- 6/11/2025
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Tom E. Curran normally joins us every Tuesday at high noon.
00:04Tommy Tuesday.
00:04We're calling him Tommy Hump Day today at high noon.
00:08Curran, your favorite Ray Crittenden, Ray Lucas.
00:11I'm trying to think of some Rays over the years.
00:14You've got to have a favorite Ray, I would imagine.
00:16Those are good Rays.
00:17I was going to go boxing for you with Ray Leonard.
00:20Oh, nice.
00:21Ray Boom Boom Mancini.
00:24And, of course, Sugar Ray Robinson.
00:25Nice.
00:26All good Rays.
00:26All real good ones.
00:27Sugar Ray the band, of course.
00:28The one that's very much overlooked as well.
00:32I raised the bar.
00:34Yeah, I did.
00:35You were there front and center yesterday peppering Stefan Diggs,
00:38Steph Diggs as you like to call him,
00:40peppering him with questions yesterday.
00:42What did you think of that whole, I don't want to call it spectacle,
00:45that whole scene, the way he handled it,
00:47the way Mike Vrabel kind of answered things earlier in the day?
00:51What did you think of that yesterday?
00:54I think it was interesting to hear Diggs be what he represented
00:58as being transparent, tried to be polite, understood the questions were coming,
01:02had a party line that he was going to adhere to.
01:06As we talked about a little in early edition last night,
01:08there wasn't a massive amount of contrition.
01:10He wasn't going to open a vein and say, I'm sorry I did this,
01:13and dismerch the name of the Patriots.
01:15It wasn't like Gronk after the BB Jones jersey.
01:18It was more, yeah, you know, we'll keep it between us.
01:23I talked to Mike and we're going to keep it between us.
01:27But, you know, it was interesting when you listened to him,
01:31and he mentioned a couple times that I'm a 10-year veteran,
01:33I understand how this stuff works.
01:35He's probably looking at it and saying, okay, so what did I do?
01:38What exactly did I do?
01:40You got nothing on me.
01:41So it's a mountain out of a molehill.
01:44Sorry it got out there.
01:45Let's move on.
01:47And I'm sure the Patriots feel that way with some trepidation
01:51and would walk away from a conversation like that and say, I hope that's it.
01:57Now, five weeks from now when training camp opens up,
02:00the next time, whatever it is, Steph Diggs talks again.
02:03Do you think questions like you guys had for him yesterday are done?
02:07Or is there a little bit more, like another run at it?
02:11Or was this sort of getting out in front of it,
02:12kind of putting that behind everybody?
02:14No, I think that settled it.
02:17I mean, there was no charge.
02:18There was no police presence.
02:19There was a video of a guy with what we presume was some kind of a mood enhancer.
02:26But there's no smoking gun to say it should continue on.
02:30We asked.
02:31He answered.
02:31Move on to the next event.
02:34Hopefully the Patriots, I'm sure, hoping that there are no next events.
02:37But I would imagine that we're done with the pontoon boat.
02:42You asked what's in the bag.
02:44I think Keith brought something up interesting earlier today, Curran.
02:48What if he actually answered it?
02:50I know you assumed he wasn't going to.
02:53Were you bracing for him potentially in any way answering that?
02:56That would have been wild.
02:57No, I didn't think he'd answer it.
02:59But, I mean, he could have gone with him.
03:01It was just chopped up tums.
03:02You know, you're out there on the pontoon.
03:03People here get rocky.
03:05You have to take some seasick pills, whatever.
03:08No, I didn't expect him to.
03:09But it was, you know, really incumbent on us to just ask the question.
03:13Because had there not been a little baggy there, there would have been no discussion.
03:17It's just a guy on a boat during Memorial Day with a bunch of girls.
03:20What do you think Mike Vrabel or how Mike Vrabel is feeling about the Steph Diggs experience thus far?
03:25He made it pretty clear yesterday that he wants everybody at everything.
03:29And so Diggs is sort of the face of that.
03:32He wasn't the only one that missed some of the optional stuff.
03:34But how do you think Mike Vrabel is handling this so far?
03:40I think good.
03:41He's not pretending to be over the moon about the situation.
03:46But he's also not going in there like a hanging judge and saying, we can't have this.
03:52Because, again, if you're a player, if you're a 20-something, if you're looking at this situation, you would say, what exactly did he do?
04:01And we can all logically surmise that it was whatever and have our own levels of offense.
04:09But I think that if Mike slips out over something that, again, you just don't know what it was, there's no police involvement, then, you know, be a little bit downcast about it.
04:21And then move on to the football aspect, because the football aspect to me continues to be fascinating.
04:26And you guys played the Giardi question about whether or not he's passed the physical.
04:32And that dynamic I see being fascinating.
04:34Because you have Diggs saying, you know, I'm a dog on a leash.
04:37I'm ready to go.
04:37I'm ready to go.
04:38He's participating in a way I didn't expect him to seven months after the surgery.
04:44He's probably dying to get his physical done, be cleared, ready to go, and start having his money hit his account.
04:53And the Patriots can always say, we're doing it for your own good.
04:58We're not going to have a physical done until you're ready to go.
05:00It's, you know, you're fine.
05:01We're fine.
05:03Take our time here.
05:03But they can also, at the same time, say, let's give him the physical as late as possible and just make sure that he's completely on board.
05:12Whereas Diggs is probably sitting there going, look, I'm ready.
05:15Can I have my physical, please?
05:16So I do see that being, unless they've come to some understanding that I don't know about as to what date they're going to have the physical on,
05:26it could be something that would be under the surface, a little push-pull.
05:31So you think he might be agitated by them holding him back?
05:33I don't want to put words in your mouth, but, like, to use a word, he's not necessarily loving that they're holding him back.
05:40No, I don't know that because I don't know what questions that they would have.
05:44But if he wants a physical and wants to be cleared and is indicating he's full go or to this point, and I don't know.
05:52But I'm just saying the potential exists unless they've addressed it.
05:57Unless it's been addressed.
05:58Look, if I owed you $50 and said I would give it to you if you did a certain thing and you were prepared fully to do that certain thing,
06:09and I kept putting it off, you'd eventually say, can we just do this so I can get my $50?
06:16Let alone $4 million.
06:18Seriously, you want to up the number.
06:19A question Jones asked earlier, and he and I disagreed on it, so you can break the tie.
06:25Who needs who more?
06:26The Patriots needing Steph Diggs or Steph Diggs needing the Patriots?
06:30Patriots needing Steph Diggs.
06:33I agree.
06:34I disagree.
06:35To me, it's the Patriots needing Diggs because Diggs would find another home.
06:43Might not find it at $12 million a year in the contract that he got, and it might put a little bit of a strike against him as he moves around the league with a failed physical.
06:53But to me, I think the Patriots need him more in that they're searching high and low for a number one receiver.
07:03If they don't have Steph Diggs, your number one receiver is probably Demario Douglas, who's more of a slot.
07:09He would be a number three on a good wide receiver team.
07:12So to me, the Patriots need Diggs to fulfill the things that they're trying to put in place here.
07:18How typical is it that we get to this point?
07:21I agree to disagree on who has the leverage.
07:22How typical is it that we see a player here, we're in between minicamp and training camp, and there's still a pending physical?
07:30Is that more typical than I would realize?
07:33Because I would tend to think a lot of times physicals are done when you sign the contract, no?
07:38No, no.
07:38I think it's much more prevalent because you have to be clear for different aspects of trying to make the team.
07:45You see a bunch of guys get released, failed physical toward the end of training camp.
07:52So, no, I think it's much more prevalent.
07:55The guy's trying to come back from an injury and he hasn't been able to get on the field.
07:59He's still getting paid, but he hasn't been cleared yet to play.
08:01I don't think it's exceptional.
08:04I mean, there's a difference between being cleared to run around with a penny on at 80% and being able to put a helmet shoulder pads on and take every rep of practice full contact.
08:15And it does make sense that there would be a different physical or a different set of standards that you have to pass for that.
08:22Now, again, they're not real open about this because they'll hide behind HIPAA and everything else.
08:31But it's not something that they're delving into when we ask about Steph Diggs.
08:36It's been difficult to find out exactly what the situation is.
08:39But my presumption would be sign the contract pending a physical.
08:43You put the physical in the contract specifically.
08:45You put language in it that says until you pass it, you get nothing and like it.
08:50Then, to me, that might be a little unusual.
08:55But still, that physical, I think every player in any kind of rehab condition would have to pass eventually to play.
09:02What did you make of Mike Vrabel the other day talking up Efton Chisholm pretty good, the undrafted wide receiver who we've talked about a few times on the show?
09:10And then when asked about Kyle Williams, their third-round pick who had a big touchdown catch, just be like, yeah, you got to make those plays.
09:20It's very obvious when you go to these OTAs that Chisholm is really good.
09:24It's really obvious.
09:26And May said that the other day when I asked him about Henderson, Williams, and Chisholm.
09:31He mentioned how good the other two were.
09:33And then he mentioned Chisholm.
09:34He goes, he's got probably 50 catches in these OTAs.
09:37And when Vrabel said yesterday the most important thing that these players can do at that position is build trust with the quarterback.
09:43And you can tell that when they throw to him.
09:45They're throwing to the kid over and over and over again.
09:47And it's not just because he's there.
09:50It's because he's there.
09:51And they look to him.
09:52They check, check.
09:53All right, well, where's Chisholm?
09:54Boom.
09:54He's where he's supposed to be.
09:56That's a catch.
09:56He catches it religiously.
09:58I don't know if I've seen a drop from him.
09:59And then he scurries up the field.
10:01So I don't think one indicates a disappointment with Kyle Williams.
10:07But I do think that when you just watch Chisholm move, the speed with which he gets out of his brakes is unique to everybody except for Diggs.
10:15He's not faster by any stretch.
10:17But his body control and his ability to stop and start is better than any other player at the wide receiver.
10:24And that includes Polk.
10:25That includes Williams.
10:26That includes Baker.
10:28Bourne's pretty good, too.
10:29But he's better at that than anybody except for Diggs, who, even on a bad knee, was pretty good getting in and out.
10:36So something jumped out to me from Vrabel yesterday beyond the Diggs stuff.
10:40And it was the way he talked about Chisholm versus the way he talked about Kyle Williams.
10:44Keith pointed out, I mean, there's a reason to do that.
10:47Chisholm is undrafted.
10:48You want to keep him motivated by gassing him up.
10:51Kyle Williams, day two pick.
10:52There's a lot of draft capital invested there.
10:55So maybe you want to keep him wanting more and wanting to prove more.
10:59So maybe there is a method to that madness.
11:01But I read into Vrabel yesterday talking up Chisholm and also kind of sounding lukewarm at best about Kyle Williams making a 40-yard catch down the field.
11:10Did you read into that at all?
11:11I think that he was trying more, less to downgrade Williams' play on that particular down and more to just caution us as media to say they can't, as defensive backs right now, jump up and try and swat the ball away and then end up with a four-car pileup on the goal line after everyone's running full speed because we're just not supposed to be going to the ground.
11:38So he beat them down the field.
11:41The defensive backs didn't allow him to beat them down the field.
11:44But I think Vrabel's point is they're not going to challenge at the catch point the way they would normally.
11:50It was less about the Williams thing and more about just reminding us what we're watching is not necessarily what might happen in a competitive situation.
12:02And even with those limitations for the defense, it does seem like the offense has progressed, right?
12:08It started out, we were talking about that Drake May four-pick performance.
12:11Then it was a little bit better.
12:12Cleaned up the picks, but the completion percentage was low.
12:15And it seems like each day things have gotten a little bit better for the offense.
12:20Until yesterday.
12:21Oh.
12:22They did a lot of third down.
12:24They did a lot of red zone.
12:26They did a lot of defensively, giving a whole mess of different looks.
12:31Guys mugging up in the line of scrimmage.
12:33And I think that presented some confusion problems and protection problems that I think are actually good for them to see before they go into this break before training camp.
12:45I would put good money on the fact that the first week of training camp, we will be talking about, why did the offense look so bad?
12:55And it's because the defense is losing its mind, not being able to fully participate.
13:01And, you know, they're getting to the quarterback and around the quarterback.
13:04And then you see a throw down field that May gets credit for on all of our statistical compilations as another completion.
13:13And it probably wouldn't have been.
13:15So, I would think that when training camp starts and it's more competitive and there is contact, they're going to have the edge pretty well.
13:23But that's not to downgrade the improvement we saw over the three weeks of OTAs while they were out there.
13:30They got much better all the way through.
13:33Karin, do you expect a change to the roster between now and training camp?
13:38Like a significant change?
13:39And the reason I ask, you asked and had a back and forth yesterday with Vrabel, I would imagine about TJ Watt, I would imagine about Terry McLaurin, who else?
13:49Trey Hendrickson, they were linked by Jeremy Fowler to Rashad Bateman.
13:52They were one of the teams that inquired about Rashad Bateman.
13:55Do you think we see a significant change between now and training camp to the roster?
14:00I think that they would be open to doing it.
14:02I just don't know if any of those individuals are in a position where the teams that they're on would be willing to move them during the summer.
14:09They're all good players.
14:10They're all high-ticket players.
14:12You know, we could have that.
14:14It's an interesting conversation.
14:16The Patriots have $60 million in cap space still.
14:19You know, they didn't get Chris Godwin, so they got Steph Diggs, but he's not nearly as expensive as Chris Godwin would have been.
14:26So, they still have that money there.
14:28They can roll $60 million into next year and have another crap ton of money to spend in free agency.
14:34And maybe guys more want to come here so that they can actually get rid of the money.
14:38But it's still sitting there.
14:40You still have the opportunity to go get a big-ticket item if you want to.
14:43What does loom down the road for the team in general is contracts for Christian Gonzalez.
14:50Believe it or not, you can already start thinking about a contract with Drake May.
14:53So, you have to look at these big-ticket top five picks or, in Gonzalez's case, all-pro player at a prime position that are going to command a lot of money.
15:05But you do have to, at some point, spend the money.
15:09And I think that they went through the same thing last year.
15:13Nobody really wanted to come here.
15:14It wasn't a great free agent class, so they resigned all their own guys.
15:17And one by one, they're moving on from those guys or finding, you know, those guys are finding themselves further down the depth chart.
15:26And I mention that because I look at Anthony Jennings, who I've always thought is a good player and productive.
15:32And he's running with the twos at all times, it seems.
15:35So, it's segued to another point off of what you're talking about.
15:40There's a lot of guys on the roster still who seem to be, they were key players last year who are now being a little bit marginalized.
15:49Might change during training camp when they can hit more and do more running games.
15:52And maybe we'll see more from them.
15:53But that continues to be an interesting thing to watch.
15:57But as far as getting a big-ticket guy, I think they'd love to.
16:01But that whole thing that we always joke about, oh, they were in on him.
16:05They were in on him.
16:06They were in on him.
16:07Are they really in on him?
16:09Do they go and ball to the wall to make it happen?
16:11Or are they just saying, so what's that cost?
16:14And then walking out of the store.
16:15Last thing for me, Tom, I think it was last week.
16:18It was like hours before he signed.
16:20I was like, oh, Will Campbell hasn't signed.
16:21You're like, yeah, it's no big deal.
16:22And then he signed right away.
16:23Travion Henderson, the second-round pick, also hasn't signed.
16:26I know there's been a kind of trend of second-round picks.
16:30At least the guys at the very top getting guaranteed contracts.
16:34But anything to read in there as we get into the second week of June?
16:38And still no contract for Henderson?
16:41I don't.
16:41I just don't see the same level of contract strife we used to see when the CBA was totally different.
16:47I'm sure that Travion Henderson will get done and be on the field at some point.
16:51So I wouldn't see that being a looming issue.
16:54Could be wrong, but I just don't think it happens.
16:56Okay, he's Tommy Curran, NBC Sports Boston.
16:59He joins us every Tuesday here on Jones and Keefe.
17:02Tommy Tuesday's Tommy Hump Day today.
17:04Tom, we appreciate the time.
17:06Thanks so much.
17:06We'll talk to you soon.
17:07All right, guys.
17:08Take care.
17:09All right.
17:09Tom E. Curran joining us here on Jones and Keefe on WE.
17:13We'll talk to you soon.
Recommended
15:18
|
Up next
2:15
2:20