"It's a time to step back and take stock of where we're at," Patriots head coach Bill Belichick says in today's Boston Globe.
What better time than now. It's been a whirlwind offseason for New England, so today, the Globe lists the top priorities remaing for the Patriots as training camp approaches.
"I don't think it's out of character," Pats player personnel boss Scott Pioli told a Boston radio station this week when asked about the Randy Moss deal. "We've been pretty consistent with what we've done over the seven years, going into the eighth year, that we've been here. What we've been pretty consistent about, and feel that this is as well, is doing things that we feel can improve our football team and help our football team win games, and doing it with players that we feel can and will fit into our environment, and with the players we already have here. So based on the research we did, we're comfortable with Randy and who he is at this point of his career."
Pioli went on to talk about first-round pick Brandon Meriweather.
"We feel very comfortable with Brandon, and him as a person and as a player. We did spend -- not only myself and Bill -- but we have a number of scouts who went through there. Organizationally, we talked about all of his situations. We spent quite a bit of time with him as well personally in different environments and different situations."
Linebacker Tedy Bruschi, one of the leaders in the Patriots locker room, had some thoughts to share as well.
"It's flattering when players across the league, having a premier free agent Adalius Thomas, and guys like Randy Moss make an effort to come here," Bruschi told the Boston Herald. "It speaks about the guys who have been here for so long. Like Troy (Brown), myself, Tom (Brady), and how we sort of built that overall attitude on what's most important about football, and it's just about winning. I'm proud of that, because it hasn't been all gravy here for me."
For a couple of entertaining takes on the Moss trade, check out NBCSports.com and today's *Providence Journal*.
Finally, ESPN.com has an interesting story today about what the NFL is doing about concussions, and there's a noteworthy Patriots connection in the report.
