Where do we need to improve

Halifax_Pats_Fan · Feb 10, 2026

I would also just add, and I am sure others talked about this already in this thread.....pocket presence. Is this teachable having that awareness around you? Hoping somehow, someway Drake is able to add this really important 'sense' to his skillset. Just not sure how you train your brain to do that....this SB accentuated his lack of PP....

p8ryts · Feb 10, 2026

gtfanboy said:
We have to strike when the iron is hot.

Get AJ Brown and Max Crosby in trades. Get Alec Pierce, Linderbaum, Pitts and Breece Hall in free Agency.

Restructure and bring back who we should from our team. Sign Gonzo to a deal like no other.

Draft LG and other projects with leftover pics.

Win Superbowl 26.

Pata GM no need to thank me since I have done your job.

It's a goal

NFL Mystique · Feb 10, 2026

Halifax_Pats_Fan said:
I would also just add, and I am sure others talked about this already in this thread.....pocket presence. Is this teachable having that awareness around you? Hoping somehow, someway Drake is able to add this really important 'sense' to his skillset. Just not sure how you train your brain to do that....this SB accentuated his lack of PP....

That is what I wonder. Is this teachable or just something an athlete is naturally good at?

Toofy · Feb 10, 2026

Love The Drake said:
You guys are high, he played hurt with a terrible offensive like with an awful game plan by Josh. Fix the O line, get better WRs and have a better game plan he will be fine.

He’s still the MVP in my book. Imagine Stafford with Mayes line.

Stafford would have carved out them when they blitzed.

Pop and diggs would have had career days . Stafford can release ball in less than 2.5 seconds, Maye cannot and that's a big weakness . Maye current line of play of waiting for route to develop and deep passes is not sustainable.

Joey007 · Feb 10, 2026

Gonna get this out there now:

Who is gonna be the first person for the 3rd year in a row to claim we should let go of Mike Onwenu for no reason, despite being our best OL?

TheRainMaker · Feb 10, 2026

Joey007 said:
Gonna get this out there now:

Who is gonna be the first person for the 3rd year in a row to claim we should let go of Mike Onwenu for no reason, despite being our best OL?

I was for letting him go the day he signed the extension. He's overpaid and overrated. But the odds of him staying has gone up because the entire OL needs to be upgraded. Releasing him creates another need along a terrible OL.

Joey007 · Feb 10, 2026

TheRainMaker said:
I was for letting him go the day he signed the extension. He's overpaid and overrated. But the odds of him staying has gone up because the entire OL needs to be upgraded. Releasing him creates another need along a terrible OL.

Contract is a little steep. But never really understand where the overrated thing comes from.

He’s damn solid. I feel like people genuinely have made it up due to his contract.

jal · Feb 10, 2026

n1997y said:
I agree with what you said, but looking forward with the topic of this thread being improvement Drake needs to improve next season or the likelihood of abandoning him grows. If he doesn’t improve next year the team has to start questioning whether picking up his fifth year option is the right thing to do.

I think protecting the ball is always a priority with the coaches, and in the playoffs it becomes an obsession especially with a player that puts the ball in harm’s way. That, plus hitting the rookie wall, affected Drake a lot during the playoffs. Next season will show how, or whether, he can bounce back from it.

You cannot be serious. Our second year QB just put up an MVP-caliber regular season. Yes, he was worse in the playoffs (mostly I'd say in the AGCCG and SB) but how many young QBs are you gonna find that can play at an MVP level for an entire regular season? The arrow is firmly pointed up on him. And don't point at Stroud or Jayden Daniels (or Tua) as comps - they never played at even close to the level Drake reached.

It's also kind of obvious why his game fell off - he was under siege. I've seen legends of the game see ghosts when they don't trust their protection.

Good QBs are rare gems. You are highly unlikely to find a better one in 10+ years of trying.

This is the worst kind of fan overreaction

DoubleDeluxe · Feb 10, 2026

Joey007 said:
Contract is a little steep. But never really understand where the overrated thing comes from.

He’s damn solid. I feel like people genuinely have made it up due to his contract.

Remember at the start of the year many posters talked about how bad the right side of line was, and "we couldn't run right". Right side was far better than the left. The old fat overrated right side was our best side buy a mile.

Joey007 · Feb 10, 2026

DoubleDeluxe said:
Remember at the start of the year many posters talked about how bad the right side of line was, and "we couldn't run right". Right side was far better than the left. The old fat overrated right side was our best side buy a mile.

I’m fine with running it back with Big O and Moses next year. Probably draft a replacement for Moses at RT.

Hugepatsfan · Feb 11, 2026

Starting with $42.7M of cap space per OvertheCap...

Cut Diggs with a June 1st designation (save $20.8M)

Restructure Milton Williams comp into signing bonus (save $13.39M)

Cut Anfernee Jennings (save $3.9M)

Trade Pop Douglas (save $3.6M)

Those moves get you up to $84.9M of cap space. I don't know exact numbers, but you can extend Henry in a deal that drops his cap number by like $3M so call it $87.9M of cap space or $88M for round numbers.

With that much cap space I would target the following outside players...

EDGE Trey Hendrickson
WR Alec Pierce
TE Isiah Likely
A starting caliber veteran LG (CLE's Bitonio, BUF's McGovern, PIT's Seumalo, BUF's David Edwards, etc.)

Along with:

Re-sign Chaisson
Re-sign Hawkins
Re-sign Tonga

If you need more cap room you can cut Bradbury ($5.7M) or Antonio Gibson ($3.1M), but I didn't want to just hand center over to Jared Wilson and Gibson was a nice 3rd RB last year. Onwenu's deal could also be cut or reworked to significantly lower his cap number, but I didn't want to commit to him long-term if I didn't have to for more room.

I'm anticipating that next year we'd let Onwenu walk and release Landry/Moses/Carlton Davis/Spillane. So I'd be looking to the draft for replacements for some of those players a year early so we can develop them. But that will be the money off the books to offset the backloading you need to do to fit all the free agents above in.

Patsman · Feb 11, 2026

Halifax_Pats_Fan said:
I would also just add, and I am sure others talked about this already in this thread.....pocket presence. Is this teachable having that awareness around you? Hoping somehow, someway Drake is able to add this really important 'sense' to his skillset. Just not sure how you train your brain to do that....this SB accentuated his lack of PP....

He seemed to have it earlier in the year. It's not until WC became a turnstile and the weather got tough did he end up seeing ghosts.

It's simply how bad he got back there - the body language was as bad as it gets. The whole offense must have felt it.

n1997y · Feb 12, 2026

Joey007 said:
I’m fine with running it back with Big O and Moses next year. Probably draft a replacement for Moses at RT.

Might already have done that with Bryant. Remains to be seen.

Agree on Big Mike and Moses.

Always good to stock up on developmental OL in every draft..

captain stone · Feb 13, 2026

Ross12 said:
... Probably also draft a new punter.

How's about just signing a vet UFA or a post-draft UDFA instead?

NO MORE ****ING DRAFT PICKS ****ING WASTED ON ****ING SPECIAL ****ING OLYMPICS ****ING TEAMERS.

captain stone · Feb 13, 2026

Love The Drake said:
Campbell needs a ton of coaching and I’m guessing counseling. Maybe needs to recover from that injury. The fact Lowe played great while Campbell was out and we wouldn’t give him a snap since Campbell is back is so anti Belichick.

Actually, that's typical Belichick.

TommyD4207 · Feb 13, 2026

captain stone said:
How's about just signing a vet UFA or a post-draft UDFA instead?

NO MORE ****ING DRAFT PICKS ****ING WASTED ON ****ING SPECIAL ****ING OLYMPICS ****ING TEAMERS.

The punter is fine. The kicker is fine.
Punter has two bad games in snowstorms and suddenly he's the Scott Sisson of punters. Baringer won you a couple games this year.

captain stone · Feb 13, 2026

DoubleDeluxe said:
Remember at the start of the year many posters talked about how bad the right side of line was, and "we couldn't run right". Right side was far better than the left. The old fat overrated right side was our best side buy a mile.

Agreed, though that's more damning with faint praise than anything else on my part.

captain stone · Feb 13, 2026

Halifax_Pats_Fan said:
I would also just add, and I am sure others talked about this already in this thread.....pocket presence. Is this teachable having that awareness around you? Hoping somehow, someway Drake is able to add this really important 'sense' to his skillset. Just not sure how you train your brain to do that....this SB accentuated his lack of PP....

Teaching & experience helps; but when you feel like you're in the middle of a tornado of activity around you, I think you're gonna revert to your instincts, whatever they always have been, at the Moment of Decision...

lancerman · Feb 14, 2026

captain stone said:
Teaching & experience helps; but when you feel like you're in the middle of a tornado of activity around you, I think you're gonna revert to your instincts, whatever they always have been, at the Moment of Decision...

This. You really need to make pocket mobility and reading second nature for Maye. Brady's biggest advantage over Bledsoe was that he was always aware of pressure, knew when and where to move and was willing to throw the ball away under duress or go straight to a dump off.

Maye feels pressure and just starts moving forward and against the blocking so more defenders can get to him. He's done that a lot this year even in good games in the regular season he made the line look bad because he walked into a few stacks and because he "can" run, he isn't getting rid of the ball because he's looking to extend the play even when it's completely dead.

One-If-By-Sea · Feb 14, 2026

Joey007 said:
Contract is a little steep. But never really understand where the overrated thing comes from.

He’s damn solid. I feel like people genuinely have made it up due to his contract.

There are a lot of good young OL in FA. Onwenu's contract is too steep. Maybe the FA for OLmen will dry up, but right now there are options available.

No-one ever said Onwenu is over-rated that I have seen. Where did anyone say that?

If we can release Onwenu and Bradbury and sign two better OLmen in FA, why wouldn't we do that? Not doing that would be foolish.

There are two OLmen available. One is a FA and the other is on your team. They both cost roughly the same amount. The guy in FA is superior to the guy on your team. Which one should we keep? Why is this hard?

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