Speaker 1: Thing. I can't see Evan. I think he's on video.
Speaker 1: I believe he's on video. I'm here, okay, so I
Speaker 1: can't see him. He can make all the faces in
Speaker 1: me that he wants. It'll be a secret between him
Speaker 1: and you guys watching. But thanks so much for tuning in. Today.
Speaker 1: We're gonna kind of do a little bit of a
Speaker 1: combo show here. So obviously two days of practice out
Speaker 1: in Green Bay, we're gonna cover in bolt that won't
Speaker 1: just be focused on today, but I think we do
Speaker 1: have to start out with today, Evan, and we're going
Speaker 1: right through the pleasantries because I think there's a ton
Speaker 1: to talk about here, because if you guys on Twitter,
Speaker 1: we're an over exaggerating. This was one of the greatest
Speaker 1: practice performances in NFL history. There's something about Mac Jones
Speaker 1: and these joint practices. He won his job two years
Speaker 1: ago in a joint practice against the New York Giants,
Speaker 1: and then he came out today and apparently looked like
Speaker 1: a top five quarterback in the NFL.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I want to go top five quarterback in
Speaker 2: the NFL just yet. But look, I thought yesterday was
Speaker 2: a clear win for the Green Bay Packers. They outplayed
Speaker 2: the Patriots on sides of the ball, and it was
Speaker 2: bumpy for the Patriots offense. They started out well, very
Speaker 2: first eleven on eleven period on a Wednesday. I'm getting
Speaker 2: my days all mixed up. On Wednesday was good from
Speaker 2: the Patriots offense. They made some plays in the red
Speaker 2: zone in particular, which has been a strong point two
Speaker 2: days in a row. So that's one thing I think
Speaker 2: they can hang their hats on. That's been good for
Speaker 2: both days. But Mac Jones said it best after practice
Speaker 2: said the consistency wasn't there. It was one good play,
Speaker 2: one bad, one good play, one bad and returned to
Speaker 2: the grenade offense if you will on Wednesday, where it
Speaker 2: felt like every other play was a sack, a penalty,
Speaker 2: procedural thing going wrong and it wasn't sharp. It didn't
Speaker 2: look great today on Thursday, though, and I just tweeted
Speaker 2: out my takeaways on the offensive side of the ball,
Speaker 2: and Duce will have defensive takeaways here shortly as well.
Speaker 2: I would say that this was maybe the best practice
Speaker 2: I've ever seen Mac Jones have on Thursday.
Speaker 1: Better than the Giants practice.
Speaker 2: We always go back and forth on it, right because
Speaker 2: the Giants practices to you and I, Alex is like
Speaker 2: the pinnacle right, that's a.
Speaker 1: New England Patriots where were you moment? Brady de Moss
Speaker 1: right in seven is up there twenty eight to three.
Speaker 1: Of course, chronologically here a Quinn Ortine going ten for
Speaker 1: ten in the in stadium practice in Mac Jones against
Speaker 1: the Giants and joint practice is does this join the list?
Speaker 3: I think this joins the list for two reasons.
Speaker 2: One, I thought that there was more down the field
Speaker 2: emphasis today than maybe we've ever seen from Mac. Obviously,
Speaker 2: the big highlight which we can break down was the
Speaker 2: Devonte Parker touchdown, but he also had to practice earlier,
Speaker 2: a throw earlier in practice to Taekwon Thornton on a
Speaker 2: deep over route that he hit and then he hit
Speaker 2: Hunter Henry up up the scene for another big play.
Speaker 2: So I didn't think it was just the underneath stuff
Speaker 2: or chipping away or check downs or things like that.
Speaker 2: I felt like he was pushing the ball down the field.
Speaker 2: And the red zone period that they had today a
Speaker 2: pretty extensive one. It wasn't just Mac Jones, it was
Speaker 2: Bailey Zappy too. They went right through the Packers defense,
Speaker 2: the ones and the twos inside the red zone, just
Speaker 2: hitting passes all over the place to like seven different
Speaker 2: receivers DeVante Parker to Mario Douglas, Kendrick Bourne, Juju Smith, Schuster,
Speaker 2: Anthony Firkser, like everybody getting involved in that portion of practice,
Speaker 2: ones and twos like I just mentioned. So, I thought
Speaker 2: that this practice was one of the better competitive joint.
Speaker 3: Practices that I've ever been a part of, where you.
Speaker 2: Really saw an edge, you saw some fire, you saw
Speaker 2: some pushback from the Patriots, and I know that there
Speaker 2: was a lot of things made of the skirmishes. I
Speaker 2: know there are a lot of tweets out there about skirmishes,
Speaker 2: some involving keon White things like that, but this wasn't
Speaker 2: I mean, we were both at the joint is last
Speaker 2: year against the Panthers alex where it was ugly in
Speaker 2: terms of the extracurriculars.
Speaker 3: This wasn't necessarily like that.
Speaker 2: This was like, you know, there were some skirmishes, but
Speaker 2: for the most part, it was friendly competitive fire from
Speaker 2: both teams. You know, Jabriel Peppers and Jai Yar Alexander
Speaker 2: going back and forth, jawing at each other, and then
Speaker 2: after practice you see them dapping each other up and
Speaker 2: you know, exchanging pleasantries. So I don't think that this
Speaker 2: was really a bad blood between these two teams. Like
Speaker 2: we also saw the Jets and the Bucks, they canceled
Speaker 2: their second practice, right the Jets pulled out of the
Speaker 2: second practice because of how bad the first one was.
Speaker 3: That's not what this was like.
Speaker 2: This was just live, competitive and intense, and I thought
Speaker 2: that it was just an extremely entertaining practice.
Speaker 1: To watch for what it thort the Jets pulled out
Speaker 1: ahead of time because they were worried about other things.
Speaker 1: I don't know that we can do the Jets another time,
Speaker 1: because there's a lot to get to there, folks on
Speaker 1: the Patriots today, and if you want to talk about
Speaker 1: the Patriots with us as well, eight five five Pats
Speaker 1: five hundred is the number Patriots at web radio dot com.
Speaker 1: Is the email we'll get. We already have one email
Speaker 1: and we'll get to it in a little bit. We've
Speaker 1: got some calls coming on the board. But in the meantime, look, Evan,
Speaker 1: you're normally the one that's kind of pouring water on
Speaker 1: the fire. Maybe it's something about the one chair. I
Speaker 1: guess that's true here. I know that's true at the
Speaker 1: Sports Up a lot was made yesterday after practice, and
Speaker 1: you mentioned the comments for Mac Jones where he said
Speaker 1: they weren't consistent enough. I believe it was in that
Speaker 1: same answer he talked about how he was looking forward
Speaker 1: to going back watching the film and working on it.
Speaker 1: So when Mac Jones comes out today and performs the
Speaker 1: way he did, there's a lot of you know, the
Speaker 1: people who are down on Mac will come out and say, well, okay,
Speaker 1: great on Sundays in the fall, he's not gonna go
Speaker 1: get to go back watch the film and play the
Speaker 1: team again on Monday. How much of today's growth do
Speaker 1: you think was adjusting to the Packers defense and how
Speaker 1: much of it was just they had a good day
Speaker 1: and it could have been the first, the second, the
Speaker 1: third day of joint practices. They were just at their
Speaker 1: best today.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think that's a fair point.
Speaker 2: You know, it's an interesting setup where you do get
Speaker 2: to play the same exact guys two days in a row.
Speaker 2: We talk about it with the practices back home, where
Speaker 2: when you're going up against the same defense or the
Speaker 2: same offense every single day, you start to pick up
Speaker 2: on tendencies, and you start to pick up on strengths
Speaker 2: and weaknesses of individual players. So how much of it
Speaker 2: is learning and adapting to what the packers are doing.
Speaker 3: I guess that that remains to be seen.
Speaker 2: I think the one big thing though, that with Mac
Speaker 2: and that we can talk about some of the individual
Speaker 2: players around him, is the anticipation that he's been throwing
Speaker 2: the Sorry.
Speaker 1: Even cut out right when you gave those whatever those
Speaker 1: adjectives were, time whatever.
Speaker 3: You can you hear me? Now?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: All right?
Speaker 2: The timing and anticipation that he's throwing the football with
Speaker 2: I think has been extremely impressive over the last two days,
Speaker 2: not just today. I thought yesterday he threw the ball
Speaker 2: as similar anticipation.
Speaker 3: Oh, I can see you now look at that.
Speaker 1: I have literally so I had there's a there's a
Speaker 1: studio monitor over there. I have it up on my
Speaker 1: computer to read the YouTube chat. And now I have
Speaker 1: this one here, so there is it's literally like all three,
Speaker 1: I guess the third see you okay, yeah, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm just scaring down the barrel of this.
Speaker 2: This is better because you know that we don't talk
Speaker 2: over each other and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be looking over here the whole show.
Speaker 3: But anyway, that's all right.
Speaker 2: So I think the biggest thing is is that you
Speaker 2: look at you know, the timing, the rhythm, the anticipation.
Speaker 2: And I asked Mac about that yesterday, about his improved
Speaker 2: anticipation and feel for for this offense, and he mentioned that,
Speaker 2: you know, there's two different there's different types of throws.
Speaker 2: Like some throws are in rhythm throws where you are
Speaker 2: trying to get the ball out quickly and you are
Speaker 2: trying to hit receivers out of their brakes and throw
Speaker 2: with that magic word of anticipation. And there are other
Speaker 2: throws that are more progression throws where you're just going one, two,
Speaker 2: three through the progression and you might come late to
Speaker 2: something that's open, but if you get to it eventually
Speaker 2: and you hit it, that's.
Speaker 3: The whole goal.
Speaker 2: So they're not every throw is meant to be thrown
Speaker 2: with anticipation, I guess, is the point I'm trying to make.
Speaker 2: But what we've seen from him over the last two days,
Speaker 2: and I think each with each day of practice is
Speaker 2: that improving tremendously. And the one throw that really stood
Speaker 2: out today and we're not allowed to share the video, Alex,
Speaker 2: you and I, but I think it is circulating around
Speaker 2: Twitter if people want to search for it. He made
Speaker 2: a throw in the red zone work on a touchdown
Speaker 2: pass to Kendrick Bourne where Board was working.
Speaker 3: Against Jaii Alexander.
Speaker 2: So we're not talking about Kendrick Bourne working against a
Speaker 2: practice squad corner here.
Speaker 1: We're talking about a top fifteen, top ten corner in
Speaker 1: the league, right.
Speaker 2: And on the play, they ran a little inside hitch
Speaker 2: from the slot and then they ran a dig down
Speaker 2: the back of the end zone for Born, and Born
Speaker 2: kind of gave a little head fake to his right
Speaker 2: and then cut it back inside on the inbreaker and
Speaker 2: brilliant ran a great route against Jaiyir and god No,
Speaker 2: and then Mac just threw the ball instantly out of
Speaker 2: the break, like you came out even a step before.
Speaker 2: Kendrick Bourne turned his eyes back into the backfield and
Speaker 2: the ball is just on him, you know. He turns
Speaker 2: around and there's the football. And those are the types
Speaker 2: of throws that Mac is going to have to make
Speaker 2: consistently throughout his career to be a really good quarterback.
Speaker 2: We talk so much about what he can't do, that
Speaker 2: he doesn't have this great arm talent, or he's not
Speaker 2: super mobile and things like that, but what he is
Speaker 2: good at is he throws the ball accurately, he throws
Speaker 2: it with good touch, He processes the field and sees
Speaker 2: the field really quickly, and he's good before the snap
Speaker 2: with getting the team into the proper plays and reading
Speaker 2: defenses and things like that. Those are the things that
Speaker 2: he has to emphasize in his game and Bill O'Brien
Speaker 2: has to emphasize in his game. They have to be
Speaker 2: carrying trades for him to be a really good quarterback
Speaker 2: in this league. And I think what we're seeing is
Speaker 2: that the good parts of Mac Jones, which I think,
Speaker 2: frankly for a lot of people, are sometimes difficult to
Speaker 2: quantify because it's not this Josh Allen arms strength or
Speaker 2: this Jalen Hurt's mobility, but that acumen that preestnappability, the
Speaker 2: processing speed, anticipation, accuracy, touch like those are the things
Speaker 2: that we've seen him do well at the NFL level,
Speaker 2: and he was doing those really well out there today.
Speaker 2: So if he continues to lean on his strengths and
Speaker 2: not have to really overemphasize any of those weaknesses, then
Speaker 2: I think that he's going to be a good quarterback.
Speaker 1: And just to go back to my original point too,
Speaker 1: about you know, getting to see it and then go
Speaker 1: out there again. The thing about the first joint practice,
Speaker 1: I mean they might have watched a little bit of tape.
Speaker 1: I don't know how much tape you watch for something
Speaker 1: like that. I would equate it more towards like you
Speaker 1: get to watch tape of that team the week before
Speaker 1: in the week before that. So it's not like I
Speaker 1: don't think it's a perfect apples to apples, but I
Speaker 1: do think it's a fair point to make. You mentioned
Speaker 1: ketrick board. He had a really nice play today. Seemed
Speaker 1: like DeVante Parker's name got brought up a lots on Twitter,
Speaker 1: and it feels like to me, he's I want to
Speaker 1: be careful because he had a really good camp last
Speaker 1: year and then was hit and miss in the regular season.
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people think he was bad.
Speaker 1: I thought it was game to game with him. He
Speaker 1: was inconsistent, But it seems like he's kind of making
Speaker 1: some steps towards being if they are going to have
Speaker 1: that deep element, being the deep threat they need him
Speaker 1: to be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's funny because I was watching practice with a
Speaker 2: few of the reporters that were out here.
Speaker 3: Both days, you had to.
Speaker 2: We were standing on field level, so you're you have
Speaker 2: this ninety player roster, coaches, training staff, and all these
Speaker 2: guys are standing in front of you, right You're trying
Speaker 2: to like see through the trees to watch every single play.
Speaker 2: And so we were helping out each other. You know
Speaker 2: what did you see? Did you see this? Do you
Speaker 2: see that? And anyways, you know what I was thinking
Speaker 2: said out loud, and I was thinking to myself at
Speaker 2: some point, isn't he going to try to push the
Speaker 2: football to DeVante Parker one time? Like just give park
Speaker 2: a chance to make a play on the ball down
Speaker 2: the field once and then of course the big play
Speaker 2: at the end of it ended up happening. And I
Speaker 2: think the cool thing about the forty yard touchdown at
Speaker 2: the end was that it wasn't like a fifty to
Speaker 2: fifty ball.
Speaker 3: It's not like Devonte.
Speaker 2: Parker won a back shoulder or maxed us through this
Speaker 2: like arm punt, like arcing in the air and he
Speaker 2: just out jumped the corner for it. We've seen the
Speaker 2: Parker make those types of plays plenty, and it's not
Speaker 2: here or there to me because I feel like those
Speaker 2: jump balls and we've talked about this before on the
Speaker 2: shhow it's it's low percentage, Like even for a guy
Speaker 2: like Devonte Parker, we're talking about a catch rate of
Speaker 2: maybe like forty to five to fifty.
Speaker 3: But if that's not.
Speaker 2: What we're looking for, right like, you want things that
Speaker 2: are more efficient, you want things that are going to
Speaker 2: hit more consistently, be less volatile. This was and he
Speaker 2: was against Russell Douglas, who's the projected starting corner for
Speaker 2: the Packers opposite of you're Alexander, and he just ran
Speaker 2: right Yeah, he ran right by him. You know, it
Speaker 2: wasn't it wasn't a fifty to fifty ball. He ran
Speaker 2: right by him and mac Jones hit him in stride
Speaker 2: and led him into the end zone a little bit
Speaker 2: for like a forty forty five yard touchdown, and the
Speaker 2: sideline just lost its mind, I mean half a sideline
Speaker 2: cleared out and ran onto the field to to you know,
Speaker 2: go get DeVante Parker. You know, it was it was
Speaker 2: like a you know, you would have thought that they
Speaker 2: just like walked it off at the end of a game.
Speaker 2: And that was the situation though, which I think is
Speaker 2: worth it mentioning as well. It was a two minute
Speaker 2: drill where the Patriots were down by four points, so
Speaker 2: they needed a touchdown. They field goal wasn't going to
Speaker 2: do them any good, and for Mac to hit that
Speaker 2: throw to Parker was basically signifying you just won the game, right,
Speaker 2: So that was that was the situation, that was the circumstances,
Speaker 2: And I thought that what he has shown this summer,
Speaker 2: and the whole question mark DeVante Parker is always about
Speaker 2: two things. It's about health and it's about separation. And
Speaker 2: we can't really predict health. But what he has shown
Speaker 2: this summer to me, and I don't know about you
Speaker 2: how you feel about this, but to me, what he's
Speaker 2: shown this summer is that he gets open a little
Speaker 2: bit more this summer than he did last year. Like
Speaker 2: I don't see him necessarily being this great separator ever,
Speaker 2: but I don't think that he's wearing coverage as often
Speaker 2: as maybe he has, and maybe a little bit more explosive,
Speaker 2: like in a straight line on those go routes than
Speaker 2: he's been in the past. So it was good to
Speaker 2: see that, and it was awesome to see the celebration afterwards.
Speaker 2: But he's having a nice summer and I think that
Speaker 2: if he can stay healthy, then he should have a
Speaker 2: pretty good year for them.
Speaker 1: I think it's it's, you know, some of what you
Speaker 1: said more explosive to me. It's in this something I've
Speaker 1: talked about a lot in the past, and I know
Speaker 1: you kind of hate this, this concept, but that natural
Speaker 1: separation when you're six five, there's just going to be
Speaker 1: areas where you can go get the football that the
Speaker 1: defender can't. And I think he even if he's not
Speaker 1: like pulling away in the route from the corner, he's
Speaker 1: him and Mac together. Because of Mac's accuracy, they're creating
Speaker 1: opportunities where Parker can go get the ball away from
Speaker 1: the defender because even if the defender's on his hip,
Speaker 1: if Mac throws it off his shoulder, and this can
Speaker 1: be a back shoulder, but it can even be more
Speaker 1: like maybe more like anticipatory throws right, if it's off
Speaker 1: his shoulder and he's breaking to his left, he's gonna
Speaker 1: be able to go out and reach and get the
Speaker 1: ball at six ' five, six four sixty five whatever
Speaker 1: he is where the five foot eleven corner. Just even
Speaker 1: if he's on him at the point where Mac releases
Speaker 1: the ball, he can't make that cut with Parker because
Speaker 1: he's not long enough, so I think he's looking more open.
Speaker 1: Some of it is what you said, like he does
Speaker 1: look like he's moving better, but I also think that
Speaker 1: they're doing a better job. Mac Parker and Bill O'Brien's
Speaker 1: probably part of this as well, and just using his
Speaker 1: size to get to put the ball away from the
Speaker 1: defender where he can still make a play. A lot
Speaker 1: of people in the comments sorry, go ahead, No, I
Speaker 1: just think you know to me, and it's the same
Speaker 1: point that you're making. It's what we're seeing consistently, I
Speaker 1: think from Mac and Parker, and I'd also throw Hunter
Speaker 1: Henry in there too.
Speaker 3: And Mike is SICKI when he's been healthy.
Speaker 2: Is that Mac has this with this willingness or this
Speaker 2: trust to throw the ball within their catch radius. Right,
Speaker 2: These guys have big catch radius. Is they're bigger guys,
Speaker 2: they're longer guys, and they can go ahead and make
Speaker 2: catches above their heads or outside their frames that other
Speaker 2: guys might not necessarily be able to make.
Speaker 3: And Parker did that today, I thought a little bit.
Speaker 2: And also Hunter Henry up the scene caught a pass
Speaker 2: that was basically like a one handed catch where he
Speaker 2: had he was kind of fighting off the DV with
Speaker 2: his left arm and then caught it up against his
Speaker 2: body with his right arm. And those are just those
Speaker 2: types of throws that it's trust. It's you know, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna put this in a spot and I know that
Speaker 2: my guy's gonna go and get the football. And we've
Speaker 2: definitely seen that those areas improve as well. And I
Speaker 2: didn't O'Brien's talked about trust. Mac has talked about trust.
Speaker 2: That's such a big word for them this year, as
Speaker 2: you know, I know where you're gonna be and you
Speaker 2: know where I'm gonna be, so let's be there together.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Again, it goes back to that point. If you
Speaker 1: have all these big guys, you got to take advantage
Speaker 1: of it. And we talked about this a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks ago, I think it was the show before camp,
Speaker 1: and I know you didn't love the idea of like, hey,
Speaker 1: if everybody's gonna be tall in the corners, throw the
Speaker 1: ball high. But that's kind of what they're doing. They're
Speaker 1: doing it not just vertically but horizontally too, and maybe
Speaker 1: there's something there. A lot of people in the chat
Speaker 1: are asking about Taekwon and asking about Ezekiel Elliott We're
Speaker 1: gonna get to Zeke in a second. I do well,
Speaker 1: we're on the receivers that want to do Taekwon play
Speaker 1: of the day to day catches a deep ball for
Speaker 1: Mac Jones diving catch, fell on his shoulder, left practice,
Speaker 1: didn't return. What did you see in that? And just
Speaker 1: what do you think it means for Taekwon here if
Speaker 1: he has to miss time?
Speaker 2: Yeah, look, I think that that's the only damper on
Speaker 2: what was a great day if you're in New England
Speaker 2: atriot fan at these at practice today against the Packers
Speaker 2: was the injuries And on a positive note, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I'm just no inside information, just going off of what
Speaker 3: I saw at practice.
Speaker 2: Keon White wasn't didn't get put back into team drills,
Speaker 2: but he didn't leave practice.
Speaker 1: Eye we could take a big deep breath on that
Speaker 1: one because.
Speaker 2: That, yeah, he he watched practice for the rest of
Speaker 2: the session on the sideline. But it wasn't like we
Speaker 2: need to get you know, him, immediate attention and have
Speaker 2: him leave practice. So I don't think that that Keon
Speaker 2: White's injury is necessarily gonna be significant or serious just
Speaker 2: based off of that can no inside information. Now do
Speaker 2: I think he's gonna play Saturday night, Like maybe not right,
Speaker 2: but I don't think that it's gonna be something that's
Speaker 2: gonna be uh cause him to miss time significant time.
Speaker 3: Taekwon's injury I think is.
Speaker 2: Tough because this is always gonna be the question mark
Speaker 2: with him because of his frame, is can he can
Speaker 2: he stay healthy? Can he is he durable enough to
Speaker 2: take hids to land on his shoulder on a diving
Speaker 2: catch attempt and not get injured.
Speaker 3: And that's exactly what it looked like.
Speaker 2: You know, he laid out for the catch, made a
Speaker 2: great catch on the ball on a deep crosser from
Speaker 2: Mac and made a good catch on it, and then
Speaker 2: immediately was getting looked at by the trainers and you know,
Speaker 2: kind of motioning like you know, swinging his arm and
Speaker 2: doing some of those clavical checks, which is is scary
Speaker 2: because that's what he injured last year, right, he broke
Speaker 2: his claviical I don't know if it was the same shoulder,
Speaker 2: but that was my concern immediately, was that he injured
Speaker 2: the same shoulder again. So I guess we'll have to
Speaker 2: wait and see and find out more information. I don't
Speaker 2: think we'll find out necessarily quickly on taekwond But we've
Speaker 2: talked about him quite a bit about the frustrations with him.
Speaker 2: But I thought yesterday, even though the ball didn't necessarily
Speaker 2: find him, I thought he was running good routes and
Speaker 2: he had some opportunities down the field that didn't necessarily
Speaker 2: go his way. And then today he immediately hits on
Speaker 2: one down the field and then gets hurt again. So
Speaker 2: we're talking about soft tissue injuries. In the spring, I
Speaker 2: missed a couple of camp practices for the similar same injury,
Speaker 2: and now a different injury potentially keeping him out again.
Speaker 2: So this is the this is the book on Taekwon
Speaker 2: right now. I mean I hate to be negative about it,
Speaker 2: but quite frankly, he can't stay healthy.
Speaker 3: Like that's that's where we're at.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it's it's a fair concern. And this is
Speaker 1: kind of what happened last year because I thought he
Speaker 1: had had a couple of strong practices. I mean even
Speaker 1: before today, I thought, you know, he makes it. He
Speaker 1: had a good practice the day before the preseason game,
Speaker 1: he makes that catch in the preseason game, had a
Speaker 1: good practice on Monday before before the team left for
Speaker 1: Green Bay. So I thought he was building momentum, and
Speaker 1: this is kind of what happened last year. He was
Speaker 1: building momentum and he got hurt. Yeah, broke his collar bone,
Speaker 1: and so this is kind of the same area with
Speaker 1: that shoulder, and we didn't see him again for four
Speaker 1: weeks and it seemed like he never caught up. So
Speaker 1: we'll see where he's at with that as we kind
Speaker 1: of start to wrap it up on the offense here.
Speaker 1: Ezekiel Elliott didn't take part in any team drills yesterday,
Speaker 1: just went through the basic running back positional drills and
Speaker 1: then sat out. Actually, before we get to his performance today,
Speaker 1: let me ask you this. So Bill was asked about Zeke.
Speaker 1: Do we lose you there?
Speaker 3: Nope, I'm here.
Speaker 1: He just turn green for a second. Bill who was
Speaker 1: asked about Ezekiel Elliot yesterday, and in his answer he
Speaker 1: talked about how on the flight out to Green Bay,
Speaker 1: he was working with Zeke on the terminology and the
Speaker 1: protections in the playbook. So he never said it was
Speaker 1: exclusively him. Maybe Bill O'Brien was also there, maybe Vinnison
Speaker 1: Siri was also there. But there's so much focus right now,
Speaker 1: I think on who's in control of the offense. In
Speaker 1: what Bill's role is after last year. What did you
Speaker 1: make of that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's an interesting comment.
Speaker 2: And I also thought it was good to hear from
Speaker 2: Mac Jones that you know, Zeke was in those meetings
Speaker 2: on Tuesday night and we got out here and very
Speaker 2: involved in everything. And I thought that there was a
Speaker 2: very good involvement in buying from him at practice today,
Speaker 2: even when he wasn't on the field, rooting on teammates
Speaker 2: and talking up teammates like JJ Taylor made a nice
Speaker 2: play and he immediately was excited about it and really
Speaker 2: you know, involved in body in which I think is great.
Speaker 2: But with Belichick, I don't know what to make of
Speaker 2: that necessarily, because it's so hard sometimes that these practices
Speaker 2: to see to really tell what he's looking at or
Speaker 2: what he's doing, you know, sometimes with the offense, sometimes
Speaker 2: with the defense. Sometimes he's just watching all twenty two
Speaker 2: guys at once. So I think that there's always going
Speaker 2: to be a level of involvement from Belichick on all
Speaker 2: phases of this football team. And I don't necessarily think that.
Speaker 2: I think that some people thought that in the beginning
Speaker 2: that maybe this was Bill O'Brien's offense, and Bill was
Speaker 2: going to be off with the defense and special teams
Speaker 2: in his own co owner of the practice field. That's
Speaker 2: that's not what I've seen at all this summer. I
Speaker 2: think that Bill is just as involved in the offense
Speaker 2: as he's ever been. Maybe not necessarily the guy that's,
Speaker 2: you know, drawing up the plays or putting in the
Speaker 2: install and the game plans come to season, but certainly
Speaker 2: in mac Jones's ear, and working with a lot of
Speaker 2: the offensive players all right on the field.
Speaker 1: No team drills yesterday, just positional drills. But it sounded
Speaker 1: like he was very involved today. And you texted me
Speaker 1: during practice you seemed very excited.
Speaker 3: Little just for real, Well, it's one practice.
Speaker 2: And I would also say that most of the run
Speaker 2: game work that they did today was closer to the
Speaker 2: red zone and goal line situations. Not a ton of
Speaker 2: run work in between the twenties, So we didn't necessarily
Speaker 2: get to see if Zeke has a top gear that
Speaker 2: even exists anymore, right, And I think that's the biggest
Speaker 2: question mark with him for everybody around the league is just.
Speaker 1: To cut in though? Does that matter? Like honest question,
Speaker 1: because to me, he's here for inside the twenties in
Speaker 1: short yardage. I don't know that he needs to have
Speaker 1: that top gear to be the back they want him
Speaker 1: to be. It'd be nice, but I don't know that
Speaker 1: he needs to have it. I don't know how much
Speaker 1: they're gonna ask. I don't know how many situations he's
Speaker 1: gonna be in where that's gonna come up.
Speaker 2: It's a fair point, and I think that that's what
Speaker 2: we saw today, that that's gonna be his role. And
Speaker 2: I made a joke, I mean and Deuce were joking
Speaker 2: around that. You know, Remandra Stevenson's fantasy owners are already
Speaker 2: up in arms about this.
Speaker 1: Oh, it's gonna be such a nightmare for and you
Speaker 1: know me, I don't like fantasy foot Well, it's gonna
Speaker 1: between that and Willie Cunningham. It's gonna be a nightmare
Speaker 1: for those people.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it really is.
Speaker 2: And I can already see it that Zeke is going
Speaker 2: to be a big time factor inside the ten yard line.
Speaker 2: And today he scored twice, one with from about the
Speaker 2: eight I would say, which was probably the most encouraging
Speaker 2: grun because he did have to you know, it wasn't
Speaker 2: like a plunge from the one yard line right where
Speaker 2: he's just growing in such a short space, he did
Speaker 2: have to kind of feed off the blocks and have
Speaker 2: a little bit of burst to get through the line.
Speaker 3: And get into the end zone.
Speaker 2: And he actually carried a defender, kind of ran through
Speaker 2: a defender into the end zone on that play and
Speaker 2: gave a little little zeke flex at the end.
Speaker 1: You know. So I think we get a little with
Speaker 1: the with the eating.
Speaker 3: Not not yet, I haven't gotten.
Speaker 1: That might be one, you say, for the regular season.
Speaker 2: I would get that this was more of like a
Speaker 2: flex like feeling myself type of moment, right So I
Speaker 2: think that was a good sign. I took that as
Speaker 2: our right like, he feels like he's you know, strong
Speaker 2: and fresh and in good shape and ready to go.
Speaker 2: I thought he looked good consider all things considered. It
Speaker 2: was his first practice of the summer. He obviously hasn't
Speaker 2: been in camp with anybody else, so this is very
Speaker 2: very first practice and he gets thrown out there in
Speaker 2: joint practices, which are the most intense training camp practices,
Speaker 2: and held his own and looked pretty good out there.
Speaker 2: I thought of the two things that really were exciting
Speaker 2: were the power and I thought that he ran pretty
Speaker 2: hard on the carries that he got. And then I
Speaker 2: also thought the energy was good. I thought that he
Speaker 2: was an uplifted mood. I thought that he looked like
Speaker 2: he was had a little bit of a chip on
Speaker 2: his shoulder. You know, he knows what just happened to him, right,
Speaker 2: He got cut by the Cowboys, and nobody really came
Speaker 2: knocking until August seventeenth to sign him to a contract.
Speaker 2: And I think that that's going to be something that
Speaker 2: he's going to carry this season.
Speaker 3: So I'm excited about it.
Speaker 2: And I think the one thing also just to wrap
Speaker 2: it on Zeke him standing next to Ramandre Stevenson and
Speaker 2: Kevin Harris.
Speaker 3: That's some beef in that running back room.
Speaker 2: And Zeke is every bit as big as those two guys,
Speaker 2: if not bigger.
Speaker 3: I think he's taller than both of those guys.
Speaker 2: And that was I think the big thing that really
Speaker 2: stood out to me just in terms of, you know,
Speaker 2: initial impressions.
Speaker 3: He's a big, big dude.
Speaker 2: Like you know, he's listed at like six feet two
Speaker 2: twenty five, so you know, he's a bigger guy, bigger back.
Speaker 2: But he's a really really big back. And I don't
Speaker 2: mean I don't mean overweight. I just mean big and Uh,
Speaker 2: I think that that's another emphasis.
Speaker 3: And we've talked about this a lot.
Speaker 2: Uh that they're they're gonna be a power run team
Speaker 2: like that's they're gonna want to run it down people's throats,
Speaker 2: bull ball, smash mal football and then they have another
Speaker 2: smash mouth running back.
Speaker 1: Now eight five five Pats five hundred. You want to
Speaker 1: join in Patriots at web radio dot com. You want
Speaker 1: to email, and we're gonna get to your calls and
Speaker 1: emails in a second here. But we do have talked
Speaker 1: about the offensive line. Evan, was it any better today? Uh?
Speaker 3: I would say it was a little bit better today.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, look, you can't.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna come on here and talk about plays
Speaker 2: and completions that were six seconds into down and you know,
Speaker 2: three sacks would have happened, right.
Speaker 3: I try not to do that.
Speaker 2: We both try not to do that and try to
Speaker 2: only talk about the plays that are were real football plays.
Speaker 2: And if you kind of stack up like the real
Speaker 2: football plays versus the ones yesterday that just felt like
Speaker 2: something was weird about it, right, like whether it was
Speaker 2: the quarterback was holding the ball for six seconds or
Speaker 2: there was a sack but then he kind of came
Speaker 2: out of it and just ran the play. Anyways, there
Speaker 2: was a lot more real football plays today than yesterday,
Speaker 2: So I think that that is a testament that the
Speaker 2: offensive line was a little bit better out there. I
Speaker 2: still think every once in a while, and today I
Speaker 2: had Mac Jones and his reps down with about with
Speaker 2: four sacks on like thirty dropbacks.
Speaker 3: So that doesn't sound great, and I get that.
Speaker 2: I think the biggest thing with the offensive line from
Speaker 2: a pass protection standpoint is it's a lot of schemed
Speaker 2: rushes that are giving them problems, you know, stunts added on,
Speaker 2: blitzers like things like that. It's not necessarily that guys
Speaker 2: are losing one on one battles across the board. So
Speaker 2: that I think he can at least hold a hat
Speaker 2: to the fact that maybe that's chemistry continuity, you know,
Speaker 2: working together, Like you have two rookies in there. You
Speaker 2: have Priley Reef now playing a different position than he
Speaker 2: started camp with, like Trent Brown still in his third
Speaker 2: padded practice of the summer. So I think that there's
Speaker 2: something to be said for just a lack of reps
Speaker 2: that these guys have had together.
Speaker 3: And then you know, Trent Brown said it yesterday.
Speaker 2: This isn't our core group group, you know, like that's
Speaker 2: not They still have Cold Strange and Mike on Wentu out.
Speaker 2: They want those guys back, of course, and if they
Speaker 2: get those guys back and they get it all together,
Speaker 2: we'll see what happens in like let's say a month
Speaker 2: or two. But it's still concerned. It's still absolutely concerned.
Speaker 2: Yesterday especially was a mess penalties. I think both quarterbacks
Speaker 2: Mac and Zappi combined for thirteen sacks in yesterday's practice.
Speaker 2: It was ugly at times upfront. Absolutely, and the Packers,
Speaker 2: I should mention Rashan Gary is not practicing in full
Speaker 2: for the Packers, right, So they're doing this without their
Speaker 2: best path, without their Matthew Judon right. So it hasn't
Speaker 2: been great, but I think it was better today, and
Speaker 2: I think they are taking some baby steps, especially with
Speaker 2: Trent being back in there.
Speaker 3: I think that's helped a lot.
Speaker 1: I also think too, just like Conor McDermott not being
Speaker 1: out there, I don't know if you saw anything happen
Speaker 1: with him yesterday. It seems like he may have been
Speaker 1: passed over. I think it's probably too early for that.
Speaker 1: This is a team that can't afford to be giving
Speaker 1: up on any NFL experience at tackle, so I'd hope
Speaker 1: he's not fallen too far down the depth chart whatever's
Speaker 1: going on with him. We've got a bunch of emails
Speaker 1: about the offensive line, but first I want to go
Speaker 1: Adaen and Aiden in California says, Hey, guys, says he
Speaker 1: appreciates the show. It has shown him a different way
Speaker 1: to watch the game. Love that. That's the whole point
Speaker 1: of the show. That's awesome. I'm sorry on YouTube, I'm
Speaker 1: duck nowt I gotta read this here. With that said,
Speaker 1: do we think today's practice was a response to getting
Speaker 1: punched in the face yesterday and the team responded full
Speaker 1: roar today? Also, is it a good sign that they're
Speaker 1: all on the same page.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's exactly what it was.
Speaker 2: And you you mentioned earlier in the show that on
Speaker 2: one hand, you can't have a bad day on Sunday
Speaker 2: and then come back Monday and play the same team
Speaker 2: again and get a second chance. That's the unique part
Speaker 2: about joint practices, I suppose. But I liked the fact
Speaker 2: that they punched back today. And I don't mean that literally,
Speaker 2: I mean it figuratively. And I think that's you know,
Speaker 2: that's a good sign. That's a team that I think
Speaker 2: is that is competing for something. You know, it's not
Speaker 2: a team that's going nowhere or anything like that. You know,
Speaker 2: those teams are the ones that just got you know,
Speaker 2: get down to the dumps and then get their butts
Speaker 2: kicked again the next day.
Speaker 3: So I think that it's it's a good sign.
Speaker 2: Obviously, you want both practices to be at least positive,
Speaker 2: and maybe yesterday wasn't quite that, but I'll take it.
Speaker 3: I'll take them punching back a little bit, all right.
Speaker 1: Ray asks any highlights from the offensive line?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I think highlights from the offensive line
Speaker 2: is difficult because we don't get the benefit of watching
Speaker 2: the film of practice to really see how good it was.
Speaker 2: But I think the one thing that I mentioned is
Speaker 2: you can hang your hat on the fact that the
Speaker 2: one on one beats don't look as bad today than yesterday.
Speaker 2: Like it wasn't like guys were losing their one on one.
Speaker 2: It was more about scheme and things like that that
Speaker 2: was giving them problems. And I thought earlier in practice
Speaker 2: they opened some rushing lanes for Remandre and for Zeke,
Speaker 2: so I think that's a positive as well. But it's
Speaker 2: hard to say exactly if there was like a pancake
Speaker 2: block or something like that without being able to go
Speaker 2: watch it back. But I think the biggest thing that
Speaker 2: you saw today was a little bit cleaner of an
Speaker 2: overall operation. Less penalties, less jail break sacks.
Speaker 3: Like things like that. There's a little bit more. It
Speaker 3: was a little bit more competitive.
Speaker 1: We got a bunch of emails here about the offensive line.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna combine some of these. David and Bethelon wants
Speaker 1: to know how the new guys are doing city, so
Speaker 1: Antony o'maffi and William wants to know how far all right,
Speaker 1: so these can kind of combine the I'll combine these
Speaker 1: two emails William and David here, how are the young
Speaker 1: guys looking, because they've obviously been kind of thrust into
Speaker 1: starting roles and like based on what it looks like
Speaker 1: right now. And then William wants to, like how far
Speaker 1: they are from being healthy. So let me ask you this.
Speaker 1: You know, we're we're getting there. We're getting there to
Speaker 1: week one. Cole Strange still not back on the field,
Speaker 1: Mike and Win who's still not back on the field.
Speaker 1: Do you think that there's a chance either of those
Speaker 1: guys end up starting a regular season game like early on?
Speaker 1: And if they do, how ready do you think they look?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we're starting with the rookies. So has
Speaker 2: gotten a little bit better each day. I thought his
Speaker 2: tape last week against the Texans was kind of rough.
Speaker 2: I understand that maybe that was not everybody's thinking, So
Speaker 2: maybe I was being a little bit harsh on him.
Speaker 2: I know he only gave up one, hurry according to PFF.
Speaker 3: I didn't necessarily think.
Speaker 2: It was that much of it, like, like he said
Speaker 2: he gave up one, and he actually gave up five. Like,
Speaker 2: I don't think it was that bad, But it just
Speaker 2: felt like he had a short corner and he was
Speaker 2: struggling at times to protect the edge and keep guys
Speaker 2: inside out with Will Anderson and some of the other
Speaker 2: good Texans rushers, and then in the running game, his
Speaker 2: technique was kind of all over the place, getting really
Speaker 2: you know, firing out of his stance and getting over
Speaker 2: extended off balance like things like that, and not really
Speaker 2: moving to a.
Speaker 3: Lot of guys on the combo of blocks either.
Speaker 2: So that's what I was hoping to see a little
Speaker 2: bit more out of him, and maybe we'll see that
Speaker 2: as he gets more comfortable with playing tackle. He's a
Speaker 2: converted guard, right, so, just like with mike on Winne
Speaker 2: when he's in there at tackle, like you expect those
Speaker 2: guys to be big run blos when you played inside
Speaker 2: and now you're playing outside. That's a big thing with
Speaker 2: Marcus Cannon. Like Marcus Cannon was a guard and then
Speaker 2: became a tackle, and he was a great run blocker
Speaker 2: throughout his career because he's built like a guard.
Speaker 3: So city So is similar.
Speaker 2: And I would like to see a little bit better
Speaker 2: in the run game if he can, you know, to
Speaker 2: see that, to see that guard ability translate outside to tackle.
Speaker 2: But I think he's gotten a little bit better. I
Speaker 2: think he's okay. I wouldn't feel great about him starting
Speaker 2: Week one, especially not against the Eagles pass rush in
Speaker 2: their front, but I think that there's something there that
Speaker 2: that's worth developing, that's worth working with in terms of
Speaker 2: the tools. But I think we're a long way away
Speaker 2: from him being a starter or a consistent starter at
Speaker 2: that Mafi. I continue to like Mafi. I like what
Speaker 2: he brings to the table. I think he plays the
Speaker 2: style of guard. Now he's playing on the left side
Speaker 2: right now. I think he's a right guard in their system.
Speaker 3: We all do.
Speaker 2: I would assume him. I think, I let you know.
Speaker 2: I like how he plays. I like that he's a
Speaker 2: powerful guy. He has a really good low center of gravity.
Speaker 2: He's got a good anchor, stout anchor. He can move
Speaker 2: guys in the run game. But he's somebody that is
Speaker 2: tested athletically, and he's practices. He asked him to move
Speaker 2: too much, that's going to be a concern if he
Speaker 2: does get isolated with good pass rushes on the interior.
Speaker 2: That has sometimes become a concern. But I like the
Speaker 2: way that he plays the game from a power standpoint,
Speaker 2: and he definitely has NFL play strength, Like there's no
Speaker 2: doubt that he can hold up on the interior in
Speaker 2: the NFL. From that point of view, if I had
Speaker 2: to say, like which one would I rather start Week one?
Speaker 2: If I absolutely had to, I'd probably lean towards Mafi.
Speaker 2: But I think that's more about guard versus tackle than
Speaker 2: necessarily him being miles ahead of City.
Speaker 1: So at this point, let's go to the phonetil. Let's
Speaker 1: go to Patty in a pup. Patty how you doing.
Speaker 4: Can you hear me, guys?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got you all right.
Speaker 4: I had a question for you guys that I was
Speaker 4: a little disappointed that on filter didn't read it and
Speaker 4: or it's maybe just a little bit of a point,
Speaker 4: and that's you know, I don't think there's anybody coming
Speaker 4: to save us as far as offensive tackle this year.
Speaker 4: And Alex, I remember like when this past draft came,
Speaker 4: you were saying, sign one draft one for offensive tackle,
Speaker 4: and to me, like, if I'm running the show, I'm
Speaker 4: taking ot with three of my first four picks this
Speaker 4: year because you're gonna need you're gonna need two starters,
Speaker 4: and you're gonna need a swing guy. And I apologize
Speaker 4: for the noise, but I just wanted to get to
Speaker 4: see what you guys thought about that. But I mean,
Speaker 4: at least as far as this year goes, I think
Speaker 4: we're kind of entrenched with what we got and I
Speaker 4: mean we're just gonna have to live with it and
Speaker 4: hope that everything comes together and.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I don't know that you needed to
Speaker 1: take three or four tackles at the beginning, but yeah,
Speaker 1: they've left themselves short there. I wouldn't disagree with that,
Speaker 1: and I don't know that, Like, I don't think Joan
Speaker 1: Williams is an answer. I don't think they're gonna be
Speaker 1: able to get him. Outside of that, you know, everybody
Speaker 1: in the league is struggling at tackle, maybe not as
Speaker 1: much as the Patriots, but it's not like there's extra tackle.
Speaker 1: It's not like there's extra tackles teams are trying to
Speaker 1: give away. So I would agree with that. It's they're
Speaker 1: gonna have to figure it out internally and whether that's
Speaker 1: one of these rookies really showing up, whether it's moving
Speaker 1: Mike Go and Wenthu to right tackle, which I think
Speaker 1: should become a real conversation at this point when he
Speaker 1: comes back. They're gonna have to figure out something internally.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that, you know, the way they handled
Speaker 2: tackle in the off season is a very very valid
Speaker 2: second guess about how they handled the off season week.
Speaker 1: I think it's the second guess of the off season.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I talk a lot about receivers.
Speaker 2: I obviously it was upset that they didn't pay DeAndre
Speaker 2: Hopkins and things like that, but the the second guests
Speaker 2: I agree with you of the off season is how
Speaker 2: they attack tackle and on the one hand, Calvin Anderson
Speaker 2: I think was supposed to be in this mix, and
Speaker 2: whatever illness he's dealing with is kind of you can't
Speaker 2: predict that, right. You don't know that guys are going
Speaker 2: to get sick like this. They can keep him out
Speaker 2: for weeks on end. But we knew that Calvin Anderson
Speaker 2: was three years in but more of a project or
Speaker 2: a projection based off of physical tools and athleticism. Riley
Speaker 2: Reef is fourteen years into the league, and we've certainly
Speaker 2: seen some of that wear and tear in these practices,
Speaker 2: and I think they've moved him inside to guard because
Speaker 2: he can't play on an island out I tackle anymore,
Speaker 2: so they've moved him inside the guard to mask some
Speaker 2: of his issues with his foot speed. Already, like three
Speaker 2: weeks in, we're already talking about how Riley Rea.
Speaker 3: Is not a tackle anymore in the NFL.
Speaker 2: So those two things have been big swings in the
Speaker 2: miss Even if the Calvin Anderson thing was a little
Speaker 2: bit unlucky and you drafted the only tackle that you
Speaker 2: drafted was actually a guard in college, so it's certainly
Speaker 2: a second guest that's totally valid, And we've made that
Speaker 2: second guess already multiple times, so I get it. I
Speaker 2: think that that's really going to make or break the
Speaker 2: season for the team.
Speaker 1: All right, let's go to Nick in New Hampshire.
Speaker 5: Nick, Hey, guys here, can you hear me?
Speaker 1: Yep?
Speaker 5: Great? So yeah, well, personally, thank you for taking my call.
Speaker 5: That's nice to hear that. The offense to do a
Speaker 5: little bit better. I know this last year we were
Speaker 5: not getting good news out of the joint practices. So
Speaker 5: my question for you guys is on Douglass. What are
Speaker 5: your honest predictions for what Douglass to do at the
Speaker 5: beginning of the year, Especially do you think you can
Speaker 5: take snaps away from a guy like Kendrick Born or
Speaker 5: Tycoon Important? And then also with how crowded that wide
Speaker 5: receiver room is. I know a lot of people are
Speaker 5: an ammer inplication on route, especially when he did this
Speaker 5: freshman year at LSU. Do you really think that there's
Speaker 5: a spot on the roster for him?
Speaker 1: All right, Evan, last week we got into it about
Speaker 1: to Mario Douglas. You said you hadn't seen enough yet
Speaker 1: to say anything. You've now seen, you know, two joint practice,
Speaker 1: a preseason game. Where are you at with him.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I think I'm in a similar spot than I was
Speaker 2: last week. I'm encouraged. I definitely see the twitch, the
Speaker 2: movements to create separation. I thought he had some good
Speaker 2: routes today in the red zone where we saw that
Speaker 2: that just that quick, you know, short area ability to
Speaker 2: get open is certainly there with him. I would actually
Speaker 2: say if I if I had to tim my cap
Speaker 2: to either one of the rookies, though, I'm meeting a
Speaker 2: little bit of.
Speaker 3: Crow with Kai Shan Boody.
Speaker 2: To be honest with you, Box, I know, I know
Speaker 2: you you know that I haven't been all about the booty.
Speaker 1: You were not impressed with his game against the Texans, No, And.
Speaker 2: I wasn't really over the moon about anything that he
Speaker 2: had done to camp. In camp to date, I think
Speaker 2: there was a lot of good there. I shouldn't say
Speaker 2: even a lot. There was three or four one handed
Speaker 2: catches or acrobatic catches that were making highlights and we
Speaker 2: were tweeting about them right during training camping Foxborough. But
Speaker 2: I didn't really think that it was it was overly
Speaker 2: consistent or there was a ton of consistent separation from him.
Speaker 2: He's had a nice couple of days here in Green Bay.
Speaker 2: Yesterday he made four catches and team drills. It came
Speaker 2: a lot of it was early, but you know, the
Speaker 2: whole offense kind of fizzled out late. So I'm not
Speaker 2: going to hold that just against Kaisha on Booty, you know,
Speaker 2: and everybody on the offense in the last like two
Speaker 2: thirds of practice was not very good, so I wouldn't
Speaker 2: hold out against him today. I thought that he made
Speaker 2: a really good play in the two minute period at
Speaker 2: the end of practice with Bailey Zappi, you know, running
Speaker 2: a little whip route, keep the feed and bounced by
Speaker 2: the front Pyelon. I think the two things that have
Speaker 2: really stood out to him are not necessarily things that
Speaker 2: we I think thought based off of his college projection. Certainly,
Speaker 2: the hands, like he had a ton of drops in college,
Speaker 2: like ross was an issue for him at LSU, and
Speaker 2: he's had great hands I think so far, and good
Speaker 2: body control like those are two things that I think
Speaker 2: he's been has done well. But the wiggle maybe not
Speaker 2: there as much as with the Mario Douglas. But I
Speaker 2: think he's had a strong couple of days here, and
Speaker 2: I not that Douglas has been bad. I think both
Speaker 2: those guys have had moments and have shown well here
Speaker 2: in Green Bay. But I think that if I had
Speaker 2: to say which one was I more impressed by in
Speaker 2: which one of my second guessing my initial take on
Speaker 2: it's it's probably a little bit more Booty because I
Speaker 2: maybe I was a little bit higher on Douglass before.
Speaker 1: Anyways, Booty make and Evan do a double take. I'll
Speaker 1: tell you this. I think I heard Matt through the
Speaker 1: glass laugh at that one. The sixth To answer the
Speaker 1: second part of the Collars question, the six wide receiver
Speaker 1: thing is very real, very real. Yeah, especially if Tae
Speaker 1: Kwan's hurt and they can get them on and then
Speaker 1: ir them so.
Speaker 2: But that's a different conversation, right, Like, if they know
Speaker 2: that Taekwan is not going to start the year, then
Speaker 2: they have to carry six because they're gonna need at
Speaker 2: least four on game day.
Speaker 1: That's true, but they could in a different day, they could,
Speaker 1: in theory, try to cut one of the rookies and
Speaker 1: and then try to get them back. Yeah. I think
Speaker 1: you're looking at a situation where those two guys are
Speaker 1: going to be on the fifty three man roster and
Speaker 1: the other thing that helps is between cutting Jordan Healy
Speaker 1: and DeMarcus Mitchell the last couple of days. Those are
Speaker 1: guys we thought were maybe not roster locks, but close
Speaker 1: in terms of that special teams unit. And they seem
Speaker 1: to be kind of cutting down on their dedicated specialists.
Speaker 1: And that's going to open up more spots. And you
Speaker 1: look where does it open up a spot? Right away?
Speaker 1: You look to that wide receiver room and say, all right,
Speaker 1: that's how you're gonna get six wide receivers on the board.
Speaker 1: I'm still not rolling out them keeping two kickers. I'm
Speaker 1: not rolling it out entirely.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 1: Please, you sound the way you said that lets me
Speaker 1: know that you know it's a possibility.
Speaker 2: Of course, anything involving special teams that's ridiculous with Bill
Speaker 2: Belichick as a possibility.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, don't roll it out.
Speaker 2: I I think with the S, I'm hoping that the
Speaker 2: cover Jase is as I as we like to call them.
Speaker 2: I hope that they're gonna be a little bit more
Speaker 2: scarce this year. Like obviously Matthew Slater is going to
Speaker 2: be on this team, and I think Brandon's schoolers should
Speaker 2: be on the team as well.
Speaker 1: I think there's gonna be three. I think it's gonna
Speaker 1: be Slater Schooler and Calvin Munson.
Speaker 3: Okay, so I I and we don't count Chris Board, right.
Speaker 1: You know, Chris Boards a linebacker. He's like Brandon Bolden
Speaker 1: on defense, Like Brandon Bolden played a lot of special
Speaker 1: teams when he was a running back.
Speaker 3: Right, so Chris Boards, you know, a position player.
Speaker 2: I would like to see them only carry those two
Speaker 2: because A I think they have some talent in other
Speaker 2: areas of the roster that they need to keep the
Speaker 2: depth at, like receiver, tight end, you know, other places
Speaker 2: like that, maybe running back.
Speaker 3: If they want to carry all four of.
Speaker 2: These running backs, yeah, that is something that I would
Speaker 2: like to see them. Do you know Malie Cunningham, like
Speaker 2: is he I think he's got a chance to make
Speaker 2: this team now.
Speaker 1: I mean I've just been including him as a quarterback
Speaker 1: at this point.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: So those guys are all guys that if you keep
Speaker 2: six special teams guys and you're not gonna be able
Speaker 2: to carry all all of this extra depth. I think
Speaker 2: that the big thing with you know, the six receiver
Speaker 2: thing for me is I just don't see Bill Belichick
Speaker 2: ever doing it unless it's a special circumstance like Taekwan
Speaker 2: is going to be put on i R immediately, and
Speaker 2: they need to carry six and not not risk the
Speaker 2: waiver process with Douglas or Booty. But if it's just
Speaker 2: six straight up, I just can't see it Bill doing that.
Speaker 2: I just think that they like to carry their depth
Speaker 2: in other places and always have. I mean there's been
Speaker 2: years where they've only carried four receivers.
Speaker 1: Yeah. But again, I think they're doing things differently this year.
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna look a little different. I think
Speaker 1: the six wide receiver thing really is in play. Somebody,
Speaker 1: and I'm laughing somebody in the YouTube chat when I
Speaker 1: talked about having two kickers, somebody said the legion of boom.
Speaker 1: It's the legion of feet. It should be a great
Speaker 1: hay for the special teams from let's go to Niles
Speaker 1: in Oklahoma and Niles what's up?
Speaker 6: Just kind of want to touching which you guys are
Speaker 6: just talking about. Uh, just with the NFL changing the
Speaker 6: kickoff rule, do you think that kind of plays a
Speaker 6: role or while the Patriots are kind of getting rid
Speaker 6: of these guys that we kind of thought were roster,
Speaker 6: Loxboro's specialty. That's kind of all I got for you guys,
Speaker 6: and I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I think that's possibly part of it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so too.
Speaker 2: And I also just look at in general, it's the
Speaker 2: kickoff rules changed. There's just less special team snaps to
Speaker 2: go around than there was five ten years ago. Like
Speaker 2: it just you know, we always joke with each other
Speaker 2: about it being the third of the game, but even
Speaker 2: you have to admit, Alex, it's not statistically even the
Speaker 2: third of the game, right, Like it's like.
Speaker 1: He's probably close to No, it's more than fifteen, Evan's not.
Speaker 1: There's there's four downs, one of them is special teams.
Speaker 1: That's twenty five percent. Plus you have like kickoffs that
Speaker 1: don't count. Is it down? Then a game book?
Speaker 2: Go look at a game book from last year and
Speaker 2: look at, like what the guys that played the most
Speaker 2: special teams snaps on the Patriots play. It's like twenty
Speaker 2: snaps a game. The offensive guys plays sixty five to
Speaker 2: eighty snaps a game.
Speaker 1: Right, So.
Speaker 2: If there's if there's let's say there's eighty plays on offense,
Speaker 2: eighty plays on defense in the regular NFL game, and
Speaker 2: then there's maybe twenty plays of special teams for your
Speaker 2: for your you know, I don't know if it's you.
Speaker 1: You you like this high scoring football, higher scoring, higher scoring,
Speaker 1: more special teams plays.
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, more special teams plays of them kicking off into.
Speaker 3: The back of the ends of the extra points. Really
Speaker 3: we have to worry about extra points.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: The one thing that I remember about extra points is
Speaker 2: that Rob Gronkowski broke his force.
Speaker 1: All Right, we don't need to just all right, Mark
Speaker 1: Mark in Connecticut, Mark.
Speaker 7: Hey, yeah, guys, how you're doing it good?
Speaker 1: How's it going?
Speaker 7: Just wanted to ask you, uh, because you guys already
Speaker 7: answered the wide receiver questions with Douglas and Boots. Offensive line,
Speaker 7: Is there a way that Bill O'Brien can scheme around
Speaker 7: how terrible our offensive line is?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, I mean we've we've talked a lot about
Speaker 1: this in the past. It's it's uh, you know, play action,
Speaker 1: it's quick passing concepts. Incorporating things like screens RPOs is
Speaker 1: a big one. Evan. I know that that's your kind
Speaker 1: of that's where you like to go in this conversation.
Speaker 1: There are it kind of limits your ability to to
Speaker 1: get big plays in terms of throwing the ball down
Speaker 1: the field. You can still get big plays in the
Speaker 1: passing game on catch and run. But yeah, there are
Speaker 1: there are ways to do that. It's just being able
Speaker 1: to do it. It's it's easier said than done.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I look, I'm maybe I'm being too optimistic about
Speaker 2: the offensive line, but I I'm trying to to be
Speaker 2: patient with it because there's two reasons. One Cold Strange
Speaker 2: and Mike on Win, who are a huge part of
Speaker 2: what they want to do on the offense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not gonna be this bad. Like that's kind
Speaker 1: of caveats all of this. It's it's not that it's
Speaker 1: gonna be this bad. They'll get healthy. It's if they
Speaker 1: get hurt again and some of these guys have to play,
Speaker 1: that's where the real concern comes in, right.
Speaker 3: I mean, Cold Strange is the first round pick last year.
Speaker 2: Everybody knows my feelings about the fact that he was
Speaker 2: a first round pick. But that being said, like it's
Speaker 2: not relevant now, that's supposed to be a good player
Speaker 2: for you, right, like a really rock solid guard for
Speaker 2: you for years to come. Mike on WINU is I
Speaker 2: think one of their best football players on their entire roster.
Speaker 3: Just regardless of position.
Speaker 2: So those two guys coming back if they can keep
Speaker 2: that sturdy interior, or maybe Mike on Win who kicks
Speaker 2: out to right tackle. But I think what they would
Speaker 2: like to do is have strange Andrews on when who
Speaker 2: build that shelf for mac Jones to just sit right
Speaker 2: back behind them and make throws from the pocket, so
Speaker 2: you know they can do that.
Speaker 3: And you have Trent on the left side, you have
Speaker 3: Bill O'Brien.
Speaker 2: Scheming the different things that you didn't played out, Alex, Like,
Speaker 2: I don't think it necessarily is going to be absolutely terrible. Like,
Speaker 2: I don't think it's gonna be horrible. Do I think
Speaker 2: it's gonna be good or elite or great or whatever. No,
Speaker 2: But I do think it's gonna be passable. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: think it could be passable with all those different configurations
Speaker 2: and all those different circumstances rolling into one. We want
Speaker 2: to talk a little bit about the defense though, we.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel bad. It's been like three shows in
Speaker 1: a row and we're supposed to be the show that
Speaker 1: touches on everything, and I hope people stuck around to
Speaker 1: the end to hear us do the defense, And yeah,
Speaker 1: I want to get to some starters in a bit.
Speaker 1: But we got an email on this, and I think
Speaker 1: it's actually a really good question Kyle in Pembroke asking
Speaker 1: about Isaiah Bolden and I, look, I think that that's
Speaker 1: still one of the most interesting battles in this camp,
Speaker 1: that third boundary corner spot behind Christigan Zalez and Jack Jones.
Speaker 1: If you can keep John Jones in the slot, who's
Speaker 1: it going to be? It was Isaiah Bolden had a
Speaker 1: couple of really good days there and then I thought
Speaker 1: he sorted. I don't think he backtracked, but he kind
Speaker 1: of leveled off heading into that preseason game. We've seen
Speaker 1: a mere speed start to make some plays. Sean Wade
Speaker 1: I heard had a really good day yesterday. Where are
Speaker 1: those guys at? Like, is there suddenly some talent here?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Look, I think Isaiah Bolden, I really like his instincts.
Speaker 2: I think he's an instinctual player on the boundary. A
Speaker 2: mere speed has a little bit more noticeable plays, I
Speaker 2: would say on the ball out here. You know the
Speaker 2: last two days I'm talking about. He made some plays
Speaker 2: on the ball yesterday that were impressive plays. But I
Speaker 2: really we might we maybe should be talking a little
Speaker 2: bit more about Sean Wade, Like, OK, I'm not sitting
Speaker 2: here saying that Sean Wade is gonna be like a
Speaker 2: difference maker. Like, don't get me wrong, but I think
Speaker 2: we should be talking a little bit more about him
Speaker 2: making the fifty three man roster. Now, he's a nickel corner,
Speaker 2: like he's a spot. I don't think he's going to
Speaker 2: play on the outside consistently well, he doesn't have the
Speaker 2: long speed. It's a lot like you know, a Jalen
Speaker 2: Mills kind of situation where he's just better inside.
Speaker 3: It's just the way that he plays.
Speaker 2: So I think Sean Wade in the nickel spot or
Speaker 2: Sean Wade playing like that hybrid safety nickel role that
Speaker 2: they tend to lean on a little bit. It gives
Speaker 2: you a little bit of size, maybe not on the boundary,
Speaker 2: but it just gives you a little size somewhere that's
Speaker 2: bigger than Marcus Jones or Miles Bryant or those types
Speaker 2: of players. And he's made some really heads up plays lately.
Speaker 3: He just has.
Speaker 2: And he had a really nice showing, not anything spectacular
Speaker 2: or anything like jaw dropping, but I thought he played
Speaker 2: pretty well against the Texans last week. On film, hanging
Speaker 2: with John Metchi for most of that game. So we'll
Speaker 2: see what it looks like on Saturday night. For Sean
Speaker 2: Wade if he has another good game, I think that,
Speaker 2: you know, we should be talking about him as a
Speaker 2: fifty three man roster guy. I just really quickly too
Speaker 2: on these Packers receivers. Christian Watson is making me like,
Speaker 2: very very upset, Alex, because that guy is a stud.
Speaker 2: I mean, what a freaking player that dude is gonna
Speaker 2: be h if the light continues to be on for
Speaker 2: him and the arrow continues to point upward. Explosive, really
Speaker 2: good in and out of the break for a guy
Speaker 2: at his size.
Speaker 3: He's made some.
Speaker 2: Really really good plays out here the last couple of days.
Speaker 2: So the Patriots are are are dealing with a pretty
Speaker 2: good receiver in him, and I think Dobbs has actually
Speaker 2: been pretty good too, Uh that both those guys have
Speaker 2: been pretty solid.
Speaker 3: Jordan Love, you know.
Speaker 2: Not so much in my opinion, but I thought the
Speaker 2: receivers for the Packers have been good. In a Musgrave
Speaker 2: the tight end drafted, he's he's been effective, you know,
Speaker 2: kind of like a Mica Sicki type running the seam
Speaker 2: and making catches, you know, outside his frame and things
Speaker 2: like that. So a couple of good receivers here for
Speaker 2: the Packers. It's not a better day for today. For
Speaker 2: Christian Gonzales yesterday. Yeah, yesterday was a little bit of
Speaker 2: a rookie, you know, welcome to the NFL against Christian Watson.
Speaker 2: Like it's no offense again to the Patriots receivers, but
Speaker 2: they don't have a guy as explosive as Christian Watson.
Speaker 2: They just don't have somebody that's six three and runs
Speaker 2: a four to three on their roster. Well they do,
Speaker 2: but he's you know, is Taekwon Uh. I think with
Speaker 2: Gonzales yesterday, the one thing that that really showed up
Speaker 2: and this is what happened with him on the deep
Speaker 2: touchdown that him and Mills were in the area of
Speaker 2: he gets sucked up in the in the middle of
Speaker 2: the field a little bit in zone and with the
Speaker 2: Patriots and with most zone coverages, when you're in cover
Speaker 2: three and you have the deep third, right, so you're
Speaker 2: you're responsible for that one third of the field and
Speaker 2: the deep part of the field if you're a receiver
Speaker 2: that lines up across from you. And I wish I
Speaker 2: had like we don't have whiteboards. I can't really describe this,
Speaker 2: so just follow me if you can. If there was
Speaker 2: receiver and lined up across from you, runs underneath you,
Speaker 2: then you're supposed to let it go right like, You're
Speaker 2: not supposed to follow that receiver into the middle of
Speaker 2: the field. Instead, you're what you're supposed to do is
Speaker 2: drop and get depth and get to the deep part
Speaker 2: of the field and then look kind of angle yourself
Speaker 2: to look inside to see if anything is coming from
Speaker 2: the back side.
Speaker 3: And what happened was is Christian Gonzale Christian Watson. Excuse me.
Speaker 2: I started on the right side of the quarterback, Gonzalez
Speaker 2: was on the left side of the quarterback. Watson ran
Speaker 2: the deep over the deep crossing route and by the
Speaker 2: time Gonzalez realized that he was crossing from the other
Speaker 2: side of the formation, it was too late. So I
Speaker 2: thought that that was a good coachable moment for him,
Speaker 2: and he's got to get better at that and zone
Speaker 2: And this was something that came up with him at
Speaker 2: Oregon as well. But if you ask him to cover
Speaker 2: man to man, I still think that he was competitive
Speaker 2: throughout practice over the last couple of days and had
Speaker 2: a really good pass breakup at the end of practice
Speaker 2: today in the two minute to save a touchdown. So
Speaker 2: I think there's a lot of positives from his man
Speaker 2: demand work, his own work.
Speaker 3: He still gets a little bit lost.
Speaker 1: The other really interesting thing I wish we'd gotten to
Speaker 1: see this year, but Marte Mopu out of the non
Speaker 1: contact jersey, so a chance to judge him when it
Speaker 1: comes to full contact. It sounded like today he made
Speaker 1: his presence felt in that regard.
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, I mean I've never really been too concerned
Speaker 2: about his ability from a physical standpoint because a sack State,
Speaker 2: he was a really physical downhill player at the Senior Bowl.
Speaker 1: He's playing guys that are much bigger now than he
Speaker 1: was at Sex. Being two thirty is a linebacker Sacramento
Speaker 1: State's much different than being two thirty as a linebacker
Speaker 1: in the NFL.
Speaker 3: Yeah, totally fair.
Speaker 2: I just the way that he plays, you know, he
Speaker 2: converts that speed to power, right, because he's so explosive
Speaker 2: that when he puts his foot in the ground and
Speaker 2: goes forward that he can build up a lot of
Speaker 2: speed and now all of a sudden, it's like you know,
Speaker 2: trying to block a missile, right, so I think that's
Speaker 2: that's really where he has stood out throughout you know,
Speaker 2: the film that I've watched of him back in college.
Speaker 2: I'm really interested to see him on film on Saturday night,
Speaker 2: Like hopefully he plays in the game on Saturday night
Speaker 2: at full contact. Yeah, and then we can actually dissect
Speaker 2: some game tape of how he looks out there and
Speaker 2: where they're using him in different things like that, a
Speaker 2: couple of other you know, just notes on the defense. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I really thought that Keon White was like having a
Speaker 2: great two days. And you know, the injury, I don't
Speaker 2: think it's gonna end up being serious. But whenever you
Speaker 2: watch these joint practices, and you know this from watching
Speaker 2: them back at home, when the other team starts to
Speaker 2: get annoyed with the player, it's probably because that player is, like,
Speaker 2: you know, playing at one hundred and ten percent is good, right.
Speaker 1: Especially if it's a guy in the trenches.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So Keon White is throwing his weight around, making his
Speaker 2: presence felt, and the Packers started to get like fed
Speaker 2: up with it, right, Like they were just you know,
Speaker 2: getting annoyed at like this freaking guy just keeps coming
Speaker 2: at us like Jesus, and uh, That's what I just
Speaker 2: love about his game. He's got a NonStop motor, like
Speaker 2: he's all all the time at one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: He's gonna be a really good player.
Speaker 2: Christian Barmore, I thought, has had a pretty good couple
Speaker 2: of days too. I think that he's coming on and
Speaker 2: it's gonna be good as well.
Speaker 3: The defense.
Speaker 2: You know, yesterday was the big play to Christian Watson
Speaker 2: was was the big backbreaker for the defense. I think
Speaker 2: the one thing that maybe the Packers had some success
Speaker 2: with today and yesterday was in breaking routes.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 2: That's some stuff that I think that they're still working
Speaker 2: on in terms of leverage and help. You know, we
Speaker 2: know Devin mccordy's not back there in the middle of
Speaker 2: the field anymore.
Speaker 3: That's a big thing.
Speaker 2: But even just help from the second level, whether it's
Speaker 2: like a rober defender or linebackers dropping into low holes
Speaker 2: or things like that.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: Their system, they these corners are gonna be outside leverage, right,
Speaker 2: so they're gonna be outside positioned on these receivers across
Speaker 2: the board, and we've seen in the past how shallow
Speaker 2: crosser slants like those things can give them.
Speaker 3: A lot of trouble.
Speaker 2: I thought the Packers were able to emphasize some of
Speaker 2: that against the defense the last couple of days. So
Speaker 2: that continues to be I think a work in progress
Speaker 2: of just knowing where your help is and having to
Speaker 2: help be there consistently. And then also the guys that
Speaker 2: are out leveraged working to fight leverage and things like
Speaker 2: that is going to have to be something that they're
Speaker 2: gonna get a little bit better at. But I think
Speaker 2: the front spit was pretty good the last couple of days,
Speaker 2: and that you know today Jordan Love installed in both
Speaker 2: of his two minute drill drives. They had a really
Speaker 2: good ending to practice. Jordan Loves an interesting player that
Speaker 2: I don't know what you think about him before we
Speaker 2: wrap it here.
Speaker 1: I didn't love him in the draft. You know, coming
Speaker 1: out of you is Utah State, right, I was getting
Speaker 1: Utah State and Nevada mixed up. But because you know
Speaker 1: same area, he's yeah, you State. Yeah. That Mountain West
Speaker 1: Conference is always wide open. And you see these big
Speaker 1: armed quarterbacks that did come out of there, and I
Speaker 1: think the elevation helps them a little bit and they
Speaker 1: just never catch it that the windows are much tighter
Speaker 1: in the NFL than they are in the Mountain West
Speaker 1: and they never catch up to that. Maybe he will.
Speaker 1: And I think a guy like Christian Watson, like you
Speaker 1: talk about a quarterback and receiver in theory pairing their
Speaker 1: skill sets, I think that's a really good fit. We'll
Speaker 1: see if they can get there. I don't think he's
Speaker 1: bad by any means, Like, he's definitely a guy that's
Speaker 1: worth getting a look to start. I don't think he's
Speaker 1: like I don't think the Packers are totally out of
Speaker 1: left field by trying to put it in his hands.
Speaker 1: But I'm also I'm not saying like he's gonna be
Speaker 1: their next franchise quarterback. I think he's kind of a
Speaker 1: boomer bust kind of player.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree, I think that he is.
Speaker 1: And I know that's that's a super sensu fence sitting take,
Speaker 1: but whatever.
Speaker 3: No, it's fair. I think that there's two sides of
Speaker 3: Jordan Love.
Speaker 2: It's like, in one world he's Zach Wilson and in
Speaker 2: one world he's Josh Allen.
Speaker 3: But there's no in between, right.
Speaker 1: But I almost feel like I almost feel like he's
Speaker 1: exactly halfway in between, and that's what's gonna be interesting.
Speaker 1: Is that gonna be enough for the packers? Yeah, that
Speaker 1: can be up for the packers to commit to him
Speaker 1: long term because he's on he's on a one year deal, right, well,
Speaker 1: he's on his rookie dear, he's on his he's on
Speaker 1: his fifth year option.
Speaker 3: Okay. I thought I didn't know if this was four
Speaker 3: year four year five.
Speaker 1: He was no, because he was the twenty twenty draft,
Speaker 1: So oh no, this is your four you're right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So he Uh, he's been interesting because he's been
Speaker 2: There's been moments where he's been a little bit spotty,
Speaker 2: you know with his accuracy, which is to be expected.
Speaker 2: He's got tons of arm talent. You know, he can
Speaker 2: he can make all of those like crazy off platform
Speaker 2: throws that make everybody go nuts, that that you know
Speaker 2: Mahomes does and Alan does and things like that.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 2: The structure of stuff, though, is going to be the
Speaker 2: make or break for him. He made some good instruction
Speaker 2: throws yesterday. I thought, you know, on some of those
Speaker 2: lands and things like that. That and he's been checking
Speaker 2: down a lot apparently that's what the uh, A lot
Speaker 2: of the packer media here, yeah, has said that he's
Speaker 2: been throwing a ton of checkdowns in practice to start camp.
Speaker 3: I don't know where he don't.
Speaker 2: I think he makes better decisions than he did early
Speaker 2: on in his career, and certainly in college. I remember
Speaker 2: in college he threw like thirty picks one year or
Speaker 2: something like.
Speaker 1: That, because that's what the Mountain West is. That that's
Speaker 1: what all those teams are, all those offenses are just
Speaker 1: throw the ball up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think he's made some better decisions from what
Speaker 2: I've seen, but it is very boom or bust with him.
Speaker 2: It's either hitting at all the cylinders or you know,
Speaker 2: the offense is struggling to string together a first down.
Speaker 1: The checkout thing, I almost feel like is a good
Speaker 1: sign for him, because a lot of those quarterbacks like
Speaker 1: this was a big problem with Josh Allen early in
Speaker 1: his career. He wouldn't be patient, he wouldn't take the checkdown.
Speaker 1: He'd make stupid throws instead and try to force it.
Speaker 1: So if he's checking it down, maybe that's a good sign.
Speaker 1: He's also on a really weird contract. I forgot about this,
Speaker 1: So his rookie deals up. He's signed for the next
Speaker 1: two years, and then there's three years of dead money,
Speaker 1: so it's it's I don't know that's a whole thing.
Speaker 1: Good luck to the Packers to caring that out, But
Speaker 1: I do want to talk about another quarterback. We got
Speaker 1: a late email here and then we're gonna quick special
Speaker 1: teams thing can get out of here. Alex in Raleigh,
Speaker 1: North Carolina asked, is Malik Cunningham playing quarterback just a
Speaker 1: preseason thing or something that we're gonna see?
Speaker 2: Well, I will say this, Malik Cunningham practiced at quarterback
Speaker 2: yesterday and he only took four snaps. They were all
Speaker 2: run plays, you know, designed quarterback around stuff, read option stuff.
Speaker 2: But if this was all about you know, there's that
Speaker 2: theory out there, Alex, that this might be about Jalen Hurts, right,
Speaker 2: and then getting the Patriots defense ready to face the
Speaker 2: Eagles in Week one and the other read option quarterbacks
Speaker 2: that they might face down the road, and trying to
Speaker 2: emphasize this more early on in the in the summer
Speaker 2: so that the defense gets used to seeing those looks.
Speaker 2: If that was the case, and they would not be
Speaker 2: practicing these actions against the Packers defense, Like what would
Speaker 2: be the point, right, We're getting the Packers defense ready
Speaker 2: for for those matchups, Like why would they care about that.
Speaker 2: So this isn't uh, this is a thing like, this
Speaker 2: is something that they're trying to see if this would
Speaker 2: be an option for them. I'm still not one hundred
Speaker 2: percent certain if it's real or if it's just experimenting
Speaker 2: in the summertime. He didn't get as many reps at
Speaker 2: quarterback today.
Speaker 3: Today. It was all Mac Johns.
Speaker 1: I would say that Bill has that thing right where
Speaker 1: it's it's all one week. It's not the practice in
Speaker 1: the preseason game and the guys that practice more play
Speaker 1: less and vice versa. That might be because they're planning on
Speaker 1: playing Millie cunning him a lot. Yeah, Friday night.
Speaker 2: That's a that's a very Saturday. Yeah, that's that's a
Speaker 2: good way of looking at it. I I I was
Speaker 2: we were talking about it after practice, and you know,
Speaker 2: we were talking about if Mac was going to to
Speaker 2: play on Saturday, and I think that he might play
Speaker 2: like you know that typical get your feet wet preseason amount,
Speaker 2: right like one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the third.
Speaker 2: Sason game will be more of the one where they
Speaker 2: try to give the leave the starters out there a
Speaker 2: little bit. But I think you could be right that
Speaker 2: we could see a lot of Milie Cunningham, and unfortunately
Speaker 2: for some of us, we might see a lot of
Speaker 2: Trace mcsorly because Trace mcsory did not throw practically any
Speaker 2: passes in practice over the last two days.
Speaker 1: He didn't do it when they were here either.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I think that we could see you know,
Speaker 2: trace mcsorly in Malie cutting him, hopefully Milie cunning Gham.
Speaker 3: That would be a little bit more exciting uh for the.
Speaker 2: Entire second half on UH ON on Saturday night.
Speaker 3: So we'll see what happens.
Speaker 2: But like I said, I think it's the theory of
Speaker 2: it's just an Eagles thing is out the door because
Speaker 2: they did it against a different defense now, so I
Speaker 2: continue to think that they might want to see if
Speaker 2: they can keep this in their back pocket and have
Speaker 2: a you know, I don't know if i'd call it
Speaker 2: necessarily a wildcat because it's not like they're using a
Speaker 2: non quarterback, but a wild cat like package just for
Speaker 2: Malik Cuttingham, maybe in goal line, short yardage, you know
Speaker 2: that type of situation.
Speaker 1: All right, Evin, you got to be me this week.
Speaker 1: I'm not there. You're the eyes, you're the boots on
Speaker 1: the ground. Talk to me about these specialists.
Speaker 3: What's up with your boy, behinger Man.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm not there. You tell me.
Speaker 2: It hasn't been good. It hasn't been pretty for all Bearinger. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he's in a little bit of a rut right now.
Speaker 2: I know that breaks you and Brian Harns hinds his
Speaker 2: heart to hear that he's been a little bit of
Speaker 2: a rut. I thought today it looked like Corless Weightman
Speaker 2: actually let off the period on special teams and has
Speaker 2: been you know Corliss weightman style, Like it's just consistent.
Speaker 2: It's not anything wowing you or impressive about it, but
Speaker 2: it's pretty consistent. And I think that that's where we're
Speaker 2: at right now. I think Bearinger has got a little
Speaker 2: bit of the yips, Alex. I'm not gonna lie to you.
Speaker 2: I think that there's a little bit of a concern there.
Speaker 2: Something seems off with him. Maybe I don't know what.
Speaker 2: I'm not a I'm not a technique expert when it
Speaker 2: comes to punters, but there's something a little bit off,
Speaker 2: and the hang times have been low, and Weightman's been
Speaker 2: coming on a little bit more right like his Weightman's
Speaker 2: been getting a little bit more of a look I
Speaker 2: don't know. I think the kickers have been tough too, though,
Speaker 2: because it's it's incredibly windy here the last couple of days,
Speaker 2: so it's kicking. A lot of the kicks have died,
Speaker 2: but there wasn't a ton of kicking today. In terms
Speaker 2: of kick field goals, yesterday Folk went four for five.
Speaker 2: Ryland was three for five, So basically the same. I
Speaker 2: would say. Ryland, though, continues to have the much bigger leg,
Speaker 2: which we knew. Your two kicker theory is one that
Speaker 2: drives me up an absolute wall.
Speaker 3: But that's very college like right to have.
Speaker 1: Like so you can kick off and your long field
Speaker 1: goal guy and then you have your short field goal guy.
Speaker 1: It drives you crazy because you know it's possible.
Speaker 2: No, it drives any crazy because they were wasting a
Speaker 2: roster spot on two kickers.
Speaker 1: No, but like you could easily because I know you.
Speaker 1: If you thought there was no shot at all that
Speaker 1: it was happening, you would say, stop talking about it,
Speaker 1: it's not happening. In the in the weeks since I
Speaker 1: brought that up, you have not once said to me
Speaker 1: it's not happening, stop talking about it. I'm not saying
Speaker 1: I would do it I wouldn't. I would go with
Speaker 1: Chad rolland you draft him in the fourth round. I
Speaker 1: think he's good, you let him work through the growing pains,
Speaker 1: Nick Folk. Either he's good in whatever, or he's he's good,
Speaker 1: then you're still kind of wasting a ross spot. Or
Speaker 1: he's bad and you cut him in a couple weeks anyway,
Speaker 1: and who'd you let go instead? But I can't rule
Speaker 1: it out. I can't rule it out just yet. They
Speaker 1: haven't done anything to show me I can rule it out.
Speaker 1: And I think you know that because you have not
Speaker 1: once told me to stop talking about it.
Speaker 2: You're right, And it would be very Patriots that the
Speaker 2: Patriots would basically be a college team, be because they'll
Speaker 2: have Malie Cunningham as their running quarterback and Mac Jones
Speaker 2: is the passing and then they would have like their
Speaker 2: short field goals specialists and their long field goals specialists.
Speaker 2: So the Patriots becoming a college football team, which I
Speaker 2: know has been your dream for.
Speaker 1: The Bill O'Brien. Bill O'Brien last year at Alabama was
Speaker 1: a booth coach rather than a sideline coach, which is
Speaker 1: way more popular in college in the NFL. I don't
Speaker 1: know the bill would go for that, and that's a conversation. Actually,
Speaker 1: I met he was on the sideline last week, right, yes, okay,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be something interesting to watch here, because didn't
Speaker 1: they try Patricia who did they try up in the
Speaker 1: booth last year or was it two years ago? For
Speaker 1: like one week and then that was it was Patricia.
Speaker 2: Right, No, Patricia was on the side. It was Billy Yates.
Speaker 2: Billy Yah was on in the booth, and then Patricia
Speaker 2: was trying to coach the court, the offensive line and
Speaker 2: call plays all at the same time, and then they
Speaker 2: brought Billy Yates back down.
Speaker 3: I got to tell you, and I know a lot.
Speaker 2: Of guys do it, so it's it's obviously not as
Speaker 2: hard as it looks in some respects, like obviously at
Speaker 2: all it's all hard. But you know, Kyle Shanahan, Andy Reid,
Speaker 2: Josh McDaniels, those guys are all head coaches, so they
Speaker 2: all call the game from the sideline. But I don't
Speaker 2: know how you do call the game from the sideline
Speaker 2: because you can't see the plays develop as easily.
Speaker 1: We've got this awesome new video board to look and
Speaker 1: check out. I think that's why all honestly. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think that's why you've got like Evan Rothstein upstairs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what his role is.
Speaker 2: So they have guys up top, and you know, Brian
Speaker 2: Belichick does this for the defense. I'm not sure who
Speaker 2: does it for the offense. You know, obviously new staff,
Speaker 2: new oc, right, but they have they have guys up
Speaker 2: top that chart the game and once the game starts
Speaker 2: to declare, like they oh, they're playing us in a
Speaker 2: lot of man, they're playing us in a lot of
Speaker 2: two coverage three, you know whatever, then that gets relayed
Speaker 2: down to the play callers and that's when they try
Speaker 2: to you know, spam the two cover two beaters for example,
Speaker 2: or whatever it is that once the game declares. But
Speaker 2: I just think that that's really impressive skill to be
Speaker 2: able to call a game from field level and understand
Speaker 2: what the defense is doing and what the coverages are
Speaker 2: and what the shells are and like all that kind
Speaker 2: I don't know how they do that, but that's that's
Speaker 2: a little that's a conversation for a couple of weeks
Speaker 2: like that between gap. That will be an interesting one
Speaker 2: to have.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be interesting to watch people forget Hugh freeze
Speaker 1: once Head coached a game from a hospital bed in
Speaker 1: the coaching box upstairs, so shout out to him for
Speaker 1: that one. All right, we're gonna we're gonna cut it
Speaker 1: on that. That's gonna wrap up this episode. Evan obviously
Speaker 1: has all his stuff up on Patriots dot com, so
Speaker 1: you can go check that out if there was anything
Speaker 1: we didn't get to from today's practice. We will be
Speaker 1: back next week Thursday again. Next week, right, yes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Thursday will be the off day next week.
Speaker 1: That is gonna be very interesting because that is the
Speaker 1: day of the Bruce Springsteen concert. So I will I
Speaker 1: will probably go right from this to that, but I'll
Speaker 1: be back in the right right. No, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna walk right out of here and go out
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be perfect. And I'm gonna get your
Speaker 1: favorite Springsteen songs because you had me do that for
Speaker 1: Taylor Swift. So there's the tease for next week again.
Speaker 1: We'll be back then to meet Ti'm Evan has all
Speaker 1: this stuff up on Patriots dot com. You can find
Speaker 1: me over at ninety eight five thesportsub dot com. Forevan
Speaker 1: Lazaramlex Barth, thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. We'll talk
Speaker 1: to you next week. Bye.
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