Patriots LB Jahlani Tavai joins! When Mayo says, "team is playing soft", does that light a fire under this team? Is Rodgers still hard to prepare for?
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00:00Angelani, I know you got a meeting, so you gotta get to a meeting, but we'll get you in and out this morning. How you doing?
00:08I'm good, man. How you guys doing? We're doing great. So some, from the outside at least, some criticism this week when it came to
00:17Gerard Mayo calling this team soft, and then walking that back.
00:22But, but if you guys are being honest when you talk about it,
00:26it seems like maybe that has lit a fire under this team?
00:32I mean, it's a new week, you know. We're on to the Jets. What happened, happened. And, you know,
00:38this week is, it's on us to come out and, you know, be prepared and execute our jobs.
00:44Angelani, being on to the Jets, is Aaron Rodgers still the,
00:48one of the hardest guys that you have to prepare for? And if so, what makes him so difficult?
00:53Oh, 100%. You know, this guy's been around the league for, what, 20 years now? And, I mean,
00:58I think he's been in the league longer than some of our rookies have been alive. So,
01:04you know, he's seen a lot of coverages. He's seen, he's seen a lot of balls. So he knows,
01:08he knows when we're disguising. He knows when we're just sitting there in a certain cover. So we gotta,
01:13you know, give him certain looks. That way we can, you know, have him either wait till the last second
01:19to try to figure out and maybe he'll call a timeout or try and adjust. But it's on us as
01:25defense guys to just, you know, disguise this weekend and show him something different that
01:31we haven't put on film. Jelani, whether it's, you know, I think he said that you guys played soft.
01:37And when you looked at the film, because I think there are a lot of guys that agree you probably
01:43did play soft as far as giving up the run the way you gave it up. I don't think that you're,
01:48those type of players where you're turning stuff down. What do you think is leading to some of that
01:55poor play, especially defensively against the run game where it seems like teams might be a little
02:01bit being able to handle you guys more physically, especially at the line of scrimmage. What do you
02:05think you guys are not doing good enough? I think we're just not, not being consistent. That's it.
02:14That's the, that's the biggest thing for football. Like for, for this game, you got to be consistent.
02:20You can't just do your job one time and, you know, not do it the next two. So
02:27I would say it's just being consistent. Speaking of being consistent, Jelani,
02:33what is the accountability like in your locker room? It feels like things have gotten somewhat
02:40out of control with players going out late before a game. How do you guys sort of keep
02:46players in line yourselves? We're forgetting Gerard Mayo for a moment.
02:52You said we were going, I don't know about that. We were going out the day before the game, but
02:56you know, you just got to be professional if you're doing that, which you shouldn't be, but
03:01you got to take accountability for our, like our replay. But no, I think as a, as a whole,
03:06and especially as a defense, we, we, we're taking accountability for, you know, the past weeks,
03:11you know, we can't, we can't just all throw it on Mayo and, and, you know, use him as a escape
03:17goal because we're the ones out there playing. So now we're taking full accountability of what's
03:22going on. Have you ever been called soft by a coach prior to that? Yeah, when I was a kid,
03:29and then I turned it around. You got to hear that as a, as a, as a person, as a, as a man,
03:36you're either going to sulk about it or you're going to do something about it.
03:40Jelani, it does seem like every week we have some type of rumor that's out about this team
03:45or players talking about pride, you know, being, going out for themselves and not for the team.
03:54The rumor after London was that, you know, maybe guys were staying out too late or didn't,
03:59didn't have their head in it completely. Did you feel like there were too much,
04:03too many distractions when you guys were in London? Do you think that that led to your
04:07play on the field? No, I don't think that was a distraction. I think we kept the main thing,
04:15the whole, whole journey, you know, that was the message of the message from everybody was just,
04:21this is a business trip, you know, so yeah, but you know what, it's, it's a new week. It's,
04:27it's like we said, we're, we're onto the jets and right now we've been having a great week
04:31of preparation and we just got to make sure that everything we do on the practice field, we
04:37transition it to the, to the game. So yeah, we just got to make sure that we're consistent.
04:43I know Drake May is on the other side of the football for, for you, but when it comes to his
04:48age and it, from the outside, at least the, the way he has appeared to kind of accept a leadership
04:55role, has that a couple of games into starting? Is that surprised you?
05:06Does that surprise me that he's playing this way? Well, not, not necessarily playing,
05:10but the way he seems to us to be kind of assuming a lead, a leadership role on the,
05:16on this team and he, and you know, and he's only two games. No, that doesn't surprise me.
05:20Yeah. It doesn't surprise me that he's stepping into a leadership role.
05:25You know, I mean, I feel like that just comes with being a quarterback, you know, you're our
05:29general on the field. And, but I think that's also just his personality. He's a great human being and,
05:36and a really good competitor. So that's something that we look, look for in a leader.
05:42Jelani, do you feel like, and when I played, we had guys like William McGinnis and Lawyer
05:46Malloy that kind of policed that locker room, not only with the way that players respected them,
05:52but there was a little bit of fear because, hey, guess what? If you talk slick to Willie,
05:56you might get hit. Do you feel like there are guys in that locker room and I throw yourself
06:01into this as well, that carry that same type of demeanor where maybe there's a little bit of fear
06:08that players feel towards you guys? And could your voice be a little bit louder to maybe rally
06:13some of the troops to fall in line and be a little bit more mature when it comes to
06:18on and off the field situations?
06:22Yeah, we definitely have some guys like that.
06:30All right. Well, listen, we know you got to get to work and get to a meeting
06:33and it is an opportunity to turn things around and we appreciate you taking the time this morning.
06:39Of course. You guys have a wonderful day.
06:41All right. There's Jelani today.