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This Jake Bates guy should get a kicker gig in the NFL

Let's pretend hypothetically for a moment that you're right, and it's not happening. If it's not happening, why do you have a problem with banning it?

Drake Maye QB - Toss Up: The team has said and done all the right things as far as not forcing Maye into the lineup and understanding that he needs to be developed. Whether you’re of the belief that Maye needs to sit for an entire season or he needs to learn on the fly in NFL games, we all agree he has to clean up his game to a degree. That said, I think the team’s letting this be a legitimate QB competition, and that they’re happy having Jacoby be the guy at Week 1 if that’s what Maye needs. They’re also willing to let Maye outright win the job if he shows it, although it’s a little unclear if he’ll show what he needs to in order to do so. Ja’Lynn Polk WR - Decent Odds: The Patriots kind of find themselves in a logjam of “meh”. They recently re-signed Kendrick Bourne, who can moonlight at any of the WR positions you want to put him at. they signed KJ Osborn, who they seemed really excited about bringing in. Pop Douglas, last year’s rookie, flashed some potential last year as the team’s slot WR. JuJu is, for now, still on the team and can also play Y or Z. So where does Polk fit? Probably as the ideally as the Z (he could be an X too) which is where most of the Pats’ vets rest their laurels too. He’ll have to be them out, but I don’t think that that’s going to be tough to do. I’m not sure he’s a Week 1 WR1/WR2, but I think he’ll be in the mix by the start of the season. Caedan Wallace T - Coin Toss: Upside? Pretty solid athlete, fine size, tons of experience starting games in college. Downside? All those games were at RT. NE is set at RT with Onwenu manning the station, so Wallace will be in a camp battle with other former RT, Chuks Okorafor. Despite seeing virtually nothing of either guy at LT, the team thinks both are athletic enough to make the switch, and may the best man win. Personally, I’ve been hoping the team brings in another LT like Charles Leno, but if they sit tight, then the rookie’s just going to have to beat out Okorafor for the starting LT job. Layden Robinson G - Unlikely: Robinson’s been a bit of an inconsistent player at the collegiate level, and while NE can use an upgrade at either guard spot, I think they’ll sit tight and run with Cole Strange and Sidy Sow to start the season. Javon Baker WR - Unlikely: Love me some Javon Baker, but I think it’ll be tough for him to beat out Bourne/Osborn/Polk for a Week 1 start. That said, he’ll probably walk in as the best downfield player on the team, so it’s possible they get his speed out there on the field. He’ll be a factor during the season, I imagine. Marcellas Dial CB - Zero: No chance he starts the season without a massive rash of injuries and an insane camp. Joe Milton QB - Zero: No chance he is the Week 1 starter…even with injuries. Jaheim Bell TE - Zero: While I think there’s an outside shot he may see a couple snaps on offense early in the season, being the outright starter at TE isn’t realistically possible without injuries to both Henry and Hooper.

That does seem like a massive turnover as if Kwesi is making such huge changes but in that time span I think it is pretty common in the NFL. One also has a have new HC and new coordinators as well that want to bring in their guys. But just look at the Bears with Ryan Poles hired as a new GM for them at the same time Kwesi was hired 2022, bringing in a new staff with Eberflus etc. Below are their returning players since the change still on the roster, even less than the Vikings unless I missed some. Cole Kmet, Larry Borom, Jaylon Johnson, Teven Jenkins, Patrick Scales

Yeah. And this is likely the last year for Bradbury, DePaola, Ham, Jones II, and Smith. And we’ll see what they do with Cam Bynum.

Hard to say exactly. They had to be pretty conservative quite due to the emphasis on ball control and an OL that didn't help a little either. Really aggressive, stout press could mess his routes up but he beat them often enough that you didn't see a ton of it without a safety directly above him. If you were in soft coverage Ricky was really good at setting you up to get to where he wanted to go. They made a lot of effort to use Pearsall to get drives going though, to try and get Mertz in a rhythm. Bubble screens, slants from the slot, used him a fair bit in motions. Mertz struggled a lot on ball placement, some games, you'd see him throw curls at his WRs knees repeatedly or bubble screens behind them. How he put up a 20/3 TD/INT ratio is beyond me. I think what he did best was find soft spots in zones. He has a really good feel for that. You can see on crosses or ins he will adjust to give a bigger window, or help lead away from an undercutting LB. If there is a true weakness that would be how he sometimes dances too much on the LOS. Mertz and him didnt have a great connextion so sonetimes the ball got to him and he wasnt ready for it (thats more on him than Mertz). You'll see a few times where he will take an outside leverage and not drive up field much before running his out route, and that makes it way easier to defend. Its a major pet peeve of mine but a pro coach shoukd be able to fix it really easily. I'd like to see him be more physical vs the press rather than trying to outshift everybody. He is strong enough to win vs press outright a lot of the time, just defaults to finesse. Shanny runs a lot of plays that depend on timing so I have no doubt they will make him adjust and speed up his dances. I think mostly defenses knew FLA wasn't going to do a lit vertically so safeties sat down a lot. They SHOULD have chucked a few more just to keep them honest but when things clamped down Ricky could get lost in the muck. He's not much of a box put guy and defenses started really keeping someone over him as the season went on. I see a lot of Calvin Ridley and Terry McLaurin to him as far as his play style.

Well then

We figured our Mr Tako replacement?

Well, most rappers aren't this easy to diss. According to Kendrick, Drake has multiple kids he's hiding, is a pedophile, runs a sex trafficking ring in TO, etc...If all of this is true, it was stupid of Drake to respond because there's no way he can win a beef with this much ammo against him.

Apparently, it's being played in clubs. A minorrrr Geez, I thought Kendrick should stop, but he may very well shatter Drake's image at this rate. Not sure Drake wants anymore smoke. This is crazy.