I think I disagree with almost every single point you made. Amazing.
I don't understand what is so amazing about that.
The Patriots are not banking on Hill to do anything. Have you seen his contract ? He is in a battle with Gillislee for the bigger back role. Lewis being gone will in the end not matter as his production will be replaceable from game to game and you never ever overpay a RB. There are too many of them and despite never paying any substantial money for the position our production there has been constant for years now.
You missed the part where I wrote, "unless the they draft someone else". In addition, Gillislee failed as the "bigger back role" last year which was not his fault - that is not his game. In fact, I wouldn't be shocked if Gillisle asks for his release at some point during training camp. If Hill is truly over his injury, he'll easily be the featured back in this offense.
Also saying Blount was able to muscle his way out of poor blocking might be among the most ignorant takes ever made on this board. If Blount didn't get good blocking he was dead in the water and lost yards 8 out of 10 times. It was only once he broke through the LOS that he actually became a dangerous player.
Yes he is more dangerous at the 2nd level than the line of scrimmage but I believe more often than not he could pick up a first down if the blocking was poor. I'm not talking about defenders already in the backfield which was most of the blocking Laurence Maroney had which didn't give him any time to dance. Lol.
If Brady doesn't throw dangerous passes to Hogan he will actually stay on the field. Blaming Hogan for getting injured repeatedly on passes into the middle of the field is a bit weird. The reality is that at this point Hogan is faster than players like Jordy Nelson and might even arguably be a better overall fit here for a fourth of the price.
Also MM doesn't decide anything but the medical staff does. He was back on the practice field last year and was shut down by the staff. So please stop implying that it is somehow on him.
I guess you didn't pick up on the humor regarding Hogan and Burkhead. I know they don't do this on purpose. Ditto with Mitchell. I agree Brady throws hospital balls which one contributed to Gronk getting his ACL torn by TJ Ward.
Those other guys that need to step up are your GOAT TE and RB field. The offense doesn't run solely through WRs if you havent noticed.
Yes, but you still need to have other WR's help out. The less threats on the outside makes it easier to take out Gronk if you haven't noticed.
Also Allen doesnt give a few good blocks but had a tremendous year as a blocker. Him and Ebron dont even play the same position.
You missed the part where I said he could have the Hernandez role. Allen is making too much money just to block.
They did it with Cannon as RT just a year ago. So saying there is no way is stupid. Whether it will work or not is a different story but they have shown in the past that they can overcome issues and have the GOAT OL coach. Finally you just dont pay a LT what the Giants gave him. This was a pure business decision dictated by a crazy market. Not much to critizise.
Of course it's possible Garcia steps up out of nowhere, but you can't just assume someone already on the Pats roster or rookie can realistically step up and protect Brady in a pass heavy offense with a now 41 year old QB when the season starts.
Clayborn can actually set the edge. Something that Ealy was allergic to. Just based on that your comparison is silly. Wise will have another year in the system and Rivers is a freebie. This position is overall stronger than last year. There is no question.
The comparison I made for Clayborn to Ealy is that I could see Clayborn not even making the team. Wise having another year in the system will help him not being so undisciplined vs the run. He also needs to learn more pass rush moves than just the track star move. After teams picked up on his only move, he was invisible after week 3.
LB was not the biggest weakness on the team. That was the DL with Branch falling apart which resulted in us being awful against the run. This obviously meant that every other unit had to do more than their job and be in mop up duty to help out against the run. If Shelton works out this will make everything immediately look better.
I agree that solid DT's make your overall run D look better than it might be (see the Vikings defense when they had Pat & Kevin Williams). However, their LB's had a phobia of defending passes in the flat and had a hard time defending RB's in general.
Also, given how our base defense nowadays essentially runs with 2 LBs there is not too much space for a third starter quality player in terms of money. Ideally we can pick up 1-2 players in the draft (one early, one late) that create more depth behind HT and KVN.
This is not by design. When they had Hightower, Mayo and Collins on the roster, did the exclusively run a two LB set? No. They wanted them all out there but Mayo regressed really bad. They do this now to try to hide their extremely putrid LB corps. I also think BB would rather run a 3-4 but he can't find the players to effectively run his style of defense. LB's are two small these days and it's hard to find DL like Warren and Seymour.
Even though he might line up in the slot due to matchups Rowe is not a classic slot player. JJones played actually pretty well and was a key missing piece in the SB. Not sure what your issue with him is.
My issue is that they both aren't very good. Rowe couldn't play inside or outside gave up the most yards per play last year. This is all they talked about during Super Bowl week. Too many people here like Jones because he's "fast" but he got beat quite a bit last year.
