PATRIOTS NEWS Patriots Practice Reports - August 19

[UGAPatsfan]

Baker has been MIA in practice since the Minnesota game.

Could be a tweak, or something else.

Suddenly a little thin at WR due to injuries

 

[UGAPatsfan]

Nah I think teams always say they want a 1 even when they know they won’t get it.

I mean…I wanted a 1 for Jimmy G lol.

 

[State]

That role is more suited for a 23-year old than a 30-year old.

Belichick agrees.

 

[Ring 6]

Baker has been MIA in practice since the Minnesota game.

Could be a tweak, or something else.

Suddenly a little thin at WR due to injuries

I think the most frustrating part of the recent WR draftees is that they are all so injury prone.
Almost everyone of them gets hurt in practice, gets hurt in a game.
You wonder how much the fragile issue has held some of them back.
They are all so injury prone.
Chad Jackson
Dobson
Harry
Thornton
Polk
Baker
Mitchell

 

[p8ryts]

Agree; I'm thinking Baker over Bourne, as a final WR is expected to play ST.
That role is more suited for a 23-year old than a 30-year old.

Don't need either one.

 

[rkarp1]

According to Overthecap, cutting Hollins after 1 June would create $2,750,000 dead money and saves $1,300,000. Cutting Polk adds $2,312,881. Far from "a wash".

Of course, I'd prefer Hollins and Chism on playing grounds, so perhaps they'll have to swallow the hit and the apologists will explain it as another of the terrible decisions that The Fall Guy forced onto Eliot Wolf.

cut Bourne
IR Polk
PS Baker

 

[p8ryts]

Rumor is Bengals want a 1 and a young defensive player.
I doubt they get a 1, those trades don’t happen often.
Give them a 2 and they’re choice of Chaisson, Pharms or Ellis.

Give them a 2 and White

 

[Mike the Brit]

cut Bourne
IR Polk
PS Baker

I agree, much though I love Bourne and appreciated his play with Maye when he came back from injury last year.

 

[Ring 6]

Give them a 2 and White

No. White is a beast.

 

[Love The Drake]

Belichick agrees.

That changed when he was coach here he loved older free agents dang

 

[Hammer of Thor]

Trouble is, they really, really ought to be carrying over a lot of cap to next year.

Believe it or not, but if he stays on the roster this year and gets cut prior to 3/18/26 in the offseason, it’ll cost the team about $1m more on the 2026 salary cap than if he’s cut today and you take the majority of the dead cap hit this year. It’s because of how those guarantees are structured; in either case he’ll be costing about $15m against this year’s cap whether he’s on the team or not.

 

[upstater1]

Breer - still a year to go to recover from Belichick draft disasters:

Patriots Camp Takeaways 2025: Mike Vrabel’s Play Style, Drake Maye’s Development

New England’s skill positions should be good. Plus, the team will need another year to recover from lost draft classes under Bill Belichick.

www.si.com

So... what does this even mean?

We ended up resigning Onwenu, Dugger, Rham Stevenson, Hunter Henry, Peppers, and Barmore, Keion White, Gonzalez, Douglas, Marcus Jones and Boutte are still key parts of this team.

I guess Cole Strange is a disaster but really he's a guy derailed by injury. Anfernee did what he did in the old scheme.

You know you can make a case that last year's draft was the worst draft in the last 6 years.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Trouble is, they really, really ought to be carrying over a lot of cap to next year.

They will.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

Yes, from the team perspective any additions at this point are health insurance policies for those that are already roster locks (i.e., camp bodies).

From the player's perspective it is a six-day, one-game audtion for the practice squad.

Blidi's numbers were a lot more promising than Bernard's. I know the pickings are slim right now; but still, slightly surprised that they couldn't find a better RB than him to be used as a short-term tackling dummy.

There is never anybody of any value on the OL available on cut down day. Name one valuable cut down day OL in the last 5 years.

 

[Hammer of Thor]

So... what does this even mean?

We ended up resigning Onwenu, Dugger, Rham Stevenson, Hunter Henry, Peppers, and Barmore, Keion White, Gonzalez, Douglas, Marcus Jones and Boutte are still key parts of this team.

I guess Cole Strange is a disaster but really he's a guy derailed by injury. Anfernee did what he did in the old scheme.

You know you can make a case that last year's draft was the worst draft in the last 6 years.

This was Breer’s quote:

Depth is still an issue. The lost draft classes of the past few years—players who’d be in their second, third, fourth and fifth years—have taken a toll on the overall state of the roster. Once the normal NFL injury toll hits, there could be problems. The program, again, looks to be on the way up, based on camp and preseason games and the overall feel of the place.

He’s not wrong. I made a comment in the Pats Picker thread that I really think we have a 49-50 players of roster depth, and the other guys who make the 53 are no better than practice squad guys right now.

To your point, we only have 2 players even on the roster from the 2021 and 2022 drafts. 2023 at least has some players and depth so isn’t really the problem. 2024 is a disaster outside of Maye. If we did a better job over those 4 drafts, we might at least have a few additional quality backup players such that our roster might be a filled with NFL caliber players in spots 50-53.

 

[signbabybrady]

There is never anybody of any value on the OL available on cut down day. Name one valuable cut down day OL in the last 5 years.

Ben Brown

 

[upstater1]

This was Breer’s quote:


He’s not wrong. I made a comment in the Pats Picker thread that I really think we have a 49-50 players of roster depth, and the other guys who make the 53 are no better than practice squad guys right now.

To your point, we only have 2 players even on the roster from the 2021 and 2022 drafts. 2023 at least has some players and depth so isn’t really the problem. 2024 is a disaster outside of Maye. If we did a better job over those 4 drafts, we might at least have a few additional quality backup players such that our roster might be a filled with NFL caliber players in spots 50-53.

Well, 2024 isn't Belichick obviously.

So Breer's idea that it will take more seasons to bypass Belichick's bad drafting skips over the fact that the worst draft of the last 6 years wasn't even Belichick's.

Belichick's drafts were bad prior to those 6 years, but we really don't need to talk about 2016 anymore since that was so long ago. The more recent drafts aren't as bad as people make them out to be.

Obviously I listed all our players above from those drafts.

 

[jdlboot14]

The only "durable" and somewhat "reliable" WR's we have are Boutte & Hollins. That's it.
Diggs is still a hopeful experiment (no WR has come back from ACL and been great the first year)
Pop is a featherweight, and likely to get banged up.
Williams & Chism are rookies and have already been hurt during camp
Bourne & Polk have been out for most of camp

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

Ben Brown

Exactly. Thanks for proving my point.

 

[Hammer of Thor]

Well, 2024 isn't Belichick obviously.

So Breer's idea that it will take more seasons to bypass Belichick's bad drafting skips over the fact that the worst draft of the last 6 years wasn't even Belichick's.

Belichick's drafts were bad prior to those 6 years, but we really don't need to talk about 2016 anymore since that was so long ago. The more recent drafts aren't as bad as people make them out to be.

Obviously I listed all our players above from those drafts.

Breer didn’t actually say Belichick’s draft classes in the article. It does say that in the headlines — but we don’t know if the headline was written by him or by an SI editor looking for eyeballs. Quite often the author doesn’t write the headline. Maybe he did though.

So I agree with you, the headline is bad, but I agree with the substance of what Breer wrote.