New England Patriots Links 6/07/10 - Brady Prepared To 'Go With The Flow'

by Marima on Jun 7, 2010 9:42 AM EDT in New England Patriots News

Belichick and his buddy wave to the crowd at Craigville Beach.

Shalise Manza Young and Albert Breer catch Tom Brady talking about this year's expectations and the team's status as AFC East underdogs.

"The thing is, every year is a new year for us,’’ he said. "It’s like, what happened last year, it doesn’t matter. You could come in last place — it doesn’t matter, no one cares.

"It’s just a matter of the chemistry, how everything comes together. I’m hoping this is one of the years where we really go out there . . . there’s a lot of people making noise, and I kind of like sitting back a little bit and letting other teams have the attention.’’

Albert Breer reports Veteran CB Ty Law analyzes his former team on ESPN when asked if the Patriots' window for championships has closed.

"It's closing," Law said to Trey Wingo and the gang. "It's still open, because as long as you have Tom Brady on your team, you always got a chance. But where I think the Patriots made a mistake is they let too many of core guys at one time. You gotta leave somebody there to show the young guys 'The Patriot Way' and the way that we did things. And there are too many guys that are gone, and I think they're missing a lot of leadership inside the locker room."

"I think they all understand because [Belichick is] gonna let you know that 'I'm running the show' when he walks through the door," Law continued. "Like I said, it goes back to the leadership inside the locker room. You had so many guys there, and we built that there. We played together for a long time. You've got so many young guys there right now, and you're throwing them into the mix.

"And things were done a certain way. But when you don't have Tedy Bruschi, Mike Vrabel, Willie McGinest, Richard Seymour, and all those guys are gone, who's gonna take that young guy by the arm and say, 'This is how we do it'? ... "All the championship guys are gone. So that's why you probably find struggles right now with New England, especially on defense. You have that leadership on offense, because you have Tom Brady."

TEAM TALK

Patriots Today - New addition Lyndsay Petruny joins Patriots Today team. (1.45 min. video)

LOCAL LINKS

DJ Bean spoke with Tom Brady following the Best Buddies flag football game, who said he really hasn't been thinking about his contract a whole lot. "Things happen. Some are out of your control so you've just got to go with the flow."
Tom E. Curran writes that Tom Brady 'gets' the business of the NFL, and Patriots fans should be more concerned that he has the capacity to make decisions devoid of emotion and sentimentality than anything else.
Albert Breer posts some photos from the BestBuddies Challenge Saturday.
Karen Guregian notes BC LB Mark Herzlich intercepted a Brady pass Saturday, the lone interception of the night.
Karen Guregian reports on the tight friendship that formed between Alge Crumpler and Benjamin Watson during their trip to Iraq on the NFL's USO tour in 2007.
Mike Reiss offers his quick-hit thoughts from the Patriots and around the NFL.
Karen Guregian notes TE Alge Crumpler has been a constant in Brady's ear, trying to make sure he's getting down the plays and reads correctly and "it's going great."
Jeff Howe reports that now he's back from his injury, speedster Brandon Tate hopes to blow the coaches away.
Mike Reiss says the Patriots rank low in roster turnover.
Ian Rapoport interviews the sign-holding Patriots fan from the Final Four (remember the 'Go Pats. You don't scare me Indy!' sign?) at Lucas Oil Stadium in March.
Albert Breer assesses Welker's possible timetable to return.
Jeff Howe notes Terrence Wheatley and Jerod Mayo are learning to erase mental errors in a "really intense mental game."
Albert Breer says Raiders CB Nnamdi Asomugha credits Richard Seymour with helping to change the mindset in Oakland.
Mike Reiss points out where the Pats players rank fantasy-wise.

NATIONAL NEWS

Peter King (SI) MMQB: Teaching Tebow how to be NFL QB is family business for Broncos.
Rick Gosselin (Dallas News) Looks at the turnover in starting lineups from 2009, listing the number of starters lost by each NFL team, their route off the roster (released, free agency, trade, retirement) and finally the key departure.
Paul Kuharsky (ESPN) Polian cites lack of 'system' in place. Colts are no closer to re-signing Peyton Manning than the Pats are to Brady.
John Clayton (ESPN) NFL News and Notes: Tom Brady, Mark Sanchez, Tim Tebow and some Colts' situations. (1.48 min. video)
Matt Bowen (Nat'l Football Post) Why T.O. continues to be a tough sell. WR talks character, but limitations in his game are the real issue.

Tweet Comment 9 comments | 2 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

Like what I hear from Crumpler.

My life has been a trivial pursuit. Trivia: where three roads meet.
The more you know, the more you know that you don't know.

by SlotMachinePlayer on Jun 7, 2010 10:32 AM EDT reply actions

Agreed

In fact I don’t hear any tone of any player taking anything for granted this year.

Keep the faith!

by Marima on Jun 7, 2010 10:43 AM EDT up reply actions

Unless it's from the media...

…saying Brady’s taking things for granted.

Pats Pulpit

by Richard Hill on Jun 7, 2010 11:40 AM EDT up reply actions

Last Year

I believe the PAT’s bottomed out last season with their locker room issues, poor team chemistry, and injuries [plus it was Brady’s first year back]. Even still, they ended 10-6.

I fully trust BB’s determination to win. He kept the players he felt were important. He released the players that he felt were unimportant. He drafted superbly for the second straight year, and his free agency acquisitions look superb.

This team is prime to win.

by couchpotato on Jun 7, 2010 11:28 AM EDT reply actions

Ty, Please

While the Patriots were in control of trading Vrabel, they had no control over some of the other key leaders departing. He’s overstating his case there.
They seem to be reloading, focusing on guys they can mold into the Patriot Way. Those they couldn’t have been allowed to leave, or given the ol’ Hasta La Vista, Baby.
They have some very good, young players everywhere but RB. That shift will take place next season, but with the potential (yes, key word) of the WRs & TEs they have bought transitional time.

"simul justus et peccator"

by cavman on Jun 7, 2010 2:06 PM EDT reply actions

That's not 100% accurate

The Pats could have controlled a defensive transition differently with many of the defensive players of the championship teams. But whether or not that would make the team better, that’s the real Q.

Ideally you had guys ready to step in as the value of the Veterans no longer met with their expense, in the Pats case they weren’t lined up as much as they would have liked to be.

I really think the Steelers are the only team that seem to be able to transition high profile defensive players out and have them replaced in seamless fashion (with LBs at least)

With the Pats, sure it’s great to have Vets on the team to show the Patriot way, but coaches can do that too – and when you only have so much $$ to go around is it better to keep a Gary Guyton on the roster and get a Derrick Burgess – or keep Vrabel around.

Similarly, better to keep Willie Mac around, or go after Adalias Thomas. Even though that didn’t work out for the Pats, I think it was the right move.

I also agree with Ty’s general point though, transitioning or passing the torch would have been a great thing – outside of Vince Wilfork though – it just didn’t work out.

by JonnyNYC on Jun 7, 2010 4:58 PM EDT up reply actions

Steelers LBs and Safeties spend several years on the bench learning the system

So while the names are new, the guys themselves aren’t. They invest heavily on D and then baby those players into well-moulded NFL players before they ever get significant reps on the field. It makes for a great D, but it also arguably means that those draft picks are used on guys who don’t immediately contribute… which means some units that could get players to start immediately don’t (say, the Steelers O-line, who lets Roethlisberger suffer a billion sacks and QB hits).

It’s pick your poison, and the Steelers like drafting LBs over O-linemen (at least, they did before this year).

Token southern hemisphere guy - 14,688km from Foxboro. That's 9128 miles, for you heathens.

by Comedic.Sans on Jun 7, 2010 6:52 PM EDT up reply actions

The Patriots operate the complete opposite way...

…the Pats draft for O-Liners who can contribute immediately, while going for mid-round/late-round linebackers who won’t contribute for a few years.

That’s funny.

Pats Pulpit

by Richard Hill on Jun 7, 2010 8:15 PM EDT up reply actions

I prefer the Pats way

Solely for the fact that O-linemen (and D-linemen) generally have longer careers. So you can draft a first-round guy, get an immediate starter and 10 years of service out of him, and then potentially trade him away for some value.

A LB (unless it’s Mayo) will sit on the bench for 2 seasons, and then maybe play out his rookie contract. If you’re the Steelers, you then let the guy walk and then move on with his replacement. It doesn’t seem quite as value-laden to do it the latter way, although it means you’ve got a pretty good LB corps at any given time.

Token southern hemisphere guy - 14,688km from Foxboro. That's 9128 miles, for you heathens.

by Comedic.Sans on Jun 7, 2010 9:00 PM EDT up reply actions