Unwanted Notice

Both the Boston globe and WEEI have started vibing Brandon Merriweather's stunted development. The elder print and Christopher Gasper had things like "played only 1 snap out of 65 against Indianapolis" to say leading up to the Bills game two weeks ago. The November 17th column proved Merriweather's lack of playing time would actually not qualify him for the rookie field explored in the blog(ah-hem). He is sympathized by veteran James Sanders who has exceeded expectations, if there were even any outside the actual Patriots locker room and leads the secondary unit with 41 tackles. The Big Show and Steve DeOsse and Fred Smerlas just Fridayhad a discussion pointing out the great lengths of deservedness and earning Belichick commands when awarding playing time. Simply put, Meriweather has just not impressed enough in practice to earn the snaps Rashad Baker, an undrafted Volunteer, and Eddie Alexander who had not seen the field until two weeks ago in Buffalo, have. Unfortunately for Brandon, he is being spoken about, but for negative reasons. It is now very evident he has not learned and matured quite as quickly as an All-American and 24th overall pick should. Right?

Is it fair to call out Meriweather this early into his career. Yes, the past few first rounders have started immediately upon entering the league. However, it is not as though each has come in and dominated their position. Laurence Maroney, certainly the recent draftee with the most to justify, had been injury plagued and not produced what most had hoped. Logan Mankins has just now turned into a premier guard. Further, Belichick, whose standards are higher than all coaches, trusts him and consistently plays him on special teams. A task Meriweather has been up to, second on the unit(Pierre Woods) with 10 special teams tackles. Yes, maybe he has not graduated and become Ed Reed, but he has surely shown he can physically compete at this NFL level. Now, he must prove he can learn the complicated Belichick defense game plans.

Although he saw snaps against the Eagles last week, he was unable to record a tackle after wrapping up two solos against the Bills.