Talking NFL

With the Patriots wrapping up their mini-camp, the question everyone was asking at it’s conclusion was, “how did Randy Moss look?”

Peter King of SI thinks he’s fitting in well, and talked with Safety Rodney Harrison about him:

I asked Rodney Harrison if he thought Moss was still Moss. “Are you kidding me, Peter?” he said. “Are you kidding me? He runs the same as I’ve seen him. You watch him this year. Watch any team that tries to put its best cornerback on him one-on-one. I can’t wait to see that. He will eat you alive. Ain’t no way he’s lost his legs.”

Color Len Pasquarelli of ESPN impressed as well, who broke out the thesaurus to describe a Randy Moss TD catch…

Running an inside crossing route from his outside left vantage point, and with just a hair of separation between himself and free safety Eugene Wilson at the back of the end zone, wide receiver Randy Moss propelled himself toward the football with a burst. And just as the Brady aerial reached the apex of its trajectory, it intersected the highest point of Moss’ leap, about 18 inches below the crossbar.

And slammed into the Velcro mitts of the newest addition to the Pats’ offensive arsenal.

However, there was a voice of caution in the form of the Boston Herald’s Michael Felger, who didn’t see much effort from the enigmatic wideout:

You’d have thought Moss would have taken the opportunity to make an early statement, maybe run from drill to drill across the field, lead the sprints at the end of practice, blow by the slower and smaller players trying to cover him, whatever. Show a little hustle. Little things.

But it pretty much was the opposite. Moss was content to remain in the pack. He never was first in line. He certainly didn’t make defensive backs look foolish. Aside from climbing the ladder once or twice on high throws, he didn’t give any hints of his prodigious physical gifts. It’s true the entire proceedings were run at about three-quarters speed, but that didn’t stop Brady, Welker and Harrison from giving full effort. Moss’ speedometer seemed stuck at around 60 percent.

So what does this all mean? Who knows, maybe nothing at all…it’s still only June. As Felger himself said at the close of his column, “Talk to you again in September.”

Randy Moss, New England Patriots, mini-camp, first impressions, new guy