Monday Patriots Notebook 7/1: News and Notes
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Some Patriots news and notes for this morning:
ESPN’s Mike Clay recently did a preseason breakdown of every single one of the NFL’s 32 teams, going position by position and putting together a ranking for every single group.
As expected, the New England Patriots came in favorably on defense, but on offense, the results were certainly different.
Clay had both New England’s quarterback room and wide receivers ranked among the bottom of the league, with the QBs coming in at 27th and the receivers last at 32nd:
QBs – 27th (Drake Maye, Jacoby Brissett, Joe Milton III)
WRs – 32nd (Demario Douglas, Kendrick Bourne, Ja’Lynn Polk, JuJu Smith-Schuster, K.J. Osborn)
Two interesting notes are the fact that in his mind, Bailey Zappe is out, with one other curious omission being rookie receiver Javon Baker, who didn’t make it into his starting line-up. He also obviously has Smith-Schuster – who many believe may not make the roster – on his list.
Meanwhile, New England’s group of tight ends came in 10th, with their offensive line coming in 16th. The running back group came in 18th.
TEs – 10th (Hunter Henry, Austin Hooper, Mitchell Wilcox, Jaheim Bell)
OL – 16th (Chukwama Okorafor, Cole Strange, David Andrews, Sidy Sow, Michael Onwenu)
RBs – 18th (Rhamondre Stevenson, Antonio Gibson, Kevin Harris, Jamycal Hasty)
On the offensive line, it’s obviously impossible for Clay to closely follow the situation at every position around the league, and his ranking for New England’s group reflects that.
He appears to be unaware that Strange is expected to miss half the season, while Sow has stepped into his role at left guard. He has Mike Onwenu back at right tackle, but that’s another situation that remains in question heading into training camp, as the club also worked rookie Caedan Wallace there, while Onwenu shifted back to right guard.
In a perfect world, Clay’s evaluation of that group would be pretty spot on if Strange were 100% healthy. But his injury definitely changes the landscape a bit heading into 2024, with a lot of questions still yet to be answered.
On defense, the Patriots are among the league’s best:
Safety – 10th (Kyle Dugger, Jabrill Peppers, Marte Mapu, Jaylinn Hawkins, Joshuah Bledsoe
CB – 15th (Christian Gonzalez, Jonathan Jones, Marcus Jones, Alex Austin, Shaun Wade)
Off-Ball LB – 12th (Ja’Whaun Bentley, Jahlani Tavai, Sione Takitaki, Christian Elliss, Joe Giles-Harris)
The defensive line and edge rusher situation remain question marks, and they ranked accordingly:
Edge Rusher – 21st (Matthew Judon, Anfernee Jennings, Keion White, Deatrich Wise Jr., Josh Uche)
Interior DL – 22nd (Christian Barmore, Davon Godchaux, Armon Watts, Daniel Ekuale, Jeremiah Pharms Jr.)
Two of the biggest concerns with the above will be the contracts of Judon and Godchaux, which each remain unresolved. There haven’t been any recent reports of progress on either front, and that could potentially be an issue in the coming months, depending on how things play out.
Meanwhile, White has been mentioned as a possible successor of Judon based on his performance in the spring, while Ekuale got off to a solid start in 2023 before an injury ruined his season. He’s an underrated player who will be fun to watch this year, as his absence definitely spoiled the momentum he had built prior to when he was lost for the year.
One final note, Clay does have the Patriots facing the most difficult schedule in the league this season, one spot ahead of the Bills, who he feels have the second toughest. He has the Atlanta Falcons ranked as the club heading into 2024 with the easiest road.
If there was ever a team teetering on the verge of chaos heading into 2024, the Miami Dolphins certainly feel like that team.
One big reason is the fact that the situation with Tua Tagovailoa remains in question, as the two sides have yet to come to an agreement on a new deal.
Tagovailoa, who is heading into the final year of his rookie contract after the club picked up his fifth-year option, isn’t exactly staying quiet. He was pretty vocal this spring about his feelings on the situation, and it’s clear he’s nervous and may know that his career is absolutely at a crossroads.
“I’ll tell you one thing, the market is the market,” Tagovailoa said via Ben Volin of the Boston Globe. “I’m not blind to people that are in my position that are getting paid. I’m not concerned about it, but there’s a lot of discussion that we’ve had that we just are trying to move that thing into the right direction where we can both be happy.”
He’s currently set to make $23.17 million heading into this season, more than half of the average amount we’ve seen other top guys around the league receive. It’s not hard to figure out why. He’s yet to be a guy who performs well down the stretch, piling together a 3-9 record in December and January.
That’s likely why he’s still sitting there without a new contract, with Tagovailoa admitting he’s “antsy” as things continue to play out.
Given what we’ve seen overall from the change on offense with Mike McDaniel for the Dolphins, it’s more likely that it will be the quarterback where the change will be made next spring should the Dolphins falter this season.
If that’s how things play out, it would see Tagovailoa go from being considered among the top QBs in the league with one of the best offenses, to potentially becoming the next player to fall from grace as he tries to establish himself elsewhere with a new franchise.
Needless to say, of all the teams who are under the most pressure this season, Maimi – and its quarterback – are most certainly on that list.
The Jaguars quietly saw themselves become cemented in their home town recently. According to the Boston Globe, the city of Jacksonville recently approved $775 million in improvements of Everbank Stadium, but more importantly, it included a 30-year lease. That means that aside from continuing to play a home game in London, they’re not going anywhere, shutting down previous rumors that they might relocate across the pond. … Mike Giardi of Boston Sports Journal added another interesting note from that, which is the fact the total renovation cost is $1.4 billion, with owner Shad Khan kicking in $650 million. That’s notable because in Carolina, where Charlotte just approved $800 in renovations to the Panthers’ Bank of America Stadium, owner David Tepper is only putting up $150 million. … Mike Reiss of ESPN pointed out on Sunday that the Patriots are making a change this year on their start times of training camp, with Jerod Mayo having the club practice at 11:00 am instead of 9:30 am, which had been Bill Belichick’s previous approach. Reiss believes pre-practice meetings and hotter temperatures might have been the plan for Mayo, who is obviously heading into his first camp as head coach. … While most Patriots fans were pretty upset when the club fell to the New York Giants to spoil that amazing 2007 regular season, it sounds like one player on the Giants didn’t do much celebrating. Former punter Steve Weatherford recently admitted that despite what he felt was ‘the greatest game’ of his life, he fell into a depression after it was over. “The night we won the Super Bowl was one of the most depressing nights of my life… Let me explain why,” Weatherford wrote on Facebook. “On February 5th, 2012 we played the Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI. The game was in Indianapolis just 47 miles from my hometown. My family, my parents, and my friends were all coming and whoever couldn’t would be watching on TV and I actually had the greatest game of my life. I couldn’t have performed better and we won 21-17. But after all the celebrations and parties were over, something came over me. I was sitting in my hotel room and a deep wave of depression came over me. All the early mornings, all the years of hard work, all the sacrifice… and I didn’t feel different. I tried to fill the void inside of me with winning and success but all it did was leave me feeling empty. That’s when I decided that I couldn’t stay in the NFL much longer and needed to find a deeper sense of purpose.” He played a handful of seasons with the Giants before finishing out his career with the Jets in 2015. He’s since moved on to helping others “find their true calling.” He claims that’s now his mission in his retirement. “I could’ve stayed in the NFL, I could’ve continued growing my supplement business, or been on TV but there is nothing that lights me up more than helping men live a life on purpose,” he said. “That’s why I am going to spend a lot of 2024 taking tribes of men through a 90-day transformational Intensive based on my experience.”
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Ratings by unit are sorta interesting, but for the pats it’s not about September or Oct or December of 2024. They have a ton of young and or new people at positions, like Sidy Sow, Pop Douglas, Gonzalez, Marcus Jones and even Strange has not been on the field enough. New WRs are almost all young. Plus a new offensive system, and many new coaches. So the pats would be graded down for that youth reason.. Just like QB is rated low. The pats have the seeds of youth planted, and yea they won’t be great short term. But that… Read more »