Snap counts per Reiss

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-england...reeny-stepped-in-to-fill-donta-hightower-void

The biggie to me is that Freeny had almost as many snaps as Mayo.

1. Is Mayo still recovering or just a fraction of the player he used to be?

2. Two solid games in a row for Ryan. Brown/Coleman playing decent. All this group has to do is not suck behind Butler.

3. Lafell's return will be big. He's a sizeable upgrade over Martin/Dobson.

4. Regarding DE:

-Sheard needs to lead the group in snaps. He's a stud.
-I wish we had a four man rotation at DE. Flowers was an animal in the preseason & our pass rushing future may be Sheard/Flowers in the years ahead. It would be nice to see him.

Also Williams with twice as many snaps as Chandler. A one game aberration utilizing Williams blocking because of the protection problems? That seems reasonable, and likely, but it will be interesting to track their relative snap count in the next few games to see if Chandler is still the Number 2 TE.

Next game I hope to see a negative snap count for Cannon.

I was watching Williams a lot - he's like a second left tackle out there - strong, strong, human being.

patsinthesnow said:

1. Is Mayo still recovering or just a fraction of the player he used to be?

2. Two solid games in a row for Ryan. Brown/Coleman playing decent. All this group has to do is not suck behind Butler.

3. Lafell's return will be big. He's a sizeable upgrade over Martin/Dobson.

4. Regarding DE:

-Sheard needs to lead the group in snaps. He's a stud.
-I wish we had a four man rotation at DE. Flowers was an animal in the preseason & our pass rushing future may be Sheard/Flowers in the years ahead. It would be nice to see him.

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I think #1 is probably a bit of both. He is not as good as he use to be and some of that is injury related and some might be has just been out of football too many games and lost his form/edge

#2 - Ryan/Coleman have both been good. I would not put Brown in that same grouping though as to me is the the #2 whose snaps they are just trying to manage cause of his injury history. Coleman/Ryan have been servicable though. Interestingly I think they prefer their 5th DB to usually be a safety over CB right now.

#3 Agreed. Edelman/Lafell/Amendola to me right now the way Amendola is playing looks like a very decent 1-2-3. Add in Gronk and Lewis and it becomes very good.

#4 I am fine with an evening split snap rotation which is almost what they had this game. Sheard has been the best of the 3 but Jones/Nink are both very good too. I see them in a very close group talent wise. Keep all 3 rotated and fresh for the playoffs then every snap in those games have all 3 on the field and pass rush the QB to death.

patsinthesnow said:

1. Is Mayo still recovering or just a fraction of the player he used to be?

2. Two solid games in a row for Ryan. Brown/Coleman playing decent. All this group has to do is not suck behind Butler.

3. Lafell's return will be big. He's a sizeable upgrade over Martin/Dobson.

4. Regarding DE:

-Sheard needs to lead the group in snaps. He's a stud.
-I wish we had a four man rotation at DE. Flowers was an animal in the preseason & our pass rushing future may be Sheard/Flowers in the years ahead. It would be nice to see him.

Click to expand...

Yeah - I don't think Mayo is still recovering. He started preseason without the red no-contact still-in-recovery jersey, while Hightower was limited for quite a while. That was July. Seeing Freeney log a similar snap-count to Mayo in the absence of Hightower - against a running team - says the Patriots are not relying upon Mayo. Collins, in Hightower's absence, was all over the field. Unfortunately, Mayo, not so much.

And agree on Logan Ryan. He has been quietly efficient. I've not seen him getting beat badly a lot. (Not really hyperbolic acclaim, I know). Nice interception on a Dallas drive. Ryan's development could make this secondary at least as good as the pre-Aqib Talib team. Again, setting the bar low - can they be one of the top 30 pass defenses? But looking at the roster, top 30 might have seemed a stretch in September.

Freeney is 6-2 254 and runs like a deer.

While he lacks experience, he might be a better athletic fit in the defense (inside & outside) than Mayo. Certainly does not mean he is a better player but a potentially better fit.

varjao said:

Next game I hope to see a negative snap count for Cannon.

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The line was better with Cannon than it was when Solder was in.

varjao said:

Next game I hope to see a negative snap count for Cannon.

Click to expand...

Cannon did not play very well at LT against Hardy. However, neither did Soldier. Hardy is probably my least favorite player in the league, but he was a real animal yesterday. LT is just a very hard position to play. Certainly LT is a position that is highly valued by BB, as evidenced by the Patriots salary structure, shown below.

http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/new-england-patriots/

Who has the highest average salary on the Patriots? LT Nate Soldier at $10M per year. Who has the sixth highest average salary on the Patriots? Backup LT Marcus Cannon at $4.5 M per year. I think that both contracts shocked many on this board, especially Cannon's, the sixth highest salary on the team for a backup!

What does this tell me? Either i) BB went temporarily insane when he handed out the contracts to Soldier and Cannon; ii) or, LT is just a very difficult position to play, and BB puts a very high value on competent LT's. Neither Soldier or Cannon looked that competent yesterday, but I would argue that LT is just a hard position to play against some animal like Hardy.

zydecochris said:

Cannon did not play very well at LT against Hardy. However, neither did Soldier. Hardy is probably my least favorite player in the league, but he was a real animal yesterday. LT is just a very hard position to play. Certainly LT is a position that is highly valued by BB, as evidenced by the Patriots salary structure, shown below.

http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/new-england-patriots/

Who has the highest average salary on the Patriots? LT Nate Soldier at $10M per year. Who has the sixth highest average salary on the Patriots? Backup LT Marcus Cannon at $4.5 M per year. I think that both contracts shocked many on this board, especially Cannon's, the sixth highest salary on the team for a backup!

What does this tell me? Either i) BB went temporarily insane when he handed out the contracts to Soldier and Cannon; ii) or, LT is just a very difficult position to play, and BB puts a very high value on competent LT's. Neither Soldier or Cannon looked that competent yesterday, but I would argue that LT is just a hard position to play against some animal like Hardy.

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I remember back in the day when Matt Light would get help from Danny Graham on guys like Dwight Freeney or Jason Taylor. While Light was excellent, even he got roasted a few times by those guys.

I think the coaching staff underrated how ready Hardy was yesterday and Solder didn't play well. Neither did Cannon. 2nd 1/2 they obviously played better. Not sure if that is tied to Hardy getting fatigued.

robertweathers said:

I remember back in the day when Matt Light would get help from Danny Graham on guys like Dwight Freeney or Jason Taylor. While Light was excellent, even he got roasted a few times by those guys.

I think the coaching staff underrated how ready Hardy was yesterday and Solder didn't play well. Neither did Cannon. 2nd 1/2 they obviously played better. Not sure if that is tied to Hardy getting fatigued.

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Strongly agree on both points. On the second point, I think that Hardy came out pumped up with adrenalin with his hair on fire to show up the league and to show Jerry Jones how valuable he was. However, he couldn't keep it up for four quarters, especially after the Patriots got things going with the run game.

zydecochris said:

Who has the sixth highest average salary on the Patriots? Backup LT Marcus Cannon at $4.5 M per year. I think that both contracts shocked many on this board, especially Cannon's, the sixth highest salary on the team for a backup!

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Cannon was signed as the backup to two OT's with injury histories. In addition, it seems that Vollmer benefits from getting a breather during the game. In addition, Solder was coin into his last year. Cannon was insurance in case Solder didn't agree to an extension.

I think that Belichick is fine with Cannon's contract. He is a backup to the 2nd most difficult position on the team (LT). And, unlike the backup to the most important position, Cannon plays in every game, keeping the other OT's fresh.

And yeah, just BTW, Cannon played better than Solder yesterday.

BobDigital said:

#2 - Ryan/Coleman have both been good. I would not put Brown in that same grouping though as to me is the the #2 whose snaps they are just trying to manage cause of his injury history. Coleman/Ryan have been servicable though. Interestingly I think they prefer their 5th DB to usually be a safety over CB right now.

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Reiss discussed this situation.

Butler and Ryan were the base outside corners.

Brown had a different role entirely. In sub packages, Ryan (and a linebacker)game out. Brown and Coleman came in.

Ryan has moved from being a nickel back at best to being our starting CB, with no nickel play at all.
======
As a side issue, McCourty spent most of his day covering the TE.

patsinthesnow said:

1. Is Mayo still recovering or just a fraction of the player he used to be?

2. Two solid games in a row for Ryan. Brown/Coleman playing decent. All this group has to do is not suck behind Butler.

3. Lafell's return will be big. He's a sizeable upgrade over Martin/Dobson.

4. Regarding DE:

-Sheard needs to lead the group in snaps. He's a stud.
-I wish we had a four man rotation at DE. Flowers was an animal in the preseason & our pass rushing future may be Sheard/Flowers in the years ahead. It would be nice to see him.

Click to expand...

Mayo's definitely still recovering. Torn patellar tendon is a really major injury. Lots of guys never make it all the way back at all, but even the ones who do generally take more than a year.

Urgent said:

Ryan's development could make this secondary at least as good as the pre-Aqib Talib team. Again, setting the bar low - can they be one of the top 30 pass defenses? But looking at the roster, top 30 might have seemed a stretch in September.

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Though it has only been 4 games, we rank 11th in passing yards allowed/game and 9th in opponent QB rating. This defense will only get better, but there's no question that it is already vastly superior to the 2011 and 2012 defense. It might even be on the same level as last year's.

Fencer said:

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-england...reeny-stepped-in-to-fill-donta-hightower-void

The biggie to me is that Freeny had almost as many snaps as Mayo.

Click to expand...

I noticed this trend the last two games when Freeny would play in the base over Mayo sometimes.

mgteich said:

Cannon was signed as the backup to two OT's with injury histories. In addition, it seems that Vollmer benefits from getting a breather during the game. In addition, Solder was coin into his last year. Cannon was insurance in case Solder didn't agree to an extension.

I think that Belichick is fine with Cannon's contract. He is a backup to the 2nd most difficult position on the team (LT). And, unlike the backup to the most important position, Cannon plays in every game, keeping the other OT's fresh.

And yeah, just BTW, Cannon played better than Solder yesterday.

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Yup, I think Cannon was definitely somewhat overpaid, but I think Belichick will willing to pay that prive to avoid being caught unprepared in the event that a Solder extension didn't get worked out (and as leverage for Solder negotiations), as well as depth against the injury histories that you mentioned. At this point, the big question for me is how Cameron Fleming fits into the picture. I expected to see his role grow a little this year, and initially thought he was going to take over Cannon's role when Cannon left in free agency this past offseason. Not so sure what his future here is now that Belichick's paid up to keep Cannon and Solder and settled on a Cannon/Solder/Vollmer rotation, plus Mason seems to be the guy they call on when bringing in a sixth lineman. Looks like Fleming is pure depth at this point.

FourierSeries said:

Though it has only been 4 games, we rank 11th in passing yards allowed/game and 9th in opponent QB rating. This defense will only get better, but there's no question that it is already vastly superior to the 2011 and 2012 defense. It might even be on the same level as last year's.

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This is particularly noteworthy because, while the Jaguars appear to generally suck as usual, their passing game is actually pretty decent. Between the Steelers (minus Bell and Bryant) and Jags, the Pats have faced two passing offenses that, while not elite, are certainly above league average.

Deus Irae said:

The line was better with Cannon than it was when Solder was in.

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Yeah, Cannon definitely had a few really bad plays, but I think some perspective is useful here. If your backup swing tackle struggles 1 on 1 vs. Greg Hardy, that's really not the end of the world. The fact that our starting LT was significantly worse than that is far more alarming.