« Belichick & lacrosse | Main | Weis connections »
Wayne's world
Wayne Chrebet is scheduled to officially announce his retirement on Friday, and few coaches can offer a perspective on his career like Bill Belichick.
For 10 years of Chrebet’s 11-year career, Belichick either helped devise a game-plan to stop him, or watched from the same sideline as Chrebet worked his third-down magic.
Chrebet played in 18 games against the Patriots in his career. He totaled 69 receptions for 902 yards (13.1 avg.) and four touchdowns in those contests.
Last year, Belichick spoke with admiration on Chrebet:
“Just the whole background on him: not drafted, coming into the NFL as pretty much an unknown guy and really establishing a great role for himself as a slot/third down receiver; he’s one of the best at it that I've coached for or against.
“He's just a hard guy to cover. He really beat us down there in 2000 in the Monday night game [4 catches, 71 yards, 2 touchdowns]. He's a very competitive guy. A good, smart player that I think every quarterback that has ever thrown to him, and there have been a lot of them, have a lot of confidence in him because of his ability to get open and catch the ball. Any time a receiver can become a really good third-down receiver or a really good red-area receiver -- Wayne would fall in both categories -- that's as tough as it gets. Third down is when the other team has their best cover guys out there. They have their best pass rush guys out there. They have the best thing that they can put out there to try to stop them.
“So, if a guy can continue to be productive and succeed in that situation, I think that really says a lot for him being able to do it in the toughest circumstances or when people are geared up to stop it the most. I think that's the thing you have to say about Wayne.”
EXTRA POINTS: Boston College product Will Blackmon, a fourth-round draft choice of the Packers, broke his foot and recently underwent surgery. Packers coach Mike McCarthy told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that there is some debate as to how long Blackmon will be out. ... The same Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel piece notes that June 1 marks the date when teams can release multiple players and spread out the salary cap hits in doing so. But the crop of players let go isn’t expected to be plentiful. Packers director of pro personnel Reggie McKenzie told the Journal-Sentinel: "I think, it'll be some names. But when we went through the rosters, we didn't see anything that we were going to be looking at. There could be a surprise like, 'Shoot, they let him go?' But from our predictions, we don't feel that." ... With loads of cap room, the Patriots aren’t expected to make any June 1 cuts. ... This Rocky Mountain News piece on running back Tatum Bell reflects on the April draft and notes that Broncos coach Mike Shanahan said Denver likely would have selected Laurence Maroney (Patriots, No. 21) had it not traded up from the 15th pick.
