Daily news and links for Tuesday
TEAM TALK
- Patriots 2025 Mock Draft Tracker: Here’s what the ‘experts’ are predicting New England will do in the in first round.
LOCAL LINKS
- Matt Geagan takes a look at Mike Vrabel’s coaching staff so far.
- Doug Kyed fleshes out the latest round of coaching hires including Doug Marrone, Thomas Brown, Jason Houghtaling and Milton Patterson.
- Sean T. McGuire gives us four takeaways after the latest flurry of coaching hires. 1. A heavy hitter in the trenches.
- Karen Guregian says Vrabel’s staff has a different vibe, night and day from its predecessor, and that’s a good thing.
- Alex Barth points out which players will be impacted the most by the hire of Josh McDaniels.
- Sean T. McGuire resets the Patriots’ offensive coaching staff after the latest reports.
- Conor Ryan ranks the top 6 offseason needs for the Patriots this spring: Help at offensive tackle and an upgrade at wide receiver are two objectives on New England’s offseason to-do list.
- Ryan McLaughlin explains why the Patriots can’t afford to whiff on upgrading their WR room for 2025.
- Sean T. McGuire shares what New England can learn from the Super Bowl-Bound Eagles. The Birds have excelled in all areas of roster construction with home runs in the NFL draft, free agency and via trade.
- Jerry Thornton talks about the NFL planning to address the problem of Patrick Mahomes ruining football with his flopping and sliding. /Accurate portrayal, lol.
- Nick Goss gives us a 2025 NFL mock draft roundup and explains how the Pats can learn from the Chiefs defense.
- Conor Roche relays draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah, who projects the Patriots selecting standout LSU OT Will Campbell in the latest mock draft. “The Patriots must help Drake Maye on the offensive line.”
- Michael DeVito issues his first Patriots 7-round Mock Draft: Pats load up on both sides of the ball, pick Colorado CB/WR Travis Hunter at No. 4.
- Lauren Campbell relays Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski who believe Mike Vrabel is the right guy for the job
- Conor Roche tells us what the Jets were reportedly willing to offer Mike Vrabel, and which other team was interested in him.
- Jerry Thornton writes how the Bills’ Dynasty is finally over. Yet again.
- Pats Procrastination podcast: Clare and Chudders offer their thoughts on all things Patriots. (45 min.)
- A Clare Perspective podcast: Clare Cooper welcomes back John Rooke to discuss all the coaching additions and that upcoming first round pick in the 2025 NFL draft. (36 min.)
- Locked On Patriots podcast: Mike D’Abate and Dan Kelley dive into Vrabel’s strategic moves, potential free agent and draft strategies; Plus, Brady and the Patriots’ dynasty, compared to Mahomes and the Chiefs. (42 min.)
NATIONAL NEWS
- Kevin Patra (NFL.com) Unsung heroes of 2024 NFL season: One overlooked/surprise contributor from each AFC team. Patriots: TE Hunter Henry.
- Matt Verderame (SI) Revealing the NFL’s 50 Most Memorable Games: Nos. 50–26. No. 35: Patriots at Chiefs, Jan. 20, 2019 – AFC championship game. /This game should be much higher in the rankings.
- Gilberto Manzano (SI) What we learned in Conference Championships: Steve Spagnuolo should be a head coach.
- Steven Ruiz (The Ringer) Winners and losers of the Conference Championship Games. The Mahomes-Allen rivalry delivered another playoff classic (and a familiar result), the Eagles offense finally found its Super Bowl form, the phrase “palpably unfair acts” entered our football lexicon, and more.
- Nora Princiotti (The Ringer) With another devastating loss, the Bills are a footnote in the Chiefs’ AFC Dynasty.
- Jay Busbee (Yahoo! Sports) Josh Allen knows how dark it can be living in Mahomes’ shadow.
- Diante Lee (The Ringer) The Eagles offense finally looks Super Bowl ready. /We’ll see…
- Jason Owens (Yahoo! Sports) Super Bowl 59 matchup, date, time: Chiefs vs Eagles in rematch in quest for 3-peat.
- Around the NFL (NFL.com) Chiefs to wear away white uniforms in Super Bowl LIX; Eagles to wear home greens.
- Dan Wetzel (Yahoo! Sports) No — repeat, no! — the NFL is not fixing games in the Chiefs’ favor; Getting caught fixing a game would cost the NFL billions — not to mention potential jail time. Why would it risk that? /No centralized scheme, but implicit bias towards the Chiefs. Otherwise mistakes would be made in both directions.
- Chad Reuter (NFL.com) 2025 NFL Draft: 10 players who stood out in East-West Shrine Bowl practices.
- Jimmy Traina (SI) Jim Nantz explains the late flag mystery during Bills-Chiefs. /Sort of.
- Kristen Wong (SI) Greg Olsen shared the ‘hard’ part of watching Tom Brady call games for FOX. /Good grief.