Former NFL kicker Jay Feely and Tom Brady go back a long way as college teammates, and they have continued to have a close relationship in the pros. Their two families have vacationed together, and Feely has such sway with the Patriots' quarterback that Brady's wife asked Feely to help convince Brady to retire.
So when he saw Brady venting his frustration with his young receivers in the loss to the Texans, Feely wasn't alarmed. In fact, he was comforted.
"I would be alarmed if I didn’t see that," Feely told BostonSportsJournal.com. "Knowing how competitive he is, knowing that’s what has driven him all these years, knowing that’s where Brady’s greatness is derived from ... if I didn’t see a feisty Tom Brady when they’re struggling, that’s when I would say, 'Uh oh, I think the end has come.' Coaching on the sideline, getting after those guys, telling them what he needs, firing them up ... if I’m a Patriots fan I’m like, 'All right, great, he’s still got the fire.' "
Feely also isn't buying that this is the end of days for this Patriots team, after losses to the Ravens and Texans.
"I would just say last year when they lost to Pittsburgh, people said the same thing; four years ago when they lost to Kansas City, they said the same thing," Feely said. "There have been so many times when people have said, ‘Oh, here comes the demise…’
"Obviously they’re struggling offensively to get on rhythm. Their whole offense is timing-based, it’s quarterback-driven. You’re looking at what the defense is doing and you’re going to find a way to be effective offensively against that defense, that particular day. So it’s not like a guy could come in and say, ‘Here’s the play, this is what I run.’ It’s all based off of what that quarterback is doing and knowing the adjustments. That takes time."
More time is exactly what Brady and his targets need, according to Feely. Mohamed Sanu was a deadline acquisition and has missed practice time with injuries. N'Keal Harry missed the first eight games. Jakobi Meyers has gone up and down the depth chart. Matt LaCosse has been battling a high-ankle sprain the entire season. Even Phillip Dorsett is playing new spots in the passing attack.
"I just think they’re going to continue to figure it out," Feely said. "Those young receivers will grow and learn every day in practice. You can say, 'Every game we struggle.' But as Brady said, 'Hey, we’re 10-2,' and that’s exactly what I thought … they’re 10-2 and struggling but they have a great defense and great special teams.
"If they can continue to figure it out into the playoffs ... Now, will they go all the way? I don’t know, I love what Baltimore’s doing. I've done a number of their games and Kansas City is so dangerous. You look at those teams and say, ‘Can they beat the Patriots?’ Sure they can. Can the Patriots beat them? Absolutely. History has proven that."
Place kicking and the NFL
Did a big feature this week for Vegas on the state of kicking the NFL, and obviously it has been historically bad. The field goal percentage is at a 13-year low, and the percentage drop off from last season to this one is the largest in NFL history.
It's most likely just a one-year anomaly, but Feely had some great perspective on Patriots-related things that didn't make the story.
Since Stephen Gostkowski isn't getting any younger, the Patriots may need to find a new kicker as soon as this offseason. Feely has thoughts on how to do that.
"If I were a GM, I would never draft a kicker. If I’m going to go the young route, I’m going to sign the best two guys I think I can get as free agents, bring them in, put them in pressure situations against each other and try to evaluate them through training camp to see who is going to handle that the best. Even put somebody on the practice squad and if one guy struggles, be ready to make a switch and you have him there and you haven’t cut him.
Ever wonder why Bill Belichick never brings in competition for Gostkowski? Maybe this relates to that.
"I talked to a couple coaches this offseason and they said they were going to go with these kickers. I said, ‘Well, is he your guy?’ They said, ‘Yeah, he’s our guy.’ And I said, ‘Then don’t bring anybody in to compete with him in training camp. Because he’s the kind of guy you have to build him up and every day you tell him, ‘You’re our guy,’ and you have to fill him with confidence. If you want him to be your guy, then that’s kind of the way you have to handle him. You have to know each guy that way. Some guys you have to bring competition to camp."
Gostkowski was brought up when it came to explaining the flameout of former Tampa Bay second-round pick Roberto Aguayo.
"The reason I think it’s so hard to identify kickers is that you have people doing the identifying that don’t know what to look for. Roberto Aguayo, I think, is the perfect example of that.
"The talent evaluators looked at his percentages in college and thought, ‘Oh, he’s going to be a great kicker in the NFL for sure, look at his percentage.’ You kept hearing, ‘The most accurate kicker in the history of college football.’ Well, that’s because you’re factoring in extra points on that. When you looked at his percentage over 40 yards, it wasn’t very good. And if you knew kicking and looked at his mechanics, they weren’t very good and were very much timing-based.
"He came way across the ball so he had to hit it perfectly on time to be consistent. When you get into a situation where you start to struggle and your confidence wanes, that has an impact very much even more so with those timing kickers. When you take a guy like a Tucker or Gostkowski who have great form and don’t come across the ball, they come up through the ball, when they struggle, they can rely on their form and their form is going to get them through those moments so. Most GMs and player personnel guys, for sure most special teams coaches, they don’t know how to look at the mechanics and know how they translate."
Big-matchup NFL weekend
A note on each of the big games this weekend...
Ravens at Bills: Expect Baltimore offensive coordinator Greg Roman to have a little extra juice for the Bills, a team that fired him without much of a reason two games into the 2016 season. In his first season in Buffalo, with Tyrod Taylor as his quarterback, the Bills ranked No. 1 in the NFL in rushing, No. 12 in scoring and went 8-8.
49ers at Saints: This matchup features the No. 2 rush offense (Niners) against the No. 3 rush defense (Saints). The Niners averaged 5.4 yards per carry in those first seven games, but just 4.0 in the last five. Since Week 4 against Dallas, the Saints have only allowed two teams (Atlanta, Carolina) to break 100 yards rushing against them. But linebackers A.J. Klein (knee) and Kiko Alonso (thigh) have been ruled out.
Chiefs at Patriots: In his past three games, Brady has completed 51.2 percent of his passes for 732 yards, four touchdowns, and an interception. Three of those touchdowns came in the final 15:17 of Sunday night’s game when the Texans were well ahead.
Rolling Ravens
So much for early-season losses to the Chiefs and Browns. The gang at FootballOutsiders.com had this to say about the Ravens:
The Ravens are currently ranked in the top four in all three phases of the game and are bidding to become just the seventh team to ever finish in the top five in DVOA for all three phases. The others: 1985 Chicago, 1991 Washington, 1992 Philadelphia, 1996 Green Bay, and 2012 and 2015 Seattle. The Ravens are also climbing on our weekly table of the best teams in DVOA history. Through 12 games, the Ravens are the best team since the 16-0 Patriots of 2007.
“One of the greatest plays I’ve ever seen in the NFL.”@TwentyER the ?.
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— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) December 7, 2019