CLNS Media's Taylor Kyles and John Zannis provide a live recap of the New England Patriots' last preseason match-up against the Tennessee Titans. In this showdown, the Patriots were handed a 23-7 defeat by the Titans.
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This episode of the Patriots Postgame Show is brought to you by:
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SportsTranscript
00:00 everybody to the official end of the preseason. That's one thing we can
00:05 celebrate after tonight, correct? I'm so happy. I was over this game in the second
00:11 quarter. This, I mean, you know, wow. This, this is what it was. You know, for those
00:22 of you who have joined us and will join us, thanks for hanging out. We don't
00:28 intend on being here that long because really, I mean, what are we doing here,
00:35 Taylor? What are we doing here talking about this? There, there's still some
00:39 things to talk about, but not much from this game can be gleaned. This was, this
00:46 was bubble watch. No starters played. I, I mean, what was the final tally on
00:55 offense? A lot to a little favoring the Titans. Did we, did they finish on 79
01:05 total yards? They did 79 total yards of offense. Whoo. So again, nothing
01:12 entertaining about this. We were hoping maybe you might catch a little Zeke.
01:15 Didn't happen. Mac, we knew was sitting because they didn't want to get him
01:20 killed. That's good business. There's not much else here. So I guess what we'll
01:25 talk about here is whether or not anybody made a case for themselves here,
01:29 because again, you're talking about final 53 is, and I know Taylor, you
01:31 published one earlier in the week. You know, I'm curious whether anything has
01:37 changed your mind. And again, sometimes it's as much about who does what and who
01:40 doesn't play and how much they play. And there's certain things that you can read
01:44 into here. So I guess snapshot right out of the gate. Do you have a number one
01:51 takeaway from this game? Number one takeaway. I just tweeted it. Is that the
01:55 sixth round rookies can ball. And honestly, the takeaway for DeMario
01:59 Douglas and Cajun booties, because they didn't really play Cajun booty was on
02:03 for one drive. We didn't see him the rest of the game. If he were a bubble
02:06 guy, we would have seen him a lot and he wasn't really there. So I think he
02:10 pretty much locked up a spot tomorrow. Douglas. I think he might be working
02:14 with an injury, but we hadn't seen him all preseason anyway. Yeah. Beyond that,
02:18 I guess Bailey's Zappi's evaluation is so tough because he didn't have a real
02:23 offense around it with the three fumbles. Just freaking ridiculous. Well,
02:27 look at it this way. He didn't have a real offense around him, and it's hard
02:30 to say without the benefit of film if some of the sacks that he took and he
02:33 did take four sacks and and you know, were coverage or he's holding it a bit
02:39 too long. But even on throws that he made, his timing was off. And I
02:42 understand your timing is going to be off when your nerves are jangled when
02:46 you don't have a lot of protection on when things aren't going your way. But
02:50 he was either ahead of guys behind guys, you know, just not recognizing just he
02:56 just wasn't crisp. He didn't really have any sort of rhythm to anything that he
03:00 did on this night. And again, I mean, it shows, you know, in the in the final
03:06 numbers. But this was pretty ugly. And it's again, it's what can you learn
03:10 when you're not really playing with anything real? You know, you know, even
03:15 with Mac, when he did play in the preseason, he's not playing with with
03:22 the full offensive line in front of him. And so it's actually, you know, it's
03:25 difficult to really gauge what he's able to do. So it's really hard to judge
03:30 Zappi. But it's also gonna be hard for anybody to come away from this game
03:33 wondering, did Bailey Zappi cost himself the number two job tonight? I don't know
03:38 if that's the case, because I just don't think you've got any real contenders
03:41 for it behind him. But it is interesting when you look at Zappi and where he was
03:48 last year, where he was in the summer. And entering camp with what people
03:54 thought was at least a fair shot to make his case. Nobody thought he's really,
04:00 really competing with Mac. But if he came in and lit the world on fire, yeah,
04:05 conversations could have been had or if Mac didn't have a good camp. Bailey
04:08 Zappi has not had a good summer overall. No, so not just tonight. It's not just
04:13 tonight. He hasn't had a good summer. Yeah, I remember the first practice. He
04:17 was like, solid to begin training camp. The first practice where he really
04:21 started to struggle. It was a couple of the sessions after they started with the
04:25 pads. You saw them bring out paddles. And I remember that was the first
04:29 practice. I was like, Whoa, he's having a really hard time because you saw they
04:32 were past that we're getting batted down. There were some that was completely off
04:35 the mark. And you're like, All right, what's going on here? Like he's having a
04:38 really hard time. And then since then, we really haven't seen him bounce back.
04:42 There really hasn't been anything in the preseason where he's been able to
04:45 consistently put plays together. We saw last week he had a lot of really good
04:48 throws on slants. But today again, it's the evaluation is really tough because
04:53 these are a lot of guys he's not really gonna be playing with or that are even
04:56 gonna be on the active roster. The 53 like there was one to Malik
05:00 Cunningham, where Cunningham probably should have settled in the zone, as I
05:03 said, on the broadcast. And he didn't, which, you know, if you're looking at
05:06 it live, you might think, well, it's happy was inaccurate. But you know,
05:09 there's a chemistry thing there. But beyond that, yeah, like the holding on
05:13 the ball for too long. Obviously, all the fumbles today weren't good. His
05:16 accuracy has been kind of all over the place in general. So, you know, not a
05:21 lot of earlier in camp, you saw him start to push the ball downfield and
05:24 he's being more aggressive. And there was a lot of things to like. But since
05:27 then, you really haven't seen any consistent days from him where you're
05:30 like, all right, yeah, you know, if God forbid, Matt goes down, Bailey's
05:34 Abbot can step in like he did last year and do well, which it's not as clean
05:39 cut as I think it would be as you know, we went into this training camp saying,
05:45 is there maybe not we I didn't, you know, I don't think most people did.
05:48 But some people were saying, is there a QB competition, and it hasn't been
05:51 close at any point in the offseason. And, you know, it's kind of discouraging
05:55 because he is your top backup, like Malik Cunningham, for all the talent he
05:58 has. He's not someone who I think is really going to push for. Okay, if we
06:01 have to put a number two quarterback in, it's going to be this guy. So you're
06:05 hoping that maybe Bailey's happy finds a rhythm once the season starts or
06:09 whatever. But yeah, or you're hoping you never ever have to see him play
06:13 football again, because really, you don't ever want to see your backup
06:17 quarterback in there. But I think, you know, at the very least, for anybody out
06:22 there, whether you're a Mac guy or not a Mac guy, I always think the argument
06:26 wasn't whether or not Bailey's happy was better. It was whether Mac was that
06:32 much better. And I think that's what people were questioning last year is
06:36 like, well, Max, not setting the world on fire anyway. So are we certain he's
06:40 the guy? It was a referendum on Mac, not a pro Zappy sort of thing. But I do
06:45 think the reality kind of sets in that Bailey's happy is what he is and who he
06:50 is. And I think career backup would be a success for him. You know, given the
06:56 type of quarterback he is and the type of, you know, arm talent he has and just
07:00 overall, you know what he's able to do. He's not great. He holds the ball a long
07:06 time. He doesn't have a big arm. He's not exceedingly athletic. He just is. So
07:11 this will at least I don't mean to take out, take it out on Bailey's happy. But
07:17 I do think for the people out there who aren't big Mac people, um, you at least
07:24 can take solace knowing that Patriots are entering the season with the best
07:29 man for the job playing quarterback, whether or not he's able to do it. But I
07:32 think you can kind of this summer, I think, does put to rest a little bit of
07:36 the whole Zappy mania. And I don't know, Kenny, you know, should we give this guy
07:41 a shot and blah, blah, blah. I don't I didn't think it was ever real to begin
07:45 with. But, um, I certainly think you can. I think those stories are are done
07:50 with. Yeah, and I think we should be pretty optimistic about Mac in just a
07:55 brief sample size we saw against the Packers. You saw the relationship with
07:58 Bill O'Brien, where he's catering more towards what Mac does well. Like, you
08:02 know, I wrote about in the offseason I had a piece on our P. O. S. And empty
08:06 how those air things that are gonna bring the best out of Mac because, as he
08:09 said himself, he wants to be, you know, more of a distributor. He wants to be
08:12 somebody who gives his playmakers opportunities to do what they do best.
08:15 And we've seen Bill O'Brien be able to do that and cater to the things that he
08:19 excelled in in college. And I think Mac can be that point guard who really
08:22 does just put the ball where he needs to. And then you get guys like Kendrick
08:25 Bourne, who looks like he's about to have a career year. Devante Parker,
08:28 obviously not a high target guy, but a big play threat and Hunter Henry down
08:31 the middle. You know, I think he has no complimentary weapons. We'll see what
08:34 happens with the offensive line. Obviously, Riley Reef had an injury
08:37 today. We're gonna have to see what happens there. Don't know when Mike and
08:40 when you will call strange necessarily gonna come back. But if the trenches
08:43 hold up, I think we are gonna see a surprisingly good year from Mac. Yep. Um,
08:47 so and again, we talked about the reason he didn't play tonight is because he
08:52 got knocked around a good bit in that second preseason game. Because again,
08:55 the Patriots are playing without the majority of their offensive line. You
08:59 know, I think, you know, Andrews played some and then Trent Brown a series or
09:03 two, and then he was out and Mac got beat up. But that actually was one of
09:08 the reasons why his performance was somewhat impressive, because he did take
09:13 some hits and he had to hang onto the ball just to make a few throws. And it
09:16 was the preseason. He had to step up and manipulate the pocket and move
09:19 around just to be able to do whatever it was that he was able to do while the
09:25 offensive line was not doing a great job keeping guys away from him. So yeah,
09:30 that's what we have there on the quarterback situation. Rest of it. We
09:35 got to see some stuff. You mentioned Boutte plays the first series and then
09:39 never again. You really do have to wonder what's gonna happen here with
09:44 this situation and with Thornton's injury and how they're gonna play this.
09:47 We talked about whether or not they can slide someone like him onto the
09:50 practice squad. But I mean, again, if you're a betting man right now, do the
09:54 Patriots have to break camp on their final cut downs with six receivers and
10:01 then maybe make a move after that? I think so. Um, again, booty. I think him
10:05 playing one series. This was a This was an opportunity night where if you're
10:09 kind of on the bubble, it's like, Okay, are you gonna make the practice squad?
10:11 I don't really think there were a ton of guys that really you're gonna sneak
10:13 onto the 53. Maybe guys like Calvin Munson and Sam Roberts, who will touch
10:17 on later. But yeah, booty playing as little as he did. I think that was a
10:20 signal that, you know, his spots pretty safe. They've also been trying to get
10:23 him involved. We saw him again. I believe it was a kick return return
10:26 opportunity, so they want to get him involved in other ways to justify that
10:30 spot. But when it comes to Taekwon, I wouldn't be surprised if we see them
10:33 keep six receivers and then quickly put him on injured reserve so he can come
10:37 back in a few weeks because that shoulder injury, if it's week to week
10:40 and he's not looking good to start the season, then, you know, there's other
10:43 guys I think that could contribute faster and who maybe do deserve those
10:47 spots. You know, like a J. J. Taylor, maybe or one of their offensive linemen
10:51 to give them extra depth. You might be on the practice squad. So I do think
10:54 they keep six initially, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Taekwon Thornton
10:56 end up on our pretty soon. Okay. Um, and I think that's what they probably
11:02 have to do is make the team and then put him on. I are designated to return.
11:07 If that's what's gonna happen, we did get to see Marte Mapu play tonight in,
11:13 you know, some sort of action. Any impressions there? Yeah, I thought it
11:17 was interesting. So it seems like the role for him is going to be like a
11:20 safety early on. We saw him like first and second downs. He played a lot of
11:23 deep safety, actually, which something we've seen a lot of him in camp. I
11:26 didn't think that was gonna be his role. I thought he was gonna live near
11:29 the line of scrimmage, whether that was in the slot, which is where he played
11:32 a lot in college and then maybe a linebacker and then drop safety. But
11:35 again, we saw in deep half the middle a few times, and then we saw him play
11:39 some linebacker more on late downs. Had a lot of plays. You saw him flying
11:43 around out there. Obviously, that's what again we've seen in camp. The
11:46 closing speed, the physicality. He did have the one missed tackle where I
11:49 don't know how 15 for the Titans. He took a hit from him and bled so bled.
11:54 So it's a pretty big hitter to somehow made the catch, got out of both those
11:58 tackles and went on for extra yards. But for the most part, I thought Marte
12:01 Mapu had a good night. Um, and we saw the play where they had the third
12:05 down stop after Bailey's app. He was strip sacked tough position for the
12:09 defense already in scoring territory, and he was the one who was targeted
12:12 wasn't a great throw, but you see him play to his leverage were bled. So was
12:15 on the inside, and he just waited for that outside breaking route was all
12:19 over it. Maybe if it was a perfect past, the receiver or tight end rather
12:22 could have made a play on it. But still, that's what you wanted to see for
12:25 Mop who who wasn't excellent in coverage in college as well. That was
12:29 something where, you know, even though he played at a smaller school, his
12:33 instincts, how comfortable he was. He wasn't somebody was taking risks or
12:36 anything. He was just consistently in good position, which led to a lot of
12:39 turnovers and passes defense. So I thought you kind of saw what you wanted
12:43 to see from him again. Tackling the mishap. You'd like to seem to a little
12:46 bit better there, but I do think he's someone who it's such a deep safety
12:51 room, so I can't really say that he's gonna have a big role early on. But I
12:54 would be shocked if they don't find reasons to put him on the field in
12:57 certain packages. Okay, let's talk about tonight who made a case for
13:01 themselves that you might have had on the bubble or maybe even off who you
13:06 think showed enough tonight to maybe reconsider. Yeah, Calvin Munson. I think
13:12 he's at the top of that list. He led the team with 10 tackles, had the
13:15 interception where it was off a deflection, but he still showed amazing
13:18 awareness to not only be in position to catch it, but also stop it from hitting
13:22 the turf. Thought that was a great play. Also had a past defense. Um, there was
13:27 a play the explosive run early on where he bit too far inside and the
13:31 running back cut it back. That was on him. But for the most part, he's done a
13:35 great job. I did a great job tonight. I think he's also been very good on
13:38 special teams. I said, like quickly after he was signed, we started seeing
13:42 a mix in with the top defense, and I was like, that's pretty interesting
13:45 because Rayquan Macmillan obviously unfortunately landed on injured reserve
13:49 pretty early on this summer. But I think break one Macmillan. He's got better
13:53 athleticism overall. He's I think in terms of physical ability is maybe the
13:57 most talented linebacker because he runs like four or five or something crazy
14:01 like that and also has the power to be that downhill presence. I think Mac
14:06 Wilson gives you that athleticism, but in terms of play recognition and
14:10 strength at the point of attack, although he has gotten better in the
14:13 latter area, I don't think he's someone that you really want to be playing
14:16 very often. Like last year you saw against the Ravens and the Packers is
14:20 play recognition. He's either a tick slow or misdirection will take him
14:23 completely out of the play. I think we saw that especially last week. So he's
14:27 someone I thought was fighting for a spot, did have a couple good plays, but
14:30 months and I think has been more consistent. Another guy who can really
14:33 take on blockers and shed has better play recognition and can contribute on
14:37 special teams, which is where Macmillan had a big role as well. So I think he's
14:41 a guy who can slide into that roster spot that no one vacated. And then also
14:45 Sam Roberts, who I think has been one of their best defenders this preseason,
14:48 hasn't been perfect. He had the penalty last week that everyone kind of got on
14:51 him about. There are also times where his pad levels too high and you can see
14:55 him kind of get washed out of plays. But for the most part, even sometimes when
14:59 he loses the rep early with that upper body strength, he does a pretty good job
15:02 of recovering and still getting in on the play. And more often than not, he's
15:06 pushing guys back, you know, really being an impact guy for them. So I think
15:09 these are two players who are gonna probably sneak onto the roster bottom
15:13 kind of guys who just barely snuck on. But Roberts sixth round pick last year,
15:19 he was already on the roster last season, so they clearly saw some value
15:22 in keeping him around on after a strong preseason again, did have a bone
15:26 headed mistake. I don't know how much that plays into their evaluation, but I
15:30 think he did earn himself a spot as well because he's been making plays
15:32 pretty consistently. Yeah, one interesting player again. We talk about
15:36 how little boot a played tonight, even though he started one guy who played a
15:41 lot tonight, which I didn't necessarily expect would be one of the players who
15:46 would play a lot was Jack Jones. One. What do you make? And he wasn't. He
15:50 definitely had a couple moments where, you know, he wasn't great, but also
15:57 just interesting that he played as much as he did. What do you make of both the
16:00 fact that he was in there deep into the game and and his overall performance?
16:06 Yeah, Jack is someone who his highs are really high. He brings a lot of fire, a
16:12 lot of passion. You saw it on the couple of plays he made against the run. We
16:17 really stood out. But even against the Packers, when I watched the all 22, I
16:21 noticed there were a couple of times where Jordan Love just didn't exploit a
16:24 couple opportunities where he got beat deep. And I don't know if that plays
16:28 into their consideration because, you know, even last year that was happening,
16:32 he still played a pretty big role. I just think Jack Jones for all his
16:35 positives is a very inconsistent player, and we saw that tonight where he had a
16:40 30 yard reception. He had the D. P. I. On a play with he usually makes. He's
16:44 really good when he's in that trailing position and recovers late, gets his
16:47 head around and makes plays on the ball. Didn't this time got called for it, got
16:51 stiff armed by Taiji Spears on again for the positive plays he had against the
16:56 run. There was another one where I mentioned on Calvin Munson when he bit
16:58 too far inside. Jack Jones had some poor eye discipline where he saw I think it
17:03 was a receiver wrapping around the block, ran all the way across the
17:06 formation and didn't realize the run was coming back and looked like he
17:09 vacated his responsibility. There was another play where it didn't count
17:12 against him or anything, but I think he was in a cloud zone and cover to where
17:17 he was playing underneath. And you didn't really notice that I kind of saw
17:20 when I was watching the highlights where he completely lost his receiver
17:24 and had to turn around to kind of chase. So it's things like that where his eye
17:28 discipline can wane. His coverage isn't always great where he can bite on
17:32 things and get beat behind him. So I wasn't surprised to see him around so
17:35 long, especially considering we don't know what his legal situation is. So
17:39 they probably just want to get him as many reps as possible in case he misses
17:42 time or what have you.
17:43 We don't, but what are you doing there at the cornerback position? If you want
17:46 Jones, if you want John Jones to play in the slot, what are you doing opposite
17:51 Christian Gonzalez there?
17:52 I think it's I think Miles Bryant's just going to be your slot guy. And I know
17:55 people don't like that, but as long as Miles...
17:57 You kick John back outside?
17:58 Yeah. And I think that's on early downs when they're playing zone, which I think
18:02 they're going to be playing a lot of like, for example, the Eagles don't
18:04 expect a lot of man coverage from. I think it's going to be like Joe Burrow,
18:07 where it's a ton, a ton of cover to to take care of the dynamic duo with AJ
18:12 Brown and Devontae Smith. So again, I think it's going to be more zone heavy
18:16 team than people may realize, which is where I think Miles Jones thrives. If
18:19 you're playing zone, you got Gonzalez and John Jones on the outside, Miles
18:22 Bryant inside. I think you're fine. When it comes to man coverage, I think maybe
18:25 we'll see more Marcus Jones rotate in. But again, for all Jack Jones's
18:30 playmaking ability, it's that inconsistency where even if he doesn't
18:33 play, yes, you do lose what he brings you. But I don't think it's a massive
18:38 drop off in terms of what you have on the field, because Marcus Jones doesn't
18:42 make quite as many plays, but does have the ability and is more consistent in
18:45 terms of being in position. Now, at the same time, Marcus is someone who has a
18:49 smaller frame, and we saw that get exploited in joint practices against the
18:51 Packers at certain points in the preseason. So I'm not saying it's
18:55 perfect. You know, definitely there's each of those young Jones guys has
18:58 their strengths and they're pretty clear weaknesses. But I think they have
19:02 other plans. And someone mentioned Sean Wade. I think he's been really good in
19:05 the slot. He had a good, uh, you look good against John Metchy against the
19:08 Texans had the touchdown against Jaden Reed. But I think there were a lot of
19:11 factors that played into that. I don't really say like bad job. Sean Wade. He's
19:16 someone I think who's had a pretty good preseason, so they have options. You
19:19 know, they're not John Jones. It's not necessarily Christian Gonzalez where he
19:22 put them in there, and they're like, Yeah, every down. I want them there.
19:25 They're consistent. But if Jack Jones isn't on the field, I don't think it's
19:29 the massive drop off that people are kind of making it out to be. Okay,
19:33 well, we'll see what happens there. Um, as far as that goes with the secondary,
19:41 but how did Trump end up in this cat? Whatever. Just look at the comments and
19:46 people. One thing I wanted to throw out as well. Not to go deep on it, but
19:50 Malik Cunningham. Everybody's trying to freak out, trying to see him get some
19:54 quarterback reps, you know, and I think I think the diastase there in terms of
19:58 what he's gonna be is gonna be a he might get some gadget plays and some
20:01 snaps, you know, and they maybe make a package of plays for him. But he did
20:06 get some run at wide receiver today, and I think one thing we can determine, at
20:10 least at this point in his development, is he's not a wide receiver. Not at the
20:16 NFL level. Not yet. Doesn't mean he will never be. But at this point in time,
20:21 nine targets, one catch not running, not running the right route, not really
20:27 being able to separate against against NFL DB's. I don't I don't I think it's
20:32 cute, but it's not. I don't think it's happening. So, you know, that is what it
20:38 is there, you know, for for for the Malik Cunningham fan club. And I will
20:44 say this real quick, because, like, just put Malik Cunningham because the
20:47 obvious comparisons are Jacoby Myers and Julian Edelman is the guys who were,
20:50 uh, you know, quarterbacks in college and then made the transition. They're
20:55 so different because Edelman dynamic in space was also pretty big. People
20:59 forget. Yeah, he was relatively short, but I don't know. It was a pretty
21:02 strong, strong guy. And Jacoby Myers also someone who was contributing in
21:06 the run game pretty early on. He was relatively frail, but he's still a tall,
21:10 bigger guy. Malik Cunningham. If you see him in positions where he needs to
21:14 be physical, he's just not that guy. Like you say, Oh, he's on special teams.
21:18 He's a gunner. Like, I don't think he's good at those things. I know they're
21:21 trying him out there, but I haven't really been impressed with him in those
21:24 rules. I hope that once they get him onto the practice squad, this has just
21:27 been the thing where they try to see what he can do and kind of hide his
21:30 ability to play quarterback, because I think that's where he's most valuable.
21:33 I think his poise is rare on his ability to navigate the pocket and his
21:37 ability to put touch on throws, things like that. I think that's where his NFL
21:40 future is, because the rest of the stuff I just don't think he has the body
21:43 type to succeed as a receiver because he's a liability is a run blocker. I
21:47 don't think he's got the size and physicality to succeed on special teams.
21:50 Uh, so, yeah, I hope that this was just, you know, an attempt to kind of hide
21:54 him and what he could do, because I just don't see that being his path in
21:59 the NFL. No, I think that puts a bow on this game, but we have a few NFL
22:03 related things we want to talk about and some of them impact the Patriots.
22:06 Um, final thoughts here, Taylor. We've covered it all. I think so. Maybe just
22:11 let me see right notes real quick. I touched on like we talked about Riley
22:14 Reef. Don't know what his status is. You're hoping that he'll be available
22:17 week one because the Patriots already pretty shallow. Uh, Thyrac Pits had
22:21 that really, really good play on the slant where he powered through. He's
22:24 someone that I've been saying for about a week now. Uh, I think he's gonna be
22:27 on the practice squad. Obviously, train nicks ending up on injured reserve
22:31 almost solidified that in my mind, but because he has that ex body type, I
22:35 thought that that was a spot for him. And Jason Hines had three impact.
22:41 Sorry, he hit three defenders on the touchdown run that Kevin Harris had had
22:46 some good plays on screens. I like what I saw from him. And then Pierre Strong
22:49 finally showed some shake and made a defensive back. Misses. He did. Yeah,
22:53 and we criticized him for that one opportunity he had. Uh, was it last
22:58 game or the game before where he maybe the first preseason game had a chance
23:03 to make someone missing space did not. Of course, Taylor found, you know, you
23:09 know, found a justification for why that didn't happen. The ball was a
23:14 little bit behind him, but still, it was nice to see him do that because
23:17 that's what you want to see out of that. Last one. Last one. Ronnie Perkins.
23:21 Ronnie Perkins literally left it all out there. Guts and all. Um, it sucks
23:25 that it looked like he might have gotten hurt. He looked really mad when
23:27 he left the field, didn't come back. But you got to call him out because he's
23:30 somebody who's been pretty invisible because of injuries his entire career
23:34 really did ball out, had some good plays against the run and the past. So I
23:38 wanted to give him credit as well. He had a really good. Yeah, um, we got a
23:41 few more things to talk about. That's hilarious. He did puke on the field,
23:45 but sometimes you just have to call it what it is. We do want to tell you
23:48 briefly about our sponsor here, FanDuel because really we've got a double deal
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25:43 YouTube TV is required in order to take advantage of that, so go check that out.
25:50 Patriots lose to the Titans in their preseason opener. I mean, preseason
25:56 closer, the final preseason game. Only three. This is what they do now. They have
26:01 next week off and then they open up against the Eagles. A couple more things
26:04 for us to talk about. One quick programming note, the Pat's Nation
26:07 podcast will be going live right after this show, so if you want to keep the
26:10 conversation going, you can jump on there. But a couple things going on in the NFL
26:15 world, and one of them has some direct tie potentially to the Patriots, and that
26:21 is the Dolphins getting goofy here and possibly being involved, and some other
26:28 teams as well, in trade talks for Jonathan Taylor. Dolphins, as we know
26:33 already, definitely a real team. Might be considered a contender. I don't know if
26:40 they're a legit Super Bowl contender or not, but certainly they have a lot of
26:43 things going for them, particularly in the offensive side of the ball. How big a
26:48 move, like how much does this move the needle for them right now, adding a
26:54 weapon like Taylor, if they were to do it, to, you know, that kind of explosive
26:59 passing offense that they have now, obviously, with Tyree Kill and Waddell
27:05 there on the outside. Yeah, run game at the end of the day always comes down to
27:09 the offensive line. Like a bat can only do so much. It does, but he is a home run
27:13 threat in addition to that. Yeah. The precursor, I'm building up. But yeah, no,
27:18 offensive line is obviously important, but Mike McDaniel, who made his
27:22 bones in the NFL as a run game guy, he's said that he really wants to put more
27:27 emphasis on running the ball this year and not just put everything on his
27:30 explosive receivers, which, I mean, they're still fantastic either way. But yeah, I
27:33 mean, if the offensive line holds up, then that is a move that very much moves
27:37 the needle, because Jonathan Taylor is one of a few backs who really gave the
27:41 Patriots trouble, despite what I thought. Like, they had a good defense. It was when
27:45 they had Hightower, they had Manoj. It wasn't like, you know, some performances
27:49 where the offense or the defensive front isn't at full strength and guys can pop
27:54 off. Like, no, they had a pretty good performance and Jonathan Taylor just
27:57 showed why he's one of the league's best backs. If they got him, I would be
28:01 pretty concerned because that's a lot of firepower through the air and on the
28:05 ground. On top of the fact they already have a bunch of other really good backs
28:08 behind him. So I'm really hoping that one doesn't play out because I think if
28:12 you have to worry about Jonathan Taylor and Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddell,
28:16 that's just that's a lot, a lot of speed and explosiveness to have to corral. I
28:22 think that is the kind of thing that could bring them from just a, you know,
28:26 a playoff contender. I think maybe that does make you a bit of a Super Bowl
28:29 contender because he's the kind of back that takes a lot of pressure off your
28:33 quarterback. Because even if you, like you said, even if the run game isn't
28:36 fan, I'm sorry if the blocking isn't fantastic, he is still a home run threat.
28:39 So all it takes is that one play. And as we know, the best in later in the
28:44 season, football's played in the cold, the Patriots make their living off of
28:47 just dominating on the ground and some of those cold weather games towards the
28:49 end of the year. So yeah, I think that really does kind of boost them up a
28:53 little bit in terms of how dangerous they are because he's a fantastic player.
28:56 Obviously coming off injury, you don't know for sure what he's going to be, but
29:00 he's still a young guy. I'm sure he'll bounce back pretty significantly. So
29:03 yeah, I'm hoping that doesn't come to fruition because that would be a very
29:06 scary offense. Yeah, it is. And, uh, you know, rich get richer, so to speak. But
29:13 again, hasn't happened yet. We'll see. The other major NFL story was basically
29:18 that Trey Lance,
29:19 the 49ers gave up on him completely. He was Sam. Donald was named the backup to
29:27 Brock Party, who was Mr Irrelevant a year earlier and the player who was
29:31 taken number three overall that San Francisco traded all of those picks in
29:35 order to get
29:36 his career with the Niners was basically over on the end. You know, maybe a day
29:43 after that boom trade to the Cowboys. Um, you know, it's a really interesting
29:49 story. The guy didn't get much of a chance. Um, you know, when he was
29:53 finally named the starter, he played one game, you know, basically in the mud
29:57 and the second broke his leg in the second game. And that was it. That was
30:01 the end of the Trey Lance experiment. He came in camp this year. He didn't. It
30:05 wasn't even really given an opportunity to compete. I guess if he came in was
30:08 awesome. Maybe he could have fought for his job. He was an afterthought entering
30:11 camp, and he and he was an afterthought when it ended. And here the Cowboys
30:15 step up with the fourth round pick. Uh, do you think there's any hope the Trey
30:22 Lance resurrects his career and becomes an NFL quarterback? Or was this just
30:26 oops? You know, this guy wasn't who we thought he was. Yeah, from the 49ers
30:32 like him with the 49ers perspective, I think it was just a tough situation.
30:35 He got hurt. Then he had legitimate competition that he had to battle and
30:38 just never really got a chance. I think the 49ers were also in a tough position
30:42 because he was injured, and there weren't really a lot of reps to give
30:44 him. I'm sure it probably wasn't great for his confidence. So I'm glad that he
30:48 gets to go to a good situation where he isn't gonna be expected to play. But
30:51 we've also seen Dak Prescott miss games pretty consistently. So maybe he does
30:55 get a chance to perform pretty early. I do think he's got a good chance
31:00 because I think they've got a good staff around him and Dak will be a good
31:03 mentor, got good weapons and really good supporting cast. So I think it's
31:08 one of the better situations he possibly could have gone to. I think
31:11 it's way too early for anybody to say what he is or what he isn't. Because,
31:13 again, he's been in league for a while, but he hasn't shown much of anything
31:16 on the field. So I can't say whether or not I think he's how good he's gonna
31:20 be, but I think he is talented, and I think he's a smart guy. And I think he
31:24 from everything I've ever heard is he's a hard worker. So, you know, if he
31:28 has a chance to get healthy, to get some actual opportunities, develop some
31:31 confidence and be in a system that caters to what he does best, I would
31:35 love to see maybe either taking over for Dak because now the Cowboys have
31:39 leverage when it comes to his contract negotiations. Or maybe the Cowboys
31:44 flip him for a pick once he gets a preseason under his belt where it's
31:47 like, "Oh, wow, Trey Lance can actually do something." So I'm rooting for him.
31:51 I think he has the talent and the effort and the mental capacity to be a
31:56 good player, but we'll see. It is incredible when you look at that draft
32:00 trading up to the third spot to give all those picks away to get Lance and
32:08 look at every single player that went after him in that draft. My goodness.
32:12 Kyle Pitts, Jamar Chase, Jaylon Waddell, Penny Sewell, JC Horn, Patrick
32:17 Sertan, Devonta Smith, Justin Fields, Micah Parsons, Rashaun Slater. Holy
32:23 wow. You couldn't miss. And then the second and the third picks, bust, bust.
32:31 Zach Wilson and Trey Lance. And again, amazingly, each of them complete bust
32:38 outs halfway through their second years or earlier. You don't see
32:44 players get picked that high and have franchises give up on them that quick.
32:48 That's what makes me wonder here is to give up this fast on both those
32:54 players has to mean they don't think there's any chance in hell that they
32:58 can be NFL caliber players. At least those two organizations don't.
33:03 And they're also guys whose confidence is probably in the toilet right now.
33:07 Totally. Zach Wilson was rattled. Again, we didn't see Trey Lance, but I'm
33:10 sure with everything going on, you had Fred Warner going up and talking to
33:14 the media about the situation like that. It just didn't seem like a very
33:17 healthy thing going on there. So yeah, I hope that Lance can rebound in his
33:21 career because they just were both in some really tough positions.
33:24 Yeah, we will see. You know, and again, you never root against people, maybe
33:29 against Zach. Zach seems kind of douchey.
33:31 That's why I didn't say anything about Zach. I don't know.
33:36 He looks like the bad guy in a Disney Channel original movie.
33:40 Yeah, you know. Yeah, exactly. He was mean that, you know, right.
33:46 The I always I like Trey Lance.
33:49 I kind of that was my
33:50 cross fingers, hope that the Patriots could have found a way to get them.
33:54 So, you know, it's the way that it turned out.
33:57 I do feel bad there.
33:59 Once again, Patriots lose this preseason game to the Titans.
34:03 Nobody of value really played really rough game for Bailey's
34:06 at the seventy nine yards of total offense. This was brutal.
34:10 I'm mad that I'm here.
34:11 I'm mad that we had to watch this game.
34:13 I'm mad that we had to talk about it.
34:14 But it's part of the gig.
34:16 And Taylor Taylor is always going to smile at his face.
34:18 He's not mad about anything.
34:19 He's going to write about it now.
34:20 So you can go check out a deeper dive into what we saw tonight on CNS Media
34:24 dot com, and there'll be some more coverage throughout.
34:27 And then we've got nothing but lead up to the regular season.
34:30 And here we go. All systems go,
34:31 you know, looking ahead to the Eagles a couple of weeks from now.
34:35 So that should be a ton of fun.
34:37 But Taylor will have the team covered in Foxborough,
34:40 you know, as they continue to practice and prepare for the season opener
34:45 and hopefully find some good health.
34:47 There'll be some roster decisions, too.
34:49 Should there be any earth shattering breaking news?
34:51 You can always stay tuned to this channel.
34:52 We will go live if something major happens.
34:55 Otherwise, you can just follow us on a regular basis
34:58 and we'll have all the news updates analysis that you need.
35:00 Want to remind you again, Pat's Nation podcast about to go live
35:04 as soon as we sign off.
35:05 So if you want to listen to a little bit more football talk,
35:08 you can hang out there.
35:10 Otherwise, we will see you guys later.
35:12 Thank you very much for hanging out with us.
35:13 Patriots go down.
35:14 Preseason is over.
35:16 Regular season just around the corner.
35:18 Thank goodness for that.