Day 2: Draft Picks, and Moss Becomes a Patriot!

NFL Network’s Adam Schefter a 4th round pick for WR Randy Moss deal is pretty much admitting this deal is all but done! Moss is in Foxboro today to undergo a physical!
If this deal goes through it is amazing to imagine the Patriots use their 2007 2nd and 7th rounder to pick up Wes Welker from Miami and only have to give up a 4th to the Raiders for a top guy like Moss!
I am sure his contract will be loaded with incentives for Moss to be the poster boy of perfect in New England and possible similar to the structure of the contracts the Patriots offered WR Donte’ Stallworth and WR Kelley Washington.
I think Peyton just pooped his pants and Dungy will need to start finding replacements for Nick Harper and Jason David.
This is a huge day for Patriot Nation after hours of waiting during Day 1 to only take S Brandon Meriweather and then watching the other Day 1 picks traded for Day 2 and Day 1 2008 choices.
So the Patriots started the first with 10 picks and still ahve 10 picks to work through 2007, plus in 2008 a first rounder from San Fran and a 3rd rounder from the Raiders.
Day 2 Picks:
4th Round – 11 (110 overall), 28 (127)
5th Round – 34 (171)
6th Round – 6 (180), 28(202), 34 (208), 35 (209)
7th Round – 1 (211), 28(238), 37 (247)
Beth’s Take:
Um.
Well?
I guess “skeptical” would be the kindest word for me to use to describe my first reactions here. On the one hand, getting a wide receiver of Randy Moss’s considerable natural talents for a fourth round draft pick and (presumably) short dough is a nice move. On the other hand…
Randy Moss’s “character issues” are well known. And it’s not just the off-field character issues; it’s his admissions in the past that he “skips” plays if he doesn’t feel like playing for reasons ranging from not getting the ball enough to just plain not feeling like it. That’s what has me worried about Moss, and has had me arguing to anyone who brought it up over the last few years (ever since he left Minnesota) that the Pats might get him that he would never come here, and if he came here, he wouldn’t make it here.
Well. Now he’s here.
I believe in Bill Belichick and I believe in his system. I believe that he knows what he’s doing with this move. But I’ll admit at this juncture I don’t understand. How is it we dropped Terry Glenn like a bad habit once and just now acquired Moss? Is Belichick turning into Bill Parcells? Is New England about to become another home for lost boys as Parcells’ teams have become? Was the Corey Dillon experience enough to convince Bill that he can tame the likes of Moss?
Maybe there’s another dimension to this we can’t see yet. If this was baseball, I’d wonder if Moss would be flipped to another team for something the Patriots really wanted, but I don’t know that they make trades like that in football too often. Maybe they’ll bring in Moss and make him a punt returner for a season, just to let him know who’s in charge. Maybe being irrelevant in Oakland for a while has made Moss ready to behave.
All I know is, right now, I’m still startled when I see the name next to a Patriots logo on ESPN’s draft ticker. I will admit, I have my doubts.
P.S. Check out an interesting take on the Moss acquisition at the inimitable Cold, Hard Football Facts.† Boston.com also has a message board up for Pats fan to weigh in.