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By Kevin Dillon | MassLive.com

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The New England Patriots loaded up on speed this year, trading for wide receivers Brandin Cooks and Phillip Dorsett. Both of those receivers ran 4.33 40-yard dash times in college, and can "take the top off a defense" with their straight-line speed.

But are either of those guys the fastest players on the Patriots? Jonathan Jones, the Patriots' gunner on special teams and a cornerback, also ran a 4.33 40-yard dash in college. Jones was a former Georgia high school track state champion in the hurdles, while fellow special teamer Matthew Slater took second place in the California high school 100-meter state championship.

There are a lot of fast players on the Patriots, and it is difficult to determine who is fastest simply on NFL combine stats. With that in mind, I took a poll of the Patriots' locker room, asking players who they thought was the fastest player on the team. For most players, I asked for who they thought was the fastest at 40-yard, 100-yard and 1 mile distances, though some could not make a decision on who they would pick.

Still, in the end, there was a clear winner for who is the fastest Patriot — at least at football speed, which is mostly short-distance sprints.

The following is a look at who each player selected as their choice for fastest player, and some of their reasoning behind it.

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Eric Rowe

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Rowe wanted to be clear — he hadn't really had a chance to see Dorsett open up and sprint in a straight line during their time as teammates yet. Still, his opinion on who the fastest player on the team came down to two players.

"Man, it’s between Brandin (Cooks) and Jonathan (Jones)," Rowe said. "Jonathan — I think he can scoot. I’ve seen Jonathan on the gunner just — vroooom — just blow by someone. Yeah, that’s a tough one."

Rowe noted that Jones may have an advantage based on the position he plays. Cooks rarely gets the chance to simply sprint in a straight line, as he has to stem his routes. Jones, on the other hand, is the gunner on special teams and can sprint full-speed in punt coverage.

With that in mind, his vote went to Jones.

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Jordan Richards

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Like Rowe, Richards had seen Jones run on the kickoff unit. Unlike Rowe, Richards did not have much trouble making his decision on who the fastest player on the team was.

"J. Jones," Richards said. "I’ve seen him move on kickoffs, and I’ve seen him move by me on kickoffs at a high rate of speed. I’m going with Jones."

When asked if Jones was still the fastest at different distances, Richards kept his answer simple.

"J. Jones all the time."

Richards did note that if he was going to come up with a dark-horse candidate for the fastest player on the team, it would be Devin McCourty.

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Danny Amendola

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Amendola did not agree with Rowe or Richards. Instead, Amendola was pretty confident in his own speed.

"Me. I’m the fastest player," Amendola said.

Is he the fastest at 10 yards, 40 yards, 100 yards or a mile?

"Anything."

For what it's worth, Amendola ran a 4.58 second 40-yard dash when entering the league, and he is currently 31 years old. That time is the slowest among any Patriots wide receiver.

But who does Amendola think is the second fastest player on the team besides him?

"Probably Ted Karras," Amendola said. "Am I throwing your scale off? Ted or Hogie (Chris Hogan)."

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Ted Karras

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For what it's worth, Ted Karras ran a 5.28 second 40-yard dash coming out of college, which is the same time as Tom Brady. So when he heard Amendola picked him as the second fastest player on the team, Karras laughed, but politely disagreed.

"I’m up there," Karras said. "But no, I mean, if you’re asking me to be objective, I’ve just got to vote for my guy, Matt Slater."

Karras gave some thought to who would be the fastest when it came to a mile, but ultimately could not come up with anyone.

"I haven’t ran a mile in years," Karras said.

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Chris Hogan

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Hogan nearly went the Amendola route, picking himself as the fastest player on the team. But in the end, he could not deny that one of his teammates was a bit faster.

"Probably BC (Brandin Cooks), any yards," Hogan said. "Actually, I take that back, I’m probably the fastest. No, Brandin is probably the fastest."

That counts as a vote for Cooks, at any distance. Several players in the locker room considered Hogan for the title as best mile runner, but Hogan himself denied that he could do it.

"I'm not really built for distance," Hogan said.

When he heard that Amendola declared himself the fastest player on the team, Hogan seemed surprised. He looked up, sniffled and pondered the statement for a moment before grinning and replying, "OK."

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Brandon King

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No one had more fun answering this question than King did. When I first asked the question, King responded by saying "Ohhhh" a few times before standing deep in thought for a few moments. His first instinct was to say either Slater or Cooks.

"Both of those guys are rolling pretty good," King said. "I never — they might need to tee off. I’m going to go with those two for right now. I can’t think of anybody else messing with those guys."

But then, King remembered Jones, his "Auburn buddy."

"J. Jones did really well at the combine also, there’s different types of speed though," King said. "You’ve got 40 speed, you’ve got long speed. I think full field, I think Slate— for sure. But 40-yard dash, I’m going with J. Jones on this one."

King had a tough time making his decision on who would win a one mile race as well.

"Jeesh, a mile? I don’t know," King said. "J. Jones and Cooks — that’s a battle. Those guys have a good pace, man. They can take you the distance."

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Matthew Slater

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Like many others, Slater's choice came between Jonathan Jones and Brandin Cooks. Unlike many others, Slater did not make a decision between the two.

Still, when asked how he thought he would do in comparison to those two, Slater smiled.

"I still feel like I can pick ‘em up and put ‘em down," Slater said.

Slater said he would probably be best suited to win a race if it was 100 yards instead of 40 yards. He also wanted to make sure Phillip Dorsett, Malcolm Mitchell and even Malcolm Butler got their due as sleeper candidates to be the fastest player on the team.

When it came to who would win a one mile race, Slater was confident with his answer — Julian Edelman.

"I haven’t seen him run a mile but I’ve conditioned with that guy the last nine years and I don’t think I’ve ever been around a guy who can just will himself to keep running like that," Slater said. "It’s pretty impressive."

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Brandon Bolden

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Bolden was another one who had a tough time deciding who is the fastest player on the team, listing Dorsett, Cooks, Slater, Malcolm Butler as possibilities to take the title. In the end, he went with Jones though.

"I run next to him on kickoff a lot of the time and he makes my job a lot easier being fast," Bolden said. "A lot of guys mistake him as the one I’m blocking so it’s like 'Oh, perfect. If you run down there, make the tackle. But if you don’t, I’m right behind you.' I’ve seen him fly. That kid can fly. For real."

If the distance moves up to 100 yards, Bolden said he would lean toward Slater in a race. As for the mile, Bolden initially thought of Hogan, but also included Rex Burkhead.

"Rex don’t be in the conversation like that, but I’ve seen Rex run some pretty good distance at some very, very, very impressive speeds," Bolden said.

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Devin McCourty

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McCourty was happy to know he was included as a dark horse candidate as the fastest player on the team, but he didn't think he could compete with some of the younger players. McCourty gave Cooks some credit at the 40-yard distance and Slater some credit at the 100-yard distance, but in the end, he ended up with the same answer so many others did — Jonathan Jones.

As the distance got higher, McCourty said he would take Hogan, but noted Slater was a good choice too.

"Slate might have the most heart to finish it, but the rest of us — I definitely won’t run the mile," McCourty said.

McCourty even gave his thoughts for a longer distance than a mile, saying that Nate Ebner would be his pick in a marathon.

"He’ll gut it out," McCourty said.

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Phillip Dorsett

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Phillip Dorsett did not want to pick a winner for fastest player on the team. When he heard that he ran the same 40-yard dash time as both Cooks and Jones, he had his answer set.

"I would just say I guess we’re tied," Dorsett said. "All tied. All ran the same time."

When asked about Jones specifically, Dorsett said he might give Jones the edge — though he seemed to be more interested in giving the title to someone else than claiming it as his own. All he knew is he did not want to be a part of the one mile competition.

"Oh no, I’m not doing that," Dorsett said. "I ain’t running no mile."

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Brandin Cooks

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Brandin Cooks did not want to vote in this poll, politely declining an interview. Instead, he said he would let his teammates decide who was the fastest player on the team.

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Jonathan Jones

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Jones is the clear winner as the fastest member of the Patriots, getting votes from more than half of the players who voted. While he is listed as having run a 4.33 second 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine, Jones remembers it differently.

"I didn’t run a 4.33, I ran a 4.31," Jones said. "We’ve got some fast guys and it would be a good race, but I’ll always bet on me."

Jones said it was pretty cool to have many of his teammates picking him as the fastest on the team. He would pick himself in the 40-yard and 100-yard dashes as well, though he guessed that maybe Cooks would beat him in the mile.

"I don’t know how many mile runners we got on the team," Jones said. "Hopefully we don’t show up on Sundays having to run any miles."

As for how his speed translates to the actual game, Jones said there were a lot of different areas that straight-line speed applied.

"Guys like Brandin Cooks at receiver, to be able to run with guys like — I mean that’s the first step," Jones said. "If you can’t run with them, you can’t cover them. I think it definitely helps me a lot."

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Final Tallies

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This is not exactly a scientific final tally, as some players had multiple answers for some questions and no answers for other questions. For the official tally, players tied for first place were given a full vote, while any second-place votes were not counted.

With that in mind, here's the final tally for how the votes went for who is the fastest Patriots player at short distance, full-field and one mile distances.

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Short distance (40 yards)

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Jonathan Jones - 7 votes

Brandin Cooks - 3 votes

Matthew Slater - 1 vote

Danny Amendola - 1 vote (himself)

Phillip Dorsett - 1 vote

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Full field (100 yards)

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Matthew Slater - 4 votes

Jonathan Jones - 2 votes

Danny Amendola - 1 vote (himself)

Brandin Cooks - 1 vote

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Long distance (1 mile)

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Brandin Cooks - 2 votes

Jonathan Jones - 2 votes

Danny Amendola - 1 vote (himself)

Chris Hogan - 1 vote

Julian Edelman - 1 vote

Rex Burkhead - 1 vote

Matthew Slater - 1 vote

(Note: Nate Ebner received one marathon vote, which was not one of the categories, but is noteworthy)

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Final thoughts

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It does not truly come as a surprise that the Patriots' two gunners, Jones and Slater, received plenty of votes as the fastest New England Patriot. Each of them has a background in track and field, and both get a chance to show their straight-line speed repeatedly in games and practice.

It was a bit surprising that Cooks did not get as many votes as he did, considering his pedigree of being one of the fastest receivers in the NFL. I was also a little surprised Chris Hogan did not get as many first-place votes in the one mile run, though it is worth noting that no one had much of an idea who could win a distance race.

While Jones is the choice for 2017 Fastest New England Patriot, he would be hard-pressed to win the title of fastest Patriot of all time. That would probably go to Jeff Demps, a running back who ran a 4.26 40-yard dash and won an Olympic silver medal in the 4x100-meter relay. Of course, that medal was later stripped thanks to a Tyson Gay positive drug test, but his role on that team probably cements him as the fastest Patriot of all time.