PatsPropaganda

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derek rivers

Pats Posits: Mini Camp Week

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Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski will be back on the practice field at Gillette Stadium this week as the Patriots host their three-day mandatory minicamp.

After choosing to spend their optional OTA days training on their own, the critical eyes will be closely monitoring the two Patriot stars for any signs of rust. Yes, as Tom Brady winds down his career on his own terms he’ll be increasingly under the microscope, especially as he crosses 41 this summer.

At least the “Where in the World is Tom Brady” storylines will be dead for this week. (Instead, we’ll get a Brady-missed-a-pass and Gronk-had-a-drop WHAT DOES IT MEAN!?!?!-athon)

My actual football thoughts in the Posits.

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Five Most Intriguing 2018 Returning Patriots

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As we slowly start to turn the page to 2018, it’s hard not to get excited about the number of players the Patriots have already welcomed back to the roster off of IR. It was a banner year on the injury front which is always a terrible thing, but it can pay off down the line as young players get additional playing time and have a chance to develop at an accelerated pace.

With a number of significant free agent holes, that start at left tackle and running back, there are also quite a few positions where the Patriots suddenly have some impressive depth, and the number of intriguing players who will take the field this summer is already high before we’ve even touched a free agent or a rookie.

Here’s a quick list of the five guys I’m most interested to see re-integrated into the team this summer.

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What Losing Derek Rivers Means

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If there’s one thing you hate to see in August it’s season-ending injuries.

Unfortunately Derek Rivers’ situation took a turn for the worse on Friday.

 


So yeah, I was already a little concerned about the defensive front seven as you might’ve read here or here and if Rivers is gone for all of 2017 it certainly doesn’t help matters.

In recent days I was excited to hear about Rivers’ emergence at camp. He was far better the second time I took a glance at his Jacksonville game. I felt like he could be a key contributor on third down and really help fill the vacated roles of Chris Long and Jabaal Sheard.

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Tuesday Patriots-Texans Tweets of Note

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The Patriots and Texans are off on a good ole times camping trip in West Virginia, in what should be a competitive set of training camp joint practices.

After slicing up the Jags last week, the Texans should provide a more formidable practice partner. Houston is a young team and should be looking to set the tone for their season with this week’s work against the team that sent them packing twice last year, including in the AFCDG.

Houston has to go New England again in Week 3 so these teams know each other pretty well, both on the field and off it. A few practices together… another preseason game… This is blossoming into a strange frenemy rivalry and you wonder if BO’B can ever figure out how to crack BB.

There’s also something fascinating about Mike Vrabel now being the defensive coordinator charged with stopping Tom Brady…. but there will be plenty of time for that once the bullets are real.

Here’s the tweets that stood out from practice #1 vs. Houston.

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Concern Over Patriots Front Seven Turnover?

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This is probably as close as you’ll get to a hot take here on the Prop, but a recent commenter pointed out my concern over the front seven so I think it’s worth diving into a little more deeply. Or at least expanding upon my reasoning that there are more questions about this Patriots defense than some might want to admit.

Look, I skew toward the defensive side of the ball and I’ve got to be honest in my analysis, as much as we all want this to be a fanboy blog that does nothing but spew rainbows and sunshine about how awesome the Patriots are.

This isn’t doom and gloom. These are legitimate questions. But we can all agree that the defense remains well coached and has a number of promising young players. That is exciting. But those unproven players will need to step up because this is not an insignificant transition at the most important part of the defense.

And yes, the secondary is awesome. So hopefully that can help as things turn over.

Still, here’s what we’re looking at:

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Tuesday Patriots-Jags Tweets of Note

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Made a brief stop by practice in a fan capacity today and found it to be absolutely packed despite some light rain. So I didn’t get much time to watch any of the action. Luckily the dedicated beat staff provided plenty of interesting tweets to keep us in the loop.

Here are the ones that stood out to me from Tuesday’s practice with the Jags, likely the last time we’ll see anything meaningful at a practice until the weekend.

 


Edelman’s quickness is just so unstoppable. I’m falling for his fake and I’m sitting in front of my computer. Imagine being on the field and having to try and keep up with him.

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5 Most Intriguing Patriots of Training Camp

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-JomKcygQ0&t=91s

I drove by Gillette this morning and the excitement in the car was palpable. Inside the stadium, I imagined the Patriots’ rookies getting thrown into the deep end of the NFL training camp pool, preparing for their conditioning tests and the month-long grind upon which they’re about to embark.

The Patriots entered this offseason with a huge amount of cap space, so we knew there were going to be significant additions and extension and the team did not disappoint. For a team that just won the Super Bowl, their offseason looked far more like one of the offseasons where they had fallen just short of the ultimate prize.

So it’s difficult to pin down which players I’m most excited to see. I mean, if I don’t write Tom Brady here is it sacrilegious? Because of course I’m excited to see him, as well as Gronk back out there with a “healthy” back and all the rest of the players who we’ve grown to love in recent years.

This list of most intriguing

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