PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Review/Preview: 5 Things We Watched and 5 Things to Watch

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Patriots Super Bowl 36Before we review preview, one thing I’m monitoring:

No contract extensions… … …

First, I love that Bill Belichick gets extensions done with players that strengthen the overall team in the least evaluated area of the game, special teams. It reminds me of the moment before Super Bowl XXXVI when they were announced as a team and that gives me chills and anything that does that is good. The Patriots for a decade and a half have been the ideal of a working organization, each piece doing their part (or job, to turn a phrase) to serve the greater goal.

But the marquee extensions of Matthew Slater (1-year) and Jonathan Freeny (2-years) don’t exactly make me feel good about the most important unit of this football team, the defense. Jamie Collins and Hightower (and Sheard and Butler) are huge cogs that play their parts extremely well in what could be an all-time Patriots defense and I’m beginning to fear we’re going to lose one of them. There’s always the chance that if nothing materializes in contract talks, one of them is on his way to Jacksonville or Detroit for a 1st or 2nd round pick. At this point, the best-case scenario is to hang on to them and go the compensatory pick or franchise-tag route.

All I can say is, I’ve got my prepper kit and a season’s worth of provisions in the bunker in anticipation of the Huckster Hurricane should Belichick pull the trigger. I urge Jim Cantore to get his LL Bean parka because level-5 “Shaughnessy Shitstorm” is building strength off the Atlantic coast.

On to the Review/Preview…

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Free Survivor Pool Contests for Upcoming NFL Season

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NFLSurvivorPoster2
Some exciting news today to pass along to you all. A friend of the site, Niko de Jonge, is running a couple Survivor Pool contests through two of his websites for the upcoming season. The contests are completely free to enter and you can win cash prizes.

Which Surivivor Pool contest you are eligible to enter is broken down based on where you live. This is because one of the sites is focused solely on Canadians. But don’t worry if you’re not from Canada, the other contest actually has a bigger prize pool.

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Chris Long Still Has Plenty of Gas in the Tank

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One of the more intriguing free agents that the Patriots brought to town this year was veteran DE, Chris Long. There have never been questions about Long’s work ethic, attitude or abilities during his time in the NFL. As a second overall pick, he represents one of the higher caliber players in the league from a pure talent perspective.

However, nagging injuries have plagued Long for the last two seasons to the point where there are now questions about “how much does he have left in the tank?” Well, rest easy Patriots fans, because it appears Chris Long has plenty of fuel left to burn.

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Random Pats Musings on the Final Preseason Game of 2016 (and more)

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Tonight the Patriots will play their fourth and final game of the 2016 preseason, and if they can just get through this one without an injury they’ll have escaped an entire summer without a season-ender. That’s pretty impressive and of course, the injury risks are somewhat lessened because most of the big names will see limited, if any, action.

But let’s not get too excited yet, because who knows what Belichick’s plans are for Tom Brady and Jimmy Garoppolo. Both players could play and anytime the (two) starting quarterback(s) play in the preseason, I’m holding my breath.

Julian Edelman travelled with the team as well and if he enters the game that’s one to hold your breath for as well. Otherwise it should be a scrubfest and there’s not a ton we can take from anything we see.

Still, for all the debate that rages in Patriots nation right now, all that really matters are injuries. Tell me in January how many guys are on Injured Reserve and I’ll tell you exactly how the Patriots season went and what their Super Bowl chances are. I know this is the boring take, but it’s the truth.

That’s where the Patriots are now. They’re a hand-picked, finely-tuned football team that is better coached than any one else. The only way they don’t make it within a play or two of their fifth Super Bowl is if the wrong guys get hurt.

While people invent talking points like Brady hating Garoppolo (or whatever it is they’re saying because I don’t really listen to it) or Marcus Cannon being little more than a turnstile in a Patriots jersey, it’s all just noise. And as I love to say here on the blog, Ignore the Noise.

So let’s just try to enjoy one last mostly-stress-free football games before things get intense.

Here are some things to keep an eye on and some ramblings on what’s about to go down over the next four days.

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5 Possible Shocking Patriots Cuts

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Patriots shocking cutLabor Day weekend can be one of the craziest times of the football year for Patriots fans. There’s always at least one bombshell that Bill Belichick drops on us, cutting or trading a player we all thought would play a significant part in a season that starts in mere days.

It puts many of us in a tailspin. What does it mean? Are they not “all in” this year? Was that guy a bad dude? Are they cheap? Do they not want to win the Super Bowl this year. What. Is. Happening.

Now before you let any of these drive you insane, remember two things. 1) None of them will probably happen, but… B) That’s what we would’ve thought about Lawyer Milloy, Richard Seymour, Logan Mankins, Brandon Meriweather and even Jonas Gray to name a few. And the tailspin described above is more or less what happened with each of those releases.

The formula is pretty simple really. Either guys aren’t as good as we thought they were or, they’re entering the final year of a deal and on the backside of their career. That’s a prime time to move them and get some value in return. It might be one year too early, but that’s how BB rolls. Better than one year too late.

We already got one kind of surprising (but not for me) trades this offseason that fit this mold with Chandler Jones getting moved. Maybe BB already hit his quota with that one.

Here’s my five (realistic) potential shockers.

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Why Browns’ Copycat Belichick Draft Approach Won’t Work

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Belichick Browns Draft

I wanted to write this after seeing this tweet from Rich Hill.

For those not familiar with the Red Paperclip strategy , it began when a Canadian blogger, Kyle McDonald, bartered his way from a red paperclip to a house in 14 trades. Amazing. We’ve seen this idea in sports, recently with former Sixers GM Sam Hinkie, who was unceremoniously fired after 3 years of racing to the bottom accumulating assets all the way. The point of his strategy was to win a trade with no eye on the present success in pursuit of the accumulation of more valuable future assets.

Enter the 2016 Cleveland Browns who are fire sale-ing anything not nailed down in an attempt to acquire assets, using a largely analytical approach. In a piece in the Cleveland.com, Dan Labbe made the correlation between the Hinkie’s plan and Sashi Browns, urging fans to be patient with “The Process”.

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Tuesday Pats Roundup

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So much in motion these days it’s hard to stay on top of it all. And just after you write someone off as retiring or getting traded they unretire or their trade is negated when they fail a physical. Yes, I look forward to things next week, when we get back on a firm schedule and the roster movement is more contained.

Of course that won’t be the case this weekend, when there’s a good chance the Pats add some player currently on another roster who steps in and immediately plays a significant role. No, that player isn’t on anyone’s 53-man roster projection right now, and that’s what always makes Labor Day weekend so exciting.

Except when it’s something like Richard Seymour getting traded to the Raiders.

Here’s a catch up of everything that’s been going down and a rough guess at who the roster locks are right now.

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