NFL Notebook: Veteran Matt Slater discusses offseason drama and where Patriots stand as summer looms

In this week's edition of the NFL Notebook, we look at how one guy who was out of the mix all last season is working his way back and just how long it's been since the Patriots have had two of their most indispensable offensive guys in the lineup at the same time. (And the fact that streak could get even longer in 2018.) We also wonder: Where is all the offseason trash talk? But first, we go one-on-one with Matthew Slater -- one of the most respected guys in the New England locker room -- on whether or not the offseason drama has had any sort of impact in Foxborough.

1. There are few guys in the Patriots' locker room who have a better handle on the pulse of the team than special teams captain Matthew Slater. Steady and well-respected, he knows the ebbs and flows that come with a football calendar, and is well aware of when a team gets too high or is in danger or getting too low. With that in mind, I tracked down the esteemed veteran this week at mandatory minicamp to get his sense of how the team has handled what has become one of the more eventful offseasons in recent franchise history.

“I’ll say this — I do feel like we’re a group that likes being together. We enjoy being around one another. And that’s got to count for something,” he told me when asked how his teammates are handling everything that's being thrown at them. “But when it comes to football and X's and O’s, we’re so far away, that it’s really hard to project where we will be. I don’t like to get into that anyway. But I think we have the right attitude. We understand that we need to get better. We need to come out here and work every day to get better. No one is complacent. As long as we keep that attitude, we’ll give ourselves a chance to get better every day, and that’s the name of the game at this time of the year.”



Slater, who has been with the Patriots since 2008, is self-aware enough to realize that there are many outside elements at play here. New England has famously boasted of being able to put the blinders on and ignore outside distractions. When asked about the potential for something to derail this team — whether it’s the reported dysfunction between the coach and quarterback, PED suspensions, or the Curse of the Super Bowl loser — he sounded a familiar theme.

“We’ve been able to handle it so well, year in and year out. There’s always something surrounding this football team. That’s the nature of pro sports. That’s the nature of being on a team that has had some success in this league,” he said. “We do a great job of focusing on the things we can control. The things that are being said, written, reported on about individuals or our team, we can’t control that. All we can do is control what we can control. And that has to be the emphasis going forward.”

2. One of the things that struck me this past week when hearing LeBron James compare the Warriors to the Patriots is the fact the New England football dynasty has now gone on so long, it's moved from one comparison to another. I can recall when the go-to sports analogy was the Patriots and Spurs. Both had long-term success that was based at least in part on a harmonious relationship between the owner, coach and star player. Both organizations built around their star, who was willing to subjugate his ego in deference to the team. And both had an owner who helped navigate the whole process. Now, the Warriors have emerged as the comparable team, which means the Patriots’ current run of success has gone on so long, we’ve all had to shift our line of thinking and come up with new analogies to put their sporting success into some sort of context. It’s been fascinating to see it evolve, and makes me wonder if New England, even with everything that's happened this offseason, will be able to figure out a way to keep the championship window open long enough where the Patriots will be able to be compared with a third NBA team somewhere down the road.

3. If Julian Edelman ends up sidelined for the first four games of the 2018 season, it will continue an amazing streak for the Patriots and their skill position players. No one will cry any tears for New England, but it’s important to note that the offense hasn’t had what you might call its full complement of talent since Nov. 27, 2016. That was the last game where the Patriots had a healthy Edelman and Rob Gronkowski in the lineup at the same time. (For what it’s worth, you can also put holdovers like running back James White and wide receiver Malcolm Mitchell in that conversation as well.) In all, New England has gone 27 consecutive games — including the postseason — without having Edelman and Gronkowski on the field together. If the receiver is indeed suspended for the first four games of 2018, that string would stretch to 31, almost two full seasons worth of football. That’s a remarkable run of bad timing for the Patriots’ offense, but it’s also a compliment to Tom Brady and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels in that without one of their top two pass catchers in the lineup for the last 27 games, New England has still averaged 26.3 points per game in that time.

4. Speaking of Edelman’s potential suspension, one thing we didn’t address here when it comes to who might be in line for more work if he’s gone for four games is at punt returner. The spot was already up in the air, because there’s a strongly held belief that no matter how good Edelman is at punt returns — and his average of 11.7 yards per return is one of the best in the game among regulars over the last decade — he’s become too important to the offense to risk using him there. With Edelman out last season, Danny Amendola did it last year. But now that he’s in South Florida, it’s an open competition. One guy who appeared to emerge a bit over the course of minicamp was youngster Riley McCarron, who was on the practice squad last year, but has popped a bit this spring. He does have a history of working as a returner — we went deep on a profile of him here — and that special teams value could help distinguish him in the battle for a roster spot at the back end of the wide receiver depth chart. It’s also worth noting that he was in Brady’s ear for a part of Thursday’s minicamp. Not saying he’s going to become a Pro Bowler this season. Only that with the possible loss of Edelman, his chances of a larger workload will increase, especially given his special teams resume.

5. We’ve followed what we call the big board of Brady’s favorite receivers over the years, and this is probably as good a time as any to revisit who stands where when it comes to career receptions via Brady. (One more reminder — these are not career totals, but only catches from Brady.)

[table id=62 /]

A couple of things stick out: One, Gronkowski can surpass Wes Welker this season, provided he has a big year. It’s something that would have been considered impossible a few years ago. And given how much longer Brady might be playing, it could be enough to put him in first place for good. And two, James White is just outside the top 10 (he’s at 144 career catches from Brady). If Edelman is out for the first four games and he continues to have the same level of chemistry with the quarterback as we’ve seen the last year-plus and in camp this summer, he could he somewhere in the 200-catch neighborhood by the end of the 2018 season. (Just so we're all clear, we tabulated this information and then cross-checked it with Pro Football Reference.)

6. His name gets lost in the plethora of talent that’s set to return on defense this season for the Patriots -- including Dont'a Hightower -- but don’t sleep on tackle Vincent Valentine. After a solid rookie year where he eventually became part of the front seven rotation, a knee injury robbed him of the entire 2017 season. Now, the 6-foot-3, 320-pounder is back on the practice field with his teammates. At the recently-concluded three-day minicamp, it was clear the Patriots were managing his reps, but he certainly popped as an interior presence on multiple occasions. The 24-year-old knows he still faces a long road back, but at this point, he’s just happy to be back doing anything resembling football activities. “It’s a blessing to even be back out here, with everything that was going on,” he told me. “I’m just coming out here every day trying to get better and show the coaches I still have a passion for the game, and I’m trying to work and get better each day. This is a blessing to me and I’m just trying to take advantage of it.” Like Hightower, who said he learned more about himself as a player when he was on the shelf, Valentine took advantage of his downtime with some extra study work, which included watching film on some other defensive linemen around the league to try and pick up some moves. “I just got in the film room more, and just got a bigger appreciation for the game than anything,” he said. “When you’re out there and grinding, you’re tired. You don’t really appreciate it as much because you’re in it. But when you’re out of it, you just learn to appreciate the game more.”