How Much for that Moss?

This article on ESPN rightly wonders how New England should be willing to pay to keep Moss. They make some good points, namely that it will cost the Pats a lot to sign him to a multi-year deal and that he might be disgruntled and play poorly if they resort to using the Franchise tag on him for all of next year. Then they make some stupid points.

Like why expect New England to re-sign Moss when they didn't re-sign Deion Branch who played big in two Super Bowls. After all, New England lost the Super Bowl with Moss. They also try to claim that New England's all-pass attack was foolish because they lost to New York. They even try to use statistics to justify this by pointing that starting late in the third quarter, New England only average 3.8 yards per pass.

Ah, but when dumb people start quoting statistics, they get themselves in trouble. They don't mention that New England only average 2.8 yards per rush. I mean, if passing the ball is not working, then you should run the ball more, right? Oh if that stinks too ... well I guess you could just punt on first down?

Back to Moss, he was the key to New England becoming the most productive offense in the history of the game. They would be above average without him, but they are the best in the league with him. I am no expert on NFL economics, so I can't say what he is worth. All I know is that as a Dolphins fan, I can just dream that New England lets him go.

Finally, one last parting shot on the Super Bowl. It would be dumb for such a successful team to try to "fix" non-existent problems based on the outcome of one game. New York did what many team tried to do against New England: get pressure on Brady. That is the only way to neutralize a great passing game. This has been common knowledge for decades. It's the Lawrence Taylor effect. So if for some reason New England wanted to "fix" something, then they should look at their O-line and in particular Matt Light. I think Light is fine. He is undersized slightly for an LT. He is going to the Pro Bowl this year for the first time, but that is largely because of New England's success. That's the place to look for "fixes" though, not at WR.