Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - New England Patriots: What Could DERAIL 2025 Expectations?

Episode Date: May 14, 2025

The New England Patriots and Mike Vrabel have had a beloved offseason and the expectations continue to grow as time goes on. What could derail those growing expectations?Part of those expectations is the WR room that includes Stefon Diggs, Kyle Williams, “Pop” Douglas, and many others. We dive into the versatility within that room. And, speaking of Kyle Williams, what did he say to the media that stood out to us? Find out on today’s episode!Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOPatriots?sid=YouTubeLocked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNFL#patriots #newenglandpatriotsSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.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)

Expectations are growing for the 2025 season, but there are questions that could limit this team's ceiling. That's where we start on this episode of Locked On Patriots. You are Locked On Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What's up, Patriots fans? I'm your host, Nick Cattles, born and raised in New England, your New England Patriots expert, host of the Everything Pats podcast, co-host of the Greg Bedard Patriots podcast with Nick Cattles.

And I'm also a sports talk show host veteran on today's show, the compelling versatility of the wide receiver room, and the enticing impact this coaching staff could have on the rookie class. But first, we discuss the growing expectations of a team coming off back to back for when seasons and the challenges that they will face. We appreciate you joining the show, making us your first listen and for being an everydayer the lockdown Patriots podcast is a proud partner the lockdown

Podcast network your team every day in today's episode is brought to you by our friends at Fandel right now new customers can get $200 and bonus bets when your first five dollar bet wins on yesterday's show I gave the Patriots offseason an a-minus for the grade and Now some of you might disagree with that you might think the Patriots deserved more than a- I would not go any lower than an a- maybe Your debate back and forth with yours truly would push me towards an a or an a- plus I'm not sure but I gave him an a- I am sure that Pro Football Focus gave the Patriots off season an A+. Can't get better than that. And the Patriots' tires, they are being pumped everywhere.

You look locally, you look nationally, the expectations continue to grow for a football team that won only four games last season after winning, you guessed it, only four games in 2023. But let's talk about some of these expectations and let's talk about some of the challenges that this team will face, some of the obstacles that could get in the way of this team reaching its full potential. Greg Bedard at Boston Sports Journal wrote this recently, what are my expectations for this team? If the coaching staff is as good as we think it is,

and is a huge improvement over the past couple of seasons, then I do expect the Patriots to challenge for a post-season spot. Mike Renner of CBS Sports posted right after the draft that the Patriots arguably had the largest single off-season talent increase that he has ever seen a franchise have in his 13 years of being an analyst for CBS Sports. Not counting, he added, not counting adding quarterbacks. Karen Gorigian, the OG at Mass Live, she wrote recently, arriving on the heels of back-to-back 4 and 13 seasons

and inheriting one of the worst rosters in the NFL, Vrabel has managed to flip the script in short order. Instead of continuing to head further into the abyss, he's risen above the fray and created some modest expectations for the bottom-feeding patriots. Modest expectations. Karen continued, he's provided a measure of hope five months ahead of the start of the 2025 regular season. While the Patriots haven't played a game, they've already gotten from the mat in some

eyes. There's actually talk of them possibly making the playoffs. There's been some talk about them possibly making the playoffs. There's no doubt that this roster on paper is much better than it was last year. We went through some of that during yesterday's show. I'm not going to bore you going over that again. But there are legitimate challenges. There are legitimate obstacles that could get in the way of this team hitting their

ceiling. If you think they're on the cusp of the playoffs, there are some questions that could have them falling short of even that. If you think they're a playoff team, there are questions that could get in the way of them getting into the postseason. Let's start here.

There is lots of new. There is new all over the place at Gillette Stadium. It's a new car dealership. It's not a used Gillette Stadium. It's a new car dealership. It's not a used car dealership. It's a new car dealership. There's lots of new. There's new staff, new coaching staff everywhere. New coaching staff, offensively, defensively, not as much on special teams. There's obviously a new head coach and with a new staff with all of these new names and in new egos and new personalities It could take some time for these guys to find their group it's not easy to turn over the entire staff and

Just like that click Not easy There's also new schemes involved for the players that have been here past years on defense. There's going to be a new scheme. Terrell Williams, Mike Rabel, what they do is different. For the offense, of course, Josh McDaniels. Now, there are some guys here that are left over from 2021. Ramon Dre is one of them. Hunter Henry is another. Kendrick Bourne is another. So those guys will have some kind of a feel for what McDaniels wants to do offensively. But a lot of these guys on the offensive side and defensive side, save for the dudes that came in with Vrabel, in essence, like Harold Landry and Robert Spillane, those guys have played

underneath Vrabel and Williams. They understand what he asks of them and what the scheme is. But there's a lot of players on this football team that will be playing within a scheme for the first time. They will be playing within these schemes for the first time. Just tons of roster turnover. And just like when we talk about the staff finding that chemistry, finding that flow, it might take a little while for so many new faces on the field to figure out what the other guy is doing. It's almost impossible to gain chemistry overnight.

It could take a month, it could take two months, we don't know. Then we move to the quarterback. Sophomore season, so to speak, for Drake May. He has played in about 10 and a half NFL games in his NFL career. We're just figuring out who Drake May is. He showed flashes. I'm optimistic. I think Drake May is going to end up being one of the better quarterbacks in football.

I think he has the talent to be a top five to eight guy. Will he get there? I don't know. And I certainly can't guarantee you that. I feel good about his chances. But we don't know until we see it consistently from him. So there are still some questions about Drake May, the turnover worthy plays, putting himself in harm's way,

running with the football. Then he has a new offensive coordinator, plays, putting himself in harm's way, running with the football. Then he has a new offensive coordinator, his second offensive coordinator in two years. And if you go back to UNC, this is his fourth offensive coordinator in his last four years playing football. That's a lot of change, even for a smart, hardworking quarterback like me. A lot of change. So new offensive coordinator, which means new scheme. Yes, you're going to mix things in that he's used to doing and you

want him to feel comfortable, but inevitably this is a new scheme. He's working with new weapons. Stephon Diggs, Kyle Williams, Trevion Henderson, you know the names, but he's working with new weapons around him. He's working with a new center in Garrett Bradbury, unless Jared Wilson beats him out. Doesn't matter. He's still working with a new center. He's going to have a new right tackle, a new left tackle, probably a new left guard. So almost an entirely new offensive line in front of him. And you know the NFL is going to adjust.

The NFL has film. They're going to make life harder for May in his second season. And there's the learning curve. Look at Josh Allen from year one, his rookie season, he completed 52.8% of his passes for just over 2000 yards, 10 touchdowns, 12 interceptions. In his second year, he completed 58.8% of his passes, 6% better than what he did in his rookie season. He had 3,089 yards, more than a thousand yards more than his rookie season. He threw for 20 touchdowns, which doubled his touchdowns, and he cut his picks by three. Drake may should, and I believe

will be better, but I'm not sure how much better. Josh Allen made that leap in year three, that special leap. And I also would not be surprised on the other side of the football that we have some slow starts from some guys that don't quite feel comfortable with what they're being asked to do given what they had done under prior regimes. Then we look at the draft class. I'm high on the draft class. Most of you are high on the draft class. I'm high on the draft class. Most of you are high on the draft class. But we've got to see what happens if they have a little bit of a slow start.

What happens if Will Campbell has to get used to playing left tackle at the NFL level and goes through some early struggles? What happens if Trevion Henderson struggles a little bit, jumping into the NFL pool and working with Josh McDaniels for the first time. Kyle Williams, we know the history at receiver, the recent history of the draft picks that we have seen come in and then go away. Is Kyle Williams going to be the next in line or will he be able to break away from that pack and truly show himself worthy early in his rookie season. Now I think this rookie class can have a big impact.

But if they get off to a slow start, if they take six to eight weeks to truly get going, that means your left tackle is going to get off to a slow start. And two of your most explosive, maybe your most explosive offensive players get off to a slow start. So there are some challenges, especially early in 2025, that could derail the expectations, the ceiling of this team. Speaking of Kyle Williams, the Patriots have added not only talent to the wide receiver room, but versatility. That's coming up next as we continue with today's episode of Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

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Unfortunately, I don't think that they've brought in a true number one guy. Stefan Diggs is an easy upgrade over many that have been in that room the past couple of years. As long as he comes back healthy, as long as he looks about 75, 80% of who he has been, he's one of the best receivers in that wide receiver room, if not the best receiver in that wide receiver room. But he's not a number one guy anymore. He's just not. So that's one of the questions about this team's roster that wasn't really answered

during this off season. Finding that number one guy. But here's the good news. The Patriots have added a ton of versatility at the wide receiver position. Let's begin with inside outside capability. Having guys that can play in the slot, having guys that could play outside, guys that can move along the line of scrimmage and make life difficult for the defense.

Burnd Buckmasser at Pat's Pulpit wrote this about Kendrick Bourne in 2021. In 2021, Bourne spent 37.8% of his offensive snaps in the slot, 60.9% on the outside. So Bourne in the Josh McDaniels offense back in 2021, he played 37.8% of the offensive snaps he was out there for in the slot 60.1% of his snaps on the outside. Inside outside versatility. Then we get two digs. Phil Perry wrote this about digs. He spent 52.8% of his snaps in the slot last season with the Texans. That's per Pro Football Focus. So digs spent 52.8% of his snaps in the slot, which means he spent, you know, 47, 48% of the other snaps that he had not in the slot, versatility.

Kyle Williams at Washington state played about 25% of his snaps in the slot, about 75% on the outside. Jalen Polk, you go back to his college days at Washington and he played 41.1% of his snaps during his senior season in the slot. Played about 58-59% not in the slot. So you've got Kyle Williams and Diggs and Born and Polk. All of those guys have had experience playing in the slot and also playing outside Versatility and you know, you know for a fact that Josh McDaniels is Going to love the ability that he has as a play caller and play designer to manipulate the defense at the line of scrimmage creating those mismatches.

Having somebody lined up outside, they slide inside. Having somebody inside, they slide outside. McDaniels is no doubt going to play those games with defensive backs all day long and linebackers all day long. He's going to want to make the life of a defense miserable, week in and weak out. And part of how you can do that is by utilizing your team's versatility.

But it's not just the versatility as far as where these guys can line up. It's also having the versatility to display, deploy explosiveness and some gadget elements to your offense. Now I'm not just talking about trick plays and we know McDaniels loves a couple of trick plays. He is one of the biggest fans of trick plays, very Andy Reid-esque, loves dialing up trick plays. But you do have players in the wide receiver room that McDaniels can take advantage of with their explosiveness

and their ability to be a gadget player, so to speak. Pop Douglas, we know what Pop Douglas can do when he has some space. He can be absolutely devastating with space. And I would just have to imagine that McDaniels will take advantage of that. Kyle Williams, when he was at Washington State, he was a yards after the catch beast. One of the best players in the country last year when it came to yards after the catch. He'll kill you in the screen game. I believe he had not one, not two, but three touchdowns on screen passes last year. He's a menace and Kendrick Bourne, you go back to 2021 again with Josh

McDaniels in this offense and what we saw was a Kendrick Bourne that was lining up everywhere, not only outside and inside as I discussed already, but he was also put in the backfield at times. He was utilized with, you know, jet sweeps, trying to hit the perimeter. So you start to see all of these receivers, and many of them are interchangeable parts, and many of them have different aspects to their games. So you can swap one guy in one spot for another guy in another spot. You can have somebody take a jet sweep. You can line somebody up in the backfield You can line somebody up anywhere you want frankly

So there's a lot of versatility You might not have a true number one guy in that room But you have a number of guys that could do a number of different things Which McDaniel's as a play caller with his reputation and his resume? He should be able to get the most out of players like that. The versatility. And we're just talking about wide receivers here, like natural receivers.

We can also lump in the running backs when we have this conversation. Because Ramondre Stevenson caught almost 70 balls a couple of years ago. Antonio Gibson was a receiver in college, and we have waxed poetic about Trevion Henderson and his ability to catch the football and take advantage of mismatches against linebackers and safeties. He's got that double move highlight that I'm sure many of you saw down the sidelines at

Ohio State. So you've got Henderson, Gibson and Stevenson. If they all make the team, Gibson's the question, I think. But you've got Mondray, Gibson and Henderson who could all line up in different places. You could have two backs in the backfield pony formation. You could take advantage of the ability, all three of your running backs to catch the football, make some plays. You can have them deployed in the screen game. McDaniels loves a good screen. You could even move all three of your running backs to the line of scrimmage. You can line up Stevenson on the line of scrimmage. He's done that, especially in the red zone. He's done that.

Gibson can do that with his experience at wide receiver. Trevion Henderson is going to be capable of doing that. And you also have pieces that should help you in the red zone. You've got a big bodied receiver and Mack Hollins who does some really good work inside the red area. Diggs with his ability, his route running should help work inside the red area. Diggs, with his ability, his route running, should help you in the red zone. So you start to put all of these pieces together,

and you take those pieces, you give them to Josh McDaniels, and you say, Josh, do your best work. And the fact is, he has a lot of different components to this offense that could make life absolutely miserable for any defensive coordinator. Versatility, explosiveness, gadgetry, running backs that can be receivers, guys that can produce in the red zone. This offense should be much better than what we've seen the past couple of years.

There was one comment that stood out to me after the first day of rookie minicamp and it has stuck with me. It's coming up next as we continue with today's episode of Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Let's look back at the 2024 draft class. It was so long ago. Joe Milton, the backup quarterback to the backup quarterback last year. Joe Milton, the guy who was traded for a compensatory fifth round pick just about a month or so ago. He was the second best talking point of the 2024 draft class. Could you imagine that? You had Drake May and then what else did you have? Jalen Polk failed. Kayden Wallace got hurt. Jayvon Baker failed.

Leydon Robinson was out there in stretches. But he wasn't great. He was kind of all over the place. And that was it. And I'm not writing that draft class off. Hopefully you know my philosophy by now. Which is, I give every single young player, I give them two years.

You get two years to figure it out. If you don't show anything by the end of your second season, I stopped believing in the idea that you're gonna be an NFL player. So I'm not giving up on those guys from last year's draft class. However, it's just to put things into perspective here

of how that draft class fell well short of expectations. And there's fault to be thrown all around the blame plot pie. You can split it up. Yes. Some of that is on the player. No doubt about it. If not, most of it is on the player. Some of it's on injury like Kaden walls, but some of it, some of it, I believe

was also on the coaching staff, a coaching staff that was not ready. A coaching staff that failed to teach the young players to develop that rookie class. I don't know how you want to split it. I don't know if you want to give the staff 10%, 20%. I couldn't care less. The point is the coaching staff that was just not nearly good enough Negatively impacted that draft class. That's what I believe and they may never come back from it. Unfortunately But I bring all of this up because of what Kyle Williams said After the first rookie minicamp practice at the end of last week. Last Friday Williams told the media that nothing, nothing at rookie minicamp had surprised him because the staff prepared him for what to expect during his pre-draft visit.

So during the pre-draft visit, Patriot's staff laid out what he could expect if he was going to join this football team. And that's what I want to talk about today, is the staff's impact on this rookie class. Also last year's class, but this rookie class, it could be huge. Because you have a better staff, you have a better head coach. Do any of us believe that Mike Vrabel doesn't have some kind of developmental plan for each and every player? He went to Cleveland last year. Part of going to Cleveland, and he has said this in multiple interviews, part of going to Cleveland was because he wanted to see not only the on the field part of it and continue to work with players and all that good stuff.

He wanted to learn more about the front office operation and how Cleveland approached things and the conversations that they had and how they tried to look ahead, how they worked with developing guys. Now we can have a different conversation about whether or not Cleveland was the best example to take from, but it is what it is. I have to imagine that Vrabel has a developmental plan post Browns for this team that he has assembled along with Elliot Wolf and Ryan Cowden. And we know that Vrabel, one of his strong points, this has been mentioned by a bunch of people who have played for him, coached with him, know him, his attention to detail is almost obsessive.

When you have that kind of attention to detail from the head coach, then we know he's going to be watching all of these young players like a hawk. He's going to understand what guys do well what they don't do Well how they can maybe tweak something to make themselves better that attention to detail goes hand-in-hand With developing young players because if you're paying attention to all the details You can relay those details to the young players and if they pick them up, if they pick up what you're putting down, that will make them better in the end. And you've got an experienced coaching staff throughout.

Defensive, offensive staff, tons of experience. Do we have any concern about Josh McDaniels and his ability to teach an offense to players? I don't And you can go down the line of his assistants on the offensive side Thomas brown we've talked about it overqualified Todd Downing overqualified you have an experienced staff throughout Now we look at some of these rookies that are coming in and who they get to work with. Let's focus on the offensive line. Let's focus on Will Campbell, Jared Wilson, Marcus Bryant. Let's just look at them as the example of how this coaching staff has been assembled to get the best out of these rookies and to develop them efficiently.

You have three offensive line coaches devoted, devoted to 11 or 12 guys. You have them working with these offensive linemen every day. You have three offensive line coaches which allows you to pay extra attention to the rookies who are trying to transition into the league because one guy, two guys obviously spread more thin. Don't forget that Mike Vrabel, when he was in Cleveland last year,

spent a lot of time with the offensive line, working with them them talking with them So he has a better understanding of O-line play now. I mean worse comes to worse if you're in an emergency situation Which I don't know why you would be with three offensive line coaches and variable as the head coach But worse comes to worse you could always get Dante scar neck. Yeah on the phone It's already been reported that scar neck is around to help. He's not coaching. He's not at the facility. He's not going to cut these guys off at the knees, but he's a phone call away if you have some kind of

question. So that's the difference. You're walking in just as, you know, Campbell, Wilson and Bryant as an example here, you're walking in and you're working with an experienced staff that has three coaches staffed through the gills that will have a clear plan being watched by a head coach who also has recent experience working with offensive linemen. It's a different world than 2024. And then you can move away from the coaching staff

and you could go to the on-field mentorship. Morgan Moses with the offensive line, you don't think he's gonna be able to help Campbell, Wilson and Bryant and Conley from Boston College and some of the UDFAs that they brought in. You don't think that Morgan Moses is going to be able to Lend his knowledge to those young offensive linemen to help them to guide them You didn't really have that last year now

I know you had Michael Wenu, but he's flopping and flipping and flipping and flopping from right tackle right guard right tackle right guard Who jab yeah, David Andrews. David Andrews could certainly help. But Moses, he could fill that role. And we saw the kind of gravity that he holds at the podium. You can just imagine him in the locker room. Wide receiver. Those guys were kind of on an island, right,

of misfit toys last year. But now you bring Diggs in, you bring Hollinson, two solid veterans, two guys that want to help run that room, two guys who are willing to take young players and put them under their wing. Defensive line, Harold Landry, Milton Williams, veteran guys who have been there. So when you look up and down this team, and you listen to Kyle Williams saying, Oh, I was prepared because the coaching staff that they told me what I should be ready for, if I was drafted, it's just a small part of the bigger plan. And you feel like this team has an actual plan

from Vrabel to the staff, to the on-field mentorship. This rookie class has a chance to make an impact immediately because of the structure that has been put together. That wraps up this edition of Lockdown Patriots on tomorrow show. The schedule is officially released at schedule time. Reach out to me on Twitter at Nick C. Radio. Don't forget to throw a comment in on the YouTube channel as well.

Thank you for making Lockdown Patriots your first listen today. For your second listen, check out Lockdown NFL scouting. The NFL draft, of course, it's donezo. The news keeps coming. Hosts Kyle's crabs and Joe Marino will make you the most informed NFL fan this off season. Find Lockdown NFL Scouting on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Have a great day and we will see you tomorrow.