Player Signing Blog: Pats sig Eric Warfield

[DB15]

depth thank god

 

[Seymour93]

Now, now.

Samuel is probably a better slot CB than starter. I guarantee that you can't guarantee he starts.

Samuel has been our #1 CB for the past season and a half. I guarantee you he won't be relegated to nickel (at least not when the season starts, unless he gets injured).

 

[PhilD]

Lets not forget, when we have Rodney and Eugene together in the secondary they make all of it look better. We don't complain as much about Asante when he's got genuine support over the top.

Asante's a good corner who I feel got a harder time last year than he deserved. I have no doubt he'll be starting come opening day next season.

 

[Seymour93]

Jesus, that was fast.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Warfield

On April 3, 2006, Warfield was signed by the New England Patriots.

 

[DarrylS]

I like the flexibility of playing both safety and CB, along with Wilson giving us a lot of flexibility for the defensive backs.

 

[Remix 6]

Definatley..and Randall Gay can play S too

 

[DB15]

Definatley..and Randall Gay can play S too

I like gay alot but thats pushing it

 

[VrabelMayeWin]

Samuel has been our #1 CB for the past season and a half. I guarantee you he won't be relegated to nickel (at least not when the season starts, unless he gets injured).

We'll see. I think Hobbs and Warfield will be out there on the opening snap and Samuel will be the best slot guy in the league.

 

[Remix 6]

pushing it that Blue can play S? He played S for us a little last year and its been said that he used to play S in college for a # of years

 

[PATSNUTme]

I'm sure that both Bb and Scott feel as if he has teh substance abuse thing behind him. I can't imagine them signing him if they didn't have some stong evidence that he has.

 

[JackBauer]

My prediction?

Samuel: #1

Scott #2

Warfield #3

Hobbs #4

Gay #5

Poteat #6


We have fabulous depth in the secondary this year!

Uh, what? Scott is not better than Hobbs, Warfield, or Gay.

 

[arrellbee]

Well, just some numbers for whatever they might be worth.

I picked the most recent two full seasons - for Law I picked 2001 and 2002 which seemed to be more average with his previous years with New England.

Samuel has about 1 pass defensed for every 4 tackles (12 versus 40) which shows a really pretty good ratio of passes defensed (I presume we all think that defending the pass is better than a tackle after the catch)

Warfield has about 1 pass defensed for every 6 tackles.

Gay has about 1 pass defensed for every 7 tackles.

Interestingly enough, Ty Law has the poorest ratio of 1 pass defensed to every 10 tackles.

In terms of solo tackles, Samuel is about 40, Warfield about 50, and Law about 60. Considering that Law's reputation should discourage teams from throwing to his side, that seems to be a lot of tackles. Maybe he had more in run stops - don't know.

Over time, interceptions seem to run about 2 per season for Samuel, about 4 for Warfield, and about 3 for Law (I had a perception of a higher number for Law, but 1995 thru 2003 the numbers were: 3 3 3 9 2 2 3 4 6)

Warfield's stats may be apples and oranges to a Patriots defensive scheme. It will be interesting to see how he does in training camp and if he is on final roster.

 

[VrabelMayeWin]

Well, just some numbers for whatever they might be worth.

Of course, those tackle numbers include running plays which isn't exactly Samuel's strength.

I hope Hobbs and Samuel are the two starters as a result of earning it in camp. Barring injury, whoever plays will have earned it - there may not be a #1 guy there but we're loaded with #2 and #3 guys which isn't the worst thing ever.

 

[VrabelMayeWin]

I'm sure that both Bb and Scott feel as if he has teh substance abuse thing behind him. I can't imagine them signing him if they didn't have some stong evidence that he has.

Was the suspension just for DUIs, or for other illegal substances ? If it's just the DUIs he can put that behind him by learning to make a phone call.

 

[Seymour93]

Just DUI's

Was the suspension just for DUIs, or for other illegal substances ? If it's just the DUIs he can put that behind him by learning to make a phone call.

From last July,

http://www.nflfans.com/x/archive/index.php/t-143.html

Warfield, 29, was arrested for DUI on Sept. 20, 2004 in Overland Park, Kan., and police reports indicated that he had a blood alcohol level of .189 at the time, more than double Kansas' legal limit of .08. Warfield pleaded no contest in January to the felony charges. He was sentenced to 10 days in jail and 80 days of house arrest, was fined $1,500 and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service.

The DUI conviction was the third for Warfield, who is also serving one year probation, and the only surprise in Tuesday's action was that the NFL took as long as it did to levee the sanctions against the former Nebraska star. At one point last month, in fact, Warfield acknowledged some frustration in not knowing when the NFL would resolve his status.

He has had no further off-field troubles as far as I can tell.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

A corner having 12 solo tackles isn't necessarily a good thing. Particularly if they were on pass completions to his side of the field.

Do you happen to know which game it was? I'd like to just take a look at the play-by-play to see if they were on completion or not.

Bruinz, I knew that would be the first point raised. Arrelbee did a breakdown assuming a PD/solo tackle ratio would tell the story there. Yes and no.

But first to your question, I pulled that stat from the original article posted here. Someone posted later and broke down the >6 solos, and no, I have just the derivative stat.

But I'll speak to the point of "tackling corners" (and can come back with some stat lines to support it.) First of all, it is true that tackles include running plays. More broadly, I play in a fantasy league [sic] with IDPs, and you get points for tackles. Many of the guys with the big INT and PD totals also rack up the solo tackles. There don't tend to be CBs worth looking at just because of their solo tackle totals. As Arrelbee shows, Law (considered an elite corner) doesn't rack up a high PD vs solo tackle ratio.

You also have to figure, using the same "PD better than tackle" logic, that shutting a guy down totally will not show up on a stat line at all. That is, if the guy isn't open and isn't thrown to, you don't get a PD or a tackle.

What I liked about the 12-tackle game is, that meant he was all over the field, making plays whether on the run or the pass. Either that, or he got beat on a ton of plays, yet still was able to pop the guy just about every time.

Okay, just to substantiate for last year's Warfield >6 tackle games, I am going to go back and look at the drives and scoring in those games... it should at least give us a clue as to which way this sorted out in his case.

PFnV

 

[rookBoston]

This changes nothing for the draft...

... we have another solid veteran, but Warfield is not a long term solution, any more than Buckley or Poole was... or Starks, for that matter.

Drafting a rookie like Samuel or Hobbs is a 4 or 5 year opportunity. This changes nothing to the idea of drafting a player like Richard Marshall. It's "true Belichick" to fill out his roster to the point where you wonder what position he will possibly need to draft.

 

[pats1]

I'd still rather see Hobbs and Samuel as the starters, Gay and Warfield as nickel/dime, and Poteat and C. Scott hanging around for depth.

At safety, obviously Geno and Rodney will start, backed up by Sanders, Hawkins, G. Scott, Mitchell, and possibly Stone if he returns. Ventrone has slipped out of the picture, IMO.

 

[VrabelMayeWin]

... we have another solid veteran, but Warfield is not a long term solution, any more than Buckley or Poole was... or Starks, for that matter.

Sure it changes things, we now have three young CB (admittedly Samuel needs to be re-signed) and two vets. At most we will now draft a developmental guy, more likely we won't draft one. Going 5 deep at CB instead of 4 deep clearly diminishes the need.

 

[flutie2phelan]

We have fabulous depth in the secondary this year!

So it seems ... as we did at this time last year.