Latest news with #post-Belichick
New York Times
24-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
How to watch the 2025 NFL Draft: Cam Ward, Travis Hunter, Shedeur Sanders, rookie hopefuls gather in Green Bay
The chimes are queued, the suits are fitted and the clock is running. Thursday night begins the annual NFL Draft, a moment for zealous offseason football fans to congregate and for experts to pontificate on franchise-altering decisions. The 2025 rookie class is loaded with big names and unique skill sets. For some future All-Pros, everything begins right here. Thursday's No. 1 pick belongs to the Tennessee Titans, who are widely expected to select Miami quarterback Cam Ward as their next staple under center. The team's last first-round QB selection was Marcus Mariota in 2015. They also took Jake Locker in 2011 and Vince Young in 2006. The results were middling at best: Mariota went 63-61 in Nashville, Young faded fast after a strong start, and Locker was out of the league by age 27. Advertisement As has been the case for most of the 21st century, the Cleveland Browns hold a juicy and highly consequential draft pick. They're going second overall this year, reportedly looking at Colorado's Travis Hunter and Penn State's Abdul Carter. Disastrously, the Browns have traded away each of their last three first-round looks. The franchise's last first-rounder who remains on the team is cornerback Greg Newsome II, who joined in 2021. The reeling New York Giants pick third on Thursday. After its Super Bowl campaign in 2011, Big Blue has just one playoff win (2022's wild-card win over Minnesota). Worse, they've endured nine seasons with double-digit losses since 2011. These Giants need help at just about every position on the field, though 2024 first-rounder Malik Nabers looked the part of a future star last fall. Pick No. 4 lies with the once-dynastic New England Patriots, now rebuilding from scratch in their post-Brady, post-Belichick iteration. The Pats took quarterback Drake Maye third overall last spring, and he put up respectable first-year stats with a depleted offense (he also had one of the coolest and most underrated plays in recent memory). Rounding out the top five: the new-look Jacksonville Jaguars, trying to get right after offseason hires of coach Liam Coen and general manager James Gladstone. The Jags have one 10-win season in almost two decades of ongoing futility. Speedy wideout Brian Thomas Jr., 2024's selection from LSU, is coming off a Pro Bowl rookie effort with nearly 1,300 receiving yards. Friday covers rounds two and three, where a cadre of impact players have been found in recent drafts. Super Bowl hero Cooper DeJean went to the Eagles in the second round last year, and Jim Harbaugh's Chargers nabbed standout Ladd McConkey there, too. Recent Day 2 draftees include James Cook (2022, 63rd overall), Kerby Joseph (2022, 97th) and Landon Dickerson ('21, 37th). Advertisement The proceedings wrap up with a compressed four-round run on Saturday afternoon. Remember, Mr. Irrelevant has indeed been relevant in recent seasons. NFL beat writer 2025 mock draft 3.0: Which team takes a chance on Shedeur Sanders? 2025 NFL Draft confidential: Woe is the team in need of a quarterback this year NFL Draft 2025 news and live updates Streaming links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication. (Photo of Cam Ward: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Breer details how Pats organization is ‘so far behind' rest of NFL
Breer details how Pats organization is 'so far behind' rest of NFL originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston Why have the New England Patriots gone 4-13 in back-to-back seasons? The answer goes beyond a lack of talent. After a 2023 campaign defined by dysfunction in Bill Belichick's final season as head coach, things got even worse in 2024, with first-year head coach Jerod Mayo and an inexperienced coaching staff failing to establish a new standard in the post-Belichick era. As The MMQB's Albert Breer explained Tuesday on Arbella Early Edition, part of the Patriots' struggles can be attributed to an unusually small number of employees across multiple departments in New England. Belichick kept a notoriously small staff while handling several responsibilities himself, and it appears that staff wasn't built out in a meaningful way under Mayo last season. 'They are so far behind the rest of the league in so many different ways,' Breer said, as seen in the video player above. 'Everybody who comes here and sees it for themselves is like, 'Where's all the people? Where's this department? Where's that department?' Bill did so much for so long that they were able to get away with being very, very small.' As Breer explained, the Patriots' transition from the old Belichick model to a more 'modern' organizational setup won't happen overnight. 'It's gonna take time to build that out,' Breer said. 'That's why, when I look at it and I hear people say, 'You add these free agents and then it'll just be fixed,' no, they've got a long way to go as far as building that organization out and building the football operation out to catch up with where the Niners are, the Rams are, the Ravens are, the Eagles are. The most forward-thinking organizations in the league are so far beyond them from a staff standpoint.' As our Patriots Insider Phil Perry pointed out, New England's football operation also needs modernizing in other areas. 'Even from a technology standpoint, from some of the things I've heard, they are behind the rest of the NFL,' Perry said. 'They are starting to creep back — last year they added the virtual reality technology so that the quarterbacks could get the additional reps they needed — that was new, that needed investment. 'But when it comes to some of the technology in terms of how the playbook comes together and how the coaches can teach their players — there are little things like that where they still have room to grow.' New head coach Mike Vrabel will be tasked with righting that ship, and he's already brought in two key figures — vice president of player personnel Ryan Cowden and VP of football operations and strategy John Streicher, both of whom worked with him in Tennessee — to oversee football operations alongside executive VP of player personnel Eliot Wolf. One of Vrabel's most important tasks — aside from adding an influx of talent in free agency and the NFL Draft — will be to convince Patriots owner Robert Kraft to make significant investments outside player acquisition. 'Mike, (Streicher), Cowden, Eliot, they know how far they have to go,' Breer said. 'Now, the good news is, I do think Mike's got some juice with ownership to get some of that stuff built out, and they've already brought in a player development person to help start to build out that department. But make no mistake about it: This is an archaic organization that needs updating. 'I think they had a group last year that didn't have the juice to get a lot of the changes that were needed pulled off, and now I think they've got some guys coming in who might have a little bit more sway with ownership to get them to open the pocketbooks.' Considering the Patriots ranked 31st out of 32 NFL teams in the latest NFLPA report card (with 'Ownership' receiving a D grade), Kraft has plenty of motivation to invest more in his team.
