Some Patriots news and notes on this Thursday:
Patriots Face a Bulked Up Joe Burrow Heading into Week 1
Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow sat down in a recent interview with MensHealth, talking about the upcoming season.
Here in New England, the date that clearly looms large on the Patriots 2024 schedule is the team’s week one match-up out in Cincinnati against Burrow and the Bengals, with some key questions still remaining heading into training camp.
Burrow’s a player who has definitely given them a tough time in the past, and it sounds like he’s been working hard this offseason to get stronger ahead of training camp. He said this offseason he’s put on weight, with the hope of seeing that additional bulk hopefully providing him some added durability after he’s taken his fair share of hits in his short time in the league.
“I put on 10 or 15 pounds since last season, which I’m hoping helps my body make it through the year. That’s the goal,” the 6’4″ QB out of LSU said during the interview. “It’s all about making sure my body is in tip-top shape, ready to go for Sundays.”
Burrow said his diet and hydration routine has been a big part of his offseason, saying that he’s drinking “five or six” bottles of water a day, while also going through his workouts with resistance bands and working on his core. He’s got a routine down when it comes to the exercises he feels helps his throwing motion, which is what he’s committed himself to.
“As far as throwing, [those exercises] would be anti-rotation of the core to Pallof press, Pallof walkouts, core stabilization with bands, Keiser twists, Russian twists—anything core-related,” said Burrow. “Then glutes. So: Banded walkouts, hamstring walkouts. That whole midsection torso area is our main focus.”
“It changes each week. Sometimes it’s high volume, low weight, sometimes it’s high weight, low volume. Before practice, I’m making sure to get my core activated just with very light weight, low reps. Making sure that’s it ready to go and contributed to the throwing motion that I need.”
As for his expectations for this season, he said he’s excited about what his club might be able to accomplish this year, given their roster.
“I’m really excited about our squad this year,” said Burrow. “I think we’re as deep as we ever been. My expectations are always to go out and win every game that we can. You’re not going to go out and be 17-0, but you’re going to go out and compete in every game and you’re going to get better throughout the season.”
“My goal week-to-week and day-to-day is to always just improve. If we continue improving, we’re going to be where we want to be by the end of the year.”
With an offense that features J’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, it will certainly be a tough challenge for the New England Patriots. Most fans likely remember the previous meeting in 2022, which came on Christmas Eve and saw the Bengals jump out to a massive 22-0 deficit, with New England outscoring Cincinnati 18-0 in the second half before coming up short in a 22-18 loss at Gillette Stadium.
Overall, Burrow completed 40-of-52 (76.9%) for 375 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions. In that game, his two key targets had plenty of success. Higgins amassed 128 yards on 8 receptions, while Chase hauled in 79 yards on 8 catches of his own.
But it was definitely a tale of two halves for Burrow. He completed 28-of-36 (77.8%) for 284 yards with three touchdowns and one interception in the first half. He was also 6-of-7 (85.7%) on third down for 71 yards and a touchdown over that span.
In the second half, New England’s defense shut him down. They held him to 12-of-16 (75%) for 91 yards, including just 1-of-4 for -1 yard on third down and an interception.
It’s clear massive changes were made in the locker room at halftime and Bill Belichick, as he has so many times over the years, likely played a key role there.
He’s obviously not here anymore, which as WEEI’s Andy Hart pointed out on NBC Sports Boston Wednesday night, remains a key question mark heading into the season.
“It was a strength for the team, so we’re just going to ignore the fact he was there?” said Hart. “And I don’t think he played nearly as key a role recently as he did maybe earlier in his tenure, but he’s still there. He’s still the ‘executive producer’ to say like, ‘That seems terrible, why don’t we reshoot that? Why don’t we do that differently? So you lose that. I think that is a concern for Jerod Mayo and DeMarcus Covington.”
Those are all valid points, especially not knowing how much input those guys had in real-time in recent years.
For now, that Week 1 date is what they’ll be working toward, and one would have to hope both Mayo and Covington will be able to ensure things will at least be a little more even this time around as the club tries to get off to a good start in 2024.
Goodell Speaks Out on Verdict
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has been fairly quiet since a jury found that the league violated antitrust laws, awarding a massive $4.7 billion judgment that will likely exceed $14 billion for their Sunday Ticket service.
In an interview with CNBC, Goodell said the league disagrees with the verdict and remains committed to fighting it “all the way” through the legal system.
“Well, we obviously disagree with the jury verdict and we are committed obviously to following the legal process,” Goodell told CNBC, via ProFootballTalk.com. “It’s a long process. We’re aware of that, but we feel very strongly about our position, our policies, particularly on media, that we make our — our sport available to the broadest possible audience. Sunday Ticket is just a complimentary product. So we’re committed to following the litigation, all the way and making sure that we get this right.”
One interesting aspect that was mentioned by Twitter user Eriq Gardner, who is a legal analyst and contributing writer for Puck.news, was that there’s one critical part of this process that is going to be a massive obstacle the league still faces as it tries to take the verdict through the appeal process.
“There’s a crucial aspect being overlooked: Everyone’s talking about how the case will meander through the appellate system,” writes Gardner. “But the NFL will probably need to post a substantial bond – as much as $14 billion – to halt collection efforts pending the appeal. How is this cash raised? Is the burden shared equally among owners? What impact would this have on the NFL’s revenue sharing with players, or on next year’s salary cap? I seriously have no idea, but these are huge issues.”
For now, Goodell may have emphasized their commitment to keep fighting with this litigation, but it sounds like they face a tough battle. As Gardner points out, it sounds like it’s a somewhat risky endeavor given the money at stake, and it’s a gamble the league – regardless of how much money it has – certainly can’t afford to lose.
Massive Crackdown Coming on Illegal Streaming?
Dov Kleiman broke down the cost to watch every NFL game this year, taking a look at the various services the league currently has an agreement with and breaking the costs down monthly.
He has the following:
The cost to watch every NFL game this year pic.twitter.com/22G4gAzPRR
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) July 11, 2024
He leaves out the cost of the additional Sunday Ticket cost with YouTubeTV (an additional $300 for the season, or $60 per month), but the above total certainly shows you how expensive it is to follow the league over the period of the NFL’s regular season and postseason.
Some on social media are firing back about the fact they watch all the games for “free” via various streaming sites, which the majority of are absolutely not legal.
Behind the scenes, this practice is likely going to come under massive fire, at least if recent history is any indication.
I received a DMCA takedown notice following the NBA postseason, with the league citing instances of when users previously posted links in our forum to various sites where people could watch the games illegally outside of normal channels.
This site was among hundreds of similar sites with forums contacted, with the league using a designation of “contributory infringement” of the links in question. That’s always been something that I’ve mentioned isn’t permitted here, and fortunately, there were single-digit links reported that fell into that category. Obviously, they were removed.
Whether or not sites with a much larger exposure (some had literally hundreds) will be affected beyond that, especially some who disagree with the designation, remains to be seen.
The NFL hasn’t come after sites in that fashion or to that extent to this point, at least not that I’ve heard from the handful of people I keep in touch with. But after nearly 25 years of running this place, if the NBA is beginning to really step this side of things up, one would have to believe the NFL will likely follow.
Add in the stakes and the financial burden that they’re finding themselves suddenly up against, and that’s an area that will most definitely be on their radar at some point moving forward.
The league seems to at least recognize that the landscape is rapidly changing and they’re potentially on the verge of losing control of the most critical aspect of their business.
That’s also probably why they’ll eventually spend whatever it takes since they clearly have the financial wherewithal – especially if they’re going to raise $14 billion to fight this suit – to stop at nothing with their efforts to shut this practice down.
Odds and Ends
Goodell also said during the interview ith CNBC that the league is considering allowing part ownership by private equity firms. “We have been very deliberate on this, just looking at our ownership policies in general as sports evolve, we want to make sure our policies reflect that,” said Goodell. “We have had a tremendous amount of interest and we believe it can make sense for us in a limited fashion, probably no more than 10% [Private Equity Ownership] of a team.” … Patriots salary cap expert Miguel Benzan recently weighed in on the Matthew Judon situation. While Judon is set to make $6.5 million in base salary in 2024, Benzan also notes that Judon’s got an additional $1 million in active roster bonuses available, with four of the seventeen classified as “likely to be earned.” He’s not necessarily out on Judon being extended, saying after the recent news, “Exchanging offers is a good thing. Was not expecting a deal to be done during the first set of negotiations.” … Benzan also proposed an extension for Davon Godchaux a couple of weeks ago, noting that Godchaux’s annual money after his extension in 2022 averaged $10.4 million, which was similar to what Hunter Henry – obviously a different player/position, but similar in age (near 30) – received this past offseason. It’s unknown exactly where the two sides stand, and the rumors surrounding internal frustration over what Christian Barmore received in his massive extension this offseason seem to be a factor both in his negotiations and with Judon’s. So, for now, we’ll just have to wait and see how it plays out. … NFL.com analyst Adam Rank took a look at New England’s roster yesterday, and as a Bears fan, he’s seen this show before when it comes to QBs out of North Carolina and he’s somewhat pessimistic on Drake Maye. “The Patriots used the third overall pick in the draft to select Drake Maye as the quarterback of the future. I’m a Bears fan. So, if you try to sell me on a promising QB prospect out of North Carolina, I’m going to need some convincing,” he writes. “Maye made 26 college starts, though. That’s twice as many as Mitchell Trubisky made with the Tar Heels.” He’s not wrong, and the Patriots certainly need Maye to pan out if they hope to get out of QB purgatory after a rough 2023. … Another recent fun fact pointed out on Twitter was that Kyle Shanahan appears to have a history-making hurdle in front of him. Following the 49ers’ Super Bowl LVIII loss, Kyle Shanahan became the fifth coach in NFL history to lose his first three Super Bowl appearances as a head coach or coordinator, per @NFLResearch. None of the previous four coaches ever won a Super Bowl. Ouch.
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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.
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To say one QB (Trubisky) is bad as taken from Carolina, then all are bad from that school is sorta silly no? Was Mac Jones the same NFL player as Tua and Tua and Mac the same as Jalen Hurts? No. All very different players and differing success stories. Is the N Carolina offense system so different than typical NFL offenses, that the jump to the NFL is exceedingly challenging vs other colleges? that would be relevant, however, there’s no tangible argument made as such.