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TEAM TALK
- John Rooke’s View from Above: The road is well-traveled, but are we there yet?
- Andy Hart tackles this week’s Ask PFW Mailbag: Ready for a Super Bowl run?
LOCAL LINKS
- Matt Dolloff believes nobody wants to come to Foxboro to face the Patriots right now.
- Ryan Hannable considers who the Patriots should want to play in the divisional round.
- David Latham (LastWordOnSports) Patriots Wild Card rooting guide.
- Mike Dussault (PatsPropaganda) Pats Posits: Here we go again.
- Tom Keegan knows Trey Flowers will be in great demand, but if he doesn’t sign with the Patriots, it won’t be because the man in charge doesn’t try really hard to keep him.
- WEEI guest Rob Ninkovich makes a ‘strong case for why the Patriots should prioritize locking up free-agent-to-be Trey Flowers instead of going after Jadaveon Clowney’.
- Matt Dolloff says it looks like Tom Brady found a groove, just in time for the playoffs.
- Doug Kyed’s Patriots 2018 Advanced Stats: A deeper look at how players performed this season. Cordarrelle Patterson, Trey Flowers shine.
- 98.5 Sports Hub picks James White as the 2018 Patriots player of the year.
- NESN picks its Patriots 2018 season superlatives: Defensive players dominate year-end honors.
- Chad Finn picks 11 superlatives from the Patriots regular season.
- Andrew Callahan notes New England veterans say the Patriots defense ran more packages and disguises in 2018 than at any point in their careers.
- Sam Smith (FullPressCoverage) Grading 2018 AFC quarterbacks. Brady A-.
- Dean Williams (FullPressCoverage) Ranking the defenses 2018 playoffs AFC. Pats 5th.
- Michael Hurley considers Voodoo and Jedi mind tricks when trying to explain why terrible, terrible things have happened to teams that have beaten Bill Belichick’s Patriots this year.
- Ryan Hannable relays Bill Belichick praising the referees for how good they are. “...all of the officials – they have such a hard job to do.” /Same way he praises the Jets.
- Chad Finn offers three predictions for each Boston sports team for 2019.
- Devon Clements (PatriotsWire) Tom Brady didn’t earn any of his performance bonuses for 2018.
- Eric Wilbur says if Josh McDaniels wants the perfect situation, it might not be in Green Bay.
NATIONAL NEWS
- Robert Mays (The Ringer) The five biggest questions heading into Wild Card Weekend.
- Staff (ESPN) NFL playoffs confidential: Players and coaches talk strategy, tell all. /Pfffttt....
- Chris Roling (Bleacher Report) Every NFL playoff team’s biggest cause for concern. Patriots: Rob Gronkowski.
- Will Brinson (CBS Sports) 2019 NFL playoffs bracket projection: Chargers beat the Pats in the divisional round. Chargers over Saints in Super Bowl.
- Lorenzo Reyes (USA Today) NFL playoffs X-factors: What will tip wild-card matchups?
- Danny Kelly (The Ringer) If the Ravens defense storms through the playoffs, don’t say we didn’t warn you.
- Michael Renner (Pro Football Focus) 2018 PFF NFL All-Pro Team. RG Shaq Mason, CB Stephon Gilmore and ST Albert McClellan make the first team.
- Eric Adelson (Yahoo! Sports) Why Drew Brees deserves the NFL MVP award and probably won’t get it.
- MMQB Staff (SI) NFL Awards 2018: The MMQB honors for MVP, Rookies of the Year and More.
- Kevin Clark (The Ringer) The curse of a salary cap-eating quarterback.
- Mike Florio (ProFootballTalk) Will owner, G.M., assistant coaches take leap of faith with Josh McDaniels, again?
- John Breech (CBS Sports) Five NFL teams eligible for ‘Hard Knocks’ and one of them would be a perfect fit: The Raiders.
- Mike Florio (ProFootballTalk) Will NFL investigate Steelers for “overt lying” on injury report?