-----The Official New England Patriots 2018 Season Thread - (14-5) - 6 Time Super Bowl CHAMPS!!!

[DeadsetAce]

nice way to start the season with the win

that went A LOT better than i expected. part of it is Tom-Josh being Tom-Josh...but guys like Dorsett and Patterson really took to their roles and made some damn nice (and very KEY) plays. Gronk was obviously Gronk and James White continues to prove that he's a top 3 (maybe better) pass catching RB in the league. doesn't really matter who is out and who is in, Brady will keep this team competitive. it's amazing to see. OL did tremendous against the Texans and that front.

the defense was A LOT better than i expected. they gave up a lot of rushing yards to Blue and Miller, but i assume part of that was them trying to not over commit to pursuit with how big a threat Watson is. the linebacking corp looks WAY better with Bentley in there. secondary was solid....the Texans really had no wiiiiiiide open receivers running wild. refreshing to see. Gilmore really put the clamps on Hopkins.

all in all, good start to the year. next week is going to be tough facing that defense again. hopefully we can force Bortles into some critical mistakes this time around rather than rely on a road comeback late. better for my heart

 

[getback]

 

[getback]

Looking at the schedule again and realizing how many primetime games we have in the first half of the season.

@ Lions
vs. Colts
vs. Chiefs
@ Bills
vs. Packers

 

[DeadsetAce]

Looking at the schedule again and realizing how many primetime games we have in the first half of the season.

@ Lions
vs. Colts
vs. Chiefs
@ Bills
vs. Packers

i really don't like prime time games, honestly. i like watching football in prime time stress free

 

[jham15]

Torn Acl for hill. Really sucks for him because he looked so good.
Once Michel is back I think we’ll be fine as a team tho.

 

[DeadsetAce]

here is some RB help...nothing to get TOO excited about tho

 

[DeadsetAce]

 

[getback]

Not a fan of playing in Florida

This felt like a typical Miami game the whole time.

Good to see Sony out there and getting in the mix immediately though. That's one positive I'm taking from today.

I would give the defense a little credit for attempting to claw back and making a few plays in the heat and all that. But nah. You can't get carved up like that by Blake Bortles and co. Out there looking like Drew Brees.

 

[DeadsetAce]

Sony and White the only positives. thought Brady did as much as you could really do out there short of another ATL SB style comeback. our defense really gave us no chance. belichick not addressing the middle of the defense and not committing to getting to the QB in the offseason is GLARING right now. it's going to kill us all year and this stage is not really fixable, specifically the lack of speed on defense and in the linebacking corp. offensively, not having a deep threat (a true one like say, Brandin ****ing Cooks) is gonna hurt. but hey, belichick the genius, right? **** that dude...still holding salty about Jimmy.


on to DET...time to blow Patrcia's doors off. i hope

 

[jham15]

A loss/struggle game was pretty much expected yesterday. An early season game on the road in that weather verse a great defense is always that way.

Still doesn’t take away feeling pretty awful about the game.
The defense is exactly the same as the last few years. Bill has done nothing to address are weaknesses and no one outside of pats fans will ever call him out for it. Brady will have to play perfect again for us to make a deep run.

The offense didn’t play too bad. Not much you can do when mcdaniels is calling a game like that. The conservative play calling and constant running on 2nd and long and 3rd downs is getting old. I know we don’t have the weapons on the outside but I’d rather lose with the ball in Brady’s hands than playing scared.

I agree on the positives with white and Michel. Sony showed some flashes which is great because Burkhead looks awful so far. It’s crazy how much White has improved since his rookie season. He is by far are most consistent offensive weapon.

Overall I think we’ll be fine, just disappointing we have to deal with the same defensive issues that we’ve known about for the past few years.

 

[getback]

Pats are giving Britt another workout

 

[da hen]

Moss 2.0 coming

Let’s go!!!!

 

[getback]

 

[nikekid6]

LETSSSS GOOOOOO

 

[getback]

offensively, not having a deep threat (a true one like say, Brandin ****ing Cooks) is gonna hurt.

Ask and you shall receive

 

[ggarvinxx3]

Goat to Gordon

 

[jham15]

 

[DeadsetAce]

i'm excited about it but hope we actually see him on the field

tempering expectations for now (sorry to be a downer )

 

[rolaholic]

Hoping they'll be getting a motivated and focused Gordon since this'll probably be his last chance if it doesn't work out. Definitely toning down expectations at the offset but man,I have to admit I'm pretty excited about the potential threat he could offer deep

Beats having the ghost of Kenny Britt, *insert scrappy/lunchpail WR* or Corey Coleman any day of the week

Just hoping he manages to get it together mentally,physically dude is shredded and looks to be in amazing shape. That hamstring 'injury' is seemingly non existent now too a cording to reports

Think Hoody's military like team structure might be the best setting for him at this point in his career.

 

[DeadsetAce]

yeah...hoping someone can take him under their wing a bit (*cough cough D-Mac*). keep him focused.

cause man, Flash running slants, drags, and fly routes for us? thinking of that has me like:

 

[da hen]

He will be open, can’t double Gronk and him

 

[getback]

They were saying on the radio that the Pats have had 28 transactions at WR

 

[DeadsetAce]

They were saying on the radio that the Pats have had 28 transactions at WR

yeah Bedard just dropped an article on the lack of Patriots homegrown talent at the position and how they're always fishing elsewhere

 

[DeadsetAce]

random tidbits on the WR history and Gordon:

https://www.bostonsportsjournal.com...ots-reached-bottom-wr-years-neglect/#comments

After spending nine years in the football safe spaces at Baylor and then with the Cleveland Browns, Josh Gordon is in for a rude awakening after his trade Monday to the New England Patriots.

In June of 2013, I spent three days during mandatory mini-camp with the Browns for an MMQB story on the Browns’ latest reboot (I’ve lost track which number we’re on in 201 with Joe Banner and Mike Lombardi. It was the first time I got a chance to watch Gordon operate up close.

It didn’t take very long to recognize two things that will likely impact how effective and long his tenure will be in Foxborough:

1. The guy is uber-talented. Anyone who has ever watched football could tell you that. He’s 6-foot-4, 225 pounds with long arms, big hands and can run and jump like few others his size. Gordon is a breathtaking talent and athlete.

2. He has a lot of dog in him — and not the good kind. Like I said at the time, maybe I was spoiled from my time covering the Packers and Patriots (the Dolphins were a different story), but I had never seen an NFL receiver loaf as much as he did in practice. He wouldn’t finish plays. He would walk back to the huddle and after dropped passes. And the amazing thing was nobody said anything to him (so he was being coddled again, just like at Baylor). In short, I didn’t like what I saw. And, in a team environment, I would rather have a less-talented player who bought into the team concept more than Gordon.

I made most of my comments on Cleveland radio at the time, and they generated a lot of discussion. It was notable the coaching staff didn’t disagree with my comments in the days following, and privately a few told me I was spot-on and were glad someone called out Gordon, because it sounded like they couldn’t — “Maybe he’ll get it,” one texted at the time.

After spending nine years in the football safe spaces at Baylor and then with the Cleveland Browns, Josh Gordon is in for a rude awakening after his trade Monday to the New England Patriots.

In June of 2013, I spent three days during mandatory mini-camp with the Browns for an MMQB story on the Browns’ latest reboot (I’ve lost track which number we’re on in 201 with Joe Banner and Mike Lombardi. It was the first time I got a chance to watch Gordon operate up close.

It didn’t take very long to recognize two things that will likely impact how effective and long his tenure will be in Foxborough:

1. The guy is uber-talented. Anyone who has ever watched football could tell you that. He’s 6-foot-4, 225 pounds with long arms, big hands and can run and jump like few others his size. Gordon is a breathtaking talent and athlete.

2. He has a lot of dog in him — and not the good kind. Like I said at the time, maybe I was spoiled from my time covering the Packers and Patriots (the Dolphins were a different story), but I had never seen an NFL receiver loaf as much as he did in practice. He wouldn’t finish plays. He would walk back to the huddle and after dropped passes. And the amazing thing was nobody said anything to him (so he was being coddled again, just like at Baylor). In short, I didn’t like what I saw. And, in a team environment, I would rather have a less-talented player who bought into the team concept more than Gordon.

I made most of my comments on Cleveland radio at the time, and they generated a lot of discussion. It was notable the coaching staff didn’t disagree with my comments in the days following, and privately a few told me I was spot-on and were glad someone called out Gordon, because it sounded like they couldn’t — “Maybe he’ll get it,” one texted at the time.

That was over five years ago. He’s played in just 11 games in the past four NFL seasons.

If Gordon is the same type of practice player with the Patriots — and sources have told me that, unlike fellow troubled talents like Randy Moss and Dez Bryant who truly enjoy the game and practice hard, Gordon doesn’t like football all that much and it is reflected in his practice habits — he’s not going to last long. After being snuggled in the land of entitled players at Baylor and Cleveland, the environment he’s going into with the Patriots will be a completely different world. I think Lombardi was talking along those lines in a recent tweet.


Michael Lombardi

✔@mlombardiNFL
https://twitter.com/mlombardiNFL/status/1041789595350757376

The program in NE is unlike ANYTHING Josh Gordon as experienced in his entire career. He will have to make changes--quickly.

1:42 PM - Sep 17, 2018

• 
  1,034
• 
  291 people are talking about this

Twitter Ads info and privacy




Notice that I haven’t even delved into Gordon’s true impediment to success — his personal problems, which are plentiful and run much deeper than most realize (Gordon is on his third agent after being fired by Drew Rosenhausand Joby Branion). At least, unlike fellow Patriots acts of desperation like Aqib Talib, Albert Haynesworth and Michael Floyd (I thought it was bad when the Patriots claimed Floyd and his $1.3 million salary for three games after a drunk-driving arrest — this might be worse), Gordon has mostly been a danger to himself and not others. But make no mistake, Gordon is in the same company as Steve Howe, Doc Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, Bob Probert, Michael Ray Richardson and Roy Tarpley when it comes to talented players with multiple substance abuse suspensions in professional sports (at least those other guys had more than one year of top-level production).

I’m not going to sit here and tell you Gordon will or won’t be a success here (the chances are stronger that he won’t fit into the culture and/or he’ll have another slip up). Of course, he was worth the risk (Gordon came in No. 2 on my targets for a possible deal at the roster cutdown — the odds of his acquisition increased after the Patriots’ pathetic receiver display vs. the Jaguars). He’s that talented. And I think this is the much larger and important point: New England is so desperate at receiver it had to do this (we said when Kenny Britt was released that the personnel wasn’t good enough).

Really, if we’re being honest, it’s pathetic they Patriots have gotten to the point they have to sign players that were basically useless bums at other places (Britt, Corey Coleman, Gordon — all former Browns). These are the New England Patriots we’re talking about. Five-time Super Bowl champions. Bill Belichick. Tom Brady. Josh McDaniels, the brilliant offensive mind who could have had any head coaching job he wanted in recent years.

The franchise and its top names stand for excellence. They’ve built Super Bowl contenders every year for 18 years. Other teams aspire to do what they have done, all that sustained success.

But why the heck can’t they ever develop a receiver? It’s bordering on embarrassing. Actually … after the acquisition of Gordon out of utter desperation, it is embarrassing.

We’re talking about a position that, in today’s NFL, you basically have three starters. In 2017, based on numbers from Football Outsiders, teams had three receivers on the field (the vaunted 11 personnel) 59.3 percent of the time (the Patriots used it a team-high 44 percent). Teams throw the ball 61.1 percent of the time. Three receivers basically make up 27.3 percent of the offensive lineup.

Yet, the Patriots have only one homegrown receiver on the roster — and counting Julian Edelman as one is borderline because, he a) was a college quarterback, b) was a seventh-round flier, c) sat on the roster for five seasons and, after finally proving himself in ’13 as a starter, was allowed to visit teams as a free agent in ’14 before re-signing for about $4 million per season.

Other than Edelman, who is halfway through his suspension, the Patriots have: Chris Hogan (signed to RFA tender from Buffalo), Phillip Dorsett (trade from Colts), Cordarrelle Patterson (trade from Raiders), and now Gordon (trade from Browns).

If you thought having just one homegrown receiver is a low number, you would be right. Using the depth charts at the scouting service OurLads.com, the Patriots are the only team with only one on the current roster. Only five teams have two, and the NFL average is 3.4. The Patriots have acquired three of their receivers by trade; no one else has more than one, and the NFL average is 0.4 per team.

WHERE NFL RECEIVERS COME FROM
TEAM DRAFT/
UDFA FA TRADE Total Homegrown % Outside %
NFL AVG 3.4 1.9 0.4 5.8 59.00% 41.00%
Arizona 5 0 0 5 100.00% 0.00%
Cincinnati 7 0 0 7 100.00% 0.00%
Green Bay 6 1 0 7 85.70% 14.30%
Kansas City 5 1 0 6 83.30% 16.70%
Cleveland 4 0 1 5 80.00% 20.00%
Atlanta 4 2 0 6 66.70% 33.30%
Carolina 4 1 1 6 66.70% 33.30%
Houston 4 2 0 6 66.70% 33.30%
LA Chargers 4 2 0 6 66.70% 33.30%
Minnesota 4 2 0 6 66.70% 33.30%
San Francisco 4 2 0 6 66.70% 33.30%
Tampa Bay 4 2 0 6 66.70% 33.30%
Buffalo 3 1 1 5 60.00% 40.00%
Denver 3 2 0 5 60.00% 40.00%
Detroit 3 2 0 5 60.00% 40.00%
Jacksonville 3 2 0 5 60.00% 40.00%
Washington 3 2 0 5 60.00% 40.00%
New Orleans 4 3 0 7 57.10% 42.90%
NY Jets 4 2 1 7 57.10% 42.90%
Baltimore 3 3 0 6 50.00% 50.00%
Chicago 3 3 0 6 50.00% 50.00%
Dallas 3 2 1 6 50.00% 50.00%
LA Rams 3 2 1 6 50.00% 50.00%
Pittsburgh 3 2 1 6 50.00% 50.00%
Seattle 3 3 0 6 50.00% 50.00%
Tennessee 3 3 0 6 50.00% 50.00%
Indianapolis 2 2 1 5 40.00% 60.00%
NY Giants 2 3 0 5 40.00% 60.00%
Philadelphia 2 3 0 5 40.00% 60.00%
Miami 2 3 1 6 33.30% 66.70%
Oakland 2 3 1 6 33.30% 66.70%
New England 1 1 3 5 20.00% 80.00%
This goes to the larger and well-worn point about how poor the Patriots have been in not only drafting and developing receivers, but making basically anyone work at the position.

By my count, the Patriots have acquired 51 receivers just since 2009 (we won’t even go back to the drought from Deion Branch and David Givens in ’02 to the trades for Moss and Wes Welker in ’07). Judging generously, you could say that four of those moves have been great (Edelman, Danny Amendola, Hogan and Brandin Cooks), and six have been solid to good (Brandon LaFell, Malcolm Mitchell, Dorsett, Patterson and Braxton Berrios — like we said, we’re being generous). The rest — 80.4 percent — have been abject failures.

YEAR ACQ GREAT MOVES
2009 Draft Julian Edelman
2013 FA Danny Amendola
2016 FA Chris Hogan
2017 Trade Brandin Cooks
YEAR ACQ SOLID MOVES
2012 FA Brandon Lloyd
2014 FA Brandon LaFell
2016 Draft Malcolm Mitchell
2017 Trade Phillip Dorsett
2018 Trade Cordarrelle Patterson
2018 Draft Braxton Berrios
YEAR ACQ FAILURES
2009 Draft Brandon Tate
2009 FA Joey Galloway
2009 Trade Greg Lewis
2010 Draft Taylor Price
2010 FA Torry Holt
2011 Trade Chad Ochocinco
2011 FA Tiquan Underwood
2012 Draft Jeremy Ebert
2012 FA Anthony Gonzalez
2012 FA Jesse Holley
2012 Claim Kerry Taylor
2012 Trade Greg Salas
2013 Draft Aaron Dobson
2013 Draft Josh Boyce
2013 FA Michael Jenkins
2013 FA Lavelle Hawkins
2013 FA Austin Collie
2013 FA LaQuan Williams
2014 Draft Jeremy Gallon
2014 FA Brian Tyms
2015 FA Reggie Wayne
2015 Trade Jalen Saunders
2015 Claim DaVaris Daniels
2015 Trade Keshawn Martin
2015 FA Chris Harper
2015 Claim Leonard Hankerson
2016 Draft Devin Lucien
2016 FA Nate Washington
2016 FA Griff Whalen
2016 Claim Michael Floyd
2017 Claim Devin Street
2017 FA Tony Washington
2017 FA K.J. Maye
2017 FA Bernard Reedy
2017 FA Kenny Britt
2018 FA Jordan Matthews
2018 FA Eric Decker
2018 Claim Amara Darboh
2018 Claim Chad Hansen
2018 FA Bennie Fowler
2018 FA Corey Coleman
With 12 of those players, the Patriots used actual capital to acquire them with either draft picks or trades. That’s to say nothing of the time wasted on the practice field, in meeting rooms, and with reps from Brady that turned out to be fruitless.

That the Patriots are even this position where they need to trade for a player as suspect as Gordon is an indictment on the Patriots’ entire system around the receiver position — and we shouldn’t just whistle past the graveyard about it.

If your system is so complicated that 80 percent of the players can’t function in it, maybe some things need to be looked at. Maybe things need to be dumbed down a bit. Maybe the playbook shouldn’t be kept at Brady’s doctorate level and instead should be more accessible to newer players.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Patriots are rightfully heralded for keeping things simple and being able to plug and play players at basically any position. Why can’t it be that way on the offensive side?

And that basically none of the Patriots drafted receivers have done anything elsewhere in the league tells you their scouting methods could use a revamping as well.

Most of you will probably scoff at this criticism of the Patriots and will — rightly — point out the team’s record of great success and how the offense has been in the top five in scoring every season since 2009 and, despite being 14th right now, will likely wind up there again no matter if Gordon soars or busts.

But even if it’s not blatant, there is a downside to the Patriots’ repeated failures at receiver. All of the assets and time they’ve wasted at the position takes away from what they can do at other spots. There’s a trickle-down effect, whether it be on the cap or on draft picks that impact the depth at other spots on the roster.

Instead of drafting Tate, Price, Dobson and Boyce maybe they could have spent some assets to help the pass rush or find some linebackers who can cover. Instead of sending out three fifth-round picks (Gordon, Patterson, Keshawn Martin), and a young and promising backup quarterback (Jacoby Brissett) maybe the Patriots could have some young safeties to groom. Instead of accumulating $5,216,423 in dead cap money at receiver in the past five seasons by my rudimentary Internet calculations (to say nothing of the money wasted not having any players on rookie deals for years), the Patriots could have used that money on one more veteran at another position to help with depth each season.

Don’t get things confused. The Patriots have been great, and will be great this season. But if they come up a few plays short of a Super Bowl title this season, or when they came up just short in ’15, ’13, ’12 or any of the other seasons since ’04 — or when you watch this team and wonder about most of the speed and athleticism on both sides of the ball — just remember all that has been squandered at the receiver position and whether it really needed to happen.

 

[green rhino123]

pats giving the lions qb all day to air it out