The Practice Squad And Further Transactions

zydecochris · Nov 10, 2015

Deus Irae said:
No, it's a matter of people reading posts properly in the context of history. We're seeing the coaching staff do a brilliant job of both limiting the liabilities of the safeties and covering for the problems at CB. Chung, for example, is not being asked to do things he can't do. We've all seen what happens when he's forced to do so. The coaching staff is using Chung essentially as an undersized LB, while using Harmon as a FS and having McCourty rotate between a FS role and, essentially, the CB3.

The question is whether or not that coaching will allow the secondary to hold up against the better opponents come playoff time.

Well said. I agree, and I think I have been more impressed with the coaching this year than any other year I can think of. BB is his usual best-in-the-business. McDaniels seems to have grown in ability over the last year, his play calling in the Super Bowl and this year so far has really been outstanding.

However, I am beginning to think that the real emerging star is former aeronautical engineer Matt Patricia. The defense just seems to be more "on-the-ball" (figuratively) than I can remember for several years. Plus, I think he is bringing passion, along with intelligence, to the defense. I'm fairly amazed that somehow the secondary deficiencies are being covered up so well, that is just great coaching.

Deus Irae · Nov 10, 2015

zydecochris said:
Well said. I agree, and I think I have been more impressed with the coaching this year than any other year I can think of. BB is his usual best-in-the-business. McDaniels seems to have grown in ability over the last year, his play calling in the Super Bowl and this year so far has really been outstanding.

However, I am beginning to think that the real emerging star is former aeronautical engineer Matt Patricia. The defense just seems to be more "on-the-ball" (figuratively) than I can remember for several years. Plus, I think he is bringing passion, along with intelligence, to the defense. I'm fairly amazed that somehow the secondary deficiencies are being covered up so well, that is just great coaching.

Since you brought this back up, I'll note that BB actually addressed the use of Chung during his weekly show on Dale & Holley. It went basically like this:

Not as much '2' even safety play, because
More 1 high safety
Chung playing low where he can cover more easily with his short area quicks, and where he's effective against the run

In other words, the Patriots aren't really using a Safety 1 + Safety 1a approach in the same way that they used to. They are back using more modified SS/FS concepts, which is what our eyes have been telling us all since last season.

RayClay · Nov 10, 2015

Interesting that one has great LT size [6'8"] but was mostly a tight end, one played a fair amount of LT, but seems undersized 6' 2-3 and mid level school while the other was also a tight end, but seemed to impress at OL.

No ones giving away competent left tackles, so BB seems to be panning for gold. Not worrying about resume, seeing if somebody's got the balls to step up and help.

That's why BB's the best.

RayClay · Nov 10, 2015

Deus Irae said:
Since you brought this back up, I'll note that BB actually addressed the use of Chung during his weekly show on Dale & Holley. It went basically like this:

Not as much '2' even safety play, because
More 1 high safety
Chung playing low where he can cover more easily with his short area quicks, and where he's effective against the run

In other words, the Patriots aren't really using a Safety 1 + Safety 1a approach in the same way that they used to. They are back using more modified SS/FS concepts, which is what our eyes have been telling us all since last season.

I always thought that was true. Can't deny that Chung's coverage has improved dramatically, though.

mgteich · Nov 10, 2015

Mack Herron said:
So maybe they roll with 3 RBs for a while. If Vollmer cannot go Sunday open roster spot could go to OL call up from PS.

Some think that we might be able to open a roster spot by cutting a safety. We might add a RB, an OL, Jones or Fletcher.

Inane case, we have four players listed at safety who are not used at safety, and likely would be even with an injury or two: Ebner, Wilson, King, McDonald).

We might consider bringing in a backup to Blount plus an OT.

mgteich · Nov 10, 2015

DaBruinz said:
The Pats are not running a Free Safety/Strong Safety system, Deus. They are running a 2 safety system. The system that Belichick has wanted to us since he got to New England.

We run a 2 safety system, with Chung close to the line and occasionally being replaced by Harmon. When Harmon came in, he doesn't play as close tot he line as Harmon. Let's examine the 58 reps from Sunday.

58 Butler
58 Ryan
55 Coleman

58 McCourty
45 Chung
20 Harmon
15 Richards

We had 3 CORNERS on the field for all but 3 plays. It seems that we played three safeties only in the dime.

BTW, we almost never had 3 linebackers on the field, likely just when Coleman was off the field.
57 Freeney
36 Hightower
13 Mayo
10 Bostic

Deus Irae · Nov 10, 2015

mgteich said:
We run a 2 safety system, with Chung close to the line and occasionally being replaced by Harmon. When Harmon came in, he doesn't play as close tot he line as Harmon. Let's examine the 58 reps from Sunday.

58 Butler
58 Ryan
55 Coleman

58 McCourty
45 Chung
20 Harmon
15 Richards

We had 3 CORNERS on the field for all but 3 plays. It seems that we played three safeties only in the dime.

BTW, we almost never had 3 linebackers on the field, likely just when Coleman was off the field.
57 Freeney
36 Hightower
13 Mayo
10 Bostic

They're using 3 safeties about half the time:

Safety Duron Harmon, who stayed down on the field following a play late in the fourth quarter after having his knee rolled up from behind, is “fine,” according to a source.

Harmon left the game but stayed on the sideline talking to teammates. He was walking around in the locker room without a limp after the game.

Harmon entered Sunday having played 51.8 percent of the Patriots’ defensive snaps as their third safety. He has impressed with three interceptions and four pass breakups on the season.

Patriots Safety Duron Harmon 'Fine' After Injury Scare Vs. Redskins

Chung is, essentially, rotating between playing as a SS and playing as an undersized LB, though it's not quite as clean as that.

mgteich · Nov 10, 2015

Deus Irae said:
They're using 3 safeties about half the time:

Since Coleman was off the field on only 3 plays, almost all the time the safeties played, we were in dime, with 6 defensive backs playing.

VrabelJr · Nov 10, 2015

robertweathers said:
If him leaving the stadium on a golf cart is true, not site how long Seabas will be out for.

Signing two OTs. Interesting

Golf cart is an odd choice of transportation to use to go home.

captain stone · Nov 10, 2015

Chiuba E. Obele said:

They should've signed Fragel instead of 2 more JAGs who will never, ever play OT in the NFL.

patchick · Nov 10, 2015

Deus Irae said:
They're using 3 safeties about half the time:

Harmon entered Sunday having played 51.8 percent of the Patriots’ defensive snaps as their third safety.

Click to expand...

They do use 3 safeties a fair bit in dime, but I think you're misreading that quote.

Harmon plays about half of their snaps, and he's their third safety in terms of depth charts. But he doesn't "play half of their snaps as the third safety" -- about half of his reps are in place of Chung, not alongside him. (Chung plays 3/4 of snaps.)

RobertWeathers · Nov 10, 2015

VrabelJr said:
Golf cart is an odd choice of transportation to use to go home.

Where he got the FastPass to stick is a question I had..

Deus Irae · Nov 10, 2015

patchick said:
They do use 3 safeties a fair bit in dime, but I think you're misreading that quote.

Harmon plays about half of their snaps, and he's their third safety in terms of depth charts. But he doesn't "play half of their snaps as the third safety" -- about half of his reps are in place of Chung, not alongside him. (Chung plays 3/4 of snaps.)

I was trying to help flesh out mg's post. If I erred in the process of trying to do so, my apologies.

The bottom line is that the Patriots are running a 3 safety game/rotation, with Harmon generally used as McCourty's been in the past (GTFB!) and Chung generally being used as a SS in 2 safety sets and a hybrid LB in 3 safety sets. This is something we've discussed in other threads, and BB essentially verified it yesterday on WEEI.

VrabelJr · Nov 10, 2015

captain stone said:
They should've signed Fragel instead of 2 more JAGs who will never, ever play OT in the NFL.

I think you're giving Fragel too much credit just because he went to OSU.

Ross12 · Nov 10, 2015

captain stone said:
They should've signed Fragel instead of 2 more JAGs who will never, ever play OT in the NFL.

Does Fragel rock?

patchick · Nov 10, 2015

Deus Irae said:
The bottom line is that the Patriots are running a 3 safety game/rotation, with Harmon generally used as McCourty's been in the past (GTFB!) and Chung generally being used as a SS in 2 safety sets and a hybrid LB in 3 safety sets.

And remarkably, it's a really good 3 safety rotation. In recent years we've seen a lot of "McCourty + yikes" depth charts. With Chung looking like a natural in the SS role and Harmon coming into his own, plus Richards developing as a promising 4th, the safety corps looks both solid and deep. When was the last time we could say that?

meatface · Nov 11, 2015

captain stone said:
They should've signed Fragel instead of 2 more JAGs who will never, ever play OT in the NFL.

Yeah when will this team learn how to put together a competent roster. fragel is also JAG

The Gr8est · Nov 11, 2015

So the Pats now have 4 OL on the PS.

Sounds like an open competition to see who gets activated for the Giants.

micronin127 · Nov 11, 2015

Also sounds like they need enough players to practice. You probably need 4 healthy tackles at least to practice. The guys you expect to play for your offense against the scout team defense.

Also, you need guys to run the Giants offense against your defense.

jah · Nov 11, 2015

The Gr8est said:
So the Pats now have 4 OL on the PS.

Sounds like an open competition to see who gets activated for the Giants.

I doubt either of the new guys have a chance though. Down to Barker/Clausell.

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