Pick 144 Atonio Mafi OG UCLA

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ParanoidPatriot

ParanoidPatriot

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Antonio is listed at 6'3 338. That's pretty much all I know so far.
We were all concerned about OT before the draft. But drafting 3 OG this year and 2 or 3 last year, we will be starting 5 OG's this year.
That will take DC`s around the NFL to figure out and we win another SB.
 
It was due to how the draft played out. Almost all the good OTs were off the board by taking Gonzalez (who was a great steal of a pick) and White.

I am all aboard beefing up interior OLine, and then having ONWENU play Right Tackle.

Multiple guards and a center to replace Andrews sounds good, so long as Onwenu is moved to RT. When given the opportunity Onwenu played like a top10 NFL right tackle for multiple years.

.
 
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He was great at the Shrine Game. But I'm a little baffled why we spent picks on interior O-line.
 
Peachhead said:
He was great at the Shrine Game. But I'm a little baffled why we spent picks on interior O-line.
Click to expand...

One good reason would be that David Andrews has been an overachiever his whole career, but successfully
battling NFL monsters with his frame is only possible when he is feeling good and his body is starting to break down after
9 years in the League. He's a great guy and one of our leaders, but you can't be a leader if you can't stay on the field. He's
a smart guy who has adjusted the blocking scheme and helped guys like Strange and Onwenu (and Shaq Mason) get through
their WTF days, but last year was such a shit show that he couldn't straighten things out no matter how hard he tried and
his PFF grade was poorish. I cannot argue the grade, either. I'm not saying he's all done, but he might be done playing an
entire season. I'm worried about him.

We needed a developmental Center fairly badly because our 2nd and 3rd string guys, James Ferentz and Kody Russey are
liabilties. Definitely Ferentz and Russey has slightly better size, but he's not what you want as the heir apparent from
what he showed in the preseason. Neither is an NFL athlete. I think we can't afford to barely survive with those guys for more
than a brief time, so what happens if David goes down early? We've had major problems when he isn't in there and more than
we should have had when he is. I hate saying that, but it's probably true.

A case could be made that last year's draftee Chasen Hines should be our swing backup at Guard, but he barely played as a
rookie and it's possible that the staff may feel like he wasn't what we expected. We just don't know what he is yet. Beats the hell out of me.

I've heard speculation that Sidy Sow, who does look like a much better prospect than Hines, might be given a look at Tackle. He is
an interesting kid, but I'll concede that drafting two Guards only makes sense if one is already slated to be red-shirted, likely Mafi. Sow is
one of the more impressive IOLs we've drafted in the last decade, from what I can see. He really does seem to be a fine prospect.

Jake Andrews and Sow seem likely to stick if they don't get hurt and maybe Mafi can stick on the PS. It seems like an upgrade and
not what we were expecting, but we have numbers at a position where we were pretty damn thin.

I partially agree with you, but we'll take the best 5 or 6 these guys into the season and be more solid than if we didn't invest there
to the extent we have.
 
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We needed those 2 IOL as this chart shows even though Cole Strange is mistakenly placed with the tackles in post 10 below.
Onwenu's contract is up after this year and he'll get a big contract. Maybe too big.

1683623947974.png
 
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Andrews' play improved towards the end of the season and he ended up ranking the 7th best C in the NFL (PFF) for the year. His Pass Blocking grade wasn't up to par, however.

1683624266172.png
 
We have a lot of OT bodies on the team and there are some interesting numbers for them. None of our 7 rank "average". (Disregard Strange at OT)
Trent Brown is our highest ranked OT and he's ranked 43rd of 81.
But when you look at them closer you see that some are good as run blockers and some are better at pass blocking.
Could a platoon system be used at OT for run plays vs pass plays?
Or maybe BB thinks someone will step up with better coaching.
Who would have guessed that Trent Brown, Conor McDermott and Yodny Cajuste are our 3 highest graded OTs currently? 👀 Not me.
Or that McDermott and Cajuste are our 2 best run blockers? Or that Calvin Anderson graded out better than FA signing Riley Reiff?
On paper this looks anemic. Hope --> There are always some OTs cut before the season begins & Wynn is still out there but he was awful last year (72nd of 81).


1683625734409.png
 
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chevss454 said:
We have a lot of OT bodies on the team and there are some interesting numbers for them. None of our 7 rank "average". (Disregard Strange at OT)
Trent Brown is our highest ranked OT and he's ranked 43rd of 81.
But when you look at them closer you see that some are good as run blockers and some are better at pass blocking.
Could a platoon system be used at OT for run plays vs pass plays?
Or maybe BB thinks someone will step up with better coaching.
Who would have guessed that Trent Brown, Conor McDermott and Yodny Cajuste are our 3 highest graded OTs currently? 👀 Not me.
Or that McDermott and Cajuste are our 2 best run blockers? Or that Calvin Anderson graded out better than FA signing Riley Reiff?
On paper this looks anemic. Hope --> There are always some OTs cut before the season begins & Wynn is still out there but he was awful last year (72nd of 81).


View attachment 16483
Click to expand...
Interesting stuff. Do you have anything by game? I'm interested to see how Anderson developed over the course of the year, how much Reiff faded, and if Brown was as up and down as in my memory...
 
Don’t understand the repeated media comments about not keeping Onwenu. Onwenu has been the team’s best lineman for multiple years. Makes no sense to let him go and then burn a 1st on a mediocre player in Strange.

Mafi could be good. If Mafi can play guard then figure out a way to play both Mafi and Onwenu at the same time, not kick Onwenu to the curb who has been the best lineman.
 
chevss454 said:
We have a lot of OT bodies on the team and there are some interesting numbers for them. None of our 7 rank "average". (Disregard Strange at OT)
Trent Brown is our highest ranked OT and he's ranked 43rd of 81.
But when you look at them closer you see that some are good as run blockers and some are better at pass blocking.
Could a platoon system be used at OT for run plays vs pass plays?
Or maybe BB thinks someone will step up with better coaching.
Who would have guessed that Trent Brown, Conor McDermott and Yodny Cajuste are our 3 highest graded OTs currently? 👀 Not me.
Or that McDermott and Cajuste are our 2 best run blockers? Or that Calvin Anderson graded out better than FA signing Riley Reiff?
On paper this looks anemic. Hope --> There are always some OTs cut before the season begins & Wynn is still out there but he was awful last year (72nd of 81).


View attachment 16483
Click to expand...

I'm a fan of PFF so I'm not surprised by any of their numbers as I check them periodically.

A few thoughts: PFF while helpful is not always accurate, especially at predicting future performance. Reiff is a crafty vet with a captain's attitude, things that don't translate well on film. Anderson hasn't reached his full potential yet. Strange should be significantly better after putting on weight and finally receiving competent coaching. Sow and Mafi look interesting. Trent Brown, fortunately/unfortunately, seems like a guy whose performance spikes during a contract year.

McDermott and Cajuste are adequate depth.

A stat that I found enlightening, for all of the coaching issues, injuries, and player performance issues on the line last year FO ranked the unit as the 19th best, or roughly a C-, which is much better than I had thought.

It's not all peaches and cream, Reiff's body might be too far gone for craftiness to save him and they have no obvious sure fire stud at tackle, but they seem to have improved their coaching and have enough players with intriguing potential to find a mix that should significantly improve upon last year's 19th ranking.
 
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DropKickFlutie said:
Don’t understand the repeated media comments about not keeping Onwenu. Onwenu has been the team’s best lineman for multiple years. Makes no sense to let him go and then burn a 1st on a mediocre player in Strange.

Mafi could be good. If Mafi can play guard then figure out a way to play both Mafi and Onwenu at the same time, not kick Onwenu to the curb who has been the best lineman.
Click to expand...
The problem isn't that the staff is opposed to having good linemen. It's that when Onwenu hits the market some team is going to offer him OT money. But they've also been clear that they want him to settle in at OG, and outside of an emergency (and apparently more of one than we had last year!) they aren't going to play him at OT.

I was vocal about pushing to get Dugger and Onwenu to the table last year to sign extensions. The team has enough space that they can use some of it to frontload a contract a bit more than they normally would to reduce the pain in future years. That space retained above what you need for in-season roster finagling, that's free money when used for extensions, and probably worth ~105% of what it would cost pushed to future years.
DarnSyd said:
I'm a fan of PFF so I'm not surprised by any of their numbers as I check them periodically.

A few thoughts: PFF while helpful is not always accurate, especially at predicting future performance. Reiff is a crafty vet with a captain's attitude, things that don't translate well on film. Anderson hasn't reached his full potential yet. Strange should be significantly better after putting on weight and finally receiving competent coaching. Sow and Mafi look interesting. Trent Brown, fortunately/unfortunately, seems like a guy whose performance spikes during a contract year.

McDermott and Cajuste are adequate depth.

A stat that I found enlightening, for all of the coaching issues, injuries, and player performance issues on the line last year FO ranked the unit as the 19th best, or roughly a C-, which is much better than I had thought.

It's not all peaches and cream, Reiff's body might be too far gone for craftiness to safe him and they have no obvious sure fire stud at tackle, but they seem to have improved their coaching and have enough players with intriguing potential to find a mix that should significantly improve upon last year's 19th ranking.
Click to expand...
Agree with this overall. After looking at what I could find of Anderson, I'm encouraged. His overall level of play is a little higher than I expected. But more than that, the difference between his most recent tape and his older tape shows good development. All the tools are there to be a fully functional late bloomer at OT - some early bad habits have diminished, and he flashes. I actually like him more on the left than the right side.
 
Flagg the Wanderer said:
The problem isn't that the staff is opposed to having good linemen. It's that when Onwenu hits the market some team is going to offer him OT money. But they've also been clear that they want him to settle in at OG, and outside of an emergency (and apparently more of one than we had last year!) they aren't going to play him at OT.

I was vocal about pushing to get Dugger and Onwenu to the table last year to sign extensions. The team has enough space that they can use some of it to frontload a contract a bit more than they normally would to reduce the pain in future years. That space retained above what you need for in-season roster finagling, that's free money when used for extensions, and probably worth ~105% of what it would cost pushed to future years.

Agree with this overall. After looking at what I could find of Anderson, I'm encouraged. His overall level of play is a little higher than I expected. But more than that, the difference between his most recent tape and his older tape shows good development. All the tools are there to be a fully functional late bloomer at OT - some early bad habits have diminished, and he flashes. I actually like him more on the left than the right side.
Click to expand...

I agree with the first 2 paragraphs. This is how I think as well. The front office should proactively use space now to extend good young players now which hopefully gets them at good value years down the road. Don’t wait till year5. Some guys you know are already good like Onwenu and Dugger.

Here’s another thing I don’t like, on top of them not extending clearly good young players while having the space to do so in a frontloaded contract: they drafted f’ing possible replacements for both guys! Mafi and Marte. Now this is just weird. Team has holes all over the place but they’re focused on positions of current strength and drafting their possible replacements already. The logic is just odd. This is not the 2003 Pats where they were champions drafting future replacements of older guys. This is an 8-9 team with a lot of holes, focused on replacing out few positions of current strength.
 
Flagg the Wanderer said:
The problem isn't that the staff is opposed to having good linemen. It's that when Onwenu hits the market some team is going to offer him OT money. But they've also been clear that they want him to settle in at OG, and outside of an emergency (and apparently more of one than we had last year!) they aren't going to play him at OT.

I was vocal about pushing to get Dugger and Onwenu to the table last year to sign extensions. The team has enough space that they can use some of it to frontload a contract a bit more than they normally would to reduce the pain in future years. That space retained above what you need for in-season roster finagling, that's free money when used for extensions, and probably worth ~105% of what it would cost pushed to future years.
Click to expand...

I think that a problem for this team is that while we're pretty good at developing good, young players, like Dugger and Onwenu (and others in that category, past, present and future) but, we don't really want to keep them around for the going rate and end up losing good players to teams that pay about 8 or 10 guys big money and divide the rest of the spare change among the peasants. The old "former Patriot free agents bust out after they leave" myth was fun for a while, but no longer true. There are a bunch of ex-pats sprinkled around the league now that can
play and some are better than the guys we replaced them with.

A roster comprised of 53 middle and upper-middle class players ultimately costs about the same, so we're looking at a different team-building philosophy here. In the example of Dugger, he needed two years before he really clicked and started playing like a star in his third. A flawed one, perhaps, but he's gotten better at everything. Now we are likely to lose him if he has an even better 2023. He was a low floor/high ceiling guy because he was DII.

The point is, that I don't WANT to lose Dugger (or Onwenu, obviously). What's the point of drafting a guy high if you only get 2 or so good years of production out of him?

If we're going to be a feeder program for the rest of the league then maybe we should start drafting guys who have higher floors and lower ceilings and then maybe we can get 4 or 5 years out of them instead of two or three. I know it's a business, and none of this is new, but the fan in me still wants his boys to stick around for a long time. I wish there was a way to keep more of them
around without being like everybody else.

I don't have any real answers, but felt the need to vent on the topic and you triggered me to do so.
 
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