Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Mike Vrabel Facing PRESSURE | New England Patriots’ Intriguing Dart Throw

Starting point is 00:00:00 There will be a ton of pressure on Mike Vrabel in 2025. That's where we start on this episode of Locked On 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 am your host, Nick Cattles, born and raised in New England. You're New England Patriots expert host of the everything paths podcast, cohost of the Greg Bedard Patriots podcast with Nick Cattles and also a sports talk show host veteran on today's episode. The Patriots are attacking player leadership in layers and the team made an interesting dart throw during the draft that we have yet to get to. But first, there's a lot on Mike Vrabel's plate. We appreciate you joining the show, making us your first

Starting point is 00:00:55 listen and for being an everydayer, the Lockdown Patriots podcast is a proud partner of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. And today's episode is brought to you by Fandool. Right now, new customers can get $250 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. I do not doubt Mike Vrabel's ability to coach a football team. I do not doubt his situational football acumen. I believe that Vrabel gets the most out of his guys. We have seen that before. We saw it in Tennessee. He is somebody that gets the very most out of almost every single talent on the field. But don't get it twisted. There is a ton of pressure on

Starting point is 00:01:40 Vrabel as we head into the 2025 season. And let's begin because I think there's three different pressure points that Vrabel faces. Let's start with on the field. Keep it simple here. That's where we begin. Back to back four win seasons. Not good enough. Terrible. Back to back four win seasons, the pressure is mounting in New England. There's doubt about this Patriots program.

Starting point is 00:02:07 There's doubt about ownership. There's doubt if they could turn this thing around. Not only back-to-back four-win seasons, that would be bad enough. But then you think. You think about the recent history. You think about the two decades with Bill Belichick in charge. You think about not one, but two dynasties, the early dynasty, the late dynasty. To go from that, to go from being one of the best teams in football, if not the best team

Starting point is 00:02:39 in football for two decades to where this has gone, that inherently creates pressure. When Mike Rabel took the job, he kept it simple with the media, he kept it simple with the fans, and I loved what he said. We want to get to the point where we can take advantage of bad football. And the idea is, we just have to be better

Starting point is 00:03:04 than the teams we face. We don't have to be all world. We don't have to be better than the teams we face. We don't have to be all-world. We don't have to be intergalactical. If we take advantage of the bad football from the teams that we play, we will win most of our games. Strip it down to the fundamentals. Strip it down to the simplest form. Take advantage of bad football. Mike Vrabel's job on the field this year

Starting point is 00:03:27 is to gain respect, get the respect back, have teams respect the Patriots, how they play, how they are run, how they are coached, get that respect back because it is gone after the past two years. And I don't need to see the Patriots and I would imagine that most of you feel this way. I don't need to see the Patriots win 10, 11, 12 games this year. I would love to see the Patriots win 10, 11, 12 games in 2025, but I don't need to see that.

Starting point is 00:04:00 What I need to see is the respect level being raised. What I need to see is a team that most weeks competes, competes, and is quote unquote in the hunt as we get towards Thanksgiving in early December. That's what I need and I think that's what most of us need. We just need to see competency. That's what most of us need. We just need to see competency. We need to see that respect come back. So there's the on the field stuff as far as the product and getting beyond the last two seasons of four wins. Then you think about the staff, the staff that Vrabel has assembled.

Starting point is 00:04:38 I love the staff. Not many weaknesses, not many questions. When I'm sitting back and I'm nitpicking the idea of adding a former NFL wide receiver that could have been the assistant wide receivers coach to help out with technique. That's a nitpick. Big picture 30,000 feet, this coaching staff seems to be legit. There are lots of overqualified guys though. I've mentioned this before the overqualified guys, especially on the offensive side

Starting point is 00:05:06 Todd Downing former OC now wide receivers coach Doug Marrone former head coach now O line coach Thomas Brown somebody who has run offenses before was an interim head coach last year in Chicago Now is the tight ends coach in the passing game coordinator Now is the tight ends coach and the passing game coordinator Lots of overqualified guys and when you have people that are overqualified for the job that they have Those over qualifications could result in some ego and we know there's a lot of ego in the NFL to begin with and It's going to be up to Mike Vrabel to make sure that Josh McDaniels is Handling this offensive staff correctly and that the egos are in check.

Starting point is 00:05:50 Guys are working together. They're not worried about stepping over each other. When you have a lot of qualified people and overqualified people, you've got to make sure they're all on the same page. You've got to make sure they respect each other. You have to make sure lines are drawn. And within the offensive staff, that's

Starting point is 00:06:08 what McDaniels has to do. But it really gets down to Mike Vrabel and his ability to make sure that McDaniels is doing that and to make sure that everybody else down the line has things figured out. This offensive staff, you don't have a lot of experience together. If any, McDaniels has not worked with Downing or Brown or Morrone. These are all new people being thrown together. It could work out splendidly or it could create chaos. And it's up to the head

Starting point is 00:06:42 coach to make sure that chaos is not what is created. So you've got a lot of overqualified guys in the offensive room that have no experience working together for the most part. Some of them have had some cross connections, but overall as a unit, not the case. And you have a young roster. That offensive roster is young. Drake May, young. Will Campbell, young. We can go down the line. Kyle Williams, Trevion Henderson, the guys you drafted this year. You've got a good amount of youth in that offensive room. So there is a lot of challenges with this staff to make sure the staff is working cohesively. Egos have been taken out and they are working with the young players and getting the most out of those guys. There's one final piece to this puzzle. There's going to be

Starting point is 00:07:41 pressure on Vrabel regarding whether or not he did indeed establish the right culture. How does he read guys? How does he read the room? Now his time in Tennessee would tell us he does a pretty pretty good job of that. But now Vrabel he's making the final call on personnel. We know that. He's not only the head coach, he's making the final call on personnel. So whoever is drafted, whoever is signed, that is a Mike Vrabel call. And how does he read guys? The reason why I bring that up is I was reading Mike Reese on Kyle Williams and Williams' makeup. ESPN.com, former Washington state head coach Jake Dickert said, quote,

Starting point is 00:08:26 as a person, you're not going to get much better, unquote. I can't say enough good things about the human, the person, the work ethic in that regard. That's where we all want to start someone who loves ball and wants to work his butt off, unquote. And I thought about Jaylen Polk. I really liked Jaylen Polk coming out of the draft. I knew he wasn't super duper explosive. I knew he wasn't a speed guy, but he was very dependable on the field.

Starting point is 00:08:52 And everything that you read off the field, Polk's character was through the roof. And then he got to New England. And it was a little bit of a different Jalen Polk. Social media, talking to the media at times. Just a general feel of what is going on with this guy. At times. For most of this rookie season.

Starting point is 00:09:16 And so Polk checked a lot of boxes before he came to New England. He checked a lot of boxes before the draft happened. During the pre-draft process, he checked those boxes. So Kyle Williams were being told he checks a lot of boxes. Did the Patriots process this time around have a better swing at the wide receiver position than the last time around? Is Kyle Williams going to be able to handle distractions? last time around, is Kyle Williams going to be able to handle distractions? Will Vrabel be able to create an atmosphere that is full of guys in that locker room that can handle

Starting point is 00:09:53 distractions with maturity? Does he get team buy-in? Because a lot of times we read about these prospects, we read about these free agents and everybody is speaking glowingly of these guys and then the season starts camp starts And there are some problems So did Mike rable truly establish the right culture as it seems like he's done during this offseason? Or did he swing and miss some pressure there? Speaking of buy-in the Pats are doing something interesting to give them better odds of having that happen. That's coming up next as we continue

Starting point is 00:10:29 with today's episode of Locked On Patriots, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, Your Team Every Day. Say goodbye to sticky notes, scribbled plans on the fridge, and overlapping calendar invites. The Skylight Calendar is here to bring clarity to the chaos and help families stay organized without the stress. This sleek digital display syncs with your existing calendars, Google, Apple, Outlook, and more, making it simple to track appointments, practices, dinners, and reminders all in one

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Starting point is 00:12:05 talked about last segment, that's not enough. One, two, three leaders, not enough for this football team in 2025. The best shot that this coaching staff and Mike Vrabel, the best shot of getting buy-in is making sure you have leaders across the team. You don't have to have 53 leaders, but if you have a bunch of different leaders, if you have, let's look at it this way, if you have a leader for each positional group in each room, do you think you have a leader? Do you think you have a guy that's doing it right? Do you think you have somebody who's on the same page as you and the coaching staff? Do you believe that that person is doing all the right

Starting point is 00:12:50 things for all the right reasons in all the right ways and making sure that they're having communication with other guys in that room to see if they can get to a level of doing the right thing, the right ways, for the right reasons? Do you have a guy in each room? Now, that could be tough to find, but when you look at what Mike Vrabel has built here in this one-off season, and you look at some of the additions that he and Elliot Wolf have made,

Starting point is 00:13:20 you could really find a leader in almost every room, if not every positional group room. Let's start with quarterback. Drake May. Drake May oozes leadership. He understands the mission as the quarterback. Even Joshua Dobbs, who is your backup guy, understands his role. You could see him as a mentor.

Starting point is 00:13:47 Very, very smart guy on the field, off the field. So the quarterback room, it feels like you've got some good leadership in there. Wide receiver, that was a room, that's a positional group as we know, that was desperate for some kind of leadership. And whether or not Stefan Diggs is going to be the same guy he was a couple of years ago, whether or not he comes back right away, week one of the season, he is still going to be a guy,

Starting point is 00:14:14 no matter what he's doing on the field, no matter how quickly he gets back on the field, he's going to be somebody that is going to be a leader for that group. He's gonna set the example. He's going to talk about things that he learned throughout his NFL career, how he became successful. Stephon Diggs is going to be a leader in that wide receiver room, no doubt.

Starting point is 00:14:38 Tight end, Hunter Henry. Come on, he's been a captain. He's been in the league for a long time. Almost always says the right thing in the postgame press conferences, has a great relationship with his quarterback, seems to be a team guy through and through. Offensive line, another spot that

Starting point is 00:14:59 could have been a big struggle, especially without David Andrews. David Andrews got hurt last year, done for the rest of the season. Michael Wenu doesn't really come across as a guy who's going to, you know, pull up the pants and lead the room. Doesn't really feel like that kind of guy. And then you had Vidarian Lowe, uh, you know, the questions at left guard. You were bringing guys in like Ben Brown last second to start at center, right tackle, you had a bunch of dudes,

Starting point is 00:15:26 practice squad guys, young guys, Kaden Wallace, Demontre Jacobs. Now you look at the leadership in that offensive line room and we all know Morgan Moses, the guy who spoke at that introductory press conference making me feel like I was going to run through a wall. Morgan Moses, a leader, through a wall. Morgan Moses, a leader, no doubt. That guy is a leader. Jump to the defensive side if you want. Milton Williams, certainly sounds like somebody who can lead a group of men. Just won a Super Bowl last year in Philly. Understands what it takes to win at the highest level. Hard worker. Seems like he's going to lead that defensive line group. You can talk about pass rushers edge guys Harold Landry been in the league forever. Super successful played at a very high level and somebody who has been around and also somebody who has played underneath Mike Grable and Terrell Williams

Starting point is 00:16:22 and knows exactly how those guys want to lead this football team. Linebacker, Robert Spillane, somebody else who has played under Mike Vrabel understands what Vrabel's looking for, understands what Terrell Williams is looking for, was seen as a guy who led out in Vegas during some very tough

Starting point is 00:16:46 times. So quarterback, wide receiver, tight end, offensive line, defensive line, edge, which you could of course include in the defensive line, but we can split it interior and then outside linebacker, spleen. I mean, you could just look at almost every single positional group on this team and you can pick out the leader like that. That means something. But you know what else means something? Not just being happy with that top level, not just being happy with the veterans that you've brought in who can be leaders that have been proven leaders. that have been proven leaders. But to go along with this idea of Drake May, there are other blossoming leaders on this roster. So in two years, three years,

Starting point is 00:17:31 when some of these guys might age out like Henry and Moses and Landry and Diggs and Spillane, who is going to be there to take the mantle? Who is going to be there to take over and become the new leader of the room? And you start to look at the younger core that is shaping and forming here in New England and you've got Christian Barmore. As long as he comes back from the blood clots, if he's healthy, certainly somebody that can lead a group. Christian Gonzalez. Now he's quiet when he's talking to opponents,

Starting point is 00:18:04 when he talks to opponents, but Christian Gonzalez, you don's quiet when he's talking to opponents when he talks to opponents But Christian Gonzalez, you don't have to be the loudest guy in the room to lead the room Christian Gonzalez is an all-pro cornerback and he could grow into that role Offensive line no questions asked Hands down will Campbell we've talked enough about him. We've read enough about him We know what he's about. Will Campbell for that offensive line. The running back room, Trevion Henderson. The wide receiver room, Kyle Williams. So you're building layers. You're building layers to

Starting point is 00:18:35 this leadership group. Mark Daniels posted after the draft, Joshua Farmer said he sat down and he talked with Milton Williams for 30 minutes during his visit with the Patriots. Building layers. You've got the vets, the guys who have played under Mike Rabel and Terrell Williams, and they truly understand what those two coaches expect. But you also have that younger layer of blossoming leadership. So when the older crew starts to move on, you've got immediate answers. The final thing is that this staff,

Starting point is 00:19:14 with the experience and the depth of the staff, they should be capable of developing the buy-in. They should be capable of getting these guys together in their positional groups and developing that buy-in. They should be capable of getting these guys together in their positional groups and developing that buy-in from day one. You've got the experienced staff, the overqualified staff in many areas, a deep staff like having three offensive line coaches so you should have enough time devoted to each and every guy during camp, develop that buy-in. The attention to detail, the attention being paid to players. Three O-line coaches, as I mentioned, always working with an offensive lineman.

Starting point is 00:19:53 You've got one of those O-line coaches working with the young guys. You've got another offensive line coach working with the older guys. You've got Doug Morrone working with all of them and keeping an eye on the unit collectively. And this should all help the maturation process. So when you think about how VRABLE is building this program, think about the leadership on this team and think about the layers of that leadership. All right, the intriguing dart throw of the 2025 draft. That's coming up next as we continue with today's episode of Locked On Patriots,

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Starting point is 00:21:53 at traits at player traits. Take some swings. If a guy has an elite trait or two, take a swing also at a premium position. Cornerback edge rusher, offensive lineman, especially tackle, quarterback, even if that quarterback's going to be your third guy or fourth guy, take some swings at traits and take some swings at premium positions. And that's why I want to talk about Marcus Bryant.

Starting point is 00:22:20 Patriots drafted him in the seventh round. And I think he is the quintessential dart throw lottery ticket late round in the NFL draft and that's precisely what you should be doing. Bryant played a premium position in college. He was the left tackle at Missouri. The last time I checked Missouri happens to be in a pretty good conference. So being a left tackle at Missouri, that already holds at least some kind of gravitas to it. But here's another thing.

Starting point is 00:22:55 And I was thinking about this since the Patriots drafted Brian. So Missouri, they had Armand Memboo going into the season they knew They had the depth chart in front of them. They knew that Armand Memboo was their right tackle now They had a decision to make they could have tried to transition Memboo from right to left But they didn't they did not decide to do that and it's not as if they had an in-house option, because they actually went and they said, okay, we're going to recruit somebody, we're going to bring somebody in. And that somebody was Marcus Bryant. Marcus Bryant played the first three years of his college career at SMU. And so the Missouri coaches had a choice to make to transition

Starting point is 00:23:46 Memboo from right to left and say, no, we've seen this guy at practice, we've seen him in games. We're very confident that he can play left tackle or we can go at Marcus Bryant and plug him in at left tackle. And they chose Marcus Bryant. That should tell us something. Now it doesn't mean Memboo could not have moved to the left side.

Starting point is 00:24:05 Doesn't mean he would have failed if he moved to the left side, but it certainly tells us that the Missouri coaching staff was not comfortable with the idea of moving Memboo to the left side. So they brought in Bryant. Bryant took over that spot. So you're talking about somebody

Starting point is 00:24:21 who played left tackle at Missouri, somebody who the Missouri coaching staff felt good enough to say, we don't need to move Memboo from right to left. I mentioned traits. Let's talk about Marcus Bryant and his traits because my goodness, he's got plenty of traits. We talked so much about Will Campbell and his measurables, Mason Graham at times and his measurables, Jaylen Walker and whether or not he was a true tweener.

Starting point is 00:24:52 Could he play defensive end in the NFL? Was he going to be an off-ball linebacker? Come draft time, we're always talking about the size and frame and length of players to go along with their athleticism. Let's start with the size of Marcus Bryant. This dude is a mountain. He's 6'7", 320 pounds. He is not a small man, folks. 6'7", 320. And when we talk about length, he's got length. Remember, the magic number for a lot of teams is 34 inches. Other teams say you can survive with 33 inch arms.

Starting point is 00:25:29 And some people say Dante Scarnecchio, we talked about it last week on the pod. He's not as worried about arm length. But if you are concerned by arm length, Brian clearly checks that box. 34 and 5 8 inches, the arm length. 34 and 5 8 inches the arm length 34 and 5 8 so he's got long enough arms 6 7 3 20 34 and 5 8 inch arms

Starting point is 00:25:56 Wingspan wingspan was a big topic for Will Campbell Don't worry about wingspan with Marcus Bryant 83 plus inch wingspan. He's got a wingspan of a condor. The size is there. The traits, the frame, they're there. But not only that, not only is he 6'7", 320 with length, he's also athletic. Let's go back to my relative athletic score.

Starting point is 00:26:24 One of my favorite analytics to use, one of my favorite metrics. Marcus Bryant's RAS was 8.96. Now, if you're wondering for context, and I know some of you are because 8.96 is just a random number thrown up against the wall, Kent Lea Platt, who came up with the RAS metric. He wrote this, Bryant scored an 8.96 RAS out of a possible 10. This ranked 157th out of 1507.

Starting point is 00:27:07 That's great athleticism. That's borderline elite athleticism. So he's got the size, he's got the athleticism. He also has the versatility. Yes, he played left tackle for Missouri, but he has played right tackle in college as well. So he's played both sides of the line, unlike Membu. He has played right, he has played right tackle in college as well. So he's played both sides of the line. Unlike Membu, he has played right, he has played left. And so what we see here is a dart throw. And it was a swing at this player's upside. You look at him and you say he's got some

Starting point is 00:27:39 weaknesses. He doesn't bend great. Not going to get into the minutiae of offensive lineman, but there are obviously questions. You don't fall to the seventh round of the draft unless you have questions. There are clearly questions about Marcus Bryant and whether or not he can survive the NFL. But when you're the Patriots and you've got a seventh round pick and you've got a six foot seven 320 pound long left tackle from Missouri sitting there with athleticism that is borderline elite, why not take the swing? Why not throw that dart? Because if he hits on his upside, you might have a starting right tackle. If he doesn't hit on on the upside the very tippity top of that upside

Starting point is 00:28:27 then you might have a swing tackle and drafting a swing tackle in the seventh round and Having that guy as part of your team for the next five six seven eight years That's a really good pick in the seventh round So I loved I loved the pick of Marcus Bryant, not because I think he's going to be a player. I don't know. He might be done. He might not even make the team. He might be a practice squad guy. He might be out of the NFL by Halloween. I have no idea. But I loved the idea of Marcus Bryant because of the traits, because of the premium

Starting point is 00:29:02 position, even because of the versatility. Why not throw that dart? That wraps up this edition of Lockdown Patriots on tomorrow's show. We'll talk some veterans on the hot seat. Let me know your thoughts on today's topics. Reach out to me on Twitter at Nick C Radio. Don't forget to throw a comment in on the YouTube channel. Thank you for making Lockdown Patriots your first listen today.

Starting point is 00:29:24 For your second listen, check out Lockdown NFL Scouting. The NFL draft, of course, it's over, but the roster moves, the news, they keep on coming. Hosts Kyle Krabs and Joe Marino will make you the most informed NFL fan this off season. Find Lockdown NFL Scouting on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Starting point is 00:29:42 Have a great day and we will see you tomorrow.

Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Mike Vrabel Facing PRESSURE | New England Patriots’ Intriguing Dart Throw

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