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Analysis

Burkhead Back for Three Years

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Outside of Nate Solder going to the Giants and becoming the highest paid tackle in the game, free agency has unfolded as I pretty much expected, and that includes the Patriots latest move of locking up Rex Burkhead for three more seasons.


Burkhead certainly flashed a handful of times in 2017, his first with the Pats, but injuries derailed him every time. He still managed to finish with career highs in touchdowns (8 — 5 rushing, 3 receiving) and receptions (30), despite only appearing in 10 games and playing a total of 196 offensive snaps. He also blocked a punt against the Broncos to go with a touchdown.

His best stretch of the season came from weeks 9-12, where he had 40 attempts for 180 yards and three touchdowns to go with 12 catches and two receiving touchdowns. If that’s the Burkhead we get for the next three seasons, look out.

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Nate Solder to the Giants

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Nate Solder was my centerpiece to this free agency season and now he’s signed with the Giants for four years, $60 million, leaving the Patriots with a giant hole at left tackle.

I’m never one to panic about free agency, especially when we’re not even 24 hours in, but the team currently has just Marcus Cannon on the roster, with last year’s third-round pick Tony Garcia behind him recovering from an illness that caused him to lose a bunch of weight. Andrew Jelks and Jason King are also on the roster, while Cameron Fleming and LaAdrian Waddle continue to weigh their options in free agency.

This is new territory for the Tom Brady Pats. They seamlessly transitioned from Matt Light (2001-2011) to Solder, who has locked down the left side for the past six seasons. In 2015 he played in just four games, but otherwise, Solder has been a rock, missing just two games total and starting 95.

It is worth pointing out that Solder was managed through most of the preseason and had a really slow start to the season. We cut him plenty of slack given his personal situation, but it’s not like Solder was the lights out best left tackle in football who made it all work. He was very good, especially by the end of the year, and certainly the best option in free agency, but is he worth what the Giants paid him? We’ll see.

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Dion and Malcolm Go to Tennessee

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As expected Dion Lewis and Malcolm Butler signed big free agency deals outside of New England, and with both going to Tennessee and joining Mike Vrabel‘s team, the Titans will have a distinct “land of misfit former Patriot toys” feel.

These were two of my favorite players of the last few seasons, but for whatever reason, the Patriots just could not figure out how to best use Lewis’ dynamic ability, even as he put up a career year in 2017. Meanwhile, no one had a more rapid ascent and descent than Butler, whose career was bookended by two of the most dramatic Super Bowl stories ever.

I do always love it when former Patriots all get together on another team. It gives me another side team to keep a close eye on. To be honest, Vrabel has always been on my wishlist for eventual Belichick replacements. Now the Titans will have Butler and Logan Ryan starting at cornerback and will see if they can find a way to just make Lewis a more central focus of their ground game than he was here.

Lewis was a monster when he was the featured back down the stretch. Yes, I held my breath every time he carried the ball because of his injury history, and that’s something that has to be considered, but the more touches the guy got the more efficient the offense was. I thought the 2017 Patriots offense was its best when Lewis was the guy.

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Report: Danny Amendola Signing with Dolphins

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It looks like the end of an era with reports coming out that Danny Amendola is cashing in on a two-year, $12 million deal with $8.5 million guaranteed with the Dolphins. I think most of us just assumed after three-straight years of taking pay cuts to remain in New England that the Pats and their clutch slot receiver would find a way to tack on another year, but alas Miami was ready to pay the kind of dough the Pats wouldn’t.

Danny reduced his 2017 salary from $5 million down to $1.25 million. Now the 32-year-old receiver will make well over that as he concludes his career.

Amendola had one of the most fascinating careers of a Patriots wide receiver in the last 17 years. He came in as the supposed Wes Welker replacement but battled injuries in his first season that only empowered those who believed he was too injury prone to be the go-to slot receiver that Welker was. Julian Edelman emerged into that role leading some to label Amendola a bust, but slowly and consistently Amendola began to rack up big catches in big moments.

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Report: Patriots Acquire DT Danny Shelton

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After spending the better part of two days wondering how a large contingent of Patriots Nation thought cornerback was the biggest need for this defense, the Patriots made the kind of splash I wanted them to in the front seven, acquiring monstrous defensive tackle Danny Shelton and a 2018 pick from the Cleveland Browns for a 2019 mid-round pick..

Shelton is entering the last year of his rookie deal at an affordable $2 million, with an option for 2019 that @Patscap estimates would be in the $6-7 million range. Shelton was the 12th overall pick in 2015 and is really the perfect fit for the Patriots’ defense that looks for their two defensive tackles to control the interior of the offensive line while the ends and linebackers make the plays.

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Patriots Cut Bennett, Continue Opening Cap Space

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As expected, the Patriots parted ways with Martellus Bennett yesterday, a move that opened up over $6 million more in cap space. Now, per the reliable Patscap maestro Miguel Benzan, the team is sitting on $24.4 million in cap space. Other moves that opened up space include the retirement of David Harris as well as the decline of Alan Branch’s option.

All of this is of course setting the stage for free agency, which opens next week, and in usual Patriots fashion, there hasn’t been much to get excited about, even as we hope for extensions for Trey Flowers and Shaq Mason, and perhaps a couple other moves that could open up some space.

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2017 Pats Left More Questions Than Answers

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The strange turns of the 2017 spilled over into the offseason once again yesterday with Tom E. Curran writing that Rob Gronkowski was in fact unhappy with football this season dating all the way back to training camp. In retrospect this article from Ryan Hannable is even more interesting.

There were rumors of Gronk wanting to retire, to maybe give WWE a try instead, just after the Super Bowl but I mostly dismissed those as just being end-of-disappointing-year grumblings. But when taken as part of the big picture of the Pats 2017 season and it’s hard not to think things were different behind the scenes this year, no matter how much you do or don’t want to buy into the old Seth Wickersham piece, the rumors about Brady, Guerrero, Kraft, Belichick, Malcolm Butler and now even Curran’s piece about Gronk.

For the most part, fans want to dismiss these things because distrusting the media is all the rage these days, but there’s so much smoke from a variety of places that it feels like something most definitely was off with this team. Here we are, 17 years in, and the closest kind of contemptuous season to 2017 came in 2009.

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