Schefter reporting Kelly, Anderson and Smith cut

mayoclinic said:

Do you think BB can get them to throw in Alec Ogletree, too?

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Only if we give them Bequette.

Brady6 said:

Kelly has played in all three preseason snaps, has not registered a tackle, assist, sack, QB hit, QB hurry, or for that matter a single stat. What exactly has he done besides win 1on1 battles against Jon Halapio to merit a roster spot? I like Kelly he was a great player for many years, but he was not the second best DL on our team, because if he were he would still be on it.

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He has stacked-up a few runs that comes his way, making it easy for Nink and BeauH to make the tackles, but it's true that her hasn't done as much in the passing game as he did last year.

Brady6 said:

I agree, I will add though that Morris got a lot of reps on Friday and played well.

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I expect 2 out of Fleming / Morris / Beauharnais to stick as the #4 and #5 LBs. I personally prefer Morris to Beauharnais from what little I've seen, but I haven't seen enough for it to be a strong preference.

Respectfully submitted, Gents, but I'm amazed that so many are so surprised that Kelly got cut.

I respect the guy, but as an ancient Veteran trying to come back from a Severe Injury, I didn't even bother mentioning him ~ or Smith, thank you very much ~ back in my Patriots Prospectus, back in March.

Both of those guys were long shots to make substantial contributions all along.

mayoclinic said:

I expect 2 out of Fleming / Morris / Beauharnais to stick as the #4 and #5 LBs. I personally prefer Morris to Beauharnais from what little I've seen, but I haven't seen enough for it to be a strong preference.

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I suspect it's Beauharnais and Flemming at this stage. But then again... i thought Kelly was making the team.

Off The Grid said:

Respectfully submitted, Gents, but I'm amazed that so many are so surprised that Kelly got cut.

I respect the guy, but as an ancient Veteran trying to come back from a Severe Injury, I didn't even bother mentioning him ~ or Smith, thank you very much ~ back in my Patriots Prospectus, back in March. Both of those guys were long shots to make substantial contributions all along.

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If you dont mind me softballing a question at you: what were you prospectin' about Wifork?

Danger Zone said:

If you dont mind me softballing a question at you: what were you prospectin' about Wifork?

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The Fanatical One was way ahead of me on Brother Vince:

The best that I believe we can expect from Big Vince in 2014 is a mediocre Campaign with flashes of Excellence. But if we're smart about it, relegating him to a reserve role with a Snap Count and allowing him to slowly work his way back into the rotation, I believe that he'll finish strong and regain most of his former Prowess.

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I covered my thoughts on Vince Wilfork extensively a few weeks ago, but suffice to say I neither wish for us to carry him at that enormous Salary nor for us to cut'm outright. There's no way that I expect him to recover his formerly magnificent level of Play, but if I were running things, I'd look to restructure his Contract for about $2,500,000 a Year plus Unlikely Incentives, I'd work'm back through the gears in 2014, and I'd expect outstanding Play for 2 or 3 more Years.

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http://www.fanaticalyankee.com/patriots-pandemonium/new-england-patriots-2014-prospectus-defensive-tackles

If anything, Grid was uncharacteristically cautious in his predictions for Wilfork. Then again, my plan at the beginning of March was to cut Wilfork and sign Linval Joseph. Oops. I swear it seemed to make sense at the time.

Wow, Kelly and Anderson are a big surprise. I'm kinda surprised by smith too.

Everyone who followed preseason and training camp knew Will Smith was about to get cut.

Deus Irae said:

Give me the name of your dealer, because he's selling the good stuff.

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Ah....the "good stuff."

(longingly rubs hands together in reminiscent fashion)

surprised by the Kelly cut. I suppose this means BB is pushing the youth movement forward on defense.

BobDigital said:

I don't think they cut Kelly to grab another DT. I think it just signals they are happy with the young guys as they likely won't get a better very FA than him.

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I'm guessing that you're probably right. We'll know soon enough.

If they cut Kelly to give a spot to Worthy, he better be worth it.












Ahaha I made a funny.

Last year, we carried 4 DE's and FOUR DT's (including AJ Francis). We carried 7 LB's. We carried 10 DB's.

New England Patriots Roster: digesting the cuts and the 'final' 53 - Boston.com - Sept 2, 2013

I thought then, and I think now that we needed more DT help.
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If everyone is healthy, I agree that 5 DT's is the right number (with Worthy or Vellano as the 5th). Personally, given the injuries, I would rather have Vellano on the 53 than Moore. To me, Moore is a fine project for the Practice Squad.

THE 25 MAN DEFENSE
DE (3), DT (4), LB (6), CB (5), S (5) plus two more of Worthy, Vellano and Moore.

Brady6 said:

I totally agree, last season we had 3 DT on our opening roster, people projecting us to double that to 6 seems unlikely. I think we keep 5 DTs with Wilfork, Easley, Jones, and Siliga likely to stick leaving 1 spot open for Worthy, Vellano, or Bass.

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mgteich said:

We were a top 10 defense last year with Jones, Ninkovich, Buchanan, Siliga, Jones and Vellano. As has been pointed out, we have added Wilfork AND Easley AND Worthy.

Most of us thought that Kelly and/or Smith of are better than the 9 above. Belichick disagrees.

Apparently someone is ready to start at DT. I presume that person is Easley.

With regard to Anderson, I think that we will be fine with Fleming and Beauharnis as backups.

Another conclusion is the Moore is better at this point than Smith. We need a 4th DE, in addition to Ninkovich, Jones and Buchanan. We still could sign a vet DE.

Finally, we must HOPE and TRUST that at least some of the injured DT's are ready to play.
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And yes, someone will pick up Kelly at his vet minimum slaty plus game bonuses.

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I want to offer an alternative with the LBs. Cutting Anderson gives the certainty that a ST maven, similar to Larry Izzo, is kept for ST duty. Chris White wins a position.

Despite Beauharnis' INT and return, unlike others, I thought he was playing himself off the team. He hasn't done much against the run and is outright terrible in pass coverage. With Anderson going, there is room for Chris White and two more. I have been impressed with Darius Fleming and I think he gets a slot.

That makes 5 LBs, Does J'Gared Davis or Beauharnis win a sixth spot?

Or does BB decide that he still needs a coverage LB, and Chung/Wilson are pretty good coverage LBs, if not SS players, and rename one of them a SS/LB hybrid, and fill the hypothetical position that way.

He ends up with a better coverage LB/S then Anderson. Certainly both are undersized for a typical Belichick LB, but there are LBs, like Lavonte David, who are no bigger, and Anderson was small too.

mayoclinic said:

I expect 2 out of Fleming / Morris / Beauharnais to stick as the #4 and #5 LBs. I personally prefer Morris to Beauharnais from what little I've seen, but I haven't seen enough for it to be a strong preference.

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I would say 3 more of Fleming, Beauharnais, White and Morris. We carried 7 LB's last year.

Chris White is one our top special teamers. We usually keep 2 LB's who are top special teamers. We should keep at least one this year. Most of us had 6 LB's on the roster before we found so many DL's worthy of the roster. No we can go back to a more "normal" 9 DL's and 6 LB's).

http://www.boston.com/sports/footba...the_cuts_and_the_patriots_final_53-man_r.html

mgteich said:

I would say 3 more of Fleming, Beauharnais, White and Morris. We carried 7 LB's last year.
http://www.boston.com/sports/footba...the_cuts_and_the_patriots_final_53-man_r.html

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I hope not. Given that we're going to have 2 LBs on the field for 2/3 of the snaps, I don't see a need to carry that many. Having that many LBs leaves us way too thin on the DL, which we found out last year. I'm more than happy to load up on them on the PS, though.

Brady6 said:

I agree, I will add though that Morris got a lot of reps on Friday and played well.

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I agree and so did Ja'Gared Davis. He delivered the Biggest Hit of TC when he shut down a RB coming up the middle.

Kelly will probably be back at some point, just a hunch.

patchick said:

W Pessimistic view: like the surprise cut of James Sanders, this will be a case where we would have been better off sticking with the devil we knew.

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Thinking about dropping Kelly reminds me of last season, where the young guys stepped up and helped the team win games with a really injury riddled front 7. The big downside, of course, was that the run defense was simply porous. Your James Sanders comparison feels about right to my pessimistic view of this move.

Optimistically: Here's hoping for 2nd year jumps for the young guys and health for Wilfork, Mayo, and the rest.