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Archives for March 15, 2016

Patriots Sign Chris Long

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After shipping Chandler Jones to Arizona, the Patriots signed Chris Long to fill the hole in their defensive end rotation late Tuesday night.

Long was released by the Rams earlier in the offseason after an injury-riddled 2014 spilled over into 2015, knocking the former second-overall pick from the ranks of elite NFL pass rushers. Long has 54.5 sacks in his eight year career and hadn’t missed a game until 2014.

His best two seasons were 2011 and 2012 when he had 24.5 sacks. But since then it’s been two years to forget with the Rams, though I’m sure most of them were pretty forgettable when they were losing so many games. Still, Long was a big part of one of the better defenses in the league, despite their record.

Perhaps most telling is that Long has never been to the playoffs. Signing a one-year contract with the Patriots almost certainly figures to change that. He’ll be trying to follow a long list of one-year hired guns who were able to revive their career with the Pats then go on to sign a significant contract elsewhere.

Long will be just 31 later this month and should still have something left in the tank to give the Pats. After letting Jones go, the Pats figure to have Rob Ninkovich and Jabaal Sheard as their starters, with Long, Trey Flowers, Geneo Grissom and Rufus Johnson competing to be part of the rotation or at least a designated pass rusher.

That’s what should help Long more than anything, not being forced to play every down and being selectively positioned to excel and do what he does best — get after the passer. If Long can revive his explosive get off the Patriots upgraded their pass rush on this day.

 

Patriots Trade Chandler Jones to Cardinals

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That didn’t take long. Shortly after I was laying out why Pats could trade Chandler Jones, the Patriots trade Chandler Jones to the Arizona Cardinals for guard Jonathan Cooper and a 2nd round pick. Cooper was the seventh-overall pick in the 2013 draft but had fallen out of favor in Arizona after getting sidelined with an injury.

The second round pick is a major addition to the Pats draft ammo, and gives them even more ability to climb up the draft board since they don’t have a first round pick. This also clears another $7 million from the Pats salary cap, taking them to the neighborhood of $17.6 million in space.

As for Jones, the writing was on the wall and it seems like one of the few times many could see a Patriots blockbuster move coming. Jabaal Sheard and Rob Ninkovich are the top two starters at defensive end, with second-year players Tre Flowers and Geneo Grissom in the mix to take the third rotational spot.

We also can’t rule out Chris Long, who makes a lot more sense now, or a significant draft pick from a deep defensive end class coming out of college.

Cooper + Scarnecchia = Exciting

Though Cooper fell down the depth chart in Arizona, he seems like the perfect kind of guard for the Patriots system. Here’s his bottom line scouting report from NFL.com:

Cooper, an extremely athletic left guard, racked up a number of all-conference awards during his four years starting, capping it off with a first-team All-American selection as a senior. He has the athleticism to play in a number of different schemes. Due to his ability to lead the way on runs and outstanding pass protection skills, he figured to be the first guard selected in the draft.

Now Cooper enters the Danta Scarnecchia school of offensive lineman-ing, an education that has transformed far less talented players into impact contributors. He’ll compete with second-year players Tre Jackson and Shaq Mason, and veteran Josh Klein for a starting spot.

It’s not hard to see why this move made sense on multiple levels. The Pats get a young and talented player at a spot of relative need, but also get a vital draft pick to help them this year. The extra cap space can be applied to players who are certainly needed long-term like Dont’a Hightower, Jamie Collins, Jabaal Sheard and Malcolm Butler.

Should the Patriots Trade Chandler Jones?

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It’s been mentioned quite a bit this offseason, and today’s piece from Ryan Hannable of WEEI.com lays the scenario out pretty well — should the Patriots trade Chandler Jones? If there’s anything this offseason made clear, any pass rusher with a heartbeat is getting paid through the roof these days, and Jones certainly has the surface numbers to easily put him out of the Patriots’ price range next offseason.

Jones has 36 sacks in his first four years, including a career-high 12.5 last season. For someone who doesn’t watch the games Jones appears on paper to be a force, but a closer look at those numbers certainly gives cause for concern. The playoffs are an easy place to start. Here are his stats:

Nothing really jumps off the page there, does it? The last three times the Patriots were eliminated from the postseason, Jones total stats are two tackles. That’s it.

Of course it’s not all about sacks. The Patriots ask their defensive ends to do a lot of different things. For instance in Super Bowl 49, containing Russell Wilson was a bigger key that sacking him, and Jones did a good job in that regard. I’m not going to make the argument that Jones isn’t a good player. He is, but he’s inconsistent and often invisible in the biggest games, and I don’t think he has the consistency or the desired demeanor the Patriots want when giving out long term deals.

Last year’s synthetic marijuana incident certainly didn’t help Jones’ cause, but it was still surprising to see Jabaal Sheard get more snaps than Jones in both playoff games. But it’s not a stretch to think Jones was passed on the depth chart for the playoffs and reduced to the sub-package pass rusher role even without the strange off-field incident during the playoff bye week.

Jones was miked up last year against the Redskins and I thought one particular pregame pep talk from Matt Patricia stuck out to me, summing up what I, and apparently the coaches, think about Chandler.

Patricia said “you’re a great player, you need to be great every week.” The other part was in essence ‘you’re too good not to be productive every week’.

Patriots In Control

The Patriots are in a good position with Jones regardless. He’ll be playing for his next contract this season and usually that adds up to career years for good players. So that’s a double edge sword. The Pats get a great season from an impact player but it will also be the final nail in the coffin for his days in New England. If he walks to a big free agent deal, the Pats still get a compensatory selection.

With the report of Chris Long visiting, it only puts a bigger spotlight on the defensive end position. Sign Long and you have plenty of depth to deal Jones. Not to mention how promising second-year players Tre Flowers and Geneo Grissom could take big steps forward this year. Even without Long, it’s not insane to think the Pats could ship Jones. They did it to Richard Seymour with even less depth behind him.

There’s much uncertainty at the defensive end spot beyond this year. Rob Ninkovich, Sheard and Jones are all in the last years of their deal. Sheard would be my priority. He plays the way the Patriots want their defensive ends to play, with a toughness that jumps off the tape.

I can’t say the same for Chandler Jones. He’s athletic and strong, and can get to the quarterback in spurts. But week in and week out I truly believe the Patriots want more out of him. If they were to move Jones this offseason, and it could happen all the way up until the week before the season opener, they’d have to have Long in the fold or believe that Grissom or Flowers is ready to step into a rotational third DE role.

But again, the Pats are in the driver’s seat. They might not have Jones long-term, but they can still hope to get some playoff production out of him for one last season before he moves on. Or they can jettison him now and turn him into a draft pick that will be one or two rounds higher than the compensatory selection they’d get in 2018.

For the right deal, they shouldn’t hesitate to move him now, but I think the real action will come the first week of September after Flowers or Grissom have proven themselves and other teams have needs due to injuries.

 

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