Additional thought on Paris Lenon signing

The special teams may have been giving the boost it needed. Its getting younger and faster. Plus with the new rules on wedge blocking, the depth at LB is a good thing. Probably means they carry more LBs this year.

If' he's not better then Tedy do the Pats really need him? He had 122 tackles last year, so I hope he's way more then just a special teams players. They have to replace Tedy for the love of god.

Those are probably the reasons why the Pats signed Lenon and not Tinoisamoa. Even though I wish we could sign them both and see how they do.

We need players that are going to be core members of the linebacker group. Enough already with the special team specialists. For a team with such an apparent focus on special teams you would think New England's specials teams would be better each year... Not saying they are horrible, but the Patriots are not exactly know around the league for exquisite special team play.

There are three facets of the game, people. Listen to BB and he often talkes about it. Pats have the best offense in the league by a mile, their D is vastly improved (I don't think OLB is a weakness at all. On the contrary, I think the infusion of youth will pay off huge dividends this year. ILB DEPTH may be another issue if it is exposed), so on to the third facet of the game, Special Teams. Izzo was ancient and had to go so here is his replacement (and a better LB also).

I tend to agree with CN enough of the special team specialists. You would think we had the best unit in the league. Time for a real ILB not castoffs from 0-16 teams.

I love it when sports "writers" call football players "smart". Nothing really smart there to do, see a ball, go get it, oh crap throw the ball, tackle someone. Not much brain cells needed. The fact that most those "smart" athletes can't speak proper English and barely graduate from high-school, let alone college says something, 99% of them wouldn't get into college if it weren't for that sweatshop called NCAA. Call them gifted, but please don't insult the rest of us who actually had to study to get through the educational system.

Whatevah, there's a difference between having smarts and being educated. Since you can't make the distinction, I'd say you have some of the latter and none of the former.

Hey Jess,

Actually there isn't, you cannot be educated and not be smart, they go hand in hand, you seem to not know the difference between street smarts and the smarts the writer and I are talking about. Maybe fools like you should stay silent while more educated people speak, it makes you look silly.

Let's talk when you graduate from kindergarten....

"Not much brain cells needed. The fact that most those "smart" athletes can't speak proper English"
LMAO
So this is "proper English"
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

1-Jess owns Whatevah
2-NEP had a Pro Bowl Kicker and top return team last season. They lost Izzo, Washington and Coach Seely and the league changed the rules regarding the wedge formation. YES they need more bodies for ST.

And then there are those that are neither educated nor smart, but by sheer torture to many found their way to a computer.

Whatevah,
If you are so educated, then why all the run-on sentences? You seem to love commas, but have no idea how to use them. You also need to learn how to use quotation marks. Maybe you haven't been educated on how to do that yet, but I'm sure you're smart enough to learn. And, you can be educated without being smart. Wherever you got a diploma from is proof of that.

People People Its ok when they say "smart'' player cause that's a Patriot player.When people say we sign a "smart" player that means we have someone who will produce on and off the field and will be a impact player and can play in the Patriots complex Offense & Defense and I'm excited.

Jeez..enough already with the "Tyrone McKenzie was the answer" mishugass. The guy was a third-round pick who never took a snap. For reference, previous 3rd rounders were: Brock Williams (01), Guss Scott (04), Ellis (05), Kaczur (05), David Thomas (06)...Ellis aside, not many "answers" there. It is impossible for me to believe that BB was pinning all (or even most) of his OLB hopes on Mr. McKenzie.

Whatevah, you show that you have no understanding of the game of football. Between offense, defense and special teams, it truly is more complex than chess. I know both games well enough and I can say so unequivocally. So you know, a smart linebacker will make his read correctly, not get fooled as often on misdirection plays like screens and quite often, beat the ball carrier to the point of attack; making the difference between an 8 yard carry and a 2 yard carry by opposing offenses. Tedy Bruschi was the perfect example. He was never the fastest or biggest or strongest, but he diagnosed a play so quickly that I don't think he ever blew an assignment the first five years he started.

Julius you gotta be kidding me with that response. He wasnt pinning al hopes on a 3rd rounder. However, he would have been a contributor at least on special teams and/or in the MLB rotation with Bruschi, Guyton and Mayo. And the Pats wouldnt have had to shell out more cash for a replacement player, would they? Out of the 5 ppl you named 2 have been in the rotation. Kaczur started 49 of 54 games he has been in NE. And Hobbs while not great was pretty good return man and started at corner 49 of 63 games. Just a thought

Whatevah:
There are different types of intelligence. Football players have to have sport-specific and kinesthetic intelligence to play the game at a high level. The amount of information that they have to take in (stimuli), process, and make the correct decision (response selection) in a fraction of a second under intense pressure is incredible. THEN, after they have picked the correct option out of several, they have to have enough athletic skill to make the play. Don't sell these guys short. And yes, I was the first guy to poke fun at Shawn Crable for his triple negative statement, but he is actually a pretty articulate young man who lapsed into "street speak" during the interview.

I'm pretty sure you can be educated without being "smart", and vice versa. Being "smart" relates to your ability to understand concepts quickly and put those concepts into practical use. Education simply means you studied a given area for a period of time. I know several people who went to college for 7 or 8 years in pursuit of a PhD, and they got it. These people are not particularly "smart", but they are highly educated. They can explain in great detail the root causes behind every major American war with certainty, but couldn't understand an engineering drawing if you sat with them for a month. Education means a high degree of knowledge in a particular area, whereas someone who is "smart" may not have the knowledge to begin with, but can understand concepts and apply them with relative ease.

Remember: There are plenty of people in the world with degrees in "Art History" and other such nonsense. These are very educated people, but they're still the ones asking you if you'd like fries with that.

So.....how 'bout them Pats?

Jess, how dare you express your opinion here in the land of the free and home of the brave, where - last time I checked - the 1st Amendment didn't have an asterisk after it denoting that it only applied to self aggrandizing academics. The nerve of you lower class pions. Whatevah is right, you should know your place in this new world of hope and change. Pay your taxes and shut the hell up. Oh wait, this isn't Russia, is it? In that case, Whatevah, you clueless @ss, I'll stack my common sense up against your academic standing any day of the week, and common sense tells me you're an educated idiot suffering from little-man syndrome. All the education in the world does you no good if you can't exercise sound judgement in everyday life, let alone when you're under pressure.

what Jim said..... Lenon is a smart signing. He was productive for a bad team and has decent size for an ILB. The fact that he is a special team's junkie just makes it a better fit. Hes a coaches player. I think the main difference between Pisa and Paris was, wait for it....... MONEY. Paris wasn't going to get as much as Pisa. People this signing is less to do with special teams and much more to do with Production.

Hey Whateveh:
When you are through patting yourself on the back about how smart you are, perhaps you'd like to take a crack at walking on water or feeding , you arrogant , condescending jerk .

Damn VTX--both barrels!