Thing. I can't see Evan. I think he's on video. I believe he's on video. I'm here, okay, so I can't see him. He can make all the faces in me that he wants. It'll be a secret between him and you guys watching. But thanks so much for tuning in. Today. We're gonna kind of do a little bit of a
combo show here. So obviously two days of practice out in Green Bay, we're gonna cover in bolt that won't just be focused on today, but I think we do have to start out with today, Evan, and we're going right through the pleasantries because I think there's a ton to talk about here, because if you guys on Twitter, we're an over exaggerating. This was one of the greatest practice performances in NFL history. There's something about Mac Jones
and these joint practices. He won his job two years ago in a joint practice against the New York Giants, and then he came out today and apparently looked like a top five quarterback in the NFL.
Yeah, well, I want to go top five quarterback in the NFL just yet. But look, I thought yesterday was a clear win for the Green Bay Packers. They outplayed the Patriots on sides of the ball, and it was bumpy for the Patriots offense. They started out well, very first eleven on eleven period on a Wednesday. I'm getting my days all mixed up. On Wednesday was good from the Patriots offense. They made some plays in the red zone in particular, which has been a strong point two
days in a row. So that's one thing I think they can hang their hats on. That's been good for both days. But Mac Jones said it best after practice said the consistency wasn't there. It was one good play, one bad, one good play, one bad and returned to the grenade offense if you will on Wednesday, where it felt like every other play was a sack, a penalty,
procedural thing going wrong and it wasn't sharp. It didn't look great today on Thursday, though, and I just tweeted out my takeaways on the offensive side of the ball, and Duce will have defensive takeaways here shortly as well. I would say that this was maybe the best practice I've ever seen Mac Jones have on Thursday.
Better than the Giants practice.
We always go back and forth on it, right because the Giants practices to you and I, Alex is like the pinnacle right, that's a.
New England Patriots where were you moment? Brady de Moss right in seven is up there twenty eight to three. Of course, chronologically here a Quinn Ortine going ten for ten in the in stadium practice in Mac Jones against the Giants and joint practice is does this join the list?
I think this joins the list for two reasons.
One, I thought that there was more down the field emphasis today than maybe we've ever seen from Mac. Obviously, the big highlight which we can break down was the Devonte Parker touchdown, but he also had to practice earlier, a throw earlier in practice to Taekwon Thornton on a deep over route that he hit and then he hit Hunter Henry up up the scene for another big play. So I didn't think it was just the underneath stuff or chipping away or check downs or things like that.
I felt like he was pushing the ball down the field. And the red zone period that they had today a pretty extensive one. It wasn't just Mac Jones, it was Bailey Zappy too. They went right through the Packers defense, the ones and the twos inside the red zone, just hitting passes all over the place to like seven different receivers DeVante Parker to Mario Douglas, Kendrick Bourne, Juju Smith, Schuster, Anthony Firkser, like everybody getting involved in that portion of practice,
ones and twos like I just mentioned. So, I thought that this practice was one of the better competitive joint.
Practices that I've ever been a part of, where you.
Really saw an edge, you saw some fire, you saw some pushback from the Patriots, and I know that there was a lot of things made of the skirmishes. I know there are a lot of tweets out there about skirmishes, some involving keon White things like that, but this wasn't I mean, we were both at the joint is last year against the Panthers alex where it was ugly in terms of the extracurriculars.
This wasn't necessarily like that.
This was like, you know, there were some skirmishes, but for the most part, it was friendly competitive fire from both teams. You know, Jabriel Peppers and Jai Yar Alexander going back and forth, jawing at each other, and then after practice you see them dapping each other up and you know, exchanging pleasantries. So I don't think that this
was really a bad blood between these two teams. Like we also saw the Jets and the Bucks, they canceled their second practice, right the Jets pulled out of the second practice because of how bad the first one was.
That's not what this was like.
This was just live, competitive and intense, and I thought that it was just an extremely entertaining practice.
To watch for what it thort the Jets pulled out ahead of time because they were worried about other things. I don't know that we can do the Jets another time, because there's a lot to get to there, folks on the Patriots today, and if you want to talk about the Patriots with us as well, eight five five Pats five hundred is the number Patriots at web radio dot com. Is the email we'll get. We already have one email and we'll get to it in a little bit. We've
got some calls coming on the board. But in the meantime, look, Evan, you're normally the one that's kind of pouring water on the fire. Maybe it's something about the one chair. I guess that's true here. I know that's true at the Sports Up a lot was made yesterday after practice, and you mentioned the comments for Mac Jones where he said
they weren't consistent enough. I believe it was in that same answer he talked about how he was looking forward to going back watching the film and working on it. So when Mac Jones comes out today and performs the way he did, there's a lot of you know, the people who are down on Mac will come out and say, well, okay, great on Sundays in the fall, he's not gonna go get to go back watch the film and play the
team again on Monday. How much of today's growth do you think was adjusting to the Packers defense and how much of it was just they had a good day and it could have been the first, the second, the third day of joint practices. They were just at their best today.
Yeah. I think that's a fair point.
You know, it's an interesting setup where you do get to play the same exact guys two days in a row. We talk about it with the practices back home, where when you're going up against the same defense or the same offense every single day, you start to pick up on tendencies, and you start to pick up on strengths and weaknesses of individual players. So how much of it is learning and adapting to what the packers are doing.
I guess that that remains to be seen.
I think the one big thing though, that with Mac and that we can talk about some of the individual players around him, is the anticipation that he's been throwing the Sorry.
Even cut out right when you gave those whatever those adjectives were, time whatever.
You can you hear me? Now?
Yeah?
All right?
The timing and anticipation that he's throwing the football with I think has been extremely impressive over the last two days, not just today. I thought yesterday he threw the ball as similar anticipation.
Oh, I can see you now look at that.
I have literally so I had there's a there's a studio monitor over there. I have it up on my computer to read the YouTube chat. And now I have this one here, so there is it's literally like all three, I guess the third see you okay, yeah, but yeah, I'm just scaring down the barrel of this.
This is better because you know that we don't talk over each other and stuff like that.
I'm gonna be looking over here the whole show.
But anyway, that's all right.
So I think the biggest thing is is that you look at you know, the timing, the rhythm, the anticipation. And I asked Mac about that yesterday, about his improved anticipation and feel for for this offense, and he mentioned that, you know, there's two different there's different types of throws. Like some throws are in rhythm throws where you are trying to get the ball out quickly and you are trying to hit receivers out of their brakes and throw
with that magic word of anticipation. And there are other throws that are more progression throws where you're just going one, two, three through the progression and you might come late to something that's open, but if you get to it eventually and you hit it, that's.
The whole goal.
So they're not every throw is meant to be thrown with anticipation, I guess, is the point I'm trying to make. But what we've seen from him over the last two days, and I think each with each day of practice is that improving tremendously. And the one throw that really stood out today and we're not allowed to share the video, Alex, you and I, but I think it is circulating around
Twitter if people want to search for it. He made a throw in the red zone work on a touchdown pass to Kendrick Bourne where Board was working.
Against Jaii Alexander.
So we're not talking about Kendrick Bourne working against a practice squad corner here.
We're talking about a top fifteen, top ten corner in the league, right.
And on the play, they ran a little inside hitch from the slot and then they ran a dig down the back of the end zone for Born, and Born kind of gave a little head fake to his right and then cut it back inside on the inbreaker and brilliant ran a great route against Jaiyir and god No, and then Mac just threw the ball instantly out of the break, like you came out even a step before. Kendrick Bourne turned his eyes back into the backfield and the ball is just on him, you know. He turns
around and there's the football. And those are the types of throws that Mac is going to have to make consistently throughout his career to be a really good quarterback.
We talk so much about what he can't do, that he doesn't have this great arm talent, or he's not super mobile and things like that, but what he is good at is he throws the ball accurately, he throws it with good touch, He processes the field and sees the field really quickly, and he's good before the snap with getting the team into the proper plays and reading defenses and things like that. Those are the things that he has to emphasize in his game and Bill O'Brien
has to emphasize in his game. They have to be carrying trades for him to be a really good quarterback
in this league. And I think what we're seeing is that the good parts of Mac Jones, which I think, frankly for a lot of people, are sometimes difficult to quantify because it's not this Josh Allen arms strength or this Jalen Hurt's mobility, but that acumen that preestnappability, the processing speed, anticipation, accuracy, touch like those are the things that we've seen him do well at the NFL level, and he was doing those really well out there today.
So if he continues to lean on his strengths and not have to really overemphasize any of those weaknesses, then I think that he's going to be a good quarterback.
And just to go back to my original point too, about you know, getting to see it and then go out there again. The thing about the first joint practice, I mean they might have watched a little bit of tape. I don't know how much tape you watch for something like that. I would equate it more towards like you get to watch tape of that team the week before in the week before that. So it's not like I don't think it's a perfect apples to apples, but I do think it's a fair point to make. You mentioned
ketrick board. He had a really nice play today. Seemed like DeVante Parker's name got brought up a lots on Twitter, and it feels like to me, he's I want to be careful because he had a really good camp last year and then was hit and miss in the regular season. I know a lot of people think he was bad.
I thought it was game to game with him. He was inconsistent, But it seems like he's kind of making some steps towards being if they are going to have that deep element, being the deep threat they need him to be.
Yeah, it's funny because I was watching practice with a few of the reporters that were out here.
Both days, you had to.
We were standing on field level, so you're you have this ninety player roster, coaches, training staff, and all these guys are standing in front of you, right You're trying to like see through the trees to watch every single play. And so we were helping out each other. You know what did you see? Did you see this? Do you see that? And anyways, you know what I was thinking said out loud, and I was thinking to myself at some point, isn't he going to try to push the
football to DeVante Parker one time? Like just give park a chance to make a play on the ball down the field once and then of course the big play at the end of it ended up happening. And I think the cool thing about the forty yard touchdown at the end was that it wasn't like a fifty to fifty ball.
It's not like Devonte.
Parker won a back shoulder or maxed us through this like arm punt, like arcing in the air and he just out jumped the corner for it. We've seen the Parker make those types of plays plenty, and it's not here or there to me because I feel like those jump balls and we've talked about this before on the shhow it's it's low percentage, Like even for a guy like Devonte Parker, we're talking about a catch rate of maybe like forty to five to fifty.
But if that's not.
What we're looking for, right like, you want things that are more efficient, you want things that are going to hit more consistently, be less volatile. This was and he was against Russell Douglas, who's the projected starting corner for the Packers opposite of you're Alexander, and he just ran right Yeah, he ran right by him. You know, it
wasn't it wasn't a fifty to fifty ball. He ran right by him and mac Jones hit him in stride and led him into the end zone a little bit for like a forty forty five yard touchdown, and the sideline just lost its mind, I mean half a sideline cleared out and ran onto the field to to you know, go get DeVante Parker. You know, it was it was like a you know, you would have thought that they just like walked it off at the end of a game. And that was the situation though, which I think is
worth it mentioning as well. It was a two minute drill where the Patriots were down by four points, so they needed a touchdown. They field goal wasn't going to do them any good, and for Mac to hit that throw to Parker was basically signifying you just won the game, right, So that was that was the situation, that was the circumstances, And I thought that what he has shown this summer, and the whole question mark DeVante Parker is always about
two things. It's about health and it's about separation. And we can't really predict health. But what he has shown this summer to me, and I don't know about you how you feel about this, but to me, what he's shown this summer is that he gets open a little
bit more this summer than he did last year. Like I don't see him necessarily being this great separator ever, but I don't think that he's wearing coverage as often as maybe he has, and maybe a little bit more explosive, like in a straight line on those go routes than he's been in the past. So it was good to see that, and it was awesome to see the celebration afterwards. But he's having a nice summer and I think that if he can stay healthy, then he should have a pretty good year for them.
I think it's it's, you know, some of what you said more explosive to me. It's in this something I've talked about a lot in the past, and I know you kind of hate this, this concept, but that natural separation when you're six five, there's just going to be areas where you can go get the football that the defender can't. And I think he even if he's not like pulling away in the route from the corner, he's
him and Mac together. Because of Mac's accuracy, they're creating opportunities where Parker can go get the ball away from the defender because even if the defender's on his hip, if Mac throws it off his shoulder, and this can be a back shoulder, but it can even be more like maybe more like anticipatory throws right, if it's off his shoulder and he's breaking to his left, he's gonna be able to go out and reach and get the ball at six ' five, six four sixty five whatever
he is where the five foot eleven corner. Just even if he's on him at the point where Mac releases the ball, he can't make that cut with Parker because he's not long enough, so I think he's looking more open. Some of it is what you said, like he does look like he's moving better, but I also think that they're doing a better job. Mac Parker and Bill O'Brien's probably part of this as well, and just using his size to get to put the ball away from the
defender where he can still make a play. A lot of people in the comments sorry, go ahead, No, I just think you know to me, and it's the same point that you're making. It's what we're seeing consistently, I think from Mac and Parker, and I'd also throw Hunter Henry in there too.
And Mike is SICKI when he's been healthy.
Is that Mac has this with this willingness or this trust to throw the ball within their catch radius. Right, These guys have big catch radius. Is they're bigger guys, they're longer guys, and they can go ahead and make catches above their heads or outside their frames that other guys might not necessarily be able to make.
And Parker did that today, I thought a little bit.
And also Hunter Henry up the scene caught a pass that was basically like a one handed catch where he had he was kind of fighting off the DV with his left arm and then caught it up against his body with his right arm. And those are just those types of throws that it's trust. It's you know, I'm gonna put this in a spot and I know that my guy's gonna go and get the football. And we've definitely seen that those areas improve as well. And I
didn't O'Brien's talked about trust. Mac has talked about trust. That's such a big word for them this year, as you know, I know where you're gonna be and you know where I'm gonna be, so let's be there together.
Yeah. Again, it goes back to that point. If you have all these big guys, you got to take advantage of it. And we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, I think it was the show before camp, and I know you didn't love the idea of like, hey, if everybody's gonna be tall in the corners, throw the ball high. But that's kind of what they're doing. They're doing it not just vertically but horizontally too, and maybe
there's something there. A lot of people in the chat are asking about Taekwon and asking about Ezekiel Elliott We're gonna get to Zeke in a second. I do well, we're on the receivers that want to do Taekwon play of the day to day catches a deep ball for Mac Jones diving catch, fell on his shoulder, left practice, didn't return. What did you see in that? And just what do you think it means for Taekwon here if he has to miss time?
Yeah, look, I think that that's the only damper on what was a great day if you're in New England atriot fan at these at practice today against the Packers was the injuries And on a positive note, I don't know.
I'm just no inside information, just going off of what I saw at practice.
Keon White wasn't didn't get put back into team drills, but he didn't leave practice.
Eye we could take a big deep breath on that one because.
That, yeah, he he watched practice for the rest of the session on the sideline. But it wasn't like we need to get you know, him, immediate attention and have him leave practice. So I don't think that that Keon White's injury is necessarily gonna be significant or serious just based off of that can no inside information. Now do I think he's gonna play Saturday night, Like maybe not right, but I don't think that it's gonna be something that's gonna be uh cause him to miss time significant time.
Taekwon's injury I think is.
Tough because this is always gonna be the question mark with him because of his frame, is can he can he stay healthy? Can he is he durable enough to take hids to land on his shoulder on a diving catch attempt and not get injured.
And that's exactly what it looked like.
You know, he laid out for the catch, made a great catch on the ball on a deep crosser from Mac and made a good catch on it, and then immediately was getting looked at by the trainers and you know, kind of motioning like you know, swinging his arm and doing some of those clavical checks, which is is scary because that's what he injured last year, right, he broke his claviical I don't know if it was the same shoulder, but that was my concern immediately, was that he injured
the same shoulder again. So I guess we'll have to wait and see and find out more information. I don't think we'll find out necessarily quickly on taekwond But we've talked about him quite a bit about the frustrations with him. But I thought yesterday, even though the ball didn't necessarily find him, I thought he was running good routes and he had some opportunities down the field that didn't necessarily go his way. And then today he immediately hits on
one down the field and then gets hurt again. So we're talking about soft tissue injuries. In the spring, I missed a couple of camp practices for the similar same injury, and now a different injury potentially keeping him out again. So this is the this is the book on Taekwon right now. I mean I hate to be negative about it, but quite frankly, he can't stay healthy.
Like that's that's where we're at.
Yeah, no, it's it's a fair concern. And this is kind of what happened last year because I thought he had had a couple of strong practices. I mean even before today, I thought, you know, he makes it. He had a good practice the day before the preseason game, he makes that catch in the preseason game, had a good practice on Monday before before the team left for Green Bay. So I thought he was building momentum, and this is kind of what happened last year. He was
building momentum and he got hurt. Yeah, broke his collar bone, and so this is kind of the same area with that shoulder, and we didn't see him again for four weeks and it seemed like he never caught up. So we'll see where he's at with that as we kind of start to wrap it up on the offense here. Ezekiel Elliott didn't take part in any team drills yesterday, just went through the basic running back positional drills and then sat out. Actually, before we get to his performance today,
let me ask you this. So Bill was asked about Zeke. Do we lose you there?
Nope, I'm here.
He just turn green for a second. Bill who was asked about Ezekiel Elliot yesterday, and in his answer he talked about how on the flight out to Green Bay, he was working with Zeke on the terminology and the protections in the playbook. So he never said it was exclusively him. Maybe Bill O'Brien was also there, maybe Vinnison Siri was also there. But there's so much focus right now, I think on who's in control of the offense. In what Bill's role is after last year. What did you make of that?
Yeah, that's an interesting comment.
And I also thought it was good to hear from Mac Jones that you know, Zeke was in those meetings on Tuesday night and we got out here and very involved in everything. And I thought that there was a very good involvement in buying from him at practice today, even when he wasn't on the field, rooting on teammates and talking up teammates like JJ Taylor made a nice play and he immediately was excited about it and really you know, involved in body in which I think is great.
But with Belichick, I don't know what to make of that necessarily, because it's so hard sometimes that these practices to see to really tell what he's looking at or what he's doing, you know, sometimes with the offense, sometimes with the defense. Sometimes he's just watching all twenty two guys at once. So I think that there's always going to be a level of involvement from Belichick on all phases of this football team. And I don't necessarily think that.
I think that some people thought that in the beginning that maybe this was Bill O'Brien's offense, and Bill was going to be off with the defense and special teams in his own co owner of the practice field. That's that's not what I've seen at all this summer. I think that Bill is just as involved in the offense
as he's ever been. Maybe not necessarily the guy that's, you know, drawing up the plays or putting in the install and the game plans come to season, but certainly in mac Jones's ear, and working with a lot of the offensive players all right on the field.
No team drills yesterday, just positional drills. But it sounded like he was very involved today. And you texted me during practice you seemed very excited.
Little just for real, Well, it's one practice.
And I would also say that most of the run game work that they did today was closer to the red zone and goal line situations. Not a ton of run work in between the twenties, So we didn't necessarily get to see if Zeke has a top gear that even exists anymore, right, And I think that's the biggest question mark with him for everybody around the league is just.
To cut in though? Does that matter? Like honest question, because to me, he's here for inside the twenties in short yardage. I don't know that he needs to have that top gear to be the back they want him to be. It'd be nice, but I don't know that he needs to have it. I don't know how much they're gonna ask. I don't know how many situations he's gonna be in where that's gonna come up.
It's a fair point, and I think that that's what we saw today, that that's gonna be his role. And I made a joke, I mean and Deuce were joking around that. You know, Remandra Stevenson's fantasy owners are already up in arms about this.
Oh, it's gonna be such a nightmare for and you know me, I don't like fantasy foot Well, it's gonna between that and Willie Cunningham. It's gonna be a nightmare for those people.
Yeah, it really is.
And I can already see it that Zeke is going to be a big time factor inside the ten yard line. And today he scored twice, one with from about the eight I would say, which was probably the most encouraging grun because he did have to you know, it wasn't like a plunge from the one yard line right where he's just growing in such a short space, he did have to kind of feed off the blocks and have a little bit of burst to get through the line.
And get into the end zone.
And he actually carried a defender, kind of ran through a defender into the end zone on that play and gave a little little zeke flex at the end.
You know. So I think we get a little with the with the eating.
Not not yet, I haven't gotten.
That might be one, you say, for the regular season.
I would get that this was more of like a flex like feeling myself type of moment, right So I think that was a good sign. I took that as our right like, he feels like he's you know, strong and fresh and in good shape and ready to go. I thought he looked good consider all things considered. It
was his first practice of the summer. He obviously hasn't been in camp with anybody else, so this is very very first practice and he gets thrown out there in joint practices, which are the most intense training camp practices, and held his own and looked pretty good out there. I thought of the two things that really were exciting were the power and I thought that he ran pretty hard on the carries that he got. And then I also thought the energy was good. I thought that he
was an uplifted mood. I thought that he looked like he was had a little bit of a chip on his shoulder. You know, he knows what just happened to him, right, He got cut by the Cowboys, and nobody really came knocking until August seventeenth to sign him to a contract. And I think that that's going to be something that he's going to carry this season.
So I'm excited about it.
And I think the one thing also just to wrap it on Zeke him standing next to Ramandre Stevenson and Kevin Harris.
That's some beef in that running back room.
And Zeke is every bit as big as those two guys, if not bigger.
I think he's taller than both of those guys.
And that was I think the big thing that really stood out to me just in terms of, you know, initial impressions.
He's a big, big dude.
Like you know, he's listed at like six feet two twenty five, so you know, he's a bigger guy, bigger back. But he's a really really big back. And I don't mean I don't mean overweight. I just mean big and Uh, I think that that's another emphasis.
And we've talked about this a lot.
Uh that they're they're gonna be a power run team like that's they're gonna want to run it down people's throats, bull ball, smash mal football and then they have another smash mouth running back.
Now eight five five Pats five hundred. You want to join in Patriots at web radio dot com. You want to email, and we're gonna get to your calls and emails in a second here. But we do have talked about the offensive line. Evan, was it any better today? Uh?
I would say it was a little bit better today.
Yeah.
I mean, look, you can't.
I'm not gonna come on here and talk about plays and completions that were six seconds into down and you know, three sacks would have happened, right.
I try not to do that.
We both try not to do that and try to only talk about the plays that are were real football plays. And if you kind of stack up like the real football plays versus the ones yesterday that just felt like something was weird about it, right, like whether it was the quarterback was holding the ball for six seconds or there was a sack but then he kind of came
out of it and just ran the play. Anyways, there was a lot more real football plays today than yesterday, So I think that that is a testament that the offensive line was a little bit better out there. I still think every once in a while, and today I had Mac Jones and his reps down with about with four sacks on like thirty dropbacks.
So that doesn't sound great, and I get that.
I think the biggest thing with the offensive line from a pass protection standpoint is it's a lot of schemed rushes that are giving them problems, you know, stunts added on, blitzers like things like that. It's not necessarily that guys are losing one on one battles across the board. So that I think he can at least hold a hat to the fact that maybe that's chemistry continuity, you know,
working together, Like you have two rookies in there. You have Priley Reef now playing a different position than he started camp with, like Trent Brown still in his third padded practice of the summer. So I think that there's something to be said for just a lack of reps that these guys have had together.
And then you know, Trent Brown said it yesterday.
This isn't our core group group, you know, like that's not They still have Cold Strange and Mike on Wentu out. They want those guys back, of course, and if they get those guys back and they get it all together, we'll see what happens in like let's say a month or two. But it's still concerned. It's still absolutely concerned. Yesterday especially was a mess penalties. I think both quarterbacks Mac and Zappi combined for thirteen sacks in yesterday's practice.
It was ugly at times upfront. Absolutely, and the Packers, I should mention Rashan Gary is not practicing in full for the Packers, right, So they're doing this without their best path, without their Matthew Judon right. So it hasn't been great, but I think it was better today, and I think they are taking some baby steps, especially with Trent being back in there.
I think that's helped a lot.
I also think too, just like Conor McDermott not being out there, I don't know if you saw anything happen with him yesterday. It seems like he may have been passed over. I think it's probably too early for that. This is a team that can't afford to be giving up on any NFL experience at tackle, so I'd hope he's not fallen too far down the depth chart whatever's
going on with him. We've got a bunch of emails about the offensive line, but first I want to go Adaen and Aiden in California says, Hey, guys, says he appreciates the show. It has shown him a different way to watch the game. Love that. That's the whole point of the show. That's awesome. I'm sorry on YouTube, I'm duck nowt I gotta read this here. With that said, do we think today's practice was a response to getting punched in the face yesterday and the team responded full
roar today? Also, is it a good sign that they're all on the same page.
Yeah, I think that's exactly what it was.
And you you mentioned earlier in the show that on one hand, you can't have a bad day on Sunday and then come back Monday and play the same team again and get a second chance. That's the unique part about joint practices, I suppose. But I liked the fact that they punched back today. And I don't mean that literally, I mean it figuratively. And I think that's you know, that's a good sign. That's a team that I think is that is competing for something. You know, it's not
a team that's going nowhere or anything like that. You know, those teams are the ones that just got you know, get down to the dumps and then get their butts kicked again the next day.
So I think that it's it's a good sign.
Obviously, you want both practices to be at least positive, and maybe yesterday wasn't quite that, but I'll take it.
I'll take them punching back a little bit, all right.
Ray asks any highlights from the offensive line?
Well, you know, I think highlights from the offensive line is difficult because we don't get the benefit of watching the film of practice to really see how good it was. But I think the one thing that I mentioned is you can hang your hat on the fact that the one on one beats don't look as bad today than yesterday. Like it wasn't like guys were losing their one on one. It was more about scheme and things like that that
was giving them problems. And I thought earlier in practice they opened some rushing lanes for Remandre and for Zeke, so I think that's a positive as well. But it's hard to say exactly if there was like a pancake block or something like that without being able to go watch it back. But I think the biggest thing that you saw today was a little bit cleaner of an overall operation. Less penalties, less jail break sacks.
Like things like that. There's a little bit more. It was a little bit more competitive.
We got a bunch of emails here about the offensive line. I'm gonna combine some of these. David and Bethelon wants to know how the new guys are doing city, so Antony o'maffi and William wants to know how far all right, so these can kind of combine the I'll combine these two emails William and David here, how are the young guys looking, because they've obviously been kind of thrust into starting roles and like based on what it looks like right now. And then William wants to, like how far
they are from being healthy. So let me ask you this. You know, we're we're getting there. We're getting there to week one. Cole Strange still not back on the field, Mike and Win who's still not back on the field. Do you think that there's a chance either of those guys end up starting a regular season game like early on? And if they do, how ready do you think they look?
Yeah, I think we're starting with the rookies. So has gotten a little bit better each day. I thought his tape last week against the Texans was kind of rough. I understand that maybe that was not everybody's thinking, So maybe I was being a little bit harsh on him. I know he only gave up one, hurry according to PFF.
I didn't necessarily think.
It was that much of it, like, like he said
he gave up one, and he actually gave up five. Like, I don't think it was that bad, But it just felt like he had a short corner and he was struggling at times to protect the edge and keep guys inside out with Will Anderson and some of the other good Texans rushers, and then in the running game, his technique was kind of all over the place, getting really you know, firing out of his stance and getting over extended off balance like things like that, and not really moving to a.
Lot of guys on the combo of blocks either.
So that's what I was hoping to see a little bit more out of him, and maybe we'll see that as he gets more comfortable with playing tackle. He's a converted guard, right, so, just like with mike on Winne when he's in there at tackle, like you expect those guys to be big run blos when you played inside and now you're playing outside. That's a big thing with
Marcus Cannon. Like Marcus Cannon was a guard and then became a tackle, and he was a great run blocker throughout his career because he's built like a guard.
So city So is similar.
And I would like to see a little bit better in the run game if he can, you know, to see that, to see that guard ability translate outside to tackle. But I think he's gotten a little bit better. I think he's okay. I wouldn't feel great about him starting Week one, especially not against the Eagles pass rush in their front, but I think that there's something there that that's worth developing, that's worth working with in terms of
the tools. But I think we're a long way away from him being a starter or a consistent starter at that Mafi. I continue to like Mafi. I like what he brings to the table. I think he plays the style of guard. Now he's playing on the left side right now. I think he's a right guard in their system.
We all do.
I would assume him. I think, I let you know. I like how he plays. I like that he's a powerful guy. He has a really good low center of gravity. He's got a good anchor, stout anchor. He can move guys in the run game. But he's somebody that is tested athletically, and he's practices. He asked him to move too much, that's going to be a concern if he does get isolated with good pass rushes on the interior.
That has sometimes become a concern. But I like the way that he plays the game from a power standpoint, and he definitely has NFL play strength, Like there's no doubt that he can hold up on the interior in the NFL. From that point of view, if I had to say, like which one would I rather start Week one? If I absolutely had to, I'd probably lean towards Mafi. But I think that's more about guard versus tackle than necessarily him being miles ahead of City.
So at this point, let's go to the phonetil. Let's go to Patty in a pup. Patty how you doing.
Can you hear me, guys?
Yeah, I got you all right.
I had a question for you guys that I was a little disappointed that on filter didn't read it and or it's maybe just a little bit of a point, and that's you know, I don't think there's anybody coming to save us as far as offensive tackle this year.
And Alex, I remember like when this past draft came, you were saying, sign one draft one for offensive tackle, and to me, like, if I'm running the show, I'm taking ot with three of my first four picks this year because you're gonna need you're gonna need two starters, and you're gonna need a swing guy. And I apologize for the noise, but I just wanted to get to
see what you guys thought about that. But I mean, at least as far as this year goes, I think we're kind of entrenched with what we got and I mean we're just gonna have to live with it and hope that everything comes together and.
That's it.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know that you needed to take three or four tackles at the beginning, but yeah, they've left themselves short there. I wouldn't disagree with that, and I don't know that, Like, I don't think Joan Williams is an answer. I don't think they're gonna be able to get him. Outside of that, you know, everybody in the league is struggling at tackle, maybe not as much as the Patriots, but it's not like there's extra tackle. It's not like there's extra tackles teams are trying to
give away. So I would agree with that. It's they're gonna have to figure it out internally and whether that's one of these rookies really showing up, whether it's moving Mike Go and Wenthu to right tackle, which I think should become a real conversation at this point when he comes back. They're gonna have to figure out something internally.
Yeah, I think that, you know, the way they handled tackle in the off season is a very very valid second guess about how they handled the off season week.
I think it's the second guess of the off season.
Yeah, I mean, I talk a lot about receivers.
I obviously it was upset that they didn't pay DeAndre Hopkins and things like that, but the the second guests I agree with you of the off season is how they attack tackle and on the one hand, Calvin Anderson I think was supposed to be in this mix, and whatever illness he's dealing with is kind of you can't predict that, right. You don't know that guys are going to get sick like this. They can keep him out
for weeks on end. But we knew that Calvin Anderson was three years in but more of a project or a projection based off of physical tools and athleticism. Riley Reef is fourteen years into the league, and we've certainly seen some of that wear and tear in these practices, and I think they've moved him inside to guard because he can't play on an island out I tackle anymore, so they've moved him inside the guard to mask some
of his issues with his foot speed. Already, like three weeks in, we're already talking about how Riley Rea.
Is not a tackle anymore in the NFL.
So those two things have been big swings in the miss Even if the Calvin Anderson thing was a little bit unlucky and you drafted the only tackle that you drafted was actually a guard in college, so it's certainly a second guest that's totally valid, And we've made that second guess already multiple times, so I get it. I think that that's really going to make or break the season for the team.
All right, let's go to Nick in New Hampshire.
Nick, Hey, guys here, can you hear me?
Yep?
Great? So yeah, well, personally, thank you for taking my call. That's nice to hear that. The offense to do a little bit better. I know this last year we were not getting good news out of the joint practices. So my question for you guys is on Douglass. What are your honest predictions for what Douglass to do at the beginning of the year, Especially do you think you can take snaps away from a guy like Kendrick Born or Tycoon Important? And then also with how crowded that wide
receiver room is. I know a lot of people are an ammer inplication on route, especially when he did this freshman year at LSU. Do you really think that there's a spot on the roster for him?
All right, Evan, last week we got into it about to Mario Douglas. You said you hadn't seen enough yet to say anything. You've now seen, you know, two joint practice, a preseason game. Where are you at with him.
I don't know.
I think I'm in a similar spot than I was last week. I'm encouraged. I definitely see the twitch, the movements to create separation. I thought he had some good routes today in the red zone where we saw that that just that quick, you know, short area ability to get open is certainly there with him. I would actually say if I if I had to tim my cap to either one of the rookies, though, I'm meeting a little bit of.
Crow with Kai Shan Boody.
To be honest with you, Box, I know, I know you you know that I haven't been all about the booty.
You were not impressed with his game against the Texans, No, And.
I wasn't really over the moon about anything that he had done to camp. In camp to date, I think there was a lot of good there. I shouldn't say even a lot. There was three or four one handed catches or acrobatic catches that were making highlights and we were tweeting about them right during training camping Foxborough. But I didn't really think that it was it was overly consistent or there was a ton of consistent separation from him. He's had a nice couple of days here in Green Bay.
Yesterday he made four catches and team drills. It came a lot of it was early, but you know, the whole offense kind of fizzled out late. So I'm not going to hold that just against Kaisha on Booty, you know, and everybody on the offense in the last like two thirds of practice was not very good, so I wouldn't
hold out against him today. I thought that he made a really good play in the two minute period at the end of practice with Bailey Zappi, you know, running a little whip route, keep the feed and bounced by the front Pyelon. I think the two things that have really stood out to him are not necessarily things that
we I think thought based off of his college projection. Certainly, the hands, like he had a ton of drops in college, like ross was an issue for him at LSU, and he's had great hands I think so far, and good body control like those are two things that I think he's been has done well. But the wiggle maybe not there as much as with the Mario Douglas. But I think he's had a strong couple of days here, and
I not that Douglas has been bad. I think both those guys have had moments and have shown well here in Green Bay. But I think that if I had to say which one was I more impressed by in which one of my second guessing my initial take on it's it's probably a little bit more Booty because I maybe I was a little bit higher on Douglass before.
Anyways, Booty make and Evan do a double take. I'll tell you this. I think I heard Matt through the glass laugh at that one. The sixth To answer the second part of the Collars question, the six wide receiver thing is very real, very real. Yeah, especially if Tae Kwan's hurt and they can get them on and then ir them so.
But that's a different conversation, right, Like, if they know that Taekwan is not going to start the year, then they have to carry six because they're gonna need at least four on game day.
That's true, but they could in a different day, they could, in theory, try to cut one of the rookies and and then try to get them back. Yeah. I think you're looking at a situation where those two guys are going to be on the fifty three man roster and the other thing that helps is between cutting Jordan Healy and DeMarcus Mitchell the last couple of days. Those are guys we thought were maybe not roster locks, but close
in terms of that special teams unit. And they seem to be kind of cutting down on their dedicated specialists. And that's going to open up more spots. And you look where does it open up a spot? Right away? You look to that wide receiver room and say, all right, that's how you're gonna get six wide receivers on the board. I'm still not rolling out them keeping two kickers. I'm not rolling it out entirely.
No.
Please, you sound the way you said that lets me know that you know it's a possibility.
Of course, anything involving special teams that's ridiculous with Bill Belichick as a possibility.
I'm just saying, don't roll it out.
I I think with the S, I'm hoping that the cover Jase is as I as we like to call them. I hope that they're gonna be a little bit more scarce this year. Like obviously Matthew Slater is going to be on this team, and I think Brandon's schoolers should be on the team as well.
I think there's gonna be three. I think it's gonna be Slater Schooler and Calvin Munson.
Okay, so I I and we don't count Chris Board, right.
You know, Chris Boards a linebacker. He's like Brandon Bolden on defense, Like Brandon Bolden played a lot of special teams when he was a running back.
Right, so Chris Boards, you know, a position player.
I would like to see them only carry those two because A I think they have some talent in other areas of the roster that they need to keep the depth at, like receiver, tight end, you know, other places like that, maybe running back.
If they want to carry all four of.
These running backs, yeah, that is something that I would like to see them. Do you know Malie Cunningham, like is he I think he's got a chance to make this team now.
I mean I've just been including him as a quarterback at this point.
Right.
So those guys are all guys that if you keep six special teams guys and you're not gonna be able to carry all all of this extra depth. I think that the big thing with you know, the six receiver thing for me is I just don't see Bill Belichick ever doing it unless it's a special circumstance like Taekwan is going to be put on i R immediately, and they need to carry six and not not risk the waiver process with Douglas or Booty. But if it's just six straight up, I just can't see it Bill doing that.
I just think that they like to carry their depth in other places and always have. I mean there's been years where they've only carried four receivers.
Yeah. But again, I think they're doing things differently this year. I think it's gonna look a little different. I think the six wide receiver thing really is in play. Somebody, and I'm laughing somebody in the YouTube chat when I talked about having two kickers, somebody said the legion of boom. It's the legion of feet. It should be a great hay for the special teams from let's go to Niles in Oklahoma and Niles what's up?
Just kind of want to touching which you guys are just talking about. Uh, just with the NFL changing the kickoff rule, do you think that kind of plays a role or while the Patriots are kind of getting rid of these guys that we kind of thought were roster, Loxboro's specialty. That's kind of all I got for you guys, and I appreciate it.
Yeah, I think I think that's possibly part of it.
Yeah, I think so too.
And I also just look at in general, it's the kickoff rules changed. There's just less special team snaps to go around than there was five ten years ago. Like it just you know, we always joke with each other about it being the third of the game, but even you have to admit, Alex, it's not statistically even the third of the game, right, Like it's like.
He's probably close to No, it's more than fifteen, Evan's not. There's there's four downs, one of them is special teams. That's twenty five percent. Plus you have like kickoffs that don't count. Is it down? Then a game book?
Go look at a game book from last year and look at, like what the guys that played the most special teams snaps on the Patriots play. It's like twenty snaps a game. The offensive guys plays sixty five to eighty snaps a game.
Right, So.
If there's if there's let's say there's eighty plays on offense, eighty plays on defense in the regular NFL game, and then there's maybe twenty plays of special teams for your for your you know, I don't know if it's you.
You you like this high scoring football, higher scoring, higher scoring, more special teams plays.
Uh yeah, more special teams plays of them kicking off into.
The back of the ends of the extra points. Really we have to worry about extra points.
You know.
The one thing that I remember about extra points is that Rob Gronkowski broke his force.
All Right, we don't need to just all right, Mark Mark in Connecticut, Mark.
Hey, yeah, guys, how you're doing it good?
How's it going?
Just wanted to ask you, uh, because you guys already answered the wide receiver questions with Douglas and Boots. Offensive line, Is there a way that Bill O'Brien can scheme around how terrible our offensive line is?
Yeah? Yeah, I mean we've we've talked a lot about this in the past. It's it's uh, you know, play action, it's quick passing concepts. Incorporating things like screens RPOs is a big one. Evan. I know that that's your kind of that's where you like to go in this conversation. There are it kind of limits your ability to to get big plays in terms of throwing the ball down the field. You can still get big plays in the passing game on catch and run. But yeah, there are
there are ways to do that. It's just being able to do it. It's it's easier said than done.
Yeah, I look, I'm maybe I'm being too optimistic about the offensive line, but I I'm trying to to be patient with it because there's two reasons. One Cold Strange and Mike on Win, who are a huge part of what they want to do on the offense.
Yeah, it's not gonna be this bad. Like that's kind of caveats all of this. It's it's not that it's gonna be this bad. They'll get healthy. It's if they get hurt again and some of these guys have to play, that's where the real concern comes in, right.
I mean, Cold Strange is the first round pick last year.
Everybody knows my feelings about the fact that he was a first round pick. But that being said, like it's not relevant now, that's supposed to be a good player for you, right, like a really rock solid guard for you for years to come. Mike on WINU is I think one of their best football players on their entire roster.
Just regardless of position.
So those two guys coming back if they can keep that sturdy interior, or maybe Mike on Win who kicks out to right tackle. But I think what they would like to do is have strange Andrews on when who build that shelf for mac Jones to just sit right back behind them and make throws from the pocket, so you know they can do that.
And you have Trent on the left side, you have Bill O'Brien.
Scheming the different things that you didn't played out, Alex, Like, I don't think it necessarily is going to be absolutely terrible. Like, I don't think it's gonna be horrible. Do I think it's gonna be good or elite or great or whatever. No, But I do think it's gonna be passable. Yeah, I think it could be passable with all those different configurations and all those different circumstances rolling into one. We want to talk a little bit about the defense though, we.
Yeah, I feel bad. It's been like three shows in a row and we're supposed to be the show that touches on everything, and I hope people stuck around to the end to hear us do the defense, And yeah, I want to get to some starters in a bit.
But we got an email on this, and I think it's actually a really good question Kyle in Pembroke asking about Isaiah Bolden and I, look, I think that that's still one of the most interesting battles in this camp, that third boundary corner spot behind Christigan Zalez and Jack Jones. If you can keep John Jones in the slot, who's it going to be? It was Isaiah Bolden had a couple of really good days there and then I thought he sorted. I don't think he backtracked, but he kind
of leveled off heading into that preseason game. We've seen a mere speed start to make some plays. Sean Wade I heard had a really good day yesterday. Where are those guys at? Like, is there suddenly some talent here?
Yeah?
Look, I think Isaiah Bolden, I really like his instincts. I think he's an instinctual player on the boundary. A mere speed has a little bit more noticeable plays, I would say on the ball out here. You know the last two days I'm talking about. He made some plays on the ball yesterday that were impressive plays. But I really we might we maybe should be talking a little bit more about Sean Wade, Like, OK, I'm not sitting here saying that Sean Wade is gonna be like a
difference maker. Like, don't get me wrong, but I think we should be talking a little bit more about him making the fifty three man roster. Now, he's a nickel corner, like he's a spot. I don't think he's going to play on the outside consistently well, he doesn't have the long speed. It's a lot like you know, a Jalen Mills kind of situation where he's just better inside.
It's just the way that he plays.
So I think Sean Wade in the nickel spot or Sean Wade playing like that hybrid safety nickel role that they tend to lean on a little bit. It gives you a little bit of size, maybe not on the boundary, but it just gives you a little size somewhere that's bigger than Marcus Jones or Miles Bryant or those types of players. And he's made some really heads up plays lately.
He just has.
And he had a really nice showing, not anything spectacular or anything like jaw dropping, but I thought he played pretty well against the Texans last week. On film, hanging with John Metchi for most of that game. So we'll see what it looks like on Saturday night. For Sean Wade if he has another good game, I think that, you know, we should be talking about him as a fifty three man roster guy. I just really quickly too
on these Packers receivers. Christian Watson is making me like, very very upset, Alex, because that guy is a stud. I mean, what a freaking player that dude is gonna be h if the light continues to be on for him and the arrow continues to point upward. Explosive, really good in and out of the break for a guy at his size.
He's made some.
Really really good plays out here the last couple of days. So the Patriots are are are dealing with a pretty good receiver in him, and I think Dobbs has actually been pretty good too, Uh that both those guys have been pretty solid.
Jordan Love, you know.
Not so much in my opinion, but I thought the receivers for the Packers have been good. In a Musgrave the tight end drafted, he's he's been effective, you know, kind of like a Mica Sicki type running the seam and making catches, you know, outside his frame and things like that. So a couple of good receivers here for the Packers. It's not a better day for today. For Christian Gonzales yesterday. Yeah, yesterday was a little bit of a rookie, you know, welcome to the NFL against Christian Watson.
Like it's no offense again to the Patriots receivers, but they don't have a guy as explosive as Christian Watson. They just don't have somebody that's six three and runs a four to three on their roster. Well they do,
but he's you know, is Taekwon Uh. I think with Gonzales yesterday, the one thing that that really showed up and this is what happened with him on the deep touchdown that him and Mills were in the area of he gets sucked up in the in the middle of the field a little bit in zone and with the Patriots and with most zone coverages, when you're in cover three and you have the deep third, right, so you're you're responsible for that one third of the field and
the deep part of the field if you're a receiver that lines up across from you. And I wish I had like we don't have whiteboards. I can't really describe this, so just follow me if you can. If there was receiver and lined up across from you, runs underneath you, then you're supposed to let it go right like, You're not supposed to follow that receiver into the middle of
the field. Instead, you're what you're supposed to do is drop and get depth and get to the deep part of the field and then look kind of angle yourself to look inside to see if anything is coming from the back side.
And what happened was is Christian Gonzale Christian Watson. Excuse me.
I started on the right side of the quarterback, Gonzalez was on the left side of the quarterback. Watson ran the deep over the deep crossing route and by the time Gonzalez realized that he was crossing from the other side of the formation, it was too late. So I thought that that was a good coachable moment for him, and he's got to get better at that and zone And this was something that came up with him at
Oregon as well. But if you ask him to cover man to man, I still think that he was competitive throughout practice over the last couple of days and had a really good pass breakup at the end of practice today in the two minute to save a touchdown. So I think there's a lot of positives from his man demand work, his own work.
He still gets a little bit lost.
The other really interesting thing I wish we'd gotten to see this year, but Marte Mopu out of the non contact jersey, so a chance to judge him when it comes to full contact. It sounded like today he made his presence felt in that regard.
Uh yeah, I mean I've never really been too concerned about his ability from a physical standpoint because a sack State, he was a really physical downhill player at the Senior Bowl.
He's playing guys that are much bigger now than he was at Sex. Being two thirty is a linebacker Sacramento State's much different than being two thirty as a linebacker in the NFL.
Yeah, totally fair.
I just the way that he plays, you know, he converts that speed to power, right, because he's so explosive that when he puts his foot in the ground and goes forward that he can build up a lot of speed and now all of a sudden, it's like you know, trying to block a missile, right, so I think that's that's really where he has stood out throughout you know, the film that I've watched of him back in college.
I'm really interested to see him on film on Saturday night, Like hopefully he plays in the game on Saturday night at full contact. Yeah, and then we can actually dissect some game tape of how he looks out there and where they're using him in different things like that, a couple of other you know, just notes on the defense. Yeah, I really thought that Keon White was like having a great two days. And you know, the injury, I don't
think it's gonna end up being serious. But whenever you watch these joint practices, and you know this from watching them back at home, when the other team starts to get annoyed with the player, it's probably because that player is, like, you know, playing at one hundred and ten percent is good, right.
Especially if it's a guy in the trenches.
Yeah.
So Keon White is throwing his weight around, making his presence felt, and the Packers started to get like fed up with it, right, Like they were just you know, getting annoyed at like this freaking guy just keeps coming at us like Jesus, and uh, That's what I just love about his game. He's got a NonStop motor, like he's all all the time at one hundred percent.
He's gonna be a really good player.
Christian Barmore, I thought, has had a pretty good couple of days too. I think that he's coming on and it's gonna be good as well.
The defense.
You know, yesterday was the big play to Christian Watson was was the big backbreaker for the defense. I think the one thing that maybe the Packers had some success with today and yesterday was in breaking routes.
Uh.
That's some stuff that I think that they're still working on in terms of leverage and help. You know, we know Devin mccordy's not back there in the middle of the field anymore.
That's a big thing.
But even just help from the second level, whether it's like a rober defender or linebackers dropping into low holes or things like that.
Uh.
Their system, they these corners are gonna be outside leverage, right, so they're gonna be outside positioned on these receivers across the board, and we've seen in the past how shallow crosser slants like those things can give them.
A lot of trouble.
I thought the Packers were able to emphasize some of that against the defense the last couple of days. So that continues to be I think a work in progress of just knowing where your help is and having to help be there consistently. And then also the guys that are out leveraged working to fight leverage and things like that is going to have to be something that they're
gonna get a little bit better at. But I think the front spit was pretty good the last couple of days, and that you know today Jordan Love installed in both of his two minute drill drives. They had a really good ending to practice. Jordan Loves an interesting player that I don't know what you think about him before we wrap it here.
I didn't love him in the draft. You know, coming out of you is Utah State, right, I was getting Utah State and Nevada mixed up. But because you know same area, he's yeah, you State. Yeah. That Mountain West Conference is always wide open. And you see these big armed quarterbacks that did come out of there, and I think the elevation helps them a little bit and they just never catch it that the windows are much tighter in the NFL than they are in the Mountain West
and they never catch up to that. Maybe he will. And I think a guy like Christian Watson, like you talk about a quarterback and receiver in theory pairing their skill sets, I think that's a really good fit. We'll see if they can get there. I don't think he's bad by any means, Like, he's definitely a guy that's worth getting a look to start. I don't think he's like I don't think the Packers are totally out of left field by trying to put it in his hands.
But I'm also I'm not saying like he's gonna be their next franchise quarterback. I think he's kind of a boomer bust kind of player.
Yeah, I agree, I think that he is.
And I know that's that's a super sensu fence sitting take, but whatever.
No, it's fair. I think that there's two sides of Jordan Love.
It's like, in one world he's Zach Wilson and in one world he's Josh Allen.
But there's no in between, right.
But I almost feel like I almost feel like he's exactly halfway in between, and that's what's gonna be interesting. Is that gonna be enough for the packers? Yeah, that can be up for the packers to commit to him long term because he's on he's on a one year deal, right, well, he's on his rookie dear, he's on his he's on his fifth year option.
Okay. I thought I didn't know if this was four year four year five.
He was no, because he was the twenty twenty draft, So oh no, this is your four you're right.
Yeah, So he Uh, he's been interesting because he's been There's been moments where he's been a little bit spotty, you know with his accuracy, which is to be expected. He's got tons of arm talent. You know, he can he can make all of those like crazy off platform throws that make everybody go nuts, that that you know Mahomes does and Alan does and things like that.
Uh.
The structure of stuff, though, is going to be the make or break for him. He made some good instruction throws yesterday. I thought, you know, on some of those lands and things like that. That and he's been checking down a lot apparently that's what the uh, A lot of the packer media here, yeah, has said that he's been throwing a ton of checkdowns in practice to start camp.
I don't know where he don't.
I think he makes better decisions than he did early on in his career, and certainly in college. I remember in college he threw like thirty picks one year or something like.
That, because that's what the Mountain West is. That that's what all those teams are, all those offenses are just throw the ball up.
Yeah, I think he's made some better decisions from what I've seen, but it is very boom or bust with him. It's either hitting at all the cylinders or you know, the offense is struggling to string together a first down.
The checkout thing, I almost feel like is a good sign for him, because a lot of those quarterbacks like this was a big problem with Josh Allen early in his career. He wouldn't be patient, he wouldn't take the checkdown. He'd make stupid throws instead and try to force it. So if he's checking it down, maybe that's a good sign. He's also on a really weird contract. I forgot about this,
So his rookie deals up. He's signed for the next two years, and then there's three years of dead money, so it's it's I don't know that's a whole thing. Good luck to the Packers to caring that out, But I do want to talk about another quarterback. We got a late email here and then we're gonna quick special teams thing can get out of here. Alex in Raleigh, North Carolina asked, is Malik Cunningham playing quarterback just a preseason thing or something that we're gonna see?
Well, I will say this, Malik Cunningham practiced at quarterback yesterday and he only took four snaps. They were all run plays, you know, designed quarterback around stuff, read option stuff.
But if this was all about you know, there's that theory out there, Alex, that this might be about Jalen Hurts, right, and then getting the Patriots defense ready to face the Eagles in Week one and the other read option quarterbacks that they might face down the road, and trying to emphasize this more early on in the in the summer so that the defense gets used to seeing those looks.
If that was the case, and they would not be practicing these actions against the Packers defense, Like what would be the point, right, We're getting the Packers defense ready for for those matchups, Like why would they care about that. So this isn't uh, this is a thing like, this is something that they're trying to see if this would be an option for them. I'm still not one hundred percent certain if it's real or if it's just experimenting
in the summertime. He didn't get as many reps at quarterback today.
Today. It was all Mac Johns.
I would say that Bill has that thing right where it's it's all one week. It's not the practice in the preseason game and the guys that practice more play less and vice versa. That might be because they're planning on playing Millie cunning him a lot. Yeah, Friday night.
That's a that's a very Saturday. Yeah, that's that's a good way of looking at it. I I I was we were talking about it after practice, and you know, we were talking about if Mac was going to to play on Saturday, and I think that he might play like you know that typical get your feet wet preseason amount, right like one.
Yeah, I think the third.
Sason game will be more of the one where they try to give the leave the starters out there a little bit. But I think you could be right that we could see a lot of Milie Cunningham, and unfortunately for some of us, we might see a lot of Trace mcsorly because Trace mcsory did not throw practically any passes in practice over the last two days.
He didn't do it when they were here either.
Yeah, so I think that we could see you know, trace mcsorly in Malie cutting him, hopefully Milie cunning Gham.
That would be a little bit more exciting uh for the.
Entire second half on UH ON on Saturday night.
So we'll see what happens.
But like I said, I think it's the theory of it's just an Eagles thing is out the door because they did it against a different defense now, so I continue to think that they might want to see if they can keep this in their back pocket and have a you know, I don't know if i'd call it necessarily a wildcat because it's not like they're using a non quarterback, but a wild cat like package just for Malik Cuttingham, maybe in goal line, short yardage, you know that type of situation.
All right, Evin, you got to be me this week. I'm not there. You're the eyes, you're the boots on the ground. Talk to me about these specialists.
What's up with your boy, behinger Man.
I don't know. I'm not there. You tell me.
It hasn't been good. It hasn't been pretty for all Bearinger. Yeah, he's in a little bit of a rut right now. I know that breaks you and Brian Harns hinds his heart to hear that he's been a little bit of a rut. I thought today it looked like Corless Weightman actually let off the period on special teams and has been you know Corliss weightman style, Like it's just consistent. It's not anything wowing you or impressive about it, but it's pretty consistent. And I think that that's where we're
at right now. I think Bearinger has got a little bit of the yips, Alex. I'm not gonna lie to you. I think that there's a little bit of a concern there. Something seems off with him. Maybe I don't know what. I'm not a I'm not a technique expert when it comes to punters, but there's something a little bit off, and the hang times have been low, and Weightman's been coming on a little bit more right like his Weightman's been getting a little bit more of a look I
don't know. I think the kickers have been tough too, though, because it's it's incredibly windy here the last couple of days, so it's kicking. A lot of the kicks have died, but there wasn't a ton of kicking today. In terms of kick field goals, yesterday Folk went four for five. Ryland was three for five, So basically the same. I would say. Ryland, though, continues to have the much bigger leg, which we knew. Your two kicker theory is one that drives me up an absolute wall.
But that's very college like right to have.
Like so you can kick off and your long field goal guy and then you have your short field goal guy. It drives you crazy because you know it's possible.
No, it drives any crazy because they were wasting a roster spot on two kickers.
No, but like you could easily because I know you. If you thought there was no shot at all that it was happening, you would say, stop talking about it, it's not happening. In the in the weeks since I brought that up, you have not once said to me it's not happening, stop talking about it. I'm not saying I would do it I wouldn't. I would go with Chad rolland you draft him in the fourth round. I think he's good, you let him work through the growing pains,
Nick Folk. Either he's good in whatever, or he's he's good, then you're still kind of wasting a ross spot. Or he's bad and you cut him in a couple weeks anyway, and who'd you let go instead? But I can't rule it out. I can't rule it out just yet. They haven't done anything to show me I can rule it out. And I think you know that because you have not once told me to stop talking about it.
You're right, And it would be very Patriots that the Patriots would basically be a college team, be because they'll have Malie Cunningham as their running quarterback and Mac Jones is the passing and then they would have like their short field goals specialists and their long field goals specialists. So the Patriots becoming a college football team, which I know has been your dream for.
The Bill O'Brien. Bill O'Brien last year at Alabama was a booth coach rather than a sideline coach, which is way more popular in college in the NFL. I don't know the bill would go for that, and that's a conversation. Actually, I met he was on the sideline last week, right, yes, okay, that's gonna be something interesting to watch here, because didn't they try Patricia who did they try up in the booth last year or was it two years ago? For like one week and then that was it was Patricia.
Right, No, Patricia was on the side. It was Billy Yates. Billy Yah was on in the booth, and then Patricia was trying to coach the court, the offensive line and call plays all at the same time, and then they brought Billy Yates back down.
I got to tell you, and I know a lot.
Of guys do it, so it's it's obviously not as hard as it looks in some respects, like obviously at all it's all hard. But you know, Kyle Shanahan, Andy Reid, Josh McDaniels, those guys are all head coaches, so they all call the game from the sideline. But I don't know how you do call the game from the sideline because you can't see the plays develop as easily.
We've got this awesome new video board to look and check out. I think that's why all honestly. Yeah, I think that's why you've got like Evan Rothstein upstairs. Yeah, that's what his role is.
So they have guys up top, and you know, Brian Belichick does this for the defense. I'm not sure who
does it for the offense. You know, obviously new staff, new oc, right, but they have they have guys up top that chart the game and once the game starts to declare, like they oh, they're playing us in a lot of man, they're playing us in a lot of two coverage three, you know whatever, then that gets relayed down to the play callers and that's when they try to you know, spam the two cover two beaters for example,
or whatever it is that once the game declares. But I just think that that's really impressive skill to be able to call a game from field level and understand what the defense is doing and what the coverages are and what the shells are and like all that kind I don't know how they do that, but that's that's a little that's a conversation for a couple of weeks like that between gap. That will be an interesting one to have.
It's gonna be interesting to watch people forget Hugh freeze once Head coached a game from a hospital bed in the coaching box upstairs, so shout out to him for that one. All right, we're gonna we're gonna cut it on that. That's gonna wrap up this episode. Evan obviously has all his stuff up on Patriots dot com, so you can go check that out if there was anything we didn't get to from today's practice. We will be back next week Thursday again. Next week, right, yes.
Yeah, Thursday will be the off day next week.
That is gonna be very interesting because that is the day of the Bruce Springsteen concert. So I will I will probably go right from this to that, but I'll be back in the right right. No, that's what I'm saying. I'm gonna walk right out of here and go out and it's gonna be perfect. And I'm gonna get your favorite Springsteen songs because you had me do that for Taylor Swift. So there's the tease for next week again. We'll be back then to meet Ti'm Evan has all
this stuff up on Patriots dot com. You can find me over at ninety eight five thesportsub dot com. Forevan Lazaramlex Barth, thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. We'll talk to you next week. Bye.
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