- 2 days ago
Christopher Price joined Toucher & Hardy to preview the Patriots' joint practices with Washington and the upcoming preseason opener. He focused on evaluating Drake Maye's development and the offensive line’s progress, particularly at left tackle and center. On defense, Price noted a more aggressive, disruptive scheme under the new regime, but cautioned that injuries to top cornerbacks could affect evaluation.
Image courtesy of USA TODAY NETWORK
Image courtesy of USA TODAY NETWORK
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00:00all right chris uh what are we seeing here uh another another team's coming in what's going on
00:07yeah you're gonna see the washington commanders today and then the first preseason game of the
00:12year on friday uh this is gonna be a good measuring stick for where these where the
00:18patriots are at this stage of their development i'm not so much concerned about what they might
00:24do on defense i think the defense looks good i want to see how drake may how some of the
00:29offensive skill position guys are picking things up on that side of the ball i have to imagine we're
00:33going to see may and the starters for maybe a couple of series and then they're going to give
00:37way to josh dobbs and then the threes are going to play for the bulk of the game but i want to see
00:43where this offense is i want to see if they're starting to pick up on some of these nuances i
00:47think we've seen at least so far in these 11 practices that it's a work in progress they
00:53continue to get better but you know you don't really know what you have until you see them go
00:58against another team out there we we saw philadelphia i think it was last year came in
01:02and you saw how many plays that would have been sacks yeah and that was kind of like okay that was
01:09kind of a hint of what was to come and how bad the offensive line was to me there's nothing more
01:14important than how the offensive line does against a very good team today forget the exhibition game
01:19today uh to get an idea of how much drake may is going to have to run for his life during the season
01:25yeah i i think they're set i think they feel pretty good about what they have at guard
01:30wilson the rookie i think has done really really well but when you you feel like you know what you
01:35have there with him at the other position i think there's still questions at this point in the summer
01:40um at the right tackle spot i think you know it's going to be morgan moses to start the season you want
01:47to see him hold up for 17 games and you want to see him play a little bit maybe in the preseason
01:51just to see where he's at physically the big one for me obviously is left tackle will campbell and
01:56then the center position we've seen garrett bradbury hold it down but who is after him
02:01who's after bradbury i think garrett i think garrett bradbury is a perfectly serviceable
02:05nfl center now if he goes down or if he can't you know hold up over 17 games there's going to be a
02:13problem there but yeah i i'm right there with you john i i think that when you look at this team
02:19you like i said before you want to see what they're doing on the offensive side of the ball
02:23and where they are when it comes to picking up josh mcdaniel stuff but you also want to see the
02:26state of that offensive line we all know a great offensive line can make a bad quarterback good and
02:30a good quarterback great the only thing i can tell you now for sure about this offensive line
02:33it's going to be better than it was last year yeah and that seems to be the consensus that it will
02:38at least be functional yeah yeah i heard i think i heard phil talking with you guys yesterday about
02:44that and that's that's the the really the the lowest bar i wrote the other day that the goals
02:50for this offensive line in 2025 are relatively modest and really for me it all comes back to
02:56creating some sort of stability there they've had like five different offensive line coaches in the
03:00last five years they've rotated a bunch of guys through at a bunch of different positions they just
03:05need to be able to get to a point where they can run three four hopefully five guys out there for
03:10them uh out there on a regular basis and develop some sort of continuity and then see where it goes
03:15from there do you think we'll be able to get a check on the defense too chris in the in this uh this
03:21practice because that's the other long-held theory uh that the defense is is going to you know keep
03:28them in games while this offense continues to evolve so how much do you think we'll be able to tell
03:34about the defense i think the biggest thing hardy that's going to stick out about the defense and a lot
03:38of guys on the front seven have talked about this this is more of an attacking defense than what
03:43we've seen under bill belichick or gerard mayo the focus is all about penetration the focus is all
03:48about disruption it's all about getting upfield milton williams has talked about that christian
03:52barmore has talked about that so i think that is going to manifest itself today maybe in you know a
03:59better pass rush i you know again you couldn't get much worse you know like the offensive line last
04:05year you couldn't get much worse when it came to the patriots pass rush last in the league in sacks
04:08and they still had nine in one game against chicago but really you want to see something
04:14from that front seven you want to see an active front seven today whether it's that first line
04:18milton williams christian barmore keon white that second group robert spillane you want to see them
04:24start to get after it i think we're going to see that today we're going to see that on friday in the
04:28first preseason game but i think really across the league people's eyes are going to be opened to the
04:32fact that this is a far different defense and scheme attitude and approach than it was for the last
04:38several years okay they're missing their corners though and i take it their corners aren't going
04:42to play this week yeah will that affect the like how successful they are doing that should we take all
04:49that success more with a grain of salt because they're not available yeah you're going to see
04:54more guys like alex austin miles battle isaiah bolden uh marcellus dial who is now lost for the season
05:00with the acl he's not he wasn't expected to be an important piece of the defense but it does test
05:07your depth at a very important position so you're not going to see christian gonzalez today you're not
05:13going to see carlton davis i i don't well no hold on i i don't know if we're not going to see carl
05:17davis but i think friday night we're not going to see carl davis i'll say that okay um but yeah it's
05:22going to test your depth at a position where you need a little bit of help i wouldn't be surprised to
05:26see some of those safeties work a little bit more in coverage when until they kind of figure out
05:32what's going on back there so yeah i i think that we're not going to see that those corners and i
05:37would like to see them before the start of the regular season i want to see where you know you
05:41kind of know what you have with christian gonzalez and you kind of know what you have with carl davis
05:44but it's different getting out there running around a little bit you know getting in football shape
05:48one of the problems with joint practices between two teams and i think we saw it with indianapolis and
05:53baltimore yesterday fights tend to break out frequently i'm wondering what is mike rabel's
05:58stance on this and i don't think he likes it but it just seems inevitable between when you get two
06:05teams out there in a competitive situation like this yeah we saw it a couple of years ago when they
06:09had joint practices with the packers up in green bay there was fights probably every five or ten minutes
06:15so um i don't know if there has been a blanket decision by both rabel and quinn in terms of what to
06:22do with guys who get involved in fights i have to imagine that rabel's going to have a short fuse
06:26with stuff like that because you have such a small window to really try and get things done
06:30that you want guys on the field for as long as possible but that's another aspect to these joint
06:36practices i you know and we might see it next week too when they go up to minnesota so it's something
06:41to consider it's something to talk about when it comes to conversation when you're talking about um
06:45these uh joint practices all right uh are you putting any kind of microscope on drake may
06:51uh you know again the narrative i keep hearing not from patriots writers just in general is
06:57you know don't take the i talked about this with phil yesterday too but i'm interested in your opinion
07:03is don't take the statistical numbers from the practices too seriously because they might be trying
07:09things that they wouldn't do in a normal game they might be pushing things a little bit making it more
07:14dangerous for the quarterback uh how keyed in are you on drake may during this week the numbers are
07:23important you know in in this case i'll agree with phil the numbers are important but they have to be put
07:28in some sort of context whether you're talking about look you know he was four for six during third down
07:34work or six for eight in red zone you know you need to be able to explain those numbers i i'm also
07:41i think i would extend that though fred to and i wrote about this the other day the one-on-ones that
07:47we watch in the corner of the field the guys talk about you know it's those aren't that's not a zero
07:52sum game we talk about you know milton williams winning his rep against you know justin wilson for
07:58example uh you know we talk about will campbell winning a rep against keon white well in a lot of
08:02cases those guys are working on moves those guys are working on things that they wouldn't necessarily
08:06use in a lot of circumstances but they're saying okay well let's give this a try here so i think
08:12like any stat you need to be able to put it in context you need to be able to put it in some sort
08:17of context these were the numbers when the patriots were trying this these were the numbers when drake
08:22may was forced into third and long situation so as long as you have that i think there's value in
08:28those numbers if you do not have any sort of context and you're just delivering stats i think that's
08:34when you're you know it's a it's a slippery slope i so often when you guys are there day after day
08:40after day and all the answers tend to blend together i know you're looking for somebody on
08:46this roster with some personality and it looks like you guys finally found a guy in wide receiver
08:52matt collins who is now active and i don't know what he did to his shirt he cut it up vertically to
08:57give himself ventilation what's his deal he dries his hands yes exactly got to dry his hands with
09:03those tassels what is his deal and is he is he as he seems to be through pictures yeah he's he's a
09:09he's an interesting dude i did a long piece on him when they first signed him back in march and i talked
09:14to some guys back at north carolina he was the last guy to get a scholarship he was a walk-on and then he
09:21you know he he made the team as a walk-on then he got a scholarship and then he became really important
09:26to what they needed to do he is all about going barefoot all the time it wouldn't be a surprise to
09:33see him come into gillette stadium in november and december in bare feet he feels like that's
09:38you know healthier for him he feels like that's you know a better approach um he favors wearing i think
09:45there was a there's a shot from last year coming to a game dressed as fred flintstone coming to a game
09:50dressed as animal from the muppets oh so he's annoying but he's a great quote fred yeah he
09:56tries too hard there are a couple guys honestly man there's a couple of guys on this team who are
10:00like that this year brayden swinson the rookie out of lsu is also a funny guy um there's a couple of
10:06guys who have the potential to be good quotes mac collins is a really interesting dude though you
10:12i talked to people back in north carolina and he was kind of hardcore north carolina like he would
10:17go after guys and he would really talk a lot of trash and he he went out he would go after
10:21trubisky before the coaches were just like look we need you to kind of dial it back a little bit
10:25um but he's going to be a really good piece of the offensive puzzle for them but he's also going to
10:32play a lot of special teams he'd love playing special teams go back and you can call it up on
10:36youtube a lot of his hits a lot of his work um is is has done a lot of his best work i'll say that
10:43has been done on special teams then the other thing too he does have the background with
10:47mcdaniels they were in las vegas together so he maybe more than a lot of newcomers knows what's
10:53expected of him in that offense but yeah he's a he's an interesting dude all right well christopher
10:57price uh have fun as uh the bullets start flying for real out there and uh enjoy yourself and thanks
11:05so much as always for taking the time great job as always take care guys talk soon for all the
11:09latest from the sports hub download the app at 98.5 the sports hub dot com
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