Idle Thoughts - the opening edition

[BobDigital]

Where I am the most torn on this roster is the DBs. I see 12 guys i really want to keep at DB.

S - McCourty / Chung / Harmon / Richards / King / Ebner - 6
CB - Butler / Ryan / C Jones / J Jones / LeBlanc / Roberts - 6​

Cutting any of these bottom of the roster guys would suck. For Safety King/Ebner kind of do similar jobs but together they would be a dominant STs duo. I think the top 4 are locks for sure at S though.

I already feel more than happy cutting Coleman to keep an extra young guy. The issue with cutting any is all of these young CBs have shown promise and though Cyrus is not on the bubble the others are. I would hate to cut the wrong one. At least one of Jones - LeBlanc - Roberts will turn into a good NFL CB. What if we cut one that does and the one to we keep flames out? All have flashed and with Ryan is likely gone next year we need to do as much as possible to be sure our #2 CB spot gets filled well.

Push comes to shove i say if all the young CBs keep flashing cut King but that would be very unfortunate.


One of the more interesting spots to watch turns out to be DT. Big surprise to me.

Brown was excepted to be good and looks pretty good. Valentine is coming on much faster than i thought he would. I thought he would have a borderline red shirt year but he might contribute. Johnson exploded on to the scene last night.

Branch hasn't gotten to play much and Kuhn who was getting rave reviews in practice has cooled off a bit. Knighton hasn't shown much. Might just be in cruise control for the regular season but who knows. May have gotten old over night. Guys under preforming and over preforming have put this position in flux.

 

[long distance]

He needs to be out there next week at least for two series. I don't like the idea of him not having played in live action all offseason up to week 5.

Dont worry, he will have his full preseason game @Browns week 5

 

[bbobbo]

Me neither. I mostly see him as a guy who is only as good as his blockers. That's the same for a lot of RB's its true but point is I'm not seeing anything special. While I'm not suddenly high on Blount (no pun intended), he is better than Gaffney when he actually runs hard. Blount can make some moves. He's just so inconsistent.

he catches the ball fairly well:

2nd Quarter, 8:39 Patriots, 1st and 10 @ CHI 47

3rd Quarter, 4:02 Patriots, 3rd and 17 @ CHI 34

4th Quarter, 3:54 Patriots, 2nd and 16 @ CHI 45

 

[bbobbo]

I look forward to seeing some of the game. Recording the NFLN replay at 4pm EST.

if you don't mind video without audio, click the link in my sig. i have links to videos for 30+ plays (and counting).

 

[long distance]

Where I am the most torn on this roster is the DBs. I see 12 guys i really want to keep at DB.

S - McCourty Chung Harmon Richards King Ebner - 6
CB - Butler Ryan C Jones J Jones LeBlanc Roberts - 6

Cutting any of these bottom of the roster guys would suck. For Safety King/Ebner kind of do similar jobs but together they would be a dominant STs duo. I think the top 4 are locks for sure at S though.

I already feel more than happy cutting Coleman to keep an extra young guy. The issue with cutting any is all of these young CBs have shown promise and though Cyrus is not on the bubble the others are. I would hate to cut the wrong one. At least one of Jones LeBlanc and Roberts will turn into a good NFL CB. What if we cut one that does and the one to we keep flames out? All have flashed and with Ryan is likely gone next year we need to do as much as possible to be sure our #2 CB spot gets filled well.

Push comes to shove i say if all the young CBs keep flashing cut King but that would be very unfortunate.

Im not torn at all. Anything they do will be fine with me. It will not make much of a difference.
King is important. 5 CB is enough. There's PS. From the bottom 3 i see J Jones most difficult to clear waivers.

 

[BobDigital]

Im not torn at all. Anything they do will be fine with me. It will not make much of a difference.
King is important. 5 CB is enough. There's PS. From the bottom 3 i see J Jones most difficult to clear waivers.

The issue is none of the guys we cut will clear waivers i think. For most positions i don't mind much but for CB losing a potential good one urks me to no end.

 

[jah]

Where I am the most torn on this roster is the DBs. I see 12 guys i really want to keep at DB.

S - McCourty Chung Harmon Richards King Ebner - 6
CB - Butler Ryan C Jones J Jones LeBlanc Roberts - 6

Cutting any of these bottom of the roster guys would suck. For Safety King/Ebner kind of do similar jobs but together they would be a dominant STs duo. I think the top 4 are locks for sure at S though.

I already feel more than happy cutting Coleman to keep an extra young guy. The issue with cutting any is all of these young CBs have shown promise and though Cyrus is not on the bubble the others are. I would hate to cut the wrong one. At least one of Jones LeBlanc and Roberts will turn into a good NFL CB. What if we cut one that does and the one to we keep flames out? All have flashed and with Ryan is likely gone next year we need to do as much as possible to be sure our #2 CB spot gets filled well.

Push comes to shove i say if all the young CBs keep flashing cut King but that would be very unfortunate.

One of the more interesting spots to watch turns out to be DT. Big surprise to me.

Brown was excepted to be good and looks pretty good. Valentine is coming on much faster than i thought he would. I thought he would have a borderline red shirt year but he might contribute. Johnson exploded on to the scene last night.

Branch hasn't gotten to play much and Kuhn who was getting rave reviews in practice has cooled off a bit. Knighton hasn't shown much. Might just be in cruise control for the regular season but who knows. May have gotten old over night. Guys under preforming and over preforming have put this position in flux.

Generally agree with all of this. However, I don't feel comfortable cutting Coleman yet (and make no mistake, he should also be lumped in as a "young guy" considering last year he was an undrafted rookie).

I think a surprise cut could be Richards. He hasn't been given a fair chance to develop, but there may be no room for that this year and he's been average at best in any phase of the game. At the end of the day, I see the secondary panning out this way:

CB locks: Butler, Ryan, C. Jones
S locks: McCourty, Chung, Harmon, Ebner
Bubble (pick 2-4): Coleman, Roberts, J. Jones, LeBlanc, Richards, King​

I'm going to make the boring pick and say the odd ones out are J. Jones and LeBlanc (before last night, I had Jones over Roberts), but I'm happy with whatever combination of these guys BB sees fit.

 

[conway]

I think the depth at CB creates a couple interesting issues:

1) Is the potential of our #6 (0r 7) CB more valuable than the special teams values of guys like Slater, Ebner, King, and Bolden? Can't those CBs bring something to the table with STs, or are they too small? I feel like I'd rather have Roberts, LeBlanc, and Jones, than keep just two of them and have either Ebner or King.

2) Does the apparent depth we have at corner re-signing Butler less important? If we sit on him for a year, he's still just a RFA. I don't want to lose him, but maybe he's not worth an insane contract if we have a multitude of possible replacements.

 

[patchick]

2) Does the apparent depth we have at corner re-signing Butler less important? If we sit on him for a year, he's still just a RFA. I don't want to lose him, but maybe he's not worth an insane contract if we have a multitude of possible replacements.

IMO, if Butler continues to develop into a bona fide elite corner, a gaggle of pretty-good corners are no substitute.

 

[signbabybrady]

Just to muddy the DB waters a little there has been very little talk of Bentley as a DB but I am not sure anyone else had returned a kick this preseason. Well Devlin had one yesterday but I think my point still stands.

Bentley hasn't stood out to us as a DB but I find it interesting he seems to be getting a good look at kick returner.

 

[Sicilian]

Just to muddy the DB waters a little there has been very little talk of Bentley as a DB but I am not sure anyone else had returned a kick this preseason. Well Devlin had one yesterday but I think my point still stands.

Bentley hasn't stood out to us as a DB but I find it interesting he seems to be getting a good look at kick returner.

I noticed the same thing, and it's odd to me, especially since I haven't seen anything from him (admittedly in very limited game action) that makes him pop as a returner either. You'd think someone else wouldn't have gotten a shot by now, unless there's already a veteran in mind like Amendola that isn't playing right now but they know will get the job when the games start to count.

 

[PatsFan37]

IMO, if Butler continues to develop into a bona fide elite corner, a gaggle of pretty-good corners are no substitute.

I agree. I don't think it's a coincidence the Patriots won their only recent superbowl when Revis was on the team. The Patriots are a far less effective team if one of Edelman or Gronkowski can be shut down by a single player. Easier said than done, of course, which is why top-flight corners are so valuable.

 

[aluminum seats]

I think the depth at CB creates a couple interesting issues:

Does the apparent depth we have at corner re-signing Butler less important? If we sit on him for a year, he's still just a RFA. I don't want to lose him, but maybe he's not worth an insane contract if we have a multitude of possible replacements.

Oh man. The Pats have a bunch of....guys...at cornerback. This "depth" is totally unproven.

If Butler were to go down, the Pats, at present, would have a crisis at the position.

 

[PF_SU]

If Butler were to go down, the Pats, at present, would have a crisis at the position.

Which team wouldn't have a crisis if their best corner goes down?

 

[goheels22002]

Gaffney looked like a dime a dozen borderline running back. He's swappable with any practice squad player in the league. There's no need to keep him around.

Watch the video again. Gaffney has a specific role within the platoon and is on the same page with Garoppolo in both the run game and the passing game. On three or four screen passes, Gaffney was exactly where he was supposed to be after Garoppolo turned away from the pass rush and spun back to find him in space. On running plays, there were no miscues in the backfield, and he heads straight for the hole. There's no happy feet with this guy. I blame McDaniels for bone-headed play calling at the goal line in the 1st quarter with Blount on the sideline. (I think that series was Belichick and Scar challenging the O-Line to drive the defense into the end zone.)

The combination of Blount, White, Gaffney, Develin and Boldin is a complementary group with various pass catching, rushing and blocking skills. White and Gaffney did a nice job blocking last night. Boldin is becoming a better pass catcher out of the backfield. If Boldin didn't fumble inside the five, the Pats put 30 on the board.

The offensive line needs to continue to improve. You can see Scarnecchia's influence already.

 

[aluminum seats]

Which team wouldn't have a crisis if their best corner goes down?

If you're saying that, then why would you cite the depth the patriots supposedly have at the position to suggest it's less important to re-sign Butler?

 

[Flash]

Anyone wanna take a stab at who gets WR5? Dobson, Washington, Harper, Lucien are all pretty meh and haven't done a whole lot during preseason, and Martin hasn't played at all. Edelman, Amendola, Hogan, Mitchell are locks at this point.

It's too bad because I was kind of hyped by training. Reports saying that Dobson, Harper and Lucien were great during camp and now...meh.

 

[aluminum seats]

Anyone wanna take a stab at who gets WR5? Dobson, Washington, Harper, Lucien are all pretty meh and haven't done a whole lot during preseason, and Martin hasn't played at all. Edelman, Amendola, Hogan, Mitchell are locks at this point.

It's too bad because I was kind of hyped by training. Reports saying that Dobson, Harper and Lucien were great during camp and now...meh.

My guess right now is Dobson by default.

 

[TheRazorsEdge]

Anyone wanna take a stab at who gets WR5? Dobson, Washington, Harper, Lucien are all pretty meh and haven't done a whole lot during preseason, and Martin hasn't played at all. Edelman, Amendola, Hogan, Mitchell are locks at this point.

It's too bad because I was kind of hyped by training. Reports saying that Dobson, Harper and Lucien were great during camp and now...meh.

Take a stab? Lucien.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

HaaaaAAAAAPAH!