Pats Posits: Camp Starts Thursday!

After a long spring of unparalleled toxicity in Patriots Nation, real football is finally back this Thursday! Yes, the Patriots were a play away from winning another Super Bowl, but because they couldn’t get that fourth-down stop we’ve had to listen to the Eagles’ incessant chest pounding, our defense ridiculed and a near-constant barrage of stories about behind-the-scenes drama.

The common thread now for any interviews of former Patriots players? Did you have fun while you played there? Was Bill Belichick nice enough?

We’ve come full circle.  The Patriots dynasty is only setting the bars of NFL history higher and higher at this point. Almost every meaningful record belongs to the team, Belichick and Tom Brady.

All that’s left to wonder is if this is the greatest sports dynasty in sports history?

That’s why I’m excited for 2018. It’s Brady Ride or Die time. Every new championship and award is just gravy at this point, so what do we really have to worry about? Enjoy the end and marvel at how hard this coach-quarterback tandem continues to work despite already being legendary.

Here are some Posits on this Monday morning about the 2018 Patriots and my plans for training camp and the upcoming season.

— If you were riding the Brady, Gronk, Belichick drama roller coaster this offseason it now feels like a whole lot of ups and downs but ultimately ending up right back where we’ve been every season — Brady and Gronk healthy, excited and ready to go for training camp. Unfortunately, the Belichick-Brady union will be under constant scrutiny at this point. There will be pointed relationship satisfaction questions from here on out, and they’re already tiresome.

— Here are some of my favorite pieces from the offseason that I think are relevant before camp:

• 5 Most Intriguing Returning Patriots – Still very much believe in this list, though I am probably overestimating Damarius Travis.
• A Brief History of Patriots-Inspired Rule Changes – Pretty amazing the impact the Patriots have had on the NFL’s rule changes over the years.
• Patriots 2018 Draft Recap – Always exciting to get a new crop of promising players.
• Tom Brady Will Finish Career as Patriot, On Own Terms – Brady Ride or Die till the end.
• Tom Brady’s Helmets: A Retrospective – Brady will have switch helmets at the end of his career, likely starting in 2019. A look back at all he’s worn over the years.
• Stop Worrying and Enjoy the End of Belichick/Brady – My philosophy as the end of the Belichick-Brady dynasty approaches the end.
• Can Flores Fix the First-Down D? – Critical element of the defense that needs to be addressed.
• Brady: 2022 – Imagine a world where Tom Brady plays injury free until he’s 45. What records will fall? How many Super Bowls could he win? It’s Brady: 2022.

— The things I’m most excited this week about: Rookie Numbers, PUP List, who’s starting at left tackle (Trent Brown?), the Jordan Matthews-Brady connection, who’s starting at corner across from Gilmore, and who are the 3rd and 4th WRs? LT and CB are the two starting spots that appear fluid at this point, with a wide receiver race that appears wide open.

— How I think the weaponry would look offensively at the end of the season if everybody stays healthy.

• 11 personnel – Hogan-Edelman-Matthews, Gronk, Burkhead/Michel
• 12 personnel – Hogan-Edelman Gronk-Allen, Burkhead/Michel
• 10 personnel/3rd down – Hogan-Edelman-Matthews-Britt, White

— I like Matthews to make the top pairing for the first four weeks while Edelman is out. So weeks 1-4 could look like:

• 11 personnel – Hogan-Matthews-Britt/Dorsett
• 12 personnel – Hogan-Matthews
• 10 personnel – Hogan-Matthews-Berrios?-Britt/Dorsett (seems like a lot of outside guys, but good mix of size and speed)

 

— Who can emerge from the second-level of depth this season? The candidates I’m most interested in: Phillip Dorsett, Derek Rivers, Harvey Langi. Dorsett unseating Hogan as the almost-every-down outside receiver, in essence replacing Cooks, is a possibility but I’m not totally sold on it. I liked Hogan in that role in 2016 and didn’t see the need to put Cooks in there. Cooks was more productive for sure, but the offense sputtered at times when they were trying to chuck prayers to Cookie. You took the good with the bad when it came to that kind of speed guy, and that’s the same kind of player Dorsett would appear to be. I like the scalpel… short, tough and methodical.

— I’m planning on being at at least four of the first five days of training camp. For the Sunday practice, the Patriots were kind enough to credential me again. That will be a good close-up look. They also invited me to cover Matt Light‘s induction into the Hall at the end of September which I’m excited for. The plan is to bang out some video content whenever I head over to the field. I’ll also be at Monday’s night’s in-stadium practice.  So I’ll be getting a great look at the 2018 Pats early on and I look forward to sharing my observations with you all.

— I’ve gotten a few questions about the return of Patshow and all I can say at this point is that we would love nothing more than to bring a season two. We’re trying our best to find a way to make it all work again and have some prospects we’re waiting on. At the very least I’ll be bringing video content here, including scripted things. As soon as there is something to announce we’ll let you know!

Here we go again, strap in…