Randy Moss on the Free Agent Market ...?

It appears as if the New England Patriots are going to give wide receiver Randy Moss the opportunity (or at least the appearance of the opportunity) to field offers for his services from the rest of the NFL. And while there is no denying the wonderful, exemplary, salary cap management the Patriots have exercises over the past 8 years, this move could easily come down to this:

This is either the smartest or the dumbest move of the NFL off-season.

The Patriots had the best steak of 18 games in the history of the NFL. In fact, no team in the history of league has ever won 18 games in a row, in one season, aside from the Patriots.

Before the Superbowl they were being touted as one of the best teams to ever play the game of football, and they narrowly missed out on that eternal appellation in a last second loss to the New York Football Giants.

And all of that success can be directly attributed to the exploits of Randy Moss.

Without him, the Patriots are probably the same team they have always been. An extremely disciplined team that played good to great defense, and Tom Brady made just enough plays to keep the team in the position to win a game with a field goal.

But with Moss, they were the greatest offensive team in the history of the league. They blew teams out by record proportions, and they had one the highest season-long point differential in the history of the NFL, even with a defense that wasn't nearly what it had been during its championship seasons.

Yet despite the clear advantage that Moss gave them this season, they are willing to risk letting other owners get in his ear instead of signing him or franchise tagging him? Other owners are going to throw their million dollar sinks at Moss to get him to sign with their respective teams. Everyone in the league wants Moss to do for them what he did for the Patriots. And it's not as if they're coming after some low-profile player that just wants to be loyal to his team. No, we're talking about Randy "Straight Cash Home" Moss is a man who plays when he wants to, and does what he wants. So if there is a team that will promise him the world, he's going to suit up for them more likely than not. Yet it appears as if the Patriots are going to risk letting him go by allowing him to enter the free agent market.

That is just stupid. I wouldn't let Moss get a whiff of the free agent market if I were them. I'm sorry, but the Patriots can't get away with letting their best players go forever. In fact, that is probably why they haven't won the Superbowl in 3 years, despite having comparable teams to that Superbowl team. They continue to let key guys go, and in big playoff games, they have lost close games.

It doesn't take super genius Bill Belichick to figure this out. I mean, if you win the Superbowl three times, by an average of 3 points a game, letting key players go year after year, will eventually result in losing that minor 3-point advantage, if you get to the Superbowl at all. And that is what has happened over the past few years.

With that said, none of the players they let go in the past were of the value that Moss was to this past team. He was unquestionably the reason this team went from being 12-4 to 16-0. Yeah, Wes Welker, Donte Stallworth, and Adalius Thomas were nice additions, too; however, without Moss, the Patriots just weren't the team they were in 2007.

And if they don't sign him before someone else does, they won't be unstoppable regular season force they were last year, in 2008.