Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Revelation: Patriots’ Efton Chism Shatters Glass Ceiling | Maye: Mixed Bag

Episode Date: August 16, 2025

Patriots beat the Vikings in preseason clash. This will be forever known as the Efton Chism III game.Nick Cattles breaks down the New England Patriots’ preseason victory, highlighting Chism's game-changing plays and the team's evolving strategy. The discussion covers Drake Maye's mixed performance, offensive line adjustments, and how Mike Vrabel's tactics are reshaping the Patriots' landscape. Key topics include New England's defensive improvements, concerns about run defense, and potential roster decisions to watch.Don't miss this in-depth analysis of the Patriots' path to regular season success. Will Chism secure his spot on the 53-man roster? Can Maye overcome his early-game jitters?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!Yahoo FantasyPresented by YahooFantasy #YahooPartner. Play Now at https://yahoofantasy.com/lockedonnfl.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.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnfl for 50% off your first year.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)

Efton Chisholm has made it nearly impossible for the Pats to cut him after showing out against the Vikings. That's where we start on this episode of Lockdown Patriots. You are Locked-on Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcasts Network, your team every day. What's up, Patriots fans? I'm your host, Nick Cattels, born and raised in New England, also host of Everything Pats podcast, co-host of the Greg Bedard Patriots podcast with Nick Cattels and a sports talk show host veteran. On today's bonus episode, the Pat's first team offense flashes some good and some not so good on Saturday. And a big ticket free agent shows the type of impact he can have on this 2025 season. But first, Efton Chisholm, the third has officially arrived.

We appreciate you joining the show, making us your first listen. And for being an every dayer, the lockdown Patriots podcast. a proud partner, the lockdown podcast network, your team every day. And today's episode is brought to by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code lockdown NFL at MonarchMoney.com for 50% off your first year. There's no way. There's no way that Efton Chisholm, the third, is getting cut from this football team.

I cannot dream up a scenario that would lead to Chisholm getting cut. There's just no way. Chisholm shows us the value of camp. The reason why training camp, joint practices, the preseason, the reason why those things exist. Now, there's a lot of different reasons, but one of the main reasons is to give guys opportunity. David Andrews posted during the game against the Vikings, nothing brings me joy like watching undrafted guys play their took us off in the preseason and go win themselves a job. There's not much doubt that Efton Chisholm has won himself a job on this 53-man roster. You look at the game against the Vikings, and I know it's a preseasoning game.

I know he's going against the twos and the threes, but Chisholm made statement after statement, after statement, after statement in this football game. Let's just start with the production. Does the young man produce when he hits the football field? Absolutely yes. Unequivocally, he produces. We saw this in the first preseason game against Washington when he put up some stats, scored a touchdown, and we see it again against the Vikings.

In the second quarter, he finishes with just in the second quarter. All of this came in the second quarter, six catches, 71 yards, and a touchdown. All in the second quarter, he dominated the second quarter with Josh Dobbs throwing the football to him. More on Dobbs in a little bit. There was a 30-plus yard chunk play downfield. Didn't see many of those last year. Saw it with McDaniels throwing the football to Chisholm downfield. Simply put, Efton Chisholm just makes plays.

Now, I'm not sitting here telling you he's going to have this kind of impact in a regular season game. We don't know. But Chisholm's job is to make the most of every single chance he gets, to take advantage of every single solitary opportunity that he is given by this Patriots coaching staff. and he has done that and then maybe even then some. He has taken advantage of every single chance to make a mark on this roster, to make a mark on this team. And he keeps doing it over and over and over again.

So all the caveats, all the disclaimers, we can throw them out in the garbage because it really doesn't matter. When you're a guy like Chisholm and you're looking to make one of those final four or five roster spots, When you do damage against twos and threes, you're still doing damage because you're not a one. At least not right now. He's not looked at as a starting receiver in the league. He's a two slash three kind of guy, right? Again, final five roster spot kind of guy at this juncture.

So he's playing against guys that he should be playing against and he's chewing them up and spitting them out. Made a statement against the Vikings. And you know what stands out is the fact that. that there's belief in Chisholm, there's belief from the staff and there's belief from Dobbs, the quarterback, because when you look at the types of plays

that Chisholm comes through, I mean, you look at the third down plays. They trust them. They keep throwing the football to him on third down. They trust the fact that he's going to be at the right spot at the right time. And he has proven them right over and over and over again. So whether it's in a regular season game,

whether it's in a playoff game, Super Bowl, preseason. When you keep going to the same guy on third down, it's because you believe that guy is going to get open. You believe in that guy's ability to make a play when you need him to make a play. Similarly, in the red zone, you go to guys in the red zone that you trust, that you believe in.

We saw it against Washington, and we saw it again against the Vikings. Red zone, throwing the football, the chisham. I mean, just unbelievable. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. The touchdown that he had. I don't care if it's against twos, threes. I don't even care if it's against fours for the love of God. That touchdown he had, that's a special play by the guy. The elusiveness and then being able to drag tacklers along with him into the end zone, making an impact. That's all you can do. That's all you can do if you're Chisholm. That's all you can do if you're anybody on the field. McDaniels obviously, Dobbs obviously trusts Chisholm to get down. field and to make a play down field, which he did. And Chishol's a great fit for this team. You could look at Mike Vrable and what Mike Vrable has talked about since he took over

in New England. And it's been some of the same themes over and over again. Toughness. He wants to see toughness from his players. You watch Efton Chisholm play. You see toughness. I think he has underappreciated play strength. And maybe we're appreciating it more and more as we watch him.

But he's strong. He's dragon cats a couple of yards. And Vrable keeps pounding the idea of finish. And he talked about it in the post game after the first preseason game against the commanders. Finish wants to see his guys play with finish. Chisholm finishes. How about that third down, dropping the shoulder again, that type of finish, the red zone touchdown, that type of finish fighting and finishing through the end zone,

getting to pay dirt. That is a Mike Vrable type receiver. And we keep seeing it from Chisholm. And then you think about McDaniels and what he wants from his receivers. How about the short area quickness, the ability to get open? We see that from Chisholm. Understanding zone concepts defensively, sitting in the right spots for his quarterback,

being a friend to the QB. We see it from Chisholm. So Fton Chisholm made an absolute statement during this game. And unfortunately, Kyle Williams, wasn't given the opportunity to make a statement because of Dobbs. And let's hope that Kyle Williams is going to be okay. But part of this story with Chisholm is the wide receiver depth chart. If you're taking seven guys, then he's safe.

If you're taking six guys, you might not be totally sold just yet. He's fighting with Baker. But Kyle Williams, much like Kendrick Bourne going down, Kyle Williams gets clocked during this game. And it's an unfortunate situation because Williams had two catches during this game, two really good catches, good hands catches. He's had issues with drops during camp. He made two handsy catches during this game.

And the second one, the ball is high from Dobbs. It's a hospital ball. You can't do it if you're Dobbs. You've got a defender coming across the middle. You've got Williams. And he's leading Williams right into the defender. and then he throws it high so Williams is susceptible. And Williams gets croaked.

He gets leveled. And what happens? He goes down. Not a doctor, but I'm guessing a likely concussion. Can't do it if you're the quarterback. You can't put your guys in harm's way. You just can't do what Dobbs did. So unfortunately, Williams goes out.

We'll see if it's a long-term thing. Hopefully not because he got off to a good start during this game. But with Williams down, that's even more opportunity for Chisholm. And if you're looking at it right now, Diggs is a lock, Op is a lock, Hollins is a lock. No doubt in my mind those three guys. There's no doubt in my mind that Kyle Williams makes this team after being drafted in the top 70. There's no doubt in my mind that Kishon Booty is going to make this team after what he's done during the preseason in the camp in the way that they are utilizing him on this offense. And then it comes down to

Baker, Chisholm, and Bourne. And Bourne's out right now. So you got You got Baker and Chisholm for that sixth, seventh slot. That's how I would see it. And I would put Chisholm at this point. I would put Chisholm ahead of Baker. You might put Chisholm ahead of Kyle Williams the way he's playing right now. But they're not cutting him. They're not cutting Ffton Chisholm.

All right, some good and some not so good from the first team offense. That's next as we continue with today's episode of Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. You ever wish managing your money felt easier? With Monarch money, it can. Whether you're growing your savings or planning a big purchase, Monarch puts you in the driver's seat. It's like having your own personal CFO giving you full visibility and control over your finances.

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Now, I thought most of the ones, if not all of the ones, would sit after the back-to-back joint practices. But apparently not. Mike Frable rolled out the ones on both sides of the football. And I was actually watching the Minnesota telecast during a certain point. And Kevin O'Connell was on the side. sideline doing a live interview with the broadcast team. And O'Connell actually mentioned that he and Vrable discussed things and that Vrable, according to O'Connell, Vrable wasn't really happy with what happened during Thursday's joint practice.

And so Vrable communicated with O'Connell that it was likely, if not an absolute, the ones were going to play in the game. And so Vrable obviously did not feel comfortable with what unfolded during that second joint practice, didn't feel like his team was up to snuff, wanted to make a statement to the team, wanted to make sure that they were prepared and had good energy, and said, no, you guys are playing on Saturday. You're playing because you weren't good enough on Thursday. And it's setting the right tone.

It's making sure that the culture is correct. So Rabel playing the ones, a surprise to me, but after hearing from O'Connell, it makes sense. The coach wasn't happy. I don't think that was the initial plan, but he wasn't. wasn't happy. And when you're a coach, if you're not happy, if you feel like some extra reps, some snaps might make you feel a little bit better, then you adjust. You adjust accordingly. And that's what Vrable did. So let's start with Drake May. I thought Drake May was a mixed bag against the Vikings. He only had two series. The second series ended up in a touchdown,

which is nice. But early on, we've seen this thing with Drake. And I don't want to go crazy. I'm not panicking. So everybody take a deep breath. But it needs to be pointed out. may seems to get excited at times and two specific scenarios it feels like may is overly excited to start the game it feels like may to start the game is a little bit too jacked he's a little bit too amped and his accuracy suffers because of it and we saw that early against the viking now the first throw to hollins is just high it's a nice catch by hollins but that first throw is high it's not a good throw for may the second throw to to pop it was high and pop couldn't come down with it and it almost ended up being a pick it will be interesting to hear from may and pop douglas on that play to see if there was a miscommunication maybe may thought pop was going to continue to run the route and pop sat down and so there was a little bit of a miscommunication we saw that last year that kind of miscommunication where may's thinking his guy's going to continue to run that route and he throws it

like he thinks he's going to continue to run the route and the receiver stops and because of that, the throw ends up being a little bit high and it's a danger zone. So Drake seems to be a little bit too excited at the start of these games. I don't know how you manage that. I don't know how you change that.

I don't know if you want to change the pregame routine that he has, but he does seem to come out a little bit too amped. and it takes him a little bit to take a breath and then start throwing the football with a little bit more accuracy. The other time, I think, that he gets overly excited is in the red zone. We've seen that. It gets a little too amped up, gets a little too excited to make a play and score a touchdown, and sometimes that backfires. He's just got to be able to kind of breathe through those moments, calm himself,

and be the best Drake made that he can be in those two specific scenarios. So high to Hollins, the throw to pop, could have been a miscommunication, could have been a high throw, whatever, it was a high throw. Was it a high throw because of miscommunication? We'll find out. The other issue was a delay of game. And this is something that happened during Monday's practice of this week before the team flew out to Minnesota. May had a delay of game during that practice. Vrable was not happy about it.

Let his quarterback know. And you go out in the game against the Vikings and you have a delay of game. You can't have that. You can't have that early. just completely rocks the offense off kilter. You're off the rails at that point. So between the Pop Douglas play and then the delay of game, the first drive was wasted.

It was over. It was over. But then the second drive, May was better. He extended to play, good pass protection by the Pat's offensive line. May slides out to the right, extends the play, remains a thrower, which is very important, as we've talked about, and as Vrable has talked about, and May has talked about, they want to make sure when he's scrambling, when he's extending,

does he remain a thrower of the football? He did in this case. Hollins comes back. Nice catch. Side line. Keep the feet in. Move the chains. Chunk play.

Nice by May. And then you also had later on, May checked into a run. It was a shotgun, ended up being a shotgun draw. But May makes the, correction at the line of scrimmage audibles checks into that run and i'm pretty sure it was like a third and ten and may checks into the run and the patriots get 11 yards and get a first down so good job by the quarterback diagnosing things checking it into the run and getting the

first down so i thought a little bit of a mixed bag from may started a little shaky ended up better let's talk about mac hollins let's talk about some of the good from the other guys on the first offense. Mack Hollins made two or three catches early in this game. And one of them was the first pass by May that was high. It was a really good hands catch because Hollins was going across the middle and to remain focused and come down with that football, nice catch by Hollins. He also did a really good job on that chunk play I just mentioned. Hollins did a really good job coming back to his quarterback to help May. And that's what you're supposed to do, the scramble drill, the sandlot drill, make sure that you come back towards your quarterback and make

yourself available. And Hollins did that. So Hollins had a good game. Good game from him. Treveon Henderson. I mean, I said this during the Everything Pat's podcast on Friday. I've seen enough with Trayvion. I've seen absolutely enough. I don't need to see any more from this guy. Put him in bubble wrap. I want to see him week one against the Raiders. I don't. need any unnecessary hits on Trayvion Henderson. I think all of us understand this dude as an NFL player and that he's going to be an impact player for this offense. I don't know how many times we've got to see it, but the touchdown run from Henderson against the Vikings, it was for as short of a distance as it was, it wasn't like a 35-yard run or a 70-yard house call, but that

was an impressive run. There wasn't really anything there at the beginning. He shows his patience, He finds a hole, slides into that hole, runs right through a defensive lineman's tackle attempt, and ends up scoring a touchdown. An impressive run by the rookie. And this dude is just, it's like every week we see something from him, every practice you read about him doing something special. On that touchdown run, shout out to Will Campbell, Beast in the run game again, just making so much movement up front. and Ben Brown also who started at left guard. Nice block from him. Let's talk about the offensive line.

So there was some questions about Jared Wilson. Did he not participate in Thursday's joint practice because he was hurt? Did he not participate because he was demoted and the Patriots just took him off the field for that day to kind of clear his head? Well, Wilson played. Wilson played against the Vikings on Saturday. He was the backup left guard. So it looks like as of right now, there has been movement at last. left guard. It looks like as of right this moment, Wilson has been demoted to back up left guard

behind Ben Brown. We'll see if it has to do with just performance. We'll see if he tweaked something and they're just kind of seeing if he's okay, but he wouldn't be playing if the tweak was serious. So the fact that he's now back up left guard, it feels like he took a step back during this week against Minnesota and the coaching staff reacted because of that step back and they demoted him. Now, it's quite possible. You might even say probable that he ends up back into the mix at left guard by week one against the Raiders, but we'll have to see how it goes.

Because, you know, Garrett Bradbury had a rough game. And Bradbury, for the most part, has not been good during camp. He had a good game against Washington. But there's been a lot of rockiness from Garrett Bradbury. And I don't think it's completely out of the realm of possibility that, Wilson ends up supplanting Bradbury at center when all is said and done. So this offensive line is still fluid. Marcus Bryant started at right tackle.

Feels like he has gotten closer to being the top reserve tackle for this team. He slid to the left side when Campbell came out of the game. So it looks like Bryant right now is your swing tackle. And he's played pretty well for all intensive purposes. And Vadarian Lowe, interestingly enough, went to right tackle. He was the backup right tackle, and he struggled a little bit. more of a natural left tackle. So this offensive line overall does feel like there's some fluidity to it.

And we'll see how all of it unfolds over the next week and a half, two weeks before you get to that Raiders game. A big time free agent edition makes his impact known and more on the first team defense next. As we continue with today's episode of Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. This episode is presented by Yahoo Fantasy. It's the best time of the year. NFL kickoff almost here. That means fantasy football season is back in full swing. And this year, fantasy football is all about Yahoo.

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Stay tuned for more killer announcements and start playing Yahoo Fantasy Football now at Yahoo!Fentasy.com slash lockdown NFL. Much like we talked about Mike Vrable sending a message with the first-team offense, he sent that same message with the first-team defense. Everybody was out there to play, aside from Gonzalez, which we know he's out right now, Peppers, who did not participate in Thursday's joint practice, that's something to keep an eye on.

And Christian Barmore, who did take part in Thursday's joint practice, had two sacks during that practice, he is being managed due to the blood clot situation from 24. So not a surprise that Barmore did not play in this game. But aside from Gonzo, Peppers, and Barmore, everybody else was out there. So let's start with the defensive line. And let's start with Milton Williams. Because I thought Milton Williams, his pass rush was there. The defensive line had good pass rush for a decent chunk of this game. Williams had not one but two pressures. And the second pressure was huge. And this is why you talk about Milton Williams being an impact player.

He gets that drive. He gets that push up the middle. And because of his pass rush, he makes Sam Howell incredibly uncomfortable. Howell has to spin away from Williams. He spins towards the left, his left, towards Kalevon Chase on. So Williams pushes Howell. to spin away from the pressure up the middle, and that's why pressure up the middle

is the most critical pressure you can get on a quarterback because it forces them to try to make a play on the run or do something funky, and hobble spins away from Milton Williams and spins himself right into a chase on pressure and then makes one of the worst decisions and throws that you will ever see an NFL quarterback make, which ends up being an interception.

But that's the type of impact that Milton Williams can have. he forced that interception from Howell. If he doesn't get his pressure, that play looks completely different. I also thought Kyrie's Tonga once again got some pressure. Chase on got some pressure. Anthony Jennings looked like Miles Garrett in the second half of this game. Jennings trying to keep that roster spot. I mean, he had two and a half sacks by my count.

He was terrific getting at the quarterback. And you wonder if that trade value has now been boosted. because I'm still not sure he's a fit, but Jennings, Chase-on, Tonga, Williams, they all had some impact on this game getting to the quarterback. Second big point of this defense against the Vikings. Carlton Davis played. And I feel like this week was a huge step in the right direction for Davis.

And I know Davis, when he spoke to the media, he downplayed why he's been out. And we know that Vrable is managing some of the veterans. and it makes a lot of sense to manage Davis because of his injury history. But let's not forget, you know, he was on the, you know, non-football injury list at the very beginning of camp, which means he did tweak something. Something has been bothering him. But he was out there all week.

And that's great to see. He was out there for both of the joint practices. He gets out there in the preseason game against the Vikings on Saturday. So absolutely a step in the right direction for Carl. Dalton Davis. He's out there. He got some reps. He had a past breakup with some sticky coverage. Might have gotten away with a little bit of contact, but that's the way he plays. He plays very physical. He almost, you know, tells the referee to throw a flag on him. And he'll get away with, you know, he'll get away with some touching, grabbing, and pushing 98% of the time. And he'll

likely tell you that it's worth it. So he had a past breakup with some sticky coverage. And it was just, it was just great to see him out there. It was just great to see him out there. And I would imagine now we won't see Davis next week. Maybe we will. I don't know. Brable might play his guys again in the third and final preseason game. If it were me, I would probably just keep Davis out and say, no, we'll see a week one because of that injury history.

He got a full solid week this week against Minnesota. He gets that in there. Now focus on the regular season. So I would sit him game three, but I am not the head coach, obviously. If I were the head coach, I would not be doing this podcast right now. So we'll see how Vrable handles it. There were two defensive issues that I think we have to keep in mind. The run defense, especially in the beginning of this game, looked a little leaky.

And I know the Patriots brought in Pekko recently, and he's a little bit more of a bigger-bodied interior defensive lineman, a little bit more of a run stuffer, kind of like what Tonga is supposed to be, even though Tonga has all of a sudden popped and pass rush. So they bring in Petco, I don't think that's, you know, by accident, clear reason why they did. The run defense has looked a little bit leaky. And the second offensive line for the Vikings that started this game, they got some decent push against the defensive front of the pads.

So they've got to be good against the run. That's one category that I'm looking at defensively that I still have questions about. I had some questions before camp broke or started rather. And I'm going to have those questions probably through camp breaking and going into week one. Is this defense good enough against the run? Is that going to be a major weakness? They've had some issues there. They had some issues in the Washington joint practice.

They had some issues in the commander's preseason game. They had some issues early in this preseason game. So maybe they just get it out of their system. And week one, it's a thing of the past. But I want to keep an eye on that run defense. I have questions. Another thing about this defense was, man, oh man, their defense against screens absolutely atrocious.

They've got to be better. Way too much space for these Vikings receivers catching these screen passes. Way too much space. you've got to you've got to be better it was like every screen that minnesota ran was at least eight to ten yards so screen defense and taylor kiles reported during the game that this was an issue the screen defense was an issue during the joint practices so run defense and defense against screens two things button it up that wraps up this edition of lockdown patriots reach out to me on Twitter at Nick C. Radio.

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