By: Stephen Patterson
The New England Patriots have traded wide receiver Randy Moss and a 2012 7th-round draft pick to the Minnesota Vikings in exchange for a third round draft pick in the 2011 Draft. Moss started off the season saying this would be his last season as a Patriot due to the fact the team wasn't offering him an extension, but many didn't expect his exit to be this soon. The trade comes after Moss' worst game with New England, having zero catches against the Miami Dolphins during Monday night's victory.
Moss will return to the team where he started his NFL career and played from 1998-2004. The Vikings have been in desperate need of help at wide receiver after Sidney Rice injured his hip in the preseason and with Percy Harvin's constant migraine issues. Brett Favre has struggled thus far this season, partially because of his age and the fact that he missed yet another training camp, but also because of a lack of healthy receiving threats. The team also tried and came up short in efforts to make a deal for Chargers receiver Vincent Jackson.
With the acquisition of Moss, the Vikings are instantly back in the conversation for Super Bowl contention, and when all of their receivers become healthy, will be one of the most loaded teams in the league at the position. The New England Patriots, on the other hand, will have to try to replace a future Hall of Fame player with young players such as Brandon Tate and Aaron Hernandez. The move will also make it much more difficult for Wes Welker to enjoy the same success he has seen over the past several seasons.
Personally, as a Miami fan, I'm thrilled with the move because that's one less player they can use to beat my team when the two meet again at the end of the regular season. Sadly, they didn't even need him Monday night after the Patriots blew the game open on several key special teams plays, so I'm not sure it's really going to make that much of a difference. While the move clearly hurts the Patriots in the short term, it did add another draft pick to the stock pile they are collecting for next season. They now own eight picks in the first four rounds of the 2011 Draft.
The situation between Moss and the Patriots has been strained since the star receiver made comments after a season opening beatdown against Cincinnati, in which Moss stated that "from a business standpoint", this would be his last season with the team. Moss also not-so-lightly hinted at the fact that the Patriots are a historically cheap franchise that generally doesn't hand out pricey extensions.
There was also a reported heated exchange between Moss and the Patriots' QB coach during half-time of the Miami game, which undoubtedly helped speed up the process of Moss' departure. In fairness to Moss, he was only targeted once in the first half of the game, and zero times after the reported outburst.
Moss left the Vikings amid some controversy after the 2004 season, including his infamous "mooning" directed towards Packers fans after a postseason touchdown in Green Bay. Viking's head coach Brad Childress and Favre are both excited about the potential that Moss brings to the team and are happy to have him aboard. Favre has wanted to play with Moss since 2007, when the Oakland Raiders decided to cut ties with Moss after two relatively unproductive seasons.
