If the Chiefs have a chance to pull off one of the upsets of the year in Week 1, they need to take advantage of the Patriots' secondary--which is clearly the weak point of the club that went 18-1 last year.

The best way to do that would be to spread the Patriots out, force the undersized group to figure out a way to defend Dwayne Bowe and try to take advantage of nickel back Deltha O'Neal, who was just signed by the team in the past week.

But there's one problem with that plan (well two if you aren't sold on Brodie Croyle)--to do it, you have to have enough wideouts to spread out the Patriots. With the news that Will Franklin and Maurice Price are out for Sunday's game, the Chiefs will dress only three wide receivers.

While Bowe will be able to get some mismatches, it's hard to imagine Devard Darling (20 catches in four pro seasons) or Jeff Webb (31 catches in two seasons) giving the Patriots nightmares. So even though the Patriots weakness is their pass defense, it's likely to be the Larry Johnson show on Sunday.

For 18 games last year, Josh McDaniels' offense in New England was a well-oiled machine, inflicting pain and embarrassment on any defense that had the audacity to cross its path. The Patriots scored at least 30 points in 13 of their first 18 games (never scoring fewer than 20) and at times resembled somebody playing a game of Madden with the difficulty set to beginner.

Then, in the Super Bowl, in a somewhat shocking development to everyone except Plaxico Burress, the Patriots offense was shut down by a relentless New York Giants pass rush, registering only 14 points in the teams only loss of the season. According to Christopher L. Gasper at the Boston Globe, that game, and performance, is still sitting with McDaniels, and he's looking to do something about it.

Judging by McDaniels's mannerisms answering that question, he is motivated by the way the offense sputtered in the Super Bowl. He is eager and excited to correct his mistakes, starting tomorrow at Gillette Stadium against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Not satisfied with an offense that was nearly perfect last season, the 32-year-old McDaniels spent the offseason tinkering and tweaking and rethinking the playbook to counter any so-called "blueprint" the Giants may have laid down and to find new ways to get the ball into the hands of his playmakers

Tell me if this sounds familiar: U.S. senator crusades to end corruption, except nobody cares because: a) instead of targeting lobbyists or corporate negligence, it's a professional sports team, and b) this in no way helps his constituents.

Well, Arlen Specter, the gentleman from Pennsylvania, has decided that Spygate is, in fact, not over. Again. (He's the Brett Favre of Capitol Hill, but with fewer career interceptions.) Which means that after proclaiming the investigation dead on June 17, and then, three days later, leaving open the possibility that he wasn't necessarily finished wasting taxpayer dollars, Specter has decided that the Republican National Convention was the perfect time to get his name back in the paper.

"I don't do anything except with vigor," Specter told the Track yesterday ... "I think there will be more on the issue of irregularities with the NFL. I published a report in June that gave my position, but there will be more aspects of this that need to be examined."

Enjoy your heaping dose of vigor, Pennsylvania residents, because unless you work for Comcast, the guy you elected to represent you won't be doing his job. Apparently, the NFL needs saving and Specter's just the man to do it, although he readily admits he can't do anything for the Redskins offense.

via PFT

When the Boston Herald's John Tomase first reported on the Patriots, allegedly, filming a St. Louis Rams walk-through prior to the 2002 Super Bowl, it did nothing but throw a burning barrel of gasoline on an already raging inferno of season-long spy-gate hysteria. Simply put: it was chaos. Especially since it all came out the night before the Patriots were getting themselves ready to take on the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII.

Naturally, instead of focusing on trivial matters like, you know, the upcoming Super Bowl, the topic of discussion was a game that had taken place five years earlier. And not only a game that had taken place five years earlier, but whether or not somebody had video tape of the Rams walking around in their shorts and helmets (turns out, they didn't). In other words: chaos.

In the wake of the Patriots' stunning loss to the Giants, (some) fans in New England turned their anger and rage towards the most logical and sensible whipping boy - the team's beat writer, presumably for drumming up yet another needless distraction. A distraction that was proven to be incorrect.

Way back in April, I wrote that the Patriots might've found a viable replacement for Asante Samuel, who had recently inked a big-money contract to play for the Eagles, when they signed Lions castoff Fernando Bryant.

I based that not on the fact that head coach Bill Belichick must know something the rest of us don't because HE'S A FREAKING GENIUS (New England signs a boatload of defensive backs every spring, and inevitably, most of them aren't around by the start of the season), but because Detroit head coach Rod Marinelli spoke in glowing terms about Bryant, and stressed that the decision to release him was strictly a financial one.

Maybe that's true, and maybe Marinelli really does think Bryant is "very physical" and "a tough tackler," but I'm guessing Belichick disagrees.

This morning, PFT posted a link to Boston radio station WEEI reporting that an August MRI revealed a cracked bone in Tom Brady's foot. This, apparently, is news to Brady's old man, Tom Sr.

The information ran counter to what Brady Sr. had previously discussed with his son.

"He did tell us that he had stress on the bone, and that's why he wore a [protective] boot for a day – one day," Brady Sr. said. "He has never told us that he had any broken bones or fractured bones in his foot. All I knew is that he had stress on a bone, and there is a difference there."

You see, Thomas the Elder, this is what happens when you have a family member join a cult. The symptoms couldn't be more obvious if Junior had his fridge stocked with Kool-Aid and kept talking about moving to northwestern Guyana.

Brady Sr. did admit that he didn't directly ask his dream-tastic son about the injury, and it could very well be true. Surprisingly, head coach Bill Belichick wasn't interested in getting into specifics, but he did say that he expects Brady to play against the Chiefs Sunday.

Seriously, is sounds like he'll be fine; Brady won't be the first guy to play injured, and if we learned anything from Super Bowl XLII, it's that he can take a hit. Or a bunch of them. Still, Jason Whitlock thinks Belichick should give Matt Cassel a chance to lose his first NFL start, but I just don't see that happening.

There was some heavy blog petting yesterday about -- yes, I should work on my figurative language, thanks -- Tom Brady missing a month of the NFL season. Not much noise, but the folks at NFL Juice stirred the pot enough to get a sarcastic post out of Spud at Deadspin.

Well, Brady, *who did not actually say anything about any blogs in his comments to the press, is here to tell you that he will be just fine when his season kicks off on Sunday.

"If it's up to me, there's no question" Brady said. "I've been getting progressively better over the past couple of weeks. I'm excited. I'm excited to start the year."

[...] "I felt like I could play all of them and I practiced the entire preseason, pretty much," he said. "The decision was made that, OK, Tom, you're not going to play, and I was fine with it."

Yeah, there are a lot of things at play here: First, Bill Belichick is notoriously annoying about his injury report, not mention mysterious when it comes to the preseason (thanks for that with Randy Moss last year Bill; seriously, that was awesome for fantasy leagues).

And secondly, this is the Chiefs they're playing in Week 1. Brady is going to play unless he requires surgery because, well, he won't have to do much. He'll come in, hand it Laurence Maroney three times, give Chad Jackson Wes Welker an end around and then throw a 40 yard play action fade to Moss. Beantown will rejoice and forget all about the Giants winning and the Sox not making the playoffs. Life will be miserable again.

The Patriots signed a free agent cornerback today, but it wasn't the guy Rodney Harrison was asking for. According to Mike Reiss of the Boston Globe, the Patriots announced the signing of free agent Deltha O'Neal this morning just two days after he was released by the Bengals.

After veterans Fernando Bryant and Jason Webster failed to make the final 53-man roster, the Patriots were looking as if they were going to head into the regular season with only Ellis Hobbs, Lewis Sanders and a pair of rookies (11 career interceptions for the group) holding down the cornerback spots on the roster. Not exactly the deepest unit in the league.

O'Neal has played in a pair of Pro Bowls in his career, and was tied for the NFL lead in interceptions just three years ago (with Ty Law!) when he set a Bengals franchise record with ten picks during the 2005 season. Obviously, he has pretty good hands and can come away with his fair share of interceptions, but he's quite the gambler and never met a pump-fake he didn't like.

The New England Patriots' secondary is a bit of a question mark right now, with a depth chart that shows Ellis Hobbs and Terrence Wheatley as the starters at cornerback.

But starting strong safety Rodney Harrison tells John Tomase of the Boston Herald that he wouldn't mind bringing back a name from the past to provide depth at cornerback: Ty Law:

"Hey, Ty knows how I feel about him," Harrison said. "The respect and the love as a friend that I have for Ty, the respect as a football player, he knows that. If he's here, great. If he's not, we'll play with the guys we have and that's the focus.

"You don't want to comment too much on someone that's not here, but at same time, I mean, Ty Law is Ty Law."

Yes, Ty Law is Ty Law, and I'm of the opinion that even at age 34, Law still has the smarts and the savvy to help the Patriots' secondary, even though he's lost a lot of speed. Law is a vested veteran whose entire salary becomes guaranteed if he's on a Week 1 roster, so teams might be holding off until Week 2 to offer him a contract, but I still think there's a real chance we'll see him in the NFL this year. Maybe even with the Patriots.

Three seasons ago, everyone knew the Steelers desperately needed a wide receiver in the draft. It was a glaring enough need that everyone assumed the Steelers would take a wideout in the first round, which meant the Steelers were linked to three names: Santonio Holmes, Chad Jackson and Sinorce Moss.

With Antwaan Randle El leaving in free agency, it was hard to find a mock draft that didn't have the Steelers taking one of the three. And several suggested the Steelers would trade up to get Jackson.

Good job by the Steelers to pick the right guy.

Three years later, Holmes appears ready to challenge for a spot in the Pro Bowl this year. The other two potential Steelers picks rank as big-time busts. Jackson has just been released by the Patriots and Moss just barely made the Giants roster--he was considered in danger of being cut this week.

Holmes was considered the surest bet, based on his extremely productive career at Ohio State. Jackson was considered the riskier pick with the highest upside--as he put on a show at the scouting combine, and Moss was considered a useful wideout/returner, although his size meant he may be more of a slot receiver.