Pats Sign LB James Anderson and .......well There Goes My Mark Harrison @ TE Theory......

supafly · Jun 5, 2014

Yeah, the Harrison to TE rumors were pretty much put to rest a good month ago when Reiss asked Belichick about it during the draft, and Belichick responded "that's not really in our plans."

Next up---Hightower to DE and/or Ryan to safety

patfanken · Jun 5, 2014

This is an excellent signing. This guy was thrust into a starting role with the Bears and had great production. It will be good for a change to see if one of our LB's go down, we will be able to count on his reserve to be an asset, as opposed to a liability.

I can see us carrying only 5 "true" LB's this season. Interesting to note that the first 4, all run under 4.7 40's. This is clearly the fastest LB corps in BB's history. Should they all stay healthy, it will be a dogfight between Beauharnais, Flemming and White to see who wins that 5th spot. Whoever does better also be a core special teamer as well.

Ivan · Jun 5, 2014

Yep, I really like this signing, athletic and productive LB depth,along with 2nd TE their greatest need. It is going to be interesting to see where Belichick goes from here before camp starts. I don't think he's done but a high profile move is unlikely, however a number of veteran FA signings could well occur over the next couple of months.

DarrylS · Jun 5, 2014

The Harrison to TE stuff or the loss of him is confusing, he never played in an NFL game and was on the DL last year.... since then they have had one series of OTA's, either her gets "it" or gets cut...

Some posters fall in love with what things might be, rather than what they are..

pencilneckgeek · Jun 5, 2014

Excellent, our thinnest position on defense just became one of our strengths. We have four starting-quality players at a position that requires 2.5. Assuming health for some (but not necessarily all) of the walking wounded on DL, I think this defense has the potential to be something special. Safety may appear thin, but the overall secondary depth is excellent with seven players who deserve playing time. I'm very happy with this signing.

Kontradiction · Jun 5, 2014

patfanken said:
This is an excellent signing. This guy was thrust into a starting role with the Bears and had great production. It will be good for a change to see if one of our LB's go down, we will be able to count on his reserve to be an asset, as opposed to a liability.

I can see us carrying only 5 "true" LB's this season. Interesting to note that the first 4, all run under 4.7 40's. This is clearly the fastest LB corps in BB's history. Should they all stay healthy, it will be a dogfight between Beauharnais, Flemming and White to see who wins that 5th spot. Whoever does better also be a core special teamer as well.

In 2011 (the year we started moving more toward the 4-3) and 2012, the issue with the LB's was their ability to handle speed on the offensive side of the ball. Be it against mobile quarterbacks, RB's out of the backfield, WR's, or TE's even. They struggled a lot against that because they're Belichick's bigger and more traditional leadfoots that he preferred in the 3-4. I think what Belichick has done at the position to make it more athletic is telling. And it's nice to see that he's still capable of evolving as a defensive mind. We started to see improvements last season even with Hightower playing out of position due to the Mayo injury. We should see further improvements this year. It sounds like you're expecting Anderson to start. Where do you have him? Will with Mayo at Mike and Collins as the Sam?

PatsWickedPissah · Jun 5, 2014

supafly said:
Yeah, the Harrison to TE rumors were pretty much put to rest a good month ago when Reiss asked Belichick about it during the draft, and Belichick responded "that's not really in our plans."

Next up---Hightower to DE and/or Ryan to safety

IIRC in response to the TE possibility BB said something like Harrison needed to focus and learn the WR position.
Apparently he was out of focus to get cut so soon.

varjao · Jun 5, 2014

All this hype and expectation over Harrison taking some snaps reveals that our receiving corps is one of the worst in NFL an there are big question marks at WR. That's what makes people hope for anything that can become a playmaker.

When you have at least one top receiver and some complementary pieces around him, you don't want to see Harrison playing WR, TE or whatever.

I understand with the moves on the off season and draft that BB's strategy is to build a top 3 defense that gets out of the field quickly, improve drastically the Oline and take some pressure out of Brady's shoulders, giving him more of a game manager role. I can see us bringing 5 Rb's and having a massive ground game. Actually I like this approach very much, we lost Welker, Hernandez, Gronk can't stay on the field and the rookies that were supposed to fill in for the Lloyds and Branchs of life are question marks, we are not a offense first anymore and we shouldn't, besides having the GOAT playing QB.

patchick · Jun 5, 2014

varjao said:
All this hype and expectation over Harrison taking some snaps reveals that our receiving corps is one of the worst in NFL an there are big question marks at WR. That's what makes people hope for anything that can become a playmaker.

Or maybe it's just that Hernandez demonstrated the great potential of the joker TE, the position was spectacularly weak in the draft, and so fans started dreaming about the pass catcher already on the roster with this remarkable measurables line:

6'3" 231 4.37 17 38.5 10'09" 4.33 6.99

The trick is that when a guy with those measurables goes undrafted, then is cut early from his first team as a UDFA, there's generally a reason for it.

BTW, here's how the baseless Harrison-to-TE story happened in the first place:

Mike Reiss wrote a few brief words of idle speculation, wondering if it might be a consideration. Immediately, a bunch of other news outlets started reporting on this "rumor" that the Patriots were considering the position switch. Fans then had the experience of reading multiple reports from different sources that Harrison was a possible answer to the joker position. It was all just a big game of telephone.

NewFeep · Jun 5, 2014

The last shoe to drop in a day or so is a quality depth TE.... Hello Dustin Keller. Too much risk with Finley although healthy I would prefer him......

Kontradiction · Jun 5, 2014

NewFeep said:
The last shoe to drop in a day or so is a quality depth TE.... Hello Dustin Keller. Too much risk with Finley although healthy I would prefer him......

Not sure about that. I'm being told in another thread that our depth at TE behind Gronk is absolutely fine.

Ring 6 · Jun 5, 2014

varjao said:
All this hype and expectation over Harrison taking some snaps reveals that our receiving corps is one of the worst in NFL an there are big question marks at WR. That's what makes people hope for anything that can become a playmaker.

When you have at least one top receiver and some complementary pieces around him, you don't want to see Harrison playing WR, TE or whatever.

I understand with the moves on the off season and draft that BB's strategy is to build a top 3 defense that gets out of the field quickly, improve drastically the Oline and take some pressure out of Brady's shoulders, giving him more of a game manager role. I can see us bringing 5 Rb's and having a massive ground game. Actually I like this approach very much, we lost Welker, Hernandez, Gronk can't stay on the field and the rookies that were supposed to fill in for the Lloyds and Branchs of life are question marks, we are not a offense first anymore and we shouldn't, besides having the GOAT playing QB.

This is one awful piece of analysis.

Ring 6 · Jun 5, 2014

patchick said:
Or maybe it's just that Hernandez demonstrated the great potential of the joker TE, the position was spectacularly weak in the draft, and so fans started dreaming about the pass catcher already on the roster with this remarkable measurables line:

6'3" 231 4.37 17 38.5 10'09" 4.33 6.99

The trick is that when a guy with those measurables goes undrafted, then is cut early from his first team as a UDFA, there's generally a reason for it.

BTW, here's how the baseless Harrison-to-TE story happened in the first place:

Mike Reiss wrote a few brief words of idle speculation, wondering if it might be a consideration. Immediately, a bunch of other news outlets started reporting on this "rumor" that the Patriots were considering the position switch. Fans then had the experience of reading multiple reports from different sources that Harrison was a possible answer to the joker position. It was all just a big game of telephone.

Fans are always look for "The next _________". Any player who is gone must have his role replaced identically. The reality is that the roles are defined by the skillset of the players. If we had never signed Wes Welker in 2007, our offense would never have revolved around the slot receiver. If we didn't draft Gronk and the Murderer we would not have run the 2 TE offense that we did.
Fans are looking for the next Hernandez, BB is looking for talented players to put in roles they will be best at, and develop a scheme variation around them.

patsinthesnow · Jun 5, 2014

@FieldYates: Breaking down James Anderson's 1-year deal with the Patriots. http://t.co/qw5optw3T2

Signed for peanuts.

captain stone · Jun 5, 2014

AndyJohnson said:
This is one awful piece of analysis.

Not really. Taken as a whole, our WRs + TEs (- Gronk) = the Worst in the NFL.

patriot lifer · Jun 5, 2014

Why was this guy unsigned until now? If he's decent, I'm surprised he lasted this long. Given the timing of the signing, I'd think he were a JAG, if not for the PY stats.

BradyFTW! · Jun 5, 2014

JMC00 said:
Harrison didn't count as a roster spot last year. So i'm not sure how that was a wasted a spot.

Plus, maybe in that year they concluded that he sucks. Why would you keep a guy that sucks just because he has a year of sucking under his belt?

Also, re: this signing, I like it. We needed warm bodies at LB, and we got a good player.

AzPatsFan · Jun 5, 2014

varjao said:
All this hype and expectation over Harrison taking some snaps reveals that our receiving corps is one of the worst in NFL an there are big question marks at WR. That's what makes people hope for anything that can become a playmaker.

When you have at least one top receiver and some complementary pieces around him, you don't want to see Harrison playing WR, TE or whatever.

I understand with the moves on the off season and draft that BB's strategy is to build a top 3 defense that gets out of the field quickly, improve drastically the Oline and take some pressure out of Brady's shoulders, giving him more of a game manager role. I can see us bringing 5 Rb's and having a massive ground game. Actually I like this approach very much, we lost Welker, Hernandez, Gronk can't stay on the field and the rookies that were supposed to fill in for the Lloyds and Branchs of life are question marks, we are not a offense first anymore and we shouldn't, besides having the GOAT playing QB.

I disagree. Fans look backwards not forward. The wide receivers were truly poor in 2011, even though the Offense clicked. It was the last curtain call for more then one of them.

The 2013 season was the surgery and medicine, complicated by the Hernandez situation, too late to do much about it. BB planned to ease the transition with the 2 TE O, but Aperp, and Ballards recovery problems meant such was not to be, Post operative therapy for the receiver corps was never going to be easy, but its done.

This season we will finally see the the healthy results. Fans worry about last season's problems, which are essentially cured, when the should be concerned with next season's issues.

What are those issues? Some can't be for seen, but I suggest we will be discussing integrating the newcomers to the O-line; perhaps stopping the run with all the new light anti-pass defenders; and the aging QB issues.

patriot lifer · Jun 5, 2014

Below is a link to a Bears board on the player:

http://bearshq.com/chicago-bears-me...ff-season-will-james-anderson-back-bears/2294

From the above link:

Although he led the team in tackles with 129.5, he struggled mightily against the run and didn't make many game-changing plays.
Of the five Bears, who started at linebacker in 2013, Anderson ended the season as the only player without an interception or forced fumble. He did however finish second on the team with a career-high four sacks as well as totaling 10 quarterback pressures.
Tim Tibesar took over for Reggie Herring as the Bears linebackers coach this off-season. Typically with a new coach brings a new attitude, so Anderson might not be valued highly by Tibesar and the Bears.

Based on the above nuggests and what we know about BB, he better be very good in pass coverage (his role)and ST (more than just a 1-down LB). Otherwise, he will have a difficult shot landing on the roster.

Marqui · Jun 5, 2014

patriot lifer said:
Below is a link to a Bears board on the player:

http://bearshq.com/chicago-bears-me...ff-season-will-james-anderson-back-bears/2294

From the above link:

Although he led the team in tackles with 129.5, he struggled mightily against the run and didn't make many game-changing plays.

That doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. How can he lead the team in tackles but "struggled against the run"?

Pats Sign LB James Anderson and .......well There Goes My Mark Harrison @ TE Theory......

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