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Patriots' Offseason: Last Days of the Dynasty?

Re: Patriots' Offseason: Last Days of the Dynasty?

ESPN.com's AFC East blogger, Tim Graham, dropped this somewhat matter-of-factly into the middle of his recap of the Jets' second preseason game:
When I saw Sanchez at SUNY Cortland, I could justify the occasional mistake, considering he's playing against the NFL's top-rated defense from last year. But the more I see of him in preseason games, the less encouraged I am that he has figured it out. He's way off target and telegraphs too many throws. He also seems to have some rookie panic still in his game.
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I've seen both Jets PS games and I was suprised by this comment. Sanchez has been dropped into as good a spot as any highly rated QB coming out of college could possibly be dropped. He's getting top-five-pick money but he didn't join a 5-11 team -- he joined a team that had finished above .500 two of the previous three years, had a strong, stable offensive line and running game, and the team went out and acquired two first-round-talent wide WRs for him. He has to succeed. And in the end he probably will. But it would be great if he didn't.:)
 
Re: Patriots' Offseason: Last Days of the Dynasty?

In other news, Pats acquire OL Quinn Ojinnaka from Falcons for an undisclosed draft choice.
 
Re: Patriots' Offseason: Last Days of the Dynasty?

Well, a rookie QB carved up the first-string defense. It looks like they had Butler covering the slot and he was repeatedly beaten (he's had a tough preseason IMO). He coudn't even cover the Rams' third-string receivers. Frankly it looked a lot more like last year's passive "let's-hope-they-make-a-mistake" defense. They may have intentionally gone vanilla to get a certain look at guys, but the point is that they lost the individual matchups.

I think the offense is going to be pretty good. Hopefully they see the field. Last night the Pats had the ball for under 17 minutes.
 
Re: Patriots' Offseason: Last Days of the Dynasty?

Jason A said:
Well, a rookie QB carved up the first-string defense. It looks like they had Butler covering the slot and he was repeatedly beaten (he's had a tough preseason IMO). He coudn't even cover the Rams' third-string receivers. Frankly it looked a lot more like last year's passive "let's-hope-they-make-a-mistake" defense. They may have intentionally gone vanilla to get a certain look at guys, but the point is that they lost the individual matchups.

I think the offense is going to be pretty good. Hopefully they see the field. Last night the Pats had the ball for under 17 minutes.
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I would think in a real game you'd blitz a rookie QB all day, so perhaps they were getting a look at how guys stand out in a vanilla defense. Either way the secondary still concerns me. Really wish they would have done something (trade, free agency, whatever) to shore up that position with a top notch guy. Bodden should be covering the other team's #2 receiver, not matching up against the league's best.
 
Re: Patriots' Offseason: Last Days of the Dynasty?

The sun will rise, the sun will set, and the Colts will find something to whine about.
Colts quarterback Peyton Manning and G.M. Bill Polian are still steaming over the illegal snap penalties that were called in last week's preseason game, saying that the league's decision to move the umpires to the offensive side of the field -- and require the offense to wait to snap the ball until the umpire is in position -- could devastate their offense.

"I am dead-set against the penalty,'' Polian told Peter King of SI.com. "It is insane. If I knew it would be this way, I'd have voted against it, and not only that, I'd have crusaded against it.''

Manning thinks the Colts' comeback against the Patriots last year -- the most memorable game of the regular season, thanks to Bill Belichick's surprising decision to go for it on a crucial late fourth down -- never would have happened if the Colts had been barred from snapping the ball until the umpire got behind the running back, as the new rule requires.

"If we had this rule last year,'' Manning said, "there's no way we catch up in that New England game. We were down, what, 21 points in the fourth quarter? We wouldn't have had enough time to run enough plays to catch up. But forget about that game. Let's chart all the comeback wins where a team runs the hurry-up in the fourth quarter. How many of those games would have ended up the same way -- or would the quarterbacks have had enough time to run enough plays to come back and win?''
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Re: Patriots' Offseason: Last Days of the Dynasty?

Rover said:
Bodden should be covering the other team's #2 receiver, not matching up against the league's best.
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He won't be doing either. Today he was placed on season-ending IR, joining Ty Warren and Torry Holt.

Defensive backfield will be Butler, McCourty, Wilhite, and Wheatley. Maybe they'll try to get Springs back?

:(
 
Re: Patriots' Offseason: Last Days of the Dynasty?

john g said:
Dear Peyton,

Don't get behind......:D

Signed,

BB:
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So, they lose to the Pats and the rules had to change, now they lose to the Saints and the rules have to change. Maybe they'll get so mad they pack up and move to Canada in the middle of the night.


Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
 
Re: Patriots' Offseason: Last Days of the Dynasty?

Jason A said:
He won't be doing either. Today he was placed on season-ending IR, joining Ty Warren and Torry Holt.

Defensive backfield will be Butler, McCourty, Wilhite, and Wheatley. Maybe they'll try to get Springs back?

:(
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What about Meriweather?
 
Re: Patriots' Offseason: Last Days of the Dynasty?

Sorry, I meant to say DBs. Meriweather, Chung, McGowan, and Sanders are in the mix back there at safety. They've used some three-safety sets this preseason. Maybe we'll see more of that? Wheatley actually got hurt in the Rams game and it looked somewhat serious, so you have to think they'll be scanning the waiver wire for DBs.

Wonder if Duane Starks is still available . . .
 
Re: Patriots' Offseason: Last Days of the Dynasty?

Jason A said:
He won't be doing either. Today he was placed on season-ending IR, joining Ty Warren and Torry Holt.

Defensive backfield will be Butler, McCourty, Wilhite, and Wheatley. Maybe they'll try to get Springs back?

:(
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Really big problem. Not that Bodden was great, but he was decent. I can't honestly say that about anybody else back there. This one is really on Belichick for not addressing a glaring problem that's been evident for the last several years. You'd think after watching the Colts and Saints games last year he would have taken drastic action to shore up the secondary, but I'm not sure why we're not paying Mankins if we're also not paying to have any impact defensive players not named Wilfolk? With all those rookies and guys still in their initial contracts for both the D-line and the LB's, isn't there some money available to grab a top corner? If they can't shore this up immediately, its another lost season.

http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/sports/rap_sheet/?p=8510&srvc=home&position=recent

Check this out. I read the last sentence and haven't been this scared since I watched the 1st Friday the 13th movie when I was little...
 
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Re: Patriots' Offseason: Last Days of the Dynasty?

Well, they drafted McCourty when a lot of people (me, actually :o ) said they had more pressing needs. They drafted Butler last year, and they drafted Wheatley and Wilhite in 2008. These are all recent moves, and they're not seventh-rounders out of Southeast Louisiana State (McCourty was a first, Butler and Wheatley seconds, and Wilhite a fourth).

IMO, the issue here isn't that they haven't tried to address this over time. The issue is that the 2006-2008 drafts set the franchise back at least 3-5 years. And as much as some people want to scapegoat Scott Pioli, Bill Belichick runs the football operations of the New England Patriots, just as he has ever since he left the NYJs for Foxborough in early 2000. The buck stops with him. He picked all these guys, and they better be able to play or this team has 6-10 or 7-9 written all over it.

I'm going to take an optimistic view for a change and go with 9-7 this year. I actually like the 09-10 drafts. The offense should play well, though unfortunately they're likely to be on the field for 25-26 minutes a game, tops, as the defense gives up easy completions on third and three. But Belichick has proven himself to be a great game-planner who allows his team to compete every week. I think they can win nine games and be a player in weeks 16 and 17. Maybe they sneak into the playoffs and give the young guys some experience?
 
Re: Patriots' Offseason: Last Days of the Dynasty?

pirate said:
So, they lose to the Pats and the rules had to change, now they lose to the Saints and the rules have to change. Maybe they'll get so mad they pack up and move to Canada in the middle of the night.
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If only . . . :)

Where's that Mayflower van when you really need it?;)
 
Re: Patriots' Offseason: Last Days of the Dynasty?

Jason A said:
Well, they drafted McCourty when a lot of people (me, actually :o ) said they had more pressing needs. They drafted Butler last year, and they drafted Wheatley and Wilhite in 2008. These are all recent moves, and they're not seventh-rounders out of Southeast Louisiana State (McCourty was a first, Butler and Wheatley seconds, and Wilhite a fourth).

IMO, the issue here isn't that they haven't tried to address this over time. The issue is that the 2006-2008 drafts set the franchise back at least 3-5 years. And as much as some people want to scapegoat Scott Pioli, Bill Belichick runs the football operations of the New England Patriots, just as he has ever since he left the NYJs for Foxborough in early 2000. The buck stops with him. He picked all these guys, and they better be able to play or this team has 6-10 or 7-9 written all over it.

I'm going to take an optimistic view for a change and go with 9-7 this year. I actually like the 09-10 drafts. The offense should play well, though unfortunately they're likely to be on the field for 25-26 minutes a game, tops, as the defense gives up easy completions on third and three. But Belichick has proven himself to be a great game-planner who allows his team to compete every week. I think they can win nine games and be a player in weeks 16 and 17. Maybe they sneak into the playoffs and give the young guys some experience?
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IMHO I think last year proved his gameplanning is useless without talented personnel. Look, Belichick is the best personnel man/coach we've had in these parts since Red Auerbach. However, I worry sometimes that he's a little too confident in thinking that the right defensive scheme can overcome his players shortfalls.

As far as the record goes, the O will allow them to beat weaker teams, but I can't see this D stopping the Mannings, Brees, that stupid Miami offense, etc. What I will say is that I'm looking forward to seeing McCourty, Butler, Cunningham, and Spikes on the field.
 
Re: Patriots' Offseason: Last Days of the Dynasty?

Veteran offensive lineman Eric Ghiaciuc was released today, the Patriots announced. Ghiaciuc, who had the most NFL experience in the battle for the backup center/guard job, was a longshot to make the 53-man roster.

The competition for the top center/guard backup spot is one of the final roster decisions the Patriots figured to be evaluating Thursday night against the Giants. Second-year players Ryan Wendell and Rich Ohrnberger and rookie Ted Larsen are the top candidates. Ohrnberger, the 2009 fourth-round draft choice, started at right guard in the preseason finale.
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Ohrnberger can't block anybody. I watched the first three preseason games and he didn't block a single guy the whole time. Who knows what they're doing?
 
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Re: Patriots' Offseason: Last Days of the Dynasty?

News on today's cuts is trickling in. DL Lewis was cut yesterday, which might be an early signal that they're leaning toward going young. Cutting Lewis probably means 7th-round draft choice Brandon Deaderick makes the 53.

LB Eric Alexander is the most notable cut so far, though they are only down to 68 on my depth chart so they have another 15 guys to go. Alexander was mostly a special teams guy but ended up playing a key role in the 2006 AFCCG loss to Indy, as he was pushed into duty late and failed to stay in the same zip code as an obscure third-string TE on the Colts's final drive, giving up a 30-yard gain. Good riddance.
 
Re: Patriots' Offseason: Last Days of the Dynasty?

They made a couple trades, placed McGowan on IR (that's eight guys out for the year), cut a bunch of players, and they're now at 54 (Ojinnaka is suspended for week one so he doesn't count until the Monday after the first game). Not only are they younger, but they also leaned heavily toward guys under contract past this season. I don't want to read too much into it, but where have I heard the term "bridge year" before?:eek: ;)

QB (2): Brady (10), Hoyer (11)
RB (5): Maroney (10), Faulk (10), Taylor (10), Morris (10), Green-Ellis (10)
TE (3): Crumpler (11), Gronkowski (13), Hernandez (13)
WR (6): Moss (10), Welker (11), Edelman (12), Tate (12), Price (13), Slater (11)
OL (9): Koppen (11), Wendell (10), Light (10), Vollmer (12), LeVoir (11), Ojinnaka (10), Neal (11), Connolly (11), Kaczur (12)
DL (7): Wilfork (14), G. Warren (10), Brace (12), Pryor (12), Wright (12), Deaderick (13), Love (11)
LB (10): Banta-Cain (12), Cunningham (13), Ninkovich (11), Murrell (11), Mayo (12), Spikes (13), Guyton (10), McKenzie (12), Fletcher (12), White (10)
CB (5): Butler (12), McCourty (14), Wilhite (11), Wheatley (11), Arrington (10)
S (4): Meriweather (11), Chung (12), Sanders (11), Page (10)
K (1): Gostkowski (14)
P (1): Mesko (13)
LS (1): Ingram (12)

IR: Bodden (13), Warren (13), Weston (13), McGowan (10), Holt (10), Barrett (10), Lockett (10), Richard (10)

RFA: Mankins (H)
 
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