Esiason on d&c: Pats 'petty' to punish welker

[SVN]

Esiason on D&C: Pats 'petty' to punish Welker

 

[Armchair Quarterback]

Esiason on D&C: Pats 'petty' to punish Welker

Esiason is a loudmouth jerk and always has been.

 

[Rob0729]

That is assuming that the Pats are actually punishing Welker and/or that Welker hasn't done anything that we don't know about that deserves a punishment.

 

[Steve102]

Speculation. He has no more clue than any of us. It'd be different if he had a source that told him "this is what's happening".

It's not this franchise's track record to punish players for negotiations. Mankins, Seymour, Vince, ect. ect. all played once in the fold. Put the best players on the field. IMO he's off base. Sounds to me like he's channeling his inner Tom Jackson.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Well something is wrong here. He hasn't been on the injury report so he is full strength. If he was so much of a distraction or problem he'd probably have been inactivated like AD was repeatedly, instead of being desperately plugged back into the game to carry the offense when the offense was completely inept without him yesterday. Would look better for the coaches if they stuck to their guns one way or the other because despite his time being limited, he still outproduced the rest of the recievers by a wide margin. And you're paying him $9+ mill to sit on the bench, trade him if you're not going to use him.

Whatever the issue is hopefully it's worked out this is clearly a better offense and we have better chances to win with him IN the game. If you're going to do this experimental BS at the cost of lowering your chances considerably to win regular season games then that really doesn't make a whole lot of sense either. Whatever the issue and I'm not even going to speculate what it may be, it makes very little sense with how it's playing out.

 

[Silver Blue&Red]

I trust the "opinions'" and speculations of anyone on this board more than Boomers. The guy is analyzing 32 teams. We can all make our own predictions. I personal think there is some kind of issue between WW and staff. FWIW. But just MO

 

[jason423]

Is there a possibility that Belichick simply doesnt want Welker anymore? Maybe he feels that they need to transition away from that type of football and doesnt want to get locked in long term with him? The Patriot organization is pretty crafty with some of their financial moves and almost the only logical reason to have kept him on the tag is to simply protect an asset in hopes of trading it. They didnt get anyone to bite in round 1, but maybe hes just trying to get more people interested. He may see something of a decline that others dont. Start to send out signals that he is in the doghouse and try to hide something that may be wrong and get a team to think they are getting a bargain for a 2 or a 3 only to find out, once he gets on the field, that he isnt the receiver they thought. I find it hard to believe he isnt getting the playtime because they are upset he didnt jump at the thought of signing his tender.

 

[Patstopia]

I cannot see BB doing something that effects the team so drastically. The only thing I can think of is they are trying to change the offense and Brady cannot help but throw to the open Welker, and he is always open. So they remove him from the equation to force Brady to look elsewhere. I know, this is a dumb theory, but what else could it be. Welker is far and away the best receiver Brady has!

 

[Ring 6]

Is there a possibility that Belichick simply doesnt want Welker anymore? Maybe he feels that they need to transition away from that type of football and doesnt want to get locked in long term with him? The Patriot organization is pretty crafty with some of their financial moves and almost the only logical reason to have kept him on the tag is to simply protect an asset in hopes of trading it. They didnt get anyone to bite in round 1, but maybe hes just trying to get more people interested. He may see something of a decline that others dont. Start to send out signals that he is in the doghouse and try to hide something that may be wrong and get a team to think they are getting a bargain for a 2 or a 3 only to find out, once he gets on the field, that he isnt the receiver they thought. I find it hard to believe he isnt getting the playtime because they are upset he didnt jump at the thought of signing his tender.

He played 63 snaps had 11 targets and gained 95 reeceiving yards, which is a little more per game than he averaged last year when he had the 19th highest receiving yards season ever by a receiver.

 

[Bobs My Uncle]

Classic case of people making a mountain out of a molehill.

 

[The-Hooded-One]

Well whatever the reason is for how they're using Welker it's idiotic. Terrible coaching.

 

[Huckleberry1]

I can't say that I understand why they are using Welker the way they are using him but i'm still a long way from suggesting Belichick is "punishing" him. I don't see Belichick paying him 10 million and then shutting him down to be "petty," and 9 targets isn't really shutting him down anyways. Welker had a drop in the first game and didn't catch that bullet from Brady early in yesterdays game, and it's consistent with Belichick's MO to downgrade the use of most player's when they make mistakes, especially costly ones. Welker is going to have a big role for this offense going forward and that will be evident in coming weeks imo, and i don't think his future with the team will play any part in gameplanning for upcoming opponents. Belichick can be a **** when he wants to be but I can't think of many instances where he cut his nose off to spite his face.

I think that Belichick went with this roster for it's ceiling not it's floor, and he is confident they will make the play-off's and because of the screwy pre-season is still installing his packages for the entire season. That may well have cost them yesterday but the real culprit in that game was effort, and they will learn from that and get much better as the season progresses. I don't think we will see Edelman get more offensive snaps than Welker in the future but we'll see?

Overall this is a young team, and they will have games like yesterday's from time tot time, but they should improve and hopefully we'll see their best come out next week, if so then a whole bunch of people will step back from the ledge, for at least a week or so.

 

[mgteich]

Lloyd, Edelman, Gronkowksi and Hernandez started and played 2 series.

Hernandez was injured.

Our $9.5M sub came in off the bench and played lots of reps, like a good sub should. That is the advantage of depth.

He played 63 snaps had 11 targets and gained 95 reeceiving yards, which is a little more per game than he averaged last year when he had the 19th highest receiving yards season ever by a receiver.

 

[BradyFTW!]

Unless Esiason has inside sources in the organization--and words can't express how much I doubt that that's the case--then this is just idle speculation that he's phrasing as fact.

 

[PrairiePat]

Ron Jaworski on ESPN this AM mentioned that he thinks BB uses the first part of the football season to work through new concepts and/or personnel so that things are running smoothly by Nov/Dec. It sure looks like that's happening right now, and maybe WW's playing time is taking a hit because of that.

I don't have any more knowledge than Boomer here, but I'd guess that the real reason is some combination of these:
- They're purposely trying to reduce the workload on WW to keep him healthy for the entire season
- They're pushing Edelman to learn and do more in the offense as a part of that
- WW is a bit behind because of the shortened training camp and his additional missed week, so Edelman is getting a larger share of the playing time.

I highly doubt the BB has some personal vendetta against him for his contract status..

 

[Steve102]

Ron Jaworski on ESPN this AM mentioned that he thinks BB uses the first part of the football season to work through new concepts and/or personnel so that things are running smoothly by Nov/Dec. It sure looks like that's happening right now, and maybe WW's playing time is taking a hit because of that.

I don't have any more knowledge than Boomer here, but I'd guess that the real reason is some combination of these:
- They're purposely trying to reduce the workload on WW to keep him healthy for the entire season
- They're pushing Edelman to learn and do more in the offense as a part of that
- WW is a bit behind because of the shortened training camp and his additional missed week, so Edelman is getting a larger share of the playing time.

I highly doubt the BB has some personal vendetta against him for his contract status..

Your theory has merit IMO

 

[JMarr]

this is clearly a better offense and we have better chances to win with him IN the game.

Ya think?

Sorry, your post is spot on. If Welker isn't injured and they're F'in around with him, then this is real bad news.

 

[SVN]

Ron Jaworski on ESPN this AM mentioned that he thinks BB uses the first part of the football season to work through new concepts and/or personnel so that things are running smoothly by Nov/Dec. It sure looks like that's happening right now, and maybe WW's playing time is taking a hit because of that.

I don't have any more knowledge than Boomer here, but I'd guess that the real reason is some combination of these:
- They're purposely trying to reduce the workload on WW to keep him healthy for the entire season
- They're pushing Edelman to learn and do more in the offense as a part of that
- WW is a bit behind because of the shortened training camp and his additional missed week, so Edelman is getting a larger share of the playing time.

I highly doubt the BB has some personal vendetta against him for his contract status..

Welker talks about playing reserve role - New England Patriots Blog - ESPN Boston

Welker says that missing that time during camp hurt.

"I think different things happen, and I had a death in the family and missed a week of practice. And you do, you miss a week, it's like missing two weeks back in the day," he said. "I say back in the day, you know a couple years ago. It's a little bit different, so you've got to make sure you're on top of everything and staying up to the challenge. Missing that time and stuff, it hurts, I agree with you. Especially now that you don't get as many reps."

Although the 31-year old alluded to previous seasons in which he missed camp time but was able to easily move on to the regular season without missing a beat, he says he's still working through some things now as the 2012 campaign progresses.

Through two games, Welker has seven fewer targets, seven fewer receptions and 132 fewer yards than he had at this point last season.

"Obviously you want to have more reps, especially game situations against different teams and things like that, but I've been in situations where I haven't played a lot in the preseason before and been able to come out there and done just fine," Welker said. "You're just kind of getting the hiccups out and making sure you're ready to go."

I think there was some training camp injury of some sort which they are working through .

 

[IllegalContact]

anyone playing edelman over welker is an idiot.......period

anything other than putting the players out on the field that put you in the best position to win is ustterly ridiculous.

doesn't brady have anything to say about who he is throwing to?

they are paying him 9/5M and spiting him at the same time? I would try to get my $$ worth out of him.

 

[Huckleberry1]

anyone playing edelman over welker is an idiot.......period

anything other than putting the players out on the field that put you in the best position to win is ustterly ridiculous.

doesn't brady have anything to say about who he is throwing to?

they are paying him 9/5M and spiting him at the same time? I would try to get my $$ worth out of him.

Agree completely, they should throw to Welker and Gronkowski on every play, they need to get their money's worth. Belichick really doesn't have a clue. Rex on the other hand...................