I’m assuming that DaBruinz, who cannot get the job done as a man, is white knighting for Strange?
Patriots news
- Thread starter LordSensei1958
- Start date
TheRainMaker
Well-known member
Lol. He's been very quiet and hasn't picked fights in a very long time. Your boy Wozzy is defending him big time. He's been saying Strange is a very good G.
Yeah, he also said we had two “great TEs” last year, then dug his heels in defending that even after admitting that neither Henry nor Gesicki were even in the top 5, let alone the top 3. That guy failed study hall in high school.
TheRainMaker
Well-known member
Wozzy has a schtick he has to stick to. He's still saying this roster is just a LT and QB away from competing in the AFC....seriously.
Absolutely. The failure to focus on the LT and WR1 spots should be hammered from today until those spots finally get fixed.
Wozzy's ignorant and stupid, and he has impulse control issues. It's a very bad combination.
Strange is another pick that a lot of people knew was dubious from the moment it was made. And that's what became the problem with BB's picks at the end. In the early years, we could go "WTF? Well, maybe he's got a specific use for him, or he's going to be moving him to a different spot", and that sort of thing. By the end, though, we were looking at picks like Strange, Johnson, Harry, and Thornton, and there wasn't even the "well, maybe...." to fall back on. It was just obvious that the pick was very questionable on any level.
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TheRainMaker
Well-known member
He's usually respectful to me when he responds to my posts. It's when you start debunking his statements is where you'll get resistance and his most common comebacks like "learn the game" or "this isn't fantasy football". I just let him say his thing and not respond.
DaBruniz is a guy I miss responding to my posts. He was always so angry and called a poor man's Captain Stone. I thought that was a great compliment. Lol. By the way, he's got a weird obsession with him.
Who is Johnson?
TheRainMaker
Well-known member
One of my most hated picks. That was Bill's most unnecessary picks of his tenure. They were 5 deep at CB and had no WR's. That's another topic that was discussed this off-season regarding that 2019 off-season. Posters have revisionist history of all the failure signing Bill brought in and only drafted ONE WR in the most highly touted WR draft class in many years.
HSanders
Cracker bitch
good thing is he and his son are the only people who aren't there anymore for the most part. so it will be easier to tell who is right within the next few years.
it's not really about right at this point. It's obvious that BB needed to go, and his drafting was in the shitter. Whether these changes are improvements or not won't make any difference about that.
Lord Chevy
I'm home
Cole Strange is a solid LG who is missing just one piece. The problem is that piece changes week to week.
HSanders
Cracker bitch
by firing only bb, but retaining everyone else who wanted to stay (most of them)kraft was saying he was the sole problem.
That's not accurate:
- The reality is that BB was both the Coach (head of the coaching staff) and the "GM" (head of the front office).
- BB is not the only person who's not coming back
- Groh was basically demoted, and Wolf promoted
There was no hiding the Patriots’ needs in the NFL Draft. Everyone knew they needed a quarterback, wide receiver and left tackle with their first three picks.
The first two picks drew positive reviews. With the No. 3 pick, they landed Drake Maye, the quarterback they hope will lead them for years to come. In the second round, they got him a trusty receiver in Ja’Lynn Polk.
But after that, a run on left tackles left the Patriots in a bit of a pickle. They took Caedan Wallace, a right tackle from Penn State who was the biggest reach of the third round, according to the Consensus Big Board.
The result is the Patriots are now stuck with an open competition for the most important spot on the offensive line (left tackle), one that pits two longtime right tackles against each other.
Option No. 1 is Wallace, who played only on the right side as a collegian. Option No. 2 is Chukwuma Okorafor, a backup for the Pittsburgh Steelers last season who has spent all six of his NFL seasons on the right side.
By their own admission, simply flipping sides isn’t as easy as it might sound.
“I think it takes time,” Okorafor said this week. “I played right my whole time in (Pittsburgh). It’s obviously new. I’m trying to learn left as of now. I’m just trying to learn a whole new playbook. I’m trying to learn a whole new city, a whole new town. So everything is kind of new to me now.”
That’s to be expected. The Patriots didn’t think they’d simply flip two right tackles to the other side and have it work perfectly from the get-go during the first week of organized team activities. They believe both players are athletic enough to learn the intricacies and tendencies of left tackle by the time the preseason starts.
But it’s worth discussing this topic because Maye will probably play at some point this season, potentially as soon as the season opener. It won’t be easy to trust this offensive line as is given the concerns at left guard and right guard, but if Maye is constantly worried about his blind side, that could complicate his growth.
So it’s incredibly important for the Patriots that either Okorafor or Wallace emerges. The starter doesn’t have to be a Pro Bowler. That’s unrealistic to expect. But the Pats need to get serviceable, starter-level contributions from one of the two.
So let’s break down their games.
Okorafor was drafted in the third round in 2018 but didn’t play much until his third season, becoming the Steelers’ starting right tackle in 2020. He was always a solid but not dominant tackle. He ranked 47th among 57 starting tackles by Pro Football Focus in 2022, his last season as a full-time starter. Okorafor was the Steelers’ starter for the first half of last season, too, before coaches moved him to the bench in Week 9.
There weren’t a lot of options for Okorafor in free agency where he’d have the chance to compete for a starting job. The Patriots offered that, so he chose New England, saying he’d be willing to play on the left side (which he played in college).
“If I knew I couldn’t do it, I wouldn’t have chosen to do it,” Okorafor said. “It will take time, but I know who I am and what I can do.”
Wallace, on the other hand, spent his whole collegiate career at right tackle. That can be a bit of a red flag for a prospect considering it usually means his college coach didn’t deem him the best tackle on the team. But Wallace played opposite Olu Fashanu, the No. 11 pick in this year’s draft. There’s no shame in losing the starting job on the left side to him.
Still, Wallace seemed like a reach with the 68th pick and didn’t project in the pre-draft process as a left tackle. Some even wondered whether his more immediate path to playing time might be as a guard.
Instead, he’s now in the thick of competition for the most important spot on the offensive line as the Patriots try to figure out who will be protecting the blind side of their highest-drafted player in 30 years.
So I’m predicting Okorafor will be the starting left tackle in Week 1, with Wallace as the swing tackle awaiting an opportunity.
The first two picks drew positive reviews. With the No. 3 pick, they landed Drake Maye, the quarterback they hope will lead them for years to come. In the second round, they got him a trusty receiver in Ja’Lynn Polk.
But after that, a run on left tackles left the Patriots in a bit of a pickle. They took Caedan Wallace, a right tackle from Penn State who was the biggest reach of the third round, according to the Consensus Big Board.
The result is the Patriots are now stuck with an open competition for the most important spot on the offensive line (left tackle), one that pits two longtime right tackles against each other.
Option No. 1 is Wallace, who played only on the right side as a collegian. Option No. 2 is Chukwuma Okorafor, a backup for the Pittsburgh Steelers last season who has spent all six of his NFL seasons on the right side.
By their own admission, simply flipping sides isn’t as easy as it might sound.
“I think it takes time,” Okorafor said this week. “I played right my whole time in (Pittsburgh). It’s obviously new. I’m trying to learn left as of now. I’m just trying to learn a whole new playbook. I’m trying to learn a whole new city, a whole new town. So everything is kind of new to me now.”
That’s to be expected. The Patriots didn’t think they’d simply flip two right tackles to the other side and have it work perfectly from the get-go during the first week of organized team activities. They believe both players are athletic enough to learn the intricacies and tendencies of left tackle by the time the preseason starts.
But it’s worth discussing this topic because Maye will probably play at some point this season, potentially as soon as the season opener. It won’t be easy to trust this offensive line as is given the concerns at left guard and right guard, but if Maye is constantly worried about his blind side, that could complicate his growth.
So it’s incredibly important for the Patriots that either Okorafor or Wallace emerges. The starter doesn’t have to be a Pro Bowler. That’s unrealistic to expect. But the Pats need to get serviceable, starter-level contributions from one of the two.
So let’s break down their games.
Okorafor was drafted in the third round in 2018 but didn’t play much until his third season, becoming the Steelers’ starting right tackle in 2020. He was always a solid but not dominant tackle. He ranked 47th among 57 starting tackles by Pro Football Focus in 2022, his last season as a full-time starter. Okorafor was the Steelers’ starter for the first half of last season, too, before coaches moved him to the bench in Week 9.
There weren’t a lot of options for Okorafor in free agency where he’d have the chance to compete for a starting job. The Patriots offered that, so he chose New England, saying he’d be willing to play on the left side (which he played in college).
“If I knew I couldn’t do it, I wouldn’t have chosen to do it,” Okorafor said. “It will take time, but I know who I am and what I can do.”
Wallace, on the other hand, spent his whole collegiate career at right tackle. That can be a bit of a red flag for a prospect considering it usually means his college coach didn’t deem him the best tackle on the team. But Wallace played opposite Olu Fashanu, the No. 11 pick in this year’s draft. There’s no shame in losing the starting job on the left side to him.
Still, Wallace seemed like a reach with the 68th pick and didn’t project in the pre-draft process as a left tackle. Some even wondered whether his more immediate path to playing time might be as a guard.
Instead, he’s now in the thick of competition for the most important spot on the offensive line as the Patriots try to figure out who will be protecting the blind side of their highest-drafted player in 30 years.
Prediction
The guess here is that Okorafor’s experience will help him win this training camp competition. Wallace is old for a rookie (24), but it is going to be a massive jump from blocking a Big Ten team’s second-best pass rusher on the right side to suddenly going up against Matthew Judon and players of that ilk.So I’m predicting Okorafor will be the starting left tackle in Week 1, with Wallace as the swing tackle awaiting an opportunity.
The Patriots had a little-known plan for the first night of the NFL Draft. While fans celebrated the selection of quarterback Drake Maye with the third pick, New England wanted to get back into the first round.
The Patriots’ new brass realized how much their wide receiver group needed improvement. They had their eyes on Xavier Legette, who ended up being selected by the Carolina Panthers with the final pick of the round.
Earlier in the offseason, the Patriots struck out in their pursuit of free agent Calvin Ridley. No other game-changing receivers were available, so the Pats filled out their depth in free agency, adding K.J. Osborn and re-signing Kendrick Bourne. That’s why they felt compelled to make a splash in the draft by moving up for another first-round pick.
But the Panthers made a stronger offer to the Buffalo Bills for the 32nd pick, and the Patriots were boxed out.
Instead, New England took Washington’s Ja’Lynn Polk in the second round and added Central Florida’s Javon Baker in the fourth round. They join a suddenly crowded group of wide receivers, which means Eliot Wolf and Jerod Mayo will have some tough decisions to make. Only five or six receivers are expected to make the final roster.
Having difficult decisions to make might seem like a welcome problem to face, but that’s because the room is full of No. 3 receivers and lacks the kind of separator an elite offense (not to mention a young quarterback) needs. You could argue that Bourne, Osborn, Polk (at least as a rookie), Demario Douglas and JuJu Smith-Schuster might fall into that gray grouping of receivers.
Given that, perhaps the best way to examine what the Patriots have at wide receiver and where they rank compared to the rest of the league is to look at the reasonable best- and worst-case scenarios.
It’s conceivable that Polk could have that kind of an impact. If the 22-year-old is ready to be the team’s top receiver, it would take pressure off Bourne, letting him slot comfortably into the No. 2 receiver role and aim for around 700 receiving yards this fall. (Perhaps that’s ambitious since he has reached 700 yards only once in his seven seasons, but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt after a strong start to 2023.)
If Polk and Bourne can combine for around 1,500 yards, the Patriots offense suddenly has some flexibility. Douglas can, probably more appropriately, become a slot receiver who’s great at beating man-to-man coverage on third downs. Osborn can add solid depth. And Baker could ideally work to become a deep threat for an Alex Van Pelt-led offense that likes to go deep.
And we haven’t even mentioned Smith-Schuster, who said he’s back to 100 percent after a lingering knee injury hampered him last season. It’s unrealistic to think he can be the player he was in 2022 who posted 933 yards, but if he can eclipse 500 yards, that would be a success.
If all of that happens, this group of receivers can be average, perhaps somewhere between the 15th- and 18th-best in the league. It would be a big step up from last season.
That kind of timeline means Bourne could be limited at the start of training camp. Even if he’s ready for Week 1 (which is no guarantee), it might contribute to a slow start for him in a new offense with a new quarterback.
That ups the pressure on Polk. Though rookie receivers can have success early in their careers, Polk was the 10th wide receiver drafted for a reason. And though Baker offers a deep threat the Patriots need, he also had more drops (14) than touchdowns (12) in his two years at UCF.
Smith-Schuster didn’t do anything last season to offer hope that a rebound is in the works. Douglas was good, but his size will make him injury-prone. And Osborn’s production has dipped two years in a row.
Otherwise, this is going to be a bottom-10 group in the league, maybe bottom-five.
The Patriots’ new brass realized how much their wide receiver group needed improvement. They had their eyes on Xavier Legette, who ended up being selected by the Carolina Panthers with the final pick of the round.
Earlier in the offseason, the Patriots struck out in their pursuit of free agent Calvin Ridley. No other game-changing receivers were available, so the Pats filled out their depth in free agency, adding K.J. Osborn and re-signing Kendrick Bourne. That’s why they felt compelled to make a splash in the draft by moving up for another first-round pick.
But the Panthers made a stronger offer to the Buffalo Bills for the 32nd pick, and the Patriots were boxed out.
Instead, New England took Washington’s Ja’Lynn Polk in the second round and added Central Florida’s Javon Baker in the fourth round. They join a suddenly crowded group of wide receivers, which means Eliot Wolf and Jerod Mayo will have some tough decisions to make. Only five or six receivers are expected to make the final roster.
Having difficult decisions to make might seem like a welcome problem to face, but that’s because the room is full of No. 3 receivers and lacks the kind of separator an elite offense (not to mention a young quarterback) needs. You could argue that Bourne, Osborn, Polk (at least as a rookie), Demario Douglas and JuJu Smith-Schuster might fall into that gray grouping of receivers.
Given that, perhaps the best way to examine what the Patriots have at wide receiver and where they rank compared to the rest of the league is to look at the reasonable best- and worst-case scenarios.
Best-case scenario
These days, rookie wide receivers are having a massive impact around the NFL. In the last five years, 23 receivers have topped 800 yards in their rookie seasons. (Meanwhile, in the past five years, Julian Edelman and Jakobi Meyers are the only two Patriots to record more than 800 receiving yards in a season.)It’s conceivable that Polk could have that kind of an impact. If the 22-year-old is ready to be the team’s top receiver, it would take pressure off Bourne, letting him slot comfortably into the No. 2 receiver role and aim for around 700 receiving yards this fall. (Perhaps that’s ambitious since he has reached 700 yards only once in his seven seasons, but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt after a strong start to 2023.)
If Polk and Bourne can combine for around 1,500 yards, the Patriots offense suddenly has some flexibility. Douglas can, probably more appropriately, become a slot receiver who’s great at beating man-to-man coverage on third downs. Osborn can add solid depth. And Baker could ideally work to become a deep threat for an Alex Van Pelt-led offense that likes to go deep.
And we haven’t even mentioned Smith-Schuster, who said he’s back to 100 percent after a lingering knee injury hampered him last season. It’s unrealistic to think he can be the player he was in 2022 who posted 933 yards, but if he can eclipse 500 yards, that would be a success.
If all of that happens, this group of receivers can be average, perhaps somewhere between the 15th- and 18th-best in the league. It would be a big step up from last season.
Worst-case scenario
Bourne’s lingering injury gets him off to a slow start. He tore his ACL in late October last season. After that type of injury, it typically takes around 10 or 11 months before players feel back to normal — sometimes longer.That kind of timeline means Bourne could be limited at the start of training camp. Even if he’s ready for Week 1 (which is no guarantee), it might contribute to a slow start for him in a new offense with a new quarterback.
That ups the pressure on Polk. Though rookie receivers can have success early in their careers, Polk was the 10th wide receiver drafted for a reason. And though Baker offers a deep threat the Patriots need, he also had more drops (14) than touchdowns (12) in his two years at UCF.
Smith-Schuster didn’t do anything last season to offer hope that a rebound is in the works. Douglas was good, but his size will make him injury-prone. And Osborn’s production has dipped two years in a row.
Conclusion
The Patriots need one of two things to happen for this group of receivers to improve to a level where it’s on par with the league average. They either need Polk to emerge as the top receiver or Bourne to recover quickly from his ACL injury and go back to playing like he was before he got hurt (he had 406 yards in eight games), with someone like Smith-Schuster bouncing back and stepping up to have a respectable season.Otherwise, this is going to be a bottom-10 group in the league, maybe bottom-five.
