LIVE Patriots Daily: Week 1 Mailbag w/ Evan Lazar

CLNS Media Sports Network

Taylor Kyles welcomes Patriots.com's Evan Lazar to bring you a mailbag edition of Patriots Daily! Tune in to get all of your Patriots questions answered ahead of their Week 1 matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals.  0:00 - Introduction 2:12 - Offensive line concerns 5:00 - Control the line of scrimmage 7:37 - Jamarr Chase's impact 9:30 - Christian Gonzalez's role 12:00 - Pop Douglas potential 15:29 - Tyquan Thornton's summer 17:22 - Role in the offense 19:11 - Pass rush concerns 22:34 - Patriots' matchup advantage 25:11 - Early down success 30:28 - New strike system 32:57 - Ticket deals overview 36:41 - Receiver trade options 38:58 - Caleb Farley discussion 42:14 - Most important rookie 44:14 - Closing remarks  ************************************************ Patriots Content Brought to you by....  Prize Picks - https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/CLNS Download the app today and use Code CLNS at PrizePicks.com/CLNS & Get $50 instantly when you play $5!   Gametime - https://gametime.co Take the guesswork out of buying MLB tickets with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code CLNS for $20 off your first purchase. Download Gametime today. Last minute tickets. Lowest Price. Guaranteed. Terms apply.

Transcript

00:00I am joined by Robert Griffin III, James Whitefield. Yes, Mina Kimes. All right. So first play

00:14we're going to look at second and two, one of the Patriots first offensive plays.

00:21What's going on everyone? Taylor Kyle's here for CLNS media coming at you with another

00:24episode of Pat's Daily brought to you by good friends at prize picks and game time. Today

00:30I am joined by, well, you already know who I'm joined by. You know him, you love him.

00:34One of the OG patriarchs of CLNS media when it comes to Patriots coverage, the Evan Lazar.

00:40So excited. I can't even get my words out. Evan, welcome back buddy for another mailbag

00:45episode. Thank you for rejoining. And how the heck are you doing? Almost there, baby.

00:49Week one coming up. I know I'm excited. I'm really excited to

00:52get this going. And we we've been dealing in so many hypotheticals and looking at teams

00:57on paper and all this kind of stuff over the last couple of months. And it'll be good to

01:02finally get some real games to sink our teeth into and see what this team is made of.

01:07Hell yeah, brother. So before we get into the mailback questions, I do want to touch

01:11on what happened. We were at Gillette today. We heard from Gerard Mayo. Didn't, it was

01:15very different not getting the Bill Pelichick, like very brief scouting report at the beginning

01:20of everything. It was really just like our guys are ready. Very much internal. We heard

01:24from Jacoby Bercet a little bit, spoke about the offensive line, talked about what it meant

01:28being a captain. And we got an injury report, which I will read off really quickly. Did

01:32not participate city. So that was expected. He wasn't in uniform today at practice. Jonathan

01:37Jones with a hamstring, but Darian Lowe with an abdomen. Joshua Uche with a foot in O'Shane

01:42Ziminez. We're all limited. Ziminez with an ankle. So obviously not looking great in the

01:47trenches on either side of the ball. Full participants though. We had Christian Ellis

01:50who was dealing with concussion. Hunter Henry was dealing with a foot and for the Jennings

01:55with the wrist and Dietrich wise jr. With a hamstring. So through a lot at you, but

02:00just basically to put a bow on everything that we learned today, what were your takeaways

02:04from what we heard from Mayo? We heard from Jacoby and what the injury situation is looking

02:08like right now from new England, obviously still pretty early in the week. Yeah, let's

02:12go in reverse order. Cause I think that's the easiest way to tackle all three of those

02:16things. So go to the injury report first. Uh, not any major surprises city. So it doesn't

02:22look like he's trending towards playing on Sunday and we're probably going to get some

02:26combination of Nick Leverett and Michael Jordan at left guard. Maybe that's a rotation. You

02:31know, that was some of those guys probably will rotate anyways, just being week one and

02:36maybe they're in an actual platoon, uh, there at left guard and then vicarian low status.

02:42I know we've talked about this a bunch off the air and I get a lot of heat for this on

02:46our shows because I, I, I kind of come to vicarian Lowe's defense like just a little,

02:51little bit. And I, I know it's, it comes off as I'm saying he's, you know, prime Joe Thomas

02:57or something like that. And obviously we, we recognize together that that's not the

03:02case, but they don't have a whole lot of great options at left tackle. And if I had to say

03:08who's the best equipped to play left tackle in week one, it's probably vicarian low. I know

03:14that's not a very high bar, but that's sort of where we're at. And if he can push to play on

03:19Sunday, then I do think it puts everybody else, mainly Chuksa core for back on the right side.

03:24And things can start to be a little bit more, uh, everybody in their natural spots. Right. And

03:29that's sort of where I'm at with the offensive line. Probably not going to have a ton of talent

03:34on the field in some spots on the line. So let's at least get everybody in a spot that they're

03:39accustomed to playing a hundred percent. And especially that left side, man, it is really

03:44worrisome because obviously when all the pieces are together, you still have your concerns because

03:49city. So in Leighton Robinson, it both looked good, but they were competing at left guard because

03:53city. So it wasn't consistent in the preseason. Then that last commander's game as good as late

03:57Robinson's been, he got put on his heels a few times, led to some really bad plays.

04:01And then on the edges, I think we understand that they have to work with what they have

04:05in the tackle options. Aren't great throughout the entire NFL. There aren't a lot of teams with

04:10one good tackle, much less too, but at least you to someone with starting experience on the right

04:14side, actually, it's going to be in my matchup piece, but on the left side is preseason small

04:19sample size, but his pressure rate was almost double than what it was when he was on the right,

04:23where he's clearly more comfortable. And then Badarian low where last season, it was the same

04:27for him where on the right, he had a really hard time. And on the left, he was much better,

04:31not the best option, but in this Scott Peter strike system, which we'll get into a bit later,

04:35you really have seen how the improvement has looked with his hands and how we can use his

04:39length to his advantage. Now let's get to the presser. All right, Jacoby Bursett and Gerard

04:43Mayo. We don't have to go too long, but what were your big takeaways from what those guys had to say?

04:48Well, I feel like with Gerard Mayo, he's just starting up front and we just kind of piggyback

04:53off the injury report there. His big message was control the line of scrimmage that that's item

04:59number one on their list. And we know that that might be difficult, especially on the offensive

05:03side of the ball. You got Trey Hendrickson, Sam Hubbard's not a bad player for Cincinnati.

05:09They have some guys up front that can give you problems, especially Hendrickson coming off the

05:13left side, most likely. So that's a problem spot or a warning spot for them. But hearing Mayo,

05:20it does sound like they're going to want to establish the run and do that whole thing and

05:25win the line of scrimmage and try to be the tougher, more run productive football team,

05:31because I feel like they know if they get into any sort of higher scoring shootout with the

05:37Bengals and it's going to be a long afternoon for them. 100%. And obviously all those things

05:43are cliches. Like I think Jacoby or Gerard mentioned, these are the things you always hear,

05:48but cliches are there for a reason. And truly that is how you win when you don't have a superstar

05:52quarterback. You need to lean on your ground game. You need, you want to be the more physical

05:56team either way. We've seen that with even KC or in the recent seasons, they've really been

06:00more physical than they have the earlier Patrick Mahomes years where he's really slinging it.

06:04Now it seems like they're trying to combine those of course, but I totally agree. Hopefully

06:08they can actually get that done. Trey Hendrickson especially is going to be a handful.

06:12Actually, one more thing I'll touch on before we dive into the mailbag, because it wasn't

06:16really touched on in the questions that we got, but with Jamar Chase, he was at practice today.

06:21He was limited, but had his helmet on. He was in uniform. That's been a change of pace as he's

06:25been a hold in with his contract situation. T. Higgins, Christian Gonzalez called those guys

06:29a two-headed monster, even in the slot of the young receiver they've got. I'm so sorry. I

06:34don't know his last name. Andre, is Baldi or something like that? I think it's Ilyasova.

06:43But I've heard 17 different pronunciations of it this week. So that's what I would go with.

06:49But between him and Charlie Jones, those two seem to be the two slot guys.

06:53Yeah. And even now that they have Christian Gonzalez, the guys that you'd expect to play

06:57the most snaps for these cornerbacks are going to be Jonathan Jones and Marcus Jones, who still

07:01do have that height disadvantage we saw back in 2022, when the Patriots were one of the most bend,

07:06but don't break game plans we've seen in the past few years for them, where they were like,

07:10we know we're small, but you're not getting behind us. And we're just going to have to

07:13come up and tackle. Gerard Mayo mentioned that led to some situations like second and longs

07:17and third downs where they ended up converting because there was just so much space to work with

07:21underneath with those big bodies. But when it comes to the game plan here, they do have Christian

07:25Gonzalez. How do you think they go about handling Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins? Are we going to see

07:30Gonzo's shadow? Are we going to see him stick to the boundary? Are they going to double one guy

07:34and then leave the other one on one? How do you see this working out for them? Yeah, just first

07:38off with Jamar Chase, it seems and look, I get it. He's an excellent player and maybe he can just

07:45walk off the bus without any training camp and without any practice and go play 70 snaps on

07:51Sunday. I'm not going to say he can't because he's like a superstar, like superhuman. So like,

07:57maybe it's possible, but you look at him, his, to me, it feels more realistic to think that he plays

08:05like 25, 20 to 25, like really high leverage kind of snaps, you know, third down red zone, like

08:13that sort of thing. They have a package of plays in the game plan where he feels comfortable

08:18running those plays. Then he just steps right back in and plays a hundred percent of the snaps.

08:24So with that being said, that could obviously change how this game plan comes about. But one

08:29of my big questions with the Patriots heading into the season and it's really surrounds Gonzo

08:35is that, you know, can Christian Gonzalez be good enough on his own that they can be a little bit

08:42more aggressive with how they call the defense in the front seven? I really feel like they're

08:47trying to trend more towards those like Brian Flores, 18, 20, 19 era Patriots where they're

08:53coming after quarterbacks. But in order to do that, they had Stefan Gilmore who was just an

09:00absolute defensive player of the year caliber corner. I'm not trying to put that on Gonzo yet.

09:06Like, I don't know if he's there yet. So for this matchup, I look at T Higgins. I feel like Gonzo

09:12can match up against T Higgins one-on-one. And if he gives up some plays, he gives up some plays,

09:16but you hope that it's not one bigger, two big plays. It's a, you know, let them March. And

09:21if it's eight catches for 90 yards, then that's great, right? That's a win for the Patriots with,

09:26with him one-on-one with T Higgins, but Jamar chase comes into the game.

09:30That's maybe when you bracket him, send some extra attention, tilt the safety that way,

09:35play those cover two shells that they played so much of in 2022, like do that sort of thing.

09:40Because I still feel like Gonzo is maybe not quite ready to throw him into the fire where

09:46you're one-on-one against chase for four quarters. Whereas with Higgins, maybe he can go toe-to-toe

09:52with him for a while. And of course you can make the argument that like, he pretty much did that

09:56Gonzo in last season's opener against AJ Brown, but even though AJ Brown and Jamar chase are both

10:01just absolute freaks of nature and true alpha receivers, they are different types of players.

10:06I also wonder if we're going to see a decent amount of Marco Wilson. Maybe I don't, I think

10:11they have more practice squad elevation guys, but like bold and just guys who can give them more

10:15size at corner, because I don't think you're really worried about Jonathan Jones getting

10:18picked on necessarily. His technique is usually good enough to make up for some of his height

10:22difficulties, but you still don't love that matchup. If he's against Jamar chase or T Higgins,

10:27and even in the slot, they got a lot of size and Marcus Jones did get picked on,

10:30although he was outside last matchup. So kind of like last year where we saw them

10:35rotate outside of Gonzo was like John Jones and Marcus Jones, different kinds of guys.

10:39I think we'll see some kind of rotation like that just to kind of get them some bigger bodies on the

10:43perimeter. All right. We are going to jump into your mailback questions, but first quick word

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11:51All right, now let's start off with some kind of, all right, now let's start with some kind of fun.

11:56Who will lead the Patriots in receptions and receiving yards? I feel like there's one candidate

12:01that one of these is going to slide in is going to slide into one of these, but I also feel like

12:05they could be different people for each, but what do you think? Yeah, well, I, I still, I'm pretty

12:11bullish on pop Douglas still. I understand that he's got the injury concerns with his size and

12:16his durability from last year. He got banged up here, there, and you're going to have to manage

12:21that to an extent. And maybe they look at it, especially early on in the season. And he,

12:26we're just talking about Jamar chase and high leverage situations. Maybe pop Douglas is one

12:30of those guys where they really only go to him on third down, or they really only go to him when

12:35they need a big play or something along those lines, instead of feeding him high volume.

12:40So long story short, he might not get to the receptions and yards leader because of that.

12:46But I still would say that he's the leader in the clubhouse to me,

12:50to lead the team right now and receiving. Yeah. I think that pop could probably lead in receiving

12:55yards because I don't know if I like him as a high volume target because obviously the health

13:00concerns, the size and all those things. But I do think he has way more big play potential than we

13:04were able to see last year because they couldn't get him the ball downfield and we'll see him be

13:08more of a three level threat. But in terms of guys, they might just feed the ball to, I could

13:12see that being Jalen Polk. Cause as much as I like KJ Osborne, I think he'll be in like for the wide

13:17receivers, maybe the third leading receiver. Cause he did have a good summer in his own right.

13:21Jalen Polk just seems like someone they're going to want to get involved. He gives you that three

13:24level ability. And I just think with his hands and how reliable he's been at some point, he's

13:29going to catch fire. This season might be up and down. Of course he's a rookie, but I could see him

13:33being the guy where when they really are trying to feed someone the ball, especially in those high

13:37leverage situations, it's going to be pop. And maybe like, you know, we saw against Miami last

13:41year with Kendrick Bourne's touchdown. Sometimes maybe pop's going to get a bit of a bracket

13:45coverage and then Jalen Polk can capitalize either on the outside or on the inside.

13:50Yeah. I've gone back and forth to Jalen Polk. Like my inner self is struggling with him because

13:56he's not typically the brand of receiver that I gravitate towards when we're doing the draft

14:02and things like that. I I'll admit I I'm a sucker for speed. I'm a sucker for separation,

14:08like route running technicians, like those types of guys. And on Polk's college film,

14:13you just see a lot of, yeah, his hands are great. There's no doubt about that. But you see a lot of

14:17those kind of like contested go routes and things like that at Washington. But they they convinced

14:23me a little bit because, you know, Tyler Hughes, the wide receivers coach, was with him at

14:27Washington. I remember having a conversation with him and he said that that offense didn't really

14:33allow Jalen Polk to be the route runner that he is going to be at this level because of what they

14:39were trying to do schematically. You know, they ran a lot of vertical stem stuff at Washington.

14:43It wasn't a whole lot of, you know, route breaks at the top or quick changes of direction. It was

14:49a lot of four verts and, you know, that kind of stuff. So they they feel like he's going to be a

14:55better route runner or showcase better route running at this level than he did in college.

15:00And maybe that's one of the things that bringing Tyler Hughes from Washington gave them some

15:05insight into that other teams might not necessarily had. That is very exciting. I feel like we did

15:10definitely see some glimpses of that this summer. So it's going to be exciting to actually see in a

15:15game. But you mentioned speed. So obviously, we talked about all the other guys that are probably

15:20going to start. Got to talk about Mr. X receiver Taekwon Thornton really had the job locked down

15:26anytime he was healthy enough to be on the field and participating. Now, he did have a better

15:31preseason and really summer overall than I think all of us anticipated. The route running still

15:35plenty of work to do. Works way better than last season when he's going up against Emanuel Forbes

15:39getting locked down. So what do you think of Taekwon Thornton this summer? What are your

15:43expectations for him, at least early on this season? That's my guy. This is the guy that I've

15:49taken the cheese on Taekwon Thornton three years in a row. So you might as well just add it to the

15:54mix. I think the biggest thing to me with Taekwon is it's twofold. One, this scheme fits him so much

16:02better than the last offense did. The last offense when you're trying to convert every route and

16:07read out coverages and break at the top of the route and the timing and all this has to be

16:12perfect with the quarterback and all these different elements of the McDaniels, O'Brien,

16:17Patriots style offenses just never was a great fit for a guy that really should just be running down

16:22the field in a straight line. So you get him in this offense, you see it on film where he runs a

16:28go-round against Carolina in the preseason opener. Like if Jacoe Brissett starts on that side of the

16:33field, that's probably a big play, but he had to come back to it on the backside of the progression.

16:38You see it even on the throw to Jalen Polk where he's just occupying the safety over the top. It's

16:44not that he's getting targeted, but he's just drawing that post safety in the middle of the

16:48field to respect that vertical route. I'm not expecting Taequann Thornton to be a thousand

16:54yard receiver. I don't think anybody is, but with this offense, so many of these guys that we're

17:01talking about have very specific traits that could lend themselves to being okay role players.

17:08Like Jalen Polk has that intermediate thing going. He could possibly be in that level of a solid

17:15chain moving receiver. Taequann Thornton could be a vertical guy. Like he could just play that

17:20role really, really well. So that's what I'm hoping for with Taequann. I don't expect high

17:25volume. I don't expect this big breakout season after two kind of lackluster years, but I do think

17:31he can play a role within the offense that can be productive even if it's away from the ball.

17:38And like you mentioned, a lot of it's maybe just going to be his presence and occupying space,

17:42but even just looking at this Bengals game, when you look at how they defended Jacoby

17:45Versette in 2022, when this team goes under center, the Bengals are going to play cover one,

17:50and they're going to get a lot of one-on-one matchups with Patriots. That's going to be the

17:53time where a couple of those are going to be play action at least. Can you get Taequann the ball

17:57downfield, maybe with some air under it so we can run and not only just get a triple, actually make

18:02it a home run. That's where his role in this offense could really shine. Because like you said,

18:06he's not going to be the route running savant necessarily, just has to be good enough and give

18:10you some kind of verticality. All right. Spent a long time on that, but I mean, the receivers are

18:14such a big kind of conversation and we're going to get into the offensive line 20 anyway. So,

18:19all right. How do you guys think the pass rush will do considering the loss of Judon? And then

18:23I'll add, of course, Christian Barmore being out indefinitely. Yeah, we were talking about this a

18:27little bit earlier. Well, first of all, just off the top, it was cool to see Barmore in the locker

18:31room today. I would say he was in good spirits, but you can tell that he's just pissed off that

18:38he's not playing football right now. So, I feel for him, but it was good to see him

18:42being around the team. He was talking to Daniel Aquale when I saw him and just kind of chatting

18:47and whatnot. So, it was cool to see him. In terms of the pass rush, we talked a little bit about

18:52this earlier with Gonzo and that whole conversation. The biggest thing to me is can they rely

18:59on this back end to cover with four or five guys back there to try to get after quarterbacks?

19:04Because if they can, then they can kind of get away with some of this pass rush that they've lost

19:10in Barmore and Judon. I go back to that team in 2018, my first year on the beat. Trey Flowers was

19:16their best pass rusher on that team. No disrespect to Trey Flowers at all, but he's not the sack guy

19:23that Matthew Judon was, right? He wasn't one of those guys that was going to have double digit

19:28sacks throughout a healthy season, but what he was was really disruptive. His pressure numbers

19:33were always very good. His versatility was very good. Reminds me a little bit of Keon White,

19:38where you can move this guy around and he can hunt matchups on the line of scrimmage inside

19:44or outside. He might not finish a ton of plays, but he's going to be in the backfield on a lot

19:48of plays. You look at that and you can say, all right, well, if we can get some free runners,

19:53if we can get some blitz packages going and things of that nature, then we could be all right

19:59without the fact that we don't have a one-on-one winner that we can just kind of hang our hat on

20:05like a Matthew Judon. So it's a long-winded way of saying, if that back end, it can be a strength,

20:11Gonzo, Jonathan Jones, the two safeties, Peppers, Duggar, then they can get away with zero blitzing

20:19a little bit here and there. They can get away with doing some of the more aggressive stuff that

20:23we know is in their playbook. If it's not good in the back end, then they're going to have to

20:28play seven and coverage. And then that's when you start to worry, but I'm not worried yet about

20:32the pass rush because I do feel like this back end is going to be pretty strong. Absolutely.

20:37Keon White and Dietrich Wise, a guy who I feel like really doesn't get a lot of recognition

20:42last year. He wasn't quite as productive as he's been in years past. So I kind of understand,

20:46but we started in the preseason. The guy didn't play a lot, but he made a very big impact anytime

20:50he was on the field. And Gerard Mayo mentioned after one preseason game, how like in those

20:55areas where the Patriots second dynasty, they didn't have a ton of elite rushers. Even Trey

20:59Flowers wasn't really a Chandler Jones type, but a lot of their success came on those line games

21:04with Kyle van Nooy, Dante Hightower, Jamie Collins. Those guys had such great chemistry

21:09and an ability to create enough destruction and open up lanes for other people.

21:13My issue with that plan is if that is what the Patriots are going to do is that does take

21:17chemistry. It takes timing. It takes a feel for what other guys are doing around you. I felt like

21:22in the preseason, you didn't see that. It felt like they were trying to have some twists and

21:26line games, and it felt like I was just running into each other, which is one thing in the

21:29preseason and real games. If you're going up against Joe Burrow and he can feel that there's

21:33no one on the edge and it's third and five, we even saw in 2022, he's going to take advantage

21:37of that, even though he's not really a burner. So the backend, it's going to kind of be the

21:42opposite of last year where you didn't realize much on the backend. You really were hoping

21:45Christian bar more and maybe Joshua Uche would be enough to cause some disruption and maybe speed

21:50things up a little bit. Now the pressure is on the backend and you're hoping that Keon White

21:54obviously takes a step forward. Joshua Uche can maybe be a little bit more impactful than he was

21:59last year. Maybe even O'Shane Ziminez, who I've been a fan of. I really like his play style,

22:04not great at anything, but truly a jack of all trades type and someone that Jonathan Jones said

22:08could surprise people this year. So obviously marriage is always important on defense, but

22:13if they're going to try to generate a pass rush up front outside of the zero blitzing and things

22:17like that, they're going to have to find some way to get that chemistry together inside, or of

22:21course rely on a wise and Keon White. All right. Which position group matchup do the Patriots have

22:27an advantage in this week against the Bengals? This one, I'm not going to lie. This was pretty

22:32tough. Yeah, this is pretty tough to come up with one. I, the one just listening to some of the

22:38Bengals that we had our, our show earlier today. And one of the Bengals beat reporters, Ben baby,

22:44he called in from ESPN.com. You're talking to him and the Bengals run defense is a question

22:50mark for people in Cincinnati right now. They weren't very good last year. They lose DJ reader,

22:55who is probably their best inside player on the defensive line. They're trying to replace him with

23:00Sheldon Rankins. Who's like a little bit more of an upfield pass rush type of player. So if I had to

23:05say one thing, and I know the left guard is a big question mark for the Patriots right now, but maybe

23:11it's like the right side of their offensive line against the Bengals defensive line on when you

23:16Robinson, Andrew's obviously coming over. They, they should be able to open up some room for the

23:22running backs with that combination. Now I'm not going to sit here and say they're going to run

23:27for 200 yards, but I'm like cautiously optimistic based off of what some of the Bengals people are

23:33saying that they have some areas where they might be able to run the ball. Exactly. They are a very

23:39disruptive unit. And I mean, Scott Peters is very familiar with this Bengals defense. So he knows

23:44exactly what this offensive line is going to have to do backups or not to have success, obviously

23:50planning and execution are two different things. But if their Patriots are going to have any way

23:54of winning this game, it does feel like Gerard Mayo said it, they have to control the line of

23:58scrimmage. I'll go to the other side of the ball with the defensive interior. I do think they have

24:02an advantage against this Bengals team. Now Ted Karras is a good player. He's I think one of the

24:07better centers in football. So I don't want to overlook him, but at the guard spots, Cordell

24:11Volson and Alex Kappa don't inspire a ton of confidence, especially if the Patriots do get

24:16in some obvious passing situations and they can kick their really premier at rushers inside.

24:20And even Daniel like quality, he's a solid player, shorter arms, which really limits his ability to

24:25finish plays consistently, but he knows how to take on blocks, occupy space and win with technique.

24:31And then even Jeremiah farms, a guy who I've been pretty high on. I think he's going to be heavily

24:35involved in this rotation. Didn't have a great finale to the preseason, but even going back to

24:39the end of last season, he really came on and was consistently disruptive without making a ton of

24:44mistakes. And of course, Devon Godchild, the man in the middle, it's not going to be easy for Ted

24:48Karras in those running situations. So probably the advantages are on the, like you said, the run

24:54game for the Patriots offense for the defense. It looks like they probably do have a step up

24:59on the interior. All right, let's see what we got. I've been clicking on the same button and

25:03it's not doing anything. I think my computer's spazzing out. We're back. Okay. Let me find our

25:08next question. All right. What would you consider a positive day for the offense against a Lou Anna

25:14Romo defense on the road? A defense that Gerard Mayo mentioned, you know, send those pressure

25:19packages. You really don't know where it's coming from. They send corners, they send safeties,

25:23they send linebackers. That was the big thing that Gerard Mayo mentioned. And of course,

25:27the versatility they had to do those different things. So what's positive day.

25:31Yeah. I look, first of all, Anna Rumo to me is going to be a head coach in the league.

25:36If it's not next year, it will be soon. He's on that track right now and he's an impressive

25:42coordinator. I, when you watch their tape, you just see how sound they are at all three levels

25:47of the defense. I think first and foremost, like obviously they do some schematic stuff and they

25:52have some twists here and there, but I wouldn't say it's, you know, they're going to face McDonald

25:57the next week again from Seattle, you know, and then he comes to town. Like, I feel like that

26:01defense is much more exotic where like, they have all these different things that they throw at you

26:06in the pressure package. But I was with Anna Rumo. It's much more like they are just really,

26:12they don't beat themselves. So that's impressive to me with them. I would say the biggest thing in

26:17terms of success that I'm looking for is early down offense. Like, can this team be more dynamic

26:22on first and second down than what we've seen over the last couple of years? You know, people

26:26like us might look at that a little bit more than others on the outside that look at third down,

26:31red zone, like those types of situations. I'm all about first and second down. Like,

26:36if you're not generating explosives as a first down, second down play action team,

26:42then the league is going to eat you alive if you're in third and long all the time.

26:47Talk about Anna Rumo's pressure package. Well, the best way to avoid that is to not be in third down,

26:52right? So if you can get into first and second down, you talked earlier about some of the things

26:58the Bengals did against this Browns offense in 2022, a lot of single high, a lot of man coverage.

27:04Like, those are opportunities to me. If I'm Jacoby Brissett, I'm thinking I'm hunting. Like,

27:09I understand my receivers aren't Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins, but these are NFL receivers.

27:14Like, let's give Pop and Polk and Thornton Osborne, like, let's give these guys some

27:19chances down the field in those matchups and see if we can win a few. So that's what I'm

27:24definitely looking at. The third down stuff, the red zone stuff, obviously important too,

27:29but if they can get this whole thing going, the run game, the play action off of it, the wide

27:34zone, like all this stuff we've been talking about for months, then I'm going to feel a lot

27:38better about the offense. Absolutely. And just going back to Lou Anna Rumo's defense overall,

27:43it reminds you of the Patriots when you watch it because of how sound they are.

27:46Another one of the best tackling teams in the league, which usually is a pretty good indicator

27:50of how well coached you are. And you mentioned that pressure package. So Jacoby Brissett was

27:55actually very good on third downs when they last played. They weren't always great in early downs

28:00and there were some long yardage situations, but Kevin Stefanski and Alex Van Pelt did a really

28:04good job flooding their zone coverages, knowing when to kind of dial those plays up. But then the

28:08biggest thing was the Browns were also able to capitalize on one-on-one matchups. Now,

28:13most of those went to Amari Cooper. The Patriots don't have an Amari Cooper. So they're going to

28:17have to maybe spread the ball around and find the right matchups to attack in certain situations.

28:21But I think that's maybe going to be the biggest thing for me. And Jacoby Brissett also mentioned

28:25the early down success is going to be big. When you've got opportunities, you have to take

28:29advantage of them. And then the biggest thing, especially considering what happened in the last

28:33preseason game, is going to be not hurting yourselves with penalties. Like watching that

28:38Patriots offense last year, as frustrating as it was seeing them take advantage of those

28:42opportunities, like the Mike Kosicki touchdown, obviously in Germany, is like the most glaring

28:46example. If you have a game-winning score and you kind of pass it up, it's more frustrating when

28:51first down turns into first and 15 or first and 20 or second and 10, which is already bad enough,

28:56to the second and 15. And then you're like, all right, well, we're kind of getting into the plays

29:00in the playbook where we really don't expect to convert. So early down success, I think will

29:04definitely be the sticking point. Run game success, when you have those one-on-one matchups that you

29:09like, you have to capitalize on those. All right, we're going to take one more before we get into

29:15the comment section, because I want to make sure we answer some of your guys' questions live

29:18as well. Let me find the best one here. All right, a little strike system talk,

29:24because I actually want to hear your perspective on this too. So I've heard mentioned several times

29:28that new O-line coach Scott Peters has a radically different hand placement strike system

29:32methodology. Have you yet to see it explained or can you do so?

29:37It's a good question. I can explain elements of it. You might have dug a little bit even deeper

29:42than I have into the actual mechanics of the strike system, but more or less, it's basically

29:48just coming up with counters for like what the defensive line is going to put, you know, do,

29:52you know, if they, if they are, you know, long arm you like, this is the strike that we, we coach,

29:58you know, you to beat the long arm. If they are two hand swipe, if they're, you know, rip move,

30:05like all these different things that defensive linemen use, if they're two gapping, like,

30:08this is how we want to put our hands. You also see, like, you know, when you hear them in practice,

30:14they, it seems like they have like different ranges of the chest that they try to hit. Like

30:19zero is right down the middle. Three is maybe more on the outside. And he'll talk about like,

30:24you know, we want a three here. We want a three here. Right. Which means like a little bit more

30:29on the outside, like underneath the armpit almost to try to get some leverage there.

30:34So those are the different things I, what I find fascinating. And it's going to be something like

30:39I might poke around within a month or two into the season. Once they start to really

30:44play real football is like some guys to me might be almost too complicated, you know,

30:49and, and that's one thing that I I'm interested in is like, is this simpler or is it actually

30:55more complicated? There's a lot of things that you hear him throw at guys, you know, and some guys

31:00might not take to it as much as others, but some of the younger guys seem to be taking to it pretty

31:05well because it's just, it's an answer to the test, right? Like I can't go wrong. If coach is

31:10telling me when he long arms me that he wants me to chop down on that arm, that's what I'm going to

31:15do. And if it doesn't go well, well, that was what I was told to do. Exactly. And I think that's why

31:20they targeted young or guys with more experience and guys who are really smart, like Hayden Wallace,

31:25obviously, like we heard about it, like his brother's an oyster farmer and all that comes

31:29from a very smart family. I actually do have the strike system codes up for a better idea there.

31:35So like you mentioned, Evan, the strikes all have different numbers, which basically just tell you

31:40how you want the initial interaction to go. The sets are how you want these guys to kick out. So

31:45are you kind of cutting off the angle and really trying to attack? Are you taking more of a

31:49vertical set, just different ways to get out of the stance. Then the counters are probably the

31:54most difficult part of this whole thing because the other two are pretty set in stone where,

31:57you know, in certain situations he teaches, these are the combinations I want you to use.

32:02The counters are where, okay, I've done that, but then the defensive lineman did this as well.

32:06And that's what a lot of these guys have really been raving about is, yeah, now I understand if

32:10this guy does this, I do this because they know how to handle different types of permutations and

32:15pass rush moves. And one guy that you've seen that really work really all over the offensive

32:19line. Like I asked you so core for about the fact that that commander's game, there were like 10

32:24bodies on the ground in past protection, which is not something you usually see.

32:28And there's been a lot of that snatch trap technique where when the defender's pads

32:31get really high, you just hit his arms down and the guy loses balance. And that's a big thing.

32:36Scott Peters teaches with the independent hands, because if you're shooting both

32:40and your pad levels bad, you're basically giving up the rep. That was a huge problem

32:44for the Patriots last year. And this strike system is a big reason. I think we've seen

32:48growth from guys like city. So the dairy and low, and then you've seen guys like Mike and Wendy,

32:53when David Andrews also take to it and look good when they're using it. All right. We are going to

32:58get into the comment section and answer some of your wonderful questions, but first quick

33:01word from our friends at game time. Be right back. The Patriots are playing the Cincinnati Bengals

33:06on Sunday. You can get in over at pace, pay court stadium for the lowest price guaranteed

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33:25have to waste time searching through thousands of tickets. We're going to do a library right now,

33:29Taylor with the B roll. And I'm going to go on the game time app on my cell phone and check out

33:35just how much time or how much money you can get into pay court stadium for right now. It's looking

33:40like Patriots at Bengals. You can get in for as low as 136 bucks. That's down like 25 bucks from

33:48the last time I did this read. Not that bad. They have super deals, amazing deals, great deals all

33:52on the site, and they make it super simple to check out pay and get to the game. So we're going

33:57to do a lot more of these with, um, the Seattle Seahawks coming up, uh, because that's going to

34:02be a home game. But if you're going out to Cincinnati, make sure you check out a game

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34:24All right. We're going to close this one out with some quick hitters. We're going to try to

34:27answer as many of your questions as possible. If you do enter them, make sure to use a question

34:30mark. It just makes it easier for me because I can just, you know, Apple find and scroll through.

34:35So the first one we've got, let's see, this is a good one. When Kendrick Bourne gets back,

34:41do you try and trade cage? When Kendrick Bourne gets back, you try to trade KJ Osborne or Keyshawn

34:47booty. That is going to be a very interesting situation because you got Jalen Ray going

34:50crack squad right now. They've already got six receivers. Are they going to keep seven like they

34:54did last year? How do you see that working out? It's a good question. I I've been thinking about

34:59this a little bit too, because obviously Kendrick Bourne is going to play when he's back. So you

35:03got to figure this one out now. I would say that it might be a problem that takes care of itself.

35:08And I don't mean to make light of injuries or anything like that, but somebody gets hurt and

35:13then all of a sudden it's a little easier to figure out how to finagle the roster. But

35:18when I look to trade one of those guys, I guess you always pick up the phone, but I just don't

35:23know how much real value either one of those players is going to have. Kendrick Bourne's

35:27the one with value, right? Like he's the good NFL player that's on an affordable contract.

35:32So if anybody's going to get traded, it's like that Niners trade we heard with for Brandon. Now

35:37you know, a couple of picks and Kendrick Bourne for a stud receiver. It's more likely he gets,

35:42he's the one that gets dealt and not the ones that don't have a ton of value.

35:46Yeah, this seems very much like a wait and see kind of situation. I'm sure the Patriots probably

35:50have a couple options in mind, but that's going to be at least a month out from the season. Kendrick

35:55Bourne hasn't even practiced yet, so we really don't know when we're going to see him on the

35:59field. So if all these guys are healthy with Keishon Booty, it feels like they really do

36:03think they've got something in him. He said himself, he sees himself making the team.

36:07Obviously all these receivers are confident, but even the way they've handled them, like everybody

36:11said, it was Jalen Rager versus Keishon Booty on the bubble. Ragers got the special teams value,

36:15so he's going to make the roster, but they clearly do like Keishon Booty. He ran a ton

36:20with the younger guys when they would have like Drake May with Polk and Baker. So it seems like

36:25someone they really do want to develop and see what they have in him. And then KJ Osborne,

36:28like you said, I don't know how much value he has on the trade market, but he is on a one-year deal.

36:33He and Kendrick Bourne are extremely redundant. Neither one of them you really want playing

36:37ex-receiver, although there is some overlap in this offense. So I would think it's him if they

36:42could move him at all, but I also think they might be stuck in a situation where because they do like

36:47KJ Osborne, you end up just having to keep seven receivers, maybe, you know, take a hit at depth

36:51somewhere else. Yeah. All right. How much can we trust Joey Sly, Mr. K1? Is he going to lose

36:58us games like Rylan did last year? Well, to be fair, Rylan lost the game against the Giants,

37:05and that's why Drake May is a Patriot. So I don't want to get too much on Chad Rylan because he did

37:13us all a big favor, right? No, in all seriousness, what I like about Joey Sly is that he does have

37:19range on his field goals that maybe Chad Rylan didn't have. So I'm still a little bit weary

37:25about his consistency within 45 yards and if he's going to make all those. But in terms of now you

37:32have that ability to maybe hit a 53 yarder, you know, at the end of a half or to win a game or

37:37something like that, that you didn't necessarily have before with Rylan. So that's the one thing

37:42I would say he has on Rylan is the distance and the accuracy from 50 plus. Yeah. Joey Sly has also

37:48proven he can kick in the NFL in whatever capacity he's done successfully. And anybody who is in a

37:54battle with Chad Rylan, obviously they're probably not going to go to the Pro Bowl this season.

37:57Although he did say, Joey Sly, that he wants to be a top three kicker at some point. Also,

38:01he's jacked, which should help on these big kickoffs because he's the last line of defense.

38:06I'd rather have Joey Sly try to tackle somebody than Chad Rylan. No offense, Chad. Joey just

38:10literally looks like a trainer. When he first got to the team, he wasn't wearing anything or like

38:15really participating. He was just standing with the kickers. And I was like, what is a trainer

38:19doing, hanging out with him? Is somebody hurt or like what's going on? And then somebody's like,

38:22no, that's literally Joey Sly. So, uh, yeah. Did you see that? That tackle that LSU kicker made on,

38:28on, uh, in the USC game the other night, look that one up. It was at USC has this really good

38:34return, man. I forget his name off the top of my head, but he had the kicker to beat on a kickoff

38:39return. And the kicker made like a really good tackle to get them on the ground. And I was like,

38:44I texted Barth and I was like, did he just get tackled by the kicker? And he was like,

38:49Martha was definitely fired up for that one. Um, yeah, you know,

38:53all right. This is when you actually tweeted about yesterday. Do you think the Patriots

38:57signed Caleb Farley who really over the past few years, his impact is mostly come on special teams

39:02when he has been healthy, which obviously is unfortunate considering when he was originally

39:05drafted. Well, look, this is going all the way back to college with Caleb Farley with injuries.

39:11He came into the league with a, I believe it was a back injury. If my memory serves me correctly,

39:15it was like a serious, one of those, uh, kind of like Rob Gronkowski. Like you weren't sure if it

39:20was going to be able to hold up for an NFL career or not. And, uh, he was extremely talented though.

39:27And that was abundantly clear. If he was a hundred percent healthy, he, he had all pro

39:33corner type potential. So if you're a team like the Patriots, no, one's going to get all hot and

39:38bothered if they do sign him, but he's the type of guy that you take on your practice squad and

39:43just see if he can make an impression and if he can stay healthy. So I'm in on Caleb Farley,

39:48just because I'm always in on talent grabs, like wherever you can find it. Uh, but we have to keep

39:53it in perspective that he's literally never stayed healthy at any level, uh, since college. So

39:59that's a big one for him. A hundred percent. It would be hard not to get excited with him

40:03and Mike Pellegrino because man, he's fantastic. That would be tough. All right. It's going to be

40:08one of the last ones, but what does the successful offense look like for the successful season look

40:13like for the offense, which is a very good question. I feel like there's a few different

40:16answers too. Yeah. I feel like I'm still in the camp of like, I just want to see some upward

40:23trajectory to the offense. I don't know how many points they're going to score or how many yards

40:28they're going to game per game or whatever. Uh, but if they can look the part late in the season

40:34and maybe Drake Mason at that point, and, uh, he, he looks the part as well. And you start to feel

40:39a little bit better about, let's just get some finishing touches. Obviously left tackle is not

40:44necessarily a finishing touch. That's like a core piece, but left tackle will be in, um, you know,

40:50invested in the first round. I sure I'm sure next year, the draft. So you kind of have Will Campbell,

40:55Kelvin banks or whatever in that spot. And then you start to sprinkle on the, uh, the toppings,

41:00right. And you get that number one receiver and you, you start to build something. So what is a

41:05successful year for the offense look like to me, it's in December, January. Do we feel like when

41:12we come out of the season, like, all right, we got, you know, may is our quarterback.

41:16Polk's a decent receiver pops, a decent receiver. And we feel like we're building towards something.

41:21I couldn't agree more. I'm honestly not even going to add a whole lot. It's got to be growth. You

41:25need, like you said, you got to end the season in a place where this is really one of my barometers

41:29for success, where when they hit free agency, or if some big name trade target pops up on the market,

41:35is that someone who has any interest in coming to the Patriots, whether you have to throw the

41:39bag at them or not, because as we saw, they literally could not pay for talent this off

41:44season, specifically Brandon, IU, despite throwing him a bag. So if you're the kind of destination

41:48people are, all these guys feel like they would actually want to come to get you over the edge.

41:53That's awesome. If not, it's going to be really hard to feel like this was a season where they

41:57went in the right direction on offensively. This one's going to be really quick. No, no,

42:05no. All right. Moving on. All right. I'm going to do one more here. You all ask great questions.

42:09I'm sorry. I can't get to all of them. Maybe next time. But this one, I like this a lot. Who's the

42:13most important rookie other than Drake May this season? It's a good question. I think you can go

42:19in a lot of directions with it. I would probably still say Jalen Polk. I know it's easy just to

42:23say the second round pick and we take the first round pick out of it. But we, when I say we,

42:29Patriots fans have been starving for receiver talent. And even if he's not a wide receiver one,

42:36but he turns out to be like a really good number two receiver, then you have something to build on,

42:42like we were just talking about where you just drop in that number one guy. And now you have a

42:47hierarchy that makes sense on the offensive side of the ball. So I still feel like the rookie

42:52offensive linemen are obviously important too. And we'll see maybe if Caden Wallace can get into the

42:58starting lineup later on in the season. But I can't lie. If Jalen Polk is the real deal,

43:04then you feel a whole lot better about this entire thing. Yeah, it's tough, but I'll just go with

43:10Caden Wallace because I feel like either one of those guys is pretty interchangeable to a degree.

43:14But if Caden plays well enough, you can start him and he is not a liability. If anything,

43:19he's a net positive, even if there's some up and down play. I think that means that you don't need

43:23to rely on Shooks on the right side, maybe Vanarion low, but I feel like honestly they

43:27may like Vanarion on the field a bit better than Shooks because of the run blocking specifically,

43:31where it's very obvious with Mike and Winnie when Shooks next to each other, they're very

43:35different types of players. Shooks plays with a mean streak that you have to respect in the

43:39run game, like he wants to finish, he wants to set the tone. He's just not a very powerful guy.

43:44Caden Wallace, I think, gives you more of that, where if you have him next to Nwenu,

43:47then you could really get some movement in the ground game that's more similar to what you get

43:51with Nwenu at tackle and then Leighton Robinson on the inside. And whether or not Caden Wallace

43:55is your left tackle of the future, at least you know one of those bookends is set. Then you have

43:59your option on the interior at guard. You kind of figure out City, so Leighton Robinson, who do you

44:05really want? Or maybe can those guys move around? If you got to get your left tackle in the draft,

44:09fine, but at least you got a nice young core of offensive linemen to go into 2025 with.

44:14All right, Evan, that was a blast, as always, buddy. Appreciate you taking the time. Before I

44:19let you go, please remind the people where they can find you and let them know what great stuff

44:23you got coming down the pipeline that we got to be looking out for. Yeah, Patriots.com, it's pretty

44:28easy. It's the name of the team, so that makes it easy. We know, Evan, we know. That came off

44:34so much more condescending than I meant it. Patriots.com, we have PU tomorrow, Patriots Catch

44:4222 after PU from two to four with me and Alex Barth, so you can give us a call and tell us how

44:48much of an idiots we both are and all that good stuff. And then it's on to Cincinnati, literally,

44:53both of us will be there on Sunday, so I'm looking forward to it. I've been a couple times there.

44:59It's an interesting place, not really my cup of tea, that part of the country, but I'm looking

45:05forward to the game, that's for sure. Are we going to share a bowl of skyline chili? I guess

45:09we don't have to share it, but that'd be really cute. We can share it. If you want to have two

45:13spoons, I'm all for it. At halftime during the last game was 2019, I want to say, when they played

45:21the sprinkles there and they had skyline chili at halftime. It was like the halftime buffet,

45:28was that chili cheese dogs. So be ready for that. Hopefully it agrees with me. That's all I'm going

45:34to say. I've never had it before. I'm just hoping that nothing, yeah, I'm just hoping nothing crazy

45:38happens. All right. Anyway, thanks again, buddy, for joining as always. And thank you all as always

45:43for watching. Make sure to like, comment, subscribe, do all that stuff that Mike usually

45:47asks you to do at the end of the show. And then for my obvious message, take care of yourselves,

45:52take care of each other. We will see you all next time. Peace.

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