This is the Patriots Catch twenty two podcasts with Evan Lazar and Alex.
Bar Blazar Blazarre from Lazarre, Hello, everybody nailed it. Joined has always by Barach.
Here is Evan Lazar and Alex bar When people want to show what an r PO is, how an RPO is supposed to work, they show out.
Yeah, so it's one of the gold standards of it for sure. And he said that that was it.
Is like the titleist pro v one of RPO pack one.
I don't know what that means.
That's like the golf I have no idea what he's talking about. It's like three dollars a ball that expensive? Yes, okay, no idea the titleist what pro v one is that? Does Tiger Woods use that ball? No, he's not a titlest guy's a Nike guy.
Okay, so then it's not the best golf.
Ball, No it is. Now well, also Nike, he doesn't make golf balls anymore.
That's like saying, like, what what kind of helmet to Tom Brady?
Were the Riddell VSR one that's the best helmet then, but they don't make it anymore.
The greatest quarterback of all time war that helmet. Anyways, Evans's are Alex Bard with you for the next hour and thirty minutes here on Patriots Catch twenty two. We finally, thank God, has something tangible. I don't care. And look, I'm gonna go on a mini rant about this for a second, Alex, because we posted a clip of Matt Jones throwing a bomb to Taekwon Thorin yesterday at practice, and there's so many people that are like, Oh, it's against a r and there's no pass for it. I
don't care. All right, we all want football. We're starving for it. Everybody wants to talk about some football. We finally got some actual tangible things to discuss, to take it off the piece of paper that it is currently on on the depth chart that hangs at all of our desks and actually put some bodies on a football field and run around for two hours. Okay, So yes is for all the Maurice Harrises and the Trey Nixon's
and all of those the world. These practices probably don't mean a ton between what's gonna happen come this fall? Are the Patriots gonna win twelve games because Taekwon Thornton caught a bomb from Mac Jones in spring practice. Of course not, and we are fully aware of that, but that doesn't mean that we're not going to have reactions, have opinions, and even maybe some overreactions to some of the things we saw. And I I have a few things that I want to overreact about, and I'm fully
admitting that I'm overreacting about them. But where I want to start, and I think this is where everybody's starting, and for good reason, is overall with the offense, with what we saw out there from Bill O'Brien's group, and of course with the quarterback and Mac Jones, and not only what we saw at practice, but maybe also what
we heard from him after practice as well. And I think the most telling answer and the most really what I felt, too, and I'm sure what you felt as well, Alex and the Mac kind of summed it up for us.
All normal, yeah, normal like and that being just what it is is a sigh of relief, I think for all Patriots fans and as I wrote yesterday for spring practice for organized team activities OTAs, you at least saw and heard the things that you wanted to see and hear, like that was all it was we're not we're not planning the parade route, We're not getting our tickets booked for the Super Bowl? Or is it Vegas this year? Right?
Sounds right? Yeah, you're not gonna book a ticket to Vegas. You love Vegas.
I'm not booking any tickets, but you love the Super Bowl. I'm just it looked like a professional football team practicing offense, and that right there is a breath of fresh air, whether you want to take that and run with it or not. And then we can get into some of the details about what they were actually doing as much as I can. We can tell you guys, but what was what was your big takeaway from yesterday?
Yeah, I mean along those lines. They didn't have to stop practice because they couldn't get the right personnel on the field. They didn't have to stop practice because guys weren't lining up in the right spot. They didn't have to stop practices guys were false starting or whatever.
Right.
I think there was only one lap run yesterday, I believe was Miles Bryant on a muff punt.
Yeah.
So yeah, like Max said, normal, and then I thought the other telling part of that quote, he keeps going when he was asked what it's like, what it's been like to work with Bill O'Brien. He says, I think the communication is the most important part and trust when working with a new coach so to normal staff that he trusts. Yeah, that's refreshing and it's hard not to look at that and not look at it in a comparative nature based off what they went through last year.
Yeah, and there's just a couple of things from a football perspective. Obviously, what Mac Jones said after practice, I thought summed it up nicely. The optimism that you can take away from this practice, I think the other things. There weren't a whole lot of balls on the ground like that, and that's a good sign, right when they kept that thing moving. Yeah, the ball is not on
the ground, it's you're not seeing that. How many times last year I can count It takes more than two hands to count how many times in a practice we would see Mac Jones or even Bailey Zappy holding the football in the pocket like just like holding it looking around, like what the heck am I supposed to do with this thing? How many times were there like coverage sacks or throwaways like that type of stuff should not happen
in practice. That type of stuff shouldn't reflect in a practice setting what that is scripted, And that you're supposed to just be running through your base plays and you can't even get your base plays to work in the summertime is concerning That was not anything what happened yesterday.
And then schematically, I was intrigued by what was going on, and you know, once you sort of pieced together some of the things that they were doing, it felt like they were installing, as they do this time of year, like the foundational elements of things that you can then clearly see what the plan is to then build off
of those foundations elements. Like they spent an entire period offensively drilling screens right wide, receiver screens, running back screens, and they had all these different screen game concepts working in and you could see, how, okay, you know, maybe we fake the screen and then we go down the field. Maybe we RPO out of this. Maybe it's a run action paired with the screen, you know, in an RPO sense, Like there's different things that you can then go ahead
and build off of those concepts. There was some play action, you know, some under center play action periods or we had more like two man route combos I would say down the field than anything, but there was a lot of that going on. There's a lot of motion going on as well, which I think really stood out, not just motioning to a receiver, motioning to kind of go into the pattern in the other direction, but also motioning blockers and moving blockers around, which I think is a
good sign. Those types of things are just kind of that next PhD level of football that we're starting to see formation changes, you know, alignment shifts, stacks, bunches, different receiver splits, like moving guys around like that and using their different skill sets to the best of their ability. They were already doing that and I think that's encouraging as well. So they've been putting in some work. You
can tell that this offense got in here mid April. Like, yes, they didn't get on the field with coaches until last week, but those meetings, you know, you still can accomplish a lot yea by going through the playbook and putting up examples and walking through things and talking through things, and you can tell that this group is already coming together even in May, which is that's all you want to hear. That's all you want to see. That's all you want
to hear. The results then hopefully come from there. Like, I don't want to overreact too much to the actual play result, like what you know, tykon Thornton catching a bomb, Like, I don't want to overreact too much about that. It's more about the confidence, the synchronicity of everything, the efficiency of it all. Those are the types of things you look for in a spring practice.
Yeah, you know, you just look at it compared to last year, and how much further along they look at this point compared to last year. I think that's what we're talking about here, And I'm not going to get super excited and I don't necessarily put any stake into the result of the plays. This time of year. You don't have the full team, nobody's in pads, nobody's going one hundred percent. They ran one high impact period the whole practice. I think they did a little live ish
to minute thing. Yeah, which I want to get to a little bit. But like you said, everybody feels like they're on IMAX set. Everybody's on the same page, which we didn't really hear them say that. Last year was we're trying to get on the same page at this time last year and even beyond this point last year.
I just think that it's such a it must be such a a good change for the players that there's no questioning like who's in charge right, like offensively defensively, but we're talking about the offense and for good reason, like everybody knows offensively that this is Bill O'Brien's joke.
Well, remember when we were talking about when we were going through like who should they hire as the offensive coordinator? In that phrase kept coming up. You know, Josh McDaniels wasn't just the offensive coordinator, he was the head coach of the offense. And we kept kind of going back to that thing. Bill O'Brien yesterday looked like the head coach of the offense, right, and Bill Belichick's back with the defense and all that, and it the process looked much more streamlined.
Last thing about sort of the overall practice and the process, and then we're going to get into specific positions and players and kind of go a position by a position here on the different guys that we saw or stood out to us. I thought it was really telling that enduring a lot of the team drill periods of practice. They weren't coaching in between plays, and they weren't the coaches weren't on the field, they were on the sideline.
And a lot of these practices, what you'll see is after every single play there's like a pause because somebody's making a correction, right, there's a coaching point that needs
to be addressed, and in these there are. Then we get into training camp, and especially once we get into like joint practices and things like that, there's full periods of eleven on eleven and this was wasn't quite that, but there's full periods of eleven on eleven where it's almost like a game, like the coaches to call plays from the sideline that they would in a game, and there's no in between coaching elements, right, it's all just let's just roll the ball out and let's see what
it looks like. Because that's we got to get to a point where the coaches are not going to be able to make a correction after every single play when it's live on a Sunday, right, So at some point
we got to just let the players play. And they were already doing a little bit of that which tells me that mentally they feel good enough about that they know what they're running and they know what they're doing that they don't have to then go ahead and you know, I'll get you cut your route off here, and we want you to do it here, and we wanted you
to do this, and we want you know. They don't have to do all of that necessarily as much last year it felt like there was a ton of that, or it was every single time something didn't look right, they had to hold up practice, make a correction, get everybody to like how many times did they like re huddle right, and like get everybody together and organize the troops again. And this this practice had none of that.
So really all all good stuff from the Patriots offense. Defensively, I never looked too much into these practices because he can't hit anybody, so like, what what are you really gonna do defensively? All that much, I will get into some of the things that stood out on both sides of the football. We'll get to Alex's specialist hour as well. We'll get his take on on the rookies in the punter and the kicker Ryland I thought was okay.
He was fine. Yeah, we didn't see it. They did one field goal period. It was like half speeds.
Yeah, Baringer, I thought it's it's he's got a bearinger. You know that thing that that ball does pop.
Off the barer barringer.
Dude said it's bearinger.
Okay, I thought it was a barringer. But I go through Baringer. Okay. He If there's a position battle that can be won in the spring, it's kicker punter. And I would say after one practice, Baringer has a lead on Corlas weightman.
Okay, there you go. So let's get into some position by a position stuff. Now that we did the big picture, we'll also take your calls eight five to five, pats five hundred. We already got a bunch of calls, so we're gonna do a couple of positions and we'll get to the calls. Then we'll finish up the positions. But let's start with quarterback. And we did touch briefly on some of the Mac Jones of it all and all that type of stuff. I know, there was a little
bit made to do with the order. You know, it's kind of like for some periods it was mac Jones. Then Trace mcsorly and then Bailey Zappy and because Bailey Zappy was getting in with some regulars like not you know, getting in necessarily with backups. But I did notice that David andrews cole straight like it was kind of Mac right like for the most part with those guys. Now, with that being said, like how did you feel they
were out there? Not necessarily again like about every throw to secting it, but just in terms of how they carried themselves, how they read things, how they saw things.
Yeah, I think with Mac Jones specifically, and first off, just based off what we saw, I say, if there is a quarterback competition here, it's Max's job to lose to an extreme.
That's I think the best way to put it is that I wouldn't say that the door is one hundred percent shut on a quarterback competition quite yet. It was one practice, so I can't.
But it's not. It's not twenty twenty Cam Newton Riggrets didn't going back and forth, not even not anywhere close to that. So I thought, when it comes to Mac and his like body language term body language, thank you, body language, and just the way he's carrying himself both on the field and talking to us after his rookie year, I felt like he had this mentality of I'm here to throw footballs and chew bubble gum, and I'm all out of bubble gum. Like he was just I'm here
to sling it, right, and and whatever happens happens. But I'm gonna go out there, I'm gonna do what I do and I just won a national championship on Mac Jones. I'm gonna go have fun with it. Last year, even like early on in camp, it just felt like the weight of everything was on his shoulders. It felt like he felt responsible for everything that was wrong with the offense, which was not the case. And I don't necessarily fault him for feeling that way. Yeah, I think that's kind
of how you want your quarterback to feel. But I think a lot of that fun came out of it for him last year because it was he was really just had to kind of try to drag that thing him and David Andrews. And this year I think it felt a lot more like he did as a rookie with just I'm just out here slinging the ball. Man. We're just out here, you know, playing football, having fun all that and being a football nerd like he called himself right, So that that was super encouraging to see because I think.
Football nerds were cut from the same time.
Yeah, exactly, me us too, Mac Jones, Juju Smith Schuster for all football this. Yeah, I think he's just getting a B mac Jones again. I don't think he got to B mac Jones last year, and I think that was tough. I think he's being mac Jones again. I mean that good way, and you know, how will that translate physically? That remains to be seen. But it feels like mentally he's in a much better spot than he was at this time last year.
Yeah. I think mentally being at a much better spot is a good way of putting it. Even from a football perspective, I thought the practice in his play within the practice, I looked a lot more in rhythm and sort of just the ball was coming out on time, the eyes were going to the right places for the most part from what we could tell, and there wasn't
a whole lot of indecisiveness or paused his game. I thought that when it really started to go off the rails last year from Mac you saw a ton of indecisiveness, Like, yeah, just that hesitation. Even when he was completing passes, there was just that hesitation of it wasn't coming out right when you would expect it to. It was maybe like a half a beat after that, And that was because
he just wasn't one hundred percent sure. And I think a lot of that came from early on in the year last year too, when he threw all the interceptions in the first month of the year. He was trying to be so careful about the ball and like you said, you you have to be calculated, but you also have to have a little bit of that gun slinger mentality.
Well I wonder too if that came because the coaching staff changed the entire offense. I wonder how much of that was He's getting mixed messages from the coaching staff of we're gonna throw the ball deep, but don't turn the ball over, because it can't really emphasize both. Yeah, you mentioned though the the the like how decisive he was. I think I watched every single one of his throws
and competitive drills yesterday. There was I don't know what was it, like twenty twenty five thirty throws or something like that. There was only one play where I was like, all right, Mac, make a decision, let's go get rid of the ball. Like he's kind of rolling around a little bit in the pocket there, but it's gonna happen once or twice, like that's just the reality of it. And they were we'll get to the defense in a
little bit. But some of the defensive looks they were throwing out there were not last week and May looks. Those were you know, you know, November December kind of looks. So for the most part, yeah, I Mack did a very good job yesterday. Have just got to the back foot, knew where he wanted to go with the football, did it. He wasn't overthinking. That's not to say it was reckless, but there was very little overthinking I thought from him yesterday.
Yeah, yeah, those are all good signs. And you know, with Bailey Zappy, honestly, I think that in this I mean this is all due respect to Bailey ZAPPI. He's not a knock on him or a shot at him. I almost forgot that he was at the practice for a little while, which I think is a good thing. Like when Tom Brady was here, I did not remember that Brian Hoyer was was was also taking part in the same practice, and I think that that speaks to
sort of the competition of it all. Like a true competition, you know that the backup is mixing in right like he's involved. I didn't really feel the same way yesterday with Bailey Zappy. Trace McSorley, yikes, not a great practice for him. I think he threw three picks in practice, maybe even four when you're throwing picks like that, and
seven on Evan in the spring. Not that we thought Trace mcstorley is gonna make this team or are pushed to start for this team or anything like that, but that brings us to the final guy they maybe isn't a quarterback after all.
And uh, talk about you said, yes that you were very effusive. We weren't going to.
Talk about it, I said, I wasn't gonna talk about it.
Talk about it, Evan, talk about it, talk about it.
That's what we do here. We talk about everybody.
And because it's a fun storyline.
Stop, Uh, Malie Cunningham not in a quarterback red non contact quarterback jersey, in a white jersey, playing a decent amount of receiver and uh, then like pretty much exclusively until the very very end when they ran basic with the rookies. He was playing quarterback. I'm gonna say something nice about Mulie Cunningham. You should not about him as a receiver. Not taking that seriously yet, but I would much rather, much, much much much rather see Mullie Cunningham than Trace mcsore like.
Not saying something nice about maning me to Trace mcsrely like.
Stop just stop wasting my time, all right, No offense, Tracey mcsorly, But like, this is a it was, it got really rough, and it got rough to the point where it was hard to evaluate the other players.
How it's not nice about Malie cunning that's just digging at Trace McSorley.
Please let Malik Cunningham play the third quarterback.
Please, No, bring in an actual third quarterback that's like a veteran and has been around this league and can help some of the younger guys grow, like a Brian Hoyer. That's what that role should be. Not mc soorly.
I got, I got a little jazz and we're gonna, you know, segueing here to receivers. Obviously, No, No Cunningham, take you can't. I got a little bit jazz about Taekwon yesterday for good reason because Taekwon Thornton was the fiftieth overall pick in the draft last year. Taekwon Thorton went had a very very good last season and a pretty decent career at Baylor. Uh Taekwon Thornton ran a four two eight at the NFL Combine. Taekwon Thornton is
a real receiver with real talent. That's why I just can't get any sort I'm just not moving it the needle at all. On Malie Cunningham, I think you have your take.
You have this really skewed idea of what Malie Cunningham is, what fans thinking about. Nobody is saying Malik Cunningham is competing with Taekwon Thorny.
No, nobody is saybody is saying that. But do you know how many people are saying, well, what about Julian Edelman?
Like remember, okay, that is too far. Remember that is too far. And first off, based on what they had Malie Cunningham doing yesterday, not a Julian Edelman type receiver. The kind of receiver looks like they're gonna try to develop.
You remember Julian Edelman. He played quarterback in college. You know that.
Yeah, not a lot of people, and then he played in the slot. So they're developing. It looks like Malie Cunningham into a different kind of receiver. He did have the catch of the day. He did, he did. He did deep post from Trey mc sorely threw it high because of course he did. And Malie Cunningham goes all the way up the ladder to get it, because Malilik Cunningham is like the sixth floor, all the way up the elite. Cunningham is an elite athlete. He's he's an
elite as He's not an elite athlete. He's an elite ball cary. He's an elite ball carrier.
He's a He's an instinctive elite in that regard. In terms of ball carrying.
He has it. He has the speed and agility to play wide receiver in the NFL, and the size six he had to catch the day there were he did have the catch of the day. Than who did? Then who did?
Would I alwould put taekwon which catch the one early on in practice? I would put that over it any day of the week.
He was wide open.
Yeah, because he ran behind the old deep.
That's the route of the day. That's not the catch of the day. Those are two completely different things. And I Wilson Cunningham for the one catch. There were a number of times where he looked like it was his first time playing receiver. He stumbled through some routes.
I mean, Melik, Julian Edelman Cunningham.
He stumbled through some routes. There was one where on the sideline he had the ball hit him in the hands, and I think he was too worried about getting his feet down in bounds to complete the catch. And like that will all come. Nobody realistic is sitting here, Evan and saying, Malik Cunningham is gonna be a five hundred yard receiver for the Patriots in twenty twenty three, not this year.
But it took Edlman in a few years, Alex.
So they have a project player, big freaking deal. Why are you so upset about that? Why can't we follow a project player. That's gonna be a fun story throughout the summer, which, by the way, yours, your Celtics are now out. We need things to talk about. Cunningham's a fun story. I know we're not, but we're not because Malik. We're gonna talk about Malie Cunningham instead, because he's a fun story. The Patriots are in practice.
Ratriots catch twenty two, not Celtics catch ten or whatever.
I'm just I'm just saying, Malik Cunningham is a fun story. We could talk about him. Nobody's saying he's gonna be a breakout receiver for them this year. But he's a fun project player they have, just like Johnny Lumpkin, just like a lot of other players on the Johnny Lumkin is huge.
She's a huge guy. He is a massive I'll get to that in a second here. First of all, my Mollie Cuttingham bit is is trolling at this point. It is.
I stopped.
I admit that it's half that. But second to that, I keep coming back to the same thing, and I say this to you all the time. I have no issues with like having a project player, but it's twofold right now. One did you just kind of notice that they don't really have that many receivers. They don't have that many.
Resist I just felt they go into camp with too many receivers and guys end up just sitting there, So I'm actually okay with how many because they're gonna.
Have Okay, but let me let's play this out for a second. Because Malie Cuttingham was playing receiver yesterday, I am not entirely sure that, Yeah, it's nice to give him a look there and see what he can do, and he's open to it and all that kind of stuff. I'm not entirely sure he would be playing receiver if they actually had more receivers to play. Because the other guy that was also playing some receiver yesterday was Rolly Webb.
Well, he's a receiver.
It was like early you know, in camp sometimes when Justin Bethel would have to play corner just because that.
And then meanwhile guys got hurt and they put Justin Bethel in at the corner and he played well.
Okay, but let's hope that doesn't come to that with Rally Webb.
But this is the time. Look, if they're doing this in joint practices, I get where you're going. This is the time of year to try these things out. Fine, and I'm totally fine with it. I'm totally fine with it, and this time of year, it's fine for what it's worth. On the number.
I'm not taking it seriously. I'm not taking it seriously.
I thought we were doing overreactions.
We are, and that's one thing I'm not reacting for.
What it's worth. On the number of wide receivers, Keaishon Butte was limited, Jujus Smith Schuster wasn't there.
So that's two more bodies they're gonna happen. They only have seven guys I think on the roster right now, even in you that are signed.
I'm trying to find last year's training camp Rosterer.
I think they usually go in with like eight or nine at least, I want to say. So they don't have a ton of receivers. They just don't. And and and so Malie Cunningham and Raley Webb are getting reps in these practices as receivers as as a result, and I'm just not looking too much into it. That's it. That's all I'm gonna say about it. We'll see what happens. Maybe I'm totally wrong about Malie Cunningham. I'm not giving him enough credit, and he ends up being a player
for the Patriots. But I'm just not there yet. And I have the thing that I always say to you when we argue about this, even off the air, because that's what we do is teams that have loaded receiving groups are not going into training camp worring about Malie Cunningham, right like the Philadelphia Eagles are not going into training camp and thinking about oh, like this, you know Udfa that might be a quarterback, might be a No, they're
not thinking about those guys. And if they are thinking about those guys, it's like, oh, wouldn't it be nice if this worked out? But that's what we're no, no, no, not with Malie Cunningham. It's like it's almost like it needs to work out. I I why where is this take coming from? Why does he need to work out?
I just by the way they bother they had not including Slater in either one of these. They had nine receivers last year in camp. They've eight this year. So it's a one player difference, I feel.
And that's well, I guess because Juju wasn't there or.
No, sorry, sorry, it's eight and eight because this list I'm looking at last year has Time Ontgomery as a receiver. Okay, so it's eight and eight, so it's same number. Yesterday they were shorthanded yeah, but Juju's gonna be back Kaisha and Bute is gonna get on the field. You talk, you talk about it. Can we let's move on from talk about it? Because you talk about the Eagles and oh,
you know they're not doing this. They freaking love Tyree Jackson, who is a converted quarterback they're trying to turn into as tight end.
They they might freaking love him, but they don't. They like the idea of a guy named Dallas Goddard who's actually playing tight end for them, you know. He just that's the whole thing.
And I think we know the Patriots don't have a number one receiver.
That's but it's the Jeff Thomas of it all. It's like every year we have to do this right, Like I'll even say, like to the an extent that like Trey Nixon or de Mario Douglas might like fit this
category too. Every year we have to overhype some guy that, like, you know, his YouTube highlights are are good, and like we're just gonna get all jazzed up about it the guy that And I want to segue because we talked too much about Malie Cunningham for my liking the guy that I think that we should legitimately be bullish on is Taekwon, Like Taekwon to me, has a real chance
to break out. And I've had this take all along and it's not like a hot take or anything, but Taekwon's breakout or potential goes hand in hand with Mac Jones' breakout in potential. Right. If Mac Jones is going to break out and throw for thirty touchdown passes this year and be the quarterback that takes that next step, he's gonna need somebody to come along with him. Like he said yesterday, I'm gonna run my race and hopefully everybody runs behind me. That was a Mac Jones quote for
you yesterday. Taekwon Thorton is the guy that if this offense is truly gonna hit its ceiling and hits its utmost potential, it's gonna have to be because Taekwon Thornton plays like a second round pick.
Okay, but you just had that whole thing about I don't want to sit here and hype up the guy who has the pretty highlight tape and now you're good, we're gonna overreact to Taekwon Thornton, who I'm not saying, Taekwon Thornton can't be good this he we know he's faster than everybody else on the field. We've known that since they drafted him. I don't know what else did we see yesterday, Evan.
I think we saw some route detail that he didn't put out on the tape.
Line you reacting to the highlight tape. Basically, this is this is the kind of guy. Oh he's he breaks out in many camp because he's faster everybody else. Oh wow, he must be going. This is the exact kind of guy you're saying you don't want to focus on.
No, I'm not saying that because I think that Taekwon we knew that that that had he had that baseline of speed. I think what we saw yesterday was a little bit more of an ability to various speeds, change speeds, and like use that superpower. Like he knows that he has the threat of taking off on every single play. Yeah, and every corner he goes up against is going to have to respect the fact that this guy can take the top off.
But that changes once guys can hit him at the line, and once guys can hithm at.
The I agree, although he did have a really nice release against Jack Jones. Maybe it's because Jack Jones can't really use his hands yet that's a movement was there.
I'm not willing to go there with Taekwon Thornton yet, I'm not I'm not willing to.
Go I'm not willing to go there to the extent of like I'm gonna say that Taekwon Thornton's gonna have a thousand yards is gonna totally break out. I'm a little bit more bullish on somebody else that will get to down the line. Other than that, but with Taekwon, the things that I saw from him from the details of his routes, like I just thought it was crisper. I thought he was coming in and out of the
break crisper. I thought it was more efficient. I think last year there was a lot of wasted movement in his route, running both at the line of scrimmage and
at the top of the route. And I think this is really where Bill O'Brien can help him at the line of scrimmage, is getting him off the line, like bringing him in motion, using him a little bit more in the slot, using him off the line of scrimmage in a bunch or a stack where he doesn't have to, you know, put a move on a guy in press and then get up the field and then get into the like all that type of stuff I think really
slowed him down last year and this year. I think that he what he showed me yesterday is a like he he knows his superpower right, and we can now build off of the superpower of the speed, which is key. And two, I think that there was a little bit more efficiency to his movements. I don't think that there was quite as much jibber jabber, you know, happy feed throwing,
fake throwing, bobbing and weaving. Like it was just kind of go, get up to that to a good speed with that acceleration, get guys on their heels, and then break off of it like he caught that out route that he caught, just undress the corner. Now as a practice squad corner. I'm not gonna sit here and be like, oh my god, like this is you know, him going up against Jalen Ramsey and the Miami Dolphins or whatever
Darius slagh week one against Philadelphia. But that ability to get up the field, get the corner on his heels and then break it off. That's Those are the types of routes that are gonna make him a higher volume guy. You can't just throw deep shots to them all day long. He's got to build something else off of that, and it's going to be the underneath stuff. It's going to be getting guys to open up there and get on their horse and then breaking it down and then get
and losing them. At the top of the route, he caught a slant coming over the middle of the field that probably would have been a big play. Like those are the types of routes that get me a little bit excited.
I just want to see it when he's going against guys that can hit him.
It's fair, it's fair, and I am willing to wait as well before I get really excited about Taekwon Thornton.
But it was good.
Yesterday was the best practice I've seen him have in any setting, whether it was OTA's last year Mini camp, last year training camp. Last year, he had like one catch every couple practices where you're like, oh, there it is right, like he could yesterday. He was consistently opened the entire practice, and that's exciting. It should be exciting. You're allowed to be excited about it. The other receivers,
you know, DeVante Parker didn't really do much. He caught that one screen that he might have housed it in a game, but it wasn't like really, you know, we'll see what happens in real life. Kendrick Bourne was more involved, but again I think almost add of necessity to a degree. So I'm not ready to Well, the question.
Is going to be when Juju comes back, who's the odd man out because he was a pretty regular rotation at receiver yesterday without him.
Yeah, and he did drop a pass up the scene, which was wasn't great. But other than that, I thought Kendrick Bourne I was back involved.
And maybe that I mean, if we want to talk about usage, if you're gonna hype up Taekwon Thornton, yep, I thought the kind of routes, say Kendrick Bourne running were a lot more like what he was running in twenty twenty one. I thought they had him playing a lot more to his skill set. I know you aren't necessarily counting on a bounce back year for Kendrick Bourne.
I kind of am, and I think they're going to try to really tap into what worked for him in twenty twenty one compared to what they had him doing last year.
Yeah, I think that was the biggest thing, and I think that's that's a good way of putting it. With all of the receivers, and you can throw Tomario Douglas, who I think is important to put the context in that he was doing it mostly with backups, right, like
he wasn't cracking the top rotation, is my point. But that being said, everybody seemed to be doing things that made sense, right, Like Kendrick Borden was running routes that made sense for him, Taekwan was running routes that made sense for him, and then Tomorrow Douglas was running out of the slot, catching passes underneath the defense, doing some
things like gadget type things as well. All of it, you could see that they have plans and they have visions for how to use all these players, and we're already to a point where it's almost like they're already calling plays for that vision, right and designing plays for that vision. And that's kind of what you get with Bill O'Brien. So that's the quarterbacks, that's the receivers. Let's talk about running backs, and then We'll take some of
these phone calls. Time Montgomery. Time Montgomery is like the best practice player that like on this team. Sometimes it's kind of crazy, like he has done nothing in the NFL for like two years, Like in an actual NFL game, maybe he is like the peak Murray's Harris right, Like maybe he is like peak practice.
But no, like Montgomery's been hurt. Yeah, he's proven himself in the NFL before.
Yeah, he I'm not He's not a game changer out of the backfield. He's not James White, He's not even like Shane Vereen right, He's not like a real game breaker out of that spot. But it just seems like whenever the quarterback needs to dump the football off and he's involved in the practice, when they look for him, he's where he's supposed to be, and he catches the football and then he gets up the field and it's going to give you at least a little something after
the catch potentially as well. But it's like there's a he's a safety blanket. It's a reliability, like he always seems to be where he's supposed to be at he catches the football, and there's it doesn't look at all that difficult for him. So once again, here we are in the middle of the summertime or the spring, and we're talking about Toime Montgomery potentially having a role on this football team. I think that that's that's valid. I
think that there's definitely a path. Again, he think he looks like the most natural receiving back on the team, even more said than some of the younger guys.
Yeah. Yeah, again, it's gonna be interesting to see how that all shakes out. I thought, just to we're on the running backs, I thought Pierre Strong Kevin Harris got some good reps yesterday.
Kevin Harris looks a little lighter. He does look he does a little more spry out.
But I think the both of them, you know, you talk about the high impact reps, and we kind of talked about this with Mac Jones and the quarterback competition. I thought the two of them got some high impact reps. Yeah,
which was good to see. I don't think this they're gonna sort this thing out behind Remandre and whether it's four guys for two spots, four guys for three spots between Montgomery, Robinson, Strong and Harris, like that part's not clear yet, But it's gonna be some combination of those four fighting for two or three spots, and I think
it's gonna be one hell of a competition. I think it's gonna be close, because, like you said, I thought Montgomery he looked great yesterday and he looks healthy, and he looks ready to go. I thought Harris and Strong both had a solid prac I thought they rotated all for relatively equally. If there's one guy we saw a little less of, it was James Robinson. But sometimes they
go practice practice. Sometimes it's hey, you know, this was a Time Ontgomery practice, and next week will be the James Robinson practice, and so it's just when practice we can't go there yet. But it's interesting that it seems like all four guys are really in the mix. Even J. J. Taylor got some good run yesterday. Yeah, I still think he's on.
The outside showing the wide right for the Bills, And I just never gets old watching the Bills lose. Anyways, I just feel like Time Montgomery is he just always seems to look the most at home in that role. Like they've tried. I think they are still trying to work with Pierre Strong, you know, to get to that point. I think they're still trying. Maybe there's a little bit more out of Kevin Harris than they expected as a receiver. I did not expect Kevin Harris when he came into
the league to catch very many passes at all. Maybe he could do a little bit more than that. I think James Robinson still has a chance to do some of those types of things. But it always keeps coming back to Time Montgomery. Whenever he's out there, he just looks like a good fit there. All right, let's take some of these calls and we'll get to the rest of the roster. Here. Chris is in Fresno. Thanks for hanging on, Chris. What's up?
How's it going on? I have a quick question. I'll actually have two questions. So, based off what you saw yesterday, do you think that we still need to cheat up number one R receiver, you know, like Hopkins, or do you think that we're good with the group that we have now? And then my second question is, how did it on? Mike is sticky like yesterday would be playing more tight end, more receiver. I'm not sure she gots to report on, But thank you.
I appreciate it.
Thanks Chris and yeah, that's a good segue because tight ends was the next stop along this track here. Well, sorry, go ahead, No, let's talk about the receiver question real quickly. It's hard to tell because they didn't have Juju out there yet, so we don't know exactly how it's all
gonna fit together. But I think what really came to fruition yesterday and sort of the vision if you just assume it's either gonna it's going to be Juju, probably in the role that Kendrick Bourne was playing yesterday, with Taekwon in the role he was playing, and then DeVante Parker and really DeAndre Hopkins is kind of the only guy out there we know. He's the name right now.
Well, so the one thing I was gonna add is Diana Ruscini just reported that Patriots are interested. For what I There's been four or five reports over the last couple of days that have said that where'd the full one go here? Patriots are interested, The Bills have had conversations, but are not all in on Hopkins. Whatever that means. Oh, that's one of the teams that we thought, you know, in that the Cowboys and Jets are not interested.
Okay, so the real question, and look, maybe there's still a number one receiver that comes out of nowhere that's available, but this time of year, we've kind of that ship has sort of sailed, right, Jerry Judy is not all of a sudden gonna get traded sad at this point or or something like that. So Hopkins and not that this has changed based off of yesterday at all, but what you're really talking about his Hopkins taking over Devonte Parker's spot, right, And I still think that that's one
hundred and fifty percent worth it for the Patriots. And I'll add to that, and we talked a little bit about this on PU on Tuesday, I think, but I'll add to that that the Patriots should absolutely do everything in their power to get DeAndre Hopkins on this football team. Like there's money that should not be an object. They
should be giving him what he wants. They should be backing up the Brinks truck because in a lot of ways, even if it's just off of reputation, even if he's not the same guy that he used to be, but just having him out there just makes opposing defenses think about the pecking order a little bit differently. At wide receiver,
it just opens up so much for everybody else. So even if he's just running Devonte Parker's routes in the X receiver spot and doing exactly what Devonte Parker did last year, I still think that there's something to be said for this is DeAndre freaking Hopkins right, Like, this is a different animal than than DeVante Parker.
This goes back to it you were complain think about with Malie Cunningham. Why do we keep having a manufacture these wide receiver ones and guys like Malie Cunningham. Well, so if they get DeAndre Parker, can we talk about Malie Cunningham then without you throwing a fit, Maybe I think that's a fair bet.
Maybe it's fair they get Hopkins and.
Again and maybe DeAndre Hopkins teach to this matter of factly, the Patriots should be doing everything in their power to.
Get DeAndre Hopkins to New England. Like this is not This doesn't happen too often in the NFL. And Alex you can speak to this that on June first, a player for free, not via trade right for free, well money, but.
No picks.
Thank you for the mister Kraft for everything. It's your money. It's not mine right for free.
Spoken like a true team.
The player you can get that caliber this time of year is rare.
Yeah, And let me interject there, because I hear people say this all the time. I'm literally seeing it pop up in the chat on Facebook as we speak that word washed. He is washed. And look, on one hand, I get it. He's going into his age thirty one season.
Yep.
The thirty mark is generally a pretty strong line of demarcation for wide receivers. There's very few wide receivers that produce after thirty. But a couple things on that. First off, I don't I don't want to say DeAndre Hopkins is slow because he's not slow. He's never been a burner, right, if we were to list NFL burners, it would be a while before we got to DeAndre Hawkins has never been. He wins on route running, he wins on body control. Obviously,
he's got tremendous hands, right, catch radius, all of that. Everybody, When I do that explanation, people go to buld hands. I like to save the best for last. Okay, outstanding hands, outstanding catch radius, those things don't go away with age the way speed does his game translates better without speed. Like you see guys who are really fast and then they lose a step or two and suddenly they're not
the same player. I compared to in baseball, right, the guys the pitchers who are great because they throw one hundred and one. They can't necessarily spot the ball, but they're throwing it so hard it doesn't matter. All of a sudden, one oh one becomes ninety six and they're just throwing batting practice. Versus a guy who has thrown eighty nine his whole career and it's not impressive, but he can put it right on the black every single
time and it's got nasty movement. Those are the guys that pitch into their late thirties early forties, compared to these fireballers that are generally sillying.
Is that is that DeAndre Hopkins is the eighty nine mile an hour control guy.
DeAndre Hopkins is more Nolan Ryan than he is like Madison Bumgardner. Right, Madison Bumgardner was throwing gas and then he wasn't throwing gas, and he really wasn't that good anymore. I'm trying to think of a guy. There's less of these guys now because everybody wants to.
So I don't know, I'm just gonna like use this and baseball is not my thing, but we're running with this analogy. Greg Maddox, right.
Greg Maddox would be a great example. Greg Maddox was always like, okay, duh Verlander, Yeah, justin Verlander never threw a hard but he's still going great because he can pinpoint it. And it's so anyway, it's enough baseball. It's talk for the show.
Yeah. The other thing iceball season.
So yeah, the other thing I want to bring up on Hopkins that kind of backs this up, and you're gonna say, oh, you're just saying that blah blah blah like, but it will fade. He's old. I know you hate like pace talk, right, like seventeen game pace.
No, but last year he on a per game basis, DeAndre Hockens want the number. Still a top ten receiver in the league, not just top ten.
So first of all, he was ninth in quarterback rating when targeted. And the reason I like that stat is who were the Cardinals quarterbacks last year? He was playing nobody good when I was Trace McSorley.
Actually, he's never played with a good quarterback.
Oh, so you're we're on the same boat about Kyler. I didn't want to start a whole thing about Kyler, but let's sort okay, DeAndre Hopkins had he so he played nine games last year, about half the season. Had he played seventeen? Evan, you tell me if a guy with these numbers you're interested in bringing.
In, is this something you might be interested in?
One hundred twenty one yards, yeah, or sorry, hundred twenty one catches, hundred twenty one catches, one, three hundred and fifty four yards, six touchdown.
Yeah. That's the thing is like, I.
This is a thirteen hundred yard receiver.
Yeah, I know that. This is the pushback that I don't really understand, you know, I think in not taking any shots that I think it was Albert Breer that like had those like NFL execs say about DeAndre Hopkins that he can't run anymore, like something like that, and a that was just like never his game. But also the numbers were the numbers last year. Like, you're you're lying, right, You're you're lying when you're saying that you're being disingenuous.
A guy can't put up thirteen hundred yards in the NFL without being able to get open.
Still, can I throw up one more number? Actually, I just found this because I know Patriots fans are petrified of Jalen Ramsey, who, by the way, I think that acquisition from Miami's totally overblown. I was out on Jalen Ramsey. I don't think he's the player he once was. If you're a Patriots fan, you're petrified of Jalen Ramsey on the Dolphins. Here's what DeAndre Hopkins did against the Rams last year. Ten catches ninety eight yards. Yeah, no, he's
he can he can still play. Yeah, he can still play. And he's do you still think he comes in here and as your best receiver? And that's what the Patriot should be looking for. Tight ends though, that's our DeAndre Hopkins a bit right there. I think both of us are on board with throw whatever type of money bag you need to throw at that guy to get him to New England and recruit him, bring him to Nantucket, Bill, you know, get him on the.
Payroll. Let's do it. Tight ends. I thought that there were two plays that stood out from the tight ends. First of all, we mentioned Johnny lump Get a little bit earlier. That is a massive human. I thought he was a tackle. I really did. I thought because he's wearing sixty five, because he's in the rookie number right now, and he looks the part of a sixty five. So
he's a big dude. I think that's intriguing. There was one play where Mikeasicki just crossed over the middle of the field and caught a crossing pattern, hit him in stride, turned up a little bit, and I was like, well, there's MIKEA Sicki right, Like, that's why he's here. He's here to horizontally stretch the field, vertically stretch the field from inside the formation as a tight end, slash slot receiver,
big jumbo slot, whatever you want to call it. And then there was a corner route the Hunter Henry wrong on the right sideline that was vintage Hunter Henry right. It was a clear out, vertical, flat corner three level flood hits him right in this in the honey hole there on the sideline, and I was like, well, that's vintage Hunter Henry. So there's a lot out there about both of those guys playing together and the two tight ends being back. You know, twenty eleven Patriots, Bill O'Brien whatever.
I don't know if we can like look too much into all that just yet. It's one practice, but it's certainly what I saw from MIKEASICKI I liked. You know, he's a little bit of a different body type. He's certainly more leaner, more athletic. You can see that that wide receiver, you know, kind of comp there with the
body type. And like I said, you know that crossing route, when that hit him on that like you know, shallow intermediate level, like it's carbably like an eight yard cross, I was like, well, that's wise here, you know, that's what he's gonna do.
Yeah, I would say the best way to describe what we saw from him yesterday, he was as advertised. I mean that as a positive. You know, he's lining up all over the formation, like you said, moves more like a wide receiver than a tight end. He's another guy that probably benefits from non padded practices.
But I liked what I saw from Yeah, there was also one player when they were doing that screen period, we actually threw a pretty good block of all things considered.
For a no, we're not going to break down blocks.
And I just did. I just did.
Know.
The reason why I brought it up, though, is because as much as he's not somebody that I think is going to be a difference maker as an inline tight end with his hand in the dirt if they're going to run a lot of these like bubbles and like screen attachments off the RPOs, like, that's a different type of block.
That's fair. You know that, that's like out.
On the perimeter style block where I still think on those blocks it's more about just like throwing your size around at that point, and if you can be six to six and two hundred and fifty pounds and at least just get in the way of somebody to get Taekwon Thornton loose, sort of get Marcus jo if he's playing offense loose or whatever the case may be. That's a lot different than asking you to block an outside linebacker defensive end with your hand in the dirt like
your tackle, Like, that's a much different skill. You're talking about blocking DB's safeties, corners, things like that. So that's your tight ends. I thought, like you said, both guys, just nothing to nothing to write home about, necessarily, but nothing to like panic about either. Just exactly what we kind of expected from the both those dudes. Firstker wasn't like super involved, I didn't think yet, but he was
out there a little bit. But Lumpkin really stood out in terms of, you know, asthetic and ill coming off the bus with a guy like like Johnny Lumpkin. He definitely looks that part.
All right, I'm going to be excited to see him when the Pats come on. Yeh's that's gonna be when we start talking about you.
I think he has a real shot as that at that third in line run blocking you know, fourth and one. You know, probably rather Johnny Lumpkin out there than Hunter Henry or get Sicky. It's possible. It's possible that he could be in that role. All right, Sean and Vancouver or what's up, Sean?
I have three questions or short one thing I wanted to know. You've mentioned a lot about the play or just what the action looks like for Thornton. I wonder about the physicality though. Does he look a little heavier or could you not tell?
I wouldn't say that he looked noticeably heavier. He did mention that that was something that was obviously an emphasis for him. But I would also be I think I'm maybe not on the same page as everybody else as much on this. I don't know how you feel about it, Alex. I don't want Tykwon Thornton being too heavy.
Yeah, that's it's a dangerous game you play. Yeah, he's got to put on a little muscle, certainly, but you don't want him slowing down.
And his frame is kind of his frame when you're when you stand across from him, Sean, like, this is not a guy that is like, Oh, he just needs to fill out, right, Like he he's got a smaller frame, He's got a slighter frame. It's just kind of his build. What else?
You got a trace mcstorey Just to put this out there in case anyone's wondering.
I looked this up.
No relation to Marty, in case anyone's wondering. And the last question, I have you sort of mention this and I'm guessing that you're not going to know until pas come on. But you're you're high on Lumpkin. Does that mean that you think that Ferksers is not going to make the team.
Oh yeah, that's a good question. Thanks for the call, Sean. I don't know if it's necessarily. I think it is between those two guys, and I do think that they probably have a little bit of a different plan for both of them. Yeah, And so that's what's going to come down to ultimately, is I think do they prioritize basically having a third tackle? You know, I brought up a crap, Who's Michael Williams? Thank you? I brought up Michael Williams. I don't know Patriots fans all remember Michael Williams.
But he's bigger than who Man, So I wouldn't necessarily use who Man as an example.
Michael Williams is literally converted tackle. It's the same thing, right, He played tight end in college at like two hundred and eighty five pounds, got to the NFL, bulked up to tackle with Detroit, and then he ended up with the Patriots and they moved him back to his tight end. They didn't really throw him the ball, yea, but like he was out there, team said, WU account for him as a tight end, not as a tackle.
So the question is is do they prioritize that of an inline blocking tight end who could potentially leak out and catch a pass on a fourth and one play? Action if they wanted to throw the defense in a little bit of a curve ball or a Ferksker, who I think is really more of like a move tight end that could maybe play some h back play, some full back play, some slot and be a little bit
more versatile, but not necessarily be as physically imposing. I think that's going to come down to where they envisioned the offense going more than anything like what the roles are and what they're trying to fill out on the depth chart. But behind Hunter Henry Kasiki.
Well at the same time too, I think both of those guys are probably guys you can get on the practice squad.
Yeah, Lumpkin certainly less he like because he's not going to have the stats in the preseason. He's not going to catch ten passes in the gaming like that.
So at what point, you know, is it they're just kind of bouncing them back and forth from the practice squad week to week based on matchups. I think Lumpkin has a better shot to make the Week one roster because of that udf A streak, but it could be all right. Lumpkin's on Week one and Week one against the Eagles against that pass rush maybe you want an extra blocker out there, and he makes sense. And then after week one it's like, all right, well that Firks
is a better matchup and they switch them. Ye like that could totally happen to Yep, absolutely, all right.
What's up, Patty?
How you doing?
Guys?
How are you today?
Hey?
Good?
Good?
Sorry a little bit annoise. I'm working in my shop today. But uh so, I think I got an answer on Joe Judge's pomposity. I hear me out. We heard Bill say yesterday during this press conference that you do and if anything that I asked him to do or anything I tell him to do now.
Either of you guys see Forrest com years ago. Yeah, once upon a time that there's a scene where he's in boot camp and it's army boot camp. So I'm not getting this wrong. His drill sergeant says, go, what is your sole purpose in this army? He's like to do whatever you tell me, and he's like.
Damn it, that's the most outstanding answer I've ever heard. You must be a genius. So I think Joe Judge probably grew up hearing how stupid he was, you know, throughout his life. And then Bill comes up and says and asks him the same question, and he gets the same answer, and he's like, Wow, this guy actually thinks I'm pretty smart. He thinks of a genius. I'm joking obviously, But Evan, I got two words why we don't need
DeAndre Hopkins? Are you ready for it? Maybe Malik cunning him? Yes, that's all I got.
Yes, it's a good pack. Good call, good call, good call. I can't I can't get mad. I can't get mad. But with Joe Judge, I don't want to go too deep on Joe Judge, but I don't know how you feel about it. It was pretty clear to me that he's the Special Teams coordinator. Like, I don't know what's going on with camic Cord. I don't know if Camra Cord was out there with the Special Teams guys also in the Special Teams periods, But the voice you heard
was Joe Judge. The guy that was barking out the orders and really running the show in that phase of the game was Joe Judge. Is it possible that camic Cord has gotten demoted? Is it possible that they're like co Special Teams coordinators will maybe we'll find out when the when the media guide comes out and the official coaching staff is announced. I don't know, I don't know what it's exactly going to look like on paper, but it was pretty apparent that Joe Judge is going to
be heavily, heavily involved in the kicking game. Not just helping out and giving his input and quality control stuff. No, he's like coaching the special teams right now.
Yeah, that's what that's certainly what it looks like.
Yeah, all right, we had offensive line. Not much to glean from offensive line in a non padded practice. Obviously, we're not gonna break down performance. And this guy look good, that guy look good. It's more about who was where and who wasn't right and uh, without Trent Brown, without Mike on winning at the moment, So the only real solidified holdovers were David Andrews at center and Cole Strange
at left guard. Like those two guys are gonna be hip and hip for a long time hopefully, right and uh, and that's gonna be the the interior there. The rest of it was I think pretty I'm gonna use a phrase that apparently only I know chalk and uh, that's a you know, Riley Reef and Calvin Anderson. Reef on the right side, Anderson on the left side. We did see a little bit of Connor McDermott. Right there's kind of those three guys rotating at tackle, and then a
little bit of Bill Murray. Yeah, a little bit Bill Murray. I'm not gonna look too much into that, just because you know, the rookies haven't been around long enough to they're just trying to run a practice.
And and Jason Hines wasn't there either. Chason Hines wasn't a practice. In addition, we know Mike on and Win who's dealing with a.
Yeah, yeah, surgery that Reeves reported. So I'm not gonna say that Bill Murray is like, oh, all of a sudden, I'm gonna put him on my roster projection as a as a on the roster. But him and James Ferns were kind of switching off a little bit on the inside there at guard at right guard. So that was
sort of your group. I think that group, it's safe to assume maybe with Bill Murray being the one guy that's that could be on the fringe of it when things get real and James Farrens certainly has the practice squad element that is, I think always going to be there. That he could, you be cut just to make room for somebody else on the fifty three initially and then brought back or promoted from the practice squad. But the two new guys, Reef in Calvin Anderson, I still think
Conor McDermott has a shot. You know, Trent Brown's gonna have one of those, right.
We got to see what it looks like when Trent Brown comes back. I think that's a big part.
But I think that they're really high on those two new guys, and that's why they signed up. You know, it's not like kind of breaking ground by saying that they signed him for a reason. But one of those guys, I think Connor McDermott, excuse me, Rley Reef for Calvin Anderson, one of those guys is starting next year one of the tackle spots. That that's for sure well.
And I think some people had wondered, you know, mostly with Reef, which side he was going to play on because he's been a left tackle for so long and then played right tackle last couple of years, And that to me is the biggest, biggest thing to come from have this as we kind of get idea of who's going to play on which side.
At least primarily, it does seem like they're getting reef ready to play right tackle. Yeah, so I think that's gonna be what we all expected and are where it's headed. Moving over to the other side of the football. Defensive line. Again, not a position that I'm going to get too crazy about what actually happened in a non padded practice, but
Keon White, Uh, Keon White's a thing. Ke On White's involved, playing a little bit with the hand in the dirt, playing a little bit standing up, playing over the tackle, outside the tackle. Some just looks like that's a guy that they're trying to get ready as well, and some people, I think you had some opinions on how he looked
like rushing and stuff. Again, I'm not gonna really look too much into any of that, but I think what was interesting a lot of their their base front, the team drills that they did with defensive linemen and had base front. It was that till front that I was talking to you about, the odd front to three four with a stand up outside linebacker on the line of scrimmage, and that was mostly josh Uja, it seemed like, but Keon White also mixed into that role a little bit.
I could see that being his role at some point as well. So not as a I'm not surprised, Like ke On Waite's a twenty five year old rookie, right, twenty four to twenty five year old rookie something like that, is in college for six years. I don't think that he's one of those guys that should be brought along slowly necessarily. I think he should be ready to contribute your year one, especially when you drafted him in the second round. So I'm not shocked that he was out
there already by any means. So I'm not like, really, I don't know, some people are really excited about that. I don't know. I kind of think that he's going to play a role no matter what.
No, that's something I will put stock into. And look, I get they were down Lawrence, Guy Davon, god Shot, Christian Barmore, Matthew Judon, but like there's other guys. I think that they could have rotated the reps more evenly, is my point. You know, we didn't see as much of a guy like Ronnie Perkins. We didn't see as much.
And I think that's a good thing, right because.
Yeah, oh no, it's it's there's no reason and I'm not We've seen them be hesitant with rookies.
There's no reason to waste time with what would jude On not being here, with those those other guys that you mentioned, but mostly Judah not being here, there's clearly another hold next to on the other side.
I think with Lawrence Guy there there could be some upside in Lawrence Guy, some crossover in the role Lawrence Guy plays to key On White. Yeah, potentially, and then honestly to extrapolate that out, we're talking about, Hey, look, they're giving the rookies a shot. This is great. Marte Mapu.
That was so you told me not to not to overreact.
We can overreact to this one. This is the one I will allow you to.
I'm I'm all in. I said it on p I'm gonna say it here. I really really think that that there's reason to be extremely excited about the feeling the vibe right now around Marty Mapu. Not the main reason ninety percent of where I'm coming from is the fact that he was out there very very first reps seven on seven of the entire practice. They send their their quote unquote starting defense out there, and who's at the second level of the defense Juwan Bentley And is it
Marty or Marte? I we need to get these names right, It's it's wrong.
Well, look even if it's Martin like a nickname.
Right regardless, Juwan Bentley Marty Mapho the first two linebackers on the field for the Patriots, even with Marty Mapu in the red non contactors as he recovers from the peck, which tells you that even if it's just mental reps, they want him taking the mental reps. I'm just a massive because because this is exactly the role that I wanted him to play. I wanted them to play him at linebacker.
Right.
We had this whole minutia argument of is he a safety? Is he a linebacker? Is he both? Like he was a linebacker yesterday, He's playing at the second level next to Juwan Bentley at inside linebacker, week side linebacker. That's exactly where he should be. He's out there with with other starters, with other ones, whatever you want to call it. And I think the other thing that really got me excited. This just really made it made uh, made me tingle a little bit. He moved pretty damn well out there.
He was moving really well in space and coverage. And I think the biggest thing is watching him in the passing game, like read out plays and like diagnose coverage, you know, excuse me. Route combinations was really impressive. Like you can see the eye discipline right like where he's going here here here ball right, like you you can see sort of the the way that his head gear is moving, and you can tell that he's he's thinking about, Okay,
this guy's clearing this out. They're filling in here like here's where I'm at, right, Like he can tell the processes down. And then he's got some real clicking clothes too, and once he's able to hit people, I think it's going to be a difference. The one like little bit of throwing water on my fire over here, just a little bit is that this is like subpackaged territory. Right, We're not doing run game, we're not we're not eleven
on eleven. There's no pads, there's no contact. So it could just be that they view him in year one as a sub package sub linebacker, a coverage linebacker, whatever you want to call it, but even that I think is just really exciting to see. There was some plays where it was like they were trying to high low him or clear him out, and he just didn't take the cheese. He was positionally sound, He was sifting through route combinations and different threats and then he was finding
the football. A really exciting mental practice from him as well. And I'm not like talking about physical stuff quite yet in terms of like closing on the ball and tackling and things like, we're not there yet, but mentally you could tell that he understood his assignment, like he wasn't floating, he wasn't lost in space, he wasn't covering grass like he was really on top of his p's and q's.
Yeah, Yeah, he was excellent. And again just the fact they put him out there. We know the red shirt guy, we know the weight, and put a guy in NFI if they can, and they had every reason to do with him, but they put him right out there on the field. That tells me they have big plans in store for him this year.
Yeah, it's a good point about the the NFI or you know whatever, injury list they want. Yeah, a guy that tears his peck in February that you draft like camera groan. We just didn't see him. Andrew Stuber, we just didn't see him, right. That's not the case with Marty Mapu. And it's exciting because this is the type of player that we've been clamoring for. This is the type of player that you want out there that you
want to see in this day and age. It's Matt Mulano, it's Deon Jones, It's a two hundred and twenty five pound true linebacker. You know, we're not talking about a safety. We're talking about a linebacker. And it was excited to see with matp who Okay, moving back secondary. No Christian Gonzales. I know you were a little bummed about this. I was a little bit bummed about it. No Christian Gonzalez.
We don't really have word yet about why we did not see Christian Gonzalez, but he wasn't out there yesterday's practice. But that did leave the door open, I guess a little bit. I don't know if you would have been out with the with the ones anyways, but Jack Jones in the mix and next to Jonathan Jones on the outside. Miles Bryant Marcus Jones was limited, so we didn't see a ton of him. Miles Brian's still playing the slot for now, playing some safety as well with Miles too,
as you would expect. But I was I'm optimistic that this Jack Jones thing now a little bit more than I was, let's say, even forty eight hours ago, right because I was really concerned that they were just going to bury him r It ended the forum last year with the suspension and everything. Maybe it was just because they needed to because they didn't have bodies, right like, maybe it was that whole thing, But at least they had him out there and he was playing.
Yeah. Look, it's tough to say without Gonzals because I think Gonzalvez is such a big pieces and even as we get in the safety conversation, I think not having Gonzalez out there impacts that because John Jones is a guy we think could get some reps.
Yeah.
Deep, So it's a little heart to gauge. It's a little heart to gauge where they're out right now in the secondary. But Jack Jones is out there and that's definitely positive.
Yeah, So, speaking of the safeties, we saw Jalen Mills playing some safety. Jalen Mills is safety, like they've moved him to safety. He's not a corner anyway. And I think this is another one that this could be a situation. And look, I know that we're being a little bit positive about everything here today as we should in the spring and relation be too too negative. But with Jalen Mills, I am cautiously optimistic that maybe he's actually better safety
than he is a corner. I think that's certainly what he's showed in Philadelphia once this Philly, the Eagles finally moved him to more of a safety role. He's playing a little bit of deep safety. He was playing a
little bit of closer to the line of scrimmage. But I think the general consensus with him at safety is that he's gonna play some deep middle of the field, maybe some split safety coverages, and then maybe guard some tight ends, like you know, I think that that's gonna be kind of a mix and match sort of role for him. But he was back there with Duggar and Phillips and Jabriel Peppers. But it was nice to see
somebody that you mentioned it earlier. They were already spinning the dial a little bit like it wasn't you know, it wasn't too exotic, but they were already trying to change the picture a little bit on the quarterbacks and things like that. So there's a lot going on back there.
I'm with you though, that it's it's tough to really sink your teeth in and be super excited without Christian Gonzalez because we don't know exactly how all the puzzle pieces are going to fit together when he was out there. But what did you think of What do you think in general of Mills moving to safety. I don't think he really can clean too much from yesterday, but just the fact that we now know that's pretty much official that he's going to be a.
Same Yeah, I still think he's more like a situational safety dealing with tight ends things like that. Yeah, the one thing we're gonna talk about the safeties. I was kind of surprised by essay. I think we expected to see Kyle Duggar get repstep. I think we expected to see Jalen Mills get Repsteep. Phillips and Peppers worked in there too a good amount, and Pepper's I can kind of see it So the thing is, I'm torn between I don't want to ta Kyle Douggar out of the
box because he's so good there. Yeah, but I also don't He's probably the best deep safety they have on their roster just in terms of his skill set. So which way do you want to go? But if they can get something from Phillips or Pepper's deep, that changes things. Peppers I kind of like back there because he's very instinctive, he's very explosive, he's a good tackler, and those are
three big traits on the back end. I don't know that he has a straight line speed to play back there at full time, but yeah, you know, when the other team crosses the fifty and you maybe don't have to worry about those true deep shots, it becomes a bit more realistic. Phillips I always thought of as just a box safety, but he definitely has the intelligence play on the back end, and he might you talk about
his football like you. And this isn't to take anything away from other guys who've been here, but the communication element of it, right, that was so important with Devin McCarty Phillips, I think, just based on what other players have talked about how he is on the field. If you're looking to feel that communicator role, I actually think Adrian Phillips might be the best guy for that.
So yeah, I think they're definitely you know, if they're gonna play split safety or cover two corridors coverage like where half the field is, you know, each player has half the field, then I think guys like Adrian Phillips and Jail Peppers can factor into that. I just think the big question with those they were we.
Saw them in a little little single highest today.
I don't know if they have the range to play single high. That's sort of where I'm going with.
Well, I guess, so again to what I'm saying, like.
Devin mccorty, you know guys that are like and look, I'm not asking anybody to be an elite free safety, elite post safety, but guys that are truly elite at that spot have like legit speed.
And but that's kind of my point. I don't think you're gonna find a perfect replacement for Devin mccorty, soho can you piece mail it? Maybe when the other team is first and ten back at the twenty, You're not gonna put a guy like Jabrill Peppers back there because
he doesn't have the speed. But if they're at like excuse me, if they're at like the thirty five going in, Yeah, suddenly that's a lot less ground to cover, right, and maybe it becomes more realistic and you can put more emphasis on a trait like IQ or tackling ability because the speed's not Speed's still important, but there's not as much ground to cover.
Yeah, there's It also depends like if you're talking about him playing post safety, single high safety in man to man, that's a lot different than him playing post safety and cover three because cover three you're just a tunnel. You just got the middle of the field and then they're deep part of the field is protected by the outside corner, so it's a three across the top. When you're pla playing single high safety and man, you are the life like that's it.
That's it, And that's where that's where you probably need a guy like Kyle Dugger back there because of how fast he is. But again, I just I think there's spots where it might make more sense for one of those other guys. Look, they're trying it. I'm just I'm interested. They're trying it. I'm glad they're trying it. I don't know that it will work to whatever extent.
And this is you know, Smorre speaks to the things that even Devin McCarty has thrown out there, that this group it might end up actually being even though they're losing so much with Devin from a leadership standpoint and from that true center fielder experience, this might be a situation where they can mix a match a little bit more. You might not be as stagnant, you might not be as predictable on the back end because you're really not. You don't you know, Devin McCarty should play center field
because he's Devin McCarty. Yeah, and in these packages, like is it gonna make a big difference if it's Kyle Duger versus Adrian Phillips versus Jalen Mills versus Jabriel Peppers, like yeah, or one of those guys so much better, like Devin was in that role that it has to be Devin all the time, Like probably not, So you're able to maybe mix and match it a little bit more, be a little bit more unpredictable, spin the dial a little bit like sometimes they spin it and it's Dugger
going up top. Sometimes they spin it and it's Phillips going up top, and now it just, uh, it makes offenses react a little bit more. So I think that's part of the goal, is to be a little less predictable and maybe a little less uh you know, a little bit more positionless, and just kind of having that feel that either one of those guys can do it. Be a little bit more interchangeable. All right, last, but not least your you're specialists. We mentioned that I want
to I want to do a little bit more. You got your hang times, you got your your I know you. You were on the stop watch.
I did get a chance to do the operation times. It's hard from that far away. Yeah, I know, I know I failed. It's really hard to do from that you had one job to do. I got the hang times. Everybody wanted the hang times.
So what was what was a Bearinger a Barringer. I don't know which one we're gonna go with on this, but uh, what was that?
Trust Mike?
What was the top hand times? Here?
So hang on, let me pull him up. So Bearinger definitely had the better overall hang times. I think Weightman was a little more consistent. I also think one of the drills that looked like they were doing a short kick drill. So I don't feel great about these hang times being fully representative. But yeah, Weightman had three seven six, four four three seven, five four seven eight four eight and four three two, so we maxed out of four eight. Uh,
his minimum was three seven. His average is probably about four four four five. Barringer at four four five, two five, three six, one five two eight, four oh five five five two fives. Uh, he had two five, two fives and one five two eight, four oh five and four fifty nine put him out out. His average is probably a little higher.
Uh.
He was bo.
So there's two things in my my really unexpert opinion when it comes to punters with Baringer, what I will say, One, you could hear that ball come off the foot right like that. It makes that like pop when and that's I think there's something to be said for that. And the other thing is he reminded me a ton and it wasn't quite as impressive. Remember that, Like that those first couple of weeks of spring camp and things like that, Jake Bailey was just like kicking the crap out of the.
Remember hearing Matthew Slater at one yell wow, yeah.
Like yeah, we weren't quite there with Bearinger, but it was it was close. I think it was close. And I just remember Bailey in that camp being just super impressive and I wasn't. I wasn't as bullish. But there was some punts, certainly from Baringer, but the point being
in that practice, those practices for Bailey, there were some shanks. Yeah, And I remember talking to some of the guys about it, and they were just saying that that's the type he was kind of that type of punter at the time where it was either all driver or was it or you're shaking it into the woods right your golf references. And I still think that Bearinger is kind of in that territory where the kids got a leg, like there's no doubt about that. Is it going to be consistent?
I still think that maybe that that remains to be seen. Is that is that fair?
What you say? Yeah? I thought he I thought he looked. Yeah. I think that's fair. Yeah, I think that's fair. It was interesting too, so they were essentially doing two drills at once. They were doing punt block drills. And return drills.
So at times they had the punt formation lined up and then the punter lined up like off to the side, near the side of people listened to the show, and so they'd snaffed the ball to whoever was back there as the punter, and then he would essentially throw the ball up in the air like it was blocked and the punter off on the sideline would punt it. So you're coming from a different angle. It's it's a little
bit of a different operation that kind of changes things. Well, they did do some regular punts too, but if Baringer, a couple of his shorter kicks came off of that where he was the punter off to the side, so it looks a little different. So we got to see him like full on, you know, coming.
Up and with Chad Ryland, I thought your analy it's just after the draft about him being like money from inside fifty and we'll see about fifty plus seem pretty accurate yesterday, Like it seemed like he has a really nice control of the football, like he when he kicks it, he knows where it's going. Yeah, it's not like he kicks it and it's like like off to the left. You know, I think guys like Justin ro Rosser, Quinn Nordine,
when we saw them kick. When they were on, they were on, but when they were off it.
Was like, well, it's like you should with Bailey, they're all driver, They're trying to hit the ball as hard as they can and sometimes you lose control on that. Yeah, Ryland is kind of picking up where he left off with Nick Folly. You know, when you get forty five fifty yard field goal, you're gonna maybe consider going for it, but you get inside forty five yards you feel pretty good about what he's gonna do. You feel like you're walking away with three points very very consistently, which I
think is how they approach the position. And to something you like to talk about to apply this to offense, YEA having that kind of kicker is generally assigned. And when they brought in Nick Folk, this was true. They're gonna go for it more in that tweener range. Because if you if you know you're gonna go for it right from I'm blanking on the yard lines, but from like a forty five to a fifty five yard field
well after that you're punting. But if you know you're gonna go for it more in that range than punt. It makes all the sense in the world to get a kicker who prioritizes accuracy more than power, because you know you're not kicking it there, so fine, all right, he's automatic inside of forty perfect. We don't really care what he can do beyond that, whereas other teams may say, we want the option to kick field goals from further out. Now the downside of that, and we saw this with
Folk in the Bucks game in twenty twenty one. When you need to win a game, when you need right, when you need fifty four yards to win the game, you're kind of grinding your teeth a little. But I don't mind that they're planning on not every game, on every game, not coming down to a field nice like that's this is kind of what they do. So I think this is a sign, among other things, to bring it to offense because I have to make it relevant
to people like you. They're gonna they're gonna go for it more on fourth down this year.
So I do feel like we can rap because we've already talked way too much about the kickers out of no TA practice. But I do feel like they've always sort of leaned a little bit more into the accuracy kickers than the power kickers. Like Adam vin Terio was an accuracy kicker, I would say, and Steven Gozkowski, I would say it was maybe early on in Gzkowski's career
he had a little bit more leg. But I don't remember either one of those guys being like a Sebastian Janakowski, like you're gonna kick it from sixty yards.
You can have leg and still be more like the great kickers can hit from fifty five and they're super accurate, right. I think the only times they've really gone with a guy who prioritized his power to accuracy was Shane Graham for that half season and then roorwass Her and I guess Nordean, But Nordean always felt like a project. I don't think they ever brought Norden into be the starting kicker.
I think the idea was, let's just work with this kid, and if he can figure it out, great, If not, we get serious about finding the next kicker, and which is ultimately.
The obviously is an accuracy guy Nick Folks.
Accuracy guy Uhis Gostowski is I would even say, who did they bring in before folk? Remember they brought a kicker for like two or three weeks. It wasn't Ky for back. They worked him out. No, you had a stupid nickname, Nugent, Mike NuGen. You called him the nude Mike Nugent was an accuracy kicker too. That was a really bad nickname. That was a really stupid nickname. I think that's why he didn't work out here is because you and system you can do anything with.
The I guess if he was good, we would have been NuGen and all over the place. It's great.
Yeah, I just can't really do that for Chad Ryland. We'll see that. We'll come up with something.
Good.
I don't know that has anyways.
I was not a fan of that.
I couldn't I couldn't tell. So we'll be back out at practice next Tuesday, next to OTA practice, and then we have mini camp the following week. So we get to see some football over the next couple of weeks, which is great and not actually just talk about it like it's you know, some Madden simulation, but we can actually talk about things that are going on and happening, and we'll always keep up with the news with DeAndre Hopkins and other things that are going on around the league.
But all in all, that's a wrap on on our first OTA recap. I think that what fans should really take away from this, and this is how I want to end this. What fans should really take away from this is the football team looked like a professional football team.
We got a football team, haven't.
And that's all that we can take away from spring practices on May thirty first, But we'll be back next Thursday to recap our second look at the Patriots at OTAs next week. Patriots Unfiltered will be on right after next week, so if you want that instant reaction, you can do that and you can wait for us on Thursday as well, but until then, signing off for Alex Bartham, Evan Lazar, thanks for watching, thanks for listening, and we'll see you guys next week.
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