Welcome to first and 10, a roundup of all the (mostly) Patriots-related news you need to start your Monday. Grab your coffee and let’s get to it.
Debating what sort of prospects New England might target on draft weekend can often be a fools' errand, but if the player in question was a college captain, history says that's the sort of thing that might tip the scales in his favor when it comes to the possibility of the Patriots calling his name. In the last eight drafts, New England has made 70 selections, and 32 of them have been college captains. (Last year, that included linebacker Ja'Whaun Bentley, who was the first three-time captain in the history of Purdue football, as well as Isaiah Wynn, Sony Michel and Braxton Berrios.) While first-year players aren't asked to do much when it comes to team-wide leadership, the experience of serving as a college captain can be useful in many aspects when it comes to both rallying fellow rookies and learning how to communicate with veterans. Ultimately, while it’s not a prerequisite for joining the Patriots, history tells us it probably doesn’t hurt your draft stock in the eyes of the New England braintrust.
Now, on with the links...
1. Ton of good stuff in my weekend notebook, including an update on a player who was on IR all last season, a scouting report on what some of the LSU guys could bring to Foxborough from old pal Kevin Faulk, a scouting report on Ryan Finley from his old OC (with an eye toward him as a possible Patriot)...and much more.
2. Greg had an epic weekend Q&A that ran the gamut. Check out the transcript here.
3. Greg spent some time with Toucher & Rich on Friday and Jason McIntyre on Saturday.
4. Mike Reiss leads his weekend notebook with Matthew Slater finding meaning in spending his entire career with one team.
5. As always, we caution people to take the pre-draft visits with a grain of salt, but New England has met with EWU wide receiver Nsimba Webster, according to out pal Eric Edholm. The 5-foot-10, 180-pounder had 156 catches for 2,233 yards and 18 touchdowns as a college, and has that short-area quickness the Pats' crave -- he had a 6.7 3-cone at Washington State's Pro Day.
6. Old pal Ulrick John is visiting with the Seahawks.
7. Loved this one from the weekend -- Danny Heifetz of The Ringer has the NFL's Unretirement Index, which includes Rob Gronkowski. "I’m not betting against him returning," Heifetz writes.
8. Jets safety Jamal Adams is even more dubious than Heifetz. “He’ll be back,” Adams said of Gronkowski. “He’ll be back. He’s not fooling me.”
9. This made the rounds over the weekend -- Nick Saban talking about Bill Belichick chewing him out for coaching too much when they were together in Cleveland. "We’d have a scrimmage with the Cleveland Browns and Belichick would chew my butt out, man," he said. "He’d say, ‘Let the players play.’ I was like, ‘Wow, I’ve never had my butt chewed out before for coaching, teaching.’ But I have to say the same thing sometimes to our coaches now. Because there’s a time when you’ve just got to let the players play. Because in a game, they’ve got to know what to do, they’ve got to know how to do it."
10. Got our traditional Monday afternoon Q&A on tap for today. Get your questions in now, because it's going to be epic.
Extra Point:
From a signing at the #Clemson spring game today, this #Patriots fan is clearly convinced Clemson WR Hunter Renfrow is headed to New England soon. Wonder why?? ??? pic.twitter.com/uIVmV2GgkK
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) April 6, 2019