Patriots PlaybookPatriots Playbook 1/2: Chargers Recap, Bills Preview, NFL Draft Talk
Patriots Catch twenty two will join Evan Lazar and Alex Bart every Thursday as they take a deep dive into the exit, the No's trends, and latest New England Patriots roster moves.
And I'm usually into the numbers. Okay, we do something. I'm into the tangible numbers. There's there's tame here. Just give me. There's the advantage if they haven't know how to work it. I'm surprised like an old man over here. I thought maybe I'd have to show you like a Victorial or something.
How am I old man?
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On Patriots Plain The Legions upon chung of brings, the Heat, play the Storm, Brady's tost to New Saw size and the play Well Souper So Horizon and the Sable Patriots Playbook is your host Shango Legend patri First, Welcome into the playbook.
Happy New Year, everyone, We're glad that you're with us. Here at Gillette Stadium on Thursday, January the second. It is the setup for the Patriots in their final game of the season against the Buffalo Bills here at Gieppe at till one o'clock on Sunday. I'm John Rook. Evan Lazar is here. Russell Baxter will join us in the second hour of the program today. It is a little bit of again for a second straight week, and he waited a different time for us here because we decided to go in at ten am, so that way everybody could come in and Evan will be back around not only for Unfiltered, but he'll have Catch twenty two later today. So it's going to be NonStop Evan Lazar today.
I'm sure that people are very excited about that. Can't wait, can't wait for me to just talk by six hours.
Cue the Evan jokes in three two or the Evan memes.
Yeah. Somebody asked was like, oh, he's probably staying up late to play Fortnite. Like I'm thirty two years old, like Fortnite.
You play Fortnite?
That is way after my time.
I don't play Fortnite, John, Yeah, I.
Know my younger cousins play for it there sixteen and seventeen.
Yeh, sixteen and seventeen.
Yeah.
Yeah, I didn't realize that you had to be that young anymore. I thought for sure that somebody was doing that there's a ton of stuff to get to today, of course, and we're gonna try to touch really on as many of the bases that we can here today. The first things first, Evan will be here until we have the press conferences at eleven, so we're gonna try to carry some of that here on the program as well, so that stay right here where you are watching the program, and we'll try to get to some of that. And Russell Baxter, of course, our football guru, will join us an hour two. They'll go through week eighteen in the NFL. Clearly there is still some meaning for the Patriots over the last week, and I know you keep track on just about everything there is and what's going on with the team and what should happen, what might happen, and so we're gonna we're gonna talk a little bit about all of that today. So let's remind you, first of all, the TPX hotline is open and available to you at eight five five pats five hundred yep. Pick up the phone. Call in. You got a question, you got a comment, a concern, you got a suggestion, whatever it is that you want. You've got a chance, you got a voice here, you have an opportunity to make yourself known. Eight five five P A T S five hundred is the toll free number. You can also send us email. It's podcasts plural PO D C A S T S podcasts at Patriots dot com. That is the general email address. If you want me to hit me up on X, you can do that as well at JR Broadcaster. He's at Easy Lazarre, so that's where you can find us there, and yep, I'll entertain your questions on X as well. The first things first, I did want to mention, at least the new use of the day that's happened since you probably got up today, is that the Pro Bowl teams have been announced and the Patriots have a member on the Pro Bowl team. And I can't say that I'm terribly surprised by it, because I think he's been truly one of the bright spots for this team through the year. Although people say, you know, special teams, but you know what, though, congratulations to Brenda Schooler. He was the lone Patriots member to reach the Pro Bowl via the AFC team. And I believe that here's a guy that has been as consistent, if not consistently spectacular doing his job as anybody has been on this year, on this team this year.
Yeah, he's got a case that he's the best special teams player in the NFL now that Matthew Slater is retired. I mean, there's other guys that are really good in that role, you know, JT. Gray, players like that, but he's he's the best, I think, especially as a gunner, he's probably the best. I mean, you cannot single block him as a gunner on punt team. He will beat that easily. Every time he sees double teams. Sometimes he sees trible teams in kick coverage. You know, this is a guy that other teams circle every single week. And in the kicking game. I know that some people don't believe the kicking game matters. They you know, have different opinions on that, but they do allow these players to be elected to the Pro Bowl like they're on the roster. So if you're on the roster, then you you got to recognize them, right, You got to recognize the ones that make it. Now. I think there's another conversation about who wasn't elected to the Pro Bowl for the Patriots and Christian Gonzales being the biggest snub in my opinion here. But I would also say that that is that.
Really a snub though, that's what I would ask. I mean, I'm not sure if we can term it that or if you know that's something that Now I've got something barking at me here, I'm shure, yeah, volume button, the volume button, way to say it has changed for there?
It is?
Got it? Thank you.
There's got to be a button on the top the keyboard. Wait, no, no, no, on the keyboard. On the keyboard, there's not like a little symbol that.
It's a brand new laptop. Give him a break, people. It is, yeah, it is, Yeah, thank you. I'm glad somebody said that I got a brand new laptop had no idea how to use it. I'm like, there's like an extra one, four, eight, twelve, fifteen, there's an extra eighteen keys on this laptop that I have no.
Idea what they're here for. When he just looked at the top of the screen, and when I said, at the top.
Of the keyboard, shut up.
That's why I had to come in and save them.
It's in the computer fire in the.
Fine be that way, all right. I fixed it. I fixed it. It's all good. All right. So let's so we mentioned Brendan Schooler. Yeah, and you really thought that potentially Christian Gonzales was worthy. Yeah, absolutely quite of or despite his team's overall performance.
Well that's why he's not there, right Like the reason why he didn't make the Pro Bowl, I think it is twofold one. The defense and the Patriots have been awful, to put it politely, all year long. I mean, you're on a defense that ranks thirtieth in the league in DVOA and going into the last week of the season, you're gonna start to get questions of, well, he's a really good talented player. But if the defense is thirtieth in DVOA going into the last week of the season, how good really is he? Which isn't fair, but that's how teams are, you know, people are gonna look at it. The second thing is I see this all the time with Pro Bowl especially, you almost have to have two really good years before you're put on that pedestal of Pro Bowl caliber, right like this is like this year for Christian Gonzales was like a proof of concept, right of Like, he is a really good player in this league. He's established that now after this season. But a lot of these Pro Ball awards go to guys that have been good players for multiple years, you know, that have name recognition around the league. You know, Denzel Ward, Marlon Humphrey, you know those guys. Do I think that you could argue that Christian Gonzales was just as good as those players, maybe even better. Yes, But those guys have the brand recognition that he doesn't have because the years of service you know, at that left.
Which is encouraging because now this tells me that, you know, as you suggested earlier, you know, here's another you know, Patriot player like Matthew Slater that is going to make a name for him over trying to make him name for himself through a specific duty, especially on special teams.
Yea.
And so his talent now is has overcome whatever detraction that the Patriots team might pull him down, you know, yeah, to their level, and that's not doing. His talent is rising above it. That's a great sign for the future.
Yeah. Look, I think that schooler making it the fan vote, I don't think had much of us of a play in this because he wasn't top ten in the vote. I don't believe when it ended. But the coaches and the players around the league that get recognized they get a vote. Here especially, I would say the coaches that are studying the special team's tape and actually are watching the kicking game closely recognize how impactful of a player he is in that part of the game, Whereas the fans that are voting for their favorite players in the Pro Bowl ballot probably aren't really thinking too much about that.
No, that's a Patriot player. I can't vote for them, right, you know they won three games all year, all right, So let's let's let's tackle the the elephant in the room. You've got one game left to play. The way that last weekend played out puts the Patriots in a rather unusual position this weekend. If they lose Sunday to Buffalo. They clinched the number one draft pick in next April's NFL draft, which to me is phenomenal to think of. When was the last time Patriots had a number one pick? I believe that was you, Yeah, it was Drew Bloodsoe and before that, I'm even thinking Kenneth Sims. So it's happened twice in gosh, well it's happened once since I've been here, and I've been here for thirty three seasons, so this is this is the only other time that's happened as I've been here. It's happened twice since the Patriots were in the NFL, because you have to count the Kenneth Sims your modern the modern draft era, which would have been in the nineteen seventies, and so this would be the third time for that to happen since the Patriots entered the NFL in nineteen seventy, which is remarkable, phenomenal. I don't know that it's necessarily something that you want to terribly be proud of, but that's just the way the tie breakers are playing down now. I kind of asked this somewhat tongue in cheekishly immediately following the game last week against you know, I keep wanting to call the Chargers the Clipper just because of the Lac Moniker, but because of the Charters game, I'm thinking, well, wow, is there any Patriots fan alive that will actually root for this team to win against Buffalo? And I've heard from dozens Okay, let's just put it that, I don't know, hundreds, probably not dozens. Yeah, through social media, email, what have you. And I've had one person, one yeah person tell me I can't root for the Patriots to lose. I have to root for them to win. Everybody else and this is probably a forty nine to one advantage or whatever it might be, says, oh yeah, they got to get the first pick. They need to lose this game on Sunday. And I find, first of all, I still find that shocking. I could be wrong about that. If I'm wrong about that, pick up the phone and let me know eight five five Pats five hundred. If I'm wrong about that. I find it shocking that there aren't more people that want this team to win, because everybody's focused on the future. I guess I can understand why. I mean, your your team is three and thirteen, and if you don't win, you're gonna be a game worse than you were even a year ago. And that was a year in which you fired arguably the greatest coach of all time, not arguably okay, not arguably inarguably the greatest coach, certainly the greatest NFL coach anyway, So I would you know, strange times we live in f To be honest with you, I've never thought that this kind of scenario would unfold itself, but it has done that here, And so I ask you, is this a legitimate reason if there ever was one. Is this a legitimate enough reason to quote unquote tank.
So I'm torn on this because it obviously bhoo's the Patriots to have the number one pick versus having two, three, four, Right, they can't go any lower than four. But at the same time, in this draft specifically, I'm I'm not seeing anybody at the top of this draft where I'm like, really jones in to have that player on the Patriots. Like, if they don't come away from this draft with Travis Hunter, I am going to be heartbroken, right. I just I don't love the top of the draft this year, and from what I've heard, it doesn't sound like the league loves the top of the draft either, and specifically to quarterbacks. And I know the Patriots don't need a quarterback, but in order to get that pick to have a high price tag and an auction for the number one overall pick to sell it for, you know, a real haul of draft picks, you have to have a quarterback that's worthy of being selected with the number one overall pick to make that happen. So if they had had the number one overall pick, and let's say they still have Drake May, but they had had it last year, and you know there's Caleb Williams or Jayden Daniels or the year before that when it's Bryce Young and CJ. Strout, Like, those were quarterback drafts. Those were drafts where those players were highly touted, highly coveted quarterback prospects. This draft reminds me a lot more of the twenty twenty two draft where the Jaguars took Trayvon Walker number one overall. Kenny Pickett was the first quarterback taken at twentieth overall by Pittsburgh. That's what this draft reminds me a lot.
Only we'll go that low before we get you to or Sanders off the board.
Probably not, But if you're the Raiders, if you're a team like the Giants, you know, if you're one of these teams, you're sitting there and you know the Patriots are not taking a quarterback at one overall. So if you know the Patriots aren't taking a quarterback at one overall and the Giants, let's say the Giants go out and they give a like you know, bridgy franchise quarterback contract to Sam Darnold or something along those lines. They trade for JJ McCarthy. You know, whatever the case may be, you go out and do something like that. My point is is that I don't know if that team that wants Shador Sanders is going to need to leap frog other teams. Like if I'm the Raiders and I'm sitting four or five, six wherever I'm I'm daring somebody to take Shador Sanders in the top five. Yeah, Like, go ahead, like take take Shador Sanders. We're not gonna give the Patriots and out here. So do I think that it would be in their best interest to have the number one overall pick. Absolutely? It would obviously be better to be one than two, that's just simple math. Do I think it's the end of the world if they don't have the number one overall pick? No, because I don't necessarily see a trade package for the number one overall pick this year that's gonna blow them away.
You know. And I think that's what most people are considering. They want the number one pick because they think they're going to get a bag in return from somebody, and the Raiders and the Giants would be the two candidates. And you can think of right off the top of your head that needs a quarterback, and they're gonna look at Shuldar Sanders and cam Ward likely, I would think, you know, from you know, Colorado and Miami respectively. Neither one of those guys really blows me away. But okay, that's fine. You need the quarterback. The Patriots don't need that, that's fine. What are you going to offer? I've seen all kinds of rumors. I've seen all kinds of proposed trades. Some of them are a little bit silly, you know, But I think a reasonable expectation if someone really wants the quarterback badly would be, you know, a swap of ones this year, probably a two this year and maybe next year's one. And if you could get that in return for this year's one, knowing that you know you don't need the quarterback, sure, why not?
Yeah, That's exactly how I feel about it. If they do pick one, or have the first overall pick, you're probably gonna be selling it for pennies on the dollar, just because of the year, the crop of players.
The crop of players isn't as good. You just said that, and so you know, so I think you know you have to understand. Look, you can't hold out for you know, six different picks or maybe a couple of veteran players or receiver roader. Hey, that sounds great in theory, but those teams aren't gonna give that up when the just isn't that deep.
Yeah, so I would still do it. I even if they have to sell the pick at a discount, I still still trade it. I still believe that it's worth the trade out for this team because if you can get that package, which is a package I've thought about too, maybe a twenty twenty six first plus maybe a Day two pick in this year's draft, plus obviously swapping you know, pick six first.
Why wouldn't you.
It's not the trade that the Bear's got, you know, the Panthers got from the Bear. The Bears got from the Panthers a couple of years ago. It's not an RG three trade like we saw back in the day where they giving up a king's ransom. But it's still better than nothing. It's still better than being stuck picking one overall and not taking a quarterback. I think that's the worst place to be in the draft.
All right, So let's let's just because this is where a lot of scrutiny is gonna undergo, you know, Elliot Olfin discounting, you know, guys are gonna have a lot of scrutiny here. Yeah, I think we know that they're under a lot of pressure as an off season, you know, And you're right they should be. That's their job, that's what they signed up to do. So do you hold out for more? And then if you don't, if you if you hold out for more, you don't get what you want. What do you do with the first pick?
It's the worst place to be. And this was always my fear about this specific draft and having the number one overall pick. You know, I go back to the twenty twenty two draft with the Jaguars. The Jaguars had Trevor Lawrence. They drafted him the year before, so they had their quarterback and they were forced to pick a player at one to one and they picked Trayvon Walker, who's a solid NFL starter, But he's not a number one overall pick, right, Like he's not. Now, you could look at the twenty twenty two draft and nitpick and say, well, if they had taken Aiden Hutchinson at number one overall instead of Trayvon Walker, like maybe we'd be having a different conversation. But just you know, looking at it objectively, I just I feel like that's the worst place to be. Is not a quarterback team, not a quarterback draft, picking one overall where you're just forced to pick a player. I don't think that's where the Patriots want to be at all. So, like I keep saying, even if it's at a discounted price from what number one overall picks usually go for in a trade down scenario, I'm still pulling the trigger on the trade down. I'm not making that pick at one overall.
Well let's just say, for instance, they hold out, they don't get, you know, what they want, and they're forced to take number one. Who do you take a number one based on what is available out there? And I have to admit this is a really tough choice. It's a scary choice because the needs are many, the choices are few. Yeah, you know, it is a number one overall pick, you know, worthy of the offensive line, probably not cornerback maybe, and that's where you could bring maybe Travis Hunter or someone like that into the into the mix.
Uh.
To me, I think the guy that makes the most sense, And I had I had a friend of mine kind of asked me this the other day and make the suggestion that, well, we didn't really get a chance to see him because he was he was banged up a little bit. But Abdul Carter from you know, Penn State, good outside linebacker and a potential you know, edge guy you know in the NFL. There's a little bit of a pedigree there at Penn State with you know, former Penn State guys, you know, having some success already. And I'm wondering if that's good enough for a number one pick, and you know, because that is a need for the Patriots to you know, find somebody in the pass rush. But then how much further down do you have to go until you can get what you really need? And I can't under I will be I don't know what my reaction will be if the Patriots go through two rounds of this draft in April and don't select an offensive lineman.
Yeah no, I mean that's that's not how.
Can you pup? So that means if you took say, all right, let's say you get stuck with the one pick. You can't make a deal, you don't get value. Whatever the reason may be, You've got to score on that number one pick. Carter would be a guide to me. That probably makes a lot of sense right there.
Agreed.
But at the same time, you've got to pick a linement with your first pick in the next round.
Yeah, yeah, so I agree with you on Carter. I think right now, to me it's between It would be between Hunter and Carter because they're they're special athletes. And if I'm going to pick somebody one overall, I want him to be a unicorn athletically. I don't want to pick a guy that I think is projecting to be a steady starter, you know, are.
Like you got with Drake with the three pick last year. You need a guy that could come out and do it as a rookie. Now.
So I don't know if there's sure things, but I know their ceiling is very high. Yeah, And if I'm picking one overall, I'm going for ceiling more so than I'm going for floor. So I look at Travis Hunter, and the questions that I have for Travis Hunter aren't going to be answered until some of those pre draft interview processes begin, you know, the combine, the thirty visits, those types of things. You know, which side of the ball does he want to specialize in because he's not playing fifty. You know, fifty snaps a game on both sides of the ball. In the NFL. Could he be a spot player on defense or a spot player on offense, you know, a package player, whatever you want to call it. Yeah, absolutely, But he's not doing what he did at Colorado in the NFL. That's not happening. So you have to sit him down and you have to ask, you know, which side of the ball do you want to focus on the most?
And well, to me, the skills his transferable skills. I've seen Colorado play enough this year to know that I believe Travis Hunter is a corner in the NFL. He could certainly be a Marcus Jones type of guy who you could use with offensive packages. Yeah, put him in as a kick returner, punt returner. But his longevity in this league is likely because of his skill set, is likely going to be as a defensive back. I think he's got a little bit of that swivel hipness that Christian Gonzales has he's got the ability to you know, be athletic running backwards like Christian Gonzales hands. I've always said, and you know this, Heaven, We've talked about this on this show. The toughest position in the NFL to me, athletically speaking, is corner not quarterback, but cornerback, because you're forced to play running backwards most of the time or laterally. It's not full on. You know, set up in the pocket and read defenses and it's all it's all reaction. And if you're not a superb athlete, the best athletes to me are cornerbacks. And if you don't have those athletes at cornerback in the NFL, then you don't have much of anything. They've they found one, I think in Gonzo. Can they get another? And I think Travis Hunter would be closer to that being a number two guy. Put him on the boundary whatever you want to do, but you know, get him out there and then you can go out and you can find somebody that certainly come in and play you know, the nickel or whatever you want it to be. Honestly, I think that's where he belongs in the NFL. Now, maybe I'm wrong, Maybe some team will take a shot at it, because he certainly has made spectacular offensive plays for Colorado. I just don't know if you want a guy like that. I mean, to me, I think the Patriots. You know, they've got this bag of free agent money that's out there. They've got to go out and make it. They've got to probably overpay for someone who's gonna be in the market t Higgins, whoever it ends up becoming. They've got to go get that guy because they have to get past the notion that free agents don't want to come here. And I think that's bull bleep. It is bull bleep, because they will if there's enough money, they will go get it.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I think they offered Calvin Ridley a lot of money. I think they were willing to offer Brandon i Uke a lot of money. They're they're just not a draw, Like they're just not a draw. They have an unstable coaching staff. Then that's just stupid.
Then these players are not as intelligent as sometimes we make them ount to be.
Well what's the draw?
Like, what money?
Right? But they offered these guys money and they didn't want it. I don't think they flat out told them, don't trade for me.
But if you're offering the same money that Brandon and you got to stay where he was, why would you move? Why would you mind? My understanding, that's what happened. I don't know, So why wouldn't you Why would you move if you're not getting considerably more. You've got to incentivize these guys to come this way. You've got to incentivize these guys now and say, hey, look, we got a great young quarterback that's gonna throw you the ball, and we're gonna give you probably more than maybe your word. So we're giving this is our this is our push to you. This is our gift to you. We want you to come in and prove that this is what you got. You know, maybe you know in years two and three or whatever it is on down the line. They give them incentives to you know, sweeten the deal even further and to keep them up at that top level whatever their ego desires. Give them that. And I don't think they did that this past offseason with any of these guys, but they've got to do that this year in order to be able to attract and get over the hump that new England is not a desirable destination.
I hear you. I just look. I hope I'm wrong. But if the only alternative there is to just give Brandon ayu qua or excuse me, to t Higgins thirty five to forty million dollars a.
Year, I don't think they're gonna do that.
I think you know, he's gonna get thirty million dollar a year offers from everybody, Okay, so if the Patriots are at thirty two and a and a contender is at thirty, then.
He's gonna take the thirty with the contender, right, And that's part of the problem. So you're gonna have to go up a little bit in order to get him. And I think this is the year that you have to do that. Evan.
That that's I agree with you. I agree with you. I just I think it's easier said than done because because sure, we're not doing it. Yeah yeah, not even we're not writing the checks.
So I get that.
It's not even from that standpoint, I just think convincing these players to come here is easier said than done, even if the money is overwhelming, because they're getting life changing money no matter where they go, right, So, like it's about fit, you know, it becomes about other things, you know, ulterior things, just to the money, because no matter where they're going, no matter where t Higgins plays football, next year, he's gonna be a very very wealthy man. Oh yeah. So whether it's here or whether it's in Cincinnati, or whether it's elsewhere LA. You know, the Chargers are another team that gets floated a lot for him because they really besides Mconkeye, you know, they could add more receiver help there like they wherever. It is, like it's gonna be the difference between you know, five to ten million dollars for him, and it's it's you know, quality of life. It's would you rather be here or would you rather be in LA with Justin Herbert.
You know what they really need to do here that kind of chuckling on from thinking about it here. They need a full fledged spot on recruiting coordinator, They need a couple of good drafts, they need well I understand, but I could see a guy like Matthew Slater being you know, the head recruiting coordinator and he's the one that's gonna go out and he's gonna you know, go out and make the initial contact. Hey, dude, we want you to. This is why you should play in New England. Can you think of anybody better to represent the organization really than a guy like Slate? I can't right now, especially since he's still in the organization. The other thing to this, and I think this directly leads into whether or not the Patriots are going to be able to attract quality free agents, is the Girodmeo question, right.
I mean, you don't know he's gonna be here.
We don't know. We don't know. We don't know if he'll be here next Monday. We don't know for sure. Now you and I have said on this program and others, we don't believe anything's going to happen. There will be. That was before last Saturday. Yeah, and last Saturday was significant. We do need to deal with that for just a moment, whether you know we we purge it, or you know we embrace it, or you can't erase it. Is the point here. That was one of the all time low moments. And like I said, I've been a part of this franchise, in this organization for thirty three seasons. That's one of the lowest moments I can ever recall, and this goes back to pre Craft family arrival here under previous ownership, when James Bush Orthwine owned the team, is when I started with the team. And uh, I don't remember a more bleak outlook on a game day than what we experienced last Saturday here Gillette. For those that are uninitiated, that's what it was like. That was very Rod rust ish, that was very Dick McPherson is And that's with all due respect to those two great gentlemen. You know, you know, we've talked about this on this show. I did Rod Russ TV show for a year because nobody else wanted to do it, so we did it right. Dick McPherson h tremendous, grandfatherly type guy. He was a really good college coach at Syracuse. Uh, you know it was Lord the owner before or Wine.
I'm not was't even born.
What the hell the company Remington? Yeah, yeah, the Remington Razor guy, Victor Cayam. Yeah, Okay, thank you, good Lord. I'm stuck that he wanted. Victor McPherson was a Cayam guy, That's what he wanted. And he loved him at Syracuse. Everybody loved him at Syracuse didn't translate to the pros. This is what happened back in the late eighties and early nineties with his team post Raymond Berry and Raymond Barry obviously had some pretty good years when he was the coach here, got him to a Super Bowl against the Bears. They got spanked. But you know, that's where we're coming from that era. That was the first time on Saturday that it felt like nineteen ninety again all over. So the question now stands, do the Crafts want to move forward from that or are they going to embrace that? Are they going to be happy with just you know, a two or three game improvement next year? I mean, where are we going here? And you know, while we I'm not sure still that Gerard Mayo is going to be here next week. I still likely believe that he's going to be here, but that there will be other changes made throughout the organization on the coaching staff. You know, he's gonna need more help. And I think we all know that those that are still going to be here, I don't know for a fact. You don't know for a fact, we don't know that. We're just surmising, largely because of the magnitude of what happened last Saturday, even though they had a great you know effort I thought against Buffalo and clearly easily could have won that game two weeks ago. And now here they are with the Bills again. And the Bills, Yeah, they're going to start, you know, Josh Allen, but he's likely not to play more than you know, a quarter if that Drake may. We don't know he's going to start at least we've been told. We don't know how far he'll go. H this could be an absolute bleep show before you know, everything is all said and done on Sunday. Here, the fact remains is that there are gonna be changes made because of what we saw last week. And we know all that did was just peel off the scab. Yeah, that's all. That's all Last Saturday did it peeled off the scab and revealed the true wound on this franchise. They don't have enough talent, and they don't have the leadership in place right now from top to bottom to coach that talent up. They also questionably haven't identified the talent.
Yeah, yeah, no, I mean, look, I that's totally fair. And the way I look at it personally is the off seasons about Elliott Wolf, in seasons about Mao. Now we're gonna put Elliot Wolf at center stage. Come here in a week and we're gonna start talking about talent evaluation and drafts and free agency.
And after this game is over, I mean, you know, and we and you immediately are on to twenty twenty five. It's the focus from you know, Monday on is going to be on April.
It's gonna be on the personnel side. And there's definitely a chicken or the egg debate when it comes to that sort of stuff. Right, is it that they don't have talent or is it that they're poorly coached? Or is it both?
Right?
And I sort of go towards the ball side to be honest with you, And I just think the biggest thing with Mayo and his future with this team is that it just has been rocky from the start, and there's been a lot of rookie coach growing pains a lot. And I'm not a big press conference guy, like I don't. It doesn't really move me one way or another when he says things at press conferences that people disagree with, like or he says things one day and then back like it's not the most important thing to me, but it's part of the puzzle. Yeah, you know, you are the face of the franchise, like you are the spokesperson of the franchise, So that is part of the puzzle. And messaging and all these kinds of things are important when it comes to being the head coach of an NFL team. So if I saw, though more importantly, if I saw some schematic wrinkles or scheme related just innovation on defense specifically, just because that's where his background is is on defense, I would feel a lot better about it. Because I think there's coaches that had rough first years. And I know we always talk about like the Dan Campbell's of the world and stuff like that, but there are coaches that have had but you could see their elite trade, Like you could see what's made them stand out as head coach material.
And we haven't really seen that would draw it. And the only thing that has kept him, I think from being clearly you know, on the firing line here is Dan Campbell. He has Dan Campbell to think I think for a lot of it right now because of the.
Way but Dan Campbell is such a different situation. Okay, you know, Dan.
A different personality. Totally agree with.
Dan Campbell had way more coaching experience going into that experience he.
Did, and that's the key, right. But I still think Dan Campbell's turn around from one year to the next is the only thing that's causing any sort of way. Wait a second, now, you know five years ago we may have thought that Grod Mayo is gonna be a future head coach. What's changed And the answer to that is, well, he's gotten some experience and it hasn't been positive. But when you see what Dan Campbell has done to Detroit, if you supply him with talent, which obviously Detroit did, he was able to turn it around. Well, how do we measure success in that regard? Does girod and do the Pagers need to win five, six, eight, ten games next year? Somewhere in that do they need to become competitive? I think personally they need to just stop stinking.
Yeah, that's a fair way to put it. I just look at Dan Campbell and we've had these conversations before. You know, there's two different types of head coaches. To me, there's guys that are raw, raw guys there's culture builders, and then there's ex'es and know's you know wizards, Right, there's the schematic guys. When I look at Gerrod, I'm still not sure which one he is. I still don't really know what kind of identity he wants for this team.
Is he an nextion no guy or is he a CEO?
Yeah, like in Detroit with Dan Campbell, they stunk. They were three thirteen and one. We all know the record, right, we all know this by now. They stunk. But he was a galvanizing personality, Like you could tell that he could be a leader of men and that he, when given the proper talent by the front office, was going to get those guys to play and to buy in and to play hard and to compete. I just haven't necessarily seen that sort of side with Gid. Doesn't mean it doesn't exist, because that that was and we're being honest, like, that's what really was the cell I would say, was that he was going to be a leader, and that is what he was as a player, and so I think that that is there within him.
We just wasn't really a vocal leader as a player.
Though, Oh he was.
He was made.
He was a guy that.
But I as a player and a damn fine one at that. As a player, he was more of a lead by example guy.
I wouldn't say that. You know, I talked to a lot of his teammates for a piece right after the Patriots made the higher uh you know, Dante high Tower, Jamie Collins, you know, going back aways, you know to some of his teammates, Devin you know that that were Brandon Spikes, you know a lot of guys and that Gerard was that was the leader on that defense. You know, he was especially in the linebacker room. You know, he was a coach in that room, the local guy. They called him girod Belichick because he was you know that that was it right.
And therein I think, honestly that could be part of the problem here because he's trying to be what he learned how to be.
And I don't think this team.
Needs that right now. This team needs a kick in the panch.
Yeah, I I don't think he. I think he's trying to almost was trying so hard to be the opposite of Bill that that it kind of backfired. That's that's backfired too.
Yeah, who is.
I think this is who he is? Uh the scenes. I think he's been a similar guy to what he was as an assistant with the Patriots. It just it comes back to if you're not going to be the ex's and o's coach, if you're not going to be the schematic genius, right, then you need to surround yourself with schematic geniuses on your coaching staff, like your coordinators need to be doing that. I'll give you, you know, stick with the Detroit example. Ben Johnson is doing that right, like Ben Johnson is making up for the fact that Dan Campbell is not a scheme whiz. Because Ben Johnson is Aaron Glenn, their defensive coordinator, is also going to be a head coaching candidate. He's a very good defensive mind. So he has surrounded himself with a very very good coaching staff so that he can just lead from the top. And I think what we've seen here in New England AVP I think has more or less done his job. Now it hasn't been perfect, far from it, but more or less has done his job. But he's not an innovator. He's not Ben Johnson, he's not Cliff Kingsbury, He's not you know, one of those types of coaches. He's more of a developer, I would say, of quarterbacks, and he is a schemer, a play designer, you know that type of guy. And then DeMarcus Covington was also thrown into a position that he was green for that he was really you know, going to have to learn on the job with on as a defensive coordinator. So that that's an option for them if they don't want to completely blow this up, is to try to find, at least on one side of the ball, a coordinator that is really going to run the ship in terms of the x's and o's. But I just I have concerns about the overall direction of what we've seen, and I think all of us do.
And it's only going to be I mean, I don't know, does this weekend decide it? And here we come back to, you know what one of our original premises was for today. You know, do you go out and try to win this game because guys have to, you know, save their jobs, or do you, you know, basically go out and just go through the motion because the franchise needs, wants, desires, whatever you want to call it. The number one overall draft pick in the NFL Draft and the fact that you're even in position to have to lose a game in order to win the game the bigger game, the bigger picture is completely ludicrous.
So they're not going to take the game.
That doesn't well that's the old that's the old Herm Edwards thing. Hello, that doesn't play to win the game?
Well, well, it also just doesn't exist in the NFL. I'm sorry, it exists from the top levels of the organization potentially. So could they go out into this game and not put their best foot forward in the game on Sunday? From an organizational standpoint.
Sure, because coaches have you know, they have the call on who plays, So if you.
Want to not gonna My point though, is that I don't think that they're pulling guys from the game on purpose. I don't think that they're going to go into this game and not play Drake Man on purpose. I don't think that they're gonna go into this game and put practice squad guys out on the field to lose on purpose. But will they go all out to win this football game.
I think they'll treat it like an exhibition game. Right, This is gonna be, you know, a preseason game. Number four Yeah, they're they're.
On the coach. In the player level, you really can't. You can't tank, you can't take a game because that's your livelihood. What the players put on film is their livelihood. So if you're a player in this league, whether it's here or it's your impending free agent or whatever the case may be, if you put purposeful, bad film out, then you're not gonna get a job, right, You're gonna lose yourself a lot of money.
That's correct. So, which is why the whole tanking thing is ludicrous.
Yeah, no, Ludacris from the top up though, Like if you're talking about like Elliott Wolf and girod and and the crafts make.
A decision if that would cause you to play poorly, they can. But for players' effort, Hey, I'm just gonna, you know, hold off here because you know, the coaches told me whatever. That's ludicrous, okay. And for for fans to think that the players don't care and that they're gonna buy into the whole, you know, well, the organization is better off if we lose this game. They're not gonna do that. The players play to win, that's why they're here. And as you suggested if there's bad tape on them, it can haunt them to the next job, or the job after that, or the present job or whatever. That does not happen. If you've ever ever put on football pads in your life, if you've ever played a sport at a high level in your life, I don't know a soul that's always that that's ever said I'm just gonna walk go through the motions here.
No, that's not happening. Now. Could they make high level decisions at the top of the organization to like I said, not put their best foot forward, to not go all out to win the football game.
It's up to the coaches. I mean, they're the ones that make the call. They're the ones that make the substitution.
Now, if I was Drod Mayo, I would want some assurances before I went out there and did something like that, Like if we go out there on Sunday and I'm you know, not going for it on fourth downs or I'm not running Drake or like whatever they came or I'm not playing Drake right or whatever the case may be, and then you're just gonna fire me Monday morning because we look terrible in the game. You know that that obviously wouldn't work either. So there's a lot of common.
To his credit, he said consistently that he has constant conversations, you know, and discussions with the crafts, so you know, and and and and again. Unless he's being disingenuous, we have, you know, we have no reason to think that he's being truthful. Then that wouldn't be an issue. Yeah, shouldn't be an issue. So if this team does go out there and throw up a stink bomb again on Sunday, then hey, all bets are off the table on Monday morning. Yeah.
I just wish that, you know, for him and his his longevity here, I just wish we had seen some sort of upward trajectory to end the season. I agree, some sort of agree outside of Drake, who I think we are all really high on and excited about. Uh, if we had seen some sort of progress from any area of the team, then you could feel better about him coming back next year. I just don't see where they go from here with him coming back next year. And I would also just say that now you're going into twenty twenty five with the coach on the hot seat. Yeah, and so the second that it starts poorly. If they start oh and two, oh and three, one and four, then you know we're starting to get into in season firing.
What we were talking about earlier. I mean, you know, if you've got a coach on the hot seat going into the year, how do you really attract those you know, high price free agents that you know you're going to overpay to come here.
Yeah, and look at the coaching staff too, Like, if you're an offensive coordinator candidate or a defensive coordinator candidate, and you're not one hundred percent sure that Arrod Mayo has stayed power in New England, why would you come here for one years?
Why the better business decision here? This is my opinion, Okay, only it's probably the clean house.
It's hard to argue. It's hard to argue. I I don't know what I would do because I I don't. I don't necessarily have the conversations with GIROD Mayo.
No nobody does. But he's he's got other things. Yeah, he's had other things on his mind. He's trying to win a football game whatever.
Yeah.
But the thing that I keep going back to is that you know, in preparation, this team just isn't buttoned up right, there's there are too many mistakes that are being made late in the year that should have been corrected and cleaned up in training camp.
Yeah, the defensive stuff is what really, it's just.
It's it's it's I you know. And then on the offensive line, you know, the jump starting and it's just like wow.
Like the offensive line know I can excuse away for talent deficiencies, I can't know.
Listen, there's a such thing as discipline, you know. You know when the snap county is, don't move until the snap count that's yeah football.
Hear you. But like at right tackle, Trey Jacobs is a waiver claim at the end of the summer that they plucked off of waivers and he's now starting games. Like they had a guy, you know, Ben Brown starting at center for the majority of the season, who is on a practice squad that they signed off the Raiders practice squad to come here and start games. But Vederian Low's a backup in the NFL, He's not a starting tackle. And then we have you know, a rookie at left guard and Laden Robinson for most of the year. You really have one offensive lineman that's a proven commodity in the league and Mike Onwenu. So I can excuse a lot of the things offensively in terms of execution being talent related, I can defensively, I still stand by the fact that I think that this defense is more talented than what they've put on tape. I think they are a better defense than what they've played like this season. And the main reason why they haven't played up to that is fundamentals. They don't tackle well, they don't pursuit well, they don't their eye discipline is not good like they're they're they have fallen apart.
Kyle Dugar to no end. Now we've seen it on all the tape and all the film. And I don't know if it was his injury or this year or whatever it was that, you know, cause didn't miss a couple of games. He's regressed mightily across the board. They and I'm wondering how much of a factor did Juwan Bentley's early injury really play into this?
Now, Yeah, I mean, if that's the case, And look, no disrespect to Juwan Bentley, he's a he's a really good player, but he's he's he's not Ray Lewis like he's not you know, like he's not he but I hear you. Like in terms of communication, in terms of leadership on the field, he was a very very big loss. And it's obviously had a domino effect on on Janni Tavai as well, because now he's sort of playing a different role in a different position in this defense. But on the law, on the whole, you know, they've really regressed across the board talent wise on defense, besides Christian Gonzales, you know, Kyle Duggar, Jilani Tavai, Keon White, you know, the all these guys that they came into the year, you know, one way or another, expecting to rely on these players. They were expecting to rely on those three guys in particular this season. They were supposed to be a part of the solution for this defense going forward, and they've been a problem. Yeah, And to me, that's coaching. Like Kyle Duggart didn't just all of a sudden forget how to play football, right, you know, you didn't have the year that he had last year in the year before that, and then all of a sudden he just forgot.
Is it possible that these guys that we've talked about have tuned out the coaches.
I don't want to go that far. I don't know that for facts. I don't want to speculate on that. But I think it's possible that they're not getting the right kind of coaching or the coaching that they need out of that, you know, this staff. I think that's entirely possible. It's just it's tough to watch this defense right now because it's it's not just the macro level. They have no talent on that side of the ball. They have players that have played decent football for this team in recent years. You know, I just named a couple of guys that have played well for this organization before this use it and they aren't playing well now. And so much of it is just fundamentals like run fits and tackling and taking on blocks and physicality and pursuit to the football. Like so much of defense is just effort. Man Like it's just want to write, like it's just that ability to you know, to fly around out there, and I just don't see that from this defense. I don't see them getting that out of this defense. And that doesn't even get into like the x's and no's and what they're trying to do schematically, Like, that's just the baseline. If you do that as a defense, if you are a relentless pursuit defense and you fly to the football and you tackle well, and you take on blocks well, and you fit the run well, that you can be the average defense with less talent just doing that, just doing that, and so to see all that kind of stuff drop off has really bothered me. Like that the offensive side of the ball, they got a lot of work to do talent wise.
All right, So before we get to the press conference is coming up here in just a couple of moments, and before we let you get out for that, two quick things. Number One, how did the Patriots game plan for Sunday against the Bills. The Bills have no incentive. They're locked in at the two spot right now. You know in the AFC playoffs they've said they're gonna play Josh Allen a little bit. My guess is that most of their second liners are going to play. How do the Patriots and how should the Patriots approach this?
Yeah, it's interesting because I was listening to Jim Harbaugh was on Jim Gray with Bill Belichick, and the two of them, you know, are kind of chuckling back and forth about this notion of well just rest everybody. Well, you can only address forty eight guys, right, And it's not like preseason where you have a ninety man roster where you can bring in third and four stringers. So some people have to play in the game. Now, do you have to if you're the Bills, do you have to play Josh Allen? No, you can play your backup quarterback. But some people have to play in this game for Buffalo. So I'm expecting this to from the Bills standpoint, to be a mix. Like I think there will be some starters out there will be their key starters, like probably not, but it will be some starters because some people have to play for the Patriots. I expect them to put out a regular letter in this game.
In other words, not holding anybody back.
No, I don't expect any Now, could certain tweaks be made to get looks at younger players that maybe you wouldn't do in the middle of the season. Yeah, absolutely, Like I could see Cayden Wallace starting at this game. It right, tackle overt Trey Jacobs, which isn't really saying much, but like stuff like that. You know, could I see Kendrick Bourne kind of taking a little bit of a backseat in this game to let Jayvon Baker and Jalen Polk play a little bit more regular playing time. Yes, But I don't think that they're gonna go out there and put a JV squad out on the field and purposely try to lose this game. I think they're going to go into this game with the intent to win. And I know that bothers people, but that's professional sports exactly.
All right. Before I let you go, then I gotta get your thoughts on what transpired of New Year's Day Bowl games. Yeah, you know, the playoff was exciting on Wednesday, it was exciting. I think Texas one game, well at least the Texas Arizona State game was pretty exciting game. Ohio State was impressive and their performance over Oregon in particular. So I'm just your thoughts on A the playoff and b how could any of what we saw over the holiday benefit the Patriots come draft time?
Oh yeah, Like we were talking about this before we were recording. I think this is great for draft evaluation because you're watching these guys, these top prospects, that you're considering for the Patriots go up against the best of the best, and you're watching it in concession, right, so it's week to week. It's not like, oh, they played this team in October and now they're playing this team in December. No, we're watching Kelvin Banks go through a gauntlet of top ten defenses, you know, right through the end of the playoff, hopefully for your Longhorns. Right, So you're watching that, you're watching the you know guys that are maybe not top ten prospects. But I'll just give you a name, like a Mecca Abuka on Ohio State, I think is a really intriguing, a top of the second round receiver for the Patriots. He might go a little bit ahead of that. You might have to trade up into the end of the twenties to secure him, but he's going to be right into that. You know, Keton Coleman, Lad mcconkee, Jalen Polk category last year. That's gonna be a Buka this year. Really intriguing players. So you see them, you see Jack Sawyer, you see you know the other players on Ohio State that they have because they've just got NFL players everywhere. So It's exciting to see all those guys A in a very very competitive environment. So you really see who the dogs are, right, you really see that, and b you see them against top competition. So from a drafts perspective, if you just want to watch a few tapes, like I watch a lot, right, I'm not expecting people that have other jobs and things like that to do to do that. But if you just watch two games of Calvin Banks in the college football playoff, you're gonna find out a lot about that player.
You know.
That's why I told people to watch him. Yeah, you know you're looking at a guy. Could he is going to be high on the Patriots you know list of wannabees. Yeah, and you know, I don't know where you pick him. Do you pick him as high as two, three or four? Do you pick him as low as seven or eight? Wherever you pick him, you know he's probably gonna be a candidate to be selected by New England because they're gonna have we know, what they need. And so you want to look at how he handles the rush, and how he keeps the pocket clean, and how he you know, can run. But you're gonna want to look at all these different things.
Yeah, absolutely, Yeah, he's been It was really impressive against Clemson. I haven't studied the tape he takes.
His ankle against Arizona State on Wednesday. He treated his ankle a little bit. He was a to return to the lineup, but Texas struggled mightily in the third quarter when he wasn't in there and they had to go more to their two backup tackles. Yeah, and that was part of the reason why Arizona State got back of the game. Yeah, yeah, part of the reason. Not the entire reason. Yeah, part of the reason. Yeah. He's not a big Quinn you or fan anymore.
I understand he's a really really solid prospect. I think that he's Joe alt or you know, one of these like elite blue chip tackle prospects. Probably not, but you're just looking at last year's draft like he would have been in that Olofushanu you know tier to me, right and that second tier. So if I'm the Patriots, like I'd probably rather take him at the back half of the top ten after a trade down. But in this draft you can't get too picky because there isn't those top talents to push him down the board. So if they if they end up walking out of the first round at you know, their first pick in the draft is Calvin Banks. I would like to see how they got there, you know, like first, but I wouldn't be overly critical of that pick.
Is your pick for the national title?
I think Ohio State is the best team. I think that that was pretty clear based off of what we saw against Oregon. But I do, uh, I do really wonder about Georgia and if they are just gonna kind of hit their stride here at the right time and just kind of roll. But I without Carson Beck, I'd probably take Ohio State.
Here's my pick for the national championship game. No, that's all right, that's fine. I'm gonna I gotta stay with my Longhorns. But I say it's Texas versus Penn State.
I would love that because then we'd get Abdul Carter versus Kelvin Banks, and great.
We could just decide just just focus in on those two guys, because I guarantee if they're gonna face each other.
Yeah, I mean, look, Abdul Carter is he got hurt in the game the other night, obviously, but I watched all of his snaps back, and I mean he was just on a force, like he is a terror, Like he was just blowing everything up, like just automatically pops off the film with his athletics undersized, Like you know, he's not he's not Willie McGinnis right, Like, he's not going to go out there and set the edge and all that kind of stuff. But he is. He's going to get in the backfield, man, Like that guy is going to live in an NFL backfield. So I'm excited about him. I I have to admit I really high on him.
And in spite of some of the lopsided scores in a couple of these games, uh, I think the college playoff is good. I think it's good. I think they can tweak it a little bit better, maybe with some seeding purposes whatever. Yeah, but I think it's good. Everybody's getting a shot here, and I think for the most part, everybody's proven that belong at some level, you know, in that you know final twelve.
So save you, yeah, save the college football a little bit because they're they're come back and the fact that that game got pushed into overtime. I think that's gonna be big because I expect Georgia to roll Notre Dame today to be yeah, I do so, then you're really going to have, you know, all blowouts across the board except for the one overtam game, and then that's when you start to get into the many teams, you know, all that kind of.
Stuff that finish. I mean, if you if you missed the Peach Bowl, oh my goodness, it was you know, candidate is certainly I think for Game of the Year thus far.
Well.
I it's funny because I looked down for a second and Texas had already scored in the second overtime on one play, and I was like, wait, they scored again, Like where did that happen?
The tight end Gunner Helm, who, by the way, pretty good prospect.
Yeah yeah, two really good two really.
Good tight ends. Yeah, but one of par State's Warren, Yeah, yeah, amazing guys. You know, Warren is the first guy that I really can look at and say, ooh he looks like Gronk.
Yeah yeah, he's uh, he's kind of you know, I never like comparing guys to Gronk or Kelsey or like that sort of level tight end, but.
He's kind more of a physical presence than Travis Kelcey ever had. And that's with all the respect because I covered Kelsey in college when he was at Cincinnati and I was doing Big East football. Okay, so uh and he was a good receiver. He's developed, Warren Is, he's off the charts physical, yeah, and he's got athletic ability where we can go up and get it. I mean, if you watched any of that game, you know if their first round game it's against Boise, Wow, Yeah. I mean he was impressive.
He's a talented player for sure.
All right, all right, I gotta go get off. Yep, you got it. Easy Lazaar at Easy Lazar on X and we've got a lot more that we are going to try to get to here today. But we can remind you first and for foremost Patriots fans. If you want to see Toyota's best offers, including those not seen on TV, go to buy a Toyota dot com. It's Toyota's official website for deals from the official vehicle of the New England Patriots, Toyota, Let's Go Places, and bud Light is the official sponsor of the Patriots as well. Easy to Drink, Easy to Enjoy, bud Light is the official beer sponsor of the New England Patriots. Russell Baxter will join us at the bottom of the next hour or bottom of you this coming up hour to go through the week eighteen the playoff scenarios. We'll get his thoughts on you know a tanking, which is I even hate you using that term. You know that if you watched the show at all, listened at all in the past, because there's really there's really no such thing. Nobody thanks. Professional football players don't lose purposely for the reasons that Evan and I just discussed too much can follow you in this day and age, right the same reason why you don't, you know in theory, some of us that are maybe a little smarter than others don't say things that ignite people on social media because it can come back to haunt you. So I gotta, you know, I gotta think that you know that term should probably be stricken from the sports lexicon. That being said, we know how you feel, we know how I know how I feel. I know how I feel. I'd love to see the Patriots have from a purely selfish point of view, I'd love to see the Patriots have the number one pick. We open up the show today talking literally about you know, this would only be the third time in modern history that the Patriots have had the number one overall pick, and that's that's an opportunity, that's it's it's almost an honor that you stink so bad that you you get the number one pick. But it's also there's a lot of pressure that's inherent with that because you don't want to mess it up. Most teams don't. Most drafts have players who are athletes, who are definitive. In other words, yeah, top overall pick, got to get this guy, We need this guy, and so it's hard to screw it up. Patriots had the three pick last year with Drake May and as it turns out, hey, you know what, he's as good as any of them, maybe better than one or two others. Although you know, Jaden Daniels led his team to the playoffs, uh bo Knicks, you know, for Denver, even though he was picked behind the top three guys. Bo Nicks I think had an extraordinarily solid rookie year for a young quarterback. But Drake's right there. Once they finally put Drake into the mix and included him in the process and allowed him to learn on the job. Yeah, he's I think we've seen he's as good as any So I think the Patriots have their guy, and I think most everybody can kind of agree with that. The question is is who do you get to play with him? Who do you target in free agency? Do you target the lineman in free agency? Do you target the receiver in free agency? Do you target the edge? And free agency? And which ones do you go get through the draft? Who's easier to get through the draft? And where you select in the draft? Does this have does that have a direct cause and effect on who you select and which need you attack? See, these are all decisions that you know, Elliot Wolf that Patriots brain trust ownership, Yeah, they're a part of it. They're all gonna have to determine in pretty short order. But the first thing you have to determine is is all right, who's going to be here to help in not only making these decisions but coaching these decisions up. That's the key issue right now. You know, Black Monday is something that I don't think the NFL really wants to necessarily emphasize, even though it does happen the day after the NFL regular season is completed. They call it Black Monday for a reason because that's usually when coaches are fired. Last year, I think there were seven. I think most indications are that there will probably be somewhere in that vicinity of number of teams making changes again coming up in just a few short days. If I had to make a choice, I would tell you that I don't think the Patriots make the choice. I don't right now. I don't. But if they go out and they put up another you know, stay bomb for lack of a better phrase, like they did against the Chargers last weekend, all bets are off the table. They have to be. I don't know how you can run a business as a CEO knowing that your lieutenants underneath you aren't doing their jobs or aren't capable of doing their jobs. Yeah, I just I'm not I'm sorry. What was that? Okay, great, all right, let's go ahead and take you then too. The news conferences. Alex van Pelt certainly he's front and center in a lot of this discussion. Right now, he's meeting with the members of the Patriots media. It's like they're having a little technical glet you.
Mh they're not getting audio.
We're gonna have to come back to you.
We're putting them out.
There in this game.
Absolutely, I mean, we gotta go out and compete. We're trying to win the football game, so you know, we'll have everything availed there. He's got to do a better job. And we had this conversation. When you're on the sideline, you're not close to the sticks, You've got to get out of bounds there. Unfortunately, you know, he took a pretty good shot. I was able to come back, but he's got to understand he's got to protect himself as well in those situations.
All it's winding back to clock when either when you interviewed or surely either after what was the expectation set for a year one if you got the job, this is what we hope to achieve knowing the new quarterback, everything that's gone.
Sure, I mean, it's a lot of moving targets there. You know, we wanted to establish the system first and foremost and get that taught, get the play style taught, how we're going to play here, you know, moving forward, and then at that point it was just a matter of you know, who were we going to draft at that position. We knew we were going to take a quarterback. You know, we knew we had some some holes and we're going to have to fill those throughout the course of the year and through the next years. And but I think again there were expectations to win more games than we did and that's the unfortunate part.
Yes, ye Hunter.
Henry talked a little bit about karen over system from when you're in you're doing or for you what's what's the.
Value of doing and having the same system?
Well, I mean you could look at a lot of the of the quarterback development over the years and the guys that have, you know, the Hall of Fame guys have been in systems that were similar to the same year after year after year, and that just builds that knowledge of you that you have in the system in many different levels.
You know.
I think it's important for consistency and continuity, especially for younger players, and to stay within the system.
I was huge it.
Anyway, on looking back that last game, why remind or a ceps and started? You told that the plan was Yeah, I mean that that I know coach addressed that and that was a coach's decision and it has my full support and all that. You know, ultimately, both of our our backs need to do a great job of ball security.
When I leave it at that.
Whether it's in the off season or during the season, how much emphasises do you put on trying to see what other teams are doing with similar offenses and try to maybe take things and.
Happens, Yeah, a lot.
And that comes down to, you know, when you do the the you know the breakdowns of the opponents that you're playing. Oftentimes will pick like offenses to see how our scheme, you know, or what their adjustments were to our scheme. So many times we'll go and hey, maybe Cleveland's up, or maybe the Tennessee Titans similar run game. We'll pick those games to evaluate and break down. So quite often you're looking at other teams when you're doing that.
Oh, it's the time of year where there's often reflections rape was it here yesterday?
It was two? You could show them something as like booking camp as something up. The way he made and how he's grown up. Curious for you.
I've been pretty honest and frank with us a play caller in this role, how do you think you've grown and where do you think maybe there are areas falls.
Still, yeah, there's definitely growth. I mean you grow in every every season, regardless of your position. I think you you gain knowledge throughout the course of the year. Whether you're coaching quarterbacks, whether you're the quality control coach, it really doesn't matter.
Your growth is every every year.
No matter what the position. Some of the things that I would like to take back, or some of the bad calls that I made throughout the course of the year, you know, really starting with the the fumble last week, that was a tough one. Put those guys in a tough spot. You know, there's a handful of those in each game. You're like, man, I wish I'd have done something differently. So just you know, keeping that again, the growth and the knowledge of where where I messed up during the course of the year and how can I be better for that?
But that said, how much when you do you like at the end of the year, when you take a buckhead, say bad plays, good plays, What did I learn?
What can I do better? How much I do it? Yeah, I do it in every game.
So after the end of the game, I take my notes and I type in a bad bad play call here I got to give the guy something better here. So I'll definitely look at those throughout the course of the season, at the end of the year and say where can I get better?
Is that?
How much can you how much better can you think you can be next year? At this play?
I think again, it's that continued growth for all of us, not just the players, but for the coaches as well.
Have you seen defenses to fend you down the stretch when you know there's sufficient tape on Drake you have your identity bill, have you seen them defend you the last.
Three four games.
Yeah, there's definitely some rush patterns that encourage the quarterback to leave the pocket. I think teams will start to use with Drake. You start to see a little more spine of him to stop him from and especially on third and medium.
I've seen you.
Know that from Buffalo the last time we played him. So there's definitely changes to the defense, you know, due to the film and Drake.
Those things you say fire next season, like, Okay, we got to find answers for this.
Yeah.
Absolutely, that's part of the coaching and developing the growth. Thanks guys, appreciate you, guys, Thank you guys so much.
Really good, Thank you.
Okay, Alex van Pelt, at least once we're able to get a couple of audio issues as squared away, but you've got at least a little bit of an idea of how he feels, what he's thinking, what he's doing, what this team is liable to be going after as far as this Sunday's game is concerned. Look, I wouldn't expect anyone at all to you know, say anything other than be truthful that you know, hey, we're gonna go out, We're gonna win the game. Everybody's playing for a job, whether they're under contra or not. Everybody's playing for a job. Everybody's playing for a job, the coaches, the players, everyone is playing for a job this week. And if you've never been put in that situation yourself, I could tell you that it's it's obviously it's it's it's not a comfortable position to be in. I just you know, listen, Uh, this is going to continue to be a course of conversation until one way or another we determine after this weekend whether or not it's going to happen or not. But to say that you could actually lose purposely in order to ensure, you know, a higher draft pick is it's it's the opposite of what competitive athletics is supposed to be about. And I would tell you that that fans who say, oh, you know, you should just not play people and you know, lose on purpose for whatever reason, you haven't played this, uh, certainly not at a higher level, and that is just not going to exist. All right, let's go back to the press conferences and let's really listen to defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington.
Our players that we have uh to do that on an early down and a third down base.
Uh So.
And one thing about Yannick, you know, just want to thank him for everything he was done, you know, or did for us. Uh, you know, as he was here for those couple of weeks and true professional, true professional who you know came in here every day and worked hard and say consideration there in that position.
Yeah, it was still working through through that. At the moment.
View the season that Christiantols has happened, I thought he had an unbelievable season for us. Just proud of his growth coming from year one obviously, you know, being injured throughout there year one, then coming into this season, off season training camp, and then just the positions that he you know, did for us, whether it's matchups or or just just being just him at him as a person. So looking forward to him his growth for the future. And I think he did an unbelievable job you know, for us this year, and just proud of him.
Thoughts on him being a provo stuff.
Yeah, I definitely think he deserves to be, you know, a pro bowler. I mean, he's one of the best corners, if not the corner in the league.
So for sure, it's a bit worth coming about the tack that Josh Allens gonna start when they're in the four.
Career for the kind of bestment sounds like, how does that change things for you for the game?
Playing everything?
That start?
Nothing?
I think we have to for us, it's about what we do as a defense. It's about like the things that we can go out there, executing the calls, playing the defense, playing within the framework or our defense fundamentals. And then when you even if when you look at the quarterback, both of the quarterbacks can have the ability to run throw with that you know, obviously you know we have one as a starter, one is not you know, as a backup, but from a game plan standpoint, that's the reason why they have a player like Trubisky because he can do the things that Josh Allen can do.
So not much for us.
Marcaus Dietrich mentioned that the pass rush against the Chargers wasn't really up to snub from wondering, how.
Do you think it can improve so that you can finish strong?
Yeah, So I think for us, like one just we talked about it this, you know, really every day this week of just fundamentals of games and then also just like it's tough when you get max play action pass seven man pro versus four man rush so on an early down base too, So there's a give and take of either you know, providing more people within the rush and then also just some of the fundamentals of like on third down, of the different games of those different things too.
We've been having a good amount.
Of I would say, a revolving door on some pieces of players too, with going in there running different games how we want to do, how we do it any p style throughout the years. So I think we just got to continue to talk about those deals on the fundamentals of not that this is a game but how do we run it year? You know in New England, how do we run it like, you know versus this team? And then also just the thought of like when what do we do you know versus Max play action pass, you know, when we're getting that on a daily daily dose.
Where's young much year and.
Over the last three or so about and not feeling like he's necessarily played up the snuff, but also feeling this nineties system.
What's going on?
You know, your thoughts, secunity and what are you sense from a young player like that who's expressing some growing things?
Teams?
Yeah, I think, Man, I I love Keon cause Uh, I mean I I remember going to Georgia Tech and sim with him, you know, during the draft process and then also bringing them in drafting them.
Uh, having him last year in the room great, you know.
I think I think he's uh his mindset and everything that he has for us is is awesome. Uh wanna wanna be better, wanna get uh coach hard, want want to uh win, And that's what that's what you want, you know, love the game, That's what you want from your players. And so for him, I think he's he's done a good job. You're going from year one a year two and again key on. When you look at him, he still hasn't played a lot of ball. He has not played a lot of ball when you go to college and then you go you know, starting out as a tight end, then going to a defensive end, and then now you bring him in the league switching between inside outside linebacker, you know, handing the dirt. So there's there's a lot of development. There's still still the growth. The ceiling is high for him. So I'm excited to continue to work with him, grow him as a as a player, as a person, as a man, and look forward to his growth.
Uh.
And you know what, you know, every everything is not going to be perfect. Everything is not going to be perfect as far as our Uh, you know, his every game is not going to be perfect. You wanted to, all right, But I'm glad he has understanding that like he wants to be perfect, which is good.
That's a good, good way to look at him.
You said, you bring a guy pla like that back in the e twos were disconnected multiple times.
Sometimes players sef tough seasons, But what do you what can you do as a coach to connect with Kean again?
I'm already connected with Keon, So that's how I look at it, Like I'm connected with Kean. There was no disconnect from from me and Keon. So I think Keon, we continue to work every single day like we did yesterday, gonna work the day on the practice field. We've already done that in the meeting room. We go go out there on Sunday do the same thing. So, like I said, I love Keon. We have a great relationship. Like you talk about a guy that come to my house, you know, eat Thanksgiving with me. Like So as far as like those different type of things, I think there's can be one narrative than another narrative. Like he's trying to do what I'm trying to do. Win, all right, He's trying to do what y'all wanted.
To see win. So that's that's the beauty of the game.
Uh, there's always to like That's why I like you like to talk to people face to face on things because just like when you text, like you never know how that is interpreted. So I think always when you talk as man and man's face face, like, there's no disconnect.
Has he spoke in the youth about the need for change, Uh, whether it's how he's utilized or just basic changes with the steam.
Perhaps.
Yeah, we we've we've me and Keon talk every day again, we a co we talking about wre We're come to work every single day talking about a guy comes to hear the first one in the building, you know, pretty much every single day.
Uh.
And and for me and Keon, like we're looking for the same thing is to work. And it's not for scheme or anything. It's more to just get better period. How do we get better as uh? On the on the field, how do we get better as a unit. When we all play better as a unit, we all play better. So it's not just an individual, Kion, It's not just an individual. Coaches just not in and how do we win as a team. So that's how that's that's what we're trying to do.
Is he kind of an example of like a lot of coaches and all sports will say today's players they kind of you know, in the.
Past, do this well more now it's okay?
Why you know? He seems to be very like in tune with why are we doing certain things this way?
Everything else seems to be that kind of players.
You like that, Yeah, I I think that's the generation of it. Uh a lot of a lot of people.
And that's our job as coaches to always think about.
Uh.
And that's what I as a teacher too, cause I think you you put yourself back, uh, put yourself back in the classroom. You guys put yourself back in the classroom. Uh, like you always wanna know why, right, you want you don't wanna know why? And a lot of a lot of guys. I get that from my son, like why why I need to do that? I instead of just saying like it, just do it, Like yeah, give 'em give him a a understanding of why and how and how to do it and and the understanding of it.
Uh.
Yeah, that's that's a good amount of amount of our players and players across the country that you that you see.
Which is good it and it helps you. It's good. It helps grow you as a coach too.
Cause now like you got that, like this is why, this is how, and this is what what we need to do on it?
Do you get an understanding of of what key on that on you said that you felt disconnected.
Look again, I mean I answered a lot of the questions.
I think the most important thing when alright, and then for us like, well, how we can do that is by beating the bills right when the marks last nation marking.
Sorry.
Or the numbers of black head coaches and you coordinators have improved certainly of the last few years.
Yup.
But uh, as a guy's in the first time getting a shot at that job, I wonder if you felt any pressure this season type of form to show maybe future GMS owners that people look like you are capable of doing the job.
Yeah, I mean, uh, you always, I mean you think about that as a coach or uh black head coach or black coordinators.
Yeah, it's not that many of us. Uh.
And the opportunities that you have or will be given, you know, uh possibly the lack of So I mean you think about that. I don't think about pressure, uh on that. I think about showing up daily, doing my job, being where my feet is, and I think think about like and I'm a Christian man, so I think always look at it as like God open doors that man can't and he also close doors that man can't open.
So if it's whatever it is for me, it is for me.
But I do think I know I need to be president in the moment of where I'm at and do a great job there. And if I do a good job where I'm at, then all the other stuff will take care of yourself. So like, I don't really look at it as pressure or anything like that. I just look at it as like I'm blessed with the opportunity. I know, I got a great opportunity and a great job that a lot of people in the world will ever want, and I don't really take that lightly at all. And so that's that's really my goal and my focus every single day on that, and then I let the cards fall where they fall, no matter, no matter, no matter what. That's kind of how I look at it on a daily basis.
Thank you, Mark.
Okay. So that's DeMarcus Comington, the Patriots defensive coordinator, and today we've had a chance to hear from him and Alex Van Pelt here this morning eight five five pats five hundred on the TPX hotline eight five five pats five hundred. So it's time now for you to jump in. Russell Baxter will be here about ten minutes or so to run through week eighteen and some of the other scenarios that are still out there and available for the final week of the regular season before we get into the postseason. I certainly think that, you know, the Black Monday scenario is up for a topic of debate at least right now. There are you know, some reports that have come out this morning after the New Year holiday that have suggested the Dan Greziano from ESPN dot Com has come out with a story this morning where he says he believes, as an NFL insider, believes that Girod Mayol will return to the Patriots as head coach next year. I know that wouldn't come as a terrible shock and surprise to any of you. That's some of the evident I have believed strongly ever since this team's fortunes started to you know, go south this particular season, and maybe that's you know, to the you know, early to middle part of the season. It's been a struggle this year overall, and so we've been discussing, you know, Girod Mayo's job security or job safety is it will for the better part of two months, two and a half months really, I mean since October. I think that's reasonable just because of the way the team has played and naturally when when a team isn't playing well, the first focus is going to be on the head coach and is the head coach doing what the head coach needs to be doing in order to maximize, you know, the most opportunity out of his team. And and look, we all know that Girod is learning on the job. The problem here is that he doesn't quite have.
You know.
I think the analogy that I've used previously is he's got a hole in his bat and he needs he needs a solid stick to swing with U. And I think that's up to you know, the rest of the internal organization to be able to bring those people in and then if they cannot do that, does that save his job? No, not necessarily, because ultimately the head coach has to be responsible for the final product on the field, and his lieutenants, as you just heard from both then Peldon Covington are are are a part of that. They are an extension of the head coach and his philosophy. And if they don't perform, then the head coach isn't performing. And so you know, the head coach is going to have to make a change. I personally believe I don't know which one, If either one but I person believe there will be change to some extent within the coaching staff and within the hierarchy of the Patriots coaching and scouting system. I can't tell you which one, but I think there will be a shake up. I think there will be more of a focus. I think there will be more delineation of duty because I think everybody understands that, Okay, we got to pass this year, got got to pass this year. That's part of it. We're not going to get the same thing next year. If this team gets off to an over start next year, or we get to October and this team is you know, zero and four, one and three, yeah, I think then you're gonna hear more and more grumbling. And that's it's it will consume us all in that regard. And you could see some you know, you know, mid season changes that I don't think anybody really wants to have happen. Everybody wants to see, you know, if you're tuned into this program, if you follow this football team at all, you know you want to see this team have some success. That's why you're fans. If you're tuned in here because you're a fan of another team and you're just curious as to what's going on, or what might they do with the first pick, or maybe you know you were a you know, not particularly a fan of the Patriots are going through all of their winning, you know, over most of the last two decades. Look, the fact of the matter is is that every team in the NFL goes through this at some point in time or another. All teams do. Life in the National Football League is cyclical. No one can continue to win for a long time. I know, it seems like, you know, the Chiefs can keep it up for a long time. The Lions are certainly an up and coming team, The Vikings up and coming. How about the turnaround story for you know, I like Sam Darnold. You know, a few years ago he's seeing ghosts on the sideline, and now he looks like he's been entrenched, and he is entrench You should be Minnesota's got an opportunity to be the number one seed of the NFC this year. I think you got to give the guy credit when you get surrounded by the right people. So, you know, people were saying that about New England as well, how long can this go? And they did it for the better part of twenty years. All things are cyclical. The NFL is set up this way to be cyclical. The NFL is set up for parody. And it's up to the teams and there are individual processes and their moves, they're smarts, their innovativeness. It's up to their individuals to work harder to potentially find answers to questions that aren't readily available that give them an advantage over the competition. I mean, I don't think the AFC East turned out to be quite as competitive as any of us thought it would be to start this year, right, Buffalo dominated the division again. Buffalo is a deserving you know, division championship team. Buffalo has been my pick from day one this season to be the AFC representative of the Super Bowl to win the AFC Championship. And that's with all due respect to Kansas City. I just thought it would be intrinsically hard for Kansas City to, you know, they're going back to back win three in a row. I don't know, although they've only lost one game of the regular season, so they haven't really done anything that would, you know, keep us from saying, you know, they're a legitimate contender. They are Kansas City could do something that you know, no team has ever done, and so that could be motivation enough. That could be incentive enough. And let's also keep in mind that Kandas City has a coach that before all this said and done, Andy Reid will go down. You know, in that choice, you know five or six coaches that are thought of to be the all time greats in this game. I believe that because of what he's done in his past and certainly what he's doing now. And he's also paired up with potentially a generational quarterback, just like Bill Belichick had Tom Brady, Andy Reid's got Patrick Mahomes and there are enough good pieces and Kansas City is smart enough, I think within the front office to know that the more things stay the same, the more chances you have to lose. So you can't stay the same in the NFL. You have to constantly reform and reinvent yourself. And I think that's kind of where the Patriots dropped the ball years ago, if we want to get back into that, not necessarily, but just for the sake of conversation here, you know, I think the Patriots made a decision to let Tom Brady go when they did. I don't think it was the wrong move, but at the same time, I don't know we'd be where we are right now if the Patriots had kept Tom around for a couple of more years. But that wasn't a move that Bill Belichick really wanted to make. You know, we know what is modus apparandi was. We know that his tendency was to, you know, let guys go before they had, you know, completely used up all of their value. He wanted to let guys go when they were on the downswing of their careers. He's got a history of doing that. So maybe he missed by a couple of years with a few guys. I think the one that he probably missed most with was Adam Thenitary to be quite honest with you, and here's Adam Militari. Now, who is you know, a candidate for the Hall of Fame or looks like he's going to be in the Hall of Fame. He should be in the Hall of Fame. And the one that puzzles me and Coach Belichick actually came out on because when they, you know, put the finalists out, there is no Rodney Harrison on the list. And I'm just I'm kind of puzzled by that one as well, because he looked like he was gaining momentum toward getting that way, and all of a sudden, now he's not good enough. So did he do something in the off season that would keep him from, you know, being a legitimate candidate. And I know I'm kind of bouncing around here, but you know, each of these subjects sort of ties in, you know, respectively. And you know, history is made to be revisionists. It's made for us to go back over and wonder if things couldn't could have changed, if we'd done this or done that. And the fact of the matter is is that, like I said, the original premise here was that all teams go through what the Patriots have gone through. I think it's just stunned most of us over the length of time that the Patriots now have gone through this because you can make legitimate argument it's really been now we're going on almost six years since twenty nineteen, since you know, pre COVID for you know, the Patriots troubles to really kind of you know, take hold. Even though they did have the one you know, in mac Jones's rookie year, they had the playoffs, and they got to the postseason and they were ten and seven. He thought, well, right, maybe they kind of arrested, you know, some of the regression and unfortunately the fundamental you know, changes that were made in that off season, you know, with some of the coaching moves, and it was a big mistake by Bill Belichick. And I think this is what ultimately led to his downfall. You know, And here we are. How do you clean up this mess? How do you move forward from this point in time? You have your opinions, We've given our opinions. I think these opinions will continue to sort of manifest themselves, especially over the next seventy two to ninety six hours. Once we get to Monday, after the final game is played this Sunday here at Gillette and the result of that is known, and whatever that result might be, there needs to be a definitive step forward in that direction. There can't be any wish you wash you here. This is the route we're going, This is our game plan. I'd be thrilled to see the Patriots come out and announce it one way or the other. This is what we chose to do, for better or for worse. We felt like this isn't the best interest of the franchise and the football team at this stage of our development, and and move back into potential contention in the NFL. Decisions need to be made, and some of them, I think are still being formulated. And that's pretty much where we are heading into Sunday.
A real woman could stop you from drinking, Ye, a real big woman.
It's time to go around the NFL with football Guru.
Russell Baxter now on the name of Flounder on Patriots Playbook, the One and Only Backs Football Guru, Mister Russell Baxter. Happy New Year, Russell, How are you, sir? Gotcha all right? I missed everything you just said, so I'm going to start over again. Happy New Year soon, sir. How are you you too?
Most people miss everything I say. I guess my wish for this year is I hope the NFL playoffs are more competitive than the college football playoffs.
Well, you know, that's a great place to start. I'm glad you said that, because outside of I guess, the Peach Bowl, the Texas Arizona State game on Wednesday, a lot of these games have lacked for excitement, especially down the stretch run. I have to overall think though, that just because of the newness of it all, that the college football playoff is still a unique thing. They've obviously stolen from the NCAA basketball tournament to set this up in tournament format, and but I've enjoyed it. I've liked it. Even the games that are are are one sided somewhat because you're going to decide this on the field, and you're not going to let largely a bunch of know nothing, you know, sports writers, media people decide a national champion, which is the way it was done for decades, as you will know. So I'm actually kind of cool with this. But you know, I wonder, I wonder if you know, I don't know, everything's becoming so professional driven now with players players in the college lever being paid and uh, and the way that they're setting up, you know, the college postseason kind of like the NFL postseason, and and I just I don't know, have we lost something unique to the sport of football overall, or is this just is this really evolution that we're watching taken place.
Well, don't get me wrong, I'm glad they're deciding it on the field, and I have no problem with a twelve team format. You know, for like you said, for years, you know it's done with a ballot box, okay, you know which you know you know games are decided not on paper, okay, which for a long time that was college football. So I get all that and so on, and you know, just and there's gonna be a lot of people who jump all over this that games have not been competitive and so on. You know, my wish is that the nfls are and we've been lucky. We've been lucky with the super Bowl. The last three Super Bowl's all been decided by a field goal, by three points and then one in overtime. So don't get this ironed out. And there's no question about it. Maybe they need to do less of a bracket and more like the NFL does with seeds, you know, one through six or something like that, and you know where you receed afterwards. I think that's helped out the NFL a lot. You know, it used to be. You remember, up until nineteen eighty nine, when we had the playoff format in the NFL where there was four teams per conference or five teams per conference. You weren't allowed to play a team in your own division. In the playoffs unless it was the NFC or AFC championship game, and they threw that right out the win though with the change in nineteen ninety when they went to, you know, the more traditional seating format and so on, So maybe that's what college football needs to do, which obviously a herculean task. But listen, it was also a year of transition in college football. You know, the Big ten is what now the Big fifty? You know? Yeah, so who's who is not in there? So again, I'm sure they'll get it figured out and so on. I like watching all of the college full games in this format for selfish reasons because it kind of gets me caught up on some of the young men who are going to be available in the NFL Draft in April.
True? True? Do we put more do we put too much emphasis on what may happen as opposed to what will happen or what can happen? And I asked that question just because there are, you know, a half a dozen or more teams. I think we know for sure there are three teams that have coaching openings at this present time. But because of that, I'm just kind of curious to balance over you know, trying to plan for the now as opposed to plan for the future. Well, is this is the NFL justice sport made for planning about the future, because you can ultimately only have one winner. I'm just kind of curious as to your thoughts on that.
Oh, that's an excelle question as a matter of fact. And yet you know, the planning for the future goes on with our fellow media all the time. Yeah, we tried to decide the league MVP in September. We try and decide a team's win loss record in May when the skysule comes to out right, so right, and on and on, And here's a great example of what you're talking about the future, without a doubt, the biggest game of the season is Sunday night at Detroit two fourteen and two teams who will battle for the NFC North's Division and the number one seed in the NFC. And by the way, the loser is going to be the fifth seed and has to play a road playoff game.
How great is that? Though? I mean, that's that's that's pressure.
What have you heard more of this week? And I'm not kidding me, probably in recent weeks. Okay, Sam Donald's contract status for next year. Okay, how about letting him get through this? Yeah, okay, yeah that should they do this? Should they franchise them, Should they bring in JJ McCarthy and and trade him? Should they? You know, all this about a great comeback story. Sam Donald's career completely revised. Okay. By the way, I don't think it's any coincidence that, you know, him and Geno Smith wound up leaving the Jets after short stints and both have been very successful, okay, and they've bounced around the league, so you take their there's a reason that Jets have the longest active playoffs dro out in the league. Okay. It's not Aaron Rodgers for seventeen games, okay, might be might be a Johnson and Johnson thing, with the emphasis on Woody Johnson. Okay, So, but you're right, there is that speculation toward the future now. Of course, I think it's a little harder in college football right now because of the transfer portal, okay, which I think people are still kind of feeling out and some you know, some coaches are in favor of the that and some aren't. So I'll be curious to see where we go down the road.
With this.
You know, they jumped, you know, they jumped to the to the twelve team format pretty quick, and I don't think they'll they'll go backwards.
No, no, no, I don't think it will either. In fact, I think ultimately they'll probably end up being you know, a campaign to expand it even further, which I think, actually expanding it beyond you know, the quarter final round of the first round and then the quarterfinal. I think it's ridiculous just because I think you're gonna put you know, some of these athletes in harm's way if you're talking about college kids playing sixteen, seventeen games a year. I mean, it's tough enough for the pros to play seventeen games a year now, and we're gonna go to an eighteenth game, as you well know, in a few years. Anyway, it's inevitable it's gonna happen, just because the preseason is so lousy, and that's the reason why you know that'll end up happening. But I don't see that happening in the college game. I just don't know if it can. Yeah, the players are getting paid, but physically, you know, they're not up to the demand. They're not to the demands of what the pro game really.
Entails, all right, I mean think about this, John. It to emphasize your point, Minnesota or Detroit is going to be a wild card team. Yeah, yep, which means in order for them to win the Super Bowl, they're gonna have to play in twenty one games yep.
One games yep, lot game.
Camp okay, the two preseason, which, depending on how you played it and all that stuff, I'm sorry, your three pre season yep. Okay. So and it's like you said, we're going to add one now we'll probably get almost get rid of the pro Who knows what's going to happen with the preseason down the future. We saw during the COVID year that nobody played in the preseason and a team still managed to win the Super Bowl.
So it is.
It is a lot demand spot. I'll go back to something you said about five minutes ago. It is becoming more like the pro game. We're talking got money, and now we're talking about one of the greatest head coaches of all time basically treating it like a business, which I think was the appeal to Bill Belichick going to North Carolina. I mean, break you brought Michael Marty with him, and I don't think you brought him with him to keep them company.
That's true. That's very yeah, go ahead. I didn't mean to step on you there.
No, no, you didn't step on me at all. I mean, and it is, you know, it's funny. It's because on the field in recent years, the pro game has taken a lot from college. Okay, and now off the field wise, now the college game seems like it's taking a lot from the professional aster.
Yep, very true. All right, So let's you know, we'll save the Patriots stuff and the bills you know, for last. But you know you kind of alluded to, you know, the stuff that's on the line here in Week eighteen. You know, the NFL, as we know, is kind of, you know, taking care of the schedule where we have some of these matchups to where potentially we have meaningful football. And certainly you can see in some of these games before the season started where you thought, or the NFL thought there would be some meaningful football, like with the Commanders playing at the Cowboys. The Cowboys just kind of failed to get there, maybe even to an extent, with the Bears playing at the Packers, Texans and the Titans, you know, shoot Saints in the Bucks, Chiefs and the Broncos. That's one that might still you know, have a little bit of you know, things to do there, Chargers playing at the Raiders. One team is certainly there. The other team is not, for the most part, out of it overall. So what are these teams looking to do other than just upset the apple cart? Are they already, as we kind of started our conversation today, are they already pointed toward the future, because there's really no other place for them to look right now.
No, I don't think they are, And I think last week proved that. Okay, okay, let's go back and look. The Giants of What lost ten in a row and playing a team that was still alive for the playoffs yep, and went from scoring two hundred and fifteen points in fifteen games to forty five in one afternoon. Yeah, what have the Raiders done the last two weeks? They were in the mix of the number one pick. They've won their last two games.
So you know, I.
As much as people like the throat that they have nothing to play for. Okay, so they think they're going to do this to me. What's fascinating about this weekend is, first off, the NFL did a great job of lining up the games that affect each other, that affect more than one team at the same time. In other words, they took Saturday and put the whole AFC North on there. Okay, so Baltimore wins on Saturday afternoon, they clinched the North. Pittsburgh's already in Cincinnati, is still alive. If Baltimore, by chance loses, and they did lose to the Browns earlier this year, okay, then if Pittsburgh wins, they win the North. Okay, Miami's playing the Jets late on Sunday. That's because Denver and Kansas City are playing late. If Denver wins their inn, If Denver loses, a Miami wins, Miami's in Okay. The Tampa Bay and Tampa Bay and Atlanta, I think, are both at the same time, and they If Tampa wins, they win the division.
Right.
If Tampa loses and Atlanta wins, Atlanta wins the division and then one the other one is out completely. I like to remind people of this. If the Buccaneers win and win the NFC South, it'll be their fourth straight division title and fifth straight trip to the playoffs.
Wow.
The only the two teams that have longer streaks than that are Kansas City and Buffalo. Okay, that Philly's going in for the fourth straight year, but if Tampa goes in for the fifth straight year, they have the longest streak in the NFC. I think people that goes under the radar, probably especially lately because it'll be two years in a row. There's no Tom Brady there. Okay, but Baker Mayfield's done. Baker Mayfield's done a hell of a job. Is the starting quarterback, and Jason, like their general manager, yep, does an absolute superb job. But I'll go back to Denver Kansas City for a moment because obviously, well things should be easier for the Broncos because Patrick Mahomes is not playing, and I think Chris Jones is out and goodness knows who else they're going to rest. Well, you know, I went back and looked and at the end of the last season, even though the Chiefs were did not have their record, they finished eleven and six, they were at ten and six going into that game. Patrick Mahomes was not their starting quarterback. John do you buy any chance to remember who it was.
Right off the top of my head.
No, no, you wouldn't. Okay, blame Gabbert.
How soon we forget.
And the Chiefs won and beat the Chargers. Wow, Okay, this is a this is a fifteen to one team that we have already seen is not necessarily reliant when Patrick home. And we've also seen in the last two weeks a well, actually the last if you go to the last four games, a Denver defense that was playing better earlier in the year has allowed at least thirty points and three of their last four game. Okay, So and you know they've lost that wild one to the Chargers. They beat they beat the Browns on a Monday night, but it was what forty one thirty two that they wind up surviving. Jamis Winston threw the ball all over him. So I wouldn't take anything for granted when it comes to you know, Kansas City laying down or any of these teams laying down, Okay, because as you well know, some of these guys who are playing first off players don't want to lose that and all some of these guys playing are playing the final game when their current contract all you need to do is put yourself on tape not trying, and you'll see how many free agent offers you get March April.
Okay, all right, Well, just for the uninitiated, just to sort of recap here, if the season were over today, the Broncos would be in as the last seed in the American Conference. Bucks would be in as the champs of the NFC South. In the In the NFC, the teams that are on the bubble, Dolphins are still alive, the Bengals are still alive, and in the NFC the Falcons are still alive. Of those teams that are still alive, but right now on the outside looking in going into Week eighteen, who's the most likely candidate to make.
It, as strange as it stands, I think it might be Miami.
Okay, yeah, I kind of agree with that, because again, the Dolphins have the Jets, and they obviously have to have you know, Kansas City beat Denver for them to have that opportunity, and the Bengal have to play Pittsburgh, which is going to be a little bit tougher, even though you know, Pittsburgh is likely to you know, be resting some folks as well, So I will.
Know about that. I don't know if you're aware of the Stewers have not only lost three games in a row. Yeah, they've given up ninety points in the last three games.
Well, then maybe they don't want to rest so many people.
Yeah. But here's the other thing. Cincinnati needs Denver and Miami to lose right to get in, and they need they need a little more help. And it's gonna be very interesting to see what Joe Burrow winds up with this year, right, because if he leads the league in passing yards, I'm just throwing this out there now and you'll see it later in print. He leads the league in passing yards, John, and they don't make the playoffs. One of my favorite stats will upheld. Quarterback that have led the NFL or Pro Football and passing yards have won the Super Bowl once.
One time fifteen years. I know, seems like we mentioned this every year, doesn't Russell?
Yes, because it happened again last year. Okay. The only exception is Patrick Mahomes in twenty twenty two. He was the first one to do it. And you know, we'll see what happened to Joe Burrow. We'll say this if Cincinnati gets in, they're going to be an awfully dangerous team because they don't really seem to care that their defense can't stop anyone right for surely, Like they're one of the highest scoring teams in the league. In fact, they're fifth in the league. What are they fifth, I'm sorry, sixth in the league in scoring okay, which is pretty impressive. They're twenty ninth in scoring defense. So you know, and we listen, we saw we saw Kansas City during mahomes first year, very similar. Mahomes was MVP his first year as a starter, MVP, big numbers. They tried to outscore people. But as you will know, what they what they do that year, they scored forty against the Patriots in the regular season and lost forty three to forty.
Yeah, and then they's yeah.
Thirty and it's thirty one in THEFC Championship game and what lost thirty seven thirty one? So eventually it does catch up with you. So we'll answer your question. I think I think Tampa wins. They're kind of back on a roll, and they'll they'll be the number four seed, okay. And and I think Miami somehow, Miami's going to get in Now the irony is it looks like it's going to be Huntley a quarterback this week, and if Miami gets in, what is to a status?
Okay, I've got about a minute left here, Russell, but I wanted to get your quick thoughts on Buffalo. The fact is is that they're locked in it too. There's very little real incentive for them to win this game against the Patriots on Sunday. We all know that the Patriots need to lose to solidify the number one pick in the draft. How do you approach this game of your Buffalo I mean, and how do you approach this game if you're New England?
Well, I think you have to be cautious if you're Buffalo, because you already know you're playing next week. Okay, you're the two and you know you're going to play the seventh all right, So, I mean it's different now than it was quite a few years ago, whereas you know, two teams don't get the opening week by it's only one now, and I think that has definitely changed strategies as far as wrestling players and so on. Then adding in the seventeenth game, yeah, okay, so if you're a physical team in like Buffalo. This is why I understand what the Eagles are doing with Saquon Barkley. Okay, and yes, by the way, if he did break the record, and he did it in seventeen games, it's still the record. Okay. You look at the record in the fact book, regardless of the lengths of the season. Okay, the record is the record. Okay. They don't stress, they don't differentiate, and so on. But if you're the Bills, I think you have to be cautious, you know, with James Cook, which Josh Allen, and as you know, you also have to try to find line of not being rusty right and not getting rusty right for sure with the Polts. A number of times in twenty nineteen, I thought the Ravens didn't play it well, and they were the number one seed. It was Lamar Jackson's first year, and they got walloped by the Titans in the divisional round at home. So how you play that down the stretch and stay sharp? It is very important. I remember. I remember one year Bill Belichick had a game there was nothing to play for against the forty nine ers at home, and the Patriots really kind of stunk it up in the first half in that game, and he did not want to go in with that feeling in the playoff. So we think that's very very important, sure, especially if you've recaptured momentum in the last couple of weeks. And if you're Buffalo, you know your defense took a little, a little header. You wound up splitting with the Rams and the Lions. He gave up an awful lot of points in the process, right right, All.
Right, Well, we'll try to recap this one more time after everything is said and done with this weekend's games and certainly Black Monday coming up here with teams making changes on Monday after the regular season is over, and we'll try to run through this one more time. If you're available next week, Russell back our normal showtime on Wednesday. If you're around, I will be around.
And as we've seen a couple of times during this season, we've had a few black Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Yes, ready, yes, very true. Thank you, my friend. Happy New Year, Happy New Year.
Talk to you next week.
You got it. The one and only at backsfootball Guru dot com. I'm from the NFL spind Zone and all of his good work there. Our reminder here. Bridgestone is the official tire the New England Patriots and proud to partner with Sullivan Tire, New England's headquarters for quality Bridgestone tires. Visit Sullivantire dot com to find a location near you and do your New Year's resolutions include upgrading your mattress. Bob's Discount Furniture can help. Whether you're looking for a plush pillow, tupcloud or need a firmer memory foam feel, there's a budget friendly Bobbo Pedick mattress for you. Plus, Bob's mattresses come with best of the BIS warranties and cost hundreds even thousands less than the competition. So stop being to get your best rest yet thanks to Bob's Discount Furniture. The official furniture store of the New England Patriots. Patriots Unfilded is coming up next. Catch twenty two will be right here on Patriots dot Com Radio thereafter here Today, Patriots and the Bills one o'clock kickoff Eastern Time here on Sunday at Jillette. The playbook will be back in our regular timeslot next Wednesday afternoon at two thirty pm Eastern time that was our regular timeslot during the course of the regular season, and we will wrap up the regular season for you from the playbook perspective and go after next Wednesday into our monthly podcast format for the off season. And obviously there is still a ton to talk about. Enjoyed the game this weekend. Patriots Unfiltered as coming up next.
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He's a redshirt rookie at that point, so it's really that's his rookie season essentially too. So now we're really not talking about them, really no experience until twenty twenty six.
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