Game 3 Snap Counts: Our rotation is insane

It's an ESPN article but it's from Mike Reiss so I think it's ok to link to it:

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-england...man-does-his-part-for-patriots-as-no-3-option

Our snap counts are a huge difference from last year. Gone are the days of the majority of our players going wire-to-wire or playing 90% of snaps. We have some serious depth and rotation and our young players are only going to continue to get better and better while our established veterans stay fresh.

VrabelJr said:

It's an ESPN article but it's from Mike Reiss so I think it's ok to link to it:

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-england...man-does-his-part-for-patriots-as-no-3-option

Our snap counts are a huge difference from last year. Gone are the days of the majority of our players going wire-to-wire or playing 90% of snaps. We have some serious depth and rotation and our young players are only going to continue to get better and better while our established veterans stay fresh.

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Yep. Crazy rotation on the OL, and Sheard is being exactly what we wanted him to be, both on the field and in regards to giving Jones and Ninkovich rest.

- Love seeing Fletcher inactive. We never should have signed him.
- the rotation at DE is great. I seriously wonder if we can afford to keep 3 high quality DE's moving forward but right now it's awesome to have talented depth
- at LB I would like to see Mayo get a little more PT in sub packages just to keep him fresh, especially in blowouts like this one, but this is picking nits.
- DT: good to see Easley out there and props to Branch and Silinga for shutting down the running game of Jax

- it's nice to see Blount back to form. We will need him as the season moves along.
- Keshawn Martin looks good and got a lot of snaps. I'm sure he knew some of the offensive schemes since he played for BOB. Hopefully Bill did Bill a solid and sent us a good player as a thank you.
- props to the OL who continue to excel

I think Keshawn Martin is what we thought we were getting when we drafted Josh Boyce. So far Martin looks pretty promising. Great for a rookie to step in on a short week (for him) and grab three passes. So much for the "YOU HAVE TO EARN BRADY'S TRUST!!!" meme.

VrabelJr said:

It's an ESPN article but it's from Mike Reiss so I think it's ok to link to it:

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-england...man-does-his-part-for-patriots-as-no-3-option

Our snap counts are a huge difference from last year. Gone are the days of the majority of our players going wire-to-wire or playing 90% of snaps. We have some serious depth and rotation and our young players are only going to continue to get better and better while our established veterans stay fresh.

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This should have all-around effects; reduce injuries, improve energy (for the long haul) and develop more talent. Hey, wait a minute. Is that cheating? Can they do that? I need to write Roger at once...

aluminum seats said:

Yep. Crazy rotation on the OL, and Sheard is being exactly what we wanted him to be, both on the field and in regards to giving Jones and Ninkovich rest.

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I am curious to learn how Sheard feels about his experiences thus far in New England. I'm sure a lot of the new guys will get "that feeling" along the way.

Rhodey said:

This should have all-around effects; reduce injuries, improve energy (for the long haul) and develop more talent. Hey, wait a minute. Is that cheating? Can they do that? I need to write Roger at once...

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It's not "cheating," but it's definitely shady. I don't think other teams are doing it, or even have the capability to do it, so if the Pats had any class they wouldn't be pulling this stuff. But that's how they do things there. I'm so freaking sick of the NFL and Goodell being in Kraft's pocket and letting them get away with whatever they want. I just hope we HIT Brady next time we play, past the whistle, I don't even care about penalties. I want him carted off the field, I hate them all SO MUCH.

(Did I do it right? Is that the way it goes?)

aluminum seats said:

It's not "cheating," but it's definitely shady. I don't think other teams are doing it, or even have the capability to do it, so if the Pats had any class they wouldn't be pulling this stuff. But that's how they do things there. I'm so freaking sick of the NFL and Goodell being in Kraft's pocket and letting them get away with whatever they want. I just hope we HIT Brady next time we play, past the whistle, I don't even are about penalties. I want him carted off the field, I hate them all SO MUCH.

(Did I do it right? Is that the way it goes?)

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Obviously, I was being sarcastic...seem to lunge into that one (i.e. about writing Roger) whenever the (fake) suspicion arises. In a nutshell, it gives me the opportunity to demonstrate how ridiculous the accusers appear. (They ignore all of the hard work et al to steal it from the players/coach.) Not only is it mean-spirited, it is envy to the nth degree. And envy is when we don't want someone else to have something so that we can have it for ourselves.

Rhodey said:

Obviously, I was being sarcastic...seem to lunge into that one (i.e. about writing Roger) whenever the (fake) suspicion arises. In a nutshell, it gives me the opportunity to demonstrate how ridiculous the accusers appear. (They ignore all of the hard work et al to steal it from the players/coach.) Not only is it mean-spirited, it is envy to the nth degree. And envy is when we don't want someone else to have something so that we can have it for ourselves.

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I got it, man. Was just riffing off your joke.

aluminum seats said:

I got it, man. Was just riffing off your joke.

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Cheers!

Curious to see how long we will rotate at guard. Frankly it is not really hurting us and I know people say OL is one of those things you want to settle on... I feel though as long as your C, RT and LT are solid you can rotate in guards as you please.

Surprised Easley played so many snaps but didn't have any big plays. Guess I will excuse it this game but I expect more vs Dallas. The DL has been good but am still waiting for Easley/Brown to really take over games at times. Hopefully we will start to see it in the 2nd half.

So it seems clear Grissom will play and Flowers will not. Just don't need a 4th true DE it seems. BB values the versatility more on the back end for now.

Butler will play every snap this season I think. BB is obviously looking to get him as many reps as possible as he was still on the field during garbage time. I don't want to put our SB hopes on one player but if the team stays healthy i honestly think the ultimate winning or losing of this years SB depends on how good Butler is come playoff time. Will he be able to have that clutch coverage or make that PD or Int in the 4th to close it out when our offense yet again gives us the lead?

I really do see the season like that.

aluminum seats said:

It's not "cheating," but it's definitely shady. I don't think other teams are doing it, or even have the capability to do it, so if the Pats had any class they wouldn't be pulling this stuff. But that's how they do things there. I'm so freaking sick of the NFL and Goodell being in Kraft's pocket and letting them get away with whatever they want. I just hope we HIT Brady next time we play, past the whistle, I don't even care about penalties. I want him carted off the field, I hate them all SO MUCH.

(Did I do it right? Is that the way it goes?)

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Well done! I especially appreciate the use of irony with opposing fan base whiners Harbawling about how the Pats cheat and then openly wishing for a dirty hit on Brady.

If those figures are correct, there were at least 11 snaps with 3 tackles. Also, adding Mason's, Jackson's and Kline's snaps together gives 1 less than 2X the total number of snaps.

Based on that, I conjecture that Mason's snaps at FB may have come in sets where 3 "tackles" played.

Have you guys ever seen a rotation by design at the tackle positions like what the Pats have been doing? I don't think I have. Seems borderline unprecedented for a team to put in its swing tackle for the LT, not because of injury but purely out of choice.

The DT and DE snap counts look really promising. Great to see Easley play so many snaps and Jones play so few, looks like Belichick is very serious about keeping his line fresh; hopefully we're done with seeing the DEs clearly wear down as the season goes along. And given how much the Pats were playing in nickel, it makes sense that Easley would be playing a lot, but this suggests that he wasn't playing on any kind of a pitch count, which is an encouraging sign for his health. Looks like he's back to 100%.

Lastly, seeing Chung and Richards get an even split of the snaps at SS is interesting. Gotta figure Belichick likes what he's seen so far from Richards.

We've all heard that Belichick searches far and wide for coaching lessons, makes me wonder if he's taking some roster management tips from Gregg Poppovich. For quite a while I've thought he's the closest equivalent to Belichick in American sports anyway. Their philosophies are extremely similar on all sorts of levels, main difference seems to be that the NBA feels no pathological need to tear down its greats out of pure jealousy.

BobDigital said:

Curious to see how long we will rotate at guard. Frankly it is not really hurting us and I know people say OL is one of those things you want to settle on... I feel though as long as your C, RT and LT are solid you can rotate in guards as you please.

Surprised Easley played so many snaps but didn't have any big plays. Guess I will excuse it this game but I expect more vs Dallas. The DL has been good but am still waiting for Easley/Brown to really take over games at times. Hopefully we will start to see it in the 2nd half.

So it seems clear Grissom will play and Flowers will not. Just don't need a 4th true DE it seems. BB values the versatility more on the back end for now.

Butler will play ever snap this season I think. BB is obviously looking to get him as many reps as possible as he was still on the field during garbage time. I don't want to put our SB hopes on one player but if the team stays healthy i honestly think the ultimate winning or losing of this years SB depends on how good Butler is come playoff time. Will he be able to have that clutch coverage or make that PD or Int in the 4th to close it out when our offense yet again gives us the lead?

I really do see the season like that.

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While having the same 5 guys solidify as a unit is conventional wisdom, and in general I would also think it's best, but it's difficult to argue with the results to this point. They obviously haven't been perfect, but they are doing damn well for any line. When you consider the rookies, especially Andrews, it's just very, very impressive. It feels sacrilegious to think and say, but I don't know if Dante could have done much better.

Wow, those numbers are very encouraging. This is a young, deep and talented team with tremendous versatility. It's a team that is built for the post season.

VrabelJr said:

I think Keshawn Martin is what we thought we were getting when we drafted Josh Boyce. So far Martin looks pretty promising. Great for a rookie to step in on a short week (for him) and grab three passes. So much for the "YOU HAVE TO EARN BRADY'S TRUST!!!" meme.

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Well, you still have to earn Brady's trust... just seems now like it's possible to earn it in a week

Incredible to me that not only are the coaches scheming for their opponent and game situation but also rotating across all positions. It really is unprecedented to have the O-line rotate through like this, to have the entire defense subbing in and out the way they have been. And I'm sure as time goes on the coaches will get more and more comfortable with their subs and who works best with who etc.

I'm hoping they're just easing Mayo back in and his low snap counts aren't a product of a dip in his talent/production. Would be great if he's just getting back into game form ala Gronk last season and he'll be ready to be the steadying force in the middle of the field he was a few years ago. Couple that with the secondary getting settled a bit more, and the D-line rotation keeping players fresh, and this defense could be very good when the calendar rolls to December and January.

A lot of teams make desperation switches of an OL from, say, an interior spot to tackle or vice-versa. Those often work out pretty well. So I've always suspected that the bit about OL continuity was overrated.

That said, I'm sure that a lot of OL play is assessing the situation by reading your teammate's assessment (or actual situation) via your peripheral vision. So knowing the guys next to you is surely important.

Rechards is a good one. He showed great to awareness on Lee's catch near the sideline. Lee was like five feet away from the side line.