Did Kraft Overrule Belichick on not Signing Questionable Player?

With how much players with a troubled past has been haunting the "Patriot way" this offseason, fans and writers alike wondered if the Patriots would change their philosophy of signing questionable players or if they would chalk Dennard and Hernandez up to a period of bad luck.

According to the Boston Herald, the Patriots passed on an undrafted rookie defensive tackle named John Drew who they seemingly liked. Drew’s past came back to haunt him and now all the sudden the Patriots are no longer interested. Drew had been arrested and kicked out of Duke for firing a hand gun into the air with two of his teammates. The three of them pled guilty to avoid serving jail time and Drew went on to play football at North Carolina Central for the rest of his college career.

The Patriots later went on to sign someone with a seemingly clean record on defensive end named Anthony Rashad White to fill their 90th spot on the roster. White, who stands at 6’2, was initially signed by the Pittsburgh Steelers and then released after just three weeks. He played 39 games with the Spartans in college ball and registered 65 tackles.

So now comes the scrutiny. I know the Patriots were interested in Drew because they had him take the physical, which if you know contract talk is the step right before you sign a player. Not only that, but the Herald reports that the Patriots had a contract in Drew’s hand ready to sign before they opted to change their mind and go with White.

The fact that the contract was all written up shows that Belichick who is the coach and general manager may have written up this deal, but it got overruled by Kraft. It looks that way at least and if it is so, then how is Belichick going to react?

Belichick has always had free reign over his roster and it has worked out rather well for the Patriots on the field winning their division ten out of the last twelve seasons. Is there too much emphasis being placed on the good character mold if someone with questionable character can just flat out outplay the guy with good character?

Kraft has to think of the Patriots brand, but Belichick has to think about the Patriots winning championships. As a fan, I don’t want to see the Patriots looking like the “Longest Yard” but I’ll take that over being irrelevant any day and twice on football Sunday.

The problem with judging someone on their character is nine times out of ten there will never be an issue such as the Hernandez or Dennard situations. So the question becomes is it worth it to risk that one out of ten chance? I say yes. Risk the hell out of it and continue to remain atop the AFC East. If Drew was a better player and the Patriots needed a defensive tackle, but opted to sign a player with less talent at defensive end, then they made a mistake.

Josh Brown
@TitleTownTalkSB