Such a strange couple of weeks for the Patriots — they haven't even had a practice yet this week — so I figured it'd be a good time to roll out a meaty mailbag to hit on a variety of topics.
Questions this time touch on:
- Le'Veon Bell
- Patriots' skill position deficit in the AFC;
- The state of Julian Edelman;
- Will the bye week change affect the Patriots?
- More receivers over adding a tight end?
- Future of Thomas Dimitroff.
Does Bell have anything left and will the Patriots be interested? — John T.
Le'Veon Bell
UPDATE: Bell signed a one-year deal with the Chiefs. The Bills and Dolphins were a finalist. The Patriots were not believed to be heavily involved.
Rex Burkhead
Sony Michel
J.J. Taylor
Sony Michel
Damien
Harris
Josh Gordon, Aqib Talib
Antonio Brown
Do the Pats have a single skill position player who would start for KC? The answer is no, right? I can’t think of one. — Rob M.
Clyde Edwards-Helaire
Should we be worried about Edelman making it through the season healthy? Also, has he completely bought in this year? — Aaron J.
What will the impact be to the team's health given they didn't really get a full bye week? — Brad P.
Here is a multi-layered comment/question. I can’t get over the NFL decision to send the Patriots on a plane the day after Cam’s positive test. When that decision is compared with the Tennessee decision, to reschedule, it appears to have been influenced more by business than concern over health. This is even more notable given how things blew up in Tennessee after their initial positives. — JP
Given the lack of production from the TE position in the passing game, could we see the Pats go to more 4 receiver formations to try to spread the defense out and create more room I the running and option game (once Cam is back)? — Andy W.
Greg do you think Dimitroff will get another shot somewhere? He could really make the eyes roll when blathering on about clean eating + biking around the foothills of Boulder, CO (he’d have done really well up in the Bay Area tech world), but he did have a pretty good track record of fielding playoff to fringe playoff level (talent-wise) teams over his tenure in Atlanta.
Nick
Caserio