LIVE Patriots Daily: Week 1 Mailbag w/ Evan Lazar
Taylor Kyles welcomes Patriots.com's Evan Lazar to bring you a mailbag edition of Patriots Daily! Tune in to get all of your Patriots questions answered ahead of their Week 1 matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals.
0:00 - Introduction
2:12 - Offensive line concerns
5:00 - Control the line of scrimmage
7:37 - Jamarr Chase's impact
9:30 - Christian Gonzalez's role
12:00 - Pop Douglas potential
15:29 - Tyquan Thornton's summer
17:22 - Role in the offense
19:11 - Pass rush concerns
22:34 - Patriots' matchup advantage
25:11 - Early down success
30:28 - New strike system
32:57 - Ticket deals overview
36:41 - Receiver trade options
38:58 - Caleb Farley discussion
42:14 - Most important rookie
44:14 - Closing remarks
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0:00 - Introduction
2:12 - Offensive line concerns
5:00 - Control the line of scrimmage
7:37 - Jamarr Chase's impact
9:30 - Christian Gonzalez's role
12:00 - Pop Douglas potential
15:29 - Tyquan Thornton's summer
17:22 - Role in the offense
19:11 - Pass rush concerns
22:34 - Patriots' matchup advantage
25:11 - Early down success
30:28 - New strike system
32:57 - Ticket deals overview
36:41 - Receiver trade options
38:58 - Caleb Farley discussion
42:14 - Most important rookie
44:14 - Closing remarks
************************************************
Patriots Content Brought to you by....
Prize Picks - https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/CLNS
Download the app today and use Code CLNS at PrizePicks.com/CLNS & Get $50 instantly when you play $5!
Gametime - https://gametime.co
Take the guesswork out of buying MLB tickets with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code CLNS for $20 off your first purchase. Download Gametime today. Last minute tickets. Lowest Price. Guaranteed. Terms apply.
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SportsTranscript
00:00I am joined by Robert Griffin III, James Whitefield. Yes, Mina Kimes. All right. So first play
00:14we're going to look at second and two, one of the Patriots first offensive plays.
00:21What's going on everyone? Taylor Kyle's here for CLNS media coming at you with another
00:24episode of Pat's Daily brought to you by good friends at prize picks and game time. Today
00:30I am joined by, well, you already know who I'm joined by. You know him, you love him.
00:34One of the OG patriarchs of CLNS media when it comes to Patriots coverage, the Evan Lazar.
00:40So excited. I can't even get my words out. Evan, welcome back buddy for another mailbag
00:45episode. Thank you for rejoining. And how the heck are you doing? Almost there, baby.
00:49Week one coming up. I know I'm excited. I'm really excited to
00:52get this going. And we we've been dealing in so many hypotheticals and looking at teams
00:57on paper and all this kind of stuff over the last couple of months. And it'll be good to
01:02finally get some real games to sink our teeth into and see what this team is made of.
01:07Hell yeah, brother. So before we get into the mailback questions, I do want to touch
01:11on what happened. We were at Gillette today. We heard from Gerard Mayo. Didn't, it was
01:15very different not getting the Bill Pelichick, like very brief scouting report at the beginning
01:20of everything. It was really just like our guys are ready. Very much internal. We heard
01:24from Jacoby Bercet a little bit, spoke about the offensive line, talked about what it meant
01:28being a captain. And we got an injury report, which I will read off really quickly. Did
01:32not participate city. So that was expected. He wasn't in uniform today at practice. Jonathan
01:37Jones with a hamstring, but Darian Lowe with an abdomen. Joshua Uche with a foot in O'Shane
01:42Ziminez. We're all limited. Ziminez with an ankle. So obviously not looking great in the
01:47trenches on either side of the ball. Full participants though. We had Christian Ellis
01:50who was dealing with concussion. Hunter Henry was dealing with a foot and for the Jennings
01:55with the wrist and Dietrich wise jr. With a hamstring. So through a lot at you, but
02:00just basically to put a bow on everything that we learned today, what were your takeaways
02:04from what we heard from Mayo? We heard from Jacoby and what the injury situation is looking
02:08like right now from new England, obviously still pretty early in the week. Yeah, let's
02:12go in reverse order. Cause I think that's the easiest way to tackle all three of those
02:16things. So go to the injury report first. Uh, not any major surprises city. So it doesn't
02:22look like he's trending towards playing on Sunday and we're probably going to get some
02:26combination of Nick Leverett and Michael Jordan at left guard. Maybe that's a rotation. You
02:31know, that was some of those guys probably will rotate anyways, just being week one and
02:36maybe they're in an actual platoon, uh, there at left guard and then vicarian low status.
02:42I know we've talked about this a bunch off the air and I get a lot of heat for this on
02:46our shows because I, I, I kind of come to vicarian Lowe's defense like just a little,
02:51little bit. And I, I know it's, it comes off as I'm saying he's, you know, prime Joe Thomas
02:57or something like that. And obviously we, we recognize together that that's not the
03:02case, but they don't have a whole lot of great options at left tackle. And if I had to say
03:08who's the best equipped to play left tackle in week one, it's probably vicarian low. I know
03:14that's not a very high bar, but that's sort of where we're at. And if he can push to play on
03:19Sunday, then I do think it puts everybody else, mainly Chuksa core for back on the right side.
03:24And things can start to be a little bit more, uh, everybody in their natural spots. Right. And
03:29that's sort of where I'm at with the offensive line. Probably not going to have a ton of talent
03:34on the field in some spots on the line. So let's at least get everybody in a spot that they're
03:39accustomed to playing a hundred percent. And especially that left side, man, it is really
03:44worrisome because obviously when all the pieces are together, you still have your concerns because
03:49city. So in Leighton Robinson, it both looked good, but they were competing at left guard because
03:53city. So it wasn't consistent in the preseason. Then that last commander's game as good as late
03:57Robinson's been, he got put on his heels a few times, led to some really bad plays.
04:01And then on the edges, I think we understand that they have to work with what they have
04:05in the tackle options. Aren't great throughout the entire NFL. There aren't a lot of teams with
04:10one good tackle, much less too, but at least you to someone with starting experience on the right
04:14side, actually, it's going to be in my matchup piece, but on the left side is preseason small
04:19sample size, but his pressure rate was almost double than what it was when he was on the right,
04:23where he's clearly more comfortable. And then Badarian low where last season, it was the same
04:27for him where on the right, he had a really hard time. And on the left, he was much better,
04:31not the best option, but in this Scott Peter strike system, which we'll get into a bit later,
04:35you really have seen how the improvement has looked with his hands and how we can use his
04:39length to his advantage. Now let's get to the presser. All right, Jacoby Bursett and Gerard
04:43Mayo. We don't have to go too long, but what were your big takeaways from what those guys had to say?
04:48Well, I feel like with Gerard Mayo, he's just starting up front and we just kind of piggyback
04:53off the injury report there. His big message was control the line of scrimmage that that's item
04:59number one on their list. And we know that that might be difficult, especially on the offensive
05:03side of the ball. You got Trey Hendrickson, Sam Hubbard's not a bad player for Cincinnati.
05:09They have some guys up front that can give you problems, especially Hendrickson coming off the
05:13left side, most likely. So that's a problem spot or a warning spot for them. But hearing Mayo,
05:20it does sound like they're going to want to establish the run and do that whole thing and
05:25win the line of scrimmage and try to be the tougher, more run productive football team,
05:31because I feel like they know if they get into any sort of higher scoring shootout with the
05:37Bengals and it's going to be a long afternoon for them. 100%. And obviously all those things
05:43are cliches. Like I think Jacoby or Gerard mentioned, these are the things you always hear,
05:48but cliches are there for a reason. And truly that is how you win when you don't have a superstar
05:52quarterback. You need to lean on your ground game. You need, you want to be the more physical
05:56team either way. We've seen that with even KC or in the recent seasons, they've really been
06:00more physical than they have the earlier Patrick Mahomes years where he's really slinging it.
06:04Now it seems like they're trying to combine those of course, but I totally agree. Hopefully
06:08they can actually get that done. Trey Hendrickson especially is going to be a handful.
06:12Actually, one more thing I'll touch on before we dive into the mailbag, because it wasn't
06:16really touched on in the questions that we got, but with Jamar Chase, he was at practice today.
06:21He was limited, but had his helmet on. He was in uniform. That's been a change of pace as he's
06:25been a hold in with his contract situation. T. Higgins, Christian Gonzalez called those guys
06:29a two-headed monster, even in the slot of the young receiver they've got. I'm so sorry. I
06:34don't know his last name. Andre, is Baldi or something like that? I think it's Ilyasova.
06:43But I've heard 17 different pronunciations of it this week. So that's what I would go with.
06:49But between him and Charlie Jones, those two seem to be the two slot guys.
06:53Yeah. And even now that they have Christian Gonzalez, the guys that you'd expect to play
06:57the most snaps for these cornerbacks are going to be Jonathan Jones and Marcus Jones, who still
07:01do have that height disadvantage we saw back in 2022, when the Patriots were one of the most bend,
07:06but don't break game plans we've seen in the past few years for them, where they were like,
07:10we know we're small, but you're not getting behind us. And we're just going to have to
07:13come up and tackle. Gerard Mayo mentioned that led to some situations like second and longs
07:17and third downs where they ended up converting because there was just so much space to work with
07:21underneath with those big bodies. But when it comes to the game plan here, they do have Christian
07:25Gonzalez. How do you think they go about handling Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins? Are we going to see
07:30Gonzo's shadow? Are we going to see him stick to the boundary? Are they going to double one guy
07:34and then leave the other one on one? How do you see this working out for them? Yeah, just first
07:38off with Jamar Chase, it seems and look, I get it. He's an excellent player and maybe he can just
07:45walk off the bus without any training camp and without any practice and go play 70 snaps on
07:51Sunday. I'm not going to say he can't because he's like a superstar, like superhuman. So like,
07:57maybe it's possible, but you look at him, his, to me, it feels more realistic to think that he plays
08:05like 25, 20 to 25, like really high leverage kind of snaps, you know, third down red zone, like
08:13that sort of thing. They have a package of plays in the game plan where he feels comfortable
08:18running those plays. Then he just steps right back in and plays a hundred percent of the snaps.
08:24So with that being said, that could obviously change how this game plan comes about. But one
08:29of my big questions with the Patriots heading into the season and it's really surrounds Gonzo
08:35is that, you know, can Christian Gonzalez be good enough on his own that they can be a little bit
08:42more aggressive with how they call the defense in the front seven? I really feel like they're
08:47trying to trend more towards those like Brian Flores, 18, 20, 19 era Patriots where they're
08:53coming after quarterbacks. But in order to do that, they had Stefan Gilmore who was just an
09:00absolute defensive player of the year caliber corner. I'm not trying to put that on Gonzo yet.
09:06Like, I don't know if he's there yet. So for this matchup, I look at T Higgins. I feel like Gonzo
09:12can match up against T Higgins one-on-one. And if he gives up some plays, he gives up some plays,
09:16but you hope that it's not one bigger, two big plays. It's a, you know, let them March. And
09:21if it's eight catches for 90 yards, then that's great, right? That's a win for the Patriots with,
09:26with him one-on-one with T Higgins, but Jamar chase comes into the game.
09:30That's maybe when you bracket him, send some extra attention, tilt the safety that way,
09:35play those cover two shells that they played so much of in 2022, like do that sort of thing.
09:40Because I still feel like Gonzo is maybe not quite ready to throw him into the fire where
09:46you're one-on-one against chase for four quarters. Whereas with Higgins, maybe he can go toe-to-toe
09:52with him for a while. And of course you can make the argument that like, he pretty much did that
09:56Gonzo in last season's opener against AJ Brown, but even though AJ Brown and Jamar chase are both
10:01just absolute freaks of nature and true alpha receivers, they are different types of players.
10:06I also wonder if we're going to see a decent amount of Marco Wilson. Maybe I don't, I think
10:11they have more practice squad elevation guys, but like bold and just guys who can give them more
10:15size at corner, because I don't think you're really worried about Jonathan Jones getting
10:18picked on necessarily. His technique is usually good enough to make up for some of his height
10:22difficulties, but you still don't love that matchup. If he's against Jamar chase or T Higgins,
10:27and even in the slot, they got a lot of size and Marcus Jones did get picked on,
10:30although he was outside last matchup. So kind of like last year where we saw them
10:35rotate outside of Gonzo was like John Jones and Marcus Jones, different kinds of guys.
10:39I think we'll see some kind of rotation like that just to kind of get them some bigger bodies on the
10:43perimeter. All right. We are going to jump into your mailback questions, but first quick word
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11:51All right, now let's start off with some kind of, all right, now let's start with some kind of fun.
11:56Who will lead the Patriots in receptions and receiving yards? I feel like there's one candidate
12:01that one of these is going to slide in is going to slide into one of these, but I also feel like
12:05they could be different people for each, but what do you think? Yeah, well, I, I still, I'm pretty
12:11bullish on pop Douglas still. I understand that he's got the injury concerns with his size and
12:16his durability from last year. He got banged up here, there, and you're going to have to manage
12:21that to an extent. And maybe they look at it, especially early on in the season. And he,
12:26we're just talking about Jamar chase and high leverage situations. Maybe pop Douglas is one
12:30of those guys where they really only go to him on third down, or they really only go to him when
12:35they need a big play or something along those lines, instead of feeding him high volume.
12:40So long story short, he might not get to the receptions and yards leader because of that.
12:46But I still would say that he's the leader in the clubhouse to me,
12:50to lead the team right now and receiving. Yeah. I think that pop could probably lead in receiving
12:55yards because I don't know if I like him as a high volume target because obviously the health
13:00concerns, the size and all those things. But I do think he has way more big play potential than we
13:04were able to see last year because they couldn't get him the ball downfield and we'll see him be
13:08more of a three level threat. But in terms of guys, they might just feed the ball to, I could
13:12see that being Jalen Polk. Cause as much as I like KJ Osborne, I think he'll be in like for the wide
13:17receivers, maybe the third leading receiver. Cause he did have a good summer in his own right.
13:21Jalen Polk just seems like someone they're going to want to get involved. He gives you that three
13:24level ability. And I just think with his hands and how reliable he's been at some point, he's
13:29going to catch fire. This season might be up and down. Of course he's a rookie, but I could see him
13:33being the guy where when they really are trying to feed someone the ball, especially in those high
13:37leverage situations, it's going to be pop. And maybe like, you know, we saw against Miami last
13:41year with Kendrick Bourne's touchdown. Sometimes maybe pop's going to get a bit of a bracket
13:45coverage and then Jalen Polk can capitalize either on the outside or on the inside.
13:50Yeah. I've gone back and forth to Jalen Polk. Like my inner self is struggling with him because
13:56he's not typically the brand of receiver that I gravitate towards when we're doing the draft
14:02and things like that. I I'll admit I I'm a sucker for speed. I'm a sucker for separation,
14:08like route running technicians, like those types of guys. And on Polk's college film,
14:13you just see a lot of, yeah, his hands are great. There's no doubt about that. But you see a lot of
14:17those kind of like contested go routes and things like that at Washington. But they they convinced
14:23me a little bit because, you know, Tyler Hughes, the wide receivers coach, was with him at
14:27Washington. I remember having a conversation with him and he said that that offense didn't really
14:33allow Jalen Polk to be the route runner that he is going to be at this level because of what they
14:39were trying to do schematically. You know, they ran a lot of vertical stem stuff at Washington.
14:43It wasn't a whole lot of, you know, route breaks at the top or quick changes of direction. It was
14:49a lot of four verts and, you know, that kind of stuff. So they they feel like he's going to be a
14:55better route runner or showcase better route running at this level than he did in college.
15:00And maybe that's one of the things that bringing Tyler Hughes from Washington gave them some
15:05insight into that other teams might not necessarily had. That is very exciting. I feel like we did
15:10definitely see some glimpses of that this summer. So it's going to be exciting to actually see in a
15:15game. But you mentioned speed. So obviously, we talked about all the other guys that are probably
15:20going to start. Got to talk about Mr. X receiver Taekwon Thornton really had the job locked down
15:26anytime he was healthy enough to be on the field and participating. Now, he did have a better
15:31preseason and really summer overall than I think all of us anticipated. The route running still
15:35plenty of work to do. Works way better than last season when he's going up against Emanuel Forbes
15:39getting locked down. So what do you think of Taekwon Thornton this summer? What are your
15:43expectations for him, at least early on this season? That's my guy. This is the guy that I've
15:49taken the cheese on Taekwon Thornton three years in a row. So you might as well just add it to the
15:54mix. I think the biggest thing to me with Taekwon is it's twofold. One, this scheme fits him so much
16:02better than the last offense did. The last offense when you're trying to convert every route and
16:07read out coverages and break at the top of the route and the timing and all this has to be
16:12perfect with the quarterback and all these different elements of the McDaniels, O'Brien,
16:17Patriots style offenses just never was a great fit for a guy that really should just be running down
16:22the field in a straight line. So you get him in this offense, you see it on film where he runs a
16:28go-round against Carolina in the preseason opener. Like if Jacoe Brissett starts on that side of the
16:33field, that's probably a big play, but he had to come back to it on the backside of the progression.
16:38You see it even on the throw to Jalen Polk where he's just occupying the safety over the top. It's
16:44not that he's getting targeted, but he's just drawing that post safety in the middle of the
16:48field to respect that vertical route. I'm not expecting Taequann Thornton to be a thousand
16:54yard receiver. I don't think anybody is, but with this offense, so many of these guys that we're
17:01talking about have very specific traits that could lend themselves to being okay role players.
17:08Like Jalen Polk has that intermediate thing going. He could possibly be in that level of a solid
17:15chain moving receiver. Taequann Thornton could be a vertical guy. Like he could just play that
17:20role really, really well. So that's what I'm hoping for with Taequann. I don't expect high
17:25volume. I don't expect this big breakout season after two kind of lackluster years, but I do think
17:31he can play a role within the offense that can be productive even if it's away from the ball.
17:38And like you mentioned, a lot of it's maybe just going to be his presence and occupying space,
17:42but even just looking at this Bengals game, when you look at how they defended Jacoby
17:45Versette in 2022, when this team goes under center, the Bengals are going to play cover one,
17:50and they're going to get a lot of one-on-one matchups with Patriots. That's going to be the
17:53time where a couple of those are going to be play action at least. Can you get Taequann the ball
17:57downfield, maybe with some air under it so we can run and not only just get a triple, actually make
18:02it a home run. That's where his role in this offense could really shine. Because like you said,
18:06he's not going to be the route running savant necessarily, just has to be good enough and give
18:10you some kind of verticality. All right. Spent a long time on that, but I mean, the receivers are
18:14such a big kind of conversation and we're going to get into the offensive line 20 anyway. So,
18:19all right. How do you guys think the pass rush will do considering the loss of Judon? And then
18:23I'll add, of course, Christian Barmore being out indefinitely. Yeah, we were talking about this a
18:27little bit earlier. Well, first of all, just off the top, it was cool to see Barmore in the locker
18:31room today. I would say he was in good spirits, but you can tell that he's just pissed off that
18:38he's not playing football right now. So, I feel for him, but it was good to see him
18:42being around the team. He was talking to Daniel Aquale when I saw him and just kind of chatting
18:47and whatnot. So, it was cool to see him. In terms of the pass rush, we talked a little bit about
18:52this earlier with Gonzo and that whole conversation. The biggest thing to me is can they rely
18:59on this back end to cover with four or five guys back there to try to get after quarterbacks?
19:04Because if they can, then they can kind of get away with some of this pass rush that they've lost
19:10in Barmore and Judon. I go back to that team in 2018, my first year on the beat. Trey Flowers was
19:16their best pass rusher on that team. No disrespect to Trey Flowers at all, but he's not the sack guy
19:23that Matthew Judon was, right? He wasn't one of those guys that was going to have double digit
19:28sacks throughout a healthy season, but what he was was really disruptive. His pressure numbers
19:33were always very good. His versatility was very good. Reminds me a little bit of Keon White,
19:38where you can move this guy around and he can hunt matchups on the line of scrimmage inside
19:44or outside. He might not finish a ton of plays, but he's going to be in the backfield on a lot
19:48of plays. You look at that and you can say, all right, well, if we can get some free runners,
19:53if we can get some blitz packages going and things of that nature, then we could be all right
19:59without the fact that we don't have a one-on-one winner that we can just kind of hang our hat on
20:05like a Matthew Judon. So it's a long-winded way of saying, if that back end, it can be a strength,
20:11Gonzo, Jonathan Jones, the two safeties, Peppers, Duggar, then they can get away with zero blitzing
20:19a little bit here and there. They can get away with doing some of the more aggressive stuff that
20:23we know is in their playbook. If it's not good in the back end, then they're going to have to
20:28play seven and coverage. And then that's when you start to worry, but I'm not worried yet about
20:32the pass rush because I do feel like this back end is going to be pretty strong. Absolutely.
20:37Keon White and Dietrich Wise, a guy who I feel like really doesn't get a lot of recognition
20:42last year. He wasn't quite as productive as he's been in years past. So I kind of understand,
20:46but we started in the preseason. The guy didn't play a lot, but he made a very big impact anytime
20:50he was on the field. And Gerard Mayo mentioned after one preseason game, how like in those
20:55areas where the Patriots second dynasty, they didn't have a ton of elite rushers. Even Trey
20:59Flowers wasn't really a Chandler Jones type, but a lot of their success came on those line games
21:04with Kyle van Nooy, Dante Hightower, Jamie Collins. Those guys had such great chemistry
21:09and an ability to create enough destruction and open up lanes for other people.
21:13My issue with that plan is if that is what the Patriots are going to do is that does take
21:17chemistry. It takes timing. It takes a feel for what other guys are doing around you. I felt like
21:22in the preseason, you didn't see that. It felt like they were trying to have some twists and
21:26line games, and it felt like I was just running into each other, which is one thing in the
21:29preseason and real games. If you're going up against Joe Burrow and he can feel that there's
21:33no one on the edge and it's third and five, we even saw in 2022, he's going to take advantage
21:37of that, even though he's not really a burner. So the backend, it's going to kind of be the
21:42opposite of last year where you didn't realize much on the backend. You really were hoping
21:45Christian bar more and maybe Joshua Uche would be enough to cause some disruption and maybe speed
21:50things up a little bit. Now the pressure is on the backend and you're hoping that Keon White
21:54obviously takes a step forward. Joshua Uche can maybe be a little bit more impactful than he was
21:59last year. Maybe even O'Shane Ziminez, who I've been a fan of. I really like his play style,
22:04not great at anything, but truly a jack of all trades type and someone that Jonathan Jones said
22:08could surprise people this year. So obviously marriage is always important on defense, but
22:13if they're going to try to generate a pass rush up front outside of the zero blitzing and things
22:17like that, they're going to have to find some way to get that chemistry together inside, or of
22:21course rely on a wise and Keon White. All right. Which position group matchup do the Patriots have
22:27an advantage in this week against the Bengals? This one, I'm not going to lie. This was pretty
22:32tough. Yeah, this is pretty tough to come up with one. I, the one just listening to some of the
22:38Bengals that we had our, our show earlier today. And one of the Bengals beat reporters, Ben baby,
22:44he called in from ESPN.com. You're talking to him and the Bengals run defense is a question
22:50mark for people in Cincinnati right now. They weren't very good last year. They lose DJ reader,
22:55who is probably their best inside player on the defensive line. They're trying to replace him with
23:00Sheldon Rankins. Who's like a little bit more of an upfield pass rush type of player. So if I had to
23:05say one thing, and I know the left guard is a big question mark for the Patriots right now, but maybe
23:11it's like the right side of their offensive line against the Bengals defensive line on when you
23:16Robinson, Andrew's obviously coming over. They, they should be able to open up some room for the
23:22running backs with that combination. Now I'm not going to sit here and say they're going to run
23:27for 200 yards, but I'm like cautiously optimistic based off of what some of the Bengals people are
23:33saying that they have some areas where they might be able to run the ball. Exactly. They are a very
23:39disruptive unit. And I mean, Scott Peters is very familiar with this Bengals defense. So he knows
23:44exactly what this offensive line is going to have to do backups or not to have success, obviously
23:50planning and execution are two different things. But if their Patriots are going to have any way
23:54of winning this game, it does feel like Gerard Mayo said it, they have to control the line of
23:58scrimmage. I'll go to the other side of the ball with the defensive interior. I do think they have
24:02an advantage against this Bengals team. Now Ted Karras is a good player. He's I think one of the
24:07better centers in football. So I don't want to overlook him, but at the guard spots, Cordell
24:11Volson and Alex Kappa don't inspire a ton of confidence, especially if the Patriots do get
24:16in some obvious passing situations and they can kick their really premier at rushers inside.
24:20And even Daniel like quality, he's a solid player, shorter arms, which really limits his ability to
24:25finish plays consistently, but he knows how to take on blocks, occupy space and win with technique.
24:31And then even Jeremiah farms, a guy who I've been pretty high on. I think he's going to be heavily
24:35involved in this rotation. Didn't have a great finale to the preseason, but even going back to
24:39the end of last season, he really came on and was consistently disruptive without making a ton of
24:44mistakes. And of course, Devon Godchild, the man in the middle, it's not going to be easy for Ted
24:48Karras in those running situations. So probably the advantages are on the, like you said, the run
24:54game for the Patriots offense for the defense. It looks like they probably do have a step up
24:59on the interior. All right, let's see what we got. I've been clicking on the same button and
25:03it's not doing anything. I think my computer's spazzing out. We're back. Okay. Let me find our
25:08next question. All right. What would you consider a positive day for the offense against a Lou Anna
25:14Romo defense on the road? A defense that Gerard Mayo mentioned, you know, send those pressure
25:19packages. You really don't know where it's coming from. They send corners, they send safeties,
25:23they send linebackers. That was the big thing that Gerard Mayo mentioned. And of course,
25:27the versatility they had to do those different things. So what's positive day.
25:31Yeah. I look, first of all, Anna Rumo to me is going to be a head coach in the league.
25:36If it's not next year, it will be soon. He's on that track right now and he's an impressive
25:42coordinator. I, when you watch their tape, you just see how sound they are at all three levels
25:47of the defense. I think first and foremost, like obviously they do some schematic stuff and they
25:52have some twists here and there, but I wouldn't say it's, you know, they're going to face McDonald
25:57the next week again from Seattle, you know, and then he comes to town. Like, I feel like that
26:01defense is much more exotic where like, they have all these different things that they throw at you
26:06in the pressure package. But I was with Anna Rumo. It's much more like they are just really,
26:12they don't beat themselves. So that's impressive to me with them. I would say the biggest thing in
26:17terms of success that I'm looking for is early down offense. Like, can this team be more dynamic
26:22on first and second down than what we've seen over the last couple of years? You know, people
26:26like us might look at that a little bit more than others on the outside that look at third down,
26:31red zone, like those types of situations. I'm all about first and second down. Like,
26:36if you're not generating explosives as a first down, second down play action team,
26:42then the league is going to eat you alive if you're in third and long all the time.
26:47Talk about Anna Rumo's pressure package. Well, the best way to avoid that is to not be in third down,
26:52right? So if you can get into first and second down, you talked earlier about some of the things
26:58the Bengals did against this Browns offense in 2022, a lot of single high, a lot of man coverage.
27:04Like, those are opportunities to me. If I'm Jacoby Brissett, I'm thinking I'm hunting. Like,
27:09I understand my receivers aren't Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins, but these are NFL receivers.
27:14Like, let's give Pop and Polk and Thornton Osborne, like, let's give these guys some
27:19chances down the field in those matchups and see if we can win a few. So that's what I'm
27:24definitely looking at. The third down stuff, the red zone stuff, obviously important too,
27:29but if they can get this whole thing going, the run game, the play action off of it, the wide
27:34zone, like all this stuff we've been talking about for months, then I'm going to feel a lot
27:38better about the offense. Absolutely. And just going back to Lou Anna Rumo's defense overall,
27:43it reminds you of the Patriots when you watch it because of how sound they are.
27:46Another one of the best tackling teams in the league, which usually is a pretty good indicator
27:50of how well coached you are. And you mentioned that pressure package. So Jacoby Brissett was
27:55actually very good on third downs when they last played. They weren't always great in early downs
28:00and there were some long yardage situations, but Kevin Stefanski and Alex Van Pelt did a really
28:04good job flooding their zone coverages, knowing when to kind of dial those plays up. But then the
28:08biggest thing was the Browns were also able to capitalize on one-on-one matchups. Now,
28:13most of those went to Amari Cooper. The Patriots don't have an Amari Cooper. So they're going to
28:17have to maybe spread the ball around and find the right matchups to attack in certain situations.
28:21But I think that's maybe going to be the biggest thing for me. And Jacoby Brissett also mentioned
28:25the early down success is going to be big. When you've got opportunities, you have to take
28:29advantage of them. And then the biggest thing, especially considering what happened in the last
28:33preseason game, is going to be not hurting yourselves with penalties. Like watching that
28:38Patriots offense last year, as frustrating as it was seeing them take advantage of those
28:42opportunities, like the Mike Kosicki touchdown, obviously in Germany, is like the most glaring
28:46example. If you have a game-winning score and you kind of pass it up, it's more frustrating when
28:51first down turns into first and 15 or first and 20 or second and 10, which is already bad enough,
28:56to the second and 15. And then you're like, all right, well, we're kind of getting into the plays
29:00in the playbook where we really don't expect to convert. So early down success, I think will
29:04definitely be the sticking point. Run game success, when you have those one-on-one matchups that you
29:09like, you have to capitalize on those. All right, we're going to take one more before we get into
29:15the comment section, because I want to make sure we answer some of your guys' questions live
29:18as well. Let me find the best one here. All right, a little strike system talk,
29:24because I actually want to hear your perspective on this too. So I've heard mentioned several times
29:28that new O-line coach Scott Peters has a radically different hand placement strike system
29:32methodology. Have you yet to see it explained or can you do so?
29:37It's a good question. I can explain elements of it. You might have dug a little bit even deeper
29:42than I have into the actual mechanics of the strike system, but more or less, it's basically
29:48just coming up with counters for like what the defensive line is going to put, you know, do,
29:52you know, if they, if they are, you know, long arm you like, this is the strike that we, we coach,
29:58you know, you to beat the long arm. If they are two hand swipe, if they're, you know, rip move,
30:05like all these different things that defensive linemen use, if they're two gapping, like,
30:08this is how we want to put our hands. You also see, like, you know, when you hear them in practice,
30:14they, it seems like they have like different ranges of the chest that they try to hit. Like
30:19zero is right down the middle. Three is maybe more on the outside. And he'll talk about like,
30:24you know, we want a three here. We want a three here. Right. Which means like a little bit more
30:29on the outside, like underneath the armpit almost to try to get some leverage there.
30:34So those are the different things I, what I find fascinating. And it's going to be something like
30:39I might poke around within a month or two into the season. Once they start to really
30:44play real football is like some guys to me might be almost too complicated, you know,
30:49and, and that's one thing that I I'm interested in is like, is this simpler or is it actually
30:55more complicated? There's a lot of things that you hear him throw at guys, you know, and some guys
31:00might not take to it as much as others, but some of the younger guys seem to be taking to it pretty
31:05well because it's just, it's an answer to the test, right? Like I can't go wrong. If coach is
31:10telling me when he long arms me that he wants me to chop down on that arm, that's what I'm going to
31:15do. And if it doesn't go well, well, that was what I was told to do. Exactly. And I think that's why
31:20they targeted young or guys with more experience and guys who are really smart, like Hayden Wallace,
31:25obviously, like we heard about it, like his brother's an oyster farmer and all that comes
31:29from a very smart family. I actually do have the strike system codes up for a better idea there.
31:35So like you mentioned, Evan, the strikes all have different numbers, which basically just tell you
31:40how you want the initial interaction to go. The sets are how you want these guys to kick out. So
31:45are you kind of cutting off the angle and really trying to attack? Are you taking more of a
31:49vertical set, just different ways to get out of the stance. Then the counters are probably the
31:54most difficult part of this whole thing because the other two are pretty set in stone where,
31:57you know, in certain situations he teaches, these are the combinations I want you to use.
32:02The counters are where, okay, I've done that, but then the defensive lineman did this as well.
32:06And that's what a lot of these guys have really been raving about is, yeah, now I understand if
32:10this guy does this, I do this because they know how to handle different types of permutations and
32:15pass rush moves. And one guy that you've seen that really work really all over the offensive
32:19line. Like I asked you so core for about the fact that that commander's game, there were like 10
32:24bodies on the ground in past protection, which is not something you usually see.
32:28And there's been a lot of that snatch trap technique where when the defender's pads
32:31get really high, you just hit his arms down and the guy loses balance. And that's a big thing.
32:36Scott Peters teaches with the independent hands, because if you're shooting both
32:40and your pad levels bad, you're basically giving up the rep. That was a huge problem
32:44for the Patriots last year. And this strike system is a big reason. I think we've seen
32:48growth from guys like city. So the dairy and low, and then you've seen guys like Mike and Wendy,
32:53when David Andrews also take to it and look good when they're using it. All right. We are going to
32:58get into the comment section and answer some of your wonderful questions, but first quick
33:01word from our friends at game time. Be right back. The Patriots are playing the Cincinnati Bengals
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33:40like Patriots at Bengals. You can get in for as low as 136 bucks. That's down like 25 bucks from
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33:57to do a lot more of these with, um, the Seattle Seahawks coming up, uh, because that's going to
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34:24All right. We're going to close this one out with some quick hitters. We're going to try to
34:27answer as many of your questions as possible. If you do enter them, make sure to use a question
34:30mark. It just makes it easier for me because I can just, you know, Apple find and scroll through.
34:35So the first one we've got, let's see, this is a good one. When Kendrick Bourne gets back,
34:41do you try and trade cage? When Kendrick Bourne gets back, you try to trade KJ Osborne or Keyshawn
34:47booty. That is going to be a very interesting situation because you got Jalen Ray going
34:50crack squad right now. They've already got six receivers. Are they going to keep seven like they
34:54did last year? How do you see that working out? It's a good question. I I've been thinking about
34:59this a little bit too, because obviously Kendrick Bourne is going to play when he's back. So you
35:03got to figure this one out now. I would say that it might be a problem that takes care of itself.
35:08And I don't mean to make light of injuries or anything like that, but somebody gets hurt and
35:13then all of a sudden it's a little easier to figure out how to finagle the roster. But
35:18when I look to trade one of those guys, I guess you always pick up the phone, but I just don't
35:23know how much real value either one of those players is going to have. Kendrick Bourne's
35:27the one with value, right? Like he's the good NFL player that's on an affordable contract.
35:32So if anybody's going to get traded, it's like that Niners trade we heard with for Brandon. Now
35:37you know, a couple of picks and Kendrick Bourne for a stud receiver. It's more likely he gets,
35:42he's the one that gets dealt and not the ones that don't have a ton of value.
35:46Yeah, this seems very much like a wait and see kind of situation. I'm sure the Patriots probably
35:50have a couple options in mind, but that's going to be at least a month out from the season. Kendrick
35:55Bourne hasn't even practiced yet, so we really don't know when we're going to see him on the
35:59field. So if all these guys are healthy with Keishon Booty, it feels like they really do
36:03think they've got something in him. He said himself, he sees himself making the team.
36:07Obviously all these receivers are confident, but even the way they've handled them, like everybody
36:11said, it was Jalen Rager versus Keishon Booty on the bubble. Ragers got the special teams value,
36:15so he's going to make the roster, but they clearly do like Keishon Booty. He ran a ton
36:20with the younger guys when they would have like Drake May with Polk and Baker. So it seems like
36:25someone they really do want to develop and see what they have in him. And then KJ Osborne,
36:28like you said, I don't know how much value he has on the trade market, but he is on a one-year deal.
36:33He and Kendrick Bourne are extremely redundant. Neither one of them you really want playing
36:37ex-receiver, although there is some overlap in this offense. So I would think it's him if they
36:42could move him at all, but I also think they might be stuck in a situation where because they do like
36:47KJ Osborne, you end up just having to keep seven receivers, maybe, you know, take a hit at depth
36:51somewhere else. Yeah. All right. How much can we trust Joey Sly, Mr. K1? Is he going to lose
36:58us games like Rylan did last year? Well, to be fair, Rylan lost the game against the Giants,
37:05and that's why Drake May is a Patriot. So I don't want to get too much on Chad Rylan because he did
37:13us all a big favor, right? No, in all seriousness, what I like about Joey Sly is that he does have
37:19range on his field goals that maybe Chad Rylan didn't have. So I'm still a little bit weary
37:25about his consistency within 45 yards and if he's going to make all those. But in terms of now you
37:32have that ability to maybe hit a 53 yarder, you know, at the end of a half or to win a game or
37:37something like that, that you didn't necessarily have before with Rylan. So that's the one thing
37:42I would say he has on Rylan is the distance and the accuracy from 50 plus. Yeah. Joey Sly has also
37:48proven he can kick in the NFL in whatever capacity he's done successfully. And anybody who is in a
37:54battle with Chad Rylan, obviously they're probably not going to go to the Pro Bowl this season.
37:57Although he did say, Joey Sly, that he wants to be a top three kicker at some point. Also,
38:01he's jacked, which should help on these big kickoffs because he's the last line of defense.
38:06I'd rather have Joey Sly try to tackle somebody than Chad Rylan. No offense, Chad. Joey just
38:10literally looks like a trainer. When he first got to the team, he wasn't wearing anything or like
38:15really participating. He was just standing with the kickers. And I was like, what is a trainer
38:19doing, hanging out with him? Is somebody hurt or like what's going on? And then somebody's like,
38:22no, that's literally Joey Sly. So, uh, yeah. Did you see that? That tackle that LSU kicker made on,
38:28on, uh, in the USC game the other night, look that one up. It was at USC has this really good
38:34return, man. I forget his name off the top of my head, but he had the kicker to beat on a kickoff
38:39return. And the kicker made like a really good tackle to get them on the ground. And I was like,
38:44I texted Barth and I was like, did he just get tackled by the kicker? And he was like,
38:49Martha was definitely fired up for that one. Um, yeah, you know,
38:53all right. This is when you actually tweeted about yesterday. Do you think the Patriots
38:57signed Caleb Farley who really over the past few years, his impact is mostly come on special teams
39:02when he has been healthy, which obviously is unfortunate considering when he was originally
39:05drafted. Well, look, this is going all the way back to college with Caleb Farley with injuries.
39:11He came into the league with a, I believe it was a back injury. If my memory serves me correctly,
39:15it was like a serious, one of those, uh, kind of like Rob Gronkowski. Like you weren't sure if it
39:20was going to be able to hold up for an NFL career or not. And, uh, he was extremely talented though.
39:27And that was abundantly clear. If he was a hundred percent healthy, he, he had all pro
39:33corner type potential. So if you're a team like the Patriots, no, one's going to get all hot and
39:38bothered if they do sign him, but he's the type of guy that you take on your practice squad and
39:43just see if he can make an impression and if he can stay healthy. So I'm in on Caleb Farley,
39:48just because I'm always in on talent grabs, like wherever you can find it. Uh, but we have to keep
39:53it in perspective that he's literally never stayed healthy at any level, uh, since college. So
39:59that's a big one for him. A hundred percent. It would be hard not to get excited with him
40:03and Mike Pellegrino because man, he's fantastic. That would be tough. All right. It's going to be
40:08one of the last ones, but what does the successful offense look like for the successful season look
40:13like for the offense, which is a very good question. I feel like there's a few different
40:16answers too. Yeah. I feel like I'm still in the camp of like, I just want to see some upward
40:23trajectory to the offense. I don't know how many points they're going to score or how many yards
40:28they're going to game per game or whatever. Uh, but if they can look the part late in the season
40:34and maybe Drake Mason at that point, and, uh, he, he looks the part as well. And you start to feel
40:39a little bit better about, let's just get some finishing touches. Obviously left tackle is not
40:44necessarily a finishing touch. That's like a core piece, but left tackle will be in, um, you know,
40:50invested in the first round. I sure I'm sure next year, the draft. So you kind of have Will Campbell,
40:55Kelvin banks or whatever in that spot. And then you start to sprinkle on the, uh, the toppings,
41:00right. And you get that number one receiver and you, you start to build something. So what is a
41:05successful year for the offense look like to me, it's in December, January. Do we feel like when
41:12we come out of the season, like, all right, we got, you know, may is our quarterback.
41:16Polk's a decent receiver pops, a decent receiver. And we feel like we're building towards something.
41:21I couldn't agree more. I'm honestly not even going to add a whole lot. It's got to be growth. You
41:25need, like you said, you got to end the season in a place where this is really one of my barometers
41:29for success, where when they hit free agency, or if some big name trade target pops up on the market,
41:35is that someone who has any interest in coming to the Patriots, whether you have to throw the
41:39bag at them or not, because as we saw, they literally could not pay for talent this off
41:44season, specifically Brandon, IU, despite throwing him a bag. So if you're the kind of destination
41:48people are, all these guys feel like they would actually want to come to get you over the edge.
41:53That's awesome. If not, it's going to be really hard to feel like this was a season where they
41:57went in the right direction on offensively. This one's going to be really quick. No, no,
42:05no. All right. Moving on. All right. I'm going to do one more here. You all ask great questions.
42:09I'm sorry. I can't get to all of them. Maybe next time. But this one, I like this a lot. Who's the
42:13most important rookie other than Drake May this season? It's a good question. I think you can go
42:19in a lot of directions with it. I would probably still say Jalen Polk. I know it's easy just to
42:23say the second round pick and we take the first round pick out of it. But we, when I say we,
42:29Patriots fans have been starving for receiver talent. And even if he's not a wide receiver one,
42:36but he turns out to be like a really good number two receiver, then you have something to build on,
42:42like we were just talking about where you just drop in that number one guy. And now you have a
42:47hierarchy that makes sense on the offensive side of the ball. So I still feel like the rookie
42:52offensive linemen are obviously important too. And we'll see maybe if Caden Wallace can get into the
42:58starting lineup later on in the season. But I can't lie. If Jalen Polk is the real deal,
43:04then you feel a whole lot better about this entire thing. Yeah, it's tough, but I'll just go with
43:10Caden Wallace because I feel like either one of those guys is pretty interchangeable to a degree.
43:14But if Caden plays well enough, you can start him and he is not a liability. If anything,
43:19he's a net positive, even if there's some up and down play. I think that means that you don't need
43:23to rely on Shooks on the right side, maybe Vanarion low, but I feel like honestly they
43:27may like Vanarion on the field a bit better than Shooks because of the run blocking specifically,
43:31where it's very obvious with Mike and Winnie when Shooks next to each other, they're very
43:35different types of players. Shooks plays with a mean streak that you have to respect in the
43:39run game, like he wants to finish, he wants to set the tone. He's just not a very powerful guy.
43:44Caden Wallace, I think, gives you more of that, where if you have him next to Nwenu,
43:47then you could really get some movement in the ground game that's more similar to what you get
43:51with Nwenu at tackle and then Leighton Robinson on the inside. And whether or not Caden Wallace
43:55is your left tackle of the future, at least you know one of those bookends is set. Then you have
43:59your option on the interior at guard. You kind of figure out City, so Leighton Robinson, who do you
44:05really want? Or maybe can those guys move around? If you got to get your left tackle in the draft,
44:09fine, but at least you got a nice young core of offensive linemen to go into 2025 with.
44:14All right, Evan, that was a blast, as always, buddy. Appreciate you taking the time. Before I
44:19let you go, please remind the people where they can find you and let them know what great stuff
44:23you got coming down the pipeline that we got to be looking out for. Yeah, Patriots.com, it's pretty
44:28easy. It's the name of the team, so that makes it easy. We know, Evan, we know. That came off
44:34so much more condescending than I meant it. Patriots.com, we have PU tomorrow, Patriots Catch
44:4222 after PU from two to four with me and Alex Barth, so you can give us a call and tell us how
44:48much of an idiots we both are and all that good stuff. And then it's on to Cincinnati, literally,
44:53both of us will be there on Sunday, so I'm looking forward to it. I've been a couple times there.
44:59It's an interesting place, not really my cup of tea, that part of the country, but I'm looking
45:05forward to the game, that's for sure. Are we going to share a bowl of skyline chili? I guess
45:09we don't have to share it, but that'd be really cute. We can share it. If you want to have two
45:13spoons, I'm all for it. At halftime during the last game was 2019, I want to say, when they played
45:21the sprinkles there and they had skyline chili at halftime. It was like the halftime buffet,
45:28was that chili cheese dogs. So be ready for that. Hopefully it agrees with me. That's all I'm going
45:34to say. I've never had it before. I'm just hoping that nothing, yeah, I'm just hoping nothing crazy
45:38happens. All right. Anyway, thanks again, buddy, for joining as always. And thank you all as always
45:43for watching. Make sure to like, comment, subscribe, do all that stuff that Mike usually
45:47asks you to do at the end of the show. And then for my obvious message, take care of yourselves,
45:52take care of each other. We will see you all next time. Peace.