Patriots Playbook 8/29: Reaction to Jacoby Brissett Being Named Starter, Preseason Takeaways, Season Projections

Tune-in as John Rooke discusses QB Jacoby Brissett being named the starting quarterback. He offers his preseason and training camp takeaways, a few season projections and more. Guests today are Clare Cooper from Patriots Propaganda, Chad Graff from The Athletic and Fitzy from the 6 rings podcast.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Patriots Playbook. Is it my turn to talk?

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Now?

Speaker 1 (00:03):
He is your host of Patriots Playbook, John Rook, bad
ad select you? Is this on? Yeah, it's on Marine.
You need to tell the people who put this stuff
together to drop and give you twenty immediately immediately. How

(00:24):
does the board decide to reset itself right when we're
ready to go on the air this morning?

Speaker 3 (00:29):
It didn't decide to reset itself. I had to reset it.
It was working, it was playing our music to the internet.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Just fine.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
We go to hit the open and the thing doesn't
want to send audio anywhere. It's kind of my luck, John,
that's all.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
No, I just I have just a really awful feeling
that this is going to be par for the course
of this year. Oh my, it's a digital board. It
needs firmware updates, and.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
Well we'll be doing that this afternoon, making sure it's
fully up to date.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Firmware, smirmware, you know, I mean, Ye'm on work damn it?
You know right?

Speaker 3 (01:03):
You did hear me, that didn't I guess?

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Yep, that's absolutely true. All right, No of the frivolity
Patriots fans. If you want to see Toyota's best offers,
including those not seen on TV. Go to buy a
Toyota dot Com. It's Toyota's official website for deals from
the official vehicle of the New England Patriots, Toyota. Let's
go places. I'm John Rook. We welcome you into Patriots
Playbook here on Patriots dot Com Radio. Technically, this is

(01:30):
the final off season edition of the show, final off
season edition of the program. We go monthly with this
particular program during the off season, unlike PU and really
unlike Catch twenty two, because those guys are here every day.
We will start our regular season programs next Wednesday. Wednesday

(01:53):
is our normal timeslot and day to do do the program.
And when we're in the season, you know, not only
will we deal with the breaking news, of which we'll
get into here in just a moment, you know, with
the team, and we want your opinions, we want your thoughts,
we want your questions, we want all of that here,

(02:13):
you know, just like the p you guys do, just
like Catch twenty two. Does you know that's what this
is for. This is season twenty four now that we're
getting ready to embark upon Patriot's Playbook and season twenty
five actually of Patriots dot Com Radio, which is pretty cool.
We'll probably repeat that next week for those that may
be uninitiated and those that aren't familiar with our programming here,

(02:37):
it's been a blast the entire way to see not
only a to continue to do this show and to
get to work with people like Marine Matt and a
lot of others that came before him. It's been a
lot of fun, but at the same time to see
the technologic advance and to give you a chance to
have the ability to see as well as here. What

(02:59):
we started out is just an audio stream here on
patriot dot Com, and now we this is more like
a what you would see on FS one or even
ESPN or whatever, because you know, hello, there's the camera. Hello,
you know that kind of thing. So, hey, we're here
and we're gonna have some fun with it, and I'm
looking forward to the season. The regular season show of

(03:21):
Patriot's Playbook will deal more with the matchup of the
next weekend's opponent. So what that means then is next
Wednesday show. And again we moved to Thursday this week
specifically because of the scheduling this week and because of
the announcement today which we'll jump into here in a moment.

(03:42):
But Wednesdays are you know, usually middle of the week,
and and we'll deal with some nitty gritty on the
upcoming opponent. We talked to media, and we talked to
you guys fans. Occasionally a player will pop in, depends
on the scheduling, and I'm not sure how that's gonna go,
just talking of Fred kersh about that. So we'll see

(04:02):
how that rolls. Because it's a little different regime as
we all understand this year, a little bit different kind
of routine for the team as far as scheduled practices
are concerned and as far as interview availabilities will be concerned,
you know, with the guys, uh, but we do deal
with the opponent as well as the Patriots and where
they stand at midweek going into the game week. So

(04:25):
it's great and we'll have you know, Evan Lazar will
be a part of the program. Russell Baxter will be around,
and he's been around for just about every season that
we've done this show. And Russell and I you know,
began our careers and our relationship together when we were
both at ESPN and ESPN Radio back in the late nineties,
which was after we had actually started. Uh uh, you know,

(04:45):
well that's about the time we started here. I started
at ESPN in ninety nine, we started Patriots Playbook and
oh one, and we started when we launched the streaming
of Patriot dot com radio in two thousand. So that's
where we are. Okay, now that we're here, you can
join the program eight five five PATS five hundred, the
toll free Televille number, eight five five p A t

(05:08):
S five hundred. Pick up the phone and we'll do
it old talk show radio style. If you prefer to
send off an email or a tweet, or you know,
you could even you know, find my Facebook page. You
can post there real simple follow on x is at
JR Broadcaster, also on IG at JR Broadcaster if you

(05:31):
want to follow, that's great. I usually do have you know,
the x feed up so during the so if you
want to, you know, tweet something at me and I will.
I just can't call it posting. I just never have
been able to get into that. They change the technology
on me. Yeah, I'm a little bit of an old fart,
I understand that. But I'm doing the best that I can.
My college students keep me up to date and all

(05:52):
this stuff. If not my college students, then you know
my six year old grandson, because you know, he started
first grade yesterday. He knows more about my phone than
I do. And I think that's the case probably with
a lot of us. So at JR Broadcasters, the follow
of the email address web radio Atpatriots dot com, that

(06:14):
email address has not changed in twenty four years, So
that should be ingrain in everybody's brain. All right, what
are we talking about? Jacoby Brissette? The decision It lasted
all of what two minutes today? Gerardmeo came out just
roughly an hour ago and took two minutes to everybody
that Jacoby Brissette was going to be the starting quarterback.

(06:37):
I honestly don't know that how much of a surprise
that is for you. It's not a surprise to me.
I don't think it's a surprise to most people. I
did a little X pole last night and I asked

(06:58):
the question, who does Girodmeyos select to start the season
at QB one, start not finish? And at over seven
hundred votes, seven hundred and twenty one votes came in
eighty little better than eighty two percent, said Jacoby Brissett.
So congratulations to you. You are a mind reader. Now,

(07:20):
I think the tea leaves would indicate this was the way.
Yeah right, I mean that's exactly the way it is.
But I think the tea leaves kind of indicated it
was going to go that way anyway, did it not?
And I got I've got my own opinions on this,
And this is what we're gonna, you know, kind of
share with you today. We are going to go over

(07:41):
the fifty three man roster. We're going to talk about
some of the guys that they picked up, you know,
off of the wave of wire, which we we kind
of felt like, you know, they were going to be
involved with so because we know they need help. And
I think that comes to the very crux of the
decision to start Jacoby as opposed to Drake May at

(08:05):
least to begin the season. You know, this was the
story that we could see miles away and basically weeks
ago that is gonna happen. This is what we were told.
The reason that Jacoby Brissette was signed anyway to begin
with was because they wanted to bring Drake along more slowly. Then,
of course we get into OTAs and we get into

(08:26):
you know, mini camp, and then we get into training
camp and lo and behold, Drake May picks it up,
he figures it out. He outplays Jacoby. Okay, saw enough practices.
And if you watched any or all of the three,
you know, exhibition games. And I don't like calling the

(08:47):
preseason games they're exhibition games because it's i mean, yeah,
it's not a real game. You don't put your real
guys out there. So it's hard for me to always
say preseason it's exhibition. Then, but if you watched the
time he was out there, he outperformed Jacobe and so
it's kind of like, well, do you want to win

(09:07):
or not? And look, Chad Graff, who covers the Patriots
for the Athletic and he's going to join us in
a little while, you know, here on the show. But
he wrote something in his story about the move today
that I thought was extremely poignant and I'm going to
give him credit for because this is precisely the way
that I've been thinking all along, and he encapsulized it.

(09:29):
This is what paid writers get to do, right, They
get to you know, take all the gobbledegook that we
have in our heads and they put it down on
print and it's like, oh, yeah, that's right, that's what
I think. But he brought up a very good point
that I think this is the issue that those of
us who have been in Drake May's corner and I
have been a Drake May's supporter. He's the number three

(09:50):
pick in the draft. He is your franchise future. Get
his butt out there, and now that he's proven he
can play, he needs to be out there because this
is about winning football games, all right. Chad wrote, you
know a year ago, the Patriots defense grew disgruntled late

(10:12):
in the season as an inept offense rendered their consistently
strong performances meaningless. The Patriots lost games, you'll recall, by
scores of ten to six, ten to seven, and six
nothing on three straight weeks three straight games last season. So,
even if expectations are low, professional athletes want their coaches

(10:35):
to put them in the best position to win. And
if the team sees May continuing to deliver in practice
and Brissett struggles during games, that could lead to frustration internally.
I one hundred percent agree with that. We saw it
last year. How soon we forget we get so buried

(10:58):
sometimes in the immediate when we don't see the big picture.
And I know the argument for starting Jacoby. I understand
that argument completely. Okay, the bigger picture is Drake May
is the future, and the bigger picture is that the
offensive line is not really suitable to properly protect the

(11:20):
number three overall pick in the draft. I can buy
that argument to an extent, okay, but not all the way.
Number one. I go back to the old Herm Edwards quote. Hello,
you play to win the game. We have that. You
have that.

Speaker 4 (11:38):
Hello, you play to win the game.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
Thank you. Okay, thank you, Coach Edwards. But that's you know,
that's why we play. That's why we're here. That's why
I'm here talking to you. That's why you're listening to
me going to Oh, you're full of it. Okay, that's fine,
but this is why we play the game. You play
to win. Drake gives you the best check ants to
win right now. But the bigger picture is, Okay, the

(12:07):
team around Drake or surrounding Drake may not quite be
ready or up to the level of his performance capability.
And so yeah, if you run him out there in
front of an offensive line that let's all face it.
It was horrendous against Washington last week. It was horrendous.
I mean ten offensive line penalties. Are you serious? That's

(12:29):
amateur hour? Okay, I'd have fired everybody out of cleaned house.
I would have come in and gone full Bill Belichick
on him and cleaned the house. Now, I know that
that's not Girod's style, you know, And we'll talk probably
a bit about his style compared to you know, how
BB would have handled it a lot this year, because frankly,
that's all we know to go on, you know, this

(12:50):
is what we have, This is what we know. Nevertheless,
I'm of the opinion that if you have the confidence
in your assistant coaches, and you have the confidence in
the staff, and you have the confidence reasonably so in
the players to perform, and maybe that's where we're kind

(13:10):
of iffy on it, right, you can scheme anything up
to make life easier in a guy like Drake May.
He showed us during the preseason. He showed us during
the practices that we're able to see. He showed us
he has the ability to step up to the pocket.
He showed us he has the ability to run with
the ball and make chicken salad out of chicken feathers.

(13:31):
He showed us he's got good arm strength, he's got
good accuracy. He can wing it. I don't know if
his receivers can catch it, but he can wing it.
He's shown us everything we need to see in someone
that we entrusted with the number three overall pick in
the NFL draft this last April. Hey, uh, Chicago's guy

(13:56):
is starting, right, Washington's guy is starting, although he didn't
play against the Patriots last week. You know Jaden Daniels,
Caleb Williams and Chica. Why not Drake. He's got guys
who were picked after him at quarterback who would be
starting or are starting for their team. Why not Drake?
It's because the Patriots team isn't ready. And whose fault

(14:20):
is that? Whose fault is that? I would tell you that,
you know, you're damned if you do, You're damned if
you don't. If you threw Drake out there, and he
gets hurt early in the season, especially and misses a
significant amount of time, uh, for for whatever reason, he
misses a significant amount of time because that injury, then

(14:41):
people are gonna absolutely hammer the Patriots. They'll hammer Jr. Rod.
They'll hammer Elliott Wolf, They'll hammer the entire organization. Why'd
you run him out there? And if this team starts
out oh to four or oh to five, they're gonna
get hammered as well. Where's Drake? See it's a no
win scenario for the Patriots. It really is so, at

(15:03):
least initially. Again, it's all about winning. Hello, you know,
play to win the game. Herm Edwards and I happen
to be in Herm's corner on this one. Professional football players,
when they step out on the field, they want to
win the game. As I said in Chad's article, these

(15:27):
guys want to be put in the position that they
can be put into to win, and they entrust the
coaches to put them in position to win. The coaches
are not putting the Patriots in the best position to
win right now. Oh well, we have to wait for

(15:48):
him to catch up. Oh well, we got to look
five years down the road. To hell with five years
down the road, are you really going to be happy
if it takes three to five years to get him
up to snuff. No, no one's going to be happy
with that. And we're gonna be back at square one.
What happens. If something happened happens with the coaching staff
and they come in and they pull another Matt Patricia

(16:08):
and and you know, Drake gets ruined, like you know
Mac Jones was ruined. I want to win now. I
want to win now. You can scheme the offense to
make it easier on your quarterback. We've seen he's got
a quick trigger. We know his footwork has definitely improved

(16:29):
over time. Not quite there yet, but based on what
I've seen Leyman's eyes here, it's better. It's improved. The
coaches tell us they like what they see out of
it and out of him. So let's go run game
and quick passing game. Wait, stop me if you've heard
that one before? Was that not what we said about

(16:51):
Tom Brady? Yeah, okay, it's been a part of the
lexicon around here for a while. Win you really? I mean, yeah,
it's a gamble. Sure, it's a gamble. Throw him out
there to the wolves. He gets hurt. Or if the
team goes zero and five, and they could, they could,
They could go on five with Drake May as well

(17:12):
as Jacoby Brisset. They could. And again it's because I
know the team isn't where it needs to be talent wise.
Yet again, whose fault is that? Previous regime, current regime?
They both have to share in this. They both have
to share in this. So all that being said, my

(17:34):
thought process is, damn it. Win that takes care of everything.
That takes everything. Now, it's easier said than done. And
I understand that I get the overall picture. That's fine.
Jacoby's the guy. I really I don't have a personal
problem with that. I am just questioning the strategy. And

(17:55):
you know, I would play to win the game. I'm
not coaching this team, but I would play to win
the game. What about you? Eight five five PATS five
hundred is the TOTLL free telephone number eight five five
p A t S five hundred, web radio at Patriots
dot com, on email, or you can hit me up

(18:16):
on x at JR Broadcaster. Easiest way to get through
on the show on any of those. Okay, So that's
what I kind of want to hear from you today.
We'll go through some of the fifty three UH. Chad graph,
as I said, from the athletic will join us UH
in the second hour, right? Is he gonna join us
at around eleven? I think Matt Chad Okay, in the
meantime what we wanted to do though, and we like

(18:37):
to do this from time to time because I know
there are a lot of podcasters, you know, in the
podcast verse, and many of them do some pretty good
product uh, and they're you know, patriots centered. And so
the two people that we've you know, have been able
to get with us on the program are you know,

(19:00):
really good at what they do. They've developed a nice talent.
One of them started out as a frequent caller into
this show, and she does a tremendous job in stirring
up interest overseas. On the other side of the pond
in the UK in Clazy Claire Claire Cooper, who does
pats propaganda. She also does the Claire perspective. You know, Fitz,

(19:25):
he's going to join us? Is he on now? Is
he joining us later? Matt, he's going to join us
a little bit right, all right, So we'll get to
him a couple of moments, but Claire is there with us.

Speaker 5 (19:33):
Now.

Speaker 1 (19:34):
Hey Claire, hey.

Speaker 6 (19:35):
Girl, Hey John, can you hear me?

Speaker 1 (19:38):
Okay, I got you, I got you. Good to see you,
Good to see you. And she's and she's wearing her
Patriots shirt and all that stuff too, So thank you.
I just kind of curious is what you think, at
least your initial reaction to you know, the story that's
the non story really today to so many people, and
how you feel about the whole you know, should they

(19:58):
play him now, should they se at him now? Is
where does this set this team up for the you know,
for the for the you know, the short haul versus
the long haul in your opinion, Well, like.

Speaker 7 (20:09):
You said, it feels like it's not news because we
kind of already knew. Yeah, it was already said, it
had already been said, and I think a lot of
us kind of believed what coach said initially and things
like that. And one thing that when you mentioned it
made me chuckle because you said about winning and Mayo

(20:30):
actually said to quote this morning, Jacobe gives us the
best chance to win now, which I did find surprising
because you kind of feel like, maybe, does he really
is here?

Speaker 6 (20:42):
We crashed? Are we really is that where we really going?
Are we really going to think we're gonna win right now?

Speaker 1 (20:48):
Well? Look, I honestly don't think we are. I would
tell you that the chances to me of this team
going starting zero to five just improved, just improved. What
Jacobe p said at the controls athleticism alone and the
ability to make plays on his feet as well as
his arm. I think gave the Patriots a chance to

(21:10):
win a game War two in that first five game
gauntlet that they've got to start with a regular season.
That's in my opinion, so I think oh to five
is definitely in play.

Speaker 6 (21:21):
I can't get on a bandwagon. I haven't got it
in Maya.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
I understand, no, no, no, I completely understand that. But again,
it is about winning, okay, and you really need to
put your best foot forward if you want to win
in what is exceedingly a difficult sport to compete in
every year. The physicality, the speed, the strength, the injuries,

(21:47):
the complexity, it all adds up. This is why we
love football. This is why we love the game. It's
so freaking hard to win, so why wouldn't we give
ourselves the best chance to win. We're not doing it,
in my opinion. We're sacrificing the present for the future
of future that we don't even know what the hell

(22:09):
is going to be around.

Speaker 7 (22:12):
I mostly agree with you, but there's a couple of
factors from the fan base, baby, maybe from a more
fan perspective is there's always there's still that underlying like
fears or you know, the residual trauma to use the
term very loosely from.

Speaker 6 (22:34):
The Mac experience. You know what we are, we're kind
of still going over it a little bit. We don't
want Now.

Speaker 7 (22:40):
That's not saying that Drake may is anything like Mike Jones,
don't get me wrong, but we just all have that
residualness of the kids standing in the pocket and it
just collapsing on him. Now, Drake may has got the
legs for that to maybe not be worried about, but
you can't help having that in your head.

Speaker 6 (22:57):
It doesn't help.

Speaker 7 (22:58):
He wears the same number either, not that I don't
think you should, but it's just like you're still seeing
number ten with a pocket collapsing around and you still
just feel a little bit like, oh no, for that
he can move, so you know, that's a good thing.
The one thing that I wanted to mention that he's
a concern with regards to the fact that Mayo said

(23:19):
that you know, Jacoby's the start, and they've said that
for a while. Really maybe you know, they even mentioned
this backing was it March? I think I think maybe
the decision was made back in March. It's just not
really been sort of definite until today when it was announced.
Was you mentioned I did perhaps procrastination for paps propaganda
as well as a clear perspective. And I've got co
Hosteddors on there, and we did a show a couple

(23:39):
of days ago this week, and the one thing that
he said that I thought was quite poignant.

Speaker 6 (23:42):
So I made a note is.

Speaker 7 (23:44):
That he's concerned that we aren't going into this season
with Jacoby as the quarterback simply because Mayo made a promise.
He's keeping his word and he wants to be the
kind of coach that sort of, you know, stays true
to what he's saying. That's fair, But like you said,
may seems to be the better option for us. He

(24:05):
seems to be the more dynamic quarterback right now. So
are we going into the season like this simply because
of the kind of coach that Mayo wants to be? Now,
that's more sort of what Chas was saying. That was
more of his opinion to be leased. My outlook is,
as much as I think Drake may gives probably the
best chance of winning. It feels like, give him a

(24:29):
couple of games. You know, he's brand new to the NFL.
He's our franchise quarterback for the future, as far as
we're aware.

Speaker 6 (24:36):
Kind of thing.

Speaker 7 (24:37):
You want to go into it positive. You know, you
wanted to go into it thinking that he's going to
be a success. And yes, the O line is so
much of a carousel, more than maybe we've seen for
the last few years, which is terrible to say, because
I know that we've talked about it several times on
this show and on my show over the last few
years together about how the you know, the weakness of

(24:58):
the Olne it's been a concern for a while. And
you can say, well, you don't know if after a
few games the O line is going to be fine.

Speaker 6 (25:06):
Of course not.

Speaker 7 (25:06):
It just feels like my opinion, my look at it,
my perspective of it, is just a few games. Just
give him a few games to sort of see what's
going on.

Speaker 6 (25:16):
The lay of the land.

Speaker 7 (25:18):
Hopefully the O line pulls something together a little bit
so there at least a decent on line versus an
NFL named online type of thing.

Speaker 6 (25:30):
And then bring him in a few.

Speaker 7 (25:32):
I'm glad that that Mayo said about you know, we
don't want to say, you know, bring him in by
week X. You know, you don't want to put a
number on it, sort of think, I haven't got a
number in mind. It's just a case of a few,
just several, three, four, five, that sort of thing to
let him get his experience in the NFL. But then

(25:54):
he needs his experience literally in the NFL, and we
want him to be successful, so he needs that experience.
It's one of the age old the job role things
is you can't get a job because you don't have experience,
but you can't get experience if you don't get the job.

Speaker 6 (26:07):
That situation.

Speaker 1 (26:08):
Yeah, no, I listen, I understand that argument. I get
it all. And yeah, you want somebody that can handle it,
who's been around it. We know he's played for you know,
Alex van Pelt in Cleveland, he's been here, He's been
in several other places where he actually, you know, did okay,
I know when he had to step in for wasn't
Andrew Luck in Indianapolis. He did a representative job there.

(26:31):
I mean, so we've seen his track record and I
understand that's why he was hired, that's why he was signed,
That's why he was brought here to mentor as well
as sort of filling the gap until the guy is ready.
My argument is, the guy's ready. We've seen it. So
whether it's now or week four, what the hell difference
does it make. If it's all the same, He's gonna

(26:54):
eventually praise him anyway, why not try to put your
best foot forward and win the game. That's that's that's
the only argument that I'm making here. And look, I'll
support it. Whatever they want to do is it's their team,
is their team. I just think that sometimes you know,
you know, we get so close to things we can't

(27:15):
really see what's real. The adage that I like to
use is we get so close to the forest we
can't see the trees. Okay, and so I think this
is one of those instances we're over thinking it. Just
play just week to week. Okay, we're onto Cincinnati. Oh
can we still say that? Can we still say that?

(27:38):
I don't know, can we still use that? I don't know.
You don't think he has a patent on that. But
but that's that's really how you have to treat it.
You know, we're just going to take it week to week.
And I look again those who would who have supported
this move, and clearly, I think the majority of fans
would support, you know, at least at this stage. Starting Jakobe.

(27:58):
I understand that we saw why because the offensive line
was just horrific against you know, Washington. It's just I
can't believe ten penalties still and and you know, chuk Chakora,
for God bless him. You know, here's a guy though
that you know, supposedly adds some mobility, but not once,
not twice, three times he gets flagged for the same penalty,

(28:20):
and you know, and he was asked about it by
some of the media this week around here, and he said, hey,
that's on me. That's on me. Okay, great, I'm glad
at least he owns up to it. Fix it.

Speaker 7 (28:33):
One thing I'm glad you said about so I to
like jump in. I'm glad you said about the penalties
because I actually looked at the game book and obviously
the ten penalties that get noted down are the ones
that weren't declined so that there was a yardage added
to it. Yeah, yeah, it was actually eighteen penalties.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
Is that nuts?

Speaker 4 (28:50):
Told?

Speaker 6 (28:50):
That's not the Patriots.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
That's that's crashing. I think that it happens. Clear if
that had happened in the middle of the regular season,
people would be apple plex. Now again, I know it's
pre excuse me. Exhibition season games don't count, games don't matter.
You know, we play them because the owners need the paycheck.
So that's why we play him. But I mean, really,

(29:13):
ten accepted penalties on the offensive line, eighteen penalties overall
called on the Patriots. I mean, my god, where's the discipline?
Where's the discipline? And again, I'm gonna point the finger
straight at the coaching staff, and I'm gonna point the
finger straight at the head coach who is responsible for
the coaching staff. Anybody amongst all these people has to

(29:35):
understand that Girod's got to get a hold on this.
And so your point that you made earlier about look,
he's just holding he's just living up to the promise
that he gave Jacoby you know when they signed him. Okay,
I get that. That gives him, you know, street cred,
locker room cred, you know with the players. Hey, the
guy is a man of his word, got it? Okay?
My argument is that stuff flies out the window. At

(29:58):
least it should when it comes to winning football, because
this is a binis okay, this is a business. This
is a business first and foremost, and we are in
the business to win games. Which is why the Patriots
twenty year dynastic run will probably never be matchters shurpassed.
With all due respect to what Kansas City's doing. They

(30:20):
get a long way to go before they get there.
And and I would tell you that, you know, you
could probably throw you know, the Steelers in there. You
could probably even throw the Cowboys in there a little bit.
You can throw the Green Bay Packers in there a
little bit. If you want to go back through the
annals of NFL history, those are the quote unquote dynastic teams.
Let's go back to the you know, the Monsters of
the Midway and the Chicago Bears back if you want to,
we can go back that far. But that's no. But

(30:43):
it's a twenty year run, okay. And they were able
to do it with a certain style and a certain
mindset that should be brought over from the former regime.
It should be just because change is occurring, does that
mean that mindset and thinking and what worked before should

(31:05):
be thrown out the window all together. I would say no,
and jirod should know that better than anybody, because he
played under the old regime. Not only coach down him,
he played under them. So take the good pieces, take
the mindset, take the ideas, take the business of football,
and put that first and foremost without worrying about you know,
two three and four years down the road. Let's win, now,

(31:29):
let's create some buzz.

Speaker 8 (31:30):
Now.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
Did not Bill Belichick do the same thing when Drew
Bloodsoell went down and Tom Brady came in, and then
he decided to keep Brady at quarterback? Yes, largely that
was the same damn thing he could have. And we
all thought at the time, including me, Drew should keep
his job. You know, he shouldn't lose his job because

(31:52):
he got hurt. But Bill saw something in Tommy felt
like the team was beginning to respond to him. The
team is beginning to respond to Drake May. But we're
going to make this change. I don't get it. I
don't understand it. I would not do it. Be that
as it may. You call be presets the starter.

Speaker 6 (32:11):
I'm from my perspective. I'm okay.

Speaker 7 (32:15):
If it's the first few I'm fully on board with
what you're saying and win now, you know, put in
the mindset of the win season, show the rest of
the league that it's, you know, we want to win.
But maybe to be realistic, even if Drake may goes in,
have they got the rest of the pieces now that

(32:38):
together will be a winning team. And I hate to
do that because I like, as I said beginning, I
like to be a glass half full kind of gal.
So I hate to bring the negativity to it. I
think I have such a rory on the O line
and I have such a I've got a concern over
the tight end group. Obviously, I'm going to you know,
who are we talking to right now?

Speaker 1 (32:57):
Yeah, that kind of thing.

Speaker 7 (32:59):
So with the hunt really lower body injury, and even
Hooper had an injury in practice. So there's those things
that are concerning it. Do they have even if they
put Drake Maye, even if they throw them in, do
they really have that much more of a chance of
winning in those first few games. I've always got the preface,

(33:19):
I've always got the asterisk for those first few games because,
like probably possibly a lot of people, it's I don't
think they should sit. I don't want to see this
season without Drake may in sort of at all.

Speaker 6 (33:34):
It may take the O line a whole.

Speaker 7 (33:36):
Season to be any good please goodness, no, but there's
always this chance.

Speaker 6 (33:41):
So it's just those.

Speaker 7 (33:44):
Evaluating it more on a smaller game game basis. You
say that they're looking at the bigger picture, you know,
building for the future, not winning now sort of thing.

Speaker 6 (33:55):
Maybe they need to look at the really small picture
and just how they get on. That makes sense.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
Yeah, And I think that's that's the argument for starting,
you know, Drake, because it should be a little bit
more of a of a microscopy view. And look, I'm
also of the opinion, you know, how do athletes get better?
How do how do football players get better? How do
basketball players get better? How to baseball players get They practice? Okay,

(34:23):
they get reps. Okay, they're in the weight room. Or
if you're a baseball player, you got to learn how
to hit the off speed pitch. If you're a basketball player,
you got to hit the three with some regularity. I mean,
we all understand that reps are what improved, But if
you can't get reps other than in practice where they're
basically in shorts and shells, early in the year and
you're not getting hit, or you're not there's no threat

(34:46):
of getting hit. How are you really ramping up to experience?
I don't don't. I don't think you are. You cannot
replicate a game, You cannot do it in practice because
of all the rules and regulations that are now put
in place, And the NFLPA has voted on this. You know,

(35:06):
they've limited, you know, fully padded opportunities during training camp
and everything else. So you know, I can't imagine, you know,
guys who played in the NFL in nineteen sixties, what
they would think about training camps now, Oh my god, unbelievable.
You know, it'd be like literally, it'd be like a
country club outing. Right, So the only way you can

(35:27):
get real market improvement is to survive the battle and
improve by being on the battlefield. And he can't be
on the battlefield and improving if Jacoby Brissette is on
the battlefield and improving. So listen again, I see both
sides of the story. You know, you can certainly disagree,

(35:50):
you know with my take. This is not about agreeing here.
This is about you know, looking at different points of
view and trying to as we watch this story unfold starting,
you know, next week against the Bengals. Then everybody can
adjust that and you know who knows in three to
four weeks and the Patriots managed to win a game
or two, or maybe they win one that no one

(36:11):
thinks they will win, and you can say, see, told
you it would work, okay, and guess what, that's great
because they won. And that's again, that's my bottom line.
I just want to see a competitive team.

Speaker 6 (36:25):
You know.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
The funny thing about the whole, you know, competition thing here, Claire,
is that we saw or I've seen. I saw this
tweet and I'm gonna see if I can find it
really quickly here. May not be able to find it.
Oh that the Patriots overall right now are an overwhelming

(36:50):
there they are of all the teams in the NFL,
they are the being heaviest hit on the under at
four and a half win. There's no other team in
the NFL that's getting hit on the under of their
predicted win total like the Patriots are being hit. Apparently
almost eighty percent of the money coming in on the

(37:12):
Patriots are on the under four and a half wins. Now,
what does that tell you? No one thinks this team
is going to win. Everybody thinks this team is going
to stink. Everybody thinks this team is going to be
in position for the number one draft pick next April.
I mean, look, I'm not willing to sacrifice a year

(37:36):
if I'm a football player and I'm in that locker
room and I know that my shelf life is basically
three to five years, and realistically that's basically what it
is on average if you're lucky. Okay, I want to win,
I want to go. This is why people, this is
why Brandon Nyuk is not in New England right now,

(37:57):
because he didn't think the Patriots were quick to win.
That's the exact reason. So how do you fix the
perception that the Patriots stink? Oh it's a free agent,
I'm not going there. You fix that by winning. So,
if you really want to go big picture, let's win
a few games. Let's get to five, six, seven, eight wins.

(38:22):
If you're fortunate and things go your way, let's get
to that point where next year, if you're really going
big picture here, then you might have a chance to
go get somebody in free agency that otherwise would say, nah,
I ain't going there. Nah, I ain't. I ain't gonna
go there. You know who's their quarterback and they stink,
so I'm not going there. I'm just saying it's got

(38:42):
to start somewhere. It gotta start somewhere. You gotta pitch. Listen,
if all you got is a fastball, throw the damn fastball. Yeah,
that's all.

Speaker 6 (38:52):
Yeah, And you're starting to dope me around to this.

Speaker 1 (38:55):
See see see.

Speaker 7 (38:58):
I'm gonna feel like I'm going to be champion for
dright way to start.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
Listen. There, there's there's no right or wrong here. Okay,
this is why you know, that's why the debate is
so much fun. Uh. Before before we move on here,
I'd kind of like to ask your thoughts on, you know,
the roster as it's presently, uh consists, because there were
some late moves yesterday off the waiver wire, which really
shouldn't come as surprise to anybody that altered you know,

(39:26):
the fifty three you know man roster. Was there a
big surprise in terms of somebody getting cut that you
thought happened? I got a I got a couple of ideas.
I'm just kind of curious what you thought about the
final makeup of the roster.

Speaker 7 (39:38):
Overall, nothing huge, because I mean, we know that they
haven't you know, they're needing to build rather than cut anyway,
But the Harris that that, the Kevin Harris cut, I'll
say mildly surprised. I wasn't like completely innestly like, oh
my god, flawed, but I thought that in the preseason

(39:59):
and just generally in his as his time as a Patriot,
he's doing quite well. So I think I had him
if I was doing a roster, I would have had
him more of a cheeing.

Speaker 6 (40:08):
So I was surprised when he was released.

Speaker 8 (40:10):
I know.

Speaker 7 (40:11):
I think he's since gone to the practice squad, so
he's still technically a Patriot. Other than that, I think
the only one that came it was later was the
Raga cut, and I think that was more to make
way for possibly the tackles or the defensive tackles that
they brought in off the waiver, the likes of Zachary.

Speaker 6 (40:32):
Thomas and Jacob's that kind of thing.

Speaker 7 (40:35):
So I don't know if Reager was just more of
a casualty of that necessity.

Speaker 6 (40:40):
Than a necessary couldn't as such.

Speaker 7 (40:45):
But I don't think there was anything that really flawed
me because I don't know, is there anything Yeah, do
they have anywhere disrespect?

Speaker 6 (40:54):
Is there anything there that's not you.

Speaker 7 (40:55):
Know that was really surprising. Maybe the Ryland cut because
he was a draft but he wasn't performing, So.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
Yeah, yeah, Ryland just won because he was a fourth
roun pick, So I would say that was surprise. The
one I think that surprised me the most was Kevin Harris,
although he's been signed to the practice squad. Uh, but
you know, I thought, you know, of all the running
backs that you know played and he played a lot
of time. You know, I thought he showed a burst
in some toughness that you know probably you know, uh

(41:24):
earn a roster spot. But the Patriots decided to only
go with three running backs to start, which is a
little bit of a surprise in my regard for a
team that you know, said, hey, we want to we
want to ground and pound. Well, okay, but with three
running backs, I mean and wear and tear on those guys.
You're gonna go with three guys That just sort of
defies logic. So you know that one surprised me.

Speaker 5 (41:46):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (41:47):
I guess Antonio Maffi surprised me a little bit again,
just because of draft pick status. Uh, and you know
you mentioned Chad Ryland. Uh and then when the waiver
wire came, somebody had to go. But Jalen Reager surprised
me at least a little bit because I know they
really valued his his return experience. And I'm sure that
was probably a really tough conversation, uh that Gerard had

(42:11):
to have with a guy like Jalen Rigor. So you know,
I mean, not a lot, not a lot, but those
were probably the most surprising of all.

Speaker 8 (42:21):
M hmm.

Speaker 7 (42:22):
I think we may be looking at a situation that
they had to cook those that maybe they wouldn't necessarily
want to in a more perfect oline scenario. Yeah, because
they've they've got to look at so much with regards
to not only tackles but guards as well. There's just
no I mean, I know everybody's been banging on about
it for ages.

Speaker 6 (42:41):
No fully appreciate that, but.

Speaker 7 (42:43):
There's there's not a lot of serious solidity there on
the on the O line.

Speaker 1 (42:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (42:49):
So it's a case of they need to sacrifice guys
so that they can.

Speaker 2 (42:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (42:54):
Yeah, and I would get the strength really.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
Yeah, that's actually that's a really good point because they
need so much help and so what they did is
they went out and they picked up Demontra Jacobs out
of Denver, UH. And then they went and got zach Thomas,
Zachary Thomas from the Rams off the offensive line. So
I mean, and listen, I fully expect one, if not

(43:18):
both of them to get into the rotation immediately, if
not sooner. And I would tell you that Jacob is
because I know he has experienced at left tackle. Jacobs probably,
I mean, he's got a shot to start. You come
off the waiver wire and may have a chance to
start now. Again, if you're putting the best athletes out there,

(43:40):
then he should be given that opportunity. We'll find out,
you know, we'll find out if there's a contradiction in
the way that you know, the coaches believe.

Speaker 7 (43:50):
The one thing that Thomas is he's only had two
NFL games. He's only seen two NFL games, so he
hasn't got as much experience as maybe Jacobs. He's had
a bit more experience possibly, But yeah, unfortunately, not to
be a Debbie downer or anything, it doesn't strike you
with a lot of confidence.

Speaker 6 (44:10):
However, I'm hoping.

Speaker 7 (44:13):
I'm keeping fingers and toes and everything cross for one
of those situations where the Patriots bring in a seasonal veteran,
but a player with experience who just needs a new
place to blossom. I know it's maybe slightly delusional. I'm
just keeping everything cross that one of these alignments come
in and the Patriots way, the Patriots place is what

(44:35):
they need and they flourish. Yeah, and we have a
good out line.

Speaker 6 (44:39):
And that's I know.

Speaker 7 (44:40):
People people are looking at this sc and going, she's delusional,
she's crazy. This blonde woman is crazy, and yes, technically
this is true.

Speaker 1 (44:48):
Well shall we change your handle now to crazy clear
as opposed to classy Clear. That's okay. Now, that's why
I like talking to you, because you make me think
about things that I hadn't thought of. And so that's
that's why, you know, I miss you as a regular
guest on this show, but I'm really happy you're having
success on your own pot. And to that end, Jacob's

(45:09):
maybe that guy. I mean, there's a guy that might
need a little you know, he was kind of in
a logjam in Denver as I read up on it
a little bit earlier today, and and you know, to
find somebody that might have that kind of ability ability
that's available on the waiver wire. Okay, I mean, let's
face it, you know, one man's trash is another man's treasure,
and that that could be a situation there. And I

(45:31):
know they felt like, you know, hey, the reason that
we didn't go out and do more, which is what
everybody expected them to do in the offensive line, is
because they didn't feel like the free agent route was
all that deep and they didn't want to spend the
capital on bringing in guys that they weren't sure we're
going to be able to stick around. And I actually
understand that thought process. And again, they're paid to make
these decisions. I'm not you know, we're paid to question

(45:53):
the decisions and to open up the discussion about those
decisions because that's what keeps interest in the team. But
you know, when it comes down to a football move, okay,
I understand the philosophy on that. I just questioned as
to whether or not, you know, the football move was
thorough enough. That's all that's all on question, because again,
you're putting people in a position that haven't been in

(46:15):
it at least here this is a different atmosphere. There's
a lot more to overcome here. Than in Green Bay,
you know, and I'm speaking about Elliott Wolf in particular,
and with all due respect, I've been with this franchise
longer than Elliot Wolf's been alive.

Speaker 6 (46:32):
So but you can't tell by looking at you, John,
just for the rank.

Speaker 1 (46:36):
Thank you, sweetheart. I appreciate that. Thank you, Thank you.
I didn't put on my makeup today, so we're gonna
have to start doing that now. Yeah, I know, right totally. Hey, Claire, uh,
tell us when you get your next pod episodes coming
up so people can tune in.

Speaker 7 (46:54):
Well, patspropaganda dot Com their YouTube channel, Pats Procrastination, the
fine all like postseason. No preseason was yesterday, so that's
it for the off season sort of thing for the
preseason situation. So that was where are we Thursday. Yeah,
that was recorded and went out on the YouTube show
yes channel yesterday.

Speaker 6 (47:15):
A clever perspective is coming to you.

Speaker 7 (47:17):
This weekend sometime episode ninety eight. I believe there will
then be ninety nine, and then we shall see will
we make it to one hundred and then if we do,
what will we do?

Speaker 6 (47:30):
I don't know. This is all in the pipeline at
the moment.

Speaker 7 (47:32):
So yeah, it's a clear perspective of Patriots Podcast most
places that you get your podcasts and Pats Procrastination on
the Pats Propaganda YouTube channel.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
All right, that's outstanding. Go get it girl. All right,
don't be a stranger here though. All right, we go
back to our winday, we go back to our Wednesday
time slot. But I think we adjusted the two thirty, right, Matt. Yeah,
it used to be Wednesdays two to four Eastern Time
during the regular season. We pushed it back a half
an hour, which I know won't help you in your

(48:01):
evening hours in the UK.

Speaker 6 (48:03):
And that he's requested.

Speaker 1 (48:06):
I understand. I get it. Listen, we all need it.
I have to sleep just to make sure I can
get up in the morning. That's my biggest thing, because
I keep you know, I keep hearing different things. I
keep hearing different things crack in the morning. I'm like that,
that's a that's a sound that I'm just not familiar with.
And I'm like, ooh, I don't think that's good. So

(48:26):
I just like I freeze, and I'm like, should I
take this step or do I want to kiss the floor?
I don't know, you know. So that's kind of where
I am with this thing. No, it's all good here.
It's all good here. But we go to We're gonna
go two thirty to four thirty Eastern time every Wednesday
for our regular season edition of the playbook. And largely
that's because Marine Matt's got to come in here and
change the studio around, because you know, the Patriots and Fielder,

(48:49):
your guys have got cushy couches to sit on. They're
doing it, you know, kind of like Phil Donahue style,
and in the remembrance of the late great Phil Donna
who passed way a week ago. Talk show hosts on
this side of the pond. Uh but Phil Donahue, uh,
you know, you know sit on couches like and then
the way they do it, you know with the Tonight

(49:09):
Show and with uh uh you know Late Night on CBS,
and you know and all you know, the Jimmy Kimmel Show.
You know, they sit at a desk and they have couches,
and guests sit on couches and so p you guys
are gonna sit on couches and just have a conversation,
which is great. Me I get this set up.

Speaker 6 (49:27):
Well, I have community.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
Yeah, I know, right, But that's fine, I'm okay with that.
But we but marine is to come in here and schlep. Okay,
so he has to turn the set over. See, we're
actually turning. We've turned our radio studio here in the
bowels of Gillette Stadium. We turned our radio studio here
into a television studio. Okay, it's a TV takeover. TV

(49:53):
rules are life. Okay, Streaming is ruling our lives.

Speaker 3 (49:56):
Might be filming a TV show out here soon.

Speaker 1 (49:58):
Yeah, yeah, you're gonna on one maybe. Okay, you need
a voiceover artist, voice actor, you need anything like that.

Speaker 3 (50:05):
Go talk to the guys down the hall. This is radio,
not TV.

Speaker 1 (50:09):
I was about to say, I know, right, hire me
please no, uh yeah, So this is where you know
TV comes in. So we're trying to show versatility, okay.
And I keep wondering if the can in the corner
there's a Patriots a pat Patriot logo beer can in
the corner here of this new set. Does that have
beer in it?

Speaker 3 (50:29):
It does both of them?

Speaker 1 (50:30):
Do?

Speaker 3 (50:30):
Oh, where's the other one in the other corner?

Speaker 1 (50:33):
Oh, okay, it's over there, John. How many times are
we going to have to reach over there and pop
the top on that sucker and just basically say, oh
told you they are gonna stink this weekend. Okay, Papa, top,
here we go.

Speaker 3 (50:51):
I've only got two of the Forever New England's left.

Speaker 8 (50:53):
Please do.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
All right, Marie. We don't want to ruin it for you. Hey, Claire,
good to be with you again. Thank you, and uh absolutely,
and don't be a stranger. Come visit us on Wednesdays
here all right, you got it. That's Classy. You can
follow her on x at Classy c l A z
z y Claire c l A r E that's her
uh X handle, Twitter handle, whatever you want to call it,

(51:18):
and uh and she's got a couple of podcasts that
she does, and so uh, I know many of you
are familiar uh. Nick Stevens a KA FITZI uh and
Fitzy g f y. He's going to join us uh
top of the next hour, I think, because he's in
the middle of something right now, and he does the
Six Rings podcast UH that many of you are already
familiar with as well, and he's gonna share some of

(51:40):
his thoughts. And Chad Grab from the Athletic will join
us toward the end of the program because right now
the players are being interviewed before practice starts today here, Uh,
practice gets underway. I believe at eleven. That was the
latest schedule that I saw. So practice is getting ready
to get going. So right now in the locker room.
The media is in the locker room as we speak,

(52:01):
talking to the players and getting their reaction on Oh,
what do you think about Jacoby? Are you glad he's
your quarterback? You know? What do you think about Drake?
Is he ready to? I mean, this is the same stuff.
It's the same stuff. The only thing is is that
I hope that these guys, and most of them, most
were media people who I'm you know, familiar with, friendly with,
have known for a long time, they don't ask the

(52:23):
you know, hey, you know that's the kind of question
to start with a hey, can you talk a little
bit about. They don't do that, Thank goodness, talk a
little bit about ask me a flipping question. I wouldn't answer.
That's just it's a pet peeve. And I know that
I've seen it on social media lately, you know about Look,
you know when when writers they're just trying to encourage

(52:46):
conversation and get guys going, which is why they they
asked the question always start out with hey, can you
talk about or talk a little bit about this, or
talk a little bit about that, And Okay, they're just
trying to start a conversation. They're trying to be friendly
and they're trying to be you know whatever, but they're
not asking a question. Ask a question. Time is precious

(53:06):
to that end. That's why I want to win now.
Time is precious. But it looks like the Patriots are
going to sacrifice a little bit of that immediacy in
order to build up around the rookie that they're spending
money and hopefully pinning their hopes on the future on
Jacobe presets the starter. Drake May is going to back

(53:29):
him up at least to start the year. And that's
where we are. Hey did you say that? This morning?
The news that Bailey z Appy has a new job.
Bailey's Appy got signed to the practice squad of the
Kansas City Chiefs. I'm happy for Bailey, but really the Chiefs,
come on, God, it couldn't have been like, I don't

(53:51):
know who else sucks like we do, Jacksonville, jackson No,
because you got mag Johnes in Jacksonville. I mean, I say, okay,
I said it. That's what it is. Oh, we suck again.
You know the you know the line from the movie.
All right, Uh, let's get to the phones again, Nick

(54:14):
Stevens FITZI will join us at the top of the hour.
Patty and Agua has been kind of have to hang
on for a long time, so let's get to Patty. Hey, Patty,
you're in the playbook.

Speaker 9 (54:24):
So John, long time, no talk, buddy.

Speaker 1 (54:25):
I'm glad. I'm glad you you had the time, and
thanks for hanging in, Bro, appreciate you.

Speaker 9 (54:30):
Yeah, not a problem. So can you talk to me
about this quarterback controversy? No, I'm just kidding. I want
to get onto a couple of subjects. The first thing,
I'm gonna go a little bit of contrarian on what
players that are what I think I heard her say, Yeah, personally,
and this is this is all conjecture. This is all opinion,

(54:51):
my own opinion. You know, I'm just a dumb fan.
I've got no sources or anything like that. But just
going by what Mayo has said over the past week
or so, I honestly think he wanted to start may
and I think Alex van Pelt possibly had wanted to
see him hit some benchmarks, and maybe Elliott Wolfe said, hey, look,

(55:12):
we invested the third overall pick with this guy. We
kind of don't want to throw him right to the wolves.
And I think Alex and Evan on Catch twenty two
last week said something about, you know, let him, you know,
let him see how a pro gets ready for the
week and does a job at least for like the
first couple of games or maybe the first month, because they,
I mean, the whole schedule is brutal, but the first

(55:34):
four games they're gonna be tough. Moving on from that.

Speaker 1 (55:39):
Mm hmm, well, all right, hold on before before you
get to that point, let's address that. Okay, And this
is where I would politely disagree with with Alex and Evan,
but you'll have them on Catch twenty two here later
today on patries dot Com. I'm just I would respectfully
disagree because again I realized that it to Gauntlet. I

(56:00):
realize that you know, you know, you're a little concerned
with what you've done to build up around him. But again,
this is all about competition, and we have always played
under the premise of the best players should play. It's
the way it is in this sport. Any other sport.

(56:21):
If you're good enough to start, you start. If you're
not good enough to start, you don't. The coaches are
intelligent enough to be able to scheme and to be
able to put enough around a guy if they're scared
to death of him getting hurt, which they shouldn't be.
And I'll get to that in a moment. Uh, then
you know, then you go that way. But this is

(56:44):
this is a physical, violent sport. It's why we love
the sport. It's our modern day Roman gladiators. This is
you know, and that's why the Roman Coliseum was always
jam packed because they love to see, you know, the
death and destruction below. And that's just this is why
football isn't active sport to so many people, because we
can't do it right. So we want to see them

(57:07):
do it, and we want to put those that can
do it to the best of their abilities and better
than anybody else out on the field. This is not
doing a service to the paying customer. It's not you
can't spin it. You can't you can't spin it. You

(57:28):
cannot spin it. Oh, but we got to look at
the big picture and how is that not you know,
paying because you're not winning fans are paying to watch winners.
That's what this is. It is a bottom line business.
Bottom line bottom line is do we win. Why did
Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft agree to part company Because

(57:49):
Bill wasn't winning, That's why. And so now it's okay
not to win, get out of here. You know that's
my attitude. Way all right, go ahead, Yeah.

Speaker 9 (58:02):
And I'll readily admit to that. Before training games started,
I was on board of Startam week one. You know,
you invested the number three overall pick for him with
them throw him out there, throw them to the wolves. Yeah,
he respond I wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (58:19):
Call it throwing them out to the wolves, though, Patty. Again, look,
I think throwing him out to the wolves makes it
sound like you're ready to put him in front of
a meat grounder and he hope he doesn't fall in,
you know. I mean, that's not what we're doing here.
I realize it looked really bad against Washington, but again,
it was an exhibition game. Okay, it's preseason. It don't count. Now.

(58:41):
If they do this week one against Cincinnati, we'll have
fire and brimstone in here the next Wednesday. Okay, I
guarantee it. But the fact of the matter is, though,
is that it didn't count and he wasn't kilt. He
wasn't kilt against Washington. In fact, he had his best game,
which which is why we're even having this discussion to

(59:02):
begin with today.

Speaker 9 (59:04):
Yeah, right, and listen, I'm going to use a phrase
I heard you say and something I'm guilty of. Like
I heard you say a couple months back. You know,
if you're sitting on the fence, your your live will
get hit from both sides.

Speaker 1 (59:18):
Right.

Speaker 9 (59:18):
Of course, before the preseason started, I said stardom. After
the joint practice PU that I listened to with the Eagles,
I was like, oh my god, I got scared, and
I was like, maybe they should sit him if the
if the on line looks this bad. But after I
watched that the Commander's game and saw how the kid
moved around and and saw what he can do, like
his im improvisational skills, I was like, I was back

(59:42):
to start them week one, you know, And that's kind
of where I am. Whatever they made their decision, that's fine.
I don't think it's going to be long before we
see May start.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
But I hope it isn't. I mean, I hope Listen,
I hope. I hope Jacoby becomes the sensation the NFL.
I really do because as someone who would be a
fan of the team's success, and let's face it, we
all want to cover a team and we all want
to follow a team that's good. I mean, we were
spoiled here by twenty years of good, as we talked
about many times on this program. But look, I'll be

(01:00:16):
if he proves us all wrong, because I don't know
that anybody really believes that Jacoby Brissett is going to
go gangbusters and lead the league in passing yards or
you know, or you know, QB percentage or whatever they're
not rating or whatever. They don't No one thinks that.
So if he does, right, let's applaud that and make

(01:00:37):
it a non story. And then then that's the best
thing that really could happen in this scenario, because then
you can afford to let, you know, Drake continue to
matriculate at his pace. You mentioned, you know, hey, bring
him along and see how it pro operates. Whatever. I
honestly believe a lot of that's overrated. Football players play football.

(01:00:57):
But if you feel like there are some nuance that
you know, and again, there may be some things that
we are not privy to. We're not in the locker room,
we're not in the QB room, we're not in the
meeting rooms, so we're not we don't know what's being
said and what's clearly being you know, digested and understood.
So there may be some hidden things. And Gerard has

(01:01:18):
mentioned this before, right, He's talked about this a little bit.
I just okay, then there there's your there's your answer. Okay,
then you you let him come along at his pace.
I don't think there's any question in my mind that
Drake has to be the starter and has to move
in as if things are close to where they are now. Uh,

(01:01:41):
And I don't know when to pull the trigger on
that Week five, Week seven, I mean, week ten. Who
the hell knows, We don't know. This is where the
head coach is paid, the kind of money he's paid
in order to make this decision. This is when he
has to, you know, rely on his sixth sense, his
his f fighty sense, and he's got to come up
up with it. I don't know when the time is.

(01:02:03):
It may come sooner than later. What if Jacobe gets
knocked out of the box, which could happen. It almost
happened this last week when he hurt his shoulder against Washington.
It almost, I mean, it basically did. He was one
series and he was done, so it could happen a
lot quicker than we think. And this whole conversation day
becomes moot because Drake's got to be in there, you know,

(01:02:25):
And that was part of the reason I was slightly
disappointed that bailey 'z abey didn't stick somehow. I mean,
I'm glad he got a job again, but I was
hoping that maybe, you know, somehow he could get on.
I don't know, that's just me. You want somebody to
throw to the wolves. There's a guy who's willing to
take take a sword for you. You know, he did
the last two years. And so that's the one thing
that I'll always remember fondly about Bailey z Appey in

(01:02:47):
his time here. You know, you know, not that he
should have started over mac Jones or any of that garbage,
but because he was willing to do whatever it took
to play and to help the team. And you know,
and the man was four and four as a star
quarterback here. Let's not forget that. That's the kind of
guy that I think, you know, hey, you know, he's
shown he can win. He knows the system, he knows
the fans, he understands all of that. You know, that's

(01:03:09):
the kind of guy that frankly, I might have put
a little bit more trust in. All right, what else
you got?

Speaker 9 (01:03:15):
And just yeah, so maybe you could think of a
better example or a better team to sort of correlate
this team with. But I'm old enough to remember this
team nineteen eighty nine, Dallas Cowboys. You got you know,
they are going into the eighty nine they had. The

(01:03:35):
only thing different I see is the ownership change. You know,
we have the same owners. But they had fired their
legendary head coach. They were just completely almost bereft the talent.
I think they had Michael Irvin on that team. They
take apeman number one and they just I mean, they
pretty much just started from square one. And I don't

(01:03:55):
know if this is this is kind of a like
a rhetorical question you were asking Earth about, like who's
you know, whose fault that it is that the roster
is the way it is. But Bill is the greatest
coach of all time, in my opinion, one of the
greatest gms of football of all time. But just he
was drafting offensive talent the last few years, like he

(01:04:18):
still had Brady on the team.

Speaker 1 (01:04:19):
I know, I agree with that. I agree with which
is why he's going and.

Speaker 5 (01:04:24):
That's why he sees it.

Speaker 9 (01:04:25):
That's why the offensive line is in such flux. I mean,
he could never really draft wide receivers aside from Dion
Branch and David Gibbons and Edelman in the seventh round.

Speaker 1 (01:04:35):
But and he was a quarterback at Kent State. Let's
not forget that.

Speaker 9 (01:04:41):
You're right, And I'm not one of these people that says, well,
the talent's not there around him, like like Paul Ferrillo said, Yeah, well,
Joe Burrow didn't have an offensive line the first two
years and he got hurt his first year, but he
took the Bengals to a super Bowl in his second year.
And I think I think Wolf is smart enough. I
think they're probably even if May starts the majority of

(01:05:03):
the games. All I'm really looking for, like Probam hopefully,
like most of all of the Patriots fans, is you
just want to see progress going towards the end of
the season. Sure, probably not going to win many games
and hopefully they do get a guy like Will Campbell
or one of your guys, John Calvin Banks Junior out
of Texas to solidify that blind side.

Speaker 1 (01:05:23):
That's exactly who I'm thinking of. I mean, if if
they're going to get that top draft pick, you know,
that early draft pick. I mean frankly, you know the
kid at Texas who's expected to come out uh as
a as a tackle, uh maybe the best offensive lineman
in the draft next year. Oh that's why you you
might want to you know, at least you know, cock
and eye to uh you know, the Longhorns this year

(01:05:44):
and look at a potential you know, Patriot in the future.
Because the kid Banks is, he's very talented, very.

Speaker 9 (01:05:51):
Talented, and and not just May. I want to see
growth from Jalen Polp. I want to see hopefully growth
from if he, you know, if he ever gets a
chance to get in there and start, Kateen Wallace, the
other kid that they took, you know, from Texas Tech,
the guard that they took. I want to see steady
growth from all those guys, not just from May, you know,

(01:06:12):
and then you know it's from what they were working with.
Fans should not expect that We're gonna win a ton
of games, yea, even if everything goes right, and maybe
you catch Layton in a bottle like like Houston did
last year with Jay Stroud.

Speaker 1 (01:06:28):
And I think you had a better chance of doing
that if you started May.

Speaker 9 (01:06:32):
But that's just me, right, But but realistically, even if
may'son there, it's well.

Speaker 1 (01:06:38):
Look at how Houston played quarter Patty, looking at how
Houston you know, started last year, and then look at
how they came on Gangbusters. Why is that because they
stuck with their rookie.

Speaker 9 (01:06:50):
Yeah, that's a good point. I'll give you that. But again,
like all I'm looking for is growth and progress and
hopefully they win some games along the way. I'm not
gonna tie you up for much longer. John, I'll either
call and email in with my prediction next week. And
I don't know about you, buddy, I'm even though like that.
You know, the prognosticaters are saying the outlook is bleak.

(01:07:12):
I'm still excited. I get excited every time this year. Baby,
he is football, and I can't wait to see the
product on the field, especially when when me gets in there.
Agree and I'll get off the line, and it's always
great talking to.

Speaker 1 (01:07:23):
You, You to man, Thanks Buddy, Patty and agaw on Hey.
Easy to drink, easy to enjoy, bud Light, the official
beer sponsor of the New England Patriots, and this week's
Bob Huh plug for lack of a better phrase. Right, Okay,
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(01:08:09):
Discount Furniture, the official furniture store of the New England Patriots.
All right, so this is a special edition of Patriots
Playbook on Patriots dot Com Radio. We launched at nine
thirty Eastern time this morning in the aftermath of Girodmeo's
decision to name Jacoby Brissette the starter for the foreseeable

(01:08:31):
future or however long the hell it's going to be.
Nobody knows, regardless of how we feel about it. That's
how we go. And then coming up here in about
fifteen minutes, Nick Stevens Fitzie will join us one of
the co hosts along with our old friend Andy Hart
on the Six Rings podcast. He's going to join us

(01:08:52):
the top of the hour, and then we'll be joined
by Chad Graff, who covers the Patriots for the Athletic
and the Athletic NFL, and we'll get you some real
opinion like that. In the meantime, I'd really like to
hear your opinions. Eight five five PATS five hundred is
the toll free radio line telephone number eight five five

(01:09:13):
p Ats five hundred, or you can hit me up
on email, web radio at Patriots dot com. I got
a couple of those I'm gonna read here in a moment,
and you can hit me up on Twitter, slash x
at JR Broadcaster. My ig is also at JR Broadcaster.
Let me hit a quick email here. Aiden in California,

(01:09:33):
John So, glad your show is back on on a
weekly basis. Thanks Aidan So I don't have to listen
to all of the negativity on Boston radio. It is
pretty nasty. The move to make Jacoby is the right move,
not just because of the old line, but also because
we have first time coaches everywhere. To me, it's best
to have the offense settle under AVP on personnel and

(01:09:53):
play calling. There's no need to rush May right now.
But with that said, I think he will play later
this year. I see it like this. Don't rush the dinner.
If you want something fast, go to fast food. Also,
is the playbook Fantasy Football still going on? Love the show?
Were we gonna do playbook Fantasy Football again? Marine?

Speaker 3 (01:10:12):
I wasn't gonna do it this year, but if you
want to do it, we can.

Speaker 1 (01:10:14):
Aiden in California. Sounded like he wants to play.

Speaker 3 (01:10:17):
All right, I'll get it set up. Okay, I will
set it up this week. Well, our winner last year
was Matt Lapan. No, yeah, big Matt one, Big Matt one.

Speaker 1 (01:10:25):
Why did we not have him on a show as
a show host?

Speaker 3 (01:10:28):
He busted me up every month about that. Why have
I not been offered to come on?

Speaker 1 (01:10:33):
Rookie says he's got a point. I guess we need
to have time with you, all right, but I guess
we you know, we should try to work that out
in the first couple of weeks.

Speaker 3 (01:10:44):
Uh, okay, I'll get him on here. He's dying to
do it.

Speaker 1 (01:10:46):
So okay, all right, all right, so let's let's get
him on. Big Matt, who actually used to sit in
your chairs one of the backups years ago. You know,
we had I got to think now, of everybody who
sat in your chair before you was Kevin, and then
before that it was Jason, and before that it was
Dan two gender, right, and then before that it was

(01:11:09):
Gary Grudeki, right, and and we've had some guys that
have subbed in and out over the last twenty three
This is twenty four years now that we've done this show.
So there have been four or five of you and
only one of me. What's wrong with that picture?

Speaker 3 (01:11:24):
You got the longevity? I guess no, Hey, they're gonna
have to drag me out of here.

Speaker 1 (01:11:28):
So see. I like that though. I like that. I
like that. And the other thing is if we're really
gonna do this right, the whole streaming thing, right, you know,
and we're and we're gonna do it like we're doing
you know, an ESPN show or an FS one show
or whatever. We need a camera for you.

Speaker 3 (01:11:43):
Mister Fred has said that is the next step.

Speaker 1 (01:11:45):
Okay, seem all right, great minds think alike? Wait, did
I just call Fred a great mind? I love Fred.
Fred's good only took twenty four years, absolutely all right.
So let me speak to what Aiden said here. Because
first time coaches everywhere best to have the offense settle

(01:12:09):
under AVP on personnel and play calling. Okay, that actually
is legitimate. I'll buy that because they're new here, but
they're not first time coaches. In the NFL, coaches coach
players play. I don't think you bring a player along
slowly if he was a seasoned veteran and he was

(01:12:30):
just coming to your team for the first time. These
coaches are also veterans, so they know how to coach.
They're in New England for the first time, but they
know how to coach. So I understand your point. I'm
not sure that I buy it one hundred percent. That's
the only argument that I can make there. I get

(01:12:51):
what you'd be somewhat reluctant, you know, to just you know,
go like they've been here for ten years, but really
no coach is here for five or ten years. If
an assistant coach is worth a damn, he moves on.
He moves up the ladder. He tries to become a coordinator,
if not a head coach. Now, there are some career coaches,

(01:13:12):
you know, assistants, and the first one that comes to
mind is Dante's Carnecia, who spent his entire career largely
as special teams and offensive line coach. He got a
cup of coffees, as the saying goes, as a head coach,
you know, in the interim between coaches here in New England.
But you know, he was happy, and I would tell

(01:13:33):
you that he was really good at what he did.
Most assistant coaches who are really good at what they
do move up. Okay, that's just the way it works,
because this is a this is a business, or as
I said earlier, it's a binis Okay, that's how this goes.

(01:13:56):
So they're new to here, well, yeah, yeah, they're new
to here. I would tell you that I'm not sure
that that's really enough of a reason to say Jacoby
Brissett should be the starter over Drake May. Because the
coaches are new, I don't know let's go to Eldred

(01:14:16):
in North Carolina. Our buddy Eldred is right there. Hey Eldredd,
Hey leg this morning. Nice. Where are we traveling today, Bud.

Speaker 5 (01:14:29):
I'm up in high Point, North Carolina.

Speaker 1 (01:14:31):
High Point. I was just in that area about two
months ago. I was in Greensboro high Point, that area.

Speaker 3 (01:14:38):
Now it's two blasts of the horn. So who just
scare off the road?

Speaker 1 (01:14:41):
Really? Did you scare anybody off the road?

Speaker 5 (01:14:44):
No, No, don't think though. I'm down here going to
make my delivery. Okay, then after that it good to go.

Speaker 1 (01:14:50):
From now, Okay, that's good, yes, sir, But.

Speaker 5 (01:14:55):
Tod, that's what I'm talking about. I only stay like
an hour hour and a half of breathing, breathe Borough yep.
And what'd you go? And I'm like, like, I told
you you come by, we have dinner, we have lunch
or something.

Speaker 1 (01:15:07):
Oh yeah, I know, we get we had Yeah, I know.
I should have done that, and but I was. It
was the National Sports Media Association convention, and so I
had you know, meetings and dinners and critiquing and you
know a lot of younger uh you know, play by
play and talk show guys and reporters around the country
use the convention to come in and and get their

(01:15:28):
their work critiqued by you know, old fogies like me.
So uh so that's kind of what I spent a
lot of my time doing over those couple of days.
But when I do get back there again, uh, let's hey,
let's let's let's make a plan.

Speaker 5 (01:15:42):
Yes, sir, I'd be looking forward to it that mister legend.

Speaker 1 (01:15:45):
Great, yes, sir. Yeah, So what what are your what
are your thoughts on Jacoby?

Speaker 5 (01:15:55):
Up and up and in between? But like I told you,
I'm not I'm not really amazed Camp because I never
was in beginning. I said, I'm from Missouri. You got
to show me. Yeah, I'll see them two year here.
Yeah you did, But I got admit. The kid did
show progress the last game. You know, Cam had me
send them. But then again, like I'll see what they

(01:16:15):
why they want to protect him. He wouldn't get stuck
it in third stringers and they've known all watch call
he didn't go against the guntlet with the big guy,
but E stept for that practice. I heard so so
much bad about you know, But other than that, I'll
still say third overall, I want you uh throw him

(01:16:36):
in there. Yeah, throw him in there.

Speaker 1 (01:16:40):
Yeah. I mean, look, I'm not worried about getting him
hurt because anybody can get hurt on any given snap
of the football day. Yeah, anybody can. If you've played
the sport, you know it. If you followed the sport
for a long time, you know it. Okay, It's it's
a like I said earlier on the show today, you know, Eldrid,

(01:17:00):
it's a violent sport. And this is why we love
it because it can be unpredictable and it stinks when
guys get hurt. But guess what, the guys love it too.
They like that risk. They like being daredevil's Okay. It's
like my oldest son who's now thirty seven years old,
but when he was a teenager, he loved inline skating
and skateboarding, and I'm like, how do you do that?

(01:17:21):
I mean, how can you put yourself at risk?

Speaker 2 (01:17:23):
You know?

Speaker 1 (01:17:23):
And he's trying to you know, and he's falling all
over the place and he's banging.

Speaker 3 (01:17:27):
Himself up, and he's thirty five. I did the same stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:17:29):
Okay, all right, some marine did the same stuff. Right,
Why do you do that? Because you like it? Because
you like the daredevil aspect of it. The adrenaline, yes,
the adrenaline rush bingo. These guys play football because that's
what they like, so getting hurt. Nobody goes into a
game thinking, Oh, I hope it don't get hurt today.

(01:17:50):
You can't play like that. If you play like that,
you're a you're a dead man. You're a dead man,
you're dead man walking. And so that's why this this
whole thing, Oh, we can't play, we can't play drink
because he's gonna get hurt. That goes against the very
fiver of what football is all about. Guys play it
because of the physicality, play the man.

Speaker 5 (01:18:13):
Yes or playing And then my my only, my only
gret with Elliott Wolf, I'm getting to wonder if he
was there with Bill who did off of the line drafting,
because I don't think you know the bro this guy,
that guy, because if that was Bill, you sure ain't
showing me that it was Bill, because you're doing the

(01:18:34):
same dired thing he did. You know with that line.
You didn't touch it, you didn't address it, you know,
and you and you got capital now and I high
here with y'all saying but me, uh, if I was
a GM like like, I like, I brought him p
U and they kind of shot me down a little bit.

(01:18:54):
It's the two guys out of went after, you know,
because everybody, every team, every g got a price for
one of their players, one of the start. And he's
been hurt for a couple of games for the last
couple of years, but he ain't missed a lot of games.
But he's the second greatest left tackle. And but you
draft somebody younger to replace him, I'm going after him,

(01:19:16):
you know. And I know that's Darius from darisall from
from the Minnesota Vikings. And then that Brown guy, the
right tackle for Cleveland, got it. They drafted another guy
that's over him, you know. But but they're both young,
and they both got potential, and they both quality. You know.
I think Brown was the second round, Darrisaw was the
first round. And I'd be on the phone try to

(01:19:38):
get both of those to beat my line up to
protect my franchise. You know, I don't, like I said,
draft capital, you don't know if you'll get the first
draft next year or you might get the sixth draft
next year. You don't know that. But those guys in
if a quality and they played and they played in
played in the cist, right you know, and Brown played

(01:20:01):
for or Fan Feil. So I can't understand why you
you know, you ain't trying to shoot uh rever it
revenue or whatever. You get those guys to make your
line better. Gotta be better than Beverifederian Low and Walker
Door whatever, the other guy, Kevin Anderson and all that.
You know, I wouldn't have got them in the first place.

Speaker 1 (01:20:21):
Sorry, all right, So your main issue then is just
them taking the talent that they selected. You were you
would be would have been more comfortable with other personnel. Correct, yes, the.

Speaker 5 (01:20:34):
Other person there, but but mainly the line, you know,
mainly the office line. Like I said, it's the people
in this off season that you can go get if
you just apply it. But I don't think they want,
you know, I think they want to sit back and
see what they guy's gonna do with Scott, Peter's gonna
do a coach, gonna do so much. But if you
ain't got no talent, you ain't got no talent.

Speaker 1 (01:20:55):
True.

Speaker 5 (01:20:55):
That's the little excide I tried last week with pu
they got I'm a mad at me, but I got
it from the Pot Show. With Jeremiah, Daniel Jeremiah and
Buckie Brook and it's in the NFC. NFC is like
Billions Championship, Kams, blue players, blue chip players and all

(01:21:17):
that we are the lowest. We ain't got no talent.
Why everybody got him down and zero wins. You ain't
got no talent. You got a very few. You got
on the blue and Bartimore was the green, and then
Bay is the pink. You don't know what he gonna do.
It might be, you know, younger than the players. But

(01:21:39):
like I said, but we just step in our our
problem for the last five years. You don't you ain't
got your talent. And you see the guy just by
pass like I would have took a d Mitchell over Pope. Yeah,
and the other guy that I would have took Mitchell.

Speaker 1 (01:21:58):
You know, listen, you and Iron agreement on that one.
But I would tell you this, uh I The one
guy that I really want to give a chance is
Jalen Polk. I think he can be. I think Polk
can be a number one if if if we're going
to designate numbers, and I've never liked that, but I
think he's got that kind of ability. And you know,

(01:22:19):
the guy that you got to, the guy, Yeah, I
think he can be h Listen, I saw plenty of
separation when his husky thumped my Longhorns last year in
the Sugar Bowl. Okay, I saw plenty.

Speaker 5 (01:22:31):
I saw that because I root sorry my boy and
the rest of the team. But uh, I know what
you mean, sir. But Tuesday and that other guy that
that was really killing you Polk did a couple of things.

Speaker 1 (01:22:46):
But reallyday, Okay, well, the guy that I you know,
as long as we've got the receivers in the conversation,
you're the guy that has got to put up or
shut up, as Taekwon Thornton. I think we all know that.
And I'm seeing all these reporters, all these reporters saying, oh,
he really got good separation, He really got good separation.
He's the only receiver they can get separation from the
defensive backs. Great, get him the damn ball. And when

(01:23:08):
they get him the damn ball, does he catch it?

Speaker 5 (01:23:13):
That? That, sir, is what I'm is what I'm hoping on.
But then again, I think with it half half or
half half fool and half empty on him. Yeah, I
hope you do better than the beginning. To you, but
hit up both a couple of bit. Now he's doing
a little bit better because he got a little bit stronger,
I think maybe.

Speaker 1 (01:23:30):
And listen, that's why I'm anxious to see it. I
want to see it. So I'll be from Missouri like
you in that regard. I want to see it. That's
exactly what I want to do. Yeah, I'm with you
on that one. We're not We're not far off, Eldred,
We're not far off.

Speaker 5 (01:23:45):
But may but may, I'm like you, Stardom Yard forget
to beget to all the other prazy stuff. Go ahead
and started. He gonna take your lump. He gonna take
his lump. He gonna make his mistakes.

Speaker 1 (01:23:58):
You can make yours.

Speaker 5 (01:23:59):
Yeah, you know, And just I just hope he didn't
do you don't do Westar when he did in a
deput take off and run and stromled and try to
throw to another guy in with ov mm hm, because
I said, I seen too many of that and uh
at North Carolina, yea too many of that, all right?
You know? So so the guy, if he showed flashes,
ain't gonna lie to you and we all you know,

(01:24:19):
like money, he could be good. He could be this,
he's gonna be that. But then again, you're like, what
the heck that come from? What are you doing?

Speaker 1 (01:24:25):
Yeah? You know, I mean well, but the only way
you the only way that you I can understand that,
The only way that you can work out of that, though,
is by playing and getting reps. And they've done that.

Speaker 5 (01:24:35):
They're not ing in North Carolina, and he kept doing it.
We might not have the right coaches Carolina.

Speaker 1 (01:24:41):
Yeah, well he had to. I mean, he had to.
But I'm just saying, you know, hey, look, the main
draw back I hear about Drake May is the fact
that well he only started you know, eighteen games, seven games,
what it was at North Carolina. Well, fine, then let
the guy play ball. But and we all know the
live action and practices are two different universes. Yes, sir, yes, sir,

(01:25:03):
he needs to play. He needs to play.

Speaker 5 (01:25:05):
Yeah, you need to play. You need to play, and
you need to get it. And you need to see
them guys coming up the hedge that NFL caliber instead
of those some of those second rounds, you know, I
mean dirt they were putting it to him.

Speaker 1 (01:25:17):
I know, but that was our line. I know.

Speaker 5 (01:25:21):
You're correct, Yes, and definitely about to keep exeusing me
about y'all gonna go one to thirteen one in seventeen
this year. I'm like, man, I want to hear that.

Speaker 1 (01:25:32):
See, I don't either. I'm with you on that one.
I don't either. Hey, Eldred, be safe out on the
road today, will you? Brother?

Speaker 5 (01:25:38):
All Right, thank you, sir. You have a good one now.

Speaker 1 (01:25:40):
Yeah, absolutely, Let's let's let's get that. Let's get that
in there. Uh, a couple of notes from a couple
of notes from the wires here. Uh, in the locker room.
Jalen Rager Tristan Hill are in the locker room. Michael Jordan,
offensive Lineman back in the locker room as well as

(01:26:01):
the media has been in there. So it looks like
those guys, if they haven't officially been signed to the
practice squad, you'd have to think that at least their
candidates to be brought back in. So that's the latest,
you know, I can bring you before practice today. And then, uh,
let's get to James, who's also in North Carolina. Hey, James,
you're in the playbook.

Speaker 2 (01:26:21):
Hey a long time.

Speaker 1 (01:26:24):
I appreciate your taking the time, brother. What's on your
mind today?

Speaker 2 (01:26:28):
Okay, So a few things Jacoby is the control for
this experience. They've said it before. They want to see
what they have, and then you add a subtract from there.
I think Dre's obviously, Drake's obviously in addition, but Jacoby's
the control number one, number two. Continuing to struggle with

(01:26:55):
this one one which numbering system two and the letters.
I would be targeting whoever does white out scouting for
the Steelers, because they have consistently picked gems out of
later rounds consistently. Okay, And as far as moving forward

(01:27:23):
to year to year with a plan for that, this
is what I've thought of. Okay, stay with me, year
to year, alternating every year that you don't end up
with a guy that can do the job, you either
bump up around that, you draft a white out, or

(01:27:46):
you bump up the ladder of the it gets replaced
in the organization controlling that. Start at your whiteout coach,
or maybe start at your scouting one year and the
next year, say you took one in round three. The
next year you look at coaching. The year after that,

(01:28:09):
bump up to two. The year after that, he still
ain't got a guy that's producing. Come up to uh,
you know, your your oc all this with respect to
not you know, do like we did back and throw
five systems in five years or whatever at the kids.

Speaker 1 (01:28:27):
So you almost you almost like this like a relegation system.

Speaker 2 (01:28:30):
Huh, something's gotta happen, I mean, how long? Come on? Yeah,
I absolutely agree that Bell has been drafting like Tom's
still around, which a lot of them patriot for you know,
for life. But he ain't putting down with that gun.

Speaker 1 (01:28:49):
Well you would, you would, certainly. I think hold coaches
to accountability, have no question about that. But I think
you would even admit that if there isn't at least
a sense of continuity within the law locker room, then
the paid then the players would end up getting potential
mixed messages from the coaching staff if there's a different
voice at Ham. So I'm not sure. I mean, yeah, hey,

(01:29:10):
if you don't do that, look, it kind of takes
care of itself anyway, because you know, when we've had
you know, trouble on you know, special teams and in
the offensive line, you know a few years ago, after
one year, they don't wait to pull the plug. Those
guys get they get they get punted already, so you know,

(01:29:31):
go ahead, go ahead, Jane.

Speaker 2 (01:29:35):
Produce.

Speaker 1 (01:29:36):
Yeah, yeah, And in a sense, they're kind of already
doing that. They're kind of already doing that. Look, hey,
no one's getting you know hammered more you know right
now than you know, offensive line and special teams. All
those special teams are you know, doing okay right now?
And I would say offense as well. So you probably
have to pull Van Pelton that in that argument as well.

(01:29:56):
But again, we haven't begun to play yet. The games
don't mean anything yet. All they've made are you know,
coaching decisions thus far, and try to you know, coach
up the current roster that they have the true measure
of this staff. Girod Mayo's first staff and inevitably his
you know, tenure is going to be based on what

(01:30:18):
they win and what they lose this year. And so
if you really like your staff and you really want
to get off to a good start, then yeah, you
want to win. And this is why it just it
seems to me to be a conflict of interest here
because Bill Belichick was let go because he wasn't winning enough, okay,
and so now you're going to bring in another staff

(01:30:39):
and another head coach, and you're going to be satisfied
with not winning for another two or three years or
haven't brid five years? I mean, that doesn't make any
sense to me.

Speaker 2 (01:30:47):
You know, the bottom, start from the bottom.

Speaker 1 (01:30:54):
Yeah, So start from.

Speaker 2 (01:30:55):
The lowest person responsible for bringing.

Speaker 1 (01:30:58):
In and bump him up or does he climb a ladder?

Speaker 4 (01:31:03):
All right?

Speaker 2 (01:31:05):
If this then move on from your Scotts. That's where
it starts.

Speaker 1 (01:31:14):
Okay, all right, James is gonna let you go because
you're your call is kind of petering out there a
little bit. But uh, look that's certainly would answer to accountability.
I don't know of in practicality, Uh, that would be
the right thing to do within the locker room number one,
number two. They kind of already do it anyway, like
I said, because if a coach is struggling, uh, and

(01:31:38):
and the players are struggling to respond to the coach,
they make it. They make a position switch, they make
an assignment change. You know, they kind of change it
up already anyway. So there's really, you know, very little
tolerance for a lack of success. The proof is in
wins and losses. And my whole argument this entire day

(01:31:59):
to day has been you gotta win. You gotta win.
This is how you escape all the negativity. This is
how you get free agents to come back to New England.
You gotta win. And I just don't think they've got
their best chance to win anything without Drake May in
a quarterback. All right, as we promised. Another podcast host
joining us, and you're probably very familiar with this guy.

(01:32:20):
You see him here. He hosts All the Games here
inside Gillette Stadium, hosts the Six Rings podcast on Odyssey. Uh,
you know, with Andy Hart. Our old friend Nick Stevens
aka Fitzie joining us here inside the playbook. FITZI thanks
for taking a little time today, bro, I know you're
a busy guy.

Speaker 10 (01:32:37):
Oh John, listen, it's a pleasure to finally be on
with you. All we got to do is basically get
Sarge Riley on and then we can have the ultimate
triumvirate voices of gilt Brook Wishie, and of course.

Speaker 1 (01:32:49):
We should do that. Matt, that's a show idea. That
is definitely a show idea, Gillette.

Speaker 10 (01:32:54):
That's a great off season Potter yeah season yeah or whatever.
And you know, listen, I'm not sure what's more garble,
the audio from your previous caller or the mixed messages
coming out of Girod Mayo.

Speaker 1 (01:33:04):
Thanks days, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Sounds like you're gonna you got you got my back
a little on this one, But I mean, I just
what's your initial reaction to the sixty second press convers
he had this morning?

Speaker 10 (01:33:16):
Not a huge fan of and listen, you're talking to
someone who doesn't necessarily practice or traffic and economy of
words on a regular basis. But holy mackerel, if somebody
wants to send Girod Mayo to the University of Phoenix
online or perhaps even just have a quick seminar on
you know, less is more, I think it would be
to his benefit, because well, the man is obviously learning

(01:33:37):
on the fly, wants to do nothing but what's best
for himself, his coaches, and ultimately the team and the organization.
The bumpy in flight messaging that we're receiving right now
is a little frustrating and and it's too bad that
we're focusing on things like wait, but Mayo told me
it was a competition, but now we're going to stick

(01:33:58):
to the plan. Is it the plan? Is it the competition?
Is it what's best for the team? Is this is this,
most notably what ownership wants or is this what you want?

Speaker 8 (01:34:06):
And is it you making the decisions, jirod or is
it the.

Speaker 10 (01:34:10):
Silo free collaborative, you know, arrangement of yourself, Elliott AVP
and whatever else. Like, it's great that he's brought a
lot of adults in the room with professional football coaching
and organizational experience to help him learn, but it's making
a mess out of something that I think should be
streamlined and simpler. Now, you just said a minute ago

(01:34:32):
that you believe John that it's more about winning. That's
what's gonna put asses in the seats, that's gonna move
jerseys at the pro shop, and that's going to get
more people to tune in and hopefully not get the
Patriots flexed off of National TV, or at least get
them back into primetime games. And I'll say, from trying
to be a man of the fans and connecting to
the Foxborough faithful as often as possible, I have gotten

(01:34:55):
a sense, by and large, online and in person, out
in the lots and in the stands that you lette
that fans at this point now.

Speaker 8 (01:35:02):
They don't have any delusions of six rings.

Speaker 10 (01:35:05):
Grander They're not setting their clock by meaningful games in
late Jane. They're not avoiding their trips to Florida in
February because they may be watching championship.

Speaker 8 (01:35:14):
Games or Super Bowls.

Speaker 10 (01:35:16):
They just want a team that is representative of the area,
that is fun to watch, and above all, they want
to see that some foundational pieces, some receivers, a quarterback,
and a few other pieces are in place so they
know they actually have a decent team going forward. I
think the fans are in a better place than we
may give them credit for right now.

Speaker 1 (01:35:35):
Yeah, I'm gonna I would have to kind of agree
with that. I mean, I think fans have largely been realistic,
but I think the fans largely also have great expectations
because of the expectations being elevated here and that just
comes from twenty years of having success and nobody's used
to losing, you know, like this around here. I heard
somebody on a talk show, FITZI. I heard them talk

(01:35:58):
maybe like a week ago, and someone said, Hey, we've
returned to the pre Bill Parcells era around here, And
I'm like, what, No, Because I was here during the
pre Bill Parcells era and before he came along. There
was no run, there was no sing, there was no excitement.

(01:36:20):
There was like Patriots, who cares. They were a poor
number four on the Boston professional sports scene pecking order,
and if there had been Revolution Soccer at the time,
that'd have probably been number five on top of that.
So the issue here is is that whatever decisions are made,
we still have the past twenty years as a glowing

(01:36:43):
example of what can be done. When things are done,
you know the right way and you stick with a plant.
I read into your comments that you just made with
a little sense of frustration, which I guess is partly
where some of mine comes from, because I do think
it's a bit of a mixed message, this whole issue

(01:37:03):
of you know, Gerrod coming out and saying, oh, Jacoby's
the guy, I honestly believe. And I don't know this,
you know, because nobody knows what's inside the head coaches
head except the head coach. I believe he's just simply
living up to a promise he made a Jacoby in
the off season before he signed him to come here.
That's what I think, and so that's why he's starting now.

(01:37:25):
If Jacoby lays a three for fourteen for fifty six
yards and two pick performance against Cincinnati this week. Boom,
he's out, Drake should be in.

Speaker 8 (01:37:34):
Oh you're being optimistic.

Speaker 10 (01:37:35):
Three for fourteen with two picks. No, I gess John,
and I'm with you. See I think at first glance,
I think they brought Jacoby Brissett back in, not because
they wanted to give Pats fans, you know wolf pack
vibes like, hey, guys, look, we couldn't get Garoppolo and
Tom Brady retired, but we got someone who used to
play with. Remember Jacoby Brissett, the guy that Bill Belichick

(01:37:58):
thought so much of he traded him after a season
for Philip Dorset. You know, Brissette gave us that great
Thursday night that will always be grateful for against the Texans,
and then, you know, took the slings and arrows of
a frustrated Pats nation the next week when Jimmy Garoppolo
didn't want to play and Brissett had a torn ligament
in his thumb and they lost fifteen or eighteen. Nothing
to Rex Ryan and the Bills. But he came in

(01:38:21):
because for two reasons. One, he's a good leader and
he's an upright gentleman. We'll see how upright he is
this year, depending on what Chucks acorps for in city.
So have to say about it, but he's a leader,
He's an upright dude. He's a stand up guy, great
high character, and of course they need a lot of
high character guys in a locker room that will soon
or is largely bereffed of the great leaders that were

(01:38:44):
the foundational pieces of the Patriots double dynastic run of
twenty years and number two, he's got a little bit
of the cliffs notes or the cheat code on the
Alex Van Pelt offense, having been in Cleveland in twenty
twenty two. So this makes all the sense in the
world that your mentor and your stand in and hopefully
not your crash test dummy depending on how the line performs,

(01:39:05):
would be a guy like Brissett. Now he'll play better,
I believe for however, of many games he's in there for.
I'm still saying Drake May starts Week five against Miami,
and I'll get.

Speaker 3 (01:39:15):
To that in a second, but.

Speaker 10 (01:39:19):
A guy like Brissett is the right guy to probably
go with. It's not the sexy option, it's not the
fanciest option right now, but it makes a lot of
sense because he understands the offense. He understands what it's
like to start in the NFL, and he's never been
placed as a starter in a situation where it's like,
oh man, we've got super Bowl dreams, Jacobe, just don't

(01:39:39):
blank this up for us. It's more like, hey, guy,
teach the rook hold your ground. We'll promise we'll start
you for a while and we'll reward you handsomely. So
I'm with you in lockstep one hundred percent. They told
him in the spring they were going to start him,
so he's going to get his chance to showcase that
he deserves to be a vested veteran play next year
and be a.

Speaker 8 (01:39:59):
Ten year quarterback.

Speaker 10 (01:40:00):
But there is no denying that Drake May is more exciting,
more electrifying, the better option at quarterback now. And I
don't necessarily believe that, you know, oh God, if they
throw him out there right now, you're got to get
Mac Jones two point zero because he's gonna get crushed
like David Carr.

Speaker 8 (01:40:17):
Did back with the Texans years ago.

Speaker 10 (01:40:19):
Now, I think Drake May is smart and shifty enough
to hold the shirt. Would he take some knocks absolutely,
But I'm a way bigger fan of this kid now
than I was when they drafted him. And that even
began with Sergeant I having a chance to do the
first interview with him live in front of all the
fans at the draft party.

Speaker 1 (01:40:37):
I remember I was three minutes in.

Speaker 10 (01:40:39):
I was like, I like this kid, he's just got
there's a you know, he's country gronk, like, comes from
the big family of brohemoths.

Speaker 8 (01:40:46):
He's humble, strong, quick.

Speaker 10 (01:40:48):
And now the more you see him adjusting, the more
you see him processing and learning, you get the vibe
of like, oh, this is why Joe Shane and Brian
Dayball looked at him the same that I look at
a carvel cake every time it's in front of me.

Speaker 1 (01:41:03):
I get it.

Speaker 8 (01:41:04):
Oh man, this guy, this kid's got it. He definitely
has it.

Speaker 1 (01:41:08):
Yeah, very very good points. All right, before I let
you get on to the other stuff. Any of the
thoughts about the fifty three anything surprise you about the
guys that are actually going to take the field next week,
the way that it's made up right now against Cincinnati.

Speaker 8 (01:41:22):
Two things. One on the offensive side of the ball. Yes,
you know.

Speaker 10 (01:41:26):
I even put a Twitter poll out yesterday, John just
asking Pats fans, like, what do you believe if the
Patriots are going to have rough seas, if these will
be troubled times in twenty twenty four, what do you
think will be the what is their ultimate undoing or
give them the hardest time? Eighty seven percent of responding
said the offensive line.

Speaker 8 (01:41:44):
So that is the ultimate work in progress.

Speaker 10 (01:41:48):
And I really hope that that doesn't sink per set,
sink may or sink the season an important developmental season
when you're turning a ship in a canal and trying
to reboot the greatest frames in NFL history. And I
disagree with all those fans that say we've gone back
to the Dick McPherson pre parcels era.

Speaker 8 (01:42:09):
You know, look, while I try to live a youthful life.

Speaker 1 (01:42:12):
At the same time, you're old like I am.

Speaker 10 (01:42:16):
I'm an old soul, but I try to I try
to live young. You know, I got the riz, as
the kids like to say. Yeah, now, whenever you call
it the RIZ, that ages you out something wicked. But
you know, I, you know, I remember the good old
days when you know, the games like the fans were
blacked out. I remember those times when guys used to
come up to me and say like, yeah, I was
on my way to the game and I had far

(01:42:37):
extra tickets I couldn't give away. You know, I put
them on. I put them on someone's windshield, hoping they'd
get used. I came out of the game in the
third quarter when the Pats were down thirty one nothing,
there were sixteen tickets on the windshield. Those days were brutal,
but we remember them because they're what make us appreciate
the now more than before. But the Patriots this is
we're not being led by Jerrod rust or Rod Mayo.

(01:42:59):
Is some fan are already calling him like, you have
to give this time to set in now. I love
the fact that they're going young at the receiver room,
and I'm really hopeful that a couple of guys like
Polk and Baker or maybe Kayshawn Booty will emerge as
playmakers going forward. And on the flip side, John with
the defense, don't expect this. You know the Gangbusters pass

(01:43:22):
rush of twenty twenty one, when Judan first burst onto
the scene and fed off of Judon's seconds. It's gonna
be a it's gonna be a stout bend but don't
break defense. And again, let's just look for a couple
of people to emerge from the moras in the effort
this season. That'll make Pats fans proud. You know, if

(01:43:42):
we can see if Gonzo holds up for the season,
Marcus Jones is healthy and they figure out what to
do with Marte Maphu and Keon White right gives you
William McGinnis vibes, then we're.

Speaker 8 (01:43:52):
On the road to redemption.

Speaker 1 (01:43:54):
I would totally. I'll go along with that. I absolutely
go along with that. FITSI thank you for the time,
and we got to do that show. Gotta get you
and me and sarage on together. We're gonna have to
work on that. So we'll get in the marine to
get on that one and see what we can schedule
that one up sometime and they're not too far distant futures.

Speaker 10 (01:44:08):
That sound Okay, Holler at me anytime for a qualified
Pats chat, my man. You know where I live, in
the heart of Patriots Nation and all the good Fox
bro faithful.

Speaker 1 (01:44:15):
Yeah, baby, it works, Thank you, Thank you. Nick Stevens
at fitsigfy. You can figure out what the GFY stands
for if you want to but that's where you find him.
Find him on x as well, and I appreciate his
time today. All right, let's move from that onto Chad Graft,
who covers the Patriots for the Athletic Beat, writer for
the New England Patriots for the Athletic and the Athletic

(01:44:36):
dot Com, and he joined us here in the playbook.
Hey Chad, was your what was your initial reaction to
the sixty second pressure that Gerrod had this morning?

Speaker 4 (01:44:47):
So a couple of things on that free presser. The
first thing is that of course goes surprise, like if
you listen to Mayo Vanpell even a little bit of
Elliot at all over the last six months been telling us,
signaling to us, hey, we want this kid, this drake
made to sit on the bench to learn a little bit.
We don't want to do anything that could, you know,

(01:45:09):
jeopardize his confidence or his footwork or as fundamentals. We
don't want to scar him drawd Mayo even saying like, hey,
we've all seen rookies who were thrown to the wolves
and it didn't go well. So they very much wanted to,
you know, start with your COVID p sett And I
think it's also fair to say that they recognize what
is around the quarterback, what the offensive line looks like,

(01:45:29):
what the wide receivers look like. So, on the one hand,
not surprised. I think the bigger question, though, becomes, is
this a situation where there's just a shortly for Jacoby
Brissett and you know we're talking about Drake May starting
week five? Or is this something that you know they're
willing to take it all the way to the bye
like week fourteen before making the switch. That really, to me,

(01:45:52):
is the much bigger question.

Speaker 1 (01:45:54):
Sure it is, Sure it is, and I totally agree
with that. I I just, you know, the I have
a hard time wrapping myself around, you know, having been
in a lot of locker rooms and having played the
sport at a very limited level decades ago, but knowing
how football players react to how coaches make their decisions.

(01:46:15):
You know, mine was you know, having you know, coaches
yell on me or rook, you're too slow, rook, you're
running the wrong route, rook, you missed the tackle. So okay.
I understand that maybe football wasn't my sport, but I'm
going to expect my coach to coach me up to
the point where I can at least be competitive. And
I already know that this is a violent game, all right.
This is why we enjoy it, it's why we play it.

(01:46:37):
And I made this point a little bit early on
the show before you jumped in. But here's the thing.
These guys know what's coming. Drake May knows what's coming,
all right. The offensive line knows, Hey, we need to
protect this guy. Okay, they're not stupid. So if Drake
May gives you the best chance to win, why is
he not playing? Because aren't we coached since day one

(01:47:00):
getting into organized team sports that the best players will play.
And I'm not worried about the three or four or
five game future big picture, three or four or five
years even down the line. I'm talking about now, because
the players play for today. Their shelf life on the
field is so damn short anyway, because of the physicality

(01:47:21):
of the sport that you know, you don't know if
you'll have tomorrow. Around here, I want to see a
team that wants to go out and scratch and claw
every night, is best every day as best as they can,
and just be representative. I know they didn't get that
a lot of times last year, and again, that's part
of the reason why the coaching staff is different. Okay,

(01:47:43):
but this can only mean one thing, Chad, and I
mentioned this earlier in the show as well. This is
a promise being fulfilled to Jacoby before they signed him,
that you'll be our guy.

Speaker 4 (01:47:57):
Yeah. Well, and this is where it gets fascinating to
me for two reasons that you mentioned. One is that
you know, Gerrod comes in as a former player and
gives a big speech before training camp talking about, Hey,
you've all seen five star guys who come in and
think they've made it but don't end up being very good.
And that's not what we're gonna be about here in
New England.

Speaker 5 (01:48:16):
We're gonna be about if you go and earn it.

Speaker 4 (01:48:18):
On the field, you're gonna get playing time. And that's
a locker room that just saw how well Drake May
can play. That saw the throws he can make. Like
it's no secret anymore that Drake May is probably the
better of the two quarterbacks they have now. I think
it's important to take it in the context of everything
where you look at last season and by the end

(01:48:38):
of that when they were losing games ten to seven,
ten to six, six to zero, I think I've blacked
out that game, but I was going back and verified
they did lose six to zero to the Chargers.

Speaker 1 (01:48:48):
They did. They did.

Speaker 4 (01:48:49):
The defensive players last year. We're getting frustrated and thick
of this, like we're doing our job and yet we're
not even coming close to winning. And so a lot
of those same defensive players, And that, to me is
where you know this question with Drake comes in. Is
if they start out zero to four with these tough
first four games, I'm sure you're gonna get a lot

(01:49:11):
of those same players who were frustrated last year looking
around and asking drub like, what's going on, man, why
are we not playing this guy who's shown us all
of this promise just because you're scared that the offensive
line might allow us to sack. And so I think
that's worth monitoring. I do think it is the right decision.
I would start Jacoby Prisette, but I would be pretty

(01:49:33):
quick to switch to Drake Man. I think if things
don't go well, Look, the offensive line's not great, the
receivers aren't great. Drake may six four, he was behind
a bad line last year. He's got movement skills like
he's a tough kid. I'm not all that concerned about,
you know, if he has to play twelve games behind
the struggling offensive.

Speaker 1 (01:49:51):
Line, neither am I, and I want to I want
you to know I gave you full credit for that
earlier in the show today, the fact that I, you know,
was reading your story that you wrote in the aftermath
of Jacoby's anointment today as a starter and brought up
that very fact. You know, the defense played well, the
offense wasn't doing crap, and there was some frustration in
the locker room. It was palpable. We heard it, okay,

(01:50:13):
So if you're around it, you hear it. You know it,
not just from fans, but from the players and from
others around the team as well. And so if it
starts out that way this year, absolutely you're gonna lose
these guys. You're gonna lose them before you ever had them.
And I think you're playing with fire scarecrow. That's what
I think.

Speaker 4 (01:50:32):
Yeah, Well, and I also just think, like Drake may
gives you so much more. Is his command of this
alex Vantel offense as good as Jacob p says, No,
would he miss a couple of checks based off you know,
what a complex defense is doing that Jacobe wouldn't miss. Probably, yeah, probably,
But also like that third down scramble from the preseason

(01:50:53):
game the other day, that shows you the trouble that
he can get out of when things are not there
that Jacoby just lacked. Correct the Bigs throw to kJ
Osborne for the touchdown that wasn't because of one of
the penalties, Like that shows you a throw and an
athleticisn't to escape the pocket that Jacobe just doesn't have.
And so you know, that's why I think that Drake has.

(01:51:15):
It's a good problem basically for the Patriots, who kind
of knew this whole time that they were going to
have Jacoby Prissette start. But the fact that Drake may
made it even slightly a tough decision is a really
good thing. Yes, And now my concern and hope is
I just hope that if the season goes south, they're
not just going to sit around saying, hey, the plan

(01:51:36):
was to sit Drake all year until week fourteen, and
so we're sticking to that. Like if the season starts
out bad, both for the fans who want to see
something exciting and also just because I think Drake is
good enough and tough enough make the switch.

Speaker 1 (01:51:51):
It's not going well, that's the next thing that we
need to be monitoring. You're one hundred percent right on
that one. What's your overall thought? Chad Graffagan from the
Athletic joining us here in the playbook, So what your
overall thought on the final fifty three was? Were there
any surprises? And is there another red flag other than
the offensive line that you can really see that could
be problematic as the season gets underway.

Speaker 4 (01:52:13):
So I don't think it's necessarily problematic, but I don't
love the defensive depth right now. Like everybody's penciling in
the defense to be a top ten group, and I
do think that they're going to be, you know, the
strength of this team and all of that, and yet
I would be a little bit concerned if there are

(01:52:34):
any more injuries. Of course, right now we're already a
little bit concerned of what the pass rush is going
to look like without far More and Judon. But I
just you know, Girodmeo is a good defensive coach. I
think de Marcus Covington, I think it's a good defensive coach.
We just don't know how much of last year's success
was Bill Belichick just straight up being better than everybody
else with defensive game planning. And so you know, that's

(01:52:58):
more of a question mark to me, and I think
it is to other people of you just want the
best defensive coach of all time? Are you still going
to be able to yield similar results to last year?
You know they're sure banking on it, But I do
think that's a fair question.

Speaker 1 (01:53:15):
Yeah, and I think that's what we need to be
concerned with, you know, right off the bat. So look,
we all know it's a huge work in progress here,
but it is also a bottom line business. It is
all about winning, and you want to be able to
put your best foot forward to have a chance to
win what is undeniably going to be a difficult schedule

(01:53:36):
for this team. I just thought it was curious. I
mentioned this earlier in the show and wanted to get
your thoughts on this quickly. But the Patriots are the
only team well, let's put it this way. They're not
the only team where fans are hammering the under, but
more fans are hammering the under on their win loss
total than any other team in the league at four
and a half eighty percent. Of the money is going

(01:53:57):
on the under for New England. The perception is this
team is not good. How do you change that?

Speaker 4 (01:54:06):
You know that severe? Yeah, usually, you know, I think
if you look at the numbers, usually it pays to
go over on the team with the worst win loss
and under on the team with the best.

Speaker 1 (01:54:19):
That's what I'm saying. Eight is on the under for
a team that has a four and a half over under.

Speaker 4 (01:54:27):
That's just yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:54:28):
I mean, wow, this is.

Speaker 4 (01:54:30):
A league of parody, and you know games are going
to be close and one score games, even if you're
a bad team, even if you're a roster is worse.
So having said all of that, you know all kind
of offseason. I've been going back and forth between whether
I'm going to predict a four and thirteen record or
a five and twelve record. And I do think that

(01:54:51):
the offense is going to be a little bit better.
I think I'm more optimistic than most about the offense,
mainly because I think one strike may get in. Like
he's so far and away the real deal. I was
so so impressed with him and training camp these last
couple of weeks in the preseason. So I think there's
a ton of optimism there. I'm probably less optimistic about

(01:55:13):
the defense than most and that's kind of what's holding
me back from getting to like six wins or so.
But to me, it all just depends on when they
go to Drake. If they go to Drake May week five,
then I would hammer that over. If it's not until
like week fourteen, all of a sudden, I'm thinking more
like four and thirteen.

Speaker 1 (01:55:33):
So I'm gonna put you on the hook. Then what
do you think the Patriots will end up this year?

Speaker 4 (01:55:38):
I'm going four and thirteen. I just everything that they've
said indicates they really want to wait on Drake. They
want to give them time to develop. I'm not going
to be shocked if they wait all the way to
you know, week twelve, thirteen, fourteen. I wouldn't do that,
but gosh, everything that they're saying and doing is saying,

(01:55:58):
we want this guy to develop. We're fine with him
sitting a full year on the bench. Take to Patrick
Mahomes route. It's not what I personally would do, but gosh,
I'm just really skeptical that even if they start oh
and four, they're gonna make the change. I sure hope
that they do. It would be much more interesting. I
think they'd be a better team. The fans would be excited, Like,

(01:56:18):
think of how fun the Jollette Stadium would be for
that October sixth game against the Dolphin Huge Drake May's
first starting. It would be like the most fun environment
that there ever was for an OH to four team.

Speaker 1 (01:56:32):
Gosh, I hope we don't get to that point, but
I understand your point exactly. Hey, Chad, thank you for
the time. I appreciate it. I look forward to visiting
with you during the course of the regular season, and
hopefully we have some good stuff to talk about.

Speaker 4 (01:56:43):
Exactly for sure. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:56:45):
All right, you got it again, Chad Graft from the
Athletic catch your stuff on the Athletic dot com. He's
at Chad grab ch a d g r a ff
on X. Wow. So much stuff today, some good stuff today,
really good. Let me get finished with a couple of
quick emails. John, This is Matt from Vienna, Austria. That

(01:57:10):
was weak. I got a yodettle better than that. Okay,
I don't get that. The Jacoby starter thing as well.
Drake's incredibly talented. He shall be the future franchise QB
and he is absolutely ready to start. Guy's got a
strong arm, he is real accurate, got a quick release.
He can deal with a line which is not the best.
I agree. He can get out of the pocket, he

(01:57:30):
can throw on the run, he can take runs himself.
After about being hurt, you can get hurt by funding
out of your bed like I do. That's absolutely no point.
So let's go with a running game where we've got
no one less than Remonstra Stevenson and I guess Gibson
is ok too, And let's go with quick slants, drags in,
cross the screens options, really good, good email my thighs.

(01:57:53):
You got it, Broddy, and I thank you for taking
the time here. I think I've got one more here
that I wanted to share, Victor. I'm really hopeful that
Drake may will be the future of our franchise and
that he'll be with us ten to fifteen years from now.
MY main concern isn't about delaying his timeline, but ensuring
he reaches his full potential. I'm ready to suffer another
year as long as the future is bright. With that

(01:58:16):
in mind, I'm curious to hear your thoughts could playing
him early, especially behind the shaky offensive line lead to
bad habits that might be difficult to correct and ultimately
limit his potential. Or conversely, could keeping him on the
bench for too long affect his confidence and swagger and
in turn limit his ceiling? Great questions, Victor, perfect questions.
I think to kind of in the program with today

(01:58:38):
on number one here? Could playing him early force bad
habits because of the shaky offensive line. That's entirely up
to the coaching staff, because sometimes you have to adjust
on the fly because the left tackle business a block,
or the guard doesn't pull, or as we saw against Washington,
pulling guard runs into the tackle and you get flattened.

(01:59:00):
Could make you a little bit of gunshy. Can't deny
that now, Could keeping him on the bench for too
long affect his confidence and swagger and maybe limit his ceiling? Yes,
I said earlier in the show, athletes need reps. How
do athletes improve? How do you get better by practicing

(01:59:21):
what's the best practice? Playing and learning on the fly,
getting game reps. That's how athletes improve, and it happens
in every sport. So my point is is that you
really have no control over both of your questions, Victor,
and if you're in it to win it. Play the

(01:59:41):
man simple. I kind of agree with what everybody has
said on the show today that you know, hey, and
doubtedly he's gonna play. Yeah, he will, he will. But
the best thing that could happen for the Patriots, I mean,
let's say Jacoby Brissett takes off and plays like you
did a couple of years ago and complete sixty four

(02:00:02):
percent of his passes and finishes fifteenth or sixteenth midway
in the NFL and passer rating and all that kind
of stuff. That's a good year. I mean, the Patriots
feel like they signed Youakoby Present anyway because they thought
he could be a potential top ten to fifteen caliber
quarterback in the NFL. That's why they went and got
him in the first place. So let's say he has
a top ten to fifteen type of year and Drake sits.

(02:00:25):
Does the franchise really benefit from this? Ask yourself that question,
does the franchise? Does this team benefit if Jacoby really
takes off like that? No? Play the man? That's all
I got. Hey, Football season is here. Sullivan Tyre and

(02:00:48):
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(02:01:11):
Go Patriots. And of course, the program and all of
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Thanks to Clasyclare Claire Cooper, thanks to Fitzigfy Nick Stevens,
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(02:01:32):
time to tune in today Here on the program, I'm
John Rook and for Matt Morell, the Marine, who will
be producing throughout the entire regular season. We will launch
officially our in season Patriots Playbook here on Patriots dot
Com Radio for a twenty fourth season next Wednesday, right
here on Patriots dot com two thirty Eastern Time live.

(02:01:55):
And then, of course if you can't even get it live,
you'd be able to download the podcast for later playback
all right, so we'll talk to you next Wednesday, Game
week one, We're on to Cincinnati.

Speaker 8 (02:02:09):
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Speaker 1 (02:02:15):
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