Patriots gridiron news: Duron Harmon says team ‘not satisfied’ with 4-2 start
The New England Patriots are 4-2 and atop the AFC East following Sunday’s 24-17 victory over the New York Jets, but are not happy with their start to the season.
Through six games of the season, the New England Patriots were expected to be 6-0 and at the very least, 5-1. With such high expectations, a 4-2 start is not where the Super Bowl defending champions want to be at this point of the season according to safety Duron Harmon.
On Monday, the veteran safety expressed why his team is not satisfied with their start to the 2017 NFL season.
"“It says that we’re a hungry team, a team that is not satisfied,” Harmon said, as transcribed by WEEI. “In some situations, a lot of teams would be happy to be 4-2, but we’re not because we know we left a lot of plays out there defensively. We know we can play better. We’re going to play better and we know we can do better things on defense that can help our team win more games.”"
Based on how they have performed or not performed on the defensive end of the ball, the Patriots are lucky to have won even four games this season. The defense rank 30th in the NFL in allowing 26.5 points a game. They have also made quarterbacks like Alex Smith and Josh McCown look like incarnations of Brett Farve. They have yielded 300-yard passing games to every quarterback they have faced thus far in the season.
Progress in the making?
That is something that has to change quickly as the team prepares to take on Matt Ryan and the Atlanta Falcons. Harmon says the team has to continue to learn from mistakes and make good progress. He believes they are getting there.
Through periods of Week 5 and 6, they have showed signs of improvement. There are still too many instances where players are wide open in the secondary. When they allow a Jets’ offense led by McCown to march down the field on multiple occasions, the defense cannot feel too proud at this point.
Hopefully, the Patriots’ defense as a whole will find confidence in the big defensive plays they did make. In doing so, they will start to become somewhat of the defense we thought they’d be.
Malcolm Mitchell update
The New England Patriots and may have to wait until the 2018 season to see wide receiver Malcolm Mitchell on the field again.
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According to ESPN’s Mike Reiss, the sophomore receiver does not appear ready to begin practicing ‘at this point, if at all this year.”
The Georgia Bulldogs alum is eligible to begin practicing this week after opening the year on IR with a knee injury. He did play in a preseason game with the team in which he tweaked the injury. It didn’t appear at the time that it was an injury that would sideline him as long as it has.
With what Reiss has reported, it appears Mitchell must’ve suffered something serious enough to have him out for an entire season. One has to wonder if surgery is in the future of Malcolm Mitchell.
No days off
The Patriots reportedly worked out five players on Monday, including quarterback Garrett Grayson.
Grayson is a former 2015 third-round pick of the New Orleans Saints who was waived at the beginning of this season. As the team does not currently have a third quarterback on the active roster or the practice squad, his name is worth watching in the coming weeks.
Next: New England Patriots: 5 observations from Week 6 win over Jets
Other free agents in for a workout include wide receiver Tim Patrick, linebacker Marcus Rush, defensive end Jhaustin Thomas and wide receiver Deonte Thompson.