New England Patriots Discussion

[Matthew Jones]

The Patriots have waived Taylor Price in order to make room for the immortal Nick McDonald. The Price was decidedly wrong.

[ElectricEye]

Wide receiver busts. It's what's for dinner.

[Jvig43]

I just want to throw out the EE and myself were all over this like a week ago haha. None the less, this is getting extremely irritating.

[ElectricEye]

Do you have a link on that ROP? Not saying I don't believe you, just can't come up with one. Found the McDonald thing fine.

EDIT: nevermind, found it. Bedard is reporting it.

[ElectricEye]

The Patriots mastery of the draft continues I guess;

2010
Jermaine Cunningham
Taylor Price

2009
Darius Butler
Tyrone McKenzie
Brandon Tate


2008
Terrence Wheatley
Shawne Crable
Kevin O'Connell

Let's trade down and get some more picks this year. It's great that we move on from our mistakes, but we absolutely have to stop making them. It's hurting this team right now and will only get worse later.

[descendency]

Good news guys: Taylor Price will no longer be passed up by guys like Tiquan Underwood.

[ElectricEye]

Do we pretend that Tiquan Underwear is the answer now?

[Vaylor]

Im just hoping he can be serviceable until the draft.

[descendency]

Maybe if Andy Reid is fired, we can get DJax. . . sigh.

[AntoinCD]

This is getting extremely annoying. Don't get me wrong I give credit where it's due and no one can get more out of "washed up" veterans than BB. And the draft hasn't been as horrible as a lot are making it out to be with guys like

Mayo, McCourty, Gronk, Hernandez, Solder, Mankins, Wilfork, Chung etc

Plus we have had our share of UDFAs make big splashes

But it always seems the guys we have the highest hopes for always flame out.

Shawn Crable, Brandon Tate, Taylor Price, Chad Jackson, Darius Butler etc

To me it almost seems like the picks that are made that us fans don't necessarily love work out(Mayo, McCourty, Mankins etc), but when they draft a guy who makes you think "yes, finally"(Tate, Crable etc) then they bust.

[cmarq83]

I have the worst feeling that this one is going to come back and bite us in the ass. Every time we saw Price on the field he looked pretty damn good. Now here it's difficult to get on to the field for the Pats as a wide receiver if you're not a smart football player, and don't practice incredibly hard, but I could see him going somewhere else where he's really only asked to run a few routes and be effective. He was never going to make it here, but I think he's physically talented enough to make it happen in the NFL.

Onto the larger issue is how poorly we're batting on our picks. Like AntoinCD pointed out there are really only 7 or 8 guys over the last 7 or so years who've been worth their picks. If you look at the guys we've drafted in the 3rd round it's downright sickening. Basically we hit 1st round picks for the most part, sometimes can get a steal in the second, and every 5 years or so we get someone worthwhile in the 4th or later. However, as of now the team is made up of about 10 guys with actual talent, and the rest of the team is scrap heap guys we're making do with. If this team had done even a little better job in the draft we could have been Packers good at this point.

[ElectricEye]

Originally Posted by cmarq83

If this team had done even a little better job in the draft we could have been Packers good at this point.

That's the thing that gets me. We've put ourselves in position to be that good and we just haven't capitalized on the opportunities. Of course, you can say the same of just about any other team in the league...but we've had more draft picks than anyone over the past five or so years and haven't really gotten all that much to show for them.


As far as Price playing well for someone else, it's entirely possible. This one really could be something on our end, not denying that possibility at all. It's hard to say for sure at this point. Even still, him not playing last week was a death sentence and showed it just wasn't going to work out here.

[ElectricEye]

So barring something historic today, we're going to win. Most likely in a blowout, although the Colt's will probably hang around for a bit at the start of the game if our line follows the same patterns it's been following to kick stuff off.

So, looking at specific stuff a little bit, here's what I'm curious to see;

The return of Devin McCourty. He hasn't played in basically three weeks and was having a very rough season before that anyway. Hopefully with some time out he can right himself a little bit, because the numbers are ugly; PFF has him at 379 snaps, 64 targets, 44 catches, 185 yards, 4 TD's and 3 PD for a 119.8 QB rating. Ouch. With the Orlovsky/Painter horror show he probably won't be getting a real good test today, but it's a good chance to build up a bit of confidence and work himself back into the defense. It would be a very good week for an interception or two.

Nate Solder on Robert Mathis. We saw Solder win the war against one of the quickest guys in the league with the big lights on in that Monday Night game in Miami. Mathis is another good measuring stick of his progress and will present Solder his first chance at consistent snaps in awhile.

The continuing progression of the safety rotation. Just when you thought things were finally settling down there, Sergio Brown comes in last week and makes some good plays.

[AntoinCD]

I was hoping to see more action from Vereen this week but he's inactive today.

As EE mentioned Mathis against Solder will be a great chance to see how well Solder has come on. There aren't many better at rushing from that side than Mathis.

Overall I really want to find something in this game though that we can say "we really need to stop this", or "we can't let such and such do this". But the Colts pretty much suck across the board this year. If Light and Solder even do ok against Freeny and Mathis this game should get out of control. The Colts LBs and safeties are flat out horrible this year so I fully expect Gronk to have a huge day.

Something similar to the Chiefs scoreline is what I'm guessing

[Nalej]

I can't see the game... but just looking at GameCast.
Indy's last drive... 19 plays with 10+ mins TOP. Really?!

[ElectricEye]

We really should be up by much more. Came out very flat at the start on both sides of the ball. The Colt's look totally checked out though.

[cmarq83]

They'll pick it up. Powers is hurt now, and I think the line was starting to play better. Once the defense realizes Orlovsky can't throw deep they'll cheat up on those comeback routes, and I fully expect the Colts offense to be stifled in the 2nd half.

[ElectricEye]

Oh, I'm sure we will. It's not like this game really counts for anything anyway, but it's it would have been nice to come out firing on all cylinders and focused for the parts that kind of count.

[ElectricEye]

McCourty looked terrible today.

[BradysKnee]

The fact we just let Orlovsky throw 350+ is troubling, even with the injuries.

[AntoinCD]

Is there even a defensive prospect in the draft this year worth trading up for who would make a notable difference to this garbage???

Upshaw??? Maybe
Claiborne will be way gone.
Kirkpatrick???

This is ******* depressing

[BradysKnee]

I still say pair Chung with Barron.

[ryno626]

WTF happened in the fourth quarter? I was watching the gamecast at work, saw it was 31-3. I went to check on it and all of a sudden it was 31-24!

[Razor]

Originally Posted by BradysKnee

I still say pair Chung with Barron.

I'm not sure I want that just because I don't think either are good enough in coverage. I'd rather pair Chung with Lester or Markelle Martin. I don't really care at this point though, I just want talent on defense. This defense is pathetic, plain and simple. It's probably just as bad as the 2010 Texans defense.

[Nalej]

Originally Posted by ryno626

WTF happened in the fourth quarter? I was watching the gamecast at work, saw it was 31-3. I went to check on it and all of a sudden it was 31-24!

This! WTF happened?