Felger: Patriots Should Put An End To The Lawlessness

[MoLewisrocks]

In his Sunday column Felger says:

"One well-placed source said last week that negotiations between the Pats and Law’s camp have gone beyond phone conversations between Bill Belichick and Law to “discussions on all levels.â€

More specifically, according to the source, Patriots personnel director and lead negotiator Scott Pioli has exchanged numbers and concepts with Law’s agent, Carl Poston. It’s a significant detail because relations between Poston and the Pats have been icy since the spring of 2004, when an earlier round of talks regarding Law blew up in an ugly, public fashion.

The fact that the sides are back at the table is telling. The Pats could still lose out on Law, but it’s become obvious their pursuit is not cursory. "

He also has some info on the difficulty they are having reaching a revenue sharing agreement - have hired a consultant to figure it out.

And some insight from Hobbs on the new DC's approach to the DB's - he wants more physicality.

http://patriots.bostonherald.com/patriots/view.bg?articleid=142101&format=&page=1

 

[BelichickFan]

I'm part of what I think is the majority in wanting Law back. Quite badly, actually. As much as anything last year a lack of turnovers killed us. Getting Law back and having Bruschi for the whole year would help that a lot - Rodney being his old self would finish it off but we'll have to wait and see on that.

Regarding Hobbs' comments, there have been too many like that to not be able to see what went on last year. Very surprisingly, it seems that the biggest thing we lost with Crennel leaving was Mangini not being an adequate replacement. I don't get the impression there are many Patriot defenders unhappy about Pees replacing Mangini. And it was good to read about all the film study The Hobbitt is doing.

 

[PatsRI]

The quotes from Hobbs:

Hobbs has spent much of his offseason stashed away at Gillette Stadium, poring over tape of his performances last year and scouting the wide receivers he’ll be going against this season. He’s been studying the tendencies of the opposing offensive coordinators on the Pats schedule as well.
When asked what he saw from himself on film, Hobbs was frank.
“Not enough,†he said. “We didn’t get to where we wanted as a team - so it wasn’t good enough.â€
As for working with new defensive coordinator Dean Pees after a year under Eric Mangini, Hobbs said he can already tell the difference.
“I don’t want to get into the philosophies for obvious reasons,†said Hobbs. “But I think Dean is going to allow us to do a lot more. The key is to be physical.â€cw0
While the statement was couched, it still reflected a commonly heard complaint among Pats players last year: that Mangini’s game plans were not aggressive enough.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

Yeah, beauty eh?

 

[Pats726]

Intresting article...esp the difference in philosophies....Pees is the guy... Law returning?? Just as long as he doesn't take the bank with him..

 

[dalero]

His return would definetly make the team better and be a great story to end his career by. Between him and his agents he will never sign for shorter money if someone offers a little more.

 

[Digger44]

The quotes from Hobbs:

Hobbs has spent much of his offseason stashed away at Gillette Stadium, poring over tape of his performances last year and scouting the wide receivers he’ll be going against this season. He’s been studying the tendencies of the opposing offensive coordinators on the Pats schedule as well.
When asked what he saw from himself on film, Hobbs was frank.
“Not enough,†he said. “We didn’t get to where we wanted as a team - so it wasn’t good enough.â€
As for working with new defensive coordinator Dean Pees after a year under Eric Mangini, Hobbs said he can already tell the difference.
“I don’t want to get into the philosophies for obvious reasons,†said Hobbs. “But I think Dean is going to allow us to do a lot more. The key is to be physical.â€cw0
While the statement was couched, it still reflected a commonly heard complaint among Pats players last year: that Mangini’s game plans were not aggressive enough.

IMO we need to be careful n our opinion on Pees. We don't know what to expect out of him. His philosophy sounds better, but we just don't know. There is always alearning curve. BB showed how good a coach he was last year by teaching Mangini how to pull it together by the end of the year. My guess is that Pees will struggle a bit at first and then work it out.

 

[Flying Fungi]

IMO we need to be careful n our opinion on Pees. We don't know what to expect out of him. His philosophy sounds better, but we just don't know. There is always alearning curve. BB showed how good a coach he was last year by teaching Mangini how to pull it together by the end of the year. My guess is that Pees will struggle a bit at first and then work it out.

Pees v Mangini (from last season)...every reason to believe that Pees' is more qualified than Mangini was...

Eric Mangini - defensive coordinator; born January 10, 1971, Hartford, Conn. Nose tackle Wesleyan (Conn.) 1989-1990, 1992-93. No pro playing experience. Pro coach: Cleveland Browns 1995, Baltimore Ravens 1996, New York Jets 1997-99, joined Patriots in 2000.

Dean Pees - linebackers; born September 4, 1949, Dunkirk, Ohio. Attended Bowling Green. No college or pro playing experience. College coach: Findlay 1979-1982, Miami (Ohio) 1983-86, Navy 1987-89, Toledo 1990-93, Notre Dame 1994, Michigan State 1995-97, Kent State 1998-2003. Pro coach: Joined Patriots in 2004.

 

[spacecrime]

Felger is a total numbnut. Well, in fairness he isn't too bad with hockey, but is a total waste reporting on the Pats. He has agendas a la Borges, execpt where Borges has a finely focused one, Felger uses the throwing-turds-agianst-the- wall approach, hoping that something will stick.

He also forms an opinion of a player early on, and hangs on to it regardless of facts of on-field performance, and has become merely a loud-mouth.

He used to be good on NEST, but now confuses talking loudly and interrupting Tanguay/****erson (not always a bad thing, admittedly) with knowing what he is talking about.

Law and the Pats may be close, but Fleger's reporting it does not mean the report has any validity. When Curran or Reiss report this, I'll believe it. Until then, I have to asssume that Felger's source is Carl Poston, or he made up the source thing to bolster his own opinion, or this is just one more turd tossed against the wall.

Felger needs to take his cheesehead hat and his radio mouth back to the midwest.

Other than the above, he's not too bad a guy.....

 

[BelichickFan]

He used to be good on NEST, but now confuses talking loudly and interrupting Tanguay/****erson (not always a bad thing, admittedly) with knowing what he is talking about.

He's still my favorite guess on NEST by far. Not many agree but I think he has the clearest, best thought out opinions on the show.

 

[spacecrime]

He's still my favorite guess on NEST by far. Not many agree but I think he has the clearest, best thought out opinions on the show.

Have to put me down as one of the many, I guess. Felger was my favorite for a long time, also, but over the last year or two has gone way downhill. To me his opinions are not thought out much, but are knee-jerk reactions.

He was anti-Dillon from the start. Said he would be a cancer int the locker room. When Dillon wasn't, gave him no credit but said wait until his carries go down and he gets under 20 per game. Dillon carried 15 times in game one and then it was, wait until the pats start losing. He still gives Dillon shots when he can. One in the article linked in this thread, and was pretty vocal about Dillon having a poor reaction to maroney. At some point, you just give up and say, "Gee, I was wrong. He wasn't a cancer and he didn't complain about lack of carries."

He could be right about the pats getting Law back. But his article does not have clear reasoning to me. He says the Law will be a great benefit. To those he disagree, he says "Are you nuts?"

So far, all 32 teams, their owners, coaching staffs and personnel men must be nuts. Not that law might not help, but his attitude is still, "Here is my opinion. If you don't agree you are nuts."

Not the greatest rationale in my mind.

He does have a good hockey insight, and isn't too bad with the Sox. For the Celts and Pats, I still think he is a waste.

I think it must be his radio show. It was about that time he started talking so loud and being outrageous apparently for the sake of being outrageous.

I would be happy to get the old Felgie back. But the new Fleger to me is the guy with the big mouth who wore that Cheesehead hat on NEST.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Felger was clearly the pick of the litter 4-5 years ago. Coming from cheesehead land he had a thorough understanding of the game and an outsiders objectivity when it came to analyzing the team. He was right that they were not a championship caliber team in 2001 from a talent standpoint - BB's comment on his way off the field to Ernie or one of his FOB was "do you believe we won with this team?" He called Brady as not your average 6th round 4th string QB in camp in 2000. He developed solid sources in Gillette both among players and staff because he could keep his mouth shut and use background info as intended.

Unfortunately that all led to more gigs on WEEI where his assclown persona surfaced discussing baseball. On NEST he began to morph into a ranting opinionated headcase. That's how he got his ESPN gig, and now he's is all about stirring the pot with inflamatory turds against the wall for the most part because he's in a ratings fight for his shows life.

It's too bad because I think he spends far too little time at Gillette these days and I even get the sense he's slipped a notch with his contacts because of the way he tries to draw them in to the fray on air. His local ESPN guest list has gone in the crapper. I don't doubt the guest host gigs with Mike are what led to Ted deciding in hindsight the media was not for him.

That said he still has his sources, and I doubt it's the Poston's - they are on Cafardo's speed dial. Holley is probably the most connected, Reiss the most hard working, and Curren the most balanced when he doesn't have the occasional hair across.

It is pretty clearly down to us and KC with Tenn as a very dark horse after they jettison McNair. I have a feeling BB was quietly laying the ground work with the player on a real deal scenario to retire here in 3-4 years as opposed to another phony deal that has him pounding the pavement again in January. He has kids in NY and RI, and MNF buddies in MA, a hardnosed coach who won't overpay but who also puts you in a position to succeed on a team that wins and who never ever throws his players under the bus in an effort to defend himself to the media, and here he'll be the starting LCB and not #2 to a guy who got one of those big phony deals. If he doesn't finally see that then he's insane and to hell with him.

 

[Tunescribe]

While the statement was couched, it still reflected a commonly heard complaint among Pats players last year: that Mangini’s game plans were not aggressive enough.

You could see it in the way they played through the first two-thirds of the season. Then BB intervened and made some changes as I recall, right? Mangini was still a work in progress when he left. I doubt BB fears what he'll do with the Jets.

 

[RayClay]

The quotes from Hobbs:

Hobbs has spent much of his offseason stashed away at Gillette Stadium, poring over tape of his performances last year and scouting the wide receivers he’ll be going against this season. He’s been studying the tendencies of the opposing offensive coordinators on the Pats schedule as well.
When asked what he saw from himself on film, Hobbs was frank.
“Not enough,” he said. “We didn’t get to where we wanted as a team - so it wasn’t good enough.”
As for working with new defensive coordinator Dean Pees after a year under Eric Mangini, Hobbs said he can already tell the difference.
“I don’t want to get into the philosophies for obvious reasons,” said Hobbs. “But I think Dean is going to allow us to do a lot more. The key is to be physical.”cw0
While the statement was couched, it still reflected a commonly heard complaint among Pats players last year: that Mangini’s game plans were not aggressive enough.

Mangini's philosophy was aggressive enough that we had six casualties at DB before the season was half over.

Let's not get silly here.

Players with 1/2 year total experience shouldn't be worrying about philosophy quite yet.

 

[RayClay]

I've changed my mind recently and I think they're going to sign Law.

It's all about the ego with Law.

He's not going to get the big payday with anybody, so if we give him a back loaded contract he can say he's playing for the team or the ring or the hall, things he can't say elsewhere.

 

[MrTibbs]

I'm part of what I think is the majority in wanting Law back. Quite badly, actually. As much as anything last year a lack of turnovers killed us. Getting Law back and having Bruschi for the whole year would help that a lot - Rodney being his old self would finish it off but we'll have to wait and see on that.

Regarding Hobbs' comments, there have been too many like that to not be able to see what went on last year. Very surprisingly, it seems that the biggest thing we lost with Crennel leaving was Mangini not being an adequate replacement. I don't get the impression there are many Patriot defenders unhappy about Pees replacing Mangini. And it was good to read about all the film study The Hobbitt is doing.

The Patriots were almost dead last in takeaways last season. The Patriots as a team had 10 interecptions which put them at 31 out of 32 teams.

 

[mikesjag]

Humorous

Hello to the Greatest fans!

I am another fan who reads your board every day and I want to thank you for your insight, research, and explainations.

I first read this article before I read this thread and I couldn't help laughing. I think he took every idea in his article from you on this board. He may have actually posted some of them under an assumed name.

Regards and thanks again for you input and analysis,

 

[PonyExpress]

He's still my favorite guess on NEST by far. Not many agree but I think he has the clearest, best thought out opinions on the show.

I agree. Felger is the best football columnist in town (which isn't saying much).

 

[mikesjag]

Why does it say

"Last edited by AStack75 : 09-12-2005 at 08:41 PM." on my first post on a date before I joined?

 

[mikesjag]

posted dble post