logoby Scott Benson
scott@patriotsdaily.com

Here’s the first thing I thought about this morning – from the 23rd though the 57th selection in this April’s draft, the Patriots will be on the clock (roughly) every ten picks.

Frankly, I don’t expect this to get much play over the next few days. People seem kind of distracted with something else.

Being idiots.

As an aside, don’t tell me the Patriots Place financial disaster didn’t at least have something to do with this. Saving $19 million in payroll.

Yeah, this frequently happens, teams directing 16% of their salary cap over to debt service for a retail project. It couldn’t be that you completely overestimate Cassel’s value, and Vrabel’s too. It couldn’t be you. No, it’s the retail downturn, and that greedy, uh, owner Bob Kraft. Sharp eye to pick up on that.

It just doesn’t FEEL right. It won’t end well.

Strange. When I heard about the trade, I felt like I’d just had a B-12 shot. I felt years younger – friends asked me if I’d been working out (FYI – actually, I’ve just been coloring my hair).

Are you sure you just don’t have a bug or something?

The Pats will never win a SB with Pees in Power. Its not a feeling but inevitabilty!!!!

This guy sees your “feeling” and raises you “inevitability” – it may be misspelled, but it’s got FOUR frigging exclamation points. Just like that – BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG.

Take your wussy “feelings” and hit the bricks, Mr. Feeley McFeelerson. Now, back to the analysis.

I have to agree, this may go down on slighlty better than the trade the Vikings made “Herschel Walker” to the Cowboys.

Never mind the fact that he doesn’t understand that deal any better than he does this one, and that he mangled the construction of this sentence so badly….what’s with the quotation marks around “Herschel Walker”? Was that an alias or something?

I’ll read Felger for an honest evaluation of the trade.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…..oh, you’re not kidding. Pity. That would have been a really funny line if you were.

I worry that this deal may be revealing just how much of the true architect Pioli was with the Pats, not the Coach. Pioli bested his now nemesis undeniably in each of their first transactions without each other. It’s not a pattern Pats fans should feel confident about. It reeks of panic, fear and non composure and non-balls.

That’s right. If they had any balls, they would have marched into Detroit and said, “listen, you’re taking Matt Cassel in exchange for the first pick in the draft whether you like it or not! And put that money over there in this bag! Move, or I start shooting!” That would have been the ballsy thing to do. It’s what Pioli would have done.

pioli must be laughing his arse the whole day. in bill we trust my bloody arse…

Jesus, what’s with all the arse references? And was the “bloody” really necessary? People are reading this while they’re eating breakfast! Let’s try to elevate here, okay? And for God’s sake, get your arse checked out.

We are cursed. The curse is from Brazil.

Yeah, no kidd…..wait, what?

Never been a big fan of Brady even with all the Superbowls. Enjoyed the team last year the most since the several years ago. Liked Cassel’s demeanor. More my type of team with him at QB. Belichick was different too with Cassel as QB.

“Never been a big fan of Brady even with all the Superbowls.”  This reminds me of a friend of a friend, a former Bledsoe loyalist, who was asked what she thought of Tom Brady as confetti rained down on the close of Super Bowl 36. “I’m not sold yet,” she fumed.

Anyway, this guy enjoyed the team last year – you know, the one that didn’t make the playoffs. It’s “more my type of team.” Oh. Has he got something against playoff games and world championships? Apparently, and according to him, Belichick does too.

The curse guy made more sense. Even if he was Dan Shaughnessy.

This team is toast. Super Bill didn’t make the playoffs this year and won’t next. Boo-Boo Brady will cmome back and play scared. Now that he’s a married man he doesn’t want to get re-injured and spend all his time hanging around while his wife works all over the world.

Women weaken legs. Especially celebrity women. Unless they’re actresses from Massachusetts. Everybody knows that.

Should have traded Brady (would have gotten much more) and kept Cassel. Good night, fans.

I enjoy the folks who would prefer to trade the more valuable player. Because they never catch themselves and say, “hey, if the rest of the league would rather have Brady than Cassel, wouldn’t the Patriots rather have Brady too?” No, they just keep insisting the smart thing to do would be to trade the better player, because you can get more for him!

With thinking like that, you’re going to need it. Good night, ‘BostonBobBlowhard’.

They essentially GAVE away 2 great players for nothing. They could’ve cut them and accomplished pretty much the same. Scot Pioli on the other hand..you get an A+ for making the Patriots look like fools…No matter WHAT the end result is or will be.

If they’d only taken that path, this guy could have gotten behind them. But getting the 34th pick in the draft in the exchange is just an insult to our intelligence.  No matter WHAT the end result will be.

Simply put if they could have goten the 12th pick for Cassells then this is a horrible trade. While I believe they will get value at the 34th pick I believe the 12th pick would have had much more value. I cant fathom the reasoning on this deal.

Which surprises me, because you were so good with the 12th is better than the 34th thing. Think about this, though – if they could have gotten the first pick in the draft, then the 12th would have been a horrible trade too. Blows your mind when you think about it that way, doesn’t it?

Have you ever just stared at your hand? I mean, really stared at it?

If they intentionally took 34 instead of 19 to save money, that’s inexcusable.

You know what’s inexcusable? Its not so much that you’re convinced that the Patriots turned down a better deal even though its Chris ‘Oops’ Mortensen fabricating reporting it, it’s that you haven’t yet realized – after eight years – that building a whole football team is juuuuuuust slightly more complicated than “19>34”.

This trade is the biggest mistake in franchise history. Vrabel is old but he is a leader and arguable the best player on defense with at least 2 great years left.

‘Arguable’ the best player on defense if you don’t count Vince Wilfork, Ty Warren, Richard Seymour, Jerod Mayo, Adalius Thomas, and for awhile last December, both Junior Seau and Rosevelt Colvin. I know, I’m splitting hairs.

He’s a ‘leadah’, though. Think about it – who’s going to handle the pitchin’ staff if they don’t resign Tek?

Oh, you weren’t finished….

JUST BECAUSE WE WON 3 SUPER BOWLS AND MADE A LOT OF GOOD MOVES DOESN’T MEAN WE WON’T MAKE HUGE MISTAKES IN MANAGEMENT TOO! BELICHICK GETS AN F

I also love the people who think they’re performing a public service by reminding people – frequently – that despite the three championships, four AFC titles, and six playoff appearances over the last nine years, BELICHICK MAKES MISTAKES TOO!

Yep, by my count (regular season winning percentage since 2000), he makes a mistake about 29% of the time. Good point, though. Most people would have just focused on the 71%.

Fools. Blind fools!

This is the first and last time I will ever say this…I wish Borges still worked for the Globe today.

This is the funniest of all, because some Mike Reiss readers (where these comments came from) feel as though Mike isn’t being objective in his coverage (meaning he hasn’t taken hostages yet). Meanwhile, this morning in the Herald, Borges opines that Belichick just stuck Pioli with Scott Mitchell and a washed up linebacker who isn’t worth what he gets paid.

Ha! Pwned!

This is the surest sign yet that it’s time to get away from the computer for awhile.