PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Mike Dussault

The Curious Case of Belichick Praise

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Every now and then Bill Belichick sings the praise of an individual player. Usually he deflects specific player questions into team generalization. You know the drill. A reporter asks about a certain player who’s struggling or shown promise and Belichick responds with something along the lines of “the player did some good things, needs to improve on things, we all need to improve on things, including the coaches.”

If you’re like me you just tune these responses out by now. Not that they really bother me. I get it. All of Belichick’s answers are well-crafted, not for the reporter, but for the specific player and for the team. Belichick doesn’t coach through the press, at least in a negative sense.

But every now and then Belichick throws some glowing praise at a player and more often than not it’s some random guy you never really gave much thought to.

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Monday Morning Pats Regroup

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We were scheduled to shoot our second episode of Patshow this morning, unfortunately a sick kid is forcing us to reschedule to Wednesday. I’ll post a full announcement in the next day or so with all we have planned for Patshow. First episode was a total blast, excited to start cranking them out twice a week during the season. Big things planned!

In the meantime, we’re just a little over two weeks away from the season opener and plenty is going to go down in that timespan, including at least one or two jaw droppers.

I remain underwhelmed by the Texans preseason game and these last two “games” on the schedule only reinforce how there are way too many games in the summer. The hardest part of the NFL season is battle against attrition and four preseason games only makes it harder.

The weather’s getting cooler and I just want real football!!

Here’s a bunch of regroup thoughts on where the Pats are at…

 

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Pats Posits: A Last Minute Drive in Houston Finally Falls Short

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The Patriots and the Texans played a preseason game on Saturday night that came down to the final play, with Jacoby Brissett fumbling what was almost the game-winning touchdown pass.

It might’ve been thrilling if it weren’t the preseason…

But it is the preseason and how this game ended or what the score was matters not. What matters is how well the 2017 Patriots are coming together and who looked good, bad and injured in their second preseason game of the summer.

The headliners? Rex Burkhead‘s arrival, some defensive struggles but with some individual improved performances that could really help, and Stephen Gostkowski putting us all at peace.

Despite some more big plays allowed, I feel pretty good about the team right now after the second preseason game. Elandon Roberts appeared to be the only significant injury, while some of the guys who really needed to start playing well did so.

Of course we got to see Tom Brady play (meaningless, don’t tell him) football, so it was a good day no matter what.

Here’s them Posits as we inch closer and closer to the start of the regular season.

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What Losing Derek Rivers Means

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If there’s one thing you hate to see in August it’s season-ending injuries.

Unfortunately Derek Rivers’ situation took a turn for the worse on Friday.

 


So yeah, I was already a little concerned about the defensive front seven as you might’ve read here or here and if Rivers is gone for all of 2017 it certainly doesn’t help matters.

In recent days I was excited to hear about Rivers’ emergence at camp. He was far better the second time I took a glance at his Jacksonville game. I felt like he could be a key contributor on third down and really help fill the vacated roles of Chris Long and Jabaal Sheard.

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Five Patriots to Watch vs. Texans

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The Patriots will play their second preseason game of the summer on Saturday night against the Texans, returning to Houston, where they were last seen winning Super Bowl 51.

It’s a good bet we’ll see more of the starters this week after Bill Belichick gave just about every top line player the night off in the first week of the preseason against the Jags.

The headlines for the Patriots, as they are for most teams, are all about overcoming injuries. Nate Solder has been out for a couple weeks, while one of his backups, LaAdrian Waddle had to leave joint practices with then Texans for medical evaluation back in Boston. Rookie left tackle Tony Garcia has also been missing time, leaving just Cam Fleming and Marcus Cannon, two players who should be protected as much as possible.

Tackle isn’t the only spot the Pats are dangerously thin. Defensive end Derek Rivers also had to return home to get his knee looked at and rookie Deitrich Wise continues to recover from a concussion he suffered in week one.

Simply put, the team cannot afford another injury at either of these two vital positions, but they can’t let that stand in their way of setting a baseline of performance against Houston. Between this week and next, the starters will get most of their work in. So it’ll be exciting to finally see some of the top end guys in action.

Here are five players that I’ll be keeping a close eye on.

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Five Trade Bait Patriots

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WIth news of Derek Rivers being flown back to Boston for an MRI on his knee and Kony Ealy getting banged up (but returning) in joint practices with the Texans, the Patriots already-precarious and inexperienced depth just took another blow. They’re down to Trey Flowers and Geneo Grissom as their only two fully healthy ends.

Could the Patriots explore a trade to bring in needed reinforcements at the position? Of course it will depend on the prognosis for Rivers and Deatrich Wise, who suffered a concussion in the first preseason game. Though even with those two fully healthy and in the mix, Ealy’s disappointing camp has still left something to be desired from this important position.

The Patriots never stand pat with their roster. As much as we want to do 53-man roster projections and think that that will be the 2017, the team is constantly tinkering with their players, bringing guys in off the street and via trade.

But to bring someone in via trade the Pats would have to give up something. Let’s take a look at five Patriots who could be trade bait.

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Will Brady’s Guru Magic Work for Gronk and Boomtower?

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One of the biggest headlines of the offseason that I don’t want to get lost in the shuffle is how both Rob Gronkowski and Dont’a Hightower are now working with Tom Brady‘s healthy guru Alex Guerrero. The duo joins at least Brady and Julian Edelman as players using Guerrero’s methods to prepare their bodies for all that comes with football combat.

If there was one thing I hoped for after Gronk was lost for another season with another back injury, it was that the big tight end might give Guerrero a try. What did he have to lose? The only thing standing between Gronk and being the best tight end of all time (if he isn’t already) was his health.

Imagine Gronk playing into his 30s. Jason Witten has 135 more regular season games, and six less touchdowns. Tony Gonzalez played 188 more games at this point and had 43 more touchdowns.

Gronk will be just 28 this year and if Guerrero can help him squeeze another handful of seasons out of his battle-worn body, there will be no tight end record left that he doesn’t own.

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