Tom E. Curran joins the show to preview the 2024 season

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00:00Is week ones kicks off tonight. Everybody's excited about that. I want to ask you the

00:04same question I asked Andy Hart to open the show right now, Tommy, before we get to the Patriots.

00:08Do you think that the NFL as a league is in a good place right now in 2024?

00:14Yeah, I do. I don't think there's really any headwinds to speak of. I think, you know,

00:20are we talking financially? Are we talking ratings wise? It's still,

00:24you know, Godzilla among all the professional sports. So I think that,

00:28you know, you have your superstar in Patrick Mahomes. You have, you know, a high flying team

00:36in the Niners. You have the Cowboys are always interesting. So we have the national pull for

00:41that. It's just, it's disorienting, I think, for us being in New England and being, you know,

00:46in the dregs to really look at it and say, oh, hey, the NFL is awesome. But I think around the

00:52league with the number of rookie quarterbacks coming in, infusing different franchises with

00:58different levels of enthusiasm, I think they are in a good spot. What was the conclusion with you

01:02two? Oh, absolutely. We both think it's in a great spot, too. And we meant it more in the sense of,

01:06like, players and, you know, teams and dynasties and sort of all that other stuff for their good

01:11rivalries, young talent in the league. And I just think, yeah, we both we both agree there may not

01:16be a direct direct competition for for the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes yet. They don't have a direct

01:22rival, maybe like, you know, Brady Manning did 20 years ago. But in general, it's in a great

01:26spot right now. We both agree. Yeah, I mean, you just look at this division, you know, the Patriots

01:31aside, and they have at least a young quarterback that people are going to be intrigued by. But the

01:36rest of the division, there are aspirations among all three that they could at least get to the

01:41conference championship game and, you know, the Super Bowl. So, you know, just look at the AFC East

01:47and there's compelling stories to each one. So, Tom, I'm not going to hold you responsible for

01:52everything that's posted on NBC Sports Boston, but I was perusing the Strat-O-Matic simulation,

01:59which I kind of really like, actually, because it puts numbers on something that, you know,

02:03we all have opinions on how the season might go. And, you know, there was the interesting part

02:07about Drake May and Jacoby Brissett kind of having similar numbers, but very different records.

02:12We talked about that. The thing I wanted to ask you about is the production of the ground game

02:18in this simulation. Ramondre Stevenson only has 800 yards, basically, regardless of quarterback,

02:23only has four or six touchdowns. If this season ends and Ramondre Stevenson only has 800 yards

02:30rushing, isn't that a really, really bad thing? Well, not if Antonio Gibson has 750

02:38and another six touchdowns. I mean, it would be, yeah, no doubt. I think you are going to look at

02:45Ramondre Stevenson and the contract that they gave him, you know, demonstrates that they want

02:50him to be a 225 plus carry guy. There's no 300 carry guys, there shouldn't be, but, you know,

02:56he should be a guy who gets the ball well over 200, probably approaching 250 times if he stays

03:02healthy. But I think Antonio Gibson is a really interesting ad for them. Kind of reminds me of

03:07a Birkhead role that they can carve out for him because he is a very good pass catcher, but he can

03:11run between the tackles. And I'm interested to see how much use Jermichael Hastie gets, you know,

03:17for people who haven't had an opportunity to watch training camp or been apprised of, okay,

03:22who's exactly in the roster. You know the bigger names, but Jermichael Hastie is a small, quick

03:27pass catching back, change up back. So, you know, he had moments in the preseason, he had moments

03:32in training camp, and I'm going to wonder how they deploy him too because they haven't had that.

03:37Not only have they not had a competitive slot like they had in past years, the past 20 years,

03:44they haven't had that really the last couple, but they now have that with Demario Douglas,

03:47they haven't really had a pass catching back either, like a legitimate water bug.

03:52What do you consider the ceiling for Jacoby Brissett this year?

03:55Ceiling would be, let's go on numbers alone, he's 2-1 touchdowns to interceptions, 24-12 maybe,

04:04throws for about 34-3500 yards, and completion percentage around 65. He's going to take a crap

04:12ton of sacks, so I would say count on 45 sacks if he plays the whole year. So that would be my

04:21ceiling for him. The optimism from Gerard Mayo in yesterday's press conference regarding the

04:27summertime accomplishments of the rushing attack, do you think he truly believes it was good this

04:33summer and it is going to, excuse me, be good going into the regular season, or do you think

04:38he is trying to speak it into existence? No, I think he believes it. I think that they do believe

04:44that they're on to something, for lack of a better phrase, with their running game and with

04:52the more, I guess, tweaked offensive approach. You know, as Mayo said when we were asking about

04:58the running game yesterday, Phil Perry and I, he kind of redirected it to say, look, there's

05:03zone runs, there's gap runs, there's really only five runs that you see on first and second down.

05:08Third down gets more exotic, but there's really only five runs. But this Patriots team has been

05:12a downhill gap running team because that's what their skill and offensive line personnel

05:20really dictated. They were downhill runners, Damian Harris from Andre Stevenson,

05:24and that's what they excelled at. One reason I asked Mayo yesterday in this conversation about

05:29personnel is you want your center and your guards to be really quick when you're running the zone

05:36stuff because they need to get out and string people and seal them off as opposed to just

05:41moving forward and opening holes, which is a gap scheme. Can they do that effectively?

05:47I did see plays in the preseason against the Commanders, and they were their twos,

05:51but I saw Antonio Gibson in particular show some excellent vision, getting wide,

05:58putting his foot in the ground, and moving upfield. So I think he believes it. I think

06:04the Patriots are going to be far more competent, not good offensively, especially in the early

06:09going, but far more competent than people expect. And they can't be much worse than

06:13they were in the last one. True, they can't. We're talking with Tommy Curran, NBC Sports,

06:17Boston. Tommy, we heard from Demarcus Covington today. He spoke at the podium,

06:20and while we were discussing this Bengals game coming up here, we were talking about the

06:24implementation of a defensive scheme against a very high-powered offense like the Bengals,

06:29and it got me wondering about what they're going to be, I don't want to say missing,

06:32but maybe losing out on now that Bill Belichick's not here doing that anymore, and you got a

06:37rookie defensive coordinator who's going to be implementing these things.

06:40Where do you think the drop-off's going to be most noticeable, if it's at all?

06:45Probably with Steve Belichick. Bill was spread so thin in the last two years especially,

06:52you know, with the offensive line. Once Adrian Clem was ill, Bill did more offensive line in 2022

06:58when Matt Patricia was supposed to be helping Billy Yates with the offensive line. It became

07:02obvious that Matt Patricia had to spend all his time on play calling, so Bill was on the

07:07offensive line. So it was really Steve Belichick and Gerard Mayo running the defense, you know,

07:13in conjunction with each other. The absence of Steve Belichick as a play caller is going to be

07:17interesting because Gerard's going to be, you know, spread thin in just the game management

07:21overseeing aspects of things. So it'll be interesting to see what kind of imprint Demarcus

07:27Covington puts on things. It's all the same blueprint, it's just the tweaks that are put on

07:34it. And I just think the Patriots front and the speed of the linebackers, which used to be a

07:40glaring problem for them, is so much better now. You know, guys like Jennings, Tavai,

07:46maybe even Raekwon McMillan, who have the ability to really move and make plays in a way that they

07:54weren't a couple years ago, could be a big part of this defense going forward. And I think the

08:01defense will be just as good as people think. Let's end on a cheery note, sort of. I'm really

08:07excited here. You just said the defense is going to be good. Yeah, I know, but I want even more

08:10cheery. I'm excited about this game tonight. I'm excited about tomorrow night's game. I'm excited

08:14about this season and Drake May. I legitimately have some energy going into this season, both

08:19NFL-wise and Patriots-wise. Tom Curran, what's got you excited this football season, whether it's

08:26NFL-wide or in Patriot Nation? I mean, it's a knee-jerk reaction, but I think it's multi-layered.

08:36I mean, I'm really intrigued to see how Brady does. I'm really intrigued to see what Belichick

08:40offers. I'm really interested in seeing how the Patriots approach this season. I want to see how

08:46Aaron Rodgers does. There's a storyline everywhere you turn. Now, there are some places where the

08:52familiarity's gone. Like, who's the coach off the top of your head in Tennessee? Who's the coach

08:57in Seattle? Do you know the names of people? So there is an indoctrination that has to happen

09:03league-wide that we don't know the Brabels and the Pete Carrolls, and there's a changeover in

09:09different spots. But there's larger-than-life guys. You'll want to see how Jim Harbaugh does,

09:15how does Lamar Jackson follow up last year's season? Are they a better team? All that stuff

09:19to me. There's storylines all over the place. I think Justin Fields is a better quarterback

09:24than Russell Wilson, and I wonder if that'll bear out in Pittsburgh. So I am as excited as you are,

09:30Drew. Let's go! Very good. All right, we'll leave it right there. Tommy Curran, thanks so much for

09:34the time today. Always good to talk with you. We'll talk to you again next week. All right, guys.

09:37Thank you. All right. That's Tommy Curran.

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