As promised, here is the 3rd part of this weekend’s triple-header. I’ll do the predictions at the end as per usual.
So, the biggest news this week was the trade of Randy Moss from the Patriots back to the Vikings for a 3rd round draft pick, helpfully just in time for him to play against the Jets again.
You’d think they could have waited a week.
Trading Randy Moss back to the team where he made his name is something of a double-edged sword for both teams. I’ll do the Patriots first because it’s easier.
The Patriots obviously lose probably the best deep threat WR in the game today, a man who can change a game even if he’s never thrown to (see last week vs. Miami). In my opinion, the best thing he did for the Pats was not catching all those deep balls for TDs, it was stretching the field, commanding double coverage deep, thus opening up the short passing game that New England have thrived in the last few seasons. With no obvious successor to Moss, expect that short game to suffer for the next couple of games, as there will be nobody to draw defenders away from Wes Welker and the two rookie TEs.
The good point is that they get a 3rd round draft pick for a player they would have let go for free at the end of the season. While that’s good in itself, the addition of this pick means the Pats now have 2 picks in each of the first 4 rounds in next year’s draft, meaning they are well poised to draft the team of the future, or trade some of those picks for a viable replacement for Moss (allegedly there have been talks with the Chargers about aquiring the services of Vincent Jackson).
Now for the Vikings’ perspective. After Sidney Rice was ruled out of the first half of the season due to surgery, the Vikings have been without that deep threat reciever that Brett Favre likes. It’s obvious what Moss’s role in this team will be. But will it be enough? Most people so far have assumed that Favre’s poor performance this season is due to not having that deep option and being forced to play short, but what if it turns out to be his ankle? 2 TDs and 6 INT through 3 games is not the sort of thing a new deep man immediately solves. The Vikings have many problems on O-Line and in the secondary, and while Moss will improve the vertical passing game, the Vikings’ issues go much deeper.
So overall, it seems that the Vikings won the trade at this point, but this time next year we could see it in a very different light. If nothing else comes from it, I hope Randy tries to rock his afro again.
My LOOOORRRRD
That’s it for today. Just the preds, then I’m off. See ya!
Jacksonville @ Buffalo
Denver @ Baltimore
Kansas City @ Indianapolis (Yes, I went there)
Green Bay @ Washington
St. Louis @ Detroit
Chicago @ Carolina
Tampa Bay @ Cincinnatti
Atlanta @ Cleveland
New York Giants @ Houston
New Orleans @ Arizona
Tennessee @ Dallas
San Diego @ Oakland
Philadelphia @ San Francisco
Minnesota @ New York Jets
