Picking Up the Pieces: Analyzing the New England Patriots' Offseason

Handling: B                                                Result: B-

Loose Ends: Other notable Patriots free agents who have not been mentioned are wide receivers Donte Stallworth, Kelly Washington, and Jabar Gaffney, long snapper Lonie Paxton, and linebackers Pierre Woods and TJ Slaughter.

Stallworth lost his spot on the depth chart during the season and has signed a 7 year, $35,000,000 deal with Cleveland. Stallworth’s exciting plays after the catch will be missed, but he was expendable.

 Gaffney was a solid contributor for the Patriots who had 36 catches and 5 touchdowns in limited action last year. Kelly Washington was a special teams whiz who blocked two punts last year, he will be given more playing time at wideout next year with Stallworth playing in Cleveland.

 Paxton has been a consistent, albeit unheralded, contributor to New England’s special teams since 2000 and it was nice to see him resign.

Handling: B+                                               Results: Hard to Tell (B-A)

Overall: The Patriots definitely had some holes to fill coming into this year and while most of the loose ends have been tied up, some questions still linger. Samuel’s replacement in the secondary has yet to be found and the Pats’ only linebacker under age 30 is the newly signed Victor Hobson.

The Patriots’ approach to finding the right guys for the team has been fantastic but no truly team changing moves have been made, so the jury is still out as to how the Pats look as a Super Bowl contender next year. 

Handling: A                                                Results: B- thus far

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