Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - New England Patriots Week 4 Takeaways: Jacoby Brissett, Drake Maye, Offense, Defense Struggle vs. SF

Episode Date: October 1, 2024

The New England Patriots 30-13 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in Week 4 created more questions for a team already struggling to find its identity. Still, Pats coach Jerod Mayo appears to be sticking with the team’s plan to keep veteran Jacoby Brissett as its starting quarterback. Is it the right move? Host Mike D’Abate welcomes Locked On Sports Boston’s Cam Stuart to discuss whether it is time to hand the reins to rookie Drake Maye, the biggest areas of concern for the Patriots on offense and defense and the impending return of receiver Kendrick Bourne from an ACL injury. #nfl #newenglandpatriots Find and follow Locked On Patriots on your favorite podcast platforms: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1c5ZxFm... Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-... And follow host Mike D’Abate on X, where he’ll be sharing the latest ne ws about the New England Patriots and talking with fans — @mdabateNFL Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! PrizePicksDownload the app  or click HERE and use code lockedonnfl to win $50 instantly when you play $5. You don't even need to win to receive your $50 bonus, it's guaranteed! Prizepicks. Run Your Game. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms Apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. FanDuelPlace your first FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - guaranteed ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. 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)

When it comes to the New England Patriots quarterback situation, Gerard Mayo is sticking to the plan. But should it be May Day in Foxborough this weekend? 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 Podcastots, 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 Locked On Patriots a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage. And hopefully your first listen each and every day. I'm your host, Mike DeBate, and I cover your New England Patriots. For Patriots, country of Athlon sports, reach out to me, let me know what's on your mind on X at M-D-A-B-A-T-E NFL. And if you're showing some social media love to Lockdown Patriots,

please follow our account on X as well at L-O underscore Patriots. And Pats fans, today's episode will be breaking down the Patriots' 30-13 loss to the San Francisco 49ers. That's third straight loss, dropping them to 1-3 on the season. And the topic on everybody's mind is whether or not Drake May should be installed as the team's new starting quarterback.

There are also concerns both on offense and on defense that were spotted on the field on Sunday. But the Patriots offense may be getting a little bit of a boost this week in the return of wide receiver Kendrick Bourne, who is expected to return to practice after missing most of last year and thus far all of this year with an ACL injury. A lot to talk about and a lot to break down. And here today to help me break it all down is my good friend, the host of the Locked On Sports Boston, Locked On Patriots postcast, and also the esteemed host of Locked On Baylor, Cam Stewart. Cam, welcome back to Locked On Patriots.

Thanks for joining me here on this Monday episode. Thanks for having me. Thank you to you to giving me these event sessions every Monday. You know what? It's therapeutic. I think it's cathartic for all of us. you to giving me these vent sessions every Monday. You know what? It's therapeutic. I think it's cathartic for all of us. And that's why we're going to talk about the takeaways from yesterday's game right here on Locked On Patriots. And Pats fans,

don't forget that today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use the code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your purchase. And Cam, I began yesterday's show here on locked on Patriots by saying the Pat's got no

San Francisco tree in Santa Clara, California against the Niners. In fact, the real pain may have only just begun a 30 to 13 loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Brock Purdy throwing touchdown passes had seemingly all day back there to complete his passes, do what he needed to do. Fred Warner and Nick Bosa absolutely making life unbearable for Jacoby Brissett in that Patriots offense.

And, of course, the Niners walk away with a big victory, and the Patriots have more questions than answers. But if we're being honest all eyes continue to be on Jacoby Brissett completed 19 of 32 passes 168 yards did toss a touchdown threw a pick six but Jacoby was sacked six times and under pressure on 53.8 percent of his drop backs Cam we've documented the problems along the offensive line i think demontre jacobs gave every bit of everything he had yesterday it's a lot to ask of a guy that had not taken an nfl snap prior to yesterday's game to protect the blind side of a quarterback that's

already under fire yeah your star on offense your best player on offense arguably in remandre stevenson continues to run the ball well but he's got ball security issues. Your wide receivers are not getting the separation or the consistent space they need to make things happen in the open field. It's a mess right now, and a lot of Patriots fans are wondering, is Drake May the guy to come in and mask a lot of these problems? I think there are arguments for and against this, and I think they might be closer than a lot of people think. But before I steal your thunder, my friend, when you look at this team and the product you saw yesterday on the field, do you still feel like the only move the Patriots can make here is to stay with Jacoby, or do you think it's time

for a change in New England? I personally would look after next week towards the time for Drake May. And I think that's probably the way the coaching staff thinks too, of, you know, you got a Miami team without a real quarterback themselves coming in here in Foxborough. Let's just try to see if we can get this win here, get to two and three. And then, you know, we look at the schedule and we don't have a real winnable game for a while, probably. And I think that's probably the way they're thinking and saying, all right, then we'll roll out Drake May after this, you know, kind of ramp it up and practice a little bit. But I will say, like, the one thing that has been, I think, a big positive for Jacoby Brissett through the first three games was his ability to take care of the ball. And, you know, I talked about it last week on here of, you know,

he doesn't make bad plays worse. And this week he had two turnovers, and that pick six was bad, and the strip sack might have been even worse. That's at a tail end of two plays where he could have just thrown it into the ground and instead took sacks and took losses. And then I believe the strip sack's coming when he's about to pass, you know, like a yard over the line of scrimmage. So it was just not – you could tell the pressure it gets to him.

And I'm not saying in like an emotional sense, but like the literal pressure coming in on him and taking shots, just every other play, it absolutely wears down on you. So I totally get wanting Drake May out there. Cause at some point I really want Drake May out there. I'm not on the Gronk train of saying, Hey, let's wait until Thanksgiving to put him out there. I think that's ridiculous. But I also don't believe that this is the guy that's going to solve all your problems in 2024 you know if drake may is out there there's still going to be a ton of pressure on them there's still not going to be much of a pocket there's still not going to be receivers getting separation down

field it doesn't magically change all these other problems you have with the offense so i just kind of have that as a warning to all the fans out there we're like well if you don't put this kid in we're just going to be watching the same product every week it's like well right now if you put them in you're probably going to be watching the same product for for most of this time you know and and i get there's another crowd that says yeah well he's just got to learn on the fly and and i would probably be more part of that crowd of we're we want to see him out there not expecting this team to all of a sudden have the ability to score 30 points. Cause I doubt they're going to do that all season long, but I understand wanting to see him out there and developing and trying to take some tangible steps.

So that's why I think after Miami is, is a good shot. You have a stretch there that's not very kind to you anyway. And so I think you could kind of see it as playing with house money. You know, we've seen what Jacoby Brissett can do against some good teams here the last few weeks, right? Seattle, New York, and now San Francisco. And it's not going to cut it. I don't know that Drake Mays is going to be able to cut it either, but I think you've realized if you're the Patriots, you're, you're not, you're probably not going to steal

a win with Jacoby Brissett. Um, and maybe just, maybe you could do that with Drake may, maybe he makes enough magic at some point. I don't know, but I'm still weirdly in that in between Mike, I'm not the Gronk train of, Hey, give it a couple of months. I'm not, Hey, let's just throw them out there because why not? But I think next week is when you can start, after the Dolphins game, start thinking, okay, what are we waiting for here? We're through five. We're either two and three, and we've gotten what we can

out of the Jacoby Brissett train, or we're one and four, and it doesn't matter anyway. We just got to start something new. That's a good point, and I'm glad that you made that about next week being kind of like a turning point at this season for the Patriots. Cause everyone's looking, they're like, all right, you know what? You're one in three right now. You're at the quarter pole. You know, let's see what the kid can do. You've got a quarter of the season go or figuratively I should say. And now let's see what we can do at this point and get him in there

and get him used to taking reps against NFL level competition. We hear that argument. Cam, I'm sure you do. I know I do all the time. You can't keep this kid in bubble wrap. You can't keep him sheltered. He's got to learn. He's got to get in there. That's the best way for him to learn. He's not learning anything on the bench watching Jacoby Brissett right now who's just running for his life. Under normal circumstances, I would agree with those arguments and say, yes, Drake needs to learn how to play behind an incompetent offensive line. It's part of this game. We saw Tom Brady do that for a number of years where the line wasn't necessarily up to his specifications. Brady was so good that he could mask a lot of those problems.

Drake is not at that level yet. To expect that from him, I think, is unreasonable. But good quarterbacks have a way of making the players around them better. However, there is a caveat to that. And the caveat is that this offensive line is not just playing poorly. They're in flux right now. There's no consistency. There is no regularity to the personnel that's being put out there. And there's no continuity that you need to see from this offensive line. Part of being a good O-line is not necessarily having the best linemen in the league in place at their position. It's about five guys that are capable of playing together, that know each other's tendencies, and are able to move and

do things as a unit. If you don't have that on a consistent basis, and you put a rookie quarterback behind that type of a line, whether they're top-level players or not, it's going to have a detrimental effect on that rookie. And that's what I'm worried about when it comes to Drake May and putting him behind this offensive line. You know, you hear fans talk about it all the time. Oh, well, what are you waiting for? An all-pro offensive line? That's going to take years. You can't keep him on the shelf for years. Folks, I don't think that's what the Patriots are doing here. They're not necessarily waiting for the best players to come walking through the door in Foxborough. They're just waiting for a sense of continuity, which they don't have right now.

The left tackle position has been a revolving door. Four tackles in as many games is not continuity. I don't care what quarterback you have. That's a recipe for disaster. Interior has been decimated with injuries. Just getting City So back now. Cole Strange still on the shelf. We don't know when he's coming back.

Hopefully soon, but we don't know that. David Andrews leaves yesterday's game with a shoulder injury, and we're not sure what he's going to be able to do when he gets in there. Leighton Robinson, Michael Wainu, that's a lot to put on their shoulders on the right side. So until the Patriots get some left side continuity, yeah, they may have to stick with someone like Jacoby Brissett right now, who has the veteran ability to be able to make the most of it. Because I do think you do run the risk of ruining all of the progress that Drake is making right now when it comes to footwork when it comes

to making reads when it comes to making throws you hear his coaching staff talking about that all the time and they're saying that how impressed they've been with Drake May and how well he reads and manipulates the coverage if he gets put behind an offensive line that you have guys playing out of position and they're not giving him the type of protection he needs, that will have a detrimental effect. And I think that's what the Patriots are worried about here. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's one thing to say the offensive line ain't very good, but the reality is it's not even close. It's not even close to something that you can even scheme up week to week. You know, I mean, you take what was probably one of, if not the worst offensive lines in the league,

and then you take away three starters and one who just got back this week and is probably not at 100%. That's a different story than just saying, oh, you know, he's got to take hits at some point. We're talking about a disaster zone, 13 sacks allowed in two games. I don't know anyone who'd put out an investment, you know, a guy they've invested so much in like Drake May and who could be the next 10 years of your franchise under those circumstances. It's just a real tough ask. Absolutely. And especially for a rookie quarterback that has not taken,

dare I say this, folks, a meaningful NFL snap yet on his resume. There comes a time where patience does have to be a virtue, and I know it's running thin in Patriots Nation, and I don't blame a lot of you for the uneasiness that you're feeling right now. Under normal circumstances, I would be right there with you and wanting Drake May in there and saying, you've got to get the kid in there. Let him play behind guys that may not be playing up to their capabilities.

Maybe his ability to go off script could end up masking some of the problems that you see along the offensive line. Yes, if it was only the personnel that wasn't playing well, I would probably agree with that. But when you have a lot of questions as to who's even going to be in the lineup right up until game time, that's a lot to ask an NFL quarterback, any NFL quarterback, especially a rookie. And that is why Gerard Mayo continues to double down on having Jacoby as the starter.

He joined WEI's Greg Hill on Monday morning and said that Jacoby is still the starter. We reviewed the film on the flight home, and this is what we're going to do. And when we had the opportunity to speak to him just a few minutes later on zoom conference he doubled down on that and he says jacoby is 100 our starter naturally he's going to give himself an out and said i can always change my mind but i really don't think he's going to change his mind this week unless something drastically changes so folks what are your thoughts on the quarterback situation in New England? We'd love to hear your thoughts. I don't think there's a right or wrong answer here for Patriots Nation in terms of how you feel, but in terms of the product you're going to see on the field,

Jacoby Brissett will likely be your week five starter against the Miami Dolphins this Sunday. But Cam, unfortunately, it wasn't all the fault of Jacoby Brissett in that passing game. Patriots simply were deficient in, I will say, at least two out of three of the phases of this game in order to get the job done. Patriots offense, Patriots defense had some concerns and some questions. In just a moment, Cam and I are going to talk about what bothered us the most on the offensive side of the ball and the defensive side of the ball in the 30-13 loss to the Niners when this episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast continues, a proud part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team, every day.

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That's L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N NFL for $20 off. Download GameTime today. What time is it? GameTime. Cats fans, thank you for joining us once again here today on LOCKEDON Patriots. And of course, we continue to break down the Patriots 30-13 loss to the San Francisco

49ers in week four. Levi Stadium, Santa Clara, California. Just a dismal day for your New England Patriots. And in the previous segment, we talked a lot about the quarterback situation. It's a topic on everybody's mind, but it is not the only concern your New England Patriots have right now. A lot of offensive questions and defensive questions. And here today to help me break them all down is my good friend, Cam Stewart, the host of Locked On Sports Boston's Patriots postcast

coming at you after each and every Patriots game. Cam is one of the best in the business, and he does the job so well. You definitely have to check this out. And of course, check out all the work he does on Locked On Baylor. Cam, when you look at this Patriots loss, it's really easy to get lost in the pool of quarterback play because ultimately that's what's going to get the headlines. But there were a lot of concerns for the Patriots offensively on the field on Sunday. The offensive skill position players, the pass catchers, mostly on the wide receivers, still continue to have difficulty getting consistent separation or consistent space to make things happen. They're getting open at times, but it's not consistent enough to help the quarterback.

The running game, I thought Antonio Gibson had a very good game yesterday, one of the few bright spots on offense. Ramondre continues to run the ball well, but ball security issues are there and they're present. And, of course, the offensive line continues to struggle. And now you may have to deal with an injury to arguably your most important offensive lineman, maybe your most important offensive player in David Andrews. Before we flip over to the defensive side of the ball, let's continue on offense. What are your biggest concerns? What opens your eyes the most about this Patriots team on offense that needs to be fixed in short order?

Yeah, I can't look much further than Ramondre Stevenson. And I know there are many things that go into running the football well. And some of those are areas that the Patriots are quite deficient in, right? I remember a jailbreak screen where the running back was in front of all three blockers, um, who were supposed to be, uh, the linemen who were supposed to be walking for him upfield. Um, but you look at Ramond Dre, this is back-to-back weeks where he has not eclipsed 50 yards, um, and four games with four fumbles. Like this is a real issue. And I know he had kind of corrected it a bit last year, uh, only had like what, like two or three last year, I think.

And so it was, it was like, okay, we've got him. This is the franchise guy. He gets a contract and now four games into the season, maybe thinks he's trying to do too much, but four games and four fumbles. Like that, that goes from, Hey, you're not giving me enough to, you're hurting my team. You're hurting us right now. You're giving the other team short fields.

And I think that's where you got to look. I mean, again, I know there's so much that goes into this, but you knew your deficiencies going into this season. I think that probably gave Ramondre Stevenson some leverage in contract talks. And still, he isn't the back I think you thought you were getting for the last two seasons now and now it's becoming a an issue again where it's not just leveling it out it's it's hurting your team and if you I think the Patriots believe they had a game changer at running back and that it was going to be able to cover up some of the deficiencies in, in the,

in the protection and the run blocking, but it hasn't seemed to be that way. And I think the Patriots are realizing we might have a good back, but he doesn't have a good environment around him that he needs to be a great back. And what are we doing here? So yeah, I think we're Andre Stevenson needs to start getting some heat here for four fumbles in four games. I mean, I don't even need to go any farther than that. That's enough to light up the phone lines and the sports talk radio stations all over the region, man.

That's not good enough. Yeah, absolutely. No, it's not good enough. And look, at some point, you have to look and point the finger at Ramondre for not protecting the football. I mean, these are points that are coached up or they should be coached up. I'll get to that in a moment. But you have to look at his mechanics. And I watched him a lot yesterday because heading into this game, he had three fumbles in as many games. You didn't want to see him cough up the

football again. And you look at his mechanics, he's got both hands on the ball. It looks like he's trying to take the best care of it as possible but there are lapses or there are deficiencies in the way he's carrying it and we asked gerard mayo about this on monday morning and he did acknowledge yeah there was a block that was missed by the guard and those do kind of go hand in hand with difficulties that you have uh with ball security so i can understand that and that playing a part, but four fumbles in four games, like you said, Cam, is inexcusable. And you can only turn a blind eye to that so long. There has to be a level of accountability to which he's held. And that's up to Alex Van Pelt.

That right now is up to Alex Van Pelt, his offensive coordinator. Even if the running backs coaches and whatnot are not necessarily either getting the job done or they're having a difficult time. That's where your OC needs to step in and coach this up. Because like you said, it is hurting the New England Patriots. It's giving opponents short fields. You don't want to give a team like the San Francisco 49ers a short field. It hurts your team. So ball security needs to be paramount this week in practice.

We said it last week here on Locked On Patriots. That's going to be the primary coaching point. If that is not priority one on the offensive side of the ball when it comes to this running back core and especially the interior of that offensive line that's supposed to be putting these blocks in to make sure that the running backs have the sufficient holes to get to where they need to get. If you don't have that lead guy doing what he needs to do consistently, then your offense predicated on a strong running game to open up play action is not going to work. So, yeah, I agree with you.

I think that's the biggest offensive concern. But, Cam, it didn't stop on offense. Patriots defense yesterday had some deficiencies as well and this is a surprise because this is supposed to be the bread and butter of New England's game plan this is supposed to be the strongest of the three units now a lot of that can be chalked up to not having three of their most explosive players one was by choice trading Matthew Judon to Atlanta but Christian Barmore and Juwan Bentley going down with presumably season-ending injuries was not part of the plan,

but guys like Joshua Uche have not stepped up to be that presence on the edge or that presence in the pass rush they need to be. I think Devon Godshaw has done everything he needs to do in the middle part of that defense, but he's not getting consistent enough help from Daniel Aquale and maybe even Dietrich Wise a little bit. Keon White has been trying to do, I think, a little too much in getting after the quarterback, and maybe he hasn't necessarily been able to focus as much on fundamentals. When you look at this team defensively now, what seems to be the biggest concern for you moving forward? Yeah, you kind of touched on it at the end there. It's the pass rush.

I thought that was going to be a strength of this Patriots team coming into training camp, and obviously you got some blows, right? I mean, the Judon thing, I don't want to say it was inevitable, but it felt like it was getting there, and I thought you did a good bit of business to get back what you got back for Matthew Judon. Of course you'd love to have him on this team. But if we're looking at the big picture, I'm okay with that move.

And then Barmore, your legs get cut out from under you. You know, no one saw that coming. And Keon White was a monster through the first two games. And I was so surprised because of that, because there was so much attention that was going to be put on him. And that has evened out here in the last two weeks. And it's tough for me to even blame Keon White. Like there's no one else to go against. You know, I watched it with the Bruins power play in the spring.

They said, Pasternak's not scoring, but you could key on anybody else. He's the only one that can score. Keon White's the only one that can score. Keyon White's the only one that can really get to the quarterback every play. You know, Dietrich Wise, I know he's not out there as much, but not doing much. Josh Usche has been invisible this year and it's now made the Patriots much worse for wear in both trenches, so to speak. We know their offensive line, but not getting any pressure the quarterback that was a huge part of the one win in Cincinnati uh Keon White had two and a

half sacks they were getting in the backfield uh they were they were creating pressure and they can't create pressure anymore and as good as these defensive backs can be this doesn't look like a team that's going to be getting coverage sacks. You know what I mean? As good as Christian Gonzalez is, and at times, you know, Jonathan and Marcus Jones, I thought have both played well this year. There's not enough if you can't get any kind of pass rush. So that bugs me as well as kind of, I call them like backbone plays. I'll use another different sport analogy, the shutdown inning in baseball. Once you score, you want your pitcher to shut them down for an inning. Don't let them score any runs. You kind of build off that momentum. The Patriots scored three times on

Sunday. The first one was right into halftime, so you couldn't have an answer there if you're San Francisco. Then they threw the touchdown to Austin Hooper. Next play for San Francisco, 55-yard pass to Debo Samuel. Then they scored in the fourth quarter with the field goal, and the first play from scrimmage for San Francisco was a 46-yard pass to Juwan Jennings. So your two plays, two first-down plays after you scored, went for 101 yards. Like that, all of a sudden, you know, in that first one,

San Francisco's in the end zone three plays later. Like you just give it right back to them. So when you're a team that is hanging your hat on this defense and one that obviously kept them in a ton of games last year, they probably had no business being in. You can't just let them answer right away like that. You know, it's almost as if they woke up San Francisco, the much better team, and Shanahan's like, all right, we'll stop screwing around.

We'll throw it down the field and make some big plays. And that's what bugs me. And it stinks in that these guys do need to be perfect, essentially, defensively with this offense you had, but you knew that's what it was. Yeah, absolutely. So well said. And again, I think you bring up so many interesting points, especially when it comes to the Patriots' lack of a pass rush.

And I think this goes back to the absence of Christian Barmore and how important he is to setting that tone. Matthew Judon said, you know, for the time that he was here in New England, that his ability to get after the quarterback was so predicated on Christian being there to take on the double team because it allowed him the space that he needed to get after the quarterback without Christian in that lineup he's not there to take that double team on so players are able to zero in on Keon and make stops to him Keon is still getting pressure on the quarterback he's still the only guy right now that's getting consistent pressure but he

can't do it alone and in key situations he doesn't have the ability to shake free and really get home after the quarterback. Folks, the offensive and defensive questions will continue to arise, and the Patriots need to address them this week in practice. However, they may be getting a little bit of a boost on offense because the Patriotsots pass catchers have been a little deficient lately in terms of being able to contribute to what has been an anemic output on the scoring side of the ball. Receiver Kendrick Bourne looks like he's all ready to go and ready to return from an ACL injury that sidelined him for most of last year and all of this year. Is this the shot in the arm the Patriots need to get back into the swing of things in the

passing game? Cam and I are going to discuss that point 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. Hey, NFL fans, you can start the season with a big return on FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view live play-by-play, and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. You'll get started with $200 in bonus bets, guaranteed, when you place your first $5 bet.

So if you're feeling pretty good about the chances of your favorite New England sports team, you can test your intuition and make the most of it with FanDuel.com. That's FanDuel.com. That's fans. Thank you once again for joining us here today on Locked On Patriots. And if you have made us your first listen today, I encourage you to make your second listen, our good friends over at Locked On NFL. All the major

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And folks, we continue to break down the loss of your team, your favorite team in Foxborough, 30-13 to the San Francisco 49ers in week four of the NFL season. Week five against the Miami Dolphins is on the horizon, and it looks like the Patriots are going to be getting an old friend back. That's right. Wide receiver Kendrick Bourne looks like he is ready to come off the pup list and looks like he will start practice. And, of course, here today to help us break it all down is our good friend Cam Stewart.

Cam, we've outlined the problems the Patriots have had in the passing game, from the quarterbacks to the wide receivers. But Kendrick was arguably the Patriots' best wide receiver when he went out last year with a torn ACL. Is the return of Kendrick Bourne enough to spark this Patriots passing game to essentially become relevant? Not even necessarily put them into prominence, but just help them be relevant in games because they've been non-existent through the first four. Yeah, my gut instinct is to say no, but then again, with taking into context how bad it's been through the first four games, there's no way it can make it worse.

It just can't. And Kendrick Bourne, and I say that not as a knock on Kendrick Bourne, but he's not a number one receiver. We talk about how valuable that is in this league, the guys who are the five or six or eight guys who can really get open on any play and go after any ball that you need. Uh, Kendrick Bourne is not one of those and he is a nice piece to have. And he's obviously done this at a high level for a long time. Uh, I do wonder about his explosiveness coming off a knee injury at his age. Um, but absolutely he is a guy who has shown he has been an excellent route runner in the past, a guy who can create separation and you know, who knows what that opens up? Like it,

I guess what I'm coming down to is like, is Kendrick born better than Ty Tyquan Thornton? Yes, he is. And so if, if out there, rather than someone like Thornton, and I know positionally you've got to work some things around that, but that is going to open up more space for Jalen Polk, for Demario Douglas, for Javon Baker or Keyshawn Boutte, whoever won stress that week. You know what I mean? So there is an option to open things up,

because I thought about this with Hunter Henry during Sunday sunday during sunday's game like where's he been remember the big first half against seattle where's hunter henry been and then i thought much like tion white on the other side it's like well who else you cover it they're focusing on hunter henry who else you get a cover for this team and so forrick Bourne, is he a number one receiver? No, but he's one more guy to cover. And I think that shouldn't be slept on how big that is for the Patriots right now. Absolutely. So well said. And look, bottom line, what else makes Kendrick so dangerous for opposing teams to cover is

that he can win from pretty much any alignment. He's most comfortable when he's in the z-roll but he can assist in the slot he's been called upon to play the x so however he lines up he can win his battles and that to me is going to be interesting if he does have that same step that he had before his injury or at least close to it that's going to make him someone that has to be accounted for on every single drop back every single play i know the injury is going to make it difficult for him to carry the ball out of the back field, either on the jet sweep or on design runs. We've seen him do that before.

I don't think you're going to see him do that anytime soon. I'd be surprised unless his progress was, you know, light years above where I thought it was. But I think he's ready to at least come in and be a contributor to this team because again, the Patriots are just not getting consistent separation when it comes to their targets and man coverage. And of course, they're not really getting deep on all that much on any occasion. Let some of these guys that can get deep, get out and do that.

And maybe Kendrick helps to mop up some of the stuff in the middle of the field to help the Patriots do it. So folks, we are definitely excited to watch Kendrick Bourne back in the lineup, and he'll be on the practice fields this week. Whether or not he suits up on Sunday is still anybody's guess, but he is closer to a return, and that may mean good things for the New England Patriots offense. So, Cam, I always say I like to end on a high note.

Let's do that because we've seen enough lowlights lately. Folks, Cam Stewart does such an amazing job with the Patriots postcast, and I know you've been enjoying them all throughout the season. You can always catch him here weekly on the Locked On Patriots podcast as well. Anytime he puts pen to paper or voice to microphone, you always want to check it out. Check out the Cam Show. You can check that out anywhere where you get your podcasts

and, of course, all the great work he does right here on the Locked On Podcast Network for Locked On Baylor. And you can follow him on X at Real Cam Stewart. As for me, I'm Mike DeBate. And I remind you all to stay safe, to stay well, to be the change you wish to see in the world. And a big thanks from the bottom of my heart for making Locked On Patriots a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage.

Until tomorrow, Foxborough faithful, have a great day, and we'll see you here tomorrow on the Locked On Patriots podcast.