Five Patriots/NFL Things to Know – News and Notes For 2/17
(PHOTO: Winslow Townson - USA TODAY Sports) 🕑 Read Time: 6 minutes
Posted Under: Patriots News
(PHOTO: Winslow Townson - USA TODAY Sports) 🕑 Read Time: 6 minutes
New England Patriots > Patriots Blog
(PHOTO: Winslow Townson - USA TODAY Sports) EDITORIAL NOTE: This is day two of a new daily feature to get you up-to-date each day during the week.
Here’s some news to get you caught up on this Wednesday.
1) One of the best stories to come out on Tuesday was the fact Ariel Young, the little girl injured in the Britt Reid accident, has apparently made some progress.
According to her Gofundme page, she’s woken up from her coma, which is obviously good news.
Young was hurt after Reid struck the vehicle she was in leading up to the Super Bowl, having admitted to police that he consumed “2-3 drinks” prior to getting in his pickup and later colliding with the car and critically injuring her.
The accident, which happened back on February 4th, put the 5-year old Young in the hospital, where she had been in a coma prior to Tuesday’s news.
Reid has since seen his time with Kansas City come to an end, after the club initially put him on administrative leave, and then quietly parted ways with him after his contract expired.
No further update on her condition was released and the accident remains under investigation. But hopefully, this is the first sign toward recovery for her, and our thoughts go out to both her and her family.
2) Former Patriots defensive end Rob Ninkovich was on the Pat McAfee show on Tuesday, with McAfee asking Ninkovich about the “Patriot Way”. Ninkovich’s response centered on the fact it was Belichick and Brady who made it happen but it was also interesting that the former Patriot said Brady was the measuring stick the front office often used against players when it came to guys looking for new contracts.
“That is Tom [Brady] and Bill [Belichick] and those two guys together were able to create 20-years of amazing success,” said Ninkovich when McAfee asked him about ‘The Patriot Way’. “I mean, 11-years of Division Championships. I mean, just think about 11-years of hats and t-shirts. You’d get your hat and t-shirt, you’d throw it in the back of your truck, you’d give it to your old man, ‘Here Pop, here’s another hat, it doesn’t fit me right.”
Ninkovich’s dismissal of their division championships caused McAfee to lose it, with the former Indianapolis Colt laughing and he was completely stunned at how Ninkovich described it.
“These Motherf****rs,” McAfee said to his studio cohorts in disgust before turning back to Ninkovich. “You guys … what a life you guys had.”
Ninkovich then went on to describe what it was like to negotiate a contract, which was also interesting.
“Look, when you go to negotiate your contract, and you’re like, ‘Hey, you know, I’m up next year, this is what guys are making at my position.’,” said Ninkovich. “They’d look at you and be like, ‘You know, Tom is the best of all time and where’s he at in rank? Oh, like 15th.”
“So if you want to be here and you want to win, I’d suggest that you do what you’ve got to do to, #1 provide, which yeah…I was able to do when I was here in New England, but I think winning is the number one thing. Because I could have went off, at some point in my career, and I could have tested free agency and went to Cincinnati or something and played a couple of years and then got cut because a new coaching staff came in, but I wanted to be somewhere and have some legitimate statistics behind my name.”
It was a funny exchange and there’s more in here, but you can see the entire clip below:
"I think @CoachVrabel50 said it best when they asked him about the "Patriot Way" & he said isn't that the address? Like 1 Patriot Way?"@ninko50 goes on to explain his experience with the "Patriot Way" #PatMcAfeeShowLIVE pic.twitter.com/9Od9v4Lau0
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) February 16, 2021
3) Another interesting note on Tuesday in the NFL Rumors space was the fact that the Carolina Panthers are said to be deeply interested in Houston’s Deshaun Watson, and they’re ready to make the Texans an offer they might not be able to refuse.
According to ESPN NFL Nation reporter David Newton, he sees a scenario where the Panthers offer up three first round picks, as well as star running back, Christian McCaffrey.
“The Panthers will do whatever it takes to get Deshaun Watson, and that includes giving up three first-round draft picks and (running back) Christian McCaffrey,” Newton said via 24/7 Sports. “Owner David Tepper wants to win a Super Bowl. He’s made that clear. He understands it takes a marquee quarterback to do that.”
“If you look at recent history, outside of (Kansas City Chiefs quarterback) Patrick Mahomes, the quickest way to do that is to trade for a marquee quarterback and not draft one in the first round. Just ask Tampa Bay.”
That’s quite a haul for Watson, who for now seems fairly dug in at making sure his days in Houston are over. While new GM Nick Caserio has said he has no plans to move him, if that offer is indeed what Carolina might be thinking, it certainly might be a little too good to turn down if they’re 100% certain Watson is truly willing to sit out and force their hand.
4) Keeping up with potential draft picks, Justin Melo of The Draft Network reported that the Patriots recently had a virtual pre-draft meeting with Notre Dame edge rusher, Daelin Hayes.
Hayes has grown quite a bit during his tenure in South Bend, with 2020 being a solid year for him. He finished the season with 16 tackles, two forced fumbles, one pass defended, including an interception. He also had three sacks.
He was part of a defense that played a key role in leading the Fighting Irish to the College Football Playoffs where they were eventually defeated by Clemson.
According to Melo, Hayes also reportedly met with the Packers and is expected to meet with five other teams “coming up soon”.
The NFL Network’s Mike Giardi says the Patriots put Newton in a no-win situation in 2020.
5) While the vast majority of Patriots fans saw enough of Cam Newton in New England in 2020 and are hoping the team closed the book on that experiment, NFL reporter Mike Giardi doesn’t necessarily believe a reunion isn’t out of the question.
Giardi was on NFL Network earlier this week and talked about Newton, saying that given the short time he had to prepare, along with the injuries and lack of personnel, the team really put him in a no-win situation.
“I wouldn’t rule anything out at this point,” said Giardi about a potential return for Newton. “Because I think a lot depends on, as we talked about, pretty much the entire show, the quarterback carousel and where some of these names land and how that shakes free other players and what the Patriots’ view is on those certain players.”
“But if you look at what happened to Cam Newton this past year, in many ways, a disservice was done to him by the fact that he was not signed until June. Now, it depends on who you ask, why that didn’t happen until June. Was it his demands and then eventually having to come down on his demands? Or was it the fact the Patriots were letting things shake out so they could get him at a lower price? But the bottom line is, he joined an offense in June, an offense that speaks a language that’s been spoken for over 20-years. Charlie Weis, Josh McDaniels, Bill O’Brien, back to Josh McDaniels again and, of course, the common denominator for 20-years, was Tom Brady, and it was his language as well.”
“So Cam had to learn that and learn new players. In addition, Tom Brady walked away from this team at the end of the previous season in part because there weren’t enough weapons and he looked at the offensive team that was surrounding him and he said, ‘We can’t win a championship with this group.’ Of course, he goes to Tampa and he wins a championship with what was already there and what he was able to bring to Tampa with him. Cam Newton had to deal with that same group, basically, by and large, and then Julian Edelman, of course, dropping out early in the year with an injury and missing the final 10 games of the season. So in many ways, he was at a disadvantage.”
“And I also think too, there was a lack of connection between the offense and what Cam does well. I think they tried to do their offense and mix in some quarterback runs, as opposed to, say, maybe what Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills’ [offensive coordinator] Brian Daboll did with him where for the first couple years, they were a game plan team, ‘we do what we do’. And then, it became, ‘No, we’re going to do what Josh does and what Josh does well, and Josh flourished.’ And maybe, I think if they look back on what they did this past season, they’ll decide they didn’t do enough for Cam to make Cam as comfortable as possible in this offense.”
It would be tough to imagine a scenario of Newton returning, but it’s probably safe to say that it would take everything going wrong for Belichick to break that glass and try and make it work another season. It’s possible that Giardi might be right, but we sure saw enough last season to make us question if it was the offense, or simply too many of these moments where Newton simply just couldn’t get it done.
Here’s the full video from Giardi:
Is there a case for Cam's return? Listen below. @nflnetwork #Patriots pic.twitter.com/MPALHLPd8W
— Mike Giardi (@MikeGiardi) February 15, 2021
UPDATE 2/17 9:07pm ET: This report has been edited to correct an earlier mention of former Chiefs coach, Britt Reid, consuming drinks “at a restaurant near Arrowhead Stadium”. That mention has been corrected.
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No mention anywhere else of Btitt Reid drinking at a restaurant. What is the name of it?
Hi David, that mention has been edited as it appears the information I had on that was inaccurate. I’ve posted the update along with noting the error and appreciate you reaching out. – Ian