Speaker 1: This is Patriots Playbook, the legend. Welcome into the What
Speaker 1: month is this? They need a corner, They need a corner,
Speaker 1: you did, I know? Listen, Well, that's why I'm setting
Speaker 1: you up here. I'm throwing you a big fat softball.
Speaker 1: It's time for you to smash it out of the park.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna pick me up to the eighteen wheeler.
Speaker 1: You're gonna pick me up with the Camaro. Camaro. All right,
Speaker 1: all right on and Eldrid in the Camaro. Watch out, ladies,
Speaker 1: ready said go Now, here's your host of Patriots Playbook,
Speaker 1: John Rook. We press the button. It's been so long
Speaker 1: here Eldridd in a Camaro. Okay, that's that's that has
Speaker 1: to happen at some point, Matt. Maybe we can do
Speaker 1: a you know, maybe we can arrange for him to
Speaker 1: drive his Camaro during the regular season rather than the
Speaker 1: eighteen wheeler that he drives in for a you know, right,
Speaker 1: and get him to well, but he doesn't have the horn,
Speaker 1: he didn't have the thing going right, but he's as
Speaker 1: a passenger for well, yeah, I could do that. I
Speaker 1: can bring the sound sound effects, right.
Speaker 2: Hep for Eldred's sake, he's got a better looking passenger.
Speaker 2: You no offense job.
Speaker 1: Wow, let's start right like that? Shall we do that?
Speaker 1: That's good, Evan Lazar. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Welcome into the Playbook, the April pre Draft edition, off
Speaker 1: season monthly edition of Patriots Playbook. And you know it,
Speaker 1: Originally we had intended what we were with the thought
Speaker 1: process today was to because this is the day before
Speaker 1: the draft, and because we're gonna be doing live draft
Speaker 1: coverage here on Patriots dot Com Radio tomorrow, which you'll
Speaker 1: be a part of it all weekend, really throughout the
Speaker 1: entire draft. So if you're out and about, or you're
Speaker 1: watching something else on TV, or you're watching the Celtics
Speaker 1: choke again or whatever it may be, which was amazing
Speaker 1: last night, I can't I know, I know, I know,
Speaker 1: I listen. I was watching your tweets. Evan, was more
Speaker 1: and more pissed off guys that I saw, you know,
Speaker 1: and you were one hundred percent right Because I'm sitting
Speaker 1: there with my wife with Miss Robin. We're watching the
Speaker 1: game and we're like, they're gonna blow this, They're gonna
Speaker 1: blow this, and she's like, turn it off. I can't
Speaker 1: watch it turn it off, and I'm like no, because
Speaker 1: I know the car wreck's coming. I can't turn it off.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna rubber neck.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm in a Celtics show.
Speaker 1: But that was lousy.
Speaker 2: That was lousy, and the head coaches is in my.
Speaker 1: Iran. I can't speak. I cannot speak ill of Joe
Speaker 1: Missoula because he's a Rhode Islander. He's from Johnston, Rhode Island,
Speaker 1: where I spent you know, twenty five years of my
Speaker 1: residence here in New England. So I will not speak ill.
Speaker 1: But he made a mistake, and he's made several mistakes,
Speaker 1: and I am willing to live up to a certain
Speaker 1: number of those because of his relative inexperience as a
Speaker 1: head coach. But when that inexperience then costs you in
Speaker 1: the postseason, yeah, all that's are off.
Speaker 2: Plus what you know, when your window is open, wide
Speaker 2: open to go on a title run and you put
Speaker 2: a coach in charge of a zero head coaching experience
Speaker 2: for a team that should win a title, correct, it's
Speaker 2: a lot of pressure.
Speaker 1: It is. It is. So I'm gonna I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: him one pass, okay, And they need they need to
Speaker 1: figure out a way to win it Thursday night, which
Speaker 1: of course is when they will have to play Game
Speaker 1: six in Atlanta, and of course that'll be going right
Speaker 1: up against.
Speaker 2: The draft, so right up against, right up against. They
Speaker 2: get lucky if they blow it again, and then half
Speaker 2: of New England will be watching the draft instead of and.
Speaker 1: Half of New England probably won't care, which is probably
Speaker 1: gonna be for their benefit at any rate. All right,
Speaker 1: So we'll get back to the original premise then, because
Speaker 1: the thought process was we were going to combine Catch
Speaker 1: twenty two in the playbook for this week. But then,
Speaker 1: of course I'm listening to ninety eight five this week
Speaker 1: to filgrin maz because they always do draft stuff, and
Speaker 1: Alex Barth is working for them during the afternoon, so
Speaker 1: his day job, as I used his day job. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's important. So we're pulling off half of catch twenty two.
Speaker 1: Does that make you catch eleven?
Speaker 2: Sure?
Speaker 1: Okay? Right, So we're taking at eleven here, uh, And
Speaker 1: he's going to join the playbook for the pre draft show,
Speaker 1: and then you will be a part of the Patriots
Speaker 1: Unfiltered Draft Show tomorrow night during the draft party.
Speaker 2: Draft party with me and Deuce and Paul and Fred
Speaker 2: and Tamara and Alice. I'm sure we'll be around too,
Speaker 2: so it'd be a good time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's there's no room for Rook, so you know,
Speaker 1: just go right ahead and always welcome. Yeah. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: it depends on who you talk to. Look, we made
Speaker 1: Matt spit out his sput out my coffee. See, Matt's
Speaker 1: been in on all these these Uh, he's been in
Speaker 1: all these conversations. We don't really need Rook and he's
Speaker 1: he's my advocate. He's my Matt. Matt's my advocate, Matt Marine, Matt,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't listen if I was going to war with
Speaker 1: you in Afghanistan. That's one guy i'd want to sit
Speaker 1: next to me in the foxhole. Absolutely, Okay, yes, sir,
Speaker 1: that's one guy I'd wanted my foxhoul.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I told you earlier when Marine said that
Speaker 2: he survived Afghanistan so he can survive the draft. I'm
Speaker 2: just gonna keep telling myself that on Thursday night, right,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be like, listen, relatively speaking, Marine in Afghanistan.
Speaker 2: So this is really just not very high on the
Speaker 2: things that we need to worry about.
Speaker 1: I understand completely. So you'll understand if there's angst in
Speaker 1: Evans's voice after the pick has made it fourteen, No, no,
Speaker 1: no better yet, they're gonna trade down. They'll trade down
Speaker 1: then you I think you'll start to hear his throat titan.
Speaker 2: Trading down is. I'm not totally out on trading down,
Speaker 2: but you gotta tell me what the first thirteen picks were,
Speaker 2: Okay before I sign off.
Speaker 1: So if you have if you have a guy like
Speaker 1: Skeronsky from Northwestern, or you have a guy like Broderick
Speaker 1: Jones from from Georgia, or Quintin Johnson from TCU, or
Speaker 1: hell my favorite, which is b Jon Robinson, although they
Speaker 1: don't need him, but it wouldn't it wouldn't kill me
Speaker 1: to see him slip that far because the guy's a
Speaker 1: tremendous offensive talent. You may be one of the better
Speaker 1: running backs to come out of the Pros or to
Speaker 1: come into the Pros. I don't know, probably at least
Speaker 1: in Saquon right, Yeah, yeah, without a doubt, because yeah,
Speaker 1: he's that multipurpose kind of back. I got to talk
Speaker 1: about him a little bit because you guys won't talk
Speaker 1: about him at all tomorrow. But he's one of those
Speaker 1: guys that is tailor made to a twenty first century offense.
Speaker 1: He's good enough and shifty enough and strong enough to
Speaker 1: go between the tackles and make guys miss He's got
Speaker 1: that certain degree of missibility, which is the term that
Speaker 1: I like to use. But he can also Man, can
Speaker 1: you imagine that's sound of a gun. Go look at
Speaker 1: the tape if you have it yet, and I know
Speaker 1: many of you have, But boy, can you see him
Speaker 1: on one of those wheel roots out of the backfield? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I mean he's a top five player in the draft,
Speaker 2: no doubt about it. I'm fascinated to see where he
Speaker 2: falls in the first round because it's really going to
Speaker 2: be a bigger conversation of running back value and where
Speaker 2: the position is.
Speaker 1: And that's the nature Hume. You're right, Evans, that's the
Speaker 1: nature of the beast over the what maybe the last
Speaker 1: six to ten drafts where the value of running back
Speaker 1: up high just has not been there because running back
Speaker 1: largely take such a physical beating. Their prime is only
Speaker 1: five or six.
Speaker 2: Years, right, and you look at I think the main
Speaker 2: thing is most teams look at, especially a top half
Speaker 2: of the first round pick as a five to ten
Speaker 2: year investment that you're hoping for your organization is going
Speaker 2: to be somebody that you're gonna have as a pillar
Speaker 2: of your team for a decade. You know, that's always
Speaker 2: the old draft cliche. Oh, you draft this guy is
Speaker 2: gonna be your left tackle for a decade. You know,
Speaker 2: that doesn't always work out like that, as we know.
Speaker 2: But running backs, you're really drafting that guy for the
Speaker 2: life of his rookie contract. You're looking at four or
Speaker 2: five years, and at that point we'll see if he
Speaker 2: still has enough gas in the tank to carry it
Speaker 2: into a second contract. But Saquon went second overall to
Speaker 2: the Giants. Zeke went fourth overall to Dallas. But Dallas
Speaker 2: didn't have a ton of other needs at that you know,
Speaker 2: they were a playoff team that got the pick from
Speaker 2: somebody else, right, right, so they took Zeke you at
Speaker 2: fourth overall. I just I don't know in this particular draft,
Speaker 2: I don't know where Bijon goes. Because the teams at
Speaker 2: the top of the draft have such major needs at
Speaker 2: important positions. Arizona's not in a position to take a
Speaker 2: running back. They just need too much talent on their
Speaker 2: roster for a positional value standpoint, the one team that
Speaker 2: really stands out to me, well, there's two, but the
Speaker 2: one that really stands out to me is the Philadelphia
Speaker 2: Eagles at number ten because that's a team that has
Speaker 2: everything tremendous roster. They don't necessarily need to pick a
Speaker 2: corner because they have no playable corners right now, so
Speaker 2: they have fantastic roster talent as it is. And with
Speaker 2: a running quarterback, you now put Bijon in that backfield
Speaker 2: with Jalen Hurts and forget about it. I mean, how
Speaker 2: do you defend that package of the Reid option with
Speaker 2: Hurts and Bijon being the one that gets the ball.
Speaker 2: Miles Sanders was there every down back last year. He's
Speaker 2: gone so.
Speaker 1: To play the Eagles twice if that happens.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I think that that's the spot. I also
Speaker 2: wouldn't roll out Tennessee at eleven if they feel like
Speaker 2: they're gonna trade Derrick Henry. They did it last year
Speaker 2: with AJ Brown and they ended up drafting Traylon Burks
Speaker 2: with the pick. So maybe they do another one for
Speaker 2: one swap where they find somebody to take Derrick Henry
Speaker 2: and then they just put Bjeon right in and don't
Speaker 2: skip a beat. But I really like the Eagles at
Speaker 2: ten for Bjon?
Speaker 1: Why not?
Speaker 2: Cherry on top for them?
Speaker 1: Why not? And then that's usually teams that will take
Speaker 1: backs like that, especially that high, because they just their
Speaker 1: need is specific and they've got enough depth where they
Speaker 1: can gamble on something like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, So all right, so we got the Bejon issue
Speaker 1: out of the way. If he does slip, we'll see,
Speaker 1: but I don't expect him to, as you don't I
Speaker 1: before we get to potential draft picks, and before we
Speaker 1: look at, you know, the positions really that need to
Speaker 1: be addressed by New England and realizing of course that
Speaker 1: if you're listening to this on the podcast after the draft,
Speaker 1: the funny part will be we're either really right or
Speaker 1: really wrong, okay, because yeah, well but that's okay. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So what I want to do is I want to
Speaker 1: think philosophically as well here today, because clearly, if someone
Speaker 1: is kind of going through the website and they're like, hey,
Speaker 1: let's hear what they talked about before the draft, let's
Speaker 1: se how right those guys work because they tuck all
Speaker 1: the time. Okay, not necessarily, but philosophically, we need to
Speaker 1: I think discover a few things about where this team is. Specifically.
Speaker 1: There was a story that came out today. Yahoo Sports
Speaker 1: put it out. Did you read it.
Speaker 2: I don't know what the headline is, so I can't.
Speaker 2: I can't tell you.
Speaker 1: The headline was Bill Belichick must crush this NFL draft
Speaker 1: the rest of his career, and the Patriots place in
Speaker 1: the AFC East may hinge on it. And the story
Speaker 1: is written by Dan Wetzel, who I know a little bit.
Speaker 1: I've read his stuff for a long time. He's a
Speaker 1: very knowledgeable writer, especially a football writer, and he's writing
Speaker 1: for Yahoo. But that was this story he put out today,
Speaker 1: and when I read it, my initial thought was I've
Speaker 1: been thinking this for like two or three years, and
Speaker 1: now somebody's finally doing it. And I'm thinking, you know what,
Speaker 1: I can't argue with anything the guy has said, or
Speaker 1: any of the thoughts and the general premise of the headline.
Speaker 1: It's really hard to argue it his lead. The most
Speaker 1: important NFL draft of Bill Belichick's career came in two
Speaker 1: thousand and one of the second chance head coach trying
Speaker 1: to rebuild, the Patriots managed despite lacking a first round
Speaker 1: pick to select a few contributing talents Hed Jr. Redmond,
Speaker 1: Greg Randall, and famously uncovered Tom Brady with the one
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety ninth pick. If not for that draft
Speaker 1: or that Brady pick, we probably aren't talking about Belichick
Speaker 1: as an NFL head coach all these years later. He's right,
Speaker 1: because we could have seen Cleveland. Redo is what we
Speaker 1: could have seen on Thursday. Belichick will oversee his twenty
Speaker 1: fourth draft in Fox bro and the stakes are as
Speaker 1: high as they were in the beginning. And I'm one
Speaker 1: hundred percent behind that they are. And look, I know
Speaker 1: the Crafts have long said, first of all, we like Bill.
Speaker 1: We love Bill. We love what Bill has done for
Speaker 1: the for the area, for the for the program, for
Speaker 1: the franchise, for New England, for Boston, for Patriots fans everywhere.
Speaker 1: Six Super Bowls are unmatched. Well they're they're matched, but
Speaker 1: by one guy. Unmatched. Okay, so thank you. But the
Speaker 1: business of the sport comes first. And if you are
Speaker 1: to sustain what the Steelers tried to do, well, let's
Speaker 1: go back further. The Packers tried to do in the sixties,
Speaker 1: what the Steelers did in the seventies, what the forty
Speaker 1: nine ers tried to do in the eighties what the
Speaker 1: Cowboys started in the nineties. Boy, they had it going
Speaker 1: in the early nineties. You're too young for that, right
Speaker 1: on the cuss Okay, you're on the cusp of that one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you know the record books, you see the numbers,
Speaker 1: and you understand, well they won, you know, three and five,
Speaker 1: so pretty good, pretty good run right there. And then,
Speaker 1: of course what the Patriots were able to accomplish in
Speaker 1: both the two thousands and the twenty tens with winning
Speaker 1: three in those things, how do you sustain beyond what
Speaker 1: those teams just did. And the fact is is that
Speaker 1: none of those other teams could. The Patriots did it
Speaker 1: once and now it's time for build a show. He's
Speaker 1: still got enough gas left in the tank to do
Speaker 1: it again. If not, it's time to move on. That's
Speaker 1: my own personal thought. So I think this is a
Speaker 1: hugely important draft for the Patriots. They got to get
Speaker 1: it right because of the one significant thing, especially because
Speaker 1: of one significant thing that happened this week in the
Speaker 1: NFL to our lovely rivals in New York by pulling
Speaker 1: in a four time NFL MVP at quarterback in Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers a forty year old to be quarterback. Yes, but
Speaker 1: haven't we gone through that? Okay, we've been through a
Speaker 1: forty year old quarterback here, and he could play a
Speaker 1: little bit. He's not the same guy. I get it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I hear you.
Speaker 1: But you are now out of four teams in the
Speaker 1: AFC East, you're fourth on paper, on paper, and I
Speaker 1: think here's the scary part. I think you'll agree here.
Speaker 1: But if you don't say so, the Patriots are better
Speaker 1: this time now than they were this time a year
Speaker 1: ago on paper.
Speaker 2: On paper, if you include coaching on paper, then yes.
Speaker 1: So my question to you here the philosophically is, Okay,
Speaker 1: how much did Aaron rodgers arrival in New York change
Speaker 1: the Patriots outlook on this draft and this season?
Speaker 2: I don't think all that much because I think that
Speaker 2: the importance of the draft was hugely important regardless of
Speaker 2: who the quarterback was in New York. And I just
Speaker 2: look at the Jets as a team that had a
Speaker 2: better roster than you. Anyways. I really believe that or
Speaker 2: at least had had guys, especially younger guys like Garrett Wilson,
Speaker 2: like Sauce Gardner, who are guys that you can look
Speaker 2: at as franchise changing, altering players that are gonna be
Speaker 2: Jets for the next ten years. Like we were just
Speaker 2: talking about, right they plugged this guy in, He's going
Speaker 2: to be a franchise star for you for the next
Speaker 2: ten years. They already had some of those places in place.
Speaker 2: And I think the team last year at the Patriots
Speaker 2: be twice was better than you and a lot of
Speaker 2: areas other than quarterback and maybe coaching, and that's why
Speaker 2: those games were won by the Patriots and not won
Speaker 2: by the Jets. So in a lot of ways, I
Speaker 2: think it changes just this year number of teams that
Speaker 2: are now competitive in the AFC. When you look at
Speaker 2: it from a Patriots point of view, I think you
Speaker 2: can really make the argument for ten or eleven teams
Speaker 2: to make the seventeen playoff, and you are maybe the
Speaker 2: twelfth team or the eleventh team in that mix, depending
Speaker 2: on how positive you want to be right now about
Speaker 2: the outlook of this team. So I think that there's
Speaker 2: the Jets are now squarely in the playoff contending mix.
Speaker 2: I'm not ready to put them in Super Bowl contending
Speaker 2: quite yet. Let's see what Aaron Rodgers looks like. Does
Speaker 2: he look like the guy he was last year? Or
Speaker 2: does he look like the guy two years ago? Right,
Speaker 2: Let's see how blocked in he is, Let's see how
Speaker 2: he invested he is, and then let's go from there.
Speaker 2: But in general, I come back to with this draft
Speaker 2: always that they need guys like they got. You know,
Speaker 2: Bill was talking at Devin McCarty's retirement press conference about
Speaker 2: that draft. I think it was what the twenty ten draft.
Speaker 2: I want to say, Devin mccorty, Rob Gronkowski first round,
Speaker 2: second round, knocked it all the way out of the park,
Speaker 2: hit it on lansdown Street. Those are the types of
Speaker 2: drafts that become building blocks for organization and really spearhead
Speaker 2: everything that's going on here. So if I look at
Speaker 2: it from a Patriots perspective, and I think corner and
Speaker 2: we call it obviously Gronk's tight end, offensive playmaker, you know,
Speaker 2: pass catcher. Those two positions again, could be two positions
Speaker 2: that they really ought to hit on in this draft,
Speaker 2: you know, dB and playmaking, offensive weapon. If they can
Speaker 2: do something like that, And I bring that up just
Speaker 2: because he's done it before. Has it been ten years? Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's been ten years. And that's I've been steadfast on
Speaker 2: that in every program that we've had that he has got.
Speaker 2: Bill's got to show me that he can still draft,
Speaker 2: because it has been a long, long time since they've
Speaker 2: had a first round pick that we've all felt really
Speaker 2: good about, probably Dante high Tower and Chandler Jones, and
Speaker 2: that draft in twenty twelve was the last time that
Speaker 2: they truly hit on a first round were years ago. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And quite frankly, I don't know how many gms separate
Speaker 2: the coach for a second. I don't know how many
Speaker 2: gms make it through the last eleven drafts, eleven drafts
Speaker 2: that the Patriots have had and keep their jobs because
Speaker 2: I think a lot of owners, if it was a
Speaker 2: separate person, right, the coach and the GM, a lot
Speaker 2: of owners would say, well, Brady dragged us there, right,
Speaker 2: you know, Brady's the one that got us into that
Speaker 2: contending tier in the NFL. But this roster has fallen apart,
Speaker 2: and at some point that that string runs out, even
Speaker 2: on Bill, even on somebody as good as Bill.
Speaker 1: That's the nature pro football, though, right, And this happens
Speaker 1: to every team. It just hasn't happened New England in
Speaker 1: the last twenty four years because that's when Bill came in,
Speaker 1: and he had extraordinary success because he had wrong early drafts.
Speaker 1: He had strong early identification of veteran players.
Speaker 2: You once upon a time it felt like they hit
Speaker 2: on every right, every first round pick, and it felt
Speaker 2: like you just knew it's a given that that guy
Speaker 2: might not be. You know, Ty Warren wasn't a Patriot
Speaker 2: Hall of Famer, He wasn't an all time great player,
Speaker 2: but he was a very good player.
Speaker 1: And what they.
Speaker 2: Wanted him to do, and that was that was the
Speaker 2: bottom line. We knew that they were going to clear
Speaker 2: that bar, and then we knew that there was also
Speaker 2: another bar that they could clear that was a Patriot
Speaker 2: red jacket type of guy, and they just haven't had that.
Speaker 2: You know, Cole Strange, We'll see, but it's not. That's
Speaker 2: not happening for Cole Strand he's not probably not.
Speaker 1: But I again, I still can't judge last year's draft.
Speaker 1: It seems like, Okay, they got some wor couple pieces
Speaker 1: out of that. They they dipped into free agency as well,
Speaker 1: and or they dipped into undrafted free agency as well
Speaker 1: and got guys to stick. They've done that. What nineteenth
Speaker 1: straight years now. Yeah, so you know, I think you
Speaker 1: can cert expect something like that to happen again this
Speaker 1: year because the Patriots are have been very good at
Speaker 1: recognizing the undervalued talent, but sometimes they depend too much
Speaker 1: on the undervalued talent. Yeah, and this is the difference
Speaker 1: between the Patriots to me minus Tom Brady. Let's move
Speaker 1: that equation out of it. But this has been the
Speaker 1: largest difference between the Patriots successful and the Patriots of
Speaker 1: the last three years is they just have they haven't
Speaker 1: scored big when they've needed to score, and some of
Speaker 1: that unrecognized or even recognized talent because they've dipped to oh,
Speaker 1: you know, this guy's fine, Oh this guy's good, or
Speaker 1: this guy we can pay or whatever it may be.
Speaker 1: They're too worried about that. You got to get guys
Speaker 1: that can produce on the field, now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just think they really have to look at it.
Speaker 2: And I understand that there's been drafts. You know, the
Speaker 2: eighteen Draft always comes to mind when I say stuff
Speaker 2: like this, because they drafted win Michelle Dawson with their
Speaker 2: first three picks. Georgia, Georgia, Florida, right, Like, those are huge,
Speaker 2: big time programs and we're not talking about guys.
Speaker 1: And we're not talking about any of those guys still here.
Speaker 2: No, we're not talking about UT Chattanooga, right, we're talking
Speaker 2: about three Georgia played or won the national championship that year.
Speaker 2: If I remember correctly, you know, with those two guys,
Speaker 2: I believe they've won the last two. Yeah. So I'm
Speaker 2: not saying it's it's a fail safe there, it's never
Speaker 2: goes wrong when you do this. But I really feel
Speaker 2: like in this draft, my one prerequisite going into this
Speaker 2: draft is I want a name brand pick in the
Speaker 2: first round. We cannot have a cold strange.
Speaker 1: And with fourteen, with fourteen picking up in the upper half, now,
Speaker 1: and that's a big car too, Okay, you need your
Speaker 1: chances of getting a name brand something, somebody that everyone's
Speaker 1: talking about or has talked about, or has been in
Speaker 1: every mock or whatever is out there. Your chances are
Speaker 1: very strong to do that. But if you take a
Speaker 1: step back and first of all, trade down, which we
Speaker 1: know Bill leads the world in draft day trades, right,
Speaker 1: and don't be surprised if it happens to me, The
Speaker 1: most likely thing to happen is going to be a
Speaker 1: first night trade. That's the most likely thing to happen
Speaker 1: now if they keep fourteen, all right, we want you
Speaker 1: said they need a brand name, and I agree with you.
Speaker 1: The question is what brand name do they do? They
Speaker 1: go and they get So this kind of leads me
Speaker 1: into my question for our listeners today. For you, I
Speaker 1: want you to answer. I'm gonna answer it as well
Speaker 1: because I have my own thoughts. We shared you know,
Speaker 1: who you know I like in the first round if
Speaker 1: he's there tomorrow, and I want everyone to contribute on
Speaker 1: the show. And here's the thing, Matt, We're gonna do
Speaker 1: our best today to keep track of the different names, okay,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna find out and we're and so next month, yeah,
Speaker 1: next month, next month, all right. If we have somebody
Speaker 1: who nails it, all right, who nails the first round pick, Okay,
Speaker 1: then what we'll do if it's if it's one of
Speaker 1: those name brand guys, We're gonna put everybody's name in
Speaker 1: a hat, okay, and they're gonna co ho the show
Speaker 1: with me. All right, So we're got there's some incentive
Speaker 1: here for you.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: And we did this, you know, with our our fantasy
Speaker 1: football league winner, who was where the hell was he
Speaker 1: luxemberg Luxemburg? I see even Evan remembers that, because that's good.
Speaker 1: Evan has a mind like a steel trap over here.
Speaker 1: I have a mind like a mouse trap. So that's
Speaker 1: the difference between the two of us here. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's worth it. We can definitely do that, right,
Speaker 1: So we'll have somebody come on as our you know,
Speaker 1: quote unquote a Patriots playbook fan expert, and you nailed
Speaker 1: the first round pick. So that's what we're gonna do.
Speaker 1: So I want you to come in answering this question today.
Speaker 1: All right, Eight five five PATS five hundred is the
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Speaker 1: can't pick up the phone, a call, ship off the email,
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Speaker 1: and use those three ways, and this will verify everything
Speaker 1: that we got here. All right, But here's the question.
Speaker 1: If I'm Bill Belichick, I would draft blank?
Speaker 2: Am I supposed to answer that?
Speaker 4: Now?
Speaker 1: Would you like to sure? If I'm Bill Belichick, I
Speaker 1: would draft Jackson Smith and jigbo Okay, I knew he
Speaker 1: was going there. I knew he's going there. Now, if
Speaker 1: I was going receiver, I would probably go Quentin Johnson.
Speaker 1: But I'd only say that because I grew up in
Speaker 1: Fort Worth and he's a TCU guy. So see, I'm
Speaker 1: letting my bias get in the way. Jean, Yeah, Jeon, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Well yeah, if he's there.
Speaker 2: So this whole process, I had been a big Jay
Speaker 2: Flowers guy. I love Za Flowers. I've read a lot
Speaker 2: of stuff that you've written about Jay Flowers. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And the Patriots have known about this guy, and they've
Speaker 1: seen him, and they followed me.
Speaker 2: They have been They love him. They know more about
Speaker 2: Zay Flowers than any other prospect in the draft. I
Speaker 2: just know that because he's at the Shrine Bowl. He
Speaker 2: was at BC's pro They were at BC's pro day,
Speaker 2: which is right down the street, and they had him
Speaker 2: in for an extended visit with Bill O'Brien and the
Speaker 2: staff a couple of weeks ago. So this is a
Speaker 2: guy that they have been in meeting rooms with in Vegas.
Speaker 2: They've been in meeting rooms here at Jillette Stadium. In
Speaker 2: terms of guys at the top of the draft, just
Speaker 2: by this sheer amount of time spent with with the
Speaker 2: with the guy that there's no way they know any
Speaker 2: more than anybody else about Zay Flowers, right, you know
Speaker 2: that's that's their guy. So I've been a huge Zave
Speaker 2: Flowers guy. I believe in the talent. I have no
Speaker 2: concerns about size. I know a lot of people bring
Speaker 2: up that he's small and slight framed. Don't care. Not
Speaker 2: in today's NFL. This is you night train lanes, not
Speaker 2: coming across the middle and knocking his head off anymore. Right,
Speaker 2: Like this is in the seventies. We don't play football
Speaker 2: like that anymore. So I'm not worried about any of that.
Speaker 2: The reason why I I say now Jackson Smith and
Speaker 2: jigbo over Za is two reasons. One, I've had enough
Speaker 2: people that I trust their opinion tell me that there's
Speaker 2: really one true blue chip receiver in this draft, and
Speaker 2: it's jsn Right, There's really only one. It's not one
Speaker 2: of those drafts like we've had in the last couple
Speaker 2: of years where there's you know, Jamar Chase and Jalen
Speaker 2: Waddle and DeVante Smith or you know all they're just
Speaker 2: receivers all over the place. In the first round. This
Speaker 2: is a thinner receiver draft. It's a thinner receiver draft.
Speaker 2: In the first round. Js End's the one surefire guy
Speaker 2: that everybody has. The other thing I would say about
Speaker 2: it is, oh, yesterday. I don't even know what made
Speaker 2: me do it, but I just I went through some
Speaker 2: games of Alabama in twenty twenty one when Bill O'Brien
Speaker 2: first got there as the offensive coordinator, and between Mechi
Speaker 2: and actually Slay Bolden, the amount of those little quick
Speaker 2: hitter type throws with just a shifty slot receiver that
Speaker 2: are still present in Bill O'Brien's offense. It is exactly
Speaker 2: it's exactly the same as the twenty eleven Patriots with
Speaker 2: Wes Welker. Right, it hasn't changed. It's still an offense
Speaker 2: that that first and second level separation ability and that
Speaker 2: ability to just cut on a dime and him get
Speaker 2: open at the top of the route. That guy is
Speaker 2: still going to catch a hundred passes in this offense.
Speaker 2: And the guy that fits that to a t is
Speaker 2: Jackson Smith and Jigba. So I think JSN comes into
Speaker 2: this offense year one has I think he has eighty
Speaker 2: catches as a rookie at the minimum.
Speaker 1: Well, now is he available at fourteen?
Speaker 2: Is he available at fourteen? And I think there's a
Speaker 2: real conversation here. You have the Texans at twelve, who,
Speaker 2: depending on what they do at two, if they do
Speaker 2: draft CJ. Stroud, then pairing him with his college teammate
Speaker 2: at twelve makes a ton of sense. Thirteen. The Packers
Speaker 2: just jumped the Patriots in that Aaron Rodgers trade up
Speaker 2: to thirteen. Most people think tackle, I think for the Packers,
Speaker 2: or maybe edge rusher, but there are some murmurs out
Speaker 2: there that it could have been for Jackson Smith and Jigba.
Speaker 2: So for the Patriot it's I think that you're really
Speaker 2: looking at either banking on that not being the case,
Speaker 2: right and those two teams not going in that direction,
Speaker 2: or trading up for let's to say, maybe eleven to
Speaker 2: get him, which I think I would do.
Speaker 1: That's a very You did that in your mock here
Speaker 1: on the website.
Speaker 2: It's a very It's rare for Belichick. He's only done
Speaker 2: it four times, and two of those times is in
Speaker 2: the same draft, so he's really only done it in
Speaker 2: three different draft rafts. But we're not asking him to
Speaker 2: trade up from fourteen to two. We're asking him to
Speaker 2: trade up from fourteen to eleven, like it's it's a jump,
Speaker 2: it's not if.
Speaker 1: You got fourteen to eleven, do they still take JSN?
Speaker 1: Is that what you think they should do?
Speaker 2: It's what I think they should do. Okay, I can't
Speaker 2: What do you think they will do? I think they
Speaker 2: would trade if they were to trade up, even if
Speaker 2: they stay at fourteen, I still think that it's either
Speaker 2: a trenches pick alignment on either side of the football,
Speaker 2: or maybe they would trade up for a cornerback. But
Speaker 2: I don't trust Bill Belichick or think I shouldn't say.
Speaker 2: I don't think Bill Belichick would trade up for a receiver.
Speaker 2: It's just not in his DNA. Now, they've done it
Speaker 2: in the past, like in the second round last year
Speaker 2: for Taekwon. That's a totally different animal. Trading up in
Speaker 2: the first round for a wide receiver. I don't see
Speaker 2: them doing. I think it's ultimately a trench's pick. I
Speaker 2: think they look at it from let's build this thing
Speaker 2: from the inside out, whether it's a pass rushers.
Speaker 1: Now you're talking my language, because if I were Bill Belichick,
Speaker 1: I'd draft Broderick Jones. Yeah, I think Broderick Jones will
Speaker 1: be there at fourteen. That's my thought, and I think
Speaker 1: that we all know that if you're going to try
Speaker 1: to make Mac Jones a viable quarterback beyond this year,
Speaker 1: and he needs to have every chance he can get
Speaker 1: because they screwed up last year. And I think everybody
Speaker 1: can see that, and hopefully Bill can too. He needs
Speaker 1: his backside protected and you need to have some confidence. Now.
Speaker 1: The only trouble with Broderick Jones. You and I were
Speaker 1: talking about this before the show. He's not quite yet
Speaker 1: the hollished piece of the puzzle that you need on
Speaker 1: the line. He's athletically inclined, but he's six ' four,
Speaker 1: he's three ten, he's got long arms, he's got everything
Speaker 1: that you need in order to play that outside that
Speaker 1: tackle spot. He's still a little raw, but he's got pedigree.
Speaker 1: He's got thet you know, he's been at Georgia, he's
Speaker 1: won championships, he's a leader, he's everything athletically, he's the fit.
Speaker 1: It just may take a little more development. And this
Speaker 1: is where you hope that you made the right hire
Speaker 1: and Adrian clam in the offensive line to coach this
Speaker 1: guy up. Yeah, all right, so but all things being equal,
Speaker 1: we talked about getting a guy that everybody knows and
Speaker 1: a guy that you know you need. I'm answering that
Speaker 1: one with Broderick Jones. I am not trading down, even
Speaker 1: though I said, I think that might still be the
Speaker 1: most likely way they go. I could see them trading
Speaker 1: down to pick up another pick, and I don't know,
Speaker 1: the top fifty to top one hundred. I could see
Speaker 1: them doing that. So if they were able to swap
Speaker 1: out first round picks for somebody and get an extra
Speaker 1: top hundred guy, I definitely could see them doing that.
Speaker 2: By the way, Yeah right, me too.
Speaker 1: And I think, and I still believe my overall prediction
Speaker 1: is just that that's what's gonna happen. Yeah, that they'll
Speaker 1: trade down, they'll get and they'll still keep a first
Speaker 1: round pick, just lower in the round. They may still
Speaker 1: go offensive line with another you know, type of lineman,
Speaker 1: but they'll get an extra top one hundred guy. I
Speaker 1: think to me, that's the top pick. However, if they
Speaker 1: keep fourteen Broderick Jumps.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's a good pick. And I think based
Speaker 2: off of their history very recently with Mac Jones in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one, I do think that they see the
Speaker 2: value in at least picking when unfortunately, when they're up
Speaker 2: this high, not going back too far right, we've seen
Speaker 2: them trade out of the first round or trade back
Speaker 2: like last year in the twenties because they're already in
Speaker 2: the twenties. So at that point you're already in second
Speaker 2: round territory on a team's board. I think at fourteen,
Speaker 2: especially with how unique the Patriots.
Speaker 1: Board, it's a unanimous first round guy that everybody has.
Speaker 2: Right, and I think that especially with how different their
Speaker 2: board tends to be from everybody else's.
Speaker 1: We learned that last year their their first.
Speaker 2: Round guy being there. It seems very likely like because
Speaker 2: maybe some other teams might not view player X as
Speaker 2: a first round guy, but the Patriots do, so I
Speaker 2: think that that's a really nice pick. I think the
Speaker 2: biggest thing that you you look at with Brodrick Jones,
Speaker 2: his ability, his athletic ability, and his ability to block
Speaker 2: in space, whether it's like getting in front of a
Speaker 2: screen or in the run game is tremendous. Okay, it's
Speaker 2: absolutely tremendous. It's probably the best trade any offensive lineman
Speaker 2: in the draft has if you're just looking at singular abilities, right,
Speaker 2: singular things that stand out on film. His standout trait
Speaker 2: is he blocks on the move like a tight end,
Speaker 2: you know, and that is that's that's great. I think
Speaker 2: one thing that you look at with that, and I
Speaker 2: think this happens a little bit with Lineman picks is
Speaker 2: people it's boring, right, it's a tackle you don't want
Speaker 2: to tell it doesn't it's not flashy.
Speaker 1: I'm all for making mech the best guy he can be,
Speaker 1: especially now the subject we talked about about twenty minutes ago. Yeah,
Speaker 1: with Aaron Rodgers coming into the division and so the
Speaker 1: three quarterbacks Josh allen to a type of law Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, come on, yeah, but he's it won't be
Speaker 2: boring around here in the fall. His ability to block
Speaker 2: on the move, I don't think will be boring to people.
Speaker 2: And I also would say that their ability to then
Speaker 2: incorporate that into their offense, and knowing that they have
Speaker 2: this athletic specimen at left tackle, they can do a
Speaker 2: lot of really fun things to his side of the field, right.
Speaker 2: They can flip flop him too, screens, yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: stretch runs or outside runs to his side, let him combo,
Speaker 2: you know, hit, you know, bump, a guy at the
Speaker 2: line of scrimmage and then go up to the second
Speaker 2: level and block at the second level. Like those things
Speaker 2: are things that now Bill O'Brien can get in the
Speaker 2: room and say, we can scheme around and could also.
Speaker 1: Be attacked eligible tight end and a lot of the
Speaker 1: formations and the potential as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that's the forty nine ers do that
Speaker 2: with Trent Williams, or they move him around and put
Speaker 2: him at the point of attack. Sure, so it potentially
Speaker 2: now the one concern that I really have with broder Jones,
Speaker 2: I guess it's one concern that's twofold one. He only
Speaker 2: made nineteen starts at Georgia, so he's still relatively young,
Speaker 2: relatively raw. He's an underclassman who declared for the draft.
Speaker 2: The big thing about the Patriots, especially at the offensive
Speaker 2: line position, is they typically draft experience guys. We're talking
Speaker 2: about senior bowlers. We're talking about five years seniors like
Speaker 2: Cole Strange captains, guys that have started thirty plus games
Speaker 2: in their collegiate career. I did some research on it,
Speaker 2: and then I had to go back aways to find
Speaker 2: the last lineman that they took early that didn't go
Speaker 2: to the Senior Bowl. I think every if I'm not mistaken,
Speaker 2: every first round lineman they've ever drafted was a Senior
Speaker 2: Bowl guy. Wow, So that that's rare. Now, with that
Speaker 2: being said, they don't get an opportunity to draft guys
Speaker 2: like Broder Jones because they're not up at fourteen too often.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you a different question then, all right,
Speaker 1: just because since you brought it up, what lineman are
Speaker 1: we talking about? We're in the Senior Bowl that would
Speaker 1: be takable at fourteen.
Speaker 2: I would say that the one guy that has really
Speaker 2: generated a ton of buzz as we get into the
Speaker 2: deep process here is Darnel Right from Tennessee, who was
Speaker 2: fantastic in the fall season, especially against good competition. I
Speaker 2: think there is nobody better against Will Anderson from Alabama
Speaker 2: than Darnell Right last year. He was fantastic in that
Speaker 2: game against Alabama. Goes to the Senior Bowl, has a
Speaker 2: great Senior Bowl week, had a great combine. You know,
Speaker 2: this has checked all the boxes throughout the process. But
Speaker 2: he's a right tackle, so I think you had do
Speaker 2: I I don't necessarily care too much about that, but
Speaker 2: I do think that that's a factor that you do
Speaker 2: have to think about is the right tackle? Is that
Speaker 2: still worth it now? I think nowadays and today NFL,
Speaker 2: these pass rushers line up all over the place. They
Speaker 2: flip flop guy like von Miller. He rushes off the
Speaker 2: right side right. He likes to stand up over the
Speaker 2: right tackle and rush off that side more than the backside.
Speaker 2: So they got to block the same guys. I think
Speaker 2: there's some element to that. But he's a people moving
Speaker 2: right tackle, great play strength, great balance, great core strength
Speaker 2: and anchor and pass protection. And he's pretty agile and
Speaker 2: athletic for his size. So he fits the bill to
Speaker 2: a t as a Patriots right tackle. But I think
Speaker 2: that you do have to have a conversation of it's
Speaker 2: not left tackle, right right, and do we still care
Speaker 2: about that correct right?
Speaker 1: Let me ask you one more hypothetic Okay, just because
Speaker 1: the rumor might be at least has been the last
Speaker 1: twenty forty hours, have seen that a guy likes Skearansky
Speaker 1: Northwestern might slip to fourteen. If it does, do you
Speaker 1: take him short arms and all, which is what he
Speaker 1: allegedly has. I'm picturing a Tyronosaurus rex and purple. Is that,
Speaker 1: like you know, Barney the dinosaur running around. You know,
Speaker 1: that's Skeronsky from Northwestern a little bit. Do they take
Speaker 1: him over Jones if he's available.
Speaker 2: I can't say no. Do they, like, in my mind
Speaker 2: predicting Bill. I can't say no because they have not. Historically,
Speaker 2: they have not been a team that has favored arm
Speaker 2: length as much as other teams. I don't think that
Speaker 2: they historically think that it's a big factor and as
Speaker 2: big of a factor as everybody else does. Dante Scarnekia
Speaker 2: famously has come out and said that arm length is hogwashed, right,
Speaker 2: that is, it doesn't matter. So in that respect, I
Speaker 2: can't roll it out. Scarnsky is the best tackle or
Speaker 2: the best lineman. I should say he's the best lineman
Speaker 2: in the draft. And I think there's something to be
Speaker 2: said for the fact that wherever he plays as a pro,
Speaker 2: he's gonna make the line better. Whether it's a guard
Speaker 2: or it's a tackle, your line got better because he's
Speaker 2: in your room, which you slice.
Speaker 1: And that may be ultimately what they decide to do,
Speaker 1: because we know they need that improvement overrle.
Speaker 2: The problem is is that with Cole Strange here, with
Speaker 2: Mike Onwenu here, and obviously Scronsky is not a center.
Speaker 2: But with David Andrews here as well, where are you
Speaker 2: playing him as a rookie And are you playing him
Speaker 2: on the outside as a rookie just to move him
Speaker 2: inside long term? And is that really worth it? Knowing
Speaker 2: that his long term view is probably a guard. Personally,
Speaker 2: and I know a lot of people have some strong
Speaker 2: opinions about this, Personally, I would let him fail at
Speaker 2: tackle first and then move him in if he can't
Speaker 2: hang out and handle it right, because I the film
Speaker 2: is so good at tackle at Northwestern, and that's that's
Speaker 2: a conference where he's facing legitimate pass rushers. It's not
Speaker 2: like he's going up against you guys that are going
Speaker 2: to be car salesman and accountants in a couple of weeks. Right,
Speaker 2: He's going up against Lucas van Ness and the Ohio
Speaker 2: State guys and the Michigan guys. You know, I watched
Speaker 2: his film from twenty one against Hutchinson, held up fine
Speaker 2: against Hutchinson, who's longer, and you know has all that
Speaker 2: that was the first round, top five caliber player we're
Speaker 2: supposed to did what he's supposed to do. So how
Speaker 2: much am I gonna stress about it, not a ton.
Speaker 2: The only reason why I don't want them to take
Speaker 2: Scaronski is because I know everybody else is gonna lose
Speaker 2: their mind. So they took another guard like I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't want to deal with the backlash right because
Speaker 2: it's it's short sighted and and whatnot. It's gonna annoy me.
Speaker 2: But in terms of uh in general, am I afraid
Speaker 2: of taking Scaransky?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 1: Man, do you want to make a prediction if you
Speaker 1: were Bill Belichick, you would draft?
Speaker 2: Nope?
Speaker 1: You know he's shaking his head. Now, Okay, I just
Speaker 1: thought i'd offer you the opportunity. Just appreciate it. But
Speaker 1: I rather just keep my mouth closed and not proven
Speaker 1: them stupid. That's okay, Well, we're all proven ourselves stupid here.
Speaker 1: That's the ultimate, uh, the ultimate challenge, just to find
Speaker 1: out who's less stupider than others. All right, eight five
Speaker 1: five patch, five hundred. Let's get to the phones. Let's
Speaker 1: find out what you would do, and we're gonna lead
Speaker 1: it off with our buddy Patty and agawan. Patty.
Speaker 5: Hello, good afternoon, gentlemen. What's going on?
Speaker 1: We're good, We're good, We're good. So if you were
Speaker 1: Bill Belichick, you would draft.
Speaker 5: Flowers number fourteen. I don't care. I'm not I'm not
Speaker 5: dropping down to take them. I'll tell you what, man,
Speaker 5: I'm I'm a little bit worried that the Packers moved
Speaker 5: up to thirteen because I think they're going to be
Speaker 5: looking to get a pass catcher themselves. And here's kind
Speaker 5: of where I'm coming from. John. We heard when when
Speaker 5: the media got the opportunity to speak to all the
Speaker 5: coaches minus Belichick the first phase of the OTAs, what
Speaker 5: did Gerrod Mayo say? He said, we feel like our
Speaker 5: defense has been good the last two years. And to me,
Speaker 5: I mean, if if I'm smart, if I'm listening to
Speaker 5: my other coaches, we all know. We all saw it
Speaker 5: at fans as media that the offense suck last year.
Speaker 5: And I mean part of that was coaching, but a
Speaker 5: lot of that too was getting schematics and guys that
Speaker 5: can't separate, and we need that guy. I think that
Speaker 5: was the one fisting piece this offense because we do
Speaker 5: have decent skill players, we just don't have that guy
Speaker 5: that can separate on all three levels. I know Evan
Speaker 5: is on board with where I'm coming from, too.
Speaker 1: He'd just do it with a different guy I love. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've tried not to be too heavy.
Speaker 2: I've already pounded the table enough for him.
Speaker 5: And I mean, at least from my perspective, if I
Speaker 5: was Bill Belichick, that's what I would do. I don't
Speaker 5: think that's what.
Speaker 1: He's gonna do.
Speaker 5: What I think he's gonna do is just do something
Speaker 5: completely outside the box. But I think if he listens
Speaker 5: to the guy like his owner, his offensive coaches, and
Speaker 5: they say, hey, you know, we need to get somebody
Speaker 5: in here, Well, look at look at the teams like Buffalo,
Speaker 5: seems like Cincinnati, seems like Miami that went out and
Speaker 5: got the guy, whether it was through the draft or
Speaker 5: through trade or through free agency or whatever. Now we
Speaker 5: if we want to be a good, biable offense to
Speaker 5: compete with these teams in the AFC, well not just
Speaker 5: the AFC, in our division, we need to get that guy.
Speaker 2: It's a fair point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Listen, there's no wrong answer here.
Speaker 2: I mean we're on the same page when it comes
Speaker 2: to a receiver like that, That, to me is is
Speaker 2: really the missing ingredient. I think with line play, I'm
Speaker 2: I'm with you, John, that there's line play is important
Speaker 2: and certainly with a quarterback like Mac Jones who's not
Speaker 2: a mobile guy, keeping him protected is really important. I
Speaker 2: just have more of the school thought that I feel like,
Speaker 2: especially with their history of doing a really good job
Speaker 2: of evaluating and scouting lineman a little bit later in
Speaker 2: the draft, that I'm confident that Bill and the Bills,
Speaker 2: I should say plural, now, the Bills and Adrian Clem,
Speaker 2: and I would say, Dante, you can go in there
Speaker 2: and find them a third round tackle that can play
Speaker 2: the position and can hold its down. And I think
Speaker 2: just as a whole, you look at Bill O'Brien being
Speaker 2: back in Adrian Clem now being an offensive line coach
Speaker 2: here schematically and in terms of being a five man
Speaker 2: unit in Unison, it's gonna be a lot cleaner of
Speaker 2: an operation up front, and I think that that's gonna
Speaker 2: make a lot of dividends as well. I don't necessarily
Speaker 2: know if talent was the issue on the line last year.
Speaker 2: I think coaching not only from a mental standpoint, but
Speaker 2: also coaching technique, correcting flaws on film, all that kind
Speaker 2: of stuff. I think that stuff was also a big
Speaker 2: detriment to that line as well. So I think they
Speaker 2: are still going to add some tackles at some point,
Speaker 2: There's no doubt about that. And I would still take
Speaker 2: I'd still take one in the top one hundred if
Speaker 2: it's not in the first round with one of their
Speaker 2: second or third round picks. But I look at receivers.
Speaker 2: Is the most explosive receiver in the draft. He's somebody
Speaker 2: that There was a play that they were just showing
Speaker 2: on NFL Network where they actually ran a trick play
Speaker 2: and he was supposed to throw it, but the receiver
Speaker 2: that he's supposed to throw it to on the double
Speaker 2: pass was covered, so he just ran for the touchdown.
Speaker 2: He just tucked the ball and he just ran for
Speaker 2: it himself. You know, he turned the corner and ran
Speaker 2: it thirty five yards for a touchdown. It just on
Speaker 2: a really what was a broken play. And those are
Speaker 2: the types of plays that they just don't have anybody
Speaker 2: that can do that. They don't have anybody that can
Speaker 2: house the football from anywhere on the field. He can
Speaker 2: take it to the house the second he steps on
Speaker 2: the football field, and they just don't have that element
Speaker 2: to their offense, and he would bring it. So I'm
Speaker 2: with you, Patty. I've been saying Zay for four months
Speaker 2: and if he ends up being the pick, then I'd
Speaker 2: be ecstatic.
Speaker 5: And like you said too, Evan, I mean there's a
Speaker 5: lot of smoke there, and like just the later maybe
Speaker 5: not at eight round guy, but like a day two guy,
Speaker 5: guy that I've been harping on a lot too, Lake Freeland.
Speaker 5: I mean, the guy gave up one sack and in
Speaker 5: the last three years and I'm looking, I'm looking at
Speaker 5: it right now, that's I mean, that's thirty over thirty
Speaker 5: seven games, he gave up one sack, you know, and
Speaker 5: over eight hundred, well it looks like over a thousand,
Speaker 5: you know, pass blocking snaps.
Speaker 4: You know, you coach that guy.
Speaker 5: Up, you get him in the program, you get him
Speaker 5: to get him to uff his plate strength. And yeah,
Speaker 5: I mean, I know you're only going to carry three
Speaker 5: three tackles into each game, but maybe you make like
Speaker 5: one of one of the swing guys in active a
Speaker 5: couple of games and get him in if you draft them,
Speaker 5: to get him a little bit of experience this year,
Speaker 5: and it becomes your starting right tackle next year.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you mentioned earlier, John, we were talking about senior
Speaker 2: Bowl guys. Bike Freeland was a senior Bowl guy wasn't
Speaker 2: really great down there, to be honest with you. In
Speaker 2: the film that I saw at Mobile Mobile that BYU
Speaker 2: offense like pass protecting on an island in like true
Speaker 2: pass sets. They're not a ton of them on the
Speaker 2: film for him. But I would say that the comp
Speaker 2: is Nate Solder. He's a skyscraper. He's six foot eight,
Speaker 2: three hundred and five pounds, three hundred and ten pounds,
Speaker 2: and he is a converted tight end. So he's literally
Speaker 2: Nate Solder. The thing that's wrong, you know, the flaw
Speaker 2: or the red flag on his on his film is
Speaker 2: just like Nate Solder. He might actually be too tall
Speaker 2: to play tackle because he can't sink in leverage blocks, right.
Speaker 2: He can't get underneath people because he's so tall. So
Speaker 2: it's the Senior Bowl a big problem with him. In
Speaker 2: the pass rushing drills that they were doing down there.
Speaker 1: Maybe he could just you know, like the quarterback could
Speaker 1: just like hide behind him, you know, that would keep
Speaker 1: him pro rushing.
Speaker 2: Right, guys are gonna be able to can't see him,
Speaker 2: how can you tackle him? I can already tell you
Speaker 2: right now that we're gonna get out there at training
Speaker 2: camp and Blake freelin in one on one is gonna
Speaker 2: go gainst Josh and joshu j is gonna smoke him
Speaker 2: off the ball right because o Ja has got that
Speaker 2: explosiveness and that bend right. He can get underneath guys
Speaker 2: and bend underneath and turn the corner and really just
Speaker 2: can't get down there. He's on the tenth floor and
Speaker 2: these pass rushers like an ouch can get down there
Speaker 2: right onto the first floor, and he just can't get
Speaker 2: underneath it. But he's one of those guys that you're
Speaker 2: not gonna go through him. He's got a firm stout anchor.
Speaker 2: He's a better run blocker than he is a pass blocker.
Speaker 2: He can move people off the line of scrimmage, and
Speaker 2: he's got tackle feet. He's got the athleticism in the
Speaker 2: range to play pass protection to tackle. He's just gonna
Speaker 2: have to work around his height.
Speaker 1: Eight five five pats five hundred Sean and Vancouver. Hey Sean,
Speaker 1: you're in the playbook.
Speaker 6: Hey guys. Before I get to answer your question, I
Speaker 6: just wanted to bring up one other thing of you know. Recently,
Speaker 6: Bill O'Brien said we got a clean slate, which is,
Speaker 6: you know, a good concept but I'm also a believer
Speaker 6: that you need to learn from history. I mean, those
Speaker 6: who don't learn from history are damned to repeat it.
Speaker 6: So I think you got to, you know, recognize your
Speaker 6: mistakes and make sure you don't do them again. Now,
Speaker 6: one that we've talked to for death is basically having
Speaker 6: the people in position to coach that didn't have the experience,
Speaker 6: and that was a mistake.
Speaker 3: We know that.
Speaker 6: But another one that doesn't get as much play is
Speaker 6: changing an offense philosophy, specifically blocking, you know, for the
Speaker 6: offensive line, to something that you don't have experience in doing,
Speaker 6: and you don't have the people to do it, and
Speaker 6: you don't have the coaches to coach it. So that
Speaker 6: was that was a huge mistake that caused other issues
Speaker 6: and made the draft last year a bit strange because
Speaker 6: I'll point it out this way. You know you're going
Speaker 6: to a zone blocking scheme. Now you think, oh, we
Speaker 6: don't have the offensive lineman. Even though the offensive line
Speaker 6: was great in twenty twenty one, we don't have the
Speaker 6: right type of players. So let's not re sign Carris
Speaker 6: and let's trade Jack Mason. Now you have no guards
Speaker 6: and you've created your biggest need and you're drafting strange
Speaker 6: in the first round because out of desperation you trade
Speaker 6: down and they, oh, we better get this guy or something.
Speaker 6: I don't know what it is, but it was disappointing
Speaker 6: and I don't want to see that again. So I
Speaker 6: want to make sure that this team, you know, it,
Speaker 6: does their job, because if it is, that philosophy is
Speaker 6: do your job. And you pointed out earlier a player
Speaker 6: alike in Warren's he's a perfect example of doing your
Speaker 6: job because you wouldn't ask him or he wouldn't go
Speaker 6: off brand and just fly downfield to try and sack
Speaker 6: the quarterback. He's at the line, he's holding it up,
Speaker 6: he's allowing other players to make plays, and that was
Speaker 6: his job and he did it great. And you know,
Speaker 6: when you ask coaches to or when they're put in
Speaker 6: position to do things they don't know how to do,
Speaker 6: that's not allowing them to do their job. So that
Speaker 6: that was problematic. Now your question.
Speaker 1: If I'm Bill Belichick, I would draft yeah who, Yeah, this.
Speaker 6: Is your question, right, So I like your pick JS
Speaker 6: and and uh, you know the and the tackle you
Speaker 6: know those I'd be happy with that I don't think
Speaker 6: will be there and I'm thinkings Alves will be there.
Speaker 6: I actually see the Patriots trading down, stay with Jacksonville
Speaker 6: and you know, going down to the Jags of twenty
Speaker 6: four and then getting their second round at was at
Speaker 6: fifty six, right, taking those those picks for fourteen and
Speaker 6: still getting Zay Flowers. That's I guess it's a bit
Speaker 6: of a hope and rainbow, but that's that's what I'd
Speaker 6: hope to see, So save Flowers. I agree with Patty.
Speaker 6: That's my pick.
Speaker 1: Okay, So which one then are you gonna you? If
Speaker 1: you're Bill Belichick, do you trade down or are you
Speaker 1: taking Zay Flowers?
Speaker 4: Both?
Speaker 1: Oh? So a? So when fourteen Zay will make it
Speaker 1: to twenty four? Right? So with fourteen, your inclination is
Speaker 1: to trade down? Correct?
Speaker 6: Yeah, okay unless something crazy happens and one of the
Speaker 6: major guys falls like Gonzalez. But I don't think that's happening,
Speaker 6: all right, or even.
Speaker 1: All right, So I'm putting you down, then, Sean is
Speaker 1: if I were Bill Belichick, I'd trade down. It's a
Speaker 1: good bet, okay, Which is there's nothing wrong with that, Okay,
Speaker 1: there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Yeah, I actually believe,
Speaker 1: I actually believe too that that will happen. I don't
Speaker 1: think they're gonna, you know, I don't know where they'll
Speaker 1: trade down, which is why, you know, if they could
Speaker 1: trade down and get Zay Flowers, I think everybody would
Speaker 1: probably be pretty happy with that. I'm not sure that's
Speaker 1: the case, so I just stayed with a pick. If
Speaker 1: they're at fourteen and they selected fourteen, I'm going with
Speaker 1: the pick. My pick was Broderi Jones, So there you go.
Speaker 3: I like that.
Speaker 6: I'm happy with that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would be if they're going to trade, try
Speaker 2: to try to really thread the needle here and trade
Speaker 2: down and take Zaye and get both things accomplished. I
Speaker 2: don't think you can go lower than twenty, Okay, I
Speaker 2: think that there's two teams. Nineteen is Tampa, right, so you.
Speaker 1: Gotta find will and trade partners in that range.
Speaker 2: And twenty is Seattle, so who's desperate to get up.
Speaker 2: Let's say, for argument's sake, that there's still a quarterback
Speaker 2: that team's value that's on the board, like a Will
Speaker 2: Levis or maybe a hen and Hooker.
Speaker 1: Maybe that because he Levis is going number one.
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe that is a Maybe that's that's a way
Speaker 2: that that you can entice teams to trade to make
Speaker 2: that trade, or maybe a team uses you, which has
Speaker 2: happened in the past as as a lily pad. Right
Speaker 2: there there, they say they go Tampa goes from nineteen
Speaker 2: to fourteen tomorrow afternoon, and then during the draft, once
Speaker 2: that quarterback starts, they go from fourteen to nine, right
Speaker 2: or something like that, and that's when they take the quarterback.
Speaker 6: So in my small dream scenario, I also see the
Speaker 6: Patriots moving up in the second round and getting Dwan
Speaker 6: Jones right tackle.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think the trade down and
Speaker 2: then the move up in the second round is a
Speaker 2: good strategy. I just would be really wary of trading
Speaker 2: too far down that now you've lost all of the
Speaker 2: blue chip talent. Right now you're picking somebody that's really
Speaker 2: in that second or third tier.
Speaker 1: That's been made a very good point earlier Sean that
Speaker 1: once you start getting into the twenties, you're looking at
Speaker 1: guys that are in the second round on a lot
Speaker 1: of teams boards, right, So if you want the blue chipper,
Speaker 1: you really need to be going in the upper half
Speaker 1: of the first round.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I just think there's too many teams between
Speaker 2: fourteen and twenty four that would love to have Zay
Speaker 2: Flowers on their team, or would be willing to trade
Speaker 2: up to get say Flowers that come ahead of you.
Speaker 2: You know, I look at teams like Buffalo and Kansas
Speaker 2: City picking towards the back end of the round. I
Speaker 2: could easily see the Chiefs who love to trade up.
Speaker 2: They traded up from Mahomes. They traded up last year
Speaker 2: from McDuffie to the Patriots pick at twenty one, the
Speaker 2: Chiefs trading up from thirty one to twenty three. The
Speaker 2: steal z A Flowers one pick ahead of you is
Speaker 2: that's my That's a nightmare for me personally, right like that,
Speaker 2: those are the things that you risk. I think if
Speaker 2: you go too far down.
Speaker 6: Well, the Seahawks would they trade up twenty and say
Speaker 6: of their second round fifty two to the Patriots fourteen?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know if you're getting the second round pick.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you might have to give something else. They might
Speaker 6: have give up a third Yeah.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you're getting the second round pick
Speaker 2: unless you're really trading, like your scenario to go from
Speaker 2: fourteen to twenty four, I could see that nitting a
Speaker 2: second round pick, because it's a ten picking dropworks. But
Speaker 2: if you're going four or five picks down now we're
Speaker 2: talking about nineteen or twenty, I don't know if you're
Speaker 2: gonna get a second round or out of that. That
Speaker 2: might be a third or third and a fourth or
Speaker 2: just a third.
Speaker 6: Right, yeah and the third. Yeah, I guess they could
Speaker 6: still do that, I mean and get like eighty three.
Speaker 6: That would make sense.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Last year there was a trade between I think
Speaker 2: it was the Saints when they picked a Lava. They
Speaker 2: went from sixteen to eleven. I believe is the mat
Speaker 2: is the trade if I remember correctly, and they got
Speaker 2: a third in the fourth. The team that they traded
Speaker 2: with got a third in the fourth, So that was
Speaker 2: five spots in the first round. That's you a third
Speaker 2: and the fourth. So I think trading down from fourteen
Speaker 2: to twenty, I think that's a framework that you can
Speaker 2: kind of count on.
Speaker 1: Eight five, five, pats, five hundred. Moving along. Raj in Wakefield, Hey, Raj, Hey, Hi, guys,
Speaker 1: good good good, all right. So if I'm Bill Belichick,
Speaker 1: I would draft.
Speaker 7: Whom Yeah, nice ball by even yes, I just want
Speaker 7: to I know that even hits man, I know what
Speaker 7: I'm going to say, but in this draft, I think
Speaker 7: there are only two players who most of the NFL
Speaker 7: teams say that they have the red jacket or the
Speaker 7: gold jacket standard of talent, and those are Jalen Carter
Speaker 7: and B John Robinson. Well, I think if they stay
Speaker 7: at number fourteen, I think then the check is going
Speaker 7: to take B John Robinson. Ideally they ideally Philadelphia. I
Speaker 7: hope Philadelphia or Atlanta will take them, and Patriots will
Speaker 7: trade back, and they may trade they may take a
Speaker 7: edge rusher and in the second round they will up
Speaker 7: and take the running back on Donell Washington. That's what
Speaker 7: ideally it might happen. But if if it's fourteen, if
Speaker 7: B John is staring at.
Speaker 5: Them, they're taking they will take him.
Speaker 7: Because they will say, we don't have blue chip players,
Speaker 7: Let's take him and we'll figure it out.
Speaker 3: How.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he'd be a good thing to have to figure out.
Speaker 7: All we all say that we do. We all say
Speaker 7: that they are never taking the best talented place. When
Speaker 7: the best talented player faulty, how to take it right.
Speaker 7: It does not matter how which position is. They will
Speaker 7: figure it out how to use it. That's not enough.
Speaker 7: The betist for twenty years.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, thoughts.
Speaker 2: When I'm driving home, Matt, make sure I don't go
Speaker 2: over the Tobin bridge.
Speaker 7: Hypopectically, if you think through it, you say that this
Speaker 7: wide receiver class is not even good to go in
Speaker 7: first on last year's draft? Yeah, yes, Why do you
Speaker 7: think we have to take up? Why do you think
Speaker 7: we need to eat and take the vibray.
Speaker 2: I don't think that this draft has the plethora of
Speaker 2: talent at receiver that some of the other drafts have.
Speaker 2: But I personally feel, especially with jasm but also is
Speaker 2: say Flowers that both those guys go in the first
Speaker 2: round of most drafts, right that That's that's sort of
Speaker 2: my outlook on it. So I think we're getting a
Speaker 2: little bit too technically.
Speaker 7: I agree, but this running back usually used to go
Speaker 7: in top five pigs right in every in maybe three
Speaker 7: years back.
Speaker 5: Yeah, college, then what's wrong.
Speaker 7: In taking him at fifteen fourteen?
Speaker 2: In terms of talent in this draft there there's nothing
Speaker 2: necessarily wrong with it. There's a whole rabbit hole of
Speaker 2: positional value that we can go down a little bit
Speaker 2: that it is important to talk about. I really feel
Speaker 2: strongly that the running back position in today's NFL is
Speaker 2: as devalued as any position in football.
Speaker 1: It's a position the Patriots itself.
Speaker 7: The Patriots have did that system ten years back and
Speaker 7: now part up approach.
Speaker 2: I just think that, on top of the fact that
Speaker 2: running back is a is a position that you really
Speaker 2: second guest nowadays, whether or not it truly moves the
Speaker 2: needle for you, it truly makes you a much better
Speaker 2: football team. They have a really good running back already
Speaker 2: like here, so I.
Speaker 7: Know they have it. But if you think from the
Speaker 7: philosophy of football things, they're like to have a good defense,
Speaker 7: good offense with a good defense, good special teams, mistake
Speaker 7: three quarterback, ball control game. That's what they believe in.
Speaker 2: Right mm hm does that?
Speaker 7: Does that quarterback who is mistake free, who does not
Speaker 7: throw interceptions, do dumb mistake? They have a good defense,
Speaker 7: they are having they will be hopefully having a good
Speaker 7: special teams after two years of disaster. And now it's
Speaker 7: a ball control game. If you have two running backs,
Speaker 7: take the series by series control the ball control the game.
Speaker 2: Does that.
Speaker 7: The game is the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: It does not be does that win or anything?
Speaker 7: But they can win games. They were they are winning games.
Speaker 7: They were winning like this following this pass.
Speaker 2: I don't know if that wins games like it used
Speaker 2: to ten years ago. I just don't know if it does.
Speaker 7: I feel like I know, but but but that's what
Speaker 7: he believes in and he built his entire.
Speaker 2: You're loving this because this is your guy. So you're
Speaker 2: just you're letting, you're letting.
Speaker 7: Through his philosophy. Still, he's the headport.
Speaker 2: We cannot if that let me pretty this way because
Speaker 2: I I I I try to be as polite as
Speaker 2: I possibly can to to to the head coach of
Speaker 2: the team, not to you. I I'm always.
Speaker 7: I hope I should have brought this yesterday on, but
Speaker 7: I did not want chance to join that college today.
Speaker 2: Or no, that's okay, Yeah, no, it's okay. I I
Speaker 2: say this with all due respect to Bill's resume and
Speaker 2: his success. If he drafts John Robinson at fourteen, I'm
Speaker 2: going to start thinking the game has passed him by
Speaker 2: that that that's a twenty years ago philosophy, that we
Speaker 2: are going to win the game with ball control and
Speaker 2: time of possession and no turnovers and like that.
Speaker 7: I und I understand your appointment, but don't you think
Speaker 7: the gest that the Sepens will go up with Bijon.
Speaker 2: I just don't know how that. I don't know how
Speaker 2: drafting Bijon puts you any any closer to to to
Speaker 2: competing with the team like Buffalo. You're gonna go into
Speaker 2: Buffalo and you're gonna try to run the ball forty
Speaker 2: times and win the game seventeen fourteen, and you're going
Speaker 2: to bank on your defense to be able to hold
Speaker 2: Josh Allen to fourteen points. Like, even if you only
Speaker 2: give last year when they went into Buffalo, Josh Allen,
Speaker 2: he didn't have very many possessions because the kickoff returns right,
Speaker 2: he still went right down the field on you when
Speaker 2: he had the opportunity to. So even if you only
Speaker 2: give him six drives, eight drives, he's still gonna.
Speaker 1: Score on four of them. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I I an agreement that this team is currently
Speaker 2: constructed cannot get into a shootout with Buffalo. They're not
Speaker 2: going to win forty one to thirty eight against the Bills.
Speaker 2: They have to be they have to build up their offense,
Speaker 2: though to the point where they can win a game
Speaker 2: into the high twenties, low thirties. They can't. They have
Speaker 2: not won a game in the mac Jones era, scoring
Speaker 2: more than twenty five four points they have to think about.
Speaker 1: By the way, there's nuts.
Speaker 2: Oh, for any game where the opponent scores more than
Speaker 2: twenty four points.
Speaker 1: They've lost.
Speaker 2: They've lost at some point in time. You got to
Speaker 2: be able to win a game thirty to twenty seven.
Speaker 2: You just have to be able to do it. And
Speaker 2: I just don't know if the running back gets you
Speaker 2: over that hump. It's just tough, Raj. I love you
Speaker 2: like a brother. Appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I appreciate the call.
Speaker 2: That was a good back and forth.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, it was great. And I thought hecause there's definitely
Speaker 1: a sound argument. It was not cousin, Raj, however, So there's.
Speaker 2: Definitely there's definitely a sound argument for So I'm not
Speaker 2: coming at it and saying it's it's totally ridiculous, right,
Speaker 2: Like there is legitimate.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and there is an argument to make for Bejon if.
Speaker 2: I what I look at it as is, look, they're
Speaker 2: gonna have better coaching than this, And I get that,
Speaker 2: but look at Christian McCaffrey, look at Saquon bar Like,
Speaker 2: look at those players early on. Look at Christian McCaffrey
Speaker 2: and Carolina Christian McCaffrey was the number one pick and
Speaker 2: everybody's fantasy draft for five to whatever however long he
Speaker 2: was in Carolina, right, five six years, whatever it was.
Speaker 2: They were a terrible team. He didn't move the needle.
Speaker 2: He was the most productive player in the league from
Speaker 2: a statistical perspective. That's why he's going number one in
Speaker 2: fantasy football drafts. And they they stunk.
Speaker 1: Yeah, hard to argue, right, hard to argue eight five
Speaker 1: five pats five hundred. That's the toll. Free to all
Speaker 1: of a number at JR Broadcaster on Twitter if you
Speaker 1: got some thoughts, or you can send me the old
Speaker 1: fashioned email web radio at Patriots dot Com. Jody in
Speaker 1: Georgia up next, Hey Jody, Hey, how you doing great?
Speaker 1: So if I'm Bill Belichick, I would draft.
Speaker 8: Whom well I really want would probably not be there,
Speaker 8: Christian Gondalas. But it's got to be a cornerback. I mean,
Speaker 8: we got Aaron Rodgers, Josh Allen and Tua with all
Speaker 8: these weapons, we need somebody to lock them down. So
Speaker 8: I think we need to get a high end cornerback
Speaker 8: to kind of be able to trail some of these.
Speaker 4: Guys longer linked here.
Speaker 8: Maybe like Banks or Joey Porter, something along those lines.
Speaker 1: Would you check which one would you take?
Speaker 8: Personally? I would probably do Banks, but I don't know
Speaker 8: if the consensus is Joey Porter's probably you know, a
Speaker 8: little bit higher on people's boards, but Banks is linked
Speaker 8: and you know, athletic ability. I think it's got a
Speaker 8: lot outside.
Speaker 1: What do you think about Banks?
Speaker 2: Love Banks, Yeah, he's he's he's a great player. I
Speaker 2: think that you have to probably at this point take
Speaker 2: him at fourteen. I don't know if you can trade
Speaker 2: down for him anymore. I thought maybe if you'd asked
Speaker 2: me a month ago, I would have probably thrown out
Speaker 2: of trade down scenario and still get Banks, like at
Speaker 2: twenty or twenty one or something like that. I don't
Speaker 2: know if you can do that anymore. He's really consensus
Speaker 2: corner three or four in this draft at this point.
Speaker 2: I think some teams are going to have him ahead
Speaker 2: of Joey Porter junior. He's the most athletic corner in
Speaker 2: the draft. He's ultra physical at the line of scrimmage
Speaker 2: and pressman. He can mirror receivers down the field. He
Speaker 2: doesn't quite have the ball production, you know, the interceptions,
Speaker 2: pass breakups things like that that other guys have. But
Speaker 2: you watch him stay glued to a receiver. You look
Speaker 2: at the athletic profile, the size, the physicality. He's a baller,
Speaker 2: you know, he's a really really good football player. I
Speaker 2: just look at him and I see a little bit
Speaker 2: of Marlin Humphrey on Baltimore like kind of that type
Speaker 2: of player. I love Banks. I mean, I think it's
Speaker 2: a slam dunk pick. And they're such a great argument
Speaker 2: there too about how many more times are we going
Speaker 2: to watch the Patriots get destroyed by Stefan Diggs when
Speaker 2: they play Buffalo. Right, they just without that Gilmour, without
Speaker 2: that revis without that tie law, the defense isn't the same.
Speaker 2: It's a good defense, but it's not an elite defense
Speaker 2: without that number one corner the way that they play defense.
Speaker 8: So and they've already done the J. C. Jackson experiment
Speaker 8: where they try to take somebody who they they thought
Speaker 8: could be number one but wasn't quite that guy, you
Speaker 8: know what I mean.
Speaker 2: So, yeah, and I think they have a couple of
Speaker 2: those guys now with the Joneses. Right, you know that
Speaker 2: those three guys two through four, that's a great depth
Speaker 2: chart one through three, you're still thinking, all right, they
Speaker 2: could probably use the alpha right in that room. So
Speaker 2: I love banks. I like taking a corner too. That's
Speaker 2: I think this is probably more an indictment on where
Speaker 2: they are right now. John, that we can say tackle,
Speaker 2: we can say receiver, we can say corner, and be
Speaker 2: right and say yeah, sure, go for it. They all
Speaker 2: make sense and that that that's kind of where the
Speaker 2: roster is at this point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in all honesty, the guy that I was thinking
Speaker 1: if trade down was gonna happen, which I said earlier,
Speaker 1: I still think it might happen. I would think they
Speaker 1: would trade down, and depending on where they traded, somewhere
Speaker 1: in that twenty probably the twenty four area. Joey Porter's
Speaker 1: the guy I thought they would probably try to snag.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's somebody that's really impressive at the combine when
Speaker 2: we got to talk to all the players at the
Speaker 2: podiums in Indy. He's just a really polished, calm, cool, collected,
Speaker 2: confident kid, like you can just tell that he just
Speaker 2: he knows he's going to be playing on Sundays for
Speaker 2: a long time. It's not too big for him. He's
Speaker 2: not worried about where he's going. He's not worried about
Speaker 2: his dad. You know, I think that was a big
Speaker 2: question a lot of people were asking him, especially as
Speaker 2: it relates to the Patriots. We know that Joey Porter
Speaker 2: Senior does not really like Bill Belichick in the New
Speaker 2: England Patriots, right, So how much is that going to
Speaker 2: be a factor? Would they take him? With that history?
Speaker 1: I can't imagine has anything to do with it.
Speaker 2: I don't think it does, because, you know, with a
Speaker 2: Santa Samuel Jr. I think maybe he'd had a little
Speaker 2: bit of something to do with it. But Joey Porter
Speaker 2: Senior never played for the Patriots and doesn't have any
Speaker 2: real bad blood with Bill. It's just a rivalry, right,
Speaker 2: It's all it was. So I think that he's a
Speaker 2: really interesting player for them. But the one thing I
Speaker 2: would just say with him is I don't think that
Speaker 2: he's matchup proof. He's one of these longer corners. He
Speaker 2: takes a little bit of time to get up to
Speaker 2: top speed. Like, I don't think you're gonna you're gonna
Speaker 2: have him shadow Tyreek Hill, right, Like, he's not gonna
Speaker 2: run with a guy like Tyrak Hill. Now you already
Speaker 2: have Jonathan Jones and Marcus Jones to run with Tyreek Hill.
Speaker 2: So maybe you don't need that type of corner. But
Speaker 2: I think more so than maybe like a Gonzales or
Speaker 2: a Banks or a Witherspoon, Joey Porter Junior is a
Speaker 2: true big matchup outside corner, Like you're gonna have to
Speaker 2: pick your spots a little bit more with him, I
Speaker 2: think than with some of these other guys. So that's
Speaker 2: something to consider with him, is is there enough of
Speaker 2: those big receipt is that you're going to go up
Speaker 2: against it's worth it to Okay, you play the Bengals
Speaker 2: and he's got T Higgins, great matchup for him, But
Speaker 2: when you play Miami, where who is he guarding? He's
Speaker 2: not guarding Wattle and Hill. I know that, So that
Speaker 2: that's gonna be one thing that I that they why
Speaker 2: I've kind of come to the conclusion that they might
Speaker 2: have Banks ahead of him on the board.
Speaker 1: Okay, Jody, what else you got?
Speaker 8: The only other thing I was I was kind of
Speaker 8: curious and somebody kind of mentioned it a little bit earlier.
Speaker 8: I was really concerned with the pick swap with the
Speaker 8: Jets and the Packers, just because you know, obviously I
Speaker 8: just thought, I want a cornerback, but you know, receivers
Speaker 8: always a big hope. I just don't have too many
Speaker 8: high hopes for that. Yeah, but with Green Bay's up
Speaker 8: in the front, I know they got two young guys
Speaker 8: and Dobbs and Christians, but I didn't know if if
Speaker 8: that kind of like snubs any chances of us possibly
Speaker 8: getting one of those guys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we we. We kind of touched on briefly early
Speaker 1: when we talked about the whole Aaron Rodgers, you know,
Speaker 1: to the Jets deal and how it could affect the
Speaker 1: Patriots and their draft, and I would agree with you,
Speaker 1: it could potentially, Uh, it could potentially alter some of
Speaker 1: the thinking.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think Green Bay. Unfortunately, Green Bay's needs
Speaker 2: are pretty similar to your needs. I think the Jets
Speaker 2: though too. The Jets have been written all tackle written
Speaker 2: all over their forehead, like they've been all over the
Speaker 2: tackles in this draft, and they're gonna I think they're
Speaker 2: gonna go tackle in the first round. So they were
Speaker 2: already a team ahead of you that was probably gonna
Speaker 2: take one of those tackles that maybe that you wanted.
Speaker 2: So I don't think it necessarily changes much of that position.
Speaker 2: I think the positions it changes is potentially receiver. But
Speaker 2: the Packers, I don't think they've ever taken a first
Speaker 2: round receiver in like the last like thirty years or
Speaker 2: something crazy like that. Really, Christian Watson was an early
Speaker 2: second round pick. Yeah, so that is a little one,
Speaker 2: little caveat to that. But that was a big thing
Speaker 2: for Aaron Rodgers. I know when they you know, some
Speaker 2: of this stuff came out about what his big issue
Speaker 2: what the Packers was in their front office was that
Speaker 2: they didn't really add the offense. It's a talent at
Speaker 2: the top of the draft that he wanted. So are
Speaker 2: they now going to go against that and take the
Speaker 2: year that they traded Aaron Rodgers the year they finally
Speaker 2: take a receiver in the in the first round. That's
Speaker 2: a pretty big slap in the face to a franchise icon.
Speaker 2: So I don't know if they'll do that. But the
Speaker 2: tackle and edge, I think are two other positions that
Speaker 2: the Packers could go that maybe the Patriots have entertained
Speaker 2: as well. So yeah, it's a factor. It certainly changes
Speaker 2: the deck, and you got to look at it that way.
Speaker 8: Awesome.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys, all Right, no problem, Jody, Thank
Speaker 1: you appreciate that. I did not know this. I just
Speaker 1: saw on Twitter. I don't know. Do you know who
Speaker 1: Chuck Carlton wrote Dallas Morning News.
Speaker 2: Name sounds familiar.
Speaker 1: Yeah, He's been a longtime football writer, covered a lot
Speaker 1: of college football, which those guys right now are experts,
Speaker 1: because yeah, because but you know, he'd been writing with
Speaker 1: Dallas Morning number of news. He just passed away, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, wow, that's a stunner. Yeah, because I've known
Speaker 1: of Chuck Carlton, followed him for a number of years.
Speaker 1: You why he started off in that part of the country,
Speaker 1: And I'm just like, wow, that's just that's a shocker.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's too bad.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, eight five five pats five hundred the tot
Speaker 1: free number if you want to jump in again. The
Speaker 1: question today is if I'm Bill Belichick, I would draft
Speaker 1: blank fill in the blank. That's what we got. We
Speaker 1: got a pretty good consensus going well right now. Right now,
Speaker 1: we don't have an edge. Nobody has an edge. We've
Speaker 1: had Jackson and Jigba, We've had uh Roderick Jones, We've
Speaker 1: had Zave Flowers, We've had trade down, you know for
Speaker 1: a Flowers Uh, and we've had uh Robinson, Uh, and
Speaker 1: we've had Banks. Okay, those are the guys that we've had.
Speaker 2: He's got a slight lead if we want to.
Speaker 1: I don't hear what. He's got a slight lead only
Speaker 1: because Flowers was selected by Patty and then Sean in
Speaker 1: Vancouver said trade down to select Flowers.
Speaker 2: So he's hell give him one and a half.
Speaker 1: He's got one and a half. Basically, he's got one
Speaker 1: and a half. Aiden in California writes this in web
Speaker 1: radio at Patriots dot com. John Hopaul is, well, glad
Speaker 1: to hear you are considering or listening to takes of
Speaker 1: about firing Bill, because when I emailed in January you
Speaker 1: said it was an extreme take. My take is still yes,
Speaker 1: I want to fire him immediately. We haven't had any
Speaker 1: impact players since twenty twelve, which you pointed out earlier.
Speaker 1: I for one am tired. I don't think you're advocating
Speaker 1: firing Bill though now I for one am tired of
Speaker 1: seeing the parade of players pass us by, and the
Speaker 1: whole Max situation was just botched horribly. I know it's
Speaker 1: probably not apples to apples. I don't follow the Bruins,
Speaker 1: but look, they fired Cassidy and hired Montgomery last I checked,
Speaker 1: they're still pretty good as in who I think the
Speaker 1: guy who can't draft anymore will take. Speaking of Beligic,
Speaker 1: he selects Miles Murphy, so.
Speaker 2: He's really just saying that Bill is kind of just
Speaker 2: middle finger it to everybody on Thursday Night. Miles Murphy
Speaker 2: and edge rushers in general. I'm not the biggest Miles
Speaker 2: Murphy guy out of this group, but I am not
Speaker 2: sleeping on edge rusher being the first round pick by
Speaker 2: any means. It's a really strong class. And if you're
Speaker 2: just going off of talent, I think that there's a
Speaker 2: very good chance that one of those pass rushers is
Speaker 2: the best guy available on the board at fourteen for them.
Speaker 2: And when you look at their roster depth there at
Speaker 2: that spot right now, behind Judan and Nucha, what do
Speaker 2: you got? Pretty much nothing unless you want to really
Speaker 2: count on Ronnie Perkins and Forriny Jennings finally emerging from
Speaker 2: the ABYSS, I'm not, and then Nucha's in a contract
Speaker 2: year and Matthew Judon's thirty one years old. I think
Speaker 2: Deuce says it perfectly on PU all the time. If
Speaker 2: Matthew Judon goes down.
Speaker 1: Where is this deal at what.
Speaker 2: Does the whole team do so to get another one
Speaker 2: of those guys have bookend pass rushers that can get
Speaker 2: after these quarterbacks that are now in your division. There's
Speaker 2: some reason in logic to it. I think what people
Speaker 2: need to continue to see what their edge rusher spot.
Speaker 2: Josh U j only plays forty percent of the time.
Speaker 2: Josh U j is a sub rusher. He is a
Speaker 2: situational pass rusher. He is not a three down player.
Speaker 2: He's not a run player. He doesn't play on first down.
Speaker 2: So as good as he was last year and as
Speaker 2: good as he is at rushing the passer, he is
Speaker 2: a situational player. So what we're talking about with a
Speaker 2: guy like Miles Murphy or a guy like Lucas van
Speaker 2: Ness or a guy like Nolan Smith, who these are
Speaker 2: all guys they've had in for visits. Tyree Wilson from
Speaker 2: Texas Tech is a player that's gonna play eighty percent
Speaker 2: of the snaps and you can still get ouch on
Speaker 2: the field in the same situations. And maybe Miles Murphy
Speaker 2: kicks in, you know, one spot in and plays more
Speaker 2: as like an end and then you still have coming
Speaker 2: off the edge, right, So it's not like you have
Speaker 2: to take one or the other on the field. So
Speaker 2: I look at it and I see Miles Murphy, Matthew Judaan,
Speaker 2: josh U j Christian bar Moore, Dietrich Wise. Good luck
Speaker 2: block in that front, right, you know, that's a really
Speaker 2: really tough front to block. Somebody's getting a one on
Speaker 2: one somewhere and it's gonna be a good pass rusher
Speaker 2: getting that one on one. So I don't hate it.
Speaker 2: I don't hate it. How do you respond to Aaron
Speaker 2: Rodgers going to the Jets sack them?
Speaker 1: Well, we've talked about that, we talked about that earlier. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you just you try to knock the hell out of them.
Speaker 1: That's totally true.
Speaker 2: I don't hate it. The best defense in football right
Speaker 2: now is the San Francisco forty nine ers. They're built
Speaker 2: through the trenches. That's how they get it. They don't
Speaker 2: have a star in the secondary, they don't have a
Speaker 2: star cornerback. Jadevious Ward's their best corner right that. That
Speaker 2: whole defense runs through the front four. That's that's the
Speaker 2: entire defense. So I don't know. I can't, I can't,
Speaker 2: I can't say no. I can't say no.
Speaker 1: Uh, Chad and the at L whoever the player is
Speaker 1: and wherever it is they're taking. Considering Bill's trading history,
Speaker 1: I would just like them to take an exciting potential playmaker,
Speaker 1: someone to put buds in the seats and training and
Speaker 1: the regular season. As surprising as it is for Evan,
Speaker 1: there are people who consider the cornerback position exciting to watch.
Speaker 2: Shocks does.
Speaker 1: He said, Although, by the way, if I am Bill Belichick,
Speaker 1: I would trade up and draft Christian Gonzales.
Speaker 2: It's a good pick. Okay, it's a good pick, great player.
Speaker 2: I think Christian Gonzalez, out of all of these corners
Speaker 2: in this draft, he is the best at everything right, Like,
Speaker 2: there's not a flaw in his game. He's not. Yes,
Speaker 2: he's not as flashy as Devin Witherspoon, Right, He's not
Speaker 2: gonna make the plays on the football that Devin Witherspoon does.
Speaker 2: He's not as athletically freaky or as long as Joey
Speaker 2: Porter Jr. But he is sound and man, he's sounded zone.
Speaker 2: He's sound in match, he sound against the run, like
Speaker 2: he doesn't do anything bad, and there's something to be
Speaker 2: said for that and you watch his film and he
Speaker 2: is a smooth sob out there John, Like that guy's
Speaker 2: got hit that got.
Speaker 1: Oil all over him. The feet are fantastic.
Speaker 2: He flips the hips and he runs with anybody like
Speaker 2: you just looked at and you're like, how is he
Speaker 2: so smooth bound?
Speaker 1: Chick a bow bow?
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, hips don't lie. That's my Shakira.
Speaker 1: Evans hips man, isn't he?
Speaker 2: That's that's no way you talk like this at home.
Speaker 2: Just this is this is my Shakira. The draft his
Speaker 2: hips don't lie.
Speaker 1: I love it. I absolutely love it. That's good stuff.
Speaker 1: Eight five five patch five hundred rolling along here. If
Speaker 1: you're Bill Belichick, you would take you would draft whom
Speaker 1: Claire in the UK, host of The Claire Perspective.
Speaker 2: Listening live, I love I love it?
Speaker 1: Hey Claire? How are you hey?
Speaker 9: John?
Speaker 1: Hey? Girl? Love it? Love it? So you probably have
Speaker 1: something to think about that hip movement yourself, right, I
Speaker 1: got it a bit.
Speaker 9: I was shocked to hear this from Evan. This this
Speaker 9: a new side of.
Speaker 2: Evan Oily hips John.
Speaker 1: Okay, a little too much information there.
Speaker 2: You can tell that I've been talking about these guys
Speaker 2: for four months.
Speaker 1: Right, you're tired of look into the damn tape. Let's
Speaker 1: draft these suckers.
Speaker 2: Let's go all right, Claire, which the tape?
Speaker 1: He's looking at the hips?
Speaker 2: Yeah, which which tight end are you taking in the
Speaker 2: first round? Claire, I'm not, Oh the upset of the century.
Speaker 1: I thought for sure you'd be like a Michael Meyer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, me too.
Speaker 9: Oh well yeah, I mean he is kind of my
Speaker 9: draft for as they say, and he is the guy
Speaker 9: that I sort of would want, but he's the first
Speaker 9: round guy, and the Patriots kind of the first round
Speaker 9: isn't for the tight endage for them. There's plenty of
Speaker 9: kind of depth in the draft. Tiny, So I'm pretty well,
Speaker 9: I want I want to say, I'm pretty sure, but
Speaker 9: I'm really hoping that they do take at least I
Speaker 9: want to, but they shouldn't take it least on. But
Speaker 9: if you're sort of going number four, see if that's
Speaker 9: what you're talking about. The problem that I've got that
Speaker 9: it's so difficult to choose. There's so many like Evan
Speaker 9: saying Gonzales, he's hits amazing. You've got to know that
Speaker 9: a lot of the fan base, like they flowers and
Speaker 9: they want that shiny new toy. When it comes to
Speaker 9: wide receivers, you've got the edge guys that are good.
Speaker 9: You've got I know Evan doesn't want him, and I
Speaker 9: don't want a running back in the first round, but
Speaker 9: b John Robinsons, you know, an elite player. There's so
Speaker 9: much there. Linebacker Jack Campbell amazing, if you'd be a
Speaker 9: brilliant Patriot. So it's there's so many that you could
Speaker 9: choose at fourteen, and I'm going to be really boring
Speaker 9: because I really want a good tackle. So for me,
Speaker 9: it's kind of like the Broderick Jones or the Peters
Speaker 9: Goronski because the thing is, the one thing that keeps
Speaker 9: drawing me back to taking a tackle first is it's
Speaker 9: so difficult to get the value of tackling free agency
Speaker 9: without a lot of money. The drafted, where you pick
Speaker 9: up guys.
Speaker 1: And get them, there is a question of value there.
Speaker 10: Yeah, yeah, okay, I want that kind of that top
Speaker 10: guy that you pick early, you pick high, whatever, and
Speaker 10: he lasts two years and years and you haven't got
Speaker 10: to drop those multi millions big deal to entice a tackle,
Speaker 10: to protect your quarterback, to kind of build your team
Speaker 10: for the future, to get success for the future.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a really good point about tackles and the
Speaker 2: really good tackles do not come available too often because
Speaker 2: those guys typically get resigned or traded.
Speaker 9: Exactly.
Speaker 2: There's really you know, Mike mcglinchy hits free agency. Mike
Speaker 2: mclinchy is a good tackle, but he's not an elite tackle.
Speaker 2: And then he goes ahead and he breaks the record
Speaker 2: for the most money given to a tackle for It's
Speaker 2: basically what the Patriots did in twenty one, and the
Speaker 2: issues that they ran into with that free agency spending
Speaker 2: spree was overpaying for B plus guys exactly. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: tackle it's completely point.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it's a very valid point position where you're overplaying
Speaker 9: with glinchy even though he's not exactly what you really
Speaker 9: really kind of want, but you're overplaying because you need
Speaker 9: you need that tackle. And I think the likes of
Speaker 9: Broderick Jones and Peter Skrunsky could possibly really step them
Speaker 9: up when it comes to alone. It's kind of boring.
Speaker 9: I get it. It's not something that's game changing and
Speaker 9: sparkly on the field, but it's something that when you
Speaker 9: look at the bigger picture as a team, as a fanchise,
Speaker 9: how soudid you need an O line? How we saw
Speaker 9: the problem last year at the lack of depth and stuff,
Speaker 9: and I know that they've kind of possibly addressed that
Speaker 9: in free agency this year and stuff. But you want
Speaker 9: those super duper guys out there that you can depend on,
Speaker 9: that you know called rain or shine. They're going to
Speaker 9: protect the quarterback. And once you've got that, you haven't
Speaker 9: got a worry that in two or three four years
Speaker 9: you've got to dump a load of money on a tackle.
Speaker 9: You've still got these kids on rookie deals, which is
Speaker 9: you're getting such value for money. And yeah, like I said,
Speaker 9: I know it's boring, but it just feels like a
Speaker 9: really good way of building a team when you've got
Speaker 9: such these good skill sets that are kind of at fourteen.
Speaker 1: In this track, And which tackle do you favor?
Speaker 9: I'm really still being between the two.
Speaker 1: I really really get off the fence, Claire, get off
Speaker 1: the fence. I know, I know that you just kind
Speaker 1: of like nope, no, no, no fence walking, no fence
Speaker 1: walking not allowed.
Speaker 9: Moment.
Speaker 1: So you joined you joined me with Broderick Jones. He
Speaker 1: was my pick.
Speaker 2: I'm very glad that Claire that you you listen to
Speaker 2: the programs and you listen to people that talk about
Speaker 2: positional value and money. And if you're following the money
Speaker 2: with this pick, which is it, really that's the best
Speaker 2: way to do things, especially with this team. Let me
Speaker 2: tell you where they can, Where they can, you know,
Speaker 2: get the best bang for their buck, that's typically where
Speaker 2: Bill Belichick and the Patriots go.
Speaker 1: All right, we have to turn this conversation your direction, though, however,
Speaker 1: because we know that the tight end could definitely be
Speaker 1: a need here at some point when to the patrons
Speaker 1: take one and who's available.
Speaker 9: I was hoping in the second round, but I think
Speaker 9: it's still too rich because of need. But when I've
Speaker 9: been like mocked and stuff like that, I've taken Family.
Speaker 6: Reporter at like the forty six, okay.
Speaker 9: And then later into maybe the fourth. I really like
Speaker 9: Luke Shoemaker. He's so rounded and stuff.
Speaker 10: I think much language for the future.
Speaker 9: You've got future as well. The thing is, at the moment,
Speaker 9: they do need that blocking tight ends, and they can't
Speaker 9: just look at the Porter and think they're set for
Speaker 9: the future, because they're not, because none of what they've
Speaker 9: got now is you know, you've got the serious blocking.
Speaker 9: But if you strengthen the O line. It maybe isn't
Speaker 9: as much of a need, but I think you've got
Speaker 9: a FAMI. Reporter is the kind of what they like say,
Speaker 9: weapon in adversity commers if you like. And then for me,
Speaker 9: Shoemaker is just this really solid value for many tight
Speaker 9: ends who can be sturdy and reliable, and he's like
Speaker 9: the future sort of things. So I want the double
Speaker 9: dip in and I kind of want the than the
Speaker 9: Porter and the shoe maker. Ideally i'd have Mayor like
Speaker 9: forty six, but that won't happen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he won't probably yet. Yeah, he will probably wouldn't
Speaker 1: last that long. I see some max taking him at thirteen. Wait,
Speaker 1: Marx taking Mayor higher, Meyer higher at thirteen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a mock today that somebody had the Mayor
Speaker 2: at thirteen to the Packers.
Speaker 1: Is a myor? Mayor?
Speaker 2: I think it's Mayor?
Speaker 1: Is it?
Speaker 2: I think?
Speaker 9: So? Okay it's Maya.
Speaker 2: Okay, he's he's a well rounded specimen.
Speaker 3: That guy is.
Speaker 9: Oh it was my draft course, like before draft crist.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's uh, he's he's an impressive player. I think
Speaker 2: that the best comp to me for him is Jason Witten.
Speaker 1: You know, just is he I've heard that before.
Speaker 2: Is he Rock or Travis Kelsey that he's going to
Speaker 2: put up fifteen hundred yards? Probably not, but he's going
Speaker 2: to be at like nine hundred and two one thousand
Speaker 2: every single year and he's going to block his fine off. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, just really well rashed. I think at the
Speaker 2: worst case scenario, he's like a t. J. Hawkinson and
Speaker 2: that's like the low floor for him. Yeah, he's a
Speaker 2: really good player. I love that you picked that Laporte
Speaker 2: is one of your guys though, because he's he's I
Speaker 2: probably am higher on laporter than anybody. I have Lapora
Speaker 2: Laporta as my second tight end in the draft, behind Mayor.
Speaker 2: I think he's better than Kincaid. I think I think
Speaker 2: in Caid gets a little bit overrated. Uh Laporta. His
Speaker 2: athletic profiles off the charts, his separation ability at the
Speaker 2: top of the route, his versatility. He's the I think
Speaker 2: the best pass catching tight end in the draft. So yeah,
Speaker 2: he's fantastic player. I really hope that he he you know,
Speaker 2: just looking at Bill O'Brien and the success that he
Speaker 2: had with the tight ends here the first time around.
Speaker 2: He plays a little bit more like the other tight
Speaker 2: end that we don't say his name around here anymore,
Speaker 2: but he's got that kind of skill set, the ability
Speaker 2: to the jitterbug. But at six four two and forty
Speaker 2: five pounds, it's a it's a rare, a rare breed,
Speaker 2: and he's a really athletic player. I love Laporto.
Speaker 9: So you hadn necessary a two minutes ago, and now
Speaker 9: you've got the necessary now.
Speaker 1: Because he is my total Yeah.
Speaker 2: I love the port not a blocker, but past catching
Speaker 2: tight end don't need.
Speaker 1: To have some kind of a blocking element because the
Speaker 1: way that they line up.
Speaker 2: And there are some guys later on in the draft,
Speaker 2: like a Schoonmaker, like a I don't know if you've
Speaker 2: gotten this deep yet, Claire, but Breton Strain from Penn
Speaker 2: State is one of those blocking tight end types.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the kid from Oklahoma to them blanking on his
Speaker 2: name is a little bit later is more of that
Speaker 2: like h back blocking tight end, but he's he's one
Speaker 2: of those types that maybe they could pick up. Uh.
Speaker 2: But yeah, those guys, there's some blocking tight ends later on.
Speaker 2: I love school, Yes, yes, I love Schoonmaker. Though he's
Speaker 2: schoon I don't know, you might be right on the pronunciation.
Speaker 2: There's Claire eyes.
Speaker 1: He said shoe makers. What you say? Okay?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, he's a really good player. And I think
Speaker 2: that he's somebody that you look at the forty time
Speaker 2: in the combine and his ability to just burst off
Speaker 2: the line of scrimmage and get up the field, up
Speaker 2: the seam or on crossing routes and things like that.
Speaker 2: And they didn't throw them the ball a ton because
Speaker 2: Michigan didn't really run the offense through the tight end
Speaker 2: as much as other teams do. So I think he
Speaker 2: has some untapped potential as a receiver. That a guy
Speaker 2: that probably is going to be a better pass catcher
Speaker 2: in the NFL than he was in college.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I think so. Have you ever got any opinions
Speaker 9: on Josh Wiley from Susanastic. He's a much nicer, but
Speaker 9: he looks like he's got something.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, him in in Mallory from Miami. I think
Speaker 2: are two guys that are that are interesting. Valeri ran
Speaker 2: the fastest forty at the combine out of the tight ends,
Speaker 2: so he's got some more speed. I think Wiley Wiley
Speaker 2: is it like a classic block fucking tight end, right,
Speaker 2: Like that's a guy that can really that's probably not
Speaker 2: going to give you much in the passing game at all,
Speaker 2: But if you're just looking to get a third tight
Speaker 2: end in here that's going to block and short yardage
Speaker 2: and goal line and you know, first down and that
Speaker 2: type of thing, then he definitely fits the bill.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 9: I liked him. He's one of those lighter guys. I'm
Speaker 9: sort of we'll still be keeping my.
Speaker 1: Eye on definitely, John.
Speaker 2: Did you know this is going to be a tight
Speaker 2: end breakdown segment?
Speaker 1: I wasn't aware of it, but I knew that when
Speaker 1: I saw Clear's name on the on the queue here
Speaker 1: that I said, Okay, well, we're definitely gonna get some
Speaker 1: tight end cover.
Speaker 2: They gotta take one, and they do need one. It's
Speaker 2: a great class.
Speaker 1: I'll be hunter.
Speaker 2: Henry and Gaseki are under contract for.
Speaker 1: One moree more year, so you might be looking at
Speaker 1: the future here. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Neither one of them is really a true in line
Speaker 2: guy either. You know, gaseckis certainly not. I think Henry has.
Speaker 1: Which is why I would think that they would want
Speaker 1: If they're really gonna consider this as a draft pick,
Speaker 1: they gotta find somebody who can come in and block yeah,
Speaker 1: because that's not the strength of the other two guys.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we're all an agreement that Mayor in
Speaker 2: the first round is probably out. So then you're getting
Speaker 2: into like the Darnell Washington's of the world. Tucker Craft
Speaker 2: from South Dakota steak and block a little bit.
Speaker 1: By the way, don't have Washington. That's the key from Georgia, right.
Speaker 1: He hit is huge. He is a huge mammoth of
Speaker 1: a man. He's like six seven and seventy or something.
Speaker 2: I think at the combine he he he slimmed down
Speaker 2: a little bit to run well and.
Speaker 1: Oh well, but he towers over everybody. Yeah he's and
Speaker 1: I'm just like, dang, who wouldn't want to throw at that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's And he's got body control too. Yeah, he's
Speaker 2: got that body control to to make those adjustments to
Speaker 2: make the catches, you know. So it's not just the
Speaker 2: catch radius. He's he can he can catch a back shoulder,
Speaker 2: he can contort his body.
Speaker 1: If I'm telling you that, I mean.
Speaker 2: He's a little bit more of like a I think
Speaker 2: that he's So that's the biggest thing that I think
Speaker 2: gets misconstrued with the combine because he tested so well
Speaker 2: at the combine that everybody thinks that he's this like
Speaker 2: freak athlete. He's he's got heavy feet, like he's a plotter. Uh,
Speaker 2: he's he's a train right. It takes him a little
Speaker 2: while to get up to that top.
Speaker 1: Speed one of those guys though, the once he gets going,
Speaker 1: he can move.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So I think that, you know, as a player
Speaker 2: comp like you know, I I when I did my
Speaker 2: big board, I just said discount Rob Gronkowski, like maybe
Speaker 2: like end a career Rob Gronkowski, right, like not prime Gronk,
Speaker 2: but like like eighteen to Tampa Bay Gronk. You know,
Speaker 2: So like somewhere in that range, I think is a
Speaker 2: player that is what he could become in the league.
Speaker 2: I don't think that he's going to be as dynamic
Speaker 2: of a pass catcher as the combine necessarily suggests.
Speaker 9: That's what we're with me. He's got a really low flaw,
Speaker 9: but the possibility of a really high series, the gap
Speaker 9: that he could the gap between the sort of the
Speaker 9: skill set could be so vassed. Yeah, it could be
Speaker 9: kind of really he could actually like knock everybody sucks up,
Speaker 9: But there's that risk of him.
Speaker 1: Really not kind of Yeah, he's either in the.
Speaker 9: Potential that you think him.
Speaker 2: He's either what I just said, Gronk in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 2: or he's Mercedes Lewis right like, and that's a pretty
Speaker 2: big difference play exactly.
Speaker 9: That's what worries me about him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Claire, always good to talk to you. Yes, thanks ketto.
Speaker 1: You got it Claire in the UK. Let me end
Speaker 1: it with this here, V because I got one email
Speaker 1: from Howard and Stratford, Connecticut. He says. As I put
Speaker 1: on my BBGM cap, I look at the AFC East
Speaker 1: and the wide receivers the Pats go up against twice
Speaker 1: a year, and with number fourteen, I have to take
Speaker 1: Deonte Banks, which we've talked about. So that's a second
Speaker 1: vote for Banks, the cornerback from Maryland. Now the secondary
Speaker 1: is top five in the league. Added to the pass
Speaker 1: rush that is developing with judaon and this defense takes
Speaker 1: another step toward tops in the league. Combined with an
Speaker 1: NFL offense coached by experienced offensive coaches and this team
Speaker 1: which won eight games with no offense last year, I
Speaker 1: could see an easy pickup of two or three wins.
Speaker 2: What do you think just from draft in Deontay Banks
Speaker 2: or the whole, the whole puzzle.
Speaker 1: The whole puzzle. But he says he starts with Deontay
Speaker 1: Banks to create the rest of the dominos following him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think if you draft a guy like Deontay Banks,
Speaker 2: you hope that you are approaching a level of like
Speaker 2: a Sauce Gardner, get it, you know, that type of
Speaker 2: flip for your defense or the Jets went from a
Speaker 2: good defense to an elite defense really last year with Sauce.
Speaker 2: So I yeah, I mean I gave my Deontay Banks
Speaker 2: thoughts earlier, and I love the player. I think that
Speaker 2: that's if you're looking for that missing piece defensively, then
Speaker 2: it's probably a number one corner, Like that's sort of
Speaker 2: the missing ingredient for them. So I could certainly see it.
Speaker 2: And I think, if you know, I picked Jackson with
Speaker 2: an Jigbaz, the guy that I would want them to draft,
Speaker 2: I would say that the guy that I can most
Speaker 2: say I think they would draft would probably be Ze Flowers.
Speaker 2: But if I had to pick a defensive player, I
Speaker 2: would go at Deontay Banks Bank as well.
Speaker 1: All right, Then the final thing I have to put
Speaker 1: it here ev is because of the rumor and I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's just rumor. We've seen it written
Speaker 1: by several of the writers. I think you've even mentioned
Speaker 1: it as well here from time to time, But the
Speaker 1: fact that the Patriots might just be interested in finding
Speaker 1: a quarterback at some point. I know there's been a
Speaker 1: talk about Will Levis because he was a you know,
Speaker 1: he went to training camp and all that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: and you know, I think he's got any New England
Speaker 1: roots and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: Here.
Speaker 2: See he's born in Newton but lived in Connecticut, right, Okay, So.
Speaker 1: And I think that's a that's ridiculous to even even consider.
Speaker 1: He'll be long gone, probably even before the Patriots take
Speaker 1: it fourteen. But you don't know, you don't know where
Speaker 1: guys are gonna slide. Do the Pats consider a quarterback?
Speaker 1: And when should they consider a quarterback? Considering now there's
Speaker 1: only two of them? Right? Well, I know they signed somebody,
Speaker 1: but I mean at the same time, right, they need
Speaker 1: they need competition. And what happens if Mac doesn't turn
Speaker 1: out the way that we all think he can and
Speaker 1: hope he can, But what if he doesn't, do they
Speaker 1: actually get an eye toward that. I'm just kind of
Speaker 1: asking you the quarterback conundrum, if you will.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I I think there's legitimate interest in Will Levis
Speaker 2: for the Patriots. I don't think that this is just
Speaker 2: a due diligence pick the guy's brain because he might
Speaker 2: go to the Colts and he might play him down
Speaker 2: the line or all that type of stuff that gets
Speaker 2: thrown out. I don't think that that's I think there's
Speaker 2: legitimate interest in the player, and I think that he
Speaker 2: fits what they do a little bit better than maybe
Speaker 2: on the surface it looks like he would. I think
Speaker 2: Will Levis is a really misunderstood prospect. I think a
Speaker 2: lot of people look at him, his size, his arm, talent,
Speaker 2: and they think Josh Allen, Right, you know, he's just
Speaker 2: this ball of clay, that can athlete that gets outside
Speaker 2: the pocket and makes these ridiculous you know, off platform
Speaker 2: throws fifty yards down the field. That's not the player
Speaker 2: that I saw watching him. I see a guy that's
Speaker 2: much more functional in structure in the pocket, operating the offense.
Speaker 2: I think his decision making issues come when he's improving, right.
Speaker 2: I think he tends to cash a check that you know,
Speaker 2: whatever right a check is, he can't cash right, you know,
Speaker 2: when he goes on in the move and now he's
Speaker 2: trying to throw across his body, across the field or
Speaker 2: into tight window coverage down the field, and that's when
Speaker 2: he gets these interception numbers, and that's why he threw
Speaker 2: so many picks. So I think that there's a reason
Speaker 2: football reasons, you know, in between the lines, reasons for
Speaker 2: them to have some interest in Will Levis. I don't
Speaker 2: think they go in that direction. Ultimately. I think if
Speaker 2: you look at this quarterback class, it's tough because there's
Speaker 2: not really a great middle tier to this quarterback class.
Speaker 2: There's the four guys at the top. There's Henn Hooker,
Speaker 2: who's kind of this wild card that I think is
Speaker 2: gonna end up going in the first round. So it's
Speaker 2: probably gonna be too rich for them anyways.
Speaker 1: Even even with this Andrew situation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think he'll end up going into the first round.
Speaker 1: Wow. So because I was gonna ask you specifically about.
Speaker 2: Hook he's the guy that everybody the guy that everybody's
Speaker 2: describing like the Jalen Hurts pick for the Patriots is
Speaker 2: probably hend and Hooker. But Hennen Hooker is going to
Speaker 2: go in the end of the first round and not
Speaker 2: in the second round like Jalen Hurts did, so there's
Speaker 2: a little bit of an issue there. And then once
Speaker 2: you get past Hooker, there's a huge drop off now
Speaker 2: to the next tier quarterbacks, you know, the Tanner mckeys
Speaker 2: of the world and the Josh Hayner is like j Hayner.
Speaker 2: Excuse me that that drop off is steep. So if
Speaker 2: you're not going quarterback in the top fifty, you're probably
Speaker 2: not going quarterback into like the fourth round, right, That's
Speaker 2: the type of draft that it is. So I would
Speaker 2: say that I don't know if it's a bold prediction
Speaker 2: or not, but I would predict that the Patriots will
Speaker 2: take a quarterback in the fourth round with one of
Speaker 2: those three fourth round picks. I lean towards dtr from
Speaker 2: UCLA just because they worked with him at the Shrine Bowl,
Speaker 2: and it seems like athletically he's got some upside, he's
Speaker 2: got some mobility. I compared him to Tyrod Taylor. He's
Speaker 2: kind of that type of player. So I think that
Speaker 2: there's something to be said for They already have the
Speaker 2: Bailey Zappies and the mac Jones of the world.
Speaker 1: Let's get so you need something that's kind.
Speaker 2: Of different, right, a little bit more toolsy. Yeah, correct,
Speaker 2: So I think that they could do that. I like
Speaker 2: Hayter a lot though, too, and he's got some he's
Speaker 2: got some khons, right, Like, he's got some of that
Speaker 2: that uh, that that grit, that that toughness and that
Speaker 2: intangible similar to kind of like a Taylor Heineke where
Speaker 2: he's just got there's something about him, right, and he's
Speaker 2: kind of a little wild and and just plays with
Speaker 2: his hair on fire. So I do like him a
Speaker 2: little bit. But it's a tough quarterback class, it's not.
Speaker 1: There's somebody though that could be a little developable.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, those two guys I think have some upside,
Speaker 2: have some athletic ability. I'd also throw out Jaron Hall
Speaker 2: from b YU as another one of those guys that
Speaker 2: has that athletic upside off platform ability can just flick
Speaker 2: the wrists and throw the football, uh, you know, twenty
Speaker 2: yards down the field on the line.
Speaker 1: You know. So one of those picks on the fourth
Speaker 1: round might be one of the spots. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think Look, until until they hit, they know one
Speaker 2: hundred percent sure that they have the quarterback. Until you're
Speaker 2: in a look, they're not going to be in a
Speaker 2: Patrick Mahomes category. But like, until they're in that level
Speaker 2: of category where there's no question about who the quarterback
Speaker 2: of this team is, you gotta keep taking quarterbacks. I
Speaker 2: don't know how you don't. And even with Tom Brady here,
Speaker 2: they used to take quarterbacks every other year as it is,
Speaker 2: so I don't know why they wouldn't necessarily unless they
Speaker 2: just hate the class, which is possible because it's not
Speaker 2: a great class.
Speaker 1: Right, all right, I get two more quick rapid fire
Speaker 1: ones for you before I'm not gonnat that. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: you'll be fine. You'll be fine. You'll be fine right now.
Speaker 1: Number one, most surprised pick, you think, or most surprised position,
Speaker 1: I should say that the Patriots take highly What would
Speaker 1: really shock.
Speaker 2: You anything on the interior, like defensive tackle or obviously
Speaker 2: an interior lineman. I don't think anything else would shock
Speaker 2: me though, because like even like safety. You know, Devin
Speaker 2: mccorty just retired, So if they took Brian Branch from Alabama,
Speaker 2: would any of us be totally shocked?
Speaker 1: No, because they just yeah, as you said, they'd retire.
Speaker 2: Of safety, right, So I would just say anything on
Speaker 2: the interior and I can't. I can't roll out running backs.
Speaker 2: I don't think that would surprise me either, So really
Speaker 2: de tackle or you know, like a center, I think
Speaker 2: it would be pretty shocking. But other than that, again,
Speaker 2: it's sort of the roster thing right of got a
Speaker 2: lot of holes. So like anywhere else, really maybe linebacker.
Speaker 2: It's not a great linebacker class, especially at the top.
Speaker 2: I think Jack Campbell and Drew Sanders will be the
Speaker 2: first two linebackers off the board, maybe sometime in the forties.
Speaker 2: So it's not a great linebacker class either.
Speaker 1: Do the Patriots keep all eleven picks?
Speaker 2: No, consolidate? I think that they're going to be way
Speaker 2: under eleven. I'd say like eight or nine. They just
Speaker 2: don't have the roster spots for it. You know, they
Speaker 2: have seventy five guys.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, yeah, we're gonna update seventy
Speaker 1: five guys right now. Yes, so you can get to ninety.
Speaker 2: Right sot free agents, right That only leaves you four
Speaker 2: spots for undrafted free agents if you have an eleven
Speaker 2: pick rookie class. So I think that they consolidate. My
Speaker 2: guess is is it's a trade back in the first
Speaker 2: round or pick at fourteen and then maybe trade up
Speaker 2: in the second round and do the Christian bar Moore
Speaker 2: trade reducts, you know, move up eight six to eight
Speaker 2: spots to to land a top forty player with the
Speaker 2: second pick in the draft, you know, their second pick
Speaker 2: in the draft, something like that.
Speaker 1: All right, I'll let you go. I know you need
Speaker 1: I know you need a get go one. So I do,
Speaker 1: I do.
Speaker 2: I got a. I'm gonna have a phone interview with
Speaker 2: Matt Light, Patriots Hall of Famer.
Speaker 1: Yes, and a lot of that is gonna be because
Speaker 1: we have He's gonna You're gonna ask you about our
Speaker 1: next Patriots Hall of Famer.
Speaker 2: Our next Yes, we don't know who the player pick is,
Speaker 2: but we know that Dante's Dante Skarneck. I've got some
Speaker 2: great stuff from Scar himself, Ivan Fears David Andrews, so
Speaker 2: I'd add that Light to it. It's very very cool.
Speaker 2: It's very cool listening to Ivan in particular talk about
Speaker 2: what Dante meant to his career and basically took him
Speaker 2: under his wing and made sure that he was he
Speaker 2: was okay in the NFL world. And you know, I
Speaker 2: really looked at Dante is like a big brother, you know,
Speaker 2: father type figure, and it was it was pretty cool
Speaker 2: to hear him, you know, get so emotional talking about
Speaker 2: I never had to worry about my job or if
Speaker 2: I was going to stick in the NFL because Dante
Speaker 2: Dante had me. You know, Dante was going to take
Speaker 2: care of me. And I could see how much that
Speaker 2: meant to him.
Speaker 1: All Right, we'll get right back to the phones and
Speaker 1: the emails. Just wanted Evan to get off to his
Speaker 1: interview here. Ev I appreciate it everybody listening to Catch
Speaker 1: twenty two with him and Barth. All right, and I
Speaker 1: know that you'll have the live coverage tomorrow night of
Speaker 1: the draft right here on Patriots dot Com Radio. Through
Speaker 1: all the Patriots picks, through all the picks in the NFL.
Speaker 1: These guys will come in on, you know, whether or
Speaker 1: not they think they did a good job, whether they
Speaker 1: did a crappy job or you know, or did they
Speaker 1: miss out here. That'll be the fun part is getting
Speaker 1: the Patriots perspective on everybody else's picks during the draft,
Speaker 1: of course, coming up tomorrow night. All right, quick break,
Speaker 1: then we're right back to the phones. Coming up here
Speaker 1: on Patriots dot Com Radio. In the playbook Patriots Playbook
Speaker 1: on Patriots dot Com Radio. I'm John Rook. Thanks to
Speaker 1: Evan Lazar, you know, as he's done all the homework,
Speaker 1: and so I really wanted Evan. Alex obviously has his
Speaker 1: day job that he had to get to today, which
Speaker 1: is we talked about at the top of the program
Speaker 1: today at ninety eight five Aaron Boston. But they're the
Speaker 1: guys that do all the work. They're the guys that
Speaker 1: you know, that do all the research to do all
Speaker 1: the film watching, do all the video watching, do all
Speaker 1: the reading, do all the researching. You know, and you
Speaker 1: and I and and and all of us who love
Speaker 1: the draft, and all of us who love playing draft
Speaker 1: games and try to figure out who the hell or
Speaker 1: what the hell is going to go on with such
Speaker 1: and touch Team SUTN Chutch Area. You know, that's fine,
Speaker 1: it's great. That's part of the fund. That's why we're
Speaker 1: all attracted to this. It's why the NFL Draft has
Speaker 1: grown to the experience that it is and has been
Speaker 1: over the last ten to twenty years from what it
Speaker 1: used to be when you know it really started in
Speaker 1: the sixties. Can you believe that it used to be
Speaker 1: Pete Rosel, the then commissioner at a chalkboard, a blackboard,
Speaker 1: that's what it used to be. And so you can
Speaker 1: understand a little bit why, you know, at least initially
Speaker 1: when ESPN wanted to televise, which began in you know,
Speaker 1: in nineteen what seventy nine, I guess when ESPN turned
Speaker 1: it into a TV spectacle of nineteen seventy nine, nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty and then Mel Kuiper, my buddy Mel Kuiper, who
Speaker 1: will certainly be front and center throughout the course of
Speaker 1: this weekend on ESPN's coverage. He joined the NFL draft
Speaker 1: coverage I think at like eighty four, eighty three, eighty four,
Speaker 1: and Mel he's one of the few guys I know
Speaker 1: whose job three hundred and sixty five days a year
Speaker 1: is the NFL Draft. That's what he does. He puts
Speaker 1: together his draft guide and he researches all these guys,
Speaker 1: and he's probably already started work on twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: But I would tell you that as soon as the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three draft is over this weekend, he'll already
Speaker 1: be walking on twenty twenty four, if he's not already.
Speaker 1: And that's just kind of what he does, and a
Speaker 1: lot of people subscribe to that, including a lot of
Speaker 1: teams subscribed to some of the things that he does
Speaker 1: and the research that he does, And so our own
Speaker 1: researcher here in Evan and Alex as well with the
Speaker 1: podcast they do that Catch twenty two and they get
Speaker 1: the chance to talk a lot of football, and it's
Speaker 1: a great addition. If you haven't heard it, you know,
Speaker 1: I want those guys. They're the ones that have done
Speaker 1: the study. You know, you and I I could certainly
Speaker 1: sit here and figure it out ourselves because I watch
Speaker 1: a lot of football. I see a lot of video clips.
Speaker 1: I know you do as well. I listen to Good
Speaker 1: Morning Football on occasion on NFL Network. You know, certainly
Speaker 1: see all this stuff on the NFL programs on ESPN.
Speaker 1: So I kind of feel like I know a little,
Speaker 1: but I don't know what these guys know. They really
Speaker 1: Evan does such a superb job of breaking it down.
Speaker 1: He really does, and he makes it easy to understand. Like,
Speaker 1: for instance, the whole you know Oily Hips thing we
Speaker 1: were talking about, I mean that I understand where he's
Speaker 1: coming from, and we're making fun of him for that,
Speaker 1: but I mean, at the same time, I get it,
Speaker 1: slippery guy, that's what we're looking for. You need somebody
Speaker 1: with that quote unquote missibility like I like to the
Speaker 1: phrase I like to use like a Bijon Robinson of
Speaker 1: Texas or what have you. Anyway, so that's why we
Speaker 1: want to emphasize that right now. Let's continue with you
Speaker 1: here at eight five five Pats five hundred, and the
Speaker 1: question of the day, if you tuned in live late,
Speaker 1: largely has been if I'm Bill Belichick, I would draft blank,
Speaker 1: fill in the blank. All right. We have Jackson Smith,
Speaker 1: the Jigbo. We have Roderick Jones, Say Flowers, Bjohn Robinson,
Speaker 1: we got Banks, Murphy Gonzales, trade up and go get Gonzales.
Speaker 1: These are the guys that we've had mentioned already, all right.
Speaker 1: And of course, if you ultimately select the person who
Speaker 1: is taken by the Patriots first at fourteen at the
Speaker 1: number fourteen spot, then you get a chance to come
Speaker 1: in and co host a show with me next month
Speaker 1: or June. We'll figure it out whatever's more convenient either
Speaker 1: the mayor of the June editions of the playbook. But
Speaker 1: that's kind of what's at stake here. I know that's
Speaker 1: a big hunteror so we want to make sure that
Speaker 1: you everybody has an opportunity at that. Let's get to
Speaker 1: Nelson in Los Angeles. Here, Hey Nelson here in the playbook.
Speaker 4: Hey, how we're doing today?
Speaker 1: I'm great, Nelson. How's it going?
Speaker 3: Good? Good?
Speaker 4: If it said I'll get an edge Russer, I just
Speaker 4: think Junior Alabama?
Speaker 1: Okay, is he gonna be around?
Speaker 3: We need?
Speaker 1: Yeah? But is he gonna be around?
Speaker 4: Well, if he's around, I'll get him. Okay, I'll get him.
Speaker 1: All right, all right, So tell me what it is
Speaker 1: specifically why you think he's going to be around, if
Speaker 1: you do think he's going to be around, and why
Speaker 1: you want him.
Speaker 4: I want him because he's a big guy. He knows
Speaker 4: how to rush in and Judan does a lot of work.
Speaker 4: He needs, you know, he needs somebody else to help
Speaker 4: him out a little bit.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, Well I think for you we did
Speaker 1: talk about that, by the way, all right, go ahead, out.
Speaker 4: Of all out of all of wide receivers, say they
Speaker 4: take the five top fire receivers at the tap. Which
Speaker 4: other receivers are you interesting at.
Speaker 1: Of the receivers of the receivers, Well, the one the
Speaker 1: receiver that I like is Quentin john for TCU. That's
Speaker 1: the guy that I like. Uh, And it's probably because
Speaker 1: I've seen him play a little bit more often now
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of Zay flowers as well, just
Speaker 1: because of him being at Boston College. But I'm intrigued
Speaker 1: by Johnson's length. He's I think he's got some some
Speaker 1: burst and some speed in a little bit of separation.
Speaker 1: But you're talking about a guy that's got longer arms
Speaker 1: and and he's one of those guys that actually go
Speaker 1: up and get a ball if you need it. And
Speaker 1: and I think that's probably why I like him more.
Speaker 1: And it's not that I don't like Zay. I think
Speaker 1: if they took Zay, I think could be happy with him,
Speaker 1: just like everybody would probably be ultimately happy with him.
Speaker 1: But to me, I just think his physical nature and
Speaker 1: his physical presence would be something that would set him
Speaker 1: apart from others. For me, what do you think? But
Speaker 1: he's he's in a five top, Okay, So.
Speaker 4: I told you, not no five? The five already gone?
Speaker 4: Say they gone already And he's in a five.
Speaker 3: So he's gone.
Speaker 4: They are the rest right? He was in there right now?
Speaker 4: I think six and seven and all the way down.
Speaker 4: Who will you think will be a good fit for
Speaker 4: you for the Patriots.
Speaker 1: Well, there's no reason why he can't be a fit.
Speaker 1: You know, you're you're you're stuck in trying to, you know,
Speaker 1: fulfill roles. I don't think I think you have to
Speaker 1: look beyond that. You know, he can certainly fit with
Speaker 1: what he does. He's going to be an outside guy,
Speaker 1: that's all you say.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know he'll fit with us. Well, he's in
Speaker 4: a five, he's in a five top. Why receive where
Speaker 4: draft lift? I say, say they take the five, we
Speaker 4: see what's from the draft list.
Speaker 1: I'll be Nelson. I'll be honest, I haven't gone any
Speaker 1: deeper than that because I'm not sure that they I'm
Speaker 1: not sure that they I'm not sure that they a
Speaker 1: that they need to because anybody after the second round,
Speaker 1: you know, to me, I think you throw him in
Speaker 1: a hat and you pick one and you're happy with it. See,
Speaker 1: the only guys, the only guys that you really need
Speaker 1: to be concerned about. And this is what we talked
Speaker 1: about at the very beginning of the show today, was
Speaker 1: that you know, when you have a pick as high
Speaker 1: as fourteen overall, you know you're gonna get a chance
Speaker 1: to get a Blue Chipper, so you don't want to
Speaker 1: mess that opportunity up, which is why a lot of
Speaker 1: people I think would still be upset if the Patriots
Speaker 1: figure out a way to trade down again, which could happen.
Speaker 1: It has happened. We know that Bill Belichick's likes, he
Speaker 1: loves to trade down, and they'd be disappointing that because
Speaker 1: you rarely get an opportunity to draft this high in
Speaker 1: the draft and you want somebody that you know is
Speaker 1: a first round guy on every team's draft list, and
Speaker 1: if you're gonna go after the top, well you do.
Speaker 1: But so if you're telling me, all right, who do
Speaker 1: I like after the top five receivers? Dude, I don't
Speaker 1: study it that hard. Okay. I just don't why because
Speaker 1: throw him in a bag and I'll pick one's That's
Speaker 1: all I'm talking about. Okay, So you know, to me, look,
Speaker 1: if you're I don't think the Patriots end up taking
Speaker 1: a receiver high, but a guy like Johnson could end
Speaker 1: up sliding to a second round spot. He could, and
Speaker 1: it wouldn't surprise me to see him go, say a
Speaker 1: forty six, wouldn't surprise me at all.
Speaker 4: All right, So I'll see you. I'll talk to you
Speaker 4: later than you. Have a nice day.
Speaker 1: Thanks Nelson.
Speaker 4: Quickly we don't trade down or nothing.
Speaker 1: There you go, Thanks Nelson, appreciate you. Todd in Greenville, Hey.
Speaker 11: Todd, long time no talk, mister rook How are you, Bud?
Speaker 11: Not bad? Went through some crazy times, had a house,
Speaker 11: lost the house, a new house, and move to going
Speaker 11: to move someplace else, to another country, then back to
Speaker 11: having a house and wow.
Speaker 1: So it has been it's been up and down for you.
Speaker 11: Huh, yeah, it's been. It's been a wild ride.
Speaker 1: Well, I hope everything's okay.
Speaker 11: Yeah, everything's fine and uh and everything will be fine
Speaker 11: when the Patriots trade right out of the first round
Speaker 11: entirely and get themselves like two second rounders, and then
Speaker 11: I'll be hosting the show with you there, rookie.
Speaker 1: Okay, I like it all right.
Speaker 11: So if they don't trade out, I would I would
Speaker 11: love to see them actually trade up and do whatever
Speaker 11: they could to get Gonzales. I think he's amazing, and
Speaker 11: I think that would set that defense to such a
Speaker 11: high level that if the offense does just case or
Speaker 11: twenty one points, because that was that was last year
Speaker 11: and hopefully they do better this year. But you know,
Speaker 11: they get twenty one, twenty four points, they can win
Speaker 11: because that defense would be just insane.
Speaker 1: That's exactly what Evan and I were talking about, you know,
Speaker 1: and he said, look, you got to be able to
Speaker 1: beat teams thirty to twenty seven. You have to be
Speaker 1: able to do that. So that's why there's an emphasis on,
Speaker 1: I think, still finding some offensive players because at some
Speaker 1: point in time, you got to be able to outscore
Speaker 1: a team. You're not going to beat Buffalo in a
Speaker 1: twenty to seventeen game, probably not going to happen.
Speaker 11: Well, I don't know. The defense last year was insane
Speaker 11: and if they.
Speaker 1: Have, well it's they alongside they've made strides. Okay, I
Speaker 1: will certainly give you that, but nobody in this day
Speaker 1: and age of offensive football, nobody really is. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you give it up seventeen eighteen points a game,
Speaker 1: you're considered lockdown, and that on average. There are gonna
Speaker 1: be games that you're gonna you know, you're gonna play
Speaker 1: a week or point it opponent and you're gonna give
Speaker 1: up thirteen or fourteen, and there could be other games
Speaker 1: where you give up twenty four to twenty seven, and
Speaker 1: the average of that is still gonna be right there
Speaker 1: in the middle. So you know, I'm I'm you need.
Speaker 1: I am of the opinion the Patriots need more offensive push.
Speaker 1: They need more help on the offensive side. And if
Speaker 1: I'm not drafting the lineman, which is what I think
Speaker 1: they would do, it will do at fourteen. I would
Speaker 1: definitely have to take a look at receiver. And even
Speaker 1: though a guy like Johnson is my guy, I would
Speaker 1: think they will take Flowers.
Speaker 11: Yes, yeah, I love Flowers. No, I'm just this is
Speaker 11: the way Bill thinks. And I'm pretty sure that if
Speaker 11: he doesn't trade under the first round, you'll get himself
Speaker 11: a defensive player there.
Speaker 1: Okay, And which one do you like?
Speaker 10: Well?
Speaker 11: I like Gonzalez. I would like them to trade up.
Speaker 11: I don't think you want Gaza.
Speaker 4: I don't know where.
Speaker 11: Okay, Bill is too unpredictable. I really don't know where
Speaker 11: you to be honest, John, But my pick would be Gonzalid.
Speaker 1: Okay, So you think that, so you'll say they trade
Speaker 1: up and they take gonz the corner from Morgan.
Speaker 11: Oh No, what I'm really saying is they're going to
Speaker 11: trade out entirely of the first round and get the
Speaker 11: second round pack for their first round.
Speaker 1: Is okay? So you so they'll you think they'll trade
Speaker 1: out all together? Oh yeah, okay, but I'm gonna hold
Speaker 1: you to the Gonzales pick. That's your pick. If they
Speaker 1: if they go, okay, all right, that's fine. And I
Speaker 1: kind of I kind of agree with you in terms
Speaker 1: of the not trading out. I don't think they trade out.
Speaker 1: I think what they'll do is they're they're gonna drop
Speaker 1: back and they're gonna uh, my guess is they'll look
Speaker 1: at you know, if the guy right there from Tennessee
Speaker 1: is on the board, you know, if someone like Jones
Speaker 1: drops uh and Skearansky is the one that's also kind
Speaker 1: of dropping a little bit in stature over the last
Speaker 1: couple of days, if they think they can get him
Speaker 1: at eighteen to twenty, I could see them trading down
Speaker 1: and picking up an extra top one hundred pick and
Speaker 1: then taking that lineman at that spot like that, I
Speaker 1: could see see.
Speaker 11: I hope you actually are in the home somewhere when
Speaker 11: they do the drafting, like in Patriots Stadium, so that
Speaker 11: are near the studios, because when Bill does something like
Speaker 11: take the running back first or something. I just want
Speaker 11: you to be there to eyewitness, you know, the explosion
Speaker 11: of Evan induce, because I I think that's going to
Speaker 11: be epic. Know Bill is going to do something. And
Speaker 11: those two like they're already a Debbie downers.
Speaker 1: For ye yeah, I get they're they're.
Speaker 11: A little bit out. Well then so is Andy hart
Speaker 11: Heart actually on his show said that he thinks Bill
Speaker 11: is losing it. He thinks Bill is slipping with you know,
Speaker 11: the draft.
Speaker 1: I've seen and say that. I know I've seen Andy
Speaker 1: say that.
Speaker 11: Yeah, you know who knows. But yeah, I hope you're
Speaker 11: there and I'll let you go and get somebody else's bick.
Speaker 1: Thanks brother, all right, all right, talk to you all right,
Speaker 1: Thanks Todd, and take care all right, keep everybody safe, Eldred.
Speaker 1: What's happened in my man?
Speaker 3: Hey, mister Manson, good to talk to you, my brother.
Speaker 1: Always good to talk to you, my friend. How are you.
Speaker 3: Doing? Really good? Hopefully I'm just the last load. I
Speaker 3: gotta do them going back to his yard. Hope I
Speaker 3: can go home.
Speaker 1: Okay, that sounds good, And then you'll climb in that
Speaker 1: camaro and go home, yes.
Speaker 3: Sir, And then sit back and the dread tomorrow and
Speaker 3: like I always do for the last ten to fifteen years. Okay,
Speaker 3: because the same guy doing the picket. So and I
Speaker 3: agree with Andy, But see I've been saying that for years.
Speaker 3: They've not been knocking me off. And I'm like, I'm
Speaker 3: telling you, you never get the guy. You always get
Speaker 3: the mother guys. And the mother guys go arounding out rosters,
Speaker 3: but they ain't your superstars. It ain't your corps. But
Speaker 3: the problem with Bill he get a corp and once
Speaker 3: they produced, he don't want to pay me and get
Speaker 3: rid of And that's the part to be kissing me
Speaker 3: off the most. You know, you got good guys that
Speaker 3: you homegrown, and once they produced a little bit, you know,
Speaker 3: unless they good foot soldiers like mccordy, you'll pay him,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 1: True.
Speaker 3: Then I hate just know this news they're talking about
Speaker 3: Max and Will Levis. Well everybody said they don't know
Speaker 3: why I knew England got all their interest when nobody
Speaker 3: else really do you know? But that's deal?
Speaker 1: Well you think you know? Do you think it's the
Speaker 1: Patriot's interest as driving Levice is stock up?
Speaker 3: I think so, But I be honest with you, I
Speaker 3: wouldn't be surprised that Bill'll go get him because he
Speaker 3: because of Max.
Speaker 1: You know, well, we'll find out for sure if if
Speaker 1: you know, if he has any trouble with Mac, because
Speaker 1: if they end up taking a guy like Levis, especially
Speaker 1: somewhere there in the first round, then we know, Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: then why the hell didn't they trade Mac when they
Speaker 1: could have? I mean, that's what I would ask.
Speaker 3: Because because the Texan I'm sorry, I mean to get.
Speaker 1: Y'all start, that's right, No, no, go ahead.
Speaker 3: Because the Texan does a night. Because I brought it
Speaker 3: up with PU. They just came out and said they
Speaker 3: might not take a quarterback in the second round. They
Speaker 3: thinking about trading for you the tree Lance or mac Jones.
Speaker 3: And they named him too pacifically, okay, and they named
Speaker 3: him partifically. They didn't say, well, we'll try about Sam,
Speaker 3: might get another veteran. I just they said Trey Lance
Speaker 3: or mac Jones. But they said Matt first, then Trey Lance,
Speaker 3: you know, and just build up their defense with the
Speaker 3: piece they need and then if next year it was
Speaker 3: the better a group of quarterbacks, you know, to make
Speaker 3: you one next year. But he's gonna try to run
Speaker 3: it like San Francisco Dad when they brought party again.
Speaker 3: That's why Trey Lance now is despendable, which is tricky
Speaker 3: because you got rid of Jimmy. I'll keep Trey Lance
Speaker 3: just for the backup, just in case, but he can't
Speaker 3: something after party. But Perry prove he can run run
Speaker 3: the offense.
Speaker 1: All right, So, Eldred, I'm gonna I'll put you on
Speaker 1: the spot here. You gotta answer the question. If I'm
Speaker 1: Bill Belichick, I would draft who.
Speaker 3: I'm like everybody else, even though I'm a wide receiver guy.
Speaker 3: I'll go up and get gun dollars and uh hip
Speaker 3: out with my defense because them little show corners ain't
Speaker 3: gonna come nobody. I'm sorry, you ain't got speed on
Speaker 3: the iight, I'll get him and then I will double
Speaker 3: dip in the stuck in the third and get me
Speaker 3: another corner. So you wide receivers.
Speaker 1: Are deep, okay? All right? So all right, So you
Speaker 1: think the wide receivers are deep enough where they can
Speaker 1: go get somebody later, and you'd take two corners with
Speaker 1: your first two picks.
Speaker 3: I will cost be honest with you, Bill, he ain't
Speaker 3: thinking like the NFL that uh that you know you
Speaker 3: got to air the ball out to throw. Uh, I'm
Speaker 3: like Andy Games, I'm passing by. He still think it's
Speaker 3: a nineteen ninety Yeah, So uh, I beat up my
Speaker 3: defense with those corners because, like you said, you got
Speaker 3: Myles Bright no Jaalen Mills.
Speaker 9: No.
Speaker 3: I love the kids from last year, but he's fired.
Speaker 3: They good to the spot. But you ain't gonna get
Speaker 3: speed and tall guys fish for back that they we're
Speaker 3: gonna be facing this year. So you gotta get somebody.
Speaker 3: And I wouldn't put him on the bench. They're gonna
Speaker 3: just start, you know, and get your liscense in early,
Speaker 3: get your headaches in early. Because this is not a
Speaker 3: rebuilt of just not just not what you call just
Speaker 3: rebi go to the super Bowl. This gonna be a
Speaker 3: retuning for for a minute that you shouldn't. You would
Speaker 3: have had that last year if you picked one last
Speaker 3: year instead of cold range. It didn't get another corner,
Speaker 3: but you got a guard. But I wouldn't be surprised
Speaker 3: if you got alignment. If they trade down to get alignment,
Speaker 3: but I'll trade up get guns dollars. That's my pick
Speaker 3: what I would do.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, And I'm actually a little surprised that
Speaker 1: you were going defense. But okay, I like your reasoning.
Speaker 1: It's fine. I thought for sure you'd go for the
Speaker 1: separation guy on offense.
Speaker 3: I do I want, I want him, ain't gonna liketch you.
Speaker 3: I ain't gonna nothing that I want. Quitting Johnson bad.
Speaker 3: But right now you need help on that defense. What
Speaker 3: you trying to score? If you can't stop him from scoring?
Speaker 1: If you can't, okay, But conversely, if you don't learn
Speaker 1: how to outscore teams like Buffalo, how are you gonna
Speaker 1: beat them?
Speaker 3: Exactly?
Speaker 1: So you know, well, that's yeah, and john and like you,
Speaker 1: I like Johnson too, so that you know that would
Speaker 1: be because I don't think Flowers would be around, but
Speaker 1: I think Johnson could be. And I think Johnson is
Speaker 1: potentially an obtainable receiver.
Speaker 3: Right, but I heard, uh cover these marks. It's twenty
Speaker 3: fifth to not twenty sixty whatever. Well, Buffalo is to Buffalo,
Speaker 3: and then some got him going somewhere, but some of
Speaker 3: them got him going in the second round.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well that's what I'm Yeah, that's what I'm banking on.
Speaker 1: He slides to the second Patrick take a chance, maybe
Speaker 1: even to move up in the second to take a
Speaker 1: guy like.
Speaker 3: That, I will host so but if he's gone, Bill,
Speaker 3: get the confound corner, quit being stubborn and leave maclone.
Speaker 3: That's all you got to do it. It was your
Speaker 3: problem that calls this did like you just throw it
Speaker 3: Winn's career. You try to throw a Max now and
Speaker 3: I still say that.
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. Eldred, be safe out
Speaker 1: on the road, my man. Will you all right, sir?
Speaker 3: You have a good one now, thanks.
Speaker 1: Buddy, all right, the one and only Eldred to North Carolina.
Speaker 1: What day we pick him for next month? Man? Thank you?
Speaker 1: So the last day of the month. Hell okay, So
Speaker 1: our next edition our post draft, and I guess I
Speaker 1: should say post OTA because we'll have OTA's coming up
Speaker 1: beginning in May. As you know, we'll actually have players
Speaker 1: on the field and guys will can sign everything, and
Speaker 1: it won't be mini camp yet. Mini camp will roll
Speaker 1: around in June, but there will be OTA's beginning in
Speaker 1: May about mid May, early to mid May. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right. Oh yeah, so that's right. I totally forgot
Speaker 1: that the schedule will be coming out probably in the
Speaker 1: next week. I would say in the next week. And
Speaker 1: if you're listening here, you know, to the pod. Before
Speaker 1: the draft. The schedule be out very surely, so we'll
Speaker 1: have the schedule to talk about. We can run through
Speaker 1: some of the wins and the losses, the trouble spots,
Speaker 1: the good spots. We'll understand a little bit more certainly.
Speaker 1: We'll recap on the draft and see where the Patriots
Speaker 1: fit into this ever improving, ever crowded now AFC East picture,
Speaker 1: which is just extraordinary. And we'll also have the the
Speaker 1: winner in our draft contest. Today. We've had let's see,
Speaker 1: Jackson Dijigbo, We've had Broderick Jones, We've had Zave Flowers,
Speaker 1: We've had bj Jean Robinson, We've had Banks, Murphy, Zales, Anderson. Okay,
Speaker 1: these are all the guys that we've had. Gonzalez is
Speaker 1: the one that was selected the most. The Patriots trade
Speaker 1: up to go take Gonzales the corner from Oregon. Three
Speaker 1: people selected that. So if that happens and they take him,
Speaker 1: then we'll choose from a hat. We'll see who wins,
Speaker 1: and either we'll do it on May thirty first, or
Speaker 1: we'll do it in June one of the other, whatever's
Speaker 1: easiest for whoever wins the contest if you're listening to
Speaker 1: the pod before the draft. So if you're listening shall
Speaker 1: we say here Wednesday night or Thursday during the day
Speaker 1: before the draft begins on Thursday night, you can still
Speaker 1: throw your pick in. Send me a tweet at JR Broadcaster. Okay,
Speaker 1: tell me who you think Bill Belichick should select at
Speaker 1: number fourteen. That's what I want you to do. And
Speaker 1: if you come up good and the Patriots make that pick,
Speaker 1: you're in the runner fair enough. Thanks to Evan Lazar
Speaker 1: for all the heavy lifting and the heavy work, and
Speaker 1: Matt you're appreciated. As always, we've got May thirty first
Speaker 1: coming up for our next edition of Patriots Playbook. Enjoy the Draft,
Speaker 1: everybody I know I will. Thank you for downloading this podcast.
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