This is the Patriots Catch twenty two podcasts with Evan Lazar and Alex bar and Lazarre.
Hello, everybody nailed it. Joined us always by our barat.
Here is Evan Lazar and Alex Bars. I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm so fifty to fifty on that one. That was the hardest choice I made, Anthony Jennings, Matt Wilson, which guy is it? But it's the hardest choice of all the stuff on the roster projection. Yeah, that was toughest one. What was tougher for you?
It's the whole roster?
Okay, rights, go watch Savi, You're worthy.
We're back in studio today.
Yeah.
I just realized as I was walking in here. Morrell, it's been a couple of weeks since we've been live on the show. That's okay, it's been a couple of weeks. And uh, it's good to be back back from vacation and back to Patriots training camp.
And this is from vacation. First off, of congratulations and all the pleasantries. Meanwhile, I am over here. I remain married to the game another word for single. I'm married to the game.
Well, it's me, it's Evan Lazar and me Evan Lazar, Alex barth Morell behind the glass for you. At the next hour or so, we're gonna talk Patriots Training Camp, Day two. And on the one hand, I'm not I'm not just saying this just because I'm carrying anyone. I love training camp like this is. This is my favorite time of year. I'm so jacked up that camp is back and that we get to cover training camp and
cover the practice. This is the best access that we get to the team all year long because we actually get to watch practice, which is a ton of fun and into something that I absolutely love doing. With that said, Alex, I have to be honest, this is a huge tease the first couple of days, this new five day acclamation period. I totally understand it from the player's perspective. They totally were in their right to ram up slowly and not just get thrown right into padded practices on day one.
With that being said, it's a tease for the media, it's a tease for us. We get out there, you know, wide eyed and ready to go on day one yesterday, and it's an extension of what they were doing in the spring. It's really not live Live. You're not evaluating the line of scrimmage, that's for sure, and it's a
little bit of a slow ramp up. But with that being said, we're still going to talk about everything that we saw, or most of the things that we saw, and break it all down and probably overreact a little bit too much to a few things here and there, as we tend to do, but we try not to. We try to tell you what's real, and I think that's a big thing about this time of year two.
Not to get all my soapbox, but there's certain things that are just training camp things, and then there's certain things that actually have real football implications, and we try our best on this show to separate those two things. We don't want to give you things that are just another run of the mill training camp practice and nothing to really free out about or to be over the top excited about either, but try to keep it even
keeled and talk about the things that actually matter. So along those lines, my big opening take to camp two days in, because we're not in pads yet and I don't really have a huge opening take in terms of the competitive portions of practice just yet. My opening take is is that if there's anything to be really positive about. Out of the first two days, it's that for the most part, outside of Mike on Wennie and Calvin Anderson and Cody Davis shout out Cody Davis, the Patriots are
healthy going into this camp. They're healthy. I think the team in some ways, it's not quite as much buzz as the twenty twenty one training camp where you had the free agency spending spree, you had Mac Jones in the first round, and there was a ton of buzz coming into that season. But there's a little bit of a pep in the step. I think a combination of things.
Bill O'Brien of course, being back for the offensive players is huge, the retention and the defensive players and what they're building over there on the defensive side of the ball, I think is bringing a lot of optimism to that side of things. They're healthy, there's some good there's some
good juju no pun intended. And last but not least, the guys that are healthy outside of those three guys I mentioned off the top, they all passed the conditioning tests and they're all out there, and I think that that's something that's really positive and it's something that doesn't always happen. Sometimes you start camp and there's eight guys
on pup. Sometimes you start camp and some big names didn't failed the conditioning test and aren't aren't working out with the team and the rest of the rest of the roster. So I think there's some good the good mojo, good vibes right now. And I compared to the twenty twenty one, that team, even though they didn't get where they wanted to go ultimately and the playoff game was a dud, won ten games that made the playoffs. I think that would be a pretty successful season. Yeah, that's how this goes.
Yeah, I would agree with you. And I just think even on top of that, like you mentioned, everybody, I mean, everybody came in healthy. We'll talk about the injury today, which I think holds some significance, but it's there's even within the practice themselves. I think there's that there's a rejuvenation and energy, especially on the offensive side of the ball. I think you're seeing already the impact a guy like Bill O'Brien. Sorry, a guy is just too sweaty. I need
to get off everything. This sweats a shower, I do, I really do. Hot day human. I don't do well in the humidity.
We should have a media lockero.
No, we should, no, we should no, No, that's a I'm gonna cut you off right there. You've seen, you're seeing I think already the impact Bill O'Brien makes on just the way the offense operates. And I know it's kind of a really low bar to be like, hey, they're not like everybody knows where to line up, everybody knows when they should be inter out of the formation, everybody knows what the play call is. There's really only been two instances so far through two days that there
was a bit of miscommunication. Tracey McSorley had to call a time out right out of the on day one, and I don't remember his macro's appy one of them today, like, oh no, it was mac Jones and I don't know who was wrong in this instance, but mac Jones and JJ Taylor. There was a moment as they were trying to get lined up where there was a bit of indecision about where JJ Taylor should be in the formation. But that's it through two days. That's it. And it's
not even like there's been other fringe moments. They are operating succinctly, and that's great to see right now.
Yeah, I think that that's something that is important because when you read the tweets from practice, and this is again I'm not trying to like pick on anybody that does the practice stats and does the two We all do it. It's that's our job. Our job is to
tell you what happened out at practice. But when you read the tweets and you read some of the ups and downs that the offense has had and quite frankly, the results as they work in the red zone here predominantly in the first couple of days of practice, the results for the Patriots offense hasn't always been there. It hasn't always been great. And by the way, you can join the fun at eight five to five PATS five hundred web radio at Patriots dot com get that in
there as well. It hasn't always been great. Mac Jones has thrown an interception to Kyle Dugger on back to back days. On the very first pass of training camp and competitive drills, Mac Jones threw an interception to Kyle Dugger in the back of the end zone on the pass intended for MIKEASICKI so some of the stuff that you read in some of the stuff that you see
is going to be negative about the offense. But I think it's important what you just outlined right there that this type of negative is a lot different than the type of negative we were talking about last summer. This is just getting timing down, getting guys kind of in the proper places in the pecking order. I think is still a work in progress of where exactly Mac is going to be looking in certain situations and things like that, But mainly, when you're in the red zone, it's a
condensed area. There was a portion of practice today where Mac had a little bit of a streak in completions where I think they ran the same play three times in a row, and he basically made the same throw three times in a row, and by the third time, the defense just sitting there like really just ran like
it's the same play, right. So, I think that the combination of the tight spacing of the red zone, the fact that you're throwing a new offensive systemat guys, a couple of new key pieces like Juju and Mike Kasiki, and day one, Day two, you're already working in the hardest area of the field to score right. That that I think is a lot without.
Being able to go to the easiest way to score.
Right, without being able to run the football, and on top of without being able to run the football. I'd also say that they're not really adding quite yet very many bells and whistles either. It's not like they're running a ton of mister records. Yeah, it's pretty basic route concepts, just things that you goal line, red zone style concepts
in the passing game. So I know that that sounds like a cop out for the offense or trying to sugarcoat what's going on offensively, but I think it's a long way of saying that we are far far away from the dysfunk that we saw last year. This is more execution based things that they need to clean up that I'm confident they will clean up than a broken
system and a dysfunctional situation. And not like as much as that bar is low, that is a bar that they obviously needed to clear, and I think they have cleared in this early stage.
Yeah, the perfect example. I was kind of flashing back to last year because the offense wasn't great yesterday, it wasn't great. I don't think it was as bad as maybe some people portrayed. But it wasn't great. But I remember last year they weren't great on the first day. And my big takeaway was, and you know, I think this is true. Yeah, throughout a training camp, even a great team that's great on both sides of the ball, there's gonna be days the offense wins. There's gonna be
days the defense wins. And what you look for and we didn't know what was to come at this time. I'm talking about the first day of camp last year. Yeah, what you're looking for is all right, defense one today. Is the offense going to come out with a sense of urgency tomorrow because you want to see that competitive fire. Are they going to come out with a sense of urgency tomorrow and punch back essentially right and go punch
for punch because that's what you want to see. And again, it wasn't perfect for the offense today, but they came out and they went punch for punch. I thought there were some really nice plays made by the offense today. I thought you got a really good indication of what at least part of their identity should be in the passing game. And Evan you're gonna hate this. I'm sorry, but I'm gonna say it. They're gonna be a jump ball team. They're gonna their offense gonna feature a lot
of fifty to fifty stuff. Seven of the and not that all these guys are gonna make the team, but seven of the nine receivers they currently have under contractor over six foot. Four of the nine are currently over six to two. That's not including six to five Hunter Henry.
That's not including six to six Mike Kasiki. And you saw today Mac Jones first touchdown pass back shoulder fade where DeVante Parker goes up, made a good play, not that us you know, he's much taller than Marcus Jones, but went up, jumped, caught the ball, got the feet down on the sideline, made the catch. You saw Mike Kisiki a little bit later in practice go up and climb the ladder. There was a linebacker lurking in zone, kind of in between Mac and Gasicki, and Mac put
it up where the linebacker couldn't get it. Uh, Gasiki has to go up and get it. And he goes up and gets it. And I think that's gonna be some of what they need to do right and in.
The red zone that's something that everybody does.
I mean part of, but they haven't. They've been very small receiver. The point being they haven't been able to do that in recent years in the red zone. Between the twenties whatever. I think you're seeing that that is going to be more. It's not gonna be everything. It shouldn't be everything, but that is gonna be more. If it was gonna be everything, I think they would have been a little more aggressive in DeAndre Hopkins because there's
nobody better at that than DeAndre Hopkins. But I think it is gonna be more of their identity this year than it's been in the past. The other thing that stood out to me about the offense and even within the struggles, what can you take away? And this is gonna be some people are gonna call the ultimate Homer take.
I think it's relevant. Mac Jones rookie year in camp. Yeah, he would be really good until he made his first mistake whatever, whether it was interception, whether he took a bad sack, what have you, and he just you could tell it bugged him. He wasn't the same player after he made that first mistake. This was throughout the summer.
Got a little better later on, but like it was a thing with him that first summer that mac Jones is really good until he threw a pick and then all bets are off, and then last summer it was just all bad. We never got to see him like recover from a mistake because there was never anything.
More than the wall coverage, sacks, sot.
Mac Jones comes out, first play at camp yesterday, throws a pick. Oh boy, all right, here we go. And I thought from there he'd a pretty good day. I thought from there for what it was, see and he had a pretty good day. And then today it.
Was the opposite. Today was he had a good stretch and then he threw the pick to Kyle Duggar towards the end, and I was like, oh, well, I would have really written that that was a really good.
And it wasn't in that thing where and I'm the same with you. I think you take that out. He had a really good day. Yeah, it wasn't in the sense I mean that was one of the last passes. You didn't I think it might have been his last pass. You didn't get to see him have that like bounce back on the field. But what does he do? Drop down? Did ten push ups? Push the push up and then he went over to Kyle Duggar and he tapped him up, like.
Marine, How many push ups did you have to do in the Marines five thousand million?
Mike wasn't on there. Sorry, I gotta turn the right button on. Depends on what I was doing for not turning your mic on. How many push up would you have to do? And twenty is the limit for like a PFT test.
There you go.
So Mac did about ten for an interception, so whatever they can get like.
Twenty he did.
He did that, He goes over. He had a laugh with Kyle dugger like it. I don't think it bothered him Aton And there is another side of that, or it's you do want to see some contenditive fire, right.
But I want to talk about the interception because.
It was bad, plight, it was a really bad I want.
To talk about the interception, but I don't want to. I don't want to lead on them. Mac was the first bullet point here on our agenda. I don't want
to lead with that. I think what I do want to lead with, though, is that I saw in two plays and we're working with such a small sample size that just bear with me for the fact that I'm literally talking about two plays you mentioned but where're at But you mentioned high point and you kind of jump ball fantastic hatches and something that this offense is going
to have to rely on. The plays that I really thought today where I said, that's what this Patriots offense needs to be, like, that's what this offense needs to do. And both plays came not surprisingly, when they pushed the ball to the high red zone and they gave the
offense a little bit more space to operate. They've been working like inside the eight yard line for the first two days of practice, almost almost exclusively, and then towards the end of practice today they finally pushed the ball to like the the fifteen and they gave the offense a little bit more space to work in space to maneuver. The first one was the longest pass and probably the best throw that Mac has made so far, and camped to Devonte Parker on the touchdown over I think it
was Christian Zalestee. That was the second one, the deep crossing route. Okay, what happened on that play? He's under center play action. He runs under center play action, hits the back foot, has a nice step up in the p because Riley Reef will talk about him in a second. It steps up in the pocket and DeVante Parker and Kendrick Bourne, they ran like a Yankee style concept where you know what they intersect crossing routes in the in
the middle of the field. You know, one guy goes one way, the other guy goes the other, and then Mac just throws where the safety isn't if the safety helps to pour and he throws to Parker and vice versa, and Parker got open, he got behind Gonzales and Mac dropped it in the bucket and for a really nice touchdown pass about twenty yards that under center play action with the with the shots off of it. That that's
gonna have to be a part of this offense. I think that's a part of an offense that Mac can thrive in. That Mac can do really well in is under center play action. Then they got to Juju, and this is something that I think was a little bit optimistic about today too. Was I thought today Juju looked a lot better than yesterday and started making some plays and you started feeling his presence out on the field,
which is a good thing. The Juju touchdown, Yeah, that was gun action shotgun, but play action still they pull cold strange, They get the linebackers to creep up a little bit. He beats Marcus Jones to the inside on like a little skinny post and Mac just dots him with it in the back of the end zone. Touchdown. So yes, both involve play action, which I think is not a coincidence, right. I think that's gonna have to be play action, RPO, some sort of way to alter
the defense. I think not only I don't know, not necessarily think that that's as much about Mac as it is about helping the playmakers get open. Yeah, because it allows them to get isolated one on one matchups and takes guys out of passing lanes and things like that. So it makes it a little bit easier for receivers to get open, and I think that's a big thing.
But those two throws, in terms of the style of the throw, we're talking about a touch deep ball right, a deep over rounte where he can loft it in there and drop it in the bucket. And we're talking about a a slant really a quick hitting kind of slant style route where we're not asking him to drive the football into an eighteen yard window on a deep dig, We're asking him to drive the ball in a window on like a seven to nine yard slant. Right. So those are the types of things that I think they're
going to have to build this offense around. The touch, deep passes, the quick hitters over the middle of the field, like, those are the things that mac Jones does well. Now, can they build an entire offense around that just kind of that style remains to be seen. I think they can, and especially if you add in the fact that the quick game had empty and things like that, where we're really not talking about plays that are seven to ten yards down the field. Now we're talking about like those
three to five yard dumpoffs and things like that. That's going to be a part of this as well. And you kind of bring that all together and that's your offense. What can't be a part of this offense on any level is the interception that we saw to Kyle Dugger.
Because I don't want to take anything away from Kyle Duger, but that was like it's a designed rollout.
Yeah, and some people and I guess you could give him this pass, but I try not to because I feel like people think I'm a mac apologist enough.
Anyways, No, he should not have made that.
Some people thought that in a game, he probably just would have been sacked instead of throwing a pick. But he tried to make a play. It was maybe like a fourth down situation or I don't know what, you know, something like that right where he was just kind of trying to make something happen, you know. But the main thing is is that every single time we saw this all last summer too, when they tried to install some of the Shanahan stuff, any sort of moving pocket is
a disaster. It's he doesn't throw well on the move. He doesn't have the athleticism or the arm talent to like throw across his body. Like that's a throw that he was trying to make that Josh Allen can make. We saw Josh Allen make it here last year. That's not a throw that Mac Jones can make. And I
just want to take the things he does well. The under center play action stuff, the inbreaking routes over the middle of the field, the quick hitters like those are the things that he can win with his brain, win with his touch and his accuracy and do well on but all of the rolling pockets and the bootlegs and like take those, throw them in the trash and set the can on fire, right like this that's not that cannot be in the playbook. It's just not good offense
for Mac Jones. It's not what he does well. And I think every single time we see them try to do it with him, it ends the same way, either him taking the sack because he has no play to make, or him throwing an ill advised interception. There's like no in between there.
Yeah, I mean it was you know, he tries to cut it back in and then I was he trying to throw the ball like there was nobody near Kyle Duggar and he had Kyle dugger right between the numbers. So I don't know what that one was. Yeah, but with the throw was like like, yeah, it was a bad decision. And on those rollouts, it it doesn't help. I don't even think and this isn't again Mac made a really bad play, but nobody got open. They congested everything that happened a couple of.
Times so that there was a few coverage sacks. Yeah, I say, I use air quotes for the people that are just listening to the podcast. A coverage sacks today that that happened, you know, they happened last year. It seemed like every other dropback was a covered sack like that that would happen all last season and a term last summer. I should say during training camp. I don't think that it happened. It was quite the same as bad, I should say, so far in the first two days,
but it just seems to me. And look, you can take this. If you want to take a negative slant on this, it's that he's limited. He's limited. His scope of what he's capable of doing is pretty limited. If you want to take a positive take on it is that I do think you can build an offense around the things that I highlighted.
Yeah, oh no, absolutely, I mean it's it's not I almost don't want to say it's like the San Francisco offense because then you go back to that, Oh my god, it's Shanahan everything they did last year, but you're going about it a different way. But I think the core concepts are the same. It's it's a quick hitting, paint by number matchup leverage based scheme and you don't have the West Coast elements of it. You're doing it out of more of a spread set. But I I mean
there's there's some overlap in there. Yeah, yeah, I agree, And I also like, just on that line, I wonder if that's what they were trying to go for last year and they just went too far in the other di.
I think, and so I think they were. But I think the main thing is is once they got into the season and they kind of scrapped some of like the under center, outside zone Shanahan McVeigh stuff, and they got into more spread a lot of what they were doing spread wise was really emphasizing the quarterback or the receivers making plays. Like they just receivers just had to win on their routes and the quarterback had to really make some really good downfield throws for that offense to succeed.
And for better or worse, they don't really have receivers that can create separation on their own, and they don't have a play making quarterback in the sense of like a Mahomes or an Allen or Herbert or some one of those guys that can just run around and make plays. So you gotta the scheme's got to help in some way, shape or form. And that's where play action. That's where RPO,
that's where motion, that's where formations. Right, we've seen the couple of these things where they're changing up formations and motioning guys and putting guys like tight ends outside or running backs inside and different guys in different spots like that's that's how you can help try to get guys open, get guys matchups that can be favorable because you don't just have a guy that you can just run out to the X receiver spot and have them just beat the guy in front of them ten times in a
game like that, just they just don't have that player on the roster. So I think that there's some bones there that they're really building upon. I want to talk a little bit about the receivers. Obviously everybody wants to hear about the receivers. I talked a little bit about Juju. Like I said, not like much to go crazy about, but I thought today was a good day for Juju. I thought he's getting a little bit better, building it
up slowly a little bit more and more. That throw that I mentioned that the pass, the touchdown pass that I had just kind of broke down. That was like, if you could have told Bill Belichick and Macro and Bill O'Brien back in March that they were gonna be able to hit that exact throw, they would have been like, Yeah, this is exactly why we signed Juju, Like it was exactly what you drew up on the whiteboard when you made the signing in March. So I think that's really optimistic.
That was probably the play that I said that should make Patriots fans excited, because that's exactly why Juju is here. He's been playing predominantly in the slot, I think, almost exclusively in the slot. He's running, you know, a lot of crossing routes, a lot of seams are skinny posts, you know, and slants like that type of thing. And he's gonna be one of those guys that's gonna win
in the middle of the field for this team. And I was I thought it was interesting that Macro and I wanted to get a little bit more into Macro. Then we can have time for it today, but maybe we can talk about it next time a little bit more. He mentioned that Juju is not gonna be a far departure from some of the other slot receivers that we've seen here, and people were like, you're saying, he's, you know, like Edelman or Welker, and I think he meant more Jacoby.
Yeah. Well the other interesting thing, like on top of that, I forget who was it Bill today? Somebody said today? Was Bill or you know Mac was going to say. Somebody said today that they were building things into the offense that Juju used to succeed in Pittsburgh and in Kansas City like things. So if you put those two together, that's Shakobe Myers. That is just straight up he's gonna
be like slot receivers has been here. But also there's gonna be elements that he succeeded with in Pittsburgh and Kansas City. That's that big slot stuff that Jacoby Myers did. That's that's curls, that's you know, direct ins things like that, where it's just get to the intermediate, use your size to create separation. And the difference being I think with him and Jacoby is he's gonna be able to do a little more after the catch.
Right exactly, So once they can move that that play action play that they hit the touchdown on today. Once they can move back even further and now all of a sudden he's catching that and then he's running with it after the catch. That that's why he's here. That that that design and that type of route and and all that is exactly why they made this.
I will say, though, there were a few periods where I thought Juju wasn't as targeted, and in those periods it was Christian Zolz covering him. Christian I didn't notice him a ton yesterday, and again they weren't. It was all very heavy. I thought Christian sauce was very good.
We'll get the Christian sauce. I'm gonna do this is this.
Is a right. You actually did a rundown for the show. I didn't run down to keep us on track because I I'll get three podcasts and two radio shows to nice Flex ninety eight five of the sports dot com. I'll be on Patriots Beat, and uh, I'll be on the radio.
We don't have time sports Patriots anyways. Just I'm gonna compliments how much the wide receivers right now? So I compliment to Juju. Yes, thought he looked good today, So compliment Sandwich I gotta be negative down and then I'll compliment somebody after.
It's a criticism, it's not negative criticism.
Thank you criticism. Taekwon Thornton, Taekwon Thornton, and everybody knows that I I love me some speed.
I mean that at first me practicing ot as you were ready to put.
I was ready. I was ready for the year to break out. Now, the one caveat that I'm still going to use, and everybody's gon out. You always do this, Evan, and then the guy stinks and you just don't want to say, I'm still using this caveat. I don't care. The one caveat that I'm going to use is that Taekwon Thornton's area of the field is between the twenties. He's not he's not a red zone player like he just isn't okay, So let's let's throw that aside for a second. He has I think kind of struggled in
these first two practices to get away from coverage. He's been targeted only one time and the two practices and the he was smothered on the route and the ball sailed out of the back of the end zone. It was almost essentially a throwaway. And then there was a moment today And this is what's more troubling to me than the lack of a separation, because I think in
between the twenties he'll separate. But the part that really troubled me was a moment where he appeared to me, and I'm saying this, like, you know, delicately, because I don't know for one hundred percent sure, but appeared to me like he ran the wrong route and he had a little route like it looked like it was sort of a converted style route where the corner was sitting outside of him right the corner was outside of him into the sideline, and instead of hitting the out and
then returning back into the middle of the field and kind of sitting down right inside of the corner, he kept running into coverage and and got himself into coverage like he ran himself into the defender. And immediately after the play, mac Jones ran over to him because it
was I think it was the last play of the sequence. Uh, And mac Jones ran over to him and started correcting him and saying instead of you know, running and then and then continuing into the coverage like I want you to come back in and get yourself into a better spot. And he under like he took the teaching moment and like he took the the critique. And now that's all
well and good. But I think the big thing is for me is that this this came up on his film last year, was some issues with route running and some of it was technique based, some of it was was processing based, right, which was this was process is one technique, but overall he was not a very good route runner as a rookie. And if he's not going to develop that sort of part of his game, then really all he is is a guy that can run fast,
and that's not what they need. Like, they really would greatly benefit And I think this is why I talk myself into it, is because they would greatly benefit from a year or two breakout from Taekwon Thornton. And in two days I have been a little bit skeptical of that happening.
Well again, you talk about, yeah, the red zone is not necessarily gonna be his area of expertise. But we've talked about this in the wake of the DeAndre Hopkins thing that all right, Well, somebody, whether it's Kendrick Bourne, whether it's Taekwon Thornton. Somebody has to maybe it's DeVante Parker, somebody hear jujus, but somebody has to emerge as that
true number one, that coverage dictating receiver. And I'm not saying Thornton has to be at his best in the red zone, but ideally that guy is going to play at that level at any spot on the field. We got the definition yesterday for Matt grow of a number one five receiver right good at everything. And if Thornton's not gonna be good in the red zone, I'm not saying that means he can't be an umber one wide receiver, but that really he's got to really be special in
between the twenties at that point to justify it. Last year we saw some flashes of route running creativity in the red zone. He had the touchdown against the Giants in the preseason. Yeah, the one he caught from Zappi and Cleveland, where again he breaks off, he sees the quarterback moving out of the pocket, he breaks off, his routy comes back, he gets himself open. So coming into this, I'm like, all right, and he's not going to be
a red zone thread. That's not his game. But can he build on that and just be a factor in the red zone even if they're not right, I don't need him to be their top option in the red zone. He shouldn't be, Like we set off the top of the show. They have Devonte Parker, they have Mike Asiki, they have Hunter Henry. They have these guys that can go up and climb the ladder and be competitive in terms of vertical separation. But if Thornton's going to be the guy I think we all think he needs to
be for this offense to maximize. He needs to be a guy that is going to be when you're in twelve personnel, is going to be one of your two best options in the red zone. And not that he's been terrible, but he hasn't poffed in the red zone so far, and that's you kind of wanted to see that from him.
Yeah, I just ideed him to clean up the route running. I think that's the main thing is that you gotta be able to understand the complexities of the offense, like the conversions and the option routes and things like that.
And that's not like truly an option route. It's more like a conversion where they give the receivers the freedom to Okay, if you have an out, but there's a corner, a cover two corner just squatting waiting for you to run an out, then what's the point of you running that out right where we're gonna allow you to run something that's a little bit more advantageous against that type of coverage. The reason why I say all this isn't
to pick on him for one route. The main reason why I say this is because that guy won't play in this like Bill O'Brien's not gonna play the receiver that doesn't know where he's going, right. It's just that's not how they operate here. And he might be physically really talented, and he might be really fast, and he might be Why I am so bullish on him coming into camp was because he's really the only true burner in this group. Nobody else can run like him, even close?
Uh not in that top group.
Well, well, maybe I think I know who you're talking about, and I'm gonna get sixt This is my compliment Sandwich.
All right, I was giving you an easy transition, but okay, finish all.
Right, And that is that should be Taekwon is the one guy that I feel like, Okay, this guy can stretch the field, this guy can take the top off whatever cliche you want to use, and they could really use that to open up the middle of the field for where they really want to throw the football, which is to Juju and the tight ends and the backs out of the backfield. If they can't have a burner
out there, they're slow. They're a slow group. It's Devonte Parker on the outside, it's Juju in the slot, it's the two tight ends. It's not a very fast group. And that does have concerns for me. Now, compliment sandwich time.
Yep.
The one guy. So the Patriots have been working in practice, and we're talking a lot about the passing game because there's no pads, so we're not we're not talking a ton about the line of scrimmage. Yet the Patriots been working in the passing game with a foursome at receiver that you were not surprised by. It's right Juju, it's Parker, it's Born, it's Thornton, it's the two tight ends.
And that was even pretty defined during a special teams period today on the side field. It was Mac in those fours the tight ends were doing, especially something Mac in those four receivers, So there's not even a fifth guy that's like started to like is behind them. But in that group, it's those four and then.
And then you also have you know, the backs like time on Comer and Mermandra Stevenson. For the most part, the one guy that seems to be creeping into that group and has been over there hasn't gotten a ton of reps, got a little bit more late in the in the practice today. But the one guy that's creeping over to that side of the field with the ones is Tomario Douglas. Yes, and that is encouraging for multiple reasons. I think from a mental standpoint, it makes sense. He
worked with the Patriots at the Shrine Bowl. He's been here all spring, he's been healthy and working all spring. And in a rookie.
What happened to just say, the wind blew over?
It was very windy up there today. To Mario Douglas, I think there's reason to be a little bit optimistic here. And we all we both liked him coming in. I mean we're a little bit biased because we saw him out in Vegas, So I guess maybe it was kind of one of our guys, so to speak. But he's somebody that you will get a lot of these receivers that they have. You mentioned all the guys that they have that are really big guys. They're good guys that that are gonna win with physicality. He's one of the
few guys that's got the that jitterbuggy. Yeah, you know, he's well literally he's got four to four speed. He's got some quickness to his game. He's got that more of that like shifty, explosive game to him. Where they have a lot of these like long striders like a Devonte Parker or a Mikeasicki and Hunter Henry. He's someone that brings a different flavor. And we also mentioned the the gadget plays and things like that they could do with them. The jet sweeps, the screen passes like that
type of stuff exists in his game as well. But I've been encouraged by what we've seen underneath the defense, like does little quick hitters does, And that's something that we know that Brady used to really rely upon because it just gets the ball out of the quarterback's hands.
And when you look at the tackle position and where they're at right now. With that we've said, I've said how many times I said mac jone is gonna have to be his own best pass protector this year. A guy like tomorrow Douglas's going to get in and out of his first break quickly and then be able to create after the catch. That's the kind of guy that's going to eat in this offense. One more observation on
Douglas for me, Evan. I know you roll your eyes at the listed weights and all of that, but he was.
Just because I know how the the uh what's not what's the thing with the I know how it's made behind the scenes.
How the sausages made. But like objectively here in shout out to the Patriots for sending us to the Shrine Bowl. That's why this stuff is so big. We saw him at the Shrine Bowl. I saw him. I stood next to him. I talked to him the set. He was one seventy nine at the Shrine bul. He's won seventy nine. He's now listed at one ninety two. Yeah, I tasked that looks about right.
Do you think he gain weight?
I think he he looks much more muscular. He definitely, yeah, than thirteen A lot I don't know if he okay, but I'm saying like his his body type has changed. Yeah, he was he was a twig. He was a bit of a twig, and he got hurt at the Shrine Bowl. And he's not a guy I'm looking at now, like looking at him at the Shrine Bowl. The big question, as it is with a lot of guys I think we're even talking about this was Za Yeah at the time, was is he going to hold up in the NFL? Right?
But but just like physically he's he gonna be able to not not like hold up in that sense, but he's gonna be able to take enough hits.
Yeah.
And I look at tomorrow Douglas. Now you like the term rocked up, right, a guy that's just he's he's got that. Now he's bigger, he's he's more built to play in the NFL. Yeah, we got to see how he the play strength and now he uses that for leverage and press. But I think if they use him right, he's not a guy that's gonna get pressed a lot. Yeah, but he looks he looks the part. He looks bigger. The way it changed, you can see it in his body and He's not any less quick. He's not any
less fast with that extra mass on his frame. So when you see that, that stands out. He just has a.
Totally different body type and skill set from the rest of the group, and that makes him I think we're we're talking. We're talking him up right now. But what I the main point of all of this is he's easily has the inside track to be the fifth receiver on.
I think he's the guy right now. Yeah, I mean you called him, you called him Day three z A leading into the draft, and that's kind of that's translated. You're seeing a similar skill set. He's not as advanced as a guy in Baltimore. I haven't I haven't like gotten catch up on any of the other teams.
It makes me sick.
Is he is he balling out?
Of course?
Okay, yeah, but they're not in pads yet.
Yeah sure, sure, okay, But anyways, I'm excited about tomorrow Douglas. Like I said, we're talking about him making the team as the fifth receiver. We're not talking about him being the next Julian Edelman. We're just saying that he's somebody that's popped. He's somebody that's working with the other regular guys that been rather top guys in the offense, and that's different. You know, guys like Kaishawn Boudi, Malik Cunningham, Edilee They're they're all working on a different part of
the field. And tomorrow Douglas is with the starters, which I think is really notable. Last thing I have on the dock and on the offense that we got to take this call because we've left Sorrey care on hold for thirty minutes. Last thing I want to talk about
the offense. My biggest takeaway, I think if we're trying to go big picture about the offense and where they're headed schematically and all that kind of stuff, I think that with the Hopkins sweepstakes, it allowed us to talk so much about receivers and receiver talent and all that kind of stuff. Ultimately, this offense is going to live or die by their offensive line. I think they have enough skill talent wise that Bill O'Brien will scheme it
up and they'll be able to move the football. Maybe it will look a little bit like twenty twenty one in that sense, and hopefully you get a little bit better quarterback play than rookie Mack and that's where the difference is. But this offensive line is it's the making, it's the breaking point for the entire team, I honestly feel.
And there's no pads, there's there's no legal contact. So I'm waiting to see Riley Reef with the pads on because once he can be physical with guys, and he can bully guys, and he can get his hands on people and things like that, it could totally change. But foot speed wise, Riley Reef has been a little bit slow. It's a little bit slow getting out to his landmarks. He's had some trouble protecting his corner. Those are things that you notice now. On the other side, Trent Brown
looks great. Trent Brown looks ready to go. He looks like he's in good shape. I'm optimistic that that's headed in the right direction. Right tackle to me is still a worrisome spot. And look, I don't want to do the whole thing again, but the frustrating part still remains for me that we knew it. It was a weak spot on the roster last It was a turnstyle last year. Let's just be honest. It was a turnstyle last year.
They could have addressed it with a real, a real, a real solution in free agency, Like this was a really good free agency tackle clefts for the draft. Orlando Brown, Caleb McGarry, Juwan Taylor missing with McGlinchey. So they had some real guys that they could have signed. And I think in the draft that I give them a little bit of a passing the draft because they weren't going to draft them over Christian Goanzalez.
Yeah. But but even in like the second third round, somebody on the drafted somebody.
Yeah. So anyways, what are your again, you're non padded very early on all the all the caveats. What are your early impressions of the Riley Reef at right tackle. That's a tough name to say, Reef right tackle experience.
Well, it's first of all, and I look, I'm having trouble with this one because you know me, I'm bad at like approximating things like how long have you been in the car? I'll say half an hour, it's been three hours. I have no concept of that. But look, the Matriots have some real behemos to tackle. Trent Brown's six six three eighty Conor McDermott I think is like, what six seven three thirty. Calvin Anderson's a big dude as well. Riley Reef is listed at six six three ten.
He doesn't look big to me, and maybe that's who he's standing next to. He doesn't look small, but he doesn't look big.
And I'm just worried about the foot speed.
Well, so that's the thing. I'm like, if he had size, if even more size like that, you don't lose size with age, right right, whereas some of the other stuff. Yeah, like there was one today and look, I actually thought Jeloanni Toebah had a really good day today all around. He made a couple of plays, so he was sort of locked in. But yeah, there was one today where nothing against Stelanna Tobia. Speed's not his game. He's not
the fastest guy on the team. Jelanny Taya ran right by him on the beach and that was you know that that's a moment that you look at you say, I don't know even with the pads, I don't know about that one.
I think the main thing is is that it's not just sing it off of two days in trading camp. His foot speed was starting to decline last year. On film, He's.
Thirty four, Just just say what it is. He's thirty four. There's not a lot of thirty four year old tackles in the NFL.
But I just want to make sure it's clear that I thought his play was declining from last season in actual NFL games, and then he comes out here in camp and it doesn't look so hot either. Now, maybe they give it a couple of weeks. Calvin Anderson comes off of NFI. Maybe he's somebody that they worked him out at left tackle for most of the spring because Trent Brown wasn't here. But maybe he actually ends up being the right you know, right tackle solution. Maybe Connor
McDermott jumps him on the depth chart. Maybe City South comes out of nowhere and is somebody that can make a push for the right tackle spot. But that to me, offensively, maybe even more so than the receivers at this point, continues to be a worrisome situation. The one other thing that was a little bit worried some I I want to see tomorrow if he's back out there and if he's fine, But Toy Montgomery did get a little bit dinged up today. He that's his thing, like he's on
the track every single time. We see him every in the spring, last year, in the summer, last year, in the spring, this year, first two days of training camp this year, he's looked the part of the of the pass catching back to the Patriots need he has, but he can't. He's gotta stay healthy. Yeah, and if he's already getting dinged up, and I know you're you can go on your whole thing about about the cornerback that threw him the ball.
No, it's it's it's a shame because he did look really good, and he looked good, you know, last year he's got We'll see what happened today, Like he didn't. I think it's encouraging. They didn't come right off the field.
I'm hopeful it was just a tweak and just kind of an awkward Yeah.
So he he he because after the play he ran a few more routes, which he looked fine running the routes, like in between plays, he's like shaking his leg and stuff. And then he went over to the trainers and spent the rest of the day with them, did some light jogging. But if he's healthy, he's a game changer. Because you mentioned him in that third down back he's been wrapping a lot of wide receiver to he's listed as a wide receiver.
I just I know he's not the the I know it's been a while since he's produced. And that's the big thing with him. It's like, I'll believe it when I see it in an actual game. And I also know that he's not the most explosive guy, Like he's not like this game breaking receiving back or a receiver slash receiving back. But I think what's really unique about him is what you just said is that he can
also play wide receiver. Yeah, and Bill O'Brien is one of those guys that is just gonna f with defenses with the guy.
And that's what I'm saying. You put like Evan, I said this to you a month ago. You put him in Mike Kasiki, both in the formation, both in the huddle. Yeah, the defense has no idea. What's is it eleven? Is it twelve? Is it ten? Is it right?
Are they running? Are they passing?
It can be so many things, and they.
Can be empty or they could be under center and run the ball out of that and it's it's all the same.
To them, exactly exactly so I think there's tremendous value in time on comery on this offense, and I still think he can play. It's not the same question as can he be held, but it's kind of the same question. How much do they put in the offense for him? Because the thing about Toime Montgomery is that things you're and you're not gonna build the entire offense around him, but you'd like to put in some things that feature him and feature you know, take advantage of that versatility.
The problem is if you can't count on it be on the field, are you installing stuff that suddenly you can't use. I don't know that there's.
A guy maybe it's Pierre Strong, maybe.
But Pierre Strong, I don't know how much. He's never played wide receiver. The guy I would go to is Jalen Hurd, but I haven't been super wild by what I've seen from Jalen Hurt.
But he hasn't done anything else.
He's a little stiff, he can run a straight line. But it's you know, how much of that stuff are you gonna put in the playbook? Knowing are we gonna be able to go back to this? Like if he gets hurt now you're throwing out in tiere sections of the playbook and then if it's and even if he is out the al right, so you have you know, maybe you build it in as the season goes on. But yeah, that's my question with him is not even can they count on him? How much do they think
they can count on him? How much of a significant role are they willing to give him in the big picture element of the offense, knowing that his availability is kind of up in the air, and I you know, we'll see if he's out there tomorrow. If this is you know, if it's a significant injury, then I think the question's answered. It's you know, maybe he starts he's on IR or whatever like, and they go back to it later when he comes back, they start putting it in. But it is kind of a tough You want this
guy to be a big part of your offense. But if you plan for him to be a big party your offense and he's not there, and he has such a unique skill set that you don't really have a backup.
Right, I mean Bill Belichick's was asked what is his position and just said versatile.
Well, so then there's the other layer of this it was reported today that the Patriots are may be setting up a meeting with Dalvin Cook.
We'll get to that in a sad Okay, gotta stick on schedule. Let's get to Syrikira Surrika. I'm sorry to keep you on hold on. I hope you're saying your name correctly. But what do you got hey?
You actually oh, SERGEI yeah, So to finally reach the best duel of the Patriots beat cool to say hi to Alex today the Hill.
If you were the person whose hand I apologize shook somebody's hand and I think I have a firm handshake and somebody's like out my hand. So if that's you, I apologize, or whoever that was that they're listening. They said they listened to the show I apologize.
Well, anyways, I'm talking about say in the running back step, I think it's not a great sign that Harry is strong and JJ allsplit reps with the one after Mandra and Ty We're out. Do you think Cook would be a real upgrade that allows Tie to maybe play more as a receiver, and like you said, maybe he doesn't get us injured.
Yeah, it's a good question, Sergeriya, and thanks for the call and for listening. So Dalvin Cook, I think that's a good transition. Yeah, set us up for it.
Just to go back to the time Montgomery Port and I'm saying, how much of this stuff can you build in if you have a guy like Dalvin Cook who had like can I don't know that he has the wide receiver background Toime Montgomery does, but I'd be comfortable giving him some of those slot responsibilities just based on his overall skill set and athleticism if you sign him, Because you got to figure out too how to get him and Romandra in the field at the same time
without bring at twelve, you are twenty one without being in twenty one. I kept those mixed up. Yeah, but I want to say it right you you build that stuff in for Deavin Cook instead of Time Montgomery, and then Time Montgomery becomes the backup for that role and you're not relying on him as much. So I wonder if that would be part of the conversation with Dalvin Cook.
So here's my two cents on Dalvin Cook. One, just along that line, I did go back and watch some of his twenty twenty one tape just to have it ready. You know I do that and got to be prepared, got to be prepared, and I was actually pleasantly surprised at how much Kevin O'Connell used him in the passing game as a receiver.
They I'm actually looking for the snappers, and.
So they ran. They have their the vikings and O'Connell KOC has their own empty package. Right that that Bill Brian's going to feature here, different different coaches, but just saying they both run empty, and Dalvin Cook did line
up quite a bit as a receiver. Now, what they did with him as a receiver out of empty was they ran him on a lot of shallow drags and they just had him kind of run down the you know, run across the field and then they would just dump it to him and just create these catch and run opportunities. So essentially it's just like a long handoff, right, And that's still something that they could do if he does
come here. The long story short on Dalvin Cook is that, as Macro said yesterday, there's a weird thing going on with the veteran market right now, especially at running back. But really there's a couple of really good players still available, like Ganick and Gockway to Davian Clowney, like, it's not just running backs. Marcus Peters just signed yeah, a couple of days ago. It's rare, as grow put it, that they're this many good players are still available this time
of year. So in that sense, and we made the same argument with DeAndre Hopkins, it's a market deficiency that Dalvin Cook is still available on July twenty seventh. And when I say market deficiency, I mean the fact that they are not going to have to bake the braink bake wow, break the bank to pay him because that money is not out there for him. He's not going to make fifteen million dollars a year. He's not going to make twelve million dollars. I don't even think the money he's going to make six.
But I don't think the money is the issue with Dalvin Cook in the sense that he's not getting paid. He wants to reset his marketing. He wants to go somewhere where he can prove how good he is and is he going to come be a spellback here? So that's that's my main That's the big issue.
It's double right, because one, he needs the opportunity to show what he can still do. And secondly, we know the Patriots and we know that they're going to tie his money up in incentives, and if he's not getting the touches to meet the incentives, then he's not going to make his money.
So and that goes back to the point of you have to find for this to work. You have to find ways that him and remander on the field at the same time. That's basically what you have to do.
Now.
With all that said, because it sounds like I'm out on Dalvin Cook, I'm still there for the talent grab like I still think, oh that at some point you have to realize, yeah, it creates a redundancy. With Remondri's evenson, you are running the risk that Dalvin Cook is going to be like one hundred touches below his incentives in terms of your centives won't be tied up in touches. They'll probably be tied up in like snap counts and
yards and touchdowns. And if he's he's probably not going to break the thresholds for a lot of his incentives, and so you run into the problem of maybe him being disgruntled because of that. Later on in the season, there's a lot of things that I think you have to be were concerned or just kind of like a little bit luke warm on the other last thing, I'll say, and I know you're gonna hate this with Alex, but the nerds do not like Dalvin Cook anymore.
His analytics well, the nerds don't like running backs period, right.
But even in relative to running backs, his efficiency last year in terms of the advanced metrics completely dropped off boo. So with that being said, I'm still here for the talent crab. I like talented football players on my football team. And if this is going to be your offense what we just described earlier action and you know, touch deep throws and quick hitters, and you're gonna have to run the ball, You're gonna have to be able to run the ball, and Remandre can't run the ball three hundred
times again. So I'm for it, but I I don't think it happens, mainly because I think the Jets will offer him a much higher base salary. But I also am just not like I wouldn't be as upset about it as I was about DeAndre Hopkins.
Let me put you, Yeah, they don't need Cook like I don't know how much better Cook makes them in the big picture. Yeah, he'd be a good player to have. But like Hopkins, I thought, was the guy that potentially alters the win total. I don't know the Cook. Maybe he makes it easier to win some already winnable games, and he makes some games that are gonna be tougher a little closer. But I'll give you this number on Cook though. This is interesting. So last year is a
receiver lined up out why thirty six times? That was a career high. He lined up in the slot just eight times. He lined up in line forty nine times.
Yeah, so in line?
Is that that like right behind the tackle thing?
Yeah, it's like he was standing up like he's not like Hannon the dirty line. It's like a wing position.
But you could do that that, You could put him there and put Remandra in the backfield. That would work.
Yeah. They did that mostly, like I said, out empty, and the idea was to obviously run him through traffic and peaks and stuff like that and get him free on crossing routes. And he was pretty effective on those, Like he was able to catch the football a couple of times on third down and turn up field and get eight yards on third and seven like that type of stuff. He'd converted a couple of times that I remember seeing in some games. So I don't think he's
He's not a pass catching back. It's not James White, right, He's not gonna come in here and catch sixty five passes. But I do think that he brings a little bit to the passing game, a little bit to the running game. Like I said, i'd sign him if but I wouldn't. I wouldn't go out of my way to sign him. I would have gone out of my way to sign DeAndre exactly. Yeah, that's sort of how I feel about all right, let's talk about defense really quickly. A couple
of defensive point I wanted to get to. The first one was Kyle Duger Ye, who's head. He's very good back to back days of interceptions. Now, I think he's had some really great coverage on the tight ends as well, just outside of the interceptions. The way that this looks to me and the way this sounds to me, I
have never heard Bill Belichick. I shouldn't say never, but most of the time it's about a premium position, like when last year when he said, oh, let's wait and see what Lamark Jackson signs for.
Yeah.
Bill Belichick this morning said that players like Kyle Dugger go early in the draft and get paid a lot. Right, So the team season coming, the team knows that Kyle Dugger is going to be a big money contract type of guy. He's off to a great start in camp. It's two days, but he's off to a good start.
This sounds and feels to me a lot like Jonathan Jones a few years ago, Shaq Mason a few years before that, have a good August, comes September first, we'll get an extension, right, And I think that if he continues to have a strong camp, I would almost I would put some money down that he's gonna get some money comes September. I think that they would make it work on an extension if he just goes out there and has a big month of August.
So it's interesting. Matt Gros said yesterday he was asked about just extensions in general, just the philosophy behind it, and he said that the tricky thing about extensions is you're working with an unknown you don't know the market because there's a whole season ahead both for the player
and the team. Look, there's a number of different ways you can interpret that, but in the context of Kyle Duggar, his value is probably not going to go down because even if he has a blow, you know, below expectation season, which he's not going to, but even if he does, he still has two really strong years to point at and or three really strong years to point that and say this is the player I am. Whereas if he exceeds expectations, you're talking about it. It's not even about
gauging the safety market. You're talking about a guy who's going to reset the safety market.
I would say that it almost becomes like he almost becomes a defensive playmaker.
It's like, I think you start getting into some some of that lower end top to lower end top tier is a bad way to put it, but like, yeah, lower number one cornerback money. Yeah yeah. So they I think they know, like his value is only gonna go up, or it's not only go to go up, but it's not gonna go down, right, his value is not going to go down at this point. So if they want to sign him, it's gonna be cheaper to sign him now.
And there is a little bit of risk of course that comes with that, but with anybody, you take the risk that comes with that now rather than trying to sit down with him in March after he's had you know, some people think he could be an All Pro this year after he's had a borderline all Pro season. When he has all of these, you know, his agent's gonna
go to a combine. He's gonna talk to people see what the value is when he has all these pencil off for sitting there, it's gonna be a lot easier to talk to him then, or a lot harder to talk to him then. So yeah, I mean, I think it makes a lot of sense for them to get the deep sign. Now these in house and free agents come to market, We've seen that it gets, it gets pricey.
J C. Jackson I think immediately priced himself out of New England when he hit the market. Joe Toney priced himself out of the New England and when he hit the open market. So again, I think that this is one of those things where and I honestly wouldn't be totally shocked if the Patriots actually said this. The Kyle Duggar coming into training camp like show out in camp have have this strong summer and we'll we'll talk again and they have that.
Well we know they're already talking to guy because josh Ucha said today that his team has talked to the Patriots about an extension, Like and that could just be, hey, extension, all right, we can we can chat like it could be just setting up the talk, but like it's on their minds.
Okay, So Kyle Duger good football player. Yes, first impressions of Christian gonzales.
Ca can play, can play, I said when we did our training camp previous show. And I think for him, I think I'm pretty comfortable, definitely more so than most rookies in terms of where he's at as a player. Individually. It's just a little for any guy coming in for a first overall pick, coming in any position, there's little nuances to the NFL game that players have to pick up, and as good as you are, sometimes that can take a little bit. So for me watching him, it's all right.
Is how long is the learning curve going to be until we're really talking about him? Is like locked in as an NFL player? Is it going to be the season is going to be a couple of months? Is it going to be you know by the end of camp, is he just going to come in and kind of get hit the ground role in the first few days and with the red zone work, it's tough to get
a full picture of that. But like he there haven't There hasn't been once that I've looked, and again it's very limited sample size, but I know there's been one play and I've watched him quite a bit. Yeah that I've watched him and said, a rookie mistake. All right, he's got to figure that out. Like he's he's for and for a young guy too. They generally draft guys
that are twenty three, twenty four years old. For a kid who just turned twenty one, he is a very mature player, and that's very exciting to see.
Yeah, he's got a great grasp of what they're doing. Defensively. Yeah, he's gotten beat a few times. He's a corner, he's gonna get beat. Yeah, that's the nature of the position. He's gotten beat a few times. But all of it is more I personally think, just physical. He'll get there in terms of his ability to stay glue to guys at the top of routes and anticipate things like that. As he matures and as he sees more reps in
the NFL. But what I'm really optimistic about is how tied into what they're doing defensively from a schematic perspective, he knows how to play to his leverage. You see him in man coverage like sitting on the correct hip at the receiver because he knows he's got the help inside. You know, you see him walling off the routes that he needs to be worried about, and not worried about
the routes worried the help is. That's something that a lot of great corners, if you watch them play, That's what makes them able to make so many great plays and suffocate receivers is that they know their leverage, they know their assignment. And I think that he has a
really good grasp what they do. And he ran that you know that switch that banjo with Miles Bryant yesterday where you know there was his receiver broke outside, Miles Bryant's receiver broke inside, and they just passed it off seamlessly. You know, those are the types of the high IQ plays, and they had advanced kind of understanding and feel an
instinct for coverage. That is really really optimistic. I think that he's he's as far along as a Patriots rookie, like he's going to be a Day one outside corner. He's gonna start Day one at outside corner against the Eagles in Week one, Like I don't have any hesitant.
I don't know. I don't really know the last time they had a rookie where it felt like A that was gonna happen and B it should have like no offense to cold Strange, But Cole Strange was put in it as a starting left guard last year because they had nobody else to play there. Right, they have some other corners that theoretically could play over Christian Gonzalez Gonzales if it wasn't going well, and I don't think that that's really going to be the case.
Really quickly, a little NFL breaking news real quick. Sure, Joe Burrow was carted off practice, know if his ankle or calf, but oh boy and INSINCENTI and I saw some people so unfortunate reality of camp.
Yeah, really quickly as well, not just football wise, Jack Jones, the fallout there definitely have seen him demoted to second team reps with in the secondary. So it's really gonna be at least for right now, until Jack Jones's legal situation works itself out or doesn't. It's gonna be Christian Gonzales and Jonathan Jones on the outside, and then it's Miles Brian versus Marcus Jones for the slot role. How do you feel about that? I really think that that's
still a really good group. I mean, obviously it's better with with Jack and with Jonathan Jones back inside in the slot, But I still think that that's a really strong group. And I think Jonathan Jones showed us last year. Okay, maybe he's not gonna be shadowing Justin Jefferson Stefan Diggs, Like you did need a little bit better player, and that's why Christian Gonzalez is here. But I still think he can play outside corner and I'm not like too concerned about him being outside again.
Yeah, my question with Jack Jones is, you know, are they preparing for a potential suspension or something, or do they think that this is the best group they have, or like why is he getting fewer reps? I don't know. We're just not gonna know, and I don't think they does ask them but.
I think it has to be that they are preparing for not having him, whether it's a suspension, whether it's team mandated where they just say, until your legal situation saw resolves itself, we're not going to put you out there.
Whatever the case may be, whatever the reasoning is, I'm not going to speculate, but I think that they are looking at it like we cannot get this defense ready by in rely on the fact that we're going to have Jack Jones out there and have him be a part of the nucleus of the defense and then get him stripped away and then you're in trouble. And now you're getting Jonathan Jones or Jalen Mills or someone like
that ready to play corner. Like a week out, you know, Philly's coming on the bus and you're you're you're just starting to get those guys ready, like you don't want that to happen. So that that's a synopsis of the first two days of Patriots training camp. We'll be back next week on Thursday, probably around the same time. Three o'clock is about when we can the dust settles for
us and we can get on the air. So around three o'clock next Thursday to break down another what will hopefully be a couple of padded practices at that point and we can really get in to the nitty gritty of training camp. But it's been a fun couple of days. It's good to see the team back out there, good to have some things to talk about. And we will definitely continue to monitor the Dalvin Cook situation. I think that that could heat up a little bit as well.
I would think by the time we do the show next week we have a resolution.
Are you ready for another sweepstakes? Like DeAndre Hopkins, you.
Feel to do it, Let's do it.
Let's do it all right? So until then, signing off for Alex Barth Marine Behind the Glass, I'm Evan Lazar. Thanks so much for listening, Thanks so much for watching, and we'll see you guys next week.
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