Speaker 1: This is the Patriots Catch twenty two podcasts with Evan
Speaker 1: Lazar and Alex bar and Lazarre.
Speaker 2: Hello, everybody nailed it. Joined us always by our barat.
Speaker 1: Here is Evan Lazar and Alex Bars. I'm not saying
Speaker 1: you're wrong. I'm so fifty to fifty on that one.
Speaker 1: That was the hardest choice I made, Anthony Jennings, Matt Wilson,
Speaker 1: which guy is it? But it's the hardest choice of
Speaker 1: all the stuff on the roster projection. Yeah, that was
Speaker 1: toughest one. What was tougher for you?
Speaker 2: It's the whole roster?
Speaker 1: Okay, rights, go watch Savi, You're worthy.
Speaker 2: We're back in studio today.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I just realized as I was walking in here. Morrell,
Speaker 2: it's been a couple of weeks since we've been live
Speaker 2: on the show. That's okay, it's been a couple of weeks.
Speaker 2: And uh, it's good to be back back from vacation
Speaker 2: and back to Patriots training camp.
Speaker 1: And this is from vacation. First off, of congratulations and
Speaker 1: all the pleasantries. Meanwhile, I am over here. I remain
Speaker 1: married to the game another word for single. I'm married
Speaker 1: to the game.
Speaker 2: Well, it's me, it's Evan Lazar and me Evan Lazar,
Speaker 2: Alex barth Morell behind the glass for you. At the
Speaker 2: next hour or so, we're gonna talk Patriots Training Camp,
Speaker 2: Day two. And on the one hand, I'm not I'm
Speaker 2: not just saying this just because I'm carrying anyone. I
Speaker 2: love training camp like this is. This is my favorite
Speaker 2: time of year. I'm so jacked up that camp is
Speaker 2: back and that we get to cover training camp and
Speaker 2: cover the practice. This is the best access that we
Speaker 2: get to the team all year long because we actually
Speaker 2: get to watch practice, which is a ton of fun
Speaker 2: and into something that I absolutely love doing. With that said, Alex,
Speaker 2: I have to be honest, this is a huge tease
Speaker 2: the first couple of days, this new five day acclamation period.
Speaker 2: I totally understand it from the player's perspective. They totally
Speaker 2: were in their right to ram up slowly and not
Speaker 2: just get thrown right into padded practices on day one.
Speaker 2: With that being said, it's a tease for the media,
Speaker 2: it's a tease for us. We get out there, you know,
Speaker 2: wide eyed and ready to go on day one yesterday,
Speaker 2: and it's an extension of what they were doing in
Speaker 2: the spring. It's really not live Live. You're not evaluating
Speaker 2: the line of scrimmage, that's for sure, and it's a
Speaker 2: little bit of a slow ramp up. But with that
Speaker 2: being said, we're still going to talk about everything that
Speaker 2: we saw, or most of the things that we saw,
Speaker 2: and break it all down and probably overreact a little
Speaker 2: bit too much to a few things here and there,
Speaker 2: as we tend to do, but we try not to.
Speaker 2: We try to tell you what's real, and I think
Speaker 2: that's a big thing about this time of year two.
Speaker 2: Not to get all my soapbox, but there's certain things
Speaker 2: that are just training camp things, and then there's certain
Speaker 2: things that actually have real football implications, and we try
Speaker 2: our best on this show to separate those two things.
Speaker 2: We don't want to give you things that are just
Speaker 2: another run of the mill training camp practice and nothing
Speaker 2: to really free out about or to be over the
Speaker 2: top excited about either, but try to keep it even
Speaker 2: keeled and talk about the things that actually matter. So
Speaker 2: along those lines, my big opening take to camp two
Speaker 2: days in, because we're not in pads yet and I
Speaker 2: don't really have a huge opening take in terms of
Speaker 2: the competitive portions of practice just yet. My opening take
Speaker 2: is is that if there's anything to be really positive about.
Speaker 2: Out of the first two days, it's that for the
Speaker 2: most part, outside of Mike on Wennie and Calvin Anderson
Speaker 2: and Cody Davis shout out Cody Davis, the Patriots are
Speaker 2: healthy going into this camp. They're healthy. I think the
Speaker 2: team in some ways, it's not quite as much buzz
Speaker 2: as the twenty twenty one training camp where you had
Speaker 2: the free agency spending spree, you had Mac Jones in
Speaker 2: the first round, and there was a ton of buzz
Speaker 2: coming into that season. But there's a little bit of
Speaker 2: a pep in the step. I think a combination of things.
Speaker 2: Bill O'Brien of course, being back for the offensive players
Speaker 2: is huge, the retention and the defensive players and what
Speaker 2: they're building over there on the defensive side of the ball,
Speaker 2: I think is bringing a lot of optimism to that
Speaker 2: side of things. They're healthy, there's some good there's some
Speaker 2: good juju no pun intended. And last but not least,
Speaker 2: the guys that are healthy outside of those three guys
Speaker 2: I mentioned off the top, they all passed the conditioning
Speaker 2: tests and they're all out there, and I think that
Speaker 2: that's something that's really positive and it's something that doesn't
Speaker 2: always happen. Sometimes you start camp and there's eight guys
Speaker 2: on pup. Sometimes you start camp and some big names
Speaker 2: didn't failed the conditioning test and aren't aren't working out
Speaker 2: with the team and the rest of the rest of
Speaker 2: the roster. So I think there's some good the good mojo,
Speaker 2: good vibes right now. And I compared to the twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one, that team, even though they didn't get where
Speaker 2: they wanted to go ultimately and the playoff game was
Speaker 2: a dud, won ten games that made the playoffs. I
Speaker 2: think that would be a pretty successful season. Yeah, that's
Speaker 2: how this goes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would agree with you. And I just think
Speaker 1: even on top of that, like you mentioned, everybody, I mean,
Speaker 1: everybody came in healthy. We'll talk about the injury today,
Speaker 1: which I think holds some significance, but it's there's even
Speaker 1: within the practice themselves. I think there's that there's a
Speaker 1: rejuvenation and energy, especially on the offensive side of the ball.
Speaker 1: I think you're seeing already the impact a guy like
Speaker 1: Bill O'Brien. Sorry, a guy is just too sweaty. I need
Speaker 1: to get off everything. This sweats a shower, I do,
Speaker 1: I really do. Hot day human. I don't do well
Speaker 1: in the humidity.
Speaker 2: We should have a media lockero.
Speaker 1: No, we should, no, we should no, No, that's a
Speaker 1: I'm gonna cut you off right there. You've seen, you're
Speaker 1: seeing I think already the impact Bill O'Brien makes on
Speaker 1: just the way the offense operates. And I know it's
Speaker 1: kind of a really low bar to be like, hey,
Speaker 1: they're not like everybody knows where to line up, everybody
Speaker 1: knows when they should be inter out of the formation,
Speaker 1: everybody knows what the play call is. There's really only
Speaker 1: been two instances so far through two days that there
Speaker 1: was a bit of miscommunication. Tracey McSorley had to call
Speaker 1: a time out right out of the on day one,
Speaker 1: and I don't remember his macro's appy one of them today, like,
Speaker 1: oh no, it was mac Jones and I don't know
Speaker 1: who was wrong in this instance, but mac Jones and
Speaker 1: JJ Taylor. There was a moment as they were trying
Speaker 1: to get lined up where there was a bit of
Speaker 1: indecision about where JJ Taylor should be in the formation.
Speaker 1: But that's it through two days. That's it. And it's
Speaker 1: not even like there's been other fringe moments. They are
Speaker 1: operating succinctly, and that's great to see right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that that's something that is important because
Speaker 2: when you read the tweets from practice, and this is
Speaker 2: again I'm not trying to like pick on anybody that
Speaker 2: does the practice stats and does the two We all
Speaker 2: do it. It's that's our job. Our job is to
Speaker 2: tell you what happened out at practice. But when you
Speaker 2: read the tweets and you read some of the ups
Speaker 2: and downs that the offense has had and quite frankly,
Speaker 2: the results as they work in the red zone here
Speaker 2: predominantly in the first couple of days of practice, the
Speaker 2: results for the Patriots offense hasn't always been there. It
Speaker 2: hasn't always been great. And by the way, you can
Speaker 2: join the fun at eight five to five PATS five
Speaker 2: hundred web radio at Patriots dot com get that in
Speaker 2: there as well. It hasn't always been great. Mac Jones
Speaker 2: has thrown an interception to Kyle Dugger on back to
Speaker 2: back days. On the very first pass of training camp
Speaker 2: and competitive drills, Mac Jones threw an interception to Kyle
Speaker 2: Dugger in the back of the end zone on the
Speaker 2: pass intended for MIKEASICKI so some of the stuff that
Speaker 2: you read in some of the stuff that you see
Speaker 2: is going to be negative about the offense. But I
Speaker 2: think it's important what you just outlined right there that
Speaker 2: this type of negative is a lot different than the
Speaker 2: type of negative we were talking about last summer. This
Speaker 2: is just getting timing down, getting guys kind of in
Speaker 2: the proper places in the pecking order. I think is
Speaker 2: still a work in progress of where exactly Mac is
Speaker 2: going to be looking in certain situations and things like that,
Speaker 2: But mainly, when you're in the red zone, it's a
Speaker 2: condensed area. There was a portion of practice today where
Speaker 2: Mac had a little bit of a streak in completions
Speaker 2: where I think they ran the same play three times
Speaker 2: in a row, and he basically made the same throw
Speaker 2: three times in a row, and by the third time,
Speaker 2: the defense just sitting there like really just ran like
Speaker 2: it's the same play, right. So, I think that the
Speaker 2: combination of the tight spacing of the red zone, the
Speaker 2: fact that you're throwing a new offensive systemat guys, a
Speaker 2: couple of new key pieces like Juju and Mike Kasiki,
Speaker 2: and day one, Day two, you're already working in the
Speaker 2: hardest area of the field to score right. That that
Speaker 2: I think is a lot without.
Speaker 1: Being able to go to the easiest way to score.
Speaker 2: Right, without being able to run the football, and on
Speaker 2: top of without being able to run the football. I'd
Speaker 2: also say that they're not really adding quite yet very
Speaker 2: many bells and whistles either. It's not like they're running
Speaker 2: a ton of mister records. Yeah, it's pretty basic route concepts,
Speaker 2: just things that you goal line, red zone style concepts
Speaker 2: in the passing game. So I know that that sounds
Speaker 2: like a cop out for the offense or trying to
Speaker 2: sugarcoat what's going on offensively, but I think it's a
Speaker 2: long way of saying that we are far far away
Speaker 2: from the dysfunk that we saw last year. This is
Speaker 2: more execution based things that they need to clean up
Speaker 2: that I'm confident they will clean up than a broken
Speaker 2: system and a dysfunctional situation. And not like as much
Speaker 2: as that bar is low, that is a bar that
Speaker 2: they obviously needed to clear, and I think they have
Speaker 2: cleared in this early stage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the perfect example. I was kind of flashing back
Speaker 1: to last year because the offense wasn't great yesterday, it
Speaker 1: wasn't great. I don't think it was as bad as
Speaker 1: maybe some people portrayed. But it wasn't great. But I
Speaker 1: remember last year they weren't great on the first day.
Speaker 1: And my big takeaway was, and you know, I think
Speaker 1: this is true. Yeah, throughout a training camp, even a
Speaker 1: great team that's great on both sides of the ball,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be days the offense wins. There's gonna be
Speaker 1: days the defense wins. And what you look for and
Speaker 1: we didn't know what was to come at this time.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about the first day of camp last year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what you're looking for is all right, defense one today.
Speaker 1: Is the offense going to come out with a sense
Speaker 1: of urgency tomorrow because you want to see that competitive fire.
Speaker 1: Are they going to come out with a sense of
Speaker 1: urgency tomorrow and punch back essentially right and go punch
Speaker 1: for punch because that's what you want to see. And again,
Speaker 1: it wasn't perfect for the offense today, but they came
Speaker 1: out and they went punch for punch. I thought there
Speaker 1: were some really nice plays made by the offense today.
Speaker 1: I thought you got a really good indication of what
Speaker 1: at least part of their identity should be in the
Speaker 1: passing game. And Evan you're gonna hate this. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna say it. They're gonna be a jump
Speaker 1: ball team. They're gonna their offense gonna feature a lot
Speaker 1: of fifty to fifty stuff. Seven of the and not
Speaker 1: that all these guys are gonna make the team, but
Speaker 1: seven of the nine receivers they currently have under contractor
Speaker 1: over six foot. Four of the nine are currently over
Speaker 1: six to two. That's not including six to five Hunter Henry.
Speaker 1: That's not including six to six Mike Kasiki. And you
Speaker 1: saw today Mac Jones first touchdown pass back shoulder fade
Speaker 1: where DeVante Parker goes up, made a good play, not
Speaker 1: that us you know, he's much taller than Marcus Jones,
Speaker 1: but went up, jumped, caught the ball, got the feet
Speaker 1: down on the sideline, made the catch. You saw Mike
Speaker 1: Kisiki a little bit later in practice go up and
Speaker 1: climb the ladder. There was a linebacker lurking in zone,
Speaker 1: kind of in between Mac and Gasicki, and Mac put
Speaker 1: it up where the linebacker couldn't get it. Uh, Gasiki
Speaker 1: has to go up and get it. And he goes
Speaker 1: up and gets it. And I think that's gonna be
Speaker 1: some of what they need to do right and in.
Speaker 2: The red zone that's something that everybody does.
Speaker 1: I mean part of, but they haven't. They've been very
Speaker 1: small receiver. The point being they haven't been able to
Speaker 1: do that in recent years in the red zone. Between
Speaker 1: the twenties whatever. I think you're seeing that that is
Speaker 1: going to be more. It's not gonna be everything. It
Speaker 1: shouldn't be everything, but that is gonna be more. If
Speaker 1: it was gonna be everything, I think they would have
Speaker 1: been a little more aggressive in DeAndre Hopkins because there's
Speaker 1: nobody better at that than DeAndre Hopkins. But I think
Speaker 1: it is gonna be more of their identity this year
Speaker 1: than it's been in the past. The other thing that
Speaker 1: stood out to me about the offense and even within
Speaker 1: the struggles, what can you take away? And this is
Speaker 1: gonna be some people are gonna call the ultimate Homer take.
Speaker 1: I think it's relevant. Mac Jones rookie year in camp. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he would be really good until he made his first
Speaker 1: mistake whatever, whether it was interception, whether he took a
Speaker 1: bad sack, what have you, and he just you could
Speaker 1: tell it bugged him. He wasn't the same player after
Speaker 1: he made that first mistake. This was throughout the summer.
Speaker 1: Got a little better later on, but like it was
Speaker 1: a thing with him that first summer that mac Jones
Speaker 1: is really good until he threw a pick and then
Speaker 1: all bets are off, and then last summer it was
Speaker 1: just all bad. We never got to see him like
Speaker 1: recover from a mistake because there was never anything.
Speaker 2: More than the wall coverage, sacks, sot.
Speaker 1: Mac Jones comes out, first play at camp yesterday, throws
Speaker 1: a pick. Oh boy, all right, here we go. And
Speaker 1: I thought from there he'd a pretty good day. I
Speaker 1: thought from there for what it was, see and he
Speaker 1: had a pretty good day. And then today it.
Speaker 2: Was the opposite. Today was he had a good stretch
Speaker 2: and then he threw the pick to Kyle Duggar towards
Speaker 2: the end, and I was like, oh, well, I would
Speaker 2: have really written that that was a really good.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't in that thing where and I'm the
Speaker 1: same with you. I think you take that out. He
Speaker 1: had a really good day. Yeah, it wasn't in the
Speaker 1: sense I mean that was one of the last passes.
Speaker 1: You didn't I think it might have been his last pass.
Speaker 1: You didn't get to see him have that like bounce
Speaker 1: back on the field. But what does he do? Drop down?
Speaker 1: Did ten push ups? Push the push up and then
Speaker 1: he went over to Kyle Duggar and he tapped him up, like.
Speaker 2: Marine, How many push ups did you have to do
Speaker 2: in the Marines five thousand million?
Speaker 1: Mike wasn't on there. Sorry, I gotta turn the right
Speaker 1: button on. Depends on what I was doing for not
Speaker 1: turning your mic on. How many push up would you
Speaker 1: have to do? And twenty is the limit for like
Speaker 1: a PFT test.
Speaker 2: There you go.
Speaker 1: So Mac did about ten for an interception, so whatever
Speaker 1: they can get like.
Speaker 2: Twenty he did.
Speaker 1: He did that, He goes over. He had a laugh
Speaker 1: with Kyle dugger like it. I don't think it bothered
Speaker 1: him Aton And there is another side of that, or
Speaker 1: it's you do want to see some contenditive fire, right.
Speaker 2: But I want to talk about the interception because.
Speaker 1: It was bad, plight, it was a really bad I want.
Speaker 2: To talk about the interception, but I don't want to.
Speaker 2: I don't want to lead on them. Mac was the
Speaker 2: first bullet point here on our agenda. I don't want
Speaker 2: to lead with that. I think what I do want
Speaker 2: to lead with, though, is that I saw in two
Speaker 2: plays and we're working with such a small sample size
Speaker 2: that just bear with me for the fact that I'm
Speaker 2: literally talking about two plays you mentioned but where're at
Speaker 2: But you mentioned high point and you kind of jump
Speaker 2: ball fantastic hatches and something that this offense is going
Speaker 2: to have to rely on. The plays that I really
Speaker 2: thought today where I said, that's what this Patriots offense
Speaker 2: needs to be, like, that's what this offense needs to do.
Speaker 2: And both plays came not surprisingly, when they pushed the
Speaker 2: ball to the high red zone and they gave the
Speaker 2: offense a little bit more space to operate. They've been
Speaker 2: working like inside the eight yard line for the first
Speaker 2: two days of practice, almost almost exclusively, and then towards
Speaker 2: the end of practice today they finally pushed the ball
Speaker 2: to like the the fifteen and they gave the offense
Speaker 2: a little bit more space to work in space to maneuver.
Speaker 2: The first one was the longest pass and probably the
Speaker 2: best throw that Mac has made so far, and camped
Speaker 2: to Devonte Parker on the touchdown over I think it
Speaker 2: was Christian Zalestee. That was the second one, the deep
Speaker 2: crossing route. Okay, what happened on that play? He's under
Speaker 2: center play action. He runs under center play action, hits
Speaker 2: the back foot, has a nice step up in the
Speaker 2: p because Riley Reef will talk about him in a second.
Speaker 2: It steps up in the pocket and DeVante Parker and
Speaker 2: Kendrick Bourne, they ran like a Yankee style concept where
Speaker 2: you know what they intersect crossing routes in the in
Speaker 2: the middle of the field. You know, one guy goes
Speaker 2: one way, the other guy goes the other, and then
Speaker 2: Mac just throws where the safety isn't if the safety
Speaker 2: helps to pour and he throws to Parker and vice versa,
Speaker 2: and Parker got open, he got behind Gonzales and Mac
Speaker 2: dropped it in the bucket and for a really nice
Speaker 2: touchdown pass about twenty yards that under center play action
Speaker 2: with the with the shots off of it. That that's
Speaker 2: gonna have to be a part of this offense. I
Speaker 2: think that's a part of an offense that Mac can
Speaker 2: thrive in. That Mac can do really well in is
Speaker 2: under center play action. Then they got to Juju, and
Speaker 2: this is something that I think was a little bit
Speaker 2: optimistic about today too. Was I thought today Juju looked
Speaker 2: a lot better than yesterday and started making some plays
Speaker 2: and you started feeling his presence out on the field,
Speaker 2: which is a good thing. The Juju touchdown, Yeah, that
Speaker 2: was gun action shotgun, but play action still they pull
Speaker 2: cold strange, They get the linebackers to creep up a
Speaker 2: little bit. He beats Marcus Jones to the inside on
Speaker 2: like a little skinny post and Mac just dots him
Speaker 2: with it in the back of the end zone. Touchdown.
Speaker 2: So yes, both involve play action, which I think is
Speaker 2: not a coincidence, right. I think that's gonna have to
Speaker 2: be play action, RPO, some sort of way to alter
Speaker 2: the defense. I think not only I don't know, not
Speaker 2: necessarily think that that's as much about Mac as it
Speaker 2: is about helping the playmakers get open. Yeah, because it
Speaker 2: allows them to get isolated one on one matchups and
Speaker 2: takes guys out of passing lanes and things like that.
Speaker 2: So it makes it a little bit easier for receivers
Speaker 2: to get open, and I think that's a big thing.
Speaker 2: But those two throws, in terms of the style of
Speaker 2: the throw, we're talking about a touch deep ball right,
Speaker 2: a deep over rounte where he can loft it in
Speaker 2: there and drop it in the bucket. And we're talking
Speaker 2: about a a slant really a quick hitting kind of
Speaker 2: slant style route where we're not asking him to drive
Speaker 2: the football into an eighteen yard window on a deep dig,
Speaker 2: We're asking him to drive the ball in a window
Speaker 2: on like a seven to nine yard slant. Right. So
Speaker 2: those are the types of things that I think they're
Speaker 2: going to have to build this offense around. The touch,
Speaker 2: deep passes, the quick hitters over the middle of the field, like,
Speaker 2: those are the things that mac Jones does well. Now,
Speaker 2: can they build an entire offense around that just kind
Speaker 2: of that style remains to be seen. I think they can,
Speaker 2: and especially if you add in the fact that the
Speaker 2: quick game had empty and things like that, where we're
Speaker 2: really not talking about plays that are seven to ten
Speaker 2: yards down the field. Now we're talking about like those
Speaker 2: three to five yard dumpoffs and things like that. That's
Speaker 2: going to be a part of this as well. And
Speaker 2: you kind of bring that all together and that's your offense.
Speaker 2: What can't be a part of this offense on any
Speaker 2: level is the interception that we saw to Kyle Dugger.
Speaker 1: Because I don't want to take anything away from Kyle Duger,
Speaker 1: but that was like it's a designed rollout.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and some people and I guess you could give
Speaker 2: him this pass, but I try not to because I
Speaker 2: feel like people think I'm a mac apologist enough.
Speaker 1: Anyways, No, he should not have made that.
Speaker 2: Some people thought that in a game, he probably just
Speaker 2: would have been sacked instead of throwing a pick. But
Speaker 2: he tried to make a play. It was maybe like
Speaker 2: a fourth down situation or I don't know what, you know,
Speaker 2: something like that right where he was just kind of
Speaker 2: trying to make something happen, you know. But the main
Speaker 2: thing is is that every single time we saw this
Speaker 2: all last summer too, when they tried to install some
Speaker 2: of the Shanahan stuff, any sort of moving pocket is
Speaker 2: a disaster. It's he doesn't throw well on the move.
Speaker 2: He doesn't have the athleticism or the arm talent to
Speaker 2: like throw across his body. Like that's a throw that
Speaker 2: he was trying to make that Josh Allen can make.
Speaker 2: We saw Josh Allen make it here last year. That's
Speaker 2: not a throw that Mac Jones can make. And I
Speaker 2: just want to take the things he does well. The
Speaker 2: under center play action stuff, the inbreaking routes over the
Speaker 2: middle of the field, the quick hitters like those are
Speaker 2: the things that he can win with his brain, win
Speaker 2: with his touch and his accuracy and do well on
Speaker 2: but all of the rolling pockets and the bootlegs and
Speaker 2: like take those, throw them in the trash and set
Speaker 2: the can on fire, right like this that's not that
Speaker 2: cannot be in the playbook. It's just not good offense
Speaker 2: for Mac Jones. It's not what he does well. And
Speaker 2: I think every single time we see them try to
Speaker 2: do it with him, it ends the same way, either
Speaker 2: him taking the sack because he has no play to make,
Speaker 2: or him throwing an ill advised interception. There's like no
Speaker 2: in between there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it was you know, he tries to
Speaker 1: cut it back in and then I was he trying
Speaker 1: to throw the ball like there was nobody near Kyle
Speaker 1: Duggar and he had Kyle dugger right between the numbers.
Speaker 1: So I don't know what that one was. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: with the throw was like like, yeah, it was a
Speaker 1: bad decision. And on those rollouts, it it doesn't help.
Speaker 1: I don't even think and this isn't again Mac made
Speaker 1: a really bad play, but nobody got open. They congested
Speaker 1: everything that happened a couple of.
Speaker 2: Times so that there was a few coverage sacks. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I say, I use air quotes for the people that
Speaker 2: are just listening to the podcast. A coverage sacks today
Speaker 2: that that happened, you know, they happened last year. It
Speaker 2: seemed like every other dropback was a covered sack like
Speaker 2: that that would happen all last season and a term
Speaker 2: last summer. I should say during training camp. I don't
Speaker 2: think that it happened. It was quite the same as bad,
Speaker 2: I should say, so far in the first two days,
Speaker 2: but it just seems to me. And look, you can
Speaker 2: take this. If you want to take a negative slant
Speaker 2: on this, it's that he's limited. He's limited. His scope
Speaker 2: of what he's capable of doing is pretty limited. If
Speaker 2: you want to take a positive take on it is
Speaker 2: that I do think you can build an offense around
Speaker 2: the things that I highlighted.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh no, absolutely, I mean it's it's not I
Speaker 1: almost don't want to say it's like the San Francisco
Speaker 1: offense because then you go back to that, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: it's Shanahan everything they did last year, but you're going
Speaker 1: about it a different way. But I think the core
Speaker 1: concepts are the same. It's it's a quick hitting, paint
Speaker 1: by number matchup leverage based scheme and you don't have
Speaker 1: the West Coast elements of it. You're doing it out
Speaker 1: of more of a spread set. But I I mean
Speaker 1: there's there's some overlap in there. Yeah, yeah, I agree,
Speaker 1: And I also like, just on that line, I wonder
Speaker 1: if that's what they were trying to go for last
Speaker 1: year and they just went too far in the other di.
Speaker 2: I think, and so I think they were. But I
Speaker 2: think the main thing is is once they got into
Speaker 2: the season and they kind of scrapped some of like
Speaker 2: the under center, outside zone Shanahan McVeigh stuff, and they
Speaker 2: got into more spread a lot of what they were
Speaker 2: doing spread wise was really emphasizing the quarterback or the
Speaker 2: receivers making plays. Like they just receivers just had to
Speaker 2: win on their routes and the quarterback had to really
Speaker 2: make some really good downfield throws for that offense to succeed.
Speaker 2: And for better or worse, they don't really have receivers
Speaker 2: that can create separation on their own, and they don't
Speaker 2: have a play making quarterback in the sense of like
Speaker 2: a Mahomes or an Allen or Herbert or some one
Speaker 2: of those guys that can just run around and make plays.
Speaker 2: So you gotta the scheme's got to help in some way,
Speaker 2: shape or form. And that's where play action. That's where RPO,
Speaker 2: that's where motion, that's where formations. Right, we've seen the
Speaker 2: couple of these things where they're changing up formations and
Speaker 2: motioning guys and putting guys like tight ends outside or
Speaker 2: running backs inside and different guys in different spots like
Speaker 2: that's that's how you can help try to get guys open,
Speaker 2: get guys matchups that can be favorable because you don't
Speaker 2: just have a guy that you can just run out
Speaker 2: to the X receiver spot and have them just beat
Speaker 2: the guy in front of them ten times in a
Speaker 2: game like that, just they just don't have that player
Speaker 2: on the roster. So I think that there's some bones
Speaker 2: there that they're really building upon. I want to talk
Speaker 2: a little bit about the receivers. Obviously everybody wants to
Speaker 2: hear about the receivers. I talked a little bit about Juju.
Speaker 2: Like I said, not like much to go crazy about,
Speaker 2: but I thought today was a good day for Juju.
Speaker 2: I thought he's getting a little bit better, building it
Speaker 2: up slowly a little bit more and more. That throw
Speaker 2: that I mentioned that the pass, the touchdown pass that
Speaker 2: I had just kind of broke down. That was like,
Speaker 2: if you could have told Bill Belichick and Macro and
Speaker 2: Bill O'Brien back in March that they were gonna be
Speaker 2: able to hit that exact throw, they would have been like, Yeah,
Speaker 2: this is exactly why we signed Juju, Like it was
Speaker 2: exactly what you drew up on the whiteboard when you
Speaker 2: made the signing in March. So I think that's really optimistic.
Speaker 2: That was probably the play that I said that should
Speaker 2: make Patriots fans excited, because that's exactly why Juju is here.
Speaker 2: He's been playing predominantly in the slot, I think, almost
Speaker 2: exclusively in the slot. He's running, you know, a lot
Speaker 2: of crossing routes, a lot of seams are skinny posts,
Speaker 2: you know, and slants like that type of thing. And
Speaker 2: he's gonna be one of those guys that's gonna win
Speaker 2: in the middle of the field for this team. And
Speaker 2: I was I thought it was interesting that Macro and
Speaker 2: I wanted to get a little bit more into Macro.
Speaker 2: Then we can have time for it today, but maybe
Speaker 2: we can talk about it next time a little bit more.
Speaker 2: He mentioned that Juju is not gonna be a far
Speaker 2: departure from some of the other slot receivers that we've
Speaker 2: seen here, and people were like, you're saying, he's, you know,
Speaker 2: like Edelman or Welker, and I think he meant more Jacoby.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well the other interesting thing, like on top of that,
Speaker 1: I forget who was it Bill today? Somebody said today?
Speaker 1: Was Bill or you know Mac was going to say.
Speaker 1: Somebody said today that they were building things into the
Speaker 1: offense that Juju used to succeed in Pittsburgh and in
Speaker 1: Kansas City like things. So if you put those two together,
Speaker 1: that's Shakobe Myers. That is just straight up he's gonna
Speaker 1: be like slot receivers has been here. But also there's
Speaker 1: gonna be elements that he succeeded with in Pittsburgh and
Speaker 1: Kansas City. That's that big slot stuff that Jacoby Myers did.
Speaker 1: That's that's curls, that's you know, direct ins things like that,
Speaker 1: where it's just get to the intermediate, use your size
Speaker 1: to create separation. And the difference being I think with
Speaker 1: him and Jacoby is he's gonna be able to do
Speaker 1: a little more after the catch.
Speaker 2: Right exactly, So once they can move that that play
Speaker 2: action play that they hit the touchdown on today. Once
Speaker 2: they can move back even further and now all of
Speaker 2: a sudden he's catching that and then he's running with
Speaker 2: it after the catch. That that's why he's here. That
Speaker 2: that that design and that type of route and and
Speaker 2: all that is exactly why they made this.
Speaker 1: I will say, though, there were a few periods where
Speaker 1: I thought Juju wasn't as targeted, and in those periods
Speaker 1: it was Christian Zolz covering him. Christian I didn't notice
Speaker 1: him a ton yesterday, and again they weren't. It was
Speaker 1: all very heavy. I thought Christian sauce was very good.
Speaker 2: We'll get the Christian sauce. I'm gonna do this is this.
Speaker 1: Is a right. You actually did a rundown for the show.
Speaker 1: I didn't run down to keep us on track because
Speaker 1: I I'll get three podcasts and two radio shows to
Speaker 1: nice Flex ninety eight five of the sports dot com.
Speaker 1: I'll be on Patriots Beat, and uh, I'll be on
Speaker 1: the radio.
Speaker 2: We don't have time sports Patriots anyways. Just I'm gonna
Speaker 2: compliments how much the wide receivers right now? So I
Speaker 2: compliment to Juju. Yes, thought he looked good today, So
Speaker 2: compliment Sandwich I gotta be negative down and then I'll
Speaker 2: compliment somebody after.
Speaker 1: It's a criticism, it's not negative criticism.
Speaker 2: Thank you criticism. Taekwon Thornton, Taekwon Thornton, and everybody knows
Speaker 2: that I I love me some speed.
Speaker 1: I mean that at first me practicing ot as you
Speaker 1: were ready to put.
Speaker 2: I was ready. I was ready for the year to
Speaker 2: break out. Now, the one caveat that I'm still going
Speaker 2: to use, and everybody's gon out. You always do this, Evan,
Speaker 2: and then the guy stinks and you just don't want
Speaker 2: to say, I'm still using this caveat. I don't care.
Speaker 2: The one caveat that I'm going to use is that
Speaker 2: Taekwon Thornton's area of the field is between the twenties.
Speaker 2: He's not he's not a red zone player like he
Speaker 2: just isn't okay, So let's let's throw that aside for
Speaker 2: a second. He has I think kind of struggled in
Speaker 2: these first two practices to get away from coverage. He's
Speaker 2: been targeted only one time and the two practices and
Speaker 2: the he was smothered on the route and the ball
Speaker 2: sailed out of the back of the end zone. It
Speaker 2: was almost essentially a throwaway. And then there was a
Speaker 2: moment today And this is what's more troubling to me
Speaker 2: than the lack of a separation, because I think in
Speaker 2: between the twenties he'll separate. But the part that really
Speaker 2: troubled me was a moment where he appeared to me,
Speaker 2: and I'm saying this, like, you know, delicately, because I
Speaker 2: don't know for one hundred percent sure, but appeared to
Speaker 2: me like he ran the wrong route and he had
Speaker 2: a little route like it looked like it was sort
Speaker 2: of a converted style route where the corner was sitting
Speaker 2: outside of him right the corner was outside of him
Speaker 2: into the sideline, and instead of hitting the out and
Speaker 2: then returning back into the middle of the field and
Speaker 2: kind of sitting down right inside of the corner, he
Speaker 2: kept running into coverage and and got himself into coverage
Speaker 2: like he ran himself into the defender. And immediately after
Speaker 2: the play, mac Jones ran over to him because it
Speaker 2: was I think it was the last play of the sequence. Uh,
Speaker 2: And mac Jones ran over to him and started correcting
Speaker 2: him and saying instead of you know, running and then
Speaker 2: and then continuing into the coverage like I want you
Speaker 2: to come back in and get yourself into a better spot.
Speaker 2: And he under like he took the teaching moment and
Speaker 2: like he took the the critique. And now that's all
Speaker 2: well and good. But I think the big thing is
Speaker 2: for me is that this this came up on his
Speaker 2: film last year, was some issues with route running and
Speaker 2: some of it was technique based, some of it was
Speaker 2: was processing based, right, which was this was process is
Speaker 2: one technique, but overall he was not a very good
Speaker 2: route runner as a rookie. And if he's not going
Speaker 2: to develop that sort of part of his game, then
Speaker 2: really all he is is a guy that can run fast,
Speaker 2: and that's not what they need. Like, they really would
Speaker 2: greatly benefit And I think this is why I talk
Speaker 2: myself into it, is because they would greatly benefit from
Speaker 2: a year or two breakout from Taekwon Thornton. And in
Speaker 2: two days I have been a little bit skeptical of
Speaker 2: that happening.
Speaker 1: Well again, you talk about, yeah, the red zone is
Speaker 1: not necessarily gonna be his area of expertise. But we've
Speaker 1: talked about this in the wake of the DeAndre Hopkins
Speaker 1: thing that all right, Well, somebody, whether it's Kendrick Bourne,
Speaker 1: whether it's Taekwon Thornton. Somebody has to maybe it's DeVante Parker,
Speaker 1: somebody hear jujus, but somebody has to emerge as that
Speaker 1: true number one, that coverage dictating receiver. And I'm not
Speaker 1: saying Thornton has to be at his best in the
Speaker 1: red zone, but ideally that guy is going to play
Speaker 1: at that level at any spot on the field. We
Speaker 1: got the definition yesterday for Matt grow of a number
Speaker 1: one five receiver right good at everything. And if Thornton's
Speaker 1: not gonna be good in the red zone, I'm not
Speaker 1: saying that means he can't be an umber one wide receiver,
Speaker 1: but that really he's got to really be special in
Speaker 1: between the twenties at that point to justify it. Last
Speaker 1: year we saw some flashes of route running creativity in
Speaker 1: the red zone. He had the touchdown against the Giants
Speaker 1: in the preseason. Yeah, the one he caught from Zappi
Speaker 1: and Cleveland, where again he breaks off, he sees the
Speaker 1: quarterback moving out of the pocket, he breaks off, his
Speaker 1: routy comes back, he gets himself open. So coming into this,
Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, and he's not going to be
Speaker 1: a red zone thread. That's not his game. But can
Speaker 1: he build on that and just be a factor in
Speaker 1: the red zone even if they're not right, I don't
Speaker 1: need him to be their top option in the red zone.
Speaker 1: He shouldn't be, Like we set off the top of
Speaker 1: the show. They have Devonte Parker, they have Mike Asiki,
Speaker 1: they have Hunter Henry. They have these guys that can
Speaker 1: go up and climb the ladder and be competitive in
Speaker 1: terms of vertical separation. But if Thornton's going to be
Speaker 1: the guy I think we all think he needs to
Speaker 1: be for this offense to maximize. He needs to be
Speaker 1: a guy that is going to be when you're in
Speaker 1: twelve personnel, is going to be one of your two
Speaker 1: best options in the red zone. And not that he's
Speaker 1: been terrible, but he hasn't poffed in the red zone
Speaker 1: so far, and that's you kind of wanted to see
Speaker 1: that from him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just ideed him to clean up the route running.
Speaker 2: I think that's the main thing is that you gotta
Speaker 2: be able to understand the complexities of the offense, like
Speaker 2: the conversions and the option routes and things like that.
Speaker 2: And that's not like truly an option route. It's more
Speaker 2: like a conversion where they give the receivers the freedom
Speaker 2: to Okay, if you have an out, but there's a corner,
Speaker 2: a cover two corner just squatting waiting for you to
Speaker 2: run an out, then what's the point of you running
Speaker 2: that out right where we're gonna allow you to run
Speaker 2: something that's a little bit more advantageous against that type
Speaker 2: of coverage. The reason why I say all this isn't
Speaker 2: to pick on him for one route. The main reason
Speaker 2: why I say this is because that guy won't play
Speaker 2: in this like Bill O'Brien's not gonna play the receiver
Speaker 2: that doesn't know where he's going, right. It's just that's
Speaker 2: not how they operate here. And he might be physically
Speaker 2: really talented, and he might be really fast, and he
Speaker 2: might be Why I am so bullish on him coming
Speaker 2: into camp was because he's really the only true burner
Speaker 2: in this group. Nobody else can run like him, even close?
Speaker 1: Uh not in that top group.
Speaker 2: Well, well, maybe I think I know who you're talking about,
Speaker 2: and I'm gonna get sixt This is my compliment Sandwich.
Speaker 1: All right, I was giving you an easy transition, but okay,
Speaker 1: finish all.
Speaker 2: Right, And that is that should be Taekwon is the
Speaker 2: one guy that I feel like, Okay, this guy can
Speaker 2: stretch the field, this guy can take the top off
Speaker 2: whatever cliche you want to use, and they could really
Speaker 2: use that to open up the middle of the field
Speaker 2: for where they really want to throw the football, which
Speaker 2: is to Juju and the tight ends and the backs
Speaker 2: out of the backfield. If they can't have a burner
Speaker 2: out there, they're slow. They're a slow group. It's Devonte
Speaker 2: Parker on the outside, it's Juju in the slot, it's
Speaker 2: the two tight ends. It's not a very fast group.
Speaker 2: And that does have concerns for me. Now, compliment sandwich time.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 2: The one guy. So the Patriots have been working in practice,
Speaker 2: and we're talking a lot about the passing game because
Speaker 2: there's no pads, so we're not we're not talking a
Speaker 2: ton about the line of scrimmage. Yet the Patriots been
Speaker 2: working in the passing game with a foursome at receiver
Speaker 2: that you were not surprised by. It's right Juju, it's Parker,
Speaker 2: it's Born, it's Thornton, it's the two tight ends.
Speaker 1: And that was even pretty defined during a special teams
Speaker 1: period today on the side field. It was Mac in
Speaker 1: those fours the tight ends were doing, especially something Mac
Speaker 1: in those four receivers, So there's not even a fifth
Speaker 1: guy that's like started to like is behind them. But
Speaker 1: in that group, it's those four and then.
Speaker 2: And then you also have you know, the backs like
Speaker 2: time on Comer and Mermandra Stevenson. For the most part,
Speaker 2: the one guy that seems to be creeping into that
Speaker 2: group and has been over there hasn't gotten a ton
Speaker 2: of reps, got a little bit more late in the
Speaker 2: in the practice today. But the one guy that's creeping
Speaker 2: over to that side of the field with the ones
Speaker 2: is Tomario Douglas. Yes, and that is encouraging for multiple reasons.
Speaker 2: I think from a mental standpoint, it makes sense. He
Speaker 2: worked with the Patriots at the Shrine Bowl. He's been
Speaker 2: here all spring, he's been healthy and working all spring.
Speaker 2: And in a rookie.
Speaker 1: What happened to just say, the wind blew over?
Speaker 2: It was very windy up there today. To Mario Douglas,
Speaker 2: I think there's reason to be a little bit optimistic here.
Speaker 2: And we all we both liked him coming in. I
Speaker 2: mean we're a little bit biased because we saw him
Speaker 2: out in Vegas, So I guess maybe it was kind
Speaker 2: of one of our guys, so to speak. But he's
Speaker 2: somebody that you will get a lot of these receivers
Speaker 2: that they have. You mentioned all the guys that they
Speaker 2: have that are really big guys. They're good guys that
Speaker 2: that are gonna win with physicality. He's one of the
Speaker 2: few guys that's got the that jitterbuggy. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: he's well literally he's got four to four speed. He's
Speaker 2: got some quickness to his game. He's got that more
Speaker 2: of that like shifty, explosive game to him. Where they
Speaker 2: have a lot of these like long striders like a
Speaker 2: Devonte Parker or a Mikeasicki and Hunter Henry. He's someone
Speaker 2: that brings a different flavor. And we also mentioned the
Speaker 2: the gadget plays and things like that they could do
Speaker 2: with them. The jet sweeps, the screen passes like that
Speaker 2: type of stuff exists in his game as well. But
Speaker 2: I've been encouraged by what we've seen underneath the defense,
Speaker 2: like does little quick hitters does, And that's something that
Speaker 2: we know that Brady used to really rely upon because
Speaker 2: it just gets the ball out of the quarterback's hands.
Speaker 1: And when you look at the tackle position and where
Speaker 1: they're at right now. With that we've said, I've said
Speaker 1: how many times I said mac jone is gonna have
Speaker 1: to be his own best pass protector this year. A
Speaker 1: guy like tomorrow Douglas's going to get in and out
Speaker 1: of his first break quickly and then be able to
Speaker 1: create after the catch. That's the kind of guy that's
Speaker 1: going to eat in this offense. One more observation on
Speaker 1: Douglas for me, Evan. I know you roll your eyes
Speaker 1: at the listed weights and all of that, but he was.
Speaker 2: Just because I know how the the uh what's not
Speaker 2: what's the thing with the I know how it's made
Speaker 2: behind the scenes.
Speaker 1: How the sausages made. But like objectively here in shout
Speaker 1: out to the Patriots for sending us to the Shrine Bowl.
Speaker 1: That's why this stuff is so big. We saw him
Speaker 1: at the Shrine Bowl. I saw him. I stood next
Speaker 1: to him. I talked to him the set. He was
Speaker 1: one seventy nine at the Shrine bul. He's won seventy nine.
Speaker 1: He's now listed at one ninety two. Yeah, I tasked
Speaker 1: that looks about right.
Speaker 2: Do you think he gain weight?
Speaker 1: I think he he looks much more muscular. He definitely, yeah,
Speaker 1: than thirteen A lot I don't know if he okay,
Speaker 1: but I'm saying like his his body type has changed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was he was a twig. He was a bit
Speaker 1: of a twig, and he got hurt at the Shrine Bowl.
Speaker 1: And he's not a guy I'm looking at now, like
Speaker 1: looking at him at the Shrine Bowl. The big question,
Speaker 1: as it is with a lot of guys I think
Speaker 1: we're even talking about this was Za Yeah at the time,
Speaker 1: was is he going to hold up in the NFL? Right?
Speaker 1: But but just like physically he's he gonna be able
Speaker 1: to not not like hold up in that sense, but
Speaker 1: he's gonna be able to take enough hits.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I look at tomorrow Douglas. Now you like the
Speaker 1: term rocked up, right, a guy that's just he's he's
Speaker 1: got that. Now he's bigger, he's he's more built to
Speaker 1: play in the NFL. Yeah, we got to see how
Speaker 1: he the play strength and now he uses that for
Speaker 1: leverage and press. But I think if they use him right,
Speaker 1: he's not a guy that's gonna get pressed a lot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but he looks he looks the part. He looks bigger.
Speaker 1: The way it changed, you can see it in his
Speaker 1: body and He's not any less quick. He's not any
Speaker 1: less fast with that extra mass on his frame. So
Speaker 1: when you see that, that stands out. He just has a.
Speaker 2: Totally different body type and skill set from the rest
Speaker 2: of the group, and that makes him I think we're
Speaker 2: we're talking. We're talking him up right now. But what
Speaker 2: I the main point of all of this is he's
Speaker 2: easily has the inside track to be the fifth receiver on.
Speaker 1: I think he's the guy right now. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: you called him, you called him Day three z A
Speaker 1: leading into the draft, and that's kind of that's translated.
Speaker 1: You're seeing a similar skill set. He's not as advanced
Speaker 1: as a guy in Baltimore. I haven't I haven't like
Speaker 1: gotten catch up on any of the other teams.
Speaker 2: It makes me sick.
Speaker 1: Is he is he balling out?
Speaker 2: Of course?
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, but they're not in pads yet.
Speaker 2: Yeah sure, sure, okay, But anyways, I'm excited about tomorrow Douglas.
Speaker 2: Like I said, we're talking about him making the team
Speaker 2: as the fifth receiver. We're not talking about him being
Speaker 2: the next Julian Edelman. We're just saying that he's somebody
Speaker 2: that's popped. He's somebody that's working with the other regular
Speaker 2: guys that been rather top guys in the offense, and
Speaker 2: that's different. You know, guys like Kaishawn Boudi, Malik Cunningham,
Speaker 2: Edilee They're they're all working on a different part of
Speaker 2: the field. And tomorrow Douglas is with the starters, which
Speaker 2: I think is really notable. Last thing I have on
Speaker 2: the dock and on the offense that we got to
Speaker 2: take this call because we've left Sorrey care on hold
Speaker 2: for thirty minutes. Last thing I want to talk about
Speaker 2: the offense. My biggest takeaway, I think if we're trying
Speaker 2: to go big picture about the offense and where they're
Speaker 2: headed schematically and all that kind of stuff, I think
Speaker 2: that with the Hopkins sweepstakes, it allowed us to talk
Speaker 2: so much about receivers and receiver talent and all that
Speaker 2: kind of stuff. Ultimately, this offense is going to live
Speaker 2: or die by their offensive line. I think they have
Speaker 2: enough skill talent wise that Bill O'Brien will scheme it
Speaker 2: up and they'll be able to move the football. Maybe
Speaker 2: it will look a little bit like twenty twenty one
Speaker 2: in that sense, and hopefully you get a little bit
Speaker 2: better quarterback play than rookie Mack and that's where the
Speaker 2: difference is. But this offensive line is it's the making,
Speaker 2: it's the breaking point for the entire team, I honestly feel.
Speaker 2: And there's no pads, there's there's no legal contact. So
Speaker 2: I'm waiting to see Riley Reef with the pads on
Speaker 2: because once he can be physical with guys, and he
Speaker 2: can bully guys, and he can get his hands on
Speaker 2: people and things like that, it could totally change. But
Speaker 2: foot speed wise, Riley Reef has been a little bit slow.
Speaker 2: It's a little bit slow getting out to his landmarks.
Speaker 2: He's had some trouble protecting his corner. Those are things
Speaker 2: that you notice now. On the other side, Trent Brown
Speaker 2: looks great. Trent Brown looks ready to go. He looks
Speaker 2: like he's in good shape. I'm optimistic that that's headed
Speaker 2: in the right direction. Right tackle to me is still
Speaker 2: a worrisome spot. And look, I don't want to do
Speaker 2: the whole thing again, but the frustrating part still remains
Speaker 2: for me that we knew it. It was a weak
Speaker 2: spot on the roster last It was a turnstyle last year.
Speaker 2: Let's just be honest. It was a turnstyle last year.
Speaker 2: They could have addressed it with a real, a real,
Speaker 2: a real solution in free agency, Like this was a
Speaker 2: really good free agency tackle clefts for the draft. Orlando Brown,
Speaker 2: Caleb McGarry, Juwan Taylor missing with McGlinchey. So they had
Speaker 2: some real guys that they could have signed. And I
Speaker 2: think in the draft that I give them a little
Speaker 2: bit of a passing the draft because they weren't going
Speaker 2: to draft them over Christian Goanzalez.
Speaker 1: Yeah. But but even in like the second third round,
Speaker 1: somebody on the drafted somebody.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So anyways, what are your again, you're non padded
Speaker 2: very early on all the all the caveats. What are
Speaker 2: your early impressions of the Riley Reef at right tackle.
Speaker 2: That's a tough name to say, Reef right tackle experience.
Speaker 1: Well, it's first of all, and I look, I'm having
Speaker 1: trouble with this one because you know me, I'm bad
Speaker 1: at like approximating things like how long have you been
Speaker 1: in the car? I'll say half an hour, it's been
Speaker 1: three hours. I have no concept of that. But look,
Speaker 1: the Matriots have some real behemos to tackle. Trent Brown's
Speaker 1: six six three eighty Conor McDermott I think is like,
Speaker 1: what six seven three thirty. Calvin Anderson's a big dude
Speaker 1: as well. Riley Reef is listed at six six three ten.
Speaker 1: He doesn't look big to me, and maybe that's who
Speaker 1: he's standing next to. He doesn't look small, but he
Speaker 1: doesn't look big.
Speaker 2: And I'm just worried about the foot speed.
Speaker 1: Well, so that's the thing. I'm like, if he had size,
Speaker 1: if even more size like that, you don't lose size
Speaker 1: with age, right right, whereas some of the other stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like there was one today and look, I actually thought
Speaker 1: Jeloanni Toebah had a really good day today all around.
Speaker 1: He made a couple of plays, so he was sort
Speaker 1: of locked in. But yeah, there was one today where
Speaker 1: nothing against Stelanna Tobia. Speed's not his game. He's not
Speaker 1: the fastest guy on the team. Jelanny Taya ran right
Speaker 1: by him on the beach and that was you know
Speaker 1: that that's a moment that you look at you say,
Speaker 1: I don't know even with the pads, I don't know
Speaker 1: about that one.
Speaker 2: I think the main thing is is that it's not
Speaker 2: just sing it off of two days in trading camp.
Speaker 2: His foot speed was starting to decline last year. On film, He's.
Speaker 1: Thirty four, Just just say what it is. He's thirty four.
Speaker 1: There's not a lot of thirty four year old tackles
Speaker 1: in the NFL.
Speaker 2: But I just want to make sure it's clear that
Speaker 2: I thought his play was declining from last season in
Speaker 2: actual NFL games, and then he comes out here in
Speaker 2: camp and it doesn't look so hot either. Now, maybe
Speaker 2: they give it a couple of weeks. Calvin Anderson comes
Speaker 2: off of NFI. Maybe he's somebody that they worked him
Speaker 2: out at left tackle for most of the spring because
Speaker 2: Trent Brown wasn't here. But maybe he actually ends up
Speaker 2: being the right you know, right tackle solution. Maybe Connor
Speaker 2: McDermott jumps him on the depth chart. Maybe City South
Speaker 2: comes out of nowhere and is somebody that can make
Speaker 2: a push for the right tackle spot. But that to me, offensively,
Speaker 2: maybe even more so than the receivers at this point,
Speaker 2: continues to be a worrisome situation. The one other thing
Speaker 2: that was a little bit worried some I I want
Speaker 2: to see tomorrow if he's back out there and if
Speaker 2: he's fine, But Toy Montgomery did get a little bit
Speaker 2: dinged up today. He that's his thing, like he's on
Speaker 2: the track every single time. We see him every in
Speaker 2: the spring, last year, in the summer, last year, in
Speaker 2: the spring, this year, first two days of training camp
Speaker 2: this year, he's looked the part of the of the
Speaker 2: pass catching back to the Patriots need he has, but
Speaker 2: he can't. He's gotta stay healthy. Yeah, and if he's
Speaker 2: already getting dinged up, and I know you're you can
Speaker 2: go on your whole thing about about the cornerback that
Speaker 2: threw him the ball.
Speaker 1: No, it's it's it's a shame because he did look
Speaker 1: really good, and he looked good, you know, last year
Speaker 1: he's got We'll see what happened today, Like he didn't.
Speaker 1: I think it's encouraging. They didn't come right off the field.
Speaker 2: I'm hopeful it was just a tweak and just kind
Speaker 2: of an awkward Yeah.
Speaker 1: So he he he because after the play he ran
Speaker 1: a few more routes, which he looked fine running the routes,
Speaker 1: like in between plays, he's like shaking his leg and stuff.
Speaker 1: And then he went over to the trainers and spent
Speaker 1: the rest of the day with them, did some light jogging.
Speaker 1: But if he's healthy, he's a game changer. Because you
Speaker 1: mentioned him in that third down back he's been wrapping
Speaker 1: a lot of wide receiver to he's listed as a
Speaker 1: wide receiver.
Speaker 2: I just I know he's not the the I know
Speaker 2: it's been a while since he's produced. And that's the
Speaker 2: big thing with him. It's like, I'll believe it when
Speaker 2: I see it in an actual game. And I also
Speaker 2: know that he's not the most explosive guy, Like he's
Speaker 2: not like this game breaking receiving back or a receiver
Speaker 2: slash receiving back. But I think what's really unique about
Speaker 2: him is what you just said is that he can
Speaker 2: also play wide receiver. Yeah, and Bill O'Brien is one
Speaker 2: of those guys that is just gonna f with defenses
Speaker 2: with the guy.
Speaker 1: And that's what I'm saying. You put like Evan, I
Speaker 1: said this to you a month ago. You put him
Speaker 1: in Mike Kasiki, both in the formation, both in the huddle. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the defense has no idea. What's is it eleven? Is
Speaker 1: it twelve? Is it ten? Is it right?
Speaker 2: Are they running? Are they passing?
Speaker 1: It can be so many things, and they.
Speaker 2: Can be empty or they could be under center and
Speaker 2: run the ball out of that and it's it's all
Speaker 2: the same.
Speaker 1: To them, exactly exactly so I think there's tremendous value
Speaker 1: in time on comery on this offense, and I still
Speaker 1: think he can play. It's not the same question as
Speaker 1: can he be held, but it's kind of the same question.
Speaker 1: How much do they put in the offense for him?
Speaker 1: Because the thing about Toime Montgomery is that things you're
Speaker 1: and you're not gonna build the entire offense around him,
Speaker 1: but you'd like to put in some things that feature
Speaker 1: him and feature you know, take advantage of that versatility.
Speaker 1: The problem is if you can't count on it be
Speaker 1: on the field, are you installing stuff that suddenly you
Speaker 1: can't use. I don't know that there's.
Speaker 2: A guy maybe it's Pierre Strong, maybe.
Speaker 1: But Pierre Strong, I don't know how much. He's never
Speaker 1: played wide receiver. The guy I would go to is
Speaker 1: Jalen Hurd, but I haven't been super wild by what
Speaker 1: I've seen from Jalen Hurt.
Speaker 2: But he hasn't done anything else.
Speaker 1: He's a little stiff, he can run a straight line.
Speaker 1: But it's you know, how much of that stuff are
Speaker 1: you gonna put in the playbook? Knowing are we gonna
Speaker 1: be able to go back to this? Like if he
Speaker 1: gets hurt now you're throwing out in tiere sections of
Speaker 1: the playbook and then if it's and even if he
Speaker 1: is out the al right, so you have you know,
Speaker 1: maybe you build it in as the season goes on.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that's my question with him is not even
Speaker 1: can they count on him? How much do they think
Speaker 1: they can count on him? How much of a significant
Speaker 1: role are they willing to give him in the big
Speaker 1: picture element of the offense, knowing that his availability is
Speaker 1: kind of up in the air, and I you know,
Speaker 1: we'll see if he's out there tomorrow. If this is
Speaker 1: you know, if it's a significant injury, then I think
Speaker 1: the question's answered. It's you know, maybe he starts he's
Speaker 1: on IR or whatever like, and they go back to
Speaker 1: it later when he comes back, they start putting it in.
Speaker 1: But it is kind of a tough You want this
Speaker 1: guy to be a big part of your offense. But
Speaker 1: if you plan for him to be a big party
Speaker 1: your offense and he's not there, and he has such
Speaker 1: a unique skill set that you don't really have a backup.
Speaker 2: Right, I mean Bill Belichick's was asked what is his
Speaker 2: position and just said versatile.
Speaker 1: Well, so then there's the other layer of this it
Speaker 1: was reported today that the Patriots are may be setting
Speaker 1: up a meeting with Dalvin Cook.
Speaker 2: We'll get to that in a sad Okay, gotta stick
Speaker 2: on schedule. Let's get to Syrikira Surrika. I'm sorry to
Speaker 2: keep you on hold on. I hope you're saying your
Speaker 2: name correctly. But what do you got hey?
Speaker 4: You actually oh, SERGEI yeah, So to finally reach the
Speaker 4: best duel of the Patriots beat cool to say hi
Speaker 4: to Alex today the Hill.
Speaker 1: If you were the person whose hand I apologize shook
Speaker 1: somebody's hand and I think I have a firm handshake
Speaker 1: and somebody's like out my hand. So if that's you,
Speaker 1: I apologize, or whoever that was that they're listening. They
Speaker 1: said they listened to the show I apologize.
Speaker 4: Well, anyways, I'm talking about say in the running back step,
Speaker 4: I think it's not a great sign that Harry is
Speaker 4: strong and JJ allsplit reps with the one after Mandra
Speaker 4: and Ty We're out. Do you think Cook would be
Speaker 4: a real upgrade that allows Tie to maybe play more
Speaker 4: as a receiver, and like you said, maybe he doesn't
Speaker 4: get us injured.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good question, Sergeriya, and thanks for the
Speaker 2: call and for listening. So Dalvin Cook, I think that's
Speaker 2: a good transition. Yeah, set us up for it.
Speaker 1: Just to go back to the time Montgomery Port and
Speaker 1: I'm saying, how much of this stuff can you build
Speaker 1: in if you have a guy like Dalvin Cook who
Speaker 1: had like can I don't know that he has the
Speaker 1: wide receiver background Toime Montgomery does, but I'd be comfortable
Speaker 1: giving him some of those slot responsibilities just based on
Speaker 1: his overall skill set and athleticism if you sign him,
Speaker 1: Because you got to figure out too how to get
Speaker 1: him and Romandra in the field at the same time
Speaker 1: without bring at twelve, you are twenty one without being
Speaker 1: in twenty one. I kept those mixed up. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: I want to say it right you you build that
Speaker 1: stuff in for Deavin Cook instead of Time Montgomery, and
Speaker 1: then Time Montgomery becomes the backup for that role and
Speaker 1: you're not relying on him as much. So I wonder
Speaker 1: if that would be part of the conversation with Dalvin Cook.
Speaker 2: So here's my two cents on Dalvin Cook. One, just
Speaker 2: along that line, I did go back and watch some
Speaker 2: of his twenty twenty one tape just to have it ready.
Speaker 2: You know I do that and got to be prepared,
Speaker 2: got to be prepared, and I was actually pleasantly surprised
Speaker 2: at how much Kevin O'Connell used him in the passing
Speaker 2: game as a receiver.
Speaker 1: They I'm actually looking for the snappers, and.
Speaker 2: So they ran. They have their the vikings and O'Connell
Speaker 2: KOC has their own empty package. Right that that Bill
Speaker 2: Brian's going to feature here, different different coaches, but just
Speaker 2: saying they both run empty, and Dalvin Cook did line
Speaker 2: up quite a bit as a receiver. Now, what they
Speaker 2: did with him as a receiver out of empty was
Speaker 2: they ran him on a lot of shallow drags and
Speaker 2: they just had him kind of run down the you know,
Speaker 2: run across the field and then they would just dump
Speaker 2: it to him and just create these catch and run opportunities.
Speaker 2: So essentially it's just like a long handoff, right, And
Speaker 2: that's still something that they could do if he does
Speaker 2: come here. The long story short on Dalvin Cook is that,
Speaker 2: as Macro said yesterday, there's a weird thing going on
Speaker 2: with the veteran market right now, especially at running back.
Speaker 2: But really there's a couple of really good players still available,
Speaker 2: like Ganick and Gockway to Davian Clowney, like, it's not
Speaker 2: just running backs. Marcus Peters just signed yeah, a couple
Speaker 2: of days ago. It's rare, as grow put it, that
Speaker 2: they're this many good players are still available this time
Speaker 2: of year. So in that sense, and we made the
Speaker 2: same argument with DeAndre Hopkins, it's a market deficiency that
Speaker 2: Dalvin Cook is still available on July twenty seventh. And
Speaker 2: when I say market deficiency, I mean the fact that
Speaker 2: they are not going to have to bake the braink
Speaker 2: bake wow, break the bank to pay him because that
Speaker 2: money is not out there for him. He's not going
Speaker 2: to make fifteen million dollars a year. He's not going
Speaker 2: to make twelve million dollars. I don't even think the
Speaker 2: money he's going to make six.
Speaker 1: But I don't think the money is the issue with
Speaker 1: Dalvin Cook in the sense that he's not getting paid.
Speaker 1: He wants to reset his marketing. He wants to go
Speaker 1: somewhere where he can prove how good he is and
Speaker 1: is he going to come be a spellback here? So
Speaker 1: that's that's my main That's the big issue.
Speaker 2: It's double right, because one, he needs the opportunity to
Speaker 2: show what he can still do. And secondly, we know
Speaker 2: the Patriots and we know that they're going to tie
Speaker 2: his money up in incentives, and if he's not getting
Speaker 2: the touches to meet the incentives, then he's not going
Speaker 2: to make his money.
Speaker 1: So and that goes back to the point of you
Speaker 1: have to find for this to work. You have to
Speaker 1: find ways that him and remander on the field at
Speaker 1: the same time. That's basically what you have to do.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: With all that said, because it sounds like I'm out
Speaker 2: on Dalvin Cook, I'm still there for the talent grab
Speaker 2: like I still think, oh that at some point you
Speaker 2: have to realize, yeah, it creates a redundancy. With Remondri's evenson,
Speaker 2: you are running the risk that Dalvin Cook is going
Speaker 2: to be like one hundred touches below his incentives in
Speaker 2: terms of your centives won't be tied up in touches.
Speaker 2: They'll probably be tied up in like snap counts and
Speaker 2: yards and touchdowns. And if he's he's probably not going
Speaker 2: to break the thresholds for a lot of his incentives,
Speaker 2: and so you run into the problem of maybe him
Speaker 2: being disgruntled because of that. Later on in the season,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of things that I think you have
Speaker 2: to be were concerned or just kind of like a
Speaker 2: little bit luke warm on the other last thing, I'll say,
Speaker 2: and I know you're gonna hate this with Alex, but
Speaker 2: the nerds do not like Dalvin Cook anymore.
Speaker 1: His analytics well, the nerds don't like running backs period, right.
Speaker 2: But even in relative to running backs, his efficiency last
Speaker 2: year in terms of the advanced metrics completely dropped off boo.
Speaker 2: So with that being said, I'm still here for the
Speaker 2: talent crab. I like talented football players on my football team.
Speaker 2: And if this is going to be your offense what
Speaker 2: we just described earlier action and you know, touch deep
Speaker 2: throws and quick hitters, and you're gonna have to run
Speaker 2: the ball, You're gonna have to be able to run
Speaker 2: the ball, and Remandre can't run the ball three hundred
Speaker 2: times again. So I'm for it, but I I don't
Speaker 2: think it happens, mainly because I think the Jets will
Speaker 2: offer him a much higher base salary. But I also
Speaker 2: am just not like I wouldn't be as upset about
Speaker 2: it as I was about DeAndre Hopkins.
Speaker 1: Let me put you, Yeah, they don't need Cook like
Speaker 1: I don't know how much better Cook makes them in
Speaker 1: the big picture. Yeah, he'd be a good player to have.
Speaker 1: But like Hopkins, I thought, was the guy that potentially
Speaker 1: alters the win total. I don't know the Cook. Maybe
Speaker 1: he makes it easier to win some already winnable games,
Speaker 1: and he makes some games that are gonna be tougher
Speaker 1: a little closer. But I'll give you this number on
Speaker 1: Cook though. This is interesting. So last year is a
Speaker 1: receiver lined up out why thirty six times? That was
Speaker 1: a career high. He lined up in the slot just
Speaker 1: eight times. He lined up in line forty nine times.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so in line?
Speaker 1: Is that that like right behind the tackle thing?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like he was standing up like he's not
Speaker 2: like Hannon the dirty line. It's like a wing position.
Speaker 1: But you could do that that, You could put him
Speaker 1: there and put Remandra in the backfield. That would work.
Speaker 2: Yeah. They did that mostly, like I said, out empty,
Speaker 2: and the idea was to obviously run him through traffic
Speaker 2: and peaks and stuff like that and get him free
Speaker 2: on crossing routes. And he was pretty effective on those,
Speaker 2: Like he was able to catch the football a couple
Speaker 2: of times on third down and turn up field and
Speaker 2: get eight yards on third and seven like that type
Speaker 2: of stuff. He'd converted a couple of times that I
Speaker 2: remember seeing in some games. So I don't think he's
Speaker 2: He's not a pass catching back. It's not James White, right,
Speaker 2: He's not gonna come in here and catch sixty five passes.
Speaker 2: But I do think that he brings a little bit
Speaker 2: to the passing game, a little bit to the running game.
Speaker 2: Like I said, i'd sign him if but I wouldn't.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't go out of my way to sign him.
Speaker 2: I would have gone out of my way to sign
Speaker 2: DeAndre exactly. Yeah, that's sort of how I feel about
Speaker 2: all right, let's talk about defense really quickly. A couple
Speaker 2: of defensive point I wanted to get to. The first
Speaker 2: one was Kyle Duger Ye, who's head. He's very good
Speaker 2: back to back days of interceptions. Now, I think he's
Speaker 2: had some really great coverage on the tight ends as well,
Speaker 2: just outside of the interceptions. The way that this looks
Speaker 2: to me and the way this sounds to me, I
Speaker 2: have never heard Bill Belichick. I shouldn't say never, but
Speaker 2: most of the time it's about a premium position, like
Speaker 2: when last year when he said, oh, let's wait and
Speaker 2: see what Lamark Jackson signs for.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Bill Belichick this morning said that players like Kyle Dugger
Speaker 2: go early in the draft and get paid a lot. Right,
Speaker 2: So the team season coming, the team knows that Kyle
Speaker 2: Dugger is going to be a big money contract type
Speaker 2: of guy. He's off to a great start in camp.
Speaker 2: It's two days, but he's off to a good start.
Speaker 2: This sounds and feels to me a lot like Jonathan
Speaker 2: Jones a few years ago, Shaq Mason a few years
Speaker 2: before that, have a good August, comes September first, we'll
Speaker 2: get an extension, right, And I think that if he
Speaker 2: continues to have a strong camp, I would almost I
Speaker 2: would put some money down that he's gonna get some
Speaker 2: money comes September. I think that they would make it
Speaker 2: work on an extension if he just goes out there
Speaker 2: and has a big month of August.
Speaker 1: So it's interesting. Matt Gros said yesterday he was asked
Speaker 1: about just extensions in general, just the philosophy behind it,
Speaker 1: and he said that the tricky thing about extensions is
Speaker 1: you're working with an unknown you don't know the market
Speaker 1: because there's a whole season ahead both for the player
Speaker 1: and the team. Look, there's a number of different ways
Speaker 1: you can interpret that, but in the context of Kyle Duggar,
Speaker 1: his value is probably not going to go down because
Speaker 1: even if he has a blow, you know, below expectation season,
Speaker 1: which he's not going to, but even if he does,
Speaker 1: he still has two really strong years to point at
Speaker 1: and or three really strong years to point that and
Speaker 1: say this is the player I am. Whereas if he
Speaker 1: exceeds expectations, you're talking about it. It's not even about
Speaker 1: gauging the safety market. You're talking about a guy who's
Speaker 1: going to reset the safety market.
Speaker 2: I would say that it almost becomes like he almost
Speaker 2: becomes a defensive playmaker.
Speaker 1: It's like, I think you start getting into some some
Speaker 1: of that lower end top to lower end top tier
Speaker 1: is a bad way to put it, but like, yeah,
Speaker 1: lower number one cornerback money. Yeah yeah. So they I
Speaker 1: think they know, like his value is only gonna go up,
Speaker 1: or it's not only go to go up, but it's
Speaker 1: not gonna go down, right, his value is not going
Speaker 1: to go down at this point. So if they want
Speaker 1: to sign him, it's gonna be cheaper to sign him now.
Speaker 1: And there is a little bit of risk of course
Speaker 1: that comes with that, but with anybody, you take the
Speaker 1: risk that comes with that now rather than trying to
Speaker 1: sit down with him in March after he's had you know,
Speaker 1: some people think he could be an All Pro this
Speaker 1: year after he's had a borderline all Pro season. When
Speaker 1: he has all of these, you know, his agent's gonna
Speaker 1: go to a combine. He's gonna talk to people see
Speaker 1: what the value is when he has all these pencil
Speaker 1: off for sitting there, it's gonna be a lot easier
Speaker 1: to talk to him then, or a lot harder to
Speaker 1: talk to him then. So yeah, I mean, I think
Speaker 1: it makes a lot of sense for them to get
Speaker 1: the deep sign. Now these in house and free agents
Speaker 1: come to market, We've seen that it gets, it gets pricey.
Speaker 2: J C. Jackson I think immediately priced himself out of
Speaker 2: New England when he hit the market. Joe Toney priced
Speaker 2: himself out of the New England and when he hit
Speaker 2: the open market. So again, I think that this is
Speaker 2: one of those things where and I honestly wouldn't be
Speaker 2: totally shocked if the Patriots actually said this. The Kyle
Speaker 2: Duggar coming into training camp like show out in camp
Speaker 2: have have this strong summer and we'll we'll talk again
Speaker 2: and they have that.
Speaker 1: Well we know they're already talking to guy because josh
Speaker 1: Ucha said today that his team has talked to the
Speaker 1: Patriots about an extension, Like and that could just be, hey, extension,
Speaker 1: all right, we can we can chat like it could
Speaker 1: be just setting up the talk, but like it's on
Speaker 1: their minds.
Speaker 2: Okay, So Kyle Duger good football player. Yes, first impressions
Speaker 2: of Christian gonzales.
Speaker 1: Ca can play, can play, I said when we did
Speaker 1: our training camp previous show. And I think for him,
Speaker 1: I think I'm pretty comfortable, definitely more so than most
Speaker 1: rookies in terms of where he's at as a player. Individually.
Speaker 1: It's just a little for any guy coming in for
Speaker 1: a first overall pick, coming in any position, there's little
Speaker 1: nuances to the NFL game that players have to pick up,
Speaker 1: and as good as you are, sometimes that can take
Speaker 1: a little bit. So for me watching him, it's all right.
Speaker 1: Is how long is the learning curve going to be
Speaker 1: until we're really talking about him? Is like locked in
Speaker 1: as an NFL player? Is it going to be the
Speaker 1: season is going to be a couple of months? Is
Speaker 1: it going to be you know by the end of camp,
Speaker 1: is he just going to come in and kind of
Speaker 1: get hit the ground role in the first few days
Speaker 1: and with the red zone work, it's tough to get
Speaker 1: a full picture of that. But like he there haven't
Speaker 1: There hasn't been once that I've looked, and again it's
Speaker 1: very limited sample size, but I know there's been one
Speaker 1: play and I've watched him quite a bit. Yeah that
Speaker 1: I've watched him and said, a rookie mistake. All right,
Speaker 1: he's got to figure that out. Like he's he's for
Speaker 1: and for a young guy too. They generally draft guys
Speaker 1: that are twenty three, twenty four years old. For a
Speaker 1: kid who just turned twenty one, he is a very
Speaker 1: mature player, and that's very exciting to see.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's got a great grasp of what they're doing. Defensively. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he's gotten beat a few times. He's a corner, he's
Speaker 2: gonna get beat. Yeah, that's the nature of the position.
Speaker 2: He's gotten beat a few times. But all of it
Speaker 2: is more I personally think, just physical. He'll get there
Speaker 2: in terms of his ability to stay glue to guys
Speaker 2: at the top of routes and anticipate things like that.
Speaker 2: As he matures and as he sees more reps in
Speaker 2: the NFL. But what I'm really optimistic about is how
Speaker 2: tied into what they're doing defensively from a schematic perspective,
Speaker 2: he knows how to play to his leverage. You see
Speaker 2: him in man coverage like sitting on the correct hip
Speaker 2: at the receiver because he knows he's got the help inside.
Speaker 2: You know, you see him walling off the routes that
Speaker 2: he needs to be worried about, and not worried about
Speaker 2: the routes worried the help is. That's something that a
Speaker 2: lot of great corners, if you watch them play, That's
Speaker 2: what makes them able to make so many great plays
Speaker 2: and suffocate receivers is that they know their leverage, they
Speaker 2: know their assignment. And I think that he has a
Speaker 2: really good grasp what they do. And he ran that
Speaker 2: you know that switch that banjo with Miles Bryant yesterday
Speaker 2: where you know there was his receiver broke outside, Miles
Speaker 2: Bryant's receiver broke inside, and they just passed it off seamlessly.
Speaker 2: You know, those are the types of the high IQ plays,
Speaker 2: and they had advanced kind of understanding and feel an
Speaker 2: instinct for coverage. That is really really optimistic. I think
Speaker 2: that he's he's as far along as a Patriots rookie,
Speaker 2: like he's going to be a Day one outside corner.
Speaker 2: He's gonna start Day one at outside corner against the
Speaker 2: Eagles in Week one, Like I don't have any hesitant.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't really know the last time
Speaker 2: they had a rookie where it felt like A that
Speaker 2: was gonna happen and B it should have like no
Speaker 2: offense to cold Strange, But Cole Strange was put in
Speaker 2: it as a starting left guard last year because they
Speaker 2: had nobody else to play there. Right, they have some
Speaker 2: other corners that theoretically could play over Christian Gonzalez Gonzales
Speaker 2: if it wasn't going well, and I don't think that
Speaker 2: that's really going to be the case.
Speaker 1: Really quickly, a little NFL breaking news real quick. Sure,
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow was carted off practice, know if his ankle
Speaker 1: or calf, but oh boy and INSINCENTI and I saw
Speaker 1: some people so unfortunate reality of camp.
Speaker 2: Yeah, really quickly as well, not just football wise, Jack Jones,
Speaker 2: the fallout there definitely have seen him demoted to second
Speaker 2: team reps with in the secondary. So it's really gonna
Speaker 2: be at least for right now, until Jack Jones's legal
Speaker 2: situation works itself out or doesn't. It's gonna be Christian
Speaker 2: Gonzales and Jonathan Jones on the outside, and then it's
Speaker 2: Miles Brian versus Marcus Jones for the slot role. How
Speaker 2: do you feel about that? I really think that that's
Speaker 2: still a really good group. I mean, obviously it's better
Speaker 2: with with Jack and with Jonathan Jones back inside in
Speaker 2: the slot, But I still think that that's a really
Speaker 2: strong group. And I think Jonathan Jones showed us last year. Okay,
Speaker 2: maybe he's not gonna be shadowing Justin Jefferson Stefan Diggs,
Speaker 2: Like you did need a little bit better player, and
Speaker 2: that's why Christian Gonzalez is here. But I still think
Speaker 2: he can play outside corner and I'm not like too
Speaker 2: concerned about him being outside again.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my question with Jack Jones is, you know, are
Speaker 1: they preparing for a potential suspension or something, or do
Speaker 1: they think that this is the best group they have,
Speaker 1: or like why is he getting fewer reps? I don't know.
Speaker 1: We're just not gonna know, and I don't think they
Speaker 1: does ask them but.
Speaker 2: I think it has to be that they are preparing
Speaker 2: for not having him, whether it's a suspension, whether it's
Speaker 2: team mandated where they just say, until your legal situation
Speaker 2: saw resolves itself, we're not going to put you out there.
Speaker 2: Whatever the case may be, whatever the reasoning is, I'm
Speaker 2: not going to speculate, but I think that they are
Speaker 2: looking at it like we cannot get this defense ready
Speaker 2: by in rely on the fact that we're going to
Speaker 2: have Jack Jones out there and have him be a
Speaker 2: part of the nucleus of the defense and then get
Speaker 2: him stripped away and then you're in trouble. And now
Speaker 2: you're getting Jonathan Jones or Jalen Mills or someone like
Speaker 2: that ready to play corner. Like a week out, you know,
Speaker 2: Philly's coming on the bus and you're you're you're just
Speaker 2: starting to get those guys ready, like you don't want
Speaker 2: that to happen. So that that's a synopsis of the
Speaker 2: first two days of Patriots training camp. We'll be back
Speaker 2: next week on Thursday, probably around the same time. Three
Speaker 2: o'clock is about when we can the dust settles for
Speaker 2: us and we can get on the air. So around
Speaker 2: three o'clock next Thursday to break down another what will
Speaker 2: hopefully be a couple of padded practices at that point
Speaker 2: and we can really get in to the nitty gritty
Speaker 2: of training camp. But it's been a fun couple of days.
Speaker 2: It's good to see the team back out there, good
Speaker 2: to have some things to talk about. And we will
Speaker 2: definitely continue to monitor the Dalvin Cook situation. I think
Speaker 2: that that could heat up a little bit as well.
Speaker 1: I would think by the time we do the show
Speaker 1: next week we have a resolution.
Speaker 2: Are you ready for another sweepstakes? Like DeAndre Hopkins, you.
Speaker 1: Feel to do it, Let's do it.
Speaker 2: Let's do it all right? So until then, signing off
Speaker 2: for Alex Barth Marine Behind the Glass, I'm Evan Lazar.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for listening, Thanks so much for watching,
Speaker 2: and we'll see you guys next week.
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