Patriots Pass Rush Potential
This writer had the good fortune of being “on the ground” at Patriots minicamp on Wednesday. Leading up to that practice, there had been a lot said by the coaching staff about Keion White. He was more vocal. He was more comfortable. Reporters wrote about White showing flashes.
Then came Wednesday.
We understand that it’s early. It was a minicamp. There are no pads. But, White showed up several times on Wednesday. He seemed to be a headache for multiple offensive linemen. Based on the spring, it wouldn’t be outrageous to have some excitement over White’s 2024 potential.
With his size and athleticism, it’d be understandable to dream of White becoming an impact player in his sophomore season. IF that impact does indeed happen, it makes us wonder how much better the Patriots' defense can actually be this year.
In the 2023 season, due to the injury to Matthew Judon and a few other factors, the Patriots blitzed at the fourth-highest rate in the NFL (35.2%). That’s right, the Patriots sent an extra rusher on more than one-third of the defensive snaps.
Which begs the question: What happens if they can get pressure without sending extra bodies?
With Judon expected to return from his biceps injury and the blossoming of Christian Barmore, White becoming an impact rusher would certainly cause any offensive line some distress. Picture this: Judon and White creating pressure off the edge, while Barmore stresses the interior of the offensive line with his own pass rush. That’s a pretty fun picture to paint.
Furthermore, if DeMarcus Covington doesn’t have to be as aggressive calling blitzes as Steve Belichick was in 2023, that would really open up the ability to be incredibly creative on the back end of the defense. Exotic coverages. Dramatic changes pre-snap to post-snap.
The 2024 schedule is daunting. It’s full of top-10 quarterbacks. Some of those quarterbacks will face the defense twice due to divisional matchup. The Pats won’t be competitive, unless the defense is not just competitive, but very good.
We don’t think it’s bananas to believe they can get to that level.
The 2023 defense was top-10 in DVOA with Christian Gonzalez and Judon missing the majority of the season. Both are returning. They will be joined by a versatile and talented DB also returning from injury, Marcus Jones. Meanwhile, Barmore is on the precipice of being a top five-to-eight IDL, White could be ready to become a significant impact defensive piece and the defensive coaching staff could have the opportunity to wreak havoc with their playcalling.
Celtics Coaching Staff: Keeping Guys Ready
As the Celtics have continued their run, attention has been mostly focused on the starting five and rightfully so. Players make plays. Plays decide games.
Aside from the players, the light will also intermittently be shone on the Head Coach. They get feature stories written about them. They are interviewed in post-game media sessions. We’ve got no issue with any of that, especially when you coach as well as Joe Mazzulla has during this run.
But, there are others who deserve praise, and we’re not even writing about the man who put this roster together and chose Mazzulla: Brad Stevens (That column will most likely come at a later time).
No, we’re discussing the assistant and development coaches. Those who put in as many hours, if not more, than everyone else. If you haven’t noticed, this staff is LARGE. The Celtics have four assistant coaches, not named Charles Lee or Sam Cassell. In addition, they have six player enhancement coaches. And, they also employ Jeff Van Gundy as a “Senior Consultant.” Yeah, it’s a packed house.
That packed house is responsible for not only developing players, but also keeping them focused and engaged. No matter what the circumstances, they need to hold the “stay ready group” accountable. And, it’s objectively obvious, the staff has done their job well.
From Luke Kornet to Payton Pritchard to Sam Hauser to Xavier Tillman, we’ve seen significant contributions throughout this season. Tillman’s impact on Game 3 Wednesday night is the latest example. Tillman had played in six of the prior sixteen playoff games. In half of those six games, we would characterize his minutes as “garbage time.” Yet, there was Tillman rebounding, defending, and hitting a corner-three during an impressive eleven minutes in the NBA Finals.
Yes, Tillman deserves credit for his professionalism and preparation. And, yes, it’s ultimately up to the player to perform. But, don’t overlook the coaching staff’s role in keeping him ready and helping him prepare, so he could perform the way he did.
John Henry Strikes Out
The Red Sox continue to hover around .500. And, frankly, that’s commendable given the amount of injuries they’ve suffered to significant pieces of their roster. The players and staff have done as well as they can to keep the train on the tracks, considering who is being asked to do what on a daily basis.
Meanwhile, the team’s owner is busy embarrassing himself and the franchise. Again. John Henry recently took part in an email interview with the Financial Times.
In that interview, Henry addressed fan expectations, writing, “...fans expect championships almost annually…they easily become frustrated and are not going to buy into what the odds actually are: one in 20 or one in 30."
Let’s attack this quote, before we move on to a second.
Henry completely misses the mark. The fan base is not expecting championships “almost annually.” The last Sox World Series title was in 2018. By our count, that’s six years ago. Furthermore, this is a franchise that’s finished last in the AL East in three of the last four years. Their performance was so disappointing that they decided to fire Chaim Bloom.
We’d also say fans being frustrated over being in the basement 75% of the last four years is understandable. We’d certainly not say that a fan who is frustrated after such results have reached that level of frustration “easily.”
The truth is that it certainly seems like the owner has become easily content with fielding a last place team.
Unfortunately, Henry wasn’t done.
Regarding Tom Werner’s “full throttle” comments last winter, Henry wrote, “(Werner's comments) overshadowed every other word, paragraph and interview of the winter because it reaches so deeply into the false belief that many fans and media have that you should mortgage the future each year for the present. You have to base acquisitions and dispositions on the future, not the past. That is unpopular generally."
Another massive swing and a miss by Henry.
The vast majority of the frustration from fans is due to a lack of spending. Regrettably for Henry, Boston sports fans have great memories. They haven’t forgotten the trade of Mookie Betts and the promises that were made shortly thereafter. They were led to believe after a luxury tax reset, the Sox would go back to spending money. You know, like when they were winning titles.
But, instead, what they saw this last offseason was the “a penny in means a penny out” approach. Another winter from the “interest kings.” Not many, if any, to this scribe’s recollection, were angry at Craig Breslow for not trading Marcelo Mayer, Kyle Teel, or Roman Anthony. That’s a strawman’s argument and the owner conflating separate team building methods in a failed attempt to strengthen his finger-pointing toward the fans.
Or, it’s the words of an out-of-touch owner. Maybe Henry just doesn’t understand why the fans are frustrated, because he’s been so focused on building the Fenway Sports Group empire. Would anyone be shocked if that were the case? This is an owner who speaks to the fans via email, while consistently failing to take any public responsibility or accountability for its many failures over the last four years.
Next time, John, don’t even hit reply.