An Independent Patriots Blog
Jeff Howe tweeted yesterday that the plan is currently to leave McCourty at safety and while I think that makes sense, I wouldn’t totally rule out him moving back to corner at some point due to injuries or poor performance.
The advantage of McCourty at safety is that he can help get everyone lined up and on the same page. If he’s isolated as a corner you’re going to lose that.
New England Patriots Finally Primed With Pass-Rusher Potential
New one up on Athlon, I’m excited about the pass rush potential!
You get that feeling as soon as you walk in the building – you’re here to work. It’s definitely work first, hard hat on. I learned that the first day, from the first team meeting,
https://www.patspropaganda.com/you-get-that-feeling-as-soon-as-you-walk-in-the/
Obviously the Pats have to walk a fine line here after the whole Hernandez thing, but in terms of the player Collins is, I think he could possibly be a day one starter at left guard. His aggressive playing temperament is certainly a perfect fit for what they want (and need) out of that spot.
I don’t know how much Shaq and Jackson will bring to the party. One of them will hopefully take the right guard spot immediately. But I am not sure I see a real good left guard option on the roster outside of bringing back Connolly…which would be fine.
But putting Collins in the mix would really make for an incredibly promising young trio of inside linemen, something they need more than anything else on offense.
The short and somewhat tumultuous Patriots career of Alfonzo Dennard came to an end today as the team released him. It’s somewhat of a surprise given Dennard had started his fair share of games as an outside corner in 2012 and 2013 and the Pats don’t really have any other proven outside starting corner on the roster, at least that has experience in the system.
Dennard’s first two years were marred with legal trouble but even though those were cleared up this season he ended up buried on the depth chart and unable to transition to the slot, a place he might picked up some more playing time.
It seems impossible to know where the line between performance, attitude and injuries was for Dennard, but some details are now coming to light.
Reportedly Dennard didn’t always have the commitment necessary in Foxboro, so it would seem the writing was on the wall for a while now. With multiple rookie free agents being signed, cutting Dennard not only opened up a roster spot but also freed up nearly $1 million in cap space.
Not much changes as far as the cornerbacks go, it’s going to be an open competition and the best three guys will win the starting roles out of camp. While Dennard had some good man coverage abilities and was a feisty corner, he was undersized and useless in the 2013 AFC Championship when forced to cover Demaryius Thomas.
Flowers was a second-team All-SEC selection in 2014, racking up 13.5 tackles for loss, five sacks and three forced fumbles, but he fell to the fourth round because he’s a bit of a tweener at 6’2" and 266 pounds. Flowers shows surprisingly good field speed in coverage for a player his size, but he’s not always explosive off the snap and he tends to wrestle more than he pursues at times. Still, Bill Belichick saw him as a good value with the 101st pick.
https://www.patspropaganda.com/flowers-was-a-second-team-all-sec-selection-in/
Eleven takeaways from 11 Patriots draft picks – New England Patriots Blog – ESPN
Good read and an easy way to get a little bit on each of the guys the Pats took.
It’s hard to believe we’re about to close the books on another regular season but the strangest part is that I don’t really know who the 2015 Patriots are. Are they the dominant Dion Lewis-at-RB team from the first half of the season? Are they the “Sick Jamie Collins” defense they played a month with? Really, […]