Looking At The Patriots 2022

Yeah, and note that Cannon, Cajuste, McDermott, and Wynn are all FAs. That leaves...just Trent Brown, who will be a 7.75MM cap hit, only 1.25MM of it dead money. Plus Steuber, the late 2022 pick (but my understanding is that the staff didn't think he had a future). I smell a positional reboot! I could maybe see re-signing Cajuste for short money.

The only time I've watched Steuber was during Senior Bowl drills and I thought he looked like he needed a redshirt year which is what he got. I had also heard the staff wasn't high on him, but I don't know where that report came from. My suspicion at the time was that it had the earmarks of a "Belichick can't draft" column filler because that was a hot take at around the same time I first heard it. I'll hold off until next summer before I write him off.


FAs on the OL are pretty spotty this year. I don't see us spending $20MM+/year on Orlando Brown, but I wouldn't be totally floored if they picked up Conklin from Cleveland, Fant from the Jets, or shorter money for Dillard from Philly if his health checks out. McGlinchey is available, and if they want to continue to move towards majoring in zone blocking that may be an investment that makes sense...it would certainly be a clear signal. I'll wait until the offseason to go into the FA OTs more deeply.

I was thinking more along the lines of a war-horse who is too old for a big contract but can still take meaningful snaps in a pinch, not a former high pick who is looking for big money after their rookie deals have expired like Dillard or McGlinchey. I don't know who is available, but there will be affordable guys who won't be as bad as the guys we've been trotting out there, that's for
sure.

Draft? Always in flux, but there are a bunch of guys who are probably in the mid-1st through 3rd round that could fit. My favorites ATM are Wright from Tennessee and Cohen from Alabama, both currently generally slated as ~3rd rounders, along with Paris Johnson from Oohi, but he's currently slated mid-first, and I don't think he's worth that high a pick. Probably. Maybe.

I saw Jamaree Salyer of the Dawgs knock Aidan Hutchinson into the secondary last season like he was pole-axed and every time I watched him afterwards he looked pro-ready to me. I couldn't understand why he was so poorly regarded during the draft process other than he has a bad body. He was thought to need to move to guard and got taken in the 6th but he's playing really well at LT for the Chargers after they lost Slater. Zero sacks so far. Abraham Lucas of Seattle has been really good at RT and he was a 3rd rounder. There are always guys if you find them and they don't always need a prime pick. Andrew Whitworth was too slow to cut off the edge until he proved he could for 16 years. He went 55 overall and was considered a major reach at the time. People laughed at the Bengals. We absolutely have to find two guys that can play by next season because I can't take another year of watching edge players wilding on hapless turnstiles every damn week. It's not optional.
 


That was a special game. I remember it well, because at that time I didn't have a great snowblower and I could not get through the massive wall of snow at the bottom of
my long driveway to get to the game. I remember feeling sick watching it on TV, because it looked like the people there were having a blast. That week I made sure that would
never happen again by buying a machine that would prevent future strandings.

One oddity that day, for those unfamiliar, was that there was a great fan who posted here and elsewhere as "Mrs. B" back in those days and she was a huge Tedy Bruschi unashamed
fangirl -- hence the handle. She was known for her sign "full tilt, full time" in honor of her favorite player.

Anyhow, the most iconic photo from the day was Tedy himself getting into the act by throwing up a huge cloud of fluffy snow and right in the middle of it one fan was clearly visible. None other than Mrs. B herself, which was one hell of a coincidence and seemed to capture the magical vibe of that game.

Here it is:

bruschi.jpg
 
That was a special game. I remember it well, because at that time I didn't have a great snowblower and I could not get through the massive wall of snow at the bottom of
my long driveway to get to the game. I remember feeling sick watching it on TV, because it looked like the people there were having a blast. That week I made sure that would
never happen again by buying a machine that would prevent future strandings.

One oddity that day, for those unfamiliar, was that there was a great fan who posted here and elsewhere as "Mrs. B" back in those days and she was a huge Tedy Bruschi unashamed
fangirl -- hence the handle. She was known for her sign "full tilt, full time" in honor of her favorite player.

Anyhow, the most iconic photo from the day was Tedy himself getting into the act by throwing up a huge cloud of fluffy snow and right in the middle of it one fan was clearly visible. None other than Mrs. B herself, which was one hell of a coincidence and seemed to capture the magical vibe of that game.

Here it is:

View attachment 14238
i didn't realize that was mrs. b. used to love her training camp reports. hope she is doing well. guessing she watches sunday countdown, and still sports that "ft-ft" sign while watching!
 
That was a special game. I remember it well, because at that time I didn't have a great snowblower and I could not get through the massive wall of snow at the bottom of
my long driveway to get to the game. I remember feeling sick watching it on TV, because it looked like the people there were having a blast. That week I made sure that would
never happen again by buying a machine that would prevent future strandings.

One oddity that day, for those unfamiliar, was that there was a great fan who posted here and elsewhere as "Mrs. B" back in those days and she was a huge Tedy Bruschi unashamed
fangirl -- hence the handle. She was known for her sign "full tilt, full time" in honor of her favorite player.

Anyhow, the most iconic photo from the day was Tedy himself getting into the act by throwing up a huge cloud of fluffy snow and right in the middle of it one fan was clearly visible. None other than Mrs. B herself, which was one hell of a coincidence and seemed to capture the magical vibe of that game.

Here it is:

View attachment 14238

Ah yes, the Delmarvan CycloGenesis. If some of you don't know what that is, find the thread for this game deep in the archives.

I managed to make it to that game. The snow stopped that morning. Fortunately, it was a 4PM game, so there was time to clear enugh of the roads to get in. I'm also fortunate in that I live just 13 miles from Gillette. All morning, the media was advising fans to stay away from Gillette. But we figured that if we got there and couldn't get in, we'd just turn around and come back home.

As we were approaching the stadium, most lots were still closed, but just as we approached the last lot, a flagger waved us in. They were clearing spots as we parked. Tailgate was fun, the big adventure was getting to the seats. The stadium stands still had 2+ feet of snow. We had to climb up stands on our hands and feet to get to our seat. People had to dig to find seats. There were some snow banks on the concourse reaching 10+ feet.

The game itself was unremarkable until the Bruschi pick. It was quite the scene to be there in the middle of the fan made snow showers. Still one of the most memorable games I've attended.
 
The only time I've watched Steuber was during Senior Bowl drills and I thought he looked like he needed a redshirt year which is what he got. I had also heard the staff wasn't high on him, but I don't know where that report came from. My suspicion at the time was that it had the earmarks of a "Belichick can't draft" column filler because that was a hot take at around the same time I first heard it. I'll hold off until next summer before I write him off.




I was thinking more along the lines of a war-horse who is too old for a big contract but can still take meaningful snaps in a pinch, not a former high pick who is looking for big money after their rookie deals have expired like Dillard or McGlinchey. I don't know who is available, but there will be affordable guys who won't be as bad as the guys we've been trotting out there, that's for
sure.



I saw Jamaree Salyer of the Dawgs knock Aidan Hutchinson into the secondary last season like he was pole-axed and every time I watched him afterwards he looked pro-ready to me. I couldn't understand why he was so poorly regarded during the draft process other than he has a bad body. He was thought to need to move to guard and got taken in the 6th but he's playing really well at LT for the Chargers after they lost Slater. Zero sacks so far. Abraham Lucas of Seattle has been really good at RT and he was a 3rd rounder. There are always guys if you find them and they don't always need a prime pick. Andrew Whitworth was too slow to cut off the edge until he proved he could for 16 years. He went 55 overall and was considered a major reach at the time. People laughed at the Bengals. We absolutely have to find two guys that can play by next season because I can't take another year of watching edge players wilding on hapless turnstiles every damn week. It's not optional.
You may have heard the negative reports on Steuber from me.
A month or so ago the Patriots.com guys made that statement that the Pats didn't expect much from Steuber. Those guys claim to have some inside knowledge but are not supposed to reveal any info. But I think they forget whether or not if they are doing their podcast or just doing office chitchat.
Per Google, Steuber has/had a torn hamstring and out till December. Can't tell if any Patriots report is a long term decision or was it based on this year only. There are reports he did well at the Senior Bowl.

Am with you, wait till next year on Steuber.
 
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You may have heard the negative reports on Steuber from me.
A month or so ago the Patriots.com guys made that statement that the Pats didn't expect much from Steuber. Those guys claim to have some inside knowledge but are not supposed to reveal any info. But I think they forget whether or not if they are doing their podcast or just doing office chitchat.
Per Google, Steuber has/had a torn hamstring and out till December. Can't tell if any Patriots report is a long term decision or was it based on this year only. There are reports he did well at the Senior Bowl.

Am with you, wait till next year on Steuber.

Thanks for that.

I'm going to guess it was Perillo who might've said something like that because that's what he does. He's a weird combo of fanboy and bostonmedia whiner, but he tends to be
really indirect in his criticisms. If it is true that the Pats "didn't expect much" it could be that they knew he'd need a year in the program before he could earn snaps and not like they instantly determined they made a mistake in taking him based on what he showed in Foxboro at OTAs or whatever.

I saw him interviewed and he struck me as an impressive kid. We'll just have to wait and see if he's an NFL player because there is certainly opportunity for him.
 
i didn't realize that was mrs. b. used to love her training camp reports. hope she is doing well. guessing she watches sunday countdown, and still sports that "ft-ft" sign while watching!

I liked her a lot. Her reports were pretty good, a lot of fun to read and took place before blogging from training camp was common and I was always
happy to get any kind of info from people that were there. Not everybody looked at it that way and she took some shots from idiots from time to time, but I
don't really know the specifics. I'm pretty sure that she won Patriots Fan of the Year once.

That pic, though. I don't know how it could have been planned the way it came out. I'm sure she had a nice big copy of that one framed on her wall.
 
As we were approaching the stadium, most lots were still closed, but just as we approached the last lot, a flagger waved us in. They were clearing spots as we parked. Tailgate was fun, the big adventure was getting to the seats. The stadium stands still had 2+ feet of snow. We had to climb up stands on our hands and feet to get to our seat. People had to dig to find seats.
I was coming from the north. Got off 95 and sat stuck on Rte 1, not moving for almost half an hour. When I got to the stadium, I could see people parked haphazardly down by the Hall of Fame (Lot 3?) But they were waving people off, not letting them go into parking lots. Then down at the Patriot Place lots I saw a guy coming up from the south turn right into the lot (22 it must have been). So I made a U-turn and quickly pulled into the lot carefully not making eye contact with the guy waving the flag. Somehow I worked my way back to the lot by the Hall of Fame and parked in a dry spot (lots of drifting).

We were in Section 206, just far enough back to be under the overhang. Our seats were dry. Ten feet away the seats were not even visible buried in snow.

Only disappointment was no snow near us to throw in the air. Not that we complained. Also we were so far from the south endzone, we had no clue what happened with bruschi's pick until we saw it on the Jumbo-tron.

I was the second most memorable game for me, second only to the Titans playoff game in 2004, where we stayed at the Walpole Motel and walked back seemed like 3 miles to it in really cold weather not feeling my feel. The motel's heating system couldn't handle the cold and it couldn't have been more than 50 degrees in there.

Memories!
 
Assuming both are available...

JMD or BOB for OC next year?

If it was either/or I'd go with Josh, because he tended to be more creative, imo.

I'm a little surprised that BOB has gotten so much more popular with the fanbase since he skipped town. The way I remember it, he was
widely accused of a lot of the same stuff that the current guy or guys are getting blamed for.

What he has done in Alabama since he took that job may not be particularly applicable here, because he won't have Nick Saban
recruiting an endless pipeline of talent to utilize.
 
If it was either/or I'd go with Josh, because he tended to be more creative, imo.

I'm a little surprised that BOB has gotten so much more popular with the fanbase since he skipped town. The way I remember it, he was
widely accused of a lot of the same stuff that the current guy or guys are getting blamed for.

What he has done in Alabama since he took that job may not be particularly applicable here, because he won't have Nick Saban
recruiting an endless pipeline of talent to utilize.
No one has liked any of the OC's here ever, Weis, McD, Bob, McD again, whoever it is now. No one was sad when each one left. I really think it's a can't win coaching position. It's not just here, it's pretty much like that with every team, from what I've seen/heard anyway. The only time people seem to like them is when they're long gone because the next guy is eventually considered worse, whether he really is or not. Granted in this is case, if we consider Patricia the OC, he really is in fact the worst.
 
No one has liked any of the OC's here ever, Weis, McD, Bob, McD again, whoever it is now. No one was sad when each one left. I really think it's a can't win coaching position. It's not just here, it's pretty much like that with every team, from what I've seen/heard anyway. The only time people seem to like them is when they're long gone because the next guy is eventually considered worse, whether he really is or not. Granted in this is case, if we consider Patricia the OC, he really is in fact the worst.
Exactly right. I mean Josh was pilloried around here for god sake. Every game, every offensive mistake or breakdown, the histrionics here was unreal. The gameplan was awful, the play calling disastrous, why is Josh calling run plays here, why is he throwing it there, Josh has to go, Josh can never be HC here etc etc Even when Brady was here it was the same story.
 
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