Thursday, October 14, 2010
I'm Not Randy
He is not here to replace Randy Moss, nor should anyone expect him to. Deion Branch is merely a piece of the puzzle in which Bob Kraft has put together. Branch has never been the deep threat that Randy Moss is, nor is he of the Hall of Fame caliber which, Moss seems destined to be. But the thing about Deion Branch, is that he has heart and he knows how to be an effective wide receiver in the Patriots passing game. Earlier in this decade as the Patriots were in the midst of their championship years, Branch was selected in the second round of the 2002 NFL Draft. Who would have known that the player drafted out of the University of Louisville would be such a dynamic player in the key years of the Patriots playoff runs. Branch played in 2 of the Patriots 3 Super Bowls, gaining MVP honors in the 2004 Super Bowl XXXIX, the first receiver to gain such an honor since the 89' Super Bowl. However at the end of his tenure, Branch and the Patriots hit a snag in the talks of his contract. So at the beginning of the 2006 season when Branch heldout of training camp, the Patriots made the move to send him to Seattle for a first-round draft pick in the 2007 NFL draft, which subsequently became Brandon Merriweather. When Branch went to Seattle he spoke to Belicheck a few times over the course of the year, he says he didn't leave on a bad note so he never had hostile feelings toward New England. While in Seattle Branch was plagued by injuries which sidelined him for a total of 14 games over his 4 seasons there. He did, however manage to be near the top in receptions, with Seattle each season he was active. Although his totals in Seattle were nowhere near as productive as his totals in New England, he hopes that his move back to the Patriots will be a new spark for his career. Branch hopes to learn the system in time to play this weeks matchup against the Ravens, although he says that it hasn't changed drastically since his years under Charlie Weis' schemes. He hopes that he has shown enough in practice that he will be given the chance to prove himself on the gridiron this Sunday. The Patriots have high hopes that Branch, as a veteran will be wiser and use his acquired knowledge and experience in the league to be successful, that's why they gave the former Super Bowl MVP another chance here in New England, another chance to show his talent, and another chance to be himself: Deion Branch.
Deion Branch, #84 WR New England Patriots
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Some more advice?: Lose the idioms and clever phrases, and don't spend so much time summarizing stuff I don't care about. Deion Branch has "another chance to show his talent, another chance to be himself: Deion Branch"? No shit he'll be himself. That's the way life on planet earth operates. Secondly, do you think I care that Branch was drafted out of Louisville in the 2nd round? Not all that much. Also, you don't have to summarize his entire career here, since you can assume that Boston area fans know him reasonably well. A short catch up is all you need. You gave me half his Wikipedia page, though. I'll go buy his bio if I need it. Tell me something that matters!
ReplyDeleteDoes Branch even matter that much? Well, a little. The Patriots are clearly trying to move from the 4-wide, stretch the field offense they've had since 2007, when Moss arrived. During the Pre-Moss era, the NE offense was based more of the short pass game, using all receivers, utilizing quick slants, bubble screens, short curls, etc. If you look at the early weeks with Moss, they weren't going deep to him nearly as often as in past years (Possibly because they lacked another speedy WR to stretch the whole field, a-la Dante Stallworth). The passes he was catching were more of the comeback, curl variety, which doesn't let him use his open field speed, which he's known for. He was a great WR still, but the Patriots were not using him to his full potential, and thus he was not as valuable to them as previously.
Branch won't put up Moss numbers. He won't even put up pre-Seattle Branch numbers. He's a good PR move to show the fans that the front office hasn't given up yet, and he'll help Tate, Welker, and Hernandez get open a little more. If his name wasn't Deion Branch we wouldn't be making a third of the noise we are about this trade, but it will be interesting to see how the offense changes in the coming weeks.
9 catches 98 yards 1 touchdown sounds pretty productive to me...
ReplyDeletealso moss went from being 3-1 with a extremely good chance of making the playoffs and competing to being on a team that is 2-3 and will have to battle for the rest of the year to even think about playing in january
correction 1-3
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