Can Josh McDaniels Fill the Tom Martinez Void Left in Tom Brady’s QB Career? | Bleacher Report
Nice piece by Frenz. Love that Brady revealed he’s wearing a wrist band with Martinez’ tips on mechanics. McDaniels’ return should be a boost.
Shining a spotlight on edge rushers – New England Patriots Blog – ESPN Boston
Shining a spotlight on edge rushers – New England Patriots Blog – ESPN Boston
Is there room for Andre Carter here amongst this group? I think and hope so. Justin Francis gets some love here as well. He could be really useful if he can slide inside. Interior rushers are still a major question mark to me with Pryor and Fanene both still nursing injuries.
Justin Francis – The Rutgers product has seen his name pop up during OTAs and minicamp, and would appear to have the early edge on being the ‘annual’ undrafted rookie to emerge during the preseason. Francis appears to be slightly bulkier than his counterparts, and might have the ability to slide inside as an interior sub rusher.
Ras-I Dowling aiming for a rebound season with Patriots – The Boston Globe
Ras-I Dowling aiming for a rebound season with Patriots – The Boston Globe
There’s been some confusion over the past year as to just what Ras-I’s injury history has been, with Reiss saying he had no issues until his senior year of college. Bedard however sheds some light that it’s been a little more than that.
As a high school junior, he broke his hand. As a senior, he battled a knee injury. In his freshman year in college, Dowling missed a showdown against Southern Cal with a hamstring injury and left the North Carolina game with a back ailment.
New England Patriots’ Bill Belichick is the ultimate master of team building – ESPN Boston
New England Patriots’ Bill Belichick is the ultimate master of team building – ESPN Boston
Interesting on why the Pats have had no jerseys with numbers this off-season.
“They want us to learn each other’s names and communicate better,” one player said. Added another player: “With 90 guys on the roster, that’s a lot. The idea is to get away from saying, ‘Hey, number 95’ or ‘number 99,’ and call each person by their name. Our goal the whole camp was to communicate, and just know who you’re speaking to and what to say. We feel communication is a big thing in football, and that’s what we’re working on.”
We’ll see how it goes in training camp. We have three guys that kind of have some degree of fullback experience, a little bit of tight end experience, a little bit of running back experience, so there may be some crossover there. All three of those players have some value in the kicking game [and] we’ll see how all that plays out,” he said. “I think that’s a possibility [to carry a traditional fullback]. That’s why they’re here. They’re here to compete for that role on offense and that role in the kicking game. How that compares to what other players do, we’ll just have to see. We’ll have competition from that spot relative to linebacker, tight end, possibly running back and in the kicking game.
Insight on ‘the return of the fullback’ – New England Patriots Blog – ESPN Boston
BB throws cold water on all us football evolutionists that thought the team’s decision to bring in so many fullbacks signified another evolution. It’s not as interesting as we wish it was but sometimes they just bring in guys they like without some big picture schematic vision in their head of how they’re going to attack the opposition differently.
https://www.patspropaganda.com/well-see-how-it-goes-in-training-camp-we-have/
Bill Belichick, Vince Wilfork, and the New England Patriots defense – Grantland
Bill Belichick, Vince Wilfork, and the New England Patriots defense – Grantland
In case you missed this article from Chris Brown it’s a dandy. The scary thing to think about though is how reliant the Patriots seem on Wilfork to give them their scheme versatility. I don’t want to ever have to see what they’d do without him anchoring the middle, but it certainly makes you wonder what they’d have to throw together. Hopefully that’s a question for after his retirement.
By combining these techniques into one defense, Belichick achieves what seems most important to him these days — versatility. He’s able to plug different guys into different spots while knowing he has Wilfork anchoring the middle. As NFL offenses have become more and more spread, Belichick’s defenses have become more versatile. With one or two players 2-gapping on a given play, the outside linebackers in particular are free to blitz, drop into coverage, and attack running backs all over the field. Belichick rarely lets his scheme turn into a true 4-3; more often, he’ll use the same assignments for each defender but use 3-4 personnel. The variations are endless. And it all works because Wilfork is in the middle, dominating his gaps and putting his blocker on skates.
20 things we learned from Patriots OTAs & Mini-Camp
After pouring over all the reports from mini-camp and OTAs we’ve compiled a list of the things we know now that we didn’t know just a couple months ago. All of this sets us up as we head into the void with a little more Patriots knowledge to chew on for the next six weeks.
- Brandon Lloyd is as advertised and should have be an excellent addition to the offense.
- Ochocinco was never going to get it.
- Tom Brady is just as hungry now, if not moreso than he was earlier in his career.
- No one knows for sure what to expect out of Ras-I Dowling.
- Alfonzo Dennard is “stumpy” but surprisingly effective and often making plays on the ball.
- Sterling Moore continues to show he’s a versatile asset.
- There’s a good chance Logan Mankins will be ready to go at the start of the season.
- Sebastian Vollmer is still not healthy.
- Has anyone seen Ron Brace?
- Myron Pryor is still not healthy either.
- Jonathan Fanene could play a big role in the heart of the defense next to Vince Wilfork.
- It looks like the Pats might go even lighter in their nickel package this year with someone like Ninkovich replacing someone like Shaun Ellis.
- Jermain Cunningham had a good off-season, but he got hurt again.
- Bobby Carpenter is surprisingly playing a large part in the defense early on.
- Stevan Ridley knows he has to work on the fumbles.
- Shane Vereen is getting a lot of passing situation reps and looks fast.
- Tavon Wilson can play some nickel linebacker.
- Aaron Hernandez is likely the only healthy tight end who will still be on the roster come opening day.
- Markell Carter wasn’t as good as we hoped he might be.
- Marcus Cannon might be more valuable that anyone realizes.
