Ask Pats Pulpit!

The plus side to that is that Mayo can slide back to the weak side where he won DYOR honors the year before. Spikes is having a great camp is very aggresive.

Jermaine Cunningham got a little knicked up at camp, and didn’t play last week. We really need OLB help / depth, so we’re hoping he’s part of the answer. It’s tough to tell how a pass rusher does in camp, since the QB’s are wearing no-contact red. I’ve got him penciled in as a back-up right now until I get to see something on the field.

Aaron Hernandez has been catching all over the field in practice. He’s likely #3 in the TE blocking depth chart and vies for #1-#2 in catching. He’s lined up wide or in the slot often. I hope the O-coordinator changes up his routes this week because last week’s routes didn’t play to his strengths.

I think that’s about all on the Gator report.

During the pre-season games, they will feature different backs with the #1 unit, so it is tough to say who you’ll see this week. Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis (BJGE or Law Firm) started with the ones last week, with Maroney manning the twos. Even though Maroney is likely the number one back on the depth chart.

Kevin Faulk will still be a third down specialist, although we may see Maroney in on more and more passing downs.

If I had to guess, I’d say Fred Taylor will be featured this week, with Sammy Morris running with the twos. I’d guess that week 3 will be Maroney running with the ones.

Still no feature back, but the RBBC still works. Who knows what we’ll do next year….

Spikes is very aggressive, and has a good nose for diagnosing plays. That said, it’s early and he hasn’t taken a meaningful snap yet – unlike Washington. Ask me again next year. ;-)

I believe Mankins has gotten some really, really bad advice from his agent. There is around a 1% chance he plays for the Pats this year. He hasn’t signed his tender and wants to be traded. However, if he isn’t on the roster for at least 6 games (Week 11 with the bye), he doesn’t get credit for the season and the Pats can franchise him again next year – starting the whole process over again. He is making no money right now. The Pats can send him a letter putting him on the exempt roster meaning that he won’t play for 3 games AFTER he signs (he would have to sign by Week 8 to get credit for the season). They made a fair offer to him, but now I think they’ll let him twist in the wind until some team with injuries decides they want to trade for him. Kind of sad.

Ron Brace had some abdominal strain or something and couldn’t pass the conditioning test (kind of like Haynesworth). He missed 18 days and 22 practices, but he is now back in camp. He was practicing at LDE (Warren’s spot), so there is a chance he’ll see time there. He’s WAY behind on reps, though, so he may be relegated to backup status again.

Welker is back in playing form, but I think it is likely he won’t play in the pre-season. Randy Moss has been back with a vengeance, but his pre-season reps will be limited. There are a lot of new targets that need reps. Edelman has similar moves to Welker. Brandon Tate was drafted injured last year and is finally seeing some playing time, and Taylor Price looks interesting as well. They’ve been lighting it up in camp, so it will be interesting to see if that transitions into games. Our new TE’s Gronkowski and Hernandez both have good hands as well.

At Safety, Meriweather slides back to FS, while Patrick Chung (2nd year) takes over SS – he really likes to hit people. McGowan (S) comes in at nickel or dime to cover tight-ends quite a bit.

Bodden is #1, Butler (2nd year) is #2, McCourty (rookie) is likely #3. Rounding out the crew I think are Arrington (2nd year), Wheatley (3rd year), and Wilhite (if he isn’t cut) (3rd year).

1) Brady has injured a finger. They say it may be broken. Good thing though that after the play where he injured it, he went 3 for 3 that I think has led to a rushing TD. :)

Nothing to really worry about.

2) Randy played in a couple of series. Series 1 against the saints wasn’t TOO successful, and Randy was targeted once, and caught it in that series.

Series 2, Randy was targeted once again, and caught it. I think he didn’t play after that, but I’m not too sure.

3) I don’t think getting rid of Ben will be too huge of a loss. Bill O’Brien, our OC, didn’t really draw up any plays for Watson last year anyways, but he was a pretty solid blocker.

Positevly or negatively? Well loosing, at first, was a surprise, but we brought in an above average blocker in Alge Crumpler(who can catch the ball when called upon).

THEN, we brought in two rookies in Aaron Hernandez, and Ron Gronkowski. Hernandez reminds us all at the Pulpit of a dallas Clark, and Gronk has been called the next Jason Witten. So far, these rookies has been REALLY dynamic in camp. Gronk has been absolutely solid in blocking, and he’s been an excellent goal line TE. He made great catches as well in camp. Herndo has been doing excellent as well, catching plenty of footballs thrown to him, and beating coverage over the middle.

In pre-season however, all three TEs were used in blocking formations 90% of the time, so we really didn’t catch a glimpse of their receiving talent, but catching Gronk blocking was beautiful, and Herndo and Crumpler looked pretty solid as well(remember Hernandez had to block for Tebow in college. Tebow ran with the football a lot). And when Herndo was n the game for receiving plays, Bill O’Brien had him doing routes intended for Welker, instead of routes that Dallas Clark ran in Indi, and he was playing with the 3rd team offense(where our 3rd team OL showed why they are… well 3rd team.).

So in terms of impact? At first it may have been negatively, but after our offseason, I think we have compensated quite well, imo. But we;ll miss Watson, mainly because of that great run back to catch champ Bailey from behind to prevent the TD in that playoff game.

Randy has been burning up training camp. He’s looking to do great things this year (which may be his last year with the Pats – though I hope not). He’s been a great teammate.

Watson had all of the measurables, yet didn’t like to catch in traffic (he’s a TE, WTF?) He did well down the field, but there were better WR options there. Good blocker, great speed, but if he can’t go mono a mono with LB’s (I mean little Welker does it 123 times a year), then he is missing something as a WR.

After he was injured in the Saints game (he hit his hand on the helmet of a Saints player), he went 3/3 for 37 yards. So it’s not a big deal. After all, he played last season with broken ribs.

And Randy Moss has been one of the highlights of the training camp. He’s been beating double teams, he’s been catching everything and he’s been vintage Randy Moss. With quality players surrounding him, he’s primed for another big year. Last year, Wes Welker was the only real target so opposing defenses had no trouble doubling Moss. But when Moss has Welker, Edelman, Hernandez, Price, Tate or Gronkowski on the field with him, he’ll have a much easier time catching the ball- and if not, someone else will.

Ben Watson was overpaid by the Browns. He was athletic, but he suffered from stone hands too frequently. He was an average blocker at best. So combine average receiver with an average blocker and letting him walk doesn’t seem like too big of a loss. I think losing Watson has forced the Patriots to rethink the tight end position, and it has led them to revamp it and improve it. So yeah, I think losing Watson is the best thing that’s happened to this offense because it led the team to drafting two of the best tight ends in the draft.

I’m getting pretty sick of Favre’s yearly games.

…because he’s able to be honest and say what everyone’s thinking- even if it’s against the Patriots. Favre’s totally right. If the team has to give him so much attention, he’s not what they should want on the team. Sage Rosenfels has the opportunity to be a Matt Schaub and emerge as a bonafide starter after being a lifetime back-up- and Rosie looked extremely good in the first game. Favre isn’t the future so why are they begging him to be? He’s on a bum ankle and if you add that on top of the fact that he always fades as the season progresses and he’s just setting the Vikings up for post-season failure.