This really has just been a disaster of a season. The Patriots just got dunked on by the Buffalo Bills after going 29-3 against them between 2001-2019 with Tom Brady under center. It was a blowout, it was a changing of the guard, but to say it was embarrassing would imply that the end result was surprising. It was not. In the infamous words of Trent Dilfer, the Patriots aren’t good anymore. It’s the first time the Patriots have been swept in a season by a divisional opponent in 20 years, they are dead last in the NFL in passing TDs with 8 (one of which came from WR Jakobi Meyers), and the team is uncharacteristically undisciplined, which was only exacerbated by that head scratching challenge flag Belichick threw on what was clearly a catch directlyin front of him and his son.
Someone clearly told Bill to throw the red flag though so Ernie must be going blind up in that fucking lighthouse.
There is a lot of grave dancing, which is to be expected after the run the Patriots just went on over the last 20 years. But for people to already be comparing the Patriots to the Jets is hyperbole of the highest order. Lets just let this marinate for a little more than 15 weeks before locking the Pats in the NFL basement with the likes of the Jets. I fully expect Bill is going to Execute Order 66 this offseason and just start taking people out left and right because you can tell this season has stung, which can only be worsened seeing Tom Brady’s march to the playoffs down in Tampa. The Pats will have some of, if not the most, cap room in the league this offseason and a Top 15 draft pick so there are some assets there to work with. Whether that means trading up to snag a top tier QB, trading down and rebuilding with even more picks, or hoping another QB shakes loose in free agency, there are plenty of routes back to respectability. I will settle for respectability and then we can discuss returning to championship contender status at a later date.
The best the Patriots can hope for right now is a 2012 Seahawks scenario where they overpay for a backup QB free agent and then hit on a QB with a pick later in the draft. Best case scenario is the Pats sign Marcus Mariota, then draft a QB in the 3rd Round, and Mariota never takes a snap for the team. Similar to how the Seahawks and Pete Carroll gave career backup Matt Flynn a monster 3-year deal before realizing a few weeks later that they had hit the jackpot with Russell Wilson. But stumbling onto another Hall of Fame QB with a late round draft pick isn’t exactlyy probable so I can’t say I am expecting that.
What about former Washington QB Dwayne Haskins? The fastest a 1st Round QB has been outright cut by a team in the last 20 years. Nope. Moving on.
The Patriots unfortunately do not have a lot of elite talent and just about all of their best players are on the wrong side of 30. All of their best offensive players under 30 are linemen and runningbacks, which is why the running game is the only thing thats looked impressive at times. Tight ends we’ll get to in a minute, but the receiving corps is nothing I would bet money on. N’Keal Harry is looking like a gigantic bust and Damiere Byrd and Jakobi Meyers are nice 3rd or 4th receivers, but they are not true No. 1 guys. Things aren’t much better on the defensive side of the ball with their best players under 30 including guys like JC Jackson (who got robbed of a Pro Bowl this year), Chase Winovich, Deatrich Wise, and the book is still out but early signs have looked good on Josh Uche and Kyle Dugger. You can debate anyone I may have left out, but there’s not a lot of young elite talent on the roster except for Jackson (who sneaky got torched last night).
Cam Newton is a great dude, a seemingly beloved teammate, and he has been a model Patriot, but unfortunately he just looks cooked. I don’t know if it’s his shoulder or what, but he just cannot deliver the ball. It’s not all his fault though as the weapons around him have been more like Dollar Store Super Soakers. Even when he does deliver a good pass, he has bum receivers dropping balls like Byrd letting a would be TD bounce off his face mask.
Or rookie (3rd Round pick) TE Devin Asiasi dropping a key first down and adding to his grand total of Zero receptions on the season. Fellow 3rd Round TE Dalton Keene has a measly Two receptions on the year too so Tight End, a historically important position for young/new/mobile QBs, has been BARREN in New England.
Newton can still takeoff for an electric TD run though, which he did Monday night for his 12th of the year. However even that came after what realistically should have been another sack as Newton’s pocket presence and awareness has seemed non-existent this season. But even with the 2nd Most Rushing TDs by a QB in a season (trailing only himself in 2011 with 14), passing for just 5 touchdowns over 14 games simply isn’t going to cut it. I wish it had worked out better, I was really excited to see Cam as a Patriot, but it just hasn’t materialized. It’s not for a lack of effort or attitude, which has been admirable, but even the ever positive Newton sounded dejected after last night’s effort (5/10 for 34 yards, 47.6 QBR).
On Monday he looked exhausted and sounded frustrated. He has been away from his children for months, and not even an admirable work ethic and a team-first attitude has produced much.
“It’s extremely frustrating knowing what you’re capable of but it’s just not showing when it counts the most,” Newton said. “… I’ve sacrificed so much this year and it hurts when you have the outing that you had tonight …
“I’m more or less venting,” he acknowledged.
Jarrett Stidham: Alright down 20+ points, time for me to get in there and start slinging it!
To be fair, Jarrett Stidham, who it looked like might not even see the field, was also terrible, completing 4 of 11 passes for 44 yards with a QBR of 3.7. Again, this team is devoid of elite talent at Wide Receiver (Julian Edelman is still out with a knee injury) and Tight End so it’s hard to evaluate anybody under center, but lets just say Stidham does not appear to be like a young Aaron Rodgers with his path to playing time merely blocked by a former MVP veteran QB.
To make matters even worse, the commentators were borderline depressing too. They will usually try to carry a game broadcast during a blowout, but they were talking about Newton and the Patriots like a “too old to be in the ring” heavyweight boxer that they were legitimately concerned for. And this was with 10 minutes left to go in the 4th quarter. Quite a lot of time to fill as the broadcasters pondered the precarious future of the Patriots.
So we’ll see what the Patriots do and whether they attack the offseason like they did after 2006 when they spent big in free agency and made splashy trades for studs like Randy Moss and Wes Welker, but even then that team had elite building blocks already in place.
All we know is this: Bill has the cap space, an unusually high draft pick, and all the motivation in the world to turn this thing around. Now let’s just hope this is a rebuild and not a tear down.
As you all have heard by now the Patriots did the most Patriots thing ever this week and signed a former elite player on a massively team friendly deal. The marriage of Cam Newton and the Patriots is not something I expected, but I also was told by the Boston media all offseason how high the team was on Jarrett Stidham with Brian Hoyer being the adult in the room for at least a little while. Welp, it seems like Belichick had merely been eyeing a fancy new toy for months just waiting for the price to drop before finally deciding to pull the trigger. Newton comes to New England on an incentive laden one-year prove it deal as the signal caller looks to bounce back from an injury shortened season last year.
Jarrett Stidham’s head must be spinning right now. The heir apparent to the Patriots QB1 only had to beat out veteran journeyman Hoyer to earn the job. Now he’s got Hoyer and a former league MVP boxing him out of the starting gig. Stidham took a road trip to Texas with the wife and got Wally Pipped before he even got off the Pike. Stidham checking his ESPN notifications and seeing the Newton signing:
By the way, this also goes to show you to never, ever, ever discount what the wise guys are saying in Vegas. Oddsmakers had the Patriots as the favorites to sign Newton months ago and we all thought what the hell are they talking about? Whoops.
Julian Edelman seems to already be on board with the former MVP coming to Gillette though.
Using the infamous and ridiculous Cam Newton font in his post legitimately made me laugh out loud.
Although Tom Brady was immediately in Edelman’s comments like an ex-girlfriend trying to honey dick him.
You left Jules, Tom! Let him be happy with someone else.
I’ve been a big fan of Ham Newton’s game ever since his days at Auburn when he crushed my dreams as a Boston based Oregon stan in the National Championship. So I’m pretty excited to see what one of the most dynamic QBs in the game can do with the best coach in the history of the league.
KEY STATS
People point to Newton’s career 59% completion percentage as a reason why he won’t fit here, but I fully expect the Pats to run the snot out of the ball this year. They were already trending that way the last couple of seasons, drafting Sony Michel in the first round, and this past offseason using the franchise tag to bring back Left Tackle Joe Thuney. Now factor in that Newton’s completion % is nearly 10% higher on play action than it is on non-play action plays. His completion percentage on play action is 68%, which will pick teams apart if the Pats can develop a decent running game in 2020.
If the Pats do want to jam Newton into the Tom Brady quick, short pass offense? His accuracy is not as good as Brady’s (Brady is 63% career), but their time holding onto the ball and average yards per throw is surprisingly close. In 2018 (Newton’s last *almost* full season with 14 games) Cam averaged 2.69 Time to Throw compared to Brady’s 2.62 seconds and 5 Completed Air Yards compared to Brady’s 5.6. He also had a Passer Rating of 94.2 compared to Brady’s 97.7 with a Completion Percentage of 67.9 compared to Brady’s 65.8.
Tom Brady is the GOAT and my favorite athlete of all time, but Cam Newton is not a bad replacement if healthy. Newton also only threw two more picks than Brady despite having an Aggressiveness % of 17.2 to Brady’s 13.9. And if that stat is entirely new to you as it is one I found that fits my agenda, have no fear: “Aggressiveness tracks the amount of passing attempts a quarterback makes that are into tight coverage, where there is a defender within 1 yard or less of the receiver at the time of completion or incompletion. AGG is shown as a % of attempts into tight windows over all passing attempts.”
INJURY HISTORY
As with any player, especially at QB, a recent injury history like Newton’s is alarming. Pats Pulpit does a great job of breaking it down extensively, but here are the spark notes.
January 2019 – Shoulder surgery on his throwing arm
December 2019 – Foot surgery for a Lisfranc fracture
2014 – Ankle Surgery
It’s not an overly lengthy injury history, but it is a very recent one. Shoulder and foot injuries for a 31-year-old mobile QB are not ideal. Thats why he was available though and the last thing you want to do is repeat the Dolphin’s fatal mistake when they passed on Drew Brees in 2006 because of his shoulder injury. They went with Daunte Culpepper instead and have sucked for the past 14 years, meanwhile the Saints took a chance and won a Super Bowl as Brees flourished into a Hall of Famer.
FIT WITH PATS
As I mentioned earlier, this Patriots team already seemed poised to run the hell out of the ball so bringing in Cam Newton makes sense as they could utilize any of their half dozen runningbacks (is Damien Harris still alive and well?) and run the old Full House package from Madden ad nauseum. I don’t expect the Patriots to morph into an RPO team overnight like the Ravens did with Lamar Jackson, but I do expect a ton of Shotgun and spreading the defense out so Newton can utilize his strengths.
I honestly think James White might catch 100 balls this year (career high 87 in 2018). Newton looves throwing to his runningbacks. Sure he’s had the best RB in the game in Christian McCaffrey, but Newton threw to his RB1 more and more each year. From 2016-2019 McCaffrey had 80, 107, and 116 receptions on 113, 124, and a whopping 142 targets last year. Somewhat surprisingly that was *only* 8th in the NFL in total targets, but it also was 34 (!) more than any other RB in the game.
Obviously the Patriots have not had a mobile quarterback really ever, even before Brady, but when you see the actual numbers compared to Newton it is jarring.
Mobile quarterbacks have only very recently started to find success in the NFL so it clearly never hurt the Patriots before, but adding this element to their offense will be a welcome bonus to having Newton under center.
Mike Reiss said on ESPN the other day he believes the Pats will keep their offense 75% the same with about 25% changed to suit Newton.
Lets not forget that Josh McDaniels did in fact draft Tim Tebow in the first round back in 2010 while he was the HC in Denver. The Pats also had some fun with their most mobile quarterback since Doug Flutie when Jacoby Brissett was forced into emergency starting duties against the Texans in 2016. The Pats ran some RPO and Brissett ran the ball 10 times that game, including this 30 yard TD on a designed QB run.
And Brissett’s not even a mobile quarterback! He just looked that way compared to the Clydesdale that is TB12. Cam Newton ran a 4.59 40 yard dash at the combine compared to Brissett’s 4.94. Granted Newton has since had foot surgery, but my point is the Pats had a great game plan for a guy that runs a slower 40 time than me. Imagine what kind of damage they can do with a guy like Newton?
EXPECTATIONS
I’ve said in the past that watching Newton last year he looked cooked, but coming off a shoulder surgery less than a year prior and then injuring his foot really decimated any chance he had of stepping into throws. Not to mention his ability to scramble, so its no surprise he looked terrible. But Cam was great as recently as 2018 even though his season was cut short after 14 games with the shoulder injury. In 2018 Newton threw for 3,400 yards, 24 TDs, 13 INTs, 67.9% completion percentage, 94.2 Rating, with 488 yards rushing and 4 TDs. A far cry from his MVP year, but this is also with him throwing to his runningback, DJ Moore, Devin Funchess, Jarius Wright, Curtis Samuel, something called Ian Thomas, and a 33-year-old Greg Olsen. Not a ton of household names in there outside of McCaffrey.
CBS Sports’ Will Brinson was on Toucher and Rich this week calling Cam the greatest QB in league history and is *very* high on the fit.
“I think if Cam is healthy, Josh McDaniels and Bill Belichick will unleash a really lethal offense…Rob Gronkowski is the second greatest red zone threat in league history and Cam Newton is No. 1 because he can run the ball.”
Although would it surprise me if Belichick just up and decides it’s not working and cuts Newton in training camp? With an incentive laden one-year contract, it would not shock me. I’d hate to see that happen though because this is the most excited I’ve been to watch the Patriots since Brady left for Tampa.
The fit remains to be seen, but I think Newton is DYING to prove he is still an elite QB in a league that is now littered with mobile QBs. Newton was the prototype so it must really piss him off to see half a dozen QBs winning with his blueprint. He wants to prove he is still the alpha and if he is fully healthy, motivation will not be a problem so I am excited to see what Belichick and McDaniels do with him.
JERSEY TIME?
I have to admit, I was pretty meh on the new Pats jerseys when they came out, but I think part of that was probably with Brady leaving town there wasn’t really any other players that made me want to buy a $100 jersey. I already have an Edelman jersey, Devin McCourty flirts with retirement more and more these days, Dont’a Hightower is also on the wrong side of 30. I love Chase Winovich, but I need to see him on the field more before I even think about elevating him to jersey status. N’Keal Harry needs to catch about a dozen touchdowns this year to get into this conversation. So who does that leave? Maybe Stephon Gilmore? I guess if I had to pull the trigger it would be either White (a Super Bowl hero) or Patrick Chung (a longtime Patriot who does anything and everything). BUT, I gotta say, this looks pretty sexy.
I have a rule that I don’t buy jerseys of players unless they have recently signed a contract extension so as to not end up with another Sergei Samsonov jersey that immediately became a throwback about a week after I bought it. But if Ham Newton has 10 touchdowns in September, it’s going to be pretty hard to keep my credit card in my pocket. Even if he is only on a one-year contract.
Would still be a better jersey to won than the two *different* guys I’ve seen wearing John Lynch Patriots jerseys in Allston over the years (Lynch retired before the start of the 2008 season).
Or maybe the injuries have finally caught up to a guy who has absolutely abused his body for the past decade and Newton really is cooked. Well its a win-win situation for the Pats. They get a 31-year-old, hyper motivated former MVP QB, who will not be fazed in the slightest about replacing a legend and ultimately dominates with a fresh start OR we get A+ fashion shows every week that will provide weeks worth of content.
Yahoo – Hard Rock Stadium can hold around 65,000 fans, but Garfinkel said it might be closer to a 15,000-fan maximum this season to adjust to social distancing and to keep everyone safe. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) currently recommends keeping six feet (two arms lengths) from other people and to avoid crowded places and mass gatherings.
The team would also schedule arrivals and assist with exiting after the game. The plans include fans being required to wear masks...The examples show colored spots on the ground to show what six feet of distancing looks like, not unlike what grocery stores have done near registers to keep from having a mass crush of people together in one spot.
Attendees would order food from their seats and leave to pick it up instead of waiting in line, just as people are doing elsewhere with curbside pickup.
I’m holding out hope for some semblance of sports to resume later this summer, but I’m not exactly optimistic. By all accounts, it would seem our best bet of sports returning any time soon is some form of games without fans in attendance. Even that has plenty of hurdles to overcome, most of which revolve around logistics. The NBA has kicked around the idea of every team playing a tournament in Las Vegas, while basically on lockdown in a bubble. MLB has considered restructuring leagues and having teams play games in just a handful of Spring Training stadiums to reduce cross country travel, but even that would require players to be away from their families for four months straight. So every story you read about how or when sports can return leaves me with a pretty bleak outlook.
However, a failure to plan is a plan to fail so teams are doing their due diligence and trying to figure out how exactly they could safely allow fans back in the stadiums.
The Dolphins came out with a proposed plan of how to safely bring back fans once the government gives the green light and it has a serious dystopian future vibe.
15,000 fans allowed in the stadium (compared to 65,000 normally)
All fans required to wear masks
Order food and drinks from your seats rather than waiting in line
Staggered arrival times and exiting “much like a church environment, where each row exits so people aren’t filing out all at the same time in a herd.”
Before all this I was a borderline germaphobe, so I am not going to be one of the first fans jumping through hoops just to pay $200 to attend a game in person. Sports on TV would be more than enough for me right now, but you know plenty of people are dying to get out of the house and return to something resembling normal.
Who knows, maybe this becomes the preferred way of going to a game and it acts like a form of EZ-Pass. With just 15,000 people and assigned entrance times you could just breeze into town and right up to your seat. Anyone who has been to a Pats game in the last decade knows its a 3 hour tour just getting out of the parking lot and back home after a game. OR the demand for tickets will go through the roof because of the limited supply and we’ll all look back and laugh at how cheap $200 Patriots tickets were before COVID.
It’s crazy to think about how the next Patriots home game could look more like a college lacrosse game with less than a quarter of the seats filled, and have it not be because Tom Brady’s gone. It’s going to take a long time for things to return to normal, if at all, depending on how long the coronavirus lingers. So until then we’ll have to take what we can get as everything from our offices to bars and restaurants to concerts and games at Gillette Stadium slowly figures out how to bring people back together once again.
I blogged about this a couple weeks back as we broke down the best jerseys in franchise history and pondered what the Patriots could potentially do with new unis. My campaign for the throwback red jerseys was pretty quickly killed by Mike Reiss who reported the jersey tweaks would be minor. However, this teaser video the Pats just tweeted out has me rethinking all that.
I know the cynics out there are bitching that so many teams are only changing their jerseys (Pats are the 4th team this offseason by my count) because Nike wants to hawk more gear, but sometimes a little change is a good thing. Especially with the end of an era and TB12 now in Tampa Bay, I am not opposed to something new. So help me God if this is a Jay Glazer-esque hype train only for it to be much ado about nothing. I’m not going to take my pants off for new piping accent colors, this isn’t Uni Watch.
The countdown is on and there really couldn’t be a more appropriate day for the Pats to make the announcement: Patriots Day. We’ll be back to break it down after the reveal and potentially blow some stimulus check funds on a fresh new jersey.
CBS – The Patriots will be making a change to their uniforms, according to The Associated Press’ Joe Reedy.
Specifically, Reedy listed four teams (one of which being the Patriots) making uniform changes, along with two teams making uniform and logo changes, plus one team making a uniform tweak. Considering the Patriots aren’t changing their logo, and considering this is not merely a “tweak,” this report would seemingly add to the belief that the Patriots are set to ditch their “Color Rush” jerseys as their third/alternate jersey.
To be honest the Patriots are probably due for a jersey update and I am an unabashed jersey guy so I love to see new looks. I mean even the Cowboys mess with their jerseys every now and then so it’s okay to switch things up. The Patriots have been wearing essentially the same thing, minus a patch here or there and minor tweaks, for the past 20 years.
Julian Edelman teased us all last week when he posted a photoshop of him in the old 90s royal blue unis, which are so choice. They are gloriously 90s in the best way. Just over the top, odd colors thrown together, and ugly but in a good way. Was he actually teasing something or just messing with us?
Mike Reiss threw some cold water on the idea of a dramatic update though, but I’m going to ignore that for the time being.
What jersey would you want the Patriots to bring back? Lets take a look at what they’ve rocked over the years.
This same image has actually been hanging in my parents’ basement for the better part of 20 years.
If the reports are true and the Patriots aren’t “changing their logo” then that means they’re not going back to the throwback red unis full-time. I *love* Pat the Patriots, but the Krafts would be stupid to change the logo of the most successful franchise in sports. This doesn’t mean we can’t get a one off though. Please?
This 1960s era throwback that they debuted in 2009 and have worn several times since has actually become an incredibly difficult jersey to find these days despite being one of the most universally beloved looks. Don’t sleep on the white throwbacks either because those were fresh too.
I’ve been hunting for a throwback red Brady jersey for a while now and it is sold out everywhere except for obnoxious XXXL sizes. HOWEVER, I went back to the Patriots online store again today and suddenly these are stocked in every size with a note about how they’ll ship out in 3-4 weeks. That is interesting timing. Hmmmmmm
With a new look coming, it would seem like the most obvious casualty is the Pats axing the dark blue Color Rush jersey aka the “Jacoby Brissett.” These have actually became their third alternate recently. The all navy look was fine, but never blew my socks off.
I would love if they made the Color Rush white on whites a full-time road uni as that is one of the cleanest looks in the league. The Patriots rocked these back in 2017 on Thursday Night Football in…yup, Tampa.
I’m probably one of the few guys in New England that actually owns the silver Patriots jersey that debuted in 2003. It was definitely wonky and only lasted a couple of seasons, but I always liked them.
I’m sure it’ll end up being new piping color or something that you probably won’t even notice, but I would love to see the Patriots try something new. We are in the post-Tom Brady era so there’s no better time to shake things up than now. Rumors were swirling last season that the Pats were considering bringing back the 90’s throwback jerseys. It never happened, but the team did start aggressively marketing those last season. Maybe a little market research before making a decision for 2020?
So, what do you want to see the Patriots rocking next season?
So through a friend of The 300s I somehow stumbled into field passes for the Patriots game yesterday and finally got to touch the sacred turf at Gillette. The same turf that Tom Brady has given me countless memories on over the years so it was a borderline religious experience.
You see all those 300s hats? That’s called branding guys. Marketing 101.
It was a beautiful monsoon-like day for a football game so naturally I had to stop at Marshalls on the way to Foxboro to pick up some waterproof pants like I was going gator hunting.
In a weird stat, Kirk Cousins threw for more yards warming up than he did in the actual game.
I thought jersey duos like this only existed on the internet, but alas I saw this couple up in the nosebleeds and it was glorious.
Check out the full breakdown below as we pretended to be part of the elite down at field level before going up into the 300s with the rest of our degenerate brethren.
*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.”
How about that Belichick, man? When the rest of the league is playing checkers he’s playing chess. He trades away his elite young backup QB and then just sits in the weeds waiting for the Jets to outsmart themselves and dump Hackenberg onto the Raiders who then cut him less than 2 weeks later, and thats when Belichick POUNCES.
Sources: former Jets QB Christian Hackenberg is at Gillette Stadium visiting the Patriots today.
In all seriousness I hated this pick by the Jets from Day 1. Well technically Day 2 since he was a second round pick. But the guy flashed as a freshman at Penn State with 20 TDs and 10 INTs under old friend Bill O’Brien. Then he regressed the next two years throwing 12/15 and 16/6 before going pro and getting drafted by the New York Football Jets, despite never posting a completion percentage above 59% in college.
In two years with the Jets he threw a grand total of zero passes despite being surrounded by bums like Bryce Petty, Geno Smith, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and Josh McCown. Not exactly murderers row ahead of him.
But before we all freak out lets just remember that the Patriots, as does every other team in the NFL, routinely workout guys that they never sign. Guys they never even hope to have to sign. These are often just workouts to keep the pipeline full in case disaster strikes and guys on your roster get injured.
Or Belichick is dabbling in the dark arts again and has grand plans for young Hackenberg. Jimmy Garoppo-WHO am I right??
CBS Sports – “Will Ricky Jean-Francois show up to his first practice at Gillette Stadium with donuts and coffee? After all, the 30-year-old defensive lineman reportedly signed by the New England Patriots on Tuesday owns more than two dozen Dunkin’ Donuts franchises….Jean-Francois met with Dunkin’ Donuts CEO Nigel Travis before taking on his first store in Savannah, Georgia. He told FOX Sports Radio in September that he’s up to 30 stores. His goal is to operate 50 Dunkin’ Donuts before he retires, according to Packers.com.”
Here’s a guy that just gets it. These dudes are making millions of dollars to play a kids game, but most of them don’t realize they probably aren’t going to have a 15+ year career like my guy Tom Brady. You how long the average NFL careers actually is? According to the NFLPA its 3.3 years. The NFL says its closer to 6, but either way thats not very long. Most guys seem to forget that, which is why so many of them go broke and end up on 30 for 30 documentaries.
So rather than balling out and living like a maniac for 5 years, lets be pragmatic and buy up some Dunkies franchises. Diversify yo bonds. Now if Ricky takes a bad hit and his playing career is over he can always fall back on going to those annual D&D franchisee meetings in like Cedar Rapids and just run his coffee empire.
I know next to nothing about this guy, but he already seems like a smart dude and those are the types of players that always seem to thrive on Bill Belichick coached teams. Time to make the donuts indeed.
The 300s 