Patriots Wide Receiver Aaron Dobson "Mouthed Off" to Josh McDaniels, Forced Benching

If you wanted more fuel to the fire against offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels debate, the Boston Globe's Shalise Manza Young dropped a gas station on Twitter this afternoon:

on Dobson: source says he "mouthed off" to Josh McDaniels, leading to his being inactive vs. OAK & KC

— shalise manza young (@shalisemyoung) October 2, 2014

This is crazy. By all accounts, Patriots sophomore receiver Aaron Dobson is an easy person to speak to and is generally well behaved. He was a captain his senior year in college and took on a leadership role for the team, even through injury.

This background information is important because it will weigh on the nature of the benching.

On one hand, it's entirely reasonable to bench a player for mouthing off; Wes Welker sat for the opening drive of a playoff game and he was infinitely more integrated and important to the offense at the time. It's important to set an example, especially if the locker room is supposed to be respectful for everyone on the team.

On the other hand, two games?! What did Dobson do to warrant two games, especially when he's still getting acclimated to game speed and trying to make the sophomore jump. He must have gotten in McDaniels' face, or had a physical altercation, or something. Because two games is a long time for insubordination.

Let's be reasonable and wait for more information to come out; but barring an outrageous act by Dobson (which goes against everything people know about him), two games seems excessive.