PatsPropaganda

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preseason 2015

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Patriots (Initial) 53-man Roster Thoughts

This thing is far from set, but there are enough interesting moves and non-moves that it’s time to reset.

Here’s where I was off:

Out – Reggie Wayne, Jonas Grey, Robert McClain, Brandon LaFell (PUP)

In – Chris Harper, Mike Williams, Eric Martin, David Andrews

Jonas Gray is the biggest surprise, most assumed he’d done enough to earn some carries. Strange run for Grey after getting those four TDs vs. Indy.

Wayne’s retirement is a bit of a surprise and now Aaron Dobson has a chance to show what he can do once again.  Especially without LaFell for the first six games.

Martin and Williams are two guys I need to take a little closer look at. Martin shined early in camp but was lost with an injury until the last preseason game. Not really sure how they fit outside special teams just yet.

Harper has a tall task ahead of him but they will very well need him at some point soon. I wouldn’t rule out a veteran addition here, but who knows if anyone could pick the system up quickly. 

Right now it looks like they’ll be small on the outside and tall on the inside, at least to start. Imagine Edelman and Amendola will see a lot action and who knows how easy they’ll have to go on Edelman’s ankle still.

I am a fan of keeping all six safeties, each has their own use and can play multiple roles. They’re thin at linebacker but Chung/Richards/Wilson are essentially dime linebackers so there’s some depth for both positions there.

https://www.patspropaganda.com/patriots-initial-53-man-roster-thoughts-this/

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Busy week ahead indeed and it starts today. Lotsa of rumors floating out there, let’s wait until the dust settles before we make any judgements.

https://www.patspropaganda.com/busy-week-ahead-indeed-and-it-starts-today-lotsa/

Pats Posits: Panthers part deux

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 1. After watching the rest of the defensive snaps I have to say I was impressed with Rufus Johnson. Didn’t put him on the 53-man yesterday, but I think he’s in the conversation for the 53rd man. Tough year to be a breakout DE on this team with two drafts picks, one coveted free agent and two entrenched starters. I’d love to be able to keep him but it might have to (hopefully) be on the practice squad. Johnson is good with his hands as a pass rusher, but he had his struggles against the run.

2. Dax Swanson showed up a couple times, but it’s Bradley Fletcher who I think is sneaking on now. He’s been pretty quiet for most of camp and preseason, but against the Panthers he showed up as a starter. The Pats gave him a pretty big contract, and while Tarrell Brown has outplayed him, there still could be plenty of use for him. 

3. I’d love Logan Ryan to find some consistency this year and hopefully on the “good” side. He swings so hot and cold at times – forcing a fumble or breaking up pass, then immediately whiffing on a jam at the line and getting beat for six. 

4. I mentioned it in the last Posits but hooddamn he’s disruptive. It’s going to be very interesting to watch how he affects this defense on the whole. Let’s remember that even with Revis and Browner last year, the pass defense only went from 14th overall to 12th overall in Football Outsiders’ DVOA ratings. The minor uptick is because there still hasn’t been a consistent pass rush from the Patriots the last two years while they were running Ninkovich, Chandler and Wilfork into the ground. Now it will be pass rush by committee and it looks very exciting.

5. Jordan Richards really impressed me after a closer look. It’s scary how much he reminds me of Chung. Very physical and fearless taking on a tackle. I think he’s a promising addition and the defensive player who really won me over in this one.

6. I’m all in on Dion Lewis. He’s bounced around the league a bit but he has the savvy of an experienced veteran, making tough yards and something out of nothing a number of times. He was inspiring confidence with his play and with so much uncertainty in the backfield you have to keep a guy who looks that solid.

7. Dobson redeemed himself with a better second half. Still, the negative plays are killers and I feel like the only way we ever see him catching a ball is into his stomach. He certainly doesn’t attack the ball and that’s a problem. 

8. I think Garoppolo would be fine if he has to start the regular season for us. They’d manage what he’s good at and with Gronk and Edelman out there he’ll look pretty good. The question for him will just be avoiding the killer mistakes. If he can do that the Pats would win at least two of the first four, if Brady’s suspension stands. Which it won’t.

9. Scott Chandler is a little quicker than I anticipated and he had a real good first showing. I am curious how they balance him and Gronk, but as everyone is well aware, they’ll make a tough duo to cover.

10. Not much out of Brandon Bolden, but I still think he’s probably the Week 1 starter on early downs, with a combo of Lewis and White on third down. A sprinkling of Jonas Gray to see if he can loosen up the defense at all with his hard-running style.

New England Patriots 53-man Roster Projection, version 3.0

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Torn on the 53rd guy. Here are the candidates: SS Tavon Wilson, DT Casey Walker, DL Zach Moore, WR Chris Harper. Still leaning Wilson by a hair over Walker.

QB (2) T.Brady, J.Garoppolo
RB (5) B.Bolden, J.White, D.Lewis, J.Gray, T.Cadet
WR (6) J.Edelman, B.LaFell, D.Amendola, R.Wayne, A.Dobson, M.Slater
TE (3) R.Gronkowski, S.Chandler, M.Hoomanawanui
C  (2) B.Stork, J.Kline
G  (3) S.Mason, T.Jackson, R.Wendell
T  (4) M.Cannon, N.Solder, S.Vollmer, C.Fleming
DE (5) R.Ninkovich, J.Sheard, C.Jones, T.Flowers, G.Grissom
DT (4) M.Brown, D.Easley, A.Branch, S.Siliga
ILB(3) J.Mayo, J.Freeny, J.Morris
OLB(2) J.Collins, D.Hightower
CB (5) M.Butler, T.Brown, L.Ryan, B.Fletcher, R.McClain
SS (3) P.Chung, J.Richards, N.Ebner
FS (2) D.McCourty, D.Harmon
ST (3) S.Gostkowski, R.Allen, J.Cardona

PUP: Dane Fletcher, Chris Jones

SUSP Wk 1: LeGarrette Blount

Total players: 52
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Pats Posits: 10 things from the Pats-Panthers game

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1. Sucks about Develin. The only thing I truly care about is staying healthy in the preseason and this was the first significant blow. This locks down the Hooman’s roster spot because he can play some fullback as well. Depending on how bad the break is Devlin could be a candidate for the IR with designation to return, though we still have one game to go and they can wait to see if anyone else gets dinged.

2. The Pats offense pretty much always looks flat well into September. Even when it was the trusted Light-Mankins-Koppen-Neal core they still had clunkers early in the season. Clearly having an all-rookie interior offensive line in and mostly unfamiliar weapons around Brady did him no favors. 

3. I do have my concerns about the running game, just a tiny bit, but mostly in short yardage situations where they struggled last year. Losing Develin sure doesn’t help that either. But again, we’ll see how it looks with Stork and Wendell back in there.

4. Bit disappointed in Dobson. Good touchdown, but I still think LaFell is such a better fit for the offense they want to run. Not that I thought Dobson was beating out LaFell, but I at least thought he might’ve learned to use his body a little better. I really wanted to see him fight more for the ball. He just doesn’t look to me like he plays the kind of football the Patriots want to play.

5. I think this will be the most mix-and-match defense you’ve seen in Belichick’s history, and it’s definitely his most diverse. There used to be a formula for base defenses – stopping the run, matching nickel or dime when three or four receivers came on – but now athleticism and specificity are the only requirements. Only one or two defenders on the field will technically be defensive linemen. The rest a versatile cast who can beat you with toughness (50/54), speed (51, 99), athleticism (95) or a combination of all three of those (91).

6. This will also be true in the secondary where I’m starting to believe they will play more man than anyone expected this year, when they think they can match up well. I’m not sure about anyone but Butler and Tarrell Brown at this point.

7. Tavon Wilson was reduced to playing dime linebacker on the second team. I think he’s probably done now.

8. Was bummed not to see Cadet last night, but now with Develin out I think it makes it a little easier to keep him. Again, he has more career receptions than any other RB and as much as Lewis and White have flashed, Cadet is unique.

9. Easley is finally starting to look as incredibly explosive as he did in college. I am very, very excited by this and there will be a few GIFs coming of him just blowing plays up in the backfield. It’s impressive to watch and he’s going to be a beast.

10. Once again it “felt” like the Patriots. Bend-don’t-break defense, offense starts slow but comes through at the end. No matter how things shake out over the next week-and-a-half, this will be a good team that contends right down to the end once again.

Re-watched the first half defensive snaps, will take a closer look at the rest of the game over the next day as I missed plenty having to use the NFL Game Pass feed.

20 Bing-Bang Hits on Patriots Preseason Win Over Saints

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I started out trying to watch last night’s game “live” on NFL Game Pass but it was a solid two minutes behind real time which made it quite frustrating to deal with as Twitter ruined every play before it happened. So I said screw it, went and treated myself to a massage and dinner before coming home and watching the game in peace late last night. 

Here’s what stood out to me on the initial watch:

1. Gotta start with Jimmy Garoppolo, definitely the best we’ve ever seen him. HIs quick release was on full display and he looked at ease running the offense and comfortable in the pocket. Most importantly the ball was coming out quick. I was getting a little curious if Garoppolo was going to take any big steps forward this summer as he’s been somewhat stagnant early on, but last ngiht was that big step. Impressive.

2. Once again Garoppolo showed some great chemistry with a receiver like he did last summer with Tyms, this time around it’s rookie Chris Harper who had a number of nice grabs and the touchdown. With Tyms possibly done for the year, Brandon Gibson getting hurt last night and Dobson still MIA, Harper could enter the 53-man conversation but I still think he’s headed for the practice squad at best. There’s always a receiver who shows some spark in the preseason who gets some buzz, but ultimately the Pats would probably sign Reggie Wayne before putting Harper in a real game.

3. Spent a lot of snaps focusing on Shaq Mason again and once again it’s exactly what we all know it is – very good run blocking and in space, but really struggles pass blocking and Kevin Williams was all over him last night. That kind of thing scares me when you realize what a vet vs. rookie guard can really look like. I’m just not sure what the other options are until Wendell gets back. They’re certainly trying to get Mason as many snaps as possible.

4. Even Nate Solder had his struggles last night, his first action of the season. I hoped the OL would’ve looked better with Solder and Fleming in there but we see it every year. It takes time for the OL to all get on the same page and Stork’s return will be a huge part of that.

5. We heard some buzz that Dion Lewis shouldn’t be discounted from the passing down RB role and last night he showed why. It was a little weird seeing a non-Faulk 33 out there, but Lewis showed great pop on his touchdown run. Definitely not too late for him to enter the conversation a little more seriously. I really liked what I saw out of him in pass protection too.

6. James White must’ve saw what Lewis did then picked up his own game as well as I though he ran a little tougher than last week’s game against the Packers. The guy we really need to see if Travaris Cadet to know for sure how this will all play out. Way too small a sample size and maybe I’m crazy but I kind of thought Lewis looked better than White.

7. The Brandon Gibson injury is really unfortunate. He was approaching lock status for the roster. Still waiting to see how serious it is. Now all eyes turn back to Aaron Dobson, who seems to have nine lives no matter his injuries.

8. I can’t read too much into the secondary’s performance last night. It seemed like more experimentation was going on than anything – McCourty at corner, Brown in the slot, continued heavy rotation at safety. It’s all just preparation for matchups.

9. McCourty had his good and bad moments at corner, but yes, he’s best at safety. The role we’ll see him in is covering tight ends man-to-man on third downs, and it’s unlikely he’s covering outside receivers.

10. Still, I think it was a night to forget for Duron Harmon who looked off in his free safety coverage, especially on the long touchdown where he should’ve helped McCourty more than he did.

11. Dominique Easley played some defensive end last night and I thought it was clear he’s not long for there. Still, it’s experimentation and he looked okay at defensive end against the Colts in the regular season last year. I think the coaching staff is still looking for how to maximize Easley, but after last night I’m a bit concerned about him.

12. Nice to see Siliga and Branch back in there, albeit for late snaps. I think both of them are still significant parts of the rotation inside this year and both were a big part of the defensive turnaround in the second half. Yes, against scrubs, but still.

13. Some good play from James Morris last night who appeared to take some positive strides forward, including his forced fumble. Let’s face it, forcing turnovers is a key to this defense. Morris is still on my 53-man roster for sure.

14. So is Jonathan Freeny as long as we don’t have to see him playing defense much, if at all. He’s a very good special teams guy who can play defense in a pinch, but he’s not a long-term starter or anything.

15. Jabaal Sheard continues to look like a perfect fit. So physical on the edge and a handful of a pass rusher. I am very curious to see how the snaps get divvied up between him and Ninkovich, but last night we did briefly see the vaunted pass rushing front of Sheard-Easley-Chander-Ninkovich. That one gets us all excited… for 3rd-and-longs.

16. Definitely a night to forget for Jamie Collins but I’m not concerned. Lot of people were giving him crap for not being able to cover running backs, well he’s 6′4″ 250, how many guys that size can even stay close to covering running backs? That won’t be Collins’ task in the regular season much at all, so we can just chill poking holes in a potential super star’s game.

17. Lot of rotation along the defensive line last night and I think that is a sign of things to come in the regular season. Early in the season especially we’ll see mixing and matching from down to down until they find what works best.

18. I never take much from the final score, but it was an impressive come-from-behind victory for the Pats and certainly one they can take some pride in. There’s never much carryover from the first team to the second team and the win doesn’t erase a flat first quarter, but they showed some resilience and it’s always nice to win a game you were down 21-0 in.

19. Logan Ryan continues to be what he is – a slightly-above average corner. He gives up some plays. He makes some plays. If he’s forced to be more than the 4th corner this year I have concerns.

20. The third preseason game is always the best one where we get a sense of where things are really standing. The starters will play at least a half and we’ll see who really is at the top of the depth chart. Most interesting will be the bubble guys who get some first team reps to see if they fit in. Still, the development of the rookie OL is vitally important and a huge area to watch next week.