Who's making the final QB decision? Is it all on Jerod Mayo? Curtis: "This is an organizational decision!" Is Brissett starting Week 1?
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00:00I said yesterday that there's no way the decision of May vs. Brissett is Gerard Mayo's alone.
00:12That the entire organization, from Robert and Jonathan all the way through, Gerard Mayo and Alex Van Pelt,
00:19and, you know, the ticket guy that Volan talked to, this is an organizational decision.
00:26And just like I don't think it was Elliott Wolfe's decision alone to draft Drake May at three.
00:33It would be poor business sense if you didn't have everybody weighing in.
00:38Because literally nothing else matters.
00:40If Drake May is properly coached, developed, and can play, the organization is in good hands.
00:47And I think we saw when it wasn't a full collaborative effort how poorly it went when it seemed like it was Mac Jones was a craft pick.
00:55Great point.
00:56Like we saw that fall apart almost immediately.
01:01And it was like it needs to be collaborative for everybody to be on the same page.
01:06When one person strong arms the others, it's never going to work.
01:09Especially with such an important position like quarterback.
01:12But see, it's easy to be collaborative when there's really no competition.
01:20When the guy that is Jacoby Bursette hasn't done what you thought he might do.
01:27Is there anybody in that room that goes, play Jacoby Bursette?
01:31It's not like there's a real competition.
01:34So it's easy to be collaborative in that sense.
01:37If Jacoby Bursette was playing great, then now it's a little bit more difficult to collaborate.
01:44Because there might be some guys who are like, well, Jacoby gives us the best chance of winning.
01:48And then you might have guys that go, well, we drafted this guy.
01:51So that's where I think the collaborative thing is more about when you look at and you go, okay, we all agree on it and it becomes easy to collaborate.
02:07The difficult part becomes when Gerard Mayo goes, well, I know we want to take a quarterback, but we should take Marvin Harrison or Elliot Wolfe.
02:18That's when it becomes a little bit more difficult in the sense to collaborate.
02:22But I think it's an easy decision for them when you look at this whole situation.
02:28Well, it's easy, but it's also – what the mistake was when they had Bill here and they drafted Mac at 15 wasn't the pick.
02:38And it was – I'm sure Robert had a big say in it.
02:41I mean I think Ken was early on that and he was right.
02:44But the issue became that this player was Jonathan Kraft's decision.
02:51This player was Bill Belichick's decision.
02:53And there were these internal battles of who was getting the right playing time.
02:56We all agree that Bill did what he could to derail Mac's career with his buddies and all that.
03:02What I think collaboration means today is that there's going to be a room full of people, whether it's two, four, six, however many.
03:10And they're going to leave when they have a unanimous vote about the direction of the organization because they are no longer going to have people in the same boat paddling in different directions.
03:21Right, and I think with like Mayo, because he's a defensive guy, I could see why he would go, all right, I have a say.
03:28But I would defer to Alex Van Pelt and say, hey, is he ready to go?
03:35What do you think?
03:37Yeah.
03:38Yeah, he's ready.
03:39Okay, let's play him.
03:40If Mayo is an offensive guy, then he might have a little bit more of a different – he might be a little bit more of, no, yes, or whatever.
03:49Because he's around them all the time.
03:51He understands that.
03:52But when you're on the other side of the ball and you're the head coach, I think you try to leave it into the offensive coordinator's hands.
04:01The same way what Bill did with Josh McDaniels and Matt Patricia to a certain extent.
04:07How did it change for you when Drew went down?
04:11And so you have a guy that was a Pro Bowl or highest-paid quarterback in the NFL.
04:16And you're 0-2, and then Tom comes in.
04:19Does everybody just work harder?
04:22Is there any differences that you notice?
04:24Like is there – what's the difference between this organization and the players on the team preparing like Brissette's the starter and Drake May?
04:31Is it not different at all?
04:32I think that it's different in the sense where some players might look at it and go, oh, he's a better athlete.
04:39He gives us more of a chance to do this.
04:43If a play breaks down, he has the capability to extend the play.
04:46Maybe we could add more nakeds and bootlegs and get him on the move.
04:51So there might be some players who look at it in that sense where he gives us a better chance to be able to do more things.
04:59You as a player, you're still going out there and you're still trying to make sure that that quarterback has confidence in you.
05:06Right.
05:07But you still feel like – when I was in Minnesota and Dante Culpepper was the quarterback and then he got hurt and Brad Johnson came in,
05:19I still had a good relationship with Brad Johnson, but Dante was able to do a little bit more when a play broke down to allow me and the other receivers to –
05:30More time to get open.
05:31More time to get open where you didn't have that same type of ability when Brad Johnson was the quarterback.
05:38If he wasn't escaping the pocket and you were able to kind of leak out and he gives you a nice little check down.
05:45So what do you think other players would rather if they were on a lie detector test?
05:49Who would they rather have as their starting quarterback week one?
05:52Somebody who's played before in the NFL or a guy that they want to grow with?
05:57I think that it's probably Drake May.
05:59The guy that they want to go with and the guy that they feel like, all right, he probably gives us the best chance of winning.
06:07Because Jacoby Brissett, it's kind of hard.
06:12You know where it would almost be a little bit more difficult before we started seeing him play in practice would be if they signed a guy like Russell Wilson.
06:23Right.
06:24But before he started practicing because you would think like, all right, if Russell Wilson could be the Russell Wilson of old,
06:29then there might be – guys might be like, oh, we should play Russell.
06:33Where I think where guys look at Jacoby Brissett and they have respect for him, but they probably view him as like he's a backup.
06:40So have you been on a team where the quarterback that was playing was not the one that the players on the team wanted?
06:46No.
06:49As I think about it, no.
06:51I was pretty fortunate.
06:52I was pretty fortunate to have mostly good quarterbacks that everybody wanted.
06:59My first year in the league, it was Testaverde.
07:01And then it was Bledsoe and Brady.
07:04Jake DeLome was cool.
07:07Dante.
07:09Dante.
07:10So I never really had that issue of, oh, they should be playing this guy, not that guy.
07:17Yeah, I like it.
07:18I mean I'm very interested to see the third preseason game.
07:23And I don't think I've said that many times.
07:25This is where we currently reside as Patriots observers.
07:28This is where we are.
07:29But I am so hopeful that we get Drake May and we can live and die with the 20.
07:34I mean he looks 15.
07:36This is going to be a learning curve.
07:38But I feel like the last four years have done a great sort of service for Drake May in that he's not the guy replacing Tom.
07:50He's not the guy coming into this fan base that has caviar taste and is waiting for a championship.
07:55I think Patriots fans have been surprisingly patient when it comes to understanding that this is not going to be a 13-win team.
08:04But I think the patience will wane if they don't see the organization playing the guy that is the future soon enough.
08:10Yeah, I agree with you.
08:12And I think a lot of those players in the locker room, because as I start to think back and remember,
08:17the biggest thing that players look at when they look at the quarterback and when you're in this situation and it's kind of like a competition,
08:24is the guy who you go, oh, I got open.
08:27His arm's not strong enough to get the ball to me.
08:29Or he doesn't have the type of zip on it where it gets me the ball where I can take advantage and have some space to run.
08:36So I think those are the things that players start to factor in.
08:39I think there were guys that when Drew got hurt, there were guys that kind of felt like, well,
08:47Drew gives us the best chance of winning just because of his skill set.
08:52The way he threw the football, he had a better arm than Brady at the time.
08:56So there were guys that were probably like, OK, he gives us the better chance of winning.
08:59But Bill went with the decision of we're going with Drew.
09:03Did you ever think about requesting 87 because Drew locked in on it so much when it was Coates that maybe if you had 87, he'd throw more balls your way?
09:11No, no, no, no, no.
09:12We all find numbers.
09:13My original number was 89.
09:15That's the number that I always wanted because I was a huge Mark Bavaro fan.
09:19And then when I got to the Jets and they gave me 85, I was like, all right, cool.
09:23And then I just kind of rolled with it everywhere from there.