The Patriot Way – New England Patriots News 1/10
By Adam Burt
Dec 29, 2013; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots running back LeGarrette Blount (29) stiff arms Buffalo Bills corner back Chris Hogan (15) during the second half of New England
-Here is an excellent piece about how the Patriots do business and how it can be sometimes very cold. It seems like every time the front office lets a player walk or cuts a player due to money, everyone claims that “this will be the one time that they regret it!” Well five Super Bowl appearances and all those division titles later there are more moves they haven’t regretted than those they have. Also Bledsoe is still the man.
– No change in the injury report from earlier this week. The only person missing practice for the Patriots is Aaron Dobson, meaning at this point he is unlikely to play this weekend. He can’t be that far off, one would think, as he would be placed on the IR if it were more than a week or two thing at this point. There are a slew of Patriots limited at this point, but that is par for the course for this team. For the Colts, only receiver Darius Heyward-Bey did not participate.
-Gronkowski’s ankle surgery went very well yesterday. Start the Gronk watch!
– Logan Mankins mentioned that the bye week was huge for him getting healthy and treating the ankle injury he sustained in the game against the Bills. Can’t say enough about his toughness and the nasty demeanor to the offensive line. Love watching him play.
– Don Banks has storylines for all the divisional round matchups this weekend. Definitely a different type of game than the matchups with the Manning led Colts from earlier this millennium, but it should prove to be a great game to watch. Some might even say that this game is a meeting of the generations of sorts.
-Banks also makes his picks for this weekends games. CBS Sports have their picks here, and there are picks from NFL.com here. In fact, Adam Schein thinks that the Patriots will be the team to emerge from the AFC.
– Pete Prisco outlines the players that he feels are key for both the Patriots and the Seahawks. For the Patriots he chose Rob Ninkovich, who has been incredibly steady and solid all year long. He is underrated in his ability to both rush the passer and play in space all while still being able to set the edge against the run.
– I don’t even want to link to it because of how bad it is, but I will. The Sporting News has rated Brady as the worst QB left in the playoffs. Now, not only is their method in rating quarterbacks questionable at best, but their actual ratings are even worse. I’m not sure how losing key receivers affect a quarterbacks accuracy or delivery, but apparently that played into why Brady and Kaepernick were rated so low. And then why is athleticism weighed the same as accuracy and pocket presence, etc? Vince Young would be off the charts in that category. So would Mike Vick and last I checked neither was a starting QB. Ludicrous. I did want to bring it up because here is a video where they discuss the possibility of the Patriots having the best defense left in the AFC. Patriots defense ranked high? Brady ranked at the bottom? What has the world come to?!