PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Tully Banta-Cain

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Over the last 10 years the Patriots have only had two players record double digit sack totals; 2009 Tully Banta-Cain (10), 2007 Mike Vrabel (12.5). In fact, over that span, the average for sack leaders for the Pats is about 8.5. Also interesting to point out that over that same time period, the Patriots have averaged about 36.5 sacks a year as a team, and in four seasons they went over 40 as a team – 2007, 2004, 2003, and 2001 – all Super Bowl teams.

Greg (South County, R.I.) via Mike Reiss’ Mailbag

https://www.patspropaganda.com/over-the-last-10-years-the-patriots-have-only-had/

Making Sense of the Patriots Linebacker Corps

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Bill Belichick loves him some linebackers, but without a single high priced free agent among them, this is largely an unproven group, drafted by Belichick or pulled from the NFL free agency scrap heap.

I am excited about this young group, because there will be a lot of opportunities. The group:

Tully Banta-Cain: Now the eldest statesmen of the Patriots linebacking corps after spending 2007 and 2008 in San Francisco. TBC had 10 sacks last year, and was generally the Patriots best player on defense, along with Vince Wilfork. Expect him to continue as a 3-down contributor, who would benefit from additional pressure across from him.

Jerod Mayo: The young captain of the defense whose play was limited my a sprained MCL in the first game of 2009. Look for Mayo to play the Will (Weak Inside Linebacker) where he should continue to use his speed and instincts to only get better.

Gary Guyton: Guyton got a lot of experience in many different positions in 2009, and along with Brandon Meriweather played the highest number of snaps of anyone on the Pats defense. He looks to be his best in coverage, but still has some versatility to play OLB when the Pats go to their 4-3 defense.

Rob Ninkovich: Ninkovich has kicked around the league for a few years, but did enough in 2009 to earn him a contract extension. The Pats must like him, and he does look somewhat like a Vrabel clone (#50 aside). If he can prove sturdy against the run he could be the starting LOLB against Cincinnati.

Pierre Woods: Woods got some time in the base defense in 2009, and was largely invisible. Looks like Pierre is what he is, a solid special teams player. And that’s fine.

Shawn Crable: Year three of crazy legs is about to begin. I have to say, I’m a big “look” guy and based on Crable’s look I really want him to be good. He’s got a lot of length and speed, here’s hoping it will finally translate to a unique OLB.

Tyrone McKenzie: McKenzie gets a lot of love for the dude that he is, and how hard he works. He was productive in every defense he’s ever played in. But figuring out the Mayo-Guyton-Spikes-McKenzie rotation seems impossible at this point. But he’s played lot of LB positions in lots of defenses so who knows what BB could come up with.

Brandon Spikes: Seems like everyone in Patriots Nation loved the Spikes pick and he should really bring a Ted Johnson-esque presence, along with leadership, that has been missing. Spikes can relieve Guyton from heavy run stopping responsibility at SILB (Mike), and allow Mayo to WILB (Will).

Jermaine Cunningham: Hard to expect much out of a rookie DE-OLB conversion project, but if Cunningham can just start as a sub-package rusher he should be able to contribute right away. And if he gets snaps at OLB on early downs it’s icing on the cake.

The NFL Void, Tully Banta-Cain & Wes Welker’s Recovery

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If you’re an NFL fan it doesn’t get much worse than the May-June stretch. You find yourself constantly scanning the internets for news that will never come. Sure you might hear bits and pieces… contract extensions, minor signings, but for the most part we are in the treacherous time of year known simply as “The Void”.

You’ve already educated yourself on your teams draft picks. Maybe even convinced yourself that your team will go 15-1. Which, by the way, I find ironic that even when Jets fans seem assured they will have one of the greatest seasons in NFL history they still won’t be able to beat the Patriots twice.

Anyway, it’s kinda hard to blog during the Void. Most NFL bloggers are really reaching for material right now (see the above 15-1 reference), so I prefer to try and get my Patriots obsession under control. Do other things. Read a book even.

But here are some quick hit Patriots thoughts for the week.

On Tully Banta-Cain As mentioned in the quote in my previous post it seems like most people are writing off Tully Banta-Cain’s 10 sack 2009 season as a fluke. Yes he did have 5 of his 10 sacks against the Bills but let’s not forget the fact that the Patriots owning the Bills has been no easy feat. The Bills did beat both the Dolphins and Jets last year, and really the Patriots dominance of the Bills has been a large part of how they’ve continued to dominate the AFC East for the last decade. So yes, take 5 of 10 with a grain of salt, but remember those two wins played a big part in the Patriots winning the division.

It’s also common to say that TBC was no good against the run, and should only be a situational pass rusher. Well this tells a different story. The only bad game TBC had against the run was against those very same Buffalo Bills. According to ProFootballFocus.com, Tully was the best player on the Patriots defense in 2009. So let’s not be so quick to write him off as a one-year wonder who can’t stop the run. If anything it was pass coverage that was not his specialty.

On Wes Welker’s Recovery There’s a lot of baseless negative rumor mongering that goes on when it comes to the Pats, especially via the Boston and National Media so I’m going to take this opportunity to pass along some positive rumor mongering. First we saw a tweet from Maria Menounos saying:

Hung out w/my patriots-vince wilfork, tom brady and wes welker…wes says he’s healed and ready!psyched!!

OK, who knows what Wes actually said to Maria, he could’ve just been trying to pick her up. But then came this post on the excellent Patriots message board PatsFans.com:

A good friend of mine (a reliable guy) sat directly behind Welker on a flight from Boston to LA today (another Playboy visit vs. passing camp with TB?). Welker told someone sitting next to him that he is “way ahead of schedule”. Take that for what it’s worth at this point in his rehab but it can’t be a bad thing.

OK, can I confirm that either of these reports are true? No. Do either make me thing there’s a chance WW will be ready before week 7? Nope. But it’s two counts of positive news, albeit unconfirmed rumors, that make me feel good about Wes’ chances for a full recovery this year so take them for what they’re worth.

But I will say this, if anyone is coming back way ahead of schedule from an ACL tear it’s Wes Welker.