Patriots Catch-22 3/11: Reported Patriots Signings/Releases/Trades, Free Agency Buzz, Draft Talk

[MUSIC] >> This is the Patriots Catch 22 podcast with Evan Lazare and Alex Barth. >> Comment Lazare and Lazare and Lazare. >> Hello everybody, nailed it. >> Join us always by our foreign capital. >> Okay, that's it. >> No risk at no risk. >> 42. >> Here is Evan Lazare and Alex Barth. >> Hey, LeBon Cheson. >> 15 million right now per year is around where, you know, over the cap as a three or a quarter. >> It's gonna be north of that. >> $3 or $45 million total contract. >> $15 million AAB. >> How much do you value? >> You know it works. >> The familiarity. >> Yep, you know it works. >> And do they want a guy? I think we all, like he's a 1B. And maybe Moffe becomes the 1A? >> Or somebody you draft. >> Or Hendrickson, I don't think you get, it's not gonna be Cheson in one of those guys. It's tough. >> 15 plus million? Who's Zion Johnson? >> P.F. >> P.F. >> What favorite is Ian Rappaport, Oda Zion Johnson? P.F. has met four years 51 million 27 guarantee. >> Banana land. Banana land for Zion Johnson. >> Well, some of those guys signed in the last couple days, Alex. >> Three years 50 million dollars for Zion Johnson. >> Banana land. I repeat, Banana land. The Patriots got the better player for less money with a lot of money. >> Well, there's, yeah. >> They got the better player for less money's on the field. >> Yeah, whatever, better player. >> He's better player. >> Anyways, hello. >> Hello. >> Hard, hard open there. Evan Lazar, Alex Barth, Patriots, Catch 22 with you for the next couple of hours. Talking of course, free agency. We are, we are very close, Alex, to this being no longer tampering, legal tampering. We are now getting into the actually year. >> Is it now? >> Is it noon or is it four o'clock? >> It's four o'clock. >> It's four o'clock, Eastern time this afternoon where teams can officially start putting pen to paper. And as somebody that, when we write up our free agency breaking news things and have to put reportedly 1700 times in the post, the Max Crosby trade last night is exactly why they wait until four o'clock to start putting out transactions as a team because these things can fall through. Now, I'm not saying anything has happened like that on the Patriot side, but these things can fall through as we saw. So four o'clock today is the official start, Happy New Year of the league year. And that's when players can start coming in and signing pen to paper and all that kind of stuff. So we're going to talk about the reported signings for the Patriots here today. We're going to talk about what they still have to do. And there's still a lot of balls up in the air that they need to navigate through. But I wanted to use a little bit of an analogy. It's Evan Salis, Marine behind the glass today, not Ace. Marine behind the glass. I want to use a little bit of an analogy. Remember in 2001 when John Madden famously said, I would play for overtime here. He's a Super Bowl 36, right? He's like, they have no time house. There's like a minute 20 left. And yeah, first you're starting quarterback, you know, gets the greatest show on terrified play for overtime. Then Brady, like completes a few check downs to JR Redmond, gets them sort of moving on the drive and all of a sudden John Madden goes, I kind of like what they're doing, right? That was sort of how I felt about free agency for the Patriots Monday. I think I was like a lot of you. I felt a little bit, I wouldn't use the word concern, but just it was kind of a downer that Al Piers never actually hit free agency. And they didn't get a real chance to make a run. Second two years in a row with the rug pull. First Ronnie Stanley, now I'll. Yeah. You know, Al Piers, yeah, I guess this one I feel like was a little hurt a little bit more than the Ronnie Stanley one. Al Piers happens and you know, goes back to the Colts and the Patriots first signings are a fullback who I love, by the way, not besmirching fullbacks. And you know, Dremont Jones is a solid player, right? Solid. No one ball. No, we're just don't get the fullback. I know. Well, we'll get into the fullback. It's probably my favorite signing that they've made so far. All these things that, you know, happen and you do feel a little bit like, all right, this is, this isn't last year. This isn't splash, Milton Williams splash, Carl and David splash, Morgan Moses, Robert Spillane, you know, all these different signings that they made in the very first wave of free agency last year were taken a little bit of a more deliberate, different approach, which I think makes a lot of sense. I mean, we knew they weren't going to have another like top league spending spirit. And just the season they're coming off of the Adless Holes. They didn't need to do that. Yeah, you know, you look at the teams that spent the most and free agencies so far. It's the Raiders. It's the Titans. The Raiders now are spending even more than even they planned on. Yeah. But it's all these teams that were bad last year that are now trying to spend their way out of being bad. The two signings that I think all of us probably feel a little bit better about, okay, now kind of like what the Patriots are doing a little bit happened in the last, you know, a couple of days here and sort of that second wave of free agency with Elijah Veritucker and Romeo dobs. And I think both these guys make sense like the profiles fit needs that sort of thing, especially with, you know, the news that they're reportedly again, planning on releasing Stefan Diggs. Yeah. So all this starts to make a lot of sense about what they're doing in terms of those guys. So yeah, at first, I was like a little bit apprehensive about what was going on. Now I sort of like what they're doing. I want to start with what they've done in terms of bringing in people and then we'll get to what's left and what needs to be done here moving forward. But let's just start with the two big ticket items in the last couple of days. Let's open. Do you want to start with the one they did like five seconds ago? No. Okay. I don't. That we're putting that one on the bottom of the list. We're going to start with Romeo dobs who I hand up. I'll admit Paul Perillo was telling me on Patriots on filter it off the air on the air. You know, like how about Romeo dobs? He didn't know anything. He just kind of likes the player, right? And he was like sort of like, you know, I was kind of standoffish about it as like it's kind of like another, you know, not to use this part. It's kind of like another wide receiver to like I'm just not like really crazy about it. But in some of this is we all do this that we kind of look warm on a player. Then he becomes a patriot and now all of a sudden he's, you know, oh, this is actually a great player. When I watch Romeo dobs coming out of college and I often this, these types of things, you know, a lot of it is kind of my preconceived notions of a player, right? I did not remember him as being as polished of a route runner as he is now, you know, when he first got into the league. And so he's really developed his game, I would say in that regard to being a really high level route runner, especially I would say at the first and second level of the defense. I don't know if he's quite got field stretching ability, but he's got really good top of the route mechanics ability to separate versus man coverage. All of his man coverage metrics are really, really good. His ability to find and sort of navigate soft spots and zone coverage is over the middle of the field and make himself available and, you know, sit versus zone or break away from leverage and all that good fancy stuff that we talked so much about, especially in the prism of the Josh McDaniels offense. So when you start to look at all the things that he did with green Bay, especially like I said, the chain moving elements. And I think that's exactly where he's going. He played a lot more at the X for the Packers. I don't think he's going to play the X for the Patriots. I think he's going to play the digs role. Yeah, for the Patriots. So he had 41 first down receptions last year is 75% first down conversion rate, 75% of his catches went for first downs last year. At a higher volume. Just talking regular season so we compare apples to apples here at a higher volume. Digs had 51 first down catches, which led the Patriots last year. If you start to think about it on a per target basis, it's not that far off, right? As digs had 102 targets or something like that and dobs is around 80 something. So we're not talking about a huge difference in terms of their efficiency of turning catches into first downs. So his ability, his route running ability, he only had four drops on those targets last year. He's got good hands, good strong hands. It's got some size to him at 6 2 2 0 5. It's not a jitter bug slot. It's not a 5 foot 8 pop Douglas type of slot receiver. All these different things that you start to look at the film and start to envision him in a Patriot offense. And I start to think about it. Yeah, I can see this. I can see this player working now. That's not saying that I think that he is the guy. I think they still need more, especially someone that's more of a pure coverage dictator that's going to draw matchups with top corners that's going to occupy safety is like that sort of thing. If this is your typical Josh McDaniel's chain mover that digs that Jacobi Myers, a Julian Edelman role that this is a solid player for that role. And I think Romeo Dobbs is maybe a tiny little bit underrated because he doesn't have the name brand recognition of a four time pro baller likes to fondigs. Yeah. I mean, you covered a lot of good stuff there, but I think just to pick up where where you ended that. We talked about this for Alec Pierce. I don't think it's the same level as Alec Pierce, but the same idea applies. You're paying for upside. You're paying for potentially not paying for production at a career high 724 receiving yards last year. Career high and catches is 50 90s. Been right. around that 50 mark, 50 to 60 mark most of his career, you know, looking at 2026 him and digs, you know, 2025 digs versus him in 2026, dobs, yeah, probably about even in my mind. But the idea is you have one guy that's trending upwards, right? And you have another guy as much as I like digs that's going to be 33 years old and he's not a part of the long term plan. So to me, he is a digs replacement, I think in roll. I think they're hoping he replaces the production. He's not that, you know, big outside jump ball, 5050 ball X receiver that we've been talking about them pairing with Drake may still want to see them get that guy. The avenues for that are kind of running out. Not that there were a ton to begin with, frankly, there's the AJ Brown of it all, which we can get into. Yeah. But for what, you know, I don't think Romeo dobs. I don't know that they're, they're to me right now. It's like they're where they were. I don't think they're worse than I'd receiver. I don't think they're better. You know, you hope there's some internal growth from some of those young guys, especially Kyle Williams and we'll see what happens there. But they've replaced digs box checked. And that's good. And now it's, it's on to the next move. The last thing I'll say on dobs that I think is, is a sneaky, important here with him. You mentioned his age. He's 25 now. He'll be 26, entering age 26 season next month. He obviously has a lot more runway as you were kind of saying. Yeah. With, uh, with Drake may hear then Stefan digs would have. But also more importantly, maybe they really don't have a lot of receivers under contract past 2026. Yeah. And it's really only the 2025 rookies, Kyle Williams in, uh, F and Chisholm. Now, I assume there's going to be at least one more added to that. What whether it's be a trader or the draft, but K. Sean booty a 2020, uh, three draft pick is a free agent. Tomorrow, Tugless a 2023 draft pick will be a free agent. Mac Hollins will be a free agent after next year. So when you just start to look at even 2027 and beyond, like they just didn't have a lot of long term contracts committed at the wide receiver position. And you could put yourself in a position where you get the next off season and the only guy that you have under contract at wide receiver is Kyle Williams or maybe F and Chisholm if he's able to stick on the roster. So I think in a lot of ways too, they just needed to get somebody in here that had term on his contract that, you know, had had some, uh, you learn longevity on the contracts so no, he's kind of like designing. And he's a better player than I gave him credit for and I'm not just saying that because he's a patriot now. The other big thing about him and this is going to sound kind of weird, but I think in all pro sports, this is something you look at in frequency, especially with some of these young guys. He plays. Yeah. He plays. He played 13 games as a rookie year, 17 13 16. So he and he's a tough guy. He's tough player stays on the field. Good size 6 2 2 4. So you have somebody in the slot that has that bigger frame that maybe Drake may like to throw to, but he gets on the field too, which I think is important. Yep. Absolutely. The other, you know, big signing here in the last couple of days is Elijah Veritucker and you have continuously reminded me that, you know, this, we have to talk about the injury history with the player and that's totally fair. He's basically played half of his possible games since he entered the NFL. They gets what like 42 of 85 or something like that. It's literally almost half of the games that he's actually been available for. He is torn his triceps in each arm and he's also torn his Achilles over the course of his career. So we're talking about a guy that has a major injury history. Now with that being said, one of the things that I have been hearing going around on, on your station and stuff like that is this huge concern about the offensive line and at the offensive line is still in flux, you know, still a, a weak point of this roster. I actually don't really, I feel the total opposite. I kind of feel like this is the best the offensive line is looked on paper and we have to preface that with two things. Elijah Veritucker's injury history. He's got to be healthy and available and internal development from Will Campbell and Jared Wilson, like those two guys have to get better. But if those two things happen and I get that that's a bunch of ifs and buts, but if those two things happen, this is the best their offensive line is looked on paper in quite some time. Probably since like Bill Belichek started to blow up the interior offensive line and mess the whole thing up like 2020, 2021, right where they had no, they had Jack Mason was the first to go, wasn't he? Joe Tune was the first to go. They franchise tag Joe Tune for the 2020. And they're like, okay, you're right. So but they when they had Tune and Andrews Mason, they were, they were, they were cooking, right? They were rolling throughout that whole time. That's, that's just a leap. Yes. Yeah. And they're not there yet. But in theory and again, I, I, I get it where we're dealing with a player that has had major injuries throughout his career. But in theory, you're kind of upgrading two spots with this move because I think Jared Wilson is going to be a really good center. And I think a lot of his issues that we saw at guard with play strength and anchor and all that kind of stuff will be mitigated a little bit at center, not to mention that he should physically develop over the course of his career as a young guy. Yeah, we talk about Campbell being super young. Jared Wilson is also super young. So that should happen as well, just, you know, from an internal growth standpoint. But in theory, I think you've probably made center at least have a higher ceiling of being better. And if he's available, I think Veritucker definitely improves left guard like that. I think is is a foregone conclusion that he is going to be a better, play a better left guard than what Jared Wilson gave you last year. So is this, I guess, concern from the offensive line standpoint that I keep hearing about, is this only because everybody is so weary about Will Campbell? Like is that is that all it stems from? I mean, and it may be just condition to, to complain about the offensive line. Look, I think on paper, they're starting five is better now than it was before. Yeah. So Campbell's going to get healthy. You plug Veritucker in, move Jared Wilson's natural position like on paper, that's better, that's an upgrade. There are still fair questions. Is Veritucker going to stay healthy? He's a big one. I like Ben Brown. But Verituckers are step up and it changes the dynamic. Ben Brown's a spot starter. Right. A full time start. We're not talking about a guy that, you know, plays 10 to 12 games a year and kind of misses games sporadically. We're talking about a guy that in five NFL seasons has had three season ending injuries. Yep. So that's a factor. But if he's in there, like it's an upgrade, the fair questions to me are him staying healthy in the plan B there. And then the longer the backup tackles, they don't have any backup tackles. Well, they have Marcus Prion, I guess on the right side. They don't have a backup left tackle right now, which is relevant. And I believe in Wilk Campbell's. This is not, I think Wilk Campbell is going to fail. It's that I don't actually have the number for last year, but two years ago, only 17 tackles, both sides combined for a team played all. 17 games like you're going to need your backup tackles at some point odds are in the NFL. It's just the way it works. So they need a backup left tackle and then the long term, like, I don't know that I feel any better about them in the long term talking about like the three to five year outlook. Beyond just Veritucker being enough great at left guard. They still have long term questions. And frankly, we're Michael and when whose contract is at like, there's a question there too about who's the next guy up there? Because they don't have a ton of guard depth behind Ben Brown. So there's still long term questions and there's the question of the injury at left guard and some depth questions. But if you're just telling me the depth chart on paper, they're better. They're better than they were last year. Campbell from left to right. If they're starting offensive line week one and it's not, you know, it's about, I get it. It's a 17 plus game season, right? But they're starting offensive line and week one is Campbell Veritucker Wilson on when in Moses upgrade. It's pretty darn good. Yeah, honestly, like they were league average during the regular season last year by most of the metrics and by the eye test. I think the other thing that I would say about the offensive line is like these questions that we have across the offensive line. 32 teams have the same questions. It's a bad position group across the league. Nobody has three starting caliber tackles in the NFL. Some teams don't even have to start in caliber tackle. Some teams might argue they don't have one start in caliber tackle. So the Patriots have Campbell and they have Moses who they feel pretty good about the fact that we are talking about, well, who's going to be like the swing tackle or the third tackle or the backup left tackle or ever you want to put it like that's, that's kind of a little bit of a first world problem. I mean, we were talking about last year for new starters. Now we're talking about the backups. That's that's growth. And this is what this off season was going to be. It was building depth. We'll see what they do in for agency. You know, Viderin logo got less money than I thought. I'm always present. You know, they can keep it. But they'll, you know, we'll see if they find somebody here or in the draft. You know, maybe you get a guy you're going to develop on the right side, but has some swing potential that can at least hold that role down this year. The other thing about the line too, just to add it, I feel like there's this narrow focus of the line when we talk about the line talked about just through past protection, which I get why there's such a focus on that. I don't know how much more you have on Vera Tucker, but I think this is where we can kind of transition a regigilium. Yeah. Like that's going to be a big boost in terms of blocking in terms of the run game. You know, he's going to take some of the pressure off of the offensive line as well. Yeah, just really quickly on Vera Tucker. And then I wanted to go to Gilliam next to just a quick kind of synopsis of who he is as a player. I would say with Vera Tucker. And I'm not saying that he doesn't have any play strain to him or any like snarl to him at all, but he is calling card is his athleticism. He's a highly athletic interior blocker. Was very, very athletic coming out of USC in college, you know, one of these big like relative athletic score testers and things like that at the combine his movement skills and his ability to do that. to pass protect one on one are very good, like high level good. He was featured a lot with the Jets and Zone blocking schemes. I'm not going to look too much into that and say because they sign Veritucker now they're going to be all outside zone. Like I'm not saying that necessarily, but you look at his ability to get out of his stance. You look at his lateral mobility to move and reach blocks across the line of scrimmage, his ability to combo block, you know, kind of chip and then go up to the second level and connect with moving targets on the second level. Very balanced player squares up blocks. You don't really see him like at a control or over his skis too often. When you watch him now granted, I had to go back to 2024 like to watch him. But like you don't see him too often falling off blocks over his skis at a control. He's very methodical. He's very athletic. He's very just physically gifted to be honest for an offensive lineman and a guy that size. Now he played a little bit of everywhere with the jets. He played a little bit of everywhere with the Trojans at USC. He can in a pinch play tackle and I bring that up only because we know that not last year. But Morgan Moses the type of guy that might miss a game or two at his age. If you told me that for one or two games as a spot starter, they were going to move very tucker out to write tackle and put Ben Brown in that left guard to whether a, you know, dinged up Morgan Moses, I would say doable like not the worst thing in the world. He's certainly more acquitted, you know, measurable as wise and all that to play guard. Like he should play guard. He did play guard right guard his last year with the jets. But he played left guard as a rookie. He played the left side at USC. I don't think that that's going to be too big of a deal. But it's kind of like how we've talked a little bit about on when you win the past. They've moved them all around with the jets and I don't think that that's really been helpful for him. No, you got to let these guys sit in a position. And I'm not trying to point fingers. But when you move guys around like that and all of a sudden they start popping up with a bunch of different injuries, it does bring up the fact that you're messing with everything, right? Now his his plant leg is different than his off, you know, his off hands different from his main. It's like we're messing it all up. So when I hear that a guy that keeps moving around the line as it gets a torn Achilles injury, I'm like, well, did you switch sides? And then now you're pushing off the different foot. And so you pushed off that foot and then all of a sudden that foot's not used to being the foot that you're pushing off of and then boom, there goes the kill is right. Like those things happen a lot. It happened with Isaiah win here. Remember he played right tackle in the preseason and blew out his Achilles switching sides. So I think if you can get him into a spot where you're in the Patriot strength and conditioning program and they do an excellent job down there. You know Frank Perino, Doc Whalen, there's some of the best in the business at it, whether it's managing injuries, sports, science, all that kind of stuff. And you say to him tomorrow when he comes into sign the contract, you're playing left guard, get ready to play a left guard. And that's where we're putting you and that's it. That's where we're sticking you. Right. Then I think that that can go a long way as well because he's tried to just put out fires with the jets. They've moved them all around. No, there is the, you know, if you want the optimistic side of the injury thing, they have a good history of this of their medical staff figuring things out. Remember when they signed Hunter Henry? Yeah. And he's kind of the, the, the, you know, poster for this. He had a lot of injury troubles with the chargers. Now the chargers medical staff has its history. Yeah. And he came here and when he played that first full season, I remember the press conference he did where he was just like, effusively praising the medical staff, the training staff, the strength and conditioning staff for changing the way he, you know, kind of operated. I remember he talked about his workout plan. He might have mentioned his diet, like a lot of stuff. Yeah. Just kind of changed the way he went about building up his body and maintaining his body that he felt like allowed him to kind of dodge some of his injuries. Now, that's not to say they can do that for everybody. That's not to guarantee that that Veritucker is going to come here and play 17 games. They have proven to do this and you look at the job they did last year and how little the Patriots dealt with injuries last year. Like, you know, they've, they've earned, they've earned us basically saying like maybe, maybe they can figure it out and fix it. There's always some walk that comes with injuries. It's just football. It's just sports. But they've done a good job of managing these things the last few years. Okay. Up next, Reggie Gilliam, who you mentioned just now, I love this is probably my favorite signing and I know that sounds crazy when they signed a starting guard and a starting wide receiver and I'm telling you the fullback is my favorite sign of what we do on this. This is a fullback show. This is a pro fullback show. And I think the, the whole thing about the fullback to me and he's a really good one too. So that helps, you know, like he's, he's a, you know, a high level fullback, maybe a little bit different than James Devlin, not quite like the sledgehammer that James Devlin is, but much more athletic and has like a lot of more ability to get out in space and run and all that kind of stuff. The big difference to me watching him like, so James Devlin is what six three, right? Yeah. So Reggie Gilliam, Gilliam's six foot 240, like he's a low center of gravity. Low center of gravity and he's very, he, he's so, he's quick and he's explosive for a full back. So when he gets moving, he can generate a lot of momentum and power simply, you know, by just converting the speed to power, you know, like we talk a lot about with like past pressures and stuff like that almost where he can just create a car crash. The bills used him in all sorts of different ways in their zone, you know, base run scheme where you do that are leading on outside zone or they'd like wrap him up to the second level on some of their wine back plays and things like that. But the biggest thing I would say with the fullback to me is actually more about like the concept of a fullback than it is the fullback itself. And you just sort of have to have a fullback that's good, that allows you to get the defense kind of react to the fact that you're in a fullback formation. So the big stat that stands out to me with Reggie Gilliam is not actually the success that the bills had with him rushing. They did lead the league in rushing and James Cook was the rushing king last year with him playing like twenty twenty one percent of the snaps. But the bigger thing to me was Reggie Gilliam, they averaged almost nine yards per pass attempt when he was on the field because the bills would put Josh Allen under center. They put Gilliam in the eye with James Cook behind them and they would run play action. And you're showing the defense run formation. You're showing them run action where Gilliam's leading and James Cook's following and then now is carrying out the fake and it all looks exactly the same as the run play that you just defended, you know, two plays ago. And now all of a sudden it's not the run play. It's a play action pass. So the fullback's ability to kind of sell the run and what that formation gives to you, especially when you have a good fullback and a better running game. I think all of that stuff marries together very nicely. And this is no disrespect to Jack West over, but teams did not fear Jack West over in that kind of way. Yeah. So with the bills, you know, you see a lot of things with Buffalo last year where they would load up on heavy people. They'd be in like twenty two personnel two tight ends, two backs and really get heavy. And then they would run play action off of it. They'd run spread formations off of it where Gilliam would be flexed out wide and then you're creating matchups inside the formation for guys like Shakira in the tight ends. Like there's just a lot of different formation things, a lot of different, you know, run game pass game, you know, play action sequencing that you can do when you have a really good fullback. There's blocking advantages to having a really good fullback because unlike an on the line player, like a tight end, a fullback being in the backfield. He has he can go both ways. Yeah. So it kind of builds services to the left or to the right with the fullback. So it allows you to have that kind of flexibility. That's a long, a long way of saying there's a lot of really good offense that comes from just the concept of the fullback along with having, you know, what he can actually do as a blocker. So when you have a fullback, that's an impact blocker like Reggie Gilliam. It just allows you to do a lot of different things. You know, we can get into sort of the Patriots fullback usage. The last year, how it wasn't so hot, plus it was a little bit less than what Josh McDaniels has done in his history. Typically, I think we're going to see that go right back up to almost 30% near the top of the league. Now that they have Gilliam, but this is an exciting signing and I have their special teams angles to it as well. Yeah. I mean, plays on a special teams too. So he'll help there. Now you covered a lot of it just again, having a guy that can do it in teams after respect. I just jack West over never really proved. You know, he could be consistent in that role. Now you have a guy that's done it for what five years, right? And NFL. Yep. And it's, it's an investment to everybody yelled about it. You know, the team ignoring Drake May. Is it the investment that a number one wide receiver would be? No, but it's an investment or a reminder, Stevenson, it's an investment. Trayvon Henderson, they're going to have more of an ability to run the ball between the tackles, especially. They're going to be able to develop play action off of that. They're not going to have to be as predictable or as, you know, one dimensional, I should say, is a better term. Some of these better fronts that they're going to face. It's going to open things up in the past game. So that doesn't mean he's going to do that personally, but it's just they didn't have this dynamic last year. And for Josh McDaniel, it's a really do what he wants to do offensively. The whole picture, you mentioned the rate being lower. Yes. I don't think that that was McDaniel's wanting to use the fullback less. I think that's, you know, you're not going to run something as much if you don't feel like you can execute it. Yeah. So I think they're going to go back to that. It's going to allow them to be more multiple offensively, which is something we talked about last year that they needed to do. It's good signing. Yeah. I understand that people rolled their eyes about me waxing poetic about fullback. I'll admit, it's sort of just my thing. I would also say just looking across the league and not to do open this whole can of worms with you, but my guys, my tight pants guys, I'll use fullbacks. Kyle Shanahan uses a fullback. Mike McDaniel took out a gengled with him from Miami to the chargers and told John Harbaugh or Jim was Jim Harbaugh. Sorry, I forget the Harbaugh gets, get them confused. I told Jim Harbaugh, hey, I need my fullback. Like I need gengled. Like we got to go get this guy. You know, like they, they really are very creative with how they use these guys these days. This is not three yards in a cloud of dust. We have a fullback anymore. Like this is a much more creative gene that they can kind of use or schematic thing that they can kind of use to their advantage. Just quick on the percentages. Josh McDaniel's last year with the Patriots was about a 22% fullback usage rate in terms of just two back formation in Vegas in 21 and or 22 and the Patriots in 21 is last, these other two last full seasons as a play collar there. He was up over 28%. So there's a 6% decrease and how much they use the fullback. My guess is is that we're going to see that go right back up a big reason why they were so unproductive. You know, out of those fullback, you're unproductive. They pass the ball. Okay. And with the fullback on the field, they were literally a 0.00 EPA per play right, right even like no, no advantage, no disadvantage. It was just in the middle. And that's a package if you're going to use it, you expect it to be an advantage. Yeah. The big reason why, you know, they were there is because they couldn't run the ball out of it. And I hear a lot about how the Patriots run game struggled at times last year. They were 25th in the league in Russia. The Patriots were the ones who were in the league last year. They were not a physical enough offense. Mike Raebles talked about being more physical on offense. He talked to us about it at the combine and said we need to be more physical. We need to get stronger. We need to lift. We need to be able to control the line of scrimmage better and run the football. That we can say all those things and act it the part. And then they go and they sign a fullback and everybody is like, why are we wasting so much time on a fullback? Well, if you want to get more physical and run the ball better, then you need to get people that are more physical and can help you run the ball better. And that's what these guys can do. You know, I'd say both of them, Faradtucker and Regigilian, I think both check boxes in that regard. So hopefully that does improve their rush offense. Hopefully they become a more physical rush offense. Hopefully it improves their play action passing game, you know, as well as a counter to that. And that's where you can generate a lot of those explosive plays. All right, I've done enough. I've done enough. Oh, it's good fullback time. I'm on my soapbox about that one. Drain on Jones. Yep. My feelings on Drain on Jones. And I think what's interesting about Drain on Jones is that I was looking up all the metrics right, pass rush, win rate, you know, PFF stuff, you know, all the good nerd stuff that that we look at. It's all like very, very comparable to Caleb on chase on. Like it's, you know, both, I think chase on had seven and a half sacks. Drain on Jones had seven in the regular season, just to compare apples to apples. Uh, Drain on Jones had 51 quarterback pressures. Caleb on chase on was right around the same number. Yeah, pass fresh win rate. It was like, uh, Drain on Jones is like 46th in the league out of 80 qualified edge rushers. Uh, Caleb on chase on was like 45th. It was their names were right next to each other. So in a lot of ways and I know chase on just signed with the commanders, you know, I, I, I see this as a kind of one for one replacement, sort of like what they did with Romeo dobs, InstaFon digs. You know, we can talk a little bit more about, you know, how Drain on Jones wins and all that good stuff, but just from a roster building standpoint. Uh, did you see it the same way and just how they're, they're kind of just. Fill in, you know, shoes here, right? Like one in one out with Drain on Jones and chase on in my opinion. Yeah. So, uh, I think that's what I'm talking about. I think that's what I'm talking about. Are they in a place where they can draft Blake Miller 31st overall? Yeah, and like get by with that and that doesn't mean that we have to fill every need between now and then there are other needs that they can fill in the draft But are like realistic draft feels like take tight end right you don't need to take that guy at 31 You probably shouldn't be taking that guy at 31 Sadeek's not gonna fall. I don't think it's gonna be else on the board is worth taking that high Yeah, but like you know When they cut digs it's like okay, so they they're gonna need a receiver. They will need a receiver You know they add tops they still could use more but you can get by if 31st not a receiver You know guard was another one. They could they're obviously good at that position now So Blake Miller would be when's the last time we could talk about the making a luxury pick with their first round pick I don't know it's been a minute and but we're not in luxury picked territory Well, I think Blake Miller would be luxury pick. Yeah, and I don't think we're in that so you don't think they're there Okay, no because they might be I think they're close. I know I think that the two positions that we're looking at right now Yeah, there was news this morning that it sounds like they're gonna release and for any Jennings as well So right now their edge rusher depth chart is Jones was gonna play like Dremont Jones sign a good contract and it's gonna be a starter for this team Harold Landry if he can get his knee right and get himself healthy Elijah ponder who I think that they like and are clearly high on but I think I Elijah ponder you're hoping as an Undrafted rookies a rotational player and a rotational past pressure at that um Braiden Swinson who we just didn't see a ton of last year was Up and down the roster pretty much whether it was you know practice quad to start and then 53 towards the end of the season And Lucca who I think is you know again a low level signing right that a low level depth signing so If we're just assuming that they're one for one with Caleb on chase on and And Dremont Jones They really haven't made any progress at edge and it's a great edge class So I mean they have that in their back pocket I don't think they're going back to max crossby like I don't think that thing is happening So They we we have the conversations the star free agency that they kind of need a dude at and the past rush out the edge They still kind of need that dude like they don't have that yet And I think we can make the same argument about receiver like they in I'll lump tight end in there. I'm just more reluctant about tight end In the draft being a day one impact type of player because that doesn't happen very often especially when you're not drafting him high and just this board doesn't like that guy doesn't exist in this draft Right like you know, you're not drafting Tyler Warren or Colson Loveland that's gonna come in and have a year one impact I guess say I'm the poor to had a year one impact as a as an uh second round pick but those are rare But so this is what I'm saying about like the Blake Miller thing like They do need another tight end. I'm comfortable with them getting that guy on day two We could debate edge like if you want them to go higher end then yeah They can't if you like the depth of this class and you think they can get it real guy on day two like there's a You can make the case for it as my point. It doesn't mean they should go ahead and do it But like are they at a point where you can make the case for Blake Miller But you still sound out on that you sound like you want the first round as your receiver because I don't I don't see how else you get impact players at those Is that receivers even the draft 31 Well, I mean even if it's trading the edge player will okay, so that's fair You know like either way it just like using the 30 what first overall pick as an asset I think you need to move the needle with that pick like that and I know that's maybe easier said than done when you're picking at the end of the first round But when you go into some of the strengths of the draft in terms of like where the depth is you know I think that is doable at edge russia that you could yet you know a mezzadour a caches howl a player that's gonna come in right away and make an impact Later on in the first round does that receiver exist? I I don't know because they took you know they take Romeo dobs off the board and free agency I think that that makes Omar Cooper Jr. Casey Concepcion if they were there at 31 a little bit redundant I would say to a guy like Romeo dobs like you're really looking for the crisp razzle of the world right like the big outside guy That can stretch the field it's a little rich to take him at 31 But can you manipulate the board and figure that out maybe I guess this is all me just saying I still think at 31 you need a year one impact kind of sign uh you know Transaction whether that's trading the pick for a j brown drafting an edge russia there Finding a way to make it make sense at wide receiver there you know all those different things I don't think during a position where they're red-shirting first round this so Those two spots are definitely the big one. I think tight end is like a third sneaking one. Yeah, that's uh, you know right there with it Especially after you know awesome Cooper going back to Atlanta They really have no depth at that position behind hunter Henry right now no at least NFL caliber depth So whether it's going out there and signing you know There's not a lot left in free agency, but you know I'm not a big chigga quon-quon guy, but we're three days into free agency so you can't really I mean I I'd still take and let's see I try to catch up when I was driving down here David and Joker still in sign right Yeah, so that's the one that I think makes a lot of sense just from the connection with Brable and Ash and Grant and I have a Cleveland people and yeah that are in this organization I'm still he was like even a joke was older so it was Elliott Wolf like 29 maybe yeah Here's where I'm at it tight end. I'm honestly okay at this point if they just do tight end in the draft I don't know that that need like I don't know wrong if they sign David and jokou solid signing, but yeah The whole point there's supposed to be getting younger getting the next guy in for hunter Henry and David jokou's entering his age 30 season so he's not older than hunter Henry, but he's not young either like you're not talking about a guy It's going to play for five or six years So if you're going to sign him or chigga concollo You still need to get the younger guy Which I'd like to see them take relatively high top 150, but now that guy's buried I don't know Am I nuts for thinking like if CJ do preez the third tight end I'm fine with that yes No, third tight end no, I'm saying no, but I think they use a top 100 pick on Sam Roush or Oscar Delp in your room next year is hunter Henry That rookie and then maybe you draft the guy later or you bring in a lower level free agent to complete with to compete with Depri for the third spot for all the other things they have to do I think that's a fine room I think that's hope that would be enough for me. So I think the concern is and again, I'll Concede that this is the recent history is a little bit better. Yeah, then the long-term history but historically speaking Because of all the run and pass game responsibilities on a tight end shoulders It is a slow developing position So if you're drafting a rookie and you're especially if you're drafting a rookie You know at 63 or 95 or something like that that's you know further down the draft The expectation of him really being a contributor as a rookie is not very hot But again, this is somebody you're not gonna be the top tight end. It's still gonna be hunter Henry. Yeah, and yeah So you want to get that guy in So that you know Hunter Henry's kind of year to year at this point. I would think right? It's in a contract here. Yeah, I guess it depends on who it is like if it's somebody that I feel like I've seen Talked about drafting like a legit tight end. Yeah, it has some real upside then sure So again the two two names I gave you Delp and assuming his foot's healed and he's healthy Delp and Roush would be the two that I would consider for that spot Sure or if they want to go really nuts max Claire. Sure. I don't know if they're gonna take guy that high, but he would fit that I think I would feel better taking somebody in the sixth round right. I know I know I would I think I would feel better You know, I'm glad you brought up in joku with like an in-joku signing plus drafting one of those guys I don't know, but if they sign in joke, what don't want them to draft the tight end in the top 100? Why? Because I got a play. I mean, I why not like if he just is better than in joku than why not? I don't think he's gonna be bit I don't think he's gonna be better than in joku before you're probably going to Pay in joku like that be a bet then then then why are you signing in joku? Because you're gonna sign in joku to like a one-year contract As like somebody that is a backstop if that's what you think he's getting By all means. I mean, it's feel like his market should be bigger than that. It's Wednesday or free agency What kind of market do you think he's gonna have if he was gonna have this like huge market than he would have already if it's a one-year deal And it's two a to be with him as a rookie by that's kind of what I said you get all right If it's not CJ to pray you sign somebody can pee with him I was thinking more like a You know who's still available like Tyler Higby kind of guy. Yeah, I just feel like I just wouldn't necessarily count on a rookie tight end Adam Troutman you still in on Adam Troutman I wasn't the draft you were a big ad drawing. Yeah, I was a day-to-pick at tight end Especially where their day-to-picks are like I just wouldn't put all my eggs in the basket of that guy is gonna be You know now in in the league now like that's that's a big role the second tight end You're you're playing two tight ends in a NFL offense these days 25 30% of the time, you know most likely like that. Yeah, that's some that's not a insignificant role and I just don't know if I would put all that on a rookie and you know saying sign a guy And then have them be behind the rookie if the rookies better than yeah Yeah, but I'm not I'm not gonna I'm just telling me and during getting a one-year deal fine Yeah, I mean it doesn't even necessarily have to be in jokers We don't have to get bogged down by the injoku of it all like just saying like a serviceable Better and tight end even if you want to say it's in like the Austin Hooper like I think in jokers a better player than Austin Hooper like but yeah, even if it's in like that Austin Hooper around me You mentioned Tyler Higby like somebody like that. I doesn't need an NFL tight end. That's in that room That's not you know somebody like CJ DeProube didn't play as a rookie as an undrafted guy and a third-round pick like that to me Just isn't quite enough. It's especially with Hunter Henry's age is injury history. So some of the slumping with his blocking last year, maybe, maybe I'm, maybe I'm given the rookie class or the team too much credit for developing that guy, but it's a quick development at that position. I mean, I, the position you didn't mention is safety, which I've said that even if they keep Jalen Hawkins, I still want them to add like a legit third safety, so they can do more three safety stuff. If they lose him, you're not talking about a starter. You're not talking about a guy that's probably going to be on the field. 60. How much Hawkins play last year? All 70, 80% of the time I want to say, was it more because a lot, um, Woodson didn't come off the field. Yeah. Woodson was hawking 92% last year. Wow. Okay. So yeah. So you're talking about, you know, that debt, if they lose, if they lose Hawkins, my guess is they'll pivot in free agency to signing a NFL caliber player. Well, that, I mean, yeah, that goes to the top of the needs if they lose Hawkins. I was just bringing back. I know there's some chatter on Twitter about like Nick Cross or like somebody like that. You know, I'm sure if they, if they lost Hawkins, I'm sure they would pivot to signing a starting to see them add another safety on top of that. Okay. But they can do that in the third or fourth round. They don't have to do that. We're using a lot of day two picks now. What do you mean? We're going to draft an adressure wide receiver with the first pick. Okay. Whichever position you don't take with the first pick is probably going to be your second pick. Do you really need to take a second round receiver? It depends on the skill set. Like if, you know, I don't know. I don't know if, you know, we can play this game all day. Who's going to be there? Who's not going to be there? You know, but if you're talking about a guy that can win on the outside and has some field stretching ability, then I think you still need to add that. Like I know we're all hoping that that can be Kyle Williams and Kyle Williams is in a crowded room last year behind veteran players. If you want to use that as an excuse, but the track record of guys that caught 10 catches as a rookie, then going on to having a great NFL career is not very good. You know, like just being honest, like it's not, you know, there's a reason why the 550 club exists, right? Like that's, you know, the barometer for rookie receivers being, you know, big time players in the league. It doesn't happen very often if they're not, you know, instantly contributing to a team. So I don't know. Like I guess you're putting a lot of credence in Kyle Williams, K-Shop and bootied not having any like catchpoint regression, you know, like he had a lot of kind of crazy, you know, contested catches last year. Mac Holland's like having the same level of juice of doing that, you know, sort of thing as a bigger receiver on the outside. It's just, I think you need to start, you need to keep looking for ceiling at that position. And the only way that you're going to do that is with the draft for trades. Like we just saw that, you know, the Alps here isn't coming. He's not hitting free agency. So let's take a quick break and then let's open it up to the calls and emails. We'll be right back. Whether you're in the game or betting on the game, you'll need a game plan. Draft King Sportsbook, the official sports betting partner of the New England Patriots, provides you with everything you need to build your personal betting game plan so you can get in on all the action while practicing safe bets. Visit DraftKings.com/responsible-gaming to learn more about all the safe betting tools DraftKings has to offer. Hope is here. 800-327-5050 or gambling-helpline-ma.org must be 21 plus. Play it smart from the start. Gamesensema.com. Physically present in Massachusetts. 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It's more fun when it's for fun, so play responsibly. DraftKings, the crown is yours. Gambling problem call 1-800-AMPLA, 21 plus. Age and eligibility bears by jurisdiction. 20. 20. All right, we are back and I should do one of these great stuff. I should do that, sure. What people upstairs don't get mad at me. Spring has sprung, and if you want to get more from your tax refund, why not draft Bob's discount furniture to help? Bob's latest spring dining styles like the top rated Elm featuring a real marble table perfect for hosting big brunches and game day parties are the versatile Betty collection, which comes in multiple winning colors and heights. So stop in or shop online and get more for less with Bob's discount furniture, the official furniture store of the New England Patriots. So a little bit of media news inside baseball. We just found out that we are going to hear from some of the Patriots free age and signings tomorrow. So that will be at one o'clock. My here from Elliott Wolf as well in that time too. So here from some of the guys don't know who yet. I don't know who's coming right to town to sign their contracts, but four o'clock today is the start of the new league year. So players can officially start signing these contracts this afternoon or this evening, I guess I should say and most of it happens tomorrow. So the Patriots will be introducing some players from their free agency class here tomorrow. I'm sure Alex and I will both be here for that. So that'll be good. But let's get back to the calls and emails and all that good stuff. Get you guys involved. Sean is in Vancouver. What's up, Sean? Hello. How are we doing? Great. How are you guys? Let's say in free agency, they continue bringing in players, bring back hawk and the safety, get another edge like Arnold Avakiti and then bringing Ted and David and Joke. And in a draft at 31, would you go with Chris Brazill, a junior? Who was the second one? Sorry. So bringing in a joke for tight end and bringing in an advocate for another edge and bringing in safety hawk and like bringing back hawk and so those are the free agents where let's say that that happens. We're looking at 31. Are you thinking, okay, well, we need a big speed receiver. That's our need. So as Chris Brazill, junior like matched that, is that the guy you would go with if he's there? Yeah. Thanks for the call, Sean. Yeah. I think all those free agents are possible. I wouldn't be surprised if they added one more edge guy, you know, just as depth. We talk about this a lot. Like you don't want to get to the draft and have a glaring need on the roster where you're forced to take a certain position. Now, wide receiver might be training in that direction just because it's supply and demand. Like they just don't come available in free agency. Right. If AJ Brown and that trade has fallen through and I'm not saying it has, but if it has, then you have, you're really left with no other choice, but to try to keep throwing darts in the draft and that that's just the nature of that position. Nine times out of 10, those guys get traded or they get drafted. They don't hit free agency as we see every single year. So Chris Brazl, you know, I'm, you know, I'm a big fan of his, you know, just based off of where he was before the combine and you don't want to, you don't want to count to 40 twice. Like you already knew he was fast. So you don't want to know all of a sudden say, oh, well, you know, he ran a four three. So now he's a, now he's, you know, a first round pick when most boards, Adam, what like, maybe fringe top 50, you know, going into the combine. But if you want him, he's not going to make it to your, your second round pin. So if you want him, then yeah, you have to take him that higher. I don't, that's a tough one for me because I like the player, but it does feel a little bit rich for, you know, the, the profile. Like I think that there are some question marks, especially, you know, just the history of that Tennessee offense and those. Right. I mean, maybe you moved down a little bit, but the thing is those guys are going to start going fast, right? If I think Denzel Boston's going to be off the board when they pick, yeah, but if, if Boston and conceptually owner gone and then you're assuming Tate lemon and Tyson are gone, well, now there's probably going to be a run early on day two between Omar Cooper, Brasel, you know, I don't know how teams will ultimately feel about Zachary Branch, but like they're going to start to go. Yeah. So you're going to have to, I don't think you're, it's not that you're not getting him at 62. I don't know that you're realistically moving up from 62 without giving up the future first, but you don't want to do. Definitely wouldn't give up the future first to move up and get Brasel. Let me ask you to throw a few names at you and we'll let's just let's just brainstorm live on the air here. Yeah. So Jerry Bernard, I like, but he feels more like a Z. Yeah. He's the dogs, right? Yeah. I don't think that he's quite a true ex or really what we're looking for. Two names that kind of stand out to me that I've watched recently. I think that we would be talking about Chris Bell from Louisville. Don't do this to me. A whole lot more. Don't. It is what it is. It would have been so easy for him to be the guy 31. It would have made all, or he would have put stands up, bossing down. It would have made all. the sense in the world. That was socks that he got hurt. Okay. So he got hurt. He tore his ACL late, late, late, late, late, December. Yeah. I have it right here. December or November 22nd was the date that he tore. I thought I was in December. Uh, November 22nd was the date he tore it. I, um, so he. Chris Bell gets hurt at the end of the college football season. I think it was the last game. Yeah. That Louisville played in the regular season. I don't know if they probably went to a ball or a Louisville's decent. Yeah. I mean, he wouldn't have played in ballgame. Right. So Chris Bell gets hurt. Uh, I watched two Chris Bell games. I've watched Miami and Clemson. So two pretty, pretty good competition. Well, Clemson sucked us here with the corners are still good. Uh, he took two crossing routes, caught him in stride and took him bolt to the house from like 40 plus yards out. And you just see like the run after catchability and the explosiveness and you're like, "Whoa." You know, this guy's like destroying angles in the open field with the ball in his hands. There's big concerns about, you know, injury, obviously. Uh, it happened lately, late in the season last year. So you don't know if he's going to contribute in 26. All those things aside, uh, you know, we just watched Stefan Digg has come back quickly from an ACL and be 95% Stefan Diggs. Yeah. But he's also Stefan Diggs. Of course. He was doing this after years experience in the league. Yup. Been in a similar office before. All fair. My question, my fill's cilitation here is as a day to pick. As a team that is not looking for just another wide receiver three to use that crazyology, you are looking for ceiling, ceiling ceiling at that position. You need to hit a home run at that position. Is it worth the risk to say, again, on day two, not a 31 on day two, we are just going to, this is a first round talent that we're getting on day two of the draft because he blew out his knee late and last year in the college football season. We're just going to, we're going to bank on him being healthy and being the same guy. Not where he's going to go. I think he's still my go top 50. You think he's still going to go top? I still think he might go top. I guess it depends on all. Like, I mean, let's, let's, we're, we're essentially talking about another, I guess it's not as bad because it's not the track record, but we're kind of talking about another malcomitual type situation, right? Yeah, but he doesn't have a debilitating knee injury. Well, you don't know like these things can change, right? It's just to me, it's got me a diapepsy. You, you, you, when we were talking before about Kyle Williams, and you mentioned like the track record of these guys having success their first year, even if he does play as a rookie, he's not going to get mini camp, training camp. He's, these throwing sessions in with Drake, may, you know, he's not going to get as immersed in the offense as he probably needs to write away. We've seen this with other receivers that have come here, have gotten hurt in the spring and summer, missed time in, in OTA's missed time in training camp and never really caught up. Now, maybe those weren't the most talented players to begin with, but it definitely impacted their development. So my, my ceiling for Chris Bell for the Patriots, if you want to trade up into like the 70s or 80s from 96, that's where you can start to sell me on Chris Bell. Fun player. Again, if he was, and I, I got to be consistent. Explosive. I didn't want Josh Simmons last year. Yeah. I didn't think they're in position to take that risk. Well, I'm gonna reason why I bring it up is because I think there are more in that position. There more in that position. If you, if you played another position, I might be more inclined. Okay. I, I, what part of it is the wide receiver and just the way it works. Working in that position and sure. I hear you sound in on this. Yeah. I am because I think that I keep coming back because he was going to be my third one. Sealing. They need, they, we do not need them to draft another, you know, complimentary third receiver. They have five of those, right? Like they don't need any more of that middle of that. That's why I said to you, so do you take, why are you taking wide receiver on day two? I just look at this group and this is assuming that, you know, my guy Brazl is off the border. Yeah. Kind of in that donut range of like he's not good enough at 31, but he's not going to make it to 65. I just look at this day to group and now I look at I'm kind of taking the slot Z type of guys out because they just paid Romeo Dobbs crap ton of money to play that really. That's a fair assumption. So I'm going to take those guys out and I'm just going to look at explosive down the field guys. Now I think Chris Bell is more explosive with the ball in his hands, like catch and run explosive than he is like true vertical explosive. But I think he's good at the catch point though. He's explosive. He's a big play dude. I'm stronger. I get stronger on offense. They need upside. They need they need high level talent. They need ceiling at that position. And yeah, you might have to take on a little bit of an injury risk. But and I know you're going to say what you said about digs and these are proven guys and I get that. Yeah. Modern medicine is a little bit of a different animal. Like it just is. You know, I watched the fun digs come back from an ACL in like nine or 10 months. You know, you knew I was going to bring this up at some point. I just I'm watching Jason Tatum play 10 months. I'm just saying that we're talking about maybe a different like we're in the modern 2026 medicine here where like ACLs are not. This isn't Willis McGay. So if I'm not as easy as I'm not for saying I expect Chris Brattle to develop into Stefan digs production. Yeah. And uh, or sorry. If I'm not just saying I expect Romeo dobs to develop in to step on digs production and dobs is proven 700 almost 700. I mean, I fell people. Oh, now I'm supposed to expect some kid coming off a torn ACL to step in and do that with limited practice time. Like I just, I don't know. I I don't I might take the bed on the upside. You know what? I yeah, but realistically, when is that upside going to hit 2028? I don't know. Maybe I don't know if he misses this year. If he's really that good. If he misses this year, if he's really that good, he's that couldn't we don't know. It's a tough adjustment from college to pros. We don't know. He has no proven enough. I'd like Chris Bell. I hate to hear me do this. I like Chris Bell. Yeah. You're the guy that turned me on to this. I would just rather some other team take the risk of this point. Okay. Trust me. If he was healthy, I would be sitting here saying Chris Bell 31. Next question. Okay. But I think you have to consider that. Okay. Let me throw a few more names at you in this kind of role. The other guy that I keep seeing a lot that people are Patriots fans Patriots 20 Jacobi line from USC. And I'll say this part about Jacoby Lane and then we'll get into the stuff that makes Jacoby Lane intriguing. Dame Breuger put a tweet out there that I thought was interesting and reply to a Patriots fan. Okay. About Jacoby Lane. This is Dan Breuger's reporting not mine. Dame Breuger said doesn't feel like he's a variable type of player, which tells me toughness, effort and finish. Is he one of these guys that pulls his hamstring and, you know, I'm hurt coach, you know, like one of these types of things. That's what it tells me because I don't think that he's a there's nothing about Jacoby Lane that spells that he's like a bad dude or anything like that. Right. So I think that this is more about play demeanor like football play demeanor that doesn't really scream variable. Now at the same time, enormous catch radius like one of the biggest catch radius is in the draft. Great hands highlight real catches. I think the one thing that scares me a little bit, you know, natural hands catcher by the way too. I can pluck the ball outside of his frame, bring it in all sorts of different things. We saw him in the gauntlet drill like you know, through the gauntlet drill smooth the silk. The one thing that I think, you know, stands out though, is he's got a little bit of that like Aaron Dopson, Nikhil Harry, like all of his highlights are these one handed catches, but there's no separation in any of them. And it's like what's in between them. Yeah. And it's just like, okay, like this is a great highlight real receiver. But you know, the consistency there of consistently separating. I especially once the routes get further down the field. Like is he a guy that with his size and with his radius can be like a slant winner and stuff like that. Yeah. I think he could probably do that. He's going to win jump balls. He's going to wear it when, you know, a handful of jump balls a season. But we've seen that type of movie before. Like we know where that sometimes goes. It's why I have reluctance with the guy like Malachi fields from Notre Dame. Like where do you stand right now on Jacobi Lane? Because I think this is another guy that a lot of people I keep seeing as like the day two guy right now in this like bigger receiver mold. Yeah. You know, somebody that big you'd like to see get off the line a little better too. Yeah. You know, I agree with what you said. He's a builder of speed. He's he's not a he's a trained. If you drink, make it work with a guy that's just 50, 50 and can make that work regularly. I understand it. But he's going to have I don't know. You know, when you're talking about the X, you're talking about a guy that's going to be on the field. What 70, 80% of the snaps a lot. Yeah. Kishan Bouti was on the field. Do you trust him to give you what you need in that volume? He's probably more of a situational player. Yeah. I think early on in his career, he's probably like a matchup red zone guy where like yeah, if you were playing a team that has a bunch of small corners and you just feel like you can get him on one of those guys and he just can moss the corner down the field or it's red zone and you're trying to, you know, throw him a fade or high point fade or use his size and things like that. He, you know, they need to improve their red zone offense. I think Romeo, Dops and Gileam actually help in both those regards and be something we didn't necessarily mention is that Romeo, Dops to mention that. Yeah. Has like 17 red zone touchdowns over the course. Yeah. Really good red zone player, really good playoff player so far in his career with Dops. So maybe they already did a little bit of that, but I just not bringing them up was important because he's, yeah, I keep seeing his name everywhere. Where are you out Ted Hearst? So I need to watch more of Ted Hearst's. Spoiler Shocker, Georgia State film is not very prevalent in the underground draft film market. They also YouTube, you know, we're on YouTube right now. So I should be careful with this. But at the same time, like they keep on like copywriting all of like the draft people. You're you're only looking for the big time opponents he played. So I would look where you find just pulling up their schedule. I would look where you find Ole Miss and Memphis film. I could try that. In Vanderbilt, they played Vanderbilt. There's two, Him and Schuyler-Beller, the two guys. I have 70 to Vanderbilt. I have a request in, you know, with my people about trying to find film on those guys. You would think I could just go down the hall and ask, but I can't. I do like Schuyler-Bell. I guess he makes less sense now with Romeo Dobbs, but he's a good player. Yeah, you know, the other guys, you know, that I've watched recently, like I like Antonio Williams. Oh, let's bring that recency bias player. I like Antonio Williams from Clemson, but that's just not what they need right now. You know, is it shift these slot receiver, you know, a lot of different things going on there with him. Recency bias players, you know, I've been pretty free agency heavy this week. That's all right. We'll start it next week. I haven't done a ton of, I've got, I'll give you one though. And I'm going to butcher his last name because I'm just terrible with names. Is it Jackis? Gabe Jackis. Jackis. Chris, the J is silent. It's a, it's a soft J jogging. No J. Yeah, it's no, ackis. The J is silent. Gabe Ackis. Gabe Ackis from Illinois. That guy's a dude. That guy. He is. He's mean. He's nasty. He is a whole. Yeah. He just wants to bring his, you know, he wants to bring the fight to you. He wants to hurt you. Yeah. I like he wants to make people talk about the day they faced Gabe Ackis. You talk about fear and fear and finish, right? Like you talk about guys that play to the whistle and play physical, you know, stand up outside linebacker too. Yeah. That kind of fits their mold. If I don't know where, like he might be like a early day, day to pick. It might be kind of a fringe. Second, third round. Yeah. But he maybe top 50. He was fun. I mean, I wrote down, you know, just rugged, like rugged splash plays like all over the game. It's got that team leader thing to he's supposed to be right in a room. Yeah. Fun player. I think he gets more violent just watching him, because he really broke out last year. Yeah. I think in another draft, we're talking about him as like a sleeper pick at 31. Yeah. In this draft, no, because there's so much depth at edge. But in another draft, he gets some buzz. Like he's the guy everybody's talking about is like, you know, nobody's considering in the first round. And again, he won't get that this year, but he's a, yeah, I'm a big fan of his. Yeah. He was a lot of fun to watch. I mean, some of the words that I just wrote in my notes, you know, rugged, violent, you know, just a bully willingness to just not just take on blocks, but play through blocks. Like he's trying to go through a polar like he's, you know, that's not just a guy that's just looking to sort of survive the fight there. He's trying to bring the fight to you. Just feels like a variable type of player. I don't know if he's going to be in a reasonable range for them. No, if they don't go edge in the first round, I think it may be they trade up a little bit, but with the way they've talked about their needed edge, I'm not ruling that out. Yeah. Like, no, yeah, I think he could be in realistic range for them, especially if some of these other guys ahead of them, you know, if, if height falls because of his size and if, you know, cash is how it takes a little bit of a dip because of his arm length and Zion Young and that's my, that's my big draft take with this class. Yeah. Rubin Baines is going to be fine. Yeah. Rubin Baines is going to be a top five top 10 pick. He's going to go exactly where he would have gone regardless of the arm length. The guy to me that's going to slip because of the measurable is cash itself. The other thing too is just we see this sometimes when it's a great class at a position. Right. Guys end up going later because teams kind of know in the back of their head. Well, if I don't get this guy here, there's still talent down the board. And so everybody kind of waits. So I'm not ruling that out. Can I give you a recent see player for you? Yes, I can. So I, this is a TBD take. I don't know if I'm saying the Patriot should pick this guy yet. I am just interested because he is interesting. Okay. It's a running back. So I'm going to assume you haven't watched him day three player. Adam Randall from Clemson. No. So he was a receiver. He was a converted receiver. I probably saw him when I was watching the receiver from Clemson. Well, he is a converted receiver. Okay. 632 32. And he still doesn't, he's still learning how to play running back. But he's got great burst. Take on contact. Obviously, he's a plus in the past game. You so desperately, you love them drafting running backs every year. I think they need a running back every year. You don't tell me that. We just did this. Did you start their running back? You laughed at me for some day. They just did it. They are. Reminders Steven Sinon a big contract. And they just drafted Travegane Henderson in the second half. Right. So many more running backs that you want them to invest. You need three. Did you not see what happened last year? Okay. Okay. So we can go in there. We have four or six round picks. You can use one of those on a running back. That's where Adam Randall's supposed to go. I'm off your case. Go ahead. So, well, I just kind of told like he's a converted receiver. Yeah. So you can move them all around the formation. I know Josh likes to do that. Yeah. He's six, three, two, thirty. So he's so the Navy kid is more like lighter and quicker than that. Yeah. No, he's got like he's X receiver profile, but he's lining up in the backfield. And he still has to learn how to play running back. But if you can teach him how to hit a hole and he's hitting the hole at that size, with his turn. Yes. Actually, very good kick return. So this is Cordero Patterson. Is what you're telling me. Not as talented, obviously. No, it's not a bad. He ran a four five forty of like a little faster, but like you're in the ballpark. Yeah. Nailed it. Okay. I just watch him. All right. You won't. Well, so now you want Reggie Gilliam leading the way on the kickoff return for Clemson running back. Adam Randall. Adam Randall. I mean, that could be fun. House calls. That could be pretty fun. It's all that. Done. Kickoff return. Probably. He did a four five shuttle. Okay. Come on. What's up, Patty? Good afternoon, Jen. What's up? Hey. Hey, so I'll go over a few things. First thing real quick. I love Acid. He has a wrestling background. So he understands leverage and he knows how to throw his weight around. I would love him. There's a few guys I love. But just regarding free agency, I would I wouldn't mind signing chick, Conq. Well, because I think we're going to need to find a like that that F type kind end or a place hunter Henry. Like you said, this is the last year of his contract. Who knows if he ends up coming back? Evan, I might do it with you and Eldred. I might be all in on just staying screw it and take brazil at 31 because you need that guy. You need that big, that big extra receiver. I'm with you guys. I don't think Denzel Boston is going to be there. And I mean, from watching him like I took away a lot of stuff that you said, Evan, he just seems to understand for a guy that big and fast. He seems to understand route spacing, maybe better than a lot of these big receivers that we see coming out and he didn't have the best quarterback play in Tennessee last year. And I'll end with a question. Alex, I was in on Blake Miller last year when I thought he was coming out when he was going to be like a day to pick. I would love Blake Miller at 31. I don't think he'll be there. But have you watched any of Austin Barber? We played predominantly left tackle with Florida, but he's still more like what we would, what the Patriots would use like a right tackle. He's like six foot six foot seven, like three, like three 15, three 20. I just wondered if he's watched any of them. If you think he could be like maybe a good project guy like with like the round three pick or possibly if he falls into the fourth round. And I'll take it off there guys. Thanks, bag. Thanks for the call. Yeah, I mean, he's in that, you know, he is different than Blake Miller. He's a day three. He's a project guy. I've talked about him, he a Wagner. He's kind of around that range. I know some people like K.H. Casey from Boise State. I say, World's Morgan. He's one of those tackles that's maybe too tall for his own good. I mean, it's older. Yeah. So I mean, as a date, I wouldn't take them in the third round. Is a day three pick as a developmental right tackle? Yeah, sure. Throw them in the mix. Yeah. I was talking to Sebastian Volmer, who does a lot of work for our German, like, side of things here now. And it's cool. A couple of years ago, we were at the combine and was right before the Patriots went to Germany in 23. I want to say so he was doing a lot of stuff with our content team. And I got a chance to kind of just chat with him one night at dinner. And he mentioned that, you know, he was. Volmer, I want to say was like six, seven, maybe six, like, right, like good height for a tackle, but not, not, yeah, right, not a skyscraper, right? And he said that like a guy like six eight guy like Nate Solder, he said had a harder time because he was so tall that like getting down low in the stance and like really mirroring those, those Eddressers, like, you can all, it can work against you sometimes. I think certain guys, it works for them. Like I think Trent Brown's just massive size is the reason why he's sticking around the league. Like, I can't believe the Texans reupped him again, but certain guys, they're too tall. That's a real thing. Let's get back to the phones. David is in Fairfax. What's up, David? David, he's still there. He was on hold for a while. David, call back in. If you want to, we can get you on. Daniel is in California. What's up, Daniel? Hey, what's up guys? So sorry if you guys already talked about this, I'm just joining right now. But with the whole Romeo dobs signing, I've just been on Twitter and all that, just seeing a lot of reports. I think Karen was one of them. Just saying that necessarily doesn't mean that we're out on AJ Brown. I understand the whole June 1st situation, but my question is, do you think this actually, the Romeo dobs thing does it give us more leverage? In these negotiations and like I think stand right now, you have to like put money on it. Do you think AJ Brown will be an ego on opening day? And I can just take it off there. I just yeah, thanks for the call. I don't know if it gives him any more leverage. I think the heart. No, it makes them a little bit less desperate. Maybe, but AJ Brown's a really great player that's going to have high trade value. It's going to be a substantial trade regardless in my opinion. I bring up the June 1st thing so often. Because to me, this is the number one snag other than the fact that the Eagles might not want to give away one of their best players. Taking that whole thing of it out of it. Let's just say, and I'm this is purely speculative, but let's just say that the Eagles and the Patriots, the Eagles are ready to trade AJ Brown. The Patriots are ready to meet the asking price. They kind of have like a framework of a, of a deal in mind. But the snag is the contract. Like, and I think that's really what it all boils down to whether or not this is going to happen or not. I'm pretty sure I have the numbers right. If the Eagles trade AJ Brown pre-June first before June 1st, it is a $40 million dead cap hit on their chart. It's not that it's a $40 million dead cap hit. It's $40 million comes off their current cap space. It's a dead money charge, which counts against the cap in addition to what he already counts. No, in total. I thought it was in the okay. So his, his dead money would be $40 million. Yeah. Which would count against their salary cap this year. It's a way to immediately hit the 2026 cap. If they execute the cap has it, it says 72 million in dead money, negative $49 million in cap savings. Okay. So maybe it's the cap savings, whatever. The, if they do it post June 1, they can split it over two years. They can, they can separate it over two seasons. So it just, it's all an accounting way of saying that contract is easierly easier to trade after June 1st. It's easier from an accounting perspective for the Eagles to digest the contract if they trade him after June 1st. And it's extreme to the point based on the reporting. I saw that like it would, they really wouldn't have been able to do free agency if they traded AJ Brown because the salary implications. Now they could, there's always ways around it. They could restructure contracts. They could advance salary. They could do all the fancy things that teams do to circumvent that. But yes, ultimately at the end of the day, you know, they might not even assuming they don't, they don't even probably have enough cap space to do it. I can't have to make another move to figure out the cap space of it all to do it. So to me, and I get as a, from a Patriots point of view, the, this, this nag with it with AJ Brown is that that's very, very difficult to just assume that AJ Brown is going to be a Patriot June 2nd. Like you can't just put all your eggs in that basket. We just saw this, you know, to an extent with Max Krosby, like trades fall through other teams jump in. Like you might think you have a handshake agreement with how you rosemaking the Eagles. But when you know the draft passes and some team misses on their wide receiver target in the draft. And now all of a sudden they come back to revisiting the AJ Brown thing and here we go. Right now it's a higher asking price. So you're in a bidding war or something like that. It's very difficult to just put all your eggs in that basket if you're the Patriots. But if you're the Eagles is very difficult to trade him now. So this is a trade that if it does go down, you would think would probably go down sometime in August, like right before training camp similar timing to like Mike Parsons. Right last year with the Cowboys, which again is if you're the Patriots, like are you willing to roll the dice that you might go into next season, not. And it also like that if you're negotiating for the Patriots now the Eagles are losing leverage because he's worth less having not been having knocked on through your off season program, having not had all that time to work with Drake may. Yeah, all of that, you know, not being in your building. Yeah, I'm not giving up the same for AJ Brown in August that I am in April, absolutely not. Yeah, it's even June. So you know what, June is already going to miss sometimes going to miss some of OTA's and many camps usually in mid June. So maybe if they got it done quick, he could be back for that. I wouldn't give up a first form in August. Absolutely not. Yeah, it's tough. It's a tough trade. I think that there's interest from both sides, both from the Patriots side to trade for AJ Brown and the Eagles side to move AJ Brown. But it's just an accounting thing that I know is like kind of, you know, gives you a popsicle headache trying to think of all the numbers and stuff like that, but it is what it is. A couple of emails here that I wanted to get to that I thought we're good and we'll keep on taking these phone calls lots of phone calls today. That's what this is an offseason show. This is what I always say for you. So I wanted to read this email from Chris and Maen because I get this question a lot or this point made to me a lot about K-Shon Booty and his role in his usage. There's a lot of I get a lot of pushback a lot of emails about K-Shon Booty being more of a Z receiver than an X receiver and I don't want to get to bog down in the XZ slot of it all, but essentially what we're talking about is a guy that typically aligns at X would be on the line of scrimmage on the backside of the formation. A Z receiver is a guy that's moving around right is playing a little slot. He's playing a little outside. He's kind of a hybrid X and slot. Yeah, he's playing off the line of scrimmage so that he can move around the formation. The thing is about that is that we're kind of going back in my opinion with K-Shon Booty to LSU K-Shon Booty when we say that there's no doubt that early on in his career like his freshman breakout at LSU definitely profiled more as like a power slot like kind of not the same but not as dissimilar as like an AJ Brown type right that was going to catch and run with the football and be big and strong all that for that year was Debo Samuel. Sure, like something something like that that's a true catch and run artist. I don't see that kind of play speed in K-Shon Booty anymore post his you know freak ankle injury at LSU. And so I hear this a lot that that's his natural position the patrons have been playing Adam position yada yada yada the other thing that I would go back to is and maybe this is out of necessity you can make that argument. But in 2023 Bill Brian decided to develop him as an X and Bill Bella check in 2024 drawd Mayo and Alex van Pelt which I know what I'm talking about but drawd Mayo and Alex van Pelt played him at the X in 2025 Mike variable and Josh McDaniel's played him at the X so until an NFL coaching staff looks at K-Shon Booty and tells me he's actually we actually see him more as a hybrid player more as a Z. Yeah, I just don't see that I think his best rate right now is winning the ball down the field so is he the kind of X receiver that you think they want with Drake may long term. No, not and that's not a knock on K-Shon Booty. No, it's not I'm talking stylist. I think that there's a lot of to things that I like about his game that fit with Drake may mostly the catchpoint stuff and his ability to win the football. I use his frame and his size to kind of one he kind of does that like slingshot thing where he kind of wins the late on with the ball in the air and then he also has a good strong hands at the catchpoint. Obviously we saw the one handed catch against the Texans is just sick right you know he makes plays like that on the football. I think that ideally, I think ideally you get a little bit more speed in that role right somebody that has a little bit more get up and go in that type of role. I hear what people are saying about that's what he looked like in college. He certainly does not have the downfield like third level burner speed that would suggest that he'd be a great outside receiver. I just again three different coaching staffs and two or three no offense to ABP that I really respect them as like offensive minds and Bill Brian and Josh McDaniels telling me that this is where we're playing him. Right. So I just don't see that now the other part of it with Chris is in this email is he mentions Kyle Williams as more of like a Z receiver than a pure X. I can get behind that one a little bit more because I do think that he has like the twitch and the suddenness as a separator especially against man coverage to be able to maybe be a little bit better off inside and he's not the biggest of guys right to be playing on the boundary all the time. The issue with him is route conversions like he's just not there yet in terms of reading coverage and changing routes on the fly to the point where he's going to be in the right places all the time. And that's a big part of playing inside in this offense that's the part of playing inside of this offense is can you read coverage can you understand man versus zone can you understand leverage where openings are all those nuances are what made the guys that have been great here in that role great. I don't know if that's Kyle Williams I agree that he moves more like that as an athlete I just don't know. So if he's going to get there between the ears to be able to play that kind of role, the other names that they, he mentioned were just, you know, I've, you know, BTJ, which, you know, I think chefter tried his best to pour cold water on that rumor with him being available. Are you kind of taking him at his word in terms of chefter and say, if he's available, I trade a 31st pick for him, I would do that today. Yeah. I don't think that never made sense to me why he was available. Yeah. So the news in the NFL, I guess we should probably talk a little bit about this. Just going through some of these emails. The news in the NFL the last 12 hours has been Max Crosby and we mentioned it a couple times today. Yeah. But this is from Dave and May and he just wants our take on it. Like, do we think Max Crosby really felt as physical? Do we think that they got cold feet? They pivoted to Drake Henderson awfully quick. This one smells a little bit Alex. It does. It smells a little bit. Not unprecedented, but uncommon. Like I think that's pretty fair to say. Like it doesn't happen every year. Right. That's something like this. What do you think happened with Max Crosby? Yeah. I mean, you just look at how the timeline kind of played out. I'm certainly looks weird. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe they really were worried about his name, but he, you know, it, it's really fascinating what's going to happen with the Raiders now because they made all these moves and they spent a bunch of money not accounting for Max Crosby on the books. Well, now Max Crosby's back on the books and they say that they're committed to paying all their, their free agents that they signed and they're going to keep Crosby. I don't know if they've the room to do that. If they're going to have to renegotiate contracts, if they're going to have to trade somebody else, but you know, and then you look at if this does change the situation for other players, does that open up opportunities for teams around the league? Like this thing could be a, we're just getting a lot of things. You're just getting started here. This thing could be a real mess. Yeah. Now, it sounds like the Raiders have the ability to go through with their free agent because they have spent a crap ton of money in free agency. They had like a Patriot level free agency, meaning last year's Patriot free agency spending spree, Tyler Lindorbaum, like massive, massive contracts. It sounds like they're still able to make that work financially for the time being, but that's $30 million in cap space they were planning on having and not just cap space, but cash on hand. Yeah. And they're planning on paying Max Crossby. And now they have to, they have to, I would think still facilitate a trade and not every team is going to handle the injury the same. Right. So some teams will overlook it and say, sure, I remember famously, Bill Belicex told the story about Randy Moss and that trade a million times and how quickly that had to come together. And he had to pass his physical and Bill Belicex was just like, yeah, we got him into the room. I said to the doctor, he's good, right? The doctor said he up and that was it. They know, like, so like there's different levels of physical. This one, though, to me, does smell a little bit like I think Dre Hendrickson, maybe the market kind of dwindled on him. It got the number got lower and lower. They're like instead of trading our two first round picks, like I don't think Dre Hendrickson says good is Max Crossby, but is he like 85 to 90% of the irony of they back out of the Max Crossby deal because of the physical? Yes. And now you go sign a guy who's in his mid 30s. Yeah. Who's coming off a hip injury to a four year deal. And I haven't seen the details on the contract. I know there's guarantee money in all four years, but you're not doing a four year deal with one year money guarantee. Yeah. So got a little bit of cold feet. I was surprised they gave Hendrickson four years. Yeah. Me too. This is from Rick in Riverside, Rhode Island. This is a good question because you mentioned Blake Miller earlier. That's kind of a luxury pick. If the Patriots get to the draft and they might be in a position, they have 11 draft picks. Now not all of those have a ton of value. Let's be honest. Four or six round picks is not going to get you much. Yeah, but you can use me to help move up. Is there a world where you would trade up in the first round to target a player? And he asked if you would, who would that player be? How high up would you go? Not high. I still don't want to see them. I still want to see them make three top 100 picks. And it's even fringy on that one at 96, right? So I feel like if you're trading up, you're giving up something in 2027 to make it happen. I don't love that because I don't think you have enough capital. I mean, I guess you could trade like your first, second and third round pick of this year's draft. But you know what I mean? I really do the math. I don't. If you're going to move up, I'm assuming we're not sorry to cut you off. I'm assuming we're not talking about moving up three slots here. Well, okay. So that's what I was going to say. I go back to. I mean, I'm going to go back to the first round or something when the Patriots moved up or move back for Gonzalez in 23. It was a first and a fourth to move up three spots. You know, they have the two fourths. Would I consider using one of them to do something like that? I don't think that that's unfair. That's probably as far as I go. Now, moving up those three or four spots could matter, right? If you're in the market for a receiver, the chiefs at 29, the chiefs are now there at 29. That might be a wide receiver team. If you're in the market for a tackle, the Niners at 27, the chiefs at 29, like you might be trying to jump teams, you want to get really aggressive. The bears, the bills at 26 could be a receiver team. I don't know that you're trading above 25. That's even getting expensive again. It was a first and a fourth to move up three spots, but that was 14 to 17. Yeah. What is that? You can pull up the traits. I don't tell you later in the round that's going to move you a little further. But like an increment, that's probably as much as I would do a first and a fourth. Yeah. Okay. I was thinking more, something bigger. Yeah. I'm out. I'm out on that. I was thinking, save the assets for next year. There's two, there's two guys I was thinking about specifically. One is one of like a Jordan Tyson or McCuylemon or a carnal tape. By the way, trading your first in your, according to the trade chart, your first and your higher fourth gets you to 27. Yeah. So you see a five spots. Well, it's not jumping the cheese for receivers, not nothing. Wait, I know, but when we're talking about like trading up in the draft, I thought we were talking about like into a different tier of play. Okay. Yeah. I'd rather trade back. Does one of those receivers have some weird fall? And I know people are like, that's not going to happen. Probably not. But I don't know. Like Justin Jefferson felt a like 22. You know, CD Lam was like the 18th pick in the draft or 19 or whatever. Like it, it's not inconceivable. The other guy that I thought would be interesting just to get your take on. Like would you do it if Cedeek were to slip a little bit? You want my take on Kenan Cedeegra now? Yes. He's going to the chiefs at nine at nine. At nine. That high. Doesn't it make all now that they have there because everybody at year mark that spot for Jeremiah Love? Yeah. They need a pass catcher. It's not especially if Tate goes before them. Doesn't it kind of make a lot of sense? He's going to replace Travis Kelsey. We know Patrick Mahomes like to like start on the tight end. He's a good fit for the offense. He's a good fit for my home skill set. I just think that makes a whole lot of sense. Okay. I think he's going to the chiefs at nine. That's that's high. And I'll give you another one now that they have their pick back. Yeah. But the Ravens really need a tight end. Yeah, they do. They just lost and likely and cooler. Again, another guy that's a really good fit for the way it will. I guess the way they run their offense. My change a little bit new coaching staff, but like, you know, yeah. If you're not going to, if the bars are pretty specific player, you're not, I like Jordan Tyson. Yeah. Let's say Jordan or or McIleman, right? Yeah. And you like him. But when you look at specifically what's needed in that offense and maybe you could argue more from McIleman, but they have safe flowers. Just who's going to produce more net offense? He's going to have more output in that offense. Jordan Tyson or Kenyan Cedeak. Cedeak. I mean, if there's one throw that Lamar likes the most, it's the same. He loves throwing the seams. He loves throwing the middle of the field. He's always been a between the numbers preferred between the numbers guy. That's why the Ravens have always loaded up on tight ends. You know, that's why they've been a tight end. I don't know. Those are the two spots I look at. And then you want to throw in the Panthers really neat. That's at 19. The Panthers really needs to end. If he falls, but at this point, I think somebody maybe trades up. Yeah. You know, even if you're giving up a lot, you're still probably not getting above 18, 19, 20. The only reason why I brought it up is because great athletic profile. Yeah. Great ball of clay, great in theory, great everything. They're not going to get high enough. They're not going to be able to, are you willing to sell this future for Kennedy? Obviously, I'm just saying his production is not first round caliber. Yeah. And I know it's, we've done this in the past of that Oregon offense. It's a weird offense. You know, it happens, right? Like, you know, Justin Herbert did not have it, you know, right. It happens, but it's from a production profile. And I'm talking about statistically. Yeah. He is not a first round caliber. But I will say this the last two years, Colston, Loveland goes at 10, Tyler Warren goes at 14. Tyler Warren definitely has a tremendous success. Yeah. Brock Bowers at 13, it's a copycat leak. The trend is go get your tight end in the first question was who would I would, who would I, what would peak my interest in a trade up? And those are the only kind of guys that I pick. I just, who was the first one to get one of those were three receivers Tyson, lemon, Tate or a sneak. That's it. I don't, you're not going to get high enough for all four of those guys are probably going top 20. I get it. You tell me one of those receivers is around 22, 23, 24. I might start to get a little aggressive. I get it. I just don't, I don't think that the difference between the player going to get it in a draft like this difference between 31 and 27. to have a new slim now if somebody says to you your player, someone's taking your player, right. Then that's different. That's a different. I will, I will add this to it. If those receivers are starting to fall, yeah, doesn't that probably mean Denzel Boston's going to be there? Yeah, but I think those guys are, are in a different tier than Denzel Boston. Fair enough. All right. Let's get back to the phones and we have some email, more emails too that are good emails as well. William is in Philly. What's up, William? What's going on over? How you doing? Good. How are you? All right. Hey, I'll tell you something. Hey. What up? Well, the prep from the last time I called Evan and I was saying I was a little hard to base these tours, Ellie and Wolf, but the jurors did out there as far as I'm concerned. It doesn't have so much to do with Bill. It was just the fact when he drafted, jet by new God's Rigmay, we had a gentleman pulled with a turbine figure, tightened all those guards and went out. Nothing pinned out, but only his Rigman. I was wondering about his weapons around the pointing cast like nothing out at draft King, you know, other than Drake Meag was a hit basically. You know what I mean? So this is why we were we at now basically. And also Evan, what you was talking about, I mean, when you were talking about, what's his name? AJ Brown, yeah, I went over, do it though, but it's this you're playing a weighting game here. And, you know, what's what's the backup plan? You know, we got somebody can come in, yes, and that's all true and give a person that that. So what do you do after that? You know, yeah, that's the Eagles leverage. You have a backup. Thanks for the call William. We're on the same page now for CBR, receiver, receiver. They got any more playmakers now. That's where they're at with AJ Brown. I think that's a big reason why they just handed this contract of Romeo Dobbs is they did not want to be stuck in a position in Romeo Dobbs is an AJ Browns caliber, but at least I not worse a wide receiver. You have a might not be better. Yeah, you have you have a competitive receiver room. You know, now with Romeo Dobbs involved. Jack is in New Hampshire. What's up, Jack? Hey guys, thanks for taking my call. Just wanted to get your thoughts on a potential like cave on Tibido or even Dre Green Lawson. He just got released from the Broncos and what you guys think about that. And I know you're just talking about a potential fall for some of those top receivers. And if you think they even have a shot at a guy like Jordan Tyson, if he falls, thanks guys. Yeah, thanks, Jack. I know on Tyson. No, they're not going to have a shot at Tyson. I like Caleb on Tibido. It's an interesting one. I'm not against it. I would rather was greenered with the Vikings. Yeah, I'd rather him probably, but it might be it's a trade. It would cost more. It's going to cost more for Jonathan Green. I think there's untapped potential with Tibido. Probably plays the high motor plays mean really athletic. I'd be I really liked him in the draft. Maybe I'm letting that skew my opinion a little bit. I think that there's something there as well. I think Green art is a better player and you know, a more proof of how old is a little bit older. I think it's like 28. I want to say we're already paying for potential instead of production. Like that's kind of what they've been doing the last couple years. Yeah, no, I'm not opposed to it. I mean, I I think they're they're an edge short right now. I'm all for like, you know, edge can be a draft thing. Like that that's I'm okay with that. If that's a position that they're really going to aggressively target in the draft, I think they probably should anyways. Like, you know, even if they add a Tibido, we'd still be talking about edge. Yeah. But I think that, you know, they are probably one more like NFL caliber eddrusher away because we just really don't know about Harold Landry right now. And what his longevity is going to look like in his availability. So without that, now I think it's probably on a little bit of a lower tax bracket than a Tibido would be or a Green art would be. It probably be, you know, and a BK. A Biketti. A Biketti. A Rese's name. You know, those types of guys that are still kicking around are probably more, you know, kind of like what they did last year, with chase on right? We're going to sign this guy to a one year deal that's, I think, a Biketti was a early second round pick, not a pure first round guy, but a guy that has upside, it has talent in murder and just see if we can get it out of him for a year. You know, that probably makes a little bit more sense than one of these big splash moves. But I feel all that. Matt is in New Hampshire. What's up, Matt? Hey guys, can you hear me? Yes. So quick question. I didn't hear you mention him when you were talking about pick 31 earlier. I know we've been talking about wide receivers a lot, but I am curious. What do you guys think of edge TJ Parker at 31? I know we're all talking about wide receiver and everything, but in the event that that price does come down on AJ Brown and we give up like this year second and next year second and we still have this year's first. I think TJ Parker would be a great fit. Seems like somebody rabel would like. Somebody you can rehabilitate. I know he didn't play it all in 2024, but the previous season he had he was looking like a top 10 pick. So I'm just curious here. You guys thoughts on that. Thanks again. Oh yeah. Thanks for the calm. Matt. You know, I when I first watched TJ Parker, I had just started Clemson. He's definitely in this cluster like he's in this 30 once. He did play in 24. Who did? Yeah. Parker. Oh, okay. I thought the college said it. Clear. Anyways, when I first watched him, I thought he was a little bit stiffer than some of these other guys like word. I mean, both gravitating, but me is, you know, just talking about me specifically. You know, guys like mezzanour guys like Ash's howl that have a little bit more bend a little bit more explosiveness to him. TJ Parker is more in my opinion like a power oriented player, a little bit more physical at the point of attack kind of wins with power, wins with bull rush sets the edge like that sort of thing. But I don't I think that he's right there in this group. And if like that's the one that they picked, I wouldn't be like, you know, blown away like it would make sense in that range of the draft. And you know, maybe if they see it or the league sees it the same way I do, you know, I think guys like mezzanour and howl have a little bit more past rush upside because they're a little bit looser. They're a little bit more fluid with their movements, which tends to lend itself a little bit more to past rush abilities. So maybe that's that the league looks at it that way and TJ Parker is the one that's, you know, when the musical chair stopped in the first round with this edge rusher class that's so stacked like maybe he's the one that's still on the board at 31. And so there's other guys. What do you do like Parker? Yeah, I'm kind of with you like I don't think he's at the top my list for 31, but he's a solid player. He's one of these guys. It what do you believe more that he's the player he was in 2024, which is a for unquestionable first round pick. Or you know, and then he took a step back in 25 was that just because Clemson took a step back and he got dragged down by the program or was 24 and anomaly. Yeah, and he maybe punched above his weight. So I really liked what he did in 24. I think he got dragged down by the Clemson program a little bit. So that's where I'm at. So yeah, I mean, he'd be legit at you. You hate that Clemson program. They were not good last year. You just hate it. No, no, this is personal for you. You don't I do it is true. I do not like but I've liked you. Clemson guys don't have to have to follow. You don't like to have seven and six. You know, you hate Davos. We need to just admit it. It's okay. I'm not a fan of Clemson. Not one of the teams I generally were before. That's such a diplomatic way of saying it. You really don't like but they were not good last year. Okay, fair enough. A couple of the same thing happened with the Penn State guys. That's true. A couple more emails here and then we can wrap it up maybe with a, you know, a couple more things on free agency. But there's, you know, some people that mentioned Chris Alave's name. I know that name has been kicking around. I think Romeo Dobbs and him are a little bit redundant at this point. I would have liked Chris Alave though. Like I thought that that was a viable suggestion, you know, and I know that Orleans is kind of in this second year with a new head coach and sort of trying to to change the, the complexion of the thing down there. You know, this emailer sends out, you know, Chris Alave, Brian Thomas Jr. Jordan Addison. Jordan Addison, like always seems to get his name involved in these things because he's the other guy to Justin Jefferson and Minnesota. I don't, I don't know if that's any, there's any real credence to that. It just always seems to happen. At this point, I'm not sure if those guys are really, or really it, like I would have really liked the lobby before the Romeo Dobbs signing. But now I feel like they, they kind of don't need that type of player. No. Some Oscar delt fans. Yeah. In there. A player. Here's a question from Craig and Vegas. A couple different, like kind of scenarios here. Looking at the people we signed, especially with Dobbs, you think Casey Concepcion is now completely out. And are we looking for more of Denzel Boston type at 31? I personally do. I have that's not inside information at whatsoever. But I think we're kind of, you know, they kind of filled the Z slot role in my opinion with Romeo Dobbs. I think that's the role he's going to play. And they just give him a decent amount of money to do. So I think that that's kind of tied up there right now in Romeo Dobbs. To me, they need an outside guy for Drake May. And I know that people like Ks. John booty, Mac Collins did a decent job with the opportunities that he got playing that role. But a true bonafide, like field stretching ex-receiver that Drake make and throw deep bombs to all the time. That's the guy that I'm looking for. I don't know if that's Denzel Boston. But I don't think that that's like Omar Cooper Jr. or Casey Concepcion. I also don't think Casey's going to be there for them. But yeah, I know we're looking at the big outside guys at this point. Yeah, agreed. On Max Crosby. That's just, it's just us. We not that. Do we think the Patriots would do anything with Max Crosby? Because I think the answer to that is probably no. Yeah. But just us, which Did you reengage with the Raiders on Max Crosby? He throws out a first and a third to the Raiders because it's a little bit lower than what they would have gotten. I'm not a doctor. I'd have to see the medicals. I don't know like how bad is his knee? I'm not giving up. I'm not giving up. Let's just assume that the knee would pass the eye. Would it pass or is it like that? It's like the Ranny Moss thing. He's fine. If he's fine, yeah, I would do that. Yeah. I think I would probably do it too, but they're not going to. No. I don't think. This is a question from Linda and Georgia asks if we know if Elijah Vera Tucker's games where injuries happen in home games. This is an interesting question, Linda. Now only one of them is his lower body. So I'm right. The shoulders you take out. And for those of people that don't know, I should probably explain the MetLife Stadium turf where the Jets obviously played their home games is notoriously awful playing service. That has claimed many injuries. I don't know which year was the Achilles. I want to say 23. Yeah, I want to say 23. Hang on. I don't know, but on his other question, his other injuries have been upper body like torn triceps, pecs, like things like that was at Denver. So that's a, I think I'm considered a pretty good surface. Yeah. How about Mike Evans going to play by the substation? Yeah, not good. Not good for Mike. No, that's a good signing. It kind of reminds me. It is a good sign. It's not quite. I don't think he's quite as, as good anymore as like Devonte Adams is for Devonte Adams, but like it kind of reminds me of that. It's very random. Yeah. You know, I think those offenses, they're so system based and getting catch and run and blocking receivers, guys like Pukka Nikua Cooper Cup, like players like that. But then they kind of got into this world where like they needed a man beater. Yeah. That could get open and make tough catches against man coverage and the, uh, the, uh, the Rams went out and signed Devonte Adams and made that happen. And I think the 49ers kind of saw that and were like, we need our Devonte Adams. And that's Mike. I will say though, I saw a graphic. I don't know if he's had officially gotten his number yet where they had him wearing number four. The aesthetics terrible. If he's wearing a single digit number in San Francisco, it's going to be a bust. I get he's 13th taken. I get that. You got to get him a real number. Okay. Uh, what number is Romeo Dobbs wearing? It's a good question. I, I don't know. It's been an answer. 87's been in circulation before. Yeah, but not as in a game. Uh, Traynixson was wearing it right. Right. But he playing the game. Which tight end was it's so cool. A cost one of those tight ends. They kind of those tight ends were 87 at one point. I would say though that not that it was ever like, I miss wide receivers were in numbers in the 80s. I'd be all for him keeping number in the 80. It's not that the, uh, that it was ever terrible relationship between the Patriots organization in Rob Grunkowski. But in recent years, that relationship has definitely improved tremendously. And so now that Rob Grunkowski had his retirement ceremony as a patriot here last year. Uh, he lives locally. He's in the community a lot. Uh, he's more patriot than he's ever been post-playing career. Yeah. I think maybe it's a different story now at 87. So he wore, he wore four in high school. So maybe he goes back to that's available. He wore seven in college. That is Carlton Davis. Yes. Um, four might be available. Don't want him taken 17. No. We got to tell him about that. We do need to tell him. I see him tomorrow. I'm going to be like Romeo. Not 17. We're going to be open numbers right now. I think four is a good one. That's his high school number, you said. Four would be a good one. And at least one of his high, I just wasn't in Tonyo Gibson. He's no longer on the team. I just looked up Romeo, dobs high school. And there's I don't know if this was like his whole career in high school, but there's pictures I'm wearing for. So okay. Four is not bad. I want to keep nobody wears numbers in the 80s anymore. Miss wide or series wearing numbers in the 80s. Yeah. I mean, 80s. I mean, 80s number. And 80s tough, bro. Like, okay. I know guys don't like it. I especially certain numbers 80, 81, 85, 88. Like those still hit. I know people say it doesn't have like, or whatever, but what is available in the 80s right now, 80, 81, 83, 84, 87, 88. See him in 80, 80 slot wide receiver in 80 for the Patriots. That works or 83, the welker number. Yeah. That would play. Okay. But not 87. Not 87. I don't know if we need to retire 87, but it needs to be retired like Andre Tipper. Soft for tire. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I could play though. Here's the better question. Okay. Oh, the first two guys, the Patriots signed both war 41 last year, which is obviously taken. Yeah. I do kind of like a low 40 number for a full back 44. Yeah. It's a good, it's a good folder. I don't believe that's taken right now. It is not. Here's one more question. And we got one more call. Then we got to wrap it up. Anthony. Oh, no, it was chased on. Of course, it's not taken emails in and says if the Patriots do trade for AJ Brown or drafting their wide receiver, who is currently the odd men out on the roster. That's a good question. There'll be too many, right? You know, you see, you have dobs, Matt Collins, Kyle Williams, K-Shon Booty, Demaro Douglas, F-Tinchism right now. Yeah. So if you had another in the draft or via trade, and I think that's all they would do, I don't think you're adding two more. No. I mean, like obviously, they can undraft and rotate whatever. Yeah. But another guy that's going to take up a roster spot, you're at seven, seven's too many. A lot of teams carry six now, so six is doable. But somebody's got to be the odd men out. I think if you're looking purely at who would be the odd men out because of just fit and all that, it's probably pop Douglas. I would think just in terms of usage last year, fit with Drake May, that sort of thing. But if they were to acquire, let's say it's AJ Brown, like that's kind of the case, John Booty's role, right? Like that. I also, you know, a lot of their warning has been the Eagles want to play her back. So is that what they bring? I keep bringing that up. A lot of no inside information, but like, no, it'd make a lot of sense that K. Sean Booty goes back to Philly. And yeah, yeah, like it's a, it's a functional X receiver for the Eagles through a place, AJ Brown. It's a job. I have a third round picker, K. Sean Booty. I would rather have K. Sean Booty. That's what I'm saying. If it saves you the pick and you're going to have to move off from a receiver anyway. I don't know if how he was with though. How he was. And loves his picks. But I personally think I would because that gives you a viable player to play in 2026 for the Philadelphia Eagles. And if you're doing it after the draft, you're not going to have a chance to replace. Right. Brown. So all right. Last call here. James is in North Carolina. What's up, James? Hey, guys, how you doing? Good. All right. I was wondering, make sure you could hear me. So I don't think enough has been said about movement in the draft up or down. You don't want to take brassles at 31. You don't think he'll be there at 63. Where do you think is a sweet spot to try and move to grab them before the next person that might want them? And is there anybody worth actually moving up for for the spot that we're trying to fill? And I'll take it off the air. Okay. Thanks, James. All right. We just had to move up thing. Yeah. The move back thing is also in play. Like I know people hate when they do that, but we're talking to make sense to do it this year. Yeah. And we're talking about guys like Brazil, maybe an eddressure. That's kind of, you know, I think you're looking at whatever way you want to call it tear two just for the sake of the argument. If you're looking at eddressure and you're kind of stuck between tear two and tear three of the eddressure runs tackle. Like if that's, you know, an area that you want to address early, it does feel like it could be like a sneaky year for that. Like if you are able to, and I know this drives people nuts, so I apologize, but this is this show. If you're able to take, uh, going from 31 to, let's say 40, right. And then you get extra capital back for that and subcapacity. And then you take a guy like Chris Brasile at 40 instead of taking him at 31. That makes a lot of sense in a class like this. So looking at the top half of the second round, jets, cardinals, titans, raiders, giants, Texans, chiefs, uh, Texans, Browns chiefs gets you to 40. Right. So, you know, how many of those teams are going to be in the market for guy like Chris Brasile? A couple of them. Um, who's Tennessee's ex or Tennessee or next? Uh, I don't know if the top of my head, um, you know, Chamari D case, you know, like a slide. Yeah. Tennessee could be one. Vegas has done. Definitely still there technically, right? Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, so, you know, maybe the jets, I don't think they're going to wide receiver that high, um, the cardinals probably aren't in that market. The raiders have Dante Thornton. They already have, you know, this kind of player. Yeah. The giants maybe, depending on where the leak neighbors is at. Um, yeah, but you're going to see that much better. You're going to use the 36 pick on them probably not. But you know, the giants maybe depending on where neighbors at, yeah, uh, the Texans probably not. They're pretty good. I'd receive her. The Browns maybe. So I don't know. Maybe Tennessee's the team you swap with. 31 to 35 and that probably earns you a third or fourth round pick. Yeah. I believe it makes sense just because, you know, they need everything. They need everything they need receivers. Definitely. Yeah. And are they going receiver in the first round? If they don't, then they might be going. Oh, times of AO manner. Yeah. There. So there are wide receivers right now are AO manner, Van Jefferson, Calvin Ridley. James pro Shay they added one deal Robinson right Shamarie DK Okay, yeah, I'm not moved by that room though like if you're trying to really make cam ward happen and like really load that up All right, so maybe maybe you trade with the Titans you let them go up and make rounds always doing dumb stuff So yeah somewhere in there all right That's gonna do it for today's show good episode. They already have two first round picks So they're probably not trading up another first. Oh, that's true. Yeah Good episode free agency draft that's right in our wheelhouse We will be back next week same time same place Really at that point we'll probably have to fall out of all this free agency stuff and can really start to reset the board in terms of the draft and look ahead to that Like I said, we'll have one o'clock ish tomorrow has some free agency Introductions from the Patriots who are expecting to hear from Elliott Wolf Patriots unfiltered will be at noon tomorrow as well during All that chaos so that'll be fun. So we'll definitely have you covered on that both Alex and I will have you covered tomorrow too for that Introduction and but for catch 22 be back next Wednesday at noon. We'll see you guys then. Thanks for watching. Bye. Bye Hey, this is Matisse. Thanks for tuning into the show if you really want to help us make sure you like us wherever you get your podcast like Apple podcast Is spotify also make sure to follow us on the New England Patriots YouTube channel to see this show and everything else here that we do at the Patriots Thanks a lot