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Archives for August 23, 2016

Patriots Cutting Vets, Sheard Out 2-4 Weeks

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The crappy injury news from Sunday has spilled over into the week as Jeff Howe of the Boston Herald is reporting that Jabaal Sheard has a sprained MCL and will be out 2-4 weeks. That would put his return somewhere around the season opener in Arizona on September 11th, but is there really a need to rush it? Your season isn’t made in Week 1, especially to an NFC opponent.

Now it looks like Chris Long and Trey Flowers could very well be starting against the Cardinals, which I’d kind of enjoy. I’d love to throw a young promising defensive end like Flowers into the fire like that. See what he’s got. However without Sheard I think it makes even more sense to keep Anthony Johnson. You’re going to need every pass rusher you can get and I think Johnson looks more disruptive than Geneo Grissom ever has as an interior rusher.

Granted it was just one game that Johnson flashed. He’ll need to show up this week too, but without Sheard his chances of making the roster seem slightly better.

Afternoon update – Sheard was at practice today, but with the conditioning group, not a full-go. Positive sign regardless. He should probably be ready to go for the opener.

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Tuesday Patriots Catch-Up

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It’s that time again for a random bunch of Pats notes that I’ve been kicking around or getting into arguments about. With so much in motion at this point in the preseason, it’s impossible to cover everything in every article we put up, so here’s some catch up thoughts as we are just 19 days away from the opener.

— Few people pointed out that I was crazy for leaving Vincent Valentine off my 53-man roster so let’s talk about that a bit. First, I have to disclose that I didn’t get the pick then and I don’t get it now. Not that I don’t understand picking a guy because of the Planet Theory, but when you have two pretty well-paid veterans that are roughly the same amount of huge, not to mention a first-round pick from last season who will rarely leave the field and Valentine was already looking uphill at any kind of significant role this season. Then add in that my untrained scouting eye just wasn’t all that impressed with him from the crappy YouTube highlights, nor has he done much of anything to stand out in two preseason games, nor can I recall a single mention from any training camp practices. So yeah, I see a big body that’s hard to find but that’s about all I’ve seen so far. No, he probably won’t get cut, but does anyone want to bet he gets an “injury” sometime in the next two weeks. A red shirt year this season, then see what happens with Branch/Knighton next year and then the time might be right for Valentine.

— DJ Foster and Keshawn Martin were back in full pads on Monday and they’re two guys we should keep a close eye on over the next two weeks. I have Martin as pretty much a roster lock (Yes, I caught some flack for this too on my 53-man). Why? Because he’s a serviceable backup to Edelman and Amendola, can return kicks/punts, and did show some progress in his first year in New England. Martin’s just a classic BB player — no one’s that impressed with him but he sticks around because he can do a lot of things pretty good. The Pats also gave him a two-year, $3 million contract last year. They wouldn’t throw that money around to a JAG.

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