Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - New England Patriots Report Card vs. New York Giants: Mac Jones, Bailey Zappe at Zero-point-Zero?

Starting point is 00:00:00 What grade could possibly be lower than F-? The New England Patriots quarterback showed us on Sunday. 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. Thank you once again for making Lockdown Patriots a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage.

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Starting point is 00:01:37 for a first deposit match up to $100. And Pats fans, I know that all of you are running out of ways to grade a 2-9 football team off to their worst start since 1993. Yikes. And each and every week, they just seem to find new and exciting ways, and I say that sarcastically, folks, to lose football games. But luckily for us, we have the man with the grades. And today, he's not just my Patriots bison. He is our Pats professor today.

Starting point is 00:02:08 That's right. The great Steve Balistrieri joins me. Welcome back to the pod, my friend. Are you ready to channel your inner Dean Wormer today, buddy? I think that's a great way to start the show, you know, talking about Dean Warmer and, you know, because looking at the grades this week, at least on the offensive side of the ball, some of them weren't too pretty. No, absolutely not. You can hear the words 0.0 in just about every offensive evaluation that you read in Patriots Media.

Starting point is 00:02:46 You're definitely going to hear it today. You already have heard it today. Yeah, where else, Steve? Let's just dive right into this button. Let's start on offense, and we'll start with the quarterbacks. And just when you don't think that the quarterback play can get any more abysmal, it did on Sunday. And I hate to pile on these guys but it's just difficult to watch

Starting point is 00:03:07 this team week after week after week regress interceptions the turnovers Steve it's just egregious from start to finish when you look at the quarterback position how do you not grade them at a 0.0 is there a possibility to go anywhere else but no i mean let's call it what it is this is a dumpster fire right now um you know many of the writers that cover the patriots have been saying they they think mac jones needs at the very minimum a week to sit and decompress. And I think it was very evident on Sunday. I mean, this, this kid, his, his confidence is completely shot. You know he has no, you know optimism that what's in front of him is, you know, going to play out well.

Starting point is 00:04:05 He doesn't trust, you know, his protection. I don't think he trusts his receivers. And it's getting to the point where they probably don't trust him either. But the fact that they keep trotting him out there, I understand he's the better of the two. But, I mean, his confidence is at such a low point that you're just not doing him any long-term favors by this. And, you know, honestly, you know, we'll talk about this after the season, but I think he really needs a change of scenery for his own sake and probably for the Patriots sake as well

Starting point is 00:04:46 but you know then you know they replaced him with Bailey Zappi and he really wasn't any better I mean let's call it what it is his longest pass was five yards um you know they don't trust their quarterbacks to throw the ball down the field. And we saw a bubble screen after bubble screen after, you know, I mean, how many times can they get away with that against a good team? And the answer is not very long. And the proof was in the pudding. I mean, they scored seven points. I mean, the the quarterback play is abysmal right now. It absolutely is.

Starting point is 00:05:27 You mentioned Mac Jones and you mentioned his confidence. For the past couple of days here on Locked On Patriots, I've been talking about it and essentially describing Mac as a quarterback that comes into the huddle, goes into the snap, almost like he's anticipating some going wrong each and every single time. That confidence is so important, folks. When you're a quarterback in this league, you have to exude it. A couple of weeks ago, Mark Schofield joined me here on the airwaves,

Starting point is 00:05:53 and there are few, if any, that break down the quarterback position with more detail, more elegance, and more accuracy than Mark. I hold him in the highest regard when it comes to quarterback evaluations. And that was his assessment of Mack, is that that confidence has been so shaken that it's almost impossible to imagine him rebounding this year and into next year if he's still around in New England. I think it's interesting that you mentioned a change of scenery because I think that's where we're headed at this point. It seems inevitable when you look at what Mack is doing on the field and you look

Starting point is 00:06:25 at the reaction of his teammates around him. Murph and I talked about allegedly losing that 80% of the locker room. Now you're starting to see what that means, folks. It's not that they don't like Mack. It's just they don't believe he has the confidence in himself to lead. And why would you follow a guy that doesn't have the confidence in himself to lead his own play on the field. It really is a mess. And then Bailey comes in. You start to see the offense maybe simplified a little bit and think that maybe they're gaining a little bit of traction with that touchdown drive that Ramondre Stevenson kept with the seven-yard run.

Starting point is 00:06:56 But Bailey starts having difficulty picking up the reads. And then when that happens, like you said, you're seeing the coaching staff not trust these guys to get the ball more than five yards down the field it is not a pretty sight Bill Belichick was asked on Wednesday morning whether or not he had learned his lesson from last week and whether or not he's going to name a starter Bill Belichick obviously not committal folks he's not naming a starter not ready to as of the time Steve and I are recording this so looks like more of the same this week in Foxborough a quarterback pseudo quarterback competition and yeah I think it's just tough times tough times indeed for the New England Patriots uh so offense not off to a good start already uh you know congratulations Kroger you're at the top of the Delta Pledge class and it's not

Starting point is 00:07:42 that great um but bottom line steve i don't want the quarterbacks abysmal play to overshadow or completely i should say decimate some improved play by some of the positional groups on the field i think the running backs look solid ramond ray stevenson um 98 yards he becomes only the second player to compile more than 100 yards from scrimmage in three straight games. Last player to do that, folks, 2018 Sonny Michel. But bottom line, I think he's doing a very good job, and I like the complimentary job that Ezekiel Elliott did. This running game for the Patriots is showing some promise. I think if they're going to have

Starting point is 00:08:20 any success the rest of the year, you've got to ride these guys. Absolutely. I mean, that's your only strength right now on the offensive side of the ball. You know, Stevenson, the last three weeks has been progressively getting better. He's getting into that mode that we saw him in last year. And it helps with the offensive line play which i know we'll we'll touch on here in just a moment but you know he won 87 yards uh against the commanders 88 against the colts now 98 against the giants i mean um you know he's feeling it now you can see him you know breaking tackles making plays on his own after he, you know, if he gets to that first level untouched, that's where he's most dangerous because when he gets in that second level, he can make people miss or break tackles. And we're seeing more of that. I think Ezekiel

Starting point is 00:09:17 Elliott, you know, he had a couple of nice runs. I loved in the second half, he had that 13 yard run you and I talked about offline, where he did the old feed me roll. I love seeing it because we haven't seen that much this year, right? To see Zeke doing that, I thought both of those guys

Starting point is 00:09:40 were really feeling it. They were confident, especially with Dexter Lawrence missing. They decided to run up those double A gaps, and they were very successful. And moving forward, I mean, your passing game is pretty much non-existent at this point. You just have to ride these guys and pound the ball between the tackles and see where it brings you. You know, at this point, it can't hurt. No, it definitely can't hurt.

Starting point is 00:10:07 And I'm glad you mentioned Zeke because to see him do the feed me gesture after that 13-yard on the split flow carry, that really, to me, summed up how he's feeling. And again, you know, stranger things have happened, folks. And I'm not sure if there's going to be a more lucrative deal on the table for Ezekiel Elliott elsewhere in the offseason. It seems likely, but who knows? Maybe he is comfortable enough here to want to come back and give it a run because I think he is such a great compliment to Ramondre Stevenson, and these two guys are running the ball very well together. I think a lot of that needs to be given credit,

Starting point is 00:10:39 or credit needs to be given, I should say, to the offensive line on that. I think they really did a great job blocking for the run on Sunday. This is a unit that's been much maligned all season long. Pass protection, I thought, was adequate. I don't think it was great, but I thought it was an improvement from what we've seen earlier in this season. But they really are starting to find their groove when it comes to blocking for the run, and it's leading to big things for the Patriots running game. Your assessment of the remainder of the offense, Steve, I thought improvement seen, but just derailed by bad quarterback. Yeah. You know, after the, you know, the running backs there,

Starting point is 00:11:18 you mentioned the offensive line. You know, as you said, much much maligned offensive line and deservedly so for the most of this year but if you look at why they lost on sunday it had nothing to do with the offensive line for a change this had to do with the quarterback play because as you said they blocked very well in the running game i i give them high marks for that you know they ran for almost 150 yards on the ground and whenever whenever you do that, your offensive line is winning because there was no 60 or 70-yard runs that inflated that. You know, they were all just grinding, moving the pile type of runs.

Starting point is 00:11:57 And that's what you want, your offensive line guys moving forward. And they typically like that. Pass protection, as you said it wasn't great but it wasn't terrible as we've seen in the past it was just poor quarterback play the as you said the uh wide receivers you know it it was an improvement it wasn't great by any stretch of the imagination a lot of these guys still aren't on the same page. There's miscommunication, but they were better than they have been. Tight ends was surprising to me because no catches from the tight end position,

Starting point is 00:12:38 especially Hunter Henry. He wasn't even targeted on Sunday. So I don't know what the issue was that. I'd have to go back and watch the tape a third time. I really don't want to at this point. But maybe you have to tip your cap to the Giants defense and just say, hey, you know, they were Brown, other than throwing one of the Giants' defensive linemen to the ground well away from the line of scrimmage, you know, he was kind of invisible, too. So, you know, overall, the offense didn't get the job done.

Starting point is 00:13:18 But I think on Sunday, it all stemmed from poor quarterback play. Yeah, it really did. It really and truly did. When you look at the offensive line, Patriots running backs averaging 4.8 yards per attempt. I thought they were also solid in the screen game as well. Devontae Parker had one of his better receptions of the season, the 19-yard reception off of the screen.

Starting point is 00:13:38 And that's where this offensive line, I think, really has grown by leaps and bounds in that screen game. They can get out on the move. So, folks, if you're looking for silver linings and there are minuscule silver linings right now for the Patriots offense, those are things that you can build on. I agree with you about the pass catchers. They need to get on the same page as quarterback. They're not running the correct routes. If that's coaching on their end, or if that's bad coaching from the quarterbacks, they need to really reconcile that because it's leading to bad things on the field and you're seeing that trickle down

Starting point is 00:14:10 now into the tight ends and because of the job that they did blocking i don't necessarily grade them as a failure but as pass catchers you can't grade them as anything higher than a failure i mean these guys did not secure a pass all game long. And for a team that's so predicated on 12 personnel and really getting out and showing that you have not just two, but three serviceable tight ends that can catch passes and you're not utilizing them, something's wrong and something's going to get missed somewhere along the line. So yeah, Steve, not a pretty day. This is one where especially the offensive side of the ball is going to want to bury this game film. But defensively, I think the Patriots were

Starting point is 00:14:51 on the hard luck side of some pretty bad play on the other side of the ball. And if not for that, this defense might have helped carry this team to maybe even a victory on Sunday. That's how good they were at times. Steve and I are going to discuss what we believe defense should be graded at. And yeah, don't worry, folks. We're going to get to the coaching and the special teams because if you think the offense was bad, those units weren't much better. It is not easy to be a Patriots fan right now, but we're going to give you the honest scoop on this team when this episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast continues. A proud part of the Locked On Podcastots podcast continues, a proud part of the Locked On Podcast Network,

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Starting point is 00:18:51 and spending it with us here on Locked On Patriots. And we are grading your New England Patriots performance against the New York Giants last Sunday. A 10-7 loss in the Meadowlands. And who better to give us the honest, reasonable scoop than the Pats professor today. My Patriots bison, my good friend Steve Balistrieri of Patsfans.com. And Steve, we talked about the offense in the previous segment. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't positive.

Starting point is 00:19:17 But I think a little more positive notes are going to come out of the defensive performance. Because overall, I think this was a solid performance especially from the Patriots front seven uh let's start there the defensive line held Saquon Barkley in check I thought they did a good job of getting pressure on Tommy DeVito if there is a reason why this team lost on Sunday it has nothing to do with the play of the defensive line, at least in my assessment. What say you, my friend? Yeah. You know, grading out the defense, the defensive line got an A from me. I mean, you knew going in that, you know,

Starting point is 00:19:55 Giants have their third string quarterback in, Tommy DeVito. They have Saquon Barkley. They want to establish the run, right? I mean, it only makes sense. They don't want DeVito slinging the want to establish the run, right? I mean, it only makes sense. They don't want DeVito slinging the ball all over the place, right? Right. So they wanted to run the football, and the Patriots, once again, did a really excellent job of holding him in check.

Starting point is 00:20:19 I mean, you know, he had, I think it was 46 yards, and they'll take that all day long. You know, I thought they did a tremendous job. And they helped bring pressure on DeVito. Now, the Giants have given up an inordinate, I can't say that word, amount of sacks, you know. But the Patriots, to their credit, they garnered six sacks and they had pressure on DeVito for much of the game.

Starting point is 00:20:46 And, you know, the secondary we'll get to wasn't great in this game, but the bottom line is they held the Giants to 10 points at home. And when you hold the team to 10 points, unless it's a weather event type of game, you should win that game 99% of the time. And so the defense did its job. I thought the defensive line was outstanding. Christian Barmore, once again, I mean, he's just, you know, stacking up these weeks and weeks of really solid play. And you have to sit and wonder if Matthew Judon was healthy what this pass rush would be looking like right now with him and you know uh on the outside bar more on the inside but overall defensive line I thought was outstanding on Sunday yeah I thought the

Starting point is 00:21:42 defensive line was excellent on Sunday as well. Look, I think it begins with the performances that you've seen, the overt performances, guys like Christian Barmore coming up with the sack. Keon White, I think, having his most productive game as a pro so far. Five total tackles. You got a sack in there as well. Dietrich Weiss coming in and chipping in with a sack. This is where you start to win games up front you set the tone defensively with that defensive front and a guy that doesn't show up in the stat sheet all the time folks but i think it's been solid all year long is seven godchild four tackles in this game but holding up along the interior and allowing this team to be a much better run

Starting point is 00:22:21 defensive team than we've seen in recent memory. When you have that type of an effort up front, like you said, and you hold the team to 10 points, nine times out of 10, you should be winning those games, folks. So unfortunately, it wasn't the case because the Patriots could only muster seven points on offense, and that's not going to cut it moving forward. It does derail a very good defensive effort, and we've seen that narrative

Starting point is 00:22:45 played out far too much this year. Steve, we'll stay along the defensive front right now and go to the linebackers. Juwan Bentley, Jelani Tavai, those guys are always going to give you great efforts, but I think you should take a victory lap on this one, and a little tip of the cap and nod to the gods to you. What a great game for Anthony Jennings. This was by far, I think, his best as a professional football player. Yeah, I think he's grown by leaps and bounds. He's getting the opportunity to play a lot more snaps now. His pass rush is coming along. He was in on a couple of different sacks.

Starting point is 00:23:23 I know he was credited with one and a half. You could possibly give him both of those, but they shared one with him and Dietrich Weiss. But the bottom line, you watch the tape, he does an outstanding job of setting the edge in the run. You know, his pass rush moves are coming along. He's still not all the way there yet, but, you know, when you look at the whole

Starting point is 00:23:45 picture of him, I think the Patriots have to be really pleased with his development now. I've been beating the drum for him since he was drafted, so it was nice to see him really doing a great job. But Jelani Tavai, you know, and Juwan Bentley, just solid across the board. I thought these guys played very, very well. They got an A- for me as well because you look at the big picture. You know, they were stopping the run. They were taking away those underneath routes with the backs for the most part. And that's all you can ask of your linebackers because, again, they did their job. They held down the fort quite well, I thought.

Starting point is 00:24:34 And, you know, again, the reason they lost was not anything to do with the defense. Yeah. Again, you look at what the defensive front has been able to do, folks, and you want to look at reasons why this team has been in so many one-score games that could have gone either way. It's because of the defense, and it's because of this front seven specifically that has done a tremendous job kind of lifting up a secondary that has been decimated with injury at time and a lot of upheaval. Jennings, getting back to him for a second,

Starting point is 00:25:10 because I do want to give him a pseudo game ball for this one. He had a ton of career bests in this game. Two sacks, six quarterback pressures, earned his first solo sack of the season, folks. Other than that, he had combined on sacks heading into this game, but got his first solo in this game but a 33% pass rush win rate and an 86 pass rush grade from pro football focus those are career bests for Anthony Jennings so he really stepped it up in this game and you've got to give him a lot of credit playing to his

Starting point is 00:25:38 competition but playing above and beyond I thought was a great sign for the Pats in the secondary Steve I don't necessarily want to pile on them but if there was a great sign for the Pats. In the secondary, Steve, I don't necessarily want to pile on them, but if there was a unit that needed to be bailed out a little bit, it was probably the cornerbacks in this game. JC Jackson, I thought, played an adequate game. I'm not going to sit there and say that he played a terrible game or whatnot. There was the double move that beat him for the 41-yard pass play to Jalen Hyatt. You don't want to see that from your alpha corner without any question, but J.C. still led the team with six tackles. We saw Jonathan Jones get a rare miss,

Starting point is 00:26:13 and that led to, obviously, the Isaiah Hodgins touchdown catch. Overall, if there was a unit that I thought struggled a little bit on this defense, it was the cornerbacks. What do you think about their play this week? Yeah, absolutely. They graded out for myself, which is just my opinion as a C, because I didn't think they were great. They were adequate.

Starting point is 00:26:38 I thought J.C. Jackson was up and down. As you mentioned, he got beat on that long pass, and he got beat a couple other times too, but in fairness to him, he had that big pass knockdown when the Giants tried to air it out on him. So he had a couple of good plays there as well. Miles Bryant, he had two tackles for loss. So, you know, that was an upside there. Surprisingly, as you mentioned, Jonathan Jones whiffed on that tackle. And I was shocked when I saw it was him because you don't expect him to ever miss one. I mean, these guys are all human.

Starting point is 00:27:20 We all know that. But, you know, he's always so solid in his tackling, especially in the open field. But it happens. And so, you know, overall, the secondary was adequate. Not great. But, again, they held the Giants to 10 points. It could have been worse.

Starting point is 00:27:40 The Giants missed a couple of plays. We saw that. But, you know, At the same time, how many times have we said that with the Patriots? They missed some plays that were there on the field. The bottom line, defense gives up 10 points, you should win the football game.

Starting point is 00:27:58 If the defense gives up 10 points, you should win the football game. If the secondary did struggle a little bit because of the cornerback play, I thought that was picked up a little by the play of Jabril Peppers, who continues to be, I think, one of the best defensive players on this field.

Starting point is 00:28:14 Earned his first sack as a member of the New England Patriots, a seven-yard loss sack on Tommy DeVito. Also had three tackles, one for a loss. Kyle Duggar chipping in with two. Each player went the distance. They played 100% of the snaps as they usually do. This is a phenomenal tandem. These guys really play well together.

Starting point is 00:28:34 It's got to be a priority, maybe not number one priority, but it's got to be a priority for the Patriots to try to keep these guys together for at least one more season, bring back Kyle Duggar, give him in the mix, and see what these guys can do together. I thought the safeties played a pretty good game considering all that they were up against as well. Yeah. I loved Pepper's game.

Starting point is 00:28:55 And it was funny because in my keys to the game last week, I, you know, for the Giants game, I wrote that they needed him to have a big game. And I thought, you know, he answered that call for sure you know he's been I think he's been great since the second half of last year when he fully recovered from his injury and I yeah I totally am in agreement with you they need to make it a priority of bringing both him and Duggar back next year yeah folks without question the new england patriots defense another solid effort but another squandered effort by a poor performance from the offense but if we're being honest you miss a 35 yard field goal steve you are not

Starting point is 00:29:36 doing your job this unit continues to struggle and what about the coaches decisions leading up to that last minute field goal steve and i are going to grade the special teams and the coaching when we wrap up this episode of the locked on patriots podcast a proud part of the locked on podcast network your team every day the patriots fans when you're hiring for your small business you want to have as many top tier candidates as possible to interview. That's why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs. LinkedIn Jobs has the tools to help you find the right professionals for your team to help you do it faster.

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Starting point is 00:31:15 joining us here today on Locked On Patriots. Grading your New England Patriots loss to the New York Giants 10-7 in the Meadowlands. We're ready to take our leave of Week 12 and ready to head into Week 3 as Chargers Week begins here on Locked On Patriots. And stay tuned, folks. A lot of exciting past Chargers coverage beginning with tomorrow's crossover.

Starting point is 00:31:37 That's right, crossing the streams with my good friend Dave Droegemeier of Locked On Chargers. Download, subscribe to, follow. You are not going to want to miss that. But joining me here today, my Patriots bison, our Patriots professor for the day, that's fans.com's own Steve Valistrieri. And Steve, we've talked offense, we've talked defense, but the special teams unit continues to disappoint. We see the Patriots play such a premium on the third phase, and they continue to play undisciplined football, fundamentally unsound, and now the specialists are starting to become a liability. I had this unit graded as a D on my recent report card. How did you grade the special teams unit?

Starting point is 00:32:24 I thought it went beyond Ryland's miss. I thought this was a collectively bad effort. Once again, from the Patriots special teams, I had them as a F, uh, you know, it's inexcusable. And you're probably more, you know, cause I was looking at it. That's probably deserving. You know, as you said, leading this segment off, I mean, nobody places more emphasis on the roster and in practice on special teams than New England does.

Starting point is 00:32:55 And for them to be so poor week after week, it's indescribable. And, you know, they miss a chip shot field goal. Penalties, the rough – Keon White, I mean, that's – you can't have those. I mean, you know, his penalty made them start from, I think it was, the eight or the nine-yard line. And, you know, with an offense that's struggling, you can't put them at the eight or nine-yard and expect them to go 90 plus yards to score a touchdown. To me, it's inexcusable.

Starting point is 00:33:34 It's not an anomaly. It's a trend. It's been going on for weeks. Mental errors, penalties, just poor play overall. You know, I can't in good conscience say it was anything but atrocious. That's true. And you start counting up all of the miscues that they had, not just the Ryland miss, like you said, but the muff punt in the first quarter.

Starting point is 00:34:02 Then you're looking at the unnecessary roughness penalty on Keyon White goes back to discipline. This team is just not doing the things we're used to seeing a Patriots team do when it comes to special teams coaching. They're not properly prepared. They're in the wrong place at the wrong time. That is so the antithesis of what this team usually is, just baffling that the Newland patriots would allow this type of regression and again it culminates in a missed 35 yarder steve by all accounts a chip shot this is one he should be making um patriots have had a number of kickers come through the door the last couple of days is that to kind of wake chad ryland up a little bit or is that simply because they feel they absolutely need another leg at this point? These are all concerns for the New England Patriots, but to me,

Starting point is 00:34:50 I think the bigger concern is coaching, including the decision to not take at least one shot at the end zone when you're on the Giants 22 with enough time spared to at least take a shot at the win. I know there's no confidence in the quarterbacks, but when you're a coach and you do that, it sends such a negative message to your team that we have absolutely no chance offensively to win this game. We have to put it in the hands of our rookie kicker that already has trust issues.

Starting point is 00:35:20 Steve, coaching? I don't think that my coaching grade is going to be much better than my special teams grade, maybe by a half, but not by much. I thought this was a badly coached game all the way around for New England, except for the defense. Yeah, coaching got to have to be, and the defense gets high marks, but it wasn't enough to elevate beyond that. Because as you said, you know, they started that final drive at midfield. They had great field position. You know, they had just a shade under two minutes.

Starting point is 00:35:51 And, you know, they seemed like they were not playing for a win. They were very content to try to play for a field goal. And as you said, that sends a horrible message to your football team. Terrible. Because it's like, oh, we're not good enough to win this game. We're going to try to limp into overtime and hope we catch a break. That's, I mean, that is not winning football. And it goes, you know, to special teams coaching, offensive coaching, head coaching.

Starting point is 00:36:27 I mean, the whole fiasco with the quarterbacks, it's horrible. And things need to change. Yeah, they do. They need to change, and they need to change in, I don't want to say a hurry because I don't think that's where we're headed, but this is going to be a very interesting offseason for the New England Patriots, folks. Do the Patriots need to start right at the top with these coaching changes, or is it more subtle? Is it below the surface? Is it a gutting of the assistants and really bringing in a whole new crew to try to

Starting point is 00:36:59 help out? Unenviable task for Bill Belichick, robert craft um where does bill go next year i think these are all questions that are on the table steve what can i say i thank you for coming on today lending your wisdom your counsel the way only you can before i let you go my friend please let everyone know where they can reach out to you interact with you what you got coming down the pike from the great pen the great voice for steve balistrieri well thanks for having me as always mike i really appreciate it um you can find me on twitter at steve b7 ssg i write for pats fans.com and today is podcast wednesday i mean uh i uh i did a podcast with uh russ goldman early this morning who said to pass along his best to you uh guy. And now you and I are recording this one,

Starting point is 00:37:45 and in just a few minutes after we're done, I'm recording with Derek Haven. So this is like busy talking Wednesday. Love it. You know what? When you have to pick the best minds in the business, you've got to get them on a Wednesday, and that's what we did, folks.

Starting point is 00:38:00 We're in that trifecta of great podcasts that Steve is doing. As always, Russ remains one of the great guys in this business, one of the great minds and one of the great talents in this business, as is Derek Havens, truly two of the best guys you'll meet. So a tip of the cap and a nod to the gods to both of those guys. And Steve, of course, thank you for making us a part of that triumvirate that you'll be joining here. Make sure to catch Steve, folks, wherever you see him out there in Patriots media. Anytime he puts voice to microphone or pen to paper, appointment viewing, appointment listening, appointment reading.

Starting point is 00:38:33 And I say that without hesitation. And again, folks, we thank all of you for joining us here on Locked On Patriots and lending your support to the pod. We would be nothing without you, especially all you everydayers out there. My unending appreciation to you from the bottom of my heart. And don't forget, Crossover Thursday, crossing the streams, Lockdown Patriots, Lockdown Chargers right here.

Starting point is 00:38:56 So stay tuned and stay downloaded, subscribed and followed so you don't miss a second of the upcoming action. In the meantime, I am your host, Mike DeBate. On behalf of my good friend, Steve Balistrieri, have a great day, everyone. Stay safe, stay well, and we'll see you back here again tomorrow on Locked on Patriots.

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