Wednesday Patriots Headlines - July 7th
TRAINING CAMP COUNTDOWN: 21 days until Patriots training camp
Another very quiet news morning, but here are today's New England Patriots headlines.
We'll kick off this morning with an article from The Ironton Tribune out of West Virginia. The newspaper reports that wide receiver Randy Moss and O.J. Mayo helped out to distribute food and personal care items Tuesday to 800 families at the A.D. Lewis Community Center. The two West Virginia natives are reportedly scheduled to be in Charleston on Wednesday to deliver more items at the Union Mission Ministries.
Mike Lombardi of the NFL Network reported on Tuesday night that wide receiver Wes Welker continues to make good progress after recovering from a torn ACL, and while he may start on PUP when camp opens, Lombardi says he should be an active participant before training camp is over.
Jeff Howe of NESN.com has an article on quarterback Tom Brady, who Howe says looked "precision sharp" during the team's minicamp and OTA's and no longer appears to be hampered by any injuries. As we recently learned Brady fought through not only trying to battle back from a knee injury, but also dealt with playing through the final weeks of the season with three broken ribs and a broken finger.
Howe also looks at quarterbacks coach Bill O'Brien, who despite the fact there wasn't officially an offensive coordinator last year handled most of the play-calling. According to Howe O'Brien has clearly been in charge of the offense so far during the team's offseason workouts, and after a tough 2009 campaign New England can't afford any further inconsistant play-calling from him when they take the field this season.
With Mike Reiss officially on vacation, ESPNBoston.com released a list of places to watch the Patriots, which was submitted by readers who filled us in as to which establishments out of town fans frequent to catch the games during the season.
We heard recently about how Cleveland Browns head coach Eric Mangini wants to apparently bury the hatchet with Bill Belichick, which came from an interview with ProFootballTalk.com's Mike Florio. Well, the magazine has hit news stands, and NBCSports.com has published the full article online for any of you who would like to know more about the Brown's coach - who Florio claims is "misunderstoond".
OTHER NFL HEADLINES:
Our friends over at NEPatriotsDraft.com have an AFC North Preview this morning, and offer up some interesting comments about each team. The preview also includes final regular season record predictions, which will likely surprise some of you.
The Boston Herald has an article this morning on wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, who has organized a workout "camp" for players who voluntarily want to continue working before training camp begins. According to the report several of Fitzgerald’s Arizona teammates, including starting quarterback Matt Leinart, are expected to attend. Participation is apparently not required and players can come and go as they choose, with players saying that the goal is to "make training camp seem a little easier" after going through the conditioning workouts. The newspaper reports that there were 24 present Tuesday, not all on of which were on NFL rosters.
While Fitzgerald may be working hard, it appears that one of his new teammates, ex-New York Jet Kerry Rhodes, is getting ripped by Cardinals DT Darnell Dockett on Twitter for Rhodes' apparent perceived lack of training during the offseason. Rhodes has been tweeting about his recent trip in the Bahamas, and the New York Post looks at what Dockett had to say about it.
ESPN's Matt Mosley has an interesting article this morning on Eagles head coach Andy Reid, who is facing one of the toughest seasons in his head coaching tenure. After trading away Donovan McNabb this offseason to the division-rival Redskins, the pressure is on and Mosley feels that how Philadelphia fares this season could decide Reid's future.
We'll end with an article from the Miami Herald this morning, which solicits some insight from ESPN's Scouts Inc.'s Matt Williamson regarding the Dolphins. The article takes a good look at Miami's roster, and there are a lot of great comments about the team and a ton of insight that can be found in this article, including this mention about the linebackers:
"They're very weak at outside linebacker -- that group is in the bottom third of the league,'' Williamson said. "Cameron Wake is still a liability with the run. Koa Misi has upside, but rarely do you see 3-4 conversion guys come in and light it up. I would have kept Jason Taylor.''
Be sure and check it out. If you're like me and enjoy "scouting the enemy", it's one of the more in-depth looks that has been published on the Dolphins recently, and there are plenty of other great pieces of information in it.
That's it for this morning. Hope everyone has a good day and we'll have updates later on.
