With recent losses, Patriots dealing of Seymour showing its far-sightedness
Never mind head coach Bill Belichick’s fourth-down gambles and his team getting choppy in the final minutes; one can look back no further than to the preseason to a big trade that, though executed with
long term vision, may currently be detracting the now.
For a 2011 first round pick, five-time Pro Bowl defensive lineman Richard Seymour was traded to the Oakland Raiders a week before the NFL’s regular season opener.
With the trade, Seymour, a former sixth overall first round pick by New England in 2001, took his 39 career sacks and 357 total tackles with him.
As his numbers as a Patriot indicates, he was a force to be reckoned with by opposing offenses.
In the Super Bowl seasons, New England was often high in the sack rankings in the regular season. In 2004, the most recent championship, won over the Eagles, the Patriots were tied for third in the NFL with 45 sacks, according to NFL.com.
Now zoom back to the current season, and the numbers aren’t nearly as pretty.
One would have to scroll down all the way to 27th place to find the boys in nautical blue and new century silver, with a total of 19 sacks through 11 games.
Though the Raiders are still throwing around Nerf balls in the dime-store parking lot at 3-8, Seymour has still made an impact for Oakland, tallying up four sacks, a forced fumble and 33 total tackles.
Replaced predominantly in New England by seventh-year Pats veteran Jarvis Green and Mike Wright in his fifth-year as a Patriot, the void still seems evident..
Listed as the starter, Green has only mustered 19 overall tackles, zero forced fumbles or recoveries and an even more noticeable zippo in the sack department.
While Wright has done exceptional in rotation with four sacks, a forced fumble and 23 tackles, the intimating presence Seymour provided still seems missed.
And while it is certainly unfair to put the spotlight on one position and namely Green - he did have solid back-to-back seasons from to 2004-05 where he totaled nearly 12 sacks - it is, to the pain of Patriots fans, more obvious now that Seymour was a big motor for the defensive line as a whole.
In all four of New England’s losses - all road games at the Jets, Denver, Indianapolis and last week at the Saints - the faults were often in the Patriot’s lack of pass-rush.
It’s been an Achilles heel for a squad that, when stacked up against other teams in other defensive categories, stands pretty solid (ninth in the league in total yards, sixth in rushing and tied for seventh in interceptions).
Perhaps the New England front office was so sure they’d get Carolina Panthers defensive end Julius Peppers in the offseason, there was a point of no return for Seymour to stay. And when the Raiders offered what could very easily be a top-ten draft pick in 2011 in exchange for the 30-year old with one-year left on his contract, Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Belichick thought it’d be a safe gamble that they could find another, younger, Seymour-type in the draft like they did in 2001-and they could very well be right.
But, unlike other personnel changes (cough, Deion Branch, Adam Vinatieri, Asante Samuel, cough) it is starting to seem that New England is leaving this base still uncovered.
With the aforementioned moves, the Patriots restocked those positions with Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Stephen Gostkowski, Brandon Meriweather and this year with Leigh Bodden.
But this season, it looks as if it’s one of the rare occasions New England missed an “i” to dot and a “t” to cross.
While the Patriots still look likely to win the AFC East and pull together a play-off win, the defense can sometimes show that it doesn’t run on all cylinders without Seymour’s leadership in the trenches.
Though overall and a few years down the line - or sooner - it may be seen to be as another savvy Patriots move in jettisoning Seymour for younger talent, but it may just be at the expense of 2009.
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