State Of New England Patriots: Part 1 Of The Offseason

A lot has happened this offseason for the Patriots. Let's recap... Let's start with the major moves:

Matt Cassel and Mike Vrable traded to the Chiefs for second-round pick.

Shawn Springs and Fred Taylor sign multi-year deals.

Minor deals:

Leigh Bodden, former Patriot Tully Banta-Cain, and Joey Galloway all sign one-year deals.

In usual Belichickian fashion, he signs a couple low risk, high reward type guys. Banta-Cain already knows the system and can fill in right away to help make up for the loss of Vrable. Bodden and Springs add to an incredibly young and inexperienced secondary and Taylor and Galloway bring more power to an already unstoppable offense when Brady is 100 percent.

Now the next step is the draft. The Patriots have four picks on the first day of the draft, and five picks on day two. Like every other offseason, predicting what BB does is like predicting what Mike Tyson will do next.

We don't know what he will do with the day-one picks. There have been rumors that the Pats are talking about trading the 32nd pick that they acquired from the Chiefs for Cassel and Vrable to the Panthers for Julius Peppers.

At first when I first heard this I thought it wasn't a bad idea, but as I thought about it I changed my mind on this trade. Vince Wilfork, Richard Seymour, Logan Mankins, and Stephen Gostkowski are all going to be free agents next year. If you spend the picks to get Peppers you will need to pay him also.

When I say pay him I mean more than Tom Brady, no one gets paid more than Brady. Not Moss, not Thomas, not anyone on that roster.

If we want to keep any of the upcoming free agents, Peppers cannot be in the mix even though next year is going to be an uncapped year. There are other options that we can fill in as the replacement for Vrable.

Jason Taylor is still on the street, Shawn Crable is a good player that they drafted last year in the draft. There is still this year's draft, that can do the job like a Aaron Mabyn, Larry English, or Clay Matthews Jr.

Right now I feel like the Patriots are a pass rusher away from making another serious run at the Super Bowl. If all goes like the Patriots want in terms of personnel moves they will be lifting another banner in Foxboro. If all fails I think they are still a playoff team and a Super Bowl contender as long as Brady is healthy.