Pats face pivotal Combine
Make-or-break year in Circle City
INDIANAPOLIS — The lights are brighter. The faces are fresher. The schedule has been upended.
But more importantly for the Patriots, the stakes of this year’s NFL Scouting Combine are higher. Much higher.
At an event completing its transformation from staple of the football calendar to full-blown TV spectacle, the Patriots will soon calculate how close they are to wholesale change as a franchise. Tom Brady’s market will found most of their determination. Peripheral free-agent and draft decisions will factor in, too. The information they gather in Indianapolis will drive all of it.
Because the most critical parts of the annual combine occur behind closed doors. Officially, they are the college prospects’ medical tests and team interviews. Unofficially, they are the deals made and whispers shared at local steakhouses, hotels and bars by agents and team brass.
To the public, the televised workouts are the real to-do. Future Pro Bowlers running, cutting and jumping, all purportedly for attending executives, when in truth it’s mostly for the fans at home. For the first time in combine history, these drills will be broadcast in prime-time slots in the late afternoon.
But whether sitting on the couch, walking into a back room or sprinting down the sideline, everyone with eyes on Indianapolis has come to learn more about the future of football.
Measurement remains the beating heart of the combine. Prospects’ strength, speed, agility, health and personality are subject to scrutiny. More than their stopwatches, the Pats should wear out their contacts to maximize the combine. It’s about more than scouting.
It’s about a franchise at a crossroads in the Circle City, measuring where it is, where it could be and charting a course in between.
Here’s what the Patriots must uncover this week to forge their future.
Brady’s market
It’s still anyone’s guess — both inside the NFL and out — where Brady will play in 2020. His agent, Don Yee, should be busier than anyone this week trying to find an answer. All 31 other teams in the league will be present in Indy, including every QB-needy club Yee and the Pats should be eyeing.
So if the Patriots learn, for example, two of the Chargers, Titans or Raiders are ready to push all their chips in over a multi-year deal, they can fold and turn to Plan B. If Brady’s outside interest has been overstated to this point, they’ll know they can play more of the same hardball that nudged him into accepting below-market deals over his career and continue year-to-year.
But if interest dries up on either side, or Brady’s options are limited, this story’s over. Of course, no one can know until talks begin at the combine, and there’s a small chance they could end effectively there, too. Brady is the first and largest domino to fall in an offseason the Pats must nail to keep contending, with or without him.
Bottom line: if all the Patriots learn is whether Brady is likely to be their quarterback next season, it’s a win.
Locker room fits
This year, the NFL has trimmed the number of prospect interviews allotted to each team at the combine from 60 to 45. They’ve made up for some of that lost time by extending these sit-downs from 15 minutes to 18.
When the Patriots interview prospects, they often hold intensive whiteboard sessions. Football intelligence is coveted at every position. During pre-draft visits in Foxboro, players are usually tasked with memorizing certain concepts in the morning and relaying or executing them in the afternoon.
While team brass can’t run prospects through the same exercise in Indy, they will nonetheless test players mentally to scratch at what’s underneath the surface.
It’s likely the Pats front office has already identified all potential player fits based on their physical measurables, production and tape. It’s the intangibles that need confirmation. A good interview can send a prospect up the board, down or even flying completely off it.
They’re a small part of the process, but these 18 minutes are crucial.
Free-agent interest
While they wait on other franchises to court Brady, the Pats must send out their own feelers for impending top free agents.
What about tight ends Hunter Henry or Austin Hooper? Might a top-flight wideout like A.J. Green or Amari Cooper be willing to accept a little less to play for the six-time Super Bowl champs? Is there a defensive back or linebacker who could pad the depth of the NFL’s top defense?
The same questions pertain to the Patriots’ own upcoming free agents. What is Devin McCourty’s price tag? Kyle Van Noy’s? Joe Thuney’s?
The Pats understand they must fill their offensive roster holes and maintain their elite defense to truly contend in 2020. The line of communications with those players can’t open until someone makes a call. Or better yet, sets a dinner reservation.
Trade targets
One of the first rumors to fly this week shot out of Jacksonville, where it was reported the Patriots have held trade talks with the Ravens about tight end Hayden Hurst. The 2018 first-rounder has disappointed relative to his draft status, overshadowed by draft classmate and fellow tight end Mark Andrews, a Pro Bowler. According to Gene Frenette of 930AM The Game, any deal will hinge on how much draft capital the Pats or Jaguars, who have also expressed interest in Hurst, a Jacksonville native, are willing to ship out.
If the Patriots can’t strike a deal with Baltimore, their options may be limited to free agency and the draft, where the tight end talent pools are shallower than most years. Former Redskin Jordan Reed recently hit the market as a free agent, as will Cincinnati’s Tyler Eifert, whom the Pats reportedly tried to acquire prior to last October’s trade deadline.
And don’t rule out other positions, either. Few teams in the NFL are more open to trading to the Pats.
They’re open for business. Ready to listen and learn.