PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Mike Dussault

Shock Report: Patriots Trade Jamie Collins to Browns

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Bill Belichick and the Patriots have a long list of bombshell trades over the past 16 years and today’s reported trade of Jamie Collins to the Cleveland Browns for a third round pick is right up there with the 2009 Richard Seymour trade to Oakland and the 2010 mid-season Randy Moss trade to Minnesota.

Jamie CollinsUpdate:

Collins was a rotational linebacker on Sunday against the Bills, playing in passing situations. He was just taken off the injury report on Friday so initially I assumed he was still just being managed. But apparently there was something more going on behind the scenes. Collins has certainly been up and down this season, but never did I suspect the Patriots would trade him mid-season like this.

I don’t want to speculate, but the lower value of a third round pick (likely high in the third round, not much lower than Chandler Jones’ price) indicates the Patriots weren’t just thinking they couldn’t re-sign Collins, they didn’t really want him or think they needed him anymore. The speculation in the coming hours and days will be fascinating, because unlike Seymour and Moss, there’s no easy assumption why the Patriots would move on from a player many thought was one of the best linebackers in the league.

It’s safe to say though that Belichick must be unhappy with the defense. The message is clear. Yes, they’ve made incremental process each week recently, but that doesn’t look like it’s good enough for BB. My first instinct is that this goes toward the old Scott Pioli quote — “we’re building a team, not collecting talent.” Jamie Collins is the kind of talent anyone wants to collect, but how this plays out in building a team will be seen over the next three-plus months.

We’ve known that 2017 would be a reset year on defense with so many free agents and with the trades of Chandler Jones and now Collins, they’ve jettisoned more key players than they’ve extended.

Mike Lombardi’s take:

This now means that Elandon Roberts will be thrust into an even more prominent role, while Kyle Van Noy could find himself playing quite a bit after the bye week. And there’s even more pressure on Dont’a Hightower to not only stay healthy, but for the Patriots to re-sign him.

Another jaw-dropper in a long list of jaw droppers, and maybe the most jaw droppiest. Going to take a while to process it, and with the bye week there’ll be even more time to speculate just what the hell is going on. Now you wonder if Collins disappears into the mess that is Cleveland, perhaps never to attain the elite linebacker level most had him pencilled into already.

Or does he hit free agency this offseason and join up with a team where he could come back to haunt the Pats? That’s a frightening Halloween thought.

Some tweets coming out that put things in a bit of context…

 

Pats Posits: Systematic Destruction of the Bills

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Bill Belichick Pirate Halloween GIF

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

The Patriots capped off the first half of their 2016 season with a convincing 41-25 win over the Bills that puts them three games ahead in the division as we sit at Halloween.

Considering Tom Brady‘s suspension, and Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett‘s injuries, it would be hard to ask for better than 7-1, with a commanding lead in the division.

The offense is shaping into the most balanced attack we’ve seen yet. Against Rex Ryan’s defense it was on full display.

The defense had their “bend-don’t-break” moments, but overall it was a fine showing considering the Bills offense was on life support as injuries mounted. But the Pats D has made strides every week on third down and in the red zone, and by the time January comes around they should be peaking.

Now, the bye week, and a chance to take stock of who the 2016 Pats are.

More on that and the systematic destruction of Rex and the Bill in the Posits.

tom brady bomb gif

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New England Patriots Gameplan: Week 8 at Buffalo Bills

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It’s been just four short weeks since the Patriots were shut out at home for the first time since the early 90’s by the Buffalo Bills. The game got off to annoying start when the Bills secondary took issue with Jacoby Brissett and Malcolm Mitchell running by their pregame drills and started a pushing contest with Mitchell as Brissett ignored them and continued toward the locker room. Some Patriots coaches got involved and all of it resulted in fines for three Bills’ players.

This wasn’t the Patriots trying to start shit. This was the Bills trying to get in the head of a rookie quarterback then acting like they were just defending their precious warm-up drill, as if two rookies just decided to cut straight through the Bills secondary to send a message.

The Patriots played coy about the pregame incident but Danny Amendola did comment afterwards, “It pissed me off to tell you the truth,” Amendola said. “I’m not going to forget about that. … I just heard they got into it and to be ready to go. I’m always ready to play this team.”

Well, here we go.

The Patriots’ performance in Week 4 was gross. The offense was, well, led by one-thumbed rookie Jacoby Brissett, and alleged provocateur, while Gronk was in his second game working back from a hamstring injury  They also fumbled five times, even though they only lost one.

So we can throw most of that offensive performance out. However, the defense was flat and gave up 378 yards. It was one of those games where almost nothing they did worked and they were on their heels most of the game. They did give up just one touchdown in the first quarter and then three field goals, none in the fourth quarter.

Brady could win with that performance from his defense and they were pretty much terrible. So it has to be better this time, right?

Also uncharacteristic was that the Pats lost both the turnover (-1) and penalty battles (9-74 to 6-60).

Now the stage is set for a meaningful game in an awesome road football environment, with some bad blood already brewing. These are the regular season games you live for.

What the Patriots have to do to redeem themselves and put a stranglehold on the AFC East in the gameplan.

<a rel=Tom Brady GIF” width=”540″ height=”236″ />

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Dion Lewis Back at Practice for Patriots

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Oh happy day, Dion Lewis is off the PUP list and back at practice for the Patriots. The team now has 21 days to activate him onto the roster.

The former journeyman running back burst onto the scene last season, looking like Barry Sanders 2.0 in seven games with the Patriots before tearing his ACL. The Pats placed him on the PUP list after a setback this summer delayed his return to action.

In those seven games, Lewis put up 49 rushes for 234 yards with two touchdowns and 36 catches for 388 yards and two touchdowns. As those number show, he was a true dynamic threat, and was breaking tackles at a record pace. The thought of what he could bring to the Patriots offense if he can return to that form is frightening (for opponents) and tantalizing (for Pats fans).

Dion Lewis

Dion Lewis

The Pats have been fine with James White and LeGarrette Blount. In fact, has the top running back receiving grade from PFF, while Blount has already exceeded his career-high in touchdowns and needs just nine more catches for his career high. But both are somewhat one-dimensional, especially White, who’s rushing numbers are far below his receiving ones.

So Lewis could bring the best of both worlds, and his ability in space and to make people miss is unique and will bring another dynamic playmaker to an offense that is already loaded with them. But again, Lewis was a nobody before those seven games last season, so there is just a bit of uncertainty that he’s going to automatically get back to the same level of awesomeness, especially coming off an injury that usually takes two years before the player is fully comfortable.

With White and Blount the Pats can bring Lewis along slowly, as they’ve already been doing. But as they slowly bring him into the mix with the goal of seeing some of that 2015 form in January, the offense could see a level of unstoppability not seen since the early months of 2007.

Belichick on Patrick Chung’s Second Stint With Patriots

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When I first started this blog back in 2010, Patrick Chung was one of my favorite players. He came to New England right at the start of the defensive rebuild and for a fan base longing for another Rodney Harrison-esque enforced in the secondary, Patchung! (as I called him then) fit the mold.

Today Bill Belichick touched a bit on what has made Chung’s second stint with the Patriots so much better for the team and the player and I thought his answers were telling.

“He’s great at that; finding the ball, getting through traffic, fitting in the running game, covering in traffic. He knows all of those kinds of things. He’s really good at that,” Belichick said of Chung’s abilities near the line of scrimmage. “When we had him before he left and then he came back and you know we just weren’t able to put him into some of the positions that he should’ve been put in. We had other things to deal with. We were trying to deal with other things on the defense and we’ve been able to I would say play him in a much better way in the last three years than we did when he was here the first time. I think our utilization of him has been better. He’s been pretty much the same player but I think we’ve been able to utilize him better the last three years and he’s done a great job embracing the different responsibilities that we’ve given him, which he has a lot of different things to do on the defense within the game or from game to game.”

One of the biggest problems with Chung was that he couldn’t stay healthy. He missed 14 games from 2010-2012, when he was hitting his prime and the Patriots desperately needed help in their secondary.

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Patriots vs. Steelers Film Review: Defense Edition

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Diving in on the All-22 film of the Patriots’ defensive performance left me dazed and confused. I told myself after the game that a win is a win and really at this point there’s still time to work the kinks out, but the truth is that the defense is simply not winning one-on-one matchups up front enough.

Yes, it was a conservative gameplan, with the Pats rushing just three players on 22 of Landry Jones‘ 46 dropbacks. On those downs the Patriots were highly effective flooding the field with eight zone defenders. Jones had the most trouble on those snaps.

But when the Pats sent five or six rushers it barely ever affected Jones’ timing with his receivers and three of his eight completions of 10 yards or more came against the Pats five and six man rush.

So in today’s film review I’m going to look at one third down play in depth that best sum up the Patriots’ defensive problems.

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Notes on the Pats Re-Watch (and leftovers)

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legarrette blountReally wish the All-22 film was up on Mondays, it would make turning the page to the next game that much quicker and easier. Alas, the film review will have to wait until tomorrow. In the meantime I took a quick re-watch of the Pats-Steelers game.

Here are some notes and some leftovers to go with the extensive Posits post from yesterday, as well as some notes on the fallout around the league after Week 7.

— Gotta start with Chandler Jones, who is reportedly in negotiations with the Cardinals on an extension. Good for Chandler and way to move on it when it’s still October and he’s still playing great. Traditionally his play has fallen off a cliff later in the year, often due to injuries. Bertrand was acting like this trade was a huge mistake yesterday on the Sports Hub, which made me almost want to call in and yell at him.

First of all, you get Joe Thuney, who looks like he’ll start at left guard for the next decade. Then there’s Malcolm Mitchell who is the most under-the-radar rookie receiver in recent Patriots history. The fact that Mitchell is getting consistent snaps is a major positive sign, even if he’s not putting up much stats. The fact that Jonathan Cooper didn’t really work out doesn’t even affect my view at all.

It should be surprising Jones is doing well in an attacking defense. But he’d be doing different things in New England and I doubt he’d be of much help to a defense that really doesn’t need him. We should at least wait until December and maybe not until another year or two before truly deciding a verdict in this trade, but even as things sit today I’d still do it every time.

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