Brady#12

This is my Patriots Season Preview:

Offense:I am so excited about this Pats offense this season. The offense this year for the Pats has the potential to be one of the best offenses in our Dynasty run. First and foremost the offense starts off with a guy by the name of Tom Brady. If you haven't heard of him for some reason, then you will find out that he is a pretty good QB. In fact he is a top 3 QB in this league. Tom is coming off one of his best seasons statistically, but he has never been a guy who has put up big numbers. This year I expect some of Tom's numbers to go down a bit, but some of his numbers also to go up like TD passes. At Runningback, the Pats now have a lot more talent as well as depth thanks to the draft pick of Laurence Maroney at pick 21. Maroney definately won't start this year and won't win OROY, but here is a guy who will keep Corey Dillon healthy for a full year. Dillon was often injured last year and nobody behind him could pick up the slack. That took the Pats out of their game offensively and it also kept an injury-plagued defense out on the field for a long time. This year I expect the running attack of the Pats to be at full strength throughout the whole season. At Wide Reciever, the Pats suffered from a couple of big losses including David Givens and Andre Davis. We had a huge hole at WR until we signed Reche Caldwell in FA and we drafted possibly the best WR in the draft in Chad Jackson. We also drafted a couple of pass catchers through the draft with David Thomas and Garrett Mills who bothe will help the Pats have a better season in the red zone. Also I expect a HUGE year from Ben Watson as well. On the Offensive Line, the Pats will be very strong once again as we have both depth and talent. We get back Matt Light and Dan Koppen and we get Nick Kazcur and Logan Mankins one year more mature. We also managed to sign Stephen Neal which may be the best signing in the offseason. This O-line has the potential to dominate games this season for the Pats.

Projected Stats for the Pats:

Tom Brady: 310/495, 3750 yards, 31 TD's, 12 INT's, 101.0 Rating
Corey Dillon: 264 attempts, 1098 yards, 11 TD's, 1 FUM
Laurence Maroney: 115 attempts, 561 yards, 3 TD's, 1 FUM
Deion Branch: 81 catches, 1086 yards, 5 TD's
Reche Caldwell: 31 catches, 324 yards, 1 TD
Chad Jackson: 41 catches, 537 yards, 4 TD's
Ben Watson: 53 catches, 811 yards, 7 TD's

Defense:Last year the Pats struggled defensively aminly because of injuries. Late in the season when the Pats were healthy, there were many improvements to our defense. This year I expect the Pats defense to be a top 10 defense in the NFL. When you look at our 3-4 defense, you must first look at our D-Line which may be one of the best in football. Vince Wilfork is a very underrated NT who keeps getting better and better. Richard Seymour when healthy is a top 3 DE in this league and Ty Warren is also very underrated on our line. We also have a lot of depth on the line including Jarvis Green, Le Kevin Smith, and Marquise Hill. Our LB corps took a big fall this offseason when we lost Willie McGinest, but we do still have three very good LB's to work with. Tedy Bruschi is one of the most underrated LB's in the league and may be looked at as the heart of the defense. Rosie Colvin and Mike Vrabel are very good as OLB's for us. We may have struggles early on with finding a replacement for Willie, but I feel Monty Beisel can fill the hole. Inside Beisel struggled a lot last year, but in the offseason he has had great reports from Belichick and is said to be up to 250 pounds which is a big improvement from 235 pounds. At Defensive Back, the Pats struggled a ton last year, but this year we should improve a lot as we have got rid of our big problems in Duane Starks and Ty Poole. We replaced them with Eric Warfield, a healthy Chad Scott, and a healthy Randall Gay. We also have Asante Samuel and my man Ellis Hobbs. At safety we get back Rodney Harrison to go along with Eugene Wilson. We also have a lot of depth as well with Tebucky Jones, James Sanders, Artell Hawkins, and Guss Scott. Eugene struggled a bit last year, but should get back to full form when Rodney comes back.

Special Teams:As everyone knows the Pats lost the most clutch kicker in the history of this game in Adam Vinatieri. It will be extremely hard to replace him. We signed Martin Gramatica and drafted Stephen Gostkowski to try to fill the hole. Gramatica will probably be released so the kicking duties will probably be put into the hands of Stephen. I am also excited about our return game as well as there could be a chance that Bam Childress or Willie Andrews could give us a good return game.


Projected Record for the Pats:

13-3. I expect the Pats to have a much better year this year. Last year we went 11-5 and had one of the hardest schedules in the NFL. This year our schedule is a whole lot better and we finally are healthy as a team. I expect the Pats to win their division over the Dolphins and then shoot for Super Bowl #3 in the last five years as we keep battling the critics and doubters.

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A.Samuels #1 fan

patsox23

thanks for the work. bump.

scott99

I Think for us to be successful this year (offensively), we need your Dillon/Maroney prediction to be accurate. I do doubt that Brady's passer pct reaches 100, I think his 92% was his highest ever. I also doubt Jackson gets 41 catches, I think Caldwell will have more catches than him. I'd love for you Watson prediction to come true.

Our defense will be very improved, IF the injury bug doesn't hit us again.

Brady#12

I hope the injury bug hits the Colts this year, that would be great

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A.Samuels #1 fan

PatsFanSince74

Thanks for putting yourself out there and making your predictions. It's always easy to be critical of the guy who's willing to take the risk of doing that.

I hope you're right, but I still have a hard time answering this question: "Did we get better during the offseason this year?" No matter how much I want to share your optimism, I still think the answer is "No." We had (at least) three major losses in Givens, McGinest and Number Four. And, while we've had a few nice pickups, none of them is of the calibre of what we gave up, especially not in the Kicking Game. Maroney might be the back of the future, but it's unfair to expect too much of him this year and it's unlikely that the talented Mr. Dillon has another 1,000 yarder in him. It's fair enough to say the D will improve as the players come into their own, but that's not going to differentiate us.

The good news is that I don't think the rest of the Division improved either.

Despite the addition of Mangini (who will still need a few years to prove he's another BB), the Jets still have a very confused QB situation and, as a result, no one can say that they improved. If Culpepper becomes the "old Daunte" then the Dolphins will have improved a lot, but that's a "big if." I'm not smart enough to figure the Bills out, but I don't think they've improved.

So, we get into the Playoffs, get a Home Game or two in January, and anything can happen. I don't see 13--3, but I say we go 11--5, win the Division and take our chances in January, where I like them!

PatsFanInVa

Never predict greater than 12-4, recent seasons notwithstanding. I give us a good shot at 12, but would set my over/under at 10 or 11 if I were a betting man; too many questions.

We don't know that our injury situation will be any better than in previous years, especially is we speculate that there is a causal factor.

We don't know Reche will rise above 3rd or 4th receiver level.

We don't know that either Jackson or Maroney are NFL-level stud material.

We don't know that the D ends up in the top 10, when we were 31 against the pass for the year in 05.

I'm least worried that we don't know Ghost can kick under pressure - but we don't (though I think that's the most overworked red herring out there... all kickers do is one thing. He's obviously faced some collegiate pressure and still has the same leg.)

But the beauty of all this speculation is that the Pats only have Miami as real competition (so far as we know) in the division, and Miami is still a ways from being on the Pats' level, IMO.

PFnV

soswalter

I actually agree with your prediction. I have a season preview of my own, which you can see by clicking the link in my signature.

The Patriots have a much easier schedule this season. There is no Oakland-Carolina-Pittsburgh-San Diego-Altanta-Denver gauntlet this time. The only tough stretch I see is Weeks 3-5, where the Pats play Denver, Cincy and Miami. But that's only three games.

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5 Rings for Brady!!

The reason I believe 13-3 is not out of the question is that if we win 50% of our six hard games and don't have a let down against 'lesser' teams, that is 13-3. I'll say 12-4 to be safe.

I agree with most of your offensive assessment, except that Brady will have about 2-1 TD to picks ratio, which means 15-16 picks. I also expect a few more fumbles than just 2 for the top running backs.

On defense, Colvin appears to be Willie's replacement, or Vrabel according to some people. But not Biesel, totally different position. If you are looking for somebody to physically resemble Willie, than maybe Jeremy Mincey. I am less worried about the LBs and more about the secondary. Unless Hobbs really has a strong year from start to finish, we don't have a true #1 CB and we don't really have a 'Rodney' at safety until Rodney's back to 100%. That won't even be this regular season, IMO.

Looking at the strength of schedule, it is hard not to be fairly optimistic.