In the latest episode of the Greg Bedard Patriots Podcast with Nick Cattles, hosts Greg and Nick discuss several important topics affecting the New England Patriots and the AFC East. They start by analyzing the impact of the Buffalo Bills trading Stefon Diggs to the Houston Texans and consider how this move shifts the balance within the division. They then assess the current state of the AFC East and debate whether the Patriots have a chance to compete for the top spot.
The conversation also includes insights into the upcoming NFL Draft, specifically focusing on quarterbacks. Greg and Nick share coaching intel on prospects like Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, and JJ McCarthy, based on Bruce Feldman of The Athletic's mock draft. Additionally, they address questions from BSJ members, with a particular emphasis on which wide receivers the Patriots should target in the draft to improve their offensive lineup.
EPISODE TIMELINE:
0:00 Bills trade Stefon Diggs to the Texans
3:40 Should Pats have been involved?
8:45 Are the Bills done?
12:40 How does the AFC East stack up … do the Patriots have a chance?
16:13 Coaching intel on the draft QBs via Bruce Feldman of The Athletic in his mock draft
17:00 2. Commanders: Jayden Daniels
18:10 3. Patriots: Drake Maye
20:45 4. Vikings (trade up): JJ McCarthy
27:36 BSJ member mailbag questions
27:30 What WRs do you think the Patriots should be interested in drafting?
30:45 Greg's ideal plan for Draft
33:47 JJ McCarthy
36:55 Did Tyquan pick hurt Matt Groh?
The conversation also includes insights into the upcoming NFL Draft, specifically focusing on quarterbacks. Greg and Nick share coaching intel on prospects like Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, and JJ McCarthy, based on Bruce Feldman of The Athletic's mock draft. Additionally, they address questions from BSJ members, with a particular emphasis on which wide receivers the Patriots should target in the draft to improve their offensive lineup.
EPISODE TIMELINE:
0:00 Bills trade Stefon Diggs to the Texans
3:40 Should Pats have been involved?
8:45 Are the Bills done?
12:40 How does the AFC East stack up … do the Patriots have a chance?
16:13 Coaching intel on the draft QBs via Bruce Feldman of The Athletic in his mock draft
17:00 2. Commanders: Jayden Daniels
18:10 3. Patriots: Drake Maye
20:45 4. Vikings (trade up): JJ McCarthy
27:36 BSJ member mailbag questions
27:30 What WRs do you think the Patriots should be interested in drafting?
30:45 Greg's ideal plan for Draft
33:47 JJ McCarthy
36:55 Did Tyquan pick hurt Matt Groh?
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SportsTranscript
00:00 This is the Greg Bidard Patriots podcast with Nick Cavins.
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00:25 All right, Greg, let's start about with some big NFL news.
00:29 Game out yesterday, Stephon Diggs gets traded from Buffalo to Houston.
00:33 Just your initial reaction to that trade when you saw it.
00:37 My initial reaction and seeing that the bills took, I think it was $31 million in terms
00:44 of a cap hit this year.
00:46 Didn't even do the June 1st designation to split it out over two years.
00:54 To me, that told me that the bills wanted out of the Stephon Diggs business, that they
00:58 were sick of his act, sick of his little sort of comments here and there, whether it's about
01:06 Josh Allen or about some of the teammates or about the bills in general.
01:12 And that this is now the second team, including the Vikings, that were just like, yeah, love
01:18 the guy, very talented, but yeah, we don't really want him around here anymore in this
01:24 team environment.
01:25 So that was my initial impression.
01:29 And I will also say that in terms of the player and where he is in his career, to me, I saw
01:37 a player that for whatever reason, and it could have been attitude, it could have been
01:42 he didn't like Sean McDermott or didn't like his offensive coordinator, the changes that
01:46 they, I don't know.
01:48 But I saw a player in the second half of the season that was in decline, that was not playing
01:53 well, that was not much of a factor anymore.
01:56 Now I'm not saying he's done or anything like that, but I just don't think that people have
02:01 to be careful about like attaching, just falling in love with the name instead of the actual
02:07 film and production.
02:08 And to me, Stephon Diggs was no longer Stephon Diggs.
02:12 He was a lesser version.
02:14 He's got a lot of miles on him.
02:15 He's going to be 31 this year.
02:19 And but I do think it's a good move for the Texans.
02:21 I think he's the type of guy, a veteran guy can get open at least in the short term for
02:25 a year or two, can help a young offense, a young quarterback.
02:30 But for where the bills were, I understand their decision.
02:33 Yeah, I mean, when I looked at this deal, I first thought of our conversation going
02:39 back a month and a half ago, two months ago, about how Houston could be a blueprint for
02:44 the Patriots in this idea of, hey, you've got the third pick in the draft this year.
02:48 You could draft your future quarterback, your franchise face for the next 10 to 15.
02:53 Not saying that Drake, May, Jaden Daniels, whoever it is for the Patriots will end up
02:56 being as good as CJ Stroud.
02:58 Just the idea of landing your franchise quarterback with that top three pick.
03:02 And you look at how they handled free agency last couple of years.
03:05 I think the Patriots could follow a very similar path.
03:09 And then maybe, you know, next year would be the year to have that big swing and not
03:13 necessarily this year to make that kind of a trade.
03:16 That's the first thought I had.
03:18 Then I started to think about Josh Allen.
03:21 And Gabe Davis is gone.
03:23 Diggs is gone.
03:24 How will that change the offense for the Buffalo Bills, which we'll get into in a little bit.
03:28 But I started to think, well, the pressure is now on Josh because Josh needs to really
03:33 come through without his security blanket.
03:37 And you know, how will he look if things aren't going great early on because of such a dramatic
03:42 change?
03:43 Should the Patriots, Greg, have been involved here?
03:46 No, no.
03:47 I completely agree with you.
03:49 The Patriots are not in a place yet to do this type of deal.
03:55 Could they, provided they take a quarterback at three and he shows some promise and the
04:01 team's competitive and, you know, could they do it at, say, the trade deadline?
04:05 Yeah, it's possible.
04:06 But I think it's more likely that, say, the Patriots follow the Texans plan and they're
04:13 pretty competitive.
04:14 They're around 500 this year.
04:17 They draft a couple, one or two draft wide receivers.
04:21 And there's some promise there, but maybe they're not sure whether they're going to
04:26 be quite ready to deliver.
04:28 Then yeah, you make the Stephon Diggs move next offseason.
04:32 But where the Patriots are now to bring in a, look, a Diva wide receiver?
04:39 No, it makes zero sense for the Patriots to do it.
04:44 Just look at, just look at what.
04:46 I mean, look, Devontae Adams, I don't think anybody would call him a Diva, but you know,
04:51 when you're, when you're a wide receiver who gets a lot of media attention, who gets paid
04:55 a lot of money, who the team gives up a lot of capital, whether it's draft and or money,
05:02 and you're that guy every, after every game in the locker room, if you don't catch more
05:07 than three balls, like people are asking, like, why didn't you touch the ball?
05:10 And like, you know, you, you invite all this stuff.
05:12 Just look at the Raiders and Josh McDaniels.
05:14 I mean, I think we all thought it was a really good move.
05:18 Devontae Adams, Carr, former college teammates.
05:22 It made sense.
05:24 But to me, that just reinforced, you do not bring in that sort of alpha top flight Diva
05:31 ish wide receiver until you're damn sure about the quarterback, because it's going to overshadow
05:39 everything and be a problem.
05:41 And so where the Patriots are right now, it made zero sense for them to, to go and get
05:46 stuff on digs.
05:47 If the bills even would have traded them in the division, which I highly doubt.
05:51 Yeah, I would have been out.
05:52 I mean, if, if I were the Patriots and I was on the phone, I'd be out.
05:56 I don't even know if I'd get on the phone.
05:57 He's going to be 31 in November and his, his attitude, Greg, as you mentioned, like he
06:01 had run-ins in Minnesota.
06:03 They got tired of them run-ins in Buffalo when they were contending, he got tired of
06:07 them.
06:08 And he's running with him and he's just kind of drums up drama for his quarterback.
06:14 And I would not want that impacting the future of this franchise.
06:19 If you draft mayor Daniels or McCarthy or whoever you draft, I don't want that getting
06:23 in the way of their development.
06:25 And so I just think he's a guy, you mentioned this, he did look like he took a step back
06:29 last year.
06:30 Maybe he'll be motivated.
06:31 He'll have the chip on his shoulder to prove the world wrong.
06:34 And it'll be better this year.
06:36 But I do think he took a step back.
06:38 And the contract is outrageous and you're going to end up handcuffing yourself for a
06:41 number of years.
06:42 If you try to rework that deal, I do want to ask you a question though, off of what
06:45 you just said, you have been talking about the Patriots trading for a wide receiver at
06:50 some point, whether it's right before the draft, during the draft or after the draft.
06:54 Should I take your comments on digs as you stepping back from that thought and thinking
07:00 maybe they shouldn't pull the trigger on a deal like that just yet?
07:05 Possibly, but I think the Calvin Ridley pursuit tells us a lot.
07:16 That they viewed the roster and also what might happen in a draft and realized like
07:20 if we just go to the draft, this is going to be a process.
07:23 And do we have enough of a wide receiver?
07:25 In their opinion, going after aggressively Calvin Ridley, to me that tells me that they
07:30 see it the same way where no, we need to get some sort of at least bridge guy at wide receiver.
07:37 However, you know, these guys, and I think you've, you've talked about it, Nick, everything
07:43 the Patriots have done pretty much like they're getting younger guys.
07:47 Like, you know, the Patriots are going to make a move and look, Calvin Ridley's not
07:52 young, but in terms of NFL football, he is because he basically had like a year and a
07:58 half off.
07:59 So he's more like, yeah, he's going to turn 30 this year.
08:03 I think it is.
08:04 He's more like a 27 year old wide receiver in terms of mileage between the college game
08:10 and the pro game.
08:11 And so to me, the Patriots, I think they will still be looking for, you know, could it be
08:17 T Higgins, somebody like that?
08:19 Yeah, it could be depending on what the deal is and what kind of contract.
08:23 But to me, the Patriots are doing this the right way that they're not, they're not wasting
08:27 their time with older bridge guys that might make them more competitive, more sexy this
08:34 year.
08:35 What they're looking for at just about every position is, is, is a younger player with
08:40 term that has a chance to grow in the system and give the Patriots a really good player.
08:46 What's the deal with the bills?
08:47 Are they done?
08:48 Uh, you know, good question.
08:52 I was just looking at their, at their depth chart.
08:57 Um, I think Nick, in my opinion, I think this is, I think a lot of teams, especially the
09:04 teams who have the mega quarterback with the mega contract, I think they are, they looked
09:11 at what the chiefs did last year, what the chiefs have done the past couple of years.
09:14 I mean, they won back to back super bowls after trading Tyreek Hill.
09:18 Um, at the time, I'm sure if you pulled most NFL fans, when they traded Tyreek Hill, people
09:25 would have been like 90% against it.
09:28 Like what the hell are you doing?
09:29 I mean, you know, fantasy football, like Tyreek Hill's awesome.
09:32 He's the best.
09:33 He's fast.
09:34 He's this and that.
09:35 And guess what?
09:36 The chiefs go out and win two super bowls with, you know, Juju Smith Schuster.
09:40 And I don't even know what the hell they had last year.
09:43 Uh, you know,
09:44 Oh, we're seeing rice when he's, when he's not, uh, when he's not driving, uh, allegedly
09:49 when he's not street racing, he was out there.
09:51 Right.
09:52 Yeah.
09:53 And, and, you know, you even have to look at last year, like you could understand the
09:55 first year because Travis Kelsey was like elite.
09:58 He, at least Patrick homes had somebody who was elite around him that he could rely on.
10:05 And he did that two years ago, Travis Kelsey this past year was not elite.
10:09 He wasn't, he just, you know, I think it was injury.
10:12 He got, he got hurt very early on.
10:14 I think coming out of training camp, um, was sort of never the same all year, but you know,
10:20 you look at it and these teams are now saying they're going off the chiefs blueprint, which
10:25 is if, if we're paying you like a number one quarterback, then you need to L it's sort
10:31 of the same thing that the Patriots did with Brady.
10:33 You have to, we're relying then again, Brady didn't get the mega contract, but, um, same
10:39 sort of thing where you were paying you, you need to elevate these guys.
10:43 And I think another component of this is I think that teams are now viewing what's coming
10:49 out of the college game in terms of wide receivers.
10:53 They're now almost viewing these guys like running backs where it's, you know, draft
10:58 them, develop them, play them right away.
11:01 They can play right away.
11:02 And as soon as they, they reach big money, we're just going to recycle through guys.
11:06 So I would expect the bills now, Gabe Davis, people, people say, well, he also lost Gabe
11:11 Davis.
11:12 I'm not, I'm not a Gabe Davis fan.
11:13 I did not.
11:14 I look at the bills decision and I say, this makes sense from a football perspective that
11:19 Gabe Davis wasn't that good.
11:22 Stefan Diggs was in decline and now the bills are saying, we're just going to replace them
11:26 with guys in the draft.
11:28 Hopefully we'll be, we'll do better than we did with, uh, Khalil Shakur and you know,
11:33 who is a fifth round pick who hasn't really popped, but that's what they're going to do.
11:37 And I think you're going to see a lot of teams do that.
11:40 Same thing that the Packers have done with their young guys.
11:42 They have all young guys who have been drafted and developed by the team and that's the way
11:47 they're going to go forward.
11:48 Yeah, we'll see what they do in the draft.
11:50 I would imagine that they'd at least entertain drafting a wide receiver at the end of the
11:54 first round.
11:55 I think they're at pick 28 if I remember correctly, they're towards the, uh, later portion of
12:00 the first round.
12:01 Maybe an ad Mitchell, maybe a Xavier worthy, maybe as a bill, again, maybe one of those
12:06 guys they think they can grab and develop.
12:09 But I think, you know, this is an offense that that went through a change last year.
12:13 Ken Dorsey was fired.
12:14 Joe Brady took over.
12:16 They ran the football a little bit more.
12:18 They use Josh Allen and his legs more than they had been earlier in the season.
12:23 Cooks cook played fantastic.
12:26 So he's somebody who looks like he's going to be a thousand yard back and they got two
12:29 young tight ends.
12:31 They invested heavily in that position.
12:32 So I wouldn't be surprised if they go a little bit more tight end heavy with their offense.
12:36 So this is kind of a changing of the ways and going a little bit younger.
12:40 AFC East, how would you slot the teams right now, Greg?
12:45 Um, that's a really good question.
12:49 I mean, everybody, the, the bills and dolphins definitely took some hits.
12:52 Yep.
12:53 Um, in, in free agency, the jets have added, but man, you know, I mean, that team is like
13:00 a double ARP team and like, you know, between, you know, Rogers and, um, Tyron Smith and
13:07 you know, Mr. Glass, Mike Williams on the outside and let alone the other, you know,
13:13 uh, other former Packers that they brought on board.
13:17 Um, I think the AFC East is pretty shaky.
13:20 Um, of course, a lot of this is going to depend on how good Aaron Rogers is at, at his age,
13:26 coming back from the Achilles.
13:28 But you know, I would still slot them pretty much the same way I, until I see differently,
13:34 I'm going to believe in the bills.
13:36 I think that Sean McDermott, yeah, they lost some guys, especially at safety, but they
13:40 believe in their system.
13:42 It's a, their defensive system is good.
13:45 It's sound, uh, sort of bend, but don't break type of thing.
13:49 It works for them.
13:50 It's always worked for Sean McDermott.
13:52 They still have the best quarterback in the division.
13:54 So as of right now, I, I I'm, as of right now, pending the draft and everything I'm
14:00 going bills, dolphins, jets, and yes, Patriots last.
14:05 I can't boost them up not knowing who the hell the quarterback is, the left tackle or
14:10 what they do at wide receiver.
14:11 So until, until I know otherwise, the Patriots are still in last with all the changes they've
14:17 had this off season.
14:18 I agree with you at three and four, I would swap Buffalo and Miami.
14:21 I do think Miami will take that step.
14:24 They lost a couple of important people though.
14:26 Right?
14:27 I mean, Wilkins has gone, hunt has gone, uh, Xavier and Howard has gone, but they did bring
14:30 in Kendall Fuller.
14:31 So Fuller will replace Howard, uh, at the cornerback slot.
14:35 But I would go Miami just above Buffalo.
14:38 Pretty tight though.
14:39 I don't think there's a huge difference between those two teams right now.
14:42 Uh, before we get into some draft stuff, this just came across, caught my eye, Greg, Aaron
14:46 Wilson reporting that, uh, Miles Bryant's contract with Houston is one year, 1.75 million
14:54 ipso facto.
14:56 You are a Belichick guy and we didn't have interest in you coming back.
15:00 Right.
15:01 Yeah, for sure.
15:03 Um, yeah, I think that's, uh, that's disappointing for miles.
15:08 I think he's a better player than that as we've, um, talked about, especially just the
15:12 versatility that he provides.
15:14 But that, uh, yeah, that's woof.
15:17 That's um, not very much.
15:18 And obviously the Patriots did not want him back.
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16:13 Let's jump to the draft.
16:14 Mr. Berdard, Bruce Feldman came out with his mock draft, including some Intel on these
16:19 players.
16:20 You can catch that at the athletic.
16:21 Let's start with Jaden Daniels at number two.
16:23 Everybody knows that Caleb Williams is going to one shark Chicago.
16:27 So that's, that's done all set.
16:29 So let's start at number two.
16:30 He's got Jaden Daniels going there.
16:32 And here's a quote from Feldman story quote.
16:34 I tell people this outside of Patrick Mahomes, I have not coached against someone like this.
16:40 He's just very hard to defend.
16:42 We try to force him to run, to take it out of his hands, the throws he makes and the
16:45 timing he has.
16:46 I thought it was second to none.
16:49 Yeah, this, um, this pretty much in, and, uh, let me just give a shout out to Bruce
16:54 Feldman who, you know, I've known for years.
16:57 I think he, he and Pete family are sort of top notch on the college game and are sort
17:01 of my go-to guys.
17:03 They have a lot of deep sources.
17:04 So this is from, this is from a coach.
17:06 These quotes are going to be from coaches that went against these players.
17:10 And to me, this quote pretty much backs up what I think about Jaden Daniels and what
17:14 I've heard from NFL people that he's just, he's just dynamic and special in terms of
17:22 the problem he presents to a defense in terms of his deep throwing ability and his running
17:28 ability.
17:29 Both are now I'm not, I'm not saying that Jaden Daniels has the biggest arm in the world.
17:33 He doesn't, but his ability to, uh, throw from the pocket, um, not need much room, uh,
17:39 to operate in there and to deliver the ball down the field.
17:42 Plus his running ability.
17:44 It's it's special.
17:46 It's um, it's, it's going to be, you know, and I heard from somebody who would know,
17:51 uh, that, you know, he's, he's Lamar Jackson with better throwing ability and that should
17:58 scare a lot of people.
18:00 Um, and it should excite the team that he goes to.
18:03 I just think that Daniels is that special.
18:06 And I think that that quote is, uh, completely accurate.
18:09 All right, let's jump to Drake May Feldman has him going third to the Patriots.
18:13 Got a couple of quotes.
18:14 I'll ask you your thoughts on each quote.
18:17 When I read through them, the first one quote, really good arm, love his pocket presence,
18:21 his awareness of where all the rushers are, whether it was four or five or six was off
18:26 the charts.
18:27 It made him hard to pass rush any risk you took.
18:30 He felt it and was able to expose you.
18:32 He could make you pay on just about anything you do.
18:35 He was really hard to deal with.
18:36 I wouldn't say he's Trevor speaking of Lawrence, but he's probably the best we've seen since
18:42 Trevor.
18:43 Yeah, that was probably the thing that jumped out to me the most in that quote was about
18:48 his pocket presence and, and having and an innate ability to feel the rush.
18:55 That's extremely important.
18:57 I hadn't heard that before.
19:00 I would say that the film, I think the film backs that up.
19:04 Again, most of my criticisms of Drake may aren't really the, uh, his instincts in the
19:10 way he plays.
19:11 It's more just mechanical stuff.
19:13 And, and it depends on how fixable you think that stuff is where it just leads to, I mean,
19:18 he misses throws.
19:19 You're just like, what the hell?
19:20 How do you miss that throw?
19:22 It's right there.
19:23 So, but to me that quote about him being able to feel the rush definitely, uh, perked up
19:29 my ears a little bit.
19:31 And I'm like, well, that is definitely a feather in his cap.
19:34 Let's roll with the second quote.
19:36 I think he could be a better quarterback than Caleb Williams.
19:38 If you can protect him, he throws the bleep out of it.
19:41 But the last two years we could tell that he really doesn't like all that stuff around
19:45 him.
19:46 I thought Sam Howell was a tougher kid.
19:48 Yeah.
19:49 And he also said he gets a little bit scared back there.
19:52 In my opinion.
19:53 Um, this is the other side of the coin with Drake may and stuff that the, the teams, especially
19:59 the Patriots are going to have to ferret out when they talk to him, when they do deep dives
20:03 on him.
20:05 Um, you know, you worry about, uh, because you saw so much drifting and so much, so many
20:13 footwork problems last year when things weren't good around him and everyone readily admits
20:19 that from the offensive line to the receivers, to the change in offensive philosophy.
20:24 Um, you, this, this is, this gives you pause and it gives me pause and it's there on film
20:31 and you, you, this is something the Patriots are going to have to figure out.
20:34 And if they don't have conviction on it, then they need to bail on the pick and trade down
20:41 or perhaps do something different, uh, with the next guy that we're going to talk about.
20:46 Let's talk about him.
20:47 JJ McCarthy, not one, not two, but three quotes on JJ.
20:51 Let's hit the first one.
20:52 Michigan coaches Feldman wrote this loved his leadership skills and his demeanor with
20:56 one saying quote, he doesn't have a bad day.
20:59 And if he does, he doesn't let anybody know it.
21:01 And that's the mark of a good leader Feldman, right?
21:04 It's even more impressive coaches say is his intellect and his understanding of coverage
21:08 after a drive as coaches would ask what the coverages were quote, and he'd be exactly
21:13 right unquote.
21:16 Off the charts, good in both areas.
21:18 And, and, you know, really brings JJ up a notch and it begins to make you understand
21:24 why he's being talked about, um, more and more, um, you know, the leadership stuff,
21:31 the, the, the, the ability to decipher coverages and know what he's doing.
21:35 That's, those are all elite traits.
21:37 And when you're talking about intangibles and as we all know, that's sort of, uh, the
21:42 make or break thing when it comes to a quarterback in the NFL is, you know, what's, what's under
21:47 the hood, what's in the head, what's, what's in the chest.
21:51 And, uh, with those two quotes, um, he's sort of off the charts.
21:55 Good.
21:56 And in those areas, before I get to the second quote on McCarthy, I want to put GM Greg Bedard
22:01 in the war room on draft night.
22:04 If it's between elite traits, elite physical traits or elite intangibles, which way are
22:11 you leaning?
22:16 Great question, Nick.
22:18 Um, now I will say, I will say, first of all, it depends on how close they are with
22:24 the intangibles.
22:25 Um, how big of a drop off is it?
22:28 Right.
22:29 Um, you have to look in both areas.
22:30 Like, you know, what's, what are you giving?
22:32 How, how big, I mean, if it's a huge gap, then I'm probably going to the intangibles.
22:36 Um, but, uh, me as of right now, uh, especially with what the Patriots have gone through,
22:45 what they went through with Mack Jones and some of the other quarterbacks that we see
22:48 around the league, I'm deferring to elite traits.
22:52 As long as the intangibles isn't a huge drop off or huge unknown.
22:55 All right.
22:56 Quote number two on McCarthy from Bruce Feldman story is mock draft quote.
23:00 I think too many people are getting caught up trying to look at box scores instead of
23:03 watching film.
23:04 He makes a lot of plays for them after the play breaks down.
23:07 There's some wow stuff in there.
23:09 He's on a dead sprint and he makes some perfect throws when he has to get out and make a play.
23:14 He can really do it.
23:15 Unquote.
23:16 Again, another, um, elite comment that makes you, uh, sort of sit up and be like, you know,
23:23 this is good stuff.
23:24 And now, you know, this quote is from an opponent.
23:28 The first quote was from the Michigan coaches.
23:30 Um, so, I mean, this is, again, this is, uh, this kind of thinking and the stuff you do
23:38 see, you do see some of this stuff on film.
23:40 Um, it makes you think longer and harder about JJ McCarthy for sure.
23:49 One more on McCarthy.
23:50 I thought he was great.
23:52 You could tell he was the alpha male on that team from a leadership standpoint.
23:56 He was coached up well on how to make throws and make the decisions very fast.
24:00 He throws very well on the run.
24:01 He did have a really good old line and a good defense, but we did not think their wide receivers
24:06 were great and he made it all go.
24:09 Um, yeah, you know, sort of like, um, the last checkoff where you just like, you know,
24:16 alpha male leadership led the team to a national championship.
24:20 Um, it's all really good stuff and it's going to make me, when I get into a little bit more
24:26 into the JJ McCarthy film, look a little bit harder and sort of, you know, pick out, um,
24:32 try to, try to decipher, you know, why the Michigan coaches made the decisions they did
24:36 in terms of the offense.
24:38 I still, I still have problems with a team when the coaches decide to be conservative
24:44 with their quarterback, especially on third and medium third and long.
24:48 That's something that's hard to get past because coaches make decisions for a reason.
24:52 And sometimes they took the ball out of McCarthy's hands and that has to be addressed.
24:57 Maybe it was just because Harbaugh just played through the defense and we're just going to
25:00 be conservative sort of Dave Wonstad.
25:03 It's not a sin to punt type of thing.
25:05 But, um, all of those quotes, uh, sort of make you sit up and be like, okay, this McCarthy
25:12 stuff might be legit.
25:14 I think it's all part of the mosaic, so to speak, right?
25:17 When you're evaluating a quarterback and that's why it's so tough.
25:20 Nobody knows.
25:21 Okay.
25:22 Greg can pour through the film and we can get all of these quotes, good and bad on all
25:26 of these guys.
25:27 The truth is nobody really knows if, if people knew how to evaluate quarterbacks flawlessly,
25:32 then we'd, we'd see a lot more guys hitting than missing.
25:36 Right?
25:37 So nobody truly knows when, when you take that next step, what happens in, in part of
25:41 that or, or pretty much the biggest part, if not all of it is because there's so much
25:47 involved when you evaluate a quarterback, it's, it's the leadership, it's the acumen,
25:52 it's the toughness, it's the competitiveness, it's, you know, the accuracy in the pocket,
25:58 out of the pocket.
26:00 How is he from a mobility standpoint now in 2024 with, with the athleticism jumping off
26:06 the charts across the league, but just all of these things, how does he handle adversity?
26:11 Like all it is such a long list that you have to go through before you say yes or no on
26:18 a quarterback.
26:19 And that's why it's difficult because nobody's going to be all yeses unless you're Andrew
26:23 luck.
26:24 Andrew looks like all yeses, all yeses.
26:26 No question about that guy.
26:28 Those are one in a million when you talk about quarterbacks.
26:31 So you go through the list and inevitably you're going to have some things that you're
26:35 questioning.
26:36 You've just got to be confident in the idea that the things that you did check off will
26:40 outweigh the ones that you didn't check off.
26:42 It's, it's a math problem.
26:44 It's an inexact science.
26:46 It's very difficult.
26:47 So I do not envy any of these guys that are making this decision three weeks from today
26:52 on April 25th on who to pick in the top three, top five first round when it comes to the
26:58 quarterback.
26:59 All right.
27:00 Before we get to some mailbag questions, want to remind you, episode is brought to you by
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27:12 And as we head to those BSJ mailbag questions, don't forget you can join Boston sports journal
27:18 50 bucks for the year, but Darji already tag teaming the football coverage Corrales getting
27:22 ready for the Celtics postseason run.
27:25 Haggerty getting ready for the Bruins postseason run.
27:27 So a lot happening right now, red socks off to a five, two start, not too excited.
27:32 Let's pump the brakes.
27:33 It was Seattle and Oakland, but they're five and two.
27:35 So at least they're not two and five.
27:36 It could be worse.
27:37 All right, let's jump into the, uh, the mailbag questions, Greg, here is one from Jay Thompson.
27:44 What receivers do you think the Patriots should be interested in drafting?
27:49 So I haven't done my deep dive, uh, on the wide receivers yet.
27:52 I will do deep, I will do deep dives or at least give you my opinions by the time we
27:57 get to the draft on quarterback, offensive tackle and wide receiver.
28:00 But in terms of guys that I've seen so far that, uh, I am intrigued by, um, that may
28:08 or may not be available sometime by the page where the Patriots pick in the second round.
28:13 Uh, Brian Thomas, Lad McConkey, Roman Wilson, Ricky Pearsall, Keon Coleman, Xavier Leggett,
28:22 and Malachi Corley, the Western Kentucky sort of Debo Samuel guy, one guy you will not see
28:28 on my list.
28:29 And again, I haven't watched film on him, but just what I saw out of him at the combine
28:34 workout a day, a D Mitchell off my list.
28:37 Now I could be, I could be completely biased and, uh, I could be completely wrong.
28:44 It, uh, but I thought he was horrendous in the positional drills during, uh, the combine.
28:50 And so I'm out.
28:51 I love him.
28:52 I love it.
28:53 I love 80 Mitchell.
28:54 And I know there, I know there's questions.
28:56 There's questions about the motor.
28:58 There's questions about some of the things that the combine, like Greg said, but freak
29:02 athlete, uh, the guy when, when he is engaged, he is a freak on the football field.
29:08 He can make plays.
29:11 You want to talk about fade routes?
29:13 Not the biggest fan.
29:14 I was watching a Nate Tice with Mina Kimes the other day.
29:17 And, uh, Nate Tice said this and I agree with him, like not a, not a fan of fade routes
29:22 in the red zone.
29:23 I hate it.
29:24 I hate, I hate the fade, but if you're going to throw a fade to a dude, 80 Mitchell's that
29:29 dude, he makes plays on the football and those fade routes in the corner of the end zone.
29:33 He, he is so talented, but there is question about mentality approach.
29:39 Some of those things.
29:40 Um, Keon Coleman's very polarizing.
29:44 I love him.
29:46 Uh, but I also understand the other side of it, which is he'll remind some people of
29:51 Nikhil Harry at times.
29:53 He's a, he's a big receiver contested catch guy.
29:56 He did not run a good 40, but then, you know, his, his GPS, you know, speed at the combine
30:04 was over 20 miles an hour.
30:05 So people will tell you he plays fast and there's a question of whether or not the quarterback
30:10 play affected him at Florida state.
30:12 At times, the lack of accuracy on deep balls could have hurt him and his ability.
30:16 Uh, he started off the season like a house of fire and he really faded.
30:20 He's a very polarizing guy.
30:22 He's a guy that could go like in the top 25 more so 20 to 25, or he could slide down into
30:28 like the second round early to mid second round.
30:31 He's that polarizing of a guy.
30:33 Xavier Leggett is, is just a beast.
30:36 His body reminds me of AJ Brown.
30:38 Not telling you he's AJ Brown, but his, his frame, when you see him play at times, it'll
30:44 remind you of AJ.
30:45 All right, let's get to a DC Lapidus.
30:49 All right, Greg.
30:50 You've reviewed the roster and Elliot Wolf has delegated you with the responsibility
30:54 for the draft.
30:55 If the draft breaks perfectly for you, please tell us which positions you are using the
30:59 eight picks on.
31:01 And by the way, uh, Lapidus throws his picks into the mix.
31:05 He says he would go to quarterbacks, two receivers, two tackles, one tight end and one defensive
31:11 lineman.
31:12 Greg, take it from here.
31:13 So, um, I'm going to do this provided that there's no trade downs.
31:19 Um, if the Patriots do not trade out of three, I would be on high alert for the Patriots
31:24 trading out of 34 and trying to get as many picks as possible.
31:29 That's sort of like a Ron Wolf thing, but provided they stick pick three quarterback,
31:35 pick 34 offensive tackle or wide receiver who's ever higher on the board.
31:40 And then with 68 I'm doing the, I'm doing the opposite.
31:44 So if they take a wide receiver at 34, which might be higher on the board, if somebody's
31:49 there, like say a Brian Thomas slips into the second round, I'm grabbing Brian Thomas.
31:53 Then I'm going OT in the third round.
31:55 I'm going tight end and I'm pretty close with DC Lapidus in terms of positions.
32:00 I'm going tight end in the fourth round.
32:02 I'm going wide receiver again in the fifth round.
32:05 I'm hoping that a quarterback like possibly a Jordan Travis who's coming off a really
32:11 serious injury at FSU is there in the sixth round to sort of mine and you know, a lottery
32:17 pick and remember what I've heard about this draft is once you get to day three, it's a
32:23 crap show because of NIL, um, COVID years, people staying in school, like a lot, a lot
32:31 fewer underclassmen declared this year.
32:33 So the third day in the draft is just bad.
32:37 And either you're trading maybe in the next year or you're basically just getting your
32:42 undrafted free agency going early.
32:45 So first pick in the sixth round quarterback, second pick in the sixth round from Jacksonville,
32:50 a DT, hopefully some sort of a nose tackle without Lawrence guy and you know, Devon Godshall,
32:58 he's not going to be here forever.
33:00 And then the seventh round, um, a running back letting Alonzo Highsmith sort of, uh,
33:05 have his pick six round quarterback.
33:10 I know a lot of people have been talking about this guy.
33:13 A lot of people love him.
33:15 I have one reason why I wouldn't mind it.
33:17 Joe Milton, because if you do draft, if you draft Drake may, I want to be at camp and
33:23 just watch may versus Milton throw bombs 75 yards down the field, bombs off like on the
33:30 knees.
33:31 How far can they throw one knee?
33:32 Both knees just give me a throwing contest between those two guys.
33:38 Let them uncork a couple of missiles at Foxborough.
33:41 I'd love it.
33:42 I think, I think it moved.
33:43 I think it moved from Nick.
33:44 That happens.
33:45 Give me the bombs.
33:46 All right.
33:47 Uh, see Moniz Greg to me, JJ McCarthy is Alex Smith reincarnated.
33:53 I know where you stand with the quarterbacks, but what is the allure of grabbing a quarterback
33:57 who has had little to no adversity and virtually nothing on tape where he was really down in
34:01 a big game and had to come back.
34:03 Let me just say this before I move folk.
34:05 There was somebody who listens to the podcast and this guy, he wanted to battle on Twitter
34:09 with me about the adversity question with JJ McCarthy.
34:12 I don't know if he's a Michigan fan or not, but my man, he was ready to die on that Hill.
34:17 So shout out to him.
34:18 I don't quite remember his name.
34:19 I'm sorry, but shout out to you McCarthy guy, because you will forever live in my brain.
34:24 You are ready.
34:25 All right.
34:30 So to continue, see Moniz very few, if any times did he do that?
34:34 Talking about McCarthy, uh, you know, down in a big game and had to come back.
34:38 That to me is a major red flag.
34:41 Hmm.
34:42 Um, you know, I, I sort of view this as a, uh, you know, when we get into the Patriots
34:49 and we're like the Patriots are eight, no, they haven't played anybody.
34:52 Like you're going to penalty, you know, and Patriots fans was like, we're just playing
34:55 the schedule.
34:56 We're just, you know, why you gotta be so mean?
35:00 Um, I think this is similar.
35:02 All right.
35:03 So he was on a good team with a really good coach and a really good defense.
35:05 Um, I, you know, from what I saw and again, I don't watch a lot of college football.
35:12 I haven't done a deep dive on McCarthy, but I just know, um, you know, in the playoffs,
35:18 especially the national championship game, he had to make there, there were plays he
35:21 had to make and he made them, uh, really big plays in the game.
35:27 And so, um, well, I mean, you know, you could say that, but then, you know, you look at
35:32 Drake may and you know, got to six and oh, this year beaten up some cupcakes.
35:38 And then when the going got tough, did he raise everybody around him?
35:42 I don't think you could say that either.
35:44 I understand it is a red flag.
35:47 It's something that the teams have to work out.
35:49 But I'm judging off the quotes that we said earlier in the podcast, there's a, there's
35:55 a lot of things to like about JJ McCarthy.
35:57 I don't like, I don't know how you feel about it, Nick.
36:00 I don't love the Alex Smith comparison.
36:03 I thinking back to Alex Smith coming out of Utah, first of all, he came out of sort of
36:08 like a, uh, that urban Meyer offense, um, you know, option, uh, RPO type of thing.
36:17 And I'd never thought Alex Smith was very, uh, athletic in terms of throws off platforms
36:24 and things like that.
36:25 To me, he was a lot more robotic.
36:27 I don't see McCarthy that way.
36:28 I think that McCarthy is a much better athlete has played more in a pro style offense and
36:34 does a lot more things than Alex Smith did coming out of Utah.
36:37 Honestly, I wasn't watching a lot of college football when Alex Smith was, was playing
36:41 at Utah.
36:42 So I will plead the fifth one, two, three, four, fifth.
36:46 And I'll let Greg answer that.
36:48 Think the Tebow Florida offense.
36:50 It was the same thing.
36:51 It was urban Meyer.
36:52 Okay.
36:53 All right, let's go to a K Chen 80 final question of the day.
36:56 Hey Greg, how much has the poor drafting, including Tyquan Thorne hurt Matt grow?
37:01 Are you aware of any of quote unquote his picks that have popped where he still has
37:05 a meaningful say and who he gets, who gets drafted or is he just doing the leg work and
37:10 the picks come down to Wolf and Alonzo Heisman?
37:14 I think this, this kind of stuff was a little bit overrated and a little talk radio ish.
37:20 Um, you know, the bottom line was, um, bill Belichick approved the picks.
37:27 He made the picks and you can listen to people talk about like, oh, well craft made him draft
37:32 Mac Jones, bill Belichick didn't want to draft Mac Jones.
37:36 That's a bunch of bullcrap.
37:37 Nobody who was in the building who's, who was around that team has ever told me anything
37:42 like that.
37:43 And if you, if you want to use it as an excuse for, and I think a lot of people try to use
37:47 it as an excuse for bill Belichick on why he should keep his job about how it wasn't
37:53 his fault.
37:54 To me, it was complete BS.
37:56 Yes.
37:57 Matt drew macro was director of college scouting, but at the end of the day, still bill up until
38:01 the very end was still, you know, making the picks.
38:05 He approved the picks.
38:06 Um, and do I think he went with macro on this?
38:09 Yeah.
38:10 I also think that macro, at least judging off of macros reaction in the press box at
38:16 times, especially when Marcus Jones won the jets game with a punt return, uh, that might
38:23 be quote unquote, one of his picks.
38:26 Now in some ways it's paid off.
38:28 Other ways it hasn't in terms of injuries, but I think that all that stuff's overrated.
38:33 I just think that when it came time to it, I think that the crafts went to Mayo and said,
38:41 who do you want as your personnel guy?
38:45 If the time should come.
38:46 And he said, Elliot Wolf, someone who Mayo said that he basically from like day one struck
38:53 up a great personal relationship with Elliot has the experience and all that stuff.
38:58 I, I, so at the end of the day, do I think grow is going to be here longterm?
39:03 It's possible.
39:04 Craft mentioned them at the league meetings, but yeah, I think it's, I think it's Elliot
39:08 Wolf running the show with Alonzo Highsmith, but macros definitely involved.
39:12 I wouldn't get all, all excited and into who was his picks and things like that.
39:17 That's a, that's a Jim Murray talk radio thing.
39:21 It's up to the guy who calls the shot.
39:23 You know, I mean, everybody's going to have their little binkies for certain reasons.
39:27 I have my favorite players in this draft.
39:29 Greg will have his favorite players in the draft and you will go up to the person who's
39:34 making the final call.
39:35 Last year was Belichick this year.
39:37 It's Elliot Wolf and you will fight for your guy and say, this is why I love this dude.
39:42 This is why I like him.
39:43 But inevitably the pick is whoever, you know, makes the pick and makes that decision.
39:48 So bill Belichick, it's not as if Matt grow put a gun to his head and told him pick Taekwon
39:54 Thornton.
39:55 He told him, he told him what he liked about the guy and bill made the decision.
39:59 So that's how it works.
40:01 And, and so you'll have a more collaborative process this year in this front office.
40:06 Reportedly, you'll have more voices involved, but it's going to be Elliot Wolf, Elliot Wolf's
40:11 draft and so he will make the final call hit.
40:15 The record will be his record.
40:17 It won't be, Oh, cam Williams, like this guy in the fifth round and he worked out, Oh,
40:21 you know, this guy was a Pat Stewart player.
40:23 This guy was an Alonzo Highsmith player.
40:26 It's not how it works.
40:27 Everybody has a voice.
40:29 Wolf makes the call.
40:30 I'm going to make the call.
40:31 I'm saying we're done with this pod today.
40:33 We'll be back early next week.
40:35 He's Greg.
40:36 I'm Nick.
40:37 Have a great weekend.
40:38 Bye bye.
40:38 [inaudible].
40:43 (upbeat music)