The New England Patriots have been busy this offseason, and their latest move is a major one. On Wednesday morning, the team announced that they had signed wide receiver De’Vante Bausby and cornerback Brian Poole to futures contracts.
The brian poole news is about the Patriots signing Brian Poole and De’Vante Bausby.
Brian Poole/Getty Images
The New England Patriots checked out free-agent cornerbacks Brian Poole and De’Vante Bausby, according to ESPN’s Mike Reiss. The Patriots need depth in the secondary, and as Reiss points out in his tweet, the coaching staff doesn’t seem to have much faith in Joejuan Williams.
In addition to free-agent CB Brian Poole, the Patriots had free-agent CB De’Vante Bausby (Pittsburg State/Broncos) in for a workout today.
The team’s present predicament at CB — banged-up and thin — is reflected in a mid-week look at CBs. https://t.co/PP5Gt7X0tp
October 20, 2021 — Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss)
It’s difficult not to wonder why the Patriots didn’t work things out with Stephon Gilmore as they try to add depth at cornerback.
Brian Poole: The Facts
Poole is not to be mistaken with a player who will improve the Patriots’ defense with his presence. He might, though, start at nickel or just offer depth at a critical position.
Poole’s covering abilities were praised by Bent of Gang Green Nation soon after the veteran joined with the New York Jets.
Bent penned:
Over the course of his career, Poole’s coverage statistics have been adequate. In fact, throughout the course of their careers, his quarterback rating when targeted has been identical to Buster Skrine’s. The slot cornerback position is a thankless one, with even the best players in the game giving up receptions to the league’s best possession receivers. Poole has a 73 percent catch rate, and in 2017, he had the best catch rate in the NFL, while being in the bottom 30 in his previous two seasons. He’s only allowed 10.4 yards per reception, which compares well to comparable slot cornerback. In his first season, he ranked 9th in the NFL in that area. Over the course of his career, Poole hasn’t given up many huge plays.
After seeing CeeDee Lamb burn Jalen Mills for the game-winning touchdown in overtime of the Patriots’ Week 6 defeat to the Dallas Cowboys, discussion of permitting huge plays out of the slot left a sour taste in the mouths of Patriots supporters.
De’Vante Bausby: The Facts
Before signing with the Las Vegas Raiders in July, Sports Illustrated’s Darin Alexander-Baydoun assessed Bausby’s potential impact and mentioned the Pittsburg State alum’s inability to replicate his interception statistics from college.
Baydoun penned the following:
Bausby, on the other hand, has unable to replicate his success at Pittsburg State, when he was the team’s resident ballhawk. It couldn’t be farther from the truth, since he has zero interceptions in the NFL, compared to 11 in college from 2011 to 2014. Bausby just hasn’t been given the job or chance to attempt to duplicate those statistics.
Bausby seems to be a long shot to even make the practice squad. He doesn’t have as much experience as Poole, but it all depends on how much secondary depth the Patriots want to add.
Trading Stephon Gilmore is a risky move at CB due to a lack of depth.
If the Patriots hadn’t traded Gilmore, would they be searching for depth and/or solutions at corner?
The Patriots were chastised by USA Today’s Henry McKenna for “mishandling” the transfer of Gilmore to the Carolina Panthers.
He wrote:
Stephon Gilmore isn’t deserving of a sixth-round selection. He was previously named Defensive Player of the Year. Even at 31, he’s one of the finest cornerbacks in the NFL. The New England Patriots clearly botched the situation with their best cornerback, resulting in this strange divorce that saw Gilmore dealt to the Carolina Panthers for a 2023 sixth-round selection.
As of now, Jackson has been a good CB1, but it seems that following him, there is a big drop-off, which is why the club is working out players like Poole and Bausby.
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The brian poole free agency is a story about the Patriots signing Brian Poole and De’Vante Bausby. These two players were both released by the NFL’s Miami Dolphins.
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