THE OL REBUILD - IS STRANGE HEALTHY?

[jmt57]

Question: which offensive line players on the current roster do we believe are a better fit for an outside zone heavy scheme, and which are a better fit for a straight gap scheme? I'm thinking that since the offense is undergoing a change of this kind, some players will benefit - and others will not.

Friday Patriots Notebook 5/3: News and Notes | PatsFans.com

With placekicker being one of the big question marks heading into 2024, the Patriots brought in another player on Thursday to compete with Chad Ryland this summer.

www.patsfans.com

For anyone wondering what the offense might look like this year under Alex Van Pelt, Rhamondre Stevenson and Mike Onwenu provided some clarity there. “More outside zone heavy, not just straight gap scheme,” Stevenson said via NBC Sports Boston. “More of a plethora of runs and just different schemes.” Onwenu also added, “It is a lot of wide-zone and more emphasis on actually stretching the ball, and having the ball go on the outside,” he said. “Whereas last year we were more cut-back, where everything was a lot of cut-back.”​

 

[Thelonious]

God, I hope not.

C'mon now. Let's not think for ourselves. Remember: this is now a collaborative chat room. Do we need a drum circle or a brief yoga retreat to get our toxic white male head screwed on straight?

 

[jmt57]

Many here (including myself) have considered moving Onwenu to RG at some point. From his comments with the front office, that does not sound as though it is in their plans.

And if the combination of Wallace/Okorafor/Anderson/Lowe are unsuitable at LT due to either injury or poor performance, Onwenu does not bring a whole lot of confidence to his taking over at LT in case of emergency.

Friday Patriots Notebook 5/3: News and Notes | PatsFans.com

With placekicker being one of the big question marks heading into 2024, the Patriots brought in another player on Thursday to compete with Chad Ryland this summer.

www.patsfans.com

Onwenu said that during his negotiations on the extension he signed this offseason, the plan was for him to remain at right tackle. “Through the whole process, we spoke about me playing tackle,” said Onwenu via the Boston Herald. “And even after I signed, that was the same thing. In my mind, I’m still playing right tackle.” … He was apparently asked about the prospect of playing left tackle and while he didn’t sound overly confident, he also didn’t rule it out. “This year? I wouldn’t say so, but definitely, with the practice and trying it out, I definitely think I could,” he said.​

 

[mgteich]

Many here (including myself) have considered moving Onwenu to RG at some point. From his comments with the front office, that does not sound as though it is in their plans.

And if the combination of Wallace/Okorafor/Anderson/Lowe are unsuitable at LT due to either injury or poor performance, Onwenu does not bring a whole lot of confidence to his taking over at LT in case of emergency.

Friday Patriots Notebook 5/3: News and Notes | PatsFans.com

With placekicker being one of the big question marks heading into 2024, the Patriots brought in another player on Thursday to compete with Chad Ryland this summer.

www.patsfans.com

Onwenu said that during his negotiations on the extension he signed this offseason, the plan was for him to remain at right tackle. “Through the whole process, we spoke about me playing tackle,” said Onwenu via the Boston Herald. “And even after I signed, that was the same thing. In my mind, I’m still playing right tackle.” … He was apparently asked about the prospect of playing left tackle and while he didn’t sound overly confident, he also didn’t rule it out. “This year? I wouldn’t say so, but definitely, with the practice and trying it out, I definitely think I could,” he said.​

We need to have 3 LT's active.

In any case, we should carry a LT or two on the Practice Squad.

 

[Wozzy]

I didn't reference BB. I merely commented on the strange suckiness for a first round pick but if that's the performance you expect for first round talent we're rolling.

Yeah… nobody can give us video or provide examples of the suckiness. It’s in your imagination because you wanted a fantasy football position with that draft pick instead.

 

[State]

Caedan Wallace is a RT.

Put Big Mike at RG where he’s elite.

 

[mgteich]

Caedan Wallace is a RT.

Put Big Mike at RG where he’s elite.

A variant of this plan would be to play any of Okorafor, Anderson and Wallace at LT and one of the others at RT. If Wallace is truly the best choice at LT, perhaps he can develop into a long-term starter. To put it another way, if he had played LT for all his career at Penn State, he would certainly be given a chance to be our starting LT of the future.

There is nothing lost if Wallace plays a year at LT and Okorafor end up at LT.

I thought it curious that Lazar considers Robinson as a possible LG; isn't he a RG-only player? I guess it can't hurt to see if he can play LG which would give us flexibility. Perhaps, Robinson could be a backup at both guard positions when one of Strange or Sow isn't available or if one of them isn't on the team.
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AS AN ASIDE
I think that this works only if all three of Okorafor, Wallace and Anderson are able to be signifcant contributors, with one of the 3 being a swing OT.

I do think that it is more likely that Onwenu stays at RT, with either Sow, Robinson or Mafi being the RG.

 

[State]

Posters here know that Onwenu is playing RG and that the team totally wasted a pick by drafting a RG so highly.

I agree with this. Completely.

The Layden Robinson pick baffles the mind. We took him at 103. We were picking again at 110. Why didn’t we at least wait until then? Anyway, pick is redundant. Mafi only makes this team as a RG. He can be the backup.

Bad move. More pressing needs elsewhere.

Could have had that superb free safety from Texas Tech or that outstanding RB from Tennessee.

 

[MrBigglesWorth]

Yeah… nobody can give us video or provide examples of the suckiness. It’s in your imagination because you wanted a fantasy football position with that draft pick instead.

Maybe someone who could help us score. He's an average guard who couldve been had in the 2nd or 3rd round.

 

[Wozzy]

Maybe someone who could help us score. He's an average guard who couldve been had in the 2nd or 3rd round.

Mac was taken in the first, did he help us score? Just silly.

There’s no visual evidence of Strange sucking, there’s a lot of it showing him playing well. A couple re-tweets of him in the first half of his rookie season learning how to play the pro game is simply that… rookie development.

He played exceptionally well the second half of his rookie season, he was playing well on an already injured knee last year until he reinjured his already injured knee.

Your dislike of taking a guard with the 29th pick in the draft doesn’t make him bad or “injury prone,” it makes you a bunch of ridiculous fans with no regard for line play and how it actually affects real world football. This isn’t fantasy football we’re talking about.

 

[Wozzy]

Question: which offensive line players on the current roster do we believe are a better fit for an outside zone heavy scheme, and which are a better fit for a straight gap scheme? I'm thinking that since the offense is undergoing a change of this kind, some players will benefit - and others will not.

Friday Patriots Notebook 5/3: News and Notes | PatsFans.com

With placekicker being one of the big question marks heading into 2024, the Patriots brought in another player on Thursday to compete with Chad Ryland this summer.

www.patsfans.com

For anyone wondering what the offense might look like this year under Alex Van Pelt, Rhamondre Stevenson and Mike Onwenu provided some clarity there. “More outside zone heavy, not just straight gap scheme,” Stevenson said via NBC Sports Boston. “More of a plethora of runs and just different schemes.” Onwenu also added, “It is a lot of wide-zone and more emphasis on actually stretching the ball, and having the ball go on the outside,” he said. “Whereas last year we were more cut-back, where everything was a lot of cut-back.”​

A good strong athlete can play both man and zone, it shouldn’t matter beyond reps and practice of said style. A bad or weak athlete will struggle with both.

The Patriots under BB ran zone sometimes, they ran a lot back when they had Maroney at RB back in the mid 2000’s and they wanted to utilize his speed.

 

[MrBigglesWorth]

Mac was taken in the first, did he help us score? Just silly.

There’s no visual evidence of Strange sucking, there’s a lot of it showing him playing well. A couple re-tweets of him in the first half of his rookie season learning how to play the pro game is simply that… rookie development.

He played exceptionally well the second half of his rookie season, he was playing well on an already injured knee last year until he reinjured his already injured knee.

Your dislike of taking a guard with the 29th pick in the draft doesn’t make him bad or “injury prone,” it makes you a bunch of ridiculous fans with no regard for line play and how it actually affects real world football. This isn’t fantasy football we’re talking about.

I bow to wozzy. All the rest of us are ridiculous fans. Strange is no mankins or solder

 

[TheRainMaker]

Maybe someone who could help us score. He's an average guard who couldve been had in the 2nd or 3rd round.

This was an example of how trading down backfired. Many posters on this board media wanted Trent McDuffie who is among the best CB's in the game. Other popular names floated around were Devin Lylod, Quay Walker and Daxton Hill.

I bow to wozzy. All the rest of us are ridiculous fans. Strange is no mankins or solder

Mankins proved 99.9% of fans wrong. I wanted David Baas out of Michigan who was highly touted. He turned out to be a disaster.

Solder on the other hand, I wasn't much a fan of. There were many times during games he'd whiff defenders, chase them around the pocket, but was bailed out by Tom's quick release. If Tom wasn't so decisive, he would've gotten killed. He got badly exposed in New York.

Strange will have a couple draft picks looking to take his spot, so he's running out of time to put it together.

 

[Wozzy]

I bow to wozzy. All the rest of us are ridiculous fans. Strange is no mankins or solder

How about we give him more than one and a half seasons?

 

[Wozzy]

Strange will have a couple draft picks looking to take his spot, so he's running out of time to put it together.

He put it together in the second half of season one. He just needs to get and stay healthy, there’s nobody taking his job.

 

[MrBigglesWorth]

How about we give him more than one and a half seasons?

Yes this year will be his opportunity. The pressure is on him

 

[Wozzy]

Yes this year will be his opportunity. The pressure is on him

He’s played great whenever he has been healthy and once he figured it out as a rookie.

Nothing’s changed, he needs to stay healthy… that describes 100% of NFL players.

The notion he has been “bad” is fan fiction. Bad players have bad tape, he doesn’t.

 

[203Pat]

"Show me bad tape" Provide clips of Strange getting beaten in various ways over and over. "That's Mac's fault"

 

[Wozzy]

"Show me bad tape" Provide clips of Strange getting beaten in various ways over and over. "That's Mac's fault"

I already qualified that Strange had hiccups in his development and improved mightily in the second half of his rookie season.

I actually posted an in-depth video with a lot of footage showing his second half resurgence above… you clearly didn’t watch it, like most dogmatic biased thinkers your mind is already made up.

I had both AJ Brown and Deebo Samuel on my fantasy team their rookie year, they mostly sucked the first half of the season, Deebo actually got benched like Strange did for a stretch. Like an idiot I cut both from my fantasy roster and regretted it when they played well the second half of the season.

You pretending rookies leave college fully developed and turnkey ready to play in the NFL is typical silly behavior by 203.

 

[PatsFan2]

I already qualified that Strange had hiccups in his development and improved mightily in the second half of his rookie season.

I actually posted an in-depth video with a lot of footage showing his second half resurgence above… you clearly didn’t watch it, like most dogmatic biased thinkers your mind is already made up.

I had both AJ Brown and Deebo Samuel on my fantasy team their rookie year, they mostly sucked the first half of the season, Deebo actually got benched like Strange did for a stretch. Like an idiot I cut both from my fantasy roster and regretted it when they played well the second half of the season.

You pretending rookies leave college fully developed and turnkey ready to play in the NFL is typical silly behavior by 203.

Baker and Polk say hold our Beers.