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Rapoport tweeted that he would be “beyond shocked” (if you think about it, that’s a really strong statement) to see Brandon Lloyd stay with the New England Patriots. Boston Globe beat writer Greg Bedard tweeted, “Yup” in response to Rapoport’s assessment of the situation.

The fact that Lloyd won’t be sticking around in New England is pretty obvious, because the Pats seemed all too-willing to let Lloyd walk instead of picking up his $3 million bonus and 74 receptions in 2012. Some will tell you that it is due to “erratic behavior”, but I think it’s because the Patriots just don’t want Lloyd. His behavior is likely a very small piece of the pie, but the Pats decision is most likely due to their desire to go younger at the position. They didn’t view Lloyd as a true deep threat in their offense, and I have a strange feeling that Donald Jones has basically replaced him on the outside.

It’s crazy to think that Lloyd still doesn’t have any suitors or any interest at all in free agency, because he did catch 74 passes last season, caught 70 in 2011, and he had 1,448 receiving yards back in 2010. That’s three straight seasons with at least 70 receptions, and yet he hasn’t received a lick of interest since being shown the door out of Foxboro on the 16th of March. So yeah, about a month.

That’s why the whole Lloyd storyline is still of interest, because Lloyd hasn’t gotten interest from anyone. The Minnesota Vikings even denied that they were pursuing Lloyd at one point. Another reason why there was a possibility of a reunion between Lloyd and the Patriots is because Lloyd seemed to want to take a paycut to play for the New England Patriots. But the Patriots are going younger and don’t seem to have mutual interest in bringing back the 31-year-old Illinois product. Lloyd will most definitely come at a discounted rate due to his non-existent free agent interest, but the tweets from Rapoport and Bedard tell us that it almost certainly won’t be happening.

You can follow Joe Soriano on Twitter @SorianoJoe.

The suggestion for the Cardinals game was given by my good friend Max, and you can reach him on Twitter @seytonmanning. This is the second piece of the series, and you can read the first one on Chandler Jones here.

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In Week 1, the New England Patriots easily defeated the Tennessee Titans 34-13, and a home game against the Arizona Cardinals seemed like it would be a guaranteed win. The Patriots were high off of the convincing win against the Titans, and the Cardinals lack of offense made most people think the Patriots would easily outscore the Cards.

But the Cards vaunted defense showed up big time, whilst the Patriots heavyweight offense looked very light indeed. Stevan Ridley wasn’t the first or last running back to be stifled by the Cardinals run defense, and one can argue that averaging 3.94 yards per carry against the Cardinals is actually solid.

Nevertheless, the Patriots offense couldn’t get anything going against the Cardinals defense. Tom Brady played his worst game of the season against Arizona by posting a putrid 30.6 TQBR. The 316 yards in that game meant nothing, because Brady looked uncharacteristically inaccurate and averaged under seven yards per attempt overall.

The big issue for the Patriots in that game was the fact that they got absolutely nothing going downfield. Brandon Lloyd finished with eight receptions, but they were all on very short passes (7.5 yards per catch). Julian Edelman also averaged just ten yards per reception. The irony of this game for the Pats receivers was the fact that Wes Welker was their best deep threat (19 yards per catch), and you have to look at this game as damning evidence that the Pats need a deep threat this offseason. They still haven’t found one, and I would be extremely disappointed if the Pats didn’t come away with somebody in the draft or Emmanuel Sanders.

One of the reasons why I wanted to do this “Look Back” series is because it brings these sort of issues to the forefront in hindsight so that we have 20/20 vision and can put things into context.

Anyway, back to the game. So the Patriots ended up getting the ball back after a clutch play from Brandon Spikes to force Ryan Williams into fumbling the ball. Defensive tackle Vince Wilfork promptly pounced on it, and Danny Woodhead won us the game. He ran for an incredible 30-yard touchdown with just a minute left in the game, and thus Woodhead proved in the biggest way possible why he is the most clutch back in the NFL.

Unfortunately, that would have been the headline had Rob Gronkowski not been flagged for a controversial holding call (my buddies were really pissed at the replacement refs after this game). But all was not over for the Patriots even though that touchdown was called back. Stephen Gostkowski had a chance to punch the ball through the uprights with the Pats down 20-18, but the 42-yard field goal was sent wide left.

Now Gostkowski in the beginning of the season was a storyline of his own. There were so many people who wanted Gostkowski gone after this game, and I even got into it with a few people on Twitter over wanting to kick Gostkowski out of his job. It was a very disappointing miss, but releasing Gostkowski would have been a scapegoat move for the Patriots. Let’s face it, the offense played like crap against the Cardinals. 18 points? I don’t care whose defense that is or how unlucky the game was from your perspective, losing 20-18 to the Cardinals was not acceptable.

And the fact that it was unacceptable made it a lesson for the Patriots. Call it the “WTF” loss (a la the Buffalo Bills loss in 2011) and the Pats getting it out of their system early on, because this truly was a learning experience for the Patriots early in the season. The Pats were humbled by this loss, and I bet Bill Belichick had some choice words following the game to give it a nice wrap-up.

What happened to Gostkowksi? Well, the talking heads, radio show hosts, and fans all spit their takes, some more educated than others. The Patriots handled the Gostkowski situation the right way by bringing in other kickers for workouts to push Gostkowski, and it never seemed like they were going to legitimately replace Gostkowski (unless if things really did slide out of control). I was initially critical of their decision to work out several subpar kickers like Billy Cundiff and Graham Gano, largely because I was paranoid about them signing one of those guys and paranoid that Gostkowski had a fragile psyche. However, Gostkowski proved he was a gamer, and the message I got from some of his press conference was, “Get off me, I know I’m in a small funk but it’s not a big deal. I’ll snap out of it, I have one of the best career field goal percentages, and the holding and kicking will get better. Relax. They’re pushing me to do better, and I’m going to do better; it’s not a big deal.”

Playing teams in the NFC West last season was certainly treacherous, and the Patriots only defeated one NFC West team last year; the St. Louis Rams. You have to also remember that the Arizona Cardinals were a much different team with Kevin Kolb under center and without Kolb, because they were undefeated with Kolb healthy. After Kolb went down, they couldn’t even beat the New York Jets (7-6, still have no idea how that was a real football game).

So the Pats loss to the Cardinals delivered some shockwaves throughout Foxboro, but there were several fans who kept it all in the right context and just looked at it as a learning process. In the end, those fans were right. Just want to give a shout out to the commenters and writers on Pats Pulpit, because I distinctly remember those guys offering up great takes on the game.

One of the most important events that took place during this loss was the injury to star tight end Aaron Hernandez, and this most definitely had a lasting effect on the Patriots in 2012. Hernandez’s ankle sprain was slow to heal, and the Pats rushed him back in the middle of the season. Had Hernandez not suffered that injury against the Cards, he would have had a true breakout campaign.

You can follow Joe Soriano on Twitter @SorianoJoe.

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Apparently, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and head coach Bill Belichick feel the same way. Bill Belichick, via ESPN Boston, said, ”He’s been very productive — on the inside, on the outside. [We] look forward to working with him. Any new player we get, they come into our system and [we] try to teach him the things that we do and let him do them and evaluate him and see how it all comes together.”

To be honest with you, I am excited to see “how it all comes together”, and I too look forward to watching the apparent new dimension that Danny Amendola can provide for the Patriots offense. While Welker was my preference, Amendola’s ability to stretch the field a bit more and line up outside the hash marks gives him an intriguing allure.

McDaniels knows Amendola as well as anyone and what Amendola can bring to the table, and I hope Amendola ends up doing more than Brandon Lloyd did as far as former St. Louis Rams wideouts brought into New England go. It’s easy to pick on Lloyd, but he and Amendola are in much different situations (you know, one of them isn’t old) and Lloyd (74 receptions, 911 yards) didn’t even play poorly. As for Greg Salas, losing him was tough- placing him on the practice squad was a poor gamble.

Let’s see what Amendola can bring to the table, and I would like to hear thoughts from you guys in the comments section on how Amendola will fit into the Pats offense.

You can follow Joe Soriano on Twitter @SorianoJoe.