Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - New England Patriots: DeVante Parker, Ja’Whaun Bentley Extensions, Bill O’Brien and More on Mailbag Tuesday

Episode Date: July 12, 2023

While the New England Patriots have secured both DeVante Parker and Ja’Whaun Bentley via contract extension, what might it mean for the remaining members of their respective positional groups? Joining host Mike D’Abate is Thomas ‘Murph’ Murphy as the duo discuss the Parker/Bentley extensions and how they affect the Pats roster projections. They also discuss the prowess of Bill O’Brien as the offensive play caller, as well as the history of quarterback succession planning under Bill Belichick on #MailbagTuesday.Find and follow Locked On Patriots on your favorite podcast platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-patriots-daily-podcast-on-the-new-england/id1140512627Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1c5ZxFmwg3WbfxAU3tR5Ve?si=k196wH-yRqifUcQQz8SjIQStitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-patriotsAnd follow host Mike D’Abate on Twitter, where he’ll be sharing the latest news about the New England Patriots and talking with fans.Twitter: @mdabateNFLSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!birddogsGo to birddogs.com/LOCKEDONNFL or enter promo code LOCKEDONNFL for a free Yeti style tumbler with your order. You won’t want to take your birddogs off we promise you.eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit. eBay Motors dot com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG(CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat(CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The New England Patriots have extended two of their key players, but what does it mean for the product on the field in 2023? This and so much more on Mailbag Tuesday. Stick around. You're about to be locked in to the Locked On Patriots podcast. 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,

and thank you once again for making Lockdown Patriots a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage. We are a proud part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day, so subscribe or follow for free on YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts to get the latest episode as soon as it's available. And today's episode is brought to you by our good friends at LinkedIn Jobs.

LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to and help you do it faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com slash LockedOnNFL. That's LinkedIn.com slash LockedOnNFL to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. And Patriots fans, I am your host, Mike DeBate. Cover your New England Patriots for Patriots Country of Sports Illustrated. Reach out to me. Let me know what's on your mind on Twitter at MDABATENFL.

And while you're out there showing some love to the Twitterverse, please be sure to follow the LockedOnPatriots account as well at LO underscore Patriots. It is hashtag Mailbag Tuesday. Some personal time yesterday on the pod, but we are back and Mailbag is wide open. And who else would I welcome to open up the Mailbag? And the man, the Mailbag was created for our good friend, the Count of Murphy, Fisto himself, Thomas Murphy of E2GSports.com. Thank you for coming to me in

friendship on this mailbag tuesday on murph my pleasure bud my pleasure it's telegraph it's telegraph tuesday everybody meet me butt munch hello um you're looking very done corleone-ish murph with the with the cat, you know. I like it. It's a good look. It really, really is. It's a good look. Okay. Yeah.

Sit here. Someday I'll call upon you to do a service for me, Murph. You never wanted my friendship. It's okay. Oh, man. Sorry about that, folks. You know, you see, little butt muncher is just climbing up my leg here, and I was trying not to scream, so I had about that, folks. You know, you see, little Butt Munch was just climbing up my leg here and I was trying not to scream,

so I had to pick him up, put him down over here. I like it. We got a new Lockdown mascot. We got a new Lockdown mascot, Butt Munch. Yeah, it's Telegraph Tuesday. We couldn't do a show on Mailbag Monday, so everybody went down to the Telegraph office

and sent in some great questions. You know, we want to thank you all for doing that. Michael, always my pleasure to be here. Always an honor. And let's get into it. Yeah, let's get right into it. And as always, some great questions submitted by all of you locked on every day is out there. Murph and I continue to be humbled, grateful for all of you. It was rough this week it really really was some good questions we're sorry if you didn't get on resend them in next week because there's a good chance that that we'll get those in there it was a rough choice this week but we got three good ones yeah Newman would not have been happy this week Murph we spilled over into an additional truck

with the mail that locked on Patriots received and that little hiatus in between you guys continued to flood the Patriots mailbag and unending gratitude uh for all that you do here on locked on Patriots for us but Murph we are going to kick this into gear and where do we begin but with a very familiar good friend here on locked on Patriots it's home run Derby may be over but Miguel continues to swing through the fences here as you can tell our first question brought to you by our good friend, the Pats cap. And here he is. Did the recent Parker Bentley extensions change your 53-man roster predictions? And if so, how?

Murph, this is a good question. I recently did 53-man roster projection for SI. I'm going to get into that in just a moment, but I want to get your take on this first. Obviously, these two players factor into the Patriots' plans for at least this season and beyond. Some were happy about these extensions, some not as happy. What is your take on this? Does this change how you project this team's roster moving forward into the season? No, it really doesn't. If you look at the deals, there's not a lot of guaranteed money, especially for Parker.

Bentley, I love Bentley. I love this position. I wish when we were asked a few weeks ago who would get extended, and we were talking about most of these guys are going to wait. Their agents are going to force them to wait through free agency. I wish I had mentioned Bentley in that. And I'm glad he's here. He's a prototypical linebacker here.

He's a Bill Belichick kind of guy. He's a fantastic leader in the locker room. And I'm glad this deal was done. But with the Parker deal, you can really get out of it um you know without much uh damage done towards the cap at any particular time there's a lot of incentives built into it and quite frankly it gives a little stability you know uh injury concerns uh you know push to the side there a little bit um gives a little bit of stability to that uh to that wide receiver room because there was really nobody locked up other than Juju Smith-Schuster

as a veteran up until that point. Without question. I'm so glad that you mentioned that because a veteran presence on this staff is something that I think the New England Patriots are going to need, whether it be the prospect of adding DeAndre Hopkins, which is still out there. I know there were some issues with his clam chowder recently, and that's not sitting well with some of the fan base folks, but there is still a chance that DeAndre comes in here.

I don't need it. You don't have to. Oh, come on, Murph. You don't like a little chowder every now and then? No, I don't do seafood. That's a rarity here in New England. It is. But they are it does it does

everyone to his own imagine imagine folks growing up in gloucester and and getting fresh seafood from the dock whenever you wanted it and you just said no i have a ham sandwich i have a burger i was the weirdo go ahead got a shipment coming in from Gloucester. Folks, the mob movie quotes are coming out today. On Mailbag Tuesday, that has a tendency to happen. Absolutely. We take mob movie questions on Mailbag Days as well, folks. So don't be afraid to submit those.

We'll answer those right on the air here on Locked on Patriots. But bottom line, whether DeAndre is at it or not uh New England I don't think is likely to carry more than five receivers at this position they simply have too many needs at so many different positions and I think it's going to be tough for them to roster six now is it possible absolutely the sixth guy is playing uh cornerback yeah that is where I would take away from this wide receivers group and i would put a little bit more uh into the cornerbacks group especially with the uncertainty surrounding jack jones right now the five wide receivers that i recently rostered for sports illustrated juju smith shooter davante parker kendrick bourne taekwon thornton and here's the one that's going

to spark some reaction i'm sure Keishon Butte I have Keishon making this roster and a lot of people don't um I understand the arguments against it so I'm not saying this argument is infallible folks but from what I'm hearing on his injury history and other than the broken ankle his injury history is actually pretty clean he dealt with a hamstring injury in high school minor left ankle injury just prior to the ankle fracture that kept out for so long. Speaking with medical professionals, Dr. Kyle Trimble is a regular guest here on Locked On Patriots. We've had several conversations with him about Kayshaun's injury and how this might shake up. Really, the fact that he played all of 2022 on this, not missing any further time,

should tell you that he's healthy enough to be able to go out there and to do what he needs to do. So I think a Oxborough flu stash might be an unlikely scenario for Keishon Butte based on that. Right. Again, folks, anything is possible, but I just don't see it. If you're looking at a situation where it's psychological or it's motivational, I think he's ready to prove the doubters wrong. He's so tough to bring down after the catch. He's got the size and he's got that inherent speed to be elusive when changing direction. And this is something that I think will endear him to the Patriots brass. The question is, is he dialed in?

He's saying all the right things. Mario Douglas has outplayed him right now in OTAs and minicamp, but we've seen flashes of rookies before come in, have great preseasons or in this case, off-season workout programs. And then as the bloom starts to come off the rose a little bit, you start to see these guys come back down to earth if the patriots are going to roster a rookie here i think it's going to be you can look you can look great when you're five foot eight and there's nobody covering you okay you can look really really good yeah but um he he's got sm all disease small he's small and um you know that's nothing to laugh at here in new england because we all

know what what what shorter guys uh height uh um height guys who just don't measure up height wise to to what you would think is a prototypical guy but but i really i don't i agree with you michael if if if somebody is going to make it off the off rookie team, it's going to be Boutte. Yeah, and this is all assuming that DeAndre Hopkins is not on this roster, folks. If he signs on the dotted line, I don't think Keyshawn's making it. So he's not going to earn that roster spot over any one of those four guys that had of him, whether it's Juju, Devontae, Kendrick, or Taekwon. Kendrick's not going anywhere.

Yeah, exactly. Kendrick is remaining here. So is Devontae, Kendrick, or Taekwon. Those guys are stable. Kendrick's not going anywhere. Yeah, exactly. Kendrick is remaining here. So is Devontae. I know you said, and I agree with you, that this is an easily movable contract if the Patriots want to get out of it. But the way it's structured this season, Devontae's not going anywhere. He's here for the long haul, and he should be. But with regard to Douglas as well, and I did want to bring this up, I don't think his

size is going to deter him from being a part of this roster in the future i love the way this right place it's just doesn't it doesn't fit now exactly it's just it's about bodies and it's about structure right now if these two guys play each other competitively as rookies i got to give the nod to kate on bootay here because of his ability his size and what he brings to the table in terms of potentially being a top flight receiver when he's locked in. The question is, can the Patriots keep him locked in? He's got Bill Belichick and Bill O'Brien to do that. If you're not locked in playing for those two guys, yeah, then maybe the Patriots cut bait here. But I have a lot of faith, and I think he'll be okay.

Neither one of us mentioned Bentley too much. His extension really didn't change my projections all that much. I had him as a major member of this linebackers core. I still do. Did this change your perspective at all? No, not really. He fits right in. I mean, can we finally say goodbye to Ronnie Perkins? You know, if that's changing my projection at all. It's just, you know, Mack Wilson Sr., Therese Hall, Marty Mapu is not going anywhere. We know that that's happening no matter where you're seeing him on the depth chart. No, it doesn't really change what I'm thinking as to my roster projection, which I haven't made yet, people. I've been slacking a little bit.

Yeah, I'm so into writing, you know, about the five game over 500 Red Sox that I haven't jumped into. This is my outlet. This and One Patriot's Place is my outlet right now. It's the time that I have because I write slow. No, that's okay. We love it. You know what? It doesn't matter.

Slow and steady wins the race a lot of times, Murph, and you're always spot on. And that's what we love about this here. And we love getting the mailbag questions to share with you here on Locked on Patriots. So, Pats Cap, what can I say? No plaque for the alternates. One doesn't exist.

You have no equal, my friend. No salary cap. Top gun is always on his mark. Miguel, we appreciate you. And thank you for submitting a great question to kick us off here on Lockdown Patriots Mailbag Tuesday. But Murph, we are far from being done yet. We got a couple of great questions to bring us into full circle here on Mailbag Tuesday. Next one dealing with Bill O'Brien's ability as a play caller.

Is he better than Josh? And are the Patriots better off long term? Lots to talk about, folks. We'll be right back here when this episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast continues. Locked On listeners, some will tell you that the key to a happy life is love, and others will tell you that the key to a happy life is love and others will tell you it's financial security. I leave it to you to determine the key to your own happiness, but what is the key to my happiness, you might ask? Comfortable pants or shorts as the summer

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You won't want to take your bird dogs off. We promise you that. Go today. BirdDogs.com slash LockedOnNFL That's fans. Thank you once again for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us here on LockedOnPatriots and making us

a part of your everyday Patriots coverage. Remember, we are your team every day. So keep those questions, comments, anything on your mind coming to us on Twitter, because even though we feature you on Mailbag Monday or Tuesday in this case, your questions, comments and concerns are welcome each and every day here on Locked On. You are the ones that keep us going, especially all of you everydayers out there. Much love, much much gratitude much appreciation and speaking of love gratitude and appreciation my good buddy here on the other side of the screen has joined me today here on mailbag tuesday thomas murphy of e2g sports already knocking it out of the park with a lot of great wisdom and

counsel when it comes to davante parker and juwan Bentley. But our next question comes from a longtime listener of ours, Matt Urban. And Matt had a question about Patriots play calling. Now, the Pats didn't quite swap Josh McDaniels for Bill O'Brien. There was that Matt Patricia, Joe Judge hiccup in between. But a lot of people are looking to Josh McDaniels as the litmus test for Bill O'Brien coming in and being the play caller here in New England. I think a lot of people are going to be comparing him to Josh much more so than Matt or much more so than Joe, because let's face it, I don't think the Patriots play calling situation really had anywhere to go but up so in that vein we're going to take a look at matt's question and he comes in saying i think mcdaniels was overrated okay everyone's entitled to their opinion a lot of people i'm sure agree with matt here great play caller but not a great

or even good offensive coordinator right tv meaning of course Tom Brady. Folks made up for a lot of holes in his coaching. Not good teaching new players or adapting scheme to fit players. I think Bill O'Brien is much better. Do you? Murph, I'm going to kick it to you first. Do you believe that Bill O'Brien is a better offensive coordinator, a better fit in New England than Josh Daniels? I think he's a better coach. He's a better coach. He's a better teacher. He is a teacher. I agree. Josh McDaniels is not a teacher. He's a guy that you can describe as a professor. Okay. And I don't know about you guys. They didn't learn a lot from professors except what they wrote on a board. And that's what Josh McDaniels did while he was here.

He stood in a meeting room. He wrote stuff on boards. I don't think he's the guy that went out there and got hands-on in the way that O'Brien did or in the way that Charlie Weiss did or even Ernie Zampezi. You know, even going back to Ray Perkins. These guys were coaches. They were on the field guys. You didn't see them. You didn't see Josh under center saying this is what you need to do and that's what you need to do. Josh was able to lean on the greatest football player of all time. Josh would send out a package and allow Tom, not allow Tom,

but watch Tom work his magic over the years. And no, this is a huge upgrade. I agree. I agree with everything that was said in this question, that Josh is just not that hands-on guy that is going to walk somebody through something while they're on the field. This is where you need to cut. This is how I need you to cut. O'Brien is, and if you don't do it the right way, O'Brien is going to let you know it in no uncertain terms. Yeah. Very, very well said. I happen to agree as well. And I'm as big a Josh McDaniels fan as you'll find. In this environment here in New England, I think he was great for what he needed to do and the synergy he developed with Tom Brady is unlike a lot of offensive coordinator and quarterback relationships that you'll see. There are a few that could rival it, but I don't think there's anybody that's going to surpass that in terms of what these guys could accomplish together. But in terms of teaching,

in terms of actual play calling, Bill O'Brien, I think is a much better fit for this offense. Look, Bill O'Brien was always lauded as a pretty good play caller throughout his entire career, whether it be here in New England or whether he went to Houston. Penn State, what he did in Penn State. He's the boss. He knows what wants to be done, and he gets results. And, you know, this was going to happen this year regardless of what went on last year. If the Patriots went 12-5 last year and got out of the wild card round this move was still being made this is the move that bill wanted to make last year but he didn't out

of respect yeah very good point i see that narrative an awful lot that oh bill was forced into this move by robert craft folks that's not the case that's not true bill belichick has an extreme amount of reverence for bill o'brien i think this is again like murph said a movie wanted to make last season wasn't able to do it and then essentially tried to make do with what he had now you can criticize bill for that maybe saying that you know the succession plan or whatever and we're going to get into succession plans in just a little bit folks so keep that under your hat he wasn't ripping the rug out of his buddy uh nick saban's uh living room okay exactly exactly you know he wasn't said veto come on in come on in we got a rug i got a rug for

you they're not doing it exactly yep and then he took him out for espresso afterwards you know it falls right in the line um you know with uh. Obviously, folks, Godfather Part II. Again, mob movies keep coming back as the central figure here. Absolutely. But one of the things that I think Bill O'Brien started to, or you started to hear a little bit about Bill O'Brien's play calling was his time in Alabama. The last couple of years, you're hearing from fans media covering the team a little bit

of national media I think feeding off of what was coming out of Alabama at the time but you look at Alabama's offenses under coach Kifflin under coach Scorsese and offenses that were predicated on a lot of creativity right very similar to what Josh ran up here in New England, not similar in terms of stature, but similar in terms of some misdirection, some, you know, aesthetically pleasing things that led you to believe that you're looking at a very, very good play caller. Sometimes slow and steady can work against you. Things that make you want to play fantasy football. Yeah, exactly. But in this case, I think it worked against Bill O'Brien. You look at the Alabama Crimson Tide offenses that he coordinated,

averaging 40 points per game in two seasons under Bill O'Brien. This is not a team that couldn't find the end zone, folks. So anyone telling you that Bill O'Brien couldn't coordinate down there or wasn't a fit in Alabama, I don't think was watching or giving him his just due for what he did. They wrote it off as the talent that was there for him to use you know and that was just wrong yeah you couldn't you couldn't plug anybody in there and just do it you you couldn't you'd have success you wouldn't be 40 points a

game exactly that type of success shows that there is a lot of prowess in the play calling that's being done so anyone thinking that bill o'brien is going to come in and be dull when it comes to play calling here in new england far from it we're already seeing some interesting and eye-opening things on the field and as the old saying goes folks you ain't seen nothing yet can't wait to see what this team looks like in training camp even more so in pre-season and then into the regular season going to be a lot of fun to watch bill o'brien work with his weapons here. But it does lead me into my question for you on this, Murph, and that with Bill O'Brien coming in and taking the reins of this offense,

what's going to be different from what we've seen, obviously what we saw last year under Matt Patricia and Joe Judge, but even different from what we saw with Josh McDaniels? How does this change the complexity of the Patriots offense? You know, that's a really difficult question to answer because I want to run home to mama here and say, you know, you know, we're best Earhart, you know, show that, that had been run here. And what, what you're going to see is an expansion. Okay. We're going to, we're going to move away from, from the, the, you know, the flavor of the month thing and go back into the encyclopedia, Biltanica, and start pulling out different volumes that we haven't seen in a while. And yeah, Bill is going to, you know, you're going to see more bunch formations.

You're going to see more split out tight ends in different situations than we have in the past because O'Brien simply has the tools to do that. Yeah, without question. And I'm so glad that you said that because I think one of the biggest things, folks, that you're going to notice right off the bat with a Bill O'Brien offense is they're going to get away from attacking the deep part of the field out of shotgun. That's not something that Bill O'Brien is predicated on doing. They're going to try to win their battles in the middle of the field.

Yep. For years, Patriots offense dominated between the numbers under Patricia. They tried to unlock under center elements under. Yep. Yeah. And it didn't work. It really just did not. The results were inconsistent at best.

So that's where you're going to see that. It's a timing-based system under Bill O'Brien. You're going to play the matchups, attacking the space where you know you can win based on what the defense is showing you. That's where Bill O'Brien shines. That's where Mac Jones shines. He did a very good job. Last year was a forced narrative, okay? Absolutely.

To the point where Mac Jones couldn't even make audibles at the line of scrimmage. OK, there was so much shotgun stuff. You know, it took so many pages away to about not too long ago, is Bill O'Brien's need for increased tempo. You're going to see an increased tempo this year. You're going to see the Patriots get to the line of scrimmage, call plays a little bit more consistently. One of the small nuances of doing that is simplifying the play call. So you're going to see a lot of one-word, two-word play calls. You're not going to see a whole lot of phrases coming from the backfield, coming from under center when Mac Jones is taking snaps. You're going to hear hos-juke, terms that are going to be thrown around.

And, folks, I know you hear hos-juke an awful lot. Our good friends, mutual good friends, Steve Balistrieri and Mark Schofield, love to talk some hos-juke. That's essentially the hit scene on the outside. There's so much to do there it is you know it gives the quarterback it gives the quarterback an answer out of any coverage so out of any coverage that what this really does more than anything is it allows the tempo package that confuses defenses it creates mismatches for the best players because you're not sure what the opposition is doing go back and you saw me cutting that key every week last year

every single week can we please get back into tempo can we please run some no huddle can we you know it every single week and now mac is going to be able to do that he's going to go into the huddle and he's going to come out with the next three plays and actually those next three plays are the next 12 plays because he can do four different things out of each each set yeah without question that's exactly what's going to happen for the New England Patriots there so Matt excellent question uh gave us an opportunity to really get into the playbook a little bit of the New England Patriots and try to speculate as to what you're going to see on the field.

But how did we get to this quarterback position that the Patriots are playing right now with Bill O'Brien here in the house? What succession planning led to that? And has it been subpar under Bill Belichick since Jimmy Garoppolo walked out the door? Yeah, we're going into the Wayback Machine for the next question and about to have a lot of fun talking quarterback succession when this episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast wraps up. Locked On listeners, these days every potential hire can feel like a high-stakes wager for

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quality hires versus the leading competitors. So don't delay. Do it today. LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, and they help you do it faster. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash locked on NFL. That's linkedin.com slash locked on NFL to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Patriots fans, thank you once again for joining us here today on the pod. This week, all throughout the rest of the week, going to be starting training camp previews. Folks, it's hard to believe that the Pats will be hitting the field

for the first time in training camp on Wednesday, July 26th. It's going to be a lot of fun, so keep it locked in to Locked On Patriots because we are your team every day from now until the last snap is taken in February. Murph, a lot of football here to come and a lot to come here on Locked On Patriots, so stay locked in.

But today, we are locked into the mail bag with your favorite in mind, that kind of Murphy Fisto, the legendary Thomas Murphy of E2GSports.com showing you today why he is the legend he is. All things talking about Devontae Parker, Juwan Bentley, quarterbacks, all great stuff. Bill O'Brien, Murph, definitely enjoying this one. But our next question really, really made us, I think, appreciate the Lockdown Patriots mailbag, but it also made us hop in that Bel appreciate the Lockdown Patriots mailbag,

but it also made us hop in that Belichickian time machine that we love to hop in so much and really take an examination of the Patriots' progression in the quarterback position. I'm not going to waste any more time. Let's bring it right up. First-time submitter here, Nick Stano, found on Twitter at Nick Stano2, says, can you folks explain where the narrative came from that Bill Belichick and the Patriots had no quote unquote plan for their next quarterback after Brady left? I looked at Cam as the interim and then draft one. Sorry to bring all this old up and I still hear it from time to time.

Well, no need to apologize. We all hear it from time to time. Well, no need to apologize. We all hear it from time to time. And this was a great question. It's a little bit way back, but I thought it was a great one to bring up, especially at this time of year, Murph, when we're talking about the past, where we've been and where we're going.

Right. Obviously, the Patriots' succession plan under Brady was not ideal, but some will make the argument that Bill Belichick played this perfectly. A veteran quarterback that can come in, handle the hype, handle the press, give them an opportunity to reset, and then go after the guy you really want in the draft. Is that what we're looking at here, or were the Patriots essentially caught

like a deer in the headlights here when Tom Brady decided to take his talents at Tampa Bay. They were because, quite frankly, Bill never thought that Tom would do it. Bill never thought that Tom was going to leave. OK, bottom line. And so, yeah, they did get caught with their pants down just a tad bit. But the way he handled it and the way this question was posed, I thought was brilliant. Okay. It's, it's, uh, they, they, they brought in a veteran that, that could do all the things that, that Mike talked about and then went out and got the next guy. Um, now if the former

had worked out a little bit better, the latter probably wouldn't have happened because you wouldn't have been in position to draft him. It was, you know, the day that Mac Jones was picked was, you know, one of the happiest days of my life. I was thrilled that he fell to the Patriots. I thought he was the best quarterback in that draft, the most pro-ready quarterback that could be had. And I'm glad for it. But like I say, if Cam had done his job, then they wouldn't have been able to draft Mac. But if Cam had done his job in the way that Bill thought he could come in here, we might not have been looking for that. I mean, they still would have drafted a quarterback.

It just wouldn't have been Mac Jones. What had happened before then goes back to what I was talking about with the fact that nobody really thought that Tom was going to leave. I didn't think Tom was going to leave. Bill didn't think Tom was going to leave. I thought they were going to work something out. And at the end, Kraft was going to come in and say, nope, give him what he wants.

That didn't happen. And I'm sorry that there wasn't that Jimmy G behind him. But Jimmy had gotten paid. And you could probably say that maybe Bill didn't get enough for Jimmy. He could have gotten more on the open market. But Bill loved Jimmy and he did Jimmy a solid in letting him, uh, you know, sending him to a place where he, uh, he could, could exceed and excel. And with the exception of the injury bug that just keeps plaguing this poor kid,

he has, he really has. He absolutely has. I mean, I think people don't give Jimmy enough credit for being a quarterback that had that team within an eyelash of beating Patrick Mahomes and the mighty Kansas City Chiefs. Jimmy Garoppolo doesn't sail that pass into the end zone, folks. You might be talking about a whole different legacy for Jimmy Garoppolo. And look, I think most people forget that at the time when Jimmy was coming up for contract and the Patriots were thinking about how to handle this situation it wasn't financially possible to keep him under the franchise stack back in 2018 no he wasn't going to accept a lucrative offer to sit behind Tom Brady here for another number of

years he wanted to see the field he knew he could do it and you have to respect that um and you have to respect Bill for hanging up the phone on the first call when they said, would you trade Tom Brady to us? Exactly. And you're not trading Tom Brady, especially at that point. Bill Belichick knew it. He never really wanted to move on from Tom. Tom, I think, in a lot of situations, looked at this as an opportunity to further his legacy.

You can get into a whole show on what Tom Brady's motivations were for leaving the Patriots, and we probably will do so as it comes closer in opening week, because it's going to be a lot of Tom Brady talk here on Locked On Patriots leading up to the Philadelphia Eagles game. Don't worry, folks. We're going to give the game a lot of its credit, but we're going to talk a little great as well

because that is a part of how the patriots are going to open the season but in this regard jimmy was not going to hang around here and the patriots were not going to force him to hang around here i think you can look at this and we hear all the time that all belichick was backing up the brink struck to keep him in here um despite of what you'll read elsewhere there was no official offer that was ever made to jimmy to make him the backup to tom brady and make it lucrative so the patriots simply ran out of time there and they gave jimmy the best position for him to get into and i think they also took the best offer on the table in that regard if you want to make that argument that that was

their succession plan and it fell apart and the Patriots never really rebounded from it. You can. I think that in some ways, some people will blame the Patriots for that. But Cam Newton coming in here, I think, was a reaction to Tom leaving. I don't think that was part of the plan. Cam was available. He showed an interest in coming in, playing for Bill Belichick and being able to handle the load of succeeding Tom Brady. And say what you will about Cam's year here in New England. I had a chance to cover him up close and personal. I got a chance to get to know Cam a little bit better than I had ever known him. Yeah, it really did.

He got COVID, and it got really, really rough. Yeah, it did. And that affected him. But the one thing I will give cam the credit for and i i do give him all the credit in the world for this cam never shied away from the struggles that he had on the field he never pointed the finger he never blamed anybody but himself um and he always expressed the desire to improve and anyone that watched him in limited sample size practices that we had after training camp you only get a little

snippet of the beginning you can't really see what the patriots are doing out there in practice but cam was always the most engaged guy on the field and i can say that with confidence and that's something that i believe really and the clips the clips you people saw on on tv were were not indicative of of how committed and how engaged he was because you just saw him dancing out there on the field and being cam newton and uh did as mike said that that wasn't the case when the cameras were were not fair no and even when you saw him dancing on the field it engaged his teammates His teammates were right there alongside him. I mean, you can make the argument that, oh, the camera focused on Cam dancing, but you want to see the other guys around him.

They were caught up in it as well. So this was his way of being able to try to lead this team after the greatest quarterback to ever put on shoulder pads decided he was not going to play for your franchise anymore. What happened with Cam was he took on the burden of Tom Brady not being there anymore. And only a quarterback of his stature could handle that. Did it work on the field? No, it didn't work on the field according to what the Patriots wanted. They needed to make a move and they needed to move on. And they did that by drafting Mac Jones. So I don't necessarily put as much negativity on not having a quote-unquote plan for succession.

I think the Patriots did the best they could with what they had. And in this situation, I think it did work out to their advantage because I think people this year are going to see what everyone in that Patriots draft room saw in Mac Jones a couple of years ago and the ability that he's going to show on the field this year. I'm telling you right now, Marcus Mariota wasn't coming in here that year and handling the things the way that Cam Newton did. Joe Flacco was not coming in here. Andy Dalton was not coming in here. Case Keenum was not going to come in here and handle walking through the door after the greatest football player of all time had walked out of it and handled the job in the way that Cam Newton did.

Right. Absolutely. I did a 180 on my thoughts of Cam Newton as I got to see him. And I don't want to say know him because I don't know him, but I respect him a great deal. Yeah, without question. And I think that did fester a lot of respect among the not only writers that covered him each and every day, but the fan base. And I think that you have to respect what he did here, whether you like what happened on the field with the New England Patriots. That's all fair game for criticism, folks. I would never chastise anyone for criticizing a fan or whatever that didn't

like what they saw on the field during that period. You can criticize that, but in terms of heart and attitude, he really, I think, brought it in a way that not even Jarrett Stidham could have, and he was Tom Brady's backup, and a lot of people thought that maybe Stidham should have gotten the shake over Cam. I don't think that would have played out well either. I don't think Stidham was ready at that point, and I still don't think that that would have been uh the most prudent course of action it did lead to the drafting of mac jones and only time to tell folks this season starts the true referendum on mac jones and how he's going to

be remembered here in new england he has a good season patriots will do what they need to do to keep him in a uniform i'm confident of that if't, he'll be back to the drawing board in Foxborough sooner than we think. So that jury is still out in terms of how this decision was handed. The Crafts love him. They really do. They really do. The Crafts are sorry about what happened last year.

Nobody expected that to happen. Well, a lot of people saw it coming. I know a guy. i know a guy but but but gee i know again there's a you know it just to bring it back full circle um last year was was the backup plan right last year was plan b because bill wasn't going to bring anybody in here for a single season and you know he looked to his right and he looked to his left he said okay you guys get a

step up and figure this out yeah without questions yeah and they didn't and you know as much of that for whatever slice of the blame pie you want to serve to bill belichick on that that's your call folks i would say virtue lies in the middle i would put less on the players than i would on the coaches because in that regard if you're not keeping the team together, that's a coaching thing and it has to start at the top. Bill Belichick also knows that this is an opportunity to kind of clear some of the dust off his uniform that he got last year. Look at the national narrative surrounding Bill right now.

And he took all the blame. He said beforehand, if this doesn't work out, it's all on me. And at the end of the season, he said, you know, yep, it's all on me. And the local media just keeps asking for another apology. And it's another apology and another apology. I'm not going to say sorry forever. I took the blame and move on. Okay.

That's it. You don't run after your kid and keep blaming him for taking an extra cookie, you know, three weeks later. No, you took an extra cookie three weeks later, and, you know, no. Yeah, Bill Belichick does his apology on the field, folks. That's where he does his apologizing. Yeah, that's where you're going to see the difference this year, and I think it comes back all full circle locking up key veterans having a competent play caller and now knowing what the succession plan is going moving forward and having guys like bailey zappy in the house that's why zappy is here folks you saw that last year mac jones goes down with an injury zappy

comes in and this offense does not miss too much of a beat people will give you the argument that the offense looked even better under bailey last. It was different. It was different. It was a more simplified version that Bailey run very well. The offense that Mac was running was much more complicated and I think much more disjuncted because it was a complicated offense running by a non-complicated coach. And that is a recipe for disaster. And it's what you saw last year. That's it. You know, it was like putting a center in at nose tackle and asking him to freaking go and succeed or vice versa.

And it doesn't happen. You know, it just doesn't. A lot of people got on me for saying it at the beginning, saying, you know, coaching is coaching. And these are people in the industry that I know, love, and respect. But I was right. You just can't do it. It's not the same animal.

No, it isn't. It's not the same animal at all. So what we hope to see this year out on the field is a much better product. And with guys like Devontae Parker in the wide receiver's room, Juwan Bentley continuing to be in that linebacker's room, Bill O'Brien calling plays, and Bill Belichick and Matt Jones hopefully being on the same page this year, you're going to see a lot better output for the New England Patriots

than you saw in 2022. But folks, the beauty part of it is whether we see that or not, your questions continue to take precedence here to open up the week in style on Locked On Patriots. And once again, don't forget to stay locked in because all week long, we're going to be breaking down training camp battles, talking about the latest news of the day. Locked On Patriots taking no more days off. We are here for you, your team every day.

And of course, each and every week, you can always count maybe a little more than just each and every week, you can always count, maybe a little more than just each and every week, but at least each and every week, you can count on the golden melodious tones of this great man sharing the screen with me right now, the legendary Thomas Murphy of E2GSports.com. You are the true Don of Locked On Patriots, my friend. Before I let you go, please let everyone know where they can interact with you, where they can find you,

and what we can expect in terms of coverage this week. The great pen, the great voice of Thomas Murphy. All right. You can find me over at E2GSports.com. Red Sox stuff almost every day. You can follow me on the Bird app at TeamRoof207. And, yes, I promise you, folks, by Friday, I will have my full roster projection out. We're going to hold you to that, Murph.

No, I'm kidding. Yeah, okay. All of the great content that you find from Murph is always available on E2G sports. Check that out. You always check them out on one Patriots place. And he's always a fixture here on locked on Patriots. I, for one could not be more honored and grateful for that.

So Murph under those circumstances, we look forward to having you back here extremely soon, folks. You know, it's going to be sooner rather than later. But in the meantime, please continue to stay safe and stay well. And be the change that you all wish to see in the world. On behalf of my good friend, the Count of Murphy Fisto himself, the Dancing Destroyer, the Green King of Sting,

my good friend Thomas Murphy of E2GSports.com. I'm Mike DeBate. Have a great day, everyone. We'll see you tomorrow here on Locked on Patriots. Free Jack Jones.