I'll leave the tired Christmas morning cliches for my friends in the print media but honestly, today was a pretty special day to be a fan of the New England Patriots.
When I woke up, they had acquired Albert Haynesworth. A move that I hadn't heard one whisper about, which is saying something with the proliferation of Twitter.
This afternoon, they made a much less surprising but I think better overall move as the Pats shipped two late-round picks (1 in 2012, 1 in 2013) to the Cincinnati Bengals for Chad Ochocinco.
I say this wasn't a surprise since Chad and Patriots head coach Bill Belichick have had an almost disturbing mutual affection for each other since the Pro Bowl a couple seasons ago. Before a preseason game two years ago, mics caught them verbally smooching each other and then they gave each other tongue baths before their teams met for real last season.
"It became a relationship beyond a football player and coach," Ochocinco said last September before the Bengals faced the Patriots. "He became a friend of mine.
"He's one that I look up to tremendously. One who I've never played for but who I share the same respect for as if he was my own head coach."
Belichick returned the compliment.
"It's an odd couple," Belichick said at the time, drawing some laughter from media members. "But in the end, I think we have a lot of things in common.
"I like Chad. I like him as a player, I like him as a person. I like his enthusiasm and the fun he has in football, and how he competes on the football field."
Ochocinco (please go back to Johnson) has never been my favorite player by any means since he has always been a cartoon character. When the Bengals were on Hard Knocks a few years ago, that sealed it. He tried way too hard to be funny and different. However, the main difference between him and Haynesworth is that Chad loves football when it gets down to it. He's very durable (16 games in 7 out of 10 years), he goes hard and most importantly, he makes big plays.
His talent went mostly wasted with a terrible franchise but he's going to have a huge impact immediately this season for Tom Brady and the Patriots already vaunted passing game. He adds the deep threat that they lacked after they kicked Randy Moss out of town last season after four games.
Chad signed a three-year deal with the Patriots; he was due to make $6.35 million for the Bengals this season but the Patriots want him to restructure that.
Bottom line is that this is a very low risk for New England. Ochocinco always dreamed of playing for a winning franchise and one of the greatest coaches in NFL history. At 33, he should still have something left in the tank. This is a six-time Pro Bowler who had seven 1000-yard seasons (the Pats didn't have any last year). He has over 10,000 career yards (10,783) and 66 touchdowns but he's never made a deep playoff run.
What better place to come than New England? Besides Belichick, he will line up with the best quarterback in the NFL and a team that has serious Super Bowl aspirations. I'd say pick him up for your fantasy team this season but Pats homers will be all over him way too early. Regardless, Chad Ochocinco is a nearly perfect fit for this team at this point in time.
Follow @RichSlate
Tweet
No comments:
Post a Comment