Felger & Mazz On: The Post-Moss Patriots
[photogallerylink id=46616 align=right]Felger and Mazz reflected on Randy Moss' past antics, and what this means for the short- and long-term future of the Patriots.
Felger: "Here is the bottom line for me – the Patriots are going to the AFC championship game now. They are a better team now. I'm not saying there won't be any problems in between. There will be some games where they will miss Randy Moss. But when it matters- in a tough, cold, playoff game- they will be more productive. Tom Brady won three championships without that guy. He was effective offensively without Randy Moss. I think Bill has a short fuse this year, and rightly so. At the end of the day, Bill Belichick agreed with me – Randy Moss is more trouble than he is worth. You don't trade a guy with those types of skills unless there are serious issues on the outside. The Patriots did not do this for value or money."
Mazz: "There are fans that think this trade will devastate the team– I don't feel that way. I didn't think they were going to the AFC title game or the Super Bowl with him, let alone without him. This is strictly a long-term move. But in the short-team, I don't see how they are a better football team… Are you telling me that [2010 third-round pick] Taylor Price is going to be able take two guys down the field like Randy Moss does? I think this has been ongoing for some time, and that Moss expressed a desire to be somewhere else when they told him early on they were going to do things differently this year. I'm not heartbroken about this because I don't think he was the piece that was going to put them over the top anyway. So basically this was a dump, if there weren't anyone out there to trade him to, they would have cut him."
