The New England Patriots on Monday informed longtime kicker Stephen Gostkowski of their intention to release him, a source confirmed to ESPN.
It is a move that helps the salary-cap-strapped team create more space, but leaves a notable void at the position. The move was first reported by the Boston Globe. Gostkowski, who is coming off left hip surgery that shortened his 2019 season to four games, has been the team's full-time kicker since 2006 when he replaced Adam Vinatieri. He is the franchise's all-time leading scorer with 1,775 points. Most Super Bowl AppearancesStephen Gostkowski is one of three players in NFL history to appear in at least six Super Bowls. Former Patriots teammate Tom Brady leads the way with nine appearances. Gostkowski, 36, was the Patriots' longest-tenured player once quarterback Tom Brady signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last week. Gostkowski was scheduled to count $4.8 million against the salary cap in 2020. The Patriots, who have nearly $23 million in cap charges for players not on their roster (which includes $13.5 million for Brady), don't have another kicker on their roster. Veteran Nick Folk finished last season in that role, and remains an unrestricted free agent. Gostkowski was 374-of-428 on field goals (87.4%) with the Patriots, and 653-of-664 on point-after attempts (98%). That didn't include the playoffs, where he was 31-of-36 on field goals and 79-of-83 on PATs. His strong right leg was also valuable to the team on kickoffs. With his departure, the longest tenured Patriots player is special-teamer Matthew Slater, who has been with New England for 12 seasons.
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The New England Patriots have agreed to terms on a one-year contract with veteran quarterback Brian Hoyer, a source confirms.
The Boston Globe first reported the agreement. A source told ESPN's Adam Schefter that Hoyer's contract with the Patriots is for $1.05 million. He is making $2 million from the Indianapolis Colts, who released him on Saturday, so with offset language, Hoyer will make $2 million in guarantees total this season between the two teams. Hoyer returns for his third stint with the Patriots, joining 2019 fourth-round draft pick Jarrett Stidham and five-year veteran Cody Kessler as the three quarterbacks on the roster. Stidham beat out Hoyer for the No. 2 job last preseason, which led the Patriots to release Hoyer with hopes of possibly bringing him back later in the season. But the Colts, who were scrambling after Andrew Luck's retirement, quickly scooped Hoyer up by inking him to a three-year contract to back up Jacoby Brissett. Hoyer, 34, becomes the most experienced quarterback on the Patriots' roster (38 career starts), and should be a valuable sounding board for Stidham as the Patriots assess if the youngster can fill the void created by Tom Brady signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Hoyer appeared in four games last season and made one start when Brissett suffered a knee injury. He completed just 53.8% of his pass attempts last season, throwing for 372 yards with four touchdowns and four interceptions. Hoyer started his career with the Patriots and also had stints with the Cardinals, Browns, Texans, Bears and 49ers before returning to New England last season. He has 38 starts in 69 NFL games. He started 13 games for the Browns in 2014. He has thrown for 10,274 yards with 52 touchdowns and 34 interceptions in his career. In addition to Hoyer, the Patriots also reached agreement with free-agent linebacker Brandon Copeland on a one-year, $1.05 million contract. The 6-foot-3, 268-pound Copeland has played in 60 career regular-season games with the Detroit Lions (2015-2016) and New York Jets (2018-2019). He started 14 games for the Jets over the past two seasons, with his most notable success coming in 2018 as a situational pass-rusher (5 sacks). He has totaled 107 career tackles, while also factoring prominently on special-teams units. As the QB heads to Tampa Bay, he leaves behind dozens of reporters and pundits who got their start chronicling the NFL’s 21st-century dynasty
When Tom Brady decided to sign with Tampa Bay, it was a blow to one of history’s greatest dynasties. Not the Patriots—their press corps. For the last 20 years, writing about the Patriots has been the most efficient way to get a great job in the sports media. You’d have to go back to the old Yankee Stadium press box to find a group that has enriched itself more thoroughly with national jobs, book deals, and general career enhancement. There have been choice beats before. Which one of them could bless the careers of both Dave Portnoy and David Halberstam? Bill Belichick’s sportswriting tree has fared way better than his coaching tree. Writers whose careers were improved and/or made by writing about the Pats include Ian Rapoport, Michael Smith, Albert Breer, Tom E. Curran, Mike Reiss, Greg Bedard, Michael Holley, Ben Volin, and—let’s not forget—Bill Simmons. The Patriots added volumes to the bookshelves of Halberstam, Ian O’Connor, Charles P. Pierce, and New York Times Magazine political writer Mark Leibovich. They added to the oeuvre of filmmakers like Tom vs. Time’s Gotham Chopra, and Geno McDermott, director of the Aaron Hernandez Netflix series. Patriots scandals and palace intrigues have been grist for writers like Seth Wickersham and Don Van Natta Jr., The Athletic’s Bob Kravitz, and Jeff Darlington, who insisted for months that Brady was prepared to leave New England. Rodney Harrison (former Pats safety) and Field Yates (former Pats intern) have roosted in TV jobs alongside many of their colleagues. Plus, daily Pats news feeds Globe columnists, local sports radio hosts, and the Sarlacc pit of Barstool. “You want to want to remain as objective as you can when you’re writing about it,” said Curran, the Patriots insider at NBC Sports Boston. “In my estimation, you still have to have in the back of your mind, You’re so fucking lucky. You’re so lucky you just happened to be in the right place at the right time.” Curran’s career arc is instructive. As he’s fond of saying, he didn’t “make his age” in journalism until he was 35 years old and covering the Patriots for the MetroWest Daily News in Framingham, Massachusetts. “At that point, I’d been in the business 11 years with three boys all under 3,” he said. “I didn’t know if I could keep doing the work anymore because I wasn’t making enough money. … I was actually talking to people about selling field turf.” In 2002, while Curran was covering the Patriots’ first Super Bowl win, in New Orleans, a writer tapped him on the shoulder and told him he was going to be hired by the Providence Journal. Four years later, Curran moved to NBC. By then, Patriots writing was a growth industry. Curran went from thinking about leaving journalism to writing Julian Edelman’s memoirs. “You didn’t have to go to Slippery Rock and work in TV,” he said. “You didn’t have to go to Anchorage and work at a paper. You could just stay right where the fuck you were and have this happen around you.” Sportswriters would like to think their work will get attention whether they’re covering the Patriots or the Jaguars. But the clearest path to career advancement is to cover a dynasty. That’s why national outlets’ rosters are filled with talking heads who covered the Warriors, the ’90s and ’00s Yankees, and the ’90s Cowboys. Hiring a writer off the Patriots beat is a bonus for a national outlet. It offers the outlet a chance to compete on the stories that were going to dominate their headlines anyway. On Tuesday, when the NFL Network’s Rapoport reported that Brady had a contract with Tampa Bay that would pay him as much as $30 million per year, he was completing the life cycle of a former Patriots beat writer. When a reporter covers a normal sports dynasty, he might get five years to earn promotions and a book deal. The Patriots’ dynasty has lasted nearly four times that long. The team won its first Super Bowl a few months after the September 11 attacks and waved goodbye to Brady as the coronavirus spread across America. In terms of longevity, Curran noted, he has covered the rough equivalent of Bill Walsh and Vince Lombardi’s careers combined. “You didn’t have to go to Anchorage and work at a paper. You could just stay right where the fuck you were and have this happen around you.” —NBC Sports Boston reporter Tom E. CurranYou can see generational change on the Pats beat. Michael Smith, who later became a host at ESPN, was just 22 years old when he became the Globe’s backup beat writer in 2001. The Patriots dynasty also spans an epoch of media time, before sportswriting was fully nationalized. “How were people going to get news on the Patriots in ’01, ’03, ’04 on a day-to-day basis?” said Curran. “They weren’t going to have their national reporters there, they weren’t going to have ESPN there on a daily basis. … They had to get it from us.” That, in turn, led to more promotions. Beyond piling up titles, the Patriots proved to be a rich subject for writers. The troika of Brady, Belichick, and Robert Kraft didn’t have nearly the comic potential of Reggie Jackson, Billy Martin, and George Steinbrenner. But they had their upsides. Kraft is an ideal owner to cover because he’s incredibly needy. (On Tuesday, he was telling reporters of Brady, “I love him like a son.”) Brady can be purposefully bland, but the scandals he has been involved in—or, as he tells it, have been thrust upon him—give him a kind of texture. “The villain is always far more compelling than the guy who is Mr. Perfect,” said Leibovich, who interviewed Brady for his book Big Game. “That’s why, in a weird, paradoxical way, Brady made such a great villain.” Belichick may stiff-arm beat writers and even the league’s cherished TV partners. But his remoteness has created its own alternate content stream. I can’t think of another NFL coach whose leisure photos would be a thing, maybe outside of Andy Reid. The ’90s Cowboys used to be the record holder for extracurricular activities, real and alleged, which produced mountains of journalism. The Patriots took the lead with Spygate, Deflategate, Kraft’s solicitation charges, and the Aaron Hernandez murder trial. For another franchise, Belichick’s endorsement of Donald Trump would have been a nuclear event. With the Pats, it almost gets lost. Thanks partly to such quagmires, Patriots coverage came to mimic, or maybe anticipate, the contours of political coverage. You’re pro-Pats. Or—the pro-Pats people say—you’re anti-Pats. This creates yet another meta layer of content, as Darlington, Chris Mortensen, Sports Illustrated’s Charlotte Wilder, and anyone who has been lit up on a Boston sports radio show can attest. There’s an irony to the Patriots beat being a career-maker. Teams like the Warriors and Cowboys laid out the welcome mat for reporters. Covering the Patriots is more of a chore, as if enduring those “on to Cincinnati” answers is the price of fame. “Social distancing is basically the Patriot Way placed onto society,” said Leibovich. Even with Brady gone, it’s not like the Patriots beat will fade into obscurity. “Was Brady or Belichick the Real Genius?” will be an ESPN chyron into the next presidential administration, provided debate shows are still being produced. Belichick powering an Andy Dalton–led team into the Super Bowl could produce another coverage boomlet. But in the meantime, the Patriots press corps will have to share its good fortune with some star-crossed counterparts. If there’s any life left in Brady’s 42-year-old arm, you can go ahead and congratulate Rick Stroud on his book deal right now. Patriots rookie cornerback Joejuan Williams was arrested and is facing drug charges stemming from a traffic stop in Tennessee.
According to Nashville’s NewsChannel 5, Williams, a 22-year-old rookie out of Vanderbilt, was arrested in Cumberland County, Tennessee Friday after allegedly being in possession of an “unnamed controlled substance, prescription drugs and drug paraphernalia” after being stopped for speeding. The native of Nashville was a second-round pick of the Patriots in 2019 draft. He played sparingly during the season in New England’s deep and veteran secondary. He’s expected to be a key piece of the team’s future. Williams is the second Patriots player arrested since the season ended. Julian Edelman was arrested in Beverly Hills earlier this month for misdemeanor vandalism. New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman was arrested after allegedly jumping on the hood of a car, cited for misdemeanor vandalism and released Saturday night in Beverly Hills, California, Beverly Hills PD public information manager Keith Sterling confirmed to NFL.com.
Edelman, 33, allegedly jumped on to the hood of a Mercedes, causing damage. It is unknown who the car belonged to. Edelman was released on a citation and is due to appear at the Airport Courthouse on April 13. The vandalism took place in the 200 block of N. Beverly Drive. Edelman, who will need offseason surgery on his shoulder and knees, was the most recent Super Bowl MVP, but he and the Patriots were eliminated this postseason in the Wild Card Round by the Titans. Edelman finished his 10th season in the NFL, all with the Patriots, and tallied 100 catches for 1,117 yards and six touchdowns. The New England Patriots returned to the practice fields without eight on Wednesday.
Starting linebackers Dont’a Hightower and Jamie Collins, who have 105 tackles, nine sacks, six turnovers and a pair of touchdowns between them this season, were sent home due to illness. As were defensive backs Stephon Gilmore, Joejuan Williams and Patrick Chung. And that’d just be one side of the ball on a quarantined Thanksgiving eve. Here’s the initial prognosis for Sunday’s 8:20 p.m. ET kickoff at NRG Stadium against the AFC South-leading Houston Texans. DID NOT PARTICIPATE
Houston practiced with all but one member of the active roster on Wednesday. Watkins exited the defensive line last Thursday night against the Indianapolis Colts due to a hamstring injury. LIMITED PARTICIPATION
Seven Texans were limited to begin on-field preparations, including Fuller, who worked back into the lineup with seven receptions for 140 yards last week. The wideout missed Houston’s previous three contests with a hamstring injury. FULL PARTICIPATION
Two Texans safeties have also been upgraded to full participation. Both Adams and Reid cleared concussion protocol. One of my very few good ideas is that in retirement, Bill Belichick should host a Bar Rescue–style show in which he solves the problems of flawed NFL teams. He might, say, fix the Bengals defense this week, and fly to Detroit to smooth out Matt Patricia’s many missteps the following week. I think about what Belichick would do with different teams a lot, but what I often overlook, as does the broader football world, is Belichick’s masking of the Patriots’ flaws. New England has the best quarterback and coach of all time, and together they are the best problem-solvers in the history of the sport. Flaws exist—they have for the entirety of the Patriots’ dynasty—but they either don’t last for long or don’t matter enough to knock the Patriots from contention.
I went to the Dallas–New England game on Sunday in Foxborough. I was hoping to see a Cowboys offense with elite talent go against a Patriots defense that is playing historically well. When I saw the weather that day, an unceasing and especially gross downpour, I assumed there would be no lessons to draw from the game. Often, games played in bad weather are just a battle of which team can hang on to the ball and make a few soggy, lucky plays. I was wrong. The conditions obviously inhibited both teams’ ability to move the football—presumably, in normal weather, one of the two quarterbacks would have had a rating above 71—but pouring rain or not, we got to see who the Cowboys are, and who the Patriots are: one team with Belichick and one team without Belichick. And Jason Garrett, I must stress, is very much not Belichick. Each season around this time, everyone wonders whether the Patriots have enough to win the Super Bowl. This year, the debate is about the offense. Bleacher Report wrote this week that the Patriots “finally have reason to be concerned” about their offense. On Sunday’s Fox broadcast, Troy Aikman said the Pats will eventually need more from their offense than they are getting. “At some point, the offense is going to do their share and maybe more than their share,” he said. These are valid points—the Patriots have scored a combined 30 points in the past two games. Their receiver depth at present is grim: Jeff Darlington✔@JeffDarlingtonPatriots’ wide receivers in Week 2: * Antonio Brown * Josh Gordon * Julian Edelman * Phillip Dorsett. Patriots’ likely wide receivers in Week 12: * Julian Edelman * N'Keal Harry * Jakobi Meyers * Matthew Slater The makeup of the 2019 Patriots is different than in past years, but the general theme is the same: They probably don’t have the most talented roster in football, but they have enough to win a bunch of games in the regular season, and then they will rely on their elite units (their secondary, for one), on their situational football acumen, on Brady’s heroics, and on Belichick’s game plans to be competitive through January. If Baltimore continues to win every game by 30 points, as it’s done three weeks in a row, there is probably nothing for New England to do except lock Belichick in a room with a bunch of film and pray.There are a couple of things to unpack here before we continue: The Patriots are 10-1, are about to win the AFC East, and are in the lead for home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. Their flaws, even if valid, are flaws that about 28 teams would beg to have. The other thing to mention is that no one, when given enough time, figures it out as well as Belichick and Tom Brady, who have spent the past two decades solving problems and making the solutions look easy—even when they aren’t. I learn a lot when I go to a Patriots game. Most of that knowledge comes from repackaged lessons I’ve already learned by watching them throughout their dynasty. The Patriots serve a function insomuch that they are the league’s measuring stick to see who is a Super Bowl contender and who isn’t. The Cowboys are not. The Ravens, as we learned a few weeks ago in their 17-point win over the Patriots, are very much a contender. The Patriots make almost everyone look incompetent, so if you are incompetent—and it appears Garrett might be, given the struggles of this talented Cowboys team—things look bleak when you play in New England, where the Pats have won 21 straight games. Often, a team that arrives in Foxborough with expectations leaves in a crisis. That’s where the Cowboys find themselves. After the game, Dallas owner Jerry Jones gave his most pointed criticism of Garrett yet: “This is very frustrating. It’s frustrating just to be reminded that some of the fundamentals of football and coaching were what beat us out there today.” Jones was upset about the Cowboys’ poor special teams play, especially Matthew Slater’s blocked punt that helped doom Dallas. The Patriots’ special teams prowess is by design: It’s one of those seemingly marginal areas that teams like the Cowboys don’t prioritize. Meanwhile, the Patriots do: Rick Gosselin@RickGosselin9The Patriots have 4 Pro Bowl-caliber players on the roster strictly for special teams. Not offense, not defense — special teams. Slater, Bethel, Bolden & Ebner. That roster commitment makes their special teams special. The golf podcast No Laying Up has a funny idea called the “Tiger Tax,” which essentially posits how much money Tiger Woods has made other golfers by his mere existence and popularity. Phil Mickelson, for instance, has benefited greatly from Woods’s career. Belichick has the exact opposite effect in football: His existence gets everyone else fired. This looks like it might happen in Dallas with Garrett, though possibly not until the end of the season. There is probably a universe somewhere in the multiverse where Belichick doesn’t exist, a place where the Colts have more Super Bowl wins, the Dolphins and Jets have more division titles, and a lot of coaches are held in higher regard because they never got embarrassed by Belichick. The Patriots’ season will probably come down to a few plays against Lamar Jackson in January. Planning for Jackson, an MVP candidate and one of the most dynamic players in the game, is the most important thing left for the Patriots, and it will be one of the challenges of Belichick’s career. Belichick’s game plan against Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes improved from their regular-season meeting to their rematch in the playoffs last year. Typically, Belichick feasts on young quarterbacks, but there is nothing typical about Jackson. It’s important to remember that around this time last year, the Patriots were getting their brakes blown off by the Titans and the Lions. New England lost two games in a row last December, including one to Adam Gase and the Dolphins on a last-second play. Not to be too existential, but nothing actually matters when it comes to the Patriots. The comparison I always come back to is that they operate like a casino: They have a slight edge in a handful of areas and just hammer them until those tiny edges become a massive advantage. Things as small as knowing the rules better than everyone else can be as important as Stephon Gilmore being the best cornerback in the sport. The Patriots expose your flaws because they are so good at masking their own. They don’t make mistakes. They miss tackles at among the lowest rates in the sport. They are mortal because Belichick has understood how to run a team effectively for two decades by prioritizing roster depth, positional flexibility, and scheme advantages. They do not go all in. They apply the same principles over and over again for sustained success. The Boston Herald’s Andrew Callahan wrote about tweaks the Patriots could make to their offense, namely throwing out of heavy formations and running out of spread ones. The typically forward-thinking Pats haven’t used those tricks as well as some other teams in the NFL, though they showed some new tactics against Dallas. Josh McDaniels, one of the best coordinators in football, should get as much of the benefit of the doubt as Brady and Belichick: On Sunday, they had some success running the football using misdirection. Andrew Callahan@_AndrewCallaha n#Patriots film: The Pats offense hurt the #Cowboys early with misdirection runs. Lots of trap blocks; allowing D-linemen upfield, then hitting them from unexpected angles. Michel's longest rush came from a "Crunch" run feat. 3 trap blocks. Watch the OGs and TE Matt LaCosse. The Patriots’ win over Dallas on Sunday gave them a 10-win season for the 17th straight year, an NFL record. The last time they failed to win double-digit games in a season (they won nine), it was due to losses to Jay Fiedler’s Dolphins, Herm Edwards’s Jets, and Eddie George’s Titans. The sport has turned over a handful of times since then. George is now an actor. Edwards is a college coach after a long media career. The sport of football looks completely different now, and the Patriots are its immortal contenders because they have changed with it. They have made eight straight AFC championship games and three straight Super Bowls. The Patriots are in the midst of one of the most interesting stretches of any team this season. They already put the Cowboys away, and now will face two AFC contenders, the Texans and Chiefs, in back-to-back games. The Patriots still have a one-game lead in the conference, which, as Aaron Schatz points out, is crucial not just because of home-field advantage, but because seeding will be important for the top three AFC teams—the Ravens, Patriots, and Chiefs—to avoid each other in the divisional round. Having Jackson and Mahomes play each other in the divisional round would be a nice bonus for the Pats. Obviously, it would be beneficial for the Patriots to improve dramatically on offense. But I don’t think it’s mandatory. They, and the 49ers, are still beating the crap out of teams: Stats By STATS@StatsBySTATSThe @Patriots and the @49ers are the 12th and 13th teams since the merger to outscore their opponents by 15+ PPG through 11 games. 10 of the previous 11 made the Super Bowl, and 8 of them won it.#GoPats #GoNiners The benefit of having a historically good defense bully people is you do not need all that much from your offense. Belichick solves problems, much like he has masked his relatively poor drafting these past few years with savvy trades for veterans. He currently has a few to solve: an offense that isn’t playing as well as it could, and a team in Baltimore that might, on the right day, be unbeatable. They are, on paper, some of the biggest challenges he’s ever had to solve. He’s good at that . Bill Belichick isn't going to tell you much anything about Antonio Brown. But ask him about childbirth, and he's downright chummy.
The New England Patriots have had two players -- linebacker Kyle Van Noy in Week 1 and running back James White in Week 3 -- miss games this season while their wives have given birth. Belichick was asked about this unique situation Monday on WEEI's "Ordway, Merloni & Fauria" radio show and gave a legitimately funny response. "Must have been some post-Super Bowl celebrations," Belichick said. " ... We're really pumping 'em out." Yes, Bill Belichick actually said that. Belichick's timing on that zinger is a little off -- we're only seven months removed from the Patriots' Super Bowl LIII win, which is a little early for an "victory babies." But the Patriots head coach has been understanding about his players' family matters. Belichick shouted out both Van Noy and White in the Patriots' locker room after New England won without them, and insisted to reporters Tuesday that absences due to major life events are a non-issue. "I don't think that's ever been an issue," Belichick said. "I've always talked about it with the player. It's not like it's a surprise. It's something that there's certainly a lead-up period to and communicate about it. Depending on the time, the situation, the circumstances and all that, you take everything into consideration." So, while he can deliver daggers to reporters about questions he doesn't like, Belichick isn't a total Grinch, especially when his players expand their families. https://www.yahoo.com/sports/bill-belichick-gave-quite-one-193139999.html New England Patriots left tackle Isaiah Wynn reportedly will miss at least the next eight weeks due to a foot injury he suffered in Sunday's win over the Miami Dolphins.
Per ESPN's Field Yates, Wynn is being placed on injured reserve and will be eligible to return to games after Week 9. Wynn was removed in the second quarter and ruled out for the rest of the game with a foot injury. Per NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, Wynn was diagnosed with turf toe and was initially considered week-to-week. By being placed on injured reserve, Wynn won't be allowed to practice for six weeks. The earliest he can return to game action will Week 11 when the Patriots take on the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. Until Wynn is able to return, the Patriots will likely use Korey Cunningham at left tackle. They also have veteran offensive lineman Marshall Newhouse on the roster for depth. Wynn was New England's first draft pick (No. 23 overall) in 2018. The former Georgia star missed his entire rookie campaign due to a torn Achilles he suffered during the preseason. He started each of the team's first two games this season. During Sunday night’s matchup between the New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers, Josh Gordon will play his first regular-season game since December. Sure, countless players – including those on the Patriots – are returning from longer absences due to injuries. But Gordon’s trip back to the turf at Gillette Stadium has been complicated.
During training camp, he returned from an indefinite suspension, which has consumed the better part of the last four seasons. That suspension is, in part, the result of his battle with mental health issues and addiction. While he hasn’t yet spoken with the media since joining New England, his teammates and coaches seem pleased with his presence. “Yeah, Josh has worked hard,” Bill Belichick said during a press conference on Friday when asked if he was excited for Gordon to get a chance to play. “He’s created an opportunity for himself. But, you know, I’m excited for our entire team. We’ve got a lot of guys — everybody’s worked hard, put a lot into it. It’s time to start playing. It’s time to see where we’re at. “This is what you put in all that time in the offseason (for). Training camp and OTAs and all the other things that go into it — this is what it’s for: starting regular-season games. So I think we’re all ready to go — or will be Sunday.” Because the NFL didn’t reinstate Gordon until Aug. 16, the receiver played in just the fourth preseason game with rookie quarterback Jarrett Stidham starting. Gordon looked rusty, but still managed two catches on six targets for 30 yards while drawing a defensive pass interference call worth 35 yards, which set up a Patriots touchdown on the following play. That performance came after an offseason when he couldn’t be in contact with the team, but he still logged a private workout with Tom Brady this offseason. During the quarterback’s weekly appearance on WEEI’s “Greg Hill Show,” Brady discussed what it’s been like to have limited work with Gordon while accommodating newcomers like receiver Demaryius Thomas. “We’re not a finished product,” Brady said on radio Tuesday. “We won’t be that way for a long time. We’re going to try to build every single day. Like everything else, the more you do it, the more you’re together, the more you can anticipate, the more you can have confidence and trust in one another. That’s what we’re trying to get to.” The good news is that Gordon was a quick study of the Patriots offense in 2018. That’s not always true for veteran receivers. This season, receiver Dontrelle Inman, a five-year veteran, couldn’t earn first-team reps in training camp and request his own release. Receivers Eric Decker, Nate Washington, Reggie Wayne, Chad Ochocinco and so many others have struggled with the offense. Gordon finished his first season with 40 reception for 720 yards and three touchdowns. His 18 yards per reception — and his big frame at 6-foot-3 and 225 pounds — were impressive, and could be important as the Patriots try to establish a vertical threat after the retirement of tight end Rob Gronkowski. Belichick’s controlled optimism is a good sign for Gordon as he attempts to take an increased role in 2019. https://patriotswire.usatoday.com/2019/09/06/patriots-bill-belichick-josh-gordon-created-opportunity/ |
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