After playing grab ass for the past few months with reported interest from Decker on signing with New England and with the team officially working him out this week, it all came to ahead when Jordan Matthews blew a hammy and the Pats cut him. The Patriots were looking pretty damn barren at receiver with Edelman out for the first month of the season. They would have been relying on Chris Hogan, Philip Dorsett, Cordarrelle Patterson, Kenny Britt, and whoever else winds up actually making the roster. Can’t have that. Can’t pretend its 2006 again and give Brady a bunch of scrubs and expect him to carry the entire team.
So I love the move, I’ve always been a big Eric Decker guy. Only had 1 TD last year, but he caught 54 balls for 563 yards. Not bad with a mobile QB in Marcus Mariota throwing you the ball. Cut out 2016 when he was limited to just 3 games because of injury and Decker had 4 straight years of 74+ catches.
Not to mention Josh McDaniels drafted him in Denver and knows Decker’s strengths inside and out so I would expect him to be a great fit. He’s always been solid, he’s got good hands, he’s handsome AF and his wife is an absolute must follow on twitter.
I’m a thug wife livin my life poppin babies out & holding a mic I’m chill about the weather. I got big dick decker to hold me tight #poetrypic.twitter.com/Rj9JUoxdWo
Jessie James Decker is a true ride or die that you don’t see the likes of these days and I for one am psyched to have the Deckers in my life once again.
I say once again because I have watched multiple, multiple episodes of Eric and Jessie while hungover on the coach and it is an excellent show. I suggest you all catch up so you know what we’re dealing with here.
Plus it would be an added bonus to take a guy the Jets couldn’t get much out of and make him a stud again as the Patriots tend to do.
Last week, we kicked things off with a look at what is likely to be a committee approach at running back for the Pats this season – a group which, come to find out, might actually have a pretty cool nickname – even with shiny new toy Sony Michel in town.
Now a full week into training camp, most people are focusing on exactly whom is going to replace the production of both Brandin Cooks – who was responsible for 1,082 receiving yards and seven touchdowns last season – and Julian Edelman – who may not have played last year but was expected to be Brady’s main target once again in 2018 and now won’t be available for the team’s first four games.
To be entirely honest, while guys like Jacob Hollister and Phillip Dorsett are getting quite a bit of love from local-area beat guys over the past week, I still feel like it’s just way too early to speculate on anything on that front.
We’ll get there, but this time around let’s focus on who’s going to protect Brady’s ass (literally) this season. I’m talking, of course, about the battle at left tackle.
It all really comes down to two guys: rookie Isaiah Wynn and fourth-year man Trent Brown, the latter I have decided to give the nickname “Juggernaut” (for all my X-Men fans out there).
Just in case you’re wondering, he’s listed at 6’8″, 380 pounds, per the team’s website. Good Lord.
(Also, here’s a picture of Juggernaut for those who aren’t a nerd like me):
After Nate Solder departed via free agency this offseason, as expected, one of the team’s top offseason priorities was finding someone to protect Brady’s blindside. All in all, Solder was a pretty solid left tackle who, except for an injury-plagued 2015 campaign, kept TB12 pretty clean for the past seven seasons.
Still, he wasn’t worth the nearly $16 million a year the New York Giants decided to give him, and the Pats instead chose to select Wynn out of Georgia with the first of their two first-round selections in the draft this past May. While Michel might be getting most of the attention, Wynn was actually the top BULLdog (GET IT??!!) in the war room that night.
Horrible pun aside, I actually liked the pick. Even though I definitely thought we could have addressed other positions of need first, after doing a bit of research on Wynn it was hard not to get excited.
First and foremost, he’s extremely versatile, as he played both tackle and guard in college – and we all know Belichick loves versatility. Most experts projected Wynn to strictly be a guard at the NFL level due to his “smaller” size (6’2″, 310 pounds), but the guy was a Second Team All-American as a tackle last year and absolutely DOMINATED Alabama in the national championship. Even though his Bulldogs lost the game, Wynn looked flawless and didn’t allow one sack against one of the very best defenses in the country, which featured two 2018 first-round picks as well as another fourth-rounder.
Seriously, check out how good he looked (he’s No. 77):
If that didn’t do it for ya, I’mma just leave this right here:
1,104 pass blocking snaps by Isaiah Wynn (at guard and tackle) since 2014.
Before even selecting Wynn with the 23rd pick in the draft, Belichick traded the 95th overall pick to San Francisco at the end of April in exchange for the 25-year-old and a fifth-rounder (which ended up becoming Ja’Whaun Bentley, a linebacker out of Purdue).
After being selected by the 49ers in the seventh round of the draft in 2015, Brown didn’t play very much until the end of his rookie season. However, he took over the right tackle spot completely in Year 2, starting all 16 games at the position in 2016 and continuing to do so last season until he was placed on injured reserve with a shoulder issue in December.
As if going from seventh-rounder to starter in less than a year wasn’t impressive enough, how about this quote from Von freakin’ Miller (h/t San Francisco Gate):
“He’s the best right tackle in the National Football League. And he may even be a top-five tackle, period, in the National Football League. There’s not another tackle who’s that tall, that big and can move the way he moves.”
That’s some pretty insane praise from a guy who many consider to be one the very best defenders in the league, if not THE best.
As of right now, it looks like the big(ger) fella is in the lead. Even though he has been a right tackle throughout his career, it seems like the team is confident that Brown’s beautiful synergy of size, strength, and mobility make him a perfect fit for the left side.
So where does that leave Wynn? If he loses out to Brown for the left tackle spot, is he going to replace Joe Thuney or Shaq Mason at guard – two really good lineman in their own right who were both ranked as top-15 players at their position last season, according to Pro Football Focus? Probably not. He’s also not going to replace David Andrews at center or Marcus Cannon at the other tackle spot.
So then what the hell? Would the Pats really spend such a high pick on a reserve offensive lineman? I certainly hope not, but here are a few different ways I can see this playing out:
Maybe the Pats decide to move Thuney or Mason via trade this summer. Though Mason is definitely the better of the two, he is also in the final year of his current deal; since we all know Belichick won’t break the bank for offensive lineman, maybe he’ll try to get something for him now.
Wynn really does serve as the team’s top reserve/swing lineman in 2018, and he simply takes over one of the guard spots next season after Mason walks.
Besides that, I really don’t see any other logical explanation for the embarrassment of riches the Pats currently have up front.
Either way, it’s a good “problem” to have, and it’s nice to know our elder statesman at quarterback will have some good protection in front of him once again in 2018.
Be sure to check in with The 300s next week for Part 3 of the series before the Pats kick off the preseason schedule against Washington next Thursday night!
ESPN – Former NFL linebacker Shawne Merriman has signed a deal with the World Bare Knuckle Fighting Federation (WBKFF) to compete in a boxing match later this year. Merriman, 34, has teased the possibility of competing in combat sports, notably mixed martial arts, for years. A three-time Pro Bowl selection with the San Diego Chargers, Merriman — whose nickname was “Lights Out” during his playing career — retired from professional football in 2013… A date and opponent for Merriman’s bout has yet to be determined. The event will take place this fall in Casper, Wyoming, and is expected to air via pay-per-view online…
Merriman was a standout linebacker at the University of Maryland and a Chargers first-round draft pick in 2005. He notched 39.5 sacks during his first three seasons, despite serving a four-game suspension in 2006 after testing positive for a banned substance. Injuries derailed the final five years of his career; he played just 33 games during that span.
Let me just Papa Doc my headline real quick before any of you have the opportunity to chirp me. Yes Julian Edelman is currently serving a suspension for taking a banned substance, yes Rodney Harrison served a PED suspension, yes Tom Brady was suspended for deflating fucking footballs
(Now that thats out of the way, back to the blog.)
But none of that changes the fact that Shawne Merriman is one of the biggest enigmas of our generation. The guy was an absolute savage, a preposterously strong, athletic, and menacing linebacker that tormented the league for years. Racked up 10, 17, and 12.5 sacks in his first 3 years in the league then he got popped for PEDs and had 6 sacks over the next 5 years. Maybe it was the PEDs, maybe it was injuries piling up (33 games over the final 5 years), but either way the guy was never even close to being a replacement level player ever again. Thats a pretty clear line of demarcation. Sorry, Chargers fans.
Not to mention the reason all Patriots fans loved to hate Shawn Merriman; the silly “Lights Out” sack dance.
The guy would put on this whole show after sacking a QB. But god forbid anyone mocks his pre-planned, organized dance, which is exactly what the Patriots did after yet again upsetting the favored Chargers in the playoffs in 2007. The Chargers all flipped out because doing the dance that was thrown in everyone’s face all year long was not classy.
“I would never react in that way. I was very upset,” Tomlinson said. “When you go to the middle of our field and start doing the dance Shawne Merriman is known for, that is disrespectful. They showed no class and maybe that comes from the head coach.”
Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers said he saw some Patriots pointing to the scoreboard, mimicking the dance and stomping on the Chargers’ logo at midfield.
“Every time I will play New England it will be a personal grudge,” linebacker Shaun Phillips said, according to the Union-Tribune. “That was very classless.”
Either way, I will absolutely be watching this bare knuckle boxing match as long as its not more than like $20. While I enjoy ragging on Merriman still all these years later, I will watch him try his hand at combat sports. Dude probably has a bundle of frustration built up over the past decade just waiting for someone to catch these hands after the way his football career ended.
USA Today – Mercedes-Benz Stadium’s crown jewel when it opened last year was the futuristic retractable roof that looked super-cool when it opened and closed. Except the roof had a ton of problems – there was a leak during the college football championship game and the thing had problems opening and closing.
The Falcons finally figured out how to work the sunroof on their own stadium. Just shy of a year since it opened too!
All these hype videos are cool, but fail to mention the fact that the roof itself takes EIGHT MINUTES to open. This is 2018, I don’t have eight minutes.
Apparently the guys building the stadium last year realized they weren’t going to have time to finish it so they just mailed it in.
“The issue with the roof… is ensuring that the weight distribution along each section of the rail is precise to keep the panel level and keep it from wearing down the rails.
“We got to a point, quite frankly, where we said, you know what, let’s just sit that aside for a little and get everything else in 100 percent tip top shape, and then let’s just come back and work on the fine tuning of the roof afterwards.”
Almost have to respect the move. But hey its all good now, the Falcons have a nifty roof! The envy of the Brewers, the Blue Jays, the Astros, the Cowboys and retractable dome teams everywhere. Definitely worth $700 million in taxpayer money.
CBS Sports – With a completely revamped team, the Browns have generated a ton of buzz this offseason — buzz that will undoubtedly only increase when Hard Knocks premiers Aug. 7. One of those new players — wide receiver Jarvis Landry — has already bought into the hype.
“You’ll be lucky if we don’t score 40 on you,” he said in a feature with Sports Illustrated. “If we get everyone playing to their potential, we can win the Super Bowl this year.”
Now we’re just getting into semantics. I mean, technically he’s right. It is “possible” the Browns *can* win the Super Bowl.
They are eligible for that opportunity. But lets not confuse what we can do with what we will do. I *can* be an astronaut. Technically possible. Probably a lot more realistic if I could do long division without my phone and didn’t get nauseous on planes though.
As always, there’s an Entourage quote for that.
Jarvis Landry: “Whats it matter? We wanna do it.”
Ari Gold:
According to NFL.com“Eventual Super Bowl champions average 12.0 wins per season.”
The Browns haven’t won 12 games over the last FOUR YEARS.
Sure, they added Landry, Tyrod Taylor, Josh Gordon (maybe?), No. 1 overall pick Baker Mayfield, Georgia RB Nick Chubb, and others. But are those guys worth 12 Wins Above Replacement? I think not.
I am hella excited to run naked bootlegs with Baker Mayfield and chuck bombs to Landry and Gordon in Madden ’19 though and thats all that really matters.
Everyone has been freaking out the Patriots traded Jimmy G back in October. Who is gonna take over when Tom Brady retires? Whats the plan of succession? How are we going to compete in the future with studs like Jimmy leaving town? We are all doomed. Well, I got my first look at Patriots rookie QB Danny Etling today…..and I think we’re gonna be alright.
If I know anything about playing quarterback in the NFL, and I think I do, being handsome is like 80% of it. Brady, Russell Wilson, Cam Newton, Drew Brees, Marcus Marriota, Garoppolo. All. Handsome.
So I just want to get ahead of the crowd and invite Danny Etling into the Handsome Men’s Club.
Show of handsome? All in favor?
Its only the first day of practice in his first year as a pro, but I think the Patriots may have struck gold with this 7th Round handsome son of a bitch.
*Insert over-used “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” reference here.* (Go ahead and even sing it in your head, if you want.)
FOOTBALL IS BACK, BABY!
The Patriots officially kicked off training camp in Foxborough today, and per usual there are plenty of storylines to get to.
But this year feels a little bit different. Instead of focusing on positional battles or guessing which player you’ll invest a high fantasy draft pick on only to see Belichick bury them on the bottom of the depth chart before the first leaves even change color (see: Dobson, Aaron; Gillislee, Mike; Ochocinco, Chad; Ridley, Stevan; Taylor, Fred), people seem to be much more concerned with how much “fun” the team is having, how “mean” Belichick really is, or why Tom Brady doesn’t eat tomatoes (no, but really, he doesn’t).
This entire offseason has felt like an episode of General Hospital, and I’m honestly done with all the soap opera bullshit. I’m just ready to watch some good action on the gridiron.
Here’s the first of a weekly series from The 300s focusing on actual football-related issues pertaining to Brady & Co. before Christmas finally arrives on Sunday, September 9:
Sexy Rexy vs. the New Kid: Who Ya Got?
The Pats surprised a lot of people in May when they selected former Georgia stud running back Sony Michel with the 31st pick in this year’s NFL draft.
Sure, Dion Lewis – who totaled over 1,100 yards from scrimmage and 10 touchdowns last season – had signed with the Titans two months before, but the team still had Rex Burkhead, James White, and Mike Gillislee, the last of whom people thought maybe (JUST MAYBE) could have a bounce-back season after the Pats signed him to a two-year, $6.4 million deal last summer. (OK, I know most people forgot Gillislee was even on the team, but let’s not forget that this was a guy who averaged just under six yards a carry and scored 12 total touchdowns from 2015-2016 as a backup to LeSean McCoy in Buffalo. He also had 98 carries for the Pats through the first eight weeks of last season before being banished to the bench for the rest of the year, save for six carries in Week 16 against Buffalo. He’s most likely going to be cut unless he has a monster camp, but he’s really not a bad player and should re-emerge somewhere throughout the league this season.)
Nevertheless, Belichick and McDaniels saw something in the 23-year-old Michel, who finally signed his rookie deal on Monday and looks primed for a feature role in the offense.
But wait a minute, Mattes, what about Burkhead – who had eight touchdowns in 10 games last season – and White – the loveable, reliable pass-catching specialist who got robbed of a Super Bowl MVP award against the Falcons two years ago? (Sorry, Tom, but White was absolutely the MVP of that Super Bowl. Period.)
First and foremost, White’s role is locked in, and regardless of whether or not the Pats took Michel this past spring, not much is set to change for him. He’s still going to get the bulk of the targets out of the backfield, finish with 50-70 catches, and serve as the emergency ball-carrier in the event Burkhead and/or Michel go down.
But what about Burkhead?
After signing with the team as a free agent last summer, Burkhead played in just 12.3% and 10.5% of the team’s offensive snaps, respectively, through the first two games of the season before sitting out the next four games due to injury. However, after returning against the Falcons in Week 7, Burkhead played in about a third of the team’s offensive snaps the rest of the way, ultimately becoming the team’s main goal-line back and secondary pass-catcher out of the backfield – before missing the team’s final two games of the season, again due to injury.
So while durability issues may be a bit of concern for Burkhead, there is no doubt that he is a true all-around threat at the running back position. And after re-signing with the team yet again this offseason, the coaching staff obviously plans to use him.
Sooooo where does that leave Michel?
Well, no team in their right mind is going to use a first-round pick on a running back only to have him ride the pine for the majority of his rookie season. We may see this happen with quarterbacks, even more so in recent years, but first-round picks are not spent on running backs unless the team believes they can handle the rock right away. Michel is going to get his.
Even with Burkhead in the fold last year, Lewis still received the lion’s share of the playing time in the backfield, averaging exactly 15 carries per game over the team’s final 10 contests. He also hauled in 25 catches over that same stretch.
There were also five instances last season where both Burkhead and Lewis each surpassed 50 total yards in the same game, demonstrating that the Pats, much like the vast majority of the NFL, are furthering the belief that the days of a bell-cow back are truly coming to an end. (OK, sorry, I see you Le’Veon Bell. You’re a freakin’ machine. OK??)
Also, while there is no doubt that Michel was an absolute FORCE to be reckoned with at the college level – 1,227 rushing yards, 17 total touchdowns, and an out-of-this-world 7.9 yards per carry average (WHAT??!!) last season – he was never truly a bell-cow back himself. Michel only exceeded 156 carries in a season one time in four seasons, and he actually shared a feature role in Georgia’s backfield for the past few years with fellow NFL rookie and Cleveland Browns second-round pick Nick Chubb. He also averaged just 16 receptions per year as a Bulldog, so he is no threat to White’s status either.
Now, I’m not trying to make it seem as though I’m not absolutely amped to see this kid play. (Again, he averaged SEVEN-POINT-EFFING-NINE YARDS PER CARRY last year against the toughest conference in the country.) I’m just saying that people need to temper expectations if they expect him to be the next Zeke Elliott or Leonard Fournette.
Editor’s note: AJ Green begs to differ:
It should also be noted that since 2004, only three guys – BenJarvus Green-Ellis (2010), Stevan Ridley (2012), and LeGarrette Blount (2016) – have toted the rock more than 200 times in a season for the Pats, and there’s no reason to expect that trend to change this season.
While it’s often an exercise in futility to try and predict exactly what Belichick and McDaniels are going to do in any scenario, I am still going to provide you with my completely meaningless 2018 stat prediction for the Pats three-headed monster at running back:
Rex Burkhead:141 carries; 544 yards; 42 catches; 382 yards; 10 total touchdowns
Sony Michel:192 carries; 839 yards; 11 catches; 45 yards; 7 total touchdowns
James White: 55 carries; 205 yards; 61 catches; 510 yards; 4 total touchdowns
All I know is, Belichick knows how to use running backs of all shapes, sizes, creeds, and colors; he’s proven it throughout his career. Not since the days of Clock Killin’ Corey Dillon has Bill invested his entire stock into one running back, and he both understands and appreciates the value of having multiple guys who can carry the load.
So no matter what happens, it’s nice to know the Pats shouldn’t be in dire straits without Lewis this season, and it’ll be fun to watch how it all shakes out.
Be sure to check in with The 300s next week for Part 2 of the series!
On most days I’d agree with Joey that Dan Shaughnessy’s act has gotten old. The trolling. The smugness. The recycling of columns. The flagrant flip flopping. But every dog has its day. Today was Dan Shaughnessy’s day.
If you’re a Patriots fan and you say that you are satisfied with Bill Belichick’s previous answer on why Malcolm Butler didn’t play in Super Bowl 52, you’re lying. The “we have to make the decisions that we feel are best for the football team” routine wasn’t new, but it never rang more hollow. From the outside, until we find out more it seems like Belichick pissed away a Super Bowl over personal bullshit. And had a lot of pissed off players to patch things up with over the offseason.
I’m not here today to try and take down Bill, though. He’s still the best coach in the league, and he doesn’t owe anyone other than Robert Kraft an explanation of what happened with Butler at the Super Bowl. That doesn’t mean I still don’t want to know, though. It could’ve been anyone, but it was Shaugnessy who had the balls to ask the question today.
I often wonder what is the point of sending reporters and cameras to Belichick press conferences. He rarely says anything noteworthy. If you’re going to go, though, at least ask some decent questions. Otherwise just quote the Patriots press releases. I still want to know why Butler didn’t play. I don’t care about left-footed punters. So credit to Shaughnessy for at least trying to answer the most pressing question in Patriots Nation.
Even Tom E. Curran, who has had beefs with Shaughnessy in the past, agrees.
Dan Shaughnessy, early riser today, with a flurry of necessary questions on Malcolm Butler benching. Belichick parried with “working on this year.”
Of all the things that make me irrationally angry in this world, The fact that Dan “I’m a fucking asshat” Shaughnessy is SOMEHOW going to be beatified as a saint by the media when he one day dies is perhaps the most infuriating. Shank is a troll plain and simple. He is an amalgamation of the worst parts of old media and big J journalism and he delights in nothing more than writing bad stories that no one cares about while grinding whichever of his axe is the dullest that week.
Unfortunately for Mr. Shaughnessy at the turn of the millennium a new sheriff arrived in town that very simply put, was not going to put up with his shit, that was intellectually and creatively superior and who could, no matter what Shank did or said or wrote, make Boston’s worst columnist look like a child at any waking moment. To put it in terms I myself can understand better, Shaughnessy is any number of hapless, 155 pound subpar grapplers and Belichick is Khabib Nurmagomedov, just taking down, holding down, stifling, and making life absolutely miserable and humiliating for his broken opponent.
But what a weird fuckin fanbase we are for getting fired up for by this huh? While other teams have to wait for the first deep call completed in full pad drills to get stoked for the impending season, we just have to wait for our coach to verbally checkmate a jackass reporter within 3 moves.
ESPN – The Hamilton Tiger-Cats have traded quarterback Johnny Manziel to the Montreal Alouettes, reuniting him with the coach who recruited him to Texas A&M. Manziel, offensive tackle Tony Washington and offensive lineman Landon Rice were sent to Montreal in exchange for defensive end Jamaal Westerman, wide receiver Chris Williams and first-round picks in 2020 and 2022.
Has Johnny Football lit up the CFL like I had hoped? Not quite yet, but he hasn’t really had the opportunity to showcase himself. He didn’t even record a pass attempt with the Tiger Cats. Now is that a bad sign that he can’t beat out some CFL quarterback to get on the field? Maybe, but the guy in front of him was also putting up some crooked numbers:
“Masoli tied a CFL record with nine straight 300-yard passing games before the team’s Week 5 bye.”
So I would like to see him under center and running around like a madman before I make any assumptions because I think he can still ball.
Manziel now goes to Montreal where the Alouettes are currently coached by none other than Mike Sherman, the guy who first recruited Johnny to Texas A&M. If thats not a match made in heaven then I don’t know what is. This is a guy who went on the recruiting trail to bring Manziel in just a handful of years ago so he obviously likes the guy. Not to mention Montreal is terrible so there should be ample opportunity to get on the field.
“Manziel will try to improve an offense that ranks last in the league in points scored and rushing yards, is tied for last in turnovers, and is seventh of nine teams in passing yards. The Alouettes are 1-4 and in last place in the CFL’s four-team East Division.”
Oh and one more thing.
Yea, Montreal is a mere 5 hour drive from Boston, which means The 300s Does the CFL is a very, very real possibility. And if thats happens then you know its my duty to swipe a Johnny Manziel Montreal jersey on The 300s corporate card (Red’s Visa debit card).
I don’t exactly know when the CFL season runs until because this league is ass backwards in everything they do, but I’m already planning this roadtrip. Reminds me of the English Premiere League where they basically play for 10 months, crown a champion without any sort of playoffs, take 2 months off and then they’re back on the field and I’m back in the Green Briar having a Guinness at 9 am. Round and round we go.
Now the real question is, with so many choices, which Montreal Manziel jersey do I get? Decisions, decisions.
Its only the first day of practice in his first year as a pro, but I think the Patriots may have struck gold with this 7th Round handsome son of a bitch.
The 300s 