2014 Training Camp Thread
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Mike Reiss @MikeReiss 3m
Easley's 1st rush blazed by C Ryan Wendell's inside shoulder; 2nd rush beats G Dan Connolly to outside; 3rd rush a dynamic sudden spin move.
Easley's 1st rush blazed by C Ryan Wendell's inside shoulder; 2nd rush beats G Dan Connolly to outside; 3rd rush a dynamic sudden spin move.
More on Easley's pass rushing in today's practice. Sounds like he's lining up over the nose in a 3-4 or playing DT in a 4-3. If he can be a force inside......I might go six to midnight real fast every Sunday.
norm from cheers said:
[omg]I'M RUNNING OUT OF TISSUES[/omg]
* wiping the tears at the state of our C/G position not named Mankins
Mike Dussault @PatsPropaganda[/size] · 7mSeoulSoxFan said:
An interior DL toasting our interior OL is the sickness (for O) and the cure (for D) all rolled into one.
Sounds like Brady has his full compliment of weapons at his disposal for the first time since the middle of last year.
Sounds like we could see Gronk play on Friday night. I'm not sure how long, but if he continues to increase reps in full team drills the expectation would be that he'll play.
Stitch01 said:
I'm really curious to see how they run the rest of the preseason. On one hand, the third preseason game is always the "dress rehearsal" with the starters playing a half or more. OTOH, the back-to-back joint practices/game means the coaching staff has had lots of looks at the first string against real competition, which is ostensibly the purpose of third preseason game. Brady played a little more than half the first quarter before giving way to JG with 5:00 remaining but there were a lot of snaps...did we see all we need to see?
Game four, as always, is against Tom Coughlin's Giants, and remains that last chance for on-the-bubble guys to play a ton.
Are they going to do the same PT patterns, given the joint practice games? Will they hold the Irreplacables (Brady, Gronk, Revis, Mayo, Easley) out of the game to save bullets or "not show" anything?
Nobody knows what the injury situation will end up being for this team, but in my opinion, this has the chance to be one of the most talented Patriots teams in recent memory. Again, injuries, weird things happening, whatever…who knows what will actually transpire. But my goodness, there is talent oozing out of every pore of this team.
Given what I said about Carolina's situation heading into Friday, it won't be a true 1v1 competition. They all won't play against the Giants so I'd think Friday would be the only time to play the 1s until Week 1. Is it important to get guys reps who haven't played yet? That's what the coaches have to weigh.
Yeah, I don't care if the Panthers are playing their 4th string in the 2nd quarter, I'd still like to see the starting OL get a full half of repetitions as a group. That said, with all the shuffling so far, and Stork now back, they may not be close to knowing what the group is. The report about Easley zipping by our interior OL guys was (dis)heartening.
Speaking of Training Camp tidbits, this comes from Reiss' report on Gronk:
Butler just seems like a real pain in the ass. May be a case where that sort of effort won't pay off when the real games start and everyone is just as jacked up, but he sure as hell does seem like a tough cut at this point.
Speaking of Training Camp tidbits, this comes from Reiss' report on Gronk:
Butler just seems like a real pain in the ass. May be a case where that sort of effort won't pay off when the real games start and everyone is just as jacked up, but he sure as hell does seem like a tough cut at this point.
Tony C said:
I don't want Butler to cover any team's #2 even but I still want him on this team. Let him loose on STs and against spread formations.
I was thought the 3rd game was in addition to what you said also about conditioning and getting the starters ready to play real snaps, not practice snaps, for a longer stretch of time before the games count. Especially starting week 1 in Miami of all places.soxfan121 said:
Tony C said:
I'm not suggesting that the guy could strip a non-rusty Gronk on a Sunday, but he seems to be one of those 'has a nose for the football' type of guys. In the first game there was that route that he undercut but he just wasnt able to pull in the pick. In the 2nd game he forced the fumble and recovered it. He sort of reminds me of Assante as a guy sort of out of nowhere who comes in and from the get go is just always around the football.
There is just no way they can cut him at this point, I have to believe he is going to force us to keep 3 real safeties and consider Arrington or Ryan to be our 4th so that we can keep an extra corner
Edit: Apologies if this was already posted but I guess Butler had another pick yesterday in practice as well, from Reiss:
While I might disagree and most of Sosh will be ripping out their hair....I bet Brady Gronk and the the starters play (at least most of) the first half.
Brady and BB BOTH spoke on EEI about "Finishing" and how Practice is great....joint practice better but that you dont "Finish". You dont finish runs, blocks, or hits/tackles. Both talked about how important it was to "get in the game and finish". Its the old "game speed" point just stated differently.
Plus BB has never "worried" (ok I am sure he worried...but it never let it stop him) about guys playing "garbage time". (Which I think we could all argue this would be for Brady/Gronk/Revis/Mayo).
I do agree that Stork and Easley probably dont get a tremendous amount of snaps. Rather they probably get a series early (Easley) to flash against starters and the 4th quarter (Stork) to gain some reps.
Brady and BB BOTH spoke on EEI about "Finishing" and how Practice is great....joint practice better but that you dont "Finish". You dont finish runs, blocks, or hits/tackles. Both talked about how important it was to "get in the game and finish". Its the old "game speed" point just stated differently.
Plus BB has never "worried" (ok I am sure he worried...but it never let it stop him) about guys playing "garbage time". (Which I think we could all argue this would be for Brady/Gronk/Revis/Mayo).
I do agree that Stork and Easley probably dont get a tremendous amount of snaps. Rather they probably get a series early (Easley) to flash against starters and the 4th quarter (Stork) to gain some reps.
bakahump said:
I wouldn't throw Gronkowski out there. He just started getting reps in 11-on-11's and from some reports he has yet to be tackled in a game day fashion. To go from that to playing in the third preseason game is a huge step, and one I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with them taking.
Every healthy starter should see some significant action, though.
I think everyone but Gronk plays in this game, regardless of the Panthers effort (though I think they'll play their ones a fair amount of time as well). They've been quite cautious with his progression so far and the logical extension is that they will continue to do so.
As far as not playing starters because of the two weeks of joint practices: this is the third year they've done it (I think, not sure about 2011 but I don't have the time to go back and check) and they've played starters into the third quarter of the third preseason game the last two years. I don't see any reason they won't continue that practice this week.
Also, terribly ironic headline from 2012: "Schefter: Pats lock up Hernandez".
As far as not playing starters because of the two weeks of joint practices: this is the third year they've done it (I think, not sure about 2011 but I don't have the time to go back and check) and they've played starters into the third quarter of the third preseason game the last two years. I don't see any reason they won't continue that practice this week.
Also, terribly ironic headline from 2012: "Schefter: Pats lock up Hernandez".
I could care less who the production comes from as long as it comes. If LaFell breaks out and becomes a major player in this offense, that's a good thing. Hopefully Dobson and Thompkins stay healthy and keep producing.Stitch01 said:
I think LaFell playing a lot of snaps puts a ceiling on production from that position, at the very least Dobson has more upside and Thompkins probably does too. Obviously if LaFell is a monster, that's great, but I think him winning the outside WR job is sort of a rich man's version of Chung winning the Strong Safety job.
Maybe so, but there's at least a chance that the Patriots can get more mileage out of him than the Panthers did. Over the past two seasons, the Pats have thrown the ball 1269 times (4th-most in the NFL) while Carolina had just 963 pass attempts (3rd-fewest). That's important to keep in mind when looking at LaFell's pedestrian numbers.Stitch01 said:
LaFell also doesn't need to catch the ball to have a big effect on the offense. He is the best blocking WR we've had here in a long time. Edelman, Vereen & Amendola will all benefit from YAC opportunities opened up by LaFell's blocking.
I hope so, Im not nearly confident enough in my ability to evaluate WR blocking ability based on two preseason games and I haven't gone back and watched reams of tape from his Carolina days. PFF has him as a decent run blocker on the level with Amendola last year.
What I want at this point:
QB: Brady, JG (I think Mallett gets cut…I really do)
TE: Gronk, Hoo-man
RB: Ridley, Vereen, White, Bolden, Develin (also plays TE)
WR: Amendola, Edelman, LaFell, Dobson, Thompkins, Slater (special teams), Tyms (suspended)
There are some pretty good players that I would like to see stick around, but that I can't imagine will make it: Boyce, Finch, Gray. When Tyms returns from suspension, I don't know what happens to these guys. Hopefully Finch and Gray make the PS. Boyce too, but I suspect he'd be picked up by somebody.
QB: Brady, JG (I think Mallett gets cut…I really do)
TE: Gronk, Hoo-man
RB: Ridley, Vereen, White, Bolden, Develin (also plays TE)
WR: Amendola, Edelman, LaFell, Dobson, Thompkins, Slater (special teams), Tyms (suspended)
There are some pretty good players that I would like to see stick around, but that I can't imagine will make it: Boyce, Finch, Gray. When Tyms returns from suspension, I don't know what happens to these guys. Hopefully Finch and Gray make the PS. Boyce too, but I suspect he'd be picked up by somebody.
This is sort of a broader question, but what's the point of a good blocking, can't get the ball WR? Isn't he just a mediocre tight end then (albeit playing split wide).soxfan121 said:
bowiac said:
There are a few things they can do with him. In the running game if they want to create a hole between himself and the tackle and he can actually move the OLB off the edge a bit thats a huge plus because a WR of smaller stature can probably just occupy the OLB and the hole wouldnt be as big and be open as long.
In the passing game if he can become enough of a threat that the defense actually cares about who is covering him then it can create some significant matchup problems for them. Lets say the Pats have LaFell, Amendola, Edelman and Gronk out there, then: One option is to go to nickel at the expense of their run defense and LaFell might be blocking a corner. The other option is to go to base and then a LB or a safety is on LaFell which I think is an advantage for him getting open.
Its not going to be the glory days like this, but remember when Gronk and Hernandez were on the field and we primarily played with 2 TEs? We'd just abuse defenses by running against their nickel, passing against their base and it seemed like even though they knew what our tendencies were in those situations they couldnt effectively stop it. It was pretty awesome to watch.
I think you're radically underestimating how big the gap in receiving ability is between WEs and all but the best TEs. For example Lafell had that one nice deep out against Philly. His many TEs can do that?bowiac said:
Here's how Carolina is going to handle the starters on Friday night. I was wrong. They're going to play 1 half.
http://bostonherald.com/sports/patriots_nfl/new_england_patriots/2014/08/kanorris_davis_has_a_special_look
Nice article on Kanorris Davis-- could be joining Slater and Ebner as primarily Special Teams guys.
Forming ST core with Anderson, Arrington, Beauharnais, Bolden, Buchanan,, Develin, and Logan Ryan?
Nice article on Kanorris Davis-- could be joining Slater and Ebner as primarily Special Teams guys.
Forming ST core with Anderson, Arrington, Beauharnais, Bolden, Buchanan,, Develin, and Logan Ryan?
Agreed on Davis - I think he's likely to make the team on ST contributions. I think that means we carry 5 S, since Davis and Ebner aren't really factors on D. Maybe that's part of why they're trying Arrington and Ryan at S. If one of those guys can back up, maybe they only need two real safeties.lambeau said:
Not sure why you (and others, too) pinpoint Beauharnais as a ST contributor - he finished 49th on the team in ST snaps last year (just 10 in the 4 games he was active for).
Super Nomario said:
My first instinct was to say that I cant imagine that they keep 3 primarily STs players on the roster and would effectively have to cut a player who could actually play safety. But then I thought about Tavon Wilson, he would probably be the odd man out if we cut Davis and chances are he doesnt find work elsewhere and would be available if we had to sign him mid-season. Or any other safety we might sign off the street isnt going to provide that much less in production than Wilson would. Whereas the value that Davis might bring on STs over the course of the year is probably going to be greater than that dip in production we might have to take if our safeties got banged up and we had to find someone off the street.
I used to think that Bill's prioritization of STs over depth on the back end of the roster for guys that could actually play on downs 1 to 3 was excessive, but when I think about this scenario I can certainly see why he thinks this way. This is the guy that won the SuperBowl with Earthwind Moreland playing a significant role!
If Beauharnais makes the team as a LB I think he plays Special Teams. One of the few on ST in both games so far. Made rwo tackles!
Somebody will replace Fletcher--White? D. Fleming? Morris?
Somebody will replace Fletcher--White? D. Fleming? Morris?
Wilson is PS eligible now with the rule change and not a bad option for the PS if they decide Davis special teams contributions are a better fit. Wilson also plays special teams and has more defensive value than Davis, so its not clear to me that they dont just try to get Davis through to the PS.wutang112878 said:
The difference is that they've worked Davis as a gunner, which is a key role on the coverage teams. I'm not sure who's even competition for him in that role - maybe Arrington?Stitch01 said:
Stitch01 said:
Forgot about the PS, thats a great point. No one is going to be going after Wilson who virtually everyone thought was probably a 3rd day of the draft guy. I can see the preference to keep Davis on the 53 though, if they believe he is better on STs than Wilson. Even if he didnt provide the extra value that Super mentioned, he might just be better on STs because I know Wilson plays a lot of those snaps but I never really thought he was all that impactful on them.
@AdamSchefter 31s
Jimmy Garoppolo expected to start Thurs vs. Giants and play majority, if not all, of game, Bill Belichick confirmed through team spokesman.
Jimmy Garoppolo expected to start Thurs vs. Giants and play majority, if not all, of game, Bill Belichick confirmed through team spokesman.
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