MoLewisrocks

Nice overview and commentary. Pending FA and even if we resign our top 5 impending FA (Welker, Vollmer, Talib, Woodhead and Edelman) WR is clearly the thinnest position on the roster. Followed by CB. The franchise tag #'s for the 3 we might consider tagging one of are Welker $11.4M. Vollmer $9.66M and Talib $10.66M.

The Patriots have 54 players signed including futures contracts (which are essentially invites to train and participate in off season activities) with an off season roster limit of 80. Cap wise the team is projected to have roughly $18M+ in available cap space prior to any cuts, restructures or extensions. A Brady extension would potentially free up at least several million more. Restructures for Mankins and/or a possible extension for Wilfork would potentially free up another $5M or so. Fells could be cut with a cap savings of almost a million, but that would likely go towards a tender or extension for Hooman who is a RFA. An original round tender for Hooman who was drafted in the 5th would be $1.33M. So we have the potential to create upwards of $30M in cap space.

Resetting roster and free agents - New England Patriots Blog - ESPN Boston

bagwell368

Not bad, but a serious underselling of the need for another DT/NT that will be at least 3rd on the depth chart. Love getting banged up in the game showed the weakness in our depth. Wilfork would be more effective if he had another 10 plays a game on the bench too.

ausbacker

When you see the roster broken down as such you realise how many holes there still are to fill, especially on D before it's a consistently good unit.

It must be a sobering experience for other teams when I can see that many needs on the Patriots given the state of other rosters.

upstater1

There's a chance they actually tag Vollmer even though that's a huge chunk of money. He probably needs to show he can do this for at least one year without any issues. Not sure he's in line for a long-term contract, even though he played great this year. Remember, he often took on the opposition's best pass rushing threat this year.

MoLewisrocks

Field Yates also restating/updating the Patriots picks in the April 25th draft:

And a few dates to keep in mind for FA. Franchise tags can begin to be applied on February 18th and must be applied no later than March 4th. FA commences on March 12th and all RFA tenders must be executed by 4PM. However under new rules supposed to eliviate tampering all teams can legally enter discussions with any other teams impending UFA in a 3 day window commencing on March 9th, although actual contracts cannot be signed until the 12th.

IllegalContact

for 2013:
QB: same
RB: woodhead gone......add demps
OL: bring back vollmer......add a decent prospect for competition
TE: hernandez, gronk, ballard, and either hooman or a hernandez-type prospect
WR: complete overhaul just like 2007 the idea is to reverse the trend of reception consolidation.....
DT: need a blue-chip here to take some heat off of wilfork......everybody else here are depth players.....none of them are deserved starters.
DE: pats are set......scott is gone.....jones,francis,bequette will be improved in their 2nd years
LB: time to add a decent MLB prospect.....spikes is in his last year of his rookie deal, and I'm not sure he's long for the spot in this defense.....the pats need to get faster in that spot
CB: Dennard is one starter....hopefullt talib is the other......if they're going to stay small at S, then I would like to see a prospect added with some size and strength to interrupt at the LOS.....the pats need to do more press coverage
S: depending on how CB plays out, but a guy like laron landry would be nice......its getting old watching this group try to hit people, only to hurt themselves........need to put something into the backs of the minds of the pass recievers

in principle, use draft for DT,ILB,OL,CB, use FA for WR and S

__________________
“ I think good coaches will coach with the personnel they have, and if you only have one (good) linebacker, you’re not going to play a 3–4. ”
—Hank Bullough, who installed one of the first 3–4 defenses with the New England Patriots.

IllegalContact

question: can the pats trade ballard?

__________________
“ I think good coaches will coach with the personnel they have, and if you only have one (good) linebacker, you’re not going to play a 3–4. ”
—Hank Bullough, who installed one of the first 3–4 defenses with the New England Patriots.

Snake Eyes

Why would you want to? He's very low cost with high potential. No team is going to give much of anything for him because he's banged up, it makes more sense to keep him and see what he can do.

__________________
"The secret of steel has always carried with it a mystery, you must learn it's riddle, Conan, you must learn its discipline, for no one in this world can you trust, not men, not women, not beasts...this you can trust"


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IllegalContact

as of right now, my draft looks like this:

round 1: Jesse Williams DT.......this guy has played 5-tech DE as well as NG....he is used as an interior rusher in the passing game as well as FB in short yardage........former rugby player....typical aussie madman
round 2: move down with the hope of getting a 3 and a 4
round 3a: TE Jordan Reed....the next aaron hernandez......literally......this would give us 2 of each type of TE (gronk,ballard,hernandez,reed)
round 3b: ILB Nico Johnson......decent size, fast, and crimson tough
round 4: WR ryan swope.....because he fits and is proven.
round 7a: OT reid fragel....project that seems worth it
round 7b: whoever drops in the draft because they got in a bar fight

__________________
“ I think good coaches will coach with the personnel they have, and if you only have one (good) linebacker, you’re not going to play a 3–4. ”
—Hank Bullough, who installed one of the first 3–4 defenses with the New England Patriots.

IllegalContact

not because I want to, just from an asset standpoint......figuring that there's only so many offensive plays in a given season that maybe he's overkill and if he can garner a good return in the form of a decent draft pick, then you can turn that into whatever you want.....Not looking to trade him.....but if there's something you really want, he could be the means to get it

__________________
“ I think good coaches will coach with the personnel they have, and if you only have one (good) linebacker, you’re not going to play a 3–4. ”
—Hank Bullough, who installed one of the first 3–4 defenses with the New England Patriots.