I will start by saying that my first thought was "Good for Ryan, I bet he is glad the wait is over." The second thought was "I can't believe the names of those quarterbacks that went in front of him. Geez." Both are very legit homer thoughts, being a Razorback fan and all. So my third thought, and less homerish, was this. "Did New England look at the Liberty Bowl tape?" haha. Ryan played about as well as a popsicle in that game, for it was legit New England weather (sans the snow) in Memphis that night. Cold weather quarterback doesn't really come to mind right now when I think of Ryan Mallett. Yeah, he did play a year at Michigan, but the Midwest in mid-November is not New England in late November, December, and January. If the Patriots were looking for parallels between Tom Brady and Ryan Mallett, as I am sure they were, they can add came from warmer climates (California & Arkansas) to played at Michigan and have great arms with slower than average legs. Brady certainly adjusted to playing on the frozen tundra of Foxboro. Add that to Ryan's list of "Gotta Learn from Tom" items. Oh, my fourth thought. I guess I'll have to stop hating on the Patriots when and I should still say "if" Ryan takes over. That won't be easy either. I'll just try to blockout the fact that Bill Belichick is on the sidelines, even though I should give him credit for not falling for the "Ryan Mallett is the anti-christ" hysteria that colored this year's draft and turned Mallett into the 74th thought of the NFL.
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