Patriots insider Tom E. Curran weighs in on the Patriots trading Matthew Judon

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Patriots insider Tom E. Curran weighs in on the Patriots trading Matthew Judon, the Patriots season preseason game tonight, Drake Maye so far this offseason.

Transcript

00:00Tommy Curran, how are we doing today?

00:02I am tremendous. How are you guys?

00:04Good to have you all back.

00:05Oh, we're doing excellent.

00:06Let me start with Matthew Judon.

00:08I know you feel it's a good return.

00:10Your colleague, Phil Perry, has reported

00:12on some executives in the league being shocked

00:14by the return. Why do it now?

00:16Like, in retrospect, why'd they wait so long

00:18and not get this done earlier in the offseason?

00:22Most likely it had to do with the fact

00:24nobody answered up a third-round pick prior.

00:26So that, to me, seems like

00:30the Occam's razor answer to this.

00:33Nobody else was offering a third-round pick

00:35until now. Other teams got desperate,

00:37said, we'll give you a third.

00:39Boom. Good. Done. Okay.

00:40We didn't think we'd get that.

00:42I can't imagine it's anything else.

00:44You're not going to just stand there

00:46for months at an impasse with a guy

00:48with no intention of giving him a long-term contract

00:51and him kicking rocks at practices

00:53if there's a third-round pick compensation

00:56I would imagine it's because of the return.

00:59Was there value in taking a little less,

01:01and this is in theory, but in your opinion,

01:03would there have been value in taking, say,

01:04a fourth-round pick at the beginning of the offseason,

01:06not going through the whole headache

01:07and the drawn-out process versus taking

01:09the third-rounder in 2025?

01:12In my estimation, no.

01:13I think they actually had an opportunity

01:16from Mayo to show some authority,

01:19and he did. When you look at all the contract

01:21impasses around the NFL,

01:23how many are ongoing that actually have

01:25the player on the field practicing?

01:28Yes, there was a dust-up at one practice

01:32that I think Mayo navigated pretty well,

01:34and since then you've had the player

01:36out on the field playing with a contract

01:38he doesn't like and playing pretty hard

01:40and taking part in everything.

01:41So to me, if you moved on earlier,

01:46you weren't going to get the same return,

01:48and in the end, when you look at it in hindsight,

01:51what kind of damage was done?

01:54Tom, you wrote about what we can expect

01:56in this second preseason game

01:58with how much playing time Drake May might get,

02:01especially compared to the first preseason game.

02:03There's a lot of stuff flying around out there

02:05about, like, are they trying to protect him

02:07or are they trying to hide him?

02:09What grade would you give Drake May

02:12at this point in training camp,

02:14knowing that you've been down there

02:15pretty much every single day

02:17watching every single snap he's taken?

02:20I'd give him a C.

02:21It's just a straight C.

02:23He has not exceeded expectations.

02:25He has not been below expectations.

02:29He's a project.

02:31Mayo said it at the owners' meetings

02:33when talking about all the quarterbacks.

02:35He has a low floor and a high ceiling.

02:38So right now they're trying to get him

02:40off the ground floor.

02:41He's made improvement since rookie minicamp

02:43to the end of minicamp.

02:44He's made improvement since the beginning

02:46of training camp.

02:47When you watch him in seven-on-seven,

02:48he's more than fine.

02:50They're definitely not playing seven-on-seven

02:52when the season starts.

02:53But the fact that the offensive line

02:55is in the disarray that it's been

02:56has really hamstrung him

02:59from showing up on a regular enough basis

03:01as a competent quarterback

03:04that you can say, oh, he's tracking

03:05to be the starter sometime this year.

03:07But I'd have to call it a C

03:08because if you didn't look at this team

03:12and the offense that it was last year

03:14at the end of the season

03:15or in the last two-thirds of the season

03:17and realize they were completely

03:19bereft of talent

03:21and realize that there was going to be

03:22an ongoing process to get them back

03:24to even have their heads above water,

03:26then you're selectively remembering

03:28just how bad it was.

03:31How much do you think we'll see May tonight

03:33and what conclusions will you draw

03:35based on his number of snaps?

03:39I think he's going to play a lot,

03:40which I think is worth a second guess

03:43because if you're going to play him a lot

03:45this week against the Eagles,

03:48who are a much better defense than Carolina,

03:52you could have played him a crap ton

03:53last week against Carolina

03:55and had it been less harm's way

03:56if that's the biggest concern.

03:58And I do think that's a big concern

04:00is they don't want to put him out there

04:02with players who aren't prepared to block for him.

04:04To me, I don't care.

04:06That happens.

04:07It happens to every rookie quarterback

04:09at some point.

04:10Is he going to get a twisted knee?

04:12Most likely not.

04:13Could he? Yep, still.

04:15Put him out there against Carolina.

04:16They're going to do it with Philadelphia now.

04:19You can game it up.

04:20You can run draws, screens.

04:21You don't have to throw it 35 times.

04:25But to me, it's a missed opportunity last week

04:28and this week since you acknowledge

04:30he's a developmental quarterback.

04:31These are the developmental periods.

04:33Use them.

04:34So you're going to see a lot of them.

04:35All that said, Christian,

04:37I think you'll see him

04:39certainly by the second quarter

04:41and maybe after halftime.

04:43Interesting.

04:44Okay, so Tommy Curran expects a lot of Drake May tonight,

04:46which I'm rooting for.

04:47I think we're all rooting for.

04:48He joins us here from NBC Sports Boston.

04:50Tom, you wrote this either over the weekend,

04:52late last week.

04:53I forget exactly when it was,

04:54but it was in the aftermath of Ayuk,

04:57which is still a mess in San Francisco.

04:59Is he staying with the Niners?

05:00Is he going to Pittsburgh?

05:01We know the Patriots aren't going to get him.

05:02And you said the Patriots haven't been

05:04this unattractive since 1992.

05:08I guess I wouldn't imagine that's changed at all

05:10since you wrote it, since the Judon move.

05:13Why do you feel that way?

05:16In 1993, they had Bill Parcells

05:18and soon drafted Drew Bledsoe.

05:20And since then, even in the Pete Carroll years,

05:23you had a litany of highly drafted,

05:25very good players, Bledsoe included,

05:27who by that time was a Pro Bowl level player.

05:30You had McGinnis, Molloy.

05:32You had a good team that had just gone to a Super Bowl.

05:35And even in Bill's first year in 2000,

05:37that's a team coming off 8-8 that went 5-11,

05:41but it still had Bledsoe.

05:43So they still had a Pro Bowl level quarterback in place.

05:47To me, this is as bad as it's been,

05:48and it's going to be treated vastly by prospective players

05:53until they show glimmers of hope in life.

05:56And what I think is interesting about the Judon deal

06:00is you haven't paid Ayuk.

06:02You didn't pay Ridley.

06:03You didn't pay Matthew Judon.

06:05Awesome.

06:06That's fine.

06:07I don't care.

06:08I'm not watching the pennies the way you guys are,

06:10all you 2-6 people.

06:12But you better spend like absolute drunken sailors

06:18with three days to live when free agency opens next year.

06:21You use that third overall pick that you're probably going to have

06:25and draft the tackle.

06:27Then you spend everything you can to convince

06:31whatever wide receiver you target to come here.

06:33Then you have Drake May, you have a left tackle,

06:35you have your wide receiver, you have an accomplished defense

06:38because it's going to be good again,

06:40and you have what I think will be a good second-round pick

06:43in his second year in Jalen Polk.

06:45So to me, there's a lot of artillery there now for them financially

06:51and most likely draft pick-wise.

06:54I was listening to you and Phil earlier this week,

06:57and you guys were talking about some of the observations

06:59that you had at practice and that it looks like the Patriots

07:02might be going a little bit back towards the gap running scheme

07:06rather than that outside zone that AVP brought over from Cleveland

07:10and his other stops.

07:12Are they going to, once again, partway through camp,

07:15abandon that outside zone idea again?

07:18Or is this just kind of because the way that the line is shaping up,

07:23they have to do this by need?

07:25What's going on with that scheme?

07:27It's a great question because it's fascinating.

07:29They have been trying to implement this wide zone stuff,

07:32which the West Coast offense has predicated on, since 2021.

07:36It didn't take when Josh McDaniels was here.

07:38They went back to kind of the gap runs with Damian Harris

07:41running between guard and center.

07:43The wide zone stuff requires nimble guards, centers especially,

07:49and a tackle who can seal things at the edge to get all those gaps

07:53running towards the sideline.

07:54Then the running back just has to pick a gap,

07:56turn it upfield by putting his foot in the ground.

07:59That's not been successful in 2021.

08:01They tried it again in 2022, actually drafting Cole Strange,

08:04who was better suited for that kind of an offense,

08:07and Pierre Strong, who was a running back suited for that,

08:10and Bailey Zappi was suited for that kind of an offense,

08:14and it didn't take.

08:16O'Brien went away from it last year, but now AVP is all in.

08:20That's everything that Alex Van Pelt's offense is about

08:23is you have to be able to run wide zone runs so that you can set up

08:27the bootleg stuff off of it.

08:29So I just don't know if they have the humans for it.

08:33They have road graders, not dancing bears, on their offensive line.

08:39So they're probably going to still run plenty of gap runs,

08:42but they're going to have to transition to being a wide zone team

08:45under Van Pelt because that's the curriculum, that's the lesson plan,

08:49that's everything that he believes in.

08:52Tom, before we let you go here, how would you characterize

08:55ownership's expectations for this team?

08:58Because I feel like that shifted a little bit recently.

09:02I don't know if it shifted.

09:04I think that it's always been tempered.

09:06I think that at the owner's meetings I'd have to look back at what Craft said

09:09because he said to us first that he expects a successful season,

09:13and then it was basically not word for word, but don't hold your breath.

09:18So I'd have to look back at that.

09:21I think ownership understands it's a rebuilding season.

09:23It was the worst offense in football last year.

09:26They went 4-13.

09:27They got a new head coach.

09:28Anybody expecting them to be appreciably better than last year

09:32after tearing it down to zero is kind of hoping against hope.

09:36Could they win five or six games?

09:38Sure, they could.

09:40Could they win two or three?

09:41Absolutely.

09:43More than that, or less than that, I don't see,

09:46but your sweet spot here is two to six, just like you guys.

09:49I was just going to say, just like Jones and Mego,

09:51I am looking forward to, Tom, locking hands

09:54and counting Robert Craft's pennies next offseason.

09:57We're really going to be on them for spending next offseason.

10:00I'm looking forward to that.

10:02Scrooge McDuck over there.

10:04You get him.

10:05I mean, that's not how I would refer to Robert Craft.

10:07But, okay, Tommy Curran, NBC Sports Boston, thanks so much.

10:10We'll talk to you next week.

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