The New England Patriots Are Back To Their Old Ways

With Tom Brady's injury giving them essentially a year off from dominating the league, the New England Patriots have decided that it is time to do some dominating. And they have started their epic conquest of theirs by acquiring none other than former Eagle, defensive end Derrick Burgess. From NFL.com

The New England Patriots acquired Derrick Burgess on Thursday after the two-time Pro Bowl defensive end held out of Oakland Raiders training camp in the hopes of being traded.

The Patriots gave up undisclosed draft considerations for Burgess, who's coming off an injury-plagued season in which he had 3.5 sacks in 10 games. New England released offensive lineman Al Johnson to create roster room for Burgess.

The trade was announced on the ninth day of Burgess' holdout from the team with which he recorded 38.5 sacks in four seasons, including a club-record and league-best 16 in 2005. Burgess had 11 sacks the next season and made the Pro Bowl both times in 2005 and 2006.

The Patriots are definitley trying, that's for sure. I never really bought into the philosophy that you build your team by acquiring the biggest names possible through free agency and trades, but the Patriots seem to be one of the few teams in sports that can for the most part successfully pull it off. Burgess is injury prone, though, so it will be interesting to see how this move turns out for the Pats.

Oh, yeah, 600th post! Not bad for starting in the middle of November....