Reiss: Patriots work out some free agents

In addition to their self-scouting work during their bye week, the Patriots also spent time working out a host of free agents. The workouts are likely designed to keep the team's emergency list updated.

Players in for workouts included: K Connor Barth (University of North Carolina), TE Tony Curtis (Portland State), LB Danny Lansanah (UConn), P Tim Masthay (Kentucky), K Mike Nugent (Ohio State), P Sam Paulescu (Oregon State), LB Pago Togafau (Idaho State), LB Thomas Williams (USC) and LS Joe Zelenka (Wake Forest).

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Per: New England Patriots Blog - Patriots work out some free agents - ESPN Boston

Interesting to see some kickers getting worked out...can't say I'm exactly surprised by punters.

Pago Togafau is the missing piece to the Greatriots puzzle

PatsChamp88 said:

Per: New England Patriots Blog - Patriots work out some free agents - ESPN Boston

Interesting to see some kickers getting worked out...can't say I'm exactly surprised by punters.

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Interesting Barth was a UDFA I believe the same year Gostkowski came out...and didn't Nugent get drafted?? Togafau had a tryout in mini camp 06 with the Pats..he was pretty bad then..but must have been worth it to get a look

Pats726 said:

Interesting Barth was a UDFA I believe the same year Gostkowski came out...and didn't Nugent get drafted?? Togafau had a tryout in mini camp 06 with the Pats..he was pretty bad then..but must have been worth it to get a look

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During the opening game of the 2008 NFL season, Nugent injured his quadricep following an extra point. To replace Nugent the Jets signed Jay Feely, who performed so well in the position that he became the Jets' starter while Nugent, who eventually recovered from his injury, was forced to stay on the bench.

An unrestricted free agent in the 2009 offseason, Nugent signed a one-year contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on March 4 and won the job over Matt Bryant in the preseason due to Bryant's injury. After converting just two of his first six tries (2 blocked) through four games, Nugent was released by the Buccaneers on October 5.

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Yeah he got drafted, he was a legend at OSU too bad that injury really threw his kicking game off.

We've been doing very well with field control amid piss poor punting
... not going to work against better competition and colder weather.

PatsChamp88 said:

Per: New England Patriots Blog - Patriots work out some free agents - ESPN Boston

Interesting to see some kickers getting worked out...can't say I'm exactly surprised by punters.

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I'm guessing the Pats are just updating their Rolodex, so to speak. . . .

But it's interesting: since Gostkowski won the job in 2006, they haven't even had so much as camp fodder for competition at K.

Two words...

Shadow. Roster.

PatsWickedPissah said:

Two words...

Shadow. Roster.

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How many players deep is it? Gotta be huge.

If every team picks a different day to try out kickers and punters, I wonder whether those guys wind up traveling together from team to team.

Connor BarTH - oh crap to bad not BarWIN.

I really liked Danny Lansanah at UConn....I saw him play a couple of times and he is a hard nosed guy that finds the football and just does his job well....I don't know where he would fit in best whether it be OLB or ILB but he was always a favorite of mine....

Keep bringing in those punters, Hanson needs to be sent packing.

Despite the rhetoric about Hansen, have heard BB defend him more than once... not a big fan of his, but if this is our biggest complaint things are good...

DarrylS said:

Despite the rhetoric about Hansen, have heard BB defend him more than once... not a big fan of his, but if this is our biggest complaint things are good...

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I hate to agree with DarrylS (about anything) but I think he is right here. Hansen has been putrid at best at punting, but the one thing that I think keeps him around is his holding skills. If you have the Titans game on DVD, take a look at the FG and XP snaps, the one on the missed filed goal was way off, and Hansen did a great job just getting it down, and for some reason most of the snaps that day were a little iffy and Hansen did a great job getting them down. I think we can all agree it will be much more important in the end to make sure that the Pats can get a FG when they really need it, instead of a ten extra yards on their punts.

I doubt BB wants to change holders at this point, which may have more to do with Hansen still be here, than anything else.

FreeTedWilliams said:

I hate to agree with DarrylS (about anything) but I think he is right here. Hansen has been putrid at best at punting, but the one thing that I think keeps him around is his holding skills. If you have the Titans game on DVD, take a look at the FG and XP snaps, the one on the missed filed goal was way off, and Hansen did a great job just getting it down, and for some reason most of the snaps that day were a little iffy and Hansen did a great job getting them down. I think we can all agree it will be much more important in the end to make sure that the Pats can get a FG when they really need it, instead of a ten extra yards on their punts.

I doubt BB wants to change holders at this point, which may have more to do with Hansen still be here, than anything else.

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If you recall, that was the main reason Ken Walter stuck around for as long as he did. His punting was horrific.

I'm sure BB has his reasons for keeping Hanson. I do sometimes wish we had a punter that could make a real difference in the field position war for those really tight games we will soon be experiencing.

I find it ineresting that the players worked out are K, P, LB, and TE

Is that because our depth is weakest in those positions or because of mild injuries to players on our teams at those positions or am I reading to much into it?

Lloyd_Christmas said:

I'm sure BB has his reasons for keeping Hanson. I do sometimes wish we had a punter that could make a real difference in the field position war for those really tight games we will soon be experiencing.

I find it ineresting that the players worked out are K, P, LB, and TE

Is that because our depth is weakest in those positions or because of mild injuries to players on our teams at those positions or am I reading to much into it?

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You are spot on IMO...

bigcountry75 said:

I really liked Danny Lansanah at UConn....I saw him play a couple of times and he is a hard nosed guy that finds the football and just does his job well....I don't know where he would fit in best whether it be OLB or ILB but he was always a favorite of mine....

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I liked Lansanah, too. He had good size and seemed to get to the right places on D. Not a great pro day, though (4.72 40, slow shuttles - scroll near the bottom): Pro day workout updates

We could tell him how we feel about him: Danny Lansanah - Green Bay, WI | Facebook

Lloyd_Christmas said:

I'm sure BB has his reasons for keeping Hanson. I do sometimes wish we had a punter that could make a real difference in the field position war for those really tight games we will soon be experiencing.

I find it ineresting that the players worked out are K, P, LB, and TE

Is that because our depth is weakest in those positions or because of mild injuries to players on our teams at those positions or am I reading to much into it?

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Hanson cannot kick a football for distance. If he could, he would

outkick his coverage. Apparently, he also cannot kick to the left

or right so many of his kicks go in the end zone.

Jimke said:

Hanson cannot kick a football for distance. If he could, he would

outkick his coverage. Apparently, he also cannot kick to the left

or right so many of his kicks go in the end zone.

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BB addressed this topic at length. Said that the pro game stopped kicking left, right coffin corner years ago. The current pro kicking paradigm calls for kicking the ball high, and having it dead cat bounce up or backwards with your gunners making a play. Where Hanson has failed is that on kicks towards the EZ, he has kicked the ball such that it bounces too far fwd.

I watched a play Sunday where he dropped the ball inside the 10. The Tamper PR signalled fair catch and two Patriots mistakenly stopped dead in their tracks and watched the ball bounce up and roll into the EZ. Had they continued fwd to the player as they should have, either one would have been able to down it inside the 5. Maybe they were hoping he'd field the punt and drop it.