Scar: Thuney to play on the inside

They now have Jackson, Kline, Cooper, Mason, Thuney, Karas at guard, with Andrews and Stork at center (Stork could also be a quality guard if Andrews improves at C)

Prior to the draft, I thought they were all set at guard, especially after drafting 2 last year who've shown potential (Jackson, Mason) and trading for a high-upside guy in Cooper.

It's extremely puzzling to me how they ignored the OT position in both FA and the draft. Could be Vollmer's last season here and Solder is coming off a season ending injury.

I assume they're fine with Waddle/Cannon/Fleming as backups.

How many tackles do we have? 4?

VectorPrime said:

How many tackles do we have? 4?

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Well Stork played some at OT late in the season.

Due to injuries, but maybe the Pats like him there.

I would say that Mason and Thuney are roster locks, with Jackson, Cooper, Kline, and Karras battling it out for two other spots. I suspect Karras is probably going to be cut, or catch a case of the Foxborough Flu.

Judging by his comments after being drafted I thought it would be the case.

Between him and Cooper the left side has been addressed, last year the Pats drafted 2 Right guards having already Wendell who did well at RG in 2014 and tried to fit Mason there and he wasn't very good. Connoly worked in 2014 but the reality is that we don't have a pure LG since Mankins was traded.

VectorPrime said:

How many tackles do we have? 4?

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6 - Solder, Vollmer, Cannon, Fleming, Waddle, Milton,

I should add Barker to the list of guards, although I highly doubt he makes the team

varjao said:

Judging by his comments after being drafted I thought it would be the case.

Between him and Cooper the left side has been addressed, last year the Pats drafted 2 Right guards having already Wendell who did well at RG in 2014 and tried to fit Mason there and he wasn't very good. Connoly worked in 2014 but the reality is that we don't have a pure LG since Mankins was traded.

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Cooper is far from a sure thing.

What's the current status on RG/LG for Mason and Jackson? I remember all last offseason and the vast majority of the regular season, Mason was LG and Jackson was RG, with Kline often taking the spot not occupied by a rookie. But I also remember at the end, maybe the Titans game, when Jackson was LG and Mason was RG, and people talked about it like a permanent change. Do we still see it that way?

TBR said:

6 - Solder, Vollmer, Cannon, Fleming, Waddle, Milton,

I should add Barker to the list of guards, although I highly doubt he makes the team

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I still have a hard time believing that the Pats will go into the season with Cannon when they stand to save $3.7M by cutting him. It increasingly looks like it is going to happen, though.

Elijah said:

What's the current status on RG/LG for Mason and Jackson? I remember all last offseason and the vast majority of the regular season, Mason was LG and Jackson was RG, with Kline often taking the spot not occupied by a rookie. But I also remember at the end, maybe the Titans game, when Jackson was LG and Mason was RG, and people talked about it like a permanent change. Do we still see it that way?

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I think they're both ideally RGs, personally. And as a prospect, I think Mason is rawer but has considerably more upside. Wouldn't surprise me if the Pats drafted Thuney with the hopes of him being the LG of the future, and Mason/Jackson fighting it out to see who (if either of them) becomes the long-term RG.

Or maybe they don't know right now and they're going to let training camp work it out. I'm fine with throwing quantity of promising talent at the problem, and letting injuries/competition sort out the depth chart. Much better than relying on any of them individually as the presumptive answer, especially when we didn't have to give up a whole lot to get any of them.

Physical issues + technique issues = unsurprising announcement

BradyFTW! said:

I still have a hard time believing that the Pats will go into the season with Cannon when they stand to save $3.7M by cutting him. It increasingly looks like it is going to happen, though.

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Maybe they are planning an extend him for cap savings type deal (if he is willing)

The Gr8est said:

Well Stork played some at OT late in the season.

Due to injuries, but maybe the Pats like him there.

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I think it was pretty clear that Stork never got right last year. I think starting on IR really messed him up, he clearly never go in synch with the rest of the line. It'll be really interesting to see if the Stork that shows up this year is closer to the 2014 version or 2015 version. Also interesting to see if he can be counted on to rebound from his various injuries; he's had enough of them through his college career and two years as a pro that I think it's fair to wonder if he can be relied on.

I think this may be turning into one of those situations where the Pats just address/don't address a position in a way that seems to be borderline asking for critical failure. They do this every few years, and as it's happening I just don't get it. Sometimes it turns out my worries were unfounded, sometimes not. May just have to hope they are unfounded here.

Gumby said:

Maybe they are planning an extend him for cap savings type deal (if he is willing)

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That seems likely, although even that suggests that he's the kind of player that you want to keep around long-term, which I also find strange and contrary to most of what we've seen from him on the field.

I was hoping they thought he could be a good guard but there's nothing wrong with taking a big weakness and going at it hard to get it fixed which we are doing. With all there options, enough should emerge to make it, at least, a solid position. I think Scar likes Cannon and I've always thought they liked Waddle. No clue who will start at Guard but the fact that we don't have a sure thing starter says it all, we need competition.

TBR said:

It's extremely puzzling to me how they ignored the OT position in both FA and the draft. Could be Vollmer's last season here and Solder is coming off a season ending injury.

I assume they're fine with Waddle/Cannon/Fleming as backups.

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Yikes - it's so disappointing to think that Scars might actually keep Cannon around next season, but it's starting to look like that's the case.

They essentially have picked up 4 guards in the last 2 years to fix the position. I hope they have fixed it, they really needed a guy to groom as a starting tackle. Cannon isn't the answer

BradyFTW! said:

I still have a hard time believing that the Pats will go into the season with Cannon when they stand to save $3.7M by cutting him. It increasingly looks like it is going to happen, though.

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Perhaps they will ask him to re-structure. I think he has been a serviceable backup OT, but whether due to bad match-up, noise, Stork giving away the snap count, injury, or whatever, he had one of the all time horrible games in Denver. That is what everyone is remembering (and surely that severely compromises his negotiating position with the Pats or any other team), but he was mostly serviceable, I wouldn't be shocked to see him on the Pats next year, perhaps at a reduced salary.

If Scar is saying that NOW he is obviously not sold on Mason or Jackson who were drafted last year!

PatsFan2 said:

If Scar is saying that NOW he is obviously not sold on Mason or Jackson who were drafted last year!

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Perhaps he didn't have as much input in last year's OL picks as the rumors claimed. Or maybe they were just 4th round picks the whole time...