PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Patriots Ready to Move On From Blount?

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After an extended quiet period the Patriots were back in the news with a couple visits this morning, bringing in Buffalo RFA Mike Gillislee and Miami RFA Damien Williams.


Yes, it’s always fun when the Pats get ready to raid their AFC East rivals, but you’d think at this point the Bills and Dolphins would do their best to match any offer the Patriots make, except that, oh yeah, the Patriots have more cap flexibility and can pretty much do what they want.

Of the two, Gillislee is the more appealing to me and as someone who’s ready to move on from LeGarrette Blount, I’d welcome the addition. It was reported earlier this week that Blount has had a contract sitting on the table from the Patriots since the start of free agency and is still looking for more money. The fact that he hasn’t gotten a better offer elsewhere, coming off a record-setting campaign for the Pats, says volumes.

Blount certainly has his moments, but his inconsistency in big games leaves me wondering if it’s more the overall Patriots scheme that is most responsible for his best successes, which often seemed to come against the weakest teams. Look at his playoff numbers below and the trend is pretty clear.

Playoffs Rushing & Receiving Table
Game Game Rush Rush Rush Rush Rush Rush
Year Age G GS Rush Yds TD Lng Y/A Y/G
2013 27 2 1 29 172 4 73 5.9 86.0
2014 28 3 0 47 189 3 22 4.0 63.0
2016 30 3 1 35 109 1 18 3.1 36.3
Care Care 8 2 111 470 8 73 4.2 58.8
Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 4/13/2017.

Williams seems more or less just a guy. He’s never topped 36 carries in a season but has had over 20 catches in each of his first three years and can return kicks. Would he suddenly take off with New England? I’m more interested in Rex Burkhead at this point.

But Gillislee is more intriguing. Belichick had this to say about him last season:

“Some of his time has been limited because of McCoy, who has had such an explosive season, but when he’s had a chance to play he’s done a good job,” said Belichick. “He had a big run against San Francisco, like a 44-yard touchdown. A strong, downhill runner, one cut guy, that’s hard to tackle. Good complementary player to McCoy. McCoy is exceptional, but Gillislee is a good back too.”

Gillislee averaged 5.7 yards-per-attempt in each of the last two seasons. He’s just the kind of under-the-radar player that the Patriots are famous for plucking and turning into a key contributor. Not that that is what they need from him. He’d join three backs who are already pretty balanced overall. It seems clear the Patriots want a deep backfield that can do just about anything. Burkhead has some power, but Gillislee would bring even more explosiveness.

Patriots 2017 Preseason Opponents Announced

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In one of the more anticlimactic moments of the offseason, the NFL announced preseason opponents today, in the first small sign that the 2017 season is approaching faster than we realize. This summer the Patriots will face:


The Patriots will play the Giants like they usually do in the final week of the preseason, but the other opponents leave a little bit to be desired. There’s already reports of the Patriots and Texans planning some joint practice sessions. Perhaps, with some old Patriots execs running things with the Lions now, the Pats will do the same with Detroit.

Usually in the preseason I like to see a variety of good quarterbacks. Facing one who can run is always good for preparation too. Unfortunately the quarterbacks of this preseason won’t give the Pats’ defense the kind of experience they’ve gotten the past couple seasons when they saw QBs like Drew Brees and Cam Newton.

Still there’s plenty of talent on the defensive side of the ball for the Jags and Texans and Matthew Stafford in Detroit should present some challenges.

But ultimately who they play in the preseason doesn’t matter all that much. It’s just a nice reminder in early April that August will soon be here.

Belichick’s Hot Jacket Lives!!!

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The biggest surprise of Super Bowl 51 was not that the Patriots came back from 25 points down to win, but that Bill Belichick decided, for some unknown reason that will befuddle me for all eternity, to remove the Flying Elvis from his beloved Hot Jacket for the game. There had been much speculation as to what Belichick would wear in the big game. Heck, it even got me on national TV as everyone speculated if he’d wear a hoodie and which one it might be.

Instead, Belichick wore his Hot Jacket, which has been his favorite coaching attire since 2013 with that one small modification. Since the Hot Jacket is no longer being made, I wondered if this meant the end of it. Or would Belichick really continue wearing an Elvis-less jacket while coaching the team?

Yes, these are the things that keep me up late at night. Well today, we got an answer.

As you can see it looks like Belichick was sitting on a new Hot Jacket, because there it is back in its fully Elvis’d glory. We might never know why Belichick decided to cut off the logo for the Super Bowl, but it’s a good bet that this new version will carry him into future seasons and continue to build upon a post-Hoodie legacy.

2017 PatsPropaganda Draft Big Board

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Welcome to Year 7 of the PatsPropaganda Draft Big Board! Going with a little bit different format this year. Instead of ranking these prospects 1-50 I’m going to leave them separated by position to make it a little easier to follow and a little less dependent on rankings.

As always, these are players that I see as fitting what the Patriots do. Needs are calculated a tiny bit (no QBs this year), but generally it’s more about the player and how he fits. Still, I’ve listed the positions as I generally view the draft needs, with linebacker, defensive end, running back and tackle being the priorities.

I’m looking to bounce back after my worst year ever in 2016. The whole point of this — doing one big board with 50 guys and one mock draft — was to bring a level of accountability to it and to challenge myself to see how many picks I could nail. This year is especially difficult because as of early April the Pats still don’t have their first pick until the third round. I expect that to change. So there are some higher-end prospects mixed in here, but generally I tried to start at the bottom and work my way backwards.

I’ll drop my mock draft the week before the draft. This is a fluid list so please comment if you think I’ve left a perfect Patriots fit off! Hopefully I can nail at least a couple picks this year!!

Let’s get after it!

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Putting Malcolm Butler’s 2017 RFA Contract in Historical Context

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Not gonna lie, I’m not really enjoying the last couple weeks of the “Butler’s mad, maybe they’ll get Sherman” merry-go-round. Long gone are the days of “holy hoodie we got Brandin Cooks.” Now it seems like all anyone cares about is what’s going to happen with Butler.

For the record I love Butler. And not just for the SB49-sealing interception. I believe he’s the best young corner the Pats have had since Ty Law and I do hope that he sticks around in New England for a long time. However, with the first round RFA tender Butler is scheduled for a 652 percent raise, going from making $600K in 2016 to $3.91 million in 2017.

This would also give Butler the 9th-highest average annual salary under Belichick. So I think we need to pump the brakes a bit on how much Butler is getting screwed here. By now we know this is how the Pats do business. There’s no sentimentality, it’s all about maximizing the 1-53 roster even if some feathers get ruffled.

Let’s take a look at what the Pats have paid corners in the past and how Butler fits into it all, even on his RFA first round tender.

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Pats Posits: What Does It Mean!!??

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Sorry for the delayed action around here the past few days. Not that there’s really been all that much to talk about, but I was back in Boston getting everything ready for the move-back in June. The great news is that it looks like I’ll be living right around the corner from Gillette Stadium and well, you get what that means. I am looking forward to being able to take the site to another level. We’ll see how that all plays out this summer.

Otherwise, while I was in Boston the Patriots news was dominated by the report that Adrian Peterson was visiting the Pats. That, of course, was going to set off plenty of talking points, and it was even worse than you might expect because there’s nothing else to talk about.

Peterson left without a deal and you get the sense there might not be one coming. With Peterson’s past it’s easy to see why many people don’t want him on the Patriots, especially given Robert Kraft’s comments last week about the team not being interested in those with domestic violence in their past.

But I think the thing everyone forgets is that visits can be for a number of things. Most of the draft prospects the Patriots visit with they don’t even draft. So just because someone visits you can’t jump to the conclusion the Patriots are definitely considering signing them. Maybe they were considering Peterson, but I also know that Belichick spends time at just about every college Pro Day he can get to because the guy just loves football and football players.

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Gosselin: How Bill Belichick gives the Patriots an edge over every other NFL team at draft time | SportsDay

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If you’re grading drafts, there are lots of As and Bs to hand out after the first three rounds. But it’s what teams do in Rounds 4-7 that can make a good draft great.And no one knows the draft board — the entire draft board — like Patriots coach Bill Belichick. There are no throwaway picks when the Patriots are on the clock. New England has become the NFL’s dominant team because the Patriots own the back end of the draft.

Source: Dallas Cowboys: How Bill Belichick gives the Patriots an edge over every other NFL team at draft time | SportsDay

Gosselin is one of the most respected football writers out there, so obviously, as you can see above, he gets it. As much as the draft and all the amateur draftniks out there annoy me, there’s a special place in my heart for those who still try to tell me “Belichick can’t draft” or “Belichick the GM doesn’t help Belichick the coach”.

This assumes that somewhere out there there’s someone who CAN draft. Someone who hits on every pick. Someone who would never draft Ras-I Dowling 33rd overall. Okay, maybe that one has a point.

But the draft is really just an elaborate lottery. Even the guys making the picks don’t know for sure how any selection will truly work out. You see their body of  work in college, their timed measurables, you’ve talked to them, maybe even brought them into the facility and shown them around, but when training camp rolls around no one knows for sure how the player will respond.

How will he handle not being the most talented player on the field anymore? How will he handle having a fat bank account? How will he handle not getting the playing time he wants? How will he pick up the playbook? Will his career just be injury after injury?

NOBODY KNOWS. It’s impossible to know. So for every seven-round mock draft out there by some random dude in the proverbial Mom’s basement, there’s guys like Mel Kiper who might be just as wrong.

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