Tommy Kelly asked to be released

[Brady6]

If we had a DL that could stand up to a run, I'd agree with you Andy. but we don't.

We should have kept Kelly (or brought in a second GOOD DT, or 3-4 DE) and brought in at least one (two if they knew they were dumping Mankins) veteran OL. We could have afforded it easily without being in "go for it now mode." And this isn't hindsight, since I and a lot of others were saying this back in February.

If the Pats don't fix their lines - either through scheme or personnel - I just can't see how they get near the Superbowl this year. I know it's early, but giving up 200 rushing yards to the Dolphins and giving a guy like Tannehill (behind a patchwork OL) all day to throw isn't promising, and certainly the OL wasn't promising, either.

The odd thing is we traded for Worthy, and claimed Quarles and Gaston off waivers so obviously we are not happy with are current DL group. To cut Kelly who has been one of the better DL in the NFL over the past 10 years just doesn't make sense. We are talking about peanuts in terms of salary cap impact with Kelly's contract so us nickel and diming him (if true) is just stupid.

 

[Deus Irae]

The Patriots did have a 2nd big body on the field. Siliga of last year proved himself a relatively adequate big body. If you can show me that meant our DL was much more competitive than JV in there, I'll buy into your premise. Yet for all the guesswork -- how about this guesswork: every team in the league may start 2014 Siliga over 2014 Kelly.
Again the Patriots issues were just as much systemic. This was a top down failure. The same personnel that played in Miami will likely play much better when BB and staff shake off the friggin egg they laid -- not to mention getting out of the Florida summer weather. I just relocated to Tampa a month ago from a dry, mild climate in San Jose. I can tell you going out into my yard to work during the day has been a brutally tiring acclimation process. I assume (guess) the same thing happened to the Patriots D.

To be fair, I worded my response horribly, so my apologies for that. By second big body, I was referring to the play itself. What the Dolphins were doing was running by walling off Wilfork, and running at the weaker ends on the walled off side. Vellano and Jones couldn't hold up.


Also, I've lived in Miami. I know the effects of the heat/humidity there, especially for a 1pm game, and I have no doubt that it took a toll.

 

[patsfan-1982]

look we watched Kelly play ok last night and have two tackles but we forget that he was surrounded by the #1 run defense from last year the pats were still giving up 120 a game on the ground last year before Kelly and wilfork got hurt and Kelly did not even look like half the player he was before the injury,

and the report came out that he wanted to be cut because BB was going with that BS 3-4 defense that he put out vs the fish anyways at the end of the day even if he was on the roster he was not going to be on the field much so no reason to cry over spilled milk