Getty ImagesSurprisingly, the Patriots released tight end Kellen Winslow on Thursday. Even more surprisingly, the move reportedly came at his request.
It has been widely speculated that Winslow decided he no longer could play with the chronic pain in his knee, presumably because he spoke in the days prior to his first game with the Patriots about playing with chronic pain in his knee. But Winslow has been playing with chronic pain in his knee for years.
Besides, if he wanted out because he decided he no longer could play with pain in his knee, wouldn’t he have retired?
There could be more to this story, especially since it came on a Thursday — after a Wednesday practice that didn’t result in Winslow’s name being placed on the injury report. Winslow said he “had to roll” out of Tampa because he didn’t care for coach Greg Schiano’s “toes on the line!” approach. Schiano and Belichick are friends, and some would say they have similar styles.
Or maybe (and “maybe” means “we’re speculating”) the team decided after a week or so that Winslow wasn’t going to be a good fit, but the team was willing to create the impression that the move came at his request.
Either way, if Winslow continues to seek NFL employment, it’ll mean the knee had nothing to do with the decision.
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It’s amazing that a turd like this actually lasted this long.
Good riddance.
I think he’s done! Bouncing from team to team and never became en elite T.E., everyone had high hopes for him because of his dad.
Yep what a “soldier” Winslow is….too bad he didn’t get the toughness gene from his old man.
Perhaps he’s another genius who couldn’t figure out the Playbook.
Why? Because Brady kept making passes at him and not the kind with the football.
Other than Randy Moss, what recent cast-away has actually panned out for the Patriots?
Does anyone really care? I mean, we’re talking about Kellen Winslow.
Does anyone really care what he does or doesn’t do at this point?
Bye self proclaimed ‘warrior’.
I hope you get to the bottom of this intriguing question! But with respect to the coaches, by most accounts, Schiano is the much bigger A-hole.
Was this an honorable discharge?
Or maybe Hernandez is coming back sooner than expected and Winslow wanted the chance to hook on with another team after a decent (read: not bad) showing last week?
Maybe he wants to join the real Army.
maybe he was affraid of going up against my Bills?
Get in line with TO and Ocho (soon to be Moss).
If the Pats were going to try to make him look bad, why would it be out there that he asked for his release? That’s something that he could easily refute, and make the Pats look bad. No, I buy that he asked for his release.
andrewluckdontgiveawhat says:
Other than Randy Moss, what recent cast-away has actually panned out for the Patriots?
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I’d rather the team I support kick the tires on players such as Winslow and maybe find the elusive diamond in the rough instead of just writing off what were once promising players with no due diligence.
If he wasn’t Kellen’s son, he’d have been out of the league already.
I think Sr is a better TE right now than Jr
Well he always said Jeremy Schockey was his mentor and they were both the same guy. A couple of good years, play the fool, and wear out their welcome.
Someone posted earlier that maybe Hernandez might be back sooner than later and wants to stave off the inevitable.
But I thought he was a warrior? Last time I checked, warriors don’t quit. Too bad this guy never lived up to his potential. Maybe he should retire, get a couple of knee replacements, and find something else to do with the rest of his life.
In New England you have to practice during the week to play on Sunday.
Winslow already signed a waiver since he couldn’t pass his physical, and was playing with such pain in his knees that he only wanted to play on Sunday without practicing.
Can’t do that there.
From all accounts it was an amicable parting. Winslow plans to take the rest of the season off to rest his knee and hopefully find a team next year.
who?
Here’s a thought: why don’t you ask him instead of us?
Maybe he couldn’t handle Belichick’s style. Wouldn’t be the first person.
The punk heard the names Mario, Marcell, Kyle Williams, and Mark Anderson and gave NE his best wishes then skipped town. Them 4 animals that I just mentioned are going to be the end of Brady’s rough start because they are going to beat him to a pulp. Winslow wanted no part in Mr. Brady’s injuries because cry baby Tom would of got in his face, screamed/whined and Winslow being the Soldier he is didn’t wanted to deal with that kind of thing!! He would rather sit back on the couch, eat his pain killers, get his injections, then laugh everytime we see #93,#94,#95,#99 chest bumping as Mr. Brady lays on his back! AFC no longer belongs to the fairy boy in dark blue, white and silver with the long hair!!! I just hope Beiber isn’t there to witness the whacking his daddy is gonna receive!! haha lets go Buffalo and good move for a washed up TE!! I wouldn’t want to face that D-Line
Perhaps he was expecting more playing time because he feels he’s healthy now and he was in for a rude awakening when Belichick told him how long it might take him to get a lot of game action. If he’s confident in his health then maybe he feels he can prove to be worthy of a larger role. He might have just assumed that the coach was going to let him have more playing time because of the recent injury to the group and simply found out he assumed poorly.
This is one of the only logical interpretations for Winslow’s benefit so I think it’s important to consider this possibility since all of these other theories all render him irrelevant, so why care if any those ideas are the case since it wouldn’t matter to anybody else then if he truly has a bum knee.
One possible angle is with Gronk and Hernandez (currently sidelined) rostered, K2 opted to seek a team where he’d be a TE1, or even a TE2.
Once Hernandez comes back, K2 will be a TE3 — if he’s even kept on the roster at all once they have a healthy Hernandez. Roster spots are precious and players like Winslow are very expendable.
As I understand it Hernandez’s injury is not a long-term one, so maybe K2 read the tea leaves and deduced something like, “If I want to have a long term position, I better look elsewhere.” In short, I suspect this was about a long-term job security concern of Winslow’s.
When I think of Kellen WInslow I think about the Eminem song-I’m a Soldier.