On this episode of the Greg Bedard Patriots Podcast, Greg Bedard and Nick Cattles go over all the drama surrounding the Patriots' coaching staff. Could they be coaching for their jobs already, especially after some of the public comments made this week? Plus, Greg and Nick preview the upcoming game between the Pats and the New York Jets, give their PrizePicks picks for the game, and much more!
0:00 - Podcast introduction
2:58 - Coaching staff issues
6:40 - Wide receiver concerns
8:41 - Receiver room issues
10:14 - Inexperienced coaching staff
12:58 - Team's leadership vacuum
15:52 - Jerod Mayo's readiness
21:01 - Drake Maye's development
22:36 - Credit to Jerod Mayo
24:51 - Hope for Drake Maye
28:01 - Potential for change
32:02 - Concerns about Mayo
34:26 - Coaching staff changes
36:11 - Trust in Mayo
39:15 - Kraft's decision impact
41:01 - Tatum's performance
42:40 - Game Time app
44:21 - Mayo's coaching path
47:04 - Kraft's responsibility
49:04 - Evaluating coaching staff
52:07 - Concerns about performance
54:30 - Offensive line issues
56:52 - Gametime promotion
1:00:01 - Jets favored to win
1:03:01 - Jets win prediction
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Prize Picks - https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/CLNS
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0:00 - Podcast introduction
2:58 - Coaching staff issues
6:40 - Wide receiver concerns
8:41 - Receiver room issues
10:14 - Inexperienced coaching staff
12:58 - Team's leadership vacuum
15:52 - Jerod Mayo's readiness
21:01 - Drake Maye's development
22:36 - Credit to Jerod Mayo
24:51 - Hope for Drake Maye
28:01 - Potential for change
32:02 - Concerns about Mayo
34:26 - Coaching staff changes
36:11 - Trust in Mayo
39:15 - Kraft's decision impact
41:01 - Tatum's performance
42:40 - Game Time app
44:21 - Mayo's coaching path
47:04 - Kraft's responsibility
49:04 - Evaluating coaching staff
52:07 - Concerns about performance
54:30 - Offensive line issues
56:52 - Gametime promotion
1:00:01 - Jets favored to win
1:03:01 - Jets win prediction
************************************************
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 NFL tickets with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code CLNS for $20 off your first purchase. Download Gametime today. Terms apply. What time is it? Gametime!
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SportsTranscript
00:00:00This is the Gregg Bedard Patriots podcast with Nick Cavins.
00:00:10Download the prize picks app today.
00:00:12Use code CLNS.
00:00:13Get 50 bucks instantly when you play $5.
00:00:16That's code CLNS and prize picks to get 50 bucks instantly when you play five.
00:00:21You also want to visit our friends at game time.
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00:00:34Let's start with the headlines as we do, Greg, each and every podcast.
00:00:39Lots of drama, my friend.
00:00:41Lots of drama stemming from London.
00:00:43I just want your big picture overall take with how Gerard Mayo has handled everything
00:00:50stemming back to his post game press conference in London and his media session yesterday
00:00:56with you guy.
00:00:59Nick, I would say, I mean, it's hard for me to separate like this week from the totality
00:01:07of things.
00:01:08Right.
00:01:09You know, I would just say overall, it's been poor.
00:01:12I just think I think how we handled the media, how we message things to the players, which,
00:01:20you know, we all knew that Belichick sent messages to his team through the media.
00:01:27I don't think I've ever heard a head coach like admit that so many times as Mayo about
00:01:32how how he does that.
00:01:36You know, I think he's he's tried to put the toothpaste toothpaste back in the tube.
00:01:40And you know, back to what he said, I mean, I don't think I don't think he was wrong.
00:01:44I just don't like the way that he said it.
00:01:48And he didn't take what he should have said was something along the lines of if he wanted
00:01:53to call out his team and sort of light a fire under him, which I think was his intent.
00:02:03You know, you could say whatever you want to the team, but when you get in front of
00:02:05the media, say something like, you know, right now we're collectively we're a soft football
00:02:09team and that's my responsibility.
00:02:12That's my fault and I will get it fixed.
00:02:15That's what he should have said.
00:02:16Instead, it came out clunky and it was like he was more putting it on the players, which
00:02:21I was I don't think was his intent.
00:02:25You know, I did find it interesting today that Alex Van Pelt talked about how they had
00:02:30a great meeting today about, you know, basically doing like the little things and like, you
00:02:38know, about, you know, staying off social media and keeping things internal and, you
00:02:43know, attacking your rehab and eating right and like all these things.
00:02:47And I'm like, oh my God, we're in week eight of an NFL season and they're they're just
00:02:54now getting on top of this.
00:02:57To me, it symbolizes how this team is, where it is right now.
00:03:02That the forethought, the planning, the vision, none of that was there.
00:03:07It was all lacking.
00:03:08There was no attention to details from the start with this thing.
00:03:12And now it's it's derailed and now they're trying to put it back together.
00:03:17But you know, it just seems too little, too late.
00:03:20We'll see if that's the case.
00:03:23Nick I think both you and I and just about everybody listening to this knows that all
00:03:27the Patriots have to do is win a game.
00:03:29They win a game and all this stuff goes away.
00:03:31We talked about it, you know, somewhat earlier in the year about this and like the Miami
00:03:36game was there for them on a silver platter or like, you know, just win this game against
00:03:41Snoop Huntley and everything calms down and they can get to work and and all that stuff.
00:03:45And then they they completely blow that game.
00:03:48And so, you know, I guess this is all a long way of saying I think Gerard Mayo's 10
00:03:55tenure overall has been underwhelming.
00:03:59And I don't think this was a good week for him either.
00:04:02The one word I keep going back to with this coaching staff in this operation is reactionary.
00:04:08Everything just feels reactionary.
00:04:10There's nothing proactive getting ahead of things.
00:04:13There's none of that, whether it's talking about, as you said, Van Pelt saying today
00:04:18they had a good team, meaning work harder, rehab harder.
00:04:22That stuff needs to be addressed well before week eight.
00:04:26The idea of Mayo with the press, I think Mayo tends to go out there and he reacts.
00:04:32And you get that reaction right off the bat.
00:04:35And then when he has time to kind of absorb everything and think about what he said, then
00:04:39he tends to backtrack.
00:04:41And that's exactly what happened with his London comments.
00:04:43He thought about it, said, I should have said it differently.
00:04:46There's really not a great filter all right out of the gates with him when he steps in
00:04:53front of the media.
00:04:54That's another example of being reactionary on the field, the coaching, the lack of
00:04:59adjustments, not reacting to what the opposition is doing against you.
00:05:04And, you know, it's just.
00:05:07The processing of all of this seems to me to be a little bit slow and if not a lot
00:05:13slow, a lot of that's understandable, or at least some of it is because you have a lot
00:05:18of inexperience guys in their positions from Mayo to Covington and even Van Pelt who
00:05:22called plays for one year, 15 years ago.
00:05:25So, you know, I expected a steep learning curve, but man, they just seem to they seem
00:05:31slow to process everything on the field, off the field, press conferences.
00:05:36It's it's it's not great right now.
00:05:40Let's talk about the wide receiver room.
00:05:43Because the last time we had a conversation, which was earlier in the week, we've heard
00:05:46now from K.J.
00:05:47Osborne, we have heard from K.
00:05:49Sean Booty.
00:05:50We've learned a little bit about Jalen Polk.
00:05:52Let's start there.
00:05:54K.J. Osborne answered questions yesterday, according to Mike Giardi.
00:05:59I saw him on.
00:06:01NBC Sports Boston, and he said that it was like an eight or nine minute meeting with
00:06:06the media, and Osborne certainly sounded like he wanted out, he tried to come back and
00:06:11circle back later on and make it sound a little bit better, but his comments for the
00:06:16most part, especially early on, again, without the filter was he wouldn't mind being
00:06:22gone. K.
00:06:23Sean Booty goes out there and says, I have to ask the coaches to throw the football to
00:06:27me and I shouldn't be doing that because I've caught every football they've thrown
00:06:31my way.
00:06:33Then we find out that Jalen Polk is in the concussion protocol.
00:06:38What do you do with this wide receiver room, Greg, right now, because it seems like
00:06:44Pop Douglas gets it.
00:06:45You know, he showed his frustration on the field.
00:06:48He immediately apologized that week following the game.
00:06:51He seems like he gets it.
00:06:53Kendrick Bourne absolutely gets it.
00:06:55What do you do with the rest of these guys right now?
00:07:00Nick, I don't really know.
00:07:03I'm at a loss, and I think we talked about this last podcast and Tyler Hughes is in
00:07:11charge of that room.
00:07:11He's the wide receivers coach.
00:07:15He had previously been here sort of like a coaching intern, I think offensive quality
00:07:19control. Then he went to University of Washington where he was with Jalen Polk.
00:07:23He was an offensive, I don't know, analyst or something out there.
00:07:28And I think I mentioned previously about how I had a couple of league sources say they
00:07:35were interested how Tyler Hughes was going to deal with that room, especially once with
00:07:40the likes of K.
00:07:41Sean Booty and Javon Baker, who, let's be honest, both of these guys, and this is
00:07:46factual, both of these guys slid down the draft board because of off-field concerns.
00:07:51And Tyler Hughes, he's a very smart man.
00:07:56He's a very nice man.
00:07:58He's very religious.
00:08:02Nothing wrong with that, but it's just how does all that mix?
00:08:08How does he lead his room?
00:08:09And I would say seven games into the season, it hasn't been good.
00:08:13Now, that's why you hire a Taekwon Underwood as an assistant coach, where he can sort of
00:08:19be on the level of the players.
00:08:21He's played in the league.
00:08:22I mean, not the greatest of careers.
00:08:25So it's not like we're talking, you know, and it's not like we're talking Troy Brown, but
00:08:29he's there, too. Like, you know, how isn't Troy helping?
00:08:33Not that when Troy coached the wide receivers, like it was any good.
00:08:36That's why he doesn't coach wide receivers anymore.
00:08:40So long story short, that room is a mess.
00:08:43I mean, I would just start with everybody needs to shut the hell up.
00:08:47All right.
00:08:48Like, none of you have done anything in this league.
00:08:53Don't be demanding the ball.
00:08:54I mean, Keishon Booty, the first play of the game, he runs the wrong route.
00:08:59It's a simple over and under concept.
00:09:02It's the first play of the game.
00:09:03How many times do you think they rep this play?
00:09:06And it's not difficult.
00:09:08And what was supposed to happen is just a simple route.
00:09:10And I've been pointing it out that opponents run it on the Patriots all the time.
00:09:14And it always works.
00:09:14It's a bread and butter of the wide zone, West Coast offense, where you send a post
00:09:20and then an under and wherever the free safety goes deep, then you throw short.
00:09:26If he comes up, then you throw deep.
00:09:28And what happens?
00:09:29Keishon Booty stops running in the middle of the field.
00:09:32And then all of a sudden, Drake May sees that.
00:09:34He's like, oh, crap.
00:09:35Now, now I got to try to get something.
00:09:37And he ends up scrambling for two yards, all because Keishon Booty ran the wrong route.
00:09:41You also have Jalen Polk, who I didn't notice this watching the film, but good
00:09:45job by JTO Sullivan, the QB school.
00:09:48If you want to look, he did a breakdown of Drake May, basically saw the plays the
00:09:53same as me on a much higher level.
00:09:55Cause you know, I wasn't an NFL quarterback.
00:09:58Um, he did have, uh, both him and Chase Daniels, uh, were impressed with may on
00:10:06a different throw a check down to hasty that I marked them down.
00:10:09Obviously I was wrong with about that, but he, uh, JT pointed out that there
00:10:15was a, the, the quote unquote drop from Jalen Polk, um, not the one along
00:10:20the sideline where he got hit, but the one earlier Jalen Polk was like two
00:10:25seconds late getting off the line and completely because I was wondering on
00:10:29film, I'm like, why are Hunter Henry and Jalen Polk in the same area?
00:10:32That should not happen.
00:10:33What happened was Jalen Polk was laid off the line and didn't run
00:10:37his clearing route early enough.
00:10:39Hunter Henry basically beat him across the field and screwed things up.
00:10:44So there's all these types of errors going on.
00:10:47The attention to detail isn't there.
00:10:48Kendrick Bourne, you know, always has a couple of routes that
00:10:51he doesn't run the right way.
00:10:53You know, just in general, that, that receiver room has been
00:10:57a disaster for years ongoing.
00:11:00It's not good.
00:11:01They need to start with shut the hell up and worry about yourself and the
00:11:05ball will come to you if you're open.
00:11:06Do do your shit right.
00:11:08And you'll get the ball.
00:11:09If you don't, you're not going to get the ball.
00:11:11And that's where I would start.
00:11:13I guess
00:11:15we can include Matthew Slater as a name that's in that locker room
00:11:18to go along with Troy Brown.
00:11:19And Matthew Slater, from what I gathered was supposed to be kind of the.
00:11:25I don't know how to put it.
00:11:26Spiritual personality kind of leader.
00:11:30And, uh, that's not doing well apparently because there's a lot of
00:11:34stuff that's off the rails right now.
00:11:36And Matthew Slater is again, yes, you can be a leader of a team and all of that,
00:11:40but he's also inexperienced as a coach.
00:11:44There's just so much inexperience in the room.
00:11:46There's inexperience in the staff.
00:11:48There's inexperience on the team.
00:11:50This team's a very young team.
00:11:52If you take, you know, five or six guys away from the equation, you get a
00:11:55lot of youth on this football team.
00:11:58You've lost a bunch of leaders and veterans due to injury guys like
00:12:02Jabril peppers and Jawan Bentley defensively, who might be the voices
00:12:06in the room to say, let's get this stuff straightened out offensively.
00:12:10You have a lot of, you know, young guys and you had a lot of, a ton of turnover.
00:12:13The entire staff has turned over.
00:12:16So it's, it's just tumultuous.
00:12:17And it doesn't seem like they have the guys in the room, whether
00:12:21that's players or coaches to.
00:12:24Get this thing back on the rails.
00:12:25Now, hopefully they do, but, but it's, it's starting to really, you
00:12:30know, Korean off the cliff and cause major issues and, you know, Kendrick
00:12:36Bourne, look, you said it, Greg, we know he's not the sharpest route runner.
00:12:40He has his mistakes on film, but at least he seems like his heart and
00:12:44his head is in the right place.
00:12:46And he's trying to send the right message.
00:12:47He spoke to media just a few moments ago.
00:12:50And Phil Perry has it posted on Twitter, you know, about his messaging this
00:12:54week and Kendrick Bourne said, it's just staying focused on what's important.
00:12:58I think that's where we've been falling, failing, getting
00:13:00distracted by everything else.
00:13:02Being too individualized football is the ultimate team sport.
00:13:07And that's another, you know, thread line that we've, we've really
00:13:11heard from a lot of players is just selfishness and being too wrapped up
00:13:15in, in being an individual and realize that this is all bigger than you.
00:13:21One guy.
00:13:22Yeah.
00:13:22Nick, Nick, one, one thing I just want to interject on that.
00:13:26Um, and, and again, and I think I said this in our earlier pod, like, and I
00:13:31certainly wrote this after Sunday's game.
00:13:34Like I'm, I'm sick of talking about Gerard Mayo.
00:13:37I'm sick of talking about the head coach.
00:13:40And I don't want to be doing it.
00:13:41I really don't, but I've covered this league long enough.
00:13:45I've covered teams, all sorts of different teams, successful
00:13:48teams, not successful teams.
00:13:50And.
00:13:51And I, and the people around here, I don't think have seen this type of
00:13:56level of dysfunction in a long time, but, and so they don't, they don't
00:14:02understand the root causes of it.
00:14:04I think a lot of people just say, you know, it's too, well, they
00:14:06don't have enough talent.
00:14:07What'd you expect?
00:14:08Look at last year.
00:14:09Do you expect them to be better?
00:14:10Like, you know, blanket statements like that when you don't look at the details,
00:14:13but back to this, I mean, what you just talked about and what they're talking
00:14:18about and the reset that they're doing, Nick is to me, it's just, it's an
00:14:24indictment on the head coach when there's a, where, when there's a leadership
00:14:29vacuum, when there's not a, a person there, whether it's at the front of the
00:14:34room or in their individual room, when it's not filtered down, and we've
00:14:39talked about it before, the head coach needs to coach the coaches and the
00:14:42coordinators and things like that.
00:14:44And be like, this is what I want.
00:14:45This is, this is the messaging.
00:14:47This is what I need you to do.
00:14:49Obviously that hasn't happened.
00:14:50So when there's a vacuum of leadership from the top, a North Star, a direction,
00:14:56this is who we're going to be.
00:14:57This is what we're about.
00:14:58This is the totality of the program.
00:15:00This is how you're going to rehab.
00:15:01This is how you're going to take care of yourself.
00:15:03You know, Belichick, when he took over in Cleveland had the, you know, basically
00:15:07just like Bill Walsh had, you know, the stacks of, this is how everything's going
00:15:11to go right down to the minute details.
00:15:13Obviously that hasn't happened here.
00:15:14So in the, in the absence of that, players and coaches sort of do their own
00:15:21thing and so that we get to week eight in or seven and yeah, eight, we're in now
00:15:28that we're, we're at this point just further reinforces that like, you know,
00:15:35Mayo really didn't know what he was doing when, when he, when he was hired.
00:15:40And now everybody, they all were on their own agenda from the top down.
00:15:45And now all of a sudden they're trying to get it back.
00:15:48And it's, it's tough to put that back in the, put that back in the bag.
00:15:52I think we can unequivocally say heading into week eight, Gerard Mayo was not ready.
00:15:59He was not ready for the job from the jump.
00:16:03The question ultimately is going to be, can he get there?
00:16:07It's possible.
00:16:09Don't want to write it off.
00:16:10It's possible.
00:16:11But I think right now the evidence is there.
00:16:15As they say, back in the day, the proof is in the pudding.
00:16:18And we see this is an outfit in new England that was just totally not ready.
00:16:26And I go back to the introductory press conference and I'll give you credit, Greg.
00:16:33You know, I, I did not take too much away from those press conferences because
00:16:38there's, there's just a lot of BS and there's not a lot of substance during
00:16:43those intro press conferences, but you had a question during those, you know,
00:16:48those press conferences and the question that you had is like,
00:16:50where's the substance, right?
00:16:52It sounded like a lot of CEO speak, a lot of business speak and not
00:16:58much, you know, substance or football speak.
00:17:02And at the time I said, you know, I'm going to give Mayo the benefit of the doubt.
00:17:05And you did too.
00:17:06It's let's see how it plays out.
00:17:08I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.
00:17:10Maybe this is just your run of the mill introductory press conference.
00:17:14The family goes up there.
00:17:15Everybody's, you know, slapping each other in the ass.
00:17:18It's a, oh, it's a great day.
00:17:19It's a great, we're all happy.
00:17:20We're all, this is awesome.
00:17:23Well, if you go back now to that introductory press conference and you
00:17:26see the first seven weeks of the season play out the lack of substance that
00:17:32was being discussed during the early, early, early days of this regime.
00:17:38And from this head coach, now you look back at it and say, oh, maybe there
00:17:43wasn't a lot of substance because there wasn't a lot of substance because he was
00:17:47completely unready and it wasn't necessarily just an introductory press
00:17:51conference.
00:17:52I want to get to the quarterback.
00:17:53Want to get to the defense, but first Greg wants to get to prize
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00:18:15I'm getting back on the horse.
00:18:17Had a couple of rough week.
00:18:19I feel better.
00:18:20Oh yeah.
00:18:21I feel better.
00:18:22A little bit better.
00:18:23I don't know both these teams.
00:18:24I don't know what the hell to expect on Sunday.
00:18:26Um, I mean, anything could happen.
00:18:29Uh, you know, really, but this is what I'm going with.
00:18:32I'm going Hunter Henry, more than three receptions.
00:18:35I think checkmark that.
00:18:37I mean, we've seen Drake may Hunter Henry.
00:18:39A great connection there.
00:18:41And I also think the Patriots are going to have a little bit more trouble on
00:18:43the outside with the Jets cornerbacks.
00:18:45So that means Hunter and also Austin Hooper, uh, are going
00:18:49to be, um, a focal point.
00:18:52I think, uh, Drake may more than one half interception.
00:18:57He threw two in the opener should have thrown two in the last one.
00:19:02I would say that the Jets are a lot better defense, a lot more opportunistic.
00:19:06Um, so I think Drake will give one to the Jets this week, Devante Adams, uh,
00:19:13more than a half rush and receiving touchdown, you know, Rogers is going
00:19:18to want, you're going to want to get his boy, uh, a touchdown.
00:19:21So I think they're going to look at this opportunity against
00:19:24the Patriots to do that.
00:19:25Garris Garrett Wilson, more than 57 and a half receiving yards.
00:19:29I think he had over a hundred last week.
00:19:32Braylon Allen.
00:19:33I'm going with him more than a half rush and receiving yards, more than Brees Hall.
00:19:38I think Brees Hall is going to do a lot of stuff in the twenties, but Braylon
00:19:41Allen is the more physical back and we all know how the Patriots are defending
00:19:45the run right now and Aaron Rogers, more than 238 and a half passing yards
00:19:52against this passing, uh, Patriots defense.
00:19:54I don't feel great about that, but, um, we'll see how it goes.
00:19:58Download the price picks app today and use code CLNS and get $50 instantly.
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00:20:14All right, we'll get to the defense in a little bit.
00:20:16I know Greg has a lot to say about those guys on that side of the field.
00:20:19And I read Greg's, uh, column last night, uh, that he wrote, I saw it this morning
00:20:24and I watched the video he had in there.
00:20:26I would suggest all of you to go check that out as well as, as Greg breaks down.
00:20:30Uh, the defensive breakdowns, but first let's start with the offense
00:20:34van Pelt with the media today.
00:20:35Greg, uh, spoke about Drake May and he said that May's development
00:20:39is right where it needs to be.
00:20:41Would you agree with that?
00:20:43Um, yes, I would agree with that.
00:20:47Um, and also let me point out, um, we should, since everybody else is talking
00:20:51about it, I think we should talk about, uh, Mayo and the future and the crafts
00:20:55and things like that in a second.
00:20:56But, um, you know, I do, I do think he's right where he's at.
00:21:02Um, I was, like I said, and, um, you know, I feel really good about my evaluations
00:21:08of Drake May the first week and also the second week, um, you know, I, I do my
00:21:13thing and then I sort of listen to other people who I consider experts, whether
00:21:17it's Chris Sims, Greg Cosell, Chase Daniels, JTO Sullivan, um, and, uh,
00:21:26they were all, I, and I think JT almost used the exact same words that I did
00:21:30where I said that, uh, you know, that there was substantial improvement over
00:21:35week start one to start two, um, for Drake May, there's a lot of good stuff out there.
00:21:40He saw the field much better, um, in the second game.
00:21:44And I also, I don't think I did this in our last pod, Nick, and I want to make
00:21:48sure that I do this because I've been hard on the guy rightfully, but I also
00:21:52want to give him his flowers for this game, this past game.
00:21:55I thought Alex van Pelt was substantially improved.
00:21:59Now I don't know the reason for that.
00:22:02And, um, but let me also give flowers to Gerard Mayo, because again, I, I
00:22:09criticize the head coach of a lot of things because I, they get paid a lot of
00:22:12money and they have a lot of importance on a team.
00:22:16And so I don't know who, it sure looks like somebody said to Alex van Pelt,
00:22:22look, we need to protect better.
00:22:24Like you need to keep more people in.
00:22:26We need to do a better job, uh, with this now.
00:22:30I don't know who did it.
00:22:31Uh, I assume Gerard Mayo had a hand in it.
00:22:34So I want to give him credit.
00:22:36I don't know if he said Ben McAdoo, get more involved in this, whatever happened.
00:22:41The Patriots offense in this past game looked a lot more like a real NFL outfit.
00:22:48The protections were better.
00:22:50The route concepts were better.
00:22:51I thought they did a really nice job of giving Drake more half field reads,
00:22:56simplified things, allowed them to play a little bit faster.
00:23:00And I thought all of that contributed to Drake May looking a lot more comfortable.
00:23:05Now I do want to also say this.
00:23:07There were a few things in this game rewatching, especially after rewatching
00:23:13JTO Sullivan, uh, at the QB school.
00:23:16Um, he put out a free video.
00:23:17He has other videos that are on his Patreon, which I'm also a subscriber.
00:23:21Um, because I like learning about the game, but he did a whole breakdown on
00:23:25Drake May and I would go watch it.
00:23:29If, if I were you, anybody out there, um, because there's a couple of things
00:23:34that I am a little concerned about Nick with, with Drake May that I'm
00:23:37going to be monitoring going forward.
00:23:39Um, the footwork is, is get, I would say, I would say the overall
00:23:46footwork was sloppier start one to start two.
00:23:49This was part of my worry about starting Drake May too soon.
00:23:53That if, if he had the, the work that needs to get done with his footwork
00:23:59and you can get away with it against the Jaguars, can you get away
00:24:02with that against other teams?
00:24:03I thought it was a little bit more problematic in this game.
00:24:07And the other thing, a few more throws off the back foot.
00:24:13Um, the, the near KJ Osborne interception, uh, that was also
00:24:18part of, partly to blame for KJ for not, he faded his route and
00:24:23allowed the cornerback to undercut it.
00:24:25But Drake also got to him late, but there, there's a few more, there's
00:24:29a few more footwork issues and a few more throwing off the back foot issues.
00:24:33And so I'm just worried about that getting worse as time goes on.
00:24:37But overall, um, uh, a much better start in week two.
00:24:43And I just wanted to make sure I gave Mayo and Ben Pelt the flowers
00:24:46because I thought the offense looked a lot better.
00:24:48Imagine if they had a running game.
00:24:49So that's sort of the next thing.
00:24:51Well, we, we talk about Drake May and I think he's like the hope for this
00:24:56football team and the fans are really hanging their hat on Drake May and his
00:25:00future, and if he could be one of those dudes, then this team has a much better
00:25:05chance of climbing out of this muck that, that it is currently in.
00:25:11Uh, but Greg, if, if they have issues climbing out of that muck, the rest of
00:25:15this year, I know you said earlier this week that, you know, it's not impossible
00:25:21that craft could say goodbye to Mayo if things don't improve and, uh, that
00:25:26kind of lit the content world on fire.
00:25:29Everybody talked about that, uh, including me and my own individual
00:25:32podcast I did yesterday.
00:25:33So I thank you for the podcast content.
00:25:36But, uh, just, you've heard a lot of people talk about what you had to say,
00:25:40your reaction to that, and how do you feel today regarding RKK Mayo, the
00:25:47future compared to how you felt earlier in the week, um, and not really any
00:25:53different, you know, I will say that, um, and this is often the case.
00:25:57Um, I had just finished watching the defensive film when I went on failure
00:26:02and mass and it made me angry.
00:26:04Um, and, uh, yeah, I was not, I was not happy, um, after watching the defensive
00:26:10film and I said as much when I said it was probably the worst defensive
00:26:15film I've ever seen with the Patriots.
00:26:16I thought it was the worst performance since the Eagle Superbowl.
00:26:20And, um, I thought that that Eagle Superbowl had more to do with personnel
00:26:26than X's and O's, but the X's and O's weren't great in that game either.
00:26:29I blamed a lot of what happened on Sunday against the Jaguars on X's and O's.
00:26:33Um, so there's that, um, as far as the, um, the conversation that's
00:26:39evolved around my comments, I, I haven't really had a problem with it.
00:26:43Um, I think a lot of people basically said the same thing that I did.
00:26:49I don't think anybody's really contradicted it.
00:26:52Uh, you know, we all know there's a lot of media members that have a lot
00:26:55of cozy relationships, um, with Gerard Mayo from covering him and, and the like.
00:27:00And that that's fine.
00:27:02I don't have a relationship with Mayo.
00:27:04I try to stay arm's length so I can be impartial and tell people the truth.
00:27:09Now, um, I don't take anything back from what I said.
00:27:13And I just want to reiterate what I said is that basically what I said was, and
00:27:19correct me if I'm wrong, Nick, and, you know, sometimes, and you know, this
00:27:23better than anybody as a, as a lifetime radio guy and a radio host, um, sometimes
00:27:30what's in your mind doesn't come out the way that you think it does.
00:27:35Um, but basically what I was saying was, look, the, the Patriots
00:27:38are a freaking train wreck in week eight.
00:27:42If things continue this way and get worse, then the potential is there.
00:27:50And I, I think I used the word it's unlikely that this happens, but
00:27:55that Gerard Mayo could be one and done.
00:27:58Um, do I think that's on the table?
00:28:01Yes.
00:28:01Do I think the crafts are considering it right now?
00:28:04No.
00:28:04Um, do I expect one of the crafts to come out at some point and give some
00:28:08sort of tepid, uh, vote of confidence?
00:28:11Sort of like we heard from John Mara, uh, today or yesterday, um,
00:28:16with day ball and, and Joe Shane.
00:28:18Yeah, we'll probably get something like that, but again, it's, it's
00:28:22where are we at the end of the year?
00:28:23Uh, you know, we, he certainly gets the benefit of the doubt.
00:28:26He's not getting fired anytime soon or anything like that.
00:28:29Um, but we need to see what it looks like at the end of the year.
00:28:32If it's one in 16 and it's like Rod rust all over again.
00:28:37Yeah, he could, he could lose his job.
00:28:39A lot of people could lose their job in that building.
00:28:42Um, you know what I think, what I think is going to happen.
00:28:48Um, I think we'll see a little bit of progress.
00:28:51I think that the potential is there for Drake may to save a lot of people's jobs.
00:28:55Like I, that the potential for him to be really good towards the end of the year
00:28:58and steal some games for this team.
00:29:01Definitely there.
00:29:02Um, you know, I think that's, he, he's that good and has that potential.
00:29:07Um, so there's that really what I think is going to happen, Nick, and let's just
00:29:11go over sort of the timeline of things.
00:29:14I think you, you talked about the opening press conference.
00:29:17Um, uh, I would say, I would say before training camp started, um,
00:29:25sort of after OTAs and all this stuff, you know, once you get the coaches in
00:29:29the building and they see what's going on, I think the crafts kind of looked at
00:29:32things and, and, and, and said to themselves, is this all there's is, is
00:29:40this all that's there for us?
00:29:42I mean, is this, is this, is this what we hired?
00:29:44Is this all it's going to be sort of, you know, I think, I think there was a fear
00:29:47of that it was empty slogans and, you know, not a lot of substance to what
00:29:51was going on with the new regime.
00:29:53So I think there was some, I wouldn't say second guessing, but you know, maybe
00:29:57them sort of, you know, uh, craning their neck and being like, uh, okay.
00:30:02Uh, okay.
00:30:02All right.
00:30:03Well, all right.
00:30:04We'll see.
00:30:05Um, I thought Gerard Mayo ran a great training camp.
00:30:08Uh, I thought it was very physical.
00:30:09I thought they made progress and it was, he had them prepared for week one and they
00:30:16won, it was a present victory.
00:30:18They hit on all cylinders.
00:30:19It was basically the perfect, perfect, uh, scenario for them.
00:30:24And, you know, but I cautioned at the time I said, that's, that's week one.
00:30:27A lot of teams, especially they, nobody really knew what they were going to do
00:30:30on offense or defense or whatever.
00:30:31They were, they were surprised.
00:30:34And, but we said, no, let's see what happens as the week goes on because,
00:30:38uh, it's a different game planning for the regular season is
00:30:41a completely different beast.
00:30:43The coaches are tired.
00:30:44It's long hours, you know, all that stuff.
00:30:47Um, so I think we can say that it hasn't been good or that every
00:30:52game has been worse than the next.
00:30:54And there's, you know, some, um, you know, discipline issues on the
00:30:58field, in the locker room, social media, stuff like that.
00:31:02So, you know, where they are is, you know, it's gone downhill every week
00:31:06and you just worry about, is that going to stop or is it going to get worse?
00:31:11Um, so the way I think things are going to play out in all likelihood is that,
00:31:19and I will say at this time, there is a, there is a level level of concern on
00:31:26the ownership level about what's going on.
00:31:29And I think that's where we'll stop with that conversation.
00:31:36As far as they there, there's a high level of concern.
00:31:39I think the most likely scenario after the season, say this plays
00:31:43out and they go four and 13 again.
00:31:45They have a couple of good moments, but it's, it's, you know, not that great.
00:31:50Um, I think they are, they are going to, the crafts certainly do not want
00:31:57to let go of Gerard Mayo and Elliot Wolfe.
00:32:00I would say the odds are both are back for next year.
00:32:02Again, it's how it looks at the end of the year, but I do think that they will
00:32:07be proactive in terms of surrounding Mayo better, um, in terms of maybe
00:32:13veteran coaches, maybe a change in offensive coordinator, uh, get more of
00:32:18a senior, uh, defensive assistant to help DeMarcus Covington.
00:32:22I think that would be the number one option in the most likely scenario.
00:32:26There's problems with that, Nick though.
00:32:29Um, how, how many people are you going to be able to attract to these jobs?
00:32:37Now you can find coaches that are out of work, like say like a Ron Rivera type of
00:32:42guy, right?
00:32:43I mean, they're not doing anything.
00:32:45I'm sure they jump at the chance, but you know, as far as say you
00:32:48wanted a new offensive coordinator.
00:32:50Yes.
00:32:51Drake may is going to be a draw.
00:32:53I could tell you that Drake may is going to be a draw, but you also get in the
00:32:56scenario that if they do all these things and sort of change things and bring people
00:33:02in, you know, how long are they going to be here for?
00:33:07How often does that work where all of a sudden you're like, oh no, well, we're,
00:33:10we're gonna, we're gonna help the head coach and that stuff doesn't work.
00:33:15And you're going to get guys, you know, top names to come in here to
00:33:19potentially get fired after one seat.
00:33:21What if all that stuff doesn't work, which in all likelihood, it probably
00:33:25won't, that stuff never works in the NFL.
00:33:28Um, you know, how does, how does that play out?
00:33:31How do you, are you really going to get anybody?
00:33:33How much is really going to change for next year?
00:33:36And I think another couple of factors are, I think Mike Rabel is a factor being out
00:33:42there.
00:33:42I think, you know, the potential, and I understand people were, people are saying
00:33:48things like, well, Robert Kraft doesn't want to do this.
00:33:50It'll hurt his legacy.
00:33:52Yeah, that's, that's fine and all, but if they have a chance to do a do-over of one
00:33:59year, if they come in and they get Mike Vrabel and they let him handpick his GM
00:34:04and Drake May looks good and they get a real offensive coordinator, say Josh
00:34:08McDaniels comes back to work under Mike Vrabel, they get a left tackle in the
00:34:12draft, they spend money.
00:34:15Do you think anybody's going to care that they fired Gerard Mayo after one year?
00:34:18Nobody's going to care because they're going to know they're on the right track.
00:34:22So I think there are a bunch of different scenarios.
00:34:25The big thing is look, the crest don't want to fire Gerard Mayo.
00:34:29I don't think it's likely, but we need to see how the season plays out and see how
00:34:33bad it is.
00:34:36You know, it's, it's interesting.
00:34:37You go back to week one and you think about the staff having time to prepare,
00:34:42right?
00:34:42They had time to prepare.
00:34:44There was a lot less Intel info on this team and how they were going to
00:34:48approach things.
00:34:49The coaches did not have to necessarily adjust right off the bat in week one.
00:34:54Uh, you kind of knew who Zach Taylor was and Joe Burrow.
00:34:58And of course we can't forget that Jamar Chase, you know, he was dumped in to that
00:35:04program, you know, this season he had missed the entire camp because of a holdout.
00:35:10So I, I do think there's a difference between like, okay, if you, if you watch
00:35:13the first game and a half between Cincy and then Seattle, you see, you see a, you
00:35:19see a staff that was, all right, this is what we want to do.
00:35:22This is what we want to try to do.
00:35:24And then when teams adjusted to what they were doing, they've been incapable of
00:35:28adjusting to what those teams adjustments have been, if that makes sense.
00:35:32So if you look back at week one, it's very logical that that was pretty much the best
00:35:37game of the year so far, because a very inexperienced staff had a lot of time to
00:35:42figure some things out and they were more prepared, I think that week than they've
00:35:46been since a lot of other stuff you said, I'll just hit a couple of other points.
00:35:52The, the lack of experience with the staff.
00:35:54The fact is Robert Kraft put a lot of trust in Gerard Mayo, a lot of trust.
00:36:00It wasn't just the idea of making him the head coach when he might not be ready, but
00:36:06also the idea of, and we talked about this, Greg, this is not hindsight.
00:36:11Mayo doesn't have a huge network of people.
00:36:13He has spent his entire career here in new England.
00:36:16It's not like a Mike Vrabel who, you know, went to Ohio state, went to Houston,
00:36:21coached in Tennessee.
00:36:22Now he's in Cleveland and he has all these different touch points across the NFL.
00:36:28Mayo did not necessarily have that.
00:36:30So it was this trickle down effect.
00:36:32I tried to explain this during my podcast earlier in the week.
00:36:36A lot of people want to look at Elliot Wolf.
00:36:38They want to look at this.
00:36:39What I would say is this all starts with Robert Kraft, because as soon as craft,
00:36:44and again, this ain't hindsight 2020, as soon as craft made Mayo, the guy, which
00:36:49was done in his contract, which is still crazy to me, and the fact that he chose
00:36:54Mayo in 2019, because he had a meeting at an airport after the trip to Israel,
00:37:00which is even more crazy to me.
00:37:02But as soon as that was done, as soon as Mayo was the choice, folks, everything
00:37:08else fell in line.
00:37:09What do I mean by that?
00:37:10Well, because you had Mayo and you didn't go out there and have an actual process
00:37:14to get a head coach, and you just gave the job to him because you fell in love
00:37:20with him because of the Israel trip.
00:37:22As soon as you made that move.
00:37:24Now you're not going to go outside to go get a new GM because you're already, you
00:37:30know, Gerard Mayo is not going to have a lot of the guys stay here from the
00:37:35Belichick years.
00:37:36It's just not going to happen because it's going to be awkward.
00:37:38And as Bill O'Brien has said, you know, I didn't want to really stay because
00:37:42Gerard needs his guys, quote unquote.
00:37:44So as soon as you made Mayo, the head coach, you knew that the front office was
00:37:50going to have to pretty much stay intact because the way this works is you go out,
00:37:54you get the GM, the GM gets his head coach, and then the head coach who has a
00:37:58network brings his staff in, right?
00:38:00That's how it usually works.
00:38:02You picked Mayo before anybody else.
00:38:05So as soon as that move was made, Mayo is going to have to work with somebody that
00:38:09he trusts and has a relationship with.
00:38:11That guy was Elliot Wolf.
00:38:13It's not to say that Wolf is not qualified to do the job.
00:38:16He was qualified to do the job, but you did not have a GM process.
00:38:20Just like you did not have a head coach process because of how
00:38:23you handled the Mayo thing.
00:38:25Now, once that's done, Mayo doesn't have a network.
00:38:30So now you're leaning on Elliot Wolf to try to help him fill some voids on the
00:38:35coaching staff, which is not how it should be.
00:38:38You should hire the head coach.
00:38:39He's got an idea, right?
00:38:41D'Amico Ryan's, he goes to Houston.
00:38:43Boom.
00:38:44I'm bringing Bobby Slowick and you, you see this all the time.
00:38:48You see it all the time across the league.
00:38:50And so it all starts with that decision and how it was handled.
00:38:56And a lot of the other stuff is a trickle down effect.
00:38:59One last thing I'll say, the change of the staff, here's
00:39:05the problem the Patriots have.
00:39:07You and I can sit here and we go back and forth and go, Oh yeah,
00:39:10the Patriots should go get that guy.
00:39:11They should go get this guy.
00:39:12That's the OC.
00:39:14Here's the problem with that though.
00:39:16That's more change.
00:39:18And so if you're looking at Drake May, he had AVP.
00:39:22If AVP doesn't work out, let's say they shit can AVP in the
00:39:25middle of the year and they bring in, you know, a couple of weeks.
00:39:29AVP is still not doing a good job.
00:39:30You go to McAdoo.
00:39:31Okay.
00:39:31So now you have had AVP and McAdoo.
00:39:34If you want to go try to change this whole thing around and go get somebody
00:39:37else, now Drake may has his third offensive coordinator in two years.
00:39:41If that guy is good.
00:39:42And as Greg said, gets hired somewhere else.
00:39:45Now you're bringing another offensive coordinator in, maybe it's in
00:39:49promotion, but it's still a new guy.
00:39:51And now Drake may has his fourth offensive coordinator in like
00:39:55three, that's the problem.
00:39:58And so it's, it's multi-layered and it's contextual conversation, which
00:40:04doesn't happen in a lot of places, but that's what they're looking at now.
00:40:07It's a whole puzzle and it all started with Robert Kraft selecting
00:40:12Mayo in the way that process went.
00:40:15And as soon as that decision was made, everything else fell in line and it
00:40:19was a little bit of a mess, if not a lot of a mess, you don't want a mess
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00:40:25You want to go see the Patriots.
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00:40:52And for somebody who has been a Patriots fan and Boston fan, New
00:40:56England fan their whole life, like me.
00:40:58And I've been watching this Patriots team on Sundays and it's
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00:41:03Tuesday night was the elixir that I needed.
00:41:06Jason Tatum, unbelievable.
00:41:08It was awesome.
00:41:10Unfortunately, TNT sucked with their pregame coverage and their ceremony
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00:42:39All right, let's talk about the offense quickly, and then we'll get to the.
00:42:43Yes.
00:42:43Hang on one more thing that I wanted to say on what you were talking about.
00:42:48Okay.
00:42:48Now I remember I was going to say, um, I totally agree with your comments
00:42:52about the whole process and everything.
00:42:55And, um, but I had this thought the other day that like, look, I don't.
00:43:01I don't blame Mayo entirely for this.
00:43:04I mean, do I think, um, I, do I think he, he didn't know what he didn't know?
00:43:11Yeah.
00:43:12And do I think he's got a big ego?
00:43:13Yes.
00:43:14And thinks, you know, he's, he, he had all the answers when
00:43:18he had none of the answers.
00:43:19Yeah.
00:43:19I think, I think all that's true.
00:43:20I do put some of the blame on the crafts.
00:43:23If it's true, what Robert has says about how he identified five years ago in Israel
00:43:29that Gerard Mayo was the next coach of the new England Patriots at that point in time.
00:43:36Robert, Jonathan and Gerard should have been talking about, all right.
00:43:41In five years, six years, seven years, whatever it is, you're
00:43:44going to be our next head coach.
00:43:47You need to go out and get as much experience as possible.
00:43:50You need to get out of this cocoon.
00:43:51You need to get away from bill.
00:43:53You need, somebody wants to hire you as a DC.
00:43:56Go get that job, go make a network, go listen to different offensive
00:44:01philosophies, like, you know, all that stuff.
00:44:04That's what they should have been doing.
00:44:05And especially like once they hash the succession plan or whatever, you know,
00:44:09Gerard was interviewing for jobs and maybe he gets a DC job, tell him to go
00:44:14take it and be like, we're bringing you back as soon as it's time.
00:44:17We're bringing you back.
00:44:18Um, and if it didn't work out, it didn't work out, but that's
00:44:21what they should have done to get.
00:44:22They should have been, they should have helped them with the career development.
00:44:25Now it's easy for me to say, um, Gerard Mayo, since he was drafted and played
00:44:30with the Patriots and coach with the Patriots, he's lived here a long time.
00:44:33I'm sure he's got a family.
00:44:34I'm sure this is comfortable.
00:44:36This was comfortable for him.
00:44:37It's not the easiest thing to say, all right, I'm moving my family for
00:44:42what might be a couple of years.
00:44:43I understand all that.
00:44:44It's, but that's the life of a football coach.
00:44:47I mean, nobody gets to stay in one place for like 30 years in the NFL.
00:44:52Um, you know, so, so there's that, I mean, I, I just equate it to, and it's
00:44:57somewhat similar, somewhat not, but like, you know, when I was coming up in sports
00:45:02writing, you know, I was at the Palm beach post, I came up there, I'd
00:45:04lived for a long time there.
00:45:06Um, uh, my wife and I were starting a family, um, you know, and I had
00:45:13the opportunity to go to green Bay.
00:45:15I'd never been to green Bay.
00:45:16I'd never been to Wisconsin before.
00:45:18Um, I had never covered the Packers, but in my mind, like I
00:45:22needed to go cover another team.
00:45:25I needed to see things differently.
00:45:27I needed to get out of my comfort zone to grow because in my mind, I
00:45:32wanted to become a national writer.
00:45:34I wanted to write for the Boston globe and become a national writer, which I did.
00:45:38And I just thought to myself for my career, I needed to branch out.
00:45:42I needed to see different things.
00:45:44I needed to experience different things, develop more sources on the
00:45:48NFC size because I've covered the AFC for so long and all that stuff.
00:45:52And so I picked up my family when the twins were six months old, we moved to a
00:45:57place where we had never been before and family wasn't even close, but my wife
00:46:02and I decided to do it, you know, for the betterment of my family and also my career.
00:46:06And those, and so when I got to the globe, when I got to sports illustrated, uh, I
00:46:11wanted to be ready for those opportunities.
00:46:13I just think, um, again, it's simple for me to say everybody's situation is
00:46:17different, but man, if the crafts were serious about Gerard Mayo being the next
00:46:22guy for them, they should have made his development priority one after their
00:46:28football team and be like, Gerard go experience the NFL, go, go live things,
00:46:33get more responsibility, do press conferences, you know, all this stuff.
00:46:37So when you break, when we bring you back here, you're hitting the ground
00:46:41running and you're ready to go.
00:46:42And that just, I think we're seeing that obviously did not happen.
00:46:45Hey buddy, you're talking to somebody that picked up his shit and moved 3000
00:46:49miles across the country to experience being a program director in Sacramento,
00:46:53California, when I had never touched, uh, California in my life with my
00:46:58feet or anything, any other part of my body.
00:47:00So, uh, I get it.
00:47:03I put most of this on Robert craft, honestly, where the team is right now.
00:47:06I put most of it on craft.
00:47:09I think people, and I just want to quickly make this point and then we'll
00:47:11move to the offense defense and be done with this, but I do just want to make
00:47:15this quick point, because I know there's probably a lot of people listening to
00:47:18this going, yeah, but what about Elliot Wolfe?
00:47:21What about Elliot Wolfe?
00:47:22What about Elliot Wolfe?
00:47:23What about this roster?
00:47:24What about, and I understand that question, Greg, I don't know if you agree
00:47:28with this and some might think that I'm making excuses, I couldn't care less.
00:47:32The way I look at this is evaluating a GM or a head of player personnel is a lot
00:47:38different than evaluating a head coach.
00:47:41And the reason why is the number one priority for any GM, the number one
00:47:46priority for Elliot Wolfe is to build this the right way and keep the long term in
00:47:52mind.
00:47:52It's not about what's happening right now.
00:47:56It's about what this team looks like in 15, 16, 17, 18, the weeks, right?
00:48:01You know, how do we look towards the end of the year?
00:48:03Simple example, Jalen Polk, right now you look at and go, oh my God,
00:48:09that's a disastrous pick.
00:48:11I'm sorry.
00:48:11I'm not going to write off a guy's career seven weeks in.
00:48:15I'm I take at least a year, if not two years to fully evaluate draft classes
00:48:22because a lot of different things happen.
00:48:24So we can look at this roster right now and say, oh man, it's, it's not talented.
00:48:29This and that.
00:48:30A lot of Elliot Wolfe's job is going to be dependent on the draft.
00:48:34And right now, again, it's only seven weeks in.
00:48:38Drake may has looked pretty damn good.
00:48:40I think everybody's happy with may.
00:48:42Everybody is unhappy with poke.
00:48:45And then the other two top four picks that he made have been hurt.
00:48:50I can't evaluate Kate and Wallace.
00:48:52He got hurt.
00:48:53I I'm sorry.
00:48:54I can't evaluate Leighton Robinson when he's in and out of the lineup and then
00:48:58gets hurt again on Sunday last week.
00:49:00And so I think it's, it's much more difficult right now to throw Elliot
00:49:05Wolfe completely under the bus until we have a full picture.
00:49:09And at the end of the year, we look back and go, okay, did Jalen poke get better?
00:49:13Did Leighton Robinson and Kate and Wallace become trusted
00:49:16guys on the offensive line?
00:49:18Did they get back out there?
00:49:19And did they improve on the O line?
00:49:21Did Drake may continue to show progress?
00:49:23And does he look like a franchise quarterback where now you can reel in
00:49:26somebody like Brennan IU, because they look at me and go, oh man, he's great.
00:49:30Like to me, it's a week to week evaluation with the coaching staff because we're
00:49:36seeing it play out in real time and we're seeing lack of adjustments.
00:49:39Elliot Wolfe's job mostly is done in the off season.
00:49:43What's done is done that the cake has been baked and now it's, we see how it
00:49:48comes to fruition throughout the season.
00:49:50Would you agree with that?
00:49:51Or would you disagree with that?
00:49:53No, I would agree with that.
00:49:55I mean, I, I think, you know, yeah.
00:49:57Cause I hear from people on Twitter all the time.
00:49:58They're like, well, what about Elliot Wolfe?
00:50:00And I mean, it's week seven.
00:50:02Like I can, I can tell how the coaching is and I could tell, you know, when they,
00:50:07you know, and I'm not asking for the coaches to move mountains.
00:50:10Um, you know, I, there's a lot of people out there.
00:50:12I don't get it.
00:50:13They're so simplistic about like, well, this team doesn't have a lot of talent.
00:50:16What did you expect?
00:50:17And they just excuse the coaching.
00:50:19They just take it.
00:50:19I just, that runs counter to everything that I believe about football where
00:50:23football's the ultimate team sport.
00:50:25And it's all about, you know, people out there who played pop Warner
00:50:29or played high school football.
00:50:30Like, you know, it's routine in football where you, you go up
00:50:34against a more talented team.
00:50:35But the coaches figure out a way to compete with those teams.
00:50:40If not beat them, that's the essence of football.
00:50:43Those are the greatest moments in football, you know, for
00:50:46people who have played the sport.
00:50:48And.
00:50:49You know, to me, you know, the, the fine, it, the Seahawks game might have
00:50:55happened no matter what, because you have an inexperienced coaching staff and
00:50:59players and it's fine, all right, fine.
00:51:01The Seahawks are more experienced.
00:51:02They had good players.
00:51:04You know, they came back.
00:51:05It happens in the NFL, you know, to me, the dolphins game is inexcusable.
00:51:09The, um, getting blown the way the Jaguars game to me is inexcusable.
00:51:16The pay, you know, I was looking back, Nick, because we've heard
00:51:19Gerard Mayo bring up, um, uh, uh, Dan, uh, the Lions coach, Jesus Campbell.
00:51:26Um, Dan Campbell.
00:51:28Um, you know, I look back and I was also, um, chatting with Aaron Schatz about
00:51:32like, I want them to know how their DVA progressed because the
00:51:35Patriots are going down by the week.
00:51:36I mean, even, even special teams, which was like top five for like
00:51:39the first month is now down to 16.
00:51:41Like everything is sliding down.
00:51:43And, um, you know, I look back that, that Dan Campbell, when he took over
00:51:47and we, we all know that that was a dumpster fire that he took over from Matt
00:51:51Patricia, um, that team the whole year lost, I think five times by 10 or more
00:51:59points, the Patriots have already done that four times.
00:52:02And most of it has happened like in the last like five weeks.
00:52:06Um, so, so that's a lot of a level of concern, but back to Wolf, uh, you
00:52:10know, I, I just wanted to say that I understand the frustration that people
00:52:15have, and there are certainly things that I would have done better.
00:52:17And given hindsight, which we all have now, we all have the benefit of hindsight
00:52:21now, like, you know, you don't sign a core for, or you sign a core for, but
00:52:25you also signed Jonah Williams, you trade up for a tackle in the draft.
00:52:28You know, these are all things that we, you know, a lot of us second
00:52:31guessed in real time, but the overall approach, Nick, I still don't have a
00:52:38problem with, and I think you agree with me on this.
00:52:40I mean, like, just because you have money, just because you have certain
00:52:45assets doesn't mean you just spend it, you know, for, you know, um, you know,
00:52:51let's overpay for Calvin Ridley.
00:52:53Let's do X, Y, and Z because like, you only have a finite amount of resources,
00:52:59whether it's draft picks or cash or cap and it, you don't throw money just to
00:53:05throw it, you know, for, I think an example of it is there's a lot of people
00:53:10held up the Tennessee Titans as look at what they're doing there.
00:53:15They brought in a great, they brought in an offensive coach.
00:53:18They have a young quarterback.
00:53:20They're supporting them.
00:53:20They bring in Ridley there.
00:53:22They have Hopkins.
00:53:23They, you know, um, sign people on the offensive line.
00:53:27They drafted on the offensive line, you know, they did X, Y, and Z.
00:53:31And now they're not much better than the Patriots are, except
00:53:35they spent all their resources.
00:53:36And so the Patriots, to me, Elliot Wolf and Alonzo Highsmith and those guys
00:53:40looked at their roster and said, all right, let's, let's build, try to build
00:53:45a foundation who's good on our roster.
00:53:47Let's retain them.
00:53:48Let's try to spend money where we can, but we're not going to throw stupid money
00:53:54at, at things we're not sure about because let's get more data on the
00:53:58team and figure it out in the next year.
00:54:00We'll do more.
00:54:01And I think they're on track to do that.
00:54:03I, you know, do, do people want the Patriots to be more talented?
00:54:07Yeah, but it doesn't mean that their approach wasn't wrong.
00:54:10The execution wasn't great, but I wouldn't say it was a complete
00:54:15debacle, um, because I do think the Patriots, uh, should be
00:54:19more competitive at this point.
00:54:21Yeah.
00:54:21Tennessee went out and got Sneed.
00:54:22They got Pollard.
00:54:23They got Ridley.
00:54:24It was an extravaganza and they're not good.
00:54:28Last thing I'll say is, you know, the biggest decision to me, because I still
00:54:32think the offensive line stuff is not figured out yet.
00:54:35People are like running around out there acting as if the draft class
00:54:38in the second round was awesome.
00:54:41None of those guys have been very good.
00:54:42Okay.
00:54:44Correct.
00:54:44So everybody relax, everybody calm down.
00:54:47Okay.
00:54:48Um, so I don't even know if they mishandled the draft.
00:54:52We'll see if by the end of the year.
00:54:54And that also has a lot of context.
00:54:56Like if you're Kingsley Suamata Ia, and you can actually sit down for 10 weeks, 12
00:55:00weeks, cause the chiefs are the chiefs.
00:55:02And then you say, get dropped in week 13.
00:55:05Well, yeah, you had three months of NFL football to get developed.
00:55:09If you were in New England, you would have been dropped in week one or week two.
00:55:13And, and we all know what happened with Suamata Ia the first two weeks.
00:55:17He was benched cause he was terrible.
00:55:18And I was one of the guys that was saying Suamata Ia should be the pick
00:55:22for the Patriots in the second round.
00:55:24So we don't know, we don't know what we don't know.
00:55:26And I understand people get frustrated and they want to judge right away.
00:55:29And it's seven weeks in to go, Holy shit.
00:55:31This roster sucks.
00:55:32Elliot was terrible at his job.
00:55:34Take a deep breath.
00:55:36And it's funny because if, if there are two games that they
00:55:41lost that they should have won.
00:55:42They should have won that Seattle game.
00:55:44If it wasn't for terrible coaching in the second half.
00:55:47And they should have beat Miami.
00:55:49And I, and I know it's, we deal with reality versus, you know, what could have
00:55:53been, but what if this team won those two games in a three and four, then
00:55:59people go, Oh, well, wait a minute.
00:56:00And you could say, say the same stuff about Gerard Mayo, but that's the point.
00:56:03If the coaching staff was better, they win those two games.
00:56:07The fact that the coaching staff is declining precipitously is the issue.
00:56:11And look, the biggest, the biggest problem to me about, about a
00:56:16and what he did was the AVP hire.
00:56:18If van Pelt doesn't get better and this offense is a disaster and they've
00:56:22got to flip things around and you're dealing with different offensive
00:56:25corners early in Drake Mays career.
00:56:27That is on Elliot Wolf.
00:56:28That was an Elliot Wolf hire and he didn't, he, I don't think he had great
00:56:33options, but if AVP is terrible and it goes awful, then you look at that and
00:56:39say, he could have gotten somebody better in here than AVP and that, or maybe
00:56:43he should have just went with McAdoo because that would be the thing that I
00:56:47look at right now, but I'm going to give it time that that's the nature of his job.
00:56:50All right.
00:56:51Uh, don't forget to check out BSJ 50 bucks for the year.
00:56:54But Darji already, we told you about prize picks $50 instantly.
00:56:57When you play $5, use that code CLNS.
00:56:59We told you about game time, take 20 bucks off your first purchase over
00:57:03there by using that code CLNS, Greg.
00:57:06We're not going to be able to hammer down all the stuff that we wanted
00:57:09to talk about with the defense.
00:57:10Maybe we'll save that for next week.
00:57:11Hopefully not.
00:57:12Hopefully it'll get better.
00:57:14Just your expectations for Sunday, uh, buy-in and this, uh, jets matchup.
00:57:21Yeah.
00:57:21I mean, you know, look like Nick, I have no clue.
00:57:26I have no, the thing I'm, the number one thing I'm looking to see is
00:57:31the response to the soft comment.
00:57:33Um, it can go one of two ways.
00:57:35I mean, this, these guys, it could light a fire on their, under them.
00:57:39And all of a sudden they're winning both the sides of the line of scrimmage
00:57:44and they're competitive in this game.
00:57:46And it goes down to the fourth quarter and that would be awesome.
00:57:48It would be awesome for Gerard Mayo.
00:57:49We'll all be talking about like Gerard Mayo had his, since Cincinnati
00:57:54is first, like check Mark, like.
00:57:57Atta boy.
00:57:57Nice job pushing the right buttons with his team.
00:58:00And we will certainly do that.
00:58:02If that's the case, there's also a chance that, all right.
00:58:05That is something like that could be short lived in this game.
00:58:08But when things start going against the Patriots, then all of a sudden
00:58:11they let go of the rope and it could go the other way where all of a sudden.
00:58:15Come Monday and Tuesday, Nick, we're talking about like, I have
00:58:20these guys given up on Gerard Mayo.
00:58:23I have, they quit on him and we're only in week eight and the
00:58:27we're weeks away from, um, the buy.
00:58:30And by the way, I also want to say related to that, the comment I've
00:58:33heard it I've heard because, because they played my comments so many times.
00:58:37Uh, uh, I, um, the comment that I made about the bi-week and the coaches
00:58:42will probably go on vacation.
00:58:44Uh, that was unfair of me.
00:58:45And I just wanted to state that for the record.
00:58:48I heard it and I was just like, I got emotional, um, caught up in the
00:58:51moment that was unfair, and I didn't like that out of myself.
00:58:56So I just want to apologize for that comment.
00:58:59I don't think any of those guys are.
00:59:00I hope they don't go on vacation and I expect them to work and figure things
00:59:04out, um, through the bi-week, uh, in December, but back to this game.
00:59:09Um, I don't know both of these teams.
00:59:11I have no clue what they're going to do.
00:59:13I think that the jets, the jets have, um, when I was watching their
00:59:17Steelers film, the Steelers own them on, um, the Steelers offensive
00:59:23line owned the Jets defensive line.
00:59:25They were getting a lot of push on the interior.
00:59:27They ran the ball, um, typical play action shot plays.
00:59:32Uh, I thought the, the, I thought the Steelers were lucky with, you know,
00:59:36Russell Wilson's, you know, moon balls that are being caught with one hand
00:59:41or bouncing off Steelers like eight times and they're catching it.
00:59:44Um, I think that the Jets offense is a tough watch, even with Davante Adams.
00:59:50I expect him to be in the slot.
00:59:52Um, I really don't like this offense.
00:59:56I don't like what Rogers is doing.
00:59:58A lot of it is he doesn't take any deep shots unless it's a, um, Receiver
01:00:04one-on-one on the boundary and he's throwing a back shoulder or a go
01:00:08where he's not going to get picked off.
01:00:09There's very little in the middle of the field.
01:00:11You get a lot of, what you should expect is a lot of short, quick passes
01:00:16to Davante Adams or Garrett Wilson.
01:00:18And then at some point they're going to fake it and do a double
01:00:21move and then they're going to go.
01:00:23Um, Rogers loves that.
01:00:25It's very simplistic.
01:00:27Uh, I would say the route concepts might be worse than the
01:00:30Patriots at this point in time.
01:00:32And Rogers, sometimes he just favors Adams.
01:00:35He doesn't stay with route concepts.
01:00:37It's a, it's a tough watch, but the fear is, is that all of a sudden they
01:00:43start to click this week and they start to getting on a roll and then there's
01:00:47an avalanche because there's, I think there's a lot of built up stuff
01:00:50there with the Jets defense.
01:00:51So long story short, I don't know what to expect out of the Patriots.
01:00:55I don't know what to expect out of the Jets, but there's no question that,
01:01:00um, the Jets are favored to win this week.
01:01:03Yeah.
01:01:04I mean, a couple of things that I saw watching, uh, and I did actually
01:01:08watch the all 22 Greg, Greg Bedard style.
01:01:11I watched the Jets dealers, all 22.
01:01:14I will tell you this, like, uh, Rogers, and you know, this by
01:01:17just looking at the stats, but when you watch the game, it is so obvious.
01:01:21This dude has no time to wait.
01:01:25Like he's, he gets the snap and he's throwing the football.
01:01:30It's predetermined a lot of times, which is not good.
01:01:33Yes.
01:01:33Like he's just, he's got one priority.
01:01:35I want to get rid of this football as fast as possible.
01:01:38And I was watching it and there were a few plays.
01:01:42There were a few plays where you go back and he actually had opportunities.
01:01:45If he held onto the football longer, but he didn't want to allow he it's like
01:01:50he doesn't allow his wide receivers at times to actually finish their route
01:01:54concepts and get open.
01:01:56And when you watch it, you go, man, if he held onto the football for like,
01:01:59I don't know, a quarter of a second longer, half a second longer, he's got
01:02:03this dude open 25 yards down the field, but he's so, you know, he gets the
01:02:08snap and it's boom, boom, I got to get rid of it.
01:02:10And, and it's, it's unbelievable.
01:02:12He looks like, I don't know if you agree with this, Greg, but he looks
01:02:15like a dude who's 40, who's taking a lot of hits, you don't want to get hurt.
01:02:19And he's like, Hey man, I'm gonna save myself.
01:02:22I'll live to see another play.
01:02:24I'm just getting rid of the ball.
01:02:25If that's a check down, like their most explosive play was a
01:02:28check down to Brees hall.
01:02:29That was like 50 yards.
01:02:31There's not, as you said, there's like nothing down field.
01:02:33He just wants, and he's got a hammy issue.
01:02:36He's banged up.
01:02:37Of course we said a lot of this going into week three and then Rogers
01:02:41had his best game of the year.
01:02:44He has, he wasn't anywhere near as good before that game.
01:02:47He has not been anywhere near as good after that game.
01:02:50So does he kill the Patriots again?
01:02:52It's quite possible.
01:02:53Jets minus seven over on his 40 and a half.
01:02:56What's your pick?
01:02:59Uh, I think the jets get right.
01:03:01The Patriots are the get right team.
01:03:03Um, I really do not want to see them let go of the rope, but I'm fearful of that.
01:03:09I do think, I think Drake may, I think we'll get a typical Drake performance.
01:03:15I think he'll make some plays cause he does.
01:03:17Um, you know, he's seen things better.
01:03:19I, it seemed like the Steelers targeted DJ Reed a lot in that game.
01:03:24I think they will do that.
01:03:25Um, but sorry.
01:03:29Um, I'm going to pick the jets 27 Patriots, Patriots 13, uh, 27, 13.
01:03:42I think the jets win.
01:03:44I have reached the point, Greg, and unfortunately I've reached this
01:03:47point multiple times over the last couple of years where I will no longer
01:03:52pick the Patriots until they actually compete with somebody that's where I'm
01:03:55at until they show that they can actually compete with a football team.
01:03:59So I'm taking, I'm taking the seven points.
01:04:02Uh, I'm laying the seven points rather with the jets.
01:04:05And I'm, I'm very similar to your score.
01:04:07I got 27, 17, uh, jets win by the way.
01:04:11Uh, I am four and three against the spread.
01:04:13Greg is three, three, and one Greg is five and two straight up.
01:04:16I'm four and three straight up.
01:04:17So we both got the jets winning.
01:04:19We both have, uh, we both have the over, I believe, right?
01:04:2127, 14, you said, or 27, 13.
01:04:27Uh, 27, 13.
01:04:29So you're just under the hook.
01:04:30Gotcha.
01:04:31Oh, I am.
01:04:31So Greg goes under, I go over, uh, by the way.
01:04:36Uh, I just wanted to say the Patriots are Owen five against
01:04:39the spread in the last five games.
01:04:40Awesome.
01:04:43Makes you feel good.
01:04:43Done it.
01:04:44Uh, hopefully this podcast made you feel good.
01:04:46He's Greg.
01:04:47I'm Nick.
01:04:47We'll talk to you early next week.
01:04:49And, uh, hopefully we see some kind of improvement on the football
01:04:52field Sunday against the Jets.
01:04:54Please.