Even drafting Olajuwon over Jordan turned out to be a terrible move.
Brian Hoyer would agree. Though I think it's more work to be a backup QB than most people realize.
McCourtys Tell All About Super Bowl LIII
Brady pulled off the same feat in 2002, and was 3rd in attempts and 5th in rushing yards in both 2003 and 2004.
Thing is, those guys were already the OL from last year which was fine at best and I think the Reiff/McDermott combo could very well be a downgrade at RT. Sure you hope Strange improves in year 2, but the fact that so many of those guys are unavailable makes me believe depth will be important this year and they spent a significant amount of draft capital on the line for some not great early returns. Ideally none of those guys play as rookies and it's obviously way too early to judge them, but they were going against the Houston 2nd unit and looked pretty poor, which is why I believe some level of concern is already warranted.
The IOL was blown up all night. Constant inside pressure. Hard to tell if Zappe is really that indecisive because he didn't have much time to throw. Malik Cunningham was electric. Don't really care if it was against scrubs, he was dynamic and poised. I swear I saw Belichick smile when Cunningham came to the sideline to talk to BOB during that scoring drive. I'm not saying I'm full pants tent, but it moved.
Who were those great tackle prospects again? I’ll hang up and listen.
In FA they had Orlando Brown Jr., Mike McGlinchey and Kaleb McGary, all of which would be massive improvements. They could have also taken a flyer on Donovan Smith, who can play LT and signed with the Chiefs for less money than the Pats gave Riley Riff (and in my mind is a better player at this point, even if he was awful when injured in 2022). I'll agree about the draft, though, no tackle worth being picked over Gonzalez and no sure fire starter at RT or LT in the 2nd round and beyond, though I would have rather picked Dawand Jones than Jake Andrews.
Yes, that is why I attributed all of the blame for the lousy offense to the line. Somewhat like last season, only much worse, it's hard to get a read on the skill positions when the OL is a disaster. Zappe's 27-yard throw to Thornton was a nice play all around, but it was the only one. Zappe did not turn it over or get anything batted down at the line. Those are sorts of positives.
Yep. I feared that White was going to be a bad type of tweener: too slow for an edge-rushing/LB/4-3 end role, too small to be an effective power rusher. Or a player whose upside is another Deatrich Wise - servicable guy but usually not an impact guy. It's one first preseason game, but he flashed much better than that - the most encouraging sign of the night.
There are limits on who you can draft. Had we drafted tackle prospects, we'd be wondering where the young CB was or why other teams get guys like Keion White.
maybe smith is better maybe reiff is better, we will see. The tackles you mention are possibly better but very expensive.
They could have fit any of them under this year's cap with ease and the Pats have the most cap space in football in 24/25. Have to spend money somewhere, might as well address a weakness.
Well, in terms of the FA class, I was hoping they'd go after McGlinchey or Brown. But would've been fine with Kaleb McGary or Andre Dillard too.
Definitely way too early to say this but it's possible that the Pats picked up major difference makers, future cornerstone players, at all three levels of the defense in this draft.
And a P, K, and maybe 6th round WR. If there's an early disspointment, it is with the 4th/5th round linemen, but it is early yet.
Kind of hard to grade a unit that is dependent on continuity and teamwork when they have had so little time together.
I was going to say he looks like Donte Hightower.
Just imagine if preseason games weren't televised and the only context we had of the passing game's performance that night were beat writers talking about how Zappe went 12 of 14.
For sure. I get that it’s Twitter, but I’d rather read any assessment of how the QB looked instead of lazy stat posting.
It's just funny how different perceptions are too, especially regarding the plays that would have likely resulted in sacks in live action but weren't whistled down in practice. Some beat writers just write those down as sacks, other rave about the completions that happened 4+ seconds into the down. I still vastly prefer those descriptions to those stats, though, as obviously subjective as they are.
