New England just signed former Dolphin WR, Brandon Gibson, to a 1-year deal. Let's hope this comes at the expense of Aaron Dobson and/or Josh Boyce, not Amendola...
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com...randon-gibson/
Leonardfan said:
They will be interesting to follow. I think Kelly will keep a pretty white roster. His worst decisions have all been at the qb postion. He may have a little too much faith in his system and was not able to recognize how good Foles was. This draft will tell us a lot.
I am am also surprised the Patriots have not met with klug yet as Wilfork is gone and Bellichek likes versatile dlinemen.
I greatly appreciate what Belichick and the Patriots have done offensively since 2007, but let’s be honest, he/they clearly prefer blacks on the defensive side of the ball. They’ve passed on so many white LB’s in the draft that went on to become stars, they rarely pursue white defensive free agents, and they’ve only drafted four white defensive players (DE Jake Bequette, S Nate Ebner, LB Bo Ruud, and LB Justin Rogers) in their past 10 years of drafting. None of these players ever started a game, and only Ebner made the 53-man roster more than one season.
When was the last time they started a white LB? Dane Fletcher was only an “emergency†fill-in for a few games back in 2011. Before him, Monty Beisel started a few games back in 2005. Before him, it was Ted Johnson and the racially-mixed Tedy Bruschi in the early-mid 2000’s.
When was the last time they started a white safety? Steve Gregory started in 2012 and 2013, but before him, Belichick never started a white safety in his tenure (aside from Matt Stevens back in 2001 during “emergency duty†when Tebucky Jones was injured). Shawn Mayer was on the squad from 2003-2004, but never started a game.
The only position in which Belichick appears to develop whites in any capacity is on the defensive line. DT Mike Wright, DE Jake Bequette, DE Mike Vrabel, DE Rob Ninkovich, DT Joe Vallano, and DE Trevor Scott have all been on the roster in recent years. Of these, only Bequette never saw the field.
I’d love for the Pats to whiten their defense, but it never seems to occur. Oh well, it’s hard to complain about a team with the greatest white QB of all time, permitted Edelman to play CB, has started a white running back (Woodhead), developed a white player into the best TE in football (Gronkowski), has signed/developed/drafted more white WR’s (Welker, Edelman, Amdendola, Ebert, Collie) than most other teams combined, and have had an all-white OL for 8 years (the only exception being black OG, Brian Waters, who started in 2011).