Tag: Kenyan Drake

The Jets Gave Up On Le’Veon Bell. Are the Patriots Interested in the Former All-Pro?

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ESPN – The New York Jets’ rocky relationship with Le’Veon Bell came to an abrupt end Tuesday when the team announced it had released the running back.

The move concluded a 19-month tenure that was filled with disappointment and broken promises. Bell, who arrived as a marquee free agent in 2019, never clicked with coach Adam Gase, who opposed the signing from the outset.

That Jets contract (4 years $52.5 million) was a disaster from Day 1, but imagine picking Adam Gase over Le’Veon Bell?? It’s hard to tell if after 1 year + 4 games in New York if he is already washed up or if the Jets are just sucking the life out of him. I mean he’s only 28 years old, granted it’s an old 28 considering his monumental workload at Michigan State. But you’d have to think he still has a couple good years left in him. Adam Gase, the offensive guru responsible for (read: worked in the same building as) Peyton Manning’s record setting 56 TD season in Denver, has now traded, released, and generally made the Jets’ best players worse. All-Pro Jamal Adams. Former All-Pro Le’Veon Bell. First Round QB Sam Darnold. All three were seemingly key building blocks for a rebuilding team. Two of them are now gone and Darnold, despite flashes of the potential that made him the third overall pick two years ago, looks to be stuck in neutral.

So Patriots fans do you want Le’Veon Bell? He officially becomes a free agent at 4 pm on Wednesday. It’s basically become a cliche around here to say the Pats are in on Veteran X whether it’s Calvin Johnson, or Larry Fitzgerald, or AJ Green. The Pats are in on all of these guys and then nothing happens. Now the Pats are rumored to be in on Le’Veon Bell. Except, this time it’s the Jets. The Jets bought HIGH on Bell and sold LOW, getting absolutely nothing in return and releasing the former All-Pro running back. The Patriots absolutely do not need another running back with James White, Damien Harris, Rex Burkhead, and eventually Sony Michel already in the mix. But Bill Belichick is nothing if not a man who enjoys stomping on the graves of his enemies. I cannot even imagine the size of the grin on Belichick’s face as he thinks about picking the latest failed experiment of his rival off the scrap heap and turning him into a weapon for the Patriots as they fight for another Super Bowl title.

The Pats absolutely do not need him, but there are few teams out there that could utilize Bell better than New England. Now let’s look at Bell’s side of it. He legit sat out an entire season in Pittsburgh because he wanted a new deal and didn’t want to risk blowing out his knee right before his one big pay day.

Like LeBron or Sebastian, high school graduates
Straight to the league, I ain’t waitin’ for my knee to blow
Yesterday I was needin’ this dough

Then he signs a gargantuan contract with New York to be their bellcow back and take the Jets back to prominence. Only for the new head coach in town, aforementioned offensive guru and recently fired Dolphins coach Adam Gase, to immediately shit all over the move.

Hows that for a welcoming party? Bell drastically underperformed and battled injuries, but even when he was healthy the team around him was getting worse and the rift between him and the head coach was getting wider. You think that guy is motivated at all to stick it to his former boss?

What better way than to sign on with their biggest rival and beat the Jets’ brains in and win a ring in New England? It’s a win win for both sides as Bell signs on with a competent team that will utilize his talents, reestablishes his value, and helps him try to get that elusive Super Bowl ring before signing another big deal somewhere else this offseason. It’s the playbook that Darrelle Revis and Trent Brown perfected in recent years.

Not to mention that every player we thought was a bum while playing for Gase has THRIVED since getting away from him. Just look at Ryan Tannehill. Under Joe Philbin for the first three years of his career in Miami, Tannehill improved every. single. year. Touchdowns, Yards, Yards per Game, Completion Percentage, Quarterback Rating, even his total Rushing Yards ALL improved every single year. Enter Adam Gase. Tannehill played a mixed bag of two seasons under Gase (he missed 2017 due to injury) as the Dolphins floundered and the coach publicly threw his QB under the bus. Both got 86’d by the Dolphins as Gase went on to do Gase things in New York, while Tannehill won Comeback Player of the Year with the Titans.

And don’t even get me started on Kenyan Drake. After 3+ seasons in Miami where Drake failed to top 644 rushing yards in a year, Drake rushed for 633 yards in 8 games with the Cardinals last year. After never rushing for more than 4 touchdowns in Miami, Drake rushed for 8 touchdowns in 8 games in Arizona last year. Drake is also more than DOUBLING his yards per game in Arizona compared to Miami as he has turned into a stud away from Adam Gase.

These turnarounds from Tannehill and Drake post-Gase legitimately offend me as a football fan. The clock is ticking on that man’s head coaching career as the Jets continue to be the worst team in football.

He’ll probably latch on somewhere else pretty quickly because the NFL is incestuous with former coaches just being recycled all across the league, but if I’m running the Jets the next move I make is the same Gase made with Le’Veon Bell, send him packing.

Last Night I Had to Root for the Jets. I Don’t Know How People Do This

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With the prospect of falling to 0-2 staring me dead in the face, I needed an extremely reasonable 8 points from Jamison Crowder to win my fantasy football matchup. For a guy that had 17 targets and 17 points in Week 1 that seemed pretty reasonable, except for the fact the guy that gave him all those targets was out with MONO. I’m not here to slut shame anyone, but you really put me in a shitty spot, Sam.

So with that being said I was tasked with watching the entire Jets game AND rooting for a backup QB to feed my guy. Naturally Crowder had a huge catch called back on a penalty and Trevor Siemian failed to impress all night. At least he was a guy with a few years in the league and 20+ starts under his belt though; that gave me hope for a touchdown pass. Welp, once he broke (probably) his ankle I was then forced to root for a 2nd year THIRD string QB in Luke Faulk who is apparently Chad Pennington reincarnated.

Meanwhile the “offensive guru” (Booger McFarland’s words not mine) Adam Gase just set football back about 50 years as he refused to call a play that didn’t involve Le’Veon Bell running the ball or Le’Veon Bell catching a screenpass at the line of scrimmage. The Jets apparently punted on the entire concept of the forward pass last night and were appropriately rewarded with a 3 point performance.

My guy Crowder? The guy I needed 8 points from? Yea he got 6.

HOW DO YOU PEOPLE LIVE THIS WAY??

PS – My other option was Kenyan Drake, the running back from the Dolphins that just got shutout 43-0 so no that wasn’t an option.

Miami is a Hell Hole and It’s Where Patriots Seasons Go to Die

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Only in Miami does that happen. Only in Miami are the Patriots just utterly incapable of beating the Dolphins regardless of how good or bad they are each year. I don’t know what the hell it is, but Tom Brady and the Pats just melt (get it?!) in Miami every season.

What’s worse is that the Chiefs just won in OT so this seals the Patriots fate. There’s no realistic shot at the No. 1 seed anymore. Thank god the Texans lost to the Colts today or we’re looking at the No. 3 seed and the Patriots are playing Wild Card weekend. So with three games remaining against the Steelers, Bills, and Jets the Patriots have to win out. Either way they will most likely have to go through Kansas City at Arrowhead Stadium in the playoffs, which is daunting enough as it is, but the Pats absolutely cannot fall to the No. 3-4 seed and be forced into playing on Wild Card weekend.

And for all the NFL head coaches on Twitter second guessing putting Gronk in there at the end can chill the fuck out. It’s way more likely that the Dolphins uncork a hail mary there than Kenyan Drake getting inside the 10 forcing Gronk to attempt a tackle in the open field.

God damnit.

Patriots Dolphins Week 14 Game Preview, Odds, and Storylines

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Image result for patriots dolphins

After Sunday’s sound victory over Minnesota, many might be expecting the Patriots to roll over the Dolphins in Miami this week. But, any true Pats fan knows that Miami has been Brady’s own personal hell throughout his entire career.

Not only are the Pats 1-4 in their last five trips down to Vice City, but look at just how bad Brady has been down there throughout his entire career, as pointed out by Danny Heifetz of The Ringer:

Against the other 30 teams in the league, Brady is 85-32 on the road in the regular season. In Miami, he is 7-9, giving him more losses in Miami than anywhere except New England. Hell, Brady has nine losses in 16 Miami games and 19 losses in 132 home games. Brady has thrown 15 interceptions in Miami, which is more than he’s thrown in any season of his career. No matter how destitute the Dolphins are or how unbeatable the Pats seem, a trip to Miami is the most dangerous thing for the team outside of a visit from Bernard Karmell Pollard.

So, yeah, it hasn’t always been a breeze down in Miami for the Pats. But before we hop into the preview, here’s a quick look at where, when, and how to watch the game along with the latest lines:

  • Location: Hard Rock Stadium (Miami Gardens, FL)
  • Kickoff: Sunday, Dec. 9, 1 p.m. ET
  • TV: CBS
  • Odds (via Odds Shark): Patriots: -7.5 (spread) / Patriots: -350 (moneyline) / 47 (total)

Rather than base expectations purely off of what happened in the past, though, let’s take a look at who Miami has been this season.

First and foremost, they’re just not very good – on either side of the ball. They’re ranked 29th in terms of both total offense and defense. And while they are 6-6, much of that had to do with a fool’s gold 4-2 start, which has been followed up by a 2-4 run since the middle of October.

Yes, it is true that they were without Ryan Tannehill for five games, forcing them to turn to Brock Osweiler (*BARF*) until Tannehill returned two weeks ago against the Colts. But even still, Tannehill had 52.6 QB rating over his last two games before the injury, failing to surpass 185 yards passing in either contest – with one of those games coming against Cincinnati, who has had the absolute worst defense in the league this season BY FAR. (Seriously, the Bengals defense is laughably horrendous.)

To be fair, he has bounced back with two straight 100-plus-QB-rating games over the past two weeks, with a very solid 5-to-1 TD-to-INT ratio. Miami is also 1-1 over that time, with the victory coming in a very close contest against Buffalo last week.

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Honestly, who ever really knows what to expect from this guy?

But even still this is probably the worst Miami team in quite some time, and now their bottom-of-the-barrel defense will be without stud corner, Xavien Howard, on Sunday. Howard, who is in his third year, leads the league in interceptions with seven and has quickly vaulted himself into the upper echelon at the position with his play in 2018. He’s yet to officially be ruled out, but ESPN’s Cameron Wolfe, who covers the Dolphins, doesn’t sound too optimistic:

If that’s the case, expect a nice game from Josh Gordon – and the rest of the Pats receiving corps, for that matter – as the Dolphins really don’t have much else at the position. Truthfully, this should be a great game for the Pats offense as a whole; Miami is also giving up 144.7 yards per game on the ground this year, due in part to the 180-plus rushing yards they’ve given up four of their last six contests. The Pats also carved up the Dolphins for 175 rushing yards when the teams met in Week 4, so expect Sony Michel – who had 112 of those yards – to FEAST once again this weekend. (Seriously, if you’ve got Sony on your fantasy team, fire him up!)

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Expect another electric showing from the rook down in the Sunshine State.

The one noteworthy “strength” (and I use that term loosely) for the Dolphins might be their running game. It’s a two-pronged attack featuring the ageless future H.O.F. Frank Gore and a talented but inconsistent third-year man in Kenyan Drake. After an 883-yard breakout last year, most people expected Drake to completely take over this year, but the 35-year-old Gore is not going away, quietly averaging almost 12 carries a game at a 4.43 per-carry mark. Drake has had his moments this year and is unquestionably the team’s top pass-catching back, but even still neither one has been all that impressive this year, and the Pats should be able to keep them at bay.

Storylines

(Can Brady Defeat His Demons?): As evidenced above, Brady is not a fan of playing in Miami. However, as also previously mentioned, this may be the worst Dolphins team we’ve seen in years, and I just don’t see how Brady can once again lay an egg down there. With Gordon now in the fold, Brady & Co. should be able to exploit Miami’s weak secondary; if not, then it’s really just all in Brady’s head and there’s just nothing else to say.

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Come on, Tommy. It’s time to change the narrative.

(Oh, Danny, Where Art Thou?): As I pointed out the other week, offseason acquisition Danny Shelton has been extremely disappointing this year. In fact, he’s been so ineffective that he wasn’t even active for last week’s game against Minnesota. Bill’s not afraid to quickly cut bait on bad investments, and hopefully it’s not the last we’ve seen of Shelton, who really does possess some solid talent. If he rides the pine again for the second straight week, however, it could signal the end of the 25-year-old’s career in New England.

(Will We See the Duke’s Arrival?): Even though he’s now been active for three weeks after being taken off I.R., rookie corner Duke Dawson has still yet to make his debut. It’s likely because of the fact the team’s current group of corners has been playing exceptionally well this year, and Dawson did miss a lot of valuable practice time while he was on the shelf. But still, the team needs to eventually see what they have in the young guy, on whom they spent a second-round pick in May.

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Can’t wait to see what this kid’s got when he finally gets his chance.

Prediction

I honestly expect the Pats to roll in this one, regardless of what past history tells us. The team’s offense should be able to destroy Miami with ease, and while Tannehill could have a surprisingly good game, he just doesn’t have enough around him to overtake what the Pats are bringing to the table. This one’s over quickly, and the Pats take it 38-17.