Thursday Daily Rundown 11/3: New England Patriots News and Notes
(PHOTO: Kevin Jairaj - USA TODAY Sports) 🕑 Read Time: 6 minutes
Posted Under: Daily Patriots Rundown
(PHOTO: Kevin Jairaj - USA TODAY Sports) 🕑 Read Time: 6 minutes
New England Patriots > Patriots Blog
(PHOTO: Kevin Jairaj - USA TODAY Sports) Here’s a look at this morning’s top stories:
Collins Fires Back – Former Patriots linebacker Jamie Collins has been subject to a fair amount of criticism following the news that New England was shipping him off to Cleveland, and on Wednesday he finally had his opportunity to respond.
Collins, who admitted he still doesn’t understand why he was traded, already feels like the Browns have more of a family feel than how things were in New England, saying, “it’s a different level.”
But the Cleveland media didn’t waste much time asking him about the comments about whether or not he wasn’t playing at a consistent level, along with the discussions about him “freelancing”. Collins’ response was he wasn’t sure where that was coming from.
“I don’t know, man,” said Collins. “That’s what the coaches do, that’s what they’re for. I just come out here and do what I gotta do. It’s not my job to trade anyone, so if it happens, it happens. I just move on. I’m moving on and that’s what I’m doing, moving on.”
One interesting note on Collins was the fact a recent mystery surrounding the linebacker was solved. According to the Providence Journal, after being spotted wearing two plastic bags on his hands during the team’s walk-through back on September 29th, the reason apparently was because the linebacker gave himself a manicure, having dipped his hands in wax and that’s why he had his hands protected during the walk-through. It’s an interesting side note considering what transpired this week, adding another bizarre backstory about a player we really hadn’t heard too much about prior to his trade.
When asked if he felt he was playing at a high-level in New England, Collins offered up a simple, “Yeah.”
Collins was also asked about whether or not he was looking for Von Miller money, to which Collins answered, “I don’t know nothing about Von Miller money. Nothing. Never heard of it, never said it, never came out of my mouth, never. I’m not Von Miller, just so you know. Let’s be smart now, let’s all have some common sense.”
When asked about whether or not he received the reported $11-million offer from New England, Collins denied it saying, “No, I didn’t get none of that, I didn’t get anything.”
While the news was surprising, Collins said it didn’t take him long to get over it. “Oh, 10 minutes,” Collins laughed when asked about it. “I woke up, got the feeling, and it was over. I’m on to Cleveland.”
And the Patriots are on to Seattle.
 Brady knows that in the NFL, nobody is ever really safe. (USA TODAY Images) |
Brady Knows Even He’s Not Safe – Tom Brady’s been around enough to know that crazy things sometimes happen in this league, and the trade of Collins was a reminder that things can change in an instant, regardless of who you are.
“Yeah. Absolutely,” Brady said when asked about the possibility of this scenario someday happening to him. “You can’t be around this long and not realize that the world will keep spinning and the sun will come up tomorrow without you. That’s just the way it goes and I think you enjoy just the experiences you have and also understand it just keeps going on.”
“So, it could happen to anybody. Just got to show up to work, do the best you can do every day and let your performance just speak for itself.”
Break Coming Up For Players – Wednesday marked the final practice for this week for the players, who now get to enjoy a break from Thursday until Sunday before they get back to work to begin preparing for the Seahawks next weekend.
It’s been a long road to get to this point, with the Patriots having gotten through a game and a half with Jimmy Garoppolo, and another two and a half with rookie quarterback Jacoby Brissett where they won a game and then suffered their first loss of the season.
From there, they got to enjoy the return of Tom Brady, who has been on fire since his return and has managed to run off four straight wins. Now they enter November in the driver’s seat with a chance to get away as they prepare for the second half of the season, and Rob Gronkowski said the break couldn’t come at a better time.
“You couldn’t ask for a better bye, right halfway through the season, eight weeks,” Gronkowski said Wednesday via the Providence Journal. “Just good to rest your body, rest it up, get away for a little bit so when you come back it feels like you’ve been gone from football for a while and you’re super refreshed to get back.”
Head coach Bill Belichick, who was recently blessed with a grandchild, admitted that it’s a good opportunity to for even he to get some rest.
“Yeah, of course.” said Belichick. “It’s an opportunity for all of us to get a little rest. Again, get caught up on some things that we all need to get caught up on, whether it be in our personal lives or moving forward into the November/December second half of the season, whether it’s Seattle – the next game on the schedule. There are a lot of different things that can be addressed that can be helpful moving forward.”
He was asked about what would help him decompress more, sneaking off to his vacation home, playing in a mock lacrosse tournament or spending the weekend at Rob Gronkowski’s house?
Belichick’s answer was humourous, as apparently they all sounded good.
“That’d be a three way tie,” said Belichick. “Those are three good options.”
Belichick talks about the personal side of things – When it comes to moves like the one they made this week, Belichick is fully aware of the toll it takes on a personal level for all the players who are friends with Collins after having him shipped off to Cleveland.
But one thing Belichick pointed out was that these decisions are made with the intention of doing what’s best for the team, which is what he basis these moves on. He knows it’s tough and every player is important to him, but sometimes doing what’s best isn’t easy. He also pointed to other moves that are made involving players who aren’t marquee names, but still have a ripple effect on guys on the roster.
“Unfortunately that’s part of this business and I’m sure a lot of you don’t want to take into consideration other moves that are made on the roster but they affect everybody,” said Belichick. “So it might be a guy that isn’t a big guy on your radar but to his roommate or to a teammate that’s very close to him it is a big move and so I recognize that, I understand that, I appreciate that, but again, in the end my responsibility is to the football team. It’s not to an individual player so I make the decision that I make based on what I feel like is best for the team.”
“It’s not a personal decision, it’s a team decision. If it was a personal decision then there’d be a lot of decisions that would be different. But that’s not my job. My obligation is to all of the players; not just to a single individual. I know you want to focus on the bigger names if you will, which is fine. I understand that. But all of the players are important to me. They’re important to their teammates. They’re important to the organization and anything that affects any individual on the team is important. Not just to three or four we want to single out because of whatever their star power is.”
“I’m not minimizing that but things affect all of the players on the team; not just the few names that are mentioned.”
One scenario that stands out was the trade of Richard Seymour, which was another shocking move and it became a little contentious because according to reports at the time, Seymour didn’t immediately report to the Raiders after being dealt, leaving Oakland to send him a 5-day letter.
But while people criticized him at the time, what they didn’t know was that a frustrated Seymour was blindsided by the move and it left him having to step back and turn his focus on taking care of getting his family ready for what was an unexpected turn of events for the veteran.
Seymour had four children when he was traded and was also the guardian of a 15-year-old cousin, who had recently joined him in the Boston area. With the rug having been pulled out from underneath him, there was a lot more than just football involved and it shed some light on the fact that there’s a pretty significant impact from a personal level that people might not realize and it was a tough time for him.
“I had a lot to think about with my wife, my family, my friends that are close to me, just a lot to think about as far as how do we make this work,” Seymour said at the time. “How do we make it happen? I talked with coach [Tom] Cable, and I talked with Mr. Davis as soon as this happened, and I assured them I wanted to be an Oakland Raider. They saw something special inside of me, and I just hope that I can bring what they saw. And that’s my job to go out and do that, and I know that I will.”
Needless to say, it’s just a reminder that there’s a lot more than just football involved in these situations.
Patriots Snag a TE off the Bengals’ Practice Squad – The Patriots added another tight end on Wednesday, adding Matt Lengal after snagging him off of Cincinnati’s practice squad.
Lengal is another big body, with the 6-foot-7, 266-pound player adding depth behind Rob Gronkowski and Martellus Bennett. He was a rookie free agent with the Bengals and was released by the club back on Sept. 5, 2015 and spent his entire rookie season on the team’s practice squad. He began this year with them and after training camp, found himself back on their practice squad.
Now he’s joined the team that beat his club just three short weeks ago, with an opportunity to catch passes from the best QB in the game along with being able to learn from two of the best tight ends in the game. Hopefully he’ll make the most of it.
SITE SEARCH
