So Tired Of The Patriots Love

I've been banging my head against the red zone stuff for a week now and it's still not there.  I may have to put it aside for awhile and move on to the defense.

Anyway, I was trolling the intergoogle for interesting items and came across the 1,117,896th stupid article about how smart the Patriots are. 

Look, we get it.  The Patriots are a great organization.  The biggest factor in their success is the fact that they lucked into a sixth-round pick who ended up being one of the two best QBs of his generation, but that doesn't change the fact that they've done a lot of other smart things too.

But I'm very, very tired of reading about how their moves are always so smart and noble and everyone else is always the idiot piece of, um, garbage. 

The Patriots have a franchise QB who may or may not be healthy by September.  They've got a backup who played pretty well in his absence, but who happens to be a free agent this summer. 

Why is it some kind of stunningly genius move to slap the franchise tag on the dude?  Isn't that what, oh, 30 other teams would do in that situation?  (The Lions would figure out some way to screw it up.)

"Oh look, the Patriots successfully filed the paperwork to franchise Matt Cassel!  Let us all bow down to their unbelievable ability to use a %$#@ fax machine!!!"

Further things I did not like about that article:

Is anyone really going to be dumb enough to give up multiple high draft picks for Matt Cassel?  Sure, his numbers were decent last year, but the guy was handed the keys to the most unbelievable offensive machine I've ever seen. 

Quick comparison:

 

Yeah, so maybe he's not quite Tommy Frackin' Brady just yet.  Moron.

Context is everything.  Last year Cassel was in perhaps the most QB-friendly environment anyone could possibly create.  How, exactly, would that prepare him to play in Detroit?

If the Patriots hoodwink some other idiot franchise into turning over the top of their draft for this guy...

Could we have some consistency please?  So there's this:

They insist New England has a sound plan behind its decision to place a franchise tag on Matt Cassel, who soared to prominence in 15 starts after Tom Brady suffered a season-ending knee injury in the 2008 opener. Cassel's newfound wealth -- he has accepted a one-year tender offer guaranteeing him $14.65 million in 2009 -- won't impede the team's ability to pay other important players or stay in the hunt for another Super Bowl.

And then this:

The interesting challenge would come after the 2009 season, when 22 New England players are scheduled to become free agents. That list includes big names such as defensive end Richard Seymour, nose tackle Vince Wilfork, linebackers Tedy Bruschi and Mike Vrabel, offensive guards Logan Mankins and Stephen Neal, running back Kevin Faulk, cornerback Ellis Hobbs and kicker Stephen Gostkowski.

Look at that list of upcoming free agents.  Tell me the $15 million the Patriots are currently on the hook for to Matt Cassel wouldn't come in handy right now to start talking extensions with some of those guys.  You're talking about some seriously good players right there.  By all means, keep the guy who couldn't beat out Matt Leinart for the USC job instead.

The Cleveland Browns?  I understand that the clear intent of this article appears to be stroking some Patriots sources by making it very, very clear that the Pats are QUITE HAPPY TO PAY CASSEL ALL THAT MONEY THANK YOU and that there are just oodles of teams waiting to trade for him, but why are the Browns on that list?  Their problem is that they have too many quarterbacks, not too few.  I don't even like Brady Quinn and I'm going to be surprised if he's not a lot better than Cassel in three years.

Doesn't this seems sort of dick-ish?  By the way, we're totally assuming this is Mike Lombardi:

According to the former NFL cap manager, who also requested anonymity, New England is prepared to handle the consequences of having nearly $30 million of its cap devoted to quarterbacks (Brady's cap figure is $14.62 million) because it has streamlined the salaries of front-office personnel. That allows for greater availability of cash to be spent over the cap, even though contracts are compliant with the actual cap total.

Um, streamlined?  What exactly does that mean? 

Aren't the Patriots one of the richest organizations in the game?  Don't they have significant bonus payments to make pretty much every year? 

   "Sorry, Janice the Nice Lady In Marketing, times are kind of tough and stuff what with the economy and all this franchise tag business, so we're going to need to streamline your salary for awhile?"
   "You're forcing me to take a paycut?"
   "We prefer to call it streamlining."

Smart guys.