Patriots Unfiltered the world's original podcast. Patriots Unfiltered brings you inside Jillette Stadium for rousing conversations on everything New England, Patriots, and NFL. Join host Fred Kersh alongside Patriots dot COM's Paul Parillo, Mike Desso, Evan Lazar, Tamara Brown, and Alex Francisco as they bring you in depth coverage of the team.
He's a red shirt rookie at that point, so it's really that's his rookie season essentially too. So now we're really not talking about them, really knowing.
Search for Patriots Unfiltered anywhere you get your podcasts. This is the Patriots Catch twenty two podcasts with Evan Lazar and Alex Barth.
Blazar and Lazarre. Hello, everybody nailed it. He joined as always by our bar Gack gack risk Jo.
Here is Evan Lazar and Alex bars.
And it says Debreeze n Foles p Manning. I did not know.
I knew there was a Jay Capp. I forget if it was Joe Capp or Jim Kapp, so I said some guy. Then I clicked on the link and it loaded, and then I saw Sid Luckman, George Blanda y A Tittle, Joe Cap and Adrian Burke.
You have some respect on why Tittle's name? All right, that's so true. Why A Tittle was ahead of his time? I respect Sid Luckman also way ahead of his time, like Sid M. Luckman was actually throwing the ball down the field.
See this is weird because this comes from the guy who like refuses to acknowledge errors when you talk about who the best player is.
Yeah, oh no, this, I'm dead set on that tape. So then, how is Sid Luckman one of the best of all times? I did say he was one of the best of all times? No, I did not. No, I did not. I said he was ahead of his time. I did not say he was one of the best of all time. I said he was ahead. When host don't listen, I said ahead, not best. But I am very dead set on that. You cannot have a conversation about the greatest players in any respective sport of all
time without like everybody says, well, it's a different era. Okay, But if I'm putting a basketball team together, am I gonna take Lebron James Or am I gonna take the great great Bill Russell. I'm taking Lebron James like I just it's not even.
Russell's a bad example there because he beat played a different style, but he's probably a guy that would have been good.
And he would have been like a rim running five.
You're talking about your your ear, talking more about a guy like.
Other.
Okay, I'll give you a better example, Okay, Don Hudson, Yeah, you cannot tell me careful now you don't want Bill here. Now, you cannot tell me Don Hudson that Don Hudson and Randy Moss are the same, are the same species obviously, like they're they're not even they're not. One is a cyborg and one is very human.
Because one guy played in an error where they understood that, you know, drinking a beer and smoking a pack of cigarettes at halftime probably wasn't the best idea.
Okay, but I offense to people that then go ahead and say that Don Hudson and is somehow better than Randy Moss, Terrell Owens or you know, name another like Calvin Johnson. Like no, no, and I don't I don't adjust for era, like I clearly am taking Calvin Johnson over God. I u's think that that is implied.
But the guy, it's like the thing when you do strength to schedule, you can only play the team on your schedule, right, How good Mike don Hudson have been if he had these diets and these weight training regimens and this and that was.
Like one hundred and eighty pounds soaking wet. They didn't like work out back. Oh my god. Also, there's some great receivers. Now we're gonna talk about Jalen wall How much of Jalen wall Away? You know, I don't know one hundred eighty pounds soaking wet? How much Devonte Smith Way? You love Damante? How much Devonte Smith so like I It's it's insane.
Obviously, obviously we know that guys from the sixties were are different athletes, are different raw athletes than modern players because they have a complete from the time they are born. There's a completely different regimen to get them ready. Have you ever seen I think you just acknowledged that and move on. There are a handful of guys I think Transcenderra Moss is one.
Have you have you ever seen like old old footage of like Babe Ruth swinging a baseball bat? Yeah? Yeah, he like that would not work. That would not work, obviously, but literally obviously everybody because it's like a running joke now for so many reasons that Bayberth wouldn't be good in the modern modern big leagues, but he still found a way and managed to be better than so much better than everybody else at the same time who had the same resources he had. That doesn't count for anything.
I didn't say it doesn't count for anything. I just don't want to hear of these guys ranked ahead of modern guys category.
So okay, So who's a better baseball player, Babe Ruth or Bobby Dolbeck.
Oh my god, that's not what we're talking about. If we're gonna do, if we're going to do, we're talking about machine. You put him on the same the Bobby Dollbacks of the world. We're talking about like Babe Ruth versus like, so, then where's one might as well be an alien like show heyo Tani. If you told Babe Ruth that that because both of them played both ways, right,
both of them pitch dan hit. If you told Babe Ruth that, showe heyo Tani would come along, like eighty years ninety years later, he'd be like, that person is not real, That is a fictional character. Okay, But then all right, if we're just going to default that this guy who has more resources to be better at the sport, we've learned a lot about the sport over the last year year. That's what it is. But that's what you're saying. No, it's an evolution, is what I'm saying. It was Ruth
not Otani to his era. Yeah, and an evolution happened, and now Shoo Tani happened. Okay, but Ruth didn't have the benefit of the evolution. So who's to say, what do you mean, who's to say he's not gonna magically get evolution? Like he's Babe Ruth and this is Shoo. He's not his fault. He played what he did. I'm not blaming him for it. I was saying he's not better than the people that are playing now, that's all I'm saying, but better like on what relative to what?
To them? If you said, who's a better baseball player, showy toy, baby, I'm taking to show who's a better baseball player, Babe Ruth bald the dollback. Hey, Patriots fans, if you're gonna want to see Toyota's best offers, including those not seen on TV. Go to buy Toyota dot Com is Tyota's official website for deals from the official vehicle of the New England Patriots, Toyota. Let's go places. And after that conversation, I'm going to need one of these easy to drink, easy to enjoy bud Light, the
official beer sponsor of the New England Patriots. I'm not allowing us to debate that any longer. We could have gone on for another twenty minutes. And uh, and it's just not worth it. You know, you're You're just not It's not worth arguing with you over that. H Let's talk a little bit of Patriots football and uh, I gotta calm down after you got me all riled up coming out of the gate. Yeah, very good. Here's here's where I'm at right now, or where I wanted to start.
And of course I wanted to start here before this morning, and I wanted to give Alex van Pelt his flowers. I still want to give Alex van Pelt his flowers. I understand there's a lot if you missed it. This morning at his press conference, he was talking about Marcus Jones. Marcus Jones reached out to Alex van Pelt said I want to help on offense. Alex van Pelt claimed that he did not know that Marcus Jones had previously previously
played on offense for the Patriots. Objectively not a great look, right, not a great look that he didn't know that, But I'm still not going to say that that supersedes the good things that Alex van Pelt has been doing. And my whole take with this is there was a lot of questions, not for myself, because you know, Alex, you can vouch I had said Drake May was going to be would you tell me last week I said he was going to be an MVP candidate as a rookie
or whatever. That's what. Yeah, yeah, prob. I don't understand why you're so upset. I brought that up. Pro bowler as a rookie. Anyways, Alex Van Pelt, in my opinion, has done a really great job with this offense. We're at that point now the season where I feel pretty comfortable saying that unless the wheels completely fall off in the last six games of the season for Drake May, I want Alex van Pelt back next year as the offensive coordinator of the Patriots. The big things to me
that that are in Van Pelt's favor right now. He has Drake May playing on time, in rhythm from the pocket and seeing the field extremely well prepared. His mechanics are improving, his footwork has improved. Basically, the footwork conversation that we spent six months having about this player was all waste of time. Like he's completely fixed it within the span of a couple of months of working with
Alex Van Pelt. And I would be really, really weary if I were the Patriots of the year one to year two jump for Drake May and switching coordinators on him from year one to year two. They talk a lot about how they don't want to be error repeaters with the quarterback development. That would be repeating one of the most egregious errors they made of the mac Jones era was going from Josh McDaniels to Matt Patricia. Well, let me ask you this, are you at all worried
that it could go? I don't want to phrases. I don't know that too well is the phrase, But like, when do we get to the tipping point of just do other teams start looking at Alex van Pelt to poach him, not yet that they end up in that sweet spot where the development's there and it's enough, but it's not to the point where he's going to get head coaching offers. Yeah, I don't think we're there yet
for him. But what I'm seeing from Van Pelt first of all, is I hear what you're saying, because calling him a quarterback whisper is probably a little bit strong. Like it's six games, right, Like, let's see what it looks like over a long larger sample. But for Drake May, he has done a fantastic job developing Drake. He just has you know, like from the very beginning, he stuck to his plan, He stuck to his process. He didn't rush it, he didn't drag his feet. He did it perfectly.
He did, and they have him playing fantastic football. On top of that, I feel like there are other things that are happening with this offense where we are seeing marginal improvements bols from execution and from scheme that have me excited about where this thing could head with some
better players next year. You know, if you have a true number one receiver, if you have t Higgins on this team next year, if you upgrade the offensive line next year, there are bones to this offense where you're starting to see it now that Drake is playing, and you have a better quarterback play that I really have liked,
and I think we're making progress there. But more importantly, the most important asset that the Patriots have right now is Drake May he you know, speaking to a player in the locker room earlier today and he said that the future is bright because of Drake, like we have hope and we want to work harder now because of him.
It would just be a really big mistake and something that I believe bad organizations do is react to external criticism first of all, and react to maybe the fact that they're not ranked very highly offensively and you know, points and DVOA and all that stuff, and just the results of it, and not see the bigger picture of the progress that they have made from start to finish. And bad organizations ruin quarterbacks by moving on from coordinators too quickly, and I think moving on from Alex van
pel in the off season would be doing that. And you don't want to be one of those teams Yeah, I was talking to somebody about this the other day, and it was it actually wasn't in the context of Drake may it was in what quarterback we're talking about. It might have been Bryce Young. Uh.
The biggest problem in the NFL right now is teams are impatient, right right, like they just expect it to work.
And and Bill Bill Belichick has actually talked about this, I think on I think it was on McAfee about you're seeing guys like Sam Darnold and you know your Baker Baker Mayfield, right, guys like you get these second opportunities and maybe they're not hitting that total ceiling that was expected in the draft, but you know they're they're competent, they're legitimate starting quarterbacks because, yeah, it turns out it
takes more than a year to develop quarterback. It's a multi year process and there's gonna be ups and downs. It's not gonna look great at first. Oh, it was Anthony Richardson.
That's what I was talking about. It is Anthony Richardson.
A big part of the reason the NFL is struggling so much right now developed quarterbacks is in patience. And look, there's give and take there. You can't wait forever. Some guys are just bad, and you do need to recognize when to move on. I think the difference between is this guy not ready or is he a bust? So remember that thing from like ten years ago, the dress. Is it black and blue? Is it white and gold? Right, it's tough to tell. It can be really tough to tell.
It's easy for me to sit here and we could go through these quarterbacks. We could play bust or not ready, and we could do with Bryce Young, we could do with Anthony Richardson, we could do with.
All these guys.
It's a lot easier to just spew that than actually figure it out. But yeah, to your point, if the Patriots are patient, I think Drake may have shown you enough at this point that if they're patient, they'll be rewarded. But they have to be patient. And when I say patient, because some people will hear that and roll their eyes and say, oh great, so you know another year of kind of doing nothing and waiting, I don't mean it in that sense. In that sense, they need to be aggressive.
What I mean by patient is like, this is not what it's going to look. You need to understand this is not what it's gonna look like with Drake May long term, what he is a rookie. His rookie year should not be his best year.
That's a bad thing. If his rookie year is his best what happened to mac Jones?
Right?
Yeah, Ideally you want him to keep getting better and better and better. And some of that's natural growth, and some of that is you're gonna put hopefully more peace around him. You're gonna get him a real left tackle, you're gonna go out, You're gonna get him that Tuesday morning wide receiver, and that's going to increase the level. So that's where the patience comes in. Right, don't overreact to what it was this year. Instead, you need to look at this year and say, all right, and this
is the first step. How do we continue to build on this instead of a new offensive coordinator.
It's not a full reset button, but it's close. There's just so many things that come with changing coordinators. And in theory, they could change coordinators and still be in the same family of offense. Right, they could go get another West Coast guy to run a similar system. But
even still, you're still changing languages to an extent. The comparison I always use with that is like there's different dialects in different areas of countries, right, Like you might speak different type of Italian in southern Italy than you do in Northern Italy, right, and still Italian, and you can still understand each other, but there's little nuances that are are a little bit different. Right now, the last thing that I.
Want, sorry, it just had and not just in verbiage. That could be right Van Peltz the footwork guy, right, and maybe you got to tweak the footwork again, or maybe you know there's certain players the teams invest in that we want to see less of or more of or whatever.
Like you you're changing the path. You maybe aren't changing it as much as totally going to a new offensive coordinator. But they're on a good path. They should try to stay on it. Yeah, that's that's exactly what I'm saying when you talk about the footwork stuff, Like Alex Van pelt is a big believer in left foot forward. Right, when Drake may is in shotgun, his left foot is going to be forward to the timing and the rhythm
of the drop. It helps them with that. Right in terms of the steps of you know, three step drop, left foot forward, that times up with the routes that they're running off of the three step drop. So those types of things, those little nuances. He could get an offensive coordinator next year that says that I'm a right foot forward guy, or I'm a square stance sky like Peyton Manning used to do right or whatever, and now
all of a sudden everything's thrown out the door. Right, So I'm just looking at this from a Drake prism, and then I also want to talk about some things that I've liked or I've been impressed with from a scheme perspective. But you have Drake May. You have a coach that has Drake May playing well, and don't let all the other stuff supersede the most important thing. And the most important thing is that Drake May keeps playing well. And we talk about this every week. I feel like
and I know, I feel like I'm repleating myself. But eventually down the line, if you want to tell me that three years from now, they need to move on from Van Pelt for more a shinier new toy. You know, someone that's a little bit more innovative and who has a little bit more creativity with his play design and all that kind of stuff. Then I'll be on board if we get to that point. But right now, the most important thing is that Drake May is mechanically tied together.
His eyes are in the right places, his feet are in time and online, his mechanics are cleaned up. His release looks a lot better and quicker. He's decisive, he's playing confident like. Those are the things that you want to see. And I really worry about getting a new coordinator in here next year that he's going to revert back to some of the bad habits he developed at North Carolina, which is the last thing that the Patriots need or want. The other couple of things from a
schematic perspective that I've been impressed with. Do you know the Patriots tight ends right now are fourth in the lead league in receiving yards tight ends there are seventy catches for seven hundred and twenty eight yards. Both those numbers are fourth in the league. The only teams that are ahead of their tight ends are Baltimore with Mark Andrews, Vegas with Brock Bauers is having an incredible year, and
Travis Kelcey and the Kansas City Chiefs. So you're talking about probably the three best tight ends in football right now. I just named and then Hunter Henry and Austin Hooper are the next group. They're fourth in the league. So this offense has always done a nice job with tight ends, going back to Cleveland within Djoku and Hooper the first time when he was there in Cleveland, and those guys have always done a nice job producing, but they've really
used the tight ends well. Henry's having his best year as a Patriot right now, on track for the most yards and catches in his Patriots career. So you look at that just in you know, there's a couple of other things, but just looking at the tight ends, they've done a really nice job with that position group. And I would also just say it really helps a young quarter back when you have two six foot five tight ends that would like to work in the middle of
the field. It's a nice safety blanket for Drake May to have those two guys.
Yeah, like you said, we knew this is probably gonna be a tight end heavy year, just based off what Van Pelton in Cleveland and that that like seven to eight yard you know, get to the sticks and turn and just sit down. That's been there for them really since Drake May came in, and I'm kind of waiting to see when teams put more emphasis on taking that away, because that's going to open up more opportunities up the scene for guys like Pop Douglas, for guys like Kendrick Born.
But they've been giving that to Drake May, he's been taking it. Hunter Henry just does such a I make that sound easy, right, run of the sticks, find a spot, sit down.
It's not as easy as it sounds.
This was something not a tight end, but like that's Jacoby Myers was able to be as successful as he was so quickly because he had a great knack for this. Now he was a quarterback, so he's pretty good at kind of knowing what the defense was going to do and being able to react. But safety blank's a great we're a great way to put it. They've they've they've given Drake May kind of an easy answer when he
needs to easy answer, and they've done with consistency. And it's been a long time since the tight end position was something you were pumping up with the New England Patriots. So it's just another sign that again, are they there? Are they done? No, not by any means, but they're making progress with the offense.
So I remember Dante Scarnecia did an interview at some point and we're talking about mac Jones and he mentioned the quarterback's binky, Right, every quarterback needs one of those guys. That's just his safety blanket, his binky, whatever you want to call it. For Brady, you know, Troy Brown, Dion
obviously than Edelman, Welker Edelman. I guess I should say in order, right, Like, all those guys at one in the middle of the field were often the guys at Brady third and five, Like you're going six yards to Julian Edelman, right, Like that's those were the guys that he really relied on. It feels like we're trending in a direction where Hunter Henry is in that category for Drake mank like he seems to be that person for Drake. So there's the tight end usage, which has been really good.
You mentioned Pop Douglas. I think that they've figured out, for the most part, how to use Pop Douglas to the best of his abilities, whether it's throwing him design touches, scheme touches in the screen game, you know, RPO screens, those types of things, Slants over the middle of the fields. Caught another one last week, and just in general, just getting the football in his hands and letting him run
with it. Crossing routes. You know, another one of those last week on the twenty eight yard or the great throw by Drake that everybody keeps pumping up rightfully, So Pop Douglas, I've really enjoyed what they've done with him. I think that they've figured out how to use that player. He's not a big player, he's not a big target down the field, but he's a useful player, especially if you can get him and hit him on the move, and they've been able to find different ways to go
ahead and do that. He had, you know, the eighteen yarder on the screen, or it might have been fourteen, fourteen, eighteen whatever, a nice chunk play on the screen. The twenty eight yarder on the crossing route, had another big play on a slant like those are the types of things that they need to use a player like that with. Yeah, he might not be a high volume guy. He's probably not going to be targeted ten to fifteen times a game like a Welker or an Edelman would out of
the slot. But they've done a nice job of finding ways to let his speed and let his jitterbug ability really impact the game. So I really liked what they've done with him as well. Yeah, next one, offensive line, I feel like it's improving. You know, now, how much you give that to Drake and how much you give that to the line and to Van Pelton, to Peters, like,
that's up to you. A lot of it is up is on Drake, Like he's doing a great job of getting the ball out, evading pressure, avoiding sacks, using his legs when he needs to. But their pressure rate has gone from forty eight percent with Jakobe Brissett to thirty six percent with Drake may much more functional, much more, you know, functional really is the best word for it. So some of that to me is continuity as well.
But I give them credit. And this is something that I was trying to ask him today, but you know, good luck getting the question in on that press conference. But one of the things I've noticed is that they've basically scrapped all of the seven steppers and long delayed play actions. And you know, the as much as I love leak, like leak, and like all these like plays that just take forever in the backfield to get going. In theory, great scheme if you can block it. The
Patriots couldn't block it. So the Patriots now a lot of what Drake may is doing is five three step three and five step drop, whether he's under center or out of the gun, and it's a lot of quick hitting stuff. It's get the ball out of his hands. Their RPO game has increased, their gun play action game has increased. They are not asking him to turn his
back to the defense a whole lot. They're not asking him to, you know, elongate those fakes and end around and then hand off and then now we're backed up field and we're trying to hit a delay route out of the back. No, we're not doing any of that stuff anymore that we were seeing earlier on in the season when Jacoby was getting killed, because it was taking three seconds, three and a half seconds just to get
his eyes back up the field. So I think they've done a nice job of just throwing some of those bad plays for them in the trash can, and I think that has helped a lot with the line as well.
I think you have to give some credit to continuity though, and the other thing you mentioned. All right, well, this is what they've done since Shrake May came in. How does that sync up with when they moved Mike when Winnu in the right guard?
Yeah?
Right's about the same time, wouldn't you know it? You put your best offensive lineman in his best position and suddenly things look a lot better.
I like this group.
We'll see where Cole strange factors in. I understand working him at center and left guard. I didn't love them saying that they were going to work him at right guard as well. I understand they want to cross train guys, they want to get guys ready, but let's not go back to Mike when win right tackle.
Please.
But I think finally sticking with the group helped. And who knows what would happen if they've done it soon. If they were able to do it sooner, I understand there'd be injuries. I honestly think you talk about the offensive coaching staff. If there's one guy I'm really high on at this point, it's Scott Peters.
Yeah, because taking a very little and made a lot out of it.
Yeah, you know it hasn't been good this year, but how many times if we come out of games and been like, well, it wasn't great, but it's better than
we thought. Or just with individual players, you look at what they've gotten out of a Darian low And I'm not saying Vederien low has been like a Pro Bowl or anything, but compared to expectations, what they've got out of a Darian Lowe, what they've gotten out of Michael Jordan, what they've gotten out Demontre Jacobs, who showed up after final roster cuts and is now you're starting right tackle.
Is functional.
It's not great, but he's functional. So I look at that and I say, all right, if this is what he's doing with the bare minimum, if this is what he's doing with the revolving door of guys who are you know, borderline NFL caliber players, what's gonna happen when you actually get him? You know, players with the with the with the ceiling. What's gonna happen when you get him?
And not just that are alright? What's gonna happen when you give him the same five guys to work with weekend and week out and they can actually build to something. So I you know, it took them longer than I think it should have taken them to get to this point. I think they should have had more continuity earlier. I think Drake may may have played earlier if they had more continuity earlier. Again, some of that's due to injuries, so I don't entirely blame them for that, like it's
outside of their control. But I overall I like what I've seen because they've made enough at of so little that that I'm at the point where it's like, all right, like let's give them something real to work. And then it goes back to the point you said with the Alex VNN Pelton keeping that continuity, like if you move on from Alex band Pelt, new coach is gonna want his staff, Yeah, and that you know, now you're moving
on from Scott Peters and TC. McCartney's another guy that's gotten a ton of credit, and I he was on some of those lists about up and coming coaches, Like you move on from alexand pell you're probably moving on from those guys too.
Yeah. So I really do feel that they've done a much better job with their play calling in certain spots. Now I think They're time of their plays could be a little bit better at times still, you know, marrying it up to when they are expecting different coverage from
the defense. Right, But even still, I feel like some of the stuff that they've done has had more answers within each probably call of you know, okay, if we have a man beater on here, but they drop into zone, it helps when they drop into his zone, your quarterback can run for twenty five yards, right Like that obviously helps. But it's something that I've noticed that as it has improved.
And one of the other criticisms that I hear a lot about Alex Van Pelt is that they run the ball too much on first down, and the numbers do not back that up. They just don't support it. So since Drake May has been in the lineup and been the starter, the Patriots are fifth in the league in early down pass frequency. They're fifth in the league. They're passing the ball almost sixty percent of the time on first and second down since Drake May took over, and
that's adjusted for situation. Right, So we're not talking about like blowouts and two minutes and staf for talking about actual football, like first and ten from the twenty five the very first play of the game, right like those types of situations, they're throwing the ball quite a bit, and I think some of that is a response to the fact that they haven't run the ball very well, and he's not just running into a brick wall, right Like, he's not just continuingly calling run after run after run
even though it's not working. So they are a very aggressive early down passing offense. I know it might not feel like that all the time, but right now they're right up there with Kansas City Buffalo. You know, the teams that do this every year. You know that are like that every year because they put the ball in the quarterback's hands. So I've really thought that he's gotten better in that regard in terms of his play calling and the runs. In the run game, they're getting downhill
a lot more. Like you don't see quite as much outside zone. It's still in there. They still will run it, but they're getting downhill a little bit more. They haven't had a ton of success with it, but I like the City so at full back element, Like, I think that that's something that they needed to just do and figure out. Do you think adding a fullback is in play this offseason. I think for this group it is because well, first of all, maybe not if they improve
the offensive line. But the biggest thing for a full back is that he can be a fixer, right Like, if you lose a block on the line of scrimmage, now you have like another layer before you get to the ball carrier. So it's almost like the players on the line of scrimmage have to go through two guys to get to the football instead of just one. So that was the big reason why I thought that they needed to maybe look at a big whether it's a you know, they call it muscle tight end, full back, whatever.
Getting a big full back in there in this offense was because they couldn't execute the blocks on the line of scrimmage consistently. So it gives you almost a It gives you like a safety net right in case you screw up on the line of scrimmage. So maybe, like somebody that is a little bit different than a than
an offensive lineman, being eligible could be useful. But in Cleveland they use they used the center actually that as an eligible man, forget the guy's name, but they typically used it out of a jumbo package and not like a traditional fullback. So I could see them sticking with that. But the offensive line play, the tight ends, uh, the wide receivers, I would say usage has gotten a little bit better. And then obviously they have Drake May playing great.
So your point about let's give van uh excuse me, Scott Peters some better linemen. Maybe if they give him some better linemen and they give a VP some better wide receiver talent, now we really could be cooking here, you know, especially if Drake May keeps playing.
So in the end, we're back where we started in January, which was let's make the roster better team. We're all the way back. Took us what eleven months, ten months, eleven months, and we're paid and it's look, it's not a bad place to be because you can add talent to the roster. Like that's not when I say it's not a hard thing to do. You got to identify the talent, you gotta make sure it fits. But you have draft picks, you have cap space, you can add talent.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, So this is a compliment, Sandwich. That was my goal here. So I just gave a lot of praise to the offensive staff. I wish you hadn't said that about Marcus Jones. Just you killed the momentum here a little bit a VP. That was the compliment. Here comes the the the insult of the compliment, sandwich.
Everything that I just said about all the progress the offense is making and how I'm actually coming around to Alex van Pelt, the opposite is true on the defensive side of the football, and on this show, I can't I couldn't remember the exact show that we talked about this, Alex, but I know we talked about it. Maybe you can help me because my memory stinks for reasons that can
stay off the air. The show that we did where we said that Girod needed to be more involved on the defensive side of the ball Ago maybe San Francisco issues that. Yeah, I've been on this for a while. I believe you've brought up a couple times. I think we did it once post Drake may starting. We're at the point now where call it for what it is. I don't think that they've been super well coached, well coordinated on the defensive side of the football, and the
stats are with me. They're thirtieth in the league in DVOA. They're twenty eighth in the league and EPA per play, they're eighteenth in points per game. I know, I got to get that one in there for you, but that doesn't even do a justice to me. Like the eighteenth doesn't sound that bad, Like that's like middle of the pack, right, Like they're they're defensively. You know, if I told you that all they gave up to the Rams was twenty eight points, like on the service, it's not great, but
it's not fifty, right, it doesn't sound terrible. But when you look at the numbers in the efficiency in which the Rams scored in they scored twenty eight points in twenty two minutes of game time. They averaged seven point nine yards per play, you know, like they they could not stop the Rams. They did not stop the Rams. I would say the same thing is true if I told you in Week three, on that Thursday night game that they gave up twenty four points to the Jets.
On the surface, that doesn't sound that terrible. Twenty four points in the league now is like average, right for a team every week. Did they play good defense that night in the Meadowlands? Absolutely not. They could not stop Aaron Rodgers at all, So defensively. This has been going on all year that they haven't been coached very well. There's some specific things that I want to get into, but before we do, like what is your where? What's
your temperature at right now? With DeMarcus Cumington and the defensive setup, we.
Had talked about this. Now we gotta go back again. We had talked about this that they were just like it was too much on defense. They're getting too cute. There was too much of the rotation coverages and disguising this and disguising that. That was like two or three weeks into the season. I think we talked about that. Yeah, and then I felt like it had settled down and they had done more to get back to basics. Yeah, and maybe that's because they were down a bunch of players.
It feels like that's ramped back up. Where I know you say, I asked you about the staff for the game. I know he said, like Anthony Jennings only played four coverage snaps or whatever. It was a corner of PFF. But I noticed a handful of times where like he wasn't setting the edges aggressively as he was.
He did not have a good game right or.
But it didn't look like he was handling his assignment different, not just that he was playing.
I just thought that his run force was nowhere near as good as it usually is. So so whatever was.
Behind that, yeah, but it just he looked so part of it too, was I guess what I what I noticed like he was lining up a little further out and he was lining up more upright. And they're putting Yannick and Gockway handing the dirt or Christian Barmore at defensive end.
And I get it.
You want to get those guys involved, but you want to get them involved, like I wouldn't change Anthony Jennings's role. Is there a way that you can get both of those things right in like that? Uh, some of the coverage stuff. I know we disagree exactly on their usage of Christian Gonzalz.
But I would say, yeah, I wanted to get into that, so let's unpack it.
It just it it felt like they were doing a little too much of time. They're running these zones and like Pukku is running the wide open spaces. Yeah, and it's happening into the second half of the game. So too cute, not enough adjustments. It just feels like it did back at the beginning of the season.
So there are a couple of things I want to unpack here with the defense specifically. So I don't want to start with Gonzo because I'm gonna probably get fired up and we can let's let's end with Gonzo. Okay. The biggest thing that I want to start with on the defensive side of the ball is something that I have been harping on since I know this for a fact. I brought this up for the first time when they
played San Francisco. So all teams are doing, especially these Shanahan Tree teams, and we're gonna face another one on Sunday in Miami, and I guarantee you Mike McDaniel is gonna do the same exact thing. Teams are putting heavy personnel on the field. The Rams played a ton of two tight ends in this game. They played heavy personnel
on the field. They know the Patriots are gonna match it in base defense, and then they're just putting the Patriots linebackers at the point of attack and throwing at the Patriots linebackers. We know the Patriots linebackers are not good in space. We know they're not good in coverage. It's just not their strong suit, right there. Jelani Tavai,
Anthony Jennings dropping off the line of scrimmage. Christianellis is really a special teamer that's been asked to play a whole lot more because of injuries and poor roster construction. So they're they're asking they're trying to play a lot in base defense to physically match the opponent and not give up the yards on the ground. And first of all, I just think that's that's backwards thinking. Like if I'm the Patriots, I'm thinking to myself, I'm gonna play Nickel.
Maybe I'll play big Nickel with three safety, but I'm gonna play Nickel. Run it, run it because my offense, you know, we're not gonna score thirty five on offense, all right, We're not there yet. So if the other team runs the ball and they take up time and they have to march ten twelve plays to score touchdowns, you're shortening the game. So then you're keeping the game lower scoring, right, Like, you're keeping the game in the twenties by doing that. So invite the run, like, don't
give up. I'm not saying to give up eight yards a carry, but like, don't panic about the yards on the ground. This coaching staff seems more concerned about stopping the run than stopping the pass. And that's backwards, like that, that's not how you should be coaching. This thing.
Is some of it just because they've been so bad against the run, because because like you said, don't give up eight yards of carry, and weren't giving up eight. But you look at that that Jacksonville game, and you know, as we get to this Rams game itself, and I don't think the Rams and Jags are similar teams, but it felt like a very similar game. You had that hot start and then it just fell apart and it
started attacking you. And I wonder if some of that's just an overcorrection to what had happened.
So here's some stats for you about their base defense, because this is just alarming, right, So let's stick to the Rams game specifically, and then I'll give you the season stats. Here in a second, in the Rams game against Los Angeles, and I texted one of these numbers to you last night. They were in base defense the Patriots twenty five times twenty five snaps in base defense out of fifty one plays, the Rams averaged ten point three yards per play when the Patriots were in base defense.
When the Rams passed in base defense, there's twelve passes. Twelve passes to thirteen runs, eighteen point one yards per
pass play. It's too many eighteen in base defense. So what's happening in all these games and the Patriots are just letting it happen like they're just they're just continuing to do it over and over again, is to are getting them into their base with heavy personnel offensively, and they're throwing at their base defense and they do not have the horses at the second level the defense to play base coverage. They just don't. So eighteen point one yards per play on the season, the Patriots now have
the second highest base rate in the league. On the season, they are giving up six point three yards per play in base defense. That's thirtieth in the NFL. So they are playing the second highest rate of base and they're giving up the third most yards in base So this has been going on all year. Like we've talked about this multiple times. In this game against the Rams, that
happened again, Mike McDaniel. In the Miami Dolphins, they only play eleven personnel three wide receivers like twenty eight percent of the time. They are not a three wide receiver team. They're a Shanahan team. They're a twelve personnel team or
a twenty one personnel team. So Mike McDaniel is gonna put two tight ends on the field, Johnny Smith and the other dude that they play like blanking on right now, Irik Killing Jalen Waddle will be on the outside, Davon hn is going to be in the backfield, and their speed is going to be against Jolanie Devai and Christian Ellis and Anthony Jennings coming across the field. And I just don't see how that could possibly be a good
game plan. Like that's just not going to work. So they've been doing this all year long with the base defense. That's item number one. They got to get out of base.
Do you think some of that is just and I'm not saying that looks if it's not working, you got to adjust out of it. And this goes back to what my thought on Covington in this game. Regardless of what you think of the game play and going in, it didn't work and they needed to adjust out of it. Do you think some of it is lack of availability. They've been banged up at corner, they've been banged up
at safety. Does it go to roster construction and just yeah, you know, the best way to get you know, your most trusted players on the field might be in base, even if base doesn't make sense.
Again, I'm not saying it's right. My read on it is what you said earlier. They don't feel like they can stop the run in nickel and the first time that they played the Dolphins, they played a lot of big three safety nickel and the Dolphins. Remember in Week five they ran all over the Patriots. I think it was like one hundred and ninety yards or something like that. But again, my rebuttal to that is that, Okay, you gave up one hundred and ninety yards. How many points
did you give up? You only gave up fifteen and you were a heel away from winning the game, right, So, like, even though you are struggling to stop the run in nickel defense, it's keeping the game close. Like and now they have Drake May at quarterback, you have to think that they're gonna win a game in the teens maybe a little bit easier than they would have five weeks ago,
six weeks ago. So that's item number one. Got to get out of base defense item number two, And this, to me is out of anything that they did on Sunday. I still can't wrap my head around the fact that they blitzed Matthew Stafford eighteen times like that, to me is just really just not understanding the situation. Like you're going up against his sixteen year veteran in the league, and I think Stafford's elite. I think he's one of
the best quarterbacks in the league. When you play really good quarterbacks that are veteran guys in this league, anybody would tell you you don't blitz those types of guys. You never. You don't blitz Brady, right, You don't take guys out of coverage and blitz Brady. What was the plan for Brady? It was used four to get after him, drop seven into coverage and try to tighten up those windows. If you blitz Matthew Stafford eighteen times, he's gonna do
exactly what he did in this game. It's like two and twenty yards and three touchdowns against the blitz. It wasn't just the sixty nine yard touchdown to Cooper Cup Like he was shredding them in five and six man coverage all the time. So you talked about the motion and then Pokin Nakua was just these like wide open voids. All they were doing is they were motioning Pokin Nakua across the field and they were opening voids right. They
were just stretching out the Patriots zone coverage. And since the Patriots are rushing five guys and dropping six into coverage, they just didn't have enough bodies in the secondary to cover all the grass on the field, and with emotion in the formations, were stretching them out so much and now all of a sudden, there's these gaping holes in these zone coverages. So a lot of what happened on Sunday, especially a lot of the Nikua yards. I would say he had one play where they were in drop eight
that was a big play on Marco Wilson. But a lot of the plays that Nikua had in this game that were big chunks of yardage were because they were dropping six guys into coverage and trying to cover them with six instead of seven, and it just burned them time and time again.
I mean, is that a product of Again, you're in base, you know to fly. It's not a guy you're gonna put in coverage, all right, but we need him out there to stop the runs.
So when they throw lish, just blitz them. Is it a product to that? And the ones probably the one that stood out to me, And obviously, I mean I'm not alone.
In saying that this was a big play. The Cooper Cup touchdown on the zero blitz. Yeah, where they bring seven and don't get home. And I think a lot of people maybe misunderstand what happened there, Like that's I'm not gonna say Jonathan Jones played that perfectly.
He didn't.
But the idea of a cover blitz, especially when you bring seven, think about it. Seven, you're leaving four in coverage, so your default leaving somebody open. Yeah, Like not like all right, we're gonna be in zone with no open you have four to cover five. What you're trying to do in that play is when you rush seven, you're trying to get in the quarterback's lap and he may throw it. He may have somebody open, but he's gonna have to throw it off his back foot or through
contact or whatever. The Patriots bring seven. Not only does Stafford able to throw that clean, he has a pocket to step up into. And I go back to the play I've used to explain it super Bowl fifty three. Yeah, the zero blitz where Brandon Cooks is in a sense open if Jared Goff can get enough on that ball, but Kylevin Nooy's right in his face, he has to throw out fading away.
It's a duck.
It's fifteen yard short. Steff On Gilmour's right there. So you look at where Jonathan Jones is. If they actually get to Stafford, he has to throw that off his back foot. Jonathan Jones probably, if he even gets that far, Jonathan Jones probably knocks it down like he's in a decent enough position.
To play that. You to say that, well, you know Stafford had well they Stafford had times he hit a pocket on a plane, which he's not supposed to have a pocket.
Yeah, based on the defensive call. So it's not just how much they're blitzing, it's how much they're blitzing and not getting any impact from the blitz. It would be one thing like you talk about, don't blitz Stafford that much? Sure, Well, if you're getting a ton of pressure and he's uncomfortable and you're knocking him around, you're moving him off his spot.
That's one thing, you know, to blitz that heavy. And it's like, all right, well he beat us a couple times when we were getting to him and we were trying to wear him down. They had six pressures, three quarterback hits. So it's not so much to me just how much they blitzed. It's how much they blitzed without success.
Yeah, how ineffective the blitzer are. It's a really good point. And I remember in twenty nineteen, first half of twenty nineteen, Remember how much Cover zero they were running that year. Yeah, it was like the whole thing. It was the whole thing, the Boogeyman. It was insane. And they had to find Gilmore to take number ones one on one so they didn't necessarily need to give him help and all that.
And I remember talking into the in the locker room with the McCarty's actually, and I don't remember if it was Devin or Jason, but one of them said to me, if we're gonna run Cover zero, we better get home, right. It was like that's the thing with Cover zero, Like if you are going to run it like us and the like. You know, we always say to the guys up front when we're in the back, like if we're gonna run cover zero, then you guys better get pressure
on the quarterback. Otherwise it's gonna be a big play. Yeah, And that play right there is a perfect example. I thought Jonathan Jones's leverage was poor, you know, like he set up outside of Cooper Cup when he really should have said up inside. Because when you play cover zero, you think that in breakers, slants things like that are
gonna be the beater to that. Or you're trying to play the hot round, right, So you're trying to play exactly you're trying to play the hot and by taking away the middle of the field and try to force him to throw like a fade or something down the sideline to beat you inside, get more arm. Yeah, but say your point about them not getting home is the more important. Yeah. Again, it's not.
Actually Jonathan Jones did not play well. He had that one pass break up late, So it's not excuses.
But like I saw a lot.
Of people be like, why is Jonathan Jones on the field in that spot? The issue on that play is not where Jonathan Jones was or his assignment whether or not you should call cover zero there. I mean, we can debate the call itself, but if you're gonna call cover zero, the quarterback should not be standing at the end of the play.
Maybe he gets a throw off, but you you need to be in his face right away.
You need to be knocking him down. The fact that he didn't just throw a clean but a pocket to step up into is very damning.
Okay, So last point on the d because I do understand the criticism of the usage of Christian Gonzales, I might not fully. It's not that I disagree. I just I this one. I understand the logic. I don't understand the logic of butch and blitzing Matthew Stafford eighteen times like that to me is illogical, Like that doesn't There's certain things I always look at it and say, Okay, these guys are head coaches, are coordinators in the NFL.
I am not okay. They know more about football than I do, full stop, right, So let's ask ourselves what are they doing and is there a football reason for them doing that. I can understand what they were trying to accomplish with Gonzales. I can understand what they were trying to accomplish with blitzing Stafford eighteen times or playing as much base defense as they did. To me, there's
no football explanation for that, the Gonzales stuff. The biggest thing that I reason why I can understand what they are trying to accomplish is that the Rams use a lot of motion, and they use a lot of ugly or nasty bunches, which means that they're in tight to the formation. Right. So what they're trying to do with all of that is play is caused traffic, tru cause chaos, try to pick man coverage defenders off, like all that
kind of stuff. When you play teams that do that, like the Rams, and do it at a high level, it's very very difficult to shadow and it's very very difficult to play conventional man coverage. I'll give you an example beyond just Gonzales. If you watch the film of this game, back when the Rams are in their bunches, the Patriots played box rules out of the bunch, right, there'd be four Patriots and it's just first in first out, second in second out. Right, That's how you sort of
sort it out of the box. When the Patriots play other teams in box or in a bunch coverage, they a lot of the times they play lock and level, which instead is is I'm locked into my man, but I'm at different levels so that we don't get picked off. Right. So you have one guy on the line a scrimmage, another guy's like two or three yards behind him, and another guy's like two to three yards behind him. But I have this guy, you have that guy, you have
that guy. Against the Rams, they made a very concerted effort to zone off bunches because they knew that that McVeigh was just gonna switch release and cause all sorts of chaos to their man coverage. So in theory, I understood what they were going for by let's just play sides.
Whoever comes out your side is who you cover. The problem is, as the course of the game went on, McVeigh caught on to what they were doing, and then he was just motioning Nikua away from Christian Gonzales, and that's when they started to get themselves into trump or just even setting up.
I mean, there were a couple of times, the big one in the red zone where it's two tight ends to one side, three receivers.
The other tight ends are on the Gonzales side. Yeah, the red zone stuff wasn't great in between the twenties. I am okay with what they did. The red zone stuff was a little bit more.
So this is and this goes back to my point, and again it's about adjustments. I understand the thought process behind it. But like you said, McVeigh caught on yeah and answered right, okay, so now what's your counter to his counter? And it didn't feel like the Patriots had one, right, It felt like they just totally stuck with us. So, you know, especially a team like this, you want to come out, try something new. Find you know, you're three
and seven, right right, sure, try something new. This is how we think we.
Have to play him.
I'm not gonna jump on them too much for that, but when it's clearly not working, you need to change it.
And that's what stood out to me.
Like Dard Mayo said, I don't remember if it was after the game or Monday morning, one of his postgame press conferences, said like, you know, we have plans, and we're always open to changing plans. I didn't outside of a handful of snaps in the second half. I didn't there was no big picture adjustment. Let me put it that way. There was no big picture. This isn't working. We need to do something about it. Because you can have a guy you know you can have and again
the terminology you probably know better than me. You can shadow a guy just in terms of where he's lining up and then play zone from there, like you know, all right, Well, in the Kuza this side Gonzalez is gonna go. There have adjustments, right if emotions is what we're gonna do to try to keep Gonzalez on at
least the side of one of the wide receivers. Yeah, once it got to a certain point in that game where Naku and Cup, through motion or not, we're both on the same side of the formation, Gonzalez was on the other side.
Defensively, that should not have happened. Yeah, they had a lot of times when Gonzalz ended up basically on DeMarcus Robinson, who like isn't a bad player by the way, I should say, he's not Cooper Cupp or Puka Nikua, but he's not. He's a decent receiver in this league. I mean, I mean it's hit a while off touchdown against them.
It's the old BILLI ism. If to go ahead and beat us with DeMarcus Robinson, yeah, go ahead. If the Marcus Robinson goes for six and one hundred, you played a good game, We'll put our hands up and give you credit back. I get paid paid too. You're not beating us with Cooper Cup. You're not beating us with Pukukua. That should have been the approach.
I totally hear that, And although I hear the point too that in theory, like the other thing that you hear a lot of wolve is just double one of them out and put Zalez on the other guy, that type of stuff doesn't happen as much as you would think, like true dedicated doubles. The only game plans that I remember over the last couple of years handful of years where Bill actually double the guy consistently was when they
played Minnesota on Thanksgiving. They get it to Justin Jefferson half a dozen at least, maybe even more with Jonathan Jones and a safety over the top, and then Tyreek Hill in the AFC Championship game in twenty eighteen or twenty nineteen year or twenty a Seasoney eighteen season. Yep, those were the only two times in the last since I've been covering the team where I remember distinctly that game plan was, we're doubling this guy out of this game.
So it doesn't happen as frequently as you think. And just to go back to the McVeigh thing. The other issue with doubling or bracketing coverage when you played teams a motion as much as the Rams do, that causes all sorts of chaos about the double teams, right, Like if they're going to motion the at the snap on like a missile motion, and he's gonna come across the formation, do both guys go with him? Do you try to
switch it off? Right? You know? Does that the safety on the left side of the field pass it to the right side of the field? Like how are you handling all those different types of things? Look, it's a really good scheme that they played against. And this is why, right, Like these types of pretzels that they put you in defensively is why McVeigh is McVeigh. Where does this come from?
By the way, because Bill used that defensive strategy of ason two double one, Yeah, for years and years and years and coaches figure how to figure out way to count.
It and that's kind of what they saw. So last thing on the defense, then I know we want to move along here. Well it's a compliment, Sandwich, So you got to come back around, Tom. So here's sort of my compliment. All right. It's not a compliment, but it's more of like a this is an open face compliment Sandwich. Yes, speaking of sandwiches, we need you to address something a little bit. But okay, that's fair. It's not a compliment, sandwich.
Person address it on people. But this is no okay, but this is my this is my patience right now trying to come in. DeMarcus Covington is a first year, first time NFL defensive coordinator in play caller. For my money, he might have just went up against the best offensive play caller in the NFL and he got taken behind the woodshed. It's a learning experience, like it happens right, Like McVeigh is McVeigh for a reason. He's tremendous, Like he does this to a lot of people. This is
DeMarcus Covington's the West Coast coach. Sure, this is DeMarcus Covington's first time doing this, so I'm willing to give him some grace. But with that being said, these are trends that I've been talking about all year long, and I do really start to worry about the chops on the defensive side of the football, and I would like to think that Gerrod Mayo could take more ownership and fix some of these things. Like, for example, at halftime, how do they how don't you call off the dogs? Right?
Like?
How do you not say to DeMarcus Comington at halftime, Hey, DeMarcus, let's not blitz. Matthew Stafford, he's shredding us. Every time we blitz, it's backfiring the first or second player. The third quarter is a sixty nine yard touchdown on an
all out blitz, right Like? How is that not a conversation? Hey, DeMarcus, Puka Nikua has six for one hundred and seventeen at halftime, Like, maybe we should put Christian Gonzalez on Puka Nikua, right, Like, these are the sort of adjustments that I don't see happening. And I put that on the head coach. It's not on the coordinator. It can be on the coordinator. Like if you have a really if Steve Spagnolo was defensive coordinator for the Patriots, I would expect him to do
it on his bit. But it's you know, jerd me is a defensive mind head coach, so no, I think it's.
Totally fair to put that on him and just projecting ahead. I think this game against Miami super education when it comes to where DeMarcus Comington's at, because this is you just got killed by motion. Yeah, you just got killed by motion and over blitzing. And now you are facing a team that motions, and now that the philosophy behind the motion is different, it's a different sort of motion. But yeah, you're facing a team that motions as much more with where they ranks the Dolphins.
Yeah, so the Dolphins are one in la Is too, it's by a couplets.
So you're facing a team that motions more than anybody else. Yeah, you're facing a quarterback into it. Do you know what his passer rating is against So his passerating outside the pocket this year is perfect?
I know.
Yeah, he's been really good. Extend his play. His passerating against pressure is one twenty six point two. Uh, and he's just got such a quick rule. He's been just unreal against pressure. So a guy that you you don't want to blitz because blitzing him isn't really gonna matter.
Right, So here you have the two things you got wrong the most last week, handling motion and over blitzing. Ye and those two things are going to be at the forefront of game planning for Miami. Yep, great opportun tunity for DeMarcus Covington to show, all right, last week, I was a rookie, I got my You know, he's not new to the NFL, but you know what I'm saying, welcome to the NFL coordinator. Moment I learned I fixed it.
Great opportunity for him to show that. Or do we come on here next week and say, wow, he learned nothing against the Rams.
It may not be it. Yeah, it's a great point, and that's what I'm willing to allow for some grace.
But well, I think I guess to that, like sometime we've been doing this with Drake may about the turnovers, right, or just in general the team growing the receivers. It's you're not gonna get immediate answers to some of this stuff. It's gonna take a little longer. This is a unique one where I'm not saying that this game is make or break for DeMarcus Covington, but you're gonna get a pretty i mediate answer on how well he adjusts after getting his lunch handed to him.
Yeah, it's a great point. And today, earlier today, oz Vann Pelt was asked about the Patriots rookie receivers Jalen Polk and jay Von Baker and said, we're not really rookies anymore. I would say the same thing about the coaches, Like you've coached eleven games now at some point in time where you have to start to see some of these rookie mistakes on the coaching staff as well, Like those things have to get out of their system too, and you got to get these guys ready to play.
Like we said it in Chicago, we gave them their flowers after the Bears game because they were ready to play. They had a good plan, they were ready to play on both sides of the football. They won a football game. It went backwards this week on the defensive side at least, where we I feel like we came out of this
game and said the coaches lost them a game. You win games with the players, you lose games with the coaches, right, and this week against the Rams, it felt like the coaches lost them the game on the defensive side of the ball. One other thing I'll give DeMarcus Covington, and then we got to wrap this. One of the bigger guys that was responsible for all of the breakdowns in the first half especially is no longer on the team, and that's Marco Wilson. Marco Wilson and I wanted to
segue into three up, three down. Anyways, I had Marco Wilson as my number one down. But then they the team it was it was bad, like I was as bad. Like he looked like he was out of the line I was.
And you kind of saw it coming in like they were gonna need a bigger corner, right, So all right, Gonzales. We didn't think Gonzal's gonna be covering Robinson, but yeah, Gonzals take one of those guys.
Jonathan Jones has looked like he's maybe lost a step.
Marcus Jones I actually thought had like a sneaky, decent game for what it was, but five eight against these receivers in tough, tough ask. Yeah, and then Yeah, Marc Wilson had been great. I was surprised didn't activate Alex Austin before the game. Yeah, and I wonder if they regretted not doing so after all right.
Three up, three down? Yep? Good segue is who's your number one up in this game? All right? Victory lap time Kendrick Bourne. Yeah, there you go. I can't believe we've done this. Stop.
I can't believe we've done this three years in a row. Where Kendrick Bourne, yeah, shows he's a good football player.
Yeah.
The Patriots coaching staff, for whatever usually petty reason, disagrees Kendrick Bourne gets benched. They roll through the rest of their receivers, none of whom show anything close to what Kendrick Born can do. Eventually they're forced to go back to Kendrick Bourne. And wouldn't you know it, He's an electric playmaker and the offense as a whole looks better
with Kendrick Bourne on the field. I understand the if you have the best bad story about every roommate you've ever had, you're probably the bad roommate.
I get that.
I think Kendrick Bourne is the exception. People point out, like, all right, you know three coaching staffs. He got benched all three times. I think Kendrick Borrn's the exception in that rule. I actually think the promise coaching staffs because is Kendrick Born perfect.
No, he's not.
He runs some bad routes, he takes some bad penalties. But one, how exactly has these have these last three coaching staffs, and I acknowledge their different staffs, how have they done with evaluating wide receiver talent as a whole y?
That's fair?
And two, they can't exactly be picky when it comes to who they're putting on the field at receiver. For the bumps in the road that exists with Kendrick Bourne, every time he's out, he looks like they're best receiver. He's on a thousand yard pace in twenty one before he got COVID. We saw remember in twenty twenty two, we got benched in the opener. We played two plays, they were both like twenty plus yard completions, and then we didn't see him again for a month. Last year,
same thing. Now here we go again this year. He's their leading receiver in his return and you know what, at this point, he's closer to thirty he's coming off of torn acl so maybe they just totally burned the upside that he had and that would suck. But Kendrick Bourne, I still want them gonna go ge Dk Metcalf. But Kendrick Bourne is a damn good player. He's a good receiver. He should be on the field. He proved it on Sunday and I truly believe he'll continue to prove it the rest of the year.
I got Doso's a good ram. Yeah. I just can't believe this is the third time. So Kendrick Borne is my number two UK. So I'll just jump the shark hair on that it saw it jumps sharkans. God damn, don't jump the shark jump don't do you know what Jump Felger did this last week? Do you know what jumped the shark one?
Okay, no, because you used it there in like a really bad way to use it.
Oh no, you didn't offend anybody. It's it's more just like a jinx Oh no, sorry KB. So no, no, you didn't chinx KB you jinxed us?
Oh no, so jump the shark is Happy Days is a very popular TV show in the seventies, right, But you know as most TV shows do, even if you have a good run, you kind of run out of ideas. So at one point later in the run, they had an episode a plot point where the main character jumps the shark on skis, and it was so.
Was it the fawns?
Yeah, I remember, So it's so like, not in the character of the show.
It's just out of nowhere.
So that's when everybody was like, happy Days was over when he jumped the shark. So when you say something jumps the shark, it's mainly about TV shows, it means it's not good anymore.
It's forcing it, it's over. No, right, we do not do not You should not jump the shark. We do not want to jump the shark. That is a horrible thing to say about a show, or a person or anybody. We do not want to be You meant they jumped the gun. Jump the gun, thank you. We should not be jumping the shark. If Catch twenty two jumps the shark, you listeners need to let us know because I do
not want that to happen. And look, we've been at this, going back to the CLNS days for close to ten years now, so it's something we need to be aware of let's not jump the shark please. For ten years now, you've probably been correcting me on my use of idioms because I'm terrible at it. Okay, I don't know that one. That one is like you understand why I had to stop at that. I mean, jump the gun. Please, please
do not jump. Okay. It's so weird because that we did a whole They were with Felder last week on idioms because of jump the shark. Anyways, you know where you know where? Give somebody the cold shoulder comes from? No back in like old timey England. Yeah, they would.
If you had a guess at your house he wanted them to leave. A polite way to ask them to leave was to give them a cold cut of shoulder meat.
It was how you told him to leave. So give somebody the cold shoulder.
That's disgusting, it's it's fascinating, it's fascinating stuff.
So anyways, Kennrick Borden was my number two up, so I'll just talk about him now since you brought him up first. I talked to KB today in the locker room actually, and he just said that you know, first of all, he got benched, and when you get bench. That definitely snaps you into focus, right like that, that'll
do it. So he responded really well to that. I just thought he was so much more precise and detailed this week with his routes, with his timing, like where he was supposed to be on the field, his conversions, like all of that stuff was just so much better than it was. You know, the even on the back shoulder throw in the two minute. I know it didn't end the way they wanted it to, but like that's a play with the chemistry and the timing with Drake that I just don't know would have been there a
couple of weeks ago. It wasn't. In Tennessee, they threw a really similar play and was almost intercepted. The couple of those spot routes that he ran. Out of those concepts in the bunch, like just catch the ball on him up the field. Yards after catch, like I believe he had twenty six yards after the catch in this game felt like more. But that's what PFF had to say about it. So just much more detailed, much more crisp with his routes. I thought he was awesome in
this game. And if they get that version of Kendrick Bourne. Moving forward, They're in good shape. Who's number two?
Number two for me was sticking with the pass catchers.
Hunter Henry.
Kind of talked about him already just in that safety blanket roll. All of minor pass catchers, by the way, all my ups pretty much everything I said before.
About Hunter Henry. He was good in this game. Yeah. I almost had him too. I had him in Pop Douglass honorable mentions on this list. I just thought Hunter Henry he missed one key block and the third and one play that they almost went for it on fourth down, and then Polk jumps off side to play before that he missed the block, and then Douglas obviously was in on the interception that end of the game. So I couldn't completely put them on the ups, but I thought
both of them were on the whole. We're really good in this game. My number one up though, to go back to that was I'm gonna do I'm gonna pull you ready for this, Yeah, I'm gonna pull you right now. Drake May for the first fifty eight minutes of the game. Okay, so fair enough, So Drake May for the first fifty eight minutes of the game, was what was the best game that I have charted for Patriots quarterback since Mac Jones' rookie season against Cleveland, which was just a hell of
a game that Mac played that that day. Drake May had fifteen plus plays to three minus plays. That's a plus twelve net if you don't if you're not good at math. For me, through the first fifty eight minutes, just excellent, like on time in rhythm, instructure, playmaking from the pocket, I manipulation, hot concepts, seeing blitzes, getting the football out on time accurately to the first two levels of the field like that, I think is the one thing that has really really improved in his game. From
the Houston game to now Houston game. He had some sprays, remember like you know, just throwing behind guys or throwing high over the middle of the Pop Douglas. In this game, he was His accuracy at the first two levels of the defense was excellent, excellent, excellent, excellent, really come a long way in that regard as a passer, and that to me tells me that he's really on his way.
Once they get guys on the outside that can win down the field for him, the deep ball will come like, I don't think that that's Drake May forgetting how to throw the deep ball. We know we can throw it deep. What we didn't know is if he could operate on schedule in the short and intermediate passing game consistently enough to move an offense. He did that at an extremely high level. On Sunday. You still see some of the off script stuff, you know, sixteen yards scramble, the one
to Henry that gets negated. Even though that got wiped out by penalty, I still count that as a plus play for Drake May. It still happened. It just didn't happen, and it didn't count some of the he made in this game to just throw the ball away or check it down. I thought he was really patient throughout the entire game as well, and didn't put the ball in harm's way often other than the strip sack, which I
kind of put on him. But at the same time, I thought that was really his only turnover worthy play in this game. Just in general, I thought for the first fifty eight minutes he was electric. I thought he was excellent for that start. So Drake May for the first fifty eight minutes, and I think you can see where I'm going with this, but it was your last.
I think he was pretty good similar Pop Douglas minus the last play. Yeah, I thought Pop Douglass was did a really good job in this game, creating after the catch, finding holes and coverage things like that. I just thought you got a really complete effort from the Patriots pass catchers in this game.
Yeah. So, I know I did a lot of waxing poetic about AVP, but he was my last up on the list. I think the biggest thing that I didn't mention I mentioned the rest of this but the biggest thing that I didn't mention off the top or I kind of did, But uh, the game plan in this game to use the short and intermediate passing game against that Rams pass rush. That's what we've been talking about
when we say you can scheme around weaknesses. That is scheming around a mismatch, so and protecting your offense against a mismatch.
Drake may had his lowest a DOT in this game, but then he of us starts so far.
So is five point six yards per attempt in the air? Air yards per pass attempt a dot? Right, But it's like seven to six, No, five point six, I thought PFF had like seven. No, where'd you find it? No? Five point six? Next gen? Okay, anyways, I finally get into using PFF and now you're like, no, you're wrong. No, I just that number is definitely not right. Uh five point six?
So then wait, so if if it's that much lower PFF had bo Nix's a dot is four?
What was bo Nix's Actually Okay, maybe you just were looking in their own place? Is that? Is that possible? I love how this is what we get bogged down by.
No, because like I've been talking about this all week, and now I want to make sure I got a ring.
I think he might have been looking at the wrong I'm gonna keep going while you while.
You Oh, no, I I'm remembering wrong. They have five point seven? It was five point seven.
Yeah, I had the seven in my mind. Yeah. So we we've talked about this a bunch though. It's knowing where your weaknesses are and covering up and scheming around your weaknesses. Coming into this game with a lot of short and intermediate passing concepts and just understanding that Drake may just couldn't hold the ball in this game. I thought was really really smart. By the uh, the OC and and really good game planning and play calling around
your deficiencies. So I had Van Pelt as my third up, and then I had honorable mentions for Hunter Henry and for Pop Douglas as well. So let's move over to the other side of the Ohix's adult last week was for oh and last honorable mention, I thought the only good player on defense in this entire game, knock Onzo's fault. His usage was why he wasn't necessarily Kean White was the only good player in this game for the Patriots defense in the front seven. He was disruptive, he had
a good game. Let's go to the downs.
I mean, we already did an hour on this, DeMarcus coming to number one, Yeah, we sure.
I don't know how much more were we have to say about that at the point, as pretty self explanatory. Yep. My number one down was Marco Wilson. He's no longer on the team. I took I had four, but I took him off. Yeah, I had four too. I mean, when you get cut it kind of yeah, but I replaced him with Jonathan Jones. It wasn't that Jonathan Jones was awful in terms of where he was on every
single play. They were tough, good plays by the offense, But you give up three touchdowns, you give up three toudies, right, like, yeah, that's gonna go on the downs Like it just wasn't very good. It wasn't good enough, Like he just wasn't quite good enough in certain spots. And then I obviously explained earlier I didn't think he played the cup touchdown. I didn't think he played a great technique on that play either in that cover zero. So I had Jonathan Jones number one.
I so coming to his number one, number two, I don't put him in order, I guess. But Kyle Dugger, I just thought rough game for him, first game back for that ankle injury. He missed a couple tackles early, little slow to the spot at times. I just wonder how much that ankle injury still bothering him. He didn't look like he was one hundred.
Per Yeah, yeah, that's fair. My number two downs were I combined two guys, Daniel Aqualay and Krishan Ellis combined just got absolutely gashed in the run game. Like it's just a game. And I always use this reference for corners usually, but like now the Patriots have Waldo's in the front seven, where it's just like, wherever those two guys are, we're just gonna run it right at those
two guys. We're gonna run away from Godshaw, We're gonna run away from Farms, We're gonna run away from Jennings, We're gonna run away from Tavai, and we're gonna put Ellis and we're gonna put a quality at the point of attack and we're gonna come right at him. And they just could not stop the run. Daniel Aqualay is a really fine rotational pass rusher, Like if you're playing him situationally, you can get by with him on the field and he can actually be disruptive on the pass rush.
But they have to hope it doesn't look like Dietrich Wise is coming back. He hasn't practiced the last two days. Whether it's Jacquelin Roy, it's a bigger role for Christian Barmore on early downs now that he's getting back in the fold. Either way, they have to figure out a way to get Daniel Qualley off the field on rundowns.
Yeah, next left side of the offensive line. So Darian Lowe had two very costly penalties. One of those penalties the illegal formation one. Michael He's lining up based on where Michael Jordan is, and Michael Jordan's not lined up correctly. So right, on one hand, you look at low and say, look down the line, realize he's not lined up, give me a tablet him.
No.
On the other hand, you know he shouldn't have to worry about where other guys are lined up. This is the NFL. You should just be able to trust that guy's lined up correctly. Not Jordan's worst game in the last few weeks, but certainly not one of his best. And Darian Low two just got beat a few times, so not a great day for either of those two.
So I had Michael Jordan as my last one. I am with you on this. This has been trending, I would say, with Michael Jordan, and we're now at the point where we're talking about Cole strange Citiso has also not been good when they've given him opportunities to play guard so far, so maybe he's not the answer. But they pretty much can't run behind Michael Jordan like they just every time they run behind him, he's given up
stuffs left and right. I had him with five run stuffs allowed in this game, just getting bodied, like upper body strain just not there, right, They just can't really sustain blocks. It's not so much that I think that he's bad in the initial setup of the block. I actually think that he gets on the guy pretty well. He just can't sustain it, Like he just gets thrown off blocks too much. So I had him as a down.
I didn't think Ben Brown was great in this game either, but I give him some leeway because he's a practice squad guy that's being forced to start.
At this point, I think it's game on between Michael Jordan Ben who's gonna play well enough to save their job because Cole Strange's coming from one of those two spots.
Agreed, Agreed. I believe that they're trying, and this coaching staff said it earlier with Van Pelt. I believe that they want Strange to play center. That's where his main focus is been in practice now. He said that that's mostly because he knows guard so well that he doesn't really need to care or focus as much on guard mentally, right, Like he kind of knows what he's doing there. But I'm with you. As soon as Cole Strange is healthy, as soon as he's ready to go and is ramped
up enough to play, I think he's going in. I don't know if it's gonna be at Garter Center, but he's gonna play.
Well, and I think that's gonna be dictated by you know, however long it is the next week or two. What Michael Jordan shows you and what Cole Strange shows.
You fair enough. So you had four two you said I had. The fourth one was Marco Wilson, but I took him off because he got cut. So my last one is Drake May for the last two plays of the game. Okay, So I had fifty eight minutes of awesome for Drake May. I had two minutes of not so good from Drake May. The sack before the interception might have been worse than the interception from his point of view, I agree with that he took a really bad sack. He had Kishan Boody on the outside dig route.
It's like double dig right inside dig outside dig, and you're just reading the safety in the middle of the field. If the safety jumps the inside, you throw the outside. If the safety stays deep, you throw the inside, like it's just reading that one player in the middle of the field. They buzzed it so they closed it right, it was two and then they closed the field and he had Kaishan Boody coming out of the break on
the dig. If he hits that, it's probably like a fifteen to twenty yard game and they're right around the fifty at that point if he hits that throw. So that was a bad sack. And then the interception. I heard AVP today he kind of put it more on Pop Douglas. It sounded like for not knowing when to
sit in the void and look for the football. But I thought the throw was high anyways, Like he's a five foot hit receiver, so in order for Pop Douglas, Like maybe if Pop Douglas gets his head around in time, he saves an interception by just getting a hand on the ball, maybe for him to catch it. Like I if it was Hunter Henry, I would say, okay, six foot five, like he probably would have caught it five foot eight Pop Douglas, Like that's a floor. I'm not sure Pop Douglas can climb to. So I put half
in half. I split the baby just along the lines with Drake May that was the right one, right, I split the baby split the difference, but anyways, no, not split what Yeah, I don't think he used that correctly. I think I did.
But along the lines with Drake Man Alex van Pell I thought it was interesting today because I've talked a lot about limiting the interceptions, right, what does that look like?
Is it?
You find it interesting today?
Alex van Pelt actually gave us a number, and I don't think it's a bad number. Ten if finished the year with less than ten interceptions, So he's gonna make what is it gonna be? Thirteen starts right, yeah, sixteen, seventeen, No, let's eleven starts, eleven, twelve starts, twelve eleven, foll starts not gludeing Jets game, so math ten in orce and eleven starts.
He's at six right now? Yeah?
Yeah, all right, if that's a good number, If he can finish there, I'd feel really good.
I just thought it was interesting.
I had kind of said, you know, six games left six or few I think I said it on the show last week, six games left six or fewer interceptions for Drake May and all feel really good about where he's at turnover wise ten interceptions. That's the number now, I thought was interesting. Glex main Pelt gave like a specific number for that.
Yeah, So the strip sack I've also put. I put like half of each turnover on on Drake. So the strip sack, he's trying to hit kish On Boody as like the ISO receiver on the play on the three by one, and like he's expecting Kaishan Boody to run like a stop route. He probably had nine steps and then just kind of break out of it and he's just gonna hit him right out of the break, and he just hesitates. I think Booty wasn't really winning on the route and wasn't giving him a whole lot of
confidence to make that throw. But that's one of those throws on third day that you probably just try to throw like a back shoulder where it's like Booty or nobody right like and just kind of live with the incompletion on that play just to avoid the disaster of a turnover. So I put half of that on him, even though Booty wasn't really open. You have to just throw the ball somewhere right like, you can't just and
it was a really really fast sack. But you have to throw the ball to Booty, just throw it outside of his outside shoulder, on the back shoulder, and if it goes out, it sails out of bounds. It sails out of bounds, right like, and you put the ball and you play field position and whatever. So that turnover I put half on Drake and then I mentioned the interception. But outside of that, there was really only one other play that I had like a really big ripe with.
It was a zero, all out blitz by the Rams in the red zone. They just sent the house on a third down in the red zone and Drake May just kind of panic threw it out of the back of the end zone a little bit, and if he had just stayed with the play and stayed a little bit more poised, he had Pop Douglas on the slant for a walking touchdown, right like, Pop just separates the out of the bunch and he's he's gonna walk in
for a touchdown. So that was just one of those plays where it was one of the few times where he didn't really see the blitz coming and was taken by surprise. Might have been the first zero he's ever seen in the NFL. Yeah, so that might have been part of it. And it goes to again the youth and growing, like next time he sees it, how does he react. That's the one thing I would say, you know, for him outside of the turnovers is red area offense.
And oftentimes in the red zone everything happens a lot faster and the reds have to be a lot quicker because the space is so confined, so you have to speed up your process even more as a quarterback, So it's hard for rookie quarterbacks in the red zone. They haven't been as good in the red zone. I like that.
A lot of the offensive players said that they felt like that cost them this game, Like if they get touchdowns in a lot of those situations instead of field goals, they might win this game on Sunday against the Rams, and I agree with them. There was a couple of instances where I thought that Drake may should have pulled
the trigger and just didn't. Whether it was throw away, you know, scramble slash check down, really checked down with him as a scrambler and those types of situations like he's just got to be a little bit faster with it in the red zone with his decision making that will come. I also think they can help him down there by finding more ways to use his legs and incorporate his mobility, because that really eliminates a lot of
that challenge. Like if you cut off half the field because you roll him out of the pocket, that's a much easier read than asking him to go through an entire progression in the red zone. Right, So just roll him out, read option, whatever you have to do to get the ball in. I think I think that type of stuff is coming. Mayo said it earlier this week that they didn't want to overload him with information now that they feel like he's doing a better job with
some of the traditional stuff. I do think some of the quarterback runs are coming. We talked about this last week.
It this is gonna be a big test for AVP, Like, all right, you're not running the full offense right away. Fine, you want to ease the kid in, but you need to see it continue because there's AVP the quarterback developer and AVP the play caller, and for him to stay here, you need to see the offense come a little more complex and a little more intricate. And I get and I want to do that right away. But all right, let's go chat ramping it up.
All right, we'll get it to you guys. I know all of you been waiting on ho for a really long time. We really appreciate it. And then we're gonna talk some dolphins here for the last half an hour as well. But before we do that, I want to spend Do you want to spend Black Friday weekend watching
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so I appreciate it. H Patty is an aga. What's up, Patty?
What's going on? Gentlemen?
How are we doing?
He am?
I'm doing all right. So I just want to say, like, I know you guys have been talking about a VP and you know, just fans, these ignorant fairweather fans, need to get it through their head that this is a first year regime, like across the board, minus the owner, you know, quarterback, coach, coordinators included. All you really have to do is just lo'll get out far Drake has progressed since training camp until now, and anyone that's listened to you guys that's listened to Patriots dot Com knows
that it's night and day. So I just wanted to throw that out there. First second. This will be the last time I promise I look into the future. But the more time goes on, if we're there, like if he's there when we're picking, I'm the needle is moving very far towards just picking Ted McMillan, or if he's not there, Abdul Carter and you know what this may sound crazy, like let the Darian mo play, maybe get Josh him and let him rehab and train him, you know,
to be the left tackle of the future. That's kind of where I am with that, and I have I have to ask this question, are you guys doing a show next week?
We are doing a show next week. We're gonna do it on Tuesday after afternoon. I think probably Round four on Tuesday, so we're gonna just move it up on Tuesday and then well, we will also have a show during the bye week as well, which is coming up too, so we'll have shows both of those weeks.
Cool, all right. I'll throw some thanksgiving them questions out at you guys next week. But I really want to win this game, Evan and Alex. I want you guys to tell me what is the biggest variable for us to win this game? Because I fregain hate the Dolphins. I've always hatted the Dolphins since the Shoe La Marino days. They are my Yankees of the NFL. And I know the Jets screw up every year and that's great because I can't stand them either. But like I just I
want to spin tell us how we do it. I'll take it off here, guys.
Thanks bag, thanks for the call, and yeah, thanks for prompting me to tell you guys that the next next Tuesday at four is when our show is gonna be all. We'll both tweet and everything and make sure you guys are are as weare as you can be. But that's a good shout. In terms of this game against Miami, I also appreciate a little segue into the Dolphins here
a little bit. I'll just be short because I know we have people that have been on hold, and then we'll get into it a little bit more in a minute. But the biggest thing to me is going back to what we were talking about with the base defense versus Nickel and all that kind of stuf. If I'm the Patriots, I am begging the Dolphins to run the ball in this game. Like run it, run it, run it, like go ahead, Like go ahead and run the ball. Try
try to possess it yourself. Try to elongate there, short and excuse me this game and try to get this game in the twenties. Like if the Patriots are in the twenties against the Dolphins, then I think they're gonna have a puncher's chance, just like they did last week against the Rams. It's when it gets you know, into the thirties because Tyreek Hill is hit in seventy five yard bombs from Tua. Like, that's when I get worried
about this game. I don't they don't have the talent yet on offense to win a track meet against the Dolphins. So you have to make it an ugly game. Force the Dolphins be disciplined, force them to go on long drives and win the turnover battle, something they haven't been able to do. I'll say on his draft take two real quick, yep, the whole Josh Simmons thinks. Patriots fans are starting to learn about Josh Simmons and really sink
their teeth in. So, Josh Simmons was left tackle Ohio State. Yeah, was having a really good year, trending towards being, you know, a top fifteen pick of left tackle, and tore his knee up. I don't remember exactly what the injury was or if that's even out there, but he's done for the season. So now Patriots fans look at that and say, there's your starting caliber left tackle you can get later. Yeah, it's a half measure.
And maybe Josh Simmons ends up being good, but it's a half measure. You don't know that he's gonna be available next year. They can't do They've been doing half measures at left tackle for like seven or eight years now. They can't keep doing it. And the other thing about you know, letting Vederian Low continue to play again. He's been better than expected, but he hasn't been great. He's also been hurt a lot. And you know, we missed practice yesterday. We'll see what happened, what it looks like
on the injury report today. He's not exactly a big body at tackle, and I think there's legitimate durability questions with him. So if you're playing to go into the season is a fringe level starter who can't stay healthy and a guy who maybe has upside but won't be ready to go right away because he's coming off torn acl.
You didn't fix the position.
Maybe you think you did, and if you know, you're talking yourself into that being a fix in order to draft a.
Guy like Teed McMillan. You didn't fix it. Like you didn't.
You're just trying to find a way to draft tech McMillan. If that's what you want to do, it to me, it's still getting aggressive taking Tech McMillan towards the top, maybe you trade down a pick or two if you can, if some of these quarterbacks show up, and then moving up and taking.
A guy like Arion to Ursere I the We're gonna hear a lot, a lot a lot about Josh Simmons and Evan. You might even like him. It might be good.
Yeah, taking a guy five months removed from a torn ACL if he enters the draft at all, and I don't know if he's a junior senior, so he may not have that option. But taking a guy coming off of torn acl if he enters the draft at all, that's not solving the left tackle problem. I'm not saying they won't do it, but to me, that is not addressing the left tackle position. It's kicking the can down the road again.
Yeah. So we have some good questions about the draft that we can get to here too in a second. But I want to Simmons a senior so he can't go back to school. But point stance, Yeah, I'm gonna take Christian in La here. What's up, Christian? Hey you guys, how you doing today?
Yeah? No words, Nord. I love to talk to you guys. I love the X and os as opposed to what we do more on what you guys do, more on uh Patriots and Filter. So this always gives us callers a chance to talk some actual football with the guys. So with that, with that said, I kind of wanted to in some way echo what what Patty said in terms of, hey, this is a new regime. Everyone's basically new,
and you could tell that they're just experimenting. I mean, you have Alex Vampel's who gets this quarterback with superpowers, and he's sort of been increasingly nerving Drake Made's superpowers by having him throw shorter and shorter, sort of more controlled stuff, and that just reached to me like Vampel's is unsure of, you know, the receivers that he's got, all the schemes that he's got set up for Drake
to throw down the field. So I was definitely you guys just for that or if it's something to truly jumped the Shark, you guys left out one crucial component, and that is the appearance of Ted McGinley. You remember whenever Ted McGinley showed up, that's the show that jumped the Shark from Happy Days to married with children in the show that he showed up on. So back to the Drake maysup. What do you guys think about that Van help butt of being just a little bit getty sort of nurfing Drake May.
Yeah, thanks for the call, Christian. And this is something that I actually wrote about in after further review, I guess maybe I'm just like a glass half full kind
of guy. But the way that I looked at the game plan and the fact that Drake May isn't throwing the ball down the field quite as much as maybe his skill set would suggest, I actually think it's really smart by the coaching staff because they don't have the horses offensively to play that kind of football, Like, they don't have ball winners on the outside, they don't have a great offensive line to scheme up the deep shots.
So what are they doing. They're having Drake May play on schedule Like they're not going backwards, they're going forwards. He's hitting the short and intermediate stuff. What I've been really impressed about is how good he's doing at it right And now what my feeling is is that he's really developed the short game. Like to use a golf analogy, like he's really developed his ability to put and now just wait a second until they have somebody on the
outside that can win down the field. Now you're starting to see the driver too, right, Like and now here's a complete guy. Like now you can hit fairways and you can hit your putts, and all of a sudden, you've got this complete player. That, to me, is what the goal is here. This is what we're good at right now, is the short and intermediate passing game. Because of who's around him, we're gonna nurture this part of
his game or develop this part of his game. And then once we get it t Higgins, once we get at Ted McMillan, once we get a Travis Hunter, once we get a left tackle, then we can start pushing the ball down the field a little bit more because we already know he's good at that stuff. So I don't look at it as like they're trying to force Drake to play out of character or out of you know, out of his nature. I actually think that they're trying to teach him how to play quarterback and how to
win in this league. Like some weeks are it's gonna take. You're gonna have to win by death by a thousand paper cuts. Other weeks, you're gonna want to throw the ball down the field. It's all just about matchups, and that was something that you know, Brady was so good at. Mahomes has become excellent at it as well. Where it's not every week is gonna be four hundred yards for Patty Mahomes, right, Like some weeks, he's gonna have to play a different kind of game for them to win.
And I think that's what they're trying to get through to Drake right now.
Yeah, we talked about this with the with the Bears game, right, being able to just point coard it. Yeah, I don't know that they're like nerving the things he does best. I just think that's been the matchups. I'm sure we'll see him get back to some of the more explosive stuff.
Yeah, I agree. All right, I Riley is in California? What's up? Riley? Riley? He loop going once?
Hello?
Hey? Is it gone? Hey?
Yeah?
I'm sorry about that. I was on mute.
So the things here.
First of all, I just want to say, I think it's pretty funny that every single show I watch, you're always apologizing to us listeners.
For keeping us on hold.
Evan, it's it's what we do. Still there, Hello, I think he might have needed himself again.
That's been a pretty hot topic of dis.
Or just still.
Yesterday cat Sports or something like that, and uh mentioned how Ron Mayo is very very.
Contradictory whatever he discusses von Baker in the sense that he kind of goes back and forth on his words. Like a few weeks ago, he was saying that Davon Baker is the explosive player with the ball in his hands, and they've.
Got to find him ways to get the ball.
And so we've obviously.
Seen him implement it on you know, kick.
Returns, and then last week he had that.
Great forty six yard return and then obviously muffed the second hunt and tried to turtle of the Rams defender and only got sixteen yards and then was obviously pulled out of the game and benched. And then Girod Mayo following the game says, you know, he just he wasn't doing he wasn't doing it right.
We just need him to do things more right.
So I guess where I'm going with that is, you guys think it's actually a Keavon Baker issue, like he's just not you know, doing exit and O was right, like not running the proper route, not knowing his assignments, things like that.
Or do you think that it's.
Just a Girod Mayo issue with Javon Baker derister then at the beginning when we drafted him, Mayo didn't really seem too too fond of him and had some you know, comments early on about him. So yeah, that's that's my question.
Guys.
Thanks for the call, Riley appreciated. Look, I think the biggest thing for this coaching staff right now, and we've asked them all three guys, you know, both coordinators and and Girodd about this, Oh, this season is just weighing the pros and cons of the young guys playing. Right, You're when you play young guys, there's gonna be mistakes,
but you're also trying to develop those players. And as a rebuilding team, you want to develop guys like Javanne Baker, like Jalen Polk, like jaheiem Bell, like Drake may and you want to get them out there and there's gonna be mistakes, there's gonna be turnovers, there's gonna be bad routes, there's gonna be mishandlings of football's on kick offs, all
that kind of stuff. So it's a very fine line to walk between letting the kids play, but also those mistakes lose you football games, right, So it's it's definitely difficult. It's hard to sort of say which way to go with that. I hear both sides of it. I hear the size of say you're three and eight and you should just live with the kids and let it go.
And my guess is that down let's say the last month of the season, last couple games of the season and January, I do think that you'll see the kids play a lot like I think they will sort of let that happen. But right now, as crazy as it as it may be on the outside looking in, there's not really a path. But you have to coach like there's a path, right and if they're actively hurting the team,
then you have to pull those players off the field. Yeah, And we've talked about what's best for Drake may versus what's best for some of the other rooks and doing all that.
I just think with Baker could he's not picking it up. Yeah, whatever it is, he's not picking up. They talked about maybe not liking what he was doing on the kickoff return, so.
You got to put the guy players. It helps them to develop to play.
But if the guy doesn't know what he's doing, I'm not going to do much for his development, and then you're just hurting everybody else.
So I don't I don't love him on kickoffs. I don't really see him as maybe I'm just have which I know is bad like logic to some extent. It just maybe it's just a forty time that's in my head. But I think he's an explosive mover, but I don't think that he's an explosive, straight line speed kind of guy, if that makes sense. Like I think he's twitchy, but I don't think that he is like a burner that's
gonna run by people. The guy that I don't understand why doesn't they don't try him on kickoffs is Isaiah Boulden, Like I don't understand. I'm still waiting for that.
Well, my my take at the beginning of the year was Kai Shan Boudi being the kick returner that he became the number one receiver.
Right like I get Marcus Zones is also a name that people have thrown around, but you know Springer's explanation of like he's a smaller guy and they're trying to keep him healthy. Like if you put him on kickoffs, punts, defense, now offense, like it's spreading Marcus Jones really thin. I still think if you were in a situation where you could return a kickoff that maybe wins a game, that maybe they would put Marcus Jones back there to have that.
You know, the Dolphins do that with Tyreek Hill all the time, right like, if this is a game winning situation, then we're gonna we'll put him back there. So I could see that with Marcus Jones, But I do wonder if it was active on game day. He's playing on special teams, Like why, I don't know why Isaiah Bolden doesn't get a chance. He was great at it in college. So that's the one guy I scratched my head on kickoffs with Kendall is in North Carolina. What's up, Kendall?
Call us back Kendall and we'll get you on the air. A couple of emails. Want to go through the emails? Do the do rapid fire through the emails? Probably not gonna work. Let's see what the questions are. Sometimes you gotta get a little bit of nuanced okay. So here is an email from Floyd in Michigan. He says, good afternoon,
Evan and Alex. A number of recent mock drafts have the Patriots selecting ot Will Campbell at pick number six, which is frustrating, says Kendall, because he thinks, and he has read that Will Campbell is a guard, and he is not drafting a guard with the sixth overall picks. So we are gonna hear about this for the next six to eight months. But how long is it till the draft? Six months April four? It's crazy, it's six months,
let's call it six. We're gonna hear about this until February when he measures his arms at the combine that Will Campbell is a guard. I am not ready to say that Will Campbell's guard until I see the measurement of his arms right like that. That's really where I'm at. He plays, he plays perfectly fine at tackle. He's got feet, he's got a tackle movement ability. If his arms are too short, then we'll have that conversation when we have it, But for right now, I'm operating under the impression that
he is still a tackle. But if he's at thirty two inches, then he's going to be a guard.
Or is he you know, like Rashaun Slater, is he the guy that resets the numbers?
He just that good? Yep?
Uh?
Do you take that chance? And then there's also Kevin Banks. Don't look, I'm the mock draft guy, right, I love doing all these mock drafts.
That's true.
There's a reason I don't do Monck drafts till the season is over. The season being excuse me, college and NFL still ball up to play, So I wouldn't read too much into these Monck drafts at this point one way or the other. To me, if you see Will Campbell, that person basically tells you they think the Patriots are taking a tackle. Yeah, it's one hundred and fifty four days, four hours, eleven minutes, forty five seconds until the draft.
Nice. I found a website that counts it down. Yeah, it's mighty my new homepage. Well it's it's it's like, what's the website. It's draftcountdown dot com. Oh really, there's like a website that I use all the time. It's like a day to date calcul.
No, this is specifically for the draft, like this website is draft countdown dot com.
The fact that you didn't know this already is kind of astonishing. I'm surprised by that. All Right, we have Kendall back. Kendall is in North Carolina. What's up, Kendall?
Hey, sorry about that? How you doing good? I got two questions, one for you, Evan and one for you Alex. The first one, Evan, what are you seeing from this Dolphins defense? And how how do you what is the best way for the Patriots to attack on Sunday? And but Alex, I want to ask uh if we address
while Steven Offski. So let's just say we go out to sign t Higgins and then in the in the first round, could you see us still taking a Tampman Millon or did you see us probably getting another guy probably let on a draft and who would be the odd man out the receiver room?
Appreciate it, Thanks Kendall, Thanks for the call as always. So starting with the Dolphins, Uh, I think the biggest thing to me with this Dolphins defense is, uh, they have given up quite a few yards in the same type of game plans that the Patriot it's used last week, Like those short and intermediate yards are there. They are a pretty exotic in terms of how they scheme up pressure.
Like it's pretty similar. We're getting to the point now and this is probably a longer conversation for a different time, but we're getting to the point now where like this, like Mike McDonald vic Fangio fused together defense is like the Kyle is like the Shanahan Tree right offense where it's like half the league is running the same defense.
So the defense that the Dolphins are running under Anthony Weaver, who was with Baltimore for the last three seasons, is really similar to the defense that they played against the Rams where they're going on third down, they're exotics, like they're gonna bring pressure from different places and it's gonna be up to the quarterback to sort it out post nap. So I look at this game plan again and say,
just continue to do what you do. Because Gardner Minshew averaged three point seven air yards per attempt to go back to a dot and we had the same two hundred and eighty two yards and two touchdowns as Drake made did right. Really almost the exact same stat line for Gardner, Minshew so brought Bowers had a huge game.
Patriots have a couple of capable tight ends. So I expect the Patriots to try to, you know, do the same exact thing, and hopefully they like they did last week, you break off some of those short and intermediate routes for longer plays on explosives. Yeah.
Draft draft, I would say if they added veteran receiver, even if they added t Higgins, right, if they want to go back to back with receivers, him and McMillan are pretty redundant.
Yeah. At that point, we're probably talking more about Luther Burden or even Nick me Buka. Yeah, who's coming on? I feel like, yeah, yeah, he's starting to play better. Yeah.
He just set the like Ohio State all time receiving yards or receptions record, which when you think about the is that career yeah, yeah, which is now a lot of those guys are only there for three years.
Ye who has been there or like still half a century.
Yeah, I would be really surprised if they did that, even if they you know, went out and got a different receiver and I don't Metcalf or not Metcalf Higgins and McMillan don't make sense together. Like those you guys played the exact same position, same role. That would be a bad pick in that specific Not that McMillan is a bad pick, but in the specific circumstance. If they were to do something like that, who's the odd man out? So you'd have Higgins, you'd have the draft pick, you'd
have a booty still being a part of it. Douglas is still going to be a part of it. I would keep Kendrick Bourne in, Jalen Polk the odd man out, it's probably Javon Baker unless they keep seven again. But if they make their premium veteran offseason addition or a receiver, which I'm on the record saying they should do, No, I don't think a first round receiver is worth it. I don't think a first round receiver is a smart pick at that.
Don't think it's necessary, Like it's not necessary. No, they have depth at that point.
If if you don't want to take a tackle, if you're worried about the tackles, now we start talking about I don't think the first overall picks.
So Travis Hunter's probably off the table. He's gonna be a Jaguar. I think.
Now you're talking about will Johnson. Now you're talking about Michael Williams. Now you're talking about James Pearce, Abdul Carter, who got asked about earlier. If it's not a tackle, honestly, and at the point where you're probably looking at a defensive player.
Yeah, So this is a question from David in Madrid, who emails into the show all the time. And this is something along those same lines that you were just talking about that I've been thinking about quite a bit, and that is, you know, at the top of the draft this year, are we trending towards this just being a best player available draft for the Patriots. And I'm not saying that I drafted safety like he mentioned Malchi Starks.
You look sorry. Continue. Yeah, I'm not saying that. I'm not totally throwing out positional value when I say that. But if you told me that the best course of action was to take the best player available at a premium position, receiver, attack, pass rusher, cornerback, right, they already have the quarterback, so they don't need to do that. If it's on the defensive side of the ball, then I'm I'm game, like, does give me the best player at that point?
You know, I think best player available is a myth. I think the concept of drafting the best player available is a myth because evan Travis Hunter goes first overall, who's the best player left on the board. Who is the best football player at their position on the board? Please give me the correct answer. I know you don't want to say it, but give me the correct answer.
Wait. So, if Travis Hunter is off the board.
Who's the most talented football player at his position left?
Probably that Michigan tackle. It's ash and Genty, But so and I wouldn't. I I don't think they should take ash and Genty. I don't. He's gonna be a cowboy one way or the other. But that's a okay, he's gonna be come on, well, no, I just I don't care it's him. I think it's him.
To your point about the Michigan defensive tackle Mason Graham, yeah, I'm almost with you. I wouldn't take a defensive tackle that high. That's the one position if you want to sell you wouldn't take like I and I know.
This is unfair, but like, yeah, you wouldn't take Chris Jones that high.
No, I'm talking specifically like in this class for this team. Okay, So like if you want to sell me on Will Johnson, if you don't believe in one of the tackles you want to and they add a veteran receiver, right, you want to sell me on Will Johnson. I can be sold on Will Johnson. You want to sell me on Michael Williams, you want to sell me I'm still not sure on James Pierce, but like we'll get their Abdua Carter. I just look at defensive tackle and I think Mason
Graham's a good player. I think Dion Walker is already being slept on, and I think he's going.
To be as good.
Well, for one thing, they have Barmore. I would say defensive tackle is the one position where.
Yeah, I'd have Barmore, And I would say that like Kean is really like a flex like so like he's more of a hand than the dirt guy, so passing downs too.
Between that and looking at the rest of the class, if you're gonna take Mason Graham, at least trade down and take Deon Walker, that's the one and I reserved the right change my mind for a long way out. But looking at it right now, I that's that's the one position I'd be like, I think it's is Mason Graham the best player available? Maybe, but when you get into the value of it, of you know, what are
you really adding. I think a guy like James Pierce, if he is the past rusher, we think he is a guy like Michael Williams probably gives you more pound for pound. And if it's like, well, no, we want a defensive tackle, we want a two headed monster in the middle. Trade down, take Dean Walker. I think he ended up better for it.
Yeah, I'm really coming around on on defense. I mean, look, we went on this whole thing about the coaching and on the deal. This is all predicated on them adding t Higgins, DK Metcalfeck. Sure, but they don't think they need to take ten. But even still, I mean yeah, but like, even still, it is obviously everything is is you know about attacking it correctly in the veteran market too, right, But I just look at it and I just think that there's a lot of really good defensive talent in
this draft. I think Will Johnson, even though he's had a little bit of a down year. You tell me, I think he's a hell of a football player. Still, yeah, you know, I think there's a lot of really good defensive talent. I still feel like Travis Hunter is a better corner. I know I'm with you on that. I know he's probably gonna play receiver in the league. But the point I'm getting at is is that you know
they need talent on both sides of the ball. And I understand we all want to give Drake May as toys and we all want to set Drake May up for success. We absolutely do, but you can do that in different avenues. And I look at the defensive side, and really, when you think about it, two out of the last three drafts have been offensive drafts for the Patriots. Twenty three was the defensive draft. Bill pick three guys on the top of the draft, all defense, you know,
Christian Zales, Kean White, Marte Mapu. But in twenty twenty two it was Cole Strange, Taekwan Thornton, Pierre Strong. They mixed in Marcus Jones in there, and then obviously last year they pick one defensive player in the sixth round. In Marcella's dial That's a big reason why the depth on the defensive side of the football is where it is. You haven't really been drafting a ton on that side of the football, So we're at the point now where
another pass rusher is necessary. Your pass rush right now is I think they're thirtieth or thirty first in the league in pressure rate on defense, so they don't get pressure on the quarterback anymore. They're second cornerback spot opposite of Christian Gonzales is a problem. Marcus Jones is a slot like, he's just undersize to play on the outside. He's a good slock corner, but he's a stock corner.
Jonathan Jones is really gonna, I think gonna transition to free safety here soon and start to play more at safety, so you really need another guy on the outside opposite of Gonzales. You're getting to the point where all these things are starting to creep up inside linebacker depth, you know, like you lose Bentley and that whole group kind of goes to to shambles.
And this how many years have we done that? It's been a bad linebacker draft. Yeah, right, good linebacker draft this year. Harold Perk and Danny Stutsman, she had Campbell, assuming he comes out. The one thing I'll say to the point you just gave is when you because because you're just kind of going off of who you've heard
of as the top thirty guys. Yeah, right, the talent We've become so accustomed to there being just this tremendous depth on the offense inside of the ball these last few drafts outside of the running back position and maybe tight end, which are two positions Patriots could maybe addressed, but later on, like you don't have that depth at wide receiver. You don't have that depth to tackle this edge class, loaded, loaded linebacker class, very good, the cornerback class.
There's a lot of underclassmen. So I'm hesitant to say it's gonna be deep yet, but like it could be. It very well could be. And I think some of these guys are gonna come out because they're gonna see that opportunity you if they add the veteran receiver with you, But like if not, I just you're gonna be able to get quality defensive players later then you're gonna be able to at quality offensive players in the draft. It
looks like so they need volume. Wise, they need to address defense in this draft when we're talking about the top if they don't add a veteran receiver has to be teed. McMillan, you talk, so not to cut you off, but just I think this is related tech mcmilliner.
Tackle. Yeah. So the other thing that we talked about the other day on PU which I think is a possibility. A lot of the time when you look at the league free agency, defensive guys do hit free agency quite frequently. So there's some corners, especially, uh, you know, DJ Reed, Tavarious Ward, Uh, you know guys that Carlton Davis is going to be a free agent, Guys that can are are good corners in the league that are gonna be
coming up on the market. If they're gonna do if they're really like if you really think wide receiver is that they need to hit that and they need to hit tackle one and two in the draft and have another top heavy at least offensive draft, Well, then you have you have to fill it in another way, right, So then then it becomes free agency becomes when you add defense, right, But one of these ways whichever And we're gonna have a conversation at some point, probably soon
and go down this rabbit hole of which path is better. But it's either you got to put all your sources into the offense and free agency and all of them into defense in the draft or vice versa. I don't think that's true. I think you can mix and match it.
You could sign or trade for a receiver, draft to tackle at the top of the draft, sign one of those corners, draft against really good edge draft. I can't stress that enough. Sign a pass but sign a sign a corner. Draft a pass rusher in the second round.
On day two of the draft. That realistically just based off of just trendons, like you might get like a Joshua j type who's like a really good pass rusher on third down. But my feeling is is that they on defense they might need a three day player.
There are some for this draft specifically, I get what you're saying. Yeah, for this draft specifically, I think there are some potential, uh primary pass rushers that you're gonna think about where they're gonna be picking on day two. We're not talking about picking the forties right and the board will change. But the Ohio State guys Jack Sawyer, three down player out of o High State currently projected like a top forty kind of player. There's a little
bit higher. He's probably gonna be first round pick. But like Nick Gordon, three down player, the teel Maul Muluau, I think it is from the other High state guys three down play. They can get that three down I don't know that you're gonna get Miles Garrett, but can you get a guy who can be your primary pass rusher and be a three down player at that stage in the draft. I think it's possible. It's very possible. Cornerback, same way. Again, we'll see how many of these younger
guys come out. It's a younger group, but you know, if more guys go to the draft, I'm really interested to see what the book ends up being on the Ohio State guys. So, Denzel Burke was a projected top ten pick for a long time. He has had a rough season. He has had a rough season. David Igbanoz in the other corner kind of same thing. Fringy first
round guy. Now people are saying more that, you know, fifty to seventy five range, it's gonna be there's always these guys right where you look at the tape, you're gonna have I'm gonna have to remind you watch Denzel Burke in twenty twenty two, don't just watch Denzel Burke in twenty twenty three. Yeah, And where does that come down?
If they see him in twenty two and they say he had a down year last year for whatever reason, you get a potential like he certainly has the ceiling to be a guy that can be legitimate option opposite Christian Gonzalez. It's just where do you think he's at from last year to this year?
Fair enough? I just look at it, and you know, the more that I watched this team unfold this season, and I think a lot of this and I'm not trying to make it harder on him than it already is. I'm really not. But a lot of this just stems from the fact that I think Drake May is just awesome and it is gonna make a lot of the
offense go okay, but let me finish. Yeah. The more I watch the team, though, the more I look at the defense being the bigger problem right now than the offense right Like, it just it's very clear to me that the defense is the unit that's going backwards. The offense is at least on this steady climb up and a lot of that is like probably ninety percent of
that is rake. But like, at least we see some some light at the end of the tunnel for the offense where if you go out and you add a big time playmaker in free agency, you might be done on offense. I still think you need to tackle. You probably still need to tackle, but like, I don't think that that tackle needs to be you know, like Trent Williams right, Like, I think that if you go out and you get a serviceable NFL left tackle, then you'll
you'll be fine as an offense. Like I really believe that if you you still got to go out and get the guy right, I'm not saying that. But defensively, I think that they have sort of had needs everywhere on defense all of a sudden. Offensively, I think they need to tackle help, and I think they need a number one receiver. I think they have a decent two through five in the receiver.
I'm with you, Like, if they add the left tackle we're talking about just this year, they need like they need a project tight end, they need to develop mental center play. If you add the tackle, if you add the receiver. You're kind of banking on Caden Wallas showing up. We haven't gotten to see much of him this year, but like that's group. I just wouldn't I worry that they're gonna look at it and say, Drake mays good, we're done.
Let's work on the defense.
Like you can't do that, you need This is learning lessons from the mac Jones Erra. Right, Yeah, go get the kid the receiver. That has to happen, and you have to make sure his blind side is protected. It's a volume thing on defense. It's a it's a quality thing on offense. It's a quantity thing on defense.
So my last thing on this and then we got a wrap. Yeah, I feel like we always get caught and I'm not just like, I'm not saying you, I'm just saying this is a general I feel like we always get caught in thinking the best the way to support the quarterback is to get him receivers, get him offensive line, build up the offense. It also doesn't hurt to make sure that the defense isn't given up thirty. It doesn't hurt, right, Like if he has to go out there and he has to score twenty four a
game to win ten games. Then that also helps a lot. Like you look at what Kansas City is doing right, Like they're nine to one because Patrick Mahomes has to make like two plays at the end of the game to win them half of these games like that, that's how they've gotten here. So it doesn't hurt to have a good defense too. Like that helps a young quarterback as well, when he doesn't have to go out there and score thirty five to win the football. It does.
And look, you know me, I'm the defense guy. Like I'm one hundred percent with you on that, but normally I'm the offensive guys. Right, you know, we've kind of flipped here. I would just say, like, because the defense just doesn't stop anybody younger quarterback, younger quarterback, you want to give him the pieces to absolute absolutely. I just think that there are a couple of pieces away on offense. I think defensively is starting to get a little bit tenuous.
That's all really quickly, and then we really do have to wrap. We talked to little Dolphins. I don't love this matchup on the on paper for the Patriots this week. Not only is Miami just not a great place for them normally, but I just don't really see a path for them to a stop the Dolphins offense consistently and then be outscore the Dolphins offense the other side of the football. I'm trying to find a path for victory
in this game. I do every week, I even if for three and eight, right, And I'm gonna try to talk myself into this is how they can win this game. The only way that I see that they can win this game is they have to play one of those clean time of possession type of games. Like it's gonna have to be they did that last week. It's gonna happen. I know, it's gonna have to be boring, right, Like it's gonna have to be twenty to seventeen or seventeen
fourteen or something along those lines. And uh, that's not the thirty five to thirty shootout that we all would kind of like to see, I would assume with Drake May. But that's where I'm sort of at with this game. What's your statement on Jersey Mikes. So this is my statement on Jersey Mikes. My fear with the great Jersey Mikes is that you're no longer gonna be a sub above. You're gonna just be like every other sub. You are
just gonna be a sub. The reason why I love Jersey Mikes is because Jersey Mikes has a sub above the rest. Okay, this is gonna be corporate America for them. Corporate America here we come right, Here comes the hedge fund, here comes the freaking capitalism people to ruin my sandwich chain, and I am very upset a Kramer and buy yourself a meat slicer Deli slicer Ma because they're I'm gonna slice my arm off, Alex. That's really that's a really hard to use. They're not easy. They're not as hard
to use. All I'm saying to you to whoever bought Jersey Mikes, do not ruin the product. That's what corporate America does. You come in, you ruin the product. Equity firm Blackstone.
That sounds horrible, Okay, but wait, are they the ones behind Blackstone grills?
Because if they are, they know food? Because those black I am very upsets called Blackstone. What's that girl called? You know what I'm talking about? So like the Flatsop, those things are the other thing about Jersey Mikes that that I I I yeah, Blackstone grill, those things. Okay. The other thing about jerseys is that this is I didn't expect to do that whole philosophical thing. I thought you were just gonna do this part. This is a
this is the first world problem, I fully admit. But I travel a lot for work, right, So I'm in different cities. I'm popping around a lot during football season, and I can always count on whether I'm here, whether I'm in Miami, whether I'm in Chicago, whether I'm in Arizona, whether I'm in Buffalo, wherever i am in the country, I can get a jersey Mikes number seven and have and know what I'm getting myself into, right, And that
is very key for me. I'm a I'm a person, I'm a creature of habit and the fact that I might have to now figure out a different subplace to get my sandwich from for game day that really has me stressed out. Alex. I'm not gonna lie it's stressing me out. I'm sure you'll find another sandwich. I don't know if I'm going to. I think I'm not going to. You just can not eat on game days. I didn't
say that. I just said that now I'm gonna have to go local, and then I'm gonna have to like Google in which places are always like I love good local sandwich place. There's one sandwich place, local sub pizza place usually, so I agree, Like we're big good good food store people are probably gonna go tomorrow. But like I know about good food store because I live here, right, Like, how am I going to find the local sub establishment
in Buffalo, New York? Like maybe my people, my friends in Buffalo can help me out with Maybe this becomes a thing.
Maybe on on social media each week you are on the road, like where should I get my sandwich?
Yeah, because this is gonna be brutal because they're gonna ruin Jersey mice so tough. I hate it. I hate I hate corporate America. Sometimes speaking of America, Massachusetts is made for everyone, for leaf peepers, corn maze strollers. That's just such an amazing transition. I'm sorry, I have to do the read. Do the read. Massachusetts is made for everyone, for leaf peepers, corn maze strollers, were gotta lovers, pumpkin pickers,
and anyone else you can think of. Come where there's something for I still think you're gonna to have macro with it, like I just thought you were gonna do things. Massachusetts, where everything is made possible. Plan your trip to visit M dot com dot com. I always think it's Org, but it's dot com. It's VISITM dot com. Easy to drink, easy to enjoy. Bud Light, the official beer sponsor of the New England Patriots. We will talk to you next
week Tuesday. Next week Tuesday at four pm here for Catch twenty two and we'll see you guys then bye.
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