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As they look for help in a secondary ravaged by the loss of Asante Samuel and Randall Gay to free agency and the inability of veteran Fernando Bryant to make the roster, the New England Patriots have announced that they have signed cornerback Deltha O’Neal.
O’Neal was cut by the Bengals on Saturday after four seasons with the team. In Cincy, he appeared in 55 games and started 39 of them. He picked off ten passes during the team’s playoff season of 2005.
He spent the four prior seasons with the Broncos. He was the 15th overall pick in the 2000 draft.
The Pats also announced that they were awarded tight end Jason Pociask and tackle Mark Levoir off waivers from the Jets and Bears, respectively. They released tight end Stephen Spach.
September 1st, 2008 at 11:28 am
This is a surprise. O’Neal is not that good at pass defense. Sure a lot of interceptions and more than that in the burnt category. His nickname is Toast. The CBs must be pretty bad in Patland for him to be an option let alone a signing.
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Rating: 3.5 / 5 with 10 rating(s)
September 1st, 2008 at 12:33 pm
O’Neal’s best days are far behind him. He did not look very good in the preseason and was battling a couple of no-names for a roster spot (which he obviously lost). The Bengals tried to let him return punts, but he looked tentative and unwilling to run north-south.
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Rating: 4.35 / 5 with 8 rating(s)
September 1st, 2008 at 12:45 pm
O’Neal’s signing does in fact show that some cracks are starting to develope in this teams framework.
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Rating: 4.25 / 5 with 9 rating(s)
September 1st, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Hell…Just load him up with some of Rodney Harrison’s HGH…Instant dynasty material
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Rating: 3.85 / 5 with 7 rating(s)
September 1st, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Seems an odd pick to me, too. I was kind of thinking they’d bring back Lynch after their first game, so why would they want to go on the hook for O’Neal’s guarantee, but not Lynch’s? Capers has certainly been doing a lot of wild experiments with the secondary.
In any case, I don’t think the secondary will be bad at all. Wheatly, Wilhite and especially Slater are all aggressive, fast and talented. Maybe the idea is to surround them/back them up with vets who may be able to impart some wisdom from experience.
That’s the fun part of flowing the Pats - you never really know what the frak they’re up to.
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Rating: 2.35 / 5 with 6 rating(s)
September 1st, 2008 at 1:13 pm
BB is fine tuning the team……still thin at CB and OL until Neal returns…….Brady should be able to generate enough offense for Defense to squeak by..like keeping Mayo, Crable and Guyton with Redd on PS…getting younger and faster at LB…..
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Rating: 1.8 / 5 with 5 rating(s)
September 1st, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Looks like he is getting a one week try out.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
September 1st, 2008 at 1:28 pm
O’Neal’s signing does in fact show that some cracks are starting to develope in this teams framework.
You wish.
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Rating: 2 / 5 with 8 rating(s)
September 1st, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Just as with Lynch, it will be a tryout and if he can’t do what they want him to do, they’ll release him too!
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 6 rating(s)
September 1st, 2008 at 2:32 pm
You still got 2 rookies if he doesn’t pan out. Depth is the key reason for this move. If he doesn’t make it, maybe he can be Dennis Northcutt’s hit man down in Jacksonville if he ever gets another girl pregnant. He could always pretend he’s in the circus and hose down Phony Dungy’s Dumbo the flying elephant ears with a 20 foot pole on the sidelines in The “Deliverance” capital of the world in Indy!
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Rating: 4 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
September 1st, 2008 at 3:13 pm
The problem with this tryout is that it will cost them a full year of the salary for O’Neal since he is on the roster for the first game. If they has signed him after the first game it would have been for only the games he was on the roster. Just an odd signing.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
September 1st, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Mbehavin2 says:
His nickname is Toast. The CBs must be pretty bad in Patland for him to be an option let alone a signing
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O’Neal’s signing will make the patssy a real anusty !
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Rating: 4 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
September 1st, 2008 at 3:58 pm
I would love to see Ty Law back with the team, though his best days are behind him as well. And what about getting Eugene Wilson back? Is this kid really worse than Deltha O’Neal (Wilson plays Safety and CB equally bad) and John Lynch?
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Rating: Not yet rated
September 1st, 2008 at 4:16 pm
A couple of ex-Bengals worked out pretty good for the Pats…
Corey Dillon, Kelly Washington. Even if he just contributes to ST’s and helps out there… He probably
only got the minimum, anyway!
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
September 1st, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Boy, I can see we’re really setting our sights high here, folks. Law, Wilson, O’Neal…really? There’s gotta be something better than all that.
We should focus on some O-Line help, or Brady’s gonna be watching the Super Bowl on his TV with the rest of us. Just saying.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
September 1st, 2008 at 5:25 pm
He had the best year in 2005 and was hurt the next year he had a good season last year i think with BB he will do great things here Ill give him a chance
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Rating: 1 / 5 with 2 rating(s)