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jacoby brissett

Report: Patriots Trade Brissett to Colts for WR Phillip Dorsett

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There always seems to be a shocker over Labor Day weekend and the reported trade of Jacoby Brissett to the Colts for wide receiver Phillip Dorsett sure fits the bill.

There’s a lot to unpack here. First, let’s start with Brissett who just had the best game of his pro career against the Giants on Thursday night. All signs seem clear now that the Patriots intend on keeping Jimmy Garoppolo, perhaps even past this season when his contract expires. Would they cut a promising player like Brissett loose if they planned on letting Garoppolo walk (or franchise-then-trade him) next season? Probably not. Or at the very least they see another two good years from Brady, which of course they do.

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Pats Posits: The Preseason Is Over. Here We Go.

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The Patriots’ 2017 preseason is over. We can stop worrying about premature injuries (we actually got a couple of those this year) and focus on the real football campaign which the team is about to undertake.

Yes, it’s September and as Bill Belichick says “it’s football time.”

The preseason finale against the Giants, featuring a full 90-man Patriots roster, was actually a fun game, albeit one that we’ll all instantly forget. The Patriots fell into a big hole, clawed their way back only to give up a game-winning field goal in the final seconds, losing 40-38.

Though a meaningless loss, there were some real issues to come out of this one. Unfortunately an injury to Cyrus Jones could cause significant problems when the Pats open up against Kansas City in less than a week. Without Julian Edelman and very possibly Jones now, the Patriots are missing their top two punt returners.

The mostly-scrub defense turned in another gross performance early on, picking up where they left off last week. At this point at least it makes a good chunk of the cuts a little easier. Jacoby Brissett, who was treading water as a possible cut in some people’s minds, turned in a roster-locking performance. His touchdown throw to Devin Lucien was a thing of beauty and it was a reminder how much promise Brissett showed in 2016 when he was thrust into the fire.

Otherwise, we can pick out a few players to focus on, but chances are most of those who played against the Giants are on the outside looking in.

Let’s wrap up the preseason with a final look at those who showed up in finale.

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Do or Die Patriots vs. Giants

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyg3JotQsfY

We’re in for a bit of a weird one Thursday night. With NFL rosters still at 90 players for week four (instead of 75 in previous years), teams have even more flexibility to play their scrubs who will be on the street within 48 hours of leaving the Gillette Stadium field turf.

Still, the Patriots’ depth players looked pretty atrocious against the Lions, leaving the door open for some roster battles that will likely play out against the Giants. On my recent 53-man roster I saw only 48 spots that looked like locks to me. That leaves five roster spots to be won, or to be filled with other team’s castoffs or trades over the long weekend.

Yes, things are still as fluid as they get in terms of NFL roster management.

Let’s take a closer look at where some of the final roster battles will be playing out, and five specific areas where roster spots could be won or lost.

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Patriots Positional Preview: Quarterbacks

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<a rel=I’ve saved the best for last here with the positional preview excerpts from the season preview guide (available here in its entirety for just $5) — the quarterbacks.

The Patriots have the luxury of having three quarterbacks that they love on the roster. Yes, it all starts with Tom Brady, who, in his 17th season as the starter, has a chance to keep setting the bar for quarterback greatness even higher. It’s hard not to feel spoiled wondering about the implications of another Super Bowl season for number 12. Brady has delivered one of the most special NFL careers in history and shows no signs of slowing down.

But we all know the end of NFL careers can come abruptly so it’s important to enjoy every moment that we get to see the legend continue. The Patriots are well protected with Jimmy Garoppolo, who was the subject of much debate all offseason.

All along I believed they should keep Garoppolo. Having a quarterback you can win with is the absolute most valuable asset a team can have and it would be foolish to move him for anything less than a blockbuster deal that would give the Patriots multiple high-round assets over the next few seasons.

Now the team has a reliable backup quarterback who would still keep the Pats very much in the Super Bowl contender conversation should the unthinkable happen atop the depth chart. They can use the Cassel method next offseason, franchise tag and trade, to still get something for Garoppolo. It might not be as much as they might’ve gotten this past offseason, but that’s the price of insurance. At this stage of Belichick and Brady’s career, I’m fine paying a little extra for insurance.

Brissett is the true x-factor in all of this. If he continues to build on a rookie season where he was thrown into the fire immediately, he just might be the heir apparent everyone assumed Garoppolo would be. Brissett’s development will be a major thing to watch this summer through the preseason, and could tell us a lot about Garoppolo’s future.

Here’s a closer look at the trio of signal callers.

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How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Tom Brady

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For the second year in a row a New England Patriot will appear on the cover of Madden, after Rob Gronkowski’s appearance last season which lived up to the “curse” of ending the appearing player’s season early. So it’s no surprise that most of us got dry heaves when it was announced that Tom Brady would be featured this year.

Brady responded with a Facebook video that seemed to tempt fate, making things even worse.

The implications of the Madden Curse are a little overrated. Eight-and-a-half times the cover boy had the kind of season the folks at EA expected, including four All Pros and four Pro Bowls, and eight-and-a-half other times their seasons were bad or resulted in injury. That’s right, 50-50 right on the nose, which in reality is just about every NFL’s players chances of having a bad or injury-marred year.

Still, it’s just another thing for Patriots fans to worry about when in reality, they shouldn’t have all the much to worry about. Or should they?

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Comparing the 2016 Patriots Quarterbacks

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tom brady jimmy garoppolo

The Patriots have three quarterbacks on their payroll as of this writing. All three of those quarterbacks have a win percentage in games they have started that is greater than 75% in games that count (regular and postseason). All three of those quarterbacks have been drafted by the Patriots, and played for no other professional team (actually, as of this writing the Patriots have never started a non-homegrown, non-drafted quarterback in the entire Kraft-owned era. That’s really cool and will never come up in Trivial Pursuit).

These three quarterbacks have all displayed different strengths and weaknesses to their skill sets. As of next Monday, we will hopefully only care about the skill set of one, singular quarterback from then until at least February…so, before that happens (despite how nice it would be to have one more start from to evaluate the second and/or third guys…), let’s take a look at what these guys all bring to the table.

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Patriots Monday Morning Wakeup Call

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Tom Brady GIFPlenty to digest from the weekend’s slate of games. Most importantly, the Patriots now have a two game lead in the AFC East. Without Tom Brady. Yup.

One more against the Bills at home, and then our sweet prince shall return and all will be right with the football world once again.

Across the AFC the usual suspects are rising to the top of heap early in the season.

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