WEBVTT - Patriots Playbook 11/1: Dolphins Takeaways, Commanders Preview, NFL Week 9 Predictions 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:08.319 This is Patriots Playbook. The legend. Sometimes you need to 0:00:08.360 --> 0:00:09.959 be hit up the side of the head with an 0:00:09.960 --> 0:00:13.480 idiot stick to realize it. Right, you know, coming into 0:00:13.520 --> 0:00:16.200 the stadium today, what did they do to the parking? 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:17.000 What is the deal? 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:17.600 I don't know. 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:19.599 There's always something going on here. 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:21.759 They finally find a job they could give them. Alik 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:24.560 comming home, you make a very good point. Shocking. Did 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:26.799 I just say that about him? You coulda bet me 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:28.800 any amount of money that we would not get the 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:31.160 word for tada into the show today. 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:35.360 Now here's your host of Patriots Playbook, John Rook. 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:37.239 What are the words can we try to get into 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:40.320 the show today? Sucky? Sucky? Sucky? Would that be a 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:42.319 good one today? I don't know. I'm just just kind 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:43.040 of wondering, you. 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:48.400 Know, Wow, I think it's funny how a lot of 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:51.800 people call it Sunshine dot com. You know that. And 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:55.440 for the first forty minutes of PU we discussed a 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:58.840 real cash spending and how where the Patriots rank. And 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:02.600 now that's how we start this show. So shove that 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:04.440 in your Sunshine dot com by. 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:09.920 Dot com pipe right exactly. I you know, I wanted 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:12.640 to come in at least kind of start off today 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:15.360 and and have something to rant and rave about. But 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:17.240 I'm kind of at the point where I'm kind of like, 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:20.960 it's just it's it's not it's not purposeful. You know, 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:23.760 it's just not it's not solving anything. I'm I'm you know, 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:27.800 we we've been so blessed. I've said this so many times. 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:30.119 We've been so blessed to have covered this team as 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:32.520 we have in this venue, in this particular program. And 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:36.600 you know this, you know dot Com Radio era that 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:40.080 we've had over twenty two years now, twenty three years now, 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:44.839 to have had a championship caliber, championship level football team. 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:52.440 And then this year we're experiencing what Patriots fans, for 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:55.360 lack of you know, for better, for worse, what Patriots 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:58.640 fans experienced back in the nineteen eighties, some of the 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:02.160 nineteen a little bit in the seven certainly in the sixties, 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:05.280 you know, when they were even still the Boston Patriots. 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:09.400 You know, I've told the story several times that the 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:15.480 last really just what is it worth? Season? You know, 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:18.320 why are we doing this season? That I remember going 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:20.560 through was the year that I did Rod Rust's TV show, 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:23.760 and you know, we only did three shows during the year, 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:26.320 because there's just no way we were filling in the 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:28.160 kind of a content that you would need to do 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:29.960 a weekly show for a team that in a program 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:34.239 that was one in fifteen three. Yeah, and so I'm 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:37.000 just like, you know, I want to try to put 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:39.560 things in a little bit of perspective. But at the 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:42.440 same time, there is a little part of me that says, well, 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:44.920 so what are we going to do about this? And 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:48.680 we're caught in another world that I'm just not sure 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:51.760 we're going to be able to extract ourselves from, you know, 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:55.960 at least for the foreseeable future. So I think, you know, 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:58.200 what does it mean in the big picture? We all 0:02:58.240 --> 0:02:59.800 want to know what it means in the big picture? 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:01.919 How much? How much more are we going on here? 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:03.960 You know that kind of thing. Like Bill is famous 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:07.480 to say, I I don't know. I can't answer that question. 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:10.080 So there is another part of me that decided, today 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:12.160 maybe we just put blinders on and go week to week, 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:15.239 just like you know they allegedly do on game plans. 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:17.799 I mean, this is Washington week, and what's the over 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:20.160 under on me slipping and calling them the Redskins today? 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:23.200 I said, that's I'm not going to count that one. 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:26.960 That doesn't count. I think I set my own number 0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:30.960 this morning at one and a Hay, that's a would 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:31.880 you go over or under? 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:35.040 I'm gonna go under. I believe in you, you believe 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:36.760 in I think I could go. 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:37.400 I'd go over. 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:42.960 I think the Commanders is easier for a lot of 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:46.640 people than the Los Angeles Chargers. For some reason, this 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:48.160 San Diego Chargers. 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:50.080 I see, but see I go even worse than that 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:51.760 when I see LA C I call them the Los 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:52.640 Angeles Clippers. 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:54.960 Oh yeah, that's fair. 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:56.840 Because that's what they were when I was in the NBA, 0:03:56.960 --> 0:03:58.000 they were LA Clippers. 0:03:58.080 --> 0:03:58.760 Yeah that's fair. 0:03:58.960 --> 0:04:02.840 So I'm you know, I don't know. I'm kind of 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:05.160 just sort of bamboozled. 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:06.880 Yeah, that's fair. 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:08.360 Non plussed. 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:10.800 I don't know what that means, but I'm sure. I'm 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:11.640 sure it's true. 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:14.920 You google it. I just I think it means that 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:17.479 you're just confused more than anything else, not sure which 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:19.479 way to go. Are you at all surprised? I mean, 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:22.680 I'm not on the trade deadline. I'm not surprised that 0:04:22.920 --> 0:04:25.839 this team did nothing, because there's a part of me 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:27.960 this is well, sure, you know, if you've got tradable commodities, 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:29.760 why don't you get rid of him? But as Bill 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:34.440 warned us, it takes two to make a trade. And 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:37.599 then on top of that, you're two and six. You're 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:41.800 literally the worst team in the AFC. Right now, Who 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:43.719 the hell do you have that somebody else wants? 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:47.560 Yeah, I thought, look, you know, obviously those players that 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:50.200 everybody keeps talking about from the twenty twenty draft class 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:54.040 J dugger on when you uh, those guys, I think 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:58.080 probably had a little bit of interest, especially Oocha. But 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:01.400 I also wondered if some teams would have been interested 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:04.560 in a hunter Henry Zeke Elliott. 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:10.480 It was my understanding that Elliott did have several tire kickers. Yeah, 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:12.919 I'm not sure why. I guess there just wasn't a 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:14.000 compensation offered. 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:17.560 Yeah, I mean we're talking about pick swaps late, like 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:18.360 you're not giving up. 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:19.760 Any you're not really giving up anything. 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:22.320 Anybody could have had him for like six months, you know, 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:24.680 and whatever it was, and and know, you know, the 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:27.040 Patriots signed him in the middle of August. 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:30.880 Was he worth an extra six or seventh thrown pick, 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:32.279 because that's probably what they were getting. 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:35.120 I think in Elliott's case, if they did get those 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:37.320 I think there's been some conflicting reports on whether or 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:39.120 not they did get calls on Zeke or not. But 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:43.640 if they did, if they had had some younger backs 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:46.279 that they wanted to try to integrate into the offense 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:48.680 or maybe get a look at, like Kevin Harris or 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:51.200 Pierre Strong was still here or something like that, then 0:05:51.240 --> 0:05:53.599 maybe you make that trade. But right now the only 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:56.400 backs that you play are Remandre and Zeke, Like that's all, 0:05:56.640 --> 0:05:59.240 that's all you got. So I did to give one 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:01.920 of those guys up have been tough, but I'm not surprised. 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:04.039 I think the one thing and I that I agree 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:07.600 with that seems to be like the the big hysteria 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:10.320 or the big take on the deadline and is you 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:14.480 do have to pick a lane. Either you're you're you're 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:17.640 hitting the red button and you're starting all over yeah, 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:20.440 or you're trying you think that this is worth trying 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:23.159 to build with. And the one thing, and I'm not 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:26.160 this isn't trying to come at it as like rose 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:29.039 colored glasses or or anything like that, is I'm not 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:33.200 waving pom poms, but I don't necessarily think they're as 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:37.719 bad as as two and six. They're not a good team. Like, 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:40.760 don't get me wrong, but they've played one of the 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:43.280 hardest schedules in the NFL. They did, and they played 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:47.680 a lot of teams that are established Super Bowl contenders 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:50.480 that they got whooped by. Like, there's no there's no 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:51.039 doubt about it. 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:53.640 Going short because we've knew going in they weren't going 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:54.479 to be at that level. 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:56.919 Yeah, and I think a lot of us knew that 0:06:57.000 --> 0:07:01.320 the opening, this opening stretch, this first half of the 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:04.880 season was gonna be difficult. Now coming up in the 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:07.560 second and I get that. No, there's no pencilvan wins 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:09.680 anymore with this team, Like I'm not telling you that 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:12.760 they're penciling in wins by any means. But now you 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:16.280 get the Washington's, the Indies, the Giants who are not 0:07:16.440 --> 0:07:18.640 very good right now, Denver. 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:20.520 Pitching games more on your level. 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:22.920 Yeah, you got the team. The softer part I hate 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:25.160 that term, but the softer part of your schedule is 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:30.280 now into the really other than like Kansas City Buffalo, 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:35.040 and maybe if the Jets, you know, continue to play 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:38.680 decently well or by that point he might be back 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:41.760 Garret Rodgers might be playing in that that we gave 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:47.440 kighteen game against the Patriots, so regardless, the point being 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:49.960 is that did I think they would be two and 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:54.440 six at this point. No, but I didn't really feel 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:56.640 like they would be that much better. Like maybe they 0:07:56.680 --> 0:08:00.320 were four and four and or you know, three and five, 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:02.160 but I really didn't think that they would be that 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:02.720 much better. 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:04.680 Here's the thing about four and four. You bring up 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:06.960 four and four, let's just say that they are four 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:09.280 and four and those two wins. Maybe they managed to 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:11.240 squeeze one out in an upset over the Eagles, and 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:13.520 maybe they beat the Dolphins a week two, and this 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:16.880 team is four and four right now. Yeah, you'd still 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:19.440 be screaming. You'd still hear screaming from fans, you'd still 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:22.160 be hearing screaming and criticism from the media because it's 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:24.280 kind of like, well, they can beat Philadelphia, they can 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:27.960 beat Miami, and they still lose like that to New Orleans, 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:30.640 or they're just four and four. Shouldn't they be five 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:32.520 and three or six and two. I mean, I feel 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:35.080 like there'd still be complaints to be had here, and 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:39.440 I think we've become conditioned to naturally complain when this 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:44.640 team falls short of Sometimes over inflated expectations. 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:47.520 Yeah, I think that's fair. I think that there were 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:51.559 a couple of games based off of how they unfolded. 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:54.520 I can see where you got to like Philly in Miami. 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:57.720 But in my head going into the season, I thought 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:01.400 that they would have a good chance to beat the Raiders, 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:03.480 which I guess ultimately they kind of did. It was 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:05.600 a one possession game. And then I thought that they 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:07.440 would beat New Orleans here at home. 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:10.679 I also thought they would be right. 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:14.240 So so those were the two games that swung and 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:16.439 and then one of them being a thirty four to 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:20.040 nothing shell acking here really made it. It's sweet. Yes, 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:23.280 So if you look at the other games they've played 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:25.920 this season, and again this is not like to try 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:27.720 to act like, oh, actually they're really good and they're 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:30.240 going to be a good team. But all the other 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:32.640 games have been really one score games, right like they 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:35.400 you know all the other it's just those two blowouts 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:37.200 that that you look at. 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:39.760 It sort of unevens the playing field. 0:09:39.960 --> 0:09:42.439 Yeah, I mean, they lost twouns. 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:44.439 They were so egregious. And then when you add on 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:47.920 the injuries of late est, specially Kendrick Bourne being the 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:50.240 latest one to go down this weekend. Then it's kind 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:52.720 of like, Wow, where's the hope. Yeah, and you've still got, 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:55.800 oh my goodness, nine games, you know, nine games left 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:56.200 to play. 0:09:56.320 --> 0:09:58.840 Yeah, I think the hope and and it's a good question. 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:02.320 I think for me, if you're a Patriots fan, and look, 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:04.440 we have a lot of great listeners that are gonna 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:07.920 watch and follow and thank god listen to us, even 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:10.839 if they're not good. If you're those people, I think, 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:12.440 what you have to do. And this is sort of 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:16.520 my theme of the whole week here. The next nine 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:19.320 games is more about deciding who you want to keep 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:22.040 on this roster and who you don't. So it's basically 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:26.600 it's what I'm saying, it's an individual player basis. Now 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:32.000 we're evaluating the individual players on the roster. So I 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:34.520 wouldn't get too caught up in wins and losses, because 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:38.320 at this point that that probably is is irrelevant. It's 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:42.559 more about is Mac Jones your quarterback of the future 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:47.360 in my opinion, you have he has nine games to 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:51.360 make the case that they should continue to roll with 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:54.800 him next season, and if he plays like he's been 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:57.760 playing outside of the Buffalo game, but on the on 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:01.480 the on the whole for the season, the other seven 0:11:01.559 --> 0:11:04.280 games of the year. If he plays like that and 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:06.240 they are picking in the top ten in the draft, 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:10.160 they should be looking at quarterbacks, you would think if 0:11:10.240 --> 0:11:13.440 they if he plays like he did against Buffalo for 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:16.040 the better half of the second half of the season, 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:20.840 then then maybe it's a different conversation. And so it 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:23.640 starts with the quarterback, but it's not just the quarterback, 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:26.520 like deciding on your pending free agents, like is Kyle 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:29.000 Dugger going to be here? Is Big Mike going to 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:32.640 be here? Is josh Ucca going to be here? Is 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:35.120 Hunter Henry going to be here? Like all these guys 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:37.359 that are coming up on the end of their contracts 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:41.720 that you might have some interest in keeping already. Now 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:44.120 is the time for these people and these players to 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:47.200 start making a case for being on the twenty twenty 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:50.160 four Patriots. So I think that that's if you're a 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:52.440 fan of this team and you're looking at what is 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:55.960 it that I'm supposed to cling on to, it's there. 0:11:56.280 --> 0:11:59.320 They're probably not going to turn it around, Like they're 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:03.360 probably not going to win ten straight games and turn 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:04.480 it around. I would just have to. 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:08.200 Say I was just gonna say could you see in 0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:11.199 any scenario this team performing like said the Detroit Lions 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:12.560 did a year ago. 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:16.000 So I've been clinging to that the Detroit Lions. A 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:18.080 good example. The one I always came back to was 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:21.360 the twenty one Miami Dolphins who lost seven in a row. 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:24.200 They are one and seven, They lost seven in a row, 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:27.760 and they won eight of their last nine games, and 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:30.240 they finished the year nine and eight, and they just 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:33.920 missed the playoffs. They just missed the playoffs because Pittsburgh 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:37.040 tied a game. Okay, so they the nine to seven 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:39.640 and one Steelers went to the playoffs over the nine 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:46.840 and eight Miami Dolphins. So it's been done, right, Like 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:48.400 I'm not, it's been done. 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:50.240 Is it statistically possible yes? 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:50.720 Yeah? 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:51.600 Is it likely? 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:57.080 No? But I would say that I for better or worse, 0:12:57.120 --> 0:12:58.920 because I know some fans are gonna hear this and say, well, 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:01.800 they should be tanking and they should losing, and what 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:04.640 good doesn't date what what good does it do to 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:07.200 be seven and ten? And I don't necessarily disagree on 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:08.280 for the most part. 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:11.120 Those stupid NBA teams that tanked, you know, the Houston 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:14.000 Rockets tanked for Ralph Sampson, and a chem Olajo on it. Yeah, 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:16.560 I mean that's just that, just that brought sports to 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:22.040 a completely different level. Because athletes don't tank. Yeah, they can't. 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:25.520 It is against their very fiber of their very being 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:30.000 to go out and perform and not compete at a 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:33.720 high level. You cannot do it. You cannot tell me otherwise. 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:37.640 The tanking part of it, the dropping, the losing purposely, 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:40.560 whatever you want to say, that comes from decisions being 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:45.480 made way above their heads and playing people out on 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:48.000 the floor. I mean, I know in Houston's case, when 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:50.640 I was in the NBA and the Rockets tanked, uh, 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:52.560 to be able to you know, bring in a cheam, 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:55.200 Ralph Sampson, that whole group, you know, back during that time, 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:59.440 it was because they refuse to play anybody but you know, 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:02.400 five year old Elvin Hayes. Yeah, I mean that was 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:04.560 basically it. That's why they did what they did. So, 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:08.120 you know, and that was a management decision. The guys 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:09.880 are going out there and busting tail all the time, 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:12.000 but it was a management decision to play these guys 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:14.560 because we don't want to risk anybody else. And so 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:18.920 if Bill Belichick or mister Kraft said, okay, play all 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:21.360 these guys, or don't play any of these guys, or look, 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:24.440 I can understand from one point of view them saying, 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:27.280 as you already suggested, this is really all about who 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:29.280 we want to keep for next year because we know 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:31.720 there's going to be an increased cap space and we're 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:34.520 going to have extra money. So there's a great opportunity 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:38.120 to rebuild this thing and rebuild it quickly. Who on 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:40.760 this team right now can be a part of that. 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:44.080 That's part of the evaluating process. So let's play those guys. 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:48.400 If you want to call that tanking, then it's tanking, yeah, 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:50.880 but it's not really tanking. 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:54.760 Right, And so I the Lions are a good example, 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:58.240 and I think that Dolphins team is a good example. Now, 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:01.280 the Dolphins team changed coaches, fired Brian Flores at the 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:04.120 end of that year, and hired Mike McDaniel, and then 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:07.200 they traded for Tyreek Hill and the rest is history. 0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:09.080 Right now, they're one of the best teams in the league. 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:15.520 But the general premise is the Lions and the Dolphins 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:21.240 stuck with it, right, and they didn't ruin Tua and 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:24.520 they didn't ruin Jared Goff and then the Lions had 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:26.920 another good draft class, they hit and they had another 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:29.920 strong offseason. The Dolphins did what they did down in 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:33.360 Miami with Tyreek Hill and Tron Armstead and all these pieces, 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:36.480 Bradley Chubb making all these moves, and now those two 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:39.600 teams might play in the Super Bowl in February. So 0:15:39.840 --> 0:15:42.040 there's other ways to go about it. And if I 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:44.240 was the Patriots, and if I was a Patriots fan, 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:49.920 the easiest path is forward. The easiest path is that 0:15:50.040 --> 0:15:52.800 for the rest of the season and that next nine games, 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:55.920 mac Jones plays closer to what he did against Buffalo. 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:59.120 He looks like a guy that maybe isn't gonna win 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:02.880 you games still, but he can win games in this league. 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:07.880 And instead of drafting Drake May in the first round, 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:11.680 you're drafting Marvin Harrison junior, right, and you're adding to 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:14.240 what you've already had, and I or you're drafting a 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:16.400 left tackle or what you know, whatever the case may be. 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:20.960 And I think that that's that's also a sound way 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:23.960 to go about it. And I hate that everything is 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:28.120 just tank tank tank, tank, tank, because that truly is 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:30.920 you're starting all over with your entire football. 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:33.080 You can't blow this up. You can't, you don't blow 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:34.120 it up. I mean, what do you want to do? 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:36.240 You want to go back and be an expansion team. 0:16:36.280 --> 0:16:38.040 You don't want to do that. Yeah, you've got some 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:41.440 value here and you have some players here, and granted, 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:43.800 some of your best players are injured and are not 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:45.560 coming back this year, so we know all of this. 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:48.200 So I think we already know kind of who you 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:50.920 want back. But at the same time, you've got a 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:53.160 fifty three man roster to fill out. Yeah, and you 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:55.360 definitely have some decision to be made on some of 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:57.600 these guys who you could bring back or you decide 0:16:57.600 --> 0:16:59.080 to let them go and let them try, you know, 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:02.640 their their own market in the in free agency, there 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:04.919 are a lot of decisions to be made, and the 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:07.280 only way you find it out is, yeah, to play 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:09.200 them and to find that out. And I think you're right, 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:13.600 that's where the small battles need to be learned to 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:16.080 be won over the course of the next nine weeks. 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:19.119 Is all right? So you know, hey, we saw some 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:21.960 improvement this week from Mac or you know, hey, Ramandre 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:23.680 was really running the ball way better, you know, the 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:26.280 last couple of weeks than he ever. Whatever battle you 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:29.720 want to pick, you can pick one and that's really 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:32.399 kind of where I am on this particular issue, because 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:35.280 you know, I heard I was listening to the local 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:37.720 sports talk radio, which is, you know, obviously all I 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:39.880 can listen to around here, but at the same time, 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:43.359 sometimes it gets extraordinarily toxic, as I'm sure you're aware. 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:48.440 And so they were completely going off the rails over 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:52.280 the fact, and the callers were off the rails going 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:54.440 after the fact that the Patriots didn't make a single 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:57.560 move yeah, by the trade deadline at four o'clock yesterday, 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:02.960 And my first impression was, well, why would you expect 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:07.040 them to. Number one, somebody has been willing to deal 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:09.119 with you. Number two, you gotta have to have you 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:12.359 have to have somebody of value to another team, and 0:18:12.400 --> 0:18:13.960 then they would come to you and say would you 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:17.239 take And you know, we heard that there was some 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:20.800 tire kicking potentially on you know, Ezekiel Elliott, and certainly 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:23.800 some tire kicking on josh Ucha. There might have been 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:25.560 one or two others, but there wasn't a whole lot 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:28.920 else out there. And it's all right, So we're giving 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:34.119 them up for what basically a sock drawer full of doorknobs. 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:35.080 What are we giving them up for. 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:37.359 Yeah, I think josh u j is an interesting one 0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:41.680 just you know, because the Washington traded their two pass rushers, right, 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:44.719 so Montes Sweat and Chase Young, who are better players 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:47.280 than Josh Hugh j. They went for a second and 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:51.399 a third round pick, which tells you probably at best 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:54.760 was maybe worth a fourth at best. 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:57.399 Yeah, at best, probably a fifth, right, And I'm like, 0:18:57.440 --> 0:18:59.639 I'm not doing that. Yeah, I wouldn't do that. I 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:02.280 would not do that. I would not trade Mac Jones. 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:06.080 I think Mac Jones, know, And that's that's the one 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:08.159 that I two calls back to back. You day, I'm listening. 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:10.440 I won't name the station, but you can probably guess 0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:12.199 which one it was. I, you know, and I just 0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:14.119 have it to be, you know, going by, and people 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:17.200 were livid. They were irate. I can't believe you kept Mac. 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:20.400 I can't know. It's just most unbelievably, he sucks. He's dying, 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:23.080 you know. And I'm just like people who have no 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:25.840 clue are the ones that call into these shows to 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:31.240 vehemently voice their opinion. They don't realize what the reprecations are. Now, 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:33.280 do I want to keep Mac here for the long term? 0:19:33.280 --> 0:19:35.000 And say he can be a twenty year player like 0:19:35.040 --> 0:19:38.800 Tom Brady. I doubt that that's gonna happen. But until 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:41.639 you're ready to move on and find that next piece 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:44.280 to the puzzle, you do need to, you know, I 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:47.280 think keep him around because right now he's very cost effective. 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:50.840 Yeah, I mean not even that. To me, Trading mac 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:54.600 Jones right now is is is trading low like it's 0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:55.440 giving away. 0:19:56.920 --> 0:19:58.800 Unless you could get I don't know what would you 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:01.040 take for mac Jones? Would you? You know, first of all, 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:04.040 I think I need a quarterback, uh, you know, somehow 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:05.880 some well though, I guess you could go with Bailey's 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:08.159 Appy and Malie cunning him. But that didn't seem like 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:09.560 a hell of a lot right there. To be honest 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:11.240 with you, what would you take for him? A third 0:20:11.320 --> 0:20:13.399 or fourth round pick? That's not good enough. He was 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:14.320 a first round pick. 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:18.800 Yeah, no, you just you can't. I you got If 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:21.879 you're gonna trade mac Jones, then if that's the plan, 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:26.359 Like let's say the plan is they've decided he's not 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:27.679 it and we're gonna move on. 0:20:28.400 --> 0:20:29.200 If you're the. 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:31.720 Patriots, you you hope that he tears it up in 0:20:31.760 --> 0:20:34.680 the second half of the season. You hope he tears 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:36.960 it up. It will be fake, you know, to you, 0:20:37.240 --> 0:20:41.480 it will be inflated stats or or against bad defenses 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:44.520 or whatever the case may be. And you hope that 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:46.879 that value just goes up and up and up and up. 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:49.680 But after last year, in the first eight games this year, 0:20:50.119 --> 0:20:52.639 his value is zero, like you, so why would you? 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:53.280 Why would you. 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:54.440 Trade him now, don't you know? 0:20:54.800 --> 0:20:56.720 Yeah, it just never made any sense not to mention 0:20:56.800 --> 0:20:59.520 that they hate all the backup quarterbacks, Like I don't 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:01.720 mean person, I just mean they don't think any of 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:04.080 them can play. So what was you know, They're not 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:06.760 gonna They're not starting Bailey's appy the rest of the year, 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:09.119 Like that's just they cut the guy like they clearly 0:21:09.119 --> 0:21:13.000 think nothing of him as a player, So what what 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:15.800 what were they gonna do? And I get people all, well, 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:17.760 then they would lose every game and that would be good. 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:19.600 But that's that's not good. 0:21:19.760 --> 0:21:21.880 No. All right, before we get back to Washington, because 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:23.840 you obviously talked about the two big moves that they 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:26.200 made at the traded deadline, I think we need to 0:21:26.240 --> 0:21:28.560 talk about the eight hundred pound gorilla in the room 0:21:28.680 --> 0:21:32.040 being Josh McDaniels. Yeah, at one o'clock in the morning 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:35.080 Eastern time. You know, he was fired by Mark Davis. 0:21:35.119 --> 0:21:37.440 What that's that's a bad organization. 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:39.840 You I was just gonna I'm just getting ready to 0:21:39.880 --> 0:21:43.000 say it seems to me that they've fired the wrong guy. 0:21:43.240 --> 0:21:46.240 But you can't fire the owner because he can't get 0:21:46.280 --> 0:21:49.480 his way out of a paper bag without doing something stupid. 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:52.919 And this is stupid. Yeah, Now you don't have to 0:21:53.119 --> 0:21:55.199 like the way that things have gone. In fact, I 0:21:55.240 --> 0:21:57.480 don't know too many people who would be Raider fans 0:21:57.480 --> 0:21:59.760 it would really be enamored with things. But he's not 0:21:59.800 --> 0:22:01.320 even through his second here yet. 0:22:01.560 --> 0:22:03.960 Well, it was it was getting bad there. It was 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:04.600 getting talks. 0:22:04.760 --> 0:22:07.119 I've heard the stories, just like you know you have 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:09.240 and you can read on you know, Twitter, and you 0:22:09.280 --> 0:22:11.720 can read on you know, various and such. 0:22:11.920 --> 0:22:14.040 I thought, I thought Albert Breer had a really good 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:17.719 summation of it on MMQB today if you got if 0:22:17.720 --> 0:22:21.520 you're interested. But it just it had gotten bad in Vegas. 0:22:21.920 --> 0:22:25.800 But more so than that, you know, I was I 0:22:25.840 --> 0:22:28.040 was joking with you earlier about these nine to fifteen 0:22:28.080 --> 0:22:30.919 am Bill Press conferences. So I was up this morning 0:22:30.920 --> 0:22:33.919 at six fifteen to get to come and listen to 0:22:33.960 --> 0:22:37.520 Bill talk about the trade deadline not and uh. And 0:22:38.680 --> 0:22:42.159 I look at my phone and I'm just the Raiders 0:22:42.160 --> 0:22:45.920 fired Josh McDaniels and Dave's Eagler And then I look 0:22:45.920 --> 0:22:50.200 at the tweet and it's a one am timestamp. Yeah, right, 0:22:50.320 --> 0:22:52.480 And I'm just thinking to myself, I'm like, what a 0:22:52.640 --> 0:22:55.360 coward thing to do in the middle of the night 0:22:55.640 --> 0:22:57.520 to do that, and I need Look, it's not just 0:22:57.560 --> 0:22:59.320 the Raiders, Like teams do this stuff all the time. 0:22:59.359 --> 0:23:06.480 I remember twenty nineteen Patriots opener against Pittsburgh here and 0:23:06.880 --> 0:23:10.480 the Patriots had just signed Antonio Brown, I believe the 0:23:10.520 --> 0:23:12.119 day before. He didn't play in the game, but the 0:23:12.200 --> 0:23:15.960 day before, and they had their opener and they beat 0:23:15.960 --> 0:23:19.720 the Steelers pretty handedly, like they always did with Tom 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:23.320 and the Red Sox announced right after, as I was 0:23:23.320 --> 0:23:25.760 standing in the locker room post game, that they had 0:23:25.800 --> 0:23:30.119 fired Dave dem Browski and so they clearly it's like 0:23:30.160 --> 0:23:32.960 when you fire somebody on parade day, right, like you're 0:23:33.000 --> 0:23:37.200 clearly burying the story. And that's what this reminded me of. 0:23:37.280 --> 0:23:40.520 And I guess maybe I'm I'm sensitive more to it 0:23:40.600 --> 0:23:44.320 because I've covered Josh McDaniels, and I, you know, respect 0:23:44.400 --> 0:23:46.800 him as a human being, so I wouldn't just do 0:23:46.920 --> 0:23:50.159 that to somebody. But I know where we're going with this, 0:23:50.240 --> 0:23:51.959 so I'll refrain. 0:23:52.040 --> 0:23:53.800 But no, no, that's quite run. I want you to 0:23:53.840 --> 0:23:55.040 I want you to be able to tell me how 0:23:55.359 --> 0:23:57.639 you feel about it, because that's that's kind of leads 0:23:57.640 --> 0:23:59.280 me into what I was going to ask anyway, And 0:24:00.160 --> 0:24:03.120 the question would be, you know, do the Patriots still 0:24:03.160 --> 0:24:05.480 think enough of Josh and or Dave Ziegler to bring 0:24:05.480 --> 0:24:08.080 one or both of them back within the family fold, 0:24:08.119 --> 0:24:10.480 so to speak, and let them work here now. I 0:24:10.480 --> 0:24:13.159 don't know what they feel about their own personal careers, 0:24:13.160 --> 0:24:15.600 because I'd be surprised if Josh ever becomes a head 0:24:15.640 --> 0:24:18.040 coach in the NFL again based on his track record 0:24:18.040 --> 0:24:20.760 this far. Is this enough for him? Or does he 0:24:20.840 --> 0:24:23.000 go try the college root or does he try to 0:24:23.000 --> 0:24:26.320 do something else, or does he go into something completely. 0:24:26.400 --> 0:24:28.199 I'm just kind of curious to your thoughts on that. 0:24:28.280 --> 0:24:30.960 And should the Patriots kick a tire and someone who's 0:24:31.520 --> 0:24:33.960 very familiar with the inner workings hear and can he 0:24:34.080 --> 0:24:34.960 make things better? 0:24:35.160 --> 0:24:41.439 Yeah? So if it was as simple as will he 0:24:41.520 --> 0:24:44.359 make us better football? Team yes or no, then I 0:24:44.400 --> 0:24:48.280 would say yes, right. I think that the one thing 0:24:48.280 --> 0:24:51.960 that I really would be interested in bringing McDaniels back 0:24:52.040 --> 0:24:56.240 for is the run game. His run game is fantastic. 0:24:56.320 --> 0:24:58.320 And I know that they didn't run the ball particularly 0:24:58.320 --> 0:25:00.480 well in Vegas this year, but they obviously the rushing 0:25:00.560 --> 0:25:04.360 champ last year with Josh Jacobs, and in twenty one 0:25:04.560 --> 0:25:08.000 was by far their best rushing season in probably three 0:25:08.080 --> 0:25:10.680 or four years, not to mention twenty with Cam Newton, 0:25:10.720 --> 0:25:13.400 where they ran the ball like crazy too. But he's 0:25:13.400 --> 0:25:17.520 always designed a really really good early down run game 0:25:17.680 --> 0:25:21.200 and play action marrying it together the gap schemes and 0:25:21.240 --> 0:25:24.320 the full back and all this stuff, and I just 0:25:24.840 --> 0:25:27.000 I think that they could use that, you know, I 0:25:27.040 --> 0:25:29.800 think that they could use some help in that regard, because, 0:25:30.160 --> 0:25:33.080 let's face it, I think that there is something to 0:25:33.080 --> 0:25:35.480 be said for the fact that Remandre doesn't necessarily look 0:25:35.520 --> 0:25:38.960 like the same guy in terms of his explosiveness as 0:25:39.040 --> 0:25:41.960 compared to last year. But also I don't think that 0:25:42.000 --> 0:25:44.280 anybody predicted that the Patriots wouldn't be able to run 0:25:44.320 --> 0:25:47.639 the ball like this, so maybe him and I also 0:25:47.880 --> 0:25:50.480 know I think he might stay on Bohart agree is 0:25:50.520 --> 0:25:53.199 taking over as the offensive coordinator, and it sounds like 0:25:53.480 --> 0:25:56.200 Carmen Brisillo, their offensive line coach, is going to stay 0:25:56.359 --> 0:25:59.960 for now with Vegas. But I would be very interest 0:26:00.240 --> 0:26:04.040 in bringing back Brisillo as well because for all of 0:26:04.080 --> 0:26:07.880 like the post Scarnekia issues on the offensive line, Brisillo 0:26:08.000 --> 0:26:13.080 took over as the permanent, like full time offensive line 0:26:13.119 --> 0:26:15.879 coach in twenty one, but they had good lines in 0:26:15.920 --> 0:26:19.800 twenty and twenty one under him here, So he's a 0:26:19.840 --> 0:26:22.040 good line coach. I think he knows what he's doing. 0:26:23.119 --> 0:26:27.000 So those those two things, and it was Ziegler, but 0:26:27.440 --> 0:26:29.879 you know, just quickly with McDaniel's, like you mentioned, like 0:26:30.200 --> 0:26:32.440 it's if it was that simple, like does he make 0:26:32.480 --> 0:26:34.880 you a better football team or not, I would probably 0:26:34.920 --> 0:26:37.160 say yes, he would. He would help, He would help. 0:26:37.720 --> 0:26:41.440 But I think the problem is is that he there's 0:26:41.440 --> 0:26:44.280 too many cooks in the kitchen at that point. And 0:26:44.320 --> 0:26:47.000 I'd also say it kind of undermines Bill O'Brien. Of 0:26:47.000 --> 0:26:48.760 course it does, Yeah, one hundred percent. 0:26:48.880 --> 0:26:51.159 And that's why I asked the question, because if you 0:26:51.200 --> 0:26:53.399 actually brought Josh in, I don't know, before the end 0:26:53.400 --> 0:26:55.480 of the year or whatever, Yeah, what does this do 0:26:55.560 --> 0:26:58.440 to Bill O'Brien and and you know, is that fair? 0:26:58.560 --> 0:27:00.760 And do you do that to so I don't know. 0:27:00.880 --> 0:27:03.479 I don't know fair in love Warren football, I don't know. 0:27:03.640 --> 0:27:06.720 Yeah, it's definitely fair. And I think if you're Mac Jones, 0:27:06.760 --> 0:27:10.960 and this would be my biggest concern. Like last year 0:27:11.000 --> 0:27:14.520 where you had Patricia, Judge, Belichick all these voices in 0:27:14.560 --> 0:27:17.639 your ear telling you things, it kind of creates a 0:27:17.920 --> 0:27:20.240 situation where it's like, well, am I listening to Josh 0:27:20.320 --> 0:27:24.199 or I'm listening to to Bill? Like who's in charge here? 0:27:24.240 --> 0:27:26.679 You're defeating the very purpose you're bringing him in for. 0:27:27.000 --> 0:27:31.639 Yeah, And I would say that naturally if you're Mac, 0:27:32.000 --> 0:27:34.600 wouldn't you kind of gravitate towards Josh a little bit? 0:27:34.680 --> 0:27:37.439 Because that was the best football he was here as 0:27:37.480 --> 0:27:39.359 a rookie and he played you know, you know, yeah, 0:27:39.400 --> 0:27:41.280 I'm su right, So I would worry about that. 0:27:41.359 --> 0:27:41.520 Now. 0:27:41.720 --> 0:27:44.399 I know a lot of people brought up twenty eleven 0:27:44.440 --> 0:27:48.280 where Josh was fired by the Rams. I think at 0:27:48.320 --> 0:27:51.080 that point, well, the head coach of the Rams was 0:27:51.119 --> 0:27:53.680 fired and so he lost his job as the offensive 0:27:53.680 --> 0:27:57.200 coordinator and he came back to the Patriots in the 0:27:57.280 --> 0:28:00.560 playoff run in twenty eleven as a consultant to build O'Brien. 0:28:00.960 --> 0:28:03.879 But Bill O'Brien had already made it known privately that 0:28:03.920 --> 0:28:06.480 he was going to Penn State, so he was already 0:28:06.520 --> 0:28:08.720 one foot out the door at that point. So they 0:28:08.840 --> 0:28:12.639 brought Josh McDaniels back in eleven knowing he was going 0:28:12.720 --> 0:28:15.960 to take over in twelve job. Right, So if you're 0:28:16.000 --> 0:28:18.639 telling me that, internally they know that Bill O'Brien is 0:28:18.680 --> 0:28:21.240 going to Michigan State next year and he's not going 0:28:21.320 --> 0:28:24.080 to be here, and then it's just like twenty eleven. 0:28:24.359 --> 0:28:26.959 But if Bill O'Brien doesn't have another job lined up 0:28:27.000 --> 0:28:29.720 and the plan is to retain Bill O'Brien, then you 0:28:29.760 --> 0:28:32.520 can't bring back Josh McDaniels. No, it's just the optics 0:28:32.520 --> 0:28:33.240 of it don't work. 0:28:33.320 --> 0:28:36.640 So that would tell you, you know, if Josh somehow does 0:28:36.720 --> 0:28:40.320 reappear in the Patriot offices, bill O'Brien ain't gonna be here. 0:28:40.320 --> 0:28:41.040 That's what I think. 0:28:41.160 --> 0:28:43.080 Yeah, I would say so as well. And I think 0:28:43.080 --> 0:28:45.960 the same thing for Ziegler, just really quickly with him 0:28:46.080 --> 0:28:50.360 like that was Macroe's former boss, Dave Ziegler was in 0:28:50.520 --> 0:28:51.440 Macro's chair. 0:28:51.560 --> 0:28:53.480 Yeah, and what a position do you put him in? 0:28:53.560 --> 0:28:55.840 You're right, And so it's kind of like, you know, 0:28:55.960 --> 0:28:58.920 Dave Ziegler is like over his shoulder, like just waiting 0:28:58.960 --> 0:29:02.400 in the wings to to swoop in if macro F's up. 0:29:02.440 --> 0:29:02.680 You know. 0:29:03.400 --> 0:29:07.680 Yeah, So as much as I think that, as much 0:29:07.680 --> 0:29:10.040 as I think that that Ziegler could maybe help them, 0:29:10.240 --> 0:29:12.320 especially on the pro side, I think that's more where 0:29:12.440 --> 0:29:16.080 his background is is pro personnel. It's it is a 0:29:16.120 --> 0:29:19.520 sticky situation because Elliott Wolf's here for that, and grow 0:29:19.680 --> 0:29:21.920 is here for that. And so now you have again 0:29:22.000 --> 0:29:23.360 similar situation. 0:29:23.440 --> 0:29:25.280 All right, But before we move on, I gotta ask 0:29:25.320 --> 0:29:29.600 you real quickly about the Redskins. Okay, that's one one. Damn, 0:29:29.800 --> 0:29:30.320 I just did that. 0:29:30.560 --> 0:29:33.560 Yeah he did. Hang on, and I hear, I hear. 0:29:33.600 --> 0:29:34.400 I stood up for you. 0:29:34.760 --> 0:29:36.280 I know you did, all right, So that means the 0:29:36.280 --> 0:29:38.360 next one you lose the bet, all right? Yeah, the 0:29:38.400 --> 0:29:42.840 Commander's game on Sunday, having traded away arguably two of 0:29:42.880 --> 0:29:43.760 their best defenders. 0:29:44.240 --> 0:29:44.600 Uh. 0:29:44.640 --> 0:29:47.200 And I don't know what this says about Sunday's game 0:29:47.560 --> 0:29:49.760 other than the fact that, well, it's the next game 0:29:49.800 --> 0:29:53.800 that you gotta win on this list. Otherwise, what happens so, 0:29:54.120 --> 0:29:56.120 and can anything still happen at this day? 0:29:56.240 --> 0:29:59.440 Yeah, So big picture, which team actually cares and wants 0:29:59.440 --> 0:30:02.200 to win this game is probably gonna win. 0:30:02.320 --> 0:30:04.880 This could be about a thirteen to seven special. Yeah. 0:30:04.920 --> 0:30:09.080 But that being said, I think the easiest way to 0:30:09.080 --> 0:30:11.239 do this because let's face it, both these teams are 0:30:11.280 --> 0:30:13.800 not very good, right, So it's not like I'm coming 0:30:13.840 --> 0:30:16.360 at it where I think that there's all these matchup 0:30:16.400 --> 0:30:20.440 minutias to talk about. But my concerns, I think is 0:30:20.480 --> 0:30:22.320 the easiest way to put it. If you want the 0:30:22.360 --> 0:30:25.600 Patriots to keep trying to win, my concern would be 0:30:26.200 --> 0:30:30.760 number one, they still have Jonathan Allen and Doron Payne 0:30:31.040 --> 0:30:34.160 coming up the middle. And what we have seen with 0:30:34.280 --> 0:30:37.040 Mac Jones is that if you get that push up 0:30:37.080 --> 0:30:41.240 the middle the pocket, he becomes jittery in the pocket. 0:30:41.720 --> 0:30:44.840 And I'm looking at a rookie at right Garden City 0:30:44.920 --> 0:30:47.520 so and I'm looking at Cole Strange, who has certainly 0:30:47.520 --> 0:30:49.400 had his ups and downs in the first two years 0:30:49.920 --> 0:30:52.760 of the season. And those are two Pro Bowl tackles 0:30:52.760 --> 0:30:55.080 that are going to be coming right after Mac Jones. 0:30:55.560 --> 0:30:59.600 So that concerns me. It does offensively. What concerns me 0:30:59.880 --> 0:31:04.200 is that Eric b Enemy, the offensive coordinator for the Commanders, 0:31:04.640 --> 0:31:07.720 is really freaking good at his job. And they run 0:31:07.760 --> 0:31:11.120 a system that is he runs the Andy Reid system. 0:31:11.240 --> 0:31:14.720 It's the Andy Reid offense. So that Andy Reid offense, 0:31:14.800 --> 0:31:17.960 whether it's been Nick Foles with the Eagles in the 0:31:18.000 --> 0:31:21.760 Super Bowl, Alex Smith, Patrick Mahomes, it hasn't mattered nop. 0:31:21.920 --> 0:31:25.400 The Patriots have had problems schematically with the Andy Reid offense. 0:31:25.840 --> 0:31:29.000 And I think that the Commanders they they are not 0:31:29.440 --> 0:31:32.920 talent deprived on offense. They have some receivers, you know, 0:31:33.000 --> 0:31:36.880 Terry mclaurin's a really good receiver. Johan Dotson's kind of 0:31:36.880 --> 0:31:40.120 coming into his own. Curtis Samuel if he's healthy. I 0:31:40.160 --> 0:31:41.760 know he left the game last week, so I don't 0:31:41.760 --> 0:31:43.840 know if he's one hundred percent. Curtis Samuel is a 0:31:43.920 --> 0:31:46.840 nice gadget player. Logan Thomas is a sneaky good red 0:31:46.920 --> 0:31:51.520 zone target at tight end. So they don't have you know, 0:31:51.520 --> 0:31:54.080 they're not one of these teams that has no weapons 0:31:54.080 --> 0:31:56.280 and has no talent. And he will put that on 0:31:56.320 --> 0:31:57.920 top of the fact that they have a really good 0:31:57.960 --> 0:32:01.320 I mean, they scored thirty one points last week against 0:32:01.320 --> 0:32:01.800 the Eagles. 0:32:02.040 --> 0:32:03.520 Yep, so true. 0:32:04.200 --> 0:32:06.400 I am worried a little bit about this game in 0:32:06.520 --> 0:32:10.520 terms of pressure up the middle, and the enemy is 0:32:10.560 --> 0:32:13.840 going to have the seventeen you know, the Super Bowl 0:32:13.920 --> 0:32:16.800 game plan from Philadelphia, the game plans they used in 0:32:16.920 --> 0:32:20.120 Kansas City against this Patriots defense, and he's going to 0:32:20.200 --> 0:32:22.600 have all of those those man beaters ready. 0:32:22.720 --> 0:32:25.280 You know, then why is Washington three and five? 0:32:26.120 --> 0:32:28.400 I think there's a couple of reasons. One of their 0:32:28.440 --> 0:32:31.920 defense is ve terribly underperformed. I don't even know what 0:32:31.920 --> 0:32:36.240 the right adjective is. They've vastly underperformed on defense. They're 0:32:36.280 --> 0:32:39.400 thirty first in the league in scoring defense right now, 0:32:39.840 --> 0:32:43.000 with a defense that has a talent on the defensive 0:32:43.000 --> 0:32:46.720 line especially. So that's why they broke up their roster construction, 0:32:46.920 --> 0:32:51.080 was because they they were built on the defensive line. 0:32:51.200 --> 0:32:56.400 You know, those four guys across Young Allen Payne Sweat 0:32:56.440 --> 0:32:59.800 were making like a combined hundred million dollars and they 0:32:59.800 --> 0:33:02.480 were thirty first in the league in defense. So they 0:33:02.480 --> 0:33:07.200 had to break it up from a roster construction standpoint. Offensively, 0:33:07.360 --> 0:33:09.760 I hate to let, you know, blame it all on him, 0:33:09.760 --> 0:33:14.240 but Howel's had, you know, been inconsistent, and they've they've. 0:33:14.000 --> 0:33:15.800 Had some issues on the offension, Sammy. 0:33:15.800 --> 0:33:18.040 Hell yeah, they've had some issues on the offensive line too, 0:33:18.080 --> 0:33:21.440 but in general they've they've taken h forty one sacks 0:33:22.120 --> 0:33:25.600 through eight games, so that that's those are some of 0:33:25.600 --> 0:33:26.400 the reasons why. 0:33:26.200 --> 0:33:28.239 They are where they imagine if mac hatt taking forty one. 0:33:28.920 --> 0:33:32.440 So the Howel's been sacked forty one times, that's what 0:33:32.480 --> 0:33:34.960 I mean. Daniel Jones's second. 0:33:34.720 --> 0:33:36.200 He'd be a grease spot on the highway. 0:33:36.360 --> 0:33:40.400 Daniel Jones' is second with twenty eight so he's been 0:33:40.440 --> 0:33:44.360 sacked thirteen more times than the next quarterback. Yeah, it's 0:33:44.480 --> 0:33:45.200 it's not been good. 0:33:46.280 --> 0:33:50.880 Thanks buddy anytime. Always appreciated at e Z Lazare on 0:33:51.400 --> 0:33:55.680 X see. Yeah I didn't say Twitter. There you go. 0:33:55.920 --> 0:33:58.000 All right, coming up with the pro Ben Vollen from 0:33:58.000 --> 0:34:01.440 the Boston Global join us. Been standing gook. The commanders 0:34:02.240 --> 0:34:03.840 for the athletic will join us in a little bit. 0:34:03.880 --> 0:34:07.680 Russell Baxter now number two on week nine already around 0:34:07.720 --> 0:34:11.120 the NFL, and Ben joins us here from the Boston Club. Hey, Ben, 0:34:11.160 --> 0:34:12.600 how are you? Thanks for the time today. 0:34:13.520 --> 0:34:16.160 I'm doing a little bit better than Josh mccaniels. Today, 0:34:16.160 --> 0:34:16.480 I too. 0:34:16.680 --> 0:34:18.680 Yeah, you know that that is obviously a part of 0:34:18.680 --> 0:34:22.640 our conversation today because it's pretty easy to see that, 0:34:22.719 --> 0:34:25.359 you know, where Josh has had a success, it's been here, 0:34:26.760 --> 0:34:30.360 And I just I wonder if, you know, the Patriots 0:34:30.400 --> 0:34:32.360 pick up the phone and place a call or do 0:34:32.480 --> 0:34:34.319 they just kind of let things chill for a while 0:34:34.360 --> 0:34:36.759 and then maybe Josh picks up the phone and says, hey, 0:34:36.800 --> 0:34:39.239 you need any help. I mean, I don't know how 0:34:39.280 --> 0:34:43.080 you really approach this and should you even approach it? 0:34:43.120 --> 0:34:45.480 Is it the right thing to do, especially when you're 0:34:45.480 --> 0:34:47.799 trying to build toward you at least a little bit 0:34:47.800 --> 0:34:49.640 in a different direction with a guy like, you know, 0:34:50.160 --> 0:34:50.920 a Bill O'Brien. 0:34:52.080 --> 0:34:55.800 Yeah, I think ultimately, big picture, Josh mccaniels would probably 0:34:55.840 --> 0:34:59.160 love to return to New England, bring his family back, 0:34:59.320 --> 0:35:01.600 you know, re enrolled his kids in the schools that 0:35:01.680 --> 0:35:04.440 they grew up in and reconnect with their friends and 0:35:04.480 --> 0:35:07.160 all that. So I do think stability would be important 0:35:07.200 --> 0:35:09.319 for him and coming back to a place that he knows. 0:35:09.360 --> 0:35:12.360 But I don't think it's going to happen in season 0:35:12.480 --> 0:35:16.600 this year. I think Evan mentioned it before. It's a 0:35:17.120 --> 0:35:20.080 there's too much shadow there if you bring in McDaniels 0:35:20.120 --> 0:35:23.399 to kind of consult right now with you know, kind 0:35:23.400 --> 0:35:26.400 of looking over Bill O'Brien's shoulder, that that's that's not 0:35:26.440 --> 0:35:28.839 good optics. Too many chefs in the kitchen. I don't 0:35:28.840 --> 0:35:32.400 think Bill O'Brien would really appreciate that. And frankly, I 0:35:32.440 --> 0:35:35.799 think McDaniel's probably, as most coaches do at this time, 0:35:36.200 --> 0:35:38.879 just wants to decompress. Yeah, he is getting a nice 0:35:38.880 --> 0:35:40.600 buyout from the Raiders. 0:35:42.880 --> 0:35:45.280 Ben. They got to pay him for four years. 0:35:46.200 --> 0:35:48.760 I mean, no one knows the exact details of the contract, 0:35:48.760 --> 0:35:51.920 as coaches contracts usually don't get shared. But yes, it 0:35:51.920 --> 0:35:55.280 does sound like Mark Davis is going to be paying 0:35:55.320 --> 0:35:56.239 a big fat buy out. 0:35:56.280 --> 0:35:57.160 Not only did Josh. 0:35:57.040 --> 0:36:00.879 McDaniels, but Dave Sziggler and other members that coaching staff too. 0:36:01.040 --> 0:36:02.800 Isn't he still paying on John Gruden? 0:36:03.800 --> 0:36:07.680 Well, so I wrote this in the Globe. So to 0:36:07.719 --> 0:36:11.279 me firing McDaniels right now, I think it kind of 0:36:11.320 --> 0:36:14.759 opens the door to maybe John Gruden returning. I mean, 0:36:14.800 --> 0:36:17.680 you look at Mark Davis, He's already paying a big 0:36:17.719 --> 0:36:20.960 fat buyout to John Gruden. He still had six years 0:36:21.040 --> 0:36:22.520 left on a ten year deal. And now he's paying 0:36:22.520 --> 0:36:26.040 a buyout to McDaniels and Gruden, who is suing the 0:36:26.160 --> 0:36:29.680 NFL over his termination, is winning in court. He's beating 0:36:29.680 --> 0:36:31.600 the NFL in court, and he just want a key 0:36:33.640 --> 0:36:36.000 decision over the summer to keep it in court and 0:36:36.040 --> 0:36:37.960 not have the lawsuit moved to arbitration. 0:36:38.719 --> 0:36:39.360 So I don't know. 0:36:39.400 --> 0:36:41.640 I mean, Mark Davids didn't want to fire John Gruden. 0:36:41.440 --> 0:36:41.840 To begin with. 0:36:41.880 --> 0:36:44.200 He's basically held at gunpoint forced to do it by 0:36:44.200 --> 0:36:46.960 the NFL. I don't know. I think there's a scenario 0:36:47.040 --> 0:36:49.640 now where Gruden agrees to drop. 0:36:49.560 --> 0:36:52.120 The lawsuit in the NFL and gets his job back. 0:36:52.000 --> 0:36:54.880 Allows the Raiders to green state John Gruten. 0:36:55.040 --> 0:36:57.040 That would be crazy, wouldn't it. I mean, it would 0:36:57.320 --> 0:36:59.000 it would be. I mean, it would be a side 0:36:59.080 --> 0:37:03.880 show perfect for Sin City in Las Vegas, without a doubt. 0:37:04.080 --> 0:37:05.960 I mean, three ring circles, the whole nine yards. But 0:37:06.280 --> 0:37:08.840 at the same time, it just that would leave me 0:37:08.880 --> 0:37:10.080 shaking my head on that one. 0:37:11.320 --> 0:37:14.040 It'd be tough, especially because they'd have to, you know, 0:37:14.120 --> 0:37:17.080 bring up the whole all the circumstances why Gruden was 0:37:17.080 --> 0:37:19.640 fired at the person late, right, But I don't know, 0:37:19.880 --> 0:37:23.120 you know, time does heal wound. And you know, the Raiders, 0:37:23.120 --> 0:37:27.640 they do have some minorities in key positions now in 0:37:27.680 --> 0:37:31.279 the organization, and I don't know, I do I do 0:37:31.320 --> 0:37:34.759 see a scenario where they could, you know, Gruden would 0:37:34.760 --> 0:37:36.759 come back with his tail, talk between his legs, offer 0:37:36.800 --> 0:37:39.960 all kinds of public apologies, and then they would try 0:37:39.960 --> 0:37:41.920 to hopefully just kind of move on because I'm you know, 0:37:42.239 --> 0:37:44.879 of all the that that seem is a mess right now, 0:37:45.080 --> 0:37:48.600 it needs a total rebuild, and what coach worth their 0:37:48.640 --> 0:37:50.160 salt is going to go there when they just saw 0:37:50.160 --> 0:37:52.279 that McDaniels was just whacked after a year and a 0:37:52.320 --> 0:37:54.480 half to even get a chance to see anything through, 0:37:55.200 --> 0:37:57.520 the one guy that would get the fans excited again 0:37:57.560 --> 0:37:59.600 would be Grooded. I mean, I think the Raider Nations 0:37:59.640 --> 0:38:02.279 still Gruden, you know that, like that would be the 0:38:02.320 --> 0:38:05.920 one guy that would excite everyone. Sure, So to me 0:38:06.040 --> 0:38:09.719 right now it's just kind of a speculation, but I 0:38:09.760 --> 0:38:11.879 think there's a path there for Gruden to return, all. 0:38:11.840 --> 0:38:14.080 Right, So you know where you know, does you know 0:38:14.280 --> 0:38:16.319 whether or not Josh McDaniels does end up back this 0:38:16.360 --> 0:38:18.719 where if you take some time off, which certainly makes 0:38:18.719 --> 0:38:20.440 a lot of sense to me, at least at this 0:38:20.480 --> 0:38:22.560 stage of the game before he decides to jump back 0:38:22.600 --> 0:38:25.040 into something right away. Fact remains is is that the 0:38:25.040 --> 0:38:28.680 trading deadline came, it went New England did nothing. I 0:38:28.840 --> 0:38:30.959 was not surprised by that. I don't think you were either, 0:38:30.960 --> 0:38:31.239 were you? 0:38:32.480 --> 0:38:35.320 I don't know if I wasn't surprised that they didn't 0:38:35.560 --> 0:38:37.400 have a fire sale. I didn't expect them to trade 0:38:37.400 --> 0:38:39.719 everyone off. I mean, Bill Belichick wants to win games 0:38:39.760 --> 0:38:41.680 and keep his job this year, so he's not gonna 0:38:42.239 --> 0:38:44.799 just make the team worse and trade off guys for fourth. 0:38:44.520 --> 0:38:47.360 And fifth round pick. I thought, maybe, you know, a 0:38:47.440 --> 0:38:48.359 deal could have been made. 0:38:48.840 --> 0:38:51.600 Josh Ue Jay's name was certainly thrown around a lot 0:38:52.280 --> 0:38:54.320 at the end of the day, though, I think Patriots 0:38:54.320 --> 0:38:56.520 fans should be glad that they didn't have a fire sale, 0:38:56.719 --> 0:38:59.680 because the reason a big reason this team is in 0:38:59.680 --> 0:39:03.240 the pretty it's in is because they haven't been retaining 0:39:03.280 --> 0:39:07.080 their own players. They have been drafting and developing some 0:39:07.120 --> 0:39:09.680 good players, and then they let them all get paid 0:39:09.680 --> 0:39:12.680 by other teams, whether it's Joe Toney or Chandler Jones 0:39:12.920 --> 0:39:18.319 or Logan, Ryan J. C. Jackson, Jacoby Myers. The list 0:39:18.360 --> 0:39:21.400 over the last eight or nine years is very lengthy, 0:39:21.480 --> 0:39:24.680 and the Patriots need to start operating like the other 0:39:24.760 --> 0:39:27.160 thirty one teams. You need to spend money on your 0:39:27.160 --> 0:39:30.600 own players and retain your own talent. Especially the NFL, 0:39:30.680 --> 0:39:34.640 they have spending minimum, and free agency is like a wasteland. 0:39:34.680 --> 0:39:37.400 Now we're seeing it this year. It's all B level 0:39:37.400 --> 0:39:39.919 free agents. It's guys that teams don't want any more. 0:39:41.320 --> 0:39:43.520 You're you know, it's hard to really build a team 0:39:43.560 --> 0:39:45.920 through free agency. You could find an impact guy here 0:39:46.000 --> 0:39:47.839 or there, but you don't want to have to rely 0:39:47.960 --> 0:39:49.680 on free agency to build your team. 0:39:49.840 --> 0:39:50.640 And to spend money. 0:39:50.640 --> 0:39:52.759 You got to spend on your own players, your own 0:39:52.840 --> 0:39:55.880 star players. So guys like Kyle Dugger, Mike and Wnu 0:39:56.040 --> 0:39:58.920 Josh Bucha, they need to retain these guys. They need 0:39:58.960 --> 0:40:01.200 to spend money. And yeah, they might have to overspend 0:40:01.239 --> 0:40:03.920 a little bit for Kyle Dugger, but he's a playmaker. 0:40:04.040 --> 0:40:07.600 He's a guy that you've developed and part of your 0:40:07.640 --> 0:40:10.440 culture now, and you need to retain guys like that. 0:40:10.520 --> 0:40:11.839 So I'm I. 0:40:11.800 --> 0:40:15.520 Think Patriots fans should be hopeful that you know, yesterday's 0:40:16.320 --> 0:40:18.799 trade deadline inactivity, the fact that they didn't do a 0:40:18.800 --> 0:40:21.480 fire sale is at least a sign that the Patriots 0:40:21.480 --> 0:40:23.480 are going to try to start retaining their own players 0:40:23.520 --> 0:40:25.120 because they've let way too much. 0:40:24.960 --> 0:40:25.520 Talent go up. 0:40:26.040 --> 0:40:28.560 But are they retaining at least in this particular instance, 0:40:28.600 --> 0:40:30.640 I think it's a fair question to ask, are they 0:40:30.719 --> 0:40:33.359 retaining the right players? If they retain them, are they 0:40:33.400 --> 0:40:36.319 retaining the right ones? You can make a case already that, 0:40:36.360 --> 0:40:38.600 you know, the the biggest player they probably should have retained, 0:40:38.600 --> 0:40:39.920 they let go a guy named Brady. 0:40:39.960 --> 0:40:42.600 I think, well, yeah. 0:40:42.440 --> 0:40:44.760 I mean yes, I do think they should have found 0:40:44.760 --> 0:40:47.400 a way to let Brady retire as a Patriots, especially 0:40:47.440 --> 0:40:50.560 after they got rid of Jimmy Garoppolo and let Brady. 0:40:50.320 --> 0:40:51.080 Kind of win that. 0:40:52.920 --> 0:40:55.040 Look, you know, we can sit here and pick apart 0:40:55.080 --> 0:40:57.480 these guys and focus on their negatives. Kyle dugger isn't 0:40:57.520 --> 0:41:00.239 great playing in fake you know, Mike and WNU hasn't 0:41:00.239 --> 0:41:02.279 been able to consistently stay in the lineup. But it's 0:41:02.280 --> 0:41:05.400 also good to focus on their positives. Kyle Duggart is 0:41:05.440 --> 0:41:10.080 a playmaker, the guy interception sacks, touchdowns, always around the ball, 0:41:10.200 --> 0:41:12.920 hard hit. Mike went who a versatile alignman who could 0:41:12.920 --> 0:41:16.160 play multiple positions. You need leaders in the locker room. 0:41:16.200 --> 0:41:18.400 You need to show the players that their efforts are 0:41:18.400 --> 0:41:21.320 going to be rewarded by the Patriots, not by another 0:41:21.400 --> 0:41:24.799 team if they play well and if they develop, and 0:41:25.360 --> 0:41:27.840 I mean obviously it all comes down to, you know, 0:41:27.840 --> 0:41:31.000 whether you find the quarterback and get the offense right. So, yeah, 0:41:31.080 --> 0:41:33.759 retaining Kyle Duggart in of itself isn't going to lead 0:41:33.760 --> 0:41:36.319 to wins. But you need to start keeping your own 0:41:36.400 --> 0:41:38.879 talented players. And you need to have veterans who are 0:41:38.880 --> 0:41:42.160 invested in the team and the culture and the Patriots 0:41:42.239 --> 0:41:45.040 right now, because they were built mostly through free agency, 0:41:45.080 --> 0:41:47.640 it's just like a bunch of mercenaries and it's not 0:41:47.680 --> 0:41:50.640 a very talented team and guys who aren't that invested 0:41:50.680 --> 0:41:52.000 in the Patriots program. 0:41:52.239 --> 0:41:53.839 And the quickest way I know to turn a guy 0:41:53.880 --> 0:41:56.600 from mercenary to one of your own is to sign 0:41:56.680 --> 0:41:59.959 them to another deal. Makes sense, right, Yeah, Like Hunter 0:42:00.080 --> 0:42:03.120 Henry you know, started his career as a charger, but 0:42:03.160 --> 0:42:04.840 he's been here now for three years. 0:42:05.120 --> 0:42:07.759 He'll be twenty nine next year. You know, is he 0:42:07.800 --> 0:42:09.799 going to be an All Pro tight end? Probably not, 0:42:09.920 --> 0:42:13.000 but he's a reliable player. Whoever is the quarterback, whether 0:42:13.040 --> 0:42:15.120 if Max Jones or someone else. They're gonna need a 0:42:15.200 --> 0:42:17.680 veteran tight end who knows how to get open. If 0:42:17.680 --> 0:42:19.960 the Patriots draft the guy in the first or second round, 0:42:20.000 --> 0:42:22.320 they're still gonna need Hunter Henry to show them away 0:42:22.400 --> 0:42:24.520 and take the pressure off them right away. So you 0:42:24.520 --> 0:42:26.880 still need to bring back the veterans. You can't just 0:42:26.960 --> 0:42:29.759 tear the team down to the stud You can be 0:42:29.960 --> 0:42:33.319 competitive while you're rebuilding. So, you know, I don't think 0:42:33.360 --> 0:42:36.400 the Patriots necessarily need to bring everyone back that. You know, 0:42:36.440 --> 0:42:38.879 the guy I wouldn't I'd be okay with would maybe 0:42:38.920 --> 0:42:41.000 be Josh Uch, who I think is a pass rusher, 0:42:41.080 --> 0:42:44.000 is probably gonna get a huge contract that I don't 0:42:44.040 --> 0:42:46.799 know if it's gonna match what kind of player he is. 0:42:46.960 --> 0:42:50.520 He's down with you, Miles Bryant. 0:42:50.160 --> 0:42:52.800 Hunter Henry bring these guys back and help build culture 0:42:52.880 --> 0:42:55.640 instead of just constantly flushing the roster every fre year. 0:42:55.760 --> 0:42:57.560 But the same time and again, I'll just play devil's 0:42:57.560 --> 0:43:01.040 advocate here. You know, if these guys are not performing 0:43:01.200 --> 0:43:04.120 on the field for whatever reason, and whenever they have 0:43:04.200 --> 0:43:06.920 the opportunity, what's the point in bringing back to somebody 0:43:06.920 --> 0:43:09.360 who's not going to contribute to re establishing your culture. 0:43:10.560 --> 0:43:13.280 Well, I would argue the guys that I'm talking about 0:43:13.280 --> 0:43:16.600 are I mean, Hunter Henry his production is directly tied 0:43:16.600 --> 0:43:20.120 to the quarterback, and I personally don't think mac Jones 0:43:20.360 --> 0:43:21.320 is the right quarterback. 0:43:21.520 --> 0:43:21.680 You know. 0:43:21.719 --> 0:43:24.040 As for Kyle Zugar, I mean he's playing well. He 0:43:24.120 --> 0:43:26.960 had a stacked the other day and an interception, and 0:43:27.040 --> 0:43:29.520 Mike and Wentu is solidifying the offensive line. 0:43:29.280 --> 0:43:30.360 Now at right sackle. 0:43:30.640 --> 0:43:33.440 These are quality young players who will get signed in 0:43:33.480 --> 0:43:36.920 free agency immediately if the Patriots let them go. They 0:43:36.960 --> 0:43:39.680 are not perfect, you know, they're not necessarily going to 0:43:39.680 --> 0:43:42.080 put the Patriots over the top. But these guys are 0:43:42.520 --> 0:43:45.600 good quality young players and that's who the Patriots need 0:43:45.640 --> 0:43:46.320 to start retaining. 0:43:46.520 --> 0:43:50.919 Yeah, and I guess then in order to be able 0:43:50.960 --> 0:43:53.600 to make that decision, now is the time that these guys, 0:43:53.880 --> 0:43:55.520 if they're able to play, they need to be out 0:43:55.520 --> 0:43:58.200 there playing so these decisions can be made. And that's 0:43:58.239 --> 0:43:59.839 kind of how we open the show today. I mean, 0:44:00.120 --> 0:44:01.759 you say, oh, there's nothing to play for. This team 0:44:01.800 --> 0:44:03.920 is two and six. You're not going anywhere, well maybe 0:44:03.920 --> 0:44:06.480 not to the playoffs, but you're still looking at a 0:44:06.520 --> 0:44:10.160 significant amount of growth that this organization needs to do, 0:44:10.320 --> 0:44:12.520 which starts with some of these players and trying to 0:44:12.520 --> 0:44:14.960 make this decision on whether or not so and so 0:44:15.080 --> 0:44:18.040 needs to return or so and so needs to move on, 0:44:18.360 --> 0:44:20.680 And that process does have to start now, doesn't it. 0:44:21.719 --> 0:44:21.919 Yeah. 0:44:21.920 --> 0:44:23.680 I hate to say it, but the Patriots are getting 0:44:23.680 --> 0:44:26.200 to a point where the players they need to be 0:44:26.239 --> 0:44:28.719 in it for themselves. It's not necessarily for the team 0:44:28.760 --> 0:44:32.160 anymore to ensure that, you know, you have a roster 0:44:32.200 --> 0:44:35.120 spot next year, whether it's with the Patriots or someone else. 0:44:35.160 --> 0:44:38.400 I mean, the camera is always rolling that there's always 0:44:38.520 --> 0:44:40.359 film that's going to be dissected, so you never want 0:44:40.400 --> 0:44:43.200 to put bad film out there. But at the same time, 0:44:43.400 --> 0:44:46.600 I think the players now just have to make sure 0:44:46.640 --> 0:44:49.040 they look out for themselves. And you might see a 0:44:49.320 --> 0:44:52.040 look Kyle Dugger where he's at his career. In his 0:44:52.080 --> 0:44:55.120 fourth year, he's pretty much cemented what type of player 0:44:55.120 --> 0:44:56.680 he is, whether he plays the rest of the year 0:44:57.120 --> 0:45:00.239 or not. And so I'm not I don't want to 0:45:00.960 --> 0:45:02.879 accuse him of anything, but like a guy like that 0:45:02.920 --> 0:45:05.759 doesn't necessarily need to play every last snap. Now, you know, 0:45:05.840 --> 0:45:08.799 going into free agency, he might want to take some 0:45:08.880 --> 0:45:11.480 snaps off. So those are the types of things that 0:45:11.520 --> 0:45:13.200 the Patriots are gonna have to battle here in. 0:45:13.160 --> 0:45:14.080 The second half season. 0:45:14.280 --> 0:45:16.000 What are you then? What are your thoughts? Then quickly 0:45:16.040 --> 0:45:20.279 on on the Commander's game this weekend and what this 0:45:20.400 --> 0:45:23.440 might mean in the bigger picture especially. I mean, I 0:45:23.719 --> 0:45:25.760 hate to put anything in a must win or whatever 0:45:25.840 --> 0:45:28.319 situation like that, because everybody thinks about that in terms 0:45:28.360 --> 0:45:30.360 of the next game, the next week and the next opportunity. 0:45:30.800 --> 0:45:33.080 I think we kind of that time is kind of 0:45:33.120 --> 0:45:36.200 come and gone. What's at stake this weekend? 0:45:37.320 --> 0:45:41.719 Well, I yea, the playoffs are probably a long gone 0:45:41.760 --> 0:45:43.120 at this point, so it's not like a must win 0:45:43.200 --> 0:45:46.279 in that situation. Honestly, I think Belichick meets the win 0:45:46.360 --> 0:45:48.000 in the worst way. If he loses that home to 0:45:48.040 --> 0:45:52.200 the Commanders, Oh boy, is that hot seat talk gonna increase? 0:45:52.719 --> 0:45:54.120 They go to Germany and then they have a. 0:45:54.040 --> 0:45:54.960 Bye week after that. 0:45:55.080 --> 0:45:58.000 I mean, who knows, who knows what could happen. I 0:45:58.040 --> 0:46:00.879 wouldn't put anything past the Craft if they come home 0:46:00.880 --> 0:46:02.120 from that Germany trip. 0:46:01.880 --> 0:46:02.440 At two an eight. 0:46:02.520 --> 0:46:05.520 Who knows what would happen? So I think Belichick, you know, 0:46:05.560 --> 0:46:08.640 you got a bad, reeling Commander's team coming into town. 0:46:08.680 --> 0:46:12.040 That just traded away two of its star players, guys 0:46:12.080 --> 0:46:13.799 who were popular in the locker room. You saw some 0:46:13.840 --> 0:46:17.080 players kind of speak out on social media the other day. 0:46:17.120 --> 0:46:19.239 So the Patriots are I think fortunate. They're playing a 0:46:19.280 --> 0:46:23.440 team that even more scarred emotionally than they are, and 0:46:23.480 --> 0:46:27.600 the team that might be trying less on Sunday. You 0:46:27.640 --> 0:46:31.520 know Evan mentioned before Sam Howell and the stacks. Honestly, 0:46:31.560 --> 0:46:34.239 I think that's going to be the key. Belichick's gonna 0:46:34.239 --> 0:46:36.280 scheme up some stunts. They're going to get some pressures. 0:46:36.360 --> 0:46:38.520 I thought the Patriots defense played a lot better against 0:46:38.520 --> 0:46:41.120 the Dolphins, despite the score and some of the staffs. 0:46:41.120 --> 0:46:43.200 I thought they fought really hard and it made plays. 0:46:43.200 --> 0:46:46.400 If there was any sort of offensive production, the defense 0:46:46.600 --> 0:46:48.800 I think would have looked a lot better. So coming 0:46:48.800 --> 0:46:51.080 off that Bills game, and then I think they did 0:46:51.080 --> 0:46:53.160 play better last week. So I think the defense is 0:46:53.200 --> 0:46:56.800 going to make Sam Howell's life very difficult on Sunday, 0:46:57.200 --> 0:46:59.600 and so I expect the Patriots kind of to be 0:47:00.160 --> 0:47:03.400 a classic Patriots win in the sense of the defense 0:47:03.520 --> 0:47:07.200 creates the turnovers, gets towards the points, puts mac Jones 0:47:07.400 --> 0:47:10.360 in a good situation. So I am expecting a Patriots 0:47:10.360 --> 0:47:13.000 win this Sunday, and it might just cool things off 0:47:13.000 --> 0:47:14.920 around here for a little bit as they had Germany. 0:47:15.280 --> 0:47:19.080 Give them some positive vibes heading into that trip. If not, 0:47:19.160 --> 0:47:21.000 if they do lose at home, to the commanders, man, 0:47:21.040 --> 0:47:23.160 it's going to get ugly around here really quickly. 0:47:23.360 --> 0:47:25.560 Ben, thanks so much for the time today. Appreciate the 0:47:25.640 --> 0:47:27.799 chance to talk to you. All right, thank you, you 0:47:27.840 --> 0:47:31.080 got it, Ben Volan at ben Volan v O l 0:47:31.160 --> 0:47:33.719 I in on X. All right, let's talk about the 0:47:33.760 --> 0:47:37.000 team that might be just as wounded emotionally, if not physically, 0:47:37.880 --> 0:47:39.840 as the Patriots are, and that would be the commander. 0:47:39.920 --> 0:47:44.000 Ben Standing covers Washington for the Athletic the Athletic dot 0:47:44.040 --> 0:47:47.760 com and Ben Joyce is here inside the Patriots playbook. 0:47:47.960 --> 0:47:51.000 I'm curious, Ben, if you heard Ben Vollen's comments here. 0:47:51.040 --> 0:47:53.440 It's an all Ben day. I guess here inside the playbook. 0:47:53.920 --> 0:47:55.640 You know, was that your job, Matt? Did you do 0:47:55.680 --> 0:47:58.480 that on purpose? Not plan that well? It worked out well? 0:47:58.480 --> 0:48:00.840 It worked out well? Is he accurate and saying that, 0:48:01.000 --> 0:48:04.080 you know, maybe this Washington team is just as wounded, 0:48:04.120 --> 0:48:06.359 if not, you know, a little bit more so psychologically 0:48:06.440 --> 0:48:07.920 than the Patriots are. At this stage. 0:48:10.320 --> 0:48:11.200 It's interesting a lot. 0:48:11.320 --> 0:48:14.359 I just heard him say that Bill Bill Bellichick could 0:48:14.360 --> 0:48:15.840 be on the hot seat if they lose to this 0:48:15.960 --> 0:48:19.000 commander's team, and that's that. That says something about where 0:48:19.000 --> 0:48:21.080 the commanders are at, and that's somenning that that's where 0:48:21.080 --> 0:48:22.280 Bill Belichick. 0:48:21.880 --> 0:48:22.279 Might be at. 0:48:22.360 --> 0:48:26.560 But yeah, it's a big question, right. Obviously, they've lost 0:48:26.560 --> 0:48:28.759 five or six games. Some of those losses have been 0:48:28.800 --> 0:48:30.920 really embarrassing to some of the worst teams in the league. 0:48:32.040 --> 0:48:34.440 And now you just trade it away two of your 0:48:34.480 --> 0:48:38.960 better players in Montese Wett and Chase Young, and it's 0:48:39.040 --> 0:48:41.840 natural to think some of the players could be like, 0:48:41.880 --> 0:48:43.520 oh man, where is the season going? 0:48:43.680 --> 0:48:43.879 Right? 0:48:44.440 --> 0:48:46.520 And we saw some of that reaction on social media 0:48:47.280 --> 0:48:51.080 after the trade. I don't know, though, if I expect 0:48:51.080 --> 0:48:52.920 to see that. I think I think Ron Rivera has 0:48:52.920 --> 0:48:56.800 done a largely good job at keeping these guys focused 0:48:56.840 --> 0:49:00.360 on the task at hand. The last law they just 0:49:00.400 --> 0:49:03.840 had against Philadelphia thirty eight to thirty one. You know, 0:49:03.880 --> 0:49:06.840 the offense in particular had a pretty good game, and 0:49:06.880 --> 0:49:09.600 I think they competed in battle with all that fun stuff. 0:49:10.400 --> 0:49:12.320 They've had a lot of issues on defense already, so 0:49:12.360 --> 0:49:14.480 I can't say that's going to get cleaned up that 0:49:14.520 --> 0:49:16.759 they've traded away sweat and young. On the other hand, 0:49:17.560 --> 0:49:19.680 historically over the last two or three years, the team 0:49:19.719 --> 0:49:23.480 has actually been more disciplined and in some statistics better 0:49:24.200 --> 0:49:27.680 when some of the reserves have come in because those 0:49:31.800 --> 0:49:34.319 because those guys are more disciplined. I guess you could say, 0:49:34.320 --> 0:49:36.640 like they kind of you're the less defensive ends, your 0:49:36.760 --> 0:49:40.120 role is this, and they stick to that. Before when 0:49:40.120 --> 0:49:42.640 they have four guys who are Pro Bowl level players, 0:49:43.280 --> 0:49:45.640 everybody kind of is trying to get their own even 0:49:45.640 --> 0:49:48.200 if they're working together. I think that's where things get 0:49:48.239 --> 0:49:51.759 out of whack. So they actually could be fundamentally a 0:49:51.760 --> 0:49:53.759 more stable group. And then you know a lot of 0:49:53.800 --> 0:49:55.720 it's going to come down to Sam Howe, right, obviously 0:49:55.800 --> 0:49:58.400 a young quarterback, still learning, but he's had some good games. 0:49:58.520 --> 0:50:00.279 His best game of the year is probably the pass 0:50:00.320 --> 0:50:03.440 one against the Eagles. So I totally get that this 0:50:03.480 --> 0:50:06.160 team could come out flat and be disinterested, But I 0:50:06.400 --> 0:50:08.480 don't know if I expect that, So I think that 0:50:08.520 --> 0:50:09.759 will be interesting to see for sure. 0:50:10.040 --> 0:50:11.680 I wanted to I wanted to ask you. I'll ask 0:50:11.680 --> 0:50:13.799 you about Sam Hall in a second. But when the 0:50:13.800 --> 0:50:18.480 trades were made, you know, on Tuesday and Montes sweat 0:50:19.239 --> 0:50:21.640 I and you wrote a piece in the Athletic about 0:50:21.640 --> 0:50:24.080 this that you know, the commanders, I guess, largely wanted 0:50:24.120 --> 0:50:26.920 to keep him if they could. Why do you think 0:50:26.960 --> 0:50:32.760 they ultimately decided to deal him and young both, especially 0:50:32.800 --> 0:50:35.080 considering I mean, mathematically they've got more of a shot 0:50:35.080 --> 0:50:37.240 certainly than New England does. And I realized they operate 0:50:37.280 --> 0:50:40.600 in different universes. But I just found one of them maybe, 0:50:40.640 --> 0:50:43.480 but both of them. I found that a bit curious. 0:50:43.719 --> 0:50:47.480 Yeah, I think it was. I think that wasn't the expectation. 0:50:48.040 --> 0:50:51.160 But the more we, you know, feel the layers of 0:50:51.200 --> 0:50:52.839 the onion, it kind of makes a little more sense 0:50:53.440 --> 0:50:56.520 in this regard. They opened the door to the league 0:50:56.600 --> 0:50:58.640 to say, hey, we're open to trading these guys. I 0:50:58.640 --> 0:51:00.719 think one thing that we're realize here is all the 0:51:00.760 --> 0:51:03.839 Patriots have had the same ownership forever and been very 0:51:03.840 --> 0:51:06.920 successful owner. Obviously the commander has just told they're right, 0:51:06.920 --> 0:51:09.360 said Josh Harris, taking over for Dan Snyder, and he 0:51:09.480 --> 0:51:12.880 only got the team literally the day before training camp started, 0:51:13.120 --> 0:51:16.600 So there has been no impact from ownership on the situation. 0:51:16.719 --> 0:51:18.960 And I'm not saying he heavy handed round Rivera and 0:51:19.000 --> 0:51:21.040 said you've got to do this. But I do think 0:51:21.120 --> 0:51:24.719 with a new owner, the future is now at least 0:51:24.719 --> 0:51:27.480 writing Shotgune to the present, which was not been the 0:51:27.480 --> 0:51:30.080 case though its typically they've been short sighted, I would say, 0:51:30.080 --> 0:51:32.760 with a lot of their moves, even pre dating Rivera. 0:51:33.280 --> 0:51:36.400 So this was a more forward thinking move that realistically, 0:51:36.600 --> 0:51:38.759 yeah we're only three and five, Yeah we're only one 0:51:38.800 --> 0:51:41.000 game out of the wild Card, but realistically we've seen 0:51:41.040 --> 0:51:42.320 too much to think that this is going to be 0:51:42.360 --> 0:51:44.920 a complete turnaround. I don't think they think they've bailed 0:51:44.960 --> 0:51:47.319 on the season because, as I said, they've got some 0:51:47.400 --> 0:51:49.239 guys at defensive ends we will now step in who 0:51:49.400 --> 0:51:52.440 played James Smith, Williams, Casey two Hill Fa Albata. Not 0:51:52.480 --> 0:51:54.560 saying they're pro bowlards, but they've played, they've been solid, 0:51:55.600 --> 0:51:58.560 So I think from that perspective, they're looking at it 0:51:58.600 --> 0:52:02.840 like we can still move forward here. And apologies, I 0:52:02.880 --> 0:52:04.960 just blank on what you were No. 0:52:04.800 --> 0:52:07.880 No, no, it's understood. I would just if you were 0:52:07.960 --> 0:52:10.239 largely surprised, and let me give you a little bit 0:52:10.280 --> 0:52:13.200 different context on it. Because of the fact that Ron 0:52:13.280 --> 0:52:17.040 Rivera might need players of that caliber to help win games, 0:52:17.040 --> 0:52:19.160 which might help him keep his job in the first place. 0:52:19.760 --> 0:52:22.080 Sure, so I think ultimately they really wanted to keep 0:52:22.080 --> 0:52:25.920 monteste Wet. I think he's been much more reliable than 0:52:26.000 --> 0:52:29.360 Chase hung, more durable, more productive. Maybe he doesn't have 0:52:29.400 --> 0:52:31.680 the same upside, but he's been good that he's could 0:52:31.719 --> 0:52:33.160 in the locker room, all those things, So I think 0:52:33.200 --> 0:52:35.680 they wanted to keep him. But when they opened the 0:52:35.719 --> 0:52:38.520 door to trade possibilities and the Chicago Bears said, hey, 0:52:38.719 --> 0:52:40.799 will give you our second round pick, which as it 0:52:40.880 --> 0:52:43.600 stands today would be like the third pick in the 0:52:43.640 --> 0:52:46.600 second round. And I don't think anybody's projecting the Bears 0:52:46.640 --> 0:52:49.200 to go on some big run here, right, So it's 0:52:49.239 --> 0:52:52.239 probably gonna be a pretty good pick. And Chase, Sorry, 0:52:52.280 --> 0:52:55.719 montest Wet a free agent after this year. I'm not 0:52:55.719 --> 0:52:58.360 saying would be impossible to get an extension, but you know, 0:52:58.480 --> 0:53:01.200 I don't know who knows for sure. And if you 0:53:01.280 --> 0:53:04.120 wait the year and let him go for compensatory pick one, 0:53:04.160 --> 0:53:06.200 you may not even get that compensatory pick for a 0:53:06.239 --> 0:53:08.880 variety of reasons, and two, you wouldn't even get it 0:53:08.960 --> 0:53:12.440 until twenty twenty five. So I think that all the 0:53:12.440 --> 0:53:14.359 circumstances has led to them saying this is too good 0:53:14.360 --> 0:53:17.000 of an offer to pass on. But then why then 0:53:17.239 --> 0:53:20.440 trade Chase Young. I think the perception outside of this 0:53:20.520 --> 0:53:23.600 area has Chase Young is probably the more interesting player, 0:53:23.640 --> 0:53:26.040 the more dynamic player, the one you would keep. I 0:53:26.080 --> 0:53:28.520 don't think that's the view of a lot of people here. 0:53:28.560 --> 0:53:31.040 It's not to say that Chase Young is bad or 0:53:31.080 --> 0:53:34.719 can't reach his potential. It's to say, it's been four years, 0:53:34.520 --> 0:53:36.920 there's injury concerns, you have a significant the injury in 0:53:36.960 --> 0:53:42.440 twenty twenty one, there's sort of improvement concerns. He's one 0:53:42.480 --> 0:53:45.200 of those guys that I would say has one at 0:53:45.239 --> 0:53:47.960 every level He's been at largely based on his natural 0:53:48.000 --> 0:53:51.920 abilities and athleticism and has not always maybe work to 0:53:52.000 --> 0:53:55.319 refine his pastor our skills, or do everything a pro 0:53:55.400 --> 0:53:57.719 needs to do to be at the next level. So 0:53:57.760 --> 0:54:00.279 I think they were rather than saying, hey, we're going 0:54:00.320 --> 0:54:02.640 to tag this guy for a twenty one million or 0:54:02.640 --> 0:54:04.879 payment extension, I don't think we've seen enough to want 0:54:04.880 --> 0:54:07.000 to give that. So if you're going to trade one, 0:54:07.400 --> 0:54:09.279 you know, let's just you know we're already we let's 0:54:09.280 --> 0:54:11.120 just dive into the pool kind of deal. So I 0:54:11.120 --> 0:54:12.799 think that's why if it had been reversed, if they 0:54:12.880 --> 0:54:15.799 traded Young, maybe they don't trade sweat. But once the 0:54:15.840 --> 0:54:18.200 offerer Sweat came in, I think the inside it we just. 0:54:18.040 --> 0:54:18.960 Just too good to pass. 0:54:19.400 --> 0:54:21.319 So they just decided, Hey, if we're as long as 0:54:21.360 --> 0:54:23.279 we're sort of going to build mode here, let's see 0:54:23.320 --> 0:54:25.840 we can get you know, maximum return I guess on 0:54:25.880 --> 0:54:26.480 the investment. 0:54:27.200 --> 0:54:27.439 Yeah. 0:54:27.920 --> 0:54:31.040 So, and here's the other thing. Let's just say case 0:54:31.080 --> 0:54:33.279 Young and Montester to what we're gone some time ago 0:54:33.320 --> 0:54:35.160 and we're doing like the season preview of this team. 0:54:35.520 --> 0:54:37.719 You have two defensive tackles that were in the Pro 0:54:37.760 --> 0:54:40.080 Bowl last year, I mean Jonathan Allen. As they're on 0:54:40.120 --> 0:54:43.920 pain on the line, they're not deficient from a talent standpoint, 0:54:44.000 --> 0:54:46.560 and the guys that they can still in you know, again, 0:54:46.600 --> 0:54:48.480 I'm not saying that they're Pro Bowls, but they they've 0:54:48.520 --> 0:54:50.799 shown the ability to play like Okay, this is this 0:54:50.960 --> 0:54:54.080 as a minor example of James Smith Williams who's been 0:54:54.080 --> 0:54:56.520 here since twenty twenty as a seventh round pick in 0:54:56.600 --> 0:54:58.360 games and I looked this up today, in games in 0:54:58.360 --> 0:55:00.680 which he's played at least forty five percent of the snaps, 0:55:01.080 --> 0:55:03.400 this team is thirteen to five and one. Now, I 0:55:03.400 --> 0:55:05.640 don't know what was happening in the game, but I 0:55:05.640 --> 0:55:08.360 could promise you their winning percentage is not even close 0:55:08.400 --> 0:55:09.320 to thirteen five. 0:55:09.120 --> 0:55:11.120 And one over the last four years. 0:55:11.360 --> 0:55:14.319 So these guys can you know, they're not going to 0:55:14.320 --> 0:55:16.759 get put up flashy numbers, but they do their job 0:55:16.800 --> 0:55:19.200 and that's going to allow Allan and Pain to do 0:55:19.400 --> 0:55:22.560 their jobs at a higher level. That's the thinking at least. 0:55:22.640 --> 0:55:24.880 Yeah, And that's certainly, as we mentioned a little bit 0:55:24.880 --> 0:55:27.319 earlier in the show, that that rally actually plays right 0:55:27.360 --> 0:55:29.360 into a patriot weakness, is going up the middle with 0:55:29.400 --> 0:55:31.640 the rush on guy like Mac Jones with guys like 0:55:31.680 --> 0:55:33.879 you know, Pain and Allen. So I got to ask 0:55:33.880 --> 0:55:36.600 the obvious, then, why is this team three and five 0:55:36.960 --> 0:55:39.400 with so much talent that it had at its disposal? 0:55:39.719 --> 0:55:43.360 Is it being misused? Is did that hurt? Where are you? 0:55:43.360 --> 0:55:44.719 What are being able to put your finger on? 0:55:46.320 --> 0:55:49.080 Well, you know, there's always so much going on here, 0:55:49.120 --> 0:55:51.680 and even though they've gotten rid of Dan Snyder, you know, 0:55:51.719 --> 0:55:54.120 there's still some stink from that era in terms of 0:55:54.280 --> 0:55:56.440 you know, what's transpired over the last few years and 0:55:56.600 --> 0:55:59.600 just even the football side of things and putting everything together. 0:56:00.200 --> 0:56:02.560 I think there has been some questions about coaching. 0:56:02.560 --> 0:56:03.200 I think that's fair. 0:56:03.239 --> 0:56:05.560 I think there's questions about the front office. This has 0:56:05.600 --> 0:56:08.879 been honestly a really disaster of an offseason for them. 0:56:08.960 --> 0:56:12.800 The draft class, almost nobody is contributing in any positive 0:56:12.800 --> 0:56:16.160 way or playing at all. The free agency they didn't 0:56:16.160 --> 0:56:17.799 do a ton in free agency this year, but the 0:56:17.800 --> 0:56:21.040 players that they did sign two deals. One was it 0:56:21.160 --> 0:56:24.439 center Nick Gates, he just got bench last week. Right 0:56:24.480 --> 0:56:26.719 tackle Andrew Wiley, who was with Eric the Enemy in 0:56:26.760 --> 0:56:30.040 Kansas City, has had a has had struggles for sure. 0:56:30.440 --> 0:56:34.840 So they've just gotten nothing out of their out of 0:56:34.840 --> 0:56:37.680 the new pieces that they added. And frankly, if you 0:56:37.680 --> 0:56:39.320 had told me before the year that they would struggle, 0:56:39.320 --> 0:56:42.920 I would assume that Sam Howe does you know, didn't 0:56:42.960 --> 0:56:45.480 have it rough start or whatever. He's keeping pretty solid. 0:56:45.520 --> 0:56:47.479 He's coming off his best game of the year, four 0:56:47.520 --> 0:56:51.120 touchdown passes against the Eagles. You know, he's stilly up 0:56:51.160 --> 0:56:52.960 and downs as a young quarterback, but he's actually been 0:56:53.000 --> 0:56:55.759 pretty good. But they've just not had you know, the 0:56:55.800 --> 0:56:59.120 defense has just been a mess. And you know, like 0:56:59.160 --> 0:57:02.040 I said, I think part of them with the defense 0:57:02.160 --> 0:57:05.480 is like you had. It's like season NBA analogy. You 0:57:05.560 --> 0:57:07.799 have like four guys who all wanted the ball and 0:57:07.840 --> 0:57:10.279 all wanted to Scots twenty points a game. You have 0:57:10.320 --> 0:57:12.280 to have somebody who's going to be set the picks 0:57:12.560 --> 0:57:14.560 right and taking charge of sure things like that, and 0:57:14.600 --> 0:57:17.320 they didn't have that. And that's why I think they're 0:57:17.400 --> 0:57:20.520 hopeful that maybe having two role players as a work 0:57:20.840 --> 0:57:23.960 with their two stars as the tackles helps them out more. 0:57:24.000 --> 0:57:27.720 But yeah, it's been a mess across the board, the defense, 0:57:27.840 --> 0:57:31.600 the pass protection, Sam Housman taxed forty one times already. 0:57:31.640 --> 0:57:34.120 It's been rough though. Yeah, there's a lot of a 0:57:34.200 --> 0:57:36.400 lot of ways to look at Wyse. Thing hasn't worked 0:57:36.400 --> 0:57:36.960 out so fart. 0:57:37.080 --> 0:57:39.160 Yeah, Al Howell is the one that I obviously wanted 0:57:39.160 --> 0:57:41.400 to wanted to get to next. As long as everybody's 0:57:41.440 --> 0:57:43.480 jumping on him, might as well jump on his backside 0:57:43.480 --> 0:57:47.040 as well. Forty one sacks is extraordinary. It's what thirteen 0:57:47.040 --> 0:57:49.360 more than the next closest team, And I'm just wondering 0:57:49.680 --> 0:57:52.480 how he's held up, you know, how he speaks about that, 0:57:53.000 --> 0:57:57.840 how Ron Rivera deals with that. I mean, it's amazing. 0:57:57.840 --> 0:57:59.920 To me, the guy's even standing up right at this 0:58:00.040 --> 0:58:00.720 stage of the game. 0:58:01.640 --> 0:58:03.640 Yeah, it's forty one sacks and they only had one 0:58:03.720 --> 0:58:04.760 last week, so. 0:58:04.800 --> 0:58:05.720 It was really bad. 0:58:05.920 --> 0:58:06.120 Wow. 0:58:07.400 --> 0:58:11.520 Prior to that, part of the sax is because he's 0:58:11.560 --> 0:58:13.360 been holding the ball a bit too long for from 0:58:13.480 --> 0:58:15.160 scan for the receivers. But he was a lot better 0:58:15.200 --> 0:58:17.640 this past week, frankly, and maybe that was also part 0:58:17.920 --> 0:58:20.600 to the play calling from Eric. The enemy called for 0:58:20.680 --> 0:58:22.760 a lot of quick throws, a lot of quick decisions 0:58:22.840 --> 0:58:24.440 had to be made, and he was and how was 0:58:24.440 --> 0:58:25.160 pretty good at that. 0:58:25.440 --> 0:58:26.760 Physically he seems okay, we. 0:58:26.720 --> 0:58:29.640 Haven't really seen you know, there hasn't been those moments 0:58:29.640 --> 0:58:31.200 where he's laying on the fields of going on though. 0:58:31.280 --> 0:58:32.200 Is he's going to get up? 0:58:32.840 --> 0:58:34.680 I'm sure he's hurting to a degree. But he's been 0:58:34.880 --> 0:58:36.320 you know, he's been pretty good. And you know he 0:58:36.400 --> 0:58:41.040 is he's a pretty gritty player. He doesn't have highs 0:58:41.040 --> 0:58:42.840 and lows. He really seems to be, you know, whether 0:58:42.840 --> 0:58:45.080 they're winning or losing. He seems to maintain a pretty good, 0:58:45.160 --> 0:58:48.800 even keel vibe and he and he's not afraid to 0:58:48.920 --> 0:58:51.479 throw the ball in places and you might think, oh boy, 0:58:51.640 --> 0:58:55.080 this is a really risky guts he throw, and he's 0:58:55.200 --> 0:58:57.800 not only attempted them, he's made some of them. If 0:58:57.800 --> 0:58:59.640 you go back and watch their game against the Denver 0:58:59.680 --> 0:59:02.040 and week too, he really makes them. 0:59:02.080 --> 0:59:03.880 Throwers are just like, wow, that could. 0:59:03.680 --> 0:59:06.360 Have been from the best quarterbacks in the league. He 0:59:06.480 --> 0:59:07.800 just has to learn, you know, as they all do, 0:59:07.960 --> 0:59:10.680 the various nuances of a position again, how to get rid 0:59:10.720 --> 0:59:13.000 of the ball quicker. So yeah, he's done pretty well. 0:59:13.040 --> 0:59:15.320 And also say last week they were they had two 0:59:15.360 --> 0:59:17.480 new starters on the offensive line, and that seemed to 0:59:17.480 --> 0:59:18.240 help them. 0:59:18.480 --> 0:59:19.560 In the middle of that line. 0:59:20.040 --> 0:59:25.800 What does Washington do particularly well and are those players 0:59:25.840 --> 0:59:26.800 still in Washington? 0:59:30.280 --> 0:59:31.520 The good question. 0:59:32.000 --> 0:59:33.920 I don't even know how to answer that at this point. 0:59:35.000 --> 0:59:37.200 Sorry, I'm mean mean to toss that one out at 0:59:37.240 --> 0:59:38.840 you like that, but I mean, to me, it was 0:59:38.920 --> 0:59:40.800 the it was the obvious. I'm like, well, you know, 0:59:40.840 --> 0:59:42.680 this team still seems to have some great pieces of 0:59:42.680 --> 0:59:45.080 the puzzle, but what the hell. And I'm sure that 0:59:45.080 --> 0:59:47.720 there are are commanders. Fans did feel the same way, 0:59:48.560 --> 0:59:49.120 Yeah for sure. 0:59:49.160 --> 0:59:50.480 I mean, like, if you look at the offense, like 0:59:50.560 --> 0:59:53.080 Terry McLaurin, you know he's not a top five receiver 0:59:53.160 --> 0:59:54.760 but he's one of the better ones in the league. 0:59:54.800 --> 0:59:58.120 He makes tough catches. But even that last week against 0:59:58.120 --> 1:00:00.439 the Eagles, he had two balls front at him. Maybe 1:00:00.440 --> 1:00:02.560 they weren't drops, but he didn't bring them in either, 1:00:02.600 --> 1:00:06.360 and that ended a drive that was That was odd. 1:00:06.440 --> 1:00:09.520 Johan Dobson, who had a great rookie year, has been 1:00:09.600 --> 1:00:13.280 much quieter this year. The previous weekends the Giants fourth 1:00:13.360 --> 1:00:15.840 down in the end zone, end of the game, again 1:00:16.040 --> 1:00:19.320 not necessarily the easiest opportunity, but a play he could 1:00:19.320 --> 1:00:21.800 make and didn't dropped it. But those guys are pretty, 1:00:21.840 --> 1:00:23.600 you know, pretty talented, and they have Curtis. 1:00:23.280 --> 1:00:24.000 Samuel as well. 1:00:24.680 --> 1:00:26.680 On defense, Like I said, with Alan and Payne, you 1:00:26.760 --> 1:00:29.200 have two of the better defensive tackles in the middle. 1:00:30.560 --> 1:00:32.520 So in theory they just be pretty good against the 1:00:32.560 --> 1:00:35.240 run and things like that. But collectively that just hasn't 1:00:35.280 --> 1:00:37.920 worked out. And you know, we thought the secondary was 1:00:37.920 --> 1:00:39.800 going to be his strength. You have some nice pieces 1:00:39.840 --> 1:00:42.320 can curl it. Safety. One of the better young safety 1:00:42.360 --> 1:00:44.200 is in the league. Kendall Fuller has been around a while. 1:00:44.200 --> 1:00:47.080 He's pretty good at corner. But they draft Emmanuel Forbes 1:00:47.080 --> 1:00:50.440 in their first round, not instead of taking Christen Gonzales 1:00:50.960 --> 1:00:54.040 the whole other story. But Forbes has been getting lit 1:00:54.120 --> 1:00:57.680 up and he's had to be pinched basically at times. 1:00:57.680 --> 1:01:01.720 So it played. Yeah, it's like they have the stuff, 1:01:01.800 --> 1:01:04.360 they just the stuff that hasn't been delivering to the 1:01:04.400 --> 1:01:05.520 degree when you say. 1:01:05.320 --> 1:01:06.080 What are they good at? 1:01:06.160 --> 1:01:08.560 I'm like, wow, what they should be good at or 1:01:08.600 --> 1:01:10.960 some of those things. Yeah, but it just hasn't quite happened. 1:01:11.080 --> 1:01:12.960 Yeah. Do you put that blame on the on the 1:01:13.000 --> 1:01:15.960 coaching staff and and Ron River in particular, for these 1:01:16.000 --> 1:01:19.320 guys not developing to the potential that I guess was 1:01:19.360 --> 1:01:21.320 originally believed to be possible. 1:01:22.600 --> 1:01:25.040 I mean, I think you have to some degree, right, 1:01:25.080 --> 1:01:27.960 I mean, this is this would be his you know, 1:01:27.960 --> 1:01:31.280 if they finished the losing record, all four of rivera 1:01:31.360 --> 1:01:34.800 season would have been under five hundred. Yeah, his career. 1:01:35.080 --> 1:01:37.880 I believe it's now nine of his twelve years as 1:01:37.880 --> 1:01:40.600 a head coach he seems have finished under five hundred. 1:01:40.840 --> 1:01:43.320 So you know, it's hard to argue against that to 1:01:43.400 --> 1:01:46.640 a degree. But you know, and I also, as I 1:01:46.640 --> 1:01:50.120 said before, I think their off season transactions have really 1:01:50.160 --> 1:01:51.720 just not helped the cause. 1:01:51.800 --> 1:01:53.920 So you know, when when guys. 1:01:53.680 --> 1:01:55.520 Get hurt or you need other people to step up. 1:01:56.880 --> 1:01:59.040 Are those people doing it? Like the defensive line, even 1:01:59.040 --> 1:02:01.040 with Sweat and Young, they were fine this year. Like 1:02:01.080 --> 1:02:03.760 I'm not saying they were like a negative, but fine 1:02:03.800 --> 1:02:06.200 isn't enough. When you're invested all that first, all that 1:02:06.280 --> 1:02:09.520 draft capital and invested a lot of money into these guys. 1:02:09.640 --> 1:02:12.040 They have to be better or the other parts of 1:02:12.040 --> 1:02:14.440 your defense have to step up. And that hasn't happened, 1:02:14.480 --> 1:02:17.760 nor have they been, you know, so imposing that they're 1:02:17.800 --> 1:02:19.640 taking over games. They did a little bit early in 1:02:19.640 --> 1:02:21.400 the year, but not so much over the course of 1:02:21.400 --> 1:02:24.200 the season. So yeah, I mean, it's certainly a combination 1:02:24.280 --> 1:02:26.320 of the coaches and some of the players maybe just 1:02:26.360 --> 1:02:28.760 being asked to do more than they than they should 1:02:28.800 --> 1:02:30.840 be because of deficiencies elsewhere. 1:02:31.200 --> 1:02:33.280 Had to chuckle when you said he's had losing record 1:02:33.320 --> 1:02:35.080 nine of his twelve years a head coach, because if 1:02:35.080 --> 1:02:36.880 you Josh McDaniels, you've got to be wondering, what the 1:02:36.920 --> 1:02:40.360 hell do I do to get that shot? You know? 1:02:40.520 --> 1:02:41.960 Well, I mean, you know you got to go fifteen 1:02:42.000 --> 1:02:43.160 in one and make a Super Bowl. 1:02:43.200 --> 1:02:43.840 I guess would be. 1:02:43.920 --> 1:02:46.600 One thing, Like I guess that's. 1:02:47.680 --> 1:02:47.880 Yeah. 1:02:47.920 --> 1:02:50.120 The three years that Rivera had winning record that were 1:02:50.120 --> 1:02:53.360 really extremely really good. One Coach of the Year awards, 1:02:53.640 --> 1:02:56.960 things like that. So yeah, that stuff like that helps. 1:02:57.080 --> 1:02:59.080 It does. It does buy a little extra time and 1:02:59.200 --> 1:03:01.520 a little extra consuit. Hey Ben, thank you for the 1:03:01.520 --> 1:03:04.439 time to do. Appreciate it and save travels this way. 1:03:05.280 --> 1:03:05.480 Yeah. 1:03:05.480 --> 1:03:06.960 I look forward to it and never been to until 1:03:07.000 --> 1:03:08.120 that stadium, so looking forward to it. 1:03:08.200 --> 1:03:09.960 Think, well, it's all gussied up for you. We have 1:03:10.000 --> 1:03:12.000 this lighthouse. I don't know if you've heard about it 1:03:12.080 --> 1:03:14.320 or not, but we got this big lighthouse and you know, 1:03:14.800 --> 1:03:16.840 big old scoreboard out in the value and I'll tell 1:03:16.840 --> 1:03:19.400 you what. Just ask for the clam chowder when you 1:03:19.440 --> 1:03:23.720 get here and you'll be all set. Serious I am, 1:03:24.120 --> 1:03:26.800 I am, I'm totally serious about the clam chowder. If 1:03:26.800 --> 1:03:28.920 you like the lighthouse rather, hey, good for you. You know, 1:03:29.240 --> 1:03:31.000 it was actually pretty fun going up there. But you 1:03:31.040 --> 1:03:32.840 know it's there are a lot of people run here 1:03:32.880 --> 1:03:34.560 a grouse about it because they're like, well, he spend 1:03:34.560 --> 1:03:36.560 all this money on the lighthouse, but they can't, you know, 1:03:36.800 --> 1:03:38.400 go out and spend it on the team. And it's 1:03:38.440 --> 1:03:39.400 a whole another subject. 1:03:39.880 --> 1:03:42.560 Wait, I have a quick question if I'm staying in Boston. 1:03:42.600 --> 1:03:44.160 How early do I need to go? I heard the 1:03:44.160 --> 1:03:45.160 traffic is not great. 1:03:45.520 --> 1:03:51.240 No, I I at one o'clock kickoff from Boston. I'd 1:03:51.240 --> 1:03:53.640 be on the road at nine am, all right? 1:03:54.160 --> 1:03:54.520 Noted? 1:03:54.800 --> 1:03:57.400 Okay, Just just to be safe, you know, if you 1:03:57.400 --> 1:03:58.880 can make it in in an hour to an hour 1:03:58.920 --> 1:04:01.400 and a half, I think you're doing okay. To be 1:04:01.440 --> 1:04:04.240 honest with you, come tailgate in four hours before. Yeah, 1:04:04.320 --> 1:04:07.760 the tailgate goes four hours before as well, so you 1:04:07.920 --> 1:04:10.600 should be able to get in after the initial tailgate 1:04:10.640 --> 1:04:13.000 push has gotten into the stadium, so you should be 1:04:13.000 --> 1:04:13.920 okay in that regard. 1:04:14.440 --> 1:04:16.200 Fair enough. I appreciate it, all right. 1:04:16.080 --> 1:04:18.479 Thanks, Brod. I appreciate your time today for sure. 1:04:18.520 --> 1:04:18.760 Thanks. 1:04:18.760 --> 1:04:23.120 You got it. Ben standing at B E, N, S, T, A, 1:04:23.240 --> 1:04:25.880 and D I G. You'll find him on Twitter, so 1:04:25.920 --> 1:04:28.240 that's where you can find me. Covers the Washington commanders 1:04:28.560 --> 1:04:32.440 for the Athletic and the Athletic dot com Patriots fans. 1:04:32.440 --> 1:04:35.160 If you want to see Toyota's best offers, including those 1:04:35.240 --> 1:04:38.560 not seen on TV, go to buy a Toyota dot Com. 1:04:38.720 --> 1:04:42.040 It's Toyota's official website for deals from the official vehicle 1:04:42.240 --> 1:04:45.160 out of the New England Patriots, Toyota Let's Go Places 1:04:45.600 --> 1:04:48.840 and Bridgestone is the official tire of the New England Patriots, 1:04:48.880 --> 1:04:52.040 and Bridgestone tires are now on sale through November fifteenth 1:04:52.280 --> 1:04:56.600 at all Sullivan Tire locations. Visits sullivantire dot Com for 1:04:56.760 --> 1:04:59.440 a location near you. All Right, So that was a 1:04:59.480 --> 1:05:01.480 little bit of a worl wind opening to the program. 1:05:01.680 --> 1:05:05.880 Eight five five PATS five hundred. Eight five five Pats 1:05:06.040 --> 1:05:08.600 five hundred is the toll free totalphone number. The question 1:05:08.680 --> 1:05:11.680 that I had for you really today is quite simple 1:05:11.720 --> 1:05:18.440 and totally blank. Russell. Hello, Russell Baxter will join us 1:05:18.840 --> 1:05:20.200 at the bottom of the ear to go through week 1:05:20.280 --> 1:05:22.520 nine around the NFL and get his thoughts on all 1:05:22.560 --> 1:05:28.000 things trade, deadline and Patriots and commanders as well. The 1:05:28.280 --> 1:05:31.040 question I was really simple. I got the impression again, 1:05:31.040 --> 1:05:34.360 as I mentioned Evan a little bit earlier. I got 1:05:34.360 --> 1:05:38.000 the impression earlier that you know, listening to local sports radio, 1:05:38.120 --> 1:05:41.080 and sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes that's not necessarily 1:05:41.080 --> 1:05:42.920 a good thing. But I got the impression listening to 1:05:42.960 --> 1:05:46.800 the sports radio that people were really upset over the 1:05:46.840 --> 1:05:50.800 fact that the Patriots stood pat didn't do a thing 1:05:50.840 --> 1:05:57.560 at the trading deadline, and I'm like, I'm not surprised 1:05:57.600 --> 1:06:00.360 at all. I'm like, i would have been act if 1:06:00.400 --> 1:06:01.880 they had made a deal. I'll be honest with you, 1:06:01.880 --> 1:06:05.800 even for Josh Uche because again, you know, as Bill 1:06:05.840 --> 1:06:09.040 has dryly pointed out several times, he takes two teams 1:06:09.040 --> 1:06:12.080 to trade. And unless somebody has a definitive need out there, 1:06:13.920 --> 1:06:16.439 who does New England have that can help somebody else? 1:06:17.360 --> 1:06:19.680 You know, I would have said, you know, initially, well, 1:06:19.800 --> 1:06:22.680 maybe Job's Husche you know, could have been a trade 1:06:22.720 --> 1:06:24.960 candidate for Washington because they just traded away you know, 1:06:24.960 --> 1:06:28.120 their two ends you know, for you know, draft capital 1:06:28.160 --> 1:06:30.439 and return. But at the same time, see, I don't 1:06:30.440 --> 1:06:33.800 think Uce is at every down player. I don't think 1:06:33.800 --> 1:06:35.640 he is the size of the durability. That's just my 1:06:35.720 --> 1:06:38.600 own personal opinion. Now, that doesn't mean that he can't 1:06:38.640 --> 1:06:41.200 find a niche for himself. Doesn't mean that he couldn't 1:06:41.240 --> 1:06:44.160 eventually play a role, you know, into a full time role. 1:06:44.200 --> 1:06:47.120 If he's thrust into that, sometimes that has to happen 1:06:47.360 --> 1:06:49.200 and you don't have any other choices. I'm just saying, 1:06:49.240 --> 1:06:51.640 in an ideal set of circumstances, I'm not sure that's 1:06:51.640 --> 1:06:54.320 the case. And then the vitriol that I heard over 1:06:54.480 --> 1:06:57.360 Mac Jones not being traded. I'm like, really, and you 1:06:57.400 --> 1:07:02.960 want to play whom Bailey's happy. I'd almost buy Malik 1:07:03.000 --> 1:07:07.800 Cunningham before I buy that, So I'm just like, I don't. 1:07:07.840 --> 1:07:11.439 I guess either we're letting our emotions get the best 1:07:11.480 --> 1:07:15.400 of us here over being frustrated that the Patriots aren't 1:07:15.440 --> 1:07:19.120 doing anything to correct the issues, or there's just not 1:07:19.320 --> 1:07:25.920 enough smarts smots. There's not enough smots out there. And 1:07:26.040 --> 1:07:29.400 I doubt that very seriously, I really doubt that. I know, 1:07:29.480 --> 1:07:34.280 with this particular audience, you're way smarter than that, you know, 1:07:34.480 --> 1:07:37.040 I just based on the conversations that I've had with 1:07:37.080 --> 1:07:39.000 many of you over the twenty two years we've done 1:07:39.000 --> 1:07:45.160 this show. I mean, I'm just like, come on now, yeah, 1:07:45.280 --> 1:07:47.560 Godfather one or two? Was that too? Right? That was 1:07:47.600 --> 1:07:52.760 Godfather too? Alright? I'm smart? One of the best old 1:07:52.760 --> 1:07:57.960 time lines of the entire movie. I'm smart, Mikey, I'm smart, okay, 1:07:58.000 --> 1:08:01.840 And I know you're smart. I know it, I get it. 1:08:02.440 --> 1:08:05.600 I've talked to many of you who are smart. But 1:08:05.640 --> 1:08:08.560 that was real stupid on the air yesterday. There just was, 1:08:10.080 --> 1:08:14.280 and that disappointed me greatly, it, I mean, and so 1:08:15.600 --> 1:08:19.080 why if you're upset and I'm not calling name, I'm 1:08:19.120 --> 1:08:22.559 speaking in general terms, okay, but if you were upset, 1:08:22.920 --> 1:08:26.120 were you upset for a specific reason or just upset 1:08:26.120 --> 1:08:29.960 because it seemed like the Patriots weren't doing anything to 1:08:30.040 --> 1:08:33.760 correct the issue. And then if you're upset, like I 1:08:33.960 --> 1:08:37.479 additionally was, I admit I'm in that corner. And then 1:08:37.520 --> 1:08:38.720 the more I thought about it, I'm like, well, it 1:08:38.760 --> 1:08:41.880 makes total sense to not do a thing. I had 1:08:41.920 --> 1:08:44.599 to give that some thought. So why would a team 1:08:44.640 --> 1:08:50.519 that's two and six stand pat And I think largely 1:08:50.600 --> 1:08:55.360 for a couple of reasons. Number one evaluation as evident. 1:08:55.360 --> 1:08:57.160 I talked about it in the opening of the program today. 1:08:57.760 --> 1:09:00.760 You got to know who's worth keeping, and you may 1:09:00.760 --> 1:09:03.559 not know because it's all it's been about winning games. 1:09:04.160 --> 1:09:06.599 But now that that time is pretty much come and 1:09:06.600 --> 1:09:10.759 gone and left us for at least twenty twenty three, Okay, 1:09:10.800 --> 1:09:13.000 So beyond winning games, we gotta see if guys can play. 1:09:13.920 --> 1:09:17.080 Are there are there NFL caliber players here? And knowing 1:09:17.120 --> 1:09:20.040 that you've got this huge chunk of change on your side, 1:09:20.360 --> 1:09:22.679 you know, heading into a free agency and the salary 1:09:22.680 --> 1:09:26.639 cab increase and everything else that you've got, you probably 1:09:26.680 --> 1:09:30.320 need to do some internal discussion over do we have 1:09:30.439 --> 1:09:35.439 guys that we want to pay to keep? At least 1:09:35.479 --> 1:09:37.640 that's my point of view. And then I think the 1:09:37.680 --> 1:09:39.840 other issue, you know, largely has. 1:09:39.720 --> 1:09:40.000 To be. 1:09:42.000 --> 1:09:46.960 Why aren't they doing anything to improve their situation? And 1:09:47.520 --> 1:09:49.559 I would tell you, well, what would you have them do? 1:09:51.840 --> 1:09:54.040 See that kind of that kind of goes hand in 1:09:54.080 --> 1:09:57.200 hand right there, What would you have them do? I mean, 1:09:57.600 --> 1:10:00.600 they're doing everything they can do. Clearly, they're doing a 1:10:00.600 --> 1:10:02.360 lot of things that you know, we can all agree 1:10:02.400 --> 1:10:06.640 to disagree about, you know, drawing up plays, you know, 1:10:06.720 --> 1:10:09.320 the personnel. Honestly, you got to play who you got, 1:10:10.080 --> 1:10:13.080 you know, and and and your your best players are 1:10:13.160 --> 1:10:16.760 dropping like flies, and you've lost arguably your two best 1:10:16.800 --> 1:10:19.400 defensive players. And and yet I don't think the defense 1:10:19.479 --> 1:10:21.280 was completely I don't think I think the defense actually 1:10:21.320 --> 1:10:24.559 played pretty well last week against Miami. I do. I 1:10:24.600 --> 1:10:27.320 think the defense, with the exception of maybe New Orleans, 1:10:28.439 --> 1:10:34.880 has played pretty well all year long. And so they're 1:10:34.880 --> 1:10:38.479 missing two really good players. But what would you do 1:10:38.560 --> 1:10:40.840 to fix that issue? And I think then you know, 1:10:40.880 --> 1:10:43.000 and We've discussed it on this program many times. So 1:10:43.240 --> 1:10:45.280 a lot of the problems that you know, this Patriot team, 1:10:45.439 --> 1:10:48.880 you know, seems to be having centers around the offense. 1:10:48.920 --> 1:10:50.519 And I think we can all kind of agree on that. 1:10:50.560 --> 1:10:53.200 And it still gets back to the original premise. The 1:10:53.240 --> 1:10:58.120 offensive line has not been good, and the offensive lines 1:10:58.200 --> 1:11:01.519 case of hebe GBI's, you know, giving mac Jones a 1:11:01.560 --> 1:11:04.479 case of he b GB's or happy feed or whatever 1:11:04.479 --> 1:11:06.599 you want to call it. That's been a main reason 1:11:06.640 --> 1:11:08.640 why he's been so inaccurate. And while he's thrown off 1:11:08.680 --> 1:11:10.680 his back foot, and why he's rushed his throws, why 1:11:10.720 --> 1:11:12.920 he throws across his body, and my god, if he 1:11:12.960 --> 1:11:14.800 throws to the left one more time, I think we're 1:11:14.800 --> 1:11:18.439 all going to let out a collective screen. I mean 1:11:18.479 --> 1:11:19.840 he even knew it. He said it in the game, 1:11:19.880 --> 1:11:22.000 after the game on Sunday. You know, I knew the 1:11:22.000 --> 1:11:23.519 second I let it go is wrong. Well then why 1:11:23.560 --> 1:11:29.880 did you throw it? Sometimes the logic defies me, So 1:11:30.120 --> 1:11:34.280 we know where the mistakes are being made, but there's 1:11:34.320 --> 1:11:41.160 no corrections. How would this team have done it ten 1:11:41.280 --> 1:11:44.360 or twelve years ago? And my answer to that is 1:11:44.880 --> 1:11:48.679 Tom Brady, he made up for a lot of mistakes. 1:11:48.720 --> 1:11:53.280 He covered up a lot of errors, way more errors, 1:11:53.360 --> 1:11:55.360 I think. And I would also tell you that a 1:11:55.360 --> 1:11:57.240 lot of guys wanted to play with Tomas. I think 1:11:57.280 --> 1:12:00.040 we can all recall, right, and so there was a 1:12:00.040 --> 1:12:02.760 different caliber of player in here. That doesn't mean these 1:12:02.800 --> 1:12:05.479 guys are bad, doesn't mean these guys are no good 1:12:05.960 --> 1:12:10.880 to me. What it means is is these guys don't 1:12:11.000 --> 1:12:14.439 understand fully the Patriot Way, whatever the hell that means. 1:12:15.320 --> 1:12:18.759 They hadn't gotten it, and I'm not sure there's anybody 1:12:18.800 --> 1:12:22.519 around still to teach it. I would say Matt Slater. 1:12:22.640 --> 1:12:24.720 But then hey, when they did the whole you know, 1:12:24.960 --> 1:12:27.719 celebration thing in the locker room, it was Jabril Preppers 1:12:27.760 --> 1:12:28.800 that took it over a couple of weeks ago. You 1:12:28.840 --> 1:12:31.040 probably saw the video here on the website, and it 1:12:31.080 --> 1:12:33.240 wasn't you know how we feel in about it. You know, 1:12:33.280 --> 1:12:35.920 it was just like family on three one two three Family. Okay. 1:12:36.479 --> 1:12:37.960 I think it's great. I think it's great that there's 1:12:38.000 --> 1:12:39.679 and we said this last week on the show, it's 1:12:39.680 --> 1:12:41.360 good that there are new leaders that are stepping up. 1:12:43.200 --> 1:12:48.000 But new leaders bring new styles. New styles bring different 1:12:48.040 --> 1:12:52.000 beliefs and a belief doesn't jibe with what worked in 1:12:52.040 --> 1:12:58.720 the past, it's automatically gonna be well scrutinized. And so 1:12:59.240 --> 1:13:02.000 what we have here is a confluence of a lot 1:13:02.000 --> 1:13:04.559 of different things. And let's not lose sight of the 1:13:04.560 --> 1:13:07.839 fact that while the struggles certainly have begun and largely 1:13:07.960 --> 1:13:09.800 ended with the offensive linecause I think if you had 1:13:09.800 --> 1:13:11.920 an all pro offensive line in front of you, there's 1:13:11.960 --> 1:13:15.080 a lot of throws that Mac doesn't make trying to 1:13:15.120 --> 1:13:17.360 make plays because I think that's where he gets into trouble. 1:13:17.520 --> 1:13:20.320 He tries to do something that he probably is incapable 1:13:20.360 --> 1:13:22.280 of doing, and that's when he gets into trouble. And 1:13:22.320 --> 1:13:24.560 he also has receivers that aren't cable of going and 1:13:24.600 --> 1:13:26.479 get the ball. With all due respect to guys like 1:13:26.479 --> 1:13:30.679 Devonte Parker and Juju Smith Schuster, those guys don't have 1:13:30.760 --> 1:13:34.360 what they once had. Juju is gonna get a chance 1:13:34.360 --> 1:13:36.000 to prove if he's got anything left in the tank 1:13:36.040 --> 1:13:38.439 at all, because Kendrick Bourne has gone for the year now, 1:13:40.840 --> 1:13:44.920 so he's gonna get a shot, you know. And to that, 1:13:44.960 --> 1:13:46.760 I would just say, all right, show us, show us 1:13:46.800 --> 1:13:50.479 what you got. Are you worth keeping around? Are you 1:13:50.520 --> 1:13:53.240 worth you know? You know, are we wrong about you? 1:13:54.520 --> 1:13:56.640 Where you damage goods before you got here? Which is 1:13:56.640 --> 1:13:58.679 what everybody seems to think and seems to believe now 1:13:59.320 --> 1:14:02.120 and right now we have no reason to believe otherwise. 1:14:03.920 --> 1:14:08.639 It was strategically, right now not a good move, you know, 1:14:09.280 --> 1:14:15.879 paying him the money as opposed to say, you know, sixteen. 1:14:16.320 --> 1:14:20.439 So I'm just saying, you know, there's just so many 1:14:20.479 --> 1:14:23.639 different pieces to this puzzle. But the bottom line still 1:14:23.680 --> 1:14:26.240 is that the offensive line has been a work in progress. 1:14:26.439 --> 1:14:29.240 They still haven't had all five of the original starters 1:14:29.240 --> 1:14:32.759 that they that they had had foreseen to be starting. 1:14:32.920 --> 1:14:34.920 They haven't had him on the field yet together. They've 1:14:34.920 --> 1:14:37.479 had bits and pieces here and there the last few weeks. 1:14:37.479 --> 1:14:39.960 But I would also argue that that really hasn't been 1:14:39.960 --> 1:14:44.639 the big problem the last few weeks. You know, when 1:14:44.680 --> 1:14:49.160 you get beat up. When you get beat up, you 1:14:49.200 --> 1:14:52.600 get gun shy, when you get you know, ensconced in 1:14:52.720 --> 1:14:56.599 battle and you absorb blows, you know, for whatever reason, 1:14:56.680 --> 1:14:59.240 I mean, you get a little gun shy after a while. 1:15:00.040 --> 1:15:02.400 You know, it says nothing about your personal pride. It 1:15:02.479 --> 1:15:04.519 just says that, hey, you're a little aware, you know, 1:15:04.680 --> 1:15:07.559 you know, you know, you know where the shots are 1:15:07.600 --> 1:15:11.120 coming from, and so you know, you become a little 1:15:11.120 --> 1:15:14.880 bit more leary. I guess it's probably the proper word 1:15:14.920 --> 1:15:18.120 to take here. And so even if things are improving 1:15:18.160 --> 1:15:22.160 in front of Mac, he still doesn't know where those 1:15:22.160 --> 1:15:26.760 shots are coming from. It's the whole you know, I'm 1:15:26.800 --> 1:15:28.840 seeing ghosts out there. You know that we saw for 1:15:28.920 --> 1:15:31.400 you know, playing the Jets a few years ago, you know, 1:15:31.439 --> 1:15:35.160 with with Sam, I just I you know, I've been 1:15:35.240 --> 1:15:40.120 I really racked my brain trying to figure out how 1:15:40.200 --> 1:15:45.520 this thing has gone off the deep end when nobody, 1:15:45.640 --> 1:15:51.160 I mean and literally nobody saw this coming. And so 1:15:51.560 --> 1:15:53.040 that's why I kind of open it up to you 1:15:53.400 --> 1:15:55.080 at this particular stage of the game. What do you 1:15:55.080 --> 1:15:55.719 want to see? 1:15:56.520 --> 1:15:56.560 What? 1:15:56.720 --> 1:15:58.720 Number one, if you were upset that they didn't make 1:15:58.760 --> 1:16:01.000 a move, why were you upset that they didn't make 1:16:01.000 --> 1:16:02.800 a move for the trade deadline? And what do you 1:16:02.840 --> 1:16:04.840 want to see from this team over the course of 1:16:04.880 --> 1:16:07.240 the next nine weeks. It's a long way to go, 1:16:07.520 --> 1:16:09.439 and that doesn't count. You know, in two weeks there's 1:16:09.439 --> 1:16:13.679 a bye week, so there's a reevaluation, you know, period 1:16:13.720 --> 1:16:15.560 in here that you know the team was going to 1:16:15.600 --> 1:16:17.160 have to go through. Once they get back from Germany. 1:16:19.120 --> 1:16:22.280 All right, let's get back to the phones and Eldred. 1:16:22.800 --> 1:16:25.000 Eldred's driving around somewhere in North Carolina. 1:16:25.040 --> 1:16:30.240 Hey, Eldred, Hey, mister legend. I'm off today. Good for you, Yes, 1:16:30.280 --> 1:16:33.360 I have them off today, enjoying a nice cold North 1:16:33.400 --> 1:16:34.120 Carolina day. 1:16:34.200 --> 1:16:36.800 Good for you. Well except for the cold day, I know, 1:16:36.960 --> 1:16:39.400 but we've got that here too. It's forty four beer 1:16:39.520 --> 1:16:41.479 forty four to Yeah, cold beer is what I'd rather have, 1:16:41.560 --> 1:16:44.880 But I mean it's a forty four degrees and kind 1:16:44.880 --> 1:16:47.679 of clammy cold here, So I get you that way here. 1:16:47.840 --> 1:16:50.760 Yeah, yeah, yes, there is about that way here, about 1:16:50.760 --> 1:16:53.559 forty something degrees. Told a wom up it's about fifty 1:16:54.280 --> 1:16:56.200 and didn't get back down to twenty nine at night. 1:16:56.280 --> 1:16:57.840 Oh no, yeah, I'm not ready for that. 1:16:58.160 --> 1:17:01.960 Yes, yes, I'm not ready for eighty either, But I 1:17:02.000 --> 1:17:03.840 have to go back to work tomorrow and fight in it. Though. 1:17:03.960 --> 1:17:07.479 All be safe out there, yes, but. 1:17:07.560 --> 1:17:11.960 Me A lot of people mad about about uh Jones. 1:17:12.680 --> 1:17:15.320 I think we should have traded him, sir, because he broke. 1:17:16.160 --> 1:17:18.679 I mean he's broken. I mean he's gun like you said, 1:17:18.680 --> 1:17:19.320 he's gun shy. 1:17:19.479 --> 1:17:22.160 But what do you replace? What are you replace him 1:17:22.160 --> 1:17:24.599 with you gotta be real, what do you replace him? 1:17:25.040 --> 1:17:26.600 I'm gonna be I'm gonna be real with you. I 1:17:26.640 --> 1:17:29.880 ran a scenario by you yesterday. They sort of laugh 1:17:29.960 --> 1:17:34.160 and they gave him one more. But uh, Minnesota is 1:17:34.479 --> 1:17:37.280 in a is in a chase position. If they give 1:17:37.320 --> 1:17:37.920 you two or. 1:17:37.880 --> 1:17:41.720 Three four, take it well if they if they, if 1:17:41.760 --> 1:17:43.679 they would give you two or three. But that doesn't 1:17:43.720 --> 1:17:46.479 solve Minnesota's problem, and it and it doesn't solve New 1:17:46.520 --> 1:17:47.320 England's problem. 1:17:48.000 --> 1:17:49.280 It does solve Newion problem. 1:17:49.320 --> 1:17:51.640 No, it doesn't. You still don't have anybody playing quarterback. 1:17:51.960 --> 1:17:53.720 You have nobody to play quarterback. 1:17:53.880 --> 1:17:57.120 You ain't let me finishin't let me finish? All right, Okay, 1:17:57.320 --> 1:17:59.839 didn't you? Didn't you go trade for you the Heineken 1:18:00.400 --> 1:18:05.000 or George Kobe Brussett. They banned the ship until to 1:18:05.000 --> 1:18:09.080 our draft choice. Then you go after another quarterback, because 1:18:10.040 --> 1:18:13.160 I don't care if you put Terry mclark, Terry McLaren 1:18:13.360 --> 1:18:18.200 or DK Metcalf or even uh the other guy at 1:18:18.240 --> 1:18:22.080 wide receiver, he ain't gonna hit him because, like you said, 1:18:22.120 --> 1:18:24.720 throwing off his back foot, you're seeing ghosts and he's 1:18:24.760 --> 1:18:28.400 throwing all across the bomb across across his body, you know. 1:18:28.840 --> 1:18:30.800 And of course, and the hyde receivers we got were 1:18:30.880 --> 1:18:34.639 down born. You're down Archer's out right. 1:18:35.800 --> 1:18:39.679 Well we think, yeah, well, okay, you need another receiver. 1:18:39.800 --> 1:18:42.840 Tacon don't seem to be the answer. Okay, you ain't 1:18:42.880 --> 1:18:45.920 played Booty all year, you know, but a couple of times, 1:18:45.960 --> 1:18:47.800 you know, he goes and gets Miami. You need to 1:18:47.800 --> 1:18:49.439 get his feed in a couple of times. I guess 1:18:49.520 --> 1:18:51.880 you think he's still playing college ball. Well you got 1:18:51.920 --> 1:18:54.320 to play them now, Well, you could have try to 1:18:54.360 --> 1:18:57.840 try trade somewhere and got either. I don't care if 1:18:57.840 --> 1:19:02.000 they wanted a two, but Judy and I have tried. 1:19:02.479 --> 1:19:05.320 See, that's a lot of wheeling and dealing. That's I mean, Elder, 1:19:05.479 --> 1:19:08.479 everything you say actually does make sense. I won't deny that, 1:19:08.600 --> 1:19:10.280 but I would tell you that that's a lot of 1:19:10.280 --> 1:19:12.360 wheeling and dealing. You'd make this trade, and then you're 1:19:12.360 --> 1:19:14.400 gonna make this trade, and then you're gonna make this trade. 1:19:14.479 --> 1:19:18.280 And again it takes two willing parties to make deals. 1:19:18.680 --> 1:19:21.600 And if the other party senses that you need to 1:19:21.640 --> 1:19:25.000 make this trade, they're gonna hold out, you know, for 1:19:25.240 --> 1:19:29.040 you know, extra because they know your your butts against 1:19:29.080 --> 1:19:31.759 the wall here, and this is where trades fall apart 1:19:31.840 --> 1:19:32.479 all the time. 1:19:33.640 --> 1:19:35.719 Like I said, it's take two. But if you don't 1:19:35.760 --> 1:19:38.559 okay did but I guarantee you you could have got 1:19:38.600 --> 1:19:39.759 You could have got that quarterback. 1:19:40.400 --> 1:19:41.240 You could have got either. 1:19:41.680 --> 1:19:44.280 It's just just it's just they bitching Jimmy now and 1:19:44.280 --> 1:19:46.360 they're gonna start O'Connell since they got rid of or 1:19:46.400 --> 1:19:49.320 mc daniel because that's on the news too. Give me. 1:19:49.880 --> 1:19:52.320 One of the more interesting trade possibilities that I heard 1:19:52.520 --> 1:19:55.320 was is maybe the Patriot should should consider trading Mac 1:19:55.400 --> 1:20:00.120 Jones for Jimmy Garoppolo. I heard that one, and and 1:20:00.120 --> 1:20:03.240 then I'm kind of like, eh, okay, I've heard worse. 1:20:04.040 --> 1:20:06.439 I mean, Groppolo is broken too, so I don't know 1:20:06.439 --> 1:20:08.759 how much that really solves you. And if you're really 1:20:08.800 --> 1:20:12.680 going to and here's the well, yeah, okay, maybe he 1:20:12.680 --> 1:20:14.439 know it's the system. But Groppolo also makes a hell 1:20:14.439 --> 1:20:16.760 of a lot more money. So why wouldn't you in 1:20:16.800 --> 1:20:18.840 that regard, why wouldn't you just keep mag because he 1:20:18.880 --> 1:20:22.400 doesn't he doesn't cost your checkbook that much more. You 1:20:22.479 --> 1:20:24.759 got him next year for what two point seven something 1:20:24.800 --> 1:20:27.599 like that? Something ridiculous. You know, quarterbacks don't make that. 1:20:27.600 --> 1:20:29.800 That's chicken fee. 1:20:29.680 --> 1:20:31.880 Makes your nose question. What if you keep him next 1:20:31.960 --> 1:20:34.519 year and he's still playing the same way. They's stay 1:20:34.640 --> 1:20:35.519 to get him a good tackle. 1:20:36.160 --> 1:20:38.760 Then you draft a quarterback and they get hair. Then 1:20:38.760 --> 1:20:41.519 you draft a quarterback. You have to listen. I'm not 1:20:41.640 --> 1:20:44.479 if they've got a top five pick this year. If 1:20:44.479 --> 1:20:47.440 they end up in the top five, I would seriously 1:20:47.520 --> 1:20:50.360 have to consider taking a quarterback. And I don't even 1:20:50.360 --> 1:20:53.200 know that Caleb Williams is all that. I'm not convinced 1:20:53.240 --> 1:20:55.080 he's all that. I don't think that guy, I'm not 1:20:55.080 --> 1:20:56.679 sure about it. I don't know if that guy's really 1:20:56.720 --> 1:20:58.720 a team guy. I think he's all about himself, which 1:20:58.800 --> 1:21:00.920 is fine, that's what you want to be. That's great. 1:21:00.920 --> 1:21:04.679 But I'm not convinced that that he's gonna be the savior. 1:21:06.120 --> 1:21:08.519 I'm not either. You know I I heard you keep 1:21:08.560 --> 1:21:09.280 talking about. 1:21:09.000 --> 1:21:12.200 May Drake Maye from North Carolina. Yeah, you ought to 1:21:12.200 --> 1:21:13.479 be able to tell us about him. Do you ever 1:21:13.479 --> 1:21:14.120 watch him play? 1:21:15.160 --> 1:21:17.559 Yeah, Washington player against my team. I'm a Florida State guy, 1:21:18.040 --> 1:21:21.559 and Jordan Travis took that team apart. You know, so 1:21:21.800 --> 1:21:25.080 and then that defense took me apart. So you know, 1:21:25.240 --> 1:21:28.840 I'm wish, but I'd rather have Jordan Travis before I 1:21:28.840 --> 1:21:32.080 have may to be honest with you, but I'm a 1:21:32.120 --> 1:21:35.160 Florida State guy, so I'm gonna keep going Florida State, 1:21:35.960 --> 1:21:38.400 you know, and some of the Clemson players, but the 1:21:38.479 --> 1:21:40.320 quarterback on Clemson, I'm gonna want nothing to do with it. 1:21:40.360 --> 1:21:42.440 But Jordan Travis. 1:21:42.520 --> 1:21:46.040 Yes, the Patriots quarterback is at least two or three 1:21:46.120 --> 1:21:54.320 years away. His name is Archie Manning. Watch it's just great. 1:21:54.320 --> 1:21:58.559 It's it's Archie grim Manning's grandson. It's it's it's the 1:21:58.680 --> 1:22:00.439 it's the nephew of Peyton any. 1:22:00.360 --> 1:22:05.200 Life, if you paid, that's two years away. 1:22:05.360 --> 1:22:07.479 Probably probably at least two years away. 1:22:07.560 --> 1:22:11.280 Yeah, he's two years away. Well maybe maybe not, but 1:22:11.320 --> 1:22:14.040 I never thought about him. But but all the quarterbacks 1:22:14.080 --> 1:22:18.679 coming out this year, some of them the athletic, you know, tall, athletic, 1:22:18.840 --> 1:22:22.280 strong arm. You know, you want somebody to move. Matt 1:22:22.360 --> 1:22:24.400 Cape moved. But but the reason why I say get 1:22:24.479 --> 1:22:26.360 rid of get rid of Matt And like I said, 1:22:26.439 --> 1:22:30.200 he's broken, he's he don't trust system. I don't think 1:22:30.240 --> 1:22:33.720 he trusted players. And like I said, I'm watching too 1:22:33.760 --> 1:22:36.320 many games where I'm seeing guys. I know, I'm seeing 1:22:36.320 --> 1:22:38.960 it on TV. They look wide over him, but he's 1:22:38.960 --> 1:22:41.680 throwing somewhere else with triple coverage, and even the announcers 1:22:41.680 --> 1:22:44.439 say that, and then they go back shoulder start and play. 1:22:44.680 --> 1:22:47.599 If you throw liot So onto him, Barker's open, bolls 1:22:47.640 --> 1:22:50.519 open and end zone for a touchdown or whatever. He's 1:22:50.560 --> 1:22:52.200 not sitting because he's trying to get out of there 1:22:52.280 --> 1:22:56.400 before he gets hit again. And he ain't trusting the system, 1:22:56.600 --> 1:22:58.720 and he ain't trusting nothing else. So I think it 1:22:58.800 --> 1:23:00.960 best to him have a fresh start somewhere else and 1:23:01.080 --> 1:23:01.559 try again. 1:23:02.400 --> 1:23:02.639 Yeah. 1:23:02.720 --> 1:23:04.320 I don't want to begin it. 1:23:04.439 --> 1:23:07.840 Yeah I don't. I don't really, Uh, I don't. Yeah, 1:23:07.680 --> 1:23:11.280 the whole fresh start idea, you know, sounds good in theory. 1:23:11.320 --> 1:23:14.080 I'm just I'm not sure in practicality whether or not 1:23:14.120 --> 1:23:15.679 that's what the Patriots really need. 1:23:17.000 --> 1:23:17.120 Uh. 1:23:17.720 --> 1:23:20.080 The Patriots have to be selfish in this regard. So 1:23:20.200 --> 1:23:23.280 unless you're getting, you know, some kind of value back 1:23:23.800 --> 1:23:25.960 that you know is at least you know, a round 1:23:26.040 --> 1:23:28.439 pick well something. I mean, come on, he was a 1:23:28.520 --> 1:23:31.400 he was the number fifteen pick overall. So I'm not 1:23:31.400 --> 1:23:33.200 gonna give him away for a ham sandwich. I'm just 1:23:33.240 --> 1:23:33.920 not gonna do it. 1:23:34.000 --> 1:23:35.720 No, I wouldn't either. But you ain't gonna get a 1:23:35.760 --> 1:23:36.280 first of them. 1:23:36.600 --> 1:23:36.760 No. 1:23:38.040 --> 1:23:41.840 Well, listen, if someone offered them, if someone offered them 1:23:41.840 --> 1:23:44.160 a late, a late first round pick, I'd have been 1:23:44.200 --> 1:23:45.760 all over that, like hen on a june bug. 1:23:46.720 --> 1:23:47.200 Yeah, me too. 1:23:47.240 --> 1:23:49.439 It's a late round, yeah, but right, suck it more 1:23:50.080 --> 1:23:53.120 more realistic because they gonna do that unless they really 1:23:53.120 --> 1:23:56.400 need even they close, you know, But and then maybe 1:23:56.400 --> 1:23:59.599 you could start over somewhere else and then fresh start whatever. 1:23:59.720 --> 1:24:01.920 But but I didn't like. I didn't like. I said, 1:24:01.920 --> 1:24:03.640 I didn't like to pick it in the in that 1:24:03.720 --> 1:24:07.200 year or the ones that Bill been doing, except for 1:24:07.240 --> 1:24:09.720 one that's guns outs, And I told you that, then 1:24:10.760 --> 1:24:14.040 be tweet him and Quentin Johnson, I really have Gunzales. 1:24:14.160 --> 1:24:17.360 Then maybe get Quinting, you know, or somebody else stuck 1:24:17.400 --> 1:24:19.920 in the third round. We didn't do that easy. We 1:24:20.000 --> 1:24:21.880 got a bunch of guards and cinemas. When you had 1:24:22.080 --> 1:24:24.920 you had the Kwan Jones sitting there for the fourth 1:24:24.960 --> 1:24:27.160 in the fourth round. Now he started for Cleveland. He 1:24:27.200 --> 1:24:30.400 looking like oh pro already. But you could add him 1:24:30.400 --> 1:24:32.880 on the right side. You're pass him four times. 1:24:33.720 --> 1:24:38.920 Yep, you know. But we're really we're really good revision, 1:24:39.479 --> 1:24:42.080 you know, coaches and and scouts here. I think we 1:24:42.200 --> 1:24:43.880 really are. We like to look back on things and 1:24:43.920 --> 1:24:45.680 say that was a screw up. That was a screw up. 1:24:45.720 --> 1:24:47.320 That was a screw up. And well it's easy to 1:24:47.320 --> 1:24:48.840 say was a screw up after the fact, right. 1:24:50.439 --> 1:24:52.479 No, I was, like I said, had I had my 1:24:52.479 --> 1:24:54.160 own little board. 1:24:55.320 --> 1:24:57.280 I gotta say, No, I gotta see the I gotta 1:24:57.320 --> 1:24:59.639 see it. I gotta see Eldrick's big board. I need 1:24:59.640 --> 1:25:01.960 to see We need to see Eldred's big board. When 1:25:02.040 --> 1:25:03.639 can you make it? When can you bring the truck 1:25:03.680 --> 1:25:05.280 up this way? Make a run so you can come 1:25:05.280 --> 1:25:07.200 in the studio and we get to see your big board. 1:25:07.400 --> 1:25:08.360 I know what I can do. 1:25:08.880 --> 1:25:10.560 I know what I can do. I can make a 1:25:10.600 --> 1:25:14.320 big board and screen screenshot it to your to your 1:25:14.680 --> 1:25:16.400 instam account or faithbook account. 1:25:16.439 --> 1:25:17.800 All right, this is who I will get this through, 1:25:17.880 --> 1:25:20.839 this this and this fair. I'd love to see it, guys. 1:25:20.880 --> 1:25:24.360 Difficult. Quentin Johnson looked a little good the Monday night, 1:25:24.640 --> 1:25:28.360 you know, but he's slowly coming along. And again, like 1:25:28.400 --> 1:25:30.840 I said, I want a gun dollars anyway till my 1:25:30.880 --> 1:25:35.639 boy got hurt. But but let me ask you a question, 1:25:35.680 --> 1:25:39.160 mister legend. Now I don't wanna let you go. Okay, 1:25:39.880 --> 1:25:43.920 let's say we got the top field or six pick 1:25:43.960 --> 1:25:48.680 in the draft. Biel still here. And I don't care 1:25:48.720 --> 1:25:50.840 who who you put down like, well, I don't make 1:25:50.840 --> 1:25:53.440 the person I'm coaching. Now, you make all the decisions. 1:25:53.880 --> 1:25:56.479 Would you trust them to do the right thing? And 1:25:56.600 --> 1:25:59.400 this year draft coming up, it's gonna be heavy in court, 1:26:00.000 --> 1:26:03.479 eat him in quarterback, litpid heavy and white receivers and 1:26:03.600 --> 1:26:07.080 some corner that is yet But I'm just wondered. 1:26:07.200 --> 1:26:11.280 That is a legitimate question. And and I have to 1:26:11.320 --> 1:26:15.040 tell you that my legitimate answer is I don't know, 1:26:16.160 --> 1:26:18.240 because I have a lot I have I have a 1:26:18.280 --> 1:26:20.760 lot of doubt. I absolutely have a lot of doubt. 1:26:20.800 --> 1:26:22.800 And I know where you're going with that, and and 1:26:22.840 --> 1:26:25.080 I and I'm with you on that. I mean, there's 1:26:25.120 --> 1:26:27.960 a part of me that's that said. You know what, Listen, 1:26:28.160 --> 1:26:30.400 Josh McDaniels, I think just got fired from the from 1:26:30.439 --> 1:26:33.200 the Raiders for less than you know what you know 1:26:33.240 --> 1:26:35.559 Bill has done with the Patriots, and you know, and 1:26:35.600 --> 1:26:37.680 other coaches have lost their jobs for much less than 1:26:37.680 --> 1:26:39.800 what Bill has done. But Bill has also built up 1:26:39.800 --> 1:26:42.160 a lot of you know, he's built up you know, 1:26:42.200 --> 1:26:45.639 twenty two years of good will and six super Bowl trophies, 1:26:45.680 --> 1:26:48.080 I might add. So, I mean, you know, there's there's 1:26:48.120 --> 1:26:49.360 a part of me that, you know, hey, what have 1:26:49.400 --> 1:26:51.160 you done for is lately it hadn't been very good, 1:26:51.160 --> 1:26:53.240 and yeah, we need to try to do attitude here. 1:26:53.520 --> 1:26:55.519 And then there's another part of me that's saying, all right, Bill, 1:26:55.600 --> 1:26:58.960 here's your chance to, here's your chance to you know, yeah, 1:26:59.280 --> 1:27:02.120 it exact before you do, right off into the sunset. 1:27:03.040 --> 1:27:05.840 Okay, I'd have said this one hundred times. You laughed. Again, 1:27:07.320 --> 1:27:09.120 he didn't do it by it was twelve. It was 1:27:09.160 --> 1:27:12.840 twelve the whole time. Twelve gone twelve won Super Bowl 1:27:12.920 --> 1:27:15.000 without him. And look where we're at now. 1:27:15.120 --> 1:27:19.000 I know, I know, I know, I listened. You can document. 1:27:19.320 --> 1:27:20.800 I know it's not an argument. You're right. 1:27:21.360 --> 1:27:26.080 And every time, like I said before, All Pro Quarterback League, 1:27:26.600 --> 1:27:28.800 that coach still there, it takes their team five to 1:27:28.840 --> 1:27:31.639 ten years get back to something. Body later sometime later, 1:27:32.040 --> 1:27:33.280 Dallas ain't got back yet. 1:27:34.360 --> 1:27:35.160 That's true. 1:27:35.080 --> 1:27:38.680 Yeah, that's NFL facts. There's nothing else to make it up. 1:27:38.720 --> 1:27:41.519 That's the NFL fact. Even the greatest one got fired, 1:27:42.200 --> 1:27:48.920 you know, uh Shuler, Tom Landry Raft, their quarterback gone. 1:27:48.960 --> 1:27:51.960 They all yeah, yeah, they all meant the same thing. 1:27:52.160 --> 1:27:54.800 Yeah, record like this, Yeah, same fate. They can't get 1:27:54.840 --> 1:27:56.840 back to the winning Wait right, it was that guy 1:27:57.240 --> 1:28:00.519 and Brady brought Brady made everybody circle the wagon. That's 1:28:00.560 --> 1:28:02.680 one thing we ain't got in Dongland right now. That 1:28:02.800 --> 1:28:05.440 might make everybody accountable covered. 1:28:05.160 --> 1:28:06.840 The wagon, That's true. 1:28:06.880 --> 1:28:07.680 We don't have that now. 1:28:07.840 --> 1:28:09.760 No, Well, I would tend to agree with that, which 1:28:09.760 --> 1:28:13.680 is why I would be, you know, uh, cautiously optimistic, 1:28:13.840 --> 1:28:17.640 very cautiously optimistic over you know, letting Bill have the 1:28:18.000 --> 1:28:20.160 reins to it all. Eldred. I love your brother and 1:28:20.240 --> 1:28:22.479 thank you. You'd be safe out on the road. Claire 1:28:22.520 --> 1:28:24.640 in the UK, Nice to talk to you, Claire. How 1:28:24.680 --> 1:28:26.200 are you hey? 1:28:26.280 --> 1:28:26.559 Ricky? 1:28:26.600 --> 1:28:27.320 Hen Marie? 1:28:27.439 --> 1:28:29.719 Hey girl? What's happening? 1:28:31.520 --> 1:28:31.800 Oh? 1:28:31.880 --> 1:28:34.320 You know, busy, busy, all these things staying up late 1:28:34.400 --> 1:28:37.200 waiting for the trade deadline being hired today, I'm over 1:28:37.280 --> 1:28:38.040 caffeinated and. 1:28:39.640 --> 1:28:40.280 In the sleep. 1:28:40.720 --> 1:28:44.320 So what was your initial impression of doing nothing at 1:28:44.320 --> 1:28:47.360 the trade deadline? Were you that devastated or or what. 1:28:47.720 --> 1:28:49.840 Oh no, I was actually kidding. 1:28:49.840 --> 1:28:51.880 I didn't actually stay wait just for that. I just 1:28:51.880 --> 1:28:52.960 don't speaking today. 1:28:53.080 --> 1:28:54.040 But no, I was. 1:28:54.120 --> 1:28:57.519 I was fine because my concern was that they were 1:28:57.520 --> 1:29:01.280 going to sell off pieces that I've feel and necessary 1:29:01.360 --> 1:29:04.600 to build a core like for the future. Maybe not 1:29:04.880 --> 1:29:08.080 these elite, sparkly players that people sort of you know, 1:29:08.800 --> 1:29:11.360 the playmakers or the weapons the people like to say, 1:29:11.439 --> 1:29:15.439 but the core that you need, the stability, the strengths, 1:29:15.520 --> 1:29:19.479 the backbone of a team, the reliability in the likes 1:29:19.479 --> 1:29:24.360 of Dugger and Petters and Punter Henry Mike Conway knew, 1:29:25.040 --> 1:29:25.800 those sorts of. 1:29:27.479 --> 1:29:30.639 Key players that you still need. 1:29:30.720 --> 1:29:32.439 So I'm glad that they didn't sell off those. 1:29:32.479 --> 1:29:32.840 So I was. 1:29:33.040 --> 1:29:35.040 I was completely fine. 1:29:35.160 --> 1:29:37.439 The lack of activity, yeah, and I kind of I 1:29:37.479 --> 1:29:40.000 kind of was too. I mean, that's that's really how 1:29:40.080 --> 1:29:42.040 I looked at it, And more so, you know, from 1:29:42.080 --> 1:29:44.040 a snarky point of view, like, well, who the hell 1:29:44.080 --> 1:29:45.479 are they going to trade? Who wants some of these 1:29:45.479 --> 1:29:47.519 guys the way that they're playing right now, But at 1:29:47.520 --> 1:29:49.439 the same time trying to look at it as a business, 1:29:49.520 --> 1:29:51.439 I'm kind of like, well, no, because what you really 1:29:51.520 --> 1:29:54.080 need to do is you need to determine what you 1:29:54.280 --> 1:29:56.439 have on down the road and whether or somebody is 1:29:56.439 --> 1:30:00.200 worth keeping. And because you have to have some on 1:30:00.200 --> 1:30:02.720 the team, you can't just you can't just have a 1:30:02.720 --> 1:30:04.960 fire sale. You can't have a garage sale. You can't 1:30:05.000 --> 1:30:07.600 you know, just let everybody go for you know, a 1:30:07.640 --> 1:30:09.760 back of peanuts. You got to be able to have 1:30:09.840 --> 1:30:12.800 somebody that you can build around. Otherwise then you really 1:30:12.840 --> 1:30:15.880 haven't done your job. And I don't think the job 1:30:15.920 --> 1:30:18.240 that they've done has been that egregiously bad. I think 1:30:18.320 --> 1:30:20.760 this is, just, like I said earlier, a confluence of 1:30:20.800 --> 1:30:22.800 a lot of bad stuff that's happened kind of all 1:30:22.840 --> 1:30:25.360 at once. And the fact is is that you know, 1:30:25.720 --> 1:30:28.479 and we really tend to forget this, this was a 1:30:28.560 --> 1:30:31.000 tough schedule for this team to take this year. It's 1:30:31.040 --> 1:30:33.200 just the way that, you know, the dice rolled and 1:30:33.640 --> 1:30:35.800 the way that the schedule rotation came up, and how 1:30:36.000 --> 1:30:40.200 other teams have reformulated themselves. But just you combine the 1:30:40.200 --> 1:30:42.640 fact that you're still on the bounce back going up 1:30:42.680 --> 1:30:47.559 against teams who are extraordinarily good, and you put some 1:30:47.640 --> 1:30:49.760 injury in that, you put a lot of indecision, and 1:30:49.800 --> 1:30:53.000 you put some some lack of development, and yeah, probably 1:30:53.040 --> 1:30:56.040 some poor coaching or poor decision making whatever on there. 1:30:56.080 --> 1:30:57.840 And it's just it's been a little of this and 1:30:57.880 --> 1:30:59.479 a little of that, and it's just become a real 1:30:59.479 --> 1:31:03.360 big mudd bye, is what it's become. And so now 1:31:03.400 --> 1:31:05.840 how do you fix this issue? Well, let's just take 1:31:05.880 --> 1:31:08.559 it one step at a time, because the coach ain't 1:31:08.600 --> 1:31:12.280 going anywhere. Although listen, I guess mister kraf could pull 1:31:12.400 --> 1:31:14.280 Mark Davis and decide to you know, haul off and 1:31:14.600 --> 1:31:16.360 firehim at one am. But I think, you know, we'd 1:31:16.360 --> 1:31:19.400 all be extraordinarily surprised. I'm not surprised that happened, you know, 1:31:19.439 --> 1:31:22.120 with Vegas, because that's just who the Davis family is, 1:31:22.360 --> 1:31:24.760 and it was that way when his dad owned the team. 1:31:24.880 --> 1:31:28.519 So but you know, I don't know if the Patriots 1:31:28.520 --> 1:31:31.439 went two and fourteen, two and fifteen, if they lost 1:31:31.479 --> 1:31:35.280 the rest of them, could that possibly happen? I'd say, maybe, sure, 1:31:35.720 --> 1:31:38.880 I don't think that's gonna happen. What's that? 1:31:39.760 --> 1:31:43.479 I think it depends on the circumstance. If if they are. 1:31:43.560 --> 1:31:46.720 What you said two and fourteen and so, well, it's 1:31:46.800 --> 1:31:51.080 because they have been testing out all their young players 1:31:51.120 --> 1:31:55.120 they've been trying to establish what works in the offense, 1:31:55.160 --> 1:31:57.880 what doesn't work, what works on the defense, what doesn't. 1:31:57.640 --> 1:31:58.760 Work, who works. 1:31:58.960 --> 1:32:02.360 I think if we've got a losing season to that significance, 1:32:02.600 --> 1:32:07.880 but something is going on as in development trial, then 1:32:08.120 --> 1:32:11.719 maybe it's not quoe his head on the chopping block. 1:32:11.760 --> 1:32:13.960 As if it was a case of it appeared that 1:32:13.960 --> 1:32:16.160 they were trying to play their best football and they 1:32:16.160 --> 1:32:20.040 were just shocking. But like you said, I think the 1:32:20.439 --> 1:32:22.840 big key with the offense, I think all that well, 1:32:22.920 --> 1:32:25.400 the team as a whole is they've really looked out 1:32:25.439 --> 1:32:29.679 this season with injury. All the injuries, the significant injuries 1:32:29.680 --> 1:32:32.120 come in sort of at the same time, and the 1:32:32.160 --> 1:32:34.320 O line not being able to have time. 1:32:34.439 --> 1:32:35.679 You've got guys going. 1:32:35.479 --> 1:32:38.479 In and out with injury, so they can't work together 1:32:38.520 --> 1:32:41.280 as a cohesive unit because the one goes out with injury, 1:32:41.320 --> 1:32:44.080 then he comes back, but then another one goes out. 1:32:44.200 --> 1:32:47.040 That's the thing, and it's just you put in that 1:32:47.160 --> 1:32:50.479 kind of crumbling wall in front of a quarterbacks that 1:32:50.479 --> 1:32:53.920 have spent the last three years going through I don't know, 1:32:53.960 --> 1:32:57.439 the washing cycle of ups and downs and differentness and 1:32:57.520 --> 1:32:58.040 different that. 1:32:59.040 --> 1:33:01.040 If you looked at if he stepped back. 1:33:00.880 --> 1:33:03.240 And wasn't a Patriots Sam and looked at that on 1:33:03.400 --> 1:33:06.680 payper and said, this is what happened to the quarterback. 1:33:06.360 --> 1:33:09.040 This is what they did on coaches, this is what. 1:33:08.960 --> 1:33:10.880 Is happening with all the O line, and now these 1:33:10.880 --> 1:33:13.040 are all the injuries that they've got. How would you 1:33:13.080 --> 1:33:15.880 look at that as a list and say, oh, that 1:33:15.960 --> 1:33:19.679 team could be successful regardless of like who the coach isn't. 1:33:19.520 --> 1:33:20.000 Eat by that? 1:33:21.439 --> 1:33:25.640 Yep, yep, it's my point. Yeah, I mean, you know, 1:33:26.200 --> 1:33:28.679 it causes you to stop and think. You know, listen, 1:33:29.520 --> 1:33:32.800 I'm I've been doing a lot of thinking about this 1:33:32.880 --> 1:33:35.280 a lot lately and in trying to sort of pinpoint, 1:33:35.320 --> 1:33:38.160 you know, what's the next best step to take. I mean, 1:33:38.520 --> 1:33:41.160 and granted it's above my pay grade, but I mean, 1:33:41.560 --> 1:33:44.320 for the first thing that that I got to do 1:33:44.479 --> 1:33:46.800 is I got to figure out is there anybody on 1:33:46.840 --> 1:33:49.960 this thing worth keeping? Is there anybody right now? 1:33:50.439 --> 1:33:53.080 I think that's key. I think that's that's why it's 1:33:53.120 --> 1:33:53.880 so frustrating. 1:33:54.200 --> 1:33:57.160 I think there's there's plenty there that could be successful. 1:33:57.240 --> 1:34:00.439 It's just you can't get everything to work together because 1:34:00.439 --> 1:34:04.479 there's there's always something in the way, like an injury 1:34:04.840 --> 1:34:05.320 or something. 1:34:05.640 --> 1:34:07.800 Well, that's that certainly, injury is a big part of it. 1:34:07.840 --> 1:34:11.000 You're you're absolutely right, uh, and that sort of stunts 1:34:11.000 --> 1:34:13.840 the growth and the comeback effort and and all that stuff. 1:34:13.880 --> 1:34:17.400 So uh, you know, I just you know, you're not 1:34:17.400 --> 1:34:19.519 going to be able to do it all right away 1:34:20.880 --> 1:34:23.160 when you want it done. It's it's going to be 1:34:23.200 --> 1:34:27.439 a long, laborious process, and you know it. And I 1:34:27.479 --> 1:34:30.240 think it, honestly, I think it starts this weekend with Washington. 1:34:30.240 --> 1:34:33.519 I really do. I mean, I'm not so much. I mean, yeah, 1:34:33.760 --> 1:34:36.400 everybody wants to win. You don't want to lose because 1:34:36.400 --> 1:34:38.160 this is a bottom line business and you have to 1:34:38.200 --> 1:34:41.200 win games and ultimately to be successful. But at the 1:34:41.240 --> 1:34:45.519 same time, I think Bill avoids, you know, any extra 1:34:45.600 --> 1:34:48.960 scrutiny if this team wins number one, but number two 1:34:49.000 --> 1:34:53.200 is just playing better. If you see execution, if you 1:34:53.320 --> 1:34:56.120 see things that you know, frankly should have been taken 1:34:56.160 --> 1:34:58.439 care of back in August but weren't. But if at 1:34:58.520 --> 1:35:00.639 least you're seeing them and you can feel better about 1:35:00.640 --> 1:35:02.720 this team, you know, before all of a sudden done 1:35:02.720 --> 1:35:04.760 this year, then yeah, I think that saves his job. 1:35:04.760 --> 1:35:06.559 And I think this team you know, begins to take 1:35:06.600 --> 1:35:08.200 a big leap forward because they're going to have, you know, 1:35:08.240 --> 1:35:10.599 the monetary wherewithal to be able to do that next 1:35:10.680 --> 1:35:12.920 year with the salary cap and the money that they've 1:35:12.920 --> 1:35:14.559 saved under the cap and all that kind of stuff. 1:35:14.640 --> 1:35:17.280 So you know, you can see where there is an 1:35:17.320 --> 1:35:21.599 opportunity to potentially fix it. But you know, everybody wants 1:35:21.600 --> 1:35:24.000 it fixed now right away. Everybody wants mac Jones to 1:35:24.040 --> 1:35:26.960 be the first round draft pick Mac Jones. But the 1:35:27.040 --> 1:35:29.240 problem is is that we can't erase what happened to 1:35:29.280 --> 1:35:32.000 him last year. We can't erase what's happened to him 1:35:32.040 --> 1:35:35.240 this year. He deserves to have a learning curve. It's 1:35:35.240 --> 1:35:37.960 been a little steeper than anybody would like. And then 1:35:38.120 --> 1:35:40.360 he's got others around him that have not performed up 1:35:40.400 --> 1:35:45.200 to their capabilities, either receiver, running back, especially the offensive 1:35:45.240 --> 1:35:47.719 line because those are the guys blocking. And so naturally 1:35:47.760 --> 1:35:50.080 he gets all the vitriol and all the anger and 1:35:50.120 --> 1:35:51.840 all the hate and all the you know, the the 1:35:51.920 --> 1:35:55.519 venom spewed outed him because he's the focal point. And 1:35:55.600 --> 1:35:59.280 yet it's not just him, it's everybody else, you know 1:35:59.320 --> 1:36:01.720 that's included here. And so I think we have to 1:36:01.760 --> 1:36:03.840 try to put at least a little bit more perspective 1:36:03.920 --> 1:36:06.200 on this thing and say, wait a second, let's just 1:36:06.400 --> 1:36:09.200 let's pick this thing apart slowly and take our time 1:36:09.520 --> 1:36:11.800 in getting it right, because you don't want to make 1:36:11.840 --> 1:36:14.760 a change just to make a change. And that was 1:36:14.800 --> 1:36:17.880 what I was most afraid of at the trade deadline. 1:36:18.160 --> 1:36:21.200 The trade then they're going to let somebody go, and 1:36:21.240 --> 1:36:23.120 they let somebody go just because we feel like we 1:36:23.160 --> 1:36:23.920 got to give one away. 1:36:23.920 --> 1:36:24.240 Here we go. 1:36:24.479 --> 1:36:26.679 We gotta sacrifice, you know, a virgin to the volcano 1:36:26.760 --> 1:36:28.639 or whatever it is that you got to do these days. 1:36:28.720 --> 1:36:31.919 And and no, that's not the right way to rebuild 1:36:31.960 --> 1:36:34.920 a team. You've got to remember what this is all 1:36:34.960 --> 1:36:37.240 about and where this team has been, where this organization 1:36:37.280 --> 1:36:39.400 has been. If you're going to use any of your 1:36:39.439 --> 1:36:42.400 track record, you know, as a template as a blueprint 1:36:42.400 --> 1:36:45.240 for building again, maybe this. 1:36:45.280 --> 1:36:46.040 Is the first step. 1:36:46.400 --> 1:36:49.360 The lack of movement at the trades, the lack of 1:36:50.160 --> 1:36:54.040 panic style or whatever. Yeah, the staying fixed and then 1:36:54.040 --> 1:36:58.120 looking internally to like, actually we won't get rid of Joshua. 1:36:58.479 --> 1:37:01.680 I know people were sort of maybe this is the 1:37:01.760 --> 1:37:05.799 first step. Maybe they are finally getting to that especially 1:37:05.880 --> 1:37:08.680 after the win against the Bill, how successful and the 1:37:08.760 --> 1:37:09.920 momentum was. 1:37:10.120 --> 1:37:11.240 We saw this team. 1:37:11.760 --> 1:37:14.080 That's why it was so frustrating to watch the Miami game. 1:37:14.160 --> 1:37:17.360 Was but hang on a second, where's the team that 1:37:17.400 --> 1:37:20.280 we still play against Buffalo? Hang on, where's the momentum 1:37:20.280 --> 1:37:21.880 that we saw against buffow We saw it. 1:37:21.880 --> 1:37:22.400 We all saw it. 1:37:22.600 --> 1:37:24.759 Yeah, we did see it. And in granted, they didn't 1:37:24.840 --> 1:37:28.120 play great against Buffalo, but it was certainly their best 1:37:28.160 --> 1:37:30.120 game of the year, and it was a step in 1:37:30.160 --> 1:37:32.320 the right direction. And I would tell you that, you know, 1:37:32.360 --> 1:37:35.360 we didn't see that for two reasons last week against Miami, 1:37:35.760 --> 1:37:38.280 largely because a I think Miami is a better team 1:37:38.360 --> 1:37:42.439 number one, at number two, a faulted team, a team 1:37:42.479 --> 1:37:44.639 full of fault is going to take one step forward 1:37:44.640 --> 1:37:46.680 and two steps back until they figure out how to 1:37:46.720 --> 1:37:50.400 correct it. Claire, I appreciate your time, you know, and 1:37:50.680 --> 1:37:52.400 the phone call today. It's always good to talk to you. 1:37:53.080 --> 1:37:54.880 It's just it's not a problem that's going to get 1:37:54.920 --> 1:37:57.960 solved right away. We saw, as you said, what happened 1:37:58.800 --> 1:38:02.680 against Buffalo, and then we saw what happened last week 1:38:02.720 --> 1:38:06.559 at Miami, and you know, I just think Miami is 1:38:06.560 --> 1:38:09.760 a bad matchup Buffalo is a better matchup, and it's 1:38:09.800 --> 1:38:12.840 okay to say that team has you beat in personnel. 1:38:13.240 --> 1:38:16.280 The Patriots need to strive to where they're no longer 1:38:16.400 --> 1:38:20.560 beaten in personnel. But we're not gonna get there tomorrow. 1:38:22.320 --> 1:38:24.240 That's really the bottom line I think of this whole thing. 1:38:26.040 --> 1:38:28.400 A real woman could stop you from drinking. 1:38:29.120 --> 1:38:30.320 That's a big woman. 1:38:30.720 --> 1:38:33.759 It's time to go around the NFL with football guru 1:38:33.840 --> 1:38:34.639 Russell Baxter. 1:38:34.920 --> 1:38:42.120 Now the name is flounder on Patriots playbook. Did you 1:38:42.240 --> 1:38:45.320 dress this flounder for Halloween last night? Russell? 1:38:46.439 --> 1:38:48.360 No, I want it. 1:38:53.320 --> 1:38:58.880 Right, I got it, and you were stuffed. Of course 1:38:58.920 --> 1:39:02.320 you were. My flat of soul is always stuffed. I 1:39:02.360 --> 1:39:03.080 know exactly. 1:39:03.560 --> 1:39:03.680 So. 1:39:03.840 --> 1:39:05.600 Uh so, what was the candy of choice in the 1:39:05.640 --> 1:39:06.920 Baxter household? 1:39:07.640 --> 1:39:10.040 Well, you know it's it's funny in my neighborhood. This 1:39:10.120 --> 1:39:11.160 is gonna sound very odd. 1:39:12.240 --> 1:39:13.760 I've it to my cyber. 1:39:13.479 --> 1:39:15.760 Candy in the second. We don't get it. We don't 1:39:15.800 --> 1:39:17.440 get a lot of trick er teeters. 1:39:17.080 --> 1:39:18.519 John, Yeah, yeah, we didn't neither. 1:39:18.560 --> 1:39:21.040 This year. Happened to live in the street that has 1:39:21.080 --> 1:39:22.639 no sidewalks. 1:39:22.800 --> 1:39:24.240 Right, okay, same here. 1:39:24.320 --> 1:39:28.759 Yeah, you know, people don't. It's hard for the kids 1:39:29.040 --> 1:39:32.080 in our neighborhood. They go around the corner and all 1:39:32.120 --> 1:39:35.439 that stuff, which is what we used to do when 1:39:36.120 --> 1:39:42.360 when when we had our young' and but my favorite choice, 1:39:42.400 --> 1:39:45.280 I see, I like to go for healthy candy. And 1:39:45.360 --> 1:39:52.240 I've always insisted that Almond Joy has fiber because the coconuts. 1:39:51.520 --> 1:39:56.720 Spreaded put the lime in the cookie nut. Yeah, I 1:39:56.760 --> 1:39:57.600 will also think that. 1:39:57.720 --> 1:40:00.640 You can't get these are tough to get. No, But 1:40:00.800 --> 1:40:05.280 my mother's favorite favorite candy, and I'm a big thing too, 1:40:05.400 --> 1:40:07.599 is something called gold Boots peanut shoes. 1:40:08.520 --> 1:40:10.200 We've talked about this before. 1:40:10.120 --> 1:40:13.120 Yes, we had for twenty three years and I got 1:40:13.160 --> 1:40:13.840 We've talked about it. 1:40:15.479 --> 1:40:18.360 But those peanut shoes, I've looked. I can't find them anywhere. 1:40:18.400 --> 1:40:19.719 Did they make them anymore? 1:40:20.439 --> 1:40:24.439 Yeah? They did know they still make them. Where was 1:40:24.720 --> 1:40:26.240 you know? I was coming back from the Hall of 1:40:26.280 --> 1:40:29.840 Fame and I stopped up in Pennsylvania to meet up 1:40:29.880 --> 1:40:32.519 with a friend of mine, Stephanie Kotche, who's one of 1:40:32.560 --> 1:40:37.040 the people who helped run football Past and presence seriously 1:40:37.120 --> 1:40:41.080 on Facebook, along with Kelly Morey and Roger Jackson, who 1:40:41.120 --> 1:40:42.439 I used to work with at ESPN. 1:40:42.520 --> 1:40:43.160 The magazine. 1:40:43.200 --> 1:40:43.679 We're doing. 1:40:43.920 --> 1:40:46.599 We're doing very well. We're getting here. Fourteen hundred people, 1:40:47.120 --> 1:40:49.640 a lot of people I know, and so on, and 1:40:50.120 --> 1:40:55.080 I put your stuff on there as well. But anyway, 1:40:55.160 --> 1:40:58.760 she took me to a place and I think it's 1:40:58.960 --> 1:41:05.479 called Grandpa Joe's Candy Store, and it had everything from 1:41:05.600 --> 1:41:10.240 like the last one hundred years. And meanwhile, uh, they 1:41:10.400 --> 1:41:14.280 run Willie Wonka in the chocolate factory on a continuous stream, 1:41:14.360 --> 1:41:18.439 because that's you know, Jack Albertson's character was Grandpa Joe 1:41:19.600 --> 1:41:21.880 might be the name of the store, but I was. 1:41:22.040 --> 1:41:23.880 We were in there for an hour, and you know, 1:41:23.960 --> 1:41:26.479 it's like a blast in the past, but all the 1:41:26.560 --> 1:41:29.599 older candy and different things like that, and so and 1:41:29.680 --> 1:41:31.720 so they were in there, of course they were Do. 1:41:31.720 --> 1:41:34.679 They have necho Do they have nechl wafers in there? 1:41:36.240 --> 1:41:36.479 Oh? 1:41:36.520 --> 1:41:42.519 Absolutely yes, John, I'm telling you everything. Everything was in there, 1:41:42.560 --> 1:41:46.680 anything from your past, bubble gums and you know, the 1:41:46.720 --> 1:41:48.160 old packaging. 1:41:47.880 --> 1:41:52.080 And the little wax the little wax coat bottles. Yep, yeah, 1:41:52.640 --> 1:41:59.600 those two everything, the cinnamon jawbreakers. Ask ask marine about jawbreakers. 1:42:00.280 --> 1:42:01.240 They had dawbreakers. 1:42:02.800 --> 1:42:03.960 They will break your jaw. 1:42:04.800 --> 1:42:06.960 And they will break your jaw. It's exactly right. 1:42:08.160 --> 1:42:10.240 He cracked half a tooth and it went up in 1:42:10.280 --> 1:42:12.519 his skull. That's why he that's why he missed here 1:42:12.560 --> 1:42:14.479 a week or two ago, because he had to, you know, 1:42:14.520 --> 1:42:18.280 go have his tooth extracted, emergency dental surgery off a jawbreaker. 1:42:18.400 --> 1:42:21.880 Can you believe that? Yes, really and truly because he 1:42:21.960 --> 1:42:24.360 tried to bite a jawbreaker. It'd be a tough guy 1:42:24.400 --> 1:42:28.120 for my kids. Yeah, yeah, who was laughing? Then look 1:42:28.160 --> 1:42:33.920 at daddy, big tough marine. Yeah, there we go. All right, 1:42:34.000 --> 1:42:35.880 I can eat again. You come in and hit that 1:42:35.920 --> 1:42:40.759 candy box tonight. I love it. I absolutely love it. Russell. 1:42:41.320 --> 1:42:46.400 As you probably well know, there's still some consternation, you know, 1:42:46.439 --> 1:42:49.759 around these parts because of the Patriots lack of movement 1:42:50.479 --> 1:42:53.479 around the trade deadline. And to me, the tradeline deadline 1:42:53.520 --> 1:42:55.760 is is it's kind of like trick or treat, and 1:42:55.760 --> 1:42:59.160 it's mostly trick except for maybe one, maybe two teams 1:42:59.160 --> 1:43:01.880 if you're fortunate. But I just I don't know that 1:43:01.920 --> 1:43:04.320 there's it's it's there's a lot of there's a lot 1:43:04.320 --> 1:43:07.719 of risk and very little reward for for most teams 1:43:07.760 --> 1:43:11.240 around the NFL. And so I'm wondering if the better 1:43:11.280 --> 1:43:13.720 part of valor here is just to kind of you know, 1:43:14.960 --> 1:43:17.120 hold hold your hold your hand, you know, to too 1:43:17.160 --> 1:43:20.080 close to your vest, and not make moves simply because 1:43:20.920 --> 1:43:23.680 unless you know specifically the kind of move you need 1:43:23.720 --> 1:43:26.200 to make to put you over the edge and maybe 1:43:26.240 --> 1:43:28.599 give you an advantage if you're making a playoff push, 1:43:28.800 --> 1:43:31.280 why would you make it? Oh? 1:43:31.360 --> 1:43:34.920 I agree, Listen, That's the thing that's so much fun about, 1:43:35.800 --> 1:43:40.400 first off, the game of football. First off is the 1:43:40.400 --> 1:43:42.559 fact that there are so many ways to win and 1:43:42.600 --> 1:43:46.960 score points. Okay, this idea of the notion that I 1:43:47.080 --> 1:43:51.040 keep hearing from certain people is that quote unquote is 1:43:51.040 --> 1:43:56.160 all about the quarterback. It's now unoffensively, it's now that 1:43:56.320 --> 1:43:59.760 those are people who have come up with this too 1:44:00.640 --> 1:44:04.120 push their own narrative because they just want to talk 1:44:04.160 --> 1:44:07.679 about quarterbacks. Now, John, you and I have been watching 1:44:07.680 --> 1:44:11.759 football for a long time, and I've heard you talking 1:44:11.800 --> 1:44:14.400 with Claire. I mean, what the hell is a quarterback 1:44:14.439 --> 1:44:15.639 without an all offensive line? 1:44:15.880 --> 1:44:16.120 Yeah? 1:44:16.640 --> 1:44:20.320 Yeah, okay, what the hell is a quarterback without? This 1:44:20.840 --> 1:44:27.200 is not gandball. Okay. The idea that some people want 1:44:27.280 --> 1:44:30.160 to talk about this game in this day and age 1:44:30.240 --> 1:44:33.799 and still not understand the team concept of it boggles 1:44:33.880 --> 1:44:36.479 my mind, Okay, but I understand why they do it. 1:44:36.680 --> 1:44:41.440 You know, there's ratings and you know what I call laziness, 1:44:41.760 --> 1:44:46.760 and so watch this league. Okay, if that was true, 1:44:47.040 --> 1:44:51.599 why isn't Patrick Mahomes lighting it up this year? Okay? 1:44:52.160 --> 1:44:55.639 Because he's clearly the best quarterback in the league by 1:44:55.720 --> 1:45:00.040 general consensus. Okay. And I'm sure the Denver Blocks so 1:45:00.360 --> 1:45:06.160 joy playing against them last week because they are devoided 1:45:06.240 --> 1:45:11.080 weapons and they do make mistakes, and and the Chiefs, 1:45:11.120 --> 1:45:14.880 like you know, I'll use my Fredama line last week's 1:45:14.920 --> 1:45:18.479 five turnovers against the Denver Broncos, a team they had 1:45:18.520 --> 1:45:24.240 beaten sixteen times in a row. Okay, So it's more 1:45:24.280 --> 1:45:27.160 than just the quarterback. And listen, we got it. If 1:45:27.160 --> 1:45:28.880 you're going to do quarterbacks, got a hell of a 1:45:28.920 --> 1:45:32.000 matchup in Germany this week with the Chiefs and the Dolphins. 1:45:32.320 --> 1:45:35.000 We'll get to that, I'm sure later as well. But 1:45:37.439 --> 1:45:42.000 you have a lot of holes and you couldn't address 1:45:42.040 --> 1:45:44.040 them during the off season. What makes you think that 1:45:44.360 --> 1:45:47.880 in the like a couple of days span, you're going 1:45:47.920 --> 1:45:51.120 to be able to do so? And first off, or 1:45:51.240 --> 1:45:53.640 probably more importantly, you know, I hear a lot of 1:45:53.640 --> 1:45:55.479 people talk about why they didn't do this and they 1:45:55.520 --> 1:45:58.160 didn't do that. First off, you don't know if the 1:45:58.600 --> 1:46:02.960 team didn't try to make a move. Okay, true, true, 1:46:03.280 --> 1:46:06.200 Just because you want somebody doesn't mean the team's going 1:46:06.280 --> 1:46:07.640 to make him available. 1:46:07.360 --> 1:46:11.120 Right, And that's that's what everybody seems to fail to realize. 1:46:11.160 --> 1:46:13.479 I mean when I, you know, hear trade possibilities, well, 1:46:13.479 --> 1:46:15.040 they could have traded this guy for that guy, or 1:46:15.040 --> 1:46:17.120 why don't you get so and so to trade, you know, 1:46:17.200 --> 1:46:18.880 for so and so on, And I'm like, Okay, that's 1:46:18.920 --> 1:46:21.080 all sounds good on paper, but what if the team 1:46:21.120 --> 1:46:23.200 doesn't want to trade number one? 1:46:24.240 --> 1:46:27.960 But let's just say you and I are playing poker, okay, 1:46:28.479 --> 1:46:33.400 and I have an eighth king Queen and a ten 1:46:33.680 --> 1:46:36.680 mm hmm and an eight? Is it all right if 1:46:36.680 --> 1:46:38.120 I look over and you said, listen, do you have 1:46:38.160 --> 1:46:39.120 a jack can spare? 1:46:39.400 --> 1:46:43.799 Yeah? Right, Yeah, that's that's what way trade. Yeah, trades 1:46:43.840 --> 1:46:46.479 are they just I mean, I'm like, you know, and 1:46:46.479 --> 1:46:48.800 and you know, I use my buddy Eldred as an 1:46:48.800 --> 1:46:50.519 example here. I mean, what he had to say made 1:46:50.560 --> 1:46:53.200 a lot of sense, but at the same time, it 1:46:53.280 --> 1:46:55.360 had about three or four layers to it. I mean, 1:46:55.680 --> 1:46:57.880 you can't even get through one layer in the trade 1:46:57.880 --> 1:47:00.160 barely much less three or four are if they do this, 1:47:00.240 --> 1:47:01.800 then they go and do this, and then they take 1:47:01.840 --> 1:47:03.640 that and they move it over here and they do this, 1:47:03.720 --> 1:47:05.320 and I'm like, well, wha, wha, wha wah. Wait a second, 1:47:05.400 --> 1:47:07.040 what are we doing here? We're putting together a five 1:47:07.080 --> 1:47:09.800 hundred word jigsaw puzzles? Fine, repeace jigsaw puzzle? What are 1:47:09.840 --> 1:47:13.000 we doing? That's not what this is. You can't do 1:47:13.120 --> 1:47:16.320 it like that. It doesn't work like that, right, And 1:47:16.360 --> 1:47:18.000 nobody understands that. 1:47:18.320 --> 1:47:21.320 If you add a player, by the way, you're getting 1:47:21.920 --> 1:47:25.240 rid of a player. Yeah, okay, because you have to 1:47:25.280 --> 1:47:28.719 maintain your roster according to the rules, not the rules 1:47:28.720 --> 1:47:31.479 of your best friends, but the rules of the National 1:47:31.479 --> 1:47:37.880 Football League. So listen, we have seen the trade market 1:47:37.880 --> 1:47:42.639 accelerate over the last couple of years. And we're talking 1:47:42.640 --> 1:47:46.080 about the mid season one. A lot of trades, obviously 1:47:46.120 --> 1:47:48.880 we know take place in April, you know, March and April, 1:47:50.280 --> 1:47:54.720 even before things begin. But it's like, and listen, we 1:47:54.760 --> 1:47:56.599 know what the Raiders just did and so on. 1:47:56.800 --> 1:47:58.080 Yeah, I'm just gonna ask you about that. 1:47:58.200 --> 1:48:02.360 Yeah, and whatever, whatever's deeply going on in that. But 1:48:03.040 --> 1:48:05.760 I will also remind sick and I heard somebody go 1:48:05.800 --> 1:48:08.280 on a rant today. Well it's another Belichick. This cycle 1:48:08.400 --> 1:48:12.479 failed and so on. Listen, Josh McDaniels has made his 1:48:12.560 --> 1:48:14.760 own bed. He's been fired twice as a coach. He 1:48:15.439 --> 1:48:17.120 was supposed to go to the Colts and never did, 1:48:17.200 --> 1:48:20.320 et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Okay, but you know 1:48:20.320 --> 1:48:24.559 I did a little math. Okay, if you include the 1:48:24.600 --> 1:48:31.120 playoffs going back to two thousand and three, the Raiders 1:48:31.120 --> 1:48:34.880 are one hundred and four games under five hundred. Now 1:48:35.000 --> 1:48:40.720 is that, Josh McDaniels, where the turnstyle of personnel? It's 1:48:40.760 --> 1:48:44.160 Mark Davis a dysfunctional. 1:48:43.439 --> 1:48:46.280 Or it's Mark Davis and he and he pulled the 1:48:46.320 --> 1:48:49.200 plug before this this regime ever really got a chance 1:48:49.240 --> 1:48:51.720 to get going. And that's that's that's the that's the 1:48:51.800 --> 1:48:53.120 ridiculous part of all of this. 1:48:54.120 --> 1:48:57.240 Well, John, they haven't won a division title since two 1:48:57.240 --> 1:48:59.880 thousand and two. Yeah, okay, they haven't want to play 1:49:00.040 --> 1:49:03.400 off game since two thousand and two. They've only been 1:49:03.439 --> 1:49:08.519 in the playoffs twice since two thousand and three. Okay, 1:49:08.720 --> 1:49:14.320 these are like old Tampa Bay Buccaneers type street. Okay, 1:49:14.960 --> 1:49:17.519 so it's you know, it's not just the recent stuff now, 1:49:18.000 --> 1:49:20.519 and you pile on the stuff that happened with Gruden 1:49:21.280 --> 1:49:26.080 and all that, and even before Mark obviously Al David Okay, 1:49:26.280 --> 1:49:28.920 god bless his soul and in the Pro Football Hall 1:49:28.960 --> 1:49:31.479 of Fame, but he was a different kind of GM 1:49:31.520 --> 1:49:36.400 and owner the last his latter stages of his life 1:49:36.800 --> 1:49:40.360 and so on. I think a lot less patient. So 1:49:40.479 --> 1:49:43.439 this is a team that has really or I should 1:49:43.439 --> 1:49:48.120 say a franchise that has really hit the skids. You know, 1:49:48.640 --> 1:49:51.240 I remember doing something early in this summer and just 1:49:51.280 --> 1:49:53.920 talking about like kind of the old school franchises from 1:49:53.920 --> 1:49:58.320 the seventies, and you know what a magical time that 1:49:58.560 --> 1:50:01.400 was and that you look, I mean, listen, the Dolphins 1:50:01.439 --> 1:50:04.040 are having a hell of a year, John, they ever 1:50:04.120 --> 1:50:05.599 want to play the games? This two SATs. 1:50:06.680 --> 1:50:08.400 That's crazy. You know, you don't even realize that. 1:50:08.479 --> 1:50:11.519 Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, So. 1:50:12.960 --> 1:50:13.360 It's funny. 1:50:13.800 --> 1:50:17.160 Here's here's so much. Well, Dallas has the NFC Championship 1:50:17.200 --> 1:50:19.439 Game and won the Super Bowl since nineteen ninety five. 1:50:20.600 --> 1:50:22.599 So the forty nine ers haven't won the Super Bowl 1:50:22.680 --> 1:50:24.040 since nineteen ninety four. 1:50:26.560 --> 1:50:29.280 Perspective, My friend, we had to put things in perspective. 1:50:29.960 --> 1:50:33.640 Listen, think, but think about this. The Dolphins are now 1:50:33.720 --> 1:50:36.880 on the fiftieth university of their lacks super Bowl tighter. 1:50:36.800 --> 1:50:37.759 Right correct. 1:50:38.080 --> 1:50:42.719 The Raiders are in the fortieth. That's nineteen seventy three 1:50:42.920 --> 1:50:45.679 for the Dolphins in nineteen eighty three for the Raiders. 1:50:45.760 --> 1:50:46.040 Raiders. 1:50:46.120 --> 1:50:49.479 Yeah, okay, So that's why you've got to appreciate what 1:50:49.960 --> 1:50:53.120 some of these franchises have been able to do. And listen, 1:50:53.920 --> 1:50:56.640 the Steelers were terrible for about forty years before they 1:50:56.680 --> 1:51:00.840 turned the corner. The Patriots were, they weren't so good, 1:51:01.560 --> 1:51:04.320 and then they've had their run as well. It is hard. 1:51:04.840 --> 1:51:07.800 I mean, this league is one hundred and four years old. 1:51:08.479 --> 1:51:13.799 We have still only had one franchise win three titles 1:51:13.800 --> 1:51:16.800 in a row. And the Packers did it before there 1:51:16.840 --> 1:51:19.800 was a postseason, and the Packers did it in the 1:51:19.840 --> 1:51:24.960 mid sixties. No teams won more than three NFL last 1:51:25.000 --> 1:51:29.000 Super Bowl titles in a row. Okay, no one's ever 1:51:29.040 --> 1:51:32.160 won three in a row during the Super Bowl era, right. So, 1:51:32.920 --> 1:51:35.000 and now we have free agency. I think that makes 1:51:35.040 --> 1:51:38.040 them even harder. There's more parody, there's more teams that 1:51:38.080 --> 1:51:40.120 are available to jump up. There's more teams team to 1:51:40.160 --> 1:51:42.679 go from to last to first. I mean, how bad 1:51:42.680 --> 1:51:45.559 were the the Texans the last couple of years. They 1:51:45.640 --> 1:51:49.040 win this week, they've already surpassed last seas windows. 1:51:49.200 --> 1:51:53.720 Yeah, right, half a year still ago, right exactly. Let's 1:51:53.800 --> 1:51:55.720 let's uh, you know, let's take a quick look down 1:51:55.760 --> 1:51:57.519 to the schedule this week. And I guess we could 1:51:57.560 --> 1:51:59.439 start with the game that's certainly you know, going to 1:51:59.479 --> 1:52:01.920 be in Germany because the Patriots will be there next 1:52:01.960 --> 1:52:03.880 week against the Colts. But you know, when you get 1:52:04.040 --> 1:52:06.960 the Dolphins and the Chiefs, you're probably talking about not 1:52:07.080 --> 1:52:08.880 just two of the best of the AFC and a 1:52:08.880 --> 1:52:12.360 potential you know, AFC kingpin surviving this one. You may 1:52:12.400 --> 1:52:14.200 be talking about two of the best teams in the 1:52:14.280 --> 1:52:17.880 NFL going at each other at the mid season point. 1:52:18.280 --> 1:52:21.120 Oh no, no question. But it's funny every team that 1:52:21.360 --> 1:52:25.439 leads their division in the AFC right now, don is 1:52:25.479 --> 1:52:31.160 six and two Jacksonville, Baltimore, Miami and Kansas City, which 1:52:31.200 --> 1:52:36.479 I is kind of interesting. And of course Miami and 1:52:36.600 --> 1:52:42.120 Kansas City. You've got the Tyreek Hill story, yep, who 1:52:42.280 --> 1:52:46.679 last week reached a thousand yards receiving in eight games, yep, 1:52:48.240 --> 1:52:51.360 and I know the other, but it's reminded me of 1:52:51.360 --> 1:52:54.280 West Chandler during the strike in eighty two when he 1:52:54.320 --> 1:52:57.360 had one thousand and thirty two yards. But Tyreek Hill 1:52:57.400 --> 1:52:59.760 already has more touchdown catches than he did all of 1:52:59.760 --> 1:53:02.519 Black last year, and last year he had a career 1:53:02.640 --> 1:53:07.120 year in terms of catches and receptions. You know, we 1:53:07.200 --> 1:53:10.640 might start here in two because there's been no at 1:53:10.720 --> 1:53:14.880 least in my opinion, there's been no quarterbacks this year 1:53:15.520 --> 1:53:19.840 jump off the starts as far as performance, they're really happening. 1:53:20.439 --> 1:53:25.000 I've seen guys with a lot of yards, okay, a 1:53:25.080 --> 1:53:28.240 love touch up, and I also see quarterbacks with their shirt. 1:53:28.280 --> 1:53:31.040 I mean, Lamar Jackson's had a great year running and passing, 1:53:31.080 --> 1:53:33.920 but he's started over with bullies. Now that's a product 1:53:33.960 --> 1:53:37.519 of what they do. And people focus on his lack 1:53:37.560 --> 1:53:40.240 of interceptions, but he's fumbled the ball away five times. 1:53:41.160 --> 1:53:44.519 So you've seen Jalen Hurts who's got a boatload more 1:53:44.600 --> 1:53:49.719 turnovers and he did all last season. So why couldn't 1:53:49.720 --> 1:53:53.040 we see somebody like and Prishian mccaffery's they banged up 1:53:53.080 --> 1:53:57.400 right now. But Tyreek Hill and A. J. Brown. You know, 1:53:57.680 --> 1:54:00.120 I'm not saying they're having Cooper Cup seasons from two 1:54:00.200 --> 1:54:02.840 years ago, but I don't think they're that far along. Yeah, 1:54:03.400 --> 1:54:06.120 so this could be a year we see something. And 1:54:06.240 --> 1:54:08.320 of course we've never seen a wide receiver of the MVP. 1:54:09.760 --> 1:54:12.320 So we've seen running backs, we've seen quarterbacks. We've even 1:54:12.360 --> 1:54:15.840 seen defensive players, right, like Allan Page in seventy one 1:54:15.880 --> 1:54:19.400 and Lawrence Taylor in eighty six. So a different kind 1:54:19.400 --> 1:54:23.479 of year. But hyree kill against his old team, that's 1:54:23.560 --> 1:54:26.840 gonna be pretty fascinating. Here, here's something that blows my mind. 1:54:26.880 --> 1:54:30.280 The Dolphins and the and listen, I know that the 1:54:30.320 --> 1:54:36.080 Broncos game against the Dolphins accelerate system middle. Ye, well, 1:54:36.080 --> 1:54:38.680 who would have thought that eight games into the season 1:54:39.800 --> 1:54:42.560 that the Miami Dolphins would have eighty four more points 1:54:42.560 --> 1:54:43.360 than the Chiefs. 1:54:45.480 --> 1:54:49.840 Yeah, I wouldn't have envisioned that. No, sure, that's that's 1:54:49.880 --> 1:54:51.400 a lot points. 1:54:51.040 --> 1:54:55.200 For game more. Yeah, and Kansasity's got a little turnover 1:54:55.240 --> 1:54:57.560 bug going as well. And I'm not here the bashing 1:54:57.640 --> 1:55:00.920 because they're they're winning a different way. They're better defensively 1:55:01.560 --> 1:55:05.920 than they have been, even though they're run defense low exposed, right, lastly, 1:55:06.120 --> 1:55:08.920 So this is gonna be very interesting because now you've 1:55:08.920 --> 1:55:13.720 got to start looking at these games with these teams 1:55:14.400 --> 1:55:17.400 obviously trying to win their division, but these head to 1:55:17.480 --> 1:55:21.080 heads among the leaders, because when we get down to it, 1:55:22.480 --> 1:55:25.880 you know who's going to be, say they tie, where's 1:55:25.960 --> 1:55:27.440 the game is going to be if they meet each 1:55:27.440 --> 1:55:33.240 other in the play right, even though there's another matchup 1:55:33.320 --> 1:55:36.640 in the AFC where they're the teams in first place 1:55:36.720 --> 1:55:40.080 right now? The Buffalo huge. 1:55:40.880 --> 1:55:42.320 Yeah, I was just going to ask you about that 1:55:42.360 --> 1:55:45.360 one Buffalo and Cincinnati and the other game that I 1:55:45.360 --> 1:55:47.680 think certainly is worth mentioning here we have a minute 1:55:47.760 --> 1:55:51.160 or two left, is Dallas playing at Philadelphia. Uh, you know, 1:55:51.480 --> 1:55:54.000 you know that's certainly gonna uh And it could very 1:55:54.040 --> 1:55:56.000 well be that the NFC East is also one of 1:55:56.040 --> 1:55:58.600 the stronger divisions that has been from top to bottom, 1:55:59.120 --> 1:56:01.040 you know, throughout the course of this this season. 1:56:01.480 --> 1:56:01.680 Uh. 1:56:01.680 --> 1:56:03.840 And I'm gonna I'm gonna throw Washington in there as well, 1:56:03.880 --> 1:56:06.360 because the Patriots get the Commanders this weekend. But I 1:56:06.680 --> 1:56:09.040 just you know, those two games, you know, are are 1:56:09.040 --> 1:56:11.000 bringing out I think that the cream of the crop, 1:56:11.040 --> 1:56:12.920 at least at the midway point in the season. 1:56:14.280 --> 1:56:17.240 Oh, I think it's a really dynamite plate this week. 1:56:17.720 --> 1:56:18.320 I really do. 1:56:18.440 --> 1:56:21.400 Because of that, what you get star power wise in 1:56:21.560 --> 1:56:24.840 terms of the Germany game and then the Sunday night 1:56:24.880 --> 1:56:28.600 game or actually Sunday afternoon late game, which is the 1:56:28.680 --> 1:56:32.240 Dallas Philly game, and of course you know Buffalo and Cincinnati. 1:56:32.400 --> 1:56:38.440 So yeah, it's huge, uh, and not in divisional games, 1:56:38.480 --> 1:56:42.320 but also within the conference game like the Miami, Kansas 1:56:42.360 --> 1:56:45.960 City is Jacksonville this week, Detroit's off. They're both leading 1:56:46.000 --> 1:56:49.560 their divisions and so on. But yeah, I think it's 1:56:49.800 --> 1:56:53.280 it's very interesting, and I'll be I'll be I can't 1:56:53.280 --> 1:56:55.680 believe I'm saying this. I'll be curious to see if 1:56:55.720 --> 1:56:59.280 Kansas City can keep paint with Miami. 1:56:59.520 --> 1:56:59.680 You know. 1:56:59.760 --> 1:57:03.520 My mean, it's like, you know, it's like the attract team. 1:57:03.560 --> 1:57:06.760 It really is. You know. You look at last week 1:57:06.840 --> 1:57:09.200 against the Patriots, both Wadal and Hill had over one 1:57:09.240 --> 1:57:14.160 hundred yards receiving to his head a little turnover bug 1:57:14.240 --> 1:57:17.960 himself the last couple of weeks. Okay, and I get 1:57:17.960 --> 1:57:21.080 all that, but this will be a very very interesting 1:57:21.240 --> 1:57:26.160 matchup for a lot of different reasons. And I'm certainly 1:57:26.800 --> 1:57:32.960 not to dismiss anyone at all, but Kansas City. They 1:57:33.240 --> 1:57:36.600 want a different way this year. They don't look comfortably 1:57:37.080 --> 1:57:40.720 or comfortable offensively, and that's that I think is somewhat 1:57:40.720 --> 1:57:43.680 troubling for them, at least right now. But my goodness, 1:57:43.720 --> 1:57:46.880 we still have some teams still have ten games to play, 1:57:47.640 --> 1:57:50.800 so as we have seen, unless we still have Jacksonville. 1:57:50.840 --> 1:57:53.920 Last year they were four and eight and caught fire, okay, 1:57:53.960 --> 1:57:57.960 and then when won a playoff game. So you never listen. 1:57:58.040 --> 1:58:02.280 If you need any proof about playing right well with 1:58:02.360 --> 1:58:05.080 the right time, just look at the World Series this year. Yeah, 1:58:05.520 --> 1:58:12.000 two years ago, both those teams lost one hundred games. 1:58:09.880 --> 1:58:10.920 Which is remarkable. 1:58:11.320 --> 1:58:17.440 And yeah, Rangers their first ever World Series. Yep, Okay, 1:58:17.440 --> 1:58:18.360 I'm done with baseball. 1:58:18.360 --> 1:58:18.880 That's all I know. 1:58:20.800 --> 1:58:22.800 Well, I'm glad you slipped in my Texas Rangers there. 1:58:22.800 --> 1:58:25.880 That's good. I appreciate that. Appreciate you, Russell, Thank you, 1:58:25.920 --> 1:58:29.680 my friend. As always, we'll try to figure this out again. 1:58:29.720 --> 1:58:32.160 Next week, Patriots get a little trip to Deutsche Land 1:58:32.200 --> 1:58:35.200 and see if they can't, you know, find a little 1:58:35.200 --> 1:58:39.120 momentum this weekend against the Commanders and next week. 1:58:39.720 --> 1:58:43.240 I wanted to drop some proud Blooper references. 1:58:42.800 --> 1:58:47.080 Okay, we could you know, maybe we could do some 1:58:47.120 --> 1:58:49.160 beer references to I don't know, we'll figure it out. 1:58:49.920 --> 1:58:50.480 Thanks buddy. 1:58:50.760 --> 1:58:54.040 And by the way, it's Frankenstein, not Franklin Frankenstein. 1:58:54.200 --> 1:58:58.880 Okay, Frankenstein. I got it, Frankenstein. It is Russell Baxter 1:58:59.040 --> 1:59:03.600 at backs foot Ball Guru on Twitter. H Patty and Aguwam. 1:59:03.600 --> 1:59:05.240 You're kind enough to hang in there, buddy. I'm gonna 1:59:05.240 --> 1:59:07.040 give you the last word here in the playbook today. 1:59:08.240 --> 1:59:09.080 No problem, John. 1:59:09.200 --> 1:59:11.880 Unfortunately, I think I got the crappy line because I 1:59:11.880 --> 1:59:13.080 hear feedback. 1:59:12.640 --> 1:59:13.360 In the background. 1:59:13.560 --> 1:59:16.240 Oh no, but that's all right. 1:59:16.280 --> 1:59:18.800 I'll try and get my point across really quickly. 1:59:19.040 --> 1:59:19.360 Okay. 1:59:19.600 --> 1:59:22.760 So I was a little perturbed that they didn't make 1:59:22.800 --> 1:59:25.440 a move, but you know, it didn't really bother me 1:59:25.480 --> 1:59:27.760 all that bad because I think I think a lot 1:59:27.840 --> 1:59:30.560 of like the negativity that you're hearing is all cannon 1:59:30.640 --> 1:59:34.120 podder from fans that have never experienced. 1:59:33.560 --> 1:59:34.520 Losing with the scheme. 1:59:34.760 --> 1:59:35.440 Yeah. 1:59:35.480 --> 1:59:39.360 And you know what, I was an original fandwagon around 1:59:39.360 --> 1:59:41.520 the very first Super Bowl run against the Bears. 1:59:41.920 --> 1:59:44.080 I've been around for a while then. 1:59:44.200 --> 1:59:45.960 I've been through the highest of the highs and the 1:59:46.000 --> 1:59:49.200 lowest of the lows. One thing that I brought up 1:59:49.320 --> 1:59:54.360 that Evan sort of took my point yesterday and built 1:59:54.480 --> 1:59:57.400 upon it. It was better at articulated it than I did, 1:59:58.640 --> 2:00:00.280 was I would have liked to have seen to make 2:00:00.280 --> 2:00:03.120 a move for a guy like Jerry Judy, so they 2:00:03.360 --> 2:00:06.280 would have at least like an offensive season place and 2:00:07.320 --> 2:00:11.040 going forward. I mean, I think with Claire and what 2:00:11.160 --> 2:00:14.880 you were saying, I mean, if if you're not picking 2:00:14.960 --> 2:00:18.000 high enough to get one of these franchise styles left 2:00:18.040 --> 2:00:22.360 tackles like Joe Walter Siscan who, then as much as 2:00:22.360 --> 2:00:24.600 it pains me to say this, maybe you have to 2:00:24.640 --> 2:00:27.160 sign Trent Brown and take a guy like j C. 2:00:27.360 --> 2:00:31.040 Latham and give back another year because I mean, if 2:00:31.640 --> 2:00:34.840 if he sucks again next year, you're gonna be You're 2:00:34.880 --> 2:00:37.520 not going to pick up people. You're probably not going 2:00:37.560 --> 2:00:40.520 to pick up a six year option anyway, but you're 2:00:40.520 --> 2:00:43.040 gonna be in the quarterback carouself. And I would rather 2:00:43.120 --> 2:00:45.560 see them try and build up the offense over the 2:00:45.600 --> 2:00:49.320 next couple of years rather than straight away future assets 2:00:49.440 --> 2:00:55.200 to pick a quarterback like oh my lord, Caleb Williams, 2:00:55.200 --> 2:00:57.360 who I'm not really sold on either. Yeah, if you 2:00:57.440 --> 2:00:59.760 get one of the top two picks. Or Drake May 2:00:59.800 --> 2:01:03.200 who looks like he. I mean, he's got the physical traits. 2:01:03.520 --> 2:01:05.960 You know, he's big, he's got the big arm. But 2:01:06.040 --> 2:01:08.640 when I watched my I kind of seek and he 2:01:08.720 --> 2:01:10.240 kind of looks like too. 2:01:10.280 --> 2:01:12.160 And he plays for the same program, you know. 2:01:13.840 --> 2:01:17.800 Yeah, yeah, you know, Patty, I mean I I you know, 2:01:17.880 --> 2:01:21.280 I knew that you're usually capable of really sound you know, 2:01:21.320 --> 2:01:23.560 reasoning and judgment like this, But I could not have 2:01:23.600 --> 2:01:25.400 picked you to come out at a better time in 2:01:25.440 --> 2:01:27.800 that regard because it sounded reasonable. 2:01:30.080 --> 2:01:30.520 Yeah, And. 2:01:32.120 --> 2:01:34.080 I'm sorry part of me. I've been I've been sick. 2:01:34.120 --> 2:01:36.440 I've been fighting like laryngitis. 2:01:35.800 --> 2:01:38.160 And I'm sorry pneumonia. 2:01:38.360 --> 2:01:40.080 And I got to say something in Matt, Matt, do 2:01:40.120 --> 2:01:42.800 you want to prove to your kids that you're a 2:01:42.800 --> 2:01:45.080 tough guy? You gotta do what we just back in 2:01:45.080 --> 2:01:47.520 the day and just like beat up somebody in front 2:01:47.520 --> 2:01:48.080 of him, you know. 2:01:50.760 --> 2:01:53.360 Backfire, I beat up my son in front of my daughter. 2:01:54.760 --> 2:01:56.880 How can he? How can he beat up his kids? Though? 2:01:56.920 --> 2:01:58.600 And he can't even beat up a job breaker. 2:02:00.800 --> 2:02:06.080 Well, we're Marie, you know, no karate, but we know crazy, 2:02:06.200 --> 2:02:11.120 Like dam Brown said, sometimes sometimes you know, nine times 2:02:11.120 --> 2:02:11.800 out of ten. 2:02:11.680 --> 2:02:14.080 Karate wins out, so it could backfire too. 2:02:14.160 --> 2:02:16.000 So you don't want to go you know, you don't 2:02:16.000 --> 2:02:17.000 want to go crazy. 2:02:17.040 --> 2:02:22.280 I pulled a little mcmap on them. I like it. 2:02:22.360 --> 2:02:25.080 I like it a lot. Thanks Patty. Good to hear 2:02:25.120 --> 2:02:27.160 from you, buddy, Appreciate you. All right, that's going to 2:02:27.200 --> 2:02:29.320 wrap it up for this edition of the program. Patriots fans, 2:02:29.360 --> 2:02:31.920 if you want to see Toyota's best offers, including those 2:02:31.960 --> 2:02:34.640 not seen on TV, go to buy at toyota dot com. 2:02:34.840 --> 2:02:37.960 It's Toyota's official website for deals from the official vehicle 2:02:37.960 --> 2:02:41.520 of the New England Patriots. Toyota Let's go places and 2:02:41.600 --> 2:02:44.800 this November, every Friday is like Black Friday at Bob's 2:02:44.800 --> 2:02:48.760 Discount Furniture. That means you get surprising unlocks every Friday 2:02:48.760 --> 2:02:51.680 of the month on top of Bob's every day low prices. 2:02:51.840 --> 2:02:57.040 Shot Bob's Black Friday Unlocks in store or online. Bob's 2:02:57.040 --> 2:02:59.680 Discount Furniture the official furniture store of the New England 2:02:59.720 --> 2:03:02.440 Patriot our thanks to Ben Vollen to the Boston Globe, 2:03:02.440 --> 2:03:05.800 Ben standing from the Athletic who covers the Washington Commanders. 2:03:06.560 --> 2:03:11.880 I guess if you took the under you one. I'm 2:03:11.880 --> 2:03:15.480 not gonna mess it up now. Thanks to Evian Bazaar 2:03:15.800 --> 2:03:19.040 Russell Baxter Marine. Good job out of you. All right, 2:03:19.480 --> 2:03:22.840 same patch time, same patch channel. Next week. Everybody's gonna 2:03:22.840 --> 2:03:24.600 be in Germany but me, I'm gonna be here. I'm 2:03:24.600 --> 2:03:28.680 gonna hold down the fort. Talk to you next Wednesday. 2:03:29.120 --> 2:03:33.000 Thank you for downloading this podcast. Subscribe on Apple, Google Play, 2:03:33.000 --> 2:03:36.080 and everywhere else you listen. Like the show, please rate 2:03:36.120 --> 2:03:39.240 and review us. 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