New England Patriots Links 4/27/10 - Adalius Thomas Sacked; Aaron Hernandez Smoked

Peter King was a guest on WEEI's Dale & Holley Show.

Here’s the reason that I love McCourty. When Bill went down to New Brunswick (N.J.) to speak to the [Rutgers] coaches and I’m sure he worked in the trip to see his son, he went down there and one of things that he did he went and sat down in the football office with Devin McCourty and he wanted to watch some tape with him. I asked McCourty about this. It wasn’t necessarily to sort of teach him about football. McCourty thought it was about getting to learn his football IQ. You know, getting to learn some stuff about McCourty, which I thought obviously any coach is going to want to do before the draft, but I know a couple of the coaches down there and they love this kid.

This is a guy, who first of all, will never be in any trouble. He will work harder than anybody else. He loves the game. He’s one of these "Coach you want me to be the gunner on the punt team for the next 10 years then tell me what to do, I’ll do it." He’s a really, really good kid and there is some good receivers in that league the last few years now. You talk to Mardy Gilyard at Cincinnati and some of the guys who have been good in that league over the years and they’ll tell you that he was the best cover corner that they faced in that league.

Bill Belichick talked about the Draft as a guest on WEEI's Big Show.

[On trading down for value]  "If you have let’s say three players, say you are at a particular point with whatever number you are at," he said. "You have three players and you feel that anyone of the three players would be a good pick at this point. They would all help our team and there really isn’t a strong preference, and you could pick up extra value by trading down or something like that, then you do that and say, ‘OK how far down can we go and get the same value at this point.’ "

[On cutting ties with Adalius Thomas]  "We made that decision to move on with the players that we have," Belichick said. "I think he was a good football player. He came in and had a heck of a year for us in ‘07, and again at this point in time we felt that was the direction we were going to go in."

TEAM TALK

• Patriots Today - Pats cut ties with A.D. ( 3.24 min. video)

LOCAL LINKS

• Christopher Price analyzes the release of Adalius Thomas.
• Chris Gasper says both sides are at fault in the Pats-AD split.
• Karen Guregian discusses what went wrong with the Patriots-Adalius Thomas relationship.
• Mark Farinella says problems arose with Thomas after Bruschi and Vrabel were no longer around to reign him in.
• Tom E. Curran says Adalius Thomas has an inflated sense of his own worth, and the Pats fault is that they didn't do their homework thoroughly enough before bringing him in.  (2.20 min. video)
  
• Karen Guregian looks at who's left in the OLB stable now that Adalius Thomas has been sacked. It's not too bad if Shawn Crable stays healthy and Jermaine Cunningham proves to be a stud.
• Albert Breer announces Pats draft pick Aaron Hernandez failed a marijuana test at UF. He passed his test at the Combine, but supposedly has a history of drug use.
  
• Mark Farinella analyzes this year's Draft.
• Mike Reiss ranks the post-Draft Patriots needs to see what's still on New England's wish list.
• Boston.com Meet the Patriots 2010 Draft picks. A photo gallery.
• Mike Reiss offers five Quick Hits from Belichick's radio interview.
• Mike Reiss recaps the contracts signed by Patriots players earlier this month.
• Kirk Minihane believes the hype that the Jets are the team to beat in the AFC East.

NATIONAL NEWS

• Tim Graham (ESPN) AFC East's undrafted rookies sorting out.
• Kerry J. Byrne (Cold Hard Football Facts) Sizing up the mock drafters. "Peter King came out on top, with 8 of 32 first round picks correct. Everyone else pretty much sucked.'
• Tim Graham (ESPN) Grading the draft: AFC East. A compilation of grades from various columnists. Pats get a solid B overall average.
• Jeff Briggs (Real Clear Sports) NFL Draft Report Card. Pats earn an average 3.33 GPA out of a possible 4.0.
• Tim Graham (ESPN) Jets have a place for Adalius Thomas.
• Gary Myers and Ralph Vacchiano (NY Daily News) NY Jets aren't expected to sign recently-released LB Adalius Thomas.
• Mark Cannizzaro (NY Post) Jets' interest 'minimal' in Pats' castoff Adalius.
• Richard Deitsch (SI) ESPN should change up its lead broadcast team for 2011 NFL Draft.
• Michael Eisen (Giants.com) Giants Rookie Mini Camp Roster Announced. Have to give some love to local QB Dom Randolph from Holy Cross, one of 13 undrafted rookies signed by the Giants. "That's another. Holy Cross. First down."
• Dan Majors (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) Steelers' Roethlisberger will not appeal his suspension.