Brandon Merriweather

will have to come from eight-year veteran CB Leigh Bodden and safetys James Sanders (six years) and Brandon Merriweather (four years). No one is even 30 years old. 

It’s a trend also reflected at linebacker, as the average age will be 25 on opening day after the release of 10-year veteran, 32-year old Adalius Thomas (this average also includes Jermaine Cunningham, Marques Murrell, Rob Ninkovich, and Derrick Burgess, though they are listed as defensive ends). 

Continue reading "Shawn's Gone"

rgent:Secondary

Shawn Springs, Leigh Bodden, Darius Butler, Jonathan Wilhite, Terrence Wheatley, Brandon Merriweather, Brandon McGowan, Pat Chung, Kyle Arrington, James Sanders

Cornerback Need: 4

Continue reading "Draft Evaluation: Secondary"

WR Randy Moss and S Brandon Merriweather will attend as injury replacements.

Questions? Comments? Send to talktome@randolphc.com

Continue reading "Pick Six: Wild Card"

The tide turned on two consecutive defensive plays. S Brandon Merriweather made a great stop on third down, showing he learned from last week’s blown tackle. S James Sanders then made the stop on RB Maurice Jones-Drew on fourth down. The offense scored after the turnover on downs. 

Continue reading "Pick Six: Week 16"

One of the conversions was S Brandon Merriweather’s fault. If he wrapped up on his tackle attempt, he would had stopped Reed short. All three fourth down attempts were during the same fourth quarter drive. 

Continue reading "Pick Six: Week 15"

front seven has a chance of getting voted in. 

And even though safetys Brandon McGowan and Brandon Merriweather are playing well, the star power at the position in the AFC (Pittsburgh’s Troy Polamalu, Baltimore’s Ed Reed and Indianapolis’ Bob Sanders) might keep either out, as well as costing each other votes. 

Continue reading "Pro Bowl Ben?"

One of the Killer B’s, Brandon Merriweather, had his first career two interception game. The icing on the cake was returning one 39 yards for his first career touchdown. Nothing beats the first score, but I expect him to do it again this season. 

Continue reading "Pick Six: Week Seven"

I’ve been high on safety Brandon Merriweather since his second-year breakout season. He finished 2008 second on the team in tackles, led the team in interceptions with four, and forced two fumbles. What really stood out was the significance of the turnovers, as twice they were the difference in wins. 

Continue reading "Killer B's"

p>Two players who likely will have at least one int before the year is out are LB Gary Guyton and S Brandon Merriweather. Guyton might not play the run well, but he gets his hands on passes. And Merriweather was a step away from a turnover at least twice. 

Continue reading "Pick Six"

Both picks led to points. In the Jets game, Safety Brandon Merriweather’s interception was the margin of victory as the Pats took advantage of the short field and drove 31 yards in six plays and took the lead, 13-10. 

Continue reading "Very INTeresting"

Good to see S Brandon Merriweather and CB Leigh Bodden willing to hit. 

Tap Shoes to Cleats: Laurence Maroney didn’t have many carries, but he didn’t play around. Almost every step was forward with no stuttering. Looks like Fred Taylor is rubbing off on Maroney in a good way. 

Continue reading "Pick 6: Week 1"

He has to become a genuine leader. 

S Brandon Merriweather – He’s already showing to be a play-maker in his young career. But can he take it up a notch and also become an intimidator as well? When CBs Leigh Bodden and Shawn Springs go, Merriweather will have a lot of youth around him, which could include rookie safety Pat Chung if he surpasses FS James Sanders in a year or two. 

Continue reading "The Core"

For the Patriots, the selection was safety Brandon Merriweather. 

Merriweather? That was a little surprising. I figured going from a part-time player to starting all 16 games, leading the team in interceptions with four, and a few game-changing plays made for a breakout year. 

Continue reading "Breakout Player"

And Tank Williams’ release locks in Brandon Merriweather, James Sanders, Brandon McGowan and Pat Chung as the safetys. 

Other players know they’re just rotation players to keep other fresh during practice. So RB Chirs Taylor, WR Robert Ortiz and DB Herana-Daze Jones, it was nice knowing ya. 

Continue reading "5 Minutes of Fame"

Safetys Tank Williams and Brandon Merriweather blitzed well. 

Pass Rush – Rob Ninkovich got good pressure against second and third units. What will he do against better competition? Tully Banta-Cain and Myron Pryor got a sack each.

Continue reading "Pick Six"

rsquo;s potential as a tone-setter, but he’s not my top choice. 

That would be safety Brandon Merriweather. He’s entering his third year and has already shown play-making potential. His interception in the second game of the season led to the game-winning touchdown against the New York Jets. And his perfectly timed blitz-sack against Seattle secured the win for the Patriots. 

Continue reading "Establishing the Defense"

 

Then we’ll see of those dozen who actually make the team. Only two of nine did (S Brandon Merriweather and CB Mike Richardson) out of the 2007 rookie class. 

In related

Continue reading "Two Points"

With the exception being safety Brandon Merriweather, few in the secondary made plays. CB Ellis Hobbs made a few plays, but gave up more plays than he made. Maybe with Springs on the team, he can take the primary corner role and allow Hobbs to return to the right side of the field. 

Continue reading "Warming to Springs in New England"

If he recovers completely from the torn quad, he can join James Sanders and Brandon Merriweather and the three will battle it out over who starts. Whoever the third safety is, it won't be a drop-off in play when he subs in for either one.

Continue reading "One More, Bruschi, Harrison?"

LB Jerod Mayo and S Brandon Merriweather are just the beginning. Finding a shut-down corner with a short memory would allow more creativity by the D coordinator to mix coverages. A rush linebacker or two to create consistent pressure, get sacks, and force turnovers would greatly aid a suspect secondary. And an emphasis on the fundamentals, particularly tackling, would keep running backs from breaking long runs.

Continue reading "Wanna Trade, Cleveland?"

Or the Patriots could get physical with Arizona's wide outs with safety Brandon Merriweather moving outside and the versatile 6-1 DB Lewis Sanders getting up close and personal in bump and run.

Continue reading "Goal to Grow"

Wilfork is having his best season and should be rewarded for it.

S Brandon Merriweather

Thrust into full-time duty following Rodney Harrison's injury, Merriweather has made Harrison proud.

Continue reading "Pro Bowl Pats"

The only vision left would be the Seahawks crossing the goal line.

Fortunately S Brandon Merriweather saved the day with a strip sack of Seneca and DE Richard Seymour secured the win by pouncing on top of the loose ball. What a sigh of relief!

Continue reading "Learning From Experience"

St. Louis has a respectable 14 sacks.

Safetys Lack Numbers -No more Rodney Harrison. Brandon Merriweather is expected to start at free safety while James Sanders slides over to strong. They lose a lot of experience without the leader, but there's no time to feel sorry for themselves with the pass happy Rams in town.

Continue reading "Hours Before Kickoff: Week 8"

Before Harrison's injury, the defense's average age is 29. Substitute S Brandon Merriweather for Harrison and it drops to 28.

If the players are young, it's described as being inexperienced, which is a bad thing. But is inexperience bad? If a player is ready, regardless of age, play him. So far ILB Jerod Mayo has handled himself well this season. He's not the only one with four or less years in the league that is performing well for the Pats. Just look at what the greenhorns did against Denver:Mayo led the team in tackles with eight and he recovered a fumble two teammates failed to secure.S James Sanders has started every game this year so far and has been solid. He got his first interception of the year along with five tackles, good for second on the team for the night.LB Gary Guyton went undrafted in the 2008 Draft, but plays like a day one pick. He recovered a fumble in the game.Guyton's fumble was caused by DL Mike Wright, another rookie free agent who was playing in place of an injured DL Jarvis Green. Wright added a tackle for a loss, a quarterback hit, and a sack.The team leader in interceptions is second-year Merriweather. He added his third on Monday night. Merriweather also defended two passes.Signed from the practice squad to restore some depth lost at the running back position, BenJarvis Green-Ellis played the second half for Sammy Morris and averaged five yards a carry. Green-Ellis finished with 65 yards.K Stephen Gostkowski continues to have a breakout year as he added eleven points to the night, including two field goals and five extra points. He missed just one field goal this season, a 48-yarder.DL Le Kevin Smith made the most of his limited playing time by recovering a fumble.OLB Pierre Woods got a quarterback hit on a play that led to an interception.

Continue reading "Youth Serving"

Do they call CB Ty Law or S John Lynch? Should they shift James Sanders to strong safety or promote Brandon Merriweather? Or maybe they turn a corner into a safety, like Mike Richardson? It worked well for a while with Eugene Wilson.

Continue reading "End of the Road for Rodney?"

The best of the day goes to S Brandon Merriweather. Funny to think that the guy who dropped about four last year leads the team with two. I guess once you get the taste of one, you want more.

Continue reading "Quick review"

Other appealing players came available Saturday. It's the free agent route or N.E. use safetys Brandon Merriweather and Matt Slater as slot corners.

For those shown the door, a handful of youngstas shouldn't pack their bags just yet. Besides Gutierrez, I think Green-Ellis, Redd, Richardson, and Thomas will make the practice squad.

Continue reading "Cuts and a bust"

he plays New England left on the field, even though they cut out the dropped interception by safety Brandon Merriweather:Randall Gay had a would-be interception slip through his fingers. Sure his arm was in a brace after hurting it earlier in the game, when you get two hands on the ball, you're supposed to make the catchPierre Woods landed on top of a Ahmad Bradshaw fumble but failed to secure it, allowing Bradshaw to roll Woods over and strip the ball away while under the scrumOn the touchdown pass to Tyree, Asante Samuel went for the interception. Samuel looked in position to reach around with one arm to bat the ball away, forcing a third downBut that pales in comparison to the pass that was thrown right at Samuel during the final drive. The pass was high, but Asante was all alone and should had come down with the ballJarvis Green and Richard Seymour had Eli Manning in their grasp but failed to bring him down. Credit the Giants offensive linemen for not giving up and knocking Seymour and Green off their quarterback, but Eli will be their story of the one that got awayAs mentioned earlier, Merriweather had a chance at a game-winning pick, but like the other opportunities during the season, the rookie didn't catch the ball

Continue reading "The reveiw of XLII"

nd the early favorite is Bryant.

One change I didn't make was leaving Sanders as the starting FS. Brandon Merriweather might eventually demote Sanders because Brandon is a superior athlete. O

Continue reading "Looking too far ahead"

Though Brandon Merriweather’s increased playing time towards the end of the year into the playoffs could signify the end of the Eugene Wilson era .

This should prove to be an interesting business season for the Patriots. Where will the focus be? Will Bill finally draft a linebacker early ? Who will they keep?

Continue reading "Mortgaging the future with Moss and Samuel"