Patriots Agree To 1 Year Deal With Kellen Winslow Jr.

[Calciumee]

According to Reiss tweet!

https://twitter.com/MikeReiss/status/248010904812277760

 

[patsinthesnow]

If Kellen can somehow play like his old self, the 2-TE offense is saved until Hernandez comes back, but this move reaks of desperate.

 

[37Harrison]

Hate the move.

 

[Kontradiction]

His knees appear to be shot. I would have rather seen Branch brought back and continued with the 3 WR sets. Hopefully I'm wrong.

 

[serifyn]

Even with the Hernandez injury this doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

I'd be surprised if Winslow can give you 50% of what Hernandez can being that he is older, slower and has almost no clue on the offense.

Really poor planning to have to resort to a free agent like Winslow in the event that Hernandez got injured, especially since Hernandez has been fairly injury prone in the years prior, losing Hernandez is a huge part of the offense, but the fact that it appears this team is unable to function without another tight end is disturbing.

Whats especially irritating is that Fells was brought in to back up Gronk and Hernandez, when he got injured, shiancoe was brought in, when neither of them could go, we brought in Hoomanawanui, and since he apparently cant get the job done either, the patriots are now taking an extreme flyer on a tight end nobody wanted up until now.

'This doesn't bode well' doesn't quite say it.

 

[mayoclinic]

Hate the move.

Why?

It was clear on Sunday that the Pats' offense wasn't the same without a "move TE". With Hernandez out 4-6 weeks, there weren't that many guys who could fit that role. The Pats had already evaluated Winslow. Even if he's only able to give us 4-5 games, it will be a big help. It's almost certainly a low cost move, and a 1 year deal, so the investment is not that great.

 

[102 Pat]

It's interesting that Fells isn't being given more snaps instead of bringing someone else in.

 

[HowardRoark]

Hope he still has something left...

 

[UK_Pat37]

I like he move. He'll sit in for and then be backup to H-Bomb.

I don't know whether rumours about his shape are true, but I don't think we'd have signed him if he wasn't ready to go. If he can get just a nit of his form for Tampa back he'll be a nice backup. I know we had interest in him. Before he got shipped to Seattle. Got cut because he wouldn't take a pay decrease.

This makes perfect sense as our offence evolves around the two tight end set. Without a viable hybrid TE, this offence struggles dramatically. We haven't got the personnel to play three WR throughout the game.

 

[PatsWSB47]

His knees appear to be shot. I would have rather seen Branch brought back and continued with the 3 WR sets. Hopefully I'm wrong.

They worked him out in earlier this month. You think they'd know if his knees were ok or not.

 

[shmessy]

Why?

It was clear on Sunday that the Pats' offense wasn't the same without a "move TE". With Hernandez out 4-6 weeks, there weren't that many guys who could fit that role. The Pats had already evaluated Winslow. Even if he's only able to give us 4-5 games, it will be a big help. It's almost certainly a low cost move, and a 1 year deal, so the investment is not that great.

Plus, didn't they have him in about 2-3 weeks ago already?

This isn't a knee-jerk desperation move at all. They did their homework on the guy BEFORE Hernandez was injured.

For those saying Winslow's knees are "shot", he caught only 4 less passes than Hernandez last year (75) from Josh Freakin' Freeman.

I don't like the dude, but I think it's a probably well-thought out maneuver.

 

[UK_Pat37]

Per Schefter, he's flying out this morning but no deal has been signed just yet. I'd say he's expected to though. He has already passed a physical with us on his previous visit here so I think there'll just be a slight technicality of giving him a check over and putting pen to paper.

 

[Sicilian]

Really poor planning to have to resort to a free agent like Winslow in the event that Hernandez got injured.

Having two all-world TE's, plus two backups who happen to get hurt, forcing you to sign a player that you worked out a few weeks ago (aka, planned for), is suddenly poor planning?

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Serifyn summed it up pretty well. And he reportedly failed his physical here, although his always reliable agent Drew Rosenhaus begged to differ with that report.

Stubborn thy name is apparently Belichick.

 

[PatsWSB47]

Serifyn summed it up pretty well. And he reportedly failed his physical here, although his always reliable agent Drew Rosenhaus begged to differ with that report.

Stubborn thy name is apparently Belichick.

Do you have a link or other evidence that he failed the physical? Why the heJJ would we sign him after that? It doesn't make sense.

 

[Sicilian]

Serifyn summed it up pretty well. And he reportedly failed his physical here, although his always reliable agent Drew Rosenhaus begged to differ with that report.

Stubborn thy name is apparently Belichick.

I thought there were conflicting reports at best about his physical, it wasn't just Rosenhaus (though I have no link, so I probably shouldn't even bother). Still, I find it hard to believe that BB would sign him if he had, in fact, failed the physical, rather than just bring back Branch or Gaffney and play more 3 WR sets. I don't see where stubbornness comes into it at all, frankly.

 

[LoganMankinsPancakeBlocks]

Plus, didn't they have him in about 2-3 weeks ago already?

This isn't a knee-jerk desperation move at all. They did their homework on the guy BEFORE Hernandez was injured.

For those saying Winslow's knees are "shot", he caught only 4 less passes than Hernandez last year (75) from Josh Freakin' Freeman.

I don't like the dude, but I think it's a probably well-thought out maneuver.

Agreed. You could say his knees are shot...but they have been for years and he's still produced on them. This is a good move to get a talent like Winslow for no risk when the alternatives are guys like Hoomananui and Fells, neither of which has a skill set remotely similar to Hernandez.

The only question is how fast can he pickup the offense? We are basically looking for immediate impact with Hernandez out, and he's never played in our system which speeds up the process for some guys like Lloyd (and probably partially why they targeted Salas, too). His troublesome knees have limited his practice time, too, which is a concern for a guy trying to get caught up in our system/with Brady's tendencies.

There's no risk, though. Worst case scenario, he doesn't work out and you cut him and his unguaranteed contract. The upside is we get a TE who learns the system quickly, salvages our 2 TE offense with Hernandez out and provides starting caliber depth when Hernandez is back.

 

[UK_Pat37]

Serifyn summed it up pretty well. And he reportedly failed his physical here, although his always reliable agent Drew Rosenhaus begged to differ with that report.

Stubborn thy name is apparently Belichick.

Schefter disagrees. He reported he passed his physical.

 

[Bobs My Uncle]

I don't see what the problem is with signing KW? Try him out. If he doesn't work out cut him and move on.

 

[Sicilian]

I don't see what the problem is with signing KW? Try him out. If he doesn't work out cut him and move on.

Exactly. And the only other people out there that I could see having an impact are Branch and Gaffney. Gaffney I'm guessing isn't healthy yet because someone else would have signed him I think, and Branch is basically in New England or nowhere, so you can come back to him later if Winslow doesn't work out.