PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Help. Who’s Who at Patriots Rookie MiniCamp?

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One of my favorite annual articles to write is the Patriots Rookie Eyeball Test, where I take an in-depth look (literally) at the newest players to join the team and break down their numbers, facemasks and general aura in a hard-hitting article. However this year things were made nearly impossible after the photos were released from rookie mini-camp.

First, no one is actually labeled on the Patriots.com pics and randomly, all of the players seem to have been given nonsense numbers. This is a new development, as Belchick used to have the team often without numbers at all to improve communication. The NFL put the kibosh on that a couple seasons ago. For what it’s worth, the official team roster still has all the rookie numbers as “N/A”.

Let’s take a quick dive into the minicamp photos and do the best I can to identify who is who, while I’m forced to wait for actual numbers for each player.

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Locks, Bubbles and Long Shots: A Post-Draft Pats 53-Man Roster Look

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While roster building is a year-round activity, we can now take a general look at the roster and identify where the most uncertainty and competition will be this summer. You can also see where it might make sense to make an acquisition or two over final cutdown during Labor Day Weekend.

As of right now, I have the locks at 45 before any injuries turn all of this on its head.

Here’s what I got:

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Patriots Beat Podcast with Trags

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The indefatigable Trags (aka Mike Petraglia) had me on his podcast this week. Always enjoy talking football with him, if you haven’t taken a listen it’s always an informative show with guests far more exciting than me!

We talk about some of the more exciting and most concerning parts of the Pats 2018 offseason and team building thus far. Thanks to Trags for having me on!

 

Quick Hits on Patriots Positional Groups

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As I not-so-patiently wait for the first rookie helmet/number reveal it’s a good time to run through the Patriots position groups heading into mini-camps. There’s still some team building to be done over the course of the summer — re-works (Hi Gronk!), extensions perhaps — but for the most part the Patriots’ main core is set.

Like nearly all Patriots’ teams, this one has some question marks and some noticeable lack of depth at certain spots. But the Pats will do what they do, let competition and injuries play out and then figure things out from there.

Here are two notes on each position group.

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Tom Brady’s Helmets: A Retrospective

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Yes, this was the worst loss of his career, but damn did he look good running out of the tunnel.

With all the fluff out there about drafting quarterbacks, bad draft choices and discontent between Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, it’s time to drop some hard-hitting journalism here on the blog. Let’s get serious and talk about how this is sadly the last year Tom Brady can wear his helmet of choice.

One of the things that instantly made me like Brady was that he just had the perfect quarterback look. Yes, 12 is the number for signal-callers, but it was Brady’s low-rising helmet that put him on another level. At that point, Peyton Manning had already set the NFL world on fire, but if it came down to simple looks on the field, I was already taking Brady before he had even started a game.

But it wasn’t like Brady jumped right into the perfected look that he’s now known for and he even experimented with other helmets for a few games in 2011 and 2012.

Let’s take an important and possibly ground-breaking look back at Brady’s helmet-look over the course of his career and figure out what he might switch to in 2019.

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Tom Brady Will Finish Career as Patriot, On His Own Terms

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After almost a whole two days of talking about real Patriots news and the draft, the focus was ripped back away from football and back to the 2017 season and just how happy Tom Brady really is after he sat down for a rare offseason interview with Jim Gray. His lengthy talk gave plenty of fodder to whichever side you choose to take in the spring of the Patriots’ alleged discontent.

No matter what you want to believe, the remaining fact is Brady will be quarterbacking in Patriots training camp in July, where football betting lines still have New England as Super Bowl favorites. We are of course nearing the end of the Belichick-Brady run, and things have certainly evolved, but the important issue — going after Super Bowl 53 — remains unchanged and unlikely affected.

It didn’t take long before the warring factions who cover and follow the Patriots started trading jabs over Brady’s answers. One side focused myopically on Brady’s “plead the fifth” comment at the start, while the other pointed to Brady’s later comments on how much respect he has for Bill Belichick, and around and around we go. Social media can be so fun these days.

The truth, as always, is somewhere in the middle. And as usual, the arguments are often in bad faith. Brady is clearly transitioning to the end phase of his career. He’s making more time for his family and he’s training his way. He has said those things implicitly a number of times. He knows Belichick can no longer unexpectedly ship him out of town so he’s doing what he wants.

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Patriots 2018 Draft Recap

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After months of buildup, the 2018 NFL draft is now in the rearview mirror and Patriots fans can begin to focus on mini-camps, the June-July void and finally, training camp. The major pieces that will comprise the 2018 Patriots are in place, and while the draft was a trade-down-fest with plenty of fodder for sports talk shows, the team once again got a bunch of really good football players who will improve a team that came within one stop of their third Super Bowl title in four years for the second time.

When you think back to a decade ago, things were very different. The Patriots veteran defense was hanging on by a string in 2008, and when Tom Brady went down in the opening quarter of the season, the rebuild was jumpstarted. They missed the playoffs that season on a tie-break and would be upset at home in their first playoff games in both 2009 and 2010, before scrapping their way back into a Super Bowl in 2011. They haven’t missed a conference championship game since.

But now the Patriots have seen little-to-no dropoff on the offensive side of the ball. Brady has maintained his level of excellence even though the pieces around him continue to shift. Last year’s MVP performance was a crowning achievement even in the final game’s defeat. Yes, Brady has lost three Super Bowls, but 52 was just an epic performance by him.

The Patriots’ window is still very much open with Brady, but time is running out. How will these draft picks assimilate and help? Let’s take a big picture view.

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