Parcells and Belechick are not committed to the running game. They are comitted to playing to win. If they see that throwing the ball 50 times a game is the way to win, they’ll do it. See the Patriots-Vikings game this year, or the 1994 Parcells coached Patriots, where Bledose dropped back something like 750 times in one season or the 1997 Parcells Jets when O’Donnell and Foley dropped back 150 more times than Martin and Co ran the ball. Or ask yourself why Belichick didn’t feel a running game was worth acquiring until 2004 – he certainly didn’t have much of one from 2000 to 2003, or from 1991 to 1995 in Cleveland.

The very worst myth about football is that you have to run 50% of the time and run for 100 yards to create a win. NO!!!!! You run 50% of the time and for 100 yards because you are winning. The runs and yards come in the 4th quarter from grinding out the clock once you have secured a lead with your passing offense.

Even worse is drafting running backs high in the first round (i.e. building your offense around the Running Back). The production you get simply is not worth the enormous payout and the share of salary cap used by a single running back, and running backs are too fungible for the most part to make the gamble worth it.

Last thought, Belichick has not built the Patriots around Linebackers. During his whole tenure there, in all seven rounds, he has drafted THREE linebacker in SEVEN years – Tully Banta-Cain, Hakim Akbar (WHO???) and TJ Turner (WHO???). Most of his linebackers were Parcells era holdovers (Bruschi, McGinnest, Johnson), or detritus from other teams that Belichick remade (Vrabel, Colvin, Izzo). His drafts in the first three rounds have been focused on the Defensive Line (4 picks), Tight Ends (3 picks), Wideouts (3 picks), Defensive Backs (4 picks), Offensive Line (4 picks), and a single Running Back (Maroney) and a Fullback (Redmond). Gosh does that sound familiar – say to the Eagles/Reid draft strategy (except that Reid actually has taken 3 early round linebackers)?

In another note saw something on Parcells recently and the piece touched on his theory of building a defense around LBs, interesting that his take on defense is verry different than the Eagles’. Looks at New England too, no superstar LBs, but 5 or 6 smart players who know their roles and are pretty much interchangeable, so the offense can’t get a read on what they’re doing. Maybe Reid’s emphasis is misplaced? He values LBs least on defense and RBs least on offense, and has no Super Bowl rings. In contrast, Parcells and Belechick believe in strong LBs and committed to the running game and they have 5 SB rings . . .

Games in parenthesis:

1999: (16) – 5
2000: (16) – 10
2001: (16) – 11.5
2002: (12) – 5 – (Knee Injury)
2003: (16) – 2.5 – (Year after knee injury, subsequently released).
2004: (8) – 9
2005: (15) – 11
2006: (16) – 2.5 (hmmmm….subsequently released?????)

He may be another candidate for a pay cut. I could see him coughing up 500K.

I agree – if you get the tackles healthy and keep guys off Trotter he will be more effective. I also agree to that he makes too much money to strictly be a 2 down player who Jim Johnson said played too many plays this year. You say Trotter has been a liability in coverage for quite some time, and I agree to a point, but this year he didn’t even get an opportunity very often because Johnson wasn’t comfortable with him on the field for passing downs. I’m all for keeping Trotter for one more year if he gets serious and gets in shape. He proclaimed himself to be in the best shape of his career this year and he obviously wasn’t – he was too heavy. This week, Trotter again proclaimed that he was going to come into camp in the best shape of his career. He better, or he won’t be employed.

Trotter has been a liability in pass coverage for quite some time. Its nothing new this year. I would expect, given a healthy D-line at full strength in front of him, that he would play better against the run. But with Kearse out, Howard playing injured, McDougle useless, and Bunkley on the bench, the Eagles were left with just 2 good ends (Cole and Thomas) and 3 good tackles (Patterson, Rayburn, and Walker). That’s not enough guys to go through a whole season with the number of plays the Eagles defense was forced to face – 1054, or 3.5 more per game than the typical team.