Bartin

He's not though. He plays SAM in their base defense. He's regularly used as a blitzer and a pash rusher on 3rd downs but his primary role is that of a standard 4-3 OLB.

He's actually pretty good as a SAM LB in base D on 1st and 2nd downs. He and Beasley could be a formidable speed rush duo on 3rd downs. Good news is that he turns 28 this season so he doesn't have much prime left.

I'd keep him and just take the comp pick when he leaves. I don't think they'd be able to get much in a trade. At best they get a 2016 3rd and the comp would be most likely be a 2017 4th. If it was before the draft and they got a pick they could use this year then sure, but now they are probably best off just keeping him for the year. It is a contract year for him so he will want to light it up.

Pats fans on the warpath on reddit the last couple days. They down vote everything remotely critical of Brady right now.

He's a terrible fit for a cover 2. Goldson and Barron didn't work in Tampa and DJ is a worse version of those two. Not sure I understand it, but I don't see him making a positive impact there. He's cheap and they can dump him whenever they want with no repercussions so there's that I guess. No real risk involved.

Should find out in the next 15 minutes. This is the time that waiver claims are generally released.

"Adderall"

Well, you don't get 4 games until your 4th infraction so it's not exactly the same.

I think 4 is perfectly fine. I thought taking away a 1st rounder when Belichick and the organization were found to not be involved in any way to be excessive, but I'm not going to complain. If they don't deserve it for this I'm sure there is something they do deserve it for that we just don't know about. Plus all of our picks next year will be one slot higher which is nice.

Both teams should be fined $50k and the employees who heated the balls should be suspended a game or two. They broke the rules and should be punished even if it was out of ignorance but don't try to equate it to a systematic and coordinated effort to deflate balls without the referees knowledge after the referees have signed off on them then attempted to cover it up.

The 1st rounder is a far bigger deal than the Brady suspension. Even if they go 1-3, they'll still probably make the playoffs.

Damn! How will they survive without $1M?

Officially waived. Doubt we put in a claim and doubt he makes it to 25th in the waiver order anyway.

I tried to find this article on SI and couldn't. Anyone got a link?

Word is that he pissed off the Texans coaches last year when he walked out of a special teams meeting and said he was too good for that and only wanted to play defense. Probably not the type of guy we are looking to bring in.

He actually hasn't been released yet. The Texans just informed him that he wasn't part of their plans going forward. They are apparently still going to try and trade him before waiving him. According to Rapoport the Texans did the same with TJ Yates last year and they did end up trading him to the Falcons. At this point he could probably be had for a conditional 7th with the condition for the pick being sent that he is on the 53 man roster for at least 8 games or something which wouldn't be a bad deal or we could wait and try to get him off waivers but since we are 25th in the waiver order it seems unlikely he would make it to us. Honestly though I don't see the Panthers making a play for him at all especially given that he has previously shown a refusal to play special teams which he would need to in Carolina.

He's not wrong. Byrd is a long shot to make the 53 which is exactly what "probably won't" means. If he makes the roster it would be at the expense of Philly Brown who they love. Can't see Gettleman having 3 tiny guys in the WR corps and Ginn is a lock.

Shaq has been playing WLB for three years. Not sure what the big adjustment he needs to make is on the field. Our defense is pretty vanilla too. Just requires great execution. I'm thinking nerves had a role. He doesn't come across as supremely confident so it may take a little bit for him to be comfortable. Of course him not being around for all of OTAs doesn't help that. Glad to hear Funchess looked great. He was the pick I liked the least but I'll happily be proved wrong.

I really would have thought they would have given him a shot in preseason this year. Last year they basically let him play through camp then shut him down and he got both knees repaired. I guess getting Clemmings made him redundant but you'd figure they at least follow through with the original long term plan for him unless there is just no sign of progress on the knees at all. He had 1st-2nd round talent so I'd think it would be worth it to bring him in for a medical to see what your doctors think. Of course it is probably best for him long term to just retire since he'd basically be playing to the point where he'll never walk normally again.

Reports are that it was the ACL only. The MCL and Meniscus are fine which is great news for him. Just a standard ACL tear almost always results in a full recovery these days. Tearing multiple things in the knee is when it's really bad.

Hopefully is just the ACL and he didn't blowout the whole knee.

The instructor of that class is better known as @mccannsportslaw on twitter. He does good work and covers a lot of legal issues for SI. He was probably the best guy to read during the Hernandez trial for informative reports.

The hell? I don't know how anyone could possibly blame the OL for that. It's not like he went low or anything. Fowler just had a plant go horribly wrong. People are stupid.

Yeah. Just an ACL tear is his best case scenario after watching that. He very well could have torn more than that.

that blows