Patriots Catch-22 11/9: 3 Up/Down vs. Commanders, Colts Preview and Matchups to Watch

with Marcus Kohn. So we got a lot of different things going on, and there's food, there's you know, we got this whole setup with the stage and everything, and then Unfiltered we'll be up here on video so you'll be able to see into it a little bit when we do Unfiltered after this, and we have a whole setup up here, so it's it's pretty fun. You know, it's been a great couple of days here. Honestly. The jet lag, of course, as you can imagine, Barth has

been a little bit tough. Yeah, but now that we're through. Now, we're through that part of it for the most part, I'd say, But I had never been I've never been to Europe in my life, so I checked that box off, and I have never been like a head in time wise, right you know, I've been to the West Coast, as you know, a billion times, but that's going back, So going ahead is a whole different animal. I'll tell you that.

It's very, very weird to wake up here and it's the middle of the night back home and things like that, but it's the atmosphere is great here. You know, it's kind of like a Super Bowl where it's gonna turn up as we get closer and closer to the game. But there's a ton of Patriots fans here even with this, you know, state of the team, which I think says a lot about the fan base.

the game as well to come here. So it's it's definitely interesting, and I think that it's there's certainly a lot of people that are starting to want to know football, and football I think is getting more and more popular over here, so it's going to be interesting to see. I think what it's like really, you know, Saturday before the game and then obviously Sunday at the game. The atmosphere for the Chiefs game was apparently incredible.

But we've we've seen it and it it's impressive stadium. We actually when we flew in the other night or the other morning, I guess I should say here you could see it from as we were landing, and so you got that nice bird's eye view of the stadium, which was pretty cool. And I would say, it's everybody's just looking at me right now, like what the hell is going on. But yeah, it's it's been pretty cool.

And I would say that we can probably tell you more about the actual stadium itself tomorrow, but in general, I think what's cool about the stadium is it's kind of got like covering on the outside, but then the inside is open air, so there's a roof, but it's open right now, and I think I'm hoping it's going to be open for the game.

twenty seventeen game. Also, you want to call in talk with us eight five five Pats five hundred is the phone number eight five five seven two eight seven five hundred. If you want to call in a chat with us, email web radio at Patriots dot com. We'll get into the game a little bit. We'll get into the Colts

game ahead, Evan. There was also some big pre draft news this week, not necessarily about any of the players, but a change in the pre draft process that I think people who listened to this show and people who are fans of the show, I think it's relevant to them. So we'll touch on that a little bit at the end of the show, plus whatever you guys want to talk about. But you know, as we get into the Patriots Commander's game from last week, a close game, I

guess we'll just start there. A close game against what felt like to evenly match teams, but the Patriots came up short. Is that sort of your read on it?

of crazy that that team managed to win eight games? Yeah, and then the year before that they won ten and made the playoffs, and it always felt like they had this level of fundamentals of locked in execution in terms of assignments and things like that, that even if they got beat, even if they weren't the better team that day, they were still able to win these games like this

one against the Commanders. You know, a second year quarterback, he's still finding his way in the league, and Sam Howell and at home, and you just felt like the Patriots would always pull those types of games out in the end. And I think what we've seen is just the fundamentals and the assignments and the mental part of the game, and to an extent as well, a lot of that has just fallen by the wayside, it feels like with this team, and that's where I'm at with them.

I think we talked so much on this show about personnel and missteps by the build, the GM side of things, but now you have to look at this team and start to think about are they well coached from a fundamental perspective? Are they sound? Are they understanding the game plan and the concepts and things like that. In this game is particularly on defense offense, I think they still had their issues based off of mainly talent, you know, just right execution, quarterbacks, play talent. Funny.

but that felt like the only massive breakdown. There were some little issues here and there, But to lose Trent Brown have to turn econom McDermott, who wasn't even on the roster three weeks ago, and hold up as a whole the way they did against Washington. Again, they were the blips here and there, but to hold up the way they did as a whole thing says that, you know,

is a good job on the coaching staff. Now, the offensive line coach, Adrian clem is going to be away from the team here, Bill Belichick said earlier this week for a little while. It's a health issue Buill didn't and he didn't need to, you know, go beyond that. I get that there's privacy things, and obviously we hope, you know, the best for Adrian Clem and whatever he's dealing with. It's been a weird season for these kind

of things, especially on the offensive line. Calvin Anderson now missing time for this second time this year due to an illness in Clem. But I thought the offensive line in that sense left often a good way. But besides that, I.

in a rush. And if there's one thing that I could look at if I was Bill O'Brien, I think these next eight games, the way I feel about it, Alex, is that Mack is auditioning for his job in twenty twenty four. Over the last eight games of the season, not necessarily in wins and losses, but just in terms of there's two different directions that this team could go

from here. They could either bring Mack back, draft Marvin Harrison Junior, signed T Higgins draft to tackle, and try to just build this thing up around him.

could still very well end up losing games. He played at a high level early this year in games that they lost, But there's also this element of he needs to keep them out of position to draft his replacement if they end up they as we said here today, they'd have the fifth pick. Let's say Drake may is the fifth is on the board of five, they can't not take them. So Mac needs to get this team some wins so that guys like Kayleb Williams, Drake and

Michael Pennocks are off the board. And then you're looking at Jolt, You're looking at Olufashanu. Maybe it's not Marvin Harrison, but Romadonza Malik Neighbors as being the kind of guy that's gonna, uh make more sense as the addition to add to Mac rather than to bring in the next guy.

move on. And I've been of the school I thought, as you know, that I think they haven't done enough to add around him, and I still feel that way to an extent, But I also look at a team like the Houston Texans, right now, for example, that game. I don't know how much of that game you got to watch, but I just watched some of the highlights.

huge difference. And I think that in this film with mag you know that I know that Mike Kasicki one is going around now right, people have picked that one up. Mikeasicki up this wide open and he rushes the decision and scrambles that. That's a big one. But I thought that there was other things. As pat Patriot is dancing and right in front of me.

that throw. The deep throw to Rager is a good throw. Now, two of his best throws were dropped. That's its own thing, and that's where you get into the talent around him. But that's what makes it so frustrating is there are the splashes, but it's just still not consistent enough to that you can like build things around him.

twenty if he makes some of those throws. Absolutely, And that's the difference, right that we're talking about playing your way out of drafting your replacement. That that's how you do that. It's not necessarily going out there and averaging thirty five points a game for the next eight games. It's just making a couple more of those plays that he's not currently making. The Kasiki throw is out there now. In terms of reads, that wheel route to Ramandre Stevenson

is a realnother one. Yeah. I mean he he backfoot one foot fadeaways like he's you know, Kobe Bryant in the post and remandre I there's a post safety in the middle of the field. If he hits Hermandre and stride with that pass, and that might be an eighty r touchdown.

hit because the play is there to be made. If there weren't, if we watched the tape and said there's just no place, like everybody's just blanketed on every snap and there's just no place to be made, I think that we could sit there and excuse it all away from Mac Jones.

if those three plays end up being completions. First of all, all three of those plays, if you know you just give the receiver the benefit of the doubt after the catch, have a chance to be huge explosives. Yeah, like forty plus yard plays in some cases. And you know, the seam throw to Kasicki is essentially the exact same throw that he made to Faraoh Brown against the Jets, and and you know, Faroll Brown takes it to a fifty

five yard touchdown or whatever that is. So if he hits Kasicki and stride up the seam there, you know, he might be gone. And that just significantly changes the entire game. So he's got to play better, and we all know that. And I hate to turn the show every week into you know, Bill Belichick's job security, Mac Jones' job security. Like I feel like we just beat that dead horse on that as media, honestly, Like that's all

where everyone's talking about. But it is the biggest story with the team, So we do have to discuss it a little bit.

it's a question for catch twenty two. Oh, if the Patriots decide mac Jones is not the future, he gives you know, what should they do? Entering today? They'd hold the fifth pick, So here's what his options are. Pick the best quarterback available at five, and then Presdy says Pennix. So I guess we're saying, let's say they're sitting somewhere between five and ten, May and Williams going the top three, So best quarterback available when they pick with their pick,

move up and get May or Williams. Pick an offensive tackler, wide receiver, so we're talking Joe Alt, Marvin Harrison, or Lufashano, and then sign a veteran quarterback. And he asked who that would be or he says something else, parenthese'son day two QB.

And I think the one thing that we're we we should keep in mind is that they're projected right now depending on who you believe or who you trust with the salary cap space, let's just call it between seventy five and one hundred million dollars in cap space. Yeah, a lot of that is because they have guys that are free agents and they don't have a lot of big money players, and that speaks to the talent and

it's a bigger picture issue in some senses. But they have seventy five to one hundred million dollars in cap space, and there are some free agent playmakers, free agent receivers that are gonna be available. And I know people will say, well, they did that with Agalore, they did that with Born. It didn't really move the needle. But let's say you know a guy that I'm excited to watch on Sunday when I know we're gonna get into the Colts a

little bit at the end. But Michael Pittman Junior, who I think is a really talented player, and I'm excited to see him in person and see how he moves on the field this weekend. I would assume that the Colts with a young quarterback, are gonna want to keep their thousand yard receiver who's to only twenty six years old. You would think that that's a player that Indy is going to prioritize. But let's just say that somebody like Michael Pittman Junior or somebody like T Higgins reaches free agency.

If you use that first round pick on a quarterback, you can still pay one of those guys in free agency and pair him with the young quarterback. So it doesn't have to necessarily be either or you just have to use all the resources at your disposal. And if I'm the Patriots right now, if I had to make that decision, and I'm curious to see how you feel.

But if I had to make that decison today, was it November ninth, Yeah, I would say to draft the quarterback and put all of your eggs in like T Higgins, right, just try to put everything in towards an offer with T Higgins. I know people are gonna say, well, why would T Higgins want to come here? If you pay him twenty five million dollars and it's more money than anybody else offered, he'll come right, right, Why did Matthew

Judon come here? Like, let's face it. And so I think that if you you know, that's what I would personally do at this present moment. But like I said, you know, I can be swayed. I've made up my mind for now on Mac, but I can be swayed back on the other side.

it's a different class. I like this class better than I liked the twenty one class, at least after the first round. Let's say they really like Jayde Daniels, or they really like JJ McCarthy, one of these guys that's probably gonna go early in the second round. I wouldn't

because you still have Mac on his rookie contract. I would not be opposed to them taking Joe Alt, Marvin Harrison Junior, whoever in the first round, Jayde Daniels in the second, and then Mack essentially becomes the bridge guy, right, and you work with it, and then you have a year with Jayden Daniels and then if Jane Daniels isn't the guy, well you're probably gonna be picking in the top ten again next year. And then you go draft the guy in the first round. Uh yeah, I mean

it's the Jalen Hurts mind right exactly exactly. Or to go further back, honestly, it's what the Carolina Panthers did in twenty ten. They drafted Jimmy Clawson in the second or third round. They had I can't remember who the veteran was, but they had a veteran and they drafted Jimmy Classon in the second and third round. He fell a little bit, and they basically were like, all right, we're gonna see if Jimy Crosson is starting quarterback. Jimmy

Clawson wasn't. And then the next year they took Cam at the top of the track and it would kind of be that thing where you're hoping you do it ends up being the Jalen Hurts thing. And then if the guy you're taking the second round turns out he can't play, all right, now you go get the first round of next year, and then you're pairing that guy, whether it be Drew Aller, whether it be Sitt or Sanders, you're pairing that guy with either Joe Walt or Marvin Heyres.

You know, we've seen all the three pointers in basketball because of Steph Curry, right. I do think that there is a Patrick Mahomes Josh Allen type of effect to this. We're now creating out of structure. Is what become the it thing to do, the hit thing to do, is become to run around and make these ridiculous off platform throws. And Caleb Williams and what I saw from Penix in that that USC Washington game, those two guys do that

both at a really high level. What I want to see is can you create from in the pocket instructure quarterback and you know, throw accurately in the pocket, make yourself, you know, manage the pocket, which is something that I don't think we've seen Mac Jones do a good job of, especially this year. Is you're sometimes you are going to be throwing from a phone booth that that's that's the NFL. So can you throw with arm strength and you know, get the all the throws out there that you need

to get out there from a muddied pocket? Can you make reads? Obviously is you know a huge one of course, Jaden Daniels to me in that last game that they that that I watched for LSU, blanking on who they're playing. I'm sure Alabam Alabama made so many great throws from the pocket, and and that is intriguing. I'm not saying

that those other guys can't do it. I just I'm concerned about guys thinking that it's just easy to emulate Mahomes in the league and just coming in and thinking, oh, well, if Mahomes does it, then everybody can do that now, when in reality, there there is a chance that it's one of one, right, like that only one guy can play second reaction playground football like that and throw from all these weird arm angles and off platform and you know we always talk about like the Mahomes shortstop throws

and stuff like that. There's a chance that maybe he's the only guy that can do that on the planet. And I worry about other guys trying to emulate that and then recognizing oh what now and and are you going to be able to have that fallback? I think that's the one thing with Mac is like he's gotten punched in the mouth and he hasn't really adjusted. So how these guys younger guys are able to handle adversity is going to be big two and I would with you on that.

in New Mexico. Matthew, Hey, guys, how's it going. Hey?

this offensive line? In my more and off season, and my next question is, like we hear all this stuff with Bill and like that, like if you guys had to put a percentage on it, Let's say, worst case scenario in Germany with a cold, what percentage is like could Bill get fired this week?

second question he asked there was really interesting. How quick can you turn the offensive line around, especially if that first round pick, we'll just say, goes elsewhere, whether it's a quarterback, whether it's a receiver, whether it's a safety, which by the way, I wouldn't rule out, especially if it's a ends up being a little lower in five. If it's closer to the ten to fifteen range. If they win some games here, how quickly can you turn

around this offensive line? And I think there's a couple of variables here. First off, Mike go wenhu. Did you catch Evan? Oh, you weren't here yesterday?

massive undertaking. Yeah, adding a legitimate starting tackle, you're talking about a premium mass. So that's a first round pick that's probably odds are one of the biggest contracts in free agency. You're gonna talk about one of the highest paid players league wide, and frequency to add a true starting caliber tackle, you need to do that twice in an offseason. I don't know about that. That's a lot. But if Mike go and win, if they're comfortable with him as a right tackle and they pay him and

they keep him. Okay, that's one box checked. The interior should be fine. They shouldn't have to touch the interior. They used three top one fifty picks on interior offensive lineman last year, and then a first round pick on an offensive lineman on an interior offensive lineman in the year before that. So now you're just talking about left tackle and just Trent end up coming back as he often does. Is that where Joe Alt comes into the conversation.

Olufashanu maybe a Day two guy that you think has a high seat as a high floor. Maybe there's other free agent tackles. Like all of a sudden, now the offensive line is very manageable to fix. If you're gonna play Mike on Win would right tackle and pay them the interior set, you just have to add that left tackle,

which is not easy, but it's just one thing. If they're gonna let Mike go on Win, who go, Well, now you need to add a right tackle tackle and depending on what they do with City, so you might need to add depth on the interior as well. Now it's become this whole other thing. So they can turn it around quickly, but it becomes what do they think of Mike go and when who positionally and are they willing to pay him?

whether he's a guarter or tackle is irrelevant. They have to keep him in the building. They have to make him a priority and they have to keep him around, and then you decide, maybe you probably with Mike Onwen who as a joint kind of decision, where are we going to play you permanently? But I go back to and I really still believe that this to be the case. Letting Joe Tooney walk was a mistake. It was a mistake like that. He's probably gonna be a first team

All Pro for the Kansas City Chiefs this year. Yeah, there's an argument that he is the best guard in the NFL, and I think that, Well, I don't know, have you how much of the Colts have you watched real quick? Or I assume you've like caught up on them, right? Yeah, yeah, I watched a bunch Because Quentin Nelson.

pay one of them, but you can't. It's hard to have a roster constructed in some ways if both your guards are making ten plus million dollars a year, like it would have been with Shaq Mason and Joe Toney. But now that you know whether he's a guard or a tackle, if you're talking about having Cold Strange on a rookie contract, David Andrews on a manageable contract and City so as your other guard on a rookie contract, then you can pay Mike on winning.

I would actually say that if he plays well down the stretch and stays out of his own way, that Trent Brown is one of the best available free agent tackles for the twenty twenty four class. So if you're using that draft pick on the quarterback and you're not using it on a first round tackle, I don't know if they can fix all of it in one offseason. It is I guess the long winded, you know, the short way of saying all that. So maybe it is, Well, it is.

or motivated by winning or whatever. And but one more year of Trent Brown, as you kind of use him as a bridged transition to some younger guys at that spot, isn't the worst case scenario.

hit this interesting bought with him. And again, if you missed it, Adrian Clem is going to be away from the team. Bill Belichick called it for a little while with a health issue, and we hope the best for him. Of course, what have you thought of the job Clem

has done? And how big you know, we don't often talk about coaches as a loss, but in a season where it seems like everybody on the team has been on the injury report at some point, even now, the coaches are what have you thought of the job Clem has done? And how big of a loss is he? On a game to game basis here?

It has been better. It has been better, And I know a lot of that lines up with the fact that Mike gon Wendy was now playing tackle and he's kind of settled things down. I'll give Clem some credit because cityso I think has developed a little bit here. He He's definitely a lot better with some of the movements and things up front that he gets from opposing defensive lines, like stunts, picks, the twists, blitzes like that

kind of stuff. He's been a lot better at that, and they've coached him up on a lot of those things. So I give them credit for that. And I actually thought, and he's not in my ups, but I thought about it. Yeah, I think Cole Strange played an okay game last week. There was some pressures allowed that I didn't love. I had him down with three, but it wasn't egregious, especially

in that matchup. And he also made some really really good blocks, especially in the run game, like his block on Vermondre Stevenson's sixty four yard touchdown was a really underrated block that made that play work. So I was intrigued. I guess is the word from cole Strange that this was a better game for him. So I'll give Clem some flowers, but I think they can they'll be all right on the line, you know, with with uh Billyates. Yeah, because Yeates, you know, has been in the room all

season long. It's gonna be the same program like you would. You would think that they would be able to figure it out for the next couple of weeks. But I will we'll see how much he really does matter. You know, if they come out on Sunday against the Colts that have a good front and you know DeForest Buckner, those guys come out and absolutely are you know, Max under siege, then maybe you do give a little bit of credit to to Clem and what he's been able to do.

effect that comes with playing without him. And I thought, all that considered, against the opponent they were playing, you got a pretty good game from the offensive line.

day at the office. I mean, well, the film that he's been able to put out there at tackle over the last three weeks after really only playing exclusively at guard. And I had asked him about this in the locker room before we came out here, about what he did to Yeah, it's pretty incredible that he's been this good at tackle, just kind of flipped the switch over there

for the offensive line. And he said that in the offseason he was doing some tackle training, just thinking in the back of his head like this could happen, right, so let's work on some sets and some things like that, like I'm playing tackle just to be ready. And it's been remarkable how easily he's just transitioned outside to tackle

and how natural he looks at that spot. And it does make a big difference having him in the run game because whether it's a double team block with City so or he's kicking out the edge defender, that becomes a lot more space there now because he's they have an impact run blocker at that spot as well. So he's been exceptional at tackle to the point where if I'm his agent and I'm looking at next offseason, you

know what I'm doing. I'm saying, I'm putting the tackle film out there, say you know this guy's a tackle, you better pay him like it. He was exceptional in this game, and I think he's honestly been tremendous since moving out there.

we get those two lined up there? Because that might help the old Remember Jimmy Graham when the Saints franchise tagged him and he was trying to get franchise tags as a receiver, not a tight end. And it went to court and a big part of the deciding factor was it said in his Twitter bio New Orleans Saints tight end. Yeah, And they were like, well you advertise sales tight anyway, I just find that story funny. Any chance bringing up another up for me? And it's another

kind of group one. I'll we'll get to the downs. The Patriots defense did not play well in this game. There were two glaring exceptions to that. To Von godcha On Christian Barmore, they were both awesome. It's not just they were like everybody else was bad and they were fine. They were both really good in this game. Devon Godchaw in that second quarter he had he helped on the forced fumble which he then recovered. He holds the backup for Jelani to Via to punch the ball out and

then god Chaw himself recover. But there was also he read a screen really well. At one point took away the window. There are a couple other times he just got pressure on Sam how I thought Devon gotchaw. This might have been his best game of the year. And Christian Barmore just dominated again. He was pushing offensive lineman back. Two more pass breakups for him at the line of scrimmage after those two guys. Again, there's nobody really behind

him capitalizing on what they were doing. But I thought those two guys in particular, and for Barmore, it stands out because he's put together, you know, four or five of these now. I thought the two defensive tackles played incredibly well.

last couple of weeks. But he was doing his thing in the two gap and all that kind of stuff. The pressure on the quarterback, he is a problem. I mean, he's not only getting some of those you know threat in the edge like he did in Miami on that sack, but he's also going through guys too and creating penetration to allow others to you know, wrap around it on those stunts that they like to run on the interior. Mac Wilson had three pressures in this game. All three

of them were just wrapping around Christian Barmore. You know, just Barmore is getting the guy that's getting the interior penetration and push and it's just opening up all this stuff. He is playing like we really thought he was going to play after his rookie season, Like this was the hope was that he was going to play at this level.

He's another guy that I think you have to start talking about as an extension candidate in the offseason, as someone that you want to build around on the defensive front. He was exceptional again in this game. Like I mentioned, with eight quarterback pressures, that was a game high. It's

as high as the season as well. He's got as many quarterback pressures as pretty much any defensive lineman, you know, interior defensive lineman taking out the sub you know, the edge rushers or the pass rush linebackers and stuff like that. You just look at defensive linemen you know, d tackles, dns that have played their hand in the dirt. He's second in the league right now over the last month

and quarterback pressures among that group. So he's definitely doing his thing and it's great to see him do that after last year, which I think we can now determine that was injuries just not just a bad year for him. And you know, now we see the potential again and hopefully that arrow keeps pointing upward. But I have him with four games in a row. Now, I went back and looked where he was my number one up four in a row.

defensively essentially, and that's the group you're building around. It's not a bad group to be. And then you have Christian Zalez at corner as well on his rookie contract. I should bring him into this. That's a good defensive corps. That's a solid defensive core. And then maybe you get Anthony Jennings back on a team friendly deal because he you know, he's had a good year and that might be a guy that's I think there's a chance he comes back here because there's probably more playing time from

here than there is in most other defenses. You go out, you get a free safety and you're in good shape. So yeah, Christian Barmore, very very exciting player right now. My third up, Ermandre Stevenson. I looked a little slow to start the year, but you saw it on the big run. He's got his burst back. There are a couple other times too, you know, catching passes in the flat. I know he had a drop, but I thought overall this was an encouraging game for him.

good blocks. I mentioned Strange's block City so obviously had a nice block on that play, you know, just a base block. Andrews picked up the blitz and you have riger As much as if we're gonna talk about Rager in a second, I think, uh, he did take a great block on the Ribandre run, So that that was that was encouraging to see the burst and the breakaway speed. You mentioned the past game stuff. I thought he was so much better in this game getting out of the backfield.

I think a lot of the games, uh this season, he's taken too long to make himself available to the quarterback. He's either dancing or he's trying to make too many moves to get open at the top of the route or just kind of just taking his time, sweet time getting out of the backfud and you're watching the tape, you're just like get you know, run right, get out of there and make yourself available to the quarterback. This

offense needs that. I know that some people kind of scoff at the idea of, you know, a third down back and how important it might actually be. I think that this team definitely needs it, and if Remandre it can be a matchup weapon against linebackers like he was

last week. It was pretty clear. I know they mentioned after the game Mac did that Emanuel Forbes was on their target list and that didn't end up going so well for them, but I think it was It was really clear that Jermaine Davis, the linebacker for the Commanders, if they got Remandre one on one against Jermaine Davis, they were taking that matchup and he was winning it on Sunday. He should have had the wheel round too, and if you would have that in there, then we're

talking about a huge, huge day production wise. So I thought he was really really good in this game as well.

There was a real chance for somebody to emerge as that third wide receiver between Juju Smith, Schuster, Jamaario Douglas, those are gonna be your one and two, right and Kayshun Boody's taken out of the picture before the game, and we can get to that. But Rager like he dropped the pass. Besides that, I thought he was fine. He had the block with I hold it against unless, Like, there's a reason he's on his third team in four years.

There's a reason he was available. There's a reason he's a recent first round pick that's struggling to get playing time on a two win team. You kind of expected that, So I'm not saying it's a good play. It doesn't excuse it for me. It's Taekwon Thornton. This was a real missed opportunity because he hasn't been able to get on the field, not just because of injuries, but he's been buried behind this depth chart going back to the summer when he was healthy. Remember he got demoted to

that second unit in training camp. Well, here you go. They have to play you, they have to put you on the field. Mac Jones is trying to give him opportunities. There's four targets in the first twelve snaps. Now one of them was a bad miss by Mac, and Thornton probably has a touchdown if Mac puts it on him. Thornton also could have gotten out of the break a little quicker, but that's on Mac. But after that, I mean there's clear miscommunications. He runs a bad route on

a third down right in front of Bill Belichick. He watched the replay. You could see Bill Belichick's reaction in real time, and then he doesn't play again. Played twelve snaps, had four targets in the first quarter, and called first eighteen minutes of the game. I think it was eleven to twenty four in the second quarter was the time on the clock on that last snap, and then didn't play again, and Bill Belichick said after the game he was healthy, he was available. He was removed from the

injury report this week. So that was as good of a chance as he was gonna have, I think, to establish himself and be that second round pick and be that speed threat that he was drafted to be. And even with Mac Jones missed a side on that fourth down, clearly there was something in there that the team saw that they were like, we can't put this guy on the field with no other options. We're gonna go in twelve heavy and throw Mike Kasiki out there. I think

it was like seventy percent of the time. Yeah, they did that over putting Taekwon on the field, and I think that's a major missed opportunity for him.

fourth down, which was an okay route. I mean, I agree with you that maybe he was a little bit slow getting out of the break, but he got open. That's the bottom of line.

breaking out on the corner. But either way, you're you're talking about routes that some of their more dynamic route runners and and high advanced route runners over the years. Edelman Jakobe meers like that, that's the route that a lot of those guys ran a ton and I just I look at Taekwon and he should be running he should be running wind sprints that that that's the bottom line, Like he should be running verticals all over the field, whether it's a cross deep, cross post, go ball whatever.

And some of the time with him, he's not going to get the ball. That it's the bottom line, Like he's not gonna be a high volume guy in that role. He's gonna be clearing out a lot of space for others. And I think what type where Taekwon can almost help himself the most and to get on the field at least over Jalen Rager, which is just a jump that this guy can't play over Jalen Rager is sometimes I see with him on the tape that he doesn't always run the route hard if he knows he's not in

the progression. And that's the type of thing that the coaches are gonna are gonna hate. That's gonna drive them nuts. Like you, even though you're not necessarily in the progression for the quarterback as an option in the play, your role on the play is really important. So if you're not running that route and you're not taking that safety or you're not clearing out that sideline for the routes to fill in then the play, the whole play doesn't work even if the ball is not coming your direction.

So he's gotta be cleaner in those types of areas to the point where he's just you put him out there just to be Jalen Rager, right, like, just run the verticals and if the ball comes your way, try to make a play. But it's probably only going to come your way a couple times a game. And that's where we're out with Taekwon. But his his just overall

focus on the field is a problem. Like his route, the way that he understands, like his role in the play, it's all all that type of mental stuff is an issue, and I think that that's something that is holding him back, maybe more than anything else. And why every time we talk to O'Brien about about Taekwon, he's mentioning, you know, he's been hurt and he hasn't doesn't have the reps, right, doesn't have the reps. And that tells you right then and there that he's making mental errors on the field,

Like that's that's what's happening. So I do I think that physically he would be this incredible player, No, of course not. But I think that he could be useful for them because of the speed, if he was able to show the coaches that he could do some of those little things a little bit better that he hasn't been doing so frustrating player. I mean we I was skeptical to pick at the time just because of the

type of player that he was. But even if you just give them the benefit of the doubt that they saw him as somebody that was gonna be a real field stretcher for them and impact the game that way without necessarily impacting the game at a high volume targets wise, it just Dad hasn't even come to fruition either, So all of it is just a mess with him right now.

But I think that's giving them a lot of almost credit at this point at that position because we've seen them fail in so many different ways at the top of the draft that with taking receivers that I can't necessarily chuck it all up to that, Like I feel like they are evaluation of players at the wide receiver position is a too spotty in the draft to just say, oh, well, if he was in the Shanahan offense, he would be a different player. And I know that's not what you're saying.

I'm just right. I think that that's just a really a point that I find, like, all right, well, you drafted two guys at the receiver position in the top fifty in the last five years and both of them can't play.

this is what happens on bad football teams. Guys check out, Guys prioritize other things. They stopped really caring. And that's just some guys are just wired that way. And with Booty, you have to wonder if that's permeating the whole locker room a little bit, and there was something extracurricular or something different that wasn't just football that kept him off the field, because it's so hard to imagine that they all week long, that was the buzz, that was the

build up. He was talking about it. Belichick says, he has the best week of practice in since being a Patriot, and then he's inactive in the game on Sunday, like there's That's the only explanation is that something else happened.

the year. At no point did he say it was a good week of practice and was it something that was just hey, like his best right now still isn't good enough, and we just misinterpreted it and ran it's the only other thing I can think of. Yeah, and that that in itself doesn't make a ton of sense either. But I just think with him with Kayshawn Booty, I get why he didn't play earlier in the year. And this goes back to something we talked about going all

the way back to the spring. His skill set is very similar to Kendrick Bourne's, and is their room to have both of them on the field at the same time, plus Juju and Juju there's some overlap with him too. But when Kendrick Bourne became their best receiver and became the guy that wasn't coming off the fields. Yeah, there really wasn't a lot of room for kash On Boody to play. Now that Kendrick Bourne's hurt, that changes. And the other thing is Kishun Booty is a little bit

of a project player. I'm not saying that I'm upset they're not playing him because oh they're leaving like eight catches in one hundred yards and two touchdowns a game on the batch. That's not what I'm saying, And I think it's being misinterpreted that way at times for the people who are like, why isn't this guy on the field, It's more we don't know what he is, but it

would be nice to find out. And when you're a contending team, you don't necessarily the most valuable reps, like players grow in practice and players can learn in practice the most valuable reps to develop a player or game reps. But when you're a contending team, you can't put unknown players on the field. You're trying to win football games. They're in a spot right now between the injuries and the record where put Kayshaun Booty out there and see

what he can do. And if you're worried he's not ready, putting him into an NFL game, is gonna be a great way to maybe drag him along. If they just think he's at the point where he's never gonna be ready, then why is he on the roster. That would be my point, either develop him or move on, and right now they're not doing either. He's just kind of in this limbo. So that's why, like last week, to me especially, is so weird because Kendric Born's hurt. Now they're at

two and six. At that point, what do you have to lose by putting him out there? I understood it earlier in the year. I think they're at a point now where going into the offseason, I don't know that he's gonna come out and show you that he's the one one right. I don't know that you're gonna get let's say he plays from here on out. I don't know that he's gonna play at a level where you're like, all right, they don't need draft Marvin Harrison Junior anymore.

I don't know that he's gonna be that guy. But can he prove that he can be a capable third wide receiver, because they you look at the guys they have Kendric Born's contract is up, and even if he comes back coming off the torn ACL, he's an unknown Parker and Juju haven't hit. Rager's an unexpiring deal. But how much you're counting on him anyway, it's really just Pop Douglas is the only guy under contract next year that you're counting on at the wide receiver position. So

you add bodies. It's not just adding Marvin Harrison Junior. It's not just adding t Higgins. They're gonna have to add a couple of players. If Kayshaun Boody goes out there, you're like, yeah, this guy's like a capable third, fourth wide receiver. It's not groundbreaking, it doesn't necessarily change the landscape, but that's one less guy you got to add. That's you know what, would you pay a third wide receiver five million, six million dollars a year. That's five or

six million dollars you can now allocate elsewhere. It's a roster spot you can now allocate elsewhere. So just finding out what he can do, I think would be the thing.

a thousand yard receiver and they're not playing him. That's not what we're saying where we just want to evaluate Kaishan Boody in a game, like we just want to see what it looks like in a game. Because of your point, exactly, what if Kashan Boody is good enough to be a number three receiver and now you know that you have a number three receiver, but what if Kaishon Boody is good enough to be a number four receiver, like just somebody on the roster that can contribute to

a team. Then you have him, you have Pop Douglas, like you have some guys that are tertiary or complimentary weapons. We know that this team needs number one receivers. We know that they need a T. Higgins or they need

a Marvin Harrison junior. We know they need a guy a dude, We know that, but they also have to field an eleven guys on offense, right, So if Pop Douglas and Kaishaan Boody can be good two and a good number two and a good number three like now, you have the bones of just dropping in these missing pieces and having something offensively. And that's the big thing

with Kaishan Boody. It's not that we all think that he's gonna break out and be this superstar player for them, it's just can he be an NFL player for them moving forward? Is a big deal in the in the you know, it's not the big big deal like getting that number one guy, but it's not a moot point either,

like that that still matters to this team. And you mentioned, you know his role, and we've both been talking about this that he's really ideally more of that like Z's slot inside outside type of guy, not a permanent, you know X type of player like he was playing in Week one against Philly. So even if you give them the benefit of doubt in that sense that Kendrick Bourne, Juju Smith Schuster, Pop Douglas are all also guys that are gonna play a lot of snaps inside. So there's

not enough snaps to go around. At that point, you say that, no Kendrick Bourne anymore. Juju Smith Schuster played twenty three snaps in this game on Sunday, thirty six percent of the snaps, so he didn't even really have a huge role either. So at some point you have to look at it and say, you know, it wouldn't

have heard to give Kaishawn Boody. You know the twelve reps can that Taekwon Thornton got in this game, right, you know, he gave him the booty or give six to Booty and six to Thornton or whatever you want to talk about with divving them up. It wouldn't have

hurt them at all. But I just their management of that position, whether it's the players they're picking, the way that they're utilizing those players, the way that they're utilizing, or just talking about who's inactive, who's active, who's playing in the game, all of it is. It has been terrible. It's been a mess. Like they're all over the place with that wide receiver position. And it's not just talent evaluation.

They also are all over the place with how they play these guys, and they got to figure it out, and I've been saying it for a long time now about Troy Brown, Like Troy Brown is on my radar as somebody that was a great, great player here represents all the right things about the Patriots in the Patriot way. But I think it's more than fair to start being critical of Troy Brown the coach and what he's really capable of bringing to the table in terms of coaching

these guys up. Because at that position it's been the same thing for a couple of years now. You know, poor route detail, poor spacing, poor timing with the quarterback at the receiver position. Guy's not developing. You know, the guy's not getting better at that spot that dad needs to improve. Like even a guy like Pop Douglass and we both really like and have like this whole time, Alex, he still makes the same mistakes every single week. And are the mistakes agreed so egregious that he should be

pulled off the field. No, of course not, because the good stuff still outweighs the bad. But it's not like he's improving on any like, he's still making route running issues, he's still has spacing issues. So who's coaching him in those areas? Like who's helping him out with those things that that definitely needs to be under fire.

just philosophically. They need to get to a point where they're not relying on these guys, these unreliable players anymore. And I think that they're relying on guys like j C. Jackson. Obviously they traded back for him at a desperation at that position, and they're relying on guys like j C. They're lying on guys like Jack Jones because they don't have a lot of talent on this roster, and those guys have talent, and so they're the ones that are

getting these opportunities with the Patriots now. And I'm not saying that they have to go in like draft only boy scouts and I'm not saying that, but they need to get players that they can rely on. That's an important thing, like maybe as almost as important in some respects as talent. It's guys that buy in and guys that want to be here, and guys that want to play hard every week. And I think that this team has fallen into a trap of you know, desperation needing talent.

I don't think that he's an exact same category as the two corners, but I mentioned it with Trent Brown a little bit earlier, like they are so and we say it before, they're so reliant on Trent Brown and Trent Brown is an unreliable guy at times. So they have to get out of this rut of having a lot of guys on the roster who are in that category. And I would say that it starts with the cornerback position just because of what's going on right now and those two guys being kind of the poster child of

this whole thing. But like next season, they need to get into a position where j C. Jackson and Jack Jones are not projected starters for this team because they can't be relied upon and such a big well.

what they wanted the secondary to be. And we talked about this a lot last offseason. They did not have enough size at that position, enough true boundary corners, and it hurt them. And Jack Jones is a guy that plays on the boundary. If he's not coming back, now you add corner to the list of needs, and maybe it's a guy like Isaiah Bolden coming back next year and performing. He obviously had a good summer before he

got hurt and got placed on IR. But if you're gonna tell me Jack Jones isn' gonna start next year, I'm telling you, Okay. Cornerback is now up there on the list of need for the Patriots, and that's it's the list, and that list is growing and there's they have a lot of cap space, but there's only so much you can do in one offseason.

missing pieces last year. Now, if it's Christian Gonzales, it's Jonathan Jones back and kind of the you know, inside outside travel with those Z receiver types, if those are your two lynch pins in that group, and really all you're looking for is that elusive third corner that we keep talking about that I feel like they haven't had and what since like Jason mccorney or something like that, they haven't really had that reliable, stable third corner that

is I think something that you could probably find in the middle rounds, Like I don't think you necessarily need to address that with this with a top fifty pick, Like you'll probably get that in the third or fourth round. You know, maybe a guy like Marcus Jones comes back and he's your nickel and John Jones still plays that kind of inside outside role. Gonzalez is obviously your number one boundary corner, and that's how it gets put together. I just think that in general, did Jack Jones thing.

It's it's to me, it's over with Jack Jones, Like, not only did we know that he had all these concerns coming in the draft, with all this stuff in college that went on with him that made him a later round picked and he probably should have been just on talent alone. Do we all remember how his rookie season ended with the Patriots, right like they suspended him and shut him down, And now we have this thing with the curfew, like it's time to just cut bait. With Jack Jones, It's just not gonna work.

But when we have John Bentley missing tiger, I just say corners, and we have Juwan Bentley missing tackles, and we have Kyle Dugger missing tackles, we have Adrian Phillips. Those are guys that are supposed to be sure tacklers and they weren't last week.

and right. They weren't overly competitive in coverage in this game in any way, shape or form, like whether they were busting the cover or they had their you know, they were tied together. They were just getting beat when they were tied together, so it didn't really make a

difference one way or the other. You know, the big play to Pringle, like across the field throw that Sam Howell made, it's just a busted coverage they just don't have a flat defender in the zone, so there's just a wide open space for Pringle to just catch, like a ridiculous throw from Sam Howell that should never work in the NFL, but it worked because there's just nobody

over there on that side of the field. I don't remember, you know, from just a fundamental standpoint, you know, knowing the coverage structure, you guys being in the right places, guys making tackles. I don't remember the Patriots defense in the back end ever looking this bad. This was a disaster game for all those guys. And I really don't think there are any sacred cows in that, Like, I don't think any of them played very well at all.

And it was That's what I think one of the most frustrating things about this team and right now and about this record. If they they just were buttoned up with the details and the fundamentals and they didn't give up quarterback scrambles for twenty four yards on turning point.

they're losing games like they this game. And I say at the beginning, like this game should have just been like one of those ho hum Patriots games that we've seen over the last couple of years where a who knows what Sam Howell type of quarterback comes in here and they just win the game twenty to seventeen because they're just but end up enough on the details that they get away with some mistakes. And that is just

not this game at all. That's not how they play it at all, especially in the secondary.

has some good special teams players. Again, I think the rookies, the Gigrin punter have been good this year. I know Ryland has some misses, but they're long, they're not chip shot kicks that he's missing. And Barringer shanked a couple of kicks early in the year, but he's been buttoned up since. I hope we get to seen hit the scoreboard this weekend in Germany. But the details aren't there. The whole thing with like, all right, well, Joe Judge is gonna go to special teams and get it back

to what it was in twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen. We haven't seen that yet.

of all of the way that this has gone so far this season with Bill and the fact that those

are the areas that are letting him down. Maybe the most outside of you know, obviously the passing game in the quarterback like they had to have known coming into the season that their passing game wasn't gonna be this like top five dropback passing game, Like they weren't going to ever be Miami or Kansas City or one of these just great passing offenses, so they had to win in these other areas, and they're not even doing that

right now, So that's really problematic. The special teams think they had opportunities at the end of this game to put the offense on some shorter fields and make it easier on the offense to you know, get that go ahead score or at least tie the game. And they'd started their last three drives inside their own ten yard line. And this offense is not going to drive ninety plus

yards to win the game. It's just not. So you have to be able to win those field position things, you know, the third down, third and two, right, they hit that little russing route over the middle of the off side and all that stuff like that. Those are the types of things that are just absolute killers for this team right now, because the field position, when you're trying to win on the margins, the field position is

really important. Like that's how you're gonna win games is by doing those types of things, and they're not doing them right now.

You know, you're not gonna your receivers. We know what you're working with, but just trust the play, trust the protection, and just go out there and play cammer like you're you're all sped up and you're you're letting yourself unravel. Like just calm down, settle your feet down, settle your

eyes down, and just play football. And I think that's what they have to get to with mag I wonder with him, how much do you think, you know, is he maybe thinking about all these other factors, Like he gets asked after the game, and I know, you know, people that like to get all hot and bothered about these types of things talked about it on some other shows and things like that about the response to my Giardi's question about the lack of open receivers that he

has to throw to. And I don't whether he agrees with the criticism or not. I'm more concerned about him believing the criticism, right, him sitting there saying, well, I just how am I supposed to do that? And then and then it becomes like this impossible task just to make throws even when they're there. And if you're Mac, you have to remove yourself from the narratives and just focus on what you can control and what you can do at your position and then see where it goes from there.

how he's played for the offenses played. I thought, and I know some screen grabs of it we're going around on Twitter, but I thought Evan did a fantastic job on that. And you know I'm serious because I'm complimenting Evan. You're out, so I would encourage people after the day in history, I would encourage people after the show to go check that out. And and he knows him being sincere because I texted him about it. I think he did a fantastic job of that. I didn't read the

rest of the mailback. I'll be honest, I forget I was going to and something happened. But I was so blown away by what you wrote about mac Jones and how well I think you dissected situation. I have one more down in Evan. This is gonna be a first ups and downs. It actually includes the Patriots opponent from the game. It includes both teams, the entire two minute drill at the end of the first half. Both ways, this was one of the worst sequences of football I

have ever seen. So let's pick it up with one forty six to go in the second quarter. Paid Dietrich wise gets a sack. Good job, third and twenty three for the Commanders. You're thinking, all right, like maybe if they pick up like twenty here they get in a field goal range, Patriot's gonna get the ball back for like a minute and a half to go a couple of timeouts Instead, Sam Halle breaks three tackles of Adrian Phillips, Jalen Mills and Jack Jones, and gets a twenty four

yard scramble on third and twenty three. Evan, I looked it up earlier this week. Yeah, in the last The data only goes back on Pro Football Reference to nineteen ninety four third and twenty threes converted, not on penalty. It's only happened seven times. Well, I guess eight, and only three of them I think we are on the ground, sorry, converted on the ground. It's only happened a handful of times. Tim Tebow had one, Patrick Mahomes had one. Doesn't happen

a lot. So that was a breakdown and you think, oh boy, all right, here we go, and then boom. Sam Howe comes back. Next third down, hits Byron Pringle. First, he hits him down to the five yard line. It's a good tackle by Miles bryan is the only good play in the sequence. It's a good throw by how the Pringle to get down there, and Miles Bryant makes a good tackle to keep Pringle in bounds. So the clock is now running. The Commanders have all three timeouts,

but the clock is running. Forty two seconds to goal first and goal from the five. So you think, all right, boom, you hit him with the timeout. Now you got forty seconds, two timeouts, five yards to go. It's all on the table. You can run the ball, you can throw the ball, even if you take a sack. You have options. So I'm waiting for the timeout and Washington's not calling one. Okay, so you're gonna hurry up to the line, right and

then that way. You have all three timeouts and you're probably gonna get the ball off with like a little under thirty seconds to go. But you have all three timeouts. What's fine, you can run all four downs. No, they're taking their sweet time getting up to the line in what is a close game at the half, in what is a fourteen to ten game. So I'm like, all right, I guess they don't want to give the ball back

to the Patriots with too much time. I don't know what about this Patriots offense makes them feel that way, but sure they finally snaffed the ball. There's twenty three seconds left. They burned twenty seconds of a crucial two minute drill, lollygaging their way to the line. They finally get the ball off. No, I don't think anybody knows what the play is, so in the twenty seconds they didn't bother to call a play. Sam Hall rolls out

just instantly boots out to his right. Nobody's open. I'm thinking, all right, he's gonna throw the ball away. I guess it's a de facto time out. More time ran off the clock than they needed to, but they still have all three timeouts and still probably be able to run all four plays. Instead, he throws the ball directly to Kyle Tucker, and you had a team at one point third and twenty three back up, all right, Patrio's gonna get a shot at two minute drill. Patriots blow the

third down. Then it's like, all right, the Commanders are gonna have a chance for points here. Neither team ends up with points, nor should they have. That was just what a sequence of football that was.

time out there? And then if Sam Hall throw the ball directly to Kyle Duggar, is just what you're doing, you know, just in general, not to like pile on the commanders.

of time in the half. I gotta like we gotta make something like you just get frastled, right, like it just it just snowballs on you from there and then you make a bad decision like that was really the only bad decision he made the entire day was that throw And so it just it just goes to show how young quarterbacks and that's another young quarterback is seting your guy that's really making his first couple of starts

in the league. Like, it just goes to show how helpful it can be to just settle guys down and just give them time to breathe with over the course of a drive, over the course of a game. But yeah, you nailed it there when the uh that ending was was horrible. It was terrible.

just they're not on the same page. They're making mistakes everywhere.

think he's quitting. I'll say that. I don't think he has come close to quitting. I think he still very much cares. I think these losses still very much bothered him.

to the coach level. He's a real competitor. He's out there to win. He's not wasting time. He's not wasting his time, he's not wasting anybody else's time. He's out there to win. And I give him credit for that.

honest sometimes like when they get in there. And that's why I always feel somewhat comfortable like criticizing players and criticizing the team, because I know that what they're hearing, the critiques and the corrections that they're getting from the coaching staff are ten times worse than what we're saying. Yeah, I promise you that they And when I say ten times worse, I mean the volume of it is because they know all the little details of how they're screwing up. Not right.

the message is not being received. And if the message isn't being received anymore, then I don't that's a big problem that needs to be addressed because it's not you know, Bill Belichick's not going in there and saying like, you know, bust the coverage, draw go off sides, draw a hold on you know, like that. He's not saying those types of things. We know that. So the mistakes are being made because it's not gonna through. The message is not

resonating with the players. I mean, we talked about special teams earlier, Alex they got punished in the offseason for having too many special teams eight, right, they spend too much time on special teams. Yet they are thirtieth in the league in dboa on special teams. They're one of the worst special teams units in the National Football League, despite having three dedicated special teams coaches and five dedicated

special teams players. Yeah. Yeah, that that's code. Like the message isn't getting crossed anymore, period.

I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to it. I just think that that's asking a bit too much.

you know. I I think that if you're gonna address back end receiver in the same draft or the same offseason, excuse me, you're gonna have to pay the receiver in veteran free agency. Like that's you're gonna have to go out in the veteran market and get the receiver that way.

be up there as well. But different game. Now, Patriots and Colts playing for the third time, in three years Colts won two years ago. That kind of kicked off that backslide for the Patriots at the end of the twenty twenty one season. Last year, Colts came in the game after firing your offensive coordinator. They run a backup quarterback Sam Ellinger. Patriots pants them. So Rubbert match, neutral site, fun game. Let's start with quarterback Evin start quarterback Gardner Minshew is.

things that take a head coach to do. But in terms of scheming offense, they are running the Eagles offense with Jalen Hurts, and the idea was just to have Anthony Richardson beat their Jalen Hurts. It hasn't necessarily worked out that way just because of Richardson's injury. But they're still doing a lot of the same things with Minshew that they were would have done with Richardson. A lot of RPOs on early downs, option runs, like, there's still

a lot of that in this offense. I mean, Mitschew a couple of weeks ago against Cleveland had like a seventeen yard touchdown run on one of the Eagles patented you know, run run pass options right where there's like a quarterback run element, there's a handoff element, and then there's a pass hot element. So it's all those things

is one. So I think that this is a difficult scheme to play without a ton of familiarity with the team, right, Like if you're an NFC team, it can be I think this can be a little bit like what's going on here at times Now, the Patriots played the Eagles earlier on in the year, so I guess they have that advantage of they've kind of already faced this offense once before. But of course, as we've all, you know, talked about at nausea and I had Judean, he had

Christian Gonzalez, he had much different personnel back then. So I don't look at this offense is one that you have to worry about being overwhelmingly more talented. It's kind of similar to the last week honestly, where I talked up you know, er the enemy and that the offense and ended up you know, throwing for over three hundred

yards on the Patriots. It's a well coached offense. They put a lot of challenging things at you schematically offensively, and if you're not ready to play this game, then garter Mitch you can move the ball like I don't think that he's a complete, you know, terrible quarterback where they could do all these things right ex as and O's wise, but it just doesn't work out because Mitschew stinks.

I mentioned earlier that if you're indeed you have a young stud potential quarterback here with Anthony Richardson, based off of how he played when he was healthy, you probably want to keep Pittman around, like that's probably a guy

that you're going to lock up long term. But I think it should be said that Pittman has basically been a thousand yard receiver playing with Carson Wentz and Matt Ryan as his quarterbacks and then this year a rookie and Gardner Minshew, So he hasn't really played with a ton of It's not like he's out there playing with Patrick Mahomes and he's catching one hundred balls a year. He's a really good route runner for his size. You know, he's got that big frame, so he can't win down

the field above the rim. But he also has that ability to break off routes at the intermediate level, you know, digs out things like that to keep a defender honest. So I'm impressed with this film as like a true prototypical X receiver And if the Patriots want to look at that spot, which they should be in the offseason and looking to upgrade Devonte Parker, I think that's exactly what Michael Pittman is is a younger, better DeVante Parker.

New England. But he can run routes like he can break down and run routes and great separation at the top of the route maybe a little bit better than I thought coming in based off of what he's put on tape with the Colts. So intriguing player. If he hits, you know, free agency, that's somebody that maybe T Higgins doesn't, or maybe T Higgins is a thirty million dollar guy in free agency and they end up going or the rout of somebody more a little bit more affordable. Then

I think that's sort of T Higgins. And then number two in that class to me right now is Michael Pittman.

How are things gonna go there? Can Mac look comfortable in the pocket? Is it just the status quo again for the offensive week? Or is there anything that changes with this matchup.

It's a similar defense, same defensive coordinator. They changed head coaches, but they kept Gus Bradley as a defensive coordinator, and Gus Bradley runs a Seattle three defense. He's like one of the he's a dying breed. He's like one of the last guys that's holding out on changing his philosophy. They play more zone coverage than any defense in the NFL. They play more Cover three than any defense in the NFL.

They are a Seattle three defense. Still. Now a lot of teams that have branches from that tree have been become more like quarters based, you know, like Fangio type of defenses because of you know, you can't teams just have figured out how to take down the cover free stuff. Like it's just with all these offenses that can throw the ball down the field and all these passing attacks, it becomes problematic to play that much single high so team teams have morphed the system. No, not Gus Bradley.

Gus Bradley's just still doing his thing, but they do it at a pretty decent level. Like they're like middle of the pack in DVOA. But I do think that this is a team because they play so much zone coverage. There's gonna be some open receivers down the field in this game. Like we always talk about that man coverage, it's about the receivers getting open zone coverage. You can

beat zone coverage just with good scheme. So if O'Brien can scheme some guys open against this team, which I think they will be able to, then it becomes on the detection to Forrest Buckner and can they hang you know, can they hold off that front four? You know, Buckner is a good player. I think Quitty pay is a good pass rusher. They have some guys that Apu can

that can rush the passer. Uh So let's see what it looks like upfront, and let's see if you know, Cole Strange can keep himself from getting benched again against the Forrest Buckner.

Obviously we went to the Shrine Bowl last year. We've covered the Senior Bowl extensively as well. There's other games, the Legacy Bowl, the Hula Bowl.

I have mixed feelings about this, even because on one hand, I think there are guys that come out as juniors. And by the way, there's sixty nine juniors that entered the draft last year out of four hundred something players, so you're not talking about that many players relatively speaking. But these are going to be elite prospects. These are not Day three fringe draft pick guys. You come out as a junior, you're probably a pretty good player. You're

probably going in the top two hundred. On one hand, we're now going to get to see these guys in that competitive format, which is value. But when it comes to evaluating prospects, and I like that. On the other hand, that's now more players that are available. So does it push some of those fringe draft guys? Tomoro Douglas a perfect example, does to Mario Douglas get the invite if there were you know, seventy something juniors between the Senior

Bowl and Shrine Bowl that were available. Does it push some smaller school guys, a guy like Marte Mapu? Does it push them out of the pictures? So again I'm torn on it. Ultimately, I would like to see more of those fringe guys, more of the seniors that are you know I got Yeah, a guy like a guy like brock Perty is a great example. He wasn't an elite prospect, but he ended up making the cut because there weren't that many quarterbacks in that draft. He goes

to the Shrine Bowl, it was a big deal. Yeah, So I'm mixed on it. I think it's definitely gonna be good for certain players, and it might be good for the draft. I just think it gets rid of some of those fun, more underdog stories that I know you're not as interested as the draft that I love in the draft.

how do I phrase it. I don't want to say we found Pop Douglas because that's not the right way to say it, but you know what I'm trying.

just keep using Pop Douglas, Pooka and Nikua. Yeah, like Kua went down to Mobile and had an unbelievable scene in your Bowl week and now here we are with Puka Nakua in Los Angeles. So those are the types of guys that you worry about, you know, slipping through the cracks now even more.

I could get hurt. I'm staying home, So that opens up some spots. Also, the NFL allowing it doesn't mean it's gonna happen. Jim Naggy could sit there and say, no, it's the Senior Bowl, not running juniors. What are you talking about?

talk to you next week. Evan, We'll talk to you about ten minutes.