Some Patriots news and notes for this morning:
Strange to Miss Significant Time
Third-year New England Patriots offensive lineman Cole Strange is coming off of late-season knee surgery and it sounds like it may be a while before he next sees the field.
According to MassLive’s Mark Daniels, Strange’s status heading into this season is in doubt, which could potentially see him sidelined until midseason. Daniels reports that he’s likely going to miss “half the season,” which somewhat coincides with head coach Jerod Mayo’s comments about the veteran’s situation being “month-to-month” when asked about him earlier this week.
“Yeah, that’s an interesting one,” said Mayo on Monday on Strange. “He’s another guy … normally, we say day by day. He’s more of a, let’s say, week by week, or we want to go month by month if you want to. But he’s working hard. He’s doing his rehab. He’s here every day. He’s in the meeting room, so I’m happy where he is.”
The former Chattanooga standout initially suffered the knee injury last preseason, going down while battling against former defensive lineman Lawrence Guy during the first padded practice of training camp last August. It lingered coming out of camp, with Strange spending the first eight weeks of 2023 on the injury report as a limited participant in practice.
Strange missed the opener against the Eagles, but he came back and played the next two weeks, playing in 100% of the snaps against Miami while only seeing 61% of the snaps against the Jets.
He was then inactive for three straight weeks before being active in Week 7 against the Bills, with Strange finally coming off the injury report for good in Week 8 ahead of their match-up against Miami. It’s safe to say he likely wasn’t necessarily 100% healthy, but he was seemingly a full participant from that point forward, so his ailment flew under the radar as he continued toughing it out.
Despite the eight weeks he spent on the injury report, he never missed a practice (he was a ‘limited’ participant). Tom Curran of NBC Sports Boston reported coming out of preseason that the initial knee injury he dealt with in training camp required surgery, but Strange elected to play through it, toughing it out for the majority of the season.
Unfortunately, he seemingly injured it further during the club’s Week 15 loss against the Chiefs, which saw the young lineman get carted off the field.
Now it appears set to affect his status for 2024. That’s unfortunate, given his impact on the ground game and his toughness as part of an offensive line that was certainly a little nastier with him in the line-up.
Fields Situation in Chicago was Toxic
There was a lot of discussion this offseason from people who believed the Patriots should have potentially been in the mix for former Bears quarterback Justin Fields, but a recent report certainly makes the club’s decision not to go that route look a little wiser.
According to a report from NFL.com’s John Breech, he was part of a quarterback room that became toxic, and part of it seems to be to his detriment.
The Bears brought in two veterans in both Andy Dalton and Nick Foles, with the two having been experienced and fairly successful players in the league. In theory, having two veterans to help the young rookie appeared to be a smart idea on paper. However, Fields apparently often ignored whatever guidance they tried to provide, leading to frustration from his fellow quarterbacks.
Former Bears director of player personnel Josh Lucas said earlier this offseason that Fields essentially wasted the help of the two players, which he believes didn’t help the situation.
“The part you don’t like about it is that there’s a teachable moment in every point of practice,” Lucas said. “There’s teachable moments in the building during the day, how you carry yourself as a quarterback. There’s teachable moments at press conferences. There’s teachable moments every snap on Sunday. When you’ve got two guys that have won as much as Nick and seen as much as Andy, and you don’t take that information in, because you’re a little standoffish and a little abrasive, you’re wasting that opportunity.”
Foles and Fields’ relationship appeared to be where things were the most tense. It apparently reached a point where the two essentially “could not stand each other,” which only further complicated the situation.
Another report by Tyler Dunne of Go Long revealed a moment that summed up their relationship, which reportedly “reached rock bottom” following a discussion between the two where Foles was trying to teach something to Fields, only to turn around and realize that Fields wasn’t paying attention.
That’s something that will absolutely infuriate any veteran player who is trying to help a younger teammate, and it definitely explains how things reached such a low point for the Bears in recent seasons.
Now, Fields is in Pittsburgh, having been traded this offseason. Hopefully he’s learned from the mistakes he made in Chicago, with Fields now set to compete at quarterback with fellow newcomer, Russell Wilson.
However, from a locker room standpoint, if the reports are accurate, it feels like New England definitely made a wise choice by not getting involved in bringing him to Foxboro.
Odds and Ends
Keion White spoke to reporters on Monday and said that the environment is a bit different. He noted the change from Bill Belichick to Mayo is notable, with things a little lighter compared to previous offseasons. “We don’t got Bill cursing us out every play anymore, but it’s still pretty similar,” said White via Doug Kyed of the Boston Herald. However, he also said he misses Belichick, having only gotten to play for him for one season. “I miss it,” said the former 2022 second-round pick (46th overall). “I like Bill. He’s my type of coach, like a hard-ass. I like that. I respond well to things like that. But Mayo’s done a pretty good job, too. It’s all different. Mayo’s doing a really good job of staying true to himself, not trying to fill somebody else’s shoes, but create his own path, and I really respect that.” … Kyle Dugger recounted to reporters this week was somewhat of a tense offseason, having been given the transition tag by the Patriots ahead of free agency. However, Dugger recalled the moment he got the call from his agent, which gave him a long-awaited sigh of relief. “I was just like, ‘What do you want?’ A little agitated,” Dugger said Monday via Andrew Callahan of the Boston Herald. “But once the news was told to me, I was obviously excited. I went right back to work.” The veteran safety went on to say the news allowed him to put his focus on preparing for 2024, and he’s excited for what’s next. “It’s just a relief, honestly,” he said. “It’s nothing you can completely ignore, as much as you try to, if I’m being honest. That’s always kind of sitting there. As much as you try and focus on the field and other things like that. But once you can come to an agreement, it just allows you to get back and put all your focus on the field, the work, and everything going on that will help you play better going into the new season.” … Christian Barmore was another player who got a contract extension this offseason, and he plans on stepping things up after what was already an impressive 2023 campaign. “My goal is to take my game to another level, and just be bigger than ever. Be a baller,” he told reporters. “Let my game speak for itself. Just doing everything my coaches need me to do and being the guy for my teammates.” …
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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.
