Tag: Jimmy Garoppolo

Russell Wilson Rumored to Be On the Trade Block and the Patriots Aren’t Even MENTIONED as a Landing Spot

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How is one of the most successful franchises in NFL history that has a gigantic, gaping hole at the quarterback position not even mentioned as a possible landing spot for an elite QB that is suddenly and unexpectedly on the trade block? Whether it was Deshaun Watson, Matthew Stafford, Carson Wentz, and now Russell Wilson the Patriots don’t seem to be in on any of them. Regardless of what you think of each and everyone of those guys, all of them have played at an MVP level yet the Pats have no interest. I know in New England we have somehow fetishized “value” and take pride in our team not overpaying for anything. Well, sometimes you need to overpay a little bit or you get stuck driving a ’95 Civic with cigarette holes in the armrests because you don’t wanna pay for a premium for a gently used 2018 SUV with leather seats.

This team has a lot of holes so understandably Bill Belichick isn’t doing cartwheels when thinking about having to trade 2-4 first rounders for a quarterback. Yes, Russell Wilson will turn 33 next season so thats a consideration as well. But the larger point to be made is there have been some solid to excellent QBs on the market this offseason and there hasn’t been a single peep about the Pats. Are they really that against overpaying to solidify the most important position in sports? Well…probably yes, considering they let Tom Brady walk out the door rather than give the man an extension and some roster input. And Tom Brady these other guys are not.

But maybe it’s something worse…has the allure of the Patriots gone out the door with TB12?

It was widely reported that Stafford specifically said he would not play in New England and we all called him a puss for it. But Adam Schefter also reported that “the Cowboys, Saints, Raiders, and Bears are the only teams Wilson would consider.” So if the Pats don’t want to dump a handful of first rounders into one position I don’t necessarily agree with it, but I understand. However, if it’s more of players simply not wanting to come here then that’s a much larger issue.

Above all else, I just would like to see some semblance of a plan from Belichick. Whether that’s going out and bringing back the prodigal son in Jimmy G, trading up in the draft to get a guy like Trey Lance, or bringing on a bridge QB like Marcus Mariota and then drafting another QB late. Something tangible to build towards. But bringing back Cam Newton on a veteran minimum contract after he threw 8 touchdowns last year is not a plan. That’s just allowing your environment to dictate your actions. It’s time to make a move.

Bruce Arians Needs to Be Fired Solely for Disrespecting Tom Brady

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This has become somewhat of a running joke, what is Bruce Arians going to say to throw Tom Brady under the bus this week? Without fail, Arians always delivers and needlessly dumps all the responsibility in Brady’s lap. Last time it was Tom Brady, the greatest quarterback to ever play the game, a 20 year veteran, suddenly was getting confused by coverages?

This week, after bringing the Bucs back to within 3 points after Arian’s defense gave up 200+ yards to Tyreek Hill in the first QUARTER, Arians blamed the play calling on the player. Not taking responsibility himself or even criticizing the Offensive Coordinator, Byron Leftwich. Nope he instead blames it all on the player.

What a monumental asshole.

Granted you can still see Brady and his Tampa Bay receivers missing on plays that were automatic in New England. But thats what happens with new guys. It’s hard to replicate the familiarity with a teammate like Brady had after nearly 600 completions to Julian Edelman. Brady and Edelman played together for 10 YEARS and they did summer workouts in Cali, and offseason workouts in Montana. All those extra reps add up so when the blitz is coming both Brady and Edelman knew what the other guy was thinking and where they needed to be.

With that being said, this Bucs team would probably be better off if Brady just ripped the green dot off his helmet and ran his own offense at all times.

What Arians is doing week after week personally offends me. I feel like the girlfriend of the guy who doesn’t want to complain to the waiter that he got the wrong order. I ain’t having it, Bruce.

Say what you will about Bray and Belichick’s relationship getting a little frosty towards the end in New England, but BB never publicly criticized Tom. Remember the time the Patriots got absolutely demolished by the Chiefs in 2014? A lot of people were saying Brady looked cooked. Hell, Trent Dilfer went out on a limb to roast the Patriots and probably regrets it to this day.

After that game a lot of people were asking the question would Belichick consider moving on from his 37-year-old quarterback and go with the kid they drafted in the 2nd round that year, Jimmy Garoppolo. Remember Bill’s response?

The Patriots won the Super Bowl that year.

Remember back in 2016 when a reporter asked if Jimmy G played well enough during Tom Brady’s four game Deflategate suspension, could he earn the job full time? Bill nearly spit on the guy.

The Patriots won the Super Bowl that year.

You see my point yet? Look, I’m not saying Brady is this unquestionable, beyond reproach, Christ-like figure (though he might be), but when you have a guy with Brady’s resume who is still playing at an elite level (3,300 yards, 28 touchdowns and on pace for his most TD passes in over a decade) maybe you figure out a way to work with the guy rather than trying to dump all the blame in his lap?

I mean the Bucs are 7-5 and are currently the No. 6 seed in the NFC. So they’re still in a great position to make a playoff run.

What are you doing, Bruce?

Tom Brady is simply too nice of a guy to ever say this, but Arians is the guy in charge and if he’s not going to take some of the blame for his team’s struggles then he needs to go. Ever the positive person (AKA a politician) Brady has refused to get down in the mud, but he did abruptly end his post game presser after about 2 minutes when grilled on his relationship with Arians.

Only one of these guys in Tampa has the GOAT title and it sure as hell ain’t the guy that coached Jameis Winston into 30 interceptions. So if the Bucs flame out this year, don’t be surprised to see Arians get axed and one of “Brady’s guys” comes in to take over.

Patriots Lose Fourth Game in a Row. Is This the End of the Cam Newton Experiment?

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I’m not going to put the blame all on Cam Newton here despite the way that game ended. This team is clearly just not that good and Newton’s top receiver yesterday was a former quarterback, and no I’m not talking about Julian Edelman. The offensive play calling was suspect at best. With all that being said, Newton hasn’t thrown a touchdown pass since Week 3. And I’m no NFL scout but it did look like Newton was laboring on a lot of his throws yesterday as he was still skipping passes on easy 5-10 yard routes. The offensive game plan yesterday was almost as if they were protecting Newton from himself. Newton was 15/25 with no touchdowns and no interceptions and there was almost nothing thrown deep. I looked at the drive charts for the Pats to see if my memory served me right and Newton had one completion of 28 yards, but that was thanks to a huge YAC play by James White. There was one medium range 22 yard completion to Damiere Byrd, but other than that there was nothing completed longer than 16 yards. So unsurprisingly the Bills were crowding the hell out of the box.

Meanwhile the Pats ran the ball 34 times, including 9 by Newton. So there was a lot of handing it off and more designed QB runs than we’ve seen in a while. I guess thats to be expected playing in the wind in Buffalo with two of your receivers out, but hey as Newton himself said the excuse basket is getting low. In the end the running was exactly what did them in as Newton failed to protect the ball while scrambling for a first and fumbled the game away.

To his credit he looked like he wanted to sit down in the shower and cry afterwards so I feel for him. But if you are unable to consistently move the ball through the air and are relying on your legs to make big plays then you have to protect the ball. The flashes this team showed on offense earlier in the season are now the Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.

I respect the hell out of the venom from FS1’s Tanya Ray Fox though. Say it louder for those in the back!

So we now have to ask ourselves, is it time to move on from the Cam Newton experiment?

Sitting at 2-5 and having suffered four losses in a row this team is moving in reverse. They’ve guaranteed their worst record since 2018 (won the Super Bowl btw) and thats assuming they win out. I don’t know about you but I have a hard time imagining this team ripping off a 9-0 run. If they lose one more game, it’s their worst record since 2009 when they went 10-6 and lost in the Wild Card round. If they lose 2 more games it’s their worst record since 2002 when they went 9-7 and missed the playoffs sandwiched between two SB titles. And if they lose any more than that it would be their worst record since 2000 when they went 5-11 in Belichick’s first year at the helm.

The Patriots are now 4 games behind the Bills and 2 games behind the Dolphins so any illusion of winning the division went up in smoke yesterday. It’ll be interesting to see what the team does at the trade deadline because as I said yesterday that Bills game could legitimately decide the direction of this franchise for the next two years.

Now I’m not excited for it, but I think its time to rip the Jarrett Stidham band-aid off and find out what exactly the Patriots have here. The team needs to figure out whether he’s the next guy or not. If that means trotting him out there for ritual sacrifice then so be it, but the Pats need to determine if Stidham can get it done. If not then they have to make a move this offseason. Theres 3-4 potential first round QBs likely coming out this year and the Patriots should be in a good position to get one of them, even if it’s not Trevor Lawrence or Justin Fields.

There’s also been rumors about the return of the prodigal son Jimmy Garoppolo since the 49ers have reportedly been meh on him as the QB of the future.

But he did re-injure his ankle last night and according to Schefter will be out “indefinitely.” That comes after having already missed 2 games and then getting pulled in his first game back. Garoppolo has only made 30 starts out of a possible 56 games in four years in San Francisco due to various injuries including a torn ACL. My point being, I would not be shocked if the Niners decide to move on from him after this season. So if you’re a Patriots fan do you still want him? Do you think Bill can rekindle whatever magic he thought he had with the young QB? I’m not so sure of that as I was just a week ago. Especially after this latest injury since Belichick loves to say the best ability is availability. Either way the Pats will undoubtedly be kicking the tires on anyone with an arm attached to their body this offseason.

The Patriots are in a tough position brought on by the greatest player of all time leaving town, but also from poor drafting over the last few years finally catching up to them. The Pats are one of the oldest teams in the league as a result. Think about it, all of their best players are on the wrong side of 30: Edelman, Stephon Gilmore, both McCourtys, Matthew Slater, plus all the guys who opted out.

The book is out on this year’s draft class, but offensive lineman Michael Onwenu may have been a steal in the 6th round as Pro Football Focus has him ranked as the No. 1 rookie in the league. It’s debatable how much stock to put into PFF rankings, but being No. 1 on any list is pretty damn good.

The books is probably still out on last year too. Chase Winovich looks like a nice role player, Joejuan Williams has shown potential, as has Damien Harris (now that he’s on the field), but N’Keal Harry has been underwhelming and we may soon find out with Jarrett Stidham. 2018 highlights include Isaiah Wynn and Sony Michel. Sigh. Ja’Waun Bentley has flashed at times, other than that there was Ryan Izzo, Braxton Berrios, and Danny Etling as notable names that year. 2017 landed them Deatrich Wise and three whiffs. 2016 was the year they took Cyrus Jones with their first pick and he was an unmitigated disaster. They did draft Joe Thuney that year though who’s been great, Ted Karras has been a solid contributor on the OL, Jacoby Brissett filled in for a game, Elandon Roberts, and a huge what if player in Malcolm Mitchell who looked awesome before knee injuries prematurely ended his career.

So yea, 5 years and arguably two elite players in Thuney and *maybe* Onwenu, but it’s way too early to tell. Other than that Belichick has collected role players, which is a far cry from the 2010 draft he absolutely NAILED, picking up Devin McCourty, Gronk, Brandon Spikes, pre-murderous Aaron Hernandez, and even a starting punter in Zoltan Mesko.

It’s hard to build a team when you don’t have the greatest QB of all time helping to mask any deficiencies on the roster. The Pats definitely got screwed with the $13.5M in dead cap money from Brady leaving and this is what Belichick had to say today on the roster.

In Belichick’s defense we wrote about the Patriots “mess of a salary cap” last season, but I can promise you people do not want to hear about the cap as the reason for why this team is free falling.

I don’t say all this to be an alarmist, I say it to be pragmatic. This team is facing a tall order and needs to really nail their next series of moves and the next draft to set themselves up for a rebound. If nothing else do it to shut up the Fired Football Coaches of America chirping from the peanut gallery like Rex Ryan.

I’m sure Belichick is taking names as he builds the next great Patriots team for what is likely the final act of his career.

The 300s 2018 Fantasy Football All Cock Tease Team

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Welcome, welcome to our awards. Before we begin I’m going to briefly kick it to our team on tonight’s red carpet…

Thank Joey! Here we see Founder Red wearing a Lakers jersey with camo cargo shorts. I’m really digging his ironic choice that is clearly a protest to our recent cooperation with North Korea. Back to the studio…

Thanks guys! Now before we proceed I should probably explain what these awards actually are about since nobody fucking knows.

We have all picked a bust or 12 throughout our fantasy football seasons, however most are of either the “reach” or “hard on” variety. A “reach”, as is well known, is a player you pick a bit too high, possibly motivated by the fear of someone else picking him. A “hard on” pick, for lack of a more enlightened term, would refer to players that we just personally really like without a ton evidence as to why and that simply don’t work out.

These awards, however, celebrate the “cock teases” – players who are picked at a good time given their value, normally put up good numbers relative to that selection point, yet completely fuck us. They don’t buy us dinner first either, just bend us over the analogous  10, 12, or 16 team table and fuck us.

So without further ado, as composed by and contributed to by our talented staff, I give you The 300s 2018 All Cock Tease Team:

QB: Jimmy Garoppolo, San Francisco 49ers
Red: I was ready for Jimmy G to rise like a phoenix out of the ashes that was my 2017 fantasy season, but in his third game the most handsome ACL in the league exploded and I was stuck with Matt Stafford at QB the rest of the way.

 

RB1: Jordan Howard, Chicago Bears
Mattes: Now, a lot of people might give me crap for drafting Howard in the second round of a PPR draft. First, I’d like to respond by saying it’s only a half-point league, and, second, the guy also had two-straight 1,200-plus-yard seasons and nine touchdowns last year on a bad team. I – like many – expected the Bears to be much-improved this year (which they certainly are), and I also believed new head coach Matt Nagy when he said he’d finally get Howard more involved in the passing game. Then came along Tarik Cohen, and there were also five games this year in which Howard averaged under 2.6 yards a carry. In fact, Cohen actually ended up finishing over FOURTY spots ahead of Howard in the overall rankings this year. Picked the wrong guy, I guess, huh?

 


RB2: Le’veon Bell, Pittsburgh Steelers
GUEST CONTRIBUTION! Patty Blackouts: I mean what is there to say besides he’s a seflish fuck who passed up 850k a week to sit out and try and protect his body to try and get a long term deal. Took him 4th overall thinking he’d show up sometime around end of September or October and nope just sat out all season sending cryptic tweets so you’d think he was going to report and next ya know he’s playing pickup basketball games at the local Y. I hope no one pays him what he wants and he regrets passing up the 14.5 mill he would have been paid this season by signing the franchise tag. But yes I’m bitter because  I used my first overall pick on him in fantasy got the same amount of points out of him as he did paychecks this season….0!

I hope he gets hurt in the next preseason.

Douchebag.

WR1: Quincy Enunwa, Goddam Jets
Red: No one, and I mean no one in my fantasy league watches more Jets games than me as the Mrs. is a huge fan. So watching a team that bad I was determined to derive some value out of it, which is exactly what Quincy Enunwa was going to do for me. Enunwa was going to be the steal of the draft as he put up 15, 12 and 10 points in 3 of the first 4 games, but then his season was derailed by various injuries. He cracked 6 points just once after September…

 

WR2: Golden Tate, Detroit Lions/Philadelphia Eagles
Joey B: Tate started the season as Matthew Stafford’s #1 option in what is normally a high flying Detroit offense. To that end, he kicked off the season with games of  17, 15, 10 and TWENTY FUCKING NINE. After that he completely shit the bed, probably became an asshole in the locker room because he realized his name is fucking Golden, and then got traded to Philly where he had one game of 20, coincidentally the only other time he’s seen the end zone since September, and seemingly is hated by all 12 of Philly’s playoff-ready QBs.

 

TE: Gronk
Joey B: I always pick Gronk wayyyy too high because he plays a position where all of 4-5 guys give you tremendous amounts of points and even among those guys he usually stands out. But this year, as the world knows, was different. He’s just broken and I’m just sad.

 

Flex1: Jarvis Landry, Cleveland Browns
Mattes: Landry wasn’t without a few big games of his own this year. Also like Cousins, Landry was a guy whom I expected to make a huge splash with a new team this season, but instead was super inconsistent. Yes, he had to deal with learning how to play with two different QBs this year, but remember that Baker Mayfield has been playing since Week 3. In the 13 games he’s played with Mayfield, Landry has put up single-digit totals in seven of them. For a guy who averaged 99 catches per season before this year, his mark of 72 through 16 games this year is incredibly disappointing.

 

Flex2: Chris Hogan, New England Patriots
Big Z: With Brandin Cooks in LA and Julian Edelman sidelined for the first four games of the season, I was certain Chris Hogan was a steal in the fifth round. He would be one of Tom Brady’s top targets the first month of the season, and hopefully stay in the mix even after Edelman returned.

Hogan scored two touchdowns in Week 2, but he wouldn’t find the end zone again for three months. By that time I had already dropped him and moved on. Just another cautionary tale of putting too much stock in to a Patriots WR/RB for fantasy football purposes.

 

D/ST: San Diego Los Angeles Chargers
Joey B: With Joey Bosa and company up front and some decent pieces in the secondary, I thought the “pressure creates turnovers” rule would get me some points on D. Instead Bosa got hurt and the Chargers are last in return yards allowed.

 

Kicker: Dan Bailey, Minnesota Vikings
Big Z: Drafting and picking up kickers in fantasy football is a bit of a crap shoot. You just try to pick up a guy who kicks for a team with a good, but not great, offense. If he plays in warm weather or a dome, even better. That’s why I love NFC South kickers and why I will never draft the Bills kicker.

Dan Bailey had a rough 2017 and got released by Dallas. But he was at one time the most accurate kicker in NFL history. When he got picked up by Minnesota, I thought he would be a good guy to take a flier on. Accurate kicker on a good, not great, team that plays its home games in a dome.

Bailey is 20/27 on field goals for the Vikes this year and his 2018 may be worse than his 2017. Yikes. God help the Vikings special teams coach

 

*BONUS: Mid-Season Pick Up Fist Fucker of the Year*

WR: Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Green Bay Packers

Red: MVS was one of the few guys I was first to the punch on in my league and he looked like a STUD. 6’4″ with 4.3 speed and Aaron Rodgers throwing him the ball? Yes please. After a quiet start to the season MVS blew onto the scene with a 4 week stretch of 13+ points. He would post 6+ points just once the rest of the way…

 

 

 

The 300s Bloggers’ Fantasy Football Round Up – Week 2

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Hi Friends.

Week 2 is now in the books and I’d say we are one week away from really seeing what our squads “are”? Don’t you love those questions and answers? “We still don’t know what Jimmy G is.” “We will find out tonight what these 2008 *insert team here* are? But ya, horribly hard to be a T.V analyst.

To go along with Week 2 we have our second addition of the recap of how our bloggers did in their respective league(s). As with Week 1, every blogger has submitted a small blurb on their successes and failures. Let’s get to it…


Papa Giorgio

Well, I got absolutely shellacked this weekend. 0-3 across all my leagues. Fournette being out did not help in the slightest. It will be interesting to see how Josh Gordon does for me now that he’s been traded to the Patriots. I have him in two leagues and if the guy can get healthy and live up to his potential my teams should be able to get back on track in the quest for some titles. Otherwise, if things continue to go south I may have to pull a Vontae Davis and get the hell out of Dodge. 

(Joey B Note: Something about a Bill’s fan drafting the most volatile player possibly in league history makes me happy.)


Big Z

Fantasy football is a prime example of where it is better to be lucky than good. I was thisclose to dropping Chris Hogan in favor of Phillip Dorsett this week. I ultimately decided against streaming my WR/TE flex position and stuck with Hogan after a lackluster Week 1. At halftime it looked like they would both post underwhelming Week 2 numbers, but I was rewarded with two late TDs by Hogan. Thank god.

As I’ve written before, defense should be taken out of fantasy football. Until that happens, though, I will continue to stream defenses in fantasy football. This week I dropped Green Bay to pick up New England. Whoops! Thankfully the move only cost me eight points. After an early defensive touchdown by Green Bay it looked like it could’ve been a whole lot worse.

Up 89-88 going into Monday night, my opponent was done and I only had Russell Wilson left. I thought about benching him, but when’s the last time a QB got negative points? I don’t know, but Wilson made me sweat it out, turning the ball over a few times in the second half. A garbage-time TD put me at the century mark, though, and cemented my Week 2 W.

So with a Brandin Cooks, Christian McCaffrey and a little luck, the Big Z Fantasy Empire is on the board in 2018.


Red

(Joey B’s Note: This first sentence is laugh out loud funny. This is the beauty of fantasy: you can taste the bitterness)

If I have any piece of advice from another dogshit start to my fantasy season it’s this; stick to the guys you drafted as long as you can. After a disastrous 4 INT game in Week 1, I benched Matt Stafford for Jimmy G and Stafford went off for 32 points compared to Garoppolo’s 20. Naturally I lost by just a hair under 12 points this week.

I also lost in my other league wasting a 27 point, 14 catch, 100 yard performance from Christian McCaffrey. So all in all I am a combined 0-4 to start the fantasy season. Oh and I bet the Patriots to cover on Sunday while I was down in the great state of NJ and obviously lost that bet. So my gambling advice is radioactive right now. Stay away.


Joey B

The bitch of fantasy football is that sometimes what happens in real-life outweighs fantasy. In this case, Gronk having a bad day fantasy-wise was not nearly as bad as that Patriots game overall. I still not only won but had high score thanks to, in part, another MONNNSTER game from Michael Thomas. Still, seeing that 2 points (or so) from Gronk and what it really represented hurt.


Mattes

If it weren’t for O.J. Howard benefitting from even more FitzMagic this week, it would have been a SAD day for the Purple Cobras. Granted, I did leave over 65 points on the bench this week, which included three guys with over 17-plus points each, each of whose performance would have been better than the four-point abomination I got from Ryan Grant in my flex. (Hey! He had nine targets in Week 1!) But alas, it would not have mattered anyway, as my opponent was the league’s high-scorer this week. Fortunately, those bench guys look like they could be forces moving forward, so hopefully I can start to right the ship in Week 3 after a rough (but not insurmountable!) 0-2 start.

As far as my other league goes, I was able to pull out a two-point victory thanks in large part to Captain Kirk Cousins, who went absolute H.A.M. sandwich in Green Bay on Sunday. Pairing him up with Philip Rivers in a two-QB league proved to be quite the boon this week. Michael Thomas also continues to be a PPR juggernaut, and the fact that Chris Carson didn’t get a carry in the second half killed any chance my opponent had of winning going into what was looking like a very advantageous Monday night scenario for him. If David Johnson, Larry Fitz, and the Cardinals offense ever wakes the hell up, I’d be feeling pretty damn good about this squad. I’ll take a 1-1 start for now.

 

With Isaiah Wynn Out for the Season, Scrutiny Intensifies on Patriots’ Poor Drafts

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ESPN – New England Patriots top draft choice Isaiah Wynn tore his left Achilles during Thursday’s preseason game against the Philadelphia Eagles and will miss the 2018 season, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

Last year the Patriots top pick Derek Rivers blew out his ACL and missed the whole season. Granted he was “only” a third round pick, he was supposed to be a solid young infusion of talent the Patriots were banking on. This year their top overall pick Isaiah Wynn just blew his achilles and is done for the year. Add that to the fact that they’re other first round pick this year in Sony Michel has missed the entire pre-season with a knee injury and the Patriots draft is looking like a shaky class already, at least in the immediate future.

My point here though is that the Pats have not gotten much out of the draft in the past several years, which is essentially playing with fire in today’s NFL. If we go back and look at the Patriots draft picks in the first 2 rounds over the past 10 years and the contributions they’ve gotten — it gets ugly. I took the first 2 round as the barometer as that is normally the elite young talent you expect immediate contributions from. Guys you’re getting in the later rounds are oftentimes lottery tickets and/or end of the roster players. Anyone that makes a significant contribution from late in the draft is a pleasant surprise, no more no less.

With that being said, lets take a look…

  • 2018
    • 1st Rd – Isaiah Wynn (No. 23), Sony Michel (No. 28)
    • 2nd Rd – Duke Dawson (No. 56)
  • 2017
    • 1st Rd – NO PICK
    • 2nd Rd – NO PICK
  • 2016
    • 1st Rd – NO PICK
    • 2nd Rd – Cyrus Jones (No. 60)
  • 2015
    • 1st Rd – Malcolm Brown (No. 32)
    • 2nd Rd – Jordan Richards (No. 64)
  • 2014
    • 1st Rd – Dominique Easley (No. 29)
    • 2nd Rd – Jimmy Garoppolo (No. 62)
  • 2013
    • 1st Rd – NO PICK
    • 2nd Rd – Jamie Collins (No. 52), Aaron Dobson (No. 59)
  • 2012
    • 1st Rd – Chandler Jones (No. 21), Dont’a Hightower (No. 25
    • 2nd Rd – Tavon Wilson (No. 48)
  • 2011
    • 1st Rd – Nate Solder (No. 17)
    • 2nd Rd – Ras-I Dowling (No. 33), Shane Vereen (No. 56)
  • 2010
    • 1st Rd – Devin McCourty (No. 27)
    • 2nd Rd – Rob Gronkowski (No. 42), Jermaine Cunningham (No. 53), Brandon Spikes (No. 62)
  • 2009
    • 1st Rd – NO PICK
    • 2nd Rd – Patrick Chung (No. 34), Ron Brace (No. 40), Darius Butler (No. 41), Sebastian Volmer (No. 58)
  • 2008
    • 1st Rd – Jerod Mayo (No. 10)
    • 2nd Rd – Terrence Wheatley (No. 62)

As you can see, in the last 10 years, the Patriots had great success in the first half of the decade, drafting guys like McCourty, Solder, Mayo, Gronk etc. But in the past 5 years (not counting the 2018 draft) the Pats have exactly ONE of those players still on the roster in Malcolm Brown who is solid but unspectacular.

And for the guys that were actively traded away, the Patriots have not received great value in return.

  • Chandler Jones – Received OL Jonathan Cooper (cut before his 1st season with NE) and a 2nd Round draft pick, which the Pats then traded to the Saints for 3rd and 4th Round draft picks ultimately turning into Joe Thuney, and Malcolm Mitchell (recently cut).
  • Jamie Collins – Received Browns 3rd Round draft pick, which the Pats then flipped to Detroit for No. 85 overall, which the Pats then used to take Antonio Garcia (played 0 snaps for NE and missed his entire rookie season due to blood clots in his lungs before getting released).
  • Jimmy Garoppolo – Received a 2nd Round draft pick, which the Pats then flipped to Detroit and traded down for a 2nd and a 4th, which they then flipped a couple of times again in a whole bunch of draft day trades to wind up with Duke Dawson and a 2019 Bears 2nd Round draft pick.

It obviously doesn’t help that three of the last 5 years the Patriots didn’t even have a first round pick due to various reasons, trades, and league mandated penalties from absurdly overblown alleged incidents. This is not a great way to build a deep roster guys.

Your team is built around that young talent because you can’t overpay for everyone. With guys like Logan Ryan, who was formerly the third CB on the Pats, getting $30 million contracts — you rely on young cheap talent to flesh out the rest of the roster. But the Patriots have failed to do that over the better part of the last decade.

That is how we find the Patriots suddenly with the fourth oldest team in the league at an average age of 26.7. The cabinets are bare my friends and most of that is masked by Tom Brady being the goat.

Part of the problem here is the high risk/high reward approach the Patriots tend to take in the draft. Because they have been set at quarterback for the better part of the last 2 decades, they have been able to take some big swings (and misses) on risky players. Taking Rob Gronkowski in the 2nd round with a bad back was a big risk because he was just coming off a missed season due to back surgery. But obviously that paid off as Gronk, when healthy, has turned into arguably the greatest tight end the league has ever seen.

But then there are cases where the team is taking risks in the 1st Round on guys with pre-existing injuries and unsurprisingly those same injuries pop up and the guy never makes an impact. Easley was a guy with two bum knees coming out of Florida and never made an impact with the Patriots because he was always battling, yup, knee injuries.

So it should come as no surprise really that the Patriots lack a core of young, elite players on the roster. All of their best players are on the back 9 of their careers; Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski Devin McCourty, Julian Edelman. They had 2 players in the NFL Top 100 (Gronk and Brady) and exactly 0 players on ESPN’s top NFL players under 25 years old.

Listen this team will be good as long as Brady is upright and pliable in the pocket and Gronk is on the field. But probably not a second longer. With each passing mediocre draft, I am less and less confident that this team will be all that good the second Brady and/or Gronk call it a career.

TLDR;

 

 

I Just Want to Get Ahead of the Crowd and Invite Patriots Rookie QB Danny Etling into the Handsome Men’s Club

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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.

St. Jimmy Comes Out and Says He Thought He Was Better Than Tom Brady From the Jump

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Yahoo! – “When I first got [to New England], I thought in my head, ‘I’m better than this dude.’”

Lee pressed him on the notion several times, that Garoppolo really believes he’s better than the quarterback that’s won five Super Bowls, been to eight, and is regarded by many as the greatest quarterback in the history of the league.

“It was always a quiet confidence. I would never speak that,” Garoppolo said.

Hot take: I’m totally ok with this. Maybe it is because I will always have a “what if?” kind of fan-hood for Jimmy G, but this is the kind of confidence you like to see a franchise QB have. It suddenly makes sense why he did so well in the limited action he has seen in his NFL career – he has a fucking DEEP belief in himself and his abilities. He did a literal “hold my beer” when BB asked him to step up and take the reigns from Brady for a few games and it showed. It wasn’t that failure wasn’t an option, it just didn’t exist in his reality.

While this might come off to some, specifically the dregs of Pats Nation, as cocky, it says something that he kept this to himself. He said and did all the right things while he was here, went about his business, and was a team player, especially when it came to needing him to come off the bench. The fuck should we care how he got himself to the right place 6 years ago at age 23 to be able to survive and even thrive in the NFL?

Given “Tom Vs. Time” and the knowledge that all the pink salt and weird ass exercises weird ass Alex Guerrero gives him to do won’t sustain Brady in perpetuity, this really hits an awkward spot in my gut. We knew Jimmy G was good. Now we know he is insanely confident as well. What did we miss out on?

P.S Anyone else hear he banged a porn star? Crazy!

Tom Brady Has Put Everyone’s Brain in a Pretzel This Week

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NBCSports – Somebody needs to tug on Tom Brady’s sleeve and let him know that fun’s fun, but he’s drifting into Brett Favre territory now. Forty-eight hours hadn’t passed since the Oprah Orchard Interview in which Brady said his retirement was coming “sooner rather than later” and there he was on Instagram Tuesday afternoon insinuating in Spanish that he’s back to playing until he’s 45. Given that he’s 40 right now and his contract expires at the end of the 2019 season, 45 seems like later not sooner. That’s standard fare this offseason.

Tom E. Curran wrote an article yesterday about Tom Brady’s back and forth retirement timeline plans thats definitely worth the read. Curran is as tied into the Brady family as anyone so when he writes about Brady I pay attention.

It’s definitely frustrating to not know when exactly Brady will ultimately play until, but thats the cross you bear for having a 40-year-old quarterback, who just won the MVP by the way, leading your team. I’m sure 99% of the NFL would swap places with Patriots fans right now.

The waffling and the mind games are what will drive people up a wall though. Saying ad nauseum that he’s playing until his mid-forties or beyond, only to tell Oprah that he’s going to hang em up “sooner rather than later” only to then cryptically comment “45” in Spanish on an ESPN post on Instagram.

The Brett Favre comparisons will only grow louder unless Brady makes a definitive public statement declaring his intentions one way or the other, but why would he? It’s frustrating, but I get it. If my job asked me to commit to 3-4 more years I would give them a big shrug emoji.

Did Brady likely bitch and moan to the owner to get his heir apparent in Jimmy Garoppolo shipped out of town? All signs point to yes, but its not Tom’s job to make sure the Patriots are set up for 2024. That’s on Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick.

Listen, if Brady up and retires tomorrow it is a massive dick move and is a complete about face from everything he’s preached for the last few years. That would be unforgivable after he basically forced Kraft to ship Jimmy G out of town….but fans would forgive him sooner rather than later. Sure, Bill may never talk to him again outside of Hall of Fame inductions and such, but its become pretty clear over the past several months that these guys aren’t exactly ripping it up together on the VII Rings in Nantucket.

Back to Curran’s larger point here though. Brady joked after the Super Bowl when asked about retirement “Why does everyone want me to retire?” Thats just it. Everyone, outside of New England at least, does want him to retire. The rest of the league has just been counting down the seconds on the imaginary doomsday clock thats been ticking, and ticking, and ticking since the day the Pats drafted Garoppolo and we all became aware of “Tom’s age and contract situation.” So yea no kidding everyone wants to know when Brady is retiring. So they can start planning to maybe possibly be competitive or even potentially win an AFC East title for the first time in nearly 20 years.

“does he not get that his and the Patriots stranglehold on the NFL isn’t like Jordan’s on the NBA. It’s closer to Godzilla’s on Japan, and that every other NFL team and fanbase is counting the seconds until he walks.

That’s why every throat-clearing, every pause, every social media “like” is scrutinized for clues as to which way he’s ultimately leaning.”

The end is coming. I don’t know when, but we’re not quite there yet. They may have announced last call at the bar, but they haven’t turned the lights on just yet. So until then lets just enjoy the ride.

Former Jets QB Christian Hackenberg is Visiting the Patriots Today

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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.

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??