Practically Pigskins

Wrong again.

It's cool.

I'm used to it.

Or maybe it was just a perfectly executed reverse jinx on my part?

No?

Tough crowd.

Both Bailey Zappe and Malik Cunningham made it through waivers and are back with the Patriots on the practice squad. No, I did not see that coming. Then again, I probably should have; if pigskin pundits and bobbleheads think Mac Jones is bad, his backups must be terrible.

I did get the Tyquan Thornton to IR prediction right but that one really wrote itself. Or maybe it was all the local pigskin pundits and bobbleheads making that prediction within 24 hours of the less than sturdy wideout's latest injury. (Never a good sign when a player's name and "latest injury" show up in the same sentence.) Thornton can return this season but if the greatest "ility" is availability, I don't know how much longer Thornton will be a Patriot. Still, Belichick held a roster spot for Thornton until he could get him on IR/Return so he must see something in the young man. 

Belichick rolled the dice and came up sixes and sevens and nines with the QB (and RB) cuts. I'm already looking forward to next year's rule change regarding practice squad elevations after Bill makes Bailey Zappe his game day emergency quarterback for however many weeks the current rules allow. Or until Adrian Klemm can figure out which 8 or 9 offensive linemen can actually play well enough to keep McCorkle clean in the pocket.

So, yeah, I have to believe more changes are coming.

Given where they appear to be in terms of competing for a playoff spot (not likely if they finish 4th/last in the AFC East, which seems to be the consensus amongst gridiron cognoscenti), I was a little surprised by how many of the Patriots' cuts returned to the practice squad and how few (only Pharaoh Brown, a TE who played for Bill O'Brien in Texas) were added from the outside. I guess familiarity has failed to breed contempt in this case. 

Then again, it's not like I've spent the last 48 hours scouring the waiver wire for treasure in the trash.

I was particularly puzzled, though, by the Pats signing Andrew Steuber back to the practice squad. Yes, I know they need offensive tackles but from what I saw in preseason, I'd say Steuber's ideal job might be that guy who holds the Slow/Stop sign on road construction crews and stands by the road waving along the cars like they're defensive ends moving unimpeded to the quarterback.

Again, the coaches must see something in Steuber that I haven't, and there is, by this point, strong evidence to support the case that I don't know what I'm talking about. 

It is what it is.. 

Do we know more than we thought we knew yesterday or even last week?

Well, I can't speak for you but I don't. 

It still comes down to the offensive line.

Look. I get it. The Patriots don't have a guy that other teams are game-planning for, with the exception, maybe, of Matthew Judon. They don't have an elite, game-breaking playmaker on offense unless you think a running back named Rhamondre can be that guy (and assuming the offensive line comes together). The head coach doesn't like his starting QB, which may or may not be a thing, but if you were asked 20 times if you had a good relationship with your boss, when you're asked the 21st time, don't you start to worry about your relationship with your boss?

Or maybe you buy into the notion that The Game has passed Bill Belichick by. You know, Super Bowl LIII, where Belichick took some punkass kid head coach's lunch money, was a long, long time ago, back in the days before flying cars and talking dogs. 

No, Belichick doesn't have a Top 5 wide receiver on his roster, or a Top 5 anything else, for that matter. But he has always played the game 11 on 11, not 1 on 1. Teams that rely too heavily on one or two players for their success had better be ready to play left handed against the Patriots.

Will New England's 11 be enough? 

I guess we'll see how it goes soon enough.

Go Pats!