Welcome to first and 10, a roundup of all the (mostly) Patriots-related news you need to start your Thursday. Grab your coffee and let’s get to it.
IT'S A SUPER REMATCH. PATRIOTS. EAGLES. (Cue colliding helmets and explosion....)
Yeah, not so much. It should be fun for a few reasons, though, including the chance to see Tom Brady in the preseason for the first time this summer. We'll have our preview up shortly.
--Go be a part of our Patriots-Eagles watch party tonight at the Scoreboard Sports Bar & Grill.
--Happy 25th Birthday, Trey Flowers! And Happy 49th Birthday to Ben Coates. I have a long-running debate -- I consider Coates the third-best tight end in franchise history behind Rob Gronkowski and Russ Francis. My friend says Coates was better than Francis. Tell us who's right:
[democracy id="14"]
Now, on with the links...
1. Greg and I picked our 2018 training camp award-winners -- a bunch of superlatives we feel help paint am accurate picture of what happened in Foxborough for the last couple of weeks. Some good stuff in here, as well as some fun notes too.
2. Miguel delivers his latest salary cap recap, which looks at the Patriots saving a few bucks over the last few days.
3. Our buddy Phil Perry has what to watch for Thursday night in Brady's first game since the Super Bowl.
4. The Camera Guys get some quality time with Pat Chung.
5. Mike Reiss lists the guys who are unlikely to play Thursday night because of health issues.
6. Thursday marks another chance to see Brady and Nick Foles square off, as both are expected to play for the first time this summer.
7. Gordon McGuinness of Pro Football Focus has Julian Edelman as having one of the Top 5 wide receiver contracts for 2018. (PFF's measuring stick? Who are best players under the lowest amount of guaranteed, annual money and which of those athletes had been standouts at their respective positions.) McGuinness writes of Edelman: "One of Tom Brady’s favorite targets, Edelman missed the 2017 season due to injury. If you go back to 2016 though, his dominance from the slot really stands out. His yards per route run average from the slot ranked fourth among wide receivers at 2.42, and he dropped just five of the 68 catchable passes thrown his way when lined up inside. Edelman is suspended for the first four games of the 2018 season, and of course, questions remain as to how well he can perform coming off a torn ACL."
8. Writing for NFL.com, Adam Schein says the Patriots have the ninth-best defense in the league. "OK, let's be honest: The talent is relatively weak here," writes Schein. "But there's no chance I'm leaving a Bill Belichick-coached unit off this list. The guy is the greatest coach in sports history for a reason. He'll find a way to keep points off the board."
9. In case you missed it, Jalen Ramsey pretty much took a blowtorch to every quarterback in the league, save for Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady and ... well, that's probably about it. He also doesn't sound like he's completely sold on Jimmy Garoppolo. "I don't know yet. Just cause when they beat us, his hype picked up. They were like, 'He beat the number one defense.' It was all schemes. He didn't beat us. It wasn't like he diced us up. It was literally all schemes. They were doing flat routes to the wide open fullback, and he's running for 20 yards down the field four times during the game... So he didn't really dice us up. It was their fullback and their tight end on over routes. But if you know how to work within your scheme then it means you're good. I guess you could say he's good."
10. J.J. Watt says there's "no doubt" he'll be ready to play Week One against the Patriots.
Extra Point: In the wake of Ramsey's comments, this was interesting to see, straight from a league account.
Based on @jalenramsey comments in @GQMagazine, here is how he fared against each QB organized by his reviews.
Opposing ?QBs: 3 TD, INT, 87.2 passer rating when Ramsey was in coverage
Opposing ?QBs: TD, 5 INT, 69.0 passer rating when Ramsey was in coverage pic.twitter.com/YXANjozGF1
— NFL Research (@NFLResearch) August 15, 2018