Tonight should be fun. Have the office Fantasy Football draft at a local bar after work, and the Patriots will be closing out their pre-season schedule as well. Seeing as there is no money involved I’ll likely get sucked up in the meaningless football game and draft a shitty team, but it is what it is. Here is what I will be looking for out of the Patriots as I debate whether or not to take Tom Brady with my second round pick.

WWLMD – What will Laurence Maroney do? – The most talented back in the system has been a ghost since the first game against the Saints. I have always liked Maroney. I have always defended Maroney. I have always thought Maroney has got a bad rap. Hell, in what could be his last year here, why stop now? Unless there is an injury that no one knows about, this guy needs to play tonight. Until Laurence Maroney is out of football I am going to keep on saying that if given 20+ carries every week the guy will put up all pro numbers. What hurts him is the lack of touches. I liken him to a pinch hitter in baseball. Often even the best hitter on the team struggles coming off the bench for one at bat a game. Maroney is this guy. But if you constantly keep him in the action he will produce. This is why I don’t understand why he hasn’t been getting touches. Maybe it is beyond my level of football comprehension, but if Maroney doesn’t get the majority of the carries tonight, I am going to be a little disappointed. One of the big things I think the Patriots need to do differently this year is focus more on the running game, and Maroeny could be a weapon for you. What’s the point of keeping him around if you aren’t going to utilize him?

No Leigh Bodden, No Problem – Hopefully. I have high expectations for this defense going into the season, especially the defensive backs. Despite their youth, Darius Butler, Devin McCourty, Pat Chung, and Brandon Meriweather ooze talent. Combined, they could easily be the best defensive backfield in the league. But that’s a big if. Last week Sam Bradford picked them apart, especially Butler and McCourty. Hopefully they each have a closers memory and have already forgotten it, cause it was ugly. What you don’t want is for them to get embarrassed again and have to mull on that for a week and a half going into the season. A solid performance tonight could really set the tone for practice leading up the Bengals and the rest of the season.

Will Tyrone McKenzie finally show up? I was super excited about this kid last year after they drafted him out of USF in the third round, then he tore his knee up before training camp even started. He was deemed fully healthy again going into this year, but we haven’t seen much of him. We know Jerod Mayo and Brandon Spikes have solidified the starting jobs in the middle, but there is still competition to be the first to sub in. Right now Gary Guyton looks to be ahead of him on the depth chart, but McKenzie was seen with the green dot on his helmet during practice indicating that he will spend a lot of time leading the defense tonight. His upside is huge, but you don’t win playing time based on upside. He is going to need to put a good performance together tonight if he wants to earn some early snaps this season.

Can we get a GD injury update? Jermaine Cunningham and Julian Edelman have been missing from practice, Cunningham since after the Saints game, and Edelman since after the first quarter last week. We know Ron Brace has a sprained ankle. Aaron Hernandez has been practicing in shorts with an unknown injury. Brandon Meriweather was back on the practice field, but he too left last weeks game. Can someone please tell me what is going on? I doubt tonight’s game will be any help, but it would be nice to see some of these guys on the field just to show me that they are OK. I’m not so much worried about Edelman and Meriweather (although last time I said that Bodden ended up on IR) as they have gotten some good game time thus far. But it would be nice to see Hernandez, and especially Cunningham back in the lineup. Cunningham had the chance to win a starting position going into camp and we hardly got to see him. Hernandez had a solid couple of weeks, but we haven’t seen him since. Obviously it is more important to get them ready for week one, but the more game time you can get these rookies, they better off they will be entering the season. Hopefully all the missed practices and games were a precaution and we can see a little of them both tonight.

Look! Proof that Shawn Crable wore a Patriots uniform!

Today the Patriots announced two roster moves.

1st round pick Devin McCourty signed a 5 year contract worth $13.2 million. This was somewhat unexpected since only a few days ago a report said he would wait until more picks were signed.  Apparently, him or his agent decided his deal was fair and that he should report to camp.  As the final rookie signed, the Patriots have their roster ready for camp.

In an unsurprising move reported on Mike Reiss’ twitter, the Patriots also released former 3rd round pick LB Shawn Crable.  After two straight years of injuries, the team seems to have given up.  He played fairly well in six preseason games.  Unfortunately he never left the trainer’s room, never played in a regular season game, and came into camp this year hurt yet again.  Belichick doesn’t stand for players who don’t play so Crable was bound to be on his way out.

For those of you who weren’t around last week, on Friday I posted who I thought the Patriots should draft through the second round. Knowing the Patriots as well as I do, getting just one of these picks right would have been considered a success in my book. If I have learned anything over my years following this team it is that three things are all but guaranteed come draft day. One, they will trade down within the first two rounds at least once. Two, they will trade a pick in the current draft for a pick the next year only a round earlier. Three, they will pick players that no one ever would have thought of making experts all over the world look silly. This year was no different. They traded down in the first round and again in the second. Traded a 2010 third round pick (89th overall) for a 2011 second round pick, which worst case scenario is 64th. And they picked Devin McCourty in the first round, a player NO ONE had even thought about going to the Patriots.

I had the Pats taken Jared Odrick in the first round and when he was available when they finally took the podium to pick I have to admit I got a little giddy. But after a few seconds of shock after hearing the name McCourty I dusted it off and chalked up the error to Belichick being Belichick. I still had three more picks before I got completely shut out.

The next day I had the Pats projected to take Rob Gronkowski, Brandon Spikes, and Ricky Sapp with their three second round picks. I was nervous early because I feared Baltimore would take big Rob the pick before us. Then out of no where Belichick leaped over the Ravens and stole the pick right out from underneath them. Victory! One for one on the day. Even if I missed the next two I would still have met my low bar of getting one pick right.

After more posturing and what seemed like a zillion trades the Patriots finally ended up with Jermaine Cunningham as their second pick in the round. Not going to lie, I wasn’t too sure who this guy even was let alone did I think he would be a second down option. At this point I also figured that the Belichick/Urban Meyer connection had been used for the year leaving me with very little optimism that Spikes, another Florida product would find his way to New England. Nine picks later I was once again proven wrong.

With their third and final pick in the second round Brandon Spikes got the call. Yes, I had them taking him with their second pick in the round, but whatever, I’m counting it. To put my genius into perspective, Mike Reiss did his own second round mock draft last Friday and he went 0-3. I saw a couple of others and I don’t recall one of them getting anything right. All the while little old me playing by myself in the corner went 2-3 with the walk off hit in the ninth. If anyone from ESPN or the NFL network would like to contact me, just use the chris@bostonsportspulse.com e-mail address that everyone else uses. I check it daily.

Let’s take a look at coach Bellichick’s checklist heading into this draft:

1. Trick people into thinking you want Tim Tebow and then swindle a team who wants to trade up to get him – check, sorry Josh McDaniels
2. Trade down twice ultimately adding a 3rd pick and improving your 4th round pick by 29 slots – check
3. Pick someone that not one expert predicting and ultimately make them look silly

Sounds like a successful night to me. The Patriots got the player they were going to take at 22 five spots later and also added a 3rd rd pick and improved their 4th round pick. That’s a win win situation if I have ever seen one. For more on Devin McCourty check out the following videos:

http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/nfl/news/story?id=5127873