The Official Who's Up & Who's Down Thread

Uncle Rico said:

How about an up for Brady and Moss? Both as a combo and individually, seemed pretty smooth.

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I agree completely. What we saw last night was closer to 2007 Brady rather than 2009 Brady. He looked comfortable and I'm really happy about that. Having a full off-season to hone his skills rather that recover from a major injury seems to have done him well.

patriot lifer said:

Apparently Fletcher is in the up category seeing how he replaced Mayo with the team's second unit. That can't be good for Williams and Tyrone.

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Williams has value as a blocker - nice job on the goal line, I thought. I think McKenzie's safe, they're just bringing him along slowly.
At least I hope so... :nosmile:

bagwell368 said:

I'm not sure it makes sense to have Faulk on this list since what he does is a lot different then the rest of them.

I think there is a better chance that Taylor or Morris get cut or fall to a long term injury then BJGE gets cut. He's no Gayle Sayers, but guys that know the system, work hard, get paid little, and are glad to be here are fairly valued in the world of BB.

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Have to admit, I have zero read on what the coaches are thinking. Did they spare Taylor the wear and tear of the preseason? Why did BJGE start?
And why can't Maroney just go in for one play, score a TD and just flip the ball to the ref (like BJGE did, btw) instead of holding on to the ball and doing the John Cena "You Can't see me" face wipe?
I'm all for jumping on the Chris Taylor bandwagon - I'm speaking here as former self-appointed driver of the Thomas Clayton Preseason bandwagon - but BJGE has shown such consistency running the ball (not great, just dependable) that I think it would be tough to cut him. Especially with our Waterford crystal running backs...

I'm interested to see a couple of people list Wheatley in the "down" category. I thought he played well, and seemed to be in much better position than Wilhite most of the time. On the long pass that the announcers praised Wilhite for breaking up, he was badly beaten and saved by an underthrown ball.

Also on the up, how about Sergio Brown with the game ending hit? Brown has had a good camp, if the safety position weren't so stacked he'd be getting a lot more attention.

patchick said:

I'm interested to see a couple of people list Wheatley in the "down" category. I thought he played well, and seemed to be in much better position than Wilhite most of the time. On the long pass that the announcers praised Wilhite for breaking up, he was badly beaten and saved by an underthrown ball.

Also on the up, how about Sergio Brown with the game ending hit? Brown has had a good camp, if the safety position weren't so stacked he'd be getting a lot more attention.

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Brown is my sleeper 53 pick as of now. Need to see more...hits. He's got Rodney Harrison size.

Calciumee said:

A major up to me was Edelman!

He is some insanely quick feet! He is going to p**s off some defenders this season

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yeah, some of his runs after the catch look like they should have 3 stooges sound effects for the attempted tackles.

QB12 said:

Up: Edelman, Spikes, McCourty

Down: McGowan, Wilhite, T. Larsen

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Greetings, my first real post...

I wasn't at the game but a buddy said Edelman had a great game, and McCourty looked great on returns.

Only preseason, but looking good so far...

Metaphors said:

Extra Credit Down...

Offenses for the Raiders and Panthers (AKA, high 2011 draft picks)...both looked pretty inept. While their defenses looked fine, can't see them scoring enough to put too many wins on the board.

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Interesting....(didnt see the Panthers game) - but from what I have been reading for Panthers this season - it is the defense that is suspect for 2010 season. Lost many starters (Peppers, Lewis, injury to key LB'er, etc.). So if offense is also having trouble - that could turn into a high 2nd round pick. They also dont have a cakewalk schedule.

Down: Butler

Is there any way he loses his starting spot to wheatley or mccourty? i just didn't see the improvement from last year. i was much higher on him than what he displayed last night.

KontradictioN said:

Really? I thought he did pretty good in run blocking and didn't notice him much in pass blocking. All in all, the latter could be a good thing but I have to watch the game a second time to make a real decision. To me, he stood out in run blocking.

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Precisely how I saw it. His block on Vilma was key. There were others too...but that was the one that stands out.

UP:
Certainly TFB and Hoyer. Gerald Warren was really hustling all over the field. Spikes looks like he belongs at ILB ( not going to say I told you so yet). Certainly Edleman but was disappointed that i didn't see more of Tate and Price.

The first OL unit. Connelley looked good but not prepared to say "Logan who?" yet. Chung an Bulter looked much better than last year. Mckenzie also look good for a guy who has not played football fro a year. McCourtey on KO and some on regular D.

Down. James Sanders. Welsh looked bad but he is a rookie.

Comment. Gronk did a good job blocking but I would have like to see go down the seem as a receiver once or twice.

Special Teams

SPECIALISTS

UP
Mesko, Edelman and McCurty
We have our punter!
We have our returners!

DOWN
Price

IcyPatriot said:

That's right ... every bit of info and tonight was perhaps 5% of that ... at best.

These players are evaluated in practice and by their work habits.

Bill knows what they can do and what they can't.

Who's up and who's down based on this game is inane ... I stand by that.

Bill could have selected this team before tonight's game and except for injury he would be 99.9% correct if he compared it to who makes the 53 before the season starts.

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Ever hear of the concept of 'game speed'. Doesn't happen in practices. Ever hear of the concepts of crowd noise, game pressure, fear of failure (in front of cameras -nationally televised game on NFL network). Knowing all of your friends, family and college alum could be watching. These pre-season game are studied, official statistics saved and games dissected by every arm chair QB in the country as well as national talking media heads.

Especially for a rookie heavy squad like NEP '10, these pre-season games are only game tape coaches will have to evaluate under actual game conditions against NFL calibre talent.

Not to mention also the only game tape that another team has of the rookies incase they end up getting cut and possibly getting picked up by another team. For UFA's and late rounders- these games are huge.

TommyBrady12 said:

Down: Butler

Is there any way he loses his starting spot to wheatley or mccourty? i just didn't see the improvement from last year. i was much higher on him than what he displayed last night.

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Off of one play?

The pessimism on Butler here is mind-boggling. One play folks, and it was huge for the down it came on, but overall wasn't that bad a play.

Butler actually has a year under his belt, and he played well in his rookie year.

Offense

UP

CONNOLLY looked like a very solid experienced starting LG.
VOLLMER did what we thought he would.
EDELMAN showed that he is a fine slot receiver.
GRONKOWSKI is a superb run blocker.
HOYER gives us confidence if Tom is out for a game or two.
TAYLOR did all he could to try to make the team.
OHRNBERGER made his pitch for a roster spot.
BRADY and MOSS - They're back!!!
WILLIAMS looked OK as a fullback.

DOWN
I saw nothing to be concerned about, and no player that really hurt his chances. I guess there were players like Larsen and Welch who didn't show much.

The starting defense looks very promising. Spikes could content for rookie of the year, his instincts and quickness in the box are amazing. Chung was all over the place dishing out punishment, could potentially be Rodney 2.0. Gerrard Warren continues to look solid playing next to Wilfork.

RayClay said:

I'd try to get versatile were i him. If the two oldies start to fade and maroney looks solids, sure there's a short yardage back up job. If they look for young RBs, he's not really a hig upside guy. Up to him.

Believe me, Kevin Faulk was as good as gone about 7-8? years ago. He worked on his fumbling and every part of his game and now we think of him as indispensable. He was almost last years model.

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Whenever I feel like giving up on a player I remind myself of the Kevin Faulk story.

That is why I still hope for a solid year from LoMo.

Defense

UP
Spikes - Are you kidding me! Awesone!
Mayo - Welcome back!
Warren - He is the starter that we all wanted on the DL.
Murrell - I thought that Murrell would make this team as a special teamer. His performance
as a starter was solid. He is now a lock.
McCourty - He did fine as a starting corner and great as a returner.
Chung - He has worked a lot on coverage since last year and it shows, a solid showing.
Williams - He seems to have a reasonable shot at the roster.
Wheatley - I think he did OK, which is better than he has done in a long time.

DOWN
Pryor - He did NOT nail down his position or show that he is anything but a backup.
McKenzie - Is he healthy yet? He looked very tentative. Could Reiss be right?
Ninkovich - Some thought that he would be a starter this year. He is lucky to be on the 53.
He will make the squad, we're very thin at OLB. Ninkovich is an OK backup and
a susful special teamer.
Sanders He will make the team. He is a leader a fine special teamer.

MetalBleachers said:

Williams has value as a blocker - nice job on the goal line, I thought. I think McKenzie's safe, they're just bringing him along slowly.
At least I hope so... :nosmile:

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The story about McKenzie has a lot more to do with the emergence of Dane Fletcher than most fans seem to realize at this point. He is our best coverage LB according to some camp reports. Obviously he has a long way to go, but there it is...

patchick said:

I'd be curious to see Taylor get some reps behind a real OL. I just never see what others seem to see in Green-Ellis.

Oh, and Edelman just keeps going up and up and up. So how do we get him and Welker on the field at the same time?

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Moss and Tate on the outside, Edelman and Welker in the slot, Maroney in the backfield, Brady under center. You spread them out. From that formation, you could run Maroney either by a straight handoff (because the other team has a lot of DB's out there, and every one is spread out, there should be a good amount of running room) or a draw; or you could go play-action; or you could do a straight drop back with Maroney blocking; or you could send the receivers on one side down the field and run a swing pass to Maroney to that side, which has been vacated by the WR's and DB's heading down the field; or you could run little WR screens to either Edelman or Welker.

You could run so many variations off this set. And I prefer Maroney to Faulk in this set because (a) he's a better runner than Faulk is; (b) he's actually a pretty good receiver; and (c) other teams see Maroney and think run, and it gives them much more to think about (in my opinion).