Marcus Fortson promoted to 53 man roster

[1%er]

Ensures that he will be part of the mix in 2013-2014.

 

[JMC00]

Does it though? Belichick could draft or sign a DT and Forston could be outplayed and end up getting cut after training camp.

see: Markell Carter. A bunch of people thought he would be in the mix this season after being basically practice squad played of the year and he is out of football.

 

[patsfaninpa]

Won't help tomorrow or in two weeks. But, it's like getting an extra draft pick. Kid should have went back to Miami for his senior year. Good for us maybe, that he didn't. Demps and Fortson are like 4th and 5th round picks, which we don't have. Hopefully, we can bring in a guy like Armstead from the CFL. This is a very young team with the exception of Brady.

 

[1%er]

Does it though? Belichick could draft or sign a DT and Forston could be outplayed and end up getting cut after training camp.

see: Markell Carter. A bunch of people thought he would be in the mix this season after being basically practice squad played of the year and he is out of football.

This will be Fortson's second time on the 53 man roster this year. I think he will at least be in camp and compete with Pryor for the 5th DT position.

 

[mayoclinic]

This will be Fortson's second time on the 53 man roster this year. I think he will at least be in camp and compete with Pryor for the 5th DT position.

I would agree with that. Forston and Pryor will probably be at least competing for a roster spot next year, though they may have other competition as well.

 

[mayoclinic]

Won't help tomorrow or in two weeks. But, it's like getting an extra draft pick. Kid should have went back to Miami for his senior year. Good for us maybe, that he didn't. Demps and Fortson are like 4th and 5th round picks, which we don't have. Hopefully, we can bring in a guy like Armstead from the CFL. This is a very young team with the exception of Brady.

I wouldn't discount the potential of Forston contributing something, though it's unlikely. But he wouldn't be promoted if the coaching staff didn't think he was capable of stepping up if called upon.

I like your "extra draft picks" analogy. The Pats should be adding several players for next year who will compete for roster spots and playing time. Though our actual draft picks this year aren't that many, I expect we should have 10-12 new contributors for 2013.

 

[jmt57]

I'm curious: is the promotion of Forston speculation, or a done deal?

A brief search on google and twitter yielded only the former.

 

[JMC00]

Though our actual draft picks this year aren't that many, I expect we should have 10-12 new contributors for 2013.

I wonder if the Pats are pursuing Armstead more than they normally would have because of that. Schefter said signing him would be equivalent to getting a top 15 player in this year's draft

 

[ForThoseAboutToRock]

I wonder if the Pats are pursuing Armstead more than they normally would have because of that. Schefter said signing him would be equivalent to getting a top 15 player in this year's draft

Seems like Armstead is the hot name for every team out there with a buck to spend, particularly a team like the Colts. I'll be interested to see how rich the deal that lands him is.

 

[Spergon Wynn]

I'm curious: is the promotion of Forston speculation, or a done deal?

A brief search on google and twitter yielded only the former.

Yea, I haven't seen any reports on Twitter, which usually has that.

Either way, I expect whoever is promoted to be inactive tomorrow.

 

[mayoclinic]

I wonder if the Pats are pursuing Armstead more than they normally would have because of that. Schefter said signing him would be equivalent to getting a top 15 player in this year's draft

When did he say that? His article on ESPN only said that Armstead would be equivalent to a "high draft pick", with no quantification of what that meant. Top 100? Top 75? Top 50? 1st round? I've never heard anything specific about top 15.

Personally, I view signing Armstead as equivalent to having two 1st round picks. Sign him, and we've added an impact player on the DL who can play outside or inside, who is strong enough and long enough to 2 gap but explosive enough to penetrate and fast enough to pursue. He's a JJ Watt/Calais Campbell kind of player - maybe not in their class, but he's only 22, and he's technically way ahead of guys like Margus Hunt, who is 3 years older. Sign Armstead and we have total flexibility to take BPA with our 1st round, or trade back or into 2014, as far as I'm concerned.

Seems like Armstead is the hot name for every team out there with a buck to spend, particularly a team like the Colts. I'll be interested to see how rich the deal that lands him is.

I've been eagerly scanning the net for news of Armstead for the past 10 days. It was reported last week that he might sign as early as this week, but there have been no recent rumors, nor any reports of new team visits since he worked out for Indy, Philly and the Pats. Maybe he's taking his time and letting the market build up. I'm hoping that the lack of news may indicate that something is in the works with the Pats, and that they don't want to distract from their preparations for the AFCCG by announcing anything this week. I am somewhat worried about Chip Kelly landing in Philly - Kelly recruited Armstead's brother Arik (6'8" 280# OT, just finished his freshman year) to Oregon, so he knows the family. That could work both ways - he could have a relationship with the family, but skipping out on the kid brother could also steer Armond away from Philly.

Right now signing Armstead comes just after re-signing the 'big 3" of Welker, Talib and Vollmer in terms of my wish list for the Pats.

 

[mayoclinic]

I'm curious: is the promotion of Forston speculation, or a done deal?

A brief search on google and twitter yielded only the former.

Yates has reported it:

DT Forston promoted to roster - New England Patriots Blog - ESPN Boston

 

[unoriginal]

I expect whoever is promoted to be inactive tomorrow.

Well, usually when the Patriots call someone up to the 53-man roster at the end of the week, it's because they plan on using them on gameday. Sometimes just for that one particular gameday.

I know, maybe they're just giving Forston a nice pay raise ($5,700 to $22,000) because (a) Forston is nowhere close to the 9-game credited season limit, and (b) if they have to do any roster juggling after this, they can just send everyone to IR to clear roster space since there would only be one game left.

But consider: when the Patriots played the Ravens in Week 3, that was the only game previous that Marcus Forston was active for, and the Pats had four DTs active (Wilfork, Love, Brace, Forston). All played defensive snaps. Deaderick was inactive with an ankle injury.

Since Brace has been cut, the Patriots have had only three true DTs on the roster: Wilfork, Deaderick, and Love.

Given the size of the Baltimore offensive line, their power running game, the importance of bottling up Ray Rice et al. while keeping the safeties out of the box, etc., I could see the Patriots going heavy this game and using Forston in the DL rotation in place of a lighter DE. Both Chandler Jones and Trevor Scott are on the injury report, so maybe one of them sits.

 

[1%er]

I think if we got past the Ravens and faced the niners he'd be used. We ran a 3-4 with Deaderick, Love and Wilfork a lot of the game against them earlier in the season.

 

[1%er]

http://m.nfl.com/combine/profile/2533541/marcus-forston/

Does anyone know if he has gained weight or bulked up at all?

 

[PP2]

Well, usually when the Patriots call someone up to the 53-man roster at the end of the week, it's because they plan on using them on gameday. Sometimes just for that one particular gameday.

I know, maybe they're just giving Forston a nice pay raise ($5,700 to $22,000) because (a) Forston is nowhere close to the 9-game credited season limit, and (b) if they have to do any roster juggling after this, they can just send everyone to IR to clear roster space since there would only be one game left.

But consider: when the Patriots played the Ravens in Week 3, that was the only game previous that Marcus Forston was active for, and the Pats had four DTs active (Wilfork, Love, Brace, Forston). All played defensive snaps. Deaderick was inactive with an ankle injury.

Since Brace has been cut, the Patriots have had only three true DTs on the roster: Wilfork, Deaderick, and Love.

Given the size of the Baltimore offensive line, their power running game, the importance of bottling up Ray Rice et al. while keeping the safeties out of the box, etc., I could see the Patriots going heavy this game and using Forston in the DL rotation in place of a lighter DE. Both Chandler Jones and Trevor Scott are on the injury report, so maybe one of them sits.

My money is on Scott riding the pine because as a sub rusher I don't see him being able to crack the Ravens OL.

In regard to Fortson, you have to love the way he talks about football. He doesn't see it as a job:

“Just the excitement and preparing. I feel like football gets you ready for things out of this locker room -- things like ‘be on time’, ‘be early.’ One day you might have to get a job. These days here, the same amount of work you put into football, you’d put into the other job too.”

Football Journey:Marcus Fortson

 

[patfanken]

When did he say that? His article on ESPN only said that Armstead would be equivalent to a "high draft pick", with no quantification of what that meant. Top 100? Top 75? Top 50? 1st round? I've never heard anything specific about top 15.

Personally, I view signing Armstead as equivalent to having two 1st round picks. Sign him, and we've added an impact player on the DL who can play outside or inside, who is strong enough and long enough to 2 gap but explosive enough to penetrate and fast enough to pursue. He's a JJ Watt/Calais Campbell kind of player - maybe not in their class, but he's only 22, and he's technically way ahead of guys like Margus Hunt, who is 3 years older. Sign Armstead and we have total flexibility to take BPA with our 1st round, or trade back or into 2014, as far as I'm concerned.

Now you have gotten me excited. Given that we are going to be drafting in the 30's this draft and have no extra picks to move up or move to the next year, The draft this season looked like it was going to be a relatively a boring exercise compared to past years. Getting Armstead sounds like it would REALLY be a coup. It would certainly solve an immediate need with a high end prospect, and make all our off season speculations that much more interesting.

The bad news, is that Armstead's talents aren't a secret to the rest of the league, and signing him isn't going to be a matter of giving him a minimum wage contract like you would with most UDFA's I'd be interested in your thoughts as to what its going to take to get him signed in a competitive environment. Will he have to pay an equivalent of a rookie first round draft pick type of contract.to be competitive with the rest of the league?

 

[mayoclinic]

My money is on Scott riding the pine because as a sub rusher I don't see him being able to crack the Ravens OL.

In regard to Fortson, you have to love the way he talks about football. He doesn't see it as a job:

Football Journey:Marcus Fortson

Gotta love the kid's attitude. It doesn't seem like he's taking anything for granted. It's a long shot, but that's the way guys like Ninkovich and Connolly started when they first came, and gradually worked their way into the lineup.

 

[mayoclinic]

The bad news, is that Armstead's talents aren't a secret to the rest of the league, and signing him isn't going to be a matter of giving him a minimum wage contract like you would with most UDFA's I'd be interested in your thoughts as to what its going to take to get him signed in a competitive environment. Will he have to pay an equivalent of a rookie first round draft pick type of contract.to be competitive with the rest of the league?

I have no idea what it will take to sign Armstead. He only has 1 season of CFL experience, and he did have a medical issue, though he has supposedly been full cleared. I'm sure he wants some security. The initial deal that Cameron Wake signed in 2009 with the Dolphins was a 4 year deal worth up to $4.9M, with a $1M signing bonus:

Dolphins import pass rusher Wake from CFL - NFL.com

Wake was a CFL all star and defensive player of the year, with considerably more experience than Armstead. 17 teams expressed interest in him and 8 worked him out. I'm guessing the market for Armstead will be less intense, but it will probably take something along those lines to sign him, just as an offhand guess, probably a bit more. Ras-I Dowling's rookie contract as the #33 overall pick was $5.3M over 4 years with $2.35M signing bonus and guaranteed, and that's probably not an unreasonable range, if the team views Armstead as a "high draft choice". Tavon Wilson got $4.2M over 4 years with slightly over $1.5M signing bonus, again giving some kind of idea of the range. The high end would probably be something like a late 1st round draft pick. Chandler Jones got $8.173M over 4 years with a $4.384M signing bonus and $7.4M guaranteed, and that seems on the high side to me. But I imagine it will all depend on how competitive the demand for Armstead's services are, and how highly teams view him. That's still less than guys like Steve Gregory and Jonathan Fanene got.

 

[MrNathanDrake]

Forston was a huge High School recruit.... Top 50 HS player IIRC.

Was projected as a 2nd-3rd round pick in last years draft. Something happened in his Senior season though. I think he was injured.


But the potential is definitely there.