The DeGuglielmo Fandom Thread

[Wrath Mania]

After taking a lot of **** early in the season due to the awful play of the O-line- hardly his fault, in retrospect with the Mankins trade- I think it's all time we admit the error of our judgment and proclaim our admiration for the Googe. The line got its **** together the best it could, and held up a lot better against a good Seattle front than past, superior NE offensive lines did in the SB against the Giants. Furthermore the GOOGE won me over with his fiery coach talk from the various NFL film clips from the Super Bowl.

Here is a nice article from Bedard about the unsung hero of the 2014 Patriots: http://mmqb.si.com/2015/02/13/new-england-patriots-offensive-line-dave-deguglielmo/

 

[Nonentity]

Great article. I like the compliments paid towards Ryan Wendell too:

"Nobody in the Patriots’ building thought Ryan Wendell, whose insertion at right guard settled the unit in Week 5, could play guard. “When I got here, it was, ‘Wendell can’t play guard.’ ” DeGuglielmo said. “Well, I’m telling you he’s done as good a job as you could. He has been a tremendous guard and a tremendous leader. He probably had the toughest transition from Dante to me because it was a different deal, different system, different way of communicating, and seeing all these young players given opportunities [ahead of him in camp]. He wasn’t necessarily given that early on and he did the right thing. He’s a great pro, worked hard, got himself into a position where he proved he’s a legitimate right guard. Once that happened, all of a sudden, Coach [Belichick] had Stork in the middle and you had Wendy on one side, and moving Dan [Connolly], which seems like an odd move to take a right guard and make him a left guard, but to replace a longtime legend Mankins, you take a 10-year veteran and put him in that spot, it calms the left tackle down. All of a sudden, there’s a soothing effect and it just happened to work. It’s Coach. He has a vision of where he wants to go."

 

[Ozymandias]

The mark of a good coach is when they can adapt to their players. I was skeptical of him early on given the O-line struggles at the beginning of the season. However, never have I been happier to be more wrong than this. This is a great example of why it isn't always smart to rush to judgment about a player/coach/team after a few games.

 

[Wrath Mania]

Great article. I like the compliments paid towards Ryan Wendell too:

"Nobody in the Patriots’ building thought Ryan Wendell, whose insertion at right guard settled the unit in Week 5, could play guard. “When I got here, it was, ‘Wendell can’t play guard.’ ” DeGuglielmo said. “Well, I’m telling you he’s done as good a job as you could. He has been a tremendous guard and a tremendous leader. He probably had the toughest transition from Dante to me because it was a different deal, different system, different way of communicating, and seeing all these young players given opportunities [ahead of him in camp]. He wasn’t necessarily given that early on and he did the right thing. He’s a great pro, worked hard, got himself into a position where he proved he’s a legitimate right guard. Once that happened, all of a sudden, Coach [Belichick] had Stork in the middle and you had Wendy on one side, and moving Dan [Connolly], which seems like an odd move to take a right guard and make him a left guard, but to replace a longtime legend Mankins, you take a 10-year veteran and put him in that spot, it calms the left tackle down. All of a sudden, there’s a soothing effect and it just happened to work. It’s Coach. He has a vision of where he wants to go."

Sounds like he might have been the guy arguing for him to make the move. Pretty cool. THE GOOGE had faith in his players.

 

[Jlaff]

I'll admire "The Googe", but I will not have the error of doubting him be imputed to me!

 

[RobertWeathers]

When the line does well, the coach gets credit. When the line does crappy, the coach gets killed.

I have no idea if Googe is a good coach or not. What I do know is that the line sucked, had injuries early in the season and eventually developed good cohesion and played well. When Stork went down in the playoffs, they did some shifting around vs a tough BAL front and did ok vs them and Indy.

Did he have an impact? Maybe. However because they played well and won the SB, he gets the benefit of the doubt on being a very good coach

 

[Ross12]

Yeah, GOOGE! I support him just because I like saying his name. GOOOOOOOOGE!

 

[TomPatriot]

I was never skeptical. I knew he would excel.

So now I can go back to being wrong.

 

[RayClay]

BB left him to scramble and the Wendell Connolly bookend to stork saved the season. I still think they want bigger stronger guards, they just need ones that are good enough, or have enough time to be good. Halaipo washed out, but I'd expect Fleming more than Klein and other big guys, because I think being pushed back was a perceived problem and smashmouth big guys was expected to be Googes contribution.

I predict Wendell as a backup, maybe starting at first, and connolly let go in favor of some beef. Who knows, Devey could have improved. People will scoff, but the obviously see something in him. Less pressure and more competion could bring the best out of he or Fleming.

 

[bbobbo]

I don’t want to hear about [Denver’s Ryan] Clady, [Cleveland’s] Joe Thomas, I don’t want to hear about any of them. [Eagles’ Jason] Peters is sloppy. I’d take Nate Solder over all those guys, and I’ve told him that.

I don't think Googe was paying attention in class during Belichick's lesson about building up your opponents. Here's what he should have said: "Players like Ryan Clady, Joe Thomas, and Jason Peters are all great, but I would take Nate Solder over any of them."

 

[meatface]

Well hopefully we get a nice guard or two in the draft for him to work with

 

[pdangle]

Fwiw, her's the final PFF grades. And before the stat deniers chime in, I've eyeballed the final results and I have to say overall they look pretty damn good. I won't post it in entirety here, but if you do a search for 'reddit pff patriots final grades' you can probably find it. It breaks down the OL by pass, run, screen, penalty. And the rest of the team similarly as well.

As I said, everything seemed pretty spot on to my eyeballs. For this thread, a few OL ratings surprised me. 1) Connolly got hammered. Maybe the switch had something to do with it, or Wendell was helping Stork (or vice versa haha) so he was on an island. 2) Devey is terrible. He will not be in the mix without a massive improvement IMO. Cannon wasn't so hot either. 3) Kline did pretty well. Tend to forget about him. You didn't hear his name too often when he played, which is good, and the numbers bear it out.

Here's summary of the OL ratings with a few comments.

Volmer +15.5(!)
Solder -4.9
Wendell +2.3 (-9 pass,+11 run)
Stork -4.7
Connolly -24.0(!)
---------
Backups (about half as many games as starters)
----------
Devey -19.2(!!, that's almost -40.0 for a full season, no wonder he got yanked)
Cannon -13.7
Kline -1.9 (Pretty good, under my radar at least. -4 pass/+2 run)

For scale, over full season of plays, anything over 15 is all pro, and over -5 is at least respectable.

 

[meatface]

Fwiw, her's the final PFF grades. And before the stat deniers chime in, I've eyeballed the final results and I have to say overall they look pretty damn good. I won't post it in entirety here, but if you do a search for 'reddit pff patriots final grades' you can probably find it. It breaks down the OL by pass, run, screen, penalty. And the rest of the team similarly as well.

As I said, everything seemed pretty spot on to my eyeballs. For this thread, a few OL ratings surprised me. 1) Connolly got hammered. Maybe the switch had something to do with it, or Wendell was helping Stork (or vice versa haha) so he was on an island. 2) Devey is terrible. He will not be in the mix without a massive improvement IMO. Cannon wasn't so hot either. 3) Kline did pretty well. Tend to forget about him. You didn't hear his name too often when he played, which is good, and the numbers bear it out.

Here's summary of the OL ratings with a few comments.

Volmer +15.5(!)
Solder -4.9
Wendell +2.3 (-9 pass,+11 run)
Stork -4.7
Connolly -24.0(!)
---------
Backups (about half as many games as starters)
----------
Devey -19.2(!!, that's almost -40.0 for a full season, no wonder he got yanked)
Cannon -13.7
Kline -1.9 (Pretty good, under my radar at least. -4 pass/+2 run)

For scale, over full season of plays, anything over 15 is all pro, and over -5 is at least respectable.

I'm kind of surprised at home much they didn't like stork and how much they did like Wendell. Did Fleming get enough snaps to have a grade?

 

[Sciz]

I wondered if this might be used as a "prove it" year for Solder before they commit long-term guaranteed money to him. Sounds like if Googe has any say, then he's ready to get Solder extended right now. There's some 2015 cap room to be gained if he's extended and it's structured with that goal in mind.

 

[pdangle]

I'm kind of surprised at home much they didn't like storm and how much they did like Wendell. Did Fleming get enough snaps to have a grade?

The way I interpret these ratings, any full season grade from -5 to + 5 is pretty much the same when you throw in variability and such. A mistake people make with these pff grades is thinking they are accurate down to the decimal place. They're pretty good when viewing the grades as broad strokes and as relative to other players. So Stork, as a rookie, playing average (close enough to 0) over a full season of ball is fantastic to me. Also respectable play for Wendell, Solder, Stork and Kline.

Then I just look at +5 to +15 as really good (none on the OL here), and over +15 like as all-pro, like Vollmer.

Guy was a rock this year. I don't remember hearing his name called prominently very many times, nor any DE he was matched against, which is even frickin better! His spot is literally where DE's went to die this year. Wonder if Gronk's blocking, or BB game planning an extra OL to that strong side had any help. Vollmer went 1 on 1 against a long string of DLs, and every week most were never heard from again after the team introductions. He really had a phenomenal year. It's really tough to grade over +15.

On the flip side, if a player if over-matched and left to hang in the wind, it's pretty easy to suck below -15 quickly like Devey. He played some of the ugliest ball I've seen in a while. They tried to get him comfortable. Just think it was lack of talent (at this stage of his career) and was over-matched. He rang up quite a score in the few games he played.

Missed him...
Fleming -5.9 (1/4 season, -7 pass/+1 run)

Not so hot for a 1/4 season. Seemed like he did a little better, but saw him burnt badly in pass protection a few times, now I think about it. His run blocking is much better says these numbers. I'm not sure, didn't watch him on that front enough.

Also if you want see more, just google around. I found it with "reddit new england pff final grades".

 

[mgcolby]

I didn't read a single post in this thread, don't take it personally. I find it beyond arrogant to feel as if anyone is somehow more qualified to evaluate a coach whom you have never met nor most likely will ever meet than BB. I don't get sports fans at times. I understand questioning a lot of things in this world, but BB's coaches? What is your sports/coaching resume? I coach youth sports and most of the parents don't have a clue. They'll tell us how it should be, but don't what the A gap is or a jerk route. And if anyone reads this and doesn't know what a jerk route is, then never question BB or a knowledgeable youth coach ever again.

 

[mrscruff]

It should be kept in mind that throughout the year the Patriots played against a lot of fantastic defensive line quartets this past year.

 

[ALP]

I don't think Googe was paying attention in class during Belichick's lesson about building up your opponents. Here's what he should have said: "Players like Ryan Clady, Joe Thomas, and Jason Peters are all great, but I would take Nate Solder over any of them."

I find it crazy how easily he dismisses some of what i thought are the best LTs in the game in preferance to Solder

 

[patchick]

I'll count myself among the throngs who couldn't imagine Wendell as an effective RG. Before the season there was a discussion here on "if they're only going to keep 1 of Connolly and Wendell, who would you keep"? I argued for Connolly on the basis of flexibility, since Wendell was obviously a pure center. Wrong in big way, Madame Patchick.

Despite a frame that should have no business playing guard in the NFL, Wendell looked better to me at RG than C. Being freed from snapping duties seemed to let him get off the snap more aggressively, counteracting some of his size disadvantage.

 

[meatface]

I didn't read a single post in this thread, don't take it personally. I find it beyond arrogant to feel as if anyone is somehow more qualified to evaluate a coach whom you have never met nor most likely will ever meet than BB. I don't get sports fans at times. I understand questioning a lot of things in this world, but BB's coaches? What is your sports/coaching resume? I coach youth sports and most of the parents don't have a clue. They'll tell us how it should be, but don't what the A gap is or a jerk route. And if anyone reads this and doesn't know what a jerk route is, then never question BB or a knowledgeable youth coach ever again.

we shall all bow before your greatness, coach of youth sports. These numbers are just there to get a better idea on how someone played for those of us not blessed with that knowledge from birth, Offensive line play can be difficult to evaluate at times for us fans.