Patriots have multiple players exceeding expectations
 

Theres no denying that this team is having a ton of players exceed what anyone thought they could do or to be honest what they have ever done.

Mike Wright, Jarvis Green, Gary Guyton, Tully Banta-Cain, Brandon McGowan, Leigh Bodden, Shawn Springs, Marlon Pryor and Darious Butler on defense.

Julian Edelmen and Vollmer on offense.

Thats not to mention the consistency of high play from several of our aged starting vets. Wilfork, Mariweather and Sanders (why some feel he is a liability boggles me)

What has me concerned is what becomes of this team? Do these players continue to trend upwards and have shockingly amazing to career years or does this team start to come back to normalcy.

We have seen in seasons past that teams that come out strong on one side of the ball tend to lose that momentum later in the season.


Edelmen for a rookie WR has been more than good at not only learning becomming a wideout but being an asset to the offense so quickly at times. Vollmer does not see consistent time on the field but is activated as an elligible reciever so he can be used as an extra blocker and has seemed to shine in that spot so far.

Pryor, Wright and Green have been really consistent at holding the line and creating pressure. This coming from a group where no one thought they would contribute as much or more than Seymour could. Now we have several players rotating these spots keeping them fresh and ready. All at a fraction of the price.

Gary Guyton had went from UDRFA to Mike in less than a year. Granted this position was thrown onto him in the middle of game 1 but his speed, agility and ability to shed blocks has been second to only the man he's been replacing.

Same goes for McGowan Butler, Bodden, Springs and Sanders. These guys, along with Meriweather, have been better than what we've had in years. McGowan is one of thjose players Belichick finds and plugs into his system and allows him to be a hard hitting safety but hes also been given some pretty tough assignments and flourished at them. Covering Heap and AG these last two weeks. No easy feet for a defender. Butler has also been a very reliable nickle back and the rotation of Wilhite and Springs has seem to make their WR's less effective.

My only hope is that this team continues to exceed expectations with the soon returing Mayo and verteran leadership of Seau

Re: Patriots have multiple players exceeding expectations
 

Great post, lots of good analysis + insight.

Really nice to see guys developing into role players on D especially, so far our faster and younger defense looks quite promising.

Re: Patriots have multiple players exceeding expectations
 

Myron Pryor, not Marlon. ;) (Darius Butler, Julian Edelman, Brandon Meriweather...)

Re: Patriots have multiple players exceeding expectations
 

Im looking forward to seeing Guyton and Mayo playing at the same time.

Re: Patriots have multiple players exceeding expectations
 

They did a heck of a lot of that last year.

Re: Patriots have multiple players exceeding expectations
 

I agree with much... I am less impressed with Vollmer than the others. To me the main one is McGowan. This team has basically morphed into a three safety team.

Re: Patriots have multiple players exceeding expectations
 

Yes but not with new and improved Guyton ;)

Re: Patriots have multiple players exceeding expectations
 

LMAO! Nice cathces! I am usually the first one to notice on other peoples posts the mis-spelling of player names. But nonetheless when your talking in your head and typing it just goes all out the window i suppose.

Re: Patriots have multiple players exceeding expectations
 

Yikes... better be on the ball with your own spelling before declaring yourself the editor in chief !

Re: Patriots have multiple players exceeding expectations
 

You would include Jarvis Green in the list? I don't think he has exceeded expectations at all. In fact, I think he has been pretty invisible so far.