Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Alert: Patriots' Christian Gonzalez Still Sidelined | Will He Miss Week One?

Starting point is 00:00:00 The best player on the team continues to miss practice, which begs the question, is he about to miss games that count? That's where we start in this episode of 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 up, Patriots fans? I'm your host Nick Cattos, born and raised in New England. host of the Everything Pats podcast, co-host of the Greg Bedard Patriots podcast with

Starting point is 00:00:34 Nick Cattels and a sports talk show host veteran. On today's episode, I will tell you why the Pats cannot, cannot afford to follow the same plan as a team that went to a conference championship just last season. And we've got some important questions for this hyped 2025 draft class. But first, Christian Gonzalez remains MIA. We appreciate you joining the show, making us your first listen and for being in every day or the Lockdown Patriots podcast is a proud partner of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team

Starting point is 00:01:07 every day. And today's episode is brought you by Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code Lockdown NFL for $20 off your first purchase. We are creeping closer and closer to Christian Gonzalez missing

Starting point is 00:01:23 week one for the past. I take you back about a month ago when Gonzalez went down with a hamstring injury. In that very moment, it was told to all of us via national insiders that Gonzalez was not going to miss a ton of time and that the Patriots didn't feel like Gonzalez's injury was going to put week one at risk. And we're not there yet. I want to be clear. We are not there yet. But we're getting closer and closer. Next week is game week. Gonzalez has not practiced in the last month. Now, I'm not sitting here trying to be a doctor.

Starting point is 00:01:58 it would be nice to get that kind of money, but I'm not going to sit here and try to be a doctor and prescribe things and diagnose things and give you prognosis. No, that's not what I'm going to do. But I will tell you, if you Google, if you look this stuff up, if you do any research on hamstring strains, if you have any experience watching sports, if you play sports, you know.

Starting point is 00:02:19 A grade one hamstring strain is something that will keep you out one to two weeks, maybe at the most three weeks. A grade two hamstring strain. strain is three to six weeks. A grade three strain is considered severe. Once you hit that severe category, you got some issues. Once you get to that severe category, you're talking six plus weeks. Now, we don't know what degree of strain Gonzalez has in that hammy, but we can try to figure it out. Deductive reasoning. Number one, he's not back yet, which means it wasn't a grade one. Number two, he was not placed on IR, even with a designation to return, which would make me believe

Starting point is 00:03:03 the Patriots don't feel like Gonzalez has a grade three strain, which means we fall into the second category. Now, unless the Patriots say, well, we can survive without Gonzalez for the first couple of weeks and maybe at worst, he'll be out six weeks and he will miss the first game or the first two games. We still want to keep him on the 53 man and make sure that, you know, he's ready. So just in case, just in case he can play week one or week two, we have them there. If we put him on the IR, then, you know, there's some games that we have to do. We got to shuffle some players and we don't want to do that. But that seems unlikely. So my best guess, and frankly, it's only a guess because that's all we have. We don't have any inside reporting telling us

Starting point is 00:03:43 exactly how bad this is. My guess is that we're dealing with a grade two hamstring strain, which would be three to six weeks, which means he could miss week one. He could miss week two. And as he continues to miss practice, it feels like it's more likely he will miss the Raiders game to kick this season off. Now, he's got to get back on the field. He's got to get back on the practice field by the beginning of next week, or we can pretty much write it down in Sharpie that he's out week one. And really the question we have to be asking is not only when Christian Gonzalez will practice, it's how much of a ramp up will Gonzalez need? And I thought it was interesting. Mike Vrable spoke to the media this week, and he was asked about Gonzalez, he was asked about guys trying

Starting point is 00:04:31 to get back and get into conditioning to return to play. And Vrable said the following, quote, confident the player is working hard. Let's say they recover from something they're working through. There is some conditioning involved. That's probably different for each guy. You can only ride the bike for so long. Now, of course, the stationary bike that Vrabel's talking about, sit side of practice, on the bike, you're just cycling.

Starting point is 00:04:58 You're just cycling. You're watching practice. You're looking at the sun and you're looking at the clouds. You're listening to the birds chirp. You're listening to the whistles. You're just cycling. But cycling is not football conditioning. And so Christian Gonzalez, according to many, he's been on that stationary bike.

Starting point is 00:05:17 And he's been going pretty hard on that bike. But he hasn't been on the field. Vrable continue to say, you get out here and run. and get into actual football conditioning. So the coach is telling us, I don't care. I don't care how much a guy is on the bike. That doesn't mean he's on the precipice of returning.

Starting point is 00:05:39 He's going to touch the practice field. And Gonzalez has not done that in a month. And you have to wonder how tough it is to simulate, I don't know, 50 plus snaps in a football game. Like how difficult is it to get Gonzalez on the practice field get him ramped up enough where you feel like he can play every single solitary snap because that's going to be his responsibility he's the best player on this roster he's the most talented player on this roster so you have to make sure now of course you could bring

Starting point is 00:06:13 him back and not play him 100% of the snaps which might be the way the patriots handled this and then you've got to see who is going to be replacing him when he's not out there How does it impact the other guys? What is your defensive strategy when Gonzalez is out there versus not out there? But the biggest point here is that Gonzalez not only has to return to the practice field, he has to ramp up, have the type of conditioning that makes this coaching staff feel like they can trust him out there on Sunday against the Raiders. And so when you're a cornerback and you're dealing with this kind of strain, I just would have to imagine it's more difficult than some other positions.

Starting point is 00:06:56 you might be able to deal with it better if you're in the trenches, so to speak, because you're not running up and down the field. You're not dealing with change of direction, but that's what Gonzalez is going to have to deal with. Change of direction, sticking, sticking with those wide receivers, getting down field. And so it's going to be very interesting to see. If Gonzalez returns next week, does he play?

Starting point is 00:07:23 And if he plays, how much does he play? And if he does play, does the coaching staff handle him differently than they might if he wasn't coming back from a hammy? And I'm not just talking about snap percentage. I'm also talking about how they utilize him. For example, Gonzalez comes back. Let's say hypothetically that Gonzalez returns to practice next week. And the staff says, we think he's good to go. We're going to play him in week one.

Starting point is 00:07:55 training staff, the medical staff, they all say, yes, we think he's good to go. Do the Patriots go into that Raiders game and say to themselves, well, we have to provide help over the top to Gonzo because we feel like he might have some hesitancy or just in case he's not the same guy, he's not fully trusting it just yet. Let's make sure we have some help over the top. if Gonzales is coming back to play against the Raiders, do the Patriots feel like they can put him on, let's say, Brock Bowers? And do they think, well, we might be able to get away with it a handful of times,

Starting point is 00:08:37 but we don't want to put him on Brock Bowers full time. So maybe we kind of maneuver him around and, you know, change the approach for that first week. It's going to be compelling stuff. And if he's not out there, if he's not out there, if he's not out there, then do you have Carlton Davis travel because that will be impacting everybody else. Davis clearly, according to the camp and the preseason, he clearly likes playing on one side. He's been playing, I think, the left side pretty much 100% of the time. So if he's playing the left side and Gonzalez is not back, you got Alex Austin out there.

Starting point is 00:09:18 Alex Austin, do you just put him on the right side? Or do you have Davis travel with the best receiver on the opposing team because you don't quite trust Austin to do that. So it's a trickle-down effect. What I would say is we all got to be patient. I do not want Gonzalez rushing back if he doesn't feel right. If he feels 80%, you don't put him out there. But I do think we have to start at least entertaining the idea that he could miss at least a week because he hasn't been back in a month.

Starting point is 00:09:53 and it might take him some time to just ramp up. All right, the paths have to be careful about copying a conference contenders game plan. We'll tell you why next is we continue with today's episode of Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, folks, are you still paying full price for gas? Stop leaving money behind, get real cash back every time you fill up with the free upside app. Simply download the free upside app in the app store.

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Starting point is 00:12:35 You can also find the link in the show notes. Thanks for helping us out. A lot of people love, and I get it, a lot of people love comparing the Patriots to the Washington commanders. When the question is asked, can the Patriots make a dramatic turnaround? everybody points to the commanders from 23 to 24 and what they did, getting to the NFC championship game, a truly great story. You look at the turnover of the team roster.

Starting point is 00:13:00 You look at the young quarterbacks. You look at a second time head coach. You look at an experienced offensive coordinator. The two teams share all of those things. But inevitably, the most important question is whether or not either of these teams figure out a way to have sustained, success. One year is great. But if Washington falls back to eight or nine wins this year, they're going to be looked at as a flash in the pan. And what's interesting about the commanders is that they're an older team, like a really old team. If you look at history. So the average

Starting point is 00:13:37 age of the commander's 53 players is 28.1 years old. Now, this has been tracked for years, for years, the average ages of all NFL initial 53-man roster since 2012, and the commanders are the first team ever, the first team ever since 2012 to have an average age over 28. The previous oldest teams were the 23 Saints and the 18 Raiders who both had an average age of 27.4. So when we compare Washington and New England, we have a lot of similarities. We have a lot of similarities. But we have to ask the question, how can the Patriots stay away from that type of roster? They don't want the oldest roster in the NFL by 2026. They don't want to get there. So here are three main points. The Patriots have to live by these three main things if they

Starting point is 00:14:36 want to make sure that they don't age out quickly. Because that is, that is a risk for Washington and Dan Quinn and Cliff Kingsbury and everybody else. And not Jaden Daniels. He should be fine as long as he stays healthy. But that team could age out and age out within the next year or two. So here are the three main points the Patriots have to focus on as a franchise to make sure they don't get old quick. Draft and development is number one. It's obvious.

Starting point is 00:15:05 But let's dive into some of the details. When I talk about drafting well, I'm talking about hitting on your early round picks. You can't waste a first round pick. like Cole Strange. You can't waste a first round pick like Nikiel Harry. You just can't do it. You can't waste second round picks and Jalen Polk and Tyquan Thorne. That will kill you. And you also don't want to waste a bunch of third round picks. So not only do you have to draft well, but you've got to make sure that you are drafting well in those top three rounds. You have to do as much damage as humanly possible in rounds one through three.

Starting point is 00:15:44 secondly when you move on beyond the one through three you've got to find value picks this is what bill belichick did during the best years he was able to find the quote unquote value and and that word drove people crazy right they got tired of it oh will you stop with the belichick value but that's what he did he found value and able to you know draft somebody in the fourth fifth sixth round and find that value in that player because if you hit on a good portion of your rounds one through three picks and then you find a couple of gems fourth round through seventh round you find some value guys that's when you start to stockpile some depth and that's what you need and hey the occasional udf a steeler two also will help if efton chisholm the third it becomes a legitimate NFL wide

Starting point is 00:16:34 receiver and elijah potter becomes a legitimate NFL defensive end we will look back at those two udFA signings and say man oh man that helped the team so much. And when I talk about development, I'm talking about the entire staff. I'm talking about the training staff. I'm talking about the nutrition staff. I'm talking about the coordinators, the coaches, the head coach. And I feel like the Patriots have a really good staff to develop these young players.

Starting point is 00:17:05 Here's point two. Roster management. You don't become the oldest team in the league if you handle your roster. correctly. This will go back to again the good Bill Belichick years when the old saying was I'd rather get rid of a guy a year too early instead of a year too late. This is why because you don't want to have a bunch of 29, 30 year olds. And I understand that like free agency, that's who the Patriots brought in, but you're very limited in free agency. And they had to just replenish this roster and get some talent. But you don't want to keep diving into

Starting point is 00:17:43 oh, we're going to bring that 30-year-old in, that 30-year-old in. We want to keep this guy until he's 33. You want to get ahead of it. Be a year too early instead of a year too late. Roster management. When you talk about premium positions, much like when I say you've got to hit in the first to third rounds, you also have to hit on your premium positions. You can't keep swinging and missing at left tackle, wide receiver one, quarterback, defensive end.

Starting point is 00:18:11 you can't keep swinging and missing. Those are the premier premium positions in the league. And you need guys who are talented enough that you feel comfortable that you don't have to go out and replace them at those premium positions. If Will Campbell is a good left tackle for the next decade, that is so crucial to the entire operation. So you've got to hit on those premium positions. You also have to manage the other players as best as you can.

Starting point is 00:18:40 I'm talking about the depth chart. How many corners do you need in a given season? What if you have a sixth corner, but you think he could be really good in a year or two? You hold on to that guy? Because if you hold on to that sixth cornerback, you're taking away from another position. Roster management, manipulation.

Starting point is 00:18:59 Who do you keep on the practice squad? How many young guys on your practice squad that you think that you can develop into players that will be legitimate within the next year? So roster management is point two. Point three is be aggressive. Be aggressive. Be aggressive.

Starting point is 00:19:17 Trade for guys in their prime years. When it's time to pull the trigger, pull the trigger. Don't be afraid to acquire a big name if you think he helps you. Because if you're managing the rest of the roster, you shouldn't be afraid of somebody that's 27 years old. If they're in their prime years playing their best football, bring them on in. So trade for prime year guys. Guys. Be aggressive in extension talks with your youngest players. Get deals done. If you believe in Drake May by the end of 2026, get that extension done the very first day that you can get it done. Sign, sealed, delivered, move on to the next one. Don't waste any time. Christian Gonzalez after this year. If you believe that he is the man, if you believe he's an all pro. And I'm talking first team all pro. Lockdown, elite corn. Get his extension done. Don't waste any time. And when you walk into the draft weekend,

Starting point is 00:20:09 Be aggressive. Make some trades up the board if you feel like there's a truly special talent. So draft and develop, roster management, and being aggressive. Those three things should keep you away from aging out and hopefully will lead you to a sustained winning program. We've compiled some of the most critical questions this 2025 draft class will face. That's next. continue with today's episode of Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. This episode is brought to by Prize Picks, the Daily Fantasy Platform that lets you turn your football predictions into real rewards.

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Starting point is 00:21:36 That's locked on NFL to get 50 bucks in lineup. after your first $5 play prize picks remember it prize picks run your game i've got big expectations for this 2025 draft class and i think most of you have some big time expectations but the excitement over this draft class is not just a local thing it's not just a homer thing everybody is talking about the patriots draft class everybody is pumping its tires Brett Coleman, for example, who is the creator of all 32. He's also co-host of the bootleg football podcast. He posted this week, rookies this year that looked awesome in the preseason but didn't really get any publicity.

Starting point is 00:22:23 Jacob Parrish, Gray's Abel, Woody Marks, Kelvin Banks, Jamari Caldwell. And then Coleman writes, basically any patriot. I have been waiting and waiting and waiting to see a tweet like that. basically any patriot rookies this year that looked awesome in the preseason basically any patriot now we can move forward with pro football focus pro football focus came out with a story recently and the headline was one emerging player at every position this preseason the patriots didn't just have one guy on the list they didn't have two guys on the list they had three guys on the list and there was only one player devoted to each position

Starting point is 00:23:08 At running back, of course, you add Trayvion Henderson on just 10 total touches, produced 7.6 yards per carry, three mistackles, and a pair of touchdowns, including his kick return score on the first NFL touch. Efton Chisholm led the preseason in receptions, mistackles forced, contested catches. He posted the second highest PFF receiving grade, by the way, in college football last season. And then you had a tackle, use it to my ears, Will Campbell. Will Campbell. As PFF wrote, the first year tackle is looking like a franchise cornerstone right out of the gate, standing as the only tackle so far this preseason, so after two games, to post an 80 plus PFF grade as both run blocker and pass protector.

Starting point is 00:23:56 Three guys, three of your rookies on the list from PFF story of one emerging player at every position this pre-season. So it's not just the New England media. It's not just me yapping into a microphone telling you that you should be excited about this rookie class. It's pretty much universal. But I do have some questions for this class. And I want to get ready for the season.

Starting point is 00:24:21 We're just over one week away. And I think it's the perfect time to ask some of the bigger questions for this draft class. Let's start with the offensive line, Will Campbell, Jared Wilson. I'm not going to bring in Marcus Bryant because, yes, he's the top swing tackle option right now. But I want to pay attention to the guys who were drafted in the first four or five rounds. So let's start with Campbell and Wilson. The biggest question for me with Will Campbell isn't about the arm length and getting beat inside from time to time. My initial big question is, how much will Josh McDaniels help Campbell?

Starting point is 00:24:59 Because if he helps Campbell a lot, that tells us Campbell has a lot to learn. learn and the trust just isn't there yet. As far as Jared Wilson, yes, he's trying to transition to a new position. He used to be a guard, then went to Georgia, and late in his Georgia career switched to center. Can Wilson handle it, first of all, but also does he have the best bookends, so to speak? He's got a rookie left tackle next to him. He's got Garrett Bradbury on his right side. Campbell on the left, Bradbury on the right.

Starting point is 00:25:31 I have major concerns about Bradbury, and I hope that if Bradbury is not good, I hope it doesn't trickle down to Wilson and impact his play. I also have to remind everybody, we need patience. We need patience when we look at these two young offensive linemen. If we expect them to be flawless right off the bat, we're going to be, I think, disappointed. If you think that they're going to both have clean sheets every week, get ready, for disappointment. But it's not just our patience. The coaching staff has to be patient. They have to understand. I'm sure they do. And I'm compelled. I'm compelled by Doug Marone's

Starting point is 00:26:12 impact on this offensive line, especially with the young guys, because there are some analysts that will tell you. There are some pundits that will tell you. Doug Marone's track record of developing young offensive linemen hasn't always been the best. Let's get the Trayvion Henderson. I don't have a lot of questions about whether or not he can adapt to the I'm not worried about that. My question about Henderson is usage. How much will he be used? How many touches will he get? Now, I think going into his rookie season especially, 10 to 12 touches a week feels right to me at running back. 10 to 12 touches. I know some people might be disappointed by that. I know some people want to see him touch the ball 25 times.

Starting point is 00:26:58 But his history at Ohio State tells us the more he plays, the more he wears down. So I think that 10 to 12 mark is perfect. I do wonder if you have him returning kicks and we expect, we anticipate more kicks to be returned this year. Does that eat into his touches, so to speak? We'll have to wait and see. How much does he play on first and second down? because if you only have 10 to 12 touches, you might have to manage and balance that out. But I think Henderson's going to have an immediate impact.

Starting point is 00:27:30 Let's go to the two receivers. Kyle Williams, Efton Chisholm. My biggest question for those two guys, are they going to get any snaps? Williams has digs in front of him. He has Pop Douglas in front of him. He has Kashan Booty. He's got Mack Hollins. How much will Kyle Williams actually play, especially in the first month and a half,

Starting point is 00:27:51 two months of this season. And that's even a bigger question for Efton Chisholm, who has a number of guys who can play the slot position ahead of him. How much will he play, especially early in the season? Here's my question for Craig Woodson. Will he start? I think he's going to. I think Woodson is going to start alongside Gibral Peppers,

Starting point is 00:28:12 week one against the Raiders. If he doesn't, how is he handled? Does he play any slot corner, by the way? You know, how much versatility? We've seen the Patriots coaching staff ask Woodson to do an awful lot during the preseason. Is that just to get him ingratiated with the system so he knows everything? Or is that going to be the questions that are asked of him to be on the field and do week one? But I think Woodson is going to end up starting.

Starting point is 00:28:41 Then you go to a couple of other guys and Farmer and Ponder. Can they push? Can they push the guys ahead of them on the roster? Can, can farmer push, you know, Jeremiah Farms and Tonga? Can, and Farmer might be ahead of farms, by the way. Can he push, can he push Tonga if he is ahead of farms? Elijah Ponder, UDFA. Can he push Keon White?

Starting point is 00:29:04 Keon White was pushed out by Kalevon Chase on. Can he be pushed further away by Elijah Ponder? And a really simple one to wrap up the rookie questions, and that is, can Andy Borogales make kicks? Can he make his kicks? Because Parker Romo was the better kicker in the preseason, but they stuck with Boragallis. And he's got to make them look good.

Starting point is 00:29:28 He's got to make kicks. He doesn't have to, you know, make it from 65 every week, but he's got to be consistent. That wraps up this edition of Lockdown Patriots. Thank you for making us your first listening for being an everydayer. Reach out to me on Twitter at Nick C. Radio. And don't forget to throw a comment in on the YouTube channel. Hit that like button and subscribe.

Starting point is 00:29:48 all of those things help us out tremendously. And college football fans, for your second listen, Lockdown and Fire TV present college football kickoff, your ultimate college football weekly preview. I watched the first week. It was great. Drake Toll of Lockdown Big 12 leads the conversation alongside two-time AP coach of the year, Gary Patterson, former college star Jesse Holly,

Starting point is 00:30:08 and Lockdown's local experts. A college football preview only Lockdown can do. Catch college football kickoff every Thursday throughout the season, only on Fire TV. Have a great weekend, and we will see you after the holiday.

Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Alert: Patriots' Christian Gonzalez Still Sidelined | Will He Miss Week One?

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