As Day 2 Ends

[Patsgofor4]

Ranking the 100 best available NFL free agents remaining in 2020 | NFL News, Rankings and Statistics | PFF

My overall assessment of what is still available on the FA market: Meh, bordering on yuck. There are some vet DL who may be able to contribute for another one, maybe two years but they are mostly on the wrong side of 30 and the patriots need to get younger.

DL Wolfe - yes

TE Ebron - yes

OT Daryl Williams - yes, at the right price. Still young and was very good at RT in 2017. Let him compete with Cajuste at RT if Cannon doesn’t take a pay cut.

WR Anderson - pass. Talented but don’t like the price tag or the person

WR Perriman - intriguing. They worked him out in 2018 but decided not to sign him. ridiculous size/speed combo. His game has seemingly matured significantly over the past two years. He may be someone who finally “gets it”.

WR Higgins - I’ve always liked him game and may just need a change of scenery.

WR Sharpe - I’ve always liked him game and may just need a change of scenery.

DL Shelby Harris - Underrated, good rotational player.

LB Josh Bynes - Short term replacement for Roberts as a run stopper in short yardage situations. The only guy over 30 on this list.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Agree with your overall assessment. The only lost pieces from last years elite d that havent been essentially replaced yet are kvn and collins. Hoping chase and Bentley can make the leap to minimize the down grade and like you said it’s likely they also add help to the front 7. Hope the wolfe rumors are true that would help the pass rush.

ol should be a strong unit if andrews is back, i feel they expect him back without him that thuney investment is a bit of a waste with a Possibly weakened center position. We do need a swing tackle due to durability concerns at both tackles, is fleming available i read dallas wasn’t picking up his option?

I like our rbs. As much as i like burkhead 3m can be saved if cut. Sony harris white bolden develin if healthy is still a solid set imo.

wr and te obviously lots of work needed there and where i hope we focus.

 

[upstater1]

KEEPING OUR OWN COUNTS
We didn't think that we'd keep McCourty and Thuney. These are major additions to the team that we had signed a couple of days ago. And Slater and Butler help also.

DEFENSE
We had a top 5 defense by late last year. I have no reason to expect anything different this year. We will surely add a couple of LB's, and a DL. The draft will almost assuredly include a front 7 player or two. But, as far as planning, IMO the key is to add a LB to have approximately what we had last year. Anything else is gravy (a good idea) that could lead to a better defense than we had last year.

SPECIAL TEAMS
We lost Ebner. We will bring back King, Slater and Bethel. We just added Phillips and returner Byrd. We have a decision to make on Gostkowski.

OFFENSE
All I can say is that it is early.

OL
Bringing back Thuney is huge. A healthy Andrews would be huge, as well as a healthy fullback (hopefully Develin, but could be Johnson). We hope for something from Froholdt and Cajuste. We will likely add a couple of draftees plus Newhouse.

RUNNING GAME
The running game is the running game that Belichick chose, including the addition of Harris. I see no changes except for running behind better blocking. The RB's will again be a major part of the passing game. We might cut and replace Cannon (no cap effect), or not, or even redo his contract.

PASSING GAME
????
It's two days into free agency, and we have one of the worst passing offense in the NFL. Thankfully, we don't play the season in March, if we play it at all.

I suppose that I am OK with our #3, #4 and #5 WR's (Sanu, Harry and Byrd in some order). We even have a couple of 2019 UFA also competing for those roster spots. We also have a #3 TE in LeCosse. I'm not saying they we shouldn't consider upgrading Sanu and LeCosse. It's just that, for me, Sanu is an OK roster player, if we consider that he is competing for reps with Harry. Obviously, either of these players could be better than #3, or not.

We have a QB who we expect to compete for one of our QB positions.

That leaves us with 5 VERY MAJOR needs: QB, #1 WR, #2WR, #1TE, and #2TE. I suppose that we've had this many needs before, especially in the first couple of days of three agency. However, this year the needs are very focused to one aspect of the game.

We aren't in good cap shape, but we've been here before. We have many ways to add cap space, $20M with no players to replace. We also could use draft choices to trade for players.

Good post, but we should be shocked if Harry isn't considered a #1 or #2 WR this year. He has to be or things are worse than I thought. Also, where's Edelman?

As for the draft, absolutely no consideration should be given to positional needs. BPA all the way.

 

[Patsgofor4]