Nate Solder to the Giants Officially Makes This the Worst Off-Season 24 Hours in Team History
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March 13, 2018: A date which will live in infamy.
Patriots fans have been through a lot. The Super Bowl That Shall Not Be Named. The Super Bowl That Shall Not Be Named II, the worst sequel since the Second World War. Losing to the Jets at home in the playoffs a few weeks after beating them 45-3. Losing an AFC championship game in Denver on a missed extra point. I mean, it speaks volumes that losing a Super Bowl when your quarterback throws for 500 yards doesn’t even crack your top five. Not to mention seeing various beloved player who’d brought so much success get kicked to the curb. Or days like seeing your young star tight end led away in cuffs for going murdery on everyone. But there has never been a stretch like this.
In terms of non-game situations, this was as bad a rotation of the Earth as any Pats fan has ever seen. It wasn’t enough that nature was already giving us a running kick in the pud with steel toed boots, the day basically turned into a bleak, Chekovian winter hellscape when we lost four of our 22 starters* within hours of each other. I only went to public school and state college so pardon my math, but if you cross multiply and divide, that works out to like 45% of your starting lineup. Gone for good.
And not just any starters. I’m not talking about a right guard or some rotational defensive tackle. These were all guys who had a significant impact on Super Bowl teams.
–Danny Amendola: He caught the double pass from Julian Edelman that sparked the comeback against the Ravens in the 2014 Divisional playoff. In the 4th quarter of XLIX, he caught the touchdown pass right after Brady missed Edelman on the goal line to make it a 24-21 game. In LI, he added another touchdown to make it a 28-18 game, fought his way across the plane of the end zone on a 2-point conversion to tie it at 28-28, set up by his own 20 yard catch and run. Then added a huge 14-yard slant in overtime. And like I mentioned yesterday, did this:
–Malcolm Butler: He made the most underappreciated play of XLIX late in the 3rd with the Pats down 10. On a 3rd down from midfield when he got taken off Jermaine Kearse thanks to a rub route, recovered, fought his way back upfield and ripped the ball out of Kearse’s hands inside the 10. A completion would have set up a 1st & goal and closed out the game. Instead Seattle punted. He added another PBU on Kearse on the final drive. And he kept his wits about him on that insane catch by Kearse, staying with the play and shoving him out of bounds. Also there was the little matter of the interception on the goal line. And after bursting his way onto the scene like that, didn’t buy into his own hype, redoubled his effort and because one of the top 10 corners in football.
–Dion Lewis: He became really the first factor back the Patriots have had since the year Stevan Ridley rushed for 1,200 yards. In the second half of 2017 he led the NFL in rushing yards. He had the highest catch percentage in the league. Never fumbled the ball. He was ranked 3rd overall by Pro Football Focus in the running game and 5th in blocking. And he was the catalyst of the Patriots offense as the passing game began to struggle down the stretch.
–Nate Solder: The stud left tackle on four conference champions and two Super Bowl winners. Who caught a touchdown pass in the AFC title game against Indy, the only target of his career. And who, among other games, kept Brady clean (one sack) against the Legion of Boom defense on 50 pass attempts and against Philly (one sack) on 49 attempts.
And like that … POOF … they’re gone. All at once. And nothing like it has ever happened before all in one day like this. The closest I can come to in Pats history is the final preseason game in 1989. They were coming off a 9-7 season and looking like they had a legitimate shot at the playoffs until the final preseason game when Andre Tippett, Ronnie Lippett and Garin Veris were all lost for the season. And without them, they went 5-11. But those players were coming back at least. And Tippett came back to finish a Hall of Fame career. So that doesn’t come close to this.
Nothing does. This is like losing Wes Welker (like Amendola, an undrafted WR out of Texas Tech who became a star), Asante Samuel (obscure cover corner who became a star), Danny Woodhead (undersized running back whose style made him a folk hero and a star) and Matt Light (highly drafted LT and respected team leader all in the same day. I keep reminding myself that this is how the month of March works around here. It’s the best time on the calendar to be emotionally attached to franchises who spend big this time of year, like Miami or Washington. But the worst for us. And all we can do is ride it out and hope it doesn’t get any worse before it finally gets better. #InBillWeTrust