PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Analysis

Goodnight Sweet Gronky

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It’s hard not to sit here and try to write about Rob Gronkowski’s career without a big fat smile on my face. The Patriots selected him just a couple weeks after I focused all my three-years-of-blogging energy into my own site, PatsPropaganda. So Gronk has very much been a main character here for almost nine years.

From that very first glimpse of him, it was clear that Patriots football just got a whole lot more fun. Little did we know we were about to witness perhaps the most spectacular career the NFL has ever seen from a tight end.

Gronk would play just nine seasons, with injuries marring significant games of the 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2016 seasons. But among the rest he put together an easy Hall of Fame career with three Super Bowl rings.

Let’s take a look back at nearly a decade of Gronk spikes.

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Pats Posits: Roster Reset

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It was a classic opening week of Patriots free agency, with the team avoiding the monster top-of-roster deals and instead focusing on filling their holes with mid-range vets.

But with the departures of Cordarrelle Patterson and LaAdrian Waddle, more roster holes have appeared and should be addressed in the next couple of weeks as the market settles in.

Let’s jump into some Posits about where the Pats stand now and where they’ll need to focus on next.


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Patriots Sign Five Free Agents

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After locking up some of their own, the Patriots came out swinging on Thursday with five reported signings.

No, there wasn’t a Golden Tate-sized blockbuster or anything, but there was a collection of solid moves on veterans who will stabilize the middle and bottom of the roster. And who knows, one of them just might take to the Patriots and emerge as a key contributor.

Here’s a quick look at all five of the signings and where they fit on the roster.

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Patriots Make Some Familiar Signings

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2019 didn’t see the Patriots shock everyone and make an early splashy deal like they did with Adalius Thomas and Stephon Gilmore. Those years are exceedingly rare.

Instead, they did what they’ve usually done, let the big money fall, take care of their own guys first, and wait to pounce on the external value guys looking for a chance to be part of the magic.

After making the trade for Michael Bennett, the Patriots were quiet early in the week, before starting to re-sign and bring back their own players.

Here’s a quick rundown on the signings of Brandon Bolden, Jason McCourty, John Simon and Phillip Dorsett.

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Patriots Already Aggressive in Nabbing Bennett(s?)

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The Patriots appear to be trading for Michael Bennett, though no official word has come down since news of the trade broke on Friday.

Bennett is coming to New England from the Philadelphia Eagles, along with a 2020 seventh-round pick, in exchange for a 2020 fifth-round pick.

Boston.com

My first thought was being blown away by how immediately aggressive a team coming off their sixth Super Bowl was being. Yes, Trey Flowers is about to hit the market but grabbing Bennett cushioned any potential blow his departure might make.

Make no mistake, Bennett is at the end of the road and in no way should be considered a favorable replacement to the hitting-his-prime Flowers. But as we’ve seen, you can never have too many pass rushers and Belichick just couldn’t resist a manageable deal on one of the only pass rushers to give the Pats problems in Super Bowl 49.

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Patriots Offseason: Wide Receiver Wide Open

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All we know for sure about the Patriots wide receiver corps this offseason is that Julian Edelman will be back. After him who knows, but it’s reassuring to know the guy who keeps the chains moving on key third downs will return. The rest is mostly window dressing.

Chris Hogan, Phillip Dorsett and Cordarelle Patterson, if you even want to call him a wide receiver, are all hitting free agency, so the pieces of Brady’s offense will be shifting a bit once again.

Third Down Offense Table
ReceReceReceReceReceRece
Player Tgt
▼		 Rec Ctch% Yds TD 1D
James White402767.5%202318
Julian Edelman362261.1%278418
Rob Gronkowski291551.7%236213
Josh Gordon18844.4%15207
Chris Hogan16743.8%9115
Phillip Dorsett14857.1%8825
Cordarrelle Patterson9666.7%7823
Rex Burkhead2150.0%500
Totals1689556.5%11361469
Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 2/25/2019.
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Pats Posits: Speculation Season Begins

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Yes, I’ve taken a week or so off of blogging to just enjoy the Patriots latest championship. When this blog started the driving question was whether or not Belichick could rebuild the defense around Brady to get him more Super Bowls.

Well, the answer is in. Yes. Yes he could and he did, adding a perfect run of three more Super Bowls and bringing things full circle. There’s just a level of no more worlds left to conquer now, which is both satisfying and slightly demotivating.

Every year it gets a little harder dealing with three-straight months of “WHAT ABOUT THIS GUY!?”

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