Patriots 2023 Offseason Thread

www.nbcsports.com/boston/patriots/2023-nfl-draft-takeaways-patriots-clearly-were-underwhelmed-late-round-talent?

I can't even imagine writing this crap, when the draft set an NFL record for trades! He just completely overlooks facts, like the Patriots 3rd round pick was announced as a LB, not safety. That he's on record saying the latest he'd be 100% healthy was for the start of training camp.

If you don't like a draft, that's fine, give us the legit reasons. Instead he just makes up a narrative that isn't true, an outright lie! Teams are giving massive bonuses to undrafted guys. The evidence says most teams loved the depth of this draft and so did the Patriots. Matt Groh was talking about late round WRs before the draft even started!

I just think Bb, more comfortable with certain positions. WR is not one of them. At least the defense is turning over from veteran group to very young

I also know the players mostly ever contract is up in the next 2 seasons.

I feel Bb wants the Schula record. Then it Mayos team.

Boutte sounds pretty interesting

Everyone should be more comfortable with certain positions. It's just a fact certain positions bust more than others.

The Ravens are unreal at drafting, they have now taken 3 WRs in the first round since drafting Lamar Jackson and countless others in later rounds chasing a #1 WR. The reasoning makes perfect sense, draft experts give them great grades. The results have been crazy bad value wise. They then have to fill holes, yet they can't even take a backup QB when Jackson misses so many games.

Evan Lazar, Patriots beat writing when asked what the difference between Flowers and Douglas was, said competition. He loved Flowers, was pounding the table for him. I didn't agree, yet you had to love his conviction about the player. That was his guy and if you watch enough tape that happens. The problem with this draft, there wasn't much difference in the WR. OT fell off a cliff after a few players, yet Jalen Moreno-Cropper a guy very similar to Addison taken in first went undrafted. Why? Competition level, if he played at a power 5 school he gets drafted. Still shocked a guy with 4.4 speed, great production and a great route runner goes undrafted.


The Patriots were smart, they hit the value section of the WR group. Still amazed how some of these guys dropped. We'll see if they picked the right ones. Yet they got great value at a position that bust around 50% of the time in the first round. Matt Groh seems to have a massive influence over Bill. Yeah you had a Bill doing Bill in the 4th, yet no slow non athletic smart team captains types either.

Well if Patriots take Trenton Simpson in the 3rd round instead of Mapu, most people give them a much better grade. Was seen by some at one time as a first round type guy, yet he's also a guy seen to not have good football IQ and bad instincts. Takes bad routes, a read and react player, not a figure out what his happening and attacks. Mapu is seen as good at those things, him firing through the line at the Shrine Bowl. Queen isn't the only new age 1st and 2nd round pick to disappoint, there's actually tons of them. Not total busts, yet no where near the impact expected. Per PFF multiple teams had interest in Mapu as a LB, looking at his plays in the run game and passing game. I didn't really want Simpson, yet we needed speed and coverage ability at LB. We needed a playmaker, not just a guy who racks up tackles, yet impact plays. Now who knows if Mapu is that guy, you just never know about prospects. Part of the reason I loved the draft they tried something different and tried to fix one of the issues left keeping you from an elite D. Easier to finish the D, than trying to make the offense elite.

The other thing that bugs me, is certain people would have given you a higher grade if you simple switch Boutte and Douglas with Andrews and Ryland. Like some how changing the order should matters, not who you actually drafted.

The last thing is all the talk about taking a kicker and punter and special teams. I get it, I'm usually that guy. Patriots invest too much into special teams. Last year was horrible though, you were losing games because of special teams. Did these people not watch last year after Bailey got injured? Heck even when Bailey was healthy, he sucked at punting hurting the team every game with short punts. Folk has been great overall, yet he can't kickoff to save his life. He also sucks in the wind, not a good thing given the Patriots playing in the NorthEast late in the year at multiple parks. The crazy missed tackles on kickoff and punt returns. It might have been the worst special teams Bill has had with the Patriots. That's amazing to say given Marcus Jones and his return ability.

I can't wait for the season, bring on the underdogs! I really need that given the Celtics and Bruins lately.

They weren’t a top D. They could be if Gonzalez is a real number 1 corner and Mapu is the kind of coverage LB with speed they’ve been lacking. You’d then have real speed at the second level to go along with a pass rush. Oh they also need Baremore to be good. Those 3 elements get added to what they already have and it’s an elite defense. If not, they’ll still be frauds padding stats against lessor opponents.

It’s not about them having worse games versus top offenses, it’s about them getting exposed against them and not making big stops. It’s been the same story 3 years in a row now. They haven’t had the horses. If you’ve been happy with their defense and thinks it’s been a great D all the power to you but there’s a reason why they can’t make a big stop to save their lives.

Sounds like something one would hear on sports talk radio. Narrative not facts (Edit: replying to 1st post; 2nd post showed while I was typing).

Every team gives up yards, first downs, points. I showed where this team ranked at the end of the season. But for some, not only should the Patriots give up less yards, first downs, points, they have to do it in every example one can think to label & cite as IMPORTANT.

I don't find that method instructive. I avoid talk shows for that reason. They are OUTRAGE peddlers. I don't want any. I don't need any.

49ers had #1 D last year. They only played two top 5 offenses all year, Chiefs scored 44 points and Eagles scored 31 points. They also let Stidham in his first start put 34 points up on them.

The idea that elite defenses can reliably shutdown top offenses on the regular in today's football is just wrong. This isn’t 2000, the rule changes have favored the offenses and changed the game. It's about slowing them down, getting them off the field sometimes. You also need a good offense to win those games. We'll never see another Ravens D led by Ray Lewis with Trent Dilfer at QB dominate the league. Unless they roll back a bunch of the newer rules. Yet that's not happening, they want high powered offenses fighting it out.

I truly believe a lot of the hate on our D, has to do with our offense. Even in Mac Jones rookie year, the offense struggled against good defenses.

Fun fact we had the most sacks of any Bill D in decades last year, maybe it was all-time I forget it was a quick second they mentioned it in the draft. That was with Barmore being so so at best last year. Now add in White.

I favor building up the D, not to shutdown elite offenses. It's a few extra stops, a few more big plays. That will in turn lower the bar for our offense to win games. Yeah every now and then you might really stop those offenses for a single game, yet no modern D comes close to doing it on the regular.

Barmore could be one of the best DT against the pass next year, he has that upside.

He played less games last year, 17 versus 10, yet rookie 46 tackles, 18 pressures playing 55% of snaps. Last year 23 tackles, 9 pressures and 49% of snaps. That's so so for what he's capable of. Thinking of Judon, Barmore, White and Uche going after the QB is usually just things you dream about. Yet Barmore needs to build off his rookie year, he was just scratching the surface then. Certainly not the big year two jump we were hoping for, so let's hope for a Uche type year 3 coming out party.

To me the defense is good not great. Like don’t go into New England with a rookie QB or an average guy, they’ll make him look like they don’t belong in the league…but if you go in with a mobile Qb you might not punt very much. If the Mapu (and Gonzalez) pick hits then I think he’s bringing exactly what they need to the LB core and the defense *could* be great.

Lots of things are a me problem and this may be one of them.

Question. Instead of drafting a kicker and a punter and hoping they turn out okay why don't the Patriots just go out and sign the best kicker and the best punter in free agency. Kickers and punters are really cheap relative to other free agents. For example, Matt Gay was the best free agent kicker this offseason. He signed for 4 years 22.5 million. Last year he went 28/30 overall and 7/9 at 50 plus. His only misses were from over 50. PFF had him as the #4 rated kicker but the top four were all very very close. And he is only 29 years old. 5.6MM may seem like a lot but if you know you're getting an almost sure thing kicker, that seems a lot more valuable than some of the other dreck we signed. I'm not too upset about using the 192nd on a punter Baringer. There was not a lot of talent left on the board by that time anyways. But we don't know how well he will turn out either.