This is the Patriots Catch twenty two podcasts with Evan Lazar and Alex Bar.

Blazarre and Lazarn So everybody nailed it, joined as always by our bar gap gap.

Here is Evan Lazar and Alex Bars.

This is a trend.

They are as close starting defense, they get beat by the script yep, then the game declares I have seen on film.

You know, they do get better as the game where is on the coverage improves as a result of path rush is improving throughout the entire game.

They have a good run defense.

They're not giving up much on the ground.

Their defense PostScript is a top ten defense in the NFL.

Well, same exact formula this week.

Yet, uh, it's funny and I I think about this way too much because I think about all this stuff way too much.

Of like, how much does their early game struggles really matter?

Because if they keep on just closing the door on the third drive on from the game right and they give up, I don't know even in a bad day.

Let's say they give up fourteen points early in the game on back to back dr eves and they don't give up any points the rest of the game, then Drake may is gonna score seventeen and they're gonna win the game.

So it's just like, I don't know how much any of it matters.

But their script versus nonscript, we'll get into that in a little bit, is crazy.

The splits like literally worse to first, Like they're the worst defense in the league in the beginning of the game and they're the best defense in the league in the second half.

It's pretty incredible.

Anyways, jumping right into it at Alex bart Evan Lazar Patriots Catch twenty two with you for the next couple of hours here talking Patriots football.

I want it.

I was all prepared, Alex to talk about this Browns game, the good, the bad, the stuff that gets you beat from this game against Cleveland, and then the last night or yesterday, I should say, really starting around noon with the Marcus Jones extension.

The Patriots has made a lot of news.

They all of a sudden had a busy day.

So I want to start with the news of the day yesterday with the three transactions, and then we'll also get into this Browns game.

And then I do want to talk a little bit about the Falcons because I find the Falcons to be a pretty fascinating team.

They are because I look at them on paper and I say, it's good football team.

You know, you got some star power.

They got a lot of skill talent on the offensive side of the ball.

Bjon Robinson maybe the best running back in football this year.

But they don't win.

They're three and four and they're just jackal and hide operations.

So I do want to talk a little bit of Falcons in the second hour, but let's start with the news.

I want to start with the good news first, and then we'll get to the two trades and discuss those and unpack those.

Marcus Jones gets a contract extension yesterday with the Patriots, a three year deal reportedly around you know, twelve million annually somewhere around there, really good deal for both sides, right around the let's call it the median of the top ten slot corners in football.

You know, most of those guys get in between twelve and fifteen million dollars a year, so he comes right around there with that number.

I think this is really a big news for the Patriots because when you looked at their twenty twenty six free agency class, his name, along probably with Tonga and Chase On stood above the rest of They got to take care of these guys, and they got to get these guys under contract beyond the season.

So the Patriots get out in front of it.

One of the best slock corners in football this year and one of the best punt returners in football really for the last three or four years.

So a really good football player, and Marcus Jones does it the right way.

Team captain.

I don't really have anything else to add other than I thought this was a really shrewd move and a good thing for the Patriots to keep him around.

Yeah, good, good deal.

They don't have to reset the market to bring back a player that I think is you know, is really a testament to the job this coaching staff is done and how quickly the adjustment has happened here, because I think, you know, back in the summer, there were some questions about how good of a fit is Marcus Jones and this defense.

People were wondering about his roster standing and if he can take the team and are they going to want a bigger slot corner.

And I think he worked on different area of his areas of his game that maybe we didn't see as much in the past if they did into this new role, and then I think the coaches kind of changed that role a little bit from what it traditionally is in this defense to more fit him, and they kind of met in the middle, and the result is a guy having a tremendous season.

And that's not even to mention what he gives you on special teams as a punt returner.

So to get this done, not reset the market doing it, and it you mentioned some of the free agents, I think he was going to be in a tier of his own going into this offseason.

Yeah, in terms of their internal agents like Calebon Chase on the full list of here, Calebon Chase, On Kiris Tonga, Austin Hooper, Jack Gibbons, Jalen Hawkins, Udarien Low, and then they have some restricted free agents or whatever.

But those are the unrestricted guys.

That's a group.

I mean, we'll see what happens to Chase on down the stretch, but that's a group that they should be able to take care of relatively easily.

You know, you don't You're not really gonna have to cover any new ground.

I would think resigning any of those guys, and you want that to do list in terms of the internal guys, to be as short as possible going into the offseason.

So when that Monday in March hits boom, you're on the phone with new players right so to.

Get this done.

When they got it done, check that box, I think is very encouraging.

You bring up a good point about the scheme.

Fit in some doubt this offseason about whether or not he was the right type of slot corner for this defense, and Mike Rabels said it.

They preferred in the past bigger slots, you know, kind of slot safety types that could you know, fit the run and set the edge and be the force to The big reason why is because of the way they're stopping the run.

From a fit perspective, the nickel corner and the safeties now have more responsibilities in the run fit to set the edge of the defense or to be the force in the defense to push the ball, you know, back inside.

And when you put a five 't eight hundred and ninety pound and eighty pounds slot corner at the point of attack, you worry about his ability to hold up against the run.

But to his credit, Marcus Jones plays a lot bigger than his size would indicate, and he's willing to stick his nose in there.

He's fearless, he's willing to set the edge, he's willing to take on blocks.

Now, in terms of the longevity of this contract, you do kind of worry a little bit about his health and him holding up playing like this for three more years.

But that's an issue for down the line and not an issue for this season.

And I don't really think next season either, like maybe becomes something that we're talking about in like the end of the contract in twenty seven or twenty Well, he's also.

And it's I mean it's through his age thirty season.

It's not like they're asking him to do this at thirty two to thirty three years old.

Yeah, just between playing as much as he is on defense, would like right around seventy five percent of the snaps on defense, and then also returning punts as a full time punt returner.

You just something, as this contract kind of matures, is just to watch, you know, in terms of that.

But nothing but good things to say in terms of Marcus Jones, the person, the player on and off the field, has really become a captain and a leader for this defense.

Tone center for this defense, and he's playing terrific football this season basically by every statistic you know, number one in the league and passer rating among slot corners, number one in the league in terms of interceptions by slot corners pass defense.

You know, really having a great year playing inside, and it's a it's a good thing that you know, they lock him up.

Now.

In terms of the trades, I think let's start with Kyle Dugger.

So the Patriots sent Kyle Dugger for pick swap to Pittsburgh, and just really before we kind of unpack both trades, like I just want to put this out there, and I'm not carrying anybody's water, but if you think that the Patriots turned down better offers, like I know, these returns come back and people are shocked by how little they got back for these two players, I promise you that if there was bigger returns out there for Kyle Dugger and Keon White, the Patriots would have taken them.

Like if somebody was offering them a third round pick for Keon White, they were not going to ship him to San Francisco for a pick swap like they were going to take the third round play.

So they put these guys out on the market.

Kyle dugger has been available really since the offseason, probably and since at least training camp, and they've been scouring for trade partners for these two players and haven't really been able to find one until now.

So I don't think that their markets were very robust, which is disappointing, but that's just the reality of the situation.

When I look at the Kyle Duggart trade, what I see is trying to get out of paying him in twenty twenty six and twenty twenty seven.

He had a lot of money do left on that extension that he signed last offseason, and so by making this trade they free up about seven million dollars next year and then seventeen million dollars I believe it is in twenty twenty seven.

Now, I'm not necessarily too caught up in the cap space of it all.

I'm more looking at the actual cash in this situation where if you are looking your Mike Rabel and Elliot Wolf and Ryan Cowden, and you're looking to add players to this roster, whether it's before the deadline on Tuesday or next offseason, not having to pay Kyle Duggar's money now allows you to allocate that ten million dollars someplace else, whether it's now or next off season.

So it's always about the cash.

With these NFL teams.

They have plenty of cap space.

That's not it's not a cap space maneuver, but what it does allow them to do now is maybe go and take that money and package it to go get another player, whether it's now or down the road.

So when I look at the Dugger trade, that's really what this is about to me is getting out of what ended up being for their system and all that kind of stuff.

A little bit of a bad contract.

Yeah, I mean, well they're paying a backup safety fifteen million dollars.

Yeah, that's just not good business.

And right, just to bring it back to what we talked about with Marcus Jones, they have more financial flexibility now, and like we said, they don't have a ton to do in terms of internal free agents.

Now, there are some guys that are you know, you can maybe get ahead with on extensions.

Christian Salz is going to be eligible, Kasehon Booty is going to be eligible.

Drake may not yet, but you keep that in mind.

You know that's coming down the road.

So they just it.

It gives them some more flexibility to either get ahead on some extensions or work the external free agent market or what have you.

I will add I thought it was interesting when I was talking with David Andrews on Monday, he mentioned, I mean, we're getting ahead of ourselves now, but he just brought this up.

I didn't really thought of it.

Like, and you listen, do you hear what Miles Garrett said about Drake May after the game?

I mean a little bit of it.

I don't remember what it was.

He was very, very complimentary.

He said he's proud of Drake May.

I went back and looked him.

Do they have a relationship that he's talking about him like this?

So I think they were at the Pro Bowl together.

Okay, last look, I Miles Garrett is probably not gonna be available, just for a number of different reasons.

But like.

The they're going to have an easier time recruiting players here than they've had in the past because of Drake May.

So that financial flexibility.

People hear that and be like, well they got to good free agents.

I think it's going to be easier than it's been in the past.

Yeah.

Well, see, I mean, look the biggest thing to me when it comes to free agents and all that next offseason, and is you spend a lot of money this past off season.

Yeah, And this is just again, this is universal across the board in sports.

When you have a big spending spree one off season, you usually don't go out and spend three hundred million more dollars the next offseason.

It's just not well.

But I mean, there's there's happy medium between the two.

Right, maybe you don't have the whole spree, but you make one splash signing.

Sure, I'm just telling you, I don't expect them to go out.

I don't think they're gonna be the biggest spenders in free agency for two years in a row.

Right, That's just not how it works in any sport.

So I don't expect that to happen.

Now.

Last thing on Dugger, because I do think that there is conversations both with him Andrebriel Peppers, who ironically are not going to play together in Pittsburgh, about why exactly we got here, specifically to Kyle Dugger.

One element of this is definitely scheme, which we can get to here in a second.

But I also think that in injury last year, that he tried to play through and then had off season surgery on it.

This past offseason, he just hasn't gotten the explosiveness that we saw early on in his career.

He's not necessarily moving as well as he once did, and I don't know if that's ever going to fully recover.

I hope it does for his sake, but I don't know if that's ever going to fully recover.

And we see this happen.

Sometimes you have to reinvent yourself.

You know one guy that did is obviously Kashan Boody.

Yeah, you know, credit to him.

You know, Kasehan Boody early on at LSU was an explosive, you know, catch and run threat, and then he had that really bad ankle injury in college, didn't really get that gear back and has said so publicly that he's had to adjust his game.

So whether Kyle Dugger becomes a linebacker, whether Kyle Dugger becomes just a situational player like he was here for the rest of his career, I don't know.

But that ankle injury I think derailed a lot of things because I think he was a good football player preach.

OK.

The other thing is, of course is the way that they're scheming it right now defensively in terms of playing a lot as a zone coverage, specifically a lot of too deep zone coverage, more than they ever have and let's call it the next last decade or so.

Obviously it's not a Bill defense anymore, and it's very different from that.

So they just wanted types of safeties like Jalen Hawkins and Craig Woodson who will a faster cover more ground on the back end, can play those deep safety zones, and that's just not really Kyle Duggar's game.

So he kind of was phased out from a scheme perspective in this defense.

And then I do think he's probably lost half a step from that ankle injury as well, and those two things kind of came together that that led to his demise here with the Patriots.

Keon White the other one traded last night.

The thing about Keon White that's it out to me both from a play style perspective and then also just from an optics perspective.

I like Keon White.

I never had any issues with Keon White.

I don't know if Keon White is the type of guy that you want to be disgruntled in your locker room, like if he's not playing and he doesn't have a role.

Keon White is one of those guys that's really intense, that's really confident in his abilities and wants to play.

And the Niners had a need on the edge.

They have lost some bodies on their defensive line this season to injuries.

The Patriots had the opposite where Keon White was sort of being pigeonholed into a role that really didn't fit his skill set.

Trying to develop him into a true four to three defensive end, playing you know, the seven or the nine technique all the way outside the tackle.

His movement skills, he's just too rigid, he's too stiff, he's not benny enough.

He doesn't have that first step to turn the corner out there.

He is a much better interior pass rusher.

But the Patriots, that's probably their deepest position on this roster, and Christian Barmore and Milton Williams, as long as those two guys stay healthier, not coming off the field right.

So he's a little too small to play inside on early downs.

He's a little bit too big and stiff to play outside on early downs.

They don't really have a third down pass rush role for him because Milton Williams and Barmore are in that role.

So unless they're really all he was doing on this roster was serving as injury insurance in case somebody got hurt and there just wasn't enough playing time for him.

So if I'm the Niners, and I don't think they're going to based off of some of the reporting out of San Francisco, but the role for Keon White is third down interior pass rush, like that's that's his specialty when he gets to rush over the guard one on one on the inside in past rush situations, He's a very disruptive player.

The further you move him outside away from the football, all the worse it gets.

And I just don't think that they really had a role.

Like when you look at Chase On and Landry and how they rush the passer and how they move out on the edge, that is a very different athlete and a very different kind of player than what they had with Keon White.

So they're just again it's the scheme thing.

There wasn't really a role for him, so they end up sending him out to San Francisco.

But another trade out.

They really didn't get a ton of return for their investment here.

Yeah, this is one where I thought they might be able to get a little bit more.

Now.

There was some reporting this morning from Tom Pellisero that it's not guaranteed to be a pick swap.

If Keon White's actor for seven games, I would assume that I mean seven games with the Niners, not seven games total this season.

Then the Patriots keep their seventh round pick and it just becomes ke On White for six, which is not a ton but it's obviously better.

Yeah, it sucks because it's a guy that that is talented and I think came here at a time where they were not in a spot to develop them and three coaches in three years and changing roles, and he dealt with some injuries.

He had a concussion as a rookie, the illness this year, and h just got passed over.

So I don't think we've heard the last of Keyon White in the NFL.

You know, I think he'll be a solid player if he ends up in the right spot.

And there's a ton of opportunities form in San Francisco because they're very banged up, both on the edge end on the inside, but he he really didn't have a role here and I think a change of scenery was best.

And now I wonder if the Patriots go out and try to find another team's keyon White.

And we've seen what.

They've done with calevon Chase on a guy that was a high draft pick that just really couldn't stick anywhere, and nobody figured out the right way to use him, right way to develop him.

And they seem to have unlocked something there.

And the one thing when I look at and look at the NFL trade deadline, so you take it all with a grain of salt, although this has felt Patriots did last night that felt like a MLB, NHL, NBA trade deadline kind of thing.

But you know, the one constant I kind of see when you look at all the rumors is there might be like a number of young edge rushers available.

Some of the names you see out there, like Arnold Wi, Ketty, Azizo, Jalari, Jalen Phillips.

I don't know if he's going in the division, but boy A Mafi, I don't really know why the Seahawks are trade him, but I've seen his name out there.

There's one more that I'm blanking on off the top of my head, but you know these guys that are in their mid twenties that were first round picks or high draft picks, whatever you want to call it, who just for one reason or another have not been able to stick, have not been able to make it work.

Arden Key was known.

He's a little bit older, he's twenty nine, But I could see that Tennessee guy.

You know, they bring in a guy like that, even if it's on an expiring contract, with the idea that they're going to resign him and try to develop him and work him as a pass rusher.

Maybe he's a better scheme fit than what Keon White was, but that same idea, a guy that just isn't a fit with his current team but still has some physical tools.

So we talked a little bit about that running back in terms of needing three, I think you need three edge rushers on game day, well, but but you need three guys that you trust to play on the edge because you don't want to play those guys one hundred percent of the snaps.

You want to be able to mix in and rotate a little bit with Landry and Chase on Jennings has you know, rotated a little bit in Yeah, in this game against Cleveland, getting a third guy that maybe fits a little bit better than Jennings, I think.

I think situational.

You have Jennings on early downs like he's three A not even three A and three B.

And then you have like your third you have your third early down guy, and then you have your third pass rush guy.

And right now you know what they're doing at running back with Terrell Jennings.

You mentioned the running back situation.

Maybe there's a comp here.

Maybe this is we want to clear the runway for Elijah Ponder and see what he has.

We want to clear the runway for Kayleb Murphy and see what he has.

He was pass rushing a little more, yeah, with the Chargers before he got I was gonna say, maybe this is where Braden Swinson factors and could have been Truman Jones if he didn't get signed.

But you know, maybe it's as simple as that.

I don't.

The question is, are they just going to reset the rotation bring one of those guys in or are they trying to upgrade the rotation and go out and get one of those names that I mentioned.

Yeah, I think that you know, just to wrap it up on all these trades, I think the biggest thing about all these things is that work one were trade take after this.

Sure, we're learning a lot about Rabel's types at these various positions and just pulling it up really quickly.

And this is big on our show because we're going to talk about this all draft season and all off season as well.

Harold Landry is clearly his dream edge rusher, right, And just in terms of body tie, well, I'm sure there could be a higher ceiling guy out there, but just in terms of the way he's built on that side, I think in either side, because I think him and Chase on it pretty similar.

So Landry's six two two fifty so not the six three two seventy five that Keon White is right, And then I would also say the two skill sets that are really one A and one B above everything else with their edge rusher archetype is get off firs, step, explosiveness, and bend.

Like if you can't do those two things, if you can't get off the ball and bend and turn the corner, they are that's not your their type of guy.

They want guys that can get off the ball bolt against the run and against the pass because they're you know, they're spilling in their run fits and so they're crashing the end down inside and trying to get the ball to bounce to the outside.

So it's different.

They're not boxing the ends anymore like they did in the Belichick system, where they're funneling the ball back inside.

Allah Anthony Jennings, right, who's going to just sit out there and hold the tackle on the outside and force the ball back inside.

They want guys that are coming off the ball.

They want guys that are winning, you know, to the spot in the run game, right to the point of attack and the run game, when there's a polar from the other side of the formation, they want to be able to get there first.

So that's not key on White's game.

That's not really Anthony Jennings's game.

It's Landry and Chason's game, and those are their guys.

So once we start looking in the market for who could be available both at the trade deadline and the next offseason to add some depth at that position, I'm basically canceling out anybody in the mold of a Whiter or Jennings.

I think those guys are totally off the table for what they want to do from a front mechanic perspective on the edge.

So if you're looking for archetypes, if you're looking for fits, like it's the Landryes of the world, it's the chase Ons of the world.

Like, those are the types of guys that they want.

So I look at, you know, some of the names that you mentioned, although it's not like truly splashy like Ardent Key, I think comes to mind as a guy that fits exactly what that does.

I think that he was in Tennessee with Rabel for a year.

Uh yeah, a couple of years twenty twenty three, he was in Tennessee with Rabel.

So a guy that he's familiar with, a little bit veteran player, fits fits the mold, fits the suit, uh right, at six five two forty like, that's exactly what they're looking for.

So I think that there's a lot of things to learn, both that safety, but also in terms of the edge rushing that is different.

You know, they're not again they're like they're not setting the edge to the defense the way they used to anymore.

They want these guys up the field.

They want these guys spilling.

They want these guys forcing the ball outside and bouncing the football, So they want guys that can get off the ball.

And you know that that's the difference between you know, why is Jennings not playing as much?

Why is Keon White now traded?

That's why.

So it's an interesting sort of exercise to understand.

And they seem very locked in to these types, like it doesn't seem like there's much wiggle room.

I think the only guys so far that's convinced them otherwise is Marcus Jones.

Other than that, they are really really stringent and like kind of sticking to their principles in terms of what they look for.

What's your last take there?

One more?

So I don't know if you want to do other trade deadline take, but one more trade deadline thought.

I have texting about this a little last night, and I think I won you over on this, which I didn't think I was gonna be able to.

So they have to add another edge rusher, whether it's Braden Swinton from the practice squad or trading for somebody or signing for like just bodies.

They need another guy.

Sure, they're gonna need another running back on the roster.

We know that, and they already added a safety they signed last night.

I'm blanking on his name off the Dolphin squad.

Yeah, John Saunders, so I said, Josh John John Saunders.

So they're gonna need they already added.

They have one spot they need to add an edge rusher on a running back, so there's some more shuffling coming.

There's one other position i'd really like to see them add, and this could maybe overlap with running back.

I would like to see them at a kick returner.

And if that means you do a six to seven pick swap again and you turn one of those six into a seventh, people are probably gonna screen bloody murder that I'm saying trade for kick returner.

I think it matters.

I think it matters to the extent when you have ten eleven draft picks, you can make that move.

Here's why you asked last night, what is the difference between the best returners and the worst returners in the NFL.

The best kick returns in the NFL top five six to seven guys are all averaging about thirty yards per return.

The league averages twenty five and a half.

The guys at the bottom of the list A when qualifying returners are closer to twenty, they're just a tick over twenty.

So you talk about the Patriots since Antonio Gibson got hurt or averaging twenty three point eight yards per return.

They were up near thirty before that.

You're talking about, you know, seven to ten yards per return per How many returns are you going to have in a game, say three to four to be conservative, that's forty yards of field position that you're potentially leaving on the table.

People may roll their eyes at that.

If you look at the there's eight teams right now that are over five hundred in the AFC.

Let's just call that group playoff contenders for the time being.

For what it is, six of those eight teams have a kick returner that ranks in the top half the league that is above average.

One of the teams, the Chargers, doesn't, only because none of their.

Kick returners have enough returns to qualify for the leaderboard.

They rotate guys.

So when you're going up against these teams that are in the playoff hunt, or even ideally when you play them in the playoffs, they are going to have that field position advantage.

They have that kind of kick returner the Patriots, Henderson's been better.

But remember they said a couple of weeks ago, if Trayvon Henderson is going to play a bigger role in the offense, they don't necessarily want him returning kicks because they don't want him taking on that physical toll.

You would hope after what he did against the Falcons, he is going to play a bigger role in the offense moving forward.

Efton Chisholm still think he has some upside as a receiver.

He's not an NFL kick returner at this point.

So you look at the top kick returners in the league.

Ironically, most of them are receivers, so they may have to be heavy at wide receiver if they were to do this, but I would count it to you know, oh, we had seven receivers active.

A one was Matthew Slade.

So I look at the top kick returners in the league.

Now, maybe they double dip and they do the running back thing.

I've been big on Jerome Ford, Yeah, as a guy that could help you out with that, and now boom, he's your third running back and your kick returner.

Dylan Louby would be a guy on a bad Raiders team.

He hasn't played a ton of offense.

He's mainly just been a kick.

Returner in his career.

He's played more offense this year in the last year.

Would you be comfortable him as your third running back?

Isaiah Davis?

I don't think the Jets woul trade Brees Hall in the division?

Would they trade his backup?

But you know there are some receivers that are up there on bad teams.

Greg Dortsch on Arizona, you know, would they be willing to part ways with him again in division trade?

But Dwayne Eskridge in Miami is in the last years contract.

He's averaging twenty seven yards return.

And the one other name I'll throw out there.

I'm not saying this because he's a former Patriot.

I'm literally just looking who are the best kick returners who are on bad teams who might part with them, especially the guys on expiring contracts.

Gunner Roschevski's a top five kick returner in the NFL right now.

He's averaging twenty eight point three yards per return.

Do you go out and get him?

And he doesn't need to play a snap a wide receiver, but to rebolster that kick return unit.

Again, I know it's a little bit of a banana's take.

I get that.

I actually think there's real value in this that people may not realize because the new kick return rules.

Okay, so the average starting field position in the NFL right now, yeah, after kickoff yep, Detroit leads the league and they are at they have what's his name returning kickoffs.

I can't remember, he's good.

I have the list here here.

They're Sailors, Jacob Sailors.

Their average starting field position is the thirty five.

Yep.

The Minnesota Vikings are the last place team in this stat in the league.

Their average field position is the twenty seven.

So we're talking about from the worst team in the league to the best team in the league.

About an average of eight yards per kickoff return.

So I know I agree with you.

I know to the most people that doesn't sound like a lot.

It can be a lot.

You got to extrapolate that over multiple kickoffs, right, and let's say it's the end of the game, right or even the end of the half, and you're trying to get down and get a field goal.

Those eight yards are going to be massive.

So I think the biggest thing to me though, is that and you know, this is a much longer philosophical discussion that I don't know if I want to have right now.

But the biggest thing to me right now with the kickoff return rules is it's not having the exact impact that we thought it would.

They are not there's now explosive returns.

So Antonio Gibson's touchdown returns still the only one in the NFL, I believe this season on a kickoff.

Yes, so they're not getting the big returns off of this new rule, but getting the thirty yard line is now kind of the goal on these kickoff returns, and that has proven to be a little bit harder than maybe you expected because really there's no space out there, Like they build a wall across the field with their you know, ten guys that they're allowed to build, and there's really it's it's a very hard play to block and it's a very hard play to return.

So it's actually turned out to be the opposite effect.

It's it's kind of pinning teams more than it is actually having big returns.

So now gaining the thirty plus is like now an advantage, Like if you can do that, you're swinging about ten yards of field position compared to your.

Also, just the threat of having somebody back there, and you see how it forces teams into bad decisions like trying those what do they call the dirty kick, the dirty.

Kicks, and that comes up short.

We saw that happen, you know, against Buffalo.

So I just I think you need somebody back there that is going to be a factor.

And if they're not gonna put Travon Henderson back there, which I'm not necessarily if they want to give him the ball fifteen twenty times a game, I'm fine if he's not returning kicks, but you gotta have somebody back there that's a factor, and not just well he won't fumble, and I can you you know, with the have four to six round picks, you turn one of those into a seventh to add a kick return if he breaks off one big return.

Who's arguing, Ye're like, you're you're like stumping for this take, Like everybody's disagreed.

I I feel like saying trade for a kid.

I know, you know what, It's weird.

Ever since I've had this take, I feel like I've had to strongly defend it because it just seems like the kind of sick barth take that I want to trade for a kick returner, but I don't mind trading for.

But also I feel like throwing gunro Chevsky out there is going to get.

We are talking about eight to ten yards of field position.

We're not talking about twenty, so I's not.

Over per return.

I just think having the threat back there as a factor.

I hear you, I it would be kind of funny ideas che one last trade deadline take that I just am thinking about over here as we're talking about these possibilities.

I don't know, I know nothing, but I do feel like we are seeing the Patriots kind of clear runway for a trade here.

So I would expect them to try to add somebody by Tuesday.

I'm not telling you it's gonna be, you know, Trey Hendrickson or something, but it does feel like you get some picks back for these two players that were depreciated assets that you didn't have roles for to maybe open the door for them to acquire a player.

It also feels that way to me because they did it a week in advance.

If they had done this on Tuesday, then maybe that would have been a little bit different, but the fact that they did it so early tells me that this is like a preemptible stress up yeah to something else.

So we'll see what it ends up being.

I know there's a lot of big names.

They always get floated around around the trade deadline, and sometimes that happens, sometimes it doesn't.

Most of the time, it doesn't.

Like this is not the NBA or the MLB where you see like star players moved at the deadline.

In football too often, there's a lot of trades, but they're not usually trades of consequence, if that makes sense.

It's like, it's not You're not going to see a ton of Luka Doncic trades right in the NFL.

It just doesn't happen in season very often.

But maybe that'll change this year.

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So like, this is like basically reset where we were almost restarting the show again because we're gonna start where we usually start now, which is recapping the game last week.

So that first thirty minutes was kind of like its own thing, and now we're going into the actual show plan that I had for today with this Cleveland Browns game.

So my big picture takeaway from this game against the Browns is because I'm gonna get a little nitpicky with certain things, because I want to point to a few trends that are just not going.

They're blown teams out right.

They're blown doors right now against bad teams, which is great to see.

It's great that we're at that point, but we are at a point now where my expectations for this team, and like my calibration of how I talk about the team is shifting towards It's no longer are they good?

They are good?

Now it's are they great?

Like?

Can they be a true contender?

They are trending towards being a playoff team.

So I'm thinking about this now in the way of like, where can they fine tune certain things so that they can make some noise in the playoffs.

And this isn't just a twenty twenty one Reducts where they make the playoffs, ya whippy, and then they get blown out by a good team in the wildcard round.

So I think that there's some nitpicks to this game, both on offense and defense that we'll get into.

But to start with the good stuff, I think the most encouraging thing about this game from a Drake May perspective, and we can start there.

I can come out here and give Drake May all of his flowers, call me MVP, and do it like we can do that.

It's fun, cool, we all know it.

But the one thing that stands out to me with him week to week is when there is something to nitpick his game about one week, he almost always fixes it by the following week.

So in Tennessee, we were talking a lot about the one in runs, like he was not staying in the pocket, he wasn't keeping his eyes down the field, he was taking a lot of hits on scrambles.

It wasn't sliding like all those different types of things.

I thought this week I really only had one small grape with him in this regard.

It was on the bootleg sacked by Miles Garrett, like that one we can just throw into the tenth row and not take a hit there.

But at the same time, I thought he stayed in the pocket.

I thought he hit the backside of the progression more than I think I've seen him do in any game this season against and that's against a really good pass rush too.

Now, he took six sacks, so that's an element of it.

But at the same time, I can't harp on him staying in the pocket and going through his reads one week and then criticize him for taking sacks the next week when I wanted him to stay in the pocket and go through his progressions.

So I thought that he really took a step forward and Nat regard kind of corrected some of those things.

Scrambled when he needed to scramble, got out of bounds on the sixteen yarder, slid down on the twenty eight yarder.

Just much cleaner game from all those perspectives.

And then he was he was gamebusters in the second half.

You know, eight for eight, one hundred and fourteen yards, three touchdowns, perfect passer rating in the second half of this game.

Last thing that drive that really put the game away, the twenty eight yard scramble followed by a thirty nine yard touchdown.

Yep, that is MVP.

Put the cape on, put the team on the back.

Hey Cleveland, warm up the buses.

It's time to go home.

This game is over.

That was mahomes Alan Lamar Burrow esque.

When the game is almost over and you just want to go for the juggular.

I'm going to hit you with back to back explosives and we're in the end zone and this game is over.

That's the type of stuff that wins MVPs.

You know, that's the type of thing when you put the team on the back for a drive like that where it's literally all you.

He kind of did the same thing in Miami where it was the big player Ramandre Stevenson touchdown game over.

Like, that's the same thing I felt like in this game against Cleveland.

I know it was already twenty three to seven at that point, it wasn't necessarily a close game, but that was the drive that really ended the game.

And Drake May pulled out the MVP cap.

I mean so after the scramble was the first time we've heard MVP chance for at least here.

I think he got some on the road, But and how does he respond first play after his first MVP chance thirty nine yard dot to Keshan Boudio.

He was really good in this game.

He took some sacks.

I think against his defense, you just have to take some stacks, not force it.

I thought when he did scramble he did a much better job of protecting himself.

The slide on the long scramble was a little ugly, but it was effective and I'll take the function over fashion at that point.

So, yeah, another great game from him.

One other thing I think he did that he's been doing, but I think it was highlighted in this game.

A lot of young quarterbacks do tend to have their favorites more so than the average quarterback.

And the example I always use is Keenan Allen got what one hundred and forty targets from Trustin Herbert.

I don't think Drake Mays like that, which is a good thing.

I definitely think he has his preferences, you know, Keishn, Booty Hunter, Henry.

But this game plan calls for a lot of Mac Hollins, and it's all right, let's rip it to mac Collins and not a second thought about it.

It makes sense.

Mac Hollins is a plus blocking wide receiver.

That makes him a little more effective off play action.

He's been one of their better play action receivers this year.

We talked about running play action against this aggressive Browns defense all week.

They ran a lot of play actions.

So wouldn't you know it, it's a mac Collins game and he just adjusted to it and hit it.

And that makes him dangerous because with the young quarterbacks sometimes the book can be if you take away this receiver, he's not as confident throwing to the other guys, and it's going to slow him down and it's going to create some issues.

I don't think you can do that to Drake May.

He'll throw the ball to whoever.

He'll throw the ball to the open guy.

He'll throw the ball, the ball to the guy the defense dictates.

So you're starting to hear people being now like, well, when are we going to get the book on Drake May?

You hear this with all these young quarterbacks, you know, the books out on him.

The plan is out there, the blueprint, and that can be something that can be a part of the blueprint, and it looks like it might not be for Drake May.

That's the Josh McDaniels offense to a tea to me, and that's the thing it plays super well.

Josh mcdanniel throwing to the open receiver, throwing where the coverage dictates you to go with the football, not forcing it to certain guys that aren't open within the coverage structure like that.

That's basically the foundation of the Josh McDaniel's passing offense is that you need to threaten the defense with all five eligible receivers on every single play if you are closing off a side of the field, if you are zeroing in on one guy.

Now, Brady had his guys too, right, Like he was zero in on Gronk and Edelman plenty, but those guys would get open.

So I think what you're seeing with this offense is they have a hierarchy now to their passing game, which I think is huge.

With Stefan Diggs at the top of the depth chart, they now have Okay, these games where the defense is probably doing something, whether it's Denzel Ward or whether it's you know, skindically from an exus and no standpoint, these defenses are doing things to make sure that Stefan Diggs isn't going off.

And now all of a sudden, Matt Collins is one on one the entire game, Kaishan Boody is one on one on the big play, and Drake May is attacking those matchups.

You know, they got a rookie corner on the outside one on one against Kaise Shawn Booty and he went right at him and that was definitely something And we saw it in the micd up if you want to check out the mic up miked up on the Patriots dot com or Patriots YouTube of Josh McDaniels of him going over to Drake May and saying, hey, trust your guys against the guys we want to trust them against I guarantee you.

They circle that corner, that rookie corner on the depth chart and said, if we have him on the outside against Kayshawan Boody, we're gonna We're gonna take at least one of of these shots and see if we can get that play to work.

Uh So, I kind of thought that going into the game, like the non Denzel Ward corners for the Browns, I thought were vulnerable Tyson Campbell their slot corner where I keep blanking on his freaking name.

You know, those guys I thought were a little bit susceptible outside a Denzel Ward, and they took advantage of it.

Speaking of Josh McDaniel's, just a masterclass from him.

I thought, really from the start of the game on.

I know the third quarter drive is getting all the pub as it should, but Jim Schwartz is a really good play caller, one of the best defensive coordinators in football for the Cleveland Browns.

Josh McDaniels took him to school like he took him to school in this game.

And if you are it's one thing to go out there as a play caller, as a coordinator and take like a young inexperienced, first time play caller to school.

When you're taking a guy like Jim Schwartz outside and behind the woodshed like that, that's a feather in your cap as a play caller and as a coordinator.

I thought, what really got this game going from McDaniel's perspective was that very first plus run for Travon Henderson was a wham scheme right up the gut.

They ran full back wham with Jack Westover.

They gained twelve yards on that wham scheme right up the gut, and the rest of the game and the Cleveland Brown spent overplaying the inside run like they showed him inside run action and then they could started get the toss going the trayvon Henderson out on the edges.

That opened up the boots, that opened up the play action, and it all kind of fit together from there.

After they got that opening drive where they go twelve yard run, eighteen yard run to Travon Henderson.

It kind of just opened up from there for this offense, even when they were getting shut down a little bit in the first half, like they were getting into the red zone, like they had two red zone drives, they drove another one to the twenty four for Cleveland right before half, So it wasn't like they weren't moving the ball, they just were stalling and then they kind of the dam broke in the second half.

So I can't say enough good things about Josh McDaniels, his job, the job he's doing with his football team, both with Drake May behind the scenes on the sideline, the play calling, the play sequencing, you know, showing similar presentations, formations, things like that, and then running different plays out of it to keep defenses off balance.

Is the amount that they're throwing at defenses in general, whether it's under center, movement plays, shotgun, RPO, read option, you know, different runs, you know, inside outside runs, cracks, toss cracks, inside run plays, outside zone.

There's just a million different things that they throw out of defense on a given Sunday.

He's done a great job.

Deserves his flowers, I think right now, and I said this yesterday, between McDaniels and Shane Steichen in Indianapolis, those are the two hottest play callers in the NFL right now on the offensive side of the ball.

So you're doing a really, really good job.

When you're talking about he might be on the biggest heater of any play caller in football besides maybe the guy that's making Daniel Jones look good.

And so that tells you a lot about Josh McDaniels right now.

That that open and look, he was good the whole game.

That opening drive of the third orter just perfect.

I mean, come on, that was he He hit him with literally everything you had, cracked toss, you would play action toss, you had a speed option in there, which you know I loved.

There was a trick play mixed in ghet some things off play action.

I mean it was they were their heads are spinning.

That was just brilliant, brilliant stuff from Josh McDaniels.

Again, he's been good all year.

That drive was another one that was the best masterpiece caliber drive.

Yeah, one of the best skirted drives in the league all season.

You know, Danielrolofsky said that he watches a lot of football too, so it's not just me from a biased standpoint saying that truly one of the best scripted drives in all of the NFL this season.

You mentioned, you know, just all the different things they threw at him, even just like setting up you know, handing the jet sweep to pop to set up the hoops.

Jets sweep in there too.

Yeah, so they run a jet sweep and then they come back and they run jet motion and then they get Hunter Henry just wide open in the flat on the touchdown.

And if you watch the defensive back for Cleveland, they actually flip the safeties.

So the safety starts down, he sees the jetsweep the safety who's up.

He comes down to take the other side of the formation to take the jetsweep.

That safety goes back and then all of a sudden, now there's a two on one in the flat to hunt Hunter Henry, all schemed, all dressed up.

And when you watch the micd up that instance, there's a couple of different instances within the micd up that were kind of subtle where Josh McDaniels is basically saying, yep, okay, now you go over there, right and if we're gonna throw it here, and like he's basically knowing exactly how Cleveland is going to react to all the motion and all the different movement from by the offense.

That is next level preparation, like having that ability to watch a defense on film, and I think We talk about this a lot with motion, like how does the team a defense react to motion, Like how do they play motion?

Do they follow it?

Do they pass it off?

Do they use their safeties like the Browns due to to you know, rotate.

He knew the Browns were going to rotate their safeties like that when they motioned.

They didn't they relate to it against pop pop games.

Eight yards on the play before.

So now they are on it and they're really overplayed on the Henry touchdown.

And he knew it the whole time.

He knew exactly what he was doing.

That that's play calling, that stack and plays, that's sequencing plays off of each other.

Really really good stuff.

I want to stick on one point there.

Trayvon Henderson.

A nice breakout game for Trayvon Henderson.

They finally got the ball to him in space and got him outside on these toss plays.

Obviously, you know, you can't be too predictable with toss plays, you know.

I think as the game wore on, they tried a couple more late in this game, and Cleveland was ready for it and shut him down.

But once you start tossing the ball, then you have the run actions off the toss.

But then you also have now the inside is going to start to open up for him, right when you start to get guys to over pursue out to the edge, and now you can hit him inside with different run.

I thought this plan, you know, this usage was significantly improved.

And then I thought Henderson was a lot better in this game, both making reads out in space, but also his pass blocking.

I thought he had a couple good pass blocking grips in this game as well.

So his game is starting to develop and he's starting to come along.

That would be huge.

Yeah, if they could get training camp Travion Henderson back, and maybe he's not quite as dynamic as he was in training camp, but close to that.

We still haven't really unlocked the passing game elements of what he could do as a receiver.

This is all running game stuff.

But he carried the ball seven times I think are around seventy yards on those outside tosses he runs outside of the tackles, averaged almost ten yards per attempt on crack toss schemes, essentially down the line there.

This was good.

This was a very positive development for them.

Yeah, it really was go figure.

It just took facing the best run defense in the league.

But the crazy thing to me, so remember earlier in the year when people were saying tre On Henderson needs to play more, and we were saying, like, no, he's playing a lot.

It just doesn't feel like it because he's not doing a ton.

We've hit the complete polar opposite of that.

So Ramandra Stevenson in this game had fifteen touches on fifty snaps five zero fifty snaps, touched the ball fifteen times.

Trevion Henderson had ten touches on fourteen snaps.

That's that's an insane usage rate.

I mean, he was basically what two out of every three times more than to every three times he was on the field he got the ball.

So you don't want it to become a tell, but it's kind of crazy that it felt like he played this big role in this game.

He really was not on the field that much.

Yeah, so and maybe that's ultimately the role for him.

Maybe that's what it is.

You know, right, pick your spots and go.

Now, they are going to need another running back to spell more with Stevenson.

If they're going to do that fifty snaps, the game is a lot.

Even if it is only fifteen touches, but yeah, if they can get him going, that's a huge development.

Yeah, it was really positive.

Again, I think there was a clear and he he said so as much after the game when I asked him that there was a clear point of emphasis this week to let's get this guy out on the edge and see what he can do in some space.

And if we have to toss the ball to him instead of stretch handoffs and things like that, that's what we're going to do.

So they did a nice job of getting him out outside the tackle, some really good blocks on some of those plays as well.

Shout out Jared Wilson, I thought was really good at his games, especially climbing to the second level of the defense on some of those toss schemes, like his ability to climb to the second level when they run him to the right side to Morgan Moses' side.

His ability to get up to the second level and block the backside pursuit is why that becomes a twenty seven yard run because he's up there at the second level turning out that week sidelinebacker and that allows those runs to go from you know, okay, let's call it a six yard run to a twenty seven yard run.

That's how you get those bigger runs down the field.

So Morgan moses at thirty four getting out there front of those toss schemes.

I thought that again.

Jared Wilson was a big part of it as well.

So a lot of good things there from all those players, A couple of the positives on the defensive side of the ball here and the goods.

I thought that again.

You know, they settled down nicely against the script, but I think the biggest thing for them was the only way Cleveland was going to win this game is by running the football like they had to run the ball with quin Shawn Jenkins, play really good defense on the other side of the ball, and win this game, you know, twenty to seventeen, seventeen thirteen something like that, like that was their formula.

They kind of got it for the first half defensively, but they were never able to run the ball.

Judkins had what nineteen yards on nine carries in the same was running into a brick wall the entire game.

I broke it down and after further of you with you know, diagrams and plays, and it's much easier to digest that way, but the way they're fitting the runs different than it did in the past.

I mentioned that earlier in the show.

They have it rolling right now from a run defense perspective, roberts Plaine has it rolling.

But also this defensive line is as good against the run as any defensive line I've seen for the Patriots.

They don't make any mistakes, they don't jump out of gaps, they don't get double teamed off the ball very often.

They are sound, they're stout up front.

It's a great group.

It's being coached really well by Clint McMillan.

He deserves a lot of credit for that as well.

But their run defense continues to be one of the best run defenses in football.

And this was a week where the Browns were big, physical team up front, really physical, good rookie running back, and the Patriots completely shut him down on the ground.

Yeah, and they're gonna get another test this week in BEJN.

Robinson, so we'll really tell.

But the run defense is, I mean, it's at an insanely high level right now.

And you talk about I was actually oddly enough kind of impressed with Judkins in this game in the sense that I thought when he got hit, he did a good job of falling forward and creating some hitting yardage, and even doing that, he really didn't.

Do a lot in this game.

No, didn't do a lot at all.

Now, part of that's game script, like once you're down by two touchdowns, you're not going to keep running the football most likely.

But again I thought that was the Browns only path to victory was a big Judkins game, a big game for their defense, and they got the defense from the first half, but they didn't sustain on defense and then they never got Judkins going.

And I thought that was a huge reason why the Patriots won this game so easily, was that Cleveland was never going to beat him throwing the football.

They just Dylan Gabriel was never going to be the reason why they lost.

So I thought that that was, you know, something that was really feathering their cap.

Last thing on the goods and then we'll take a break and we'll talk about the bads here.

Just the goods.

These receivers, I think just continue deserve praise for the work they're doing.

Maccollins big game for him, As you mentioned, three more chunk plays in this game, as five in the last two weeks.

Kaishawan Boody just once a week, Kasehwan Boody is hitting a bomb.

May It seems like over the last month or so, I just continue to be really impressed by every single player kind of finding their targets, finding their role, Like even Pop Douglas hits the forty four yard or on the extended play, Like they all kind of have a niche right now.

They all kind of work and fit together.

Again.

I'm not gonna sit here and say I wouldn't take aj Brown or I wouldn't take a stud receiver on top of this, But when you start talking about trades and the deadline and receiver, I'm not that interested in adding a receiver.

That's just kind of part of this mix.

Like it's gotta be somebody that top of the depth chart or don't.

Like I see a lot of these names out there that got thrown out there.

I'll just give you an example, and I'm a fan of this player, but I don't really see the need to trade for Chris Alave.

Like I think Chris Alave is just gonna play where Kaishan Boodie is playing.

How much more production, how much better is he gonna be than Kaishan Budi to give up a pick for Chris Olave.

Like again, if it's not Aj Brown, if it's not somebody of that ilk, I'm not interested in receiver because right now they are puzzle pieces at that position and in that room just fit tremendously together.

And Drake May has got plenty.

He's got enough receiver talent on this team right now.

I'm really pleased with where it are.

It's more of a long term need because look, Diggs is a big part of what they're doing right now, and he's thirty one, right so you got to go out and you got to get the guy that's going to grow long term with Drake May.

I also would like to see them if we're I mean, we're getting way ahead of ourselves here, but get that Z slot type.

I'm good with Kaishan Boudi at the X.

I don't think they need the big outside X.

I think you like Kaishan Bouti in that role.

Find the guy and maybe it's ky Wiams, who knows, but find the guy that's gonna step into Diggs role.

Sure, and that that's really the addition they need.

After that, they're in relatively good shape.

Yeah, agreed.

All right, we're gonna take a quick break and then we'll do some of the nippicks from this game, and we'll take your calls and emails.

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I keep asking this of Brunt and I'm going to ask them again.

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If you're gonna be the official sponsor of the Jellette Stadium field Crew, then Boyd is a heart of the Jiled Stadium field Crew.

Uh so we need to get him outfitted with some brunt and and then we can get all the dogs of Patriots dot com outfitted with some brunt as well.

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That's that's how that's how it is.

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So what happens when you have a short haired dog in New England when it gets cold?

Uh, he doesn't really like the cold too much.

All right, let's get back to football.

I want to talk about some of the the other things here in terms of the bads.

Let's say in this game, the nitpicks of this game.

And again I want to be clear, this is about fine tuning things so that this team can go on a run here and be a true playoff contender.

They're already a good team.

Let's make them a great team.

One of the things that stands out to me right now with Drake may and and then I want to unpack all of these sacks.

He's now second in the league.

He has taken twenty eight sacks this year.

That's second most in the NFL.

His pressure two sack rate, so when he's under pressure, how often does he go down?

That's also the second highest in the league at twenty six percent.

So I think one thing that stands out to me about these numbers is getting sacked a lot.

That's just on the surface, but when you dig even deeper, he's a great scrambler, he's a great play extension artist, but when he gets under pressure, he's going down.

You know, that seems to be the book on him.

This is a bit of everything, you know, some of its offensive line.

But I will give the offensive line this.

All six of the sacks in this game took over four seconds.

So this was not jail breaks.

This was not Miles Garrett blowing by Will Campbell in two and a half seconds.

In sacking the quarterback.

There was one or two sacks that I would put on May.

Certainly the bootleg I think is a default where just throw the ball away and save the yards there.

But I thought the first red zone sack he got a little hung up on remondros Stevenson kind of froze on his first read a little bit had Hunter Henry in the middle of the field if he had come off of that.

So, as all with sacks, this is a little bit of a quarterback stat It's not just an offensive line stat.

I want to go sack by sack here in a second and talk about Will Campbell in some of the issues that they had upfront.

But if there's one thing that's going to start to bite them in the butt.

Offensively, it's that they're taking a lot of sacks, which of course is putting them in long down and distance, and to Drake May's credit, he's getting them out of it.

You know, he's getting into second and seventeen and turning that into first down, which is very uncommon in a feather in his cap in terms of you know, his play.

But eventually, when you place better defenses, eventually, when your luck kind of runs out and those long down and distant situations, sacks can be drive killers.

Right now, they haven't been drive killers because of how good he's been, but eventually that might change.

So where are you at with this number of sacks?

Because I think I go back and forth on it.

On the one hand, you don't want to take away his play extension, his instincts to try to hold in the hocket, hang in the pocket and let things develop, because he's capable of squeaking out and hitting Pop Douglas for forty four yards right down the field.

So you don't want to completely take that away.

But at the same time, you are taking a lot of sacks.

Right now, it's starting to pile up.

I mean, there, what's the stat I think it's something like once you have a sack on a drive.

I'm trying to remember exactly what it is, just trying to look it up.

I think like on drives that include a sack, teams only score like fifteen percent of the time or something like a sack can really really set you back.

So it's obvious not great.

I don't know how sustainable it is at this level for them to keep making it work, but I it's working, right, it's working, And I don't, like you said, you don't want to negate his ability to extend plays.

And maybe as the line continues to come together and they build chemistry and will Campbell and Jared Wilson get more experienced, it just kind that number comes down naturally.

Yeah, I would also I'd rather take the sacks and the turnovers.

And if the sack number comes down to turnover number goes back up, that's not necessarily good thing either.

So the one thing I will say about the sacks too, I hear list a lot just throw the ball away.

Well, if you started just throwing the ball away from the pocket and there's pressure, then that's what's called intentional grounding, right, Like you can't just you can throw the ball away at guy's feet and you can throw the ball away you know where it's like kind of your guy or no guy.

And like Brady was a master at that and he eliminated that way.

It's very hard and it's a fine line because if you start trying to throw the ball under pressure at guy's feet or like out of bounds and you don't get it out of bounds, those become turnovers.

The one thing he does need to get better at doing is when he's outside the pocket throwing the ball away.

There's a few times where he's taking sacks or even run out of bounds outside of the pocket, Like those ones need to be thrown away.

That would be a.

Bigger nitpick for me.

Inside the pocket is different.

He's got to be a little more willing to.

Throw the ball away outside the pocket.

Yeah, I agree with that.

I mean the Miles garrebuleg sack is a perfect example.

This is one other like little nitpick that I had from this game from a the one sort of nitpick of Josh McDaniels and Drake May from a play calling perspective, there was three plays in this game that we're doomed from the start, the tackle trap played down by the goal line on the first drive that goes for minus four yards, the bootleg to Miles Garrett's side, and then there was one other run that went that was so I think it was the third and one run.

Maybe that got stuff.

But I just wonder where we're at and maybe I'll try to ask this this week, like where are we at with Drake checking out a place?

So I was gonna say the bootleg to Garrett's side that they called, and we had talked a little bit last week about running bootlegs to his side to upset his timing, But that was on the left side.

That was on the back side.

That's one where I do wonder.

You get to the line, you're expecting that to be a boot away from him.

Suddenly he's on the right side.

Should they have checked out of that play?

Should they check out of it?

Can they?

Can they just flip it right like?

And he, you know, give a little flipper call and then all of a sudden, instead of booting to the left, you're booting to the right.

Now there's moving parts.

You got to move the tight ends, you got to move all the pieces.

But that's part of maturing and part of developing here as a quarterback.

I'm not holding it totally against him because I don't know if they're giving him that kind of control yet.

So I think that that's a question for Josh McDaniels and Ashton Grant of like how much is he really allowed to do at the line of scrimmage, like if he's canning, like if they have two play calls in the huddle.

Yeah, that's very different than asking him to see Miles Garrett on the right side and now we're gonna flip it, and now we're gonna move the tight end over here.

We're gonna flip the formation, and now we're going to run the boot leg to the left because Miles Garrett's lined up on the right.

In theory, that sounds great.

In practice, it's not as easy.

So I don't know where they are with that whole thing.

But you know, I mentioned the tackle trap play that goes four minus four on first down from like I think it was like inside the five right on the opening drive there, basically kill the drive and force them to kick a field goal.

There they run tackle trapped to a wide nine.

So like the defensive end on the side of the field that they're pulling to is all the way outside the tackle.

He's way outside.

So now Morgan Moses has to go from right tackle.

He's going to pull all the way to the front side of the play, all the way out to a wide nine technique defensive end.

Like he's not going to get there.

He's just not Like it's just not a possibility.

And so what happens.

You know, the guy comes into the backfield.

I think it was Alex right, you know, he comes screaming out the field, into the backfield, blows out to play for four yard loss.

So when we start looking at those types of things, you know, where are they at with checking in and out of plays?

Where are they at with Drake may having the controls and having that ability.

I think that might be Josh McDaniel's offense PhD level, Like that might be the next step for them in terms of the mental stuff and the pre snap stuff defensively.

Oh wait, I want to take talk about sacks.

So I mentioned all six sacks took more than four seconds, so this was not a jail break situation.

I wrote down somewhere, Hopefully I have it somewhere where like all the sacks were to blame, right, and who was to blame in my mind, you know, I'm not in the room.

I don't know for one hundred percent, but just where the blame was for some of the sacks.

So I look at the very first sack in the red zone and wasn't a great execution on the chip by Will Campbell.

He lets Miles Garrett around him.

But I kind of felt like that was also a little bit on may Like I thought he held the ball a little bit on that play.

They did ship Miles Garrett.

It happened in over four seconds.

There was an open receiver in the middle of the field.

He also could have ran out to his right, you know, and try to extend the play that way.

So I kind of looked at that one as I gave it to Campbell, like it's Campbell's sack, But I also kind of look at it and say the quarterback could helped him out a little bit there.

The other Miles Garrett sacks, one of them was on Jared Wilson on a stunt.

He stunted inside a little tn he wraps inside, beats Jared Wilson.

He beat Morgan Moses on the hunt move like a couple of times and finally got a sack out of it on Morgan Moses and then they had the bootleg sack.

So two on Campbell on the chips, one on Wilson, one on Moses, one on scheme or you know, play call.

I didn't think this was a disastrous game from Will Campbell.

I really didn't, And watching it back, I thought he was really good against Miles Garrett one on one, got him eight times without any help.

One on one, I thought he won seven of them and the one time that he didn't win, Drake May stepped up in the pocket and scrambled, so it wasn't a pressure.

I thought that he was much better without the chips and the chips, I'm sure you talked to David Andrews a little bit about, you know, the technique and all that kind of stuff.

It just wasn't executed properly.

But outside of the two sacks, which were more about his execution I thought than Miles Garrett, I really think that this was a okay game for Will Campbell.

I'm not gonna excuse him for the sacks, but I think that it was better than the original watch made it see him.

A first ballot Hall of Famer, made a rookie look like a rookie going up against the first ballot Hall of Famer like.

It wasn't a disqualifying game by any means.

He needs to be better than that most weeks, but he's not facing Miles Garrett most weeks.

Right, you mentioned the chips, and what Andrews had talked about was, you know, the chip is not necessarily meant to buy you time.

It's to offset the center of gravity.

And what Campbell does is he used it to buy time, so he hunter Henry chips, he's still back in his pass set, and then he lets Garrett come to him, so it's essentially resetting the rush.

It does buy you a second, but it doesn't actually make anything easier for Campbell in the one on one.

If anything, it makes it harder because now Garrett has more of a head of team coming to him.

And what Andrews pointed out is later in the game, it wasn't against Garrett, it was against somebody else.

They get the same look, and this time Will Campbell steps up and meets him right in the chip, meets the rusher right in the chip, instead of letting the rusher come to him, so you saw the growth there.

I don't think Will Campbell's at the point where he's Trent Brown, We're all right, we're not gonna chip because it's gonna throw him off.

He just has to.

He didn't really get chip help in college, so it's not something he's done a lot.

He has to learn how to.

This was also a very different type of chip help because, like Hunter, Henry literally is like chucking him off the line of scrimmage, like he's engaging him off the line of scrimmage in his face.

Whereas as the game we're on, there's a couple of more instances.

One on I believe it was Booty's touchdown where they executed the chip better, but also that he got chip help from the running back instead of the tight end on the line of scrimmage.

And I think those he looks a little bit more comfortable with because that helps him with the short corner, right, because we talked a lot about with him, you know, and the ability, you know, to get a little bit over aggressive and kind of get off his landmark and then open the inside to those inside rush moves.

When you get a little bit of help, you know from the running back coming out of the backfield.

What that can do is that pushes the rusher back inside.

So instead of allowing the rusher to threaten the corner and open up Will Campbell now he can kind of set a little bit more to the inside and have that ability to just let the chip kind of just push him back inside towards him.

So I think the running back chip help.

He's better at that.

So like if I when they're moving forward, if you're not gonna see Miles scared again, thank god, But if they see another pass rusher that's an elite guy.

I don't even know when or if, but if they do, then I think the running back chip help is he seems more comfortable with that than he did with the tight end chips.

And then as the game we're on, like he closed down the space and he got much better at it, even with Hunter Henry working on the chips.

But I agree with the point when he goes and chip, like Campbell needs to take that time to go get his hands on Garrett, right.

He can't sit back and try to catch Garrett.

You want to chip him from the tight end, campb will get aggressive.

He gets his hands on him too, and now we're running riding him around the edge again.

I thought he was much better on one on one pass pro in this game than he was with the Chips.

So those were the sacks, you know.

I like to see them take a little bit fewer sacks, you know, Drake May take a little bit of fewer sacks.

I think this goes hands in hand a little bit with the man coverage stuff that we saw from Cleveland in this game, which I think more teams are gonna try against the Patriots.

Even though the Patriots won some rounds in man coverage, the forty four yard at a pop being a big one.

The twenty eight yard scramble by may was against man coverage, they also had to pick.

They had five sacks of their six sacks were in man to man.

Man with a spy on Drake May might be might be the book of what teams try playing zone against Drake may As a death sentence.

Do not play zone against this kid.

Like second him the league and EPA against zone coverage, he is lighting up zone.

The only quarterback in the league that has been better against zone covers than Drake may As Patrick Mahomes so like that's not an answer.

You know, these two deep zones, he's covered two's like he's just shredding those types of zones.

Man to man is more about the receivers than it is about the scheme or the quarterback.

Can the receivers get open?

That that's the difference.

So I think we're gonna see a little bit more of that moving forward.

You spy Drake May with a linebacker, you know, Carson's Wessinger did it on his pick.

He's a spy in that play.

And then you play man to man on the back end.

Can the receivers separate consistently against man?

If you spy Drake May, can he outrun the spy?

You know?

Is that a factor or not a factor?

I think that's where we're headed here.

If you keep playing zone against Drake May, he's gonna be the most efficient quarterback in the league all year.

Like that, that's just gonna be a death sentence for teams.

Maybe the man to man stuff is it?

Browns kind of found something in that first half.

The Falcons a aj Terrell, It's not really what they do.

They're more of his own defense.

I don't know if they're gonna play a lot of man in this game.

It's not really their book.

It's not really their mo Tampa maybe, Like you know, I don't know if these teams have it in terms of the horse.

Yeah, so that's the thing.

It's easier said than done.

You got to have the horses to do it.

And then you know, not this year, but long term, if you're the Patriots, you go out and you get a bunch of man beater wide receivers and you put him around Drake May.

So that's if that's the book on Drake May, that's not an easy defensive game plan to execute by any means, not for four quarters.

No, And you know his big playability, his explosive playability to run scramble and then also to extend plays and give the receivers more time to open up against man coverage, that's tough to cover too.

So if you're gonna play man, like I said, it's got to be with a spy, it's got to be with a contained rush trying to aim to keep him in the court, in the pocket and make throws from the pocket, because if you let him dip and rip like on the pop Douglas one, he's gonna hit bombs down the field against broken coverage, so it's a hard quarterback to solve.

I mean, that's what makes them good.

But I do think demand stuff in the first half that Cleveland played, they might see a little bit more of that here moving forward.

Going over to the defense, I mentioned the script numbers are just insane.

You know.

Right now, they're giving up seven point eight yards per play.

They're giving up an explosive play twenty four percent of the time, and the opponent's first two drives of the game, so they are last in the league in yards per play on the first two drives of the game.

They then almost cut it in half for the rest of the game.

They go from seven point eight in the opening script to four point seven outside of the script.

On defense, but similar to what we're talking about with the sacks on offense, so far they've gotten away with it.

The question is when does that run out?

It does it, you know, But when and if that luck runs out, you know, are they porked at that point?

I mean, look against better offensive teams, it's gonna be much much harder.

You can't put yourself in that hole like Tampa.

Tampa is the game I'm watching for in that regard.

Yeah, So last thing here, the biggest thing that I see with this defense that's still breaking my brain.

And I'm going to keep harping on this until they prove me right or proved me wrong.

Twenty eighth in the league in past DVA, fourth in the league in scoring.

Defense doesn't add up.

It doesn't add up.

So I looked this up.

I went back five years.

Over the last five years, eighty percent of the defenses that finished top ten in scoring also finished top ten in past DV away.

So the best pass defenses in the league are also the best scoring defenses in the league.

Shocker.

There's always one outlier.

Maybe the Patriots are it.

The Niners are also another outlier.

This season, their pass defense has struggled, but statistically speaking, again, if you continue to play pass defense level, the numbers are telling us that water is going to find its level eventually with the scoring.

So can they keep up this level of scoring defense as the stakes ray eyes as the opponents get better.

If they don't improve significantly as a pass defense, I think is another thing that could come back up.

In let's say January, when we're talking about why their season ended, it might be because they faced Patrick Mahomes or Justin Herbert or Josh Allen and they couldn't get off the field on defense and they couldn't stop.

I think that there's some truth to that, because you know, in this game, like Dylan Gabriel has Isaiah Bond wide open down the field and misses him.

Patrick Mahomes or Justin Herbert or Josh Allen is not missing that throw like this quarterback does you know?

Ward?

You know has one good half of football, but doesn't have four quarters of good football in Tennessee the week before.

You know, this type of stuff might come up to haunt them once they face better teams, so that the good and the bad.

I didn't really have anything that got them beat.

I thought I did.

They had some sloppy plays late that against the better team would.

Would concern me.

Uh on sidekick fumble, yeah, along an onside kick recovery, Travon Henderson fumbling at the goal, and they had some avoidable penalties.

Marte Mapu lines up incorrectly on the opening kickoff, a couple third down fall starts at third and one fall.

I forget which one was which Hunter Henry and Mike and Wnnu got called for fall start.

BA one was on a third and one, which pushed them back to third and five and they stall out and the others on a third and long.

But it was at the end of the first half there and temporarily took him at a field goal range if if you know, May doesn't hit that throat a booty, which, by the way, you know it's ridiculous.

Kishon Boody had that stretch of consecutive catches for a first down.

I think it reached twelve and it snaps because he gets twenty three yards on third and twenty four.

But this is what I'm talking about, right, Like, they get into third and twenty four and they get knocked out of field goal range before halftime most teams, that's dead, right, Like, that's not your right.

But so they hit a twenty one yard pass and they get right back into very makeable field goal range, not just field goal range like under fifty yard old.

Let's also give Andy burg Alli some credit.

He's been really good lately and that's gone under the radar.

Yeah, but I mean he's not exactly hitting bombs like you.

No forty two is.

I mean, it's not a chip shot, but it's manageable.

But this might like you're right, that usually doesn't happen, which is why I put that penalty in the stuff that gets you beat category.

Yeah, they recovered on sidekick, the fumbled the goal line, a bad bad chank punt from Bryce Bearing or just like they kind of let go of the rope at the end there, and yeah, you know, I'm sure Mike Rabel will that's probably all they've heard about all week.

So sacks, pass defense, some of the situational football late in the game.

You know, those are the things that when you get into a game against a healthy Baltimore, Buffalo Tampa playoffs like those are the things that you hope they can fix.

They can fine tune, they can correct, and you know, before the players.

You know, it's it's crazy.

They they haven't looked like a young team as much as they probably should have at points this year except in those moments.

So you hope later in the year, like they don't look like as much of a young team because.

They're not as young at that point.

Bill Belchick, you said no rookies was once you get past Thanksgiving?

Right, Yeah, something like that, Bill Belichick all right, Patty's Patty's in the agoa, we're going to take the casts.

I know, I always leave you guys on.

Hold, what's up Patty?

Hey, what's going on?

Guys?

How are you doing.

Good?

So I got a point and a couple questions to end with.

I know this is probably not going to be a very popular take, but I don't know if I would want to trade for Trey Hendrickson just because of the age.

He's injured right now, and realistically he's been great, he's been a great player, But how many more great years are you going to get out of him, you know, especially like if if he comes here and then he decides to test the market afterwards, So there's you know, trading for somebody like that is a little bit ballatle in my opinion.

Alexi brought up their name boy A my fey.

I mean, like as far as defensive ends go, I know, like Ard and Key's a popular name.

But if you're gonna swing for defenses like Mafe, if he's available, I would, I mean, I would give up a date two picks for that guy.

My two questions.

A lot of a lot of people bring up Jerome Forard.

Alexi brought him up earlier, but and I would I would very much welcome him on the team.

But a guy that doesn't get mentioned a lot that I would like to see here, who can he's return kicks in the past, he hasn't done it in the past two years.

Is Tony Pollard and he could be your third down running back and possibly get him out there to return kicks.

What do you guys feel about that?

And Kevin, you you brought up like obviously the sack numbers and the pressure numbers on may we know that during his North Carolina career he did run a lot of RPOs.

As the season gets gets a little bit more deep and Josh opens up the playbook, do you think they add a few RPOs a game just to see if we can get the ball out quickly so he doesn't get that quick pressure.

And I'll take it off there.

Guys, Thanks Pat, thanks for the call.

Yeah, they they haven't.

They've gone away from some of that stuff, you know, RPO read option.

They do it a little bit on the goal line where I don't know if it's a true read option.

He might just kind of be threatening the backside to try to like hold the backside and kind of give them pause.

But they haven't done a ton of RPO stuff lately.

They instead of doing that, they've kind of went more to the boots and the under center and moving the pocket and like getting him, you know, his legs involved that way instead.

So I don't know if that's a comfort thing, like maybe he feels more comfortable.

I know he did a lot of RPO at college, so you would think that he would be comfortable with that.

But it's different in the NFL.

You know.

One of the big things with RPOs it's different in the NFL is how far down the field you can block legally on RPOs.

In the NFL it's I think it's two yards.

In college, it's like five or something crazy like that.

Yeah, so you see the lineman way further down on the field and the run action in college and that mesh, like you can hold the mesh for a lot longer than you can in the NFL.

So I think that that's why you're seeing some of these RPO schemes that have trickled up to the NFL.

They haven't been quite as effective since they first kind of broke in with it.

Because of that.

I think defenses have adjusted, But I would also say, you know, the rules in the NFL with the illegal man downfield penalties is definitely a little bit more restrictive than it is in the college game.

And then also like the hashes, right, like you know, there's a lot more space to the field in the college game than there is in the pro game as well.

What was the Tony Pollard?

Yeah, so yeah, I.

Feel like that's a guy that you know, I think they're probably looking at in my mind, would be looking to add a third running back.

Yeah, and Tony Pollard's the guy with his pedigree and the way he's played.

I don't think you want to bury Traveon Henderson.

How is he going to handle coming here and being in a third running back role.

Weren't there some reports that he didn't love splitting carries with Ezekiel Elliott and Dallas.

And I think they probably want to go younger too.

You know, Tony Pollard's only twenty eight, but for running back that that's getting up there a little bit.

Yeah, now Taja Spears, Yeah, as a you know, five minute back, third running back, the Titans backup running back would make more sense to me.

I think if you're gonna go as big as Tony Pollard.

Well, at that point you called the Jets about Reese hal and I just don't think that's the kind of back they need to add.

They don't need somebody to the top the depth chart.

They just need a third guy, a body who's gonna be able to split some carries with Stevenson.

I don't know that the Pollard's going to slide into that role.

So I I had thought about Tony Pollard during Titans Week, obviously, just because it was relevant at the time.

If Remandre's fumbling issues continued and they really had to bench Remandre, then it would make more sense, and I thought I thought it made a lot of sense.

Obviously, it's only been two games where he's had it a little bit better under wraps in terms of the fumbling, But it seems like they've he's sort of leveled off in that regard.

Red he had to fumble in Buffalo, I think might have been the last one that he fumbled, yes, And so I think that that's hopefully they've kind of corrected that and we're moving past that.

If they were in a position where they had to bench Fromandre, Stevenson because of fumbling, then Tony Poller would have made a lot of sense.

But because they aren't in that position, I think I'm more with you that they need a third running back.

You know, Tajy Spears is a good shout.

You know, Jerome Ford is a guy just for the kickoff returns to is a good shout.

Those types of players more so than you know, Tony Poller is making a lot of money, like Tony Powler's like a ten eleven million dollar a year running back.

They're not doing that unless he's starting and he's playing.

Now, what was the other thing I was gonna say about the backs?

I don't remember.

Let's let's keep garling what they calls Sam is in Virginia.

What's up to say?

Hey, guys, thanks for taking my college.

Thanks for waye.

I appreciate it.

Oh yeah, of course, just one quick question.

That's the deadline.

No.

We opened up the show talking about the dugger trade a little concerned about the safety deaths here.

I mean, Jalen Hawkins and Craig Woodson has emerged and seemed like uh, solid starters, but that's just kind of an issue all around their roster, especially in the safety room.

Now I'm curious if you could see a trade on the margins for for sue safety help.

I don't take it off there.

Thanks for the call us, Sam, Yeah absolutely.

I mean they signed Sonders from the Dolphins practice squad.

That's, you know, similar to signing Richie Grant to their practice squad.

It feels very depthy, like that doesn't feel like a guy that could truly step in to a third safety role.

I wonder how they feel about del Pettis.

You know, maybe they feel like he's made strides behind the scenes.

He's a decent find as a rookie, as an undrafted rookie last year, maybe he can be that safety.

I would still entertain all safety suggestions.

I'll keep pounting the table to try to pry a Moni Hooker out of Tennessee.

I don't know if that's just happened last offseason he did.

Yeah, I don't know if that's gonna happen, But Tennessee says they're open for business on everybody that isn't Cam Warden and Jeffrey Simmons.

So I'm at least making the phone call.

Vrabel, guy grew up in that system, would definitely be seamless.

Now.

With all that being said, Woodson I think has shown enough flashes that I'd like to continue to develop.

Craig Woodson.

Jalen Hawkins, for what it's worth, is PFF seventh rated safety.

He's been playing well.

I mean, hamstring injuries are tricky, as we've learned this year, but he has been playing well.

It's that's in the short term, like, well, this will be different when.

We get to the offseason.

In the short term, that's more.

I don't think they need to go out and try to find like somebody who's going to push Hawkins off the depth chart.

I just you know, the depth eyes up really quickly.

You already have Hawkins dealing with an injury.

Craig Woodson's been on the injury report.

Do they have the bodies there is more of the question for me.

Look, I take them on the hooker, certainly, but I think you can get by for this year with Hawkins and Woodson.

You don't need to move a third round pick at the deadline right to get a new starting safety.

Yeah, agreed.

I think they figured out with Hawkins, he's just not at man coverage on tight end safety.

They got burned a couple times by Brat Bauers and the opener, and I think they kind of were like, all right, we've seen enough.

Yeah, that's not his role now that they got him, you know, kind of doing a little bit of everything, playing deep, playing in the box and being more of like a free defender that's just allowed to roam and play over the top and great interception on Sunday, you know, playing the deep part of the field like that's his game.

He's not gonna go cover Kyle Pitts one on one.

That's not his game.

Yeah, So if you're looking for safety type, like that's the type.

Like they need somebody to cover the tight end.

They tried Marte Mapi.

We played one play nineteen yards off the field, right like they They've tried Hawkins not so good.

They've tried Woodson not so great.

They've tried, you know, just zoning off the tight end.

Right now, they're fifth in the league and yards allowed to tight ends.

Dalton kick went off against them, brought Bowers went off against them in this game.

I think Kyle Pitts could go off against them if he gets the quarterback play that he needs to do.

So, so it's a position that is more like a role that they need to fill, Like they need to cover safety.

So what about a coverage linebacker.

Sure, I don't know if he's going one on one against the tight end, but I like Logan Wilson as a player, Like I think it's an upgrade over Ellis to Vai Gibbons, like at that spot next to Splane.

I don't know if he's the answer to all your tight end problems, but I would kick the tires on it just because of the upgrade that it would be at that level.

I just I don't know if it's scheme.

I don't know if they can do something differently scheme wise.

But you know, even Harold Fannon, you know, nineteen yard third down crosser touchdown on an eighteen yard play and Joco got him once.

I do think the touchdown was a miscommunication, busty coverage, Yeah, but still yeah, yeah.

They do know they need a tight end stopper, and that's a long term meet.

It's a problem.

It's been a problem.

All right, Let's go back to the phones.

Uh Don is in Philly?

What's up?

Don?

Hey?

Guys, Hey, how are we doing?

Not want us to discuss the secondary really quickly.

You know, while the Marcus Jones extension obviously we're gonna have to shell out a lot of cash.

Figazol is most likely the SAFT season.

What I was looking up Carlton Davis's contract looks like he has like thirty four million guaran speed.

That's a lot of cash that's going to be spent towards the secondary.

Do you possibly see us unloading Carlton Davis maybe at the end of this year, seeing if we can find a trade partner.

It just seems like there's some hold on the defense that we could use, you know, fill that, you know, that linebacker spot, maybe get another stafety somewhere, just because they're also spending so much money on the D line.

And secondly, you know, now we have ten draft picks this upcoming year, a lot in the sixth round.

Sounds like we're going to try to get some depth, but we really need to, you know, help Drake may out in the long run, and I think Evans said it the other day, we just we can't just keep this same or going forward.

I doubt there's going to be a move at the trade deadline for someone that's you know, truly going to change how this roster you know, works this year in terms of Drake's may development.

But who are we targeting, you know, maybe in the off season or who do you guys want as like a dynamic playmaker to help Drake May out.

And I'll take it off you guys pick.

Thanks Don, thanks for the call.

You know, I to that last point that that's my feeling on it is just I'll look back at learning from mistakes in twenty twenty one.

Yeah, twenty twenty one, you have the big off season, big free agency spending spree, record breaking at the time you draft Mac Jones, he has a decent rookie season, and then your big off season acquisition on offense is Devonte Parker.

Right.

So I don't know how it fits into the puzzle that they're building here offensively, but you need to do something next off season to continue stacking right, and it has to be better than something like davontee.

I don't think you need to rebuild the whole thing.

But it's just like he said, add a playmaker or two, whether that's in a draft, whether it's in fregency.

We talked about, you know, we know Josh McDaniels is happy to go two tight ends.

Do you get a more dynamic, you know, yards after the catch tight end next to Duranry's at the move?

Do you try to find a you know, it's all right.

Booty and Digs ideally would be your one and two receivers again, do you try to find a third guy with a little more explosiveness than Mac Hollins but more consistency than Pop Douglas.

Again, maybe that is Kyle Williams, or maybe they go back to the draft a guy like KC.

Conception Own or you know, we could go through all that.

But to his point about Carlton Davis, it's a it's a yeah, it's an expensive secondary, but it's a good secondary.

It's not like, well, I think the point that he's trying to get at, and we can just address the elephant in the room is Christian Gonzalez's future extension and just future period when you're now the thing about Carlton Davis though, you know, before I get into the whole Gonzales of it all, Carlton Davis's contract is really only a two year deal, right, so like in Gonzalez's money doesn't kick in till twenty twenty seven, right, because he's going to sign an extra Well, if he signs an extension, I would asume they're gonna use to do the fifth year option.

Well, you can't do it that way.

If he signs an extension, then the extension kicks in after his force, so you would have to wait until the fifth year option year to then next sign the agree to the fifth year option and then extend them on top of the fifth year option.

Yeah, how they're not going to like say like, oh, we're fifth year option and then like you have to team control for like eight years.

Well, it's still only going to overlap for a year.

So he has two more pure years on his rookie contract right this year, next year?

Yeah, taking out the fifth year.

So then if so if if they move on next year and then the following year.

So yes, this is year two when when your extension kick in?

Year Oh god, now you're making me do math live on the air.

So he's going into his fourth year next year, right, twenty two is twenty three, twenty three, twenty four, twenty five, twenty six, twenty six last year and the extent you kick in twenty seven, So that's the hour we're not good at math, and you're making me do it on the air.

You and you love the math.

Uh, Carlton Davis.

The twenty seven year on Carlton Davis's contract is the dumb year.

That's what you can get out of.

You're not gonna be paying both those guys at the same time after next year, after twenty twenty six.

It's a real conversation.

Yes, I don't think, first of all, there's a ton of dead cap if you do move on from Carlton Davis after this year, at least if you cut him, not if you trade him.

But no, they're gonna They're in the Carlton Davis business through twenty twenty six, as they should be.

And I've seen people say, oh, it's an expensive secondary.

Now I do something.

It didn't like sneak up on them that they have an expensive secondary.

They didn't Harrod Gonzales, but he's on a rookie contract.

They signed Carlton Davis, they signed Marcus Jones.

Maybe they want a high priced secondary because they know they value talent back there.

And we've talked a lot about how good they are developing pass rushers, and we've seen the work that they've done with calevon Chase on Frankly, the work they've done with Milton Williams as a run player and how he's progressed.

He's better than the player he wasn't Philly, and it's credit to him and it's credit to coaching staff.

You know, we'll see hopefully maybe some of these younger guys coming up Caleb Murphy and Elijah Ponder and Braden Swinton at some point.

But like the Patriots kind of did this in reverse when they had Belichick here, they could develop the hell out of some cornerbacks and so they put more draft resources.

They put more financial resources into the front because hey, we can go find Jonathan Jones, j C.

Jackson, Malcolm Butler.

Now there's obviously exceptions, right Stefan Gilmore, But you build your team around your strengths and weaknesses, and they may look at it, and this is a little over simplified, but they may look at it and say, hey, you know, the guys we have coach in the front, and that's just something that clicks for us, and we can develop guys there better than we can in the secondary.

So let's pump some money in the secondary, get set back there, and yeah, maybe we're not working with the same high price, high draft pick guys up front, but we know that we can identify and develop the talent to get more out of those guys than the average team would.

So it's just but you have Milon Williams under a big contract, you have a Christian Barmore under a big contract.

I wouldn't call Marcus Jones' contract big, but it's for the position.

He's well paid now once the extension kicks in.

I just think that I'm a little bit on your station side of the street with this.

With Gonzales, the Felger and maz take of you know, is he here long term?

Is he a rabel guy?

Is he are they fully thrilled with him?

I just I hope that all that dust kind of settles and they end up extending Gonzales and making him one of the highest paid corners in football.

But I'm not fully convinced yet that that is one hundred percent going to happen.

That's just my opinion, is not anything else other than a take.

But I just I hope that that does happen.

But we'll see.

I think we'll see, And I don't think that has anything to do with Carlton Davis, by the way, No, it doesn't.

It's independent.

I think they've We've had that question about a lot of players, and ultimately you can kind of draw a line.

I think there are players that we identified as maybe not being rabel guys.

The ones that performed are still here.

Anthony Jennings played his way back onto this roster.

He was not going to make the team at the start of camp.

That's just it just looked plain and simple.

Then he was really good.

The guys that aren't performing are not here, and I think yesterday is a perfect example of that with Keon White and Kyle Dugger.

So they're in the business of keeping good football players.

And you look at Marcus Jones, another guy did not look like a fit and and just gets an extension.

They're in the business of keeping good football players.

Christian Zalez is a good football player.

Great, I mean he's he looked great against Cleveland.

It is not a great wide receiver.

Room is not a great How many how many guys that we we kind of put in a box is not verbel Guys are still here that aren't performing, Like.

I don't know, that's a tough question for me to answer, Uh, you could say the one maybe on the offensive line.

He'd been he had a couple of rough weeks, but he was good to start the year.

The one I look at maybe is Stevenson with the but they don't really have another option there.

Yeah.

I just I'm not saying again I I this is not informed at all.

I am just telling you that I still think that that prove it thing with Christian Gonzales still exists.

We know in the past that Rable hasn't been thrilled about soft tissue injuries and hamstrings, and that thing lingered and took a lot longer than it should have.

Now he's starting to come back and look like Christian Gonzalez again.

I certainly this last week I think was his best game so far.

He's going to but against Buffalo too.

Yeah, but I thought that this was his best week so far.

So if he finishes the season like this, if he goes nine games, then I think that we are talking tout.

This is my point.

They're in the business of keeping good football players.

If Gonzalz gives them a reason to keep them, they're going to keep them a great I think the one thing you look at and this is big picture.

Is guys that because of their contract, because of their draft standing, because of you know, previous leadership or starting roles or whatever.

Guys that in a vacuum may have more of a leash to work through struggles.

On the average team, don't under Mike Vrabel because he's trying to get the program up and running, and he doesn't you know, he didn't draft him that high, he didn't sign him into that contract.

He doesn't have that kind of allegiance to them.

Those are the guys that you look at and Okay, is he not a rabele guys are gonna go.

So if Gonzales were to slip, that conversation comes into play.

But like you said, he's been playing well, and if he keeps playing like this, just like Marcus Jones played well and not only hung around, got an extension to a lesser extent, Anthony Jennings played well, kept himself on the team and now is in a role where like they need him and.

Is in kind of a that I just, yeah, there was a lot of money, I know what you're saying.

Giving the counter Gonzo w and the hamstring thing was happening.

I just I'm just giving you the counter to it.

I understand.

I just think that when we start to look down the road, and again, this isn't about salary, cap space, It's not about any of that kind of stuff.

It's just a business.

He saw the guy, Yes, but I'm just talking about the money, like we saw this in Dallas with Micah Parsons.

Like it's just a business.

And when you're going to have to pay the quarterback probably the biggest contract in the history of the NFL, not before long, and then you're gonna also make Gonzales the highest paid corner in the league.

And then you also have Milton Williams on a big contract, and you also have Christian barm We're on a big contract.

Like this is the problem that good teams have.

Like this is the problem that good teams have.

The Chiefs ran into it.

It's why they traded Tyreek Hill.

Like this is a problem that good teams have.

I don't want to get bught.

Down by the will to say real quick, I want to talk Falcons so quick Milton Williams contract.

Comes off the books by the time they pay Track May okay, I mean again, like by what like Drake May is in year two, so he's a contract extension eligible year from January and then he's four years into his rookie contract.

Again.

I don't want to do math on the air.

Extensional hit twenty twenty eight, which is technically last year of Milton Williams deal, but it's it's kind of a dummy year, like it's all there's no dead money on it.

Okay, so at the very least they could.

I'm not worried about the contracts with the salary.

I'm worried about the cash.

I'm worried about them having to dole out a probably four hundred million dollars contract by that point.

Milton Williams is for the accounting of it, not for when they actually have to start writing them checks.

Right, They're not writing I don't think they're writing Milton Williams big checks at that point, is what I'm saying.

But the guaranteed money is the guaranteed money, like when he signs the deal, they have to actually put the money in escort actually right, and have to hold the money for drake Man and it'll have been paid at that point.

But okay, I don't want to semari money.

Yeah, really quickly on the Falcons, I can come to your side of the street for a second.

Here with the Atlanta Falcons of offense, I think it's how do I put this playly?

I think it's crazy that they're twenty eighth in the league and scoring twenty eighth in the lead.

Were scoring with Bijon Robinson, Kyle Pitts, Drake London, Darnell Mooney.

A decent offensive line, not like a CIVO.

They got some injuries, but yes, Cale McGarry got hurt.

That that you know, they're starting right tackles out for the year.

That that was big.

Yeah they didn't have and they didn't London miss last week and oh sure, but yeah, this.

Was happening before.

You know, this was getting shut out by the Carolina Panthers, way before any of these, like you know, London and Pennics injury issues started to pop up.

Your boy Pennic is not playing particularly well.

No he's not.

That's upsetting.

That's a part of it is does that offense make sense for him?

So this offense, to me, you're gonna love this take.

This is a social media offense.

They do all these fancy motions and dipsy dudes and oh we're gonna have four receivers on one side of the formation and go four strong, and we're gonna motion bijon.

He's gonna art outside, and he's gonna motion inside, and he's gonna motion back outside, and he's gonna motion into the pistol and then we're gonna hand him the ball.

But then sometimes we're gonna throw them screen and we're just doing all this different stuff, and all these defenses are just letting the Falcons offense go into a blender and then they're just sorting it out after the snap, right, and they're just like, you're doing all this fancy stuff for no reason.

No wonder the Dolphins cook them.

They're used to seeing that.

It's different.

The Dolphins motion with the purpose.

Yes, yes, the Dolphins and the Rams and the Niners.

I can show you physical evidence of the motioning for purpose.

This Falcon's team niner.

Yes, this Falcons team motions for fun.

They motion because it's cool and like that, in my mind is killing them, along with the fact that every freaking time they line up in the pristol they just run outside zone.

Yeah right, I don't think they know how to use So I'm a big fan of pistol.

I think pistols an underused concept in the NFL.

And I say that, and then everybody points to the falcons and say, do you really think that?

Look what the falcons are doing.

I don't think they're using pistol correctly.

First of all, you tell me this.

Are they lining up too deep when they're in the pistol?

It feels like bijon so far back.

I think the biggest issue with them with the in the pistol is that they run the ball seventy one percent of the time out of the pistol, So it's just a dead giveaway what they're doing.

And really all they do post nap they run outside zone and they run boot off of outside.

They don't do a lot out of it.

They don't do a lot at which the whole beauty of pistol is you get to run so many of the under center concepts that are taken away by having to be in the shotgun.

Will still getting the view of the shotgun.

You can run outside zone out of the shotgun.

So if I won, you know two little things on that, yeah, the fact that their quarterback isn't mobiles killing them, because when you run the pistol.

The biggest advantage I would say about running the pistol is running readoption and you know, RPOs and stuff like that out of the pistol A la Lamar Jackson, right like that, that's the advantage of being in the pistol.

Pennix with his two knees isn't running anywhere.

So therefore you just you know what you're getting when they're in the pistol.

They are awfully predictable.

Out of the pistol.

They don't go under center unless it's Victoried formation.

Like, they don't run anything from under center, which Penix is good under center.

Washington get the quarterback under center, Like, I don't understand that.

So their offense makes no sense.

You know.

I like Zach Robinson.

I think he's a bright guy.

He does Oklahoma state head coach.

He does a lot of creative things.

He does a lot of bells and whistles that I can clip and put on social media and say, oh, look at this, this is cool.

It doesn't lead to anything.

It doesn't lead to any production.

I'm sorry, I'm ranting on the Falcons offense.

It just annoys me.

It annoys me when you have talent and you do nothing but frustrates me defensively, really quickly, because we have two minutes.

It's good defense.

Don't sleep on this defense.

Tenth and Dvoa pas number one pass defense in football in terms of yards allowed, Number two pass defense in football in terms of explosive plays allowed.

So they don't give up very many big plays.

They don't give up a lot of yards in the passing game.

It's a strength on strength matters yards in the game.

This year, yeah, it's a big time strength on strength.

Like the most explosive or second most explosive passing offense in the league with the Patriots against the second most at least explosive pass defense in the in football.

I really loved watching their defense and what they do schematically, it's basically Robert Sala's Seattle three.

Uh, you know, interpretation, a lot of Cover three, a lot of quarters, but then on third down and pass in obvious passing situations all and I tried to find the the link.

I can't.

They just like run a Brian Flores Cover zero package just out of nowhere on like third and eight.

It's crazy.

I don't know who learned it.

I don't know where it's coming from.

I don't know if they just copied it based off of studying it in the offseason.

I can't find a connection between the two coaching staffs.

But they're running a lot of fire zone zone pressure on third down where they're dropping five or six guys into coverage, but instead of playing man to man, they're playing zone.

Out of those looks, I want nothing to do with that third down pressure package.

Isn't an early down game for the Patriots offense.

You can run the ball in Atlanta.

That's their one wee weakness.

Defensively.

They're twenty fourth or twentieth somewhere around there in the league in rush EPA.

They're giving up a lot of yards to gap runs, you know, downhill power, crack tosses, counter scheme, lead duo, all that good stuff.

So you can run the ball on them that maybe can sequence some play action off the run.

But the biggest thing I would say with this pass defense, this is a good pass defense, Like, you don't want to necessarily get into a lot of third and long against this Falcons team.

A scheme up pressure at a really high level.

Dude A Sky's coverage at a really high level, it's fun watch this week.

As frustrated as I was watching their offense, I was intrigued by their defense.

I will say they can be run on a little bit.

So there is that if they can get the run game going again.

The one other split that's important, massive, massive indoor outdoor split for this Falcons team.

Yeah, they went to the shitter last week, but yeah that was without Pennix.

No, they've been bad outside.

They've been good in.

No.

So they played at home last week?

What they played at home last week?

Oh they did played home last week?

Yeah, well they still been good out.

You can make it work without Penix, like with and without Penix, within.

Without pen Yeah, they have not been a good outdoor team.

Their one good road game was indoors.

All right, we got to wrap it up.

I wish we had more time to vent about the Falcons offense, but we don't.

We'll be back next week talk about this Falcons game, talk about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

That's going to be a fun game too.

So it's a little two game, a little bit of better competition here for the Patriots over the next couple of weeks.

But you will be live at noon.

I'll see you guys then, and we'll see you guys next week here on Cash Pay two.

Hey, this is Alex.

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