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Just some thoughts in general going into the weekend on a number of issues.
1. Trying to make some sense of the Cannon signing. As you will remember there wasn't anyone on this board more gung ho to have Cannon start at RG than I was....and have been for 3 full years.
. And no one is more surprised at the massive failure of this experiment than I. In fact the overall poor level of play of Marcus Cannon thus far this year has been both my biggest surprise and disappointment. His play at OT was actually quite good after Volmer went down, so this perceived slide in year 4 is almost shocking to me.
I finally read an explanation that made sense to me as to why he struggled so much at G. It had always seemed to me that OT was the harder position, as it needed more speed and athleticism. Add Cannon's size and reported strength, moving to OG seemed like a slam dunk. It should have been a position change that would make it easier for him to pass block, and play to his power and quick feet in the run game. Well it didn't happen and the only logical explanation why it failed was an issue of processing the increased speed and activity you get when you play inside.
On the outside, although you play against the other team's best DLmen and LB's, they are generally only coming at you from one direction, while the G's and C's have DT's DE, and LB's flying all over the place. I can only assume that Cannon was unable to process all this activity fast enough to utilize his athletic skills. Maybe if he had spent an entire off season prepping to play OG his play would improve, because from all reports he's supposed to be a smart kid. But the fact that Volmer was coming off a serious injury, he also was tasked with being the primary swing T, it ended up that he hasn't seemed to have done ANYTHING well this season. So like most of you while I hoped his play would improve, I fully expected this to be Marcus Cannon's final year with the Pats.
Now I'm being forced to try and figure out why against all perceived evidence he was re-signed. I have 4 options. I can figure it out. Fans can speculate, Mediots/"experts" can pontificate...... OR, I can let BB tell me. And what BB is telling me is that Marcus Cannon's contribution is far bigger than we on the outside can perceive, or are being allowed to perceive. He's telling us that he IS a capable starting OT if need be. That he IS a capable contributor at OG and TE. Ultimately BB is telling us that there IS a reason why it seems Marcus Cannon isn't performing at the level we saw last year, AND that he strongly believes that he will be performing at least well enough the next 2 years to justify that contract
Trying to speculate that the signing is some kind of master manipulation of Solder and/or Volmer might be entertaining, but in the end its merely a mind game, just as trying to figure out what that 2 year $9MM deal actually means in real money. In the end, BB has been around offensive linemen since back in the day when the OL actually used their shoulder pads and fired out, not up. Not saying that BB hasn't made his share of personnel decisions (its the nature of the game), but I'm willing to GUARANTEE that at THIS point in time, his reasoning to pay Cannon whatever he paid him is based on sounder and more reasoned evidence than what we have at this point.
2. Nate Solder: Another mystery that makes me go hmmmmm. Think about it. Here is our franchise LT who leads the OL in penalties and in occasional games looks to be more of a problem than the solution, and is heading into a critical contract year. But look at it another way. The OL (including Solder and Volmer, has given up only 16 sacks this year in 13 games while at the same time last year gave up 36. The running game is marginally better as well as the overall passing game. The team leads the league in redzone scoring, and among the leaders in scoring and passing efficiency. And all this after starting the season with the offense's 4 worse performances when the OL was in total disarray.
Yet all we do is complain about our OL, and chief among them, Nat Solder. IIRC Solder had a good rookie year, a better 2nd year as a full time starter and last year I would say he was a top 15- LT on an OL that was part of a an offense going through a very difficult year with injuries and a total transition at WR. I would admit that Solder has been awfully inconsistent this season. We all saw the 3-4 plays where Ingram manhandled him in the first half, and we all classically ignored the 2nd half were for the most part Solder owned him.
Think about this: If we assume (which is a dangerous thing to do) that Bedard's number of 11 negative plays for Solder is correct. ( Which will include the plays Ingram illegally used hands to his face as a weapon, and any plays that actually might not be his mistake and Bedard wouldn't know, and penalties
) That would mean essentially that Solder won on the other 63 plays the offense ran If Brady was successful 63 of 74 plays he'd be player of the week. Solder does it and he's the first one we think of when we're looking for a thumbs down.
My point is that to my mind we tend to rate our offensive linemen so much differently and unfairly than all the rest of the players. Again, using the faulty PFF numbers, last season, Wendell was routinely criticized as a total failure for allowing just 5% of his snaps result sacks hits or hurries. That's a 95% success rate. Yet if you had a pass rusher who managed even a 10% success rate at creating sacks hits and hurries, he'd make the pro bowl.
I'm not saying don't criticize him. I want him to do better. In fact, I expect him to do better. Just please acknowledge that you understand the inherent unfairness in how we grade offensive linemen compared to other positions.
3. I really want to smack these self appointed proponents of safety and the "rules" right in the mouth. They can spin the fact that Browner's shoulder was "near" Green's neck or brushed his helmet, and you would still never convince he that was a penalty. If the object of the rules is to make the defensive player question how he will make a hit and hesitate, then just give them the flags now. If the object is to blow out 10+ knees per team/per year, then keep it up. If the object of the rules is to force the defensive player to put HIS head in a basically unsafe position in order not to make hard hits on offensive players, then well done.
If the league REALLY gave a crap about safety they'd penalize players who had their heads down when tackling. Penalized players who launched rather than ran through ball carriers. Actually allowed technology to catch up to helmet design. And finally stopped whining about every time extraordinarily well paid athletes are injured in a collision sport played by highly players who have grown too big, strong and fast for their bodies.
Want to stop a lot of concussions.....simple. Put a 250lb limit on the players. Fewer injuries to go along with a faster and better game.
4. OT - If you want to blame the Red Sox for low balling Lester back in last March, fine. It was an error. 5 years and 100MM would have probably done the job. Kick them all you want for THAT. However for what went on afterward., the trade and subsequent negotiation, the endless self serving battering is starting to drive me nuts. The Sox offered a more than competitive deal at $135. The Cubs simply hit it out of the ball park at 150. To go that high would have been irresponsible. Theo was in an entirely different situation. He not only needed an ace, he need someone to change the culture. Its still not a smart financial move (unless your name is John Lester), but you could make a special case for it for the Cubs
This ends my baseball commentary for the year. BTW- IMHO, the Sox are in much better shape at this point of the season than they were back 2 years ago......before they won the World Series. Football isn't the only sport that focuses way too much on the big names instead of solid team building. Something we as Pats fans should know better than most.
5. I love how this team is being build for the next 4 years. You can't have great depth at ever position, but the Pats are starting to look like a team that's coming as close as you can humanly be possible. This thread has gone on too long already to go into detail, but when you start to look over this roster. Think about who's on it now, and who can be added, there aren't many holes. Before we go into the draft, we can have a championship caliber offense and defense. Next year's draft will be fully luxury draft. Truly a chance to draft for long term quality than the usual quantity. Roster spots will be at a premium
6. I really wish the AFCE would start to get some respect. The Bills have as good a defense as therre is in the league, and the Dolphins have a 70% completion QB as well as one of the best front 7's in the league. Both have winning records this late in the season. How many division have 3 teams over .500.
1. Trying to make some sense of the Cannon signing. As you will remember there wasn't anyone on this board more gung ho to have Cannon start at RG than I was....and have been for 3 full years.
. And no one is more surprised at the massive failure of this experiment than I. In fact the overall poor level of play of Marcus Cannon thus far this year has been both my biggest surprise and disappointment. His play at OT was actually quite good after Volmer went down, so this perceived slide in year 4 is almost shocking to me.I finally read an explanation that made sense to me as to why he struggled so much at G. It had always seemed to me that OT was the harder position, as it needed more speed and athleticism. Add Cannon's size and reported strength, moving to OG seemed like a slam dunk. It should have been a position change that would make it easier for him to pass block, and play to his power and quick feet in the run game. Well it didn't happen and the only logical explanation why it failed was an issue of processing the increased speed and activity you get when you play inside.
On the outside, although you play against the other team's best DLmen and LB's, they are generally only coming at you from one direction, while the G's and C's have DT's DE, and LB's flying all over the place. I can only assume that Cannon was unable to process all this activity fast enough to utilize his athletic skills. Maybe if he had spent an entire off season prepping to play OG his play would improve, because from all reports he's supposed to be a smart kid. But the fact that Volmer was coming off a serious injury, he also was tasked with being the primary swing T, it ended up that he hasn't seemed to have done ANYTHING well this season. So like most of you while I hoped his play would improve, I fully expected this to be Marcus Cannon's final year with the Pats.
Now I'm being forced to try and figure out why against all perceived evidence he was re-signed. I have 4 options. I can figure it out. Fans can speculate, Mediots/"experts" can pontificate...... OR, I can let BB tell me. And what BB is telling me is that Marcus Cannon's contribution is far bigger than we on the outside can perceive, or are being allowed to perceive. He's telling us that he IS a capable starting OT if need be. That he IS a capable contributor at OG and TE. Ultimately BB is telling us that there IS a reason why it seems Marcus Cannon isn't performing at the level we saw last year, AND that he strongly believes that he will be performing at least well enough the next 2 years to justify that contract
Trying to speculate that the signing is some kind of master manipulation of Solder and/or Volmer might be entertaining, but in the end its merely a mind game, just as trying to figure out what that 2 year $9MM deal actually means in real money. In the end, BB has been around offensive linemen since back in the day when the OL actually used their shoulder pads and fired out, not up. Not saying that BB hasn't made his share of personnel decisions (its the nature of the game), but I'm willing to GUARANTEE that at THIS point in time, his reasoning to pay Cannon whatever he paid him is based on sounder and more reasoned evidence than what we have at this point.
2. Nate Solder: Another mystery that makes me go hmmmmm. Think about it. Here is our franchise LT who leads the OL in penalties and in occasional games looks to be more of a problem than the solution, and is heading into a critical contract year. But look at it another way. The OL (including Solder and Volmer, has given up only 16 sacks this year in 13 games while at the same time last year gave up 36. The running game is marginally better as well as the overall passing game. The team leads the league in redzone scoring, and among the leaders in scoring and passing efficiency. And all this after starting the season with the offense's 4 worse performances when the OL was in total disarray.
Yet all we do is complain about our OL, and chief among them, Nat Solder. IIRC Solder had a good rookie year, a better 2nd year as a full time starter and last year I would say he was a top 15- LT on an OL that was part of a an offense going through a very difficult year with injuries and a total transition at WR. I would admit that Solder has been awfully inconsistent this season. We all saw the 3-4 plays where Ingram manhandled him in the first half, and we all classically ignored the 2nd half were for the most part Solder owned him.
Think about this: If we assume (which is a dangerous thing to do) that Bedard's number of 11 negative plays for Solder is correct. ( Which will include the plays Ingram illegally used hands to his face as a weapon, and any plays that actually might not be his mistake and Bedard wouldn't know, and penalties
) That would mean essentially that Solder won on the other 63 plays the offense ran If Brady was successful 63 of 74 plays he'd be player of the week. Solder does it and he's the first one we think of when we're looking for a thumbs down.
My point is that to my mind we tend to rate our offensive linemen so much differently and unfairly than all the rest of the players. Again, using the faulty PFF numbers, last season, Wendell was routinely criticized as a total failure for allowing just 5% of his snaps result sacks hits or hurries. That's a 95% success rate. Yet if you had a pass rusher who managed even a 10% success rate at creating sacks hits and hurries, he'd make the pro bowl.
I'm not saying don't criticize him. I want him to do better. In fact, I expect him to do better. Just please acknowledge that you understand the inherent unfairness in how we grade offensive linemen compared to other positions.
3. I really want to smack these self appointed proponents of safety and the "rules" right in the mouth. They can spin the fact that Browner's shoulder was "near" Green's neck or brushed his helmet, and you would still never convince he that was a penalty. If the object of the rules is to make the defensive player question how he will make a hit and hesitate, then just give them the flags now. If the object is to blow out 10+ knees per team/per year, then keep it up. If the object of the rules is to force the defensive player to put HIS head in a basically unsafe position in order not to make hard hits on offensive players, then well done.
If the league REALLY gave a crap about safety they'd penalize players who had their heads down when tackling. Penalized players who launched rather than ran through ball carriers. Actually allowed technology to catch up to helmet design. And finally stopped whining about every time extraordinarily well paid athletes are injured in a collision sport played by highly players who have grown too big, strong and fast for their bodies.
Want to stop a lot of concussions.....simple. Put a 250lb limit on the players. Fewer injuries to go along with a faster and better game.
4. OT - If you want to blame the Red Sox for low balling Lester back in last March, fine. It was an error. 5 years and 100MM would have probably done the job. Kick them all you want for THAT. However for what went on afterward., the trade and subsequent negotiation, the endless self serving battering is starting to drive me nuts. The Sox offered a more than competitive deal at $135. The Cubs simply hit it out of the ball park at 150. To go that high would have been irresponsible. Theo was in an entirely different situation. He not only needed an ace, he need someone to change the culture. Its still not a smart financial move (unless your name is John Lester), but you could make a special case for it for the Cubs
This ends my baseball commentary for the year. BTW- IMHO, the Sox are in much better shape at this point of the season than they were back 2 years ago......before they won the World Series. Football isn't the only sport that focuses way too much on the big names instead of solid team building. Something we as Pats fans should know better than most.
5. I love how this team is being build for the next 4 years. You can't have great depth at ever position, but the Pats are starting to look like a team that's coming as close as you can humanly be possible. This thread has gone on too long already to go into detail, but when you start to look over this roster. Think about who's on it now, and who can be added, there aren't many holes. Before we go into the draft, we can have a championship caliber offense and defense. Next year's draft will be fully luxury draft. Truly a chance to draft for long term quality than the usual quantity. Roster spots will be at a premium
6. I really wish the AFCE would start to get some respect. The Bills have as good a defense as therre is in the league, and the Dolphins have a 70% completion QB as well as one of the best front 7's in the league. Both have winning records this late in the season. How many division have 3 teams over .500.
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