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SportsTranscript
00:00I am joined by Robert Griffin III, James White, Field, Yates, Mina Kimes, all right, so first
00:11play we're going to look at, second and two, one of the Patriots' first offensive plays.
00:18What's going on, everyone? Mike Kadlik, Taylor Kiles here for CLNS Media, back with another
00:21episode of the Patriots Daily Podcast, powered by PrizeFix, powered by GameTime, and powered
00:27by the 3-and-11 New England Patriots. Coming off an ugly loss last weekend against the
00:32Arizona Cardinals. Flipping the page today, as Gerard Mayo told us on Sunday, getting
00:36ready for the AFC East leading Buffalo Bills this coming Sunday, flexed into a 4-25 time
00:43slot. It's a Wednesday, so we got our mailbag. We have all your questions loaded up. We're
00:47going to get to as many as possible throughout the show. We're going to be talking a lot
00:51about Gerard Mayo, his job security, Mike Vrabel rumors, what's going on on field issues
00:57off field issues, all of that stuff with the Patriots. So we're going to get to all
01:00of that throughout the mailbag. We also were just down in Foxborough, recorded a couple
01:04of stand-ups regarding Mayo, regarding Vrabel. So once those are up, we're going to turn
01:10you guys towards that. Right now, off the bat, we're going to start with some Drake
01:13May film that we promised on Monday. We're going to get to that. We're going to hit on
01:17his ups and his downs from the Patriots' loss in Arizona. But first, let's actually quickly
01:21touch on this injury report that just came out with the Patriots, Taylor. First practice
01:26of the week, three DNPs, all three were absent from practice as well when we were out there.
01:31Kyle Duggar with an ankle and an illness, Jermichael Hastie with an ankle, Marcus Jones
01:36with a hip, not a concussion, as some may have thought, because he got smoked on that
01:40last onside kick attempt in the game. And then a couple other ones of note, Javon Baker
01:44returns from a concussion. He was limited. He told Doug Kide today in the locker room
01:49that he got in a tough car accident over the bi-week, so glad to hear that he's doing okay.
01:55And other ones of note, Christian Marmer is obviously there, Christian Gonzalez with
01:58the shoulder, Badarian Lowe with the shoulder as well, Cole Strange remaining limited with
02:03a knee. So anything pressing to you, come up on the injury report outside of the obvious
02:07before we get into Drake May.
02:10I'm glad that Marcus Jones doesn't have a concussion, that's one, because if you look
02:12at the play, the defender kind of hit him in the head. A little surprised it wasn't
02:17a penalty, but it's good to see it's not at least that. But also Alex Erickson, who was
02:21brought in today, he now is locker room number 14 for the Patriots. He's got a punt return
02:26experience, so it is possible, as Mike Reese noted, that that may be why he was signed,
02:31just in case maybe Marcus Jones either doesn't play or isn't a full go, and they want to
02:35take a little off his plate, maybe even add some depth, whether or not you want to start
02:38pop in that role.
02:41Outside of that, nothing really crazy. Javon Baker, kind of interesting that he was, he's
02:44still in, he, Mike Reese said that he cleared concussion protocol, but apparently they're
02:49trying to be cautious, whatever, he was limited, at least back there. And then Kyle Duggar
02:55was interesting because obviously now it's an illness on top of the ankle, but we talked
03:01about this in practice, but you kind of got to wonder, did they shut Kyle Duggar down
03:06at this point?
03:07As we mentioned it yesterday in the show, he just doesn't seem healthy enough to warrant
03:12being on the field. And if you're talking about, you need this youth movement to see
03:15what guys have, sure, Marte Mapu hasn't been very good for you, but neither is Jalen Polk.
03:20So I don't really see why you would put Duggar out there. Like, I don't even think Peppers
03:22is a hundred percent either. It looks like whatever that knee issue is, it's still bothering
03:26him because I don't think he looks as explosive. So that's one thing I do wonder if we'll see
03:32Duggar next week, if this is just maybe a precursor to another big move. I don't know,
03:37but again, it's not just the ankle that he's already been dealing with, it's also illness.
03:40So no way to know, but I think that's at least something that warrants some kind of discussion.
03:44Yeah, for sure. And I didn't even, as far as the Marcus Jones injury goes, yeah, you
03:48hope you see him this weekend, but a hip can be tough. And a DNP on a Wednesday, obviously
03:53is their biggest day. When you get closer Thursday, Friday, that's when it starts to,
03:57you know, you start to question if he'll end up playing, could be just an early in the
04:00week rest day, but see what happens there. Like I said, hips can be tough. And then Duggar,
04:03I'm totally with you as far as at this point, the ankle, he hasn't been playing good football
04:10and we've given the ankle sometimes as not an excuse, but a reason for why he's playing
04:15so poorly to see him back on the injury report, not there at all. Again, it could be the illness.
04:20I think he was one of the players wearing a mask in the locker room last week as well.
04:23So, you know, it could be residual to that. Again, we don't know, but would not shock
04:28me on, on with you as far as potentially shutting them down. It seems like at this point, three
04:33and 11, supposedly one of your marquee players on defense, you might just want to get them
04:37healthy into the next season.
04:39And obviously this isn't a hundred percent the reason because he played against the Dolphins
04:42and there was no illness that we knew of, but it kind of reminds me of the bills game
04:45in Buffalo last year when he did not have a very good game, especially against Dalton
04:50Kincaid. And it was also, he was sick the whole week leading up to it. And then it was
04:55like, why does he look like this? And I remember I was breaking it down and somebody pointed
04:59out, wasn't he sick this week? I was like, Oh yeah, I guess that probably does kind of
05:02play a factor. That was one of my rookie growing moments learning like, yeah, sometimes like
05:05if somebody doesn't play really well, make sure you at least double check the injury
05:09report. So yeah, again, I don't think that's the reason because we know he's been struggling
05:13for a while, but Hey, and if he's not good enough to be on the field, I hope they're
05:18putting some serious consideration sickness or not into just giving them the rest of the
05:23year to start getting healthy.
05:24Something like that. And they sort of did that with Ramandra Stephenson last year, right?
05:27And even Matthew Judon as well, when it came down to it, Judon was going to seemingly potentially
05:32be ready enough to play the last two, three games. But at that point, the season was over
05:36same with Ramandra. They put them on IR and basically shelter. So could potentially be
05:41something they try and do here with Kyle Bunker. So that's the injury report from today. Again,
05:46check it out. Myself and Taylor tweeted it out. If you, if you didn't see it,
05:49but Kyle Bunker, Marcus Jones, and to Michael hasty, all absent from practice today. All right,
05:54let's get into the fun stuff. Taylor Drake may goes 19 of 22 last Sunday against the Cardinals,
05:59200 yards, a touchdown and interception. That wasn't really his fault and a rushing touchdown,
06:05making it a double touchdown day for a one through the air and one through the ground,
06:09some ups, some downs, but you have the film, take us through it. What'd you see from the rookie
06:13in another one of his solid starts where again, he's completing 19 of 23 passes. His completion
06:17percentage keeps going up and up on the air. Yeah, it was career high completion percentage
06:21career high in yards per attempt. We got to talk in terms of an overview about the breakdown
06:26yesterday. So always make sure to check out our shows if you haven't, but I'm going to be diving
06:30into the film. Now we are going to start off with the negatives just because there were more
06:34positives, get the negatives out of the way so that we can finish on a high note. And there really
06:38were not many. So don't want to freak out or anything, but there were obviously,
06:41it's a rookie quarterback, always things that you can improve today. Actually he mentioned how, um,
06:47sometimes defenses will change things up on him and kind of bait him into a deep throw.
06:51And he's got to do a better job at knowing when he should go downfield and when he should take
06:55the short stuff, which he's done a fantastic job of for the most part. But here's one of the few
06:59examples, especially in this game where it felt like he was really forcing something. So as you
07:04can see, this is on the deep shot to Keishon booty. So the Cardinals are going to start out
07:09middle field, open or split safety coverage. So Drake may, may be thinking because of a
07:14combination they have, he has a potential deep shot down the middle of the field.
07:18Cause he's going to have Keishon booty running a corner post and then Jalen Polk running an
07:22over route. But what we're going to see after the snap is that it's not going to be split safety.
07:26They're going to rotate down with Jalen Thompson, covering Hunter Henry, then Buddha Baker playing
07:31the deep middle of the field. So like I said, Polk is going to be running over the middle.
07:35Baker's going to be running a post route. You do not want to throw this at the call to post
07:40safety for a reason. If you see that middle of the field is closed. Most of the time,
07:44you do not want to throw that route. Instead you throw over the middle, usually because,
07:48especially given the coverage that the Cardinals end up playing, it's pretty wide open in the
07:52middle of the field. So we're going to let this play run. Once again, you have the crossing route.
07:56And then I had to kind of shrink this route a little bit, but it bends a little deeper downfield
08:00than that. So once again, the matchup that we're going to look at is Keyshawn Booty against
08:04Sean Murphy Bunting, who apparently is dating Bobby Altaf or whatever.
08:09I saw that too, but then he responded to it today and said that it was a lie and it wasn't him.
08:13So very interesting. Yeah, maybe that'll just be a separate stand up another day because that's
08:19kind of fascinating. But anyway, this is a football show. So we got Keyshawn Booty,
08:23Sean Murphy Bunting. Now May takes the snap. What I actually do love about this play
08:28is the pocket management. Because as soon as he gets to the top of his drop,
08:32he has interior pressure from Ben Brown, does a great job climbing the pocket, step up, step up.
08:37Now, what I don't love here is I think on this step up, he should have just planted his feet
08:41and either said, I'm going to go short to Hunter Henry or I'm going to throw to Jalen Polk. Now,
08:45Polk is in yellow because he's not wide open. This is still the kind of throw where you put it out
08:49in front of him and say, hi, my guy catches it or no one catches it. Because at this point,
08:54you should be able to see that Buddha Baker is right on top of this post route. You really don't
08:58want to be throwing that, especially at a safety of Buddha's caliber, where you can kind of take
09:03that the other way if you're not really careful. You're throwing it into a rotation too, which.
09:07Exactly. Exactly. So instead of that, he's going to continue to hitch up and then try to get the
09:12deep shot to Keyshawn Booty. Now in Drake's defense, you see Keyshawn starts to slow down
09:17as soon as he turns. I think it's because he saw the post safety and thought, oh, there's no way
09:22this ball's going to me. That's not, that doesn't matter. Dude, you got to run these routes at 100%,
09:26like Mayo said, although he's not going to call out specific players, he's going to say booty.
09:31Your job is to get open and to catch the ball. And obviously this is a tough position to get open,
09:35but you really can't stop on the route because you see him slow down. Then he gets back on his
09:39horse and the ball is out in front. At least if he'd continued to run, he might've had a shot at
09:44this. So one Drake may does force it, but also doesn't get a lot of help from his wide receiver.
09:49Now we're going to look at what seemed like some kind of off play with Jalen Polk
09:54and Drake may, but this is another one where I feel like Drake may maybe could have helped
09:57himself with a better decision. So we're going to get, again, we're going to get a matchup
10:02between Jalen Polk and Buddha Baker. Oftentimes a receiver in a safety that's mismatch. You want to
10:06exploit, but here one Buddha Baker's a very good player. Jalen poke at this point in his career
10:11is not, I don't know much how, how much I love the idea of targeting this matchup,
10:16but I kind of get it in theory, you know, positionally, it is a bit of a mismatch
10:21and you're going to get an out breaking route, um, against big Buddha Baker.
10:24But I don't love the decision here from Drake may, because one at this point in the progression,
10:28I think he should see, okay, whether this is supposed to be an out, whether it's supposed
10:32to be a corner because Drake may ends up kind of throwing this to no one. I think it was a throw
10:36away, but when you see Baker reading the hips with this outside leverage with poke running
10:41and out breaking route, you'd like for him to say, okay, this isn't here, but if it's cover one
10:46on the other side of this formation, I've got two in breaking routes that should have an
10:50advantage because once again, he, I would like for him to after that, to have gone onto the other
10:55side of the field, but he kind of stays locked on. Doesn't look very comfortable. You can see
10:59in the footwork looks a little hesitant on when to throw this exactly. And by the time he does,
11:04I will give some grace bearing down as he's throwing the ball. But still what I'm saying
11:10is if he comes off this a little sooner, he has Austin Hooper in the intermediate part of the
11:14field. We know he loves Austin Hooper on these kinds of routes, and he's even got Hunter Henry
11:19short. So at this point, I don't think you can really come off these and make the other throws.
11:24I just wish he was a quick, faster in his progression because then he ends up kind of
11:28just throwing this into the stands. I think that's a good decision because you don't want to throw
11:31into a bad window, but I think he had an opportunity to potentially throw a touchdown or at least get
11:36some positive yardage. And this is the last one for me, his miss to Kayshon booty. This is the
11:41only one that really was exclusively on Drake, but I think I understand why. So this is a bootleg.
11:46They're making it look like a counter that they tried earlier in the game. This is why when people
11:51get so mad, the Patriots are so predictable on first down. All they ever do is run. When they
11:55do that, they're usually setting up something else. And one of those first down runs ends up
11:59being this where you'll see what Jaheim Bell specifically looks like counter right now,
12:03right? He opens up, he got in one who pulling, but what he's actually going to do Jaheim Bell
12:07is reverse out into the flat. To this point, Baron Browning thinks this is a counter run
12:11because he ends up still trying to kind of go after Ramond Gray Stevenson does a great job
12:16picking up the blitz. Nice little guitar fake there from Drake may empty hand come around on
12:21the bootleg action. Now he initially is going to look to Austin Hooper, right? That's where he
12:26starts to throw, but I think he realizes that the fender is crashing down on and says, you know what?
12:30Nope. I'm going to maybe go off to somebody else, not force this throw. Then you see him look to the
12:35flat, which I think he's doing because he wants to manipulate this defender. Now, either it's a
12:40reaction or he did this intentionally either way. I think it was a good decision to not go to this
12:46flat and to instead attack downfield. But one reason I think he's pumping and trying to manipulate
12:51the defender is after he does this, he immediately after opening up towards the flat, as he's
12:57throwing turns to Keyshawn booty. I also think trying to do this and kind of like a no look
13:02throw, which he did pull off later in the game and we'll break down. I think on this play, trying
13:08to throw to booty while looking somewhere else is a reason that this despite Keyshawn booty being
13:13wide open ends up sailing on him. Cause you don't really see these kinds of misses from Drake very
13:17often. So I think again, he can do this and we've seen many other times where he kind of has his
13:21eyes one place. By the time the ball comes out, he's somewhere else. These are the mistakes you're
13:25going to make. Hopefully Alex Van Pelt has some kind of coaching point for him, where if he does
13:29want to do something like this again, it works out. I'm not a quarterback's coach, so I don't
13:33know, but it just, it looks like one instance where, you know, that's one of the few times where
13:37he wasn't able to complete, especially to a wide open receiver. You'd like to see him make that
13:42play, but also these are relatively nitpicky for the most part. Like I said, Keyshawn booty didn't
13:47always help or his receivers didn't always help him out. You got Keyshawn booty stopping running,
13:51even though it was a forced throw, you got Jalen Polk looking like he's not running the right route,
13:55either that or Drake may just said, you know what, I'm going to throw this away just because
13:59I did stay on this too long and I don't want to potentially put this in a bad window.
14:03And then the last one may, I don't want to say trying to do too much because like I said,
14:07he has done it before, but it did seem like, all right, next time, you know,
14:11maybe just try to get a little bit more set before you let that one go. But again,
14:15those are like the three bad plays I found. And when you're talking about a rookie quarterback,
14:19if those are the mistakes, we didn't even talk about the interception because I think more so,
14:23I think it was a great throw by Drake. Great. And I think it was a good throw.
14:27What Keyshawn booty did though, and why his answer frustrated me where he's like, yeah,
14:30it was a low throw. It's hard to adjust with Hunter Henry. I'm more on his side. Cause I
14:35really did think the way he's breaking and everything, it's tough, but with booty,
14:38you can see that he catches it and looks behind him to turn up field and then juggles the ball
14:43and looks back. Right. That's on the receiver. That's where no looking in and then you'll be
14:47fine. So yeah, I thought for the most part, it was an impressive effort from Drake may,
14:51and I got plenty of clips for the good, so it's not going to be all bad.
14:54Yeah. I was going to say, I mean, we're, we're talking about three of the four
14:57incompletions were what you just showed. The other one was an interception. That wasn't his
15:01fault. Everything else, 19 and completions, a couple of runs for a Russian touchdown. Like
15:05overall, obviously, like you said, a great game, but fair enough to nitpick those three plays.
15:09I think even the, the no look type of past the booty, it's basically just like you said, not
15:14trying to do too much, but okay. If you're going to do that, either try and get yourself reset to
15:19when you do manipulate the defender, be able to put it on your guy or just take a little bit more
15:24off and kind of get a better feel for those touch type of throws over defenders when you make them
15:28come up. But again, overall great stuff. So what do you got for the good? What do you got for Drake
15:31may? What did he do well on Sunday against Arizona? Yeah. So here we're going to be focusing
15:35on the late surge from Drake may once the Patriots are pretty much out of it, but they were like,
15:40you know what? We got to go hurry up. We don't have enough time. Let's get some tempo,
15:44no huddle. Let's just get this ball into the end zone. And this is where Drake may really shine.
15:49One of the most impressive drives I've seen from him in his career. And the coolest thing is
15:53there were like almost every throw in those last two touchdown drives had really highlight plays
15:58where you see his patience, his decisiveness and his ability to move defender. So on this play,
16:03for example, bottom of the screen, you got Keyshawn booty and DeMario Douglas running a set
16:08of embrace, a set of slant routes. I'm sorry. Drake may initially is going to look to DeMario
16:14Douglas. Now I'm not sure if he's pumping the defender because he sees a Kaiser white number
16:19seven is open to the tight end side. So the middle is open. I'm not sure if he sees this
16:24defender kind of jump in and stops or is specifically trying to just pump this to
16:28create room, but whether it's him coming up because he doesn't like the picture or if he
16:32did it intentionally either way, impressive stuff from a rookie, because he comes off of this throw
16:37ends up instead going to Keyshawn booty backside, puts it on him. Nice conversion to get the drive
16:43really started. I thought that was a really subtle, but impressive rep from Drake may then
16:47the Kendrick Bourne deep shot. This isn't, this might be his best throws of the year. Might be.
16:52It's like this one in the Keyshawn booty one are kind of neck and neck in terms of just seeing
16:56the deep arm talent that he has. So the Cardinals are going to show again, split safeties. Both
17:02their safeties are on the deeper part of the field. And instead of actually sticking in this,
17:06once again, they're going to play man coverage. You are going to get this safety rotating into
17:11the deep middle of the field. Both the linebackers are going to be looking at Ramond Ray Stevenson.
17:16And then once Drake may seize the safety rotation with Buddha coming over the top of Hunter Henry,
17:21he knows he's going to have a one-on-one matchup between Thomas who actually liked coming out of
17:26the draft last year. I thought he was an interesting prospect. And then Kendrick Bourne,
17:30Drake may going to get the snap, seize that safety rotation, knows he's got one-on-one.
17:34And the impressive part is Baker reads this well and is already making his way to the sideline.
17:40So the only thing that Drake can do is put this out in front of the receiver,
17:43because if he forces Kendrick Bourne to come back to it or anything like that, Buddha Baker
17:48has a chance to make a play. But Drake uncorks this one in the bucket. Buddha Baker can't get
17:55there. Defender can't make a play on the ball. Excellent, excellent throw. Also great concentration
17:59there from Kendrick Bourne to haul it in. Then finish a drive with the touchdown. We've talked
18:04about it. Red zone has been so bad for the Patriots. Of course, the game where they have
18:08trouble putting drives together and actually getting to the red zone until the last two drives,
18:13this is the best red zone game that they've had since week nine against the Titans. Because of
18:17course, right? Of course, it's going to be in a game where everything else kind of went to shit.
18:21But this was another example of Drake May using his legs to hurt man coverage. We saw it on the
18:26last play. Even if you have airtight coverage, Drake May's accuracy allows him to still get those
18:31balls into tight windows to complete passes, downfield, what have you. But also if you have
18:37a linebacker on him, he's really not going to be scared of that guy and he can use his legs
18:41to create plays. Did that twice on both of their touchdowns. Here, you got more man coverage.
18:46Buddha Baker, right now he's starting off. It's not like really a post safety, but he's pretty
18:51much occupying his own in the middle of the field. But man coverage otherwise across the board
18:56from Arizona. And what we're going to pay attention to is Demario Douglas, who's about
19:00to come in motion. And then the safety is Jalen Thompson and Buddha Baker on the back end. Because
19:05once pop goes in motion, you're going to see Buddha Baker and Jalen Thompson switch responsibilities.
19:10So the Thompson is in the middle of the field and Buddha Baker is actually going to be chasing pop
19:14into the flat. So when Drake initially looks at this, you got defenders, you got two outbreaking
19:20routes here or two routes that are kind of forcing to the middle. So you've got this part of the
19:23defense running this way, this part of the defense running to the right. And the only defender with
19:28eyes on the quarterback on this side of the hash is going to be Kaiser white, the linebacker drink
19:33is going to say, oh, I'm not really worried about this guy. And also with this big lane,
19:37he sees for me, he's going to say, let me break the pocket and use my play to put some defenders
19:42in conflict. Now, first off, you're going to see Kendrick Bourne actually falls down on this play.
19:46Luckily, his, his defender was worried about Kendrick's well-being, I guess,
19:50and doesn't actually turn around and try to see what's going on around him.
19:53Drake mays like, all right, fine. Right now he can either run this in himself because this
19:58defender is probably going to stay on pop cause your wife's probably not catching him. So he
20:02knows either I'm running the scene or this defender comes off and I'm going to hit pop.
20:06That's exactly what happens. Once the Mario Douglas, his defender sees Drake running,
20:10he's in a no wind situation where he can either come off this assignment.
20:13Like because most quarterbacks are probably just going to keep this and run it in,
20:17or he can maintain his coverage and basically let Drake walk in. He decides to go for Drake.
20:21As soon as he does pop comes open, Drake may flicks the ball. One of my favorite plays from
20:26his career looks just like Drake may at UNC. You saw that few plays from him.
20:32Great awareness from pop to someone who we've criticized in the scramble drill in his, um,
20:37chemistry, I guess with Drake may, as far as like reading zones and reading what's
20:40actually happening on the field. Good job for him to turn and look once he comes off of them
20:45right there, he actually flashes his hands instead of trying to do something else. So good stuff.
20:49Good point. Really good effort from pop Douglas. Now another really impressive play from Drake may
20:55this time he's going to be going to his big tight end Austin Hooper in the seam with rookie
20:59Dorian Taylor Demerson going to be in coverage, but this is going to be a split field zone.
21:04So this one of the few times they didn't play man coverage during this drive. And that was what
21:09Drake may ended up exploiting, but here great job exploiting over aggressiveness from the rookie
21:14safety. Now Drake may gets the snap. He's looking towards the right, kind of like he's throwing this
21:20outside and because Demers or Dorian Taylor Demerson is reading his eyes, he's shooting
21:27into the flat thinking he's going to make a play, not fully realizing that Austin Hooper is about to
21:31bend inside right behind him. And you can see Drake's vision stays outside. He's not actually
21:37looking right at Hunter or Austin Hooper until he's about to let the ball go. You see that subtle
21:43shift in his helmet to the left, puts it right behind the defender. Great job creating this
21:48window against not a very easy coverage either because it's an inverted cover to where this
21:53safety, instead of going into the deep half is actually going to drop down. Great job by him
21:58recognizing this defender is reading the wide receiver side. He's not really a threat. I have
22:03space over the middle, throws it right over his head. Great recognition there from Drake. One of
22:07the few times he's also seen him exploit the seams. I'd love to see that a little more often.
22:12And then obviously the scramble touchdown from Drake may this one was super straightforward.
22:17Cardinal send a zero blitz, try to just get everybody after the quarterback with man across
22:21the board. Cause as Keisha Moody pointed out, they did not respect the Patriots receivers.
22:25It don't matter. Cause you're going to respect Drake Mayer. He's going to make you pay the price
22:29this play because it's a cover zero blitz. You're going to see a Thomas, the edge defender,
22:34another rookie peel for Jamichael hasty, because usually you would have this defender right here.
22:39I believe this is Thompson in man coverage, but because he's blitzing, unless this edge defender
22:45peels off, you're just going to have to Michael hasty wide open. Kind of like what we saw against
22:49the Jaguars when they send an all out blitz and Drake was like, Oh, you want to leave them open
22:53in the flat? Fine. I'll just check it down. Instead. Drake does a great job seeing this
22:58and saying, all right, we're going to have an unblocked roster inside, but the edge defenders
23:03eyes are on hasty. No one else is there to pick them up. And Drake says, okay, I'll oblige. If
23:08you don't want to account for me, strolls into the end zone for an easy touchdown.
23:12So the recognition, and he showed this at other times in the game too, to take advantage when the
23:18defense creates those openings or when they don't account for him as a runner, exploiting that. And
23:22then obviously in zone coverage, being able to not only process what the defense is doing and
23:26attack other spaces, but create some of those openings on his own. I feel like we see that
23:30at least once a week from him. It's just awesome to see it continue to develop. And then also to
23:35have minimal negative plays and on routes where, you know, look like with a Jaheim Bell and Jalen
23:40Polk, both those guys had routes where they wound up ending up in the same area as Austin Hooper.
23:45I tried to get clarity on exactly what happened on those plays. Jaheim Bell said he ran the route
23:49that was on paper. So, you know, that's all the info I was able to get. Clearly something went
23:54wrong, but both times Drake was able to either take his check down or just use his legs and
23:58pick up some positive yardage. So he's going to have to have the best game of his career. Again,
24:03it seems like he's stacking these. He's going to have to really take advantage of whatever
24:07downfield shots present themselves and take advantage when the defense just leaves him
24:11underneath stuff. But once again, very impressive performance from Patriots third overall pick.
24:16I was going to say, it doesn't even feel like he's the number three overall pick. He continues to get
24:19better and better every single week. And I say that because he already looks like one of the
24:23better quarterbacks in football. I don't say that lightly. I'm not going to give him, you know,
24:27top five, top three status quite yet, but come next year, as if he continues on this trajectory,
24:32he's going to be legit. He's making veteran type plays on the field weekend,
24:36week out. So thank you Taylor for the breakdown and thank you Drake May for finally give it not
24:41for you, but thank you Drake May for giving us good Patriots tape to break down on this show.
24:46All right. We're going to get to all real quick. Thank you for the nice words in the comment. I
24:50get so self-conscious doing these breakdowns. So when you guys like them and they don't overwhelm
24:54you all, it really means a lot. So thank you very much for that. The big leagues, Taylor
24:58Wren Wren says you need to be in the big leagues, get Taylor, but I appreciate the kindness.
25:03All right. Let's get back. Oh wait, here's another one. T-Coz with some legit breakdown.
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26:32your game. All right, let's get to the questions, Taylor. We got plenty of them and, uh, we're going
26:38to kind of use this to steer us into some storylines, uh, from, uh, the last week, frankly,
26:43with, uh, Gerard Mayo, with his job security, uh, in detail and things of that nature. So first and
26:48foremost, let's start with this one from Boston Rance 09. Have the players quit on Gerard Mayo?
26:54I asked this and I put this up here first because that's sort of been the theme of this whole thing
26:59and the vibe we got today down in Foxborough, I would say, uh, and I can kind of start this off.
27:04I'm sure you're, uh, you're tired from doing all the Drake May breakdown. So I can answer this
27:08question. I'll give you a second after the ad read to kind of, uh, to take a breather here,
27:12but I guess my read on this is no, the Patriots haven't quit on Gerard Mayo. Drake May, Hunter
27:18Henry, Dietrich Wise, among many other players in Foxborough today, defending Gerard Mayo,
27:23uh, continuing to say that it is essentially on them that Mayo has put them in a good place.
27:27Dietrich Wise mentioning that they're putting in the groundwork and laying the groundwork this year
27:32in order to continue and improve next year. And so, yes, it was bad last Sunday. We, we talked
27:38about it here the last two episodes, obviously on post game and then, uh, Monday's Pats Daily,
27:42where we broke down the game even further that, you know, it wasn't good enough and they couldn't
27:46afford blowouts. And then he goes to the podium and he has another gaffe and he's talking about,
27:50you know, throwing Alex Van Pelt onto the bus and things like that. And so he then backtracks
27:54on Monday comes in and says that, you know, he talked to Van Pelt. He didn't know what it was
27:58about. Uh, and sort of just continues to kind of save himself because every time you ask the players
28:04there isn't necessarily bio yet. And so I think when we sit here and call for Mayo's job and think,
28:11well, what does he do? Well, and why does he deserve next year? I keep coming back to the
28:16team still being bought in. And right now it seems like they are at least from what they tell us and
28:21what they want to put out there in the media. So right now I'm saying they haven't quit on
28:25I'm in the same boat. And that's, I think that you would start hearing
28:29slightly different messaging if they were, and even if they didn't want to tell us,
28:33because these are grown men. And if you really don't like your coach and you don't believe what
28:37he's selling, it gets hard week after week to go in front of the media and say that you do like
28:42even some of those professional veterans in football and bad situations, their comments
28:47start to kind of shift. We haven't heard that with Mayo. And if anything, Dietrich wise,
28:52staunchly defended him, went on Dietrich wise, doesn't really get into very deep explanations.
28:57He really tries to be brief and you understand why, but he went on for a while talking about how,
29:03you know, I wouldn't say Ben Johnson, Dan Campbell struggled early in his lines tenure.
29:07Now, obviously these are not apples to apples, but he brought it up. And these are the, this is
29:11the mentality of the team. They're telling you what they think. Dan Campbell was in a similar
29:15situation, struggled early on in Detroit. We were talking about it with Evan in the locker room,
29:20how bad bell, cause I did not watch football until like 2009. So I really was not privy to this.
29:25Also. I think we were four when this happened, but when Belichick first started out with the
29:28Patriots, they were not good in 2000. He entered the next season on the hot seat. And that was when
29:33they had drew blood. So when they had a bunch of their key defensive players that wound up being
29:37cogs in the first dynasty, and obviously Belichick and Mayo comparisons are very slippery slopes.
29:43Belichick had so much more experience as like a coordinator on championship teams. Like,
29:47obviously it's not the same thing, but you can still point to that as being a coach when his
29:52first year struggled so badly, people thought he really could get fired. And I think he had
29:56more talent than what Mayo has right now. So, you know, Dietrich pointed that out. He mentioned
30:01that, you know, what's being laid right now is going to pay off down the road. And then other
30:06guys are saying, you know, he's still a young coach and they're defending him saying, yeah,
30:09you know, we're struggling, but the players are saying it's on us. Like there's only so much the
30:13coaching staff can do. They've really taken accountability. And I love, I know how much
30:17people like to say that Mayo doesn't take accountability. And it just feels like nit
30:21picking. Cause if you listen to an entire press conference, he mentions multiple times,
30:25coaching needs to be better. Now, obviously he's right. And you can question if he's being
30:29disingenuous or not, but that is the message he gives, even though sometimes, obviously he'll
30:34throw in something else that kind of throws it off and undermines what he says. The end of the
30:38day, we can be upset about what he says to us. That's fully fine because we're the ones who have
30:42to cover it and talk about it and put it into context, but the players don't care. And that's
30:47the most important thing, because if you're talking about a first year coach getting fired,
30:51very, very tough move to make it. He hasn't lost the locker room.
30:54And when you think about coaches who have gotten fired during or after the first year,
30:59like Josh McDaniels, like urban Meyer, it was very clear. The locker room did not want them
31:03there anymore. And that's when ownership has to pull the plug because at that point you're,
31:07you're beyond saving. And the other example there, I think of too, with a coach getting
31:12fired in his first year is Frank Reich in Carolina a couple years ago. And that was with
31:17an insane owner and David Tepper, who does the opposite of Robert Kraft and doesn't measure nine
31:22times and cut once. And as soon as one thing happens, he says, nope, I'm making a decision
31:26where he did it with Bryce Young. Now granted Bryce Young has rebounded a little bit here,
31:29but love Bryce Young. He's our guy, pick them ownership. And then he turned into,
31:33you know, a pseudo boss last year and CJ Stroud looks better. Same thing happened
31:37with Frank Reich and that team. They fired him after 11 games because
31:41Tepper probably just didn't like what he was seeing. He was like, well, I'm just going to
31:44make a rash decision. The crafts don't do that. They're going to think it through even more.
31:48And yes, a lot of these first year head coaches being fired. It's because it's a complete disaster
31:53inside and outside the locker room. And right now it seems like they're still pulling for their
31:58guy drive Mayo. So again, we'll see what happens over these next three games. That's been our
32:01caveat here on this show where they have this, they have to play respectable football or else
32:06they, you know, the decision is going to be put in the craft's hands right now. It seems like the
32:10players are still bought in. Speaking of players talking today in Foxboro, John Jones was at the
32:15podium. He was named the good guy of the year by the Patriots media cartel for someone who goes to
32:22the podiums speaks his not speaks his mind, but there's an exact kind of a spiel on it, but
32:28basically fulfills their media duties and, and, and does a good job with it. We awarded that to
32:32John Jones this year to shout out John Jones for that. But question here, do you think John Jones
32:37could be back at safety next year? Now he was asked as well during his media availability today
32:42about how he feels if he wants to continue playing, if he may call it quits this off season.
32:47And he said, basically, he still has a love for the game. And as long as he has a love for the
32:51game and loves to show up for work every day, he's going to continue to do that. And he has that right
32:55now. So if John Jones is back next year, Taylor, we're talking about the safety position a little
32:59bit today. Do you think he could be a candidate to maybe move back there and help out in that
33:03rotation alongside Kyle Duggar into row peppers? Maybe, but it's not like he's shown me anything
33:10when he asked blade safety that moved me so much. And I was like, Oh, I need to see more of this.
33:15I thought it was cool. Cause I like seeing the three safety base. I just think it's an
33:19interesting package. So I always get kind of excited when I see them break it out,
33:23but I mean like, could he? Yeah, sure. But I think a lot of the reason people are wanting
33:28to go, he's not Devin McCordie. Like Devin McCordie was still crazy fast, even in his
33:34older age. Like he had lost a step, but was probably still capable of like 20, 21 miles an
33:38hour. I don't know how fast John Jones is right now. I think he's fast enough to be a solid corner.
33:44But I think the big appeal of him moving to safety is one, either just
33:48continue his career. If he can't play corner anymore, in which case, yeah, absolutely move
33:51him to safety. But I don't think that he's so good at that spot that it's something that has
33:56to be in the cards. I think it was something they did because they didn't have a lot of depth
33:59and experience. Yeah. And it feels like, like you said, it felt like a good sort of stop gap idea
34:07where, okay, we need safety help. John Jones is super versatile. Let's throw them out there.
34:12But if that's like your answer to bad safety play, that feels like, don't take this the wrong way.
34:19People in the chat and people listening, a Belichick move where, oh, we can't get an
34:23offensive coordinator that I really like right now. Let's just try out Matt Patricia, or let's
34:26try and do some half measures here. Now, granted it worked for Bill for a long time. So people will
34:33be pissed that I'm talking crap about Bill Belichick right now, especially the fact that
34:37he looks like he's in a better spot coaching wise than Duron Mayo. But I feel like safety is a
34:42problem. They need help. They have money. They have capital. Don't make a half measure here.
34:47Go and, you know, go grab someone on the open marker or something like that and use John Jones
34:52as your, you know, break glass in case of emergency player there. And also just bring
34:56him back as a leader on this team next year. Let's see. All right. Draft question. We talked
35:03about Travis Hunter. We have both fallen in love with Travis Hunter on this show.
35:08Question is, should we draft Hunter, which give this team another special player or draft
35:13offensive tackle, take a chance with Campbell or Banks at left tackle? And I think during
35:19Sunday's game with the struggles Vardarian Lowe had both mentally and physically play,
35:26I've sort of changed my mindset and I think they need to try and attack long-term left tackle,
35:31whether that be through the draft or whether that be in free agency. But I don't even like the idea
35:37right now of Vardarian Lowe as your stopgap. I think you need somebody else there starting next
35:41season. And I think that that might make sense to go grab a wheel cam or go grab a Calvin Banks
35:46and fill wide receiver and free agency, as long as you can get T Higgins. Now, I think free agency
35:50is going to ultimately make this decision for you, where if you can't land one of those top tier pass
35:56catchers or vice versa, you can't land a top tier tackle. You're going to flip it and go opposite in
36:00the draft. But right now I like Travis Hunter, but if you can get a long-term answer at left tackle
36:06alongside Drake Ney, I think that might be the answer.
36:09That's where I'm at. You know, my caveat is always free agency dictates the draft a lot of times,
36:14because again, you don't want to go just best player available. You don't just want to go by
36:20position of need. If you just go by best player available, then you end up getting, you could be
36:25stacked at a position, but so much so that you maybe are putting yourself in a bad spot where
36:30you had more aggressive needs and now you have a hole for an entire season. Sometimes that can
36:35work out for you, but a lot of the time, especially on a team with this many holes,
36:38I just don't know how great that necessarily is as its own specific thing. And obviously you don't
36:43want to draft just for need because then you are basically the Patriots over the past few years.
36:48Now, that being said, my ideal situation is them getting the first overall pick,
36:53trading down and then taking the best of their standards.
36:56Yeah. But I would like for them to trade down, get another first round pick. I think that's
37:02got to be like a pretty high priority for them. And then best player available, but
37:09Hunter's so tough. If he weren't like 190, I would feel better about it,
37:14but he's going to take time to add weight. You're having them split time. He's a great player.
37:22I want him so bad. I do too, but it's just like, I would rather get an edge rusher or a tackle or
37:29Ted McMillan. And even like Ted McMillan, I like him a lot as a prospect, but I don't trust
37:34coaching staff enough to develop him. Because I think when it comes to man coverage, he's going
37:37to need work because he doesn't know how to use his size and his length and his physicality.
37:42And he doesn't know how to maximize them right now. So I think that's going to take coaches
37:45really like making that an area of emphasis for him.
37:48So that's how, so I got it. I think got to be part of the equation, but yeah, I mean,
37:52it's tough. I want to lean best player available, but ideally at an impact position corner can be,
37:59but not nearly as much as edge rusher, not nearly as much as offensive tackle,
38:02especially considering, I think they are going to want to use their early picks
38:05to continue to build around Drake may if necessary. Now, if you get Cam Robinson
38:09and you get Trey Smith and somehow T Higgins, I don't know, I don't know if he's going to
38:14Now, if you get Cam Robinson and you get Trey Smith and somehow T Higgins,
38:18you get some other receiver who can be your one, then truly I'm okay with the actual best player
38:23available type of mentality. Other than that, just, it scares me to think about, you know,
38:29Travis being the pick when if Jonathan Jones does come back, it's like, all right.
38:34So now even if it's a rotation, like, I don't know, I don't think that's a great pick.
38:38When you have immediate needs and guys who could play a hundred percent of the snaps for you
38:42on one side of the ball, I just, I think it's tough. And even in first year,
38:45I think Travis Hunter would probably be a rotational player for you on defense.
38:48I think that's another issue. Yeah, I feel all right to the
38:52personnel on this current Patriots roster. Antonio Gibson had another one of his solid
38:56days last weekend. We talked about it when they signed him earlier this off season,
39:02where he could be used as a wide receiver. He played wide receiver in college at Memphis
39:07and the Patriots need a lot of elbow wide receiver. They you've seen that they've
39:10used Marcus Jones. Do you think there's a chance that down the stretch here,
39:15they could potentially put Antonio Gibson in a wide receiver? I wonder if
39:19the way Marcus Jones had to make the call to Alex Van Pelt, maybe Antonio Gibson,
39:24all of a sudden knocks on the door. It's like, Hey, I used to play wide receiver.
39:27Don't you know? And Alex Van Pelt can say, Oh, I didn't know that. And then go from there.
39:32But what do you think? Do you think, is it too little too late for something like this?
39:36And I'll just use this as sort of a springboard to go flaunt Antonio Gibson,
39:40who's had a really good sort of end of the year here. Yeah, I'm not going to believe that we're
39:45going to see him the way that I thought he was going to get used until it happens. Because when
39:48you looked at Cleveland, they use Kareem hunt in the role that I was hoping to see from Antonio
39:52Gibson, a decent amount. I think it's super bizarre. I don't think Gibson has been healthy
39:58all year. He mentioned like getting treatment, even when he isn't hurt. I feel like that's got
40:02to be part of it. Cause he's playing so well. I think it's just kind of bizarre that he hasn't
40:06played more and he is playing better. He said at some point there was also mentality shift for him.
40:10Where's like, do you want to keep on this kind of pace or do you want to get better?
40:15Now there have been times he's run routes that you would expect him to run. It's just like an
40:19empty. I feel like they don't utilize them quite as much as they could. Also like he's not a wide
40:23receiver in the NFL. Like you've got to, they're not going to move him, especially this late in
40:27the season. So until I see it, I don't believe it's going to happen, but at least he's been an
40:31impact player as a ball carrier and running the ball. So, you know, there's still that, but yeah,
40:34his use not as a receiver has been bizarre to say the least. Yeah. They need to continue to
40:41integrate him. I would say over these next couple of weeks, not enough where, you know,
40:44you're overworking him because he's got to use up two years left on his contract. You mentioned
40:49he's been banged up a little bit, at least we think for some of this season and, you know,
40:53running backs they always have some tread on the tires. So we'll see what happens there,
40:58but I'm with you. I think they should, you know, they need to try and get him involved
41:02in the offense more. All right. We're going to get back to your questions in a second,
41:05but first a word from our friends over at GameTime because GameTime is the exclusive
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42:28Taylor? GameTime.
42:30Good answer. It is GameTime. And it's also time to wrap up the mailbag with a couple more
42:34of your Patriots questions here. Let's get back to it. As far as this game on Sunday in Buffalo,
42:43we're not expecting much from this Patriots team. Quite frankly, the bills are rolling.
42:46I told you this in the car earlier today, the app or the, what's the word, stat that I dug out.
42:53Jeez, I'm losing my mind. It's only Wednesday. The Bills have scored 30 plus points in eight
42:58straight games. The Patriots haven't scored 30 plus points since 2022. So it's going to be tough
43:05for the Patriots this weekend. Taylor's not happy. I'll let you show them the hat. I like the-
43:10No, I don't have the strings.
43:13Show them what the hat says. That's what this, yeah, that's what this season has done to me.
43:18I think I'm just going to rock this for the rest of the show.
43:20I like it. Good stuff.
43:22But what can the Patriots do on Sunday to give themselves even a semblance of a chance? We've
43:29done any given Sunday on this show a few times. So what matchups are you looking forward to seeing?
43:34How much have you dug in? I know it's early yet,
43:37but what is possibly in the Patriots' favor to keep it close on Sunday?
43:42Looking forward to seeing? None.
43:50In all seriousness, I think Khalil Shakir, if Marcus Jones plays, and he's healthy,
43:55obviously, I think that could be a pretty fun matchup. Two explosive, undersized guys.
44:00I think, I talked to Evan about this earlier today, and I was going to kind of go on the
44:04same track. None of the receivers really scare you. Like, Keon Coleman's big,
44:09and I think that could maybe present a challenge. Amare Cooper is still potent,
44:15but he's not that guy anymore. Like, if Jon Jones covered him for a game, I really wouldn't mind.
44:19In critical situations, I'd love to see Gonzo on Dalton Kincaid, because I really think that's
44:23been Josh Allen's go-to guy. It was a funny story. He was talking about how he, I think
44:28he said he was speaking to Gilmore a while ago about covering tight ends, and he said how it's
44:33different because they actually have to play slower, and it's an adjustment because they
44:37usually play the route so fast that with a guy who isn't able to get that level of speed,
44:43you're playing it very differently. So I thought that was pretty fascinating,
44:45and Gonzo's never covered a tight end in his career. But those are some I would point to
44:50in terms of the Patriots' defense versus the Bills' offense. Also, maybe Brendan Schooler
44:54and Christian Ellis as spies on Josh Allen. Those can be some pretty interesting matchups,
44:58especially with Schooler. He's not as big, but he's a special teams ace, so you'd think that
45:02he could tackle in space, even against a bigger guy. Patriots' offense, pass.
45:09Yeah. I don't blame you.
45:11There's no matchup I'm looking forward to seeing on that side of the ball. It's just like Drake
45:15May hopefully making the most of a bad situation. Quick one.
45:19I don't know. It's Money versus Ed Oliver. I'll go with that one. That should be a pretty fun
45:22matchup because Mike and Money was played much better. Didn't allow a pressure on Sunday for
45:27the first time since week eight, so maybe that'll be kind of entertaining, but the rest-
45:31Yeah. Quick adjacent question to that. Will the Patriots give up 70 points this weekend?
45:37Question from B Cloud. Now, I'm not going to ask you for your prediction yet, but
45:40do they have a chance to slow these guys down at all? I know you mentioned the receivers,
45:43but what do you make of the 70-point mark introduced here?
45:52No, they're not going to score 70 points, but that's only because they pulled Josh Allen well
45:55before that. I don't think the Patriots' defense is that bad.
45:58Fair.
45:58I want to say that they're going to be competitive, but my thing is last year,
46:03the reason they were competitive was they were able to stop the run early,
46:06get the Bills in the third down and obvious passing, and then tee off with pressure packages
46:11that the Bills had a lot of trouble picking up. Last week, we talked about it. They forced one
46:15third and long situation. They didn't do a great job with it against Anthony Richardson either.
46:20Yeah, I'm sorry. I just don't see how. I think this could be another game like in the wild card
46:25where they score on every drive. I legitimately think they could hang 40, and I don't really see
46:31many reasons why they wouldn't, other than the fact that obviously the receiving core isn't very
46:34good. It's kind of like the Chargers, where I think the only chance they have is if they can
46:40just not die by the run and then not break in the red zone because they're so good in terms of
46:45coverage. Josh Allen's still Josh Allen. He's still going to put the ball in some perfect places. I
46:50don't know how you slow this team, especially since you can't really create a pass rush on
46:54your own either. I don't really know what you do. So not 70, but yeah, I think the Patriots get
47:01throttled, which is also why I think they actually might hang in this game because this is me saying
47:05I think they're going to get completely throttled. And of course, once I say that, maybe they actually
47:09have a competitive game and force an upset. So who knows? But yeah, I'm not looking forward to
47:15this matchup in terms of the Patriots turning some kind of corner for the positive. I was going to
47:19say everyone, everyone and their mother, everyone under the sun thinks they're going to get just
47:23everything pushed in this weekend and all this. Yeah, more than just your shit pushed in this
47:29weekend. But 425 kickoff, flexed out bills on national-ish television, the CBS late window,
47:37all of a sudden the Patriots could make it a game with Drake May. We'll see what happens.
47:41But let's get to a more fun question here before we wrap this thing up with a couple
47:44Mike Rabel talks outside of Drake May and Christian Gonzalez. Who do you want to see
47:49have a really good final three weeks? Excuse me. That's a good question. Caden Wallace,
47:55if possible. Yeah. Caden Wallace and Cole Strange are the big ones because I think that
48:00like the receivers, we have no idea what they're going to be. I don't think we're going to see
48:03much from them, but Caden Wallace, I think is still a good player. I think Cole Strange is
48:07a good player. And I think now they're at the positions where they're best suited potentially.
48:12Obviously they haven't played football. I don't think we're going to see like great
48:15play from them necessarily. I'm very much managing my expectations, but I'd like to
48:18see enough where, oh, okay. Even having missed all this time, there were some positive flashes
48:23where if they get entire summer under their belt, maybe we see more. Also the offense,
48:28I'm definitely going to go with those two in terms of like realistic guys who we could see
48:32progress from. Outside of that, I'd like to see Marte Mapu on the field and not making mistakes
48:40and building trust from the coaching staff. And also I'd like to see the corners, Isaiah Bolden,
48:46Alex Austin. Last week, Alex Austin just didn't really have opportunities to do much. Like I
48:50looked at the tape, it was whatever, nothing I could really take away from it. But like that
48:55defensive backfield and Christian Ellis, I throw into the mix as well. Like young guys who could
48:59at the very least be depth moving forward. I think Christian Ellis could be a good linebacker,
49:03three coverage linebacker, if he can just have his role and not have to play on every single
49:08snap. I feel like he could be a good kind of Mack Wilson-y player for you. And then Marte Mapu
49:13is a guy who we're talking about, maybe you have to sign Javon Howe and maybe if Mapu figures it
49:17out, you don't have to spend all that money and you can put those resources somewhere else.
49:22Because right now, Duggar's hurt, Peppers is hurt, but you still are saying those are older guys.
49:27Are we positive they're going to bounce back enough that we feel comfortable with them being
49:30our dynamic duo next season? I'm not, because Kyle Duggar, now this is two seasons in a row
49:35where you see the negative plays, but not nearly as many of the big plays. He hasn't really done
49:39much in that vein since the opener where he forces the fumble on Mike Yosiki. Also, ironically,
49:44I was looking at him and Javon Howe and their big plays. Javon Howe also is having a down year
49:49and the only big play that he's forced was a fumble in week one. Crazy, crazy. Yeah, so the
49:56defensive backfield and Christian Ellis, and then I'd like to see more from the young offensive
50:02lineman who hopefully went to the rotation within the next couple of weeks. Yeah, my quick answer
50:07here is Austin Hooper. I think he's somebody who, before he came to the Patriots, I just had like a
50:14strange vendetta strong, but I wasn't a huge Austin Hooper guy because the only reason I
50:19really knew him was, A, fantasy football, who every time I had him he stunk, and B, he caught
50:25a touchdown at the beginning of the Falcon Super Bowl. As a rookie. As a rookie, correct, and that
50:32started a whole downfall until I ended up coming back from 28-3, so bad taste in my mouth from
50:36Austin Hooper until he got here, but I talked myself into it playing in the AVP system, and
50:42he's been nothing but a pro. He's developed a strong connection with Drake May. I loved
50:46what he said last week about continuing to buy in, playing hard through the end of the season.
50:51As a veteran, that's kind of how you become a pro's pro, and so I think a strong finish for him,
50:57keep that momentum going with Drake May. That's also going to potentially set him up for another
51:01contract here with the Patriots, which I think would be important to lock him up again alongside
51:05Hunter Henry, so Austin Hooper is my guy. All right, two final questions, Taylor,
51:10wrapped up into one, and we're going to end it with Mike Vrabel. So first and foremost,
51:14I want to throw this up here. If Vrabel, and I don't think this is the case, but for whatever
51:20reason, if Vrabel just wants to come back here in any capacity, we've talked about the overarching
51:26head coach thing. What are your thoughts on Vrabel as an assistant head coach slash somebody
51:31alongside Gerard Mayo to move this thing forward, if they gave him in the building alongside Gerard?
51:37If he wants to do that, which I don't think he would want to do.
51:40I don't know, me either.
51:42If he accepted it, I think they'd have to work well together, first of all. We don't know if
51:47that's the case. I know they're both legendary Patriots linebackers. I don't know if they're
51:51friends. I don't know if they go to each other's cookouts. I have no idea what that relationship
51:56is like. Does Gerard Mayo need more help? Absolutely, yes. He said Alex Van Pelt is the
52:01head coach of the offense. Demarcus Covington is something on defense. I would love for Mike
52:06Vrabel to enter the mix and really bring proven discipline, physicality, all those things back
52:13to the defense, but I don't know if it's realistic. Yeah, my thing on that is I think it would be
52:18awesome as far as you have Gerard to, you sort of groom him under Vrabel. You have that
52:25person who's had head coach experience. We talked about that, but then does that turn into, okay,
52:31shit hits the fan again next season, then everybody's calling for Vrabel to take over
52:34Gerard. Do they kind of butt heads because of that? Because Vrabel might be in the building,
52:38head coach, in waiting once again type of guy. We know how that went last year with the beef
52:43between Bill and Gerard. Final question on the Vrabel stuff. Now that those rumors are out there
52:48that according to Tom Curran floated this on NBC Sports Boston last night that Vrabel would be
52:52interested in coaching the Patriots next season. I want to know your opinion and I'll share mine
52:59after that. Should the Patriots move on from Gerard Mayo and if Mike Vrabel would be able to,
53:05if it would be seamless, now we know that it wouldn't be. There's a runny rule and they're
53:07going to jump through a couple hoops, but if Mike Vrabel is essentially in their back pocket,
53:11would you like them to do that or should they stick with Gerard Mayo?
53:14I don't think you can after a year unless he gets blown out multiple times to close out the season
53:22you know more. And I think he'd have to lose the locker room because again I just don't,
53:26I think it's very hard to fire a coach when they still have buy-in from the locker room
53:30because then it really does seem like you are being, you are firing this person prematurely.
53:36And it may not be true, you can say whatever you want because like we also have to think about like
53:41Bill Belichick still had the buy-in from his players. Like people went down with the ship
53:46saying Bill Belichick, Bill Belichick, but obviously that was multiple seasons. That's
53:49justifiable because it's like well this is three years, two years in a row that you've gone
53:54backwards. After 2021 you show promise and then it just gets like aggressively worse each season.
53:59I think you have to give Mayo at least one more year, build out the roster. If he's got more
54:03talent and you draft some players that are solid and you still were having problems in year two,
54:08then you pull the plug because you don't want to waste Drake May's rookie contract and you're
54:11hoping even with the reset, we've seen coaches go into better situations and then have success.
54:16Like D'Amico Ryan's happened to kind of luck into CJ Stroud. Then he kind of just
54:21flipped the switch on the right and obviously Will Anderson, two massive difference makers
54:25on both sides of the ball who helped kind of bring things into shape because they already
54:29had some players but they didn't have those real key pieces. So I think yeah, at least one more
54:34year you've got to keep Mayo unless it's an absolute disaster to end the season where like
54:40kind of with Belichick, the choice is out of your hands. Because one, like with Rabel you're talking
54:44about you might have to change the front office. You might have to change the offensive part of
54:48this coaching staff. Like the defensive part of this team, except for like cornerbacks and to a
54:53degree safeties, it's just been a tough situation. I think they're replaceable, but it's going to be
54:58tough to replace the whole offensive staff when Alex Van Pelt has done so much for Drake May's
55:03development. Even Drake said that he's done a lot for him. So I think there's little parts of it
55:07that get complicated where you're talking about potentially like clearing house two years in a row.
55:12That's just a really tough place to get out of relationship wise. So yeah, I just, I don't see it
55:16happening this year. If Vrabel wants to come here and trusts the crafts who, as we mentioned,
55:24already told Gerard Mayo that he was their guy. And then if they were to fire him, it's tough to
55:29convince Vrabel of that because he would be put in the same situation where no, no, trust me, Mike,
55:34we want you to be our guy. We're going to, we're going to build around you. And then Vrabel can
55:39easily say, well, you just did it to your other team linebacker who has all this support within
55:44the organization. Then you canned him after one bad year. What are you going to do to me?
55:47If they can get past that, I'm for Mike Vrabel. Mike Vrabel, Josh McDaniels, 2025,
55:53Josh and Drake work together. Josh is here for the longterm because we know he can't get a head
55:58coaching job anymore elsewhere in the league because he's had two failed stints there. Come
56:02in, be the OC under Mike Vrabel and turn this thing around and get it done. That's my take.
56:06I don't think it's going to, I wouldn't eat that either. I know you can do it right now. If this
56:11were next year, I would be like, cool guys, proven track record Patriots ties, but in a good way.
56:18Yeah, cool. But not after one year, I just, I can't get it. I get it. It sounds more fun
56:23than it actually is, but right now they're onto the bills. We'll see what happens these next
56:27three weeks. And if any of this stuff actually comes about, uh, as the Patriots continue on
56:32this 2024 season, myself and Taylor will be back later in the week to preview Patriots versus
56:37bills more in depth. We'll also have standups from Foxborough coverage down there, written work
56:42on CLNSmedia.com, all that good stuff here. We'll clip that Drake May film. So if you didn't see it,
56:47come back to the channel and watch it in full as well. Thank you guys for all your questions.
56:51We appreciate it. We appreciate all the interactions in the chat. And I'm sorry,
56:54we couldn't get two more questions, but it's past five o'clock and we got to go. So thanks
56:58for watching. We'll be back soon. Take care of yourselves, take care of each other,
57:02and we will see you all next time. Peace out, everyone.