NEW ARTICLE: MORSE: O-Line Woes, OTA news, Morse's Morsels

[captain stone]

Well that's a cold splash of hardcore reality there, Mark.

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One of the Patriots biggest needs in the off-season was a starting NFL caliber Left Tackle. Eliot Wolf whiffed just like Bill Belichick did, failing to get a quality player to join the team.​

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The Patriots did sign a former #1 pick and 6-year starter, Chukwu Okorafor, formally of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He lost his starting Right Tackle job to the player Pittsburgh acquired from the Patriots last year. The 2024 draft was loaded with good, NFL caliber Left Tackles. In my initial Mock Draft, I suggested that Left Tackle and not QB should have been the teams in #1 priority. Without that anchor at Left Tackle, I don’t care who you put at QB, they are not going to succeed.​

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The Patriots prioritized QB and WR ahead of LT. Wolf and staff were caught flat footed and unprepared to adjust to the run of Left Tackles and they ended up being caught in no-mans-land. They chose a player they really liked in Caeden Wallace, who got lost in the quality of Tackles that came out in this year’s draft and I think he is a very underrated Right Tackle.​

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However, they are Right Tackles trying to make the switch. Okorafor has already stated in an OTA interview how hard it is to switch sides. He has 6 years’ experience but has never t the year on played the Left Side, the blind side of a Right-Handed QB. Wallace is extremely confident that he can make the switch but in his 5 years at Penn State he only played on the right side.​

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Michael Onwenu tried to make the switch to Left Guard and failed miserably. Onwenu is strictly a right sided player. Now with Cole Strange’s absence due to lingering problems from his knee injury last year, we are going to need another player on the Left Side.​

Yep... And I completely agree with him.

 

[captain stone]

I recall Steuber playing a few downs at some point last year.

I did too, but I believe that was during pre-season.

 

[captain stone]

It's funny that a healthy Calvin Anderson, someone who has played left tackle in the NFL at least at an adequate level, wasn't even mentioned when discussing options at LT, and yet he was later briefly noted as the guy at LT during this OTA....go figure.

I'll be mildly surprised if a healthy Anderson is not part of the solution at LT.

Mister Anderson will indeed be part of the solution...or part of the problem...

 

[Force Zero Boomer]

Yep... And I completely agree with him.

But next year, it looks like the LT prospects will be better than the QB prospects. Maye could be a great franchise QB, but I haven't heard of any in that category for next year. I do however see a crop of LTs that could be quality starters. So grab the young QB, keep him out of the lineup so he doesn't get slaughtered, and grab the LT next year. Hopefully we'll be exciting and fun to watch, but still suck and get another high pick. It's a defensible plan. My biggest issues with the draft are Polk and Baker. Polk was slow on paper (measurables and scouting reports), he looks slow in the OTAs, and he's certainly not sudden. But hey, he's competitive! He'll compete for the ball! And Baker is like backpacking with a jug of nitroglycerine.

 

[Stu Pidassle]

Rasheed Walker asks Why didn't Bill draft me instead of Stubby...?

Sorry if I missed something specific about Walker. If the first round is risky, the 7th round is like buying a mega millions ticket. Usually the team gets a player that they discard after TC. On the other hand the players that hit get a lot of attention. Especially when the number is close to what the team played.

 

[State]

Chuks Okorafor was not a first round pick in the draft, Mark. Third-rounder out of Western Michigan. Bronco. #92. Stadium name? Waldo.

The girls there in Kalamazoo are big time eye candy. Almost on par with the excellence in St Petersburg, Russia.

UPDATE: otherwise, you’re right about everything else.

 

[Huckleberry1]

But next year, it looks like the LT prospects will be better than the QB prospects. Maye could be a great franchise QB, but I haven't heard of any in that category for next year. I do however see a crop of LTs that could be quality starters. So grab the young QB, keep him out of the lineup so he doesn't get slaughtered, and grab the LT next year. Hopefully we'll be exciting and fun to watch, but still suck and get another high pick. It's a defensible plan. My biggest issues with the draft are Polk and Baker. Polk was slow on paper (measurables and scouting reports), he looks slow in the OTAs, and he's certainly not sudden. But hey, he's competitive! He'll compete for the ball! And Baker is like backpacking with a jug of nitroglycerine.

This is from a sports site on Smart News, so it will still need to be double checked, but it claimed that the Patriots, Commanders, Lions, Raiders, and Cardinals will have the most cap space going into free agency next year, and had the Patriots at $$& 94 million, in what should be a much better free agency class.


“It's unlikely that the Patriots will be particularly good in 2024, but they've invested for the future, and will be armed with $94 million in cap space in the 2025 season. There are, however, still some glaring holes in the roster.”

 

[Love The Drake]

This is from a sports site on Smart News, so it will still need to be double checked, but it claimed that the Patriots, Commanders, Lions, Raiders, and Cardinals will have the most cap space going into free agency next year, and had the Patriots at $$& 94 million, in what should be a much better free agency class.


“It's unlikely that the Patriots will be particularly good in 2024, but they've invested for the future, and will be armed with $94 million in cap space in the 2025 season. There are, however, still some glaring holes in the roster.”

Will be interesting to see if the raise in cap helps teams keep their players, or will it have the opposite effect where now they want to cash out even more.

 

[Love The Drake]

I’m still a believer if we can trade for Aiyuk or Higgins for a second now, do it.
I’m only giving thr first for Lamb,
Any thoughts about Judon for Samuel straight up?

 

[Huckleberry1]

Will be interesting to see if the raise in cap helps teams keep their players, or will it have the opposite effect where now they want to cash out even more.

The cap will go up, but I don’t believe it will go up the way it did at the last moment this year. I also think the exploding numbers for certain positions. Unfortunately this also means that players they could want might be prohibitively expensive, as paying guys like Calvin Ridley as a top receiver is just a bad idea long term. I realize his deal looks better now that #1’s are getting $30 million plus but overall you have to look at the price for each overall unit, and how individual signings impact that. If I were doing the signings I would prioritize big contracts to top defensive linemen and OL, and I would prioritize drafting WR’s and CB’s early every year. You still have to go by what’s there when you are drafting, but paying 35 million to 1 WR means your WR unit is going to cost you from a 1/4 to 1/3 of your overall cap, and with your franchise QB now costing 40-50 million per you are looking at spending almost 1/2 your cap on 6-7 offensive players, only 3-4 of which are top players.

 

[Huckleberry1]

I’m still a believer if we can trade for Aiyuk or Higgins for a second now, do it.
I’m only giving thr first for Lamb,
Any thoughts about Judon for Samuel straight up?

With the new bar at $35 million I wouldn’t pay any of the top receivers anything near it. I thought Lamb was interesting if they could get him at 27-28 per, as he’s a 25 year old All Pro, I.e… top 4 WR in the league, but now his price tag is going to be well over $30, and I wouldn’t give that to any WR. The Judon for Samuel trade idea is both fair and interesting, as both teams would benefit, and Judon would probably be happy to get a shot at a ring.

 

[Huckleberry1]

How bad was Steuber that he was cut from this group?

The Maye pick was a mistake, they reached for a guy instead of grabbing a game changing player (or two).

I know it, taking a QB when you have a generational talent like Bailey Zappe on your roster is just foolish. The Zappe to Harrison connection would have produced hundreds of yards, and at least 2-4 touchdowns a season. And scoring 7-10 points a game would have made them almost impossible to beat. Wolf is such an idiot.

 

[TheRainMaker]

“The Patriots did sign a former #1 pick and 6-year starter, Chukwu Okorafor, formally of the Pittsburgh Steelers.”

He was a 3rd round pick. Also, Media/play by play also has a bad habit of saying “#1 pick” rather than saying it correctly of the round he was taken in - “1st round pick”.