Some news and notes on this Friday:
Patriots Looking to Challenge Ryland
With placekicker being one of the big question marks heading into 2024, the Patriots brought in another player on Thursday to compete with Chad Ryland this summer. The club reportedly signed Joey Slye, who had just been released by the Jaguars this week.
Slye spent the last three seasons in Washington, hitting 19/24 (79.2%) of his field goals in 2023, including 7/9 from 40-49 yards and 3/5 from 50+. He was also 32/35 on extra points last season.
The former Commanders kicker, who became an unrestricted free agent this offseason, signed a one-year deal in Jacksonville worth $1.29 million back in March. However, the Jaguars apparently decided to switch gears after drafting Arkansas kicker Cam Little in the sixth round last weekend. They also have veteran kicker Riley Patterson on their roster.
Little’s addition left Slye’s time in Jacksonville ending before it even got started. Little certainly will cost them less, and he brings a pretty solid resume with him coming into the NFL. He earned first-team All-Southeastern Conference honors this past season after hitting 20-of-24 field goals, including a perfect 33-of-33 extra points.
Unfortunately, that ended up being bad news for Slye. While the 2023 season was far from ideal, Slye did have his moments. He hit a career-long 61-yard field goal against the Eagles in a 38-31 loss to Philadelphia back in Week 8 of last season, eclipsing his previous best of 58. He also hit 100% of his field goal attempts in all but two games in 2023 (Week 2 at Denver [2/4, 50%], and Week 5 vs. Chicago [2/3, 67%] ). He only had four games without an attempt (Weeks 11, 13, 15, 16).
The Patriots had an up-close look at Slye last season during their 20-17 loss at Gillette Stadium in Week 9. Slye hit two field goals in that game, hitting from 37 and 30 yards out.
Slye won’t be the only kicker in the mix. Our own Mark Morse noted that New England invited Laval University’s Vince Blanchard to the team’s rookie camp. The non-contract undrafted free agent will now get a shot at being a player who will try his hand at earning a spot to compete with Ryland ahead of training camp.
Morse touched on the fact the 25-year-old Blanchard made 74% of his kicks in his career, including hitting 94% last season with a long of 49 yards. In the Championship game, Blanchard was 5-for-5 on FG attempts. For his career, he was 88 of 89 on extra points and was 2nd team All-Canadian last year.
Meanwhile, Ryland had a tough start to his NFL career in 2023 after the club traded up to take him at #112 overall in the fourth round last offseason. Overall, he was 16/25 (64%) last season, with Ryland only hitting 50% of his attempts from 40-49 yards, along with the same success rate from beyond 50.
Chad Ryland Field Goal Distances:
1-9: 0/0
20-29: 4/4 (100%)
30-39: 5/7 (71.4%)
40-49: 5/10 (50%)
50+: 2/4 (50%)
Total: 16/25 (64%)
Ryland had a fairly successful collegiate career and was solid in both long kicks and in clutch situations at Maryland. So far, that didn’t translate in his rookie season and the hope is that he’ll rebound this summer as he heads into his sophomore season with the club.
For now, it remains an area of concern. The fact the club is making these moves is at least a sign that, hopefully, we’ll see an improvement at that position this fall, regardless of who ultimately emerges.
Baker: ‘You ain’t gonna outwork me’
New rookie wideout Javon Baker has been vocal since the moment he became a member of the New England Patriots, and he hasn’t stopped letting the world know he’s on a mission now that he’s reached the NFL.
The rookie out of UCF posted a video on Instagram on Thursday where he let everyone know he’s ready to make a name for himself this season, and he’s putting in the work to make sure that happens.
“No way in [expletive] America 10 receivers [are] better than me,” said Baker in the video, who was out of breath as he walked across a football field. “Out of your [expletive] mind.”
The video then cut to clips of him making catches and running routes, before Baker added one final quip to close out the video.
“You ain’t gonna outwork me, though,” he said. “Tell you that much. I don’t give a [expletive] how hard I’m breathing, I’m gonna go again.”
Baker was also seen earlier in the week in a video posted in an Instagram story by fitness coach Steph Brown working out with fellow draft pick, Ja’Lynn Polk.
Clearly, he’s focused. And that’s definitely a good sign for a team that absolutely needed a boost at that position.
For anyone interested, he also apparently put together a video series documenting his path to the draft on his YouTube channel. Here are links to episode 1, episode 2, episode 3, and episode 4.
Odds and Ends
For anyone wondering what the offense might look like this year under Alex Van Pelt, Rhamondre Stevenson and Mike Onwenu provided some clarity there. “More outside zone heavy, not just straight gap scheme,” Stevenson said via NBC Sports Boston. “More of a plethora of runs and just different schemes.” Onwenu also added, “It is a lot of wide-zone and more emphasis on actually stretching the ball, and having the ball go on the outside,” he said. “Whereas last year we were more cut-back, where everything was a lot of cut-back.” … Onwenu said that during his negotiations on the extension he signed this offseason, the plan was for him to remain at right tackle. “Through the whole process, we spoke about me playing tackle,” said Onwenu via the Boston Herald. “And even after I signed, that was the same thing. In my mind, I’m still playing right tackle.” … He was apparently asked about the prospect of playing left tackle and while he didn’t sound overly confident, he also didn’t rule it out. “This year? I wouldn’t say so, but definitely, with the practice and trying it out, I definitely think I could,” he said. … Tickets to Tom Brady’s Patriots Hall of Fame ceremony on June 12th apparently went quickly. According to reports, the event sold out not long after they became available for sale on Thursday, with the former Patriots quarterback set to be honored after he retired following the 2022 season. He’s apparently in the middle of getting comfortable with his new teammates. The former Patriots QB was spotted in a getaway with a group that also featured former teammate Rob Gronkowski and the rest of the Fox Sports staff in a recent photo posted by Charissa Thompson. He’s expected to begin his broadcasting career this fall with the network.
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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.
