Patriots Coaching: Who’s Really In Charge of the Offense?

are there too many coaches in the kitchen we examine whether or not Drake May is being held back not by Gerard Mayo but by his offensive cordinator plus we look ahead to Sunday's preseason finale against the Washington commanders all of that and more here on [Music] patcast the pcast I'm Brad Whitaker if you need a VPN visit expressvpn.com patcast get 3 months off of a 12-month annual plan again that's expressvpn.com patcast and right now what's going on in Foxboro is apparently a quarterback competition from everything that we've heard at least from head coach Gerard mayo and and a little less so from offensive coordinator Alex vanel but I think the question that I'm raising right now and that many are raising in New England is geran Mayo really in charge of the offense he's referred to new offensive coordinator Alex velt before as the head coach of the offense and from every everything we've seen so far it looks like that's the case that Alex velt is ultimately the guy who's in charge of who starts who doesn't he's the guy who's in charge of the development of Drake May and he's a guy who seems to have his biases and a lot of that has to do with the fact that he's worked with veteran jacobe brassette before in Cleveland and and had some success with brassett um not against New England in the one game that I actually watched where jacobe brassette played against the Pats as a member of the Cleveland Browns he was terrible that game I think threw multiple interceptions I think he threw a deep bomb interception on his first throw of the game jacobe brassette didn't look that good and he didn't hasn't looked that great at least over the last few weeks at training camp although I'll say he's he's certainly bounced back over the last few practices but from what we've seen Drake May seems to be the better quarterback and that's kind of the case over the last two to three weeks of training camp yeah Drake May struggled a little bit early there's still a lot he has to learn but he's taken care of a lot of his footwork and his mechanical issues and he's overall been a better quarterback not just in the preseason game that we saw last week against the Eagles but in the recent practices and he's working with less he's taking most of the second team SN he's taking all of the second team snaps and only recently started taking some first team snaps and even those Snaps are very limited for the most part it's jacobe brassette out there taking 75% of the first team snaps behind Center David Andrews and then they sprinkle in a few at the end for Drake May and then may stays on the field with the second team and as far as we know that is the plan for Sunday's preseason finale against the Washington commanders jacobe Bret is going to start he's going to start with the first team obviously everyone's going to go out there everyone's going to play and and then Drake May is going to come in like he did last week with the first team probably play just the series and then play well into the second quarter maybe potentially the third quarter with the second team unit and if this really is a quarterback competition Patriots yeah they're giving lip service to it but their actions haven't suggested it is a quarterback competition other than giving Drake may just a few snaps with the first team and what I'm wondering is if Drake May goes out on Sunday plays like out throws two to three touchdown passes and jacobe brasset struggles again is that going to be enough for May to win the job I think it should be I think May should have the job right now but that that's just my opinion but if Drake May vastly outperforms shobe brassette once again in this SE preseason finale game I mean is that enough for the team to evaluate and say he should be our starter even though he's barely taken any snaps from the first team offensive line at practice throughout of training Cam and really has only done it in the last week or so I'm not sure in fact I don't think so I think Alex velt has made up his mind and he is backtracking a little bit on Gerard Mayo's comments from earlier in the week where he said yeah brets are qb1 right now but it is a quarterback competition and Drake may could absolutely start week one against the Cincinnati Bengals well Van Pelt in his pressers this week or it was yesterday I believe he said he was asked about if Drake may can be the week one starter in Cincinnati and he said I'm sure you know Mayo said it's an open competition I'm sure there's a chance so it doesn't sound like that's what Alex Vel wants him to do and he continued saying that jacobe brassette right now has the advantage because he understands the tools that you can use to get out of certain situations in this offense and he added that Drake May is still learning that aspect of the game and and I don't doubt that there's certain things especially pre- snap reading defense is where jacobe Brett is going to have the edge for quite some time over the rookie drag May who's still earning in NFL offense and most importantly how to read defenses but I mean when it comes to extending plays and not being hampered by a bad offensive line and the athleticism and all the things that drg may brings to the table I still think he puts the team in the best position to win because when the play breaks down he's going to be able to do things that jacobe brassette cannot even if pre- snap he's not quite as efficient at getting the team in and out of the Huddle or you know reading defenses calling audibles changing routes doing the things veteran quarterbacks do just based on their experience of being in the NFL for for a number of years but I I don't know why you don't just put the guy out there and the reason why is because he has accelerated his development so much in the last two weeks where jacobe brassette has regressed quite a bit and you have have to also factor in what's going to happen to his development if he's not planning to be the starter if he's not going out there week after week being part of the game plan taking the first team reps like is he going to be part of the Scout teams is he going to take first team reps and Joe Milton and bayy zappy are going to be part of the Scout teams like that is going to hamper Drake May's development more than if you just put the guy out there and yeah maybe it's throwing him to the Wolves but again you don't have to treat this with M Jones kid gloves because he's the a quarterback that spent his entire college career playing behind one of the worst offensive lines in all of college football like this is nothing unusual for Drake May he's not going to be deterred when he doesn't have the pass protection most NFL quarterbacks need to succeed I think Drake May is going to be able to transcend that better than any of these rookie quarterbacks because he's dealt with it a lot more and look I I hear the arguments right like you want to sit a rookie quarterback behind a veteran sit him for a year have them be a sponge and then come in in year two or year three and take over because it worked well for guys like Patrick Mahomes it worked well for guys like Aaron roders it worked well for guys like Jordan love but the truth is Patrick Mahomes learned behind Alex Smith for a year Aaron Rogers learned behind Brett Favre Jordan love learned behind Aaron roders Drake May is learning behind jacobe brette these are all maybe not Alex Smith but I just mentioned Hall of Fame quarterback shakobi Brett is not going to the Hall of Fame I think I saw a stat he's thrown 51 touchdown passes in his entire career pton Manning threw 55 in one season in Denver like this is a a veteran backup that's what jacobe brassette is and if you're expecting him to be a top 30 quarterback which he might be I think he's right around 30 to be honest well then you're not necess necessarily putting the team in the best position to win because you have to think about the future franchise piece that you want to be a top 10 top five NFL quarterback which Drake May certainly has the traits to be and the the the areas where Drake may we all expected him to struggle were going through the progression going through his reads getting rid of the football quickly being efficient in the pocket and it took him some time to do that but I mean he's going through his reads faster than ma Jones did as a rookie and in M Jones I know we've written off as a bad quarterback at this point but he was a very good rookie quarterback Drake may can go through Reeds one through four in about two seconds and he wasn't doing that like two months ago like he's ready like he's ready in the sense that you can put him on the field and you can be comfortable saying he's going to make mistakes he's a rookie there's things he still needs to learn but he puts our team in the best position to win but I think what's really going on here is Alex vanel he's worried about job security he's worried about job security long term he's been vying to be a real offensive coordinator for quite some time now yeah I know he was the offensive coordinator in Cleveland but he wasn't the one calling plays that was stefansky their head coach and now he finally has a lot of authority he's referred to by Gerard Mayo as the head coach of the offense he finally has play calling duties and he doesn't want to be a oneandone offensive coordinator like the last two OC's that came through New England Bill O'Brien and Matt Patricia and he knows that he is a much shorter leash than a guy like Gerard Mayo if Gerard Mayo goes 0 and 17 his first season as the Patriots head coach he's not going to lose his job because Robert Craft is going to say look he we put him in a year earlier than we intended and th this is a developing team like we'll give Gerard Mayo another year to for him to prove it Gerard Mayo has at least two years as the Patriots had coach to prove himself whereas Alex velt doesn't really have that same excuse but the excuse that he does have is I've worked with jacobe brassette before he's our Bridge quarterback if I put him out there and we only win four to five games well you know we know this is a developing team we have a developing quarterback we're going to be much better now that drg may has sat on the bench for a year we can put him in as a starter for year two whereas if he puts Drake May out there they win four or five games with him they're going to say well you bungled it with with our rookie quarterback we want to see what we can do with a different offensive coordinat maybe we want to bring Josh McDaniels back this West Coast scheme isn't really working Alex Vel you're out of here so I think there there are cynical reasons behind this and there are biases with Alex velt and I think Gerard Mayo to be honest and our night and shining armor in Boston Michael felger agrees with this that Drake May gerro Mayo wants him to be the starter but he's given all the responsibility on the offense over to Alex Vel because gerod Mayo has never coached offense before he never played offense before and he has a lot to learn there so he's delegate delegating all of his duties to Alex Van Pelt and guys like TC McCartney the quarterback coach and the offensive line coach and Ben McAdoo who's there now they're the ones that are really in charge of the offense not necessarily Gerard Mayo who's really just kind of looking at the offense big picture at this point so who's really in charge of the offense I think it's Alex velt and I think Alex velt has a lot more trepidation about putting Drake May in there than Gerard Mayo who really wants to prove that he's a good NFL head coach right off the bat and I think Gerard Mayo wants to win games right away because if this is a team that is contending for a playoff spot this year even if they don't make the playoffs Patriots fans are going to consider that a success and I think Geron Mayo knows Drake May puts him in the best position to win right now just because he can do so much more than jacobe brassette can and that trumps the veteran experience that brassette brings to the table but Alex velt says I a lot more comfortable I've been in the league for a long time I'm a lot more comfortable going with the veteran and I have the excuse if Drake May is not out there week one if we underperform this season that hey this is a rebuilding phase and and we're heading into year two now I deserve to keep my job I think that's what's really going on here um but how does that change if we get to Sunday and jacobe brassette throws another Red Zone interception that would have been a pick six in a regular season game and then Drake May looks far superior out there does Alex Vel have the guts to say okay Drake May you're going to be our starter and you're going to be taking all the first team reps and jacobe brassette welcome back to the backup roll I'm not sure he's willing to do it but um Sunday will be interesting to see how that plays out and and if Dr may I think he's going to get a ton of reps like he did in the second preseason game wouldn't be surprised if we're in a scenario where he plays the second and most of the third quarter again or you bring him in Midway through the first quarter because you kind of know what you have with jacobe brassette but jacobe brassette has a lot to prove now because of his struggles the last couple of weeks so maybe they want to play him more to have a better evaluation and make that decision but I don't know it'll be interesting uh Patriots uh they've had a couple more practices since my last podcast umig been kind of low speed they've been practicing in shells and really preparing for the commanders as if it's a regular season game um once again on Friday's practice jacobe brasset took the vast majority of the first team reps Drake May got a few first team reps at the end and stayed in with the second team ended up getting a lot more reps overall Drake May did uh but jacobe brasset went nine of nine in practice um with those first team reps while Drake may impressively also went 15 of 17 so both both had a very good practice and um bayy zappy and Joe Milton are basically doing uh scout team work right now most of that is bayy zappy um which is kind of surprising because you're preparing for Washington although I don't think Jaden Daniels is going to play on Sunday I think if you want to replicate Jaden Daniels put you put Joe Milton out there on the scout team but right now it's it's zappy it doesn't sound like Jaden Daniels is going to be out there um but right now it's it's it's basically brassette is going to start Sunday they're going to treat him as a starter unless something changes drastically uh based on his performance um with vidan low out of the lineup Patriots are are sticking with this new offensive line uh putting uh Kaden Wallace out there or putting uh leaden Robinson out there uh but but on Friday's practice Kayon Wallace was back at the backup roll that said leaden Robinson was out there at Right Guard and Michael wenu was over at right tackle I believe let me double check that I'm not I'm not sure if that's actually true let me let me just look at that real quick because uh yeah yeah it was Mike O wenu at right tackle so Patriots are still reshuffling and I didn't think we'd see U Back on the far right side but he's there again and I I think that makes a lot of sense because City so had a very strong Camp even if he struggled a little bit um last week he's still been one of their better offensive linemen aside from Michael wenu and David Andrews and Leen Robinson their fourth round pick at guard has had a hell of a camp as well and I think it makes sense to have both of those guys in the starting lineup at least until Cole strange is back in healthy sometime in 2029 um and then chuk zakora for started at the uh left tackle spot with kateen Wallace kind of rotating in and out of both tackle roles um but right now it looks like the starting o line with vadan low out is chuk Aur for our left tackle City so at left guard David Andrews at Center leaden Robson at Right Guard and happy to see Michel wenu back at the right Tackle Spot even if he is a better Right Guard I mean just with all the holes at tackle that the Patriots have right now um y you need to put your best offensive lineman over at that position it's just so much more important and I think leaden Robinson has done enough to prove that he belongs in the starting lineup and that's what's happening this Sunday in the preseason game we'll see if that moves into week one uh with the same lineup uh cuts are going to start happening early next week uh there's still some battles uh for for some of the the depth spots uh for Edge rushers and with the the wide receivers uh I think tawon Thorton's going to start at least initially early in the season had a pretty good camp hasn't shown up in the actual games that's kind of been the story of his career um has struggled to stay healthy at times but he's done enough I think to earn a starting role alongside Jaylen pulk um the rookie that um I I think is clear going to start and of course to Mario Douglas their bread and butter slot receiver with KJ Osborne the veteran from Minnesota um coming in and getting getting some reps kind of rotating with with tawon thoron and Demario Douglas a little bit um Javon Baker continues to struggle he's had a rough two to three weeks now failed to make an impact at today's practice had no catches in team sessions he's going to make the team just because of the talent because of the development he's not going to be a High Vol Vol receiver he's a big splash big play type of type of guy um so you know he'll make the team and he'll he'll get reps it's just going to be very limited I think in year one um he looks kind of small out there I think he needs to put on a little bit of weight a little bit of muscle and and to be a little bit more consistent with with his catches where he did struggle a little bit at Central Florida at least in the first half of last season and then he got his act together a bit more in the second half but I think Javon Baker will make the team so that final spot I think kaan booty has done enough as well to make the team just because he's you throw the ball to him he catches it like he makes some spectacular catches and yeah there's a lot he needs to improve on in terms of the route running but the athleticism is there um the catch radius is there he has the hands he's had a good camp and he's a guy Bill bich drafted just because he was a raw receiver and had a very good camp last year he had an even better camp in year two then the other guy is Jaylen rager who I think will also make the roster as a receiver um not sure he'll get a ton of receiving reps even though he's been out in the starting lineup I think just for seniority reasons in the preseason but Jaylen rager brings a ton to the table when it comes to special teams you're not going to leave him off the roster especially with the new uh kickoff format that the NFL has implemented Jaylen rager is really going to excel in that alongside guys like Demario Douglas um and and you know there's a lot of different things they can do back out back there you could put Tonio Gibson you could put uh Jem Bell who's kind of like a large running back that plays tight end um Patriots can do a lot of experimenting on special teams a lot of NFL teams are going to do because this is a new format and and we're we're going to see how teams adapt to that um Jaylen reger's going to make the team um just for that reason but like I said final evaluations are on going right now Patriots are expected to make a decision about the quarterback uh role who's going to be the number one guy early next week probably Monday or Tuesday according to gerod Mayo doesn't mean we'll hear Monday or Tuesday but I I I bet we we probably will and uh Sunday night's game probably the biggest preseason game in Patriots history like it it's a big game to determine the future of Drake May the future of jacobe brassette who assumed the starting role but is is hanging on by a thread at this point and like I said I think Alex velt is the guy who is is making that decision uh a lot of Patriots fans which I'm really surprised about are really in favor of sitting Drake May for a year or at least half the season and having him learn a lot of Patriots fans really want a tank like they they want us to have a top five draft pick once again and then use that to take the best tackle in the draft or the best receiver or trade back and and package multiple first round picks like that seems to be the consensus among Patriots fans and I I disagree there I think you got to put the rookie out there and get him to learn on the Fly I think he's ready I think he's he's developed a lot faster than we were expecting despite all the reports that we were hearing three or four weeks ago he looks good and and Sunday will be a real test for May we'll be here to cover it at patcast late Sunday night after the game it's going to be an NFL Prime Time game on NBC kind of their uh dress rehearsal for the regular season um really the only uh Prime Time game the Patriots have all season yeah they have a Thursday night game but I think that's about it they're not slated for Sunday Night Football during the regular season they're not going to be on Monday Night Football now if they're contending for a playoff spot they could be flexed into a late season Prime Time game but as of right now this this is the only Sunday night football game the Patriots will be a part of um with their their broadcast team so we'll be here at patcast to cover it after Sunday night's game very late um you're not not going to want to miss it if you like this video be sure to smash that like button subscribe to the channel hit that notification Bell or subscribe if you're listening on Apple podcast or on Spotify and we'll see you on Sunday [Music] night fight rookie Improvement set to fly but has round it from the [Applause] sky P cast busting like a live wire new CU steps into the fire eyes on the prize hearts on the line DIY pre painted battle sign Pass cast B feels the thrill Drake Made t to fulfill B calls ready to rise we ready to fall P cast Ro feels the thrill Drake May Destiny to fill B help skap plan calls ready to rise or ready to fall Training Day drills with the whistle screams huddle tight making Patriot dreams coach stands firm yet thoughts unclear PS cast pondering casing fear rookie Spirit hope in his stri freedom and each thr no place to hide are late schemes are drawn are they solid enough to hold on Pass cast wave going in the air is the team ready to d new stepping from the shade only time will tell what's been cast feels the thrill Drake Made Destiny to fulfill Bel keep and calls ready to rise or ready to fall [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] cat Ro the thr tra May Destiny to fulfill that Bel keep play calls to rise or ready to fall [Applause] [Music]