Boston Sports Then and Now

Aqib Talib wil return to the Patriots in 2013.

Just after 11:45 this morning, Adam Schefter broke the good news that all Patriots fans wanted to hear. After letting one of their “big three” free agents in Wes Welker get away earlier this week, the team has reached an agreement with cornerback, Aqib Talib, on a one-year deal reportedly worth $5 million.

The news comes less than a day after the organization announced they signed five-time Pro Bowl safety, Adrian Wilson, formerly of the Cardinals. He will replace Patrick Chung, who left for Philadelphia.

Bringing Talib back should fortify the Patriots secondary, which struggled mightily last season. Talib’s presence alone was a season-changer for them and he was missed in the AFC championship game after being forced to leave with an injury. He also battled a hip injury during much of his time in New England, but should be good to go for the 2013 season.

As long as he can remain healthy and out of trouble, Talib has shown that he can be a very useful player for the Patriots’ defense. His size as a corner presents matchup problems for opposing receivers and his skill usually puts him against the opposing team’s best threat.

Talib reportedly turned down several multi-years deals the Patriots offered him and stuck with one of the one-year variety.

The team has also met with defensive ends Dwight Freeney and John Abraham with the expectation that they could very well sign one of them – more likely Abraham.

As free agency continues, Talib adds to the list of defensive players signed by the team that includes the aforementioned Wilson and also Kyle Arrington, who they reached a four-year agreement with Friday as well. It has also been reported that the team is close to making an offer to former Steelers receiver, Emmanuel Sanders.They added former Bill, Donald Jones, Friday after the departure of Welker for the Broncos and Danny Woodhead to the Chargers. After a very quiet start to free agency, the Patriots are coming alive.

With Alfonzo Dennard potentially facing jail time for his conviction of assault on a police officer, at least one conrnerback position will be accounted for in 2013. Next priority: Sebastian Vollmer.

Follow me on Twitter @RealAndyLarmand.

It’s almost time for Brady to get off the links and back on field

If you got the opportunity to ask head coach Bill Belichick about potential offseason transactions, his response would be something to the tune of, “There is no offseason”. Voluntary training camp is five weeks away (April 15th) and franchise QB Tom Brady recently freed up some cap space for the Patriots to make a splash in Free Agency. Will New England bring in a high-profile FA? Probably not, but it’s fun to pontificate around the idea.

After losing to Baltimore in a rematch of the AFC Championship this past year, several glaring weaknesses were apparent agains the Ravens. Both Anquan Boldin and Torrey Smith, 6′ 1″ and 6′ 2″ respectively, made the Patriots cornerbacks look like Rahim Moore. Who is Rahim Moore you may ask? The Bronco safety who let Jacoby Jones fly by him to bring the divisional matchup into overtime. Yes, I am exaggerating. No, the Patriots cornerback situation isn’t pretty. Resigning or franchising Aqib Talib is up in the air, especially given his injury history.

Where else can the Patriots find a potential fit? Check out these five free agents (in no particular order) below:

1) S – David Bruton: Josh McDaniels drafted this Notre Dame alumni in 2009 as a 4th round pick. Contributing mostly as a standout special teamer last year, he has played out his rookie contract and is looking to get in the mix. With Devin McCourty, Steve Gregory, Tavon Wilson and Nate Ebner all coming back, Bruton could fit in nicely during sub packages and even on ST. Belichick seems to let McDaniel’s reel in his old friends per last year; however, it can’t come back to bite us like Salas did. New England’s focus on signing/drafting a safety is contingent on the Talib situation. McCourty may not play centerfield all year but you have to have faith that he can turn it around. Regardless, the Patriots need help in the secondary. Is Bruton our guy? Probably not but McDaniels and Belichick do get too comfortable at times…

2) WR – David Nelson: Nothing like stealing another weapon from an AFC East rival… Back in 2010, Belichick gave the 6′ 5″ David Nelson a call after he went undrafted, making him a rookie free agent. Throw him in the mix with Hernandez/Gronk and there is no doubt defenses will struggle against the Patriots in the Red Zone, an area where New England squandered way too many opportunities when it mattered last year. After tearing his ACL in September, this sure-handed receiver may not get as many looks as he should during Free Agency. Buy low!

3) WR – Danny Amendola: Rumors have been swirling for a few weeks now about a final destination come summer time. Analysts have pinned Amendola as a likely replacement for Welker but I don’t think nagging both is out of the question. He does not have the durability or Pro Bowl caliber of Wes but they both thrive in the slot. Amendola has posted some ridiculous lines of double digit receptions in his past few years, a feat Welker achieves in his sleep. Let’s just hope we bring back Welker for the rest of his career.

4) S – Dashon Goldson: During the 2011 offseason the Patriots unsuccessfully tried to sway the physical, 6′ 2″ safety to leave the Bay Area for New England. Wait, who is Dashon Goldson? He’s the starting safety that has only missed two games over the past four seasons for the San Francisco 49ers. Since 2009, he’s also grabbed 14 INT – an impressive feat for a safety. Goldson can provide that intimidating force we have been missing since Rodney stopped using PEDs. While he may be pricey coming off a Superbowl run and incremental exposure, I believe he may be worth the guap.

5) CB – Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie: With good height at 6′ 2″ and 16 career interceptions over 5 seasons, DRC fills a void that bust pick Ras-I Dowling could not. Not only does he add height, but he adds consistent health. Rodgers-Cromartie has missed just three games out of the past eighty over the past five seasons! Although he comes in at a measly 182 lbs for his height, DRC makes up for it with his blazing 4.33 40 yard dash time. Furthermore, DRC finished with 17 pass deflections – good for 7th in the NFL.

Tom Brady on Monday signed a 3 year contract extension which almost guarantees he will retire as member of the New England Patriots. Not only is Tom Brady now locked up until he is 40 years old, but he also restructured his deal, which will benefit the Patriots salary cap greatly.

In the next two seasons Brady’s cap hit will be $15 million less than it was anticipated, and he will have a base salary of $7 million in 2015, $8 million in 2016, and $9 million in 2017 according to Peter King of Sports Illustrated.

The restructured deal proves how much Tom Brady wants to stay in New England and more importantly how much he wants to win at least one more Super Bowl. If you take a look at any other elite Quarterback in the NFL, Tom Brady is being underpaid, but that seems to be because of his love for the Patriots and winning.

Before last season, Peyton Manning signed a 5 year $96 million deal with the Broncos, and that was coming off major surgeries. Tom Brady will now be making about half of what Manning is making per year, and Manning is year older than Brady. (Let’s be honest, Tom Brady probably doesn’t care about money as much as most, since his wife is the highest paid supermodel in the world.)

Tom Brady has always been known as a “Company man,” but he has never proved it as much as now because he has just freed up enough cap space for the Patriots to spend on other players around him. Already the speculation about Wes Welker getting re-signed is swirling. With the cap space the Patriots now have, they should have plenty of money to bring back Welker, and it wouldn’t be surprising if Tom Brady restructured his contract just to have his favorite target back.

For all we know, the Patriots, Welker, and Brady are all working together to make sure this can all get done. With this move, an announcement about Welker in the coming days wouldn’t be a big shocker.

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Who knows when we will next see Alfonzo Dennard in a Patriots uniform.

The secondary has always been a major issue for the Patriots. Belichick and his brain trust have always had some issues in that department, but after the trade to bring in Aqib Talib this season things were looking good. The Talib trade allowed coaches to move Devin McCourty to safety, where he looks much more comfortable, and it opened the door for rookie corner Alfonzo Dennard to make his mark.

Dennard was a 7th round pick out of Nebraska by the Patriots last April, and if it wasn’t for his legal problems he could have been a much higher pick. Dennard proved to be a great cover guy for this defense, which is something that we have been lacking in recent years.

News broke today that Dennard was found guilty of assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest. He was however found not guilty on his assault charges on college student Ben Samani. For those of you that don’t know the back story, Dennard was out celebrating before the NFL draft and a fight broke out at a bar involving Dennard.

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Percy Harvin is being shopped around by the Vikings

Just because the season is over, doesn’t mean the football minds go to rest. In the past few days, the idea of Percy Harvin coming to New England to play with Tom and the boys has taken over the NFL. Harvin has been a very productive player ever since he left Florida and came to the NFL in 2009. He is like a Swiss army knife, the guy can almost do it all. He can run, he can catch, he can return kicks and he is one of the most explosive players in the league right now.

This past year Harvin was plagued by injury, but before hitting the injured reserve he was on pace for an MVP like season. Imagine if the Vikings had two healthy MVP caliber players on that team? Who knows if the 49ers would have been NFC champs. The issue with Harvin in Minnesota is that he and coach Leslie Frazier do not get along too well, so if the Vikings were to cut ties with the wide out it would have to be done through a trade. This could be great for Minnesota because Harvin is a valuable player who could get you something great in return, but if you’re the Patriots this move makes no sense and here’s why.

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It’s time to clean out the house, time to shuffle the faces and time for the 2012 New England Patriots to start looking toward 2013 after they failed to show up in the second half of their embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Ravens in Sunday’s AFC Championship game.

As is the case every year, the team has a host of free agents that they need to make decisions on. Eighteen of their 20 free agents heading into the offseason are unrestricted and if the team doesn’t do anything to lock them up, they could be gone like that.

If the front office is having any trouble, they can just ask me. I’d be glad to help. Here’s my first offseason addition of will they or won’t they. (Hint: Both Wes Welker and Aqib Talib need to be back).

A veteran in the secondary would be good to have, but I don’t see Will Allen making a comeback for the Pats in 2013.

Will Allen: The former first-round pick has had a decent career and certainly could have been able to help in the Patriots secondary this season, but he has played in just 21 games since 2009, missing entire campaigns in both 2010 and 2012. Of course, as he was drafted almost 12 years ago now, age is going to be a question. Would he be able to keep up with the fast and physical tight ends around the league like, oh, I don’t know, Dennis Pitta for instance as a 34-year-old coming off of whatever injury he had. I’m just not sure it would work out like that. I’d cut Allen loose.

Kyle Arrington: Assuming the team does bring Talib back for his first full season, Arrington’s role would be that of a third corner in nickel situations or when injuries occur, like in Sunday’s game when Talib went down. In that game, particularly in the second half, Joe Flacco was pretty much throwing the ball at will with Arrington and Marquice Cole in the secondary. In 2011, Arrington led the league with seven interceptions. In 2012, however, he had zero. If he is okay with his role as a third corner, then I wouldn’t hate to see him brought back in 2013, but for less than the $1.85M he made this year.

Josh Barrett: In the five years since getting drafted out of Arizona St., Barrett has barely touched the turf during the regular season. Though he has shown signs of strong play and intelligence, his consistent ability to get injured has done neither him nor the team any good. Though he should be ready for the 2013 season after a calf injury has held him out for more than a year, he just might be playing it with another team. I’d let this one go too.

Deion Branch: Branch only returned to the team in 2012 following the injury to Aaron Hernandez in Week 1 of the season. He was cut by the team in the preseason. At 33 years old, he isn’t getting any younger. While Tom Brady still trusts him as much as anyone else, Branch had just 29 targets on the season, an indication that even if the team may want him back, he might not be willing. I predict that one way or another, Branch will not be a Patriot for the 2013 regular season. That is, until someone gets hurt.

Patrick Chung: Chung’s play and presence on the field has declined in each of the last two seasons, culminating with him losing his starting safety job to Steve Gregory in 2012 and seeing most of his playing time come on special teams. With both Gregory and Devin McCourty expected back next season, Chung may be the odd man out at safety. He could always be used as a backup and a spot defender, but I think it’s fairly safe to say that he could be a starting safety on a lot of other teams in the league. I wouldn’t be shocked if Chung has played his last game as a Patriot.

Marquice Cole: Aside from being a pretty decent gunner, Cole doesn’t bring much to the table in terms of secondary play. Only used as a defensive back when there were six or seven of them on the field or, like Arrington, when there were injuries, Cole is the kind of player who makes his money on special teams. His speed, particularly utilized at the gunner position, can also be helpful on the coverage teams. If he wants to come back, I’d have no problem seeing No. 23 in blue again next season.

Julian Edelman has been solid, but unfortunately may have played his last game in a Patriots uniform.

Julian Edelman: When Edelman went down with a broken leg on Dec. 2 against the Dolphins, there was talk about that potentially being his last game as a member of the Patriots. Assuming the team does decide to re-sign Welker, Edelman may not be needed or wanted. His real value to the team is in the punt return game and not as a play-making wide receiver. If Welker is lost, which I don’t see happening, then Edelman would appear more likely to return to the team in 2013. I guess it kind of depends on what happens with Wes, but it is very possible that Edelman does not return to the team next season.

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