An Independent Patriots Blog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC1clbWAF88
Another day of actual football to talk about! There will only be one more before we start the long void until training camp, which means it’s time to way overanalyze everything that has been going on at Patriots minicamp.
Here are some tweets that stood out to me with commentary.
[Read more…] about Tweets of Note from Patriots Minicamp Practice #2
Mandatory minicamp started for the Patriots on Tuesday, finally giving us a glimpse of the full 2018 squad for the first time. While the teaching period continues, there was was still plenty to digest from the live practice tweets.
Let’s dive into what stood out most to me!
[Read more…] about Patriots Tweets of Note from Minicamp Practice #1
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.
This offseason sure has had a different feel to it than any other in the last 17 years. Yes, there was always turnover, interesting moves that surprised us all, but the holy duo of Belichick and Brady were always secure and that meant that the Patriots were basically secure.
Now, after a year with plenty of rumblings about off-field problems, we still don’t know if Brady or Gronk are fully in for the 2018 season and that uncertainty is splitting Patriots fans down the middle even as they prepare for what should be an exciting couple of weeks featuring the release of the schedule and the draft.
Patriots’ QB Tom Brady still has not committed to playing in 2018, even though people who know him believe he will back coming season, league sources told ESPN.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 18, 2018
There are so many camps right now within Patriots Nation. There’s those still furious and waiting for an explanation from Belichick about why he benched Malcolm Butler in the Super Bowl. There are those who are frustrated with Brady and Gronk for dragging this stuff out well into the offseason as we’re staring down the barrel of 2018. And then there are those outside of New England, content to watch it all finally burn to the ground.
I also know there are plenty out there who think it’s all “fake news”, that this is all media-driven and everything will be a-okay when the opening game comes around, with Brady throwing touchdowns to Gronk then both high-fiving Belichick as they begin another campaign for title number six. As a faithful blogger of the team I’ve been a big “Ignore the Noise” kind of guy, but there’s too much noise this time to believe it’s all a total fabrication, especially when reports are coming both locally and nationally.
There’s too much smoke for there not to be some kind of fire and now the million dollar question is can that fire be put out in time for another run in 2018?
[Read more…] about Making Sense of Brady, Gronk and the Future of the Patriots
As it was reported by ESPN/Jeff Darlington over the weekend, Rob Gronkowski is “pretty certain” he’ll return to the Patriots in 2018. He’ll probably come back but maybe there’s still kind of a slight chance he might retire or want a new contract or BB to say sorry or force a trade or go to the WWE or become an actor or something.
It’s so hard to be mad at Gronk, but this wishy-washy stuff is getting old. I don’t know if this is coming from Gronk or his agents in a push to get him out of New England and into a monster deal somewhere else or what but it’s really dragging on.
The South Florida connection of Darling to Drew Rosenhaus is an easy one to make. Earlier this offseason Tom E. Curran had the first “Gronk No Happy” report.
From Darlington:
After watching the Patriots-Titans game in the bar on Saturday night I had to go back and take another look at it to get the full scope of how it went down. I knew the broad strokes, but trying to analyze the minutiae is just about impossible in between ordering drinks, conversations and shooting Facebook Live videos.
I came away thinking that this was the total team win I had been hoping for. The returning pieces fit in fairly seamlessly and once again we saw more of the Pats team we remember from the middle part of the season, a dominant one that comes at you in a variety of ways. The 2017 aren’t the team that looked blah down the stretch. That team was holding back some key pieces. Now, with everyone back, we saw the real 2017 team, and they should be the overwhelming favorite to win Super Bowl 52 now.
The funny part was remembering how uneasy I felt at 7-0 after the Titans put together a perfect drive, capped off by a near-impossible catch. It almost seemed like it might be one of those games that are far closer than it should be, but alas, it was just a matter of time. Yes, the neutral zone infraction that saved the Pats from punting was where the Titans lost any control of the game, ending up in a 21-7 hole, but really, there was no stopping the Patriots in this one no matter how Tennessee played.
The Patriots look primed to take on the Jacksonville Jaguars, who I spent a good portion of last night getting a jump.
More on this AFC South playoff run in the Posits!
As I’ve written a couple times the past week, I’m having a tough time getting an exact bead on this Patriots team. Of course, this is a 13-3 team with homefield and the greatest quarterback of all time coming off an MVP season. So maybe I’m a little silly for thinking this season is anything different than what we’ve seen over the last 17 seasons.
Still, each team is unique and if there’s anything about this team that stands out it’s that major injuries barely registered with them. In past years losing players the caliber of Julian Edelman and Dont’a Hightower would’ve at cost the team another loss or two, and they would’ve have locked up the top seed. But this team did, and that counts for a lot because we know how tough the Pats are at home in January.
Outside of the obvious Tom Brady, here are five Patriots that I think are key to the Pats’ Super Bowl hopes.