Burkhead Making A Strong Impression in New England

[3wt]

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/patriots/2017/06/rex_burkhead_making_a_strong_impression_at_patriots_minicamp

Interesting article.  Easy to have a knee jerk reaction in a variety of perspectives.  Here's my perspective:

• A pretty condescending article whose author kept pushing Rex to share the differences in playing for the Bengals and the Patriots - which, being the class act he is he never did.   The author even said at one point that Rex - in response to the question of those differences - said something very telling.  And he said nothing that was telling about the differences.  It was only telling about his positive response to working in the rain.
  

• The author also underscored how many ways the Pats plan to utilize him, inferring that the Bengals did not use him in that variety of ways which I think is patronizingly inaccurate, creating the idea that we did not know all the ways to employ Rex.  
  

• I think the Bengals did use him in a variety of ways.   I just think we did not use him nearly enough.   I understand we had Jeremy and Gio - 2 pretty good backs.  But we did not pull the trigger nearly soon enough when Jeremy was injured and was not playing well.  And before Peerman was hurt we would use Ced way before we would resort to Rex - which I thought was just plain stupid.  Rex was clearly the better running back.
  

• It would have been good to keep Burkhead here.  I know, he would have been a high priced backup to Mixon and would be directly fighting Jeremy or Peerman (maybe both) for a roster spot.  But, even if he was not the STs stud that Peerman is, he was still a very good STs player, he was a stud Swiss army knife multi-tool, he was reliable, tough and he was a team player and very high character guy.  In my opinion he was the better keep than either Jeremy or Ced - and a better blocker than both.
  

Bottom line, the article is misleading and very patronizing.   But I still think we made a mistake letting a guy like that go.  You can never have enough players of his quality.

Thoughts??

[XenoMorph]

(06-09-2017, 01:09 PM)3wt Wrote: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/patriots/2017/06/rex_burkhead_making_a_strong_impression_at_patriots_minicamp

Interesting article.  Easy to have a knee jerk reaction in a variety of perspectives.  Here's my perspective:

• A pretty condescending article whose author kept pushing Rex to share the differences in playing for the Bengals and the Patriots - which, being the class act he is he never did.   The author even said at one point that Rex - in response to the question of those differences - said something very telling.  And he said nothing that was telling about the differences.  It was only telling about his positive response to working in the rain.
  

• The author also underscored how many ways the Pats plan to utilize him, inferring that the Bengals did not use him in that variety of ways which I think is patronizingly inaccurate, creating the idea that we did not know all the ways to employ Rex.  
  

• I think the Bengals did use him in a variety of ways.   I just think we did not use him nearly enough.   I understand we had Jeremy and Gio - 2 pretty good backs.  But we did not pull the trigger nearly soon enough when Jeremy was injured and was not playing well.  And before Peerman was hurt we would use Ced way before we would resort to Rex - which I thought was just plain stupid.  Rex was clearly the better running back.
  

• It would have been good to keep Burkhead here.  I know, he would have been a high priced backup to Mixon and would be directly fighting Jeremy or Peerman (maybe both) for a roster spot.  But, even if he was not the STs stud that Peerman is, he was still a very good STs player, he was a stud Swiss army knife multi-tool, he was reliable, tough and he was a team player and very high character guy.  In my opinion he was the better keep than either Jeremy or Ced - and a better blocker than both.
  

Bottom line, the article is misleading and very patronizing.   But I still think we made a mistake letting a guy like that go.  You can never have enough players of his quality.

really liked burkhead... And I agree we did not use him as much as we probly should have... This guy played WR for us when we ran out  played pretty good at RB any time we put him in.     Hue used him better than zampese did.      But generally most 3rd/4th stringers @ RB don't see the field often.

Ive never really been a fan of how we rotate backs here though...

[3wt]

(06-09-2017, 01:12 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: really liked burkhead... And I agree we did not use him as much as we probly should have... This guy played WR for us when we ran out  played pretty good at RB any time we put him in.     Hue used him better than zampese did.      But generally most 3rd/4th stringers @ RB don't see the field often.

Ive never really been a fan of how we rotate backs here though...

Did the same thing with Rudi.   Took him a long time to get on the field.

Probably would have royally pissed Cory off though...

Bottom line is that when we had the need it took us forever to actually use him.   I really don't get that.  Lots of theories, but really I have no idea. 

[*ochocincos*]

Burkhead and Andre Smith both have just above a $3 mill cap hit.
So would you rather...
1) Let Burkhead walk, sign Andre Smith, draft Joe Mixon
or
2) Re-sign Burkhead for same contract Pats did, draft Pat Elflein at 48 instead of Mixon?

(FWIW, I think Mixon will be a better RB than Burkhead)

[3wt]

(06-09-2017, 01:38 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Burkhead and Andre Smith both have just above a $3 mill cap hit.
So would you rather...
1) Let Burkhead walk, sign Andre Smith, draft Joe Mixon
or
2) Re-sign Burkhead for same contract Pats did, draft Pat Elflein at 48 instead of Mixon?

(FWIW, I think Mixon will be a better RB than Burkhead)

I'm not much of a cap guy.   But from what I hear we could have had both Dre and Rex.

And I agree, Mixon should be a stud.   I just like having 4 very good running backs on board that can do a lot of things.  To me Jeremy and Gio are somewhat limited - less so Gio as he is a great receiver and a great blitz pickup guy.

But Jeremy is very limited in his roles and has seemed to have a propensity to being injured easily.

Rex can do it all.  He can be on the field on any down and you are not sure what he'll be doing.   Mixon the same way.

Now if it came down (financially) to Rex or Whit I would have picked Whit.   But there was no such dilemma and the impression I have is that we had the money to sign both Rex and Smith.

[Au165]

(06-09-2017, 01:52 PM)3wt Wrote: I'm not much of a cap guy.   But from what I hear we could have had both Dre and Rex.

And I agree, Mixon should be a stud.   I just like having 4 very good running backs on board that can do a lot of things.  To me Jeremy and Gio are somewhat limited - less so Gio as he is a great receiver and a great blitz pickup guy.

But Jeremy is very limited in his roles and has seemed to have a propensity to being injured easily.

Rex can do it all.  He can be on the field on any down and you are not sure what he'll be doing.   Mixon the same way.

Now if it came down (financially) to Rex or Whit I would have picked Whit.   But there was no such dilemma and the impression I have is that we had the money to sign both Rex and Smith.

If we kept Burkhead we weren't drafting Mixon, we would have waited a year. Letting Burkhead go for Mixon may end up being one of the best things we ever did looking back.

[Millhouse]

Burkhead will fit in NE's offense better than he would here. That said I'd rather him have stayed to pair with Mixon, and then cut Hill or even Gio.

[J24]

(06-09-2017, 02:03 PM)Au165 Wrote: If we kept Burkhead we weren't drafting Mixon, we would have waited a year. Letting Burkhead go for Mixon may end up being one of the best things we ever did looking back.

I doubt that if Burkhead was here he would have been the 4th back.

[*ochocincos*]

(06-09-2017, 01:52 PM)3wt Wrote: I'm not much of a cap guy.   But from what I hear we could have had both Dre and Rex.

And I agree, Mixon should be a stud.   I just like having 4 very good running backs on board that can do a lot of things.  To me Jeremy and Gio are somewhat limited - less so Gio as he is a great receiver and a great blitz pickup guy.

But Jeremy is very limited in his roles and has seemed to have a propensity to being injured easily.

Rex can do it all.  He can be on the field on any down and you are not sure what he'll be doing.   Mixon the same way.

Now if it came down (financially) to Rex or Whit I would have picked Whit.   But there was no such dilemma and the impression I have is that we had the money to sign both Rex and Smith.

You didn't answer the "would you rather" properly. There are only two options, neither of which you chose.

[Benton]

(06-09-2017, 01:38 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Burkhead and Andre Smith both have just above a $3 mill cap hit.
So would you rather...
1) Let Burkhead walk, sign Andre Smith, draft Joe Mixon
or
2) Re-sign Burkhead for same contract Pats did, draft Pat Elflein at 48 instead of Mixon?

(FWIW, I think Mixon will be a better RB than Burkhead)

Hadn't really thought about it that way. Good way of looking at it as the draft room most likely was.

Personally, I would have gone with #2. We knew what we had in Burkhead and the backfield; Elflein would have been able to move into some spot on the line in the near future; and who knows where Mixon would have fallen. It could have been we traded back up and got him by packaging some of the later round picks that most likely won't see the field in stripes.

I'm ok with Mixon, I don't think there was a better talent that fit the scheme. I just had different priorities than RB.

[coachmcneil71]

Rex is a class act & is gonna have a career year in NE. Merv and crew should have been using him much more often imo. Not sure if Merv is slightly racist or not, but from my viewpoint I believe that he may be.

I'm willing to bet that the "quick hitter" gets on the field early & often. If so it certainly makes me question the coaches supposed unbiased talent evaluation.
Best wishes to Rex. He seems to be an awesome human being, talent, & locker room guy. Pretty much the opposite of what we now have at the position, aside from Gio of course. The new guy may have talent, which still remains to be seen, but he's definitely lacking in the other two areas.

[Drogo]

I was a big Rex fan, but if you had your choice between the Bengals and multi-win Super Bowl team and defending champs, who would you rather play for....just saying!

[3wt]

(06-09-2017, 02:28 PM)ochocincos Wrote: You didn't answer the "would you rather" properly. There are only two options, neither of which you chose.

Because I didn't like either.   I admit I don't know if those were truly the only two options we had, but if asked to choose one I'd have kept Mixon.  The guy's talent is ridiculous.

But I would rather have signed Dre, kept Rex and cut Hill if necessary - as long as we had the cap room.

And I think we would have based on what folks have been saying.   I mean if we definitely did not have the cap room - and I realize that would mean saving enough to sign Eifert and Tez down the road - I'd rather have had both Dre and Rex and let Hill go.

I think that may have cramped the cap a little, but mostly I think that they were not ready to throw the towel in on Hill yet.

[BURROWorBUST]

I'd let Rex walk and do what we did.

I was a Rex fan from the day we drafted him. Loved his story with Jack. But he has a problem with fumbling. I'm not trying to blow it out of proportion, but it's there. We'll see how he does in NE. I wish him success, but no ring.

[Bengal Dude]

(06-09-2017, 01:52 PM)3wt Wrote: I'm not much of a cap guy.   But from what I hear we could have had both Dre and Rex.

We did have cap room for Rex, but I think Rex had no intention of re-signing here, which is why we didn't aggressively pursue him. He seemed to know that he was going to remain the #3 RB here, especially after Marvin endorsed Jeremy in the offseason.

[Au165]

(06-09-2017, 02:18 PM)J24 Wrote: I doubt that if Burkhead was here he would have been the 4th back.

No, we wouldn't have drafted Mixon. So in turn we never have Mixon instead drafting a back next year as a depth guy after Hill leaves.

[XenoMorph]

(06-09-2017, 02:18 PM)J24 Wrote: I doubt that if Burkhead was here he would have been the 4th back.

If the backs where Mixon Hill gio and Burkhead he would be the 4th.. 

No mixon and keep peerman he would be the 3rd back as peerman is only for special teams

[magikod]

do we get a comp pick for burkhead signing in NE?

[*ochocincos*]

(06-09-2017, 04:16 PM)magikod Wrote: do we get a comp pick for burkhead signing in NE?

I believe it was a projected 6-7 rounder.

EDIT: nfl.com came out with article 3 days ago saying 3rd for Zeitler, 5th for Whitworth (stupid 10+ years of service rule), and 7th for Dansby or Hunt. However, they didn't even mention Burkhead, who signed for a larger deal than Dansby and more money in a year than Hunt (2 year, $4 mill).
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000813295/article/projecting-compensatory-picks-for-2018-nfl-draft

OverTheCap also predicted the same as NFL.com, 3-5-7 for Zeitler-Whitworth-Hunt. No mention of Burkhead yet again for some reason?
https://overthecap.com/2018-compensatory-draft-picks-update-592017

EDIT 2: Actually, Burkhead may have been cancelled out by Andre Smith. I thought Smith was cut, but apparently wasn't?

[coachmcneil71]

(06-09-2017, 03:55 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: If the backs where Mixon Hill gio and Burkhead he would be the 4th.. 

No mixon and keep peerman he would be the 3rd back as peerman is only for special teams

Meh....Rex is a better back than Hill. It was more than obvious that this is truth down the stretch last year. He just isn't the right persuasion for a RB, or a second Rd pick. Some coaches aren't willing to admit that they make mistakes. Merv being one of those.