Will the Non-Belichick Patriots Sink or Swim?

the New England Patriots they're off season in 60 seconds said goodbye to Bill bich who's the best most decorated football coach in NFL history that seems notable replaced him with gerod mayo their handpick successor Alex vanel comes in as the offensive coordinator Demarcus Covington who was previously on the staff elevated to defensive coordinator used the third overall pick on Drake May in-house extensions for like 17 players chrisan barmore Kyle Dugger rre Stevenson Hunter Henry jabriel Peppers Devon got Devon goshaw Tavi and David Edwards also kept around rain Mike on weny on a huge deal Kendrick Bourne on a huge deal uh anfred Jennings on a three-year deal brought in Antonio Gibson and Kobe Brett on short-term deals in free agency traded Matthew judon traded M Jones Mack Wilson goes to the Cardinals Trent Brown goes to the Bengals other notable draft picks Jaylen pulk in the second round Kaden Wallace offensive tackle in the third round blue chip checken for the Patriots how many did you have I don't know about any yeah it's zero I think it's zero in my mind the closest was Christian barmore when he's healthy but we're obviously not going to get him this year so it's probably zero and they've got a couple of nice players too I don't want to say that this is like a dumpster roster but I I probably couldn't get there to Blue Chip with a lot they've got a lot of good players on defense good players but I don't know how many elite players they have like Kyle Dugger is a good player some of the guys they have in the secondary are good players the linebackers are solid players they've got nice depth pieces along the defensive line but I I don't think any of them are blue chip players and I don't think it's offensive to say that it's always been a better than the sum of their parts unit and so even if you have some guys who are like pro bowlers there there weren't a whole lot of holy [ __ ] we have to play against this guy type of guys I think an wenu probably deserves mention like on the second tier he's a very good offensive lineman but again I don't think anybody reses to the Blue Chip level what significant question marks does this dep Shard have you can keep the short where do you want to start man like pretty much the entire roster outside of I mean they've got some good stuff on defense but pretty much def is solid the defense doesn't have that many glaring holes it's the offense like every spot and you could even say you know they went and drafted a quarterback in the top 10 and job's okay but those are tough spots to be in in year one of that situation so it's not great most of the offensive line and the pass catchers so everything that's not the quarterback about the offense I think is probably a hole or a question Mar on this roster the defense after trading judon like what what does the edge group look like you know does joshu J have to play more what do you get from Keon white like I think that's the biggest question on defense but all of those are mostly rooted on the other side of the ball what are you watching the first month of the season with this Patriots team this is a little more abstract than a lot more uh than a lot of my other answers for this question but to me it's just does this still feel like a Patriots defense uh because a lot of what happened with belich is obviously he's a great play caller and and he knows just the finer coaching points and all this stuff and when to call coverages and all these other things but so much of it was they just had an attitude about them that everyone was going to play Fast everybody was going to do their job everybody was going to hit and tackle and I'm just wondering how much of that energy can they maintain um and for two reasons one obviously losing Bill bellich and having to go to a different guy even if I have faith in drod mayo and he's obviously handpicked for the system it's still a question mark and then two how much value you even get out of that when you no longer have some of your star players like you don't have judon anymore Christian barmore is going to miss the season so how much of that like energy and attitude and play style how much does that actually lift when you don't have a couple of those real Lynch pins that that give you some o I'm with you on this though I I think maintaining that sort of feel across regimes is important and one of the reasons it's so important is because they've retained all these guys like the core is going to be the core because you've signed all these guys back barmore is back godshaw is back some of the guys you have on the edgers are back the linebackers are under contract you know the corners you just drafted or under contract the safeties you've signed to extensions so this is going to be the defense they have a ton of financial flexibility but you've committed to a lot of these pieces so if this doesn't feel like a top 10ish defense or at least a top 10ish defense when you add back in some of that star power like you mentioned then some of the bets you've made about what sort of Team you want to over the next two to three years were the wrong bets yes I 100% agree uh again I have some Faith it'll work and I will say they have a lot of their attitude guys still there like they lost their Stars obviously Jaan Bentley's still there galani Tay Kyle Dugger anern Jennings that dude sets a mean Edge if you haven't seen him like it's they have the guys there who are willing to still hit you and have that attitude it's just like I said some of the star power is gone I want to see what a guy like is in year two like do they have some of those younger pieces like is Christian Gonzalez a star like do you have maybe some of those Stars hiding in plain sight that make us feel a little bit different about this unit by the end of the year even without judon even without Christian barmore I think that's 100% right Keon white has theoretically the attitude he's got the attitude he's got the violence we just got to see it a little bit more in action I'm kind of with you like I I think it would probably be something offensive oriented but the fact that the first month is probably going to speed job peret makes me a little bit less excited about watching the offense over the first month and that doesn't say anything about Yobe peret he has been a fine quarterback in the NFL when given the opportunity but I'm not overly excited about watching him with this Supporting Cast on that side of the ball so I assume it'll be mostly focused on the defense yeah jacobe is a nice player but like we've also seen this movie and we know that none of the other supporting characters around him are all that interesting or or high level so yeah what's keeping you up up at night with this Patriots team I mean most of the offense like we said but this offensive line I just don't know if they can pass protect you know Run game wise I think they might actually be okay I think interior they actually have some dudes who can really move people around obviously in wenu city so can move people in the ground game uh Andrews is a good Center when he's uh you know when he's healthy in playing even leaden Robinson who's a rookie for them a rookie guard he's he was kind of moving people in the preseason so I don't know if he's going to end up playing at any point but they have dudes who can move people the Run game has protection wise this could get really ugly really fast and I don't know how it's going to get better I'm taking it wider than that what I what's keeping me up at night is this is going to be like a Bryce young esque support system for Drake May are we going to get to a point by week eight where no one can get open they have no juice at the pass catching spots and the offensive line is a total disaster and I don't think that's like a pessimistic view on how this can turn out you have all these questions along the line for Dar and low is your starting left tackle which okay Chuck cor for you paid $4 million a year as you're starting right tackle even if you're optimistic about the interior because Andrew's just pretty good you like onwenu still very worried about like three of the five spots along the offensive line and look at the pass catchers Bourne is starting the season injured Hunter Henry is currently hurt and is GNA Miss probably at least the first game so now we're talking about like a starting Trio of receivers that's tawon Thorton rookie Jaylen pul and who's the third one that I'm forgetting like de Mario Douglas probably Douglas okay so it's pop Douglas Jaylen pulk and tawon Thorton and I know that tawon Thorton has looked good in training camp and people are excited about tawon Thorton but this just feels dicey to me we were already shooting for the Middle with the pass catching spots in the best case scenario and now you've removed borne and Henry for potentially a period of time when they could have been the reliable guys that you were trotting out there so the floor for 10 of the 11 spots combined on the offense feels about as low as it did with Carolina last year and that is concerning to me so I'm of two minds on this first in terms of the non-quarterback players I basically agree it's a it's a bad roster you can even look at like the Jared gof Rams were pretty close to being this level of bad like the his first year um do you know what the difference between having the Jared gof and Bryce young rookie Seasons versus having a drake May or Josh Allen type of rookie season it's the talent at the quarterback position there is no denying that and that's why I don't think it'll be a Carolina Panthers 2023 esque outcome but I do think The Supporting Cast can be in that General range yeah I won't fight you on that one what are you excited about watching with this year's Patriots team I mean Drake May man fireworks show he's going to be I don't know how good it's going to be I don't know what type of numbers he can put up in this offense but it is going to be fun whenever they put him in there and I really think you know some people are are Heming and haing about like oh he's not the weak one starter and like Jaden Daniels is going to be all this other stuff I I think the Patriots and D Mayo understand that putting him behind this offensive line for 17 weeks might kill him and so they're going to give him a month or two to not have to go play behind that offensive line for a little bit and not create some scars issue but I think when we don't know that for sure now because D Mayo he's handled this very strangely over the last like 48 hours or so so today he came out we're recording this on Wednesday at like 5:00 p.m. Eastern he came out and said I know who the starting quarterback is I'm not going to tell you guys until tomorrow so this is how you know he's a Patriots coach by the way we will know sometime after we record this but on the day that the show is released to the day one starting quarterback is for the Patriots I would not be surprised if they followed your logic and thought it would be better to feed jacobe peret to opposing defenses for the first month of the Season what did you think of Drake May in the preseason dude he was good I I thought he was really good man like he so there are a couple of reasons I thought he looked good the first one to me is I think people really really misunderstood what his pocket presence was in college I think they saw some of the sliding and some of the weird stuff that he was willing to do and some of his janky footwork as being oh he just doesn't know what's going on and he's doing this crazy stuff in the pocket if you actually watched him he was sliding away from stunts moving away from Loopers doing all this stuff anticipating blitzes so that's why he was moving in the pocket you go see him in the preseason he's doing all the same stuff against Real NFL defenses and I was like okay he's going to be just fine in this sense and then footwork wise I actually thought his drop back footwork was not perfect he still had a couple of oopsies like the I think his first flat route he threw in the second preseason game he like skyed over Javon Baker's head almost and so he still has some oopsies but it's more consistently clean than it was at UNCC and so if that's where we're starting in his first preseason action I think by year two year three is going to be fine to me it felt like watching Drake May in college in in weighs both good and bad right and I think it's what Drake May is and this has been true throughout the draft process he's whatever you want him to be like if you want to talk yourself into some of the big plays and you want to talk yourself into the pocket presence and the mobility as well like his ability to get himself out of a bad spot because of the ways that he moves and like avoiding sacks things like that he does that very very well but at the same time like there are times when he's running into pressure unnecessarily there are times when he's just like jittering around the pocket in ways that make no sense and then just la like Sky mailing a throw over some bu's head like that does happen and I think it's just a matter of you trying to decide how much of that matters compared to the good things that you see how much of that matters compared to him sliding up in the pocket and delivering an absolute laser on a Crosser the fact that the presence seems pretty good and the physical Talent is excellent I'm willing to kind of Overlook some of those moments where you're like what the [ __ ] just happened and that's going to go on every once in a while with him but I again I think that this was pretty much what you would come to expect if you watched him in college my take on some of his plays where he maybe does walk himself into pressure and it does happen I'm not going to deny it or where he maybe throws from a platform he didn't even need to and then he ends up missing a throw like why why are you running into the offensive line and throwing this ball on like a full Sprint I just think he's one of those guys where he's always trying to do the hardest thing and you even still see this today from Matthew Stafford and I just kind of think his Drake's brain works that way and so obviously getting to the level of Matt saffer is going to take a long time and that's really hard but he just has that like wiring to him and when you have the physical talent that you have and some of the almost numb ability to just play Under Pressure I that's a guy I want to bet on I would much rather need refinement than need I would much rather need to refine a guy than need to instill him with a level of aggressiveness right like that's that's where I am with Drake may I would much rather have to re a guy in then have to push him forward and when you watch him play I think that's exactly what you're getting the most important supporting character in your mind on this year's Patriots team is I mean pick any offensive lineman outside of David Andrews and Michael and wenu literally any of those guys uh or also you know you mentioned him earlier Keon white he didn't put up numbers last year but if you watch Keon white on film he's kind of got some pop to him and he's a guy who actually did a decent job of crushing the pocket kind of in that mold like almost the John Franklin Myers you know that he's a little bit smaller than that I think but that same type of body type so if Keon white can take a step especially now with judon out of the building that could be huge can any of the receivers break out like can any of these guys by the time we get to the middle of the Season be like oh I kind of like that guy if it's tawon thordon if it's Jaylen pulk if it's Demario Davis whatever because that didn't really H I keep referring back to last year's Panthers because that's just in my mind just that's the fear I have here the fact that it was Adam Thelen and we knew it wasn't real like can it be somebody that is under the age of 32 where we think that there's actually an upward trajectory happening here if that's the case I would feel much better about the state of this offense and the other guy I throw in there is Scott Peters their offensive line coach like can he get workable play from this group by the end of the year as a first year offensive line coach if he can be like a lifter and a multiplier for that group and the way that we've seen with other offensive line coaches in the past I think that would go a long long way is of the receivers is there one you would like to bet on would you like to that would be the one that would be the one I would hope he's good you drafted him in the second round like you would really hope that that guy becomes like a plus starter for you this team has like a 100,000 like hundred million in cap space next year like I don't even know what the number is but it's absurd they will be able to afford whatever receiver they want if that guy's willing to come play in New England so whether that's T Higgins whether that's Brandon iuk whoever it is ends up being this group should get an injection of talent some way somehow over the next year but if pul can be like your number two established that you feel really good about as part of that equation I think that would be a decent outcome yeah that makes sense we're getting ahead of ourselves but you mentioned T Higgins if we could get two Ball winners like that for a guy like Drake who's just G to throw it at people no matter what yeah we're cooking I mean this team was begging Brandon iuk essentially to come there and he refused to do it but I think that they'll probably be in a pretty similar position this off season what counts as a successful season in your mind for these New England Patriots Drake May coming out of it alive on the other end and having some of the flashes that lead you to believe that he's the guy and then the defense kind of like we said M maintaining that attitude and like top eish play I think now without some of the Stars it's going to be hard to do top two or top three or wherever I put him in the show but top eight or 10 is probably pretty reasonable yeah I think May comes out on the other side looking like a guy and you retain some of that defense of DNA where you can just rely on that sort of play year in and year out as you figure out the offense even if you win three games this year if you get those flashes and you get that kind of proof of concept defensively that's all that matters being the worst team in the league and getting the number one pick that's okay like that that that's okay take it from me take it from a team a guy who roots for a team that did that and now is in a much better spot because of it the wins and losses are not always the most important thing it's about which direction the arrow isn't pointed and do you have have a pathway to a differenc making quarterback and I think the answer to that could be yes by the end of this season even if this ends up being the worst team in the NFL I think that's absolutely spot on you go spend that first overall pick on a Travis Hunter on a Mike Kel Williams somebody like that maybe one of the tackles there's a million of them I think in this next class so or you get to a place where Carson Beck looks really good really wants Carson Beck whoever it happens to be name your oh for a trade okay for a second I thought this was a drake May thing no no no no no you are you're in position now where you have your quarterback hopefully and if you have the number one pick and there's a quarterback that's worth chasing you can trade that thing for a king's Ransom and it puts you in a pretty good spot yeah okay now you've got me I had to I had to recalibrate there for a second but I'm good [Music]