Three words: Bruins in five.
Hardcore puck-talk next week, I promise. This one’s mostly devoted to the draft, plus the usual hate mail. And sorry, Rob, we’re going to learn more than five things today…
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Felger,
I'm a little disappointed in you; I would have thought the ``Ellis Hobbs Sucks’’ article would have been written and posted by the start of the sixth round, but you didn't get it up on WEEI.com until around 11:00 p.m. on Sunday. Maybe you liked him more than we knew.
Matt
Dedham
A: No, Matt. I had that thing in Bradford’s in-box immediately, but he and his minions buried me (again). I will say that once he finally got around to posting it, he included a fabulous picture of Hobbs jiving at his locker. I could virtually see the words, “Felger is a minimum-level guy” coming out of Ellis’ mouth. Outstanding.
Anyway, I want to make one thing clear about the Hobbs era. I don’t blame him. It’s not his fault he sucks. He just is what he is: A nickel guy and good return man. In fact, I think Ellis worked hard and did everything he could to be a good corner. He just didn’t have the skills. He was a tough, confident kid, but it wasn’t enough. If you want to blame someone, blame the Patriots. They didn’t want to pay for Ty Law or Asante Samuel, and their cornerback acquisitions, both in the draft and free agency, were spotty at best during that period. So Hobbs became the No. 1 corner by default. He didn’t put himself in that role. Belichick put him there.
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Felgy,
I just watched you moan and groan to Tom ``E’’ Curran on the Monday night Comcast show. I generally agree with you, but I think you're off base bitching over the Pats' getting two fifth-round picks for Ellis Hobbs, who was their No. 1 corner and a third-round pick a few years ago. I actually think that is good value for Hobbs considering he was only a serviceable corner, but more importantly he only had one year remaining on his deal, so the Pats weren't dealing from a position over leverage.
On a side note, I was walking through the city a few weeks ago and saw Bert Breer ``training'' for the marathon. I think it's a dead heat between he and Tanguay for the biggest FUP on CSN.
Aaron Burr
A: Fair point on Tanguay and Breer, Aaron.
As for the rest, you misheard me. I never said the Pats didn’t get enough for Hobbs. I said the fact they got so little proved he stunk. And because he was their No. 1 corner, it also proved how bad the entire Pats secondary was last year. I stand by that. The point you make on the contract is a fair one. The Eagles may have him for only a year, which diminished his value. Still, if he could play the Pats would have gotten more.
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Felger,
It’s been about a month since I’ve written into the bag ... So I would just like to say goodbye to Mr. ``point-to-my-balls-even-when-I-get-beat-on-a-pass,’’ aka MR. CROTCH CHOP, aka Ellis Hobbs. Thank god.
Now I have a question about the draft. The Patriots signed Shawn Springs, Leigh Bodden, and James Sanders. They just drafted Brandon Meriweather, Terrance Wheatley, and Jonathan Wilhite. Now they get Patrick Chung and they draft Darius Butler. That is eight relatively new DBs. I know they had one of the worst pass defenses in the league, but do you think this is a tad excessive? Don’t get me wrong. I love their new batch of players, but don’t you think they should have addressed ILB? They have Mayo and Bruschi to anchor that spot. Are they hoping Crable is the man? Why not spend some money on ONE proven vet, in either a trade (Sheldon Brown) instead of spending moderate money on several unproven rookies? Let me know, Felger.
Eric,
Fall River
A: I don’t blame them for throwing a lot of picks at the secondary. It’s a hard position to project (especially for Belichick, it seems), so you better have a lot of fall-back options. Some guys just aren’t going to work out. On the linebacker thing, I agree with you to an extent. I think Tedy Bruschi has been a
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