Some quick thoughts on this Tuesday:
1) The fan voting portion of the Patriots Hall of Fame is in full swing. The three nominees are Coach Bill Parcells; Defensive Tackle Richard Seymour and LB Mike Vrabel. This is a very seasoned group of nominees, as Parcells and Seymour have been nominated 4 times each, while Vrabel has 5 nominations. My pick for the Patriots Hall is Richard Seymour. He has been a Pro Football Hall of Fame finalist the last two years, selected to the all decade team of the 2000’s and a member of the 50th Anniversary team. There isn’t any doubt that Seymour should be there. Mike Vrabel is just unlucky, going against stiff competition every year. It’s not that he doesn’t deserve it, those that have been selected just deserve it more.
As far as the controversial Bill Parcells is concerned, I will never forgive him for what he did to this team leading up to the Super Bowl at the end of the 1996 season. He negotiated a contract with the NY Jets while still the coach under contract with the Patriots leading up to their championship showdown with the Green Bay Packers. His focus should have been on that Super Bowl and not where his next coaching job was going to be. He will never receive a vote from me and lots of other fans like me.
Voting continues through May 8th at Patriots.com. The announcement on the selectee will be made the following week.
2) Mike Reiss reported on Sunday that longtime member of the scouting staff Monti Ossenfort was moving on when his contract expired. Albert Breer broke the story, that he will be leaving the Patriots for the Tennessee Titans. He will become Director of Player Personnel, which is the same title that Nick Caserio carries here in New England. From everything I have read about Ossenfort, he is a very capable, loyal and all around good guy. Good luck to Monti in his new assignment. This is yet another blow to the organization. Look for a future article to address all the organizational changes this year.
3) Stid the kid is the man. It appears that Cincinnati tried to get the Patriots interested in Andy Dalton but there seemed to be no dice at any price. Dalton carried a huge salary that would come with a trade and the Patriots up against the salary cap couldn’t do anything. When Dalton became an Unrestricted Free Agent, the Patriots were still not interested.Dalton received an outrageous $3M guarantee from Dallas, with incentive of up $7M more. Good deal for Dalton who has a home in the area. This deal may have been just to put some pressure on the Dak Prescott negotiations. Cam Newton is still out there, but nobody appears to be interested. Perhaps it is the fact they can’t get him into their facilities for a full medical exam.
What does this all say about Stidham? Nothing but positive things for Stidham that the organization has faith in his abilities. This is going to be quite the off season. Hoping for a big jump from Stidham this season.
4) I see where James Develin confirmed what I stated last week that he would be interested in staying with the Patriots organization in some capacity. This was done in his exit interview with the local media.
5) The upcoming 2020 schedule will be formally announced on Thursday may 7th at 8:00 on NFL Network. Should be interesting to see how many prime time games the Patriots get. Usually they are at the max while also getting a large number of 4:00 games. I will be looking to see if they get back to back weeks on the West Coast. In the past the Patriots have stayed on the West Coast and practiced there. This was considered a great bonding opportunity in the past. This team may just need something like that with the turnover of personnel.
6) The haul from the Jimmy Garoppolo trade was finalized in the 2020 draft. Through a myriad of trades starting with sending Garappolo to SF at the trade deadline in 2017 for a 2018 2nd round selection.
The following players were taken:
2018 CB Duke Dawson (2-56)
LB Christian Sam (6-178)
2019 RB Damien Harris (3-87)
P Jake Bailey (5-162)
2020 TE Dalton Keene (trade up to 3-101 by including 4-125 acquired the year before and tied to the Garoppolo trade tree, and pick 4-39, as well as a 20121 6th)
Dawson was another in a long line of DB busts in the 2nd round by BB. Sam is no longer with the team. Harris is an incomplete as he was active for just two games for a total of 4 carries. Jake Bailey was a bright spot last year on punts and kick offs.
The final piece was TE Dalton Keene. Many thought Keene was a reach with one such prognosticator stating he was worst draft pick of the entire draft. On the other side another team’s scout was overheard telling Keene that he was “the biggest dick” on the field, in a complimentary way. You have to like an offensive player that has the nickname Rambo. Doug Kyed convinced me about Keene when he made the comparison to SF TE George Kittle. Both had very little production in their Senior year of college. I think Keene was just under-utilized at Virginia Tech.
7) There seems to be a little confusion over FB Jacob Johnson status. He has not been granted the roster exemption for a 2nd year under the NFL’s International Player Pathway Program. Four new players were given to NFC East teams this year.
8) Final little throw away item. UDFA Rashod Berry lists himself as a LB for the NE Patriots. He did play a little DE for Ohio St last year. Compared to UDFA EDGE Trevon Hill, he is faster and heavier! The Patriots have yet to announce their UDFA class officially.
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Merrimack Valley native and lifelong fan of the New England Patriots. My earliest memories of the Patriots were attending as a child with my dad, the off-season practice at Phillips Academy. I was at the Patriots game at Harvard Stadium in 1970 where Bob “Harpo” Gladieux was called out of the stands by the stadium announcer over the PA to play in the game. Analyzing the draft since ESPN first started to televise it in 1980 and former writer for the Lowell Sun Newspaper.
