***OFFICIAL NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS SEASON THREAD*** (13-4) - Patriots @ Broncos - Sun 3:05PM EST - Bra

 
With the Ravens being the lowest seed we automatically get them if they win 
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Yup. The Steelers are now the 3 seed which automatically means they're the only team playing next week that we're not able to face after the bye.

Ravens/Bengals/Colts vs. Patriots will take place on Saturday, January 10th at 4:35 EST on NBC.

Ravens beat the Steelers next week...Ravens vs. Pats.

Steelers beat the Ravens next week...it's winner of Bengals/Colts vs. Pats.

IMO the most favorable match-up that would help us sleep easier at night is having the Steelers beat the Ravens so we'd get the Bengals or Colts. Win that game and you face the Steelers or Broncos in the AFC Championship game at Foxborough.
 
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LMAOOOOO

good to hear :pimp:




as far as next weekend...agreed with the sentiment that the steelers need to win so we can face the winner of indy/cincy. i think pitt can give denver a tough game as well. between indy and cincy...i think we would want indy? one dimensional offensive team with a lackluster defense...definitely a good matchup for a BB squad.
 
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Feel sick about having to root the Steelers this week 
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. I'd much rather play the Indy Lucks over the Ravens.
 
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right but we will either only play cincy/colts winner or bmore. pittsburgh is the highest seed i believe so if they win they will automatically go to denver.
 
the Ravens dont scare me at all . they are not the Ravens teams of the past

Bedard actually spoke on it a few weeks ago about how defensively we match up extremely well against their offensive personel . they haven't really been that impressive down the stretch ; they struggled at home for 3 qtrs against the Browns pathetic offense led by Connor Shaw

The Steelers scare me more than any team right now

realistically though , we are convincingly better than any team in the AFC playoffs , we're getting extra rest , and are one of the more healthy teams
 
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brady restructuring his contract again to free up $24M in cap space. not sure what it means exactly, but one additional change as part of this restructure is the pats can now cut him without any financial liability. that's a little weird. but i'm hoping overall, this means we can bring back revis.
 
Well you can't ever say that the guy is selfish
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. Hopefully this frees up some room to help out with resigning key players (Revis,Stkowski) and also with contract extensions for Chandler and Dont'a.
 
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This salary cap stuff is always hella confusing but he isn't saving us any money or freeing up our cap situation, they actually gave him a extra 1 mil a year to restructure (now he has 3 years 27 mil left on his deal rather than 24). He did however free up cash for us to use by making his contract "guaranteed" only in the event of injury whereas it was previously skill guaranteed.

As long as he's here playing he's still getting that money it just makes it to where the money isn't currently accounted for, therefore they can now play around with it, say they wanna give somebody a cash bonus up front and spread it over the length of the contract to lower the cap number. Dudes like the signing bonuses for the security so we now have more money to dangle around as an incentive.

With that said he is assuming some risk but he's confident in his abilities, he's still playing at a high level and with they way he takes care of his body he'll definitely (hopefully 
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) play out the rest of his contract here. If not he'll just go get a FAT *** check elsewhere as a unrestricted free agent 
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yeah it's confusing as hell, man :lol:

it's scary because it makes him easier to cut (and makes him eligible for a HUGE pay day through FA if he is released).

i know hanging on to aging legends is bad...but not TB12, man. i need him in a pats jersey until he's done with football :lol:
 
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but he isn't saving us any money or freeing up our cap situation, they actually gave him a extra 1 mil a year to restructure (now he has 3 years 27 mil left on his deal rather than 24).
Correct.

We actually have LESS cap money as a result of the deal. National media is too busy pushing narratives from the Patriots brass to report the real stuff.

The Brady restructure largely benefits Robert Kraft's bookkeeping. Bob doesn't need to write a big $24M check for the NFL to keep in their escrow account. Brady gets a $3M overall bump from his current deal.

Not like it hurts our situation or anything though. The *hope* is they use some of that "committed cash" that was freed up on a slew of upcoming new deals (millionaires helping billionaires budget their money...c'mon man
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The fact that Brady is easier to cut now isn't a surprise to me. I think we went over that enough already a few months back. This is going exactly how a few of us envisioned it.

...so let's celebrate, we can now afford to keep NATE SOLDER for the long-term.
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Damn I should've known better than to read much into the initial story,there's always something more to those too good to be true headlines :lol: :smh:. I just hope that some of however little money the team saves goes to good use.

solder better not get a ******* nickel of that money :lol:

QFT,at this point I wouldn't even have any problem if they drafted a replacement for him,it feels like anything would be better than what he's shown this season. He's seriously gonna get Brady killed :lol:
 
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Jeff Howe ‏@jeffphowe 1m1 minute ago
Nate Solder (knee) is present at practice today, per @kguregian. Brandon LaFell was absent.


:nerd:


Jeff Howe ‏@jeffphowe 2m2 minutes ago
The Pats rested Mankins for last year's playoff bye week and Brady, Ninkovich and Hightower in 2012. LaFell isn't a concern right now.
 
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Somebody brought up Executive of the Year in the league thread and it got me thinking. Although they're some strong cases to be made for others, if BB doesn't win it this year he never will.

He literally hasn't missed this year IMO:

Locked up Edelman on a reasonable deal who has around 90 catches and close to 1k yards

Grabbed Lafell on a reasonable deal whose has around 70 catches and close to 1k yards w/ 7 TDs

Grabbed Revis and Browner on good deals who together have COMPLETELY changed the look of our defense; A defense that is a HUGE reason we have home field advantage right now

Traded Mankins who "reportedly" wasn't willing to restructure for a 4th rounder and Tim Wright who has 26 catches on 33 targets w/ 7 TDs

Grabbed Branch off the couch who has provided solid depth as a rotational gap stuffer

Grabbed Ayers for peanuts from the Titans cellar to provide much needed depth after Mayo went down, also filled in when Jones went down

Grabbed Casillas for peanuts who has been excellent on special teams and filled in for Hightower

Grabbed Chung after his horrible season last year who has pretty much been the main safety opposite Dmac and has played well in both run support and pass coverage (ex. v. Broncos )

Grabbed Blount who came in and contributed immediately

Drafted Stork our starting center and Fleming one of our top backups

Also made some long term moves drafting Easley and Goo-op

Pretty damn good year :pimp:
 
Wright has 7 TDs?

lets not forget about Gray either

my hope is that the "freed up" cape space is to help resign Revis and Mayo next year
 
I fumbled Wright actually has 6 this year :lol:

Mayo is still under contract for 3 more years if I'm not mistaken, Dmac is gonna be big tho I could see him tagged
 
Traded Mankins who "reportedly" wasn't willing to restructure for a 4th rounder and Tim Wright who has 26 catches on 33 targets w/ 7 TDs
IMO the jury is still out on this one. Mankins isn't in his prime, but he was our best lineman and there was no real need to trade him before the regular season. We all know how the offensive line issues plagued us from the start and it remains the biggest concern heading into the postseason. If that issue results in another missed opportunity, it falls on Bill. 

The final grade for that deal should come after the playoffs.

Tim Wright is a good piece on offense.....when he's actually implemented into the game plan. His snaps have been all over the place. 

The rest of your post was on point though. I don't think he's Exec of the Year, but BB hit on every other move and I'll be the first to say he did an excellent job in that department this season. You could argue that the transactions during the year were more impressive than Browner/Revis because of how difficult it is to implement guys from other systems without a full training camp & pre-season.

I'm still curious about what really went down with Dobson and Fonzie though. We could definitely use them right now and those spots can't be ignored.
 
as far as offensive line...did Mankins really cover up Solder's short coming that much? or has Solder just completely regressed? both? it's crazy either way
 
as far as offensive line...did Mankins really cover up Solder's short coming that much? or has Solder just completely regressed? both? it's crazy either way

Solder has regressed . hes getting beat 1 on 1 significantly more than he did last year , and that has nothing to do with Mankins
 
 
Traded Mankins who "reportedly" wasn't willing to restructure for a 4th rounder and Tim Wright who has 26 catches on 33 targets w/ 7 TDs

IMO the jury is still out on this one. Mankins isn't in his prime, but he was our best lineman and there was no real need to trade him before the regular season. We all know how the offensive line issues plagued us from the start and it remains the biggest concern heading into the postseason. If that issue results in another missed opportunity, it falls on Bill. 



The final grade for that deal should come after the playoffs.



Tim Wright is a good piece on offense.....when he's actually implemented into the game plan. His snaps have been all over the place. 

I'm mixed on the Mankins situation. Dude was one of, if not the toughest person on the squad and I loved his meanness. Let a ***** rushing in cheap shot Brady after the whistle, dude was guaranteed to be the first one up in their ******* grill 
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. I don't really feel like any of these other o-line we got have a mean streak like that.  The team clearly loved him also, BB said a few times he was the best guard he'd ever coached and Kraft said he wanted him to retire here. I think we all know how cutthroat these dudes get tho. We saw first hand with Vrabel, Seymour, etc nobody is off-limits and while he was our best lineman dude was struggling. From what I remember he was definitely a part of our o-line struggles last year.



For example, when we played DEN in the reg. season last year. We ended up winning in OT but Pot Roast and co. were killing him and Wendy.



Fast forward to the AFC Championship game, we're down 20-3 and facing 4th and 2 on the DEN 29 with 2:30 left in the 3rd. BB decides to go for it cause we desperately needed points








Idk if he thought he had Wendy helping or what but this ************ got beat by Pot Roast with the easiest swim move ever 
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I can laugh about it now but at the moment I swear I wanted to put my foot through the TV cause I knew that was prolly ball game. After the game Pot Roast said he knew he could probably beat him with the move cause he watched film on him and he got him during the regular season with the same damn move 
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So ultimately I guess it was just a pay v. performance type thing. I understand these dudes careers ain't that long and they wanna make all the money they can get but he def wasn't playing consistently at the level of one of the best guards in the league (like he was getting paid) plus he's 32 with 2 ACL surgeries. At the same time I really can't even blame him he probably felt like **** y'all I had to fight y'all dudes hard as hell for this big *** contract 
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I agree it was weird that they traded him before the season especially with Scar retiring and him being a team captain/leader of the O-line, BB was prolly tryna be spiteful 
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. I also agree that the move will really get its final grade after the playoffs, I think we already know if the line ends up costing us that's gonna be something everybody looks at
 
Nfl Nation got some coaches, scouts, and players to weigh in on the teams in the playoffs both NFC and AFC, some obvious stuff but a lot is really interesting.

This is what they said about the Pats:

On the importance of keeping Tom Brady off balance:

"We try not to tip our hand, man or zone. That's an important thing. If this guy [Brady] knows what you're in, he's going to carve you up. Most guys have half-field reads. This guy gets a pre-snap on you and knows exactly where he's going with the football. If he knows what coverage you're in, you're shot because he's so accurate with it. It's so precise that there are very few negative plays that he has. He knows, ‘I'm going to Gronk [tight end Rob Gronkowski] on this with this coverage' or ‘I'm going to the two-man side' or ‘I'm going to run snag-wheel on the backside with this coverage.' He knows all of it. You really have to keep him off balance. You can show different looks. That's what you have to do."

On where the Patriots could be vulnerable in the secondary:

"I think Browner is a penalty waiting to happen, so you have to get him in man coverage with a good matchup. There are a lot of tells when he's in his alignment, what coverage he's going to be in. If he's in a true man situation, with no help on time, he already opens his hips. He's turned. He's basically telling you, because he's afraid he can't get out of his hips. If he's protected somewhat, he'll balance you up. Those are some tells you can look for.

"I think they're a little vulnerable coverage-wise on some tight ends. You might be able to get something going there. And be patient with the running game. Make ‘em come down. There should be some vulnerability on the back end if that's the case. If you can get them to play seven-man spacing, I'd run the ball until the cows come home on them. That's the way to do it. That keeps Brady off the field and eventually, I think, they'll wear down."

On the best way to exploit cornerback Darrelle Revis:

"His strongest point is he's super patient, he's super smart and he's strong. But I think the best way to beat him is probably with speed. You have to do everything as fast as possible. You have to move fast. He's still a great player, but I think that's how you beat him. If you're doing moves and not attacking his technique, it's kind of playing into his hands. He's real patient and real smart. You can do all those moves and he's really not going for it. If you attack him with speed, that's your best chance."

On limiting tight end Rob Gronkowski:

"His strength is definitely his ability to use his body. He positions himself to get open, and he does a really good job of changing his pace. He will come off [the line of scrimmage] kind of lackadaisical and then just take off. You have to play man coverage on him, because against a zone, I think he's just real savvy. He knows the holes in the defense. But, either way, man or zone is pretty much hard to do with one player. You have to always know where your help is, and if you're on an island, you have to do your best."
 
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