Speaker 1: This is the Patriots Catch twenty two podcasts with Evan
Speaker 1: Lazar and Alex Bars, Bizarre and Lazarre.
Speaker 2: He everybody nailed it, joined us always by our bark.
Speaker 2: Here is Evan Lazar and Alex Bars. So starting with
Speaker 2: the defensive line, we always joke about this. You get
Speaker 2: into the weeds of what's a defensive lineman? What's an
Speaker 2: edge defender? Do you even like the term edge defender?
Speaker 2: Now you hate it?
Speaker 1: Who? This year Madden put it in the game.
Speaker 2: I figured since Mad, since Madden put it into the.
Speaker 1: Game, that's why not.
Speaker 2: Because I've been telling you it exists for like five years.
Speaker 2: But now that it's in Madden, it's finally on your roster.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you honestly why I did it. And this
Speaker 2: is how I've always felt about edge. I think where
Speaker 2: edge is when you go through the draft. There are
Speaker 2: guys that, depending on what team drafts them and what
Speaker 2: system they'll be playing in, do you have to call
Speaker 2: them an edge because you don't know. The thing that
Speaker 2: always bugged me is once they're on a team, you
Speaker 2: know what position they're playing because you can put them
Speaker 2: in that system.
Speaker 1: So it makes it a little clearer. But we don't
Speaker 1: exactly know how this Vrabel system is going to use
Speaker 1: certain guys, So this might be one year thing for me.
Speaker 1: I might go back next year when we have a
Speaker 1: better look at this defense. But for the time being,
Speaker 1: it can go either way. So I felt, why I
Speaker 1: use it? This year?
Speaker 2: We are back. Football is back. I am back, the
Speaker 2: show is back. Everything's back. This week. I love it.
Speaker 2: I love it. Patriots football. Can we say officially unofficially?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: First day of training camp. So Patriots football.
Speaker 1: Is we do this like four or five times a year.
Speaker 1: We will try not to do this. I know we
Speaker 1: do it for this. We do it the preseason opener,
Speaker 1: we do it for the opener, and then we do
Speaker 1: it for the home opener Hall of Fame game. Well,
Speaker 1: there's like football. Okay, So here's the thing. There's two
Speaker 1: Football's back, which is today, especially now that what is
Speaker 1: this now three or four years the league has done
Speaker 1: this where every team starts the same day. Used to
Speaker 1: be kind of scattered. Yeah, the Hall of Fame team
Speaker 1: started a little bit. But there's two Football is back days.
Speaker 1: There's three. There's today, which is football is back. There's
Speaker 1: football is back on TV, which is the Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame game, and then I'll give you another Football's Back
Speaker 1: for week one.
Speaker 2: I would say, there's in my mind, there's two. Football
Speaker 2: is back. Today is definitely football is back training camps
Speaker 2: like that's the meat and potatoes at the end of the.
Speaker 1: I would saying to people the other day, it was like,
Speaker 1: I'll foot like practice starts tomorrow. I'll see you again
Speaker 1: on April twenty sixth exactly, which is the day after
Speaker 1: the third round of the draft.
Speaker 2: Of course you would know that already. But anyways, we're back.
Speaker 2: Football is back. We're gonna be breaking down the Patriots
Speaker 2: first day of training camp of the twenty twenty five
Speaker 2: season with you for the next couple of hours. We
Speaker 2: were late because of Alex. It's Alex fault.
Speaker 3: He was late.
Speaker 2: I was ready to go. You had to be a
Speaker 2: little bit delayed because you had your your big sports
Speaker 2: I told you there's.
Speaker 1: Gonna be too. Ten to twelve. I was on with Zoe.
Speaker 1: I think Zoe, it's somewhere to go to. Zoe was
Speaker 1: very instant. We had a good ninety five Sports of
Speaker 1: YouTube channel, me and zo of a practice breakdown up there.
Speaker 2: Very good. So uh, that's why We're a little bit
Speaker 2: of a late uh tip off here, so apologize for that,
Speaker 2: but this is probably gonna be just some bookkeeping. This
Speaker 2: will probably be our time slot barring any unforeseen practice
Speaker 2: conflicts in terms of scheduling for training camp, So at
Speaker 2: least for the next let's call it a month or so,
Speaker 2: we're probably going to be here in this two to
Speaker 2: four time slot. Once football tells us what the end
Speaker 2: season schedule is going to look like come September, we'll
Speaker 2: adjust or not adjust. Hopefully we can leave it here,
Speaker 2: but if we have to adjust again and we will
Speaker 2: adjust again. So that's uh, that's the housekeeping items there.
Speaker 2: So thanks for holding on with us here for this
Speaker 2: little bit of a late start, but we're good to
Speaker 2: go now, and uh the page, it's are good to go.
Speaker 2: Day one of camp. Nice day, beautiful day out there.
Speaker 2: We had dogs everywhere. I'm sure you love that, Alex.
Speaker 2: You know Jess was asking me to adopt a dog
Speaker 2: and bring.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're mostly mostly puppies. But that was a great event.
Speaker 2: And I know the Stefan Diggs clip of him chasing
Speaker 2: the dog around has gone viral. We're gonna talk a
Speaker 2: lot about Stefan Diggs. Today, I want to start off
Speaker 2: with two things. One, we we have to throw the
Speaker 2: caveat out there that we we saw one ninety minute practice,
Speaker 2: non padded that had two team drill sessions. So we
Speaker 2: saw Drake may drop back to pass nine times today.
Speaker 2: So this was not exactly a high sample size. Next week,
Speaker 2: a week from now, we'll have a much larger sample
Speaker 2: size to work with where we can talk a lot
Speaker 2: about everything that goes into this. Now we have a
Speaker 2: show to do today, so we're still gonna tell you
Speaker 2: everything that we saw.
Speaker 1: We just take it with that learned today. It's not
Speaker 1: to sday. Today's practice was entirely irrelevant if you call
Speaker 1: in asking like if we think Will Campbell looked competitive today?
Speaker 1: Like that, you know, we're gonna wait till pads come on.
Speaker 1: But right there was stuff that definitely things take away
Speaker 1: from today.
Speaker 2: So the other bookkeeping item house keeping item that I
Speaker 2: wanted to get to, which I think is really probably
Speaker 2: the most important thing this time of year on day
Speaker 2: one is attendance and who was and wasn't present yep
Speaker 2: for this practice. So the good news for the Patriots
Speaker 2: in terms of the NFI list Carlton Davis no longer
Speaker 2: on NFI. He was a full participant. It seemed like
Speaker 2: today in practice. So you had Carlon Davis opposite Christian
Speaker 2: Gonzalez for the majority of practice today during eleven on
Speaker 2: elevens and what we did see of eleven on elevens.
Speaker 2: So Carlon Davis good to go. Off the list. The
Speaker 2: guys that remain on the list that I have PUP,
Speaker 2: Austin Hooper, Verderian Lowe. They remain on PUP. That means
Speaker 2: Jelanie Devai also off PUP. Right, So Carlon Davis, Jalani
Speaker 2: Deva good to go. Josh Minkin's the undrafted rookie. He
Speaker 2: remains on NFI. And then the two guys that you
Speaker 2: have to get some clarity on one of them. We
Speaker 2: were trying to kick it out three well, Jalen Polk Collins.
Speaker 2: Did you say Hooper and law Yeah, pay yep. So
Speaker 2: Jalen Polk was a straight absence like Jalen Polk. Oh,
Speaker 2: he was present? Yeah, d m P I should is
Speaker 2: I think a better way.
Speaker 1: To you know, I would say he did not participate
Speaker 1: in practice. He did not participate in practice, but he's
Speaker 1: not on. He is not on a list, so that's
Speaker 1: just an absence. Matt Collins was here but was not participating,
Speaker 1: but he was on the field in a uniform, but
Speaker 1: not in full uniform. So this is gets into all
Speaker 1: the technicalities of is that off up not off up?
Speaker 1: The most important thing to know about Matt Collins is
Speaker 1: he also did not participate. So your two d MPs
Speaker 1: were Jalen Polk and Mac Collins. I think he's still
Speaker 1: on I because he wasn't wearing shoes like when you
Speaker 1: say in uniform. He was in sweats just like he
Speaker 1: was offspring, but he had the jersey kind of rolled
Speaker 1: up over the sweatshirt. He was not wearing shoes. He
Speaker 1: did not have a helmet. To me, that amounts to
Speaker 1: because we last year when like Pop was on PUP,
Speaker 1: he'd come out in you know, the tank top and
Speaker 1: shorts and just kind of hang around right to me,
Speaker 1: it was that and somebody probably told him, Hey, when
Speaker 1: you do that, you can't wear a jersey. So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna guess he's still on PUP.
Speaker 2: I'm going to guess he's still on PUP too. That's
Speaker 2: my understanding of PUP is that until you actually get
Speaker 2: in on a drill and you were actually running a
Speaker 2: drill and taking a rep in practice, actually stretching going
Speaker 2: through the beginning party.
Speaker 1: I think Cole Strange came out in his uniform last
Speaker 1: year too, didn't he When he would come out, I
Speaker 1: think he had a jersey on.
Speaker 2: So the biggest thing to me, as far as I
Speaker 2: know about PUP is that you have to have at
Speaker 2: least actively participated in a portion of practice. It might
Speaker 2: just be stretching, but you have to do something you can't.
Speaker 2: What Matt Collins was doing was was a whole lot
Speaker 2: of nothing.
Speaker 1: So you say, just like you was in spring, he's
Speaker 1: kind of hanging around, he's talking to guys, right, so,
Speaker 1: but he didn't he didn't even stretch. That was confusing
Speaker 1: that he was out there for stretch.
Speaker 2: So basically the guys that did not participate in practice
Speaker 2: just a wittless all down. So it's not as confusing
Speaker 2: as I just made it. Jalen Polk, Mac Collins, Austin Hooper,
Speaker 2: Vederian Lowe, Josh Minkins. They remain out in some capacity,
Speaker 2: whether it's on a list or not on the list,
Speaker 2: whatever the case may be. So those guys remained out.
Speaker 2: But I want to get to that in a second.
Speaker 2: But I want to kind of start with the positive
Speaker 2: here a little bit if we can. The biggest takeaway
Speaker 2: I had from today, and the biggest positive for the
Speaker 2: Patriots is that Stefan Diggs is a full go and
Speaker 2: looked great. Yeah, and Steffon Diggs caught the very first
Speaker 2: pass of practice. You're probably gonna hear that a lot
Speaker 2: over the next twelve hours until we have another practice.
Speaker 1: Very first eleven on eleven two a practice.
Speaker 2: Or twelve they say, twelve twenty four, I'll come.
Speaker 1: I'll come for two A in practice.
Speaker 2: I know you would field the very very first play
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty five Patriots training camp, the first live rep. Well,
Speaker 2: I'm going I'm going positive. I'll get to it. I'm
Speaker 2: going positive.
Speaker 1: This was after a fall start. But if it's I'm
Speaker 1: not worrying, it's more remoses. I'm not worried.
Speaker 2: The very first rep that actually counted was a Drake
Speaker 2: may pass completion, just Stefon Diggs on a shallow crossing
Speaker 2: route coming over the middle of the field, and the
Speaker 2: crowd erupted. It was one of those moments where when
Speaker 2: you signed Stefan Diggs in March. Those were the types
Speaker 2: of plays and the types of passes that you envisioned
Speaker 2: Stefon Diggs and Drake may connecting on when you made
Speaker 2: the signing and right out of the shoot, they wasted
Speaker 2: no time. They already got on the board. Digs caught
Speaker 2: a pass later on in practice as well, so he
Speaker 2: looked very good. That's off and running. That connection is
Speaker 2: off and running. I think that's huge. It's important this
Speaker 2: time of year for those two guys to build that
Speaker 2: chemistry and build that camaraderie and have it just be
Speaker 2: second nature to throw to each other and to connect
Speaker 2: with each other like that. So hopefully that's signs of
Speaker 2: things to come. But they worked a lot on their
Speaker 2: base offense. There are you know, first and second down
Speaker 2: install today as a carryover from the spring. And on
Speaker 2: that play, you know Diggs got the shallow then there's
Speaker 2: like a deeper crossing route right behind it and you
Speaker 2: call it like levels right and you know one two,
Speaker 2: and it was just exactly how it's drawn up on
Speaker 2: the whiteboard. You hit the underneath level based off the coverage,
Speaker 2: get the ball out quickly. That was That was a
Speaker 2: good sight to see, it's good to see Diggs out there.
Speaker 2: He's a full go he said it after practice, and
Speaker 2: he feels great. Very first play that gets off connects
Speaker 2: right over the middle with Drake may on a crossing route,
Speaker 2: so all systems go first to fon Diggs, which is
Speaker 2: good to see.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, he he looks. I mean, week one is
Speaker 1: a real conversation at this point. I don't know. It's
Speaker 1: an unfair to call it the expectation. I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: not a doctor, but.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean he's out there full go unless he
Speaker 2: has a setback, which is knock on what he doesn't
Speaker 2: I don't see why.
Speaker 1: And I mean the big thing, I think what people
Speaker 1: don't understand it. It's he even said today he's still
Speaker 1: kind of like working through it.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 1: Is he gonna be one hundred percent for week one?
Speaker 1: Exactly the guy he was last year in Houston. I
Speaker 1: don't know physically if he's eighty percent of that guy,
Speaker 1: he's still probably their best receiver.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: But the big thing about him being out there right
Speaker 1: now and not just being out there, but taking part
Speaker 1: in these full speed team drills. He's working on the timing,
Speaker 1: he's working on the placement, all that. With Drake May,
Speaker 1: he's building chemistry. And this was the thing with Kendrick
Speaker 1: Bourn last year because he tore his acl you know,
Speaker 1: he was on the same essentially clock obviously a year behind,
Speaker 1: but same timeframe. And there remember they kind of said,
Speaker 1: like Bourne probably could have played week one, but they
Speaker 1: gave him those four weeks to get in like football shape.
Speaker 1: So that's the difference. Born came in having not worked
Speaker 1: in camp and so he had to get on the
Speaker 1: same page. And then there was a quarterback change which
Speaker 1: made it even tougher. But like Stefan Diggs's gonna be
Speaker 1: on the same page with Drake May week one, So
Speaker 1: even if he's not totally back physically yet, that will
Speaker 1: do a good job of kind of helping close that gap.
Speaker 1: That's what the biggest thing is to me is these
Speaker 1: guys gonna be able to work together day in and
Speaker 1: day out leading up to the season. That's the most
Speaker 1: encouraging thing absolutely.
Speaker 2: And I go back to a Brady quote on this
Speaker 2: when one of our first years covering the team, Tom
Speaker 2: Brady was talking about it was the year that Edelman
Speaker 2: was coming back from the injury and then got suspended
Speaker 2: and Edelman was finally coming back, right, Yeah, And Brady
Speaker 2: was talking about how with Edelman he knew early on
Speaker 2: in the route if Edelman was going to get open,
Speaker 2: and just based off of how Edelman moves, like his
Speaker 2: body language and his mannerisms and just the motion of
Speaker 2: his body, he was able to just read it and
Speaker 2: he could understand when Edelman was putting his weight on
Speaker 2: this foot or you know, leading this way or leading
Speaker 2: that way. He just knew second nature which way Julian
Speaker 2: Edelman was going to break. Now that takes years and years, right,
Speaker 2: I'm not saying Stevan Diggson and Drake Mayer are going
Speaker 2: to do that already this season, but the things that
Speaker 2: you're talking about is starting to build towards them. When
Speaker 2: Stefan Diggs, you know, feels the defender inside of him,
Speaker 2: where does Digs like the ball? Does he want it
Speaker 2: back shoulder? Does he want it up? Does he want
Speaker 2: you know?
Speaker 1: Where?
Speaker 2: Does he want Drake to throw it? Where? Does he want?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: If he's you know, leading the one way, is he
Speaker 2: faking or is he actually breaking that way? Like those
Speaker 2: are the types of things that they can work out
Speaker 2: this time of year and hopefully hit the ground running
Speaker 2: come week one. But my excitement level is increasing rapidly
Speaker 2: for Stefan Diggs in New England, like I am, really
Speaker 2: I feel like I was reserved about it because of
Speaker 2: the injury at first when they made the signing back
Speaker 2: in March. I didn't want to get too over zealous.
Speaker 2: He's thirty two years old, he's coming off of torn
Speaker 2: acl He's already not necessarily like the big play guy
Speaker 2: he was early on in his career. He's more of
Speaker 2: a chain mover. I tried to be calm about the situation.
Speaker 2: Now that he's a full goat for this first day
Speaker 2: training camp, and he's making catches already from Drake May
Speaker 2: in practice, and he looks a little different than some
Speaker 2: of the other receivers that they have on this team,
Speaker 2: or have had on this team the last couple of years.
Speaker 2: I'm starting to get pretty jazzed up about Stefan Diggs
Speaker 2: in New England. I really feel like there's no reason
Speaker 2: to think that he can't be the guy he was
Speaker 2: in Houston last year, which was on pace for one
Speaker 2: hundred yard one hundred catches in two thousand yards. I
Speaker 2: just don't see why we should have anything other than
Speaker 2: that expectation, not to say, you know, not to set
Speaker 2: him up for failure, but that's a great thing for
Speaker 2: this team if it all goes to plan, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, we've been down this road so many times
Speaker 1: the last ten and fifteen years with these receivers that
Speaker 1: like you don't want to allow yourself to believe it.
Speaker 1: But outside of that one, you know, he's been great.
Speaker 1: He's been great. He's given you really everything you want
Speaker 1: to look at you you're looking for, and a guy
Speaker 1: that's coming in that situation, he's a thirty two year
Speaker 1: old receiver or he's going to be thirty two, So
Speaker 1: there's expectations that come with that. You know, you're not
Speaker 1: getting the guy, like you said, not that big play
Speaker 1: threat that he was in Buffalo early on, but we
Speaker 1: know what a chain mover, how dangerous that guy can
Speaker 1: be in this offense, especially if some of these other
Speaker 1: guys we can talk about what some of the other
Speaker 1: receivers did today, if some of these other guys can
Speaker 1: step up as the big play threats, and he's the
Speaker 1: guy you're having to stay honest on underneath, like I
Speaker 1: think he's in if if he's moving as well as
Speaker 1: he is now throughout the season he's in a position
Speaker 1: to thrive in that role.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And the last thing on Diggs, and then I
Speaker 2: want to talk about some of those other receivers. And
Speaker 2: I'm gonna I'm gonna compliment Sandwich this this recap of practice,
Speaker 2: and then we'll get to all your phones and emails,
Speaker 2: I promise, But I do want to have us talk
Speaker 2: about practice and what we saw. First. The last thing
Speaker 2: on Diggs seeing him in the role that they might
Speaker 2: have in mind for him. I know everybody these days
Speaker 2: gets caught up in X Z slot, like where is
Speaker 2: he gonna play all these you know alphabet and all
Speaker 2: that numb you know letters and things like that. I
Speaker 2: don't know yet. It's one practice. I don't know yet
Speaker 2: if he's gonna be the at the X or he's
Speaker 2: gonna be at the Z, or whatever the case may be.
Speaker 2: But some of the things that I did see that
Speaker 2: he did that I was really excited about were some
Speaker 2: of those like short motions and things like that. They
Speaker 2: bring him in closer to the formation and then he
Speaker 2: releases off the line out of like a stack, a
Speaker 2: two receiver stack that gives him that bubble of space
Speaker 2: to get off the line of scrimmage and there's not
Speaker 2: going to be press coverage in his way or anything
Speaker 2: like that. And those are those little, you know, package
Speaker 2: type plays that they used to run with Julian Edelman
Speaker 2: or Wes Welker or Jacobi Meyers even a little bit
Speaker 2: towards the end there with Brady in the mac Jones
Speaker 2: zero like that. Those types of plays are a great
Speaker 2: sort of just scheme for Josh McDaniels, Like they're very
Speaker 2: successful scheme. And I really watch what they did with
Speaker 2: Diggs today and what they did with him the little
Speaker 2: bit that we saw in the spring, and I just
Speaker 2: fully expect him to be that guy in this offense,
Speaker 2: just like we've seen in the past out of that role. Now,
Speaker 2: a lot of people call it a slot receiver. I
Speaker 2: don't know if it's all a slot receiver role, Like
Speaker 2: it depends on what you want to identify it at.
Speaker 1: It's a little more involved, that's part of it.
Speaker 2: But yeah, but it's it's a hot it's the high
Speaker 2: volume role in the offense. It is the straw that
Speaker 2: stirs the drink of the offense. And that is who
Speaker 2: he's going to be. And that to me is also
Speaker 2: an exciting element to this because Josh McDaniels is going
Speaker 2: to move him around, he's going to bring him in motion,
Speaker 2: he's going to put him in positions where he is
Speaker 2: going to be able to separate and create leverage, and
Speaker 2: all those different types of things that allow receivers or
Speaker 2: help receivers to get open off the line of scrimmage quickly.
Speaker 2: And I can't emphasize enough, and I said this on
Speaker 2: our show earlier, how just the weight off the quarterback
Speaker 2: shoulders that happens when they have a receiver in their
Speaker 2: arsenal that they can just trust and have confidence in
Speaker 2: that is going to get open in high leverage situations
Speaker 2: when it's third and five, when it's third and six
Speaker 2: and the game is on the line. When you have
Speaker 2: a guy that you go to the line of scrimmage
Speaker 2: and you already feel like this is where the ball
Speaker 2: is going, and I feel pretty good about this guy
Speaker 2: getting open, the quarterback just kind of relaxes a little bit,
Speaker 2: a real weight off the shoulders for a QB. And
Speaker 2: I think Digs can be that for Drake, but I
Speaker 2: also think Hunter Henry can kind of be that for
Speaker 2: him as well. And so now maybe you actually have
Speaker 2: two of those guys. Now we'll get to it, like
Speaker 2: we'll talk about the big plays down the field and
Speaker 2: the guys on the outside, Like that's still a major
Speaker 2: question mark with this team, but they seem to have
Speaker 2: two guys at this point that I'm starting to feel
Speaker 2: more confident about that can just move the chains for
Speaker 2: the offense and then hopefully the big plays will come
Speaker 2: from elsewhere.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I to your point about the safety blankets though, and
Speaker 1: I think we saw in the spring Drake made it
Speaker 1: was a very safety blanket reliant on Hunter Henry and
Speaker 1: then Pop Douglas. And there's nothing wrong with that in Spurts,
Speaker 1: but something that was really encouraging to me for him
Speaker 1: to day, Like you said, we only saw him drop
Speaker 1: back nine times. He completed eight passes. Nobody had more
Speaker 1: than two catches. That was only two guys. It was
Speaker 1: Stefan Digson, was Kytt Williams. He was spreading the ball today.
Speaker 1: Everybody got a touch and that is paramount and the
Speaker 1: Josh McDaniels offense. As much as people talk about that
Speaker 1: slot guy being high volume role, and it is just
Speaker 1: because this is a high volume offense, all five skill
Speaker 1: position players need to be a threat to catch the
Speaker 1: ball at any given time. You need to be able
Speaker 1: to establish that with the defense in order for this
Speaker 1: offense to work at the highest level. So you can
Speaker 1: have your safety blankets, and obviously Brady had them, and
Speaker 1: even mac Jones had his, and Cam Newton had his
Speaker 1: that year, right, But they can't they can be safety blankets.
Speaker 1: There's a fine line between them being safety blankets and
Speaker 1: becoming overly reliant. You still got to prove that you
Speaker 1: can get the ball to the other guys at times
Speaker 1: to keep the defense honest. And look, again, they want
Speaker 1: a training camp, right, But after a spring where it
Speaker 1: was very highly concentrated to two or three guys, I
Speaker 1: liked how Drake may spread the ball out today.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good point now to complete the compliment
Speaker 2: side of things. Yeah, the other guy that I thought
Speaker 2: really stood out today and I'm sure you'll hear a
Speaker 2: lot of headlines about him as well as Kyle Williams.
Speaker 2: Got you just mentioned. So Kyle Williams third round pick.
Speaker 2: Obviously the Patriots rookie first day of training camp, catches
Speaker 2: two passes, makes two plays, caught a back shoulder fade,
Speaker 2: an isolation on the backside against Christian Gonzales, which is
Speaker 2: great to see you finished through some contact.
Speaker 1: There as well as say he won a hand fight.
Speaker 1: That was kind of my industry.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's not contact this time.
Speaker 1: No, it wasn't like a jump ball. It was a
Speaker 1: comeback and they kind of got they kind of got
Speaker 1: tied up at the top of the route and it's
Speaker 1: one of those things like in a game. All right.
Speaker 1: They both probably pushed a little bit, so you just
Speaker 1: keep the flag in the pocket. And nothing was egregious.
Speaker 1: But Kyle Williams between the hand placement all that won
Speaker 1: the leverage and he created the separation to get the ball.
Speaker 2: It's good to see him do that because that's not
Speaker 2: necessarily his game and it's kind of the knock on him. Frankly.
Speaker 2: If it doesn't work out for Kyle Williams in the league,
Speaker 2: it's going to be because of strength at the catch
Speaker 2: point and being able to make those types of plays.
Speaker 2: That was a standout play because of that. But the
Speaker 2: other play that he made, the underneath crosser, he ran
Speaker 2: right away from robertsplane like I was standing up the top.
Speaker 2: We were doing our show and Roberts Blaine did not
Speaker 2: have the angle on him like he was not catching him,
Speaker 2: he was turning up the sideline, so you see those
Speaker 2: catching runs. I like that play from Drake too, because
Speaker 2: it seemed like he read the progression through and got
Speaker 2: down to the checkdown. He kind of went, you know,
Speaker 2: from deep to check down there on that play and
Speaker 2: almost like a full field read and and Kyle Williams
Speaker 2: is just on a shallow crosser underneath the formation there,
Speaker 2: just won a foot race against Robert Splaine over the
Speaker 2: middle of the field and turned up field and had
Speaker 2: some yards after the catch on that play as well,
Speaker 2: So you got a little bit of both. You got
Speaker 2: him lining up on the outside on the backside against
Speaker 2: Gonzo and making a play in some tight coverage, and
Speaker 2: then you also had the wheels, you know, the burst
Speaker 2: after the catch there too.
Speaker 1: I still think though, just based off what we saw
Speaker 1: today again early, we shall almost change that lower third
Speaker 1: to just say again or disclaimer one practice, right, But
Speaker 1: it kind of feels like you're setting up Kyle Williams
Speaker 1: to be the X and maybe he's going to do
Speaker 1: some not X type things from that spot. And we've
Speaker 1: talked about this. Brandon Cooks deon Branch like it's happened
Speaker 1: in McDaniel's offense before. But it does feel like they're
Speaker 1: they're kind of lining things up for him to be
Speaker 1: the X.
Speaker 2: One.
Speaker 1: Other standout catch, got to give credit to Kendrick Bourne.
Speaker 1: It was a good probably at the catch of the day,
Speaker 1: goes up over. It was Craig Woodson right, and it
Speaker 1: was Josh Dobbs underthrew him. It shouldn't have been a
Speaker 1: jump ball. It became a jump ball and just ripped
Speaker 1: it away from got up the ladder, ripped it away
Speaker 1: from Woodson, held on through contact as he hit the ground.
Speaker 1: Nice play, all right.
Speaker 2: So that was all the positives, at least on the offense.
Speaker 2: I think defensively today there wasn't a ton to glean
Speaker 2: except for where guys are playing and Davis being out
Speaker 2: there was good to see. But the compliment Sandwich, I'll.
Speaker 1: Just say this for the defense. Here's my one thing
Speaker 1: with the defense, Like the speed thing is real. We
Speaker 1: talked about them adding this speed and explosiveness on defense
Speaker 1: and that felt like it was a focus this offseason
Speaker 1: and they it looked like they did that. Like the
Speaker 1: uh Harold Landry, Milton Williams, Robert Splane these guys are
Speaker 1: flying around. Now. The question is we do this with
Speaker 1: receivers all the time?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 1: Does that speed still play when the pads come on?
Speaker 1: So we'll see that in three or four days, whatever
Speaker 1: it is. But no, they're I mean this, it looks different.
Speaker 1: There's another level of explosiveness on this, specifically the front
Speaker 1: the secondary they've always had. I mean, Devin mccordy's incredibly fast.
Speaker 1: I was at speeding secondary the front like it's a
Speaker 1: different It's so clearly a different prototype of player than
Speaker 1: what we've seen here for a long time. And again
Speaker 1: now it's just when the pads come on. We've talked
Speaker 1: about this. The run defense is probably my big concern.
Speaker 1: We're not going to get to see that for another
Speaker 1: couple of days. But I liked what I saw today
Speaker 1: in terms of the get off of the defense.
Speaker 2: So that that would be the plus side was that
Speaker 2: I thought the defensive front really controlled practice in this
Speaker 2: game for a long portions of the team drills that
Speaker 2: we did see. So you can take that one of
Speaker 2: two ways. And I know people will, I know your
Speaker 2: your station, will right your station? Will?
Speaker 1: I don't care negative, I really don't care what happens
Speaker 1: up front until the pads come on good or bad.
Speaker 2: I really don't care that's fair, but based off of
Speaker 2: what we saw, because we have to talk about what
Speaker 2: we saw today, it's all we can do. I don't
Speaker 2: necessarily know where I stand with charting practice sacks because
Speaker 2: I feel like practice it's so it's really hard to
Speaker 2: determine whether or not it would truly have been a
Speaker 2: sack or not. You don't know if he's going to
Speaker 2: get the quarterback on the ground. It's live bullets and
Speaker 2: you're just trying to watch it all and digest it
Speaker 2: all without the benefit of reviewing the practice tape after
Speaker 2: the fact. It's really hard to say sometimes if they
Speaker 2: were truly sacks or not. But let's just call it
Speaker 2: for what it was. There was pressure on the quarterback
Speaker 2: when Drake May was out there. You Milton Williams, Keon White.
Speaker 2: I saw Harold Andre Chason got on there, got in
Speaker 2: there one time off the edge. There was probably four
Speaker 2: or five times where the pocket broke down on the quarterback.
Speaker 2: And this is a conversation that we're not paid hit
Speaker 2: againty panic buttons this early on. But I understand it's
Speaker 2: going to strike a nerve for some people because here
Speaker 2: we go again, right with the offensive line and the
Speaker 2: blocking up front. But I want to mainly talk about
Speaker 2: not necessarily the results because like you said, no pads,
Speaker 2: Like we'll get to the results as it is, but
Speaker 2: there still seems to be some moving parts as we
Speaker 2: expected on the interior of this offensive line, and this
Speaker 2: to me really is where they could improve significantly the
Speaker 2: upside of the line, and that is, you know, Jared
Speaker 2: Wilson aren't getting some reps at center. And it's no
Speaker 2: disrespect to Garrett Bradbury at all. He's a veteran player,
Speaker 2: he's been around. If he's the starter come week one,
Speaker 2: it makes sense. It's similar to like breaking in a
Speaker 2: young quarterback, right You don't want to just throw Jared
Speaker 2: Wilson to the Wolves right away. But Jared Wilson, it
Speaker 2: was Garrett Bradbury got like the first round of reps
Speaker 2: with Drake May and and then Jared Wilson got Drake
Speaker 2: May's second time through in the team periods. So Jared
Speaker 2: Wilson's at least starting to mix in. That's a positive
Speaker 2: in my mind for sure, just because we didn't see
Speaker 2: him at all in the spring really doing teams so
Speaker 2: he's doing team now and he's already starting to mix
Speaker 2: in a little bit at center. So the line, even
Speaker 2: though it's much younger, in an experience, you do feel
Speaker 2: like the talent overall elevates if Jared Wilson's the center
Speaker 2: and not Garrett Bradberry.
Speaker 1: Like I told you, I've been saying this since the draft.
Speaker 1: I think he's in the conversation for week one, I do.
Speaker 1: And what you saw today was a guy that that's
Speaker 1: a battle. One guy went, then the other guy went,
Speaker 1: and we're not at the stage where we're evaluating it.
Speaker 1: I guess with centers, pads or no pads. You want
Speaker 1: to look at the snaps. I didn't see any bad snaps.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I missed one, but.
Speaker 2: Woolridge dropped one. But I don't think that.
Speaker 1: Was That wasn't either of those guys. So okay, So
Speaker 1: that's a real position battle. That's a competition. That's what
Speaker 1: that is. One of those guys is going to start one, isn't.
Speaker 1: They're both getting shots with top offense. The other three
Speaker 1: spots or three of the other spots are relatively settled.
Speaker 1: Morgan Moses was switch switching out. I think that's probably
Speaker 1: load management as much as anything else. Now, it does
Speaker 1: tell us to mantre Jacobs is probably the favorite to
Speaker 1: be the backup right tackle, which makes sense when we
Speaker 1: see Kayan Wallace working at guard as much as we
Speaker 1: did today, and well, but that's on the right side.
Speaker 1: Varian Low anyway, well we've seen him on the right side.
Speaker 1: But you know, Cole Strange didn't rotate out, did he
Speaker 1: with the tok room.
Speaker 2: No, the top group, but you know, was pretty consistent
Speaker 2: those scores just the center.
Speaker 1: So maybe the battle may. I wouldn't be surprised if
Speaker 1: Strange he gets competition at some point. That won't be
Speaker 1: I don't think that'll be soon. I think that'll be
Speaker 1: when the pads come on, if he starts to stumble
Speaker 1: a little bit. But you know, four of those five
Speaker 1: spots are set, and if Jared Wilson wins out, I
Speaker 1: feel good about that. It's not going to be the
Speaker 1: best offensive line in football, but it's not going to
Speaker 1: be the worst either, And it's you know, I think,
Speaker 1: probably somewhere closer to the middle, which if they can
Speaker 1: get to average from where they were last year, there's
Speaker 1: still work to do. But if they can get to
Speaker 1: average in one offseason from historically bad. I think you
Speaker 1: feel good about that, but no that I was telling
Speaker 1: you that Jared Wilson one's going to be one to watch.
Speaker 1: That kid can play. I know he's young and he's inexperienced.
Speaker 1: He's incredibly athletic for that small spot. It's really smart.
Speaker 1: Plays what he plays with a little bit of nasty,
Speaker 1: which will help him. Kid can play. I'm excited to
Speaker 1: see what he can do.
Speaker 2: It's fun to think about some of the things that
Speaker 2: they can do with him on the move as a center.
Speaker 2: Like it's so he's a rare athlete for that position,
Speaker 2: and when you have a rare athlete at the center position,
Speaker 2: it just makes your entire line faster as a group.
Speaker 2: And so the way that you can reach outside you know,
Speaker 2: on a stretch player outside zone play, you know, if
Speaker 2: he can overtake you know, someone in the a gap
Speaker 2: or you know a three technique or something like that.
Speaker 2: Like that's a hard block to make, but certain guys
Speaker 2: that are explosive in ours athletic as he is, might
Speaker 2: be able to make them. You know, talking about getting
Speaker 2: him and like Will Campbell out in front of a screen,
Speaker 2: right like those two guys in space that they can
Speaker 2: chop guys down and they can cover ground and they
Speaker 2: can do those different types of things toss plays, you know,
Speaker 2: getting him up to the second level of the defense
Speaker 2: on a run play as well. That that's something that
Speaker 2: I think is potentially a really exciting, you know, kind
Speaker 2: of strength of Jared Wilson. So maybe this this settles
Speaker 2: with Jared Wilson at center. Maybe that makes everybody feel
Speaker 2: a little bit better on paper. Again, I when it
Speaker 2: comes to this time of year, there's two things, Like one,
Speaker 2: you can't really block anybody, Like you're not like really
Speaker 2: being physical, you know, you're kind of like sliding your
Speaker 2: feet like it's basketball and just like trying to stay
Speaker 2: in front of your guy as a defender in basketball
Speaker 2: would this time of year. And the other thing is
Speaker 2: is that you're not there's not really a thread of
Speaker 2: the run, like you're not really like going in a
Speaker 2: in a drill or in a team period where the
Speaker 2: defense has to like be honest about that.
Speaker 1: I was actually gonna say because usually this time of year,
Speaker 1: you know, you run ten reps, you throw nine, and
Speaker 1: they might mix a run play in there just to
Speaker 1: keep the defense honest. Even if it's you can't really
Speaker 1: do anything with it. I felt like they were mixing
Speaker 1: the run. I don't know the last time I saw
Speaker 1: a run mixed in that much in a non padded product.
Speaker 2: Yeah, each guy got like each quarterback, I mean, got
Speaker 2: maybe two or three runs.
Speaker 1: Per That feels like more than what we've usually seen
Speaker 1: right in that little bit.
Speaker 2: And one of the things that stood out to me is,
Speaker 2: I thought, and getting it just one day, so we're
Speaker 2: gonna have to see the whole look of it once
Speaker 2: it we move forward here by a lot of zone running,
Speaker 2: a lot of stretch outside zone. There was a couple
Speaker 2: of you know, full back elements as well, but a
Speaker 2: lot of outside zone. I think that that's going to
Speaker 2: be a bigger emphasis of this version. And this is
Speaker 2: just my opinion, like it's not informed in anyway, but
Speaker 2: this is gonna be more of an emphasis emphasis in
Speaker 2: this version of Josh mcdaniels's offense than what we've seen
Speaker 2: in the past because Drake can move right, so you
Speaker 2: don't have Mac Jones or Tom Brady back there. You
Speaker 2: have a mobile quarterback that is really really good on
Speaker 2: the move and is actually a strength of his game
Speaker 2: is getting outside the pocket and throwing on the run.
Speaker 1: And I kind of liked what he said. Today after
Speaker 1: practice he was asked what's new in the toolbox this year,
Speaker 1: and he said he want what was the exact what
Speaker 1: was like remaining a pass remaining a passer when he runs. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's not just running to scramble, it's running to extend
Speaker 1: the play. Keep the defense honest. I mean the guys
Speaker 1: that play this way at a high level, your guy
Speaker 1: Josh Allen, like, that's that's the.
Speaker 2: Things when they're the most andous.
Speaker 1: If you're gonna keep the defense honest, that you can
Speaker 1: still throw the ball. It's all about putting guys in conflict, right,
Speaker 1: there's no better way to put the defense in conflict.
Speaker 1: Then you're outside the pocket. You're almost to the numbers,
Speaker 1: but they still can't commit and come get you because
Speaker 1: they know you're just gonna throw the ball right behind him.
Speaker 2: So we'll see if today was just like a zone
Speaker 2: running day and tomorrow we'll get back to getting on
Speaker 2: double teams and leading full backs and like, you know.
Speaker 5: Do that.
Speaker 1: I would also say, if you are going to mix
Speaker 1: in the run just for the sake of mixing and
Speaker 1: the run in a non padded practice to keep the
Speaker 1: defense honest. It makes more sense to call zone than.
Speaker 2: Powerless, especially not in paths because like if you're trying
Speaker 2: to get on like a double team or something like that,
Speaker 2: and these types of practices, like what are you really accomplishing?
Speaker 2: Right Like the Yeah, outside zones much more of like
Speaker 2: a athletic graceful exactly. Yeah, it is a power movement.
Speaker 1: So we'll see. They could still come out that first
Speaker 1: day full payah, smash and heads.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So that was that was There was good and
Speaker 2: bad there with the offensive line. The positive though of it,
Speaker 2: to kind of bring it back is at this defensive line,
Speaker 2: at least the front you know, the the front line,
Speaker 2: defensive players on the dead line of scrimmage. There's still
Speaker 2: I still feel really confident that this group is going
Speaker 2: to be a force to be reckoned with, you know,
Speaker 2: Milton Williams, Barmore, Keon White Landry uh Chase On probably
Speaker 2: for now, maybe that's Braydon Swinson, maybe that's Elijah Ponder
Speaker 2: down the road, if one of those rookies can start
Speaker 2: pushing for that third down pass rush specialist type of role.
Speaker 2: But Milton Williams was disruptive I thought, you know, Keyon White,
Speaker 2: they have him playing mostly end in this system, which
Speaker 2: I like. Barmore Actually I saw a couple of times
Speaker 2: kicking outside to end as well to try to give
Speaker 2: them some more flexibility to get you know, a Tonga
Speaker 2: inside or a ke On White more inside the formation
Speaker 2: as well. So there's gonna be a lot of there's
Speaker 2: gonna be some impact players on that defensive line. The line,
Speaker 2: not to take Landry off the field on purpose, like
Speaker 2: you know, he's a good player too, but like when
Speaker 2: you start to think about you know, bar More Tonga
Speaker 2: at the nose tackle, Milton Williams is somewhere at the
Speaker 2: three technique or whatever, and Keon White like as like
Speaker 2: a true defensive end. You know, we talked earlier about
Speaker 2: and have talked about like run defense, and if we
Speaker 2: have any concerns about run defense, which I have had some.
Speaker 2: That's a much more beefier, more stout. Yeah, that's a
Speaker 2: more stout group. And bar Moore is if he can
Speaker 2: be more flexible and maybe kick out side a little
Speaker 2: bit further. He's played some three to four end in
Speaker 2: his career, you know, some over straight up over the
Speaker 2: tackle type of stuff. So it's not that it's totally
Speaker 2: foreign to him or impossible for him.
Speaker 1: He has the athleticism too, Like at a certain point
Speaker 1: you can fall back on athleticism, Yeah, when you're just
Speaker 1: that skilled.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So I'm I'm pretty bullish on that group. But
Speaker 2: the flip side, as I'm sure some people will take it,
Speaker 2: is that the blocking could have been better. The blocking
Speaker 2: up front could have been better.
Speaker 1: They could have stonewalled them today. They could allowed one
Speaker 1: hundred sacks today. I just I don't care until the
Speaker 1: pads come on. I know, I'm just saying my part.
Speaker 2: Well, because like now let's say we have a show
Speaker 2: to do today.
Speaker 1: Let's say Will I know, but let's say Will Campbell
Speaker 1: is a really good first day in pads, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: everybody's gonna say, well, I didn't you talk about when
Speaker 1: he sucked before, Like because I don't care.
Speaker 2: Well, I didn't think it was and the verse too.
Speaker 1: He could have a great I'm just using him as
Speaker 1: an example because I like Will Campbell. There's some people
Speaker 1: that don't, that still hate that pick get over it,
Speaker 1: but there are so you know, I don't. I you know,
Speaker 1: I got to set myself up so when I give
Speaker 1: that Tate. Was it gonna be Monday, the first day
Speaker 1: of pads. Other way too, he could be awesome. He
Speaker 1: could be awesome and talk about he's awesome. Oh well, yeah,
Speaker 1: you were just waiting because he sucked the first few days. No,
Speaker 1: I don't care. I I let me see who's out
Speaker 1: there together. If it's a sack because of a blown assignment,
Speaker 1: I care about that because pads are no should be assignments.
Speaker 1: Sound right, and I'll give you the the center snap
Speaker 1: in the ball right, clean snaps, don't put balling. Oh well,
Speaker 1: you know this swim move really gave them trouble. They're
Speaker 1: not in pads. I don't care. It's not real football.
Speaker 2: Well it's fair.
Speaker 1: You're right, were show you today, But that's my take. Today.
Speaker 2: Your station's gonna be the one that's doing it.
Speaker 1: I know. And if I was on with them today,
Speaker 1: I would say, look, this is I like you can
Speaker 1: put stock into it. I'm choosing not to. If the
Speaker 1: same thing happens when the pads come on. If we're
Speaker 1: still talking.
Speaker 2: About this in ten days, then we have a problem.
Speaker 2: Right one day, I don't have a problem yet. I'm
Speaker 2: with you on that. I actually the best compliment that
Speaker 2: I could probably give Will Campbell with the caveat of again,
Speaker 2: like I wish I did, But I don't have access
Speaker 2: to the practice film, so I'm not watching it back.
Speaker 2: I'm watching this live and trying to pick up as
Speaker 2: much as I possibly can. The best compliment I can
Speaker 2: give Will Campbell right now is I don't notice Will Campbell.
Speaker 1: That's what I was gonna say. Again, I'm using him
Speaker 1: as an example. Thinking back on it, I don't know
Speaker 1: how much today I was like, oh, we'll like I
Speaker 1: think it was like one play. Yeah, I don't even know.
Speaker 2: There was one rush where I thought Chazon got the
Speaker 2: corner on that's what and Drake May had to step
Speaker 2: up in the pocket. But you know, Drake May, as
Speaker 2: long as there's a good interior of Drake h, he
Speaker 2: could have just driven by him.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: It wasn't like Will Campbell was beat so clean that.
Speaker 1: We talked about this. Somebody called in the offices was like,
Speaker 1: what's the successful season for Will Campbell? And I think
Speaker 1: I remember my answer was we mentioned that he's the
Speaker 1: Week one starter and then we don't say his name
Speaker 1: again until he's named in All Pro. Yeah, like that's
Speaker 1: a successful season.
Speaker 2: So all right, So that's that's pretty much practice. Again.
Speaker 2: It was only a ninety minute session, two team periods,
Speaker 2: mostly individual drills and just easing back into things here.
Speaker 2: Was there anything else that stood out to you? We
Speaker 2: also had press conferences, so we mentioned Drake May's comments
Speaker 2: about remaining a passer longer. I love that, you know what,
Speaker 2: that's great. That was exactly I didn't necessarily think that
Speaker 2: he did. It was a detriment to him last year,
Speaker 2: Like I didn't necessarily have that takeaway from last year
Speaker 2: that oh he left some plays on the field by
Speaker 2: taking off a little bit too prematurely, maybe a couple
Speaker 2: of times, but nitpicky things, you know. I think it
Speaker 2: was totally terrible. But the good news is that he's
Speaker 2: established that he's a really good scrambler. So now teams
Speaker 2: are going to start to respect him as a scrambler
Speaker 2: and he might be a you know, have more gravity
Speaker 2: towards him.
Speaker 1: Pit's development, it's it's play development, like it's that simple.
Speaker 1: Other things that stood out to me. Talked about Drake
Speaker 1: May spreading the ball. I like that, talked about the
Speaker 1: line rotation, We talked about speed on defense, oh digs.
Speaker 1: So his press conference right, Yes, it was all very measured.
Speaker 1: He was asked about rehabbing from the knee and talked
Speaker 1: about it. You know, it takes time to come back
Speaker 1: from this. He's got to work through it. He's asked
Speaker 1: about learning the playbook and he said, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm still studying as much as I can, and I'm
Speaker 1: excited for it. Receivers have had success, but I'm still
Speaker 1: working on it. Chemistry with Drake may you know, that's
Speaker 1: going to be a process that's not going to happen
Speaker 1: in one day. We're gonna have to work on that,
Speaker 1: spend time together on the field, off the field. And
Speaker 1: then I think his last answer was just like a
Speaker 1: very general like kind of advice to young players. Don't
Speaker 1: ride the roller coaster, you know, stay balanced, trust the
Speaker 1: process all that night and day. From what we heard
Speaker 1: from the wide receiver room last year, and I just
Speaker 1: think that approach is going to be important in that room.
Speaker 1: Let's not get too high, let's not get too low.
Speaker 1: Let's handle this on a day by day basis. You know,
Speaker 1: when Diggs was signed, a lot of the talk was
Speaker 1: not just what he was gonna bring on the field,
Speaker 1: but as a leader, and that's exactly what you're hoping
Speaker 1: to hear from him is just a more baseline, nuanced,
Speaker 1: less extreme mental approach to all this. And there's other
Speaker 1: guys in that room that probably need that, and you
Speaker 1: hope he's imparting it on them, and you hope they're listening.
Speaker 1: But I thought it was you know, it would have
Speaker 1: been really easy for him to come out and say, yeah,
Speaker 1: me and Drake are doing great. You know, I love
Speaker 1: playing with him, blah blah blah whatever. Give us the
Speaker 1: sexy SoundBite that we all want to know is yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, we're starting to work together, but it's day
Speaker 1: one and we're gonna have a lot more work to do.
Speaker 1: Like that's a mature answer, and I think it's a
Speaker 1: lot closer to the truth. So I loved what he
Speaker 1: had to say after practice. I thought that stuff was excellent.
Speaker 2: Oh so, there's one other thing I wanted to get
Speaker 2: to before we move on, and we opened it up here.
Speaker 2: Jalen Polk.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So, Jalen Polk ended last year with the shoulder injury
Speaker 2: technically on injured reserve. He was on injury re serve
Speaker 2: for one year. He had he had surgery in the
Speaker 2: off season on the shoulder. We saw him and Digs
Speaker 2: working a lot together in the spring off to the
Speaker 2: side on the side field when they were doing full
Speaker 2: team drills, just running routes against the air. And then
Speaker 2: he comes out there today. He's not on the list,
Speaker 2: he's not on NFI or PUP, but he's not participating
Speaker 2: in practice here today. And on the one hand, I
Speaker 2: want to give Jaalen Polk a little bit of grace
Speaker 2: because it's again we're gonna keep saying it's one day
Speaker 2: for everybody, it's one day for him, like he could
Speaker 2: be out there tomorrow, yeah and whatever, but it's not
Speaker 2: tracking that way for him. And right now he needs
Speaker 2: to prove it, right, Like he needs to go out
Speaker 2: there and prove he belongs in this league quickly because
Speaker 2: this frank like this regime doesn't know him anything, right,
Speaker 2: like Mike Rabele didn't draft him, Like it's not his guy.
Speaker 2: I think they like him, but as a person and everything, Like,
Speaker 2: I don't think they dislike Jalen Polk by any means.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, you can't make the club
Speaker 2: from the tub. He's still not on the field. It's
Speaker 2: it's hard, it's it's a hard look, right, now.
Speaker 1: No, he's played ketchup. He has to play ketchup. It's
Speaker 1: that simple, and you're not doing that from you know,
Speaker 1: the rehab field.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I hope that he gets out there because you
Speaker 2: want to see everybody compete. You want to see everybody
Speaker 2: compete for roles. But you know, Matt Collins, I think
Speaker 2: his role and or his vision of his role is
Speaker 2: sort of locked in, as you know, a fourth or
Speaker 2: fifth receiver and a special teamer and a leader and
Speaker 2: like a veteran presence in the room. You know, Kyle
Speaker 2: Williams and Stefan Diggs are going to be here. I
Speaker 2: believe that that Pop Douglas is as close to a
Speaker 2: lock as you possibly.
Speaker 1: He has to be. They just don't have the speed.
Speaker 1: They don't have speed without him.
Speaker 2: So that's four guys, right, there's.
Speaker 1: One or two spots, right, Diggs, Williams, Pop In Hollins.
Speaker 1: So are they going to keep five or six? A
Speaker 1: lot of people have projected them to seven, myself included.
Speaker 1: I kind of did that to make a point. I
Speaker 1: don't know how realistic that actually is. So there's one
Speaker 1: or two spots, and that's including kender Porn, that's including
Speaker 1: Kishon booty. That's including Fton Chisholm. Yeah, so he's got
Speaker 1: even if it's seven. Even if it's seven, he has
Speaker 1: to pass at least one of those guys. Based on
Speaker 1: what we saw in the spring. I don't know that
Speaker 1: he's ahead of any of those guys right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's got to get out there, and he knows it.
Speaker 2: Like I'm not telling him anything, saying anything that I'm
Speaker 2: sure he's not thinking himself. But we're going to open
Speaker 2: up the emails and the phones now. But before we do, Hey,
Speaker 2: football fans, enter the Patriots Road Trip Raffle for your
Speaker 2: chance to travel to New Orleans as the Patriots take
Speaker 2: on the Saints on October twelfth. One lucky fan will
Speaker 2: receive two tickets on a private charter to the game,
Speaker 2: tickets to the game, hotel, accommodations, and much more. Enter
Speaker 2: for a chance to win for just ten dollars. All
Speaker 2: proceeds benefit the Patriots Foundation. To purchase your tickets to
Speaker 2: visit www dot patriots dot com slash community. So this
Speaker 2: is the trip to New Orleans and so where the
Speaker 2: Patriots are going to play the Saints. I said this
Speaker 2: earlier as well. I keep repeating that but whatever, Uh,
Speaker 2: the Saints, the New Orleans game, in the Tampa game,
Speaker 2: or the two games I have circled on my calendar
Speaker 2: as my the road trips I'm most looking forward to.
Speaker 2: That is going to be a fun time in the
Speaker 2: Bayou in Nola and the.
Speaker 1: Other crazy thing we I think we did this during
Speaker 1: the offseason. That's as far west as they go, right,
Speaker 1: what's further west?
Speaker 2: I believe New Orleans.
Speaker 1: So that's as far west as they go.
Speaker 2: Well, it's gonna be a good trip. That come on
Speaker 2: like preason a weekend on Bourbon Street. From everything I heard,
Speaker 2: the restaurants down there are fantastic.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a good time to go to New
Speaker 1: Orleans and drunk.
Speaker 2: I didn't say that. I didn't say that. I just
Speaker 2: said it's going to be a good time, and I
Speaker 2: have not. You want me to humble back again. I
Speaker 2: have not been to New Orleans since Super Bowl thirty six,
Speaker 2: so so it's it would be fun to go as
Speaker 2: an adult I was. I was nine years old the
Speaker 2: last time I was in New Orleans. So enter to
Speaker 2: win that raffle and you two can be going to
Speaker 2: New Orleans to watch the Patriots play the New Orleans
Speaker 2: Saints plus no offense New Orleans Saints. I kind of
Speaker 2: think that's dub like I'm kind of marking that one
Speaker 2: as w.
Speaker 1: I mean that team's objectively not great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that team is not very good on paper. All right,
Speaker 2: you guys have been waiting on the phone line, so
Speaker 2: let's get you started here. Nate is in Connecticut. What's
Speaker 2: going on, Nate?
Speaker 6: Not much, you guys. Hey, So my question for you
Speaker 6: guys is about the intensity during the training camp today
Speaker 6: compared to the other years. How would you say Mike
Speaker 6: vay Bo's approach to the intensity of this camp was
Speaker 6: was it fast paced or would you say it was
Speaker 6: more chilling and relaxed. And how would you say the
Speaker 6: intensity dictated the competitiveness, like if if it was high intensity,
Speaker 6: high competitiveness, and if it was like low intensity and
Speaker 6: it was just a chill practice.
Speaker 2: Thank you guys, No problem, Nate. I would say it's
Speaker 2: probably a better question to ask us in like a
Speaker 2: week from now, but I would I would say, just
Speaker 2: in general, going back to the spring, there's been an
Speaker 2: intensity to practice, like there's it feels a lot more
Speaker 2: and this is not a shot, but it feels a
Speaker 2: lot more like a Belichick practice where there's not as
Speaker 2: much wasted time in between plays, like it's play play
Speaker 2: play play. It's very game like in that's in that scenario.
Speaker 2: And also you know, just watching like them break huddles
Speaker 2: and stuff like Mike rabel is like the first he's
Speaker 2: sprinting across the fields like to the next thing. He's
Speaker 2: a he's a maniac. Like, the guy's an absolute maniac
Speaker 2: on the practice field. So he sets a tone to
Speaker 2: have a pace and have a tempo to practice. That's
Speaker 2: game like feel, So I would if I had to say,
Speaker 2: I I think it feels more maybe not endo Belichick
Speaker 2: and the Belichick got a little got a little soft frankly,
Speaker 2: like there was there is a little bit of like
Speaker 2: you know, trying to like not be as much of
Speaker 2: a hard o to the veteran players and things like that.
Speaker 2: But what I remember of like early Belichick for me,
Speaker 2: you know, like eighteen nineteen, that time, uh, that dis practice.
Speaker 2: These practices feel more like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, last year it was a lot more just get
Speaker 1: into eleven's and go. I think there's more instructional periods
Speaker 1: this year. It is that game likes a good way
Speaker 1: to put it. And he kind of talked about it.
Speaker 1: For Abel did before practice today, like, you don't have
Speaker 1: all this time in between plays in a game, so
Speaker 1: I take it in practice when it comes to substitutions
Speaker 1: and breaking the huddle and getting lined up. I actually
Speaker 1: didn't see. I meant to look. I don't think they
Speaker 1: had a play clock set up out there. I'd like
Speaker 1: a big one, but I wouldn't be surprised if Rabel
Speaker 1: or maybe Stretch or you know, one of those other
Speaker 1: coaches or staffers is keeping one like on a stopwatch,
Speaker 1: right making sure they're out in forty seconds.
Speaker 2: There's absolutely an emphasis on making a game like where
Speaker 2: you run a play, yeah, and then you run immediately
Speaker 2: back by run a play.
Speaker 1: He talked about, you know, it's not all we're gonna
Speaker 1: run the play. We're gonna talk about what we liked,
Speaker 1: what we didn't like, that we're gonna run the next play.
Speaker 1: He said, Like you can do that all on the field,
Speaker 1: get out there and run the place. And that's they
Speaker 1: fit a lot in. Like it didn't. It didn't feel
Speaker 1: as like when they got done, I was we're already done.
Speaker 1: Like it felt like a lot longer than it was.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So it's right into the time that they had.
Speaker 2: I think it it increases by fifteen minutes until it
Speaker 2: gets to two hours.
Speaker 1: That sounds right at this point.
Speaker 2: I think you can actually technically might be able to
Speaker 2: go two hours and fifteen once we really get into
Speaker 2: the meta training camp. But right now today was ninety
Speaker 2: I think tomorrow they're permitted for one oh five and
Speaker 2: then like it kind of keeps going right from there.
Speaker 2: So it was a quick practice today, but the practices
Speaker 2: will get longer and obviously the pads will come on
Speaker 2: and they'll get tougher as well. Patty is an aguam.
Speaker 2: What's up Patty?
Speaker 5: What's up?
Speaker 7: Ken?
Speaker 2: How are we doing.
Speaker 7: Doing all right?
Speaker 8: First off?
Speaker 7: Non well sort of footballer Jason Alex site, I enjoy
Speaker 7: listening to you Sundays when you're on when you're on
Speaker 7: the Hub.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and thank you.
Speaker 7: One of the things that I love that you slip
Speaker 7: in as though subtle, it's always funny in Philadelphia references.
Speaker 7: I didn't know you were a fan, And yes, I
Speaker 7: love that show.
Speaker 1: Nothing on the New Seas, don't tell me anything on
Speaker 1: New Season. I haven't seen it yet, but yeah.
Speaker 7: Fan either.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's one of like the few things that haven't
Speaker 1: actually a fun show.
Speaker 8: Yeah, all right, So just going back to football, the
Speaker 8: two guys I want to ask questions about was I'm sorry,
Speaker 8: I plead ignorance on this, was there anything wrong with
Speaker 8: Austin Hooper during the spring workouts that that made him
Speaker 8: fill on the list.
Speaker 7: And is there anything out there as to that's being
Speaker 7: reported as to why DL and Poke didn't practice today?
Speaker 7: And I'll take it out there, guys.
Speaker 2: Thanks Patty. So Austin Hooper undisclosed injury. I don't think
Speaker 2: anybody's reported the exact injury yet, but I do remember
Speaker 2: him tweaking something in the spring and uh and not
Speaker 2: practicing towards the end of the spring, or at least
Speaker 2: being extremely limited in the spring practices. So when he
Speaker 2: opened the camp on PUP I wasn't surprised. I do
Speaker 2: remember that happening. So I don't know what the injury is.
Speaker 2: I don't think there's a report out there on exactly
Speaker 2: what the injury is that he's dealing with, but no
Speaker 2: positive news I would say is if Rabeled yesterday did
Speaker 2: say that he didn't feel like anybody was going to
Speaker 2: miss like significant training camp time that was on a list,
Speaker 2: so hopefully that includes Austin Hooper, and it won't be
Speaker 2: long until he gets back out there. Because Hunter Henry
Speaker 2: in a nice catch today up the scene. He continues
Speaker 2: to be Hunter Henry, and we know Hooper can be
Speaker 2: a really steady and reliable backup. But after those two
Speaker 2: guys at tight End, Alex, I don't have a whole
Speaker 2: lot of confidence in anybody else in that room yet. Now,
Speaker 2: hopefully somebody makes some plays and starts to flash, or
Speaker 2: whether it's Westover, Jane Bell or one of the undrafted
Speaker 2: guys you know, Dupre or g Scott. But right now
Speaker 2: I feel like that no one's really taken that tight
Speaker 2: end three position by the Horns quite yet. Now it's
Speaker 2: way early, but it just hasn't happened.
Speaker 1: No, it'll it'll be. I mean, star Wars getting most
Speaker 1: of the run, so you figure he's probably the leader.
Speaker 1: There's still that lingering thing with CJ. Dupree. If they
Speaker 1: want a blocker, he fits, but he's gonna have to
Speaker 1: like show it right when pads come on. But they
Speaker 1: I still think there's a real chance they just keep
Speaker 1: two tight ends and then it's practice squad elevations for
Speaker 1: the first month or so of.
Speaker 2: The season and Lampia, of course, I can't forget.
Speaker 1: Well, he's a full I think he's just gonna play
Speaker 1: full back.
Speaker 2: Well he won't play full back, but yes, he will
Speaker 2: be on the I think he will be with the
Speaker 2: tight ends with Jalen Polk. It's the show. It's got
Speaker 2: to be the shoulder. I don't know what I prognosed.
Speaker 2: There's no reason to believe anything else.
Speaker 1: So when he was out there in the spring, like,
Speaker 1: he was running routes pretty full speed, so I can't
Speaker 1: imagine its lower body.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: Then again, Diggs was running full speed and that was
Speaker 1: an a C L So maybe that doesn't try it.
Speaker 1: But like we didn't see I didn't see him wearing
Speaker 1: any sort of brace or sleeve or like outside of
Speaker 1: the ordinary. Right, So yeah, I would.
Speaker 2: I would speculate, obviously, but speculate shoulder. It's the shoulder,
Speaker 2: and no one knows. There's no timeline of when exactly
Speaker 2: he's gonna be and practicing again. All right, Randy is
Speaker 2: in Providence. What's up, Randy?
Speaker 5: Hey guys, how's it going to that?
Speaker 2: Hey? Good?
Speaker 3: So I had a couple of quench questions for you,
Speaker 3: real quick off the top, I was wondering how you
Speaker 3: guys thought the defensive coordinator. Terrell Williams looked like I
Speaker 3: know Rabel and a lot of his coaches really get
Speaker 3: actively involved, and I was wondering if he was that way.
Speaker 5: He was a little more kind of relaxed and not
Speaker 5: as not as active.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for the call, Randy. So just to put
Speaker 2: some background on that, Terrell Williams is here, he's with
Speaker 2: the team. He was coaching today. He was not in
Speaker 2: the spring due to a health issue. Thankfully for him,
Speaker 2: it seems like that is he's been cleared and and
Speaker 2: you know, good to go, as Rabel joked yesterday, is
Speaker 2: not on pup or whatever, so that's good news. I
Speaker 2: don't think that Terrell Williams is as hands on of
Speaker 2: a coach as Mike Rabel is, just based off of
Speaker 2: what I've heard about Terrell Williams, Terrell Williams does seem
Speaker 2: like more of like to sit back and observe and
Speaker 2: make corrections later type of guy. So that's how I
Speaker 2: would say it. But it was one practice like I
Speaker 2: wouldn't put too much emphasis on that, but it was
Speaker 2: good to see him back out there. I just think
Speaker 2: in general, it's a little not a concern, but like
Speaker 2: a little bit of an unknown. What exactly his play
Speaker 2: calling style is going to be, how exactly they're going
Speaker 2: to handle third down? Like, are they gonna be blitz heavy?
Speaker 2: Are they gonna be are they going to be a
Speaker 2: coverage team? Like? Is he a drop eight guy? Is
Speaker 2: he a send the house guy right?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: I don't know yet? Is he both? Is he a
Speaker 2: mix and match guy? Is he a two high guy?
Speaker 2: Single high guy? Like? These are all things that I
Speaker 2: am interested to see from Terrell Williams because he doesn't
Speaker 2: really have a whole lot of play calling experience in
Speaker 2: his coaching history. We know Rabel can call plays on
Speaker 2: the defense, but Terrell Williams hasn't done a ton and
Speaker 2: according to Rabel, it's gonna be Terrell Williams that's gonna
Speaker 2: call the defense. So we don't necessarily get that in
Speaker 2: practice per se. But the Terrell Williams of it. All
Speaker 2: the good news is that he's here and that he's
Speaker 2: actively coaching in practice, but it's still an unknown, a
Speaker 2: little bit of what exactly he's going how exactly he's
Speaker 2: going to coordinate this defense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree with all that there's nothing to say, like,
Speaker 1: how does he look.
Speaker 2: It's not a player, so yeah, he can't.
Speaker 1: Really do that, especially this early. But it's good.
Speaker 2: He's back.
Speaker 1: It's good, he's back.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, it's good. All right. Emory is in Virginia.
Speaker 2: A lot of calls. I love it.
Speaker 5: What's up, Emory, Good afternoon, gentlemen, football as well. He
Speaker 5: excited about camp. A kid that I'm interested in is
Speaker 5: Alex Austin cornerback. Give me some positive feedback on that kid, please.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for the call, Emory. Alex Austin is an
Speaker 2: interesting one because there's two I was on with our
Speaker 2: buddy Taylor and Mike had like on the ceiling this
Speaker 2: podcast the other day. We were talking about this, and
Speaker 2: there's a world where Alex Austin's body type fits the
Speaker 2: slot cornerback role. That that big slot that Rabel has
Speaker 2: said is going to be more prominent maybe in this
Speaker 2: defense than the Patriots have had it in the past.
Speaker 2: But I really have always viewed Alex Austen as like
Speaker 2: a rotational outside cordner where maybe you're in a matchup
Speaker 2: where you know their best receiver is really like a
Speaker 2: Z or an inside receiver. So Christian Gonzalez is playing
Speaker 2: more that week on the inside because he's shadowing somebody
Speaker 2: inside a lot. And so now you need like a
Speaker 2: third outside corner that has some size and that can
Speaker 2: hold up in a high volume outside role. And then
Speaker 2: you don't have to put like a five foot eight
Speaker 2: Marcus Jones out on the boundary right because you have
Speaker 2: a six foot Alex Austin to put out there. That's
Speaker 2: the way I view Alex Austin. We've talked about it
Speaker 2: a million times, like more like in that Jason mccordy
Speaker 2: type of archetype where it's like he's the third corner.
Speaker 2: He's gonna play a lot in certain matchups. He might
Speaker 2: not play as much in other matchups. But then there
Speaker 2: are other people that I kind of wonder if you
Speaker 2: could play a little bit in the slot.
Speaker 1: So I do both. I wonder if he can do
Speaker 1: both and just kind of be like a Swiss army
Speaker 1: knife backup. I mean, I was putting a lot on
Speaker 1: the kid, but you know, he's smart player. Think he
Speaker 1: could handle it. If you want something on him from today,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you want to put any stock
Speaker 1: and the guys that were leading the stretch lines early
Speaker 1: in practice. So this is a little different under Vrabel.
Speaker 1: It's like a high school style stretch where the team's
Speaker 1: kind of in a grid and the guys at the
Speaker 1: front by the coaches are backfacing the rest of the team.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm talking about. Yes, So the guys again,
Speaker 1: we'll see, maybe this will change day to day. And
Speaker 1: obviously these players are on slightly different standing as I
Speaker 1: go through this list, But the players leading the stretch
Speaker 1: lines today I had, so maybe I missed somebody, but
Speaker 1: I had Stephan in no particular order, well it was
Speaker 1: the order, just they were by position, Stefan Diggs, Antonio Gibson,
Speaker 1: Drake May, Morgan Moses, Jalen Hawkins, Robert Splane, Alex Austin
Speaker 1: and Jalen Hawkins twice, Christian Gonzalez, Garrett Bradbury City, So
Speaker 1: Hunter Henry and Truman Jones. So Alex Austin leading a
Speaker 1: stretch line. Make of that what you will. I don't
Speaker 1: know if that'll rotate or if that'll be the same
Speaker 1: thing every day. But I didn't notice him doing that,
Speaker 1: and so like him, Truman Jones City, so kind of
Speaker 1: different standing than some of those other guys. Hunter Henry
Speaker 1: Morgan Moses even step on Diggs. So I don't know
Speaker 1: what to make of that, but he was doing it.
Speaker 2: So I think the reason why I kind of stray
Speaker 2: away from him as a slocky for me particularly is
Speaker 2: just the strength to me of Alex Austin's game is
Speaker 2: playing the deep part of the field. Like I think
Speaker 2: he's really good at playing the deep ball. He's good
Speaker 2: at winning a down the field at catch points, making
Speaker 2: plays on the football down the field. I don't know
Speaker 2: if like he's he's like a little high like cut in.
Speaker 2: I don't know if he has that true like change
Speaker 2: of direction to handle like a jitterbug slot right, Like
Speaker 2: if you're going to be inside and you're going up
Speaker 2: against like a quicker you know, edel Midwelker mold type
Speaker 2: of receiver, I like, that's Marcus Jones.
Speaker 1: Well, so that's I think that that's probably the idea
Speaker 1: is you know, you would think that the coach staff
Speaker 1: they're gonna kind of tailor that. So against the Dolphins, right,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have Marcus Jones out there. But when you
Speaker 1: played the Bengals with Andre Yoshavas, right, who's that bigger,
Speaker 1: more physical guy. Because the other thing about Alex Austin,
Speaker 1: even if he's not that ideal cover fit, part of
Speaker 1: the reason you use a big slot is to be
Speaker 1: better against the run, which I think he can do
Speaker 1: because he's physical, right, he doesn't mind contact, So I
Speaker 1: think in certain matchups it makes sense. And that's why,
Speaker 1: Like he's your he's your backup in both spots. He's
Speaker 1: your backup boundary corner and he's your backup slot corner,
Speaker 1: so you can kind of use him as a matchup
Speaker 1: piece wherever you think he's best. Now, when guys get hurt, right,
Speaker 1: I don't know that. Let's say you don't have Marcus
Speaker 1: Jones for the Dolphins game. Now you might have to pivot.
Speaker 1: Now do you look at a guy like Marcellus Dial
Speaker 1: or even Isaiah Bolden. But as a matchup guy, I
Speaker 1: don't hate him in the big slot in some situations.
Speaker 2: So the last thing on Alex Austin that I wanted
Speaker 2: to say, which, of course now I'm totally forgetting what
Speaker 2: it was. So let's go to Eldred and I will
Speaker 2: remember it well. I you know, right far here, all right, Dred?
Speaker 2: What's up? How are we doing.
Speaker 5: There?
Speaker 2: He is in the truck love it.
Speaker 5: Hey tell us that y'all doing to day and I
Speaker 5: did take congratulations They have.
Speaker 2: Him right, thank you, yes, thank you?
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, okay, question my doune cast is a jun jow.
Speaker 5: I know you've been on a practice squad.
Speaker 7: I know he'd been doing this and that. But he
Speaker 7: said he did pretty good at Spring, but he didn't
Speaker 7: catch nothing gets made.
Speaker 5: Any can't you beat home without just any chant?
Speaker 7: I know he's thirty one, needs the guys hurt whatever,
Speaker 7: but it's a young movie I'm looking at.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that that's a fair question. Fair question. Eldred, thanks
Speaker 2: for the cause always and h We did a guess
Speaker 2: the picture thing yesterday where like we had our callers
Speaker 2: sending pictures of themselves. All of us got Eldrick correct.
Speaker 2: We all knewho Aldred was. So that's how you know
Speaker 2: how much of a religious caller Eldred is because we
Speaker 2: all recognized him. John Giles is. Paul Perrillo actually threw
Speaker 2: his name out earlier today on our show, which I
Speaker 2: was shocked at because Paul always likes to joke that
Speaker 2: like he doesn't really know the back of the roster
Speaker 2: very well, and all of a sudden he's just pulling
Speaker 2: out John Giles. But John Giles is I love like
Speaker 2: the size in the speed combo that he has, Like
Speaker 2: he's got he's got like that tool you know in
Speaker 2: his belt of He's a big dude that can move
Speaker 2: pretty well for his size. Yeah, But to me that
Speaker 2: projects to like a scout team role, right, where like
Speaker 2: he's gonna be a scout team X, he's gonna be
Speaker 2: somebody that you know, we're going up against his six
Speaker 2: foot three, like a DK Metcalf type, right, And this
Speaker 2: is like we have John Giles, who's obviously not DK Metcalf,
Speaker 2: but we can sort of mimic what DK Metcalf does
Speaker 2: with John Giles. That's how I view John Giles currently.
Speaker 2: Maybe he'll change my mind. I just don't know if
Speaker 2: i'd view John Giles as a roster guy. I kind
Speaker 2: of view him as a practice question.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean there's still some of his game that
Speaker 1: he's rounding out. He had a drop today. Like you said,
Speaker 1: he's a good player to have in the building, but
Speaker 1: probably more of a practice squad guy.
Speaker 2: Okay, So here's what I remember what I was gonna
Speaker 2: say about Alex Austin. One of the things that's been
Speaker 2: on my mind about this defense in general, and we're
Speaker 2: kind of we're opening up to anything you guys want
Speaker 2: to talk about. You can email us as well at
Speaker 2: it always changes. It's podcast at Patriots dot Com. You
Speaker 2: can email us there too if you want to get
Speaker 2: in on the emails we don't have. I feel like
Speaker 2: we've put a bow on today's practice. I don't have
Speaker 2: much more to add, but just as a general thought
Speaker 2: on the team moving forward, I've been thinking a lot
Speaker 2: about like how they're going to cover tight ends, And
Speaker 2: I don't know if Kyle Dugart or Jabriel Peppers has
Speaker 2: ever been great at covering tight ends in man coverage.
Speaker 2: Like not to pick on them. I think they're good
Speaker 2: in different things, but I don't know if that's an
Speaker 2: area of strength for either one of those guys. And nowadays,
Speaker 2: you know, you go through their schedule, even week one,
Speaker 2: right out of the shoot, you're gonna have brock powers
Speaker 2: right coming here. There's these tight ends that are really
Speaker 2: just jumpbo receivers, Like they're just big, slow brought Bowers
Speaker 2: as a receiver, like brop Owers is not gronk, like
Speaker 2: he's not putting his hand in the dirt and blocking
Speaker 2: people at a high level. He's a receiver. He's a
Speaker 2: really good one. Obviously, they have guys like Kinkaid and
Speaker 2: Buffalo who they're gonna see twice a year, like another
Speaker 2: one of those types of guys. I wonder if some
Speaker 2: of these corners are in the mix in terms of
Speaker 2: covering some tight ends as well. Like Alex Austin seems
Speaker 2: like a guy it's got some size, got some coverage ability.
Speaker 2: Maybe in certain matchups if you're playing a more receiving
Speaker 2: tight end like a brock Ours, maybe it's it's a
Speaker 2: guy like Alex Austin. We've seen them do this in
Speaker 2: the Belichick years in the past. Gilmour had a couple
Speaker 2: of games against like high level tight ends that he
Speaker 2: would take the tight end. I remember J C. Jackson
Speaker 2: did it in the AFC Championship game for a while
Speaker 2: against Travis Kelce for a good part of that game.
Speaker 2: So maybe that's something that they could explore with Alex Austin.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's you know, Austin. Isaiah Bolden's another one there.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's Carlton Davis like covering some tight ends too,
Speaker 2: as a guy that's a little bit bigger and a
Speaker 2: little bit more physical. I just don't know exactly how
Speaker 2: they're gonna do it because it was so easy to
Speaker 2: predict how a Belichick defense was going to handle a
Speaker 2: tight end. You know, that could really impact the game.
Speaker 2: How do you feel about them covering tight ends and
Speaker 2: like how they might go about that.
Speaker 1: So, Alex Austin's won and I was gonna bring that
Speaker 1: up before when we were talking about It's actually funny
Speaker 1: you said that. I also think Craig Woodson is probably
Speaker 1: guy that's in the mix there. He seemed to have
Speaker 1: some success with that in spring, had some success that
Speaker 1: it in college, especially like Marcus Apps was back at
Speaker 1: it today. Jalen Hawkins remains involved. So if those are
Speaker 1: your deep safeties, look I get it now, you're putting
Speaker 1: Ford safeties on the field. These guys aren't always gonna
Speaker 1: be on the field at the same time. Or maybe
Speaker 1: this is instead of the slot corner or whatever. Right
Speaker 1: you're with that big nickel is a big nickel safety.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be interested to see Craig Woodson once we
Speaker 1: get into one on ones working on Hunter Henry and
Speaker 1: hopefully Austin Hooper's back, and how he does against those guys,
Speaker 1: because I think he's got a pretty good profile for it.
Speaker 1: You just got to see if he can do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wonder if some of those corners get in
Speaker 2: that mix, because Craig Woodson, I agree, could do some
Speaker 2: of that thing. That stuff.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I watched some of his tape covering tight ends in
Speaker 2: college when they drafted him, like the Syracuse game against
Speaker 2: Gats and the tight end like but Gatson, it didn't
Speaker 2: go so well.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I wouldn't put him on like a brock
Speaker 1: Bowers type, and that Gats is obviously not brock Bowers.
Speaker 1: But the idea that Gatson literally was a wide receiver
Speaker 1: right until I think last year, but the more traditional
Speaker 1: inline guys I think he could he might be able
Speaker 1: to hang with.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I could see that, but maybe it's one of
Speaker 2: those corners. The other thing that I've been randomly thinking
Speaker 2: about because I just randomly think about these types of
Speaker 2: things sometimes. Although I tried not to on my honeymoon.
Speaker 2: Don't worry all.
Speaker 1: Right, that was the one time and I was not
Speaker 1: worried in eight years that I probably that I think
Speaker 1: I managed to not think about football twenty four to seven.
Speaker 1: But the one other thing that I've been thinking a
Speaker 1: lot about Kean White, Christian Barmore, Milton Williams.
Speaker 2: I can see how you can get all three of
Speaker 2: those guys on in like more of like a base
Speaker 2: Nickel type of look, like a four down on look
Speaker 2: with all three of those guys, but at the same time. Ideally,
Speaker 2: especially on third down, all three of those guys are
Speaker 2: best rushing over the guards right like they like all
Speaker 2: three of them are guys that you want as interior
Speaker 2: pocket pushers, like pass rushers on the inside, especially Keon
Speaker 2: Like I think Millon Williams and Barmore fit that too.
Speaker 2: But just my I guess where I'm going with this,
Speaker 2: Like how do you get all three of those guys
Speaker 2: in in their sweet spot at the same time, and
Speaker 2: how do they go about doing that? How does Terrell
Speaker 2: Williams go about doing that? Is going to be an
Speaker 2: interesting thing because all three of those guys I think
Speaker 2: are too good to take off the field on third down.
Speaker 2: Like you want all three of those guys rushing on
Speaker 2: third down. But does that mean that one of those
Speaker 2: guys is rushing kind of not at their best spot,
Speaker 2: Like maybe it's Kean White and he just has to
Speaker 2: rush over the tackle or outside the tackle, even though
Speaker 2: he's not really naturally bendy or like meant to do that.
Speaker 2: It's an interesting problem to have, Like it's not even
Speaker 2: a problem, it's just kind of like it's a puzzle
Speaker 2: of trying to fit that all together. I'm really curious
Speaker 2: of what their fronts look like because I think some
Speaker 2: of their fronds when it comes to like there's no rules, right,
Speaker 2: you can do whatever you want. I think some of
Speaker 2: their friends, not that they're going to reinvent the wheel,
Speaker 2: but they might be kind of exotically. It might be
Speaker 2: kind of fun, like to just chart them and look
Speaker 2: at them and see what they do week to week
Speaker 2: in terms of that, because they have three guys that
Speaker 2: ideally are from zero to three technique on third down,
Speaker 2: whether you know Williams, bar More, Keon White, and how
Speaker 2: do they manage to get all three of them on
Speaker 2: the field all at once on third down is gonna
Speaker 2: be like a fun little wrinkle. It's kind of like
Speaker 2: a challenge, honestly for the coaching staff. Do you see
Speaker 2: what I'm saying? Because it's kind of redundant, right, Like
Speaker 2: all three of those guys together are a little bit
Speaker 2: redundant in some respects.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but like you said, I think that works in
Speaker 1: this defense because there's no rules. It's kind of just
Speaker 1: pin your ears back and going. At that point, I
Speaker 1: think you're looking at individual ability more than like the
Speaker 1: fit there is who's behind them. You want to have
Speaker 1: a linebacker that fits with them. If those two guys
Speaker 1: can get home, those three guys can get home, or
Speaker 1: four guys can get home, it doesn't really matter who
Speaker 1: does it. As long as there's somebody behind them, we
Speaker 1: can clean up. It's just look, we're all gonna have
Speaker 1: to adjust. This is all new.
Speaker 2: It's fun.
Speaker 1: It's very I like it. I like it. It's good.
Speaker 1: So I was it's funny. I was like explaining it
Speaker 1: to my brother the other day, and so I was like, yes,
Speaker 1: it's like more aggressive and there's less about containing. He's like, oh,
Speaker 1: so guys are gonna get blown by I'm like, no,
Speaker 1: that's not how Like, it's just different. It's not better
Speaker 1: or worse. It's a different philosophy. This thing executed at
Speaker 1: a high level is better than that thing executed at
Speaker 1: a low level. That thing at a high level is
Speaker 1: better than this at a low level. It's just do
Speaker 1: you have the personnel to fit it and can you
Speaker 1: execute it? And they overhaul the personnel this offseason and
Speaker 1: bar Moore is just so good he can fit anything.
Speaker 1: So it's gonna be interesting to see how it goes.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's gonna be an adjustment period because again
Speaker 1: it's not you're not looking all right, well, this guy's
Speaker 1: gonna two gap and then this guy's gonna occupy the edge.
Speaker 1: Just go. It's just get out of your stance and go.
Speaker 1: And you're more worried about the linebacker handling the finer points,
Speaker 1: whereas in the other one it was those guys having
Speaker 1: the details and you're telling the linebacker just go, just
Speaker 1: pick a hole and go and get downhill and clog
Speaker 1: it up. It's it's basically the same. It's just inverted.
Speaker 1: The whole thing's just inverted.
Speaker 2: So I do wonder with Barmore. Yeah, there's some guys like,
Speaker 2: you know, not to put him on this expectation, but.
Speaker 1: Like Chris Jones, Yeah, with the Chiefs.
Speaker 2: Chris Jones plays a lot of defensive end for Kansas City.
Speaker 2: He's not a pure tackle tackle. Yeah, he's like a
Speaker 2: hybrid guy that plays a lot outside or over the
Speaker 2: tackle is like a five technique or whatever. I could
Speaker 2: see bar Moore evolving into that.
Speaker 1: I see Milli Williams doing that too.
Speaker 2: See I think Millon Williams, like I could see him
Speaker 2: doing it because he's talented. He could probably do anything.
Speaker 2: But like, I think they really want to put Millon
Speaker 2: Williams at his natural position at the three technique Jeffrey
Speaker 2: Simmons style and just let him eat well.
Speaker 1: The other thing about it is when you're in this setup,
Speaker 1: when you're in a three four, even if you're playing end,
Speaker 1: you might be a three four end lined up in
Speaker 1: a spot where a four to three tackle would be.
Speaker 1: So Christian Barmber can be an end in that he's
Speaker 1: uncovered on the defensive line, but they could do that
Speaker 1: from a narrow split and like he's still taking on
Speaker 1: at guards outside shoulder, which he might be doing as
Speaker 1: a tackle if they're playing the end out wide in
Speaker 1: a four to three, So you can mimic some of
Speaker 1: that stuff. I think it's kind of the break outside
Speaker 1: the tackle, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we talk about techniques like five techniques straight up
Speaker 2: over the tackle. Four IY is like inside shaded.
Speaker 1: Like how much are you playing even if he's playing end,
Speaker 1: is he playing end wider than a five tech.
Speaker 2: No, but I think he might play a lot more
Speaker 2: of that four I five.
Speaker 1: But there are times whereas a defensive tackle, you're playing
Speaker 1: four in a four to three, not a three four,
Speaker 1: but in a four to three. Uh, because you're gonna
Speaker 1: put Maybe because there I'm going on mixing defenses here,
Speaker 1: but like you're gonna put Ninkovic out in a five
Speaker 1: wide right, and he's the defensive end. You're gonna put
Speaker 1: him all the way out there. So maybe you're your defense.
Speaker 1: It's a tackle right, Vince will Fork, that's your nose.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna put. And I don't know why I'm
Speaker 1: using an old defense to do this with bar Moore.
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking the players who played the roles. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna put bar more you know, half a
Speaker 1: gap over from the nose. That just doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1: So some of it still translates.
Speaker 2: What it really comes down to is not like we
Speaker 2: don't have to get caught up in the minutia of
Speaker 2: the techniques. It's the gaps right, like are you playing
Speaker 2: the A the B or you're playing the edge right? Like,
Speaker 2: which what are you doing? Gap wise? So you can
Speaker 2: line up bar More in a couple of different spots,
Speaker 2: and technically he still has the B gap right, whether
Speaker 2: he's a three technique, whether he's a four, I, whether
Speaker 2: he's a five up over the tackle like five's usually
Speaker 2: are more of like a two gapping role, like you're
Speaker 2: playing both of it, and that's what the four.
Speaker 1: And he has a linebacker over his shoulder, he probably
Speaker 1: isn't gonna be responsible for the edge. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: that linebacker unless they're having like a twist or something.
Speaker 2: Right, So I've meant to see what they do with
Speaker 2: bar Moore because I think that his role is going
Speaker 2: to be pretty versatile in terms of kicking out a
Speaker 2: little bit further to free up opportunities for key On
Speaker 2: White to rush a little bit more inside.
Speaker 1: Well, then there's a key. I think key On White's
Speaker 1: the real chess piece. I can't white and play anymore.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he has played everywhere. I assume that that's going
Speaker 2: to continue as well. Alex's bind the glass. We have
Speaker 2: any emails, I feel like we don't have it. We
Speaker 2: don't have any emails.
Speaker 1: I am shocked by They just want to talk about practice.
Speaker 2: They just want us to talk about practice. All right, Well,
Speaker 2: I'm going to talk about YouTube. I noticed that there's
Speaker 2: no emails, and I am so surprised. I usually we
Speaker 2: get tons of emails. What's going on out there? All right?
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Speaker 2: I feel like I haven't read that one in a while,
Speaker 2: so I want to.
Speaker 1: I mean, we haven't been You guys got a show
Speaker 1: two weeks ago, but that was pre recorded we haven't
Speaker 1: done a show in like three weeks.
Speaker 2: I know it's been a while. All right, Colleen is
Speaker 2: in Texas. What's up colleing?
Speaker 1: Hey guys.
Speaker 3: So I was wondering about the pup list. So if
Speaker 3: Jalen Polk wasn't able to perform, why wouldn't he be
Speaker 3: on that list? I guess, like, is there more to
Speaker 3: it than that? And thanks for taking my call, No
Speaker 3: problem calling.
Speaker 2: It's a great question.
Speaker 1: That's that's question.
Speaker 2: It's a very fair question. The pup list is made
Speaker 2: for players like Jalen Polk, guys that experienced football injuries
Speaker 2: in a football game or football practice at the facility
Speaker 2: and are not able to practice. So I couldn't tell
Speaker 2: you why they didn't place them on pup I don't know.
Speaker 2: I have no idea.
Speaker 1: And you can activate him anytime you I mean until
Speaker 1: the season starts, you can activate him any time you want.
Speaker 1: Like was on it and then he was off the
Speaker 1: bit between him getting placed in the first practice, he
Speaker 1: was taken off. So no, that's a good question. I
Speaker 1: was a little surprised that Polk wasn't on there that
Speaker 1: if he can't participate, unless they thought he was going
Speaker 1: to be able to participate today and something happened.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't really understand that one either, So we'll
Speaker 2: see what goes on with him tomorrow. Or like you said,
Speaker 2: maybe it was they anticipated that he was going to
Speaker 2: be a good to go and they got out there
Speaker 2: practice and he just wasn't ready. I have no idea.
Speaker 2: It is an interesting thing I would also want to
Speaker 2: put out there. I want to talk a little bit
Speaker 2: more about the left guard position now. I have some
Speaker 2: emails coming in and we can get to those as well.
Speaker 2: But we mentioned Cole Strange was with the top unit
Speaker 2: for most of it. We did see Kayden Wallace a
Speaker 2: little bit at left guard. We basically saw everybody a
Speaker 2: little bit at left guard, like Caden. And I don't
Speaker 2: mean with the top group, but I just mean in
Speaker 2: general within practice. So cole Strange right now has got
Speaker 2: the inside track. I think that he's gonna think you
Speaker 2: said it earlier, like something's gonna have to go wrong
Speaker 2: probably for Cole Strange shall lose that job, like he's
Speaker 2: gonna ye, his performance is going to have to really suffer.
Speaker 2: So Cole Strange, Caden Wallace was in there as well,
Speaker 2: which is interesting. I did see Jared Wilson take a
Speaker 2: few reps there at left guard, and Leydon Robinson took
Speaker 2: a few as well. Now this isn't just with Drake,
Speaker 2: with all the different quarterbacks, but I still remain interested
Speaker 2: in the Kayden Wallace experiment of moving him inside. But
Speaker 2: it does really feel like left guard is is Cole
Speaker 2: Strange's job to lose.
Speaker 1: That feels more secure than center right now. Which again
Speaker 1: I was the one saying there was going to be
Speaker 1: a center battle, but I didn't think it was gonna
Speaker 1: be this quick, this much.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's an interesting thing. All right, Let's get
Speaker 2: to some of these emails. So Zach is in South Carolina.
Speaker 2: He emails in he says, where does mac Collins fit
Speaker 2: with this offense? Along with to Von Diggs and Hunter Henry,
Speaker 2: I feel like his name isn't mentioned as much. He
Speaker 2: seems like you'd be a great playmaker. Along with his
Speaker 2: costumes he wears every Sunday. He does wear some great
Speaker 2: fits every Sunday. So Matt Collins, I actually really think
Speaker 2: MATC Collins. Maybe I have Matt Collins like more closely
Speaker 2: to a lock than other people do, I guess is
Speaker 2: the best way to put it. Yeah, I feel like
Speaker 2: some people have thrown him out there as like a
Speaker 2: surprise cut candidate. The reason why Zach he hasn't been
Speaker 2: talked about is because he's not practicing. Like it's hard
Speaker 2: to talk about a guy that's not practicing. But I
Speaker 2: just look at MATC. Collins as like it's just the
Speaker 2: overall role on the team. A guy that's a veteran
Speaker 2: is known as a leader, is known as a guy
Speaker 2: that's a good example for younger guys that room needed,
Speaker 2: like a culture shit. Ye, And he's like a culture
Speaker 2: kind of.
Speaker 1: Guy that he can play in the kick game. They
Speaker 1: gave him just enough money where it's worth mentioning. They
Speaker 1: gave him enough money that like if they walked away,
Speaker 1: wouldn't be the end of the world, would be notable.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think it's like four million dollars, right, I think
Speaker 1: he's gonna be here. Uh kind of related on YouTube, Bunts,
Speaker 1: it not Brunson, So don't worry Buns. And would you
Speaker 1: be surprised if Baker makes the team over Polk.
Speaker 2: Yes, But I think with Javon Baker, the issue for
Speaker 2: him is like is he at best like the third
Speaker 2: string X right now? Because like if you consider Stefon
Speaker 2: Diggs and Kyle Williams are probably gonna play a little
Speaker 2: bit in that spot, you know, at least split it
Speaker 2: or whatever you want to call it. They're gonna play
Speaker 2: a little bit there. Kayshan Boody's gonna play, I think
Speaker 2: is gonna make the team, and he's gonna play there,
Speaker 2: or at least as ahead of Javon Baker from making
Speaker 2: the team right now. So Javon Baker, it's just more
Speaker 2: in a lot of ways, I just feel like there's
Speaker 2: a lot of there's bodies in front of him, as
Speaker 2: well as the fact that he was only a fourth
Speaker 2: round pick and had a second round pick, and he
Speaker 2: still has some of the similar issues in terms of
Speaker 2: performance that we've seen out of Jale and Polk. So
Speaker 2: I still feel like I give Polk a little bit
Speaker 2: of of an edge there.
Speaker 1: I still think with Polk there's a chance he maybe
Speaker 1: opens on ir if he's not fully back or so
Speaker 1: what they could do. So, I don't remember the last
Speaker 1: time this happened. I know you can do it, but
Speaker 1: I remember the last time it happened with the Patriots.
Speaker 1: So you're ineligible for pup once you practice Polk technically
Speaker 1: didn't practice today? Could they put him on pup tomorrow?
Speaker 2: I guess they wanted to if he didn't officially practice,
Speaker 2: and I suppose, yeah, you can't. Only the rules is
Speaker 2: you can't go on people once you've actually.
Speaker 1: So I remember Barmore last year, like they couldn't put
Speaker 1: him on pup because he stretched once, right, So I did,
Speaker 1: because then you save the IR spot, like I if
Speaker 1: Polk so behind, I because I Diggs. We talked about
Speaker 1: like where he was in the spring to where he
Speaker 1: is now, he made progress. Polk doesn't feel like or
Speaker 1: I mean, this is what he was limited in the spring.
Speaker 1: He didn't do any real team drills in the spring.
Speaker 1: He's not doing it now. There is no progress there.
Speaker 1: Maybe there's progress within that, but it's not a lot.
Speaker 1: Do they put him on pup or do they wait
Speaker 1: till the end? It can't put him on IR and
Speaker 1: do you want to count that as making the team
Speaker 1: or not? But like not on the initial fifty three
Speaker 1: but still here?
Speaker 2: Yeah, agreed? All right? David and Span emails and he
Speaker 2: has a bone to pick with me, which I know
Speaker 2: you love when people have bones suspected me. He does
Speaker 2: love our show. I know you do, David, you're a
Speaker 2: longtime listener. I appreciate that. So this is going back
Speaker 2: to the draft. So we're putting training camp to the
Speaker 2: side for a second. We're going back to the draft.
Speaker 2: And this is a little long, So do you bear
Speaker 2: with me here? So he says that I have a
Speaker 2: huge bone to pick with Evan about the Henderson versus
Speaker 2: Luther Burden debate, which is a debate like that they
Speaker 2: could have picked either one of those.
Speaker 1: They were never drafting Luther Burt, but they will discuss the.
Speaker 2: Two even even I hate when people do that, and
Speaker 2: I just did it to myself. Evan said that if
Speaker 2: Burden became a star player, people would forget about the
Speaker 2: circumstances and quotes why the Patriots didn't pick him, and
Speaker 2: the culture problem in quotes again, which is a big
Speaker 2: sea concern pre draft, and I call it bs Evan.
Speaker 2: I still stand by that. If let me finish the email,
Speaker 2: then we can we can Rebut if it was a
Speaker 2: perennial playoff team that drabbed him, then I would understand
Speaker 2: your point. But it's no other than the Chicago Bears,
Speaker 2: another team with the first year head coach and a
Speaker 2: culture problem, especially in that wider serier room with the
Speaker 2: attitude of DJ Moore. Okay, if Burton becomes a star,
Speaker 2: he'll be considered a better pick than Henderson due to
Speaker 2: positional value, and there are no excuses. I love Henderson
Speaker 2: and still believe he's a great pick, but that is
Speaker 2: the reality of the Chicago has rolled the dice that
Speaker 2: the Patriots chose not to and the outcome has not
Speaker 2: been seen. Okay, I don't really understand the point here
Speaker 2: that he's made.
Speaker 1: Right, No, it sounds like he agrees with you, Like
Speaker 1: you know, if Burton's good, people are gonna harp on that,
Speaker 1: just like they harped on them. They forgot with Lad mccaukey.
Speaker 1: Lad mccaukeye at a back injury, yeah, Ladd mccaukee at
Speaker 1: a history of injury issues like chronic injury issues that
Speaker 1: I don't I can't sit here and tell you that's
Speaker 1: why the Patriots didn't take him. I don't know. I
Speaker 1: wasn't in a room. That's part of the reason he
Speaker 1: fell as far as he did. And there were teams
Speaker 1: that had him ranked much lower because of the injuries. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but we forget about that because he's a good player.
Speaker 1: Because it worked out. So yeah, no, same thing's gonna
Speaker 1: happen with Burden. I forget which side of it you
Speaker 1: were on, but that's how.
Speaker 2: I was on that side. Yeah, Like I said that,
Speaker 2: if the one the comparison I always come back to
Speaker 2: because to me, this is the one that that grinds
Speaker 2: my gears the most is George Pickens.
Speaker 1: Like George Pickens, George Pickens would not have worked here.
Speaker 2: It's a different time period of Patriots football, a different era,
Speaker 2: but it's the same thing. Like George Pickens came into
Speaker 2: the league, he was hurt. First of all, he had
Speaker 2: an injury. That's different from Luther Burden. But George Pickens
Speaker 2: had towards a cl in college. He didn't play a
Speaker 2: ton of college football. But on top of that, he
Speaker 2: also had some concerns about character. He had some characters.
Speaker 1: I mean, he also didn't play because he got suspended
Speaker 1: a couple.
Speaker 2: Yes, they were a legit character concerns, which by the way,
Speaker 2: pretty much followed him to Pittsburgh too. But like I know,
Speaker 2: he's productive when he plays, but he kind of wore
Speaker 2: it as welcome in Pittsburgh as well, and that's why
Speaker 2: he's not there anymore. So all that being said, Uh,
Speaker 2: nobody looks at the George Pickens draft and says the
Speaker 2: Patriots were right to pass on George Pickens because if
Speaker 2: his attitude problems or his character concerns, they only look
Speaker 2: at the production that George Pickens has had in Pittsburgh
Speaker 2: and will probably have in Dallas and use it against
Speaker 2: the Patriots. It's like this big thing. That's what I
Speaker 2: was saying about burden. It burden goes on to be
Speaker 2: George Pickens in Chicago and he's a he's a you know,
Speaker 2: brand name. I don't know if George Pickens is a star,
Speaker 2: but like he's a good player.
Speaker 1: Uh that tackle on Thorne.
Speaker 2: We are going to be taught and Treyvon Henderson could
Speaker 2: be equally as good. And maybe this will go away.
Speaker 1: I will because a running back versus receiver. But people say,
Speaker 1: what would you rather have the star receiver start running back?
Speaker 1: But it won't be as loud, it won't But and
Speaker 1: but at least for me, I don't want to speak
Speaker 1: forre you for me, it's not to excuse it, it's
Speaker 1: just you.
Speaker 2: I hate.
Speaker 1: You can't grade the draft. I don't want to say
Speaker 1: you can't grade the draft. Retroactively, but like, you can't
Speaker 1: ignore that. You could argue, oh, they shouldn't care so
Speaker 1: much about these character things and they should have taken them,
Speaker 1: But you can't sit there and say, why didn't they
Speaker 1: take them? We know why they didn't take George Pickens.
Speaker 1: We were pretty good idea why they didn't take George Pickens.
Speaker 1: Were a pretty good idea why they didn't take Luther Burden.
Speaker 1: If you want to say that they're weighing certain things
Speaker 1: more than they should be weighing them, that's a fair argument.
Speaker 1: But you can't say, oh, you know, they thought he sucked.
Speaker 1: You know, they blew the evaluation right, because that's not
Speaker 1: by all reporting, that's not what happened. Yeah, they we
Speaker 1: do this all the time. At the draft, they didn't
Speaker 1: believe the guy. So I feel like the medical.
Speaker 2: Misunderstood or because misheard me. I don't know, maybe I
Speaker 2: did a bad job of explaining it. I was saying
Speaker 2: that if Luther Burden goes on to be a star player,
Speaker 2: nobody's going to care that Luther Burden had character concerns
Speaker 2: coming out of college. It's going to be the Patriots
Speaker 2: passed on another star receiver, and it was Luther Burdon.
Speaker 2: We're gonna be putting him in the category of AJ
Speaker 2: Brown and a DK Metcalf and Terry McLaurin and George
Speaker 2: Pickens and like all the other ones that everybody always
Speaker 2: talks about all the time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's it. I'll a get I'll even throw Latin
Speaker 1: Conky in her. I was hasn't about Latin Conking, not
Speaker 1: because I thought he couldn't play because he the injuries. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he had pretty significant and maybe they still come up.
Speaker 1: Malcolm Mitchell had a really good first year, right, right,
Speaker 1: And I'm not talking much better for it, right and
Speaker 1: I'm not rooting for it. But like, you gotta go
Speaker 1: back to the moment the pick was made. You can't
Speaker 1: just throw away I get it. We see what these
Speaker 1: players do and ultimately you're gonna look at that retroactively.
Speaker 1: You can't throw away all the contact, all the contacts
Speaker 1: that existed when the pick was made. Either. That's not fair.
Speaker 2: Okay, So some more bones to pick with me. Today.
Speaker 2: It was a big day for dogs, big day for dogs.
Speaker 2: I think like twenty dogs got really good. I think
Speaker 2: something like that. Twenty dogs got adopted.
Speaker 1: So when I Vrabel took that was it uh neat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I looked like anything like that. Stefan Diggs
Speaker 2: certainly liked the dog he was dogged in, Like, so, uh,
Speaker 2: Paul is not a dog guy, okay, and I'm a
Speaker 2: big dog guy. As you know, Fred is a dog guy.
Speaker 2: He has a dog, and Duce just adopted a dog
Speaker 2: a couple of months ago, so he's adopting a dog
Speaker 2: lifestyle as well. So Paul is the only curmudgeon that
Speaker 2: doesn't like dogs. So today we were talking about what
Speaker 2: would be the best breed of dog to give to
Speaker 2: Paul because Paul was a very much you know, he's lukewarm.
Speaker 2: He's not gonna get a dog, but hypothetically he would
Speaker 2: be lukewarm on the idea at best if he did
Speaker 2: get a dog. And plus, like I think for Paul,
Speaker 2: the key dog for him would be like a low
Speaker 2: maintenance dog because he's a first time dog owner, so
Speaker 2: you can't give him And not trying to brag, but
Speaker 2: like if you get an Atlas, like you get a
Speaker 2: ridge Back like that's not a beginner dog like they do.
Speaker 2: You have to really love dogs to have dogs like that, right,
Speaker 2: So I said that he should get a lab or
Speaker 2: a retriever because labs and retrievers to me are low
Speaker 2: maintenance type of dogs. Now, the emailer here says Evan's
Speaker 2: dog advice is disastrous. Yeah, and he said labs and
Speaker 2: retrievers are high energy dogs, not the highest but definitely
Speaker 2: on the high end of the spectrum.
Speaker 1: Golden retrievers are higher energy dogs. That is true.
Speaker 2: Great Danes are loafers. Yes, Great Danes are loafers. Giving
Speaker 2: a first time dog owner one hundred and thirty pound
Speaker 2: dog is not the right There's a difference between high
Speaker 2: energy and high maintenance, yes, so right, So high energy
Speaker 2: to me is also like there's different and I know
Speaker 2: it's not dog show, but high energy to me is
Speaker 2: also different. Like there's different definitions because maybe like on
Speaker 2: the spectrum of energy here for dogs, labs and retrievers
Speaker 2: might might be awake for longer than other dogs, right,
Speaker 2: which would maybe consider them to be higher energy. But
Speaker 2: like Atlas needs to be exercised, like you need to
Speaker 2: take that dog on walks or to play out in
Speaker 2: fields and parks and things like that. Like retrievers and
Speaker 2: labs like they're just kind of they're kind of just
Speaker 2: chilling around, right, Like they might be up.
Speaker 1: Now, I like to jump right. Golden Retrievers. They over
Speaker 1: run around and it's high maintenance.
Speaker 2: How is it high maintenance for the.
Speaker 4: Exact same reason that you got to take care of
Speaker 4: at list. It's gotta be the energy has to be spent.
Speaker 4: We gotta take My girlfriend takes her to the gym
Speaker 4: every day, so that's the only thing that calms her down.
Speaker 3: She's a nightmare.
Speaker 2: That that that I mean, Alice gets along really well
Speaker 2: with with Labs, maybe because they can match the energy
Speaker 2: of each other. But like to me, like you know
Speaker 2: that that that was what I more meant was like,
Speaker 2: Paul needs a beginner dog, like the energy thing. People
Speaker 2: are getting caught up in that. Maybe I misspoke on that, but.
Speaker 3: Tricks.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, now Paul's not getting a dog, Like there's
Speaker 2: no way. But I'm just saying, you know, if I
Speaker 2: had to give Paul a dog, it would be one
Speaker 2: of those types of dogs. Anyways, there's your dog minute,
Speaker 2: because we had to because you know, dog day. Here, okay,
Speaker 2: here's an email from Stevie. Stevie Steve. He said, how
Speaker 2: would you compare Mac Jones to Drake Man the offensive line?
Speaker 2: Mac had his rookie year and the offensive line Drake
Speaker 2: may is projected to have this year. This is an
Speaker 2: interesting question, so we've talked about this a little bit
Speaker 2: in the past, but Mac Jones's rookie season, correct me
Speaker 2: if I'm wrong, but that was Win, Carris, Andrews, Mason,
Speaker 2: Trent Brown. Well, I want to say that was.
Speaker 1: The year that they switched it part way through with
Speaker 1: Carris and benched on when who remember they.
Speaker 2: Game get it right when it was supposed to be
Speaker 2: the projected left guard was supposed to be the starting
Speaker 2: left guard and he did not have a great season
Speaker 2: at left guard.
Speaker 1: Right and so they moved it a runt hang on.
Speaker 2: Home Teddy Carris went to left guard. I know that
Speaker 2: David Andrews was obviously the center. I want to say
Speaker 2: that was the year Trent Brown played right tackle and
Speaker 2: not left and Isaiah Win was at left tackle because
Speaker 2: they were still trying to make Isaiah Win a thing
Speaker 2: and trying to get that to work. So I think
Speaker 2: that was the group.
Speaker 1: So their most use offensive linemen that year were Isaiah Win,
Speaker 1: Trent Brown, and Justin Haran kind of split as the
Speaker 1: second can tackle that was close on whenu Shaq Mason,
Speaker 1: David Andrews and Ted Carris, like, those are the guys
Speaker 1: that played the most some combination of that. So I
Speaker 1: want to say it was remember William Sherman.
Speaker 2: Yes, I want to say it was like six snaps
Speaker 2: that year from left to right, Win Carris, Andrews, Mason,
Speaker 2: Trent Brown, slash Uh.
Speaker 1: Just Justin Haran played almost as much as Trent Brown,
Speaker 1: did they jeez? Okay, which I think was on the
Speaker 1: right or no? Did he step in for Win when
Speaker 1: he was hurt? I don't know this year, so Justin
Speaker 1: Haran played good amountain.
Speaker 2: I know that that group was like the group when
Speaker 2: everybody was healthy though, Okay, so that was that group.
Speaker 2: This group is projected will Campbell, Cole Strange, probably Garrett
Speaker 2: Bradbury to start, maybe Jared Wilson at center on w
Speaker 2: Morgan moses that that's just year's group. I'm gonna say
Speaker 2: this year's group has the potential to be better.
Speaker 1: Has the potential. There's more variance because you have won
Speaker 1: maybe two rookies. Because I look at and kind of
Speaker 1: think that's a wash. Yeah, I look at it. Trump
Speaker 1: Brown's better.
Speaker 2: I don't know. Trump Brown is so inconsistent.
Speaker 1: Yeah, than a thirty five year old Morgan Moses.
Speaker 2: On when you and Mason. I'd probably give it to Mason.
Speaker 2: I think Mason was a better player, but I don't
Speaker 2: think it was like world's better.
Speaker 1: That's not a massive gap.
Speaker 2: We're not talking about like you know, Zach Martin here
Speaker 2: like a good player. Shaq Mason center, definitely David Andrews
Speaker 2: obviously left guard, Carris versus Strange. I probably give that
Speaker 2: one to Carris.
Speaker 1: Maybe that Max Shownes's line is better, and then I
Speaker 1: give I say Will Campbell, I say, well, Campbell too,
Speaker 1: but like that's so the one guy we're giving it
Speaker 1: this year. But also so the weird thing with that
Speaker 1: line was it took forever because that wasn't the line
Speaker 1: from the start of the season. They kept moving players,
Speaker 1: they kept moving pieces, and they didn't have the continuity.
Speaker 1: So this year's group should have continuity. On paper, that
Speaker 1: line may be better because the next year is when
Speaker 1: it really fell apart, but this team has a bet
Speaker 1: or left tackle.
Speaker 2: And they had better coaching that year, Like that's the
Speaker 2: your Carmen Brisilla was the offensive line coach. Well, I
Speaker 2: think is a really good coach. Josh McDaniels was obviously
Speaker 2: the offensive coordinator. So you would like to think that
Speaker 2: they have a similar setup this year with Moron and
Speaker 2: McDaniels that you feel good about the coaching side of it,
Speaker 2: And that's a big part of it with the offensive line.
Speaker 2: You know, how do you game plan, how do you scheme?
Speaker 2: How do you solve problems? Like is everybody on the
Speaker 2: same page? Are you seeing it through the same set
Speaker 2: of eyes? If you can do those things and eliminate
Speaker 2: all the unforced errors as an offensive line, you can
Speaker 2: be a league average just by being getting out of
Speaker 2: your own way as an offensive line. I think that's
Speaker 2: what we all hope for this year's offensive line. And
Speaker 2: I was watching Fortune Foxborough the other day, episode two,
Speaker 2: which is now out on Patriots dot Com and YouTube.
Speaker 2: They spend a lot of time with the offensive line,
Speaker 2: and I know for some people that puts you to sleep,
Speaker 2: and you're not offensive line people. But the Morgan Moses
Speaker 2: post practice sessions and it was a great part of
Speaker 2: this great stuff, and it's good to see all these
Speaker 2: line coaches. And I think the thing that stood out
Speaker 2: to me, you Morone is obviously a season coach. He's
Speaker 2: been a head coach in the league he's been a
Speaker 2: line coach in the league multiple times. Jason Howdling, who
Speaker 2: got a lot of FaceTime on Fortune Foxborough as well,
Speaker 2: he's been a chief offensive line coach as well, Like
Speaker 2: he's run the room himself too. So you basically have
Speaker 2: three guys if you want to count Kugler, who are
Speaker 2: probably qualified to be offensive line coaches. And they're all
Speaker 2: on the same staff. So that's a big change from
Speaker 2: the line coaches they've had the last couple of years,
Speaker 2: no disrespect. So I think that that's a really positive thing.
Speaker 2: And when I look at the way that I envisioned
Speaker 2: this being broken out, Doug Morone, I think is going
Speaker 2: to be handling a lot of scheming type stuff like
Speaker 2: high level you know, game planning, install weekly installed with
Speaker 2: Josh McDaniels, and we want to we watched this defense
Speaker 2: we're gonna face on Sunday hypothetically, and we want to
Speaker 2: have these runs in you know, these are the runs
Speaker 2: that we want to have in the installo. How are
Speaker 2: we going to block them? You know? What are our rules?
Speaker 2: That's where Doug Moron comes in. I think when it
Speaker 2: comes to teaching technique and like really getting in there
Speaker 2: and hands On, I think it's gonna be a lot
Speaker 2: of Jason Haddling and Robert Coogler. I think those guys
Speaker 2: are the guys that are gonna be really teaching, like
Speaker 2: the minutia, you know, and taking guys to the side,
Speaker 2: and like working on rookies and back end of the
Speaker 2: roster development and things like that, whereas Moron, I think,
Speaker 2: is gonna be more of like an overseer, almost like
Speaker 2: a court offensive line coordinator. So I'm looking forward to
Speaker 2: seeing how that comes together, because on paper, it's so
Speaker 2: much more seasoned and so much more just just better
Speaker 2: than what they've had over the last couple of years.
Speaker 2: So hopefully that elevates that room as well. A couple
Speaker 2: more emails here before we will take some phone calls,
Speaker 2: and then we'll wrap it up here. I am a
Speaker 2: long time listener from Mexico, says Alonzo when he says,
Speaker 2: my question for you guys is based on the comments
Speaker 2: I've seen on X, it seems that Kaishan Boody was
Speaker 2: running as the top X receiver with the first team.
Speaker 2: Why do you think the entire media landscape is so
Speaker 2: low on Booty while the team seems to view him
Speaker 2: hot quite differently. I don't know if the media is
Speaker 2: super low.
Speaker 1: I don't think we're low. We're just not as high
Speaker 1: as people want us to be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that I'm not saying necessarily that he
Speaker 2: can't get even better. Yeah, but I think a lot
Speaker 2: of us feel that last year was Kasehan Boody's peak,
Speaker 2: and that's not a bad peak. If he can maintain it,
Speaker 2: that's an NFL player. Yeah, But I don't know if
Speaker 2: there's another level for Kashan Boody necessarily than what we
Speaker 2: saw last season. So in that respect, could they do
Speaker 2: better at that spot? I think is really just the question.
Speaker 1: I think it's also I mean, he was brought up
Speaker 1: in trade rumors before the start of the season, so
Speaker 1: that tells you that maybe as high as the team
Speaker 1: is on him, they could see him as the odd
Speaker 1: man out. Also, his consistency with him, right, he has
Speaker 1: really good individual days, but he's got a stack days.
Speaker 1: That's what it's gonna come down to. So when he
Speaker 1: has a great day, yeah, we talk about it, but
Speaker 1: it also comes with, you know, to contrast him to
Speaker 1: Pop Douglas, who was that same draft class. Pop Douglas
Speaker 1: is coming out every single day and we were you know,
Speaker 1: there were moments every single day that you were like, Wow,
Speaker 1: this kid has it in Keisehan Boudia some of those,
Speaker 1: but then he has some days where he kind of disappears,
Speaker 1: and so that's what it comes down to for him.
Speaker 1: He just has to be more consistent. I think fancy
Speaker 1: the flashes and get very excited. And maybe this is
Speaker 1: where the disconnect is with the media, But you know,
Speaker 1: we're kind of watching more on a down to down basis,
Speaker 1: and there's times where he disappears. So look for a
Speaker 1: third receiver. Sometimes you're going off flashes and there's nothing
Speaker 1: wrong with that. And I do think, like, I don't
Speaker 1: think he's gonna get cut. I don't think the team
Speaker 1: would cut him. I think they do like him. I
Speaker 1: also think if there's a large jam and they can
Speaker 1: get something for him, the wouldn't turn their nose up
Speaker 1: at it. So that's kind of where I'm at on him.
Speaker 1: I don't that we're that low. I think the expectations
Speaker 1: for him because and look, maybe I'm partially at fault
Speaker 1: for this because I really liked him in the draft
Speaker 1: that year, like he he was such a good player
Speaker 1: at LSU. The expectations room were so high coming from LSU.
Speaker 1: You talk about that ceiling. I think some people, look,
Speaker 1: I've kind of wondered, this is that breakout star freshman player.
Speaker 1: And I mean, that's what five six years ago. Now,
Speaker 1: it's been a long time, but is there still an
Speaker 1: ability to tap into that? And I think some people
Speaker 1: just see that And I'm not saying you're wrong to
Speaker 1: do it, like we all do this with certain players. Again,
Speaker 1: as a true freshman LCU ten games, forty five catches,
Speaker 1: seven hundred and thirty five yards, five touchdowns, caught nine
Speaker 1: touchdowns the next year in just six games.
Speaker 2: I mean he was his freshman year of LSU. He
Speaker 2: was on track to be the next LSU receiver, right.
Speaker 1: He was supposed to be that guy. So I think
Speaker 1: there's some people that look at that and just still
Speaker 1: wonder if that's in there and if they can tap
Speaker 1: into that. And I've wondered it too, and it would
Speaker 1: be great. I just don't think you build the offense
Speaker 1: around maybe we tap into this guy he was that
Speaker 1: was twenty twenty, yeah, right, so you don't build the
Speaker 1: offense around can we tap into this guy that he
Speaker 1: was five years ago?
Speaker 2: Yeah? And I you know, he had forty three catches
Speaker 2: for a little under six hundred yards last year. Again,
Speaker 2: that's not terrible production, that's NFL production. But that to
Speaker 2: me feels like where he would about fill in right
Speaker 2: like that in terms of a peak. Now, he might
Speaker 2: maintain it for a couple more years, and that's great,
Speaker 2: that's a good career. But I don't know if he
Speaker 2: has another level there. So I think that's maybe where
Speaker 2: the disconnect is there with the emailer.
Speaker 1: Right, it's does he have another level or not?
Speaker 2: Yeah, seanav Vancouver writes, and I'm glad he wrote in
Speaker 2: this email because we should say rip to the legend.
Speaker 2: I'm happy to hear that crazy Train remains as the
Speaker 2: intro song. Sean said, Rip Ozzy go Pats, Yes, rip
Speaker 2: to the legend Ozzy Osbourne.
Speaker 5: That was.
Speaker 2: Bad news yesterday. That was tough, all right, this is
Speaker 2: Do you.
Speaker 1: See any of his favoritwell constantly? He still sounded good
Speaker 1: right up until the end.
Speaker 2: Really yeah.
Speaker 1: I was never like a huge Ozzy Osbourne guy, but
Speaker 1: I mean that that's history, right. I checked out that
Speaker 1: farewell concert. He did that impressive for a guy that's
Speaker 1: up there and has had some health issues. I think
Speaker 1: he's dealing with Parkinson's right. Impressive, I gotta say, uh not.
Speaker 2: I was kind of surprised he lasted twenty more years,
Speaker 2: Like there was some rough moments there for Ozzy Osbourne
Speaker 2: in like the five six range, you know, health wise,
Speaker 2: and he held on for a long time.
Speaker 1: Just to go back to Keishan Boutiga. And this is
Speaker 1: kind of my point, like last year being his ceiling,
Speaker 1: how does he get better again? It comes down to consistency.
Speaker 1: So last year, forty six percent of his offensive production
Speaker 1: in terms of yards came in just three games. In
Speaker 1: one of those games when he had one hundred and
Speaker 1: seventeen was the week eighteen game against Buffalo. He had
Speaker 1: ninety five. In the other game against Buffalo fifty nine
Speaker 1: against Houston. He never had more than forty seven outside
Speaker 1: of that in one, two, three, four, five, six, seven eight.
Speaker 1: In nine games he had less than forty yards.
Speaker 2: So I'm not saying he has to go going back
Speaker 2: to that twenty twenty season at LS. You didn't he
Speaker 2: have that one game was against like I want to say,
Speaker 2: South Caros.
Speaker 1: Well, the team started just like throwing the library.
Speaker 2: I know, but wasn't there that one game where he
Speaker 2: had like three hundred for three touchdowns, like he had
Speaker 2: like one of those types of thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I don't think teams are shading Kaishawn Booty
Speaker 1: in the NFL the way they were shading him at LSU. Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: there were some games like he was the next guy.
Speaker 1: There were some games you watch that was being covered
Speaker 1: in the fact that he did anything. He had well
Speaker 1: that had the Old Miss game at the end of
Speaker 1: the year, he had fourteen catches for three hundred eight
Speaker 1: yards and three touchdowns. But the games before that, he
Speaker 1: had one hundred eight against Florida and he had one
Speaker 1: hundred eleven against Alabama the game before that. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: I mean that's pretty good. It's just gonna come down
Speaker 1: and I'm not saying he has to have one hundred
Speaker 1: and ten yards every game, but it is kind of
Speaker 1: George Pickens ish, where George Pickens will put up a
Speaker 1: thousand yards in a season, six hundred of those yard
Speaker 1: will be in like four games, and then he'll have
Speaker 1: games where he's entirely blanked. So you know, Kaishawn Booty
Speaker 1: had more games this year where he had less than
Speaker 1: twenty receiving yards that he had more than fifty. And
Speaker 1: I get not every game has to be one hundred yards,
Speaker 1: but you gotta be a little more steady than that
Speaker 1: to play a you know, consistent role in the offense,
Speaker 1: to be a top three receiver guy that's out there
Speaker 1: sixty plus percent of the time. The way he's kind
Speaker 1: of performed is he's the fourth guy you throw him
Speaker 1: in and kind of try to hit shot plays. And
Speaker 1: he's good at that, and there's a role for that,
Speaker 1: and there's nothing wrong with that. I just he has
Speaker 1: yet to prove he's more than that, and right now
Speaker 1: the team has. I mean, that's what Kendrick Bourne is,
Speaker 1: That's what MATC Collins is. The team has a lot
Speaker 1: of guys like that. They don't necessarily have the guy
Speaker 1: that's gonna go out. You can set your watch to Okay,
Speaker 1: he's gonna have at least five catches, gonna have at
Speaker 1: least eighty yards, he got a good shot, he's gonna
Speaker 1: get in the end zone. They you know, you hope
Speaker 1: that's Pop Douglas or Stefon Diggs maybe right, So that
Speaker 1: that's if Diggs is gonna If not Diggs, if Booty's
Speaker 1: gonna step into a bigger role. Right, he's probably their
Speaker 1: top rotational guy right now. But if he's gonna step
Speaker 1: into a bigger role, it's about the consistency, all right.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 2: David Man sends in a good email here about some
Speaker 2: of the holdouts or ins or whatever the heck they
Speaker 2: are across the league that are going on right now.
Speaker 2: So he lists them all out and we can kind
Speaker 2: of just talk about them in terms of the Patriots,
Speaker 2: right the two he has a couple, al right, So
Speaker 2: can you see scenario when England actually tries to trade
Speaker 2: for one of these guys, one of these disgruntled looking
Speaker 2: for contract players. The first one here, I think is
Speaker 2: the most likely not to necessarily be dealt to New England,
Speaker 2: but just to be dealt period, Trey Hendrickson in Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: So Tracks really doesn't think he's getting dealt Okay, I
Speaker 1: trust Tracks, but I agree with you. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: just the history of Cincinnati. Has they gave those those contracts,
Speaker 1: the wide receivers. I could see the Patriots being interested
Speaker 1: because that's what, like I just talked about, with the receivers,
Speaker 1: they're missing that Lynchpin guy. Same thing with the pass rush.
Speaker 1: Hair Lander's a good player, but he's probably a.
Speaker 2: Low Enderson's an elite player, right what he's an elite player, Hendrickson.
Speaker 1: Hendrickson No, So I'm saying, like Landry's the closest they
Speaker 1: have to a lynch pin. But if he's a complimentary
Speaker 1: guy to a player like Hendrickson, right now, you're like,
Speaker 1: it's that coverage dictating, right, Henderson's going to dictate the
Speaker 1: blocking scheme, and I think that, you know, Mike Rabel
Speaker 1: wants a guy like that.
Speaker 2: Henderson's a beast.
Speaker 1: I think if Hendrickson became available, I don't know if
Speaker 1: the Patriots would match the pright now supposedly the issues
Speaker 1: the Bengals want a first round pick, which I would
Speaker 1: not do. I don't think anybody's gonna do. So that's ridiculous,
Speaker 1: and maybe he just ends up not playing this year.
Speaker 1: But all this back and.
Speaker 2: Guaranteed money, as it always does in terms of the
Speaker 2: Bengals side of things.
Speaker 1: Well, but this is a little different. So it's not
Speaker 1: about the amount of guarant just based on the reports,
Speaker 1: I don't know the inside, but it's not about the
Speaker 1: amount of guaranteed money. I mean, that's part of it.
Speaker 1: But what Garrett Max Crosby they got guaranteed money into
Speaker 1: the second and I think into the third year of
Speaker 1: their deals. Right, yeah, right now, it sounds like the
Speaker 1: Bengals are only guaranteeing money in the first year of
Speaker 1: the extension. Just what Hendrickson's problem is he wants long
Speaker 1: term security.
Speaker 2: Shocker in terms of the Bengals.
Speaker 1: Yeah, playing hard, No, And I don't fall to Hendrickson
Speaker 1: for wanting that, especially if those other guys got.
Speaker 2: It right, all right, this one. I gotta be honest
Speaker 2: with you. I would be absolutely floored if Terry McLaurin
Speaker 2: gets traded by Washington. That is, it's just not I
Speaker 2: don't want to go crazy, like this is not what's happening.
Speaker 2: I will say this, he's not getting traded. I didn't
Speaker 2: think he was going to hold out. I thought he
Speaker 2: might hold in. Yeah, I didn't think he was going
Speaker 2: to hold out. I was genuinely surprised the fines. You know,
Speaker 2: it's fifty thousand dollars a day. Now to us, that's
Speaker 2: that's incredible, Like, oh my, that's crazy. It's like insane
Speaker 2: to give up that kind of money. Now, he will
Speaker 2: could go out and sign thirty million dollars per year.
Speaker 2: So if he misses like a handful of practices and
Speaker 2: he has to he has two hundred and fifty thousand
Speaker 2: dollars in fine. I think the team's going to wave
Speaker 2: like forty million dollars signing both. It's like it's not
Speaker 2: going to matter, right, and he and teams could waive it,
Speaker 2: you know, if they want to be you know, do
Speaker 2: the right thing by the players.
Speaker 1: It's let in the negotiations. Yeah, right, and will wave
Speaker 1: your you know, we'll wave your fine.
Speaker 2: The single dumbest thing that you can do as the
Speaker 2: Washington Commanders in year two of Jaden Daniels, with all
Speaker 2: the momentum that you had last year going all the
Speaker 2: way to the NFC Championship Game, and Jadeen Daniels was
Speaker 2: legitimately a top five quarterback in the NFL out of
Speaker 2: the shoot as a rookie, the dumbest thing that you
Speaker 2: could do is be trade Terry McLaurin. It's not if
Speaker 2: this was five years from now, and I know mclaurin's like, ah,
Speaker 2: doesn't line up with this, but just for the take,
Speaker 2: this was five years from now and they decided to
Speaker 2: trade Jaden Daniels's top receiver because Jaden Daniels has won
Speaker 2: like three MVPs in a row, and he's gonna be fine.
Speaker 2: It's kind of like what Buffalo did with digs right,
Speaker 2: Like they finally said, Josh Allen's a made man. He's
Speaker 2: gonna be fine. It'll be fine. But we're not there
Speaker 2: yet with Jayden Daniels. Jaden Daniels had one year, Like
Speaker 2: he's not anywhere close to that level yet, where the
Speaker 2: consistency is there to deal a guy that is truly
Speaker 2: his best receiver, That would be dumb. Is dumb. And
Speaker 2: I don't think Scott Peters, Scott Peters, Adam Peters is dumb.
Speaker 2: I don't. I think he's a good executive. I don't
Speaker 2: think he's doing that now.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know it's different ownership that organization's had there.
Speaker 2: It's different ownership. It's different ownership. It's a different general manager,
Speaker 2: it's a different head coach, Like it's a different vibe
Speaker 2: in Washington the next one here. I can't. I can't
Speaker 2: rule this out completely because it's Jerry, and Jerry does
Speaker 2: what Jerry does. Like Micah Parsons is unhappy in Dallas.
Speaker 2: I mean, I mean the owner's talking smack about him,
Speaker 2: so you have to be again that is done with
Speaker 2: the capitol, so that and B to trade maybe, yeah,
Speaker 2: I think a top ten player in football, like regardless.
Speaker 1: Of now you're talking about multiple first round picks if
Speaker 1: he gets.
Speaker 2: He's legitimately Like, let's take quarterbacks out of it, because
Speaker 2: it's always hard when the value of a quarterback is
Speaker 2: so high at non quarterbacks if we were just draft
Speaker 2: non quarterbacks, like Micah Parsans is a top ten pick easily.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean it's him, it's Seul Garrett. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's probably wider some of the justin Jefferson j Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but yeah there, yes he is to stop doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: That would be like multiple first round picks. I don't
Speaker 1: think he's getting traded simply because like I don't think
Speaker 1: a team's going to give up what he's worth.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that one would be tough to give up enough
Speaker 2: compensation for Dallas to truly move him, right, But Like,
Speaker 2: the thing is that Jerry is saying ridiculous, and I
Speaker 2: know it's shouldn't I shouldn't, I shouldn't, Like it's glass
Speaker 2: Asse type thing, but like, what are you doing, Like
Speaker 2: you're saying, oh, well, we might just because we sign him.
Speaker 2: We might not have him because he got hurt last year,
Speaker 2: Like everybody gets hurt sometimes, Like it's football, all right.
Speaker 2: Last one here from David Maine. Shamar Stewart also with
Speaker 2: the Cincinnati Bengals. So Shamar Stewart went back to school,
Speaker 2: I believe, right, So they can't play.
Speaker 1: I think there's an internet rumors he's at Texas and practices.
Speaker 2: So he's not eligible to play college football anymore.
Speaker 1: No, he cannot know.
Speaker 2: But he could sit out the year with Cincinnati and
Speaker 2: re enter the twenty twenty six draft. Yes, but he
Speaker 2: would be out of football for an entire year, not
Speaker 2: playing college or pro football for an entire.
Speaker 1: So I've been looking into this and I haven't gotten
Speaker 1: the exact answer. I think he could go play in
Speaker 1: the UFL.
Speaker 2: He's not under contract in the NFL, but he declared no.
Speaker 1: They put in the UFL.
Speaker 2: Where which one is that?
Speaker 1: There's only one left? It's the spring league.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I'm saying, Like he can go and
Speaker 2: play pro football.
Speaker 1: No, But so this this is which if I was him,
Speaker 1: this is what I would do if he's not going
Speaker 1: to play, is go to the UFL because he'll dominate
Speaker 1: and then use that to because inherently his draft sock
Speaker 1: is going to go down because he's another year older. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been out of the game. It's going to go
Speaker 1: way down, right well, because it's just this whole, this whole.
Speaker 1: But if you go to the UFL and put up
Speaker 1: a teen sacks.
Speaker 2: In ten games, yeah, I dominate that level.
Speaker 1: Right, So that's what I'm saying. But I don't think
Speaker 1: he's gonna get traded because if you're the bank, first
Speaker 1: of all, if you're the Bengals, you trade Tamar Stewart,
Speaker 1: you lose all your leverage with Trey Hendrickson. The Trey
Speaker 1: Hendrickson hat thing has to be settled first.
Speaker 2: You can't draft a guy in the first round and
Speaker 2: then have a contract dispute and then immediately trade the
Speaker 2: guy like it's just such bad.
Speaker 1: They if they decide like, all right, it's just that
Speaker 1: we're at an impasse, it's not gonna work. And I
Speaker 1: mean that in itself is a fireable offense. You can't
Speaker 1: do anything with Stuart until you do somee with Hendrickson
Speaker 1: because if you move on from Stewart or you announced
Speaker 1: or he announces without you, hey not playing this year
Speaker 1: Trey Hendrickson's offer just went up by or Trey Hendrickson's
Speaker 1: demand just went up by twenty percent, because you can't
Speaker 1: lose both of them. Now they should be prioritizing Stuart,
Speaker 1: but you can't. If it gets out that Stuart's not
Speaker 1: gonna play, they lose it all with Trey Hendrickson and
Speaker 1: now they're down both guys.
Speaker 2: I'd be fascinated to see a player sit out the
Speaker 2: entire year and then re enter the draft next year.
Speaker 2: That would be cool.
Speaker 1: I'm really interested to know.
Speaker 2: I'd get drafted on Day three, right. So I guess
Speaker 2: it depends on like the optics from the from the
Speaker 2: other thirty one teams. Do they think he was in
Speaker 2: the right in this whole situation, because like there's gonna
Speaker 2: be some people in the league. I'm sure that are
Speaker 2: gonna think he's a headache right.
Speaker 1: Right, But it's it's you know, what do they think
Speaker 1: of Do they know the details what the Bengals are offering?
Speaker 1: I think does he keep the same agent or does
Speaker 1: he change agents? Yeah, that would be a factor. Does
Speaker 1: he go to the combine again? So I don't know
Speaker 1: if you can play in the spring and be eligible
Speaker 1: for the draft. I remember there was that corner two
Speaker 1: years ago who played in Canada and got drafted after
Speaker 1: not playing college football. So I don't exactly know how
Speaker 1: that works. And if I don't know how it works,
Speaker 1: it's probably a pretty complicated question.
Speaker 2: If he went to I don't tell you a factor
Speaker 2: in the spring league thing. I just know from what
Speaker 2: I understand, if he doesn't play in the NFL next year,
Speaker 2: he can re enter the point twenty I think so.
Speaker 1: But it's the amateur draft, right, So if you're in
Speaker 1: the UFL and you get paid by the UFL.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's so silly because now nil exists, so nothing is.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's true, So maybe he could so I just
Speaker 1: for reference here, Uh oh, I can't pronounce that peta
Speaker 1: peta peta two taomo pinuu. I apologize out of Utah.
Speaker 1: It was a six round pick in twenty seventeen. He
Speaker 1: led the UFL in sacks last year. He had seven
Speaker 1: and a half and nine games. Willie Taylor played ten games.
Speaker 1: He had seven. Nobody else had more than five and
Speaker 1: a half. How many you thinks schmar Stewart's getting in
Speaker 1: that league?
Speaker 2: Yeah? A lot?
Speaker 1: Right? If he goes out and it's like the guy.
Speaker 1: It would be like the guys that light up the
Speaker 1: Group of five conferences and the D two conferences where
Speaker 1: they get drafted, because yes, the numbers are going to
Speaker 1: be better, but they're so sheerly overwhelming. If Shamar Stewart
Speaker 1: really turns it up, I'll throw it out there. Twenty
Speaker 1: sacks in ten games. Let's say it's two sacks a
Speaker 1: game in UFL. There's no way he's going outside the
Speaker 1: top one hundred, and I don't know that he can do.
Speaker 2: Maybe not outside the top one hund but I still
Speaker 2: I don't think you can take that.
Speaker 1: You watched that league enough.
Speaker 2: You can't take that guy in the first.
Speaker 1: You've watched that I don't think he'd be a first
Speaker 1: UND pick, but you've watched that league enough. Do you
Speaker 1: think he get twenty sacks in ten games in that league?
Speaker 2: I don't Know't he wasn't he didn't have great sack
Speaker 2: production in college.
Speaker 1: Well that that's because Texas A and M's defense.
Speaker 2: Was Maybe, but you're right, all right, let's get to
Speaker 2: these calls and then we got to wrap it up here.
Speaker 2: Jordan is in Ohio. It's up Jordan, Jordan, all right,
Speaker 2: there you are go.
Speaker 8: For itylug and can you hear me?
Speaker 2: Yeah, go for it? What's up?
Speaker 7: Did you did you guys hear anything about Colin is
Speaker 7: injury coming back?
Speaker 2: If he if he pulled, Yeah, thanks for the college Jordan.
Speaker 2: Now he is a full go. He was out there today,
Speaker 2: not on the list, not on pup. Uh, so he's
Speaker 2: good to go. It seems like and uh, you know
Speaker 2: out there in the team it was twenty three and
Speaker 2: five back there at safety with the first team defense.
Speaker 2: So Jabriel Pepper is Kyle Dugger back home out in
Speaker 2: their charting roles as of right now. I'll continue to
Speaker 2: say I don't let's not totally forget because the last year,
Speaker 2: that two years ago, Kyle Dugger and Jabrill Peppers were
Speaker 2: considered a formidable safety dandem, you know, probably top ten
Speaker 2: safety deal in the league. That was just two years ago.
Speaker 1: I think they still can be. They weren't. Neither one
Speaker 1: of them was healthy really had any point last year.
Speaker 2: Pepper said all.
Speaker 1: The Peppers had all the offense stuff on top of that. Like, now,
Speaker 1: if they'll be healthy is a fair question. That's really
Speaker 1: my lone concern with their secondary. If those two guys
Speaker 1: are fully healthy. Between those two again, I think can
Speaker 1: be a top ten safety duo. I love both those players.
Speaker 1: I think Jabrill Peppers one of the most underrated players
Speaker 1: in the NFL at this point. Obviously, Carlton Davis, Christian
Speaker 1: is auz what they can do that speaks for themselves.
Speaker 1: Marcus Jones a really good slot corner. I like Alex
Speaker 1: Saustin is a depth I like Jalen Hawkins and Marcus
Speaker 1: Eps's depth, and Craig Woodson seems like he might have
Speaker 1: something going there. Yeah, the only question for me, because
Speaker 1: it's legitimate, if like how healthy are Kyle dug and
Speaker 1: Jabrill Peppers and how healthy will they stay this season
Speaker 1: because both those guys every history injuries. But if those
Speaker 1: guys are one hundred percent, they're game changers.
Speaker 2: There's inherently always going to be some boom robust to
Speaker 2: Kyle Duggar's game. I don't think Kyle dugger is a
Speaker 2: Devin McCarty type where he's going to be a Simon
Speaker 2: sound on every single play and always in the right
Speaker 2: place and never making glaring mistakes and all that type
Speaker 2: of stuff. I just don't think that that's his game.
Speaker 2: But going back to twenty three. Like he was a
Speaker 2: turnover machine for a couple of years there, like pick sixes,
Speaker 2: return touchdowns, getting his you know, getting his hands on
Speaker 2: the football constantly around the football. He was a much
Speaker 2: better player a couple of years ago before that ankle
Speaker 2: injury last year. I think the ankle I think that
Speaker 2: started to have his season snowball on him. Was the
Speaker 2: injury was the main reason, but I think it also
Speaker 2: snowballed on him mentally once he like couldn't move the
Speaker 2: way that he needed to move, and then you know,
Speaker 2: then from there his brain just got scrambled and he
Speaker 2: just wasn't seeing the game fast enough and his game
Speaker 2: fell apart. But I don't mean to like put it
Speaker 2: all on the coaching staffs of last year and this year,
Speaker 2: But Kyle Dugger and Jabil Peppers are two players that
Speaker 2: I think I have a chance to both bounce back
Speaker 2: and be the players that we saw two years ago.
Speaker 2: Now that doesn't make them, you know, Rodney Harrison and
Speaker 2: Ed Reed right, Like, no one's saying that, But if
Speaker 2: they can be what they were two years ago, I
Speaker 2: like their safety room, I like their duo as a
Speaker 2: starting duo. I still think they can be productive players
Speaker 2: in this league. All right, Eric is in Quincy. Wrap
Speaker 2: it on, Eric, what's up Eric? Eric? Of course, the
Speaker 2: last call we left us saying it's okay, Eric, maybe
Speaker 2: you can call in next next week as well. So
Speaker 2: that is gonna do it for today's show. Next week.
Speaker 2: I feel like we're gonna have a lot more to say.
Speaker 2: This was one practice I did.
Speaker 1: We'll have a padded practice or two under the belt
Speaker 1: by then, right, should be two or three?
Speaker 2: Yep?
Speaker 1: What is it?
Speaker 2: So wait, it's I believe I believe, don't quote me.
Speaker 2: I believe Monday is gonna be the first PATI.
Speaker 1: So it'll be Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, they're off on Sunday,
Speaker 1: and then first padded practice.
Speaker 2: I believe are gonna get Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, paths.
Speaker 1: That's usually how that lines up.
Speaker 2: Yes, So next Wednesday, same time, same place. We will
Speaker 2: have multiple practices and multiple padded practices, so have a
Speaker 2: lot more to digest.
Speaker 1: Same time, by the way, means like two fifteen two ish.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and we're gonna have a lot more to digest.
Speaker 2: So that'll be fun. That'll be good. But we wanted
Speaker 2: to give you as much of a symnopsis as we
Speaker 2: could of today's practice, not overreacting today's practice given the
Speaker 2: fact that it was such a small sample size. But
Speaker 2: next week we'll be back. We'll have some padded practices
Speaker 2: under our belt to discuss, and training camp will be
Speaker 2: fully underway a week from today, so we'll be good
Speaker 2: to go. But until then, signing off for Alex behind
Speaker 2: the Glass Alex Barth Evan Lazarre will see you guys
Speaker 2: next week.
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Deuce. Thanks for tuning into the show.
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