As the trade deadline approaches this coming Tuesday, October 20th, there have been plenty of rumors surrounding the disposition of players. The most interesting has been Adalius Thomas. Thomas was, apparently, a "healthy sit" for the Titans matchup. That was a bit of a surprise for me as I didn't think he was, in any way, having trouble. Yeah, nothing stellar, but I wouldn't have thought he was on the bubble. Apparently, I was wrong. Michael Vega of the Globe asked Belichick about Thomas' status:
"I don’t know. It was one game. We’ll evaluate this combing week against Tampa like we always do. This week is different than last week. I think he’s a good football player. He’s versatile. He’s made some big plays for us. We have a lot of confidence in him. If that wasn’t the case, he wouldn’t be here."
With the Bengals defensive end Antwan Odom and the Seahawks linebacker Lofa Tatupu both being lost for the season Sunday, there would appear to be a need among those teams for a veteran linebacker.
And, yet another rumor, DE/OLB Tully Banta-Cain has been released:
A day after the Patriots created a widespread case of head scratching by deactivating linebacker Adalius Thomas, the Pats have sent fingers back to scalps throughout the football-watching world by cutting linebacker Tully Banta-Cain.
Now, this is Mike Florio from profootballtalk.com, so read into that what you want. I'm honestly not sure what to say about this other than spread some wild rumor myself. By dumping Banta-Cain and possibly Thomas, we're eliminating two edge guys, rushers if you will. Are we simply happy with Derrick Burgess? Or, could we be making a play for Julius Peppers?
Last but not least, Joey Galloway has been a healthy scratch from the roster for 3 games. Has Julian Edelman and Sam Aiken taken the spot as legitimate third looks for Tom Brady? Are we happy with Benjamin Watson and Chris Baker, happy enough to thin down the WR roster by one?
As I wrote above, tomorrow is the trade deadline. It could be an interesting day.