Speaker 1: Fans. If you want Toyota's best offers, including those not
Speaker 1: seen on TV, go to buy at toyota dot com.
Speaker 1: It's Toyota's official website for deals from the official vehicle
Speaker 1: of the New England Patriots, Toyota. Let's go places. This
Speaker 1: is Patriots Playbook The Legend. I got one of those
Speaker 1: updates this week from Facebook. You know how they send
Speaker 1: you memories. They sent me one from fifty freaking years ago.
Speaker 1: You know what my action was, you mother, good, golly,
Speaker 1: miss Molly. The depth is terrible, boy. We love revisionist
Speaker 1: history around here, don't.
Speaker 2: We started out the program that they said, you know,
Speaker 2: you know, I think we're talking tackle back in April, and.
Speaker 1: Everybody said, nah no, if they draft to tackle, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna screen bloody murder. Oh I'm gonna jump off the train.
Speaker 3: Oh now, here's your host of Patriots Playbook, John Rook.
Speaker 1: A camera person just jumped off the train. Right. Wow,
Speaker 1: is all I can our Our apologies for coming on.
Speaker 1: Uh well, let's see Evan, I'll see you. You'll be
Speaker 1: out of here in about sixty two seconds, right well.
Speaker 4: As long as the quarterback takes his sweet time coming
Speaker 4: to the we got some time.
Speaker 1: Be all set right, Okay, everybody, welcome into the playbook.
Speaker 1: It is our maiden voyage. I'll be just a little
Speaker 1: bit of a of a of a slow start anyway.
Speaker 1: Here on Week one of the NFL regular season, John Rook,
Speaker 1: Evan Lazarre's here coming up on the program. Chad Graff,
Speaker 1: who covers the Patriots for the Athletic. He's gonna give
Speaker 1: us his spin. Coming up in a bid. Davis Podero
Speaker 1: from Philolphia Eagles dot Com at Eagles Insider, or as
Speaker 1: I like to call him, he's the Paul Perillo of
Speaker 1: the Philadelphia Eagles. Although I think what we need to
Speaker 1: have Marina and I talked about this, Okay, one thing
Speaker 1: that I have to deal with. Wait a second, I
Speaker 1: gotta move this now. This is gott to go.
Speaker 5: You need. We don't want to, We don't want any more.
Speaker 5: John Rook's running around.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they well you think somebody would like yes really?
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1: That's a security thing.
Speaker 6: It is wow looking screenshot and I use your ID wow.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: They tell us an orientation like if we're like going
Speaker 4: out for lunch or something.
Speaker 1: Like that, to leave it in the car. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a real thing.
Speaker 1: Okay, I listen. I want to just I want to
Speaker 1: get along. I want to be a friend of everybody
Speaker 1: around here. Since we're doing this new fangled thing called television.
Speaker 1: After twenty two years of doing a radio show, now
Speaker 1: it's a television.
Speaker 5: Show too, How do you feel about it? Do you
Speaker 5: like it?
Speaker 4: It's fine, it's good to get you get the YouTube comments, you.
Speaker 1: Get the interaction, which which I feed. Yeah, which is great.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't mind it at all. But you know,
Speaker 1: when you've been doing radio for as long as I
Speaker 1: have been, and of course we've been doing radio here,
Speaker 1: as I've said many times before. So those that have
Speaker 1: heard this are all like going, oh, here you goes again.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 1: This is the twenty third year that we've done this show. Wow,
Speaker 1: twenty four years of Patriots dot com radio. We launched
Speaker 1: in two thousand and then the first year of the
Speaker 1: playbook was two thousand and one. Of course, two weeks
Speaker 1: after we launched a playbook, nine to eleven hit and
Speaker 1: that was another story altogether, but we managed to keep,
Speaker 1: you know, appiling forward. But this is the first time
Speaker 1: we've ever you know, streamed it, you know, with the
Speaker 1: the television aspect of it. So it's good.
Speaker 5: It's good.
Speaker 1: It's good for the numbers that it works out.
Speaker 4: Some people really like watching on YouTube.
Speaker 1: D only knows why. I'm old man.
Speaker 4: It's the it's the platform, like they like the way
Speaker 4: that the the player works better than sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, I get that. Yeah, And it is all
Speaker 1: about a visual medium. And let's shoot, that's part of
Speaker 1: what we teach at school and all that kind of stuff, right,
Speaker 1: all right, So we need to jump into this right
Speaker 1: away since we're a little delayed to the process. But
Speaker 1: first and foremost, I gotta get your thoughts on Jack
Speaker 1: Jones and his issue largely being taken care of to
Speaker 1: our knowledge, because we still have and heard definitively from
Speaker 1: the NFL, and if there's going to be any kind
Speaker 1: of a suspension or any kind of a punishment that
Speaker 1: he will have to pay for his shall we say transgression.
Speaker 1: By the way, before I'm going to digress right off
Speaker 1: the bat, I heard someone to say earlier today that
Speaker 1: carrying guns inadvertently into airports is not an uncommon occurrence.
Speaker 4: Yeah, somebody called into PU and said that in the
Speaker 4: Pittsburgh I think it was Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1: Pittsbury I heard that call earlier today.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Airport, there is twenty seven similar cases in the
Speaker 4: last year, but I think where a lot of it.
Speaker 4: I don't want to comment too much on the legal
Speaker 4: proceedings with Jack Johnson. I'm not a lawyer, but I
Speaker 4: think a lot of what happens is is that there's
Speaker 4: there's strict guidelines and rules. You can transport guns on
Speaker 4: a plane, but it just has to be done correctly, right,
Speaker 4: There's rules and guidelines of how they have to be checked.
Speaker 4: They have to be in a little bot you know,
Speaker 4: one of those Pelican cases, lock box whatever, all that stuff.
Speaker 4: But I think that that's where a lot of this
Speaker 4: comes from. I'm not saying that's necessarily what's happened with
Speaker 4: Jack Jones, but sometimes it's just pure confusion of Oh,
Speaker 4: I thought I could do this, which I know sounds crazy,
Speaker 4: but I think that that's where a lot of it
Speaker 4: comes from.
Speaker 1: Okay, be that as it may. How does he figure
Speaker 1: into the rotation? Does he start? Yeah, does he come
Speaker 1: in off the bench? As to Nickelback, what does he
Speaker 1: do well?
Speaker 4: I think you know, obviously it's game plan to game
Speaker 4: plan with this team, so it's hard to say is
Speaker 4: this guy starting cornerback?
Speaker 1: Is it?
Speaker 7: You know?
Speaker 4: Where is he factor into all of this? I think
Speaker 4: in this week and in this game, the Eagles they're
Speaker 4: a run heavy team. They run a lot of twelve
Speaker 4: personnel to tight end. They want to come downhill at you,
Speaker 4: they want to run the football. So is a Jack
Speaker 4: Jones type of cornerback really the guy that you want
Speaker 4: in the game for that sort of game plan? Probably not.
Speaker 4: They have all these safeties the Patriots do, and my
Speaker 4: guess is this is going to be a pretty safety
Speaker 4: heavy plan. I think you could at times see now
Speaker 4: depending on what you call everybody, but I think you
Speaker 4: could see four safeties on the field at times in
Speaker 4: this game. So is this necessarily the game for Jack Jones?
Speaker 8: No?
Speaker 4: I also think that just in general, I maybe I
Speaker 4: differ from some other people on Jack Jones in my
Speaker 4: opinion of him as a player. I think he has moments.
Speaker 4: I think he's got a ton of talent. But I
Speaker 4: think he's a risk taker. I think he's a ballhawk.
Speaker 4: I don't think he's a real man to man live
Speaker 4: in your hip pocket. No pun intended that was bad
Speaker 4: sort of thing, Like, I don't think that that's that's
Speaker 4: really his game. Like, I don't think that he's really
Speaker 4: a strappy cornerback in that sense. But that's I don't know,
Speaker 4: Maybe I'm wrong, Maybe I have a different opinion on
Speaker 4: that than that on other people. I just I guess
Speaker 4: my whole point is is I I'm not totally convinced
Speaker 4: that Jack Jones is is this great cornerback yet. I
Speaker 4: think there's been too much inconsistency in his game.
Speaker 1: We've seen the flashes, we've seen the physical ability, we've
Speaker 1: seen the speed, we've seen the ability to cover, we've
Speaker 1: seen the ability to make plays. And really that's what
Speaker 1: you need on defense, you know, last couple of years since,
Speaker 1: especially since the last Super Bowl, the cry has been
Speaker 1: for playmaking ability on the defensive side of the wall.
Speaker 1: Forget offense for a second, but you need guys that
Speaker 1: can make stops and make plays when a play is needed.
Speaker 1: Jones showed last year as a rookie that he might
Speaker 1: have the potential to do that. And you do want
Speaker 1: playmakers on the field.
Speaker 5: You do. But I don't know.
Speaker 4: He's a good ballhawk, right, Like he'll go out there
Speaker 4: and have a couple of interceptions that are really impressive,
Speaker 4: like last year in Green Bay against Detroit. It's really
Speaker 4: impressive plays, but the consistency, to me, down to down
Speaker 4: is not necessarily there. He had lapses last year in
Speaker 4: terms of, you know, knowing what coverage they were in
Speaker 4: man to man, lapses things like that. I just I
Speaker 4: am not trying to be super down on him as
Speaker 4: a player. See the potential, I see the talent. He's
Speaker 4: a fun player to watch because he can turn the
Speaker 4: ball over. But he's a boomer bus player right now.
Speaker 4: There's just no other way around.
Speaker 1: It about to say, you're just you know, deflating the
Speaker 1: tires a little bit on him.
Speaker 4: I just don't think that he's the type of guy
Speaker 4: that is a down to down, lockdown corner. And I
Speaker 4: get that he was a fourth round pick and right
Speaker 4: like Christian Gonzalez, to me, is a very different breed
Speaker 4: because Christian Gonzalez is going to stay with his guy
Speaker 4: for seventy snaps a game. He might not have the
Speaker 4: ball production that Jack Jones has, he might not have
Speaker 4: the plays on the football, but he's gonna live in
Speaker 4: the kitchen of the opposing receiver for sixty five seventy
Speaker 4: plays a game, or at least that's the hope, right,
Speaker 4: Whereas I think with Jack Jones, he's a much more J. C. Jackson,
Speaker 4: Like he's much more of a ballhowker, chance taker, whatever
Speaker 4: you want to call it. And there was just a
Speaker 4: lot of instances last year where he didn't necessarily always
Speaker 4: get burned for it because the quarterback didn't throw the
Speaker 4: ball his direction. But you know, he lost a lot
Speaker 4: of reps last year and especially and I felt over
Speaker 4: committing to things, trying to jump things and then they
Speaker 4: hit him with double moves or they just run by
Speaker 4: him or whatever the case may be. And I just
Speaker 4: I guess I'm not you know, I hear a lot
Speaker 4: of people that are saying, oh, Jack Jones is you know,
Speaker 4: his legal situation, like huge win for the Patriots, Like, yeah,
Speaker 4: it's a good thing that Jack Jones is going to
Speaker 4: be able to play football for the Patriots versus him
Speaker 4: not playing football, right, Like that's a good thing. Yeah,
Speaker 4: But I think that you're some people are maybe just
Speaker 4: overrating the player what he currently is a little bit.
Speaker 1: All right, Let's leave that and set it aside for
Speaker 1: a moment, because clearly time is going to tell on
Speaker 1: that one. If that's issue won the n issue one
Speaker 1: A has to be the offensive line, and who's going
Speaker 1: to show up healthy to play and able to play
Speaker 1: and able to keep Philadelphia's ferocious defensive front somewhat off
Speaker 1: of Mac Jones to where he has a chance to
Speaker 1: actually throw the ball the Patriots have a chance to
Speaker 1: actually run the ball decently. Yeah, and I'm kind of
Speaker 1: curious as to your thoughts of what you think that
Speaker 1: offensive line might look like on Sunday.
Speaker 4: Well, so there's a couple of different scenarios here. One
Speaker 4: the offensive line, in terms of what I think is
Speaker 4: going to be out there, I think there will be
Speaker 4: some rotation because you don't usually go wire to wire
Speaker 4: in Week one anyways, as they're sort of building up
Speaker 4: the endurance and things like that. And I would also
Speaker 4: say this, guys that have been hurt, Guys haven't practiced
Speaker 4: a whole lot. So to expect Calvin Anderson, who I
Speaker 4: do think is going to be the starting right tackle
Speaker 4: on Sunday, but to expect him to play sixty five
Speaker 4: snaps on Sunday is unrealistic. He hasn't practiced enough. He
Speaker 4: was very very ill with whatever the situation was that
Speaker 4: kept him out of training camp. So I would expect
Speaker 4: other guys, whether it was the two newcomers a city,
Speaker 4: so somebody else is going to get involved at the
Speaker 4: right tackle spot. But I do think Calvin Anderson will
Speaker 4: start at right tackle, and I think the rest of
Speaker 4: the line is going to be what we expected going
Speaker 4: into the year. I think it's gonna be Tremp Brown
Speaker 4: on the left side, Strange jug left guard, Andrews at center,
Speaker 4: and on Winning at right guard. So those four spots
Speaker 4: from right guard to left tackle are going to be
Speaker 4: exactly how we anticipated going into the year. It's right
Speaker 4: tackle that's still the question mark.
Speaker 1: And do you think Calvin Anderson is one at least
Speaker 1: gets the nod there?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think Calvin Anderson will start. You know, he's
Speaker 4: with it, been with the team the entire time, he's
Speaker 4: with the team in the spring, participated in the spring,
Speaker 4: so he has a little bit of a leg up
Speaker 4: on guys like Vederian Lowe and Tyrone. He also has
Speaker 4: NFL experience. He started twelve games in the league over
Speaker 4: three years. Those guys haven't even played it down in
Speaker 4: the NFL yet, so in same with so obviously being
Speaker 4: a rookie, So I think that those guys could spell
Speaker 4: him could rotate in with him, but I think Calvin
Speaker 4: Anderson gets the nod. The other thing with the Eagles
Speaker 4: front that I think is going to be really interesting
Speaker 4: is they didn't blitz a whole lot last year. They
Speaker 4: weren't in a very exotic team last year. Then he
Speaker 4: used a lot of stunts, blitzes, you know, all these
Speaker 4: different bells and whistles that we see the Patriots do
Speaker 4: a ton. They didn't do any of that really last year.
Speaker 4: It was kind of a you know, Jonathan Gannon is
Speaker 4: one of those guys that got a head coaching job
Speaker 4: out of the Eagles success. But there's been a lot
Speaker 4: of pushback in Philly from Eagles fans and media about
Speaker 4: how vanilla they were in the pass rush last year,
Speaker 4: even though they had seventy sacks. Right, So does decide
Speaker 4: their new defensive coordinator. Does he scheme it up a
Speaker 4: little bit more, do they have more blitzeing, do they
Speaker 4: have more creepier pressure, simulated pressure, what do they run
Speaker 4: in terms of their front or are they going to
Speaker 4: still just be a team that's going to try to
Speaker 4: win their one on ones and know that we have
Speaker 4: better dudes than you do and that's just going to
Speaker 4: be it.
Speaker 1: How much of a factor, Evan, do you think Philadelphia
Speaker 1: not having played their starters at all during the preseason
Speaker 1: is going to have on Week one? Is this sort
Speaker 1: of a calculated gamble maybe that the Eagles have going
Speaker 1: into this And this will be a question for Daves
Speaker 1: Panero from Eagles Insider coming up a little bit, But
Speaker 1: I'm just kind of curious as to your point of
Speaker 1: view and whether or not the Patriots might be in
Speaker 1: somewhat of a position to take advantage of that.
Speaker 5: I think a little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean they're gonna have some rusts. I think that
Speaker 4: that's going to be clear. There's gonna be some rust
Speaker 4: early on. And I also would say that they have
Speaker 4: two new play callers, so on both sides of the ball.
Speaker 5: So Jalen Hurts.
Speaker 4: Is gonna be in a game getting the plays relayed
Speaker 4: to him by Brian Johnson for the first time on Sunday,
Speaker 4: and there's going to be a feeling out process there.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 4: I always feel like that maybe lingers in the first half,
Speaker 4: then they kind of get into a groove, they get
Speaker 4: into halftime, they maybe make a few adjustments, and I
Speaker 4: would expect the Eagles to be humming in the second half.
Speaker 4: So if you can get out to a lead, if
Speaker 4: you can hold it close.
Speaker 1: Wait, wait, wait, you know what's coming. If you win
Speaker 1: the coin flip, take the ball.
Speaker 4: No, no, I didn't say that, but I did a
Speaker 4: damn I will say that. I think that there's a chance.
Speaker 4: And hopefully you know, for the Patriots that they are
Speaker 4: in a good position at halftime because the Eagles might
Speaker 4: be working through some rust and things like that. But
Speaker 4: once the second half hits, I think the games.
Speaker 1: You had best be in position, I think to steal
Speaker 1: the game from them, Yeah, because they'll make a charge
Speaker 1: after halftime, halftime adjustments, whatever it's called. All right, messing
Speaker 1: time is over. Yeah. I mean, this is a super
Speaker 1: Bowl team here that we have that's expected to be
Speaker 1: a Super Bowl contender, could easily be the best team
Speaker 1: in the NFC, certainly maybe the best team the Patriots
Speaker 1: face all season long. And you got them in Week
Speaker 1: one and you get all this emotional hubbub with Tom
Speaker 1: Brady and YadA YadA, and yeah, you know that's to
Speaker 1: me the biggest concern that I have almost is just
Speaker 1: the emotion of the day the fans. We know are
Speaker 1: going to be keyed into what this day is really
Speaker 1: all about because they didn't get a chance to give
Speaker 1: Tom a proper goodbye, and that's what this weekend is
Speaker 1: supposed to be about. But the football part of it
Speaker 1: is enormous for this team when you consider the schedule
Speaker 1: strength over the first half of the season. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you got plus one in this week, huge huge
Speaker 1: difference maker, maybe for the entire seventeen week season.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I might be eating my crow on this, but I
Speaker 4: think that they're catching the Eagles at the right time.
Speaker 1: I agree with that.
Speaker 5: I would not.
Speaker 1: We're gonna agree on this one. You and I don't
Speaker 1: agree a lot. We're gonna agree on this one. They're
Speaker 1: catching the Eagles absolutely perfectly. If if there was any
Speaker 1: other time to play them, would be the last game
Speaker 1: of the year when it means nothing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but I think that the playing them right out
Speaker 4: of the gate, you have the advantage of them resting
Speaker 4: their starters in the preseason, you have some advantage of
Speaker 4: the new coordinators and different things that they're dealing with.
Speaker 4: In terms of that, I think that there's a chance
Speaker 4: that you might be playing a little bit of a
Speaker 4: of a less you know, not as fine tuned of
Speaker 4: a team that I don't know if the execution is
Speaker 4: going to be quite as clean as what you're going
Speaker 4: to see in a couple months from Philadelphia. And maybe
Speaker 4: the energy in the building does help in that respect
Speaker 4: as well. Like I don't think that it's really going
Speaker 4: to matter too much to the Eagles if it's a
Speaker 4: rowdy crowd or not.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, that won't matter at all of them.
Speaker 5: Maybe the players can feed off some of the juice and.
Speaker 1: There will be some juice. And let's let's remind you
Speaker 1: that there will be more juice in the building because
Speaker 1: the opened end of the stadium is now closed with
Speaker 1: the new club and the new scoreboard and the new
Speaker 1: tower and everything else that they've got, which they're dedicating
Speaker 1: actually Friday, I believe they're officially going to cut the
Speaker 1: ribbon on everything, so everything's supposed to be open and
Speaker 1: ready to go. It is going to be a different
Speaker 1: sounding environment, and it's something I think that well many
Speaker 1: of us who have been here for the entire existence
Speaker 1: of Jillette Stadium have been waiting for.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's definitely different. I just know from being out
Speaker 4: there the little bit that we've been able to be
Speaker 4: out there so far this summer, it does feel like
Speaker 4: it plays different. It's always on that field for whatever reason,
Speaker 4: for all the years I've been doing it's always windy
Speaker 4: as hell.
Speaker 5: I can't explain.
Speaker 4: I think it's because of the horseshoe and like the
Speaker 4: way that the open end of the stadium.
Speaker 1: And the wind comes out of the north word.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, And it was always windy, Like even in
Speaker 4: the middle of the day on a Wednesday, when we
Speaker 4: were out there shooting videos or whatever the heck we
Speaker 4: were doing, it was windy. So I think this version
Speaker 4: of the stadium with the closed end, the wind's going
Speaker 4: to be held in a little bit more like in
Speaker 4: terms of it's not going to be as wendy.
Speaker 5: I guess I should say I believe.
Speaker 4: At least of the times that we've stood on field
Speaker 4: level recently, it hasn't been nearly as wendy.
Speaker 1: Now, not as breezy as it once was. Now.
Speaker 5: That's interesting.
Speaker 1: That's a big factor. So I don't know. We'll see
Speaker 1: how the issue plays off. I'd be remiss if I
Speaker 1: didn't ask you the one question that I'm going to
Speaker 1: ask of everybody to answer today, as you call in
Speaker 1: eight five to five Pats five hundred the toll for
Speaker 1: e televille number. It says the same as in Patriots
Speaker 1: Unfiltered Web Radio at Patriots dot com that's the email address.
Speaker 1: You can hit us up at JR Broadcaster that's the
Speaker 1: Twitter handle, or you can hit me up on my
Speaker 1: Facebook page of John dot Rook to converse about the show,
Speaker 1: about the team, about what we're talking about. But I'm
Speaker 1: just you know, I've been reading a lot of the media,
Speaker 1: which we're going to get to in just a second here,
Speaker 1: but a lot of guys and a lot of ladies
Speaker 1: who cover the beat as you do, Yes, like to
Speaker 1: make predictions, you know, because based on their observations over
Speaker 1: the course of the spring, in the summer, in training camp,
Speaker 1: and so I hear you know, five things that will
Speaker 1: happen with the Patriots, the top ten things that should
Speaker 1: happen for the paprio. I'm looking for one bold prediction,
Speaker 1: just one. I want you to come up with something
Speaker 1: that maybe you've been thinking about, maybe you've seen someone
Speaker 1: mention that you'd like to take a step further, But
Speaker 1: one bold prediction that you think will happen to the
Speaker 1: New England Patriots in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 5: How bold are we talking? Does it need to be
Speaker 5: real bold?
Speaker 1: No, as bold as you want to make it. I mean,
Speaker 1: i'll give you want me to give you mind to
Speaker 1: start with. Oh, now I have to put myself in
Speaker 1: the corner on this one.
Speaker 4: I need to know the bold meter here? Am I
Speaker 4: going like realistic bold or bold bold?
Speaker 1: Well, you can go as bold as you want. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say the Patriots make the playoffs.
Speaker 4: Okay, So I was gonna say the Patriots are gonna
Speaker 4: have a top ten offense.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 5: I don't know how you're gonna idea.
Speaker 1: Probably have to have a top ten offense in order
Speaker 1: to make.
Speaker 4: Or maybe we're on the same page. How you calculate
Speaker 4: offense yards points DV eight like you do it? I
Speaker 4: had on your own time. Yeah, I'm just telling you
Speaker 4: that they're gonna they're they're gonna be better offensively than
Speaker 4: people think. I think they're back to a top ten offense.
Speaker 4: Not twenty twenty one. They were also a top ten offense,
Speaker 4: but it kind of felt I don't know. They had
Speaker 4: some fifty burgers against the Jets and the Jaguars. They
Speaker 4: had some defensive touchdowns I think that this offense is
Speaker 4: gonna take a big step forward.
Speaker 5: I don't.
Speaker 4: I'm putting it out there as top ten. I think
Speaker 4: that's the best way to put a tangible thing on it.
Speaker 4: And I think this offense is going to be better
Speaker 4: than people think.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you sort of a one to a
Speaker 1: selection on that one though, just because I think they've
Speaker 1: got tremendous depth up front. I think key On White
Speaker 1: is a legitimate candidate for Defensive Rookie of the Year.
Speaker 4: Oh wow, that is that's bold bold. That's not I
Speaker 4: think that's a good one. It's big bold.
Speaker 1: We didn't like it.
Speaker 5: It's good bold.
Speaker 1: That's what I mean, you didn't like.
Speaker 4: White is going to be one of those guys. And
Speaker 4: I think Christian Barmore to an extent that was similar
Speaker 4: in his rookie year. Where the advanced analytics are really
Speaker 4: gonna like Keon White, like his like his pressure rate
Speaker 4: and stuff like that. It's gonna be good the sacks
Speaker 4: and like people that just go off the traditional box score.
Speaker 5: I'm not sure if he's gonna.
Speaker 1: Be I think he might score well in that traditional
Speaker 1: box score, which why it will make him account.
Speaker 4: Okay, I look at him as more of like a
Speaker 4: guy that might be really disruptive. I just don't know
Speaker 4: if he's necessarily going to be registering on the statute
Speaker 4: defensive Rookie of the Year.
Speaker 1: And not get enough reps in that rotation.
Speaker 5: We don't know, right, but I think he'll be disruptive.
Speaker 1: I do all right, all right, thanks man, appreciate you.
Speaker 5: They had a chat for me.
Speaker 1: I will definitely do that. Evan Lazarre, Patriots dot Com.
Speaker 1: He's headed out to practice and that brings in Chad Graft,
Speaker 1: who covers the Patriots for the Athletic and the Athletic
Speaker 1: dot Com. Hey Chad, how's it going great? Great? Thanks
Speaker 1: for taking a little time today. I'll start with what
Speaker 1: I ended there with, Evan, If you don't mind one
Speaker 1: bold prediction from you for twenty twenty threes New England Patriots.
Speaker 8: You want the optimistic one of the pessimistic one.
Speaker 1: I want the first thing that comes in your mind.
Speaker 8: All right. The first thing that came to mind was,
Speaker 8: and I truly believe this. I know that the forty
Speaker 8: nine ers are great, and the Jets are very good.
Speaker 8: There's a lot of good defenses, but I think that
Speaker 8: this defense is going to end the year as the
Speaker 8: number one defense. I think that Bill Belichick is kind
Speaker 8: of on the cutting edge of what he's trying to
Speaker 8: do here with positionless defense and having guys like Jabrill
Speaker 8: Peppers and Adrian Phillips and Kyle Duger and now Marty
Speaker 8: Mapu a bunch of guys on that back end who
Speaker 8: can do a lot of different things, so that when
Speaker 8: the Buffalo Bills try to run at you with two
Speaker 8: tight ends, you've got guys like Mapu who can play
Speaker 8: in the box and stop the run against them, but
Speaker 8: they're also good enough to drop back into coverage and say,
Speaker 8: you know, go ahead, we'll take Marty Mapoo gets Salton
Speaker 8: kid like, go ahead, Josh Allen take that matchup. So
Speaker 8: I'm not quite as bullish on the offense as it
Speaker 8: sounds like evidence, But I'm extremely high on what this
Speaker 8: defense is and what I think it's going to do well.
Speaker 1: I'm going to tend to agree with you rather than
Speaker 1: Evan on that one. I'm a little more bullish on
Speaker 1: the defense, and I think that we were sort of
Speaker 1: led to believe that would likely be the case this year,
Speaker 1: regardless of whatever they did. And look, we've talked about
Speaker 1: it on this show during our offseason program as well,
Speaker 1: that I thought one of the bullet points for the
Speaker 1: entire season would be the offensive line. I thought they
Speaker 1: draft an offensive lineman, you know, early in the draft,
Speaker 1: and silly me, they didn't do that. And now we
Speaker 1: see the kind of offensive line troubles that they're having
Speaker 1: with the depth and the injury and everything else that's
Speaker 1: going on. If the offensive line can stay, you know,
Speaker 1: can get together first of all, and then stay relatively healthy,
Speaker 1: then I think the offense's chance of improving and being
Speaker 1: a top ten offense, as Evan suggested, improve immeasurably. However, however,
Speaker 1: I don't think that's going to happen, because, as we
Speaker 1: all know, it's a war of attrition and man alive.
Speaker 1: You know, you got to keep guys healthy, You got
Speaker 1: to keep your quarterback healthy. And I'm just I'm having
Speaker 1: real problems believing that through seventeen eighteen weeks that you
Speaker 1: got to play games, that the pages are going to
Speaker 1: stay as healthy as they're going to need to stay
Speaker 1: in order for them to truly be successful.
Speaker 9: I'm with you.
Speaker 8: I think the offensive line is probably the biggest concern
Speaker 8: more than anything else. On the offense, Like I'm not
Speaker 8: terribly high on DeVante Parker and Juju Smith Schuster as
Speaker 8: you're one two, but I'm higher on that than I
Speaker 8: am this current offensive line set up and the fact
Speaker 8: that you're then turning to uh day three rookies. Probably
Speaker 8: if either of your guards get hurt or if your
Speaker 8: center gets hurt at right tackle, I still don't really
Speaker 8: know what you have. I'm not even sure who you're
Speaker 8: starting right tackle.
Speaker 1: Is well, we suspect we suspect Calvin Anderson suspect it.
Speaker 8: Sure, and you know I could see that, and that
Speaker 8: makes sense, but boint it gives me. It certainly gives
Speaker 8: me pause, especially against that defensive line. Like Calvin Anderson
Speaker 8: hasn't really practiced all summer because of this illness that
Speaker 8: he talked about, yep, and so you know he's coming
Speaker 8: into a really brutal matchup. Yeah, Hey, we know you
Speaker 8: haven't got a whole lot of practice. But here's the
Speaker 8: team that you know, almost broke the NFL sack record
Speaker 8: last year.
Speaker 9: Yeah, good luck.
Speaker 1: Seventy sacks for this team, seventy Chad seven. That's seven, oh,
Speaker 1: not seventeen seven. Oh. And the Patriots, they were so good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they were. The Patriots gave up forty what forty forty
Speaker 1: one last year and that was a bad year from them,
Speaker 1: and the Eagles had seventy.
Speaker 8: And so you know, I think that means that you're
Speaker 8: probably going to see a ton of quick game and
Speaker 8: a lot of short passes yep. Probably a lot of
Speaker 8: run path options yep. Though you know, I'm not sure
Speaker 8: that I would turn on the game expecting to see
Speaker 8: seventy yard bombs, but no, I think that's probably what
Speaker 8: the offense looks like, at least early on, until you
Speaker 8: are more sure about your offense.
Speaker 1: This may be one of the fastest games that we've
Speaker 1: seen on television in the NFL this year. And this
Speaker 1: leads me into the next issue. I was going to say,
Speaker 1: how do the Patriots beat a team like Philadelphia when Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: maybe top to bottom, may have the most well rounded
Speaker 1: roster of any in the entire NFL. And I'm gonna
Speaker 1: include Kansas City in that one. I like the Eagles.
Speaker 1: I'm very bullish on the Eagles in the NFC. You know,
Speaker 1: to get back in the big game. I and as
Speaker 1: long as again, health is the key, and I always
Speaker 1: have to add that because we know health is always
Speaker 1: a factor. It is every year, and now that we
Speaker 1: have seventeen meaningful games to play, it's certainly gonna be that.
Speaker 1: And when the NFL goes to eighteen games and they're
Speaker 1: gonna go and maybe sooner than we think, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be even more of a factor. You got to keep
Speaker 1: guys healthier longer, and so you'll see rule adjustments in
Speaker 1: this and that the idea is going to be able
Speaker 1: to keep guys healthy on the field. So that being said,
Speaker 1: this team, this Eagles team, is really really good in
Speaker 1: the way that the Patriots beat them as a they
Speaker 1: get them early, as we just talked about a little
Speaker 1: bit as great that you're getting early in the year
Speaker 1: before any of their starters have even played a minute
Speaker 1: because nobody played in the preseason and be run the
Speaker 1: damn ball. Now, let me codify that for a second.
Speaker 1: If you don't have an offensive line to run behind,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna run very well. So it's good that
Speaker 1: you have Ramandrie Stevenson and obviously Zee Elliott to pound
Speaker 1: the ball between the tackles because they're going to need to. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to throw it somewhat but if you
Speaker 1: can come out and control tempo and get four or
Speaker 1: five yards on a first down and leave yourself in
Speaker 1: third in short situations, you got a chance to grind
Speaker 1: out some of those drives against an Eagles team that
Speaker 1: if you can stay even with them or maybe even
Speaker 1: have a slight lead at halftime, Now you're gonna put
Speaker 1: them under pressure. Now you're going to force them to
Speaker 1: feel the pinch a little bit, and then you might
Speaker 1: actually force them into a mistake, which again they don't
Speaker 1: normally do, and you cannot can not make mistakes yourself.
Speaker 1: And of course we all know the offensive line troubles
Speaker 1: that the Patriots had trying to avoid mistakes a year ago.
Speaker 1: So it lines up to give my whole pointer, Chad,
Speaker 1: is it lines up to give them a shot I
Speaker 1: think more than a legit shot really on Sunday. But
Speaker 1: Philly's talent could still end up winning out unless you
Speaker 1: stick to a game plan for sure.
Speaker 8: And here's what's interesting to me about that game plan
Speaker 8: and what I think we'll see is a lot of
Speaker 8: this both roster construction and what we've seen in training
Speaker 8: camp has been built around twelve personnel. Where Bill O'Brien
Speaker 8: once again uses a lot of two tight ends. It's
Speaker 8: why they brought Mike Kiseki in. And I think what
Speaker 8: will be interesting against the Eagles is trying to identify
Speaker 8: what the Eagles want to do defensively against that. When
Speaker 8: the Patriots come out with their two tight ends, they
Speaker 8: can either stay in their base defense and then if
Speaker 8: you're the Patriots, you're thinking, you know, heck, yeah, this
Speaker 8: is great. You're in your base devents. We get a
Speaker 8: linebacker or safety against Mike Kiseki and Hunter Henry, like
Speaker 8: Max Jones, will take that matchup all day long. But
Speaker 8: to your point about running the ball, what becomes interesting
Speaker 8: to me is if the Eagles go to their nickel
Speaker 8: defense with an extra defensive back, as I think they
Speaker 8: probably will, they don't want Mike Kiseki and Hunter Henry
Speaker 8: to eat them. Then the door opens up against a
Speaker 8: lighter box to be able to run the ball. And
Speaker 8: I think at that point, if you're the Patriots in
Speaker 8: twelve personnel against nickel defense.
Speaker 9: You have to be able to run the ball.
Speaker 8: It ideally makes things a little bit easier for your
Speaker 8: offensive line that does have some questions, and so I
Speaker 8: think that's kind of a big mashup to me is
Speaker 8: in twelve personnel when the Eagles are playing light daring
Speaker 8: you to run, are you able to run the ball effectively?
Speaker 1: And that is a major question, a major question. I
Speaker 1: expect the Patriots to also, you know, be in that
Speaker 1: you know, personnel set because they're going to need to
Speaker 1: assist their offensive line. We need, you know, this team
Speaker 1: will need blocking. I fully expect. I mean, I'll put
Speaker 1: it to you this way. I'll be surprised if Zeke
Speaker 1: Elliott doesn't get more time than Remandre, not because Remandre
Speaker 1: is not better, but because we know that Elliott is
Speaker 1: a renowned pass blocker, and there may be especially in
Speaker 1: passing downs, even though he's pretty good at catching the
Speaker 1: ball himself, the knee to keep him backed, to make
Speaker 1: sure Mac's you know, not gonna get flattened in the backfield.
Speaker 1: That's the biggest concern that I really have. If Mac
Speaker 1: can stay on his feet long enough. And yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: thinking that certainly short passes, slants, tight ends, whatever they
Speaker 1: can get to, but nothing that's gonna be more than
Speaker 1: twelve to fifteen yards downfield. If he can, if he's
Speaker 1: able to get those passes out and frustrate Philadelphia, then
Speaker 1: I think the pages would be right there at the
Speaker 1: end with the chance to take it.
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's that's a really good point about Elliott, and
Speaker 8: I think that you can see some of that with
Speaker 8: play action too, as a way to kind of keep
Speaker 8: him in and as a way to give mac Jones
Speaker 8: more options aside from just backs protecting all the time,
Speaker 8: because I think often we think, hey, the offensive line
Speaker 8: is struggling, they've got a tough matchup, like just leave everybody.
Speaker 9: In and that'll be the way to solve it.
Speaker 8: And then you suddenly look up and he's got like
Speaker 8: three targets downfield and nobody's open, and all of a
Speaker 8: sudden you're in a world of hurt. Right Ezekiel Elliott
Speaker 8: can provide, you know, I think a really big boost
Speaker 8: in that area. And you know, in addition to the
Speaker 8: short ar stuff, I think is a really important part
Speaker 8: of the reason that he's here to begin with.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, so Chad, you know, you know, we
Speaker 1: talked a little bit about bold predictions. We kind of
Speaker 1: feel like we know what this team probably should do
Speaker 1: in an effort to you know, have a chance to
Speaker 1: really win this game. The story within the story, the
Speaker 1: part of the reason for the three ring circus and
Speaker 1: everything that's going on this weekend is obviously Tom Brady
Speaker 1: gets a chance to be embraced given the old, big
Speaker 1: New England hug, you know, by the fans who will
Speaker 1: be in attendance and which have made this ticket the
Speaker 1: toughest ticket right now in the regular season for the
Speaker 1: entire NFL to obtain, certainly the most expensive average ticket
Speaker 1: on vivid seats as I saw checked it early this morning.
Speaker 1: The last time I look, so here we are midweek
Speaker 1: as we're doing this show, average ticket price was seven
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty six dollars, right, So there's a lot
Speaker 1: of who there's a lot of hubbub going on above
Speaker 1: and I'm wondering how well this team can focus and
Speaker 1: stay above it. And we don't know. There are twenty
Speaker 1: new players on this team from as compared to who
Speaker 1: weren't on this roster a year ago. Maybe that's a
Speaker 1: good thing, maybe that's not a good thing. But I'm
Speaker 1: just curious as to your your your you know, you've
Speaker 1: talked to these guys, You obviously know the coaches. What's
Speaker 1: your feeling on this team's ability to shout out noise
Speaker 1: and accomplish a mission.
Speaker 8: Well, it's interesting because even the players who were not
Speaker 8: here when Tom Brady was here, but there's just no
Speaker 8: hiding from the overarching presence that he is everything that
Speaker 8: he meant to this organization and the team and the
Speaker 8: sixth Super Bowls and on and on. As Remandra Stevenson
Speaker 8: said today, he feels like he walks past five pictures
Speaker 8: of Tom Brady just going down the hall. So Prady
Speaker 8: is kind kind of ever present, even if he is,
Speaker 8: you know, embarking on his first year of post playing
Speaker 8: career now. So it'll be interesting to see how they
Speaker 8: kind of handle that. There are going to be plenty
Speaker 8: of former players, I think, as Tylas said, lingering around.
Speaker 8: But a lot of this is going to go on
Speaker 8: at halftime when the players aren't there, and an opportunity
Speaker 8: for Brady to say thank you, and the fans too
Speaker 8: they thank you as well, which should all be very cool.
Speaker 8: But there's no doubt that this is going to be swirling,
Speaker 8: like the place is going to go crazy in warm
Speaker 8: ups if Mac Jones comes over and gives Brady a
Speaker 8: hug or Bill Belichick.
Speaker 1: That some of that has to be talked about right now,
Speaker 1: right like, Hey, I'm going to do this, and you know,
Speaker 1: we're going to get the fans behind this. We're going
Speaker 1: to show that we're all on the same page. I
Speaker 1: thought they alluded to that a little bit when Mac
Speaker 1: basically told people that you know, he told the media
Speaker 1: and which is telling everybody now that you know Brady's
Speaker 1: one of his mentors. I'm not sure anybody really knew that, right, Yeah.
Speaker 8: And and it caught people, I think, by a little
Speaker 8: bit surprised when the picture came out of the two
Speaker 8: EVM hanging out at Crafts party this summer to get there.
Speaker 8: So you know, there's plenty of a relationship there. But
Speaker 8: you know, at the same time, we're also talking about
Speaker 8: the head coach who you know minimizes distractions perhaps as
Speaker 8: well as anybody else, and prepares for every little thing
Speaker 8: as well as anybody else. This is the coach who
Speaker 8: you know, was so worried about whether the roof was
Speaker 8: going to be closed or opened for kickoff in the
Speaker 8: Super Bowl in Atlanta. So it's a very big deal
Speaker 8: and I think it's gonna be super cool. But I also,
Speaker 8: you know, I think that Belicheck will do a decent
Speaker 8: job of just making sure that everybody knows the assignment
Speaker 8: a hand.
Speaker 1: All right, Chad, Hey, thanks for a few minutes. I
Speaker 1: do appreciate it, and I'll look forward to visiting with
Speaker 1: you from time to time throughout the year.
Speaker 8: Excellent, all right, thanks for talking.
Speaker 1: You got it. Chad graph the Athletic. He's the Patriots
Speaker 1: beat writer for the Athletic dot com at Chad graph
Speaker 1: on X. That sounds so weird? Formerly known as Twitter?
Speaker 1: Is it gonna stay that way? Is? Is he is?
Speaker 1: Is he really gonna say that way? Is Elon gonna
Speaker 1: keep it and leave it? X? I thought the X
Speaker 1: was just sort of a placeholder for a new logo,
Speaker 1: that it was still Twitter, but he put the X
Speaker 1: in there to get rid of the little, you know,
Speaker 1: tweety bird. And they we're gonna come up with a
Speaker 1: new logo, and now they're just kind of leaving it
Speaker 1: as X.
Speaker 6: I had heard that all his other businesses were had
Speaker 6: X in the title or something to do with X.
Speaker 6: So they're all trying to imrge him as one thing.
Speaker 1: Uh So, so it might be that we end up
Speaker 1: getting another logo here is basically what's gonna happen. Probably
Speaker 1: it's possible Okay, Well, who the hell knows anymore? All
Speaker 1: I know is that, you know, I always say, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: post it on X parenthesis formerly Twitter. You know that
Speaker 1: kind of thing because you almost have to, you almost
Speaker 1: have to like suggest that because nobody knows what the
Speaker 1: hell we're talking about. X the hell is X. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm just getting used to the little tweety bird and
Speaker 1: now the X really come on. Yeah, the things that
Speaker 1: you know make us go eight five five PATS five hundred,
Speaker 1: the toll free number, web radio at Patriots dot com.
Speaker 1: If you got email JR Broadcaster at JR Broadcaster on
Speaker 1: X formerly known as Twitter or Instagram too, by the way,
Speaker 1: you want ig okay at JR Broadcaster it's the same handle,
Speaker 1: or you can hit my Facebook page if you'd like.
Speaker 1: Let's get to the phones here. We've got Daves Spadero,
Speaker 1: Eagles insider, coming up at the top of the hour,
Speaker 1: and the one and only pro football guru himself, Russell S. Baxter.
Speaker 1: He'll join us and our number two at bottom of
Speaker 1: the hour to go over week one throughout the entire NFL.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of stuff going on right now.
Speaker 1: The main question to you, however, is a question that
Speaker 1: I did post to both Chad and to Evan earlier,
Speaker 1: and I want you to come up with one bold prediction,
Speaker 1: not two, not three, not seven, not ten. I want one.
Speaker 1: What's on your mind, front and set first and foremost.
Speaker 1: What do you think has to happen? What do you
Speaker 1: think needs to happen? What is the biggest reason for
Speaker 1: success or failure for this Patriots team? And you know
Speaker 1: you can have to do with the team, you have
Speaker 1: to do with the individual. You know it had to
Speaker 1: be Patriots are going to win twelve games? Well, that
Speaker 1: would be mighty bold, you know. And I would say
Speaker 1: that most people would laugh at you if you said that.
Speaker 1: But if that's what you think will happen, then bring
Speaker 1: that to the table and tell us why it's okay.
Speaker 1: There's no such thing. This is a silly question or
Speaker 1: an answer, or a stupid one. As my students all
Speaker 1: know that the only stupid question out there is the
Speaker 1: one that you don't ask. So let's kind of take
Speaker 1: that attitude with this one and welcome you in the program.
Speaker 1: Tim is in the UK, he gets to lead us
Speaker 1: off here. Hey, Tim, you're in the playbook. I'm good.
Speaker 1: How's it going today, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Not too bad to all right, I'll stoll my bold prediction.
Speaker 1: Please.
Speaker 2: This is the take that has kind of earlier in
Speaker 2: the summer, when we didn't re sign Jacoby and we
Speaker 2: signed Juju, I thought, at best, that's going to be
Speaker 2: a net neutral move. I think, yeah, there's you know,
Speaker 2: there's obviously a big risk with Juju kind of you know,
Speaker 2: coming in learning the playbook, learning a new system, and
Speaker 2: they're the injury concerns as well, and you know, we
Speaker 2: haven't seen much of him this summer. I thought at
Speaker 2: the time, Yeah, it's going to be at best as
Speaker 2: good as Jacoby was last year. And you know, given
Speaker 2: that we haven't seen much of him this summer, I
Speaker 2: think that's you know, probably not that bold of a
Speaker 2: take anymore.
Speaker 1: No, I actually like it. Here's another bold take for Jujo.
Speaker 1: He stays healthy in plays you know fifteen games. Well
Speaker 1: that which would that would be? Now that's a bold take,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, yeah, well I think it would
Speaker 1: surprise everybody. And if you you know, believe the media,
Speaker 1: much of the media thinks that Juju's got a bad
Speaker 1: knee and it's getting ready to explode, and you da YadA.
Speaker 1: I mean I hope that doesn't happen. Who would want
Speaker 1: anybody to have that happen. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: I think we realize that that's part of the reason
Speaker 1: why they kept so much younger depth at wide out
Speaker 1: to sort of protect themselves from what they feel might
Speaker 1: be an inevitability. I don't know. I mean time is
Speaker 1: only going to tell. I just I think that if
Speaker 1: Juju is able to stay healthy and stay on the
Speaker 1: field and play, you know, let's say, if he's able
Speaker 1: to play fourteen of the seventeen, I think that's also
Speaker 1: qualifies as a bold prediction.
Speaker 2: And if he I'd take fourteen out of seventeen.
Speaker 1: Will you take fourteen out of seventeen for any of
Speaker 1: the receivers, wouldn't you?
Speaker 2: I mean, that's health that receivers low key kind of
Speaker 2: a really big problem. I think, you know Parker, you know,
Speaker 2: dinged up. I think he's back up practice now, but
Speaker 2: you know, prone to getting dinged up, and he's up
Speaker 2: there in age. Yeah, Tykwon, it's like he's going to
Speaker 2: be out for a lot of the season.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think they've got They've got a lot of depths
Speaker 2: at receiver, but a lot of it is unproven. They
Speaker 2: rookies recent signings this summer. Yeah, including some that have
Speaker 2: come in pretty late in the process. So you know
Speaker 2: how much they're going to realistically contribute.
Speaker 1: I don't know they do. And here's here's an even
Speaker 1: boulder take along those lines. Kendrick Bourne will be the
Speaker 1: Patriots leading receiver in number of catches and yards and touchdowns.
Speaker 2: Why I didn't think that's bold? I think I agree.
Speaker 2: I don't think that the bold.
Speaker 1: I just don't think DeVante Parker and or Juju Smith
Speaker 1: Schuster may be on the field enough. And if Kendrick
Speaker 1: Bourne has, uh, you know, the kind of season that
Speaker 1: we anticipate him having, playing with a little bit of
Speaker 1: a chip on his shoulder, you know, and how he
Speaker 1: might have been used or misused let's say, by the
Speaker 1: previous coaching staff whatever, for whatever reason it is. I
Speaker 1: think Kendrick Bourne is the kind of guy that could
Speaker 1: become you know, uh, Mac Jones's binkie and and be
Speaker 1: a reliable target for him. And teams will start to
Speaker 1: realize that. And that's when other teams will get in
Speaker 1: trouble if they start, you know, shading over a safety,
Speaker 1: let's say, to help Kendrick borne out. I'll take my
Speaker 1: chances with Juju or DeVante Parker if they're healthy in
Speaker 1: the game, either one in single man coverage, I will
Speaker 1: take my chances. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think if you know, if they're
Speaker 2: if they're in the game, it means they're healthy. And
Speaker 2: if they're healthy, I think they're they're the decent options.
Speaker 2: I'm not I'm not all doom and gloom because we
Speaker 2: didn't get.
Speaker 10: Hopkins, you know.
Speaker 2: I think I think we've got, you know, some some
Speaker 2: half decent options that receiver. But yeah, if they're healthy,
Speaker 2: it's going to be the question, right But yeah, he's opened.
Speaker 11: For a big season for KB.
Speaker 2: Because I also just really think he's a likable guy.
Speaker 2: I wanted to. I want to. I want to see
Speaker 2: him do well.
Speaker 1: Absolutely anything else, Tim, I had.
Speaker 2: A couple of real nuts and bolts quests that I
Speaker 2: was hoping to ask Evan. I don't know if he's still.
Speaker 1: There, but Evan is offered practice because Mac Jones is
Speaker 1: getting ready to go speak, so he needs to be
Speaker 1: there for that.
Speaker 2: But you can call you you.
Speaker 1: Can called Evan and talk to him personally because you'll
Speaker 1: do his Catch twenty two show tomorrow at the same time,
Speaker 1: I might.
Speaker 2: Do, but I might ask you if Adam on the line, sure,
Speaker 2: go ahead. So two of the rookies that we didn't
Speaker 2: see much of, Douglas and Mapu Yep, questions about how
Speaker 2: we might see them. Use, does Douglas give the red
Speaker 2: zone off? And any kind of juice with this kind
Speaker 2: of short area quickness? No, just thinking especially of the
Speaker 2: the Adalman touchdown in Super Bowl forty nine.
Speaker 1: If he can you know, if he if he give
Speaker 1: the place, Yeah, if he can run roots like you
Speaker 1: know Julian did, then yeah, you might see that because
Speaker 1: as we know, you know, that first step is usually
Speaker 1: the lulu and you either you know, hang on to
Speaker 1: the cliff or you fall off it. So I mean,
Speaker 1: I would initially say no, because you have a tendency
Speaker 1: to go over the top in red zone situations. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, why not set up some kind
Speaker 1: of a screen, even a bubble screen, and let him
Speaker 1: get behind a couple of blockers and see if he can't,
Speaker 1: you know, make chicken saladut of chicken feathers right and
Speaker 1: get into the end zone that way. So I would
Speaker 1: say initially no, but then upon further review, I'm going
Speaker 1: to figure that they're going to figure out a way
Speaker 1: to get him the ball somehow, some way, anyway they can.
Speaker 1: And that's part of the reason why we didn't. That's
Speaker 1: part of the reason why none of us saw him
Speaker 1: a lot at all, except for what a couple of
Speaker 1: snaps in the preseason, because frankly, I think they're, you know,
Speaker 1: they're playing poker. They're holding their cards to the vest.
Speaker 1: They don't want anybody to see anything.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think we'll see him in the
Speaker 2: end zone a bit and then finally quickly Mafoo and
Speaker 2: I'll get off the line here. Mafu covering tight end,
Speaker 2: something that Doug has struggled a bit with and it's
Speaker 2: been a bit of a week foot on the defense,
Speaker 2: does matter give them anything in tight coverage?
Speaker 1: Sure? All right, all right, Tim, thank you for the
Speaker 1: phone call. Uh. You know, I think you'll probably see
Speaker 1: Mapoo this week. And the reason that you'll see him
Speaker 1: is because, as Evan mentioned earlier, uh, you'll probably see
Speaker 1: more of a hefty, uh safety heavy safety lineup defensively, uh,
Speaker 1: just because of Philadelphia's uh, you know, pension for you know,
Speaker 1: run pass option as well. I think you can give
Speaker 1: him every opportunity to win a job and keep a job. Now,
Speaker 1: I think they'll move him back and forth. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, my thought process is that you might see
Speaker 1: him line up in a linebacker slot, even though technically
Speaker 1: you know, he's a safety, and I think that's where
Speaker 1: they sort of envision him. But I don't think they
Speaker 1: want to to, you know, stickpin his position. I think
Speaker 1: they want him to be that versatile sort of, you know,
Speaker 1: line up anywhere kind of guy where teams have to
Speaker 1: account for him, because if you have to account for
Speaker 1: him and a sign a guy to him to make
Speaker 1: sure that you've got the blocking responsibilities here. If he's
Speaker 1: on the line or reviews, you know, playing a linebacker,
Speaker 1: that's one last guy that can pay attention that you
Speaker 1: need to pay attention to on that end of the field.
Speaker 1: I'm anxious to see him. I'm anxious to see how
Speaker 1: many reps he gets. I'm anxious to see how he
Speaker 1: matches up. Does he go exclusively exclusively with the other
Speaker 1: team's tight ends. Does he cover backs coming out of
Speaker 1: the backfield? Does he support well in run defense if
Speaker 1: he's caught on the field in a running down situation.
Speaker 1: These are all things that we have to learn about
Speaker 1: the kids that you know, we haven't seen yet on
Speaker 1: the field, and I think that obviously will start this week.
Speaker 1: All right, Sean and Vancouver, thanks for hanging in. Sean,
Speaker 1: You're in the playbook.
Speaker 8: Thanks John.
Speaker 12: I'm actually in Montreal right now, heading to the airport.
Speaker 1: Fact, you're still on vacation.
Speaker 12: I'm still well at ending. But yeah, oh lucky vacation time.
Speaker 1: I could I could have done with about two more weeks, Sean,
Speaker 1: Not for nothing. I couldn't with about two more weeks,
Speaker 1: a couple of more weeks you know, on the golf
Speaker 1: course without any you know, you know, going to class
Speaker 1: and you know, trying to you know, improve impressionable young
Speaker 1: minds in this country. I think I could have gone
Speaker 1: with a couple more weeks of you know, swinging it
Speaker 1: often on the golf course.
Speaker 12: Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Well, my bold prediction might
Speaker 12: not be that bold, is I say the Patriots defense
Speaker 12: will be even better. So they were about seven in
Speaker 12: the NFL and points giving up last year. In twenty
Speaker 12: twenty two, I say they're going to be top five.
Speaker 1: Okay, top five is a good one. I think that's
Speaker 1: a reasonable goal. Bold, But you know, but it's bold. Look,
Speaker 1: if they're top five, if they have a top five defense,
Speaker 1: I would also tell you that for them to be
Speaker 1: a playoff team, they need to be a probably a
Speaker 1: right at about a top ten offense. Evan said that earlier,
Speaker 1: and I concur with that. It's got to happen on
Speaker 1: both ends. Could they snare in with say a top
Speaker 1: five or a top three defense and maybe a top
Speaker 1: fifteen offense, Yeah, they could, but a lot of that
Speaker 1: is gonna be dependent upon how the teams around them.
Speaker 1: Do you know, Uh, I was just gonna say. Russell
Speaker 1: Baxter wrote earlier this week that you know, it's not
Speaker 1: impossible for four teams from the same division to get
Speaker 1: into the postseason. It's happened a couple of times before.
Speaker 1: I'll get him to expand on that in the next hour,
Speaker 1: but you know, he doesn't think that the AFC East
Speaker 1: is that division this year, and I would, respectfully, you know,
Speaker 1: disagree with that because I think all four teams largely
Speaker 1: have the ability to beat each other. The Patriots are
Speaker 1: the one that everybody's looking at. Everybody's going to assume,
Speaker 1: you know that the Bills are going to be at
Speaker 1: the top, and that you know the Dolphins are still
Speaker 1: going to be good if you know, he stays, you know, healthy,
Speaker 1: and that you know the Jets are going to be improved,
Speaker 1: and okay, that's fine, but you know what happens when
Speaker 1: you assume.
Speaker 12: Right, yeah, you make an ass you know, And.
Speaker 1: I think that could end up happening. So it'll be
Speaker 1: interesting to see how that part unfold. I just I
Speaker 1: think that there is a possibility for that to happen,
Speaker 1: and it could happen right in the AFC East.
Speaker 12: Well, the other thing I want to talk about is
Speaker 12: the game that's upcoming to the Eagles, because we learned
Speaker 12: very little from these pieces and we don't really know,
Speaker 12: especially offense, what the Patriots will be. But they've made
Speaker 12: a lot of moves and we're going to see if
Speaker 12: those affect what they had deficiencies with last year. And
Speaker 12: one of them is the mobile quarterback.
Speaker 11: So right the way, we get that test with Hurts.
Speaker 12: And if you remember back in two thousand and three,
Speaker 12: the Patriots had Damian Fewart, who isn't you know, anywhere
Speaker 12: near as good as Peyton Manning, but he was able
Speaker 12: to mimic Manning well enough for the Patriots to win
Speaker 12: that season. And Belichick paised him for that. So we're
Speaker 12: going to see, you know, on the practice squad at
Speaker 12: Cunningham could help the Patriots defense. And with that, I'm
Speaker 12: thinking Mapu maybe spy times on the field when he's closer.
Speaker 9: To the box.
Speaker 1: I love the I love the ability to spy someone,
Speaker 1: especially if we've got the the you know, an athletic
Speaker 1: quarterback who is as much a threat to run as
Speaker 1: he is to throw. The Patriots don't seem to like
Speaker 1: to do that, and they've tried it in the past.
Speaker 1: They haven't done well with it. Whenever you think that
Speaker 1: you're you're playing one of these, you know rpo you know,
Speaker 1: geniuses at quarterback, and yeah, the Eagles have one. There's
Speaker 1: no doubt about that that, you know, this would be
Speaker 1: the perfect thing to do. I'm not sure that anybody
Speaker 1: wants to play their hand in that regard, even though
Speaker 1: it might very well be that that's the case, that
Speaker 1: there's going to be one guy out there that's sort
Speaker 1: of spotting him, spying him, you know, just sticking by him,
Speaker 1: putting a hit on him, whatever it may be, to
Speaker 1: make sure that he doesn't burn you. When you have
Speaker 1: somebody as talented as Jalen Hurts Okay, and I thought
Speaker 1: he was talented at all. I thought he got the
Speaker 1: shaft at Alabama my own person's health, and then we saw,
Speaker 1: you know, how well he could play at Oklahoma when
Speaker 1: he transferred. I he is a definite MVP candidate and
Speaker 1: he should be considered that because he's such a threat
Speaker 1: with you both talents. He's got a better arm than
Speaker 1: people give him credit for, and his legs are as
Speaker 1: strong as any quarterbacks I think we've seen maybe Ever So,
Speaker 1: when you have that kind of a dual threat, I'd say,
Speaker 1: you're not doing your job unless you have somebody somebody
Speaker 1: who has an assignment on him. Period. But when you
Speaker 1: do that, you take away from other areas. And I'm
Speaker 1: sure that would be Bill Belichick's explanation on that one.
Speaker 1: You're taking away from other help that you might need.
Speaker 1: So it's almost damned if you do, damned if you
Speaker 1: don't kind of situation, which leads me to say that
Speaker 1: it will probably be situation situation.
Speaker 12: Yeah, well it's not all the time, but it's definitely
Speaker 12: going to be. I would think they need to do
Speaker 12: that to win. But the other thing I think they
Speaker 12: might have addressed and well, again, we're going to see everything.
Speaker 12: This is a great test with this team because the
Speaker 12: Eagles are are such a strong team. But you mentioned
Speaker 12: it before with protecting the quarterback end. Yeah, having there,
Speaker 12: and I think you're going to see more twenty two
Speaker 12: and aspects of two running backs and at the same
Speaker 12: time with Zeke and Stevenson both there so you can
Speaker 12: pass and run with the same personnel.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I certainly think you'll see them like maybe
Speaker 1: I would say every other series. If not, you know,
Speaker 1: like you know, all right, one guy plays two downs,
Speaker 1: the next guy gets two downs, the nextually get two downs.
Speaker 1: I mean you'll see some kind of a rotation, I
Speaker 1: would think. I mean that's why they went out and
Speaker 1: got the guy. So you know, Remandre had a compliment
Speaker 1: and so you had help, you know, blocking in the
Speaker 1: offensive backfield, and so you had a guy that you
Speaker 1: know obviously knows how to you know, catch the football
Speaker 1: a little bit. Saw. Thank you for the phone call,
Speaker 1: because I want to ask kind of that of our
Speaker 1: next guest here on the program, Dave Sparrow, who covers
Speaker 1: the Eagles for Philodolph Eagles dot Com. He's at Eagles
Speaker 1: Insider on X formerly known as Twitter to get that
Speaker 1: one in. Dave John Rook here in Foxborough. How are
Speaker 1: you today, Hi.
Speaker 11: John, Good afternoon. I'm doing fine things great, looking forward
Speaker 11: to Sunday.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Hey, we got to get started with this thing, right,
Speaker 1: Let's get in the summer times over time to get
Speaker 1: down to business at hand. So what are your thoughts
Speaker 1: on what we were just kind of talking about a
Speaker 1: little bit there in terms of, you know, here's a
Speaker 1: guy that Ezekiel Elliott, who the Eagles had faced twice
Speaker 1: a year for as long as he's been in the league.
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on his worth to a team nowadays?
Speaker 1: That clearly he's not the running back he once was,
Speaker 1: but his ability to block and and and and maybe
Speaker 1: provide leadership and get you the tough yards and you know,
Speaker 1: especially when it comes to Eagles front four, I mean,
Speaker 1: how difficult the guy is he do to a sort
Speaker 1: of play for? You think these days?
Speaker 11: Well, he's always done a really good job against the Eagles.
Speaker 11: He's been very tough in the red zone, very tough
Speaker 11: in the goal line, and I think in the right
Speaker 11: situation he can be very productive. I mean, the Eagles
Speaker 11: are a team that is at least at this point,
Speaker 11: it looks like the Eagles goal with a committee approach
Speaker 11: at the running back position. And I don't look at
Speaker 11: Zeke as somebody who's carrying the ball twenty five times
Speaker 11: a game, but I certainly think he can be effective
Speaker 11: in a role, and so I think the Eagles have
Speaker 11: the utmost respect for the guy. And you know, Stevenson
Speaker 11: and Elliott in the backfield sounds like a power running game.
Speaker 11: And you know, it's very important to control the line
Speaker 11: of scrimmage and give your quarterback manageable situations, and I
Speaker 11: think Elliott certainly helps Patriots do that.
Speaker 1: Well. You know, I think it's almost universal. Almost everybody
Speaker 1: I've read when it comes to talking about the Eagles
Speaker 1: this year feels like the Eagles may have, you know,
Speaker 1: the best roster, top to bottom of any team in
Speaker 1: the NFL. You know, I'm certainly not going to argue
Speaker 1: that point. I think it's extraordinarily deep roster, and the
Speaker 1: front four is as talented, maybe as we've seen in
Speaker 1: recent years. Not blowing smoke up your skirt, I'm just
Speaker 1: telling you, hey, look, seventy sacks kind of speaks for
Speaker 1: itself last year, and I think the Patriots offensive line
Speaker 1: undoubtedly will have more than just its hands full on Sunday.
Speaker 1: What's been the Eagles secret to success? Is it strictly
Speaker 1: on the man personality? Is it the way they run schemes?
Speaker 1: And how will any of that change since there are
Speaker 1: different signal callers you know, you know coming from your
Speaker 1: bench this year.
Speaker 11: Yeah, I mean the last part remains to be seen.
Speaker 11: We really haven't seen obviously anything from Sean Decay in
Speaker 11: the preseason. I suspect it'll be relatively similar to what
Speaker 11: Jonathan Gannon did. Eagles until the second half of the
Speaker 11: Super Bowl had a tremendous amount of success defensively last year. So,
Speaker 11: but I think a lot of it's just they invest
Speaker 11: in the draft, They invest at the line of scrimmage,
Speaker 11: on both sides.
Speaker 7: Of the ball.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 11: In free agency they invest. I mean they made a
Speaker 11: great move a couple of years ago in free agency
Speaker 11: going out and making Hassan Reddick a priority. He fit
Speaker 11: in perfectly double digit sacks last year. He had sixteen
Speaker 11: sacks All Pro Player recognition in the Pro Bowls. So
Speaker 11: and then you keep adding, then you lose what's really
Speaker 11: interesting to me. And I did a piece earlier in
Speaker 11: the spring about this the Eagles lose Javon Hargrave. I
Speaker 11: think the highest contract in free agency went to Hardgrave,
Speaker 11: who signed with the forty nine ers. And there's a
Speaker 11: chance that this front will be better because they have
Speaker 11: some young players developing, like Milton Williams and last year's
Speaker 11: number one Jordan Davis. They go out and trade up
Speaker 11: in round number one this year and get Jalen Carter
Speaker 11: and at Contavious three and just keep adding pieces and
Speaker 11: winning with depth. And it's like hockey, bringing players over
Speaker 11: the boards and keeping everybody in a rotation and keeping
Speaker 11: everybody hungry fast off the football, and you know, aimed
Speaker 11: at the quarterback. So they've hit on the draft, they've
Speaker 11: free agency, They've developed very well, and they play an
Speaker 11: aggressive scheme.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Dave Beraro from Philadelphia Eagles dot Com at Eagles
Speaker 1: Insider joining us here in the playbook. If you really
Speaker 1: want to know, Dave, is the Eagles version of Paul Perillo?
Speaker 1: Is that? Is that you think accurate? Dave?
Speaker 9: Well, I'm not quite.
Speaker 7: I hope.
Speaker 11: So, I mean I think Paul's great. I mean I
Speaker 11: think that as a confidence, Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, Paul, Paul's ar kidding around here, we defer
Speaker 1: all of the you know that stuff to him. So
Speaker 1: I figured, well, you know, shoot, let's let's go that route.
Speaker 1: Let's take that route because somebody's got to step up
Speaker 1: into that role. How important, Dave is it that Philadelphia
Speaker 1: figure out a way to get to the Patriots offense
Speaker 1: and get to their playmakers on offense early in this game?
Speaker 1: Because I kind of think, look, we talked about this
Speaker 1: in the opening hour without your regulars having really gotten
Speaker 1: a lot of time in the preseason, and I know
Speaker 1: a lot of that's overrated anyway, but let's say, you know, hey,
Speaker 1: it would probably be a bit of a surprise or
Speaker 1: an eyebrow raiser of the releast if you guys came
Speaker 1: out clicking on all cylinders from the get go, just
Speaker 1: because there's gonna be some natural rust. I think that
Speaker 1: has to be worn off a bit. So, you know,
Speaker 1: is it important for this team to get off to
Speaker 1: the fast start against the team that you know, man
Speaker 1: for man probably shouldn't be step for step with the
Speaker 1: team that you know has the Eagles talent on this roster.
Speaker 11: I think so, I mean, I look, I know it'll
Speaker 11: be emotional up there with the Tom Brady ceremony. I
Speaker 11: think the fans will be jacked up. And I understand
Speaker 11: that the Patriots head it down year last year and
Speaker 11: they've got a lot to prove. And I think defensively
Speaker 11: for the Eagles, when I look at this defense and
Speaker 11: I say, all right, they don't really know what the
Speaker 11: Patriots are going to do, but maybe they do. They're
Speaker 11: very familiar with Bill O'Brien. They know that they want
Speaker 11: to get the ball out of the quarterback's hands quickly.
Speaker 11: The tight end will be heavily involved. They want to
Speaker 11: run the football, they want to eat some call, they
Speaker 11: want to keep Eagles on their heels. All of that
Speaker 11: is important. See, this is a third straight season the
Speaker 11: Eagles are starting on the road and Nick siriy Andy
Speaker 11: has had a.
Speaker 7: Lot of success.
Speaker 11: A win in Atlanta, a win in Detroit kind of
Speaker 11: set the tone for the season. I expect the Eagles
Speaker 11: to come out really aggressively offensively. I think that they
Speaker 11: feel that they match up pretty well with the Patriots,
Speaker 11: with all due respect to me a really good defensive
Speaker 11: front that New England has, But the Eagles the offensive
Speaker 11: line is as good as any of the league, and
Speaker 11: the playmakers on the outside with Smith and Brown outstanding,
Speaker 11: Dallas Goddard at tight end, the multiplicity in the backfield
Speaker 11: with Hurts and some really interesting talent traits in the backfield.
Speaker 11: I mean, I think we're all just dying to see
Speaker 11: what the team is going to be all about, if
Speaker 11: it's what wrinkles they'll add. But yeah, for sure, when
Speaker 11: you're on the road, man, you want to come out
Speaker 11: strong and take it to them and not give a
Speaker 11: team a feeling in the second half that it can
Speaker 11: come back and win the game. So it's very important
Speaker 11: for the Eagles to finish and rather to start strong, finish,
Speaker 11: start fast, finished strong, and that's I think whatever every
Speaker 11: team wants to do.
Speaker 1: You guys have had some injury issues at wide out, No.
Speaker 11: Yeah, not really no. I mean the third receiver, Ques
Speaker 11: Watkins has had a hamstring. But for them, you know,
Speaker 11: coming out of camp in the preseason, AJ Brown's healthy,
Speaker 11: Devonte Smith is healthy. Alamide Zechias has had a minor
Speaker 11: injury that he suffered in the preseason game preseason second
Speaker 11: preseason game, I believe, and so, but he's expected to play.
Speaker 7: I don't.
Speaker 11: I don't think there's really any knock on wood major
Speaker 11: injury concerns for the Eagles coming into this game that
Speaker 11: they manage things pretty well coming off of Super Bowl.
Speaker 11: They really made sure to give the players time away
Speaker 11: from the field, get their legs back, get their energy back.
Speaker 11: Tough loss to the Chiefs emotionally, really put that game
Speaker 11: behind them. I think the Eagles committed this game very
Speaker 11: focused and ready to play a good football game.
Speaker 1: What do you think Nick Sirianni learned about that experience
Speaker 1: last year, especially losing in the way that the team
Speaker 1: did in Kansas City, and how that will affect how
Speaker 1: will might it affect him as a head coach going
Speaker 1: into the season.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean, you know, the.
Speaker 11: Eagles didn't play their their A game in that Super Bowl,
Speaker 11: and that's a credit to the Chiefs certainly, but it's
Speaker 11: also a learning experience for Jalen Hurston and company. You
Speaker 11: can't fumble and have it returned four touchdowns. You can't
Speaker 11: commit penalties. You can't score three points when you have
Speaker 11: an opportunity to score seven. Your defense has to get
Speaker 11: off the field. You cannot give up a big punt
Speaker 11: return that led to a touchdown. These are things that
Speaker 11: you know the Eagles lament. They went into that game healthy,
Speaker 11: golden opportunity to win their second Super Bowl in five
Speaker 11: seasons came up short. And you know, I gotta tell you, John,
Speaker 11: what they did was really interesting. And this is a
Speaker 11: third super Bowl I've been to with the Eagles. They
Speaker 11: reloaded the roster. They didn't they didn't take their foot
Speaker 11: off the gas at all. They knew they had a
Speaker 11: bunch of free agents that they could possibly lose. They
Speaker 11: did lose some. There is change on the defense, but
Speaker 11: they were able to retain James Bradberry and redo Darius
Speaker 11: Slay's contract and keep Brandon Graham and keep Jason Kelcey
Speaker 11: for another year, and add Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith
Speaker 11: in round number one, and those young guys get to
Speaker 11: come in. They don't have to be stars right away,
Speaker 11: but they're expected to be contributors. And when you have
Speaker 11: that kind of depth, you know, you just look at
Speaker 11: the seventeen game season and you say, we're pretty well
Speaker 11: equipped to withstand what we know is coming. And there's
Speaker 11: going to be some injuries. But the Eagles do have
Speaker 11: some depths at most positions, But like every other team,
Speaker 11: there's some indispensible players and you just hope you get
Speaker 11: through the season unscathe get to the postseason and really
Speaker 11: play your best football. But it was a learning experience
Speaker 11: for sure. You have to play a great game in
Speaker 11: the Super Bowl to win it. Eagles didn't play a
Speaker 11: great game and they came up three points short.
Speaker 1: And for a second there where you're talking about some
Speaker 1: of those young guys coming on, I thought you were
Speaker 1: going to list Superman and Batman in there too.
Speaker 11: It's right. Do you talk about the roster, I mean
Speaker 11: you do look at the rush and you go, whoa,
Speaker 11: there's some time.
Speaker 1: Here, That's what I mean. I looked at your two
Speaker 1: d to then I'm like, I forgot that. I didn't
Speaker 1: know that, you know, I'm like, wow, there's some players.
Speaker 11: Yeah, but there's also some questions. I mean, they have
Speaker 11: two new safeties, They've only got three linebackers on the
Speaker 11: active roster. There's two new starters there. The offensive line
Speaker 11: has a new starter at right guard. The punter, it
Speaker 11: appears at this point, will be Aaron Zippoff, who is
Speaker 11: on the practice squad. So like every team, you know,
Speaker 11: there's roster fluidity, there's question The first week or two
Speaker 11: of the season always unpredictable, and the Eagles They're going
Speaker 11: into a tough environment. The Patriots crowd is going to
Speaker 11: be very, very excited for the day and for the
Speaker 11: celebration and for the start of the season. And I
Speaker 11: suspect to see Mac Jones and Bill Belichick get off
Speaker 11: get off the season in the right way. And I
Speaker 11: think it's really important from the Patriots standpoint that they
Speaker 11: Patriots start the season the right way after a tough
Speaker 11: twenty twenty two seasons. So both teams have a lot
Speaker 11: of great storylines and I really think it will be
Speaker 11: a great, great football game. Of course, one of the
Speaker 11: themes here is that the Eagles are going against Belichick
Speaker 11: and what kind of wrenches is he going to throw
Speaker 11: into the plan? And what kind of surprises will he
Speaker 11: will he give the Eagles, and what will he do
Speaker 11: to give devise to do to slow Daleen Hurts in
Speaker 11: his legs? All fascinating stuff. Can't wait for Sunday.
Speaker 1: All right, Then, a final question for you is what
Speaker 1: I'm asking our fans today is to come up with
Speaker 1: one bold prediction for the Patriots for twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: How about a bold prediction from you for the Eagles
Speaker 1: for this season?
Speaker 11: Okay, my bold prediction is that the Eagles, for the
Speaker 11: first time in the NFC East since two thousand and
Speaker 11: three two thousand and four, will be a repeat winner
Speaker 11: in the division. Okay, and it's a remarkable statistic, no
Speaker 11: repeat winner in the NFC East since two thousand and three.
Speaker 11: Two thousand and four. Eagles won it last year. History
Speaker 11: says it's going to be really tough to do it
Speaker 11: again this year. Dave Spenero says the Eagles will do
Speaker 11: it again and get off that twenty year schneid.
Speaker 1: God, I love it it. Just there's no sitting on
Speaker 1: the fence with you. That's what I love about it.
Speaker 1: That's great, fantastic. Hey, Dave, safe travels this way and
Speaker 1: best of luck throughout the course of the season. I
Speaker 1: look forward to visiting with you again at some point.
Speaker 11: My pleasure. Thanks for having me and should be a great,
Speaker 11: great game. Can't wait for it to start on Sunday.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, good luck. It is Dave Sponaro again. You can
Speaker 1: find him at Eagles Insider on x dot com or
Speaker 1: whatever the hell it is Twitter, formerly known as Twitter
Speaker 1: YadA YadA. But his stuff is good and like I said,
Speaker 1: he's He's the Eagles version of Paul Parellos. So if
Speaker 1: you really want to know, this is the guy that
Speaker 1: you probably you got to read, you probably got to
Speaker 1: get into. All right. So we're roughly fifteen ten minutes
Speaker 1: away from Russell Baxter, who will join us here in
Speaker 1: the program at eight five five, Pats five hundred, Patty
Speaker 1: and aguam oh. He called in because I had his
Speaker 1: email all ready to go. But Patty's right here on
Speaker 1: the phone. Hi, Patty, what's up?
Speaker 9: John?
Speaker 7: Hey?
Speaker 10: Part of the noise. I'm gonna view my phone when
Speaker 10: I'm not talking, But can I get.
Speaker 9: You two bold prediction?
Speaker 1: Shoot? Go for it all right?
Speaker 10: Number one mac Jones, we'll finish, we'll finish third and
Speaker 10: the AFC and QB rating and number the second fold
Speaker 10: prediction is Patriots go five and one in the division.
Speaker 10: Whoa they split against Buffalo, They sweet Miami and the Jets.
Speaker 1: Wow, all right, that's hmm bold. It might might be
Speaker 1: a couple of other things too, but hey, guess what
Speaker 1: if it happens, then you get the chance to come
Speaker 1: on the show and crow about it.
Speaker 10: I love it, I'll do it.
Speaker 9: Well.
Speaker 1: That's that's pretty good though. The mac Jones one third
Speaker 1: in QB rating or top three in QB rating. Look,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of competition in the AFC, and I
Speaker 1: think we realized that, and for the Patriots to have
Speaker 1: a successful season, Mac has to be an upper half quarterback.
Speaker 1: I'll certainly give you that top three e. It depends
Speaker 1: on the other guys and the other teams, but he's
Speaker 1: got to be based on his performance alone and upper
Speaker 1: half quarterback. And he can't be if the guys in
Speaker 1: front of him cannot block, he can't be. There's no way.
Speaker 1: So that would also be especially bold, I think coming
Speaker 1: fromview not that I think Max's gonna fail. I actually
Speaker 1: think this team is going to surprise. My first bold
Speaker 1: prediction was this team makes the postseason, when you know
Speaker 1: there are a lot of people that don't think that
Speaker 1: will happen. But we mentioned this on last week's show,
Speaker 1: on our preseason or offseason finale, that this I mean
Speaker 1: this this team I think you know. I mean, what
Speaker 1: was the over under? It was six and a half.
Speaker 1: It started I think a bet MGM. It started out
Speaker 1: at six and a half wins and it was up
Speaker 1: at seven and a half last week, and that they
Speaker 1: were still bet MGM was reporting that they were still
Speaker 1: pounding the over on that bet at seven and a half.
Speaker 1: So clearly there are a lot of people out there
Speaker 1: that think that this Patriots team can make the postseason. Now,
Speaker 1: of course, if you win that bet, eight wins isn't
Speaker 1: going to get you into the post. But it just
Speaker 1: sounds to me like there's a lot of optimism surrounding
Speaker 1: this team, and I recognize that, and so I'm hoping
Speaker 1: that a little bit of that rubs off on these guys.
Speaker 10: Yeah, and I just think that Mac mac is probably
Speaker 10: one of the smartest quarterbacks in the league. The fact
Speaker 10: that they that they got Billy O'Brien this year, I
Speaker 10: think that's gonna be a fix.
Speaker 9: Pluz. I've said it all along on you.
Speaker 10: I think the tandem epimin atoran Clem Will. I mean,
Speaker 10: they will scheme things to uh, to make things happen,
Speaker 10: especially in the first four weeks of the season, because
Speaker 10: they're gonna be I mean, it's a murderers row of
Speaker 10: defensive lines that they're going to be playing. And I
Speaker 10: don't think they're You're going to see anything stupid like
Speaker 10: Penn shot plays against these teams, you know, I think
Speaker 10: they're going to try and get the ball out quick,
Speaker 10: be smart about it. Run some quick plans from RPOs.
Speaker 7: You know all the stuff that was.
Speaker 10: In Max Wheelhouse in Alabama, and a lot of the
Speaker 10: the EP offense, you know, a lot of the foundational
Speaker 10: East offense that that's predicated on winning over the middle
Speaker 10: of the field. And Yeah, I think this team's gonna
Speaker 10: win ten games. I think they could make the playoffs.
Speaker 9: I don't know.
Speaker 10: I'm sort of on the fence about that, but I
Speaker 10: think I think you might need to win ten or
Speaker 10: more and then ten. You're gonna need ten with a
Speaker 10: tiebreaker to get the playoffs in the AFC this year.
Speaker 1: That might be the case. Yeah, that might be the case,
Speaker 1: but I would tell you largely, you get to ten wins,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be there. Yeah.
Speaker 9: And you got my prediction. You got my score prediction
Speaker 9: for the week, so I won't I won't have to
Speaker 9: stay it on the air.
Speaker 1: Well, see you said, you said, you said the Eagles
Speaker 1: win twenty eight to twenty seven. Yeah, and Chad Ryland.
Speaker 1: Chad Ryland misses a fifty plus yard field goal with
Speaker 1: less than thirty seconds on the clock to lose it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: aren't you a rolling ball of butcher knives?
Speaker 10: I hope I'm wrong, but I don't know. I think
Speaker 10: I think. I think this team is going to surprise
Speaker 10: a lot of people, and I think I think it's
Speaker 10: it's gonna start Week one, and I think they'll carry
Speaker 10: that momentum out throughout the season, and I think they're
Speaker 10: gonna have a good year. You know, fingers crossed, of course,
Speaker 10: but objectively speaking too, I think you look at last
Speaker 10: year's team. I know the schedules tougher this year, but
Speaker 10: if that team can win eight games with a real
Speaker 10: good defense and a crap show on offense, I mean,
Speaker 10: I think Bill O'Brien and just a working, functioning NFL offense, Yeah,
Speaker 10: and can garner them two more with this year? And
Speaker 10: that's all I got DOWNNY.
Speaker 1: Let's hope that that is the case. I appreciate you, Patty,
Speaker 1: thank you. We hit a couple of emails here real quick.
Speaker 1: Brian in North Bay, California, Welcome back for another season, Jr.
Speaker 1: Easy bolt prediction here Patriots will beat the Eagles twenty
Speaker 1: nine to twenty one. As Tom roots for the team
Speaker 1: on and keeps the crowd in a fervor heading into
Speaker 1: the draft, I didn't bother looking at Christian Gonzales because
Speaker 1: I heard pundit after pundit say he was number one
Speaker 1: on their big board including reporters and callers in pre
Speaker 1: drafted this very playbook. Now that Gonzales fell in his
Speaker 1: own on the team, let's get excited. The secondary is
Speaker 1: a secondary no more than the shout out to Eldred
Speaker 1: there and can't wait to watch a leap in ball
Speaker 1: hawking from Marcus Jones out of the defensive slot. Excited
Speaker 1: for the rookie receivers to get early looks. O'Brian keeps
Speaker 1: the veterans fresh for the playoff push. Big fan of
Speaker 1: adding Keon White and Zeke Elliott. Looking for a monster
Speaker 1: year out of Kyle Duggar. Thank you, Brian, appreciate that
Speaker 1: our buddy Howard and Stratford, Connecticut. Let's see glad to
Speaker 1: have you back for another season of the playbook And
Speaker 1: Patriots football. Oh guys are lucky and sounding great. Well, okay,
Speaker 1: there we go, hey looking at me like that. You
Speaker 1: are here on drugs. Can't wait for the Thursday night
Speaker 1: football tomorrow. And here's hoping the Lions are for real
Speaker 1: and they beat the Chiefs. As for the Patriots, I
Speaker 1: know very few people are going to give them a
Speaker 1: chance against the reigning NFC champs. But I think the
Speaker 1: Pats are improved, especially on d and although they will
Speaker 1: not shut down the Eagles, zho, they're gonna slow it down.
Speaker 1: And he says his key in this game is that
Speaker 1: the patso needs to stay on the field, sustain drives,
Speaker 1: and allow the Deed to rest so they are fresh
Speaker 1: come the fourth quarter. If the Oak can do that,
Speaker 1: I believe the improved OA can score enough points to
Speaker 1: win the game thirty to twenty eight on a walk
Speaker 1: off field goal by the rookie kicker Chad Ryland. So
Speaker 1: we got one who says he's gonna blow a fifty
Speaker 1: yarder at the end to lose it, and another says
Speaker 1: he's gonna hit a fifty yarder at the end to
Speaker 1: win it. Why do I think we're gonna miss Nick
Speaker 1: Folk at some point? I just saying, just saying. I
Speaker 1: have nothing against Chad Ryland. I know he's got a
Speaker 1: cannon for a leg. I'm anxious to see him as
Speaker 1: just about anybody. But when you're in close games, your
Speaker 1: kicker makes the diff The guy you had is as
Speaker 1: reliable from inside of fifty yards as anybody in the NFL.
Speaker 1: And now he's kicking for Tennessee. So I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: kind of leave it right there with that one. Nancy Vermiaha, John,
Speaker 1: have you missed me? I started a new career. I
Speaker 1: haven't been able to listen, but I am back and
Speaker 1: love the new broadcast. I will try to listen more often.
Speaker 1: I miss the fun conversations, regular callers, everything. I haven't
Speaker 1: read or followed the team very much this offseason. My
Speaker 1: bold prediction is the Patriots will be second in the
Speaker 1: division and make the playoffs. I like the prediction, Nancy.
Speaker 1: What needs to happen. The offensive line needs to step
Speaker 1: up big time. If you're taking scores for a yearbook,
Speaker 1: I will never receive my prediction. Patriots win twenty three twenty.
Speaker 1: I think that was a shot. Marine, I think that
Speaker 1: was a shot still make the playbooks. I think that
Speaker 1: was definitely a shot. Nelson in La Hey Nelson, you're
Speaker 1: in the playbook.
Speaker 9: Hey, how are you doing today? Man?
Speaker 1: What's happening? Good goods? Everything's great, everything's great. We're ready
Speaker 1: for football. What about you?
Speaker 9: I'm excited. I'm excited, all.
Speaker 1: Right, So tell me why you're excited.
Speaker 9: My position is we're gonna win thirty.
Speaker 1: One to twenty eight, last second field goal, yes, sir, nice, okay.
Speaker 9: And then the question.
Speaker 10: That you asked, yeah, the one that you said, I
Speaker 10: don't know what's.
Speaker 1: A bold prediction? What do you think will happen with
Speaker 1: the Patriots this year?
Speaker 9: My boat position is we're not in the Kansas City
Speaker 9: or the ASC Championship and we go.
Speaker 8: Out to the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Bearment, Nelson, you're all right, You're all right. Way to
Speaker 1: have that enthusiasm.
Speaker 9: I'm excited a new era and we're gonna be.
Speaker 11: Out there winning games.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, last year we were all man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well we know that that's true. Just as long as you
Speaker 1: don't have a repeat of that, I'll be all good
Speaker 1: with it.
Speaker 7: I can't hear you and one long from all.
Speaker 1: You all out there, man, Okay, okay. I appreciate you, Nelson,
Speaker 1: and thanks for listening. It's always good to have that.
Speaker 1: We got a little bit more to get to, But
Speaker 1: first I want to sort of reintroduce before we play
Speaker 1: his show. Open here a gentleman who I've known for
Speaker 1: a long time, and our time goes back to our
Speaker 1: time together at ESPN Radio. Back well, before before we
Speaker 1: hit the two thousands, predating the millennium. We're going back
Speaker 1: over twenty years now, but he's been a relatively regular,
Speaker 1: if not regular, part of this show since the first
Speaker 1: year we started, which was two thousand and one. Year
Speaker 1: twenty three now the Patriots Playbook, Real woman could stop
Speaker 1: you from drinking.
Speaker 4: That's a real big woman.
Speaker 3: It's time to go around the NFL with football guru
Speaker 3: Russell Baxter.
Speaker 1: Now what my name is? Flounder on Patriots Playbook? Hey Flounder,
Speaker 1: what's happening?
Speaker 9: What was when?
Speaker 1: Uh oh, there goes the phone? Son of a gun?
Speaker 1: Would you I'm gonna I'm gonna put it, hold on,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna play it. Claire's day conversation with him. Wow,
Speaker 1: is that amazing? I know, I know because I heard
Speaker 1: you tell I saw you talking to him and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden bang. So you want to try
Speaker 1: to pick him up on your end and see if
Speaker 1: it comes back. Yeah, just because you know, I don't
Speaker 1: want to waste any good stuff with Russell. We don't
Speaker 1: want to do that. The background on Russell is he
Speaker 1: was For those that don't know. If you're wondering who
Speaker 1: the heck is this Russell, Baxter.
Speaker 6: Guy.
Speaker 1: Russell was the guy in the ear of Chris Berman
Speaker 1: and Tom Jackson during NFL Sunday Countdown and basically feeding
Speaker 1: them all the info that they had on the air,
Speaker 1: which really helped make that program work for decades at ESPN.
Speaker 1: And he sends matriculated onto doing his own thing now
Speaker 1: and covering the National Football League. Let's try him. Now,
Speaker 1: are you there, buddy, I'm here. Oh there you are. Okay.
Speaker 1: I don't know what happened. You said the first two
Speaker 1: words out of your mouth and all of a sudden, Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't know what happened.
Speaker 9: I was talking to you and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 9: Boomer and Tommy, you were asking me questions.
Speaker 1: Do they still ask you questions today?
Speaker 9: Well, we talk on different levels. I actually talked with
Speaker 9: christ a couple of days ago.
Speaker 1: And great one good And then listen.
Speaker 9: Those are they're family members?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Right for life? Okay, right of course.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 9: You know what, there's a reason you hear the words
Speaker 9: uncle Boomer in my house?
Speaker 1: Hey, and you had you had another family member decide
Speaker 1: to step aside. This week with the retiring of mister
Speaker 1: Mortenson from covering the NFL actively on ESPN.
Speaker 9: You know, I was, I was hoping you'd ask me
Speaker 9: about more because and you're gonna have to bear with
Speaker 9: me because when I found out yesterday, he's one of
Speaker 9: the kindest and actually one of the funniest human beings
Speaker 9: that ever met by life. Always such perspective, such professionalism,
Speaker 9: and I'm not even doing them justice and stuff, but
Speaker 9: you know, the the what he brought to our meetings, Uh,
Speaker 9: it was more than just information, you know, it was
Speaker 9: the love, the respect for you know, what he did
Speaker 9: and so on, and you know, he's one of those
Speaker 9: people I really miss. I got to see him at
Speaker 9: the Hall of Fame a couple of years ago. He
Speaker 9: made me laugh. He always makes you laugh and so
Speaker 9: and you know, he's uh, you know, I posted I
Speaker 9: posted a picture of that we took at the Hall
Speaker 9: of Fame three or four years ago. He's uh, he was.
Speaker 9: He was a pivotal part of the business. And you know,
Speaker 9: you know before the before that, you know, John, before
Speaker 9: this day of cell phones okay, which I'm dating myself,
Speaker 9: you know not you know, listen, I'm not talking you know,
Speaker 9: wireless communication and ticker tape or anything like that. But
Speaker 9: you know, I can remember being in the studios when
Speaker 9: we used to do the Monday night show, which was
Speaker 9: actually called NFL Prime Monday if you.
Speaker 1: Remember sure originally yeah.
Speaker 9: Started in nineteen ninety three. It was kind of like
Speaker 9: in a trailer outside the main complex and so on.
Speaker 9: That was the step we used, and and then we
Speaker 9: moved inside, you know, with you know, running water and
Speaker 9: all that stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they invited you in the building.
Speaker 9: Yeah, but I can remember many an instance where again
Speaker 9: before cell phones and more than the studio being paged
Speaker 9: that you have a call, and you know, it was
Speaker 9: a who's who who people who were calling more. Yeah, okay, right,
Speaker 9: So he commanded that much respect. He still commands that
Speaker 9: much respect. And I know he'll I hear from him
Speaker 9: on Twitter and every once in a while I'll get
Speaker 9: a nice little message and so on. But what he
Speaker 9: did for ESPN in terms of credibility, he can't be topped.
Speaker 1: And I was, well, he was the original insider Russell.
Speaker 1: I mean, he was Adam Schefter before Adam Schefter was
Speaker 1: Adam Schefter.
Speaker 9: I think in some ways Adam can considers him a mentor.
Speaker 9: You know, those are my words on essay, But I
Speaker 9: think if you read anything that Adam wrote yesterday on Twitter. Yea,
Speaker 9: you know they worked tied by side the last couple
Speaker 9: of couple of years. Adam was at the NFL Network
Speaker 9: and came over and joined us, and yeah, it's, uh,
Speaker 9: you know, communication is so much different now and so on,
Speaker 9: but just what more brought to ESPN and to me
Speaker 9: personally as a human being can't be replaced and won't
Speaker 9: be replaced, because he'll be he'll be around for a
Speaker 9: long time and he'll still be making us laugh. And
Speaker 9: you know, the perspective he has with you know, with
Speaker 9: players around the league, and the respect he has are
Speaker 9: in the league and so on. You know, that's something
Speaker 9: you learn over time, and that's something still never ever right.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it was always so much fun when I
Speaker 1: was doing regular radio stance in Bristol. Uh, it was
Speaker 1: we always look forward to having an NFL segment and
Speaker 1: whether it was you or Mart or whomever else was
Speaker 1: doing it at the time, Susie Cobra a lot. That
Speaker 1: was always a lot of fun. We got energized and
Speaker 1: charged up because they were energized. They were charged up
Speaker 1: and they knew so we knew we were about to
Speaker 1: get an education and Moret was the one that always
Speaker 1: kind of led the way we were there.
Speaker 9: You know, I was talking to Tommy about this not
Speaker 9: too long, but we were there at such a magical time.
Speaker 9: And I'm not saying that the disparage what goes on
Speaker 9: there now it's a different network. I understand that, and
Speaker 9: so I'm long moved in there. I've been going a
Speaker 9: dozen years. I'm not a person to go back and say, well,
Speaker 9: this is that, this and bat, but we happened to be.
Speaker 9: I think what was fortunate for us is when ESPN
Speaker 9: got the NFL contract in nineteen eighty seven and they
Speaker 9: started doing Sunday night games. NFL Draft was already on ESPN,
Speaker 9: and it was originally on ESPN, and then slowly but surely,
Speaker 9: you know, it became the Sunday night game. And then,
Speaker 9: of course I was very, very lucky. You were alluded
Speaker 9: to it of doing NFL Prime time in the studio
Speaker 9: with Chris and Tommy, which I did in the studio
Speaker 9: part of it for seventeen years. Yeah, never missed the show.
Speaker 9: Why would you and the beauty watching those two guys,
Speaker 9: especially John and you'll understand, especially doing the late highlights,
Speaker 9: Oh yeah, because we would sit in what we'd call
Speaker 9: the war room, watch the game, and you know, you
Speaker 9: could pay admission watching the games in there with Chris.
Speaker 1: I believe that. I believe that, Hey, did he ever
Speaker 1: use his calls? Well, you guys were watching all those games,
Speaker 1: he could go all the way. Did you ever say that.
Speaker 9: Chris would allude to stuff and so on? And you
Speaker 9: know the banter that went on because these guys, you know,
Speaker 9: everybody knew each other so well and so on, and
Speaker 9: so I'll just take you through a typical day as
Speaker 9: we got you got ready for the show. You know,
Speaker 9: roughly about six o'clock, the production assistants would come up
Speaker 9: with their highlight packages and what we'd call shot sheets,
Speaker 9: and they would go, oh, we're and you know, produce
Speaker 9: whoever was producing the show would lay out the order
Speaker 9: doing then the beauty. When we had the NFL contract,
Speaker 9: I was there was we could show thirty seconds of
Speaker 9: a game, we could show nine minutes of a game.
Speaker 9: You weren't limited. It depended on how the game unfolded.
Speaker 9: We want to pretty much show you all all ninety
Speaker 9: three points, so you've never got short changed in that regard.
Speaker 9: But again I used the beauty again it was the
Speaker 9: late games, John, when the production assistance would come into
Speaker 9: the set and hand Tommy and Boomery the shot sheets. Now,
Speaker 9: we had been watching the games, but we didn't know
Speaker 9: necessarily what was on the highlight and you would never
Speaker 9: be able to You could never tell that after watching
Speaker 9: these guys do what they did, and they just played
Speaker 9: off each other and the chemistry was unrilled between the
Speaker 9: two of them. And you know, as many people know
Speaker 9: that that that that means studio at ESPN is name
Speaker 9: named after Chris Bernman and Tom Jackson.
Speaker 1: That doesn't shock me at all.
Speaker 9: Well, I mean it was you know set Deon said
Speaker 9: he built the Georgia Dome, Right, Yeah, Chris and Tommy
Speaker 9: built that built.
Speaker 1: That room, no question. By the way, I'm going to
Speaker 1: digress here before we get to the games this week.
Speaker 1: What are the impressions of UH coach Prime in his
Speaker 1: debut at Colorado and what he's done in such a
Speaker 1: short amount of time.
Speaker 9: Well, I mean I'm watching the I watched most of
Speaker 9: the first half UH the other day and it was
Speaker 9: hard to believe. And I don't watch a lot of
Speaker 9: college football, but it was almost hard to believe that TCU.
Speaker 1: Was the favorite guy, and I was listen, I kind
Speaker 1: of knew. I knew going in TC is gonna have
Speaker 1: a hard time for a couple of reasons. Number one,
Speaker 1: the hype behind Dion. Number two, when he's had a
Speaker 1: chip on his shoulder, he always came through as a player,
Speaker 1: I mean always, That's that's why he was who he was.
Speaker 1: And number three, they lost half their damn roster from
Speaker 1: last year, so I wasn't sure they would get upset,
Speaker 1: but I certainly knew it was gonna be a good game,
Speaker 1: and we that that certainly happened.
Speaker 9: And since we're in name dropping territory here, I had
Speaker 9: an opportunity to work with Dion Standers on Thursday Night
Speaker 9: Football in twenty fifteen. Yeah, so I got I got
Speaker 9: to know Dion a little and so and he wasn't
Speaker 9: coaching any of us where he had a coach there
Speaker 9: named Bill Kawers, So you know, I got to know
Speaker 9: him a little a little bit personally and so on
Speaker 9: that fire in his belly, and you know, watching this
Speaker 9: and I think you know people with Dion Standers because
Speaker 9: he is very brash and outspoken and confident and so on,
Speaker 9: you know. And and that was in full display when
Speaker 9: he went in the Hall of Fame as well. I
Speaker 9: think people have mixed opinions about him and so on.
Speaker 9: You can't deny the talent.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 9: And now he suddenly, uh you know, turns out to
Speaker 9: be one hell of a coach. And again it's one game. Okay,
Speaker 9: so it's one game. But it was very impressive. It
Speaker 9: was it was not so much that they won, it
Speaker 9: was it was the poise in which they.
Speaker 1: Were his son and exactly his son is is is
Speaker 1: a is an outstanding.
Speaker 9: Athlete, right And watching, like I said, watching that contest,
Speaker 9: you know, I think people somehow got the impression because
Speaker 9: he had overhauled the team roster and so on, and
Speaker 9: he was going in here as his first game as
Speaker 9: they head coached, that he was going to be ill. Yeah.
Speaker 9: And uh, you know again, if on face value, if
Speaker 9: you didn't know anything about Colorado and you see you,
Speaker 9: you would have sworn Colorado with a much better football thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, without a doubt. All right, let's talk about the
Speaker 1: football teams in front of us for Week one in
Speaker 1: the NFL season. I gotta admit I think there's a
Speaker 1: lot of anticipation, more so on the Lion's part. Than
Speaker 1: the Chiefs part tonight or I should say tomorrow night.
Speaker 1: Keep thinking this is Thursday. You know, Hey, these.
Speaker 9: Days these three or four times in the next.
Speaker 1: Yeah, these date changes kill me. I mean we for
Speaker 1: twenty years? How many years? This is your twenty three?
Speaker 1: I think? Were we Thursdays primarily on this show? We
Speaker 1: did that once upon a time. We did three days
Speaker 1: a week, but you always came on with us on Thursdays.
Speaker 1: And then when I started teaching a few years ago,
Speaker 1: we had to cut it back to two. And now
Speaker 1: because my teaching schedule has picked up, it's one day
Speaker 1: a week, but it's always been Thursdays. This year we
Speaker 1: moved to Wednesday's for the first time in twenty years.
Speaker 9: Soon, which is why I want to go Wednesday. I
Speaker 9: wanted to do Wednesday, Adams, because there is no Thursday at.
Speaker 1: Him a bottom. I like that. I like it. It
Speaker 1: works for me. The uh, the anticipation for Thursday's game,
Speaker 1: I think is all about the Lions as opposed to
Speaker 1: the Chiefs. What are your thoughts?
Speaker 9: Well, I agree, I mean, you know, this is the
Speaker 9: second time in four years at Kansas City's opening the
Speaker 9: season as defendive Super Bowl champions We pretty much know
Speaker 9: them and have gotten to know them. I mean, they
Speaker 9: have been in the playoffs eight years in the row.
Speaker 9: They've been the UH three of the last four super Bowls,
Speaker 9: won a couple of titles. You know, we've got I
Speaker 9: know this. We've gotten to know Arrawhead Stadium pretty well
Speaker 9: because every playoff game they've played, except for the Super
Speaker 9: Bowl has been in Arrawhead Stadium. With Patrick Mahomes, they
Speaker 9: have He hasn't played a Roade playoff game yet. So
Speaker 9: I think we know this team. Obviously a lot of
Speaker 9: national exposure and for all the right reasons, Andy Reid's
Speaker 9: and Andy Reid is the longest tenured head coach in
Speaker 9: the league, just not with the same team. Andy's first
Speaker 9: year head coach was nineteen ninety nine with the Eagle,
Speaker 9: one year before Bill Belichick, right little in resting factor.
Speaker 9: So we've gotten to know them. What do we know
Speaker 9: about the Lions? Well, we know the last time the
Speaker 9: Lions won a playoff game was eight years before Andy
Speaker 9: Reid became a head coach of the Eagle. That was
Speaker 9: nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 1: That's crazy.
Speaker 9: Well, the last time they won a division title was
Speaker 9: nineteen ninety three. It was called the NFC Santral not
Speaker 9: the NFC Wars, and there were five teams in that.
Speaker 1: Division the NFC Norris right.
Speaker 9: And thank you very much, be going to Boomer, yep.
Speaker 9: And the last time the Lions won a title, and
Speaker 9: by the way, they won four NFL titles in their
Speaker 9: proud history, was nineteen fifty seven, which is two years
Speaker 9: before I was born, all right, and I just turned
Speaker 9: sixty four a couple of days ago, So he's the
Speaker 9: maths on that one. So we don't know much but
Speaker 9: the years. What we know about the current Lions, we
Speaker 9: know that they were fit in the league and scoring
Speaker 9: last year, John, their defense played better at the end
Speaker 9: of the year one time last year they were one
Speaker 9: and six. They won eight of their last ten games.
Speaker 9: So they knocked the Packers out of the playoffs in
Speaker 9: the final Sunday night game of the year, and they
Speaker 9: did it at lambeau Field. Dan Campbell was obviously drawn
Speaker 9: a lot of attention I think his first year there
Speaker 9: because of some of the wacky things he was saying,
Speaker 9: and apparently it is paying off for that franchise. Now
Speaker 9: they obviously want to take the next step and obviously,
Speaker 9: winning a game against the defending Super Bowl champions on
Speaker 9: open night would be pretty herculean. Now I've lotched the
Speaker 9: numbers here, because Patrick Mahomes usually comes out with a
Speaker 9: bang that the chiefs of one eight eight season openers.
Speaker 9: He's been the starting quarterback in the last five john
Speaker 9: All he's on his throne. Eighteen touchdown passes and zero
Speaker 9: interceptions in those five games.
Speaker 1: I gotta admit, I mean, you know, it'd be pretty
Speaker 1: hard not to root for that if you're going to
Speaker 1: root for somebody in this particular instance, because look, I
Speaker 1: don't root for teams per se, I kind of root
Speaker 1: for stories. Maybe that's just the reporter, the journalist, the
Speaker 1: you know, you know, the media type in me, because
Speaker 1: better stories just make for more interests. As far as
Speaker 1: I'm concerned all the way around, if anybody's gonna come
Speaker 1: close to what Tom Brady has done in his career,
Speaker 1: I've been of the opinion for pretty much the last
Speaker 1: year or so that Patrick Mahomes could be that guy.
Speaker 1: When does that chatter continue to kick up? When does
Speaker 1: you know? And does it? Does it? Does it take
Speaker 1: on a life of itself? If Kansasity finds himself back
Speaker 1: in the Super Bowl again, this year.
Speaker 9: Well, yeah, because it takes on the life of its own,
Speaker 9: because it becomes uh in some ways, there are so
Speaker 9: many people out there who want somebody to be the
Speaker 9: next goat, right, right, right, and because God knows we
Speaker 9: need a goat, you.
Speaker 1: Know, today's coach.
Speaker 9: We must live on a farm. You know, there's got
Speaker 9: somebody has to be the greatest of all time. And
Speaker 9: for people who maybe I don't think Tom Brady was
Speaker 9: the coat. Okay. And by the way, it's so it's
Speaker 9: such a ridiculous concept because it's all matter in any way,
Speaker 9: and so on. You know, you see this this young
Speaker 9: man come in and honestly do some things that we
Speaker 9: haven't seen done. I mean, last year Patrick Mahomes became
Speaker 9: the first quarterback in the Super Bowl era, and we
Speaker 9: need the NFL and tasting yards and win the Super
Speaker 9: Bowl the same year. Now that's not a small tag.
Speaker 9: That's fifty seven years okay. So, I mean, he had
Speaker 9: a lot to do with it. And I found it
Speaker 9: so ironic that in the Super Bowl, in which he
Speaker 9: was named Super Bowl MVP. And don't get me wrong,
Speaker 9: you play the hell of the game, the guy who
Speaker 9: threw for over five thousand yards didn't even throw for
Speaker 9: two hundred yards in the Super Bowl. You know, I
Speaker 9: felt that they won that Super Bowl in the second
Speaker 9: half by running the football against an Eagles defense that
Speaker 9: was tied for sixteenth in the league against the run. Yep,
Speaker 9: you know. It's as you know, and this is an
Speaker 9: unequivocal fact, it is impossible to sack the quarterback when
Speaker 9: the running back had football.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's also true. That's a stat that won't appear right.
Speaker 9: Think about this, John, The team that had seventy sacks
Speaker 9: during the regular season, yeah, and eight or nine more
Speaker 9: against the Giants, and the forty nine Ers in playoffs
Speaker 9: had no sacks in Super Bowl fifty seven.
Speaker 1: Yeah. That's nuts. That's nuts. Yeah, that's crazy. The lineup
Speaker 1: this weekend seeming to be obviously pretty spread out. Evenly,
Speaker 1: everybody's playing the first one. I think there are a
Speaker 1: couple of intriguing matchups, like the forty nine Ers playing
Speaker 1: at the Steelers. I would say the Cowboys playing at
Speaker 1: the Giants, which is the Sunday night game. But to me,
Speaker 1: the two games other than the Patriots and Eagles that
Speaker 1: I think I might be most interested in Dolphins at
Speaker 1: Chargers Sunday afternoon, which goes up against the Eagles Patriots game,
Speaker 1: and then Monday night bills at the Jets kind of
Speaker 1: anxious to see how Aaron Rodgers is going to look.
Speaker 9: Well, I'm just I was just wrapping up my food
Speaker 9: first thought for full press coverage and of course my
Speaker 9: five key statistics, which we'll see over in the next
Speaker 9: twenty four hours. Ago mine always grateful that Eing Glendon
Speaker 9: gives me a chance to write that for full press coverage, right,
Speaker 9: And I was making the point that do you think
Speaker 9: that Jets, Now think about this for a second. Many
Speaker 9: consider Aaron Rodgers last year, coming off a down season. Okay, now,
Speaker 9: he threw twelve interceptions, don't get me wrong, that's very
Speaker 9: high for him. Okay, he's not a double digit interception guy.
Speaker 9: He only threw twenty six touchdown passes. Now that's an
Speaker 9: August total as well. But when you consider the Jets
Speaker 9: offense in general score twenty eight touchdowns in seventeen games,
Speaker 9: I'm going to take a leap of faith and thinks
Speaker 9: Aaron Rodgers is going to have somewhat of an impact
Speaker 9: on this offense. Now, what's also going to be interesting
Speaker 9: about this game is it's his first game. As with
Speaker 9: the Jets, it's his first game versus an AFC East opponent,
Speaker 9: but not necessarily because remember last year, the Packers played
Speaker 9: the AFC East in the interconference round. They played Buffalo,
Speaker 9: they played New England, they played the Jets, and they
Speaker 9: played So it's not like he's going to see anything
Speaker 9: that shocked him Monday night. He might be more shocked
Speaker 9: at by some of the other teams in the conference
Speaker 9: that he might not have been played in recent years. Okay,
Speaker 9: certainly not the the interconference games the Jets have to play,
Speaker 9: et cetera. So it's not a bad way. And also
Speaker 9: keep mile a year ago the Jets before they got
Speaker 9: you know, fell into that season ending six game losing streak,
Speaker 9: they beat the Bills at eight at eighteen women that life,
Speaker 9: what is it meant? Life?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 9: Okay, so they beat the Bills in Josh, So this
Speaker 9: is very it's very intriguing for a lot of different
Speaker 9: reasons because you also consider the Bills off season. Now
Speaker 9: you know, I'm not inside the building, and a lot
Speaker 9: has been made about Stefan Day and Josh Allen's relationship
Speaker 9: and it seems like everything's okay or and when I
Speaker 9: hear that stuff. I have this flashback and you know
Speaker 9: where I'm going here, flashback to the early nineties with
Speaker 9: Mark Levy and the Remember the Bickering Bills.
Speaker 1: Love that team. I love those teams.
Speaker 9: Yeah, and the Bickering Bills. He called them out. It
Speaker 9: was they were playing the Dolphins in Week two down
Speaker 9: in Miami and they got obliterated. And that was the
Speaker 9: Bickering Bill. And that was also the start of the
Speaker 9: four straight Super Bowl appearance. And I'm not saying the
Speaker 9: Bills are going to the super Bowl, but this is
Speaker 9: interesting we have. It's funny because hack the slate this week,
Speaker 9: in Week one is divisional games and you know we
Speaker 9: usually see all those divisional games in Week seventeen or
Speaker 9: Week eighteen as it is now, but half the league
Speaker 9: is indivisional games to start off the season, and that
Speaker 9: they can be very, very big tone setters because as
Speaker 9: you know, in special in this this league now where
Speaker 9: you can go from last to first or last to
Speaker 9: a playoff spot, real real quickly. We saw four times
Speaker 9: last year a.
Speaker 1: Lot yep, yep.
Speaker 9: I'll be interesting to see if the j Justs and
Speaker 9: Giants can hold serve. Now, you know you mentioned the Giants.
Speaker 9: By the way, I have to throw out this number,
Speaker 9: and if you're the Giants, you got to throw up
Speaker 9: last year even though they were nine seven to one
Speaker 9: and Brian Dable with NFL the Coach of the Year
Speaker 9: and the Giants won a playoff game for the first
Speaker 9: time since they beat the Patriots in Super Bowl forty six.
Speaker 9: The Giants within the division last year, John.
Speaker 1: In the one, that's nuts and they still made the playoffs.
Speaker 1: That's crazy. That yeah, that's insane.
Speaker 9: Three of the losses obviously, Tod Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well that that kind of leads me to the next
Speaker 1: thing I was going to ask you because, in all honesty,
Speaker 1: you wrote about it, you know, earlier this week on
Speaker 1: full press coverage, but talking about a division that could
Speaker 1: potentially see all of its members reached the postseason, and
Speaker 1: I know you thought that the NFC East would be
Speaker 1: the likely candidate for this year, but I'm wonnering. Really,
Speaker 1: what's keeping the AFC East from joining that party?
Speaker 9: Well, you know, actually, besides the NFC East, I also
Speaker 9: pushed with the AFC North. You know, that's a division
Speaker 9: at three the free playoff teams last year, but Pittsburgh
Speaker 9: finished strong, Cincinnati and Baltimore. Men. Ye, and I find
Speaker 9: this year the Browns to be very intriguing me, not
Speaker 9: because of the Sean Watson and not because it Keptain
Speaker 9: is the fancy. And here's a name you know pretty
Speaker 9: well because he had a lot to do with the Eagles,
Speaker 9: winner of the Patriots in Super Bowl fifty two, and
Speaker 9: that's Jim Schwood, who is now the new defensive coordinator
Speaker 9: for the brown And they went out and gotten to
Speaker 9: Darius Smith to Pale with milesartt Hair with Miles Garrett,
Speaker 9: Tomlinson up the middle, Shelby Harris up the middle. I'm
Speaker 9: just curious about that, Ran Steep. And the AFC North
Speaker 9: was really interesting last year, John, every team in the division,
Speaker 9: all four went three and three in the division. But
Speaker 9: you bring up a good point about the AFC East.
Speaker 9: And by the way, speaking of AFC East, and it
Speaker 9: was a different AFC East. The AFC East is the
Speaker 9: last division to put four teams in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: And stay there there you go.
Speaker 9: Now, remember it's nineteen ninety eight and those will be
Speaker 9: years of the AFC East with five.
Speaker 1: Divisions, right, I mean five teams. Yes, the Colts were
Speaker 1: in the division, yes, yeah.
Speaker 9: And the Colts went three and thirteen. Yeah, but the
Speaker 9: other four teams all made it, all went into the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Yep, yeah, I'm I think all four teams have a
Speaker 1: legit shot this year. And it would not surprise me, Russell,
Speaker 1: as you just kind of talked about, wouldn't surprise me
Speaker 1: to see the AFC East going three and three. Everybody
Speaker 1: in the division. I know some people who are you
Speaker 1: know that no Buffalo well or thinking that's just heresy,
Speaker 1: it's not going to happen. I could see it happen.
Speaker 9: Well, I guess see. It happened. They were born to
Speaker 9: in the division last year.
Speaker 1: Exactly. You've got to pick them off once. If you
Speaker 1: can pick them off once, everybody's gonna end up three
Speaker 1: and three.
Speaker 9: Listen, holding served in the division is very important when
Speaker 9: you come down to those type breakers and so on.
Speaker 9: And I know Buffalo won the division. I know they
Speaker 9: played one less game them in Cincinnati because obviously more
Speaker 9: hamling circumstances and so on. But again, they were still
Speaker 9: forward to in the division. They lost the Jests, they
Speaker 9: lost at Miami for the first time in a bit,
Speaker 9: or lost to the Dolphins is the first time.
Speaker 1: In a bit.
Speaker 9: So the year before. Yeah, so you know it is
Speaker 9: it is getting somewhat harder to dominate your division. As
Speaker 9: far as the clean season. The Chiefs did it obviously
Speaker 9: last year. The forty nine Ers did it last year.
Speaker 9: But you know, if you look at the improvement and
Speaker 9: maybe some of the slippage a little by San Francisco,
Speaker 9: I mean, they're gonna you know, doesn't look like Nick
Speaker 9: Bose is gonna be around at least one right for
Speaker 9: the Chiefs. Doesn't look like Chris Jones is gonna be
Speaker 9: around tomorrow night. So and we don't know about Travis
Speaker 9: Telson so on. So it's a league. Things can change very,
Speaker 9: very dramatically, and you know, there's been nothing more evident
Speaker 9: than the fact that And think about this, John for
Speaker 9: people who in fact this you know me one of
Speaker 9: my least favorite things when it comes to NFL analysted,
Speaker 9: is the season ended today?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, I know.
Speaker 9: Okay, if you want the season end today, go follow
Speaker 9: the NBA.
Speaker 1: I thought that wouldn't have been my choice either.
Speaker 9: But think about this for a while and think about
Speaker 9: regardless of what the Tea's record were at the time, Okay,
Speaker 9: Jets seven and four and lost their last six games.
Speaker 9: The Titans were seven and three and lost their last
Speaker 9: moving game.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 9: The Chiefs lost, I'm sorry, the Coast Laws their last
Speaker 9: seven games last year.
Speaker 1: Yep, yep.
Speaker 9: The Cardinals lost their last seven games last year.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 9: The Bears lost their last ten games.
Speaker 7: Wow, last year.
Speaker 1: That's nuts.
Speaker 9: And meanwhile, while you're kissing off certain people, Jacksonville goes
Speaker 9: from four and eight to nine in eight and wins
Speaker 9: the division.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 9: Okay, So I mean, you know, maybe maybe you know
Speaker 9: who they should get out to instead of carry Underwood,
Speaker 9: they should get Ray Stevens to do the Sunday night
Speaker 9: opening and that way he can sing. Why they call
Speaker 9: it the street, Yeah.
Speaker 1: The streak. That's exactly right, because it's going to take
Speaker 1: something like that, I think again this year.
Speaker 9: Well, I mean maybe getting hot at the right time.
Speaker 9: There's a lot because it certainly him. It certainly happened
Speaker 9: with Tampa Bay in twenty twenty, and to a degree,
Speaker 9: it happened with the Rains a couple of years ago. Right,
Speaker 9: I mean he listen, the Chiefs will talk for the
Speaker 9: best record at the NFL last year. Ye, I'm not gonna,
Speaker 9: you know, not go on that stretching.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 9: We saw that, you know, what looked like teams in
Speaker 9: solid positions completely collapsed at the end of the year.
Speaker 9: And I think Tennessee, you would have to say, Tennessee
Speaker 9: maybe the most surprising of them.
Speaker 1: One, probably, So my friend's good to have you back again.
Speaker 1: Thank you for making some time for us on Wednesdays
Speaker 1: this year, and I look forward to our our visit
Speaker 1: as often as you can make it on Wednesday. So
Speaker 1: thank you for clearing your schedule for us and being
Speaker 1: with us a wee can talk a little football.
Speaker 9: I've already I've already put in my Google calendar. Then
Speaker 9: I'm good until six of twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1: Week six twenty twenty six. All right, well you may
Speaker 1: be then working beyond my expiration date.
Speaker 9: Listen, do you have you have enough callers? I'm sure
Speaker 9: I can find somebody who can fill in.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, I'm no doubt about that.
Speaker 9: Melvin.
Speaker 1: Actually Melvin didn't call in today, but but Eldred did.
Speaker 1: Eldred's hanging on so we can hear you. There you go,
Speaker 1: you want to you want to say hello to Eldred? Absolutely, Okay,
Speaker 1: hold on just a second, Eldred say hello to uh
Speaker 1: Russell Baxter because he wants to say hello to you.
Speaker 7: Hello, mister guru, mister legend. Hey y'all doing I'm good
Speaker 7: for you. I'm doing pretty good.
Speaker 9: Just what's your prediction for the year? What do you think.
Speaker 7: My audition for the year? Yep, I'm even.
Speaker 1: Seven May.
Speaker 9: Didn't ask you where you were getting a slurpy? I
Speaker 9: asked you.
Speaker 1: Wow. Wow, that's pretty quick for a sixty four year
Speaker 1: old brain right there. That's pretty quick. That's impressive.
Speaker 7: Predictions. Well, I'm I got I'm hoping it would go
Speaker 7: to the playoffs. But Jday's Wilfon thing, Jasie, you guess, yeah,
Speaker 7: they played the game first, and that I can do Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 9: You know, I mean the Sunday against against Philadelphia and uh,
Speaker 9: you know, can they the kid I'm gonna be watching
Speaker 9: I'm in Philadelphia's Jalen Carter because if he, if he
Speaker 9: can help the Eagles stop the run, and they were
Speaker 9: very mediocre against the run, that changes the face of
Speaker 9: that team dramatically. Remember they lost Javon hard Grave in
Speaker 9: the free agency to the forty nine ers, and that
Speaker 9: leads a big hole up the middle. And Carter and
Speaker 9: you know, with this little controversy, you know, off the field,
Speaker 9: et cetera, et cetera. The Eagles made their move and
Speaker 9: Howie Roseman does. I don't think it's enough credit for
Speaker 9: what he's done with that organization over the last five
Speaker 9: or six years and so on. So that's the kid
Speaker 9: I'm gonna be watching on Sunday. But it should be
Speaker 9: a really interesting game on Sunday up in Foxborough because
Speaker 9: you never know what you're gonna get with week one,
Speaker 9: and we certainly have seen our share of surprise.
Speaker 7: Exactly.
Speaker 9: And did you go for the blue Raspberry or.
Speaker 1: Blue Raspberry? I believe I think the blue Raspberry slurpy
Speaker 1: at seven to eleven was known as a gully washer.
Speaker 7: I like the cherry ones. I like the cherry ones.
Speaker 9: Go for the hot dog cherry one.
Speaker 1: That's also true. Wait, Russell, did you say you go
Speaker 1: for the hot dogs?
Speaker 9: Oh? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: Oh my god. I can't believe we are another brother
Speaker 1: from another mother, because that's all I do. You know,
Speaker 1: I go to the convenience story. Miss Robin kills me
Speaker 1: when I want a hot dog in there, but they
Speaker 1: look so damn good in there, I gotta get one.
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 9: I was a shameless plug. I was Cumberland Farms this morning.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, some parking lot.
Speaker 9: I just pulled into the parking lot and out came
Speaker 9: this really nice lady hot dogs loaded to the gills.
Speaker 9: Stop and I said to him, I said, wow, that
Speaker 9: looks really good. I said, now I want a hot
Speaker 9: dog exactly, and she said, yeah, she looks good. I said,
Speaker 9: in fact, how bout if I have yours of wine,
Speaker 9: you go in and get another.
Speaker 1: One, right right, because that way you wouldn't have to
Speaker 1: pay regular price. If you're getting one, you can get
Speaker 1: two for four dollars.
Speaker 9: That's exactly right. And I know that woman. I know
Speaker 9: that woman will never see me again as the longs
Speaker 9: I live, and I know she thinks sometimes.
Speaker 1: I absolutely love that Russell, my friend, is great to
Speaker 1: visit with you. Look forward to visioning with you again
Speaker 1: next week.
Speaker 9: And just remember what the topic will be next week.
Speaker 9: Next week we will talk about the sixteen teams that
Speaker 9: their fans think will go undefeated and the sixteen teams
Speaker 9: where their fans will be saying they're getting the number
Speaker 9: one thick in the draft.
Speaker 1: Exactly because we like to overreact after the first week
Speaker 1: of a seventeen week schedule absolutely, Russell you the man.
Speaker 1: Thank you brother, all right, see you guys, you got it. So,
Speaker 1: Guru Eldred, what did you What did you want to
Speaker 1: talk about today if we didn't already hit that, because
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you the final word in the show today.
Speaker 1: How do you like that?
Speaker 7: Thank you?
Speaker 8: Well?
Speaker 7: I think I appreciate that, mister legend. The game today,
Speaker 7: game Sunday. I got my towel out and my popcorn,
Speaker 7: the towel to cry in so that that team challenge
Speaker 7: from top to bottom. You heard the guy that covered
Speaker 7: the team right, Yeah, top to bottom. Hit on the
Speaker 7: draft pick and even the guys in free agent. Yeah,
Speaker 7: something that our GM don't do.
Speaker 9: Yeah, so they sat.
Speaker 7: So I'm thinking I won't. I will hope you put
Speaker 7: a twenty points. But to me, that's just a Christmas wish.
Speaker 7: I think they roll because they got something to prove
Speaker 7: from last thirty five seventeen.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And you know, if you're you know, if you're
Speaker 1: trying to think of this thing with a clear mind,
Speaker 1: you know, and not you know, and not for one
Speaker 1: side or the other, I can see where you would
Speaker 1: easily make that choice. I personally think right now that
Speaker 1: you know the Patriots will figure out a way to
Speaker 1: keep it close for that first half until the Eagles
Speaker 1: figure out a way to shake off the rust and
Speaker 1: probably put pedal to medal in the second half. So
Speaker 1: I'm going to take the Eagles twenty four to twenty
Speaker 1: in that one. But but and the reason I'm going
Speaker 1: to do that is because I think the Patriots defense
Speaker 1: is going to keep them honest and in the game
Speaker 1: for most of the game, and they should if they
Speaker 1: can take advantage of mistakes. Look, injuries happen, we know.
Speaker 1: But the one thing that I'm really concerned about the
Speaker 1: most in weak one is self inflicted injuries by way
Speaker 1: of penalty, because we know the offensive line had such
Speaker 1: a hard time a year ago playing together and and
Speaker 1: it was just it was an abomination, is what it was.
Speaker 1: Was like they didn't know what the word discipline meant.
Speaker 1: And clearly we could see that happen with a defensive
Speaker 1: front like Philadelphia has in front of them on Sunday.
Speaker 1: And so if we're revisiting that very thing this next week,
Speaker 1: no one can say, well, told you so, because we
Speaker 1: talked about it, and it is liable. It's certainly liable
Speaker 1: to happen. I'm going to give the Patriots the benefit
Speaker 1: of it out until I see otherwise. That's really all
Speaker 1: I'm doing here. And if it's twenty four to twenty
Speaker 1: and they have an opportunity with the ball late in
Speaker 1: the game, then hey, that's all. That's really all you
Speaker 1: can ask for. But but but the smart money is, yeah,
Speaker 1: the smart money is probably on the Eagles winning going away.
Speaker 7: Yeah, they can rotate, they got fo D you know,
Speaker 7: they got a guy for each guy on that front
Speaker 7: line they can play. Yeah, you know that's yeah, right,
Speaker 7: and outline that is what I'm worried about, mainly if
Speaker 7: mac wa have time to set up throw even due
Speaker 7: to Luke Quick. Yeah, I'm just wondering, right, you know.
Speaker 7: But uh, everybody they're talking about we got guns dollar.
Speaker 7: He's a number, you like, Well, he's a rookie, y'all
Speaker 7: got to give him least eight to nine games. Gilmour
Speaker 7: at eight games before he came out, before he got better,
Speaker 7: So you got. So he's a rookie, you got he's
Speaker 7: getting eight to nine because he ain't gonna be out
Speaker 7: there smothering everybody like like salt. Maybe it's the salt
Speaker 7: headed problems to in the beginning of the year. He
Speaker 7: got better towards the end. You know, So you gotta
Speaker 7: give gun dollars the same way.
Speaker 9: That's just what I'm doing.
Speaker 7: Give him the same benefit of the doubt, right exactly one.
Speaker 9: Is it just a poematim me?
Speaker 1: Well? Yeah, I mean you know, if you listen, I
Speaker 1: don't know how you could be a factor if you
Speaker 1: can't stay healthy enough to stay on the field. And
Speaker 1: right now, that's gonna be the biggest, the biggest problem
Speaker 1: for him to overcome is staying healthy. So you know,
Speaker 1: you can't play. If you can't stay healthy, can't play,
Speaker 1: and you can't make it. You can't make a difference
Speaker 1: if you can't play on the field. He's got to
Speaker 1: learn how to get on the field and stay on
Speaker 1: the field. Some guys never learn how to do that.
Speaker 1: The jury is still out, but I have to say
Speaker 1: it's trending in a bad direction for it bad.
Speaker 7: Direction it is, especially when we had Watson.
Speaker 1: Here. We know, we know, brother, we know, we know.
Speaker 1: All right, you be safe out there. Eldred YouTube missiles
Speaker 1: always good, always good to talk to you. Thank you,
Speaker 1: my friend Eldred in North Carolina. Uh forgot to do
Speaker 1: this but I need to mention. Bridgestone is the official
Speaker 1: tire of the New England Patriots and proud department with
Speaker 1: Sullivan Tire in New England's headquarters for quality. Bridgestone Tires
Speaker 1: visits Sullivantire dot com to find a location near you
Speaker 1: and Patriots fans. If you want to see Toyota's best offers,
Speaker 1: including those not seen on TV, go to buy a
Speaker 1: Toyota dot com. It's Toyota's official website for deals from
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Speaker 1: go places, all right, One more email I'm going to
Speaker 1: share with you here. It came from our friend Aiden
Speaker 1: in California, who says you want ball John, Hey John,
Speaker 1: Patriots win eleven games and Mac Jones throws for thirty
Speaker 1: four touchdowns eleven interceptions. WHOA. The reason for this is
Speaker 1: I believe Mac makes the jump that should have happened
Speaker 1: last year. He has the look to prove to everyone
Speaker 1: he is the quarterback of the future. For me, that's
Speaker 1: enough to believe until he doesn't. Bob's Discount Furniture has
Speaker 1: sofas that convert the sleepers when you're feeling sacked mattresses
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Speaker 1: the New England Patriots. Our thanks well certainly to all
Speaker 1: Over Caller. Thank you for listening to the show today.
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed the samuelcast on Patriots dot Com
Speaker 1: with the video. A little bit of an adventure to
Speaker 1: get started today, but hey, we pulled it off. So hey,
Speaker 1: you know, when you're doing something for the first time,
Speaker 1: there's always going to be a bump. Thanks to Chad
Speaker 1: Graff of The Athletic, Dave Beraro from Eagles dot Com,
Speaker 1: and our good friend Russell Baxter at bas Football Guru
Speaker 1: on x formerly known as Twitter. I always say that
Speaker 1: just so I can kind of like couch, you, you know,
Speaker 1: with parentheses around it. Thanks to Marine Matt, who puts
Speaker 1: it all together, Same patch time, same patch channel. Next Wednesday.
Speaker 1: Next Wednesday, we'll recap a bit from the Sunday afternoon
Speaker 1: game and look forward to Week two against the Miami
Speaker 1: Dolphins Wednesday. Right here in the playbook.
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