What we’re not used to is the word being used in the context of apleasantsurprise.
Which is how I’m using it.
And yet, by all accounts, that is our reality on this day.
Because it’s not an exaggeration.
After all, I was just asked two days ago if I thought Thornton wouldmake the roster.
But still, by all accounts he’s your new boundary-X.
A job he obviously won in camp.
First, by reporting after putting on some much needed muscle in the offseason.
The thing about playing X is that you have to play on the line.
Which makes you susceptible to getting jammed by more physical corners.
Which, when you’re 185 pounds includes pretty much all of them.
And that has been Thornton’s biggest area of improvement in camp.
But you know what?
Let’s be wildly optimistic about this.
What else have we got going on?
What’s the harm?
Hope is a good thing; perhaps the best of things.
Besides, plenty of Pats wideouts had slow starts to their careers and eventually sorted themselves out.
So why not one of the fastest guys in recent Patriots history?
I say this as a Pats fan.
As somewhat of a history buff on the franchise.
