An Independent Patriots Blog
Hard to believe it was two years ago today that the fun of the 2008 season was reduced by 75%. I knew you’d be back when you’re ACL was good, Tom!
https://www.patspropaganda.com/hard-to-believe-it-was-two-years-ago-today-that/
It wasn’t really too hard to realize what the 2010 piece of Patriots schwag would be. In 2009 it as clearly a Tom Brady 50th anniversary throwback.
This year it’s clearly the Wes Welker authentic home jersey. If Wes breaks 100 catches he ties Marvin Harrison for the most consecutive 100-catch seasons of all time (4). He will be brought along slowly, but should be back to 100% by the time the playoffs start.
Get yours here:
The man in the seductive pose above is Shawn Crable. My Crazy Legs has just returned to the Patriots practice squad, and all is right with the world.
https://www.patspropaganda.com/the-man-in-the-seductive-pose-above-is-shawn/
The Patriots 53-man roster is set (for now), and as expected there were quite a few surprising moves. Nuggets and observations below…
Derrick Burgess, Pierre Woods and Eric Alexander were all cut. That’s two more players who played in Super Bowl 42 gone, and our supposed starting LOLB.
What’s clear is that there is a full blown youth movement in New England, almost entirely on the defensive side of the ball.
Rather than stretch one more half-productive year out of Derrick Burgess they went with the young, unproven guys. It’s a little scary, I know.
But it’s kinda of funny that we hear Jermaine Cunningham will be ready to go for the opener just before we heard Burgess was gone. They must’ve seen enough of something in him during the first couple weeks of practice to like what they saw. At least like it more than Derrick Burgess.
Not that I expect Cunningham starting at OLB. But I hope to see more and more of it as the season goes on. Patriots fans shouldn’t be worried about losing Burgess. They should be excited about seeing what Cunningham can do.
Tyrone McKenzie and Dane Fletcher both showed potential in the preseason. I believe we might see Fletcher at OLB at some point, at the very least as a pass rusher. He has great length, and props to nepatriotsdraft.com for having an eye on him since the spring.
The offense is exactly what we’d expected it would be. They are thin on the line, and will have only two backup lineman against the Bengals before Quinn Ojinaka returns from suspension for week 2.
We hit on the kept offensive lineman, we’ll see how many of the cut guys end up on the practice squad.
We missed on Dane Fletcher, Marques Murrell and Matthew Slater. If anyone should be called Terminator it should be Slater… you can’t kill him. I don’t get it. But right on, everyone says he’s the greatest person ever to live.
I honestly believe that Page is going to be an upgrade over McGowan. McGowan was horrible in pass coverage. He was great up close to the line of scrimmage. Page can do both. And will undoubtedly be excited to be coming to New England. This is just the kind of injection we needed after losing Bodden. New energy. Aggressive energy. I like it.
No idea what to expect out of Tracy White.
Seems like the decided to cut some ties with the past. Throw all the young guys up against the wall and see who sticks.
Prepare yourself people. This is a young defense. It will be inconsistent. The hope is that it fights through the ups and downs of the first eight games then start to gel and get better every week.
Adjust expectations. It’s okay. We’re going to be watching these young players develop for a while. Give them time.
Now it’s time to get excited. Kick off in one week.
From my projection last night we’ve already lost Pierre Woods and Eric Alexander. I am surprised to see both of them go, especially when Woods was an OLB and the Pats are thin there. But on one hand we had probably seen his ceiling so better to move on and allow younger players who are still developing to get more special teams time.
With the two open spots we’re going to elevate BenJarvus Green-Ellis and Marques Murrelly to the 53 man roster.
Jarvis Green is also avail, it will be interesting to see what the Pats do there. If they don’t feel good about Kyle Love and Brandon Deaderick, one could be moved to practice squad for Green. But that runs the risk of losing the player. Green would certainly add depth and experience, but Mike Wright would be likely to still be the RDE.
Alright, here it is. We’ll see how we did tomorrow…
Locks
That covers basically the starters. Now we have the guys who the core of special teams:
That leaves 9 spots.
For our 8-man practice squad priorities are:
Significant Cuts:
Benjarvus Green-Ellis: we’ve seen his ceiling, Morris the better fullback, not powering in last night on 4th down had to hurt.
Marques Murrell: Pierre Woods is a better run stopper/special teams contributor and Rob Ninkovich is a better pass rusher.
Matthew Slater: Jack of all trades, master of none.
Comments/Concerns:
Ojinaka, Levoir and Wendell are unproven depth backing up an offensive line known that is well capable of getting dinged up.
Brace, Deaderick and Love are young prospects who will see time.
Fletcher might be better than McKenzie but is more under the radar. He could be a surprise to make the 53. He’s fast, and reacts quickly and also has pass rush skills that we haven’t seen yet.
Chung might find himself playing slot coverage a little more now with Bodden gone and McCourty having to slip outside. Sanders and Meriweather make a solid back end in passing situations.
Lots of O-lineman on the practice squad.
With another solid outing against the Giants, and special teamers Bret Lockett (IR) and Kyle Arrington (not sure how injured) out, it looks like Sergio Brown is about to become the latest in a long line of undrafted rookies to make the Patriots 53-man roster.
Brown obviously benefits from having his defensive coordinator from last year, Corwin Brown (no relation), as the defensive backs coach with the Patriots. I’m happy for Sergio, but I have one small request…
Can we get a new facemask, bruh? Your current one brings back memories of Artrell Hawkins and those aren’t memories I want to bring back. Let’s make the switch to the RB Robot style like Chung or Meriweather. Trust me, it will make you look even better than you really are.
https://www.patspropaganda.com/with-another-solid-outing-against-the-giants-and/
