4 teams put in claims on QB Kevin O'Connell

Interesting... 3 of 4 teams are ex-Patriot vultures.

Mike,

Are you suprised that the Patriots were not able to trade O'Connell based on four teams making waiver claims? I would think a late round draft pick could have been obtained. Also, correct me if I am wrong, the Lions now assume O'Connell's contract, so how does this impact the Patriots cap space?

Of course, naturally the The J-E-T-S! Can you imagine a better week 2 practice squad member? I assume Buffalo passed, but Fins next?

Just hope evil Bill's "forget every new play" potion is just as potent this summer as his previous batches.

I think that that rule is completely unfair. Just because you suck more than another team doesn't mean you should get priority over them for players, O'Connell should get to choose where he wants to go.

Another draft bust by BB and Pioli. Add him to the Bethel Johnson, Chad Jackson, Tyrone Wheatley, Laurence Maroney and Ben Watson chronicles of underachieving/unachieving high draft choices over the past few seasons.

Bethel was a huge bust and only offered a few sparks on special teams in small doses. Second rounder WASTED.

Chad Jackson was an unmitigated disaster and not on the roster. Second rounder SQUANDERED.

Laurence Maroney will be appearing on "Dancing With the Stars" at season's end. First rounder with 4th round talent.

Ben Watson has NEVER lived up to the hype, and has reportedly never been able to create separation off the line of scrimmage in his route running. First rounder with 3rd round talent.

Tyrone Wheatley is a work in progress, but so far hasn't even shown the ablity to contribute---when healthy---in sub-packages. Second rounder wasted.

Love Bill and sorry to see Pioli go. But aside from catching lightning in a bottle with Brady, their drafting is really subpar.

That was pretty bad on the Patriots part not to at least grab a late round draft choice from some team. If 4 teams wanted Kevin's services 1 would have probably given up a 5 or 6. Not good.

O'Connell was a former #3 draft pick who was available for no

compensation. It remains to be seen if he has a future based

upon his rather sorry performance this year with the Patriots.

Based on this information, I'm surprised they weren't able to talk Denver into returning the 2010 7th rounder that the Patriots sent them as part of the Smith deal in order to secure O'Connell's rights.

Hmm...So, maybe Belichick; realizing O'Connel was somewhat good, but ultimately wouldn't prove worthy for the starting job; wanted to ensure he wouldn't end up with a competitor. Detroit, at this point, having passed on Cassel & invested so much in Stafford & Culpepper, might not want too much attention to be drawn to this particular type of acquisition. But it's interesting that Mangini & McDaniels both put-in, but Pioli didn't bite....

What exactly are teams obligating themselves to in that claim, signing for the veteran minimum if their claim wins? Is there any limit to claims a team can make?

CJ, this is your mom, did you remember to take your prozac?

How quickly the so-called fans like CJ forget. As Reiss has pointed out, for every bust the pats have drafted a gem and then some. How about guys like Tom Brady. Matt Light. Asante Samuel. Nick Kaczur. Meriweather. Wilfork, Warren, and Seymour. Jerod Mayo. Deion Branch. Mankins. Cassel. "Tyrone" Wheatley was just drafted last year. He's a second round DB in a tough system, we've barely seen him, but you think he's already a bust? Do us all a favor and never speak of football ever again. You don't even know his first name!

CJ -- just out of curiosity, when was the last losing season we had under BB? Was it 2002? Yeah 7 years of above average football have now. Too bad we don't get above average football fans to go with the record.

Well said, Stefanovich. I would add Jarvis Green, David Givens (7th round), Tully Banta-Cain (7th) and, it would appear, Brandon Meriweather.

Mike: I asked this in the other thread too. But does this mean that O'Connell's signing bonus is now amortized under Detriot's salary cap?

You are always going to get guys like CJ. This is the kind of guy who thinks "hindsight" is the same thing as "insight". Anybody can pick the winning lottery numbers the day AFTER they are announced! Try to predict who will be a bust and a winner BEFORE it happens, and I might be impressed.

By the way, if Brady was such a great pick, shouldn't we have picked him much HIGHER?

CJ is the type of fan who started watching the Patriots in 2004 and gets upset when the Pats don't outscore every team 65-0. Relax buddy, Bill Belichick is 102-42 as Pats Head Coach, it would appear, even to a pink hat like you, that he has to be doing some pretty good talent evaluation.

I was really surprised watching Kevin Oconnells sub par performance in the exhibition games He was worse than awful ...What a waste!!

I was really surprised watching Kevin Oconnells sub par performance in the exhibition games He was worse than awful ...What a waste!!

Sept. 11th.

Does that day mean anything to you people? It's also the day the Basketball Hall of Fame is inducting the Class of 2009 to the Hall of Fame. Michael Jorden...John Stockton...If you are truly a sports fan, then you moral responsibility to support an event which is as important to the economy of WMass as the Pat's and Red Sox are to EMass. It's your decision, I know how important the Sox and Pat's are to the people who read this post. But the state extends beyond 495. You can drive to Springfield for the induction. You will not get mugged or shot by any Springfield gangs

You can add Stephen Gostkowski to the list as well. The O'Connell drop is a mystery. Was he any worse than Cassel was in last year's preseason? I have a feeling there will be some other QB who will fall like AJ Feeley to the Pats.

Every team has draft busts. In fact, the majority of players selected don't work out. The percentages on the first round are practically 50/50.

There isn't a team in the league you couldn't go down the list and find player after player that were drafted in the first three rounds and simply wasn't very good. I don't think the Pats really stand out in that regard.

No. The entire remaining signing bonus (any that wasn't counted against previous years' salary cap), along with any roster or workout bonuses that were already due, must immediately be applied to this year's cap. According to Miguel, this works out to $478K. But what would have been his his salary ($385K) is already subtracted from that amount. That's covered under Detroit's cap, along with whatever signing bonus they're willing to to give him.

DanU --

Rob Ninkovich.

Heh.

#12 2000
#22 Nice Miguel reference--shout out to patsfans.com !

CJ--you and your brother gick are up way past your bedtime.

Guys, I think we all have to admit that this was more than a surprise. Considerring how much slack they have cut maroney and other underperfroming picks, I think they pulled the trigger too early. Having said that, good luck to the youngster in his endeavors.

Wow, didn't see that one coming, but Hoyer has looked better than O'connell.Still, I'm not sure just cutting him loose was the right move. Oh well, bring me another Lombardi silver football Bill Belichick, and who will care? Good luck Kevin.....

Three possibilities:

First, BB cuts quarterbacks early on because he needs to put some gimmick plays in now. Quarterbacks are privy to everything. The faster O'Connell is moved out, the more secrecy BB gets.

Second, Walter was available, I guess that Walter was well-tested in preseason game 2 and proved worthy of being a #2, and Hoyer is going to make the team too. With the deal down, BB owed it to O'Connell to have extra time to catch on with another team. BB is glad it's an NFC team.

Third, maybe O'Connell has a secret problem that only the brass know about. I believe that the Patriots ejected their starting punter one week before the 16-0 season, because the punter beat up his wife. Whatever the problem was, it deserved swift vengeance. Honor is more important than getting a seventh rounder in exchange.

This claim gives the Lions five QB's because of the injuries:

Daunte Culpepper - injured
Drew Stanton - injured
Matt Stafford - available
Brooks Bollinger - just added
Kevin O'Connell - just added

Looks like the O'Connell waiver might have been a knee-jerk reaction by BB to the awful O'connell perfomance against the Redskins aka "get outta my sight."

VerDisqo:

In the case of a first/second-year player who's waived, the team that claims him off waivers automatically inherits that player's contract as is.

Since drafted rookies still under contract aren't allowed to renegotiate their contracts until the end of their second year in the league, Detroit owes him nothing at this point.

2008 Draft - Quarterbacks taken
PK(OVR)
3 Matt Ryan
18 Joe Flacco
56 Brian Brohm
57 Chad Henne
94 Kevin O'Connell
137 John David Booty
156 Dennis Dixon
160 Josh Johnson
162 Erik Ainge
186 Colt Brennan
198 André Woodson
209 Matt Flynn
223 Alex Brink

This was BB sending a message to about 50 guys that they are all on the bubble. 25 guys still need to be cut in the next week. They are also very likely to swap out another few guys from the pool of about 800 players that are going to be cut across the league. I see them picking up a veteran QB and at least 1 or 2 LB and maybe a CB from teams that are over stacked at those positions. ie(GB, Pitts. Balt. etc).

cj why do you miss Pioli if he was doing the drafting while he was here?

Can't trade with this group. Jets - no way. Plus they'd probably just use him for info then release him. Denver - McDaniel would probably just use him to see what new wrinkles BB has put into the offense. No way Bill trades anyone to Mangina and why would the Lions give anything up, they have priority on the claim.

Justin R.

Pats had a winning record in 2002 when they went 9-7. Last losing season under Belichick was 2000 when the team went 5-11.

Mike, no wonder you're leaving Boston.com..it's to get away from the commenters!

Hey IronChef?

Who cares about who the Pats vultures are when the Pats will blow this year!!!