new england patriots

Back during the 2007 and 2008 seasons an ESPN messageboard poster with the handle “NEInsider” made 14 posts purporting to be someone from within the Pats organization. Though the validity of his claims was fodder for messageboard debate, his posts were like crack to Patriots fans. Even to Pats-obsessors like me, it seemed like at least on the surface the posts could be for real.

We’ll never know for sure if he was legit or not, but he certainly had an interesting point of view on the Patriots. I took his posts as face value entertainment. Looking back now some of them were certainly way wrong. Like his predictions about Terrence Wheatley and Shawn Crable:

As I said on draft day believe me when I re-iterate that Wheatley is also potentially special. Another kid with off the charts intangibles and hands down the best change of direction from back pedal of any DB in the draft. Forget about his height. he played an entire game after a metal rod “broke” in his wrist. Super smart kid and a really good kid. Great man coverage and understands defense.

Crable is my favorite in the draft. No kid has ever come from tougher circumstances and made it. Another very smart kid. If you want a reason why Loyd Carr needed to be fired at Michigan this kid is it. A boatload of talent coached “down” . he has the ideal size, speed, and length to play outside and he wants to be the best. He will get the coaching he deserves here.

Although he certainly nailed Jerod Mayo:

Mayo was the player targeted from day one. He blew us away in the on-site inerview. This kid is super smart, tough, flexible, and loves the game and a very high charater kid. His football smarts are off the chart as are his intangibles and leadership. This kid NEVER takes a play off and during the interview process actually made suggestions and observations on sets we run that raised Bill’s eyebrows.

The trade was set up yesterday as Mayock just mentioned on NFL network. You will notice that ESPn had no interview with Bill but the NFL network did. ESPN asked and is still basically begging for Bill or Scott. Mayock and Bill have always been close and he has been the only guru Bill enjoys talking with. Mayock is highly respected around here.

A good deal of his other posts were about Spygate stuff. If you want to read what he had to say I suggest you hit up the link at the bottom of this article because there’s a moratorium on all things Spygate related here on the blog. But definitely some truthful points regarding the whole charade, regardless if NEInsider was really an insider or not. If you’re a rational, intelligent person who saw Spygate for the witch hunt that it really was then you’ll certainly like hearing an insider Patriots take whether it’s fabricated or not. Let’s just say ESPN gets hammered.

But what I found most interesting in hindsight was what he had to say below about the trade of Mike Vrabel, a move that has perplexed me more than just about any other during the Belichick regime.

Like many of his posts this one seems to be a pretty good explanation of why Vrabel was moved, though questions still remain in my mind. And unfortunately the signings of Fred Taylor and Chris Baker that they used Vrabel’s cap space for both ended up as busts. Still, an interesting take…

Vrabel will always be revered as long as i am involved in football but we needed to clear the cap. There was no desire to cut mike but his play had slipped and with bruschi, guyton, mayo he was not going inside. Kc stepped up and took him on friday for the proverbial pick to be named later which was really cap space or cash to us. Great move for kc since he will help them and a better move for us since we freed up the money to immediately sign taylor and baker. It was a win-win and was really separate from the cassel trade but was done with a belief the cassel trade would follow. Mike knew what was going on every second and was imho not upset at all because in essence mike will be the 3-4 coach on the field for kc which is what he has always wanted to be. The paperwork was at the nfl on friday signed and agreed to since mike passed his physical it was finalized. When cassel was traded we tidied up the pick to be named later by linking it to the #2 on saturday. There never was going to be a pick later. Kc did us a big favor here. Reese did an amazing job with bill during this entire process and has already eased the loss of someone as important as scott.

NEInsider hasn’t posted again in a few years now. Maybe he got canned from the Pats or got a “cease and desist” from BB. Or maybe he was just some knowledgeable Pats fan who got bored making stuff up. Who knows. But still interesting takes and insight that pass the initial bullshit test for me. I’ll leave it at that, take it for what it’s worth.

Sorry, couldn’t get the links to work, just google “NEInsider” and you’ll find your way to his original posts as well as discussion regarding his posts on PatsFans.com.