Jahlani Tavai joins the show!

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Patriots linebacker, Jahlani Tavai, joins the show! How will the defense look this season? Are they ready for Cincinnati

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00:00Patriots Friday on a Thursday and joining us as he gets ready for week one

00:07and Cincinnati it is Jelani Tavai brought to you by Shaw's and Star Market

00:12perfecting the art of fresh and by findmassmoney.gov. Hey Jelani. Good morning, how are you guys doing?

00:19Good, how are you? Good, just ready for, like you said, I'm ready for this week.

00:26You guys, you don't have to tell us who, but do you guys know at this point who

00:29will be the starter week one? Have you been informed quarterback wise? I have

00:34no idea who's starting on, I have no idea who's starting on both sides of the

00:38ball, so we're gonna wait till next week or until coach lets us know. I see, okay.

00:45Jelani, when you, when you look at where you guys are as a team and obviously

00:49Cincinnati on the road and you start to realize how important it is to get this

00:55first one under your belt, what are you guys thinking as a defense? Like, do you

00:59feel like you have to carry the team this year because you might have a, you're

01:03gonna have a new starting quarterback? I think that we just gotta treat it like

01:09any kind of game. You know, we have to prepare right, we have to go into every

01:14practice and understand who our opponent is. You know, they have a lot of threats

01:19on offense, so we have, you know, we have our, we got a lot of things to prepare

01:25for ourselves on defense, but you know, like I said last year, it's our job to

01:30always just get the ball back into our offense and to have their backs no

01:34matter what the situation is. But I have no, I have no doubt and I have complete

01:38faith in our offense that they'll show up and, you know, get the job done.

01:44Jelani, when it comes to you guys preparing for the Bengals, Joe Burrow

01:48hasn't seen game action since November of last season, but all reports are that

01:53he's come back stronger. I think the report is that he's gained something

01:56like 10 pounds of muscle during the offseason. Is it difficult for the

02:00defense to prepare for a guy that you haven't seen in game action for so long?

02:05I know that he got a few snaps in the last preseason game, but can you really

02:09learn a ton from that? I mean, Joe's had a great career so far. You know, you can't,

02:18you can't doubt the guy or what he's done so far. So pretty much we just got

02:24to prepare like as if, you know, like how we did when we played them a few years

02:30back, you know, because he's got a lot of threats, you know, whether it's in the

02:36backfield or his receivers. So all he's got to do is get the ball in their hands

02:42and they'll do the rest of the work. So our job on defense is to make sure that,

02:46you know, we disrupt them and secure our tackles. In training camp, you've

02:53defended against both Jacoby Brissett and Drake May. Coach Mayo was on the show

02:58this week saying that he felt like Drake May had outperformed Jacoby Brissett so

03:03far. Do you agree? Do you agree with that coach's assessment? Oh, I think they

03:10both do great things in different ways. You know, I've been watching Drake and

03:17seeing his development. And I've also been seeing Jacoby with his leadership

03:21and, you know, digesting our defense and knowing where to put the ball. So, you

03:29know, it's really tough to say because, you know, preseason is a little different

03:32than a regular season game. But I'm sure the coaches will make the right decision

03:37for us. Jelani, you obviously lost Matthew Judon and well you know what he

03:44was able to do in the passing game. Do you see yourself, I know there was a

03:47couple times I was watching the preseason game where they put you down

03:50on the line of scrimmage and put you kind of as that edge rush position. Do

03:54you feel like that you could really do some damage there? Is that something that

03:58you're talking to the coaches about of maybe getting more involved when it

04:01comes to, you know, maybe replacing some of that production that you obviously

04:05lose from Matthew Judon? That's been my goal since I've gotten here which is to make

04:12sure I get on third down. For preseason, that was my biggest thing to show the

04:20coaches that I can rush. So, hopefully we can make an

04:26adjustment and see if, you know, I can step up to that challenge. But like I

04:31said before in one of our interviews, we've got some wonderful edge rushes

04:36that we've brought in or we've already had guys like, you know, Anthony Jennings,

04:42Uch, Ox. So, if it's not me then I know that we got the right guys here. But, of

04:49course, that's one thing that I do want to do. So, hopefully I can, you know,

04:56live up to the opportunity. Jelani, it gets old for us to be talking about the

05:01quarterback situation back and forth and I'm sure as a player being asked the

05:06questions over and over again, it must get old as well. But do you find that

05:10it's a distraction at all when all media wants to talk about is who is going to

05:15be the starter week one and everyone seems to have an opinion? Not at all, you

05:20know. It kind of gets me from talking about myself or anybody else. And it's

05:27pretty easy because, I don't know, I'm sure you guys have been watching the

05:33film and looking at practices too. You know, you see the, like I said before, you

05:37see how Drake's been growing week in and week out. And part of it

05:44comes from having a vet like Jacoby. You know, Jacoby's in that room helping him

05:50out and hopefully Drake's been taking, you know, every little tip that he's got

05:57for him and has been using out in the field. So, all the success comes from

06:03having a strong leader as well in this room. So, I don't know. I don't mind it because

06:11each day is a competition. I want whoever's the best to be our quarterback. So,

06:16whoever the coaches decide, that's who we're going to be rocking with.

06:20I'm sorry to belabor the point, but just to be clear, you have not been told who

06:26will start week one yet and nobody, it's not an offense-defense thing, like

06:31nobody's been told yet. You'll find out at 8.30 maybe when Gerard Mayo speaks

06:35like the rest of us.

06:38Yeah, I have no idea. So, if he announces it, that's gonna be brand new news for me.

06:44And if he doesn't, then we won't know till next week.

06:47Till next week. All right, Jelani. I appreciate it.

06:51I have no idea.

06:53But neither does Gerard. All right, well, we will talk to you again next week and

07:02thank you for taking the time this morning.

07:05Of course. You guys have a wonderful rest of your day.

07:07Okay. All right. We will. Thank you.

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