NFL Notebook: Brandin Cooks quietly having great start to Patriots' career

Taking a weekend spin around the NFL with a focus on the Patriots...



1. I feel like we aren’t talking enough about the fact Brandin Cooks has a chance to have a record-breaking season. (Part of that is on us in the media, and part of that is because Cooks apparently has very little regard for self-promotion, at least from what we’ve seen from him this year.) Cooks currently leads all regular pass catchers on the New England roster with an average of 19.18 yards per reception — coming into the weekend, it’s also the best in the league among all pass catchers who have at least 28 receptions. Cooks not only has a shot to lead the league in yards per catch this year, but he could also break the franchise record for yards per catch (minimum 40 catches in a season). The best in Patriots’ history was Harold Jackson, who averaged 22.51 yards per catch in 1979 (45 catches, 1,013 yards). Remarkably, Stanley Morgan topped 40-plus catches and 20-plus yards per reception three times in his New England career (in 1979, 1980 and 1981). In 1980, Morgan had 45 receptions and 991 yards for 22.02 yards per catch. Our friends over at Pro Football Reference also remind us that Cooks and Indy receiver T.Y. Hilton are the eighth and ninth players since 2000 to break 500 receiving yards in seven games with just 28 or fewer catches. He’s part of an extraordinary group that includes Randy Moss and DeSean Jackson. Impressive company for Cooks, who appears on his way to a big year.

2. Unless something crazy and/or unforeseen happens, I don’t think Rob Ninkovich is going to come out of retirement. However, it’s important to remember that it’s been done before around here — on multiple occasions, New England has had linebackers pulled off the shelf midway through the season to try and give the defense a boost. Junior Seau did it in 2008 and 2009, coming out of retirement on both occasions to join the Patriots. (That doesn’t include his decision in 2006, four days after he retired from the Dolphins, to reverse field and join New England.) In addition, while he wasn’t “retired,” Rosevelt Colvin returned to the Patriots after an extended layoff at the start of the 2008 season, joining the team for the final month of that campaign. (Those four games turned out to be the last of his professional career.) Again, not saying it’s going to happen, but there is some historical precedent there with New England.

3. Moving from one retired player to another, the news that wide receiver Anquan Boldin wanted back in this past week to play for a contender sparked some conversation about the possibility of him finally doing what he should have done years ago: join the Patriots. However, one thing that’s important to keep in mind here is that the Bills still own his rights, which means they would have to agree to a deal with New England. And while some of it depends on what is being asked for in return, if I’m the Buffalo front office, the last thing I want to do is to help a divisional rival. (Not to mention that the Bills and Patriots have made exactly one trade since Bill Belichick took over in 2000, the one that shipped Drew Bledsoe to Buffalo in 2002.) With all that to consider, I always hesitate to deal in absolutes when it comes to New England, but I’d be shocked if the two sides end up coming together on a deal that lands Boldin with the Patriots.

4. A few intriguing notes about the 2017 Patriots to this point in the season and the rest of the way, courtesy of our friends at NFL Research:

a) Through seven games, the Patriots played almost an equal number of plays with and without Dont’a Hightower. (228 with, 226 without). There needs to be some more context here, but it is interesting to see that they have given up 307 more yards with him on the field.

b) By the end of the 2017 season, Hightower will have missed 24 of a possible 96 games in his career — 25 percent.

c) The 2017 Patriots will not face a team that is currently ranked in the Top 10 in scoring offense for the remainder of the 2017 season. The rest of the their opponents, ranked in order of current scoring offense: Raiders (15th), Steelers (17th), Bills (19th), Jets (20th), Chargers (20th), Broncos (24th) and Dolphins (31st).

5. A pair of locker room exchanges stood out to me this past week: One, rookie defensive lineman Deatrich Wise was walking through the locker room, when he spotted new practice squad receiver Jake Kumerow looking like he was trying to find something. He walked right up to him, stuck out his hand, greeted him warmly and asked him if he needed help with anything. It was a small gesture, but one that spoke volumes about the kind of young man the Patriots appear to have in Wise. And two, veteran offensive tackle La Adrian Waddle was going over what appeared to be a notebook/playbook with young offensive lineman Tony Garcia. Again, a small thing, but a sizable gesture — you could argue that Garcia is fundamentally being groomed to take a spot away from someone like Waddle sooner rather than later. But there was Waddle, helping out the rookie. A lot of this sort of stuff goes on in locker rooms across the league, but if you are a Patriots’ fan, it’s the sort of thing that should hearten you whenever critics talk about the possibility of a fractured New England locker room, a la 2009.

6. We’ve talked a lot over the years about what happens when you give Belichick-coached team a couple of weeks to prepare for a game. What have the Patriots been like in the week before the bye? New England is 13-4 in pre-bye week games under Belichick, having won eight of their last nine such games. (That includes a 41-25 win over the Bills last year in Buffalo.) This week, quarterback Tom Brady acknowledged that there’s something to the idea of wanting to go into the bye week with a positive feeling. “The bye week is just really a chance to re-evaluate where you're at. Knowing that this is the last game before that you want to finish on a high note, and you want to go in feeling really good about what you've done,” he said. “But to get to 6-2 would be huge for this team, and that's what we're going to try to do.”

7. Got a good response last week when we switched up the penalty info and started pointing out the guys who had played the most snaps and taken the fewest penalties. So we’ll include that info again this time around. As a team, on Sunday against the Falcons, the Patriots took eight penalties for 65 yards, not counting those that were offset or declined. On the season, New England has 53 penalties (eighth-most in the league), and 463 penalty yards (fifth-most). Overall, here’s a look at players who have played at least 350 snaps this season and have one penalty or fewer:

Zero penalties
G Joe Thuney — 507 offensive snaps
S Devin McCourty — 471 defensive snaps
S Duron Harmon — 382 defensive snaps

One penalty
QB Tom Brady — 507 offensive snaps
G Shaq Mason — 507 offensive snaps
WR Chris Hogan — 460 offensive snaps
CB Malcolm Butler — 452 defensive snaps

Most penalized by position
Special teams: 12 penalties for 102 yards
Offensive Line: 9 penalties for 90 yards
Wide receiver: 7 penalties for 61 yards
Cornerback: 6 penalties for 84 yards
Defensive Line: 6 penalties for 40 yards
Tight end: 5 penalties for 35 yards
Team: 4 penalties for 21 yards
Linebacker: 2 penalties for 20 yards
Safety: 1 penalty for 5 yards
Quarterback: 1 penalty for 5 yards

Most frequently called penalties
Offensive Holding: 9
False Start: 6
Offensive Pass Interference: 6 (tied for most in the league)
Defensive Holding: 3
Illegal Use of Hands: 3
Defensive Offsides: 3
Illegal Block Above the Waist: 3
Running Into the Kicker: 2
Unnecessary Roughness: 2
Defensive Pass Interference: 2
Roughing The Passer: 2
Illegal Shift: 2
Illegal Peelback: 1
Interference with Opportunity to Catch: 1
Neutral Zone Infraction: 1
Illegal Forward Pass: 1
Defensive 12 men on the field: 1
Facemask: 1
Offensive 12 men on the field: 1
Delay of Game: 1
Offsides: 1
Illegal Contact: 1

(As always, thanks to NFLpenalties.com for cross-checking the information.)

8. While we’re talking about penalties, here’s a quick look at each of the officials who have worked New England games this season, and the penalty information for both teams:

Bill Vinovich: Patriots (six penalties, 55 yards) vs. Kansas City (15 penalties, 139 yards),
Craig Wrolstad: Patriots (nine penalties, 66 yards) vs. New Orleans (five penalties, 35 yards)
John Parry: Patriots (five penalties, 69 yards) vs. Houston (10 penalties, 60 yards)
Jerome Boger: Patriots (seven penalties, 55 yards) vs. Carolina (one penalty, 33 yards)
Carl Cheffers: Patriots (12 penalties, 108 yards) vs. Tampa Bay (nine penalties, 70 yards)
Tony Corrente: Patriots (six penalties, 45 yards) vs. New York Jets (six penalties, 69 yards)
Gene Steratore: Patriots (eight penalties, 65 yards) vs. Atlanta (six penalties, 40 yards)

9. Belichick and Alabama coach Nick Saban practically share a football brain, so this story on the kickoff strategy of the Crimson Tide that mentions the Patriots is hardly surprising. Apparently, Alabama is featuring kickoffs short of the end zone this season, and while Saban says it’s not something they adopted because of Belichick’s approach, it’s hard not to draw a line between the two. Of the 33 times opponents have returned JK Scott's kickoffs this season, they have started their ensuing offensive possession past the 25-yard line only seven times. That falls in line with an approach the Patriots started utilizing at the start of the 2016 season when the touchback line was moved from the 20 to the 25 — that’s when Stephen Gostkowski started popping up more kickoffs, angling to land them inside the 10-yard line or so, as opposed to driving it for more touchbacks. "We're not the New England Patriots and we're not taking the tack of trying to kick the ball short so we can get better field position," Saban said this week. While there are lots of different things to consider on kickoffs — coverage strengths, weather, etc. — it’s an interesting conversation.

10. What are you going to do during the bye week? One of my goals is to catch up on some reading, particularly books by two colleagues, Ron Borges and Tom E. Curran. Ron’s new book is in conjunction with Upton Bell, and it’s entitled “Present at the Creation: My Life in the NFL and the Rise America’s Game.” I’ve only started this one, but Bell and Borges combine to weave a terrific story about Bell’s upbringing (his father was Bert Bell, the first NFL commissioner) and his time in the game, including his time with the Patriots. (Thirty-three when he took the job with New England, he was the youngest GM in NFL history at the time.) Meanwhile, Tom worked with Julian Edelman on Edelman’s bio, “Relentless.” I haven’t finished this one, but it’s already a wildly entertaining read on Edelman’s evolution from Kent State quarterback to two-time Super Bowl champ. Good books by two really talented writers.

11. Last week, I was 9-6, and on the year, I’m 64-40. This week, I’ve got the Ravens, Vikings, Saints, Bengals, Eagles, Seahawks, Steelers, Chiefs, Patriots, Bucs, Bills, Jets and Redskins.

12. One quick personal note before we wrap up this week’s notes. We here at the Boston Sports Journal celebrated our three-month anniversary this past week, and while Greg noted some of the highlights of the first three months of our journey here, I wanted to take a second to acknowledge the tremendous response from the readers who helped get us to where we are today. Honestly, this is the first job I’ve had where I welcome the chance to venture into the comments section. Money is tight for everyone these days, and your support has been really awe-inspiring. You have my word that we will continue to work tirelessly to make sure you consider your $4.99 (or $34.99, or $74.99, or $299.99) money well-spent.