Let’s start with the Friday roster moves made by the New England Patriots. They announced that they signed DE Mark Anderson to a contract. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Anderson started his career with the Chicago Bears where as a rookie in 2006 he had 12.5 sacks. The Bears released the 6’4” 255 lb. Tulsa OK native during the season in 2010 and he finished the last 11 games with the Houston Texans where he started two games.
Anderson who played his college ball at Alabama was a 5th round pick of Chicago in the 2006 NFL Draft. In his career he has 119 tackles, 5 forced fumbles and 23.5 sacks. He is expected to compete for time at defensive end with Eric Moore and Jermaine Cunningham.
In order to accommodate the move the Patriots released DL Marlon Favorite who was signed to the practice squad in January 2011. Favorite, an undrafted free agent from LSU, has never appeared in a regular season or post season NFL game. He has been on the practice squad for the Carolina Panthers, St. Louis Rams, Kansas City Chiefs, New Orleans Saints, Seattle Seahawks, Buffalo Bills and Indianapolis Colts in addition to the Patriots since 2009.
Favorite also saw time with the Hartford (CT) Colonials of the UFL.
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The Friday practice session saw no DL Mike Wright, LB Brandon Spikes, OT Matt Light or DT Albert Haynesworth. There was no word on why they missed the session, which was run in full pads. Several others missed the sessions with various injuries.
A couple notations from practice, G Logan Mankins was reportedly throwing people all over the place which bodes very well for QB Tom Brady while DT Kyle Love was steadfast in the goal line stand drill not allowing any movement at all while clogging the middle with DT Vince Wilfork.
It was mentioned that the receivers, as a group, had a better day today after several bad drops the last few days. They still have work to do.
Brady met with the media after practice and said that there’s a lot of work to do in a short period of time, especially in getting timing with the receivers and he also said that that was the first time they ran the goal line plays this year. Last year the goal line plays were put in during spring OTA’s.
A couple of contract notes, the new deal RB BenJarvus Green-Ellis signed was a one-year $1.835 million RFA tender not an extension. Chad Ochocinco didn’t redo his deal he has one-year left at $6 million then he is a free agent and Albert Haynesworth’s base salaries the next four-years are $5.4 million in 2011; $6.7 million in 2012; $8.5 million in 2013; and $10.3 million in 2014. While according to the NFLPA Matt Light has a $1 million base in 2011 and a $3.4 million base in 2012.
I forgot to mention that Connecticut native Eric Mangini has joined ESPN as a football analyst. This is kind of hysterical and really an odd job choice for the former Patriots defensive coordinator and head coach of the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns seeing as he has a natural disdain for the media.
Former Patriots QB Kevin O’Connell signed a one-year contract with the Miami Dolphins who appear unsure if they want Chad Henne calling the signals in 2011. This could be good for O’Connell maybe he will get a chance to challenge for the starting spot.
The Patriots announced their practice schedule.
Saturday
Practice will be held from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Patriots Experience will be open from Noon until 5 p.m.
Next Week
The team will hold public practices the schedule is TBA.
For all the latest training camp information go to patriots.com/trainingcamp or call 508.549.0041.
Stay with Sox & Dawgs for all the latest Patriots news. We will post larger signings and trades as soon as we can and will recap the minor moves near the end of the day.
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