- today
Christopher Price joined Toucher & Hardy to preview Patriots training camp and share his outlook for the season. He says there’s a new energy around the team thanks to head coach Mike Vrabel’s swagger. Price sees 8–9 wins as the team’s ceiling — if they stay healthy, beat bad teams, and Drake Maye grows into a leader. While there are concerns at receiver and pass rush, a strong finish could set the tone for the future. Price also sees potential in the defense and says the Patriots could build momentum by finishing strong and playing spoiler, much like the Lions did in 2022.
Image courtesy of USA TODAY NETWORK
Image courtesy of USA TODAY NETWORK
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00:00hello mr price how are you how's camp oh are you looking forward to it this is the big time
00:05this should be fun it should it should be fun there there is a renewed sense of energy i mean
00:11you guys have talked about it before vrabel's got kind of an edge and i know felger's talked but he's
00:16he's a he's got a bit of a swagger to him and i think that kind of rubs off on the rest of the
00:21team and you know you saw that yesterday when he was answering questions so it is it's going to be
00:27fun i i do think that football has been lacking in fun around here the last couple of years for
00:33whatever reason but i do think this team is going to be more fun and i think that starts with the
00:36head coach okay so um i want to get into particular players but i am interested before the season
00:42starts and before camp starts just to get your opinion on like kind of the national narrative
00:48uh things have started to kind of snowball downhill and in the wind total keeps getting higher and
00:55higher and higher we asked mike reese about this but i've heard like nine wins nine wins for this
01:03team when i give you that number is that realistic in your opinion i think that's realistic if everything
01:10goes according to plan i i think the ceiling for this team is eight nine wins and that is if the blue
01:18chip players play like they're expected to play they stay relatively injury free and they take
01:25advantage of bad football uh rabel talked a little bit about that yesterday their ability to just
01:29kind of take advantage of you know situations that they could take advantage of and we haven't seen
01:34that over the last couple years because they played against some bad football teams and they haven't risen
01:39to the occasion if they hit all of those marks then i think eight or nine wins is a reasonable level
01:46of expectation for this team but that's that's like i said that's the ceiling i think for this group
01:51going back to some of these other teams that you know we're talking about and taking advantage of
01:55bad football that you can assume will be played by a handful of these teams especially early in the
02:00schedule if both teams show up i had this tough to do chris without looking at the matchups from week
02:05to week but just you know overall if both teams show up and play their best do you think the patriots end
02:13up winning all of those games against other you know let's be kind to say teams that are on the rise
02:19or do you think you end up splitting with some of those teams if they both show up and play their
02:24best i think they end up splitting with some of those teams i i do i i think that they're going
02:28to take some losses that are kind of perceived to be bad losses uh maybe you know bad losses at the
02:34end of the year where you can kick yourself and say hey maybe if they've won these two games they'd
02:38be in a little bit better position come january but i think they're going to end up splitting those
02:41games i think they're going to win some games that will surprise some people look you always end up
02:47winning at least one one or two games every year i don't care who you are you know you're back into
02:51a victory you know i remember a couple years ago when mac jones beat buffalo you know they're just
02:56they're any given sunday kind of wins um but overall i think ultimately answer your question they're going
03:01to win some of those games they're going to lose some but they're going to split they are and i think
03:05that's a fair kind of look at where they are in their overall development it also matters to when they
03:11get those wins i think i heard someone on the station say this the other day where like if they're in a
03:16position if they're like two and six out of the gate and they win four games you know for their
03:21last five then i think you go into the off season feeling good even if you won seven games as opposed
03:27to nine games so i think you just want to be a pain in the ass to play against by the end of the year
03:32you know i think that if you can let's for example if you can knock miami out of the playoffs in that last
03:38game or knock miami out of the playoff picture in that last game then i think you've kind of done your
03:43job when it comes to laying a foundation for success down the road give you an example is the
03:49lions team couldn't make the playoffs they played green bay green bay in the last game of the season
03:55green bay was playing for a playoff spot and they beat green bay i think they beat green bay in green
04:00bay i think i know they did and that was the jumping off point to what they are now which is a
04:07disappointment in the playoffs no it was the jumping off point to what they are now
04:10see i think that's a nine wins get you in the playoffs more likely than not i think
04:16a realistic thing and a positive thing if you're a patriots fan is what you just described is like
04:22a team getting cohesion at the end you know being kicking around like where they're not mathematically
04:30eliminated in december like you know right away in december but you know you see growth happen
04:36and certainly with the quarterback position a lot a lot a lot is being put on drake may's shoulders
04:45again last year it was just showcasing the you know athletic talent was enough you make one
04:51you know crazy throw that's enough to take the the fan base through the week now you're asking him to
04:57win games which requires not making mistakes more than anything else a lot of pressure on him this year
05:03i feel yeah and i think there should be a lot of pressure on him this year he talked a little bit
05:07about that over the course the spring workouts that he welcomes that added expectation and i think there
05:13should be an added level of expectation look i have no worry about his physical ability i i'm a little
05:19bit concerned about his ability to pick up a josh mcdaniel scheme relatively quickly but the thing that
05:24that i would be looking for and the thing that i'm going to be looking for from drake may this year
05:28is his emergence as a true leader his emergence as a captain one of the things we saw in the spring
05:34and i know mike has talked about this before where at the end of practice guys were lined up on the
05:39goal line and he was the one drake was the one calling out the cadence and if they got it wrong
05:44or someone jumped they had to run again those are little things i want to see drake may not chew out
05:49a teammate but i want to see drake may hold his teammates accountable last year he was the rookie
05:53everyone loved him you know you had a certain level of expectation with a rookie quarterback
05:58now he needs to be able to take that next step as a leader not just from a physical perspective
06:04but from a guy who is the face of the franchise going into the 2025 season who's he throwing the
06:09football to who who are the wide receivers other than stefan diggs that are going to have an impact
06:14this year i mean there it seems to me it's stefan diggs and a bunch of other guys yeah it really is
06:19right now i think but to be fair to those other guys you can put pop douglas i think pop douglas
06:24has had some success in this league i'm not saying that he's an overwhelming physical talent but you
06:29look at the history of slot receivers in josh mcdaniel's offenses and if pop douglas stays in
06:36his playbook and stays healthy he should have a good year it's on him to be able to have a good year
06:42i'm fascinated by the back end of that wide receiver depth chart i know that you guys have
06:46questions about you know obviously it you know digs and and born and in kyle williams and the
06:52rest of them here it comes the eftem chisholm here it comes chisholm here it is he's gonna be the guy
06:57he's gonna you know he's gonna be he is i think i wrote this the other day he is gonna be the austin
07:01car this year you know the bam childress of of the summer where guys are gonna be clamoring for he's
07:08gonna have like seven catches for like 80 yards in the preseason opener and he's gonna have people
07:13talking for like a week i think i'll say this look he is going to be able to find a way to stick
07:19around i don't know if that's going to be you know through the foxborough flu and he gets put on
07:24ir all year or if they find the you know the 53rd man on the roster he's you know he ends up being
07:29that guy but i think he's going to be that guy but he is going to be a part of a conversation with
07:34polk baker the you know the rest of them at the back end of that depth chart that i think is going
07:40to be one of the better positional battles this summer which shows the brilliance of the polk pick
07:45now um if you uh stefan diggs in good news in the receiver front um i mean he wasn't expected to be
07:53participating at this level so soon uh what are your takeaways from that no i i think it's a good
07:59thing and in vrabel kind of really pinpointed this yesterday he's like look guys come back from
08:05different injuries at different times the last time i saw a guy do this you guys can remember this
08:09is is welker at the end of the 2009 season ripped up his knee on that soft turf in in houston and
08:16then was back for the season opener in 2010 different players different years different
08:21situations but look you know we can talk all about the you know the the pink stuff in the bag and his
08:27propensity to make you know bad decisions from time to time but you got to give the guy a lot of
08:31credit for being able to come back this quickly and to be able to look like he did over the course of
08:37the spring practice he's one of those guys in that short list that i want to see once the pads go on
08:41i want to see that burst i want to see that cutting ability and i want to see that connection with drake
08:46man as he looks special to you we've heard other guys say that in the spring he looks special like
08:50you could tell the difference yeah it's it's him like john john was saying before it's him and everybody
08:55else right and that's not just from a physical perspective but it's it's it's very obviously him and
09:00everyone else he is if he is healthy uh we talked about a reasonable level of expectation before
09:06you know you can put him down for 70 to 80 catches in another thousand yards because
09:10he showed so much over the course of the spring i thought he was going to be kind of standing off
09:16to the side and not really working not really doing a lot of stuff even in shorts and t-shirts
09:19in the spring he looked good he was running he was cutting the next step in the process though
09:23was to be able to show that when the bats come on i want to ask you real quick about the defense
09:27as to roe williams not being there all summer hurt them does it put them a couple of steps back and
09:32we've heard a lot about how good this defense can be you talk about ball rolling downhill i'm not
09:37sure it's an elite defense yet yeah i think it is going to be a very good defense i don't think it's
09:43an elite defense a lot of it hinges on whether or not barmore can stay healthy if barmore can stay
09:47healthy and um bilton williams can assume a greater role than he had with the eagles over the last couple
09:54of years that front seven can be an absolute terror for opposing offense okay but who's going
10:00to rush the quarterback that well the whole thing is fred the defensive philosophy is changing i don't
10:06want to get too far in the weeds here but get in the weeds baby i can handle it i love it i love it
10:10well between williams and vrabel the old approach was kind of having those big defensive linemen take
10:18up space and allow you know the linebackers to kind of fly around and make plays what we saw over the
10:23course of the spring milton williams is next level i've never i haven't seen a guy that big move like
10:27that since vince wolf worked around here he it's all about penetrating it's all about being disruptive
10:32when you ask who's going to rush the quarterback i'll counter by saying it's going to be just about
10:38everybody and there's going to be some swings and misses early on where guys are going to miss
10:42tackles just because the scheme and kind of getting used to the scheme and playing at a certain speed
10:47but this group keon white uh milton williams christian barmore harold landry if they stay
10:54healthy that's a really impressive group across the board and we're not even talking about a guy who
10:59i really think is going to be kind of an under the radar not a superstar but a really important guy for
11:03this team is robert spillane so this defense i think has a chance to be really really good
11:08white guy hustle just a matter of staying held them staying held yeah spillane coach's guy
11:12white guy hustle yeah you gotta love it uh yeah i mean you know my only counter and you certainly
11:18know more than me and i haven't seen anything is that the guys make 40 million dollars get into the
11:23quarterback edge rushers and uh that's generally how it's done in the nfl it and we'll see milton
11:29williams is is a tall is a big athletic kid uh you know he had two all-time studs in front of him
11:38with philadelphia and and you know that's why you give him that kind of money is that potential
11:42so it will be interesting i do i i think that that he is going to be if he can have that because
11:47he only played 50 of the snaps the last couple years but being able to play alongside a guy like
11:52barmore keon white loves mike grable loves the situation he's in as opposed to where he was
11:56before so i i think that defense uh again you know if everyone can stay healthy has a chance to be
12:02really good yeah certainly the strength of the team all right christopher price enjoy cam today we
12:07love having you on we want to talk to you a lot thank you so much read them in the boston globe
12:12thanks christopher appreciate it as always take care guys if you like that clip and how could you
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