supafly

While the high majority of us don't have any faith at all in Dowling's potential to actually contribute, (and why would they?) we still have to include him as a potential candidate just like the others.

He's still a high draft pick with good measurables and skills who is indeed on the roster and under contract. I would think that the competition would have to be pretty significant for Belichick to already give up on him, and if that's the case, that's certainly a good thing due to having more depth and talent.

In the meantime, all we can do is hope that he can at least contribute and see the field. I'm not labeling him as a bust quite yet, but that's just due to the fact that I think there are still some unknowns as far as his play is concerned.

It will definitely be a do or die year for Ras-I, but it's not out of the realm of possibility to think that we could still see him as a contributor on some level either.

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Patiently waiting to defend the next "bubble" player in this summer's training camp.....

betterthanthealternative

The reason for optimism is simply that it appeared he'd impressed the coaches enough to be a starter as a rookie. So we can hope that the injuries are just bad luck and not a reflection of his long term durability. The odds are probably worse than 50/50 but better than 0.

We can choose the attitude to take here: hope for the best and wish him well, or trash him because he hasn't lived up to our expectations.

IllegalContact

teams gotta have quality on their IR list

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“ 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.

bresna

Damn... Fletcher resigned! I was hoping that the Patriots would re-sign him.

HowardRoark

Dowling looked good in the 1 or 2 games he had last year before going on IR. This year, he looked bad. The question is, was his play prior to IR attributable to the injury? If not, I don't think he really has much of a chance to stick around.

IndyKen

Yep, happy here too. There's something about Fletcher that simply says "football player" to me.

PP2

Not to mention he is the nearest thing we have to a coverage LB.

Ivan

I still have some hope for I-Dowling but it is really slim because of his situation. When it comes to young players it is really rare to see one miss their first couple of seasons to injury and then come back to be productive pro's.

Hopefully he can buck that trend.

Bravo777

I like Fletcher, so I'm really happy about this news.

Pats0204

35s shalise manza young ‏@shalisemyoung
following up on Dane Fletcher contract: it is a one-year deal with base salary of $555k

Not bad, 1 year - $555k.