Yates and Banta-Cain

[mgteich]

Extend them now! They were really impressive.

 

[Urgent]

First of all, the Pats don't over-react to one game. Maybe you were being facetious.

Second, they own Yates. It's like the Pats hold a free extension. He is an exclusive rights free agent for a couple more seasons. No other team can even offer him a contract, or even speak with him for that matter. And they are already paying him about six times the normal rate for a practice squad guy anyway.

TBC? They might want to see him perform in a running situation or two. Maybe see him string together two or three decent games.

How would you react if Marquise Hill someday got a tackle?

 

[RayClay]

Money burning a hole in your pocket?

 

[edgecy]

Plus I think Tully also played with a different purpose last night: he's a new dad now

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

Extending TBC makes sense, but it might also be courteous to let him finish the season and have a better sense of his worth. They did something like that for Green. Yates' situation was answered, he may not make the roster next season, but he'll be here to try again - unless traded.

 

[Fencer]

I thought Yates was already a fourth-year player or something ... oh, BS. If he was on the PS, he's still new enough to be an ERFA.

Also -- do we really want to either lock into carrying 9 OL or dump one of the four OTs? Neither course seems like a no-brainer.

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

Also -- do we really want to either lock into carrying 9 OL or dump one of the four OTs? Neither course seems like a no-brainer.

Nope, no no-brainers here, it will have to be the mix that seems to give the team the best chance to win after everybody works through all the hurdles to opening day.

 

[ironwasp]

I totally agreed with those preaching caution and looking for consistency, so I'll back up a couple of stages and make a different point.

The Pats got everything they could have asked for from both players on Monday night and they must be utterly delighted to get great games from both.

In what was pretty much a pass coverage game for Billy Yates, he acquitted himself extremely well. If you didn't know beforehand you would not have been able to guess that he was making a first start. The right side of the line - effectively all-rookie - was my biggest concern before the game, but all night pretty much Brady got the time he needed to make plays. Sure they shipped a sack here and there, but by and large it was hugely impressive from O'Callaghan and a guy coming off the PS.

As for TBC, well the game was set up for him to have a good one. The line handled the running game all night forcing big slow Brad to pass, while the LBs and secondary seemed to confuse the hell out of him making him hold the ball that bit longer. Under those circumstances you'd expect TBC, who has great speed, to get to the QB, and he was a holy terror most of the night, hurrying Johnson and all but killing Bollinger late on. So, the game was there for him, but he did what he needed to. Another night it will be tougher, but you can only beat what's in front of you. And on Monday he did.

Hats off to both. And hats off, again, to the system. I'm all out of hats.

 

[rookBoston]

They were playing Banta-Cain as a pass rushing 4-3 DE from a 3-pt stance, taking advantage of a huge speed over McKinney. He torched McKinney over and over. It was beautiful.

But I have to point out, but it was a very limited role. TBC didn't play on running downs, and he didn't play when the team was in the base 3-4.

He is great as an outside pass rusher, but do BB/DP have faith in TBC's ability in pass coverage, and his ability to seal the edge on running plays? With those kinds of pass rushing skills, I'd think he'd be on the field at OLB more often if he was a complete player.

It makes me think he either struggles diagnosing plays, or has trouble backpedaling in space. Also, I wonder if his pass rushing skills match up against a smaller, more agile OT. Sure, he demolished McKinney, but I wonder if the coaches didn't see something in their evaluation of McKinney and said: we can attack him with speed.

Either way, I'm confident BB will know what kind of a pricetag to assign to TBC's talent. With all the draft picks we have in 2001, with at least 4 Day One picks and something like 11 overall, I'm not sure we really need to extend him to play a role as narrowly defined as "3rd down 4-3 pass rush expert against big, slow OTs". We can probably find a rookie with those skills and more.

As for Yates... it's hard to be surprised. BB/DS have been making diamonds out of garbage for a while on the OL. There are more where that came from.