2019 Patriots: Post-SB Roster Thread
- Thread starter RedOctober3829
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Which would be curious since he will be unemployed by an NFL team if he seeks out a Model Character Franchise.
WEEI article referenced the Kraft incident as something that "did not sit well with him"...
Dolphins are front runners for flowers
https://weei.radio.com/blogs/ryan-hannable/miami-dolphins-reportedly-front-runner-land-free-agent-defensive-end-trey
https://weei.radio.com/blogs/ryan-hannable/miami-dolphins-reportedly-front-runner-land-free-agent-defensive-end-trey
Mason finished 4th in the voting for All Pro at Right Guard. So, calling him on the verge of All Pro level doesn't seem that far fetched.
He has been their for 6 years I can't recall his name from anywhere? Even the post SB splooge shows (my favorite). How do we know he had a big influence on the team? They did pretty well from 2001-2012 without him. He didn't really help AH (too soon?) and last season his role was "Last season, Easterby’s foremost assignment was mentoring and keeping close tabs on troubled receiver Josh Gordon."
I'd be more worried about Pinkstripes or Berj bailing.
A couple good articles. It's kind of a big deal. Easterby lives permanently in SC and flies up during the week, so it was probably never an arrangement that was going to last forever.
http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/12250363/patriots-love-deflategate
https://www.patriots.com/news/you-don-t-know-jack-the-most-influential-patriot-you-ve-never-heard-of
Thank you. He clearly has touched many Pats players. Chaplain and friendly guy. Im still skeptical about his role in the 'success' of the team. Rivers and Gordon, the 2 most discussed samples in the second article aren't exactly wins. Slater and Andrews say he is a great guy but I don't see where they say they succeeded because of him? Maybe Allen sort of does. A loss always hurts but I can't see how this hurts more than Flores or the guys he poached.
So when Slater retires he takes this roll over? Hell he seems to have the ST play down pat at this point, maybe he starts next season.
Read the articles linked above. The Patriots initially hired Easterby in the wake of the Hernandez stuff. He wasn't on the team yet in June 2013.
Easterby apparently also helped psychologically evaluate team fits (a minor point in this article, which is also interesting) : http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/17255219/green-beret-brian-decker-thinks-improve-success-rate-nfl-first-round-draft-picks
Another example of how the Pats are on the frontier, heavily investing in new things and people who can provide an edge.
The usual suspects will pull hamstrings trying to turn this into a morality tale — *I can’t work here anymore; the tone is set at the top.*
I haven’t seen any evidence of that yet. People leave for a wide variety of reasons.
The usual suspects will pull hamstrings trying to turn this into a morality tale — *I can’t work here anymore; the tone is set at the top.*
I haven’t seen any evidence of that yet. People leave for a wide variety of reasons.
How seriously should we take Martellus Bennett’s latest video tweet?
And if he is serious, how much could he contribute?
And if he is serious, how much could he contribute?
I think its time for the Patriots to slap the franchise tag on Trey Flowers especially with the insane money a 30 year Brandon Graham just got.
In addition to the stories already posted about him, here's a tweet last night from Mike Giardi.
Spoke with several #Patriots about character coach Jack Easterby leaving the organization. One told me “he was a major reason why we played for each other.” Another said “he’s a unique man. Those will be tough shoes to fill.” Finally one noted “lot of change this offseason.”
When Hightower was a free agent (and they didn't use the tag then), there were a couple of articles mentioning that the Patriots were averse to using the franchise tag. Felt it soured the team's relationship with a player. Their M.O. seems to be to express an interest to the agent, let them test the market and then to make their offer.
LB is a lousy position to use the tag on for anyone because the tag's positional designations don't distinguish between off-ball LB like Hightower and rush LB like Von Miller. So I don't know that I would read too much into what was written when Hightower was hitting FA. That said, I don't expect the tag for Flowers either.
IIRC, DHT was not the first where the Pats' MO was to let the FA explore what's out there and then to bring it back to NE to match/beat. I want to say this happened with DMC and with Edelman as well.
My guess is that Flowers makes a lot of visits -- Miami, NYJ, Detroit, plus any of the other places with lots of cap room (SF, Indy, etc) -- and then signs with the Pats.
I will concede the point and apologize to Saints Rest on that count, though I'm still querulous about Flowers.
What could they do to reduce his cap hit? I assume they don't want to extend him. Any other avenues?
It's a fair miss, Fwiw. Mason has improved a ton in the last two years over what he was. Early Mason was a Project, capital P.
Cutting him is the only other way besides a restructure. I'm sure they don't want to kick the can down the road on his deal.
They could convert some of his $7 MM 2019 salary to signing bonus, which would let them spread the hit between 2019 and 2020. The problem is it makes this 2020 figure (which is a little north of $11 MM) unpalatable. Let's say you convert $6 MM to bonus. His 2019 salary goes down to $1 MM and his 2019 cap hit to $7.9 MM, but his cash payout is the same (since he gets the signing bonus now). But now his 2020 cap hit goes up to $14.4 MM with $5.5 MM dead money (since he already has $2.5 MM in bonus prorated on the 2020 cap).
The Patriots are in a tough spot with the cap. Brady, Gronk, McCourty are in the last year of their deals and you probably don't want to extend them too much. Gilmore they already converted some salary to bonus last year so they don't have a lot of wiggle room. Cutting Allen helps, they can extend Van Noy and Edelman, but they're are not going to be able to do a ton here.
Notes on Howe's latest column from Indy
--He confirms the Dolphins' interest in Trey Flowers.
--Trent Brown is likely to get as much as $15 million/year on the open market and will go to the highest bidder.
--Keep an eye on Cam Fleming as a player to pair Isaiah Wynn with for next year.
--No word on whether Amendola will be released by Miami. If he is, he is open to a return to New England.
--No interest from the Pats in Adam Humphries as of yet.
--Patterson has drawn a ton of interest on the market but no clear indication the Pats are interested in bringing him back.
--Hogan and Dorsett remain in play to stay in NE, but his feeling is they'd have to take less to stay.
--No signs they are planning to restructure contracts for Hightower, DMC, and Clayborn.
--Chung will have surgery for a torn rotator cuff. He played through the injury for at least 2 months. He will be ready for training camp.
--Bolden left because they cut him for the 2nd year in a row in order to bring him back for the league minimum.
--Expect contract talks for Ghost to get going next week.
--Ryan Allen is expecting a contract in the $2.6-$3.3 million range.
--Multiple teams say there isn't a single QB worth a 1st round grade including Kyler Murray.
https://theathletic.com/846223/2019/03/01/howe-what-ive-learned-about-the-patriots-offseason-plans-at-the-nfl-scouting-combine/
--He confirms the Dolphins' interest in Trey Flowers.
--Trent Brown is likely to get as much as $15 million/year on the open market and will go to the highest bidder.
--Keep an eye on Cam Fleming as a player to pair Isaiah Wynn with for next year.
--No word on whether Amendola will be released by Miami. If he is, he is open to a return to New England.
--No interest from the Pats in Adam Humphries as of yet.
--Patterson has drawn a ton of interest on the market but no clear indication the Pats are interested in bringing him back.
--Hogan and Dorsett remain in play to stay in NE, but his feeling is they'd have to take less to stay.
--No signs they are planning to restructure contracts for Hightower, DMC, and Clayborn.
--Chung will have surgery for a torn rotator cuff. He played through the injury for at least 2 months. He will be ready for training camp.
--Bolden left because they cut him for the 2nd year in a row in order to bring him back for the league minimum.
--Expect contract talks for Ghost to get going next week.
--Ryan Allen is expecting a contract in the $2.6-$3.3 million range.
--Multiple teams say there isn't a single QB worth a 1st round grade including Kyler Murray.
https://theathletic.com/846223/2019/03/01/howe-what-ive-learned-about-the-patriots-offseason-plans-at-the-nfl-scouting-combine/
(Athletic paywall) Howe's summing up of tidbits from NFL combine.
https://theathletic.com/846223/2019/03/01/howe-what-ive-learned-about-the-patriots-offseason-plans-at-the-nfl-scouting-combine/
https://theathletic.com/846223/2019/03/01/howe-what-ive-learned-about-the-patriots-offseason-plans-at-the-nfl-scouting-combine/
Well Bolden sucks. He was at best an 'ok' special teamer - why he thinks he's better than league minimum is beyond me.
Ryan Allen is the most replaceable member on the team, despite his otherwise great Super Bowl. I can't imagine they don't just draft one they can pay a fraction of that to.
I agree -- no first round QBs -- maybe Haskins. Murray would be first overall if he were a few inches taller. I don't know what Drew Lock has done to be seen as a first round draft pick.
Kyed: Despite being a healthy scratch for stretches this season, FA DT Danny Shelton still could return to the Patriots, per source. Depends heavily on what the Patriots do with FA DT Malcom Brown.
Going to be funny — again — when Murray or Haskins goes 1/1, the other quickly follows, and four QBs go in the first round. If you don’t have one, you are screwed, and although one shouldn’t chase, who has a first round “grade” is proving irrelevant at this position.
And it’s not like any of these experts are pitching the gospel here — a healthy majority of them lol’ed when Baker Mayfield went 1/1.
And it’s not like any of these experts are pitching the gospel here — a healthy majority of them lol’ed when Baker Mayfield went 1/1.
I would definitely kick those tires if Flowers goes. My guess is we wouldn't see a big splash signing but a bunch of solid Lawrence Guy-type acquisitions.
Or we'll just trade for OBJ. Really looking forward to this offseason.
So much more fun than losing the SB, when every move is taken from the lens of "how does this get them over the top". Losing Solder / Lewis / Butler / Dola then trading Cooks the feeling everywhere was... how did that make us better? Of course the flip side is before 2017 they added Cooks, etc., and there was undefeated talk and we all saw how that turned out. So who knows?!
Patriots have been in talks with WR Chris Hogan about a new deal, per source. Hogan was pleased to have an integral role on the field in 2018, even if he wasn’t seeing a lot of targets.
Yeah they’ve only gone to the Super Bowl all 3 years he has been WR2 and won 2 of them. It’s pathetic. They should sign Dobson and Boyce then they’d be awesome
That's the thing about the Patriots offseason---even on a messageboard dedicated to analyzing the team's moves, it's awfully hard not to simply believe that the Pats know so much more than we do about these guys and the right formula that we should just sit back and watch them operate.
