Tom E. Curran on the Patriots' QB 'Competition,' O-Line Issues, and Roster Cuts | Jones & Keefe

we're joined right now though by Tom E Curran of NBC Sports Boston he's brought to you by Flex car save thousands with your flexible car lease at flexx car.com Tommy Curran how we doing this week tremendous what's up boys hello Rich hello Tom good to hear your voice again sir here yours it's uh it's wonderful to hear uh everybody back together here we're we're trying to figure out what the Patriots are going to be planning on doing what voice we're going to hear uh we know it'll be jacobe brette today on Wei at 3:00 uh why haven't they made an announcement yet Tom on a stting uh starting quarterback and when do you expect that to be I just don't know if that making an announcement on the off day is is probably in the offing um and the game's not for 12 days so there's nothing that's imminent that has to be said I think that they have announced that they want to be as transparent as possible they've maybe taken their transparency to h a level that wasn't necessary as in we're watching how the sausage gets made and it's not that appetizing but to me I I when they announce it is I I don't know why they haven't but I don't think it's late either do you think that in in mayo a couple days ago was saying how obviously there's going to be a group uh that has that decision right like Alex Van pelt's going to be in on Elliot Wolf's going to be on other offensive guys do you like that approach or should the head coach pick who the starters are absolutely not in this particular instance in my estimation the reason D Rob Mayo has already announced a number of times and acknowledged he I don't know what I don't know I don't know how I'm going to be as a head coach I might be good I might not be good the offense is the purview of Alex Vel I'm learning he is head coach offense now five years down the road seven years down the road if Mayo still happens to be the head coach then he can be more of a big old swing and Richard but right now he should 1 million per defer to the guy who's been a quarterback in the league has been an offensive coordinator has been installing everything and has a better grip I think on what he expects from his quarterback in this system than Gerard could so to me first say goes to Alex Velp last say should go to Mayo but in mayo having last say Jonesy it should be all right well we'll go with what you're doing but if it doesn't work we're going to switch to X if there is a difference of AIC right so he could uh effectively overrule it at some point which I gather but do you think do you think there's any do you think the lack of you know uniform decision making and maybe even the set injury I know Mayo said he could have played through it but we we kicked around these ideas earlier do you think those have played into the lack of an announcement I know you said it's not a big deal the game's not till September 8th but they are one of the few teams that hasn't made the announcement do you think the amount of voices in the room have delayed picking someone I think it's a complex decision and I I don't know if it would be even easy for you know with Shawn Payton sitting here very experienced offensive coach it's a kind of a complex decision is it doing anyone any favors by having it drag out I don't know what kind of damage it's doing I don't even know if it's dragging out I mean you have a an eight-year veteran and a guy who made 30 college starts you have an offensive line that can't block to save its fraking Soul you've already said you're G to make a project of the kid that you're bringing in he's well ahead of schedule as far as I'm concerned but still he is a project and you just ruined a quarterback by shoving him out there and taking all his goodies away in his second year in M Jones it's a feta comp plea I mean to me we're kind of waiting on white smoke but we already know who the pope is it's gonna be brette so I mean I if I had a bet money I agree I think it will be Bret week one but we saw bayy zappy got released and I thought that might give a little bit of evidence that maybe they are going to go with Drake May and the reason I say it is if they don't want to start Drake May and they're like he's not ready or or at least the team around him isn't ready we're going to go with the veteran we're going to go with brette who already got banged up in the last preseason game so if he either can't go or he gets reinjured again are they going to go right to Drake May then or are they going to go with a veteran guy like bayy zappy so do you read the cut of zappy into this who's goingon to start at all I don't and and some people have said that and it's fair to say look if you want to protect Maids you want to have my heartbeat away from going onto the field when you have the Five Blind Mice working in front of them probably not however I don't think bayy zappy is going anywhere Bailey zappy is gonna be right local for a while man um I'm just saying if you want to sign him so but I I still think it's it's just so patently obvious that bayy zappy it's the second year in a row he got released yet he was the starting quarterback for what the last three or four games last year it's just such a bad team going back to last year I don't think people have an appreciation for how horrible the 2023 Patriots really were they went into the at this time last year Matt Jones was the only quarterback on the roster they had gone through Matt carral Ian book and released zappy and Jones was the only guy so never mind I I dig was a bad team still still is they weren't good some would call them a uh a tier five Don't Look Back in Anger team that's that's true talking to Tommy Curran NBC Sports Boston his latest uh is up there now uh Drake May and the starting quarterback decision it's worth checking out so you you and I have uh argued about this in the past Tom like uh if Drake May isn't ready week one when is he going to be ready and do you want him to sit the entire season you addressed this in the column today I guess my my question would be if you don't think the team is ready for him week one how do they get ready for him by say the middle of the year or even week five and six which a lot of people have circled when I don't think they're going to magically find an offensive line The Five Blind Mice I don't think they're magically going to find a number one receiver so when when will be a good time to drop Drake May in how do they get the team ready for when he can come in and and be successful in your mind I guess would be my question yeah well we all know that as the season goes along every team gets better and yes defenses are going to get better but the Patriots will become more competent with what they're trying to do to the point where it doesn't look like it looked against Philadelphia in the joint practice or the other night without David Andrews and the Darian low um on the field as well it's going to look better there'll be a higher level of Competency there'll be a knowledge from Van Pelt in the offensive line okay we can't do that that player can't do this at the same time May will continue to improve so when those two things dovetail there's competency on the offensive line May has improved enough to a point where he can defend himself and that's one funny thing is I'm less concerned about the physical battering than the mental battering everybody takes a beaten whether it's Brady against behind a good offensive line whether it's jacobe brassett on Sunday night or whether it's Drake May they're gonna take a beaten it's the mental battering that I don't think Drake May needs to be subjected to because you made a crap ton of progress since April the best way to undo it is to drop them in the middle of the highway with speeding traffic on all sides and say okay show me that cool footwork you learned it's not going to happen so th this I think it's the mental aspect of it well two of the big trigger words like throughout all of Camp when asked about Drake May was plan like they have a plan and but also it's a competition so I guess my question would be and I know uh Greg Hill the other day asked mayo or what is the plan and the first thing he brought up was brassette and then he was talking about like kind of the like other things to do with with Drake may but I guess my question would be like if the plan truly was a competition and then Drake May wins the competition like doesn't he then get the job or was really the plan all along just to do your best to develop him but no matter what you weren't going to play in week one yeah I said this um see if you agree with this metaphor it was like the Globe Trotters and the Washington generals go out there and compete but we all know who's going to win in the end and it wasn't a talent yeah yeah yeah so so compete try and get the job try and get the job okay you did you you were better than him but we're we're not going to give you the job crazy he's spinning the ball on his finger just take it take it you know crazy put you out there yet you know Tom we've both been uh both Kei and myself maybe you over the year you ever been to Washington General Tom both Kei and myself a long time ago are Washington General yeah we took the loss that day y i yeah we didn't win that's true do do your anal it's a good analogy neither of us won so a good point never been a general but I know the role yeah understandable uh so when it comes to the offensive line it was it was so can I Circle back oh yeah sure go for it go ahead one thing I think that that has been difficult is and I said this last night on TV and it sounds a little patronizing maybe you I think that the Patriots I think that Mayo has been too transparent and expected people to understand the Nuance of what he is saying in different interviews and that has caused a lot of confusion like I can get the concept of someone can play better than like I can play better golf than somebody who's a better player than me over a period of time but when it comes to deciding who you want to be your two-man scramble partner you're gonna say I'll take the guy who's better golfer I'm not going to take the guy who's been playing better recently I know he's better and if it's he screws up well that's fine at least I went with the safe thing I think that that's kind of what's going on yes he's played he has outperformed him but he's not a better quarterback Soup To Nuts yet what about long but not yet what about Mayo at the end of July saying jacobe Brett is obviously our starter and then last week saying we don't have a starter I think that's indicative of him closing in on it and I think that he was saying at that time job's our starter I don't think he was saying jobe's going to start week one he was saying at this time Jacob's our starter as in he'll take first reps but again this is this goes to the conversation we pay attention to sports we're pretty have a decent command of the language and yet we're still trying to decipher what he meant and I think that's something that Mayo was really going to have to work on is is a preparation of messaging because you can't have people they're paying attention they give a crap about your team don't be muddled with your messaging no and I think that's a good point right even if even if there was Nuance that he expects us to be clued in on he he's got to be the one cluing Us in so I would agree with that on the offensive line is that all about Talent or is there is there an issue with coaching here as well because they look completely unprepared the other night I'm going to start with Personnel actually I'm gonna start with Elliot wolf I mean he's a guy who with a straight face said that this team could support a rookie quarterback no problem and that they'd be good to go and that's the inverse has happened you clearly cannot support that quarterback because your offensive line isn't good enough right now to use them and even the veteran quarterbacks in in Jeopardy as a result of the offensive line so I start with ellot wolf and M brow who were part of the group last year who said let's go get Riley reefe and vidan low and Tyrone Wheatley Jr and Calvin Anderson and they presented those as Solutions and they weren't and now they've presented us with these Solutions you know Laden Robinson people who watch the offensive line hell of a lot closer than me at practice have all talked about how great Laden Robinson would be and he got absolutely shoved around like a kid Kaden Wallace drafted as a possible left tackle has never played it been a right tackle same thing with ch Sor for and this is starts with them and then I think it goes to the coaching staff Scott Peters clearly not getting through but who hired these guys is what is irksome to me yeah I agree I mean just not lining up properly not executing a snap I that's even worse than you know giving up a pass rush but anyway like it was it was a disaster all the way around now this is not a roster that is going to have a lot of surprise Cuts because as we were talking about earlier not 53 great players to begin with so guy 54 through you know 70 probably not super noteworthy however Kevin Harris I thought looked good in Camp I thought he was going to be one of the running backs on the team and he gets cut today what were your thoughts on Harris getting released yeah I think there'll be such a glut of running backs who are released from different teams because every team has um plenty of them that they would absolutely be desirous of bringing him back if the Patriots want to go four deep and him on the practice sad I look at Antonio Gibson is kind of a Rex Burkhead type if we're gonna look at it in a similar because he can run between the tackles he can be your change up back he can be catch passes as well Hasty would be definitely your change up back and then obviously rre Stevenson's your lead back but if Stevenson gets dinged you probably don't want 27 carries to go to Antonio Gibson and this is a team that is going to want to carry the ball 25 to 35 times a game I would think score depending so I I would think that Harris would probably be on the short list but I mean as we know these guys are so fraking interchangeable yeah yeah for runningbacks there's so many of them okay well check out all the latest from Tommy Curran uh it's up now at NBC Sports Boston you can see him uh on uh uh quick slance Early Edition all over the thank you quick tonight go uh Patriots podcast tremendous tremendous de Mario Douglas irrelevant questions you're G to love oh oh I do like those little little can we get a little preview sneak peek yeah because I I do something CL hey hey what's your number and uh how he was able to decide on the number he got and that gets really really funny oh oh I asked Christian Gonzalez that yesterday and he was oh he had a ton of energy about that he was super excited to talk to us it was less funny so that's good okay good so you uh okay so that's that's tonight on quick slance did he have no energy uh it was not much not much no yeah he must have been maybe tired from the day must have been an exhausting practice that's true uh Tom we appreciate it thanks so much see you guys thanks Tom all right Tommy Curran joining us here on Wei brought to you by Flex car