It was a quiet Tuesday as we hit the halfway point, but here’s a look at this morning’s top stories.
Fourth Round Penalty Costly? – With New England having been penalized a fourth-round selection thanks to DeflateGate, it was interesting to go back through Bill Belichick’s selections in that round over the years, which actually produced a fair amount of talented players.
Going down the list beginning with last season, it’s been a pretty good run for this team in that round in recent years. While some of the selections in the earlier years didn’t pan out too well, they’ve had a pretty good run overall over the past few seasons.
Here’s the full list from that round during the Bill Belichick era:
2016: Malcolm Mitchell (113th)
2015: Shaq Mason (131st), Tre’ Jackson (111th), Trey Flowers (101st)
2014: Bryan Stork (105th), James White (130th), Cameron Fleming (140th)
2013: Josh Boyce (102nd)
2012: N/A
2011: N/A
2010: Aaron Hernandez (113th)
2009: Rich Ohrnberger
2008: Jonathan Wilhite (129th)
2007: Kareem Brown (127th)
2006: Garrett Mills (106th), Stephen Gostkowski (118th)
2005: James Sanders (133rd)
2004: Dexter Reid (113th), Cedric Cobbs (128th)
2003: Dan Klecko (117th), Asante Samuel (120th)
2002: Rohan Davey (117th), Jarvis Green (126th)
2001: Kenyatta Jones (96th), Jabari Holloway (119th)
2000: Greg Randall (127th)
It’s interesting looking back over these names, especially from 2000-2009. New England either knocked it out of the park (Jarvis Green, Asante Samuel, Stephen Gostkowski) or they swung and missed badly (Kareem Brown, Dexter Reid, Garrett Mills).
But the past several seasons going back to 2014 has produced some pretty good players, including last year’s addition Malcolm Mitchell, along with Trey Flowers, James White and Bryan Stork (despite his career being cut short due to concussions).
As for this season, Deatrich Wise Jr. Joins his former teammate in Flowers as a player trying to become another success out of that round this season, and given how some of the experts seem to feel about Wise Jr, it seems like he could be the next player to make a name for himself on this list.
If nothing else, this list of players is certainly a reminder that the NFL Draft is obviously not an exact science. But credit the team with doing a better job here in recent years and it’s players like this that has been yet another reason why they’ve remained among the NFL’s elite.
 Spending time with his mom trumped another visit to the White House. |
Brady Admits Why He Skipped White House Visit – Reporters got to Brady during last night’s 2017 Met Gala in New York and the veteran quarterback admitted why he missed last month’s visit to the White House.
To no one’s surprise, Brady said time with his mom won out over going back to the White House for the second time in three years.
“Spending time with my mom and, you know, that’s pretty important to me,” he told ExtraTV.com during his interview. “It’s been a great year, but it’s even better to spend time with my parents and my kids.”
“I can’t wait to get that ring, that’s what I’m really looking forward to, that ring ceremony in a couple of months”
It’s likely been a more enjoyable offseason for Brady than it was last season, with the veteran getting a little redemption after coming up short the prior year against Peyton Manning and the Broncos. After winning a fifth title, Brady’s seemingly already hit the reset button and he sounds like he’s looking forward to getting back to working on to now putting some jewelry on his other hand.
“We’ve started the new season so we’ve moved on in a lot of ways, ” said Brady. “We’ll be ready to kick some butt here starting in a couple months. Right now we’re just training, which is good, but it’s nice to be back to work.”
Patriots Break Six-Figure Salary Threshold with UDFA – Undrafted free agents tend to get nice little amounts of money as a little side bonus to go with knowing they’ll get a shot to compete for a spot on an NFL team.
But in New England, the Patriots made some news on Tuesday when the Boston Herald’s Jeff Howe revealed that one player in particular got a sizable amount of guaranteed money from his new club for this upcoming season.
Pats gave Harvey Langi $100k in guaranteed base salary. No other UDFA in the NFL has gotten more than $30k guaranteed base salary in '17.
— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) May 2, 2017
Howe reports that linebacker Harvey Langi got $100,000 in guaranteed base salary for this season, more than triple the amount of any other undrafted free agent player in the league. As Howe points out, no other UDFA in the NFL has seen a guaranteed salary of more than $30k, which is obviously a testament of what they must think of the Brigham Young standout.
When you look at his measurables, he ran a 4.32 20yd shuttle and a 11.83 60 yard shuttle, with both marks earning him top performer honors at this year’s combine. Those types of drills tend to catch the eyes of the Patriots coaches and it’s obvious they like him. We’ll have to see if the money he’s earned will translate to a spot on the team in 2017.
Patriots Bring Back Street – The Patriots brought back a familiar face on Tuesday, with Devin Street finding himself claimed by the team that had him on their roster for part of their 2016 championship season.
Street was claimed off of waivers by New England after the Colts let him go and Street is back on the Patriots 90-man roster just in time as the the Patriots get ready to begin their upcoming minicamps and OTAs.
Street might be glad to be back but he obviously faces a pretty crowded group of talent as he joins Brandin Cooks, Julian Edelman, Chris Hogan, Danny Amendola and Malcolm Mitchell. But it’s an opportunity to compete and grow as a player, which is about all anyone in the NFL can hope for.
The third year receiver played his college football at the University of Pittsburgh, having appeared in 36 regular season games and has 10 receptions over his career for 152 yards along with one touchdown, which came against the Giants back on October 25, 2015 in a losing effort while he was with the Cowboys.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
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