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Pats Posits: Catching Up as Pats Head to West Virginia

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It was a slow day here on the blog the last couple of days because I spent all of Sunday frolicking in the waves at the beach and that pretty much put me out of commission on Monday. Yes, I am getting old. But the good news is going to be at 9pm can really recharge the batteries so let’s dive back in on some stuff that I missed the last couple days.

First, let’s get some deflategate nonsense out of the way with the news that Brady will attend settlement hearing tomorrow in New York. Mike Florio mentioned last week that though the judge said Brady and Goodell didn’t have to attend, it’s a good idea to show up and send a message to the judge how important this is. So I think it’s a good idea Brady’s attending. 

The other interesting bit of news is that witnesses can be called tomorrow. Florio thought McNally and Jastremski were outside of the realm of possibility but those attached to the investigation certainly are not, so yes, I’m holding my breath and praying Jeff Pash, Ted Wells or, less likely, Mike Kensil have to testify under oath. If this hearing really is about whether or not the process was fair to Brady then it seems reasonable to think these guys have some explaining to do. 

Now for some football stuff – Pats traded Jordan Devey to San Francisco today for tight end Asante Cleveland. I think this is mostly a depth move to avoid having to play Gronk or overuse Hooman in the preseason games. They’re down Chandler and Bequette right now.

Of the other injured guys I’d most like to see back out there soon, Stork and Cadet top the list, but Flowers and Butler aren’t far behind. Most of all I’m curious how Cadet looks compared to White and Bolden, especially catching the ball.

Lot of defensive backs rotating positions the last couple days as well with the safeties seeing time at corner and the corners playing both inside and outside. Don’t read too much into this. Now is the time to get guys some reps at different spots. Better to do it now than have to throw them into it cold in the middle of the season because of an injury. It also lets the coaching staff look at how versatile the guys are.

Pats also have an open roster spot. Here’s the current depth chart as I see it (guys on PUP are at the bottom, obviously LaFell will be back at the top when he returns).

Looking forward to some quality practice reps against the Saints the next two days.

Pats Posits: 15 Thoughts on Pats-Packers Preseason

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And we’re off! Who cares about the scoreboard, there was a ton of new information to process. Here are my initial reactions to the players and plays of preseason week one.

1. The defense looked pretty good. They played plenty of man defense and generally the coverage was better than we probably expected. Malcolm Butler has picked up right where he left off, being right there to make a play on the ball multiple times.

2. Chandler Jones can’t seem to get the respect Dont’a Hightower and Jamie Collins get, but Chandler is very very good. He’s long, athletic and really playing the run well. He’s a force and could be in for a monster season.

3. Jabaal Sheard really impressed me with his strength in all facets of the game. He looks like the perfect fit we’ve always thought he would be.

4. Jonathan Freeny played most of the game and had some ups and downs. Still, in a mostly special teams role I think he’s close to a lock to make the roster. 

5. Slot cornerback Robert McClain impressed me with his tenacity and making at least one nice pass breakup (that was unfortunately negated by a Ninkovich offsides penalty). 

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6. Darryl Roberts also had his moments before leaving with a hand or wrist injury. Roberts looks like a good fit to go the route Butler went last year, assuming Tarrell Brown continues his hold on the likely starting right corner spot.

7. Upfront I thought the defensive tackles ran hot and cold. Easley and Brown both had their moments in both directions. Antonio Johnson looked okay and could possibly sneak onto my next roster projection.

8. Down game for Tavon Wilson I thought, just not making the plays when he’s right there. Wilson will need to be better but it appears that a strong camp didn’t translate in this game. Meanwhile Jordan Richards looked like he fit right in.

9. Tre Flowers looks like an exciting addition, let’s hope he’s not injured significantly. What a sack on Rodgers!

10. On offense I have to start with the guards, Mason and Jackson, who I thought did pretty well, especially in the run game. I know the pass protection was ugly overall, but I think these two rookies have real promise.

11. Really wanted to see a big play out of Jonas Gray and he delivered. His long touchdown is a big highlight coming out of this one.

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12. James White was up and down for me as well. But I liked some of his moves in space, getting extra yardage. I’m thinking he will work in tandem with Cadet to replace Vereen.

13. Overall Garoppolo looked about how we expected. A little slow at times, but still making some good throws in the face of porous protection. If he has to play a game or two he’ll be fine with a real OL and Gronk/Edelman.

14. Brandon Gibson shot to the top of the WR competition behind the big three. Dobson and Tyms are hurt and Boyce hasn’t progressed. Gibson is my top X now until LaFell returns or Dobson re-enters the conversation.

15. Where did Rufus Johnson come from? Wow, not a mention about him anywhere from camp. I had him as a linebacker, but he’s a DE and really stood out. The DE position is a log jam right now, we’ll see if he can sneak on but might take an injury.

5 Areas of Focus for New England Patriots’ Preseason Game vs. Green Bay Packers

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5 Areas of Focus for New England Patriots’ Preseason Game vs. Green Bay Packers

New one up on Athlon about the guys on the lower end of the depth chart that I’ll be watching. 

I can’t state this enough: DO NOT OVERREACT TO WHAT UNFOLDS IN THE GAME. There are no gameplans. There is a lot of experimentation. It’s about finding out who guys do individually moreso than how the team performs as a whole. 

A (mostly) Patriots-centric Review of Texans Hard Knocks Episode #1

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I love Hard Knocks. Nothing gets me more excited for football than going behind the scenes of what we speculate about all summer long. Unfortunately, we’re never getting a Patriots Hard Knocks as long as Belichick is here, though I’d bet Mr. Kraft would be willing to open up the doors to it once that day comes where a new coach takes over, hopefully many, many years from now.

Texans Hard Knocks is as close as we’re ever getting to a Patriots Hard Knocks, and that was on display in episode one, with great stuff from Wilfork, Vrabel, Romeo Crennel and, of course, Bill O’Brien.

Let’s start with Wilfork, because I’m not sure I’ve seen anything that’s brought me as much joy as watching him drop bombs on the basketball court, while Mrs 75 cheers him on. Just more evidence of what a freak athlete Wilfork is.

One other Wilfork area that stood out to me was during joint practices with the Redskins with JJ Watt asking Wilfork to just blast somebody. Wilfork calmly replied that he could if he wanted to, but he’s just trying to focus on getting himself better. Thought it was a good illustration of how a 10+ year veteran operates versus Watt who’s ready to take on the world every moment of every day.

Speaking of Watt, the most unintentionally hilarious part of episode one to me was after Romeo Crennel chews out the entire defense for playing like shit. Watt then goes full Ren McCormack, going off by himself, working on important things for a defensive tackle like one-handed catches. Kinda felt like it was all just for show. All that was missing was some Kenny Loggins and Watt angrily tossing a beer bottle next to his Volkswagon.

Watt is a crazy good player and how hard he works is apparent. He stayed an hour after his solo work to sign a ton of autographs. So it’s impossible to give Watt too much crap.

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I was happy to see plenty of Mike Vrabel in this episode. Obviously he’s one of the all-time dynasty Pats, but his sense of humor in New England was legendary and we only saw a little bit of it in this episode. Belichick called Vrabel one of the smartest players he ever coached and his work with the Texans linebackers shows not just what kind of smart, tough player Vrabel was, but how he expects the same out of his players.

Also loved when Vrabel reminded his players “This isn’t work”.

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Finally we end with Bill O’Brien who reminds me so much of my college hockey coach it’s scary. He always seems just a hairpin away from going ham on you for something, but for some reason you want nothing more than to do well for him. 

One interesting moment was when O’Brien was quizzing rookies about the identities of other guys on the team. It shows how important O’Brien feels it is for the team to know each other, not just as numbers on the field but as people.

This echoes back to Belichick not using numbers on jerseys in OTAs and early in training camp – something he caught some crap for from those in the media that felt like it was solely meant to make it hard for them to know who is there.

No, Belichick knows this is a great way to force guys to know each other as people, not numbers. Remember, they’re building a team, a family.

Of course, we all knew BO’B was fiery, right?

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A look back at “NEInsider”, connecting Spygate to Deflategate

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Four years ago I put together this post about an ESPN messageboard poster calling themselves “NEInsider” who claimed to have a lot of inside knowledge that he shared. He didn’t make many posts, but he certainly seemed knowledgeable and well-spoken enough to consider he might actually be a New England Patriots insider.

Last night, @eomrules sent me this thread from PatsFans.com that reposted one of NEInsider’s posts that seems even more interesting now in retrospect. Remember this was posted many years ago, in the wake of Spygate.

The Kraft family was a Goodell supporter and will never openly criticize him but they are livid over the way Spygate was handled and the fact Goodell hung them out as “Cheaters” when he absolutely knew it never helped during a game and then on national TV aknowledged frivilous accusations like phone tampering etc. when he stated more punishment would be added if necessary instead of doing the right thing and stating such claims were baseless without proof since he knew we could never tamper with phones since we never knew what system or what frequency was availbale to us until game time. 

This certainly raises the question of why did the Kraft’s decide to start trusting in Goodell again. Obviously Spygate happened very soon after Goodell first started so maybe they were just giving him a second chance?

I highly recommend you read the entire post, because it has a lot of interesting comments on Spygate, especially this one:

We taped defensive signals and offensive formation signals and we still have video of other teams taping us. They are of little value since no team uses the same signals even from game to game, quarter to quarter, and sometimes from series to series. We do it to FORCE the opposition to stay on thier toes and change signals hoping they mix up signals and have a bad play that results in a big play for us. There are no offensive signals only formation signals which are useless and they were taped at the same time as offensive signals and WERE possibly even on the Spygate tape. Any claims are baseless on this.

Again, this guy could be full of shit, but as you can see he doesn’t sound like your regular messageboard troll.