PatsPropaganda

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Lee Smith

Football Times: Three Tight Ends the next revolution in football?

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Football Times: Three Tight Ends the next revolution in football?

Well this sure is an interesting article, especially when you look at the tight ends the Patriots will have on their roster this year. As always, BB ahead of the curve…

Football evolution is such that tight ends are becoming more prominent. The last great offensive system craze was the “west coast offense”. It was countered by teams running versions of the “cover two”. The answer to the cover two isn’t so much a scheme, but a position. Tight ends are designed to operate in the seam, which is the weak area of the cover two systems.

Most tight ends either block well or catch well, but all have to do both to some extent. Can’t block?  You’d better be a darn good catcher or you can’t be a receiver. Can’t catch? You’d better be a darn good blocker or you won’t get on a team as an offensive lineman. The few tight ends who do both exceedingly well are a danger to any team. Few things scare a defensive coach more than having to guess if the tight end is blocking or going out for a pass. It can’t be schemed for, because you can only guess. The guessing becomes a nightmare when two or three solid tight ends are on a team.

Mark my words: the tight end is the wave of the future in the NFL. It started a couple of years ago, and is gaining in momentum.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyPcaj

New England Patriots Lee Smith Highlights

From Mike Reiss:

How might you envision him making his mark in the NFL?: "I don’t know if I’ve seen another player as physical as him at the tight end position. From what I understand, it’s hard to find guys like Lee that enjoy blocking. His mentality is that he’s going to do whatever is best for the team. He will not complain. I know in college, a lot of tight ends just want to catch the ball. He’s not like that. He’ll do whatever. If they want to line him up and have him block every play, that’s what he’ll do.“ 

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

https://www.patspropaganda.com/new-england-patriots-lee-smith-highlights-from/

PatsPropaganda’s Patriots Draft Research Self Evaluation

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This was our most extensive year researching and discussing the draft, and like all good teams/bloggers you must be critical with your self-evaluation if you want to improve.

This is the sixth draft that I obsessed over from a Patriots perspective. Prior to that I just looked at the list of draftees and tried to make sense of it. But the five previous drafts have definitely been an education, so I was hoping that this year I could get 75% of the Patriots picks on my Patriots-only Big Board.

This will be a review of how I did, and why I missed who I did. This will include reflections on my Patriots-only Big Board and Patriots-only Mock Draft.

17. Nate Solder

Patriots-only Big Board Rank: 12

Solder was definitely one of my favorite Patriots prospects. I mentioned him in every non-PatsProp article I wrote for other sites, and I had him as 33rd overall pick in my Pats-only mock. Had him a little lower than he actually went, but otherwise I nailed this one. Solder stood out to me as a Vollmer clone, and I thought the Patriots could allow him a year to develop. He has great size and athleticism and that is always tempting for BB given what the Pats ask their OL to do.

33. Ras-I Dowling

Patriots-Only Big Board Rank: 28

I also nailed Ras-I in my Patriots-only mock, albeit having him in the 74th overall slot. He seemed to me the classic guy who falls because of injury ala Brandon Tate, thus setting him up to be an excellent value pick. Dowling fit the exact need I’ve talked about most of the spring… a rookie DB who can play some sub packages in year one, but eventually projects to Free Safety where he could replace Brandon Meriweather and/or James Sanders since both of their contracts are up after 2011. Going two for two, though much higher than I predicted, was a pretty solid start out of the gates.

56. Shane Vereen

Patriots-Only Big Board Rank: 36

I thought the Patriots would definitely tap a running back in the second or third round, however I chose Johnny White at 92 instead of Vereen who was ranked 5 spots higher on the big board. I went with White because he was a similar situation to Dowling in that he battled injuries this past season, thus dropping his ranking. 3 for 3 on the big board, 2 for 3 on the Pats-only mock.

73. Stevan Ridley

Patriots-Only Big Board Rank: 53

Nobody saw back to back running backs here, but Ridley was definitely a guy on our radar that we saw as a fit. Tough to nail this pick in the mock but it would’ve been a disappointing miss if he had not been on the big board.

74. Ryan Mallett

Patriots-Only Big Board Rank: UNRANKED

We didn’t have any quarterbacks on our big board, not because we didn’t like any of them, because we just figured it’d be a shocker if they took one. Would we have had Mallett on there even if we included QBs? Probably not. So our first miss.

138. Marcus Cannon

Patriots-Only Big Board Ranking: UNRANKED

I wrote off Cannon early in the process for reasons I’m still not entirely sure of, but there’s a nice little X next to him in my PFW draft guide. But looking back now his unique frame and set of abilities should have pinged my Patriots radar more than it did. I consider Cannon my biggest miss of the draft.

159. Lee Smith

Patriots-Only Big Board Ranking: UNRANKED

I’m frustrated that I missed Smith because I included another Tight End Luke Stocker for the same reasons that made Smith appealing. I put him on based on this: has the frame, tenacity and strength to develop into a powerful run blocker. Stocker is a blue collar-type player. Sounds just like Smith’s description, huh?

194: Markell Carter & 219: Malcolm Williams

Patriots-Only Big Board Ranking: UNRANKED ON BOTH (OBVIOUSLY)

I’m putting the last two picks together, because clearly they were outside of the box for everyone. I mean if Williams himself didn’t even think he’d get drafted how would I have any clue he’d get drafted. Neither are listed or ranked in any of the places I did all my research. So it’s a pass in that I’m not frustrated that I missed them, but nonetheless, I missed them.

Final Stats

Patriots-Only Mock: 2 of 9 draftees

Patriots-Only Big Board: 4 of 9 draftees ranked

Positions Drafted: 5 of 9 correctly projected (missed TE, QB, 2nd DB, 2nd RB)

The numbers don’t jump off the page exactly, and I believe that Cannon, Smith and even Mallett should’ve potentially be hits for me. It really should’ve been 6 out of 9. Nailing Solder and Dowling in the Patriots-only mock was surprising to even myself, and is definitely something to build on.

Each year I feel like I learn a little more and that was taken to a new level this year. Watch out in 2012!

New England Patriots 2011 Draft Review

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I’m not really a draft “grade” guy, because it’s never really clear what people are grading. Are you grading the overall talent of the draftees? The value of the picks? How well needs were addressed? 90% of this stuff can’t really be commented about until December 2011 at the earliest. Most people are just grading based on their own personal opinion of the draftees anyway.

So let’s just start with overall impressions of the Patriots 2011 draft. As I’ve said before I’m kind of pleasantly surprised that they hit on every area of need.

A tackle and a guard of the future were added. Who knows how soon Solder and Cannon will contribute but all indications are that they’ll join with Sebastian Vollmer to take the offensive line into the next decade. And they’re all “outside the box” huge and athletic. There are the roots of something special there now.

The approach to drafting two runningbacks is similar to the one taken last year when they took two tight ends. Running back was one of the greatest places of mid-round depth this year, so the Patriots took their two favorites early to ensure they got who they wanted. As Erik Frenz pointed out on our podcast Vereen and Ridley are different backs and should contribute in different ways.

I’d argue that New England has one of the most intriguing offensive backfields in the NFL now, with a number of backs who have unique skills to play any kind of game. And let’s not forget if the NFL manages to get to an 18-game season having quality runningback depth will be more important than ever.

Then you add Lee Smith, another monstrer, with Gronk and Hernando and the tight end group looks similarly diverse and capable of playing any style.

So before we go to the defensive side of the ball let’s just take a step back and look at the offense that the Patriots of the next decade will have. It all begins up front, and with Vollmer, Solder, Cannon, Gronk, and Smith you have five enormous men who will be able to get a push against any one.

This is a New England offense that will be able to play any kind of game… ground and pound? No one’s line/tight ends are bigger. Spread passing attack? Um, TFB anyone? From a football nerd x’s and o’s standpoint this is the kind of thing to get really excited about.

At first I was surprised by the selection of Ryan Mallett but it’s slowly grown on me to be one of my favorite picks. You never know what will happen when you put a raw quarterback with a rifle arm in a perfect football situation. Everyone wants to speculate what the endgame of Mallett/Hoyer/Brady will be, but it doesn’t really matter. The Pats have three quarterbacks that some teams would kill to have any of. Let it all play out, and know that the team is safe from even the worst case scenario.

The Pats took only three defenders in this draft class and two of them were taken at the exact positions that they needed most – CB with FS potential and OLB. While I thought the Pats would take one of the many talented defensive ends in this draft class, it was more based on what I perceived as value at 17, not because I thought that defensive end was a hugely glaring need.

Ras-I Dowling looks like yet another great value pick, and he could very well be our starting free safety in 2012. Hopefully we’ll get at least some nickel corner/third safety play out of him in 2011 as he learns the defense.

The Pats finally did take an outside linebacker in Markell Carter, but because most of the draftniks out there didn’t know much about him he’s being somewhat dismissed. But looking at the one YouTube video that’s out there of him, along with some of his quotes, it appears he’s right in the wheelhouse of what the Pats look for at OLB. I just look forward to seeing how it plays out with Carter, Eric Moore, Ninkopoop, TBC, and any free agents they potentially bring in.

They might not have used a high pick on an OLB but that doesn’t mean the pass rush will not be better in 2011 than it was in 2010. Reasons:

  • Ty Warren returns, allowing Mike Wright/Myron Pryor to focus more on interior pass rush and not base down run stopping.
  • Wright/Pryor should also be healthy.
  • Leigh Bodden returns. Better coverage equals additional moments for pass rush to get there.
  • Jermaine Cunningham should take a step forward, and should be healthy.
  • Ras-I Dowling adds another presence in the secondary which again equals more time for pass rush to get to the QB.
  • Eric Moore showed some real pass rush ability in the final five games of 2011. With a year in the system he could take TBC’s job.
  • Getting pass rush is never as easy as just drafting a pass rusher. It’s a combination of elements, a number of which are guaranteed to improve in 2011 just based on getting healthy alone.

Finally the Pats made a signature pick of a special teams guy Malcolm Williams, who didn’t even think that he’d get drafted. Some people may think BB makes this picks just to show off or make a point, but as we see every year, teams who don’t draft with special teams in mind won’t make it very far even if they have the best offense and defense in the NFL.

In closing, this was a surgical strike draft for the Patriots. Clearly they had their list of prospects that they liked, but they weren’t blown away by the overall talent especially at the position that they might’ve needed most.

If you graded their draft on getting players at a great value that will ensure the long term sustained success of the organization then I don’t know how they don’t get an A. How many teams would be good if only they had an offensive line? If only they had a competent quarterback? Those are problems the Patriots won’t have any time soon.

The true grade of this draft class won’t be known for a few years, but on paper it looks like it’s yet another classic Patriots value draft, taking the best talent at the best price. It might not be an “immediate upgrade” draft, but if you’re trying to rely on the draft to take you over the hump you might never get over it.