interesting thoughts on the direction the pats and the league might be going

[rayzor]

at least according to evan silva on twitter a couple days ago.

 

 

Evan Silva ‏@evansilva May 13

#Patriots drafted 3 power O-Linemen, a running back, and 3 defensive players. Pretty nice hint at how they see their team going forward.

 

Something to chew on as NFL teams continue to build defenses specifically for subpackages: What's best way for an offense to defeat "sub" D?

 

Because the whole point is to beat the other guy. So when defenses are loading up on small guys for "sub", what's the best way to beat that?

 

So while ppl keep talking about the "passing league," the smart teams are building to run right over the teams building to defend the pass.

 

NFL: Cyclical matchup-based "numbers" league where volume run teams already king & others will copycat. "Passing league" owned by run teams.

 

i hate them, but the patriots somehow tend to stay ahead of trends...at least offensively, which is a huge part of the reason they've been so successful for so long.

 

one person commenting on silva's thoughts about the pats "new" direction is that this will likely add a few more years to brady's career (gag) because they will be relying more on the run game than brady's arm.

 

for anyone that has been following football for longer than this past decade, you will have noticed the cyclical nature of the league. the pats were at the forefront when the passing game started really taking over and were the first team to start adopting the spread offense philosophies that so many within the league said would never work in the pros while the pats and other teams were setting records and making trips to the playoffs and the superbowl using the spread.

 

for the most part, the reason that pass heavy teams were so successful were because of the rules protecting the passing game. but another huge reason was that defenses were slow to learn how to stop pass heavy teams because they were still operating under the mindset that the game is built around the run game and job #1 is to stop the run. offenses got faster and ran/passed circles around defenses.

 

defenses have started to adapt and have gotten leaner and faster to stop the passing game and are using more nickel and dime packages with smaller defensive players on the field.

 

now, since teams are for the most part totally embracing pass first/heavy football and defenses are more gearing to stop it, it makes sense that the passing game start to take a backseat (or at least be de-emphasized) and start running an offense built to take advantage of the smaller defenses being fielded.

 

in essence, power football is likely to make a return in a very short amount of time.

 

as far as the panthers are concerned, i think the defense is being built in such a way that they are ready for anything. we know we for the most part run a base 4-3 D, but we don't see 4-3 on the field. we usually see DL and 2 LBs. that may start balancing out this year somewhat. that front line, though, is built to stop the pass and the run and the LBs we field are solid at both as well. we also seem to be breaking away from the midget DB mold we somehow fell into and are leaning towards 6'+ guys.

 

here's where i think we might have an issue.

 

we have had a reputation for about as long as we've been around as a power-run first team. two things we've prided ourselves on in the past, a big OL and productive RBs (although we didn't really have much in the way of 1k yard rushers until dwill, we still were near the top in rushing yards and TDs pretty regularly).

 

we were still at the top in rushing yards and did pretty well with rushing TDs last year, but we all know that has more to do with the cam newton threat than our RBs and OL. tolbert has done really well, esp. in short yardage/goalline situations, but for the most part our run game has been pretty bad and ineffective.

 

i like gettleman's philosophy of getting hog mollies and i think he's done a good job of getting them on defense, but aside from trai turner, it's pretty much been a bunch of big fat guys. the size has been there, but the quality hasn't...or at the very least they've been hurt a lot.

 

i think we have the makings of a very solid interior OL. kalil is one of the best in the league. trai turner will be in very short time. i think the competition for the other side is solid enough to make us one of the best interior OLs in the league. i like silatolu and kugbilla and think between those two (contrary to common perception in here) we are set...as long as at least one of them can get/stay healthy.

 

i think the group of RBs we have is more than adequate enough and even if we can manage to rid ourselves of the burden of one or two of the contracts that weigh around our necks, that the guys we have should put us back at the top.

 

what we need, though, is on the outside. i know this is going to sound like i'm beating a dead horse, but we need a lot of help ontthe outside and i'm not at all satisfied with the lack of attention it's been getting. we aren't too far away from being a complete and dominant team who can beat opponents in any phase, but the thing that is going to be holding us back is OT on both sides.

 

before you start thinking that this is just another bitchfest, i'm excited that we seem to be going forward and building for the  future....something that wasn't the case in the fox/hurney era.

 

the issue i have is that i don't see any sense of urgency in strengthening OT. it might be there, but it more seems like rivera/gettleman are content to maintain the status quo which is weak and without depth or real and legit competiton.

 

my hope is that i'm wrong about things (which wouldn't surprise me) and either bell at LT and chandler at RT are going to be good or gettleman does have a sense of urgency and he's got an eye on several potential FAs that could step in right away and that he's got the cap space and eagerness to get them here.

 

i do think, tho, that we are headed in the right direction and while we may have been slow getting to the whole pass heavy party, we might be set up perfectly for a return to a more power run game focused era that is just around the bend.

[TheRumGone]

I don't think they are set with maintaining the status quo at tackle. They wouldn't have offered the guy who went to the bucs money. I just think it is what it is unfortunately right now.

I like that we are trying to form our identity on offense with Cam the way it is because

1. It will lengthen his career and

2. The way our defense is built you keep them off the field as long as possible and will always be a good thing by the offense sustaining drives. We were excellent last year.

I'm serious when I say I think gaffney may be the future for us. Big stout rb who is a bruiser. Something we've missed with stew being out all the time.

It's going to be hard for us to get an elite tackle until we clear cap space because I suspect we won't be drafting low enough for quite some time.

[frash.exe]

Whatever they're doing to make a stronger, more consistent run game, I'm sure the plans don't involve paying big money to three guys sharing carries at the one RB position

[L-TownCat]

I've been thinking this for awhile that just as soon as the league gets more pass heavy then Defenses have to get smaller and quicker up front.  Defenses get smaller up front, then offenses start to pound the rock and voila! Power football back in style!

[rayzor]

status quo is a poor choice of words on my part in regards to OT. the status quo with gross-wharton-kalil on that right side was one i could deal with, esp. compared to what we have now.

 

just the idea of them being content with who we have bothers me.

 

i know we've been handicapped bc of the cap and they didn't like the choices available to them un the draft, but i really hope that we see at least some real competition brought in to make sure we have the right guys on the outside. let them compete for the roles, if they are indeed suited for it.

 

as much as i would like for us to have elite tackles, i will settle for competant at this point. guys who won't get pushed backwards and who can get a push and limit mistakes will be fine.

[csx]

It's cyclical. By the time people are yammering on about it being a passing league it's on it's way back to being about who can run and kill clock.

[rayzor]

It's cyclical. By the time people are yammering on about it being a passing league it's on it's way back to being about who can run and kill clock.

 

my issue all along has been being forward thinking and able to adapt to whatever point in the cycle we are in/headed for.

 

i think ours (as well as most) culture has been such that it wouldn't allow for any deviation. we are a power run team and so we dig our heels into the dirt to keep from being pulled a direction that is different than than ours, despite it being a successful direction.

 

balance has always been key to me on offense and defense. have an offense that is just as capable of taking over the game as the defense is. have an offense that can pass at will and run at will...one that can impose it's will on every opponent they face.

 

with fox, we were almost singluarly focused on "run the ball/ stop the run" and didn't do anything to adapt. it seems like we are more able to adapt and are built a bit more balanced (although i think we could still benefit from having another threat of a receiving option to pair with benjamin). it's just that at OT we don't have what we need to give cam more time in the passing game or the RBs more room in the run game.

 

[TheRumGone]

Like I said I don't think they are content at ot.

I just think they decided Greg hardy was more important than a free agent ot.

And we could make due with bell and chandler for another year. But for the overall teams benefit. We will see how it plays out but I don't see them sitting there content with the tackle positions. Just kind of the purgatory we are stuck with high draft pick and no money

[Zithers]

didnt read all of that. this isnt something the pats have been doing/started.

 

for that i would point you in the direction of the 49ers or seahawks. and thus the rest of the nfc west has to copy to win. and now we're doing it. seems like saints are going that way as well. bucs now have two 6'5 wideouts and a 6'6 TE. falcons going for the beefy 3-4 and building the OL.

 

nfc teams like the bears, packers, eagles, redskins, etc gonna have a tough time when they're being finesse while everyone else goes for big and bad.

[rayzor]

Like I said I don't think they are content at ot.

I just think they decided Greg hardy was more important than a free agent ot.

And we could make due with bell and chandler.

 

i know. i just think this was a mistake.

 

it's not that i wanted to get rid of hardy and didn't think it would hurt the pass rush, but i thought that we would have benefitted more by using that cap space taken up by his tag on a vet OT (or two) and vet DBs and maybe more talent at WR. the money wrapped up in that tag could have gone a long way in helping make the team more balanced and better all around.

 

hopefully he'll find a bargain or two in the next month so that we can come into training camp with the OL pretty much decided upon and they can get their reps in with cam to build chemistry. whatever we do, i hope that training camp isn't taking up finding out who is going to be on the OL, but that the OL is set so they can be solidified as a unit heading into the season. for years i have hated that we are spending TC trying to figure out who is on the line and then have it take several weeks into the season for the OL to gel. that's as much a reason for our late starts as anything.

 

[Paa Langfart]

fug the patriots and bellicheat and brady

[Sean Payton's Vicodin]

Hurney redeemed!

[TheRumGone]

i know. i just think this was a mistake.

it's not that i wanted to get rid of hardy and didn't think it would hurt the pass rush, but i thought that we would have benefitted more by using that cap space taken up by his tag on a vet OT (or two) and vet DBs and maybe more talent at WR. the money wrapped up in that tag could have gone a long way in helping make the team more balanced and better all around.

hopefully he'll find a bargain or two in the next month so that we can come into training camp with the OL pretty much decided upon and they can get their reps in with cam to build chemistry. whatever we do, i hope that training camp isn't taking up finding out who is going to be on the OL, but that the OL is set so they can be solidified as a unit heading into the season. for years i have hated that we are spending TC trying to figure out who is on the line and then have it take several weeks into the season for the OL to gel. that's as much a reason for our late starts as anything.

It caught me off guard when we tagged hardy. I remember posting that I thought it was 99% hardy was gone.

They must feel hardy can become a hall of famer because we sacrificed a lot for him.