confirmed complete tear. just what a 32 year old slot receiver needs in his career. we'll miss you, jules

And the Pats cut DE Kony Ealy.

Ealy must have been a real pain in the nuggets considering how thin they are at the position.

I'm surprising not worried about losing Jules, even though it sucks.

Obv hindsight is 20/20 but I think expectations on ealy were always unrealistic... Would have been nice if he panned out but not shocked that he didn't

Not sure it was unrealistic to think he could at least make the roster at a thin position.

not surprising at all. we have unbelievable depth at wr with some additional prospects in carr and lucien obviously. hogan is well ahead of where he was last years, dola is in a good place, cooks is a burner, mitchell will get back to 100% and be a contributor, the rbs and obv gronk are fine, and of course we have 12 and bb.

and secret ancient chinese secret: wr matthew wilson slater

yeah im a bit concerned about DE but we've won 2 championships with some question marks on the defensive side recently, so im sure we're fine or they'd be making moves.

less than 2 weeks until real football, my dudes. let's go.

Losing Jules sucks but we'll be ok there, we have lots of guys who can catch the ball.

Re ealy: just meant the dude basically had one good game a couple years ago and everyone treated him like this high upside veteran (when he was always kind of a failed project). I did think he'd be on the team but I'm also not shocked that he sucked.

I keep hearing we traded a 2 for Ealy, but that's not true--we got a 3 back in that deal. We pretty much rolled the dice, lost, and it cost us about 8 spots in the draft. Big deal!

***

Was telling an acquaintance out here the amusing story of the team needing to renovate the stadium to create room for yet another banner. The local team out here currently has zero banners, and the jealousy from nearby observers was palpable. One decided to say something hurtful, along the lines of, "You must be HATING IT that Edelman is out for the year!" The jerk was smiling as he said, he took great pleasure in trying to knock us down a peg.

"Yeah, that sucks," I conceded. "I guess I'll just have to wipe my tears on our new champ-i-on-ship BANN-UH!"

Yeah we have depth at WR but none of the other pieces are like him. The offense will be fine and a good chance it's still the best in the league. It's just the margin of error gets a bit thinner.

"You guys will be fine! You can just plug anyone into BB's system!"

I hear that a lot, and it drives me nuts. It's not a "system"! If it were, other teams would copy it and enjoy the same success! Our only "system" is, "If you can't block/get open/hang on to the ball/DO YOUR JOB, you're gone! We'll find someone who can!"

That's the "system".

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/t...to-a-torn-acl/

This article is hilarious. The guy or guys or system change that picks up Edelman's production is not coming from anywhere else other than guys on the team. The first option is the only option.

It's going to be interesting to see Brady without his go to quick hitter. Pats offenses have unmistakably declined with the loss of Jules or Welker, but they have the pieces to fill in, if in different ways. The biggest issue will be taking Brady out of his comfort zone 2 weeks before the season. This offense can and will still beast, but it's going to have to reconfigure itself and find a new identity without him. We went from historical to elite, that's what's disappointing.

FWIW Burkead's first TD with Brady looks exactly like what they would do with Edelman, he just started out of the backfield. I've always felt one of our biggest strengths is that we have the Four Horsemen of Faulk this year. Any one of them can do plenty of damage when third down comes.

Yep, I feel like after every major injury they suck for a minute while they realign the offense and then get better. Very minor saving grace that it happened before real game action.

Agree re the rbs even before Edelman went down but even more obviously now, I'm sure we'll see some crazy formations with multiple rbs playing in and out of the backfield / slot etc.

The best part about this season opener is that it's basically their homecoming, they're gonna raise the fifth banner in the new spot in front of a national audience. And when it comes to offense, they're gonna unload the clip on the chiefs. There will be nothing to hide on Thursday night.

Huh. So they traded Jacoby and wouldn't even let JG see a snap in the 4th preseason game. It's hard to read tea leaves but looks like they really consider JG a huge asset. The problem for BB and his guys is that Brady is a unicorn. He's a top 2 QB at 40 and it's impossible to project him over the next year or two. I bet BB is a rare position of being baffled when it comes to long term planning right now.

Gotta think they're preparing for Brady to call it a day (since getting rid of Brissett effectively means committing to Jimmy).

Maybe they'll trade Brady after the season lel.

Preparing for Brady retiring would mean keeping Brissett as a #2 in the future. Or even as a #1 if Garoppolo signs with another team when he becomes a free agent after this season.

The Patriots on going all-in this year more so than they ever have before.

Unless they decided Brisset wasn't showing enough and just decided to cut bait and get something for him while they can.

Do Your Job, Part 2 aired on the NFL Network.

It's the behind-the-scenes coaching during the Patriots Super Bowl run, focusing heavy on the playoffs and certain plays.


There's a copy on You Tube at the moment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waXubAe6sZU

Watched it last night (aired on NBC in this market). Totally enjoyable.

It's supposed to air again (this time on NFL network) either tonight or later this week.

That was fun. Thanks for the link.

Nah, they still are managing the cap with a multi year window. Sure they traded the pick for Cooks but if they were really going all in you'd see some different decisions

Bc...and I've been saying this for a while : the cleanest and simplest read of the Jimmy G. situation has been (for a long time) that the Pats love him and plan to keep him around.

Well, they can be more all-in than any other year, & still not be doing the dumb future crippling things other teams do. They've definitely spent more draft capital on existing NFL players than at anytime I can recall.

They'll know what to do after this year... maybe. Brady playing at a top 3 level is both the best and worst thing for this team... he has no comps for a team that loves to evaluate and plan. There's also the Kraft "he's like a son" factor.