-MVP ballots from the 50 voters are due on January 9th. The award will be announced on Feb. 6th.
- Peter King ....."43-year-old Tom Brady just had the best four-quarter stretch of his football life. Over the last two quarters of the win at Atlanta and the first two quarters at the Toledo Mudhens (did I actually write that?), Brady’s line: 43 of 56, 76.8 percent accuracy, 668 yards, six touchdowns, zero picks, 151.5 rating."
- Greg Bedard on the aftermath of the Bills/Patriots game -
"Bills general manager Brandon Beane has basically knocked it out of the park since he got the position in 2017.
By no coincidence at all, that's when the Patriots' personnel struggles crested.
The two paths intersected on Monday night and that's how you get a blowout loss before the third quarter is even over on New England's hallowed ground with all those banners as a backdrop.
If you're a Patriots fan, you're hoping the horror show everyone witnessed will propel Belichick to fix the fundamental issues with his football program and ignite a quick turnaround."
- From the "What have you been watching?" category.....
Mike Florio on how the Patriots should approach the Cam Newton situation in the off-season -
"I would suggest, if you truly want to have the kind of connection you need with Cam Newton and if you want to get the most out of him next year, you need to move quickly and reward him for the effort and the sacrifice and the dedication and everything he's done to try to learn the Patriot Way with one hand behind his back, basically."
"It's in the best interest of the team to take care of this guy and send a message to the rest of the locker room that we are behind him, you should be behind him, we like his work ethic and this is what gets you rewarded here."
Ah Ha......and all along I thought it was how well you played during the 60-minutes of the week that actually mattered. In Florio's world, if you practice hard you should be rewarded, even if the quality of the game-day play is far worse than the practice play.
Not many are talking about Jacoby Brissett as a possible free agent signing for the Patriots.
He's coming off of a contract with Indianapolis that paid him a $6-million base salary in 2020, but also included bonuses that pushed his earnings to $21.3-million.
The 29-year old QB has only attempted eight passes this season as the back-up to Phillip Rivers, and surely would like to go to a team that needs a starting QB. New England has the need and Brissett should be on their radar screen.
2021 Cap Figures
The Jets will lead the league with $15,677,076 of dead cap money next season.
The Chargers have the least amount - $58,009.
The Jaguars will top the list of most cap space next season. After signing the minimum 53-players to their roster they predicted to be at $74,972,992 of cap space.
The Saints will have some work to do as they are at a projected $99,010,739 over the cap.
The Patriots are projected at $59,159,493 of cap space, which is the third most in the league. They will also have only $799,401 of dead money in 2021, down from the $31,836,302 they carried in 2020.