2018 Patriots/NFL offseason thread

Sony Michel just had his knee drained of fluid. Gives creedance to the rumors that there were teams concerned about his knees prior to the draft

Where is what depth? Isn’t a 4 man rotation depth? How many teams go more than 4 deep at DE? Not sure they’d even want to carry more than 4 at that position. They liked Eric Lee so if he can get on the PS that’d be good depth or he may make the team outright assuming they wanted to use the roster spot.

DT is pretty deep: Shelton, Brown, Guy, Valentine/Butler - especially when you add Flowers ability to jump inside on passing downs


Linebacker is always the depth problem recently:

Hightower is once again the most indispensable player on the defense as they have no one else to replace him.

Van Noy is solid

Then a big drop off... Flowers is ok as a backup I suppose just wish he wasn’t the main one.

Then you have guys like: Bentley, Langi and Sam who really need to step up so the Elandon Roberts era can end.


Basically, the linebackers are my only real area of depth concern on this defense...

In todays NFL you play four DEs in each game. When one of those guys goes down you are short handed. Nevermind one is a Vet that has never played in our system and the other guy hasn't played coming off a major injury. Eric Lee sucks, the guy was a total zero in the playoffs. Like you said they also move DEs inside on passing downs. So why do we have 5 good DTs and only 4 good DEs? That should be reversed especially because our DTs can't rush the passer. I don't get why we didn't draft a guy or bring in a Vet.

LBer is another major issue. Basically relying on Hightower staying healthy or a low draft pick being good as a rookie. Why didn't we bring in a Vet?

WR depth is the worst in a long long time. Matthews gets injured and they cut Mitchell. We better hope that Decker can still play! Right now we have Dorset and Britt battling it out for #3 WR for the first 4 games. That's assuming Decker can still play.

 If the Pats have a really really good 4 man rotation at DE how many teams go 5 deep at DE? Isnt this what BB and the Pats have been great at during the last 17 years? Getting the most out of every player including the depth guys?

The Eagles go 5 deep and actually have DTs that can rush the passer, we don't.  Clayborn has 30 sacks in 7 years, he's only had 7.5 sacks or more twice in his career. Twice in seven years he basically missed a full year. Nevermind we have no clue how he takes to our D. Just last year two Vets we brought in got cut because they didn't fit our system. We don't have a stud at DE and basically get nothing in way of pash rush from our DTs. Also where do you get that those 4 are really really good? They might be if everything goes just right, but that is a crazy high risk. We should have brought in another Vet or drafted a guy instead of trading for future picks. 

I think the Raiders are making Mack available . The Pats stockpiled some picks for next year. As long as they have a plan for Brady future, by the way I am not in a rush to replace him. I want to go all out to get Mack from the Raiders. Sometimes these guys want to get paid but there sick of losing putting your body on the line.

Mike Reiss said Mathews wasn’t in Pats plans before he got hurt. Also, his injury settlement carries no cap hit which makes the injury seem minor. Apparently, he just wasn’t very good.

When Tom Brady had the likes of Patton and Givens we were a totally different team. We had a great defense and were a run first team. Heck the whole league is different now, its way more a passing league than it was back then. Hence why we don't run a ton of 3-4 like we did years ago. Also Tom Brady is old now, you don't want him going back to those days when he's 41 years old.

This receiving corps blows.

You know it isn't good when they start mentioning Dez Bryant.

I'm hoping for Hollister to recreate the Aron Hernandez role.

This offense was pretty good in the Super Bowl after Cooks went down, and they won the AFCCG after Gronk went down, so they'll make due. They've lost Dion Lewis, Nate Solder, Cam Fleming, and Danny Amendola (plus the significant contributions Cooks made over the course of the season, of course) while replacing them with Sony Michel, Brown & Wynn, Cannon, and Julian Edelman after the suspension. If they stay reasonably healthy (aka the line, Brady, Gronk, Edelman, and the RB's) the offense will continue to roll.

On any given play Brady will have Option 1 Gronk, Option 2 Edelman Option 3 White/Burkhead/Michel Option 4 Hogan Option 5 WR#3/RB#2/TE#2. Last year their offense was absolutely loaded at this time, people compared them favorably to the 07 team, and just because Brandin Cooks isn't the #3 option entering preseason doesn't mean they lack weapons. Now, we must acknowledge the age and heightened injury risk with many of the core players, but even if they brought back Dion Lewis and Amendola we'd have the same concerns as those two carry big durability issues. The line could very well be better, people keep harping on the loss of Solder but I'll take the gamble on Brown, Wynn, Cannon at LT, LG, RT being roughly as good as the Solder, Thuney, Fleming combo that closed out last year.

Defensively the Patriots have absolutely added talent and look significantly better than the Super Bowl defense, Hightower alone is an absolute game changer, and it'll ultimately come down to health and how the new additions adapt to the system.