Patriots Add Another Gronk & Linebacker Plus Cut Butler & Warren

The 2011 NFL regular season officially kicks off tomorrow night as the New Orleans Saints visit the defending Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field, a truly delicious opener.

There's a full slate of games on Sunday and our own New England Patriots travel to Miami on Monday night in the first part of a Monday Night Football doubleheader (Broncos-Raiders in the dog's breakfast second game).

With that in mind, the clock is running out for the Pats to make roster moves before Monday but they're still putting in full days and nights at Gillette Stadium in anticipation of what should be a great season.

Yesterday, New England released cornerback Darius Butler and signed linebacker A.J. Edds, who was waived by the Dolphins in the preseason.

Today, the Pats released defensive lineman Gerard Warren and made official something that everybody knew this weekend thanks to Twitter and the Gronkowski brothers' love of the social media tool: tight end Dan Gronkowski joins brother Rob as New England signed the former Bronco.

Seeing Butler leave was not a surprise at all and Ryan will have more thoughts on that in a subsequent post. Like Brandon Meriweather before him, his time with Bill Belichick had run out. Drafted only two years ago out of UConn, Butler has plenty of physical talent (who doesn't in the NFL?) but he regressed last season when the team needed him to step up.

This season with Devin McCourty, Leigh Bodden, Kyle Arrington ahead of him, not to mention Antwaun Molden and rookie Ras-I Dowling waiting in the wings, Butler would have never seen the field. The Carolina Panthers picked him up and he could flourish there for a team that has nowhere to go but up.

Bringing in Dan Gronkowski, drafted by the Lions and traded to Denver last September, fills a glaring hole for the Patriots who were only carrying two tight ends (Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez). Dan, who went to the University of Maryland, is known more as a blocking tight end so basically he'll be a younger, cheaper, white Alge Crumpler (without the resume). Plus, the comic possibilities with him and his brotastic brother will be endless. The clubs and bars in New England have been put on notice.

Seeing Warren leave doesn't come as a shock either since the defensive line is one of New England's deepest positions. He is one of Belichick's favorites though so he could be a guy that comes back during the season when somebody gets hurt. You can never have enough big fatsos that know the playbook and can come in with little to no adjustment period.

Finally, Edds is an unknown commodity. He was drafted in the fourth-round in 2010 out of Iowa (teammates with Patriots rookie linebacker Jeff Tarpinian) by Miami but missed all of last season after tearing his ACL in training camp.

For what it's worth, he led the Dolphins with 18 tackles and a sack this preseason. He gives New England more linebacker depth (one of their shakiest positions) and who knows, since Belichick's boy Kirk Ferentz coaches Iowa, maybe he gave him a hot tip on his former player. Edds can play outside and inside linebacker while also being a long snapper. I can guarantee that he'll be all over special teams on Monday (if he suits up) so you can impress your friends by reading this post and dropping a little knowledge about New England's newest anonymous player.

Follow @RichSlate


Tweet

Well there goes the 1% chance of the Patriots doing anything in the playoffs

On the first Patriots drive yesterday afternoon at Houston's Reliant Stadium, New England wide receiver Wes Welker planted to make a cut and his left knee buckled. He was down for a long time with the trainers, Tom Brady and Randy Moss huddled around him, slowly went to the sidelines and finally was carted off to the locker room.

And with that, the Patriots' Nicole Richie thin Super Bowl chances completely bit the dust.

The Texans (9-7) were down 27-13 in the fourth quarter and rallied to win 34-27 but that ended up being completely irrelevant since the Texans still didn't make the playoffs and New England (10-6) got the number 3 seed in the AFC thanks to the Bengals' diaper full of Indian food performance last night at the Meadowlands.

The Patriots host the Ravens next Sunday at Gillette, 1pm.

The million dollar question heading into the regular season finale was how much would Tom Brady and the other Patriots stars play? If you've been paying attention the last decade, you'd know that Bill Belichick hates to sit key players, at any time. Regardless of how crazy that may seem.

As it turned out, Belichick wasn't even sure what to do yesterday since Brady played until late in the second quarter, was pulled for Brian Hoyer and then started the second half and played most of the second half. And what was the point? Seeing Welker get hurt (albeit on a freak accident, a non-contact play) reminded everyone of the sheer brutality of football.

With no bye week and no depth at receiver, wouldn't it make sense to give Brady and Moss the rest of the day off? Apparently not. You can say Brady had to work in a game situation without Welker but I'm not buying it.

Julian Edelman (10 catches, 103 yards), the man who will have to fill in for Welker, did an admirable job but can he be counted on in the playoffs?

The Texans scored on their opening drive as Matt Schaub (303 yards, 2 touchdowns) threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jeff Dreessen.

Fred Taylor tied it up with a four-yard touchdown run. Stephen Gostkowski gave New England a 10-7 lead in the second quarter with a 51-yard field goal.

The Patriots' defense made a goalline stand but on the next play Taylor fumbled in the endzone and former Chief great Bernard Pollard (who ripped up Brady's knee) recovered the ball in the end zone for a touchdown.

Gostkowski tied it before the half with a 43-yard kick.

Rookie cornerback Darius Butler made the play of the game in the third quarter as he corralled a tipped pass and returned it 91 yards for a score.

When Taylor had an 11-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter, it looked like the Patriots might win a road game against a decent team.

Jacoby Jones' 8-yard touchdown catch from Schaub cut it to 27-20 Patriots and rookie running back Arian Foster (20 carries, 119 yards) took over with a 1-yard score and a 3-yard touchdown.

The last Texans touchdown was made possible by a terrible interception from Brady. Pressured by Mario Williams, Brady threw it up for grabs to Sam Aiken.

Going into the Texans game, I was feeling good that the Pats could win their home playoff game and then give the Colts and maybe even the Chargers a scare in the next round. Now, I'm not sure what to think. It's been a terribly disappointing season with one distraction and costly mistake after another.

Since I'm going to the Ravens game (my first playoff action), I'm simply hoping for a win and then we'll worry about the next step.