PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Mike Dussault

Saints, Texans Circling Malcolm Butler

by

The great wait on Dont’a Hightower and Malcolm Butler continues.

Hightower is visiting with the Steelers today, while Butler is reportedly meeting with the Saints, trying to hash out a deal with them. PFT and Reiss both had good explanations of how things can work out when trading a restricted free agent like Butler.

So, to summarize: (1) Saints negotiate with Butler; (2) if a tentative deal is reached, Saints approach Patriots; (3) if a tentative trade is reached, Butler signs tender; (4) Patriots sign Butler to multi-year deal and trade him or Patriots trade him and Saints sign him to multi-year deal.

It’s an interesting situation. On one hand you already have Stephon Gilmore, Eric Rowe, Cyrus Jones and Justin Coleman, not to mention Jonathan Jones, who, despite being primarily a special teamer, looked pretty good in a handful of cornerback snaps from the slot last season. Even without Butler, it’s not situation critical at corner. Getting a first round pick back would also help fill the void left by Butler as well.

But that ignores the bigger picture that Butler has been awesome and is one of our favorite defenders to watch. Same goes for Hightower. Those two made some of the biggest plays in the last two Super Bowls. I know BB won’t pay for past performance, but those plays gave Hightower and Butler a special place in Patriots’ fans hearts that will never go away.

There’s no place for a sentimental Patriots fan unfortunately. And now it seems like a distinct possibility that both Hightower and Butler could be on other teams next offseason. If that happens these will perhaps be the most surprising change of course by the Patriots over the last 17 years.

The 2012 draft was the start of it. The Patriots took two defenders in the first round and it seemed like they would be the core of the next dynasty. They drafted and scouted so well they knew they’d have a ton of hard choices to make if they were to keep that defensive core intact. And now it seems like building a foundation on defense didn’t really matter. Well, it didn’t matter as much as maintaining their pay structure, even when they had plenty of pay to go around.

It’s been about acquiring assets and keeping the cheap young player pipeline fresh. Chandler Jones, Jamie Collins and now perhaps Butler could all be spun into capital, instead of maintaining continuity with the defense. Even Hightower’s exploratory adventure across the AFC would ultimately result in compensatory picks should he sign elsewhere.

We’ll weigh all that when the fates of Butler and Hightower are finalized. But this will certainly be a fascinating year for the defense.

Pats Posits: The Wait on Hightower and Butler Continues…

by

After a noisy start to free agency things tapered off over the weekend after the Pats signed defensive lineman Lawrence Guy to a surprising four-year deal. Now the reports of Malcolm Butler being unhappy and Dont’a Hightower visiting just about every major Patriots rival are swirling as we wait to see how things play out with the two biggest internal pieces of the Patriots’ offseason.

First, let’s talk a little about Guy, who I initially thought would just be a depth piece, but as Mike Reiss points out in the piece above, the length of the deal and the total amount point to the Pats seeing Guy as someone who should be a contributor. There is however no guaranteed money after the first year so expect him to come into camp with something to prove. Though it doesn’t seem like the former seventh-round pick who has bounced around the league before becoming a starter last season, plays any other way.

[Read more…] about Pats Posits: The Wait on Hightower and Butler Continues…

Patriots Acquire Brandin Cooks (For Draft Picks Only)

by

If you liked the Stephon Gilmore and Kony Ealy additions, you’re going to love the Patriots nabbing Brandin Cooks without losing Malcolm Butler! While we weighed the gain/loss of Cooks/Butler for the last day-and-a-half, it turns out Malcolm isn’t GOing anywhere!

Bill Belichick is relentless. We knew there was cap space but we never suspected the majority of the early work would be through trades. It just shows how creative and efficient the Patriots are at staying ahead of the pack.

It’s exciting to think about the explosiveness Cooks will be in the offense. After seeing Chris Hogan and Malcolm Mitchell make nice with Tom Brady right out of the gate, I’m feeling like as long as Cooks doesn’t take #17 he’s going to have no problem adjusting to the Patriots’ offense.

Cooks can run every route in the playbook, including from out of the back field. He’s crisp with his routes and makes catches in traffic with his hands. His explosiveness makes him a threat to score every time he catches the ball. But he’s just as dangerous horizontally as he is vertically. The Patriots will move him all over the place and can dictate coverage with him.

This puts a spotlight on Danny Amendola a bit more now. At the right place I still think they’d like him back, but it might also be time to finally move on from the clutch wide out.

But don’t let Amendola’s future put a damper on this acquisition of Cooks. It changes the offense once again and should be near-impossible to stop. Exciting to see what happens in the backfield, but so far the Patriots are out to an awesome start to 2017. Hightower next please?

Patriots Trade for Panthers DE Kony Ealy

by

With a ton of cap space this offseason it was inevitable that the Patriots would make some splashy moves and the first two days of the new league year have not disappointed. After signing top cornerback Stephon Gilmore on Thursday, the Patriots traded a second round pick to the Panthers for defensive end Kony Ealy.

Defensive end was a significant need this offseason with the departure of Chris Long and likely departure of Jabaal Sheard. Trey Flowers had a breakout second season and is primed to play a huge role in 2017. Rob Ninkovich was solid in 2016 but just turned 33, so adding at least one more rotational end was vital.

Ealy had seen his snaps reduced in 2016 after a standout Super Bowl 50 where he recorded three sacks of Peyton Manning in a losing effort. The Patriots won’t expect him to play every down, but will require him to use his athleticism more than he did in Carolina’s system. The Patriots ask their defensive ends to often play in more of a linebacker hybrid role, which includes coverage drops and even some man-to-man coverage at times when they want to be deceptive.

As you can see below in his Super Bowl interception, Ealy isn’t a stranger to pass drops and that’s what likely caught the Patriots eye more than anything, especially at the scouting conbine where Ealy had the best defensive linemen three cone drill time.

Ealy is in the final year of his rookie deal, so that will add some intrigue next offseason. It seems as though the Pats are more than fine to cycle through defensive ends on one-year deals, but Flowers’ contract certainly gives them some flexibility. Finding another defensive end in the draft would still make a lot of sense.

Patriots Friday Free Agency Regroup

by

As we not-so-patiently wait for news on Dont’a Hightower, Malcolm Butler and Brandin Cooks, here’s a quick regroup on the latest from early Friday.

Two more visits were reported.

Hunter was a guy I really liked coming out in 2013. I wanted the Pats to draft him instead of Aaron Dobson, but neither guy really set the world on fire. This would be Hunter’s fourth team and he’s never topped 28 catches. Still, he’s long and has always had good athleticism. He’d be an interesting project as an outside receiver in the Pats system. He’d be one of those “throw ’em against the wall and see what sticks” kind of additions. But if you’ve got potential and you can’t reach it with Tom Brady throwing to you, you’re never reaching it.

Guy’s been kicking around the league since 2012, playing with three different teams, most recently the Ravens, who he started 10 games for last season. He’s a classic cheap camp body the Pats love to grab. Provides some depth along the defensive interior with his good size (6’5″, 300), but barring injuries would likely be a camp casualty.

New addition Dwayne Allen spoke with the Boston media today, and this quote sums it up nicely.

Allen is saying all the right things and it’s already clear he’ll be a solid addition who will play a number of roles. Check out more with him from Patriots.com:

[Read more…] about Patriots Friday Free Agency Regroup

Pats Lock Up Gilmore, Harmon

by

The 2017 NFL season has begun! The long path to the start of the season in underway! Rejoice!

As reported this morning, the Pats have signed Stephon Gilmore and re-signed Duron Harmon in the opening salvo of the free agency period. Both moves are surprising, not that being surprised should be surprising during this time of year.

I assumed Harmon was gone. The Pats have paid their other two top safeties, Devin McCourty and Patrick Chung, so I assumed Harmon would be the third safety casualty. Instead, the ponied up four years, $20 million for Harmon, which tells us how valuable the view that role in their defense now. Harmon usually plays only about half the snaps, but offers important flexibility to the defense. More remarkable is that they retained him despite him being somewhat of a specialist in the deep part of the field. We’ve never really even seen him play near the line of scrimmage, much less in man coverage.

Still, for a defense that saw what it was like to get beat over and over just a few short years ago, Harmon brings a level of continuity on the back end that is vital. Especially because it looks like there’s going to be some turnover at cornerback.

This one blows my mind. We’ll probably need to wait and see what happens with Malcolm Butler, but for a team that has never really splurged on free agents, much less cornerbacks, the Pats just blew any preconceived notions out of the water. Yes, they have the cap space, but I just can’t believe they’d make this kind of investment in an external player with so many internal players still dangling in the wind.

[Read more…] about Pats Lock Up Gilmore, Harmon

Report: Pats Bringing Back Alan Branch

by

Mike Giardi and Ian Rapoport report that the Patriots are finalizing a deal to bring back Alan Branch on another two-year deal.

What a great, underrated signing Branch was in 2014. He’s been the perfect fit for their revamped defense post Vince Wilfork. For much of the year Branch was the MVP of the front seven, dominating the interior of opposing offensive lines.

The work that he and Malcom Brown primarily did when the Pats were in sub packages was remarkable. In the past the Pats often had problems getting run on when they had light boxes, but this year the Patriots run defense had their best DVOA since Belichick took over. Doing that while primarily only playing two actual defensive lineman most of the time is pretty special.

Now the Pats ensure they’ll have that interior of Branch, Brown and Vincent Valentine for the next couple seasons at least. That bodes well for the future of the defense. Now we just need some linebackers behind them.