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Yeah, exactly. Welcome into the playbook everyone, I'm John Rook. You know Evan Lazar is here. We're gonna jump into it pretty quickly today. Obviously there's a little news going on today kind of makes things seem like we're starting
over again a month into the regular season. We'll be joined shortly by Mark VanderMeer, who's the radio voice of the Houston Texans, a longtime New England guy himself, former voice of the UMass Minute Man a number of years ago as well, and now he's been in Houston since the since the franchise, basically he's been there. So he'll join us as well, and we'll hit some of the regulars as well. In Chris Price from the Boston Globe will join us and Russell Baxter on Week six around
the NFL Patriots fans. If you want to see Toyota's best offers, including those not seen on TV, go to buy at toyota dot com. It's Toyoto's official website for deals from the official vehicle of the New England Patriots, Toyota. Let's go places, Let's go to the locker room, f because I've got a new quarterback in here, and I can't say it's something that we haven't talked about. You and I have talked about it on this show. We've
been talked about it since draft day last April. That you know you're gonna draft a guy third you need to see what he can do now, whatever plan, And I'm i gotta be honest, I'm not sure there really was a plan. It's the plan as it now stands is as as uh Gerad has mentioned it several times, it seems almost retroactive. Seems like it's almost been reactionary to what the public thinks, to what the media has
been hammering for. And we know the media can be relentless around here, uh As in a lot of ways, but this is just part of the game at least, you know, in a market like Boston, a market like New England. Overall, whatever the plan was, it hasn't been working. And so he said today it was his decision alone to start Drake may over Jacoby. Okay, I'll buy that to an extent, but there still had to be some extenuating circumstances.
Yeah, I guess.
So, I guess I'm on the on Mayo's side here a little bit because I feel like it would be disingenuous of me to argue the other side after I've been you know, patting the table for him to make this move for weeks. So the biggest thing to me with this whole situation is that is two things. One, one hundred and nineteen passing yards per game is not NFL offense, Like you can't keep rolling that out there
every single week. If the offense which Chikobe were said under center, was producing at a better rate, then yeah, maybe we wouldn't be talking about this. But this is this is truly rock bottom when it comes to passing offense in the modern NFL, Like in twenty twenty four, to be throwing for under one hundred and twenty yards a game, is unheard of and something that just can't really continue.
So that's one.
Number two is that I really like this from Mayo because it isn't good enough and it shouldn't be acceptable that they're going out there and losing games on Sunday. So as you know, fifteen to ten on Sunday, a win winnable game against the Miami Dolphins.
There's a line.
I understand that none of us expected them to be a playoff team this year, but there's a line of acceptance that the organization and that Mayo needs to put up with and the circumstances, whether this was the plan or not, the circumstances on the ground changed to the point where their bridge quarterback was not holding up the end of the bargain enough to make this move.
If you wanted a bridge quarterback, I think there were the candidates out there. I wonder whether or not they would have wanted to fork out the kind of money for it. Hello, Joe Flacco is coming to mind right now off the top of my brain. And I think even there for a while, Kirk Coussins was considered a bridge there for a while as well, so there were
other choices. Whatever the case may be that in particular, without completely throwing Jacobe on the bus, because I think what he's done here is he's really taken one for the team, and he's taken that to a different level maybe in this regard, because I think he hasn't been saying, he hasn't been separated, he hasn't been surrounded with the kind of people that you expect a starting quarterback in
the NFL to be surrounded by. Let's be honest here, Yeah, So no, I don't throw him under the bus at all. This is not Jacoby's fault, you know, just putting that right there where it is out in front, it was pretty clear to see that we didn't have to go very far into the season before this decision had to be made. There were two three games that might have been winnable that could have been differently. I'm not saying they were, but could have been different had a change
been made when we started clamoring for it. I'm not giving us all the credit on this either. Sometimes these guys know more football, you know, you know, than we know in our little fingers, So I get all of that. The fact of the matter is, though, is that I don't feel like there's been complete There hasn't been truthfulness here, and I think that part of that is because of the way that the coaching staff in particular, and maybe the way that we've all acted around here. Under the
previous reason, everything was very close to the best. We kept our cards. You know, we weren't showing our cards. You know, we're holding our hand. You know, we're not flashing it out in front of anybody because we don't want the other guys to see. Now that having been said, the decision being made this week, the way that it was made. First of all, it was leaked. I think we can all kind of figure that one out. It got leaked, and rapapoor. You are a lucky son of
a gun because you know the right people. And that's okay. That's the way the game is played. This is how insiders get to be insiders because they have the confidence of a lot of these reporters. I know this because I've been a reporter covering the NFL for forty years myself, so I get it. I just wow, I'm gonna get caught up here for just a second, because this is it's not the right way to do things. And if we're gonna change the way that things are done, then
we need to have some clarification. We need to have some consistency. We need to have you know, I mean, if it's going to be your way or the highway, that needs to be said. Bill Belichick was very clear about that years ago, and we understood that. But at the same time, you know, media in this position, the position like you and I are in, Okay, there has to be some autonomy here for us to be able to do our jobs properly. Otherwise nobody gets taken seriously.
So I think where we need to go from here, at least at this stage of the game, is just look, there really wasn't a plan. If there was a plan, then there should have been some kind of a of an inkling that there was. This seems very haphazard, It seems very thrown together. It seems very reactionary. Why else would you start a quarterback like Drake against one of the better defenses in the NFL as opposed to starting him at home against one of the worst defenses in
the NFL just a week before. He can't have improved that much in a week's time.
Yeah, that's fair. I guess the biggest thing to me. And this is what I was trying to say last week before I stepped in my pile of you know what.
And by the way, you don't have to say anthing.
Okay, well but no, but I feel like I need to say this. All right, I think we understand that this is a reactionary business. Yeah, okay, you're speaking your feelings, you're speaking your insight. You're in the locker room, you see it. You talk to everybody. Now, maybe some of the guys thought what you said was BS. Okay, that's fair. That doesn't mean everybody thought it was BS. Yeah.
I appreciate you saying that. I again, this has been brewing, and that, I guess is where the conversation is about plans and all that kind of stuff. It's very easy to sit there in May and say no pun intended, and say we're gonna sit him for the year. Then you get into training camp, and to be frank, it wasn't great right out of the gate for him. In
training camp. He had some lumps and growing pains. But then when you saw him in that Eagles preseason game, turn a corner, and then he comes out in practice and he's practicing better, that he plays decent against Washington, and he's you know, it keeps on getting better and
getting better. And what I was sort of getting at last week was that you can't lie to the other fifty one players in the locker room and you can't get in there and you can't say we feel as though Jacobe Brussette gives us the best chance to win football games on Sunday, when.
Part of the truth stuff that I was just talking about.
When the other fifty one guys in the locker room see practice every single day, the eye and the sky don't lie on the film like they watch the film. They watch the tape and you look at all of these opportunities at this offense ad and I'm not sitting here telling you that they're going to go out there and average thirty five points a game with Drake may But the tipping point to me, from my opinion, was
the game. Again, Miami had situations within the game where they needed a play from the quarterback to put them over the top, and Jacoby Brissett just couldn't give them that play and that would listening to Mayo, that to me was the tipping point was it was a very winnable game. We had a possession at the end of the game, and I understand the rookie receiver didn't get both feed and bounds, and that that's a fair criticism or stupid rule the way it's it's a fair point.
But we took the tuck rule out of the thing. Should we take the the toe heel thing out?
Maybe there were multiple plays in this game on Sunday where it felt like a little bit of a better throw, just a little bit of a better throw would have been the difference in the game.
There's no guarantee that Drake would have made that kind of a throw. There's no guarantee that he would have made that kind of a throw, especially under direct under pressure. Yeah, so you know, could he have thrown a bitter ball?
I personally thought he could have, you know, could you know, Jalen Polk, I mean, you got to realize he's coming out of the college ranks where only one foot is required to be in bounds, right, so he I naturally I even saw his Instagram photo of him with his second foot in bounds.
Yeah.
The problem was it's the toe and there's this rule called the toe heel rule. That if you don't tap out, then the entire foot's gotta be in. I think that's one of the stupidest rules I've seen since the tuck rule and the tough rule benefit of the Patriots, this one bit him.
Yeah, I just when you look at going back to the the other fifty one guys in the room, Drake made today said in his press conference, and I don't think that he was meaning it to throw anybody under the bus or anything like that, but he put it very honestly. He said, it's a winning league. This is league is about wins and losses. We're one and four and the guys in the locker room want to win. And if it's not working, then you have to make
a change. And when guys in that locker room can look at the physical skill set that he brings to the table, and they can watch him making progress in practice, and they can see him going out there, and this is all public, and we have coaches from the defensive side of the ball. A couple of weeks ago ooing an eyeing over some of the throws that Drake May is making on the scout team in practice.
We mooed an odd yeah, especially since you know that late in the preseason when we saw when he started to pick stuff up, it's kind of like, w ohoh, this kid may be ready before week four or week five or whatever was being rumored at the time. You know, this kid might be ready. Let's play him. And everybody's pushing it int the brakes on it, and then we're buying into this narrative that well, there's no offensive line around him, and look, football is football, Okay, Guys are
gonna get beat up regardless. Okay, And if you're really babying, and I'm sorry, but I'm going to use the term baby, if you're babying your quarterback, what does this say to the other fifty two guys your trend? You know, Okay, they can go out there and bust their tails and have their next broken potentially, but not your starting quarterback really.
Right, and you know you see you hear Mike Pelgreno, their cornerbacks coach, when we were talking to the defensive assistance a couple of weeks ago, said that Drake May made a throw so good in practice that Pellegrino went back and watched it on.
The tape later that day.
Love it.
They hate Drew Wilkins. They're outside linebackers. Coach is talking about how they're trying to throw pressure at him and dial things up against him, and he's reading it out. He's looking off safeties, he's baiting guys out of coverage and you know, manipulating coverage with his cadence and things like that. And you look at you hear all this stuff from these coaches and so you're you know it, it's going on behind the scenes. It's really difficult for
that to continue. And then for them to go out there on Sundays and throw for one hundred and nineteen yards a game, and then to keep going into those squad meetings. If you're a Jeried Mayo and saying Jakobe's our starter, right, you know, at some point the other guys are going to start asking someone.
This had to have been sure he made. He made the decision on his own. I think it's great if he did, and he should be making the decision without any other outside influence, unless, of course, he wants the input from his other offensive coaches. They're the ones that should be making the decision, not from above, not from outside, not from the media, especially not from the fans clamoring
for Drake. May it should be Girodmeo's decision. But if it's taking him that long to realize what he has here, to see what everybody else has seen here, wait what? Okay? So if there is a plan that he's wanted to follow, then there needs to be at least some kind of a I don't know, an explanation. I mean, otherwise you're really no better off than you know, or you're not being You're not different from what we went under for
twenty three years around here with Bill Belichick. Around we knew we weren't getting aything from Bill, even though people rasking questions during the course of the week, and you knew we wouldn't ask it, but you had to ask the question anyway.
Yeah, I would just say that because I know there's a lot of talk about this right now about them basically throwing the plan out and being reactionary in plan.
So think there was any plan. You can't convince me there was a plan.
I I don't know exactly because one thing he has kept very close to the chest, Girod is this this mythical plan.
That's why I think it's nothing but unicorns. And rainbows. That's all it is.
I don't know about that. He has not disclosed that to us what this plan was.
And I know that not everybody's gonna believe this when I say it, but I truly do feel this way. I believe that Drake may took the plan and burned it down.
And burned it. He burned it because of his progress. Yeah, and so now the coaches are forged too. Well, if there was a plan, now we got to play the yeah, because he's showing and showing in practice. Yep. All right, let's turn the direction of the program here for a second. We're gonna get back to more on Drake and getting the start here this weekend. Eight five five PATS five
hundred is the total free telephone number. We'd love for you to take part in the discussion, whether you agree with the decision or not, one way or the other. I'd like to hear your opinion. You can also, you know, send it out to us as well. On what the hell is the new email address? Again? Podcasts at Patriots dot com. Oh it's on top of the live read. Oh it's not. Oh yes it is. See I can't read. I'm sorry, Matt Marien.
He tries. He gives you all the tools, everything I need.
It's right here and I'm blind podcast at Patriots dot Com. Okay, So now joining us on the herego This is for you Marine on the TPX hotline. Okay, joining us on the TBX hotline is the play by play voice of the Houston Texans, Mark Vandermier, A longtime friend. Mark. Thanks for taking a few minutes out of your busy dayppreciate you.
Hey, I'm doing great. Guys. You sound a little choppy. Do I sound shoppy to you?
You sound perfect?
All that's fine. I can deal with shoppiness on the other end. But okay, I'm doing great. Looking forward to coming to Gillette Stadium on Sunday.
I'll bet you are. I bet you are. You got to get back and we'll hold some champ We'll hold some clam chowder for you.
Bro.
Yeah, I know I'm looking forward to that too. I mean, this is one of the staples of the league as far as the press food. You know, you have the crab cakes in Baltimore, you have plam chowder, and in New England and it's awesome.
Gotta do it all right, So I know your time is short, so thanks again. But first things first, Nico Collins gets placed on IR and I know that's a bit of a blowout for you know, CJ, for the entire offense. How do the Texans overcome that kind of an absence here for at least four weeks.
Well, it's the moneyball thing. You cannot replace them. You hope to recreate him, you know. And Stefan Diggs is having a nice year for the Texans, sort of under the radar compared to what Nico Collins has been doing. Nobody here is surprised about Nico's star and how good he's been based on what we saw last year. And I figured this would be the case, especially with Diggs creating more of an attention getter scenario, so Nico could
be freed up for some things. But now they have to go with tank Dell Diggs, see what Xavier Hutchinson can do. Maybe John Metshi. You know the other guys too. You know, Dalton Schultz is a good receiving tight end. They have other weapons. Daria gon Bowally has been really handy for them with these running back injuries they've had. He's caught some balls lately and came up big against Jacksonville and against the Buffalo Bills, so they'll try to
piece it together. The good thing is they have number seven pulling the trigger and he's really good all right.
So you know, obviously sitting number seven was where I was going next. Why has CJ. Stroud made the strides that he, you know, at least to me, started making late last year and picked it up this year. What's allowed him to just make the game shorter? It seems like it's it's slowed down for him a little bit.
Well, it definitely has, and it did from the get go. You know, they played that preseason game in Foxborough August of twenty twenty three, and I don't think anybody could have thought or projected that he'd be as good as he became, but they saw signs of it in practice. And what do we always say about all of these players. Everybody needs to get better, everybody needs to improve, and some guys don't, some guys do. And if you could tell this pre draft, then we'd have a lot of
geniuses out there. But clearly people are wrong about so many quarterbacks drafted because they don't get better. Stroud gets better. He's devoted to it. He sees the field as well, and you know, it's kind of like when you're playing pick up basketball. Certain guys see the floor, all of a sudden the ball ends up in your hands. He sees the field. And you had, you know, the best quarterback of all time who could see the whole field very easily. The game was so slowed down for him.
He was just, you know, a maestro. And I don't have to tell you that. I'm not saying Stroud is that. But Stroud has that ability to see who's open, keep the eyes downfield by time, within the pocket and outside the pocket. And this year I think he's better in the pocket than he was last year. And he's starting to run a little bit very selective. Just ten yards here, ten yards there, Just get a first down, reload first and ten nothing fancy. Just keep the ball matriculating down
the field, like Hanning Stram used to say. And it's fun to watch. I mean, the guy is a pleasure to be around and really enjoyable to watch win these really close games.
Let's do a little comparison here, Mark, because I think you know that the Patriots have announced that they're going to start. You know, the rookie Drake May at quarterback against you guys this week. So when CJ first got it going in Houston, clearly every rookie has a learning curve.
When did he turn it on? And what was the Texans attitude at the time about letting him have the opportunity to kind of play through this and try to develop himself or did they want to put the brakes on him at least initially and his talent just took over. Take us back a year or so ago.
Well.
In OTAs and training camp in twenty twenty three Strouds rookie season, Davis Mills was the starter. Davis Mills took the first team reps, Stroud second team reps. Then they started to mix them, and then it was obvious to everybody, because you know, we're all allowed to watch every training camp practice. It was obvious to everybody that Stroud is
better than Mills. How good is he? Ultimately you couldn't tell, but you knew that he was ahead of Davis Mills and that looked good, so go ahead and start him. It wasn't until the second half in week two where we really started to see a cup alive against the Colts at a loss. They were down, but he was spreading the ball around, throwing it around the yard, making plays through for a lot of yards in that game.
And then week three they torched Jacksonville on the road, and this was a Jacksonville team that was coming off a playoff win season and they were the favorites to win the AFC South. And then you got a lotside of victory at their place, and they were often running with CJ.
Strout.
I think the Tampa game last year was the one where it took even on greater level. When he came back with minimum time on the clock, I mean minimal, it was inside a minute to go, found Tankdell on a beautiful sideline pattern to set up a last second touchdown pass to Dell, and there it was. He saw
that this was going to be a special player. And he's shown nothing but I mean, he had a couple of turnovers against the Bills in the fourth quarter of this past week, but he shakes that off real fast, very calm, very cool, and these things don't affect him other than to make him want to get even better. And again, it's just fun to be around a player like this.
Well, knowing now that you know what you know about CJ, are you at all surprised the Patriots have made largely a similar remove in giving Drake May his debut against you guys.
You know it's funny because Brissette is a Texans killer. Okay, He's five and one all time against Houston with three different teams. He won that game in Week three twenty sixteen as a rookie when both Brady and Garoppolo were out. He won a few games with the Colts. He beat the Texans as a dolphin in twenty one and we were going over this. We thought, is this the best? Well, I think it's the best winning percentage for a quarterback
against the Texans minimum six games played. I believe it's the case because it's Peyton manning Brady and then Brissette.
How about that?
So we're happy not to see Brissette at least I am. I don't think the coach has any opinion on the subject. But with Drake May, look, it's just it's like I just described, you won't know it until you see it, and you hope to see it, but you don't know when you're going to see it. You hope to see
it early. You just don't know until you know. And I think that goes with all of these rookie quarterbacks, all of these young qbs, even Jordan Love, you know, he had to sit behind Aaron Rodgers and the times he got out there, I don't know. Right now you're seeing it, so that's good for them. So you won't know until you know. And maybe it happens this weekend, maybe it takes a few more weeks, maybe it takes another year. We don't know sure.
And I guess really, you know, you would know what your defense, you know, would like to do against a guy like Drake at least to you know, make sure that his debut is a little bit rude out there on the field on Sunday. What do you think, in particular, Houston as defense does well that mike him some problems.
Well, the Texans look, if you look at the sack numbers, they look decent league Wie, I think you're top ten in the league, but seven of them were in one game, and you know we're still relatively early in the season. What they do well, though, is get the posing quarterback off his launching point, and they did that with Josh Allen. It wasn't a sack best last week, but Allen went nine for thirty. How many times do you see him do that? Even his rookie year, he wasn't doing that.
So the Texans forced them bad throws, forced him to be uncomfortable because they do spend time in the backfield. Even in their lopsided loss to the Minnesota Vikings, they still had four sacks and they got Donald to move around.
Now.
Donald was able to keep his poise and make the plays Allen wasn't. And we'll see what a rookie can do against this defense. But they have to make sure they get into the backfield because Will Anderson, Junior, Daniel Hunter, these guys are good, and the defensive tackles are underrated. Fully. Fotacasi's having a nice year, best of his career so far.
Mario Edwards has been around the block in this league, but he's felt a resurgence playing for this squad, and I think that's a tribute to really the entire staff. But Demiko ryans so positive, so encouraging, the kind of coach people really want to play for. And you're seeing the results on the field, and it's particularly noticeable because they win the close games. You know, this lead over this league is it's a one score league basically all the every week, all the time. And who wins these
close games. The teams that are together play together and feed off each other. That's what this squad is doing.
Mark just one for me. I just wanted to ask you about the offense. And Houston is nineteenth in scoring with all this talent, like, it's kind of hard to believe, right and you watch them and it doesn't feel that way. Is there anything you can point your finger on as to why they haven't scored more points?
Tatastrophic mistakes in their four victories. Against the Colts on opening Day, they got a punt block and it results in a gift touchdown. A play later against the Bears, they fumble at the five yard line when they're about to punch it in and it turns could be two score games into a one score game. Ultimately, need I go on the Jags. I mean, NaN's a rally in that one because they muffed the punt early, gave them
a gift touchdown off that. And lastly, two fourth quarter turnovers, one of them resulted in a field goal, and it just kept things close when they didn't really need to be. The Texans have also been penalized a lot. Last week they cleaned it up a bit. It kind of reared its ugly head after halftime. The two weeks prior one to loss. Want to win. They had a lot of false starts things like that. They've been messy, they've been
a little sloppy. They got to tighten up and that's what enabled the opponent to stay close, and that's why the Texans haven't been able to score a ton of points. But when you look at the yards, they're definitely moving the football. I mean there's the number one passing attack in the league and yards per game Stroud is amazing. They've got the weapons. Even without Nico Collins, they should be able to get some yards through the air. They want to run it better. They have not run the
ball as well as they want to do. There's no question about that, and we'll see if that materializes. I think Damian Pierce should be back this week. So I'm at practice today. I'm hoping, I'm crossing my and hoping he can stay healthy and get out there. So we'll see how it goes. But yeah, they have not scored points to their liking. Twenty nine is the season high and that was week one.
All right, Mark, I know you got to go, but I appreciate a little time here today. Thank you. Save travels this way, and I will personally make certain that the clam chowder is still warm for you when you decide to come out of the booth.
Yeah. Please, And let's get some U Mass fans in the crowd. Please, I'd like to see.
Some of that.
Wait, you mess has fans football fans.
What's that?
I said, you mess has fans?
Yes, they do. Don't do that to me, you know, I'm just you and I go back to Big East days, Miami versus Providence.
We do fun, we do well well beyond that. I don't remember your days at you Mass. Absolutely, thanks buddy, appreciate the time.
All right, Thanks guys, you got it.
Mark Vandermeir the one and only voice of the Houston Texans. You can follow him on x at Texan's Voice. That's where you find him on that. So yeah, good handle. It was very good handle. And you know, Houston's listen. This is a team that for a number of years we all thought, you know, would have potential for whatever reason, they have never been able to get over the hump. You remember the whole you know, letterjacket thing that went on here with Jed J. Watt over a few years ago,
and can you forget that stuff? Right? And so whenever I think Houston Texans, that's actually what I think of, because I just think of man alive. You know, they just kept their mouths shut, but that seemed to, you know, go right in their face. Now, I think they've got enough talent, especially on the offensive side of the ball, as you alluded to, to overcome whatever foibles they have. They seem to certainly be quick enough defensively where they can
play well enough with everybody else. But as he pointed out, they're kind of shooting themselves in the foot, not unlike what the Patriots are doing. But they've already got a better offense on the field. So I think the secondary, while the Patriot's secondary has been good at times, is going to be extremely challenged. Yeah.
I wanted to ask Mark that question because it's often something like that where it's like turnover, is it inoperate tune times or poor situational football? And as somebody on the outside looking in, you don't necessarily think of those little things all the time because you look at their numbers right now, a quarterback a team quarterback by c. J. Stroud with the number one receiver in football is nineteenth in scoring. That doesn't really make much sense, you know.
He said that they're number one in the league in passing yards right now, but they're only scoring twenty points a game. Yeah, that doesn't necessarily compute their early down offense. They're expected points added on early downs right now is worse than the Patriots. They are a worse first and second town team than New England is like this offense right that's changing their quarterback. So it is a weird one of those weird anomalies with Houston right now.
Now.
On the defensive side of the ball, they've been lights out really the entire year. They've been really impressive on that side of the football. Number three in DVOA on defense, Umber one in pressure rate. They're playing a lot more man to man. They're playing more aggressive style under Demiko Ryans this year, so it's a tough defense to go up against. But I continue to just be baffled by how you could watch the tape and see how good c. J.
Stroud is and he is fantastic in the pocket. And then the production just you know, you go to the box score and it's it's nineteen to thirteen.
Or you know, or whatever they're shoot him.
So yeah, and I'm just or twenty I think it's twenty three twenty against Buffalo last week on Sunday.
So it's just like, how do we get there?
And yet, defensively, this team is impressive what they've done against opposing quarterbacks this far. Yeah, they gave you know, Josh Allen perfect example last week, gave him Molly can handle and then some gave him a concussion probably. I mean, it's it's and then let's get back to the original premise of the show today, which we're talking about Drake May's debut. He is going to have his hands full in trying to figure out what he was going to do.
If I'm Houston, I'm throwing everything, including the kitchen sink at him, And why wouldn't you in a competitive game in a competitive world. I'm gonna do everything I can to make life as difficult as possible for the air apparent at quarterback.
Yeah, the one thing that he maybe has going for him in this particular game. Is I wouldn't call Houston to spin the dial defense. This isn't necessarily a defense that is is a disguise heavy or isn't showing their cards before the ball is snapped. You know, when they want to come after a quarterback, they're gonna put five or six guys up on the line of scrimmage, and you know they're coming like you know something. Maybe it's not all six, maybe it's you know, four and they
drop two out or whatever the case may be. But they they show their cards a lot, so you're not necessarily gonna be in a position where you're gonna be scrambling post snap to try to figure out what the defense is in.
You know.
That's really this system, This system that I was gonna say Robert solid, but no longer. The Jets run the forty nine ers a run obviously. The Houston Texans run under Damiko Ryans is a we do what we do kind of defense, and they just a couple of weeks ago played this defense twice in a row. The Jets and the forty nine Ers both run the same system, so they should know relatively what Houston's going to do. Defensively.
I'd also just look at Week two against Caleb Williams and another rookie quarterback and say, well, that work for them against Caleb, So that's probably what they're gonna do against Drake May on Sunday. So they should know what's reason right, Yeah, they should know what's coming. That doesn't make it easier, but they should know what's coming.
All right. So that means I got two questions for you before I get you out of here. Number one. Drowd Mayo said earlier today that Drake May gives the Patriots the best chance to win the game. Yeah, is there a chance to win this game on Sunday?
It's an unknown because if I'm right about Drake May and he goes out there and he plays like a star, then yeah, Obviously, when you have a quarterback that's pulling that hard on the rope and you can certainly win any game that you're in.
We know that all too well.
Then when you go into a game with a quarterback like that, that you have a chance. So I'm willing to say that they have a chance, mainly because of what Mark was talking about. Houston hasn't really pulled away from anybody yet this year I mentioned the Bears game. They sacked CAYLEB Williams seven times, they picked him off twice, and they won the game nineteen to thirteen. It was a one score game when all was said and done.
So if the Texans don't clean their act up on that side of the football, if they're not crisper and they're not sharper with their execution, then they will leave the door open for the Patriots in this game a little bit. So there's gonna be a lot of juice in the building. I'm sure he's gonna be jacked up. Maybe he does give them a spark offensively. So I'm saying there's a chance, But I'm also willing to be a little bit realistic.
Just gonna say, because I heard today before I came into the studio, both on radio and from you know fans, you know on campus, you know where I teach, that it's kind of like this is the season opener all over again, you know, like we can eliminate the last
month almost and start all over. And in a sense, I understand that mindset, and I also get what the fans would feel like that, and that's why I agree with you I think the stadium will be full of juice on Sunday, and it kind of leads to well, maybe this is why we had to make the move, because they wanted the juice from the fans.
Yeah, it's possible to me where what that means at the start of the season.
I always think about week one.
Nobody really knows what you are in terms of schematics, Like, you don't really know, especially when you have so much turnover on the roster, new coordinator, new quarterback.
That's right, we don't know who this team is.
We don't know what they have planned right for Drake May as the quarterback. I like to hope and this is something that will judge off of this game and moving forward.
But I would like to.
Hope that Alex van Pelt, Ben McAdoo, the offensive coaching staff, has been preparing the Drake May playbook since.
Muzzle comes off. That's what we want, you know, the muzzle. We want the leash loosened, we want everything off. And he needs to show his coaches, his teammates, the fans, the meeting. You need to show everybody. This is why you know, I need to justify being taken third.
Yeah, it and their coaches too. Like, to me, the onus right now is not so much on Drake, it's on the coaches, Like the coaches need to not only call things that he's comfortable running, but show me some schematic tweaks, show me some creativity on the offensive side of the football, show me some innovation on that side of the ball, because now you don't have the excuse anymore of well, we're limited at quarterback, Like you don't
have that excuse. Nope, you can say that you're mentally limited, maybe that he's a rookie in his first career start and he's not going to read defenses and be that type of guy just yet. But physically he can reach every single area of the field. He can run instruct sure at a structure, he can improvise like you have everything at your fingertips now, So what are they thinking of doing from a schematic perspective, which Drake may is
going to be huge? I want to I want to be dazzled a little bit, like, show me something, show me what you.
Got right you have to have.
We're dying, I know.
But I'm not just talking about being dazzled just by the quarterback. Like the quarterback is going to do it like I'd.
Be dazzled if the offensive line made a block.
I am not.
I am not concerned that we won't see flashes from Drake because we saw it all summer long and all preseason long. The question is is schematically, what's the Drake may offense look like. What is the way that they are going to get him involved in more ways than just with his arm, Because we also saw this in
the preseason. You have designed quarterback run at your disposal now, so when you get on the goal line and you need to punch the ball in, you can zone read, you can RPO, you can have draw, you can do all sorts of things at your disposal now to pick up a first down, to run it in on the goal line if you want to go for it on fourth and one. Now you're eleven on eleven, you're no longer playing with a quarterback that can't be a factor into that. But in order for that to be the case,
they need to scheme it up that way. So I'm really curious to see how that goes. I think that can change a lot for this offense.
Well, the second question I had for you is unattached to the Drake May discussion. But I need to get your opinions on Robert Sola's firing of the Jets. Yeah, after only four weeks, and really after five weeks rather and only two weeks after, they just thumped you as bad as anybody has thumped you this year. I just thought that was highly ironic.
Well, we talk about knee jerk reactions. That's what it feels like in New York. And I get it that they would each Johns and their owners said that this is the most talented Jets team ever assembled. And I don't necessarily think that that's hyperbolic, like that could be accurate, Like it's certainly the most talented Jets team in my lifetime. I can tell you that I don't go as far back as some, but I can tell you in my lifetime, this ain't the Chad Pennington New York Jets. This ain't
the Gino Smith or Mark Sanchez Jets. This Jets team is loaded on both sides of the football. When they played the Patriots on Thursday Night a few weeks ago, that talent gap is what won that game so decisively for the Jets. It was very crystal clear who had more talent on the field that night. Now they're trying to win games, not against the Patriots, They're trying to win games against the the cream of the crop. And that's where coaching can come in because coaching. Belichick always
used to say that coaching can lose you games. Players win games. And what they felt like was happening was that Robert Salla and the coaching staff would losing football games for that team because they have all this talent that they should be winning.
So I get it was.
There butting of hits between him and Aaron Rodgers.
Rogers says, no, you want to take his value. What I believe with that situation is that Rogers has his guys in that building, one of them being in Nate Hackett, who is one of his good friends in the business and as somebody that he trusts. And look, Rogers is a tough We had this with Brady, and I understand that it was a much more successful level than where the Jets are right now. But Brady had his way of doing things. You know that he ran his offense.
He didn't necessarily want much input. He didn't allow receivers in the circle of trust very easily. When they had new receivers on the team. Rogers to me, strikes me as that maybe even ramped up a little bit times ten. There are certain things schematically and certain things from a play design perspective that Aaron Rodgers just doesn't want a piece of, Like apparently he doesn't He's not a big fan of motion at the snap or pre snap motion. So he just wants to get to the line of scrimmage,
pick his matchups, and go to work. He doesn't want all these bells and whistles that you see from all these innovative offensive minds around the league, you know, the Miami's, the San Francisco's, the Rams.
You know.
He doesn't want any of the bells and whistles. He just wants to line up and I'm better than you, right, and that sort of thing. So it seems to me like there might have been some issues in that regard of like how do we want to play the game,
like how do we want to win football games? And just you know, to relate it back a little bit to Drake May That was the biggest thing to me with with this whole operation in the last five weeks when it comes to the head coach you are not necessarily going into the game and calling the offense or calling the defense. But you have to go to your coordinators and to your assistant coaches and with a plan
every single week. Of these are the four to three you know, three things, four things that we have to do that are non negotiable to win this football game.
Right.
I'll give you an example when they are before the half on Sunday against Miami. Poor situational football. In that scenario, they run the ball for seven or eight yards on first down, and then they pass it twice and they end up punting the ball back to the Miami Dolphins without wasting any time. Practically, if your girod Mayo, I'd like to hear Darrod Mayo get into the headset to Alex Van Pelton, say we're running the ball here, we're backed up on our own goal line. We can't allow
them to get the ball back before the half. This has to be the last possession of the half. You call it like whatever run play you want to call. You want to call gap, you want to call it outside zone, you want to call power like you call it. But this is what we're doing, and for I know everybody thinks there is no plan for once. I feel like there is a direction. Like girod Mao went in on Monday and said, we're making the change. I'm the head coach and this is what we're doing. Everybody else
needs to just get on board. And this whole collaborative stuff. You know, we gotta run it by Elliott, and you gotta run it by AVP and we got to run it by mcadude.
Like, no, you're the head coach, like this is your team.
Maybe this is something he just wasn't comfortable doing. Yeah, but he's decided no, I gotta do it.
Yeah, And I feel I know I'm going to be on an island on this. I feel that that's growth. I feel that that's growth. I feel like we've gotten to the point now where he is putting his foot down and he is saying, no, this is how we are going to do things.
This is my football.
He needs to do that. I agree, he needs to do that. I think there has to be more of a demonstrative measure here from Gerrod Mayo. Yeah, I think maybe this is the first step toward that. Yeah.
He was asked on Monday about changing play callers and he.
Threw cold hater.
Yeah, so it sounds like that I would have to begree with that.
By the way, I'm gonna I'm gonna take the coach's side on this one because it's unfair to Alex van Pelt, largely because of who he's had to work with.
Yeah, and I and he's also a first time play caller, So let's let him go through his lumps, since, yeah, he gets better.
At You're gonna give gerard Is lumps. You're gonna give Jacoby Is lumps. You're gonna give Drake his lumps. A VP needs the lumps.
Yeah, one hundred.
I just I feel as though a lot of what's happened here is that there's a lot of voices. And this is just my opinion. I have to preface that now every time I talk. This is just my opinion. I feel as though there's been a lot of cooks in the kitchen. Yeah, and it's coming from upstairs, or it's coming from the coordinator level, or it's coming from here and there and everywhere, And Gerrod Mayo is trying to just straighten out this ship of This is what
I want to do. They need to start building a culture like they need to start building roots of a foundation here.
This is who we are right.
And now, this to me is a big first step. I give him kudos. I think he stood up to everybody on Monday, and I'm just again my opinion, he stood up to everybody on Monday and he said this is what we're doing, get on board, And I can't say he's.
Done that a lot previously.
Yeah, and so I'm happy you.
Left you wondering, kind of scratching your head. Yeah, Hey, you know what the bottom line is out of all of this right now? What's that Patriots are only two games out of first place.
Look, I'm not going there. I'm not going there. I'm not going there. But it's exciting that. You know, we had people calling to PU and stuff and talk about Okay, well, you know, it felt rudderless before, like we're on this road to nowhere because Jacob Brissett isn't the future. The product isn't watchable, he's not the quarterback of the future,
So like, what are we doing here now? At least even if they don't win on Sunday, they could have a similar game to what they had in San Francisco, and it could look just as bad, right in terms of the other three two phases and the whole operation and all that kind of stuff. But if Drake May gives us three or four or five Wow plays, then it's gonna feel different. It's gonna feel like there is hope, and hopefully that becomes more consistent, and hopefully he becomes
more consistent and we grow from there. Now it really does feel like we have a new lease on life around here a little.
Bit the season opener, Yeah, all over again, as I said, right, yep, absolutely, thanks buddy. Of course, make sure you're sticking around a little extra here, all right. The one and only Easy Lazar at Easy Lazar on X joining us here on the program, of course. This program is also brought to you by bud Light, Easy to Drink, Easy to Enjoy, bud Light, the official beer sponsor of the New England Patriots. Eight five five PATS five hundred, the toll free telephone number.
It is podcasts at Patriots dot com. That's podcast with an s plural at Patriots dot com is the new web address to join us if you want to follow along on Twitter, even submit a question on Twitter or X. Because I always screwed that part up. You can hit me up at JR Broadcaster. That's the ex address. All right, you want to do what now? Oh you texted me? Should I take a time out here? Let's just do it live on TV. I'm going to read what Marines texts has to say here. Oh yeah, right, we do
we have a we can hear from Drake May. All right, let's do that in a moment, just in a moment, have it ready to roll, because we should hear from the star of the day, Drake May. But I also want to acknowledge the fact that I got two gentlemen hanging on for quite a time here, Patty and Agawam, you're up first here in the playbook. Look up, Johnny, Patty, what's happening today with you?
Just a work just sort of winding the day down?
And are you on board? Are you on board with the decision here?
Okay? Any of the guys will tell you that, like I, for a lack of better term, John, I've been calling and bitching the last few shows on TU saying that you know nothing personal against Jacobe, but to me, he's a backup quarterback. He kind of always has been a backup quarterback. Sorry about the echo.
That's right, You're good, I hear you fine.
To me, it was just well, like like what everyone else said, I mean, no matter what, I was going to watch the product, but I was watching it like begrudgingly, like, oh my god, I can't believe this is this is our team this year, and you know, is this going to go on all year? You know, are we going to are we going to win another game? And I didn't think we were with Jacoby as our starting quarterback.
No, and we said as much, We said as much last week. I think that I really thought one in sixteen was in play if we can continued. If this team had continued down the road that was traveled last week, I'm not sure how much that really would have changed had they won the game last week. I don't believe that even if that pass to Jalen Polk had been complete in the back of the end zone, I'm not
sure that it necessarily would have saved Jacoby's job. I'm not necessarily sure that you know that Drake may wouldn't have been you know, rushed in as the court. I'm not sure that any of that would have changed. If, of course, we are to believe what has been said all along that there was going to be a process in bringing Drake along in this, but it was clear when they didn't win it that something needed to change.
So maybe that was a convenience factor. I don't know, but this is something we've all seen coming for a while. I've been an advocate for doing it since day one, because then you might actually have you might be a few weeks ahead of the game. You might be where Jaden Daniels is, you might be where you know Caleb Williams is. You might We don't know, and we're never going to know the answer to that. So well, that's why I was an advocate for starting now back when
the season got started. At the very least, it's happening now, and that's why it's kind of like, hey, this is the season opener all over again.
Yeah.
Right.
And I was on the fence before the season started, but leading up to Week one, I said, you know what, screw it, I want to see the kid play.
Yeah, we need to see that. We need to see what he can do. We need to see what he can do with the ball, We need to see what he can do under duress. We need to see you know, if he's been listening to the calls, and we've seen the shots of him on the sideline, you know, with a year piece end, he's listening to all the calls. He know what it is. He can make his own decision. He's playing the game in his own mind. So all right,
how much has he retained? Look, this guy is not he's a little bit of a novidge when it comes to football because he's only started X number of games in his entire career. Remember he only started for like a season and a half at North Carolina before you know, he moved into the central role. He's still relatively brand new at this when you look at the bigger picture. But he comes from a great pedigree. You know, his brothers, you know, we're great athletes. His whole family's dad. You know,
he knows how to play. He's an athlete, you know, at H A. L. E. T. He's an athlete. And we need to see that because if we don't get what we think we got with the third pick, then you really got to start looking at the big picture. I don't think that'll be the case, but we got to find out because you know, you got to worry about the team first more than anything else.
Yeah, right, and I can't I don't know if I haven't said it on fewer if he just said it on this on the playbook with you where this team's talent offensively might not be good enough for them to win at least like four more games this year. But it's all right, you know, all I'm really looking for, I think all fans are really looking for is something new, something exciting, something to get excited about, and eventually progress. You want to see the kid progress and eventually get
better as as the weeks go on. I mean, if you look at what Houston did to Josh Allen last week, he completed like what nine of thirty passes. Look at Caleb Williams first week, it was almost the exact same statline. He completed nine of like probably nine of thirty, and he's progressively gotten better.
Yeah.
Jaden Daniels weeks one and two didn't look like anything, and now he's like he's in MVP consideration.
Yeah. So, and so even if he comes out, if Drake comes out and struggles this week against Houston, you know, there's no reason to get overblown about this. Okay. You know we've seen it with the other rookie quarterbacks in this league, the three that are actually you know, starting with their teams. Let's throw boone Nicks into the mix as well. They've all struggled at times this year because
their rookies. This is why, again I'm gonna repeat myself here, I was an advocate for starting him early so you could get by the rough stuff and hopefully he'd started developing, like by week five or week six. But okay, that's over, that's done. We got to move on now. And so now you're going to start the clock and he's gonna struggle at times, so we have to allow for that. You can't say, oh my god, he was terrible, where's Jacoby bringing back? No, no, no, this is what we have.
This is what we do. We need to see if this guy can play. He gets the entire rest of the season to figure this thing out, and that at the very least, that's what he's gonna get, and he should be getting because he is the future. Otherwise, you don't take a guy at number three if he's not the future of your franchise. So I know there's gonna be people that want to shoot their own selves in
the foot. If he doesn't have a good game this week, if the Patriots get blown out or whatever happens, there's gonna be people saying, Oh, they should have never done it. Look, he got killed behind that awful offensive line. I'm not buying that. I'm not buying that. If he gets killed behind the offensive line, then that's as much his fault as it is the offensive line's fault. He's got the ability, he's got to know how. I think, frankly, we'll see him do a lot of rolling out of the pocket.
I think he's gonna have to move the pocket a little bit in order to avoid a rush that's clearly gonna pit its ears back and come after him. So in that regard, you'll you'll probably see, you know, a VP dial up some plays that we just haven't seen before because it's not in Jacoby's wheelhouse to be able to run those kinds of plays, right.
And if you know, if they come after him and he's able to get the ball down the field and they switch up and start playing men, he'll we've seen him like or those that have like watched them play in college.
He's not afraid to take off.
No, No, he's moving. That's right. He'll he'll take off he has to, and he's not afraid to make mistakes. Okay, I thought that, you know, well, Jacoby again deserves to have a statue erected. I think because of him, you know, taking the bullets here, so to speak. The fact of the matter is that he's limited in what he can do with the football. Drake can do more with the football than Jacoby can. That's not a slam on Jacoby. It's just a credit to the town that Drake may has. Okay,
Jacoby's a great guy. He's a leader, his teammates respect him. He's an adequate quarterback. Frankly, he's great as a backup. He's exactly what you want, you want a game manager. I also believe, quite frankly, that he was kind of told to, you know, we need to be conservative at the stage of the game until we get you know, more bullets in our holster. And I don't know that they have that yet, but it's kind of like, well, we may never get it, so we got to play
the young guy. And I really believe the decision to play him boil down to basically that, you know, it's kind of like We don't know when we're going to have more bullets in the holster to be able to shoot from our gun. So let's play him before he gets too late. Bingo, that's why he's starting.
Yeah, and just a couple more points down and I'll get off and yeah, you know what, probably they don't have the bullets in the holster. But I'll tell you what I like. I'll tell you what I like what I saw this past week. You know, kat Osbourne, he was injured, but he was inactive. They pretty much even though he was there and active for the game, Taekwon Thornton was essentially obstensively just an active you know, for the game last week. And they gave Kisham Boudi a chance.
And Kishan Boudi is actually talented.
Kishan Boudi got his job. Kaishan Boudi got his playing time based on what he's done at practice and what he's done at practice well from the little that we've seen plus the reports that we've seen and gotten from the coaches, he's he knows how to block downfield, he knows how to block right and he's in a superb job of that in order to be able to try
to spring guys. So it just tells me that the guys that are doing the little things to earn their playing time are the ones that are being rewarded as it should be.
Yeah, and I'm not saying the kids. The next coming up Stefan Diggs, but there is a reason why he was, you know, consensus number one, number two wide receiver coming out of high school. Because the kid's talented. So I'm glad he's getting a chance. Pop Polk, let these young
kids place. You have to see what you not only what you have with May, but now that you have him starting there and you actually have like an uber talented quarterback, you need to see what you have at the wide receiver position too, before the start of the next offseason. And listen, fans, fans out there and anyone that's listening. I know you were saying, you know, Drake
May gets the calls. Drake, if you're listening to this call, everybody needs to temper their expectations down because this is essentially your one of a rebuild.
It's week one, baby, It's week one all over again. That's why we started with that today. This is the season opener all over again.
It's gonna take time. It's gonna take patience. You know, you don't go from going fourteen or four and thirteen last year and not really upgrading other than possibly, you know, a couple pieces here at the wide receiver position with with Polk, you know, getting a healthy born back and taking a quarterback number three overall and expect to win twelve games and win the division the next year. It doesn't happen.
Yep, you're right, you know.
But now that I said that, now that I've sort of grounded myself in reality, I'm going to enter fantasy land for a second. John, here's my prediction for the game. Okay, Patriots pull off a huge upset. I think the crowd is going to be juiced. I think that place is going to be loud. Gillette's going to be freaking, you know, chopping at the bit to see this kid come in and have a big game.
I think.
I think May's going to be amped up. I think he's going to have a few big time throws, and I'm I'm picking the Patriots to win twenty eight to twenty.
Wow, Well, the Patriots can score twenty eight points. I tell you what, There'll be a lot of people with eyes wide open. I'll put it to you that way, you the man, Patty, thank you, all right, you got it, Patty and agawam for twenty eight point healthy for twenty points. I think would be at least on the right track, wouldn't we. Eldred in North Carolina? What's up, Eldred?
Mister?
It's all good today. Clearly you're on the road. Be safe out there, and that guy's dead.
Oh yeah, I'm riding around and wish to Salem right now, so huh dropping one load off there and I'm done done for the day.
All right, very good, all right, be safe out there. Are you guys gonna get You're not gonna get it. No, see, you're not gonna get any of the aftermath of the of the hurricane that's hitting Florida because it's going to go out to the Atlantic. So I think that's probably a good thing, right.
Yes, because the mountains and Ashfield still having problem.
Oh I know, I feel I feel so badly for the people of Asheville. I've got uh, I've got a dear friend of mine who lives in Greenville, South Carolina, which is you know, is not far away, and uh uh you know, and he took a tree right in the middle of his house, so you know, he's got his power back, but he can't get the tree out of the house until somebody comes by, like an insurance adjuster to give him an estimate on the repairs. And that may take a while, so crazy.
Huh yeah, that is.
Kind of slow.
Yeah uh Threeville and s Farmer, South Carolina. Like I got family there too, Yeah, and day too long got their power on like yesterday and day before. Wow, you know, And that what I'm saying. I'm like, I'm just glad he just didn't have him that bad up in Charlotte. We had some powers and stuff out, but wasn't that bad.
Yeah, yep.
But but like I said before, I'm glad he got a shot. But like I told you a little while back, I would have started him day one.
Yes, three, Yes, yes exactly. We're you and I are in agreement. We're on the same page here. Yep, there's I would not have sat him. I would have started him day one, no question, I would have.
I would have. But even though I'm not in a wheelhouse yet. But like I say, you got to show me now in mister S three, you just got to show me. But like I said, maybe buy a made jersey. Ain't about a Patriot jersey. In a while. I still got Brady's and mouth.
You know what I'm gonna like this weekend, though, I'm gonna really like seeing the patriot red jersey with a white ten on it and and the white helmet with the old pat Patriot on it. I'm gonna enjoy the heck out of there this weekend.
Me too, Me too, I'm gonna enjoy that. But uh, i'd be working for a little bit. But I should get back in town to see the second half. But one thing I heard but May in this press Carson conference, and I hope you don't do that. Well he's talking about the coach will tell him, don't try to say too much offstrip. No, let that guy play, don't put no muggle on him, Let him play. Let him play. You know, if you gonna put a muggle on him, to the back there in that pocket, you know, and
let that guy. Let let that guy play.
That's why I think they'll get it. That's why I think they'll run him out of the pocket. You know, he's gonna be moving. I don't think he's gonna be a statue by any stratechy the imagination back in the in the in the in the offensive backfield. He's going to be moving, uh you know, And so yeah, go.
Ahead, but I'm sorry, sir, but but I won't. You have to take his victory lap. So I keep taking mind. You every time y'all mentioned CJ Strout, I keep taking mind. So that's what I told y'all two years ago to be coaching well, Joe.
Well, that's why I asked Mark vandermir from the Texans earlier about to take us back to a year ago when largely c J. Stroud and Drake and May were in the same position, and we were talking a lot about how, you know, the two were comparable, how they got started. But CJ picked it up really quickly, you know, and so it was not a hard decision, you know, for the Texans to make to put him into the starting lineup. So Davis Mills was the starter, just like
Jacoby Brissett was the starter here. And you know, so I can appreciate, you know, the similar path that both of these guys are taking the starting in the end, fell.
Yep, can I ask you a question that I see be spetch in my head because you know, I'm a receiver guy, right, yeah, so I know we've got the new wide receiver coaches. Okay, and Hikwon, if you can hear me, why you're not putting your ballad to use where you can be that top eight. That's what I can't understand. I can't understand it.
We can be Yeah, look, Eldred, I wish I could answer that one for you. I mean, I'm not even sure Taekwon can answer it for you, to be honest with you, I got to hike the speed and he
put on weight in the off season. You know, he knew he needed to get stronger, he needed to do and yet it's still not So the only thing I can tell you is is that it looks to me and based on the things that I've seen for myself, and maybe you can even pull it out a little bit yourself, being a receiver, as you suggested, he's just not doing the things you need to do to get open. There's no separation. They're getting very little separate from anybody.
Thats me, because he had a full two speed.
That what kills me. Well, that's okay, Yeah, and I can't understand why you ain't.
That tells me that he's in decisive okay. But Eldrick, that tells me with four two speed, if he's not getting open, he's indecisive on the route that he should be running and the route that he is running, there's indecision on there. There's doubt he's not cutting it loose. That's that's what that tells me, okay. And if he's not willing or able even to cut it loose, dude, we got to put somebody in there that is willing to do that, real simple.
Yeah, Yeah, I betrayed him too. Try I look at somebody with that count of speed, with that height, and see if I can make him into it if I have to go in through the draft or get my boy like I wanted into nineteen DK metcalf Sure after all count.
Of absolutely, Harry, Yeah, absolutely.
You have a good days, always, good times, you, mister legend.
Be safe out there, big boy, Yes, sir, all right, you got it, Eldred in North Carolina, all right out on the road in Winston Salem. Be safe out there. Everybody be safe out there. Let's move now to Chris Price Covers the Patriots, of course, for the Boston Globe, been a friend of this program for a number of years. Noted sports book author as well. We talked about this a few weeks ago. He's got another hockey one coming out soon enough. Chris, how's it going today?
I'm doing great here? How you doing, my friend?
Awesome? Awesome Chris, by the way, brought to us on the TPX Hotline, which of course is a great sponsor for us again, and of course the program brought to you by bud Light, Easy to Drink, easy to enjoy, bud Light, the official beer sponsor of the New England Patriots. All right, so what do you make of I guess this could be considered officially day one of the Drake May era in New England. And are you at all surprised that the decision to insert him at starter came when it did?
I think that, first of all, this is you know, the I'm not surprised. I'll say that the idea of needing to jump start this passing game, there's no one else coming, There's no other kind of card they can play when you look at them, when you look at this offense, you look at the way it's currently set up, that there's no one waiting to come back from you know, pup or you know they're they're certainly not going to
trade for anyone. So this is the move that they made to at least theoretically try to give the passing game a spark. The only question I have here and is about the timing up. And I imagine you feel kind of the same way that you know, maybe you could have done it last week against a banged up Miami defense, or maybe you wait another week against the Jacksonville team that's really struggling. This Houston team, and this Houston pass rush is pretty good. I mean they just
knocked around Josh Allen pretty good, no question. And so look, it's it would be a tall task for any young quarterback, much less a quarter back starting his first game in the National Football League. But I think, and again I think we're in agreement here. You know this was going to happen sometime this year. I think Drake accelerated the process by his performance in practice and maybe some of Jacobi's ineffectiveness over the course of the first five games that also contributed.
Yeah, this was an inevitability. It's curious, and I know a lot of the folks that thought that this was the wrong move to make because of the status of the offensive line, and some of the talent around him are questioning, you know why now because of them playing Miami last week and playing a stout Houston defense this week.
But I would tell you that if there is a plan, and I've long said, whenever we first heard the words the plan, and I'm putting quotes around the plan, Chris, whenever we first heard that, whatever the plan may be, the plan doesn't include who the opponent is, Okay, that the plan would involve whenever we feel he's ready to go. That's when he goes, regardless of who the patriot opponent is. And that's the part of the plan, if it actually exists or existed, that's the part I would agree with.
You go on your time, you go on your schedule, You go when we think you're ready to go. Now, maybe the way it planned out last week helped move that time frame along a little bit more. I don't know. That's probably for Gerrod to know and maybe to keep to himself in that regard, but it's pretty clear that we've all seen that this was bruin for some time.
Yeah, exactly too, And I'll say this to JR. I think that there is value to the unknown if you're the Patriots, because obviously, look, Houston has a bunch of film on Jacoby Brissett. They know what he can do. They know what he's capable of at a national football league level. From a regular season perspective, we don't know. We don't know about Drake by his ability to perform when you know, when the real bullets are flying, for lack of a better terms. So I think that that
can kind of play into things if you're the Patriots. Look, the hope is here that Drake will be able to play quicker than Jacoby did, and I'm going to be fascinated to see how that might manifest itself. I'm that thing that they're going to go up tempo, but just the christness in getting in and out of the huddle, looking to move the ball as quickly as possible. Things that kind of bogged down the last few weeks, in particular,
would Jacoby under center. Now, I think that ultimately might manifest itself in maybe another turnover or two, because I think, you know, for all of his for all of the attributes he had, I think Jacoby is also very careful with the football. Yeah, and I think that's necessarily a bad thing. But you're going to see a little bit of the youth here kind of come to the floor with Drake May and I think that might manifest itself
in an interception or two. But I also think it's going to manifest itself in some faster football than what we've seen over the last few weeks.
Right, Chris, I gotta ask you a sort of a silly question here. I don't think there's ever such thing as a dumb question, but I'd certainly categorize this, maybe you as silly, but I got to ask it anyway. What would you categorize as a win for the Patriots this week short of actually winning the game?
I think you want to.
See trending in the right direction, particularly on the offensive side of the ball. I think that if Drake is let's say, if he goes twenty for thirty for two hundred and fifty yards and can show an ability to move the ball consistently up and down the field, short of a win, I think, you know, you could take
a positive out of that. But you know that's I want to say, that's the only question I have because it's weird when you talk about a one and four team that in my mind might not be one and four if it weren't for a few brings here or there. But you just want to see some christness, some efficiency, some energy in the passing game that we just haven't seen over the first you know, really over the first five games. I think the running game has done as
well as could be expected. Ramondre Stevens's all security issues to sign. I think the defense has remained competitive even after losing so many key pieces.
All I want to see.
Is Drake may show an ability to run the offense, run the you know, execute in the passing game, and you'll really move the ball up and down the field. I'd like them to stay competitive. I think that the seven point line is fairly on point when you talk about this game, at least, you know, on the surface. But yeah, ultimately the answer your question, you just want to see the young quarterback do well. You want to see him continue to act.
So steps made in the right direction. And then the other analogy that we've kind of used today here is that this is really weak one all over again that you know, you know, we know there's going to be juice in the building. We know the fans are excited, we know the media is going to be anxious to see. We're all going to be anxious to see what can happen. And and we might already be putting a little bit too much on it, but look, you know the guy
is is, he's an He's an excellent talent. He wouldn't be uh wouldn't have been selected where he was if he wasn't. But we need to see if that talent is justified. He needs to play. Now is the time because it certainly wasn't going to improve with the things that the way they were, regardless of the relative strength or ability of the offensive line, or the receivers to get open, or the running backs to hold onto the football or whatever it may be, we got problems in
all aspects of the game. Maybe, just maybe this guy, what he can do with the football can help make the others around him better.
I love the line. We're probably putting too much on this. Yeah, we're going to use this single game. We won't even wait till the end of the game. It's gonna be the first half. It's going to be a referendum on how he's going to do the rest of his career. Look, ultimately, he's either going to be on the CEO by by Sunday at four point thirty, he's either going to be in the trash heap or first ballot Hall of Famer. And it's a whole lot of people. So yeah, look
it's unfair. Look, but you know what, man, that's life in the big city. That's why the quarterbacks, you know, get the big money and get the covers of the magazines and get state the supermodels, you know, because they get too much of the credit, too much of the blame.
So yeah, look it's all on his shoulders. There's there are problems with this team that extend beyond the quarterback, namely the offensive line and developing some consistency and continuity upfront and like at the ball security when it comes from Andre Stephenson, and you know, the depth on the defensive side of the ball. But at the end of the day, that's why the quarterback position is the you know,
arguably the toughest position. And then you know in all professional sports, because so much is right as so much as is on their shoulders, you know, good or bad. And if we're going to see comes Sunday one. If this young man can execute right, well.
I got to bring up now the elephant in the closet, or at least the elephant in the room, because all of this, you know, hubbub over Drake May getting the call to start, has overshadowed the fact that the Patriots had an off field issue raised its ugly head over the weekend. Would you Bill Peppers charged with assault? Perhaps? I don't know, nobody will ever really know the truth,
but maybe you know. Look, let's face it, that's completely been pushed aside in this entire escapade simply because everybody's excited about Drake May in the future from this point forward. Today, Darrilla has put on the Commissioner exemp list, which means the Patriots now can basically wash their hands of this deal. He can only come off the list based on Commissioner Roger Goodell's decision making. So they're going to let this process play out, and I don't think he's even due
back into court until toward the end of November. What I mean, should the Patriots cut bait here? Should they let the process play out? What are your thoughts based on what we've learned through the media.
Well, I'll start with this the patrio. The commissioner did the Patriots of favor here, because usually the wheels of justice, you know, move a lot slower in these instances. The Patriots before this announcement, they basically had four options. They could keep around, ask him to leave, it's to spend him, or just kind of do nothing. And the commission kind
of took that decision off their hands. So basically, Jabill Peppers now has you know, kind of a p leave fundamentally while they figure out what to do with them.
I think it's awful tough.
It really really is. Man, If a whiff of this is true, and look, as a guy who love setting aside at the very serious real world implications of what's going on, Pepper's is a really talented football player. And it pains me to say this, but if a whiff of this is true, they should cut they should get rid of him, and they should move on from here. Because the police report. I've taken a look at the
police report. It's very very serious, very serious stuff. In the past, the Patriots for the most part, have moved on from instances like this. I think that we deserve to see and kind of hear this thing play out a little bit before they know, we anyone else, the Patriots, the league makes an ultimate decision. But look, if this thing is true, they need to do the right thing.
Well, he obviously, for what it's worth here, we should present both sides of the story. Says he's innocent. In his attorney says that there's video that will help vindicate him. You know, I realized that. You know, hey, that's all fine and good, but this process does need to play out quickly. Otherwise then it's if he's really innocent of some of the things that he's being accused of doing, then it's it's it's gonna hurt him, it's gonna hurt the football team, it's gonna hurt a lot of people.
Yeah, it's it's true.
And look, I agree with you wholeheartedly there. You need to let the thing play out. You need to hear both sides. If there is indeed video evidence that needs to be shared, that needs to be kind of combed over, You need to make sure everyone does their due diligence before they come to an ultimate decision on this, because again,
this is a very serious thing. This you know, we talk about football and it's great, and you know, it's the Look, this is the toy department, quite frankly, but you know, there are very serious real world implications here when you talk about the Patriots in the National Football League as a whole, So that has to be examined.
But yeah, this is again I'll go back to my point is that the league did the Patriots a favor because they made the decision for them, at least in the short term in terms of what to do with ja Bill Peppers.
Yeah, all right, this team defensively, even though they've lost a big chunk up the middle, you know, from Christian Barmore being out, you know, with the the clocks and Juwan Bentley out with you know, his injury, you know, and some inconsistent play let's say, maybe the exception of you know, Christian Gonzales and the secondary up the middle. It's taken a few hits.
C J.
Stroud has played extraordinarily well. They're gonna be without their leading receiver who just went on ir this week as well. Maybe that's a bonus, Maybe it isn't. The running game hasn't been great for Houston. They've got good numbers, but they really don't score the ball a lot. Is this a matchup that actually might help the Patriot defense out in.
That regard with no Nico Collins in, no Joe mix and you know, stop me if you've heard this before. You're catching them at a good time.
Yeah, trip, You know, it feels like we've said.
That about a number of the Patriots opponents this here, but it really is true, you know, with no comments and expected to be no mixing in the lineup because he's still dealing with that. I believe it's a He's suffered a hip drop tackle in an opener against the Bears, and he really has. I don't think he's been on the field since then. So look, it's all going to come down on the defensive side of the ball, to being able to contain Stroud, to be able to you know,
keeping him in the pockets. The Patriots have struggled with quarterback contained through their first four or five games of the year, and if Stroud is able to operate in the pocket without much of a pass rush, I think it's going to be much of the same issues here.
You know, you look at it. If you can figure out a way to cut down on his time in the pocket if Keon White and Dietrich Wise and you know, the rest of that defense in front, that front seven can find a way to keep him contained and not have him ruught around back there for five six seven seconds like we saw from like Rock Purty. I think the Patriots are going to have a shot in this thing, but you just need to be able to figure out
a way to slow that down. And look, honestly, you could probably take a page, you know, in an ideal world, out of the old Patriots playbook in terms of you want to slow the game down. You know you're not going to beat the Texans if this gets into the twenties and thirties, you're gonna want to put together some long, extended drives. M Andre Stevenson. That's got to touch the
ball twenty plus times. You need to be able to deliver consistently on the ground because look, if you're picking your poison there with the Houston defense, you're gonna want to run out and that is the most winnable matchup if you're New England. Put together some long drives, keep CJ. Strouding that offense off the field for as long as possible and hope for some special teams magic and then you take your chances from there.
The irony of the situation certainly has dawned on me that you know, Girodmeos has said all along that how they beat Cincinnati in Week one simply was not sustainable throughout the course of this season based on how this team was built. And yet it seems like the Patriots' best chance to win games is playing precisely that way.
Yeah, it really is. It's about running the football. It's about being physical upfront. Look, you've talked to enough offensive linement over the course of your life to know that offensive lineman much prefer run blocking as opposed to pass blocking.
Out.
Yeah, that the Patriots have had their best success this year when it comes to, you know, really running the ball consistently, and so I think that plays into it.
But look, if they can figure out a way to run the ball, and that kind of goes back to the Drake may stuff that like, look, you want to take some stuff off the plate of the kid, and this is a good way to do it because you're going up against the team that might have kind of a middle of the road run defense, So you're not going to ask him to throw the ball thirty five
forty times this game. You're going to have run, you know, hand the ball off to Gibson and Stevenson, try to put together some steady, consistent drives and you kind of go from there. So yeah, I agree with Girodd that it's not sustainable.
That being said, you know, maybe.
You can sustain it for a good portion of the afternoon against the Texas this.
Sunday, right. You know, Pete Brock has told me. You know, it was always much much easier and much more fun for an offensive lineman to block straight ahead, to hit rather than be hit, which is why I've never known an offensive lineman who preferred pass blocking over run blocking.
Oh, I remember the conversations I had. I'm going back now, I remember. I'm getting all wistful because the conversations I would have with Logan Bankings about the joy of delivering a pancake block on an opposing defensive tackle and clearing the way for you know, like Gerrit Blunt or whoever it was behind him to run for twenty thirty forty yards at Eclipse. So yeah, you'll, you'll that's the guys in the team. Now, the same thing. They'll tell you
the same thing. They love run blocking. They much prefer run blocking to pass blocking. And if you get some of that going, just a little bit of it, get some of that going Sunday techin, it's going to give.
You a shot.
Yeah, there might be some continuity there. This could be the second straight week and for the first time this season they'll started the same five in the offensive line.
Yeah, yeah, I agree. And look, you know Nick Leverett was a mixed back. Let's be generous here. You know, it's center, but you have to win you there at guard. You know, Yeah, you feel decent about the group that you have out there. I think so much of it now is about developing that consistency in continuity, even if they're not the best five past. Look, for years and
years we've seen it here in New England. It's not about the best five offensive linement about the offensive lineman who worked the best together, the five guys who like, you know, the five fingers in the hand. You know, it's just if they're all working in harmony, they're all working in unison and that's built through consistency in continuity.
So maybe we're starting to see a little bit of that, you know, over the course of the week, and if they can carry that over into Sunday and next Sunday, the offensive line will eventually start to get better.
Yeah, Chrish, love talking man. Thanks for taking the time today. It's always appreciated.
My pleasures. Je take care. We'll talk again too.
But yep, see on Sunday one and only Chris Price find him on x at ce Price Globe to cover all of his stuff going on out there in the media. Eight five five Pats five hundred the toll free number podcasts at Patriots dot Com with email funny how I have to sit and remember that I've got some of those I want to share. Russell Baxter is going to hit us up on we gosh. See, that's the problem with sitting here in these chairs. I told Marine I really wanted to try sitting in these chairs for a while.
And so today was the day because there's a bunch of stuff that was going on in between shows today that they had to record. So we just left the interview set up today for those that are actually listening on audio and not seeing the video, and so we're just kind of maneuvering around a little bit here. Oh, good. Look, it actually works the computer here, So I want to read a couple of emails and Russell Baxter will join
us right at the top of the hour. Pat and Agawam, John, today I turned the ripe young age of forty eight. Can I get a birthday shut out?
Oh?
Shout out, not shutout. I'll give you a birthday shutout too. I think that would be outstanding.
Uh.
But Matt's currently ensconced with somebody in the studio, so I was gonna see if he had. Hey, Marine, do you have do you have a recording of Happy Birthday? I do, because we need to give Patty and Agawam a happy forty eighth birthday today. Since he's a regular on this show, he listens every time he calls every time, you know, should.
We do that?
Happy birthday, mister president.
Who's imitation of Marilyn Monroe?
Is that.
Nice? Nice? Okay? Happy birthday? Birthday? Yeah, that's a exactly right. You the man, Patty, You are the man.
What is this?
Oh okay, somebody's sending me garbage. That's fine, that's okay. Aiden in California. John. Just when I thought I was done watching this team with Jacoby, they reel me back in in a good way. Yeah, like Michael Corleone and was that Godfather three? I think I'm done and they reeled me back. Okay, that kind of thing. Anyway, this is the obvious choice and now we get to see
what this kid has made of with this move. It brings hope and excitement, and with hope, I think the Patriots win this and a thriller twenty four to twenty three. On a side note, the Boston media sucks, with an exception on a very few of a very few, it was not cool what they did to Evan. My only outlet for content is you guys. You guys are great and I will always listen. I appreciate you, aiden thank you very much. I mean with the day, this day and age and the internet, you can pick up anybody
from anywhere because everybody's streaming nowadays. What we hope to provide is, yeah, we all work in this building. These guys cover this team on a full time, everyday basis, as opposed to the guys at Wei or ninety eight five or Channels four, five, seven, ten, Nessing, you know, the stations and Providence. I mean, they don't cover the Patriots. Full time. You know, guys like Evan and Paul and Deuce, they cover the team full time. And when I'm covering teams,
I cover this team full time. You guys know that I basically split my seasons between football and college basketball for the better, well for all of the thirty three years that I've been with New England. But it's always been that way. You know, there's only a couple of teams that I cover, so there's a tendency to believe that, yeah, we're too close to it. There's a tendency, I think for a lot of people aiden to believe that we're touting company policy or that we're saying the things that
management wants us to say. I could not be more emphatic here. That has never been the case before. And I've been hosting this particular show now since two thousand and one, so this is my twenty fourth year to host this show. And I have never been told to watch what you say. I just have to use good judgment and you know, and Evan even said as much. You know, when he was on the program earlier today if you tuned in late, he said, look, you know,
I'm you know, it's emotional I was speaking offhanded. I need to preface it, preface things by saying, this is my opinion. It's an educated opinion based on his observations in the locker room and talking to the guys that he's talked to, as he talked to everybody. No, but immediately you know that got out, and he got out on social media and sometimes social media, Look, it's not your best friend. I realize this is where a lot of people go to get their news and their information,
and yeah, sure, your entertainment. I understand that. That's why I do it. I do it because I get entertained by it. Sometimes I chuckle at it. But yes, I also know a lot of good people in this business, people who actually know how to cover a story, who know what journalism is as opposed to propaganda. I respect the heck out of a lot of people, and I follow them for that reason. You know, you could choose to,
you know, follow a guy like me or not. It's entirely up to you think what you want to think. It's perfectly fine with me. I like to share what I know with other people. I like to have fun with what I know with other people, with fans, with
other people in the media. But do I get my information from the media, Yes, But I kind of put a little bit of a cautionary tag in there, because sometimes you don't know, you can't read sarca, and sometimes things can be misconstrued in the media because there's not enough time to explain it, enough space to explain it. You can kind of do that on x now because if you go premium you can get more than one hundred and forty characters in I understand that. Well, I'm
too damn cheap. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't make fun of them, but I'm just too damned cheap. I'm gonna admit it right off the bat. I mean, elon, I understand what you're doing. I appreciate that, I appreciate the avenue, but I'm too damn cheap, and I'm gonna be honest about that. So whatever I have to say, if I can't say it one hundred and forty characters, it's out real simple. Now, I'll go pay I'm gonna go pay for it. Now, don't do it.
I'll make fun of you.
Rain will make fun of me. Okay, well that's quite possible that could happen. You gotta make up your own mind. You gotta do your own reading, you gotta do your own research, You got to read a bunch of different people. And yeah, it was kind of unfair for a lot of people to do what they did, you know, with Evan, or do with anybody in that regard when they've got
a quote unquote scoop. And yes, Evan's right when he said, I should have prefaced it by saying, in my opinion, that's all, and that would have solved basically every problem that we've had this week. But we've never been told, Nope, you can't say this, Nope, you can't do that. Nope, we don't want you to do that. Nope, we're gonna take you off the air. Nope, nope, nope, never never
said that. Johnathan Craft was very clear with me when we first started this operation, you know, twenty four now twenty five years ago, and they showed twenty four years ago. You know, he knew that we needed to have the ability to use our reporting skills in order to be believed, in order to have profession to bring in professional integrity along. He knew that, mister Craft. Robert Kraft has always said, you know, no, you guys do what you need to do. Just be fair, and I think we have been. I
think we have been. If we haven't, then you know what, you have the right through coming on to this show, through calling, through tweeting, through posting, through email, through whatever, to call us out on that, which is fair. It's absolutely fair. So you know we're gonna give you our best. I think we've done that. I think you know, Deuce and Evan and Paul have done it at a high
level for a number of years. And a lot of the local media here in Boston they make fun of Team media because they know they like, you know, oh sure they're going to report this because they all feel like, well, the team is being told, is telling them what to say. And I'm here to tell you because I've been on both sides of the fence, that's not right. It's not accurate. That's all I can say. So you know, it is
what it is. I felt like I needed to say that on Evans's behalf because Evan's a good reporter, and I don't know that the Boston media sucks either. As you said, Aiden, there's some really good guys in the Boston media. We just talked to one we just talked to one at Chris Price. Okay, he's one of the true good guys in this business. He's a hell of a writer. He's a great reporter, he's a great author. You know, if you ever read his stuff, takes some
time to read his stuff. He's good at it. He's thorough. He understands journalism, he gets it, and most guys in this business do. I would tell you that sometimes when you hear through talk radio, sports talk radio in particular, guys will stay stuff, will say stuff to get a rise out of you, to make a social media splash, because it's all about the quote unquote entertainment part of the business. They're in the business of entertaining. They're in
the business of getting listeners and clicks and views. That's what they're in the business to do. They're in the business of attracting your attention. Guess what they did? It didn't they If you're reacting to it, they did it. So they're only doing their jobs. We're gonna try to stick the reporting. And are we perfect? Are we one hundred percent infallible? Nope, nobody is. We're all human. Okay. I've had stumbles in my career and I've been doing
it for a number of years. We step back, we think about it, we issue a maya culpa if necessary, and we move on. It's real simple. Okay, speaking of moving on right now, a.
Real woman could stop you from drinking.
Yeah, it's a very real, big woman.
It's time to go around the NFL with football guru Russell Baxter.
Now on the name is Flounder.
On Patriots playbook. Huh, I gotta get this button to work. Oh there it works. Good afternoon, Flounder. How are we going today?
Don't flounder with that? You know, I didn't catch any of your uh what happened before? You just said what you said about the media. But I'm glad you said what you said because I'll put this questions everybody listening out there. I often here the generalization of the media. Are people aware that there's more than like four or five people in the media, No, okay, there are thousands and thousands and thousands. So I mean, if you've been a stereotype and generalize and a lot of them do
different things. Some are reporters, some are insiders, you are writers, Some are shock jock, some are awful shock jocks with personal vendettas and agendas. Some people say stuff just to get like you said, get a rise and get you listening. You know, for the people in my profession who like to play the shock jock game, a word of advice probably is not a source. And I've heard a lot of that over the last couple of days with the Robert Sala you know, Aaron Rodgers, Woody Johnson surprisedly and
Throke Joe Namath in there at the same time. You know, they're doing exactly what they're doing. And many of these people who play the shock shock game are, for lack of better word, just flat out lazy. So don't categorize. You know, I've never met Evan, but I know him by reputation and he does a pretty solid job. I've never met Christopher Price. I've had contact with him on social media very very rarely, a couple of years ago.
His reputation is pretty damn good. So don't lump everyone together. Okay, you know, just as it was spent a long time on TV, not all detergents are the same.
I appreciate your saying that we've you know, you and I have seen the highs and the lows. Of that end of the business, you know, through our time years they go together at ESPN. UH and understand that, you know, Uh. For whatever reason, sometimes reportersournalists or put up on a pedestal like a lot of the athletes. And I guess
we're held to a different standard. And I would answer that by saying, well, we're only held to the standard that we hold ourselves to, and we should put ourselves up on a pedestal because our job is to get the information right, not necessarily first, not necessarily the most salacious, but to get it right. And the old adage in the business is especially in this day and age of social media, which can be as we know, instantaneous, and
sometimes that's not for the better. But the old adage goes, I would rather be last and correct than first and wrong with a story.
Beautifully put, I have a saying that I came up with you. I know I've said it to you and I'll say it again. And my Jeff Bennett, my former Pause at ESPN, told me he loved it, so I stick with it. Okay, right, Not everyone is accurate. I'm more interested in accuracy. It's true're going to go on TV tonight and tell me that Joe DiMaggio at a fifty eight game hitting streak. That's your opinion, but you're wrong, yep. Okay, So I'd rather be accurate. I'd rather take the time
to double check it. And I'm not putting myself on the pedestal. That's just when you are do what I do and you're in research, it's important that the people you work with trust you. And I've been pretty trustworthy in that regard, and I think that's why I've been able to do what I've been able to do for a long time. And so on. I mean, I go back to the very first Olympics. I've been in this business for so long.
Hey, what kind of a receiver would Jim Thorpe have made?
I think you would have been an excellent deep threat and also very good after the.
Catch, especially good after the catch. Rights.
I just it calls me sometimes for the quick fix, and there's no reason for that. You know, we're not on dead liment. You know. I used to have a very good friend of mine who's also no longer that ESPN the research and Paul Kinney and I don't know if you ever crossed Pad's football when he was thereied a lot of college footballs. We would have the occasional plan. You'll get this reference spot on. We would have the
occasional club. Like everybody does. Everybody does make mistakes, okay, but we would have the occasional club mistake and jump the gun on the story and so on. And I can't remember what the subject matter was, but any time that happened, I would stand up and Paul was in the back of the room and I was in the front of the room, and I would just look at him and say, Dewey defeats Truman.
Right, And if you don't understand that phrase, go google it right now.
Yeah, and here's the funny part. Uh. There was a place in Washington my good friend kilj took me to a long time ago called the Newseum, not the museum the News. I don't. I think it's not funded anymore. The first year I went there, it was the let me see was the fortieth I think it was the fortieth anniversary the Kennedy assassination. They had to move a camera.
They had all the document. It was fascinating and as I'm looking at newspapers from a whole eras century cities etc. I look around and what do you think sitting there the front page of doing the feach Truman the actual headlooking it's there. I quickly snapped a picture and sent to my friend Paul. So it is about getting it right,
you know. I know this. If that story was about me or you, and it was and you were reporting, and it was about some of you were close to you, sure as ill would take the time to get it Oh yeah, oh.
Yeah, without a doubt. So let me ask you the obvious question. Now, do you what are your thoughts on the Patriots getting it right by making the change to Drake May this week? Any thoughts on that?
Well, I think it seemed inevitable. And you know, we are getting to that time of the season as you can as you will see this week. Some of it due to injuries, some of it due to inefficiency. You know, the Raiders are about to start aiding O'Connell after benching Gardner Minshew during the game last week, and now Connall's going to get the start. So it's about that time of the year where you've dug yourself a little bit
of a hole. The Patriots, you know, a lot of hope after the beating the Bengals and haven't won the games since. And I get it, third picked in the draft. You want to see what he has. Maybe he lights his spark and you know it's a tall order. I mean, they're playing you know, division leader this week in Houston. All the Houston is very, very funny because they're four one and they've still given up more points John than
they scored. Yeah this year. That's because the four wins have come by fifteen points and the one loss game by twenty seven, right, exactly, so, But I have no problem with the move whatsoever. Obviously, the offensive line has been a concern and you know, maybe Drake may is, you know, on his heels this week running around, But this is not and this is a good Houston team, but it's not overpowering Euston team. We've been seen a lot of overpowering teams so far early in the season.
I don't think anybody's overpowering Russell. And that includes Kansas City at five and zero. Kansas City's won every game but the last one by one one score. So no, I don't think there's overpowering at all. This is how the NFL wants it to be. They want parody like this, and guess what they've got it. My biggest problem is some of this p r it y can turn into p r o D. Why if we're not careful with this sport.
Well, there's no question about it, okay, And that's why we see what we see turnarounds. We see the last place teams wind up in the playoffs. You know, the Eagles were a last played team in twenty sixteen. In twenty seventeen, they warned the whole damn thing. You know, the year before last year was the Browns and the Texans who went from last place.
To playoff spots.
I think the year before that for the last for the eight last place teams all made the playoffs, and I want to say three of them one playoff game. So it is crazy. That's why what New England did for so long and what Kansas City's doing now is
more an anomaly than anything else. And you can cite the reasons, and I would hope right now, and even to a point last year, you know, Kansas City's been a better team defensively than they've been offensively for probably like a year and a half, to be honest with you, And it's not just if Mahomes does not. But that's okay. We saw several versions of the Chiefs with the Patriots.
The Patriots, wo are winning their three Super Bowls in four years, they were more defensively and special teams orient. I've said it to Young four hundred times. The two thousand and one Patriots scored three offensive touchdowns and three defensive slash specialty touchdowns in the playoffs and won a super Bowl. Okay. Then Tom Brady throws with five hundred and five yards in the Super Bowl and they lose. Yeah,
so take your pick. There's a lot of the beauty of football is there's so many different ways to win. You know, you could score on offense and defense and special teams. You don't have that fucturing necessary necessarily another sports and so on. Okay, So, and a good coach plays to his strength, and like I said, we're seeing that right now with the Chiefs, who will relying more
with Steve Spagnolo than an offense that you know. Now, they ring it at four hundred and sixty yards the other night against the Wall Looms, but they only we're twenty six points only, I mean, but that was enough because of what they're doing on the defensive side of the ball. I hope we get to this. I have something very it's I'm not projecting, but there's something very interesting about the Chiefs and the Vikings. Okay, the loan to five no teams, all right, I want to say, all right, Well.
I was just going to say that the Chiefs, you know, and the Vikings are two of the four teams that you know lead us off with buys this week, you know, but they're two five and no teams going into their weeks off. What's so special about those two you wanted to point out?
Now, I just went again, this is not a prediction, this is an it Okay, but I just find this would be funny. Let's say the Chiefs and the Vikings both finished with the best record in their respective conferences. In other words, they are the number one seeds. Okay, m hmm. Then let's say the Chiefs and the Vikings actually play in the Super Bowl. Okay. That means that during the regular season, both the Vikings and Chiefs would
have been off the same week. In the regular season, they would both be off the first week of the playoffs, and they would both have a buy before the super Bowl.
Which would be nuts. I don't think that's ever happened before, has it?
I can't think of it. If the closest goofy thing I can ever remember happening like that, and off the top, I had, and I hope I'm right. When the Raiders and the Eagles played each other in Super Bowl in nineteen eighty seasons, the Raiders wildcard teams, you remember, Jim Plunkin, I know you.
I know that story very very well.
If I remember correctly, and maybe I'm wrong, they played each other in the preseason, the regular season and the Super Bowl.
Wow.
Crazy, somebody, somebody can You can google it, you can Yahoo it, you can doing that one right off the top, by have, But for some reason that stands.
Out right certainly does other teams by the way that I have the week off this week, Rams and the Dolphins, and then as far as the AFC East is concerned, the Bills are playing at the Jets on Monday Night Football, and of course the Jets made a strange let me just say the word strange. It's a strange in season move or not even at the halfway point, the Patriots are two weeks away from two weeks hints from getting thumped by the New York Jets, and yet they fire
Robert Salah this week. So number one, that doesn't happen often. I'm sure you can provide some perspective on that. But number two, I mean, can teams who make mid season firings recoup enough to where they can finish the year respectively? And I don't know, as it has it happened early enough for them to try to gather things, gather themselves together and make something out of this year.
Well, usually when this happens, there's something besides what's going on on the field. Now that you remember, three years ago, John Grutin resigned the Raiders jobs for you know, those circumstances. We don't have to get into details, and they promoted the special team coach Rich Psakia and they made the playoffs, so you know, making the move when you make the move.
I can't remember. It was probably about a decade ago where we saw a whole bunch of early mid season firings where we hadn't seen all that, and I'd have to go back and do the research to see how those teams spared. Sometimes it seems like it happens more successfully in other sports than it does. The National Football League. Speaking in nineteen eighty in Philadelphia right off the top of you know, I'm not decorated at baseball, but I remember the Phillies firing their manager and hiring a guy
named Dallas Green. In nineteen eighty they went on the won the World Series.
I believe, Yeah, I remember that.
Yeah, yeah, So I mean again, I don't it stands out to maybe because it is highly unusual for success. But again, yeah, I can remember one year with the Chargers, and I'll think they were successful. That they went through a season with Kevin gilbrid and then six weeks into the next season he was gone. He left at like twenty two games, and you know, they was talked of, you know, him not being the right man for the job,
et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And now, of course Kevin wh I think, But we went on and joined the New York Giants staff, and I think he won a couple of Super Bowl rings marked with the Giants. So you know, it's Robert Sala's been there for a bit. You know, he joined the franchise. Let's not forget because I know we focus on uh, you know, maybe what's going on there now and all that, but you know, you kind of got to look at what's happened within
the organization going back a few years. The Jets have the longest current playoff trout in league. Okay, they haven't been through the playoffs since twenty ten? Do you know how long? Who that was? That was the year Aaron Rodgers and the Packers won the Super Bowl. They've made the AFC Championship Game. The Packers almost face the Jets
in Super Bowl forty five. Okay, same thing with Denver, you know, Russell Wilson, Miss Sean Payton, Vince Denver hasn't been to a playoff game since they won Super Bowl fifty Okay, then a nine and seven season in twenty sixteen. They've had nothing but losing stays contents. So is that only won man or is that going home? The continuous change, the lack of continuity, et cetera, et cetera. So you know, it's it's you have to look at the big picture in terms of why a team continues to strow. How
many years did we see the Browns go through? The Browns are going through more quarterbacks than either from potato chips. Okay, head coaches, general and managers. Now they've made the playoffs two of the last four years. Kevin Stefanski's won Coach of the Year two the last four years. But at least there's some continuity there. Now. They went through five different starting quarterbacks last year. Yeah, because of injuries for
the most part. And uh, you know, and Joe Flacco wound up winning the NFL Comeback Player of the Year. I guess, Joe Flacco, maybe you should have been left because even though the Colts last week he was gangbusters.
I know, that's the one guy. That's the one guy who if you're talking about bridge quarterbacks. And we mentioned this earlier in the show today, I mean, I know Jacoby Brissette was brought in as a quote unquote bridge here to Drake May. But shoot, it looks to me like Flaco. That's the kind of guy you should have brought in. He slowly looked like he can still wing it.
Oh well, that was always Blacosse. That was the fee for flacos that far. Yeah, you know, and you go back to the year that the Ravens won the Super Bowl, when the people were the nine ers and uh, you know the long past was the Jacobe Jones in Denver Lately game they waned up beat the Broncos and uh in overtime in the divisional round. Eventually he beat the Patriots that year in the as the title game, and then of course the Brothers the Super Bowl and uh,
you know the like the like. Well the lights went out in Louisiana not Georgia. Yeah, but you know you sold the results and Flacco I think they made eleven touchdown passes and and no picks and the playoff game, so you know, he's he's had his moment. You know this with strong quarterbacks like that Brett Fars and so on,
that you know their numbers, crew numbers. Even though there are whole a lot of touchdown passes, sometimes they also try to squeeze that ball in a lot of places and the other players couldn't, which is why their interception. So it was are the same. But you know, Laco wound up even for lack of a better, really kind of got phase to help in Baltimore when they drafted with Moore Jackson, he was with the Jets, he was with the Broncos. Why did he put the Browns iron
You know it's ironic. Remember when the Browns came back Tippo League in nineteen ninety nine. Remember their first overall pick was Tim Couch. Yes, right here, they got Joe Flacco off the couch.
Yeah, yes they did, Yes, they did. I hate how much? How much did Houston last week expose the Buffalo Bills or I'm just curious was that more? Was that more Buffalo losing or was it really Houston winning that game last week?
Well, Houston did it best to try to give it away. I remember they were have twenty to three in third quarter and then all of a sudden, it's twenty twenty. That's what I say with Houston. Houston is wanted share of mail by this this year. And then you know they went into Minnesota and got Pancakes thirty thirty four to seven. Know what's interesting? They again this is either the knee jerk reactions of getting off to a good start.
Do you remember when Pittsburgh was three and oh, now they're three and two.
Yeah?
Remember when Seattle was three.
And oh now they're three and two. Yeah.
Remember when Buffalo was three and n three and two.
Yeah.
By the way, you remember when Baltimore was zero and two. There're three and two.
Well, and that one doesn't come as a surprise, to be honest with you, although I do love Baltimore getting a test at home this week against those surprising Washington commanders at four and one.
Oh, Listen, I don't know what the over under is, okay, and I would I would be tenuous because I'm sure people are gonna jump all over it.
Over under over under is fifty one and a half?
Is that for one team in both right?
I think I'd still had to I'd have to look at the over on that one. Sure if I were a betting man.
Well, Washington is the highest scoring team in the league.
Yeah, Baltimore and the second. Yeah.
So now were the one thing we've seen with the Ravens who have bounced back nicely, Derrick Henry, who's got a touchdown and every game he's played this year, by the way, I'm glad. I'm glad the Titans thought he was slowing down their defense leaves a lot. I mean Joe Flacker, I mean Joe Burrow had his way with him last week. Patrick Mahomes early in the year, even Dallas with to comeback, and so on, so you know, the Raiders coming back with Gardner Minshew in Baltimore to
beat them in overtime. So that combination of defense Washington's defense, I think we're not sure of, but you know we saw them lose Week one, thirty seven twenty. By the way, Washington's already won as many games this year as they did all of last year. That should tell you something about a last Page team. John. They lost their last big games last year, and this year they won their last four days, so that immediately turn around. Now last
I'm not sure I know one thing. They do have a divisional win this year, and I say that for this reason. They were one of two teams in the league last year who were winless within their division. So they're already one to know, you know who the other one was. Who are two the division after going and six in the division last year?
How about that? That's good? Hey. The other game I wanted to to kind of point out here is uh and I think this could be a dynamite game as well. The two traditional you know Thanksgiving Day teams, even though they don't necessarily play each other, Detroit playing at Dallas. You know, Cowboys are playing at home, and they're oh and two out of their three and two. They're oh and two at home. Detroit is three and one going in, but they're undefeated. We they only one to know what.
They've won their one road game. And I've I've liked Detroit. Detroit's been my sleeper all year. I think Detroit. Actually I'm and I'm if I'm rooting for anybody, I'm rooting for Detroit to make the super Bowl because they've never been there. And I'm wondering if the Cowboys, if they
continue to stumble. I mean, I know, we heard Bill Belichick's name mentioned this week immediately as soon as the Jets you know, had an opening, And frankly, I'd be shocked if he went to New York just because of the history between you know, him and Bill Parcells on the Jets and everything else that happened over twenty years ago. But I wondered the Cowboys don't become more of a factor in this regard if they lose at home again.
Well, let's go back to the playoffs last year, John, they also lost that playoff game, yep, but to the Packers.
Ye.
John. In their last three home games, the Dallas Cowboys had given up one hundred and twenty points. Wow, now let me see if I can do that with all my fingers at that's forty points game. But on the road, the Linus will still some points. And their defense, you know, it was kind of better last year, but not really. We saw Seattle almost come back on them this year. So I think they're better, better team than they were last season. But they certainly have their their question with
on defense. Now I'm going to go and make a reference to the game last year. You're the craziness of the Dan Campbell and how he handled, you know, going for the win last year. I'm going to make the prediction that even if the Lions don't score a touchdown on Sunday, that Dan Campbell was going to go for a two point conversion on every poem.
There's a part of me that actually thinks that's fun, you know. Yeah, Although although if I'm a Lions fan, I'm probably screaming at the TV but or at the stadium or wherever I am. But I kind of like the swashbuckling, you know, right.
I think the thing about it that was a little nutty was, you know, they would get the conversion then there'd be a penalty, and kept on getting pushed back and pushed back, and then he was insistent on you know, listen, we see teams go for a pat there's a penalty, the ball gets moved up to the one yard line, and then teams go for the two. Okay, this was an instance where they pull off the two. There's a penalty, the ball goes backwards, and he's still insistent, ongoing on
the two for the two. So I also know that d d Lamb ran around at the toy secondary last year in that game almost it will, so I mean, that's that's Dax Dye in Saussets. It's a very pivotal game for the Cowboys because and anyway in the NCAS, because you have a team now with Washington that obviously was a surprise last year. I mean, it has been a surprise so far this year. And you know, I'm not saying the other teams discounted them, but they're off too.
They're off to what I call when I wrote abound this week is startling to start. Okay, I mean, keep in mind Philadelphia didn't play last week and lost ground into division. Because every every team in the NFC East one last week, Dabas one on the road, the Chinas win on the road. The Giants could be looking at three at three and three when they host the angles Ondon night. So, you know, you look around this league and when you have somebody you know, like the Bears
were the last place team last year. Every team in the NFC North is about five hundred. So that's that's the danger of looking at the schedule in May and trying to pick games.
Trying to pick games, yeah through out the season.
You know when people in our business can't hit week to week, right, No.
Believe me, I know that one as well. All right, one final one for you here, Russell as we got just a couple of minutes left here. But I'm just kind of curious your perspective on rookie quarterbacks when they get their first starts in the league, especially if it
comes in the season. I don't know if we can actually break it down that succinctly, but what's your overall impression of, you know, how they do, and whether or not it's actually more beneficial for them to take their lumps as opposed to having early success in their careers.
Well, I think it all depends on circumstances. You know. Right off the top of my head, I think about Ben Roethlisberger who got forced into a game against the Ravens after Tommy Max got hurt. Now it was just twenty years ago. Tom Brady wasn't a rookie when he came in the game against the Jets. Yeah, okay, but
I mean he had not started a game. I think the most important thing you can do as a rookie quarterback, and to a degree of rookie in general, it's the old Dan reeves never to let them see a sweat, and if you can fool them into thinking, you know, what the hell you're doing, I think that's half the battle if you go in there. That's one of the
things I look at during the Priests season. It's not stats, it's comfort level for somebody who's showing up and playing in professional football, which you find, of course, you find the difference between preseason irregular season very very rare rapidly. But if you can go in there and you know you your teammates feel like you're one of the guys, and then we have to walk you through and so on, I think that's half the battle. That Drake may does
have a smattering of regular season experience. I know he played uh in the preseason. I think I think it helps that they're that they're playing at home, you know, and and I think they got to let him be him now. I'm not saying that they want him throwing the ball fifty times and so on, but he's gonna
have to be on his feet. We obviously know the issues of the offensive line, but I will say this that they run the football like they like they did last week, which I thought they did pretty good job running the.
Football seven per carry exactly.
So they run the football last year. That's going to make life easier. And Drake listens bo nicks the first two weeks, I think from two interceptions in each game, but he's settled in now. He's not lighting up the scoreboard, but you can see the comfort level that he's having. That's the problem we expect. I think many people expect teams, regardless of what their makeup is, to hit the ground
running in week one, and it rarely happens. Because of the way the preseason is now, you don't get a live exposure so on, and maybe even wonder if you haven't announced.
It, ye Russell, you the man. Thanks Buddy for all the perspective and the insight, and we'll try to do this again next week if you're available.
Let me see, let me check my tay.
Okay, thank you, Bud, Appreciate you. You so you got it. The one and only at Backs Football Guru on X the long fall a Day weekend is almost here. You can get ready for an epic Pats Texans matchup by hosting a cozy watch party with Bob's Discount Furniture Party Ready dining says for your game day snacks, Relaxing reclining sectionals for your cheering section, Bobbo peeding Max to dream
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as he does every week. Listen, it's gonna be fun. There's gonna be a little juice in the building as we talked about, right, that's what we want. But it's time let's get on with it, no matter what happens. Let's step ahead, let's step forward, let's see what happens. Let's just throw caution to the wind. It's time to
see what we got out there. It's gonna start this Sunday and we'll be back saying Patch time, Satan Patch channel next week to talk about that and lies ahead because we go or there the other side of the pond, London, mates, London, Well that was actually Australian, so I probably shouldn't do that. Huh. Claire would be so disappointed in me, wouldn't she sound like it from London? London? Yes, bloke, I've never understood the word bloke. What the hell is a bloke? I
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