2019 Patriots Regular season thread

 I have thought the same all along about the guys we have but the top 3 are all hurt now to some degree. I cracked the cartiledge in my ribs years ago and that can freakn hurt for months. Hamstrings and knees are also tough. After that it is Myers and maybe they should make Tom develop chemistry. If they don't get a WR then they could try for another TE. I don't know it just seems the O needs a little help.

Yes I am bullish on Gordon playing the year. Have you noticed him talking to the media a lot? I think that is a good thing and could help him stay straight,  shows stability and confidence.

Pats will have a tough game in Baltimore on 11/3, that should be the first real challenging game and after that Wynn can return. So HOPEFULLY that is the only game they have to play without him. 

Thank you Indy, that KC loss is going to matter.

Edlemen and Gordon look like they will be able to play through the injuries and be fine. I was worried after the Bills game, but both looked a lot better last game. They are limiting them in practice, but the short week sucks!

Dorsetts injury is kinda huge. He looked so good as a #3. Yet against the Bills when our top two were injured and he was asked to step up he was horrible. Nine targets, two catches, ten yards. He looked like Dorsett from early last year when he was a top 2 guy and wasn't very good. Now depending on how bad the injury is, he might not be back till the trade deadline.

So how good is Dorsett? He seems to struggle when he gets a bunch of targets and excells when he's the forgotten man and gets only a few targets.

If you can make the money work, I'll take Sanders all day long. He's the perfect fit, like Tate would have been last year. He can play the slot and outside WR. 

It just really comes down to money and are TE and OL bigger needs? How do they feel about Neal?

I'd also worry about RB with Mike Reiss speculating that Harris having issues with pass blocking is the reason we haven't seen him. So he's in the doghouse and that isn't good. Burkhead is a heck of a player, like he really adds a lot to our offense with his ability to run and catch the ball. Yet he's injured a ton. Bolden has done well catching the ball, but is a horrible runner like he has been for years. Nevermind someone needs to explain to me why Bolden is the #1 kickoff guy over Gunner it makes zero sense to me.

Not a chance it happens. It's no given he gets his money, people are split. I've seen no way he gets it, then 100% he gets his Raider and Patriot money. Comes down to if the extra language in the contract is enforceable. The side that thinks he gets paid says it's not and doesn't understand why teams even put it in. Saying the Patriots were stupid. We'll see, the Patriots usually aren't stupid, usually they are the opposite of that.

If he gets his money after what he did, the NFL needs to change the rules!

I wouldn’t have cut him in the first place so I’d take him back no question. But I also would have taken Aaron Hernandez back so I’m the wrong guy to ask. I’m shameless in that regard.

 First. Public apology to the owner about comments.
Second. Zero tolerance to ANY social media messaging.
Third. Talk football with media and that is it.

 Lets go win a Super Bowl

Looking at some rushing statistics in conjunction with Matt Dolloff's Package Report:

In the 2 games that the Pats used the most 2TE sets (12 and 22 packages), Sony Michel had his best running games. His 2 worst performances (wks 1 and 3) they never used those sets at all. Not sure what this tells me but here are some possible conclusions (previous year's data would clear this up . . . a bit):

1. Sony requires 2 TEs blocking to be productive (would need to see if the trend was similar last year)
2. Pats have to replace Gronk with 2 TEs (maybe if Sony was better with only 1 TE last year that might validate that thought)
3. As RJP suggests, the OL is killing them this year (if there is a general downward trend in all packages from a rushing standpoint).

Not sure the OL is getting fixed outside of Wynn coming back and just more time. Someone had once suggested getting a C, moving Thuney to LT and Karras to LG but Bedard's Breakdowns seemed to show that Mason/Cannon were often part of the problem (just going by general run blow-up stats which don't account for generally smaller holes).

Anyway. Not sure why I posted this as it doesn't get us to a conclusion but in my intial "the stats support my narrative" analysis is that getting a better TE is the way to go. Keep hearing the name OJ Howard (people pining for him - not that there is an actual rumor).

Burkhead is out... I’d really like to get some Damien Harris tonight.

Newhouse sucks so bad... might have to try Dan Skipper or Thuney

You mean Brady

Let's hope Gordon is OK that didn't look good.

Bolden - just a special teams player.

And he finds a way to make an even worse playcall. He’s a trash coordinator.