PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

james o'shaughnessy

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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5 Do or Die Patriots in Detroit

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We’re just two weeks away from the kickoff of the 2017 regular season, but those two weeks are going to be jam packed with two more preseason games and plenty of roster moves, at least a couple of which should make our collective heads spin.

The immediate focus though is on week three of the preseason, the most hyped game of the summer where we can expect to see the starters play into the second half. Disclaimer — don’t get carried away with the results. The Patriots have had good week threes and bad week threes and neither result ever really told us anything about how the team would be in the regular season.

However, for individual players, there’s a lot on the line in Detroit.

Let’s take a look at five Patriots who are very much on the bubble and could solidify their position on the roster (or depth chart) based on their showing in this game.

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Patriots Positional Preview: Tight Ends

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rob gronkowski gronk spike

Training camp is less than two weeks away and we’re starting to wrap up our positional preview excerpts from this year’s season preview book. With just a few position groups to go, today we’re taking a look at the tight ends.

This is one of the few areas where there will be a significant personnel change from 2016, with Dwayne Allen being swapped in for Martellus Bennett. Bennett’s ability to ably fill in for Rob Gronkowski was one of the big factors in getting the Pats their fifth Super Bowl.

Many pundits tried to sell us that without Gronk the Pats just weren’t dynamic enough to win the big one, but Bennett helped prove that theory wrong.

If Gronk plays the entire season it won’t really matter all that much how well Allen assimilates, but Belichick has had high praise for the former Colt so it will be interesting to see his role in the offense, which I expect to be a versatile one.

There could also be a roster spot to be had by a third tight end, a job that would have to be won in training camp. Draft weekend trade acquisition James O’Shaughnessy could be a favorite along with Matt Lengel, who was acquired and played some snaps after Gronk was lost in 2016.

Let’s take a closer look at the tight ends.

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