Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - New England Patriots Prep For Week 2, Bourne Ultimatum? 12-Man Personnel

Episode Date: September 15, 2022

As the New England Patriots look to move on from their 20-7 loss to the Miami Dolphins in Week 1, there are still some lingering questions on offense, as well as defense. Joining host Mike D’Abate is Clare ‘ClazzyClare’ Cooper of Pats Propaganda. The dynamic duo discuss the Pats bright spots from Sunday, the latest on wide receiver Kendrick Bourne and the renewed usage of 12-Man personnel with tight ends Hunter Henry and Jonnu Smith.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/id1140512627 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1c5ZxFmwg3WbfxAU3tR5Ve?si=k196wH-yRqifUcQQz8SjIQStitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-patriots And follow host Mike D’Abate on Twitter, where he’ll be sharing the latest news about the New England Patriots and talking with fans.On Twitter: @mdabateNFLSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFLBuilt BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!BriteCoThe guys at BriteCo Jewelry Insurance made buying insurance for your engagement ring, your watch, or whatever so easy you can get covered in 2 minutes on your cell phone. You won't find a better deal on coverage that's so affordable. Go to https://brite.co/lockedonPrizePicksFirst time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That’s PrizePicks.com – promo code; LOCKEDONTuroDitch boring rental cars and find your drive at Turo.com Athletic GreensTo make it easy, Athletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/NFLNETWORK. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Still stinging from the Dolphins' loss, the New England Patriots hit the practice field again today on Wednesday to make their preparations for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Will Kendrick Bourne be among those getting reputable snaps? And how about the usage of tight endage? All that today and more. Stay tuned, folks. 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 Locked On Patriots daily part of your New England Patriots coverage and also your first listen every day. Remember, Locked On Patriots is free and available on all platforms, including YouTube, so smash that subscribe button, download, subscribe to, and follow Locked On Patriots wherever you get your podcasts. And of course, folks, today's episode is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to podcasts and of course folks today's episode is brought to you by linkedin jobs linkedin jobs

helps you find the candidates you want to talk to and they help you do it faster post your job for free at linkedin.com slash block on nfl folks after again unfortunately technological issues continue to plague the show but we are back and better than ever here on wednesday morning to bring you the very latest from foxborough and of course break down the new england's 20 to 7 loss against the miami dolphins in week one in order to do so and a ton of other subjects we've got on our plate today is the esteemed countess of class herself joining us all the way over from west midlands in the uk phenomenal columnist from patspropaganda.com as well as being the host of the second best podcast out there in patriots law no i kid you i kid you not no really she has her show is phenomenal folks if you're not

subscribed to it you're definitely missing out do it immediately the illustrious claire clazy claire cooper joins me today on the show claireassey. Claire Cooper joins me today on the show. Claire, thank you so much for joining me today on the pod. Oh, well, thank you, as always, for having me, Mike. I was going to say, you know, I come on just for the kind of the compliments, the accolades, the introduction. And then you go and hit me with the second best podcast. So, you know, you better keep a sharp eye on these folks. I might not be here next week.

Uh-oh. The Countess is displeased. What to do? Well, I'll tell you what we're going to do. You're very, very welcome, Countess. It is my pleasure. It is my honor, as always. Now, what we will do here today, folks, is we're going to talk New England Patriots football. And, Claire, it's not exactly the most pleasant topic in the world right now here in patriots folklore obviously the pats coming off of a 20 to 7 loss to the miami dolphins in week one of the 2022 regular season pats sit at oh and one a lot of mistakes on the offensive side of the ball uh some breakdowns on

defense doesn't have the fan base all that confident but you and I both know that a team is always as good as the next game that they play they have to be able to put bad performances behind move forward and then try to put that what they've learned I should say on to into practice on the field especially against the Pittsburgh team that I'm in there pretty well against the defending AFC champion, Cincinnati Bengals. Claire, you do the best recaps in the business. And I do say that with all sincere honesty. I love reading those each and every week.

You've broken down this game. You've watched it. You've looked at the angles. What were your gutter reactions to the Patriots loss? And is there reason to be concerned? Is there reason to be optimistic? Fill us with the principle of positivity right now we definitely need it here in New England wow no pressure there then eh folks well firstly Mike you said it quite clearly yourself that oh

and one one game this is the first game and as I mentioned in my game recap as you hinted there that I put out for Pats propaganda the first pancake that you make is never great it's always a bit wonky or it's a bit overcooked that kind of thing and that's how I kind of look at this first game it was the first attempt for the season and you know they cracked under the pressure under the heat of miami but you know what were we to what were we to expect to be honest because very good point now tua is four and oh against belatech i thought it was five and over i think it's four and against belatech so it's thank you so it's like, this is what we should have expected, because this is how the dominoes always fall when it comes to this game. And yeah, you always wish that it's going to be different. But it's also there's this comfort in things being the same. It stayed all night the same and the Patriots lost in Miami.

Oh, that's that comfortable pair of slippers that we are so used to putting our feet in this time of year as fall almost becomes to us. But no, in seriousness, yeah, it's never great to start a season off with a loss, but it is just the first game. They need to kind of pick up and move on. And what I'd like to say is I get everybody wanting to freak out because what we saw wasn't very pretty. And it was against a team that have got a brand new head coach. So they, you know, they've got their own issues there. Did they outplay the Patriots? I nearly said us.

Sorry, I know some people don't like it when we refer to the Patriots. There's some time to have it. I struggle to break, actually. But, you know, did they outplay the Patriots? It's difficult to say when you're looking at a situation, when you're looking at the first game of the season. The one thing that concerns me, trying to stay positive, but does concern me, it's something that has concerned me

pretty much all of this year. Since the season closed from last year at the beginning of this year it has been a concern for me and the Shaq Mason exit team didn't help the matters and it's the offensive line and I know that's you know I'm banging the drum that everybody else has been banging as well it's something that we're all kind of that little bit concerned with it's it's the kinks in the offensive line it's the carouseling of the offensive line it's that not having them glued together and I think we touched upon this when we did our pre-seat when we did our sorry our pre-game um chat for lockdown on the weekend before the Miami game was the

concerns over this lack of continuity performance on the offensive line. And unfortunately, it was something that we saw out there. And now, as I mentioned in my game recap, I don't think that you can put it all on the offensive line. Some of the awareness of Mack in the pocket was a little bit concerning as well. You know, you can't just turn your back. And it sort of pays dividends because it puts into a retrospect that he's obviously got that confidence in his offensive line to keep him safe that he can turn and have his back to it but unfortunately it didn't work out very well and it's like one of those it's a

one a trust fall that he ended up on his foot so not great and and that's something that I really hope that the Patriots can make a considerable working on is the offensive line now that's the negative or that's some of the negative that I want to touch on there is some positive and I think there's plenty of positive that we can take away and for a starter the offense of the Patriots when you name out the names when you've got the the sort of um the Devante Parkers the Nelson Aguilores, the Hunter Henrys, the Johnnie Smith, the Romandre Stevenson, all these guys and more, Kendrick Bourne, Jacoby Myers. I can go on with a list of names. These are all good, very good NFL players. No, they're not the top elite, the cream of the crop that everybody wants to talk about. A lot of them have potential to be. But at the moment, when you look at them as they are now these guys are really good NFL players

and that's another key that we need to take into consideration is the NFL isn't just anybody can get in you are talking elite athletes you are talking the the top percentage of performers in in football that you know to have gotten this far and the Patriots have got a lot of those names on their offense it's unfortunate not to hit on the negative I know again but it's unfortunate they're not coming together they're not being used in the way that that maybe they all can be you know getting everything out of them but when you look at it on paper when you look at the list of names they have got and i i never like using this term but i know a lot of people do weapons these guys you would say when you look at them as players could be considered as a weapon unfortunately it's not

coming together and that's something that definitely needs working on but once it's worked on they've got the bricks the building bricks that they have got to to make that to make that sort of play calling to make the the process is very solid because the bricks that they've got there to work with in your Hunter Henry's and your Johnny Smith's and all the other people that aren't tight ends that obviously I don't really consider myself I'm joking I'm joking um are all very good so let's kind of try and take the positive from the players that they've got there plenty of players that they've got and i'm just touching on our fence there i haven't even mentioned anybody on defense at this moment is good solid nfl players and it's just hopefully

that they will bring it together i mean quickly to touch on the defence, although there was some not great plays, and he mentioned himself in the kind of the after game press conference, Duggar mentioned that, you know, some of it was on him. He sort of misjudged Waddle, that kind of thing. But he played a really good game. He did. He had tight focus on the ball. He had good awareness and was so quick on the running back.

One of the plays, I'm not sure which quarter it was now, I haven't got it written in front of me, but he, you know, that's another name that you were looking out for on defence that's got plenty about him. Dietrich's wives decided that he'd been given a captainship and he was going to stand up and he was going to show you why. And he played really well.

And, you know, Matt Judonon is as I like to put just Matt Judon so they've got plenty of players within the building that are quality NFL guys and it's just a matter of making them all fit together right and it work well and hopefully as we all like to not to try and be naive it, but hopefully they just need a bit of time. The preseason wasn't exactly pretty to look at. And this first game, again, not very pretty to look at. But I think we just need to be a little bit patient and just kind of give it a chance so that, you know,

the next couple of pancakes come out really perfect and really fluffy and just mwah. Absolutely. See, now, in addition to making us all want pancakes now, Claire has dropped some very, very good pieces of knowledge folks. And she does this regularly, routinely. It's one of the reasons why we love having her here every Wednesday on locked on Patriots. First off, I love the positivity. And I think there is things to be taken that are positive from this game. You mentioned the defense, and I think that really is where the positives came from for the majority Kyle Duggar phenomenal in this game six tackles two of them for a loss was flying all over the field you really saw the complementary nature of the way this defensive backfield can work when

you've got guys like Kyle Duggar showing their speed and their tenacity. And then you've got someone like a Jonathan Jones that's capable of really hanging with a lot of people. You know, you look at Tyreek Hill, as speedy of a receiver as there is in the NFL. Yes, 94 yards. He had a few receptions, no question about it. They held him out of the end zone. They kept him from being a phenomenal game breaker. And Tyreek definitely has the ability to do that. So if I'm the New England Patriots, I'm hanging my hat on that. I was impressed with the run defense as well. I mean, Miami really beefed up this run game in the offseason. Chase Edmonds, Raheem Mostert coming in, guys that had experience in the Mike McDaniel,

Kyle Shanahan run style game. But the Patriots were able to really put a stifle on it. Only 2.8 yards rushing average 23 attempts 65 yards that's big for the New England Patriots the front seven really stepped up and showed that they can help to contain a running game that really is supposed to be an integral part of what Miami does on offense so really good stuff there for the New England Patriots if you're looking at positives to take away from this game. The one thing that I will say is the negatives were out as well. And you mentioned this earlier, Claire, and it does fall back to the offensive line. And

I do apologize for saying that, folks, but it truly does. Mack Jones, again, having difficulty picking up the blitz from the second and third levels of the defense. Brandon Jones came in on the strip sack that was recovered for the touchdown, untouched, completely untouched. Mack didn't recognize it. Some of that is on Mack. He's going to do a better job of recognizing those. But if you're not getting the protection from the edge, it's a long day.

And we all saw with the injury that Mack suffered, back spasms, obviously not a result of that. But if he's taking shots and whatnot, and there are difficulties, the health of an NFL quarterback is extremely fragile, extremely valuable. That's going to be taken care of. And that's going to be showing up pretty quickly. So Patriots start that process today. Claire, they're going to hit the practice fields, prepping for Pittsburgh.

I like the way that sounds prepping for Pittsburgh. Maybe that's going to be a title down the line here. I'm locked up with pancakes, prepping for pittsburgh i like the way that sounds prepping for pittsburgh maybe that's going to be a title down the line here i'm locked up with pancakes prepping for pittsburgh with pancakes say that five times i dare you not an easy task but as we continue to make our preparations for pittsburgh one player in particular is going to have his sharp eye on his playing time and all of our sharp eyes are going to be on him in his playing time. Talking about wide receiver, Kendrick Bourne in the news a lot on Tuesday and Claire and I are going to break down all of that and more in just a moment.

When this episode of the lockdown Patriots podcast continues. But first folks, as you gear up for fall, you need the right people on your team to help your small business fire on all cylinders. LinkedIn Jobs is here to help make it easier for the people you want to talk to. They do it faster, and here's the best part, folks. They do it for free. You can create a free job post in minutes on LinkedIn Jobs to reach your network and beyond to the world's largest professional network of over 810 million people.

LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, and they help you do it faster. Did you know every week that nearly 40 million job seekers visit LinkedIn? Well, post your job for free at linkedin.com slash locked on NFL. That's linkedin.com slash locked onFL to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Patriots fans, the illustrious Klazzy Claire Cooper is joining me here today on the pod on Wednesday.

Claire, we talked a little bit about the Patriots and the Dolphins, and we're about to take our leave from the Dolphins for the week in an abbreviated week here on Locked On Patriots. But at the same time, there are still lingering concerns that will carry over into week two. And one of those was the playing time of wide receiver Kendrick Bourne. Now, you and I both know Kendrick was a big part of what this team did offensively last year. Explosive, very dynamic, really good with the game on the line. You looked for him to come in and be a very big part of this passing offense this year. Some people were even saying they considered him the Patriots' best wide receiver. But we've seen

difficulties now pop up, and we've seen situations arise where he wasn't getting as much playing time as we may have thought. Reports yesterday indicated that because he was late to a practice, he was held out of the Patriots-Panthers preseason game. That the Pats had seen lackluster stuff on the field from him, leading them to believe that he was their wide receiver four. Kind of hard to believe when you take a look at the fact that he only took three snaps on Sunday against the Miami Dolphins, excuse me, two snaps. One of them went for a 41-yard gain. So you've got a chance to see just how good this guy can be with the ball in his hands and the connection he has with Mack Jones. When you look at the situation with Kendrick Bourne and you look at the synergy he has with Mac and

the ability he has to play on the field but also what the coaching staff is seeing from him what is your take on this whole situation are the Patriots being unreasonable or is it a situation where you know Kendrick's got to pull his own weight and really you know get to the level that he needs to get at to see the field well the problem is my a lot of it is I don't want to say hearsay but we don't know for definite because we never get those definite answers from the coaches from Bill Belichick of why did you do this we'll never know exactly I mean I know that it's been likened to the Malcolm Butler thing. We don't get told. We only get told little bits and we get to make an assumption from that. So there's only so much that we sort of know about the situation.

We know it's been reported that he was late and that he didn't, so that he was out of the pre-game. Now that, sorry, the pre-season game against the Panthers. Now, one, that was a discipline thing. And we all know that that's what Bill Belichick is like. He runs a tight ship and that really should gain respect because he's done it for so long. It's worked for so long. And that's what he expects of his players.

And I kind of get the impression that that probably comes on down from high because you would imagine that it's the sort of thing that Robert Kraft would expect as well the discipline and the things that are expected of a New England player they are held with very high regard and I think that's something that they they maintain so he's sort of lateness to the to the training that sort of thing was effectively dealt with with the the not using him in the pre-season game so then again you look at that and say well technically from from a technical football perspective the pre-season games don't count so if they lose because they haven't got him in the game that doesn't count sort of thing so I appreciate that so you can kind of push that to one side and say well they utilize that to discipline him to

kind of get him in the right headspace to say look you know you can't just mess around you can't treat it like that it's a job and you're paid to do this job and we want you to do this job how we ask you to so that in itself is a separate section it feels like really um the not usage of him in the game i i feel you could look at it as another way it's being looked at as this this extra sort of take on disciplinary the the matt patricia putting him in the doghouse situation don't forget to look at the the case at the moment with the patriots is their wide receiver core is quite deep. Now, it's not necessarily all deep with talent because I'm not pushing Kendrick Bourne's talent down below Myers and things like that. I'm not looking at that, but you've got to look at they've got quite a lot of depth at the moment.

And it is a case of it's new offensive coaching they're sort of trying to get a handle on how they want to utilize wide receivers and which wide receivers they have got are going to best to suit that now you could argue well he came in and he performed and of course he did i'm not you know i'm not against that whatsoever but maybe he wasn't used much again because they know how he will perform they know how they can use him they need to see how these other guys are going to work with Mac they need to see how their offensive play calling is going to be around other receivers so that they know that they can get the best out of each individual and they sort of know how to get the best out of Kendrick Bourne because we saw it in the two snaps that we saw so

granted it's probably still not the best way to use the first game of the season, you know, to bench possibly your best wide receiver or the wide receiver that gels, you know, the most with Matt Jones. They did utilize Jacoby Myers considerably. I think he had six, I think he had six was it six receptions I believe um six targets sorry so Myers was targeted the most amount of times um because they know they've got of him he's sort

of a veteran as well and you know they used him to to the maximum of that in the game so yeah I know that the argument could be well you're already in the game you shouldn't still be finding out what you've got and I appreciate that but I do think some of it comes down to as I said just the depth of wide receiver and the newness of the offensive coaching and as unfortunate as it is that you're in you're in a game that counts you're still getting a handle on your offence. It seems to be that that may be one of the driving forces as to why he wasn't used considerably. Now, that's just an opinion and that's just my opinion. I'm not reporting anything to you. I'm not giving you

any hot takes, this kind of thing. It could be completely different. I could be completely wrong and that's fair enough. But all we're really going on mostly is the majority of opinions that are out there and I'd like to take it for a bit more of a positive slant of than he was just in the doghouse now granted he was frustrated on the sideline but this is an elite sport and you've got guys at the peak of it with tempers you see you see Bill Belichick having fits with the with the tablet and stuff like this there's this passion and there's emotion and on game day in particular it's at its peak so some of what happened on the sidelines he was consoled by johnny smith that sort of thing a lot of that could be the heat of the moment or even just the heat of Miami, you know, that sort of thing. So there's a lot that you can look into when you see these things

and you can really deep dive and come up with this amazing reason for this thing to happen. And, you know, we can speculate in this way or the other. But at this stage, I think it's, again, because it's the first game and in regards to the Kendrick Bourne thing, I think it's a little bit early to say. So I think that maybe going forward, they'll utilise him a bit more in the Steelers game.

Maybe we'll see more connections with more of the other wide receivers. I think it's something else that we just have to be a little bit patient and see how it unfolds because we're never really probably going to get the full true story. As I said, as I said at the beginning, the way that we didn't, you know, with the marker bullet,

that kind of thing. So I'd rather not speculate too much and just sort of hope that things settle down because ultimately at the end of the day, he is a really good wide receiver, as you said, and he is a top target for Max. So hopefully he can kind of maybe be a bit better behaved and they'll utilize him some more. And, and, and this will be another nothing, this story in a couple of weeks. It's true. I mean, I definitely get the argument and it's very good that you're taking a positive

spin on that because I think that it needs a positive spin. Look, bottom line, you hit on a very important point. Neither you nor I nor anyone really knows what goes on in that locker room behind closed doors when the New England Patriots are making game preparations, practice preparations, things that go into coaches' decisions. That's a very blanketed statement when you hear coaches' decision does not play or coaches' decision did not get a chance to do this or whatever, however they want to phrase it. It gives the coach, I think, a lot of ambiguity when it comes to explaining themselves. And that drives people in our business nuts because we can't write on what we want to be able to report. We want to report the juicy story, but if the coach is not going to give it to us, it really leaves us hanging and it leaves us with maybe a sense of deprivation, I guess is the best way for me to put it. Maybe, you know, maybe just a little bit of, you know, animosity there as well, because you don't have the ability to report on what's there. But bottom line line when you

look at the total of everything that we're adding up the natural inclination is to say yes matt patricia was is being petty here or you know he's just he's he's tweaking you know kendrick bowen just like he did with malcolm butler but when you know about the fact that butler was showing lackluster performance on the field in their estimation I'm not saying that he was but maybe in their estimation he's coming in at wide receiver four behind guys like Parker and Myers and Aguilar who had very good camps all three of them had solid camps then you look at his involvement in the skirmish that happened on the field during joint practices you look at him being late for a practice these are multiple offenses here and i say offense is very benignly folks i don't mean

that you know as as harshly as it sounds but these all add up when you're going to evaluate a player so maybe the patriots are onto something here maybe they feel they have to knit this in the bud i do believe from people that i've spoke to close to the organization, no one has anything but glowing things to say about Kendrick's ability on the field. I don't think that is, or potential, I should say his ability to play and his athleticism and his skillset allows him to be effective in the Z receiver role. He can align in the slot. He can be effective at the X. He can carry the ball out of the backfield. We saw him do a few very impressive jet sweeps last year. Kendrick is very versatile, so I think the Patriots see that in him. They want to bring that out of him.

Maybe they're not seeing enough of it right now, and maybe this is their way of trying to force his hand. We'll see what happens this week at practice in the limited views that we're going to get, but mostly we're going to get a chance to see on the field. If Kendrick is still struggling on the field this week against Pittsburgh, we may have a problem on our hands, folks. But if not, I think it's probably just a lot of much ado about nothing at this point.

So let the kid get out on the field. I'm a big proponent in getting Kendrick Bourne back on the field, but I'm also not going to lambast the coaching staff for doing what they felt to be in the team's best interest. Kendrick's taken the right approach on this publicly, saying I'm not showing the coaches what they need. I have to be better. Let's see if both sides can put this into practice and make something happen on the field. Claire, it's always, always a pleasure, always an honor to talk football with you.

And folks, we are not done yet because the smile is about to get a little wider. We are going to talk about Claire's favorite subject in the world, tight endage. And it's not gratuitous, folks. The tight ends were a big part of the Patriots offense. And in our estimation, I think they're going to continue to be a big part of the Patriots offense. We'll talk about Hunter Henry and John Hugh Smith when this episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast wraps up. But first, folks, today's episode is also brought to you by our good friends over at BetOnline.net, your number one source for all of your pro and college football betting needs and sports information this season. Find all of the latest football league developments, game matchups, news podcasts, including this

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BetOnline, where the game starts. Patriots fans, once again, we are joined here by the illustrious Claire Classey, Claire Cooper of Pat's Propaganda and a Claire Perspective of Patriots podcast. Claire, we've talked to Pat's Dolphins. We've talked some of the unpleasantries that happened during that game some of the positives to be taken away you've given us your great thoughts on Kendrick Bourne but we're about to close the show with a subject that I know is

very near and dear to your heart and no folks again we're not just throwing this in here these are always great subjects to talk about and after what we saw on sunday i think claire we're seeing the return of the two tight ends set that did not happen too much last year in the new england patriots offense and i think we're going to see that moving forward hunter henry john and smith seeing the field only 18 18.6 percent of the time last season, just 14% of that time was them aligned in 12 personnel. The Patriots beefed that up in a big way on Sunday. First of all, Claire, calm your excitement because I know you were very happy to see both Hunter and Jonu used in tandem.

But when you look at it from a Patriots perspective and the positivity it can bring to the offense, what are your thoughts on this new usage of the Patriots two tight ends well Mike you'll be surprised for me to say that don't get too excited just yet and that's because I think one of the reasons that they utilize two tight ends so significantly is the fact that the offensive line is weak or weaker than we would prefer and that's very unfortunate for somebody who is a tight end enthusiast like myself to have to sort of really submit to, yeah, it's great that they're using both of them, but they're not really using them both in the, maybe to the, you know,

sort of the fulfillment of their abilities because they're having to use them more very significantly blocking protection because the offensive line is weak now if as we've said plenty of times if the offensive line can kind of get that solidity better and they still have the two tight end sets out there then then folks we can be really excited because then it's going to be much more dynamic and it's going to be utilized much more I'm hoping that as Matt Jones settles into his role you know he's going to be utilizing the flow with him and Hunter Henry's going to come that we saw last year that you know we saw significant touchdownage from the tight endage last year in Hunter Henry so hopefully that can

be replicated but it is I think it is something that's being um sort of affected because of they're having to be utilized as blockers because of the the carousel in the the issues with the offensive line now there was only there were seven targets between the both of them and as i mentioned earlier jacoby myers had six so we're still waiting for that flow of you using them as people like to say as weapons as you like to say uh you know sm Smith caught two screen passes. It's not the exceptional usage of the Titans that we're hoping for. But again, I think something that really needs to be a theme

of possibly this episode of Locked on Patriots is patience. We need to have some patience. It's the beginning of the season. You know, we have potential, so let's have patience. I mean, again, it touches back on what we mentioned in regards to Kendrick Bourne is this there's depth at the wide receiver core and depth that the wide receiver core is going to sort of overflow onto the usage of the tight ends and they aren't going to be used sort of more as your weapons because they you know they've got

considerable when it comes to wide receivers so it's all going to be a trade-off um it's something that i think is still unfolding so i think it is something yeah to be excited that they've that they've got them out there they're using the trial personnel they're using the two tight ends they're they're getting their bang for their buck shall we say because you know a lot of people have mentioned how much money that was was put down on the on the tight end position so you know let's hope that we sort of see the significance there in value for money so but I think it's trepidation to get too excited just yet yes I am deep down I am that bit excited because they are both out there but again as I

said not to repeat myself it's they're out there because of other reasons they're not out there for that sort of full two tight-ended set yet to use them as these explosive weapons that you know I think that they can both be I mean I know not everybody believes it but you know I think we've got two really good tight ends there and I think it's something again just to just to look forward to. A bit of patience, a bit of time, and let's just hopefully we'll see some touchdownage from some tight endage once again. Absolutely. Very, very well said. And I think that was a very lucid, very well thought out, and very, you know, calm evaluation, Clara. I'm pleasantly surprised.

No, I'm kidding, folks. I am kidding. I am kidding. No, but all kidding, folks. I am kidding. No, but all kidding aside, I think you make an excellent point. The Patriots' weakness on the offensive line is one of the big reasons why you did see 46.4% of the plays that the Patriots ran were in 12 personnel. A lot of that is in blocking schemes. Because when you look at the targeting, and you mentioned seven targets between the two of them, Smith gets three catches, 33 yards 33 yards 15 yard gain for the patriots during that scoring drive

if he doesn't make that catch that scoring drive is not possible so that was a very big moment for john and smith being someone that mac jones relied upon to really kind of continue that so i think that's a great positive hunter henry slow start two passes 20 yards but there's still that spark between the two of them there you know that's going to be something that they'll utilize in the future one point I would like to make is the one thing that I did see and was very excited by when I saw that the Titans got catches is they both kind of warranted plenty of coverage so both of them had two three four five guys having to take them down and I think that's very key we've got very we've got strong tight ends so as long as

they can stay healthy and they can be utilized I think that's it they've got this prowess of like you know that we need in a tight end that you want to see in a tight end so that was very encouraging when it took sort of four or five guys to take Hunter down and at least three to take Smith down that got me very excited I must say absolutely and it should because in theory that's exactly how we'd love to see these guys utilized moving forward and I think you saw seedlings of that and the fact that they shared the field so much together on Sunday is a good move going forward. So again, folks, curb your enthusiasm for just the moment. Words of wisdom from the countess there. When it comes to tight ended,

she is after all the Empress of tight ended. So we have to listen to her because she's always right. So, I mean, that really, it falls into line and it really does just make your football watching just a lot, all that much better claire what can i say i thank you so much for joining us here today on the pod before i let you go please let everyone know what they can expect from the great pen the great voice of claire cooper this week as we move toward the pittsburgh game coming up on sunday well as as you kind of hinted to as we talked about i do my game recaps for pat's propaganda so if you head over to patspropaganda.com the day after a game you will find my recap although this week it may be a day

late because of the queen's funeral i know that only affects us over in the uk not the us so um it may be that my game recap from sunday steeders game will be a little bit late so my apologies if that is the case but still please go over there and check out the great work of Tom and as always a clear perspective trying to hit you every week this season not sure if I'll quite pull it off but last season it was every two weeks so this season I am trying for every week so please keep an eye out on all those places that you like to download your podcast for a clear perspective a new episode should be out shortly obviously if you'd like to go back and listen to my trilogy of women and the nfl with the lovely karen greekian erica tamposi and dr jessie that is still available all those

places that you like to download your podcast as well and don't forget each and every week you can find me as they like to say the rose between two thorns of steve balistrieri and thomas murph murphy courtesy of e2g sports.com, on one Patriots place. Absolutely, folks. Whenever Claire puts pen to paper, whenever she puts voice to microphone, it's always appointment reading, appointment listening. So don't forget to check that out. And give her a follow over on Twitter, at Klazzy Claire.

Again, this was always a lot of fun. We're going to do it again on Wednesday, your normal spot here on Locked On Patriots. And I, for one, cannot wait until we get to share the microphone again next week. But in the meantime, folks, thank you once again for making Locked On Patriots a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage, but also, most importantly, your first listen every day. Until tomorrow, Foxborough faithful, please continue to stay safe, stay well, be the change that you wish to see in the world.

Have a great day, everyone.