Patriots let go of Harold Nash (Strength & Conditioning Coach)

Wilderness? ...James Fenimore Cooper, is that you?

i'm not creative enough to be a novelist

i have wasted much of my life....its so sad

the older i get.....the more i realize how short life is

i feel like a good cry before i go to sleep

@Joker

Impossible to know how the duties are allocated. Injuries could be more on the training room than conditioning coach, or vice versa. Lots of injuries can be detected by watching for imbalances and doing movement screens, which most cutting edge S&C coaches do. Big trend right now is identifying fascial problems and correcting them before they become injuries. This takes careful assessment and screening. ACL injuries can be reduced by improving soft tissue strength, elasticity and mobility. It's also fair to remember that this team plays more post-season games than any other in the NFL and that takes a huge toll on the body.

Dehydration was on Gronk. He's a pro athlete, it's his responsibility to be well hydrated before game time.

I thought the team held up well in the fourth quarter at altitude.

ChrisR2223 said:

I understand but who here doesnt think we get by Denver with Bryant or Robinson replacing Lafell?

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I think we almost took out Denver and their supposedly phenomenal defense a few days ago with a complete failure of an offensive line. Not sure how much difference any of the two receivers would have made in that game specifically with the Denver pass rush jumping almost every snap.

Also not sure you want to use LaFell as an example given the handful snaps he played for whatever reason. We got now a long offseason to figure things out and the first few domino's have fallen already with Googe and Nash. Lets see where we are in a month when we approach FA and then we will have a better idea about the future.

meatface said:

Easy as pie, why don't they hire you?

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You do realize I was joking, right??? For whatever reason, some teams have great success at the back end of the draft or UDFA, like the Patriots with Brady, Edelman Butler going back to Neal and beyond and other teams just seem to have a knack for certain positions like the Steelers with wide receivers going back decades it seems...
While other teams try to emulate the Patriots in that respect, as Pats fans, we bpm ( b*tch, p*ss and moan) about how poorly they draft wide receivers and defensive backs compared to other teams. We are truly spoiled if that is the biggest complaint... Still having seen the high draft pick wide receivers burn out over the last 15 years, (Deion Branch excepted) it would be nice to find a diamond amid the rubble.....

DSting said:

I thought the team held up well in the fourth quarter at altitude.

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Agreed with everything you said until there. And the only reason I am not sure I agree is because of some of Belichick's comments in his radio appearance yesterday where acknowledged that going uptempo would have been a way to fight the Denver pass rush but they could not do that for a variety of reasons.

That being said similarly as with Googe there had to be an issue for some time now because there is no way that anything that happened in Denver was the reason for the two coaches being let go.

50-yard-line said:

I was late for an event in Denver nad ran across the parking lot - and couldn't catch my breath for quite a while.

Biggest home field advantage ever.

Salt Lake City is way worse, by the way. A couple thousand feet higher and the salt in the air sucks the water out of you.

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Mexico City, which Goodell has cast a covetous eye upon, is about 7500ft. I remember carrying luggage up a couple of flights of stairs left me feeling like I had just run a 200m race.

luuked said:

Agreed with everything you said until there. And the only reason I am not sure I agree is because of some of Belichick's comments in his radio appearance yesterday where acknowledged that going uptempo would have been a way to fight the Denver pass rush but they could not do that for a variety of reasons.

That being said similarly as with Googe there had to be an issue for some time now because there is no way that anything that happened in Denver was the reason for the two coaches being let go.

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Ah, didn't hear that interview. Interesting that he felt they couldn't go more uptempo. Not to make too many excuses for the players, but it's brutally hard to play at altitude if you're not adapted. Endurance athletes train at altitude so their bodies will adapt and improve oxygen transport.

supafly said:

Eh, I don't know. A very good argument could be made that he'll stick to the usual value plan. Consistency and stability have gotten us 12+ wins for what? 5-6 seasons in a row, now?

With a strong core of our own defensive playmakers coming up for new deals and somewhat limited cap resources, I'm personally expecting a lot of the "same old, same old" as it pertains to free agency + the draft. That all said, I agree that we should have a couple/few nice moves that improve upon the depth and competition.

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Of course he'll stay the course with the culture and system in place but just because they have a winning formula in place does not mean that everything is perfect.

Clearly there were issues with coaching and health mgt that needed to be addressed.

DSting said:

Ah, didn't hear that interview. Interesting that he felt they couldn't go more uptempo. Not to make too many excuses for the players, but it's brutally hard to play at altitude if you're not adapted. Endurance athletes train at altitude so their bodies will adapt and improve oxygen transport.

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Finally found the article (see Patriots head coach Bill Belichick on D&H: ‘I felt like we had control of the game, we just didn’t have control of the score’)

At the end:

Belichick acknowledged that a quicker offensive pace could’ve helped slow the Broncos pass rush, but hinted that health wouldn’t allow it.

“I’d say that some of the things that we wanted to do, sometimes you’re just not able to do them for one reason or another,” he said.

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This in addition to those schematic "two preseason games" at the end of the regular season makes me wonder about the conditioning.

robertweathers said:

Of course he'll stay the course with the culture and system in place but just because they have a winning formula in place does not mean that everything is perfect.

Clearly there were issues with coaching and health mgt that needed to be addressed.

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I certainly don't think that this season was "perfect" by any means, but let's not forget that we were 10-0 prior to the injuries, and still barely missed both HFA as well as another trip to the SB by very small margins. In other words, I think that we could improve upon almost ANY season, so in that respect I agree that certain aspects should be examined.

I honestly don't know what to think about the health mgmt issue, since we were relatively healthy/lucky last season when we won the SB. One popular theory is that the longer season every year due to making deep playoff runs takes away from some of the rest/recoup period of the offseason. I don't know whether that's true or not, but it probably doesn't help. The question we'd need to know is whether or not BB feels as though it's a widespread issue throughout the entire team on a consistent enough basis, and it's possible that's why both the team physician and strength trainer parted ways.

luuked said:

Also not sure you want to use LaFell as an example given the handful snaps he played for whatever reason.

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The organization should have charged LaFell admission to the game last Sunday. Unfreakingbelieveable.

supafly said:

The organization should have charged LaFell admission to the game last Sunday. Unfreakingbelieveable.

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I think he reinjured his foot in the regular season, I don't remember the game, but he got up and went to the sidelines and stood with his legs crossed over. Since that game, his production went down.

vuudu said:

I think he reinjured his foot in the regular season, I don't remember the game, but he got up and went to the sidelines and stood with his legs crossed over. Since that game, his production went down.

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I'm all for allowing him to compete in TC to see if he can show any signs of his past production.

There's really no need to move on from him until then since there's no bonuses that are due, etc--unless, of course, they wish to immediately free up cap space and/or have a feel that he's not going to work out here.

Not sure what happened with Nash but I remember he was much heralded when he was hired and was considered the best in the NFL. Wouldn't be surprised if they just bump up the asst coach.

supafly said:

I honestly don't know what to think about the health mgmt issue, since we were relatively healthy/lucky last season when we won the SB. One popular theory is that the longer season every year due to making deep playoff runs takes away from some of the rest/recoup period of the offseason. I don't know whether that's true or not, but it probably doesn't help. The question we'd need to know is whether or not BB feels as though it's a widespread issue throughout the entire team on a consistent enough basis, and it's possible that's why both the team physician and strength trainer parted ways.

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Yea I don't know either. I know a lot of people are all over Nash as the team was hit hard with injuries but I really have no idea what control he has over ACL or bicep tears and broken bones or what preventative techniques he could/should have implemented in each player's training program.

You've brought up an outstanding point. This team is always playing into late January. That's an entire extra month. Was Nash not factoring that into his off season programs? Was he not innovative enough? Not sure.

cmasspatsfan said:

Not for everything but there were a lot of pulled muscles and things of that nature too, maybe BB didn't feel like they were in top condition which can lead to injuries too.

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A lot of pulled muscles? Could you back up that statement?

ViperGTS said:

Why not? Works for TB. There were waaaaay to many injuries. Solders injury was disturbing. Many others were as well and you need to make a change. I've never seen a team with so many injuries.

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Then you haven't been paying attention around the league. The Patriots weren't even close to leading the league in injuries.. They were 3rd or 4th behind Green Bay and Baltimore.. I think there was one other..

ChrisR2223 said:

I would hire any coach on Pitt who handles receivers and one of their talent scouts.
Then dynasty

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I showed that neither Pittsburgh nor Green Bay are as successful as people claim them to be. Fact is that they spend significantly more draft capital to get the WRs they do than the Pats do..

blackglass3 said:

We were the most injured team two of the last 3 years. So yeah, later man.

I'm also up for a new WR scout, if anyone is keeping track.

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No, we weren't.. The Pats were 3rd or 4th most injured behind Green Bay and Baltimore. And in 2013, Buffalo and a few other teams had more injuries than the Pats..