Speaker 1: This is the Patriots Catch twenty two podcasts with Evan
Speaker 1: Lazar and Alex Barth. I'm Lazar, Well everybody nailed it,
Speaker 1: joined us always buying our pick DAFA match. Here is
Speaker 1: Evan Lazar and Alex Bark. I sent you that the
Speaker 1: clip of Brady throwing that slam. Okay, that was the
Speaker 1: He doesn't he doesn't like it when I bring up Brady.
Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome into a video edition. We're back
Speaker 1: on video. Yeah, back on. I might need to move
Speaker 1: or something. I don't know. All right, anyways, we got
Speaker 1: the solo. This is great. This is back to our roots.
Speaker 1: And not only do we have video, but we got
Speaker 1: you know, they change the camera angles. They can put
Speaker 1: us in a two box. There we go, there's this box.
Speaker 1: This is look at that next level video. I'm excited. Uh,
Speaker 1: like I said Evan Lazar alongside me, as always Alex
Speaker 1: Barth and uh, we got a little bit of to
Speaker 1: unpack your today. But as I normally do, I always
Speaker 1: start with like a twenty minute soliloquy that I've been
Speaker 1: thinking about for the last week since we were on
Speaker 1: the air last Thursday or was a Wednesday, I don't
Speaker 1: even remember. Anyways, and this one, this one has to
Speaker 1: do I think more so with what I'm seeing on
Speaker 1: social media, the callers that we're having call in as well.
Speaker 1: But mostly I'm going to be personal about it and
Speaker 1: say that it's it's really my social media that I'm
Speaker 1: seeing this on, all right, and it's starting to drive
Speaker 1: me up in an absolute wall. Okay, and I send
Speaker 1: you Last night, I was trying to look for the
Speaker 1: words to perfectly explain how I feel, and I think
Speaker 1: I'm scrambling to pull up the tweet that I think
Speaker 1: Robert May's from the Athletic who I love. He had
Speaker 1: the perfect synopsis of what we're going through right now
Speaker 1: in New England at the quarterback position with Mac Jones,
Speaker 1: and that is that we now live in a black
Speaker 1: and white quarterback situation where it's either you stink or
Speaker 1: you're elite, and there's no there's no middle ground. And
Speaker 1: I think what's more important about the no middle ground
Speaker 1: is that there's no nuance to the conversation. It's all
Speaker 1: just yes or no, did you complete the pass or not?
Speaker 1: Did you produce or did you not produce? And there's
Speaker 1: no conversation about the details about the nuance of how
Speaker 1: we got here, and I think the biggest thing with
Speaker 1: Mac Jones and I don't know if Mac Jones is
Speaker 1: good or not. I don't know. I don't know if
Speaker 1: he's the guy or the franchise quarterback or whatever you
Speaker 1: know term you want to use. What I do know
Speaker 1: is that if you've decided based off of this season
Speaker 1: that Mac Jones is not the guy, you don't know football.
Speaker 1: You don't know football. You're moron. Sorry, you're dumb because
Speaker 1: you can't decide that based off of this You just can't.
Speaker 1: You can't properly evaluate that position with the absolute dumpster
Speaker 1: fire that they have put him in. And let me sorry,
Speaker 1: let me let me build on that real quick. I
Speaker 1: don't want to cut off your momentum. But honestly, if
Speaker 1: it was just this season, and I've heard people say this,
Speaker 1: if it was just this season, maybe there's a little
Speaker 1: bit of an argument, but what we're just throwing last
Speaker 1: year out right, when he took them to the playoffs
Speaker 1: as a rookie, and could he have played better shore?
Speaker 1: But I don't think people realize how hard that is
Speaker 1: to do. So I don't want to cut your your
Speaker 1: your rants off, but one I wanted to say, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of familiar names in the chat on YouTube,
Speaker 1: which is awesome. And two, yeah, I just love that
Speaker 1: tweet so much about either your elite or you suck.
Speaker 1: And I think the error that we grew up in
Speaker 1: that has kind of ended at this point, right. And
Speaker 1: when I say we grew up, I mean when we
Speaker 1: were in like middle school. Right, you have Brady Manning,
Speaker 1: Breeze Flacco written not Flacco but like Rivers. You're like
Speaker 1: you at all, Big Ben. Yeah, Like, that's not normal.
Speaker 1: I think people just assume that you're gonna be able
Speaker 1: to get an elite quarterback when in reality there's three
Speaker 1: or four of those guys at most at one time
Speaker 1: crowd the league, Right, is a league that era from
Speaker 1: like two thousand and five to two thousand and fifteen
Speaker 1: will never be replicated again in terms of the quarterback
Speaker 1: talent around the league. It's not coming back. That's not
Speaker 1: the norm. And Evan, this goes to a take I
Speaker 1: have that we've talked about a lot on this show. Ye,
Speaker 1: the time it will take you to find that elite
Speaker 1: quarterback is simply not worth it. It's not unless you
Speaker 1: are picking at the very top of the draft, and
Speaker 1: there is a no dug ey there, Lawrence right as
Speaker 1: opposed to him, there's there's fifty two other players on
Speaker 1: the roster, finding fifty two other really good players, and
Speaker 1: then a quarterback that just won't screw it up. But
Speaker 1: that that quarterback, a quarterback who just won't screw it up,
Speaker 1: which there are teams in the league that have pined
Speaker 1: for that guy for decades, is now considered a bump yeah,
Speaker 1: which is mind blowingly dumb, Like you said off the tip,
Speaker 1: So I want to keep hammering home the point that
Speaker 1: this is not a mac Jones is actually secretly elite
Speaker 1: rant right, Like, this is not that this is I
Speaker 1: don't know how everybody's ready, not everybody. I don't know
Speaker 1: how so many people are ready to just pronounce his
Speaker 1: career dead off of playing quarterback with Matt Patricia calling
Speaker 1: your play. This isn't This isn't just oh, well, sophomore
Speaker 1: slump he st No, this is an unprecedented situation. The
Speaker 1: regression here is not this isn't just oh it's the
Speaker 1: second year and defense has figured him out and they're
Speaker 1: giving him new looks that that's not what this looks.
Speaker 1: That might have been down the stretch last year, right, right, right, exactly, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: So the most important thing I would say with football,
Speaker 1: and really with a lot of team sports, but in
Speaker 1: football in particular, you have to have good structure, right.
Speaker 1: You have to have a good foundation of what you're
Speaker 1: doing offense or defense, it doesn't matter. So on offense,
Speaker 1: that means a stable offensive line, a plan, right, a
Speaker 1: good system with a plan going in of what you're
Speaker 1: going to execute, what you're gonna do, a certain rhythm
Speaker 1: or timing to your passing game from quarterback and receivers,
Speaker 1: which has been something that we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: that's been a huge issue for the Patriots. And defensively,
Speaker 1: it's the same thing. You could have eleven of the
Speaker 1: best athletes out on defense, if they're all running around
Speaker 1: with their chickens with their heads killed off, you're gonna
Speaker 1: be a bad defense. You could have eleven above average
Speaker 1: or just average NFL athletes, if they're all on a string,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be a good defense. Right. It's structure. Okay,
Speaker 1: I go ask the Cleveland brown It's the ultimate team
Speaker 1: game because the Cleveland Browns have great talent on the
Speaker 1: defense side of the ball. Miles Garrett, Davian Clowney, Denzel Award,
Speaker 1: Jeremiah Assa, Jock Ja. Yeah. Yeah, they have talent on
Speaker 1: that side of the ball. They're poorly coordinated. They run
Speaker 1: around like crazy people, right, they don't know where they're going.
Speaker 1: They don't have structure. Okay, so that's the most important thing. Well,
Speaker 1: hang on, let's let's uh. I'm trying to find the
Speaker 1: exact quote. I can't remember what it is from the
Speaker 1: Bill Belichick Nick Saban documentary on HBOG. Remember that where
Speaker 1: Bill says something along the lines of good players can't
Speaker 1: overcome bad coaching. Yeah, and he also said that sometimes
Speaker 1: we overcomplicate things when you lost again because he can't tackle, right.
Speaker 1: That was that was the the punchline of that whole
Speaker 1: rant from the two of them, right, was, sometimes we
Speaker 1: get into scheme and matchups and this and that and
Speaker 1: the other thing, and we you know what, guys, I
Speaker 1: think we just didn't have a good day tackling. I
Speaker 1: think that's what it comes down to. So this is,
Speaker 1: by the way, that was the exact quote, good players
Speaker 1: can't overcome bad coaching. I want to get into specific
Speaker 1: examples because I don't want to just throw this out
Speaker 1: there of it's not Max, not the problem and all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. I want to give you specific examples,
Speaker 1: and I'm not even going to give you example. So
Speaker 1: we do on that. We don't just spew, you know,
Speaker 1: take we back it up is I don't even want
Speaker 1: to give examples. I'm going to get to the to
Speaker 1: the low lights examples. I actually want to give you
Speaker 1: examples of highlights first and why these plays were made
Speaker 1: to be so difficult on the quarterback even though it
Speaker 1: was actually a good play. So the first one I
Speaker 1: want to bring up is the seem splitter to Kendrick
Speaker 1: Bourne where he throws the ball into the Tampa two
Speaker 1: defense and it looks like he throws the ball in
Speaker 1: a triple coverage and he asked to thread the needle
Speaker 1: between three guys because he had to. The reason why
Speaker 1: is that on that play they're running dagger right. Dagger
Speaker 1: is just that middle read route by Kendrick Bourne and
Speaker 1: then a dig route filling in underneath it. If you
Speaker 1: go and watch it on film, they get exactly what
Speaker 1: they want. They get Kendrick Bourne to clear out the
Speaker 1: Tampa two the middle of the defense, and there is
Speaker 1: a parting of the red seas between the numbers right,
Speaker 1: like literally the numbers are wide open in the middle
Speaker 1: of the field. The problem is is that Tai Kwon
Speaker 1: Thornton takes his sweet time running the dig route on
Speaker 1: the dagger route just lattidati dottid running up the field right,
Speaker 1: and he doesn't actually become an option on the play.
Speaker 1: So mac Jones is reading the play and there's only
Speaker 1: one other route backside, which is kind of not even
Speaker 1: a part of it, right, and he's waiting to read
Speaker 1: out the play and he's like, the only way that
Speaker 1: I'm going to complete this pass right now is if
Speaker 1: I drop a dime to Kendrick Bourne on the head
Speaker 1: of the Tampa two defender and in between the like
Speaker 1: I have to throw this ball on a seed into
Speaker 1: triple coverage, Like that's the only completion on the field
Speaker 1: right now. And that's what he did. But that was
Speaker 1: made more difficult because Taikwon Thornton didn't run the route hard.
Speaker 1: But let me let me just first of all, let
Speaker 1: me just add some context to that too, and what
Speaker 1: happened there, I hear. There's two big complaints I hear
Speaker 1: about mac Jones a lot. Yes, he constantly throws in
Speaker 1: a triple coverage double a trip coverage, and he doesn't
Speaker 1: throw guys open. Yeah, well you can't not do both
Speaker 1: of those things. If a guy's already open, you can't
Speaker 1: throw him open. That doesn't make sense. And if you
Speaker 1: want the quarterback to throw guys open, well then he
Speaker 1: has to throw it covered receivers. That was a great
Speaker 1: example that the player talking about Kendrick porn of Heat
Speaker 1: threw Kendrick Borne, and Kendrick makes a great play to
Speaker 1: go up and get that ball too. Like that is.
Speaker 1: They made that play last year right against the Browns
Speaker 1: for a touchdown, and I wouldn't shut up for the
Speaker 1: rest of the year. You remember this about how that
Speaker 1: was such a high level play and that play was
Speaker 1: the reason I have long term faith and all of
Speaker 1: it right, high level play from both of them. But
Speaker 1: also it wasn't a fluke because they did it last
Speaker 1: year and they did it again. So I just I
Speaker 1: thought that play itself. I know you're going in a
Speaker 1: different direction, but I just want to throw that in
Speaker 1: as a great example of why mac Jones isn't worth
Speaker 1: quitting one because and then you said, well, why doesn't
Speaker 1: he make that play more often he isn't had a
Speaker 1: ton of opportunities for reasons outside of his own control.
Speaker 1: I mean, look, Kendrick Boorne hasn't been on the field.
Speaker 1: It just is night. So it's a very low percentage throw.
Speaker 1: But the reason why he has to even attempt it
Speaker 1: in the first place is because the high percentage throw
Speaker 1: never comes to fruition, right, Right, So then on the
Speaker 1: sideline catch to Kendrick Bourne where Born taps his toes
Speaker 1: in and they the one that was reviewed and reversed
Speaker 1: as a as a catch right on the side of
Speaker 1: It's four verts. Okay, it's literally four verticals. It's the
Speaker 1: simplest concept in the in the league. Four verticals. And
Speaker 1: I don't want to pick on Scottie Washington too much
Speaker 1: because Scottie Washington probably shouldn't even been in the game, right.
Speaker 1: It's a practice squad elevation. He's only but he is
Speaker 1: indecisive on his route coming up the seam, so he
Speaker 1: doesn't actually threaten the half field safety on that side
Speaker 1: of the field. It doesn't put the safety in conflict.
Speaker 1: It's supposed to two on one the safety in the
Speaker 1: deep part of the field, but it doesn't because Scotty
Speaker 1: Washington is not actually threatening up the seam, so the
Speaker 1: safety on that half side of the field gets to
Speaker 1: cheat to the sideline. So that's another throw that mac
Speaker 1: Jones has to back shoulder to Kendrick Bourne to keep
Speaker 1: it away from the safety, and he has to throw
Speaker 1: it from the far hash and Kendrick Bourne has to
Speaker 1: make a circus catch along the sideline just to get
Speaker 1: it complete. These are the little details, like the Taekwon route,
Speaker 1: the Scotty Washington route like these are the little details
Speaker 1: of why this offense always looks like it's it's so
Speaker 1: hard for them to just complete a pass, right, okay,
Speaker 1: And this isn't even getting into first third down to
Speaker 1: say the receivers collide or they call you know, they
Speaker 1: show blitz, they see it coming. Mac Jones adjust the
Speaker 1: protection at the line of scrimmage and Kevin Harris goes
Speaker 1: the wrong way and it's an unblocked runner and he's
Speaker 1: almost sacked for safety on their own goal line. Or
Speaker 1: the play action pass that's going around Twitter, and everybody's
Speaker 1: telling me that I don't I don't know what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about, right, because they're right, you know, Quarterbacks Expert
Speaker 1: six seven nine. When three followers. He knows football right,
Speaker 1: football coach. He coached his son's Pop Orner team last year,
Speaker 1: and he's telling me that Mac is late, that he's
Speaker 1: late on the throw. Don't mind you that Jacoby Myers
Speaker 1: running an option route down the field where he can
Speaker 1: kind of break it down and break inside or out.
Speaker 1: It takes ten minutes to run the damn route, right,
Speaker 1: And so mac Jones is sitting there waiting. Everybody's like,
Speaker 1: he should anticipate. It's an option route. He could break
Speaker 1: in or out. If he breaks in, or excuse me,
Speaker 1: if he breaks out and mac Jones throws in, it's
Speaker 1: a pick six the other way. And then we're all like, well,
Speaker 1: why did he throw the ball? That's the play against
Speaker 1: the Jets that got called back for the roughing. It's
Speaker 1: a similar idea, Yeah, that's what I'm saying, Like it
Speaker 1: would be the same. That's the alternative outcome, right, And
Speaker 1: everybody's like, oh, Mac, Mac holds the ball too long.
Speaker 1: The route needs to declare, right, like you need to
Speaker 1: give the quarterback a clear indication of are you breaking
Speaker 1: in or are you breaking Oh? Taekwon Thornton was opened deep.
Speaker 1: He was open deep after Mac Jones already threw the
Speaker 1: ball right because right, So this is what I'm talking
Speaker 1: about when I look at the little details of what's
Speaker 1: going on, and i'm that specific play action pass. Jacoby's
Speaker 1: running an option route. He has a downfield option to
Speaker 1: break in or break out based off of the cornerbacks position.
Speaker 1: And that's one of those plays where ideally your quarterbacks
Speaker 1: drop is set up and syncd up to the fact
Speaker 1: that that route's going to take a little bit longer
Speaker 1: to run, right, So they run it on a five
Speaker 1: step drop, which is more like a bang play action right,
Speaker 1: hit the backfoot, balls out onto a dig route and
Speaker 1: we're off and running. I posted the exact play that
Speaker 1: they ran last year that's supposed to look like against
Speaker 1: the Texans last year, where it's back of the foot
Speaker 1: hits the ground from mac Jones. Jacoby breaks in, balls
Speaker 1: there and we're off to the races. And this instance,
Speaker 1: he's standing there and he's patting the baby. He's holding
Speaker 1: the football like come on, come on, come on, right,
Speaker 1: and then he has to throw it behind him because
Speaker 1: the safety is about to clean him out and it's late. Well,
Speaker 1: it's it's you know, you hear the concept about like
Speaker 1: looking at backs right when the quarterback gets to that
Speaker 1: final step in his drop, he wants to be able
Speaker 1: to throw the ball. But you can't throw the ball
Speaker 1: for the most part. You can't throw the ball to
Speaker 1: somebody who's not looking. You might have some sort of
Speaker 1: back shoulder concept or something, but you talk about the
Speaker 1: timing and the chemistry of the offense, they're just not
Speaker 1: there right now. The guys need to be looking at
Speaker 1: Mac Jones right for him to be able to throw
Speaker 1: the ball. And if and this is where a lot
Speaker 1: of the you know, oh well Mac holds the ball
Speaker 1: talk and Dan Rolovski has done great breakdowns on this
Speaker 1: on Twitter. Yeah, when the quarterback gets to that backstep
Speaker 1: of the drop, if he's looking around at his reads
Speaker 1: and all he sees are the backs of helmets, what's
Speaker 1: he supposed to do right, right, You're just gonna blind throw.
Speaker 1: That's how it turns into interceptions. So that and really
Speaker 1: what this all comes down to, This is why this
Speaker 1: year has been so frustrating, is it is really tough
Speaker 1: to tell exactly what's wrong with this offense unless you
Speaker 1: watch it on this level. You watch it on the film.
Speaker 1: You can, I can, and I can promise you, and
Speaker 1: I know I'm taking a lot of shots at the
Speaker 1: Twitter coaches and all that, I can promise you that
Speaker 1: I can tell that you don't watch the film. I
Speaker 1: can tell it's like okay, because you're watching it on TV.
Speaker 1: He's throwing balls in can please, throwing balls behind quote
Speaker 1: unquote behind receivers and you're saying, you know this is
Speaker 1: it's Max Fall, Like what does he doing? But you're
Speaker 1: not watching the detail of the play and seeing why
Speaker 1: it happens. The protection breaks down, Jacoby takes his time
Speaker 1: on the route like all these different factors of timing.
Speaker 1: And I asked Mac Jones about this yesterday and I
Speaker 1: don't think he was necessarily throwing shade, but I'm gonna
Speaker 1: let I'm gonna say he was for me, right, for me,
Speaker 1: Not for throwing shade at you. No, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: throwing shade at them at the offense right when game
Speaker 1: time comes, it's not It's got to be in rhythm.
Speaker 1: The spacing needs to be good. That's how really good
Speaker 1: offenses work. It's not wrong. Timing, spacing, rhythm, that's what
Speaker 1: good offenses do. He's not wrong. We don't have a
Speaker 1: good offense. Is what he's saying. We don't have spacing,
Speaker 1: we don't have timing and rhythm in the passing game.
Speaker 1: This isn't Madden. You can't just sit there and say, oh,
Speaker 1: you know why flash is open? Why isn't he throwing to?
Speaker 1: Why it doesn't work that way in real life? And again,
Speaker 1: this is not me saying that I think that mac
Speaker 1: Jones is secretly Tom Brady and they're holding the kid back.
Speaker 1: It's me saying that I don't know what mac Jones
Speaker 1: is because all of this stuff is holding him back
Speaker 1: so much that we can't make an evaluation on the Colt.
Speaker 1: Let me let me phrase that another way, because I
Speaker 1: think this argument has maybe gotten through to some people more. Yes,
Speaker 1: name a quarterback who does succeed in the situation. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I thought about this last night because I knew that
Speaker 1: that was going to sort of be the because then
Speaker 1: that's what people say, Well, well, there's other quarterbacks that
Speaker 1: are in bad situations, not like this. I don't watch
Speaker 1: enough Uh Colts or Houston Texans film. I've seen the
Speaker 1: Colts have unfortunately been on primetime like a whole lot lately. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we've got a whole lot of cults. Yeah, but I don't.
Speaker 1: I haven't watched the Texans closely, but those statistically, it's
Speaker 1: the Patriots, it's the Colts, the Texans. Those are the
Speaker 1: three worst offenses in the NFL right now statistically, So
Speaker 1: I don't watch a ton of their team. But I
Speaker 1: thought about it as well, of if this was if
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow was in this offense and you switched the
Speaker 1: quarterbacks on Sunday, Like we're talking about what's wrong with
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow? Right right? That's like that's plastered all over
Speaker 1: ESPN right now, is what's wrong with Joe Burrow? Why
Speaker 1: does he look like this nineteen Brady you know, Rogers
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the year this year because they're
Speaker 1: throughout the year because there was no trust in the right.
Speaker 1: There's no timing, there's no rhythm, there's no trust, there's
Speaker 1: no nothing that they can hang their hat on like
Speaker 1: that's good offense. And I just I find it really
Speaker 1: infuriating that. Obviously, I find it infuriating when everybody is
Speaker 1: a genius and knows football, so that's what that's besides
Speaker 1: the point. I find it more infuriating that people are
Speaker 1: writing Mac Jones off without the caveat of what he's
Speaker 1: playing in Like last year with Trevor Lawrence, well urban Meyer,
Speaker 1: I mean, how could you anybody that's probably the most
Speaker 1: comparable situation. And we all said, right, you need to
Speaker 1: see what happens when urban Meyer isn't there, right, and
Speaker 1: he can look at what happen Peterson, who's not I
Speaker 1: don't think Doug Peterson is like some savant like this
Speaker 1: is not Bill Walsh walking through the door. But he's
Speaker 1: a professional offensive coach, right, He's a professional offensive coach,
Speaker 1: has done it at a high level, that's been around
Speaker 1: the block a billion times, and he knows what he's
Speaker 1: doing on that side of the ball. And look at
Speaker 1: the season that I think I saw that Trevor Lawrence
Speaker 1: has the biggest increase in passer rating from year one
Speaker 1: to year two in NFL history, all because he has
Speaker 1: some competent coaching. Right. They really didn't even change the
Speaker 1: personel that much. I mean, they added Calvin Riel is coming,
Speaker 1: but he's not added Christian Kirk. That's pretty much it
Speaker 1: who everybody thought they overpaid it. And and Evan Ingram,
Speaker 1: who I would say that's a coaching like the way
Speaker 1: they're using him is so different than the way he
Speaker 1: was being used in New York or the way they
Speaker 1: use their tight ends last year. So yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's a tough year because you want to try to
Speaker 1: explain it to people and that's our job, right, yes,
Speaker 1: but there's really there's no real way to do it
Speaker 1: without kind of sounding a little pretentious and saying you
Speaker 1: have to watch the game. And I understand that just
Speaker 1: sounded like a complete It will shout out to the
Speaker 1: people who watched this show and listen to the show,
Speaker 1: because they they I think they get that. I think
Speaker 1: the people are turning into this show understand that. I
Speaker 1: sometimes he's see an office. Oh they're not fast enough,
Speaker 1: Oh they're not big, Like oh they make a lot
Speaker 1: of pants, like you just see it on TV and
Speaker 1: it's easy. This is it's really down to a deep
Speaker 1: level where you have to go where you have to
Speaker 1: go to see where this offense isn't functioning properly. And
Speaker 1: I'll say it again, people just was like, oh, well
Speaker 1: they're just not good. What if they're just not good
Speaker 1: with almost they made very few personnel changes on offense
Speaker 1: in the off season, very few. They changed both of
Speaker 1: their guards, right, they lost both guards, but the line
Speaker 1: was one guard spot. You replaced Michael ow WHENO like
Speaker 1: Michael and when who stepped in? Who's been maybe their
Speaker 1: best offensive player this year, one of the best guards
Speaker 1: in football. He's not an issue. The other spot, you
Speaker 1: used a first round pick to replace your other guard,
Speaker 1: which first round pick you think is a plug and
Speaker 1: play guy. The only other real change is Davante Parker
Speaker 1: replaced me kill Harry upgrade. They went from sixth and
Speaker 1: scoring two. I think they're seventeenth eighteenth now it's over
Speaker 1: a touchdown less per game. Yeah, so all the schedule
Speaker 1: schedules comparable. Yes, they hung fifty on Jacksonville last year,
Speaker 1: they didn't play Jacksonville this year, but in terms of
Speaker 1: the defenses, it's pretty comparable. So what happened. It's not
Speaker 1: a talent issue, it's not it's a it's a schematic issue.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna wrap it up on this and I
Speaker 1: want to talk about one other thing on offense before
Speaker 1: we kind of open this up a little bit. Mac
Speaker 1: Jones played good in this game, especially in the second half. Well,
Speaker 1: they put his favorite receiver on the field and suddenly
Speaker 1: he looked much better. And it's not to take it
Speaker 1: all away from Mac Jones, but can we also talk
Speaker 1: about how Kendrick Bourne played as well. Sure, the downfield
Speaker 1: throws were great through all three of them to Kendrick
Speaker 1: Bourne were great throws, touchdown, throwdown, talk about chemistry, timing, rhythm.
Speaker 1: Everything that play was was chemistry and time. He read
Speaker 1: that the defender's back was to the line of scream,
Speaker 1: which wasn't going to make a play on the ball.
Speaker 1: Put it in a spot for Kendrick Bourne Born you know,
Speaker 1: went and got it. Great great throw, great catch. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Mac played fine in this game. He did benching him
Speaker 1: moving on from him, it's ridiculous, it's ridiculous talk. But
Speaker 1: if if Mac Jones plays it, say next year they
Speaker 1: get the offense, they fix the things we see we
Speaker 1: say they need to fix. Yeah, right, and Mac Jones
Speaker 1: plays at that level, and we're doing a bunch of hypotheticals.
Speaker 1: I know the team hates hypotheticals, but just humor. Let's
Speaker 1: say they fix the things they need to fix, schimmatically
Speaker 1: and Mac plays at that level next year for eighteen games,
Speaker 1: does he get his fifth year option picked up? He should, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would think he'd be is that is that a
Speaker 1: guy you'd extend. I think he'd be a top fifteen,
Speaker 1: top twelve quarterback if all those things, if he plays
Speaker 1: at that level with the right pieces around him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what I don't Just the greast year, he was
Speaker 1: twelve to seventeen and wherever you want to put him
Speaker 1: right staysically he was top half. He was closer to
Speaker 1: the top fifteen, top twelve, honestly. But the other thing
Speaker 1: I want to say about the offense that this is
Speaker 1: something that's been on my radar all year, but I
Speaker 1: think it's gotten particularly horrible, quite frankly, is the route running.
Speaker 1: I've never seen the Patriots run routes this this poorly.
Speaker 1: Before and since covering the team and starting in twenty
Speaker 1: eighteen and breaking down their tape and all this kind
Speaker 1: of stuff, I have never seen them look so sloppy
Speaker 1: on film running routes as they do now. Obviously, I've
Speaker 1: we've talked about spacing a lot, you know, tight ends,
Speaker 1: colliding with each other, Kendrick Boorn running into Johnny Smith
Speaker 1: and getting him can cuss like. These things are things
Speaker 1: that happen from time to time, but you don't see
Speaker 1: them happen multiple times every single week, like you just
Speaker 1: don't see that. The other thing that has been driving
Speaker 1: me nuts. I've mentioned it with the Meyers thing and
Speaker 1: the Thornton route. They just some guys just think that
Speaker 1: they have like all day to run a route, like
Speaker 1: they just they feel like they can just lollygag up
Speaker 1: the field. Like I just don't understand I'm timing. I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's effort, Like I don't want to
Speaker 1: question effort. I hate doing that, but it just looks
Speaker 1: to me like they feel like, oh, I'm gonna, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna throw six fakes right, like I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: to the top of the route and I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: a bunch of jab steps, a bunch of head fakes,
Speaker 1: and like try to really get loose on this guy.
Speaker 1: And what I think it comes back too, And that's
Speaker 1: let's also get into the little things too, like breaking
Speaker 1: a route off at a certain uh you know, yardage
Speaker 1: marker or step right, you know, one step, three step, five, step,
Speaker 1: seven step routes. Not being able to to do that
Speaker 1: properly too has been a big thing. But I think
Speaker 1: what it comes down to with the timing of the
Speaker 1: routes and how long it's taking them sometimes is I
Speaker 1: really think that they're trying to do too much. Like
Speaker 1: they're trying to and this relates back in a way
Speaker 1: to some of the miscues at the end of games
Speaker 1: that we've seen, you know, Ramandre trying to fight for
Speaker 1: extra yards. Obviously what happened at the end in Vegas.
Speaker 1: Like I think that these receivers are thinking to themselves,
Speaker 1: it's not good enough for me to just gain eight
Speaker 1: yards on first and ten. I have to gain twenty
Speaker 1: eight yards, right, Like they're trying to create so much
Speaker 1: separation with all these head fakes and jabs and you know,
Speaker 1: sweet releases at the line of scrimmage that take twenty
Speaker 1: minutes to get off the line because they feel like
Speaker 1: they need to make a big play every single time
Speaker 1: they're pressing and when when when you're committing a lot
Speaker 1: of penalties and stuff like that. Like this team has
Speaker 1: really struggled to incrementally work the ball down the field
Speaker 1: right right, and when you do that, I think you
Speaker 1: kind of get in the back of your head, Man,
Speaker 1: we need a big play. We can't we can't do
Speaker 1: this for twelve thirteen plays. We gotta get in the
Speaker 1: end zone in six or seven, and I think guys
Speaker 1: are playing. I think maybe there's also a level of
Speaker 1: overthinking just in terms of and this goes back really
Speaker 1: to the coaching when you can't get lined up, when
Speaker 1: when guys don't know the play right, you know, when
Speaker 1: that keeps happening, you know, you screw the play up
Speaker 1: four five times? All right, I gotta run this rat right, Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: this might right, Yeah, Okay, this is the play. Like
Speaker 1: I think there's just the whole, the whole irony in this,
Speaker 1: the real irony. And this is do you remember all
Speaker 1: the way back in the summer, really in the spring,
Speaker 1: when they change the offense, and it was, oh, we
Speaker 1: want to simplify it. We wanted to be less thinking, right,
Speaker 1: We wanted to be less thinking for the receivers in
Speaker 1: the tight ends and the running backs in the end.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if it's because they change the offense,
Speaker 1: the two might be unrelated. But one of the big
Speaker 1: problems now, ironically in all of this is everybody on offense,
Speaker 1: mac the linemen, that the skill players looks like they're
Speaker 1: overthinking quite a bit. Yeah, And now what it comes
Speaker 1: down to is that it's no longer stuff like play
Speaker 1: design and sequencing and all the fancy stuff about offense.
Speaker 1: We are so far beyond that, like can behind that,
Speaker 1: not beyond it, behind it. We're just that's not the
Speaker 1: biggest issue with the team because they can't execute the
Speaker 1: fundamental well. So that's I compared it to when I
Speaker 1: was on the Hub earlier this week. I compared it,
Speaker 1: you know, you gotta everybody needs to know what the
Speaker 1: plays are, what the calls are, we're to line up
Speaker 1: right right. Once you do that, you start building on that,
Speaker 1: right you start you know, then you start building off
Speaker 1: a place and let's like two three, four and on
Speaker 1: the checklist. They can't get past one right now, right
Speaker 1: you can't start doing two, three, four and five until
Speaker 1: one is checking. I don't know if they're capable of
Speaker 1: doing two, three, four and five, to be honest with you.
Speaker 1: But the biggest issue that from a coaching standpoint, I
Speaker 1: think with this team right now is the fundamental details
Speaker 1: of the game right like they are not They're not
Speaker 1: a sound football team on offense right now, where they're
Speaker 1: running precise routes and they know where they're supposed to
Speaker 1: be at and the combinations are spaced out properly. And
Speaker 1: working properly and timed up properly, Like you can't start
Speaker 1: doing creative stuff. We can't start getting into downfield RPOs
Speaker 1: or fun things that we talk about sometimes that I
Speaker 1: talk about that I love, Right, we can't start getting
Speaker 1: into that type of stuff if we can't run slant
Speaker 1: flats in a row. That's what I'm saying. You can't
Speaker 1: do two, three, four, and five until that first box
Speaker 1: is checked. And I mean to your point that they can't.
Speaker 1: There's two maybe you know, two games left in the
Speaker 1: regular season. Who knows if they get me in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: That's stuff that you're trying to get checked off back
Speaker 1: in the summer. So who knows what's going to happen
Speaker 1: with that, at least in terms of this year's team.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think we're basically saying this. So the
Speaker 1: fundamentals and the details of this football team on offense
Speaker 1: are as bad as I've ever seen it, And that,
Speaker 1: to me is a coaching failure across the board. It's
Speaker 1: not just Matt Patricia. I'm looking at Troy Brown, I'm
Speaker 1: looking at Nick Kaylee, Like these guys are judge, of course,
Speaker 1: at the very least, at the bare minimum keeping it
Speaker 1: buttoned up right, like keeping it sharp is the bare
Speaker 1: minimum on either side of the football. I could really
Speaker 1: care less at this point if you're an offensive creative genius,
Speaker 1: if you're Mike McDaniel or Kyle shanhander one are these
Speaker 1: guys that's motioning people and play action this way and
Speaker 1: play action that way? Like, I could care less at
Speaker 1: this point because they can't. They're not doing the simple
Speaker 1: things great. And what I don't understand is is like
Speaker 1: when Jacobe Myers takes ten hours to come out of
Speaker 1: his route on that play action pass. It's like I
Speaker 1: have to think Troy is in the film room and
Speaker 1: being like, hey, we gotta you got to get out,
Speaker 1: like we gotta get going here. And we know Jacoby
Speaker 1: can do it because we've seen him do it in
Speaker 1: the past, correct, right, So it's not like, oh, he
Speaker 1: just can't again. It goes back to my thing about
Speaker 1: the talent level, right, it's not like he can't do it.
Speaker 1: I do take a small victory lap here though, because
Speaker 1: do you remember after the Minnesota game, we were sitting
Speaker 1: here and you were talking about Mackley didn't come back
Speaker 1: or whatever, and I said, if they just clean it
Speaker 1: all up in the margins. You say, I forget the margins,
Speaker 1: like then he'd be able to do this and that.
Speaker 1: This is this is what I meant. Basically, this is
Speaker 1: what I was saying. Until you're you have the detail,
Speaker 1: because this team has always won by playing bit. They
Speaker 1: are better in the margins than their opponent, the little things,
Speaker 1: the details, the not making avoidable mistakes. The Patriots won
Speaker 1: for twenty plus years by simply being better at that
Speaker 1: than there were than any opponent they faced. They were
Speaker 1: always going to be better than the other team at that.
Speaker 1: And to your point back then, I get it. You
Speaker 1: want to be more explosive and you need to be
Speaker 1: able to make plays, not just prevent the other team, YadA, YadA, YadA.
Speaker 1: But until you can start doing that stuff on them,
Speaker 1: like doing that stuff on the margin correctly, is what's
Speaker 1: going to allow you to take that next step into
Speaker 1: what you wanted to see. I still think it all
Speaker 1: comes from they have to clean up the little things first,
Speaker 1: the dail so many bad habits that this team has
Speaker 1: developed in the passing game is just can I give
Speaker 1: you an interesting stat? I've given you the stat off
Speaker 1: the air. I don't know that I've ever given it
Speaker 1: given it on the air. Yeah, So we talk a
Speaker 1: lot and I don't know exactly what it means, but
Speaker 1: it's indicative of what we're talking about. Right, we talk
Speaker 1: a lot about, you know, okay, third down struggles. Well,
Speaker 1: what's the average distance to go? This is a big
Speaker 1: bill thing. When they have a good game on third down,
Speaker 1: you ask him about it, he'll almost always say, well,
Speaker 1: we move the ball on first and second down was manageable. Right,
Speaker 1: So you look at all right, they're struggling on third down?
Speaker 1: What's their average yards to go? And then maybe take
Speaker 1: it a step deeper, all right, well are they picking
Speaker 1: up yards on second down? Right? Even if they don't
Speaker 1: get it on first they're picking up yards on So
Speaker 1: I'm going through and I'm tracking these numbers on Pro
Speaker 1: Football Reference. Shout out to them, great, great website, and
Speaker 1: I just I'm curious. I go, all right, I wonder
Speaker 1: what their average distance to go on first down is? Like,
Speaker 1: is this something that's even tracked? Because well it's first
Speaker 1: and ten right, right, first ten? The Patriots average distance
Speaker 1: to go on first down this year is ten point
Speaker 1: two yards. That was the longest in the league, tied
Speaker 1: with a couple of teams, the Raiders have actually passed them.
Speaker 1: The Raiders are now ten point three to go on
Speaker 1: first down. What does that mean? Right, You're in a
Speaker 1: lot of first in fifteens, first and twenties and but
Speaker 1: the difference is so it's the Patriots, the Raiders, in
Speaker 1: the Seahawks, we're all at ten point two. Now the
Speaker 1: Raiders are at ten point three. The Patriots have run
Speaker 1: about forty less first down snaps and those other two teams,
Speaker 1: So it's not a much smaller sample size. Yeah, Now,
Speaker 1: not every team is first and ten. There's only eight
Speaker 1: teams in the league that are averaging exactly first and ten.
Speaker 1: You also have some other teams that are under. The
Speaker 1: Vikings are actually the best in the league of this.
Speaker 1: The Vikings average first down distance to go is nine
Speaker 1: point six. They're alone, which is I don't even how
Speaker 1: that gets there. Red zone, right, they have some of
Speaker 1: it is you know, you get guys to jump off sides,
Speaker 1: but first and goal from the five, first and goal
Speaker 1: from the three right brings that average down. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: it basically just tells you they're putting. But that's all
Speaker 1: on your own. The opponent doesn't have a lot to
Speaker 1: do with that number. A lot of that is just
Speaker 1: what are you doing? Right? And basically I'm as I'm
Speaker 1: talking through this here, what that number I think it
Speaker 1: means is the Patriots and the Seahawks and the Raiders
Speaker 1: and those other teams that are up there, they are
Speaker 1: putting themselves in difficult situations on their own accord. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just I just wonder where they go from here
Speaker 1: on the offensive side of the ball, because I think
Speaker 1: any realist would look at this situation and notice that
Speaker 1: pretty much every is not just the whole is not performing.
Speaker 1: Pretty much every position group has regressed as well, right,
Speaker 1: like every individual except Michael and winning except Michael, and
Speaker 1: I had Hermandre Stevens in until two weeks ago, which
Speaker 1: we'll look at. Nobody else could step up. He had
Speaker 1: to take ninth in the league and touches him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean he's and he admitted after the game, this
Speaker 1: is the first time he said anything along the lines.
Speaker 1: He said he's a little banged up right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because he's doing a ton. Yeah. So any other people
Speaker 1: would look at this objectively and and clean house on
Speaker 1: the offensive side of the ball, right, like you bring
Speaker 1: in coaching, Yeah, you bring in somebody like Bill. There's
Speaker 1: people want them to clean house in terms of players
Speaker 1: on on Dowse. You bring in somebody like Bill O'Brien
Speaker 1: and he brings all of his own coaches right or
Speaker 1: something along those lines. So we'll see what ends. That's
Speaker 1: an offseason thing. I don't like playing the what if
Speaker 1: for the crystal ball game with the coaching staff, but
Speaker 1: that that's the that's our forty minute rant on the offense.
Speaker 1: Let's take some phone calls. Patty, thanks for hanging on.
Speaker 1: I know we had you on hold for a while.
Speaker 1: How you doing good? Now? You guys doing today? Good?
Speaker 1: Doing well? So before the Buffalo game, I had made
Speaker 1: a I said the same phrase that Max said in
Speaker 1: this press conference yesterday, which is I just wanted to
Speaker 1: see him let it rip because that was a game
Speaker 1: that they weren't supposed to win anyway, So what would
Speaker 1: what would be the harm in just you know, seeing
Speaker 1: what you can do down the field, you know? And
Speaker 1: and I like that, he said back, because I would
Speaker 1: like to see them over the next couple of games.
Speaker 1: And Evan, you kind of spoiled your pick on PU,
Speaker 1: but I wanted to see what you guys thought about
Speaker 1: that hopefully. You know, I just want him to beat
Speaker 1: the Dolphins because the Dolphins are my NFL Yankees. I
Speaker 1: can't stand them, never have been able to stand them.
Speaker 1: And do you guys think that there's been a player,
Speaker 1: not over the course of the season, not a single game,
Speaker 1: not a Malcolm Butler, but over the course of the
Speaker 1: season that spend more stand back than Mac Jones this year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's a really good question, Patty. And to your
Speaker 1: first question, thanks for calling the just grip it and
Speaker 1: rip it right. Like you know, in the second half,
Speaker 1: they finally opened up the passing game and he made
Speaker 1: some plays down the field. The interesting part about it
Speaker 1: is against the Dolphins, and the Dolphins and they're they're
Speaker 1: coordinated by Josh Boyer who used to be here and
Speaker 1: was underflow in Miami and he was the one holdover.
Speaker 1: It was that they kept the continuity on defense. They
Speaker 1: brought McDaniel and to run the offense, and they kept
Speaker 1: the continuity and on defense. So they still play a
Speaker 1: lot of man coverage. They still blitz a lot, right,
Speaker 1: They're not. They don't come out you with all the
Speaker 1: Amibia all out blitzes and stuff like that, Like they
Speaker 1: used to do so much with Flores, but they still
Speaker 1: play a lot of man free which is you know,
Speaker 1: five man rush everybody else you know, one post safety
Speaker 1: in the middle of the field man coverage. Right, there's
Speaker 1: no robber, there's no underneath help, nothing like that because
Speaker 1: they're rushing five. So they still play a lot of
Speaker 1: that style of coverage. So teams like the Packers last
Speaker 1: week when they found success in the day attack down
Speaker 1: field against this team, right, you know, that's they're okay
Speaker 1: at covering deep passes, but to shorten the intermediate stuff
Speaker 1: and really the middle of the field because they don't
Speaker 1: have any help at the intermediate middle of the field,
Speaker 1: that's really where this team is very vulnerable. So in
Speaker 1: a lot of respects, I do think they're gonna come
Speaker 1: after mac mac Jones. They've done that every single time
Speaker 1: they've played the Patriots in the three games with mac
Speaker 1: Jones at quarterback over the last two years, they always
Speaker 1: come after them. I think they're going to continue to
Speaker 1: do that and instead of which I think is what
Speaker 1: they'll end up doing. We'll see, if you know, Marcus
Speaker 1: Jones doesn't clear protocol, then maybe not. But instead of
Speaker 1: running a play a game plan like that against Arizona
Speaker 1: or there's you know, fifteen screens and draws and you know,
Speaker 1: trying to just survive those downs where they blitz. It
Speaker 1: would be nice to see them just try to block
Speaker 1: it and let mac Jones stand in there and make
Speaker 1: some throws down the field against it. I don't think
Speaker 1: they will because I think that they'll be conservative again,
Speaker 1: but that maybe there is that potential there this week
Speaker 1: after what seeing what it did last week in the
Speaker 1: second half, that they will just try to block it
Speaker 1: up and hit some throws down the field. The one
Speaker 1: thing I'd say is if they're gonna do that, Kendrick
Speaker 1: Born needs to be out there. Oh yeah. I mean
Speaker 1: he should be out there, right, He should be out
Speaker 1: there one way or the other. But yeah, I just
Speaker 1: I feel like every time we've done this this year,
Speaker 1: where he gets out a little bit of run and
Speaker 1: we get all excited and this is it. Here it comes,
Speaker 1: They're gonna put him back in the offense. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: then he goes back on the shelf for three weeks.
Speaker 1: So that's what I'm expecting now. I think they kind
Speaker 1: of have to play him because DeVante Parker's in concussion protocol.
Speaker 1: Johnny Smith is in concussion protocol. I don't think either
Speaker 1: one of those guys are going to play on Sunday.
Speaker 1: So it's basically the same situation that they had last week,
Speaker 1: where you just have you have three receivers healthy. I
Speaker 1: really have no choice, right right. I mean they technically
Speaker 1: have four, but you're not if you're playing Kendrick Born
Speaker 1: over Agloa and Taekwon Thornton at this point, then we're
Speaker 1: watching different tapes. But they did. But they've done that
Speaker 1: all year. I know. I would say, all right, David
Speaker 1: in New York, what's going on? David? You're on the air. Hey, guys,
Speaker 1: how's it going good? So I had a point in
Speaker 1: a question. So my point was, I'm sure you've done
Speaker 1: this before. I went back and I looked at some
Speaker 1: of the film from the Colts game last year, you know,
Speaker 1: the one where they were down like twenty and nothing. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: And that was one that was like the game where
Speaker 1: I considered, like, you know, that's our word, how could
Speaker 1: this often could any worse? That's their worst offensive game.
Speaker 1: But actually looking back at it compared to this year,
Speaker 1: that looks like, at the very least the new England
Speaker 1: Patriots offense and a well oiled machine. Granted they were
Speaker 1: in hurry up for mostly that guy after the game,
Speaker 1: but that just kind of was eye opening to me.
Speaker 1: And then my question was what do you want to
Speaker 1: make Teddy Bridgewater do on Sunday? Like what do you
Speaker 1: force them to do? How do you beat them? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Good question, David. So to the first point I have
Speaker 1: and thanks for the call. I have reviewed that Colds
Speaker 1: tape a lot. I reviewed a lot of you know,
Speaker 1: went back and I have, you know, a lot of
Speaker 1: positive plays sorted on my computer and I like to
Speaker 1: just sometimes run through um last year and be like,
Speaker 1: what was what was working? Right? Like what was that
Speaker 1: they ran well? And in that Colds game, I remember
Speaker 1: it vividly. Mac Jones hit the same concept three different ways, right.
Speaker 1: It was just that their their levels, you know, dig
Speaker 1: levels concept and they have the backside vertical, hit the
Speaker 1: deep dig, then he hit the short dig, and then
Speaker 1: he hit the vertical three different ways. I can't even
Speaker 1: tell you that he's hit the same play three different
Speaker 1: ways all year, let alone in one game, right, And
Speaker 1: that's sort of the the time, Like all of the
Speaker 1: things that we're saying is that they just don't run
Speaker 1: anything consistently well enough in a row to be able
Speaker 1: to do something like that. So yeah, that Colts game
Speaker 1: ended up being if that was the film he was
Speaker 1: putting out right now. I mean, I think it's kind
Speaker 1: of similar in some ways to this last game against
Speaker 1: the Bengals, because they were bad in the first half
Speaker 1: of that game, and they were bad the first drive
Speaker 1: of the second half. I believe he was an interception
Speaker 1: as well. He only threw one pass the first quarter. Right,
Speaker 1: it was a bad game for them in the first half,
Speaker 1: So it's kind of similar. But it just sticks out
Speaker 1: to me that they were able to make the make
Speaker 1: the same play work three different ways, right, Like, that's
Speaker 1: that's the old you know, that's the old addage in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways that with football is that it
Speaker 1: doesn't have to be super complex, right, can be the
Speaker 1: same play, you know, the coverage adjust you and you
Speaker 1: hit it different ways. So to the second question, what
Speaker 1: do we want Teddy Bridgewater to do? Well? Here is
Speaker 1: I think the interesting chess match about this game is
Speaker 1: that the blueprinter or the book on the Miami Dolphins
Speaker 1: offense really since that Charger game, but it maybe started
Speaker 1: a little bit with San Francisco, but they're more of
Speaker 1: his own team is to play man coverage. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: they get into Tyreek Kill and Jalen Waddle's faces, and
Speaker 1: a lot of the motion, play action and misdirection that
Speaker 1: that Mike McDaniel uses and uses well is just just
Speaker 1: torment zone coverage, right, because your your guys are that
Speaker 1: are spot drappers, are just in conflict the entire game,
Speaker 1: especially in the middle of the field. Is it a run,
Speaker 1: is it a reverse? Is it a sweep? Is it
Speaker 1: you know? This guy's motion in this way and coming
Speaker 1: out that way? Now we have play action like there's
Speaker 1: just no the middle linebacker has got like six different
Speaker 1: things going on. And Bill Bill's talked about this, right
Speaker 1: that against those kind of teams play action motion stuff
Speaker 1: like that, Yeah, is a lot less of active against
Speaker 1: man coverage because in man coverage, there's no there's no
Speaker 1: you're not reading cues, right, You're just this is my assignment.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm going off this assignment, whereas in zone, yes,
Speaker 1: then you need to be more aware of everything that's
Speaker 1: happening in front of you. The thing I'd add to
Speaker 1: that too is take and this is maybe more of
Speaker 1: a Dolphins thing than a Teddy Bridgewater specific thing. But yeah,
Speaker 1: take away short stuff, make him throw the ball deep.
Speaker 1: So this is the concern, right, because I wholeheartedly agree
Speaker 1: with you, especially with Bridgewater in there, because he I
Speaker 1: said this, he can dig and dunk all day long.
Speaker 1: Like that's Teddy b right, Like you get the ball
Speaker 1: out quickly, he'd throw he averages like six yards air
Speaker 1: yards per attempt, like that's that's his sweet spot, that's
Speaker 1: where he wants to be. But the problem is is
Speaker 1: that if you can't man up on the outside and
Speaker 1: you're playing zone, that's what's going to be there, right.
Speaker 1: The checkdowns is what's going to be there. The soft
Speaker 1: stuff underneath is what's going to be there. And I
Speaker 1: think this gets to a point that I wanted to
Speaker 1: bring up a bigger picture point. And we're talking about
Speaker 1: this earlier about defense nowadays in the NFL, and I
Speaker 1: think a lot of people watch that first half, specifically
Speaker 1: against Burrow, and they're like, Oh, they're just so much
Speaker 1: soft zone, right, They're just sitting in soft zone. They're
Speaker 1: giving up things underneath, and Burrows just you know, getting
Speaker 1: the football out quickly, distributing the ball out quickly, and
Speaker 1: it's just shredding them. And I think in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways unfortunately, especially with the Patriots defense, the way
Speaker 1: that they're built, where they're really stronger upfront and the
Speaker 1: back end is sort of the weaker part of their team,
Speaker 1: especially with all the injuries. It's just really difficult nowadays
Speaker 1: to really dictate the terms of the game on defense. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the way the rules are set up, the quarterbacks are
Speaker 1: so good, the receivers are so good, Like, you just
Speaker 1: can't control or dominate the game defensively the way that
Speaker 1: you used to be able to. And I think that
Speaker 1: a lot of teams, pretty much every team I watch
Speaker 1: on film defensively is doing the same thing, and that
Speaker 1: is they're playing too high shell. Sometimes they rotate it
Speaker 1: into three, sometimes they stay into and I say three,
Speaker 1: I mean like cover three or post safety. But everybody's
Speaker 1: backing off because all they want to do. That Ben
Speaker 1: don't break. Is how thirty two teams are playing defense
Speaker 1: right now, But I'll say thirty one because I think
Speaker 1: San Francisco might be the San Francisco. Yeah, they're on
Speaker 1: a different level. But no, it's a good point, you know,
Speaker 1: you you kinda and we talked about it before with
Speaker 1: the Great even some of the elite quarterbacks in the
Speaker 1: league right now are turnover happy. Yeah, look at it,
Speaker 1: guy like Josh Allen, because that's all it is, is
Speaker 1: that you're just trying to bait them. You're hunting big place, right,
Speaker 1: So it's all right, let's just see if you'll throw
Speaker 1: us one, right and if not, we'll hold a field
Speaker 1: goal in the red zone. Like that's defense at this point,
Speaker 1: right right. And the other thing specifically is it relates
Speaker 1: to that game. You had receivers of six, five, sixty
Speaker 1: three and six one against corners of five, ten, five,
Speaker 1: eight and five eight. Yeah, you're not exactly going to
Speaker 1: come up to the line and press. That's not exactly
Speaker 1: recipe to win. And I mean we'll get into it
Speaker 1: more when they when we get to the offseason. Jalen
Speaker 1: Mills is still here, obviously, Jack Jones is still here.
Speaker 1: But you're seeing the depth kind of be tested on
Speaker 1: the boundary corner. Specifically, they need more size in the
Speaker 1: secondary because the whole, like receivers are getting bigger. Guys
Speaker 1: who would have been tight ends ten years ago are
Speaker 1: now wide receivers like Higgins exactly so and it's if
Speaker 1: you're gonna play man. And I remember talking to guys
Speaker 1: on like the eighteen nineteen Patriots about this, that had
Speaker 1: the guys the horses to play man for four quarters
Speaker 1: in the secondary. If you're gonna feel more, JC Jackson,
Speaker 1: Jason mccordy, John john what a unit if you are
Speaker 1: gonna play man. It's a lot like basketball where you
Speaker 1: have to be able to have guys that can cover
Speaker 1: one through five, Right, Like, you can't put a five
Speaker 1: foot eight Marcus Jones on a center like t Higgins
Speaker 1: if you're gonna live in man coverage. So you have
Speaker 1: to have bigger guys. And that's not a knock on
Speaker 1: Marcus Jones. There's within positions, there's different types of players
Speaker 1: at each position, right. So it's just like a game
Speaker 1: of basketball, where you know, you match big on big
Speaker 1: and you match the guards on the guards, and like
Speaker 1: that's sort of how you have to go about it.
Speaker 1: So with that team in eighteen, you know that John
Speaker 1: Jones in the slot, and they had Gilmore and Jason
Speaker 1: mccordy and Jac you had some more size on the outside,
Speaker 1: and they were able to match up against every different
Speaker 1: body type that they were going to see and unfortunately
Speaker 1: this defense doesn't have that. So I actually think that
Speaker 1: what they're doing defensively, although it might be looked at
Speaker 1: as treading water on a lot of downs and a
Speaker 1: lot of situations, especially between the twenties, I think they're
Speaker 1: doing what they can, right, Yeah, And this is sort
Speaker 1: of defense nowadays. Like spin the dial, you know, get
Speaker 1: you into your two shell, high shell, make it to three,
Speaker 1: make it one, make it two, make it four, and
Speaker 1: just continue to spend that dial as much as you
Speaker 1: possibly can, and hope and pray that you win on
Speaker 1: third down a couple of times, maybe you get a
Speaker 1: turnover two or three. And that's how you hold a
Speaker 1: team to twenty points, right, That's that's the end game? Right? Yeah? No, absolutely,
Speaker 1: I mean I think you hear some times people say, oh,
Speaker 1: they allowed twenty one points. Twenty four points, doesn't really
Speaker 1: that good to be a game on defense. But what
Speaker 1: are the stipulations if those were long sustained drives, right right?
Speaker 1: And or not? Like sorry, not if those are not
Speaker 1: long sustained drives, if you were able to keep your
Speaker 1: offense on the field, like you said, if you know,
Speaker 1: you hold them to a field on the key spot
Speaker 1: defense is so situational at this point. Yeah, it's not
Speaker 1: necessarily as weird as it sounds. It's not necessarily just
Speaker 1: keep points off the ball board at all costs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's keep the game manageable. It set the tone, you know,
Speaker 1: how's your tani. But it's literally making sure that they
Speaker 1: don't score forty on every quarters. If you're if your
Speaker 1: team is built for shootout offensively, then yeah, maybe you
Speaker 1: play a little more aggressive. But if you have an offense,
Speaker 1: it's more dank and dunk. You know, how can we
Speaker 1: shorten the game? How can we limit the total number
Speaker 1: of drives? Can we get red zone stops? Right, it's
Speaker 1: it's very very situational. All right, let's fly through some
Speaker 1: of these costs. In the last twenty minutes or so,
Speaker 1: we had all right, Christen Fresno, what's going on? Going
Speaker 1: quick question for you guys. So in this scenario, so
Speaker 1: obviously all the news that Derek Carter just toppen. So
Speaker 1: actually I want the feathers state. I go there. I've
Speaker 1: grown up watching Derek play, Davante Adams to play. I
Speaker 1: know in the past, I've been reports that we've previously
Speaker 1: tried trading for Derek and I know all the relationship
Speaker 1: with Josh McDonalds and Mac Jones. Any chance to Bill
Speaker 1: Belichick and Josh and DWAs get together in trade Derek Carr,
Speaker 1: Devant Adams, true Mac Jones and possibly like a first
Speaker 1: round pick. Okay, so thanks for the call, Chris. I
Speaker 1: don't mean to drop you quick. We just have to
Speaker 1: go here. Yeah, this one, I look, I would love
Speaker 1: to have Davante Adams here. Yeah. And if you're telling
Speaker 1: me that the only way I can get Davanta Adams
Speaker 1: but I have Davante Adams is to take on Derek Carr,
Speaker 1: then I'll swallow the pill. But I don't like swallow. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's the first time I've heard that one phrased that way,
Speaker 1: which I'm a little more interesting. So the Derek Carr
Speaker 1: thing to me is baffling because Mac Jones is just
Speaker 1: a cheaper version of Derek Carr. Right, So why are
Speaker 1: you trading the same player Mac Jones for Derek Carr
Speaker 1: just to play pay excuse me, pay with money, pay
Speaker 1: the more expensive quarters in the older quarterback. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: you get him off the rock. It's crazy to me.
Speaker 1: How three weeks ago I'm sitting here hyping up the
Speaker 1: defense for how they played against the Raiders, and all
Speaker 1: I hear is Derek Cars terrible. Derek Carr doesn't belong
Speaker 1: to the Derek Carr. Is Derek Carr that now all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, Well, could you imagine if they had
Speaker 1: Derek Carr instead of Mac Jones quarterback? Look, I think
Speaker 1: Spider Man meme, It's like it is the same people.
Speaker 1: I don't think he's as bad. That game against the
Speaker 1: Patriots one of the worst I've seen him play. I
Speaker 1: don't think he's quite that bad. But everybody talking about
Speaker 1: oh well, Max panicky in the pocket and Mac has
Speaker 1: trouble getting through his reads, which, like I don't think
Speaker 1: is as true as people make it. But if those
Speaker 1: are your complaints, those are also two of the biggest
Speaker 1: knocks on Derek Carr. If you want to say you
Speaker 1: want a different quarterback, fine, come to the table with
Speaker 1: an intelligent army. This is gonna be my new thing. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm saying this right now. If you're gonna tell me
Speaker 1: Max shouldn't be the Patriots quarterback. If you're gonna tell
Speaker 1: me Max shouldn't be the Patriots quarterback, well then who
Speaker 1: should Yeah, That's gonna be my question. You don't move
Speaker 1: on from a guy who a year ago took the
Speaker 1: team in the playoffs as a rookie. You don't move
Speaker 1: on from a guy like that just because oh greener pastors, right.
Speaker 1: You move on from a guy like that with a plan.
Speaker 1: And if Derek Carr is your plan, you're spinning your tires.
Speaker 1: At best, you're spinning your tires. So I blame Josh
Speaker 1: Allen for this. I do too. I blame Josh Allen
Speaker 1: for a lot. I blame Josh Allen, I blame mahomes
Speaker 1: I blame Herbert because it has set an expectation that
Speaker 1: every quarterback not only has to be this like cyborg
Speaker 1: with a rocket arm, but he also has to play
Speaker 1: that style to win right where this this backyard, you know,
Speaker 1: a gunslinger style that they all play. And Herbert maybe
Speaker 1: not as much as Alan and uh and mahomes um,
Speaker 1: but just because of the offense that he's in. But
Speaker 1: in general, like that, the it's death to the to
Speaker 1: the traditional pocket passer, right like. And then this is
Speaker 1: like a f which I think is so dumb, which
Speaker 1: because you can still at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: football is still football. Yeah, and I really aesthetically when
Speaker 1: you see, you know, Josh Allen make a throw with like,
Speaker 1: you know, a guy hanging off of him and he's
Speaker 1: got well you know he see throwing it with one arm.
Speaker 1: You know, no, no feat nothing right, Like he's just
Speaker 1: throwing off platform. It's it looks so cool. It doesn't.
Speaker 1: But what people don't realize is how slim the margin
Speaker 1: of error is to operate that way. And yeah, I
Speaker 1: just don't know Josh Allen's success. What do people who
Speaker 1: don't get enough credit? Is everybody else on that roster
Speaker 1: who allows him to operate that way. But here's my point.
Speaker 1: But listen, listen, here's my point. Here's my point because
Speaker 1: it goes to what you're saying. Yeah, to have a
Speaker 1: quarterback that play Mahomes is the one difference in this.
Speaker 1: I think Mahomes on another planet. Yeah, But whether it's
Speaker 1: whether it's Allen, whether it's Mahomes, whether it's Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: in the latter stage of his career, you have to
Speaker 1: have such a good roster around that guy to allow
Speaker 1: him to play that way, to allow him to play
Speaker 1: up to a skill set. So if you have to
Speaker 1: build an elite roster Anyway, why give up all those
Speaker 1: assets to go chase the QB when it's been proven
Speaker 1: that you can win with that elite roster, even if
Speaker 1: your quarterback isn't that good. Well, we have we have
Speaker 1: spied on hold. So he's getting oh boys, So let
Speaker 1: me just say we're getting to this argument here in
Speaker 1: rock Purty exists. Yeah, brock Purty exists. You have Kyle
Speaker 1: Shanahan running the offense. But I think the general, the
Speaker 1: Derek Carr thing, the fact that this is a conversation
Speaker 1: to trade the younger Derek Carr, the cheaper rookie contract,
Speaker 1: Derek Carr for Derek Carr for thirty million dollars a year.
Speaker 1: Derek Carr is just mind blood. And if you think,
Speaker 1: if you don't think Derek Carr has been good in Vegas,
Speaker 1: which I know a lot of Patriots fans don't. On
Speaker 1: the way they talked after that game, what does bring
Speaker 1: him into a worst situation do for you? I don't
Speaker 1: know it Like it's if you're if you want to
Speaker 1: replace Mac Jones, fine, come to the table with a
Speaker 1: better option. All right. Oh in North Carolina? Oh, how's
Speaker 1: it going? Oh you're on the air? Hello? Hey, Oh, Hello, gentlemen,
Speaker 1: any time, long time, Thank you. I just wanted to
Speaker 1: make a remark about the season, as it's been fascinating
Speaker 1: actually from like an academic standpoint, because if you think
Speaker 1: back to preseason, we uh, we all wondered how we
Speaker 1: would be able to tell if it was the offensive
Speaker 1: coaching or the players and uh and I think that's
Speaker 1: gotten really murky. And I believe it started with just well,
Speaker 1: the play calling was the problem. We weren't utilizing certain
Speaker 1: certain tools in the bag, like RPO's play action. And
Speaker 1: then to look at where it's at now and sort
Speaker 1: of evolved to this, well, the positional code terrible as well,
Speaker 1: or at least blackluster. Yeah, that's I just think it's
Speaker 1: fascinating him worthy of like a retrospect at some point.
Speaker 1: That's totally on the one eighty that I did, because
Speaker 1: I started with this offense and was like, well, they're
Speaker 1: just not creative, they're not calling the right plays, they
Speaker 1: don't call enough play action, they don't call enough RPO.
Speaker 1: But now we're so far removed from even that part
Speaker 1: of the discussion because now we just need to execute.
Speaker 1: Just day one. Can get lined up? Can you get
Speaker 1: lined up right? And I don't. Maybe I misunderstood the call. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thanks for the call. Maybe I misunderstood a little bit.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's murky in terms like it sounds
Speaker 1: like he was saying, well, do they not have enough
Speaker 1: talent or they're not coached? Right, I don't think that
Speaker 1: part's murky at all. Yeah, and we already got into
Speaker 1: that about the offensive ranking from last year. I won't
Speaker 1: redo that, but I don't think it's murky there all
Speaker 1: right here, it comes all right, spe how are we doing?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I didn't even want to get into
Speaker 1: that stuff, Alex. But I mean, good, stop using the
Speaker 1: word proved. You know it hasn't been proven yet. I mean,
Speaker 1: call me when they when that kind of situation, high ranking,
Speaker 1: sort of high flying talent with your your net neutral quarterback,
Speaker 1: because what a super Bowl. It hasn't happened. But I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't I didn't want to get into that, all right,
Speaker 1: don't want to go. But Nick Foles did happen. Speak
Speaker 1: Nick Foles happened? I would say, enough, guys have gotten
Speaker 1: one game, all right, So Carson when he was he
Speaker 1: was so Nick Foles and Carson Wentz happened. It's two
Speaker 1: of us speak. Nick Foles was the quarterback for the
Speaker 1: entire playoff run. It wasn't just one game. We're just
Speaker 1: messing with you. What do you? What? Are you? Okay? Fine?
Speaker 1: But Carson went that season was a very pre injury.
Speaker 1: Carson Wentz was very, very great situation on a great Rossie.
Speaker 1: I say this to Alex all the time, and I
Speaker 1: think it's hilarious. If Jimmy Garoppolo hits that throw at
Speaker 1: the end of that Super Bowl and wins that then,
Speaker 1: then then his whole argument is so much stronger. His
Speaker 1: whole argument is so much strong Only Shanahan didn't put
Speaker 1: it in his hands. Okay, you want to let me
Speaker 1: bring up jim Mcaroppolo. Just what if those two team
Speaker 1: play ten times, Jimmy Garoppolo loses eight out of ten
Speaker 1: of those games. Well he did because that team was
Speaker 1: so heavily dependent on the running game. Until they get
Speaker 1: the postseason, They're like, all right, Jimmy playing it. Look
Speaker 1: what happened. Well, now I'm the NFC Championship game me
Speaker 1: through at eighteen. But that's my point. If you just
Speaker 1: had a bet like it could have worked, if they
Speaker 1: just coached it better. Oh please, all right, what was
Speaker 1: your point? What did you actually at the time, what
Speaker 1: did you actually call in? I really okay, I really
Speaker 1: didn't want to talk about that. What I what I wanted.
Speaker 1: I wanted to say that Evan, some you and I,
Speaker 1: through different roads to Grandma's house, have come to kind
Speaker 1: of feel the same way about Mac Jones at this point.
Speaker 1: I feel uncertain. I feel like the needle for me
Speaker 1: is not moved adequately because of the situation, because there
Speaker 1: are things you guys like, are up. I think that
Speaker 1: Alex is still too much of a Jim. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's too much of a of a of a mac
Speaker 1: apologist at this point, like and I don't season clearly
Speaker 1: for his world wards. But but what I wanted to
Speaker 1: get you guys to address, I'm genuinely curious and I'm
Speaker 1: not coming at this where that this is right, this
Speaker 1: is wrong, And please avoid using the words rookie wall.
Speaker 1: Just tell me what Mac is in total. Look, get
Speaker 1: the whole body of work from the post by Indie
Speaker 1: game last year, board like what like, because I don't
Speaker 1: think he was that great toward the end of the
Speaker 1: season last year. So please, I genuinely want to hear
Speaker 1: what you guys think about is playing since the indie
Speaker 1: game on. Yeah, that that's a really fair point. I
Speaker 1: think a lot of people bring up spin thanks for
Speaker 1: the call, and we always appreciate the back and forth.
Speaker 1: I think the reason why I don't want to, the
Speaker 1: reason why I give him a little bit of a
Speaker 1: pass for what happened at the end of last year
Speaker 1: is not necessarily a rookie wall. It's just more that
Speaker 1: that offense had hit its ceiling and they still weren't
Speaker 1: under personnel wise in a spot where they were going
Speaker 1: to be able to go toe to toe with Buffalo,
Speaker 1: for example. Right. So what I was really hanging my
Speaker 1: hat on with that was that, Okay, this is the baseline,
Speaker 1: right like, this is the this is the floor for
Speaker 1: mac Jones, and that floor is a good enough capable
Speaker 1: NFL starter. And now let's see if they go out
Speaker 1: and add somebody more than Davante Parker and they build
Speaker 1: off of what they did offensively, and Josh McDaniels doesn't
Speaker 1: leave for Vegas and they are and they really grow
Speaker 1: moving forward, then you know, hopefully they finished stronger in
Speaker 1: the future. And of course what we have is what
Speaker 1: Spee was, you know, saying what we've been saying this
Speaker 1: whole time is a whole lot of nothing because we
Speaker 1: have no idea what we have and that part is
Speaker 1: scary and frustrating all at the same time. But I
Speaker 1: think the last, you know, let's call it five or
Speaker 1: six games of last season, I don't think he played
Speaker 1: particularly well, But I think that on the whole, he
Speaker 1: still played well enough to me for me to be
Speaker 1: optimistic that if we keep building with this, it's going
Speaker 1: to turn out to be okay. But we just never
Speaker 1: got to build with it. And that's the that's the
Speaker 1: disappointing part. There's a lot of rookie quarterbacks that come
Speaker 1: into the league that just can't win, period. Right. There's
Speaker 1: there's one little bit south of here wearing green. I
Speaker 1: think that somebody that Mac Jones was winning you the
Speaker 1: games he should have won you, Yeah, which I know
Speaker 1: that doesn't sound like a lot. It's for a rookie quarterback,
Speaker 1: that's a good baseline, right, And outside of maybe that
Speaker 1: Colts game, I don't know that any of those losses
Speaker 1: were games that Patriots necessarily should have won for reasons
Speaker 1: beyond Mac Jones. Ideally, the quarterback becomes a guy who
Speaker 1: maybe wins you some games you shouldn't and eventually starts
Speaker 1: turning those games into games you should win. And what
Speaker 1: I saw in that first year as a whole, like
Speaker 1: you said, even though he didn't play as well down
Speaker 1: the stretch, I didn't think he played overly poorly. It
Speaker 1: was nowhere close to what it looks like this year.
Speaker 1: I thought there's enough to build on here that in
Speaker 1: a year, I think he does start to win some
Speaker 1: of those games, and then in two or three years
Speaker 1: some of those games start to flip. That's how rookie
Speaker 1: quarterback development generally works, Like you said, Unfortunately, the building
Speaker 1: on it never came because Josh McDaniels laughed in YadA, YadA, YadA.
Speaker 1: The rest is history. That's what I saw from Mac Jones.
Speaker 1: I saw a guy who could at least win you
Speaker 1: the games he needed to win. And all right, if
Speaker 1: he's doing that in year one, where does it go
Speaker 1: in year two? Where does it go in year three?
Speaker 1: That's what was exciting. Year two now has kind of
Speaker 1: just been thrown away, and it's well, now he has
Speaker 1: to get back to year one and you're restarting, and
Speaker 1: it's just the timeline is totally thrown to the wind,
Speaker 1: and it's pretty much uncharted territory at this point. Again,
Speaker 1: the regression from year one to year two for mac Jones,
Speaker 1: there really is no comp that you can look at
Speaker 1: and say, well, all right, this guy was God has
Speaker 1: seemed a playoffs year one completely fell off in year
Speaker 1: two like that hasn't happened. Quarterback growth or regression is
Speaker 1: generally pretty linear, and this is just a roller coaster, right,
Speaker 1: And it's that's the part that frustrates me the most,
Speaker 1: is that this is such a lost season, right that
Speaker 1: from of value down standpoint and to that end, not
Speaker 1: only have the Patriots potentially ruined quite frankly mac Jones. Yeah, look,
Speaker 1: there's a chance that he never gets back to where
Speaker 1: he was your one, because the fundamentals, the confidence, all
Speaker 1: of it is just so shot from this. Not only
Speaker 1: did it right now and not only did they ruin him,
Speaker 1: but they stunted him most important, I would say it's
Speaker 1: one and the same, Yeah, and but I but the
Speaker 1: problem is is that I was I at the end
Speaker 1: of last year, I thought that they had a guy
Speaker 1: that was worth building with. I wasn't one hundred percent
Speaker 1: sure that he was going to be an elite quarterback
Speaker 1: or a perennial All Pro or anything like that. But
Speaker 1: I was I thought that they had a guy that
Speaker 1: it was worth giving a shot too, right to get
Speaker 1: to that point for two three four years now, it
Speaker 1: feels like we've skipped over this year an hour, back
Speaker 1: to square not square one in terms of like week
Speaker 1: one twenty twenty one, but just chance. I think you're
Speaker 1: kind of the conversation for Mac Jones heading into twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three is going to be similar to the conversation
Speaker 1: you you'd have about a rookie. Yeah, I actually think
Speaker 1: it is guy. What exactly is he? Because again, the
Speaker 1: two seasons we have are so vastly different that no,
Speaker 1: I think I like that take that you're kind of
Speaker 1: back Mac Jones heading into twenty twenty three, I think
Speaker 1: will be viewed much like a rookie quarterback would be
Speaker 1: does he belong in this league? What exactly does he
Speaker 1: give you? And those are all fair questions. Some of
Speaker 1: that's on him, some of that is reasons beyond his control,
Speaker 1: but he's basically back to his rookie year at this point. Right.
Speaker 1: All I've ever asked for out of this situation is
Speaker 1: that we just put mac Jones in a solid foundation
Speaker 1: like he was in last year and now in the
Speaker 1: year three, even though maybe mentally and some of the
Speaker 1: fundamentals have regretted because of what's gone on this year.
Speaker 1: It should, in theory be another offseason with Tom House,
Speaker 1: another offseason in this in an NFL strength and conditioning program,
Speaker 1: like we should still be making progress physically from that stand,
Speaker 1: but I wouldn't even say were we could see another
Speaker 1: step from him, and that we obviously didn't get to
Speaker 1: see this year. At the very least, next year we
Speaker 1: get our answer, right if you put him in a
Speaker 1: better situation than the very least, it's like, all right,
Speaker 1: if they have a real ose in place and the
Speaker 1: offensive lines fixed and he's still struggling, well, then he's
Speaker 1: not the guy. And that could happen. But if you know,
Speaker 1: they bring in Bill O'Brien and they get the tackle
Speaker 1: situation figured out, maybe they bring in a receiver, right,
Speaker 1: and they go back to averaging thirty points a game
Speaker 1: like they did last year, well, okay, now we're in business,
Speaker 1: and and then it becomes well, you still burned a year,
Speaker 1: but all right, no, he is the guy. Twenty two
Speaker 1: is the anomaly contract to a right. Yeah, but okay,
Speaker 1: so really quickly before we sign off here, uh your
Speaker 1: you know, two minute take on on Sunday. We've talked
Speaker 1: a little bit about the Dolphins, but I want to
Speaker 1: kind of hammer this one. I mean, you said this
Speaker 1: to me a practice. It was something I was thinking
Speaker 1: a couple days ago. It reminds me a lot of
Speaker 1: that Bill's playoff game lach Year in the sense that
Speaker 1: they had you know, DeVante Bossby out there, Juan Williams
Speaker 1: just got They didn't have any depth Jalen will Uh,
Speaker 1: Jalen Mills at COVID, John Jones was sick. Yeah, jac
Speaker 1: Jackson played, but he was one foot out the door
Speaker 1: by that. He was also hurt. I think they just
Speaker 1: didn't have anybody in the secondary. Everybody was sick or
Speaker 1: hurt or whatever. You know. Jonathan Jones was inactive because
Speaker 1: he was hurt. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, so you know,
Speaker 1: Marcus Jones hasn't practiced this week. Jack Jones hasn't practiced
Speaker 1: in a couple of weeks. Jalen Mills isn't practice in
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks. Jonathan Jones, I believe is still
Speaker 1: on the injury report, although he's practicing. So who are
Speaker 1: you putting out there against If they're you know, one
Speaker 1: of the top three skilled position groups in the league,
Speaker 1: I would say it's just you know, whether it's Miles
Speaker 1: Bryant or you know, you're deep on the depth chart now.
Speaker 1: It banged up John Jones getting into the practice squad,
Speaker 1: Quandre Mosley. You're asking a lot of guys that you
Speaker 1: really weren't planning on putting on the field this year,
Speaker 1: putting on the field in very different roles. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be a tall task even without two, to keep up
Speaker 1: with these receivers if they can do it. Look, Miami
Speaker 1: hasn't played great football lately. Their defense has been inconsistent.
Speaker 1: Their offense, even beyond two, has been turnover prone. So
Speaker 1: you have a chance to hang with it if they
Speaker 1: were healthy at corner. I think the Patriots have a
Speaker 1: good shot in this game. Yeah, I just that's a
Speaker 1: lot of injuries to overcome in the secondary. Yeah it.
Speaker 1: I never really gave him a shot in that playoff
Speaker 1: game last year anyways, just because of how it looked
Speaker 1: at a couple of weeks earlier, and I that team
Speaker 1: really felt like it was sort of letting go of
Speaker 1: the rope down the stretch. But I think that this team,
Speaker 1: I really thought maybe they had a chance in this game.
Speaker 1: I just can't. I can't figure out how they how
Speaker 1: they defend this offense, even with Teddy Bridgewater. And what
Speaker 1: my guess is, and this goes back, you know, over
Speaker 1: to the other side of the football, Well, my guess
Speaker 1: is that they're gonna defensively do what we were just
Speaker 1: talking about, which they did a lot against the Bengals,
Speaker 1: which they did a lot against the Bills, and they're
Speaker 1: just gonna sit in soft zone and survive, right, and
Speaker 1: hopefully they can keep the game, they can shorten it right.
Speaker 1: And you know, Gay gave up twenty two points Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: They gave up what twenty four ultimately right to Buffalo,
Speaker 1: even though it was not kind of like a fake
Speaker 1: twenty four, they gave up twenty four. Like that's the
Speaker 1: type of game that you need to play, but in
Speaker 1: order to win that game, your offense actually do something right.
Speaker 1: So this is no longer I thought going into this
Speaker 1: game that this could be a game that the Patriots
Speaker 1: defense actually control the game and really put them in
Speaker 1: a position to win. Now I'm not really sure if
Speaker 1: we can kind of get to that point anyway at
Speaker 1: this point. So this is a just don't get you know,
Speaker 1: don't don't give up thirty five to Teddy Bridgewater, right,
Speaker 1: keep him in the twenties, and then offensively, you gotta
Speaker 1: do something Kendrick Borne. That that's what you gotta do.
Speaker 1: Get the ball to Kendrick Borne. Keep him on the
Speaker 1: field because you can move the ball and you can
Speaker 1: score points when he's on the field. Okay, we have
Speaker 1: one more caller just called in, all right, and then
Speaker 1: we're gonna wrap John. What's up? John? Hey, guys, I
Speaker 1: was wondering what your dream off season plan for the
Speaker 1: Patriots that tackle Winde receiver, And I'm that's a coordinating okay,
Speaker 1: so this is uh, thanks for the college John, John
Speaker 1: knows I put together my ten point plan for the Patriots. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're not doing We're not doing ten points. Okay, Okay,
Speaker 1: we don't have time for that. But give me your
Speaker 1: dream offensive coordinator, dream tackle, dream receiver quickly go. So
Speaker 1: I'm ten points, all right, if we're being realistic, Yes,
Speaker 1: it probably is, Bill o'bri I'm assuming Josh McDaniels was
Speaker 1: staying in Vegas. I'd love to get Josh back. If
Speaker 1: not him, give me Bill O'Brien wide receiver. I've been
Speaker 1: on the record with this, DeAndre Hopkins. I think there's
Speaker 1: a chance he's available. I think there's a chance he's
Speaker 1: get a bull at a relatively good price. Is he
Speaker 1: gonna let bygones be bygones with Billy? Oh? I forgot
Speaker 1: about that, all right? You know what we said dream offseason? Yes,
Speaker 1: they bury the hatchet. If I had to pick one,
Speaker 1: Bill puts him in the room at the ground round,
Speaker 1: just like it did with Rodney Harris. If I had
Speaker 1: to pick one, I would say Hopkins. So I'll fine
Speaker 1: Chad o'shay as euroc so you can get DeAndre Hopkins
Speaker 1: to come here and play wide receiver and then a tackle.
Speaker 1: I actually think i'd love to see him at two
Speaker 1: tackles because wins out Trents on a contract here. I
Speaker 1: think it's a classics. Signed one draft one. I don't
Speaker 1: have the list of the top tackles in front of me,
Speaker 1: but signed one of the top ten tackles free agency
Speaker 1: in free agency and then use that first round pick
Speaker 1: on another tackle. So I'm not too far off from you,
Speaker 1: I'll say. I'll say, for for the sake of our argument,
Speaker 1: Roderick Jones is the tackle in the draft. I'd like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So Bill O'Brien number one. Yeah, I know you're not
Speaker 1: gonna like this, but Cliff Kingsbury number two. Okay. If
Speaker 1: Cliffkins fired by Arizona and you can't make Bob happen,
Speaker 1: then i'd bring him back, Okay, But then you probably
Speaker 1: can't get Hopkins. Yeah. There's a lot of issues there
Speaker 1: with Hopkins, right, so I can't really get too caught
Speaker 1: up on the hot wid you don't want Hawkins as
Speaker 1: much as I do. The wide receiver one is difficult
Speaker 1: for me right now because I think Hopkins is really
Speaker 1: the obvious one that would be available, but getting him
Speaker 1: is politically So would you rather have O'Brien or Hawkins?
Speaker 1: I said yesterday when you asked me this question off
Speaker 1: the year, that I'd take Bill O'Brien because I think
Speaker 1: that they're they're just so sloppy structurally, right, like as
Speaker 1: an offense that like I think that that fixes it.
Speaker 1: More like, if if you give Matt Patricia DeAndre, Hopkins
Speaker 1: isn't going to be any better, I'll say that it's not.
Speaker 1: But it's not. But it's not O'Brien or Hopkins, it's
Speaker 1: another like any oc you want besides O'Brien and Hopkins.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe Hopkins and Cliff actually really like you. Maybe
Speaker 1: they do. So if it's Hopkins and Cliff, who would
Speaker 1: you rather have then Hopkins and Cliff? Okay, So I
Speaker 1: don't think that Cliff is a drop off from So
Speaker 1: that's it's not Hopkins and you keep Patricia. It's Hopkins
Speaker 1: and just not Bill O'Brien. It can be you whever
Speaker 1: you want, just not Bills might say when you talk
Speaker 1: about the sloppiness, Yeah, go back and watch some of Alabama.
Speaker 1: Alabama had a lot of the same issues this year
Speaker 1: in terms of pro like he's a pro Alabama had
Speaker 1: a lot of the same issues this year in terms
Speaker 1: of the nuts and bolts that the Patriots did. But
Speaker 1: was that because it's college kids versus NFL. But they
Speaker 1: haven't had those problems in the past. It's always been
Speaker 1: college kids in the past. They didn't have that problem
Speaker 1: last year with Billy. Oh either fair, that's fair? Okay?
Speaker 1: Uh ot So I've really been hang on if not Hopkins,
Speaker 1: who I don't know Judy. I guess I really like Higgins.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's gonna demanded trade that really,
Speaker 1: I think I uk is one of those guys that
Speaker 1: you kind of have to know how to use, and
Speaker 1: I'm not confident in that. Yeah, it sounds like Judy
Speaker 1: if not Hawkins. Yeah, I'd go Higgins if they can
Speaker 1: get opens on them. So Higgins over Jude. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of there's a lot of there's a big bill
Speaker 1: coming for Cincinnati, right Oh. Yeah, Joe Burrow is going
Speaker 1: to be a forty fifty million dollars and that's not
Speaker 1: an organ Now we're getting down the rabbit hole here,
Speaker 1: but that's not an organization that is flushed with cash,
Speaker 1: right right, Like that's not a big pocket owner and
Speaker 1: not a big pocket market. So at some point in
Speaker 1: time you have to think about that in Cincinnati. So
Speaker 1: I'd like to tee Higgins as well. Offensive line, all
Speaker 1: four drafting a tackle in the first round, especially if
Speaker 1: they don't make the playoffs and they have a top
Speaker 1: you know, ten, they're probably gonna be in that ten
Speaker 1: to fifteen range. You can really get a franchise guy
Speaker 1: at that spot. And this is a really good I
Speaker 1: think you can get a franchise tackle in the twenties
Speaker 1: in this class. This is a really good tackle class. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is not a great wide receiver class. No, it's not.
Speaker 1: So the other guy that I throw out there, because
Speaker 1: I'm with you, sign one and one percent. You have
Speaker 1: the cap space to maybe go out and get one
Speaker 1: of the bigger name tackles in the market. I really
Speaker 1: and they don't let me. Sorry to cut off. They
Speaker 1: don't have a ton of big name pending free agents.
Speaker 1: So Jones is pretty much John Jones and Devin if
Speaker 1: he wants to come back. But Devin's coming back at
Speaker 1: it one way, He's the only coming here, right, So
Speaker 1: there's But I'm just saying they have all that caps.
Speaker 1: It's not one of those things where, yeah, they have
Speaker 1: a lot of cap space, but everybody's up and you
Speaker 1: have to resign people. They have a lot of cap
Speaker 1: space and they really don't need to spend a lot
Speaker 1: of it in house, and they can also free up
Speaker 1: some space with the right moves. Anyways, Uh, I'm getting
Speaker 1: more and more married to the idea of Mike McGlinchey
Speaker 1: because just I'll lay it out really quickly, right tackle
Speaker 1: first of all, So that so checks that box right,
Speaker 1: and then you draft obviously the higher premium position at
Speaker 1: left tack Most of the guys in the draft are
Speaker 1: primary left tackles. Right tackle U six foot eight, three
Speaker 1: twenty right tackle, love it love power, blocking down downhill
Speaker 1: type of guy, which hopefully they'll get back to that system.
Speaker 1: The third thing, number nine overall pick in the draft
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago, they love that, right, that's
Speaker 1: Stefan Gilmour, right. It's the guy that they couldn't get
Speaker 1: their hands on because he was too high up in
Speaker 1: the draft for them. That he has all the raw
Speaker 1: tools and ability like ball of clay type of guy.
Speaker 1: He hasn't been lights out necessarily for San Francisco, but
Speaker 1: I don't like the system that he's in because in
Speaker 1: San Francisco you gotta be able to move your feet.
Speaker 1: You know. It's an outside zone scheme. It's a bootleg scheme.
Speaker 1: Like there's a lot of moving pockets. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of linear movement for the offensive line. Like when you're
Speaker 1: six foot eight, three thirty, you just want to come
Speaker 1: off the ball right, like you don't want to be
Speaker 1: stepping out by Shanahan. I don't that might have been
Speaker 1: the regime right before Shanahan. I don't know, but notre
Speaker 1: Dame guy. I really like McGlinchey, especially because, you know,
Speaker 1: Elton Jenkins just signed an extension, Conklin and Cleveland just
Speaker 1: signed an extension. So some of the other guys are
Speaker 1: starting to you know that are at the top of
Speaker 1: the tackle marketer signing extensions and mcglinchey's gonna hit unrestricted
Speaker 1: free agencies. So that's that would be my plan. We'll
Speaker 1: definitely outline the plan. Believe it or not, we might
Speaker 1: only have one more in season show. Yeah, so we'll
Speaker 1: definitely outline the plan more on the first offseason show,
Speaker 1: whatever that is, and so we'll definitely have a more
Speaker 1: fleshed out detailed show on that. But we'll be back
Speaker 1: next Thursday, hopefully next Thursday again on the video show
Speaker 1: for your YouTube fans, and we'll be back for next
Speaker 1: week in Buffalo and hopefully a meaningful game in Buffalo.
Speaker 1: So thanks so much for watching. You can say that
Speaker 1: this time and listening, and we'll see you guys next week. Bye.
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