Latest / Patriots Catch-22 / Patriots Catch-22 9/8: Reported Gonzalez Extension, Seahawks Preview, Players/Matchups to Watch

Transcript

Patriots Catch-22 9/8: Reported Gonzalez Extension, Seahawks Preview, Players/Matchups to Watch · Patriots Catch-22

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: This is the Patriots Catch 22 podcast with Evan Lazar
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: and Alex Barth.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Here is Evan Lazar and Alex.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: Sparks can't give one person credit for the good moves.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: Another person credit for the bad moves. The 2024 draft
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: is even if I do in one definition, quality, good draft,
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: a significant disappointment, and it sets the organization back for sure.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: That's fair. Like all of that. It's the process as
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: a whole.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: That's just, I don't want to absolve anything, but I
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: just look at it.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: I just have funny semantics takes about.
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: The 24 draft.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: In seattle for.
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: This episode of catch 22 coming to you the day
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: before the patriots open their 2026 season against the seattle
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: seahawks and a little bit of news to start us
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: off here evan before we get started we get into
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: this game finally it is done christian gonzalez has his
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: new contract is broke of course the one night i
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: go to bed early about 1 a.m this morning Christian Gonzalez,
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: the Patriots, agreed to a four-year, $ 135 million contract, $ 102
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: million guaranteed. So $ 3 million more total dollars for Christian Gonzalez,
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: $ 1 million more guaranteed dollars in the Devin Witherspoon contract.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: And here we go.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: Off and running now, we can get to the season.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: So we're just going to jump right into it, Evan,
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: because we've got a lot to get to. We'll talk Gonzalez.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: We'll talk about the game. We can get into some
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: big picture season stuff as well. You want to join us?
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: I almost gave the sports hub number, but it is
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: 855-PATS-500 is the number for this show. Podcast at Patriots.com
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: if you want to email in as well. But Evan,
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: your reaction when you said, were you up for the, oh,
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: you were up for the Gonzalez news.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: You texted me.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: I was. It was the only reason why I was up.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: And hopefully I'm coming through clear.
• 2:10
  Speaker 5: I am.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah. We're working at work here with the remote setup.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: But I was. But you know the only reason I
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: was was because I'm on Pacific Time right now.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Which is wild to me.
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: Sorry.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: It is wild to me.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: So when we were trying to figure out when to
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: do the show today, I'm like, can we.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Do 10 to 2? Because I'm doing Felger and Maz later.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: And Evan's like, well, I'd have to get up at
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: 7 a.m. The fact that you... Switch time zones that
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: quick and you're there that shortly. Just like stay on
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: East Coast time. You can operate on East Coast time
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: on the West Coast.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: I do it all the time.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know. I wouldn't say I'm like
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: that far off. You got to. Well, it's weird because,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: you know, you come out here. We went to dinner
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: and I assume that I have no idea. But it
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: kind of felt like that. Christian Gonzalez is in his
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: agent and the Patriots followed a very similar cadence to me.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Because we got here, we all put our crap down,
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: went to dinner, and then I got home from dinner
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: and they broke this news that he had signed an extension, right?
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: So it felt like that was sort of the way
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: that last night went for everybody. But I don't know.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: I feel like you end up in like some weird
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: middle purgatory ground, Alex, because you go out the night
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: before a little bit and then you're all of a
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: sudden it's like 10 o'clock on the West Coast. So
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: you kind of just organically adjust. I don't know. It's
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: a weird thing. Anyways, on the contract, I have a
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: lot of thoughts on it. I'm sure you do as well.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: I think the place that I want to start though
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: is before I get on my soapbox is just Christian
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Gonzalez and what a great player he has been for
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: the Patriots and how deserving he is of this contract
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: and how he has really just been a breath of
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: fresh air as a first round pick as somebody that
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: kind of started turning the tide the other way, right? Like,
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: you know, a lot of the first round picks, a
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: lot of the high draft picks by the Patriots before
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: him did not go so well. And he was the
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: first of him in May and hopefully Campbell as well
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: to really be a foundation of Patriots.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: First, first round pick to get an extension from the
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: Patriots since Dante Hightower.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: Right, so we're talking about a real changing of the tide,
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: a real, you know, just someone finally hitting at the
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: top of the draft like Christian Gonzalez has hit. Just
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: a few numbers at you. Last year in 2025, regular
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: and postseason, number one in the league in catch rate
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: allowed into his coverage. You know, receptions percentage 43.4%. Number
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: four in the league.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Number one in terms of like lowest.
• 4:58
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Like best. Best, yes.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Number four in the league in passer rating allowed, you know,
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: fourth best. It's Jamal Dean, Quinion Mitchell, Joey Porter Jr.,
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: Christian Gonzalez at 57.0, right? So that is.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: While playing a ton of man coverage, that is while
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: taking the number one receiver on the opponent week in
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: and week out. Not saying those other guys don't necessarily
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: do that too, but we know Gonzalez does here. Right.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: And he's only allowing a 43% catch rate. into his
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: coverage despite the fact that he is covering jsn uh
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: he is covering you know ted mcmillan drake london uh
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: t higgins when they played the bangles uh mecca abuco
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: when they played the buccaneers like all these the best
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: receivers uh that the patriots faced last year uh so
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: i i just think that that is his value it
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: might not show up as much in interceptions and past
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: breakups like other guys uh i think that will come
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: for him though I think he'll have some peak seasons
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: where the ball finds him in terms of interceptions over
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: the life of this extension. House, do you know what
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: his percentage, rec percentage or completion percentage into his coverage
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: was in the playoffs last year? Low.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Was it 0-40?
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: 36.7 in the Patriots playoff run last year.
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: And this is where, I mean, you look at who
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: he faced. I don't actually remember who they had him against,
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: against Houston, but I mean, he faced a number of
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: good receivers. The one knock on him, like statistically is
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: the on-ball production. Doesn't he, he didn't have an interception
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: last year. He's not allowing the completions.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Like I'm good with that. I don't think.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: For corners, especially, I don't think a high interception number
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: is always indicative of success because it means you're targeted
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: a lot. If you have a high interception number and
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: all of these other metrics, then that's great. That's really
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: hard to do. You're like really hard to do. I'd
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: rather he just erase a player, which is kind of
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: what he's done. And you have some, you know, they
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: bring the guy like Kevin Byard in the off season,
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: who can be more of that turnover specialist, that guy
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: that can get the football. And I think that, you know,
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: higher interception number, more indicative of a safety for safety
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: than a corner. But you look at it like any
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: other way, any other way you want to cut it up, right?
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: He is among the best, if not the best, corners league.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: I'll ask you this, Evan. I'll echo a lot of
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: what you said. I think he's worth his contract. I
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: said from the beginning they should be paying him. He
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: allows them to operate the defense the way they want
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: to operate it. And I know people have said, well,
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: you know, you move on from him and you get
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: an edge rusher. And that's the way Vrabel wants to play.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: You can have both. Houston has Stingley and.
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: I mean, a bunch of guys up front. I guess
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: Will Anderson would be the one, but Hunter and on
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: and on and on. Is he the best corner in football?
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: I think he's on his way to that. You know,
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: I think him, Patrick Sertan, Derek Stingley are in a
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: tier of their own right now as three guys that
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: play on the outside that predominantly play either man or
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: match coverage that they're carrying guys and they're running with
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: guys week in and week out. I think all three
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: of those guys are fantastic players. Gonzalez is right with them.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: If he's not the best, he's the second or third
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: best with that, with those two being in front of him.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: So Uh, he, he's close. And, you know, I, I,
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: I just, again, I, I come back to where they
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: were in the draft at the top of the draft.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: And you and I know better than anybody, cause we
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: nerd out about the draft more than anyone, uh, where
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: they were at the top of the draft for the
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: last really almost decade. I mean, you mentioned high tower
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: that's 2012, right?
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: So so a decade of drafts where they didn't. It's
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: not that they weren't forking over the money for their
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: top draft picks. They didn't have a top draft pick
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: worth signing.
• 8:57
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: They didn't have a player.
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: I think in that span, they only picked up two
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: or three fifth year options.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: Right. So they didn't have a player who was worth
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: giving a second contract to. that they drafted high in
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: the first round. And I keep saying high because they
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: didn't make first-round picks every year.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: Well, they also, yeah. So, high tower, no first-round pick.
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: Dominique Easley, Malcolm Brown, no first-round pick, no first-round pick.
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: Isaiah Wins, Sonny Michelle, Nikhil Harry, no first-round pick. Mack Jones,
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: Cole Strange, and then Gonzalez.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, just not a great run before Gonzalez.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: So it's great to see it get done. You mentioned
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: how they played. That's the last point I wanted to
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: make on Gonzalez, and I had a bigger point about
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: the team in general. But the last year in the playoffs,
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: their blitz rate, we all know it, it ramped up
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: over 40%. They're playing a ton of man. They're playing
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: a ton of man without a lot of help. If
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: you're going to play that style of defense, you're going
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: to blitz, you're going to heat up quarterbacks. And I
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: don't think that they're going to do that every single week.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: I think that was a game plan thing specific to
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: playing some weaker offensive lines, some quarterbacks that would wilt
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: under pressure, things like that in the playoffs. But if
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: you want that to be sort of a foundational way
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: of how you play schematically, then you can't do that
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: without having a number one corner like Christian Gonzalez. You
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: can't play that style of football unless you have somebody
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: that can on Wednesday night is going to take Jason,
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: you know, like that's just, you know what it is. So,
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: I think that they, they needed this until they start
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: to build up that pass rush and especially the edge
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: rusher group, hopefully over the next couple of years. And
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: I think next off season, that will be a number
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: one priority for them until they start to get a
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: little bit better in terms of the pass rush on
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: the edge. They're going to have to make it work
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: up front schematically. They're going to have to blitz. They're
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: going to have to stunt. They're going to have to
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: run simulated or, you know, creeper pressures and all the
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: different fancy pressures that defenses run nowadays. That's how they're
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: going to have to live defensively. And he allows them
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: to do that. So does Carl Davis and Marcus Jones
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: in their own right to in the hierarchy. But, you know,
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: I can't say enough good things about Gonzalez, the player.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: And I'm just glad that this got done so we
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: can start talking about football. Because, you know, on this show,
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: we do not... This isn't really, like, our favorite thing
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: to talk about is drawn-out contract negotiations or whatever. So
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: this is good that this is done with.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: What was your... Well, so then before we move on
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: to the game itself, what was your big-picture take on... Yeah,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: I just.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: You know, and look, no one, I know I'm going
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: to say this and people are going to be like, oh,
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: like they're told him to say this. No one told
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: me to say anything about this. I can assure you.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Well, did we lose Evan? Right as he was setting
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: up his take? Aldous had to kind of go off
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: of what he was talking about.
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: The addition of. Or locking up Gonzalez is just going
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: to allow them to play the way they need to play.
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: It's going to allow them to be blitz heavy, play
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: man on man on the outside. I think we're going
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: to see them be a cover zero team. And when
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: you do that, you know, I talked a lot about
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: this in the off season, the big area for improvement
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: for the defense this year. And one, they face a
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: tougher schedule. So they just have to up, you know,
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: up the ante in that regard. But It's also about
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: forcing more turnovers. They were a very good preventative unit
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: last year in that they didn't allow opposing offenses to
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: do much, which is ultimately what you want your defense
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: to do. But there's another step to it, which is
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: can the defense make plays themselves, which they didn't do
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: a lot last year. Again, Gonzalez maybe doesn't have that
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: on-ball production that comes with that. But him being able
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: to shrink what an offense can do and make them
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: play left-handed is going to open up opportunities for players
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: like Kevin Bayard, like Marcus Jones, to maybe ball hawk
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: a little bit more and create some more turnovers.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Do we have Evan back or no?
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: Am I back? You're back.
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: In spirit and voice.
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: We have your audio, not your video. So y'all have
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: to look at me. Sorry for that.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: Funny time for me to cut out right there.
• 13:18
  Speaker 7: Right?
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: So hang on. But like I said, no one's telling
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: me to say this, but just over the last couple
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: of off seasons, I think that we've seen a team
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: that is moving differently, Alex, in free agency and just
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: by spending. Let's just call it what it is, just
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: cash spending in general. I think it's moving differently. Last
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: off season, the Patriots handed out the most guaranteed money
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: at signing, the most total money and the most total
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: guarantees in free agency. number one in the league across
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: the board in free agency spending, including the number one
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: contract in free agency and Milton Williams. They traded for
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: AJ Brown this off season. They were seventh in cash
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: spending in free agency. So after being first last year,
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: they followed that up by being seventh this year. And
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: now they've just handed Christian Gonzalez, the biggest contract in
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: the history of the sport for a cornerback. And again,
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: that Mike Reese and we love Mike Reese isn't anything
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: to do with him. That Mike Reese number of the
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: last 10 years, the Patriots have been last in cash
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: spending that Mike originally put that number out there in 2024. Right.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: We're two, we're two years removed from that. And the
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: last two off seasons to jumpstart this thing with Rabel
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: last off season with Milton Williams and Carlton Davis and
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: Robert Spillane and Morgan Moses and that whole free agency class,
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: the fond digs this off season, uh, They didn't get complacent.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: They bring in Romeo Dobbs, Draymond Jones, Elijah Vera Tucker,
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: trade for A.J. Brown, sign Gonzalez. I just think that
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: there's this narrative out there that keeps growing and growing
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: about how they spend and they're cheap and this, that,
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: the other thing. At least over the last couple of years,
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: I mean, I just gave you the numbers. That has
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: not been the case. So I just hope that we
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: can put that to bed. I hope that Gonzalez signing,
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: them signing him at market value, them giving a real
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: market value contract to Christian Gonzalez off the off seasons
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: that they've had the last two years, that we can
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: finally stop talking about things like cash spending and all
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: that kind of stuff. Because they're just not moving that
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: way anymore, Alex. That's just not what they're doing anymore.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: If you just... Yeah, sorry, finish up.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I think what this does is, and I
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: remember we talked about this in 24, when Elliot Wolfe
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: really stepped in a more primary role, a more front-focused
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: role in the Packer way, in draft and develop, and
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: the part that never gets mentioned there is draft, develop,
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: and retain. And remember that offseason they didn't do much
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: in free agency, and we talked about building a floor.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: And, you know, while it works in Green Bay.
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: Because they've had good drafts year after year after year,
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: and they've retained their players.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: And as a.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: Long-term strategy, it works. But you have to have foundation
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: to do that. You can't just start with draft and
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: develop when you're starting from scratch. And with what the
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: roster was in 2024, they were essentially starting from scratch.
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: You have to build yourself a base. You have to
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: build yourself a foundation before you actually start the drafting
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: and the developing in order to get off the ground.
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: And I think that certainly the 25 free agency class,
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: and to an extent this year's class as well, accomplished that. Nobody, oh,
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: some people probably are asking for it, but nobody reasonable
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: is asking for them to be top five in free
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: agent spending every year. And I think what you saw
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: the last couple of years was them committing to building
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: that base. And what the Gonzalez contract is, to me,
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: kicks off the start of the next step. And what
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: that next step is, well, now instead of spending big
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: in free agency every year, because that's not sustainable, You're
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: betting on your scouting department.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: You're betting on your coaching staff.
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: And now that money, instead of going to bringing in
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: new players, goes to maintaining your own. So when you
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: go to the cash spending, people cite part of the
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: reason that number was so low was it goes to
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: your last point. They didn't have a ton of their
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: own players to spend it on because they had those
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: misses in the draft. Now you have Gonzalez. You're going
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: to have Drake May. They're going to give out a
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: big contract next year. With Will Campbell, we'll see. I'd
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: like to think it's trending in the right direction. A
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: big game for him. We'll get to Wednesday night to
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: prove the Super Bowl last year was more about injury
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: than ability and kind of set where his potential is at.
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: Now it becomes about, and the Gonzalez contract, and this
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: goes beyond spending.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: It's just the direction of the organization. To me, what.
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: This becomes is they built that floor through free agency.
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: Good job doing it.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: Needed to be done. You don't want to live like that.
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: You want it to be paying your own players, and
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: that's your core. And free agency is just, you know,
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: now and then they operated like this under Bell. Like
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: now and then when you need to fill in a hole,
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: you're not going to hit on every draft pick. You
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: want to hit on most of them, and their hit
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: rate needs to improve from what it was, you know,
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: the last years under Belichick, the end of the 2010s,
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: the early 2020s. Now it's looking a little better. Gonzalez may.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: You're hitting on those draft picks, and every once in
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: a while, if you have to plug in a free agent,
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: Stephon Gilmore, right? Like, you do that, but... This is
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: now what the tone of the organization should be. I
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: don't want them necessarily to be a team. That's just
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: top of the forager market year after year after year.
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: Cause again, I don't think that's sustainable. I want them
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: to be a team that hits on their draft picks,
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: not just in the first round, but across the board.
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: And that money's invested in bringing their own players back.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: And I had talked about this when it was getting,
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: you know, a little dicey. There was some reporting for
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: Gonzalez was as much as Drake may as the face
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: of the franchise. And he is, he's the quarterback. Gonzalez
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: is kind of the flag bearer of the, essentially the
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: Elliot Wolf era. I know he was here before, but
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: when he kind of came to the forefront and that
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: whole draft and develop Packer way thing, he was the
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: first guy from that. And they drafted him. They, I mean,
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: they identified him well enough that they were able to
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: swing that trade. Remember the, the Steelers took Broderick Jones,
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: who they just traded. The commanders took, I'm blanking on
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: his name.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: Emmanuel Forbes.
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: Emmanuel Forbes, who's actually become like an OK player now,
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: but was a bust for them.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: They took Gonzalez. They developed them. And now they've retained them.
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: And what Gonzalez is. and why I think part of
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: the reason is so.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Important to pay him. He's the example. He's the blueprint.
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: Like every off season is now about finding the next
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: Christian Gonzalez. That's the way you want the Patriots to operate. So,
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: you know, just to go back to the spending.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: Point, I don't know. Does that number, is that total
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: spending or is that free agency spending?
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: So that's free agency spending. Total spending, they're low on
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: the rankings in total spending for this year because they're
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: not paying May and Gonzalez yet.
• 20:21
  Speaker 8: Right.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: So this is my thing.
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: This is ultimately the kind of contract you're looking for.
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: The big splash in free agency or fund, you don't
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: necessarily want to have to rely on them. I've talked
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: about this for a long time. You want big contracts
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: to be the guys that you're drafting and maintaining, retaining.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: Sure. Sure. But I, I do think that the landscape
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: of the league has changed a little bit in that respect. I, I,
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: I think nowadays you need to be draft free agency trade.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: All three avenues need to be open to you in
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: the NFL. I mean, you look at a lot of
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: the really good teams across the league are any way
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: that they can acquire good players. They're in on.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying ignore free agency, obviously.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: I just think that it's that I'm not saying that
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: you're saying that either. I just think that it's becoming
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: more prevalent, not quite NBA level or MLB level, but
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: I think it's becoming more prevalent in the league with
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: free agency because teams are just willing to to spend
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: over the cap to find ways to get good players. Right.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: So I, I, I just think that that's, you know,
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: maybe a little bit of a change of the landscape,
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: but my whole point was more just, can we stop
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: holding things that they did, how they operated 10 years
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: ago when they had bill Belichick and they had Tom
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: Brady and it was a different era of football. Can
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: we stop holding that stuff against Elliot Wolf and Mike
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: Frabel in this regime? Because the last two years of
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: this regime, since Mike Frabel walked through the door, as
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: the head coach of the Patriots, they have moved as
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: a very different team than the Belichick years team. That's
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: just the numbers are the numbers are. So I just
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: hope that maybe, you know, along with the fact that
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: you're right in terms of the team building stuff, which
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: is the more important thing, this is more just, you know,
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: the narratives that are out there that don't really matter
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: to be honest. I hope in both ways that this
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: is something like in a step in a different direction,
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: because I think the last couple of weeks, especially and look,
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: this took longer than it should have. This took longer
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: than it should have with Gonzalez. But the last couple
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: of weeks, especially the last week or so, it's it's
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: gotten a little bit spicy. Right. You know, in terms of.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: are they not actually not going to do this? Are
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: they going to trade them? Like all these different types
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: of things because it was taking so long. And I,
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: we got to the point where it got done. It
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: got done before the opener. It kind of feels like
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: this was always sort of the window for him. They
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: were waiting on Witherspoon Witherspoon signed his contract. I think
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: they were then going off of Witherspoon as sort of
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: like a foundation or a floor and, Of what Gonzalez
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: was looking for. So then it took a couple of weeks.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: To then get to a middle ground from there. And
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: here we are. You know. 48 hours before the opener
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: he signed. So I'm glad that this is over with.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: That's all I can say.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it's, it's, it's just good to move on
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: and get into this football game. They even gave us
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: a whole day, right. To, to get into the game
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: and talk about the game. So we'll get into that.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Your calls as well.
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: Eight, five, five pats, 500 emails, podcast, Patriots.com. Any more
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: Gonzalez thoughts, I guess, before we move on.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: No, that's it. Let's talk about the game. I'm done
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: talking about contracts.
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: Let's talk about the game for a while. Well, I
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: guess let's start here. So now this is done. Well,
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: this is a smooth transition. Do you believe Christian Gonzalez
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: can repeat his performance he had in the Super Bowl
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: against JSN in this game?
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: Repeat it? No. I think it would be hard to
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: repeat it exactly, right?
• 24:09
  Speaker 5: I mean.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: he held the guy to what was it? One catch.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: I had the numbers somewhere. I had a lot of
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: numbers in my head.
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: I think it catches for 20. I know JSN finished
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: four catches for 27 yards.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think Gonzalez only allowed like one or two
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: of those.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: Right. So I don't know if it will be exactly
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: the same, you know, Jason's a great player. I he's,
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: it's kind of crazy. And I listening to them talk
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: about him at JSN this week, Alex, you realize like
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: they're kind of like mirror images of each other. Yeah,
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: like they're they're both these like smooth, sudden athletes, long
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: athletes that aren't necessarily. They don't pop out at you
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: with their speed, but all of a sudden you look
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: up and they're running like a four four. Like it's
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: like this sneaky kind of like gliding, almost effortless movement
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: that they both have. So it's a great matchup in
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: that respect. It's not like, you know, one guy is
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: ultra physical, like an A.J. Brown versus Christian Gonzalez. Right.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: Where it's like an ultra physical guy versus a smooth mover.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: These are two guys that kind of move the same way.
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: And I wonder if maybe that's why Gonzalez had success
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: against him. was because they kind of have the same
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: body mechanics in a way, and they kind of move similarly.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: So I could see this being a quieter JSN game.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: But just looking it up, Gonzalez only allowed one catch
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: for 16 yards. I remember it was a slant, a
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: little skinny glance around in the Super Bowl. I don't
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: know if it will be one for 16. That's a
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: pretty high bar.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it is. I just think.
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: It's, it's imperative to the Patriots plan, right? Like I
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: imagine it would be blitz heavy. You don't want Seattle
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: to be running ball ton. So I think you look
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: at him, Colton Davis, Marcus Jones. Can they repeat that?
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: Because the biggest change for Seattle, I, by the way, I,
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: I don't love, I've said.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: This a million times.
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: I don't love the Superbowl opener, the Superbowl rematch, the
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: opener part of it is because we just keep going
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: back to that game. So I do want to talk
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: a little bit about what's different. And obviously a big
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: one for Seattle is, is no Kenneth Walker. So they're
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: running bad and Zach Charbonnet is on PUP. So they're
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: running back search Darian price, first round rookie and George Lonnie,
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: who's primarily special teams player, kind of like a Brandon
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: Bolden ish type player for them. Kenneth Walker created a
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: lot in the super bowl on his own that gave
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: the Patriots problems. There were also a number of instances
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: where he kind of just had four or five yards
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: before he encountered a defender.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Cause the Patriots getting blown off the ball.
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: So you look at the secondary versus the Seattle receivers,
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: that's a big matchup, but we've seen that. The new
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: one for me, the interesting one for me, is can
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: the Patriots get a better push up front? And I
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: think a lot of people are going to focus on
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: the pass rush because of everything we've said this offseason.
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: And I'm not saying that that's not important, but I
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: think the big key for the Patriots, if you want
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: to change the results from the Super Bowl, they have
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: to get more of a push up front in the
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: run game. It's the same offensive line for Seattle. I
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: know Anthony Bradford was on the injury report, but he
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: was upgraded yesterday, so I assume he's.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: Going to play.
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: I think they can handle Seattle's pass game. We talked
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: about this back in February, right? If it becomes a shootout,
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: we're taking Drake May over Sam Darnold all day. And
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: I still feel that way, and I assume you still
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: feel that way. Seattle was able to now, right. Seattle
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: was able to run the ball, control the clock, control
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: the tempo of the game, shorten the game, all of
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: that because the Patriots couldn't get a push up front.
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: Can they do a better job in this game doing
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: that Evan than they did in the Superbowl and keep
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: mind this without Kairos Tonga.
• 27:52
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: So I think that that that's the obvious place to start.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: And I do want to talk about some of their
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: changes because, you know, just before I get into like the,
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: the minutia of that.
• 28:03
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: If I had to play Seattle, this to me is
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: the best time to play them. They're hard to play
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: no matter what. If you have to go to Seattle...
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: What's going on?
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Even if they were hosting.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: What's wrong?
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: I heard another voice. I don't know what it was.
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, me too. Even if you had to host Seattle,
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: it's hard. Going to Seattle is going to be hard
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: no matter what time of year it is.
• 28:32
  Speaker 7: However.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: They do have some significant changes that they're undergoing right now.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: They lost their offensive coordinator. This happens when you win
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: the Super Bowl, as we know.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: They did hire from within, right?
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: No, they hired Brian Fleury from the 49ers, which is
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: the same tree, same general tree. But they hired Brian Fleury,
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: who's never called a play before in an NFL game.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: And they're going to keep it the same. It's the,
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: it's the KOC, Clint Kubiak, you know, melding of offenses
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: that Sam Darnold's thrived in the last couple of years.
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: Kevin O'Connell. And they lose Kenneth Walker in free agency.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: So they lose the Superbowl MVP. Clint Kubiak is right
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: there with Josh McDaniels in terms of the best assistant
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: coach in football last year, gets a head coaching job
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: off of it. I thought a pretty good Super Bowl,
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: when you consider that Darnold really didn't play well in
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: the game. He figured out ways to spam circumstances. things
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: that we can get to in terms of play action
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: and boots and things like that. Personnel matching, which I
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: thought was big in the game to get them at
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: least to land some punches offensively to get some separation
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: on the scoreboard. And so they lose Clint Kubiak. They
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: lose Kenneth Walker. On the defense side of the ball,
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: they've lost Rick Wolin. They've lost Kobe Bryant. They've lost
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: Bowie Mafe. So basically, like, their second, their twos, right? Like,
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: that layer of depth behind their starters in a lot
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: of areas has been poached by other teams. So I
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: think Seattle's going to be totally fine long-term. Don't get
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: me wrong. Like, I don't think that this is, like,
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: Seattle's going to now all of a sudden backslide completely.
• 30:22
  Speaker 9: But.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: Week one, when none of their starters have played any
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: preseason games, just like you, it just feels to me
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: like if it wasn't the fact that the record of
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: teams on the banner night and all that kind of stuff,
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: if you just look at it from the fact that
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: Seattle has a lot of newness on their side of
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: things with the coordinator and with the running back and
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: all that, is Darian Price just going to come out
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: and put up a performance like Kenneth Walker did seven
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: months ago? I think that's asking a lot for a
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: first-round pick. It's not like they drafted him in the
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: top 10. He's an end-of-the-first-round kind of guy. So I
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: think that that's the best time to catch Seattle is
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: when they might still be trying to figure out some
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: of these things right now.
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: With their operation. Week one's weird. Look, it's a tough
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: spot for the Patriots. The record of teams raising the banner...
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: on opening night, since they introduced this game into O2,
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: and keep in mind there's a few years there where
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: the Super Bowl winner didn't play in the first game.
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: It's happened to the Patriots. Remember the 100th year they
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: did Packers-Bears? The Super Bowl winner raising the banner on
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: opening night is 17-4.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: 17-4. That's the kind of spot the Patriots are walking into.
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: Now, of those four in 20-something years, 24 years, two
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: of them have happened fairly recently. The Bills beat the
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: Rams in 22, and then the Lions beat the Chiefs
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: in 23. I remember that Lions-Chiefs game. Really, three in
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: the last 10 years. I mean, it's a little further back,
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: but the Chiefs coming in here and winning in 2017.
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: So it's a tough spot, but week one is weird.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: That was a good.
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: Take in the whole thing, but just sum it up.
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: Week one is weird. And if you're going to be
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: an underdog, you'd rather be an underdog week one. What
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: happened to the Patriots the last two years? A not
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: good Patriots team went on the road and beat a
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: Bengals team. They probably had no business beating. And then
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: last year, the team that got the number one overall
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: pick came all the way across the country. West coast
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: team coming East, never a good spot and beat the
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: team that ended up going to the Superbowl in the AFC.
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: And on top of that, you just, you'd rather play
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: a non-conference game week one.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: You just would.
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: Those games inherently mean less than the standings at the
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: end of the year. I know it's Super Bowl rematch.
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: It means a lot emotionally. I'm not saying it means nothing.
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: You want to start 1-0. But, you know, if you
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: have one of those weird week one trip over yourself losses,
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: you'd rather have it against a non-conference team than like
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: the Chargers or the Broncos or even like the Bills, right?
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: Something that could be a tiebreaker for playoff seating. This,
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: in theory, is the least impactful game on their schedule
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: in that regard because it's not even a common opponent
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: to the other teams in the division. This is that
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: 17th game. So it's not to say it's not a
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: big game, but I do think you're right. This is probably,
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: as much as I hate it, it's annoying to cover.
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: This is probably the best spot on the schedule to
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: have this game.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I just think that, and look, the Patriots have
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: some changes too, like A.J. Brown, Romeo Dobbs, Elijah Vera Tucker,
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: and the changes on the offensive line. So it's not
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: like the Patriots haven't had some turnover. Every team does.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: But the Patriots have their coaching staff intact. They have
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: the nucleus of their players, basically, unless you want to say,
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: you know, digs for Brown intact. The interesting part to
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: me with Seattle is I think defensively, especially what made
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: them so dominant was that they had waves and waves
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: of depth, especially on the defensive line, but really everywhere.
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: you know, they, I don't know what's happening with them
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: at safety right now. Like Ty Akuta was a guy
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: that was going to start. He was going to replace
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: Kobe Bryant as a starter, Nick him and worry. I'm
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: not sure. We don't know. You know, we'll find out
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: later today what his game status is, but we don't
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: know if he's going to play or not. I mentioned recall. And,
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: you know, they think that Josh Jobes is going to
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: kind of step in and be a replacement in house
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: for week. Well, and we'll see if that one works out.
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: So I had some interesting kind of question marks about
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: their secondary and right now. And, and so this, yeah,
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: I know we wanted to start deep Patriots.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: I want to talk about that stuff too. I get,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: we should have done big picture. Good call.
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: I guess I'll just go continue with Patriots offense for
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: a second. Yeah. We, we both were texting about this,
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: I think yesterday with what's going on in Seattle secondary
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: and some of the uncertainty there. And this is a
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: big F, but if you can block it better, there
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: should be open receivers.
• 34:54
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: And I'm laughing because it's like, well, You got to
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: block it better like that. It starts there and ends there.
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: But I don't think that this is quite as deep
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: of a Seattle secondary as the one that they faced
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: seven months ago. I think that there's going to be
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: some turnover like Okuda is has a hamstring and hasn't practiced.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't imagine he's going to play.
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like with bum hamstrings, all of a sudden they're
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: just fine. Like that's usually something that lingers. We know
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: that we're just talking about Gonzalez. You know, we know that.
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: So I think that that that's an area where I'm
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: looking for this to be different from the Super Bowl.
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: I think watching the Super Bowl and look, it's easy
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: to sit here with the, you know, with a clicker
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: on my couch and say, oh, you know, this guy
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: was open. That guy was open on any given play.
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: But I think that that doubt, if you had to
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: look at who had more opportunities, the receivers were getting
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: more open and the offensive line was blocking. Well, if
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: that makes sense in that game. And so I do
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: think that there's going to be opportunities to throw the
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: football against this team. But it all starts up front. And,
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: you know, all the numbers from the Super Bowl were
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: bad when it comes to that.
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: Are they better equipped to handle that now?
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: You would like to think so. But the number that
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: stands out to me the most is that they gave
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: up a 44% pressure rate, Alex, even against a four-man rush.
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: So not— Take the blitzes out of it, right? Just
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: a standard four-man rush. Now, Seattle runs games and stuff
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: like that, too, so it's not always just four guys
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: coming right at you.
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: I was going to say, how much do you know
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: the pressure rate against four-man straight rush?
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: Their four-man rush pressure rate was 43.5%.
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: So I'm saying four-man straight rush, like no line games
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: or anything?
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: No, I just know what it is with four guys rushing.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: Because to me, that's a big.
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: Key here is how they handle, even when they don't play,
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: because they, to go back to your point about secondary,
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: like when they blitz, their most effective blitzer, I don't
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: know if this statistically lines up, but just eye test.
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: Witherspoon was a devastating blitzer for them in that game.
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: Devastating.
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: You lose Rick Wollin. You have other corners, safeties banged up.
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: can they blitz with or spoon as much as they did?
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: I don't think so.
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: Even if they want to, like, obviously you go back
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: and you say, okay, this guy blitz really well in
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: the Super Bowl last year.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: Let's do it again.
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: You can't take him out of coverage. You're already going
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: to have mismatches left and right. So to me, part
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: of the way you compensate for that is maybe just
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: upping the, the ante on some of those line games,
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: twist stunts, whatever. That, that to me is where we'll
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: see like the work, Will Campbell, Jared Wilson put in,
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: in the off season, some of those younger guys, the
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: experience of Elijah, Vera Tucker, uh, can the mental side,
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: not just physically handling it, and maybe Drake May, some
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: of the new tools he has available at the line
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: of scrimmage, setting that up, like, just can they handle
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: that better? Can they pick those up better? Regardless of
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: the blitz, that's actually where I start. When they get
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: into the four-man rush and they throw those line games
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: at them, can the Patriots handle those better?
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so it was a 43.5% pressure with a four-man rush.
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: I can't break that up into stunts, non-stunts. But 43.5%
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: with a four-man rush. Anything over 40% is danger zone, right?
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: That's in the red when you're over 40%. So can
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: the Patriots, and I say that because Seattle only blitzed
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: 11 times in the game. It was a 20.8% blitz rate.
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: It wasn't like they blitzed 50% of the time, right?
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: It wasn't. They just, when they blitzed, they were so
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: good at blitzing. And that's a Mike McDonald thing. That's
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: a them thing. You know, that they're really good when
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: they blitz and they're really good at timing blitzes and
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: catching you by surprise for when they're going to blitz.
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: So the blitzes hit home like crazy. They are in
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: eighty five point seven percent pressure rate when they blitzed,
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: which is insane. But if you can take the forty
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: three point five percent number from the four man rush.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: And you can get that closer to like 30%, which
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: is where it normally would be against a really good
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: front like Seattle, 30, 35%. Those like six to eight
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: clean dropbacks that Drake May is adding that he didn't
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: have in the Super Bowl, that right there is your game, right?
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: You can make six to eight plays potentially with a
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: clean pocket that he didn't, wasn't able to operate in
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: seven months ago. So as much as I want to
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: talk about the blitzes and talk about how they need
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: to handle those better, and we can, I think it
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: starts to me with two things, handling the four man
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: rushes better and If you have four against five, you
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: got to block them. Like, that's just the bottom line.
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: You can't lose all the time with four when you
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: have an extra guy.
• 39:50
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: To pass protect. The other thing is, is that, you know,
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: going on your side of the street a little bit.
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: I don't think they ran the ball very well, and
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: I don't think they ran the ball enough in the
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: Super Bowl. Now, some of that was because of the score.
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: You know, you get behind by multiple scores. You can't
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: keep running the football. But Seattle, they play in that
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: too high safety shell. They play at 78.4% of the time.
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: That's the highest rate of too high safety shells in
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: the league. So they are lightening the box. And they
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: had the number one run defense in football. I understand
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: that that sounds counterintuitive to run the ball against the
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: number one run defense in football from a year ago.
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: But I think you have to stay balanced against a
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: team like this. So the Patriots ran 14 touchdowns. of
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: their 15 third downs last in the super bowl or
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: passes 14 to 15. Yeah. If they know that you're
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: throwing it on third down and you're, you're screwed, like
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: you're just screwed against the team like this. If you're
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: in third and eight, third and nine, and they know
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: that you're going to throw the ball. I don't, I,
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: that's a really, really difficult way to play the game
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: against them. So can you block the four man rushes better?
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: Can you have some semblance of balance in a run game?
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: I think that's where it starts for the Patriots. And
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: all of that obviously starts with the offensive line and
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: being able to actually handle blocking Seattle's front better. You know,
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: one more point. I think this is a huge debut
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: for Reggie Gilliam. Yeah. I think it's a huge debut
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: for him. I don't think that you want to play
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: in three receiver too often against Seattle for the similar
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: reasons I just mentioned. You're very pass heavy and 11 personnel.
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: You don't want to have to throw the ball a
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: ton against them. Can the Patriots, and I'm flipping this
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: as a question to you, can they play 21 personnel
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: with the fullback in the backfield, with Reggie Gilliam in
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: the backfield, the quarterback under center, and can they play
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: a little bit of bully ball against Seattle? I'm not
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: saying that they're going to completely bully the Seahawks, but
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: can you at least do that enough that you can
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: stay balanced, you can stay on schedule, and not get
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: into those third and longs a ton with them?
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: I think they can, you know, sneaky important thing in
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: this game. Like it's always important, but making sure you
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: don't commit penalties. This is where the crowd noise comes in.
• 42:07
  Speaker 3: And if they're in first and 15 second and 10,
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: that kind of thing, then it becomes a lot harder
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: to do that.
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: But in theory, yes.
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: And this is, you know, they invested in Gilliam, Elijah
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: Vera Tucker, upgrading that offensive line. That is certainly something
• 42:23
  Speaker 3: I want.
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: To see them do. I think it's something that they
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: need to do. It's just staying on schedule.
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: And they, part of their success last year, they did
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: a good job staying on schedule when they were really rolling.
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: Now there were also times where Drake Bay had to
• 42:34
  Speaker 3: bail them out of third and thirteens.
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: This is, it's going to be hard to do that.
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: Against this team. So I think staying on schedule is,
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: is more important, but it's a good point, you know,
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: big game for education. Cause if you can do that
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: and you can force Seattle to stay honest and you
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: can keep those pass rushers off their rhythm, you know,
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: you look at some of the matchups that you're going
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: to have in the secondary. And this goes back to
• 42:55
  Speaker 3: what you were talking about earlier, Evan, like even at,
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: first of all, how much do you think we see
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: with a spoon on the outside against AJ Brown?
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Like honest question. Are they going to do that
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: a lot? Are they going to keep them in the slot?
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: So, you know, I think he's at his best witherspoon
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: when he plays in the slot. Yeah. But we just
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: were talking about some of their depth concerns or, you know,
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: free agent losses, things like that. You know, they were Josh, Joe, Reek, Woolen,
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: witherspoon in the slot on third down a lot in
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: the Super Bowl. Do they... have a third corner that
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: they trust as much as they trusted Joe last year,
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: who is now elevated to the number two corner. Cause
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: they no longer have reek woolen. Like who's the, do
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: they have that third guy that they can bump witherspoon inside?
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if,
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: you know, some of their, their backups are ready for
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: that sort of thing. You know, last year in the Superbowl,
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: you know, just pulling up some of their third downs,
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: third and nine on the Patriots opening drive. It's Josh
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: Jobe to one side, it's Requel into the other, it's
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: Witherspoon in the slot. Those are the types of areas
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: that I think you hope for the Patriots that Seattle
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: is a little bit weaker than the team that they
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: played seven months ago. They don't quite have that diamond
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: package depth to put six DBs out there on a
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: third down and have Ammon Worry and Witherspoon just be
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: these you know, Swiss army knives, these kind of jokers
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: that can just move around, right. And, and sort of
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: cause havoc and where there's food has to stay on
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: the outside because they don't have the depth. Then I
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: think that that's going to make them a little bit
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: weaker and that that's going to help the Patriots a lot.
• 44:40
  Speaker 3: So that's kind of what I wonder, right. Is, and
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: by the way, just real quick, Albert Breer, On Twitter
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: just now, details on the Gonzalez extension, $ 33 million signing bonus,
• 44:51
  Speaker 3: 53.928 million first years fully guaranteed, 2028 money becomes fully
• 44:58
  Speaker 3: guaranteed in March of 2027, and 2029 money fully becomes
• 45:03
  Speaker 3: guaranteed in March of 2028.
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: So just to throw some of the details out there.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: Back to matchup.
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it's because even if they put Witherspoon on
• 45:11
  Speaker 3: the outside, which they might have to do, okay, he's
• 45:13
  Speaker 3: on A.J. Brown now, How do you feel about Romeo
• 45:17
  Speaker 3: Dobbs against Josh Jobe?
• 45:19
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: How do you feel against Pop Douglas against Nehemiah Pritchett
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: or Avery Smith in the slot? There's going to be
• 45:26
  Speaker 3: mismatches here for Drake made a hunt.
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: There should be.
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, that was the other sort
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: of key matchup. I think we're going to do those
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: specifically that I had written down was a lot in
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: the Super Bowl. Pop got matched up on their safeties
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: a ton. out of the slot, just because of the
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: way that they play, they play the two high, they
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: play a lot of quarters or match behind it, behind
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: their pressures. And so they are sending the slot, they're
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: sending the nickel, they're blitzing Witherspoon. So like their slotted
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: corner is blitzing in a lot of those looks. And
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: so it was Kobe Bryant catching pop Douglas downfield. It
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: was Julian love catching pop Douglas down the field. Now
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: it might be Okuda. It might be him. And why
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: I don't know who's going to be for Seattle with
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: all these injuries there. So that, that was one of
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: the other matchups that there was like four or five
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: times on the tape from the super bowl that if
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: Drake may had just had an extra beat or beat
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: and a half to hold the ball in the pocket,
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: that Douglas had a great matchup in the slot because
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: of what they were doing with Witherspoon. Now, I don't
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: know if they'll be able to do that with Witherspoon
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: this time around, you know, I, looking at their cornerback
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: depth chart, you know, Julian Neal, I remember Julian, you know, we,
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: we watched him in the draft a little bit, the
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: third round pick. I, I had heard that, you know,
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: just reading some of the Seahawks stuff from training camp that,
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: you know, he had a, a kind of a rookie
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: training camp, you know, sort of.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: That roller coaster at one point too.
• 46:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: So I, I don't know if, if he's going to
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: be immediately ready to step in. So I think that's
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: a big thing for the Patriots in this game. It's the,
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: it's a very similar upfront from Seattle. You know, you
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: still have, letter williams index for lawrence and byron uh...
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: murphy a close to uh... but the secondary it does
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: look like they have some holes that maybe you can exploit.
• 47:14
  Speaker 3: Song they get a block As long as they get
• 47:17
  Speaker 3: a block. All right, how about on the other side
• 47:18
  Speaker 3: of the ball? Let's go back to my question from there.
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: We know kind of the matchup between the receivers and
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: the secondary. We talked about a lot. That hasn't changed
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: much this offseason. They still have Cooper Cup. Rasheed Shaheed,
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: I guess, full offseason in the system. He was a
• 47:32
  Speaker 3: trade deadline acquisition last year, whatever you want to count that.
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: But to me, it's just about being able to stop
• 47:36
  Speaker 3: the run and forcing the Seahawks to be one-dimensional, kind
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: of what we said.
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: It's funny.
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: It's a mirror game plan on both sides, what the
• 47:43
  Speaker 3: Patriots can't afford to have happen to them. Can the
• 47:45
  Speaker 3: Patriots get that initial push up front? Because Jadarian Price
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: and George Helani are not going to create on their own.
• 47:51
  Speaker 3: I would be very surprised, I should say, if they
• 47:52
  Speaker 3: create on their own the way that Kenneth Walker did
• 47:56
  Speaker 3: last year.
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: Can the Patriots get that push up front?
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we're saying the same thing, but I obviously
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: have the nerd numbers for you.
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: Go with the nerd numbers.
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: Okay, so Kenneth Walker in the Super Bowl on outside runs, right?
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: Runs outside the tackles. That's where he did all of
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: his damage. Let's face it.
• 48:15
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: So 114 yards on 21 carries. That's five point four
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: in attempt. So that was really where he did most
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: of his damage. Now it's all those wide zone runs
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: or outside zone runs. The difference that I think between
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: a guy like Kenneth Walker and what I think they're
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: going to get out of Darien Price is not necessarily.
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: I think Darien Price has similar straight line speed as
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: Kenneth Walker and one cut ability as Kenneth Walker. It's
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: the crazy bounce it out the backside. Everybody's at the
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: point of attack with Kenneth Walker. I don't know if
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: Price is as loose as imaginative is. as a guy
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: like Walker or has the freedom, frankly, to do that
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: kind of stuff. Like Walker built that up with equity, right?
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: If you're bouncing runs out of the backside of the
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: formation on outside zone, you can't just start doing that
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: as a rookie out of the shoot. Cause you're going
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: to get tackled for a five yard loss. It's so
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: like Kenneth Walker over years and years of being good
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: at it in the NFL. Like he's just so bouncy,
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: you know, and he's, he's so good at seeing those
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: cutback lanes. I, think to Darian price is explosive. And
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: I think he's got some straight line giddy up, but
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you're going to see this runs
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: hitting to the C gap off the left tackles hit.
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: And actually Kenneth Walker is going to bounce it out
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: and he's going to bounce it out at the other
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: side of the formation. Like that, that type of stuff,
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: I think, is going to be sort of out off
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: the table. That being said, you know, they got to
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: set the edge of the defense a lot better than
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: what they did. And I think a lot of their
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: off season moves, uh, Draymond Jones, even drafting gay back is,
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: and you know, we'll see how much act is actually plays.
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: And if he's plays well in this game, they, they
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: signed and drafted to 260 pound edge rushers to try
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: to set the edge of the defense better. Remember when
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: Caleb on Jason, I think said it right. That that
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: was the reasoning that they gave him. And free agency
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: was because they needed to be stouter on the edge.
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: So that Super Bowl was definitely a big part of it. Now,
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: I think another big part of it, I mentioned it earlier,
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: was personnel matching. I think this was a huge chess
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: match within the chess match between Clint Kubiak and Zach
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: Kor and Mike Vrabel. The Patriots in the Super Bowl
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: played 26 snaps in base defense, which was really high
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: for them last year. They were a three-corner nickel team
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: last year with Marcus Jones, obviously, in the slot. But
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: Seattle played a lot of 12 personnel. They put multiple
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: tight ends on the field. A.J. Barner, a really good
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: blocker at the tight end position for them. And the
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: Patriots were just too small, especially at the nickel spot,
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: to be able to defend Seattle's 12 personnel and nickel defense.
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: So they put base defense on the field. Their base
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: defense got pretty much shredded in the Super Bowl. And
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: those 26 snaps, 42% success rate, they still gave up
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: 4.8 yards per rush attempt. 4.8 yards per rush. Even
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: in base. So the question really is, when you start
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: talking about all these different things with personnel matching, do
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: you just not blink? Do you put your nickel defense
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: out there and your three corners, which is the bedrock
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: in your defense. That's your foundation. That's the way you're built.
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: And if Seattle runs for five yards per clip, you
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: just don't balk at it, right? You just don't blink.
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: Or do you have a different type of personnel grouping?
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: Do you feel more confident in your base? I don't
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: know how you could feel more confident in base with
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: the linebacker play they got in the preseason. Like, who's
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: the third linebacker? Is it KJ Britt being called up
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: from the practice squad?
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: It might be more so.
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I don't feel great about that. Is Jalen
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: Reed ready to play a big nickel role for them
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: in this game? He's been here, what, 10 days? You know,
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: I don't know. Is he ready for that? That's, I think,
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: a big part about this game that is really going
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: to determine the game when the Patriots are on defense
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: is how do they, this time around, want to match
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: Seattle's heavy personnel groupings? And do they have another change-up
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: in that lineup defense to be able to go to
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: something else. That's not three corner nickel. This is why
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: I was so excited about the Jalen retrain is because I, I,
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: this is the vision for him. He's that guy. I
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: just don't know if he's ready for the role yet.
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: Cause he's not, he's only been here like five practices.
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: So is he, is he ready to do it yet?
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: I don't know. But in theory, you know, that's it
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: because you look at Darnold when they made Darnold a
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: traditional drop back passer in the super bowl, they, they
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: were beating Darnold. Like they were winning the game on
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: defense when, when he was, just as traditional straight dropbacks,
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: he had a 61.6 passer rating, 4.6 yards per attempt.
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: When he was play action passing, he was really good.
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: You know, so that all the play action, the run actions,
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: the play actions, the outside zone runs, like that's how
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: Seattle landed their punches seven months ago. So can they,
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: what's their answer to that? Like what, what, what personnel
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: grouping can they put on the field? that they feel
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: good about that isn't going to get absolutely shredded against
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: the run, but it's still dynamic enough to be able
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: to cover the play actions a little bit better than
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: they did in February.
• 53:36
  Speaker 3: And they're not built better for that. I mean, we'll
• 53:39
  Speaker 3: see ultimately, but in theory, they should be built better
• 53:41
  Speaker 3: for that. It's just getting that push up front, like
• 53:44
  Speaker 3: Corey Durden, big player in this game to me, you know,
• 53:46
  Speaker 3: stepping into that Kyra's Tonga role, Jaden Reed could be
• 53:49
  Speaker 3: a player that does that as well.
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: The other thing we're obviously.
• 53:52
  Speaker 3: Going to watch punter, Going to be a guy coming
• 53:55
  Speaker 3: up off the practice squad, Mitch Wisnowski, who just got
• 53:58
  Speaker 3: here as a holder, things like that as well. And
• 54:00
  Speaker 3: then the kick return thing. Evan, who are you sending
• 54:02
  Speaker 3: out as the first kick returners, if it's up to you?
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: It's probably not going to be popular, but I might
• 54:09
  Speaker 2: go Efton Chisholm, Kyle Williams. maybe you can get the
• 54:13
  Speaker 2: ball into Kyle Williams, his hands. Like remember Jeremy Springer
• 54:16
  Speaker 2: talking the other day about, you kind of have a
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: primary guy and a secondary guy. And just in case
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: they kick it, you know, pin it to one side
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: of the field. You have a guy over there to
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: field the punt, the kickoff, like maybe it's something like that.
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: But I know that Chisholm's not the most explosive. I
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: know that he doesn't have the straight line speed necessarily
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: decrease one and, and make a big play out of it.
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: But I just feel a little bit more confident in
• 54:39
  Speaker 2: like his ball security and stuff like that right now.
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: I think, ideally, Corey Kiner eventually is able to do that,
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: but is Travion Henderson going to play in the game?
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: If Travion Henderson's not playing, then maybe they elevate, like,
• 54:52
  Speaker 2: Landon Harrison from the.
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: Practice squad or something like that.
• 54:55
  Speaker 3: I'm going to go Kyle Williams in the third running back,
• 54:58
  Speaker 3: whoever it is, whether it's Larrison or Haskins, I think
• 55:01
  Speaker 3: ends up doing that, but that'll be something else to watch.
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: How big of a lie?
• 55:06
  Speaker 3: He hasn't practiced, so generally you miss... The three practices,
• 55:10
  Speaker 3: I guess. No, they don't have another one today. The
• 55:13
  Speaker 3: injury report's off the line. It's out of sync from
• 55:16
  Speaker 3: what the usual game week schedule is. I don't know
• 55:18
  Speaker 3: why they did it like that, but they did.
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: It's annoying.
• 55:21
  Speaker 9: Right.
• 55:21
  Speaker 3: For what a game week is, I know they have
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: one more spot on the injury report today, but the
• 55:24
  Speaker 3: way they treated Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Henderson is not practiced.
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: Usually that player doesn't play. It's week one.
• 55:30
  Speaker 3: Could be weird. Could be different. Assuming Henderson is out.
• 55:35
  Speaker 3: How big of a loss is he in this matchup specifically?
• 55:38
  Speaker 3: Because we know he's kind of a game plan player
• 55:40
  Speaker 3: and he maybe makes more of an impact certain weeks
• 55:42
  Speaker 3: than others.
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: How important is he? Would he be in this game?
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: I don't think that he's massively important because I think
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: you need to have Ramondre back there for blitz pickup.
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: But I think that that's Seattle. You know, a lot
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: of their blitzes. not to go back down this rabbit hole,
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: but they, they, they put the running back in binds.
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: They really were attacking their protection rules of the running
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: back where the Patriots have a dual read system with
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: the running back. So he's going to read off usually
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: two players at the ends of the lines of scrimmage.
• 56:13
  Speaker 2: And if one guy goes and one guy drops, he's
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: going to the nearest threat, right. Or the biggest threat
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: to the quarterback in that situation. I usually I, Teams
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: will blitz one guy and then drop the other, and
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: so then Stevenson has one guy to block. The Seahawks
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: were adding two into the rush on Stevenson's read, so
• 56:32
  Speaker 2: they were bringing guys off both edges on that first
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: third down on that opening drive. They were bringing the
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: linebacker and they were bringing Witherspoon at the same time
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: on that nickel pressure that they got them on like
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: four or five times. So they were doing a lot
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: of stuff to put Ramondre Stevenson down, in two on
• 56:50
  Speaker 2: one situations where he's going to be wrong, no matter
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: what he does. And I think on top of that,
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: if you put a guy like Henderson in the backfield
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: that you're asking for trouble, you know, I think you're
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: asking for trouble. Now he did play a little bit
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: in the super bowl, but 26 snaps on offense in
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: the super bowl, which was more than he was playing
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: down the stretch for the most part, you know, in
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: the playoffs. But I think that they were probably just
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: hoping that he might hit a big play. They needed something.
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: They needed a spark. so they tried to give him
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: some touches to see if he could break one. But
• 57:24
  Speaker 2: I didn't envision, I don't know about you, but I
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: didn't envision this being a huge Travion Henderson game a
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: month ago, you know, before any of his injury stuff
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: popped up with him.
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't either.
• 57:35
  Speaker 3: And that's not to say it's not concerning and they
• 57:37
  Speaker 3: don't need him in the big picture, but this is
• 57:39
  Speaker 3: more of a ball control game.
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: This is more of a Romandre Stevenson game.
• 57:42
  Speaker 3: And if there is a week he's going to miss too,
• 57:44
  Speaker 3: just in the big picture, because you know how I
• 57:46
  Speaker 3: am about making sure the running backs don't get overworked.
• 57:49
  Speaker 3: You'd rather it be week one versus like, all right,
• 57:51
  Speaker 3: you have a, you know, Ramon received as a full
• 57:53
  Speaker 3: season's workload on him.
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: And now he's got to touch.
• 57:55
  Speaker 3: The ball 30 times in a game, you know, in
• 57:57
  Speaker 3: like December, January or something like that.
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: So I, again, it's not, it's not nothing.
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: I'm not trying to say that. No, no, no, no, no.
• 58:05
  Speaker 3: I mean, I'd rather they have them. They'd be better
• 58:07
  Speaker 3: off if they had them, but this is not, this
• 58:09
  Speaker 3: isn't one rule. I don't know how big, again, he's
• 58:12
  Speaker 3: gonna be game plan player. I don't know how big
• 58:14
  Speaker 3: of a part he was going to be of this
• 58:15
  Speaker 3: game plan relative to others. I know we're kind of
• 58:18
  Speaker 3: just jumping around here. One more game plan player.
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: Could this potentially become a big Kyle Williams game?
• 58:26
  Speaker 3: If they're going to be lesser than a corner on
• 58:28
  Speaker 3: the outside, they might not be able to blitz a ton.
• 58:33
  Speaker 3: Is this a game where you maybe throw Kyle Williams
• 58:35
  Speaker 3: out there as the guy that hunts the big plays?
• 58:38
  Speaker 2: I would definitely say in general that Kyle Williams needs...
• 58:44
  Speaker 2: at least 15 to 20 snaps a game just to
• 58:46
  Speaker 2: see if he can get behind a corner, right? And
• 58:49
  Speaker 2: especially if you pre-scouted and say they have a corner
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: that's a little bit slower. I don't think Josh Jobe
• 58:56
  Speaker 2: is necessarily a burner. Just remembering what I remember from
• 59:00
  Speaker 2: him about the draft and watching Seattle last year leading
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: up to the Super Bowl, I think that that's a
• 59:07
  Speaker 2: match of a, of a guy that you can get behind.
• 59:11
  Speaker 2: And maybe they have better luck with that. Not, you know,
• 59:13
  Speaker 2: not to like kick them on the way out, but
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: Keishon booty wasn't running by people. That's not how he
• 59:18
  Speaker 2: was making big plays. You know, he was making big
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: plays at the catch point. So Job is a bigger,
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: longer corner. So maybe he had a little bit more
• 59:27
  Speaker 2: success against a guy like booty because of that. You know,
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: I think he's like, you know, six feet, one 90,
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: something like that. So I think that that's maybe a
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: spot where in general, I would just like to see it.
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: And it's kind of like the same thing with Travion Henderson.
• 59:43
  Speaker 2: Like you want Travion Henderson to have at least like
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: 10 touches a game just to see if he breaks one.
• 59:48
  Speaker 2: And I feel the same way about Kyle Williams, but
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: he needs to run 15 routes to game. just to
• 59:54
  Speaker 2: see if he can do what he did in the preseason. And,
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: you know, it's one play touchdown, right? So I think
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 2: that's another one of those things that I hope that
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: they kind of do that with him every single week.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 2: Maybe this is a start of it, but, you know,
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 2: I do think you're going to see a lot of Brown, Dobbs,
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 2: and Pop Douglas, but I think that you need to
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 2: see a little bit of Kyle Williams, too.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 3: All right, so there's some baseline game preview for you.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 3: We'll get into it more. We'll get to your calls, 855-PASS-500.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 3: See a number of you guys emailing in as well.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 3: Podcasts at Patriots.com. We'll get to that all next after
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 3: these words real quick here on Catch-22.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: At Patriot Place.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 9: Estella brings a celebration of flavors with a modern fusion menu,
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 9: exciting cocktails, and brunch available daily beginning at 11 a.m.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 9: Enjoy freshly brewed coffee and Mediterranean-inspired breakfast and lunch from
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 9: Angels Cafe.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: Craving the classics? Chick-fil-A makes it.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 9: Easy to grab your favorite with mobile through, carry out,
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 9: and dine-in options. Download the Patriot Place Advantage app for
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 9: special offers and to earn rewards every time you visit.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: Patriot Place. Shop.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: Dine.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 7: Enjoy.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 10: The heaviest metal credit card of all time. Wielded at
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 10: business dinners like a samurai sword. It's a classic corporate
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 10: power move. But the real power move? Having end-to-end visibility
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 10: on your most critical shipments. FedEx, the new power move.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 7: Whether you're in the game or betting on the game,
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 7: you'll need a game plan. DraftKings Sportsbook, the official sports
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 7: betting partner of the New England Patriots, provides you with
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 7: everything you need to build your personal betting game plan
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 7: so you can get in on all the action while
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 7: practicing safe bets. Visit DraftKings.com slash Responsible-Gaming to learn more
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 7: about all the safe betting tools DraftKings has to offer.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 7: Hope is here. 800-327-5050 or GamblingHelplineMA.org. Must be 21+. Play
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 7: it smart from the start. GameSenseMA.com. Physically present in Massachusetts.
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 7: See DraftKings.com slash Responsible-Gaming for details and state-specific responsible gambling resources.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 8: There's enough needless nonsense in the world already. Your phone
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 8: plan shouldn't add to it. Verizon's new simplicity plan cuts
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 8: down on the nonsense in your life. Now there's just
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 8: one plan, one price. $ 30 a line per month, even
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 8: for a single line. And everyone gets our best 5G network.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 8: It's a phone plan designed to do exactly what a
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 8: phone plan is supposed to do. Isn't that a lot simpler?
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 8: Switch today at Verizon.com or at your nearest store. For
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 8: new customers, $ 30 per line includes auto pay and switch discount,
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 8: additional taxes, fees, and terms apply. Unlimited data is restricted
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 8: to on-device smartphone usage. Domestic data roaming at 2G speeds.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 6: If you're gonna play the game, boy, you gotta learn
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 6: to play it right.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: DraftKings is all about responsible gaming. It's more fun when
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: it's for fun. So play responsibly. DraftKings. The crown is yours.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. 21 plus.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 5: Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Welcome to the most
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 5: powerful kind of cancer care. One team unites two of
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 5: the nation's best hospitals. One team saves more lives every year.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 5: Our team, we're one against cancer. Mass General Brigham.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: Catch 12. Let's go to your calls here again.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 3: Christian Gonzalez signs Patriots, Seahawks preview, all of it. Patty Nagwon,
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 3: get us started.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 4: What is up guys?
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 11: What's going on today?
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 4: You know, I'm so happy that this finally got done.
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 4: Put it behind us and, um, or they could put
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 4: it behind them. I should say, and a fan can
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 4: put it behind us. I just had kind of a
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 4: weird question. Um, Now that Gonzalez is making this money,
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 4: at least for this game, do you see them kind
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 4: of mixing up who covers JSN? Like, do you think
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 4: we get a few different coverages of, like, Marcus Jones
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 4: on them? Or do you think they just say, hey,
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 4: you're our big money guy. We just gave you all
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 4: this money. You got number 11 the whole game. I'll
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 4: take it out there, guys. Let's go, baby.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: Thanks for the call. Evan, JSN coverage plan.
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 2: So I think it's going to be pretty similar to
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 2: the Super Bowl. So Gonzo took him on 15 routes.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 2: Marcus Jones had him on six. Carlton Davis had him
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 2: on six. So at least 50% of his routes were
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 2: on Gonzalez, right? Yeah. I think it would probably be
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 2: something pretty similar. You didn't just give this guy all
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 2: this money to... This is why you gave him the money, right? Right.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 2: This is why you paid him. This is why he
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 2: was worth the money. So I think it would probably
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 2: be pretty similar. Now, I do... imagine that Seattle is
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 2: probably going to try to move him around a little
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 2: bit more to try to get him away from Gonzalez
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 2: as much as they possibly can. So we'll, we'll see.
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 2: That's going to be something I think is going to
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 2: be a little bit of a feeling out with this
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 2: new offensive coordinator. You know, does how my, what are
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 2: his chops? Like, like, does he have the chops to
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 2: be creative like that? Cause Clint Kubiak was really creative
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 2: with JSN. They ran him out of the backfield. Some,
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 2: they ran him out of the slot out wide, you know,
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 2: really everywhere. So yeah, it made it harder, especially when
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 2: he was in the backfield to really shadow him all
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 2: over the place. So do they do that again? Did
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 2: they do that a little bit more? We'll see.
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 3: They weren't, yeah, they weren't as creative in the Superbowl
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 3: as I expected with JSN. Maybe they do some more
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 3: of it in this game, but I I'm maximizing Gonzalez
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 3: on him because the other thing is, so I remember
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 3: last year we made a big deal about Cooper cup
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 3: because Cooper cup, it had a really good playoff.
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: I believe it had a really good NFC championship game. Yeah,
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: it's 34.
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 3: Overall, he was kind of on a downwards trend last year.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 3: I'm not as worried about Cooper Cup in this game
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 3: as I was in the Super Bowl. Maybe shame on
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 3: me for that, but if they beat you throwing a
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 3: Cooper Cup, I think you tip your cap, right? I'm
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 3: just doing whatever I can to get JSN out.
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 2: Of this game. Well, it's a very top-heavy passing game. Yeah.
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 2: JSN had 1,800 yards last year to lead the league.
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 2: I don't think anybody had... over 700. If I, if
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 2: I have that number correctly, I remember this number from,
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 2: from February. Uh, it was a, so Jason had 1800
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 2: yards last year to lead the league. And I, I
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 2: think that it was something like 700 was the number
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 2: for the next closest guy was 600. Uh, so when
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 2: he had yards, yeah, it was JSN at 1793. Yeah.
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 4: 1800.
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 2: Puka had 1715 yards.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: Puka was kind of close. Nobody else had more than 1500.
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 2: No, no, no. I'm talking about on Seattle specifically. Oh yeah.
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 10: Yeah.
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 2: So Jackson Smith and Jigba had 1793. Then Cooper cup
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 2: had five 93. Yes. AJ Barner was at five 19.
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 3: So nobody else had more than KJ Barner's next at
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 3: two 82.
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So it was the very top heavy passing game
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 2: to begin with. Right. Last year. Now I'm sure that
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 2: they are hoping to get a little bit more out
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 2: of Shahid, you know, now that he's been there for
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 2: a full off season and all that kind of stuff.
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 2: So I'm thinking that they're hoping that Shahid eventually is
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 2: like their number two receiver and Cooper cup is really
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 2: more a number three receiver for them. So, you know,
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 2: between the two teams last year, Shahid had almost 700,
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 2: 687 yards between New Orleans and Seattle. He just got
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 2: to Seattle so late, you know, halfway through the year. So,
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 2: but looking at things like target share yards, you know,
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 2: of total offense percentages wise, you know, JSN was near
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 2: the top of the league in terms of just like
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 2: carrying a passing offense. So, like they did in the
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 2: super bowl. Like theoretically, if you can take him out,
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 2: they didn't do the other part. They didn't take out
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 2: Kenneth Walker. And that that's why the game was what
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 2: the game was. All right.
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: Let's go to Sean in Montreal. Sean, what's up?
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 11: Hey, I apologize if I, you answered this already because
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 11: I missed the beginning of the show.
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 2: But.
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 11: Was there a huge discrepancy or difference between what Witherspoon
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 11: got and the contract that, um, uh gonzo just signed
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 11: because i was kept wondering like why is it taking
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 11: so long and they did it you know on the
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 11: day before the first came uh and the other question
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 11: i have was about the bills it kind of irks
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 11: me that so many prognosticators are putting the bills like
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 11: as the best team in efc when thank you in
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 11: comparison to yeah comparison to the patriots it seems like
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 11: the patriots got a little bit better and that the
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 11: bills might've gotten a little bit worse and, and their
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 11: schedules tougher.
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, thank you.
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 11: The Rams are, are the top team and Patriots play
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 11: a great team in Seattle, but I think the Rams
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 11: are a little better. And then in the AFC, uh, Houston,
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 11: I think is better than Jacksonville. So the schedule otherwise
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 11: are the same, but the bill schedules is tougher. So
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 11: I don't, I don't get that. Like I think, uh,
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 11: the bills shouldn't necessarily be the favorite to win the
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 11: fc so i'll leave you that and uh and i'll
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 11: let you answer that all right uh go past thanks.
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 3: Thank you um we'll start with the gonzalez stuff because
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 3: the other one's gonna go on a tangent um it's
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 3: relatively similar.
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah the first two year money is is lower than
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 2: witherspoon's yeah uh which i think is Really interesting that.
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: It does seem to me— It's not— what is it? It's
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: like a million lower? I think less than a million lower?
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 2: No, it's a couple.
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: Did Witherspoon get 60?
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 2: Gonzalez got 53.9.
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: Oh, I was thinking 59.3. Sorry, yeah.
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Gonzalez got 53.9. This is Albert Breer reporting. 53.9
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 2: in the first two years, fully guaranteed. Witherspoon was at 59.
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 2: I think it was like 58.9 or not 59.
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: And what did McDuffie get? McDuffie was 50 flat, right?
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 2: McDuffie got 52. So he's close.
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: It's higher.
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 2: It's higher than McDuffie, but it's lower than Witherspoon, which
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 2: I think is interesting because my guess is, is that
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 2: was where the, the core sticking point was right for the,
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 2: for the two sides. It does seem like Gonzalez kind
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 2: of conceded a little bit on that part of the
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 2: contract to get this done. So yeah, it comes out,
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 2: it's reported, and this always happens, but it's reported that
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 2: it's the highest AAV. It's the highest total guaranteed money, uh,
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 2: for injury is the highest, you know, uh, total maximum
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 2: value of the contract. Uh, but the cashflow is a
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 2: little bit lower than wither spoons in the first two years.
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 2: So maybe a little bit of a, of a compromise
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 2: there to get it done. You know, we'll, we'll, we're
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 2: going to give you the money, you know, uh, guaranteed
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 2: for injury and all that kind of stuff. But we're
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 2: not going to give you as much as Witherspoon, but
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 2: when it gets reported, it's going to be reported that
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 2: you're the highest paid corner in the history of the league. So, right.
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 3: At the end of the day, he still sets the
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 3: full guarantee number in the overall number.
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 2: So a little bit more in terms of like the fluff,
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 2: if you will, you know, in terms of the total
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 2: money and the total guarantees, a little bit less when
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 2: you go under the hood and look at the contract.
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 3: Right, which is kind of, I think, what, you know,
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 3: the devil's always in the details with these things. On
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 3: the second part, the Bills, the three different games.
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 2: Your favorite topic. He called that, he did that on purpose.
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 2: Sean did that on purpose just to get you going.
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 3: They get the Ravens instead of the Steelers. They get
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 3: the Texans instead of the Jaguars. Do you realize how
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 3: close you were to Rams-Dolphins, by the way? The best
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 3: roster in years and the worst roster in years going head-to-head.
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 3: Because the Rams and Niners finished in a tie last
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 3: year in second place.
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 2: You're going to rant about the Bills. You know how
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 2: I feel about the Rams. You do the Bills things first.
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: You know what? I'll say this.
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 3: I was a little surprised by that call. I'm not
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 3: seeing as many people just default them as the best
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 3: team in the AFC. I'm seeing people do it with
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 3: the Broncos, which is where you have a problem. And
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 3: I don't necessarily agree with that either, but you really
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 3: hate the Broncos. The Broncos are to you what the
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 3: Bills are to me.
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: But I haven't seen it as much this year, nor
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: should it be. He's right.
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 3: And the Bills are favored to win the division, which
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 3: is still ridiculous. Patriots won it last year. They got better.
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 3: The Bills got worse. And the Bills have a harder schedule.
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 3: So unless you really believe in Joe Brady, which I
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 3: would say early returns have not been super encouraging.
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: The Patriots are the better team. Who is the best
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: team in the AFC, Evan?
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 2: In the AFC or the division? Because I think, you know.
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 3: Well, we already did this with the division. You don't
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 3: understand what a coin flip is, but.
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: Well, I would just.
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 2: Say that I think, you know, to Sean's point, I've
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 2: been listening to some, like, national podcasts. They do a
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 2: great job on the athletic football show. I'll shout them
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 2: out with Robert Mays. They do, like, around the league
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 2: division previews.
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 2: For each division. It's just a good way for us.
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 2: One team guys to kind of catch up on what
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 2: happened with all the other teams and stuff. So I
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 2: was listening to it on the plane and I was
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 2: listening to the AFC East one and the bills right
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 2: now are, they did it in order of betting favorite
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 2: to win the division. That's how they like to each
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 2: team and the bills right now, they were the first
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 2: one in the podcast, right? Like they, they are currently
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 2: the betting favorite to win the division. And yeah, I
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 2: think that's just Josh Allen respect, right? Like Drake may
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 2: is great. Drake may, I think it's going to be
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 2: a great again, but he's got to do it again.
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 2: He's done it once.
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: Look at the.
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 3: Josh Allen is being asked to do too much in Buffalo.
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 3: He just is plain and simple. That roster is kind
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 3: of falling apart.
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 2: So defensively they've, they've struggled.
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: Uh, right.
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 2: The most that they, I think offensively, you know, I'm
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 2: not the biggest DJ more guy, but it's better than
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 2: what they had last year at wide receiver more. It's
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 2: better than what they had last year. Yeah. But enough
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 2: that I think it makes, you know, it makes a
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 2: little bit of a difference. Uh, I mean, last year
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 2: was Keon Coleman and Shakir and, uh, shevers shavers, right?
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 2: The guy got hurt late in the year. Um, that
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 2: was not a good wide receiver.
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 3: I don't think DJ Moore suddenly, especially if we're talking
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 3: about context of the division, AJ Brown's better than DJ Moore.
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 4: Oh, of course.
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 2: But I think that DJ Moore is much better than
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 2: what Buffalo had last year. I'm comparing.
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 3: But the Patriots receiver group also got much better. If
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 3: we're talking about in context of the division, the Patriots
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 3: receiver group also got much better.
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: And the Patriots were the better team last year.
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 2: I'm not disputing that point. I am just saying that
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 2: if you're looking at what Buffalo had in 2025 on offense. Now,
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 2: I think the one thing that, or I guess two guys,
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 2: but same sort of thing. They lost David Edwards and
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 2: Reggie Gilliam. And maybe they're not going to play with
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 2: a fullback as much this year. And so the Gilliam
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 2: thing isn't necessarily a big thing. But David Edwards was
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 2: a top 10 guard in football last year for them.
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 2: Their offensive line was great. Their run game was great.
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 2: Josh Allen had great protection all season long last year.
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 2: So that was a real strength of their team. And
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 2: they were able to make sure that Josh Allen had
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 2: some help because he could turn the ball, you know,
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 2: turn around and hand the ball off to James Cook,
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 2: you know, 25 times a game. Right. So it's not
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 2: a complete house of cards. They still have Deion Dawkins.
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 2: They still have good players on the offensive line. But
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 2: David Edwards was a really, really good player for them
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 2: that they lost in free agency. He went to New Orleans.
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 2: So if their replacement for him isn't as good, then
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 2: does their run game take– their run game was awesome
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 2: last year. Top five in the league in EPA. James
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 2: Cook was an absolute stud season.
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 2: So we'll see. Defensively, you know, they get Jim Leonard
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 2: as their defensive coordinator under Joe Brady. I think he's got,
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 2: you know, a lot of promise, like a lot of
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 2: people look at Jim Leonard and think that he's like
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 2: the next, like, you know, McDonald or Jesse Minter or
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 2: something like that, you know, and we'll see. But they
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 2: talent wise, I don't think it gets talked enough that
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 2: their talent wise, they really fell off a cliff defensively. Um,
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 2: and I think that they're going to be a little
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 2: bit more aggressive and they're going to try to be
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 2: a little bit more up the field, uh, on the
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 2: defensive line so that, because, you know, as we know,
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 2: like their issue defensively is that they were getting run
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 2: over right every year. So I think that they're going
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 2: to try to be a little bit more aggressive and
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 2: try to, use their quickness, use Ed Oliver, use those guys' explosiveness,
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 2: and they're going to play more of a 3-4. They
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 2: were a 4-2-5 nickel defense under Sean McDermott for a decade.
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 2: They're going to play a different style of defense. So
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 2: we'll see how that all works out. I understand where
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 2: you're coming from because I think the Patriots have so
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 2: much more stability than Buffalo does right now. It's just...
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 2: you know, the quarterbacks like is Drake may get a
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 2: replicate what he did last year and be in that
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 2: upper echelon like Josh Allen is in or not. So
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 2: it's going to be interesting, but we'll see. I know,
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 2: I know you feel strongly about this on the other direction.
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying. So who is best team in the AFC?
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 2: The best team in the AFC.
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 2: I think that there's a tier. you know, top tier
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 2: of teams that I think any one of those teams
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 2: could come out of the conference.
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: It's a cop-out answer before you give the tier, but
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: I agree with you. It's one of those things that's
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: like nobody's did. There's a group of teams that one
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: isn't definitively better than the other. Kind of where we
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: left off last year.
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 2: It's hard to, it really is that kind of year. Like,
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 2: I think that it's a really good conference. I think
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of really good teams, but I think
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 2: that it's hard to separate the Patriots the Broncos, the Bills,
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 2: the Ravens. I think that would probably be the top
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 2: tier to me right now. We'll see about, like, Kansas City,
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 2: I'm not totally sold.
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 2: I'm not totally sold that that thing is going to
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 2: bounce back.
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: What about Houston?
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 2: Really good team too. I just, I think we all have,
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 2: we all watch them in the playoffs last year against
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 2: the Patriots and we all watch CJ Stroud. I don't
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 2: know if CJ is CJ Stroud on the level of
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 2: may Lamar, Josh Allen, right? Like that.
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 2: I guess you could maybe make the argument that they
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 2: should be up there with the Broncos in that case
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 2: because the quarterback in Denver is not great either. But yeah,
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 2: they're definitely in the hunt for sure.
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: All right, let's do some emails. We'll start it off.
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 3: Sean in Ottawa just watched the Super Bowl rewatch Super
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 3: Bowl based on my memory I thought it was a
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 3: knockout from start to finish but I honestly thought the
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 3: teams were very evenly matched in the first quarter if
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 3: not giving a slight edge to the Patriots although they
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 3: were down two field goals obviously Drake's clock got sped
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 3: up I think this week should look entirely different I'm
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 3: not too familiar with the offseason moves so we kind
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 3: of already did this Seattle where are they stronger weaker
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 3: who's Seattle going to miss the most of all their
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 3: departures injuries who's Seattle going to miss the most Evan.
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 2: The obvious answer is Kenneth Walker. I mean, like, I
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 2: think they're probably going to miss him the most, but
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 2: you know how I feel about running backs.
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: I think it's sneaky. Reek.
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 2: I think that their flexibility on defense, especially in the
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 2: secondary could take a big hit without Brian and Reek.
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 2: It's not the, they're not as good of players as
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 2: Kenneth Walker is right. But the drop off, But the
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 2: drop off and also just like their depth and their
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 2: diversity back there, like are they able to do like
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 2: all the dime stuff that they did last year where
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 2: they can kick Witherspoon and Imanwari both down into the box,
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 2: both as blitzers and things like that? Are they going
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 2: to be able to do all of that and rely
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 2: on their their backup set outside corner to hold up
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 2: on the outside? Like a guy like recall and did
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 2: recall and had a really good couple of days of
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 2: joint practices when they were the, he was here with
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 2: the thoughts.
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: I thought he kept getting beat.
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 2: I died the second day. I thought he was pretty good.
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, he's a good player. I think he's a
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: good player, but I.
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 2: Thought it was competitive in both days. So we'll see. I, that,
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 2: that's a spot that, you know, that could be a
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 2: little bit of a drop off for them for sure.
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: Uh, Sam emails in pointing out. I'm stoked. Lockdown.
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 3: Gonzo got his bag. Uh, now I'll answer. Anybody has
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 3: a question about whether he deserves or not.
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 5: Duh.
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 3: He's never allowed a hundred yard receiver talking about prime
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 3: Tyree kill chase, uh, Jamar chase, AJ Brown. Has he, yeah, he,
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 3: I don't think he has ever allowed a hundred yards
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 3: in a game. I mean, those numbers can be a
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 3: little weird, but.
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 2: Like an individual hundred yard receiver, like one guy going
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 2: for a hundred yards, uh, Not off the top of
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 2: my head that I can remember.
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 5: No.
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 2: Not one guy getting over 100 on him.
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: All right, Evan. Here's a topic you love. This is
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: from Max.
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 3: How does this affect their salary cap situation with Drake
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 3: coming due?
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: Are they destined for cap hell?
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 2: No.
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: That's a hard no.
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 2: No.
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: Go ahead, and then I'll do my part.
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 2: As much as I defended the wall at the beginning
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 2: of the show, though, in terms of the cash spending,
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 2: which is a narrative that I hate and I think
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 2: is antiquated at this point about this team, you do
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 2: have to understand that when Christian Gonzalez and Drake May,
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 2: when their contracts really kick in and they're both making
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 2: top-of-the-market money, the money's going to have to come from somewhere, right? Like,
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 2: there are going to be repercussions of that cap repercussions,
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 2: cash repercussions.
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah. But that being said, you hope that having Drake
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 2: main Christian Gonzalez is two superstar players. You hope that
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 2: they elevate what's around them a little, you know, enough
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 2: to cover up for that. That's why you pay those
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 2: guys that kind of money. But like, look at, and look,
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 2: I think they should be different than Kansas city, but
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 2: look at what's happening in Kansas city. You know what?
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 2: Now that they're paying the homes, right. It's, trade Tyree Kill,
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 2: it's trade Trent McDuffie, it's trade LeJarius Sneed. It's letting
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 2: all these types of guys walk because they're paying the
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 2: quarterback $ 60 million a year.
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 3: And look, they've set it up to kind of reset
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 3: around those guys where Robert Spillane has no guaranteed money
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 3: in his contract after this year, Ramondre Stevenson, Carlton Davis,
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 3: like some of these free agents, not the big ones,
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 3: I think Milton Williams still does, but like the mid-tier
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 3: free agency signings, And that you got to replace him
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 3: through the draft. That's we have to also, I'm so
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 3: used to having like the sports sub blog in front
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 3: of me that has times. So I missed this earlier,
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 3: but let me just say a legal seafood is giving
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 3: fans a true taste of Boston. This season is the
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 3: official seafood restaurant of the new England Patriots pregame or
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 3: post game.
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: Get the seafood. You love it.
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 3: Your local restaurant today, www.legalseafood.com. Maybe I'll pick something up later.
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 3: Celebrate being done talking about the Gonzalez contract. That wouldn't
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 3: be a bad way to celebrate.
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: And then I can.
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 3: Crash down on some nice Bob's furniture, counting down the
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 3: days until first kickoff, really day, until first kickoff now.
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 3: Spend the time getting your home game day ready with
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 3: Bob's Discount Furniture. Shop Bob's for winning picks, like the
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 3: Play Day sectional, packed with watch party perks, like built-in
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 3: charging ports.
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: So helpful.
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 3: As somebody who's strung a number of extension cords behind
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 3: couches and they get unplugged and it's annoying, that's a
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 3: big one. Party perks like built-in charging ports, cup holders
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 3: for all of your favorite game day beverages, shelving and
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 3: storage for your football season must-haves, and a pop-up sleeper
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 3: in case any of your fellow fans need a place
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 3: to crash after overtime. So stop in or shop online
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 3: to score big on football season finds with Bob's Discount Furniture,
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 3: the official furniture store of the New England Patriots. The
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 3: other thing I was going to say about the cap
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 3: is because I've seen some people point out, well, no
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 3: team's ever won a Super Bowl with a cornerback taking
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 3: up 9% of the cap.
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: He's not going to take up 9% of the cap forever. Like,
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: the cap shoots up every year.
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 3: Remember when Sertan signed?
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 2: All those stats are so. Right. That's so chicken or
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 2: the egg.
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 3: When Sertan signed his deal, everybody said, oh, my, wow.
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 3: The quarterback market's really exploding. He's not even top five
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 3: highest paid now. It's been two years. Like, this contract's
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 3: going to get topped next year by Quinian Mitchell. So,
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 3: they're going to have to manage it. But no, they're
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 3: not heading to cap hell. They just have to draft well,
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 3: which you have to do anyway.
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 2: And look, I'm the wrong person to do this because
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 2: I pretend to be good at math. But that's a
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 2: correlation causation thing. Has no team won the Super Bowl
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 2: with the cornerback taking up 9% of the cap because
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 2: the cornerback is taking up 9% of the cap? Or
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 2: is that just a coincidence that no team has won
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 2: the Super Bowl? Because they've played, what, 60 Super Bowls, right?
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 3: Wasn't Brady the first quarterback to win a Super Bowl
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 3: in his first full year as a starter?
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: Like, it never happened. So a lot of these things
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: never happen until they happen. Right.
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 2: You know, it was for a while there, it was
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 2: that you didn't win the Super Bowl if you were
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 2: paying like a diva wide receiver, right? Like if you're
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 2: paying the big money wide receiver, you know, then big
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 2: money wide receivers start to win Super Bowls. And then
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 2: that changes. And now it's the cornerback. Like all those
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 2: things are, I don't necessarily, like I said, it's a,
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 2: it's a correlation causation thing.
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: It doesn't happen until it happens.
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 7: All right.
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: Here's a good question from Steve.
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 3: We already talked a little bit about Darian price, how
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 3: he's going to impact the run game, but is he
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 3: somebody the Patriots can attack in blitz pickup? How do
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 3: you feel about Darian price to pass blocker Evan?
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 2: He's a pretty stocky guy, right? Like, I think he's
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 2: got like the size to be pretty good at it.
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 2: I mean, he's a rookie, you know, but I, as
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 2: much as I would love to sit here and say, yeah,
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 2: like they can really, uh, you know, five 11 to 10.
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 2: So like, he's got some size, uh, as much as
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 2: I want to say that they, they can attack him
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 2: and blitz, but they have to get into a situation
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 2: where that matters.
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 2: Correct. You know, they have to be able to get
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 2: them into third downs and third and longs and third
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 2: and past situations, uh, in order to blitz them. So, uh,
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 2: that's where I would start with it. I don't know
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 2: if I'd necessarily go into the game plan and be like, Oh,
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 2: we can definitely attack the dairy and price and blitz pickup. Well,
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 2: if you're not in situations where you can blitz and
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 2: that's really, then what, what really are you gaining there? Right?
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 3: No, I've, Look, I, I would pressure him and bit
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 3: blitz pickup, but it's not that simple. You got to
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 3: get in a situation where he's on the field. You
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 3: got to call the right kind of blitz to counter it,
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 3: things like that. But if they get a rusher going
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 3: at them, like that's advantage Patriots, that will be something
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 3: to watch. Zach asks, does this new contract replace the
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 3: two years you already had?
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: Does it add to it? It replaces, I believe, sorry,
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: adds to. So yeah, both.
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 2: I haven't seen clarification about the fifth year option yet.
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 2: So I don't know if it's like truly like a
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 2: six year extension or sometimes they rip up the fifth
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 2: year option year. So hopefully we'll get some more clarity
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 2: on that here in the next 24 hours. But I
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 2: had the same question. I'm assuming that the fourth year
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 2: of his rookie contract is still going to count.
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 2: The question is, is that fifth year option you're going
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 2: to count?
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: So I'll say this.
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 3: Breer mentions the 2029 money becomes fully guaranteed in March 2028.
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: So we know there.
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 3: And all these things, even if it's a five-year extension
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 3: that fifth year can be a dummy year or whatever
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 3: so we'll need the real details but it sounds like
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 3: there's at least real tangible money.
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 1: I shouldn't say that.
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 3: Cause I guess he could not be on the roster,
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 3: but there's like a real concrete year, assuming he stays
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 3: on the roster for 2029.
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: So that would be four seasons from now.
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: Cause 26, 27, 28, 29.
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 3: So, and then it's, is there one or two more
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 3: years after that is the question, but he's here for, He,
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 3: it does sound like he's going to be up for
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 3: new contract before he's 30.
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 5: He's 24.
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: Now he turned 24 this summer. So he's going to.
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 3: Get one more like big payday after this, which is
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 3: probably something that maybe that's somewhere where they came, where
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 3: they came, right? We talked about, he gave a little
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 3: bit on that fully guaranteed. Maybe the trade-off was all right.
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 3: We're going to throw out the fifth year option year.
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 3: And now you get to be eligible again at 29
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 3: instead of at 30.
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: And that, that makes a big difference. I know it's
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: only one year.
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 3: Like Evan, we've seen this all the time in frequency
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 3: guy hits the market at 29 versus hits the market
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 3: at 30.
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 2: That's yeah.
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's a million couple million dollar difference probably.
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 2: So I believe with, I believe Witherspoon's deal was, was,
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 2: a full six year contract. Like it was, it was
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 2: two on four, right? So they, they, he got a
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 2: six year extension.
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 3: Witherspoon is signed through the 2031 season and then it
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 3: has three void years.
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 2: So I, I think that as of right now, and I,
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 2: I don't know if this is in for inside information,
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 2: but right now spot spot track has it as Gonzalez
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 2: being a 2032 free agent, which would mean that it's
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 2: a true four. It's a six year deal basically. Right,
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 2: where it's this year, the fifth year, option year, and
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 2: then the extension kicks in fully in 2028. It is
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 2: a four-year extension.
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 3: Which is the same thing that Over the Cap has
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 3: for Witherspoon. Over the Cap doesn't have anything for Gonzalez.
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: So, you know what? It's a good question. I didn't
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: really think about it.
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 3: Really, it's is he under contract for the 2031 season
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 3: or not is basically what this comes down to. Again,
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 3: I wonder if that's somewhere where maybe the Patriots compromise.
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 3: And that doesn't mean that they're rushing to get rid
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 3: of him, but it's just, you know, this it's a
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 3: weird balance. You want long-term security as player because who
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 3: doesn't want long-term security in their life, but also the
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 3: contract has to end eventually. And you want to be
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 3: in the most beneficial position when it ends. So I
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 3: think that probably the ideal split for Gonzalez is age,
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 3: you know, his age, 28, 29 season. So he's hitting
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 3: free agency at 29 going into his age, 30 year.
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 3: That would be realistically the best split for him. Um,
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 3: and maybe that's something the Patriots gave back where that
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 3: initial number is lower, but you know, you're out a
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 3: year sooner than Witherspoon is. So you're going to get
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 3: another chance to re-up and get paid. Maybe I'm just guessing.
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 3: I don't know, but that would be something. Cause I
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 3: remember when we were talking about what's taking so long,
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 3: I remember thinking, well, is there a conversation about a
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 3: three-year or a four-year deal? And Hey, the money's not
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 3: fully what you want, but you're going to get a
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 3: chance to get out and get paid sooner. Again, obviously
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 3: it's a four-year deal, but it, again, with that 50-year option,
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 3: it's You know, again, we're just guessing here.
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but it sounds to me like he's under contract
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 2: with the Patriots for six years now, including this year, right?
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 2: So five years after this year. So I think that
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 2: they just tacked on the four years onto this extension,
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 2: which is onto his rookie contract, which is good. I mean,
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 2: that's as much possible team control, really, as you can
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 2: give it in today's NFL.
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 3: All right, 8-5-5, Pats 500. You guys are doing PU
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 3: after this, right? So we've got to be out at 11.50?
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 2: Like 1155, 1150. Yeah. Okay.
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 3: So you've got about 20 more minutes. If you want
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 3: to call in, should we do an old school feature
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 3: of our shows? Little key matchups. I know we kind
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 3: of already talked about the breakdown, but.
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: Like absolutely one V one.
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 3: Player matchups, this guy versus that guy. You want to
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 3: get us started?
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 2: Sure. I mean, I think that the number one matchup,
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 2: I think we're all looking for in this game is
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 2: Will Campbell versus their edge rushers, right? Can he have,
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 2: a bounce back game from the super bowl not saying
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 2: that he played well in the super bowl by any
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 2: means the 14 pressure number that next gen threw out
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 2: there was was crazy i remember thinking that at the
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 2: time yeah after i charted it being like that was
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 2: that 14's a lot uh pff for what it's worth
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 2: had him with eight either way it's not good right
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 2: i'm not trying to say he played well right i'm
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 2: Just a little bit caca. But eight sounds about right.
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 2: Eight or nine, right around there. It was mostly Nwosu
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 2: and Derek Hall that gave him the most problems. You know,
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 2: bull rushing, you know, pressing the pocket. So this is
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 2: a big, big litmus test barometer type of game for
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 2: Will Campbell. We've been talking him up all summer. He's
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 2: had a really good training camp. He looks healthy. He
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 2: looks stronger. He looks like his anchor is stouter. He
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 2: looks like he's got some more tools in his tool
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 2: belt to use in terms of different past sets and
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 2: hands and things that he can change up and things
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 2: like that. Now's the time I did right out of
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 2: the shoot. He's going to face the same exact guys
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 2: that gave him problems. So I'm really, and really, I
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 2: would say that like over the first couple of weeks,
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 2: cause her big gave him a lot of problems last
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 2: year too, at Pittsburgh. Yeah. So it's, it's really the
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 2: first two weeks of the season. I would say for
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 2: Campbell are really good litmus tests of how much has
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 2: he improved? The biggest thing that I'm looking for, other
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 2: than just the anchor on the eye test, right? Which
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 2: is the obvious thing compared to the playoffs last year
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 2: is those sets though. Like he was, he was just
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 2: going back into the quarterback too much on the vertical
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 2: sets and, And so does he have something different in
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 2: his bag? Does he have a different, a more aggressive
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 2: set that he can use now to go out and
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 2: get guys instead of bracing for contact and catching guys?
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 2: You know, can he bring the fight to them a
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 2: little bit more? But I'm really this is as good
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 2: as it gets for offensive line guys, because, you know,
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 2: this is exactly what you want to see. You want
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 2: to see Will Campbell thrown right back into the ring
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 2: of fire. And can he bounce back from seven months ago?
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 1: Real quick pro football.
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 3: I'll give you mine a second pro football talk. Just
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 3: added some more details on the Gonzalez contract. Does have
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 3: it running through 2031. So that is the six year.
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 3: Like the full six year extension. I believe I'm doing
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 3: my math right.
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: But either way runs through 31 with, you know, he
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: has the breakdown of the base salary off season workout
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: bonus per game roster bonus on and on and on.
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 3: But Um, just to answer that question gets, I wish
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 3: we'd seen that, uh, 10 minutes ago.
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 1: It would have been helpful. Um, but so, all right,
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: we'll do one on each side of the ball just
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: to change it up. I mean, that's obviously a good one.
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: Will Campbell.
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 3: I'm going to go to whatever extent we see it.
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 3: AJ Brown against Devin Witherspoon. because Witherspoon also got a
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 3: big contract this off season. AJ Brown was one of
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 3: the biggest names of the off season. That's a heavyweight
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 3: fight that nobody's talking about because we have Gonzalez and
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 3: JSN on the other side.
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: And if AJ Brown can win that, and you.
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 3: Talked about it earlier, Witherspoon's at his best in the
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 3: slot advantage, AJ Brown, if they're matching up on the outside, right.
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 3: Where he's a little more comfortable, that kind of thing.
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 3: If he can win that, I mean, now Seattle's really
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 3: scrambling because I'll take Romeo Dobbs over Josh Jobe.
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: I'll take Pop Douglas over whoever ends up in the slot.
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 3: You know, one thing the Seattle defense struggled with last year,
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 3: and again, it's a lot of the same personnel. They
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 3: didn't cover tight ends and running backs well. That's kind
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 3: of the one coverage advantage they have is Devin Witherspoon.
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 3: And by the way, if they move Devin Witherspoon onto
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 3: somebody else, all the more you get A.J. Brown on
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 3: somebody who shouldn't be covering A.J.
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: Brown.
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 3: But if he can win that, and they get it blocked,
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 3: it really might be free eats for Drake May. So again,
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 3: it's a big if, if they get it blocked, but
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 3: if AJ Brown beats Devin Witherspoon, what can Seattle's defense do?
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 1: And that is in itself a big if.
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 3: Witherspoon's really good, but if the Patriots can win that matchup,
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 3: they're going to win across the board in the passing game,
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 3: and then Drake May just gets to go to town.
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 2: Well, just in general, it's his Patriots debut, right? So
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 2: there's going to be some buzz with AJ Brown. It's
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 2: going to be a big topic tomorrow night, and Rightfully so.
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 2: It's his first game. I'm also, I would put Romeo
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 2: Dobbs in the same category, like this nucleus of pass catchers,
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 2: these two top two guys that they've kind of rebuilt
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 2: this passing game. The idea of acquiring both these guys
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 2: and Brown and Dobbs was that in the playoffs, their
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 2: receivers weren't good enough against top competition. These guys are
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 2: supposed to elevate the ceiling of their passing game so
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 2: that when they go up against the Seattles of the world,
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 2: they're better equipped. to handle that. So we get it
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 2: right out of the chute. You know, can, can they
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 2: go out there and do that? Can they be better
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 2: than digs in case on booty were against the same
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 2: team last year. So we'll see. I, what I'm most
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 2: interested specifically with AJ Brown, my guesses is that Seattle
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 2: is going to play a lot of cover six again
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 2: and a lot of cloud. So they're probably going to
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 2: put a safety over the top of AJ Brown a
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 2: lot of the time and try to take away the
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 2: deep ball from me and, So, you know, those slants
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 2: that we saw all summer long, Alex, I feel like
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 2: they got to hit a couple of those early because
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 2: that's what they're going to kind of be giving them
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 2: a little bit. So if you can hit a few
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 2: of those early, like maybe they have to change up
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 2: how they're covering him a little and put, you know,
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 2: a different sort of look on it. So that was
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 2: the big thing, too, in the Super Bowls is that
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 2: Patriots just couldn't get him out of that too high shell.
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 2: And then May goes to work against single high safety,
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 2: but against two high safeties, he struggled a little bit,
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 2: you know, in the playoffs. So that's going to be
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 2: a good matchup. You know, I didn't write it down
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 2: because I don't know if it's, you know, I had
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 2: some like, you know, more, I don't know. It's a
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 2: good one. I just don't know if, I think A.J.
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 2: Brown is going to be kind of a focal point
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 2: of Seattle's game plan in terms of what they're going
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 2: to do. So I'm not entirely sure that A.J. Brown
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 2: is going to have like a monster first game with
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 2: the Patriots.
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 3: But if they do that, and this is kind of
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 3: the second half of my take there, if they take A.J.
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 3: Brown out, do they have the resources? Like, does that
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 3: open the door for Romeo Dobbs to go for 100 yards?
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 3: Does that open the door for Pop Douglas to maybe
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 3: have a big game?
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 2: Do they?
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 3: And I'm not saying they won't do it. Do they
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 3: have the resources to commit to A.J. Brown the way
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 3: they need to commit without leaving themselves exposed elsewhere?
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think that's the hope is that
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 2: those guys are better ancillary targets than Keishon Booty, Matt Collins,
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 2: you know, Pop Douglas a little better than he was
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 2: a year ago, like that sort of thing. Those are
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 2: going to be the matchups, you know, for them that
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 2: the Patriots might be able to to exploit further down
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 2: the depth chart. I would just imagine it might not
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 2: even be Witherspoon on him primarily, but I would imagine
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 2: that they're going to have a corner on them at
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 2: the line of scrimmage and they're going to have a
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 2: safety over the top of AJ Brown for a lot
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 2: of the game. Yeah. So, you know, what's the way that,
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 2: you know, you get away from that. It's either beating
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 2: them so bad with the other guys that they have
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 2: to kind of tilt the coverage a different direction or
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 2: it's running the ball. really at them because they're going
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 2: to play bowl safeties up top, then you have to get,
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 2: eventually you have to get that extra safety in the box.
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 2: And now you can, you know, have those one-on-one matchups
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 2: on the outside. We already talked a lot about the
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 2: other one. I had, I had three, but the second
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 2: one was, you know, just Gonzalez JSN.
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 3: I was going to say on the other side of
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 3: the ball, we, we talked a lot about that. Let's,
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 3: let's kind of put that one to the side. It's,
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 3: it's the marquee matchup of the game. Besides Gonzalez JSN, what's,
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 3: what's your key matchup on the other side of the ball?
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 2: I think Milton Williams, Anthony Bradford, whoever it is on
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 2: the inside for Seattle, I thought Milton Williams had a
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 2: Super Bowl that it could have been even better. He
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 2: got pressure, but he couldn't finish the sacks multiple times.
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 2: He did finally get one later on in the game,
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 2: but Darnold got away from him several times. Just talking
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 2: to Milton Williams, I feel like He felt like he
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 2: kind of gassed himself like he was trying so hard
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 2: to make a play for the defense in the Super
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 2: Bowl that he kind of just was like overzealous. Right.
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 2: And then he kind of was running out of gas
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 2: and maybe didn't realize how slippery like Donald's on a runner.
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 2: But he's maybe a little bit more elusive than they
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 2: gave him credit for until they played him.
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 1: In a game.
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 2: So Williams on paper, you know, you look at his
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 2: Superbowl performance and it was six total pressures with a sack, right?
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 2: Five hurries in a sack. That's really good on paper.
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 2: But when you watch the game, it didn't feel like
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 2: he left some meat on the bone in that game.
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 2: And you know, some, some opportunities to get some sacks.
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 2: Anthony Bradford is their weak link on their offensive line.
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 2: Like he's, He's the guy that they need to target
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 2: as early and often as they possibly can. Sundell, their center,
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 2: is not great either, but Zabel's really good at left guard.
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 2: But Bradford's the guy that if I'm circling who I
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 2: want Milton Williams to get his one-on-ones against, it would
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 2: be him at right guard.
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 3: So I'm actually going to go— that' s a good one.
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 1: I'm actually going to go to the outside.
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 3: Charles Cross and Abraham Lucas against Elijah Ponder and Draymond Jones.
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the big picture one, right? Right.
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 3: We saw how that, and yeah, maybe that's a better
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 3: way to put it. It's more about forecasting what the
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 3: rest of the year is going to be. We saw
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 3: the Patriots got beat up on the edge, not so
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 3: much in the pass game, but in the run game.
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 1: In the super bowl.
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 3: And can those guys get more of a push? I
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 3: think Abraham Lucas was their highest graded blocker in the
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 3: super bowl. If I remember correctly, the Seahawks. So, you know,
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 3: that's a spot where we know the Patriots are, are
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 3: a little bit thinner. It's a good test for them
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 3: right away. And they have to be able to win there.
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 3: Cause if Seattle can just run those stretch plays again,
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 3: Over and over and over, they're going to be able
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 3: to control the tempo of the game. They'll be able
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 3: to stay on schedule. They're not going to have to
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 3: throw the ball a ton. That's a major advantage for
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 3: the Seahawks. So can the Patriots edge guys almost more
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 3: against the run than the pass? I know we've talked
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 3: a lot about the pass rush and blitzing and things
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 3: like that this summer, but in the run game, can
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 3: they hold stout?
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: You mentioned it earlier.
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 3: They made a point moving on from Caleb on chase
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 3: on bringing in Draymond Jones.
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: More stout, more beef on the outside.
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 3: Do we see that translate in this game? Yeah.
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 2: I mean, it is the biggest question mark on the team,
• 1:43:31
  Speaker 2: if you ask me. Now that Gonzalez is done, this
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 2: is by far the biggest question mark on the team.
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 3: Is that kind of nice, though, that we can say
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 3: that now that this... Now that Gonzalez isn't a... Don't
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 3: put that caveat on everything.
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 2: But with Ed Rusher, it's everywhere. It's top of the
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 2: depth chart. It's bottom of the depth chart. It's depth.
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 2: It's ceiling and overall talent of that group. You know, they...
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 2: you knew that Gabe Ackes, we knew that Gabe Ackes
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 2: was like a big wild card in that room, right?
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 2: Like they needed Gabe Ackes to kind of hit so
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 2: that they could elevate the overall talent of that room.
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 2: Right now, I don't know if Gabe Ackes is playable. Now,
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 2: they might have to play them because.
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 3: You probably, you can't have both edge guys play a
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 3: hundred percent of the snaps.
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 2: So they're going to have, right. So he's going to
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 2: play a little bit. It worries me, you know, based
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 2: off of what we saw in the preseason, but he's
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 2: going to play a little bit. I, I really, that
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 2: is really the biggest thing. And Charles crosses is a
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 2: really good player. I left tackle. Abraham Lucas can be
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 2: had at right tackle, but is a solid starter and, I, I,
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 2: that's going to be a big, big thing. That's why
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 2: I highlighted Milton Williams. Cause I, I just think that
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 2: that interior pressure all year long, but also specifically to
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 2: this game, they're going to have to win in the
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 2: middle of the, of the defensive line. Like that's where
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 2: their game records are on this defense. Where are you
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 2: right now? I know we, we have to wrap soon,
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 2: but you know, with Accus, like I, I just, I
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 2: worry about, about him looking pretty, pretty bleak in September.
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 2: If I'm being honest.
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I'm not as excited as I hoped
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 3: I'd be. I still think long-term he can develop into
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 3: a player, but he's going to have to learn on
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 3: the fly, and that means some real growing pains and
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 3: some real rough moments early. I think at this point,
• 1:45:26
  Speaker 3: you hope we get around Halloween and it starts to
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 3: click for him, and it's like, all right, he's seen
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 3: all this football, and now it's starting to translate, but... Yeah,
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 3: I mean, he's behind, and he's behind right away, and
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 3: you wish they had another player, another veteran that could
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 3: bump him down the depth chart a little bit. He's
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 3: going to have to play to learn, but not have
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 3: to play as much, or not have to play maybe
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 3: some high-intensity snaps. But still believe in him long-term, because
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 3: I think the overall talent is there. He's just got
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 3: to catch up to the speed of the NFL game,
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 3: and he doesn't have a lot of time, really, any
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 3: time now at this point to do it. He's going
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 3: to have to do it in the play.
• 1:46:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, hopefully they can simplify it for him. I think
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 2: that's what the biggest thing that he struggled with in
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 2: the preseason and in camp is it just all seemed
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 2: to be moving too fast for him and it seemed
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 2: like he was trying to do too much. So can
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 2: you just give him like one or two or three
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 2: coaching points, like set the edge, convert to a bull
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 2: rusher when you see pass, read pass, you know, like just...
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 2: Keep your eyes outside. Don't let anything outside of you.
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 2: And if you can simplify the game like that, then
• 1:46:30
  Speaker 2: maybe they can get him to be playable at an
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 2: acceptable clip in the first month of the season. But
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 2: they need that to work out. I know a lot
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 2: of people are also saying the same thing about Harold
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 2: Landry eventually coming back. I don't have any inside information whatsoever.
• 1:46:46
  Speaker 2: I'm not counting on Harold Landry coming back at all. Right.
• 1:46:49
  Speaker 2: Like that.
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 3: And if he does like what kind, if he comes
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 3: back as the player he was last year, that doesn't
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 3: mean much.
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah. But if he comes back at all, then I
• 1:46:58
  Speaker 2: just kind of been taking that as a bonus at
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 2: this point. Like I'm not banking on it. I'm not
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 2: counting on it by any means. So we'll see. The
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 2: last one I had was just, I mentioned it earlier,
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 2: but pop against their safeties in the slot. You know,
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 2: I thought there was like four or five times in
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 2: the Super Bowl where they had Pop Douglas on a safety,
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 2: which is a matchup that he's going to win every
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 2: single time. And Drake may just didn't have the time
• 1:47:23
  Speaker 2: to get the throw off. Right. So can they block
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 2: it better, obviously, to give Pop some opportunities? Because I
• 1:47:30
  Speaker 2: do think he can win deep against his team from
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 2: the slot. I think that they're going to match him
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 2: a lot with the safeties. The safeties are going to
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 2: catch him a lot down the field, like eight, nine,
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 2: 10 yards down the field and try to run with
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 2: him that way. So I think that that's an opportunity
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 2: for them if they can block it to be able
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 2: to make some big plays happen against Seattle. Maybe more so,
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 2: I would say, than trying to throw it outside the
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 2: numbers against the Seahawks. I think you're better off trying
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 2: to get some of those inside matchups with Douglas.
• 1:47:59
  Speaker 1: I will add one more as well, and it's the
• 1:48:02
  Speaker 1: Patriots versus the Seattle crowd.
• 1:48:06
  Speaker 2: I know, but it's true.
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 3: Like I mentioned this before and it's gone understated because
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 3: of the Gonzalez stuff and Trayvon Henderson being hurt and
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 3: all that.
• 1:48:15
  Speaker 1: Like penalties are never good. Obviously, you really can't be giving.
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 3: Seattle any extra yards in this game. That is especially
• 1:48:23
  Speaker 3: on offense. They have to stay on schedule. They didn't
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 3: stay on schedule last year in the super bowl. It
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 3: allowed that Seahawks pass rush to really get going and
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 3: get creative and mix some things in that the Patriots
• 1:48:34
  Speaker 3: didn't necessarily have counters to, uh, We saw them do it,
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 3: you know, midway through camp, they're going into the bubble
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 3: and blasting the music. Like, they've been preparing for this
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 3: for months. And I think they were right to get
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 3: ahead of it. Let's see how it works out.
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 1: Have they announced the official for tomorrow's game yet?
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 2: Not that I have seen, but it's a good point.
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 2: And I think that also, well, they definitely got some
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 2: crowd noise in the Super Bowl. That was a very,
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 2: obviously being out on the West Coast, that was a
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 2: Seattle crowd.
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 2: No doubt about it, but... you're hoping that Drake may
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 2: is going to be a little bit more Brady ish
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 2: at the line of scrimmage this year and have the
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 2: ability to see things pre-snap and make adjustments and make
• 1:49:13
  Speaker 2: protection calls and audible and all that kind of stuff.
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 2: If they have to go into the silent count and
• 1:49:19
  Speaker 2: the silent cadence and all that kind of stuff to
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 2: handle the crowd noise, like how much can you really
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 2: expect them to be playing chess before the snap? If
• 1:49:28
  Speaker 2: they can't communicate verbally, you know? So I think that's
• 1:49:32
  Speaker 2: a big factor in this game. Maybe even more so
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 2: than any other matchups just because of the way Seattle
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 2: beat them the last time. With all the pressures and
• 1:49:42
  Speaker 2: the blitzes and things like that. If you're going to
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 2: combat that kind of stuff, you would think that it's
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 2: going to be Drake May at the line of scrimmage
• 1:49:49
  Speaker 2: looking around saying, OK, you blocked this guy, you blocked
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 2: that guy. Well, that's harder to do when you can't hear.
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 2: So it's a big part of it.
• 1:49:59
  Speaker 1: So, I can't find an definitive.
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 3: The internet is saying it might be our old friend
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 3: Adrian Hill working the game, but that's just the internet talking.
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 3: We'll wait and see, but that could be a factor
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 3: as well. Final thoughts on this matchup as we wrap
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 3: it up.
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 2: I've felt cautiously optimistic about this game from the jump,
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 2: and I think it goes back to when we started
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 2: Big Picture at the beginning of the show. I just
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 2: feel like it's a nice time to play Seattle. If
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 2: you're going to have to play Seattle in Seattle, the
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 2: new coordinator, the changes that they had personnel wise with
• 1:50:39
  Speaker 2: some of the losses that they had in free agency.
• 1:50:41
  Speaker 2: I don't know if this is going to be Seattle
• 1:50:44
  Speaker 2: and I'll say this and they'll, they'll blow doors tomorrow night,
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 2: but I don't know if this is going to be
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 2: Seattle at the peak of their power. Like they were
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 2: in the Superbowl, like that would Seattle was peaking.
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 2: When they played them the last time, that was a
• 1:51:00
  Speaker 2: juggernaut of a team that they played in Santa Clara
• 1:51:04
  Speaker 2: seven months ago. I think that every team has a
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 2: slower buildup to start the season. That's just we all
• 1:51:10
  Speaker 2: know that the extension of the preseason stuff. So I
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 2: wouldn't be if they had to play Seattle in Seattle.
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 2: I still stand by that. I think this was the
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 2: best spot to get them in.
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 1: I'm with you on that.
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 3: And again, the more I look at that Seattle secondary,
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 3: the more I feel like there's a chance they just
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 3: got to get it blocked.
• 1:51:26
  Speaker 1: That's what it's going to come down to.
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 3: We'll have more on it next week. We'll react to
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 3: it Wednesday. We'll be back to Wednesdays.
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 2: 10 a.m.
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 3: Is going to be the time during the season. In
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 3: the meantime, obviously, Evan has more Patriots dot com. I
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 3: have more ninety five. The sports of dot com also
• 1:51:39
  Speaker 3: be on Felder and Maz later from four to six.
• 1:51:42
  Speaker 3: If you want to check that out, Patriots unfiltered coming
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 3: up next.
• 1:51:46
  Speaker 1: Evan, are you hanging on with them?
• 1:51:49
  Speaker 2: I don't think so. I think they've heard my voice enough,
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 2: but I will be. All right.
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 3: I'm just going to wrap it up. Maybe Evan, maybe
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 3: not on Patriots unfiltered. I'll be back next week.
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 1: Bye. Hey, this is Deuce. Thanks for tuning into the show.
• 1:52:02
  Speaker 6: If you really want to help us, make sure you
• 1:52:04
  Speaker 6: like us wherever you get your podcasts, like Apple podcasts
• 1:52:07
  Speaker 6: or Spotify. Also make sure you follow us on the
• 1:52:09
  Speaker 6: New England Patriots YouTube channel to see this show and
• 1:52:11
  Speaker 6: everything else that we do here at the Patriots.
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 1: Thanks a lot.
• 1:52:19
  Speaker 2: Thank you.