the Celtics’ win:  Does this futher hurt fans’ wounds from the Superbowl loss?  After all, if the Patriots had won the Superbowl it would be an unprecedented Trifecta of Titles.  But, personally, I think the Pats have already done their part for greatness with the undefeated regular season, a very unique feat, with those 70’s Dolphins as the only other example.