PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

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And it’s finally the off-season…

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Anyone else feeling a sense of calm this morning? 31 NFL teams are all disappointed, and just the Green Bay Packers are happy. 

So here on Day 1 of the 2011 offseason what are our general thoughts? 

First and foremost has to be the CBA, because without that there won’t even be football. I’m not going to lie, I’m a little concerned. There isn’t much time until the March 3rd expiration of the current CBA, and if they get there without a new deal this could drag on for a long time.

The reason I’m worried is that the NFL has grown fond of orwellian language like “enhanced season” and signs like that generally point to them being set on what they want out of this next CBA. The commissioner continues to tell the world that fans want an 18 game season, but every educated fan I’ve heard from is against it. The fans and bloggers I’ve talked to are almost universally in favor of the players.

The NFL’s negotiating tactics and gasp, propaganda, are worrisome, but ultimately there’s too much money at stake for this to go too badly wrong. I hope. Otherwise the game could be severely set back.

So we’ll see how it all plays out in the next few weeks.

If we do get a new CBA there will be a mad scramble as everyone figures out the new rules for Free Agency. Players like Logan Mankins could be largely effected.

The draft however should stay largely the same, though the pay structure for rookies may not.

This should be one of the most interesting off-seasons for NFL fans in a long time. The game is going to change, perhaps just slightly, or perhaps entirely (if we see a lockout). Either way I expect the Patriots to be ready to take advantage however they can.

Brady wins 2010 NFL MVP

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While Belichick winning Coach of the Year really gave me a new appreciation of the 2010 Patriots season, I’m left kind of feeling blah about Brady’s MVP. Maybe it’s because he had such a stinker in the playoffs, something that was confirmed around the Super Bowl this week by the many football analysts and pundits out there. From Mike Reiss:

When the topic was the team’s playoff loss to the Jets, there was one overriding theme: Tom Brady took the team far during the regular season, but he didn’t look like himself in the playoff loss. When looking at where things broke down in that game, Brady was where most analysts started. One opinion that stood out was that Brady is usually so mentally tough that he can overcome mistakes, but some felt his first-quarter interception put him in a funk that he couldn’t recover from. “He didn’t look right,” was the common refrain. 

This interview with Michael Lombardi did make me feel just a little bit better. The fact is that while this season ended in disappointment just like 31 other teams did or will, we had a better four month regular season than anyone else. No we didn’t win a Super Bowl, but it was a magical season while it lasted with lots of amazing and exciting football. 2010 was just more proof that as long as BB and TFB are around the Patriots are going to be a contender.

Tom Brady Patriots MVP

Some Patriots nuggets from The BS Report with Dilfer

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Couple interesting things to pass along after listening to yesterday’s BS Report with guest Trent Dilfer. Of course talk turned to the Patriots playoff loss to the Jets, and Dilfer was pretty harsh on Brady’s performance. Dilfer said that in grading Brady for the game he had him with 14 minuses, the most he had ever given Brady before that was 4.

He said at times Branch and Welker were wide open but that Brady just couldn’t find them. They speculated that maybe Brady’s foot was really bothering him, or maybe he was sick, or maybe he was just spooked from how the game started, but Dilfer thought it was a shockingly bad performance from Brady. I’d argue for or against it but I haven’t seen a single lowlight of the game since it ended. Maybe someday this spring I’ll finally be able to check it out and confirm or deny these reports.

Another interesting thing was that it seems like everyone who watched the game are still completely divided as to whether or not Chung would’ve gotten the first down had he not botched the snap. Dilfer seemed assured that he would’ve gotten the first down and a “huge gain”. Merrill “Factorback” Hoge thought Eric Smith would’ve stopped him. They even called in a bunch of PAs to see what they thought and they were divided too. I guess it will remain one of the great mysteries of Patriots lore.

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When you think about it, right now, I believe we have 13 players from our last Super Bowl team in ’04. I think that puts us third in the league for veteran players. But last year, we had half of our play time from first- and second-year players. And 40 percent of our roster are first- and second-year players. We’re privileged this year to have five of the first 75 picks, which has not happened in 20 years. If you take ’09, ’10 and this coming year, we’ll have had 12 picks in the first and second round, so if we choose wisely this year, we have a chance to really build a balanced team that could allow us to have some fun for a number of years in the future.

Robert Kraft

https://www.patspropaganda.com/when-you-think-about-it-right-now-i-believe-we/

PatsPropaganda nominated for Best Patriots Blog

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We’d like to thank all those who nominated us for Best Patriots Blog presented by TruFan and Comcast Sports New England, and ask if you like what we do here to please throw us a vote here (sign-up is required). You can vote once daily.

The other Patriots blogs that were nominated are all really good, they can cover the Patriots, analyze the Patriots personnel and games, and provide good insight into all things Patriots. They do everything well. We’ll have to be at our blogging best if we’re going to win and that starts with preparation this week… i.e. asking people to vote for us.