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July 24, 2025 14 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Speaking of guys that will break it down in terms

(00:02):
of all the x's and o's. It's our good friend
from Bleacher Report here to talk a little AFC East
with us today. It's Damien Parson, what's up, DP.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
What's going on? And on on. We're not too far out,
not too far.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Out, man, it's here like the preseason. It's that Hall
of Fame game we've talked about that we all kind
of tune in for a second that we fall asleep
and we all can't wait to see third stringers playing
in real uniforms next week. Tradition, tradition, and lucky the
other man, it's going to be around the corner. So
I hope you've been good man. It's good to hear
your voice. And we were been talking this week mostly

(00:35):
AFC East as we had a guest on touching on
the Jets here and let's just get your perspective real
quick on that team before we moved to the rest
of the division because they had some news come out
of Florham Park. Today, we're just in fields. A lot
of scare about what happened with his foot and he
was carted off, but was he really carted off? And
a lot of confusion. Turns out it's a dislocated toe.

(00:57):
What do you feel the prognosis could be for that,
and what's your perspective if he's healthy in terms of
the jet ceiling this year?

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, you know, as soon as I saw the news,
I text one of my guys who was one of
the deep reporters over there. I was like, hey, like,
you know, how did it look? He said it didn't
look great. He was like, but we're hopeful that it's
you know, it just looked worse than what it was.
And some of the reports the dislocated toe sounds like
he's gonna like he's not gonna miss significant time and
he's probably gonna avoid surgery hopefully. So if so, that's big. Now.

(01:28):
The impact of that is he is a very mobile
and run reliant quarterback and have a dislocated toe kind
of nixed that in the butt a little bit. So
it'll be interesting to see how long they keep him out.
They haven't listed day to day. I honestly, honestly, for me,
I need him more ready for the regular season. In preseason,
he's not taking a snapping preseason. I'm going to rest

(01:51):
him as much as possible. Let that toe, heel up
and everything to where he's comfortable planting, cutting, moving in
the pocket and being able to play as close to
one hundred percent of Justin Field's football as possible. Right
with his rushing ability, you have Breeze Halt in the backfield,
who's there to do it all back he catches the

(02:11):
ball in the backfield, he's explosive, he's fast. Then you
got the hammer that is Brayln Allen now of Wisconsin
and everything and those two skill sets meshed well together,
and for me, it's like a healthy Justin Fields with
you can get very creative with that. You can come
out with deuced personnel, two running backs and run some
triple option truthfully, right, you can get very creative in

(02:33):
the run game. Right, the qbz on reads the read options,
holding that backside in, giving one of those running backs
whoever's back there with him, that a little bit lighter
of a front or that less of a man you
have to worry about, and then off the play action
that connections between him and Garrett Wilson. I was expecting
that to blossom and flourish this year and everything, because

(02:54):
Garrett seems much happier with him being there than he
did last year with Aaron Rodgers. So that's gonna be
a thing to watch all training camp, all preseason is
how quickly does he heal? He's still young, so how
quickly does he heal from this and get back to
being Justin Fields two.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Today series continues here on Game On with Damian Parson
from Bleacher Report re zoning in on the AFC East today.
He didn't hear the news earlier. Justin Fields has dislocated
his toe and it's to be determined how long he'll
be out. Let's move a little north there. In terms
of Boston and the New England Patriots, Mike Rabel, the
verbel effect. Obviously things are a lot tighter in terms

(03:34):
of the operation there this year. The last years of
Belichick were not his finest, and obviously, you know Gerond
Mayo was put in a terrible spot in my opinion,
But now it's rable back of the building. Josh McDaniels
and I've seen a lot of conversation about when Cam
Newton played under McDaniels. There was a lot of the
run game incorporated. McDaniel's caught a lot of design runs.
Part of that, I think was the shoulder injury with Newton.

(03:56):
But do you see Drake May getting more involved in
terms of running the ball under McDaniels this year.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
I think I think he will. I think he should.
Like he was. He's a big after the quarterback that
knows how to utilize his legs. He did it at
North Carolina just by creating for himself, not even just
QB design stuff. It was like, hey, I dropped back three,
four the five step drops, and if nothing's open and
the pocket's collapsing, I can get out of the pocket,

(04:22):
extend plates, create those second reaction throwing throwing opportunities, or
I could just take it myself. And we've seen him
go fifteen to twenty sometimes thirty yards down the field
because he has that level athleticism. I think that should
be factored in and like, of course, not to the
effect of being a pure like that two dual threat

(04:43):
quarterback where he's got one hundred two hundred carries in
the season, but fifty to seventy five and some of
that being you know, especially goal line stuff or red
zones thirty and fives. He's the type of quarterback that
old adage of make you play eleven versus eleven. He's
the type of quarterback athletically that can do that.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
They got a young receiving core too, with the obviously
edition of Stephan Diggs brings that age up a little
bit collectively. But Kyle Williams, of course, a lot of
people are high on him. They've added Mac Collins, who
I love from Buffalo. I thought Mac was a very
good component of what they did. What about the weapons
he's throwing to You've got that group and then Hunter
Henry Austin Hooper. Is there still something to be desired there?

(05:24):
Do you have some faith that Diggs can still threaten
the defense on the outside?

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah, I think Diggs can. I think he to me,
Digs should be the high volume target, you know what
I mean in terms of just he's the number one.
He's the guy especially the short to intermediate and really
allowed him and Pop Douglas there should be that should
own that area of the field for Drake May and

(05:50):
Kyle Williams, especially bringing that four four speed, the explosiveness
down the field act and the catch he brings that.
But Kesee, a guy who had who he had very
good chemistry with last year. I think he's gonna make
some places in this offense as well. The question is
what happens with Jalen Polk because I think I saw

(06:10):
a report earlier that that he might be on the
chopping block, and I'm like, wasn't he a second round
pick last year? Seems very I don't know, it just
seems very odd that he could be on the chopping
block this early. And all I know is that if
he was, some team is going to pick him up
for free and get a very talented wide receiver, a

(06:33):
young receiver. You know, you look at the Washington Commanders,
who could definitely use more receiver help, especially if Terry
mccaughin doesn't doesn't return or he doesn't get to get
the contract he wants. So yeah, I think, no New England,
this this whole entire pre this, this entire training camp
in preseason. For me, for New England, it figured see
what we will talk about getting the best five on

(06:54):
the offensive line, not need to find your top three,
find your best three for that for that. Let them
personnel to go on the field with Hana, Henry, whoever's
that tight end when you really got to throw the ball.
That's going to be the key there, because what you
want is you want Drake me on those like closing
of the half drives, those game winning drives, different things

(07:15):
like that where those two dropback sets, you're in ten
eleven personnel. The guys that's on the field with him,
he has to be able to trust. He has to
trust that they're gonna get open and they're gonna make
the players of their acts to make. So that's gonna
be a big thing for the New England Patriots this
entire preseason heading into the regular season.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
Damian Parson Bleacher Report is our guest. Heers our two
day series takes us into the AFC East. A couple
more teams to hit on here. The Miami Dolphins have look,
they had that run a couple of years ago where
they start fast and you start to believe that this
is the whole operation with Mike McDaniel can make it
into the playoffs and make a run. And that Week
eighteen game where Buffalo went down and stole the division away.

(07:53):
They haven't been the same since, and they've lost some
guys since then. It tied end. They've lost some guys
on the defensive side. I want to ask you this
trade with Pittsburgh or our buddy Trey Falco here a
big Steeler fan. We're hearing a lot of talk about
you know, Jalen Ramsey wanted out, he got out, he
moves on. What does Minka Fitzpatrick bring to this defense?
And do you think that was a good trade for

(08:15):
Miami even if Ramsey did one out?

Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yeah, I think I think it's a good trade. Like
when guys aren't happy, and I think that was one
of the concerning things coming out. I did a piece
probably maybe a month ago at Beachell for about head
coaches that should be on the hot seat or all
on the hot seat. Yeah, I look at him. I
know that Dave publicly said that he's not Mike McDaniels.
To me, he's on the hot seat. And it's because

(08:39):
of the fact when you had veteran players wanting out,
like and it's kind of a like almost a culture issue.
That's a problem like that is there's a flat out
problem in the NFL. There's one thing in college where
you know, they're young kids, they're eighteen, nineteen years old.
These are grown in with families and mortgages and kids

(08:59):
that got put through. When the guys are willing to say, hey,
get me out of here because they don't like the culture.
That's a problem for me. So yeah, I think swapping
it out makes sense. Mica is not a Macon comes
in and he's a he's been there before, but under
a different regime. So you get a fresh face. You
get a guy that's not disgruntled, that's gonna be there

(09:21):
with the young defensive backs and things of that nature
and come in and just put his head down to
work and make plays right. Versatility to play man, play zone,
drop off, fill some of that like big Nickel role
if you wanted to bring him down to Remember he
played corner at Bama all those years ago. I mean
Hecker I think his first year in the league under
floor as well, has played them at corner, which no

(09:44):
one agreed with, like they were like, no play it
at safety, and he played them at corner. So he
gives you that versatility that could help this team. And
it's this secondary out, So I think it'll be a
I think it's a trade that could end up being
just a watch. Both teams get what they want, both
of them improve in their secondaries, and they get happy players.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
Yeah, it's important to have happy players. I mean, you
can have good players, but if they're not buying them.
Remember Jalen Ramsey pretty much ran Vic Fangio out of town,
among others, worked out pretty well in Philly. So we'll
see how it works with the Dolphins. A lot of
challenges for their coach, Mike McDaniel, As you mentioned, I
agree he's on the hot seat, and I think to
a certain degree, I don't want to say it's hot

(10:26):
seed firing season for McDermott. I mean, if they fell
off the ramp and just missed the playoffs, maybe, but
there's some growing buzz out of Balta or Buffalo. I
should say that if they don't start breaking through in
the playoffs that they might look elsewhere. The bigger question
to me is Josh Allen's receiving corps. Obviously, there's the
youngster key On Coleman from Florida State who impressed last year.

(10:48):
At times they bring in Josh Palmer. I love Shakir
there in the slot. Who's he throwing to educate us
a little bit? And do you expect sort of a
by committee situation there because I don't see one guy
that's just gonna be a high volume guy on the outside.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
Yeah, I think it's gonna be a a passing game
by committee. I think Johnston gonna spread the ball around,
and I think that's where he's most dangerous, where he's
not locking in on one guy and now anyone and
everyone on the field of a threat. And that's I
remember those you know, those Tom Brady led Patriots teams.
It said, yeah, you know, you know, the slot was

(11:25):
the point of the offense. But when they when they
had a well rounded more of a well rounded receiver corps,
maybe not the they didn't have the true number one,
that dominant guy is going to catch one hundred and
seventy passes for fourteen hundred yards to fifteen touchdowns. But
everybody can, anybody in the lineup can get you ten

(11:45):
for one hundred any given sunday. That's why you really
are dangerous as a team, simply because of the fact
of you can't just double a guy. You got to
play honest. You don't know who's the hot guy. You
don't know who they're trying to feed the ball to.
And it's like, yeah, well everybody is averaging close to
the same amount of targets and things like that. I
think that should be the approach. Of course, you want

(12:05):
to get the passing game going quickly, so the slot
and guy's like Shakir should be early in the packing order.
But I do I'm interested to see how the maturation
of Keyon Coleman goes this this training camp in preseason
and not think they say he had a little bit
of a rough day on day one, bounce back on
day two. So let's see if he can now start

(12:27):
stacking days and being in that middle of the field,
always talking about it. If he can't, if you can't
create vertical explosives, create horizontal explosives right for your guys.
You know with the Panthers, Bryce is not a vertical
explosive throwing quarterback, but he can hit the horizontal explosives,
those deep crosses, things of that nature fifteen twenty twenty

(12:49):
five yards down the field and move the chains in
big chunks. I think Keon Coleman can do that for Buffalo,
And if he can add a little bit more, especially
back shoulder fade and stuff down the sideline, really unlock
this offense even more. They need to get more out
of Dawtin can gain. He's too talented, are not to
be a full blown mismatch problem for safeties and for linebackers.

(13:10):
He's built kind of like a big receiver in a sense,
and he kind of plays like it too. You want
to see him take that step forward this year. And yeah,
I mean McDermott, great coach, great guy and everything, but
at the end of the day, it's all about winning.
And if you keep getting knocked out by Mahomes there,
you know, for God forbid. Now you face face Lamar
again and Lamar knocks you out this time, there will

(13:34):
be more and more chatter getting louder from the fan
base of man is this Are we just going to
be stuck here? And that's what you don't want to
be now.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
You don't want to be stuck. We know that, and
we're a lot smarter now about the AFC East thanks
to our good buddy Damian Parson, host of the Lockdown
Draft NFL podcast and of course just a star of
their Bleacher Report covering all the training camps and everything.
Follow him on Twitter at DP Underscore NFL go to
catch up with he man. I'm glad we connected, and
let's do it again before the season starts.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
Yes, sir,
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