Know the Enemy: New England Patriots

C East foe, the new England Patriots. Plenty of change this year, and we'll get you the best knowledge on Miami's rival from one of the best reporters on the Pats beat. He'll break down the quarterback situation, the crazy depth in the secondary, who replaces some of the key cogs that are now departed, all of that and more on this Wednesday, June the tenth edition of the Drive Time Podcast Dolphins. Let's just go ahead and out right

to the chase. Today we have a long, long interview with Evan Lazar of c l n S Media there in Boston covering the Wing of Patriots. He also hosts the Patriots All twenty two podcast. He really does a heck of a job covering the Patriots every single day on the beat. Very knowledgeable, very in depth, very thorough in his coverage, and that's why I had to get him on for this No The Enemy edition of the

Drivetime podcast. Let's go ahead and welcome in Evan Lazare and joining me now on the Drivetime Podcast is Evan Lazare. He is the Patriots beat reporter for c l n S Media and the host of the Pats All twenty two podcast. Evan, Welcome in, my friend. Thanks for having me on. I think this is the first time I've been on since it's been officially on Dolphins dot Com and all that kind of stuff. So it's it's great to see come up, driver, it really is. I appreciate it. Man. Yeah,

we were. We did locked on Dolphins once and then I happen to stumble upon see I happen to see you at the scouting combine in Indianapolis during the media availabilities, and like, we didn't recognize each other right away, but then I was like, yeah, I've talked to this guy like seven or eight times before, and I was gonna ask you, man, it's that was the last time I think we really talked besides setting this show up, how you doing, man? You you're staying entertained. You're covering media

availabilities through Zoom. I imagine how you're holding up. Yeah, you know, we're all trying to kind of make it through this dull period here and make it through coronavirus obviously too. But we're holding up well. You know, we do the Zoom calls with the Patriots players about once a week, I would say, and we had the draft. It was big for us obviously as well, so a

lot going on there. But you know, I, like everybody else just kind of holding their breaths, crossing your fingers that football isn't gonna be too impacted with what's going on with the pandemic and we're actually gonna kind of scate by a little bit here and in terms of

football at least. Yeah, we had I think it was a Tom Pelo Sero tweet that sent out some of the guidelines for how to approach training camp and how there's gonna be some differences in terms of separating players and having the masks in the locker room and all that stuff. So interesting times indeed. But my takeaway from that, Evan was that football is near and for me and

the calendar turns June. I always kind of we talked about it in our d M s. The juices get flowing a little bit because everything in the off season is behind you. You have games to talk about in teams to break down, and that's kind of what we're gonna do here on this Know the Enemy series. You're my first guest to come on the podcast and talk about someone that's not the Dolphins, and wouldn't you know what? Week one Dolphins and Patriots. But I don't want to

preview the game necessarily. I just want to talk about the Patriots and get your feel for what this team might look like this year and for the first time in two decades, a lot of change, a lot different, especially at the main position, quarterback. And let's go ahead and start there. I'll go back to a former Patriot and Dolphin, Rob Nikovich, who says that he thinks that Brian Hoyer will in fact take the opening day starting job. I have three questions for you on that point. Is

their validity to that idea? Is there a possibility that it could be Brian Hoyer? What do you think of that? And how would the fan reaction be if they went into the season pretty much not going after any quarterbacks on the open market and just going in with not Jared's tod Him, but rather Brian Hoyer. I think the validity to it, Travis is just the fact that Bill Belichick is not going to hand anybody the starting quarterback job. So this is for all intensive purposes and open competition.

I say that with air quotes because it's like any young quarterback, right it's technically an open competition, but we know everybody in the building is leaning one direction, and that's towards Stidham. And now the Patriots have done everything this offseason with that sort of in mind of getting everything situated and ready to put jared'stid him in the best position to succeed. He is their long term answer

right now quarterback. He's the guy that they look for being the quarterback, hopefully for a while, a long long time, but at least through this season and beyond. So looking at it, I think there is validity to the fact that two things. One, it's an open competition. There's no guarantee that Jared'sidham is going to be the starter. Too.

With the pandemic. I think that there is a little bit of wishy washing this within the organization of is Jared really gonna be ready week one with not a full mini camp, maybe not a full training camp lead up, maybe not enough preseason games, in game action, live action.

At what point in time is it do we say let's just go with Brian Hoyer for the time being and build up to Stidham rather than throwing Stidham right into the fire week one and so you getting to be on the field every day and practice a beat reporter, you get a chance to see what Jared Siem looks like in practice and in preseason last year and all that fun stuff. But we also know that Tom Brady

doesn't miss reps, even in practice. So I'm sure that that Sidham never saw first team reps at any point I would I would venture to guess what did he look like in practice? Was there like, Okay, there's up some pop with this kid, There's something there with him? Well, early on in practice, I would say, you know, training camp,

mini camp, that those types of things. The thing that stood out everybody told us about the arm strength, the armed talent, The ball was gonna look nice coming out of his hands, all that kind of stuff, and that definitely got backed up on the practice field. But I would say that what got backed up even more was his ability to throw accurately down the field. I think in college, especially his last year at Auburn, there was some doubts about his accuracy and some inconsistencies there. So

there was a lot more pinpoint accuracy. I think when we got to see him that we were expecting. Now, he still was holding onto the ball for a little bit too long, takes too much time in the pocket sometimes to go through his progressions and get through his reads. But in terms of the ball accuracy, ball placement, he

was really really good at that. Then later in the season, because Tom Brady was a forty two year old quarterback, they did start to kind of manage his workload a little bit in practice and it kind of gives it him a little bit more first team reps later on in the season. So late in the season, Brady was a little bit banged up. He had the elbow thing, he had something in his lower leg too, and he kind of gave way to Stidham just a little bit

just to allow his body to recover. During the week, So Stidham did actually get more first team reps at the end of the year than I think most young quarterbacks in New England system would be accustomed to getting, like a Jimmy Garoppolo or a Jacoby bri said, wherever the case may be. Yeah, always for thinking right, like I always having a plan for what my be next. That's what Bill Belichick does. That's why he's been so great at the top of the division, at the top

of the NFL for two decades now. When you mentioned that Jared Simms aren't talent, and that's an interesting point to focus on because I actually there's probably a tweet out there on my tweet deck from last year's draft. I was a huge Kyler Murray guy, but besides that,

not so big on the twenty nineteen draft class. But I remember saying that if I was going to take a third round or a third day pick at quarterback, it would be Stidham because he is a five star high school recruit who had that talent and maybe had to develop it a little further at the professional level. And the best way I think you can get a young quarterback up to speed is to compliment him with a strong running game, and we know the Patriots are

as deep as anybody in the backfield. And I have it in my show notes here to ask you, Evan, is there pressure to get Sony Michelle the lion share? And the reason I ask you that is because he's a first round running back. Where you've got Rex Burke head there, You've got Damien Harris who was a second or third round pick. You can correct me on that one. And then you've also got James White, who I know

the Patriots have always loved. I'm just cry us to see how that backfield workload is divided up, and is there pressure to get Michelle more work? Because he was a first round pick, There's always there's a lot of mouse to feed. And with Michelle it's right from the bat and his rookie season. As soon as he was healthy and back on the field, it was his show on first and second down for the most part, or

early down run type of situations. And they worked at play action passing game really effectively off of having Michelle on the field, where they're averaging almost eleven twelve yards per tempt per past when Michelle is on the field, even though they're only throwing the ball thirty percent of the time because of how effective that play action game

was going with him. But to get pressure to get him on the field, I think the pressure is to get him to be a little bit more well rounded as a running back, so he can play more on passing situations, catch the ball a little bit out of the backfield, using more as a versatile weapon like that that we're so accustomed to seeing with other Patriots running

backs like a James White, like a Rex Burkhead. I think there's actually a lot of pressure from the outside, not saying from the inside, but from the outside actually to get Damian Harris work too, and get him some run and see what the Alabama running back has because Michelle hasn't really popped off. He hasn't been you know, he's been solid, but he hasn't been first round pick.

This guy is amazing that sort of thing. So there is some pressure, I would say, to get Damien Harris involved a little bit more from the fan perspective, because he did pop a little bit in the preseason last year and then he kind of went away and did that whole you know, fox bur a red shirt thing because he was a rookie, and so it would be nice to see him get more running year two with Michelle, I think we're we kind of know who he is at this point. He is what he is. He's good

between the tackles. He's got really good vision, good contact balance, He's got a little bit of burst from that initial kind of point where he puts his foot in the ground and gets up field and gets vertical, But there isn't a ton of wiggle or ability to create after the after contact or after the catch, if you will as well. So I think they kind of know who Michelle is at this point. We'd like to know a

little bit more about Damien Harris. You talk about those guys catching footballs out of the backfield, that's the Patriots are as good anybody in that regard getting the ball to the running backs in the passing game, and that to me kind of does replace some of the lack of production they might have had a receiver or tight end last year. But you go into the season, Evan, you look at the depth chart, it's just on paper, there wasn't a lot of focus to to bolster that

side of the football. You've got Julian Edelman there and to kill Harry coming back in year number two, speaking of kind of a Foxborough red shirt, so to speak. Maybe as far as production goes, it wasn't what you would have thought it was going to be. You've got Mohammed Sanu still there. How do you sell this fan base on you know, we talked about the consternation of Tom Brady's weapons last year. Is it better than last year? And how do you sell the fans on getting excited

about the pass catchers they have in New England. Well, start with the wide receiver position, because I do think there is some excitement with the tight end group, with the two guys that they just drafted in the third round, So we'll get to them in a second, but the

past catchers. Really listening to Bill Belichick, he was pretty honest about this right after the job, because they passed on this historically great wide receiver class and didn't draft a single guy at that position after struggling their last year, and they kind of explanation of for it was was that last year they you know, took a first round pick in to kill Harry. The year after that, they had a second round pick in that Mohammed Sanu trade.

So really, when you look at the resources allocated to the wide receiver position, they've now given up a first round pick in one draft, in the second round pick in the next draft on the position, and Belichick is kind of saying, you know, to me, that's a lot. You know, we're trying here to invest in wide receivers. So I think for the Patriots, they're hoping from within internally that this wide receiver group is going to improve that to kill. Harry is gonna have a great breakout

season in year two. And he's been down in the Houston area working with the footworking and trying to get his routes sharper and getting to get a little bit more explosive and a little quicker, be a little bit faster on his feet. So that's what he's doing down there. So they're hoping for a big year two out of the first round pick. They're hoping that Sanu is gonna play better than he did down the stretch last year.

You have Julian Edelman coming back, you have Damari Bird who they really like, who they stole from Arizona, and free agency as that speed demon, that burner on the outside, like Philip Dorsett was for them in the last couple of years. So that's the sort of what's being sold. That's the mantra coming out of the building right now is we are expecting the group that we had in house to take a leap this year from what it was last year. And some of these guys are going

to improve. And then you look at what they did at tight End in the draft by adding As and Keen, and now you start to get into some more versatility type weapons. Whereas Keene can play a little bit on the line of scrimage, you can kind of play like an h back and like that use check sort of San Francisco role. You can move him around a little bit, and you can get situations where those two guys can create mismatches and create opportunities after the catch as well.

So I think you add that together, you have the running backs together, and you just pray that the past catchers do make those jumps. You know, up in year two in the system person New and Harry, and that's where you're they're hoping to manufacture this offense. And if there's anybody that's going to manufacture a new style of offense or new just scheme in general. Of course, it's the Patriots who have reinvented themselves time and time again

under Bill Belichick. There up a new England. I've got Evan Lazare here. He is a Patriots be reporter for c l n S Media and the host of the Pats All twenty two podcast on the Drivetime podcast, part of the Miami Dolphins podcast network. And speaking of change, We're gonna get back to the offense here in just one second, because we left off the strongest unit on the offense by far, in the offensive line, in my opinion.

We're gonna come back to that. But I want to talk about speaking of trying to replace a player that really kind of exemplified what the scheme was, and Kyle van Noy now a Miami Dolphin. I don't want to get your take on what he is as a Miami Dolphin because we have exhausted that here on this podcast this offseason. But I'm curious to ask you because prior to last season, where he was mostly an edge linebacker who rushed a lot. Prior to that, he was pretty

much a fifty fifty off ball on ball guy. And I'm curious do they have an in house replacement for that. Did I go through the draft? You know about josh U j and Chase Winovitch and some of the guys they have there, is that kind of where they're looking to replace Kyle van Noy, I would say long term, yeah, Listen, I think Van Noy is a huge guy to replace for this defense that that flew under the radar a

little bit because of the Brady side. You know, Brady leaving, that's the big news, right, But Kyle van Noy last year led the Patriots and quarterback pressures. He did play of the time on the line of scrimmage, like you mentioned, kind of as a rush linebacker on the edge, but his ability to really set an edge against the run and rush the past or effectively do some of the different things they like to do schematically with the rush,

and also play off the ball in certain situations. He brought a ton of versatility, a ton of value, and he's also just a really good dude and a great guy to have in the locker room. So a big loss, I would say for Van Noyd. Just a professional football player that's very very smart, intelligent, savvy all those types

of things, and a very good athlete too. That's what made him a second round pick all those years back, and the Patriots kind of got that second round talent out of him over the last couple of years now in house replacements where they look for this, they did draft in Frennie Jennings from Alabama, who kind of has

almost an identical body type. Actually they're both kind of six three right in that he's sort of the guy that I would say long term because their best replacement just from a body type perspective, in a playing style perspective for that kind of strong side edge. Now Winovich, those guys have play speed, those guys have get off their explosive playmakers on defense, but I feel like those

guys mostly are away from the tight end, right. You want to get them away from the tight end on the weak side of the formation where they can worry mostly about rushing the passer and getting off the ball and being fast and being explosive, whereas on the other side with where Van Noyle was playing, you do need a little bit more of a girthier player that can hold up against double teams, that can hold up against the tight end kicking you out or something like that.

And that's where a guy like a Jenny is gonna come in. But I would say right now the guy that's gonna be is probably gonna be John Simon. And he's one of the strongest pound for pound players on the Patriots in terms of just conditioning and weightlifting and all that kind of stuff. A really strong, muscular guy that doesn't get pushed around easily, very smart and instinctive

good in the scheme. So I would assume that Simon will get most of that lion share of that work early on in the season, with the hope that Jennings can develop into that player eventually. I'm gonna come back and ask you in a minute about the most unsung player on the Patriots. I think Kyle van Noy was that for a long time. Because you mentioned John Simon. He is right up there in that group for me, along with Dietrich Wise and and some of the guys

they have Lawrence guy up front. They have so many players that I just don't think get the national publicity that they deserve because they are very good players, especially within that scheme. And speaking of that scheme, now, we saw Brian Floors and Chris Career really focus on the second Dary this offseason going out signing Byron Jones, drafting Noah Igbnogay too high resource allocations that are on the roster. The Patriots, for my money, still have the deepest secondary

in football. And I have many questions for you at this position. Let's go ahead and just start with his first part here. How do the Reps shake out beyond Stefon Gilmour, last year's Defensive Player of the Year at cornerback. What makes the Patriots so fun with their secondary is

that everybody's interchangeable. You really move everybody around from safety to corner to hybrid linebacker to slot to outside wherever they need them to play on a week to week basis based off the matchups they can play these guys. So after Gilmore, it's really becomes very much like a basketball lineup. You know, what's the other team rolling out? Are they rolling out a bunch of centers? Are they rolling out a bunch of point guards? And then we

kind of match up, you know the way that from there. Now, John Jones is gonna be their primary nickel. He's going to be the guy in the slot most of the time. He's a very effective slot corner runs in a low

for threes, high for two, something like that. So he's a track guy and he's the one that they've sort of tabbed as that tyree kill Marquis Brown, you know, go keep up with the track guys, right, And that's sort of what Jones has been able to do for them the last couple of years while also being a really stout run defender in that sort of new strong

side linebacker role. Because of the way that you know, offenses are playing so many through wide receivers set, so John Jones is going to be in the slot and playing that nickel role. Then it really comes out to you know, who's gonna be playing on the outsides, and Gilmore is obviously gonna be on one side, and then j C. Jackson, Jason mccordy, and Jawan Williams was their second round pick last year. They're all kind of fighting

for that third spot now. J C. Jackson has definitely played the best out of those three guys so far, and he's kind of the most exciting player of that group. Young Corners, still on his rookie deal, has got two more years of team control, and he's really played the ball extremely well in the air, and been a very tough kind of fights team man coverage corner like you're

so used to seeing with the Patriots. So Jason mccordy is kind of that consummate pro that can play inside, he can play outside, can play man, he can play zone. He kind of just do a little bit of everything. But when they really want to lock down and play man to man against across the board and really shut teams out, it's J. C. Jackson on the outside with Gilmore and John Jones in the slot. And I wouldn't

really expect that to change very much. You talk about that being five deep at that cornerback spot, and you you mentioned the flexibility you play pretty much every spot in the secondary. We're trying for the same thing down here because Brandon Jones from Texas, same idea. I talked about Noah Eggnogamy, Bobby McCain, Eric Rowe, you know him very well from your time up there in New Engcoland

as well. I'm curious because that depth is so valuable, but is there a certain point with that cornerback depth do they maybe want to try to peddle some of that for help elsewhere on the roster Because you mentioned Jowan Williams, Who I mean, he could be your fifth cornerback, a second round draft pick, Like, does he have more value for somebody else and bringing back more value on the roster elsewhere wre you might be weaker compared to

where you're so strong at cornerback right, And Joan Williams is kind of sensing that as well because he's been out trying to learn safety this offseason, so he can kind of add to his versatility to make himself a little bit more valuable on the roster because he just doesn't see the snaps at cornerback kind of presenting themselves right now for him despite that second round, top fifty pick in last year's draft, and they can't even get him on the field because of how deep they are

at corner The one guy and I keep on having this take and Patriots fans kill me for it every single time. But the one player is j C. Jackson. That does interest me because at some point he's gonna get paid for what he's done so far in the league.

He's got this year and then he's got a restricted free agent tender year after that because he was an undrafted free agent player and at some point someone's going to give him a contract, and kind of like with Malcolm Butler, I'm just not sensing that the Patriots are necessarily going to be that team that's gonna overpay for j C. Jackson. Keeping him around on a rookie deal, it's great value, and then keeping him around on a on a team friendly deal is great value for them

if they can figure that out. But if he's going to go out there and get you know, his big payday, his ten plus million dollars a year, I could see them try to peddle him and look elsewhere for help at a different spot that they need help out, whether it's a stud pass catcher or someone like that, which I do think is a possibility given how good j C.

Jackson has played in his first two seasons. I wouldn't be shocked if they're able to pull off a trade for a wide receiver or you know, for for a defensive lineman where they're a little bit short, or whatever the case may be, to get him, and then, really, are you gonna lose a ton by putting Jason mccordy and Jowan William in those snaps instead of j C. Jackson. That's sort of the shuffling question that you have to ask if you're Bill Belichick. Yeah, trying to find a

way to maximize your value. Right, you all have the same amount of resources and just try to find the way you can get the most out of it. And you mentioned paying J. C. Jackson. I imagine that becomes a little more difficult on top of Steffon Gilmour's contract, because that was one of those deals when it happened that nobody saw coming because Patriots don't play big in free agency, right, but they went out and got the guy, the exact guy to fit their system, and he turns

out to be a defensive Player of the Year. Just a couple of years in, you talked about him playing some safety, You talked about him being a second round draft pick. Perfect transition, perfect segue into Kyle Dugger the Patriots first pick this year, but it came in the second round. And speaking of unsung players, Patriots lose Deron Harmon to the Detroit Lions. Is that kind of the role he's thinking about in year one? Because you do have Devin mccordy, who is one of the best, most

again underrated safety is in the NFL. For my money. You've got Patrick Chung who fits a role in that defense to the t. Durron Harmon now gone, where does Kyle Dugger factor in? Well, Hey, that's a really great observation because I think a lot of people when they

drafted Dugger, they looked at him. He's rocked up, right, he's a he's a gym rat, he's two pounds six ft one, six ft two, and they saw like a chunk replacement, a guy that's gonna come down in the box, play against tight ends, play against backs out of the backfield, and you know, kind of hold up against the run with his physicality at safety while still adding that athleticism. Although I think that he could eventually play that role.

The role that he played at line or Ryan in college was as a free safety, as a deep guy playing over the top and ranging over the top and playing center field and ball hawking and all that kind

of stuff. And you look at the Deron Harmon departure, and to me, the easiest way for him on the field as a rookie is at free safety, is playing that center field role and cover one schemes and and post safety looks because they don't really have another guy outside of Devin mccorty that can do that regularly and do it consistently and ideally, like with mccordy last year. Mccordy last year actually split fifty fifty box and slot

in deep safety. You know, he was coming down into the box a lot more, and he has been a lot more in the later on in his career, not because he's lost a step or anything, just because he's added that versatility to his game where he can play like an intermediate robber role, or he can blitz the quarterback and some of their zero pressure looks, or he can cover a tight end or running back out of the backfield because of his cornerback experience early on in

his career. So having Harmon kind of allowed mccordy to be this like game plan chess piece for Bill Belichick where you just kind of move him around the defensive backfield wherever is best suited for him in that situation in that game. Whereas now without Harmon, it kind of pigeonholes mccority to only be playing in the deep part of the field, and that he's great at that. So it's not a terrible thing, but it just kind of takes away a little bit from his sort of versatility

in his game. So I think ideally Dugger would really take that role head on as a rookie and be able to play free safety, which is where his college coaches say he's the best suited to play there in the NFL and be pro ready day one. Is to be that ball hawker, to be that guy over the top, and that's where I think I hope at least that that's where they're going to go with him early on and then worry about bringing him into the box and having him do those sort of things a little bit

later on in his career. Yeah, I remember coming into the draft thinking that Kyle Dugger or Jeremy Chin are going to be Patriots because of the way they test and the way they play multiple spots at that safety slash defensive back position. And it's mean, I just I love the approach of sharpening a strength on your roster.

It's it's it's something that not every team does, but something the Patriots do so well to keep that pipeline full and just be able to replace, Like you mentioned, when a guy like J. C. Jackson goes out and gets big money somewhere else. If that's what happens. You can just fill in based on your roster behind him. So I think defensive back maybe inarguably the strength of the team. If it's not, it's got to be the

offensive line. So tell me Evan, that's gonna be the way they build this offense, right, They're gonna build around the strength of that offensive line. Isaiah Win, Joe Tuney, David Andrews, Shack Mason, Marcus Cannon. You can make a debate for all those guys being top ten, top five, maybe even the best of their position. How does this offensive line work out this year? And is the depth behind them good enough to hold up if they lose

a body or two. Well, that's a big question I think is first of all, they lose Dante Scarnecki at a retirement, their legendary offensive line coach. That's a huge shoot a fill, right, That's gonna be a difficult sort of thing to overcome. But the good news is is that that starting five has experienced in the system, and it's a very experienced group outside of Win for the most part, and they got tons of you know, kind of games under their belt and situations under their belt

in the NFL. So not having a legendary all time offensive line coach for somebody like Joe Tuney, who's so good already, it's probably not the end of the world. But those backups that you mentioned, they don't have veteran backups. They have guys that they've taken in the last couple of drafts. Gud's like Yadi could juice and yelled a fro Holt, and the three guys they took at the end of this year. Those are the guys that they

have as backups, as emergency guys and security blankets. And they don't have the benefit of having Scarnecki a fine tune everything for them before they get to that point where they're had, you know, being forced to start. So that's a big question I think for this group is they're starting five is as good as any on paper that you can kind of stack up across the league.

But some of them do have some injury concerns. Obviously Isaiah wins in and out of the lineup all the time, and they don't have that veteran guy that's that third swing tackle or that Ted Carress like that he's down in Miami. Now that you know, fourth guy on the interior either who has a ton of game experience, So Jermaine Luminore, Uh, you know, I think that he has a chance to kind of be that top backup y. So Jermaine Luminoor could probably be the top backup I

would say in the interior. Corey Cunninghammer they traded for at the end of last August, the end of last preseason. He's got some big athletic upside. They like him as sort of a project player, but he's got a little ways to go in terms of his technique and kind of just balance and core balance and fundamentals and things

like that. But the one thing that you mentioned, Travis at the beginning was about how the Patriots are always evolving, and the one evolution I could really see from this team. They brought in Jed Fish, who used to work with the Rams and uh with Sean McVeigh. And then he has some Shanahan family ties as well, with Mike Shanahan and Kyle Shanahan and Gary Kubiak. And he's got that wide zone running game with the play action stuff that

the Niners do that the Rams do. I think the Patriots might be kind of evolving into that a little bit more over the next couple of years, especially if Stidham ends up being the guy, because Stidham can move around a little bit more than a Tom Brady. So you start getting him outside the pocket on those bootlegs or on those rollouts and those types of concepts and cut the field and half and make things a little bit easier for the younger quarterback. So I think there's

gonna be a little bit of a shift. You know, usually the Patriots are a power team. They're pulling a guard, they're knocking pins down. That's usually their go to. But I think that you could see a little bit of a shift towards a more outside, wide zone rushing game with those play action passes coming off of it as a way to sort of protect against a younger team

outside of the offensive line. Man, those top three primary backups, y'all could u uh something for yea, yeah, yella froll hole And I remember Hi from the combine, You're like that dude can get get after it. And then Jermaine Illuminois. Man, that's that's the all name team right there. I just had to make a mention about that because that's an

impressive name. Lineup right there, and I think a possible tip that you mentioned about maybe going to more of that under center, possibly twelve personnel play action, you know, get Jared's them out on the edge, could be the drafting of the two tight ends like you mentioned, Devin Asiasi and Dalton Keene. So definitely a good point to

keep an eye on there. And speaking of all these unsung players, Evan, it feels like every year we talk about guys that have these contributions with the Patriots that don't get enough praise. Who is the one guy that doesn't get the national spotlight but deserves it more than anybody else on this football team. Well, I think Lawrence Guy is starting This is Laurence guys always might default answer to this question, but I think he's starting to get a little bit of buzz nationally and kind of

a little bit of recognition. He was named to the Patriots All Decade Team, so people are starting to notice him a little bit more. So I'll go with Adam Alert's the guy right next to him usually comes on the field in passing situations. Nobody was double teamed more last year than Adam Butler, and that's not because he's Aaron Donald or Fletcher Cox and he demands a double team. It's because the scheme is asking him to be double

teams right. It's inviting a double team to open up rushing lanes for other guys to wrap around his penetration or whatever the case may be. So the Patriots love to run these scheme pressures where they run stunts in line games and stuff like that, and Butler is always at the center of it, clogging up blockers, eating up blockers, getting guys free, setting picks for his teammates to get into the pass rushing. He has actually developed pretty nicely

as a run stop or two. He ranked six the month interior defensive alignment in PFFS run stop percentage last year, so he started coming around in both ways. The Patriots get put a second round tender on him this offseason, so they obviously valued him a lot as a restricted free agent, so be interesting to see if they give him a long term extension. But he's definitely one of those players that doesn't necessarily show up in the statue

or in the box score all the time. But his penetration, his ability to take on blockers is really what's causing all that havoc up front most of the time. And here's a question for you, Evan that you have not had asked to you since you started covering the Patriots, because the season for the Patriots typically starts second week in January. The Patriots, what what's the catalyst this year? The Patriots will or will not be a playoff team

if this thing does or does not happen. I would say that they will be or will not be a playoff team if the defense regresses mightily. You know, obviously the defense is not going to play as well as it did last year, most likely the turnover rate in particular, and the touchdown rate that they had early on in the season was clearly unsustainable and it ended up cooling

off a little bit by the end of the year. Anyways, but they need a defense to be dominant for them to be able to win ten, eleven, twelve games like we're so accustomed to them doing so. If the defense goes from the best defense in the league last year to the tenth best defense in the league, and that's going to be a big drop off for them that

they might not be able to overcome. So they still need to have this be a dominant defense on that outside of the ball, and they need to be able to lead with that side of the ball a lot like they did last year at times even with Brady. Help help correct me or maybe confirm this for me, because I think perception around the Patriots defense last or was at the first half of the season it was, you know, historically great and then maybe kind of tailed off a little bit. Is that true? And if it is,

why did that happen? Do you think it was true for some parts? You know, Baltimore obviously lit them up, but that was right in that run when Baltimore was lighting up everybody. So it was really not anything outside the norm for the Ravens to go up against a

good defense and light them up. They got it a little bit beat by Deshaun Watson in the in the Texans and the week after, but really when you start to break that there was a couple of weeks after, but when you started to break that game down, it was really like two or three plays that they got beat on for big touchdowns over the top, longer touchdowns. Kenny still has caught a big one, and it's really

the rest of the game. They were pretty much kind of going toe for toe with de Shaun and those guys. So I I would say that there were some games. The Miami game in Week seventeen was definitely not a good ending of the year, and that I think was really a testament to the Flora's and the Miami coaching staff not to not pumping any tires, just saying it was a great game plan by the guys on that

side of the ball. Because the Patriots play cover one single high safety in the middle of the field outside shade most of the time for their cornerbacks, and Miami like a drum beat those underneath crossers all day long. And that's the one sort of route they have that intermediate robber defender to kind of take the over routes a little bit intermediate crossers, and you have the deep guy to take posts and overs and stuff like that.

But it's that little kind of shallow cross where the guy with outside shade and man coverage that is out leveraged every single time, and it's it's kind of a lose lose for the defense. Is the one thing, you know, defense can't stop everything, right, and it's the one thing that this defense, that kind of scheme sort of surrenders, and Miami does. Knowing the institutional knowledge that they had,

they were able to really just pick it apart. And they also had some guys that were really kind of good and built for that a receiver to kind of run those types of schemes. So that was the biggest thing I would say is that you know, later in the season some of the things started to get figured out a little bit. Houston certainly figured out some of

their zero blitz stuff. Baltimore just ran over them like they ran over everybody last year at that point in the season, and Miami had the knowledge to kind of figure out the best way to beat their scheme. Well, that's a really good segue. It's my final question for you here, because I would be remiss if I didn't ask you this about Brian Fluores. And I think the first time you and I met Evan, I tried to get Mark Schofield on the blocked on Dolphins because he

was locked on Patriots host at the time. He wasn't available when the Dolphins did make the decision to announce Brian Flores as the next head coach, and he told me, hey, go talk to my buddy, Evan. I was like, okay, cool. So we did a podcast and it was fantastic, and you and I have kind of gone back and forth on saying, this is what we think about Brian Flores and how much we do think about him. Can you give me a good Brian Flora story from your time

covering him there in New England? Like, what's a good inside baseball type of story you got on Brian Flores? So I asked him at the Super Bowl one time with last year, not this past year, but two years ago, I guess now against the Rams and the Patriots and the super Bowl in Atlanta, and I asked him, I said, you know, why do you guys play so much Cover one? You know, what is it about Cover one that you love so much? And he goes, we don't play Cover

one all that much. We play everything. And I was like, Brian, I got the numbers right in front of me. I know you guys you love Cover one. It's it's the best coverage and ball. I get it. It's not a bad thing. And he just said to me, just like that me and he goes, we do whatever we think we need to do to win football games. And that's such a cliche. Answer, But I really do think he meant it, you know. And I think that's one thing is that a lot of people they see it as

lip service. They see as them kind of just appeasing the media and answering a question whatever way they can. But whatever Brian Flores did, and I think that he had in mind the Super Bowl game plan in the back of his head, Like this kid's asking me about Cover one and we're not gonna play a lick of Cover one against the Rams on Sunday, and he's gonna

kind of be pretty surprised. So I went back afterwards and you know, celebrating the locker room, and I was like, you guys didn't play Cover one a single time this game, did you? And he was like, I think I called it like once or twice, and I was like, unreal. So they played corridors, they played a little bit of three buzz, they played some zero, and there was really not a ton of their man to man cover one and it threw the Rams totally off. So Brian Flores

has got that ability to evolve. Just like Bill Belichick. He is the absolute genuine article. What you see is what you get. That's why they love him. Down here so much in Miami. Evan, that was fantastic. Man. He is Evan Lazare. You can find him on Twitter at easy Lazar and on the Pats All twenty two podcast and c l n S Media covering the New England Patriots. Evan, thank you against so much, man, and we'll see a week one. Absolutely thanks Travis and the way he goes.

Evan is one of the most knowledgeable football reporters there is out there. He and I actually talked year about a year ago about how we should start our own podcast together, a NFL podcast, because we both have such a good report together and both feel like we can bounce knowledge and ideas off of one another. And I think a sense of that on that podcast right there. The Know the Enemy series New England Patriots with Evan Lazar of c l n S Media covering the New

England Patriots. Great stuff from him. They're cool little Brian floor story at the very end from the Super Bowl a couple of years back. We're gonna be doing more of these Know the Enemy podcast. We're gonna have positional previews heading into training camp. Plenty of summer content for you guys to get through to connect the dots from here all the way up until the season in September, and of course through training camp all that fun stuff.

Plenty of content here on the Drivetime Podcast Miami Dolphins dot com. Ask for this podcast. That is gonna be my time you all. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcast. Leave us a rating, leave us a review. Follow me on Twitter at Wingfield NFL. Follow the Dolphins at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank with Seth and Juice, the Audible with Kim and John, and of course Miami Dolphins dot Com. Until next time finds up