On Monday's edition of Zolak and Bertrand, former Patriots quarterback Jim Miller, joined the show. While discussing the expectations of second year quarterback Drake Maye, Miller explained how the return of offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels will elevate the play of Maye.
00:00That is Jim Miller, of course, from Moving the Chains on Sirius XM every afternoon, 3 to 7,
00:06on Sirius XM NFL Radio.
00:09Pat Kerwin is here with him as well, his co-host.
00:11They're here at Patriots training camp today at Gillette,
00:14and they've got an episode coming up this afternoon on Sirius XM.
00:18They talked to Mike Vrabel this morning already.
00:21You can hear that show coming up this afternoon or any time on the Sirius XM app.
00:26How was talking to your former teammate today?
00:28Well, gentlemen, good to be with you.
00:30Always get to check out the first day in pads of Patriots camp,
00:34and Scott, always good checking in with you.
00:35But, yeah, Vrabel, all business-like.
00:38You know, he was fun to have as a teammate, joking, playing around,
00:41but he's all business as a coach, and it should be.
00:45I think he's going to bring a level of accountability here.
00:47Was he as much a dick in practice as Tom says he was?
00:50I used to laugh because, Scott, you know, like the show teams or whatever,
00:54so obviously Mike being a starter on defense.
00:57No, Coach, the card's wrong.
00:59They wrote up the card wrong, Coach.
01:01They need to execute the card.
01:02He'd always be, you know, just jabbing Bill Belichick, and he was fun.
01:06He was fun to have as a teammate, but, yeah, he could really bust some chops.
01:10I remember we were down in Tennessee doing joints,
01:12and this is the year we didn't have any receivers.
01:14They were all hurt.
01:15Yeah.
01:15And Brady and him were still yelling at each other, walking out to the practice field.
01:19I'm going to dice your ass up, man.
01:20I got no receivers.
01:21I'm still – and it made Brady focus, and he went like 12 or 14 that day
01:25with a bunch of backups against him.
01:27Yeah.
01:27He was still chirping, Mike.
01:28Hey, it was competitive.
01:30You know, I'm not going to say with Mike here, like,
01:32it's going to go back to the Patriots of old, but I do think this.
01:36He will challenge players.
01:38There will be a level of accountability, and I think, as you will attest too,
01:42Scott, a level of toughness, you know.
01:44I hope.
01:45There's a level of toughness that he's going to bring,
01:47and I think they'll be mentally tough for the –
01:49I was looking at your schedule as I was coming up here.
01:52You and I know when you have 12 1 o'clock games,
01:55one that tells you what the league thinks about you.
01:57Right.
01:57But I kind of like that as a player.
01:59You're in your schedule, you know, you're just kind of rolling along,
02:02and I think you'll have this group ready to play.
02:03I think Patriots will surprise some people.
02:05You know, just traveling with the team, I worry about that for my own.
02:09No, because we've had pitch schedules before, like three West Coast games,
02:13have to do the international game in London.
02:14We've been down to Mexico City.
02:16You don't want that.
02:17Like, the furthest we travel is New Orleans.
02:19And to your point, like, you get in that rhythm of, hey,
02:23every day the bike falls right at Thanksgiving.
02:25It's like the perfect time.
02:26Yeah, I really do.
02:27I think it plays in their favor.
02:28I mean, we were talking off the air.
02:30I mean, I easily can see eight, nine wins pretty easily for this team.
02:34And it's not – and I give Elliott Wolfe and Mike a lot of credit.
02:38I think they brought in the right guys.
02:39I think they were selective.
02:41I think they attacked the trenches.
02:43You've got some competitive battles in camp here.
02:45I think there are young players that are going to play.
02:47Obviously, Henderson, you look at Campbell.
02:50Ashby, you know, is probably going to be the long snapper, you know.
02:53And unless he can't do it, then they'll bring in somebody else.
02:56But, you know, I like what the Patriots have done this offseason.
03:00When you look at this practice, one thing we've noticed is every day,
03:06the speed at which they move.
03:07There is no downtime.
03:09There's a lot of movement.
03:10Everything is quick, period to period, on the field.
03:12It speaks to that level of accountability, but also just the fact that guys had on a swivel.
03:19And I think that that's a big difference from where this team was a year ago.
03:22And I know you guys come here every year and see this.
03:24Well, I just know when I go to other camps, I don't like, say, during special teams period
03:28when they were just doing a special teams period.
03:31The other part of the team is just sitting around, standing, doing nothing.
03:34Here they take advantage of that time, whether it's offense, defense,
03:38whoever's not working on special teams.
03:40They're down there getting reps, doing other things to, you know,
03:43things that need to be covered.
03:45There is no downtime.
03:47And I think now in today's football, I don't want to sound like some old guy
03:51get off our lawn, me and Scott, but they were long.
03:54They were a lot of practices.
03:55We had two-a-days.
03:56You had a lot of reps.
03:58And now with being only one practice a day, you've got to maximize what you do on the field.
04:03And I think Mike Grable takes advantage of that.
04:06So how many teams have you visited so far?
04:08I did the Lions and the Bears.
04:10I thought Dan Campbell, being year five, you know, it's interesting
04:14because Ben Johnson, his OC, goes down to Chicago.
04:17To see Lions year five, I mean, it was humming, like what you guys are saying.
04:21Drill to drill.
04:22You've got a veteran quarterback in Jared Goff, number one offense in the NFL.
04:26They're just humming.
04:27They're picking up right where they left off.
04:29And now Ben Johnson trying to build the Bears.
04:31Yeah.
04:32Fumbled snaps, you know, the foundational year type of problems.
04:37Like, that's not what I want it to look like, boys.
04:39You know, get up there and do it again.
04:41They're not breaking the huddle right.
04:42You know, stuff like that.
04:43So they're just getting the party started in Chicago and what Ben Johnson's trying to do.
04:48But I thought Dan Campbell's group looked really good.
04:51For a lot of years, people will be talking about the top three quarterbacks of that draft.
04:54Caleb Williams and Daniels and Drake May, those three.
04:59So you've seen those three.
05:00I think everyone thinks Daniels is spectacular.
05:02But how does Drake May here compared to, let's say, Caleb Williams in Chicago right now?
05:07Yeah, I think, one, getting Josh McDaniels here is going to be huge.
05:11I spent time with Josh here, and I think the offense, and he'll be taught the right way.
05:17And, you know, it's like even last year when he and Joel Milton were here,
05:21you get to see the nerves in Drake May.
05:24You know, he skipped his first ball on the dirt.
05:27Nobody go fishing last year because he was killing all the worms.
05:30And now he looks like a pro quarterback.
05:33I saw him even just warming up.
05:34Boom, he knows the routine.
05:36He knows what he's got to get done.
05:37He's in the right mental frame of mind to practice, and it's night and day, I think, for him.
05:44So we look at the Miami Dolphins and, you know, what Tua's been able to do there.
05:49And I try and look at, you know, the division here.
05:51Buffalo is definitely the cream of the crop.
05:52Now, if it's Mike's first year, don't you think it would be a success if you finish second in this division?
05:57Yeah.
05:57Because, I mean, nobody counts the Jets in.
05:59They get their own issues.
06:00But the Dolphins have beaten us six out of the last six times.
06:02Yeah, I think they've jumped ahead of Miami.
06:06Miami, to me, has not gotten better as a team.
06:08They continue to give away their good players.
06:11You know, normally it's you draft and develop players.
06:14You know, fine, they got Minka Fitzpatrick back, but they drafted him.
06:18He should have been there the whole time.
06:19You know, Tunsell, you know, they traded him away.
06:22The Wilkins, you saw what the Raiders just did with him.
06:25They gave him away.
06:26And now for the Miami, they just gave away Johnny Smith, you know.
06:30So, you know, I just, to me, to me, Miami's going backwards and New England's going forwards.
06:36And you're right.
06:37It'll be a challenge.
06:38It's a good test for New England.
06:40You're going to be 53 yards away when you play him and to say, hey, that's what we want to be.
06:45And I think Mike Vrabel knows what that looks like, and that's what he's going to try to accomplish here.
06:49Jim Miller is with us in the Super Service Today guest chair.
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06:59You said you looked at that schedule.
07:00How many wins do you think this Patriots team is capable of?
07:03I do.
07:03I think at minimum eight to nine, you know, right off the bat.
07:07Now, can you get some signature wins that, you know, you win some games that nobody expects you?
07:12Like Washington, think of Dan Quinn and his inaugural year.
07:16They split with Philadelphia last year during the season, you know, and they lost them.
07:20They spent Philly nervous in that playoff game.
07:21Yeah, but, you know, they were like that big win over the Bears.
07:25You know, they had that, you know, the Bears corner screwed up, Tyreek Stevenson.
07:29But nonetheless, those in your foundational year, those are signature wins that kind of solidify and put the pillars in the cement that, hey, we got something good here that's going.
07:41And I think Vrabel will do that, one with his coaching, the coaching staff that he brought aboard.
07:46And Mike's a pretty savvy guy as a coach.
07:48I think they'll be tough, like I said, mentally, physically.
07:52They'll be prepared technique-wise, all the things that they need to do.
07:56And they'll eke out a couple of wins that way.
07:58But you need a couple of special wins that really sit, you know, really solidify it and cement it for your football players.
08:05What do you think of Belichick at UNC?
08:06Do you see that picture on opening?
08:09It looked like he was bench pressing.
08:11He had that big old chest with those two players in front of him.
08:13The chest has gotten bigger, yeah.
08:14I think he's going to do very well.
08:16They did have a lot of NIL money to spend.
08:19I saw he did lose one of his pass rushers.
08:22But, again, they'll be disciplined.
08:24They're going to, foundationally, you know, technique-wise, he'll cover every base.
08:28And I think they're going to do well.
08:30He's a coach.
08:31You know, that's who he is.
08:32That's what he always is going to be.
08:34And, you know, to me, it's a shame.
08:37I'd like to see him in the NFL.
08:38I think he's good for the NFL.
08:40But those players, you know, there's a lot of players around the country that are going to want to go to North Carolina because they know that's a direct pipeline to the NFL.
08:49I want to go back to those year two quarterbacks just for a second.
08:51If you had to take one of those guys to make that year two jump right now, which one would it be?
08:56Well, I like Jaden Daniels.
08:58I like Drake May here.
08:59People forget.
09:00I love Bo Nix.
09:02Do you?
09:02Bo Nix.
09:03I was talking to Sean Payton.
09:07You know, they had their quarterbacks, Jaden Daniels and Bo Nix.
09:10They didn't even have Caleb Williams in his top two.
09:13You know, so Bo Nix, he did lead the team to the playoffs.
09:17This kid, what I love about Drake May for how big he is, people don't realize he is very athletic.
09:23He rushed for over 400 yards last year.
09:25This kid can get out of trouble if need be.
09:27And I do think he's got it from the neck up, being a coach's son and things of that nature.
09:33And, you know, he's got a desire.
09:35He wants to be great.
09:36And I think he's going to take a big jump.
09:38I don't think Vrabel wants him moving as much this year.
09:41The shots at the head.
09:42He had the concussion at one time and then almost got grace on the other, but he came back in that game.
09:46I mean, Vrabel said as much.
09:47Well, that's what I like about him, too, is he's tough.
09:49And that's what I like about Bo Nix.
09:51I think he's tough.
09:52I think Jaden Daniels is tough.
09:54All right, Jim.
09:54Well, it's great to see you.
09:55Jim, thanks, buddy.
09:56Guys, have a great year.
09:57Always good to see you, man.
09:58You smell good.
09:59You smell really good.
09:59Hey, I owe it to you.
10:01I owe it to you.
10:01You know that, Scott.
10:02It's nice.
10:06Jim Miller, catch him on Sirius XM NFL Radio coming up this afternoon, 3 to 7 Eastern.
10:11And Mike Vrabel, the interview that they conducted with him a short time ago will be airing.
10:16And you can always catch it on demand on the Sirius XM app.
