Boomer Esiason joins the show! Even after the loss, is there optimism for the Patriots going forward? Silver lining at QB?
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Oh, good morning, man. I'm telling you, we need hazard pay and we don't even play football.
00:06I mean, between the Jets, the Giants, the Patriots, man, this is getting old.
00:10No, not to mention you stuffed yourself on Thursday and you're probably still feeling
00:15the effects of the turkey and the stuffing and the mashed potatoes and all that stuff.
00:19I have to say that it's the first Thursday that I actually had a normal Thanksgiving
00:23in 23 years. Yeah, right.
00:26But I actually I had a I had a worse than Drew Lock did for the Giants.
00:30I mean, my eight year, my four year old granddaughter was bossing me around for six hours.
00:36This is what Thanksgiving is really like, man. This is tough before we get to yesterday
00:41in the Patriots and the rest of the NFL. Well, what do you make of what happened at the end
00:45of that Chiefs Raiders game on Friday night? Oh, boy.
00:49What do I make? Are we are we kind of alluding to that the Chiefs are getting away with murder?
00:56Yes. Yes. Yeah. I guess everybody else feels the same way, too, unless you live in Kansas
01:00City, of course. I want to say that the Chiefs know how to win. I do not want to accuse the
01:07NFL of setting the Chiefs up for for success. I don't want to say that. I want to believe
01:13in my heart that everybody is on the up and up.
01:17And I just don't want to go down that road. It's a dark road to go down. I understand
01:22why people are doing it. It's all over Instagram, every anti chief fan, which is now pretty
01:28much every oral. Thirty one organizations in the NFL. You guys know what that used to
01:33be like. Yeah. Yeah. We lived it. So they're right now in Patriot territory with Bill Belichick
01:39and Tom Brady. I I don't know what to tell you, man. It just seems too many weird things
01:44are happening in their favor. There's no question about that.
01:46All right. Well, we won't go down that dark road. But is there is there a streetlight
01:51at the end of Route one, which is the road outside where we are this morning, based on
01:57the fact that the New England Patriots are in that game with a, you know, with a 68 yard
02:02chance to win it at the end yesterday? I look, I I think I would be happy if our
02:08Patriots fan just because of what my quarterback is doing. I mean, every statistical measure
02:15they dominated the Colts yesterday. Anthony Richardson is kind of a wild card.
02:20You never know what you're going to get. You got 109 yards passing from him. He is
02:23all over the place throwing the ball. He's not very accurate. And on the other side,
02:27you got a legitimate what looks to be like a quarterback that's going to be around for
02:32a quite quite some time. And his success with a revolving door offensive line, an offensive
02:40line that makes way too many penalties, way too many mistakes.
02:43And he's still over able to overcome it. To me is the silver lining here in the Patriots
02:48season. They found their guy. Now they have to do what other teams in this situation have
02:54done. And that is spend money around him, draft around him. And hopefully if if not
02:59next year, then two years from now, the Patriots will be back in the playoffs.
03:03They'll be back being a team that is going to be tough to be reckoned with.
03:07Boomer, isn't it really about just like as you look through the league, isn't it more
03:12about the coaching, like even in the Chiefs Raiders game or whether it was the Chicago
03:15Bears Detroit Lions game, it's just like some of these coaches at the like.
03:20Why are you snapping the ball in that situation at the at the end of the Raiders game when
03:26it seems like your quarterback is not ready? And then you see the whole Caleb Williams,
03:31the disaster in Chicago. Isn't it a lot about coaching and some of the bad coaching that
03:36we've seen out there? Yeah, there's no question about it. I mean,
03:39look, there are already four openings. I think there's going to be probably close to eight
03:44openings, if not more. I think owners have a very, very short fuse. I think social media
03:51helps these owners make decisions. There's very few of them that really have the guts
03:57to go against what is a rising tide of negativity when it comes to the social media.
04:02And that's why if I am coaches like Antonio Pierce and Gerard Mayo, I'd be I'd be looking
04:08over my shoulder because it's just, you know, the the amount of losing that is going on
04:13in the NFL, the amount of lack of patience, I guess I would put it for ownership is just
04:20it's it's really staggering. I mean, I don't ever remember it being like this and being
04:24this bad, but I also don't remember the coaching being this bad.
04:27I mean, you know, Matt Iberfluss has to call time out after Caleb Williams takes a sack
04:34towards the end of the game. He cannot allow or expect that quarterback to go through the
04:39mental gymnastics of making sure that they have enough time on the clock to win the game
04:44or even tie it, I guess. But at the end of the day, he loses his job. It's just a matter
04:49of time before he lost his job. And that those those decisions at the end of the games ultimately
04:54is where Bill Belichick always, I mean, always excelled. And a lot of these coaches really
05:00blow it. And that's one of the reasons why we have so many firings.
05:03Boomer, you bring up drafting for the Patriots in their future and for Drake May. If the
05:08season ended today, they'd be fourth. Where would you go with that pick? What would you
05:13focus on?
05:14Well, I would for me, I'm focused on offensive line and playmakers. And I'm sure that internally
05:21they may be looking at edge rushers. You just never know until we get to the actual draft.
05:25They actually may even trade down to pick up more picks. But to me, it's now about the
05:32young quarterback. It's about building around him. It's about getting a stud left tackle.
05:36It's about getting a stud wide receiver, even though the wide receivers have improved
05:40significantly over the last few weeks.
05:43Still, you've got to have that one guy that is putting the fear of God into other defenses
05:48and makes you play against your team differently. That's what happened when Randy Moss came
05:53to the Patriots. The moment he put on that Patriot uniform, all of a sudden defenses started
05:58playing the Patriots differently because you have such an impactful players on the outside.
06:03So to me, it's pretty easy. I'm building around my young quarterback. I got to get
06:07him players. I got to get him protection. And I certainly have to get him a playmaker
06:12down the field.
06:14Boomer, we are now in the middle of a demand of fans wanting the head of Jarrod Mayer.
06:20We did a poll before Thanksgiving, seven in 10 said that they wanted a new coach. I find
06:25it to be a little bit too reactionary. Bill Belichick was five of six in losing seasons.
06:32Five of his first six seasons as a head coach were losing seasons, and three of his last
06:36four here were losing seasons. Do you think it's too reactionary to think Jarrod Mayer
06:41needs to be changed out?
06:43I don't think Bill Belichick really had that much early on when he came to deal with when
06:49it came to social media. Jarrod Mayer, unfortunately, and all these coaches nowadays do. The team
06:56is playing hard. I know they had a bad game in Miami last week. Every team in this league
07:00is going to have a bad game somewhere along the line. It's hard for me to say that he's
07:06the guy that's going to lose his job, but I just did say that most of these coaches
07:10are looking over their shoulders.
07:12The problem is going to be if there is an owner out there like, let's say, Bob Kraft,
07:18and he's kind of wavering on what to do, that leaves a lot less candidates, potentially,
07:26if you wait. And I think that's one of the reasons why a lot of these teams are doing
07:29it so early, because they want to get out in front, and maybe they have identified coaches
07:35now that they think can lead their franchise.
07:37I was thinking, watching the Lions and the Bears, Ben Johnson, the offense coordinator
07:43for the Lions, is watching Caleb Williams right there in person, and he's got to be
07:47saying to himself, that would be the job that I would take. But I also think that Cliff
07:52Kingsbury will have an inside track for that job, simply because he had Caleb as a quarterback
07:57at USC, where Caleb did flourish. So there are plenty of opportunities for a lot of these
08:02coaches. I just think that ownership nowadays has basically got a short fuse, and they'll
08:07pull the trigger if they notice anything going awry within their building.
08:12Well, the Yankees brought Billy Martin back, so you never know what can happen.
08:16Yeah, I don't see that happening, I can tell you that.
08:20And Antonio Brown coming back?
08:23What about when it comes to coordinators, like Alex Van Pelt or DeMarcus Covington?
08:29Are those jobs secure in your mind?
08:31They're not. Nobody's job is secure in the NFL. It is the most insecure of all leagues.
08:38Maybe only hockey coaches get fired more often, and more frequently than football coaches
08:45do. But I would think that everybody's job is on the line. And really, for me, I sense
08:51that Drake May has actually gotten better as the season has gone on. So the development
08:56of the quarterback is something that you've got to take into account. And when you do
08:59watch him, you feel like he's got it. He's got the it factor, he's got the understanding
09:06of what they're trying to do offensively. And remember, he's shortchanged with players
09:10around him, especially his offensive line. So I'm not going to sit here and blame the
09:13offensive coordinator for any misgivings or shortcomings from the quarterback. I'm going
09:19to look at the big picture, and I'm going to say it's more about who's building the
09:22roster these days than anything else.
09:25Speaking of Mayo coaching, surprised he didn't take a timeout during that final drive yesterday?
09:32I'm not sure what goes on in these sidelines with these coaches. You never know who they're
09:35talking to. I know that Ernie Adams was in the ear of Bill Belichick, and they were on
09:42the same page and always would tell Belichick the situation, what's going on, what should
09:47we be doing here, should we let the other team score so we can get the ball back and
09:51go and win. I remember doing one of their games out in Denver where that's exactly what
09:55Ernie and Bill did. I'm not sure who's talking to Gerard Mayo. You should ask him that.
10:02We will.
10:03Because I think that that's as important a relationship as there is. And it's usually
10:07one of their analytics guys that's in the head coaches here during the game, giving
10:12him updates as to what they should be doing and what they shouldn't be doing. So I don't
10:16know enough about that relationship to really comment on.
10:20I look at it more of like the last situations of games, like what are these coaches thinking?
10:27You look at Anthony Richardson, he hasn't really done much throwing the football. So
10:30why not put pressure on him? Why not heat him up and not give him the ability to use
10:36his legs and make him have to throw the football? I just wonder what coaches are thinking in
10:43situations and why does it look like it's so bad? Do you just think that these guys
10:47are not prepared for certain situations of football games?
10:51You know, you know what we I also think that there's a lack of practice time. I really
10:55do. I mean, that's one of the things that the owners gave up in their last CBA. Less
10:59practice time on the field, less practice time or meeting time in the in the meeting
11:03rooms, you know, and that was something that they gave up simply because it didn't cost
11:08them any money. And they'll continue to give it up if if if the players that we don't want
11:13to practice at all during the week, but we want to add an 18th game, the owners would
11:16do that. And I do think that there's some really bad football that's being played. I
11:20mean, there are some really bad teams and there and there's a lot of a lot of bad decisions
11:26that are being made at late in these games.
11:28Even the top end teams in this league, I don't think are all that great. I mean, is there
11:33truly a great team in this league right now?
11:36Mm hmm. No, I don't think so. Yeah, I don't I don't see one.
11:40Question of the week for Boomer Esiason brought to you by McFarland Energy, the region's most
11:44dependable provider of home heating, oil delivery and expert HVAC services at McFarland Energy
11:50dot com. Cheap shot or not on Trevor Lawrence yesterday.
11:54One hundred percent cheap shot. And that player has done this before. He's done it a number
11:59of times. And he is a he he is an I don't say an accident waiting to happen. He is literally
12:07going to kill somebody on the field. Somebody's got to do something about it. And there's
12:12no question in my mind that that was 100 percent a cheap shot right to the head.
12:16And Trevor has given himself up. And I usually err on the side of, you know, the defensive
12:22player has got to have some rights here as well. But given the history of Shahears and
12:28his actions in past games, it tells me he knows exactly what he's doing, why he's doing
12:33it. And I hope he gets fined. And I wouldn't be surprised if he is suspended simply because
12:38he's done this, I think, at least three or four times before.
12:42Did it to Caleb Williams. Yeah, that was that was straight up 30. So his coach after saying
12:47that we don't teach that. So even his own they're giving him up on his own team. Yeah.
12:51Yeah. So I think that that for suspension coming, it feels that way. I would think for
12:56I don't know if it would be for the rest of the year, but at least for two games. But
13:00that was I mean, I know what the defenses are told to do and what they think they should
13:06do. But when you make a decision like that, you almost decapitate somebody that's there's
13:10no place in the game for that, especially when we all are a part of a brotherhood, even
13:16though some of us may not like each other.
13:18We all are risking our lives and limbs out there on the football field. And I think you
13:22do have to respect that. Well, Boomer, at least he didn't put a flag at the middle of
13:26the field and have a bunch of grown men lose their minds like children.
13:29The flag planting. Didn't that ever happen to you in high school? Wigs were. No, I don't
13:35try to do something like that. Yeah. I mean, it's like it's all over the place now. The
13:39whole flag plan and then fights afterwards. It's like, all right, you won the football
13:43game. There's no need to plant the flag in the middle of my field.
13:48Were you surprised yesterday about the report about Aaron Rodgers being a long shot?
13:52No, not at all. No, I think I think the ship is coming to an end here. I really do. I mean,
13:58it's and I'm sure we'll talk about it as soon as we open the show, just like we opened this
14:02one this morning that, you know, the losing here in New York with New York football is
14:07just it is so bad.
14:10And you know, they score 21 points. He throws an interception. The game is in their hands.
14:15And the next thing you know, they don't they don't even sniff the end zone the rest of
14:20the game. They were up twenty one to seven, seven forty to go. And he throws an interception
14:26to Leonard Williams, who, by the way, looked amazing running it back. And I just I just
14:32from that point on, the Jets were done. They were done. They had no chance. They didn't
14:36do anything offensively. And unfortunately, he looks like a 40 year old quarterback.
14:41Boomer, thank you. And we will talk to you again next week. All right, guys. Thanks.