Every single year, the football press manages to convince themselves that this year is different. That this is the year The Hooded One throws away the book he’s spent 35 years writing and goes after and “elite pass rush” specialist who can “get after the quarterback” and “apply pressure.” And every year I remind the world that in his 11 Patriots drafts and 11 free agency periods, he’s never once brought in a guy that fits that description. I run around like the scientist from a Syfy Original Movie, showing everyone the data, laying out my case, telling them to heed my warning. But they still… won’t… listen. Belichick will no doubt look for a guy who can (altogether now) apply pressure. But if he’s not a 5-tooler like McGinest or Mike Vrabel or Jermaine Cunningham, he won’t bother. He’d no sooner bring a 5-11 James Harrison-type and fit him into this defense than he’d outfit a pickup with three truck tires and one wheel off a Mini Cooper.
Amen, Jerry Thornton