Cooper returns to practice

[RobertWeathers]

He is a veteran player not a guy "we have one quarter to go on".

Sure but until he does well here that is all I'm going on. What he did elsewhere means nothing here

 

[Ring 6]

Sure but until he does well here that is all I'm going on. What he did elsewhere means nothing here

Disagree.

 

[BradyFTW!]

Sure but until he does well here that is all I'm going on. What he did elsewhere means nothing here

Eh, it means something. Obviously not as much as it would if he'd done it here, but let's not pretend you can't learn anything about a player based on how he played in another uniform.

 

[Deus Irae]

Eh, it means something. Obviously not as much as it would if he'd done it here, but let's not pretend you can't learn anything about a player based on how he played in another uniform.

Ok, but he played poorly enough to get his ass cut by the Lions. That's what was learned, or at least part of it.

 

[BradyFTW!]

Ok, but he played poorly enough to get his ass cut by the Lions. That's what was learned, or at least part of it.

Sure, it's part of the story. OTOH, Dion Lewis was cut by the Browns. Rob Ninkovich was cut by the Dolphins. Danny Amendola was cut by the Cowboys. Chris Hogan was cut by the Dolphins. Alan Branch was cut by the Bills. James Develin was cut by the Bengals. Pat Chung was cut by the Eagles. Tyler Gaffney was cut by the Panthers. Anthony Johnson was cut by the Redskins, which doesn't necessarily mean anything yet, but may if he ends up making the team.

Serviceable players get cut all the time. If a previously cut player does in fact suck, that should show up in the film. Maybe Waddle's good, maybe he's not. I didn't watch enough of him in Detroit to have a strong opinion either way. For peace of mind, I would like it if we picked up someone during cutdowns with more proven ability to start a few games if called upon. I've been pretty outspoken so far about not being psyched with our tackle rotation. But I'm not going to assume that being cut by the Lions means Waddle won't be a serviceable backup.

 

[Deus Irae]

Dion Lewis was cut by the Browns. Rob Ninkovich was cut by the Dolphins. Danny Amendola was cut by the Cowboys. Chris Hogan was cut by the Dolphins. Alan Branch was cut by the Bills. James Develin was cut by the Bengals. Pat Chung was cut by the Eagles. Tyler Gaffney was cut by the Panthers. Anthony Johnson was cut by the Redskins, which doesn't necessarily mean anything yet, but may if he ends up making the team.

Luckily for us, Belichick trusted the film on these players rather than assuming that they must suck because somebody cut them. Maybe Waddle's good, maybe he's not. I didn't watch enough of him in Chicago to have an opinion either way. For peace of mind, I would like it if we picked up someone during cutdowns with more proven ability to start a few games if called upon. But I'm not going to assume that Waddle must suck purely because the Lions cut him.

Are we really going to have to do this because people can't just accept that obvious truth of what RobertWeathers was posting? Waddle was cut by the Lions because of poor play and injury.

Waddle was a promising undrafted free agent prospect back in 2013 who rose into the starting lineup that season because of injuries, and proved to be Detroit's best right tackle for the next couple seasons.

But he was also dogged by an array of injuries, the most serious of which was a torn ACL suffered in December of last season. And he struggled to regain his old form upon his return this season.

He was ranked dead last among 75 qualifying offensive tackles according to ProFootballFocus. He lost his starting job to Michael Ola in recent weeks, and did not dress in three of the past four games.

Waddle refused to make excuses for his decline, but acknowledged after some prodding that overcoming the ACL injury has been difficult for him this season.

"Some of my play, I really can't make an excuse for. Bad technique, bad steps, whatever," he said.

LaAdrian Waddle cut by Detroit Lions, one day after acknowledging uncertain future

Injury makes general film evaluation more difficult, and sometimes impossible, because you often don't know how much a player will bounce back, and poor play is poor play.

We can haggle over what meager percentage pre-injury film might have contributed, though, to this

Sure but until he does well here that is all I'm going on. What he did elsewhere means nothing here

being some fraction of a percentage point off of 100% accurate until 1:00 am. It's a slow news night, after all.

 

[BradyFTW!]

Are we really going to have to do this because people can't just accept that obvious truth of what RobertWeathers was posting? Waddle was cut by the Lions because of poor play and injury.



LaAdrian Waddle cut by Detroit Lions, one day after acknowledging uncertain future

What do you think I'm having trouble accepting? I haven't made any significant claim about Waddle, the strongest opinion I've offered is that I have no strong opinion either way, because I can't seen enough of him to have one. I have made exactly two claims in this thread:

1. A player's game film on teams other than the Patriots does matter, and does help give some an indication of how good (or bad) he is.
2. The fact that a player has been cut does not preclude him from being a serviceable backup.

Do you disagree with either of these points?

Looking back at his tenure with the Lions, you could pessimistically say "he was bad enough to get cut" or you could optimistically say "he was good enough to start a season and a half, and got cut largely because he was struggling back from an injury that he's now had plenty of time to recover from". I think it's premature to say which is the truth, because there isn't much way for us to know. I'd like to see another tackle signed because I'm not a fan of being one injury away from having an unknown like that in the starting lineup.

Injury makes general film evaluation more difficult, and sometimes impossible, because you often don't know how much a player will bounce back, and poor play is poor play.

Luckily, the Patriots don't have to rely on film evaluation to determine how much he can bounce back. That's what training camp and the preseason are for.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Eh, it means something. Obviously not as much as it would if he'd done it here, but let's not pretend you can't learn anything about a player based on how he played in another uniform.

Sorry but in my view is all that has transpired is NE has evaluated him enough to the point that they THINK he has a chance to do well here and contribute. Nothing more.

Until he does that, he is a question mark.

 

[AzPatsFan]

Ok, but he played poorly enough to get his ass cut by the Lions. That's what was learned, or at least part of it.

Because he was injured and projected to be unavailable in the 2015 season. BB signed him to be an experienced swing tackle for 2016 and beyond. Reserves are seldom starters, but Waddle qualifies as a mediocre starter and hence a pretty good reserve.

 

[Deus Irae]

Because he was injured and projected to be unavailable in the 2015 season. BB signed him to be an experienced swing tackle for 2016 and beyond. Reserves are seldom starters, but Waddle qualifies as a mediocre starter and hence a pretty good reserve.

He sucked at the end of his time in Detroit. He wasn't mediocre, and he wasn't a starter. He didn't even dress for 3 of the team's last 4 games before he got cut.