0:04

This is Patriots Playbook,

0:06

the legend. So at the risk of sounding

0:09

supwhat flipping what's going on, I'm

0:11

really not trying to play cyclotherapist here.

0:14

I mean, I'm not telling those lazy bastards to get off

0:16

their butts and let's get to work. That ridiculous. It

0:19

is ridiculous. Now here's your host

0:21

of Patriots Playbook, John

0:23

Rook. We have all

0:25

off season now to get off our butts and get to work.

0:28

Let's just hope that perhaps somebody

0:30

in Football Ops also decides to do the

0:32

very same thing. And because I think we can all agree

0:35

after going through this up and down and

0:37

up and down and up. Oh god, it

0:39

makes me seasick just thinking about it. But going through

0:42

this season, yeah, there's a ton. There's

0:45

a ton of work to do. Welcome into the playbook,

0:47

everybody. This is the

0:50

final show for the twenty

0:52

twenty two regular season. We

0:54

will step into the offseason officially

0:57

next month when we do February show. We

1:00

decided on a date for that fifteenth, right, so

1:02

we're gonna start with the offseason addition on Wednesday,

1:04

February fifteen. I know you're gonna

1:06

want to mark your calendars for that but

1:09

then we'll go monthly from February

1:11

through August, and then we will resume

1:13

with the weekly shows in September once

1:15

the regular season rolls around. In the meantime,

1:18

good to hook up again with Evan Lazarre, because I know

1:20

the last couple of weeks I've had travel you

1:23

had interview changes last week because

1:25

of the whole you know Tomorrow Hamlin story

1:28

going on, and you know, so at

1:30

any rate, thank you for thank you

1:32

for being here first of all, all season, because

1:35

it's been a great addition to the show. It's it's

1:37

I was able to do. I think

1:39

most of the people that have listened for any length of time over

1:41

the twenty two years we've done the show that I've

1:44

always been sort of a film

1:46

junkie myself anyway, and while

1:48

I never really took the time to go through like the

1:50

all twenty twos, and because I just

1:52

I preferred to kind of look at highlights and game

1:55

clips and see the games in person

1:57

and watch them and observe off of that. I could

1:59

do that if I needed to do that, and I

2:01

guess if I were a beat reporter, I probably

2:03

would do that because I'd want to make sure there were

2:06

things that I didn't miss. But I've always

2:08

liked to get a little bit more EXE and OEE

2:11

than the PEU guys, if that makes any sense at

2:13

all. Yeah, And so thank you for that, you

2:15

know, ability to exchange that this year, because

2:18

I respect what you do. I respect what guy like

2:20

Greg Baddard does, and he was he was with us last

2:22

week kind of in your stead almost, but you

2:24

guys, you know, kind of do that. And I appreciate

2:26

that because I love football. I mean,

2:29

I wouldn't be here if I didn't like football. But I love football.

2:31

I've always loved football. I couldn't. I tried

2:34

playing football, but I was too

2:36

small, you know, too slow, and

2:38

but I always, you know, loved the

2:41

strategy. Yeah

2:42

too. And so at

2:44

one time or another, football,

2:48

if not journalism, which that's what

2:50

I wanted to do in school. I wanted to be a

2:52

football beat writer in the worst way. That's

2:54

what I went to school four. I wanted to cover

2:56

the old Southwest Conference, you know, that was you know where

2:59

we only got too boards here in State of Texas

3:01

football and spring football that's all they got.

3:04

But that's that's all I wanted to do. And

3:06

then I actually gave coaching a little

3:08

bit of a thought, just through you know, peewee

3:11

stuff and nothing you know, major,

3:13

because I suppose I would have had to start a lot

3:15

earlier in life if I had wanted to do that. But

3:17

having the ability to talk about it and

3:20

exchange ideas not only people

3:22

who are knowledgeable, but fans who

3:24

are extraordinarily Knowledgule. Everybody I talked

3:26

to on this show, I

3:29

honestly don't think you know. And Matt, you've

3:31

been here, what now, five years? Six years? Four

3:33

years? It seems like forever? Man, Okay,

3:36

uh, But everybody that I've talked

3:38

to, at least in Marines time here is

3:42

legitimately smart. They

3:44

just they just smart. And

3:47

I really appreciate that. You know, every

3:49

every radio show you do, you're gonna have a knucklehead

3:51

call or somebody try to call them bust your chops, or

3:53

you know, somebody who doesn't have any being,

3:56

you know, doesn't have any reason for really opening their

3:58

mouth. Silence is golden, and you know

4:00

it makes you smarter. But

4:03

I don't. I've never felt that way about

4:06

the people who listen to this show, whether

4:09

they contribute to the show as a caller

4:12

or as an emailer, or if they send me

4:14

a tweet, or if they post on my Facebook

4:16

page, or they just listen,

4:19

because yeah, because I know they're out there. I hear

4:21

from people. Hey, I've never called in, but blah

4:23

blah blah. I respect

4:26

their knowledge,

4:29

I respect their passion. And

4:31

it's okay to say knuckleheaded things every now and then

4:33

because I say knuckleheaded things every show. And

4:35

I realized that. And sometimes you say those things to

4:38

kind of stir the drink, you

4:40

know, like our our vein bulging

4:42

argument from earlier this season, right, you

4:44

know, with the whole Bailey's Happy thing. You know that

4:48

went right up his reriend You know that it really

4:51

did. But I appreciated that you played

4:53

along wonderfully and I thought we got

4:55

great content, great conversation out of it,

4:57

and look what the hell happened with it? We

5:00

got, I mean, you know, some unbelievable

5:02

stuff going on around this team or on that, And I

5:05

guess that kind of gets me to today's point overall,

5:07

of only because the

5:09

season was such a roller coaster, you

5:11

know, the ups and the downs. It seems

5:13

like there were it was

5:16

like a crash. Yeah, yeah,

5:18

it's like a loop de loop and then a crash. Yeah

5:20

yeah, But I'm

5:22

just I'm trying to figure out how

5:25

we I

5:28

guess I've had a hard time getting my whole, you know, my

5:30

old being around this because this

5:33

team, as bad as it seemed, it really

5:35

seemed like a negative year to me totally. Now,

5:37

I mean, you finished eight nine, you're negative. But I

5:39

predicted eight nine. Didn't you predict date nine? I think

5:42

I predicted nine. Well,

5:45

I was right there. I said eight nine. They

5:47

finished eight at nine, not that I wanted them to

5:49

finish eight nine because I knew eight and nine they'd be out of the

5:51

playoffs, and they are, although they could

5:53

have squeezed in if Pittsburgh and Miami had just

5:55

capitulated last week, which is another

5:57

crazy thing. But I thought that the overall

5:59

level of play in the NFL this year was

6:01

also a little bit on the lower side. I just

6:04

didn't see the

6:06

superlatives. I think that that we've

6:08

been used to seeing, and maybe it's just because we're

6:11

spoiled because we're the Patriots

6:13

have been in terms of the NFL hierarchy

6:15

over the last you know, well two decades plus.

6:18

But it wouldn't surprise me at all at

6:20

all to see Chalk went out

6:22

in the playoffs. This year, it wouldn't surprise

6:25

me at all to see a seven

6:27

seeds somehow sneak through. I don't think

6:29

it'll be the Dolphins without Tua, right,

6:32

but I you know, I'm just not to see

6:34

somebody get through to like an AFC or an NFC

6:36

championship game. I think you could see that

6:39

a seven or a six do that this year, just

6:41

because I think that the

6:43

the the the evenness, and

6:46

frankly, the stinkiness of the entire

6:48

season is just sort of there. The Patriots

6:51

at eighty nine were

6:53

one win away from not only getting into the postseason.

6:56

Okay, how many games were

6:58

they close enough where you say they could

7:01

have or even should have won this year?

7:04

Yeah? How many? Four?

7:06

I'd say three? Three or four? Three

7:09

off the top of my head. Okay, I would

7:11

say two for sure. And I know you're and you're being conservative

7:14

because we can we can certainly look at the Raiders

7:16

game, although that game was going into overtime. The Raiders

7:19

game in the Bengals game, I think are probably

7:21

the two that come to mind the first

7:24

in that category. Okay, so if

7:26

you get those two, you're

7:28

already ten and seven, You're already

7:31

where you were a year ago, And doesn't

7:33

the picture look much much

7:36

much different if

7:38

you have back to back ten and seven playoff

7:40

teams with a rookie at quarterback. I

7:43

think it looks different. I think offensively,

7:47

it's still they still would have made the playoffs

7:49

on the back of their defense and with

7:52

an offense that quite frankly

7:54

was below the line for the entire year.

7:57

So I still don't think I would feel great

7:59

about the offense. Even if

8:02

they had. Let's say Rumandre

8:04

Stevenson doesn't fumble at the five yard line

8:06

against the Bengals and they go in and score and end

8:08

up winning that game, I still don't

8:10

feel great about it. I

8:13

still don't feel great about Matt Patricia

8:15

being the answer on the offensive side of

8:17

the football. So

8:20

I think you feel better. But

8:22

I think for a lot of fans, and

8:24

I've heard this sentiment a lot, ten

8:28

and seven and back in the playoffs just to get blown

8:30

out by Cincinnati or Buffalo on wildcard

8:32

weekend, is you're

8:35

in the same spot that you were in last year, Which

8:37

isn't progress, right, but it isn't

8:39

it progress from a developmental point of view. If

8:41

you have a second year quarterback who's made

8:43

the playoffs each of his first two years in

8:47

spite, in spite of the lack

8:49

of coaching. I just think that you would look

8:51

at it for this particular team.

8:53

Maybe not the team last year as much, but for

8:55

this particular team, I think that you

8:57

would look at them making the playoffs and

8:59

that hypothetical

9:02

in spite of the offense. Right, So

9:04

it wouldn't be that they made the playoffs on mac

9:06

Jones's back. It'd be that they made

9:08

the playoffs in spite of the offense.

9:11

And so therefore, I don't think you give the whole

9:13

Well, he's in the second year and they made the play I don't

9:15

think he give it as much credence. This

9:18

offense this year has been broken

9:20

since since training camp, since

9:22

we were out there in training camp in August I.

9:25

I we could all see it with our eyes. Yeah,

9:27

and for once, not to toot our own horns,

9:29

but for once, our hysteria and training

9:31

camp was at was right, and

9:34

we're all saying and listen, I was one of the ones that certainly

9:36

purported all right, calmed down, everybody, right, let's

9:38

give this a chance. Right, And then It was about

9:40

midway through the season when I sort of raised

9:42

the old eyebrow and I said, something

9:45

smells. Yeah,

9:48

yeah, something smells. And so I

9:50

gave it six to eight weeks.

9:52

And I don't know that, you know, And we didn't really

9:55

see Honestly, I don't

9:57

really think we saw anywhere close to

10:00

what we thought we'd see until last

10:02

week against Buffalo. In the first half, second

10:04

half of the right but first

10:07

half against Buffalo this last week, oh

10:09

my god, that looked like a real freaking offense. Well,

10:11

they played differently. They played under center, they

10:13

used play action, they were

10:16

scheming it up on in the red zone and not near

10:18

the goal line. Finally, like they it

10:21

was a good plan coming out of the gate from

10:23

Matt Patricia. It was a good plan. And it only

10:25

took them seventeen weeks right there and then,

10:28

and then in the second half they went right back

10:30

to what they were doing in the first sixteen games

10:32

of the season. It was almost as if, Okay,

10:34

now we've kind of figured out what we have to do, but now

10:36

we need to make it do this, and they

10:38

go back to it and it failed miserably.

10:41

I think this has been a problem with this Matt Patricia

10:43

offense all year, and that is

10:45

that they have. I

10:48

didn't want to put a number on it, but it

10:50

seems like they have one sequence every single

10:52

game where they look like an NFL offense and they're

10:54

able to put it together, and they're able to script the drive

10:56

together. But it's one time

10:59

a game, right, It's it's one flash

11:01

in the game where you say, oh, that was a

11:03

good drive, or that was a good quarter, or

11:05

that was a good half. But they never

11:07

were able to string it together for four quarters.

11:10

And at some point the training

11:13

wheels or the wheels in general just fell

11:15

off of what they were doing. And I

11:17

think Buffalo was a perfect microcose him

11:19

of that because they did. I mean mac Jones

11:21

with thirteen for sixteen in the first half. He

11:24

played a good first half and in the second

11:26

half was three turnovers and

11:29

not a good second half. So and

11:32

they score, you know, they kicked the field goal

11:35

after Singletary fumbles on his own

11:37

ten yard line. They go three and out immediately

11:39

and have to kick the field goal. They got another

11:41

drive when the punt hit the Bills

11:44

a player in Buffalo territory,

11:46

and they recovered and they that

11:48

was an interception that ended that drive.

11:51

So they had all these the defense set

11:53

them up all in, the special team set them up on

11:55

short fields again, and they still weren't

11:58

able to cash in. So this had all that written

12:00

still in big bold letters

12:03

all over it offensively, even

12:05

with what the good things that they did in the first

12:07

half. So I don't know, I

12:10

think it it all would have depended certainly

12:12

on how they played on Wildcard weekend,

12:14

Like if they had played a good competitive game

12:17

against Buffalo or they had somehow

12:19

pulled off an upset, and sure that

12:21

would that would have changed my mind. But just

12:24

assuming that they would have lost this weekend,

12:28

I think we're still having similar

12:30

conversations to what we're having now, especially

12:33

on the offensive side of the ball. Yeah, I think

12:35

we probably would have too. But you know,

12:37

they got it, you know, for

12:39

lack of you know anything else. They did

12:41

get it kind of figured out, and yet they

12:44

couldn't execute, they

12:47

couldn't sustain. It

12:49

seemed like, you know, when

12:51

they would figure out one aspect of the team,

12:53

another part of the team would invariably left

12:56

them down. I mean, how many times did the

12:58

defense not get off the field when you know, we're

13:00

thinking a while the offense is playing well today and the defense

13:02

can't get off the field, and the defense was the best part

13:04

of this team consistently all year long,

13:06

and then of course against the Bills, the

13:09

unmitigated disaster that was Special

13:11

Teams, right, I mean, I

13:13

don't think if I mean, and

13:15

I realize most people who sustain

13:18

any type of career in this business do

13:21

so by not making

13:24

knee jerk reactions.

13:27

Right, you got to think the process through.

13:29

You gotta let go through. But I'm not sure

13:32

had I been at the helm of anything after

13:35

that that I wouldn't let anybody from the Special

13:37

Teams back on the plane to come home.

13:40

Yeah, it's a tough one. I think the

13:43

first one. I'm

13:45

not a like divine intervention type of guy. But

13:47

the first one, okay,

13:50

like you give up one, right, that's opening kickoff.

13:53

The place was rocking the DeMar hamlets,

13:55

exactly what I said. I said, you know what, that's divine

13:57

intervention, right, is what that was. I'm not big

13:59

on that, but sure the second

14:01

one was a backbreaker

14:03

for so many different reasons because you're

14:05

actually winning the game at that point seventeen

14:08

fourteen Patriots at that point in the game,

14:11

and they give up the second one, and that really

14:13

is what felt like an absolute

14:16

backbreaker. Was okay, well,

14:19

now not only does the defense basically

14:21

have to pitch a

14:23

shutout against Josh Allen the rest

14:25

of the way, but we also we're

14:29

now we're trailing just after

14:31

we just took the lead. Now we're all of a sudden, we're

14:33

trailing again immediately. So

14:36

that was Yeah, the second one was

14:38

was deplorable. And I think the

14:40

biggest thing with the special teams is

14:43

that this is a two year problem. The

14:45

special teams wasn't good in twenty twenty one either,

14:48

and then and they had issues

14:50

in twenty twenty one they got punts blocked

14:53

and they you know, it wasn't good either. This

14:56

year it was arguably worse.

14:58

I mean, they had according to football outsiders,

15:00

they had the worst special teams you did in the NFL film.

15:04

How does anybody keep their job after that? The

15:08

only thing that and I am

15:10

not in disagreement with you, that they could

15:13

use a change

15:15

on special teams. I think the only thing

15:18

that you can use as a potential

15:20

excuse is the

15:22

personnel and the fact that Polarity

15:25

was your punter down the stretch. And

15:27

Nick Folk was kicking off down the stretch

15:29

because he didn't have Jake Bailey. And I know

15:31

Jake Bailey didn't pump well either, So I'm not saying

15:34

that we knew that Bailey was also good

15:36

for putting a football through the end zone when they needed

15:38

right, right, Like, doesn't he he minds

15:40

even touch the ball on Sunday of Jake

15:42

Bailey's help. Oh no, no, especially

15:45

the second time? Right? Mind if you allow if he caught the

15:47

ball sale the goal line and one a hundred yards on

15:49

the opening kick, and like I said, you know, divine intervention

15:52

whatever, there's no way in hell if he's

15:54

back there that if Bailey's kicking off, the ball

15:56

even gets close to him, right, And then

15:58

the then the third or fourth

16:00

kickoff, they tried the squib to keep it away from

16:02

a minute, goes out of back, goes out of bounds, and they get the

16:04

ball of the forty yards right, So it

16:06

just disaster.

16:10

Yeah, it was bad, There's no doubt about it. Any

16:12

You can't spot a team like that fourteen point And

16:14

to me, that's the biggest disappointment I

16:16

think of the entire season is

16:19

that there was just so many mistakes,

16:21

mistake after mistake after mistake

16:24

in areas where you know, Bill Belichick

16:26

in the past, as we know all know, had

16:28

really been able to button things up and

16:31

discipline was in place and

16:34

there was there were repercussions and everything

16:36

else, and yet this year was

16:38

just an unmitigated disaster. I keep

16:40

using those two words together, but that's exactly

16:42

what it was. Comparatively speaking,

16:44

too previous years in New England and

16:47

you didn't have any attention

16:49

or at least not certainly not the same kind

16:51

of attention due to detail. And I don't know if

16:53

that's an issue for Bill. I don't know if

16:56

that's an issue because the coaching staff or the

16:58

relative inexperience I've said coach used

17:00

to have, or if it's a byproduct potentially

17:02

of the nature of the beast of the players today

17:04

because of the little quote unquote

17:07

tete a tete that Jack Jones and Bill Belichick

17:09

allegedly had, you know, that created some of

17:11

this locker room issue. I mean, players

17:14

are different today than they were ten and twenty years

17:16

ago and thirty and forty years ago especially. You

17:18

know, it's it's always it's just different.

17:20

It's what have you done for me? What are you doing for me? Now?

17:23

What have you done for me lately? And the

17:25

respect factor is at an all time low.

17:28

And so when you got a seventy year old head coach

17:30

and a twenty two year old, you know, rookie

17:32

who thinks he knows everything clashing

17:35

like that, who's gonna win? No

17:37

body? Nobody

17:40

wins. You can certainly say, well, it's Bill's

17:42

way or the highway. That's great, But then who are you

17:44

speaking to? Nobody except

17:47

the other forty plus year

17:49

old fans that are watching. You're certainly

17:51

not speaking to your team. And if you've lost

17:53

your team in the locker room, you don't have

17:55

a team. Yeah. I was talking to

17:57

Devin McCarty about this after

18:00

the Bengals game, and I

18:02

asked him, why

18:05

can't this team close out a

18:07

close game in the fourth quarter

18:10

when or pull off a comeback

18:13

like twenty two to nothing to Cincinnati and pull

18:15

off a comeback like that? But

18:18

the twenty sixteen team can come back from twenty

18:20

eight to three in the Super Bowl, right? Like what? And

18:22

obviously Tom Brady's the obvious answer, but

18:25

I wanted to he knew I wasn't saying

18:27

to just say Tom Right, you know, he knew

18:29

that I was trying to dig a little bit deeper than

18:31

that, and his response was,

18:35

the players in the locker room

18:37

are not the same players. Like, yes,

18:39

they have Devin mccordy, and they have David

18:42

Andrews, and they have Matt Slater and maybe

18:44

some of the guys like Dietrich Wise might have been

18:46

younger players on the eighteen

18:49

team or something like that. But

18:51

the players are not the same. And

18:54

to your point, I think,

18:57

to a degree, I'm

19:01

not saying that they don't respect Bill Belichick

19:03

or they don't they don't take the coach, But

19:07

what does it matter, Like, I don't know what it matters

19:09

as much, you know, to somebody that

19:12

to Jack Jones that he's

19:14

playing for Bill Belichick, Right, I mean,

19:16

okay, I know he's an all time great

19:18

coach. I know he's he's

19:20

a mastermind on the defense side of the ball,

19:23

and I'm I'm game with that, But

19:26

I wasn't here when he won six Super Bowls,

19:29

And to an extent, you look

19:31

at the record since and you say,

19:36

well, that's not Maybe I'm not being coached

19:38

by the same guy, and I'm getting down a road

19:40

of craziness here. But I think the number

19:42

one thing that Devin said to me was that you

19:46

culture is built every

19:48

single year. So to sit here and

19:50

say, but it's a different culture though, right, it's

19:53

right because every team has a different

19:55

culture was his point, and that

19:58

what made those teams great is

20:01

irrelevant to what's gonna like. That's

20:03

not this team anymore. And

20:05

I think that what this team currently

20:07

from a culture standpoint, obviously

20:09

they have a lot of you know, I get into the excess and nose

20:12

they have a lot of excess and nose problems. But from

20:14

a culture standpoint, I

20:17

don't think this team has an identity right now.

20:19

No it doesn't. I don't think this team agree

20:22

with the There is no identity right I don't

20:24

think this team has confidence,

20:28

trust, buying, belief,

20:30

none of like those teams used to have, where

20:33

when you get down two scores

20:35

to Baltimore in the divisional round, and then you

20:37

get down two scores to Baltimore again in

20:39

the divisional round, you still believe

20:41

in your heart of hearts that we are going

20:44

to win this football game. And

20:46

that's what those teams had. This team, it

20:49

doesn't have that, and it has young

20:51

players in key spots or new players

20:54

in key spots as a second year quarterback

20:57

the other you know, probably the best player

20:59

on your offense is second year player and Rmandre

21:01

Stevenson. You know, Matthew Judon is your

21:03

defensive leader right now and he

21:05

was not here for the dynasty.

21:08

So it just it's

21:10

a new it's a new world order

21:12

in New England. And I don't think that they've fully

21:15

figured out what's

21:17

our core, what's our belief what's our

21:20

what's our buy in from this new core

21:22

of player. Would also argue that the guys who

21:24

are you know, the leaders in the clubhouse that

21:26

have been a part of some of the dynastic

21:28

years and you I was gonna mention Devin mccordy. Let's

21:31

add Matthew Slater in in that mix as

21:33

well. Uh, those guys are

21:35

at the tail end of their own personal careers.

21:38

And my guess is that rather

21:40

than concentrate on the team aspect

21:42

of keeping everybody together there

21:45

they have all they can do to get their own bleep

21:47

together to finish out their careers.

21:49

And I think that was a factor. Yeah,

21:52

I think this team would

21:54

benefit in some ways. And I know that

21:57

some people are gonna take this and say, oh well why

21:59

why into head coach? Go then too. But

22:01

I think this team would benefit in some ways

22:04

from having those guys retire

22:07

because it will force them to

22:09

move on. Yeah. Yeah, it'll force

22:12

those leadership voids to be filled by

22:14

new people. Can they play another year? Yeah?

22:18

Yeah, I think so. I think I think both

22:20

of effectively. Yeah. Sure. I

22:22

don't think Matthew Slayder had a huge drop off.

22:24

I think Devon's lost a step, but I think

22:26

that he's still so cerebral

22:28

back there and still has enough speed

22:31

to get to places that he needs to be most

22:34

at the time, I don't think it's as consistent

22:36

as it used to be, But I would tell you

22:38

that I felt like Devon. We

22:40

all love Devon, okay, but I felt like he was

22:43

losing the step a year ago. Yeah.

22:45

So, of the two, he's definitely lost. Of

22:47

the two players, I think matt Schlayder,

22:50

because of the fact that he's a primary special

22:52

teamer, is probably the most likely to

22:55

have ability to stick around another year if he wanted

22:57

to, right, I think that there's there's

23:01

definitely evidence all over the place

23:03

with Devon on film that that he's not the same

23:06

guy. And I think sometimes when you look at it's

23:09

almost like sometimes his mind can still

23:11

move at warp speed, but his body can't.

23:13

Exactly right, That happens to everybody

23:15

at the other careers. Right, your mind

23:17

is great, you know where you want to go, your wheels

23:20

can't get you there. Yeah, it's like reaction

23:22

though, right, it's like getting the wheels

23:24

turning. Right, you see it stall on him

23:27

now more than he used to. He need to be going downhill

23:29

so you can get a momentum. I mean, just like I

23:31

gotta do when I get up out of bed, I need

23:33

to be going downhill. If it ain't happening downhill,

23:35

it ain't happening against Cincinnati.

23:38

When Trenton Irwin caught that touchdown

23:40

in the end zone in front of

23:42

Devin, I couldn't help

23:44

but think a couple of years ago, Devin probably

23:47

breaks that pass up and now

23:49

he sees it, but he just couldn't.

23:52

He couldn't get there fast enough. And I know

23:54

that he knew that he needed to get there right, like he

23:56

knows where he's supposed to go, but he

23:58

just couldn't. He couldn't transition

24:01

and gear down and get there quick enough. Well,

24:03

one more thing quick head before we kind of

24:05

move on here and flip the page. Amongst

24:08

the alleged strife in

24:10

the locker room that's been talking about, I know you guys talked

24:12

about this and pee you earlier, you know, this

24:15

afternoon. But the fact of the matter

24:17

is that Chris Simms what he had to say. In

24:20

fact, I got sent a quote here from

24:22

Dakota Randall at Nesson who

24:24

says Mac Jones wasn't happy. He was telling

24:26

people he wasn't happy. He was calling people

24:28

about, hey, can you help us with

24:30

ideas? During the course of the season,

24:33

and from Chris Simms's understanding,

24:35

Bill Belichick found out these

24:38

things and that's where it began to get

24:40

personal between them and some others in the locker

24:42

room. What are your thoughts on any of

24:44

this, because you're in the locker room as much as anybody.

24:48

I said this, I'm unfiltered. I don't

24:50

really believe anything that Chris Simms says, to be honest

24:53

with you, because all of a sudden, Chris Simsky, thank

24:55

you, thank you, and I agree with you,

24:57

because I think he's had I think

24:59

he's had stick up his butt about the Patriots

25:01

ever since he left here. Every couple

25:03

of weeks, Christimms like tries to play insider

25:06

and tries to act like he's he's Ian Rappaport

25:08

and he's got all this source plugged

25:11

in information, And I just I find

25:13

that hard to believe, especially from this organization,

25:15

that this information has been leaking

25:18

out. With that being said, anybody

25:21

that was around this team, that watched this

25:23

team this year could tell you that there was buying

25:25

issues. Okay, I mean Mac Jones

25:27

in training camp had buy in issues there. He's

25:29

getting up to the podium and he you know, he's

25:32

depressed up at the podium because they

25:34

offense had another bad day of training

25:37

camp practice, not even a loss, like just

25:39

training camp practice, and it's not

25:41

going well, and he's

25:43

frustrated. And he said he was as much

25:45

multiple times that he was frustrated.

25:48

Guys like Kendrick Bourne coming out

25:50

after the Bills lost the first the loss

25:52

here that they lost the first time, saying we gotta

25:54

do this better, we gotta do that better, you know, taking

25:57

shots at the coaches. So it's

25:59

not it's not like new

26:02

information. I think

26:04

that there's certainly

26:06

something to be said about buying

26:09

with the quarterback and with the offense as a whole.

26:11

And I think that as much as I

26:13

want to blame the players for

26:16

lack of buying, and I think that they do take

26:18

a share of the blame, I can't

26:20

blame them because if you if

26:23

I came in in the off season, I was

26:25

training. You know, Mac Jones really

26:27

attacked the off season last year.

26:30

He worked with Tom Hollis, he worked with his own

26:32

guy coach d who's his own personal

26:34

quarterback coach. He's in the gym, he's

26:36

here like he was really getting

26:39

himself in the tip top

26:41

shape to come in here in year two.

26:44

He cut weight, he all of it.

26:46

You know. We come back from from the off

26:48

season and his teammatesress, oh, he doesn't have a

26:50

belly anymore. You know, he's in great shape.

26:53

You know, all this stuff, and he's ready

26:55

to go. And then Bill gets you get

26:57

to the first day of team and Bill says

26:59

to you, Matt Patricia is

27:01

your offensive coordinator now, and

27:05

and he's I can see

27:07

the sparks coming out of his ears and yours

27:09

as And I get it because

27:11

I think a lot of people look at

27:13

it and say, this is like a

27:15

generational thing, right, and I just turned

27:17

thirty, and I'll put myself in this

27:20

category because I'm close enough. I'm not as young

27:22

as Mac, but I'm close enough. And I get

27:24

it that we I used

27:26

to argue with my parents all the time, John, because

27:28

I thought I knew everything as an eighteen year

27:30

old and I knew nothing, Okay, And that's

27:32

part of that very mature

27:35

statement that you would right, because I have

27:37

a son who's older than you, and he still doesn't

27:39

give me the right. So I'll

27:41

admit it. I'll admit it, and off the air, I'll

27:44

tell you a story about how that that that came

27:46

to fruition for me to learn that in my

27:48

life. But I think the biggest thing

27:50

is is that people

27:53

our age. I think get this rap that we

27:55

don't want to be coached hard and we don't want to be

27:57

uh you know whatever you want to call it. If it's

28:00

coaching, you know, um,

28:02

it's not that we want it to be rational.

28:06

We want it to make sense. Like if

28:08

I mess up at my job, I want

28:11

it. I want to be I'm okay

28:13

with being reprimanded, but I want But

28:16

I had had to have been, I had to have messed

28:18

up like it has to be a mistakes

28:20

up. Explain it to right, right right,

28:23

take me through the process of why you think

28:25

the way you do right instead

28:27

of you know, the the old you know

28:29

Boomart way of doing things right right.

28:31

I'm just saying, because I said so, right

28:34

right, does that make sense? Right? Exactly what

28:36

it is? And so when I look

28:38

at Mac and his reaction to this

28:40

whole thing, I say, he

28:43

came in here from

28:46

Josh McDaniel's last year, from

28:48

Steve Sarkisian at Alabama with

28:51

Nick Saban, and now

28:53

I I'm this is who I'm supposed

28:55

to listen to. And then as the information

28:57

is being related to him, he is

29:00

smart enough because he has played a lot

29:02

of football in college and in the NFL at

29:04

least a little bit to say

29:07

that doesn't make any sense, like why are we doing it

29:09

this way? And because

29:11

he pushes back, Now, he's got an attitude problem,

29:14

right, And I'm not saying that that's what they're saying internally,

29:16

I'm just saying that's the narrative right now, he has

29:18

an attitude problem. So I

29:21

think that I can totally understand from Mac

29:23

Jones's perspective that this

29:25

is his playing career, and

29:29

when he looks around, I am sure

29:31

that he sees Baker

29:34

Mayfield. And you know

29:36

players like that that start

29:38

out, have good rookie years, make the playoffs,

29:41

all the positive superlatives that they

29:43

get, and then their careers flame

29:45

out and now they're a backup somewhere and

29:47

they're competing for a starting job in Carolina,

29:50

and then they're getting cut by Carolina and they're going

29:52

to the Rams and they're spots starting for the Rams

29:55

because Stafford's hurt. Like I understand,

29:58

I understand why waching your

30:00

career wagon to a

30:03

defensive coach coaching offense would

30:06

lead to this turmoil, would lead to

30:08

this frustration for Mac Jones.

30:10

And that, to me is the number one thing

30:13

moving forward is you

30:17

need to the next guy. Mac needs to

30:19

buy into the next guy, and he can't.

30:21

You can't make him buy into man, Patricia. It's it's

30:24

not gonna happen, and it's not fair. But

30:26

whoever the next guy is, you

30:28

need to hire somebody that there's

30:31

a respect there. Right, Okay, you've coached offense

30:33

at a high level in college or the

30:35

NFL, or whatever the case may be. Bill O'Brien,

30:38

Cliff Kingsbury, like all the names were throwing out.

30:40

There are guys that I don't think that we're going to

30:42

hear about any strifes between him and Mac

30:44

Jones. No, I wouldn't say so. But this is

30:46

also a huge issue with Bill as well,

30:49

because if Bill is going to continue to say in the

30:51

game, he has to learn, I think, to adapt at least

30:53

somewhat to be able to come back to the pack

30:56

a little bit rather than say, look, I've done it

30:58

this way for you know, twenty years into England

31:00

and forty years as an NFL coach and it's

31:02

my way or the highway that doesn't work

31:04

anymore. This is where things have changed

31:07

over the last twenty years. I told myself the

31:09

first time I got fired in this business, which was

31:11

back in over thirty years ago, first

31:14

time I ever got dismissed within a job, I

31:16

told myself that to stay in this business

31:18

as volatile as it is, and I'm talking about the communications

31:21

broadcasting business as all, to

31:23

stay in this business, I was going to do the best I

31:25

could stay in it on my terms,

31:28

but I knew that I had to learn to adapt.

31:31

Do I love it enough? Do I want to put

31:33

up with a crap enough do I want to play ball?

31:35

Enough? Right? And the answer was yes, I

31:37

still love it. This is what I studied to do. You

31:39

know, it still helped defined me as

31:41

a person. So I learned how

31:44

to capitulate. I learned how to get along, I learned

31:46

how to compromise. My year in politics also,

31:49

boy, did we learn to learn how to go. I mean, I

31:51

worked for a Republican governor in a democratic state.

31:53

Yeah, you don't think we had a hard time getting

31:55

things done, but we learned, we

31:58

learned how to do it. Bill

32:00

has to do the same thing, and

32:03

I don't know, and we can only hope.

32:05

We can surmise that maybe some of that

32:07

started. You know, we know that you know NBC

32:10

Sports reporter this week that both

32:12

you know, Bill and Robert Craft have had their meeting

32:14

already, and maybe some of that started

32:16

at that meeting this week. I don't know. We have to

32:19

kind of hope that because unless

32:21

Bill wants the rest of his NFL

32:23

career to be full of disappointment

32:26

like this last year was, he

32:28

has to learn to adapt

32:31

to the current player, to the current schemes,

32:34

to the current fandom, to the current

32:36

world. That is the National Football

32:39

League. If he does not, it's only

32:41

going to get worse from here,

32:43

and I think he's had a hard time realizing that

32:45

himself. You've got to adapt

32:47

with the times, and if you do not, you

32:50

will fail. How many of great

32:52

coaches have great

32:54

coaches, Hall of Fame coaches. Any

32:57

of them end on an uptick in their career? No? Not

33:00

one? Yeah, not one

33:02

schoola No Landry

33:05

Lombard, I mean none of them. None of them

33:07

did. It's always on a down

33:10

note. Why because it was my way or the

33:12

highway largely? Yeah,

33:14

it's it's this day of it's player

33:16

empowerment, right, and these guys

33:19

want to be I

33:22

don't necessarily think it's that they want to be equals,

33:24

but they want to have a voice at the table. Yeah right,

33:26

And they want to they want to be in control of

33:28

their own career. And I can, as

33:30

a boomer, I can accept that. Okay,

33:33

maybe I'm one of the few people that will, but I can

33:36

understand that. But here's the thing. I'm not gonna

33:38

let you run the show because I have paid

33:40

my dues over a period

33:43

of time in order to be able to

33:45

earn, not just get,

33:47

but earn the position that I'm in

33:49

and I think this is what a lot of younger

33:51

generational players, athletes,

33:54

people think that, you know, well, hey, you

33:56

know I'm qualified, I can do this. You know, just let

33:58

me show you. Well, you gotta earn your way to the top.

34:00

Yeah, certainly, I think that there's This

34:03

is why when we talk about coordinator candidates

34:05

and Bill Brian's my number one guy.

34:08

I would love to have Bill Brian back here.

34:11

But with that being said, I think there

34:13

is also something to be said for

34:15

a guy like Cliff Kingsbury, for a guy

34:18

like Zach Robinson out in Los Angeles

34:20

who's a little bit younger, who's a little bit

34:22

more of this generation, who can relate a little

34:24

bit more to mac jons. Okay with both of those

34:27

guys, both Kingsbury and Robinson,

34:29

Robinson because he's probably gonna be you know, available

34:32

with you know, the

34:34

right And they also played the

34:36

position in the NFL. Not necessarily

34:38

at a high level, but they played the position in the NFL,

34:41

so they they from

34:43

everything that I you know, you look across

34:45

the league and you look at um guys

34:47

you know, like Ken Dorsey right now and Buffalo

34:51

or a guy, um, you know, the

34:53

guy in Dallas. Who I'm blaking on right

34:55

now? Kafka in Kansas City, Like a

34:57

lot of these guys have done

34:59

wonder for these quarterbacks

35:01

that played the position that are

35:04

younger, right, skew younger, And

35:08

you know, I think there's something to be

35:10

said for that with this particular quarterback,

35:12

because I think more of a partnership

35:15

might might be more.

35:18

Get Mac more on board than a dictator.

35:20

I would agree with that because Mac is from that

35:22

generation. He's from that way of thinking, and

35:25

that's through no fold of his own. That's just how this

35:27

generation has developed, right And my

35:30

you know, I understand why older

35:32

people would have a harder time with that, because well,

35:34

I had to go through it this way. You should

35:36

go through it this way too. But the world has

35:38

changed, Sports has changed. It's a bigger

35:41

business now than it ever has been

35:43

in the history of sport, and so there's

35:45

a heck of a lot more that's at stake. So

35:48

I would tell you that if if the sport is

35:50

worth staying in, then you have to

35:52

learn to meet people halfway. The

35:54

way that you have success in life

35:57

is to compromise. That's

35:59

it. It's compromised, That's all it is. All right,

36:01

it's a give and take. I'll give you a little now,

36:04

you give me a little back. Now, if you got a younger

36:06

person, and I'll use Jack Jones

36:08

as an example who's not willing to compromise,

36:11

then there's the door. Right, Okay,

36:14

I'm gonna come to you, but you have to understand

36:16

where I come from. And if you don't understand

36:18

where I come from, pick up the god dang

36:21

Google machine and figure out what it's all about.

36:24

That's what I would tell you how my college, because

36:26

that all the time, just turn on the Google machine, you

36:28

know. Because we didn't have the Google machine.

36:30

I actually had to go look through, you know, reams of microfilm,

36:33

you know, to learn some of the things that it takes you ten

36:36

seconds to pick up. I was in the

36:38

Undergraduate library at the University of Texas

36:41

between two am and six am, research

36:43

and all this stuff, because that's the only time I had. Good

36:45

morning Boomer. Yeah, I didn't even know

36:47

what a library is. That's

36:49

a good one. I forgot that draw That was John

36:52

Dennis making a making a repeat appearance.

36:54

Here. Wow, what's a library? Right,

36:57

that's exactly here's a good one. We have

36:59

the the oldest library

37:01

in the country in Franklin, Massachusetts.

37:05

It's right next door, right

37:07

next door to our campus and

37:10

our kids on campus. What

37:13

the only time I went to the library at at

37:16

I think of college was because they had a

37:18

print station there, so when you had to print

37:20

papers and stuff like that, you can go in the library

37:22

and print them for free as a student.

37:26

Other than that, I don't even know

37:28

what the library looked like. That's all I'm saying. That's

37:30

all I'm saying. So say, okay, but

37:33

understand that it's a different way of picking things

37:35

up, which is great. So all right, I get

37:37

that. I'm gonna I'm gonna come to you on that one. I

37:39

got no issue with that. But at the same time,

37:42

you need to be able to see what I offer

37:44

in terms of my experience, my savvy,

37:47

my um and do awareness.

37:50

And I don't think that that mac

37:52

Jones is in

37:54

the category of a person that doesn't respect

37:57

Bill right like I don't. I don't

37:59

think that I've never thought that either, But I gotta

38:01

admit, I mean, you know, mine's

38:03

wonder and and the way some things were handled

38:05

during the course of the regular season, I wondered if

38:07

the respect factor wasn't number one that it

38:10

was just a common lack of respect. And

38:12

this is just me speaking. I'm not saying I have any information

38:15

on that, but I think

38:17

there's a lack of respect from Matt Patricia's offensive

38:19

acumen. Like I think that existed, it's

38:21

because what he was doing wasn't

38:24

working right. And these guys who have

38:26

spent their careers young as they may

38:28

be, but ben spent their careers, you know,

38:30

trying to excel if that particular brand of

38:32

football, they knew it wouldn't work right.

38:34

Well, that's that's what I go back to with Mac,

38:37

with McDaniels last year and Sarkisian

38:40

in Alabama, Like, those guys are

38:42

are fantastic offensive

38:44

minds, you know, fantastic offensive coaches

38:46

that grew up on offense and the whole thing.

38:49

So when he gets coached by those guys

38:51

and they're telling him, you know, do this,

38:53

this and this, and then he gets into the game and it

38:55

works out exactly how they say it's gonna go.

38:58

And then he gets into the game with Matt Patricia and

39:00

he calls a play and he's like, guess the

39:02

line scrimmage. He's like, well, what am I supposed

39:04

to do, Like you know that the

39:07

camera the TV broadcast in a couple

39:09

of weeks ago picked them up saying, well, I don't know what I'm

39:12

supposed to do, right,

39:14

So that that's I think it's such a huge

39:16

thing. You go back

39:19

to the sideline and you start looking

39:21

at the stills, and Josh McDaniels

39:23

will sit there with him and say, hey, when

39:26

you see them do this, this is gonna be

39:28

open for you. Or if you see them do that,

39:30

that's gonna be open for you. Is that

39:32

what these guys are doing? Because it didn't

39:34

it didn't seem like that didn't look like there was

39:36

a lot of them, right, So

39:39

you know that that's it's it's all related.

39:41

But I think you've mentioned something.

39:43

But before I have to go, you mentioned something about

39:46

the quality of football around

39:48

the league going down, and

39:52

I personally think that the

39:56

high end plays are maybe as

39:58

good as they've ever been, just like

40:00

the jaw dropping throws

40:02

that these quarterbacks make sometimes or

40:04

the one handed catches by a receiver.

40:07

But I think that the

40:09

reason why you're seeing so much volatility

40:13

and the way that things are being played is

40:15

because the guys playing quarterback

40:18

are all skewing now

40:21

towards Josh Allen type

40:23

quarterbacks, where they're

40:27

traits that make them excel, are

40:30

more out of structure or playground

40:32

style football than Tom

40:35

Brady, where everything was just

40:37

an efficient like. You just don't see

40:39

offenses nowadays as much

40:42

that are like those efficient, well

40:44

oiled machines, always

40:46

ahead of the chains, always you know,

40:48

just moving the matriculating the ball down

40:50

the field like the Patriots used to

40:53

do in the Brady years. Nowadays,

40:56

it's either Josh Allen throwing

40:58

a sixty yard bomb just Stefon dig or

41:00

he's throwing an interception, right, and there's just

41:02

no in between. And

41:04

I think that that leads to these peaks and

41:07

valleys, and that's why I think for a

41:09

lot of it, there's there's

41:11

some bad football, and

41:13

it's Josh Allen, it's Mahomes,

41:16

it's Herbert. It's like all these mold

41:19

balls of clay that are playing quarterback

41:21

these days make these jaw dropping, ridiculous

41:24

throws every single Sunday.

41:26

But but their play is not. It's

41:30

not Brady consistent, right,

41:32

And I think for us that are trained to watch

41:34

that type of play entirely,

41:36

yes, yep, absolutely all right,

41:39

before I let you go. Yes, the

41:42

point that I wanted to make for our listeners

41:44

today is, uh, not necessarily

41:47

in the order in which they need to happen. Three

41:50

things that New England needs to tend to as

41:52

soon as possible in the off season.

41:55

Three things. Three things they need to as

41:57

soon as possible. Offensive

42:00

coordinators number one, and I

42:03

guess number two would be offensive coaches,

42:05

and you know that coordinator bringing in his own

42:07

coaches. I think it would be important. And

42:09

then I think three is moving on a guy like

42:12

DeAndre Hopkins or one of these number one receivers.

42:14

Because a lot of that stuff happens in back channels

42:16

before we even find out about it, right,

42:19

So I think a lot of that is

42:21

going to happen quickly. But I don't

42:23

think from that other than really I

42:25

gave the deadline on Unfiltered and the

42:28

combine. They need to have an offensive

42:31

coordinator in place by the combine, and

42:33

that's still five six weeks away, so they

42:36

do have a little bit more time than I think than people

42:38

realize. This staff benefit from being

42:40

the Shrine Bowl staff is that they were named

42:42

yesterday. Maybe,

42:44

I mean, there's some benefits if you're gonna change up the

42:46

staff though, What the hell difference is it gonna make, And do you

42:48

have to keep the guys around that you're gonna fire

42:51

or you're gonna reassign just because the NFL

42:53

said you're coaching the Shrine Bowl. Yeah, no,

42:55

I don't think so. I wouldn't look

42:57

anything into the fact that

42:59

they they don't have coordinators,

43:02

so like they can't fire a coordinator because they don't

43:04

have they technically don't have coordinators. So

43:06

I wouldn't look too much into that. They drafted four

43:08

guys from the Shrine Bowl last year, Okay, Taykwon,

43:11

Thornton, Jack Jones, Pierre Strong, Sam

43:13

Roberts, all Shrine Bowl guys, so

43:15

and a couple of their udfas that they signed to were

43:18

also at the Shrine Bowl. So they clearly

43:20

see that game as almost

43:22

equal to the Senior Bowl, I think when it comes

43:24

to scouting and evaluation. So

43:26

I think it's just a good opportunity to get

43:29

to meet those kids face to face and get

43:31

your hands on them and figure out what they're good at.

43:34

Yeah, thanks for your help, bull season obviously,

43:36

anytime, really anytime, Well, we'll

43:38

definitely check in during the off season. Absolutely

43:41

around and you're available, and I'll be you know, not hibernating.

43:44

Uh, you know, marine, Let's make sure that we you know,

43:46

get him to you know, standard attention, all right,

43:48

absolutely sure having me on. I do

43:51

really appreciate it. Of course, we enjoyed it.

43:53

This was a it was a good run, and I thought we got

43:55

really really good insight from

43:57

Evan Lazar at easy Lazar on

43:59

two or if you're not already following, and Goodness

44:02

only knows why you wouldn't be another guy that we

44:04

certainly respect tremendously through his

44:06

time covering this football team.

44:09

You know, he spent some time in this building as well.

44:12

He probably knows the Patriots perhaps

44:14

is thoroughly inside and

44:16

out as anybody over the course of the last twenty

44:19

years or so. So our friend Mike

44:21

Reese, who covers the Patriots for ESPN

44:23

and ESPN dot com. You kind enough to join

44:26

us for a few minutes here inside the playbook,

44:28

Michael, Thank you, buddy, appreciate it. I know that the

44:30

the offseason probably got started a little bit earlier

44:32

than you expected. It would no

44:34

question, John, I was going to say, it would be great if we

44:36

were talking about a wildcard

44:38

round playoff game or even a first round

44:40

playoffs by yep. But hey,

44:43

look we've been I don't want to say we've been spoiled,

44:45

but we've seen had a lot of deep runs

44:47

over the years. This isn't one of them. And I

44:49

will say this, John, I don't think they're that far away.

44:52

You know, we're kind of heading

44:54

that direction with Evan a little while ago,

44:56

and I mentioned off the top of our conversation

44:59

that you know, if you could take away literally

45:01

I think two or three plays this

45:04

team probably has or turned

45:06

them differently. This team probably has two

45:08

more wins. They're ten and seven, they're

45:10

preparing for a wildcard game. And you've

45:12

got Mac Jones, who a lot of scrutiny

45:15

fell upon this year, who would

45:17

have back to back ten win seasons and made the playoffs

45:20

in each of his first two years. How can you

45:22

not look at the future

45:24

differently than you already do today?

45:27

Yeah, I agree with you. I will

45:29

say this though you could probably say that for a few

45:31

teams. John. You know, hey, if one or two plays

45:34

win a different way, you know would be looking

45:36

at something differently. And that's something I learned from

45:38

Devin mccordy, who talked

45:40

to me a little bit about that this year, and

45:43

the key is becoming the team that makes those

45:45

plays, and it's bottom line business.

45:48

They didn't make them, and so I

45:50

agree they're clothes,

45:54

but I don't think rolling it back with

45:57

what they had this year is the answer. Hoping

45:59

that you'd be come the team to make the plays. I do think

46:02

they're gonna need to make some significant changes

46:04

here, all right. So, as I

46:06

asked Evan, I'm going to ask you the question here

46:08

off the top of our conversation, not

46:10

necessarily the order of appearance or it need,

46:14

but three things that the Patriots need to

46:16

do as soon as possible. So

46:18

to me, John, it's all about the coaching.

46:21

And you know, the regression

46:24

offensively. You

46:26

know this past year was shocking,

46:29

and I'm just gonna give you

46:32

a couple numbers here that, you

46:35

know, to me, reflect it and so

46:37

people don't just think I'm talking in hyperbole.

46:40

I mean, you know everyone saw it. But red zone efficiency

46:43

from eleventh last year to thirty

46:45

second last in the league this

46:47

year, Third down offense from

46:49

tenth in the league last year to

46:51

twenty seventh in the league this

46:54

year. Total first downs

46:57

tied for ninth last year, twenty

46:59

eight in the league this year. Sacks

47:02

taken twenty eighth

47:04

last year, meaning like eighth, fewists

47:07

nineteenth this year. Touchdowns

47:10

scored. They scored forty eight touchdowns

47:12

on offense last year, n I scored

47:15

thirty one this year. I mean, by

47:17

any measure, it's just

47:20

that's not even fact. That's not even two per

47:22

game though. Right back

47:26

to the offense, and they're gonna have to find someone

47:28

to run the offense. And that doesn't mean the

47:31

people that were doing it this year are bad coaches.

47:33

It's just whether it was the right fit, and

47:35

it wasn't that. Those numbers tell

47:37

you it wasn't the right fit. So there's that. I think

47:39

it ties into the offensive line. So

47:42

I'd put that right in there. You know who's

47:44

coaching that, and how does that marry up to who's

47:46

running the offense. And then I would add

47:48

special teams. Just from this standpoint, John,

47:51

I mean, look at the way they lost that game. I

47:53

mean they were right there. They

47:55

had the lead, before they had the lead in the game,

47:58

before they gave up the second one. Yep.

48:01

I and I just to me and I

48:03

told Evan this, I said, if it were up to me, and I'm

48:06

more of a h you know, I like

48:08

to think I'm somewhat introspective. But

48:10

even so, I probably would have reacted

48:13

much differently. I don't think I got to let anybody on the

48:15

special teams on the plane back home. I

48:17

just I just I just don't because it's it's

48:20

just inexcusable. It's an egregious

48:23

foul. Uh you know,

48:25

it's just it's Wow. That is

48:27

just as bad as it gets.

48:30

The first one, I think everybody

48:32

feel felt like it was. It might have been

48:34

a divine intervention, you know, because of the whole

48:36

Damar Hamlin's story, and it was a feel good

48:39

story and hell, as a Patriots fan and

48:41

as someone who follows the team in the media, I

48:43

actually applauded it. I thought, Okay, you know what,

48:45

all right, we gotta you're putting yourself

48:47

in a big hole. But how can you not, you

48:50

know, enjoy seeing that just from the

48:52

the emotion that the Bills players

48:54

went through over the previous week. But to have that

48:56

happen again for a second time, good

48:59

Lord, have mercy. See what are you doing?

49:01

What are you thinking? Get out of

49:03

my face and don't get on the plane. Just

49:08

an excusable John, I know, and I think

49:11

comes back to the whole thing with kickoffs,

49:13

right, you don't have your kickoff guy, you

49:16

kick it out of the end zone, you don't have to worry about covering

49:18

them, right, And so that's a whole other topic.

49:21

They had guys, two guys on the ground

49:23

on that second kickoff tern they didn't keep

49:25

their feet. Miles Bryant missed

49:27

a tackle and honestly, and not this

49:30

is not to make excuses, easily

49:32

could have had a holding call on Jilani

49:35

Tavai. The player that was blocking

49:37

them looked back almost as if to say,

49:40

well, did they get me for a hold here? And I

49:43

thought it was one of several tough

49:45

breaks that the Patriots got

49:47

a that sort of from the officials. But

49:50

I never be the type of person to say, you

49:52

know, the officials lost in the game. You still got

49:54

to make that play. Of course, even with that being

49:56

said, you know, and we did see some

49:59

some officiating that could best be described as

50:01

a controversial, questionable,

50:04

but you can never blame, you

50:06

know, a loss on that. I mean, this this was all

50:08

about execution and and I

50:12

keep thinking back to the old John McKay quote

50:14

you know my team's execution, Yes, I'd be in favor

50:16

of it. That's

50:20

the kind of year that the Patriots

50:22

had, and in the discipline

50:25

was at an all time low. You had, you

50:27

know, Trent Brown led the league and in in

50:29

penalties for offensive tackles. I mean, my

50:32

god, I just how does this happen

50:34

unless it happens from within. There

50:37

was not enough attention paid to detail,

50:39

and that has to be coaching.

50:42

It has to be coaching. Certainly, you

50:45

have to lay a lot of it to fee the players because the fee, you

50:47

know, the players are ultimately responsible for their

50:49

actions. But you know, if if

50:51

the coaching is where it should be, then the

50:53

coach says, hey, look Trent stops screwing around,

50:55

or I'm your da, you're you're, you're,

50:57

you're disqualified for next week, that kind

50:59

of thing. But the Patriots knew that they didn't

51:02

have that luxury because they didn't have that kind of depth

51:04

or that kind of talent, and so I thought

51:06

guys were able to get away with a lot more and it just

51:08

snowballed on this coaching staff. Yeah,

51:11

well, to your point, John, I think that's a good

51:14

well said. You know, the level of detail

51:16

wasn't at the level

51:19

that we've been used to seeing from the Patriots,

51:21

And to your question of what needs

51:23

what are the three things that need to happen sooner

51:25

rather than later, it's setting up

51:28

a structure to get that

51:30

detail back into play. Okay,

51:32

So I you know, and however

51:34

that happens, whether or not you do that by hiring an

51:37

offensive coordinator, whether or not you you

51:39

know, reassigned from within, and put

51:41

a guy like Matt Patricia, you know, in a place

51:43

where you know he actually might be more qualified

51:46

Joe Judge the same thing. I mean, clearly,

51:48

there's a huge need at special teams right

51:50

now, and that's a place where Judge did excel,

51:53

you know, during the course of his career. Hella helped him

51:55

get a head coaching job with the Giants, for whatever

51:57

it's worth. So why don't

51:59

you play these strength? You really? You

52:01

know. The funny thing about it is the ironic thing all season

52:03

long, like that I'm thinking about, is that, you know, I

52:06

realized that Joe and Matt were probably

52:08

doing what they were doing because they're

52:10

friendly with Bill, They're loyal to Bill, and Bill's

52:12

trying to also do them a solid by helping

52:14

them rehab their reputations.

52:17

Am I wrong about that? Well,

52:20

So here's the way I look at it is

52:22

Bill Belichick really believed

52:24

that they were going to come in and do a great job. Yeah.

52:27

This goes back to his idol, or

52:29

one of his idols, Paul Brown out of philosophy,

52:32

that if you're a good coach, you

52:34

can coach any you know, any spot, and

52:37

it's not you don't have to be a defensive

52:39

guy or a special teams guy. A good coach

52:42

is a good coach, right, And I don't disagree with that. I

52:44

don't disagree with that in theory.

52:46

In theory, Bill, I think that was the basis

52:48

in which Bill made the decision. I don't think anything

52:52

that he made the decision. I don't think it was about

52:54

arrogance or you know how people say,

52:56

or that he was trying to be smarter than others,

52:58

or that he was cheap and the idea

53:00

that these guys were getting paid by other teams. No,

53:02

no, no, no. In my opinion,

53:05

he literally thought, based

53:07

on the information he had and what he believed,

53:09

that's the best thing to do, right, John, He made

53:12

a mistake, a miscalculated that

53:14

doesn't and I think I like how

53:16

you said it, Like Matt Patricia's

53:18

got three Super Bowl rings, Joe

53:21

Judge has three super Bowl rings. Like these

53:23

guys, That tells you they're good coaches.

53:25

Sure, they didn't get hit, they fit.

53:28

Yeah, they didn't get dumb overnight, they didn't

53:30

lose knowledge overnight. It's

53:32

just they were miscast in their roles

53:35

and so fair. So the next the

53:37

next step to take is to reassign these

53:39

guys into a position of strengt So maybe

53:41

Bill can do exactly what he intended

53:43

to do and help out his friends and

53:45

his fellow coaches sort of rehab

53:48

their abilities to where you know, they can move

53:50

on if that's what they choose to do, or

53:52

that they can have success, because if the team

53:55

has success, they have individual

53:57

success. It's not the other way around. You

53:59

can have individuals success and the team can stink.

54:01

We've seen that it's the other way around.

54:04

So you've got to approach it differently. And

54:06

I thought that's where Bill really made his biggest

54:08

mistake. Yeah, and I think

54:10

what we'll see going forward is

54:13

that he will acknowledge that

54:15

with whatever he you

54:18

know, moves forward and does you

54:20

know in twenty twenty three. John, the

54:22

biggest thing that I was looking for within the

54:25

last few days was would

54:27

Bill sort of do I get

54:29

double down for lack of better word on,

54:32

say, you know what, We're going to give this a try again.

54:35

You know, like I saw some things late in

54:37

the year that I like, let's let's

54:39

let's do it again, and that's

54:42

not the ground would open up and swallow

54:44

us all. Mike, that's significant, and

54:46

that's probably the most important news of the last

54:49

three four days. We would have a sinkhole

54:51

the size of Boston if that happened,

54:54

you know, seriously, seriously,

54:56

all right, So what a couple of other quick things

54:58

then, Mike, Other than you know, trying to figure

55:00

out the packing word around here and being

55:02

able to have a sort of a line

55:05

of command or chain of command,

55:07

what else does this team need to do as soon as possible?

55:11

Well, I guess I would look at some of the

55:13

free agents coming up and strategizing

55:16

how you want to approach it, you know, Receiver

55:19

Jacobe Myers a great developmental

55:21

story from when he came in the teams

55:23

at Block. Courage Award winner announced

55:26

today Jonathan Jones. Stuff like

55:28

that, you know, that's on my mind. Honestly,

55:30

John, I don't want to say I'm I'm prepared to answer

55:33

the question, but I'm like still watching rewatching

55:35

the game from Sunday. Yeah, and I'm

55:38

not quite totally into twenty twenty

55:40

three mode, but generally I'm

55:42

thinking coaching because that happens fast, and

55:44

if you want a guy, you got to move on him,

55:46

right degree, Okay, good, and then

55:49

they'll get to the personnel side. I heard you mentioned

55:51

the Shrine Bowl. You know, get start getting familiar

55:53

with the prospects. What am

55:56

I missing? I mean, anything stand out to you? You You know?

55:58

No, I think you hit on everything. To be quite, I

56:00

would tell you, first and foremost, if you see

56:02

someone out there that you think can come in and take

56:05

over as offensive coordinator, at quarterback,

56:07

coach, special teams, whatever it may be, you gotta

56:09

go get him now because they'll be gone before you

56:11

know it, in a blink of an eye. So you have to

56:13

act. You have to act, and

56:16

if you don't, then shame on you for being

56:18

slow to pull the trigger. And then, yeah, I

56:20

think you probably have to start the evaluation process

56:22

because that's what teams do when they don't make the postseason.

56:25

Although everybody does that kind of year round nowadays,

56:27

just to you know, you spend a little bit more time on it

56:29

when you don't have a game, you know, to get

56:31

ready for. I'd like to

56:33

find out whether or not there's any real seriousness

56:37

in landing a guy like DeAndre Hopkins,

56:40

because if you could add DeAndre Hopkins to

56:42

the mix, you know, with what you have.

56:44

And I would also definitely try

56:46

to make a move towards, you know, resigning Jacobe

56:48

Myers. I think he's proven his medal. I

56:51

think he's been a great fine you know, it's

56:53

I mean a developmental guy, as you said, which

56:56

I think is big I think for this staff to show

56:58

that they can do that and to all these encourage

57:00

other players to consider New England because

57:02

hey, look at what we did with Jacobe, right. Yeah,

57:05

So I mean to me, that

57:07

would be probably you know, if the coaching

57:09

thing is one, that would be two. I need

57:12

to figure out what to do about those free agent receivers.

57:14

Yeah, do we know for sure about

57:17

DeAndre and like his availability

57:20

or are we sort of hanging our hat on maybe

57:23

one one report there that that's

57:25

an interesting one because we saw the

57:27

back and forth between Bill Belichick and Deandree

57:30

for that yeah, game on December

57:32

twelfth in Arizona, and there seemed to be quite

57:35

a bit of mutual respect there didn't there? Yeah,

57:37

there was, And maybe that's part of the reason

57:39

why you know, this thought is taken

57:42

off like it has. And I

57:44

and I know the report you're talking about it, and I'm

57:46

just wondering, Yeah, you know, if

57:48

it's true that it makes you know, it makes good

57:50

sense, and I think the Patriots would love that. But then,

57:53

what do you give up for a DeAndre Hopkins? All

57:55

right? Can you can? You? Can you give up a player

57:57

and maybe a number two pick? Is

58:00

that too much to ask for a guy like Hopkins who's,

58:02

you know, really not in his prime anymore. I

58:04

mean, he's he's he's heading towards the downside

58:06

of his career. But can you get one or two good

58:09

years left out of him? I think you might be able

58:11

to, but that's no guarantee. They thought the

58:13

same thing, was DeVante park Or a year ago so

58:16

and and we saw how that turned out. So

58:18

I'm just saying, you know, you've got to

58:20

come to that conclusion. You got to figure it out

58:22

pretty quickly here so you can decide what

58:24

your strategy has to be well before

58:27

you get to April and the draft,

58:29

and I think it's very clear. Then in the draft you

58:31

have to hope to do is at least as good

58:33

as you did last year with some of the finds that

58:35

they had. Now, maybe you could have found

58:38

him later in the drafty. I would certainly

58:40

allow for that, but I would

58:42

never I don't. I don't give a draft degrade,

58:45

Mike until we've had at least a couple

58:47

of years to consider what the performance

58:49

is. I just hate doing that, and everybody I know does

58:51

it because everybody likes to play the Mel Kayper

58:53

junior game, you know, in the top mcshade game. And

58:55

I get that. God, I've known

58:57

Mel for almost forty years myself, so listen,

59:00

that's what Mel does, and he does it very well.

59:04

But you just can't get an act your picture unless

59:06

you find out what kind of pros these guys are

59:08

really going to be, and you just

59:10

you have to go out and trust your instinct.

59:13

But you can't have a knowledgeable

59:15

instinct unless you can figure out where

59:18

you are right now with the players you have at

59:20

your fingertips. I like it.

59:22

I like this thought. I'm gonna like

59:25

not push back per se, because I

59:27

think the discussion on Hopkins is fun and

59:30

I want to give it room to breathe because, like I said,

59:32

I haven't really had gotten into it yet. You

59:34

know, it's beending it forward to twenty twenty three.

59:36

If you're telling me it's DeAndre Hopkins

59:39

or a stud offensive lineman,

59:42

I gotta be honest with you, John, they need the lineman.

59:45

I think I might lean toward the lineman. It's

59:47

as I went through every game this year,

59:50

I kept thinking to myself, when the

59:52

offense usually broke down,

59:54

it was because of not always, but

59:57

usually because of something up front,

59:59

you know, detection or run

1:00:01

blocking. And I

1:00:04

know Hopkins is probably better, discussion,

1:00:07

more interesting, but

1:00:09

I almost wonder if we're

1:00:12

overlooking the more important thing,

1:00:14

not focusing on what's happening up front. You're

1:00:17

not wrong because they need it. They need

1:00:19

talent and they need depth both both

1:00:22

and and look, if if

1:00:24

you're gonna give Mac a fair chance to do

1:00:26

this, because obviously we all know year three

1:00:29

and his rookie deal is crucial. You

1:00:31

know, whether or not we keep him, or do we or

1:00:33

do we go another direction? So

1:00:36

if you're gonna try to surround him with the right

1:00:38

guys. They need both. They

1:00:40

need alignment they can protect them, and they need a receiver.

1:00:42

They can go get it and can still burn

1:00:44

it. So they need both. They got to figure out

1:00:47

a way to make it happen. They got to strategize here.

1:00:49

And maybe maybe that's what you know, Bill

1:00:52

and Robert talked about this week inve Indeed,

1:00:54

they've already met as we If we believe

1:00:56

those reports, then great, maybe they're

1:00:58

on the same page. To me, I think that

1:01:00

would be the first thing. Let's

1:01:02

backtrack here. First thing of the three that needs

1:01:04

to happen. You need to have management and coaching

1:01:07

on the same page. Yea. And

1:01:10

if they are okay step one now,

1:01:13

then we can now we can worry about the coaches

1:01:15

that are come on of the staff, and then we can work work

1:01:18

on personnel once we have the coaches

1:01:20

and the duties delineated. I

1:01:24

think that's really well said, John,

1:01:26

and I think what we'll see,

1:01:29

unlike Tennessee as an

1:01:31

example, which lets go of four coaches,

1:01:34

I don't sense that that's Bill Belichick's

1:01:37

m or style. Now, some coaches

1:01:39

might not be back because their contracts might not

1:01:41

you know, they might be not be They

1:01:43

might come up and they might decide to leave or

1:01:46

I can see that, but I don't see Bill

1:01:49

necessarily saying, Okay, you're fired, you're fired,

1:01:51

You're fired. I think he believes

1:01:54

these guys are good coaches, the ones that he wants

1:01:56

to keep, and he'll find the right spot

1:01:58

for him. Comes back to exactly

1:02:00

what you said, are we on the same page

1:02:02

here? That what the team

1:02:04

tried offensively from a coaching standpoint,

1:02:08

it didn't work. It needs to be

1:02:10

different. Ye I believe they

1:02:12

are on the same page. And now I think

1:02:14

they move forward. YEA. Hopefully they will

1:02:17

continue to do that. Just won't move fast

1:02:19

enough for you or me or anybody listening, that's

1:02:21

for sure. Right. That's it. Mike

1:02:23

can enjoy a little downtime. I know that it's

1:02:25

hard for someone like you with the work

1:02:28

ethic that you have to enjoy that. But I

1:02:30

hope that you can refresh

1:02:32

and rejuvenate a little bit because everybody

1:02:34

needs that. I appreciate it. John,

1:02:36

it said nothing like football, and it's

1:02:39

sort of like that double edged sword because you

1:02:42

want the games and then but

1:02:44

you also like get to the end of it and you're like

1:02:46

man, that was a grind. But after

1:02:48

a couple of weeks you're like, I wish there was another

1:02:50

game, right, so right, looking forward to

1:02:53

twenty twenty three. All right, brother, we'll

1:02:55

do it again at some point and see you soon.

1:02:57

It to it always. Thanks Micha, you got

1:02:59

it. Creaks the one and only from ESPN

1:03:01

at Mike Reese R e ss

1:03:04

on Twitter. Okay, thank you for your pages

1:03:06

today. I got a couple of people on phone on the phone

1:03:08

here that I want to get to both of

1:03:10

them. In the meantime, I want to invite

1:03:13

you to pick up the phone and you

1:03:15

know, and let's converse. This is the last time for this

1:03:17

regular season that we can do it. Evan

1:03:20

Lazar has given us his thoughts,

1:03:22

Mike Reese has given us his thoughts,

1:03:24

and now I want your thoughts. Eight five five

1:03:27

PATS five hundred is

1:03:29

the toll free telephone number to pick up and call eight

1:03:31

five five Pats five

1:03:34

hundred if you want to go email.

1:03:36

And I've got some emails that I'm going to share as well.

1:03:38

It's web radio at Patriots

1:03:41

dot com or hit me up on Twitter

1:03:43

at JR Broadcaster and

1:03:46

John dot Rook on Facebook. And thank you, by the way, to

1:03:48

those that have been new followers on Twitter this

1:03:50

year. You know, I'm not very good at the social media

1:03:52

game, but I would tell you that I really appreciate

1:03:54

the Twitter followers. I try to respond if you

1:03:56

you know, DM me or you know whatever, you know.

1:03:59

I guess that's what it's called, right. Yeah, Sometimes

1:04:01

I play like, you know, Mickey the Dope, even if

1:04:03

I am Mickey the Dope. I kind of play like it anyway.

1:04:05

But now, because I think interaction is the

1:04:08

key to making social media

1:04:10

work. Social media can get bashed

1:04:12

negatively. We all know this, We

1:04:14

all fall guilty, we all succumb to it.

1:04:17

I do too. But for

1:04:19

social media really to be social or

1:04:22

sociable, there has to be a two

1:04:24

way street. Not just hide behind

1:04:26

your keyboard, you know, and attack

1:04:29

somebody and then retreat. There

1:04:31

has to be a give and take. There has to be an exchange

1:04:33

of views and ideas and maybe laughter

1:04:36

or maybe you know, debate or whatever.

1:04:38

There has to be I love doing that.

1:04:41

So I appreciate the follow on Twitter, and

1:04:44

you know, and you can certainly try me out sometime.

1:04:46

We'll see how it goes, all right, So here

1:04:49

we go, Patty and Aguams have been holding on the longest,

1:04:51

Eldert, I'm gonna get right to you, so I hang in there.

1:04:53

But Patty, you're in the playbook. Thanks

1:04:55

for hanging in there. Brother. What's

1:04:57

up, John, It's all good. I'm

1:05:00

disappointed like Mike that the season

1:05:02

is over for the Patriots, but I think we can all understand

1:05:04

exactly why it is. Oh

1:05:07

yeah, we'll pardon the pun, John, But it doesn't

1:05:09

take a rocket scientist to figure out what was

1:05:11

wrong with the team this year. No, it doesn't.

1:05:13

And that's why we all can hope that,

1:05:16

you know, ownership and coaching and

1:05:19

management here are on the same page,

1:05:22

because they gotta be if you're gonna take

1:05:24

a positive step forward rather than

1:05:26

taking you know, a mother may I stepped backwards.

1:05:30

And you've got that pun right, because pet Patricia's

1:05:32

a rocket scientist badly. I

1:05:35

get it. I got it, just

1:05:38

real quickly before all

1:05:40

right, I say what I gotta say when you and everyone we're

1:05:42

talking about, like you

1:05:45

know, Evan's dad telling them stuff. It's

1:05:47

crazy, Like it seems

1:05:49

like every day every day that goes past,

1:05:51

I become more and more like my late father. And

1:05:54

you know the stuff that I relay to my son that, like

1:05:57

he taught me, it doesn't get through

1:05:59

his head yet either, but it will eventually,

1:06:02

maybe when he's in his mid forties. Maybe

1:06:04

well there is something about terming the forty that

1:06:06

just changes yet. So yeah,

1:06:10

that was a long time ago for me. Brother.

1:06:14

I think in my case it's because I know, I'm

1:06:16

I know, I'm closer to the finish line than the start

1:06:19

line. But um, answer

1:06:22

your three year three questions, or

1:06:24

to answer the question, what three things need to change,

1:06:27

obviously we need

1:06:29

to get somebody in who who

1:06:31

knows what they're doing on offense, as

1:06:33

a play caller or a a coordinator, whatever you want

1:06:36

to call them. Um. Something that I brought

1:06:38

up earlier this season on

1:06:40

this show, John, when I said, if they're going

1:06:42

to run this um this zone

1:06:45

blocking scheme, you know, if they want to

1:06:47

try it next year, I mean, go get Zack Robinson

1:06:49

because that's that's the that's the offense

1:06:51

they run. You know, if you want to run traditional

1:06:54

Earnhardt Perkins offense, which I

1:06:57

think would probably benefit Mac and the

1:06:59

team since they have so much experience

1:07:01

on it, get Billy O'Brien

1:07:04

or Chadow Shape. But I would love to see Billy

1:07:06

O'Brien in here and having sprinkling

1:07:08

a little bit of that Alabama offense. Sure,

1:07:10

yep, I agree, And I think

1:07:12

that would be a really good move. And as I told

1:07:15

Evan earlier, Patty, I'm not adverse.

1:07:18

I'm not averse, I should say to having

1:07:21

Cliff Kingsbury in here, I'm not.

1:07:23

You know, I think you know, the guy clearly knew

1:07:25

how to run an offense at Texas Tech. I

1:07:28

think he clearly knew how to run an offense at Arizona.

1:07:30

He wasn't a head coach. And

1:07:33

I think we can see that that may be the instance

1:07:36

with a guy like Matt Patricia and a guy like Joe

1:07:38

Judge. Maybe they're just not head coaches, but

1:07:41

they are talented football coaches.

1:07:43

They know a lot about the sport, and they know a lot

1:07:45

about their particular area of expertise.

1:07:48

And there's a place for people like that.

1:07:50

And I think if you could take advantage of a guy

1:07:52

like Kingsbury, who's under

1:07:54

contract, by the way, still the Arizona So if you're worried

1:07:57

about money, doesn't you don't have

1:07:59

to be worried about money. Uh, you know,

1:08:01

you bring him in and you see what you can get, and you

1:08:03

rehab his reputation, you rehab

1:08:05

yours, and everybody wins. Yeah,

1:08:08

and I'm not opposed to that. I'm as you know, just

1:08:10

get somebody that experience

1:08:13

running an offense. Yes, right, And before

1:08:15

I move on to point two and three, reals quick, Russ

1:08:17

Goldman had a had a really good point on

1:08:20

his podcast where he said, you know, maybe you bring

1:08:22

in Billy O'Brien for two years, try and keep

1:08:25

you know, try and convinced

1:08:27

Kayley to stay, and then turn it over to him

1:08:29

in a couple of years. Well, I think they do good.

1:08:31

That makes sense because I think Bill O'Brien

1:08:34

would be a candidate to replace Bill Belichick.

1:08:37

Yeah, I do. I think

1:08:40

he could be if there, if if Bill O'Brien

1:08:42

came in as offensive coordinator

1:08:44

and had some success, you know, and

1:08:46

and developed a good rapport with Mac and

1:08:49

with the veteran players on this team, and

1:08:51

then Bill gets to you know, the Don

1:08:53

Shula, you know, Mark, which I think

1:08:55

we all realize now he's

1:08:57

he's gonna you know, he's gonna stick around for

1:08:59

that. Okay, And let's say he gets to it,

1:09:01

and if the team is building back up into a

1:09:04

Super Bowl contender. I think it's easier

1:09:06

for him to let go and turn it over to the

1:09:08

guy who helped him get the team back to that level.

1:09:12

Yeah, most definitely. And the

1:09:14

number two this is for you, Eldred.

1:09:16

I know you're listening. Get mac is

1:09:18

thinky whether that's DeAndre Hopkins,

1:09:21

which, considering

1:09:23

his age, what what what Arizona

1:09:26

gave up for him and his PD suspension

1:09:28

might not be as um you

1:09:31

know, might not be as cost prohibitive

1:09:33

as he might think. You know, he might be able to steal

1:09:35

him. Or how about a guy like this

1:09:38

just popped into my head when I when I was on hold.

1:09:41

Why not take a flyer on a guy like Michael

1:09:43

Thomas who's

1:09:45

more than likely going to be done in New

1:09:47

Orleans. And I mean that's a guy that

1:09:50

he's sort of like in that DeAndre

1:09:53

Hopkins mold. I mean, he's not he's not a

1:09:55

burner, but he's he's just a guy

1:09:57

that can just get open. Yeah, you

1:09:59

know, he can catch the ball. And he's proven,

1:10:01

at least when he's been on the field that

1:10:04

he's a great player in this league. When he the

1:10:07

outlier being when he is on the field, you know, you

1:10:09

need a game changer. You just you need Yeah,

1:10:11

you need somebody that can be out there that the

1:10:14

defense has to respect that would

1:10:16

allow you to be able to hit things up the seam

1:10:18

and you know, and you know, all sorts

1:10:20

of things and create opportunities for you

1:10:22

know, a slot receiver, whether it's Jacoby Myers

1:10:24

or if they decided to go into the route. You

1:10:27

got to be able to do that. And you

1:10:29

know, the guy who's able to separate is

1:10:32

the one that's going to help you get there. That

1:10:35

guy in third down words, everyone

1:10:37

knows where the ball is going. The quarterback

1:10:39

knows, the defense knows, everyone in the stadium

1:10:42

knows, everyone watching on TV knows. But you

1:10:44

still can't stop him from from making

1:10:46

the play. Corrects what they need correct And

1:10:49

number three, they need to go

1:10:51

in a different direction on special teams, which,

1:10:54

like, I know, that's like pointing out

1:10:56

the three most obvious things. Cam Accord seems

1:10:58

like a nice guy, but what they've

1:11:00

done that the last two years, not even just

1:11:02

this year, but you know, the

1:11:05

punt blocks the last two years, the kickoff

1:11:07

returns this year. Um,

1:11:09

I'm not really I'm not gonna blame the punting game.

1:11:11

On them because I mean, this guy

1:11:13

gets hurt and you bring

1:11:15

in somebody off the street that really can't do the

1:11:18

job. I'm not really faulting them with that, but the

1:11:20

whole blocking and the

1:11:22

whole kick return defense,

1:11:24

punt return defense, I mean, they got

1:11:26

to just do better. They got to clean that up, or

1:11:28

else you'll see stuff like we saw

1:11:30

this past Sunday happen. You

1:11:32

know, maybe not every week, but maybe

1:11:35

every other couple weeks. And that's the kind of craft

1:11:37

that costs two games because we

1:11:39

saw it here because our special teams that were so great

1:11:42

for so many years, right, you know, we were the ones

1:11:44

getting the block right, right,

1:11:46

and it's it's done. It's it's done, one one eighty

1:11:49

it has And that's that that makes

1:11:51

me sad. I mean, that's the part that

1:11:53

actually disappoints me the most. That's a part that you

1:11:55

actually could sort of, you know, crow

1:11:58

and brag about, you know, to the rest of the NFL because

1:12:00

your teams were impeccable. I think even

1:12:02

Matt Slater sort of alluded to it after

1:12:05

the game was over on Sunday, thinking,

1:12:07

well, I'm captain of that team, and so I take a personal

1:12:09

affront to our performance there, and

1:12:12

of course you know you heard Mike

1:12:14

mentioned as a moment ago they were dead last, dead

1:12:17

last in the NFL and special

1:12:19

team. So I'm just like, that's

1:12:21

that's not that's not just embarrassing, that's

1:12:24

fireable. That's that is

1:12:26

a you know, you've got to change personnel.

1:12:28

You've got people need to be looking for other jobs.

1:12:30

You need to bring in other people who can do the

1:12:32

job, because there's no place to go but up.

1:12:37

All right, I'll get off the line so Eldred can get on.

1:12:41

Thanks, Patty, you're a good man, all

1:12:43

right, Eldred, it's all you now, baby.

1:12:45

Thanks for hanging in. Bro Hey

1:12:48

missus legend, happy new yu. See. How are you doing? Same

1:12:50

to you, buddy, everything's good. Are

1:12:55

you off the road? No, I'm

1:12:57

driving. You're driving okay

1:13:00

forty farm animals and horses

1:13:02

and cows and I'm

1:13:04

booms Okay. What what highway

1:13:06

you on? What were you on? How

1:13:09

are you one fifty in North Carolina

1:13:11

and North Carolina coming from Salisbury

1:13:14

to State Field and all

1:13:16

the way down to Denver, North Carolina. Oh my god,

1:13:19

Yeah, you are down in the boonies right, I'm

1:13:22

down in the bones yea, okay, pretty good countryside

1:13:25

though. Yeah. Yeah, listen, I think North Carolina's

1:13:27

beautiful state. I loved going there. I

1:13:29

think western North Carolina, you know, in the Asheville

1:13:32

area, is particular particularly

1:13:34

beautiful. Yeah. I'll go up there a lot too.

1:13:38

North. What's the east Coastal Carolina

1:13:40

whatever? That college is up there where coast that

1:13:43

way? Yeah, coastal. Yeah, you have coastal there. You

1:13:45

had Western Carolina out in Nashville. You

1:13:47

had the unc Appleactian

1:13:50

States out there, unc Asheville. Oh yeah,

1:13:52

I came very close, Eldred,

1:13:54

very close. This has been about now, oh

1:13:57

god, it has been over thirty five years

1:14:00

years ago. Uh, came very close to taking

1:14:02

a job in television in Ashville. I

1:14:05

went out and interviewed for the job in Ashville,

1:14:08

North Carolina WLS Channel thirteen.

1:14:11

Never forget it. Yeah, still there

1:14:14

and and you know, and it

1:14:16

was the only reason I did not take

1:14:18

the job as it was offered, is because

1:14:20

the news director there at the time was was hagling

1:14:23

over basically what amounted

1:14:26

to about thirty five cents an

1:14:28

hour on an

1:14:30

hourly way. And I'm just

1:14:32

like, really over thirty five cents an hour and

1:14:34

I'm gonna move from Texas to

1:14:36

North Carolina. So I ended up

1:14:39

not going to North Carolina. I ended up coming to

1:14:41

New England and I'm still here. Yeah,

1:14:44

but but I could have. I could have, you know,

1:14:46

set my roots right there in Asheville. Yeah,

1:14:49

but I won't be talking to you today.

1:14:53

Who knows, Hey, I might be working for the Carolina

1:14:55

Panthers today. You don't know that twenty

1:15:00

mile about the direction. But

1:15:04

I couldn't hate listen you

1:15:07

never, that's true. That would be a run. That would

1:15:09

be a run. All I need for you to clear the way. That's all I

1:15:11

need need for you. But I mean, you know, there's no reason why

1:15:13

I couldn't have gone from Asheville if I worked in TV

1:15:15

and Ashville to Charlotte after that. Right, it

1:15:18

did, right, You could have did that too. Yeah, So a

1:15:20

lot of it twitching up. Now. We got a lot of new uh

1:15:23

anchors and ladies and guys

1:15:25

I haven't seen. I'm like, who you where you come from?

1:15:27

Oh? Yeah, we happened to the one a couple of days

1:15:30

ago. Well

1:15:32

that's what happens in the markets of that

1:15:34

are basically outside the top twenty

1:15:36

or so. So that's what.

1:15:38

That's what happens. There's a lot of turnover. So

1:15:41

so, Elder, what do you think about our our

1:15:43

you know, our conversation

1:15:46

here on the on the three things that really have

1:15:48

to happen with this team as soon as

1:15:50

possible. Well, I'm on board

1:15:52

with everybody, uh three

1:15:54

things like, yeah, give me officive coordinating line

1:15:57

coach, uh coach.

1:16:00

And if for some reason, if

1:16:02

Troy Brown is stilling the wide receivers,

1:16:04

give me a wide receiver coach too, because

1:16:07

them guys don't know professional but

1:16:09

those spaces. They also got to be on

1:16:12

position coach too. But you got to see the film

1:16:14

like anybody else did. You gotta see the game like anybody

1:16:16

else too, And if you ain't correcting it,

1:16:18

then something wrong with you. Yeah,

1:16:21

you know, I gotta admit, I look

1:16:24

the way that the team finished this year. I

1:16:27

don't know how you can give really any of the

1:16:29

coaches UM a superlative

1:16:32

grade. You know, I think you know, some

1:16:35

well, some positions you know might

1:16:37

grade out a little bit better than others. Uh.

1:16:39

For instance, you know, I thought the running back play was pretty

1:16:42

decent overall this year. But there

1:16:44

are other positions, you know, on the on the line

1:16:46

and the receiving corps um you

1:16:48

know that probably you

1:16:50

know, it could use a little improvement. I think we

1:16:52

could even give you know, defensive backs

1:16:54

in Okay grade and largely you

1:16:57

know, even though I know you still think of him as the secondary,

1:16:59

but um, I just I

1:17:01

mean, honestly, they were helped because the Patriots

1:17:04

had one of the best pass rushers on the league,

1:17:06

right, yes, sir. And then when they went against

1:17:08

like a little bit better team the better time,

1:17:10

they got burnt. And and like I told

1:17:13

Evan in the beginning, you know, and then

1:17:15

like we did him on the pre draft, he

1:17:17

did good with speed in the secondary,

1:17:20

but like I said, he had gotta have height. Five

1:17:22

to nine guys, he jump with six two.

1:17:25

I think we saw that quarterback, Yeah

1:17:27

we we we say that, Yeah,

1:17:29

we saw that. We saw the the Justin Jeffersons

1:17:32

of the world just leap over everybody. And it's like, well,

1:17:34

that's not even fair, but that's what the Patriots

1:17:36

have. That's what Patriots have when you have you know,

1:17:39

five foot nine, you know, Liliputians playing

1:17:41

you know, defensive back, yes,

1:17:43

sir, And when you could have had i

1:17:45

know, their rookie you know, they're having a social

1:17:48

years of my mate Corners that was that

1:17:50

was dead at the first that you are at

1:17:52

your draft pick at twenty one. He had Booth

1:17:55

Plarry, you had Elam

1:17:58

and y'all had a guy on Cleveland.

1:18:01

You know that clevelandcuse me, Cincinnati the guy

1:18:03

for excuse me, Kent City. Uh

1:18:05

that that that guy that corner He he

1:18:07

about five kids though, But yeah,

1:18:10

those guys and we got a strength. We

1:18:12

got a strange now was a strange

1:18:14

pig anyway, Yeah to me, yeah I

1:18:16

would, I would never made that big, you know,

1:18:19

but this year, I know you need tackles. But

1:18:22

like I was telling Evan, we talked

1:18:24

about a couple of weeks ago, it's a couple of tackles.

1:18:27

It's coming up to free agent that I would go get

1:18:29

dead and as Hopkins, I

1:18:32

like Hopkins, but I'll talk my best

1:18:34

boy after Higgins if I could. But I

1:18:36

don't think he gonna leavese Cincinnatti because

1:18:38

I think this year they gonna win to do both. Is this

1:18:40

deal up? This ship is t Higgins?

1:18:43

This deal up? Is this deal up? Yes,

1:18:46

sir, he came in. This is

1:18:48

three year just like with Harry.

1:18:50

Okay, we had a chin get all them, Okay, Harry,

1:18:52

Yeah, right right, Okay, I just

1:18:55

yeah, I guess I just wasn't aware of that because I hadn't really

1:18:57

been following that one too closely. But yeah, that

1:18:59

would be Yeah, I think that'd be a great option,

1:19:01

you know, if you can, you know, you know, make

1:19:04

a play for him. But let's also realize that, you know, when

1:19:06

it comes to free agency, if he ends up,

1:19:08

you know that way, Um, you

1:19:10

don't have unlimited fundage, No,

1:19:15

you don't. You gotta you gotta pick and choose your poison

1:19:17

here, yeah you do. But

1:19:19

but but that. But it's a couple of corners

1:19:22

I talked about him a couple of weeks ago. They

1:19:24

don't they are that. I said, he's gonna be free

1:19:26

agent at the end of this year, and they're

1:19:28

gonna be unrestricted free agent. You can

1:19:30

get them for a little nut, and they are good corners. They

1:19:32

play for San Diego one play excuse

1:19:35

me, uh the charges and they doesn't

1:19:37

play for the Panthers. I don't know his name goes, I gotta

1:19:39

list at home. Don't go back and look at

1:19:41

my list of kids and nixing my call. I bring the

1:19:44

names up and they they like

1:19:46

said, uh, unrestricted,

1:19:49

So they're gonna cost that much to get him. Okay, you

1:19:51

know I got paid for him. He got

1:19:53

no thirty fourth round. They're gonna be that much to get

1:19:55

them. But they are sixty one six two.

1:19:58

A matter of fact, they gave um the

1:20:00

charger guy gave when they played

1:20:03

Kansas City. They gave him all they

1:20:05

can hand them. And when they when when when the

1:20:07

Charges beat Double Tylor and they wasn't

1:20:09

the raised the one the best teams. He

1:20:11

covered everybody and they couldn't throw him.

1:20:14

But they've been trying to run him out because

1:20:16

the other corner guy hurt and they

1:20:18

drafted him. He's coming back next year, so

1:20:20

he's gonna be out the door. They

1:20:23

ain't gonna give a contract, according

1:20:25

to the people. And at the Charges, well

1:20:28

looked at the ball game, yess. So

1:20:30

he's pretty good. But he's

1:20:33

on he's like twenty seven. So

1:20:35

here comes from NFL experience, So you know you

1:20:37

ain't paying for no thirties thirty one year old

1:20:39

cornerback. No, you know, this guy's still

1:20:41

fairly young. But I'm gonna

1:20:43

get that name was one number forty eight. But I'm gonna

1:20:45

get that name though, but uh,

1:20:49

they was talking about

1:20:51

the East West Ryan Bowl. Whatever. The coaches,

1:20:54

I just hope they they do like some of the other

1:20:56

coaches. But this guy's doing pretty good.

1:20:59

Hey, let me talk to you. Just you know, didn't

1:21:01

draft, you know, maybe draft if they're good enough,

1:21:03

they telled enough, you know. Instead

1:21:05

again the second tier, don't tell

1:21:07

you need to get a first tier, right

1:21:10

you know? That would have been my great first

1:21:13

year. Well yeah, and other words. Yeah,

1:21:16

And I think that a lot of people have a fundamental

1:21:18

issue with that thought

1:21:20

process because it seems like the Patriots always

1:21:23

pass on those first tier guys as you

1:21:25

call them, because they can get that second

1:21:27

tier a cheaper b maybe

1:21:30

to play with a little bit more edge because they aren't

1:21:32

second tier. And and I think

1:21:34

that's largely how this franchise is. Dynasty

1:21:37

over a twenty year period was built because

1:21:39

they were able to encourage,

1:21:41

entice, cajole, whatever you want to call it, recruit

1:21:45

those kind of players to New England. But

1:21:48

I, like Evan and I were talking in the opening hour

1:21:50

of the show today, that mindset

1:21:52

has changed. Now that's not going to

1:21:54

exist as mother. There's still a little out there like

1:21:56

that. No not this year, but I mean,

1:21:58

I just think the mindset is changed amongst

1:22:00

younger athletes all over.

1:22:03

It's you know, it's it's more about you know. It's

1:22:05

not about you know, um, it's

1:22:08

not about you know, paying your dues and then

1:22:10

playing a little bit of an edge. It's about what I

1:22:12

can get right now. And if I can't get it now,

1:22:15

I'm gonna stop my foot and I'm gonna go on and I'm

1:22:17

gonna go to someplace else, somebody that will have

1:22:19

me. And it's just so you

1:22:21

got to learn to adapt to that because nobody

1:22:24

likes it. I don't think it's right. I don't necessarily

1:22:26

think it's wrong because again, that's the

1:22:28

way people are. But at the same time, your

1:22:31

job is to do the best job you can with your

1:22:33

team. And this is where Bill and the Patriots

1:22:35

need to figure out a way to compromise

1:22:38

and make it work. You can't do anything about

1:22:40

the way mindsets are. You can't change

1:22:42

that. But what you can do is,

1:22:45

you know, either adapt or

1:22:47

get out. Get out, Yes, because

1:22:50

like I said before, these guys

1:22:52

it's business now. It ain't a team like

1:22:54

it used to be. Been braiding them around. Yeah,

1:22:57

and you throwed up up. I

1:22:59

heard you at having at the end

1:23:01

chuck no Tom Landry? Who

1:23:04

chuck Tom Landry? Or does

1:23:07

she at the end of the years It wasn't good right,

1:23:09

Let's yeah, we said that. That's all true. It's

1:23:11

all true, yes, but you left

1:23:14

out the one main come denominator,

1:23:17

Landry Loft stab no off

1:23:19

brash y'all. Yeah, what's called off Marino?

1:23:22

Yeah? And uh that was it when a good

1:23:24

quarterback done. Like I said, it's the quarterback.

1:23:26

Well, that's why the whole elder do you

1:23:28

know this as well as anybody. Okay, that's why the

1:23:30

whole you know who was who was more important?

1:23:33

Belichick or Brady. That's such a garbage

1:23:35

He wouldn't Brady wouldn't even have been a prov and it hadn't

1:23:38

been for Bill Belichick and Dick Raybine. He

1:23:40

had drafted him in the first place and developed

1:23:42

him. So, I mean, the whole argument is just stupid.

1:23:45

But you know, you're right. The fact

1:23:47

of the matter is that each of these great coaches has

1:23:49

had a quarterback to tie themselves to. Bill

1:23:52

Walsh was lucky enough to have two. Bill

1:23:54

Walsh had two. He had Joe Montana and then

1:23:57

he had Steve Young. No,

1:24:01

that was no, no, sir, No, Steve

1:24:04

Young one was with with uh,

1:24:06

with Mooch, with moot. He didn't win with us, which

1:24:09

he was always Joe Young was there. Young

1:24:11

was there though before Walsh left. Young

1:24:15

was Therefore Walsh left, right, But Joe

1:24:18

won won those four and Steve

1:24:20

won the fifth. Okay, and he won

1:24:22

with Mooch. Okay, you know. And like

1:24:25

I said, even when when Joe left,

1:24:27

it took him three years with the same

1:24:30

team to win a Super Bowl,

1:24:32

right, yeah, And that's what because

1:24:34

I used to follow the forty nine two back in the day, goose.

1:24:36

I had a cousin. Both we just him and

1:24:38

my dad were great at all the time. He was a Cowboys fan.

1:24:41

My cousin was was a forty nine a fan, and

1:24:43

boy, it was just Gowad at all the time, especially

1:24:46

when it come to the playoffs. Yea, and they had to play che

1:24:48

right, okay, yes, or so that's

1:24:50

like a family rivalry, right, I

1:24:52

got you, I got you so yes,

1:24:55

all right, buddy, you'd be safe out on the roadways,

1:24:58

all right, sir? Kay blo oh damn

1:25:02

damn oh shoot, all right,

1:25:04

well all right, I'll just you'll have to say that for next

1:25:06

time. Yes, sir, Yes,

1:25:09

sir, Just get out of his way. Get

1:25:11

out of his way. On Highway one fifty in North Carolina.

1:25:21

The light turned green, obviously, and he

1:25:23

has to move along. Todd in

1:25:26

Greenville. You're not anywhere close to where Eldred is,

1:25:28

are you. No, it's

1:25:30

uh, it's a pretty good distance. He's in

1:25:32

the kind of the south west

1:25:35

part of the state. And I'm right, I'm

1:25:38

more East Coast is shan Greenville,

1:25:41

Greenville, North Carolina, and that where East Carolinia

1:25:44

is, that's where he's see you. That's

1:25:46

the pirate. That's what I thought. Okay, thought so all

1:25:49

right, very good. They're pretty good basketball

1:25:51

team. But there's nothing like the Friars this year. Yeah, well,

1:25:54

yeah, that's true. I mean, but ECUs had

1:25:56

always had, I think, a pretty competitive program,

1:25:59

and the football team was was

1:26:02

good of this year again too, right, yeah,

1:26:04

actually the football team was surprisingly

1:26:06

good. But you know what rhymes was Friars John

1:26:09

what fires? And

1:26:11

this is why I'm calling because I

1:26:14

want a bunch of these people gone. I think

1:26:16

that it. Bill's done his his

1:26:18

time here, has done his big habalou

1:26:21

of doing things. The Bill way has done.

1:26:24

Hey, let's bring in a defensive court

1:26:26

the defensive coach to be our supposed

1:26:29

offensive coordinator, who we will not actually

1:26:31

call that because we don't want to have him take any

1:26:33

blame for what goes wrong. And

1:26:35

then we'll put dufus in

1:26:38

the whole line and the

1:26:40

coach as well. And that sucked. And our

1:26:42

QB coach couldn't talk to I

1:26:45

don't know, his whole team hated him when

1:26:47

he was coaching, when he's the head coach. In

1:26:49

fact, I think everybody there hated him, and

1:26:52

he you know, proved it was. You

1:26:54

know, look where the giants are right now. Yeah, yeah,

1:26:57

that's also true. Yeah yeah. The clean

1:26:59

house. So you want to just you that

1:27:01

that's your first thing is you want to cleanhouse. You just want

1:27:03

you want cleanhouse. Give Mac, give

1:27:06

Max fresh ideas, fresh faces, let's

1:27:08

clean hot. You know, the last two of the dynasty,

1:27:10

you're kind of gone. Flater is out and

1:27:12

we all know mccordy's done two this year, they're

1:27:15

gone. Let's just hey, let's just start

1:27:17

again. Because I really don't think that I

1:27:20

got bad feelings, bad feelings,

1:27:23

my friend, I feel like I'm down to New Orleans

1:27:25

and I got that that that Cajun voodoo

1:27:27

stuff going where this isn't gonna look

1:27:29

good next year. Yeah, there's gonna be a whole

1:27:31

lot of bad stuff that goes on

1:27:34

when people come in and they try to do something

1:27:36

because this will be the third offensive.

1:27:39

Wow, Okay, we don't have goofense supporting. This will

1:27:41

be the third person teaching Mac in

1:27:43

three years. I

1:27:46

know, And that's that's that's part of the issue

1:27:48

here. That's part of the issue that ends

1:27:50

are but are you are you going to sacrifice Mac

1:27:52

to blow it all up? Don't you have to have some continuity

1:27:55

to ensure that he continues to grow?

1:27:57

Mac has the long ball. I don't think Mac plays

1:27:59

well under stress, and I don't think Mac

1:28:01

is just he's he. He would have been good

1:28:04

if they would have put the pieces around him, and

1:28:06

that includes an old line and an offensive

1:28:08

coordinator, and they didn't do it. Who's fault is

1:28:11

that? Bill's hard

1:28:13

to argue that. Bye bye, Bill, it's

1:28:16

time. You're seventy years old, gonna be seventy

1:28:18

one this season. You've done good. You're

1:28:20

great man here. I can't wait to give you the jacket.

1:28:23

And you know what for my three points is

1:28:25

Bill doesn't go and they take all his little sons

1:28:27

and psychophants and the rest of the Lickspittles

1:28:29

and go, then I think the Craft

1:28:31

Junior needs to go. Papa. I

1:28:34

think it's time that I took the team. You

1:28:36

know, you realize, of course

1:28:38

that's never happening, right Well,

1:28:41

maybe because Papa's got a four. No, there's no maybe.

1:28:43

There's none because yeah, but there's yeah,

1:28:46

but there's no maybe. Okay, Todd, there's

1:28:48

no maybe. There

1:28:50

is no maybe no, No, there's

1:28:52

no will c either. There's no maybe, there's

1:28:54

no will Ce Okay, that's I can.

1:28:57

I'm I can. I can assure you of that. I

1:29:01

just think they need to blow it up and I don't

1:29:03

think there's a way to

1:29:05

get around that. And that's just my feeling because

1:29:07

I think that right now, I

1:29:10

don't think his heart's in it. I don't think

1:29:13

he's He doesn't have the same fire, and I

1:29:15

think what you guys said, he doesn't have the

1:29:17

ability to change his approach to

1:29:20

be the person he has to be in this particular

1:29:23

league, because it's different. Now you've

1:29:25

said it. You know, all

1:29:28

of our friends that have called in have said it. In fact, I'm

1:29:31

just I'm actually echoing Christian

1:29:33

with a tia N. We called in and he kind

1:29:35

of dropped his bomb a few days back, and

1:29:38

the more I thought about what he said, the more I feel

1:29:40

like this has got it. It's

1:29:42

time. It's time for a change. John. Okay, well

1:29:44

that's fair, and honestly, I think

1:29:47

clearly some things do have to change,

1:29:49

otherwise you're going to end up, you know, repeating it. And

1:29:52

I just I think our whole issue here is

1:29:54

all right, so what has to come first? What's

1:29:57

the pecking order? How do we need to you know, range

1:30:00

things? Uh? And so I put a little

1:30:02

sense of urgency behind it and said, well as soon as possible,

1:30:05

without necessarily thinking that one had to go before the other.

1:30:07

But to me, you had to get ownership and coaching

1:30:09

on the same page. And if

1:30:11

they're not on the same page, then I would

1:30:13

tell you what you purport and

1:30:17

what you'd like to see happen would definitely

1:30:19

be in play. So my

1:30:21

one question, how much longer do you think

1:30:24

he's going to coach? Because everybody that I listened

1:30:27

to says he's gonna coach until he beat Shula.

1:30:29

Well, okay, you're not coaching

1:30:31

to leave a good team you're coaching to beat Shula

1:30:33

like well, first of all, Look,

1:30:35

first of all, if you have any sense of history in the NFL,

1:30:38

you understand what what a what a? What a?

1:30:40

What a? What a? Mark like that means uh

1:30:43

and so I and considering

1:30:46

the rivalry that the two head and how

1:30:48

you know, Don Shula before he passed

1:30:50

on literally disrespected

1:30:52

coach Belichick called him belichiat

1:30:55

all that kind of stuff. Look, I would tell you that,

1:30:57

uh, listen, if I were in Bill Shoe,

1:31:00

I'd probably want to stick around long enough to, you know, win

1:31:03

just one more than that, as will be myself. But

1:31:06

I don't know. Here's the thing. In order

1:31:08

to get there, you're gonna have to learn to adapt

1:31:11

a something. And that's the issue that

1:31:13

really Patriots FINISHO concern themselves with mostly.

1:31:16

Now, would he stick around two more years?

1:31:18

Yes? I think so. I think he will

1:31:20

be here two more years beyond that. That third

1:31:22

year is if he A lot of that depends on the success

1:31:25

of the next two years. I think you're looking at probably

1:31:27

two to two and a half depending

1:31:29

on the games that are one or lost. It's probably

1:31:31

closer to two and a half. In terms of wins

1:31:34

before he actually passes him. So

1:31:37

there's gonna be some gray area. I can tell

1:31:39

you this will probably if this team continues

1:31:41

to sort of flip flop like a fish out of water

1:31:44

for the next year to two years, then

1:31:47

yes, it'll be a point of concern. Yes, it'll be a

1:31:49

point of contention. And no, I don't

1:31:51

think he'll be able to even to get to that point where

1:31:53

he can pass Jula because I think that you're

1:31:55

right. I think that management and ownership will

1:31:58

probably be fed up with it. But we're

1:32:00

not there yet. He's earned the right

1:32:03

to do what he has done based

1:32:05

on his twenty one year career here. He's

1:32:07

earned it six super Bowls, says so h,

1:32:11

I kind of agree with you. But my

1:32:13

point is, once Brady left,

1:32:16

just like that somebody who one of the previous colors

1:32:18

brought up once they lost their guy,

1:32:21

well then go find another guy and you have

1:32:23

him, can't well you no, but

1:32:25

you have him, and you screwed him up because you

1:32:28

went cheap on the coaches dingding

1:32:31

there's a bill move Bill, doesn't you just you

1:32:33

just agreed with everything I said this, Well, but

1:32:35

that's what I'm saying. No,

1:32:38

no, it's it's not. You don't have to fire him.

1:32:40

Bill has to realize he's got a change.

1:32:43

And until we see him not change,

1:32:46

you know, and go up against it, well then all

1:32:48

right, then I think firing is off the table. Last

1:32:51

point when it was the last time you see

1:32:53

a Bill do a change

1:32:56

in his philosophy. Okay,

1:33:04

what's your point? He is

1:33:07

good at what he does, and he focuses on what he

1:33:09

does, and he excels at what he does, but what

1:33:11

he does doesn't work no more. So you're

1:33:13

telling me that you do if you can't

1:33:15

teach an old dog a new trick, is what you're saying.

1:33:18

Yes, I am, okay, fair

1:33:21

enough, Okay. I appreciate

1:33:23

your todd. I appreciate you. I absolutely appreciate

1:33:26

And you know what we're gonna find out. We're

1:33:28

gonna find out, you know. If not

1:33:31

tomorrow, we're gonna find out really soon. It's

1:33:34

a real woman. Could stop you from drinking.

1:33:37

That's a real big woman. It's time

1:33:39

to go around the NFL with football

1:33:41

guru Russell Baxter. Now name

1:33:45

is Flounder on Patriots playbook.

1:33:51

Guy that's been around the block once or twice himself.

1:33:53

Russell Baxter, the pro football

1:33:55

guru who himself you know, Russell is

1:33:57

just weird. I think I was just trying to figure out here,

1:34:00

not long ago, this year, this is two years. In the last

1:34:02

three of the Patriots haven't made the postseason,

1:34:06

but in the last you know, twenty

1:34:08

two years that we've been doing this radio. This

1:34:13

is definitely the exception and not the rule to

1:34:15

it, which kind of gives it a sort of an eerie

1:34:17

feeling overall, doesn't it. Absolutely?

1:34:20

And I will say this, I don't know who you're I don't know who

1:34:22

your last caller was, but God

1:34:25

forbid he ever walked into me and told me how to

1:34:27

do my job. I

1:34:32

mean, I don't know who that young man is,

1:34:34

but I've probably forgotten more football than hill LeVert

1:34:38

you were. You were spot

1:34:40

on with the respect and

1:34:42

so on. You just don't dump

1:34:45

guys. That is what the Cleveland

1:34:47

Browns do. That is what the Houston

1:34:50

Texans are doing. It doesn't work

1:34:52

that way, okay. And if

1:34:55

you don't think Bill Belichick is capable

1:34:58

of adapting, well,

1:35:00

obviously, how would you know you've never met

1:35:02

the person you've never talked to Bill BELLI

1:35:06

I guess that was a little. I mean, I was

1:35:09

listening to that and I was like, my goodness,

1:35:11

well, you know, when is he taking over as CEO?

1:35:14

Well, you know what we but Russell you know as

1:35:16

well as I do that we have a lot of fans that think

1:35:18

the same way he does. Oh, there's

1:35:20

no doubt about it. It's no you know. I mean to

1:35:22

listen, I understand the whole

1:35:25

what have you done for me lately? Thing?

1:35:27

But you know, it's not like they've gone

1:35:30

five and twelve the past two years, you

1:35:33

know. I mean you see a similar

1:35:35

approach to the one of the Steelers

1:35:37

with Mike Combo. Well, you haven't one of a playoff

1:35:40

game in six years, tax years,

1:35:42

My god, that's just so

1:35:45

terrible. Tix years, you

1:35:47

know for a franchise. That's some things that were

1:35:50

trying to do one playoffs game. Yeah, you

1:35:52

know, yeah, he does about perspective.

1:35:55

And I'm number one. The fact that

1:35:57

Bill Belichick is certainly

1:36:00

because I think you know, over

1:36:02

the years, uh and

1:36:05

maybe listen, maybe maybe

1:36:07

he's a little too loyal

1:36:10

um in terms of coaches and stuff like that.

1:36:12

I mean, it wasn't year where he lost Josh

1:36:15

McDaniels, okay, which

1:36:17

was very big

1:36:19

below considering offensively.

1:36:22

Last year, let's not forget last year.

1:36:24

John and Arthan remind you last

1:36:26

year was the year they really broke the bank. And

1:36:29

what was the side of the ball that broke

1:36:31

the bank? Unease, Yeah,

1:36:34

wide receivers, tight end um,

1:36:37

you know, rookie quarterback into the one. Then after

1:36:39

one year, the offensive corp digs it's

1:36:41

gone. So Bill

1:36:44

Belichick history goes beyond him, the pace with

1:36:47

and uh, you know Cleveland,

1:36:50

which I've always felt like Bill got

1:36:52

a raw deal with Cleveland.

1:36:54

He had just turned that franchise around

1:36:56

and then all of a sudden the franchise left. So

1:37:00

now you gotta you need a little

1:37:02

have a whole perspective when it comes to I

1:37:05

mean, I you know, but I've heard it for years. I mean

1:37:07

I heard the critics to Shula and the critics of

1:37:10

Landry and the critics existance so

1:37:12

one. So I mean, you know, I'm

1:37:15

gonna mean to jump on the guy, but no, no, Todd

1:37:17

can take it. Yeah, yeah, Todd

1:37:20

can take it. And you know he's from Canada

1:37:22

anyway, what the hell is he though? They have fifty five

1:37:24

yard you know, midfield stripes, so

1:37:28

Canadian football, So I don't know. It's

1:37:31

all right. Todd's good Todd. Todd's

1:37:33

a faithful fan and a faithful caller. But

1:37:36

but I understand the frustration. And I think

1:37:38

that's just sort of a microcosm of a lot of the frustration

1:37:41

the Patriot fans are feeling, you know, all

1:37:43

over the place. And I share part of that frustration,

1:37:46

and I think clearly and the reason why I asked the question

1:37:48

today is, you know, what are the three most important things that the

1:37:51

Patriots need to do as soon as possible. And the first

1:37:53

thing that they have to do is they really

1:37:55

have to get on the same page between management

1:37:58

and coaching. They gotta do it. Are they Are they

1:38:00

heading in the right direction? Because if

1:38:02

they have different thoughts on philosophy,

1:38:04

then this ain't gonna work. And then there's

1:38:07

what Todd said comes into

1:38:09

play. All right, well this ain't gonna work. You know, hey,

1:38:11

Ownership is gonna rule here. Ownership's

1:38:14

can rule. It's their team, it's their investment. Well,

1:38:17

and in some ways this has been going

1:38:19

on for a while, um,

1:38:22

you know, and they managed to still squeeze out

1:38:24

a couple more Super Bowls while

1:38:27

dealing with, for lack of a better word

1:38:29

than Jimy Garoppolo distraction. Okay,

1:38:32

I mean there was obviously a split house as

1:38:35

far as him being around, and they eventually

1:38:37

dumped him right to San Francisco. I

1:38:39

mean, you know, so this is not this

1:38:42

does not come like a couple of last

1:38:44

three years because Tom Brady left. There's

1:38:47

been a little bit of attention going on here

1:38:50

for a while and that.

1:38:53

But again, you know, when they were

1:38:56

not you know, when they won their last Super

1:38:58

Bowl in twenty eighteen, Uh,

1:39:01

you could make a strong case they weren't the best

1:39:03

team in the league. Okay, sure,

1:39:06

In fact, they they slumped

1:39:08

late, they lost a couple of back to back

1:39:10

games to Miami and Pittsburgh, and

1:39:12

then you know, I always

1:39:14

credit that six Super Bowl as much as

1:39:17

anybody di Dante Scarnetia because

1:39:19

they just blew the team. You know, they blew the

1:39:21

Chargers and um and

1:39:23

and the Rams and uh

1:39:26

who I'm trying to and the Chiefs off the ball

1:39:29

right with their running games and

1:39:31

so on. Those weren't there was more like

1:39:33

old school super Bowls when they won the when

1:39:36

they won the first one, you know, with

1:39:38

you know, a lot of gritta determination. You

1:39:41

know, I always go back to two thousand and four,

1:39:43

which I know seen, I mean's almost twenty years

1:39:45

ago. That was their best team because they were

1:39:47

so balanced on the offensive defense, um

1:39:50

running and passing and Corey Dillon and

1:39:53

and so on. So it looks we've

1:39:55

seen the Patriots when they've been one of the

1:39:57

highest scoring teams in the league, and they you know, they

1:39:59

lost the Super Bowl and one year even get to one.

1:40:02

Right, So again, I

1:40:05

this is we're in an era right now, especially

1:40:08

this year and with the

1:40:10

expanded playoffs. This is the third year in a

1:40:12

row where, for lack of a

1:40:14

little better word, it's somewhat of a waterdown

1:40:17

project. I'm sorry, waterdown

1:40:20

league, you know. I mean, we went

1:40:22

into the final week of the season. We're a lot

1:40:24

of snowmen, a lot of eight and eight around

1:40:26

the league, and some of them made it and some of them

1:40:29

didn't. Ye. As I

1:40:31

pointed out in one of my notes this week, this

1:40:34

is the first time that

1:40:37

four playoff teams finished

1:40:40

the season with a negative scoring differential.

1:40:42

That's crazy to even think about. As bad

1:40:44

as it has been in New England, I mean,

1:40:47

the fact of the matter is is that they had a losing record,

1:40:49

but they still owed scored the opposition, right,

1:40:52

the Minnesota Vikings won thirteen and four

1:40:54

and we're minus three and scoring differential

1:40:58

crazy. It's

1:41:00

crazy, that's it's it's yeah.

1:41:02

Well, I mean i've been I've actually been tracking it

1:41:04

since the merger, and I

1:41:06

do how many teams every year make

1:41:09

the playoffs within night? And I was

1:41:11

like, wow, like you got the Giant, you

1:41:13

got the Vikings. I mean, it's it's it's

1:41:16

you know, we saw it all year. It's been kind

1:41:19

of a tough, heavy league. You know, it's you know, we

1:41:21

have a bunch of twelve wins and

1:41:23

thirteen wins and fourteen wins and so on,

1:41:25

and then we've got a lot of buddled

1:41:28

which is why you know the playoffs coming up

1:41:30

will be should be very very fascinating because

1:41:32

you really don't know what team is going to show up

1:41:34

on a daily base. No you don't, you

1:41:37

don't, all right, So let's take a look at the twenty

1:41:39

twenty three playoffs, shall we. You got a

1:41:42

couple of games on Saturday, you got

1:41:44

three more on Sunday. Uh, and

1:41:46

then you actually have a Monday night game too, which

1:41:48

is pretty crazy to even right away, John, I will

1:41:51

point out every one of these night

1:41:53

chefs was layed earlier this year. Right, I

1:41:55

was gonna say. The one thing that I did notice

1:41:57

the oddity here is that this is a rematch