Tag: Vederian Lowe

Updated Vikings draft picks after trade deadline

The Vikings are primed to go into the offseason with 9 2024 NFL draft picks

The Minnesota Vikings made some noise at the trade deadline on Tuesday.

They acquired quarterback Josh Dobbs and a conditional seventh-round pick from the Arizona Cardinals for a sixth-round pick.

The Vikings weren’t done either as they sent left guard Ezra Cleveland to the Jacksonville Jaguars in exchange for a sixth-round pick.

What they chose not to do was make a big splash. They ended up keeping Danielle Hunter and not trading for a big name player like Chase Young, Montez Sweat or Jaylon Johnson.

The Vikings are in a weird position where they want to both try to win now but are staying realistic and gathering capital for next season.

With the draft pick movement, the Vikings currently have 10 picks in their possession, but one of them will be sent to the Philadelphia Eagles to complete the Jalen Reagor trade. Here is the up-to-date 2024 draft picks for the Vikings.

Patriots downgrade two players as out for Sunday’s game vs Dolphins

The Patriots officially ruled out two players on Saturday.

A day after revealing linebacker Josh Uche and offensive lineman Vederian Lowe as questionable on the injury report, the New England Patriots are officially ruling them out for Sunday’s game against the Miami Dolphins.

Uche has been limited throughout the week with an ankle/toe injury, but his absence from this game is especially eye-raising considering all of the trade buzz surrounding his name.

There’s a chance we might have seen the veteran pass-rusher play his final snap of football in New England. Of course, the Patriots could decide to keep him on the roster and deal with his contract after the season. But if they could move him for a draft pick, particularly a third or fourth-rounder, they might consider making a deal by the October 31 deadline.

Meanwhile, Lowe isn’t dealing with trade buzz as much as he’s dealing with the pressure of trying to prove himself on the football field. Being sidelined with an ankle injury certainly won’t help his case.

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Stock up, stock down for 12 Patriots players heading into Week 8

Who’s stock is up, and who’s stock is down in New England?

The 2023 season hasn’t gone as expected for the New England Patriots.

Those that expected the team to be competitive in the AFC East are likely surprised to see them sitting at 2-5 with little hope of competing for a playoff spot.

But even the team’s biggest skeptics didn’t expect to see them sink to the bottom of the division with talks of them being in line for a top-five pick in the 2024 NFL draft. There’s obviously the possibility of things changing with the Patriots coming off a huge upset win over the Buffalo Bills.

If they can somehow beat the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, the schedule will lighten significantly, and they’ll have a real chance to start racking up wins. It’s a long-shot chance that’s heavily dependent on the players’ ability to elevate their game down the stretch.

Let’s take a look at the stock report for 12 Patriots players ahead of their Week 8 clash with the Dolphins. Who’s up and who’s down in New England?

Studs and duds from Patriots’ crushing 21-17 loss to Raiders

Who were the studs and duds from the Patriots’ Week 6 loss to the Raiders?

An easier opponent didn’t make much of a difference for the New England Patriots, who fell in defeat for a third straight time on Sunday afternoon.

After suffering back-to-back blowout losses to the Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints, the Patriots fell victim to a heartbreaking 21-17 road loss to the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 6.

The offense was clearly still sluggish, but they did manage to move the ball better than they have in previous weeks. They even scored two touchdowns after failing to score one in their last two games.

But overall, it was still a disappointing showing from a team that looks like one of the worst in the league. The Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins and even New York Jets look like far superior teams than the Patriots right now.

With a 1-5 record and a schedule loaded with a murderer’s row slate of opponents, there may be no changing that narrative for the Patriots this season.

Here are the studs and duds from Sunday’s game:

Do Your Job: Who is x-factor Raiders player Patriots must stop?

Who is the one player on the Raiders the Patriots must stop to get a win on Sunday?

The Patriots offensive line has struggled mightily, and they will have their hands full this week against one of the best defensive lineman in the entire NFL.

This week’s x-factor is none other than star defensive end, Maxx Crosby.

Since entering the NFL in 2019, Crosby has amassed 259 tackles, 73 tackles for loss and 42.5 sacks.

Crosby is more than a pin-the-ears back pass-rusher as he possesses a deep bag of tricks to live in the opponent’s backfield all game. If Crosby isn’t in the backfield, he’s clogging up lanes and setting a hard edge in the run game, opening up opportunities for his fellow defensive lineman to clean up the easy tackles.

Crosby is ranked as the eighth best pass-rusher by Pro Football Focus, and he has a 20 percent pass rush win rate against his offensive line counterparts this year, which is a scary thought considering the Patriots have one of the worst offensive lines in the entire NFL.

If the Patriots wish to get anything going offensively, it all starts with finding where Crosby is and running the opposite direction as fast as they can. Crosby is a modern day Boogeyman, and he should create nightmares for Mac Jones, much like Micah Parsons and Cam Jordan did in previous weeks.

Whoever lines up at right tackle for the Patriots will need to have a career game just to not be embarrassed by one of the more dominant defensive ends in all of football. The Patriots will likely need to utilize tight ends and running backs to assist Vederian Lowe (likely starter) by chipping or even flat out double-teaming Crosby on passing downs.

If they fail to take care of business up front, it’s going to be another painfully frustrating day for Jones and the Patriots offense.

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Patriots’ top 10 offensive players in Week 5, per PFF grades

Here are the top-10 Patriots offensive players in Week 5, per PFF grades

Not even the hallowed halls of Gillette Stadium could breathe life into the New England Patriots offense in Sunday’s 34-0 loss to the New Orleans Saints.

The theme heading into Week 6 has been about change, but there might not be enough change possible to save the Patriots this season. They lack explosiveness at the skilled positions, and the offensive line gets beaten like a drum weekly in the trenches.

Fans are even desperately calling for rookie quarterback Malik Cunningham to be given the reins as the new starting signal-caller. By the end of the season, this might end up being the worst offensive team in the Bill Belichick coaching era.

The Patriots currently sit dead last in the NFL in scoring with an average of 11 points per game.

There’s a mountain to climb, but even with all of the offensive struggles, the Patriots won’t go down without a fight. They’ll go kicking and screaming if they have to.

Here’s the top-10 offensive players, per Pro Football Focus grades:

Studs and duds in Patriots’ shocking shutout loss vs Saints at Gillette Stadium

Who were the Patriots’ studs and duds in Week 5?

The hole got even deeper for the New England Patriots on Sunday, as they were served up an embarrassing 34-0 shutout loss on their home field by the New Orleans Saints.

There will be plenty of discussion on who deserves the most blame for the Patriots’ current predicament. They are sitting at 1-4 on the season with hardly a fighting chance left in the AFC East division.

When it comes to Sunday’s game specifically, every Patriots player and coach deserves some blame for what was one of the worst losses in the history of a Bill Belichick-coached team. So don’t be surprised if today’s list is a bit light in the stud department.

Here are the Patriots’ Week 5 studs and duds:

Vikings roster cuts: Tracking the path to 53 players

Keep track of every Vikings cut and trade here

The Minnesota Vikings are on the path to finalizing their 53-man roster.

By 3 pm central time on Tuesday, August 29th, every team in the National Football League will need to be down 53 players on the roster. Once that happens, anyone with less than four years of National Football League experience will be placed on waivers until 12 pm central time on Wednesday, August 30th. Those players who have 4+ years of vested experience are released and can sign with a team immediately

There were a lot of players for the Vikings that were firmly on the bubble and they had a chance to shine on Saturday afternoon against the Arizona Cardinals. Last season, the Vikings didn’t just do their roster cuts and form their practice squad, they also traded for Jalen Reagor and Ross Blacklock.

What will they do this year? Keep track of every roster move the Vikings make to get down to the magical number of 53.

Report: Patriots trade sixth-round draft pick for Vikings OT

The busy Patriots swing another trade for an offensive tackle.

The New England Patriots continued their scramble to fix their offensive line depth by reportedly trading a sixth-round draft pick to the Minnesota Vikings for offensive tackle Vederian Lowe on Sunday night.

A source confirmed the trade to MassLive’s Karen Guregian, and KPRC 2’s Aaron Wilson reported it was for a sixth-round draft pick.

The move comes right after the Patriots completed a separate trade with the Cleveland Browns for offensive tackle Tyrone Wheatley Jr. So the team is clearly making an effort to clean up their offensive line depth issues heading into the regular season.

But will it be enough?

Like Wheatley, Lowe is relatively inexperienced at the NFL level when it comes to on-field snaps during the regular season. The second-year offensive lineman appeared in four games for the Vikings for a total of 33 offensive snaps. He also appeared in 20 special teams snaps.

There are some serious questions surrounding the injury-riddled offensive line for the Patriots, and they obviously need all of the help they can get in trying to figure it out.

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Vikings trade OT Vederian Lowe to Patriots

Kwesi Adofo-Mensah makes another trade around cutdown day

General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah loves to make trades and has done so around cutdown day again. According to The Star Tribune’s Ben Goessling, the Minnesota Vikings traded offensive tackle Vederian Lowe to the New England Patriots for a 2024 sixth-round pick.

The Vikings 2022 sixth-round pick was slated to make the team as one of their swing tackles. He had played 140 snaps during the preseason, including 129 of them on the left side.

Lowe had played well in his time during the preseason, leaving some to believe that Oli Udoh was expendable due to his success.

Across his 140 snaps, Pro Football Focus graded Lowe really well. He achieved an overall grade of 72.0 with a pass-blocking grade of 73.8 and a run-blocking grade of 65.6.

The move helps the Patriots’ offensive tackle depth, as they had acquired Tyrone Wheatley Jr. from the Cleveland Browns in exchange for running back Pierre Strong Jr.

The Vikings currently have 85 players on the roster and need to get down to 53 by Tuesday, August 29th at 3 pm central.

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