[CBFF] ESPN - Walsh: Moss' skills were 'diminishing' on Raiders (NBR)

[Phil DeNomme]

I don't buy AT ALL that Moss has 'diminished'.  He still runs a 4.3 easy and
can still catch.  Brady will make him pro bowl caliber again.  He may not
have the numbers he has had cause Brady is so good and passing the rock
around.  But he will make a noticeable impact for the Pats.

JMO, of course.

-----Original Message-----
From: cbff-bounces at chicagobearsfanforum.com
[mailto:cbff-bounces at chicagobearsfanforum.com] On Behalf Of Jerry Madsen
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 8:38 AM
To: CBFF
Subject: [CBFF] ESPN - Walsh: Moss' skills were 'diminishing' on Raiders
(NBR)

Yet another article supporting my belief that the Chargers - not the
Pats - are the team to beat in the AFC.  This shopping spree that New
England went one will backfire in their face: ask Snyder.

Jerry

----------------------------------------------------


Walsh: Moss' skills were 'diminishing' on Raiders

ESPN.com news services

Updated: May 16, 2007, 8:17 AM ET


Brett Favre was so angry that the Green Bay Packers didn't trade for
Randy Moss that he called out the organization. Well, not everybody
shares his high opinion of the wide receiver.

"Randy Moss is a player whose skills are diminishing, and he's in
denial of those eroding skills," former Raiders offensive coordinator
Tom Walsh told the Boston Globe for Sunday's edition. "Randy was a
great receiver, but he lacked the work ethic and the desire to
cultivate any skills that would compensate for what he was losing
physically later in his career.

"He told me last year, 'I'm too old to practice on Wednesday and
Thursday, but I'm not too old to play on Sunday.' Did they start a
senior league?"

Walsh was fired, along with head coach Art Shell, after Oakland's 2-14
season. Moss was shopped by the new Raiders regime and finally landed
in New England.

Walsh doesn't know if Moss can be the consistent threat that the
Patriots hope they're pairing with quarterback Tom Brady.

"When he's right, he still makes an impact," Walsh told the Globe. "He
looked like a world-beater in a preseason game against the Lions. I
never thought he was difficult to coach, but we expected him to be a
complete receiver and he wasn't. His whole game in Minnesota was
outside the numbers. For him to run shallow crosses and in-routes was
new for him. Initially, he showed all the interest but later on ... I
don't know."

The Patriots are banking on Moss adapting to the one-for-all work
ethic that has helped the Patriots win three of the last six Super
Bowls. Walsh isn't so sure.

"Randy Moss has great football IQ," Walsh told the paper. "He's
tremendously gifted. I think he can still play, but his legs will
determine how much work he can handle. We used to take him out of
Friday practices because the quarterbacks wanted the receivers running
near game tempo and when Randy was on the field, the whole practice
slowed down so much we started giving him the day off. Once he got
discouraged, he just faded."

Moss himself blames the losing he experienced in Oakland.

"I think what I have done in the past as far as losing and sometimes
getting out of control, I think it's just my competitive nature of
wanting to win and helping my team get into a position to win," he
said in a conference call after the trade to New England. "Like I
said, losing sometimes can get contagious, but as a player I can't let
that settle in, and I think that's one of the things that bothered me
[in Oakland]. I didn't want it to set in and it didn't set in. It was
just really nerve-racking that it was hard for me to win."
-- 
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