PatsBlog: A Patriots Blog

I’m continuing my training camp previews section, and this time, I’m moving onto wide receivers.  Here’s a snapshot of what seems to be a competitive position:

Randy Moss

Heading into 2008, Randy Moss is one of the only wide receivers whose role on the team is cemented in.  He will be the #1 starting wide receiver, no questions asked.  However, it will be interesting to see how much he brings to training camp.  If you remember, last year, he missed all but one day of training camp and the preseason, as rumors even circulated about him being cut or traded.

Chad Jackson

If Chad Jackson is starting opposite Randy Moss come opening weekend, there are going to be a lot of happy Patriots fans.  When the Patriots moved up to select Jackson in the 2006 draft, there seemed to be no limit on his potential.  However, one torn ACL later, things look different.  C-Jack has had 18 months to recover fully from his injury.  Jackson has tremendous footspeed, hands, leaps, and route running ability.  If it all comes together, he could be the #2 threat we’ve been looking for.

Wes Welker

You can never say enough about Wes Welker.  Speed, agility, hands, smarts.  Welker seems to have it all, and he fits the slot position perfectly.  But, and please understand this, he’s not an outside receiver… he doesn’t have the size and strength to play on the outside.  He is most effective on slants, screens, and underneath routes, which is how he managed 112 catches in 2007.  Like Moss, Welker’s position with the team is guaranteed (of course barring injury).

Jabar Gaffney

When people look back on the 2007 season, they are most likely going to think of Randy Moss and Donte Stallworth as the starting receivers.  However, people seem to forget that Jabar Gaffney started more than half the season (over Stallworth, including playoffs).  Jabar has a combination of great hands, good speed, excellent ball awareness, adequate size, and good route running ability.  That translates into a good NFL receiver.  In 2008, Gaffney will either be the #2 or the #4 wideout.  What’s best is that he’s a tremendous fallback if Chad Jackson struggles.

Kelley Washington

In 2007, Kelley Washington found his niche on special teams.  In 2008, I would expect much of the same… but this time around, we might see him play a little more offense.  Although Washington struggled playing receiver during the preseason in 2007, he still managed a roster spot, excelling on special teams.  Now, Washington, how has tremendous size and decent ball skills, has an extra year under his belt in the Patriots system, and it will be interesting to see if he can make an ever bigger impact on the Patriots in ‘08.

Sam Aiken

The Patriots signed Sam Aiken in March so that he could be a special teams guy, which was his motto in Buffalo.  However, if he makes the team, don’t expect him to play on offense, because from what he showed in minicamp, he has stone hands and no concept of the offense (although I will watch him in training camp before giving my final verdict).

Matt Slater

When the Patriots drafted Matthew Slater in the 5th round of this years’ draft, they envisioned him as a jack of all trades type.  He will play receiver and safety but will most likely make his biggest impact on special teams, where he excelled during his stay at UCLA.  He will battle Sam Aiken for the last spot on the roster, but I’ll give Slater the early edge.

C.J. Jones

C.J. Jones was a guy that I liked a lot last year.  He’s a great returner, and showed some receiving skills.  However, I don’t think there is room for him on this years’ roster.  He will battle for a practice squad spot.

Robert Ortiz

Unfortunately, I don’t know a lot about the San Diego State product.  He’s got good size, and decent hands, and can find the seam well.  He can also pick up yardage after the catch.  But he lacks speed to beat defenders downfield, and has problems securing the ball.  He is a potential practice squad guy.  SI had this to say about him prior to the 2006 draft.

Ray Ventrone

Ventrone began the transition from safety to wide receiver this offseason.  Lets hope he stops that transition.  Quickly.  Because he looked god awful as receiver during minicamp.

The Skinny

Wide receiver looks to be a competitive position heading into training camp.  While Randy Moss and Wes Welker look solidified in their roles, the rest of the position is up for grabs.  Jabar Gaffney and Chad Jackson will battle it out for the #2 spot, Kelley Washington will look to earn more playing time on offense,  while Matt Slater, Sam Aiken, Robert Ortiz, and Ray Ventrone will look to make the last spot or the practice squad.

So yesterday, I posted my preview for quarterbacks.  Interestingly, Patriots.com published their quarterbacks preview the next day.  So in an effort to stay ahead of them, I’m posting my running backs preview a day early.

Laurence Maroney

It’s hard to make a great judgement of Maroney at this point in his career.  He’s been inconsistent at times, he’s had injury problems, etc.  If you watched footage of him from when he was healthy, I’d tell you he was a superstar in the making.  He has unmatched initial burst, great lateral and vertical speed, and this ability to slide out of tackles, with a frame to put on even more muscle.  His hands and pass protection are also improving.  In training camp, it will be interesting to see if Maroney is used more in the passing game, as he showed flashes of improvement throughout last year, especially in the playoffs.  Year 3 will be a big year for Maroney… anyone else thinking breakout?

Sammy Morris

Sammy Morris is certainly the wildcard at this position.  The first half of last year, he looked REALLY GOOD.  His speed was fine, but he really showed great patience and power.  The question with Morris is health.  Is he 100% recovered from the chest injury?  If he is, the Patriots could have the perfect compliment to Maroney.

Kevin Faulk

Come playoffs, Kevin Faulk WILL be there.  He will.  He’s there every year.  Whether he’s backing up Maroney or taking most of the 3rd and long reps, he will get his playing time… he’ll find a way onto the field.  However, he is 32 now, and you have to wonder when age will catch up with him.

BenJarvus Green-Ellis

BenJarvus has good size, strength, acceleration, and playing speed.  At 5′11″, 220 lbs, he has the potential to develop into Maroney’s counterpart in the backfield, he’s that underrated.  Training camp, however, will dictacte Green-Ellis’ chance with the Pats, he could go from making the roster, spending the season on the practice squad, or even being cut.

Heath Evans

Heath Evans will more-than-likely make the team, and will get his playing time here and there.  Evans in the HB-FB hybrid.  You won’t see him lead blocking too often, but he will get in there sometimes, and get a third and short or fourth and short carry, from either position.

Kyle Eckel

The emergence of Kyle Eckel last season was a great story.  Unfortunately, the story may come to an end this training camp, unless the Patriots elect to keep an extra back.  Eckel is a lot like Evans in terms of what he can do on the field, although he is a little less of a blocker and a little more of a runner.  Eckel will have to have a huge training camp to stick with the team.

The Skinny

The running back position certainly has some questions.  Will Maroney be healthy and consistent?  Will Sammy Morris be ready?  How long can Kevin Faulk keep it up?  However, overall, the position is quite solid.  During camp, Morris and Faulk will be battling for playing time, while Green-Ellis and Eckel will be fighting to keep a job.  However, I would look for the Patriots to bring in another body, maybe a Samkon Gado or a Kevin Jones, and that would certainly make things more interesting.

Position Grade: B+

More Pats Problems after Willie Andrews was arrested last week at his Mansfield apartment following a domestic dispute.  On July 1 the Pats released Andrews as the new arrest would be a violation of his probation that was enforced after his post-Superbowl pot arrest.  Clearly, there aren’t roster spots available for potential (or actual) felons and, according to scouts.com, Andrews was no shoe in to make the team as it currently stood before his arrest.

My only concern is the concept of the NFL taking the law into their own hands by immediately suspending or releasing players who have yet to receive their day in court.  Unless Andrews confided in his bosses that everything alleged is true maybe he is innocent.  Andrews doesn’t appear to be involved in any continuous criminal enterprise such as Michael Vick.  I mean, a domestic dispute is a different crime than buying large quantities of pot.  It just so happens they both are illegal and the gun charge could work with the drug charge against him, maybe land him in jail.

At the end of the day Andrews was just not a model Patriot.  After the 2007 season concluded, Coach Belichick said in an interview with the Big Show on WEEI that, regarding Adam ‘Pacman’ Jones and players in general fitting the Patriots model, some players would show up to practice listening to music on their walkman, and kind of do their own thing, go to McDonald’s after practice and stuff like that.  Belichick would replace whatever they were listening to on their headphones with football stuff and really try to steer them in the team direction.  According to Coach Belichick, some of these players just didn’t work out and would fit in better with other teams.  Maybe Andrews will sign with the Cowboys but meanwhile we are down a good Special Teams return man.

We have officially entered the quietiest time of the NFL schedule.  Nothing is happen, and nothing big will happen until training camp begins late next month.  However, in case you are absolutely dying for anything Patriots related, here are a few things you can expect:

Signing the Rooks

Over the next month, the Patriots will attempt to sign all of their rookies (the only one signed is Matt Slater, who signed a four year contract earlier this month).  It will interesting (actually, not really), to see if the Patriots can get all of the rookies under contract before camp, or if there will be a holdout.  If there is a holdout, it will more than likely be Jerod Mayo, who is certainly expecting (or hoping) for top 10 money.

Tweaking the Roster

When the Patriots sign their rookies, they will need to release other players to make room for the rookies who currently do not count against the roster limit.  That means the Patriots will work to tweak the roster.  Maybe a couple of trades for conditional draft picks, obviously some cuts, etc.

And even though the Patriots will be looking to trim the roster, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Patriots made some additions as well.  There is always Ty Law, who seems to be waiting it out until training camp.  The Patriots will hopefully still resign Junior Seau, as many expect.   Also, the Patriots may be interested in an additional offensive lineman, tight end (Fauria?), or running back (Kevin Jones?).

Hearing More About Spygate

Yes, of course, not that I’m really looking forward to it.  Specter claims he is finished with it, then he says he’s not.  And the NFL states they will enforce more punishment if anything new were to come up.  Same story.  I’m sick of it.  We can face the facts.  Unless there is a dramatic turn of events, Spygate is over.  Fans will always look at the Patriots as cheaters, nothing can change that.  There will always be a blemish on the Patriots history, the justification of that blemish is irrelevant.  I just hope that the NFL can look into the “videotaping procedures” of other teams as well.

Pre-Camp Previews and Speculation

These are always fun.  I’ll be doing a position by position training camp preview starting July 5th, so you can look forward to that (I guess).  Other than that, it’s all speculation.  Speculation for the season, speculation for the players… I just can’t wait till September.

I’d like to take this opportunity in my return to the blog, to congratulate the Celtics on their championship, they make all of Boston proud.  Welcome to the brotherhood of Boston teams with recent championship rings! 

The Patriots are in good shape to maintain the championship-winning ways that Bostonians now expect.  So far there haven’t been any team-crippling departures short of asante samuel and Rosie Colvin.  It’s hard to doubt Coach Belichick going into any year these days.  He hasn’t truly disappointed since, conceivably, the 2002 season of the post-superbowl hangover season.  Maybe we will have a 2002-type season because of the bitter end to the 2007 season, a la New York Mets’ 2007 collapse leading into this week’s firing of Mets manager Willie Randolph.  But I don’t think this is a likely scenario.

The other question raised by the Celtics’ win:  Does this futher hurt fans’ wounds from the Superbowl loss?  After all, if the Patriots had won the Superbowl it would be an unprecedented Trifecta of Titles.  But, personally, I think the Pats have already done their part for greatness with the undefeated regular season, a very unique feat, with those 70’s Dolphins as the only other example.

Round 2, Pick 62: Terrence Wheatley

CB, Colorado

When the Patriots selected Terrence Wheatley, the first thing I thought was, “not another tiny corner.”  With receivers getting so much bigger, I thought it was necessary to get a larger, physical corner, someone more like a player selected one spot later in Terrell Thomas.  However, despite his lack of ideal height at 5-10, Colorado cornerback Terrence Wheatley could be the shutdown cornerback the Patriots have been looking for since Ty Law left after the 2004 season.

Terrence Wheatley is fast.  But along with that, he has great acceleration and good fluidness.  Stride to stride, he can stick with any receiver in the NFL, but he also redirect and recover exceptionally.  Along with that, he is aggressive.  He is fearless when he goes up for jump balls, and is solid in run support as well.  He has good awareness, and really works hard to learn his assignments, as well as those as others (he will be a good field leader.)  He also has soft hands and good timing, which has led to tremendous intereception production.

The big question surrounding Wheatley is health.  His wrists seem to be as fragile as my great grandmother’s china.  He missed the entire ‘05 season with the wrist injuries, and it will be interesting to see if the injuries are really behind him, or if he just had one healthy season.  Wheatley could also work to add some more bulk, which could allow him to make some of the more difficult tackles, which he has struggled to make in the past.

Overall, when I hear draft “experts” talking about Wheatley, I keep hearing the word “steal.”  If Wheatley can get past his wrist injuries (and he looks like he is doing just that), Wheatley might just be the steal the experts think they’re talking about.  Wheatley could go anywhere from being a starter to being the nickel, but I would definately expect him to find his way onto the field this season.