Award winners safer on bubble? - New England Patriots Forums

crowell33 · 08-26-2010, 09:56 AM

It will be interesting to see how the 2010 offseason conditioning program award winners, that are on the bubble, fare in the next 10 days:

OL George Bussey
OL Dan Connolly
WR Julian Edelman
RB Kevin Faulk
LB Jerod Mayo
S James Sanders
WR Matthew Slater
OL Sebastian Vollmer
CB Jonathan Wilhite
DL Mike Wright

For guys like Wilhite, Bussey and Slater, will it make a difference ?

Elijah · 08-26-2010, 10:12 AM

Well, Bussey is probably the most likely to make the team, with Wilhite coming in a close second, and Slater is way behind both of them. The award could be a factor if Wilhite ends up making the team.

***KontradictioN*** · 08-26-2010, 10:19 AM

Out of all the guys on there, the only one that's most likely to end up not making the team is Slater. He's the only guy who doesn't have a true position lined up on the team. He's a special teams guy and we appear to have our fair share of those.

***Rob0729*** · 08-26-2010, 10:24 AM

I can only see winning the offseason workout award making the difference if Belichick has two players with similiar value who he has to cut one. Then the offseason award will mean something. I doubt Belichick will keep an offseason award winner over a guy who can bring more value to the team.

Some of these guys won the offseason award because they knew they were on the bubble and figured that working hard in the offseason would help their case. I don't know if some of these guys would have won the award if they weren't on the bubble. I think Belichick might think the same way.

The Brandon Five · 08-26-2010, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KontradictioN

Out of all the guys on there, the only one that's most likely to end up not making the team is Slater. He's the only guy who doesn't have a true position lined up on the team. He's a special teams guy and we appear to have our fair share of those.

I'll never forget when he dropped a kick-off in the Steelers game in 2008-right in front of where we sit.

When we saw him lined up to return the kick, my friend kept saying: "Slater? Slater?" We didn't really know much about him at that point. Our education was swift (and painful). An awful memory from a really crappy night (Thanksgiving traffic both ways, raining, Welker waylaid by Clark, getting our butts kicked).

Canada's #1 Pats Fan · 08-26-2010, 10:40 AM

I let him have it the following week as he came out of the tunnel in Seattle.

BradyManny · 08-26-2010, 10:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crowell33

It will be interesting to see how the 2010 offseason conditioning program award winners, that are on the bubble, fare in the next 10 days:

OL George Bussey
OL Dan Connolly
WR Julian Edelman
RB Kevin Faulk
LB Jerod Mayo
S James Sanders
WR Matthew Slater
OL Sebastian Vollmer
CB Jonathan Wilhite
DL Mike Wright

For guys like Wilhite, Bussey and Slater, will it make a difference ?

I bet it will factor in - but if I had to guess, it'd be akin to class participation in grading students. Its a factor, but not THE factor.