Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Alert: Josh McDaniels Transforms Patriots Offense | Unleashes Drake Maye

Starting point is 00:00:00 Josh McDaniels is transforming his offense for the 2025 Pats. We'll tell you how with specific examples, that's where we start. This is Lockdown Patriots. You are Locked-on Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's happening in? I am your host, Nick Cattles. born and raised in New England. I've been covering the Pats for 16 years. Also, the co-host of

Starting point is 00:00:34 the Greg Bedard Patriots podcast with Nick Cattels and a sports talk show host veteran. Coming up, we'll tell you why Kyle Williams fans should be happy with a development on Sunday. Also, Drake Bay had a Paul Pierce-like game against the Panthers. We'll explain that later. But first, this is not the Bill Belichick era, Josh McDaniel's offense. We appreciate you joining the show, making us your first listen. And for being a every day or the Lockdown Patriots podcast, a proud partner. We've locked on podcast network your team every day. And by the way, before we kick this thing off, I do want all of you to know there's

Starting point is 00:01:10 been a schedule change. The NFL has flexed the Patriots game against the Saints. Week six, that game has been moved back to 1 p.m. Eastern instead of the original 425. So that's good news if you like 1 o'clock kickoffs. By the way, today's episode is brought to by Fandul. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app.

Starting point is 00:01:37 Josh McDang is transforming his Patriots offense. And frankly, from weeks two through four, he's mostly been excellent. And this team has been moving the football almost effortlessly over the past three games. You start in Miami, then you move to Pittsburgh, and then what we saw against Carolina. And I know people are going to sit here and tell me those are weaker defenses. And they are. Those defenses are not particularly awesome. But when you watch the film and you look at the strategy, you look at the approach from your offensive coordinator,

Starting point is 00:02:12 it is clear that Josh McDaniels has changed this offense. This is not what we saw from Tom Brady. It's not what we saw from Matt Castle. It's not what we saw from Mack Jones. It's not what we saw from Cam Newton or Jimmy Garoppolo or Jacoby Brissette. This is a Drake May offense, and I know we touched on it a little bit in the live post game, but I want to dive deeper with this episode and tell you what Josh McDaniels is doing different and tell you some examples that we saw on Sunday and how it's been helping this offense.

Starting point is 00:02:47 Priority number one for the Patriots, and this offense in Josh McDaniels is putting Drake May in a position to succeed. You want to put him in a position to succeed, accentuate his strengths, hide his weaknesses, do all that you can do to make him feel comfortable. Do all that you can do to make him a better quarterback. And through the first month of this season, mission accomplished for Josh McDaniels.

Starting point is 00:03:15 He understands Drake May's strengths, and he's scheming for it. Andrew Callahan of the Boston Herald posted, The Patriots had the second lowest play action rate in the NFL last year, 15.4%. Can you imagine? 15.4% play action rate last season with Alex Van Pelt as your OC. Josh McDaniels has changed that, and Drake May is benefiting.

Starting point is 00:03:40 Andrew Callahan posted May's play action rate and QBR out of 100 each week. So in week one, the Patriots ran play action 20.8% of the time. Drake May's QBR was 41.5. In week two, it went from 20. to 25.8 play action rate, and Drake May's QBR went from 41.5 to 74.6, a huge jump. In week three, the play action rate went from 25.8 in week two against Miami to 29.8 against the Steelers. Now, Drake May's QBR dropped from 74.6 to 62.7, and I think you can tip a cap to Pittsburgh and the pressure they created in the blitzes that they sent. But still, QBR of 62.7 isn't terrible.

Starting point is 00:04:28 And then this past week against Carolina, the play action rate jumped up to 38.1%. And if you're wondering what Drake May did, his QBR was 94.6. And I repeat, that's out of 100. 94.6 out of 100. Josh McDaniels is also utilizing Drake May's athleticism, his ability to throw on the run, his arm strength with all the bootleg action we see coming off the play action you have the bootlegs an example of this is moving the pocket with drake may on that 31 yard touchdown pass to hunter henry it's a it's a perfect example of what we're talking about getting may

Starting point is 00:05:11 out extending the play allowing him to throw on the run makes a perfect pass between two defenders and henry does the rest along with pop which we'll get to a little bit later. Greg Bedard at Boston Sports Journal wrote, dating back to 2001, the Patriots offensive success rate through four games is the 11th highest in 25 seasons and the best since 2020. Even better news. Bedard writes the Patriots successful pass play rate is 53.9% the fifth best mark through four games in the past 25 years. Badard writes, this three-game stretch in terms of passing success rate is the best since 2020. Yeah, that's when Josh McDaniels ran the offense with Cam Newton.

Starting point is 00:05:57 Can you imagine? Let's talk about explosivity. We know the Patriots don't have a ton of players on their offense that would be deemed explosive. Travion Henderson, even though he hasn't shown it in full just yet, he has explosivity. Antonio Gibson has some of that. Kyle Williams certainly has some of that, but it's not like the Patriots smash you over the head with explosiveness, which means if you want to create explosive plays, most of the time it's going to come from the scheme. Most of the time it's going to come from Josh McDaniels. And how do you create that?

Starting point is 00:06:33 You create explosive plays through misdirection, manipulation, in motion, the 3Ms, misdirection, manipulation, and motion. And that's what we're seeing from this Josh McDaniel's offense. The misdirection and manipulation. Greg Bedard writes of the Patriots 18 dropbacks. Only nine were conventional. A lot of movement, a lot of deception. You want to talk about motion? Evan Lazare.

Starting point is 00:07:02 He points out at Patriots.com that the Patriots used to pre-stap motion on 60.4% of their plays. This is something we talked about after week one. The Patriots did not use a time. of motion against the Raiders. They were towards the bottom of the league. That has changed week to week to week. And it's increased week to week to week. Pre-snap motion against the Panthers,

Starting point is 00:07:26 60.4% of their plays setting up several explosives. And I'll give you some examples of this. The Patriots, their second drive after they're three and out to begin the game. You have a first and 10 play. Drake May in the shotgun. Play action, little screen to Hooper, 24 yards, second and five, later in that drive. Under center, Drake May, hands it to Antonio Gibson, who's lined up at wide receiver for a jet sweep, 21 yards. The very next play, first and 10, Drake May, back under center.

Starting point is 00:08:04 You just ran the jet sweep. So what does Josh McDaniels call? He calls a fake jet sweep. And instead, after the fake jet sweep, Drake May hands it to Ramandre Stevenson, who goes for 22 yards. That's what we're talking about. Exposing a defense with misdirection, deception, motion,

Starting point is 00:08:27 getting all messed up. Run that jet sweep. And now you've got the defensive line. You've got the front seven swaying one way, hit them the opposite way, with Ramonre Stevenson for 20 plus yards. Another part of what Josh McDaniels is doing that is absolutely critical is he's helping the offensive line. I had so many complaints last year about Alex Van Pelt and one of the top complaints I had is that he did not help his offensive line enough.

Starting point is 00:08:54 He didn't run play action, for example, as we mentioned earlier. He didn't use Drake May's athleticism in his legs. We didn't see a ton of bootleg action. We didn't see some of these design runs, these reads, these reads, options from time to time. Alex Van Pelt did not help his tackles. Just a lack of play action and motion, a lack of chips from your tight ends and your running backs.

Starting point is 00:09:20 Not in 2025. Josh McDaniels is helping his offensive line. Taylor Kyle's posted the Patriots had nine dropbacks versus Carolina that didn't include play action, quick game, or screens. They often helped the tackles with chips. And I saw the same thing when I read, watch the game on Monday morning.

Starting point is 00:09:40 You see all of this. The motion, the misdirection, you're helping your own line. You're buying a little bit of extra time if you need it. And that's why the offensive line numbers, aside from the offensive line just playing better than last year, which really isn't that tough since they were so bad last season. But that's why you see some of these numbers from this offensive line,

Starting point is 00:10:05 the pass protection. Some of it's the offensive line, some of it is Drake May's ability, and some of it, you could argue most of it is Josh McDaniel's play design, scheme, approach to the game. And shout out to Thomas Brown and Todd Downing, who are also on this offensive staff. We know those guys have called plays at the NFL level before, and they have no doubt helped Josh McDaniels continue to transform his offensive old into shape. around Drake May. And we've seen some really good stuff from this offense the past three weeks. All right. We learned multiple things from Sunday's snap counts, including what it could mean, could

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Starting point is 00:12:56 Visit fandul.com to download the Fandul app today and get started. Let's understand one thing here. The Patriots are obviously still building the program. Mike Vrable is still building the program. And when you're trying to figure out what you have, snap counts are going to be fluid for a number of players. But what did we glean from Sunday's snap counts? Took a lot from it, actually.

Starting point is 00:13:24 We have some good information for all of you. Let's start with wide receiver. now I said I would have had Efton Chisholm active Chisholm was obviously inactive for Sunday. So no Ffton Chisholm and we also know Todd Downing, the aforementioned Todd

Starting point is 00:13:41 Downing did tell the media that Efton Chisholm is still trying to work out on playing some outside wide receiver for this team. So he's still trying to figure out how he best fits and he's still learning the program, learning the

Starting point is 00:13:57 offense, learning multiple positions, within that offense. So Efton Chisholm inactive. But I will tell you, Pop Douglas, I had voiced that I wanted to see less of Pop Douglas because he's just not trustworthy. He doesn't have great chemistry with Drake May. He's made some mistakes in his route running that has cost his team early in this season. And we saw that. Pop Douglas played only eight snaps on Sunday. That was a 16% snap rate. That is well down from week three. If you were wondering, Against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Pop Douglas played 29 snaps, 39% snap count rate. So, I mean, you look at it, eight snaps down from 29, and snap count rate, 39% down to 16%.

Starting point is 00:14:47 That's a huge, huge chunk of Pop Douglas's snaps lopped off. Now, some will say Stefan Diggs, replaced Pop Douglas in the slot. And we saw more of Stefan Diggs in the slot against the Panthers. That's not true, according to PFF. And Greg Bedard actually had the numbers. Diggs was in the slot on 41.9% of his snaps against Carolina. That's actually his lowest number since week one against the Raiders. Week one, Stefan Diggs played 27.5% of his snaps in the slot.

Starting point is 00:15:26 When you look at the Miami game, Stefan Diggs was at 48.4% against Miami, and he was at 56.4% against the Steelers. So, you know, when you look at what Stefan Diggs was doing against the Panthers, he wasn't playing a ton in the slot. He played less than 42% in the slot. Now, as far as the overall snaps, we saw a little bit of a.

Starting point is 00:15:56 dip in overall snaps, but we also have to include the context here. The Patriots didn't have as many snaps because of the field position, because of the punt return touchdown. And of course, Stefan Diggs didn't really play the fourth quarter because this puppy was a blowout and a lot of the starters enjoyed it from the sidelines, the final 15 minutes. So overall snaps on Sunday, Stefan Diggs had 31 versus his 39 against the Steelers. but he actually, the percentage of the snaps, the snap rate, 63% of the offensive snaps Stefan Diggs was out there for.

Starting point is 00:16:35 You compare that to the Steelers game, which was 53%. And if you're wondering about Kyle Williams, let's get to him. I wanted to see Kyle Williams play more snaps. I wanted Efton Chisholm active, didn't happen. I wanted less Pop Douglas snaps happen. And I wanted more Kyle Williams snaps. That also happened. Kyle Williams against the Steelers played nine snaps.

Starting point is 00:16:59 That was 12% of the offensive snap count. This past week against the Panthers, he played 14 snaps, and his snap count percentage went from 12% to 29%. And if you think that's because he tallied a bunch of snaps in garbage time, it wasn't. I rewatched the game on Monday morning. He only had two snaps in garbage time. So Kyle Williams was on pace.

Starting point is 00:17:24 for more snaps, even before the garbage time played a role. So that's good news. I would like to see a little bit more of Kyle Williams, a little bit less of Pop Douglas, and that's what we saw against the Panthers. Let's look at running back. I have said I went on the record before this game and I said I would sit Ramandre Stevenson. And if you weren't going to bench him and put him in street clothes and activate Terrell

Starting point is 00:17:50 Jennings, then I would have had Stevenson as the emergency quote unquote, third running back. That didn't happen. Mike Vrable decided that Ramadre Stevenson was going to play and he was going to play a big chunk of this game. Remandre Stevenson started the game. His role was tweaked, which will get two in a minute. But Ramadre Stevenson played 57% of the snaps against the Panthers. He played only 36% against the Steelers. And of course, his fumbles took him off the field for a decent amount of that second half. And, Antonio Gibson, if you're wondering, he played 18% of the snaps, and Trayvion Henderson played 31% of the snaps. Now, here was the tweak to Ramadre Stevenson's role.

Starting point is 00:18:37 Goaline carries. Ramandre Stevenson was not the goal line back every single time the Patriots got down in the low red zone. Antonio Gibson, Trayvion Henderson, got almost all of the goal line carries, got almost all of the low red zone carries. So it feels like the Patriots said, we're going to start Ramandre Stevenson. He's still going to play 55, 60% of the snaps. However, higher leverage situations,

Starting point is 00:19:08 when we get down to the goal line, when we get to the five or inside the five, we're going to go with Antonio Gibson or Trayvion Henderson. And so there was a tweak to his role. Some other notes about the snap count. counts. Obviously, Kyle Dugger, he replaced Jalen Hawkins in this game. So he played a chunk of snaps and he was his most active that he's been for the first month. We'll see if Hawkins, if Jalen Hawkins can get back on the field against Buffalo on Sunday night. If not, Kyle Dugger is going to be the guy. So if you were wondering if it was going to be, you know, Del Pettis or Kyle Dugger, it's going to be Kyle Dugger for right now. Now, Christian Gonzalez, I had mentioned in the live post game that it felt like Christian Gonzalez had played the entire game up until garbage time.

Starting point is 00:20:02 Now, I wasn't tracking snaps while the game was happening in real time, but yes, that's what happened. Christian Gonzalez was out there the entirety of the game until you got to the fourth quarter when it was garbage time, then he sat, which makes a ton of sense. And if you're wondering about Kyrie's Tonga, because Mike Vrable, last week said they wanted to get Kyrie's Tonga more snaps. Week three, he played 21 snaps, which was 39% of the snap count for the defense. Against the Panthers, he played 27 snaps, but that was still 39%.

Starting point is 00:20:40 So the same amount of snap count rate for Kyrie's Tonga, 39% against the Steelers, 39% against the Panthers. but as far as snaps went up from 21 to 27 and Evan Lazard did point out that the Patriots did something different against the Panthers Harold Landry actually played off the ball

Starting point is 00:21:05 Christian Barmore was playing the 4-3 defensive end in a traditional even front so it does look like they made some tweaks to get Kyrie's Tonga in the game a little bit more. The rewalled As I have mentioned, the rewatch of this game is finished,

Starting point is 00:21:25 and I'll tell you it was a much more pleasant rewatch experience than my rewatch experience of the Steelers game. But the rewatch is finishing, and I've got some nuggets that you do not want to miss. That's next as we continue with this episode of Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Guys, you've probably heard of Viagra or Cialis. Maybe you've even tried them, but if you're looking for something beyond the usual pill,

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Starting point is 00:22:59 So I go back and I watch every game over again on Monday morning. And I'll start with Drake May. I said at the beginning of this episode that Drake May had a Paul Pierce-like game. It might have made your head spin. But what I mean by that is Paul Pierce had one of my favorite quotes of all time. He said that he gives the game what it needs, which is simple. If you need 45 points, Paul Pierce felt like he could get your 45 points. If you needed 20 points and 10 assists, Paul Pierce felt like he gave you 20 points and 10 assists. And Drake May gave this game what it needed when it needed it. That's the best way I could describe his performance.

Starting point is 00:23:43 performance. I'll give you some examples. The second touchdown on that drive, second and goal, under center, play action. This looks like it's designed for Austin Hooper. Austin Hooper, it's a little bit of a difficult play for Drake May. So instead of forcing it, he scrambles, gets to the Pylon touchdown. Fourth drive for the Patriots offense. This in the second quarter, there's a situation where you're looking at, you know, second and long, Drake May takes the profit to Stefan Diggs, who sits on his route, second down, picks up five or six yards, makes it manageable. On the third down, Drake May then throws an absolute bullet to Hunter Henry at the half yard line on that third down to set up first and goal. It is threading the needle. It is putting just enough juice on it to get

Starting point is 00:24:41 it to Hunter Henry. You get it down to the half yard line, sets up the Antonio Gibson touchdown run. Third quarter, your first drive out of halftime. Third and 15. First, great protection by the offensive line, tip of the cap to the big boys. But Drake May finds Stefan Diggs, 20 plus yard gain, chunk play. Second and nine. You have that just fantastic play. where the Drake May rollout to Hunter Henry happens. And if you watch that replay, if you slow it down, Michael Hurley's done a great job of this on Twitter if you want to check it out. This throw by Drake May on the move,

Starting point is 00:25:24 it is not nearly as easy as you might have thought watching this game live. He has to slide it between two defenders' arms. You could argue maybe even three. He puts it right where Hunter Henry can catch it while on the run. doesn't break stride, upfield, touchdown. You also have the fourth down conversion to Stefan Diggs on the back shoulder throwdown field. The McHollins touchdown when Mack Hollins was in motion.

Starting point is 00:25:56 That was a third down in motion slant. You create the conflict between the linebacker and boom. Third down, third and goal, touchdown. Drake May gave the game what it needed. He didn't force the issue. he didn't try to do too much, but when you absolutely needed some big plays, your quarterback came through. Second, rewatch nugget.

Starting point is 00:26:20 The downfield blocking was significant. We pay a lot of attention to the guys up front and for all the right reasons. But do not lose, do not lose the idea that big plays happen a lot of the times because you have guys downfield who are willing and actually execute their blocks. and I'll give you some examples. First quarter, second drive. I mentioned this earlier, the fake jet sweep and the handoff to Ramandre Stevenson.

Starting point is 00:26:50 If you watch that play over again, pay special attention to Mack Hollins who throws a great block to help Ramadre Stevenson spring free. Third quarter, first drive, second and 10. You have a Trayvion Henderson jet sweep. Go back, watch the play. Stefan Diggs, Austin Hooper, Mac Hollins, all have really good to great downfield blocks.

Starting point is 00:27:15 Trayvion Henderson gets 13 yards. The Hunter Henry touchdown, I just mentioned, Pop Douglas. A lot of credit to Pop Douglas, who didn't play a lot, but he's out there for that play. He blocks not one, but two Panthers. He blocks two Panthers near the boundary, allows Hunter Henry to pretty much tiptoe his way towards the goal line. downfield blocking. Christian Barmore, another nugget for you. Christian Barmore caused all sorts of havoc in this game for the Panthers

Starting point is 00:27:48 offensive line. It was four or five times where you could see Christian Barmore just mess everything up. You want to talk about disruption, major disruption. And Brian Hines from CLNS posted this. Christian Barmore had five pressures on 20 pass rushes. That's a 25% percent. pressure rate. That's his highest pressure rate since week three of 2023. And if we're starting to get the 2023 version of Christian Barmore in 2025, this defensive line is going to be even better

Starting point is 00:28:23 than it was. I'll give you some examples of Christian Barmore having an impact. First quarter, Second Panthers Drive, first and 10. The Patriots, Zach Corr, calls for a three-man pressure. Barmore gets in, incomplete pass. Second and 10. Barmore, big time pressure, creates an incomplete when Kyrie's Tonga bats the football down at the line of scrimmage, but Christian Barmore begins at all. And then on 3rd and 10, you've got the handoff to Rico Dowdo. Kalevon Chase on does a good job on the edge.

Starting point is 00:28:59 Patriots come up with the stop. And don't you know, after those couple of big plays from Christian Barmore, right after it, you get the Marcus Jones punt return. for a touchdown, which, by the way, the Marcus Jones punt return, there were only 10 guys on the field for the Patriots, which makes that punt return even more ridiculous. The offensive line was great in past protection. I'll give you some numbers.

Starting point is 00:29:23 Evan Lazar, his initial look, I watched the game. I didn't see hardly any pressure. I might have counted one or two pressures. Evan Lazar says that his pressure rate was 14.3%. That's an unbelievable number for the Patriots' offensive line, even considering Carolina's pass rush wasn't good coming into the game. Andrew Callahan, he charted two pressures. And I will point out, Ben Brown played well in this game, especially replacing Jared

Starting point is 00:29:50 Wilson. He played well. Now, he got blown up on a run block at one point. There was one pass protection snap that he gave in a little bit, but Ben Brown overall was good for the Patriots. And I'll end this here. Trayvion Henderson. he might be getting closer.

Starting point is 00:30:10 He didn't have a huge breakout game, but he was much more patient against the Panthers than he had been the first three weeks of the season. I had criticized him about running into piles, not giving his offensive linemen or receivers a chance to set up the blocks. He was better in that regard, and you could watch the touchdown run. Look at the patience from Trayvion Henderson with that touchdown run.

Starting point is 00:30:37 he's slowing down a little bit, which is fantastic news. All right, that wraps up this edition of Lockdown Patriots. Thank you for making us your first listen and for being an everydayer. Reach out to me on Twitter at Nick C. Radio. Don't forget to throw a comment in on the YouTube channel. Hit that like button and subscribe. And for your second listen, get a double dose of Lockdown NFL podcast with Tyler the Madman Roland and Tony Wiggins.

Starting point is 00:31:02 Find Lockdown NFL on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcast. Have a fantastic day. We'll see you tomorrow.

Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Alert: Josh McDaniels Transforms Patriots Offense | Unleashes Drake Maye

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