Friday Patriots Headlines For October 15th

A rainy Friday here in New England, and we're now just two days away from football resuming in Foxboro when the Ravens visit Gillette Stadium at 1:00pm on Sunday.

Jeff Howe of NESN.com has a look at Sunday's game, with stats, injury notes, and more in this entry.

Our own Russ Goldman got an outside persepective from Casey Willett from Sports Radio 105.7 "The Fan" out of Baltimore, and has an interesting Q & A that is a really great read, so you'll definitely want to check out.

The Boston Globe takes a look at Brandon Tate, who has excelled on kickoff returns this season and will now likely get more reps at the receiver position since Randy Moss is no longer with the team.

Michael Vega of the Globe reports this morning that wide reciever Deion Branch has restructured his contract. The veteran wide receiver reportedly agreed to renegotiate the last year of his six-year, $39 million deal he received from the Seahawks after being traded in 2006, and has reduced his base salary in 2011 from $5.95 million to $2.2 million.

"I think both parties agreed on something and we worked it out,'' said Branch, who will be paid a guaranteed $5.47 million this season. "I know my purpose and why I did it, you know, and that's the most important thing.''

Meanwhile Mark Farinella of the Attleboro Sun Chronicle writes that Branch is anxious to get back on the field with the team on Sunday.

Christopher Price of WEEI.com writes that Brady has been a big help in getting Branch reacclimated with the team's playbook, and the veteran receiver is looking forward to getting started with his second tenure here in New England.

Ian Rapoport of the Boston Herald writes that Branch's former quarterback, Seattle's Matt Hasselbeck, told the newspaper that he expects big things from Branch now that he's back in New England.

"If anybody knows how to use him, it's the Patriots," Hasselbeck said. "If anybody knows how to throw him the ball, it's Tom Brady. I expect that he has a good year this year."

Rapoport also has an article on former Patriots defensive coordinator Dean Pees, who was let go by the team after last season. Pees is now the linebackers coach for the Ravens, and told the newspaper he's looking forward to playing against his old team on Sunday.

"It's like playing golf against my brothers, who I love," Pees said. "I'm a lot more competitive. It's kind of like you always want to beat family and friends more than you really want to beat somebody else."

Ron Borges of the Herald has a column this morning on Sunday's game, and wonders which team will make the statement in this one - the Patriots or the Ravens?

If you'd like an outside perspective, I came accross this article in The Carroll County Times out of Maryland which has an article on Vince Wilfork, who they're concerned about heading into Sunday's game.

Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo appeared on "Dennis & Callahan" on sports radio WEEI this morning and talked about a variety of topics, including the fact that he's hoping both he and the defense can come out and put together a better effort this time around against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday.

Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com has a Q&A Session with former Patriot Tedy Bruschi, with Bruschi feeling that having Tom Brady distribute the ball around the field on offense will be one of the keys for Sunday's game.

Reiss also takes a look at the number of snaps each Patriots player has on the defensive side of the football, and rookie Devin McCourty is the biggest surprise, having participated in 100% of the snaps this season.

That's it for this morning. Hope everyone has a good day and we'll have more later on.