Patriots Offseason Thread

I disagree that this is a black mark on the Pats legacy...it has nothing to do with the actual organization. When Hernandez declared for the draft, his stock fell because of failed drug tests, not acts of violence, etc. Pats (hopefully) had no way of knowing he was, allegedly, going to be involved with murders. There is no way the Patriots would touch the civil suit (they wouldn't have standing either way). They really have nothing to do with the way the events unfolded.

The Pats will certainly push to rectify their cap situation and I believe it will work out in their favor. Hernandez will likely never see the guaranteed money "owed" to him.

I'm almost certain this is all hindsight bias. It's obviously easy now to say "look, he smokes pot, has tattoos, and some of his friends seem shady, I always wondered if he had gang connections," but before the past couple weeks, there were no reports implying that Hernandez had anything close to gang affiliations or whatever.

FYI, the Pats voided all of Hernandez's guaranteed money. Hernandez would now have to build a case against the Pats to receive that $$$. If Hernandez is convicted, he is not getting any of that money back.

They can try and recoup that too, right? It's probably more involved than simply voiding it (much like they are trying to recoup Fanene's bonus - albeit for a MUCH different reason).

Eh, I mean, the fact that they paid a man to play football who then, on his own time, killed someone doesn't make giving money to that victim's family the "right thing to do" or something like that. If an employee of Rand-Whitney Group, his packaging company, or International Forest Products, his paper company, killed someone, would you expect him to compensate the victim's family? Why does the fact that it's a former Patriot make that different?

The "gang banger" stuff seems like a lot of BS from the Fox News types, it's all centered around one picture of him throwing up gang signs in all red when he was in HS. TONS of suburban HS kids do that in facebook pictures trying to look cool and project an image that are complete posers. All this stuff about Hernandez seems to be a lot of revisionist history. Sure, he had a questionable background...but compared to a Aqib Talib or many other players it certainly wasn't some abnormally high risk scenario on paper. Police have a difficult enough time solving murders with tons of evidence, the Patriots can't be expected to project who is going to murder in the future. My last sentence sounds sarcastic, but reading the local media the past week you'd think the Patriots aided and embedded a known Al-Qaeda terrorist. If Hernandez was this openly crazy individual you'd think at least one of these media members would've caught onto something.

Seriously CUT HIM. I know he is a pretty damn good corner but you have Logan Ryan and Ras-I if he ever stays healthy. I'm tired of this BS get the wannabe gangsters out of the Patriots locker room!!!!!

Since when does DUI make you a wannabe gangster? Playing Ryan or Dowling as your starting #2 CB would be like slotting Ranaudo into the ML rotation - could work out well but more likely to blow up in your face. More likely you would see Arrington there, who is like Dempster - somewhat below average but at least you know he won't be worse than that.

Current roster (90, limit is 90). Age in parentheses. Projection to make the roster in black, to begin on PUP in green, to begin on practice squad in orange and to be cut in red.

QB (3): Tom Brady (35), Ryan Mallett (24), Tim Tebow (25)

RB/FB (6): Stevan Ridley (24), Shane Vereen (24), Brandon Bolden (23), Leon Washington (30), LaGarrett Blount (26), James Develin (24)

WR (6): Danny Amendola (27), Julian Edelman (26), Matthew Slater (27), Kamar Aiken (23), Michael Jenkins (30), Johnathan Haggerty (25)

TE (4): Jake Ballard (25), Michael Hoomanawanui (24), Daniel Fells (29), Rob Gronkowski (23)(PUP) 

T (5): Nate Solder (24), Sebastian Vollmer (28), Will Svitek (31), Markus Zusevics (23), Kevin Haslam (26)

G/C (6): Logan Mankins (31), Dan Connolly (30), Ryan Wendell (27), Marcus Cannon (24), Tyronne Green (27), Luke Patterson (25)

DL (4): Vince Wilfork (30), Tommy Kelly (32), Marcus Forston (23), Armond Armstead (22)(non-football illness)

DE/OLB (7): Rob Ninkovich (29), Chandler Jones (23), Justin Francis (24), Marcus Benard (27), Jake Bequette (23), Jermaine Cunningham (24), Jason Vega (25)

LB (8): Jerod Mayo (27), Dont'a Hightower (23), Brandon Spikes (25), Dane Fletcher (26), Jeff Tarpinian (25), Mike Rivera (27), Niko Koutouvides (31), AJ Edds (25)

CB (5): Aqib Talib (27), Alfonzo Dennard (23), Kyle Arrington (25), Ras-I Dowling (24), Marquice Cole (29)

S (5): Devin McCourty (25), Adrian Wilson (33), Steve Gregory (30), Nate Ebner (23), Tavon Wilson (22)

ST (3): Stephen Gostkowski (29) (K), Zoltan Mesko (27) (P), Danny Aiken (24) (LS)

Draft picks (7):
LB Jamie Collins (23)
WR Aaron Dobson (21)
CB Logan Ryan (22)
S Duron Harmon (22)
WR Josh Boyce (21)
DE Michael Buchanan (22)
LB Steve Beauharnais (22)

Undrafted free agents (21):

CB Brandon Jones (23)
CB Justin Green (22)
S Kanorris Davis (23)
DT Cory Grissom (23)
DT Scott Vallone (23)
DT Joe Vellano (24)
DT Anthony Rashad White (23)
FB Ben Bartholomew (23)
RB George Winn (22)
WR Kenbrell Thompkins (24)
WR Mark Harrison (22)
WR Quentin Sims (23)
TE Zach Sudfeld (24)
TE Brandon Ford (23)
OL Chris McDonald (23)
OL Matt Stankiewitch (23)
OL Josh Kline (23)
OL R.J. Mattes (23)
OL Brice Schwab (23)
LS Mike Zupancic (23)
P Ryan Allen (23)

Injured reserve (3):
WR T.J. Moe (22)
WR Lavasail Tuinei (22)
OL Elvis Fisher (24)

Unrestricted FA:
Josh Barrett (28), Deion Branch (33), Derrick Martin (27), Jamey Richard (28), Trevor Scott (28), Donte Stallworth (32), Tracy White (31)

Nick McDonald, Hawkins and Ashford waived

apparently Kenbrell Thompkins is really impressing. Could end up as the 3rd WR.