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Pats Posits: Padurday

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Two days of practice down and I caught glimpses of both of them, but today training camp gets real in full pads. I’m looking forward to getting an uninterrupted look at team on Sunday, but will likely roll through Saturday to at least hear the crack of some pads.

Belichick had a classic presser today. Just look at some of his savagery:

You know, you guys are asking a lot of questions about what have we seen from ‘this’ guy, what are we seeing from ‘that’ guy. We’ve yet to put on pads, alright? I understand that this is a pretty talented group of evaluators in this room, but in all honesty our evaluations come more in training camp when we actually practice… So I know everybody’s all excited when a guy catches a pass, but when the defense doesn’t jam him or their not allowed to really, because we don’t want heavy contact out there, aren’t competing for contact at the end of the play then it’s not quite the same as when all of that’s going on… The competitive level out there is not what it’s going to be starting tomorrow, so to evaluate players competitively when they’re not on a competitive level, I have a hard time with. But I know a lot of the people are real good at that and they can make a lot more out of it than I can, but due to my personal limitations and my personal inability to make those evaluations, I don’t make them.

Fire.

What I find most interesting at this point is who’s out there when and getting a better sense of how the depth chart has settled after an offseason of work.

Some notes on that:

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The Patriots Aren’t Going Undefeated…and that’s okay.

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Great day at camp yesterday and the excitement for the 2017 season was palpable. No visit to Gillette today for me, but I’ll have the old “Tweets of Note” later this morning to keep us all in the loop of what went down. I am planning on a fan visit tomorrow and the Sunday I’ll be attending practice as a credentialed member of the media (gulp).

I had to take this morning wake up call to briefly comment on all the 19-0 talk that has been the latest fad in Patriots media coverage because if there’s one thing 2007 taught us, losses are often necessary and can be a good thing.

The 2007 team really should’ve lost at least two games — one to the Ravens and one to the Eagles. They were far from their dominant selves for most of those contests, only putting together enough plays and benefitting off a Ravens meltdown, to miraculously pull off both.

In hindsight a loss in one or both of those games would’ve taken off enormous pressure. By the time the Pats got to Super Bowl 42 they were limping. Their practices in Arizona were terrible and they were a shell of the dominant team that we saw in September and October.

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Pats Camp Position Battles to Watch

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Originally I was going to take all the position battles and do a post on each, but upon further review that would be an exercise in tedium. How many of you would get excited about a full post about the thrilling battle for who the backup guard is going to be? Nobody? I thought so.

So instead of dragging this out I’m just going to lay them all out here in one handy dandy Friday post. This is peak #PatsFanProblems because there really isn’t a whole heck of a lot of uncertainty heading into training camp as to who will be on the field the most.

For the most part, then offense and defenses return intact, with a few notable exceptions. Offensively, Martellus Bennett and LeGarrette Blount departed and their roles were not insignificant, but the Patriots targeted their replacements with Dwayne Allen and Mike Gillislee (and maybe Rex Burkhead, BATTLE TIME!).

Defensively, Chris Long and Jabaal Sheard‘s departures left some uncertainty as far as the pass rushers go, and we know how everyone loves to talk pass rushers, while Logan Ryan‘s move to the Titans opened up a starting corner spot. But again, they brought in Kony Ealy, while drafting two other defensive ends, and gave cornerback Stephon Gilmore a mega deal to take Ryan’s spot.

So yes, all the turnover was pretty neatly handled, leaving the biggest questions at the bottom of the roster. But if you’re an obsessive Patriots fan (and if you’re reading this blog post there’s a pretty good chance you are) you care even about the minutiae like who the backup swing tackle will be.

Let’s breakdown the camp position battles!

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20 Questions about the 2017 Pats

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Patriots training camp opens one week from today! Finally we can put the superficial rankings and arguments about superficial rankings behind us and focus on real football.

There’s no secret that the 2017 Pats look stacked and could be an efficiency nightmare for their opposition, but there are still plenty of questions that I have about the team. Luckily we’re not the Jets so the questions are not — will we win five games? No, our questions are much more specific and often focus on back up jobs and role players, but they’re interesting questions to us nonetheless.

Let’s list them off, quick hit style.

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Will Belichick’s Hot Jacket Surpass His Famous Hoodie in 2017?

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We’re just 50 days from the opening game of the 2017 season, when the Patriots will raise their fifth banner and take on the Chiefs, as their fans unload two-and-a-half years worth of built up boos and jeers at the commissioner whose avoided all things New England like the plague since butchering the whole Deflategate saga.

With the positional previews out of the way it’s time to focus on training camp here on the blog, but first a look at the site’s very, very important signature stat — Bill Belichick’s hoodie tracker.

2017 provided one of the biggest plot twists ever for a site dedicated to tracking and analyzing what the head coach wears on game day. After much speculation what Belichick should and would wear in Super Bowl 51 he threw a giant curve ball.


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Yes, he wore the Hot Jacket, which he had gone 9-2 in during the regular season, but with one strange alteration —  the Flying Elvis had been ripped off the jacket. And no, it was not simply inside out as many have wondered. It was torn off.

Why? This is something we’ll ponder for generations. Was it a message to the NFL? Or was it simply a frustrated Belichick, having no sleeves to cut off, turning his shears on something else? We might never know.

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Patriots Positional Preview: Quarterbacks

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<a rel=I’ve saved the best for last here with the positional preview excerpts from the season preview guide (available here in its entirety for just $5) — the quarterbacks.

The Patriots have the luxury of having three quarterbacks that they love on the roster. Yes, it all starts with Tom Brady, who, in his 17th season as the starter, has a chance to keep setting the bar for quarterback greatness even higher. It’s hard not to feel spoiled wondering about the implications of another Super Bowl season for number 12. Brady has delivered one of the most special NFL careers in history and shows no signs of slowing down.

But we all know the end of NFL careers can come abruptly so it’s important to enjoy every moment that we get to see the legend continue. The Patriots are well protected with Jimmy Garoppolo, who was the subject of much debate all offseason.

All along I believed they should keep Garoppolo. Having a quarterback you can win with is the absolute most valuable asset a team can have and it would be foolish to move him for anything less than a blockbuster deal that would give the Patriots multiple high-round assets over the next few seasons.

Now the team has a reliable backup quarterback who would still keep the Pats very much in the Super Bowl contender conversation should the unthinkable happen atop the depth chart. They can use the Cassel method next offseason, franchise tag and trade, to still get something for Garoppolo. It might not be as much as they might’ve gotten this past offseason, but that’s the price of insurance. At this stage of Belichick and Brady’s career, I’m fine paying a little extra for insurance.

Brissett is the true x-factor in all of this. If he continues to build on a rookie season where he was thrown into the fire immediately, he just might be the heir apparent everyone assumed Garoppolo would be. Brissett’s development will be a major thing to watch this summer through the preseason, and could tell us a lot about Garoppolo’s future.

Here’s a closer look at the trio of signal callers.

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Patriots Positional Preview: Tight Ends

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Training camp is less than two weeks away and we’re starting to wrap up our positional preview excerpts from this year’s season preview book. With just a few position groups to go, today we’re taking a look at the tight ends.

This is one of the few areas where there will be a significant personnel change from 2016, with Dwayne Allen being swapped in for Martellus Bennett. Bennett’s ability to ably fill in for Rob Gronkowski was one of the big factors in getting the Pats their fifth Super Bowl.

Many pundits tried to sell us that without Gronk the Pats just weren’t dynamic enough to win the big one, but Bennett helped prove that theory wrong.

If Gronk plays the entire season it won’t really matter all that much how well Allen assimilates, but Belichick has had high praise for the former Colt so it will be interesting to see his role in the offense, which I expect to be a versatile one.

There could also be a roster spot to be had by a third tight end, a job that would have to be won in training camp. Draft weekend trade acquisition James O’Shaughnessy could be a favorite along with Matt Lengel, who was acquired and played some snaps after Gronk was lost in 2016.

Let’s take a closer look at the tight ends.

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