An Independent Patriots Blog
Stock Watch Buy: Jamie Collins – With Brandon Spikes not practicing the rookie second-round pick got a chance to run with the first unit at strong side linebacker. He was active at times, knocking down a couple of passes and nearly picking one off as he cut underneath a Bucs receiver near the goal line during a team period.
https://www.patspropaganda.com/stock-watch-buy-jamie-collins-with-brandon/
Top pick Collins rises up on D – New England Patriots Blog – ESPN Boston
I was thinking this might be what a post-Spikes linebacker corps might look like: Collins-Hightower-Mayo. This is a good look at how Collins has been fitting in. Sure to be some growing pains with him, but he’s certainly the kind of player the Pats need on their defense.
Observations: Day 2 of Tampa week – New England Patriots Blog – ESPN Boston
I’ve remained intrigued by Bolden and these two bits from Field Yates’ observations below only reinforce that. He’ll need to make some plays in these next two games.
As they do each day, the Patriots got receiving work in for their running backs. After taking stock of the six backs on the roster, we’d rank them like this in terms of receiving ability: Shane Vereen, Leon Washington, Brandon Bolden, Stevan Ridley, LeGarrette Blount and George Winn. The top four are particularly comfortable handling the football in the receiving game, with Bolden getting the slight edge over Ridley due to route-running ability. Speaking of Bolden, he remains a player of interest for us. He doesn’t have any glaring deficiencies to his game, and we saw in small doses last season that he can be an effective runner. Whether or not he’s shown the coaching staff enough since his suspension in the middle of last season to take carries away from Ridley and others is a big question entering the season. He appears to be behind Blount as things currently stand, but with as much talent as Bolden has, he should have a chance to earn some carries back with a strong rest of his preseason.
Get your Pats tickets!!
Vince, he’s certainly anchored our defense since ’05 really. In ’04 he was kind of a rotational player. He’s been a solid guy there for us. He’s played wherever we’ve needed him to play. He’s played nose, he’s played defensive tackle, he’s played defensive end. Yeah, as well as being a great player, he’s been a great leader. He does a great job with the younger players. He’s certainly one of the most respected players on the team, particularly along with [Jerod] Mayo – two of our most experienced defensive players – they provide a lot of leadership to the entire unit, as does Devin [McCourty] but Devin is a little younger and it’s more in the backend. As far as the front goes, Vince and Jerod, they both do a great job of that.
https://www.patspropaganda.com/vince-hes-certainly-anchored-our-defense-since/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQDTYKxso2E
Rob Gronkowski #87 | Highlights | New England Patriots (HD) (by RB3TV1)
https://www.patspropaganda.com/rob-gronkowski-87-highlights-new-england-2/
