kyle van noy

Patriots to release Kyle Van Noy

March 7, 2022 by Tom Shaw-Mellors

The first major move of the offseason has been reported as the Pats are expected to move on from LB Kyle Van Noy, who was under contract for the 2022 season. Field Yates broke the story, but Mike Reiss also offered some additional context, noting that this move was economically influenced, likely needing some extra room for movement in free agency, and for the upcoming Draft in April.

Source: the Patriots are releasing starting OLB Kyle Van Noy.

A decision with salary cap roots, as moving on from the versatile Van Noy creates just under $5M in cap space.

Van Noy can sign with another team right away.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) March 7, 2022

Van Noy leaves following his second stint with the team, a move which I’m content with as the defense desperately needs to get younger and faster. Others who could follow are the likes of Jamie Collins, Dont’a Hightower, and Ja’Whaun Bentley, who are all pending free agents.

Friend of the blog Mike Dussault covered the linebacker group questions ahead of free agency next week, including some players who may add something to the team from elsewhere.

The move creates just shy of $5M cap space, and as always, you can see the full financial breakdown from Miguel below:

For @PatriotsHaven

Kyle Van Noy's 2022 cap no=$7,391,176
Maximum Cash=$5.6M
4m salary
$58,823.53 active roster bonuses (16 LTBE, 1 NLTBE) ($1M total)
600K in NLTBE incentives
Gross cap savings=$4,941,176
Net savings=$4,236,176
Dead money if cut/retires/traded=$2.45M
— Patscap's Patriots Cap Space Number is in Bio (@patscap) March 3, 2022

Patriots Roster Breakdown: Short and Long Term Needs

February 13, 2019 by Mike Dussault

As much as it pains me it’s time to post the 2019 roster depth chart including only players under contract. Yes, we’re kinda sorta on to 2019 but reserving the right to go back to Super Bowl 53 any time I want.

The first reset before embarking on free agency and the draft is to take inventory of the complexion of the team. The short terms needs for the 2019 campaign and then the long term needs as players depart for one reason or another.

Let run through the roster and take a quick temperature test at each position group.

[Read more…]

Pats Posits: Bye Week Not a Magic Elixir, But Pats Still in Playoff Bye Hunt

November 26, 2018 by Mike Dussault

On one hand, I feel like this weekend’s win over the Jets just reinforced what I’m already sure about with the 2018 Patriots, that with Sony Michel going they’re a very good offense. Without him, they’re up and down, and the struggles on third down are very real. Defensively, they’re up and down as well, but technically sound enough to take down an offense like the one the Jets rolled out there. Can they do it against a great offense on the road? Sunday did nothing to alleviate the concerns there, because it was Josh McCown and not some dual-threat quarterback they can expect to see in the playoffs.

But on the other hand, how much of this game was a traditional Jets struggle? How much were the penalties the Pats’ sloppiness compared to the flag-happy refs that call more penalties than anyone? How much was bye week rust? We can sweep this one under the rug, but there will be nowhere to hide on the road in Miami and Pittsburgh.

This sure didn’t feel like the reset button win we hoped would come post-bye, but it was still a solid victory. It might not have allayed my fears about what this editions weaknesses are, but it showed that even if they’re not perfect, the Patriots are still a very solid football team that will give any team problems.

Film Review: Patriots Defense vs. Titans Edition

November 14, 2018 by Mike Dussault

It took me a couple days to finally dive into the film review of the Patriots against the Titans and I can’t say I was looking forward to it. But I’ve been with this defense for a decade and I can’t shy away even when things go as badly as they did in Tennessee.

Let’s take a look at the scoring drives and what went wrong.

1st Drive – Touchdown

The first play of the game pretty much summed up what kind of day it was going to be, as the pressure collapsed around Marcus Mariota but couldn’t bring him down and he found Corey Davis on a deep in cut. The re-appearance of Keionta Davis was a bit surprising and what wasn’t surprising was how the Titans went right after him on this drive. He had the same trouble getting off blocks and making plays. Really Trey Flowers was the only one who showed any pop in this first drive. The Titans finished it off on a third down as Patrick Chung failed to get a jam at the point of the bunch set and was outrun across the field by Jonnu Smith. The rollout by Mariota forced Devin McCourty into a no-win position (see below).

Patriots Film Review: Defense Strangles out Pack

November 8, 2018 by Mike Dussault

Upon further review, the defense’s performance against Aaron Rodgers and the Packers’ offense was a classic kind of win. Did they give up a few long scoring drives? Yup, three to be exact. But they kept the ground game under control, didn’t allow any big scoring plays and withstood the storm until the second half when they grabbed a turnover, forced a timely three-and-out and set the stage for the Patriots’ offense to pull away.

This is always how it seems to go when the Pats face classic QBs like Rodgers, Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco and Ben Roethlisberger to name a few.

Despite the Jaguars and Lions hiccups, this has been a defense reborn and they getting better every week. It’s impressive and exciting to watch. Especially the Trey Flowers part of it.

No doubt there are still improvements to be made but this is a solid defense no matter how you slice it. Here’s how the Pats D strangled out the Pack.

Pats Posits: Pats Are Who I Posit They Are

October 30, 2018 by Mike Dussault

The Pats pulled away late to close out the Bills as Tom Brady extended his dominance over Buffalo to a whopping 29-3. Brady has more wins over them than any other quarterback over any other team. The Bills Mafia has been left to just throw dildos on the field and accept their loss.

Without Sony Michel it was the grind that I thought it possibly could be in the gameplan:

For the past two seasons, it’s been clear that the Patriots are at their best when they’re balanced and establishing that balance in this game might be tougher than anyone realizes. If the run blocking isn’t on and Barner is unable to make people miss they’re going to become one-dimensional against a good passing defense and that could be cause for concern. Toss in any more strange giveaways leaving a short field for Anderson and there’s a chance this game is interesting, at least for a little bit.

So we got a heavy dose of Cordarrelle Patterson at running back (10 carries, 38 yards) and a game that was just 12-6 in the 4th quarter. The other stats that stand out due to the lack of a ground game was third down where the Pats were just 5-14 and in the red zone where they were 1-3. Just three of the 14 third downs were four yards or less. That speaks to not getting enough early down yardage.

What’s clear to me now about the 2018 Pats is that as long as they have Brady-White-Edelman-Gronk they’re going to give just about any team problems. They have less margin for error with turnovers, but they’ll move the ball. If they have Michel, or just an effective ground game, they’re at a different level of unstoppability.

As for the defense they met expectations against Derek Anderson and the inept Bills offense, holding them to just 6 points, a season low. They also forced two turnovers, returning an interception for their first defensive touchdown since 2015, a streak of 40 games. With no quick change situations, the defense showed that they’re definitely not as crappy as many were making them out to be. But again, it’s the Bills. We’ll see how they look against Aaron Rodgers, but we’ll take it.

More on it all in a halfway edition of the Posits…

Patriots Gameplan: Week 8 at Buffalo Bills

October 26, 2018 by Mike Dussault

The 5-2 Patriots are on the road again, visiting AFC East “rival” Buffalo who sit at 2-5. The Bills will be without rookie quarterback Josh Allen, meaning that veteran Derek Anderson will start against the Pats for the first time since he and the Browns actually hung tougher-than-expected way back when against the 2007 Patriots.

Despite their record, the Bills defense isn’t a total disaster, ranking 6th overall in DVOA, including 4th against the pass. The problem is that Buffalo has 12 turnovers in their last four games and that will kill any team. Their offense is ranked 32nd overall and 32nd passing and very well could be the worst in the league, and that was before Anderson had to start. There’s been plenty of times to wonder if the Bills could knock off the Pats over the years, and just a couple times they actually did, but this doesn’t appear on paper to be one of them.

As for the Patriots, they’ve won four in a row but given up 102 points in those four wins. The Bills’ inept offense is just what the Patriots defense needs, though in reality, they’re better than the points allowed might indicate. The offense though was really starting to click, just as Sony Michel was lost to a not-as-bad-as-it-looked injury that will have him miss at least this one game. The Pats look like they’ll roll with Kenjon Barner and James White as their only two backs, which is a little concerning, especially if it puts added pressure on the valuable White.

What do the Pats have to do to get to the halfway point of the season with a strong 6-2 record and even their road record at 2-2? Here’s the gameplan!