- yesterday
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00It is Jones and Keefe. We are live from Gillette Stadium on WEEI, presented by McFarlane Energy.
00:07The heating, cooling, and bioheat delivery pros at Eastern Mass and all of Cape Cod depend on at McFarlaneEnergy.com.
00:14Tommy Tuesday, if you're watching on twitch.tv slash boston WEEI, which you should be.
00:20Tommy Curran, NBC Sports Boston. I just blow out your eardrums there, Tommy.
00:23On that initial, yeah.
00:24Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:24He goes loud.
00:25Yeah, sorry.
00:26You know, white stripes. They'll get you going.
00:29It's no, what were you singing when you came up here?
00:31I was singing Steelers wheels stuck in the middle of you.
00:35If you guys have seen Reservoir Dogs.
00:36Sure, sure, sure, sure.
00:37Stephen Wright was your DJ on that particular program.
00:42So, Curran, your takeaways here on day six.
00:45I know you're watching the receivers very, very close.
00:48What was your big sweeping takeaway today?
00:51Sweeping takeaway was, again, another fun practice.
00:53I think the offense is doing better than I would have imagined.
00:57And that was echoed by both Cole Strange when we talked to him and Josh Dobbs, who said it was a little uneven in terms of the high red zone and the low red zone.
01:05That's being inside the 10 or even down around the 5.
01:08At the early portion of practice, but Dobbs thought that they showed much better in the latter portions.
01:14And they did.
01:14A lot of quick opening stuff.
01:15You should see that for hands-on footballs.
01:17And they did.
01:18So, my overall from today was, it's a pretty fair fight right now.
01:23And we've watched the last few years, Rich, not fair fights.
01:27Guys wandering through the offensive line with their hand up going, someone should have blocked me.
01:31So, it's been pretty fair.
01:32Phil Perry did a good job on some of the one-on-ones.
01:34He said Jared Wilson had a Joe Tooney-esque day in one-on-ones.
01:37Ooh.
01:38Nice.
01:39Put down Barmore.
01:40Put down Williams.
01:41He said that Campbell was much better in the one-on-ones.
01:44Notes of concern that you guys have probably already told your listeners.
01:47Gonzalez not out there.
01:48I think the hope is that that's day-to-day and not week-to-week.
01:52Garrett Bradbury got rolled on, I think, and he spent the rest of the practice out and looked like Morgan Moses was in a maintenance day.
01:58He left after some of the positional stuff.
01:59Where are we at on Morgan Moses?
02:00Because that was the name we have brought up.
02:02It seemed like they were a little bit of a pitch count, which is fine for a veteran guy.
02:05Some of the reporting yesterday and some of the stuff we saw from up here.
02:08He wasn't really his best when he was out there.
02:11And then today, whether it's a maintenance day or something else, how sure can we be that he is the starting right tackle week one?
02:17I think you can be very sure.
02:19How good is he relative to the rest of the NFL?
02:21We'll see.
02:22Is he a liability?
02:23Does he need help on occasion?
02:25I think he's going to be a good run blocker.
02:27But the matchup that he's seeing a lot is Harold Landry, who's a frigging water bug.
02:32I mean, it's really interesting.
02:33Well, it's funny.
02:34You're like, oh, is that a safety rolled up here?
02:38You're like, no, that's a D.A.
02:39He looks like a little.
02:40Maybe it's the number.
02:41Maybe it's the two.
02:41But he looks like a littler guy.
02:43He's booking, as we used to say back in the 70s around the end.
02:46He's booking.
02:48But he is.
02:49I think it's a tough matchup for Morgan Moses.
02:51But I don't think that they are sitting there going, oh, my God, we have to do something about right tackle.
02:55But we'll see how that progresses.
02:57Leighton Robinson was the guy who came in, I believe.
03:00No, no, no.
03:01It wasn't Leighton Robinson.
03:01Who came in after him?
03:02Demantre Jacobs, right?
03:03Demantre Jacobs was the second man up there.
03:05Yeah, we saw a lot of Jacobs last year.
03:07Yeah, maybe too much.
03:08I think we're seeing too much of him this year.
03:09I know they're managing Morgan Moses, but I think we're seeing too much of him this year.
03:14So today sounded like a better day.
03:16We had read some of Phil's tweets in real time.
03:18I didn't realize he referred to it as a toony-esque day for Jareb Wilson.
03:21A lot of the writers, Phil included, were highlighting a better day for Will Campbell, as you just detailed, through six days.
03:26Dialing it back.
03:27How do you feel like the offensive line has looked compared to a year ago?
03:31Your colleague, our colleague, Andy Hart, said, coming into today anyway, he actually thinks it's looked worse.
03:36Wild take.
03:37As an O-line this year than a year.
03:38You think it's a wild take.
03:39Absolutely.
03:40I'm like, how?
03:42Where?
03:43Why?
03:43In what way?
03:45I mean, we would, relative to last year, it might have been one of the worst offensive lines ever assembled.
03:51We sat up here and watched that Philadelphia practice.
03:54Remember?
03:54Yeah.
03:54And it was just chaos.
03:57They couldn't even get the ball snapped.
03:58Philly dominated that.
03:59Philly turns out a good team, but still.
04:01Yeah, it turns out they can play.
04:02Yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:02We watched the first day of padded practice yesterday, and the somewhat question mark fourth overall pick,
04:09at least relative to him being the fourth overall pick, looked really good in 11-on-11.
04:12So we got ragdolled in this first time, you know, going against a superhero physique guy in Keon White.
04:18How did he play in 11-on-11?
04:19It's good.
04:20Is Jared Wilson, you know, capable?
04:21I mean, Cole Strange continues to be, in my mind, a guy who is a more than serviceable NFL starter who's been snake-bitten,
04:29thus thrown in the bin of, yeah, this guy's a bus, can't play.
04:33I just don't think he is that.
04:34So I don't know why Andy said that.
04:36I don't know where he gets off.
04:37I don't know what.
04:38How dare he?
04:39I don't know.
04:39First of all.
04:40First of all, how dare you?
04:41But it's that kind of wrong-headedness that is the type of thing that you're going to get from two to six.
04:47That's true.
04:48And you'll join them on Thursdays.
04:49Yeah.
04:49Those guys break it down on Thursdays.
04:51You can yell at them that.
04:52Are we to look at sort of the emergence of Chasen as like maybe this guy has found something,
04:58or is it maybe more speak to what the offensive line is?
05:01Because it seems like he's popping up all the time in the backfield and making a lot of plays.
05:05First-round pick, formerly, and continues to be a first-round pick.
05:08Like, you're always a first.
05:10You always will be.
05:13I would say that he's more covering a role than the offensive line looking like ass.
05:17Okay.
05:18I just don't think that they look horrendous.
05:19I don't.
05:21Interesting today, too, to veer a little bit on the content.
05:25I don't know how much you guys mentioned it earlier, but to see some of the read options,
05:28some of the stuff getting out on the edge.
05:30I like that.
05:31Was a nice wrinkle to see Josh McDaniels starting to feature some of the stuff that he might not have done previously,
05:37because we have heard and we have talked about that these guys keep standing in front of the mic and saying,
05:42yeah, same offense.
05:43Well, that wasn't the same.
05:44No.
05:44Right, right.
05:45Like you said, there was some option.
05:47There was some read option.
05:48There were some design runs, which is noticeable, I think,
05:50compared to some of the other days out of what we've seen.
05:53So maybe some new wrinkles in the McDaniels offense.
05:56How do you feel?
05:56Drake May, to our eyes, had been pretty strong.
05:58We weren't here on Saturday, but had been pretty strong throughout most of camp.
06:02Not a lot of throwing yesterday.
06:03Today, more throwing.
06:04It seemed like maybe a half step back from May.
06:06Is that fair?
06:06Yeah, I think it was fair compared to where he's been.
06:11As Phil, who I always rely on, because we rely on each other's eyes, as you guys do,
06:15as everybody does with their work colleagues.
06:17Our eyes up here, we found, have not worked great.
06:19We're further away than we realize, and our eyes are really letting us down.
06:22So this is why we're bringing in somebody whose eyes we actually trust.
06:25We saw, for instance, it was a completion to Steph Diggs down in this corner of the end zone.
06:30He stepped out.
06:32You're not going to get credit for that.
06:32Yeah, see, our bad eyes also thought he stepped out.
06:34So I'll take that.
06:35I thought he stepped out before he even got the ball and then stepped out again.
06:37No, he stepped out before.
06:39Yeah, yeah, yeah.
06:39I was like, Phil, Phil, Phil.
06:41Wave it off.
06:42Wave it off.
06:43I gave him a couple of bobble calls.
06:46But as Phil pointed out, and I thought it was really good.
06:50He made some really, really good throws, and then there was some wild misses.
06:55Nice throw to Diggs down at the other end zone.
06:58Was complete.
06:58Dropped it in.
06:59He also dropped one in the bucket.
07:00There was a couple of nice catches, too, one by Javon Baker kind of going treetop in the end zone, plucking it, a mossing, if you will.
07:09Yeah, that was from Dobbs, yep.
07:10And Jalen Polk also had, didn't count, but an absurd one-handed catch.
07:15Yeah.
07:15I mean, just, so, okay, there's signs of life.
07:18I don't know what to, at least they're fogging up the mirror, as they say.
07:23What have you heard from some of the other players on offense about Josh McDaniel's offense, just sort of picking it up?
07:29Because we've heard there's been guys, veteran guys and rookies, that have come in here and had a really hard time with it.
07:33I know Henry and Boren said it's similar, but those guys were also in it in 2021.
07:37A lot of new guys, including Drake May.
07:38But what has sort of been the talk amongst the offensive players about picking up, in some of these guys' cases, their third offense, basically, in three years?
07:46I think a lot of them continue to circle back to, he's such a good teacher, and I think that he will have a ten, at some point, you know, you're going to have to accelerate so that you're catching up with the rest of the league.
07:56And I don't think they're going slowly right now, but I think they're moving fast.
08:00Look, I think the tight ends are pretty adept.
08:03I think the offensive line has a fleet of fairly sharp guys.
08:08I think the running backs are sharp.
08:09Antonio Gibson's been in the league for a long time.
08:11Stevenson's no dummy.
08:13Henderson seems sharp.
08:15It's, you know, Diggs is smart.
08:17It really depends on how do Douglas, Booty, Polk, and Baker.
08:26Kyle Williams.
08:27And Kyle Williams, who I also think is pretty friggin' sharp.
08:29Jamal, excuse me, Jared Wilson's friggin', he's very smart.
08:33You know what's crazy?
08:34And this came out during the draft.
08:35And this matters, folks.
08:36No, it does.
08:37He's a big snake guy, Keefe.
08:38I don't know if you knew that about Jared Wilson.
08:39Wilson is?
08:40Oh, I didn't hear that.
08:40Snake guy, yeah.
08:41He had pet snakes, right?
08:42He had to give them up when he went to college or something.
08:43I was like, ah, no thanks.
08:45No, but one of the takeaways was both the draft class and the free agency class was smart,
08:51professional guys.
08:52Like, they, like, across the board, like, really got really intelligent players.
08:57And so hopefully they can play, too.
08:59Like, that's more important than just being smart.
09:00But it seems like pretty much across the board, like, if you're asking a group of players to pick up a new offense or even to pick up a new defense, it seems like they got the right, you know, mental capacity to do so.
09:11Yeah, if you're looking at the 2000s Patriots and you're seeing Russ Hochstein and Tom Ashworth and Dan Koppen and a bunch of guys who other teams would have looked at and said, yeah, we don't need that guy.
09:20And they win Super Bowls.
09:22It's part of the reason is they knew where to be and there weren't breakdowns.
09:25So, you know, I know that the wide receivers were not in the places they were supposed to be frequently last year.
09:31So is the coaching better?
09:32It ought to be.
09:33Yeah.
09:33I don't have a first-year coach.
09:35So hopefully everybody gets it.
09:36I mean, and the thing is, smart and ability to retain doesn't necessarily have to do with SATs and critical thinking.
09:45No, oftentimes it's the opposite.
09:47I mean, Bronco's a genius.
09:47Yeah, right, right.
09:48Like, you played wide receiver.
09:49Yeah.
09:49You played receiver.
09:50You played in college football.
09:51Yeah, yeah, yeah.
09:52Did you have an easy time with new offenses?
09:54I mean, yeah, I didn't think it was the craziest thing in the world.
09:56Did some guys just say, you'd have to go to him and go, oh, my God, how can he not get this?
10:00And he was otherwise.
10:00Yeah.
10:01Oh, it wasn't that crazy.
10:02Yeah.
10:02And trust me, my SATs weren't very good.
10:04Oh, I know.
10:06But you're keeping a specifically close eye on the receivers.
10:09You're doing updates every day.
10:10You can check out Curran's latest at NBC Sports Boston.
10:13Follow him on Twitter at Tommy Curran.
10:16I don't know how to read the booty versus what feels like Kyle Williams' battle, if you will.
10:22Like, Pop Douglas and Steph Diggs seem pretty secure, not only in their roles on the team, but in their roles maybe as starters.
10:29Bourne seems more tenuous.
10:30How does Mac Hollins factor in?
10:32Chisholm, Baker, Polk seem below that.
10:34But in terms of the guys repping the most with the top unit, I mean, it's not like Williams is getting no reps with May, but it feels like he and Booty are kind of battling for those same spots.
10:42How do you feel that battle is going?
10:45If it's even fair to characterize it as a battle.
10:46I think it's a Booty Bourne situation right now.
10:49For making the team.
10:51Yeah.
10:51And Booty's got the leg up, it seems.
10:52I think Booty's got the leg up because he's younger.
10:54Although Bourne gave us good dance moves in the corner.
10:56We saw a full-on dance down there.
10:59Good celebration.
10:59Oh, Javon Baker, after the mossing, also fired the ball well into the air.
11:03Nice.
11:03That was good.
11:04I would imagine that Booty's got the leg up on Bourne.
11:07As for Williams, they're different, as you would know, too, I'm sure.
11:12And they're just built differently.
11:14One guy is more blocky and strong.
11:16That's Booty.
11:17And Williams is a smaller guy, probably closer to Mario Douglas' size, and is more of a true X.
11:24If you morphed them together, it'd be great because Booty's not tall, but he's very strong, and he's not particularly straight-line fast.
11:31Williams is straight-line fast.
11:33He's just not particularly big.
11:35So maybe they're trying to get samplings of both guys' strengths and see it.
11:40I'm sure that there should be plenty of balls for all of them, but I do think it's interesting how Booty is.
11:48He's toilet paper on the bottom of your shoe.
11:49He just will not go away.
11:51He will not go away.
11:53He's still there, and he's out there with Diggs.
11:55And he makes plays every day.
11:57I mean, we've noticed him every single day, yeah.
12:00So I've always thought that he was pretty good.
12:04Yeah, no, and I think in the room around him, too, he looks like he has a spot on the team.
12:09As for, like, Mack Hollins, any updates there on him?
12:11Because that's another guy.
12:12Those players fighting for a wide receiver spot have a better chance if the longer Mack Hollins is out.
12:17Yeah, that's a great question.
12:19I also wonder, no, I don't have anything on Mack Hollins.
12:22I'm kind of just floating along waiting for them to say, here he is.
12:26But I am wondering where my guy EF Chisholm is.
12:31Yeah, we got quiet.
12:32Big OTAs.
12:33Not noticed him much.
12:34I mean, he does filter in with the top team offense in May here and there.
12:37Then he doesn't get the damn ball.
12:38Right.
12:39I notice him mostly, to be honest, outside of the individual drills, catching punts.
12:42That's the most I notice.
12:43Feels like a practice squad guy to me.
12:44Yeah.
12:45With the pads on, he's barely bigger than a traffic cone.
12:49I mean, I'm noticing that.
12:51So I had him.
12:51That's tough.
12:52I had him catching 171 passes in his first two years.
12:57You're going to have to scale those back.
12:58Okay.
12:59Or they're going to try and smuggle him through the practice squad,
13:03and they think that there's moles all over the world.
13:05Oh, smart.
13:06Yeah.
13:07Well, even if they're not at practice, maybe they're just watching on Twitch.
13:10Jones and Keefe every day, I'd imagine.
13:11That's true.
13:11That's probably where they're getting a lot of their intel.
13:14You mentioned updates on a couple of different guys.
13:16Morgan Moses.
13:17You think there's more management.
13:19You said you don't have an update on Hollins.
13:20You seemed to intimate the Patriots are hoping that Gonzalez is more day-to-day
13:25than week-to-week.
13:26We saw him out here.
13:27That's the sense I got.
13:28It wasn't like said, we're hoping day-to-day.
13:31Right.
13:31But the sense you get.
13:32And he was here today.
13:33We saw him today kind of stroll through.
13:35And he did have a wrap on the leg, like a mic for a wrap,
13:39a warm-up trainer type thing.
13:41But I didn't see it.
13:43I couldn't tell if it was a swagger or a limp.
13:45Okay.
13:46Well, that's what we were trying to do, actually.
13:47That's the exact thing we were trying to figure out.
13:49Pretty well.
13:49I thought maybe a little hitch in the giddy up, but maybe he's just cool.
13:52Yeah.
13:52I don't know.
13:53Maybe he's just got some cool swagger.
13:54What about, what are you hearing on Carlton Davis?
13:55Because I know he was here off to the side.
13:58He's not out there absent again.
13:59What's up with that?
14:00You said Colton, and I just started swiveling my head.
14:02Did I say Colton?
14:03No, no.
14:03I thought I heard Carlton.
14:04I was anticipating the question.
14:06Sorry, sorry, sorry.
14:06I love when you guys gang up on me.
14:09It was Colton.
14:10Clip that, Nick.
14:11And our guy was out there for a walkthrough last night when they do a late
14:16afternoon walkthrough.
14:17I happened to see him moving along with the rest of the group.
14:21And then I did see him as I was entering the stadium today.
14:25Leaving on a golf cart, but not in any kind of disrepair.
14:28So I'm guessing he was on the lower field or the rehab field.
14:32And he was being brought in from there.
14:34But I don't know what his timeline is either.
14:36It was supposed to be management.
14:37It's, you know, it's still July.
14:42I would be, if I were the Patriots or a Patriots fan, I would say, I'd really
14:48like to see those guys on the field against Washington next week.
14:51I'd really like to see us be able to put our team on the field against the
14:55commanders to get a sense of what we're going to look like.
14:58And just for clarity, those guys are Gonzalez and Davis, or who are you talking
15:02about?
15:02Gonzalez, Davis, you want to put your full complement on the field.
15:05Next Wednesday will be the joint practice with the Manders.
15:09I'm excited for that.
15:10See Jaden Daniels on the field and Drake May.
15:13Jaden Daniels had the great rookie year, but that's a fair comparison.
15:16I mean, it's the number two pick, number three pick.
15:18See what those guys could do head-to-head.
15:20Good challenge for both.
15:22What has been your take so far of just Mike Vrabel running the show?
15:25Jones and I were talking about yesterday, anyway, he really seemed to be with the
15:29offense even more than anybody else.
15:32What have you thought of just how he's been running this whole thing so far?
15:36It remains the same as it was in the offseason.
15:39Very organized, very to the point.
15:40You ask him a question, he gives a considered answer that gives you some
15:45illumination.
15:46I think he very much enjoys talking about the mindset of things, which I enjoy,
15:51because sometimes you can't get into too much specifics.
15:53They haven't done really very much, and still they're not doing very much.
15:58I asked him yesterday, what would you look for if you were in the media?
16:01And I thought it was an interesting answer, because we do have a tendency to say,
16:04oh my God, that guy got blown up in one-on-ones.
16:07Some are saying it's the worst offensive line they've ever seen.
16:10Some are saying.
16:11Some are you, but you got a good answer out of him.
16:12He said, watch everybody's balance and see if guys do media.
16:15Well, I did.
16:16There's no way that's true.
16:17You called him on that properly, Curran.
16:19But he gave you a good answer.
16:20He's like, well, watch when the linemen are there, offensive and defensive linemen.
16:24Watch if they keep their feet.
16:25And then the first thing we see with Will Campbell yesterday is he gets knocked off his feet.
16:28And so, no, I thought that was an interesting answer.
16:30I do think, I should say this, though, relative to Vrabel.
16:32I think he did a great job assembling a staff, because he doesn't have to be all over the place
16:36doing cartwheels and saying, you know, look at me, it's Mike Vrabel's day.
16:40Yeah, no, I mean, and it frees him up to be mostly, at least from what we've seen, with
16:45that offensive side of the field when they break down into the two separate groups, he's
16:49largely over there.
16:51Anybody down the roster that's jumped out to you?
16:54I know one name that we've noticed a lot of the beat writers have highlighted is DJ
16:57James, the young corner.
16:58Anybody that's kind of caught your eye in that vein?
17:02I'll be really honest.
17:04I'm really focused on the starters to a large extent, to the point where when Ben Woodridge
17:08or Dobbs comes in, sometimes I'm looking down and trying to get what the ones had done
17:13and trying to process.
17:15So, I wish I could come up with someone.
17:18Jason has been, you mentioned him, a guy that was omnipresent during minicamp, and he's
17:24out there a lot now.
17:27I think the second kicker, Parker Romo.
17:29I mean, I'm digging now, but he was good yesterday, and little Andy Borogales bounced
17:34back today with a number of good kicks.
17:36Of course, Phil goes, I might have been the least impressive six-on-six I was saying.
17:40Man, so you guys are not sold on him, huh?
17:43I'm like, Phil, he just can't win you over, huh?
17:45No, I guess not.
17:46Six for six, pretty good.
17:47I don't know how closely you followed the Christian Wilkins situation.
17:51Mike Frabel was asked about it not long ago, and he was like, yeah, we'll take a look
17:54at it.
17:55But then since then, we found out that it's much more than just like how he was rehabbing
17:59his foot.
17:59He may have also been grabbing feet of teammates, maybe giving a little smooch, something along
18:04those lines, knowing what we know, should the Patriots have interest in a guy who was
18:09a very productive NFL player?
18:11He's still 29 years old, and at this point, I'm guessing, won't cost you a ton of money.
18:15No.
18:16Well, it's always worth betting how a guy would fit into your locker room.
18:20Maybe the fellas like that kind of tomfoolery.
18:22They have a bunch of guys who overlap with him a year ago.
18:27Yeah, Robert Spliney, you can ask him.
18:29He brought this up.
18:29They have a bunch of ex-Raiders.
18:31So, you know, they could probably, well, no, Josh wasn't there.
18:35I would say until you've done something with your $60 million worth of cap space, then you
18:40should continue browsing.
18:43Williams, Barmore, Tonga, Landry, White, I'm missing somebody, even old Penny Jennings.
18:53You got a nice front.
18:54Barmore was Barmore.
18:54Yeah, I did a good job with that.
18:58But if Christian Wilkins is going to be a $15 or $20 million guy, I would say, yeah, you
19:01know what?
19:02You probably don't need that.
19:03That's a luxury item.
19:05He may need a one-year rehab deal.
19:06He might need to just come back on the field, show that he can be a good teammate.
19:10As it were.
19:11Yeah.
19:11And then go from there.
19:11Maybe cash in next year.
19:12Yeah, I guess.
19:13Maybe be less affectionate.
19:15Perhaps.
19:16Perhaps.
19:17Well, you know, it was a playful kiss on the head is what it was.
19:20I guess.
19:20As reported by Adam Schefter.
19:22He's Tommy Curran.
19:22You can check out all his latest.
19:24NBC Sports Boston.
19:25Follow him on Twitter at Tommy Curran.
19:28Of course, all over WEI as well.
19:30Tuesdays with Jones and Keefe on Thursday.
19:32You can yell at Andy Hart for his takes on the offensive line.
19:36And check all that out on the Odyssey app.
19:37Tom, good stuff as always.
19:38We appreciate it.
19:39Thanks, Adam.
19:39Thanks, Rich.
19:40Thank you, Tom.
Recommended
15:19