New England Patriots thread (MOD WARNING - #4503)

Son Of A Vidic

TO. wrote: »

On an interesting note I was reading a story about should the Pats dump Gostowski and gamble on a cheaper option considering his cap space will be $3.8 this season. Dude made a good argument about getting rid of him and gambling on a rookie or free agent but then made a better argument why we should keep him:

Gostkowski's kicks, 2011–2013
Year

---

First three quarters

---

Fourth quarter/OT
2011

---

27/32 (84.4%)

---

6/6 (100%)
2012

---

19/24 (79.2%)

---

13/14 (92.9%)
2013

---

23/26 (88.5%)

---

16/16 (100%)
Totals

---

69/82 (84.1%)

---

35/36 (97.2%)

I can see us giving Gostowski an extension and save some money in 2014. So I'd add him to the Wilfork-Mayo-Mankins contractual manoeuvres we are likely to see in the coming months. He had an excellent season in 2013 and just reminded us how indispensable he really is.

eagle eye

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

I can see us giving Gostowski an extension and save some money in 2014. So I'd add him to the Wilfork-Mayo-Mankins contractual manoeuvres we are likely to see in the coming months. He had an excellent season in 2013 and just reminded us how indispensable he really is.

He is an excellent kicker but there is no kicker who is indespensable, very few players are.

Considering the awful situation with the Hernandez money I think its a good idea to cut him. If you were ever going to cut him this is the year, there are a lot of good kickers coming out of college.

Son Of A Vidic

eagle eye wrote: »

He is an excellent kicker but there is no kicker who is indespensable, very few players are.

Considering the awful situation with the Hernandez money I think its a good idea to cut him. If you were ever going to cut him this is the year, there are a lot of good kickers coming out of college.

Gostkowski for me is indispensable, his kicking is getting better based on 2013 stats. He won us quite a few games in 2013 with his clutch 4th quarter kicking. It was his late kicking against the Bills, Texans, Jets, Dolphins, Broncos and the Browns, that won us those games.That's 50% of all our wins, what more can we ask for from a kicker.

Among kickers with five or more years of experience, Gostkowski's career field goal percentage of 85.6 percent ranks sixth all time -- a few points higher than Vinatieri (83 percent), who has had the benefit of playing his home games in a dome since he signed with the Colts in 2006.

http://www.csnne.com/blog/patriots-talk/gostkowski-kicks-straight-out-vinatieri-shadow

6th of all time for a guy who hasn't reached his peak yet is pretty good going.It's one thing replacing Mesko who was out kicked by a rookie in preseason, but quite another replacing a kicker to an unproven rookie draftee.

I'll stick with what we have. There's other areas where we can trim the fat without losing a clutch kicker. Even look at Gregory's contract, cutting him would save us $3 million alone in 2014. I'd much prefer to cut an average safety than lose a top kicker. We've done really well to replace Vinatieri with a guy like Gostkowski. So I'll be surprised if Gost doesn't sign a 3-4 year extension this offseason tbh.

j8wk2feszrnpao

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

Even look at Gregory's contract, cutting him would save us $3 million alone in 2014.

I've got to agree with that.
Re-watching the games at the moment, and Gregory is weak; falls off a number of tackles and rarely makes a big play.
I remember during the season that he did go through a few games when he did play very well, but then reverted back towards the end of the season.
I think he's very replaceable in the draft, particularly if it saved $3m.

Son Of A Vidic

munstermagic11 wrote: »

I've got to agree with that.
Re-watching the games at the moment, and Gregory is weak; falls off a number of tackles and rarely makes a big play.
I remember during the season that he did go through a few games when he did play very well, but then reverted back towards the end of the season.
I think he's very replaceable in the draft, particularly if it saved $3m.

That's right, he did revert back to type after a few decent games. He's certainly not worth the price tag for 2014. I think we need an SS in the middle of the field. We signed Wilson last year to do this but he's clearly lost a step and his injury finished his season. We sorely miss not having a big physical intimidator in the middle to make teams think twice. Hopefully we can address this pretty soon and I think it could really cap off our secondary.

mikemac1

Should sign free agent SS Bernard Pollard so

Bring the Patriot Killer to the Patriots

Paully D

RE: the kicker situation.

Kicking is so mentally challenging that if Gostkowski was to get off to a bad start next year he might stink the place up for the year, that's why it's so hard to call.

Look at Crosby in 2012, Cundiff completely fell to pieces after "that" miss but was a 90%'er the season before that, Janikowski was absolutely shocking this season with the worst FG % in the league. There's so many examples.

It's a very interesting one. He guarantees you clutch time production, but then again Justin Tucker does the same for the Ravens at a fraction of the cost. Do the Patriots keep on the big salary or try to find a rookie at a much lower cost?

Most likely situation for me is that he signs an extension.

Son Of A Vidic

Paully D wrote: »

It's a very interesting one. He guarantees you clutch time production, but then again Justin Tucker does the same for the Ravens at a fraction of the cost. Do the Patriots keep on the big salary or try to find a rookie at a much lower cost?

Most likely situation for me is that he signs an extension.

Tucker only offers value now because of his rookie contract. If he remains consistent his price as we all know will go up. Gostkowski had two uncharacteristic misses in 2012 and you'd swear the world ended with some Pats fans. In 2013 he was virtual perfection, he's also reaching an age where kickers enter their prime years. As you said, an extension is the likely outcome. We were lucky to have a guy like Gostkowski being able to replace Vinateri, I can't see us risking losing a clutch kicker again during the Belichick era.

Son Of A Vidic

mikemac1 wrote: »

Should sign free agent SS Bernard Pollard so

Bring the Patriot Killer to the Patriots

Son Of A Vidic

The Boston Herald is reporting that we've opened up talks with Talib re:a new contract.

http://bostonherald.com/sports/patriots_nfl/new_england_patriots/2014/02/aqib_talib_talk_takes_a_step

The article makes no mention of Mayo which I find surprising. Because his contract is similar to Willforks & Mankins, in that it could potentially free up a few million dollars with an extension added.

Masked Man

I'm surprised there's not a rule against that, assuming it's not just a personal notepad.

Masked Man

I'm surprised there's not a rule against that, assuming it's not just a personal notepad.

nerd69

i think i missed something whats the issue?

Masked Man

Lombardi with the Browns notebook. Not really an issue, I'm just kinda curious what rules are in place, if there are any.

nerd69

Masked Man wrote: »

Lombardi with the Browns notebook. Not really an issue, I'm just kinda curious what rules are in place, if there are any.

thats a personal one id say lombardi was one of the nfl networks go to guys around the draft before he took the browns job they've probably taken him back already.

dh1985

nerd69 wrote: »

thats a personal one id say lombardi was one of the nfl networks go to guys around the draft before he took the browns job they've probably taken him back already.

Read this a few times and still may have misinterpreted it but michael lombardi is now with the patriots. The notepad is supposedly his draft evaluation from when he was at the browns.

nerd69

dh1985 wrote: »

Read this a few times and still may have misinterpreted it but michael lombardi is now with the patriots. The notepad is supposedly his draft evaluation from when he was at the browns.

whaaaaaaaaaat how did that happen so quick. apologies didn't realise this at all went completely over my head.

HigginsJ

nerd69 wrote: »

whaaaaaaaaaat how did that happen so quick. apologies didn't realise this at all went completely over my head.

He is an assistant to the coaching staff or something along those lines

TO.

Schiano will be added to the coaching staff before the season starts also. The only thing apparently stopping him from doing so is not wanting to move out of Tampa while his son is still in HS. He doesn't want to disrupt his sons last year or couple of years in school by moving him out of HS and up to NE. All rumours of course but I would be very surprised if Schiano doesn't join Lombardi on to the coaching staff.

Son Of A Vidic

Last Thursday Lombardi was formally announced as a new assistant to the coaching staff. The notepad contains his own predraft player evaluation data. So he's perfectly entitled to use it since it's his own.

Son Of A Vidic

TO. wrote: »

I would be very surprised if Schiano doesn't join Lombardi on to the coaching staff.

I think we have the smallest coaching staff in the league so we'll have no problem making room for him. A pity though that he didn't get a HC job somewhere else and in 2-3 years we could have sent him a 7th round pick for the next TB12.:pac:

TO.

Anyone wants to keep an eye on our salary cap Over the cap generally are on the ball with their figures

http://overthecap.com/teamcap.php?Team=Patriots&Year=2014

Son Of A Vidic

TO. wrote: »

Anyone wants to keep an eye on our salary cap Over the cap generally are on the ball with their figures

http://overthecap.com/teamcap.php?Team=Patriots&Year=2014

That cap space is higher than I expected. Have they based that space on a the projected cap ceiling for 2014? Because they are varying reposts from different sources RE:2014 cap ceiling. Some sources have put the 2014 cap at $126 million and others are putting it at $132 million. PFT are now reporting it could even be over $132 million. The higher the better for us obviously.

And even if the our cap cap space is higher than anticipated, I still hope they tweak the Wilfork, Mayo and Mankins contracts because they could potentially free up another $7 million there. Now if they throw in cutting Wilson & Sopoaga and then extend Gost. That could potentially create another $5 million in cap space.

And if that $10.348 million in cap space mentioned in the article is accurate, then that added to what I've suggested above could put our cap space at $22. Now that would be nice.

dh1985

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

That cap space is higher than I expected. Have they based that space on a the projected cap ceiling for 2014? Because they are varying reposts from different sources RE:2014 cap ceiling. Some sources have put the 2014 cap at $126 million and others are putting it at $132 million. PFT are now reporting it could even be over $132 million. The higher the better for us obviously.

And even if the our cap cap space is higher than anticipated, I still hope they tweak the Wilfork, Mayo and Mankins contracts because they could potentially free up another $7 million there. Now if they throw in cutting Wilson & Sopoaga and then extend Gost. That could potentially create another $5 million in cap space.

And if that $10.348 million in cap space mentioned in the article is accurate, then that added to what I've suggested above could put our cap space at $22. Now that would be nice.

133 million according to nfl.com earlier today

Son Of A Vidic

dh1985 wrote: »

133 million according to nfl.com earlier today

That would be good. Weeks ago I worked out we were roughly about $4.5 million under our 2013 $123 million cap ceiling. And I was expecting the 2014 cap to be set between $126 - $128 million. So if the cap is set at $133, then that's really good news for us and it makes up a bit for the big hole the Hernandez dead money created.

Langdon Alger

I see Steve Gregory's agent tweeted that the pats plan to release him today to free up around $2.75 million in cap space. Should be a good move if true.

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2014/02/28/agent-patriots-plan-to-release-safety-steve-gregory/

Son Of A Vidic

Langdon Alger wrote: »

I see Steve Gregory's agent tweeted that the pats plan to release him today to free up around $2.75 million in cap space. Should be a good move if true.

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2014/02/28/agent-patriots-plan-to-release-safety-steve-gregory/

Not official yet but a few sites are reporting it is imminent. And it's one of the cuts I was hoping to see this offseason. A tidy little sum to add to our cap space.

me89

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

Not official yet but a few sites are reporting it is imminent. And it's one of the cuts I was hoping to see this offseason. A tidy little sum to add to our cap space.

Its official now. No surprise really, he's to inconsistent and seemed to miss to many tackles.

j8wk2feszrnpao

me89 wrote: »

Its official now. No surprise really, he's to inconsistent and seemed to miss to many tackles.

He did an ok job when covering, but too option when he stepped up to tackle he fell off. I mentioned this last week after reviewing the first 4 games of the season. He's hasn't merited being kept, not at that price.

me89

Cap confirmed at $133 million so we now have a nice bit of cap space.