Patriots Fanatic

Nice article over at Football Outsiders on QBs and 4th quarter comebacks.

According to Reiss, the Pats lead the NFL in cap space, at $15 million.

The Globe reported a couple of days ago that with Gary Glitter convicted (yet again) of having sex with children, the NFL has asked teams to drop “Rock and Roll #2″ from playlists and the Patriots plan to comply.

So what should the replacement music be? Comment away!

Brady had a press conference today. The full Q&A is here.

It’s good to know the Denver playoff loss still burns him:

“It was tough. It’s funny, I don’t watch a lot of TV. But before I went to bed I was actually watching TV and was on the ‘On Demand’. Then I went to ‘Patriots On Demand’ and was like ‘Let me flip through some of this stuff.’ So I watched the press conference before the Denver game, and the last thing I say, to the last question about Champ Bailey, was ‘Yeah, every time I throw over there I’m really going to make sure I’m careful.’ I’m sitting there, lying in bed, thinking ‘Of all the things to have said, sure enough.’ Champ took one [interception] 103 yards. That’s going to stay with me for a long time – and I continue to be reminded every time it’s on NFL Network, every time I watch that, it’s Champ running down the sideline. It was a tough way to end the year. We were really playing at a much higher level than we were earlier in the season. We were a very confident team. We laid an egg out there, and I was a huge part of that. Hopefully, with the work that we’re doing now, trying to improve, when we get in those situations again we won’t make those same mistakes.”

From a BB press conference today:

Q: Would you feel comfortable with Matt Cassell as a backup?
A: I don’t know. I don’t know. I think Brady has established himself.

Ya think, Bill? :-)

Who are these people and what did they do with the real Bill Belichick? In the fourth round the Pats picked yet another TE and a kicker (ok — you can’t blame them for drafting a kicker). How many people would have thought that the Pats wouldn’t pick a single person on the defensive side of the ball in their first five picks?

UPDATE:
Ah — it appears Mills is more of an H-back/FB than a real TE. That makes more sense. Still, to go five picks and not select a single defender. Interesting…

The Pats took TE Dave Thomas (have a square cheeseburger! ) with their 3rd-round pick. Oh well.

An interesting insight on the Pats from second round draft choice Chad Jackson:

In an interview, Jackson said that on one of his visits the Pats gave him some offensive game film and told him to have it broken down by the time of his next visit. Jackson said no other team he visited did anything like that. Add another player to the list of those who have in interviews pointed to something the Patriots do that no other team does. The weird thing to me is that for a lot of those examples I hear (like this one with Jackson and like when Rodney Harrison talked about the situational practices the Pats do that he’d never seen before) are things I would have assumed that all teams do as a matter of course. And yet the Pats seem to be the only ones doing them. Hail Bill!

Well, I didn’t quite expect that. With the Pats’ first two picks (the latter moving up in a trade), they took RB Laurence Mahoney and WR Chad Jackson. I don’t follow college ball, so I can’t comment on the quality of the players and whether they are likely to be good value for where they were picked, but at least at first I have to say I was surprised. Given how old the LB corps is, I thought for sure they’d take a LB or someone they felt they could convert to LB. And maybe a CB, too.

But no! A RB and a WR. However, when you think about it, you can’t complain too much about taking people at those positions. Dillon is 32. Falk is 30. Pass is pushing 30. They have to start getting younger there. As for the flankers, there’s Branch, Caldwell, Troy Brown, and Bethel Johnson. Troy has been great for this team, but he’s on his last legs. Bethel is a failed experiment. It appears the only thing he knows how to do is run a flag, post, or go. If it doesn’t involve running mostly straight down the field, he can’t do it. And that’s even before we get into his numerous healthy scratches for having bad practices or for disciplinary reasons. Especially if the Pats can pick up one more decent WR, I can’t see Bethel on the team this year.

Is this it for Pass, too? Will the Patriots really keep four RBs? Then again, maybe they’ll cut Klecko (especially if they don’t think he can do it at LB) and use Pass as a fullback instead of playing games with Klecko, Seymour (don’t EVER do that again) and various OLmen.

ESPN’s Michael Smith was on WEEI today saying that the Pats are in the thick of the Jevon Walker hunt. I’d imagine they’d have to trade away a pretty high draft choice to pull that off. And Walker’s coming off ACL surgery. Well, we’ll find out soon enough with the draft this weekend.