ESPN’s Len Pasquarelli occasionally gets criticized by observers for getting too close to some sources and letting it affect his reporting but he also has a keen eye for the game.

So I’d wondered a couple times where he disappeared to during the last offseason.

Pasquarelli had quintuple bypass surgery around the Super Bowl last season and then three weeks later contracted Guillain-Barre Syndrome, an illness that attacks the peripheral nervous system.

So he’s watching games from his couch rather than the pressbox, a fact he was obviously frustrated by when he made a guest appearance on Chris Mortenson’s Mort Report on ESPN Radio Friday night.

Among his observations were that teams are blitzing more this season, which will “leave a lot of quarterbacks on the sidelines,” he says. While it’s not likely to reach the nearly 70 quarterbacks to start games last season, Pasquarelli told Mortenson teams are trying to exploit the instability most teams have at the position.

He also discussed the trade deadline, vented about on this site earlier in the week. He says Commissioner Roger Goodell is willing to revisit moving the deadline later in the season and added that he’d like to see it because it’s a talking point for fans.

“It creates excitement in the game like the draft does and free agency does,” he said.

But because of the impact trades would have on the salary cap and the team-oriented nature of the game he’s skeptical of any changes in the short run.

I’ve never been a huge fan of Pasquarelli. He’s seemed by many accounts on ProFootballTalk.com and other sites to get close to agents and let it affect how he covers their players.

But he is a knowledgeable reporter and I appreciated his insights. He’d completed some hydrotherapy earlier in the day and cut open a vein in discussing how he’s had to relearn walking and writing. I wish him well in his recovery and yes, he’s correct when he says he’d be better off at the games than in his living room.

“I can’t wait to get back to work,” he told Mortenson. “It’s frustrating on Sunday afternoon knowing I should be sitting in a pressbox with a pair of binoculars rather than watching on TV.”

Good luck.