Tuesday Patriots Training Camp Observations: 8/13/13

[PatsFans.com Article]

Tuesday Patriots Training Camp Observations: 8/13/13
By: Derek Havens

The New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers took the field Tuesday for their first joint practice of the week. The two teams will have three joint practices, Tuesday through Thursday, before they play Friday night....

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[AzPatsFan]

I'm glad the FS Duran Harmon is showing abilities at FS, the position he was drafted to play. If he produces earlier than expected, it adds depth, and makes it easier to send McCourty to CB, if needed.

It was also good news to hear Adrian Wilson is playing well at coverage LB. The rumors of his demise seem premature. That was a key weakness in our Pass Defense the past few years.

It was also encouraging that Tavon played well there at coverage LB/Safety, in the position he was drafted to play, too. It is not surprising to me, and probably not the Pats coaches, that SS Tavon is not superb at deep FS. That is not his drafted position, and he is too bulky for that position, just like Adrian Wilson is.

With the return of both Alfonzo and Ras-I, the secondary reconstruction appears to be firming up. It would appear that the Pats will have at least a pair of valid candidates to play all five positions:

-Outside CB, (Talib, Denard, Dowling), (McCourty!)
-Slot CB, (Arrington, Dennard),
-Money SS, (A. Wilson, T. Wilson),
-SS, (A.Wilson, Gregory, T. Wilson),
-FS (McCourty, Gregory, Harmon).

All with out having to field any ST-only secondary scrub players. That has been several years in coming.

The postponing of Dennard's DUI case, likely means the parole revocation issue, also will be put off as well, until the DUI is finally tried and adjudicated, after the season. Then he can pay any fine, and serve his couple of weeks in jail, and put it all behind him.

 

[MrNathanDrake]

Tavon Wilson.... Training Camp isn't even over and he's already been leap frogged by a rookie.

 

[VrabelJr]

Tavon Wilson.... Training Camp isn't even over and he's already been leap frogged by a rookie.

Tavon Wilson is a SS, Duron Harmon is a FS. When will you people learn to make that distinction. Tavon Wilson struggling against the deep ball is an admonishment of our coaching staff/scheme. He should never be the deepest player on the field. If he is, that means we're getting out schemed.

 

[Sicilian]

It was also encouraging that Tavon played well there at coverage LB/Safety, in the position he was drafted to play, too. It is not surprising to me, and probably not the Pats coaches, that SS Tavon is not superb at deep FS. That is not his drafted position, and he is too bulky for that position, just like Adrian Wilson is.

I share your hope that Tavon can fulfill that role, backing up Adrian, but I didn't see anything in that report that indicated he was doing well as such. I may have zoned a bit and missed it, but I think it just said he had an interception, made no mention of him playing well as a coverage LB.

 

[Ian]

Some additional links from today:

Patriots.com:
Tuesday Patriots/Bucs practice observations
---
Boston Globe:
A sloppy day of practice for Patriots and Buccaneers - Sports - The Boston Globe
---
ESPN Boston:
Observations: Day 2 of Tampa week - New England Patriots Blog - ESPN Boston
---
Boston Herald: The Blitz with Jeff Howe & Karen Guregian | Boston Herald
---
Buccaneers official site:
Bucs, Patriots Test Each Other at Joint Practice
---
WEEI
http://itiswhatitis.weei.com/sports...triots-bucs-engage-in-high-intensity-workout/

 

[Joker]

Gisele made her first appearance of camp.

 

[supafly]

The postponing of Dennard's DUI case, likely means the parole revocation issue, also will be put off as well, until the DUI is finally tried and adjudicated, after the season.

I wouldn't go quite that far. Keep in mind that the prosecution brought those charges forth (re: probation violation) before the resolution of the case for a reason. Most VOP cases are normally dealt with after the "new" charges have already been resolved, so the fact that they postponed the new charge case for awhile may not have nearly the impact that you foresee in terms of the VOP charge.

If a simple postponement of the new charge of DUI would definitely mean that the VOP case would also be postponed, then what purpose would the prosecutor have had in violating him prior to the outcome in the first place?

Either way, I don't think that too many of us feel that it will be a harsh punishment anyway, so your general point stands firm in my opinion. I'm just saying that I wouldn't necessarily equate one being postponed to the other, that's all.

I think your post was great as far as the other points that you made. The secondary seems to be rounding into shape, as long as they remain heathy.

 

[supafly]

Gisele made her first appearance of camp.

Pics?

Throw me a bone over here.

 

[Deus Irae]

Gisele made her first appearance of camp.

Yeah.... Maybe Brady will see more action this Friday...

 

[supafly]

Yeah.... Maybe Brady will see more action this Friday...

No coincidence that Giselle's appearance brought about Brady's worst practice performance of the entire camp. I swear she's a freaking curse sometimes.

I'm joking--but not as much as you may think

 

[jah]

Tavon Wilson is a SS, Duron Harmon is a FS. When will you people learn to make that distinction. Tavon Wilson struggling against the deep ball is an admonishment of our coaching staff/scheme. He should never be the deepest player on the field. If he is, that means we're getting out schemed.

Tavon played some cornerback in college and I'm pretty sure he was mainly a FS there. I think he's even played some FS on the Patriots. Although his skillset might be best for playing SS, he's known for his versatility. Unfortunately, right now he's only versatile enough to be mediocre (at best) at multiple defensive positions.

 

[AzPatsFan]

I wouldn't go quite that far. Keep in mind that the prosecution brought those charges forth (re: probation violation) before the resolution of the case for a reason. Most VOP cases are normally dealt with after the "new" charges have already been resolved, so the fact that they postponed the new charge case for awhile may not have nearly the impact that you foresee in terms of the VOP charge.

If a simple postponement of the new charge of DUI would definitely mean that the VOP case would also be postponed, then what purpose would the prosecutor have had in violating him prior to the outcome in the first place?

Either way, I don't think that too many of us feel that it will be a harsh punishment anyway, so your general point stands firm in my opinion. I'm just saying that I wouldn't necessarily equate one being postponed to the other, that's all.

I think your post was great as far as the other points that you made. The secondary seems to be rounding into shape, as long as they remain heathy.

Thanx, and Point taken.

I have noticed that with the acquisition of ex-Probowler Adrian Wilson, the Pats coaches have ceded that coverage LB and "Money Safety" to him. Don't forget that BB has been wanting to try his next innovation, the "Big Nickle" for a decade; and Adrian is the exact prescription for that job.

The coaches have then experimented with Tavon, using him as a deep Safety in their experiments. Those results have not been good, or marginal at best, nor were they really expected to be other than that. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

But the Mediots promptly report the bad tidings, with out any interpretation of what they have seen, or why.

Then of course the delusional draftniks decend to say, "I told you so." BB is a bum. He can't draft. Me and the Baltimore hair stylist, knew it all along.

 

[supafly]

Thanx, and Point taken.

I have noticed that with the acquisition of ex-Probowler Adrian Wilson, the Pats coaches have ceded that coverage LB and "Money Safety" to him. Don't forget that BB has been wanting to try his next innovation, the "Big Nickle" for a decade; and Adrian is the exact prescription for that job.

The coaches have then experimented with Tavon, using him as a deep Safety in their experiments. Those results have not been good, or marginal at best, nor were they really expected to be other than that. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

But the Mediots promptly report the bad tidings, with out any interpretation of what they have seen, or why.

Then of course the delusional draftniks decend to say, "I told you so." BB is a bum. He can't draft. Me and the Baltimore hair stylist, knew it all along.

I think we should be prepared for Dennard to miss a handful of games, probably at worst 3-4. There are a lot of wide open punishments that can be imposed due to a judge having enormous discretion, such as one who hears VOP cases as they usually were the sentencing judge in the first place about 95% of the time, so it's basically a crapshoot when attemtping to determine his new punishment but I don't think it should be anything too harsh myself.

As you said--hopefully we can avoid anything until a later date in time, but it looks like they're pretty set in coming at him hard. That's why I wouldn't make too many assumptions based on much of anything just yet. Of course it'll be a hot topic later on in the month about 2 weeks from now, but either way it probably isn't too much to worry about, especially when you're prepared for a missed few weeks or month as it appears the team is. I'm not attempting to say that you'd be incorrect at all, just that I'd be cautious in coming to any conclusions just yet.

Great points about the hybrid "money" position of the LB/SS, and both Wilson's potential in that role. It'd be nice if the elder Wilson could show the youngster a few tricks while he's here and T.Wilson could take over a bit in a year or two. He definitely looks out of place playing the deeper FS role, so I'm not really sure why he gets stuck playing there in the first place, whether it's being outschemed or poor positional coaching or what?

As long as the secondary remains healthy for the most part, I think that we can expect some reasonable improvement just due to the fact that Talib and DMcC are playing in the proper positions from game one alone.

 

[BradyToAmendola]

I thought Anthony Rashad White had a good game vs the Eagles so I'm interested to see what happens with him going forward. Could be the new Kyle Love, big stout kid who looks to be good in run stopping.

 

[DarrylS]

Pics?

Throw me a bone over here.

 

[TriplecHamp]

Tavon Wilson is a SS, Duron Harmon is a FS. When will you people learn to make that distinction. Tavon Wilson struggling against the deep ball is an admonishment of our coaching staff/scheme. He should never be the deepest player on the field. If he is, that means we're getting out schemed.

When will you people learn that in today's NFL the SS and FS roles are all but extinct and that a safety needs to be able to play both sides of the field.

 

[dannydyn]

Totally missed her

I was on the bleachers, right behind the team's sideline. Pics of the team to be ready tomorrow.

 

[Danger Zone]

Re: Re: Tuesday Patriots Training Camp Observations: 8/13/13

Then of course the delusional draftniks decend to say, "I told you so." BB is a bum. He can't draft. Me and the Baltimore hair stylist, knew it all along.

Boyce, Dobson and Thompkins (and Sudfeld) have the I-could-do-it-better crowd a little worried.

62% of the players drafted played at least three years in the NFL

47% of the players drafted played at least five years in the NFL

30% of the players drafted were NFL starters for at least three years

21% of the players drafted were NFL starters for at least five

90% of soldiers drop out of Seal training.


I dont think guessing who is going to turn that corner and make it as a starter is as scientific as people want to pretend it is.

 

[VrabelJr]

When will you people learn that in today's NFL the SS and FS roles are all but extinct and that a safety needs to be able to play both sides of the field.

Not true. True for some systems, but still not true.