This is the Patriots Catch twenty two podcasts with Evan Lazar and Alex bar and Lazarre. Hello, everybody nailed it? Joined as always, buy our bark. Here is Evan Lazar and Alex Barr.
It's so much easier to move forward as a football team if you don't need to draft a quarterback.
It's so much easy. Oh yeah, no, then then Marvin Harrison Junior is back on the table. Joel, we're on the table, Jared Verse, if you want to go, I wouldn't, but I think some tlor wide receivers on the table.
You're gonna like, don't know who any of these people are tackle or wide receivers back on the table.
That that is very true.
But at two and six, we're getting to the point where maybe we should know who these people are.
Yeah, that's all I've been trying to tell you. Are we getting there? Trying to tell you?
Here?
Here's my thing and I I we were a text about this last night.
Here.
Here's my thing about the draft is that if I start looking at the draft now on November two, by April, I'm gonna be so drafted. Like we're gonna talk about the draft on this show for four straight months, but you know, we're I don't wanna. I'm not sure yet, so I don't want to. But there could be another another Shrine Bowl like trip coming up for us come January. That's a little tease. That's that's not a promise, so don't hold me to that, but it's it's in the works.
So we're gonna have plenty of draft right. It's if I start talking about the draft now, then Lord help me.
So here's here's here's what I say to capture that. By the way, I love how you didn't even introduce the show. We literally just picked up I was getting there, like a conversation we're having over text. I walked in here and we're just rolling from that. For people who would think that the show's in authentic or anything. You you usually get started in like February right with the draft, as.
Soon as I give myself like a week to take a break from watching film after the season ends, and then so yeah, when we go into the Shrine Bowl last year, that was my.
Start, and you're usually pretty filled in by the time we get it to the draft. Think about how much deeper you can get into it. Now if you start. Now.
God, I understand what you're saying, but my ahead of the curve, I won't have the draft only goes so far, you know what I mean?
Have me taking these victory laps on you of like, oh, you're you just discovered this guy and it's great, I discovered them two much you can do the uh, we can get all the recency bias out of the way, that's true, then we can actually talk about these guys like on a level playing field.
I will say this though, and it is Evan Lazarre and Alex bars here on Patriots Catch twenty two for the next couple of hours. We have a lot of Patriots stuff that I want to talk about, but this is this is you know, something that's that's on both of our minds.
Let's face it.
You know the draft and the Patriots at two and six are holding I think the fifth overall pick in the draft right now. If I am not mistaken, if the draft were to be tomorrow, let's say, and or maybe it's sixth, fifth or sixth.
Somewhere like that. And second, what never mind, it's not the second today.
No, I'm saying the draft pick that they would have. Oh okay, this is this is classic's what a start A start off the rails already.
Uh so, yeah, he's on first. I don't know.
Yeah, I think it's the fifth pick because the Commanders have the eleventh pick, and there were six picks apart when I wrote my my game preview yesterday. So I think it's the fifth pick. It's the fifth, yeah, And uh, let's face it, that's that's a reality that we are walking in right now that it might be more important to start looking ahead to twenty twenty four and this
team in twenty twenty four. And that was sort of my I think it's interesting and this isn't where I was going to go with this, honestly, but the open got me here already.
H did.
The difference in approach between the Commanders and the Patriots at the deadline is very interesting, right the Commanders, it's noticeable sold, they sold Chase Young and Montes sweat off. They are on to twenty twenty four in Washington, and they're they're three and five. They're they're pretty much in the same spot, but not exactly. They have one more win than you. Yeah, and uh, I was impressed by how they played Philly. Now you played Philly close to so I guess maybe both teams, but.
Got your Patriots, you like, you're not a team. But yeah, I does he do that? Oh yeah, that's a textbook Felger.
Oh no, okay, I haven't that. That's bad because I actually was gonna was gonna go someplace that that Felger went this week. So anyways, Uh, they scored thirty one points though against Philly. You did not score thirty one points against Philly.
You did not.
I just did it again. Now you're in my head. The Patriots did not score thirty one points against Philly. So I have a take, and we're gonna get to this in in a little bit. It's not where I wanted to start off the top. I do have a take about Eric b Enemy, who I watched a lot of Commander's film for you all you So I'm not talking about the Patriots and talking about.
You're addressing the list you can call the listeners.
You that's fun, okay for all you fans and listeners out there. So you didn't have to go and watch Washington Commander's football and Sam Howell, You're welcome, because let me tell you, watching the Patriots offensive tape from Miami and then following that up by watching some Commanders offensive tape. It wasn't exactly a great time on Monday at the Lazar Garten household. So you're welcome. You're welcome. We're doing a service for the people. But it was to stark difference.
And we'll talk about that and talk about the twenty twenty four outlook and the trade deadline. We'll talk a little bit about Josh McDaniels, and that's where I wanted to start because you know, I'm a McDaniels guy. Yeah, I like McDaniels. I think he's a really good offensive coordinator.
Obviously separate. They're two different jobs. And I know we say this all the time to kind of hammer this home, but being a head coach of a football team and being an offensive coordinator are two different jobs.
There are some guys that are great coordinators and that's just what they are.
And that's what he is. I think he's a great offensive coordinator. I think he's a terrible head coach. And reading a lot about what went on in Vegas, uh, you know, I read a Brear had some good stuff on it. Vic Tarfer, who's a local beat guy, you know, kind of like there, Mike Grease, you know, he's he's as plugged in as anybody out there in Vegas. I thought he had a really nice piece about it on the Athletic about all.
For the PFT comments or what did you see that one god? And at first there's so good, I will say he's.
At first, when I was reading it, I'm not knowing McDaniels, the very little that we know McDaniel's. I was like, I could see him being a big Halloween guy. He's kind of toof like, I could see that. And then as I was reading it, I was like, Okay, no, never mind, like this is this is definitely got.
So many so many people. Yeah, I thought that was really funny. Yeah, so.
I think that you know, reading about it, and I sent you a screenshot of one of like the grafts from from a vix article about it, and it was sounded kind of similar, like, you know, no social media, long meetings, long days, a lot of hours at the office, hard practices like these are that's the Patriots, right.
We heard it about Patricia, we heard it about Joe Judge, We heard about a lot of these guys that went elsewhere.
Yeah, But my bigger question with McDaniel's being canned and where we go from here with the Patriots and how this relates and this I told you, this is something that I know that your shows have been discussing, and I think Badard might have been the first one that brought it up on his Tuesday segment which I like listening to, and he talked about the Patriots offense, you know, the McDaniels O'Brien Patriots system, and is this system extinct?
And extinct is a big word, right.
I don't know if it's necessarily extinct, but you look at two guys and O'Brien and McDaniels that are trying to to run this system still and they're two of the worst offenses in the NFL their thirtieth and thirty first in scoring. I know Brian Dable and Giants are thirty second, and he's like Patriots adjacent. There's definitely a lot of Patriots elements to dables offense, but I think that he's really more McDermott Buffalo as well as Patriots.
So I'm not going to continue completely give that to the Pats, but it's it's Patriots adjacent, no doubt about it. And those three systems are thirtieth, thirty first, and thirty second in scoring in the league. And this kind of my big thing about this Miami game that that was so frustrating to me watching this game and then watching it back on film, is that nothing literally nothing from
the Buffalo game carried over. Nothing like they they didn't execute you're talkingtically, just I'm talking execution, Okay, well, because I'm saying like, like we still saw, like Mike when when we were right tack, no, no, no, Schematically, they tried like they picked up the Buffalo game plan and they put it in to Miami. They tried to dial up some more shots, I would say, against Miami than
they did against Buffalo. But on the whole, the game of the very first play of the game in both games is exactly the same play.
Okay you're saying, yeah.
You know, like it from a play calling schematic standpoint, exactly the same. The execution could not have been more Jackal and Hyde and my question, and I asked Mac about the pre snap stuff, and I have a take on that on all of this that connects. My question isn't necessarily is it extinct to the point where it's no longer schematically sound, because I don't think that's the case. I think it's still a sound system, but is it extinct to the point where you can't execute it week
in and week out. It's inconsistent because there's so much moving parts. Their quarterback at the line of scrimmage. Most of the time, there's like two plays that the quarterback has called in the huddle. There's a run play, there's a pass play, then there's checks. Then there's a whole alert system based off of how the defense is aligned, Mike protections, you know, things like that. And yeah, we're
getting drilled. I don't know if people can hear that over the air, probably, and Marine's on the case.
He he just went out to do some construction out here.
Yeah, there's all sorts of different things, and that's just okay, that's pre snap, right, and you know, you got to get to put the team in the right play. And what I see from Mac is, you know, he's already been called for a couple of delayed games, first of all, trying to get the team into the right play. And
second of all, I see like he's frantic. You know what I mean, like he's at the line of scrimmage and he's making all these checks, and he's making all these calls, and he's waving all this motion and oh, then a receiver comes in motion and then it shows to the offense like, oh, they're in man. Okay, Well,
then now we have a man call. So now we have to alert to the man call, or like I want to, you know, hot routed, or I want to, you know, set a certain route because it's man coverage now, so I'm checking to a fade or I'm checking to this, and then okay, and then the ball snapped, and we've already done seventeen things before the ball is even snapped. And then the ball snapped. And then after the snap, the quarterback and the receivers have to see everything the
same way. The routes convert. The quarterback needs to be on time, the receivers need to be running their proper routes, like all of these different things need to happen.
And I think that.
You know, I know your station in Felger and his take on it is that there was only one quarterback that could execute it at a high level, and it was Brady. And I think there's something to be said for that, but I think it goes beyond just the quarterback. I think it's the whole thing. And I just wonder if the inconsistencies that we have seen are obviously reflective
of the talent on the field. There's definitely that element to it where players that are not very talented aren't going to be able to execute it in you know, every single week, every single play, inside and out. But I also wonder at to a degree, how much overthinking
is going on in this system. Like if we're last example, then I want to get your your take on this Pop Douglas, who I think it's so hard to point any fingers at Pop Douglas because he's probably their most dynamic player on the field on offense right now, and it's that's very that's very crystal clear when you watch it, how he moves differently than everybody else on the field.
But even he has a lot of route running miscues on tape, and you just wonder, Pop Douglas, keisha On Boudi, Taekwon Thorton, like all these guys that you've drafted the last couple of years, are they being held back by the fact that they have to basically play three D chess every passing play when the ball is snapped, and.
I don't know.
I I'm getting to the point where I think that a lot of there's obvious advantages to the way that they do things. If you're playing against the team and it's man coverage, you want to run away, you want to break away from man. If it's zone, you want
to sit against zone. Like those are things that are in pretty much every NFL offense, but I think a lot of the different moving pieces and moving parts sometimes can be more cumbersome or bogged down players and bog down the quarterback who isn't seeing it quickly enough right now and isn't reading the field very well. And I wonder if he's Mac is so just his brain is moving at like a thousand miles an hour. Yeah, overwhelmed.
And I'm not making excuses for the talent. I'm not making excuses for the players, But I think that there's more to this story than simply just Mac sucks. And I feel like the only way that you can be right right now for a lot of people is if you just scream and yell that the quarterback stinks, and they need to move on and it's over and he's terrible. And if there's no nuance, right like, you can't have an in between take, you can't have an opinion that has any sort of context to it.
You just have to say he stinks.
And I think that there's a lot more to it than that. And now that McDaniel's failed in Vegas, I'm starting to wonder if this system needs to adapt and change.
And I think some of it is on top. Look, they they did things with Brady, and there were benefits for Brad Brady, not just a processing power he had, but being in it for twenty years and building on it and building on it and building on it. Jimmy Garoppolo is a guy that was in that system. Yeah, right, so he has some experiences and he.
Looks exactly the same like I watched The Raiders off Jones. Yeah, he looks skittish, he looks uncertain, his eyes are everywhere like he looks exactly And I think you can make some some correlations to the offensive line play if you want as well, and say that both offensive lines have been putrid and that's part of it. But Jimmy is you know a lot of those throws to Vante Adams that that everybody is like freaking out about the deep balls and stuff like that. Yeah, they're they're bad throws.
Like he's's inaccurate on the pass. I'm not trying to say that that that it's this deep. But at the same time, he's late to a lot of it, you know what I mean, Like he's not seeing it quickly enough. And then I'll then he sees it and then he's trying to, you know, kind of hit it late in the down and I will. They look if you watch Jimmy Garoppolo and you watch Mac Jones and you and you kind of take off the jerseys for a second.
They it looks like the same guy. They're both frantic and all over the place.
Remember when everybody wanted Jimmy Garoppolo back this offseason.
We don't.
We don't. I know, I know, I had to. I had to.
No.
I I think that the receiver thing too, that you talk about is on top of the Patriots system being more complicated, the college systems have become less and less complex. Yeah, for wide receivers. So the growth curve or the need to improve is is the gap is even wider now than it was ten years ago. So yeah, I think there is something to that. Now. Is there a simplified version of the system that they could run. That's probably what they're running. Maybe it needs to be simplified more.
Does it work when it gets simplified more at the NFL level? That's I mean, we could debate that for hours, but yeah, it does feel like they're just trying to catch something there. The offense looks overwhelmed. The offense a lot of the time, and this is going back a few years now, has looked overwhelmed. Yeah.
I mean when O'Brien says that it's very, very inconsistent, that's what he said on Tuesday. Yeah, and I just when he says that, I don't I think that a lot of that inconsistency is they're just not doing things correctly, you know, in terms of the actual play call, like the design of the play is not is not being
run correctly. And when you watch Mac Jones, a lot of what I'm seeing with Mac on film is that there's a lack of anticipation and a lack of trust in a lack of understanding you know, this guy's gonna break this way that guy's gonna break that way. And here, if I hit my back foot and I throw this ball now, or if I hit wait for the second window and then I throw this ball like that, this is where it's open, right, And those are the types
of throws. When you watch good quarterbacks, like when you watch Tua, for example, everything is with anticipation, everything is on time, and I think with Mac nothing is on
time right now. There's no anticipation. And there's a lot of throws on this game film against Miami that are open, that are there plays that he left on the field that if he's throwing it on time with a little anticipation, with a little bit of foresight into like where the defense is going and things like that, then he's going to be able to hit these throws. And I just
worry about that with the system in general. And I want to read this answer from Mac yesterday when I asked him about the pre snap stuff, because to me, this is I think a big issue.
And I know that J. T.
O'Sullivan has talked about this in a lot of his Mac breakdowns on the QB School, like there's just seventeen things to do pre snap, And I remember Max said a couple of weeks ago about his pre snap checklist, and I followed up with him on it.
He wouldn't he didn't want to.
Go into detail of exactly what that checklist is. But his checklist has got to be like five things longer than any other quarterbacks, right.
Like, Yeah, it's just there's too much. There's too much.
And he said, you know, I think that's a big part of the offense, and as the quarterback, that's something that you want. That's something that you need to learn how to do quickly. Some teams are doing things to slow it down. So I just need to figure out how to play faster pre snap. And I think there's different ways to do that schematically and also from a mental standpoint. That's definitely a good point. I feel like I can improve in that area. So he says he
wants to play faster pre snap. If I was the Patriots coaches, and if I was Bill O'Brien, I would want to slow him out, not speed them up, unless that's in.
Reaction to the like all the all the delay game penalties. I think it is, but I but I get what you're saying. You're not wrong.
I want I would want to strip down his responsibilities pre snap and I think you look at a lot of these offenses that that run really well nowadays, like the Shanahan offense or the Reed Tree, which we're going
to see this weekend on Sunday. Those two offenses, they have similar conversions and they have similar things going on, I would say, But at the same time, it seems like everything is a lot more stripped down and a lot more simplified, but it still works like It's not like so simplified like last year is so simplified that it didn't it didn't work right. But I think that these offenses are able to simplify it and it's able
to work. Last thing here on on Mac. And then I want to get into three up, three down, and then we'll take your calls of a five to five, pats five hundred. We've got some emails to get to, a web radio, a Paige dot Com. I just I do really think that this is a big nine games for Mac Jones. I've given him as long as I think we I don't want to speak for you, but I think we have given him as long of a leash as maybe anybody to try to prove to us.
That's what they say on Twitter and in the YouTube comments.
I think we've given them him as long as of Aleish as anybody to prove to us that he is. I would say, like a franchise guy is maybe a stretch, but just a guy that you can win football games within this league and build around a little bit. And uh, I'm running out of time. I don't know about you.
Like I feel like as much as I hold a lot of the personnel stuff, and I just talk a lot about the scheme and the system, against the coaches and against Bill Belichick and against the talent evaluation of this team and things like that, I do definitely think that he's basically got nine games to prove to me that he can start playing winning football, because he hasn't really played winning football. I would say, outside of maybe maybe I'd give him two games.
If you want to give him, they've won two games. I don't think he played winning No, I agree with you, it's two maybe three. I think times running out as the way to put it. I'll just kind of go with what I've said before and what I said coming into the season. Max's job this year better worse, regardless of what the team put around him was to keep
them out of position of drafting his replacement. He hasn't done that, and that with the rookie contract coming up, why are you going to commit to a guy who has you picking in the top five when you can get a better prospect on and extend that rookie deal out another four years as opposed to just having the last year, but four or five years with the option, instead of having the last year of it with the
option looming the summer. That was the stakes I said on here, I said on the sports stop, I said everywhere. That was the stakes for mac Jones this year. Can you make it so the team can't reasonably draft your replacement? And so far or some fault of his own, a lot of it not at his fault, but it happened. This is where they're at. Yeah.
Yeah, I think he's got nine games to show me that it's it's obviously the tangible thing is picking up the fifth year option. Yeah, But in general, I just think that he's got nine games to show me that their first round pick should be on Marvin Harrison Junior and not on Drake may right right like that, that's that's the bottom line. And now, if he plays well in the last nine games, they're probably not gonna be
in position to draft either. But that's kind of the point, right, he's got Yeah, I agree with that.
Right, if they're in position to draft Drake May, they should be drafting Drake May. Right, If they're not in position to draft them, it means Mac probably, especially with all the injuries. Now, Yeah, it's not like the defense is gonna carry him, right, It's not like Max' gonna be playing bad, but the defense carries them and suddenly they're picking twelve, thirteen to fourteen, whatever. Yeah, everybody's hurt,
it's just him. Yeah, if they win enough games that they're not in the top five, Mac played well, and then it becomes then you can start doing the Jalen Hurts thing in the second round, guys like Jayden Daniels and JJ McCarthy. But no, where they're at right now, he's not kept them out of the spot where drafting his replacements unrealistic. One more take on that. It's kind of related, But this is something I've been working on. I'm curious your thought, I think, and I've thought this before,
but now that the Patriots are in the spot. I think I've kind of flushed this. Take out a little bit Moreah. The initial NFL draft order as it is assigned at the end of the season is one of the most overrated concepts in sports in terms of how much we bowed down to the draft order. Here's my point. You have a lot of people saying Patriots can't win another game, they need to be drafting top three to take Drake May. You need to pick in the top three.
You don't need to own the third pick. From the jump. If you're picking fifth, you should realistic if if you believe Drake mad is the guy, yes, you should be able to get to third if you own the fifth pick.
But you're I think the problem is and I don't disagree with you, and you know how I feel about draft picks.
Right, Well, here's what i'd say. Of the twenty quarterbacks taken in the first round in the last ten years, Yeah, nine of them were drafted with the pick that was not originally owned by that team. That includes the first overall pick. I'm an idiot and didn't go through and redo the numbers. Yeah, when you take out the first overall pick, Yeah, more than half of the quarterbacks drafted in the top ten were not drafted with the draft pick originally owned by the team. Okay, you move around
the board to get a quarterback. It's the price of doing business in the NFL. Okay, So I don't disagree with the take. Yeah, I think he does. That's yeah, okay. I So I think that's where people are concerned, is well, is he going to be the one making that suit? Who knows?
And this is why I tell you all the time that I can't get into the draft yet because if I don't know whose offense I'm drafting the player for.
That's fair. But if you're drafting a quarterback, aren't you drafting the quarterback and then sort of dictating the offense?
Uh?
Not them? Well, if you're changing the offense, it's not going to be them, I hear you.
But if if this is the regime that's the one that's taken the quarterback, that quarterback is gonna play the Bill O'Brien offense like that, that's the bottom line, Like you're gonna fit into the Bill O'Brien offense. If Bill O'Brien goes and takes a job at Michigan State, you're gonna be fitting into the Josh McDaniels offense, right, Like,
that's just the way it's gonna go. And I think the concern that people have that our team tank or whatever you want to call it, or are looking at draft position, is that we don't have a whole lot of precedent of Bill Belichick trading up in the draft, not to mention trading a king's ransom up to get the go from five to two to draft Drake May when it could take future picks and all this all, you know, this entire boatload of picks to do it. I think people are concerned that he will never do
something like that. So if you don't have the second overall pick, you don't own the pick, then you're not gonna get there.
But a lot of people would probably look at it and safe, he's picking second, he's gonna trade back anyway. Yeah, so I would. It's more an overarching shit take. Again, we haven't talked about it in context in the Patriots in our lifetimes. Yeah, but it's just people who, oh, no, they fell from the fourth pick to the fifth pick. I can't believe that happened. If you really believe in the guy and this is just a blanket NFL statement. If you believe Drake may is the next twenty years
of your franchise, there's not too much you can give up. Yeah, you should be going up and getting that pick, period, full style. If you don't believe he's the guy, don't do it just to draft them. And the same could be said for Caleb Williams, same could be said for Michael Pennox, for any of these guys. But if you believe the guy's the guy, you go up and get him.
Yeah, I no, I agree. I mean, I think that's how a lot of teams feel. But that's this team. The numbers support that. The number support, especially at the quarterback position. Maybe at other positions it's a little different, there's more wiggle room. But at the quarterback position, you're picking fifth. You shouldn't be sitting there saying, well, he's gonna go fourth, so I guess we're screwed. Yeah, it shouldn't happen that way. Yeah, all right, three up, three down.
I did I did have some I did have some ups. They're all on the defensive side of the ball, so so I'm not putting anybody on the offense as an up. I'm telling you that right now. Number one star of the game for me, Christian Barmore fantastic again in this game. Sack had five stuffs again in this game. I think that that's really been the part of his game that
has matured the most is his run defense. He's he's doing a fantastic job of using his leverage, using his hands, using his upper body power to press blocks and hold gaps, but then also flashing that range and when teams try to zone block him, he's you know, swimming around blocks, and that's where he can use the get off and the and the ability to lateral movement and things like that. He is on a heater. He's on three straight games
now where he's been fantastic. He has twelve stuffs in the last three games against the Run back to back games with the Sack six quarterback pressures going back to the Vegas game. He has been their best player, I would say, on either side of the football for about a month now. So Christian Barmore is my number one up and he's one of those guys that rookie season had over fifty quarterback pressures, was one of the best
d tackles in that draft class. In his rookie year, second year injured told me yesterday I spoke to him yesterday. I hopefully I get that piece up tomorrow. He said that he had never been injured before in his football life, so yesterday, last year, second year was really tough on him, you know, rehabbing and trying to get back to one hundred percent, playing through injury a lot of the time. You know, he just said he was kind of like a lost puppy trying to figure out how to play
with an injury and all that kind of stuff. And then this year is healthier, you know, back to back to normal, and we're seeing that that Christian Barmore that we thought they were gonna have going forward after his rookie season, a guy that I look at as a building block, like somebody that I would hope is going to be here on a second contract. I think that they definitely need to have him here on a second contract. So Christian Barmer, number one, I agree with you.
That's a guy that you can you can build a defense around a three down player. Is you alluded to pretty much everything I said last week? This is the guy now that he's fully healthy. Is the guy we saw coming out of bit out of Alabama, the guy that people were surprised fell out of the first round in twenty twenty one. So absolutely loved what I saw from him. Speaking of second contracts, yess Obarmar was my first. Yep. Kyle Duggar. Yeah, he's on my list too. Excellent in
this game, and he needed that. He had kind of a slow start to the season, but look at it. They had him playing a more physical, closer to the line of scrimmage role, and what do you know, Old Kyle Dugger showed up. Yeah. Crazy how that happens? Yeah, crazy, how that works. Yeah, the interception obviously which to it, I mean threw right to him. But you also had
that play on the goal line. That's it. That's such a difficult play when you have a player with momentum moving towards the goal line and he stops him like stone walls. Yeah, the goal line. That's just such an excellent play from a defensive back. There's not a lot of defensive backs in the league that can make that specific play. So I thought he did some other stuff too. It wasn't perfect, but the secondary was kind of a mess.
The whole game in terms of communication. They got to bring him back and they got to play him in the box. I think we're gonna talk a lot this offseason about quarterbacks, about tackles, about wide receivers. Free safety. I'm going to be saying this all spring is the most underrated need for this football team. And they knew it. They met with Taylor app Right, they knew it last offseason, and they felt like they could go forward with it. I know some people did think it. I don't have
a problem with them trying Kyle Duggart free safety. I mean, he played free safety in college. He had done it, he has the athleticism, but it was something to try, and there was no plan B if it didn't work out. And it hasn't worked out, and so Kyle dugar is having a worse season because of it, and the defense is worse because they don't have that guy. They're seriously
missing Devin mccordy right now. You're not gonna go out and just get one player and replace Deem mccordy in the offseason, But having a true center fielder, especially when you have to face the Dolphins twice a year with their speed and teams like that you gotta go out and get a guy like that. Last year was a good year in the draft I think to do so. I haven't done as much work on the safeties in this year's class, so I'll get back to you on
that one. But getting a true free safety center field type guy is a must because if they do, it allows Kyle dugger to play more like he played against Miami on Sunday. Yeah, I agree with I had Kyle Duggar.
I thought, you know, there was still a couple of plays where he got a little bit lost in his own coverage. But I'm not gonna knock him too much when you make like impact plays on the ball that he did interception, like you mentioned, good disguise coverage really wasn't anything that he did on the play, But he made the play right. That's the most important thing. Then I agree with you with the tackling and the plays near the line of scrimmage were really good in this game.
That's the Kyle Duggard that they were hoping to get every game this season, and it took, like you said, with the free safety position. And I think that this goes back to, you know, some of the critiques that we've made on this show of Belichick the GM. They had known that Devin mccordy was year to year for like three years, and they just never addressed free safety. They never brought in even a day three pick right to I mean, like Josh Bledsoe was not He's a box safety.
He's a box safe. He's a box he's a box safety. I'm trying to remember there was one guy they brought through who like didn't last so I want to see play more. And I'm blanking on the name, but even guys like like Miles Bryant I think could play that role, they haven't put him back there. Jonathan Jones to me, when you had an injuries maybe changed, but you had Jack Jones, Christian Gonzales, Jalen Mills, Jayalen Mills.
Another guy thought well, that's what he's That's what they've done a lot more of the last they're doing it more now, but it's like Jonathan and Jonathan Jones had done it.
Yeah, he was a guy I thought maybe could fill that role. So they've had opportunities to do it.
Whether they don't think that they've ever really not to cut you off, but I don't think that they ever really seriously addressed it, like I I they.
Know they haven't.
You know when when Devin was here, like they took Doron Harmon in the third round, right, and Doron Harmon was the perfect guy to come in and in their past game packages he would play the center field role and that would free up Devin to play Robert to play man coverage, whatever they wanted him to do. And they gave him that that flexibility. They never they never restock the position.
And it's it's crazy to me because like.
So many spots on this roster where they just did that.
And you're right, but some of those spots, like we know they don't value aide receivers. That wasn't a surprise, okay, but right, but what running back so so third down running back is similar where it's such a crucial position for what they do. It's a position we know they value highly. Right, some of the positions are things that we value that maybe they don't. Just wide receiver would be one. I think when we talk about the way they've approached the edge rusher position, they look at it
a little differently than we do. It's like I understand why they I don't necessarily agree with it, but I understand why they didn't invest as much free safety. We heard for years and years and years how important Devin McCarty was to this defense. Yeah, to not have for them to not line a replacement up when they knew how important was to have that guy, I would say, third down running back is the exact same thing on
the offensive side of the ball. That one's even crazier because it was remember before Devin McCarty came, or before he moved back to sink like, they had trouble finding a fast Why they that to Bill?
And I know a lot of people think that that Devin struggled at corner in the second year, and that was I think Devin. I did a piece on it right before the season with I spoke to to d mac about it and he said that he kind of put it as a little bit of each Now, Bill said at his retirement or something like that that I don't remember exactly. Maybe it was that week that he was asked about it or whatever, that they moved Devin mccorty to safety ad and necessity because they didn't have
anybody back right. But Devin agreed that he was struggling a little bit in his second it.
Was it was probably both, but again it's it's that thing where they knew third down running back. I wonder if they were just like, we'll find it, because you look at under Bill. I mean, Kevin Folok was here when he got here, and then Danny Wood had Chane Veren James White, I mean he was seamless. Yeah, it was absolutely seamless. And you always had a second guy too, a guy like a rex per kid. They knew what this looked. They they've seen what this looks like when
you don't have a true free safety. Granted it was ten years ago, probably closer to fifteen now at this point actually.
But bombs away like Sunday.
Right, they know they've seen it. So they yeah, it's just it's it's puzzling to me. And they they knew at least a little bit again because they met with Taylor Rapp, who would have been that guy. Yeah, so they knew they needed somebody in that role. It's the same at tackle where they who was it from the the Eagles signed with the Titans. Why am I my blanky on? His name? Andre Andre Dillard. They met with and Dillard so you knew, we know, they know that it was
at least somewhat of a need. Oh yeah, and they didn't get the guy initially, and then that was just that they never addressed it again.
I mean I was talking to people in January when we were at the Shrine Bowl that were saying, yeah, we we know tackles in need, like so that's obvious, like all of us can see it. And they and they brought in bodies at tackle, but bodies is not
is not solving the problem. They had bodies, they didn't have anything above them, right, And and I think that you know, at safety, I don't I think that there's a value in having some repetitive guys like Dugger and Jabriel Peppers in this system because they play so much dime and they want to play guys in the box like that and things like that. But then you have to have the center fielder to be able to play those guys in the box right.
And the centerfielders is what allows you to do them right.
And they just you know, that was the big thing when I talked to mccordy, was he always said and and you know, he really identified for understandably for for you know they're they're all his buddies, but he really identified with like the Harman logan Ryan, you know that secondary right, And when he said is you know when it was the game was on the line, when it was the money time in the fourth quarter, we knew where we were all gonna be, Like we know, you know,
Chung was gonna be in the star I was gonna be. You know Robber probably Deron was playing center field. Like we knew where we were going. This defense they don't know where they're going like they because they don't have distinct roles. Everybody is overlapped and right. And so he said that like they knew I knew where I was gonna be. They knew where we were gonna be, and it worked. It'd fit together. This secondary in the back
end doesn't fit together. And you can add Marty Mapu into that mix as well of playing him out of position first of all, which I will never I will never let that go.
But we sat here he told me he was gonna be a linebacker.
I will never let that go. But regardless that this is this is where we're at with this team, is that they are constantly from a personnel standpoint they're constantly chasing their tail now, like they're constantly one step behind all these vacancies instead of one step ahead, but in weird ways like they're they're ways ahead of the curve. On guard, like they have like sixteen guards like cool,
So that position stocked right. Whether Mike on Winnu is a part of their future or not, they have a guard.
Well he should be part of the future. Tackle that's another conversation.
Another conversation. Yeah, and they so they have guys to replace on whnu if on whn who walks in free agency and they that's what they used to do all the time at every position. Though they used to have tackles, they used to have, you know, safeties, they used to have these players and they just they don't third down running back. Like the fact that this team doesn't have a true third down back or a scap back is just wild.
Especially with the offensive line being the way it is. And you need that guy to check down to.
Know how many times mac Jones is just sitting there waiting for Ramondre Stevenson to run a route and and Rimondre's got one on one with a linebacker and if he had, if they had a real James White type third down running back that that that would be those would be easy first downs.
We took We took it for grant. You remember, like back in the day, third and five, James White a little yeah, you know, just a little kickout route catch balt to line of scrimmage. It's a linebacker between him and the sticks. And he every time, every time he got that first down. Yeah, made it look easy. Yeah, as did Danny would Head, Shane Vereene.
Right, that's the thing is like if it was just it's like Brady, like Brady was the only one that that could play this offense at a high level. Right, But not to take anything away from James White, but James White did it, Shane vereen did it, Danny Wood had did it.
Rex Burkhead even used to do it a little bit. And they they proved they could get guys into that role. Yeah, it's that's why it's different. That's why the wide receiver thing is different to me than some these other positions. We've seen them develop free safeties, we've seen them develop ringing bets like that should have been and maybe that's the downfall. Maybe it was they knew they could develop those guys. So they were like, well, you.
Know, well I think that I think they drafted Pier Strong and and they gave up May.
They gave up after he That's a guy that did what nineteen catches in his college career and they gave up on him after one year. That's a that's not much if that's your best effort, that's not much for an.
Yeah, I agree, and time Montgomery is whatever. Yeah, all right, last up here, as we just went down, ke On White. All right, my last time he was ke On White. I what I was really intrigued by in this game from Kean White was his play recognition. It wasn't just like plays where he's a bowl in a china shop and he's just blowing things up.
Uh.
The tackle for loss on the Jets sweep, I thought was a real sign of growth for him. He played his edge, stayed disciplined, read out the play, made a play behind the line of scrimmage that I think beginning of the season Keon White might have just ran up the field there and given up the edge. This this year, you know, this version sees it makes the play. I thought he was really good. Also had a hurry in this game, made a stuff against the run on his
own scheme where he saw some of that range. The one thing I'll say about Keon White really a good game, impactful game. He's kind of a tweeener, and I still think that they're kind of figured trying to figure out where exactly they're gonna play him long term. Now, I think the most obvious route is he's a stand up guy on first down and then he's an interior guy on second and third down. That's probably where we're headed
with that. But he's he's a tweener like I. He's a little bit big to play as a stand up outside linebacker, but he's not quite powerful and big enough yet to play on the interior for all three downs. But I think that they have something here with Keon White. They just have to, you know, round him out a little bit and figure out exactly where they're gonna play him.
Yeah. I And that's something too that just comes to being a rookie. And you mentioned the tweenyer thing. They'll they'll get him in the off season. They'll put him on a weight plan, on a meal plan, on a workout plan, whatever, and whether they want him to bulk up or they want him man like, they'll that that'll happen in the off season. He'll come back next year, I think, like fully fit into a role. So yeah, I'm still excited about it. Look, I'm still excited about
the draft class. Yeahs as kind of upside downs. The season is gone. The flash we saw from Christian is also is very exciting. Yep, And it's not. It's it's different with a guy who was like a knee or an ankle right where you're like, is he gonna come back and move the same? Like, Yeah, it's relative not to I'm sure that there's a massive rehab process and he's working through. But you get what I'm saying, right, Yea, Yeah, ke On Whites looked good. My third up. I know
you said you had nobody on offense, I've won. Yeah, and it's I don't know if it's necessarily him playing well, it's something I saw. It's to Mario Douglas and on the Kendrick Bourne touchdown, two defenders go with Tomoro Douglas.
It was a coverage bust, but no, not bad. No coverage bust Whitey bust. Why because that's the guy they're looking they messed up. That's the guy they're looking at. There were other instances in the game too, like he was getting doubled during the game. I didn't see it.
He was getting double during he saw it.
I'm just telling you, Like I I talked to him about it after the game too, And.
I didn't you see on the on the screens, teams are keying in on him like he's a guy. Defenses are starting to key on.
I don't disagree with that. And and that Kendrick Bourne touchdown is it was a buzz.
He's he's a guy, all right, Great, disagree he's a guy. Defenses are starting to key in on. Yeah, And I think we had that whole conversation over the off seas about the coverage dictating player. He's hardly DeAndre Hopkins, but yeah, when's the last time they had a guy that defense is kind of, especially a rookie at defense, Like, no, we might want to take a look at this guy. So I agree, Now, how does he build off it? He has to still be able to produce when he
gets this kind of attention. But that's a sign of an NFL like where it's not that told me it's not just us seeing this guy and being like, oh my god, it's the first receiver they've drafted years who's producing. This is great. The Miami Dolphins coaching staff saw what he was doing on tape and said, this guy when he pays some attention to and that maybe not for this year, maybe this is more long term take, but I think that's something worth being a little excited about.
Yeah, I think what's what's most It doesn't.
Mean they have their one. Sorry, it doesn't mean they have their one one of the future. But if he's like this is I was talking to some people about this the other day.
If he's like Wes Welker and then you have Randy Moss on the outside, then like you already kind of checked that box.
So let's say let's say they go out to let's say they resigned Kendrick Bourne, right, and he's healthy and there's some ifs here, but let's say they go out resign Kenrick Born, he's healthy, to Mario Douglas continues to go on this track, and then they go out and get to d DeAndre Hopkins equivalent is obviously, so it
could be Higgins, it could be Marvin Harrison Junior, whatever, right. Yeah, so you have that guy as your ex, you have Kendrick Bourne as you zy, and you have Toamorrow Douglas in slot.
Yeah that's pretty good. Yeah, no, I I I'm that would be the top half of the league wide receiver group.
I don't know, depends on who they get as the number one guy.
T T.
Higgins, maybe Marvin Harrison Junior. I have this see it from T Higgins without Jamar Chase first to be like that's fair.
Yeah, who else? I'm trying to think who else?
I mean, like, if it's like T. Higgins or Jerry Judy or I think you're still prove it mode. If it's Marvin Harrison Junior, then as much as it's crazy for me to say, like this guy that's never played in the NFL, but.
No, I Marvin Harrison or is completely I think I said this to you last year. If Marvin Harrison Junior is in the NFL right now, he'd be a top twenty receiver. I think he'd be higher. I think he's a complete unicorn, like right now, like this version of him, you'd think he'd be. I'll give you that. I'm fine with that. You want to say top fifteen.
All I know is I watched I actually watched a little bit of a college game. I watched a little bit of that Ohio State Penn State game. He was the best player on the field.
And I'll tell you this, the corner that was covering him, yeah, is a projected top twenty pick.
He was.
So that's an NFL.
He was the best player on the field and it wasn't particularly close. And he was on the field with like twenty other people.
That I mean, the guy that was covering him is going to be yeah, probably second corner off the board. Yeah, he's so yeah. So all right, so Marvin Harrison junior to Mario Douglass, a healthy Kendric Born, Yeah, top half of the league. Yeah.
And then everybody that just heard you say, that's gonna say who's playing quarterback?
Which fair, But whoever is, whoever is, is going to have an easier time than the guy right now.
Shocker, you can make it easier on the quarterback.
I thought, well, no, that's a dirty thing, don't you dare say you should get the quarterback help? No, because that means he's not good. He should do all this. We all know. Lamar Jackson was just cast to the cast to the wind by the Ravens and the Bills just threw Josh Allen in the deep end with absolutely no help and all of that. There's one guy in this league that's got no help, and that's Patrick Mahomes and he's having whatever the opposite of a career year is. So what does that tell you?
He all, says Taylor Swift's boyfriend. So you got that going?
Well?
When she shows up, you've seen those splits? I have you've seen those splits?
I mean, come on, you show out in front of the girl.
That's obvious, but look like again getting getting the quarterback. Help. You gotta start bringing Taylor Swift on the road. You want to help out Patrick Mahomes.
Maybe maybe let's stay you.
So here's the thing about that. We know Taylor Swift loves Challette Stadium, right, she's favorite here, and let's Sadium loves Taylor Swift obviously sold out like I would. I would say, a logical candidate to ring the bell. But if she's wearing cheef s gears, she can't do it. Oh okay, yeah she's not, so she won't be here.
But but but we've had we've had some advanced scouts on this and apparently that is a weekend off on said European tour. Oh so she could take the PJ from you know, wherever she is in Europe to to Fox.
I'm just saying the two artists, and they're not like on similar planes as arts, but the two artists that like identify with your Lett Stadium the most are Kenny Chesney No Shoes Nation Right, was born here and Taylor Swift. Chesney rang it. Yeah, she's not ringing the bell should maybe not this year, but it should be considered. I'm not even and I'm not like that over that. You're much bigger Taylor Swift fan than I am Taylor. But it would be cool she ring. I do. I do like her.
She's good, like great, great, playing music great, like you know, need to decompress music. Just I do like Taylor Swift. All right, three downs here. We've already talked a lot about my first down, so I won't I won't rag. I won't rag on Mac Jones anymore than I already have. I will say this though, you know, there's just there's too many plays that he's leaving on the field. There's just regardless of all the there's a ton of issues
with this offense. There's issues at the receiver room, routes, things like that. I once again am questioning what the hell they're being coached by Troy Brown, Like, I'm sorry, but this is just year in and year out, it's the same thing. Offensive line, you know, all of it, right, But at the end of the day, the quarterback's got to make some plays. There's plays to be made on this film. I thought the interception was one of his
worst plays in a couple of weeks. Just I know the one in Vegas was pretty bad too, but this one was right up there is in terms of bad just late back foot noodle, like just come on, like, we gotta be better than that. Uh So, I would say mac Jones is my my first down, but obviously I still I still stand with the context on it, but he's my first down.
I the that interception is tough because I I well that, but also like Kendrick Bourne's open I know there's been some debate about that. I don't think it's a bad how do I put this, Throwing the ball to Kendrick Born in that spot is not a bad decision. The to throw a touch pass in that spot is the bad DESI.
I don't think he threw a touch pass. I think that's that right.
So that's the question, like was it was it? And that's where I go. And that's what he said after it, it was a bad throw, like, yeah, he saw Kendrick was open. That ball needs to be on Kendrick Bourne's outside shoulder. It needs to be earlier, earlier outside shoulder, back shoulder kind of thing, and said he leads him up the side and look, Jaylen Ramsey makes a great play. Most corners just break that play up. I don't know how many corners picked that ball off. Yeah, in the
way Jayalen Ramsey. But it's a throw I've seen him make. It's a throw I know he can make. But he just didn't. And it's that's what's it's the consistency thing. That's what's frustrating. Because Kendrick Bourne is open on that play.
I agree, he's open, it's late. His feet are a mess, The fake is horrible, The route wasn't great, Like I think Kendrick Bourne could have been available to him a little bit sooner, which would have helped. But it just overall in general, just a whole like there was probably ten plays wrong, ten things wrong on that play and
it just well designed. And I think that if you're Billy O'Brien, like that's got to be the most frustrating part about it is that's one hundred and ten percent a game planned play, like they they ran that play, that practiced it all week from that down in distance
thinking it was gonna work right like that. That's one of those plays that you come into the game with and you're like, when we need to pull it out, like this is what we're gonna run from the high red area, and it just was a complete abomination the whole play.
All right.
So Mac Jones number one, number two, you here.
I hate J C. Jackson, just j C. Jackson.
I hate I said, I hate putting him there as a down because in some respects he got got by two of the best receivers in football a couple of times, and a lot of it is just Tyree Kills. This the best player on the planet right now. I really think that. I think Tyree kill is the best player in football. And if I was a voter, and I'm not, but they should let me vote on MVP someday, I would be voting for Tyreek Kill. So far, now there's a seventeenth game, so that's a that's a factor here.
But barring injury, he's going to be the first two thousand yard receiver in the history of the NFL. Yeah, and he's going to do it by like one hundred and fifty yards.
So he might do it in sixteen.
So he might do it in sixteen games, exactly. He is the most unstoppable force in the league. That being said, the bad eye on the on the touchdown on the forty two yard or was awful. You know, just looking in the backfield, peaking in the backfield against that guy if he if he hands it off on the jet sweep, then come up and make the tackle. And if you give up ten yards on the jet sweep, you give
up ten yards on the jets sweep. The last thing that you can do is give up a forty two yard touchdown, right, Like, that's that's way worse than just like sitting back and then coming up and making the tackle and maybe giving up some yards on the jet jet you know, jet motion.
That was a horrible play.
Jalen Wattall spun him around like a top on that blaze out that was that was yikes. A couple penalties, I know, the one in the end zone was a little ticky tack, but Jersey tug is gonna get called in this league.
Now.
That's just the bottom line with that. He had a couple of run plays too where he was like the crack force and just didn't like, didn't didn't replace the edge. That was rough, rough game for JC. I will give him this though. He was very accountable about it after the game, made no excuses. Wouldn't let us talk, you know, talk him into making excuses about the refs.
He was, he was.
He owned it and I'll give him that. So it's not like the rag on him too much. But yeah, he's got to be on the down list.
So I had the defensive coaching staff just because they had I kind of liked the game plan. But they you did, Yeah, yeah, I did. They had a game plan that worked in week two.
No, it didn't. Where this notion that that game plan worked.
They allowed fewer points. Tyreek Hill was less productive, Jaalen Wall was less productive. How is this game plan better when they gave up?
Because at least they stood toe to toe in the middle of the ring.
If if if Jonathan, they didn't. They allowed two hundred and fifty yards to two guys.
Okay, they had an interception. They got him on an interception week two. Yeah, but on it not in like the same like part of the field like this game. I I give them credit the last two weeks one hundred defensively, they stood in the middle of the ring against Josh Allen in to a they tried to fight, they tried to I know, Okay, okay, let's play prevent defense to not get burned.
This this felt like prevent defense, all soft. It was all soft covered, totally wrong. And here's what I don't get. Why is Jonathan Jones not covering Tyreek Hill because he's hurt, but so he can cover Jalen Waddle.
I think that he I think he was limited in this game.
I it just it. I think he had at least give him a shot. At a certain point.
J C.
Jackson couldn't do it. Miles Bryant stopped putting Miles Bryan on fast receivers, right, I.
Honestly have, like Jack Jones, Jonathan Jones give him a shot. Jack Jones actually ended up covering Tyreek Kill more than j.
C because they had to take Jac off of him. Maybe, I just I don't understated if Jonathan Jones healthy enough to be out there, you gotta give him shot on Tyrek Hill, that's the guy. That's the guy for six or seven. I just I it all felt very soft. It all, this one felt it very preventy to me.
Oh no, they played a ton of man coverage in this game. They played like forty five percent of their downs and men.
Cou but it saw it. They were all They're playing off maybe a little bit. We talked. We talked about this on the show Evan leading in the game. They need to get up, they need to depress, they need to be physical receivers, give the past rush of chance.
I think they did. I think they blitzed a lot in this game. They had like a forty five percent blitz right on Tua. They played like fifty percent man coverage in this game.
I'm talking. I'm talking about they tried.
I just think that the Dolphins receivers are better and they just got burned.
When I'm saying I don't like the game plan, I'm talking about specifically in the secondary, I'm fine with that they did upfront.
I just think they they played too safe in the secondary. Maybe I don't know, I think they didn't play safe enough. Like you know, they're they're getting pulled up by eye candy and stuff like that in the backfield and giving up forty two yard touchdowns like on quarters, like it's quarters coverage, Like you can't give up the deep part of the field in quarters you have four guys across the deep part of the field.
I just think they're trying to get guys to run with, guys that weren't gonna run with.
I don't disagree to an extent, I guess with that, but like at the same time, I don't know what choice that they have. These are the guys that they have available to them, and playing like they did in Week two looked good on the scoreboard, like that they only gave up twenty four points, But when you really think about it, the Dolphins missed field goals in that game to a tripped all over himself on third down in the red zone, and that's why they forced a field goal.
Tripped all over himself in this game, fumbled the first on the first drive of the second half.
Yeah, and they they competed. I thought in this game for most of the first half.
Really the only time that they when you're giving, when you give up, when you have third and fourteen twice and you give a first down both times giving.
Because because they missed tackles and they like that, like all that type of stuff to me was like execution, Like they they missed tackles. Your Gelanti Tavai like has uh what's his name? They're they're running back like in the flat on the screen and he just misses the tackle, like I don't know, you know. I I commend the defensive coaches the last two weeks. They have played Miami
in Buffalo. For the past couple of seasons really mostly last year with Miami obviously, but the last couple of years they've played Buffalo specifically, just don't beat us, like can't like surrender the Buffalo game planners better. It was the same game plan, That's what I'm telling you. Like they played it's a different team, but they played the same coverages like they play. They tried the same things and they just got burnt.
But it's a very different team to defend Miami is than Buffalo. I don't disagree.
I just I would much rather than go down swinging than than played three deep safety prevent like they did in Week two.
I think they if Jonathan Jones were certain, then they kind of had to do that. I see. We we talked on the show last week. Get up, press them, get physical, make them get off the line, and see if you can get to Tua. Well, while these guys are trying to get off line, they did none of that. That was the kind of aggression I wanted to see from them.
They tried. They did the first first drive of the game. They played a repid two man That's what got them off the field. That was good to see. Look, I think in this Shanahan and you know McDaniel's scheme, what what makes what makes it so difficult is all the motion that they use.
So if you're gonna you know you're playing, I mean, they can't handle that motion. And that's another conversation most teams can't, right, Like.
If you're playing man coverage and then they bring the receiver in motion, you can't press the receiver anymore, right, So, you know, those are the things that they do, and they do a good job of it. And I just like I said, I understand where you're coming from. That that it in terms of the production, this game plan looks worse than the week two game plan. But in week two, what I saw was a team that was basically just like dying not to lose, right, Like they're
playing not to lose. And in this game, I think they at least went down swinging. They lost, they got beat, but they went down swinging. And I would also say, if they don't bust the coverage on the jail and Wattle touchdown at the end of the game, like, how does it look?
That's right? Well, So to go back to the original point, coaching, defensive coaching down didn't know what they were looking at on that play. That's a coaching thing. Got to get them ready for that.
So yeah, I mean they they had been switching it all again. I just they didn't let me. Let me put the defense didn't look prepared. Oh really with the motion stuff I'm saying, Oh, I think they did on fourth down, like the first fourth down of the game that they went for. It is like fourth and one. They were too many in jo was just an excellent J. C.
Jackson coming up towards the line of scrimmage on the Tyreek Hill touchdown. Yeah, the getting beat on the Jalen Wata went Tyrek Hill said it after the game that they knew they were going to key in on certain things and if they recognized him king in on slants and in cuts, they could beat him over the top. And they did that multiple times. I guess yeah.
I just I think they had a good plan coming into this game, and then I think unfortunately the execution just went down the wayside because they don't have the players. They just don't have the horses like they would. They were doing a lot of like the switches on the motion that the teams have done. You know that first
fourth down of the game. I know that it gets converted, but it's like a ridiculous back shoulder throw by Tua to Jalen Waddle and the motion comes and Tyreek goes in motion and Miles Bryan and I think it was Jack Jones on that side of the field. No, it's Jac Jackson. They switched the motion right and Miles Bryan takes the new number two and Jac takes Tyreek kill and they had it covered really well. It just was a better throw, And I just I think that they
had a plan. You know that a lot of those Kyle Dugger tackles that we talked about on the goal line and things like that, they they were covering the motion, like like Jabriel Peppers had him if he came out the right side, and Dugger had him if he came out the left side. Their communication broke down on the wattle one like Jack Jones was in one coverage and four.
Yeah, it was.
It was a bust all right, last one here. All the wide receivers, every single one of them. All of them are on the list. All of them, like Pop Douglas is the only one that I want to like kind of you could say, but I'm saying, I'm saying all of them. Uh, they're the spacing, the route running miscues from a you know, a mental standpoint of conversions, just the overall lack of just juice or playmaking or anything.
All the wide receivers were terrible in this game. I, like I said earlier in the show, once again, I'm asking Troy Brown to please do something anything to get these guys to space out their routes correctly. Like first third down in the game, it's third and twelve. You have three guys on top of each other. Yeah, that's been happening for two straight years now, Like how long are we gonna let this go on for? And don't tell me that it's just because they all stink, Like
that's that's mental. Like that's like a route running issue, right, you know, it's spacing. It's not Oh they can't separate against man coverage, that's because they all stink. Okay, this is different. I'm not saying that they all stink.
I'm just saying.
That's that's different. The spacing is terrible. The quarterback has no idea where half these guys are going on any particular play. They just didn't look ready to play in this game from a wide receiver standpoint, and that has to go down to the coaching. Those guys have to get ready fair enough.
My third down. Let me preface this by saying, all right, my third down is the rest And because I I didn't think we were going to talk about it otherwise, I wanted to bring it up because I want to talk about this in two directions. One, the refs are not the reason the Patriots lost this game. Everybody complains about the J. C. Jackson PI, which was probably a hold if it was anything, but that happens on every play. But all right, yeah, you get you got a third
and six on a bad penalty. You had two third and fourteens and two fourth downs. You had four chances to get off the field earlier in that drive and you didn't. The best way to avoid getting beat by the refs is to not put yourself in a position where the refs can beat you, and that's what the Patriots did in this game. That being said, the no call on the DeVante Parker hit is atrocious. Yep, plain and simple.
I have the no call on on two guys going in motion at the snap.
I was going to get to, there's no excuse to be missing essentially targeting calls hits that no excuse to be missing it. And I think that rattled the Patriots a little bit because they've given the green light to head hunt the refs have. And that's the thing, you know, these players are looking at like what can I get away within this game? And what can't I in all regards. It's not just that penalty, holding, penalty's pass interference, all of it, and then the two guys in motion, I mean,
come on, Yeah, it's happening right in front of you. Yeah, and that was really bad. This was a big game for get somebody up on the booth that has a button. Well, when they press the button, it goes down to the field.
My biggest thing is is that they do that on some plays like the illegal man downfield penalty, yeah, which I think just to in the interest of fairness. They picked up one on David Andrews the week before. I was I was laughing about that. So we can't sit here and say that we that Dad's a bogus call and they shouldn't be picking it up because the Patriots benefited from the same call the week before. So I'm not saying that. But those are two clear calls in
both instances where that's coming from New York. There's no way the refs just like met and huddled up and change their minds, Like there's no way it's happening too fast for somebody to just miraculously come up with the fact that that's that's not actually a legal man downfield. So they're they're buzzing in in some plays from New York and changing calls, but they're not buzzing in on like the DeVante Parker head hunting play.
And look the league. The league knows this is an issue. They put Walt Anderson on Monday Night Football. Yeah, it's it's just it's the officiating has become a major storyline this year across the league. This is not just Patriots thing. They it's something they got to clean up, period, full stop. Gotta clean it up. Yep.
I agree, all right, let's let's get to the phones.
Yeah, that all being said, it's not why they lost the game.
I like how we always have to like preface it.
So I have a rule. I have a sorry, I know you want to get phones. I have a real person. I allow myself one game a year, calendar year. Yeah, all sports, all my teams, all of them. I get one game a year that I get to blame on the refs. That's it. And I haven't used my game yet this year. I used it too early. Last year. It was it was a game two, Game three against the Bucks for the Celtics where Marcus Smart's arm is getting held down as he shoots the ball, and they
said it wasn't a shooting foul. I used it there. I blew it early. I usually try to save it for football season. I haven't had to use my game yet this year, but I give myself one game of year to blame on the rest. This wasn't it, But I think more people should adopt that approach.
All right, let's get to the phones. John is in Louisiana.
What's up?
John's Uh? Yeah, go ahead.
Oh, I just want to see how y'all feel about this point on magis like, I feel like it's the same where they're allowed his chair, and I feel like a lot of the fads that he make it more magnified with me. I know you just talked about it a lot of players with from the field, but I went, y'all feel about there?
What was the first point? Sorry?
You just you broke up a little bit there, Oh.
I said, I feel like the same is the booths are louder than the year. I feel like that coming full for wishing with Mega right now?
Okay, all right, thanks for the John, appreciate it. I guess I don't know. I mean, I don't know what that's saying is, so maybe that's that's throwing me off a little bit. But at the same time, I feel like with Mac the criticism is all fair of him, Like we have to be objective of what we're seeing on the field and he's not playing good enough, Like
that's that's all fair. What my whole take is with Mac, and I think you know alse you mentioned earlier in the show that we kind of get ragged on for being like mac apologists and making excuses for him and
stuff like that. My whole thing at this point with Mac is more so that they need to learn from their mistakes with this quarterback, because if it's the same regime that's bringing up the next guy and they do the same things and they check the same boxes that they did this time around, then I don't care if it's Caleb Williams, if it's Drake May, if it's Michael Pennix, if it's JJ McCarthy, they're gonna fail just like Mac
Jones failed. If they change, if they go through three coordinators in three years, if they have no offensive line two seasons, if they have no weapons for two seasons, that that quarterback, a young quarterback, is not going to fix those problems. The only guys that fix those types of problems are veteran guys like a Brady like in thirteen and stuff. Like that that can just hold it afloat and keep you functional or unicorns, And if you think that you're just gonna get a unicorn, then like
good luck. And even those guys like we consider Patrick Mahomes a unicorn, right for obvious reasons. But he came into the league with Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelcey, and Andy Reid calling his plays like let's call a spade a spade. It's not like he came into the league and turned the Jacksonville Jaguars like Trevor Lawrence is trying to do
into a two time Super Bowl champion. He had a Alex Smith was into the playoffs the year before that he took over, right, So that's the thing, Like you, there is one hundred percent nature going on with mac Jones that he has limitations. He has physical limitations, and I'm coming around to the fact that he might have intangible limitations also just attitude stuff, right, But at the
same point, there's also a nurture argument of young quarterbacks. Yeah, and the next guy, And this is why I really feel strongly about the fact that the next head coach of the Patriots needs to be an offensive guy, because I want the continent.
What if except what if it's Josh McDaniels in a defensive coach. Josh McDaniels is not going anywhere, I guess I. But I worry about the system. That's okay, that's fair. That's that's fair. I worry about that. But if that's that's better, it's better.
Yes, if it's strad and it's Josh McDaniels, and at least I feel a little bit better about that.
Josh McDaniels. Okay, yeah, that's not happening. Yeah, I know. Uh no, I it's the nature researcher thing, that's all of it. The Patriots have all the things that we as Patriots fans used to point it, the Bears and the Browns and the Bills and all these teams in the quarterback carousel for twenty something years. That all happen to start with b I'm trying to think of another one, the Cardinals. All these teams that have been in the quarterback carself for years, and the things we laugh at
them for doing are things the Patriots have done. Yeah. The Jets, I think are the perfect Jets. I don't know, I con't think of the Jets.
What you're risking is being going from Sam Darnald to Zach Wilson. That's what you're risking, everything.
From Christian Hackenberg to Sam Darnald or from Genos Christian Hackenberg.
Right, But and look at Gino, like Mark Sanchez, the Gino is now having like a late career like revitalization. And I think the one guy not to say that Mac is going to do this, but the one guy that I also went back and thought about is Alex Smith, who in San Francisco it was a disaster for him, like multiple coordinators, a bad roster around him, and he's terrible.
Then he goes to Andy Reid in Kansas City and he has like this like eight year run where he is an NFL quarterback and making the playoffs and like winning ten games a year like, and that's that's the that's the genesis of it all. Like if if you are out on Mac, that's fine. I'm not gonna sit here and try to convince you that Mac Jones is secretly this great quarterback that they're holding back in anymore.
But at the same time, you have to recognize that every quarterback is going to fail if they're put into a position where Matt Patricia is their offensive coordinator for a year. Then Billy O'Brien comes in and they have all these personnel issues around the quarterback, Like this is just not going to work for anybody, and they have to be able to learn from their mistakes.
Yeah. I think that that's a massive point and it's it's unfortunately there are going to be long term implications of all this because whoever they draft, Drake May, Michael Pennocks, whoever. Let's say it's a good rookie heear. Yeah, you know what, everybody's going to talk about that entire spring and summer that Mac mac had a good rookie year too. Matt,
I'm not buying anything right. Still might suck like that is coming and they've sort of brought that on the not sort if they brought that on themselves.
All right, Erica's in Nashville. It's up Eric, guys.
How's it going good?
I you know, you guys kind of took my question right before I was going to ask it, just about like change and everything in the NFL, Like when you look at Mariota and Alex Smith, just like Alex and Alex. Evan was kind of saying like those guys, you know, they they struggled because they had so many offense coordinators, so many offensive changes through three years. And I didn't, you know, think those guys were bums when they first
came out. But I think if this offense doesn't keep the nucleus together for at least another year, then you might as well just like switch everything, switch their game, switch the quarterback, because you're just setting your team up for failure at that point, Like O'Brien's going to ask for different things that McDaniels is going to ask for
if he comes back. So it's like you're just kind of starting over offensively every single year, and in the NFL, you need that continuity to kind of like build.
Off of Yeah, yeah, yeah, I couldn't agree more with that, Eric, And thanks for the call. I couldn't agree more. And I feel that way not only just about the offense. I also feel that way about some of their pending free agents that are coming up. Like they have one hundred million dollar in cap space roughly. I know that some numbers are different than others, but let's just call it one hundred million, just for a nice round number.
They have so much cap space next to offseason, Alex that there's no reason to start all over with Mike on Wen who at guard or tackle or wherever you want to play. I'm Kyle Duggar right, like these guys, So why like why why let go of these players that have been good players for you, that were good draft picks like Dugger and Mike on wn who are two of your best draft picks in like the last decade. Like,
and that's not an exaggeration, Like those two guys. Mike on Winning in the sixth round is a hell of a draft pick by the Patriots. Yeah, and to move on from those guys is just foolish, Like you have to start building something at some point. And those guys, I think whether you know, uh to use the lombardis and we talk about his Tuesday player thing a lot. Yeah, Mike on Winning and Kyle Dugger are probably like red chips.
They're probably not blue chip players, right, but but red chip are still valuable.
You need those guys. You absolutely need those guys.
And that's in red chips are still above like average NFL starter. We're talking about above average NFL starts.
These are guys you're talking Madden, You know, mid high eighties rating, which they're not your superstars, but they're you're not like actively trying to replace them either. Yeah. I Zach coxer Nessen had a really interesting number he tweeted out this week that was Patriots in the first three rounds between twenty fourteen and twenty nineteen. So that's the last five years eligible for an extension this year, twenty twenty classes up right, twenty fourteen, twenty nineteen drafted nineteen
players in the first three rounds. Yeah, zero of them got a second contract. Joe Tooney got a franchise tag. That's as close as it came. Now, look, there are a lot of those pics are bus A lot of those guys are just players. You're not going to sign a second contract, and that's part of this conversation. But Toney, even a guy like Damien Harris, how much could this
team use Damien Harris? Right now? Are guys they didn't bring back, and you want a reason why they're And Zach had the five years prior to that, and I think it's something like four thirteen players or something. Yeah, why you in the spot you're in because you're not retaining young talent you're not retaining young talent. You have
to have to do that in the NFL. Part of that is picking better players, but part of it is also when you do pick good players, which they've picked some you mentioned Mike Conuanu, Kyle Duggar, Josh Uche or even undrafted free agents jac jack jac Jackson, Jacoby Myers. You have to retain these guys. You got to bring them back at a certain point. You can't just keep churning your roster. It's a new fifty three players every four years.
It's so true. It's the NFL. It's just replace, replace, replace, replace, and it's it's add You're just constantly catching your tail and replace.
Look, it's the NFL. There's roster turnover more than any other league except for the NBA. But it's the NFL. There's a lot of roster turnover, yes, but not the whole roster. You need a core of five to ten guys least. That's you, that's your base, that's your foundation.
And they really like it's sort of if they had a course like Matthew Slater, David Andrews, Jonathan Jones, Dietrich Wise, Yeah, Lawrence Guy, I guess you throw in there, Bentley, But like those guys are starting to get older, and those guys aren't necessarily impact players. They may be good players in the locker room, but they're not all these high red ship players. You need to start building an identity because when you lock in Kyle Duggart, you know that
spots set in what Kyle Duggart does. You're gonna go out and get other players that make sense in the context of we're gonna have him do this next to Kyle Duggar, like the free safety thing. Right, instead of these guys accommodating for your losses, you're gonna build around them. They need to need to need to start doing that, and some of it is picking better players. But they have hit on a couple of picks the last few years. They've hit on some free agency. We've talked about Jabrill Peppers.
That's the guy that you get an extension this offseason. They need to start building that core.
And that's I think everybody, and I understand everybody wants the Patriots to have better players, right, they want better more talent, better players, more top end talent to the roster. But the thing is is that if you retain some of the red chips and then you add blue chips on top of the red chips. Well, now you're building to something, right.
So for instance, perfect example of this, and I know it's going to drive you up a well, but I don't care. Probably they had Ted Carris yep, who was what twenty six, twenty seven something like that, and Jack Mason was a little older but was still playing. Well. They moved on from both of those guys and in the last two years they've drafted four guards in the
top one fifty, including one in the first round. Because they're chasing their tail on it, right, if you re sign Ted Carris, who didn't, it wasn't unreally they went to the negotiation table and pulled back their off the offer.
Right.
Do they still draft col Strange? I don't know, but like you can use those picks, maybe they don't feel as pressed to need to add his guard. Maybe you use those picks on a tackle or on a safety or on a running back or something like that. Christ or Christian Watson. Yes, that's always been my second guest with that draft. Please that that that's kind of how this this whole thing works. If you don't let Stefan
Gilmour and J. C. Jackson walk. Maybe you don't have to take two corners and look, they've been good, Jack Jones and Marcus Jones, but maybe you don't have to take two corners there back to back, and you add a player in another position where you need a depth before you got to keep some of the good players, and you can overextend the other way too, And that's what teams like the Rams have done, and they got
in big trouble. But there is a happy medium between keeping some good players and letting some walk, and the really good teams figure out who are the right ones to let walk and who are the right ones keep. And they were excellent at that for twenty years. They were so good it. This is the guy we're gonna bring back, this is the guy we're gonna let go. You go through it like how many.
Times like Chandler Jones, Adante Hi Tower, right.
How many times until the last five years was there a player that they let walk that we were really like, Man, that one sucks, the one everybody brings up as a Keeam Hicks, which yeah, he was good, but also they had good defensive tackles. Well, that was happening.
Yeah, yeah, no, I don't think there's a big one.
So this is something they were able to do, and they did, they've just stopped doing in the last four or five years. And to say, oh, well Brady covered it up, He's not covering up the defensive side of the ball like that. Maybe on offense he covered up a little bit, but I don't know. Again, I don't know how many offensive players in the Dynasty era they let go that I was like, and honestly, the few they did, they ended up bringing back Garrett Blunt.
Yeah, and so here this kind of irks me, Like, and it's not about Braxton Barrios might be one of the biggest ones. It's not about like, it's not about discounting Brady, Like, let's not what I actually I think it's become to the point were like, it's it's honestly unfair to some of the great players that played around Brady, because now the the take is is that.
Brady just did everything. Brady.
Brady played every all, all twenty two spots on the field. It was just Brady and it they people realize that the Patriots have two defensive players in the Hall of Fame, now from the Dynasty era, right, like Richard Seymour and Ty Law are in the Hall of Fame. Yeah, the NFL Hall of Fame. Yeah, pro football, I should say the Rodney Harrison should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
We both are yes on that. I think that is the second biggest Hall of Fame exclusion in all the sports.
Should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Yes, Okay, And I always say this. If William mcginnison, Teddy Bruski played on the seventies Steelers, they'd also be in the Profoball Hall of Fame.
Okay, we keep doing.
That, right, So to sit there and say and then Dynasty two point zero, Gronkowski, Edelman, high Tower, mccordy. You know, obviously Rivas was here for a year, Gilmour was here for a couple. Decent player here like these these guys are good football players.
They don't don't don't be little the guys by saying the teams they It's not like they never built good teams. It's the approach seems to have changed. Basically, I wouldn't I wouldn't even say since Brady left, I think in the final you know you came on the beat. Evan approach has changed.
That would ruin like the move that started to like really ruin. This whole thing for me was Tony, Like Toney was such a perfect resign. But yeah, no, I mean maybe the timeline started, but like that one really irks me. And you know Paul and I'll tell him. I have said this on Unfiltered. Paul always comes at me and says, like, do guards on your own time? YadA, YadA, YadA. Do you think the Chiefs have any buyer's remorse with Joe Touney. Joe Tony is going to be an All Pro.
He's going to be a first team again Pro. I think he was. I don't think he was yet. I think it might be his first but he's he should be a first team All Pro. He's maybe the best guard in the NFL.
He's up there. He's fantastic. He was a second team All Pro last year.
Yeah, he is absolutely fantastic, and he's durable. He's on the field all the time. And you're telling me that you never missed one game of the day, that this wouldn't look better on offense if they had a pocket for Mac Jones and it wasn't cole Strange and then whatever they're putting at right guard or whatever they're putting at left guard because Cole Strange is hurt or not
or benched because he's not playing well like that. This is all a factor, and especially when you have a pocket quarterback that that one just I can't I can't deal with that still, all right, Isaac is in Reno?
What's up? Isaac listener?
First time solar here?
Thank you.
I just feel like I'd rather keep Nax for another year and build up the offense before we throw in another young quarterback and possibly ruin her. That being said, if the team does decide to get a new quarterback, probably in the draft, I'm just wondering how much of the staff and roster you would keep, especially on the offense. And I guess what you're playing in free agency and the rest of the draft would be Thanks.
Guys, Thanks Isaac. Offense.
Offense, offense, offense, offense. I'm spending every cap dollar in every draft pick in the top one hundred on offense.
You gotta resign some guys on defense to do that, but yeah.
All of offense all over the place. If they use I'm gonna say this now on November two, if they use a top one hundred on a defensive player, I'm gonna lose my mind. Shared verse future Patriots, I'm gonna lose my effing mind.
You need to.
This league has changed and until I say this all the time, until this organization philosophically changes their approach to team building and recognizes that unless they score thirty points a game, they are not winning anything anything in this league anymore. They are gonna be stuck here. This is where they're gonna be stuck. And you your major picks.
You got your picks last year, Bill on defense, all right, so you have Gonzales, you have White, you have whatever they're gonna turn Mapu into, which is probably a bust because they don't know how to use them. And they're gonna that's fine. Like you had your picks on defense last year, you mentioned retain. Okay, bring back Kyle Duggar, right, and make sure you have the nucleus of this defense together, just like you did last offseason. You brought back the
entire defense besides Devin mccordy. So do it again. The defense is more than set, right, It's fine. You're gonna have Gonzales back. Maybe you work something out to have Jude on back.
You're gonna have well, but they say, oh, you're right, you're right, you're right. I forgot. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you have Jude on back.
Maybe if you want to address you know, we've we've been talking about it, so we got we have to be fair. If you want to address free safety, then fine, that's the one. But you don't and nowadays you really don't see teams drafting free safety.
Most of these guys are not first round. You can do that the Secondude where they took Mapus where they had done it.
Yeah, but a lot of the time I would say the reason for that is because they really hasn't been like a unicorn free safety in a while.
No, there there is sort of one this year. So you're gonna drive yourself up a wallet. Cooper to Gene, I keep telling.
You no, but no, I don't want to hear that name. Uh I just offense, offense, offense, And if you're gonna go about it, if you're gonna load up in the veteran market on offense, first of all, like, please get it right this time.
Yeah, and no more.
John Hu Smiths than Juju smith Schusters, please, But at the same time, like you know, if you're if you get to the draft and you have t Higgins on this roster and you brought back Kendrick Bourne and he's gonna be healthy, and you have Pop Douglas emerging, and you maybe you bring back Hunter Henry also because he's a functional tight end, so you might as well.
He's a franchise at Canada. Yeah, I agree.
So you have all this in peace already by the time you get to the draft, then okay, maybe I can talk myself into not going off you know, all three picks.
Two or three at least. Yeah, yeah, I would agree with that. I had a point and I don't remember what it was. So Eric, Eric is in New Jersey. What's up? Eric?
Hey, guys, I had a question and what would you rather? The question is for the practice, how do you I mean, how many snaps you guys have a better view and understanding. So when we say guys aren't showing up in practice like obviously you know, you guys have boute thor and you guys lower down the depth chart, like how many reps are they.
Really getting to determine? Like this guy's making plays in practice, because that's one thing I don't I don't know how many live plays after running. And then what would you rather for next year? Would you rather go in the next season for bringing back Bill Mac, drafting Marvin Harrison and signing Michael Pittman or next season bringing Bennie Johnson, draft Drake May, signed T Higgins and signed Curtis Samuel.
I'll take it off the line.
Thanks guy.
Okay, oh, thanks for the call. First question to the point of of reps in practice, we don't get to watch in season practices, just like full disclosure. I don't want people to think that that we do.
We get like five minutes.
Yeah, just yeah, So we don't watch in season practice. But they're from what I understand, it's not all that different than some of the camp practices that we see when they do have games, like they had that one camp practice for the Texans game where we did see some game plan periods and things like that. So it's not all that different. But I think a lot of it. You know, Rager kind of carved out his role by making plays on the scout team, and he was flashing
on scout teams. So then they moved him over and said, okay, let's see what he looks like on this side of the ball with our offense. And that's how that kind of comes to fruition. So there's snaps, like there's reps. It's not like he's out there with the starters and playing poorly. They want to see her. You running routes with the effort. Are you Runningchris sproutch You're making the right reads, the effort this and that. You do that on the scout team, and then that's how you get moved up.
So I don't know how many reps Kishon Booty is getting with the starters, but that's not how the reps with the starters are what we're talking about here. We're talking about on the scout team.
Yeah, okay, so we got three more calls and try to get through these pretty quickly. So because I want to talk a little bit, Commander, Yeah, Cassandra is in Maine. What's up, Cassandra?
Hey guys, all right, so I'm a bit of a bitter fan right now. I'm going to go on a little mini tangent. I don't understand why everybody wants Josh McDaniels.
To come back.
In my opinion, he is part of the reason why the Patriots are horrible right now. He took so many coaches, players and everybody over to the Vegas Raiders. He's not a good head coach. I feel like he should just never set foot in New England again. But that's just my opinion, and I mut know what you guys were thinking about it.
Thanks for the call, Cassandra, and I don't hope. I always like it when we get we get female callers.
I like that.
IM glad that we have some female listeners out there because I know we get pretty nerdy on this show. So you know, it's not it might you know. I always know that. My mom and Jess like sometimes try to listen to the show and they're just like, yeah, I mean, I don't know, you guys are just you guys are just being geeks. Uh anyways, Uh okay, the uh that that I hurt You're feelings, I know.
Just whatever that all was, I don't know that you said that was just a lot of words, okay. Uh anyways, uh yeah, iball.
I know, Yeah that's what I'm saying. Yeah, I agree hundred percent. Uh, Cassandra, I hear what you're saying. And I understand the the coaching staff thing is interesting and I would love to know, you know, truth Serum Bill or feel like we have a lot of things to ask true Sierram Bill these days, but true Serum Bill, Like, was he on did he did that hurt his feelings?
That? Like?
Is that okay that he did that?
Like with McDaniels with the coaching staff, right, like, well, it seemed like that was something that was discussed between the two of that. But I can't imagine gutting the entire coaching staff was really what Bill had in mind.
No, And remember because Nick Cayley was the one guy that couldn't leave. So yeah, clearly Bill put his foot down somewhere. But I go back to the piece from the HBO document with Bill Belichick and Nick Saban where they talk about we have a role when you get when you go run your own program, You run your own program, you don't cut our program. And let's not say he can't take a guy or two, but he took the entire offensive staff but one guy, yeah, most of it.
Yeah, like and Troy, he didn't take care of Vinnie, but he so he took Lombardy. He took a heart degree and he took carm Brisilla.
Vinnie wasn't like really on this, like he was an assistant running because the guy's position coach level and higher. Right, he took.
But I think it's a I agree with Cassandra in one hundred percent about it being a huge factor as to why the last two years have been a disaster.
Oh it's it's if if the the you know that meme where it's like the the little brick and the guy pushes it and then there's the big brick at the end. Uh. John Gruen doesn't send that email. Yeah, who knows where the Patriots are at right now? Geez, because because I don't know that anybody else was hiring Josh McDaniels. They're Raiders. It was a unique situation. And if if Josh McDaniels doesn't get that job, if the Patriots won a Super Bowl with Mac Jones, I don't
think so. But I don't think we're sitting here talking about Drake Man Kayle Williams either.
Yeah, it's so, I mean they you know, we talk a lot about the quarterback development, what about the offensive line development? Like what is what does Cole Strange look like now if Carl Brisilla has been his line coast the whole time. I really, I've said this yesterday on PU. I think car Brisilla is a really really good.
Line And let's not forget he was in terms of like degrees of separation. He worked directly with Dante Scarnekia. Yeah, he was the last, the last him and Pop and Pop who's now with the Texans. Yeah, so you were removed from that Dante and Matt Patricia comes in and changes bro. Now Adrian Clem played for Scars, so you know its exactly. Players have said that there's some similarities there, but it's all the domino of system. They just have
to coach it. The domino effect, the butterfly effect of Josh McDaniels leaving is I don't think we'll ever truly understand. We won't because we don't know that. There's no way to know. I would say the reason people wanted to come back, speaking for somebody who's interested by it, I don't. I don't need it. But one there's that thing of if they if Mayo is the next guy or a defensive head coach. I like the idea that you have an offensive coordinator that's not going anywhere. I think there
is value in that has to happen. I also think even some of the great offensive minds developing a young quarterback is its own thing independent of that. And Josh McDaniels got a really good Rooki year at a mac Jones and Aidan O'Connell doesn't look bad either, for whatever that's worth. So this is a guy that can work with young quarterbacks. And there's like can not.
To mention, like, you know, Jimmy G and Jacoby Present.
He made he made people think Jimmy G was a starting NFL quarterback ten years ago. He might have been before all the injuries. To be fair, well, the injuries are part of it. Anyway, we don't need to revisit that one. The point being that would be the argument again, I don't need it if they were to bring in a guy like a Ben Johnson who's worked with who's worked and developed a young quarterback, or guy like Eric Banemy who was there with Patrick, he was there with
Mahomes from the beginning. Right Yeah, Okay, now we're talking. If they want to go out and get a guy like who's never and I'm trying to think of an example on a blanket. But if they were to go with like a college coach, and I know every college coach all they do is develop young quarterbacks, it's different. It's different taking a high school than a college game than a college kid to the NFL game. Having a guy who's developed an NFL quarterback before, like Josh McDaniels, there's value there.
Yeah, I agree. Uh, Patty is an agon. What's up, Patty?
What's up?
Guys? Hey, Hey, I get stuck with the line three, which is bad all the time.
I don't know.
Yeah, I had I had a thought yesterday and I wanted to get your guys opinion on it.
So you guys were talking about cash spending the other day on c U Evan and budgets, and I was, and I had a thought in my head that, you know, maybe Craft does get Belichick like a certain amount that he has to spend every year and he's not to
go over it. And and then I thought, well, that kind of doesn't make sense, because I mean, you know, when he bought the Patriots, he was scared to tell my Rusk that he for the amount of money that he paid for him, I think if he's the only owner to correct me if I'm wrong, But I think he's the only owner to privately fund his own stadium, so I don't think there's a problem spending money there.
So I guess he broad question is if you had to blame one of the two craft get Belichick on not spending money on bringing in good players who would have been Because to me, I'm taking Belichick, you know, I think I think Kraft gives them the green life to spend the money, and he's he's just to uh prodgity or just stuck in his ways to do it, and that's I'll take. I'll take the answer off.
Thanks, Patty. Look, I I'll tell you right now, this is the biggest mystery with this team is who's responsible for the fact that they're thirtieth in cash spinning? Is it the owner or is that just the way the coach wants to run it?
Right?
Like I, I wish we could give you a straight answer, but I almost don't feel comfortable picking a side because nobody knows. Nobody truly knows who's responsible for it. If I had to pick a side, I'd actually go right
down the middle. I would say that they're both in line with the fact that you look at these these teams spend at three hundred million dollars, they don't need to do this, like you know what I mean, Like I think that they Bill believes that they can cut corners and Craft is happy to cut corners because obviously he makes more money that way, and so that they I believe that they are aligned on this issue.
I would say this was the adjective that was used for Bill Belichick's extension, lucrative.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So you think it's because Bill makes so much money?
Uh well, I guess it's glass half full, glass half empty. It's it's you could either look at that, as you know, Bill makes so much money, so Kraft feels like he's spending on the investing more of the coach. You shouldn't have to invest more in the players. Or would a guy that's you know, cheap and air quotes pay a coach that much money? Yeah? So, and that that could be open for interm I leaned the second way.
So we did get an email, and I'll leave it alone. But okay, not the second part, Like you don't need to do the snark part of the email, right, Like.
I just don't want to see it.
Just just like make the point that you want to make. Curious, Like we talk a lot, like we have, there's a lot of discussion we do, like eight hours a week of radio on Patriots dot com. Like, just just save your snark, right, Like, Okay, So we're talking yesterday about this whole issue, and I brought up, you know, the easiest way to move money around in the NFL is to confirm base salary into signing bonus, right.
And the Patriots really don't do that.
A whole lot. They do, but they don't do a whole lot of it. They did in the Brady years because they were trying to win Super Bowls and they're maxing out their caps basically a little bit. They've never done it as much as teams that spend a lot of money on the roster do. And this guy's saying, you know that that money eventually hits the cap. Yeah, all the money eventually hits the cap. The only point that I was trying to make is in the short term.
That's that's a way to create cap space in the immediate short term, okay, and it pro rates over the life of the contract, so you're basically adding a little bit here and a little bit there to each year. I think they did this with with John Neus Smith, and I believe they did this with Judon to an extent as well. They've done it in the past with
a couple of other guys. The point being, though, is that if you're willing to dole out the cash, not the cap, the cash, you can buy your way into anything.
So that's people always say, oh, the restructuring of the contract. Why doesn't you know every team do that? Because that you got to write a player check on the spot, right.
It's you know, Fred made the point of it's real time cash flow, right, and some owners have a lot more real time cash than other owners.
And people forget about that. Like, I don't know if you saw what happened in baseball this weekend, Evan with the San Diego Padres. They had to take out a loan for like fifty million dollars. They spent a lot of money, they did, and baseball is different, there's no cap, but they'd take out a loan for fifty million dollars because they they couldn't pay the players. Like playing it simple and a couple of years ago the Raiders, there was an issue where they had all this cap space
and people were saying, why aren't they signing anybody? And there was a report that basically have no money. They didn't have the cash on hand to give guys signing bonuses. They had the cap space, but they didn't have the actual cash. So it is the thing that had like, we don't think about that, but it is a thing that happens.
Yeah, So that that's that's definitely part of it. But the only point that I was trying to make was that the signing bonuses into you know, base salary in the signing bonus conversions make a mediate cap space. Yes, And the thing is is that, oh, a lot of teams and I really want to get to the commander, so I don't want to go too long on this. A lot of teams do some more calls to h Yeah, and both of them are are from out of the country, which I always should take those.
Yeah, we will.
So a lot of teams will recognize now that outside the COVID you know, fiasco, that the cap is going up every single year. So if they move money into the future and create money in the immediate they know that they are going to be able to absorb that because the cap is just going to.
Go up the d And we're getting in like economics here, which I don't really understand, but basically, a dollar of cap space in twenty twenty three, yes, is worth or is the equivalent to call it, like eighty cents in
cap space correct in twenty twenty five. So the idea is we're pushing this money forward, but the money's not worth as much or did they hit you know, relatively or to scale, eight million dollars is a bigger an eight million dollar cap hit in terms of percentage of the cap is a bigger hit in twenty twenty three versus if you take it in twenty twenty five. And that's kind of the idea behind the Void years too. Yep.
So, and that's another And the Patriots hardly ever used void well, everybody kind of stopped using it. No, a lot of the Eagles used tons of void years. I like the restructuring better than the Void years. The voy years well, but but the Void years restructuring doesn't create as much.
Compt But here here's what I would say to all of it. Yeah, I think and we will talk more about this in the offseason. You mentioned John new Smith earlier and kind of the going out and spending on players and hit this time, right. The Hunter Henry john Smith thing is interesting because they went one for two. They give out two big contracts, they went one for two. You're not gonna hit on every contract. Yeah. People throw
Nelson Agler in that conversation as well. They made Nelson Aglo the twenty second highest paid receiver in football.
Yeah, they got about that. He was a mid level player.
I think that And this is more to the fans than the team. I actually think the team understands this, just based on some moves they've made in the past. But when's the last time, you know, when team signed those big contracts, people, oh my god, there's so much money. That's ridiculous, Kirk, when's the last time one of those big contracts the player was good and we still said it was a bad contract. Never, like I said about
Joe Tooney, like that was a hugere's there. There is no such thing, and people are going to lose it as some of the taste of it. So one, let's recap the NFL draft orders irrelevant, which is a bit of a stretch. So to Thatay, it's one thing you're picking twentieth, but fifty to third. I'm now going to say, there's no such thing as a bad contract in the NFL. It's just bad players. If the player plays well over the course of the contract, it's not gonna look that bad.
Patrick Mahomes, Oh my god, fifty million a year? Are you kidding me? That's unheard of? What was he now like the eighth highest paid player quarterback in football? Was anybody mad about Patrick Mahomes' comment?
No?
But there, How are the Chiefs gonna gonna stomach that they're not gonna be able to get another fifty two players. They're not gonna be able to afford it the high quarterback football.
That part of it, like people that still believe that, you know, Brady had to take last to spread the money, like you you must still believe in Santa Claus like that. That part of it is just not like that's been proven over and over and over again really quickly. On the void years thing, though, U so void years. I think the one thing about void years is is that that that you don't risk much of the bill coming do in that sense, if you just re up the player before the contract void.
That's true, there's I don't.
So that's the thing is like, if you're if you tack on void years to a really really good players contract, like a young, really good player.
You gotta do it for young player. You can't do it for older players you might retire. Well, they did that with mccordy. But the reason why is because they were going year to year with Devin so they knew that they were going to get the contract done for the next year if he was coming back before the
contract where the yea. So if you're like, let's, for example, just use the Cincinnati Bengals, because I think they had they're a good example right now, if they were to tack void years onto Joe Burrow's contract to space out the cap hits, right, and to space out the cap dollars in five years when Joe Burrow's contract expires, they're re signing Joe Burrow right, Like, he's not hitting the open market, so the contract is never gonna avoid So
now the can just kicks gets kicked down the road again, right, And that's the whole thing is like everybody always says to me, like the bill, the bill eventually comes due. And I always use the same analogy, like it's not like some you know, bully is coming to collect, Like nobody's coming to collect. It's never collected. As long as you continue to manage it. That's basically where it comes to. You have to constantly manage it. And that's kind of
what the people point to the Rams as the example. Right, they had to tear down their roster. They didn't manage it. They just signed all these they went all in, heavily loaded future deals and then let them all hit the cap at once.
Yeah, like that you can do. They paid for a Super Bowl, right, and they won?
Right.
Tim is in Sydney, Australia. What's up, Tim?
What's happening on fellow?
What time is it there? Yeah? Right?
Uh quarter to three in the morning.
I love that, Tim, That's awesome. Let's go m That's what I want to hear.
Hell yeah, So I've got I've got Madden on the PlayStation and I've got you guys on the phone.
Yes are you?
Are you just best friend? Like, go ahead a night. What do you got.
So?
I've got a stull names for you all right before you agents at the end of the Sea. I heard you mentioned Higgins before. What do you reckon Mike, Kevin, Quise Brown, Calvin Ridley, Michael Pittman, Ate Davis kJ Osborne, Tyler Boy. If they don't sign, if they don't really sign with their team, who gives us the best chance going forward?
Okay, thanks Tim, and thanks for staying up to listen. I appreciate that. So I think so Calvin Ridley's a free agent. I didn't realize that.
Uh.
I think that he's probably the best fit for them, but my guess is that he remains in Jackson.
Yeah.
So I'm not a big I I like Pittman as a player, not not a big fit guy for Pittman, I worry about big body X receiver. I in some ways like I just don't love that fit. And I think that T. Higgins is just a better player, so he might transcend.
Yeah. Yeah, so I would say that there's a lot of Mike. Evan has been really impressive this year. He had every reason to tap out and he's been awesome. And if he can beat I don't know that I'd give him five years. But if they are gonna do the thing of we're gonna bring back mac Jones back on the last year and really see what we can do. Mike Evans on like a two or three year deal would make sense. I I could get into Mike Evans, the sneaky interest name he put in there, and he
kind of snuck it at the end. Yeah. I like Tyler Boyd for them. He's older, he's yeah, Tyler Boyd, he's like thirty. I don't think so he is, he's twenty eight.
Yeah, there's a lot of I feel like there's not you know, he's had a lot of.
Money, he's got he he reminds me a lot of Jacobe Myers. Yeah, in that sense. And if if they like, let's say they found a way to move on from Juju Smith Schuster, but they still want that kind of player. Yeah. I don't think you taught you signed Tyler Boyd and your wide receiver room is fixed. But if it was like Mike Evans and Tyler Boyd.
Okay, So let me ask you this.
Yeah, Kendrick Bourne or Tyler Boyd ken Uh, it's tough because of the knee fully healthy Kendrick Bourne.
Yeah, because that that that's the player.
So if if you feel like like Kendrick Bourne's knee, like, isn't there if they were to come out with Mike Evans Tyler Boyd to Mario Douglas. Yeah, it's a good group's good.
I'd rather go younger, like I'd rather just pay for T. Higgins, but I it's not money, so I know.
Yeah. I also just well this is more. It's like the second signing, Like, I don't think you're not signing Tyler Boyd instead of T Higgins. You're signing Mike Evans, in said of T Higgins in this situation, we got one.
We're calling and I want to get going here. Claire is in the UK. What's up Claire?
Hi? Then Marine, I thought i'd ring in because you were complaining that you didn't have women callers.
I know, objective question. We got to ask now that what time is it there?
Oh, I see, I'm not I can't be as good.
It's only like a quarter to four in the afternoon. So it's really nothing special here.
That's so cool. I mean three in the morning.
It's yeah, I can't get the accolades that he has. I can't complete it's it's just the afternoon.
What you got wellpecially Evan, thank you very much for doing a clip yesterday. Of course on the battle that I did send an email in because he seems really appointed that I didn't have a tight in his question.
That's true.
Obviously I've thought of.
One, so I tried to drop an email, but with the time and stuff, I thought i'd give you a.
Quick call it, especially after you sort of seem to want.
Female callers do. Whilst Brown is quickly becoming a steal for the pages and like his skill set is evolving and I am really quite.
Excited by him.
How can the Patriots utilize slash news GISECI more.
Than they are now?
What is their key? Tell them?
Because I was ecstatic by the signing going into the season, and as you know, I just really want to see him more.
So I'll take it off there.
Thanks guys, great, Thanks Claire, appreciate it. Thanks for the car. So what I have liked about the usage with Kisiki and the tight ends, and I should mention Pharaoh Brown didn't practice yesterday with a back injury.
So this receiver best tight end Football Corner PFF qualifiers.
Yeah, this might be moot, but what I do like about what they've been doing is when they've been playing twelve you know, two tight ends on the field at the same time. It's been Pharaoh Brown as the inline guy with Gasiki or Henry instead of Gaziki and Henry together because clearly those two guys can't block together, right, It's just two weaker blockers on the field at the
same time and it's not gonna work. So Pharaoh Brown is now out there as like the hand in the dirt inline guy that allows them to use Kasiki and Henry as more of the detached, you know, move piece at tight end, which I really like in terms of Kasiki specifically, Well, one, if they need to get in the red zone, because that's like, let's get the ball into the red zone and actually use his zone threat, yeah, like they did against Buffalo to win the game. You know,
that would be a step one, step two. I think what it has been disappointing is the lack of like seam and crossers. Tokaiki Gasiki is not He's not like a sudden route runner, like he's not like a guy that's gonna break you down and make moves at the
top of the route to get open. He's a straight line, speed like explosive type of tight end and then obviously you know he's above the rim, so I would you know, I was really hoping, and I think we saw it a little bit in camp, don't you feel like we did, like the seam shots and things like.
That, so we thought I was Remember we had the whole conversation about who's going to stretch the field and yeah, yeah.
And they just haven't really gotten into that very much. So that's what I would like to see. More Gaziki up the seam, a play action and then have him be the guy that's like running behind the linebackers, whether it's up the seam it's a crossing route, because I think he's the fastest guy of the three, and I think he's probably the best guy.
Well I don't know.
I take back best guy after the catch because Farah Brown has just been an app you can't tackle, you just have to hold on for dear life and wait for me.
Yeah.
Oh yes, I won't say that, but he's definitely the most explosive in a straight line before the catch shout out of any of these guys. So that stretched the field a little bit with Kasiki, That's where I would go with that. So we have ten minutes. I wanted to do almost twenty minutes on the Commander, so we have to condense this to ten minutes. So I have two things about the Commanders I want to talk about in terms of this game and in terms of the
big picture. H you want to start offense defense? Which one offense for Patriots are? Sorry, oh, I don't know, pick one man? Okay, offense for the Commanders. I really really like Eric Bienemy. I like what he's dialing up. Sam Howl. Sam Howe stinks. Okay, he's not very good.
Sam how holds the ball forever. Uh, he can't. Every time you move him off his spot and he has to reset and throw the ball goes all over the place like he's like there's like wide open wide receivers down the field and they're like digging out grounders because he all because he had to move a little bit to his left right. So Sam Hel's not very good. Their offense statistically is not very good. They're like twenty
six in the league in DVA. I'm not trying to tell you that he's like turning, you know, water into wine completely, but he's brought the Andy Reid playbook to Washington, and there's a lot of fun scheme stuff going on in Washington right now. And their receivers are actually pretty good. Like I think Terry McLaurin and Johan Dotson can play. Logan Thomas is a decent receiving tight end. I had some person, Samuel had some sneaky fun watching this Commander's offense.
They do a lot of things that put defenses in binds from a pass game perspective. And they chuck it, man. I mean, they're they're first in the league and dropbacks they're fourth in the league and early down pass rate. They throw the ball and they throw it a lot, and I like that, you know, I like that. That's an analytics thing.
And what's what's really interesting about it is they have five players with more than twenty catches and eight players more with more one hundred yards this season. They're spreading that thing out. It's not I mean, and Bill kind of talked about this yesterday when we were asking about mclarty's Like, mclaurin's good, but they'll get the ball to the other guys too. This is not an offense that's
funneled through one spot. Yeah, and that for a team that has the injuries on defense like the Patriots, specially in the second area, that can be tough. Everybody's got to show up. You're gonna need Jack Jones in this game. You're gonna need John Jones in this game. Yeah, You're gonna need whoever the third corner ends up at jac Jackson in this game.
I don't know.
I just blanked on that. So I'm across the board.
I'm worried about this game from a from that standpoint because a defensively for the Patriots, that the enemy is running the system that the Eagles beat the Patriots with in the Super Bowl, that the Chiefs always put points up against the Patriots with, whether it was Nick Foles,
Alex Smith, Patrick Mahomes, you name it. That that Andy Reid Tree is it was able to find winners against the Patriots, and that that's the thing is like I think when you say oh with the Chiefs, like obviously they gave up points to Patrick Mahomes, I mean, big whoop. But like Nick Foles also went up and down the field on he in the Super Bowl, right, So this
is a defense that or an offense. Excuse me, that Eric b enemy is gonna I think call the game a lot like those past games, and he's gonna have all those beaters ready to go. They run a lot of mesh, which Josh McDaniels did against in in that Raiders game. He had, you know, Michael Mayer running wide open away from man coverage.
Like there.
There's gonna be some problems that they're gonna present for the Patriots defensively. And I think if you're the Patriots defense, you're gonna have to do some things that b en Me is not expecting you to do from a coverage standpoint, like if you just sit in man coverage here or a post safety zone the whole game. He's gonna have all that crap ready to go, like wheel routes to the running backs, mesh, you know, flooding the deep part of Cover three like that. That's what that team does.
That's what that that offense does. That scheme has done against the Patriots, And and the Pats are gonna be in trouble if they just run it basic and they're gonna have to uh hie, Paul uh, They're gonna have to do They're gonna have to do it differently. I think Maybeards maybe do a little bit differently we do. We argue about that enough on PU on the other side of the oh, really quickly, on b enemy next.
Head coach, he'd be on my short list. He'd be mind to the external guys for me? Are I know, for Abel's like not super realistic, but yeah him. I don't know if n Me's realistic either, Ben Ben Johnson, Eric b Me. That's like off those would be the top three guys off the top of my head.
I would I would be really cool with Eric bne Me be here if that was the way they went.
Now is it realistic?
Is it?
You know? No, not really, but I'd be cool. Well, I'll say this, if there is an argument for happening. Clearly teams aren't over the top about hiring him for reasons that you know are out there. But it's maybe Washington changes it and he is more of a market than he did in the past. But he clearly hadn't had much of a head coaching market, So I don't know. I mean, look like I said, I don't he should have a market, but he does it. If no other team wants him, it's like great, fine take him here.
Then yeah, like I said, statistically, their offense is not anything special. But when you watch the film and you watch the scheme and you watch the conflict, and then you also watch you know, how he's made Sam Howell like, Okay, well that would.
Be the thing you say, it's not statistically exceptional. What happens if you put in an upgrade over Sam Howe? Right quarterbacks?
Oh I R thing can pull that off, which I think they're going to try to because they just traded their two best.
They're gonna be When I said before, like, you know, it doesn't matter where you're picking. If you want the guy at three, you move up, you take them three, they are gonna be one of the teams that's doing that.
Drake may and that offense would be would be something that would be something Williams and that offensive. Yeah, but that eleven to one is like like if that's where they're picking, and now maybe the bottom falls out because they traded those guys, but or.
Maybe Caleb Williams stock keeps falling. Yeah, I'm saying like, if I'm Caleb Williams, that's where I want to go because that's the cop. Yeah, that's the cop is Patrick Mahomes And and and if I'm bim me if he falls beyond one, I'm clamoring to get up to two togain.
Yeah, absolutely, all right, really quickly. On the Commander's defense, obviously, they just traded their two best edge rushers and.
They still have two of the best defensive front players in the league. So that's where I was going.
Uh, this game from that point of view, Uh, Doron Payne and Jonathan Allen petrify b in this game. Uh, Jonathan Allen against Cole Strange is a mighty mismatch, a huge, huge mismatch in the Commander's favor. And Uh, that one concerns me because those two guys are also more like power long physical players, like they're not necessarily get off guys, like they're more like pushed the pocket and compress the
pocket guys. I I am trying hard to find a world where Mac Jones doesn't have Jonathan Allen in his lap the entire game. Like, I just I don't really see how that doesn't happen, So that that's troubling. We had an emailer that email did and said, like, maybe this is a game where on when it was actually better off at guard just because of that matchup, and like you, you know, I'm not as worried about the tackles.
My guess is or you know, the ends. My guess is that they'll probably stick to the continuity and try to keep building with tackle. But it sound reasoning because that's where they're in trouble in this matchup. I think, you know, the Commander's pass defense is like thirty first in the league. In DVA, they're like down near the bottom of the league and scoring defense, which is why they trained those guys and are kind of, you know, a boarding mission on that whole defensive line load up
on the d line strategy. H Emmanuel Forbes is be benched and has been awful. A shocker.
One thing that we were very right about. The thing when we consens us on a draft pick, we usually end up being right. There's not many guys that we both agreed on being a hit that weren't hits.
Yeah, and soh so that that's a this past defense can be had. Yeah, And you mentioned Pop Douglas getting more attention against Miami. I think in this matchup, this is the first time I was trying to go back and remember the last time that I wrote a Patriots receiver in key matchups having an advantage over a defense, right, Like, I don't even know, I can't remember the last time I thought that to my but I think Pop Douglas against the interior players, you know, the linebackers, the slot
corners of the commanders is a mismatch. I think that Pop Douglas should win that matchup. But are they going to be able to keep mac Jones up?
Right?
Maybe it's so quick that it won't matter, but in retrospect it's I am very worried about Deron Payn and Jonathan Allen up the middle on this Patriots offensive. And it's gonna be a nice test for Strange, who I would admit I've kind of given up on and City. So, like, let's see if City so can hold up as well. It's a good matchup for them. It'll be fun.
Yeah, yeah, I mean i'd agree with all that. I just think, again, you can put up points on this defense if somehow, if they can contain Jonathan Allen drew On pain.
Yeah, they should be able to move the ball. Yeah, just see if they can do it. All Right, that does it for us. Peu is up next, so don't go anywhere. We're gonna start pee you here in a few minutes, but for Alex, I'm Evan Lazar. Thanks for listening. We'll see you guys next week.
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