2018 Patriots Season Thread

This is a combined response so I don't clog up the board. He missed most of training camp getting help, playing with a QB he's never played with before. That QB is Tyrod Taylor one of the worst QBs throwing the ball in the league. Nevermind after watching a bunch of videos on how the Browns have used Gordan over the years you'll see why his catch percentage is low. Its all crazy long tough to catch passes. No receiver catches a ton of those.

That being said he's had issues running the wrong routes before. That was during his first two years after playing at Baylor. Baylors offense is anti pro football, just look at Coleman. At the sametime he's not Patterson who can't use his physical gifts while running routes to get open. Gordan can easily use his physical gifts to get open. Wish I had the article with video breaking down his play after his first two games back last year. He was easily getting open running a bunch of different routes. I'll try to find it.

So is he likely to upset Brady? Absolutely, but knowing the Patriots they won't use him for those timing routes. More like they used Moss where Brady would just throw it as hard as he could and let Moss go get it. Brady is the best ever at finding the guys that get open and Gordan has no trouble getting open. He's going to help just being on the field. No team will consistently leave Gordan one on one with no safety help and play the run like the Jags just did to us. Just imagine Gronk on one side, Gordan on the other. It will open up so much for other players it won't even be funny. 

Do I expect Gordan to be a beast and become our #1 WR? Nope. More like a number 3 WR. The thing is even if he has modest production, he'll make a huge impact by just being on the field. The minute the defense leaves him one on one, you know Brady will take a shot. Like he said with Moss, when you have a player like that, you need to take a bunch of shots each game. We've seen what an elite deep threat can do for this offense and Brady. As good as Cooks was, Gordan is much more like Moss than Cooks. Cooks size limited him. You couldn't just throw up 50-50 balls to him like you can with Gordan.

We'll see next game frankly. If Gordan plays a decent amount, which I expect they have big plans for him. All he needs to do is work hard, stay out of trouble and enjoy the ride.

He’s obligated to talk to the media. He could be better with them on some questions but as a fan I like how he answers questions. It’s in line with the focus he wants his players to have. He doesn’t single out players and talks about doing things the way as a team. Whenever they play poorly he always says they need to coach better along with the other things.

Also, something people always overlook because of how he handles his press conferences is that Belichick likes the media. He’s said on more than one occasion that they are the link to the fans and without the fans what they do is meaningless. He likes documenting the history of the game, etc. what he doesn’t like is the minutia of the day to day questions about stuff that doesn’t do him or the team any good to talk about. He’s all about every edge possible even if it seems small to us.

Just a few things I wanted to bring up, the level of transactions is getting crazy! Still surprised they now aren't carrying a 5th WR and a 4th RB. Especially when Patterson isn't really a WR and both Burkhead and Michel didn't look 100%.

Call me confused why you needed to bring back Jones. Why not just have Barner return punts and have one of our two rookie DB play safety? You cut him because they were better, with a lot more upside. I'm getting real sick and tired of bringing in player after player for punt returns. Normally you go smaller guys, but heck let Patterson do it, we need to get some value out of that roster spot! This is now the third guy in 3 weeks! Also you seem to have way too many DB on the roster now. Its hurting your WR and RB depth.

It will be very interesting to see if Jordan Matthews is 100% or the Eagles just wanted to snag him before another team did. Especially after reports saying we might bring him back when healthy and it was a serious injury. If healthy he'd be such an upgrade over Patterson.

Also Dwayne Allen has zero targets in 2 games. I know he took a paycut, but what value does he provide if he's a zero in the passing game? Its not like he makes another team account for him if Brady won't even target him. You could just use another OT. Heck Brady even targeted Develin in both games, which just highlights how bad we needed weapons. Even with us this desperate we get a zero from Allen.

The part that is confusing is they seem to need RB depth more than CB depth or safety depth. So why not just have Barner return punts? If Jones had played safety before this might make more sense, but he hasn't. Jackson would seem to have better size to play Chungs role. It also means more moves need to be made in the near future. You have to add Edleman and I would fully expect at some point they have to add a 4th RB. That has been the norm here forever. One injury and you are crazy thin at RB. That 2 year contract made me laugh. If he's here for the rest of the year we are releasing another DB or someone is going on the IR. They had a large amount of DBs before adding Jones, what was it 9? They now have 10 of them on a 53 man roster. That is a crazy number.

He did clear waivers and could have signed with New Englands practice squad. Either they didn't want him or he just picked Baltimore. Which given our depth made sense.

Did the Browns just become a fun team to watch???

I was surprised that I heard a lot of talk this morning about how they executed his college offense last night (smart) but that it's not sustainable. It was being compared to the gimmick offenses of the past (like the Wildcat).

Now these people were NOT experts but I realized that, as much as I love watching football, I have 0 idea what that means. What was it about the offense they ran that would NOT be considered an NFL offense? Is there any validity to what they are saying or is it just a case of people trying to hate on the Browns (and/or Mayfield - who, admittedly, doesn't strike me as the most loveable dude)

I am pretty sure that if this were true the Pats would have heard it from Hoyer whom I am sure they talked to about Gordon.

I wasn’t trying to go thru with everything about Jackson. I’m no expert on him either and agree with a lot of what you said, but I definitely disagree with the playing hard part. That’s arguably the hardest thing to do as a coach, especially when losing is getting guys to play hard. Other things you can learn from and improve on; the jury is out on that tho. But look at Jacksonville. I’m not a big Marone fan, but he seems to have learned from last years AFC championship game defeat. Didn’t get conservative last week with a lead.

Back to the Browns. I have no problems starting Taylor over Mayfield. While the team may have been better off short term the risk to the young QB isn’t worth it in my opinion. Taylor has been a capable NFL QB, made the Pro Bowl last year (not suggesting he’s that good), and putting a young QB behind a shaky line is a big risk. Let him sit watch and learn the playbook and set him up for a better chance at success. I also wouldn’t have started Darnold if I were the Jets. But that’s personal preference and I see the other side. It’s not an indefensible move as a coach. If anything, I comment Jackson for looking long term despite his record.

Good read on a couple things we have discussed.

www.cleveland.com/expo/sports/erry-2018/09/9363d868b7336/why-baker-mayfield-didnt-start.html

And he’s not playing tonight.