Top Off Season Performers..

[DarrylS]

Diverse group won this years, Courtesy of Reiss.. sounds like Cunningham is taking it seriously as are Scott and Carpenter.

The full list of offseason award winners, as confirmed by the team:
•LB Bobby Carpenter
•S Patrick Chung
•DE Jermaine Cunningham
•WR Julian Edelman
•K Stephen Gostkowski
•LB Jerod Mayo
•DE Trevor Scott
•OT Nate Solder
•LB Jeff Tarpinian
•RB Danny Woodhead

 

[randomk1]

I'm taking it as a good sign that Cunningham is among those names.

 

[BradyManny]

I'm taking it as a good sign that Cunningham is among those names.

Probably can't hurt. I'm looking up last year's for reference, having trouble finding it. All I know is Butler won an offseason award and was cut.

Here's 2010:

Patriots offseason award winners - New England Patriots Blog - ESPN Boston

OL George Bussey - waived
OL Dan Connolly - develops into starting caliber player
WR Julian Edelman - had lackluster follow up to rookie year
RB Kevin Faulk -
LB Jerod Mayo
S James Sanders - decent year, cut following the year
WR Matthew Slater
OL Sebastian Vollmer
CB Jonathan Wilhite - didn't do much this year
DL Mike Wright

Doesn't seem like it's a huge factor either way. But it doesn't hurt.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

You'll be looking for a while...lockout eliminated the off season.

 

[Rob0729]

You'll be looking for a while...lockout eliminated the off season.

That's not exactly true. There was like a three day period where the players won in court that forced the teams to allow them to come in practice during the offseason. The Pats could have given out awards for whoever worked the hardest those three days.

BTW, I can't remember many players who have been cut the same year as they winning the offseason award. Bussey might be is a very select group. But then again, Bussey faced an uphill battle to make the final 53 man roster no matter what he did.

 

[BradyManny]

You'll be looking for a while...lockout eliminated the off season.

Good point.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

WR Julian Edelman - had lackluster follow up to rookie year

Two things to note here:

(1) Every time he's had extended playing time at WR, he's done good things. You could almost say the same about playing DB as well.

(2) His "regression" has far less to do with him and far more to do with the growth of GRONKnandez. In 2009, if you had Moss-Edelman-Watson-WR/TE-RB on the field, odds are Edelman was actually the second best option on the field.

Now, if you have Lloyd-Edelman-GRONK-Hernandez-RB, Edelman's at best the fourth best option.

 

[Rob0729]

Two things to note here:

(1) Every time he's had extended playing time at WR, he's done good things. You could almost say the same about playing DB as well.

(2) His "regression" has far less to do with him and far more to do with the growth of GRONKnandez. In 2009, if you had Moss-Edelman-Watson-WR/TE-RB on the field, odds are Edelman was actually the second best option on the field.

Now, if you have Lloyd-Edelman-GRONK-Hernandez-RB, Edelman's at best the fourth best option.

Edelman hasn't done much of anything at WR since 2009. In 2010 he had 7 catches for 84 yards (40 of them coming on one catch) and 4 catches for 34 yards last year. I think this preseason is a make or break one for him. If they can find someone to take over punt return duties, he could be on the outside looking in.

 

[BradyManny]

Two things to note here:

(1) Every time he's had extended playing time at WR, he's done good things. You could almost say the same about playing DB as well.

(2) His "regression" has far less to do with him and far more to do with the growth of GRONKnandez. In 2009, if you had Moss-Edelman-Watson-WR/TE-RB on the field, odds are Edelman was actually the second best option on the field.

Now, if you have Lloyd-Edelman-GRONK-Hernandez-RB, Edelman's at best the fourth best option.

I agree with point #2, but not #1. He played well in 2009 as a Welker fill-in in the slot, and was great underneath and on bubble screens. Since Welker has been healthy, he hasn't been asked to do those things, and instead has been asked to do things he's not good at. Running down the seam, going over the middle, trying to catch balls in traffic - these are not things that come naturally to a QB turned WR. And I don't think Edelman has great hands.

I almost would like Edelman more as a RB, were he bigger. I know we saw him line up there in camp/preseason a couple years back, but as a pass catcher, it gets him to where he needs to be. He needs to get the ball in space and underneath. He is deadly in space.

Unfortunately, I think Edelman's skills at WR are limited strictly to slot, but that's just my two cents. Brady likes him. He's very useful as Welker backup, punt returner, and now, depth in the secondary. But Branch & Stallworth are clearly better wide receivers to me. And as Bedard opined this weekend, Ebert will have more potential as a wide receiver down the line.