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Brady and Patriots get their group workout on

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Maybe it’s just my lockout depression but I’m having a hard time really caring about the Pats all working out together. I think the Patriots are arguably the best prepared team to deal with a prolonged lockout especially if games are missed.

There aren’t major free agency questions, they have a coaching staff and systems that have long been in place, and they really shouldn’t have to be overly reliant on rookies. 

So they’re working out together. Great. A good bunch of them have been working out together all off-season. Brady’s there now, that’s good for the young guys, but most of the team are self-starters anyways so I’m sure one way or another everyone has been working out, staying in shape, and doing their best to stay football sharp.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to know they’re all together and building some team camaraderie. But I’m not one of those people clamoring for them to make a media spectacle of it, or have t-shirts made or any of that stuff like a certain other team.

The best news to come out of today is:

There are between 40-60 players in attendance, including several rookies (Nate Solder, Ras-I Dowling, Shane Vereen and Ryan Mallett).

It appears just about every starter is in attendance, including Wes Welker, Deion Branch, Jerod Mayo, Devin McCourty, Rob Gronkowski, Patrick Chung, BenJarvus Green-Ellis.

Also of note: Ty Warren, Mike Wright and Aaron Hernandez are working out. Warren and Wright ended the season on the disabled list, and Hernandez had post-season hip surgery. This is the first group football activity for them in some time.

Having those injured guys back out there is really good to hear, especially in Wright’s case since most people fail to acknowledge him at all when they get into the “Patriots pass rush sucks” observations. Would be nice to know if Myron Pryor was back yet for the same reasons.

I’m sure this will be the talk of all things Patriots on the internet for the next couple days. Hopefully we hear more about the formerly-injured and rookies that were in attendance. Otherwise, it’s like mini-camp without pictures which is hard for me to get too pumped up about, because who knows when football will even start for real.

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So what does a quarterback need to play in [the Erhardt-Perkins] offense? Not very much. The quarterback needs to possess only limited ability: good football smarts, short to medium passing accuracy, an arm good enough to make the deep ball a possibility, and a good play action fake. Brady fits this mold perfectly and plays as one would expect a quarterback who fits a system perfectly to perform.

https://www.patspropaganda.com/so-what-does-a-quarterback-need-to-play-in-the/

Air Erhardt continues to evolve in mid-90s Pittsburgh

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Air Erhardt continues to evolve in mid-90s Pittsburgh

One of the more interesting things about the Erhardt-Perkins offense is that it was really born out of a smash mouth football, but as the NFL evolved so did Erhardt. This article talks about the evolution of the offense to rely more on the pass to move the ball.

“What you do is try to adjust to your personnel. My philosophy is you pass to score touchdowns, but you run to win. That hasn’t changed. We’ve passed it a little more, but we still led the league in time of possession.”

While the core concept of the offense remains the same there is far greater use of the short passing game to keep the chains moving now than when the offense was first conceived. As always, football schemes are constantly being tweaked to stay on top of the latest innovations in the game.

Air Erhardt Offense born with 1990 Giants

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Air Erhardt Offense born with 1990 Giants

Good read here, and a real benchmark kind of a moment not only for the Erhardt-Perkins offense but surely for Bill Belichick who was on the Giants when this evolution happened.

With tough run defenses like the Bears and 49ers the Giants were forced to alter their smash mouth approach by opening up the passing game enough to keep the defenses spread out and on their toes. This was really one of the major steps toward the modern Patriots offense which will employ spread looks but is unafraid to run out of them, or utilize a horizontal attack.

Ultimately one of the core values of the offense always remains “maximizing the time of possession”. That takes greater value than necessarily just being “smash mouth”.

“Any offensive coach would like to throw the ball,” Erhardt said. “But as you change people, you do different things to win. Bill keeps saying we’re not in the entertainment business; we’re here to win.” Robinson said it was a Catch-22 situation. “I think any of us is capable,” said the sixth-year receiver. “But are we a big-play offense? We haven’t opened up because we haven’t anyone to open up to. But can we have someone like that if we don’t open up?

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While no team exclusively runs the Erhardt-Perkins offensive, many teams use its philosophy as the basis for creating the playbook. Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick, Josh McDaniels, Charlie Weis, Jeff Davidson, Bill Cowher, Marty Schottenheimer, and Chan Gailey-led teams typically base their attacks on ball control and/or running the ball.

https://www.patspropaganda.com/while-no-team-exclusively-runs-the-erhardt-perkins/

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Weis states in his autobiography “No Excuses” that the first play that he called in Super Bowl XXXVI was: Zero Flood Slot Hat, Seventy-eight Shout Tosser. Zero is the base formation. Flood Slot Hat further modifies this formation to a set with one back in motion, two tight ends and two wide receivers (which is to say five potential receivers in total). Seventy-eight is the base play number, a three step drop play. Shout tells the three potential receivers on one side of the quarterback what routes they should run, while Tosser tells the other two potential receivers their patterns. During the actual game, Tom Brady threw the ball to Troy Brown for a twenty-one yard gain, seventeen of it after the catch.

https://www.patspropaganda.com/weis-states-in-his-autobiography-no-excuses-that/