by Scott Benson
scott@patriotsdaily.com
It’s a legitimate question: has Matt Kranchick ever gotten this kind of ink?
So far, the fourth year kid from Penn State has been the only constant at the Pats’ suddenly vulnerable tight end position, and today he’s the subject of our Feature of the Day, written once again by the Globe’s Christopher Gasper. Over at the Herald, John Tomase responds in kind.
The burgeoning celebrity of the former Steeler portends what is perhaps the biggest camp story so far: the tight-end relying Pats are nervously thin at one of their bellwether spots. Dave Thomas broke his foot this spring and it still yet to see the light of day at camp. Doesn’t it now seem inevitable that Thomas, who many hoped would be a key man in the Pats passing game, will miss at least a portion of the regular season? Time’s a wasting, folks. To make matters worse, Ben Watson apprarently stumbled and injured himself on Monday. I know – I’m as shocked as you are. After all, he’s usually as reliable as Cal Ripken.
Garrett Mills, the former Tulsa all-everything, is having a hell of a time establishing himself as a pro, and while it sounds like Kyle Brady is getting closer to the field, nobody expects Brady to be the one flying up the seam. Ditto veteran Marcellus Rivers, who the Pats added yesterday.
I’m doing everything I can at this moment not to mention Daniel Graham. The Pats’ decision last spring to let him walk seemed to me, at its core, a choice of Watson over Graham. Obviously, it’s more complicated than that – the Pats have Watson locked up through 09 at a far more affordable rate, and Graham would have been paid at the upper end of the position scale with a new deal. But on the field, there is no comparison between the players. Give me Graham six days a week and twice on Sundays.
I say all that fully recognizing that Graham spent a few days on the exercise bike himself. Moving on…..
Dante Wesley met with the press and impressed; he sounds like a solid guy. It remains to be seen whether he’ll contribute to the secondary, as even he thinks of himself as a special teamer first. The ‘part-time model’ angle sounds like something we’ll explore more fully as the season goes along; it should be a nice compliment to the ‘Artrell Hawkins wants to be a broadcaster’ storyline.
I got to tell you, I’m completely sick of training camp already. Bring on Friday Night Lights, and the first Game Day Rear View on Saturday morning. For now, get the rest of today’s headlines (the Herald website is jammed packed with football this morning, by the way) at patriotslinks.com.
What interesting part-time jobs do you have?
Patriots Daily 
Glennie made some great points yesterday. I agree with him 100%
Love the new website ladies! BWAHAHAHAHAH!!!
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I don’t think Kyle Brady has any hands, just stumps used for blocking.
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You could be a part-time model
But you’d probably still have to keep your normal job
A part-time model
Spending part of your time modeling
And part of your time on special teams.
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Huge Daniel Graham fan here. His contributions went well beyond his receptions, which while he had his shaky moments, he always seemed to make the big grab when needed. Hopefully K Brady can make up for his devastating blocking, but right now the tight end position seems to be in a little chaos…
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Brady and Graham seem pretty evenly matched in blocking ability. But with Graham the opponents would have to guess if he was staying in to block, or if he’d run a route, or release after a chip etc.. Even when he managed to knee the ball out of his own hands he was still being thrown to.
Brady is slightly more likely to run a route than Wesley Britt. Vrabel is a better pass catching tight end than Brady.
I don’t know. The success of those 2 TE sets is because they’re using a second TE in place of a fullback the D is thinking pass instead of run. If the D knows that 2nd TE can’t catch a ball (or is far less likely to catch a pass than Dan Graham)won’t they regard the formation as a run formation? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
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I am transfixed by our new banner ad above this entry.PATRIOTSJETSBILLDOLPHINSAFCEASTKNOWYOUROPPONENT! It’s spellbinding even if I don’t know what it’s for. I’m wondering if the Pats placed it there to deflect attention from my gaining-momentum-by-the-day ‘Ben Watson sucks!’ campaign.
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I think the fact that the receivers are so much better this season will mean that the two TE sets are not needed as much.
When the defense looked outside and saw Kelvin Kight and Reche Caldwell lined up they realized that Graham was probably the bigger threat to catch the ball, now even with Brady in to block, having Moss and Stallworth on the outside will open things up a little more, I’d imagine.
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True, and tight end blocking is a small thing to be concerned with. With the OL switching to zone blocking it’s not like you could even directly compare Brady’s 07 with Graham’s 06 at the end of the year, they’re not in there to do the same job.
The Pats always play to the areas of their strengths, they were able to exploit teams by using 2 TE, if they don’t have the players for that they’ll just do something else.
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I was kind of hoping for “Matt Kranchick Is Taking This Town By Storm Out There Right Now”. GLENNIE!
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Great job with the site to date.
As for Graham, huge fan but once he went to free agency there was no realistic chance of keeping him. Wonder if any Pats beat reporter would have a feel for whether any real negotiations took place prior to or during last season. He even seemed dumbfounded at the dollars he received in free agency.
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