Latest / Patriots Catch-22 / Patriots Catch-22 11/14: 3 Up/Down vs. Bears, Rams Matchups to Watch & Drake Maye

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Patriots Catch-22 11/14: 3 Up/Down vs. Bears, Rams Matchups to Watch & Drake Maye · Patriots Catch-22

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Speaker 1: Patriots Unfiltered the world's original podcast. Patriots Unfiltered brings you
0:34
Speaker 1: inside Jillette Stadium for rousing conversations on everything New England,
0:38
Speaker 1: Patriots and NFL. Join host Fred Kersh alongside Patriots dot
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Speaker 1: COM's Paul Parillo, Mike Desso, Evan Lazar, Tamara Brown, and
0:45
Speaker 1: Alex Francisco as they bring you in depth coverage of
0:48
Speaker 1: the team.
0:49
Speaker 2: He's a red shirt rookie at that point, so it's
0:51
Speaker 2: really that's his rookie season essentially too, So now we're
0:54
Speaker 2: really not talking about them, really knowing.
0:57
Speaker 1: Search for Patriots Unfiltered anywhere you get your podcasts. This
1:05
Speaker 1: is the Patriots Catch twenty two podcasts with Evan Lazar
1:09
Speaker 1: and Alex Barth.
1:12
Speaker 3: And Lazarre.
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Speaker 2: Hello, everybody nailed it. Joined as always by our Bark.
1:19
Speaker 2: Here is Evan Lazar and Alex bars Like.
1:22
Speaker 4: If I had told you that, Alex back in August
1:25
Speaker 4: that we would feel by January that Drake May was
1:28
Speaker 4: truly Ags franchise quarterback type, God, yeah, because I was right.
1:35
Speaker 4: I was head of the curve. But at the same time, like,
1:39
Speaker 4: if I told you that that was cemented this season.
1:42
Speaker 2: You did tell me that just make just play along,
1:48
Speaker 2: trying to host the show. Have been playing along more.
1:51
Speaker 2: I was trying to give you credit.
1:53
Speaker 4: I'm trying to I'm trying to move the show along.
1:56
Speaker 4: And all you had to do was just all you do,
2:00
Speaker 4: what you do.
2:00
Speaker 2: All I had to do, what I have to do.
2:03
Speaker 2: All you do is hype you up and give you
2:04
Speaker 2: credit for your take that at the time was crazy,
2:07
Speaker 2: being right, It wasn't crazy. It seems I should say
2:11
Speaker 2: a take that seemed crazy at the time, being right.
2:13
Speaker 2: So I wasn't gonna know. I'm sorry, won't give you
2:15
Speaker 2: credit anymore.
2:15
Speaker 4: I wasn't going to open with this. I wasn't, I swear,
2:18
Speaker 4: but Marine set me up for it. So now I
2:20
Speaker 4: have to, Right, I have to do this soapbox moment
2:23
Speaker 4: here for a second. So I'm driving into work this morning, right,
2:27
Speaker 4: and look, I I like your station. I listened to
2:30
Speaker 4: your stay all the time. I'm listening to your station, right,
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Speaker 4: And this isn't about the host. They didn't say anything wrong.
2:36
Speaker 4: But I listened to the station and they're playing a
2:38
Speaker 4: cut and I don't know who exactly it was, and
2:41
Speaker 4: I don't want to name names. It was a national reporter,
2:44
Speaker 4: though it was one of the insiders. It sounded like
2:46
Speaker 4: Tom Pellisero, but I'm not one hundred percent sure who
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Speaker 4: it was. But the report was that Drake May is
2:54
Speaker 4: even further along than people inside this building at Jillette
2:58
Speaker 4: Stadium thought he would be at this point. That was
3:01
Speaker 4: the report.
3:02
Speaker 2: So clearly wasn't talking about you.
3:04
Speaker 4: Clearly he's talking about people way more important than me.
3:08
Speaker 4: And then it was a jumping that you, as your
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Speaker 4: station likes to do. They use it as a jumping
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Speaker 4: off point just to discuss if they thought that Drake
3:16
Speaker 4: May was further along or not further along than they expected. Right,
3:20
Speaker 4: And I just I, for the life of me, and
3:24
Speaker 4: as probably the I call myself the conductor of the
3:29
Speaker 4: Drake May hype train.
3:30
Speaker 2: Is that allowed you when you're right about a take
3:32
Speaker 2: like that, you can call yourself whatever you want.
3:34
Speaker 4: I just and I said this back before the draft.
3:39
Speaker 4: And I give people, certain people like dan Orlovsky like
3:43
Speaker 4: a lot of credit because he has owned up to
3:46
Speaker 4: the fact that he was wrong. Right, dan Orlovsky said
3:49
Speaker 4: that Drake May had to be on the Jordan Love track,
3:51
Speaker 4: that he had to sit for a year or to
3:54
Speaker 4: hold the clipboard work on his footwork work on this,
3:56
Speaker 4: and I at the time, I said, blasphemy, this is erroneous.
4:00
Speaker 4: This is erroneous, right, And I just I would love
4:04
Speaker 4: to know, truthfully, like what those people were seeing with
4:08
Speaker 4: Drake at North Carolina that they missed that they just
4:12
Speaker 4: were seeing this guy that was so far away from
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Speaker 4: being a competent NFL quarterback and now winning games in
4:19
Speaker 4: the NFL and playing at a very high level for
4:22
Speaker 4: the most part, which I think we all agree on
4:24
Speaker 4: a national local Orlovsky me, Kurt Warner, like JT. O'Sullivan,
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Speaker 4: whoever you want to say, I think everybody agrees on it.
4:33
Speaker 4: And it's just shocking to me that it took to
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Speaker 4: this point for people to recognize the talent, like this
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Speaker 4: is a guy that in twenty twenty two took North
4:41
Speaker 4: Carolina to the a SEC championship game, not Miami, not Clemson,
4:46
Speaker 4: not you know, one of these blue budd football programsketball school,
4:49
Speaker 4: I would say, basketball, a basketball school that when you
4:53
Speaker 4: walk onto their campus and you go to their football facility,
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Speaker 4: the logo that's hanging over the football facility is.
5:01
Speaker 2: The Jordan logo. It's not even a football player's logo.
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Speaker 2: It's a basketball player's logo. Okay, okay, I didn't go
5:08
Speaker 2: to Michigan's. I didn't know that.
5:09
Speaker 4: But you see the Jordan logo there, it's they are basketball.
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Speaker 2: So let's just say this. They got the right Jordan
5:14
Speaker 2: school quarterback, Can I say that? Sure?
5:17
Speaker 4: And so they literally he takes them to the AEC
5:20
Speaker 4: championship game in twenty twenty two when he has Josh
5:24
Speaker 4: Downs and you know, some more NFL caliber talents Hampton. Yeah,
5:29
Speaker 4: there's another back there too. Is Michael Carter still there
5:31
Speaker 4: at that point?
5:33
Speaker 2: I think so? I think he was.
5:35
Speaker 4: Anyways, they have some NFL talent around him. He takes
5:39
Speaker 4: them to the AEC championship game. They played Oregon in
5:42
Speaker 4: a big Bowl. I forget which.
5:43
Speaker 2: Bowl it is.
5:43
Speaker 4: There's a million bowls. They play Oregon in a big Bowl.
5:46
Speaker 4: It was not there for that, Okay, draft that must
5:49
Speaker 4: have been somebody else I'm thinking of. Anyways, they take
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Speaker 4: him to a big bowl game in twenty twenty two,
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Speaker 4: he is ACC Player of the Year. In twenty twenty two,
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Speaker 4: as a twenty one year old true sophomore, he's ACC
6:01
Speaker 4: Player of the Year and has his team in the
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Speaker 4: championship game for the conference and in a big Bowl game.
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Speaker 4: Then he comes back in twenty three, they change his
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Speaker 4: offensive coordinator because Longo goes to Wisconsin and they have
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Speaker 4: this all this turnover there at North Carolina and he
6:16
Speaker 4: goes in twenty twenty three. When you talk to people
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Speaker 4: down there, the only reason why North Carolina was even
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Speaker 4: competent or any sort of watchable in twenty twenty three
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Speaker 4: was because Drake May was there, and Drake May was
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Speaker 4: keeping him there. He led to FBS back to back
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Speaker 4: years in big time throw rate, back to back years.
6:36
Speaker 4: He led the FBS in that. And yet we get
6:38
Speaker 4: to the draft process and he's a project that has
6:41
Speaker 4: to sit for two years and now five games in,
6:44
Speaker 4: now that he's playing well at the NFL level, we're
6:46
Speaker 4: all shocked by it. Like it just I'm not even
6:49
Speaker 4: trying to victory lap I just think that at the
6:51
Speaker 4: same time, it was like a complete misjudgment of the
6:55
Speaker 4: player and misevaluation by so many people. And I honestly
6:59
Speaker 4: don't think that people saw and granted, like, if you're
7:02
Speaker 4: not there and I was only there for a short
7:04
Speaker 4: period of time at his pro day, but if you're
7:07
Speaker 4: not on the ground and you don't understand you know
7:09
Speaker 4: what's going on with that program. You don't necessarily understand
7:12
Speaker 4: the intangibles of the kid, right like you don't understand
7:15
Speaker 4: the makeup. You don't understand the leadership, the calmness, the poise,
7:20
Speaker 4: all that kind of stuff that we're now seeing here.
7:22
Speaker 4: And you know, we did a great job with the
7:24
Speaker 4: miked up segment and you can see all of it.
7:26
Speaker 4: You can see all of the poise, the leadership ability,
7:30
Speaker 4: like all this kind of stuff, and then you obviously
7:32
Speaker 4: see the talent. So it just I'm glad that people
7:35
Speaker 4: are starting to come over to this side of the street.
7:37
Speaker 4: I'm glad that they're, you know, owning up to the
7:40
Speaker 4: fact that that they misjudge the player. And that's great,
7:43
Speaker 4: And there's all sorts of room on the Drake May bandwagon.
7:45
Speaker 4: Don't worry like it's not like we're not you know,
7:47
Speaker 4: excluding yeah, we're not gatekeeping anybody. I just I really
7:53
Speaker 4: am shocked at how many people are shocked by the
7:56
Speaker 4: fact that he is playing the way that he is playing.
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Speaker 4: Because to me, and this is where I really where
8:02
Speaker 4: I wanted to go with this. To me, he's playing
8:05
Speaker 4: exactly how I expected him to play. He is making
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Speaker 4: some incredibly high level plays like elite franchise quarterback type throws, reads, moments,
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Speaker 4: whatever you want to call it. You know, the throw
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Speaker 4: to Hooper, the throw to Booty, you know, the two
8:20
Speaker 4: minute situation, how they handled that, the athleticism, the scrambling ability.
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Speaker 4: I expected all of this to be there from Drake May.
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Speaker 4: And that's why when I came off of this game
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Speaker 4: and and grading this film against Chicago, I thought it
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Speaker 4: was his worst game that he played since he started
8:37
Speaker 4: taking over as the starter. And the main reason is
8:39
Speaker 4: is I feel like my bar is being raised by him,
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Speaker 4: like he is playing so well in pockets, especially that now,
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Speaker 4: like the rookie mistakes, like the interception that he threw
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Speaker 4: on Sunday against Chicago, I don't have as much leeway
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Speaker 4: for him anymore, as much rope as I maybe did
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Speaker 4: against Houston in his first start, because I know he's
9:01
Speaker 4: capable of not doing something like that right well, but
9:05
Speaker 4: he did it. Yeah, But I'm just I'm holding him
9:08
Speaker 4: to a higher standard. I guess that's fair because I
9:10
Speaker 4: expected And I'll just end it on this and you
9:13
Speaker 4: can jump in. He is right now since taking over
9:17
Speaker 4: as the starter, he is fifth in Big Time throws.
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Speaker 4: He is number one in scramble yards and he's number
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Speaker 4: one in turnover worthy plays. Right, So it's both sides
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Speaker 4: of the spectrum, and this up and down and that
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Speaker 4: seesaw is ecause exactly what I expected to see out
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Speaker 4: of him. And now I need to see the turnover
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Speaker 4: where he plays numbers start to go down.
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Speaker 2: You finally got your Josh Allen, congratulations, it's great. I'm
9:40
Speaker 2: I won't but since you got so mad that I
9:42
Speaker 2: tried to give you credit for that take, I guess
9:44
Speaker 2: I won't do that anymore. I thought this game was
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Speaker 2: really interesting for Drake may Like that's kind of a
9:49
Speaker 2: summation of his season on a hole. Yeah. What was
9:53
Speaker 2: interesting to me about this game was he wasn't He
9:56
Speaker 2: had his big moments, like to throw to Kashan Boody
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Speaker 2: at the end of the first half, to throw to
10:00
Speaker 2: Austin Hooper on the first drive, right, but he was
10:04
Speaker 2: more or less in the passenger seat for this game. Yeah. Right,
10:06
Speaker 2: threw the ball twenty five times. His previous season low
10:09
Speaker 2: was thirty three. Had one big run late, but really
10:11
Speaker 2: wasn't a factor in the run game. They didn't need
10:13
Speaker 2: one to be. They finally ran the football conventionally, and
10:17
Speaker 2: I you don't want I don't want to come across
10:19
Speaker 2: as like that's the game he should play because you
10:22
Speaker 2: know whatever, it was like fifteen to twenty five hundred
10:24
Speaker 2: and eighty one yards touchdown and a pick. We that's
10:27
Speaker 2: the game that's been played here for a few years now, right,
10:30
Speaker 2: that's a pretty become a standard Patriots quarterback game. But
10:34
Speaker 2: I do we talked last week about and when I
10:38
Speaker 2: say we like not this show like a lot of
10:39
Speaker 2: the narrative last week the last two weeks was they
10:42
Speaker 2: can't put too much on the kid too early? Are
10:44
Speaker 2: they asking too much of him? You know is are
10:47
Speaker 2: there are people banking too much of their futures on him?
10:49
Speaker 2: And it's the third overall pick at quarterback. You're building
10:52
Speaker 2: the thing around him big picture, don't get me wrong
10:55
Speaker 2: on that, But you also don't want to overload him
10:57
Speaker 2: too early. And it felt like were they going in
11:00
Speaker 2: that direction? And I think to be able to win
11:02
Speaker 2: a game where his average depth of target was deeper,
11:05
Speaker 2: but he had like three really deep passes, it felt
11:08
Speaker 2: like he lived more near the line of scrimmage again,
11:10
Speaker 2: didn't throw the ball quite as much, didn't go out
11:13
Speaker 2: of structure as much. He just we always talked about
11:17
Speaker 2: quarterbacks as the point guard. Right. There's quarterbacks that have
11:19
Speaker 2: a you'll hear Pip talk about having any more shooting
11:21
Speaker 2: guard mentality from quarterbacks, right, And it felt like Drake
11:25
Speaker 2: May was playing with that shooting guard quarterback mentality through
11:29
Speaker 2: his first four starts. This was the first game that
11:32
Speaker 2: he really point guarded the offense and he just kind
11:35
Speaker 2: of was the distributor. And there's again I don't know
11:39
Speaker 2: that that should be I don't it shouldn't be every
11:41
Speaker 2: game that he plays, because he has special skills that
11:43
Speaker 2: you should be able to break out. But even with
11:44
Speaker 2: Tom Brady, there were games where it was like, we're
11:47
Speaker 2: gonna put you on a three step drop, you're gonna
11:49
Speaker 2: hit slants, and we're gonna run the crap out of
11:50
Speaker 2: the ball, and we're gonna get out of here with
11:51
Speaker 2: an ugly, you know, twenty to thirteen win, And sometimes
11:55
Speaker 2: that's how you had to win the game. Yeah, So
11:57
Speaker 2: that's the game I was more worried about when it
12:00
Speaker 2: came to Drake May. I know he can throw the
12:01
Speaker 2: ball forty times and put up three hundred and fifty yards. Yeah, right,
12:04
Speaker 2: I knew he could do that. But the question is one,
12:07
Speaker 2: can he cut down on the turnovers, which you're right about,
12:09
Speaker 2: and he did this week. The one turnover was.
12:11
Speaker 4: Bad, yeah, bad, Yeah, but he had the turnover number
12:14
Speaker 4: came down. Yeah, But he also had two other plays
12:16
Speaker 4: that were turnover where.
12:17
Speaker 2: I think then we had him for two total on
12:19
Speaker 2: PF efforts. The interception not count as a turnover, No
12:21
Speaker 2: that accounts, but I saw it with two. Well I
12:24
Speaker 2: had you charted him for third. Okay, fair enough, but
12:26
Speaker 2: like he had PF, I've had him with four against Tennessee.
12:29
Speaker 2: So technically run down, like could he come in just
12:32
Speaker 2: hit the short stuff, hit the gimmes, not get too reckless.
12:36
Speaker 2: He did have that almost interception in the end zone,
12:38
Speaker 2: so maybe if that's picked off, that changes the narrative here.
12:40
Speaker 2: But you know, I thought, for the most part, is
12:42
Speaker 2: he gonna be able to come in just play a settled,
12:45
Speaker 2: clean distributor game. And I think it takes a lot
12:49
Speaker 2: of the pressure off his shoulders. I think it takes
12:51
Speaker 2: a lot of weight off alex man pelt shoulders to know, Okay,
12:55
Speaker 2: we have this card, we can play this card if
12:57
Speaker 2: we need to. Again, shouldn't play it every week that
13:00
Speaker 2: don't you know, totally constrict the kid and still let
13:04
Speaker 2: him use his natural gifts. But you are going to
13:06
Speaker 2: have to win games like that, not just this year.
13:08
Speaker 2: And like, I get it, they played a really bad team,
13:10
Speaker 2: but projecting forward, you might go, like, good team for
13:14
Speaker 2: a good team. Hypothetically, let's say the Patriots with Drake
13:18
Speaker 2: may Or a wagon and they're playing this year's Chiefs team, right, Yeah,
13:22
Speaker 2: Like that's kind of the game they would need to play.
13:25
Speaker 2: Get ahead of ourselves with that one. But this is
13:27
Speaker 2: the point, like you can allow yourself to get ahead
13:30
Speaker 2: with something like this, where it's like, is he going
13:32
Speaker 2: to be able to settle down in the games that
13:34
Speaker 2: call for him to settle down? And he did, and
13:36
Speaker 2: I think that's an encouraging sign. Like statistically his worst
13:38
Speaker 2: game by far.
13:39
Speaker 4: Yeah, I thought it was his worst game on the
13:41
Speaker 4: film too, But not that he didn't have any good
13:43
Speaker 4: plays or anything like that. That's obviously not true.
13:45
Speaker 2: I thought. So I thought it was his worst game too,
13:48
Speaker 2: But I also thought you saw things from him in
13:50
Speaker 2: a positive light that you didn't see in other games
13:53
Speaker 2: he didn't really even see unc. Yeah, so that's I
13:56
Speaker 2: guess what this take is. Yeah, I just think, you know,
13:58
Speaker 2: the biggest thing for him, and some of it's to
14:00
Speaker 2: Van Pelt too, Yeah, for Van pell to be able
14:02
Speaker 2: to recognize the situation and call the game the way
14:04
Speaker 2: he called it.
14:05
Speaker 4: So we'll get to van Pelt in the second because
14:06
Speaker 4: I want to open up that take as well a
14:08
Speaker 4: little bit. But just to where I really wanted to start,
14:11
Speaker 4: wasn't on the soapbox about you know, all these people
14:14
Speaker 4: that claim that Drake May was like seventeen years away
14:17
Speaker 4: from playing in the NFL.
14:18
Speaker 2: That just didn't know.
14:20
Speaker 4: That's where you want to miss the evaluation. Absolutely, I
14:24
Speaker 4: would like to because it's just still to this day
14:26
Speaker 4: I can't figure it out.
14:28
Speaker 2: Anyways.
14:29
Speaker 4: The real place I want to start, and I wrote
14:31
Speaker 4: about this and after further of you, and this is
14:33
Speaker 4: sort of my big theme coming off this game is
14:36
Speaker 4: I'm big unsustainability.
14:37
Speaker 2: Right.
14:38
Speaker 4: It's one thing to do things one time. A lot
14:40
Speaker 4: of guys have done stuff one time in their careers. Now,
14:44
Speaker 4: Mac Jones as the Buffalo game last year where he
14:46
Speaker 4: let a game winning drive and come from behind win
14:48
Speaker 4: against Josh Allen, and he'll always have it right.
14:51
Speaker 2: Nick Foles tied for the record for most touchdown passing
14:53
Speaker 2: a game. Was it Foles that had seven? Or am
14:55
Speaker 2: I thinking of somebody else? You're probably right, like one
14:57
Speaker 2: of those Eagles backup quarterbacks. Everybody can do it. Once.
15:01
Speaker 2: The question that we all have now most touchdown passing
15:05
Speaker 2: the game, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Nick Foles, and some
15:08
Speaker 2: guy from like way back, A couple guys from way
15:10
Speaker 2: back like fifties. Oh okay, Sid Bluckman, George Bland guys.
15:16
Speaker 2: So you just said the one?
15:17
Speaker 4: I said, okay, wait, you just said some guy from
15:20
Speaker 4: way back then named Sid Luckman, who's like very well known.
15:23
Speaker 2: That was So that wasn't the SA. Let me clarify
15:27
Speaker 2: what happened. So I googled. I googled most right to
15:30
Speaker 2: call me out on that. By the way, Johnny United
15:32
Speaker 2: most touchdown passes on a game, and it says D Breeze,
15:36
Speaker 2: N Foles, P Manning. I did not know. I knew
15:39
Speaker 2: there was a j Cap. I forget if it was
15:41
Speaker 2: Joe Cap or Jim Cap. So I said some guy.
15:43
Speaker 2: Then I clicked on the link and it loaded, and
15:46
Speaker 2: then I saw Sid Luckman, George blanda y a tittle
15:50
Speaker 2: Joe Capp and Adrian Burke.
15:52
Speaker 4: You have some respect on why Tittle's name, all right,
15:55
Speaker 4: just a little bit.
15:56
Speaker 2: This is the Giants. I put respect on Sid Luckman's name,
15:59
Speaker 2: at George Blanda's name, and I guess I have to
16:01
Speaker 2: put it on Joe Capp's name.
16:02
Speaker 4: Joe Cap was decent. He could throw it, you could
16:05
Speaker 4: spin it a little bit.
16:06
Speaker 2: An odd number of these were against NFC East teams,
16:09
Speaker 2: the Giants twice, Washington twice, NFC NFC NFC's tonight matchup.
16:15
Speaker 2: Somebody thrown for seven touchdowns Jade and Daniels. Seven touchdowns possible?
16:18
Speaker 4: Well, then you have the Eagles backup quarterbacks do it?
16:20
Speaker 2: Can you pick it? Seven touchdowns tonight? No? Not possible.
16:23
Speaker 4: So the big word for me this week moving on
16:25
Speaker 4: is sustainability, right, Like, can you do this again and
16:29
Speaker 4: again again? Because, let's face it, they had that Buffalo
16:33
Speaker 4: game last year. I didn't even think of this until
16:34
Speaker 4: just now. They win that Buffalo game last year, we
16:37
Speaker 4: come off of it saying this could be a turning
16:39
Speaker 4: point or it couldn't be, and it wasn't right, Like
16:41
Speaker 4: they just went right back to being a loser, frankly, right,
16:45
Speaker 4: And they didn't really use it at all. So the
16:47
Speaker 4: Patriots the same thing this year. That was a really
16:50
Speaker 4: good win in Chicago. We're gonna give them their flowers
16:52
Speaker 4: for that win, but can they sustain the things that
16:55
Speaker 4: they can sustain? And I look at the offense and specifically,
17:00
Speaker 4: it just felt like the infrastructure, the supporting cast around
17:04
Speaker 4: Drake may was pretty solid in that game. The offensive
17:08
Speaker 4: line wasn't outstanding, but they were fine. They were competent.
17:11
Speaker 4: It was like a thirty seven to thirty eight percent
17:13
Speaker 4: pressure rate. They had a decent job running the football.
17:17
Speaker 4: I think they had a forty two percent success rate
17:19
Speaker 4: on the ground, So decent numbers. Not they didn't, you know,
17:23
Speaker 4: set the world on fire upfront, but they were decent
17:25
Speaker 4: and they I would say, control the line of scrimmage
17:28
Speaker 4: in that game for the most part. On the offensive
17:30
Speaker 4: of the ball. Alex Van Pelt called probably his best
17:34
Speaker 4: game of the year. Now, some of that was Chicago
17:36
Speaker 4: like some of it was un coverage busts and self
17:39
Speaker 4: inflicted wounds and things like that, but they handled situations well.
17:43
Speaker 4: The end of the half situation they really called a
17:46
Speaker 4: really good touchdown drive in the second quarter, and to
17:49
Speaker 4: your point, they sort of gave the game what it
17:52
Speaker 4: needed on the offensive side of the ball, and then
17:55
Speaker 4: we obviously know what they did on defense and the
17:57
Speaker 4: game plan and how they shut down Caleb Williams. So
18:01
Speaker 4: but sticking to the offense, if they get that level
18:05
Speaker 4: of offensive line play, which becomes if that becomes the
18:09
Speaker 4: norm and not just the peak performance, but a norm
18:11
Speaker 4: performance from the offensive line, and that becomes the norm
18:15
Speaker 4: for Alex van Pelt, that he is competent as an
18:18
Speaker 4: offensive coordinator and as a play caller, then I would
18:22
Speaker 4: say that Drake May will play better games than what
18:25
Speaker 4: he played on Sunday if that all happens. And I
18:28
Speaker 4: get that we're kind of in Rose color land right now,
18:31
Speaker 4: but I just.
18:32
Speaker 2: Talk about them playing the prime Chiefs, So that's fair.
18:35
Speaker 4: If you get competent line play, competent coordinating and play calling,
18:39
Speaker 4: and a better game from Drake May, I will start
18:43
Speaker 4: to believe that this offense has turned a corner. But
18:45
Speaker 4: right now it feels like they're getting those things separate
18:49
Speaker 4: from each other, like they have a really good Drake
18:51
Speaker 4: May game, but a horrible game for Alex van Pelt,
18:54
Speaker 4: or a really good line game but a horrible game
18:57
Speaker 4: for Drake May right like, and they just can't get
18:59
Speaker 4: it all to fire together. If it all fires together
19:04
Speaker 4: on Sunday against the Rams, then I will start to
19:07
Speaker 4: believe that this offense has turned a corner and the
19:10
Speaker 4: numbers are getting better for them. Offensively, it's not it's
19:13
Speaker 4: not where it needs to be, but they're at almost
19:15
Speaker 4: nineteen a game with Drake May. Now, in terms of points,
19:18
Speaker 4: you know, they've been decent enough. If you take out
19:21
Speaker 4: Drake May's turnovers especially, they've been pretty solid in terms
19:25
Speaker 4: of like EPA per drop back and things like that.
19:28
Speaker 4: They're on the right track. I think in a lot
19:30
Speaker 4: of way is offensively, but now they just needed all
19:32
Speaker 4: to come in one game together. Yeah, until that happens,
19:36
Speaker 4: I just can't be a big believer yet in what
19:38
Speaker 4: they're doing. I mean, they're making progress, and I'll give
19:41
Speaker 4: them credit for making progress.
19:42
Speaker 2: I'm with you. They need to make more progress like
19:44
Speaker 2: they're not. It's hardly a finished product. And yeah, I
19:47
Speaker 2: think continuity is the word here right. This has been
19:51
Speaker 2: a pretty inconsistent team. Trod May have talked about on Wednesday,
19:54
Speaker 2: we need to learn how to win after win. It's
19:56
Speaker 2: been over two years now since the Patriots won back
19:59
Speaker 2: to back games as a franchise. They won three in
20:01
Speaker 2: a row weeks eight to eleven in twenty twenty two.
20:04
Speaker 2: There was a bye weekend there. This is week eleven here,
20:07
Speaker 2: so it would be essentially two years since their last
20:09
Speaker 2: back to back wins. Crazy and it's it's a box.
20:13
Speaker 2: He got a check as you built for it. I
20:16
Speaker 2: think it really starts up front. That was the difference
20:18
Speaker 2: last week. And we'll talk about this on both sides,
20:21
Speaker 2: the Patriots defense doing what it did, because a lot
20:25
Speaker 2: of people came out of that game saying this, it's
20:26
Speaker 2: more about the Patriots being good or the Bears being bad. Yeah,
20:29
Speaker 2: And I don't think that the that's a blanket answer.
20:32
Speaker 2: I think it depends on what area of the game
20:34
Speaker 2: you're talking about. So the Patriots, Steve, I mean that
20:37
Speaker 2: that Bears offensive line is just as well. The injuries, well,
20:42
Speaker 2: I'm saying that line like that they put out there.
20:44
Speaker 2: They had a bunch of guys banged up. Yeah, atrocious.
20:46
Speaker 2: The Bears defensive front they're not great. It's not you know,
20:49
Speaker 2: Lawrence Taylor out there. Yeah, but that's a solid front,
20:53
Speaker 2: especially against the pass and you know, pass rush. And
20:56
Speaker 2: I thought the offensive line handled business. They handled business.
21:00
Speaker 2: They it was the pressure rate was like thirty eight percent,
21:03
Speaker 2: which is not amazing, but it's you can operate. And
21:08
Speaker 2: there I said at the beginning of the year, like
21:09
Speaker 2: can you get it down under forty? Yeah? Right, you
21:11
Speaker 2: can operate within that. There was room for the running backs,
21:14
Speaker 2: not a ton. They weren't breaking off big runs, but
21:16
Speaker 2: they were able to stay on schedule. They weren't ahead
21:18
Speaker 2: of schedule a ton, but they were able to stay
21:20
Speaker 2: on schedule. That kind of thing. So and once you
21:22
Speaker 2: look at it, you've let this same group now I
21:25
Speaker 2: think this week they said they're going to start the
21:26
Speaker 2: same group this week. It's their fourth start, right for
21:28
Speaker 2: this group, fourth start, fifth game. Would you look at that?
21:33
Speaker 2: They're actually starting to improve because you're letting them work together.
21:37
Speaker 2: So I think it starts up front. I think if
21:39
Speaker 2: they can get better play from the offensive line, those
21:42
Speaker 2: other things will fall into place. Now Alex van peld Is,
21:44
Speaker 2: he hasn't said, but he's, you know, reading between the
21:47
Speaker 2: lines a little bit that the offensive line issues have
21:49
Speaker 2: limited some of what they want to do. I look
21:51
Speaker 2: at that screen pass they ran last week. They couldn't
21:53
Speaker 2: run that at the beginning of the year. Are you
21:54
Speaker 2: kidding me? Somebody had gotten clocked. Yeah, so he almost
21:57
Speaker 2: get clocked. He almost well, he almost got clocked. It's
21:59
Speaker 2: the NFL. You almost get clocked on every pay Yeah.
22:02
Speaker 2: So I think as they start to as the offensive
22:05
Speaker 2: line builds his continuity and gets together, you're gonna see
22:07
Speaker 2: the rest of the stuff open up. Now, this week's
22:10
Speaker 2: very different test like that. The Bears defensive front is good,
22:13
Speaker 2: the Rams defensive front is great. It's a different test.
22:17
Speaker 2: But I think if they continue to get the progress
22:19
Speaker 2: up front, the rest of it will fall up a
22:20
Speaker 2: big if. Ye. But if they get the progress up front,
22:22
Speaker 2: the rest will follow.
22:23
Speaker 4: So I want to circle back to drake Man in
22:25
Speaker 4: a second, But I do want to stick on coaching
22:27
Speaker 4: for a second because last week, and I like a
22:30
Speaker 4: broken record because I said it on three different shows.
22:33
Speaker 4: I'm sure you feel the same way. You give your
22:34
Speaker 4: take on seventeen different shows, so it's, you know, the
22:36
Speaker 4: same thing. But the three big things that I harped
22:39
Speaker 4: on in Tennessee, which looking back at that game now
22:43
Speaker 4: irks me even more because they we'd be talking about
22:46
Speaker 4: a three game winning streak if they just took care
22:48
Speaker 4: of business in Nashville and didn't have these issues. And
22:52
Speaker 4: the big cliche that you always hear about and Bill
22:55
Speaker 4: was big on this cliche, Bill Belichick, is that coaches
22:59
Speaker 4: lose games and players win games. And two weeks ago
23:03
Speaker 4: against the Titans, the Patriots coaching staff lost them a game.
23:07
Speaker 2: That's how I.
23:09
Speaker 4: Feel, and I laid it out, shaking up the offensive line,
23:13
Speaker 4: how they handled the situation before halftime, and then obviously
23:17
Speaker 4: the wind and overtime, right like, those three big things
23:20
Speaker 4: were actively losing them that football game. And this team
23:23
Speaker 4: just doesn't have the talent on the roster yet to
23:26
Speaker 4: overcome bad coaching. If they go out on Sunday and
23:30
Speaker 4: they play the Rams and I feel like and we
23:33
Speaker 4: feel like that they have a competent game plan, they
23:35
Speaker 4: get competent coaching, but the Rams just have a little
23:38
Speaker 4: bit more talent than they do when they lose, then
23:40
Speaker 4: I think we can all live with that. Like that
23:42
Speaker 4: is where they're at, Like the Rams. If you stack
23:44
Speaker 4: up the two rosters, the Rams have a lot more
23:46
Speaker 4: talent than the Patriots do. So you look at that
23:50
Speaker 4: and aside this week, I felt like they're coaching did
23:55
Speaker 4: not actively lose them. The game, and what do you know,
23:57
Speaker 4: they won the game. Right, you go into the game,
23:59
Speaker 4: you have the same offensive line that they finished the
24:02
Speaker 4: Titans game with and that they started the Jets game with,
24:05
Speaker 4: with Michael Jordan at left guard and on Whenue at
24:07
Speaker 4: right guard. Seemed like cooler heads prevailed there after, it
24:10
Speaker 4: looked like maybe they were going to shake it up again.
24:13
Speaker 4: Some of that sounded like also that Jordan was dealing
24:15
Speaker 4: with an injury and they weren't one hundred percent sure
24:17
Speaker 4: he was going to be able to play in the game.
24:19
Speaker 4: So they go into the game and they have the
24:21
Speaker 4: same starting offensive line really for all intents and purposes.
24:24
Speaker 4: I know that they had a touchdown against Houston, but
24:27
Speaker 4: that was just Drake May and Kishan Boudi making a
24:29
Speaker 4: great play. For all intents and purposes, that was the
24:32
Speaker 4: best situational football before the half they've had all year long.
24:36
Speaker 2: I have a take on that. Yeah, and you know
24:37
Speaker 2: I've been big on this. There's a difference between running
24:41
Speaker 2: a one minute trail and running a two minute trol.
24:43
Speaker 2: That was a thirty five second thirty Well, but like you,
24:45
Speaker 2: one minute is one minute under basically, right. I think
24:48
Speaker 2: there's technically like a fifteen second trail that some teams do.
24:51
Speaker 2: But you that's the end of game. You're down, you
24:54
Speaker 2: can there. They're different approaches, they're different steps. So I
24:58
Speaker 2: don't look at that as they finally figured out the
25:00
Speaker 2: two minute trail. I look at that as they can
25:02
Speaker 2: execute the one minute but not the two minute. It
25:04
Speaker 2: goes back to something we talked about last week about
25:06
Speaker 2: them getting too cute and too hyper focused on that
25:09
Speaker 2: one yard. It happened again, it did, but the context
25:12
Speaker 2: is a little different. Yeah, I didn't like it. Still,
25:15
Speaker 2: it makes no that's fair. It makes more sense there
25:17
Speaker 2: because the clock is lower. You're not You're they were
25:21
Speaker 2: like in field goal range ish and the clock is lower.
25:25
Speaker 2: You hit that one run. Like, if you don't hit
25:27
Speaker 2: that one run, you're not you're not punting the ball back. Yeah, right,
25:30
Speaker 2: you're not stalling out and you still it's gonna be
25:33
Speaker 2: a long field. But Joey Sly, we know, I.
25:35
Speaker 4: Don't think they're like they're like right at the fifty,
25:37
Speaker 4: weren't they when they ran the ball.
25:38
Speaker 2: No, they were a little bit closer and says, look
25:40
Speaker 2: it's third and one. Because I remember the field goal
25:42
Speaker 2: line on the broadcast was like three or four yards
25:44
Speaker 2: beyond the first I.
25:46
Speaker 4: Know I'm nip picking, and I know I just was
25:48
Speaker 4: trying to give them a positive but or you know whatever,
25:51
Speaker 4: I give them praise. But it's third and one. I
25:55
Speaker 4: believe there's like sixteen seconds left or something like that.
25:59
Speaker 4: It's third and one, and you run the ball for
26:02
Speaker 4: four yards, you pick up the first down, and then
26:05
Speaker 4: you have to burn a time out. Otherwise you know
26:08
Speaker 4: you're not gonna get another playoff.
26:10
Speaker 2: But they knew, Like but then it's it's one big shot,
26:13
Speaker 2: go down clock it like, or two shorts if it's incomplete.
26:17
Speaker 4: But if you take the shot on third and one,
26:20
Speaker 4: now you might actually have an opportunity to throw the
26:23
Speaker 4: ball into the end zone once before you come out
26:26
Speaker 4: and kick the field goal.
26:27
Speaker 2: But I think they went into that, and this is
26:29
Speaker 2: why the one minute trial two minute drills different.
26:31
Speaker 4: You can go they went into a pinging field.
26:34
Speaker 2: We're going down for field well, and I have no
26:35
Speaker 2: problem with that in that situation. That's a fair point.
26:37
Speaker 2: Sometimes like it's different. People don't leave points on the table,
26:40
Speaker 2: would have built it. It's different than the Jets game
26:42
Speaker 2: where they chose just not to move the ball. There
26:44
Speaker 2: are some situations like you know your limitations, like we
26:47
Speaker 2: just we want to get the three, because that that
26:49
Speaker 2: was a big three in the grand scheme of things.
26:51
Speaker 2: Obviously the Bears couldn't do anything in the second half,
26:54
Speaker 2: but that made it a two score game. That made
26:56
Speaker 2: it a ten point game. So I'm working under the
26:59
Speaker 2: assumption that they were the plan was, we're gonna get three.
27:02
Speaker 2: The other thing is, like you throw to Kaishawn Booty
27:06
Speaker 2: in the middle of the field, you know there's a
27:07
Speaker 2: chance you're coming up and clocking it. Right. So if
27:10
Speaker 2: they went in planning for three, they executed that right.
27:12
Speaker 2: If they went in planning for seven, then yeah, that
27:15
Speaker 2: runs not a good idea. But I think they went
27:17
Speaker 2: in knowing like, all right, we're gonna get a field goal.
27:18
Speaker 4: Here, Okay, So they they handle I'll give them their credit.
27:21
Speaker 4: They handled the half well, the end of the half well.
27:24
Speaker 4: So now you have the same starting offensive line you
27:27
Speaker 4: handled the half well. Really really dynamite defensive game plan
27:32
Speaker 4: by Girodmeyo and DeMarcus Covington, like just a really good
27:35
Speaker 4: game plan on that side of the ball. So it
27:37
Speaker 4: really was beyond just like the schooler wrinkle, you know,
27:40
Speaker 4: I like making a big deal out of stuff like
27:42
Speaker 4: that because it's cool scheme.
27:43
Speaker 2: It's football, it's fun, but you liking fun.
27:48
Speaker 4: They had a really good plan. They knew that they
27:50
Speaker 4: could cover those guys in Manta Man. They knew they
27:53
Speaker 4: could get Kleb Williams to hold the ball, and even
27:55
Speaker 4: though they don't have a dynamite pass rush this year,
27:59
Speaker 4: most NFL pass rushes, if you give them three four
28:01
Speaker 4: seconds to get home, they'll get home eventually, right, And
28:04
Speaker 4: that's what happened. They also knew that the Bears offensive
28:07
Speaker 4: line was all sorts of banged up, so they went
28:09
Speaker 4: into this game thinking, if we can just get Caleb
28:11
Speaker 4: Williams to hold the ball, and we can get them
28:13
Speaker 4: to stay in the pocket and hold the ball, then
28:15
Speaker 4: we're gonna have a pretty good chance defensively. They executed
28:18
Speaker 4: the plan great and the last thing I know, it
28:21
Speaker 4: didn't necessarily come across all the time in the broadcast,
28:25
Speaker 4: I don't think, but it was incredibly windy, as it
28:28
Speaker 4: usually is in Chicago at Soldier Field. So I'm not
28:32
Speaker 4: talking about like which side of the field they took
28:34
Speaker 4: or whatever, but you know, Joey Sli making all of
28:37
Speaker 4: his kicks like the way they handled the situation and
28:40
Speaker 4: all that kind of stuff, you know, after kind of
28:42
Speaker 4: ragging on them about it in Tennessee, Like they did
28:45
Speaker 4: a decent job of the elements in this game. I know,
28:47
Speaker 4: it wasn't a blizzard, it wasn't like a rainstorm, but
28:49
Speaker 4: it was pretty windy, and they did a nice job
28:51
Speaker 4: on it as a whole. So if they get that
28:54
Speaker 4: kind of coaching, like, that's all that I'm expecting out
28:58
Speaker 4: of them from a coaching perspective, and they did not
29:01
Speaker 4: go out there and actively lose themselves this game coaching wise,
29:05
Speaker 4: and what do you know, You give the players a
29:07
Speaker 4: fair shake to actually go out there and compete, and
29:10
Speaker 4: they won a football game pretty decisively. And this goes
29:14
Speaker 4: back to like a bigger picture take of mine about
29:16
Speaker 4: the league as a whole. I do think sometimes we
29:18
Speaker 4: get caught up a little too much in like talent
29:20
Speaker 4: discrepancies on NFL rosters like these are all professional football players.
29:24
Speaker 2: The gap between the best team and the worst team
29:26
Speaker 2: in the NFL is I always say, this is not
29:27
Speaker 2: nearly as big as people think it is, right.
29:29
Speaker 4: So if you give the competent coaching on that kind
29:32
Speaker 4: of level where they're doing all the right things, and
29:35
Speaker 4: go back to the belichickism, the coaches are not losing
29:38
Speaker 4: them in the game. Then the Patriots the rest of
29:41
Speaker 4: the way will be in a lot of games. Will
29:44
Speaker 4: they win a lot, I don't know, but they're gonna
29:46
Speaker 4: be in some one score games and they're gonna have
29:48
Speaker 4: some chances to win some football games here down the stretch.
29:51
Speaker 4: So that's all you can ask for from the coaching staff.
29:54
Speaker 4: And you know, just the other point I wanted to make,
29:57
Speaker 4: And then I do want to talk about the players.
29:59
Speaker 4: There's a lot of talk this week, and I want
30:01
Speaker 4: to get your take on this about Alex van Pelt
30:04
Speaker 4: and his future. There's some reporting out there about the
30:07
Speaker 4: Patriots already kicking the tires there. You did a whole
30:11
Speaker 4: bit about this yesterday, kicking the tires on you know,
30:15
Speaker 4: offensive coordinators or at least offensive getting in plaints, input
30:20
Speaker 4: onto young quarterbacks and things like that and how to
30:24
Speaker 4: nurture them. But I still stand by my take on
30:27
Speaker 4: Van Pelt, and I know not everybody agrees with me,
30:29
Speaker 4: but I still feel like there's two different type there's
30:33
Speaker 4: two different jobs here that he has right now. One
30:36
Speaker 4: is quarterback developer, and one is offensive coordinator, and where
30:41
Speaker 4: they are currently as a team, I still feel like
30:44
Speaker 4: developer is more important at this point in time. When
30:48
Speaker 4: they have a roster that's ready to compete around Drake May,
30:52
Speaker 4: then maybe the scheming and the x's and o's and
30:56
Speaker 4: the wits, you know, to go toe to toe with
30:58
Speaker 4: a defensive coordinator or like one of the better playoff
31:01
Speaker 4: caliber defenses in a big game like that stuff might
31:04
Speaker 4: start to matter a little bit more. But right now,
31:08
Speaker 4: they need to develop Drake and they need him to
31:11
Speaker 4: figure out his footwork and his mechanics and his reads
31:14
Speaker 4: and how to play quarterback in the NFL and how
31:17
Speaker 4: to manage you know, risk verst reward with turnovers and
31:20
Speaker 4: like things, all that stuff that he's going through right now.
31:23
Speaker 4: And I actually really believe that Van Pelt is doing
31:26
Speaker 4: a really good job with that side of it, and
31:30
Speaker 4: I give him kudos for that. I do give him
31:32
Speaker 4: credit for Drake May and where he's at right now.
31:34
Speaker 2: I do too. I'll say this though, I feel like
31:37
Speaker 2: everybody is operating under the assumption that, like either Van
31:45
Speaker 2: Pelt is fired this year or he's gonna be Drake
31:49
Speaker 2: May's offensive coordinator for his whole career right that it's
31:52
Speaker 2: if you don't move on from Alex van Pelt. Now
31:54
Speaker 2: this is the duo. I said this since before they
31:58
Speaker 2: hired Van Pelt, I said this about pretty much. I
32:00
Speaker 2: said this was gonna be true about anybody they hired.
32:02
Speaker 2: This goes back to our whole conversation about offensive coach
32:05
Speaker 2: for his defensive coach. Alex Van Pelt is not here
32:08
Speaker 2: for a long time period, full stop, one way or
32:11
Speaker 2: the other, because either it's going to go well with
32:13
Speaker 2: Drake May and somebody's gonna make him a head coach
32:16
Speaker 2: because he successfully developed a quarterback, and that is the
32:19
Speaker 2: quickest way to get a head coaching job in the
32:21
Speaker 2: Mardern NFL successfully developed rookie quarterback. He's either going to
32:25
Speaker 2: get hired away as head coach because it went well
32:27
Speaker 2: with Drake May, or at a certain point it's not
32:29
Speaker 2: gonna be going well with Drake and they're gonna move
32:31
Speaker 2: on from him. Like I, what's the timeline on that.
32:34
Speaker 2: I think three years max. How many offensive coordinators, good
32:38
Speaker 2: offensive coordinators that come up with a rookie quarterback stay
32:43
Speaker 2: where they are for more than three years. There are
32:47
Speaker 2: obvious exceptions, but like Josh McDaniels failed essentially three to well,
32:52
Speaker 2: I guess he hasn't been an office corneror since. Failed
32:54
Speaker 2: twice as a head coach right before, because I count,
32:59
Speaker 2: I count the Colts thing, failed twice as a head coach.
33:02
Speaker 2: Oh well, I mean he failed in Denver, so that's one,
33:05
Speaker 2: and then he failed in Vegas. Soady's hired him since
33:08
Speaker 2: the Vegas Yah. But if you count, if you count
33:09
Speaker 2: the Colts thing, then it's three times. Well, I'm saying, like,
33:12
Speaker 2: why he didn't leave. I'm saying, like, why he didn't
33:14
Speaker 2: leave New England when he was here for ten years? Right? Okay?
33:16
Speaker 2: And because he worked with Matt Well and look he
33:18
Speaker 2: had succept from mac Jones and boom, he got hired
33:19
Speaker 2: away even though he'd failed. So most offensive coordinators are
33:24
Speaker 2: gonna go and get hired away. I think the whole
33:26
Speaker 2: thing about Van Pelt's long term future, I don't know.
33:31
Speaker 2: You can call us a cop out take if you want.
33:32
Speaker 2: It's a little bit. I think it's irrelevant. I think
33:35
Speaker 2: it's irrelevant. It's gonna work its way out one way
33:37
Speaker 2: or the other. If he's so good that if there's
33:40
Speaker 2: a chance he becomes so good that it's like, well,
33:42
Speaker 2: we can't move on because he might be the perfect guy.
33:44
Speaker 2: You're not gonna get to keep him because he's gonna
33:46
Speaker 2: go be a head coach. I think the most important thing.
33:49
Speaker 4: I think that people just not to cut you off.
33:51
Speaker 4: But like I think people push back on that just
33:52
Speaker 4: a little bit because of how long he's already been
33:56
Speaker 4: in the league and sort of just kicked around, right, Like,
33:58
Speaker 4: it's not he's not one of these like Ben Jhonson types.
34:03
Speaker 2: Right, but this is his first time really running it. Yeah,
34:06
Speaker 2: that's fair, Right, it's his first time, and there will
34:08
Speaker 2: be teams that will look at it and say, you know,
34:12
Speaker 2: most people might look at us say, you know, what,
34:14
Speaker 2: he's been around, He's had his chance. It took too long.
34:16
Speaker 2: You don't think there'll be win or two teams to
34:17
Speaker 2: look at it and say what he did with Drake
34:19
Speaker 2: May You know, in a couple of years they see
34:21
Speaker 2: a prospect in the draft, well that that guy looks
34:23
Speaker 2: like Drake May. Ye, if we bring Van Pelt in,
34:26
Speaker 2: you know and bar them up. Like so, maybe it's
34:29
Speaker 2: not this year. But I think the bigger question when
34:31
Speaker 2: it comes to the offensive coordinator for the Patriots and
34:33
Speaker 2: you've heard me say this before. Who's next one way
34:37
Speaker 2: or the other? Who is next? Yeah, because last time
34:40
Speaker 2: they got caught with their pants down. Josh McDaniels left,
34:42
Speaker 2: He took most of the staff with them, and they
34:45
Speaker 2: had no answer for who to go to. There was
34:47
Speaker 2: no continuity on the offense side of the ball. That
34:51
Speaker 2: is the bigger thing to me, because it's trending towards,
34:54
Speaker 2: trending towards like a team. Regardless of the Patriots record.
35:00
Speaker 2: We hear all this stuff externally from national media about
35:03
Speaker 2: how highly regarded Drake May is. You don't think some
35:07
Speaker 2: of that is leading to teams looking at Alex van
35:09
Speaker 2: pelt and saying he got this guy going. It's possible.
35:13
Speaker 2: You know, there's nothing these teams want more than a young,
35:18
Speaker 2: upstart quarterback. What comes along with that a guy to
35:21
Speaker 2: make sure the quarterback reaches that level.
35:24
Speaker 4: Sure, I would just say the other thing I would mention,
35:26
Speaker 4: I think we're on the same page with this with
35:27
Speaker 4: the Alex van Pellett. I am really really wary of
35:32
Speaker 4: changing systems on Drake May from year one to year
35:35
Speaker 4: two too, because I'm this terrifies me, Like I'm really
35:40
Speaker 4: you know, I'll go to the to the wall with
35:43
Speaker 4: this because this is terrifying to me. The idea of
35:47
Speaker 4: changing offensive systems on a quarterback that is trying to
35:53
Speaker 4: develop some things that it is a little bit toolsy
35:56
Speaker 4: and raw. He has enough to worry about with his
36:00
Speaker 4: own process in terms of his feet and all that
36:04
Speaker 4: kind of stuff. That to then come in and change
36:07
Speaker 4: it up on him mentally on top of that and
36:10
Speaker 4: have throw a curveball at him that he's in a
36:12
Speaker 4: new system, I think is really really dangerous, really dangerous.
36:16
Speaker 2: Like, well, that's what all my yeah, everything we talk
36:20
Speaker 2: about the Jets and the Bears. If we get two
36:22
Speaker 2: offensive coordinators in two years, two offensive coordinators in two
36:25
Speaker 2: and a half months. Yeah, Like, you don't want to
36:29
Speaker 2: be and I'm kind of stealing felt take here, don't
36:31
Speaker 2: be one of those teams. Yeah, And they already did it.
36:34
Speaker 2: Those teams they rush the quarterback out there and they
36:37
Speaker 2: let him get his lights knocked out and all that
36:40
Speaker 2: and develop bad habits and some guys are just above
36:42
Speaker 2: it Jaden Daniels. But that's what a lot of bad
36:44
Speaker 2: teams do. They rush these guys out there. The Patriots
36:47
Speaker 2: were patient. Patience pays off when developing quarterback. There's not
36:51
Speaker 2: enough patience in the NFL. And it's the same thing
36:55
Speaker 2: with man Pelt patience. Let's see if he can develop
36:57
Speaker 2: the offense. If he can, he's gonna leave anyway becausebody's
36:59
Speaker 2: gonna hire him. And if not, then you move on
37:01
Speaker 2: from then. But you don't need to rush the guy
37:03
Speaker 2: out the door.
37:04
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I would be really wary of changing systems
37:08
Speaker 4: on Drake May. And we I'll give you an example,
37:11
Speaker 4: Like we all think very highly of Brian Dable as
37:14
Speaker 4: an offensive mine. I think that he's a really good
37:17
Speaker 4: offensive coach. He developed Josh Allen, who's a very similar player,
37:22
Speaker 4: Josh Allen two point zero right as Drake May.
37:26
Speaker 2: Drake May one.
37:27
Speaker 4: Okay, but Brian Dable is going back to the old system.
37:32
Speaker 4: That's going back to the Josh McDaniels Bill O'Brien verbiage
37:36
Speaker 4: in offense. The Patriots right now are in the West
37:39
Speaker 4: Coast language. They're in the West Coast world mccarthyish offense.
37:44
Speaker 2: Right.
37:45
Speaker 4: So, like you're talking about, just to I always use
37:48
Speaker 4: this comparison to try to make it simpler. You're basically
37:52
Speaker 4: talking about going from speaking Italian to speaking Spanish. Like
37:56
Speaker 4: you're still there's still some similarities, right, like it's still football.
38:00
Speaker 4: We're not like you're not going and speaking Martian, right
38:03
Speaker 4: like you're still you're still on planet Earth. But the
38:06
Speaker 4: problem is is that they just are different languages, right,
38:09
Speaker 4: Like they're just different. And I would just be really
38:12
Speaker 4: really wary of We've built Drake May up to this point.
38:17
Speaker 4: He is, according to some reports, even further along than
38:22
Speaker 4: people in this building thought he would be. And now,
38:25
Speaker 4: because we don't like the x's and o's, or we
38:27
Speaker 4: don't like the scheme, or we don't like, you know,
38:30
Speaker 4: the play calling on Sundays, we are going to throw
38:33
Speaker 4: out the playbook and we're going to start from scratch,
38:36
Speaker 4: and now we're going to change it on him in
38:37
Speaker 4: year two, which is a very very important developmental year
38:41
Speaker 4: for young quarterbacks. This is and I get that we
38:44
Speaker 4: all now can see that Mac Jones had talent holes
38:48
Speaker 4: in his game, like he just didn't have enough talent
38:50
Speaker 4: in certain areas that were probably deal breakers for him
38:54
Speaker 4: as an NFL starter. But going from Josh McDaniels to
38:58
Speaker 4: Matt Patricia was a huge reason why we ended up
39:00
Speaker 4: where we ended up with Matt Jones. Like let's not
39:02
Speaker 4: lose sight of that fact. So we've seen it front
39:05
Speaker 4: and center. So to your point with Van Pelt, my
39:08
Speaker 4: big thing is is, let's let Van Pelt get Drake
39:12
Speaker 4: May to be a finished product. Like when you feel
39:15
Speaker 4: like Drake May is Tom Brady circa two thousand and
39:19
Speaker 4: five with Charlie Weiss moving on and Josh McDaniel's taking over,
39:22
Speaker 4: And I'm not talking about the success and all that.
39:24
Speaker 4: I'm just talking about the timeline of the career. When
39:27
Speaker 4: you think that he is at that point that you
39:30
Speaker 4: feel like he is okay, we're past bust territory here
39:34
Speaker 4: and he's unbreakable and we're good, then that is when
39:38
Speaker 4: if you want to go out there and get an
39:40
Speaker 4: innovator on the offensive side of the ball, and get
39:43
Speaker 4: somebody that's gonna design sexy plays and call awesome offense
39:48
Speaker 4: on Sundays and outwit people, you know, like a Shanahan
39:52
Speaker 4: Tree guy or something like that, then have at it.
39:55
Speaker 4: Go crazy, go get that guy. At that point, your
39:58
Speaker 4: roster will be better, you'll be ready for be a contender.
40:02
Speaker 4: Drake May will be ready to kind of take that
40:04
Speaker 4: next step. And I've used the comp before, use it again.
40:08
Speaker 4: You know, Greg Roman to Todd Monkin in Baltimore, right
40:11
Speaker 4: like that sort of passing of the torch.
40:13
Speaker 2: I'm all for it.
40:14
Speaker 4: Don't do that from year one to year two like
40:16
Speaker 4: and definitely don't do that because people on the outside
40:19
Speaker 4: don't are saying that Alex van Pelt stinks, like, stay
40:23
Speaker 4: to the course for right now. Let Alex van Pelt
40:26
Speaker 4: develop the quarterback mechanically, Let him develop Drake May as
40:30
Speaker 4: a QB in this league, and then we'll get to
40:32
Speaker 4: the point in time in a year or two where
40:35
Speaker 4: this roster is ready to compete, and that is when
40:38
Speaker 4: you can go all in on your tight pants offensive coordinator.
40:42
Speaker 4: I just I don't want to get too far ahead
40:44
Speaker 4: of ourselves. And I really feel like Van Pelt is
40:48
Speaker 4: the right guy for the job right now. That doesn't
40:50
Speaker 4: mean he'll be the right guy for the job in
40:52
Speaker 4: two years, but right now, at this moment, he's the
40:55
Speaker 4: right guy for the job. Let's do three up, three down.
40:58
Speaker 4: I do have to shout out our sponsors, though, and
41:00
Speaker 4: then we'll take your phone calls in your emails because
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Speaker 4: sponsor of the New England Patriots. All right, three up,
41:22
Speaker 4: three down, Alex, here we go. What do you got
41:25
Speaker 4: my first up?
41:26
Speaker 2: And I think we disagree, And I don't put him
41:28
Speaker 2: in order, but I think we disagre put them in order.
41:31
Speaker 2: I don't understand the see order I think of him.
41:34
Speaker 2: The running backs collectively, Ramondra, steven san Antonio, Gibson.
41:37
Speaker 4: Okay, we're gonna have some We're gonna have an issue
41:39
Speaker 4: with this.
41:40
Speaker 2: All right, keep going. I thought Stevenson hadn't looked right.
41:45
Speaker 2: He hadn't looked the same in the last few weeks.
41:46
Speaker 2: I thought he ran really hard in this game. I
41:48
Speaker 2: thought he's falling forward, not allowed on the first defender
41:51
Speaker 2: to bring him down, picking up in yardage. Didn't break
41:53
Speaker 2: any big runs or anything like that, but he just
41:56
Speaker 2: looked more like the guy we saw early in the
41:58
Speaker 2: season than we had in the immediate aftermath of that
42:00
Speaker 2: foot injury, so I thought that was encouraging. And then
42:02
Speaker 2: for Antonio Gibson, he should be playing a bigger role
42:05
Speaker 2: to get in at the end of the game. He
42:06
Speaker 2: had one solid drive. Also credits to the coaching staff
42:09
Speaker 2: for kind of taking some managing Ramondre Stevenson's workload and
42:14
Speaker 2: what was a physical game, Gibson allowing them to do
42:16
Speaker 2: that by running the ball. Well. I liked what I
42:19
Speaker 2: saw from those guys.
42:20
Speaker 4: Okay, I went all defense because I feel like we
42:24
Speaker 4: just talked a lot about the offense and I knew
42:25
Speaker 4: that was gonna happen, so I went all defense.
42:28
Speaker 2: Number one.
42:29
Speaker 4: I really couldn't separate any of these guys, so I
42:31
Speaker 4: just put the entire defensive line together. I thought they
42:34
Speaker 4: were all stellar, excellent in this game. Jeremiah Farms out
42:38
Speaker 4: of body experience, Like looked like Christian Barmore out there.
42:41
Speaker 2: And we'll get to that in the second.
42:42
Speaker 4: Three pressures, three stuffs, Jennings, seven quarterback pressures in this
42:46
Speaker 4: game for Anthony Jennings, Keon White obviously in their two
42:49
Speaker 4: five quarterback pressures four sacks combined. Out of those three
42:54
Speaker 4: guys that I just mentioned, Dietrich Wise also had a
42:56
Speaker 4: nice game in this one too. They control the line
42:59
Speaker 4: of scrimmage. They dominated the line of scrimmage, pass rush,
43:01
Speaker 4: run game. Much better against the run in this game too,
43:05
Speaker 4: which I thought coming in was a little bit of
43:06
Speaker 4: a concern because I thought, you know, DeAndre Swift is
43:09
Speaker 4: a decent back and could have had himself a game
43:11
Speaker 4: similar to what Tony Pollard had the week before.
43:14
Speaker 2: Didn't happen.
43:14
Speaker 4: They were fantastic up the middle in this game on
43:16
Speaker 4: the defense, and you hope that that's, you know, go
43:19
Speaker 4: back to the sustainability thing. You hope that some of
43:21
Speaker 4: this can continue on. Like I think Jennings is this
43:24
Speaker 4: guy now, I think that we're pretty close to that
43:26
Speaker 4: being a regular thing. Keon White has always been this guy.
43:30
Speaker 4: Then you get big number ninety back this week, and
43:32
Speaker 4: maybe you are really starting to cook with that defensive line.
43:35
Speaker 4: So significantly better, significantly improved performance from them. I thought
43:39
Speaker 4: they dominated this game.
43:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought that they And some of it again
43:44
Speaker 2: was like that that Rams front and it's not the
43:47
Speaker 2: Rams front, the Bears front being what it was. But yeah,
43:50
Speaker 2: I had Farms, you know, the defensive front as a whole,
43:52
Speaker 2: but I had Farms as a standout just because it
43:54
Speaker 2: was so above and beyond from But Jennings a good
43:56
Speaker 2: one too, because he's been primarily run player. Yeah, and
43:59
Speaker 2: if he can give him some help as a pass rusher,
44:01
Speaker 2: especially you know, you got Yannik and Gokway on the
44:03
Speaker 2: other side. Now, I'm sure we'll get to him. It
44:06
Speaker 2: adds something to the defense. Yeah, absolutely, all right, So
44:09
Speaker 2: that was that number two for you. I can be
44:11
Speaker 2: sure you, yeah, all right, Number two for me.
44:15
Speaker 4: I give a shout out to one of the new
44:17
Speaker 4: dads on this team right now, Jolanie Devai. I thought
44:20
Speaker 4: he was excellent in this game though. This was his
44:22
Speaker 4: best game of the year, unlike the game in Tennessee,
44:25
Speaker 4: where he did make some splash plays, but I also
44:27
Speaker 4: thought he gave up some plays in that game again
44:30
Speaker 4: the Titans. I thought this game he was just good, good,
44:33
Speaker 4: like all across the board, sac hurry stuff, pass, break up,
44:37
Speaker 4: really nice play to get in the passing lane on
44:39
Speaker 4: his zone drop there. And he did play a little bit,
44:42
Speaker 4: you know, along with Schooler and sort of like a
44:44
Speaker 4: spy low hole type of role off the line of
44:47
Speaker 4: scrimmage a little bit dropping out of the rush. And
44:49
Speaker 4: I thought he had a couple of really stand out
44:51
Speaker 4: plays doing that. He had one ended up being a
44:54
Speaker 4: target on Christian Gonzales to DJ Moore. The one there,
44:57
Speaker 4: he pushed him off. Dj Moore pushed him off of
44:59
Speaker 4: him at the end of the play. But Jelanie Devai
45:02
Speaker 4: starts in the middle of the field, takes away to
45:04
Speaker 4: read in the middle of the field, and then chases
45:07
Speaker 4: Caleb Williams all the way across the field, going to
45:10
Speaker 4: Caleb Williams's left to pressure the quarterback and force that
45:14
Speaker 4: throw to be a little bit quicker than I'm sure
45:16
Speaker 4: Caleb wanted it to be. So Tavai I thought was
45:18
Speaker 4: everywhere in this game.
45:19
Speaker 2: He was excellent. Yeah, well you mentioned Schooler. I had
45:22
Speaker 2: him as another one. Yeah, I mean that that Longhorn
45:24
Speaker 2: package was awesome. Yeah, something that maybe not this week
45:27
Speaker 2: against Matthew Stafford, but the TUA looks like Anthony Richardson
45:31
Speaker 2: in a couple of weeks. Obviously still Josh Allen twice
45:33
Speaker 2: like that's something that should come back, and DeMarcus Covington
45:36
Speaker 2: kind of talked about it today. The skill sets that
45:38
Speaker 2: you use on special teams, finding the right angle, closing space,
45:41
Speaker 2: narrowing the gap, finishing tackles in space. That's essentially what
45:45
Speaker 2: he's doing in that role, and especially for a team
45:48
Speaker 2: that doesn't have a lot of speeded linebacker. You look
45:50
Speaker 2: at the guys that were supposed to play East West,
45:52
Speaker 2: Juwan Bentley's hurt ray Qwan McMillan didn't work out with
45:55
Speaker 2: him having school Do that makes some sense? Yeah?
45:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, I thought it was great too. I didn't put
46:01
Speaker 4: it here because I figured we'd talk about it anyways,
46:03
Speaker 4: but I thought it was great. I'm going to write
46:05
Speaker 4: about sort of the origins of that and how it
46:07
Speaker 4: started with Jonathan Jones against Lamar Jackson and things like that,
46:10
Speaker 4: and I just I thought that that was a really
46:13
Speaker 4: you know, we talked about this a lot, like what's
46:15
Speaker 4: this coaching staff done that was innovative or forward thinking
46:20
Speaker 4: or just to put it as simply as I possibly can,
46:23
Speaker 4: just something cool, right that they did schematically where I
46:26
Speaker 4: could sit here a little wrinkle, Yeah, oh, nice wrinkle
46:29
Speaker 4: there by Mayo or nice rink there by AVP. The
46:32
Speaker 4: Schooler package was a really nice wrinkle by this coaching staff.
46:35
Speaker 4: And that brings me to my third up, which was
46:38
Speaker 4: both Christian Gonzalez and Marcus Jones. I thought were just
46:41
Speaker 4: suffocating in coverage in this game. For the most part,
46:44
Speaker 4: the two of those guys gave up three catches for
46:47
Speaker 4: thirty nine yards and twenty five dropbacks in man to
46:49
Speaker 4: man coverage. Like that is locking it down on the outside,
46:53
Speaker 4: and you can tell that they can cover in man.
46:56
Speaker 4: This group can cover in man with the best of them.
46:58
Speaker 4: They're one of the best man coverage defenses in the NFL.
47:02
Speaker 4: But in order to do that, you need to have
47:04
Speaker 4: the pass rush to marry up to it, and you
47:06
Speaker 4: have to have somebody accounting for the quarterback. So that's
47:08
Speaker 4: where the schooler thing comes into play. If you know
47:11
Speaker 4: you're really good man coverage defense and you're gonna live
47:14
Speaker 4: a lot in man coverage, well you have to figure
47:16
Speaker 4: out ways to then protect yourself to problem solve against
47:20
Speaker 4: the certain things that could be an issue, like a
47:22
Speaker 4: running quarterback against man to man, right, like, that's going
47:25
Speaker 4: to be a potential problem. So they problem solved. That
47:28
Speaker 4: was schooler. Like, that's really good coaching, really good game
47:31
Speaker 4: planning by Mayo and DeMarcus Covington. But just in terms
47:35
Speaker 4: of like what can this defense handing gets had on,
47:38
Speaker 4: what's the identity of this Patriots defense. It is absolutely
47:43
Speaker 4: this secondary playing man to man coverage, they can lock
47:46
Speaker 4: up even a really good deep receiver room like the Bears,
47:52
Speaker 4: and I think they're gonna do it again against the
47:54
Speaker 4: Rams a little bit on Sunday too, And we'll get
47:55
Speaker 4: to that. They are an elite man coverage defense right now.
47:59
Speaker 4: And they have a really good corner in Christian Gonzalez,
48:03
Speaker 4: who ten weeks into the season is a Pro Bowl
48:06
Speaker 4: level corner, maybe even an all Pro level corner. I
48:08
Speaker 4: should say, like him and Pat Sertan and Like Stingley
48:12
Speaker 4: are like probably the three best corners in the league
48:14
Speaker 4: right now in terms of like target based metrics, you know,
48:17
Speaker 4: cut completion percentage allowed and yards per target and things
48:21
Speaker 4: like that. Gonzales is right near the top of the
48:23
Speaker 4: league and all those metrics, and I think he's been fantastic.
48:26
Speaker 2: Yeah anyway, anyway, Yeah, a couple more. Austin Hooper, Yeah,
48:31
Speaker 2: good game, good game that that first catch was awesome,
48:34
Speaker 2: went up, made a play. And then Kashan Boody because
48:37
Speaker 2: he clearly has chemistry with Drake May at this point,
48:40
Speaker 2: and he was the most used receiver. He played all
48:42
Speaker 2: but two of their snaps like super involved role for him,
48:45
Speaker 2: and he just he continues to earn more. He continues
48:47
Speaker 2: to earn more, and they shoul keep giving it to him.
48:48
Speaker 2: He's been good. Yeah, I almost put Hooper on here,
48:50
Speaker 2: but I decided to just give all the love to
48:52
Speaker 2: the defense. But yeah, Hooper was really good in this game.
48:55
Speaker 2: And I also thought Henry Hunter Henry really good run
48:57
Speaker 2: blocking game for him, really strong in the run game,
49:00
Speaker 2: and that area of his game has come a long
49:03
Speaker 2: long way since when the Patriots signed him from the Chargers.
49:06
Speaker 2: Like he's not prime Gronk or anything like that in
49:08
Speaker 2: the run game, but he's now a plus run blocker
49:11
Speaker 2: and I didn't feel that way when they made that signing,
49:13
Speaker 2: or really his first year here in New England. He's
49:16
Speaker 2: gotten a lot better in that regard, so kudos to
49:19
Speaker 2: him for that. I thought that he had a sneaky,
49:21
Speaker 2: really good game despite the fact that he only had
49:24
Speaker 2: one catch. So between those two tight ends, the production
49:26
Speaker 2: there was really good. Yeah, all right to the downs.
49:29
Speaker 2: Number one. A're gonna hate this probably Drake may No,
49:33
Speaker 2: I like, just for that interception was so bad. Yeah,
49:36
Speaker 2: it was when you look at I think he just
49:38
Speaker 2: got he was overthinking so if you watch his feet
49:41
Speaker 2: on that play, he's rolling to the right. Yeah, and
49:46
Speaker 2: he I think he has time, like he should have
49:48
Speaker 2: time to set and he's probably gonna get hit, but
49:51
Speaker 2: it's gonna be after he throws the ball. And again
49:52
Speaker 2: he's just trying to throw it away. And he can
49:55
Speaker 2: either set and throw or do like a full throw
49:58
Speaker 2: on the run where you actually use your momentum to
50:01
Speaker 2: like throw the ball and all that. Instead, what he
50:03
Speaker 2: does he like half sets. He looks to his left,
50:06
Speaker 2: there's a defender there who's blocked but kind of close.
50:09
Speaker 2: He half sets, sees the defender, goes into this like
50:13
Speaker 2: little shuffle, and then throws a jump pass. Yeah, And
50:17
Speaker 2: it was just arm, nothing else on it. And I
50:20
Speaker 2: didn't think it was a throwaway because he has the
50:21
Speaker 2: arms thing to get that ball, as Alexan Pelt said
50:23
Speaker 2: today to the Tube of Players four throw, But it
50:27
Speaker 2: was just that you can see there was way too
50:30
Speaker 2: much going on upstairs during that play. There was so
50:33
Speaker 2: many things that he was factoring and was just like
50:34
Speaker 2: dude hucked the ball in the stands. At first, I
50:37
Speaker 2: thought maybe he was trying to lob it over the
50:38
Speaker 2: line backer tight end, but.
50:40
Speaker 4: I wonder if he so he did peek. I saw that, yeah,
50:43
Speaker 4: and I do wonder if he was going to try
50:45
Speaker 4: to run and then he like in right in in between,
50:49
Speaker 4: he sort of thought better of it, and then he
50:50
Speaker 4: was just like I'm just gonna flick it and it
50:52
Speaker 4: just didn't go far enough.
50:53
Speaker 2: Well whatever, it was like too much going through. This
50:55
Speaker 2: has a bad pick. That was a bad bad pick.
50:58
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I had Drake may On here too. I
51:00
Speaker 4: had them as three not one, but you don't put
51:02
Speaker 4: them in order for whatever reason, So I had Drake
51:04
Speaker 4: Mayon here too. I just feel like the pick. I
51:09
Speaker 4: can live with picks where like he's trying to fit
51:12
Speaker 4: the ball into a tight window and it's a smart decision,
51:15
Speaker 4: and like the throat at Pop Douglas against Houston where
51:18
Speaker 4: he just threw it, he just airmails it. If he's
51:20
Speaker 4: making the right reads and the right decision and then
51:23
Speaker 4: he just has a moment where he just has a
51:25
Speaker 4: bad thrown. You can live with those, Like every quarterback
51:28
Speaker 4: throws picks. It's not like he's never gonna throw an interest.
51:31
Speaker 4: So I can live with those, but not to pick
51:33
Speaker 4: on them like the mac Jones picks, I can't live
51:36
Speaker 4: with like the ones that are just like this one
51:38
Speaker 4: and against Chicago are the one the week before on
51:41
Speaker 4: third down against Tennessee where he throws it right to
51:43
Speaker 4: Amani Hooker, like you just we can't have those like
51:46
Speaker 4: those have to go away. And this is like the
51:48
Speaker 4: inflection point to me with Drake May is if he's
51:51
Speaker 4: gonna be consistent enough not to just be good, because
51:54
Speaker 4: I think he's already good, right, Like, if he's gonna
51:56
Speaker 4: be consistent enough to be great, Like these types of
51:59
Speaker 4: turnover where he plays have to be diminished, Like he
52:02
Speaker 4: just has to get these out of his system. And
52:04
Speaker 4: I asked Van Pelt about it today and he made
52:06
Speaker 4: the tube of player joke, which I liked. I gonna
52:09
Speaker 4: steal that line. And then he also said that let's
52:12
Speaker 4: chalk these up for now to rookie mistakes. But we're
52:14
Speaker 4: five starts into it now, and at some point those
52:18
Speaker 4: things are no longer gonna be considered rookie mistakes. To me, like,
52:21
Speaker 4: I don't think I'm there quite yet, but like, give
52:24
Speaker 4: it a couple more starts and it's not gonna get
52:26
Speaker 4: to the point where it's like we have to get
52:27
Speaker 4: rid of them.
52:28
Speaker 2: This is one where like if he throws another pick
52:29
Speaker 2: like this this week, next week, whatever, like, then you
52:32
Speaker 2: become really worried about it because okay, like it happened,
52:34
Speaker 2: and Van pelt it too, Like that's when that'll haunt
52:36
Speaker 2: him for the rest of the year. Good. Yeah, good,
52:39
Speaker 2: learn lesson learned, don't do it again. If he starts
52:41
Speaker 2: doing it again, it's like, all right, what part of
52:43
Speaker 2: the message isn't getting through? Yeah.
52:44
Speaker 4: The other thing I thought that was a problem for
52:47
Speaker 4: him in this game was just running around and create
52:51
Speaker 4: creating pressure, but also be just taking off from clean
52:55
Speaker 4: pockets when he didn't necessarily have to. And I think
52:58
Speaker 4: this is sort of a side effect to the fact
53:02
Speaker 4: that he has been so successful with his legs that
53:05
Speaker 4: now every single time he sees an open gap in
53:07
Speaker 4: the line of scrimmage, he's just taken off, right, like
53:09
Speaker 4: he just I'm just gonna pick this up. So the
53:12
Speaker 4: one that really I thought was was was tough was
53:16
Speaker 4: third down early in the game in the red zone,
53:19
Speaker 4: and he scrambles on third and five and only picked
53:22
Speaker 4: up four yards. And if you watch that play back
53:25
Speaker 4: on the film, he's got at least two open receivers
53:29
Speaker 4: on the film, maybe even open Hunter Henry for a
53:32
Speaker 4: touchdown up the seam. If he just stays in the
53:34
Speaker 4: pocket and plays quarterback from the pocket and just makes
53:37
Speaker 4: the throw, it's a clean pocket. He just sees the
53:40
Speaker 4: gap open up in front of him, and he just
53:42
Speaker 4: can't help himself. It's just so inviting that he just
53:45
Speaker 4: takes it. And he left a lot of plays on
53:47
Speaker 4: the field in this game. I thought doing that, or
53:50
Speaker 4: even plays like the throw to Hunter Henry, the one
53:53
Speaker 4: catch he had in the game, Like you don't need
53:55
Speaker 4: to run up into the line of scrimmage and throw
53:57
Speaker 4: the ball like that. Again, I think he was trying
54:00
Speaker 4: to run and then the latter of the last second,
54:02
Speaker 4: he saw Hunter Henry kind of flash open on the
54:05
Speaker 4: left sideline and so he just threw the ended up
54:07
Speaker 4: throwing the ball. But we've talked about this before, like
54:10
Speaker 4: don't take five steps when two steps will do right
54:12
Speaker 4: when you're in the pocket as a quarterback, and I
54:15
Speaker 4: thought in this game there was a lot of that
54:16
Speaker 4: going on, whether it was leaving early or moving into pressure,
54:20
Speaker 4: or just making things harder on himself than he needed
54:23
Speaker 4: to do. That was the big reason why I had
54:26
Speaker 4: this as a down game for him, not necessarily the pick,
54:29
Speaker 4: because I'm willing to chalk that up to just let's
54:31
Speaker 4: have that never happen again. But some of the other things,
54:34
Speaker 4: especially early on in this film that he did, I
54:36
Speaker 4: just thought we're making it tougher on himself than it
54:38
Speaker 4: needed to be sure.
54:40
Speaker 2: Number two kJ Osborne, Yeah, I just think to get
54:44
Speaker 2: the bigger role that he had, he hadn't played in
54:45
Speaker 2: a few weeks, comes back as active he played. He
54:48
Speaker 2: technically played the second most naps among wide receivers, but
54:51
Speaker 2: most of those were on like Pop Douglas played the
54:53
Speaker 2: third most, but Pop played more passing plays than he did.
54:56
Speaker 2: But yeah, to get that bigger role and he did
54:58
Speaker 2: nothing with it. You know, we had that one play
55:00
Speaker 2: it would have been an unbelievable throw by Drake May
55:03
Speaker 2: but but Osborne stepped out of bounds in the end zone.
55:06
Speaker 2: There it whatever, that was the end of the Is
55:09
Speaker 2: that the end of the first quarter, in the first half,
55:11
Speaker 2: in the first half, like I just I thought there
55:14
Speaker 2: was an opportunity for him, and he wasn't able to
55:17
Speaker 2: make the most of it. So in a room that's
55:19
Speaker 2: as competitive as the wide receiver room is, right now,
55:21
Speaker 2: that's a that's a missed opportunity.
55:22
Speaker 4: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I I don't really understand
55:26
Speaker 4: the I understand. I shouldn't say I don't because I
55:30
Speaker 4: do understand that Kendrick Born right now is making a
55:33
Speaker 4: lot of mistakes, whether it's mental errors in terms of
55:36
Speaker 4: routes and like where he's supposed to be and lining
55:38
Speaker 4: up or drops penalties, Like it's a lot of mistakes.
55:43
Speaker 4: But when you have an offense that is like this,
55:46
Speaker 4: that doesn't have a ton of talent and doesn't have
55:48
Speaker 4: a ton of talent at the skill positions in particular,
55:51
Speaker 4: like taking your best separator off the field for probably
55:54
Speaker 4: your worst separator, and kJ Osborne is just a choice,
55:57
Speaker 4: Like it's that is what it is, Like I get it.
56:00
Speaker 4: kJ Osborne knows how to run the route correctly, and
56:03
Speaker 4: maybe there's something to that, But there's also something to
56:05
Speaker 4: the fact that Kendrick Born can actually get open. So
56:08
Speaker 4: like you have to weigh those pros and cons and
56:10
Speaker 4: I definitely hope that Kendrick Bourne is back in the
56:13
Speaker 4: mix this week, Like if this was a one week
56:15
Speaker 4: thing to kind of prove a point, like if you're
56:17
Speaker 4: not gonna get in the playbook and you're not gonna
56:19
Speaker 4: like understand how our system is run and things like that,
56:22
Speaker 4: then you're not gonna play. Then I guess I can
56:24
Speaker 4: live with that. But it does worry me with Kendrick
56:27
Speaker 4: Born because I said this on PU this is now
56:30
Speaker 4: his third coaching staff here in New England that hasn't
56:33
Speaker 4: loved that side of it with him. It's not the
56:36
Speaker 4: diva stuff like, it's not the in social media and
56:39
Speaker 4: all that. It's just grasping the concepts in the playbook.
56:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know that the Patricia year that one felt.
56:47
Speaker 2: It was after that fight in camp that one fell personal, right,
56:49
Speaker 2: But you have Patricia.
56:52
Speaker 4: I think he won O'Brien over eventually because he was
56:56
Speaker 4: just too damn good to take him off the field last.
56:58
Speaker 2: That's what should happen, that's what you should be based on,
57:00
Speaker 2: put your best players out there.
57:01
Speaker 4: But I don't think it started that way with O'Brien.
57:03
Speaker 4: With him and now AVP doesn't seem to feel like
57:07
Speaker 4: he's grasping it either. So like it just feels like
57:09
Speaker 4: three different guys on the coaching staff in three different
57:11
Speaker 4: years have ended up at some point in the same place.
57:14
Speaker 4: With Kendrick Porn, I guess I just look at it.
57:16
Speaker 4: In all three of those years, the offense was better
57:19
Speaker 4: when Kendrick Porne was involved.
57:20
Speaker 2: Agreed. I'm not saying that I agree. I just from
57:23
Speaker 2: I'm trying to explain it, you know, like from a
57:25
Speaker 2: coaching standpoint, like what these guys are seeing? All right? Anyways,
57:28
Speaker 2: Uh number two or not? Really?
57:31
Speaker 4: I had Drake as three, So this was actually my
57:33
Speaker 4: number one. Mike onn Winnhill. I thought he was just
57:36
Speaker 4: okay in this game, and as the nineteen million dollar
57:40
Speaker 4: man and their best offensive line, which so I still
57:42
Speaker 4: think he is. He needs to be better than okay.
57:45
Speaker 4: And now you're back at your natural spot at right guard.
57:48
Speaker 4: Sack hit hurry in this game, like the sack just
57:51
Speaker 4: can't happen, Like you can't give up one on ones,
57:54
Speaker 4: like you can't lose, like especially against the defensive line
57:57
Speaker 4: that doesn't have Jeffrey Simmons right, Like, it's not like
58:00
Speaker 4: the Bears interior defensive line is anything crazy good. So
58:05
Speaker 4: I just feel like he is still just playing fine,
58:08
Speaker 4: Like he's just kind of meh. And they didn't pay
58:10
Speaker 4: for meth they paid for him to be elite.
58:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, I give him a little bit of a break
58:13
Speaker 2: because he's practicing at left guard during the week, and
58:16
Speaker 2: like again the moving around thing to what you said
58:18
Speaker 2: about like he's finally in one spot. Well, let's see
58:20
Speaker 2: it actually build up now with that one spot. That's
58:22
Speaker 2: more what I'm looking for, all right. Last one, Uh,
58:25
Speaker 2: punt coverage. Yeah, what is it three and four weeks,
58:28
Speaker 2: four and five weeks that they've given up a few
58:30
Speaker 2: flipping punt return Can't have it, can't have it. And
58:33
Speaker 2: it's it's tough to pin down one thing. Like against Jacksonville,
58:38
Speaker 2: Baringer out kicked his coverage. Against the Jets, it was
58:40
Speaker 2: miss tackles. This one felt like blown light lane assignments,
58:43
Speaker 2: Like it's you know, you plug one hole and another opens.
58:46
Speaker 2: I don't know that there's one thing that you can
58:49
Speaker 2: specifically nail down with these big returns. But and it
58:51
Speaker 2: didn't burn them this week. It didn't burn them. But
58:53
Speaker 2: you give up a forty yard punt return on the
58:55
Speaker 2: first drive of the game, Yeah, more often than not,
58:58
Speaker 2: that's gonna bury you because you're gonna give that other
59:00
Speaker 2: team a ton of momentum right off the jump. And
59:01
Speaker 2: the Jets one was early in the game too. Jaguars
59:04
Speaker 2: one relatively early started the second quarter. So they got
59:07
Speaker 2: to figure this out. They got to be covering punts better.
59:10
Speaker 2: The rest special teams I thought had a solid game,
59:12
Speaker 2: but they're giving up too many big punt returns.
59:15
Speaker 4: So here's the question, because your guy Tony Mas's is
59:18
Speaker 4: right now, is anti Bryce Behinger? How much of it
59:22
Speaker 4: is him out kicking the coverage and kicking the ball
59:25
Speaker 4: into the middle of the field. And because you're you know, look,
59:27
Speaker 4: I this is a narrative now. Even though yeah, it's
59:31
Speaker 4: kind of tongue in cheek for some people to talk
59:33
Speaker 4: about the punters on this program, it's not. And I
59:36
Speaker 4: do think there's some truth to that that he likes
59:39
Speaker 4: to boom it. He likes he tries to just kind
59:42
Speaker 4: of kick the crap out of the ball. And sometimes,
59:45
Speaker 4: you know, when you do that and you kick it
59:47
Speaker 4: right down center field, then it's hard to cover. You know,
59:50
Speaker 4: you're not really pinning him against an area. You know,
59:53
Speaker 4: it's of the sideline, up against the sideline. Like, how
59:56
Speaker 4: much do you put this on the punter himself?
59:59
Speaker 2: I mean the one of Jacksonville was on him. Again,
1:00:01
Speaker 2: it's been all different reasons. Yeah, I don't think he's
1:00:04
Speaker 2: outkicked his coverage since the Jacksonville won if anything like
1:00:07
Speaker 2: now you saw a couple of those kicks going to
1:00:09
Speaker 2: the end zone where he's just like, I'm gonna flip
1:00:11
Speaker 2: the field no return, and when they're that far back,
1:00:13
Speaker 2: maybe that's what they need to be doing. Yeah. The
1:00:16
Speaker 2: kicking in the middle of the field thing is I
1:00:18
Speaker 2: don't know the calls. That's a fair question, right, That
1:00:20
Speaker 2: could be as much about Jeremy Springer as it is
1:00:23
Speaker 2: Bryce Barger, Like, is he telling me to kick in
1:00:24
Speaker 2: the middlefield? Is he not? When you have a gunner
1:00:26
Speaker 2: like Brendan's schooler, you have a little more flexibility of
1:00:28
Speaker 2: where you can kick the ball, and maybe they fit
1:00:30
Speaker 2: you're kicking in the middle of the field. There's more
1:00:32
Speaker 2: opportunities to give Schooler a chance to make a play. Yeah,
1:00:37
Speaker 2: or maybe or maybe not. Maybe these are supposed to
1:00:39
Speaker 2: be going to the sideline. I don't know. I would
1:00:41
Speaker 2: definitely start kicking more to the sideline from them one
1:00:43
Speaker 2: where the other. Either tell Bearinger to work on that
1:00:46
Speaker 2: if he's missed, if he's not executing these right, or
1:00:49
Speaker 2: if you're Jeremy Springer just designed more punts coverage setups
1:00:53
Speaker 2: that go towards the sideline. It's impossible to know without
1:00:57
Speaker 2: knowing what the call is though, So that's a tough
1:00:59
Speaker 2: one answer. Yeah, fair enough. The Jacksonville one was on him,
1:01:02
Speaker 2: like the Jacksonville ons on bearing. I'll say that.
1:01:03
Speaker 4: Okay, last one for me, and we're going to disagree,
1:01:06
Speaker 4: So I want to unpack this a little bit now
1:01:08
Speaker 4: because we've disagreed. I hear what you're saying about churning
1:01:12
Speaker 4: out difficult yards for more Stevenson, and I see a
1:01:15
Speaker 4: lot of that. I also see that he's pretty darn
1:01:19
Speaker 4: good and blitz pick up as well. He's a very
1:01:23
Speaker 4: good pass protecting back at this point of his career.
1:01:26
Speaker 2: He's also been good blocking when Drake goes on the
1:01:28
Speaker 2: scrambles and picking.
1:01:29
Speaker 4: The Yeah, I do the one, you know, the dippicks
1:01:33
Speaker 4: that I have with him in this game. H Why
1:01:35
Speaker 4: he was my one of my downs is I just
1:01:37
Speaker 4: feel like there was yards being left on the field
1:01:39
Speaker 4: in this game by him, whether it's with like reads
1:01:42
Speaker 4: and decisions off of the scheme, but also like you
1:01:45
Speaker 4: look at times when he's getting tackled one on one
1:01:48
Speaker 4: by defensive backs and they just I think he'd be
1:01:51
Speaker 4: the first person to say that he shouldn't be getting
1:01:53
Speaker 4: tackled by a corner like that just shouldn't happen. And
1:01:56
Speaker 4: you know, he runs a third and one they run duo,
1:02:00
Speaker 4: like right down the gut with Remandre and he takes
1:02:03
Speaker 4: it on himself to bounce it and like fine, like
1:02:05
Speaker 4: I'll give him the freedom to do whatever what he
1:02:08
Speaker 4: wants and see what he wants. But then he gets
1:02:10
Speaker 4: tackled by the corner short of the line to gain
1:02:12
Speaker 4: like that just I don't see how that can happen
1:02:16
Speaker 4: with him. Like, if you're gonna call him the franchise
1:02:18
Speaker 4: running back and one of the best running backs in
1:02:20
Speaker 4: the league, he shouldn't be being tackled by corners.
1:02:23
Speaker 2: Uh.
1:02:23
Speaker 4: The other thing that, you know, just to ridiorate that,
1:02:27
Speaker 4: you know, the eleven yard run, which is the best
1:02:29
Speaker 4: run of the day. He all he has to beat
1:02:32
Speaker 4: is the safety, Like the safety in the middle of
1:02:34
Speaker 4: the field is the last line of defense, is the
1:02:35
Speaker 4: only guy he has to beat on the play. And
1:02:38
Speaker 4: if he beats the safety, they're at the you know,
1:02:41
Speaker 4: down the field. He gone like there's nothing left right,
1:02:45
Speaker 4: like he is absolutely gone. And I just look at
1:02:49
Speaker 4: that play and again I go back to the contract
1:02:53
Speaker 4: and what they've hyped him up to be and what
1:02:55
Speaker 4: I think he is, like a franchise running back, a
1:02:58
Speaker 4: true number one back, A true number one back beats
1:03:03
Speaker 4: the safety there and houses it. Like that's just Saquon
1:03:06
Speaker 4: Barkley beats the safety there and houses it. You know,
1:03:09
Speaker 4: the Jamier Gibbs beats the safety there and houses it.
1:03:12
Speaker 4: Alvin Kamara like all the you know, Christian McCaffrey, like
1:03:15
Speaker 4: those types of guys. That's what it is, like, that's
1:03:18
Speaker 4: the game. I just thought he got tackled a little
1:03:21
Speaker 4: bit too much in this game by defensive backs.
1:03:23
Speaker 2: Hate.
1:03:23
Speaker 4: I don't think he should ever be tackled and brought
1:03:25
Speaker 4: to the ground by DB's and I still don't love
1:03:27
Speaker 4: some of his reads coming through the line of scrimmage.
1:03:30
Speaker 4: But I'll allow for the fact that I don't know
1:03:32
Speaker 4: exactly what he's being coached and what he's you know,
1:03:34
Speaker 4: being told to read and all that kind of stuff.
1:03:36
Speaker 4: But mainly the reason why I had him as a
1:03:39
Speaker 4: down was because of the broken the lack of broken tackles,
1:03:42
Speaker 4: I should say on the defense.
1:03:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fair on it. Maybe I'm just you know,
1:03:45
Speaker 2: recency biased. The run game had been so bad that
1:03:48
Speaker 2: they showed something. I was encouraged by it.
1:03:50
Speaker 4: But yeah, I would agree that the run game as
1:03:52
Speaker 4: a whole was better. I just thought it could have
1:03:53
Speaker 4: been even better if for and Andre had a little
1:03:56
Speaker 4: bit of a better game. Sure, And I still don't
1:03:58
Speaker 4: really love him in this scheme. I haven't loved it
1:04:00
Speaker 4: from the jump. I just think outside zone. Outside zone
1:04:04
Speaker 4: is like a very It's not built for running backs
1:04:08
Speaker 4: that want to be patient and kind of like scan
1:04:11
Speaker 4: and feel it out, like Remandre right, like he runs
1:04:14
Speaker 4: a lot like Le'Veon Bell used to write, where it's
1:04:17
Speaker 4: just kind of we're gonna feel it out, we're gonna
1:04:18
Speaker 4: wait for it, wait for it, and we're gonna hit
1:04:21
Speaker 4: the hole late and just sort of allow our blocking
1:04:24
Speaker 4: to just kind of create a large surface for us
1:04:27
Speaker 4: to read out.
1:04:28
Speaker 2: Outside zone is like a one cut and go system.
1:04:31
Speaker 4: Like you hit your third step, you either cut it
1:04:33
Speaker 4: back or you bounce it, and you make a decision
1:04:36
Speaker 4: like this, like you don't hang out in the backfield.
1:04:40
Speaker 4: I think sometimes too much, that's what he's doing. And
1:04:42
Speaker 4: I just wonder if it's a scheme fit thing, And
1:04:45
Speaker 4: I don't think that it's a coincidence. That Antonio Gibson
1:04:47
Speaker 4: gets on the field and produces better on his five
1:04:51
Speaker 4: carries because of the type of back that he is.
1:04:53
Speaker 4: I think he is a wide zone back.
1:04:55
Speaker 2: I don't know.
1:04:56
Speaker 4: I from Andre Stevenson is truly a wide zone back.
1:04:59
Speaker 4: So I'm interested to see where they go with that.
1:05:01
Speaker 4: All right, let's uh read one more ad read and
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Speaker 2: What's up? AJ?
1:05:56
Speaker 5: Hey, guys, how you doing good?
1:05:58
Speaker 2: Thanks for holding.
1:06:00
Speaker 5: Yeah, thanks for having me. So I have a problem
1:06:03
Speaker 5: where I'm starting to fall.
1:06:04
Speaker 3: In love with the Darien Lowe.
1:06:07
Speaker 5: I think he's, you know, obviously pretty average guy, but
1:06:09
Speaker 5: the love the way he plays that they should a
1:06:10
Speaker 5: lot of spirit out there. And I was curious just
1:06:13
Speaker 5: what you guys need to see from him between now
1:06:15
Speaker 5: and the end of the year where you would feel
1:06:17
Speaker 5: comfortable maybe not taking a blue chip prospect in the
1:06:20
Speaker 5: first round at left tackle and getting maybe a litre
1:06:22
Speaker 5: of like a developmental prospect or a couple of developmental
1:06:25
Speaker 5: guys later on.
1:06:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank appreciates AJ. I appreciate the call.
1:06:29
Speaker 4: I've also been sort of Vederian Lowe truther a little bit, like,
1:06:34
Speaker 4: not maybe as much as AJ, but just because I
1:06:37
Speaker 4: don't think he's been horrible, and I think he gets
1:06:40
Speaker 4: this rap that he's horrible right like, and that he
1:06:42
Speaker 4: stinks he did not have the best game in pass
1:06:45
Speaker 4: protection in this game. I had him with four quarterback pressures.
1:06:48
Speaker 4: One of my guys in the draft, actually Austin Booker,
1:06:50
Speaker 4: had a decent game off the edge for Chicago, but
1:06:53
Speaker 4: he was much better in the run game this week.
1:06:55
Speaker 2: I know.
1:06:56
Speaker 4: I talked to him last week after the Tennessee game,
1:06:59
Speaker 4: and that's what he really was disappointed in himself was
1:07:01
Speaker 4: his run blocking against the Titans. So I think that
1:07:04
Speaker 4: was sort of his emphasis last week, and he did
1:07:06
Speaker 4: do better in that regard. He is he has been fine,
1:07:11
Speaker 4: Like I'm not trying to tell you he's Joe Thomas.
1:07:13
Speaker 4: Like he's just been competent since that he returned the
1:07:17
Speaker 4: second time from that injury. Now, the one thing that
1:07:20
Speaker 4: I would just say that hurts him is that he
1:07:23
Speaker 4: can't play right tackle. Like we've seen him try to
1:07:26
Speaker 4: flip sides to the right to right tackle and it's
1:07:29
Speaker 4: been kind of a disaster. So the problem for him
1:07:31
Speaker 4: is is that, like he's not a true swing tackle,
1:07:34
Speaker 4: he is a left tackle. So if he's going to
1:07:36
Speaker 4: stick on the Patriots long term, and I don't think
1:07:39
Speaker 4: we're there yet aj in terms of let's not draft
1:07:43
Speaker 4: a left tackle because we have Vedarian Lowe. If he's
1:07:46
Speaker 4: gonna stick as a third tackle at the Patriots. It's
1:07:48
Speaker 4: tough if you can't play both sides almost equally. And
1:07:51
Speaker 4: I feel like his tape at right tackle has always
1:07:53
Speaker 4: been a rough ride.
1:07:54
Speaker 2: And the other thing, I mean, like you said there,
1:07:56
Speaker 2: he's already been hurt in this time twice. Yeah, and
1:07:59
Speaker 2: he got hurt last year. And the availability, Yeah, I
1:08:03
Speaker 2: don't know that he can show me enough that I'm
1:08:05
Speaker 2: coming off the tackle thing. He's had a good year, Yeah,
1:08:07
Speaker 2: but when you talk about what that position means, when
1:08:10
Speaker 2: you talk about the guys that are available this year,
1:08:12
Speaker 2: when you talk about their history at that position in
1:08:14
Speaker 2: the last five, six, seven years, whatever it is, I
1:08:17
Speaker 2: don't know that there's a point that I'm coming off
1:08:20
Speaker 2: that they need to take a tackle high. I agree
1:08:22
Speaker 2: with you.
1:08:22
Speaker 4: I do give him kudos though, especially in pass protection.
1:08:25
Speaker 4: I think he's gotten a lot better.
1:08:26
Speaker 2: Oh, he deserves credit. But like it's, you know, you
1:08:30
Speaker 2: don't want to do that thing where it's like I
1:08:32
Speaker 2: just did with the run game, right, The run game
1:08:34
Speaker 2: had been so bad, Yeah, and I saw a flash
1:08:36
Speaker 2: and I got all excited, and you're like, well, you
1:08:38
Speaker 2: know it was good for what it was, but was
1:08:40
Speaker 2: it good? Yeah? That's kind of where meant with like
1:08:41
Speaker 2: he's been serviceable, but it's it's easy for him to
1:08:46
Speaker 2: look like a potential answer when you look at what
1:08:49
Speaker 2: he's coming after. Yeah, not just this year, but for
1:08:52
Speaker 2: the last few years.
1:08:53
Speaker 4: He's cut down a lot on the uh. I know
1:08:55
Speaker 4: we're spending a lot of a Darian Low time here.
1:08:57
Speaker 4: He's cut down a lot on like the awful losses,
1:09:01
Speaker 4: like just the complete whiffs where he just doesn't even
1:09:03
Speaker 4: get a hand on a guy. Now, at least like
1:09:06
Speaker 4: even though Booker I thought beat him inside a couple
1:09:08
Speaker 4: of times in this game, he's at least allowing Drake
1:09:11
Speaker 4: May to get off his spot right, Like, he's at
1:09:12
Speaker 4: least allowing it to kind of not complete. It doesn't
1:09:15
Speaker 4: become a fire, Yeah, exactly doesn't completely kill the play,
1:09:18
Speaker 4: all right, Patty is an aguam.
1:09:20
Speaker 2: What's up? Patty?
1:09:22
Speaker 3: What's up?
1:09:23
Speaker 6: Gentlemen?
1:09:23
Speaker 2: How doing good?
1:09:26
Speaker 3: I want to touch on a couple of things and
1:09:28
Speaker 3: U and with quite too. I can't believe a j
1:09:32
Speaker 3: I thought it was gonna be the only one that
1:09:33
Speaker 3: was gonna ask a Bederian Low question today. But to me,
1:09:36
Speaker 3: it's so disrespectful that North Carolina's football program hangs up
1:09:41
Speaker 3: at Jordan Jersey when one of the greatest players of
1:09:44
Speaker 3: all time played for that program. And I'm hoping you
1:09:48
Speaker 3: guys know who I'm talking about.
1:09:51
Speaker 4: That played for North Carolina football.
1:09:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, Julius Peppers.
1:09:58
Speaker 3: Taylor is in you U and C guy Lawrence Taylor.
1:10:03
Speaker 2: Lawrence Taylor, Oh that's right, he is. Yeah, Well, they
1:10:06
Speaker 2: don't hang up this jersey. It's it's like the Jordan
1:10:09
Speaker 2: logo because they're Jordan Brand's school.
1:10:10
Speaker 4: Patty, I think we just showed our age there of
1:10:13
Speaker 4: not knowing where Lawrence Taylor went to school.
1:10:16
Speaker 3: I think I just showed my age too. I want
1:10:20
Speaker 3: to say I couldn't agree with both you guys. More
1:10:23
Speaker 3: about switching coordinators. I mean, I don't know what fans
1:10:27
Speaker 3: and I'm not saying you guys, but a lot of
1:10:29
Speaker 3: media types are expecting from this team. I mean you,
1:10:33
Speaker 3: going into the season, we knew we had a rookie coach,
1:10:35
Speaker 3: a rookie offensive play caller or a rookie defensive play caller,
1:10:39
Speaker 3: a rookie GM, and a rookie quarterback. I mean, we
1:10:42
Speaker 3: saw what happened with Mac Jones, and Mac Jones doesn't
1:10:44
Speaker 3: have I mean there's more talent and drink fas Drake
1:10:48
Speaker 3: May's left, Tinky Than and Mac Jones. You know, yep,
1:10:52
Speaker 3: So like, let let the kid develop, let the coaches
1:10:55
Speaker 3: do their thing. We've seen like I think it's night
1:10:58
Speaker 3: and day because I listen to you know, I'm a
1:11:00
Speaker 3: Patriots junkie, and coming from where he came from and
1:11:03
Speaker 3: at the started training camp to where he is now
1:11:05
Speaker 3: is night and day. And you heard Girod say like,
1:11:08
Speaker 3: there's no person that that's been more instrumental in his
1:11:12
Speaker 3: development than Alex van Pelt. So give him a few years.
1:11:15
Speaker 3: I'm with you at these great and two more years
1:11:18
Speaker 3: he's going to get a head coach and opportunity. So
1:11:21
Speaker 3: my question was going to be if we do take
1:11:23
Speaker 3: are my two questions. First one, any interest in David
1:11:26
Speaker 3: Long Junior who was just recent release. And number two,
1:11:30
Speaker 3: let's say we do take a left tackle, would you
1:11:34
Speaker 3: guys have any interest in resigning Viderim Maybe not to
1:11:38
Speaker 3: play swing tackle, but his contract is up after next year,
1:11:43
Speaker 3: and I like what he's done this year. I mean,
1:11:45
Speaker 3: when he's been healthy, he's been he's been serviceable. So yeah,
1:11:49
Speaker 3: we're not we're not seeing I'm not saying sign him
1:11:52
Speaker 3: to be the long term left tackle, but maybe a
1:11:54
Speaker 3: long term depth guy. And I'll take it off there, guys.
1:11:56
Speaker 2: Thanks Patty. What was the first question he asked? The
1:12:01
Speaker 2: second one was, would we be like taking a tackle?
1:12:03
Speaker 2: Would we resigned? Oh, David Long Junior. Oh yeah, get
1:12:06
Speaker 2: a Lawrence Taylor question? Wrong, Yeah, I magine Bill Hurd.
1:12:10
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah.
1:12:13
Speaker 4: That was definitely like we know where everybody went to
1:12:16
Speaker 4: college in the last like twenty years.
1:12:18
Speaker 2: So you go further back a little bit. Anyways, David
1:12:23
Speaker 2: Long jor, I mean, they need a lot, they need linebackers.
1:12:25
Speaker 2: I wouldn't be closed.
1:12:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I actually, uh, you know, and he was
1:12:28
Speaker 4: back at practice today, which I liked to I actually
1:12:31
Speaker 4: kind of liked what I saw as Taki Taki in
1:12:34
Speaker 4: this game on Sunday. It was exactly what he came
1:12:38
Speaker 4: as advertised in Cleveland, which was that there's like you're
1:12:41
Speaker 4: not gonna notice him, like he's not gonna make a
1:12:43
Speaker 4: ton of splash plays, but you're also not gonna notice
1:12:46
Speaker 4: him for the wrong reasons either, And like that sort
1:12:48
Speaker 4: of competency at the second linebacker spot next to Jelani Tavai,
1:12:53
Speaker 4: I think is exactly what they need, And I don't
1:12:55
Speaker 4: necessarily think it's a coincidence that Tavai had his best
1:12:58
Speaker 4: game of the year with somebody who he wasn't trying
1:13:00
Speaker 4: to cover up the entire game playing next to him.
1:13:03
Speaker 4: So I'm actually cautiously optimistic out of what we saw
1:13:07
Speaker 4: from Taki Taki. He's in the right places, he can
1:13:10
Speaker 4: cover a little bit. He's got a little bit more
1:13:13
Speaker 4: size than like a Christian Ellis, right, so he's not
1:13:15
Speaker 4: quite as easy to move in the run game. I'm
1:13:17
Speaker 4: not saying, you know, we keep on saying this like
1:13:20
Speaker 4: I'm not saying Fidarian Los Joe Thomas, and I'm not
1:13:22
Speaker 4: saying Sioni Taki. Taki is like ray Lewis in his prime, right,
1:13:26
Speaker 4: But at least he was good and competent in his role.
1:13:29
Speaker 4: So I don't know if I would necessarily panic about
1:13:32
Speaker 4: inside linebacker quite as much now, you know, I would
1:13:35
Speaker 4: have like kicked the tires on a David Long junior,
1:13:39
Speaker 4: or was the guy from the Seahawks Dodson right that
1:13:42
Speaker 4: got released like maybe a couple of weeks ago. I
1:13:44
Speaker 4: would have been all over that. But now, if he's
1:13:46
Speaker 4: healthy and I know he's had a tough time staying healthy.
1:13:49
Speaker 4: But he can stay healthy. I think I'd roll with
1:13:52
Speaker 4: the two Samoans and see what they can do.
1:13:54
Speaker 2: I just adding depth of the position couldn't hurt, right,
1:13:57
Speaker 2: I wouldn't be against it, And was the other thing.
1:14:00
Speaker 2: I mean, I wouldn't be against bringing back for Darien Lowell,
1:14:02
Speaker 2: Like he's a good depth player to have. But is
1:14:04
Speaker 2: he gonna want to hit free agency and go somewhere?
1:14:07
Speaker 2: Like he could get signed as a spots starter, like
1:14:09
Speaker 2: the guy the Patriots needed this year that he ended
1:14:12
Speaker 2: up being and they got there eventually, right it started
1:14:14
Speaker 2: with Chookes the Corps for But he could get paid
1:14:17
Speaker 2: decently to be somebody spot starter. So I wouldn't be opposed,
1:14:21
Speaker 2: but I don't think it makes a lot of sense
1:14:23
Speaker 2: I keep him for next year? Is the backup? Like
1:14:26
Speaker 2: I like him in that role next year, especially if
1:14:27
Speaker 2: he had a rookie. But I don't know that you're
1:14:29
Speaker 2: giving him another contract.
1:14:30
Speaker 4: I'm just concerned, Like I said before, I'm just concerned
1:14:33
Speaker 4: about the fact that he can't play right tackle. So like,
1:14:36
Speaker 4: if you're signed, actually, if you're signing him as a
1:14:38
Speaker 4: third guy and that's your idea, is that to your
1:14:42
Speaker 4: point just now, like if he is Let's say they
1:14:45
Speaker 4: draft a tackle early, but it's somebody like Nursery who
1:14:49
Speaker 4: might be like more of a developmental prospect, and then
1:14:51
Speaker 4: you don't want to necessarily start that guy week one. Well,
1:14:54
Speaker 4: now I ve Darian Lowe's you're starting left tackle. I
1:14:57
Speaker 4: get it, like I get the process there, and I think.
1:14:59
Speaker 2: It would be you can he's under contract next year, yeah,
1:15:02
Speaker 2: so you don't have to worry about that year. So
1:15:04
Speaker 2: I get it.
1:15:04
Speaker 4: That would be fine. I'd be fine with that. But
1:15:06
Speaker 4: the problem is is that once he becomes your third tackle,
1:15:09
Speaker 4: he can't swing, he can't go both ways.
1:15:11
Speaker 2: Well, so you know what happens, then Michael Winnu becomes
1:15:14
Speaker 2: your backup.
1:15:14
Speaker 3: Right.
1:15:15
Speaker 2: That's exactly no, which is why I wouldn't do it.
1:15:17
Speaker 2: And this is one last thing just on this topic. Uh,
1:15:20
Speaker 2: and then I will go back to the rest of
1:15:22
Speaker 2: the calls. I'm really interested to see if they can
1:15:24
Speaker 2: get Kayden Wallace back this year. Yeah, because in theory,
1:15:28
Speaker 2: like Kayden Wallace should be your right tackle, right, you know,
1:15:30
Speaker 2: moving forward, if they made the right selection there in
1:15:34
Speaker 2: the third round, then you really shouldn't need two tackles.
1:15:37
Speaker 2: You should really have one already in Canon Wallace, and
1:15:40
Speaker 2: that would allow you to keep on winning inside and
1:15:43
Speaker 2: all that kind of stuff.
1:15:44
Speaker 4: So I guess if that happens, then maybe you could
1:15:46
Speaker 4: keep Vederian low around longer term to have him sort
1:15:50
Speaker 4: of back up the left tackle slash spots start.
1:15:52
Speaker 2: And that sort of thing.
1:15:53
Speaker 4: All right, Justina is in North Carolina.
1:15:56
Speaker 2: What's up? Justina?
1:15:58
Speaker 3: Hi?
1:15:59
Speaker 7: Everyone? Evans. You are so smart because me and you
1:16:05
Speaker 7: were the only one supporting Drake at the beginning of
1:16:09
Speaker 7: the season, and I am I was, I would do
1:16:13
Speaker 7: you go to school with Lawrence Taylor?
1:16:17
Speaker 3: Yes?
1:16:19
Speaker 8: Ye Ago, But.
1:16:23
Speaker 7: I'm proud of Drake and I just want to be
1:16:26
Speaker 7: in defense of him because because he's been playing good
1:16:30
Speaker 7: and he I feel like he's the one that's got
1:16:33
Speaker 7: everybody else around him motivated because they feel like they
1:16:35
Speaker 7: have they can have success. And I just a little disappointed,
1:16:41
Speaker 7: disappointed because they're first they're saying that he did when
1:16:45
Speaker 7: he said he threw the ball away, he didn't, so
1:16:47
Speaker 7: he was just saying that. But he's not that type
1:16:49
Speaker 7: of person to tell lies. And then there was they
1:16:53
Speaker 7: were making it sound like it was so so bad,
1:16:55
Speaker 7: but it was just one thing and he's coming from
1:16:59
Speaker 7: not being a people quarterback, not being able to move
1:17:03
Speaker 7: the ball down the court too, of being able to
1:17:06
Speaker 7: move the ball I'm not the court the upfield, to
1:17:09
Speaker 7: being able to move the ball down the field one
1:17:12
Speaker 7: throwaway and there's the worst. So it is so bad.
1:17:16
Speaker 7: I disagree with that, and I hope you I think
1:17:19
Speaker 7: you do too, because you were showing the good things
1:17:21
Speaker 7: that he did and this act was did, and let's
1:17:24
Speaker 7: build on his good things and stop and stop trying
1:17:27
Speaker 7: to put down the mistakes. I mean, he's gonna come
1:17:31
Speaker 7: even if he makes two mistakes, he's steel better than,
1:17:33
Speaker 7: like you said, the last year a quarterback or three
1:17:36
Speaker 7: mistakes in the game. So so I think he was.
1:17:41
Speaker 7: There's everybody so surprised about him. It's because the last year,
1:17:47
Speaker 7: the last year coach uh made this big statement about
1:17:50
Speaker 7: his footwork. He's not that good and he was saying
1:17:54
Speaker 7: that and not everybody's saying, oh no, he's he's so
1:17:57
Speaker 7: brilliant because he had Tom Brady. But he's just probably
1:18:00
Speaker 7: glucked up on Tom Brady because he dad wasn't successful
1:18:03
Speaker 7: after that, and he made it. He just made put
1:18:07
Speaker 7: the groundwork down for Drake to be You know, not
1:18:11
Speaker 7: even started. Even when when Mao had in his mind
1:18:16
Speaker 7: and he really played, I played the other quarterback. You know,
1:18:20
Speaker 7: everybody was like, no, he's he's not that good. Look
1:18:23
Speaker 7: at his footwork. They don't look at his accuracy and throwing.
1:18:26
Speaker 7: They look at his footwork. I know he could. I
1:18:29
Speaker 7: know he's smart enough. He's gone to get that footwork
1:18:31
Speaker 7: and he's got to be a great player.
1:18:33
Speaker 3: But do you agree with me?
1:18:36
Speaker 4: I know you do, of course I do. Justin thank
1:18:39
Speaker 4: you so much for the call. And Justina is one
1:18:41
Speaker 4: hundred percent right. She was with me back in January, February, March,
1:18:47
Speaker 4: April before they even drafted the guy on the Drake
1:18:50
Speaker 4: May bandwagon.
1:18:51
Speaker 2: And I love that call.
1:18:52
Speaker 4: That's awesome, Justina, And where we're truthers, like we knew
1:18:55
Speaker 4: right we were head of the curve.
1:18:57
Speaker 2: I think that's the biggest thing to.
1:18:59
Speaker 4: Me too, is like they always, you know, harp on
1:19:02
Speaker 4: on these things with draft prospects. We all do it
1:19:04
Speaker 4: like you have to find the flaws, right, that's part
1:19:06
Speaker 4: of the job. And uh, you know, it's interesting that
1:19:08
Speaker 4: she brought up Belichick's critiques of Drake May in the
1:19:12
Speaker 4: draft because I I do bet that not for everybody,
1:19:16
Speaker 4: but I do bet that some of that is a
1:19:18
Speaker 4: factor in the fact that Bill kind of, you know,
1:19:21
Speaker 4: had his critiques of Drake May's footwork and things like
1:19:24
Speaker 4: that coming out. But it's really interesting to see, you know.
1:19:29
Speaker 4: Really to me is like the everybody's sort of learning
1:19:32
Speaker 4: about the person now and like the character of the player.
1:19:35
Speaker 4: And I remember, you know, standing in the locker room
1:19:38
Speaker 4: a couple of weeks ago when Devon Godshaw made the
1:19:41
Speaker 4: Josh Allen two point zero comment and you know after
1:19:45
Speaker 4: you had to like pick me up off the floor, right,
1:19:47
Speaker 4: I was like, wait a second, but like, shouldn't that
1:19:52
Speaker 4: ignite this locker room? Like shouldn't people be excited about
1:19:56
Speaker 4: that in here? And shouldn't we like shouldn't this bring
1:19:59
Speaker 4: an energy that didn't exist before? If like guys are
1:20:02
Speaker 4: seeing that, wow, like he he really is the real deal,
1:20:07
Speaker 4: Like we have a real franchise quarterback here in this
1:20:11
Speaker 4: rookie like that should it should be followed the leader
1:20:14
Speaker 4: after that? Right, like everybody should kind of you know,
1:20:17
Speaker 4: come in a little bit earlier and work a little
1:20:19
Speaker 4: bit harder and practice a little bit harder. And you
1:20:22
Speaker 4: hear about the things about Drake May, you know, standing
1:20:25
Speaker 4: up in front of team meetings and like speaking his mind.
1:20:28
Speaker 4: I just really think that people overlook the intangibles and
1:20:33
Speaker 4: good on Look. I know a lot of people sit
1:20:35
Speaker 4: there and say, like it's easy to pick the third
1:20:37
Speaker 4: quarterback and a three quarterback draft and not move and
1:20:40
Speaker 4: just make the pick like Elliott Wolf did. But one
1:20:43
Speaker 4: of the things that he said right after the draft
1:20:46
Speaker 4: when they made the pick on that Thursday night, was
1:20:48
Speaker 4: talking about Drake May's intangibles and the family and how
1:20:52
Speaker 4: he was the youngest of four brothers, all athletes, and
1:20:55
Speaker 4: his father was an athlete, and just sort of all
1:20:58
Speaker 4: these different things about him the person. And they they
1:21:02
Speaker 4: knew it then that they had a high character guy,
1:21:06
Speaker 4: and it was good on them. Good on them for
1:21:07
Speaker 4: recognizing that because it's really underrated part about this whole thing.
1:21:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's tough, tough part to go about it. I
1:21:12
Speaker 2: mean you look at to compare it Caleb Williams and
1:21:15
Speaker 2: what's going on with the Bears, and yeah, maybe the
1:21:16
Speaker 2: morality they have one more win, but the morale doesn't
1:21:19
Speaker 2: as high there as it could be, and that that's
1:21:21
Speaker 2: a factor in the long term. Yeah, absolutely, all right,
1:21:23
Speaker 2: Sean is in Vancouver. What's up, Sean?
1:21:26
Speaker 9: Hey, you know it's not an age thing. Got your
1:21:30
Speaker 9: anyone else who remembers that he went to North Carolina State?
1:21:37
Speaker 9: But because I didn't know that, But I do know
1:21:40
Speaker 9: that Tippett went to Iowa. So yeah, that's that's my bias.
1:21:45
Speaker 2: If you work here, you need to know that shot.
1:21:47
Speaker 2: That's like, that's one of those.
1:21:50
Speaker 6: Yeah, that makes sense.
1:21:52
Speaker 9: Now, Evan, I missed you in San Francisco, but I'm
1:21:55
Speaker 9: going to be in Miami next week, so I'm hoping
1:21:57
Speaker 9: that I get to meet you down there.
1:21:59
Speaker 2: Absolutely absolutely great, and.
1:22:03
Speaker 9: I feel like speaking to Miami. I feel like an
1:22:05
Speaker 9: old Dolphins fan because right now I'm like looking at
1:22:09
Speaker 9: the chief schedule moving forward and seeing that their two
1:22:14
Speaker 9: home games are against Cleveland and Carolina. So I'm now
1:22:19
Speaker 9: rooting for the Bills to win on Sunday, which drives
1:22:22
Speaker 9: me insane. I don't want the Chiefs to three PM.
1:22:25
Speaker 9: I definitely don't want them to.
1:22:26
Speaker 3: Go undefeat it.
1:22:27
Speaker 9: And how you feel about that?
1:22:29
Speaker 4: Oh, I'm with you, Sean, and thanks for the call,
1:22:31
Speaker 4: and definitely shoot me a messager email on U you
1:22:34
Speaker 4: can DM me on Twitter too, and we'll meet up
1:22:37
Speaker 4: in Miami. But I'm definitely rooting for the Chiefs not
1:22:40
Speaker 4: to go undefeated. Even know the Patriots didn't finish the deal, Like,
1:22:43
Speaker 4: it's still I still kind of cooler. The only sixteen
1:22:45
Speaker 4: to OH team in regular season history. Plus I just
1:22:48
Speaker 4: don't like the Chiefs. Like it's just all of it.
1:22:50
Speaker 2: I'm with that. Yeah, I mean, I'm rooting against this
1:22:53
Speaker 2: week's game is gonna be gross on this week's game.
1:22:55
Speaker 2: It's tough for you. It's tough. Well, but no, you
1:22:57
Speaker 2: know what, but the Bills always beat him in the
1:23:00
Speaker 2: regular season. The Chiefs always beat him in the playoffs.
1:23:02
Speaker 2: So you know, I don't know, can suck? Can can
1:23:06
Speaker 2: Lamar Jackson? Please? Can the Ravens please save me from this?
1:23:10
Speaker 4: This is like you picking between I can't think of
1:23:13
Speaker 4: a really bad option, Yeah, really bad.
1:23:15
Speaker 2: I can't. Please give me a super Bowl I can enjoy. Like, please,
1:23:22
Speaker 2: I'll take the Niners in the Super Bowl again. That's
1:23:24
Speaker 2: fine because I know I'll get the outcome I wanted. Now,
1:23:27
Speaker 2: can Lamar Jackson? This isn't saying he has been trying.
1:23:30
Speaker 2: I don't mean this to knock them R Jackson, but
1:23:32
Speaker 2: like you're my only hope. You're my only hope. The
1:23:36
Speaker 2: Bengals aren't doing it. That team's not working this year.
1:23:38
Speaker 2: I'm not I know the Steelers have a good record.
1:23:39
Speaker 2: I'm not a believer in that team. Yeah, as a
1:23:41
Speaker 2: champion contender. The Texans have taken a step back. Who
1:23:44
Speaker 2: else is there in the AFC? The Chargers? Harbaugh? No, please, no,
1:23:48
Speaker 2: not that Horrball. He's in a bad way. I thought
1:23:51
Speaker 2: maybe Rogers would at least like be a factor in
1:23:53
Speaker 2: the regular season. That didn't work. Please Ravens, Derrick Henry,
1:23:58
Speaker 2: please finish this thing. I'm a little worried about you
1:24:04
Speaker 2: right now. Are you good? Are good? I'm good, But
1:24:06
Speaker 2: like you're really worried annoying. You're really worried the Bills are.
1:24:09
Speaker 4: Gonna win the Super Bowl, aren't you?
1:24:11
Speaker 2: You're starting to I'm not worried about that. But the
1:24:14
Speaker 2: longer they go, the more annoying they are. So here's
1:24:17
Speaker 2: the thing.
1:24:17
Speaker 4: I am worried the Chiefs are gonna win. You know,
1:24:19
Speaker 4: I'm a Josh Allen guy. Yeah, but I still don't
1:24:22
Speaker 4: want the Bills to win the Super Bowl. Like I
1:24:23
Speaker 4: want Josh Allen to play well.
1:24:25
Speaker 2: I want Josh Allen to win a Super Bowl elsewhere.
1:24:27
Speaker 4: I don't want him to win the Super Bowl, though,
1:24:29
Speaker 4: like I want him to win MVP. I want him
1:24:31
Speaker 4: to be cemented. I want all of that, but I want.
1:24:34
Speaker 2: Him want him to be Joel Embiid.
1:24:35
Speaker 4: Yeah, or like our ear is like Dan Marino, right, sure,
1:24:39
Speaker 4: Joel Embid.
1:24:39
Speaker 2: M VP, MVP, no championships. That's because you just described.
1:24:45
Speaker 2: But we all like Jill. No one likes Joel and Bid.
1:24:50
Speaker 2: The Bill's and the Sixers the same thing.
1:24:52
Speaker 4: But nobody likes Joel Embiid. I like Josh Allen.
1:24:55
Speaker 2: I think it's like Dan Marino, all right, or maybe
1:24:57
Speaker 2: like Charles Barkley, but less Marino. I mean it's in
1:25:00
Speaker 2: the division Marino. Yeah, yeah, no, not Joel Embid. Can
1:25:04
Speaker 2: the Ravens like? Can the Ravens? Please? And I want
1:25:08
Speaker 2: to see Lamark like I want to see Lamar Jackson
1:25:10
Speaker 2: want to ring? Yeah? And you know I was not
1:25:12
Speaker 2: a big Lamar Jackson guy coming out. I think he
1:25:14
Speaker 2: there's a video somewhere of you saying that Lamar Jackson
1:25:17
Speaker 2: can't throw. He couldn't at the time, and that's part
1:25:19
Speaker 2: of the reason I like Lamar Jackson so much now.
1:25:21
Speaker 2: I think the way he transformed his game is unbelievable.
1:25:25
Speaker 4: I've always been to Lamar unbelievable.
1:25:27
Speaker 2: The way he took a unique skill set and then
1:25:31
Speaker 2: built around it to be the player he needed to
1:25:34
Speaker 2: be in the NFL, I think is a tremendous testament
1:25:36
Speaker 2: to him. In the Ravens organization, I would love to
1:25:40
Speaker 2: I've been you like I was out of them. I've
1:25:42
Speaker 2: been a big Lamar Jackson guy for the last like
1:25:43
Speaker 2: two to three years. I really that that twenty twenty
1:25:47
Speaker 2: one twenty two season, what was the year he just
1:25:49
Speaker 2: started going nuts throwing the ball? Well, nineteen he one
1:25:52
Speaker 2: MVP in nineteen one MVP, but he still wasn't like
1:25:55
Speaker 2: the same passer. What was that year? They said, like
1:25:58
Speaker 2: in the off season, they're like, he could Probably the
1:26:00
Speaker 2: year they hired Todd Monkin. No, that was this year.
1:26:03
Speaker 2: That was two years ago. Okay, so then that's what
1:26:04
Speaker 2: it was. That, like they talked about, he went in
1:26:06
Speaker 2: the off season and redeveloped himself as a passer. And
1:26:10
Speaker 2: you know, you hear a lot of guys talk about
1:26:11
Speaker 2: doing that, they don't do it, and he did it,
1:26:13
Speaker 2: and good for him, and I just I respect the
1:26:16
Speaker 2: Ravens organization too, Like a good organization and it would
1:26:19
Speaker 2: be cool to see Lamar get one.
1:26:21
Speaker 4: So I personally have always been on the Mark guy
1:26:23
Speaker 4: as you know. Yeah, And it's totally different in terms
1:26:27
Speaker 4: of their skill sets. I'm not comparing them as players necessarily,
1:26:31
Speaker 4: but the things that Lamar was knocked for as a
1:26:34
Speaker 4: passer early on, it wasn't all that different between him
1:26:39
Speaker 4: and Drake may because when I watched him in college
1:26:42
Speaker 4: at Louisville, like he outside the numbers was if he
1:26:46
Speaker 4: with him, But he at Louisville was a really really
1:26:50
Speaker 4: good thrower in the middle of the field from day
1:26:52
Speaker 4: one and won the Heisman Trophy with a lot of
1:26:55
Speaker 4: throws from the pocket. But the highlights are obviously just
1:26:58
Speaker 4: him running and that's what gets all the attention because
1:27:01
Speaker 4: that's what all the highlight packages. But like if you
1:27:03
Speaker 4: go back and watch Lamar at Louisville, really really good
1:27:07
Speaker 4: thrower between the numbers from the pocket, He's developed a
1:27:10
Speaker 4: lot outside the numbers, and I'm sure he's developed a
1:27:12
Speaker 4: lot mentally in the passing game. And there were some
1:27:15
Speaker 4: things with like he threw from a really narrow base
1:27:17
Speaker 4: and throwing platform at Louisville that he fixed to help
1:27:21
Speaker 4: drive the ball more consistently outside the numbers. But you
1:27:24
Speaker 4: go watch some of those throws that Lamar made at
1:27:26
Speaker 4: Louisville from the pocket, he could hit it like he
1:27:29
Speaker 4: could really throw some darts. And that was another one
1:27:31
Speaker 4: where people were telling, you know, saying, like he can't throw,
1:27:35
Speaker 4: you know, he's not going to be able to throw
1:27:36
Speaker 4: at the NFL level. Uh the YadA, YadA, YadA. And
1:27:39
Speaker 4: like two years in he's the league MVP.
1:27:41
Speaker 2: The thing is and and this is credit to Greg Roman.
1:27:43
Speaker 2: Like when he came in his rookie year for Flacco,
1:27:47
Speaker 2: he was running Joe Flacco's offense, which was dated at
1:27:50
Speaker 2: the time. Yeah, and then they bring in Roman and they.
1:27:53
Speaker 4: Start doing the already there and they kind of them
1:27:57
Speaker 4: so they yeah, they kind of developed it behind the scenes.
1:28:00
Speaker 4: Is really what happened is they like sort of started
1:28:03
Speaker 4: to develop Roman did a Lamar offense because they always
1:28:06
Speaker 4: knew they were going to Lamar events.
1:28:08
Speaker 2: But do you remember like that playoff game his rookie year,
1:28:10
Speaker 2: they just had him like drop back passing, like they
1:28:13
Speaker 2: they were not using his legs at all, and it
1:28:15
Speaker 2: was like this isn't gonna work. They're trying to turn
1:28:17
Speaker 2: him into Joe Flacco. He's not Joe Flacco. Yeah, and
1:28:20
Speaker 2: then Roman overhauled it and brought in the Kaepernick stuff
1:28:23
Speaker 2: the same way and it worked. Yeah. Yeah, it's a
1:28:26
Speaker 2: it's an interesting foil to me with Lamar, not even
1:28:29
Speaker 2: foil like comparison with Lamar because, like I think his
1:28:32
Speaker 2: career trajectory now, obviously the difference is that he wins
1:28:36
Speaker 2: MVP his second year and I'm not ready to say
1:28:38
Speaker 2: that he had a much better team around him and
1:28:41
Speaker 2: he's a better runner and like Drake's never gonna be
1:28:44
Speaker 2: that kind of run.
1:28:45
Speaker 4: No, But they said the same things about Lamar that
1:28:48
Speaker 4: he wasn't gonna be able to throw enough consistently from
1:28:50
Speaker 4: the pocket. I think some people still say it now,
1:28:53
Speaker 4: you know.
1:28:53
Speaker 2: Is why he's losing in the playoffs is because he
1:28:55
Speaker 2: can't throw them all from He's losing the playoffs because
1:28:58
Speaker 2: they became so It's kind of like the Bills. They
1:29:01
Speaker 2: became so reliant on his run game every year they
1:29:03
Speaker 2: get to the end of the year and he's beat
1:29:04
Speaker 2: up and he couldn't do it. That's why I love
1:29:06
Speaker 2: the Derek Henry acquisition. It's taken so much physicality off
1:29:10
Speaker 2: of Lamar's plate that I think you're gonna see, uh,
1:29:14
Speaker 2: a guy that that's in better shape, that is much
1:29:17
Speaker 2: more physically ready to go when we get to January
1:29:20
Speaker 2: than we've ever seen with Lamar Jackson. Maybe Derrick Henry.
1:29:23
Speaker 2: At that point it falls off because that's been his
1:29:25
Speaker 2: whole career, right, he gets crappied out of him all year,
1:29:28
Speaker 2: and look, he's given out some body blows like running
1:29:30
Speaker 2: usually don't. But he's taken some shots as well. But
1:29:33
Speaker 2: you know that was with Ryan Tannehill, that was with
1:29:36
Speaker 2: Will Levis. Now it's Lamar Jackson who's rested, and you
1:29:41
Speaker 2: let Derrick Henry take the beating in the regular season
1:29:43
Speaker 2: and now you get to truly unleash Lamar in the playoffs.
1:29:46
Speaker 2: That's why I liked the Ravens in the AFC this
1:29:48
Speaker 2: year because I thought, I think that dynamic it's super unique.
1:29:52
Speaker 2: You also just are obsessed with Derrick Henry. I mean,
1:29:54
Speaker 2: he's We're never gonna see anything like Derrick Henry again.
1:29:57
Speaker 2: We never will. He's Rob Gronkowski playing running back.
1:30:00
Speaker 4: We said we would never see anything again like the
1:30:02
Speaker 4: prime Patriots, and now the Chiefs are going on.
1:30:05
Speaker 3: With it.
1:30:07
Speaker 2: For a couple of things. One, the paint had twenty years.
1:30:12
Speaker 4: Twenty years what I said the prime Patriots, I said, like,
1:30:15
Speaker 4: you know, we never thought that we would see a
1:30:17
Speaker 4: team dominate the league. The Chiefs are nine to zero
1:30:20
Speaker 4: going on a three peat. But six years, it's sixty
1:30:23
Speaker 4: two decades.
1:30:24
Speaker 2: It's different. It's also we're never gonna see Derrick Henry
1:30:27
Speaker 2: again because the way the running back posi is viewed
1:30:31
Speaker 2: is different because they don't because of your freaking nerds.
1:30:35
Speaker 2: The running back.
1:30:35
Speaker 4: Position is the correct take on running backs.
1:30:39
Speaker 2: Derrick Henry is helping them win some games right now. Yeah,
1:30:42
Speaker 2: so is the run blocking. So is Lamar. Derek Henry
1:30:45
Speaker 2: is helping them win some games. I'm just teasing Derek Henry.
1:30:47
Speaker 2: We will never see wait sixty anyways, move will never
1:30:56
Speaker 2: see anything coming on because we're just talking a lot
1:30:58
Speaker 2: of Baltimore Ravens.
1:30:59
Speaker 4: Because you know, I love Lamar. You're you're You've been
1:31:03
Speaker 4: adopted to the Lamar like I was born in the darkness,
1:31:07
Speaker 4: Like you're just kind of adopting it right now with
1:31:09
Speaker 4: Lamar Jackson.
1:31:10
Speaker 2: So I've been I've been on this train for a
1:31:11
Speaker 2: few years. Uh huh, okay, I remember I didn I
1:31:14
Speaker 2: didn't like him coming out. I didn't like him. I
1:31:16
Speaker 2: was wrong about that one. I once said, this ended
1:31:18
Speaker 2: up being my best take. I once said, Lamar Jackson
1:31:22
Speaker 2: and Josh Allen are pretty much the same guy. The
1:31:24
Speaker 2: context in which I said it is not important.
1:31:26
Speaker 4: Oh God, oh God, too bad takes from you there?
1:31:29
Speaker 2: All right? Is that wrong?
1:31:30
Speaker 4: Josh Allen and your Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen takes
1:31:33
Speaker 4: are not aging? Well, friend, they're not. You're kind of
1:31:36
Speaker 4: wrong in vodkams.
1:31:37
Speaker 2: But am I wrong in saying Lamar Jackson Josh Allen
1:31:40
Speaker 2: same level of impact? I mean MVP impact. Yes, I
1:31:45
Speaker 2: think context in which I said it is not important.
1:31:48
Speaker 4: Okay, moving on to more pertinent things about the Patriots.
1:31:53
Speaker 4: We have some emails coming in. We'll get to those
1:31:55
Speaker 4: in a second. But I do want to talk some
1:31:57
Speaker 4: Rams because, like I feel like we're almost there. We're
1:32:00
Speaker 4: almost there to the point where the games the Patriots
1:32:03
Speaker 4: play week to week actually matter, and that's a good feeling.
1:32:06
Speaker 4: I want to talk a little bit of Rams. I
1:32:08
Speaker 4: think the big thing with them, obviously that everybody's pointing
1:32:11
Speaker 4: out this week is more than fair about their defensive line.
1:32:14
Speaker 4: It's a bad matchup in that regard. I do think
1:32:17
Speaker 4: they're still working through some things in the secondary, and
1:32:20
Speaker 4: if you can pass protect, that secondary can be had.
1:32:22
Speaker 4: A little bit kind of said that yeah Wednesday, Yeah,
1:32:25
Speaker 4: but caught himself.
1:32:26
Speaker 2: He said it.
1:32:27
Speaker 4: Their defensive line is is legitimate, and you look at
1:32:31
Speaker 4: I think it's fascinating the whole FM pick strategy and
1:32:35
Speaker 4: then how they've sort of pivot outed that in the
1:32:38
Speaker 4: last couple of years under less Need and now less
1:32:41
Speaker 4: Need has drafted picks all over the place that are
1:32:45
Speaker 4: like contributing, and especially early picks like Verse and Fisk
1:32:48
Speaker 4: and you know, Byron Young and Kobe Turner and like
1:32:53
Speaker 4: all these guys that were like first second round picks
1:32:55
Speaker 4: for the Rams, all of a sudden are playing amazing football,
1:32:59
Speaker 4: like Jared Versus probably the defensive rookie of the year.
1:33:02
Speaker 4: So what do you see with this Rams defense and
1:33:04
Speaker 4: how much does this matchup? Where are you on that
1:33:06
Speaker 4: side of the ball.
1:33:07
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, like you talked about it, that it's
1:33:08
Speaker 2: that front and they can cause havoc. I think this
1:33:11
Speaker 2: is a game where and we already spent a lot
1:33:13
Speaker 2: of time on this, but it's as important as ever
1:33:16
Speaker 2: you get those same five, and girod Meo said when
1:33:20
Speaker 2: he was asked about on Wednesday, it's like, be fantastic
1:33:22
Speaker 2: if we can have the same five, And that's their
1:33:24
Speaker 2: expectation because they're quick and it's not just that they
1:33:28
Speaker 2: are quick players individually. They do a lot of subtle
1:33:31
Speaker 2: things quickly. And this is a team that we know
1:33:33
Speaker 2: has had trouble with line games this year. You gotta
1:33:37
Speaker 2: be on the same page with everybody around you, and
1:33:38
Speaker 2: that's Drake may too, and like there's gonna be more
1:33:41
Speaker 2: for him to recognize I think upfront than there's been
1:33:43
Speaker 2: in other games that Titans defense is obviously nuts. We
1:33:45
Speaker 2: talked about that, Yeah, but continuity is key this week
1:33:49
Speaker 2: up front. I think this is a week where, you know,
1:33:51
Speaker 2: the last couple of weeks, I was just yelling about
1:33:53
Speaker 2: keeping the same group because I think it's better big picture.
1:33:55
Speaker 2: This is a game where specifically, I think that factors up.
1:33:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a really tough group to block because they
1:34:00
Speaker 4: do a lot of things schematically too. There's a lot
1:34:02
Speaker 4: of movement in their pass rusher pass rush package. And
1:34:07
Speaker 4: Chris Schuler their defensive coordinator. Yes, that is Don Shula's grandson.
1:34:12
Speaker 4: By the way, we're talking about that on one football. Yeah,
1:34:15
Speaker 4: is now the defensive coordinator for the Rams. And interesting
1:34:19
Speaker 4: just background with Chris Shula. Obviously, his grandfather is the
1:34:24
Speaker 4: Don Sula. His father, David Julia, also coached in the NFL.
1:34:28
Speaker 4: It was a head coach in the league, and then
1:34:29
Speaker 4: he was shot on mcvay's college roommate on top of that.
1:34:33
Speaker 4: So like there's a lot of reasons why he's ended
1:34:35
Speaker 4: up where he's ended up in terms of you know,
1:34:38
Speaker 4: coaching pedigree and things like that. And it was a
1:34:41
Speaker 4: little bit of a surprise hire for Sean McVay because
1:34:43
Speaker 4: he's usually gone with more experienced defensive coordinators because he's
1:34:47
Speaker 4: a younger head coach, you know, Wade Phillips and Raheem
1:34:50
Speaker 4: Morris and like guys that have just been around the
1:34:52
Speaker 4: block and done it. But now that McVeigh is eight
1:34:56
Speaker 4: years into this thing, he probably felt a little bit
1:34:58
Speaker 4: more confident going with a more up and coming coordinator.
1:35:01
Speaker 4: And Chris Shula runs a very exotic pressure package, Like
1:35:06
Speaker 4: they spend the dial a lot, do a lot of
1:35:07
Speaker 4: this stuff that I get all hot and bothered about,
1:35:10
Speaker 4: you know, creepers and sim pressures and we're gonna drop
1:35:13
Speaker 4: this guy, We're gonna rush that guy, and you're not
1:35:15
Speaker 4: gonna be able to sort it through. And then you
1:35:17
Speaker 4: put out the fact that they also have really good
1:35:20
Speaker 4: talent on the defensive line, and you have probably the
1:35:23
Speaker 4: best front in football right now besides maybe Houston's. It's
1:35:26
Speaker 4: like Rams and Houston or Neck and Neck in a
1:35:29
Speaker 4: pretty much everything.
1:35:30
Speaker 2: They have the linebackers too. I think they're like the
1:35:33
Speaker 2: defensive line might be better in Houston. The Rams, I
1:35:35
Speaker 2: think of the better linebacker and they play into this league.
1:35:38
Speaker 2: Yeah again, we're talking about the front. Yeah. Yeah.
1:35:41
Speaker 4: So this is a big week to me on the
1:35:43
Speaker 4: offensive side for Drake May with two things answers to pressure,
1:35:47
Speaker 4: Like there's gonna be some free runners every once in
1:35:49
Speaker 4: a while, there's gonna be some chess match stuff that
1:35:53
Speaker 4: him and Ben Brown before the snap are gonna have
1:35:55
Speaker 4: to sort out. You know which way are we sliding?
1:35:57
Speaker 4: Where are we hot? You know where are we where's
1:36:00
Speaker 4: the pressure coming from? Like those types of things are
1:36:02
Speaker 4: gonna be big this week. And I put a lot
1:36:04
Speaker 4: of that emphasis on the players, but also on Alex
1:36:07
Speaker 4: van Pelt, Like this is a week where you have
1:36:09
Speaker 4: to cut call plays around pressure, Like you can't just
1:36:14
Speaker 4: call plays to call plays this week, like you have
1:36:16
Speaker 4: to have a purpose to the play calls that you're
1:36:18
Speaker 4: calling to make sure that you're giving Drake May answers
1:36:22
Speaker 4: and quick answers to the pressure that's coming at him.
1:36:25
Speaker 4: It's not just that, Okay, you know, left guard is
1:36:28
Speaker 4: gonna lose to Fisk here. It's also the that they
1:36:30
Speaker 4: go about pressuring quarterbacks that's very exotic. So you can't
1:36:35
Speaker 4: just send him out there on a seven step drop
1:36:38
Speaker 4: with nothing underneath and expect him to just sit back
1:36:41
Speaker 4: there for three and a half seconds and make a throw.
1:36:43
Speaker 4: That's not gonna happen this week. So it's not just
1:36:45
Speaker 4: screens and stuff. It's also just you know, finding out
1:36:48
Speaker 4: where the pressure is coming from and how to beat
1:36:50
Speaker 4: it big like throw at the blitz week this week,
1:36:52
Speaker 4: Like if they're in a blitz, throw right at it.
1:36:55
Speaker 4: Like those are some of the weaknesses place the blitz, Yeah,
1:36:58
Speaker 4: that you see in this rams a defensive scheme. And
1:37:01
Speaker 4: then the last thing with Drake, I as much as
1:37:03
Speaker 4: we sit here and I said it earlier, so I
1:37:05
Speaker 4: know I'm kind of contradicting myself about him leaving the pocket,
1:37:08
Speaker 4: like This is sort of a week where I think
1:37:10
Speaker 4: his legs need to be a factor. You are under
1:37:13
Speaker 4: manned in the trenches, like they have a better front
1:37:15
Speaker 4: than you have blockers, Like that's just a fact. And
1:37:19
Speaker 4: Tua extended a few plays on Monday night, and Tua
1:37:22
Speaker 4: is not necessarily mobile like Drake is. And you know,
1:37:26
Speaker 4: I think that can help, Like that can help this week.
1:37:28
Speaker 4: You know, if you feel pressure, get out there, you know,
1:37:31
Speaker 4: like get yourself out on the perimeter. See if you
1:37:33
Speaker 4: can make a throw, see if you can run, or
1:37:35
Speaker 4: as Ox Van Pelt likes to say, throw it to
1:37:37
Speaker 4: the tuba player, right like that. This is a big
1:37:40
Speaker 4: week for avoiding catastrophe, Like avoid negative plays, avoid strip sacks,
1:37:45
Speaker 4: avoid a big tackles for loss, and just keep the
1:37:49
Speaker 4: offense at least somewhat on schedule. So that's the Rams defense.
1:37:54
Speaker 4: But I want to talk a little bit about this
1:37:55
Speaker 4: Rams offense too, if you have do you have anything
1:37:57
Speaker 4: else to add about the defense?
1:37:59
Speaker 2: I just think it. It was funny to hear Mayo
1:38:03
Speaker 2: Ta and and kind of Van Pelt today both kind
1:38:05
Speaker 2: of acknowledge like, yeah, if we can put the if
1:38:08
Speaker 2: we can put their secondary in play, we're gonna have advantage. Yeah,
1:38:11
Speaker 2: so they clearly I would expect them to throw the
1:38:13
Speaker 2: ball going to mount in this game. I don't running
1:38:15
Speaker 2: on this front is just as hard. No, I don't
1:38:17
Speaker 2: think you're gonna see a Tennessee game plan. I think
1:38:19
Speaker 2: you're gonna see them go back up to thirty five
1:38:20
Speaker 2: to forty passes and push the ball too, not like screens.
1:38:24
Speaker 2: I think you're there. They're gonna kind of put it
1:38:25
Speaker 2: on this offensive line. Can we get three three and
1:38:28
Speaker 2: a half seconds and throw the ball down the field?
1:38:30
Speaker 4: Yeah, if you're gonna do that, then I don't sit
1:38:32
Speaker 4: there and stare at it. Drake right, get running around
1:38:36
Speaker 4: easier said than movie yourself around, kid.
1:38:39
Speaker 2: Uh.
1:38:39
Speaker 4: And then the other thing I would say, you know,
1:38:42
Speaker 4: going over to the other side of the ball. I'm
1:38:43
Speaker 4: a little bit of a spicy take about the Rams,
1:38:45
Speaker 4: all right, A little bit of a spicy take. I
1:38:49
Speaker 4: don't watch their offense and see a ton of team
1:38:52
Speaker 4: speed or a ton of like dynamic man coverage beaters.
1:38:57
Speaker 2: They're not very fast.
1:38:58
Speaker 4: I kind of feel like Cooper Cup is teetering on.
1:39:00
Speaker 2: This is not a hot take.
1:39:01
Speaker 4: Unwashed like or are we unwashed? Watch with Cooper Cup
1:39:06
Speaker 4: I think we're there.
1:39:07
Speaker 2: I think I think saying he's not washed would be
1:39:10
Speaker 2: the hot take. Okay. I mean he's thirty one years old.
1:39:14
Speaker 2: Most wide receivers fall off hard at the age of thirty.
1:39:16
Speaker 2: Like statistically, I mean, he's been okay this year. He's
1:39:19
Speaker 2: caught forty one passes in five games, but it's.
1:39:22
Speaker 4: Got a lot of injuries too that have started.
1:39:24
Speaker 2: To pile up on it. That's a hot take, okay.
1:39:26
Speaker 4: So I look at Cooper Cup and in the past,
1:39:28
Speaker 4: like playing Man's Mannigan, the rams used to be tough
1:39:31
Speaker 4: because Cooper Cup was uncoverable single coverage, right Like, if
1:39:34
Speaker 4: you singled Cooper Cup and man to man, you were
1:39:37
Speaker 4: gonna get torched. I don't necessarily see that level from
1:39:41
Speaker 4: Cooper Cup anymore. He made that terrific catch against Miami
1:39:45
Speaker 4: on the one handed catch on the sideline.
1:39:47
Speaker 2: But the coverage was perfect.
1:39:48
Speaker 4: It was just a great catch, you know, like it's
1:39:50
Speaker 4: not like he beat the guy clean or anything like that.
1:39:53
Speaker 4: So I look at that with Cup. I look at
1:39:56
Speaker 4: Nikua really really dynamic yak receiver, like tackling him, I
1:40:01
Speaker 4: could see being an issue in man to man if
1:40:02
Speaker 4: you put like a Jonathan or Marcus Jones on him
1:40:05
Speaker 4: that I could see potentially being a concern. But he's
1:40:09
Speaker 4: one of those guys to me that I think is
1:40:11
Speaker 4: a real product of this Sean McVay scheme. Like when
1:40:14
Speaker 4: they get him schemed open and he can catch and
1:40:17
Speaker 4: run the football really really really tough, right, like strong, physical,
1:40:22
Speaker 4: great after the catch, But when you watch him run
1:40:26
Speaker 4: routes like you don't watch him and they're like, wow,
1:40:28
Speaker 4: this guy's just uncoverable in the phone booth like Pop Douglas.
1:40:32
Speaker 4: So I don't necessarily see that with Pooka. DeMarcus Robinson,
1:40:36
Speaker 4: I think is another one of the same guys. Physical
1:40:39
Speaker 4: good at the catch point, can box people out, can
1:40:42
Speaker 4: win over the shoulder, but he's not running by anybody,
1:40:45
Speaker 4: like he's not scaring you down the field. And you
1:40:49
Speaker 4: have two two at well, who's like a Pop Douglas
1:40:52
Speaker 4: type of receiver, right, who's quick and shifty and it's
1:40:55
Speaker 4: got some speed, but has his issues with you know,
1:40:59
Speaker 4: size and that sort of thing. So long way to
1:41:03
Speaker 4: tell a short story. I just don't look at this
1:41:06
Speaker 4: Rams offense and see that this is a group that
1:41:09
Speaker 4: they can't man up against, like I think the Patriots
1:41:11
Speaker 4: can play man coverage against this Rams team, I think
1:41:14
Speaker 4: they will play man coverage and the last just to
1:41:17
Speaker 4: hammer the point home, like this is not a week
1:41:19
Speaker 4: where Matthew Stafford You're worrying about him beating you with
1:41:21
Speaker 4: your with his.
1:41:22
Speaker 2: Legs, like he don't need the long horn package this week.
1:41:25
Speaker 4: You've really diminished with Matthew Stafford. Like Matthew Stafford used
1:41:27
Speaker 4: to be a plus athlete, Like he used to be
1:41:29
Speaker 4: able to move. I don't see that with him anymore
1:41:32
Speaker 4: right now. So maybe it's age, maybe it's wearing tearror
1:41:35
Speaker 4: this season. I don't know, but I just look at
1:41:38
Speaker 4: this group with the Rams. If you can get them
1:41:42
Speaker 4: into third down. The big problem with the Rams that
1:41:46
Speaker 4: they always present is when they get going on early
1:41:49
Speaker 4: downs with the run play action, run play action sequence,
1:41:52
Speaker 4: back and forth with McVeigh. That's when it's it becomes
1:41:55
Speaker 4: tough to stop because you don't know what's coming right
1:41:57
Speaker 4: like they and they make it all look the same.
1:41:59
Speaker 4: They marry it up extremely well, and that's the whole
1:42:02
Speaker 4: basis of the offense.
1:42:04
Speaker 2: Right.
1:42:04
Speaker 4: So if you can stop the run and you can
1:42:06
Speaker 4: stop them from doing that sort of thing and you
1:42:08
Speaker 4: get them into third down, just like Miami did the
1:42:11
Speaker 4: other night. You can have it. You know, you can
1:42:13
Speaker 4: get on this this Rams team like maybe you couldn't
1:42:16
Speaker 4: a couple of years ago.
1:42:17
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, And it goes back to again, like my
1:42:19
Speaker 2: whole preview which will be up tomorrow ninety eight five,
1:42:21
Speaker 2: the sports of dot com is basically about what carries
1:42:24
Speaker 2: over from last week. Yeah, you gotta stop the run. Yeah,
1:42:26
Speaker 2: if you can stop the run against an offensive line
1:42:29
Speaker 2: that has been good but like is banged up and
1:42:32
Speaker 2: they'll get some guys back, but are they rusty? Et cetera,
1:42:34
Speaker 2: et cetera. Right, Like, if you can stop the run
1:42:37
Speaker 2: and force them to become one dimensional, you know, if
1:42:39
Speaker 2: Matthew Stafford picks you a party, picks you apart veterans,
1:42:43
Speaker 2: super Bowl winning quarterback, all of that, but you have
1:42:45
Speaker 2: to make them one dimensional to be able to beat them. Yeah.
1:42:48
Speaker 2: I think for this team, I'm not gonna let them.
1:42:51
Speaker 2: You can't let him run all over you like it.
1:42:53
Speaker 2: I think it's really easy to say, all right, final
1:42:55
Speaker 2: just drop in a coverage, let him run and you know,
1:42:57
Speaker 2: take the ball out of Matthew Stafford's hands. But then
1:43:00
Speaker 2: that play action thing opens up, and you know, the
1:43:03
Speaker 2: run defense just isn't It's only going to be so
1:43:06
Speaker 2: good if you're letting them run. They're gonna really run.
1:43:08
Speaker 2: Whereas if you can focus on shutting down the run.
1:43:11
Speaker 2: You talked about it earlier in the show, Evan, the
1:43:13
Speaker 2: way they've been able to cover a man, you can
1:43:15
Speaker 2: you can kind of play it five on five and coverage, yeah,
1:43:18
Speaker 2: or six on five if you want to throw you know,
1:43:20
Speaker 2: a deep safety out there. But that's and this is
1:43:23
Speaker 2: all much easier said than done.
1:43:25
Speaker 4: You know, this isn't something they've always given and do,
1:43:28
Speaker 4: But yeah, they've always given them trouble with the Rams,
1:43:32
Speaker 4: the Niners, the Dolphins by horizontally stretching the field.
1:43:36
Speaker 2: Right like it's wide zone.
1:43:38
Speaker 4: But the Rams in twenty twenty, they actually, you know,
1:43:41
Speaker 4: when they played the Patriots again after the Super Bowl,
1:43:44
Speaker 4: they actually, you know, that's when they sort of started
1:43:46
Speaker 4: to incorporate more downhill runs to sort of combat the
1:43:49
Speaker 4: six to one front and the way that the Patriots
1:43:51
Speaker 4: played them in the Super Bowl. So the Patriots in
1:43:53
Speaker 4: twenty twenty basically ran the same game plan as they
1:43:55
Speaker 4: did in the Super Bowl, and the Rams just ran
1:43:58
Speaker 4: right at them. And when you play that six to
1:43:59
Speaker 4: one front, you only have one linebacker behind it, and
1:44:02
Speaker 4: so now if you can get the double teams on
1:44:05
Speaker 4: the line of scrimmage, like, there's nobody there at the
1:44:07
Speaker 4: second level of the defense to prevent both those runs
1:44:10
Speaker 4: from getting downhill. So that was what the Rams kind
1:44:13
Speaker 4: of countered to. So I do expect the Patriots to
1:44:16
Speaker 4: be maybe more five to two stack in this game,
1:44:18
Speaker 4: so that way they do have two off ball linebackers
1:44:21
Speaker 4: to help with the get those double teams off of
1:44:23
Speaker 4: the defensive line. But in general, like that's always been
1:44:26
Speaker 4: the issue, is like the horizontal stretch of the defense
1:44:29
Speaker 4: where wide zone their motions like the jet sweeps and
1:44:32
Speaker 4: things like that, and then they boot off of it, right,
1:44:35
Speaker 4: and they incorporate the play action off of it. I
1:44:38
Speaker 4: don't look at this Rams team though, and see the
1:44:41
Speaker 4: team speed that they once had to really make kill
1:44:44
Speaker 4: you in that sort of way. And I think that's
1:44:46
Speaker 4: why they've had some off issues on offense, along with
1:44:48
Speaker 4: the injuries of course too, But I think this year
1:44:51
Speaker 4: they've had more issues than in the past offensively because
1:44:54
Speaker 4: their horizontal stretch doesn't exist.
1:44:57
Speaker 2: In the way that it used to.
1:44:58
Speaker 4: Right when I watched that game last week and I
1:45:02
Speaker 4: watched the Rams defense against the Dolphins offense. I look
1:45:05
Speaker 4: at the Dolphins offense and I'm like, okay, Like, there's
1:45:07
Speaker 4: the horizontal stretch right, it's a Chane, it's Tyreek Hill,
1:45:11
Speaker 4: it's Jalen Waddle. Like these guys can fly. Malik Washington,
1:45:14
Speaker 4: he can fly. To add them all to the list,
1:45:17
Speaker 4: you know right from Tennessee, the back that they drafted,
1:45:19
Speaker 4: he can fly too. And that's how that system is
1:45:22
Speaker 4: really at its best. So this week it's big, it's
1:45:24
Speaker 4: a it's a big stop to run week, it's you
1:45:27
Speaker 4: gotta get him into third down. You gotta get him
1:45:29
Speaker 4: into down and distant is where you forced their guys
1:45:32
Speaker 4: to go up against man coverage and beat them. And
1:45:35
Speaker 4: that was what Miami was able to do and that's
1:45:37
Speaker 4: why they were successful. So I do think that this
1:45:40
Speaker 4: is a game where the Patriots defense, they're not gonna
1:45:42
Speaker 4: hold him the three points. They're not gonna completely shut
1:45:45
Speaker 4: them down like they do with the Bears. But I
1:45:48
Speaker 4: don't necessarily expect the Rams to be scoring thirty points
1:45:50
Speaker 4: on Sunday either.
1:45:51
Speaker 2: No, No, I think it's gonna be all scoring game.
1:45:53
Speaker 4: All right, Cool, Let's I end it with some of
1:45:56
Speaker 4: these emails, and we have one more phone call. But
1:45:58
Speaker 4: we have a lot of emails as you would expect
1:46:00
Speaker 4: Alex about the draft and off season stuff of course.
1:46:03
Speaker 4: But let's take Jasper in Somerville first. What's up, Jasper, Hey, guys.
1:46:09
Speaker 1: For the show.
1:46:11
Speaker 6: I just wanted to join in on the course of
1:46:13
Speaker 6: how exciting the micd up was. Just it's almost more
1:46:17
Speaker 6: exciting to be than like all the big time throws,
1:46:20
Speaker 6: all the quarterback stuff he's doing. It's like the throws
1:46:24
Speaker 6: he's doing quarterback stuff. Watching him in the micd up,
1:46:27
Speaker 6: it's like that's a quarterback, you know what I mean.
1:46:30
Speaker 6: He's doing the stuff on the field, but then has
1:46:34
Speaker 6: that energy like he feels almost type cast for it.
1:46:37
Speaker 6: It's perfect. So that's really exciting. And I just have
1:46:41
Speaker 6: a draft question. Let's say we're in kind of a
1:46:44
Speaker 6: best player available situation, maybe like late in the like
1:46:49
Speaker 6: eight or ten or something.
1:46:51
Speaker 3: In the draft.
1:46:52
Speaker 6: Mason Graham, the defensive tackle in Michigan. How do you
1:46:57
Speaker 6: think he would integrate with the defense and would that
1:46:59
Speaker 6: be something you'd be into.
1:47:01
Speaker 3: Thanks you so much, guys.
1:47:02
Speaker 2: Thanks Jasper, thanks for the call.
1:47:04
Speaker 4: And you know I haven't as you I say, to
1:47:07
Speaker 4: all these questions this time of year. I haven't done
1:47:10
Speaker 4: any sort of deep dive into the draft. I know
1:47:12
Speaker 4: who Mason Graham is. I know he's a top ten
1:47:14
Speaker 4: prospect in this draft. I know that there's a couple
1:47:17
Speaker 4: of defensive linemen that are top prospects in this draft.
1:47:20
Speaker 4: And I am willing now willing to have the conversation
1:47:24
Speaker 4: about drafting defense. Like I'm not there. I still believe
1:47:28
Speaker 4: there are two biggest needs going into the season or
1:47:31
Speaker 4: tackle and receiver.
1:47:32
Speaker 2: I think we all do.
1:47:33
Speaker 4: But at the same time, I think there's something to
1:47:35
Speaker 4: be said and when you don't need a cornerback from
1:47:39
Speaker 4: just simply taking the best player on the board, there's
1:47:41
Speaker 4: something to be said for that. Don't reach on a
1:47:44
Speaker 4: need take the best player available.
1:47:45
Speaker 2: Sure.
1:47:46
Speaker 8: Uh.
1:47:46
Speaker 2: First off on the first point though, because as it
1:47:49
Speaker 2: relates to the draft, like the Drake May micd Up,
1:47:51
Speaker 2: we talk about this all the time. That's the thing
1:47:53
Speaker 2: you can't scout. Yeah, they go into the teams like
1:47:55
Speaker 2: we can't. Externally, they go into the meetings and they
1:47:58
Speaker 2: talk and even them to an extent like they're in
1:48:01
Speaker 2: a very you know, they're in the meeting room, they're
1:48:04
Speaker 2: talking about it. The guys are aware of what's going
1:48:06
Speaker 2: on all of that, Like, you don't really see that
1:48:08
Speaker 2: until you see it on Mason Graham. I'm I'm with
1:48:12
Speaker 2: you on like taking defense, I'd rather take a rusher
1:48:16
Speaker 2: off the edge, crew pass rusher if they're gonna go defense.
1:48:19
Speaker 2: I would also say if they're in a spot to
1:48:23
Speaker 2: take Graham as the best player available, I actually think
1:48:28
Speaker 2: the people who didn't like Bill's strategy, you're gonna roll
1:48:31
Speaker 2: their eyes at this. But if that's the way you
1:48:32
Speaker 2: want to go about it, trade down, get an extra
1:48:36
Speaker 2: first round pick. Take Deon Walker from Kentucky. Yeah, just
1:48:39
Speaker 2: as much. He's not as good of a run defender
1:48:43
Speaker 2: as Graham. They're both really good at getting after the quarterback,
1:48:46
Speaker 2: but Walker's a freak. Walker is a freak athlete and him.
1:48:50
Speaker 2: So the other thing is, if you do that, you're
1:48:52
Speaker 2: basically committing to running a four to three base and like,
1:48:56
Speaker 2: if you're taking that guy that high, right, whether it's.
1:48:59
Speaker 4: Graham Walker, like in theory you could play three or
1:49:01
Speaker 4: four end.
1:49:02
Speaker 2: He could, but like you're committing to keep him and
1:49:04
Speaker 2: Barbara both have to be on the field a lot,
1:49:06
Speaker 2: and you're kind of limiting some of the packages, you're
1:49:09
Speaker 2: gonna be able to run defensively. But I mean, would
1:49:12
Speaker 2: I be upset if they took Mason Graham? Not necessarily,
1:49:15
Speaker 2: but if that's kind of the direction it's trending, I'd
1:49:18
Speaker 2: move down and take Walker and see what else I
1:49:21
Speaker 2: can get because you could get a haul for that pick.
1:49:24
Speaker 2: I mean, Mason Graham's gonna go, you know, he said
1:49:26
Speaker 2: like eight, that might even be low. You're gonna get
1:49:29
Speaker 2: a Hall for that pick. You're you have multiple future
1:49:31
Speaker 2: first round picks at that point. On moving down and
1:49:34
Speaker 2: if it's like, hey, I want to tackle, I'd take
1:49:36
Speaker 2: Tan Walker.
1:49:37
Speaker 4: So I'm with you that I would if we're gonna
1:49:40
Speaker 4: do defense, I can hear if you want to give
1:49:43
Speaker 4: who's the kid from Michigan to place corner?
1:49:45
Speaker 2: Oh, he's had a rough year, Will Johnson. Okay, Will Johns,
1:49:49
Speaker 2: But that might be one of those things where it's
1:49:50
Speaker 2: like he was clearly the number one corner.
1:49:53
Speaker 4: Yeah, just like coach Will Johnson. If you're Travis Hunter,
1:49:57
Speaker 4: the cornerback, not the receiver, like I sounding.
1:50:00
Speaker 2: More than well, he's gonna play receiver.
1:50:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, So that's no fly zone territory, right.
1:50:05
Speaker 2: That Either one of those guys in Gonzalez would be Yeah. Yeah,
1:50:09
Speaker 2: Edge Rusher to me would be the biggest one though,
1:50:13
Speaker 2: because you're gonna have moving forward, you're gonna have bar More. Yeah,
1:50:17
Speaker 2: you're gonna have Keon White somewhere on More. You know, interior,
1:50:21
Speaker 2: Like I know, he stands up a little bit and
1:50:22
Speaker 2: plays the edge a little bit, but we're talking about
1:50:24
Speaker 2: an interior player stand up outside run Yeah a true.
1:50:29
Speaker 2: Just Matthew Judon replaced him, so an actual Judan, not
1:50:33
Speaker 2: a not a other detail. I have a take in
1:50:36
Speaker 2: progress for you. Well, it's kind of a couple of takes,
1:50:38
Speaker 2: so it's a half paid time. How much did you
1:50:39
Speaker 2: watch the Penn State Ohio State game? I think you did,
1:50:43
Speaker 2: say you watched a little bit of a little bit
1:50:44
Speaker 2: so abduall Carter had that monster. Yeah. Where are you
1:50:47
Speaker 2: with Penn State Edge guys, because it's kind of becoming
1:50:49
Speaker 2: this thing that they've had a lot of guys come
1:50:50
Speaker 2: to the league. Yeah, and outside well, you know, outside
1:50:53
Speaker 2: of Michael Parsons, it's more like Chop Robinson taking on
1:50:55
Speaker 2: the field of Miami and he had a sack. Guy,
1:50:57
Speaker 2: I think he's had a couple of games with a sack.
1:50:59
Speaker 2: Now Chop Robinson, but Chop Robinson I've always thought of
1:51:03
Speaker 2: like as like a josh U j type is more
1:51:05
Speaker 2: just like a Finesse sapreamer, Abdul Carter, same thing. James
1:51:07
Speaker 2: Pierce is sort of in a weird spot. Yeah, so
1:51:10
Speaker 2: there's a guy the other guy.
1:51:11
Speaker 4: I kind of liked it. I got drafted on day
1:51:13
Speaker 4: two a couple of years in Penn State.
1:51:15
Speaker 2: I think that's something. But there's a guy at Georgia
1:51:17
Speaker 2: named Michael Williams. M y k e l if you're
1:51:20
Speaker 2: gonna look him up. Doesn't spell Michael normal m y
1:51:22
Speaker 2: k yel non normal Michael. So remember like three weeks ago,
1:51:27
Speaker 2: you pro I got a bunch. You probably got some
1:51:28
Speaker 2: tweets about kell Banks, isn't it blah blah blah. That's
1:51:32
Speaker 2: because Michael Williams went to town. Michael Williams top ten pick,
1:51:36
Speaker 2: just like Calvin Banks, and the Patriots are going to
1:51:39
Speaker 2: go into this process. I mean they're probably doing it already,
1:51:41
Speaker 2: but you get what I'm saying, right, Yeah, and there
1:51:44
Speaker 2: we know they're gonna take a long look at Calvin Banks.
1:51:46
Speaker 2: They're at that Texas Michigan game. They're gonna take a
1:51:49
Speaker 2: long look at Calvin Banks. Absolutely, they are going to
1:51:52
Speaker 2: see Michael Williams take over against Kelvin Banks. That's the
1:51:59
Speaker 2: guy if they're gonna look at defense, because if they're
1:52:02
Speaker 2: high on Kelvin Banks, they're probably also going to be
1:52:05
Speaker 2: high on the guy that gave him, you know, was
1:52:07
Speaker 2: a pain in his ass. Yeah. So Michael Williams from
1:52:09
Speaker 2: Georgia in big game for Georgie's weekendst Tennessee. So you
1:52:13
Speaker 2: want to you know, you want to watch him in
1:52:14
Speaker 2: the spotlight. Here you go. Michael Williams from Georgie is
1:52:18
Speaker 2: the guy to know if they're gonna go edge. I
1:52:20
Speaker 2: think that's the guy. I want to pull up his
1:52:22
Speaker 2: stats because they were Okay, we have you tell I
1:52:25
Speaker 2: got excited about that take. I could tell.
1:52:27
Speaker 4: We have a few more minutes and we're gonna I'm
1:52:29
Speaker 4: gonna try to do something that we're terrible at. I'm
1:52:32
Speaker 4: just gonna warn everybody off the top right now that
1:52:34
Speaker 4: we're terrible at this rapid fire. We're gonna try to
1:52:36
Speaker 4: be rapid fire about this. This is the worst thing
1:52:38
Speaker 4: that we do. It's a we gotta be better about
1:52:40
Speaker 4: this skill. So we're I'm gonna try us out right now.
1:52:43
Speaker 4: So I have a couple more emails I wanted to
1:52:44
Speaker 4: get to, but we're coming up against it, and I
1:52:46
Speaker 4: want to go rapid fire real quick. First, Michael Williams,
1:52:49
Speaker 4: this is not rapid fire. Fine, No, we're moving on.
1:52:52
Speaker 4: We're rapid fire, all right. Number one, we got this email.
1:52:57
Speaker 4: This is from Trevor and he is asking why everybody
1:53:01
Speaker 4: is so against Travis Hunter playing both ways in the NFL?
1:53:05
Speaker 4: So why can't Travis Hunter? And this was Travis's take,
1:53:08
Speaker 4: Travis Trevor. Trevor's take that why can't he play? Like,
1:53:14
Speaker 4: why can't you manage it? Where like you're still only
1:53:16
Speaker 4: playing him seventy five snaps a game, but sixty of
1:53:19
Speaker 4: them are on defense and fifteen of them are on offense.
1:53:22
Speaker 4: Like he compared it to like limiting Jason Tatum's minutes
1:53:26
Speaker 4: to a certain number in the regular season, right, like
1:53:28
Speaker 4: something a lot?
1:53:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, It's it's different. One. There's the physicality of it.
1:53:31
Speaker 2: He's not a big guy. This is gonna be one
1:53:33
Speaker 2: of the knocks on him. He's built very lean, and
1:53:36
Speaker 2: the hits he's going to be taking at the NFL
1:53:38
Speaker 2: level are gonna be an issue. He's had trouble staying
1:53:41
Speaker 2: healthy in Colorado, Like he's already having trouble staying health there.
1:53:44
Speaker 2: The other thing is like there's so much more that
1:53:47
Speaker 2: goes into game prep at the NFL level. That's the
1:53:50
Speaker 2: thing to me. So what he does now, and he
1:53:54
Speaker 2: talked about this on College Game Day a couple of
1:53:56
Speaker 2: weeks ago. He rapid fire, it's a complicated question. He
1:54:01
Speaker 2: practices with the offense, and then he just goes out
1:54:04
Speaker 2: on Sunday in place on a corner, right, and he
1:54:07
Speaker 2: grinds a ton of film and credit to him, but
1:54:09
Speaker 2: there's that much more film, And we've heard guys like
1:54:11
Speaker 2: Stefan Gilmore talking about how much film they had to watch,
1:54:14
Speaker 2: how much they had to go over to be these
1:54:16
Speaker 2: elite corners. And then there's all that goes into being
1:54:19
Speaker 2: a part of these complex NFL offenses. Because it's gonna
1:54:22
Speaker 2: be a lot more complex, even if it's here, a
1:54:24
Speaker 2: lot more complex in the NFL than what he runs
1:54:27
Speaker 2: a Colorado. Well, because people think this is rapid fire,
1:54:29
Speaker 2: it's not a get Van Pelt, but like you can't
1:54:33
Speaker 2: master both. What that's gonna end up looking like is
1:54:36
Speaker 2: Marcus Jones where he's gonna be a full time player
1:54:39
Speaker 2: on one side of the ball, probably defense, and be
1:54:41
Speaker 2: a package player on offense. If that's what you want, fine,
1:54:45
Speaker 2: he's not playing full time on both sides. If he tries,
1:54:49
Speaker 2: it's either one he's not gonna be able to play
1:54:50
Speaker 2: either side at the highest level he ken, yeah, and
1:54:53
Speaker 2: or he's gonna get hurt, and that's just not worth
1:54:55
Speaker 2: the investment, the drawing Travis Hunts.
1:54:58
Speaker 4: Say, you're done now, all right, I understand that there's
1:55:02
Speaker 4: a chance that Travis Hunter. And I know this is
1:55:04
Speaker 4: a bad comparison because he only pitches every five days,
1:55:06
Speaker 4: but like he could be shoeo TONI right, Like he
1:55:08
Speaker 4: could just be generational.
1:55:09
Speaker 2: What happens. I know, I'm low his elbow out.
1:55:12
Speaker 4: I'm just saying he could be generational, right, Like he
1:55:14
Speaker 4: could be a unicorn. It's possible. But the I I
1:55:18
Speaker 4: go back to what you said, which is at the
1:55:20
Speaker 4: preparation it takes during the week to prepare a guy
1:55:24
Speaker 4: to play in an NFL game, it's really difficult. And
1:55:27
Speaker 4: I feel like you're you're flirting with spreading him to
1:55:30
Speaker 4: thin right where now he's not gonna be good at
1:55:33
Speaker 4: either position because he just doesn't have the preparation and
1:55:36
Speaker 4: the practice time equally to be able to be good
1:55:39
Speaker 4: at that. Now, with that being said, he is the
1:55:42
Speaker 4: best player in the draft in my mind, I'm like,
1:55:45
Speaker 4: I'm already ready to give that take. I think he's
1:55:47
Speaker 4: the best player in the draft, and that's hard to
1:55:50
Speaker 4: pass up, Like it's hard to pass up the best
1:55:51
Speaker 4: player in the draft.
1:55:53
Speaker 2: I don't know that he's the best corner, he's the
1:55:55
Speaker 2: best receiver. I think Will Johnson is better down here
1:55:58
Speaker 2: at all. I think Will Johnson's better. He's close. I
1:56:00
Speaker 2: think he's the best player in the draft. I like
1:56:02
Speaker 2: big corners. I think big corners, so I'm Lobia's also.
1:56:06
Speaker 4: Stop it all right, Nick here asks you know, this
1:56:10
Speaker 4: is a very top popular topic right now. A lot
1:56:14
Speaker 4: of people are out, as Joe Murray would say on
1:56:17
Speaker 4: T Higgins, are you in and out?
1:56:18
Speaker 2: In or out? On T Higgins? Alex Bart, I'm very
1:56:22
Speaker 2: Luke Horn. The people put him in the same category
1:56:26
Speaker 2: as DK Metcalf to Mere Wild, like, if it's T
1:56:29
Speaker 2: Higgins or nobody, I'll take T Higgins because he's a
1:56:32
Speaker 2: good player. He's a really good player, but he has
1:56:34
Speaker 2: an injury history. He's a little one dimensional. They need
1:56:37
Speaker 2: to add the receiver, and if that's who's available, that's
1:56:39
Speaker 2: who's available. I'd rather do that than sit on your
1:56:41
Speaker 2: hands and not make the move for another year. But
1:56:44
Speaker 2: if it's T Higgins or DK Metcalf, I don't care
1:56:46
Speaker 2: how much more DK Metcalf costs in terms of trade assets,
1:56:49
Speaker 2: in terms of the contract, it's DK Metcalf. They're not interchangeable. Okay,
1:56:54
Speaker 2: So I'm not I answer the question.
1:56:56
Speaker 4: Yeah, uh ish, I'm I'm still in on T Higgins.
1:57:00
Speaker 4: I think the main reason why I'm still in on T.
1:57:02
Speaker 4: Higgins is because I feel like the Patriots need two receivers.
1:57:05
Speaker 4: I think they need a wide receiver one and a
1:57:07
Speaker 4: wide receiver too. Well, they need an X yeah, which fine,
1:57:11
Speaker 4: if you want to call it an X yeah in
1:57:12
Speaker 4: a dynamic Z, then we can call it that.
1:57:15
Speaker 2: Let me ask you this, Are you in on T
1:57:17
Speaker 2: Higgins the player or are you in on the Patriots
1:57:19
Speaker 2: adding the best receiver available and you think Higgins is
1:57:22
Speaker 2: the best receiver available?
1:57:23
Speaker 4: Probably mostly that, Okay, So that's what I'm on B
1:57:26
Speaker 4: on B. So I just feel like regardless and I'm
1:57:30
Speaker 4: I'm obviously big on the fact that it's not my
1:57:33
Speaker 4: money sorry, mister Kraft, thank you for the job. But
1:57:35
Speaker 4: it's not my money, so I don't really care about
1:57:38
Speaker 4: if about the money piece of it. H I still
1:57:42
Speaker 4: feel like there's a ton of value and T Higgins
1:57:45
Speaker 4: coming here.
1:57:46
Speaker 2: And checking the box. If you have one.
1:57:48
Speaker 4: Bona fide receiver, right like, you still might need to
1:57:51
Speaker 4: go in the draft and draft and still keep drafting
1:57:53
Speaker 4: receivers to find the true number one guy or even
1:57:56
Speaker 4: his number two or whatever, but at least you have
1:57:59
Speaker 4: one of the spots filled. And there's nothing easier than
1:58:02
Speaker 4: just throwing a guy a bag in free agency. Like there,
1:58:04
Speaker 4: you don't give up anything besides cash, and you're just
1:58:07
Speaker 4: he's on the.
1:58:08
Speaker 2: Team, all right. I would do it if that, If
1:58:10
Speaker 2: that's the option, I would do it. But I still
1:58:12
Speaker 2: want them to go all in for DK Metcalf. I
1:58:15
Speaker 2: want them to make a godfathering effort. We have contract
1:58:18
Speaker 2: and trade for DK Metcalf. Okay, A couple more.
1:58:22
Speaker 4: Is Jonathan Jones at free safety, where he played twenty
1:58:25
Speaker 4: two snaps against the Chicago Bears. Is this a regular
1:58:30
Speaker 4: thing or was this more just a game plan thing
1:58:33
Speaker 4: against Chicago?
1:58:35
Speaker 2: It should it should be more of a regular thing. Agreed,
1:58:38
Speaker 2: I let me see if they get Alex Austin back
1:58:41
Speaker 2: this week, because they don't have a ton of depth
1:58:43
Speaker 2: of corner right now, like Marcus Jones is playing well
1:58:46
Speaker 2: opposite Christian Zalz. But that's kind of it. If Alex
1:58:48
Speaker 2: Austin can kind of be the player we thought he'd
1:58:50
Speaker 2: be this summer, that makes it a lot easier. But
1:58:53
Speaker 2: you could argue they need him at corner just as
1:58:55
Speaker 2: much as they need him a safety right now. Yeah,
1:58:57
Speaker 2: So if they get Alex Austin back, it should it
1:58:58
Speaker 2: should be a thing. But you got to get Alex
1:59:00
Speaker 2: Austin back, and he's got to be you know, he's
1:59:02
Speaker 2: got to show you something.
1:59:02
Speaker 4: So I've been reluctant about the Jonathan Jones to safety
1:59:06
Speaker 4: thing because I still thought he was a really high
1:59:07
Speaker 4: level corner. I've seen some uh, diminishing skill at corner
1:59:12
Speaker 4: this year. I don't necessarily think that he's as locked
1:59:14
Speaker 4: down in Manton. I think diminishing skill. I would just
1:59:17
Speaker 4: call it physical attrition. Sure, Yeah, that's probably a better
1:59:19
Speaker 4: way to put it. I've seen a little bit of that,
1:59:22
Speaker 4: and we've talked about I think we talked about it
1:59:23
Speaker 4: last week that you can really have like a second
1:59:25
Speaker 4: chapter by switching to safety for some guys. And I
1:59:28
Speaker 4: just feel like with his speed, his open field tackling ability,
1:59:32
Speaker 4: and his experience and his instincts, like he has a
1:59:35
Speaker 4: chance to be a really good center fielder at this
1:59:38
Speaker 4: stage of his career, So I would love I thought
1:59:41
Speaker 4: he played pretty well back there against Chicago. I actually
1:59:44
Speaker 4: think that this would be a really good thing for
1:59:46
Speaker 4: the Patriots because we've we've talked about this for years now,
1:59:49
Speaker 4: like letting Kyle dugger and we'll see obviously about Jabrill
1:59:52
Speaker 4: Peppers with his situation, but let's just stick with Kyle
1:59:54
Speaker 4: Duggar for now, and Mapu a little bit a del
1:59:58
Speaker 4: Pettis even I think is truly more of a box
2:00:01
Speaker 4: slot safety than he is a an up top guy.
2:00:04
Speaker 4: If Jonathan Jones like he did last week, allows those
2:00:07
Speaker 4: guys to go out and do what they do best,
2:00:09
Speaker 4: then it kind of helps fit the puzzle together. So yeah,
2:00:12
Speaker 4: I'm in on Jonathan Jones at freaky safety, all right.
2:00:16
Speaker 4: Second to last one, this email of Carmine says that
2:00:20
Speaker 4: he is in on the Patriots adding a wide receiver
2:00:24
Speaker 4: this offseason, and he has a list and we have
2:00:26
Speaker 4: to pick the one that we.
2:00:27
Speaker 2: Want the most. I'm going to say again, he.
2:00:29
Speaker 4: Wants a wide RECEI as everybody else does. He's in
2:00:32
Speaker 4: on them getting a wide receiver this offseason at all costs.
2:00:36
Speaker 4: So he said he's a ceiling listener back in.
2:00:38
Speaker 2: The day, by the way, too. All right, good stuff.
2:00:40
Speaker 2: So this is his list of we have to take one. Okay, okay, Metcalf,
2:00:45
Speaker 2: he's the first name on the list. There's my answer.
2:00:48
Speaker 4: So I wouna look real dumb if Justin Jefferson's on there,
2:00:51
Speaker 4: Dk Metcalf, Prime, Jerry Rice, No, just kidding. Uh, Kyle Pitts.
2:00:58
Speaker 4: He puts Jamar Chase on this list, which I don't
2:01:00
Speaker 4: think is happening. So I'm gonna replace Jamar Chase with T.
2:01:03
Speaker 2: Higgins. Okay, Well, that those are two very different. I
2:01:05
Speaker 2: might rather Chase than Metcalf.
2:01:08
Speaker 4: Well, obviously everyone would rather have Chase than Metcalf.
2:01:10
Speaker 2: That's not really I screwed myself.
2:01:12
Speaker 4: I said, Jamar Chase isn't going anywhere.
2:01:16
Speaker 2: That just screw me. DK Metcalf, Kyle Pitts, T Higgins.
2:01:19
Speaker 4: And this last name is kind of interesting because it's
2:01:22
Speaker 4: I think it's not as pie in the sky as
2:01:24
Speaker 4: some of these other ones. Christian Watson from the green
2:01:27
Speaker 4: Bay Packers, which one.
2:01:29
Speaker 2: I mean Metcalf Watson is like injury issues and he
2:01:32
Speaker 2: does have soft he Is he a Tuesday morning player?
2:01:35
Speaker 2: Is he a Tuesday meeting He's a good receiver, but
2:01:37
Speaker 2: is he a Tuesday meeting player. I don't know.
2:01:38
Speaker 4: If he's a Tuesday meeting player, that's what I want.
2:01:40
Speaker 2: I want Tuesday.
2:01:40
Speaker 4: Now he's not a Tuesday meeting player. But obviously he
2:01:43
Speaker 4: has the green Bay tie and the Elliott Wolf tie
2:01:46
Speaker 4: and all that kind of stuff. If you're trying to
2:01:48
Speaker 4: build like what green Bay Franklin has built, where it's
2:01:51
Speaker 4: like a bunch of number twos and that kind of
2:01:53
Speaker 4: adds up to a number one, then Christian Watson's a guy, right, Like,
2:01:57
Speaker 4: that's a guy that can contribute to that sort of thing.
2:01:59
Speaker 4: Would I feel like if they traded for Christian Watson,
2:02:02
Speaker 4: who's in is a pre agent by the way, I
2:02:04
Speaker 4: believe if they traded for Christian Watson, would I feel
2:02:07
Speaker 4: like they checked off the number two receiver box. Yes,
2:02:10
Speaker 4: I would feel like they would have a number two receiver.
2:02:13
Speaker 2: They got to go get that dude, though. I think
2:02:15
Speaker 2: this year maximized on Drake Mays rookie contract, they get bold, Yeah,
2:02:19
Speaker 2: but I want to see him go get the dude
2:02:20
Speaker 2: this year, agreed? All right?
2:02:22
Speaker 4: Last one, Yeah, are you and this is from Kyle,
2:02:26
Speaker 4: are you at all worried that most of the explosive
2:02:30
Speaker 4: play from the offense are Drake May making a play
2:02:35
Speaker 4: out of script right, like you know, him running or
2:02:38
Speaker 4: him just doing something off platform or whatever. So basically,
2:02:41
Speaker 4: are you worried that too many of the big plays
2:02:43
Speaker 4: are Drake May centric?
2:02:46
Speaker 2: No, just because like not in the long term. Yeah,
2:02:49
Speaker 2: for this year, it definitely puts a ceiling on them,
2:02:51
Speaker 2: but they don't have a ton of explosive players around him.
2:02:55
Speaker 2: If it's still like if they get a dk metcalp
2:02:58
Speaker 2: and it still looks like this, I would be very worried. Yeah,
2:03:00
Speaker 2: but I talked about this last week. My big take
2:03:02
Speaker 2: from that Titans game was Drake May's mentality right now
2:03:05
Speaker 2: kind of broke it last week, but it felt like
2:03:08
Speaker 2: his mentality was I guess I'll have to do it myself. Yeah,
2:03:10
Speaker 2: and I totally understand why he feels that way. Who else?
2:03:14
Speaker 2: Who else are you looking to to make those plays?
2:03:15
Speaker 2: I guess Pop Douglas kind of. But it doesn't worry
2:03:19
Speaker 2: me in the long term because ideally, when he gets
2:03:22
Speaker 2: more talent around him, those guys will pick up the slack. Agreed,
2:03:26
Speaker 2: It doesn't worry me at all. I also, I said
2:03:28
Speaker 2: this from the jump.
2:03:29
Speaker 4: Get used to it, like, this is the guy you drafted,
2:03:32
Speaker 4: like you did not draft Johnny Layups, all right. You
2:03:35
Speaker 4: drafted a playmaking quarterback that's gonna go around and he's
2:03:38
Speaker 4: gonna make plays with his legs, and he's gonna run
2:03:41
Speaker 4: for nineteen yards and then he's gonna flick his wrists,
2:03:43
Speaker 4: go into his right and he's gonna throw it fifty
2:03:45
Speaker 4: yards and it's gonna this is what it's gonna be.
2:03:47
Speaker 4: That Josh Allen two point oh, you got him right,
2:03:50
Speaker 4: So just get used to the fact that this is
2:03:52
Speaker 4: gonna be how it is. And I do think there
2:03:55
Speaker 4: is some truth to the fact that it can be
2:03:56
Speaker 4: too much on the player's shoulder, and I think Buffalo
2:03:59
Speaker 4: has run into that issues in the past, where it's
2:04:01
Speaker 4: too much on Josh Allen being Superman and he has
2:04:05
Speaker 4: to just go ahead and make something happen. But to
2:04:07
Speaker 4: your point, hopefully they are able to mitigate that by
2:04:10
Speaker 4: surrounding him a little bit.
2:04:11
Speaker 2: Get more explosive players, and I think you'll see more
2:04:13
Speaker 2: explosive plays elsewhere. I know it sounds simple, but that's
2:04:16
Speaker 2: kind of the plan.
2:04:17
Speaker 4: He is never going to change, Like this is his
2:04:19
Speaker 4: playing style. Like all these people that talk about him
2:04:22
Speaker 4: sliding and stuff like, it's not gonna happen. Folks, like,
2:04:25
Speaker 4: this is the guy you drafted, and I actually think.
2:04:28
Speaker 2: He could slide more. I'm okay.
2:04:29
Speaker 4: I think it's kind of though that I kind of
2:04:32
Speaker 4: see where he's coming from with the fact that the
2:04:33
Speaker 4: one time he's slitty got concussed.
2:04:35
Speaker 2: Like that is why, like in college they teach him
2:04:38
Speaker 2: to go yeah, because it's not sliding. The quarterback has
2:04:40
Speaker 2: to give himself up. He can just stop and take
2:04:42
Speaker 2: a knee. Yeah, And it's the same thing. So sometimes
2:04:44
Speaker 2: you talk to protect yourself more. That's kind of the
2:04:47
Speaker 2: new ways taught.
2:04:48
Speaker 4: So it'd be interesting to see. But this is the
2:04:50
Speaker 4: guy you drafted, Okay, so that's gonna do it for
2:04:53
Speaker 4: this edition. That was kind of rapid fire. Like I
2:04:56
Speaker 4: would say that was like half as rapid fires.
2:04:59
Speaker 2: That's gonna be as good as.
2:05:00
Speaker 4: I had to cut you off because you know you
2:05:01
Speaker 4: were a fascinating Yeah, well we'll have like six months
2:05:05
Speaker 4: to talk about a lot.
2:05:07
Speaker 2: But before we signed. Maybe not.
2:05:08
Speaker 4: Maybe they roll off some wins here playoffs. Uh, two
2:05:13
Speaker 4: games out in the lost Colum. Don't know if you
2:05:15
Speaker 4: know that Massachusetts is made for everyone, for leaf peepers,
2:05:18
Speaker 4: corn maize strollers, regatta lovers, pumpkin pickers, and anyone else
2:05:22
Speaker 4: you can think of. Come to where there's something for
2:05:24
Speaker 4: everyone this fall Massachusetts, where everything is made possible, like
2:05:28
Speaker 4: making the playoffs play on your trip at at dot
2:05:31
Speaker 4: com and easy to drink, easy to enjoy bud Light,
2:05:34
Speaker 4: the official beer sponsor of the New England Patriots. I
2:05:36
Speaker 4: might have a bud Light tonight and watch Thursday Night football.
2:05:38
Speaker 2: Pretty good game. So I we'll see you guys next week.
2:05:40
Speaker 4: We'll talk about this Rams game, we'll preview Miami and
2:05:43
Speaker 4: the Dolphins. But until then, signing off, Alex Barth, Evan Lazar,
2:05:47
Speaker 4: see you next time.
2:05:47
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Speaker 1: Join Maatsmith along with Patriots dot Com Paul Perillo and
2:06:19
Speaker 1: Mike Desso as they offer instant analysis after every Patriots game.
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Speaker 1: We bring you the good, the bad, and the injured
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Speaker 1: from each game. Plus you'll hear press conferences, exclusive player interviews,
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Speaker 1: and more on the Patriots Postgame Show. Search for Patriots
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Speaker 1: Postgame anywhere you get your podcasts.