Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Patriots Surge: Drake Maye & A.J. Brown Power New England to Joint Practice Win

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wednesday was the biggest test of this patch training camp, and these eyes believed Drake May and company unequivocally passed that test. This is 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 happening? I am your host, Nick Cattles. Once again, I'm doing this bad boy remote in Foxborough to witness these two

Starting point is 00:00:36 joint practices in person against the Eagles. On today's show, the defense wasn't all perfect, but they ended Wednesday's practice with a flourish. In the second segment, Drake May's supporting cast holds up their end of the bargain against the Eagles. But first, Philadelphia, New England, joint practice number one goes to the good guys. Today's episode is brought to buy Kalshi for a limited time. Download the Kalshi app and use code lockdown to get $10 when you trade $10. Now, witnessing the joint practice, it's pretty difficult as far as setup goes because the teams split the fields, the vast majority of the day. So you've got the Patriots offense on one field. You've got the Patriots defense on another field. So you can't watch everything at the

Starting point is 00:01:23 same time as each side of the football is simultaneously doing their work. So going into Wednesday's joint practice, I decided I was going to watch the offense and I would wash the one-on-one pass rush reps from the Patriots, defensive ends, and defensive linemen. So that was the plan that was going into this joint practice and that was the plan that we executed during this joint practice. My overall takeaway is that this was a strong showing by the Pats, especially when you talk about the top unit of the Patriots against the top unit of the Philadelphia Eagles. When it was ones versus ones, I thought the Patriots won the majority of the day. And they finished. They finished this joint practice on a high note. And we know that Mike Vrable

Starting point is 00:02:14 from the very beginning of his time in New England, he has preached effort and finish. And the Patriots had a fantastic finish. Let's start with it. The first two-minute drill run by the Patriots offense, Pop Douglas for 10 plus yards, a second in 10 chunk play. to Mack Holland's downfield. Drake May also had a scramble during this two-minute drill. 15 seconds left on the clock. Drake May finds Hunter Henry, nice little gain, sets up a 53-yard field goal attempt by Andy Boragallis, and Andy Boragallis drills the 53-yard field goal.

Starting point is 00:02:49 So the first two-minute drill for the top unit, that offense came through. They moved the ball down the field. They got the field goal from 53 yards. Mission accomplished. The second team offense with Tommy DeVito, their two-minute drill. Eli Rairden, chunk play. Nice play call. Mack Hollins had a pick play here.

Starting point is 00:03:10 Eli Rairden in the flat, wide open, Rairden, chunk play. Defensive pass interference on the Eagles. And then once again, that name Mack Hollins. Hollins had a huge play during the first two-minute drill. And then the second team's two-minute drill with Tommy DeVito at quarterback. Hollins has another big play. This time on fourth and twenty, Eventually, the Patriots set up a 57-yard field goal, which again, Borigalus drill.

Starting point is 00:03:38 So your two offensive two-minute drills, finish with points. Field goal, field goal. And the pace, the pace of the Pat's offensive operation, when compared to Philadelphia's pace and their offensive operation, of course, new offensive coordinator after last year's debacle. But you could just tell watching these two teams in that two-minute. drill. The efficiency of getting the play at the line of scrimmage, understanding what you're trying to run and get as many plays off as you can to try to score. The pace of the Patriots offense was much, much higher than the pace of the Eagles offense. I thought Philadelphia's

Starting point is 00:04:18 offense was like a snail-like pace during the two-minute drill. It stood out significantly. Let's get to the defense for the Patriots. The first two-minute defensive stand. Greg Woodson, blitzes, gets a pressure. Kevin Byard, blitzes, gets a pressure. Christian Barmore ends up getting into the backfield. It would have been a sack. If this was reality, that's it. The two-minute drill's over. Pressure, pressure, incomplete, incomplete, and then a sack from Christian Barmore. But of course, it's not reality. So you keep it moving and you say, well, we're going to continue with this two-minute drill. and you know what, if this game was the Patriots leading by three points or the Patriots leading by six or seven,

Starting point is 00:05:07 then you would really have to go anyway. But in reality, it's a Christian Barmore sack. It would have forced a three and out unless you had to go for it. And in this case, Philadelphia, they had to go for it and they end up with zero points. They make a couple of plays. Carlton Davis, by the way, gives up a big, you know, fourth down and forever play on an out route, just a bad rep by Carlton Davis. He was frustrated. But the Patriots give up zero points on their first defensive two-minute drill. Second defensive two-minute drill. Wide receiver screen for nothing.

Starting point is 00:05:40 Kindle Vildor with the stop. In the final play of the day, the final play of the second defensive two-minute drill against the Philadelphia Eagles and the Eagles second team, Kindle Vildor ends up with a pick. So the Patriots end the day on an interception. Talk about ending on a high note. Your two offensive two-minute drills, they end. They result in a field goal each. Your two-defensive two-minute drills against the Eagles offenses, they end up with zero points against you, including the second two-minute drill, which ends up in a takeaway. So a strong finish, a strong finish for the Patriots on Wednesday at the first joint practice against Philly. Here's something else I want to talk about in this first segment.

Starting point is 00:06:28 Drake May, your most important football player this season. Drake May was really good on Wednesday. He finished 15 for 18 on the day. He was eight for eight in the first three 11 on 11s. He was perfect eight for eight through the first three 11 on 11 periods. You can't ask for much more from May. As a matter of fact, May completed 13 straight passes at one point during this practice. And so this is on the heels of a fantastic sizzling practice on Monday that we talked about.

Starting point is 00:07:08 And I said it at the time. That is exactly what you want to see from Drake May heading into the joint practices. He was hot on Monday. He started hot on Monday. Well, he started hot on Wednesday in this first joint practice. and he was mostly really good against this Philadelphia defense against that Philadelphia top defensive unit. 15 for 18.

Starting point is 00:07:32 I'll give you a couple of examples. The best throws of the day from May. There was a back foot throw against pressure to A.J. Brown towards the right sideline. The pressure is barreling down on May, off the back foot, flick of the wrist. and Brown makes a terrific over-the-shoulder catch for a chunk play. Brown gets up. He's celebrating.

Starting point is 00:07:57 The crowd's going crazy. Just a terrific play from both your quarterback and your wide receiver. Then there was another fantastic deep throw by May during this practice. This one was toward the left sideline. So the play to Brown, right sideline. This play was to the left sideline. And this play was to your number two receiver, Romeo Dobbs. and Romeo Dobbs made a terrific twisting, turning, catch.

Starting point is 00:08:24 Just a terrific play. Again, great ball from your quarterback, fantastic catch from your wide receiver. Those were the two best plays I thought of the day for this offense, but there were many plays from May and his receivers that made you feel pretty good about where they are. And as we discussed over the past few weeks, and we really discussed this from the very beginning of when the practice schedule was released. These days are the biggest days, right?

Starting point is 00:08:57 We had these circled. August 19th, August 20th, against the Eagles, a tick up in the competition level. And that tick up in the competition level did not bother the Patriots offense on Wednesday. And the Philadelphia offense ended looking flung. in the two-minute. So all in all, I would say the Patriots passed the test.

Starting point is 00:09:23 But the offense wasn't just all about May, as the entire first unit put it together, including the big boys up front. It's coming up next. This is Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Now, the number one sports podcast network, your team every day. Before the season even kicks off, everyone's making predictions on Cal. America's number one prediction market platform. You can trade predictions in a live market.

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Starting point is 00:10:47 Thank you for making us your first lesson and for being a first listen, not first lesson. Thank you for making us your first listen and for being an everydayer. Aside from May at this practice on Wednesday against the Eagles, there is a lot to discuss about the Patriots offense and the many reasons why I walked away feeling optimistic about this unit, especially given the level of competition, as I just mentioned. Let's start with AJ Brown. Your number one receiver, the guy you brought in from Philly dealt Philly first round pick in 28, he's going to be the big story of the day. He was going to be the big story no matter what. If he was good, if he was bad, a lot of talk about Brown against his former team. And I would tell

Starting point is 00:11:27 you, Brown was really solid on the day. Brown was the Patriots best receiver. He had the most catches. I believe he had the most targets. So what you want to see from Brown, I think you mostly saw from the receiver against the Eagles. Two big plays I want to talk about. There was a play action from May and AJ Brown was in motion he ran a crossing route against Rick Wullen beat Rick Wollin

Starting point is 00:11:57 comes down with the catch it was a perfectly placed football from May and if this was a real game Brown might have taken this to the house it was still a chunk play downfield but I think he would have taken that crossing route to the house for a touchdown so A.J. Brown

Starting point is 00:12:18 shows up, big play downfield almost immediately in team drills. And then he had the over-the-shoulder chunk play that I discussed in the first segment, which was a truly tremendous, tremendous catch and effort from Brown. So Brown finished with not one, not two, not three, but four catches in 11 on 11s. He added some more catches in seven on sevens. I think he finished with seven or eight catches on the day. So if you're wondering, how did Brown look against the Eagles? Brown looked pretty darn good against the Eagles.

Starting point is 00:12:54 How about the other wide receivers? Romeo Dobbs went up in Moss, Quignan Mitchell, one of the better young corners in football. Dobbs with another electric play downfield. It feels like almost every single day this training camp over the past week and a half to two weeks, Dobbs is making a big impact. and he made a great catch again against Quineau and Mitchell,

Starting point is 00:13:17 who was one of the better corners, right? Now, Romeo Dobbs did have a drop in the two-minute drill towards the end of practice. He was open. I will say it was slightly thrown behind him by May, but it was still a football that if you're Dobbs, you got to catch. It is still more than catchable. He should have come down with it.

Starting point is 00:13:37 He had a drop. But other than that, I thought Dobbs had a good day. again, one or two plays downfield, caught another couple of footballs. He caught football early on 11 on 11. So he was out there. He was contributing. And he made that one big splash play. And honestly, if you've got Brown, you've got the run game, you've got, you know, a lot of other guys kind of chipping in.

Starting point is 00:14:00 You've got the quarterback and what may do and what may can do. You know, it's not like you need Dobbs to catch 10 footballs a weekend, right? if he catches four or five balls has one big play, that's a productive day for a number two receiver. And I felt like that's the type of day that Dobbs had against the Eagles. Kishon Booty had a fantastic catch by the sideline. He tapped his toes to get in bounds. It looked like a comeback route, really nice play. So you saw flashes. You saw flashes from Brown and Dobbs and you saw the flash from Booty. You know, Pop Douglas early in practice had a nice route and catch for a good play. So, you know, again, the quarterback was hot and the receivers

Starting point is 00:14:45 were doing enough, more than enough, against this Eagles defense. How about the offensive line? Going into this joint practice, we discussed the talent on the defensive line for the Eagles, especially on the interior. But you do have Jalick's hunt some other guys. Now, Jonathan Grenard did not practice. He's still on the pup list. So we have to make. make sure we acknowledge that, appreciate it, and be genuine saying, you know, Jonathan Grenard is this team's best pass rusher, and I don't think it's relatively close. But the offensive line, especially when we talk about that interior, solid and pass protection on Wednesday.

Starting point is 00:15:26 The ones versus the ones, Patriots O line more than held their own against that Eagles front. Will Campbell, Elijah Verit Tucker, maybe a mix-up. in communication, something happened, could have been a shred up loss by Campbell. But, you know, there was a little bit of a mix up there, a bad loss on the left side of the line early in practice to Jalick's hunt. But other than that, there wasn't a whole heck of a lot. I'll tell you what, I was at the joint practice a couple of years ago with the Eagles and Patriots when the Eagles just dominated. And the Patriots could not do anything to block the Eagles front. It was a disaster class.

Starting point is 00:16:05 it was nowhere near, nowhere near that type of joint practice for the Patriots today, not even close. I think the Patriots, they had a solid day up front. And I want to underline two guys. Jared Wilson and Mike Owenu. Again, Elijah Verit Tucker had a couple of plays I think he wants back. Not that he was terrible, but a couple of plays early that I think he would tell you I need to be better there. the other two pieces of the starting interior offensive line.

Starting point is 00:16:38 You know, Jared Wilson and Michael Wenu, both of those guys were good, and you might even say they were really good. So if you were concerned, and of course, I was slightly concerned about that interior offensive line, especially going against the type of talent like a Jordan Davis that the Eagles have,

Starting point is 00:16:58 I was, and Jalen Carter and some other guys, I was slightly concerned about what this would look like. But going in with those concerns, I got to tell you, I walked away feeling much more optimistic. I felt much better about that interior offensive line after seeing this matchup play out day one of the joint practices. All right, I got more online thoughts, one-on-one breakdown coming up.

Starting point is 00:17:26 First, don't forget, if you're watching us on YouTube, to click that thumbs up, give us a like, helps us with the algorithm. Don't forget to comment as well. Comments also help us with the algorithm. And don't forget to subscribe the goal, 11,000 subscribers by week one, September 9th, Wednesday night in Seattle against the Seahawks, that Super Bowl rematch. So like, comment, and subscribe, help a brother out. We appreciate every single one of you. So I was sitting next to my buddy Greg Bedard during the one-on-ones. I was paying attention to the defensive pass rush. He was looking at the offensive pass rush for the Patriots. Greg Bedard had Will Campbell one and one.

Starting point is 00:18:08 He had a bad loss against Hunt, again, Jalick's Hunt, gave Will Campbell, you know, at least on two occasions, a little bit of a headache, but mostly Campbell was good. But he did have a rough loss, according to Bedard in the one-on-ones, but he did come back and he won his second one-on-one. Jared Wilson had a really strong stint in one-on-ones. was two and oh, including at least one, if not, both of those wins against Jordan Davis. Elijah Vera Tucker, again, a pretty rough start to the practice for AVT. He lost both of his one-on-one reps against Morrow Ajoimo, including one of those two losses

Starting point is 00:18:48 being decisive, pretty bad. So we've got to keep our eyes on Elijah Verit Tucker because he's had his moments during this camp where you start wondering, is it rust? Or is it a guy that has gone through so many injuries? He might not be the same dude. Now, I'm not there yet with AVT. I'm just sticking a pin in this. So a pretty tough start for Vera Tucker,

Starting point is 00:19:14 the beginning of Wednesday's practice. It looked like he somewhat evened out as it went on, but he was 0 for two in the one-on-ones, and then he had one or two early plays. Like I said, he probably wants those back. Michael Wenu, he was 2-0. He was 2-0 on his one-on-ones, including having a win against Jalen Carter. So you had Jared Wilson winning against Jordan Davis one-on-one.

Starting point is 00:19:40 You had Michael Wenu winning against Jalen Carter one-on-one. Those are the types of things that make me feel decent, if not good, really good, about this interior offensive line. For those two guys, Jared Wilson showed some really good strength today, which is one of the biggest questions about him. He's an undersized center going against these two beefy defensive tackles. He played strong, good anchor, as they say, an old line talk. The Patriots run game finally showed some promise, especially early, the running periods, there were three or four big holes for Ramandre Stevenson. I think those holes came thanks to Elijah Verit Tucker and Will Campbell. There were at least two or three big holes.

Starting point is 00:20:27 holes behind the left side of the offensive line, which was nice to see. One tiny takeaway, by the way, I thought the third unit on the offensive line and Jam Miller, I thought they did some really good work on the ground as well. Jam Miller popped a couple of runs. And so I thought the third unit, the run game was good. I thought the first unit, the run game was good. The second unit, not so much. But overall, I walk away with lots of optimism regarding Drake May and this offense. And we'll see how this plays out on Thursday. It is scheduled to be a red zone day, according to Mike Vrable. So it'll be a little bit of a different type of practice.

Starting point is 00:21:07 But offensively, it was a really good day for the Pats overall. A really good day. All right, coming up, the not so good, good, and very good from the defense's busy day. This is Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. There are more live events than ever worth seeing right now. Games, concerts, comedy shows, festivals, went to a couple concerts over the weekend. The hard part usually isn't deciding what you want to attend. It's actually getting the tickets between long wait times, confusing checkout processes, and surprise fees. Buying tickets can sometimes feel harder than it should. That's why so many fans are turning to game time. The app is built to make buying tickets simple with upfront pricing, seat views before you buy, love those, and even more. Honestly, I want to be. want to know exactly what my view will look like and exactly what I'm paying. And game time helps me know those two things ahead of time, which of course means I could

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Starting point is 00:22:31 Now the number one sports podcast network. Again, Nick Cattos with you from Foxborough. If you hear a little bit of a sound, the HVAC system, just kicked on here in the hotel room. It is what it is. Hopefully you're dealing with the video, the audio. I know it's not always perfect, but trying to give you the best content we can give you on this big time Wednesday.

Starting point is 00:22:51 Let's talk about the defense. Joint practice number one against the Eagles. A couple of things to question, while a few things that should make Mike Vrable and the defensive coaching staff very happy. Let's start with the pass rush. I'll begin with the one-on-ones because, again, my plan going in, watch the offense, and then watch the pass rush one-on-ones. And I thought Philly won the day when it came to the one-on-one matchups.

Starting point is 00:23:16 And those one-on-one drills, those one-on-one sessions, I thought the Philly offensive line got the better of the Patriots defensive line. And I thought particularly it was a rough start for the Patriots. You know, the first five or six one-on-ones, I feel like Philadelphia won, you know, five of those six or four of those five. So it was a tough start, but it wasn't all a loss. Gabacchus, I had him two and oh. Now, some had him one and one, but I had him two and oh. He had a very impressive bull rush win on his second rep, which was nice to see.

Starting point is 00:23:55 Elijah Ponder, I had one and one. Draymont Jones. I had zero and one. His only rep was against Jordan Maillado, one of the best left tackles in football. So Draymond Jones had his, you know, zero and one run against Jordan Mayolada, and that was it for him one-on-ones.

Starting point is 00:24:13 Milton Williams also only had one rep in one-on-ones, and he beat Landon Dickerson. So one opportunity for Milton Williams, he made the most of it. One more guy I want to bring up. Braden Swinton. I had him with two wins and zero losses from what I saw. I thought he beat Miles Hinton and I thought he beat Cam Williams. So not all was lost, but I do believe from what I saw, the Eagles won, the one-on-one drills with their offensive line against the Patriots pass rush. The run defense got off to a rough start. Doug Kide of the Boston Herald posted. Eagles have had a lot of room to run on the Patriots' first and second team defenses. Now again, I was paying attention to the offense.

Starting point is 00:24:59 I did sneak a peek a couple times over to the defense. And I will tell you, there was more than one occasion that I saw the back of Sequan Barkley downfield. So early, it was a rough, rough day for the run defense, which we know has been an issue throughout this camp and something that we have to continue to discuss. Now, Doug Kide did say the Patriots run defense. got better in the later 11-on-11 periods, specifically Carlton Davis had to run stuff. KJ. Britt had to run stuff. But the run defense not consistently good enough.

Starting point is 00:25:39 Here's something good, very good. One of the top priorities for this Patriots defense this season is takeaways. They want to create more turnovers. And they created a ton of them against Philly on Wednesday. The Patriots defense had five defensive takeaways against the Eagles. All of the takeaways were picks. Craig Woodson had two. Marcus Jones had one. John Saunders had one. And Kindle Vildor, as we brought up earlier in the first segment, he finished the day, the final two minute drill of the day with the pick. So you had Woodson with two, Marcus Jones, Saunders, Vilder with one each. By the way, John Saunders is a guy that we've got to about here for a few seconds because the interception on Wednesday against the Eagles was the fourth interception this summer for Saunders. And we walked into training camp believing Mike Brown had the lead,

Starting point is 00:26:37 quote unquote, to be the third safety. Then you had Del Pettis and then you had some other guys in the mix. Well, Saunders, he's had the type of training camp where it would actually be surprising at this point if he doesn't make this football team. And Kevin Byard, after the practice, was raving about Saunders and how he's, you know, a takeaway machine. But Saunders, he has outplayed Mike Brown. He has outplayed Del Pettis. And again, he's showing up in the joint practice with the interception on Wednesday.

Starting point is 00:27:13 He is making that surge towards the 53-man roster. That surge is continuing. and I would be surprised at this point, if you were picking 53 right now, Saunders is on. There's no doubt Mike Brown is off. I think your four safeties would be Craig Woodson, Kevin Byard, of course, Saunders, and Del Pettis. I think those are your top four. I think Mike Brown's on the outside looking in. Speaking of Craig Woodson, he had a day.

Starting point is 00:27:39 Have yourself a day, Craig Woodson. Phil Perry posted that Woodson had multiple pressures as a blitzer. We brought one of those up in the two-minute drill earlier. he had a quote unquote sack during the practice and he had not one but those two interceptions and he had a run stuff. That's an incredibly busy day from Woodson, multiple pressures, a sack, two picks, and a run stuff. And I have a lot.

Starting point is 00:28:04 I have a lot of excitement waiting for Craig Woodson in 2026. I've said this before. I'll say it again. I think he is your breakout guy on the defensive side. Doug Kide also mentioned. You know, the Patriots, again, I thought lost the one-on-ones overall with their pass rush. But at least early on in this practice, the Patriots did get a lot of pressure on Philadelphia, according to Doug Kide of the Boston Herald, Draymont Jones, Corey Durden, Elijah Ponder,

Starting point is 00:28:31 Gabe Accus, all of those guys, all four of those guys had their moments in the Philadelphia backfield. Few other notes. Namdi Obisor, we talked about this on Monday for a spell. Namdi Obisor who had been, I don't want to say an afterthought, but he hadn't been playing a ton with the ones or the twos. All of a sudden, he's been playing with the ones. Now, he's not out there exclusively with the ones. He's not playing a ton of snaps with the ones.

Starting point is 00:28:58 But again, OBI Zor during this joint practice, he got some opportunities with the first team defense. Trayvion Henderson, not much to talk about, frankly. And the only thing that really stood out, unfortunately for Trayvion Henderson was just a brutal rep in pass protection. We've seen it before. So he didn't really do much of anything to stand out. Andy Borigalas, you might be wondering about your kicker after what happened in that Colts preseason game.

Starting point is 00:29:32 I thought Borogales was really freaking good. They had the special team sessions. In that special team session, Boragalus began by missing. a 33-yard field goal. And you could kind of hear the, you know, the murmur from the crowd, like, oh, boy. But after missing that initial 33-yard field goal, Borigalus came back hitting four straight, including multiple 50-plus yard field goals. And then when you look at the two-minute drills, both of those, as we mentioned in the first segment, both of those two-minute drills finished with field goals. And they were not chip shots. A 53-yard field goal and a 57-yard

Starting point is 00:30:13 field goal. So Andy Borogales had himself a good day. That wraps up this edition of Lockdown Patriots. Reach out to me on Twitter at Nick C. Radio. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe on YouTube. Thank you for making Lockdown Patriots your first listen today. For your second listen, check out Lockdown NFL scouting. Kyle Crabs and Joe Marino will make you the most informed NFL fan this off season and of course now this preseason. Find Lockdown NFL scouting. on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. We will see you next time. Another joint practice to go.

Starting point is 00:30:49 Appreciate you.

Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Patriots Surge: Drake Maye & A.J. Brown Power New England to Joint Practice Win

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