Seau's Locker Room presence: The tangible intangibles

[JoeSixPat]

Seems to me that just having Seau with the team in the Locker Room could have a very dramatic and positive impact for the team.

Quite frankly, this team has lost a good amount of leadership in the past few months. Frankly I'm not sure they truly believe in themselves just right now.

I can see Seau offering a strong voice of reason and inspiration to bring the team together given the immense respect I expect all have for him.

He might truly have only 6 games in him physically but I think he can contribute more off the field with this team than on it.

 

[BelichickFan]

FWIW, Curran was saying tonight that the locker room seems less mature than in the past with some of the "controllers of the room" gone. Seau may help change that some.

 

[Patjew]

Patrick Chung was 3 when Seau made his NFL debut. Wow.

 

[tajapandu]

while i agree with the concept of what you're saying, I dont think Seau brings that to this team as much as bringing back Tedy, Rodney, Vrabel, etc. would (the real core). Although, on the field, i dont think any of them add much.

 

[BradyFTW!]

FWIW, Curran was saying tonight that the locker room seems less mature than in the past with some of the "controllers of the room" gone. Seau may help change that some.

Interesting perspective- I guess the question becomes whose job is it to step up and provide veteran presence on defense? Adalius Thomas, age-wise, is an obvious choice, and he's the players' union rep, isn't he? I dunno, though, he doesn't strike me as the type, given his comments on a potential 18-game season. Springs has the age, but he's new here, and right or wrong he just rubs me the wrong way anyways. Other than that, it looks like Warren and Wilfork are the guys, and they're both pretty young still. Glad Seau's stepping up to fill in that void.

 

[102 Pat]

From what I've read, he has given some amazing pre-game speeches and his presence will be more than welcome in my opinion. Maybe in a instance like last weeks game, he can pull the defence together for a huddle before OT started, tell everybody to not to lose focus, do your job, etc...

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

From what I've read, he has given some amazing pre-game speeches

As well as post game speeches.

"And now we have a chance.... a CHANCE to be part of....................EVER!"

 

[PatsGAgirl]

Watching Junior's press conference....I love this guy

 

[mgteich]

Sometimes, I think we overestimate the need for players to be mentors and locker room leaders. Perhaps the lack of such leadership from the coaches except for bill and dante is the real issue.

brady and moss are certainly locker room leaders. I would think that Aiken is a leader also.

We have a bit of a problem if there is a lack of leadership on the defense. We have Wilfork, Warren, Green, Mayo, Thomas and Springs. Surely, one or two should be capable of leading some.

I would hope that Seau was brought back to be a force ON the field, not off the field.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Sometimes, I think we overestimate the need for players to be mentors and locker room leaders. Perhaps the lack of such leadership from the coaches except for bill and dante is the real issue.

brady and moss are certainly locker room leaders. I would think that Aiken is a leader also.

We have a bit of a problem if there is a lack of leadership on the defense. We have Wilfork, Warren, Green, Mayo, Thomas and Springs. Surely, one or two should be capable of leading some.

I would hope that Seau was brought back to be a force ON the field, not off the field.

None of the defensive guys you mention have what Bill considers veteran leadership skills = 8 years in the league as a starter seeing just about everything at the position with the exception of Springs, and he's new to the system. Some were backups and ST'ers for years. Bill needs an experienced leader on as well as off the field for a young fast defense in transition. Linemen don't call defenses. Neither do corners. LB's and safeties do (and Sanders was out). And if they don't have much of a foundation in that role they can't get the others into position in critical situations. TJ was saying yesterday that using Orton in the wild horse forced the Patriots to check out of a lot of blitzes only to have him slide back under center and face a vanilla D because they lacked the experience and confidence to quickly check back. And Josh knew that would be the case just by assessing this D and knowing Bill's reluctance to ask new or young players to do more than he thoroughly comfortable they are ready to do that that would be the case.

 

[mgteich]

I agree with your comments.

I want to emphasize your comment with regard to Josh's knowledge to what Bill would do on defense. It is as if we have no competent defensive coaches, certainly none that can be expected to do the job of reacting during a game or at halftime to the opposing offense.

I do think that this is the #2 issue we have at the moment. Belichick is the best coach ever in the NFL. HOWEVER, he cannot be expected to be the HC, OC, DC and front seven position coaches. And during the week, he also needs to be the GM making roster and personnel decisions.

As has been pointed out, these coaches are probably very reasonable value for what they are being paid. We have come a long way from having Charlie and Romeo and dante (at special teams) and expecting them to do their jobs. Belichick was able to step in as needed and work with top coaches in helping them do their jobs, and still having the control he needed and to make final decisions.

Dante is still there as Bill's assistant and doing his job very well at coaching and making the decisions on the offensive line. Somehow, the offensive line is doing fine.

None of the defensive guys you mention have what Bill considers veteran leadership skills = 8 years in the league as a starter seeing just about everything at the position with the exception of Springs, and he's new to the system. Some were backups and ST'ers for years. Bill needs an experienced leader on as well as off the field for a young fast defense in transition. Linemen don't call defenses. Neither do corners. LB's and safeties do (and Sanders was out). And if they don't have much of a foundation in that role they can't get the others into position in critical situations. TJ was saying yesterday that using Orton in the wild horse forced the Patriots to check out of a lot of blitzes only to have him slide back under center and face a vanilla D because they lacked the experience and confidence to quickly check back. And Josh knew that would be the case just by assessing this D and knowing Bill's reluctance to ask new or young players to do more than he thoroughly comfortable they are ready to do that that would be the case.

 

[HoraceIvory]

Gimme a break with the intangibles. What is he our new Scalabrine? We need a gosh darn pass rush.

 

[JoeSixPat]

Gimme a break with the intangibles.

I seem to recall that the intangibles were quite important in our Super Bowl seasons... most especially 2001.

No offense meant to that initial Super Bowl winning team, but they were NOT the most talented team on the field each week... but they still found a way to use those intangible strengths to become the world Champs against nearly all odds.

Is this concept really news to anyone? Apparently so.

 

[MrBigglesWorth]

where's romeo crennel these days?

 

[MoLewisrocks]

I agree with your comments.

I want to emphasize your comment with regard to Josh's knowledge to what Bill would do on defense. It is as if we have no competent defensive coaches, certainly none that can be expected to do the job of reacting during a game or at halftime to the opposing offense.

I do think that this is the #2 issue we have at the moment. Belichick is the best coach ever in the NFL. HOWEVER, he cannot be expected to be the HC, OC, DC and front seven position coaches. And during the week, he also needs to be the GM making roster and personnel decisions.

As has been pointed out, these coaches are probably very reasonable value for what they are being paid. We have come a long way from having Charlie and Romeo and dante (at special teams) and expecting them to do their jobs. Belichick was able to step in as needed and work with top coaches in helping them do their jobs, and still having the control he needed and to make final decisions.

Dante is still there as Bill's assistant and doing his job very well at coaching and making the decisions on the offensive line. Somehow, the offensive line is doing fine.

You must have misread my comments then because I was being pretty clear that in this case the coaching wasn't at fault. It was the GM... We jettisoned all our veteran system leadership rather abruptly in favor of youth and speed. There is always going to be a tradeoff. The coaches adjusted very quickly to the wild horse. Then Josh unveiled his added wrinkle, the wildcat as merely a decoy to force a change in coverage. The players on the field were left to guess which is it this time because as a group they lack the savvy to switch in and out of coverage in seconds without likely running into each other.

It's a process, mg, and we're now committed to it for better or worse. Junior is here to mitigate the worse. RAC wouldn't be doing anything better or different with this defense. Belichick won't let them run until he's convinced they can walk upright in this system. He's a stickler for that sort of discipline, which is why eventually later round guys do function well here - because they got a solid foundation rather than getting thrown to the wolves chasing short term fixes. If Pees had the crew RAC had in his heyday we wouldn't be having these discussions (although even back in those days Brady had to win 2 out of 3 engineering last second FG drives...and it might have been 3 out of 3 had McNabb not had his own little collapse.

 

[Frezo]

IMO if the return of Brady can't breed enough intangibles to light a fire in this team, then I'm not convinced that a 40 year old LBer is going to make much of a difference. This team just isn't ready for prime time yet. It needs time as do the coaches. It'll happen.

 

[JoeSixPat]

IMO if the return of Brady can't breed enough intangibles to light a fire in this team, then I'm not convinced that a 40 year old LBer is going to make much of a difference. This team just isn't ready for prime time yet. It needs time as do the coaches. It'll happen.

So Brady should be playing defense? Seems like a risky move for the franchise QB.

In any event listening to the various sports talk radio shows in the Boston area it seems that most agree it's a no brainer that Seau was brought in as much for his locker room presence as he was for his on field presence.

And if you accept that premise than you pretty much have to accept that Belichick feels there's a need for an additional locker room presence. None of that should be considered a controversial thought given the signficant amount of veteran turnover on Defense this season.

 

[mgteich]

I apologize for misunderstanding. For the record, I think that bill and dante have had much better coaching staffs in the past.

You must have misread my comments then because I was being pretty clear that in this case the coaching wasn't at fault. It was the GM... We jettisoned all our veteran system leadership rather abruptly in favor of youth and speed. There is always going to be a tradeoff. The coaches adjusted very quickly to the wild horse. Then Josh unveiled his added wrinkle, the wildcat as merely a decoy to force a change in coverage. The players on the field were left to guess which is it this time because as a group they lack the savvy to switch in and out of coverage in seconds without likely running into each other.

It's a process, mg, and we're now committed to it for better or worse. Junior is here to mitigate the worse. RAC wouldn't be doing anything better or different with this defense. Belichick won't let them run until he's convinced they can walk upright in this system. He's a stickler for that sort of discipline, which is why eventually later round guys do function well here - because they got a solid foundation rather than getting thrown to the wolves chasing short term fixes. If Pees had the crew RAC had in his heyday we wouldn't be having these discussions (although even back in those days Brady had to win 2 out of 3 engineering last second FG drives...and it might have been 3 out of 3 had McNabb not had his own little collapse.

 

[Frezo]

So Brady should be playing defense? Seems like a risky move for the franchise QB.

In any event listening to the various sports talk radio shows in the Boston area it seems that most agree it's a no brainer that Seau was brought in as much for his locker room presence as he was for his on field presence.

And if you accept that premise than you pretty much have to accept that Belichick feels there's a need for an additional locker room presence. None of that should be considered a controversial thought given the signficant amount of veteran turnover on Defense this season.

Well I think every Pats fan in the world including the D should be excited and inspired about getting TB back. We'll see. I've never been a big fan of winning one for the Gipper or big rallies in the locker room. This team needs time together. Not that Seau is going to hurt anything. I'm not a big fan of his "I just did my job" dance either. It reminds me of Merriman.