Fantasy Football Daily - New England Patriots with Andrew Callahan | 2023 Franchise Focus Podcast

Episode Date: June 21, 2023

Joe Dolan (@FG_Dolan) continues his journey around the NFL headed into training camp, visiting with Andrew Callahan (@_AndrewCallahan) of the @BostonHerald to preview the 2023 New England Patriots. Want to join a high-stakes dynasty league -- or any other high-stakes league? All new FFPC users get $25 off their first FFPC league of $35 or more, including dynasty orphans, using our affiliate link: https://myffpc.com/cms/public?affid=fantasypoints FANTASY POINTS PROJECTIONS ARE LIVE FOR ALL STANDARD AND PREMIUM SUBSCRIBERS! Interested in playing Best Ball in 2023? There's no better place than Underdog Fantasy. Use our code FANTASYPTS to sign up for a new account at Underdog, and not only will you get a 100% deposit match up to $100... but you'll get a Fantasy Points Standard subscription for only $5! https://www.fantasypoints.com/underdog --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time to the Fantasy Points podcast brought to you by FantasyPoints.com. Top level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle. From numbers to the film room with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. Hey everyone, it's Joe Dolan and welcome to the 2023 franchise focus podcast series at FantasyPoint.com. Franchise Focus has been something we've been doing for a number of years and really what what it started as was a team preview article for all 32 teams in the NFL with a fantasy slant. And last year I decided, and it ended up being a pretty successful endeavor, outside of

the fact that I recorded half the podcast with COVID voice, I decided to expand the franchise focus idea to go to the source. And what I opted to do was reach out to a podcaster, analyst, beat writer, individual for all 32 teams, somebody who covers. that team for a living, somebody who is just intimately close to those teams. And I thought it really went well and I think people enjoyed it. It gave me new perspective. It gave me new takes. There were some sleepers I learned about that I didn't think about. There were some breakout candidates that I learned about that I didn't think about. So I really wanted to do that

again and I'm excited that over the next six weeks. I am going to be able to bring that to you. This is week one of the series. And what we're going to do is we're going to start with the AFC East and we are going to go AFC East, AFC North, AFC South, AFC West, and we're going to go alphabetical order within those divisions by city name. So we're starting off the podcast series with AFC East, and over the next six weeks, we're going to hit all 32 teams with an article. Some of them will be free, some of them will be exclusive to Fantasy Point subscribers, but the podcast will always be free.

There's going to be an accompanying podcast. So when you see the podcast or see the article, you know there's going to be the counterpart to that, either on the website or on the podcast feed. I'm really excited to bring the 2023 franchise focus podcast series to you. Without further ado, let's kick it off with the AFC East. This podcast was hard to come by, the franchise focus podcast here at FantasyPoints.com, we're talking Patriots with my friend Andrew Callahan. He is the Patriots beat reporter for the Boston Herald.

He is the host of the Pat's Interference Podcast. and he is the relatively unhappy owner of the Twitter handle at underscore Andrew Callahan. The underscore comes before Callahan. Callahan, you had an interesting exchange with the non- underscored Andrew Callahan. Didn't go as you had hoped, I believe. Yeah, so this happened mid-season last November, somewhere in the slog of the Patriots running into stack boxes in first and ten and then doing it again on second and nine, is I would get these random calls asking for Andrew Callahan for people who worked in tech and somewhere in the West Coast, all these Bay Area Area codes. And they were looking for someone who has the handle at Andrew Kelly.

I don't know how my number got in their directory. So I looked at this guy. His bio has the name of the company he works for, DM him. Hey, I'm getting all these calls. You know, maybe the recruiter has the wrong number. Oh, my God. Thank you so much. This really helps our business.

I've been missing some of these calls, yada yada. And I was like, hey, you know, I'd love to buy handles, if you don't mind. Just make it really simple to do a TV, radio podcast like your Steve podcast here and never heard back. So his life was a little smaller, a little bit better because of our interaction. Mine, you know, you feel the goodness is doing good deeds, but I really would love the Dixie underscore from being asked. Yeah, maybe reach out to Elon Musk. Maybe he'll do that for you. He's maybe it'll be the first good thing he does with Twitter.

that's neither here nor there. Callahan, you were the first guy on Remandre Stevenson last year. As like a big time fantasy running back, you said, don't be surprised if he takes Damien Harris's job. They rotated, but he really did kind of take Harris's job. And the great news this offseason is they didn't really do anything in the backfield of Damien Harris is gone. What's the outlook for Romandre Stevenson this year? He's a second, third round fantasy pick. People are excited about the guy. I think you should be excited. I mean, I coined Seasons last year looking ahead and he was the better player than Damian Harris who, of course, got hurt and missed a couple of games. That's what Damien Harris does.

He finishes the season leading the Patriots and catches, obviously rushing yards, tons of touchdowns. Did wear as the season goes on because he played 66% of their snaps, which might be normal for other teams that rely on Belkow back and be a Tennessee or other places. But in New England, as we all know, from a fantasy standpoint, they're a pain in the ass. That number, if it gets close to 50, is a good value. So I think he'll be closer to 50 than 66 this year because you look at the depth behind him. James Robinson was a Patriot 7-2-96 hours ago from when we record this. He gets released because of injury concerns, and that leaves Pierre Strong.

So I think they like what they have but not love behind Remandre Stevenson. So he should be the number one back. And I think late second round, third round seems like good value. So I actually wanted to start the podcast with this, but I really had to grease you up on Remandre. great call that you had. Seasons, which Stevens, yeah, Seasons is what you, you came up with the hashtag, which I really enjoy. Thank you for that.

But I should have started the podcast with this. Now, if you're listening to this, you're listening to it today. But we actually record this last week for you. And we're in the throes right now, Callahan, of the Patriots courting D'Andre Hopkins. And I wanted to get a hypothetical out there just in case the Patriots were to sign DeAndre Hopkins or if he goes elsewhere. Why are the Patriots interested? When did they start becoming interested? And what kind of impact would this have on New England's offense if DeAndre Hopkins were to sign with the Patriots?

So the impact and the reason they're interested are one of the same. As soon as he steps foot off of the plane that lands in Providence or Boston and then takes, you know, an Uber or hopefully the Patriots pick come up. They don't really make as much of an effort as Tennessee did with this glitzy bus to drive him to Foxborough. He is the best receiver in all of New England, period, full stop. And they need a player like that. They've needed a player like that with some sort of gravity, you know, to him on third down to take attention away from other players because they just haven't had that really since Gronk. So they need him. He would be an immense upgrade at the receiver position, take them at least to the neighborhood of average, maybe a little bit above average in terms of their depth of the position.

my understanding is that they were not that interested when the Cardinals came calling. And it was due to obviously the bloated salary, $19.1 million of base salaries what they would have to take on, give up an asset in return via trade. But the other part about it is the Patriots never pay for a player like that, right? Like the best contract they've given to a receiver under Bill Belichick was Nelson Aguilar's two-year, $22 million deal with 16 guaranteed. Judger-Smiths-Schuster, this past spring two years later, got $16 million guaranteed over three years in a total of $22.5 million. So they'll have to do something unprecedented to land him. I think the chances are better because you don't have to give up the asset. And I think this has been a humbling process for DeAndre Hopkins.

How humbling? I don't know. But there's a reason they agreed to visit make time. That's because I think they're somewhere in the same ballpark. And that leads to another discussion, which we can take is more of a macro view. If DeAndre Hopkins were to sign with the Patriots, he would obviously have to come to terms with the guy calling the plays will be Bill O'Brien, who, with whom he had a, I guess, a falling out with the Texans.

Number one, obviously the Patriots are not concerned about that, but I also want to bring this to more of a discussion about the offense. I'm sure Patriots fans are excited that there is actually an offensive coach with a proven track record calling the plays for the Patriots this year. What do you anticipate Bill O'Brien's offense is going to look like? And how is that going to differ from whatever it was Matt, Patricia and Joe Judge were doing last year? Well, it's going to have a lot more organization and timing. And I saw that in the too many camp practices that we got this week again as we record now.

And it was just everything kind of synced up. I mean, the biggest, the most obvious sin that Patricia and Judge committed is that none of their runs look like their play action fix. And so when that split happens, you don't have the defense reacting in the same way. You're leaving the low-hanging fruit available there in the tree that they just never managed. to take, whether it was early down play action, marrying up your runner pass game, or being able to feature, maybe your best pass catcher last season, Hunter Henry, because you needed him to

stay in and pass block because DeMonte Parker was in and out of the line of Kendrick Borker, heard, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And Jacoby Mires, solid job, but we all know what his ceiling is. So Bill O'Brien, I think you're going to see more spread elements. You're going to see still a lot of shotgun off from him because my understanding is he's taking a good

chunk of what he did at Alabama, which was not his offense that he ran in Houston or here in New England beforehand, or even at Penn state. These are new concepts he had to learn and then teach and install with two seasons down there in Alabama. I think he's going to bring them back because Mack Jones knows it they work. And so far, a lot of creativity as far as the screens, misdirection, and they're using the right people in those spots where you really couldn't say that a year ago, aside from Reminders Stevenson. Obviously, when Tom Brady is the quarterback of the New England Patriots

for, oh, 20 years, a fan base gets spoiled. And I guess Patriot fans and Patriot fans and Patriot beatwriters are learning what a lot of the rest of the NFL knows. The backup quarterback is always the most popular man in town. And Mac Jones, I think it's pretty clear, took a step back in his second year. I think the offense probably had some things to do with that. Is any quarterback controversy right now, Mac Jones versus Bailey, is that completely fan manufactured or is there a little bit of validity to it? There's a lot of sports radio.

driving that. I think we get into the dog days of summer, right? How many time can we fix baseball in June and July is. We have football to come around. Baseball has actually tried to fix itself. So that's off the table. And I've said multiple times if you're talking about a quarterback controversy, you're looking for one. And I'm not here to say that Mack Jones can go through the summer, do whatever he wants and still have the job at the end of the preseason because that's just not true. He's going to need to play better and better than Bailey Zappy. So far on OTAs, though, in minicamp, that's exactly what he's done. He's a more talented guy, stronger. arm. He's more accurate. He processes more quickly. And the biggest case for Billy Zappy, last year, my mind was just, his name was not Mack Jones. He was different, as you said. And, you know, when we first got together in state college, people up in Penn State. No, Drew Aller, all of last year, Rishon Clifford, was

the most popular man on campus. So there's an element of that, but I just don't see any reason. Boxes that Billy Zappi has checked over Mac Jones, especially when you considered the context of the games he played last year against the Lions, the Browns, before their defense finally got it together, and then a little bit against the Bears. When he started

to see who the kid was. It was a fourth round rookie. It was a little bit overwhelmed. So we discussed DeAndre Hopkins again by the time you listen to this. He might be a patriot. He might not be a patriot. He might still be a free agent. But the rest of this receiving core is, I guess, interesting because somebody is going to have to catch passes. They brought in Juju. What are you, is Tyquan Thornton. This is the guy I'm particularly interested in. He was a high draft pick. We know the Patriots haven't had a ton of success, drafting wide receivers highly. Is Tycoon Thornton somebody they think? Yeah, zero success. Is Tyquine Thornton somebody they think can actually make that second year lead?

They do. The trouble is the reason he's been held out of practice as recently is a soft tissue injury, which they do not take kindly here in New England because they see it as a hydration issue or you're not running enough. And it's funny because Tyquon Thornton is extremely fast. A part of that's because he's 181 pounds at 6 foot 2. He just sprung out almost as much as you could be and still play pro football. So how many more of these issues continue to come up just based on his body competition and how he goes against the grain of every single receiver that really they've drafted in the last 20 years under Belichick,

which might be a good thing considering their poor history that we just alluded to in the draft. But it's, I need to see more. I needed to see more last summer. He got a ton of opportunity as a rookie. If there's any reason for hope, it's that he was able to get that experience and all of those snaps. The speed obviously is there, but he needs to round out his game and prove. that he's a better option than Devanti Parker in a contract year. Kendrick Bourne in a contract year.

Because you just, Mr. Jusers is going to play. Hunter is going to play. Hunter is going to play. Mike Kosicki's going to play. So how do you fit in there as the number three, four option? He brings something new to the table, but we still didn't see it a whole lot last year, despite him playing enough snaps to Flash and show.

You know, the Mike Kosicki signing is one I want to get into because that's really interesting. He kind of fell out of, he didn't fall out of favor in Miami. Just with the Mike McDaniel. tenure, he was just never in favor because McDaniel likes his tight ends to play in line and be able to block. I think it's interesting that the Patriots bringing Gisiki and Juju Smith-Schuster in the same offseason because both of those guys profile as big slot receivers. I think that's what they do. How do you expect their relationship and how the Patriots use Gisiki versus Juju? Are they interchangeable? What are you seeing from mini camps in Gisiki's usage?

So I wrote about this right after he signed and that, you know, something you just mentioned, there's a lot of overlap here with the two of those players. Bourne plays well as a lot as well. And they move the receivers around. So it's not, you know, the offensive of January Hopkins does come. You're at the X. You're isolated. That's, you're running five rounds.

That's not how they run offense here. What we've seen so far in the spring is not something I don't think will translate immediately to training camp because it's been all 12 personnel. Like all of the first team reps have been Hunter Henry and Mike Gisicki in the field with Devante Parker and Kendrick Bourne and pick a running back. The thing is, Mike Kosicki's really a big wide receiver. And so you can call it 12 personnel, you can call it 11. The thing is, Juju Smith-Juster has also been heard along with Taekwon Thornton.

So I don't know if they're going to 12 personnel as a default. If they'll go more 11 when Juju comes back and then Gassiki hits the bench. But then if you're benching someone like Kendrick-Born for Mike Kiske, you know, you could probably make the case. That's the right move. Mike Kiskei is probably more talented player than Kendrick-Borne, considering the year he had last year. So I don't know exactly where the fit is going to be. They believe Juju can play outside.

As far as his impact or his statistics and production is number one, I'm selling a little bit on Juju. That's another thing I need to see for a guy who has had his best seasons across from an all pro, just got paid and has been hurt so far this spring. You mentioned last year that Hunter Henry was their most talented pass catcher. And people have no idea what to do with him for fantasy. He's tight end 32 in ADP, which means he's basically not getting draft. And I think that's really interesting considering you said he was their most talented pass catcher last year.

Is Hunter Henry part of the plans here with Bill O'Brien's offense? You said 12 personnel can maybe be a base look for them. Is he still very much part of what the Patriots are going to try to do? Yeah, I think so. And you know, you could certainly debate me on the talent part. You could maybe even convince me Devante Parker as much as the injuries kind of our drawback, Reminderer Stevenson again led them in receptions last year. So that dude's got very soft hands and very light feet.

but they needed to use Hunter Henry more. I mean, he's reliable. He's consistent. He's actually been available for every game in the last two seasons and has a strong connection with Mack Jones. Who happens to be his neighbor? So those two guys are on the same page more often than not. And I think you'll see that come to the forefront because, again, it's a discussion

of, okay, Juju's your number one option. Then you get into the Parker-born Henry discussion. I would rather have Hunter Henry there as a multi-dimensional player. It's just really undervalued and not used correctly last year. And was a guy who also bit his tongue. went with the program despite all the Matt Patricia and Joe Judge Natson. So I don't know how relevant he'll be from a fantasy standpoint, but I think he had nine touchdowns in 2021 when Mac was a rookie. That's a number I don't think is out of the realm looking ahead to next season.

The offensive line is a big point of discussion for Patriots fans always. You know, I think it was part of the downfall of the Tom Brady era. The Patriots make three draft picks on the offensive line this year, all on day three, mind you, but three draft picks nonetheless. There's the Trent Brown's situation. I'm not 100% sure what's going on there, but what's the outlook in front of Mack Jones as you see it here? It's not great. And it's a very different conversation from the interior spots to the tackle. Let's start with Trent Brown there, who is not present for mandatory minicamp to start and then came Tuesday, participated in warmups and positional drills. And then they said, take the height, go down to the lower conditioning field while we do all of the

team drills and the stuff that really matters here today. So I don't think they're particularly happy with Trent Brown. I think it's probably mutual given his contract. Another guy who's in a contract here, not a ton of guarantees. He just saw what Mike McClinty got. He just saw what John Taylor got, Orlando Brown, all of these tackles. And so without him, the other part of this is it's a train mark. I mean, you're talking about Riley Reef, who was discarded by the Bengals and then the Bears, owners of the worst offensive lines in the league last two years, respectively. Calvin Anderson, who was a swing tackle with the Broncos, who also said, thanks, but no thanks. And then Connor McDermott, when they signed off the Jets practice squad last year. So those are your

options. Then throw in City South, one of the offensive line you mentioned, if they drafted on day three, Eastern Michigan Guard, five-year starter. But the last time he played tackle, which he's been doing in camp, was 2018. So those your options. If Trent Brown either holds out, doesn't want to report, isn't his best self, or gets traded, which I don't think will happen, but you're really counting on Trent Brown a whole lot as far as interior spots, Cole Strange, in year two, I think is a solid outlook, David Andrews is Senator Mike. I'm wondering, who really had a case to be their best offensive player and extra Andre Stevenson last year.

He is one of the best right guards in league, another contract year guy, mentally talented and powerful that I think they'll be running a lot behind him in whomever lines up a right tackle the season. So Calhahn, I'm going to wrap up all of our franchise focus podcast asking you for maybe an under the radar player on the offense who can contribute. You mentioned Ramandre Stevenson played close to 70% of the snaps this past season. You don't think that's necessarily going to be the case again this year. but if that's the case,

somebody's got to pick up some snaps in this backfield. Who do you think it's going to be? So I would not rule out the Patriots adding another back, maybe sometime in the summer. I'm not talking to Dalvin Cook. They're not going to pay him. But Pierre Strong, I like what I've seen.

He had more catches and caught all seven targets than anyone in the last day of minicamp, which you could say, okay, it's one day in minicamp, but that's true. It's not patented. But they had the most competitive series of drills, seven-on-sev and 11-11s of any day in OTAs or minicamp. on that final day Tuesday.

And he was excellent. Soft hands, you see the four three speed. He's someone who's really comfortable in the system. I think the route tree from the running back position is going to broaded under Bill O'Brien, which spells more downfield throws. He's going to be split out. This is very, very good, I think, for Pierre Strong.

My banking on him being the third downback, no. But when you look at the history of the Patriots, we've been over this many times. Shane in 2011, James White in 2014, Damien Harris, in the third round 2019, mid-round running backs who effectively redshirt their first season and come back in year two, all of those guys thrived. And James White's case will go on to be a Patriots Hall of Famer one day.

So I don't know that's all ahead for Pierre Strong, but he's put in the time. He's got the speed. The hands have been excellent so far. That's worth a late round flyer might. You know, so I think just to wrap this up since you were the guy who officially kicked off season, sin, and maybe we should have been on Ramandre earlier than we were because you just mentioned all these mid-round rookie running backs to Redshirt with Patriots and he didn't do that.

Exactly. Part of it was at a knee. The thing that I like most about him, and he had some drops and a couple of fumbles. Actually came to training camp last year, completely out of shape and I talked about it with Jane White on my podcast. He's just vomiting during their first set of sprints and OTAs last year. Obviously, it's come around a whole lot.

Of course, now, I mean, two years ago he's drafted in 2021. but he was breaking tackles as a rookie at a higher rate than Damian Harris. He had more creativity and wiggle in better hands because Davidine Harris is not a strong pass catcher. Those traits translate. Those traits buy you time for a coaching staff that typically doesn't tolerate fumbles or penalties or drops. You see that talent. You let it grow. You let it develop and give it experience.

That's what you've seen there. We didn't see that a whole lot from Pierre Strong. But him and Kevin Harris, their other late run back from two drafts ago, did their job in Arizona when Stevenson was banked up. And so those, that's another part that if you really believe in Pierre Strong, you could see it coming because he has speed that Stevenson doesn't. It's just a matter of putting everything else around it. Follow him on Twitter at underscore Andrew Callahan, at least for the time being until the non-underscored version stops ghosting him. And if you don't follow him, well, you'll at least get some takes from him because Bill Simmons is going to retweet him a couple of times throughout Patriot season. Callahan, thanks for joining me. Like I said, this podcast was hard to come by. 47th times the charm, but we're done.

Thank you so much for joining me, and congratulations on your recent wedding. Thanks, guys. I appreciate the patience with my Wi-Fi. I'm glad you could play her through all of this. And we're going to make this a home-in-home. So you'll be on my podcast, mentioned Pat's Interference. I can't wait for it. I'll make sure I have crappy Wi-Fi for that podcast just to return.

Yeah, you guys. All right, guys, for Franchise Focus podcast, this was the New England Patriots. I'll be talking to you tomorrow. I believe we will be discussing the New York Jets. Yes, we'll have the New York Jets podcast up next. Thank you guys so much, and I will see you tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform.

And come join the roster at FantasyPoint.com.