Busy week, what with the scouting combine and the mother of all storms. I had travel plans completely fouled up by that blizzard, and ended up getting rebooked on another airline three days later than the day originally scheduled. That led me to ask the simple question: Why do I live here? I blame my parents (isn’t that who we’re always supposed to blame?) Don’t feel too bad for me. I was stuck someplace warm, hence the brilliant tan. Golden god-ish if you ask me. But I did miss my insane dog, so there’s that.
Anyway, thought I’d pull a handful of quotes from this week’s press avails with Eliot Wolf and Mike Vrabel and give you my take.
Wolf on the roster: “We’re going to explore every avenue to try to improve the team. We filled a lot of needs last year, and we’re still building. We have areas that maybe we feel good about the starters, but maybe the depth is not where we want it to be. We have areas where we maybe need to add a starter. So, I think it’s going to be sort of a holistic approach…”
Later, he added, “We’re all aware that we have more work to do on the roster, and so I don’t think that the fact that we made the Super Bowl does anything other than possibly make us a more attractive destination for free agents. So again, we were attractive before because of Drake and because of coach Vrabel, and now that we’ve established a winning culture that we hope we can maintain, it makes us even more attractive.”
– Eliot, you’re making my point (I did that in my best Glenn Ordway voice). This is the message I’ve been passing along to you all year. The Patriots don’t want to use the word “rebuild,” but they had a lot of work to do, especially given how the drafts went in 2022, 2023, and 2024 (with a few exceptions). That they ended up in the Super Bowl didn’t change that. The roster needs work. Maybe less than Wolf (and company) thought coming into this past season, but there are areas of need, and they get their second crack at addressing them during this free agency/draft cycle, and I would argue this is just as important a stretch as it was a year ago, even if they don’t spend nearly the same kind of money.
Wolf on Christian Barmore: “Christian has grown up quite a bit, and we continue to help him with that. And he continues to want to make improvements in that area. So, yeah, he’s continued to improve on the field. He had a little bit of a lull in the middle of the season there. He wasn’t playing quite as well, but kicked it up again at the end, and continues to be a key cog in there for us.”
– If Barmore grew up, I certainly didn’t see it during his interactions with the media. That’s not the be-all and end-all, and I’m not foolish enough to think that it is. The most important thing is how he conducts himself in the building with the coaches, support staff, and teammates. But what I saw didn’t speak to the level of maturity you’re hoping for when you outlay as much cash as the Pats have and will – assuming they don’t move on this offseason.
– Barmore can be a dominating presence on the interior and certainly formed an effective duo with Milton Williams. But there remain
