Patriots 2023 Season Thread

Long way to go, let's see who actually comes out and where things sit after combine. These current ranking are kind of useless right now, QBs rise like crazy! That being said, if everything is equal you always go after the QB first. Like others have said, you just need to nail the pick.

Mel has a piece up at ESPN+ on Jayden Daniels. Has him as QB4 (behind Sanders) & projects mid-1st round selection. An excerpt:

"Daniels, who turns 23 later this month, has the edge over Nix and Penix because of his size, playmaking ability and week-to-week consistency. He distanced himself from those guys down the stretch, taking the next step in his development. He could be a fantastic NFL player."

Thoughts on the top 8 qb’s

1. Caleb Williams: runs it better than some running backs, throws it better than most quarterbacks.

2. Drake Maye: So solid in structure, probably not a hall of famer. Likely a top 10 qb in the leaguer. I’m expecting him to pass Caleb as the #1 selection throughout the process.

3. Shedeur Sanders: I feel like Shedeur was the toughest, most accurate passer I saw this season.

4. Jayden Daniels: the wheels are nice, the passing is ok.

5. JJ McCarthy: has any top prospect done less with more?

6. Bo Nix: looks like Sam Howell and Baker Mayfield’s blonde cousin.

7. Michael Pennix: Fast team, slow release, pretty ball, clunky mechanics.

8. Quinn Ewers: Good, needs some more time in the oven. If he improves as much this off-season as last, he could really be a player.

McCourty comes off as rather clueless, basically saying a good work ethic means it not on him. Lot more to being a good to great QB than work ethic. Maybe that's all the athletically gifted McCourty needed in his career, he wasn't a QB. Nevermind a non athletic one. I also find it funny that with that great work ethic Mac Jones can't but in the time to develop chemistry with his weapons.

Mac Jones has the ability and talent around him to play much better. He's just broken, like a pitcher or hitter where everything falls apart.

Non QBs former players just shouldn't be talking about QBs or if you do, work on it.

OL talk, anyone?

PFF grades Trent as #3 OT through Week 13. Big Mike always looks, and grades, well no matter where he's put. A couple of bad plays this past Sunday put aside.

Why not resign them both as bookends? Patscap has NE @ about 75M in cap room for 2024, with another 20-25M easily gotten. The Dolphins just extended RT Austin Jackson for 3 & up to 39M, with 20+ guaranteed. Give Mike a little bump on that, say 5 and 80. Give Trent 22 per x 4 or 5.

The guards are young and, for now, cheap -- let's make the OL a strength again?

I'm very much looking forward to watching Big Mike matchup with TJ Watt tonight. That guy is relentless. Going to see a lot of the Pharaoh, I'd imagine.

Which is something we should keep in mind because the Pats simply replacing Mac with another guy and putting him through the same sh*t would mess him up as well.

Calling McCourty a failed corner is pretty laughable and uninformed. He was a second team All-pro corner as a rookie. He then struggled his second year especially, compared to his first. He played FS the last game of that year and excelled. Despite that he still opened his 3rd season as a corner and was playing at a high level thru 9 games, 1 int, 5 PD, 63% catch percent, 62 QB rating. They moved him because they lost both Chung and Gregory to injury and they traded for Talib, put Dennard in the starting lineup and slid Arrington to the slot.

Long story short, McCourty was a great corner

I can't attest for numbers and just going off memory and the basic fact that, as mentioned, CB is more important than FS.

With that said, just Googling about the move (don't mean that in a sarcastic sense) the recap seems to align with my memory of the situation.



www.masslive.com/patriots/2023/01/devin-mccourty-went-from-hating-playing-safety-to-an-all-time-patriots-great.html

I believe I remember hearing at the time that the move was successful because it gave him time to see the field and utilize his physical tools. Of course, that's just conjecture.

This also isn't really an insult on the player. He was a tremendous safety.

I have zero ability to evaluate the OL. If you told me Cole Strange was one of the best in the game, I'd believe you.

With that said, the big talk I'm hearing about Onwenu is that while he's done great for the most part at RT, he's struggling with high end pass rushers. I imagine most guys would, but if true, does he merit top end dollars? Concerns with leaving him at RT?

Many think last week was that he wasn't 100%. He's got a test tonight for sure.

I don't hate Bedard's idea for next offseason. Sign Ownenu. Sign Brown (with the assumption that nobody is giving him a big deal).

If you get a young LT, put Brown at RT and Onwenu back to G. If you don't, keep Brown at LT and Onwenu at RT (with Sow inside).

Need the depth.

BTW - When i say "don't get a young T", I mean one that is ready to play right away.

Sure, the other team's guys get paid too, so no one is going to win every matchup. But I'd Big Mike guess would rank in the top 1/2, if not better, of the league's starting RTs, with some position flexibility. 

Kansas City's J Taylor got about 15M per -- he's the guy who false starts all the time on pass plays because he lacks quickness. (Fun Fact: him & D Smith the LT are #1 & #2 for OL penalties the last 5 years). So a bit more than Taylor seemed a good starting point. 

Excuses, the same crap McCourty did when he was on the team! He's on his 3rd OC because he helped run MP out of town and what happened? He got worse, not better. His issues are on him, doesn't handle struggling and it builds with him. 3 straight years under 3 different OC, he gets worse as the season goes along each year! One thing stands out, watching Tua throw that horrible interception, they talked about how they worked on him forgetting it. Act like it didn't happen, move on to next drive. Mac Jones hasn't been able to do that with 3 different OC. It effects him and he changes how he plays. My biggest worry with him coming out was he never struggled and had very limited starting experience.  He needed to work this crap out in College, very hard to do in the NFL. Josh McDaniels and top talent isn't fixing him, until he fixes his own demons and frankly his attitude is that it's not him, but everyone else.