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Getting TB back makes other roster thoughts almost obsolete .. but building of 2016 roster is a great watch to me .. so here some of the notes from week 5 going to week 6:
As the season goes on taking its toll on other teams .. the Pats deep roster gets deeper.
1-2. Week 5 saw the biggest roster boost of the season. Of course with Tom and Rob coming back that was expected. Still .. the surprising boost started here: First Tom comes in like he's playing from week 1 then Rob - although somewhat on the chubby side - shows immediately that he's ready for the new assignments at LB that they were working on in TC - when needed of course.
The big and surprising addition to the quality and depth of the roster came from 3 other players:
LB Roberts, OT Fleming and DT Hamilton. The guys who were on the bubble or even out of 53 just yesterday came in and showed the team can seriously count on them. This could be huge for the team short and long term. All of them were rated top 5 NE players vs Browns by PFF. Unbelievable. All three were specifically praised by BB. Kudos to coaches what they were able to do with this guys in the last month or so.
3. In my view Fleming deserves to be a starter on OL even after Cannon is healthy. He was asked to play two times .. LT in place of Solder in week 1 and RT in place of Cannon week 5 .. and both time did very good. Hope they keep him starting and not rush Cannon back. It might be his job from then forward. If he shows continuity in his game he can be a long term option at T for the Pats which would be huge.
4. Roberts is #3 LB in my book and works nicely also with High and Collins on the field so I hope he becomes regular #3 LB option. Looking forward to Hightower-Roberts-Collins looks! (He also played on STs.)
5. I was worried about depth at DT after VV went down but Hamilton showed great improvement and stepped in in similar capacity to VV. Still I think they should also add A Johnson back from PS to solidify the position and add versatility. The problem is where to cut.
6. Losing Cooper might be hard to swallow looking back and this move and unfortunate outcome (they reportedly wanted to bring him back) made the guard position - that was boosted heavily in the offseason - somewhat exposed. They added a new guard to PS so there are 3 there .. but a step down from Mason or Thuney would be quite big.
7. The biggest liability at the moment is CB position. Many here were raving about “plethora“ of young CB talents in the preseason but apart from Butler and Ryan nobody showed adequate play or consistency to solidify the position. BB is clearly evaluating all options for #3 CB position. After Cyrus also JJ got a lot of opportunities but didn't make the best use of them. I feel that Coleman's job is seriously on the line and next on the list to try to grab it might be Rowe - hopefully already this week vs Bengals. If Rowe is the next man to turn into playmaker then this team is set.
8. After this week 3 new big additions to the roster are possible: Lewis, Jackson and Vollmer. If they would all return in good shape then this roster would become just ridiculous. The news about Lewis have been encouraging so he might return first. Some reports say that players returning from PUP after week 6 can start practicing already from Friday this week so that will be interesting to monitor. The news about Vollmer were not so optimistic but he is in the house rehabing (and opening doors - literally - for Scruggs). There were no recent news about Jackson. His return after the loss of Cooper would be huge. Adding the third G to the PS might not be a good sign.
_
BOTTOM LINE: This roster is now so deep that they had to risk losing someone like Cooper in order to bring Brady and Ninko back. Who is on the line when PUPs return? The logical answer for Lewis would be Foster but maybe they dont want to risk losing him. Maybe they throw him in more vs Bengals until he comes out with a case of Foxboro flu? The two healthy players with least contribution are Waddle and Derby. There are only 8 OL left on the roster so Waddle could be safe for the moment. Derby is a waiver risk too and I also see him as potential WR back up. They try to get him involved on STs more in the last two weeks but that might not be his forte. Much will depend on mystery man Scruggs so hopefully we can see something in that regard on Sunday.
One position that is probably overloaded is DB. Like I said I feel Coleman's job is on the line. The other guy to monitor is Richards. He didn't play on D a single snap in last two games, he didn't even come in the late phase of the Brown's game when many backups went on - and thats despite the fact that Chung played not only all D snaps but also saw increased workload on STs presumably taking over some of Bolden's duties. King is hanging on on account of ST duties as well but I feel his role diminished somewhat with the emergence of JJ and Mingo and with Rowe coming into the mix he is another one to monitor. All 3 are eligible for PS .. and in retrospect Id prefer to risk one of them over Cooper.
Lastly: In addition to the deep 53 we have at least 4 experienced plug-in-and-play guys on PS: Sankey, A Johnson, Grissom and Barker. Quite a luxury.
As the season goes on taking its toll on other teams .. the Pats deep roster gets deeper.
1-2. Week 5 saw the biggest roster boost of the season. Of course with Tom and Rob coming back that was expected. Still .. the surprising boost started here: First Tom comes in like he's playing from week 1 then Rob - although somewhat on the chubby side - shows immediately that he's ready for the new assignments at LB that they were working on in TC - when needed of course.
The big and surprising addition to the quality and depth of the roster came from 3 other players:
LB Roberts, OT Fleming and DT Hamilton. The guys who were on the bubble or even out of 53 just yesterday came in and showed the team can seriously count on them. This could be huge for the team short and long term. All of them were rated top 5 NE players vs Browns by PFF. Unbelievable. All three were specifically praised by BB. Kudos to coaches what they were able to do with this guys in the last month or so.
3. In my view Fleming deserves to be a starter on OL even after Cannon is healthy. He was asked to play two times .. LT in place of Solder in week 1 and RT in place of Cannon week 5 .. and both time did very good. Hope they keep him starting and not rush Cannon back. It might be his job from then forward. If he shows continuity in his game he can be a long term option at T for the Pats which would be huge.
4. Roberts is #3 LB in my book and works nicely also with High and Collins on the field so I hope he becomes regular #3 LB option. Looking forward to Hightower-Roberts-Collins looks! (He also played on STs.)
5. I was worried about depth at DT after VV went down but Hamilton showed great improvement and stepped in in similar capacity to VV. Still I think they should also add A Johnson back from PS to solidify the position and add versatility. The problem is where to cut.
6. Losing Cooper might be hard to swallow looking back and this move and unfortunate outcome (they reportedly wanted to bring him back) made the guard position - that was boosted heavily in the offseason - somewhat exposed. They added a new guard to PS so there are 3 there .. but a step down from Mason or Thuney would be quite big.
7. The biggest liability at the moment is CB position. Many here were raving about “plethora“ of young CB talents in the preseason but apart from Butler and Ryan nobody showed adequate play or consistency to solidify the position. BB is clearly evaluating all options for #3 CB position. After Cyrus also JJ got a lot of opportunities but didn't make the best use of them. I feel that Coleman's job is seriously on the line and next on the list to try to grab it might be Rowe - hopefully already this week vs Bengals. If Rowe is the next man to turn into playmaker then this team is set.
8. After this week 3 new big additions to the roster are possible: Lewis, Jackson and Vollmer. If they would all return in good shape then this roster would become just ridiculous. The news about Lewis have been encouraging so he might return first. Some reports say that players returning from PUP after week 6 can start practicing already from Friday this week so that will be interesting to monitor. The news about Vollmer were not so optimistic but he is in the house rehabing (and opening doors - literally - for Scruggs). There were no recent news about Jackson. His return after the loss of Cooper would be huge. Adding the third G to the PS might not be a good sign.
_
BOTTOM LINE: This roster is now so deep that they had to risk losing someone like Cooper in order to bring Brady and Ninko back. Who is on the line when PUPs return? The logical answer for Lewis would be Foster but maybe they dont want to risk losing him. Maybe they throw him in more vs Bengals until he comes out with a case of Foxboro flu? The two healthy players with least contribution are Waddle and Derby. There are only 8 OL left on the roster so Waddle could be safe for the moment. Derby is a waiver risk too and I also see him as potential WR back up. They try to get him involved on STs more in the last two weeks but that might not be his forte. Much will depend on mystery man Scruggs so hopefully we can see something in that regard on Sunday.
One position that is probably overloaded is DB. Like I said I feel Coleman's job is on the line. The other guy to monitor is Richards. He didn't play on D a single snap in last two games, he didn't even come in the late phase of the Brown's game when many backups went on - and thats despite the fact that Chung played not only all D snaps but also saw increased workload on STs presumably taking over some of Bolden's duties. King is hanging on on account of ST duties as well but I feel his role diminished somewhat with the emergence of JJ and Mingo and with Rowe coming into the mix he is another one to monitor. All 3 are eligible for PS .. and in retrospect Id prefer to risk one of them over Cooper.
Lastly: In addition to the deep 53 we have at least 4 experienced plug-in-and-play guys on PS: Sankey, A Johnson, Grissom and Barker. Quite a luxury.
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