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Taylor Kyles and Mike Kadlick bring you a brand new episode of Patriots Daily! Today, they'll discuss the recent roster moves by the Patriots, specifically waiving KJ Osborn. Then, they'll cover recent developments regarding the futures of Jerod Mayo and Bill Belichick.   ************************************************ 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!  Merch Store - https://shop.clnsmedia.com  Social Media!!!! 🏈 Patriots Twitter- https://twitter.com/patriotsclns 🏈 Patriots Instagram-  https://www.instagram.com/patriotsclns/ 🔵 Facebook- https://facebook.com/clnsmedia 🔵 LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/company/clnsmedia/about/ 💟 Tik Tok - https://www.tiktok.com/@clnsmedia ********************************************************* 🏈 ABOUT PATRIOTS COVERAGE ON CLNS: 🏈  Welcome to the CLNS Media Network’s YouTube channel for New England Patriots 🏈 football.  CLNS Media is the leading online provider of audio/video coverage for the 6X Super Bowl Champions.  Get complete inside access to the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro and everywhere on the road. CLNS Patriots credentialed insiders Greg Bedard, Andrew Callahan, Tayler Kyles, John Zannis, Alex Barth and Mike Kadlick provide instantaneous news and analysis all in real time, as well as full access to complete videos from the players, coaches, ownership and everyone else inside Patriots Place.  If you enjoy CLNS’ Celtics 🍀 All Access and are craving more Boston sports content, you head over to CLNS’ Patriots 🏈 Press Pass at  🔴 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqX7G3pEDTseNxtoDU27PEg?sub_confirmations=1 🔴  __________________________________________________________________________ 🍀 For Celtics Content:  🔴  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmp3kivpOg3lzoJC7yV7VjQ?sub_confirmations=1 🔴 🔴 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmp3kivpOg3lzoJC7yV7VjQ?sub_confirmations=1 🔴 🏀 🍀 Celtics Twitter - https://twitter.com/CelticsCLNS 📸 🏀 Celtics Instagram - https://instagram.com/celticsCLNS 🔵 Twitter Main- - https://twitter.com/clnsmediaCLNS 📸 Main Instagram - https://instagram.com/clnsmedia ******************************************************* Check out over dozens of sports podcasts from CLNS Media here: https://clnsmedia.com/ OR for all 200 shows, go to https://northstationmedia.com

Transcript

00:00I am joined by Robert Griffin, the third James Whitefield. Yes, Mina Kimes. All right. So

00:11first play, we're going to look at second into one of the Patriots first offensive plays.

00:20I just realized that I was listening to the podcast on my cell phone and I started my

00:24voice in your house.

00:26It certainly was Taylor. Well, what's going on everyone? That's a good start to the Tuesday

00:30show. Welcome in to another episode of the Patriots daily podcast here on the CLNS media

00:36network. We're powered by prospects. We're powered by game time. You guys know that we'll

00:40hear from more, uh, more from them in a little while, but first Taylor, uh, it's a Tuesday

00:45show. We were kind of going back and forth on how we wanted to do this thing. Uh, and

00:50then a bunch of Patriots news came down today. Uh, we have KJ Osborne news. We have a backup

00:55kicker coming into Foxborough as well. Coaching news, bill Belichick and Gerard Mayo stuff

01:01coming down from all angles. So we figured quick hitter half hour coming here, talk about

01:06all of the news and notes, and then close it out with what we're looking for from this

01:09Patriots team over these next four games post by.

01:13So let's start right off the bat with, I would say the biggest actual piece of hard news

01:19of the day. And that is that the Patriots wave wide receiver KJ Osborne. Uh, according

01:23to reports, it was a mutual agreement between the wide receiver and the team Osborne, uh,

01:29call it like it was, was not great with the Patriots this season signed on a one year

01:33$4 million contract, uh, towards the, I guess the back half, the latter half of their, um,

01:39free agent push, if you will, this off season, he was, uh, he was, uh, I think one of the

01:43final guys signed him and, uh, and Jalen Hawkins at safety.

01:46So, uh, they released him Schefter saying that, you know, he'll look to, you know, tag

01:50onto a team here that he'll be able to essentially play more down the stretch. And I think that

01:55this move really, to me is a signal that they're going to look to play these younger guys,

02:01get Jalen Polk really in the mix, not take them off the field, not, not take them off

02:04the field, but you know, he'll, his, uh, play will increase Javon Baker as well.

02:08The rookie fourth round pick trying to get him into the mix. And, uh, and Andrew Callahan,

02:13actually, I heard him talking about it this morning on 95, the sports hub, where, uh,

02:17saying that the idea of tanking, you're never going to tank obviously, but when you say,

02:23Oh, we're going to play our younger guys, that's sort of the, the NFL tanking where

02:27you put the younger guys out there, you see what happens, the wins and losses don't actually

02:31matter. And that's kind of what this feels like to me for the Patriots. So Osborne released,

02:36uh, what's, what's the face, you don't like that, uh, that connotation

02:40Considering what we're going to talk about later, I really do not see how this is a move

02:44to tank. No, no, no, no, no. Sorry. And I don't want to put words in Andrew's mouth.

02:48He didn't, he didn't mean it like that, but I'm saying, uh, where it's like, you can't

02:53actually say it. And I don't think they're looking to lose, but it's the way of you're

02:58tanking without tanking where you're trying to explain how I kind of say, well, I think

03:03that by putting the young players in, like, yes, there is going to be some level of, you

03:07know, backsliding unless they show great improvement, but like, I don't think this was, I think

03:13what Mayo said was honest in that they just want to get those younger guys experience.

03:17I don't think it has anything to do with what them wanting to be better or worse record

03:21wise. I think they want to win, but I also think that they understand if they don't give

03:26these young guys opportunities, or at least they don't earn them and really step up, then

03:30you're going into the off season saying, these are unproven commodities that we cannot rely

03:33on in 20, 25, a hundred percent. So, uh, Osborne's gone before we get into the, uh, the bigger

03:40storyline here. And that is the 2024 free agency class as a whole. Um, I know I kind

03:45of said my piece on the wide receiver room, but your thoughts on the actual release on

03:48Osborne, what that means for the receiver room. Do you like it? Do you dislike it? Uh,

03:53your quick, your quick hitter thoughts on, on this move.

03:55Yeah. So the initial thought was, you know, why did it take so long? Because we thought

03:59this would happen maybe like once he was no longer on the waiver wire and wouldn't have

04:03to go to whatever team claimed him, like Yannick and Gakwe, Yannick, I'm sorry, and Gakwe did

04:07when he was cut by Baltimore and the Patriots picked him up. We heard that he planned to

04:11sign to a practice squad either on the Bengals or the Ravens. I believe it was on like some

04:14team that has playoff aspirations and they'll get picked up by the Patriots. They had discussion,

04:18whatever. Um, so we were thinking around that time, okay, KJ is probably going to get cut

04:22after that. Then weeks turned into like a month and we were saying, all right, like what's going

04:28on? Why is this taking so long? Then I thought about it. If they had cut KJ Osborne after the

04:34waiver wire things, that would have been like week seven, week eight or something like that.

04:38They would have had to go. And this was before they were out of playoff contention, mind you.

04:41So like, obviously I don't think they, I think they were still fighting for that. And I think

04:45it would have been really hard for Mayo to sit there and make moves that made it look like they

04:49were kind of like very aggressively gearing towards next season. Um, but yeah, if you would

04:54cut KJ Osborne, you got the three top guys, right? You got Kendrick Bourne, who was still kind of

04:58working his way back is still kind of working his way back in terms of chemistry with Drake.

05:02You got Kashawn booty. Who's been a fixture since like mid season, when he really started to pick

05:06up a steam. And then obviously pop Douglas behind them, it was KJ Osborne who ended up having to

05:10come in against the bears, uh, Jalen Polk and Jayvon Baker Polk and Baker, as we know, have

05:15done nothing like KJ Osborne, but neither a Polk and Baker, they've really been on the field.

05:20Even when folks on the field, a lot of the time, it feels like he's not really on the same page

05:24as Drake or not executing his assignment the way you'd ideally like, or what have you. So if they

05:29cut KJ Osborne, especially before this part of the season, where it's the last month, it's like,

05:33all right, like we said, we're trying to get these young guys and see what they are about.

05:37You would have kind of been stuck with two rookies as your only other backups. Now Osborne, other

05:42than the bears game, like wasn't really getting in. So obviously that wasn't a huge factor,

05:46but if he, if one of those guys like Kendrick Bourne or pop Douglas had gone down, you feel

05:51better about KJ Osborne in that spot than you would Jalen Polk and Jayvon Baker, at least to that

05:55point. So that to me explains why it might've taken so long. I know that people wanted to cut

06:00after the whole comment or, you know, the post with his agent and everything or whatever it was,

06:05uh, where, you know, it was mentioned that he wasn't even supposed to play,

06:09um, in that game in Germany. That was like a blip on the radar though. Like, yeah,

06:14that decision by him, but we have not heard anything else. There was not a peep from KJ

06:18Osborne. If anything, we saw him being a great teammate on the sideline, uh, hyping guys up

06:23and making sure they were, you know, getting the love they deserved. And based on everything we've

06:28heard, I'm sure he was also a positive presence behind the scenes. So, I mean, when he was signed,

06:32we knew this was Kendrick Bourne experience in my roster projections. I didn't even know if

06:36KJ Osborne was going to make the roster. I figured if Keishon Booty really started to show up,

06:40then he might be a casualty because he was only on a one year deal. So this doesn't surprise me.

06:45None of this surprises me. I didn't see this as the kind of like difference making move necessarily.

06:50Like obviously in Minnesota, he had some success downfield, but with Jacoby Brissette,

06:53that wasn't going to happen. And even in the summer, we saw him get a little bit,

06:57something going downfield that pretty much evaporated once the regular season started.

07:00So I hope he gets to go to a playoff team, you know, compete and play into January and all that.

07:06Good for him. I think the Patriots, like I said, this is a move they needed to make,

07:09especially with it seeming like Cole Strange is going to be activated off injury reserve.

07:13As we know, breaking news. Oh, sheesh. Okay.

07:18Has been activated off. There you go. There you go. Oh my goodness.

07:23Yep. I was going to, I was going to let you go on your spiel. I was going to kind of transition

07:27to that. I know we don't have much more on Cole because we did our whole reinforcement video. It

07:32was expected, but that was just, it just came off Shepard's Twitter like 60 seconds ago, that Cole

07:38Strange will be activated. So he's going to be on the active roster. They'll have to make a move

07:43there. Positive stuff. I think again, I, I hate to sort of steer away from content, but we knew

07:50this was coming and it feels like that's a good thing. So I think we can kind of continue on with

07:55KJ, but quick thoughts, then I guess we'll go to Kate. We'll go with your thoughts on Strange

07:59returning before we look at this free agent class. Yeah. So with Cole Strange, I think that

08:05I just want to make sure expectations are tempered because this is a guy who has not played in almost

08:10a full calendar year of football. That's asking a lot of anybody, especially someone coming off a

08:14significant injury like he was, he's been at practice, but these weren't really contact

08:18practices. So he's going to be banging and really like getting into the thick of things

08:23for the first time this week. So let's make sure we keep things, you know,

08:27we understand what the situation is. Ben Brown, I posted earlier today, since week 10 has been the

08:32third best center in terms of pressure allowed. It's only been like 1.7% or something like that.

08:38And he's been pretty solid as a run blocker. Not great. That's probably the biggest area you'd like

08:41to upgrade. He's not an excellent run blocker or anything like that. And I think that's one of

08:45Cole Stranger's strengths. So obviously Cole gives you more. He was a first round pick, even if he

08:49should have been a second or third, Ben Brown wasn't drafted or at least, you know, he wasn't

08:53that high of a priority for teams when he was a rookie. So I think Cole Strange coming back is

08:58awesome. I don't know when exactly we'll see him on the field. I don't know if it'll be this week.

09:01I don't know if it'll be next week. He had to be activated so he could even play because they

09:05didn't activate him this week. He would have just put on for the season. You'd have no idea

09:09what you really had at him as a potential center prospect. So it's exciting. I've been saying for

09:13years, I think Cole Strange is best at center. And now maybe he'll get a chance to prove that

09:17and potentially be the successor to David Andrews. Yeah. Glad you kind of tempered the expectations

09:23as far as playing this week. You wonder if it'll happen again. He's been rehabbing for quite some

09:27time now. So we'll see if he can sort of get, you know, get in the pads this week. I don't think

09:31they were in pads yesterday, so he hasn't really even practiced in pads yet. So you mentioned sort

09:35of getting those first couple of hits and contact practices under him. But they did have to activate

09:41him because of the 21 day window that he had been now subjected to since being on IR. So good for

09:46Strange. He gets activated. We'll see where he can kind of fill in here, file in here over these next

09:52four weeks. You do want to see what he can bring to the table heading in to 2025. So back to KJ

09:57Osborne for a second and back to this free agent class as a whole. Before we get to the class

10:01quickly on KJ, he was a really good pro here and you mentioned it. And I know the blip on the

10:08radar with the social media thing happened and it was regrettable and he even apologized for it.

10:12But one of the things that, you know, one of my favorite sort of behind the scenes, behind the

10:16scenes, KJ Osborne stories is I think it was four or five weeks ago, all of this crap was happening

10:21around and the Patriots were in a lull. They hadn't won many games. He scored that touchdown. He did

10:27the call God thing. He was in the, you know, the news, whatever. And he was also talking about,

10:31it was right around the trade deadline where he had mentioned that, you know, he wouldn't really,

10:34he'll be where his feet are and where I might get cut trading. Yeah, right. And in that the Patriots

10:44brought in Braylon Sanders on their practice squad for, for lack of a better term, a no name

10:50bottom of the roster wide receiver. And his first day there, I watched Osborne walk out to

10:56practice with Braylon Sanders right next to him. And I'm like, that's awesome. This guy is just,

11:02you know, has no business being with the Patriots. Both of them, frankly, Osborne and Sanders and

11:07Osborne still grabs them, takes them under his wing and starts to kind of teach them the way

11:11around the Patriots. I thought that was really cool. I thought that to me showed exactly the

11:15kind of player and the kind of locker room guy he is. So wish him well. He was a good pro here.

11:20He didn't perform on the field, but good on good on Osborne for that. I would say. So let's take

11:24Also, I'll throw one last thing just because I know he was supposed to do something with the

11:28Patriots. I was when the holiday season really came close to Christmas. I know he was going to

11:34do something. I was hoping I'd be able to go and cover with him where he was going to help people

11:39pay their rent who are kind of in bad financial circumstances, because he was telling me that

11:44when he was younger, someone helped pay his mom's rent when they were really struggling as a kid.

11:48So again, like a really classy, classy guy. When I say blip on the radar, I mean a blip.

11:54He was great to us. He was always kind, always very generous with his time, and by all accounts

11:59was also great in the locker. I just wanted to add that one last thing because he didn't just

12:03take up space. He was more like a Jacoby Brissett where behind the scenes, he's doing a whole lot

12:07for a room that lacks a lot of experience. Yep, for sure. I'm with you there. So hopefully he

12:12lands on his feet, but let's fold that into the rest of this 2024 free agent class, which I have

12:17on screen here. I tweeted it out earlier. Now, I wrote out who was cut, and I used cut very loosely

12:24here. Now, Okorafor basically said he didn't want to play football anymore. They put him on a reserve

12:29like retired no-show type list. Squad or something like that. And then end up taking him off the

12:34roster. And same with Osborne. He's technically waived, not cut. There's semantics. Some of these

12:41guys are no longer on the roster. So yeah, Trux Okorafor, Antonio Gibson, Jacoby Brissett, Sione

12:46Takitaki, Austin Hooper, Arman Watts, Nicola Rett, KJ Osborne, Jalen Hawkins was the meat of this

12:522024 free agent class. And I bring this up, and I'll kind of hand it over to you, Taylor,

12:57because I know you've had not a strong opinion on it, but sort of a, well, what were they supposed

13:02to do type vibe on this? Because calling it what it is, you lose out on four of these guys. They're

13:07no longer with the team. But you have, again, Austin Hooper has been a solid player on this

13:13team. One of the, I would say their best free agent sign in this season, followed by Antonio

13:16Gibson and Jacoby Brissett. But the rest, you know, obviously a couple guys cut. Hawkins has

13:21been hit or miss. Sione Takitaki, same thing. Not an excellent, by any means, not, you know,

13:27even really a solid free agent class in Elliott Wolfe's first season at the helm of the front

13:33office. So your thoughts on just this whole thing, I want to kind of give you the floor,

13:37because I know that you've again said that, well, what were they supposed to do in this off season?

13:41So what are your thoughts on now Osborne becoming the fourth free agent signing to be cut or, you

13:46know, off the team this season? Yeah. And then actually somebody mentioned in the comment,

13:50Joey Sly too. I guess we can throw him in there. Yeah. I mean, if we're just being really honest

13:56about this, obviously we're the ones who like, if there's a reason to get excited about a player,

14:00we like to hype that up because if they have a role on the team, you're hoping they can fill

14:04that with whatever their skillset is. At the same time, we weren't sitting here like hyping this

14:08free agent class or anything, because we knew going into free agency, there weren't a whole

14:13lot of true difference makers on the market that made sense for the Patriots. Like I went back and

14:17looked at my article where I talked about all the top players on offense and defense and looking

14:23back, I'm like, there were maybe two people that had any chance of getting, you're talking about

14:26Daniel Hunter, Christian Wilkins, you know, like Jonah Williams was one I know I did definitely

14:32want. That was one of the more disappointing ones for me, especially with the Chuuk situation,

14:36which you couldn't have expected or predicted, but this wasn't a very good class. We're hoping

14:41this year is much better and you can actually burn the cash. I think Gerard Mayo set a really

14:45bad precedent by saying he wanted to burn cash. I was the only thing people refer to, even though

14:49he did backtrack on it, but like, let's go through the list, right? Because I've seen comments under

14:54your thing saying like fire, Elliot Wolfe. I'm going to start with my criticism of Elliot Wolfe.

14:59All right. So I can be fair. The draft, I think much more in hindsight. Now, to be fair,

15:04we doing our draft show with John and talked about how the Patriots didn't go wide receiver

15:08and tackle with their first two picks or their picks after Drake, you know, it would be very,

15:14very hard to justify in the fan base would have burst into flames. Spontaneously. We were waiting

15:18for like a box safety to come off the board for the next, and we were just going to like,

15:22lose our mind. Yeah. Right. Exactly. So we were all the mindset that it had to be

15:26tackle receiver. You can argue that they should have been more aggressive in trading up for a

15:30tackle. Once that run started, right. You could argue that you could also argue that, you know,

15:35the lad McConkie thing is what it is. I still don't think, especially like with, with hindsight,

15:40obviously he's done way better downfield outside than I expected him to. And I will a hundred

15:45percent own up to that, but I don't think anybody was pounding the table for lad McConkie over Jalen

15:50Polk. When he was picked, there may have been some, and if you did congratulations, that's

15:54awesome. But one, we don't know what poke can be at the pro level. Like let's at least give him

15:58until next off season. Once he understands the playbook and doesn't have to think he can

16:02actually play, but also with the size, the downfield ability where he's shining college,

16:06he seemed like a better fit with Drake mate. Right. But this year I would say,

16:11hopefully you can fill your holes in free agency and go with more of a best player available

16:15approach because you have holes, but you have so many holes at this point. It's just like

16:18difference-making players. I don't care if it's a tight end versus a receiver. I don't care if

16:22it's a defensive tackle versus an edge rusher, get guys who are going to make an impact weekend and

16:27week out. Right. So that's why I think their draft strategy needs to change in terms of free agency.

16:32This is where I'm just like, I, again, I don't really know what people wanted because the

16:36class was very shallow. They weren't a good enough team to just pay guys, whatever they

16:40wanted to make them come over here. And also I didn't think there were that many players that

16:44really fit considering age. And it seemed like they wanted to trend a little bit younger in

16:48those positions. Right. So those are my criticisms need a different draft strategy in this off season.

16:53As long as you finish strong, capitalize on all the money that you have, right? This is the year

16:57to burn some cash because you have way too much of it. You got to spend it some more, even if it

17:00means overpaying for players at the top of the market, but looking at the 2024 free agent class

17:05chooks, I feel like that's a scratch. That is such a weird situation. Also a guy who was a

17:11multi-year starter, right? Wasn't a great starter, but he was at least a starting caliber player.

17:15I thought the signing made sense. I liked Jonah Williams better. They wanted to go with chooks.

17:19Who was 26, you know, young player did show some promise and he left because you tried to

17:23shoo him in at left tackle probably would have wound up a right tackle eventually, but we will

17:27never know. Antonio Gibson was the one guy we were saying, okay, this is one that really does move the

17:33needle, right? Cause we haven't seen the receiving. That's been super bizarre. Maybe it was a health

17:37thing. I don't know, but he has looked better recently. Like he's starting to pick up steam

17:41than one of the best outside zone runners in the NFL in recent weeks. And one of the most efficient

17:45on I'll be a very limited sample size. It's going to be percent disappointed on the field, but has

17:50been everything you wanted off the field. As far as we've heard, like he's getting the first,

17:53that nodding was exactly what they needed. I think they nailed percent, a hundred percent.

17:57And given the situation he was in, you can understand why he wasn't the player he was

18:01last year, two years ago, right? Sione talkie talkie had all season surgery. That was a

18:06significant injury. I didn't really know what to expect from him. That's another one. I kind of

18:11feel like it's a scratch. He's on a two year deal. I don't know how much they really thought he'd be

18:15able to contribute this season. He's been whatever, honestly, when he's on the field so far,

18:19you're hoping maybe next year with more familiarity in the system, he can maybe take a

18:23step forward with the Patriots. Austin Hooper has exceeded expectations. Arman Watts didn't do much

18:29in camp. Didn't do much in preseason. Now he's on the giants. He has like four pressures on like 32

18:34pass rushes, very efficient, but you know, you signed him to be a depth piece to maybe replace

18:39Lauren's guy. It didn't work out. That stuff happens, happens with the Patriots under Belichick.

18:43It happens now that one, I don't really care about Nick Leverett was disappointing. I will say

18:47I was excited about him. I love the tape when he was in Tampa Bay, when he was able to play,

18:51I thought he would be like their muscle tight end and be really good in that role.

18:54He just got like, he got his shit rocked. Those two weeks before he got cut. I thought maybe he

19:01was injured because it was so bad. That was maybe the most disappointing for agent signing to me,

19:06considering like he did not play nearly up to the expectation we would have hoped.

19:10So like Leverett, yeah, huge disappointment. KJ Osborne is exactly what we thought he would be

19:14pretty much less productive. I thought he would have some kind of niche role as a rotational guy,

19:19maybe like earlier on in the season, but he wasn't very good. And that was the reality,

19:22but like Jacoby Berset, he at least brought you something behind the scenes outside of the blip.

19:27Jalen Hawkins has been fine. It is what it is. He was signed to be a third safety, fourth safety.

19:31He's been okay. Not a huge liability, not a difference maker either. And that's pretty

19:35much, I think what we kind of thought was going to happen. I'd also like to throw in

19:39three signings that Elliott Wolfe made during the season. Ben Brown, pick him up mid season.

19:45DeMontre Jacobs, you pick him up after the trade, after the cuts are made, after the initial wave

19:50of cuts. And I'm, oh, Jaqueline Roy, who hasn't played in a while, but was one of the most

19:54productive defensive tackles in the league during the time he was playing. So if you want to talk

19:59about the ways that they missed and they did on some of these guys, but we're talking about guys

20:03who were cut, who were on one year deals and other than shoots, they were all backups who didn't,

20:09they didn't really figure like they were going to be difference makers for you anyway.

20:12I don't really care about those cuts to be honest. They were going to be gone next year. Anyway,

20:15that really doesn't move me, but you managed to get two offensive line pieces who should never

20:20be starting in the NFL. Like they should, they are not starting caliber players, unfortunately,

20:24developmental prospects, if anything, or developmental young players, if anything,

20:28but they've given you good enough play that you are a top five offense in success rate

20:33over their past four games. And then, like I said, Jaqueline Roy played really well for you too.

20:38I think he could really factor in, maybe not necessarily replace Devon Dodge on long-term,

20:42but I think he could be a Daniel equality type where he's a rotational guy who can make an

20:46impact as a rusher and a run defender. And I'm sorry, I went on long about this. It's

20:50just something that I just, I just, I also the Judon contract, he got, obviously it was kind

20:55of mishandled early on where things got ugly, but they got a third round pick out of it.

20:59And he hasn't done a whole lot for Atlanta. So I understand the frustration with this last

21:05off season because they kind of, there wasn't a whole lot they could do. And the draft picks

21:09haven't worked out the way you were hoping. I completely understand the disappointment.

21:13Let's pump the brakes, right? Elliot Wolfe's first year as a general manager, the graph,

21:17the draft wasn't really great. You got to admit, but he nailed the quarterback,

21:21kind of good special teams player towards the end of the draft. And now we're hoping in this

21:26off season, he really can show what he has by filling holes with what we expect to be some

21:30premium players on the market. And then maybe learning from last draft and doing better this

21:34time around. So I just don't see the sense in just getting so worked up about Elliot Wolfe

21:38after one off season where you literally just wipe the organization clean in terms of like

21:44coaches and personnel people. Like it was a very different structure that people didn't really

21:48know whether they should buy into or not. A lot of the guys they brought in knew they were coming

21:52into a rebuilding organization and they wanted to help reset the culture, right? This off season,

21:56if he blows it, he doesn't sign anybody. He doesn't compete for Trey Smith. He doesn't

22:00compete for T Higgins, all those things. Yeah. I'll be right with you. I'll be pissed.

22:04Cause you have too much money. I don't care if you have to overpay if they're players with a

22:08positive track record, do what you got to do. Cause you got a lot of holes to fill on this

22:12roster. You can't go into the draft with every premium position, just a gaping hole. So yeah,

22:17that's basically my point next off season. Yeah. It's, you know, it's, it's, it's going to be a

22:23lot more intense because I think they're going to have more of an ability to fire players like this

22:27list. I'm sorry. Most of these players are depth pieces. The only ones you thought were going to

22:32start for you were Jacoby percent at the beginning of the year and Chookso core for everybody else

22:35was supposed to be a rotational player. So I just like, I saw Bill Simmons saying that

22:40Ellie Wolf deserved an F minus. And just, I don't know what's going on in that guy's football head,

22:44to be honest, obviously a great entrepreneur, but like, Oh my God, he's got to stop tweeting

22:48about the Patriots. I shouldn't admit, I shouldn't say that. I don't know. But yes, I just, I don't

22:53think this is the year to condemn Elliot Wolf. Let's wait till this off season and see what the

22:58guy does. So I think that what really kind of put it, uh, put the blame here on Wolf, if you will,

23:04is the, the burn some cash comment from Gerhard Mayo, because look, they, they really didn't burn

23:11a ton of cash on this list. And would you have, that's really all where all the money went. Yeah.

23:18Would you have rather for, yeah, first and foremost, would you, as fans have rather him

23:22throw a bunch of cash at a bunch of free agents and have half of them to three quarters of them

23:27not work out. And then you have a bunch of guys tanking your salary cap, and then Wolf's going to

23:32get in trouble for that too. So that's one, one aspect of this. The second one is this list

23:36obviously doesn't show the Christian Barmore extension, the Kyle Duggar extension, Hunter

23:40Henry re-signing, uh, Kendrick Bourne re-signing, uh, even, uh, not Taki Taki, what's his name?

23:47Uh, Jelani Tavai, those guys where they, they did use this off season to sort of build out the core

23:52and build the inside of this roster. And finally, like I said, they didn't spend all this money

23:58on top premium free agents. I just looked through the list as you were talking, right? There's

24:03Josh Allen Hines returned to Jacksonville. Uh, Bryce Huff goes to Philly, uh, Daniel Hunter

24:11goes to Houston first and foremost, edge rushers, a position need right now. It wasn't really a

24:15position need at the time you had chewed on, you had Uche here, you had Jennings who you re-signed

24:20and wanted to turn into more of a pass rusher. So first and foremost, you weren't going to take

24:23on any of those guys. Chris Jones returned to the chiefs, Christian Wilkins, maybe he's older.

24:29And I think he's on injured reserve right now. Like that was the one where I was like, if they

24:32get them awesome, if they don't old, I get it's like Calvin Ridley a little bit. We're like,

24:36they're good players. They had great season, really good seasons last year, but it's like,

24:39all right, if they miss out on them and they really make an effort, like it's not the worst

24:42thing in the world. And they made a very strong effort with Ridley. Right. A couple other big

24:46ones here just before we move on is Kirk Cousins. Obviously you're not going to happen. T Higgins

24:51gets a franchise tag. Jalen Johnson, cornerback goes back to Chicago. Maybe would have taken a

24:57chance and get on the bidding on him, but you know, you didn't really know where you were

25:01at the cornerback position at the time. LeJarius Sneed gets signed and traded. Brian Burns gets

25:05true. So like a lot of these top tier free agents, not necessarily positions a need for the Patriots

25:10last season. Of course you want to bring in good players, but hindsight's 2020 on that front.

25:15And I do think that, you know, where things were money wise, you still have a ton of cap space

25:21this season because you didn't blow it on guys of non positions of need last season.

25:26Let's see how it plays out. Obviously it doesn't look great. And that's kind of what the goal of

25:30this tweet was. It wasn't a, I don't think it's bad. It's more so this is what happened.

25:34You make your opinion, make your decision on that front, but long story short, KJ Osborne released

25:41one of the many released free agent signings from the Patriots in 2024. All right, quickly,

25:46before we move on to the next thing, Patriots also signed John Parker Romo to the practice squad is

25:51sort of backup kicker situation behind Joey Sly, who has been up and down this season for the

25:56Patriots. I think he's been relatively consistent, but then also at times he misses the you know,

26:01the 25, 25 yard or a couple weeks ago to help the Patriots lose a couple Sundays ago.

26:07But your thoughts quickly on John Parker Roma coming in. He's somebody who was kicking for

26:11Minnesota when a Will Reichardt was on IR click kicks pretty well. I think he only missed one

26:17attempt over his time in Minnesota. So thoughts on them bringing in some kicker depth before we

26:20move on. First of all, I was looking at kicker numbers. Guess what Nick Fulk is from 50 plus.

26:25Oh God. Like he's attempted six kicks, six of six.

26:30Literally you cut him because he couldn't make a single distance.

26:34And he's six for six. Maybe it's because it's in Tennessee. I don't know whether it's a little

26:38better, but that's nuts to me. Fulk is also eight for nine from 40 plus. He's only missed

26:44one field goal. I just had to put that out there because wow, that's frustrating.

26:48Actually, what's Chad Ryland? Chad's two for two for 50 plus pretty bad from 40 to 49,

26:53which is obviously relevant this week. He's three for seven, but we're on Joey Sly, right? So let

26:57me look up his numbers. He has a couple of losses from pretty much every distance, which is very

27:01disappointing. So he's five for six from less than 30 yards. I think that was the chip shot

27:08field goal he missed last week. 10 for 11 from 30 to 39, three of five from 40 to 49, and four of

27:15six from 50 plus. Now Simpson Romo, friend of the show, Andre Weidengarten pointed out that he's

27:21more like a guy who's inside the 40s. He'll be very consistent for you on some of those kinds

27:26of kicks. Gets a little dicier when you're deeper like that. So I don't think he's necessarily

27:31going to replace Joey Sly or anything like that, but I think that chip shot miss was pretty damning

27:35for Joey, to be honest. And he's on the practice squad. So I think if he has a good week, maybe

27:40things change. But I mean, Joey Sly's got to be better, period. And I think it was smart to at

27:44least bring in some competition. So I don't think he's complacent. He's a pro. He's a veteran. He

27:49gets what it is. But I think it was smart for the Patriots to give themselves a little bit of

27:52insurance because he's just unfortunately really underperformed Joey Sly. Had some really strong

27:57stretches. He's had some consecutive kicks made and looked good at times, but it feels like in

28:01some of the biggest moments, he has had some misses you just couldn't afford that ultimately

28:05cost you the game. Yeah, we'll see what happens there. Again, you mentioned practice squad. I

28:09don't think this is going to be necessarily an urgent move from Sly to Parker Romo right away.

28:16I think this is just a death piece we'll see. And again, if he continues to struggle on the

28:21stretch, what it does maybe is the fire under his ass to kick better when they need it most. So

28:26we will see what happens there. All right. We have a ton of coaching news. Belichick,

28:29Gerard Mayo report from a friend of the CLNS Media Network, Greg Bedard as well. So we're

28:35going to touch on both of those before we get out of here. But first, quick word from our friends

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30:11lineup. Fry Fix, run your game. All right, Taylor, dealer's choice, Belichick or Mayo first. What do

30:17you want to hit? Oh, let's do Bill. Let's do Bill. Okay. Belichick continues to be linked to the UNC

30:25head coaching job. Nothing official yet. Sounds like at least according to Fox Sports is Jordan

30:30Schultz that they are still kind of taking things step by step here, walking through the logistics,

30:36but it does sound like Bill at least according to a report that came in from Ollie Connelly,

30:42who, frankly, not a hundred percent sure where he works. I know it's in his Twitter bio somewhere,

30:48but I will say. I know he used to be a scout. Okay. And so he had some news a few days ago.

30:56He was the first to sort of break in the idea that Bill is going to try and bring along Steve

31:02and make him the successor. And so he reports that Bill has agreed to become the UNC coach.

31:08Now, does that mean that UNC has agreed on their end? No, it doesn't. And I think that's

31:12why we're still moving on these types of things. But he added some interesting context here

31:16saying that he basically handed them a manifesto, a Bible of how he is going to run this program

31:22with payment plans, staffing choices, and things of that nature. Also added that this would require

31:28historic levels of investment from the school with salary minimums, position by position,

31:33and willingness to hire two staffs, one on the coaching side, one on the GM side.

31:37So really diving into this NIL side of the new college football landscape. So I think this is

31:45fascinating stuff. And I think that's because when we recorded our video the other day on why

31:50Belichick won't go to college, we both, and I sort of made this point, but I think the NIL side of

31:58college football, where you have to pay these players, and there's a lot of negotiations with

32:0218-year-old kids who haven't proven, for lack of a better word, shit on the football field.

32:07That's going to be, I thought that would be tough for Belichick to do, but it seems like he's kind

32:11of laying the groundwork to do exactly that. So before we move on to Mayo, just thoughts on this,

32:16Taylor, what do you make of the Belichick stuff? And do you think, at least reading these tea

32:21leaves and sort of where the reports are going, do you actually think that he's going to end up

32:24at the college level? Can you actually scroll down a little bit more? Because I feel like

32:27there's one more part of this that's pretty important. Yeah, maybe touch on that. So first

32:33of all, this is why I think Jordan Schultz made sure to clarify there was not an agreement in

32:38place yet, because all he said that Belichick is basically on board and he's waiting for UNC

32:43to figure their stuff out. Belichick is going to be so, so expensive. And this is what we talked

32:49about in our video about, okay, UNC is a basketball school. Are they really going to give like

32:56dozens of millions of dollars to make sure they can support Belichick and the athletes that he's

33:02going to recruit? I just don't know if that's a realistic possibility. I thought maybe Bill would

33:08take a pay cut because Steve Belichick is tied to this and he would take over for Bill sometime,

33:12which never happened before, where a father was like, yeah, I'll work for you if you hire my son

33:18after two years. In the NFL, I'm sure it happens several other places, but that was, I don't know

33:23I ever heard of that before, but I mean, he would have to take one hell of a pay cut, like basically

33:28less than half of what he was making when he was with the Patriots, or at least what we know

33:32or think that he was making at that time. So yeah, I still don't think this is very likely.

33:36It sounds like the school and like the people kind of at the top aren't super on board with it. And

33:41if they're not going to put up the money for Bill, I don't think he's going. So yeah, it's

33:45interesting. I think this whole thing is definitely fascinating now that we have more details. At

33:49first, to be honest, I was kind of indifferent. I'm like, all right, it doesn't affect my life.

33:53So I don't really care. But this whole thing with the Bible, I'm sure he was showing this

33:58to teams when he was kind of, especially the Falcons when he was trying to get a job this

34:02off season. So it's interesting, but I still think it's pretty unlikely. Yeah. Like you said,

34:06he has this and Ollie writes this in the thread as well. He has a college and pro version of this

34:11coaching manual that he is relaying to teams, which again, I joked on Twitter with the picture

34:16of him with like a sweatshirt ripped, like sitting in an interview, like, yeah, what do you want to

34:20know about me? I'm Bill Belichick. But like, clearly he goes into these things very well

34:25prepared. And I think that's exactly what you need. What's that? Oh, I was saying. Oh yeah.

34:29Like this is Bill Belichick. I would assume that he was like, had his shit together.

34:33Right. And I just, I would love to be a fly on the wall in these meetings where, I mean,

34:36he apparently met with the chancellor yesterday for five hours in Boston. He was meeting with

34:40a group of guys in NYC on Sunday as well. And then he also had this initial zoom interview.

34:46So like this, it's very real. I think that's the main thing we have to look at here where there's,

34:51there's these rumors, there's reports of all these interviews happening. This

34:54coaching guide that he has and brings, like, I don't think he would waste his time with UNC

35:00if he wasn't at least interested. We'll see if the school is on the other end. You mentioned

35:04this other part here where there was pushback from a group of trustees. The investment again,

35:09would overhaul the school's approach to football. And it feels like, again, this, this huge financial

35:16like, I wonder just from UNC side where yes, it's going to help your program.

35:20You would think for, you know, the short term, two, three years, Belichick's there. Great coach,

35:25notoriety, like that's going to almost pay for itself, you know, when you unleash this, but then

35:30you talk about now you sort of set, set an NIL standard for a basketball school, right? Like you

35:37said, and can they keep that up post Belichick? I think that's probably what they're questioning

35:43here because it's such a short term, high energy investment that may kind of trickle down from

35:48there. So we will, we will certainly see how this goes, but fascinating stuff on the Bill Belichick

35:55front potentially. Real quick, Ollie works for the Guardian. So he is a reliable source. Okay.

36:00Good. I just want to kind of clarify that. So it didn't seem like just because he has the read

36:04optional. I think that's his website. I'm a hundred percent sure, but it's not just that

36:07he does work for the Guardian. No, for sure. And I, I didn't mean to, to, to dump water on,

36:11on his reporting by any means, but it's just like, I know, you know, that, but it's

36:14Bernie Schultz, like that clap back, but he tweeted like minutes after. So, I mean, yeah,

36:20level of disconnect somewhere, maybe somebody said something they shouldn't have. And then

36:24Ollie said it and it was like, hold up. We didn't want that to be out there. I don't,

36:27I don't know. I don't know. But yeah, you know, cause it is kind of different,

36:30different stories for those two years. And, and with this story, the first real report came from

36:35a UNC blog inside Carolina. It's like, so those guys kind of, and I mentioned it the other day,

36:40it's like Kevin stone. He was all over the Thomas Castellanos news at BC, but then it gets broken

36:45by Pete Thamel at ESPN, but he knew it. People don't take it as seriously because it's smaller,

36:50but I'll take Ollie's. Yeah. I'll take Ollie for what, you know, for his word because it's,

36:54you know, it's frankly, cause it gives us something to talk about. All right, let's move

36:58on to the Patriots head coach, Gerard Mayo, new new reporting from Greg Bedard. Like I said,

37:06CLNS podcaster from Boston sports journal. He reported today that Robert Kraft would not

37:11hesitate to fire Gerard Mayo if he feels he made the wrong choice. So this kind of goes

37:16hand in hand with the, the storyline, if you will, that we've sort of talked about on here,

37:22that Mayo is safe because they put in such a heavy investment in him. And he made it clear

37:28that he picked him five years ago on the trip, you know, to Europe and you know, all of this

37:33all of that kind of stuff and that he should get more than one year to try and turn this thing

37:39around. But you know, in Greg's in Greg's piece on Boston sports journal. So they basically said

37:43that, no, if things go South here, his job is not safe. And I'm paraphrasing go read the whole

37:50thing up BSJ, if you'd like to check it out, but some interesting stuff from Greg and I feel like

37:55it feels like new news. But at the end of the day, and we were talking about it earlier,

38:00where this whole thing with Mayo, if they lose the locker room, that's a fireable offense.

38:07And so four straight games of, you know, getting your, getting your asses whooped,

38:13you can lose the locker room over these next four games. So I think it would make sense.

38:17There is a way for him to lose his job this season. I just think it's very unlikely,

38:20but your thoughts on the report and where the Patriots are going after this.

38:23Yeah, it's pretty much what we've been saying is the only way that you fire a coach after one year

38:28is if they lose the locker room. And yeah, I think that the team understands they have a very

38:32tough slate of opponents coming up. You got Buffalo twice, but I think you're good enough

38:37that you can compete in those games, especially with Drake May. Now, if it's like one blowout

38:42and they're competitive in the others, like, you know, there's what it is, but like you said,

38:45they, you know, cannot be competitive down the stretch. I think it's going to be very hard for

38:51players to still have that same level of buying. And I know John Jones mentioned, he's so proud of

38:56how tight they've remained through all this adversity and everything, how being such a young

39:00team kind of gives you a little more push in a losing season where these guys want to prove

39:05themselves versus veterans who may be like, you know what, I'm kind of checked out. Like,

39:10I'm going to be here next year. I really am not trying to put my body on the line like that.

39:14We know Austin Hooper is not in that category because he was like, yeah,

39:16you got it for him yesterday. Yeah. He's like, you can be a professional or you can start

39:20thinking about where you want to vacation. And from every indication we have from Austin Hooper,

39:24he ain't thinking about vacation. Like that man is, he took his time away and now he's going to

39:29ball out. But I think that would make sense. I've said, as long as Gerard finishes, like he said,

39:34finish on a high note, show areas of progress. For me, I think that would be more consistency.

39:40Overall. I think it means executing in the red zone, fewer penalties. Biggest thing I think

39:44is penalties and miscommunications. Those have been the biggest bugaboos on both sides of the ball

39:49that have really been holding these Patriots back. So if you see growth in those departments and to

39:54be fair, while I don't know exactly what edge Mayo brings other than like, obviously he's a

39:58former player. I think he's very good with the players and the way that he communicates with them

40:03and he has maintained buy-in. And I think reset the culture in a way where at least people don't

40:08feel, people feel, I would say more secure with themselves because they are like, you know,

40:13they have stake in the team and all this versus Belichick where you are more of a piece on a

40:17board than you are someone who's, you know, seen as like, Hey, this is your team as well.

40:21Um, maybe I didn't phrase that exactly right. I know that, you know, Bill wasn't treating these

40:25guys necessarily like robots, but we do know that Gerard very much wanted to change how that went.

40:29But yeah, man, like it's put up or shut up time at this point. Like we know the roster's not great,

40:34but it's not really an excuse for a lot of things that have gone on. The talent deficit is a part

40:38of that, but bottom line, you have to show that you are at least like competing with these teams.

40:44And then when you get those other players, you can get better because also if you bomb,

40:47I think it hurts your perception of free agency where people may not want to come because yeah,

40:50you have Drake may, but like you sucked down the stretch. You were really, really bad versus

40:56if you're two and two or you're three and one or something where, you know, you can at least show,

41:00like, look how close we were to beating Buffalo and the chargers and the Cardinals, all teams that

41:04might be in the playoffs. You know, we just need a few extra guys to get us over that hump.

41:08Then you're good. But yeah, if he botched it down the stretch, it's not something new for us. We've

41:12been saying, yeah, that's going to be how he loses his job. So we'll see. But again, the consistency

41:17has to improve. Yeah. Even like you mentioned three and one, two and two. I think even if you

41:21go, Oh, and four, but play games close and fight till the end, you're safe. Like that's tough.

41:28Look, but who are they going to beat? I think the chargers, I honestly think they can beat the

41:32chargers. If they play their best game, they minimize the chargers and someone beat the

41:37chiefs and the chiefs, the best team in football. I mean, yeah, but then the Patriots almost beat

41:41the bangles. Like we could do that. I know. Yeah. And Sunday teams don't perform the same

41:45way week in and week out. And the Cardinals, frankly, I think this is a people team as well.

41:48I think, again, I think these are games where they're not the Colts. It's not the same kind of

41:52thing, but the Cardinals are inconsistent. The chargers only have one real receiver. Like I

41:57really do think if they play this when football, they'll be in those games. So the very end

42:01Buffalo, we'll see. I think how they play the Cardinals is going to tell us a little bit more

42:05about how competitive they can be with Buffalo coming out of the buy and whatnot. Um, but yeah,

42:09I, I do think that Owen four is going to be a really tough thing to explain. I don't care how

42:12competitive you are. You got to win at least one of these last few games should be interesting.

42:16We'll see how that happens, but yeah, I'm with you. I think, uh, it's going to be tough for him

42:20to lose his job, but if you go out there and stink up the joint and again, losing the locker room,

42:25losing the buy-in that's hard to sell going into next season for free agents. And frankly,

42:29it's hard to sell to ownership, right? When you go and have that meeting after the season,

42:33like what happened down the stretch and not just, um, not just losing, but losing by a lot.

42:38We're talking things into a distance to a lot of hypotheticals right now, but Mayo mentioned

42:43right. Yeah. But with Tom Carr and he talked to him over the bi-week and basically said that he

42:47has meetings with ownership all the time. And so, uh, you know, he's going to probably have

42:52his feet held to the fire after the season to kind of explain a what happened, what's the plan

42:57moving forward. Um, and essentially why should we keep you on board? So we'll see what happens

43:03there, but I do think that, uh, yeah, go, sorry. I'm sorry. There was one more thing. Cause we

43:06talked about this. Another is so by every metric, the Patriots are very conservative team,

43:12which kind of made sense when they were still in the thick of things. And, you know, you're

43:16thinking, okay, maybe they're still on the hunt or whatever. And now that they're not,

43:19you've had your bi-week, you've had your time to reset. I want you to see the Patriots be the team

43:23that wants to ruin everyone's season that lines up against them. I know the bills are already in the

43:28playoffs, but like make things harder for them, like mess with their seating. Like you're playing

43:32them twice. I need them to go in saying like, we are playing with house money, go forward on fourth

43:38downs in the red zone, be aggressive. Don't take the conservative approach because if you do, it's

43:42like, why are you doing this? The winds don't count. Like, obviously we said the winds matter

43:47a hundred percent and I'm not saying you just completely throw your brain out and just like

43:51go complete balls to the wall. But I do want to see more aggressiveness. I want to see a little

43:56more competitive fire from the coaches, specifically Mayo in his decision-making. And obviously Evan

44:01Rothstein, cause he's a big part of that. But yeah, I think that's one thing you want to see

44:04is like, Hey, Drake may, especially give him opportunities to convert in very difficult

44:08situations because if he can't, it's a learning experience. And if he can, you know, even more

44:13that you can rely on that down the stretch and in the future. So that's another thing I want to see

44:16from this coaching staff, be aggressive. You are playing with house money against a lot of good

44:20teams where those kinds of plays can make the difference. Don't be punting on fourth and two.

44:24When you're at midfield, like bump that shit. I'm like, I'm so sick of seeing that. And I'll be,

44:29that's the thing that really frustrates me with Mayo. It's like, you're leaning on Evan Rothstein

44:33guy. What has he done? I can't remember. They've had some little executed like end of halves and

44:37things like that. But we, every single week in these close games that they don't win, we talk

44:42about, ah, I don't know why they did that in that situation or this situation. And it's like a list

44:47of questionable calls that we have to go back and review. Like I'm sick of that, man, be aggressive,

44:52try to win these games and try to put the fear of God in these teams and be the kind of unit

44:57that I know you're not the most talented, but be a tough discipline unit that these teams don't want

45:01to play. That's what Gerard Mayo sold you when he took over. Let's start seeing some semblance of

45:06that down the stretch. I love it. We got some fire out of Taylor Kyle before the end of this episode.

45:11All right. Quick word from our friends at game time before we close this thing out and head

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46:33today. What time is it Taylor? Game time. Sure is. It's game time. It's also time to wrap up

46:38this podcast quickly. Final thoughts on post-buy week. I know you kind of gave them just there

46:45about, um, being the spoiler and coming in and being aggressive, but we know what the optimism

46:51is and it's, it's Drake May and it's this, this offense kind of clicking and it's the secondary

46:55with Christian Gonzalez and Christian Balmore kind of hitting, um, a run here. What are you

47:01looking for this team to improve on down the stretch? What do they have to do over these next

47:04four games to, to make you confident heading into 2025? Yeah, I kind of alluded to some of it,

47:09but I'll go a little bit more in depth. So I actually wrote a piece, the three areas I thought

47:13the Patriots really needed to improve. Go check it out. CLNSBD.com. The first one is the red zone

47:20execution on both sides of the ball for the Patriots offense. A lot of it's had to do with

47:24penalties where they're in good position and they keep pushing themselves deeper and deeper and not

47:30only taking touchdowns off the board, they've had three touchdowns taken off the board since week

47:34three because of penalties. There was the KJ Osborne one. There was a Mike and one who hold

47:38with Rondre Stevenson. And then there was the Mario Douglas not getting set on the scramble

47:42touchdown from Drake to Kendrick Bourne last week. That stuff can't happen, man. Like you keep

47:47you're moving the ball extremely well. If you execute in the red zone, these games could have

47:52maybe not been blowouts because obviously like you score points, it forces the other team to be

47:55more aggressive. I don't like getting into the hypothetical of what would happen necessarily,

47:58but you're putting up more points. And now this offense, when you look at points per game is one

48:02of the worst in the NFL, but by every other metric they're doing very well. So for the offense,

48:08I think you need to stop with the penalties, stop hurting yourself and scoring territory

48:13and start turning these field goals, missed field goals and the touchdowns on defense.

48:18It's the communication in the red zone. It's been the biggest thing. They have been the worst red

48:23zone defense in the NFL over the past month. No one has given up more touchdowns. I believe it's

48:28nine. No one's given up more than that. Almost all of those have come on some type of miscommunication

48:33where coverage wasn't passed off. Somebody's eyes were in the wrong place and they had somebody

48:37going the opposite way. Anthony Richardson, both times he punched it in the end zone.

48:41Every time he punched it in the end zone, you have the miscommunication where Jonathan Taylor is

48:45going free in the flat. There were three different people who could have scored touchdowns on that

48:49play. You had the Richardson touchdown where Christian Gonzalez was unblocked and didn't

48:53realize what the play was until it was too late. You had the two point conversion where Christian

48:56Ellis shows poor eye discipline, flies out for the running back, doesn't even account for a QB

49:01keeper. Even though we were literally sitting in the press box saying, if I am them, if I'm

49:06Indianapolis, I'm daring the Patriots to stop a quarterback run. They couldn't do it all game.

49:11So we're going to touch on all these kinds of factors down the road, but one red zone execution

49:15on both sides has to be better offensively. You're moving the ball. Well finished drives

49:20defensively. You can be a bend, but don't break defense. I think with the talent deficits, like

49:25you're playing a lot of good running backs, athletic quarterbacks, they've got weapons.

49:28Like it's not going to be easy to just shut these guys down other than maybe the chart comes again,

49:33but at the bottom line, you can bend, let them get into scoring territory. Make them

49:38kick field goals. Make sure you're on the same page. I'm so sick and tired of seeing these

49:42touchdowns. Like that is the biggest thing with the Marcus Covington where I'm like, I,

49:46I don't think it's you, especially when it's a lot of veterans and inexperienced when it's

49:50inexperienced players, you're like, yeah, you know, Christian Ellis doesn't play a whole lot

49:54or doesn't have a lot of defensive experience. Christian Gonzalez. I think that was maybe just

49:59an unfamiliar spot for him. And Kyle Thugger has just been the one where I don't really understand

50:02what's going on with him, but they got to get that under control. Second thing, offensive sync

50:08with DeMario Douglas, we've seen, and he's really been the headliner, but Kendrick Bourne has

50:11admitted to running at least one wrong route. And I think every game, if not almost every single

50:16game he's played since he returned, can't have that from your veterans. You also have the Mario

50:21Douglas, like I mentioned, where sometimes against the blitz, he's not running the proper number of

50:26steps. He's kind of running into defenders, got a little bit better last week, but still far from

50:31perfect. And then I know there was the Hunter Henry. I wouldn't really call that lack of sync.

50:37That was really just an inaccurate pass that Hunter Henry couldn't bring in. But the sync

50:41period is the only thing where when they're in the open field, you really see as the most glaring

50:45weakness that I think is correctable. How quickly can you correct it? Can you be a well-oiled

50:50machine? I don't know. I don't really think so, to be honest. You're at the tail end of the season.

50:53It's going to be really hard. It'll be an off-season problem. Exactly, exactly. But it

50:57needs to be a priority and something they focus and hone in on as an area of improvement. It may

51:02not be perfect, but it needs to be better. Last thing, containing mobile quarterbacks. You are

51:08facing three of the most athletic passers in the NFL, three of the best-designed runners in the

51:13NFL, and all three guys who are very effective as scramblers. Now, the Patriots, to their credit,

51:18for the most part, have been much better against mobile quarterbacks, much, much better. It's

51:22really the last week you had the blitz from Jabril Peppers on fourth and two, where he takes a bad

51:27angle to Anthony Richardson. He gets out of the pocket, scrambles, throws it for a conversion.

51:30The game could have pretty much been over if Jabril Peppers had taken a better angle and been

51:34able to at least get in Anthony Richardson's face to maybe affect the play. You also had,

51:39I know there was a scramble that he had. Oh, yeah, the scramble where Eric Johnson, it looked like,

51:44may have had a lapse, and he kind of ran up the middle. It wasn't terrible. When you look at the

51:48raw stats, it was better than what I expected them to do against Anthony Richardson, but it was all

51:53the production was in the most important moments. That cannot happen, because they hadn't seen

51:57anybody like Anthony Richardson before. You're going to see a few guys that are kind of like him

52:01in terms of being Kyler Murray's small, but he's very fast and very elusive, and then Josh Allen

52:05and Herbert are massive aliens with big arms, big frames who can run over you, or they can run

52:11around you. Those guys, you cannot let their athleticism be the reason you lose. They're

52:16going to have a couple plays. Is Josh Allen in one of these next two games they play going to

52:20throw a pass when he's two inches from the sideline and throw a touchdown? Hell, maybe.

52:23Probably, yeah. He's Josh Allen. I'm not expecting you to shuck these guys down,

52:29but in those critical moments, I need better awareness, and I need just better execution

52:34overall, because there were avoidable mistakes they made that led to those conversions. Once again,

52:39improved execution in the red zone on both sides of the ball. Offensively, get in sync, whether

52:44it's against zone, whether it's running your right routes. I know it might not be perfect,

52:49but it needs to be better than what it's been in recent weeks. As good as it's been overall,

52:52and then defensively specifically, you got to have some kind of answer to mobile quarterbacks.

52:56Patrons have always been bad against mobile quarterbacks. Again, that's why my expectations

53:00aren't super high, but you cannot have them just like, they can't just have you over their knee

53:04spanking you all game, because you have no idea how to defend them. Continue to be good

53:08in terms of your pass rush and be disciplined there, but be better against the quarterback

53:12runs, and those are really my three big ones. Love it. Good stuff there, Taylor. We appreciate

53:17the hard work you do. My big one, it's simple. Let's see what the rookies have in store. The two

53:21linemen, the two wide receivers, that's the big stuff for the Patriots. It's the obvious storyline,

53:27but I think over these next four games, you're going to see what you have in those guys.

53:30Drive Mayo said it best. We want to see what we have heading in to 2025 from a roster standpoint.

53:35We will be back tomorrow with a mailbag. We'll be back on Thursday with some previews as the

53:40Patriots get ready to take on the Cardinals this weekend coming up in Arizona. Make sure you keep

53:45it here on Patriots Press Pass. Subscribe to Patriots Daily wherever you get your podcasts,

53:49and tune in here for all of our Patriots coverage on the channel, Patriots Press Pass, our podcast.

53:54Pat's Beat coming up at four o'clock, so tune in with Alex and Brian. Taylor also has a special

53:59guest coming up on the pod. I don't know if you want me to tell it, Taylor, or if you want to save

54:03it, so tease it. What do you want? Yeah, I'll tease it. A friend of the show, Derek Classen,

54:08is going to be stopping by, breaking down some Drake May film before the Cardinals game. He's

54:12going to be going over the tape for things that he really likes, which I'm sure is going to be

54:15plentiful, and also give a couple clips of areas where he can improve because he's still a rookie.

54:19He's still a long way to go in his NFL career. Derek is always a great time. There's always

54:23great feedback when he comes on, one of my favorite humans in this industry, so that's going

54:27to be a lot of fun as always. Love it. Keep it locked in here on Press Pass. Check it out. Until

54:31next time, take care of yourselves, take care of each other, and we will see you next time.

54:34Peace out, everyone.

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