The 53

[RobertWeathers]

Me personally I don't know I'd want Jon on the outside, he's phenomenal in the slot.. but as you perfectly said if Jack isn't available.. Gonzo is going to have to continue to adapt quickly.. QBs will test him early.

Yea i'm not a big fan of Jon Jones on the outside either but he held his own out there last year. Jack Jones is the better athlete but might not be the better player or available,

 

[patfanken]

Yea the other son has special needs.

I think the wife is from NC or Georgia. They met at Wake Forest.

I got that part wrong, but the basic premise is still there. BOB is home here. The medical needs fit the area's abilities, and he has a well paying prestigious job doing what he loves working for a guy he likes and respects. Maybe the need to be the head guy has been satisfied, maybe not. But for right now, he is here, he is happy, and he's been DAMNED good at his job at numerous places.

 

[Uptown]

 

[Fatmancryin]

 

[Real fan 02]

Yea i'm not a big fan of Jon Jones on the outside either but he held his own out there last year. Jack Jones is the better athlete but might not be the better player or available,

Your right, if Wade does in fact stick. He is going to have a chance to play at outside CB.. I can't think of another player who just continues to stick around however doing absolutely O for the team. Slow Joe Williams was cut by Minnesota..no surprise! if we get desperate to have just a body there barring injury. Do we sign him?

 

[RobertWeathers]

Your right, if Wade does in fact stick. He is going to have a chance to play at outside CB.. I can't think of another player who just continues to stick around however doing absolutely O for the team. Slow Joe Williams was cut by Minnesota..no surprise! if we get desperate to have just a body there barring injury. Do we sign him?

No on SloJuan

 

[RobertWeathers]

AJ McCarron is out there. A Bama and BOB guy. Gotta think BB likes him

But hes not that good and was out of the league last year.

 

[Real fan 02]

No on SloJuan

Roby is out there as well..

 

[Patsfan1958]

 

[long distance]

decent late complementary blocking TE option . that will be dearly needed on the right side

 

[JoeCorrao]

Did they cut Tebucky Jones?

 

[Thelonious]

Eloquently stated, T, but I think you are a bit overboard with your negativity.

First take the elephant in the room, the OL. Going in we were likely to be strong at 4 of the 5 positions with Brown in a contract year and hungry, Strange looking for a 2nd year jump, Andrews a top 5 C in the league, and Owenu who is already where we hope Strange will be this year. The off season objective was to find a serviceable RT and swing T, and upgrade the interior OL depth.

If they knew that EVERYONE on that OL, including most of the RT prospects would miss SIGNIFICANT time due to injury and illness, they might have drafted differently. But you CANNOT predict injuries especially when they are so widespread at this position group. In an ideal world the 4 known commodities would have had hundreds of snaps together. Out of the prospects say Anderson and McDermott became the RT and swing guy (either or). Mafi is already an upgrade as depth at OG, and Russey might not be ideal as back up C, but serviceable; And it looks like they might have missed on Andrews at least so far. Some players DO improve. To be more succinct, when the major roster decisions were being made NOONE could have predicted what occurred on the OL. Bad luck. Back in 2003 the 5 rather average OLmen we had never missed a snap on the field or in practice and that continuity was instrumental in a superbowl win. Go figure

But you are right in this, the OL situation has turned OUT to be a mess. But a mess that can be straightened out in a month with a bit of luck.

2nd, You might be right that this will be another losing season, the division and schedule might be the toughest one in Bill's 23 years here. Personally, I believe this team needs another year of rebuilding before it competes for a championship and they have the draft capital and the cap space to significantly add more talent (read explosiveness) next year.

3rd - While you slam the GM for the job he's done on offense, you ignore the job he's done on defense. The draft added THREE significant starters or rotational players A significant upgrade at punter, a significant upgrade in FG talent. (Lets see how he does as far as consistency) We seem to have solved the back up interior guy with Mafi and looked like we had a rotational guy at CB in Bolden....until his injury. That's a pretty good draft assuming NONE of the other guys contribute. (and I still have high hopes for Sow, just not this year)

4th - Improvement at RB, TE, QB, OL - At RB we have one of the best young guys in the league, and an experienced solid guy in Elliot. Improved, maybe let's see who the 3rd guy is. TE? could be with a healthy Gisiski again they need to add a third guy. QB, by ALL reports Mac has been solid all through camp and much improved over last season. OL already discussed. So we could very well be improved at 3 of the 4 positions you mentioned and EVENTUALLY improved on the OL too.

In the end T, you never know until the season is over. Remember in the Spring of 2001, the prestigious PFWeekly put out a list of teams LEAST likely to be in a superbowl over the next 5 years. #1 on that list were the NE Patriots. Now I do not know how successful this team will be. Right now there are STILL a lot of moves in motion, but NOTHING will be known for certain until its all over and THEN we can assess all the moves that have been made and credit given or taken away.

I think this is a well-wrought rejoinder to my post. Thanks.

 

[patfanken]

I think this is a well-wrought rejoinder to my post. Thanks.

You are always welcome, T.

And I hope you feel just a bit better about the team.

 

[Thelonious]

Terrible post. The main flaw is thinking that this is the roster for the year. It won't even be the same roster at the end of today, and there will be at least a half dozen other changes before opening day. The OL injuries & Anderson illness are all day to day, forcing us to keep 11 for now and then assess & adjust by Monday.

There's nobody better than Belichick at managing a situation like this, he's seen it all. Cutting the backup QB's was genius, they'll be back, and it buys him a few days to sort out the OL.

Overall this is a better roster than last year. Better weapons, better OL (in a few weeks), better offensive coaches, better overall D, better special teams. If this team played last year's opponents they'd win 11-12 games. This year our schedule has a lot of excellent teams on it cause the whole league's improved, but the result is going to be everyone bunched up around .500. 11-6 could be the best record in the AFC this year. So if we don't blow any games where we outplay the opponent, we'll win 9 or 10 games and make the playoffs.

"A terrible post." I guess that means you disagree. As for the "main flaw," I specifically said that our team would in my judgment be sub-par under the most optimistic estimation as to where we will likely be AFTER we have rummaged through the leavings of other teams, given the wide array of areas in which we are deficient. As for the O-line, you assure us that they will be "better in a few weeks," but you offer no reason for expecting so. To the extent you imply that the O-line issue has been well handled, I think that's kinda ridiculous, particularly given that Bill has chosen to strip potential from other areas of need because the O-line options are so weak and uncertain that no decision as to whom we ought to keep is possible even this late in the game. Add to that the mishandling of the tight end position post Gronk, the belated response to Brady's being in his final seasons here, the underestimation of his remaining skills, the take-it-easy mail-it-in preseason, the irresponsible imbalance in resources committed to defense vs. offense, and the preposterously bad decisions re last year's coaching staff, and I just do not think Bill has done the bang-up job you claim to see over the past few years.

But no matter. I say 7 or 8 wins w/ no playoff slot; you say 9 or 10 wins and we make the playoffs. We'll see.

 

[JoeCorrao]

Did they cut Tebucky Jones?

I always like to bring up Tebucky Jones

 

[sambam94]

thought JJ had potential. They can't go into the season with 2 RB's...

 

[TheBeers]

By who, his dog? Giardi has the same amount of sources as Ben Volin.. none

 

[mike_usagisan]

thought JJ had potential. They can't go into the season with 2 RB's...

They can raise Kevin Harris or Montgomery off the practice squad if necessary.

 

[Ring 6]

AJ McCarron is out there. A Bama and BOB guy. Gotta think BB likes him

But hes not that good and was out of the league last year.

And the year before as well

 

[Ring 6]

thought JJ had potential. They can't go into the season with 2 RB's...

Why?
He’s been here 3 years and done nothing.
The last 2 seasons he has carried the ball 29 times for 46 yards and caught 5 passes for 16.
Last year he had 10 carries totaling 9 yards and the longest of all of them was 5 yards.
He lacks vision and goes down too easily.