Patriots Playbook 6/21: Progress through Minicamp, Storylines to Watch

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is Patriots Playbook, the legend. I mean, I'm pleasantly
surprised they decided to go that route, but I'm still
a little bit like wow. And it just happened to
be an NFLPA representative in the building while this is
going on. Well, I would I would align that with
sheer stupidity. Let's some of them. The man, where are you?

(00:25):
Elder's probably trying to, you know, deliver a load right
about now right. I won't, I want, I won't say anymore.
Is it possible, It's possible, likely, probably not, everything's possible.
I could win a million bucks tomorrow and syonara Fellas,
I'm out. Now. Here's your host of Patriots Playbook, John Rook,
Welcome into the program. It is our June edition of

(00:47):
Patriots Playbook here on patriots dot Com Radio. We are
live today on this first day of Sama where the
hell is summer? By the way, anybody want to venture guests,
I mean, I realized that in some pockets of this country,
as I give you the meteorology to report here, it's
it's already blistering heat. I noticed in my homeland of
Tahas one hundred and ten in Austin yesterday, one hundred

(01:10):
and thirteen. Or seriously, what the hell fun is that?
I mean, I was stunned when I saw that. And
of course up here we can't get one freaking beach day,
not one. It's sixty eight degrees outside, which sounds very pleasant,
I know, nice and breezy cool. It's the first day
of summa. Where the hell? What the hell happened to

(01:32):
my sum They've ruined my sama. And I've always you know,
I always have to say that at least two or
three times a year, red glasses grow and be happy. Yeah,
I know, I know, I know, I know, But at
any rate, I figured, I just, you know, stake that
little claim to summertime. We'll probably be very happy with this.
I would imagine about another month or so. Other people,
I mean, we're all probably already happy with it. I mean,

(01:53):
all things being equal, Like I said, it's blistering in
some parts of the country already, so we'll take the
seventy in the but you know, it'd be nice to have,
you know, a little little beach weather, all right. So
this is this is the start of This is the
start of the infamous dead period. This is the absolute
slowest time in the twelve month calendar year that is

(02:16):
the National Football League. Once Mini camp is over, there
is approximately five to six weeks between the end of
mini camp and the start of training camp the end
of July. So here here's the thing. You know, the
Patriots left us with some story ideas and some thory

(02:39):
things to kick around, and as we suggested at the
end of May's show, we did suggest that the DeAndre
Hopkins situation was not going to play itself out anytime soon.
And I still believe that. I believed it then anything
that's transpired over the course of the last week ten

(03:00):
since he made his visit here in Foxborough, that nothing's changed.
He doesn't yet have a team. I don't know if
you follow him on Twitter. Yesterday DeAndre Hopkins tweeted, who
was ever in my future wide receiver group? I promise
I will make your job easy. Maybe he meant easier,

(03:23):
but nevertheless, that was his latest missive. That was yesterday.
That was on the twentieth, around four thirty in the
afternoon Eastern time, And so that was the last time.
He doesn't have a team yet. Doesn't have a team yet,
I personally believe and we talked about this in the
last month's show. I personally believe that, you know, he
would make the Patriots better. There's no question that he

(03:45):
would make the team better. He becomes a player that
other teams must account for, if not game plan for.
So that right there is gonna make mac Jones' job easier.
It would make Remondre Stevenson's job easier. I saw, you know,
there was a thing out today. I think I believe

(04:07):
it was a tweet, and I gotta I gotta look
it up again because I was just glancing at it
going through some notes this morning before we got ready
to do the show today with you that Dalvin Cook,
who doesn't have a team yet either. It's talking out
loud and social media about you know, him and DeAndre
Hopkins pairing up now, he admitted. He admitted that he

(04:29):
hasn't talked to Hopkins yet, but wow, wouldn't it be
great if we could land on the same spot and
make some teams you know life, you know, wonderful. Okay,
I will admit in theory, and again this is all
nothing much more than fantasy football right now, but I
would admit in theory that you know, that's real intriguing.

(04:51):
I think the Vikings probably pulled a Bill Belichick when
it comes to Dalvin Cook and probably sold on the
product there before it became untenable. You know, the Patriots
have always had a pension for, you know, letting guys
go before they you know, when they feel like they're
they're about ready to hit that downhill slide in their career.
Most of the time that's worked. A couple of times

(05:12):
it hasn't. But hey, you're not going to bat a thousand.
Nobody bats a thousand, Not even Hall of Fame Baseball
players bat a thousand. Nobody does, Eldred. I'm talking to
you specifically because I know you have an issue with
Bill the GM. I think he called in to complain
about him yesterday. I'm pu So, look, the fact of
the matter is is that, you know, if let's just

(05:35):
play what if for a second, if Dalvin Cook and
DeAndre Hopkins got together and said, Okay, let's see if
we can't pare ourselves together to go someplace. First of all,
if you're a team that would even remotely consider that
which player is gonna get the money? Because no one
has an unlimited amount of funds in which to pay

(05:55):
these two guys. But let's just go buy that for
a second. Even so, let's say DeAndre Hopkins picks up
the says, Bill, I'm yours, but you need to sign
my boy Dalvin Cook. What what what would you do?
What would you say? I mean, I know what i'd say,

(06:18):
But how many of you are are gonna let you know,
Bill a GM run your thought process here? Look, if
you're only talking about a short term deal anyway for
both guys, I mean you're talking probably about a year.
You give them lower than what they're probably commanding on
the open market, and then incentives that would if they

(06:42):
hit the incentives that would bring them up to somewhere
near market value. Like, for instance, we know DeAndre Hopkins
he wants to be paid, like you know Odell Beckham junior.
Odell Beckham got what fifteen million, so you know, give
him ten to twelve million, and then you know, give
him incentives to get him up to that fifteen I'm
really not even sure what Dalvin Cook would be worth
right now, But the fact of the matter is is

(07:04):
that you know he was holding an awful lot of
money maybe, I mean, look, and he's a running back
and but I would have to say, if you're gonna
play that kind of fantasy football, let's say, figure out
a way to make that happen. If we're only talking
about a year, figure out a way to make that happen.
And I think you probably could. Now, I think that's
completely and totally unmitigated pie in the sky. Okay, the

(07:27):
fact of the matter is that the Patriots still have
to be very much interested in just DeAndre Hopkins. I
think they probably feel like they're said at running back.
But listen, in this day and age, never say never.
We're in this silly time right now. Anyway, this is
the dead time. This is when nobody's covering, nobody's on
the beat. Beat guys are on vacation. In fact, we

(07:47):
had trouble getting Beat guys to come onto the show
today because why because they're all on vacation. Funny that
I'm not. But that's another point for another day. Okay,
So I understand that everybody spends time away. Everybody does.
You got to you got to recharge the batteries, You
got to get ready to go before training camp begins
at the end of July. A lot of stuff happens

(08:10):
under the table and as we told you last month
where Hopkins is concerned, Look, this isn't going to play
itself out because the man believes he's worth more. Clearly,
he's worth more than what is currently on the table
with either Tennessee, where he visited before New England, or
the Patriots. And he's undoubtedly waiting for other teams to

(08:34):
enter the fray. Maybe somebody you know, has an unfortunate
injury between now in camp time, or maybe somebody has,
you know, a reshuffling of the roster or another look
at the wide receiver room and said, you know what,
we could use a little boost here. A lot of
stuff can transpire over the next five weeks. And that's

(08:55):
where we are right now. We are five weeks away
from veteran play reporting for training camp around the NFL,
and certainly here in New England, be somewhere around the
twenty eighth of July in that vicinity, give or take
a day or two. All right, so five weeks of nothingness.

(09:15):
You're listening to this on the podcast. In three weeks,
it's possible that we have some movement. It's also possible
that we are at status quo. Nothing's happened yet. I
would tend to side with nothing's happened yet, because if
something does happen, it's going to be kept low key

(09:37):
because nobody wants to show their hand right now. Nobody
wants to dictate to others what they're thinking about, or
certainly what they're doing or what they're planning to do.
They want to wait until they get into camp because
that helps, you know, with their bargaining. Least of all
DeAndre Hopkins. I mean, the Patriots would come to him
tomorrow and say, look, we'll give you two years and

(09:59):
twenty twenty five or two years and thirty. He'd be
signed in a minute. But that's not going to happen.
I don't think that's gonna happen. I'd be really shocked
if something like that happened. So Hopkins is still gonna
play out. My thought process is is that he makes

(10:22):
the Patriots better because it will free up opportunities for
other receivers more than anything else. Do I think the
man can still play? Sure? Yeah, I don't think he's
quite at the level he was, say four or five
years ago, But I think the man can still play.
I don't know much has how much tank, how much gas?
He has left in the tank. I don't know, I

(10:46):
really don't know. You have to wonder, because the Cardinals
outright released him. They couldn't swing a deal for him.
They couldn't find anything what they thought would be amenable
in return for him, So they just decided to let
him go, get his salary off of the books and
say thank you, d hop and we appreciate your efforts.

(11:09):
It just didn't work out here. So does he have
you know, gotta have talent? Well, I guess that's to
be debated. We also know that, you know, one man's
trash is another man's treasure. Beauty is in the eye
of the beholder. I mean, how many cliches can I
go through here? And I think that's kind of where

(11:30):
they are with DeAndre Hopkins. I think the Patriots are
in a favorable position. I think, you know, Tennessee is
probably also feeling like they're in a favorable position. A
lot of it depends on personalities involved, and I think
the Patriots might hold an edge. We know that there's
a mutual admiration society going on there between Bill and

(11:52):
DeAndre based on what we saw from you know, the
NFL films coverage, of their conversation with the Patriots played
in Arizona last year, and I think that carries a
lot of weight. Patriots wouldn't be in this deal if
there wasn't a mutual admiration society going on there. But
it's gonna take a while for it to play out.
I mean, I can't really ask you the question, would

(12:15):
you sign DeAndre if you had a chance, because I
think we all know the answer to that, Yes, you would.
Is there anyone who wouldn't? And why you feel like
he's gonna be too much of a distraction. Look, I'm
telling you, Talent outweighs everything. Talent out weighs everything. I

(12:37):
think the Patriots know that. I think mister Kraft knows that.
I certainly know that Bill Belichick knows that. And that
kind of leads me into my next point here in
the next story that's going to carry us through for
the next five weeks before we meet again here in
the playbook, which will also be a training camp week.
Our next show, I believe, is Wednesday, the twenty eighth
of July. In fact, as we were talking about July

(12:57):
twenty eighth, and I know camp will start on or
about that it's not officially decided yet, but traditionally the
veterans report mid week that week traditionally give or take,
and then the first practices would probably be that Thursday
Friday of that week again traditionally, and then full fledged

(13:18):
camp you know, for fans to come out and see
and open up, would probably begin that weekend probably, But
nothing's official. I'm speaking off the cuff here based on
my having been around this team for thirty one years. Okay,
that's usually the way it happens, but the team will
make the official announcement on when things begin. That does

(13:43):
lead me to the next big story, as I talked about,
and that's Jack Jones. Look, we know of Jones's issues
while he was in college. We know that he has
already been suspended once by this team for what we
were told were missed rehab sessions. There's also the rumor

(14:04):
that was exacerbated by uh, you know, media reports of
a disagreement between Jones and Bill Belichick or talking back
to or argument or whatever you want to call it,
which has been denied plausibly denied. But who the hell
knows unless you were the fly on the wall in
that room, who knows let's just say it didn't end

(14:26):
well last year for Jack. It didn't, but we did
get a good look at his talent for when he
was available to play, and based on what we've seen
this team do so far in the off season. Thus
far in the off season, it certainly looked as if
Jack Jones was in position to move into a starting

(14:47):
corner slot along with Christian Gonzalez, the rookie. Now you're
you're you're putting an awful lot of pressure, an awful
lot of pressure on two young players with a combined
one previous season of NFL experience between them when this
season starts. I'm not convinced, and I'm not sure you

(15:13):
can convince me, but I'm not convinced that Jack Jones
would have been, you know, the de facto starter at
corner anyway, because of that very fact. Now, that may
very well be the plan, the longer term plan. Maybe
they felt like that would happen, you know, as long
as things go according to plan. And I've got my
quotation marks around that phrase, according to plan. It's possible

(15:35):
that that's what the Patriots have been eyeing. But this
is also why you've seen the Patriots in the last
few years. Gang, this is why you've seen the Patriots
try to develop versatility in the defensive backfield much the
same way that they have efforted versatility on the offensive line.
Guys that can play different positions, Guys that can swing left,

(15:55):
swing right, or in the defensive backfield, play the slot,
play safety. You've got different guys who can fill in
in a moment's notice. So I'm not sure that if
Jack Jones is unavailable, I'm not sure the Patriots look
it hurts their depth, There's no doubt about it. Anytime
you're less talent, it's not a good thing. But can

(16:20):
they cover it? Yeah? Probably? Can they cover it to
the locking well, that's still to be determined. But to me,
the obvious move there would be if Jack Jones is unavailable,
then you probably start John Jones over on that side,
or you move him over. I'm not sure what you
do about the slot corner. I think you give you
two rookies every opportunity to have an outstanding camp and

(16:43):
see who can't move in there. I've made no bones
about this. I said it last season. I will repeat
it here. Any Patriots defense that can do less of
Miles Bryant is a better Patriots defense. You know, I
don't have anything personal against Miles Bryant. I don't think
he's an NFL cornerback. You know. I think he's got speed.

(17:06):
I don't think he plays great technique. You know, he
can be a good return man for you, but he
gets beat too much, takes too many chances. I'm not
he doesn't. I don't think he adheres to principles. And again,
corner is the hardest position. To me, I've said this before,
I'll set again. Cornerback is the hardest position for a

(17:27):
professional athlete to play, more so than you know goal
tender in hockey, more so than striker in soccer, more
so than you know point guard in basketball. It's the
hardest individual position to play in sports, cornerback in the NFL,

(17:53):
because you're asked to do so much and your odds
of being successful are so small. It's a reactionary position
where you're obviously trying to make plays running backwards or
at best sideways, with your head not even pointed back
toward the ball. Hugely impossible. If you've ever played, you

(18:19):
know exactly what I'm talking about. So at any rate,
I think that they've got it covered. I think you
probably see you know, you know, Sam Mills. I think
you probably see some others likely you know, filling in
from here and there, because I think the Patriots do
have some depth within the safety ranks which might free

(18:43):
up some of this, you know, versatile depth to come
out and play corner if they need it. And let's
find out if if I'm on the right track or
if I'm on the wrong track our own Evan Lazar,
who's also trying to get in some of his time
off by where are we off to today? Evans that
this is a personal matter, so you don't have to
really get into, uh to any particulars, but hey, you

(19:06):
got to make Hey, well, you've got downtime, right, That's.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
That's the name of the game, right, you gotta cram
every appointment and every vacation into the next five weeks.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
Sure, I totally and I get that. So thank you
for being willing to spend a couple of minutes with
us today.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
Of course, you know I'm always here for you. But yeah,
we're actually apartment hunting afternoon.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
Oh gosh, how big an apartment you're looking for? I'm
gonna digress, right, not right, off the bat.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
Of here, we're in a two bedroom okay, you know,
we have a little at home office set up just
works from home, so we have one room for an office.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
Are you are you considering houses as well or just apartments?

Speaker 2 (19:50):
Just apartments for the time being. I think, you know,
the housing markets not not doing so hot in the
Boston area.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
Try the housing are the housing rental Department however, yes.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
We have have a few of those on the list.

Speaker 1 (20:08):
Okay, good, good, that's good.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
You know, personal landlords instead of uh, you know, these
big companies that own these monster buildings.

Speaker 1 (20:17):
Yeah, right, exactly. Well the reason I say that is
because I found a found a gym for my son
who's in the house hunning uh you know, market right now,
and so he they're considering it just until the housing
market kind of levels off somewhat. So there are some
hidden gems out there. You just got to go searching
for them. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
So what do you think of the of the of
the Jack Jones scenario and and the fact that the
Patriots are uh, you know, have stressed versatility in the
defensive backfield, and could that end up being a saving
grace for the defense to cover until this situation somehow
plays itself out one way or the other.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yeah, I look, you know, I think one of the
things that I really stood out at a mini camp
and OTAs throughout the spring was how deep they were
the secondary. I think that this situation, and assuming just
for this sake of argument, that Jack Jones is not
available to play for the Patriots the next season, it
takes away a little bit of that depth where you

(21:14):
might not be as multiple as versatile in the back
end that you would have been before because you had
Christian Gonzalez and Jack Jones holding down the outside cornerback spots,
which really allowed them to mix and match in the
middle of the field with the.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
Rest of the group.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
So maybe you don't quite have that much flexibility, but
they definitely have the depth to withstand it. And I
also would say a couple of good spring practices, a
couple of good games as a rookie. Aside, Jack Jones
had some make consistency issues on the field that I
think are getting overshadowed because he looked really good in

(21:52):
shorts and T shirts a couple of weeks ago, So
I don't want to take away from the talent, but
at the same time. This wasn't like, you know, prime Stefan.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
Gilmour, right, So I mean, look, I think it's it's
easy even for lay people to look at this and
say this team is intrinsically better with Jack Jones's talent
on the field. That being said, it's not a season
killer if he's not.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
Yeah, I think that's a great way of putting it.
It doesn't feel like the end of the world. It
just feels like maybe they're not quite as dynamic in
the back end. I think last week at mini camp
what we saw was Jonathan Jones, Jalen Mills, Marcus Jones.
Those players can now revolve around a safety, nickel slot

(22:43):
corner type of role, and you could throw a lot
of different things at people because you didn't necessarily need
to move John Jones back to outside corner and move
Jalen Mills back to outside corner as Jack Jones was
looking apart at outside our opposite Christian Gonzales. So now
Jonathan Jones probably goes back to playing a little bit

(23:06):
on the outside. Maybe Jalen Mills becomes a fourth guy
that's rotational at CB as well as safety. I think
that he's going to have to play a little bit
of corner this year potentially now, especially if somebody gets hurt.
So that's where it might hurt them. And I think
when going into the year, by really going into the spring,

(23:26):
but you know, it was going into training camp without
this arrest for Jack Jones. What what had be so
excited about the secondary was they really upgraded two spots
because they upgraded the outside cornerback spot by drafting Christian Gonzales,
and then the trickle down effect was then that they
could move Jonathan Jones back inside to slot corner. And

(23:48):
so you're really upgrading two spots, right, You're upgrading Jalen
Mills on the boundary and you're upgrading Miles Bryant in
the slot. Now you're probably only upgrading one spot. So
it's still better, but it's not as good as it
wouldn't been.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
I think I called Jalen Mills Sam Mills, Carolina Panthers linebacker.
Of course, great, you know, linebacker, but you know, hey,
he'd probably been called a lot worse than what I
just called him. So here's the thing. I mean, we
move now from Okay, this is what will probably or
likely happen if Jack Jones is not available. Two, should

(24:26):
the Patriots, you know, go ahead and move forward with
life after Jack Jones based on what has transpired with
the charges, the guns, the everything that we saw when
he pleaded not guilty on Tuesday of this week in Boston.
And I don't know what your personal feeling is on this.
I don't generally subscribe to a lot of that because frankly,
it doesn't really matter. But I know a lot of

(24:47):
people will tune into this particular show and Patriots unfielder
because they want a quote unquote stance from the organization.
We're not sort of licensed to do that. We give
our own personal opinions under the guise of that, and
I would tell you that I think the Patriots, and
I've seen several in the Boston area media and even
national media opine that all the Patriots have to cut bait,

(25:10):
Patriots have to let Jack Jones go. They got to
say no. And I'm like, okay, well, that's easy for
you to say until it happens to you. The Patriots have.
The Patriots have experience, unfortunately, like a lot of teams do,
in handling these sort of three ring circuses that Bill
Belichick loathes to go through, but they've got the experience because,

(25:32):
as we know, a football team is a microcosm of
society and football life itself. And so they're gonna be
there's gonna be an apple that's gonna probably get some
bruises or get a little rotten inside the bunch every
time you go in and you gather every season, it
just happens. And so and I'm not trying to be
flipped with the you know, the the comparison here. What

(25:53):
I'm saying is is that considering the climate, considering what
we know, we are so quick to jump to conclusions
in this day and age of you know, social media,
knowing at all that, I'm not at all surprised that
the Patriots are sitting back and not taking charge and

(26:14):
not making a stand. And my thought is they're going
to wait for the National Football League to take it
out of their hands.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
Yeah, I think that that's exactly what it is. That
last thing that you said, I agree with a lot
of what you said. I think that there's two separate
things here. There's the legal element and then there's the
football team element, right, And I sort of have two
different opinions on it because of that legally, I am
a believer is for what it's worth and andno's until

(26:43):
proven guilty, right, Like yeah, I think in this country
and in this day and age, like you just kind
of outline social media, especially the students, news broke. I
think it was what Friday night, this news broke, Yeah,
that Jack Jones was arrested at Logan Airport.

Speaker 3 (27:01):
Everybody is.

Speaker 4 (27:03):
Gives me a.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
Take right about how they need you know, they need
to cut the cut ties, they need to release the
player almost instantly, and I just don't subscribe to that.
I think that you have to let it play out.
I think that you have to look at it from
an objective point of view of there's two sides to

(27:25):
most stories. Let's see what Jack Jones's side of the
story is. Let's see how the legal aspects of this
play out. I know he rose Scpaccio, the lawyer that
he hired is a powerhouse attorney. She is that is
just not a woman you want to mess with. I
love Rodes like.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
Her reputation precedes herself.

Speaker 3 (27:44):
Yes, yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
Mean her press conference yesterday. I was eating it up.

Speaker 5 (27:49):
I was like, this is great.

Speaker 2 (27:52):
Let's see what transpires legally for the person right for
Jack Jones, not necessarily the football player. I think if
you're the Patriots organization, the one thing that you have
to ask yourself is is this a warning sign of
something more major that could potentially happen down the line

(28:13):
involving Jack Job Because the last thing that you want
to do is turn a blind eye to this situation
and then a year from now a worst situation comes.

Speaker 1 (28:24):
Down right right, And that's what everybody is really, I think,
afraid of, and why they're hedging their bets and why
they're saying, oh, go ahead and cut ties here, because
we don't want to take a chance of what could
happen in the future. And I'm not necessarily sure that
that's the right way to go. But at the same time,
if you're looking at this from a football perspective, and
football perspective comes second to life perspective, I think we

(28:46):
can all understand that. But from a football perspective, look,
let's face it, if he didn't have the talent that
we know he has, this would already been a done deal,
right right.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
And I think that's the tough part is that legally,
I want to give him a chance for to have
his day in court as everybody deserves, and there's the
talent aspect of it. I just think that what you
have to really focus on if you're the Patriots is
you don't want to be You don't want to make
the same mistake twice with another player who has warning

(29:22):
signs of you know, possessing guns' potential to have violent
you know, things happen off the field, and then to
get yourself into a situation where a year from now
he's in it much worse.

Speaker 1 (29:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, legally. Well, that's that's why I think
Evan that that some people would have a problem with this,
and I understand why they would because clearly there's a
bit of a track record with Jack Jones is concerned.
You know, he had the issues at USC, the issues
at Arizona State, he had the little issues last year
that caused his suspension for a couple of games. I mean, let's, uh,
you know, there there are some issues there. He's not

(30:04):
you know what we would call uh, you know, he
doesn't have a clean slate. And because of that, this
is just another in the next series And how much
longer are we gonna let this thing go before he
ultimately decide guy's got to go. And and so this
is where you're caught between the proverbial rock and hard
place if you're the New England Patriots. And again that's
why I think, well, look, we're gonna let the judication

(30:26):
process play out, and it's going to take a while.
And I think we all understand that the you know,
the law moves you know, at a at a slower
speed than anybody wants it to. But the Patriots, you know,
also have a responsibility to you know, to you know,
put out their best product on the field, because it
is a business they're trying to run. And so I
would imagine at some point here's what I think will happen,

(30:50):
that at some point that this is gonna be pled
out with either a short amount of jail time or
no jail time at all, But there will be a
suspension involved in some form or fashion. It won't come
to the Patriots. It'll likely come from the NFL because
you'll have violated, you know, a a part of the
players of the NFL PA you know, the agreement, and

(31:13):
the Patriots will end up saying, look, we're just going
along with what the NFL does. They've suspended him for
two games, four games, however long they end up suspended
him for, and then once it's over, it's over, because
they're very good at deflecting attention, and Bill's very good
at saying, Hey, we're only going to talk about the
players who were here. This is what I think will happen.

Speaker 2 (31:32):
Yeah, I think that you're along the same lines as
me about what will happen because I think I mentioned
Roscopaccia because I think that she is going to get
a good deal for Jack Jill. Yes, I do, yes,
And I think that ultimately you mentioned it earlier that
the Patriots are probably waiting for this to be an
NFL issue rather than a Patriots issue, right, And my

(31:55):
guess is is that as this plays out, there's a
very very good chance that Dak Jones will be going
to the Commissioner's exemptless yep. And at that point it's
about an indefinite suspension until the Commissioner's office feels that
he's fit to be back in the NFL, and it's
totally out.

Speaker 3 (32:14):
Of the Patriots hand.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
So I believe that if you're a Patriots fan, not
the belittle the Chargers or belittle the situation, But if
you're really more thinking about it from a competitive standpoint
of the football team, what you really need to watch
out for is how the league proceeds, yes, and how
the commissioner proceeds with Jack Jones to the potential suspension.

Speaker 4 (32:37):
Because legally there's a chance that this takes.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
A little while, and there have been instances where players
have played while they're going through legal stuff off the field, correct,
But for the most part, they go to the Commissioner's
exemplest while this is proceeding in terms of the legal battle,
and they don't come off the exemptlest until they've settled
it court.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
And that's protect everybody. That's to protect not only the player,
it's also to take the burden off of the team locally, regionally,
nationally so they can you know, and the NFL is
happy to shoulder that burden, right right.

Speaker 2 (33:14):
So that's why I am operating under the presumption that
regardless of what happens to Jack Jones legally, it just
seems like a long shot that he will be playing
in the NFL in September, just strictly because I think
the league is going to take it out of the
Patriots hands and say we need to take a step

(33:34):
back with this player until he settles in court.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
Yeah. And the one question that remains, though, is whether
or not anything will happen before training camp comes, and
whether or not, if nothing has transpired by the time
training camp starts, whether or not Jack Jones is there
or if he's on a leave of absence or whatever.
They end up terming that I agree with you. I
don't think there's any way that this guy plays for

(34:00):
ball in September October could be different, especially if you
know there's some kind of a play arrangement here.

Speaker 3 (34:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
Yeah, I think that's a good way of putting it.
And I just think from a Patriots point of view,
I know his second court date is August eighteenth, which
is right before the Patriots second preseason game in Green Bay, Right,
So Dad in itself tells you that he's probably not
going to be there for the week in Cream Bay
when we go out there for joint practices in the

(34:30):
preseason game and things like that, And I think it's
in the Patriots' best interest to keep him off the
practice field until more of this gets resolved. Great, he
had at some point, you know, that's going to be
a major story. Whether he talks to the media or not.
But at some point if he's practicing, then he also
has to be made available to the media, right, and

(34:52):
he's not going to have ros capaccio and standing next
to him to deflect questions on the courpouse.

Speaker 1 (34:58):
Steps right, nothing he can says, So let's take it
out of his hands and let's just, you know, let's
err on the side of caution here for his sake
as well as the team's sake, because look, bottom line
is is it no matter how long they're going to
be without him, and they're going to be without him
for some time, they've got to figure out a way
to work around that. So better now that they sort
of attack that plan that have to do it at

(35:20):
the last moment.

Speaker 2 (35:21):
Yeah, yeah, I think you know, if you want to
look at it, Like I said earlier, from a pure
football standpoint, best case scenario is that Jack Jones serves
some sort of NFL suspension after playing down the charges
in court and comes back and they drop him back
in and they hit the ground running. But you can't

(35:42):
count on that if you're the Patriots, and you might
not even want to count on that if they do
decide to release him. So I think it's a sticky situation.
But I think the big thing that I keep coming
back to is, you know, separating, you know, the court
and the football asks of it. In court, he should
have his day.

Speaker 3 (36:02):
He should.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
Maybe he does have a legitimate story of how this
ended up happening, But from a football standpoint, I think
the Patriots really need to take a hard look at
the situation and make sure that this isn't the sign
of things to come, and this isn't a warning right
that this player is you know, a risk, a major,

(36:22):
major risk of doing hard to people.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
Yeah, you can already you can already imagine that the
Patriots are plenty pissed off at this whole thing.

Speaker 2 (36:30):
Anyway, Oh yeah, I'm sure. And you know this is
this is every organization and every head coach's worst nightmare,
and it happens every off season around this time when
they send them off from the off season program for
the five or six week break until training camp. We
hear about this kind of stuff happening to varying degrees

(36:53):
every single summer, despite the fact that the coach goes
up there probably in the last day of the off
season program as don't get in trouble. Yeah, somebody always
get this trouble, I guess, just the way that it is.

Speaker 1 (37:06):
Yeah. Yeah, they are kids, after all, relatively speaking, So
that's just what happens. You got to, you know, kind
of treat them as your your own you know, you
would your own sons and daughters and just say, hey,
look this is you know, do right here. And obviously
there was a major malfunction of that theory and that
thought process here, and so now you got to you know, yeah,

(37:26):
you're upset about it. Dad's upset, Grandpa's upset, you know,
the you know, the home is upset. How do you
handle it? And that's kind of what's going to play
out over the next few weeks. All right, final, real quick,
one yes or no on DeAndre Hopkins based on what
you now know after the visit.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
Yeah, you know, I'm leaning towards no at the moment,
and I think the main reason why is sort of
the vibe that you're getting from Hopkins's camp. We're in
no rush, We're going to wait the camp. You know,
maybe something else changes down the lane for somebody, and
this whole situation, excuse me, this whole situation is just

(38:07):
screaming screaming for a contender, Yeah, to come out of
nowhere and sweet bit. And I just I don't know
if the Patriots are offering DeAndre Hopkins enough to avoid
that from happening. Like you have to really offer him
a whole lot of money to not have him continue

(38:30):
to test the market in the way, and he's testing it.
And my gut tells me that at Kansas City at Buffalo, like,
somebody's gonna move some money around and figure out a
way to get him in the building.

Speaker 1 (38:43):
Yeah, I'm kind of leaning that way anyway, but I
would tell you that, you know, hey, I'm still all
for it. If they can get him, you got to
find a way to make it work. But we said
last month on this show, we said that you know,
this is going to go right down to training camp
and probably even into training camp before a decision. Got
me for that very reason, he's going to try to
milk it for a better offer. If he doesn't get

(39:04):
a better offer, the Patriots are in play. Pretty simple.

Speaker 2 (39:08):
Yeah, Yeah, that's how I look at it. And I
think if you're a Patriot fan that really wants de
Andandre Hopkins, you just better hope that everybody stays healthy
and everybody and there's no real major glaring hole that
presents itself down the line for one of the contenders.
You have the cast space to outbid them, but you

(39:29):
don't have Patrick Mahome right right, that's going to be
the big thing.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
Right And thanks for the time and amongst the apartment hunting, good.

Speaker 5 (39:37):
Luck with it, Thanks sir, Thank you, see.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
You soon have a good time off. Absolutely Evan Lazar
at easy Lazaar on Twitter, Patriots dot com. He is
a frequent contributor here on the playbook. He will be
during the course of the regular season, just like he
does on Patriots Unfiltered. And you know, we you know,
I love to pick his brain, love to get his

(40:02):
thoughts on things just like this, whether it has to
do with the Patriots or what it has to do
with anybody else within the division, or whether it has
to do and I wanted him listen. If Evan had
been here, I would have gone into a little bit more.
But obviously the guy's got stuff he's got to do today,
because I actually kind of wanted his take a little
bit on what's transpired with Tyreek Hill. He has been

(40:26):
apparently involved in some sort of a physical altercation in Miami.
And although the person who apparently he slapped in the
back of the head at some nightclub, bar, restaurant, whatever
it was, is not going to you know, press charges.
I don't know, but at any rate that could certainly
do some damage, I think to Miami within the division.
All right, eight five five PATS five hundred, eight five

(40:49):
five pats five hundred the toll free telephone number. It's
time for you to give me your thoughts on not
only Hopkins, but Jack Jones. Yes or no on either one?
Should the Patriots punt on either one? For what reasons?
What are your thoughts? How do you feel about the
organization's stance thus far, which really is no stance. They're

(41:11):
waiting for it to play itself out. Is that the
right move to make considering the political climate that we're
in today, I'm asking you what you think? Okay, Nicole
Yang from the Boston Harold good Lord Boston Club, she's
going to join us at one o'clock Eastern time, and
then Russell Baxter will join us at one point thirty

(41:32):
to get some national perspective as well on the big
stories going into the dead period. Here for the national football,
Like I hate to call it the dead period, but
that's really what it is, because Evan's trying to go
hibernate and I won't let him the bear. All right,
let's start with Christian in La. Hey, Christian, you're in
the playbook. Thanks for hanging in.

Speaker 6 (41:52):
Yeah, Hey, John, how are you doing this morning?

Speaker 1 (41:54):
I'm good. How's it going for you?

Speaker 3 (41:56):
Good?

Speaker 6 (41:56):
Well, it's okay in La. It's a nice stay. Final
you mentioned was taking it time getting here.

Speaker 5 (42:01):
Oh my god, had sixty.

Speaker 6 (42:03):
Degree We tried sixty degree days in all cloudy here
in LA. And what it really seems like is the
weather is sort of shiftings like La is now Portland.

Speaker 1 (42:14):
Well, that's not what anybody wants. If you want, you know,
if you want Portland to Seattle, move there right right,
just like every winter when we get smacked with, you know,
a foot of snow. It's like, look, if I want
a Buffalo, i'd move.

Speaker 6 (42:26):
There right exactly like I don't want to be in Buffalo.
That's why I lived here. There you go, anyway, I'm
on the football slot. First, let me address my personal
thoughts on the Jack Jones situation. Yes, do I think
in a in a country where we have a massive
amount of gun violence. I think the the statistic is

(42:47):
now in the three they are three hundred and seventeen
mass shootings and not three hundred days in the year, right,
So we have more mass shootings, not just the individual
shooting of the individual, but they mass shooting, more mass
shootings than the days of the year. That tells us
two things. We have endemic and epidemic violence. But we

(43:07):
also have a culture that likes their guns. So with
that said, I think if there's some legality to his
owning the firearms, if you had some sort of you know,
license for it or permit or something of that nature,
that may skew how I think about it. Within the

(43:28):
patriots culture, if they should keep this guy on. I
don't know if it's indictive of them having some sort
of violence allah Aaron Hernandez, But I do think that
we have to look at it from the lens of
this is a gun country. Lots of people own guns.
As a matter of fact, one of the biggest things
in our legislative agendums this year is how can we

(43:52):
get either more guns on the street or less guns
on the street. So I think we have to step
back from these sort of Pollyanna ish, Hey, this guy
has a gun as a personal athlete, let's get rid
of them or whatever talk to say, you know, does
a fit within the culture that our country's in that
that person could have.

Speaker 3 (44:09):
A gun, right, athletes, right that has a.

Speaker 6 (44:12):
Lot of money, maybe may feel a little bit of weariness,
you know, traveling.

Speaker 1 (44:18):
Oh, there's no question about that. Christian. Here's what I
thought initially, right after I first heard the news on
that Friday night, last Friday night, I'm thinking, well, what
did he do that broke the law? Yet? I mean,
it's not a good look. It's illegal to take you know,
firearms through a checkpoint at an airport. It's also illegal
to have loaded guns. It's also illegal to have the

(44:40):
magazines that he had. So but you know, we're assuming
that something else was going to happen. Yeah, from I mean,
either a Jack Jones is incredibly stupid, or b a
major malfunction and decision making somewhere by someone took place.

(45:02):
And I think we all know that, you know, everybody's
got you know, friends, handlers, you know, hang around hers, whatever,
probably just you know, threw these things in there without
thinking about it. And that's probably what happened. Now again,
I'm just assuming. You know, his attorney said when he
was arraigned yesterday that you know, the truth is gonna
come out, and so we'll wait for him to give
this side of the story. But the optics are awful

(45:24):
and you cannot get around them. And because of the aforementioned,
as you said, political climate that we have in this country,
tolerance is extraordinarily low. What I'm hoping that we do
here and I'm hoping that the Patriots and I think
this is why we haven't heard anything yet from the
football organization, from the organization as well from the team,

(45:45):
because they're trying to do the right thing and allowing
the process to play out and let the full story
come out, and that when it starts to go south,
if it does go south, guess what, they'll make a move.
So I don't think that we're gonna see I don't
think either side. You know, Look, you can criticize Jack
for making a dumb mistake. I mean, it's it's beyond dumb.

(46:06):
It's it's one of the most ludicrous things I've ever
heard of. What makes anybody think that they could get
away with running something like that through baggage claim, especially
if it's a carry on Oh my god, are you serious?
So that tells me that either A he had a
brain fart that goes beyond anything that you and I
are humanly capable of having, or B something else happened

(46:29):
here now, which do you think is more likely? And
that's why the Patriots are gonna let this thing adjudicate
itself and play out.

Speaker 6 (46:37):
Right, right, Yeah, I mean I don't think Jack Jones
was playing on hijacking a plane, right.

Speaker 1 (46:42):
Which is no, no, but that's part But that's right, Yeah,
that's what everybody's assuming. And I'm like, no, that's the
correct that's the incorrect assumption here. You can't do that.
You can't go there.

Speaker 6 (46:55):
Right, right, So I don't want to, you know, just
micro focused on Jack. This is a football show, and
although he's a part of the Patriots, he's you know,
not the lead part of the Patriots. So John, my
football questions for you today's this and please, if you
do at the time, take the time, it's try to
really answer it. I'll try to have this DeAndre Hopkins

(47:17):
issue looming over us because we are in a state
that people believe our receiver room just doesn't cut Mustard yep.
Bill obviously at this point, up to this point, believes
that it can or does. So with that said, what
are the numbers you'd have to see from our receiving room?

(47:37):
You know, from Devonte down to Tequan. Our presumes starting four,
but them to have a year that you think would
produce a playoff run for us, Like you know of
DeVante twelve, it's just fifty for five hundred yards and
seven touchdowns, side type things from from your perspective.

Speaker 1 (47:56):
John, Yeah, I mean, I'll be honest, Christian, I mean,
I'm not sure sure that you need any definitive numbers.
It would be nice to see him with sixty plus catches,
a thousand yards and you know, ten touchdowns, that would
be great. I would say that if he approached any
one of those numbers, then you're probably right there in

(48:17):
the mix for the playoffs. Short of that, and if
you that is that is if he's your number one receiver.
So that goes for whether it's Hopkins, whether it's Devonte Parker,
no matter who it is, your number one guy probably
needs to have numbers that are similar somewhere in that category.
Short of that, you're you're you're spreading it around either

(48:38):
a little bit too much or you're spreading around because
you don't have anybody open. Nobody can get open and
other teams know what's coming. Does that make sense.

Speaker 6 (48:47):
Last year for me? Last year seeing and thank you
for that answer, last year seeing what like a DeVonta
Smith and a J. Brown were able to produce, you
know you had or a Tyreek you know, Haill and
also a waddle. You have these tandems these days where
both receivers are really putting up but lack with better

(49:08):
A phrase is number one receiver you know numbers? So
do we have that potential with any two players on
our roster right now? So then to both put up
sort of you know, yeah, great numbers.

Speaker 1 (49:22):
I don't know the answer to that because there's still
too much unknown. I mean, I frankly think that Mike
Gasicki's gonna end up taking a lot of that uh
that that target time away from some of those receivers
because he is more of a big receiver than really
a true tight end. I've always liked that description of him,
and I think that's where, you know, the Patriots might

(49:43):
have gotten themselves a little secret. We Pawn this year
because he can be thrown to. He's six for six,
so I'm not sure that we can really determine that.
In say that again, I.

Speaker 6 (49:57):
Think, you know, the addition of a Pierre Stawn coming
out of the backfield really taking a significant amount of targets,
not games white number of targets, but a number of
targets that really begins to release some of the pressure
from Max to have to make the kind of throws
that ka Sticky basically for me, because Sticky is a
downfield tight He's a move tight end, right Yeah. And

(50:20):
I'm not really sure what Max's best throw is yet.
I don't know if he's a you know, steam thrower,
if he's a post, But what is Max's best throw?
So I hopefully appear strong the backfield can sort of
just give Mac a little bit of a pressure release
until he figures out what his best throw is in

(50:40):
this offense.

Speaker 3 (50:42):
Any thoughts on that, well, I'm.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
Kind of thinking, as we go here again, I gotta
I gotta see these guys more. I'll be honest with you, Christian,
I'm not I'm not trying to avoid your your question.
I'm trying to be as honest with your I can.
I think that it's entirely plausible, not probable, plausible, that

(51:08):
the numbers are gonna be a little bit askew. And
this is without DeAndre Hopkins in the fold, and I
think that they will try to spread it out. I
don't think they're gonna put that kind of a burden
on Devonte Parker because I don't believe Parker's a true one.
He's sort of a one A or a one B.
And again that's not through any fault of his own.

(51:31):
The fact of the matter is is that you know,
receivers are like running backs. Once they hit you know,
north of thirty, it slows down. So I listen, if
you're Miami, you know DeVante Parker, you're not gonna double
team the guy. If you're Buffalo, considering what you have
in the defensive backfield, are you doubling him? No, You're

(51:51):
gonna take a chance on what you have so that look,
can he still make plays?

Speaker 2 (51:55):
Sure?

Speaker 1 (51:55):
We can. Absolutely. I'm not saying he can't make plays.
He can. My point is is that you know they're
going to come up with, you know, a system, And
this is what I think Bill O'Brien is expected to do,
and what we're hoping everybody's hoping that he will do
is find a way to not necessarily have to rely
on a one A guy or a one B guy.

(52:17):
But let's take advantage of game planning what the opposition presents,
and this is where we think we can be successful.
I think Gasicki is sort of like a unicorn in
that regard. I know that phrase has been thrown out
a lot, but you know, he's a bigger, taller guy
that can move. I don't know if that takes away
from the blocking, but let's put it this way. Patriots

(52:38):
have some depth. If they don't have the overall ability,
they certainly got some depth and some versatility on the
offensive line. So if you're worried about blocking, then bring
in an extra tackle blocking.

Speaker 6 (52:49):
Yeah, we've got a blocking tight end and this lumpkin kid,
yeah it should should should be grown to ask as
far as his power, speed and ability to move people,
I've heard that line, So I think we're going to
be okay.

Speaker 3 (53:00):
There last question, short.

Speaker 6 (53:04):
Be a sleeper or or is he still a little
too slight a frame, a little too loose on the
route running. What's your thoughts.

Speaker 3 (53:12):
So far on him?

Speaker 1 (53:13):
Well, I don't think he was very disciplined at all
last year. A lot of that may have been because
he missed time with his injury that took him out
of the mix, and I kind of figured like that
would end up being a problem. So he's got to
show us that he can stay on the field number one,
at number two, he's got to show us that, you know,
he knows how to run roots in the NFL as
opposed to just, you know, beating everybody down the field,

(53:35):
which you did at Baylor. So I'm not convinced yet.
I'm not convinced yet. I wanted him to succeed, but
when he got hurt last year, I think that threw
off all of his development. And you know, I think
everybody realizes the guy's a speedburner. But you can't beat
teams just by drawing an X in the sand and

(53:55):
say hey, you run here. You can't do that anymore.
There's a little bit more exact to it. We got
to see that this guy can run an NFL route.
And if he can, and then if you can run
the root, can he hold onto the ball? You might
have something. And I think that was one of the
major considerations and One of the negatives against a guy
like Thornton, and where the Patriots took some criticism for

(54:15):
drafting him a year ago, is because he's just He's
just not a very big dude. He's thin, he's skinny.
He may be wiry, he may be fast. We don't
know how durable the guy is. Clearly durability was an
issue a year ago. So I kind of look at
this as being almost a do over year for Tykwon Thornton.
He's got to go out there and prove him just

(54:35):
like any other rookie's got to go out there and
do it this year. That's at least, you know, my
book on him.

Speaker 6 (54:41):
Yeah, I think he saw I think we saw DeVonta
Smith's production and went, Okay, he's a slight guy. You
know he's able to do, and took that chance with
Thornton rookie. You skip the question. Could you try to
answer it? What do you think is Max Jones's best throw.

Speaker 1 (54:57):
Oh best throw career? Well, I think I think it's
to me. To me, I think to me, just based
on what I've seen of him, I think the post
is his better route, but I know that he can
connect on the out if he's got the receiver and
running the proper route. But I think the guy can
throw a post shoot. He did that at Alabama a

(55:20):
great success, right, So I mean that that's my thought anyway.
I mean, good quarterbacks need to be equally adept at
just about any route the receiver runs, and you can't
rely on post routes and not throw the out route.
And if he was, you know, if he was inadequate

(55:41):
running outs, then I don't think the Patriots would have
drafted him, or at least they shouldn't have. At least
they shouldn't have. You got to have a guy that's
got some versatility with his arm and knows how to
read it and throw it and put it where the
defender isn't. We've seen him do that without roots. But
I think he's got his great success you know with
middle of the field. You know post type route, don't

(56:02):
you Well, you know, I.

Speaker 6 (56:05):
Think at Alabama he had receivers that were opened by
five yards. What I think I saw last year was
him having a little bit of hesitation in reading his
favorite route, the post, and that that's because.

Speaker 1 (56:18):
Those receivers weren't running the roots they should have been.

Speaker 6 (56:22):
Well, that's right, that's that's a you know, product of
last year's failed Cordy experience.

Speaker 1 (56:30):
Correct, right, correct?

Speaker 4 (56:32):
Right.

Speaker 6 (56:32):
I think though, we we've heard a lot of talk
about the lack of strength in Max Jones's arms to
drive the ball, and we know, you know, college is different.
You can't get a receiver three to five yards open,
two yards open in the NFL. You're not going to
get those windows. And so the ability to drive the
ball into those those those receives, even if it's your
best route, the post route, becomes more and more important.

(56:55):
And I don't think I see Max Jones's strength improving.

Speaker 1 (57:00):
Well, I mean, I'm not sure I agree with that.
I'm not sure I agree with that, Christian, I don't
know that. You know, is he strong enough to get
the ball upfield? Yeah? I think so. I think you
got to have receivers. Though, What good does it do
to throw the ball fifty yards down field if you
don't have a receiver within you know, two feet of
the ball. So again, this is all predicated on the receivers. Now,

(57:21):
if the receivers are there and he's just overthrowing them
or underthrowing them, that's a different story. I don't think
we saw enough of that last year. So again I'm
looking at this is more like Max year two than
year three, because last year was a huge step backwards.

Speaker 6 (57:39):
But I think I saw last year.

Speaker 4 (57:40):
Maybe you will agree.

Speaker 6 (57:41):
I disagree with a lot of sort of looping throws
that took time to get there and allowed d bacs
to catch up. I think that's what people are meaning
when they say his ability to drive the.

Speaker 5 (57:51):
Ball well, even so, window.

Speaker 1 (57:53):
Even so, if you're in that camp, I would tell
you it's because he's simply trying to move the ball
and make a connection based to what he believes the
receiver will do or can do. He's got an offensive
coordinator this year that's telling him get the ball. The
receiver is gonna be there. He didn't have that a
year ago. Okay, so I I in a look. I

(58:17):
think it's all in the receivers. I don't think there's
any issue with Max's arm, his strength. I don't think
there's any issue with that at all. Now, let's talk
again about six weeks into the season. Let's see how
it goes, and then you know, but by that time,
we may be all ready to cut bait on Mack,
or we might be ready to sign him to another deal.
Who knows, but I'm just saying it's still it's still incomplete.

(58:39):
Last year was a wash. This year it's on him
to get the ball where it's supposed to be.

Speaker 6 (58:45):
Right, Look, Patriot three Ross, But who is our overall
best player? And I'll take it off the air?

Speaker 4 (58:53):
Thank you?

Speaker 1 (58:53):
All right, thank you, John, Thanks Christian overall best player
on the roster. I guess it depends on what you're
looking for them to do. If you're looking for something
to me guy in the NFL, the guy that helps
teams become championship caliber teams as opposed to just pretty good.

(59:14):
Are players who can make plays, Players who can come
up big when you know your team needs a big play.
If you're a defender, make a stop, create a turnover.
If you're an offensive player, come up with a big catch,
break the big run, make the big throw. So I

(59:35):
think it really depends on the type of player you're
looking for. I would still say right now, you'd have
to put Matt Judah on up at the top of
that list, based on his ability to make plays and
getting to the quarterback. I would tell you that I
think that Ramandre Stevenson based on his ability, you know,

(59:57):
for burst, based on his ability for you know, like
I call missibility to make other guys miss him. I've
always liked Hunter Henry. I don't know that he's one
of the top five athletes on the team, but I think,
you know, he's got an ability to make plays. So

(01:00:19):
and again we're talking about skill players. You might have
an extraordinary athlete that's on the offensive or defensive line too.
I mean, let's think about that, right, But I'll stick
with those. If that, you know, makes any difference to you,
I think that's, you know, at least a part of it.
There eight five five Pats five hundred web radio at
Patriots dot com if you want to submit an email

(01:00:41):
on the aforementioned topics of the day, as we obviously
get around the Jack Jones subject and move around a
little bit on DeAndre Hopkins as well, and anything else
that might be on your mind as we fully enter
into the dead period. Overall, let's take a couple of
minutes now to visit with Nicole Young, who covers Patriots
for the Boston Globe. Hey, Nicole, thank you so much

(01:01:01):
for taking the time today. I assume that your off
season time has already begun as well. You gotta pot
it up, Matt, Matt, okay, because I'm not hearing her.
Is she there? Okay, let me put her on hold. Okay, yeah,

(01:01:23):
I know, I'm gonna put her on hold. Let's make
sure we can if she's there at all, it may
very well be that, you know, somebody's you know, on
my my end. Uh, she's there, all right, So I'm
gonna hit it again, Nicole. You there, Yeah, there, she
is there. You are thank you, appreciate your patience, No worries.

(01:01:44):
So how's the off season going so far?

Speaker 7 (01:01:50):
I was saying, I think on the first day the
off season program ended, Jack Jones arrests broke.

Speaker 4 (01:01:55):
So yeah, yeah, no break yet.

Speaker 1 (01:01:58):
Yeah, I know. And then I and certainly, I mean,
I feel like I should apologize for that, but obviously
that kind of comes with the territory when you're covering
a professional sports team. So based on what we learned yesterday,
you know, from his being in court and his attorney's
statements and things along those lines, are the Patriots, in
your estimation, playing this the way they should play it

(01:02:21):
right about now? Yeah?

Speaker 7 (01:02:24):
I mean I think they're probably just going to wait
it out and see as the information develops, see as
the court proceedings develop. There's no team activity until the
end of training camp or until the end of July
when training camp begins, so there's no I guess rush

(01:02:45):
for them from a football site to make a decision.
The first time we see Jack is at the end
of July. His next court date is eighteenth, so there
definitely is that probably like three weeks or so of
fine and before we might get more and to see
how Bill Belichick feelds both questions, or if Jack is

(01:03:08):
even on the practice field at training camp, well.

Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
I stocked I'd be shocked if he was a training
camp at all, because I think we all know that
any sort of distraction is not going to be you know,
good for anybody in that regard. And I think the Patriots,
and I mentioned this a little bit earlier in the
program today, but Patriots clearly have to be standing back
right now because the NFL is likely to make a

(01:03:33):
decision for them where Jack Jones is concerned.

Speaker 7 (01:03:37):
Right and I think both the league and the team
are just waiting for more information, waiting to see how
the criminal proceedings play out, and then see how his
actions fall into place in terms of league policies, right,
things like that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:55):
So how did the Patriots recover from this? I mean,
what are your thoughts on, you know, positional changes or
moving people around? How badly do you feel like this
hurts them depth wise? And does it knock them down
a notch you know within the tight race that you
know we expect this division to be in the fall.

Speaker 7 (01:04:14):
I mean from a football perspective, it definitely was a
big hit. I think the young pairing of Jack Jones
and Christian Gonzales in the secondary look to be promising.
That being said, the Patriots defense is pretty deep. They
still obviously have Jonathan Jones. Marcus Jones is smaller, but

(01:04:36):
so he can be a playmaker defense and as a whole,
they're returning everybody beside Debnie mccordy. So I think the
defense was primed to be elite next year and Jack
Jones alone isn't going to knock them down like a
full notch. But it definitely is a hit, just when

(01:04:56):
you look at the other wide receivers in the division
and conference that they're gonna have to go up again, right, Okay?

Speaker 1 (01:05:02):
It seems to me though that again I mentioned this
a little earlier for those that tuning in later. The
fact of the matter is is that this is one
of the reasons why they preach versatility, especially in the
defensive backfield places like the offensive line, because they want
guys to be able to play multiple positions. And that's
where a lot of their success in previous years had
been predicated and built upon. And I think they're gonna

(01:05:25):
have to rely on that this year. Do they wish
they were deeper? Sure? Do they wish Jack Jones didn't
do what he did? Of course they do, And I
think that goes without saying. But the fact of the
matter is that you treat this almost like you treat
an injury. We've got to go to the next man
up in this particular instance. And my thought is is
that you know, John Jones, while everybody would love to
see him as the everyday you know slot corner of you,

(01:05:47):
will he probably because especially because of his veteran leadership,
would probably move to the outside. And again, I'm not
entirely sold, and I opened up the show with this today.
I'm not sold that the patrons weren't going to open
up this way anyway, because as if they had started
with you know, let's say Gonzales and Jack Jones on
the corners. You're talking about one combined season of NFL
experience and you're starting cornerbacks in the NFL, and that

(01:06:09):
doesn't sound to me like it's extraordinarily.

Speaker 7 (01:06:11):
Tenable, right, And to your point about the versatility, Jalen Mills,
who played a lot of cornerback last year, had moved
to safety so far this year just because of Devin retiring.
So if Jack is not with the team this year,
maybe Jalen will move back to cornerback where he does
have some experience. So they definitely have some options there.

Speaker 1 (01:06:33):
Big options there. And that's part of the reason why
my first thoughts were, Okay, this stinks, especially since it
happened on a Friday. But I'm sure you probably thought likewise.
But you know, my other thought is is, well, I
don't know that this is an insurmountable issue. Nobody wants
to have to deal with this. It's an it's an

(01:06:54):
ugly subject, it's a it's a it's a hot button subject,
as we all though, with things that are going on
in our country these days. But at the same time,
you have to look at it individually without considering other
factors like what other people are thinking, how other people
are acting. You know, what the national temperature is, you know,
for you know, gun control and all that stuff that's

(01:07:16):
out there, and you look at it and you say,
how does this affect the Patriots? And right now he's
not around, but nobody's around, So right now it doesn't
affect the Patriots. And that may be oversimplifying it, but
to me, that's about as close to the truth as
you can get.

Speaker 7 (01:07:34):
Yeah, I definitely think as more information comes out, it
will be more it would be like more appropriate to
figure out exactly what's going to go on, how this
affects the team, things like that.

Speaker 1 (01:07:48):
So let's find out now what you feel about DeAndre Hopkins.
And you know, since he had his visit here and
he's visited in two spots, but he's not in any hurry.
The Patriots don't appear to be in any hurry, which
tells me that he's waiting for other better offers potentially
to come around as we get nearer or even into

(01:08:08):
training camp in July and in August. Do you are
you are you seeing it that way or is the
market just kind of tepid for DeAndre Hopkins.

Speaker 7 (01:08:21):
I think it means that the Patriots are interested and
that the Patriots were one of the first teams to
host DeAndre Hopkins.

Speaker 6 (01:08:28):
For a visit.

Speaker 7 (01:08:29):
And I also think it makes sense that DeAndre Hopkins
is going to wait it out and see if you know,
an injury happens during training camp or something unexpected happens
any number of teams across the league that then creates
a need for a wide receiver, and then all of
a sudden that team is interested in DeAndre Hopkins as well. So,

(01:08:50):
as we were just talking about, there's no football until
the end of July, so it doesn't really make sense
for DeAndre Hopkins him to lock in a deal right
now unless a team blows him away financially. I think
DeAndre Hopkins also has a reputation for not necessarily loss practice,

(01:09:11):
so as boy, you know, a couple of early training
camp practices, maybe that's just something he's interested in too.

Speaker 1 (01:09:17):
Yeah. I mean, look, I think if you're a Patriots
fan and you really want I mentioned this a little
bit earlier as well, before you joined us, But in
all honesty, if you're a Patriots fan and you really
want DeAndre Hopkins here, you'd best hope that everybody stays
healthy over the next month.

Speaker 7 (01:09:34):
Yeah, and especially I mean obviously both on the Patriots,
but then elsewhere, Like if any premium wide receiver goes down,
I feel like that team will immediately become part of
the conversation and questioning whether or not they would be
interested in Hopkins.

Speaker 1 (01:09:51):
No question. So you know, as it now stands, what
do you feel like, let's remove Hopkins, Let's remove Jack
Jones and the defensive backfield out of the equation. What's
the first thing that you you're that's going to peak
your interest when the veterans report and camp practice in
in in camp opens up at the end of July.

(01:10:11):
What do you feel like should be a position or
a spot of priority for this team in terms of
its development and performance.

Speaker 7 (01:10:20):
I would say the tackle position and the offensive line
in general. Last year they were sort of inconsistent in
their past protection and the office. The offense had a
number of issues, but that was definitely one of them.
And this year, you know, ourda Win walk. They let
I get, They let him walk. They still have Trent Brown,

(01:10:41):
but he was only there on the second day of
mandatory mini camp and didn't do much, and Michael and
Wnu is also recovering from an off season surgery. Playing
in a contract year, Riley Reef and Calvin Anderson have
sort of been in play as the starters, but the

(01:11:03):
econom McDermott took over for Riley Reeves, so a lot
of questions on the offensive line, and Trent Brown is
their premium player there and he hasn't shown much step
through the off season program. So that's definitely where I'll
be looking because no matter what offensive changes they make
to the system, no matter what Bill O'Brien can do,

(01:11:26):
it doesn't really matter if Max Jones doesn't have the
time or the protection to execute the play.

Speaker 1 (01:11:32):
Sure. Yeah, good points, by the way, Just as an aside,
and I know there's limited opportunities to watch during mini
camp or the OTAs. What were the impressions of how
the offense seemed to run itself with Bill O'Brien at
the helm.

Speaker 7 (01:11:46):
Yeah, I mean it definitely looks smoother, cleaner, better than
last year. I think training camp will definitely be more
telling in that regard, But through the players feedback and
what they're saying, like everybody seems pleased with the offensive
system so far.

Speaker 1 (01:12:06):
Okay, so everybody's getting it right, Yeah, as far as
we can tell.

Speaker 7 (01:12:11):
I really think, and I think Bill Beljessevan has said
this himself. Training camp will be much more informative and
indicative sort of the progress.

Speaker 1 (01:12:22):
Okay, all right, Nicole, thank you for a little bit
of time today. It's appreciate it. Enjoyed the time away
from football as long as you can manage to get away.
And we'll see out of training camp next month.

Speaker 5 (01:12:34):
Sound good, Dan, you got it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:36):
Nicole Yang at Nicole C. Yang on Twitter covers the
Patriots for the Boston Globe. Joining is here she does
from time to time during the regular season here on
Patriots Playbook. All right, back to the phones eight five five,
Pats five hundred again the email, web radio at Patriots
dot com at JR Broadcaster on Twitter. If you want

(01:12:57):
to follow and send a tweet, please do so, or
you can hit me up on my Facebook page. Sean
and Vancouver have been kind enough to hang on. Hello Sean,
How are you good?

Speaker 7 (01:13:07):
John?

Speaker 8 (01:13:08):
Yeah, I know you are wanting to go to the beach,
but I'm sure you'll have some beach weather before training
camp starts.

Speaker 6 (01:13:15):
Perhaps you can make it up.

Speaker 8 (01:13:16):
To Miles Hanson Gunk with Maine.

Speaker 1 (01:13:18):
Yeah, enjoy that. I would love to a gun quote,
by the way, is beautiful. It's one of my favorite
places to go in the great state of Maine. So yeah, definitely.
But it's just been it's just been gross here. I
mean it's you know, well, you know, first of all, rainy.
Last summer it was dry. This summer is rainy. I
don't really have a problem with the cooler temperatures, but

(01:13:39):
I'd like it to just be dry and sunny. That
would be a good first step in that direction.

Speaker 8 (01:13:46):
Well, all of Canada is dry and sunny in May,
and that's when we had our fire fire season to
the entire country.

Speaker 1 (01:13:52):
By the way, thank you, yes, thank you for those
We appreciate that.

Speaker 4 (01:13:57):
Thank you.

Speaker 8 (01:13:57):
Welcome all right, So onto Jack Jones.

Speaker 3 (01:14:02):
Yeah, I concretely agree with you.

Speaker 8 (01:14:03):
It's not just a brain part. It's like an absence
of a brain to think that you can actually bring
guns through security to a plane and not just any airport,
you know, considering what happens twenty two years ago at Logan,
that doesn't make any sense. No, So I know it's
I'm not making any accusations or anything. But the only
thing I can think of a logical explanation of this

(01:14:25):
is someone paid some off at TSA to put the
guns in, because otherwise you're going to feel it in
your bag.

Speaker 1 (01:14:31):
I mean, yeah, I don't know. I mean, honestly, I
hope that this comes out sooner rather than later, so
speculation doesn't drive us all crazy. But clearly there is
a major, major malfunction here, and it's either in somebody's
right mind or it's a setup. Well it's it's there's

(01:14:51):
no in between here because it's so extreme and so
egregious and everybody knows the rules and this ain't one
of them.

Speaker 8 (01:15:01):
And you know, you can't think that he wanted to
go from the nickname of Panda Jack to Hijack Jones.

Speaker 6 (01:15:08):
That doesn't make sense.

Speaker 1 (01:15:12):
I hadn't heard that one yet. I hadn't heard that
one yet.

Speaker 8 (01:15:14):
That was kind of from yesterday. Someone sent that in.

Speaker 1 (01:15:18):
Well that's actually a good one, so.

Speaker 8 (01:15:19):
Okay, yeah, some people were offended, but you know whatever.
The other thing I wanted to talk about is the
hop and we talked about this last month, and something
that's been brought up again is Okay, a player needs
to go if de Haandre Hopkins is brought and I
still say no. And here's here's the reason. We look

(01:15:41):
at what was happening in mini camp. You know, you
didn't have Juju, and you didn't have Thornton, and you
didn't have even the rookie booty. So it's it's like
this receiving corp is is very thin in terms of health.
Someone is going to get injured. So to think like, well,
you know someone's going to be sitting on the bench unhappy,

(01:16:02):
I think that's like a luxury that's probably not going
to happen. They need another receiver who's going to stay healthy.
And I don't know if Hopkins will stay healthy. He's
getting up there too.

Speaker 1 (01:16:12):
Right, that's true. I don't I would kind of agree
with that and be honest with you, Sean, I think that,
you know, if they get him, I'm not sure anybody
has to go now. It might be an untenable situation
for a guy like Devonte Parker. You know, if they
feel like there's going to be a I don't know,
a clash of skills or will or you know, hey,

(01:16:34):
this is you know I'm the first team or no,
you're the first team or I'm the first team. I mean,
I don't know. I mean, I know he was real
cold about it when he was asked about it during
mini camp, So I mean, I don't know if that
would bring issues or not. Because they largely play the
same type of, you know, position. I would tell you
that Parker would probably be the one guy that you'd

(01:16:56):
look at and say, well, maybe he's the one that
is expendable, because let's face it, DeAndre Hopkins is probably
gonna get everything thrown to him. I don't know.

Speaker 8 (01:17:04):
Well, here's what I have to say to devonded Parker,
if you're listening, don't worry about it. Someone's gonna get hurt.
You're gonna have six or seven games where you're playing
and you'll receive plenty of targets.

Speaker 1 (01:17:14):
Yeah, and I kind of agree with that. I mean, look,
he's gonna they'll he if he doesn't go someplace that's
going to overpay for him, which I believe, you know
that's what happened with OBJ. But if he doesn't go
someplace that's going to overpay for him, let's see it
comes to New England, he can get his fifteen million,
which is what we know he wants. For a year,

(01:17:34):
but a lot of that is going to have to
come from incentive to guarantee. It certainly is going to
be well south of that mark, but he'll have an
opportunity to make it. They're not going to give him
what I would call unachievable you know, benchwater marks. You
know some teams are notorious for that. I know that
that was something I think that even Rob Gronkowski, you know,
accused the Patriots of doing for years as well that

(01:17:55):
you know, they were giving him incentives, but some of
them weren't achievable. I don't think he comes or if
he feels like he can't achieve them. So again, it's
it's gonna come down to the fact, and I agree
with this, you've got to prepare for injuries because injuries
are not if it's when right, it's always when somebody

(01:18:18):
is going to be hurt and somebody is going to
miss perhaps a significant amount of time. And because of that,
you want to make certain that you have more toys
in the toy department. You want to make sure that
you have depth. We've seen this happen in several fastests
of this football team over the course of the last
few years. And the teams that invariably are the ones

(01:18:41):
that are left standing at the end. Kansas City is
one of them. They've got good depth at the skill position,
and they've just frankly, they have a little you know,
they have a little luck on their side too. Everybody
needs a little good luck and everybody needs a little
good fortune. But I also think that teams are in position.
If you've got some depth, you can rotate guys in
and out without missing much and keep your depth healthy.

(01:19:03):
And that's what a lot of people, I think fail
to realize. Some teams do that better than others. The
Patriots did that for a number of years, but then
unfortunately the Patriots got thinner and the guys that they
went out and got weren't as good. And that's how
a downward spiral begins.

Speaker 8 (01:19:18):
Well that's why I'm rooting for Harris and for Pierwood
to you know, to to somebody, somebody in the running
back room to help Stevenson because last year he wore
down and and he can't have that much time on
the field. I mean, he's got to be kind of
managed a little bit better, right, would you.

Speaker 1 (01:19:37):
Do Dalvin Cook?

Speaker 5 (01:19:38):
If the Patriots were interested I would take Dalvin Cook
if it if it meant that he understands he's going
to be sharing the load, like he's not going to
be the main guy like he was in Minnesota.

Speaker 8 (01:19:51):
And I think that's why the Vikings moved on is
because they want to go the other way with Madison.
So if he could be someone who can supplement and
you know, be prepared to take like five to ten
carries a game, and then sure, but that's that's going
to be the understanding.

Speaker 1 (01:20:09):
Yeah, I don't know that rumor was out there today,
and I just I'm kind of like, eh, you know,
I'm sort of ambivalent toward it, especially if the uh,
you know, the rumors about Dalvin Cook and DeAndre Hopkins,
you know, maybe going as a package somewhere we're actually uh,
you know, somewhat truthful. I don't know that any team
has enough money under the salary cap to be able
to afford both guys, to give them what they feel

(01:20:30):
they deserve or what they've earned at this point in time.
I don't know anybody has that kind of calet sour
cap space. But you know, a lot of incentives, well,
you would have to be hugely incentive late and do
they have enough footballs to go around so each guy
gets enough touches in order to make those incentives. See,
I don't even know that.

Speaker 8 (01:20:47):
Yeah, I rather strong and you know, strong get more play,
you know, in terms of sharing with thy Montgomery that
third down goal and then having Harris come in at
a goal line and spelling now stevements in that way
maybe in the fourth quarter if they ever have a lead, that.

Speaker 3 (01:21:05):
Kind of thing.

Speaker 8 (01:21:05):
So, yeah, I'd like to see just more share with
the four guys they have, Yeah, four.

Speaker 1 (01:21:09):
Five, I think that's yeah, I think that's kind of
the thing. I mean, what I want to see is
I want to see a Patriots offense that is going
to spread the ball around. And so if you're looking
at you know, something that's basically going to be incentive based,
you know, And this is what Evan was kind of
alluding to earlier. I'm not so sure that you know
this is going to be a spot for DeAndre. I'm

(01:21:31):
just not It sounds great, and I hope they go
after him because I do believe that when you've got
a guy that you got to the other team is
a game plan for That's part of the battle in
winning the battle. I just don't know now that based
on the type of football they want to play, I
just don't know now that that's going to be a possibility.
And so I'm kind of up in the air about that.

Speaker 8 (01:21:51):
Well, they're the team that needs him the most in
terms of anyone who's going to sign him. Now, if
he goes to another team that has a better chance
of the Super Bowl, he won't be the number one option,
I don't think unless there's a huge injury.

Speaker 1 (01:22:04):
And that's the decision that he has to make. He's
waiting for this contending team, right whether it's Buffalo or
Kansas City or whomever. He's waiting for this contending team
to all of a sudden say all right, let's get
into the DeAndre Hopkins sweepstakes.

Speaker 8 (01:22:20):
But but he might also be waiting because he doesn't
want to go to training camp.

Speaker 1 (01:22:25):
You just want Oh, I know that. I said that.
I said I said that last month, Shawn I said
he didn't want to go to training camp. There's no
way that this thing I would bet my rent money on,
or bet my mortgage money. I would bet that on.
He is not going anywhere before camp starts. He's just
not He didn't want to go to training camp, and

(01:22:46):
I mean, and in fact, DeAndre Hopkins isn't. Yeah, he's
had a uh he sort of had the the moniker
I guess if you will, the tag if you will
of you know, being less than enthusiastic about practicing anyway,
has he not?

Speaker 3 (01:22:59):
Right?

Speaker 5 (01:22:59):
Yeah, So there you go.

Speaker 1 (01:23:01):
I mean that all adds up, and what doesn't add
up is him waiting for a contending team who you know,
probably won't have the salary cap space. And the only
way they have it is if potentially there's an injury
there and the injury hasn't happened yet. So, like I
said earlier, if you're a Patriots fan and you really
want DeAndre Hopkins, and I put myself in that category,

(01:23:25):
I you know, hope that nobody gets hurt. You know,
nobody else goes, nobody goes to jail, you know that
kind of thing, you know.

Speaker 8 (01:23:31):
And exactly good fortune for Kelsey and for the Bills
receiver digs. Yeah, see, everything is okay.

Speaker 1 (01:23:38):
Yeah, Let's hope they have a nice quiet month off, right,
because if they do, I think that increases the chances
exponentially of DeAndre Hopkins and the Patriots you know, saying
probably during that first week of August. All right, dude,
what do you got where you're at? That that would
be my thought, that would be my thought. Probably probably
not until around the first week of August.

Speaker 8 (01:24:00):
I'm picking even later, like I'm picking maybo third, like
you might even miss a.

Speaker 1 (01:24:03):
Well, yeah, I would tell you that there would be
a check in. There would definitely be a check in. Eh,
you know what, Maybe I don't know yet. Let's kind
of wait and see. You know, teams are just now
working out. Let's get through a couple of preseason games
and let's see how it goes, right exactly, and you're right,
you know, then you wait and see if anybody's got
any you know, injuries to their wide receiving core, especially

(01:24:28):
if the team is considered a contender, and you probably
start to be able to ferret this out by mid August.

Speaker 3 (01:24:36):
Yeah, yeah, that's what I think.

Speaker 8 (01:24:38):
Okay, that's it, So thanks a lot. Enjoy the rest
of the summer. The sun's coming.

Speaker 1 (01:24:44):
As long as you promise that, Sean. I appreciate that.

Speaker 8 (01:24:46):
Yeah, I'll you can hold me to it.

Speaker 1 (01:24:49):
Thank you, buddy, appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (01:24:50):
Thanks John.

Speaker 1 (01:24:51):
They got it all right, Seana, Vancouver eight five five
past five hundred, Web radio at Patriots dot Com, at
JR broadcast on Twitter, John dot Rook on Facebook. I
want to read I got an email here that was
intended at least yesterday for the PU team. I don't
think they got to it, and I thought it was
actually pretty good. But this is Matt in Virginia Beach

(01:25:13):
who said, I'm a longtime listener, appreciate the show. Incredible
work all of you do. I want to touch on
the Jack Jones incident and offer my two cents. Most
important word in the term gun owner is owner. You
own the responsibility. Massachusetts is one of the most strict
states in the country regarding firearms, second only to maybe California.

(01:25:33):
It was Jack Jones' responsibility to educate himself on gun
laws at the state and federal level. The TSA does
not or does allow transport of firearms. If the airline
allows it, you must declare your unloaded firearms to TSA
and have it stored according to federal regulations, which he

(01:25:55):
did neither of. Apparently, I think the best thing the
page could do for Jack Jones is to cut him.
We'll see now you're sort of being contradicting here, Matt.
People make mistakes, but Jack Jones intend its appeared to
be a trend, and maybe if he realizes that his
actions and decisions have consequences that could cost him dearly,

(01:26:16):
it would be motivation enough to clean up his act. Okay,
I understand the point, and you're right, but I got
to tell you, I don't think he had a clear
understanding of what were if he packed his own bag.
He does not have a clear understanding of what the
rules are, certainly not in mass and certainly not in
transit we're heading to California, which is apparently where he

(01:26:38):
was headed. I also believe that that you know, ultimately,
you know, hey, you're the owner, then you have to
have responsibility. And that's why I believe, as I said
at the top of the of the beginning of the program,
in the opening hour, that eventually, provided we don't get

(01:26:58):
anything else, you know, Inflamma tory here as evidence coming
up uh in the next few minutes, hours, days, weeks,
you know, before training came starts. I think this is
going to get plot out. He's got a good attorney,
and I think that's what will end up happening. It'll

(01:27:19):
get plued out. It probably of a probationary matter. If again,
this can be best described as a gross misunderstanding of
rules and regulations, what have you. I don't know. We'll
have to We'll have to wait and see. If you
know chargers are going to be filed here. Uh and
then uh, you know, without knowing you know the letter

(01:27:42):
of the law to the nth degree, as I'm sure
you know several of you do. My thought process is
is that you know, the NFL steps in and takes
the responsibility right out of the Patriots' hands. And I don't.
And like Evan told us earlier, and I agree with
this one hundred percent. I don't think Jack Jones plays
any football in August or September. I don't see it happening.

(01:28:05):
You know, now, if he complete out, not have to
do jail time, stay clean, stay out of trouble. I
think it's plausible, maybe unlikely, but I think it's believable
to think that he could come back at some point
in time this season and then contribute to you know,
the depth and whatever else the Patriots have going on
at that time in the defensive backfield. So we're looking

(01:28:27):
at this in a couple of different ways. We're looking
at this at you know, Jack Jones broke the law,
and we're looking at this as as the Patriots and
how do they recover in terms of the football story,
two separate stories, they're not the same. And because they're

(01:28:49):
two separate stories, I know it sounds, you know, like
we're sort of taking it for granted, maybe being flippant
with it, whatever it may be, not taking the issue
serious enough. But that's not the case. I think we
all understand, you know, what our current climate is in
this country when it comes to gun control and gun
laws and the emailer, which is why I brought the
email up. The emailer is one hundred percent right, madam,

(01:29:11):
Virginia Beach, Virginia. You know, you own the responsibility. Massachusetts
is strict, so is California. TSA does allow the transport
of firearms, but you got to declare that you got
them and they got to be unloaded, which they were not.

(01:29:33):
And you know, there is video of him loading his
bag under the conveyor belt going through you know, the
the checkpoint there, and I'm just like, wow, could it
really have been something as simply stupid is forgetting you
had them in there. I mean, I listen, it sounds unbelievable.

(01:29:54):
It sounds unfathomable, especially if you've got guns like that
on your possession. And then the magazine, So that's a
whole nother story. That's where he's gonna actually probably end
up getting in real trouble. The guns itself, they're transportable.
You can do that if you declare it. I think
we realize that, and we've already said that. But the magazines,

(01:30:14):
I think were and again I'm no expert, but I
believe that they're illegal. So in that regard, he's going
to have to do something and he's gonna get slapped
for you know, at least possession and especially with them
being loaded. I can't imagine that's gonna happen. So at
any rate, Look, I'm not gonna try to play amateur
lawyer here. I don't want to play amateur lawyer because

(01:30:35):
that's when you get yourself into trouble. But I do
believe that. My thought is is that this is a
situation where no, I don't necessarily think you need to
cut bait right away, as Matt was suggesting. I think
you need to let the process play itself out. I

(01:30:57):
think you need and what does that really mean? Well,
I think we need to make sure that first of all,
no one's going to you know, you know, pursue charges.
And I think that's why he's got you know, the
attorney that he has right now. And Miss Scipeccio so
because she's known as a pitbull in this regard, right
and if you know anything about you know, attorneys in
this area, and she's been involved in a lot of

(01:31:19):
high profile cases and she's done well by her clients.
So it was a good choice of uh, you know,
uh of lawyering up as the case may be. And
she did insist yesterday that this would be something that,
you know, when the facts come out, she wants judgment reserved.
That's easier said than done because it affects the New

(01:31:39):
England Patriots and there are football issues, and that leads
me into the whole football issue story, and how do
the Patriots bounce out of this, how to the recover?
What should they be doing? Should they be you know,
good upstanding citizens and and cut bait and move on.
I mean, I know that there's a sentiment out there
that feels that way. I get it. I get it.
I understand it. I saw Ben Volan wrote about that

(01:32:01):
in the Globe yesterday. You know the same thing I mean.
And there are several that are opining that he should
be cut right away and no questions asked, and let's
just be done with it. We don't need any distraction.
We don't need distraction like that bad guy, bad guy. Well, look,
the Patriots have to have done their due diligence on it.
They would not have drafted him in the first place
if it didn't think that putting him in the right

(01:32:22):
surroundings would bring him around. Now have they bat at
a thousand?

Speaker 6 (01:32:25):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:32:26):
And I've already said that. And are they upset with
what's happened over the last few days? Of course they are.
I would be. You would be if you were in charge,
this was your kid, would you be upset? Yes? Does
that mean you don't love him? No? And that's kind
of how I look at this. Yeah, I'm mad as hell.

(01:32:50):
Maybe even a part of me wants, you know, the
authorities to throw the book at him and teach him
a lesson. Okay, I understand that. But at the same time,
at some point point is due process being made, has
it had? Is it. Are we seeing it and are
we doing the due process here or are we giving into,

(01:33:13):
you know, the culture you know within social media that
you know, everybody's got to fall in line here, otherwise
you're not looked at it as a good person anymore.
And I think the Patriots are trying to stay above
all of this. Patriots have to decide for the patriot's sake.
Did anybody get hurt?

Speaker 3 (01:33:29):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:33:30):
Was it stupid? Yes? Do we think he was going
to hijack a plane?

Speaker 3 (01:33:34):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:33:35):
Okay, And I'm oversimplifying. I'm sorry if that offends you.
But unfortunately we're left here to sort of compare the two.
It's an unfair comparison. Shouldn't even be made. This is
going to take time. It is something that is not
going to be solved in another twenty four to forty

(01:33:57):
eight hours. It may not even be solved by the
time this team takes the field for practice in another month,
five weeks. As I said off the top, that's about
how long we've got until training camp begins, five weeks
till veterans report. It won't be solved by then either.
I doubt he's got another court date again in mid August,
So we know that that's gonna. I can't see him

(01:34:18):
being a part of anything football wise until once court
is through, and then that may very will be. Look,
let's just see if we can adjudicate this and get
this done so you can move on with your life
and everybody can move on. You know, his attorney did
yesterday say that, you know, she was, you know, very
thankful the Patriots did not fire her client, that we

(01:34:38):
need to wait until everything is out in the open. Look, Ah,
I don't know. I don't know sometimes today, in this
day and age, I don't know which end is up.
I don't know what I should be thinking. I don't
want to be woke, and yet I don't want to be,

(01:35:00):
you know, unfeeling. We're caught between our own rock and
hard place in a lot of this. So, as best
as I can describe for you at this point in time,
the Patriots are right trying to rise above it. Do
what's right by Jack, certainly, but also do what's right
by the team, and do and by the organization and

(01:35:22):
what they stand for, and also do what's right by
the law. Let's not forget that has to be first
and foremost here. And if you can make all of
them come together, bravo. But I don't think it's going
to be as clean as that.

Speaker 6 (01:35:37):
It's a real woman could stop you from drinking.

Speaker 5 (01:35:41):
A big woman.

Speaker 1 (01:35:42):
It's time to go around the NFL with football guru
Russell Baxter. Now what.

Speaker 4 (01:35:48):
Name is Flounder?

Speaker 1 (01:35:49):
On Patriots playbook? Mister Baxter, Happy summer? How well? You know?
I began the program today by opining that I was
pretty pissed off at the weather because it's not really
summer out there. It's still more like, uh, it feels
kind of like a fall day in September more than

(01:36:11):
a you know, a summer day in June. Did we
lose him?

Speaker 4 (01:36:20):
You know?

Speaker 3 (01:36:20):
You know, you know it's funny about the weather now, yeah,
not being you know, not that I'm outroker or.

Speaker 4 (01:36:25):
Anything like that.

Speaker 3 (01:36:27):
We gotta cut we almost have to throw out the
whole season things, you know. Yeah, yeah, I know, I
know here, yeah, I mean, the seasons have changed from
when I was younger and so on. You know, whatever
happened to what was the march in like a blue
lion out like a lamb?

Speaker 1 (01:36:48):
When did it go out?

Speaker 3 (01:36:51):
Exactly? It's just different now. I don't know if that's
because of the ozone. I mean, we're delving into things
that have nothing to do with touchdown and acepts A
percentage here for.

Speaker 4 (01:37:02):
Me, so.

Speaker 1 (01:37:04):
I unbelievable. Well, hopefully we'll have some summer weather come
up soon enough and we'll have football to talk about
another five weeks or so. How have you always kind
of viewed them the traditional dead period? I mean, do
you try to get away from the sport. I mean,
I know part of your living is you're still going
to talk about it. But at the same time, do
you give yourself a little bit of a respite in

(01:37:24):
order to sort of recharge the batteries for the long haul?

Speaker 3 (01:37:27):
Well, I think the pace slows down more than anything else.

Speaker 4 (01:37:32):
But you know, my.

Speaker 3 (01:37:32):
Curiosity with history and statistics and so on, I kind
of try to use the time to get caught up
on things, you know, and see different things, and go
over my files and make sure I'm updated and so on.
You just don't have to do it, because if you
don't do it now, all of a sudden, it's going
to be about week four and where.

Speaker 4 (01:37:54):
The hell is the thing you were looking for?

Speaker 1 (01:37:56):
Right?

Speaker 3 (01:37:56):
You should have loated months ago?

Speaker 1 (01:37:58):
Right?

Speaker 3 (01:38:01):
But I mean it's hard. It's hard about you're certainly
not breaking any news. I mean, we have two kind
of prominent free agents out there, John, then everybody's kind
of waiting mine. That's Dalvin Cook and DeAndre Hopkins, right,
and see where they wind up, you know, free agency
for the most part. Although I did a piece a
couple of months ago about you know, the top twenty

(01:38:22):
free agents and where they could wind up. It's funny
two months later, eighteen of them are still unemployed. So
and some and you know, we saw a couple of
pass rushers come off the board recently and saw them.
But it behoos me to figure out where Marcus Peters
and Justin Houston and Deanick Nickockway and and so. Not

(01:38:43):
so much about quarterbacks, I mean the quarterback out there,
if you know anybody's still interested. Sorry Carson Wentz yep,
who just hasn't gotten over his turnover problems. He keeps
on getting traded and not welcome back.

Speaker 1 (01:38:57):
So I mean, you know, you mentioned market, mentioned Marcus Peters,
and I'm just curious what you feel like his quality
still might be because hey, let's face it, the Patriots
might have some availability in the defensive backfield with what
transpired with Jack Jones over the last few days, and
I'm wondering if you thought maybe he'd be worth a

(01:39:19):
gamble for someone.

Speaker 3 (01:39:21):
Well, he's always had a nose for the football, and
that doesn't mean interceptions, but fumble recoveries as well. Some
guys just have great ball in things as far as
where that football is going to wind up. You know,
guys like Ed Read and you know, I'm going obviously
back further and so on, you know, night train lane,
and you know, you know it's funny Paul Krause, who

(01:39:46):
is the NFL's all time interception leader. And again, I
know this is a different error. I think what always
been found at me is he not only had eighty
one interceptions, John, he had nineteen fumble recoveries, had one
hundred takeaways during his career. You know that's that's not accidental, okay.
And again it was a different error when we saw

(01:40:06):
turnovers more prominent. I mean, you know, you don't have
guys who are big interception guys anymore. And you know,
beg Red and you know some of the guys who
get in the Hall of Fame played years and years ago.

Speaker 4 (01:40:20):
Ken Riley goes in this year is.

Speaker 3 (01:40:23):
Sixty five interceptions. But Marcus Peters is just one of
those guys that always seems to be around the ball.
And you know, he bounced back pretty nicely last year,
missing this season basically, so you remember he got hurt
in training camp and yeah, or maybe the last week's
season game and he missed the whole year and Ravens

(01:40:45):
were out of finishing last in the AFC in order.
So yeah, somebody like that certainly has got to be
on a team's radar, especially a veteran player who doll
Check obviously likes. He likes guys who knows the league
and know this system and would adapt very well to
this season. And you know, Marcus Peters has bounced around

(01:41:05):
a little, you know since his day's Chiefs a defensive
rookie of the Year. So yeah, that makes perfect sense
seeing how how this thing plays out and so on.
And by the way, I command you because you said
the two words, that was more important than anything else.
And you know everybody wants to do this and do
that and convict and stuff to process. Yeah, okay, can

(01:41:29):
we stop. Isn't it funny? It's an innocent it's really
proving guilty unless it affects your football team.

Speaker 1 (01:41:38):
Yeah, yeah, kind of way, it seems. I just look,
I've always, I've long had a problem with, you know,
convicting people in the court of public opinion. I just
it's wrong. It's not what you know, it's not what
we're built upon it. And these people that are quick
to do that, I don't know if they're you know,

(01:41:59):
you know, the right wing or left wing, or gun
owners or non gun owners or whatever.

Speaker 4 (01:42:04):
But actually I'm actually chicken wing.

Speaker 1 (01:42:06):
Yeah that's kind of where I am on that one.
But I gotta I gotta tell you, it's just that's
one of the basic fundamental premises this country was built
upon innocent until proven guilty. So no matter what the
evidence shows and circumstantially it ain't a great spot for
Jack Jones right now, and we can all agree on that,
but due process still needs to play out.

Speaker 3 (01:42:27):
The Constitution is not two d and eighty characters.

Speaker 1 (01:42:29):
No, it isn't. It isn't. And I think that's I
commend you for saying that, because we're too quick to
you know, convict people in the court of public opinion,
you know, within social media circles like you know, oh
my god, if you're not taking a direct stance on this,
if if you're not saying, you know, they should cut him,
you know, if you're saying you know, then then you
obviously don't know what you're saying. Hey, come on, really,

(01:42:51):
And then these people that have jumped to conclusions and
already said, hey, the patriots need to cut bait. Honestly,
I listen, you gotta have perspective. I have. That's what
this whole talk show for the twenty one almost twenty
two years now that I've done this program with you Russell,
almost the entire way here that you know, this show

(01:43:11):
is about perspective. You know, do we make bold predictions, yes,
do we make correct predictions, yes, do we make wrong
predictions yes, that's the basis of predictions. But the one
thing we have always been consistent with is perspective. And
when to get true perspective, time is necessary. You've got

(01:43:32):
to let it simmer or boil into and then you
pull it off the fire when it's ready to boil over. Right,
that's what you have to do, But that still takes time.
There's a process that you must go through. And just
because it looks so bad, the optics were so awful
last week. We were like, oh, look, cut cut him,

(01:43:52):
And that's why it was so incredibly you know, it
was predictable, but it was still disappointing to see, you know,
local people in Nashville. People say, oh, the Patriots don't
have any choice here. Well, of course they do. Of
course they have a choice. And that's why I'm kind
of glad that the organization has actually kind of bucked
the trend and decided to let do process play itself
out here. Besides, I think we all know what the underlying, underlying,

(01:44:15):
real reason is is that the NFL is going to
take this matter out of their hands completely.

Speaker 3 (01:44:20):
Well, well, of course, I mean, they have their mouse.
I just find it astounding that someone can be you know, Arl,
The laws take days and sometimes weeks for the figure
these things out. But you know, for your three hours
in the studio doing the talk show radio talk show,
and you have all the answers when you haven't left

(01:44:41):
the room. Listen, that's an amazing skill. Let's be honest.

Speaker 1 (01:44:48):
Yeah, yes it is. It totally is. All right, let's
talk about to.

Speaker 4 (01:44:53):
You love me, John? You know me? Yeah, I have
one very strong model. Everyone is not everyone is back.

Speaker 1 (01:44:59):
That's also so true, and I think that's what we
have to go forward with. So let's uh. You mentioned
the two you know, free agents there, and I rumored
that i'd heard this morning were that, you know, maybe
it was Dalvin Cook that started it and said that, hey,
wouldn't that be great if the two of us could
land somewhere together, although he did say that he hadn't
yet talked to de Andre Hopkins about that. But I mean,

(01:45:20):
first of all, I'm not sure that anybody has enough
cap space number one and number two. How far fetched
is that idea?

Speaker 3 (01:45:28):
I don't think it's far fetched at all, and especially
you look at some of the teams who could get understand.
There's a couple of teams that jump out to me
because of the way they do business and because of
meat they have. One would be the Rams. Mm hm

(01:45:48):
remember the Rams. Everybody left the Rams. Yep, that's a
little exaggeration. They go back and look and they brought
They just boked Sony Michelle Back who played for the
Chargers last year, didn't play for them this past season,
and he was part of the you know, he was
traded from New England and so on. It was solid back,

(01:46:09):
But they're not loaded. I mean that cam Aker, I
just done them all that. But you look at the
Nam's roster and listen, it's a team that won a
Super Bowl and then set a record by losing twelve
games a year after this winning a super Bowl. No
defending champion never done that. A lot of people were gone.

(01:46:31):
They drafted more players than any other team in the
league this year. That will help them, obviouslyep with the
cap with those salads, you know that, you know, we
don't have to pay Look they don't. They didn't have
a first round pick, John. They haven't had a first
round picks since they took Jared Goff in twenty sixteen,
so they've had a and look what they've done trading
when they listen. They got Odell Beckham Junior and Von

(01:46:54):
Miller a couple of years ago that propelled them to
that Super Bowl win over the Bengals. The other team
that stands out to be a bit is Tampa Bay. Okay. Now,
of course, if Dalvin Cook and or DeAndre Hopkins could
clay quarterback, that would certainly not their cause.

Speaker 1 (01:47:11):
Well yeah, that's sort of the the other hidden problem
that's there. Okay, you know what. I'm actually a little
bit intrigued by that. But I heard somebody say earlier today,
in fact, what a talk show host up here, you know,
said today, Hey, look what if DeAndre Hopkins said, Hey,
I'd really like to come play for you, Bill Belichick,
but I need you to find a spot for my
boy Dalvin because we decided we want to play together.

(01:47:31):
So let's say, if you know, and maybe Dalvin flips
it around and says, hey, he goes to the team
and says, I want to come there, but I want
you to make some room for DeAndre. Should that team,
whatever mystery team it is, should they try to make
room for those two guys. And I guess what I'm
really asking is are they worth it at this stage
of their careers?

Speaker 3 (01:47:52):
Well, I certainly think that Cook is worth it. I mean,
correct me if I'm wrong. We've been in the least
six years. Okay, I'm very predicnant. He was part of
the same year up as Alvin Canara in twenty seventeen. Now,
de Andre Hopkins certainly has the miles on them. And
I will say this about Hompkins the last two years,
and my guess is, gentlemen, there's got to be some hesitancy.

(01:48:18):
I don't know this for the fact, because but I'm
just thinking out loud. But can't forget that Andre Helpton
it's not had a six game suspension, Okay, that could
be something that makes teams a little wary. And the
fact that he has not played a lot of games
the past two years, and up until then, his first

(01:48:38):
year of the Cardinals, he was off the charts. His
career with the Texans was tremendous, but the last two
years in Arizona and it's and listen, twenty twenty one,
I was playoff team in Arizona, but you know he
was banged up, so I'll be curious. I could see
Cook maybe getting signed behind. The one thing I haven't

(01:49:02):
heard from Dalvin Cook in terms of where to go
is in being selective. It sounds like it sounds like
DeAndre Hopkins maybe has two or three teams in mind. Okay,
I haven't really heard that from Dalvin Cook.

Speaker 4 (01:49:18):
I want to go here, I want to go there.
You know, listening to the.

Speaker 3 (01:49:21):
Pony, I never got one, so right, it doesn't always
work that way. Now, I would throw something out also
out there because this is kind of surfaced in the
last you know, twenty four to forty eight hours. You know,
we had the guy who led the league in rushing
last year was Josh Jacobs. He is still not signed
his tender as the franchise player, and it sounds like

(01:49:45):
there's been some rumblings about it because the Raiders move
on from him, and that would change the whole dynamic
of what's going on in terms of, you know, again
free agency for the most part, you know, you see
guys I'm getting one year contracts still in the gap,
add depth ever, et cetera. But I think that's a

(01:50:08):
situation that bears launching. I mean, Sequan park Leavesman have
signed his tender, but it sounds like the Giants and
Eath are talking. And Tony Pollard, remember we had three
running backs who were franchise players. Tony Pollard fined his tender,
so he's under contract for this year. So just when
you think things are like.

Speaker 4 (01:50:26):
The little dead, news will make them so on.

Speaker 3 (01:50:30):
You know, as we get closer to training camps, we
could see things pick up a little because there's a
lot of you know, guys like to Dave and Clowney
are out there. Jarvis Landon's out there you know it again,
not really so much quarterbacks and still them but you know,
Hopkins and Cook are kind of late additions to the

(01:50:52):
free agency list, so you know, for a team looking
for a center. Ben Jones, who played with Houston TENN State,
really quality player. So again, it will be interesting to
see how it all plays now. And I can't imagine
the guys on my list and shameless plug it's it's

(01:51:13):
on my Twitter page, pins so. And the reason I
bring up, by the way I'm breathing is leading up
Tampa Bay is it's sounding like the really serving with
Ezekiel is there.

Speaker 1 (01:51:26):
I heard a rumor recently that attached Ezekiel Elliott to
the Patriots.

Speaker 3 (01:51:32):
Oh that listens the way things are doing in terms
of the running back position. Again, we saw three guys
a franchise. You know, there seems to be I guess
hesitancy on running backs unair now. Listen, Tony Pollard was
the main guy in terms of yours last year, but

(01:51:53):
Ezekiel Elliott clearly led the team and carries. He also
led the league, I'm sorry, the team and the Russian touchdowns
lest year. So I find it hard to believe that
he's spent and so on. I didn't think it was
it a salary cap.

Speaker 4 (01:52:06):
Who was yet?

Speaker 3 (01:52:07):
But I find it hard to believe that he can't
help somebody again. But dal I saw Dalwin Cooked running
wild against the Bills last year.

Speaker 4 (01:52:14):
He looked like he was slowing down right right.

Speaker 1 (01:52:17):
Hey, you mentioned Carson Wentz. Do you think he finds
a spot?

Speaker 3 (01:52:23):
I could see someone taking the fires when he's in
this we get closer to training camp. But I mean,
I think he's you know, I don't know what exactly
went wrong. You know, he had a decent rookie year.
He started all sixteen games. He was having an MVP
type of years in twenty seventeen, and then he suffered
to knee injuries. It's been injury concernings. It's been character

(01:52:45):
question marks, not off the field, more on the field
and so on. We saw how upset Jim Mersey was
and he got rid of him, Washington traded for him,
and now he's out of the picture there, So it's
it never listen, life is funny, Okay. He depends on

(01:53:07):
how you evolve as the person, how you evolved as
a professional, doesn't Jared Golf, you know, it's funny twenty sixteen.
The first two ticks were Jared Golofs and Carson Wentz.
Neither one of them were with their original season. One
of us had a league, but at least in the
case of Jared golf he was dealt to the Lions.

(01:53:28):
He had a terrific year for them last year. You know,
they played, he played in the Super Bowl. They didn't
score so much down against the Patriots, below scoring super
Bowl in history. But you know, he's he's kind of
kept his career afloat Carson Wentz. You know, you can't
deny the talent, the arm, that the whole package, and

(01:53:50):
you know, being able to get out of the pocket.
The boy, does he have a pension for putting that
ball on the ground.

Speaker 1 (01:53:56):
Yeah, and being injured.

Speaker 3 (01:53:57):
Too, and being injured, you know, even unfortunately he's either
injured or healthy and putting the ball in the Yeah, yeah, yeah,
no question written himself or in your team.

Speaker 1 (01:54:09):
Yeah, I agree. You know, just here's something, just a
random thought that just ticked back into my head. Have
you seen the new alternate helmet that the Detroit Lions rolled.

Speaker 3 (01:54:20):
Out about ten minutes ago?

Speaker 1 (01:54:22):
You saw? Okay, what was your first impression?

Speaker 3 (01:54:27):
Well, there's there's such a push now for the alternate uniforms.
You know, such a marketing thing.

Speaker 4 (01:54:34):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:54:35):
I remember when it was nineteen ninety four when we
had the NFL seventy fifteen nursery seating. It's hard to believe. It's,
you know, that long ago. And you know, we had
to see of the uniforms and then we went to
the what is it, color.

Speaker 1 (01:54:51):
Color Rush, Color Rush Rush.

Speaker 3 (01:54:54):
Yeah, okay, so we had color Rush. You know, this
is all you know, they're fun there, you know again
fans you know who like to buy jerseys and and
different things. It's you know, it's a striking helmet.

Speaker 4 (01:55:11):
There's no question about it.

Speaker 1 (01:55:12):
I gotta admit I loved it, and I wasn't sure.
I was gun. I'm like, uh great, here comes another
marketing play. And then I saw the video that the
team released earlier today, and I'm just like, dang, that
doesn't suck. And people are probably ifnybody's listening right now,
they're probably going to googling it and they're trying to
figure it out. But I would tell you that it
just for the uninitiated, if you can't get to your

(01:55:34):
Google machine. It is a metallic sort of aqua deep,
aqua blue. Uh. And it has the old Ford Mustang
logo on the side with the two bars behind it.
But the lion is positioned in the same shape as
the old Mustang horses on the Mustang car and the

(01:55:55):
old Ford Mustang And so I might actually like, you
know what that works? Ford Field, you know, Detroit MotorCity.
It actually kind of works.

Speaker 3 (01:56:06):
So my team was plugged today. Football passed imprisonly. Yeah,
Football Past and Present seriously is a Facebook page. And
I run some friends, Kelly Moory and Roger Jackson. It's
taking couch right, you know, when you have them with
twelve hundred people from this Now. The picture of the
helmet is on there.

Speaker 1 (01:56:26):
Oh cool, great though, so go check out the Facebook page.

Speaker 3 (01:56:29):
Yeah, yeah, it's on the page. Feel free to join
the page if you'd like. The one thing we take
pride in is we talk football. We talk trash. Discourage,
you know, you discourage those antics. And when I say discouraged,
I mean discourage.

Speaker 1 (01:56:46):
Okay, I kind of like that. That's good. I appreciate that,
and I think we can all appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (01:56:52):
I understand. I mean, obviously, you know, my background and
so on, Roger is a guy I've worked with the ESPN,
the magazine.

Speaker 1 (01:56:59):
Yeah, real proof, yep.

Speaker 3 (01:57:00):
And I take pride in the fact that a number
of the writers I've known over the years, and a
couple of Hall of Fame writers like Mark Judge and
Rick Goslin and Ken Crippen, who does stuff for he
used to be the president of Pro Football Research Association.
This started out as a history page.

Speaker 4 (01:57:20):
We decided to.

Speaker 3 (01:57:21):
Combine it to make it past and present, and it's
gone over very very well and very happy because it's
not a smack talk. That's you know, ceaziness and let stuff.
You know, we and we encourage writers, you know, to
put their stuff up there and get yourself some views
and get yourself some reads.

Speaker 1 (01:57:40):
That's a great idea. What's the what's on your summer
agenda before football gets really rolled in here?

Speaker 3 (01:57:47):
Well, I'm working on some of historic pieces for fan side, right.

Speaker 4 (01:57:52):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:57:52):
I did a I did a the twenty Greatest Quarterback Seasons,
not the twenty greatest quarterback and the twenty greatest running
back season. And I'm in the midst of doing the
twenty Greatest wide receiver season.

Speaker 1 (01:58:08):
Fantastic, you know me.

Speaker 3 (01:58:11):
Not enjoying my history. It's always fun to this day.
I stole learning one of the things. Maybe go delving
into some of the older players. It's own, and you
know we will be in. It would be forty three days.

Speaker 4 (01:58:26):
I'll be in. Can't Football Hall of Fame games?

Speaker 1 (01:58:29):
Most famous number? Forty three?

Speaker 3 (01:58:31):
Yeah, as Cliff Harrison, Yes them.

Speaker 1 (01:58:34):
Yes, I knew you were going to say, Cliff Harris,
you know.

Speaker 3 (01:58:39):
What's funny John Up until they both got in, there.

Speaker 1 (01:58:43):
Was no forty three is really I didn't know that.

Speaker 3 (01:58:47):
I think the only number now there are guys who
have worn this in the monet and so on. I
believe the only number that is not represented normal fame. Listen,
the guys have changed their numbers, Like Mike Haines worked
for forty and twenty two, right, you know for the
different franchises he's played. Still to me that the cornerback

(01:59:08):
ires saw my canes, but the number ninety is not
represented in the Pro football will came and I can
use the Steeler fans deeping out here because they obviously
have a young man who's had quite the start to
his Caleer in TJ.

Speaker 4 (01:59:24):
Watt.

Speaker 1 (01:59:24):
Right, Yeah, probably will be there in the not too
far distant future, Russell, thank you so much for the
time on this June first day of Summa. Let's hope
we get that summer here quickly and football season will
be right around the corner. Thank you, my friend.

Speaker 5 (01:59:38):
All right, talk to easton yep, talk to you soon.

Speaker 1 (01:59:41):
The one and only Russell Baxter back to Football Guru
where you find him on Twitter. I want to end
the program today with a couple of quick things. Number One,
our friend Howard and Strafford, Connecticut sends his email in
this country, contrary to popular social media, believe in the
talking heads on Boston Radio, you are innocent until proven guilty.

(02:00:03):
Let the process play out. Talking about Jack Jones of
course here, Let the slow wheels of justice grind their
way to a conclusion, whatever that may be and whenever
that may be. From simply and in my honest opinion perspective,
young kid did something really dumb, and this is strike
two with respect to the Patriots. If he's ultimately found guilty,

(02:00:23):
then I have to lean toward the cut him camp,
because he has to realize there are repercussions for your actions.
It'd be unfortunate, but I think a guilty verdict or
even a pleading guilty to lesser charges in a plea
bargain has to have repercussions. That being said, I could
see mister Kraft making this his new meek Mill crusade
and wanting to try and give the kid another chance

(02:00:44):
at redemption. Thank you John and Marine Matt for all
you do. It's a good point in terms of the
redemption thing. That is something that mister Kraft is certainly
I think, you know, made no bones about. But I
don't think he's in a position to do that yet.
I think the process has to continue to play itself out,

(02:01:05):
and I think that's really where we stand on this,
and it's just not going to go as fast as
either you or I or Bill Belichick wanted to go.
One thing I wanted to end with today an announcement
actually here in Foxborough, Jellett Stadium, Craft Boards Entertainment and
Aneyser Busch are introducing a new premium space here at
the stadium. You heard about this, Marine, Yeah, he's heard

(02:01:28):
about it. Aneer Bush is a long standing sponsor of Gillette,
So the Patriots, the Revolution. Aneyser Busch. They are opening
up a brand new indoor outdoor hospitality space here at
the stadium when you come. So beginning in September, just
a couple of quick months away. It's called the Celebration

(02:01:51):
Beer Hall. Oh my God, be still my pitter pad
in my heart. The Celebration Beer Hall will provide a
unique field level game day experience. Fans inside Celebration Beer
Hall will have unprecedented access to watch the Patriots and
Revolution players as they walk from the locker room through
the tunnel before accessing the game field. So you've probably

(02:02:14):
now you've been to Jellette, you know kind of where
this is. This is in the north end where all
the construction right now is still going on with not
only the new scoreboard and the new atrium, but the
new lighthouse back there right adjacent to and underneath the bridge,
and they're going to create the beer hall there and

(02:02:35):
you'll have access to watching the players come out onto
the field. So Celebration Beer Hall along with the the
Optum Club that's down on the south end zone of
the stadium. I mean, hey, you know what, Joly Stadium
is twenty one this year, right, twenty one? Yeah, twenty

(02:02:57):
one years old. Holy crap. Starting on the or twenty
one are starting on the twenty second season. Twent thousand
and two is the first year, so twenty one there
you go, Okay, that's amazing, and they continue to sort
of remake it and reinvent it and do different things
and do new things, which is always, you know, kind
of cool. So at any rate, wanted to make that

(02:03:21):
announcement so it'll be something for you to try when
you'll come to a game beginning in September of the
celebration beer hal all right, next program, July twenty six
is the last Wednesday of July. So July twenty six,
which is a little more than a month away from
today's live show. On the twenty verst of June, that's
when we'll have our next Patriots playbook and the June

(02:03:43):
twenty sixth show. Like I said earlier in the program,
that'll be honor about the time that the Patriots veterans
report to Jillette for training camp. It'll be sometime during
that week, I'm guessing, and again I guessed earlier, I'm
guessing Honor about the twenty eighth ish and then perhaps
the first practices that we'll be able to the public

(02:04:04):
that last weekend of July, because traditionally, over the last
thirty one years that I've been here, that's when it's
been they've reported usually about that time. So I'm just
going on track record here and forgive me for a
sounding old, but I mean, the fact of the matter
is I've been around once or twice, and I think
Fred and Paul would agree, because they're the next oldest
around here. But that should be about the time. At

(02:04:28):
any rate, the July twenty sixth show will be our
next playbooks. We'll be right before training camp gets underway.
Perhaps we'll have some kind of a conclusion or at
least the next step and the whole Jack Jones saga.
Maybe we'll know more and I'm gonna guess not about
DeAndre Hopkins by that time, but we certainly will have
a better look and a better feel for the Patriots

(02:04:50):
as we gear up for training camp, we gear up
for the preseason, and we go up for trying to
get back on track with his Patriots franchise. So enjoy
the next few weeks off and away until next time,
So along, everybody.

Speaker 6 (02:05:05):
Thank you for downloading this podcast.

Speaker 1 (02:05:07):
Subscribe on Apple, Google Play, and everywhere else you listen
Like the show, Please rate and review us. Listener comments
and ratings help keep us high on the podcast rankings,
so new listeners can find us. Be sure to check
patriots dot com for more news and more podcasts.

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