Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - All-In Patriots: Brady Retiring? McDaniels to Las Vegas and more — 1/31/2021

Episode Date: February 1, 2022

Locked On Patriots is back as host Mike D’Abate welcomes fan-favorite Thomas ‘Murph’ Murphy of e2gSports.com for #LockedOnMurphMonday. The duo discuss the weekend’s news surrounding the potential retirement of New England Patriots legend Tom Brady. They also discuss the defection of both of Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler to the Las Vegas Raiders.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.GetUpsideJust download the FREE GetUpside App and use promo code TOUCHDOWN to get 25 cents per gallon or more cash back on your first tank.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello to all of you, Foxborough faithful. You are now locked into the Lockdown Patriots podcast. It is Monday, January 31st, one month down in 2022 already, and still a whole lot to talk about here on your daily home for news, notes, and analysis infused with the occasional opinion on your six-time Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots. And thank you all once again for continuing to make Locked on Patriots

your first listen every day. Locked on Patriots is always free and available on all platforms. Greetings, salutations, and welcome back, Patriots Nation. This time for good. Locked on Patriots back in effect, and it's Monday, so you know it is hashtag Locked on Patriots back in effect. And it's Monday, so you know it is. Hashtag Locked on Murph Monday. E2GSports.com's legendary Thomas Murphy. The Count of Murphy Fisto himself joins me here on the pod today.

And a lot to talk about in the NFL. Two amazing games on the slate yesterday. AFC Championship, NFC Championship, Super Bowl 56 is set. Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams. Going to be a great game in SoFi in two weeks. Of course, your New England Patriots didn't make the cut this time around, but they did make the playoffs this year. That task may be a little bit tougher,

as Josh McDaniels has agreed in principle to become the next head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. Josh is a polarizing figure up here in New England. Your guess is as good as mine as to why that's the case, folks. But a lot of you are happy to see Josh go. Not so fast. For all of his faults, Josh McDaniels is still a very valued offensive mind. And his loss along the offensive side of the ball is a big one for the New England Patriots. How might they fill that void? And what exactly does this mean for the Pats going forward?

Well, again, my main man Murph joins me here in a moment on Locked On Patriots, and we will discuss that very point. Also, in addition to the snowfall all around the New England area on Saturday, well, for a little while, the sky seemed to be falling as well. A lot of us, myself included, were under the impression that Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. had played his final game in the NFL. Adam Schefter reporting on Saturday afternoon that Tom Brady was hanging it up after 22 seasons. In a joint report with ESPN's Jeff Darlington, apparently Brady had decided prior to the NFC and AFC Championship games that he would announce his retirement.

Well, that didn't seem very Brady-like. First of all, no one is more alert and aware of the calendar than Tom Brady. He knew that conference championship weekend was probably not the best time to announce this news. Well, as the afternoon wore on, more and more reports started to come out indicating that maybe Tom hadn't made up his mind yet. It started with a report that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, including head coach Bruce Arians, had not heard anything from Tom about retirement yet. A little odd, considering that he probably would have notified the team he's playing for that he planned on hanging them up. Then, Tom Brady Sr. threw his hat into the ring and said that his son

had not made a decision as of yet and that right now he was still continuing to weigh his options. Folks, it all reads like a soap opera. Is Tom Brady actually done or will he come back for one final run? Folks, I think we can all agree that Brady is much closer to the end than he is the beginning. In my humble opinion, I do believe that Tom Brady has played his final game, but I'm not the one making that decision. Neither is Adam Schefter, neither is Jeff Darlington, neither is ESPN, neither is Bruce Arians, or anyone else that wants to weigh in.

The only ones that are making that decision are, most importantly, Tom Brady, his wife, and his family. But that being said, what is the next most important opinion on the subject I have to say about that? Luckily, he's here today. That's right, guys. My friend Murph weighs in on his thoughts on the Tom Brady saga, along with Josh McDaniels, Dave Ziegler, and a whole host of other Patriots news, when today's Monday, hashtag LockedOnMurphMonday episode of the LockedOnPatriots episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast continues.

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So when you're craving a snack or a treat, you can reach for something that's healthy and tastes incredible. And there's so many flavors to choose from. Coconut Almond, Peanut Butter Brownie, Raspberry, Cookies and Cream, Mint Brownie, so many more. In fact, Built Bar is always coming out with new limited time flavors. So check out Built.com often to see what's new. Go to Built.com, use the promo, and get 15% off your order. Use the promo code LOCKED15 for 15% off at Bilt.com. Patriots fans, as Greg Marmalard once eloquently told Larry Kroger in National Lampoon's Animal House,

the Patriots may not be headed to the Super Bowl, but there's still lots to talk about. And that is lots to talk about. Here in Patriots Nation. Locked on Patriots is back. Everyday schedule. We are back to being your daily home for news notes and analysis. And what better way to re-ingratiate all of you into the fold than by welcoming Locked on Patriots' favorite son. That's right, folks.

Your favorite in mind is here. The wisdom, the green wisdom in council is here and he is ready to roll. Your favorite in mind, my benefactor in this business, the only guest, past, present, or future, with his very own branded hashtag on this pod, the Count of Murphy Fisto himself, the legendary Thomas Murphy, is back for his weekly appearance here on Locked On Patriots. Thank you for coming to me in friendship. Thank you for joining me today, Don Murr. Always my pleasure, Michael. Always my pleasure. It's not Monday without stopping in here to Locked On Patriots and sit down and talk a little NFL with you. And as you can see, I have a giant grin on my face.

Gee, I wonder why. A grin that has not been, I slept this way. My wife woke up and took pictures of me with this giant Joker grin on my face. And yeah, go ahead. Tell the folks why. I think, you know, I'm wondering if hamburger patties were served at the Murph House Hold yesterday. They were.

They were. You know, Patriots fans are loving it. Patty melts were served last night, and in the early game, Patty did melt, didn't he? He did.

He melted. Nice job. You were better with the play on words than I was at that moment, buddy. That's why you are the Don of Locked On Patriots. Hats off to that one. Definitely kiss the ring on that one. Well played. Well, well played, my friend.

I like it. Can you tell me if Thomas Edward Patrick Brady has lost two home AFC championship games? Has that happened in his career? Surely a travesty like that could never, ever happen. No, it has never happened. And now Patty has done it twice. I'm sorry, Gail, but, you know, it just, oh, God, man, I'm just so happy. So happy. gale but you know it just oh god man i'm just so happy so happy and you know there is a part

of patriots nation i'm sure that looks at what joe burrow is doing out in cincinnati uh definitely a big win for them you got to give them a lot of credit both sides of the ball defensive stand at the end really never ever quitting never saying die uh again we mentioned him last week here on the pod but our great friend mike petraglia out there in CLNS Media doing a phenomenal job covering the Bengals. He gets to watch his hometown team in the Super Bowl heading out to Los Angeles. Trax, the hardest working man in the business, as you say all the time, folks. And, you know, folks, please, by all means, if you're looking for a great name, a great journalist to cover Cincinnati objectively, but also throw in that little hometown flavor.

Trags is the best in the business. So, Mike, congratulations to you, buddy. And knock them dead out there in Los Angeles. They're getting a very good journalist. Real simple, folks. At Trags. T-R-A-G-S. At Trags.

Go and get ready for the Super Bowl with my man, Mike. He will be. And he'll be one of the best in the business to do it. Everybody I know named Mike is great. I should have named all my kids Mike. Thank you very much. I don't know if I'm the exception to that rule, but you know what? We are enjoying a little bit at the expense of the Chiefs.

But you know what, Murph? If we're being fair, we can't enjoy too much because the New England Patriots did indeed fall short. And next year, Patriots may face a little bit more of an uphill battle to try to climb back to that mountain, because they're going to be missing some of that New England Patriots-Foxborough brain trust, two names in particular, heading out west to Sin City. And it's going to be a sinful time out there for a lot of, especially for a lot of fans of that fan base.

They are not really happy with the sins of the ownership. But we're going to get into that in just a moment, folks. Of course, we're talking Josh McDaniels. We're going to talk Dave Ziegler. Murph and I are going to discuss that in just a moment. But Murph, as the skies opened up in New England on Saturday afternoon and dumped almost two feet of snow, almost exactly, as a matter of fact, almost two feet of snow up here where I live in the Rhode Island neck of the woods, the northwest corner of Rhode Island. It's a little bit, I know, you know, Connecticut still got hit hard.

New England got hit hard by a pretty good blizzard on Saturday. But as the snow fell, the sky started to fall as well. And we started to get trickled in news all throughout the morning that Tom Brady was thinking seriously about retiring. The first reports coming from Jason LaConfora of CBS Sports, those were greeted with the typical, yeah, it's Jason, we're going to wait and see on this. Right. However, mid-afternoon, Adam Sche Schefter who's typically one of the more reliable reporters you see it come from the Schefter check mark it's usually something that I'm not saying all the time but it's usually something that you can take to the bank Adam's

pretty dialed in and his report of Tom Brady's retirement spread like wildfire everybody caught on to it I did as well. Everyone that ever covered the Patriots in any walk of life, I'm sure sat down at the keyboard at that moment. I did it. I think everybody else did and started to write a retrospect and think about Tom's career. You think about me. We've all, well, you know, because the wisdom and counsel that you possess, Murph, is far beyond your years. And that's why you're in this chair today, because you see things us mere mortals don't see. But I will admit it. I drank the Kool-Aid. I fell for it. I'm sitting there thinking about the first time I saw Tom Brady in a preseason setting, covering my first training camp for New England,

and walking by and saying, OK, now we're playing pro ball. That's Tom Brady that just walked by within an arm's shot of me. That's pretty amazing. You try to keep things in perspective, but when Tom Brady is in your presence, or you're in his presence, I should say, it's humbling. And I thought about a lot of that. I thought about what Tom meant to the region and things of that nature. Then all of a sudden we start to get reports that maybe Tom hasn't called it quits yet, that maybe he's a little ticked off at someone in his inner circle, or maybe just journalists that might have an earshot into him, Jeff Darlington perhaps, or maybe someone else within the ESPN family, got word of this and broke it a little bit too early. Murph, regardless of what, I think we're all in agreement that Tom is definitely much closer to the end than not, whether this season is indeed his final season or not. We're definitely witnessing that. I hate to use this term, but I'm going to use it anyway.

Damien Dandouket, the twilight of Tom Brady's career. When you look at this situation, first of all, Murph, what is your take on all of this? Have we seen the last of Tom in an NFL uniform and what type of legacy? I shouldn't even say that because Tom's legacy has already been established, folks. There's no question about it. What does this news do to the NFL as a whole, to you as a fan, as a journalist covering the game? Just your reactions to everything that happened this weekend. To the NFL, if Tom does decide to step down, they lose their marquee name, a name that they tried to run down for some reason for decades. And it's really going to hurt the bottom line for the NFL. As you know,

the most watched football games on a national stage each and every year are the ones that Tom Brady plays in. And it doesn't matter who he plays against. You put him on primetime and the numbers skyrocket. I just have to keep going back to what we talked about earlier uh i believe last week or the week before um that uh tom tom is is ready for for retirement but he he doesn't he's still holding on to the fact that he's still great. Not good. He's still great at 44 years old. He probably knows he should have beaten the Rams a week or so ago

and had a chance at playing for another Super Bowl. That's still sitting there. The problems are threefold with Tampa Bay. First off, he hates his coach. I will go out and say that he is not a fan of his head coach and he would like somebody else in there. Two, they have a ton of free agents coming up and three, they have absolutely no cap space whatsoever. And four, he's got a giant bonus coming that I know a lot of people have talked about right now, that if he retires due to the void years in his contract, he would probably have to give back, say, $16 million. But if he waits a month, then his entire contract is guaranteed for this year, and he might not have to pay that back.

We'll have to ask our good friend Miguel Banzan to clear that up a little bit. Tune in tomorrow to One Patriot's Place, and Miguel will be on to answer just that question. The best in the business joining three of the best in the business, if not the three best in the business between Murph, Steve and Claire, three stalwarts here on Locked On Patriots and the Locked On Patriots, as long as I've held the microphone here has never had three better friends. So folks check that out tomorrow.

Four of my favorite people on this earth, all talking football. I'm going to have coffee talking football. I'm going to have coffee in hand. I'm going to be watching this one on repeat, maybe binge watch over the course of the next or binge listen, because this is going to be a great one. And I can't recommend highly enough checking out one of these plays this week, as I always do. But especially when Miguel listens, he is the EF Hutton of Patriots finances. And when he talks, listen, folks. But I think you make an interesting point about Tom. And look, there is still, as Rocky Balboa once said, there's still some stuff left in the basement there with Tom. You can't be as prolific at

anything that you do in any walk of life, even taking football and whatnot, just out of this for a second. You can't be as good as Tom Brady is at playing football at anything else in life without having some sort of desire to constantly improve and be better. Right. There's never going to be a point. And I saw that a lot this weekend is that, oh, he used the word satisfied to describe his, you know, his career when he talked to Jim Gray last week on the Let's Go podcast. You know, you can get into semantics all you want, Murph. We do it all the time. Podcasters do it. Journalists do it. You try to extract the meaning that a lot of people put toward the words that Tom says or any given athlete in any given moment to try to fit your narrative. But what Tom said in that context was that there does come a moment where you have to

be satisfied with the product, but there's always going to be that desire for something else. And I think if you talk to people that have even been long retired, maybe, you know, someone like a Joe Montana or Dan Marino or whatever, you don't think Dan Marino still feels, you know, some competitive nature when he sees guys out on the field winning championships and saying, damn it, you know what, if only I were 20 years younger, I would love to be back out there on the field

or however long. These guys all have that competitive fire burning in them at some point. So Tom is never going to get rid of that. And as long as he has it and he feels he can play at a level that's on par with the other guys in this league. And I'm sorry to say it, Murph, we haven't seen a decline to the point where Tom Brady looks like he doesn't belong in the league anymore.

Right. Still, he's still playing at an elite level. And I'd still put him on that very short list of the best quarterbacks in the league at this moment. There's always a chance. There is always a chance. But you look at some of the things that tom has said over the course of the last few days about his family obviously being the focal

point i do believe that if tom brady does ride off into the sunset even after all of this and i know there's a part of patriots nation and bucks nation or whoever is around you know to see to want to see tom brady continue to play football he's not going to do it out of spite, folks. I know there's a lot of people that believe that he will. It'd be a funny story, and people will put out the memes and all that. But if he does indeed walk away from this game, it'll be because of the obligation he feels to his family. And no one can say a word to him about that. That is something that is individual for every human being. Tom has given everything he has to the game of football. If this is the time where he feels it's time for him to give everything he has to his family,

you know, you take your hat off to him and you tip your cap. My favorite Tom Brady moment is actually one that did not involve an on-field play. It truly didn't. People talk to me about that all the time or, oh, was it the comeback or, you know, was it this play or was it that play? Or, you know, my favorite moment was watching him embrace his mother, Galen, right after Super Bowl 51. And knowing that all of the energy that she had expunged to try to get better, to be there for her family, to live on and being able to celebrate that moment with his mom was truly one of the more magical moments I've ever seen on an athletic field, really in any walk of life. And that's the

indelible moment that I'll always carry with me for Tom. But, you know, there's a possibility we may not have, you know, have seen the last of him. That reaction right now, Murph, and I'm not going to pin you to the wall because nobody, I don't think anybody really does know other than Tom, what's going to happen here. And I got that impression this weekend when you see a lot of the stuff coming out. Your percentage factor, you know, percentage, are you a hundred percent guy where, oh, this just got out early and he's just doing damage control, or is there a chance we see him back out there next year. Your percentage factor, Tom Brady, retirement as opposed to unretirement? It's 60-40 that he retires.

The 40% chance depends on what happens with coaching there in Tampa Bay. And quite honestly, something that a lot of people aren't talking about, and that's a sign of trade. You know, he could extend and be traded somewhere where he wants to go and finish his career. And right now they're looking for a quarterback in quite a few cities, including don't don't don't say that that the Raiders are out of the mix. You know, Carr is getting up there himself. If Tom wants to play for another two years and get past that 45 mark, he could go there. San Francisco has a young quarterback that could definitely learn from Tom Brady. And they've got another one walking out the door who, you know, unfortunately did not

come through yesterday against the Rams. There are places that Tom could go. And if they could work out a trade somewhere, that could happen. So I'm sticking with 60-40. Yeah, he's got it out. You know, he's looking to his mother, his dad, of course, his wife and kids. It's not like he's going to have to go right off into the sunset and be with Brittany Matthews for the next 30 years. Sorry, folks. No, all kidding aside, you know, in everything that that Tom has given to the game. And again, we've mentioned all of his accomplishments several times here on these airwaves. I do agree with you that there is always going to be

that part of him that is going to have that competitive fire. And if he does decide that he wants to go elsewhere, I agree with some of the options that you put on the table, including Sin City. And folks, in just a moment, Murph and I will flip the script a little bit here and we'll return things to the business of the New England Patriots. Present business of the New England Patriots. After all, the show's called Locked On Patriots.

And we're going to talk about two defections to the West Coast. Well, close to the West Coast anyway. Far out West. Josh McDaniels, Dave Ziegler headed for the Nevada desert. What does it mean for the New England Patriots? And who might be on that short list of candidates to replace both Dave Ziegler and Josh McDaniels? We'll discuss that and more when Locked on Murph Monday here on Locked on Patriots continues in just a moment. Hey, Patriots fans. This is Mike DeBate, host of the Locked on Patriots podcast with an incredible app everyone who buys gas needs to know about. Get Upside.

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It is hashtag Locked on Murph Monday. Locked on Patriots is back on your airwaves. Smash the subscribe button. Available wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you once again for making LockedOnPatriots your first listen every day. And Murph, in the previous segment, we talked a lot about Patriots Pass, specifically Tom Brady, who really, if you think about it, if they did a book on Patriots Pass, I think a few people actually have done those.

So there have been quite a few of them out there. Tom Brady is going to take up a huge chunk of that Patriots past and well deservedly. So what Tom's done on the field up here in New England will never be equaled again by any other quarterback. Saw that yesterday. It's not so easy to win six Super Bowl championships, get to consecutive championship games, actually win them. Imagine that. I don't know. A lot of people in the Midwest thought it was just snap your fingers. That's it. It's going to be really easy. Turns out it's not so easy to do that. But as much credit as Tom deserves for that, and he does deserve a lot of credit for that. The Patriots brain trust, meaning the coaching staff in this region has done a phenomenal job of keeping these guys ready, focused, prepared on

the field, conditioned, pull nine yards. Coaching staff deserves a lot of the credit. Bill Belichick is going to get the lion's share. He deserves that lion's share. But it really surprised me at the amount of vitriol that was thrown at Josh McDaniels by Patriots fans over the course of the last week. I understand the shakiness with the Raiders. First of all, he coached the Broncos. That's an oil and water relationship there. That's a division rival. I understand that. Josh has got some stigma to him from the Indianapolis fiasco, the issues that he had with the videotaping in Denver. I get that.

I understand why Raiders fans are skeptical on this. I actually had a chance to join your boy Q on the Lockdown Raiders podcast late last week, and we talked a little bit about some of the Raiders fans apprehension. I tried to quell some of that to let them know that Josh has learned his lesson. But Patriots fans up here have been very dismissive of Josh McDaniels. People are actually thinking this is a great thing for the New England Patriots. I'm not saying this is catastrophic to lose him. But I think Patriots fans need to understand that Josh McDaniels knew this offense very, very well.

It was an offense that was predicated on the short pass, the quick, accurate pass, the throws that could reach the receiver only where they could get it, put it in an opportunity where the receiver can do something with it, and then get yards after the catch. That's why the slot receiver is so big here in New England. Right. With Josh's departure, we hear all the rumors about Billy O'Brien and some of the others, and I'll get into my short list in just a moment. But Murph, when you take a look at Josh's exit now from New England, what does it do for the New England Patriots offense?

What does it do for the development of Mac Jones? How much of a problem could this potentially be in Foxborough? This could be a huge problem people um don't don't um don't besmirch the the uh the impact that josh mcdaniels has had here over the years you know you just go back and you take a look at the the quarterbacks that josh mcdaniel has had a hand in mentoring and you can probably go all the way back to tom Brady, okay? Because Josh was here when Tom Brady had not become Thomas Edward Brady and record smasher and holder of six rings. He did a lot of work.

He did work with Matt Castle. He's done work with Jacoby Brissett, with the aforementioned Jimmy Garoppolo, okay, Brian Hoyer, all right, and now Matt Jones. These are all accomplished quarterbacks in this league. Of course, Tom sits at the top of any quarterback mountain, but you can't underestimate the work that Josh has done with all of these young men in making them starters around the league. You really can't.

And losing him is something akin to just a few years ago that, you know, ownership Bob Kraft was was not ready to do. And he came back and, as reports said, made him the highest paid OC in the NFL. It just looks right now that Josh may not get another opportunity to do something like this if he turns this gig down. And quite frankly, it doesn't seem like Bill is ready to hang things up yet. Yeah, I think that's the biggest takeaway from all of this. Someone asked me the other day about Josh McDaniels off the record. And, you know, I basically gave him my thing, you know, my honest thought, I says, I really believe it's a 5050 shot that he leaves or that he stays. But what this is going to be a telltale sign of, at least for me, anyway, was Bill's intention. If Josh turns this down, you have to think that Bill is nearing the end. He's let he's let Josh

know, look, hang in there. I've got another year that I need to work with these guys. I got, you know, it's still a little, again, stuff left in the basement. But then he'll go off and he'll, you know, retire in Nantucket and have, you know, the life that he's earned for himself over the course of these years. For another at least three years. He wants Shula's record. He wants it badly. Okay. Shula brought this on himself with all the garbage that he did from the old folks home in calling, you know, Bill a cheater, this, that, and the other thing, trying to keep himself relevant in the conversation. Bill wants this record and Josh knows it. And Josh is like, you know, these are the guys who came calling this year. From what I've've heard nobody else knocked on Josh McDaniels door nobody else picked up the phone and called Josh McDaniels and while it it gives me pause as to what happened a few years ago and him talking about how his family was going to be

raised and where they were going to be raised and leaving and leaving uh you know the colts and the lurch in indianapolis to stay here but now he's going to pack his kids up and go and raise them in vegas yeah one of those cities has a little bit more nightlife in it than the other uh look indianapolis a nice city i mean you know saying almost cocktail sauce alone folks is worth that trip hoping to make that same one myself in a couple of weeks out there for the combine. But in any case, it is curious with Josh's move to Las Vegas. But look, when you look at NFL teams right now that are ready to make that jump and make that move, it's a playoff caliber team.

They've got some playmakers on the defensive side of the ball. They've got options on the offensive side of the ball without any question Derek Carr if they do right yeah exactly Derek Carr if they do hang on to him is someone that can run the type of offense that Josh McDaniels likes to run Josh Jacobs a pretty good option on third down Josh utilize that you know be sure to call those um but Darren Waller at the tight end position they are uh you know a team that is capable right now of making that jump and competing with the other teams in the division right now that are also making strides los angeles chargers were nearly a playoff team this year kansas city chiefs obviously they're going to be a formidable force in that division

and you got the denver broncos waiting in the lurch too if they can out the quarterback position, that's a team that could make a run as well. So this is going to be a very, very interesting division for Josh to compete in. Obviously, he's playing in one of the state-of-the-art, or coaching in one of the state-of-the-art facilities in the NFL, really, in professional sports. So a good move for Josh, and I agree with you. I think he had to take this. It's now or never. Bill is not guaranteed to be hanging them up anytime soon. And even when he does, is Josh going to want to hang around and be an assistant for all those years? Probably not. I think he saw the opportunity and this allowed him to be able to make the move. I can't wait to

see the staff that he puts together because there are a lot of people out there that, that Josh knows and knows well that are right now looking for jobs that a lot of people are saying should be coming back to new England. And there are people here in new England that know and respect Josh and, and could be on his short list. Although I'm really not sure that, that he's going to ask for a jerk for Gerard Mayo to come out there.

Gerard is probably, you know, too hot a name in coming off the past two seasons. He has interviewed for head coaching positions. And to bring him out there, he might end up looking for a new DC new DC in a year if, if Mayo goes out there. Yeah. And I think Josh understands that. And I think he realizes that he knows that all too well. I think if Gerard does make a move, it's going to be for a head coaching position. I think unless Josh, unless, excuse me, Josh, unless Gerard is named the you know, the head coach of one of the other two, I think it's Miami and we're down to Miami and Minnesota, I believe. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Unless he gets one of those two jobs, and I'm not hearing his name connected with either one of those right now. I think Gerard continues to hang around, and then maybe next year might be his year to get a head coaching job. I think he's that hot of a commodity right now. But you mentioned names that are out there on short lists. And as much as it might be fun to think about who Josh might hire, Patriots fans are a little more concerned about who is going to build Josh's shoes here. Last night, I wrote a little bit and I had some fun with the fun game when it came to the general manager position.

I'm not going on any higher authority, folks, just speculation and brief conversations that I've had with people close to the team, not people that are connected inside to the team. I haven't had those conversations yet. I will this week, but I haven't done that yet. Elliott Wolfe looks to be a pretty good option for them. And, folks, if he is indeed the guy that succeeds Dave Ziegler as director of player personnel. The Patriots are getting themselves a good one in this kid. I've done a little bit of a deep dive. And, you know, again, I played the pun game last night writing for Sports Illustrated. Aware Wolf was one of the ones that I used.

The Wolf of Patriot Place, I had a little fun there. Nick Athens, my guy over there, gave me a little bit of a shout out. But Wolf seems to be hungry like the wolf. I wanted to do that one, but I figured someone else had already beat me to that. So I tried to, you know, draw it a little bit of a way and try to put my own stamp on it. But Elliot Wolf looks to be the guy unless it is Matt Patricia. And that's probably another conversation. Oh, God, on that one. Yeah.

We could be doing that for the state mental hospital. Folks, you want to see Murph really lose it on. Yeah, we'll do that. We'll save that. Yeah, we'll save that for another. We could fill a whole pot on that one. But the names that are on the short list of potential offensive coordinator candidates uh do read pretty pretty well i mean in terms of guys that are not only on staff but also some externals and i'm gonna i'm gonna do something that i really do here on lockdown patriots in just a moment but i'm gonna anger the listening base a little bit but let's start with the guys

on staff right now these names are not going to anger anybody, but they're being thrown out there as potentials. Tight ends coach Nick Cayley, Mick Lombardi, the wide receivers coach, and Troy Brown obviously is going to be out there as well because of his prowess. I'm not going to put you on the spot, Murph, and ask you to go into the resumes of each of these guys. If you want to know a little bit more about the resumes of each of these guys, check out the piece I wrote for Sports Illustrated last night. Cheap plug there. But, Murph, in your estimation, do you think the Patriots go internal here, or do you think this is going to be either an expat coach or an external hire coming in?

Yeah, I believe it's going to be an expat coach or an external hire, more likely than not an expat coach. Dave O'Brien is the name to circle, folks. Karen Garigan wrote a nice piece on it last night for the Boston Herald. Please check that out. Nick Calley, the tight ends coach, could replace him. But here's a name that not a lot of people are talking about that could come back, and that's Chad O'Shea. He was the wide receivers coach here for almost 10 years. He should, I believe, get consideration. He spent a season as a Dolphins offensive coordinator

before getting sent out there. God knows why. And, yeah, I would definitely go with the expatriates. I want somebody to come in here that is going to know this system because nobody is going to come in here and start running their system. It's not. We have the encyclopedia, Biltanica, to pull from, and we need guys that know that. Mac, one of the reasons that this, just to circle around, that this is so daunting is the fact that Mac has a year in this system right now, and then it's being disrupted. Let's disrupt this as little

as we possibly can. And I think either O'Brien or O'Shea would fill the bill quite nicely. And I love your little, I don't want to say prediction, but hopeful of Elliott Wolfman. I think Elliott is the next guy, and he can come in here and take the reins and keep the good drafts going. There's one other, God, I can't think of his name off the top of my head. I'm sorry. Oh, yeah, Jeff Ireland is somebody else, the Saints assistant GM.

He's somebody that has rocked the draft year in and year out. I would also, if they did go out of town to fill that GM spot, Jeff Ireland is the guy that I would go after. Yeah, good point about Ireland. And that's someone I haven't wrote about yet. And I'm glad that you bring him up because there is a great deal of draft synergy. And look, for all intents and purposes, Sean Payton, Bill Belichick, these guys have a very similar mindset. I'm not saying a similar system or a similar way of doing things, but they're programmed to constantly have that mind going. You're always scouting. You're always looking for, you know, for people that I've spoke to and coaches that are connected to other teams that have talked about Bill Belichick, you know, and meeting him and getting a chance to talk to him. They always feel like they're on evaluation when they're

talking to Bill. Bill's always picking brains of anybody that he can. And, you know, to think that he's 69 years old, oh, he can't. Bill's known everything. He's seen it all. He's done it all. Now Bill still considers himself a student of the game, and he will constantly look for ways to improve and ways to learn. So that could be interesting as well when you you think about uh the options um our good

friend evan lazar brought up the name joe brady and that's a song that comes from that he comes from that uh you know that school that sean payton school having been an assistant under him in new orleans for a couple years 2017 right around was the time that uh that he had uh some of that of course we all know what he was able to do with LSU. Everybody looking at Joe Burrow marching the Cincinnati Bengals to the Super Bowl now. People, I think, remember that 2019 LSU team that set all those passing records, and he was their passing game coordinator as well as their wide receiver's coach.

So kudos to Evan on that for bringing up Joe Brady. He also fell on the sword bringing up joe brady um you know he also fell on the sword uh bringing up the name adam gaze which uh you know i don't see happening but he did mention him uh that was evan's way of angering the fan base i'm gonna anger the fan base right now because it's a guy i covered out in los angeles anthony lynn is looking for work right now now there's a system problem there and i agree with you i don't think the Patriots are going to do anything else, but if they decided that running the ball was going to be their focal point and that Bill's conspiracy theorists out there were actually correct in saying that he doesn't quite have the faith in Mac Jones yet. And you want to put all

your eggs into the running back basket. Anthony Lynn may make a little more sense than possible he's got the knowledge of the AFC East he's worked in Buffalo and you know he does have also the ability to run a passing game he's run it with Justin Herbert he knows Hunter Henry very well having coached him in Los Angeles folks this is a very very unlikely scenario but it's a name that's worth at least giving a look to in my opinion because of the success that he's had in the AFC East and also the familiarity that he has with some of the guys on this roster including someone like a Damian Harrison and Ramondre Stevenson he can run a pretty good two uh two uh you know headed set maybe a running backs coach maybe it's not the oc maybe anthony

decides he wants to take a little step back who knows he may come in if vinnie sinceri decides that he wants to pursue other uh you know opportunities uh and ivan does indeed retire as mike reese reported yesterday he may be close to that what a career he's had we'll do a pod just on ivan coming up uh and the impact he's had for over 30 plus years here in New England. But these are some of the names to throw out there right now. We remember the hug that Damien Harris gave Ivan after the last game. And it certainly seemed that way. Ivan Fierce is just like a true hero in coaching to me, myself. But just to circle back around,

O'Brien was the architect of the two tight end system here. That was not Josh. It was, you know, that was the meat in between the bread of Josh in here. And I really think that he's the man that Bill should go after and probably look to succeed him down the line here as the head coach. He's a man who everybody remembers a tumultuous time in Texas, but he did go on and coach Penn State, and he also did go on and coach at Alabama.

This is not the O'Brien of just five years ago. Yeah, exactly. And again, at the end of the day, folks, this is the one that just makes so much sense that if it doesn't happen, I'll be more surprised than if it does happen. There's just so many factors bringing this together, working for Nick Saban, knowing the system that Mac Jones was able to run, having knowledge of the way the Patriots do things up here. And working with Mac already. Exactly. Working with Mac already and having experience in working with two prolific tight ends and Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez, maybe this is finally the opportunity for him to show what he can do with Hunter Henry and Jono Smith. So keep a sharp eye as we like to say, folks, things are about to get interesting

once again in Foxborough, but Murph, things are always interesting when you drop by the pod here my friend uh another great locked on murph monday and i sincerely thank you from the bottom of my heart for being locked on patriots most valued friend and of course uh you know the don that you are is is truly uh you know something that i'm always grateful uh that you take the time to drop by and lend your wisdom and counsel here on Locked On Patriots each and every week. For the benefit of our new listeners, you're very welcome. For the benefit of our new listeners, please, I encourage you all, follow my good friend, the Count of Murphy, Fisto himself, Thomas Murphy, on Twitter. The work that this man does for E2GSports.com is phenomenal,

whether it be football whether it be uh you know baseball related which is some of the best baseball coverage you'll read when it comes to the red sox and surrounding mlb coverage hopefully they get back on the field pretty soon and we end this stupid lockout but what has you covered in the meantime with some very interesting and great reads um but i can't recommend the work that you do highly enough, whether it be putting pen to paper or voice to microphone. Again, check out One Patriot's Place this week with our good friend Miguel Benzon as the guest. Live. Of course, absolutely live and in living color. Murph, Claire, Steve put together a phenomenal show each and every week. What can I say, my friend? Thank you so much again. Honored and humbled as always by your presence.

Always my pleasure, folks. Yeah, please follow me at TeamMIRF207 on Twitter, and then you can find all my great work there. Thank you so much, Murph. We always appreciate you. We look forward to talking ball with you again here next week on Locked On Patriots. In the meantime, stay safe, stay well.

And once again, thank you for dropping by the pod today. Yeah, you couldn't keep me away if you tried. And we wouldn't even think to do that.