Bye Bye Brandon Lafell

Ivan said:

The remarks about his off-season work ethic really made me wonder about him. It's always tough to know what's really going on in Foxboro but I would say there are a number of guys who are going to work their asses off to stick around and LaFell and Dobson are high on the list.

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Yep. And from what I've read over the last couple years, Brian Tyms (who is still around) is a warrior and will be working his ass off all year, so if LaFell and Dobson don't step up he'll be there right behind them

I don't think LaFell ever recovered from his injury and surgery from the offseason. I have similar concerns that players injured this year (Dion Lewis, Solder, Easley, etc.) might need next year to get healthy and 2017 is when they will be back to being themselves. There's "being healthy enough to play football" and "being what you were pre-inury." It happens all the time.

BradyFTW! said:

Pats need a new split end, and while I think they need a new kicker I'll probably flip flop on that in a couple hours, but missing a PAT is pretty much unforgivable.

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The Pats need a new kicker?????????

Step back from the ledge - they've got the best kicker in football.

Now we know why a team like Carolina let LaFell go.

VrabelJr said:

I don't think LaFell ever recovered from his injury and surgery from the offseason. I have similar concerns that players injured this year (Dion Lewis, Solder, Easley, etc.) might need next year to get healthy and 2017 is when they will be back to being themselves. There's "being healthy enough to play football" and "being what you were pre-inury." It happens all the time.

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Then Brady will be 40.

Ivan said:

They need a more explosive and versatile back than either Jackson or Blount give them. I love having a power back around but I think their first down back needs to be able to get outside and make defenses play honest against the run. There's still a role for the power back but they need a guy like Forte or Lamar Miller on first downs.

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Agreed. However, at this point in the season we had what we had. I am not saying we should have handed off to SJ 30 times, however, SJ handoffs and White passes in the flat (and others) were an egregiously under used resource given that Brady holding the ball for 3 seconds was basically risking his life while Denver was keying/flooding his main targets.
In that respect Denver beat BB at his own game. They took away the main threats and said 'win using other targets'. Patriots just failed on that front (though even a modest improvement in our OL play and we probably win this game by 7 or more. Can't win with OL play like that).

Loses are always good to bring out the fans who are only on here to complain about how great everything would be if the pats got a deep threat and signed a bunch of big names

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TheBostonStraggler said:

Agreed. However, at this point in the season we had what we had. I am not saying we should have handed off to SJ 30 times, however, SJ handoffs and White passes in the flat (and others) were an egregiously under used resource given that Brady holding the ball for 3 seconds was basically risking his life while Denver was keying/flooding his main targets.
In that respect Denver beat BB at his own game. They took away the main threats and said 'win using other targets'. Patriots just failed on that front (though even a modest improvement in our OL play and we probably win this game by 7 or more. Can't win with OL play like that).

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I was a bit surprised to see James White underused so much, particularly when we had so many key offensive players out down the stretch. There's got to be something else to that on some level, whether it be poor blocking, limited knowledge of the playbook/inability to know his assignments, or just a lack of trust by Brady.

After seeing his coming out party vs. PHI, I'd have thought that he would be a perfect chess piece to use down the stretch and even into the postseason. Belichick, McDaniels and Brady disagreed--as he was not used nearly as much as we expected. Games like the last 2 NYJ/MIA and the 2 postseason games would've been excellent spots for him, in my opinion.

After that, I'm not exactly sure what to expect for him next year, especially when you consider that we'll have Lewis back and likely taking over the high majority of that shifty/3rd down back role, as well as an expected re-tooling of the RB corps. I honestly don't know if I should think that White will have 50 receptions or 5? There's a lot of gray area there.

varjao said:

The Pats lost the opportunity to draft a receiver in 2 good drafts, and now we don't have a 1st round pick what makes things worse. The Pats have a problem at WR and I don't see this being solved in one off season.

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Elite or big game WR has never been a tremendous priority for Bill Belichick....and we honestly have to completely rebuild the OL first....that will take longer

CUT LaFAIL and Dobson.....not sure how much more Amendola has left or when his contract up....but he is expendable....Martin....meh.....hopefully get a few more years out of Edelman ....otherwise will need to bring in some more adequate to above average WRs here....

They threw to him 16 times (caught 5 was it?). As far as doing more with him at RB....wouldn't have mattered with that POS offensive line ....No holes....no running game


QUOTE="supafly, post: 4545823, member: 15745"]I was a bit surprised to see James White underused so much, particularly when we had so many key offensive players out down the stretch. There's got to be something else to that on some level, whether it be poor blocking, limited knowledge of the playbook/inability to know his assignments, or just a lack of trust by Brady.

After seeing his coming out party vs. PHI, I'd have thought that he would be a perfect chess piece to use down the stretch and even into the postseason. Belichick, McDaniels and Brady disagreed--as he was not used nearly as much as we expected. Games like the last 2 NYJ/MIA and the 2 postseason games would've been excellent spots for him, in my opinion.

After that, I'm not exactly sure what to expect for him next year, especially when you consider that we'll have Lewis back and likely taking over the high majority of that shifty/3rd down back role, as well as an expected re-tooling of the RB corps. I honestly don't know if I should think that White will have 50 receptions or 5? There's a lot of gray area there.[/QUOTE]

supafly said:

I was a bit surprised to see James White underused so much, particularly when we had so many key offensive players out down the stretch. There's got to be something else to that on some level, whether it be poor blocking, limited knowledge of the playbook/inability to know his assignments, or just a lack of trust by Brady.

After seeing his coming out party vs. PHI, I'd have thought that he would be a perfect chess piece to use down the stretch and even into the postseason. Belichick, McDaniels and Brady disagreed--as he was not used nearly as much as we expected. Games like the last 2 NYJ/MIA and the 2 postseason games would've been excellent spots for him, in my opinion.

After that, I'm not exactly sure what to expect for him next year, especially when you consider that we'll have Lewis back and likely taking over the high majority of that shifty/3rd down back role, as well as an expected re-tooling of the RB corps. I honestly don't know if I should think that White will have 50 receptions or 5? There's a lot of gray area there.

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I agree Sup that there may have been something going on behind the scenes. But you know what? I don't care. The O, thanks to the OL, sucked the big one. It was time to throw caution to the wind and go with guys you may not want to feature for whatever reason. I'd point out we did finally go to White twice on deep swing passes (pardon my ignorance on the football vernacular). Both times White beat his guy. The defender was holding and clutching big time (not complaining -- the refs were letting it go on both sides) but White's speed separated him from his defender every time. Brady just couldn't get the pass there. So I say to that -- God d%#*!@t! White could have eaten his damn coverage up on a lot of plays but he was largely ignored until late (waiting for the all 22 video to show White open and waiting for the ball). I just don't get it -- a BB team not exploiting a mismatch. I realize White's pass protection is iffy which limits his package participation, however, I saw us going 5 out so often I'd ask does it matter he may not blitz pickup well (and don't get me started on how often we let turnstile Cannon be on his own instead of keeping someone in to help or chip Cannon's assignment). ((side note: this kinda reminds me of BB ignoring Ridley in the playoffs a handful of years ago. Ridley had shown good production and it was before the big 'fumble-itis' diagnosis yet we largely ignored him in the POs in favor of a clearly less potent ???[forget the other back].....and it hurt our chance at victory).

As for White next year? You're right in that I don't know what will happen to him given he was almost ignored in a game that screamed for him to be targeted until Denver choked on it and was forced to pull off Jules or Gronk to slow him down. Yet regardless of what is now past, IMHO we'd be crazy to let White go. He's cheap, for a smaller guy he seems to have decent durability, and he has shown productivity when called on. No doubt Lewis is 'the man' but I think it is fair to have injury concerns about him. So it'd be nice to have White as the insurance policy. Hopefully White can improve an aspect or two of his game and outright take a spot on the roster.

TheBostonStraggler said:

I agree Sup that there may have been something going on behind the scenes. But you know what? I don't care. The O, thanks to the OL, sucked the big one. It was time to throw caution to the wind and go with guys you may not want to feature for whatever reason. I'd point out we did finally go to White twice on deep swing passes (pardon my ignorance on the football vernacular). Both times White beat his guy. The defender was holding and clutching big time (not complaining -- the refs were letting it go on both sides) but White's speed separated him from his defender every time. Brady just couldn't get the pass there. So I say to that -- God d%#*!@t! White could have eaten his damn coverage up on a lot of plays but he was largely ignored until late (waiting for the all 22 video to show White open and waiting for the ball). I just don't get it -- a BB team not exploiting a mismatch. I realize White's pass protection is iffy which limits his package participation, however, I saw us going 5 out so often I'd ask does it matter he may not blitz pickup well (and don't get me started on how often we let turnstile Cannon be on his own instead of keeping someone in to help or chip Cannon's assignment). ((side note: this kinda reminds me of BB ignoring Ridley in the playoffs a handful of years ago. Ridley had shown good production and it was before the big 'fumble-itis' diagnosis yet we largely ignored him in the POs in favor of a clearly less potent ???[forget the other back].....and it hurt our chance at victory).

As for White next year? You're right in that I don't know what will happen to him given he was almost ignored in a game that screamed for him to be targeted until Denver choked on it and was forced to pull off Jules or Gronk to slow him down. Yet regardless of what is now past, IMHO we'd be crazy to let White go. He's cheap, for a smaller guy he seems to have decent durability, and he has shown productivity when called on. No doubt Lewis is 'the man' but I think it is fair to have injury concerns about him. So it'd be nice to have White as the insurance policy. Hopefully White can improve an aspect or two of his game and outright take a spot on the roster.

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Oh, I couldn't imagine any scenario where White wouldn't be here next season due to the cheap, rookie pact. I just don't know how to try and project what kind of role he'll play, particularly if we're in healthier shape. I suppose part of that will be determined by whether or not he continues to progress, as well as what kind of moves and injury situation we'll be in during the summer/fall.

I certainly agree that he should've been targeted more, and not just on some of those "desperation" throws deep down the field. They should've had that MF involved much more heavily, particularly in the last 5-6 games of the season. He should've been able to catch 6-8 passes a game, easily. I can understand not using him as much once we had Edelman back etc, but there's not much excuse for not using him heavily while he was out, particularly in the last 2 games of the regular season. Just my opinion. I usually try not to question the experts too much, so I'm sure there's some type of reasonable explanation to the whole thing.

LaFail, Brandon - restructure or gone
Amendola, Danny - restructure or gone
Dobson, Aaron - training camp fodder
Chandler, Scott - gone

www.patscap.com

No way is Amendola worth more than Edelman.

ATippett56 said:

LaFail, Brandon - restructure or gone
Amendola, Danny - restructure or gone
Dobson, Aaron - training camp fodder
Chandler, Scott - gone

www.patscap.com

No way is Amendola worth more than Edelman.

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Yeah let's cut Edelman while we are at it too! He drops too much and can't stay healthy, screw having wide receivers.

stcjones said:

They threw to him 16 times (caught 5 was it?). As far as doing more with him at RB....wouldn't have mattered with that POS offensive line ....No holes....no running game

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Well, I was speaking more on the fact that he could've been used down the stretch of the regular season, but even those "16 targets" in the DEN game were mainly throws of desperation. Even in the first DEN game when the plan was to target their LBs with mismatches AND we didn't have Edelman, Amendola, or Gronk at the end, he still didn't see many looks at all.

He's not a very good runner, either. He averaged 2.5 YPC and had single digit rushing yardage in 16/18 games (the 2 that he didn't saw totals of 11 and 14), so while I agree that the OL sucked down the stretch, I think White is somewhat limited in terms of being an actual rusher.

I think he has the capacity to build off of what turned out to be a nice starting point for him this season, so that's the hope.