Patriots News 6-23, Stevenson Gets His Payday
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Good morning. Here are your Patriots news and notes for June 23. We’ll discuss the Rhamondre Stevenson four-year deal below and give my take on it. But suffice it to say that the Patriots have once again opened their checkbook to pay one of their own to stay.
Congratulations to the Celtics for winning their 18th NBA Championship, a league record. Boston turned out in force for yet another duck boat parade. Seeing those, regardless of the sport, never gets old. Here’s to #19.
The paparazzi are now following Bill Belichick and his girlfriend Jordan Hudson, a former beauty pageant and cheerleader who is only 24 years old. Belichick is 48 years older than Hudson, but honestly, who cares? It was an eye-opener at first, but the pair have been together for some time now.
Privacy will be challenging for the pair, and their relationship is their business, not the media’s or the fans. Whoever thought that the paparazzi would be following Bill around? Anyone? Bueller?
Training Camp Questions—The OL: The start of training is still over a month away, but there are still many online discussions about the offensive line’s makeup. It remains the biggest question mark for the team in 2024.
As we said at the end of the minicamp, we won’t know how good (or bad) the offensive line is until the pads come on. But the team was putting in some intriguing combinations during the spring.
One combination that I liked was putting Caedan Wallace at right tackle, kicking Michael Onwenu back inside to right guard, leaving David Andrews at center, Nick Leverett at left guard, subbing for the injured Cole Strange, with Chuks Okarafor at left tackle.
And I’ll repeat this again. Don’t forget about Calvin Anderson at either left tackle or as the swing tackle. Anderson has the most experience at LT of any player on the roster. He has also started at left tackle in the NFL.
He was penciled in as the starting left tackle before he contracted malaria just before he got to training camp. Now he’s 100 percent healthy. We’ll see.
One key area to watch in training camp is the competition among the offensive linemen, usually on the far end of the practice fields. Bring your binoculars.
Naheim Bell: I am very excited to see the rookie 7th-round pick from Florida State during training camp and the preseason. The offense under Alex Van Pelt will feature a lot of tight end usage (or tight endage, as Miss Claire Cooper says).
The Patriots brought back Hunter Henry, who is as reliable as they have been when he’s healthy. They also brought in Austin Hooper this spring. Hooper isn’t the same player he was a few years ago when he had a couple of 70-catch years with the Falcons.
Bell is far from a perfect prospect. He has issues with drops and isn’t the size of a typical in-line “Y” tight end. But what he does have is versatility. He’s electric with the ball in his hands. And he’s lined up in the backfield with 73 carries when he was a member of the South Carolina Gamecocks.
As a movable chess piece, he could be a big part of this year’s offense. If anyone can find a role for Bell, Van Pelt could. Especially with a very good tight end in Henry already in place. Bell could present matchup issues for opposing defenses.
Aaron Rodgers/Julian Edelman: The former Patriots wide receiver, now with a successful podcast, took issue with Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers skipping the team’s mandatory minicamp. Edelman was a guest on Colin Cowherd’s podcast on Friday, calling Rodgers’ decision “a bad look.”
“I guarantee there’s four of five guys, six, seven, eight, nine guys in that locker room sitting there like, ‘Where’s he at?’” Edelman said. “Now, if they start 4-0, no one’s going to care, but this is the NFL. I think it’s a bad look for your leader, for whatever reason, to go and miss an unexcused absence.”
Jets head coach Robert Saleh said Rodgers’ absence was unexcused but that his reason for skipping minicamp was important to Rodgers.
Rumors are swirling that Rodgers’ absence was somewhere using ayahuasca, the psychoactive substance that he has openly used and talked about in the past. Albert Breer told Rich Eisen and Eisen’s listeners “Open your minds” to figure out where Rodgers was.
“I mean, I was with Tom Brady in his 25th or 23rd year, and he started missing OTAs here and there,” Edelman added, “but he was still there. He never missed a mandatory minicamp. I just thought it was a bad look.”
The take here is if Rodgers wants to attend one of these “events,” that is his business, but the dates that minicamps are scheduled are known far in advance. When you’re supposed to lead a franchise desperate for a Super Bowl to the promised land, shouldn’t you be there for the minicamp, which was mandatory?
Especially when you’re coming from an injury that limited your first season in NY to four plays? But when it comes to the Jets, nothing is ever surprising.
Patriots 4th & 2 Podcast: This past week, we discussed the latest news from Foxboro in our PatsFans.com podcast.
Derek Havens and I invited Tom Brady’s old buddy Jay Flannery (The Beav) from North Andover and Michigan to the podcast. To talk about what else? Seriously, it was fantastic to catch up with Jay. He is a great guy and knows his stuff. Please check it out.
Russ Francis/Chuck Fairbanks: The former Patriot tight end and head coach should be in the Patriots team Hall of Fame, and the fact that Francis isn’t in is an absolute travesty. Francis and the Raiders’ Dave Casper changed the game with how teams used the tight end position. This will be discussed in our Sunday posts until it happens. Casper is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Francis’ numbers stand up well against Casper’s, yet he isn’t even in the team’s HOF.
The Patriots have signed another one of their core players to keep him in New England for the foreseeable future. Running back Rhamondre Stevenson, who hinted that a new deal was close to happening during the spring workouts, reportedly has signed a new four-year extension worth $36 million with $17 million fully guaranteed, including an $8 million signing bonus.
Stevenson now has the seventh-richest running back contract in the NFL. He is in the final year of his rookie contract that he signed when he was drafted out of Oklahoma in the 2021 NFL Draft.
“I think he’s one of the better backs in the league, no doubt about it,” head coach Jerod Mayo said during the team’s minicamp. “I’m excited to see what he does this season, and look, he’s earned everything he gets.”
Stevenson is the latest Patriot to be retained by the new VP of Player Personnel, Eliot Wolf. This offseason, the team gave some long-term security to Christian Barmore, Mike Onwenu, Kyle Dugger, Hunter Henry, Kendrick Bourne, Anfernee Jennings, David Andrews, and now Stevenson.
Many have questioned whether Stevenson would have received this compensation if Bill Belichick had remained at the helm. It is doubtful. However, many have also questioned whether Stevenson was overpaid.
It is a legitimate question; however, under Alex Van Pelt’s offensive philosophy, they want to run the ball, mixing in gap runs and wide-zone running. This will open up play-action passes.
And Stevenson is a very good back who can run between tackles and catch the ball out of the backfield. He had a good 2022 with decent OL play. However, 2023 was a disaster for the offense, especially the offensive line. But that doesn’t change the fact that Stevenson is a perfect back to run AVP’s run-centric attack.
Because of the OL issues which have been ongoing for at least 3-4 years, Stevenson is very underrated in the NFL. The team got a James White type of back in Antonio Gibson, a change of pace guy who can run and is a good receiver out of the backfield. Now they need a complementary big back who can take some of the onus off of Stevenson. Is that back on the roster? We’ll soon find out.
I really liked that Stevenson showed up for OTAs and minicamp in great shape. And he has spent the offseason watching film of Nick Chubb, so that he gets a better feel for Alex Van Pelts’ new offensive system. The team will run more outside zone concepts this year. I know they tried that with Matt Patricia and Joe Judge, but with Van Pelt and Scott Peters, hopefully they’ll have a better way of teaching it.
But this was a great contract for Stevenson. If he can stay healthy and gets decent blocking, it could be a great one for the Patriots. What it does do, is to show the players in the locker room, that the team will pay its players that put their nose to the grindstone and keep working hard. And that is important not only for the players already in the locker room, but to potential free agents that they may court in the days ahead.
Lions great Barry Sanders announced that he underwent a health scare related to his heart over Father’s Day weekend on a social media post.
“It was unexpected and served as a reminder of the importance of staying vigilant about our physical well-being, even when we are feeling fine.
“I am grateful for the amazing doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals for providing me with needed care. My family and I are thankful for your prayers and support during this time.
“Per my doctors’ recommendation, I am taking this opportunity to prioritize my health and well-being. I appreciate your understanding and continued support.”
Sanders is arguably one of the most electric playmakers ever. His excellence goes far beyond mere numbers. I remember watching him run through almost the entire Patriots’ defense. It was one of those plays where you have to tip your cap to the opposing player.
Like Jim Brown, Sanders left the game while still at the height of his powers. We all here wish him all the best in his recovery.
Former Patriot QB Malik Cunningham is making the switch to wide receiver. With Lamar Jackson as the starting quarterback, Cunningham’s snaps at quarterback would be few and far between. But after some initial hesitation, he’s all in.
“At first, I looked at it as like, ‘Dang man, I want to be a quarterback,'” Cunningham said while appearing on “The Lounge” podcast. “But at the same time, you have to do what’s best for the team, and that’s how I looked at it. I was like, ‘Hey, I can make plays for the quarterbacks out there when I get the ball in space.’ So, I considered it a plus, not a fail.
“I believe in myself and my ability. Yeah, I can play quarterback. But that’s now what they need me to do right now. They need me to do something else. I’m the type of guy, whatever it takes for the team to win.”
Cunningham added that his experience as a quarterback would aid in his transition, which he said was simply a pause in his quarterback journey, not the end.
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“I talked to players about the ability to be uncomfortable doing things. You have to go through growth pains. You have to be uncomfortable to get comfortable. Making sure we thrive and not be comfortable. That’s how I am, and that’s how I want our players to be.”
Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo on how he sees his team traversing the ups and downs of an NFL season.
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“Talent sets the floor; Character sets the ceiling.” Bill Belichick
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Nice article, especially in the quiet time before camp. Rhamondre Stephenson: $9M/year for a RB is steep. Most RBs don’t last long in the NFL, and Stephenson is a contact/thumper between the tackles runner. Do they even get a solid year 3,4 from him on that contract is an intrigue to me. I just hope that beyond the $17M guaranteed, there’s a lot of incentive based pay and ability for the team to dissolve the contract along the way. I’m happy to see Steve B (author here) mentioned Calvin Anderson. He’s a proven/known commodity in the NFL, and so snaps… Read more »
Malik Cunningham. My read on this is the Ravens pulled a Lucy (Charlie Brown) on him. They dangled a chance at QB to him, to get him to jump teams. Then pulled the football away on him. The pats had pretty much seen he had promise as a receiver. He was highly raw and needed probably 2-3 years (Edleman took that). My guess is Cunningham will become a talent, and the Raven’s snatched him with a Lucy move.
Great point Jim, if he can play WR, then it would be possible to get him some snaps moving around the formation. Thanks for the comments, much appreciated