German_Force » New England selects Michigan DE Chase Winovich with the 77th

overall pick."The New England Patriots selected defensive end Chase Winovich out of Michigan with the 77th overall pick of the 2019 NFL Draft. Winovich was regarded as one of the top pass rushing prospects in the draft and is a perfect fit for his new team.Here’s why.Tremendous AthleteThe 6’3 Youth Tom Brady Jerseys , 255 pound Winovich is the perfect size for what the Patriots ask of their edge defenders and his athletic profile is actually a 98.2% match with former Patriots edge defender Shea McClellin. Winovich runs a ridiculous 6.94s three cone drill (90th percentile), 4.59s 40-yard dash (94th percentile), and 4.11s 20-yard shuttle (95th percentile). He’s got plenty of speed to disrupt plays and he uses that to his advantage by never letting up until the whistle. While he might not have the same strength as other players, he uses his instincts to get an advantage on the opposing blockers. Pats Pulpit reacts to the Damien Harris and Yodny Cajuste picksSubscribe to the Pats Pulpit podcast for more draft reactions!If that doesn’t convince you, there are just three other players in NFL Combine history that weighed 250+ pounds, and ran a sub-4.6s 40-yard dash, sub-7.0s three cone, and sub-4.2s shuttle: LB Brian Urlacher (2000), DE DeMarcus Ware (2005), and EDGE Connor Barwin (2009). That’s ridiculous company.Incredible ProductionWinovich has 34.5 tackles for loss over the past two seasons, which is tied for eighth-most in college football. He’s added 13.5 sacks over that same time frame, too, which ranks 28th. He gets the job done in the trenches.According to Pro Football Focus, he has the second-most quarterback pressures and run stops over that time frame among Power 5 defensive linemen. His defensive grades are matched only by Joey Bosa, Myles Garrett, and Nick Bosa. He’s a strong athlete that’s been productive on the field. That’s a great combo.Scheme FlexibilityThe McClellin comparison is great for Winovich because that is likely how the Patriots will use Winovich. Unless Winovich adds 15 extra pounds of weight Tom Brady Jerseys Stitched , he’s not likely to have the same job that Trey Flowers had or that Michael Bennett and Deatrich Wise project to have.These heavier players need to have the ability to kick inside on certain pass rushing situations.The Patriots still want their lighter edge defenders to have the flexibility to play both the even and odd defensive fronts. They just need to be able to put their hand in the dirt to rush the quarterback, have the flexibility to drop back into coverage, and play the 5-man front like Kyle Van Noy and Dont’a Hightower and McClellin. Winovich can do that.Positional DepthThe Patriots needed to think about the future of the defensive end position. Michael Bennett, Deatrich Wise, and John Simon are roster locks and under contract for two more season, but Bennett is older, Wise is still not a complete player, and Simon showed a lot of promise last season, but shouldn’t be taken for granted.Winovich rounds out that top four rotation nicely with a good complementary skill set. And now players like Keionta Davis, Derek Rivers, and Trent Harris will all have to prove they deserve a roster spot, even if they won’t be a part of the rotation.Winovich is a perfect Patriots pass rusher that fills a long-term need and was selected with great value. What a pick! Less than a week after Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski retired, rank speculation regarding the reasons for his departure from the game has become the latest skirmish in the fight between doctors who jump to conclusions regarding brain trauma and those who have preached patience.Dr. Ann McKee, one of the leading CTE researchers, has pounced on Gronk’s retirement as proof that concerns regarding Chronic Traumatic Encephelopathy influence decisions regarding the duration of football careers.“I was relieved,” Dr Youth James White Jerseys , McKee told BU Today regarding her reaction to the news. “Reading between the lines about Rob Gronkowski, he鈥檚 had big hits. He鈥檚 read the headlines. He has said playing football abuses the body and abuses the brain.”That quote from Dr. McKee prompted a response on Twitter from Dr. Peter Cummings, a forensic pathologist and a neuropathologist who like Dr. McKee works at Boston University and who points out that his colleague is taking liberties with Gronk’s quote, and that he never said anything about football abusing the brain: “Abusing your body isn’t what your brain wants. When your body is abused, it can bring down your mood.”Here’s the full quote from Gronkowski, uttered days before what would be his final game:聽鈥淭he season鈥檚 a grind. It鈥檚 up and down. I鈥檓 not going to lie and sit here and say every week is the best.聽Not at all. You go up, you go down. You can take some serious hits. To tell you the truth, just try and imagine getting hit all the time and trying to be where you want to be every day in life. It鈥檚 tough, it鈥檚 difficult. To take hits to the thigh, take hits to your head. Abusing your body isn鈥檛 what your brain wants. When your聽body is abused, it can bring down your mood. You鈥檝e got聽to be able to deal with that, too, throughout the season. You gotta be able to deal with that in the games.鈥?#8220;I know he鈥檚 a goofball, but he鈥檚 intelligent,” Dr. McKee said of Gronkowski. “I think he does recognize that the brain is a very precious part of you, and you don鈥檛 get a second chance with it.”Regardless of whether CTE fears were a factor in Gronk’s decision-making process (I’d heard over a year ago that family members were pushing Gronk to quit due to concussion concerns James White Jerseys Stitched , possibly fear stoked by the likes of Dr. McKee), Dr. McKee believes that players have begun to consider CTE when deciding whether to call it quits.“With the active players, there was this imaginary curtain — we鈥檙e not going to go there, not going to look at what might happen,” McKee said. “But now I do see players talking about CTE; they mention protecting their brain. And even if they don鈥檛 discuss CTE amongst themselves, they definitely are aware of it. They鈥檙e also getting more information from family members. CTE isn鈥檛 just a personal disease, it affects the whole family. Players talk to their wives, girlfriends, parents, and their level of concern is higher than it used to be.”Of course it is, because of people like Ann McKee. That was precisely the point of last month’s article in , one of the leading peer-reviewed medical journals.鈥淯nfortunately, the uncertainties around the clinical syndrome and the pathological definition of CTE are not acknowledged adequately in much of the current research literature or related media reporting, which at times has resembled science by press conference,鈥?the article explained. 鈥淭oo often an inaccurate impression is portrayed that CTE is clinically defined, its prevalence is high http://www.patriotslockerroom.com/authentic-josh-gordon-jersey , and pathology evaluation is a simple positive or negative decision. This distorted reporting on CTE might have dire consequences. Specifically, individuals with potentially treatable conditions, such as depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, might make decisions on their future on the basis of a misplaced belief that their symptoms inevitably herald an untreatable, degenerative brain disease culminating in dementia.鈥漈he message is clear: Doctors (including Dr. Ann McKee) still don’t know nearly enough about how people get CTE, what it means to have CTE, and what can happen to someone who has CTE. Vague, dire warnings about CTE cause unnecessary fear and confusion, with former players worried that they have a ticking time bomb in their brain and current players possibly walking away prematurely due to a subject that remains in the infant stage of its overall research and understanding. specifically warned that the “uncertainties” regarding CTE are not “acknowledged adequately,” and that some are engaged in “science by press conference.” For Dr. McKee, this time around it appears to be science by sit-down interview, with an effort to use Gronk’s retirement decision as the latest billboard for convincing more Chris Borlands to quit football long before they otherwise would, regardless of whether the actual science of CTE supports such decisions.