The Goat Returns: Pats vs. Bucs Buildup

rodderick

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Love the Wickersham quote, because that's what this book is: a collection of second and third hand accounts. I mean, I'm confident he has enough sources to get the gist of what was going on internally with the Pats (he was very likely correct about the overall situation regarding Brady/Bill/Kraft on those first articles back in 2018), but these specific scenarios and anecdotes I take with a huge grain of salt.
 

Strike4

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They all must be sick of having to talk about drama like this. If you sent a writer into any workplace they could craft a similar narrative based on snippets and moments taken out of context. Boss screaming at right hand man, somebody throwing something, somebody venting about a colleague to another colleague. The fact that people crave reading this shit is sad.
 

BaseballJones

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Oct 1, 2015
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They all must be sick of having to talk about drama like this. If you sent a writer into any workplace they could craft a similar narrative based on snippets and moments taken out of context. Boss screaming at right hand man, somebody throwing something, somebody venting about a colleague to another colleague. The fact that people crave reading this shit is sad.
Brady, Kraft, Belichick, Giselle, Guerrero, Gronk....its like the US sports' version of the British Royal Family.
 

Harry Hooper

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They all must be sick of having to talk about drama like this. If you sent a writer into any workplace they could craft a similar narrative based on snippets and moments taken out of context. Boss screaming at right hand man, somebody throwing something, somebody venting about a colleague to another colleague. The fact that people crave reading this shit is sad.
Wickersham has his annuity going, much like Shank with the curse.
 
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The Social Chair

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Feb 17, 2010
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They all must be sick of having to talk about drama like this. If you sent a writer into any workplace they could craft a similar narrative based on snippets and moments taken out of context. Boss screaming at right hand man, somebody throwing something, somebody venting about a colleague to another colleague. The fact that people crave reading this shit is sad.
Wickersham is the sports Michael Wolff.
 

j44thor

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Thanks for sharing that, I'm a big advocate of pliability and think it will be considered as important as diet and exercise within the next 10yrs. The neural training was something I hadn't heard of before thought that was interesting. Obviously not everything Guerrero/TB12 teach has merit but pliability is a game changer, especially as you get older.
 

BaseballJones

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All other things being equal, which would be better:

Giving rookie Mac Jones a receiving group of Randy Moss, Julian Edelman, and Rob Gronkowski
or
Giving prime Tom Brady a receiving group of Jakobi Meyers, Nelson Agholor, and Hunter Henry
 

rodderick

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All other things being equal, which would be better:

Giving rookie Mac Jones a receiving group of Randy Moss, Julian Edelman, and Rob Gronkowski
or
Giving prime Tom Brady a receiving group of Jakobi Meyers, Nelson Agholor, and Hunter Henry
The second. Brady's 2016 was amazing and down the stretch his primary receiving options were Edelman and Hogan with Martellus Bennet at TE, which I think is comparable to the second group. I'm pretty sure he gives you top tier production with those guys, with Mac who knows what he is.
 

Eddie Jurak

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All other things being equal, which would be better:

Giving rookie Mac Jones a receiving group of Randy Moss, Julian Edelman, and Rob Gronkowski
or
Giving prime Tom Brady a receiving group of Jakobi Meyers, Nelson Agholor, and Hunter Henry
That's hard. I think the latter. We've seen Brady do well with suboptimal receivers. But we've also seen Matt Cassel do well with Moss and prime Welker. I think Mac could get the ball to Moss, Edelman, and Gronk.
 

Captaincoop

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Jul 16, 2005
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All other things being equal, which would be better:

Giving rookie Mac Jones a receiving group of Randy Moss, Julian Edelman, and Rob Gronkowski
or
Giving prime Tom Brady a receiving group of Jakobi Meyers, Nelson Agholor, and Hunter Henry
C) It doesn't matter if the offensive line plays like it has so far
 

Big McCorkle

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All other things being equal, which would be better:

Giving rookie Mac Jones a receiving group of Randy Moss, Julian Edelman, and Rob Gronkowski
or
Giving prime Tom Brady a receiving group of Jakobi Meyers, Nelson Agholor, and Hunter Henry
Probably Prime Brady still, but, I think Jones has shown enough that we can be reasonably confident that he'd be pretty fucking successful throwing it to Moss and Gronkowski, who are probably the two most physically dominant receiving threats we've seen, assuming we're talking 2007 Moss or earlier and 2011/2012 Gronk. But this is more a commentary on Gronk and Moss than anything else.
 

rodderick

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Gronk, JPP, and Gio Bernard all are DNP's today for the 2nd straight day. Doesn't bode well for their availability on Sunday, but with Gronk I could see him playing if the pain isn't that bad by Sunday.
I think all of those guys likely end up playing, Bernard is the one I have most doubts about. Honestly, I think AB playing might be a bigger deal than those three sitting combined.
 

RedOctober3829

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I think all of those guys likely end up playing, Bernard is the one I have most doubts about. Honestly, I think AB playing might be a bigger deal than those three sitting combined.
Usually missing Wednesday practice is common on some teams for veterans, but missing Thursday is troubling. If they're practicing tomorrow, sure they have a chance.
 

joe dokes

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I wonder if the Patriots will do anything when Brady passes Brees on Sunday, like an acknowledgment of the record on the video screen. I would think Pats fans will give him a great ovation.
Hopefully, an ovation loud enough to screw up the snap count on the next play.
 

Big McCorkle

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Is Trask running out of the youthful blood he's been supplying to keep Brady's humors in balance?
 

Van Everyman

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Newton

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This is getting out of hand. The Today Show and NBC Nightly News will be live from Gillette Stadium tomorrow.
Meh. They're doing everything they can to (over)hype things for a monster SNF rating. I don't hate it or blame them.
 

brandonchristensen

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NFL.com article about the Pats focus going into this game:
https://www.nfl.com/news/ahead-of-tom-brady-s-return-new-england-patriots-simply-focused-on-turning-seaso

But what struck me was Slater's comment:

Said 14th-year vet Matt Slater: "A lot of the conversation this week is going to be about Thomas' return, and to an extent, it should be. He should be celebrated. But for us, who are competing on Sunday, it should be about our preparation, it should be about focus, and it should be about going out and playing good, winning football, regardless of who we're playing this week."

He calls him THOMAS. That made me laugh.