Has the Whole World Gone Crazy?

I have intentionally been avoiding any post about the recent release of Roosevelt Colvin from the Patriots because when I first heard the news my first instinct was to find a cat and drown it in a 55 gallon drum full of water. So, I waited. I have written countless times on this blog that I have total confidence in the Patriots front office but when I heard the news about Colvin, that confidence more than wavered; it got up and took a shit on the carpet.

Over the past 24 hours or so I have had time to give this some thought, and I have come up with two possible conclusions. They are as follows:

1) The Patriots are smarter than everyone else, even me. Or...

2) The Patriots are so angry from the Super Bowl loss that they are embarking on a self destructive path to inevitable death.

To help me illustrate these two possible scenarios I will be invoking imagery from two great films, in each instance Scott Pioli will be represented by the main characters for scenario (1) Pioli will be Verbal Kint (played by Kevin Spacey) in The Usual Suspects, and for scenario (2) Pioli will be Ben Sanderson (played by Nicholas Cage) in Leaving Las Vegas. Now, if you haven't seen these films, stop reading now and go rent them. I am ashamed of you.

Here we go:

Pioli as Verbal Kint

And with the 7th Pick, New England selects...

The Patriots seem to be making a lot of poor personnel decisions, letting key pieces of their great team fall one by one (Samuel, Stallworth, Colvin). BUT is there some ulterior motive? Are we getting the whole story? On the surface we see a dynasty beginning to crumble, a perfect plan gone horribly wrong, but if you look closer there is genius hidden in plain sight, we just can't see it yet. Lets take the three names I listed above: Samuel had a high profile holdout prior to last season with one year remaining on his contract. Rather than cave and resign him to a multi year, big number salary (he was, and is the top defensive back available in the NFL right now), the Patriots called his bluff and waited him out. Samuel had to come back and play last season because if he didn't, he wouldn't have gotten paid. Not only that, but he had to play well enough to guarantee that he got that big time contract that he wanted when he became a free agent this year. Any Pats fan who truly believed that Samuel would come back after last season is crazy. This plan gets more genius if and when we see Samuel's production drop off, which it may particularly if he signs with a team that won't be providing him with safety help over the top as the Patriots consistently did.

Stallworth was an excellent third option at wideout this year. He made enough plays, stayed relatively healthy and had no problem adjusting to the Pats system. The kicker is, that as good of a player as he is, the Patriots don't need to spend that much on their third option. Looking back on it now, Stallworth was a perfect insurance policy in case Moss didn't work out for some reason. By dropping his contract off the books the Pats should be able to afford to offer Moss enough money to keep him around for another couple of years, now that they have come to understand his greatness as we here at roomofzen have for many moons. The ultimate fallback for the Pats at wide receiver is that they have Tom Brady (I have argued against using this as a defense of the revolving door of receivers in New England, but the numbers certainly allow you to make this argument), and an offensive line that played great for 18 games last year.

Finally, to get to Colvin. The Pats signed Roosevelt (sick name) to a seven year deal two years ago. All told the deal was worth around 30 million. I love Colvin's game, particularly as it fits into the Pats scheme. BUT, he has proven to be injury prone. The Pats release Colvin now and offer him a new deal, a one or two year job at less money, using his age and durability against him. Pioli gets his guy back, for less money, less time, and everyone has to stop, take a deep breath, and say "holy shit, it was him the whole time! There was no Keyser Soze!" (Sorry to ruin the end, but if you haven't seen it yet then its your fault). Somewhere a cop drops a coffee cup, and the Patriots are on their way to another Super Bowl.

Scenario 2

Pioli as Ben Sanderson

The Patriots have lost everything. Once the pride of the NFL this past season has seen their reputation irrevocably tarnished, and all of their dreams smashed to tiny pieces beneath the cleats of Osi Umenora. They went from being on top of the world to down and out, with nothing to live for. Why should they even go on? Why even bother to care anymore? Depressed beyond belief, Pioli gives up and pulls no punches in destroying himself and everyone around him. He burns all of his ties to the past (Samuel, Colvin, Stallworth) and heads to Vegas to die. Instead of meeting up with a whore (played by Elizabeth Shue in the film) Pioli courts really old middle linebackers (Zach Thomas), alas, nothing can fill the void. In this scenario, the Patriots don't resign Moss, Harrison, Bruschi, and Seau are forced into retirement, we trade our number 7 pick for a backup quarterback like John Kitna and a 5th rounder in 2013, and the Pats get bounced by the Chargers in round one of the playoffs next year, after which Belichick retires and Brady quits to take up modeling full time. Everyone watching feels helpless and depressed as well, and wonders why they sat down to watch in the first place.

Which Scott Pioli are we seeing right now? That is still up in the air, lets just say, I'm hoping for a (happy) surprise ending.